//------------------------------//
// 11 - Machines of War 
// Story: Fallout: Equestria - Resistance 
// by tom117z 
//------------------------------//


Chapter Eleven: Machines of War



“I take it back, you can totally pick up chicks in a tank!”








We didn’t have to wait long for Granite to come flying in.

Strawberry was really not messing around with this, the moment the call had been made by Coffin back to Silver Bell it had all been set up with the efficiency of a stable full of Steelhooves… ses. Steelhoovesi? Lots of stoic Ranger people!

And, uh, I don’t particularly recall her being too happy about things. Sending Granite and his squad up here would be a huge thing, and Steampunk wasn’t any more enthusiastic about being spotted and shot down acting as a delivery colt for the Applejack’s Rangers. But I guess we really need those big guns, because she eventually agreed after lots of passive-aggressive sighing.

Kinda hard to picture her as the half-insane Pinkie Pie fanatic with a balefire bomb in her shed that we met all that time ago. Or even the happier filly Ditzy was raising. It’s kinda like I remember three different ponies in my head. A bit of a harsh reminder that I’m not the only pony permanently warped by the wasteland.

But still, even if it wasn’t long, there ‘was’ a wait before the Rangers’ vertibuck retrieved the ex-Enclave Sergeant and hauled them back here. So, for most of that time, we were stuck into a spare room in the Stable’s residential area and ‘advised’ not to stray from it.

And oh Celestia, I forgot just how boring these mural-less walls were!

“Come on, you can stop pacing now,” Velvet chided me in the way she always did, even if she doesn’t know it’s me. “Sheesh, what is it with heroic wasteland mares and restlessness.”

“Um, you probably count there as well…” Sapphire sheepishly told her mother.

“I know. But at least I don’t pace!”

“I would stop if I had somewhere to walk!” I retorted.

“As annoying as ya being.” Coffin took a moment to glare at me from behind his helmet. “I get it. The quicker we make your boss happy the quicker we can do something productive and kick the Enclave out of my home.”

“You heard the call, the vertibuck is coming in for its final approach,” Velvet pointed out, gesturing to the nearby intercom. “And if you’re really bored, don’t those PegWing’s have in-built games or something you can use?”

Games? PipBuck’s had various holodisks, like ‘Zebra Menace’ and ‘Balefire Defence’. I had the former when I was a filly. Not that my mother ever bought it, seeing as she spent most of our ration cards on booze. No, that was one I… acquired from another foal whose name I’ve kinda forgotten since then.

Feel a little bad about that now. But breaking and entering helped get my cutie mark, so… 

“No, not as far as I know,” Coffin denied. “A lot of the software is just ported over from the PipBuck 3000 models, with extra gadgets and blinking lights added on top, but they took out the ability to read game disks. The Enclave sees it as a bit of a waste of time.”

Killjoy wanking fucktards.

“Aw, shame,” Sapphire lamented. “Dad introduced me to a couple in the library before he, uh… went away for a while.”

“You mean before he abandoned his family for a personal crusade,” Velvet hissed.

“Please don’t start…”

Fucking Luna, this really is not how things are meant to be…

Pyrelight gave a sad chirp from her spot on a nearby table, giving what can only be described as birdy puppy dog eyes to the charcoal mare.

Velvet sighed. “Oh, you… Okay, I’m calm…”

Of course, she still listens to Pyrelight above all else. I mean, that bird is great, she did recognise me when nopony else did after all. But come on!

I let out a groan, wandering over to a nearby bed, stood up onto my hind hooves and just fell backwards onto the mattress. Well, that is one advantage of these familiar grey walls, the beds aren’t rotten and full of lice. A nice change. Shit, having a bed at all. Nice, comfy mattress…

And it was then that I heard the door to the apartment open up, Calamity giving a loud cough of attention-getting as he stepped inside.

I guess I really should stop pacing as Velvet keeps badgering me every damn time, apparently stuff actually happens when I just relax for a change.

...Actually, no, that sounds crappy and terrible. I’ll just keep pacing.

“Mornin’, y’all,” the pegasus greeted. “Been locked down all this time, huh?”

“Yeah, but we kept them company!” Sapphire stated.

“Heh. Good to hear. But ah think your Ranger hospitality is ‘bout over, vertibuck just tucked its hide into the hangar. That guy you wanted should be on board, they’re fueling up and waiting for ya. Gonna take you part-way.”

“And then we’re hoofing it,” Coffin noted. “Straight to the biggest ground-based death machine the Enclave have. Huh. Well, what are we waiting for?”

I could taste the deadpan. And I didn’t think you could taste an expression.

“At least you’ve done it before! Right?” Sapphire offered.

“Kid, what makes you think it was easy or fun the first time?”

“Um, I mean… I guess it wasn’t, so…”

“Give her a break, Coffin,” I told him. “Just in and out. No mess. Right?”

The deadpan didn’t go away. “Sure. Because it will clearly be that simple.”

I hate when people snark me, but I hate it even more when they’re right. It’s not my fault things explode when I just so happen to be nearby!

“Well, let’s not get all ornery about it,” Calamity said. “Quicker you get it done, quicker ol’ Strawberry will give up the help y’all need for freeing up New Appleoosa. Now, I’m all ‘board for that. But ah’m just one handsome pegasus with a gun, gonna need a whole lot more for that one.”

“No kidding,” Velvet spoke up. “Short of Death Scythe’s Fortress, it’s one of the most well-defended ground-side cities that the Enclave controls. And one moron with a gun isn’t going to cut it.”

“Still a handsome moron with a gun.”

“Don’t push it.”

Okay, sort-of flirting is an improvement. As… ‘passive-aggressive’ as it seems.

“W-we should probably go,” I suggested in a hurry. I’ll deal with their issues when I have any fucking clue where to start with that shit! “Wasting time and caps and all that…”

“Miss ‘plug over there is right. Now, you sure ‘bout this darlin’?” Calamity asked his daughter.

“I’m sure, Dad,” she replied, picking up a saddlebag of supplies and trotting towards the door. “Mum, try not to worry too much. We’ll be back before you know.”

“You’d better,” she replied. “Just remember what I taught you. And make sure your health potions are-”

“Sealed, safe, secure. I know,” she assured. “And please, to the both of you, play nice while I’m away.”

Velvet and Calamity glanced at each other. Then, in a freakin’ creepy mirror of one another, each huffed and looked away.

Great. Good. This went well.

“Sooooo…” I trailed off, walking past Calamity and out into the hallway. “Vertibuck. Granite. Right…”

Calamity nodded, pulling away as the rest of us made to follow. We left Velvet in the room, looking a little downcast as the door closed behind us.

Not the reunion I’d imagined.

“So,” Coffin started. “You were away from the Rangers for a while?”

“Yeah. Leavin’ wasn’t an easy choice, but ah had to,” Calamity explained, looking back guiltily at Sapphire. “Ma girl was safe, so was Velvet. But ponies are still dyin’ outside, and nopony here was doin’ much about it. I couldn’t sit by.”

“I know, Dad. You don’t have to justify it to me…” Sapphire said with a sigh. I’m not a smart pony, but I think she probably missed having had Dad around. But my own was apparently locked outside the stable and died on a hill, so what do I know? “And Mum does too, even if she doesn’t show it. I wish you too could just get on with the bygones already.”

“Yeah. Ah know, darling’. Ah know.”

“What exactly did you do while you were out there?” Coffin continued.

He shrugged. “Anythin’ ah could. Shot up any Enclave patrol ah might’ve come across. There was a slave camp, some raiders in their pocket collectin’ up ponies and non-ponies alike. Spring ‘em. Not sure if they made it or not after that. Hope so.”

Raiders, huh? I can figure who had a hoof in that.

“Did some runs for a couple of resistance cells while ah was at it. Just anythin’ ah could to make life a little more bearable. Too many years it seems.”

“Sounds like you. Never could pass up a fight with raiders, could you?” I laughed.

He looked at me funny. “Eh, yeah… Guess ah… do…?”

Oh shit. “SO! Um, why did you come back?”

The look remained for a moment before he thankfully shrugged it off. Phew. Shut you fucking mouth when you need to, Pip. As much as it still sucks.

“Things are comin’ to a head. Figured ah could get things rollin’ around the Applejack’s Rangers,” he answered. “Plus…”

“Plus it was nice to get my dad back,” Sapphire said, trotting forwards and nuzzling him. “And he got to see my aim had actually improved since he’d been gone.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed proudly. “That ah did.”

D’aw.

“Still, ah’m here to stay now. Seems the fight is finally comin’ on down to the stable door,” he then noted. “You get that tank and we can finally start to kick my ol’ ‘family’ back to the clouds and down into the nearest pit of radioactive pig crap.”

I can get behind that.

We moved a little further, going through the typical samey-looking stable corridors and up the odd staircase or two before things started to look… odd, odd for a stable at least. The grey walls started to look a little more industrial, and the door we ended up stopping at looked more like one you’d see in a subway tunnel than the usual doors inside these bunkers. It had all little tech-y bits and pistons and other such industrial stuff.

I guess they went full ‘factory’ with their factory.

“Docking bay, up ahead,” Calamity declared. “Vertibucks are kept inside.”

“They used it to ship in supplies pre-war,” Sapphire noted. “Now we… pretty much do the same thing, but with extra firepower.”

It would be the Steel Ranger way if they didn’t do everything with extra firepower.

The door opened with an ear-raping screech, letting us into a… Holy shit, this is in a stable!?

The hangar was… well, an actual hangar! Vast, open, built into the rock and is easily larger than any stable atrium I had ever seen. Vertibucks were docked inside, facing gigantic doors with the stable number painted on them in big yellow letters.

All we had was a fucking orchard!

“Ah assume he’s ya guy?” Calamity asked, pointing towards a group of three ponies in X-02 power armour.

Granite and his squad. They looked like they’d done up their gear since I last saw them, spray painted some symbols of the resistance onto their armour. I suppose that’s so we don’t accidentally shoot them, but there goes trying to use them to blend into any Enclave bases or the likes.

Eh, our stealth sucks anyway. They’d probably have us pinned with or without.

“Sparkplug, Coffin,” Granite greeted as we approached. “Made some new friends?”

“Hi, I’m Sapphire! Scribe Sapphire!” Sapphire greeted brightly. “This is my Dad, Calamity.”

“Right… A pleasure…”

“You’ve been busy,” Coffin mused, gesturing at the graffiti.

“Seemed prudent, though I would’ve held off had I know Silver Bell wanted me to go high tailing it to a goddesses damned base…” he complained, mirroring my own thoughts. Guess he’s psychic or some crap now. Pfft. As if we’d be that lucky.

Would be pretty cool, though. Though I am the weird part-alicorn mutant with somepony else’s face saying that, so whatever.

“Y’all ready to take it on?” Calamity asked him. “From one Enclave escapee to another…”

Granite seemed to study Calamity for a moment, especially his armour. “Your armour is X-01. Dashite?”

“Yup.”

He whistled. “That’s a classic. Stopped being a need for branding ponies Dashites when we came down below the cloud cover. Now the Enclave’ll just shoot ya and be done with it.”

“Ah guess they took things up a notch. Still, here ya are.”

“I guess I can consider myself an honorary Dashite, huh? Still, my team and I and ready to get back to work. Be nice to fight for ponies we like for a change.”

He likes us!

“Where is this base, anyway?” Coffin asked.

“From what the pilot told me…” Granite began, glancing back at the vertibuck over his shoulder. “The Galloping Gorge, north of here.”

“That’s right,” Sapphire confirmed. “It’s deep at the bottom of the chasm. There’s an old stable they’ve stripped for parts, Stable 77.”

“Stable 77, huh?” Coffin said with an inquisitive hum. “I think Stripe went there once. That’s the rumour, at least. She never says much.”

“Well, whatever the case, it’s pretty bare now,” the mare continued. “The main draw are the mines they are running there. It’s a very radioactive area, so they’re using ghoulified slaves. They work until they die. Or until they turn feral, at which point they’re executed.”

Their cunt-ness never ceases to amaze me…

“Also, Sparkplug,” Granite spoke to me, using a wing to hold up a… holotape? “Life Bloom wanted me to give you this. There’s been a development in New Appleoosa that you might find interesting.”

I frowned, sharing a glance with Coffin. I took the tape, looking it over. It didn’t have a title or anything, it was just a pretty standard-looking holotape.

“Well, ah’m all ears,” Calamity offered. “Plug the thing in, I’m all curious now.”

Well, here goes…

I placed the holotape in the slot, letting the PegWing register its presence and boot up the file. What I found was a… video? Just a solitary video file and nothing else, a security tape by the looks of it. A security tape of what and where?”

“Wow, I recognise those code digits,” Coffin remarked, glancing at the string of numbers making up the video’s title. “This is a security tape from inside the governmental building in New Appleoosa.”

“Inside? Do you have a mole or something?” Sapphire asked.

“We get intel every now and then. Play it, Spark. This has got to be good if Life Bloom wants us to see it so bad.”

I selected the video file, which immediately started to load up before the screen switched to that of a lavish office space. Another portrait of Death Scythe hung on the wall, along with a portrait of Grim Gallop that looked recently defaced. The desk was some kind of polished wood, a terminal sitting silently on it as a pony lounged quite casually in the chair behind the desk.

And that pony…

That fucking Celestia’s nipple twisting bitch.

I’m not going to forget Rope Gallows anytime soon!

The former raider-turned-Enclave loyalist looked annoyingly pleased with herself. She sat smirking to herself, idly hitting keys on the terminal like she wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing before doing a little spin in her chair. Rope Gallows chuckled darkly to herself, getting up and facing the wrecked picture of the last pony to sit in that chair.

“Aw, don’t worry, Grimmy,” she taunted the portrait. “I’m taking such good care of your city. Shame you’re too dead to see it, I would love to show you what I’ve done with the place. Ah, but don’t worry your pretty little dipshit head. I’ll do a better job than you ever did.”

“I would certainly hope so.”

That voice… It sounded older than the last time I heard it in that memory orb, but it still resonated with me. And with the way Rope Gallows, the absolute bitch of a raider in all her ruthless arrogance immediately froze up with actual fear told me everything I needed to know.

Death Scythe.

I saw on the recording as Rope Gallows whipped around, a… robot walking into the room? It was a weird thing, had a lot of wires sticking out and around a base exoskeleton. There were several arcane gems mixed in among the machinery, each one sparking occasionally as if trying to form something and yet sputtering out right after. The technician in me was both curious as to its design and appalled by the craftsponyship. C’mon, I could do better with a PipBuck, a piece of gum and a paperclip!

But what really got my attention was not the patched up bot, but rather the translucent face of a white pegasus mare with a black mane with a yellow stripe. And now that I looked closely, the thing seemed to be struggling to form the shape of a pegasus around it, only the upper half really succeeded at it. But just like her voice, she looked a lot older than the last time I laid eyes on her. Actually, she looked pretty dead on for her portraits I’d seen every now and then.

But that was definitely Death Scythe.

“High General, I wasn’t aware you were… ‘visiting’,” Rope greeted nervously. “I would have-”

“Cleaned up? I realise you didn’t exactly get along with your predecessor, but dispose of that image rather than tarnish it. It looks most unprofessional of my new right hoof.”

“Right. Yes. On it.”

“Good. And we wouldn’t want to give anypony the wrong idea. After all, it was the Resistance who killed him, as you so ‘reported’...” the High General of the Enclave said in a way that made me think that she just knew what Rope had done. “Do not give me a reason to doubt your suitability for this office… or believe you a traitor, Rope Gallows.”

“You know I answer only to you,” Rope defended. “And now I have this office, the title of both Governor of New Appleoosa and General of the Grand Equestrian Enclave, I will do what I must to root out your enemies. Grim was ruthless enough, but he lacked… imagination.”

“I suppose your past gives you that imagination?”

“Indeed. Let’s just say that the precious little ponies the resistance seeks to save from your brand of order are going to have an even more difficult time from now on…” she informed the pegasus. “Though, as imaginative as I may be… Is that a new holo-bot?”

“This? An advanced model, still in the prototyping stage. Supposedly, it's to finally fix the... problems with it. But… this will have to do for now,” she mused before her eyes narrowed into a glare.

“Yes, those bots should be upgraded…'' the former raider replied, clearly unnerved. And now that we both looked, there was something definitely disturbing about the bot occasionally sparking and seeming to form a patch of pony hide or some other such feature before vanishing again.

Creepy.

“I hope you do, for your sake,” Scythe then threatened. “For all that supposed imagination, I had better see results…”

The ex-raider just gulped.

“Now, the Resistance has been a thorn in my side for long enough. They are growing bolder, as their attack on my new Hades tanks has proven. More than that, Twilight Sparkle’s little assistant was killed alongside General Grim Gallop. As stubborn as he was, his loss has made it all the harder to reclaim old world secrets.”

The robot approached the desk, getting close to the new general as Death Scythe glared authoritatively at the mare.

“No more mistakes, Rope Gallows. Squeeze the population until somepony reveals their location. Start with the outer city, increase the raids alongside whatever colourful examples you plan to make of them. If nothing comes up, start putting pressure on the inner city too.”

Rope raised an eyebrow. “You’re really allowing me to go nuts on the citizens?”

“Starting with those deemed likely to be collaborators to the Resistance, yes. Traitors lurk in every corner. We must route them out, lest the scourge of the wasteland, and the non-pony filth that yet infests my Enclave, regain strength. Only once the Enclave has total control can this world rebuild and never fall again. A world of ponies, united by our flag and control. That is how we save the surface.”

“Oh, I know. And you do let me have the fun tasks in achieving that,” she responded, seemingly easing out of her nervousness. Or attempting to, anyway. “I’m sure that father of yours would be so proud.”

Death Scythe snorted. “Harbinger? He wished to burn the surface until nothing remained, the Enclave free to reclaim what remained after dealing with the Goddess once she’d done the dirty work. I never agreed with that, you know. Ha, though I may have been too naive and foolishly idealistic back then. But I realised he wasn’t entirely wrong. The surface should be saved for the Enclave, but most of it did need cleansing. Especially of those not of our own kind, we can never live in peace with them. I learnt this the hard way.”

“Well, we still have a lot of burning to do before that happens.”

“So you will burn them,” Death Scythe coldly stated. “Every last stallion, mare and foal who would cling to their ways over the Enclave. By whatever means.”

“Oh, you’re kinda sexy when you’re all ruthless,” Rope Gallows bravely flirted.

Death Scythe’s glare hardened for a moment, long enough to make the General shrink back and seem to regret her attempt. But then, while not softening, it did seem to gain a hint of amusement to it.

“Hm, we shall see. If you’re a good little filly.” Well, she goes for mares. Not sure I needed to know that, but at least I can relate… If I wanted to relate to a megalomaniac. “But such… brief distractions will have to wait until after the final plan has been enacted.”

Final plan? The fuck is the final plan?

“All-powerful and ready to kick some ass. All the sexier,” Rope agreed. “So, any more threats, orders or anything in between?”

“Only to not get too friendly, or comfortable. You still have much to prove,” Death Scythe warned with renewed annoyance, the glare hardening once more. “So for now, General, I expect you to act professionally. Get to work. Contact me should you find anything.”

“Eh, yeah! Right, of course….” She coughed awkwardly into a hoof. “Understood, High General.”

“Good,” Death Scythe turned away to the door. “Though, one last thing... Are you certain the two ponies that killed the dragon are dead?”

The question took Rope Gallows by surprise, but she answered. “I can guarantee you that we won’t ever be seeing them again.”

Death Scythe stood there for a moment before she replied. “I see, that will be all.” Death Scythe then cut the transmission, and so too did the recording end.

This final plan of hers… I just know it’s nothing I’ll like. Big plans in this place tend to lead to mutant alicorns or a world-ending apocalypse.

Still, my mind was trying to figure out how the little filly I saw in that memory orb became the thing I just heard speak. I mean, the filly had shown some signs, but come on, that mare Harbinger killed had abused the shit outta her.

...Harbinger.

I mean, he’s a big red flag. Not exactly a good influence. Though her comment about being naive once struck me as odd. She outright said she wanted to save the surface in her own demented and xenophobic way. But I feel like there’s something more there, something I’m missing from the bigger picture of what makes Death Scythe tick.

I might be a dumb pony, but I should probably try to figure that out. What exactly was she like before I made her dad explode? Accidentally. But I did make her dad explode.

“This ain’t good,” Calamity stated. “Big ol’ plans tend to go bad for everypony.”

See? Calamity knows what’s up.

“All the more reason to get the Elder on board as quick as we can, right?” Sapphire noted. “And it sounds like things are going to be getting rough back at your home.”

“Yeah, but Silver Bell and Life Bloom have seen this, they’ll handle whatever ‘General Rope Gallows’ dishes out,” Coffin replied.

“They’re doing what they can. Can’t believe I worked for these jackasses,” Granite lamented. “As you can see, the High General’s fucking nuts.”

“Her moral compass broke a long time ago,” Coffin agreed. “Though I’m, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, somewhat glad it’s her and not Harbinger who took control.”

I suppose there’s that. At least she wants something of the surface left to rule. Even if it comes at the end of the barrel of a gun.

Unless we can figure out a way for everyone to actually get along and not fucking suck, the wasteland isn’t going to go anywhere.

“Heh he he… Such things are never meant to be…”

The fuck? Was that the Dealer guy? Great. Now I have a voice in my head.

"Ugh, and that bot thing. I hate those things."  Calamity sneered about that strange robot. "Ever since the Enclave introduced those, it's been a lot harder to kill high-ranking officers."

I, for one, have never seen that particular brand of wasteland bullshit. Always a new thing around the corner, isn’t there?

“So, what’s with that, exactly?” I asked.

“Well, like what you heard, there ‘holo-bots’, at least they weren’t at first. They were inspired by how Mr Horse used securitrons to communicate to ponies, but physically, they’re more based on those pre-war assaultrons.”

What now?

"Giant laser faces and a mean streak. But after Silver Bell's assassination attempt, Death Scythe started adding magic holo-crap to them to impersonate herself to still have that intimidating factor when speaking to her generals," Coffin interrupted.

"Yeah... But eventually, other high ranking officers also began using them to communicate to troops and create fake targets in case of a fight. Ah have dealt with these things enough time to know how to tell the difference, though," Calamity explained. "Mainly it's the environment they're in. Like it's in a place where it's windy yet their manes aren't blowing with the wind, that's a holo-bot."

“But she said this thing is a prototype,” Coffin mused worriedly. “Maybe they’re fixing those bugs.”

You know, I wish I hadn’t asked. Why the ever-living fuck did I ask?

“Y’all better get movin’,” Calamity then said. “This is fun and all, but time is wastin’.”

“Yeah, right. You ready, Spark?” Coffin asked.

“I guess so,” I responded. Not that there was really any choice, as usual. “I want to help Silver Bell, we can’t just leave them in the hooves of that psycho raider.”

“I know. You’re a good pony, Sparkplug.”

I looked away. Still not really confident about that…

“Hop aboard then,” Granite announced. “We got a tank to steal.”

I looked one last time towards Calamity. My friends… I’d just found them, and here I was leaving again. And only one of them even knew it was me. I couldn’t make the wasteland better, I’m just the dumb pipsqueak screw up ponies seem to look up to for some reason I never quite got. But them…? They can do it. I know they can, if I can just get them there.

I was going to come back from this. And when the time is right, I’m going to tell them.

I need to tell them…







Our vertibuck was making good speed across the Equestrian landscape. Though my thoughts strayed to some of the prior times I flew, like the time I was with Ditzy Do on that exploding Raptor…

I miss that ghoul.

Still, this thing was even faster than our old Sky Bandit. Kinda less roomy on the inside, but I got used to it sitting in Steampunk’s after we blew up the factory. And crashed the other one. Yeah, I’ve flown, and fallen, in a lot of these metal coffins recently. Here’s hoping this one isn’t made out of explodium.

“You look worried,” Sapphire observed. “You guys been in these before?”

“Recently,” Coffin replied. “The guy who brought Granite here, Steampunk, he acts as our go-to pilot.”

“Ah, his rides are bumpy,” Granite complained.

“At least he doesn’t crash,” the unicorn rebuffed.

Give him time.

“Maybe I’ll tell him what you said, and he might just leave you the next time you need an evac,” he then joked to the Sergeant.

“Well then hotshot, how about next time you can personally see to it that he drops us off at Death Scythe’s Fortress so we personally end her tyranny.”

“Ha, ha, ha, I’m not that crazy!”

Well, they definitely have good morale, though about their conversation. “Can you explain more about this fortress of hers?” I asked as they now looked at me. “Just to know more when we get to that point.”

“If you really want to know, her fortress is the most heavily guarded place in Equestria, hell maybe in the entire world,” Coffin brought up his PegWing and it then projected a holograph picture. “This was taken by a vertibuck scout before being shot out of the sky.”

While the image was taken afar, it showed a large pyramid-like structure that reached up all the way up the cloud layer. On the corners of it, there were what looked like massive gun batteries. Around the pyramid itself, were tiny silhouettes which I’m guessing were cloudships.

“That’s her Celestia damned fortress,” Granite spoke. “A fort big like a mountain, lots of heavy gun emplacements, her own personal cloudship fleet, and an army surrounding it.”

Ok, that would be a lot harder to blow up. “So, that's where she lives…”  Maybe attacking her head-on isn’t such a good idea. Taking her out when she’s out of it is better. “So how often does she leave?”

“Never.”

What?

“Ever since Silver Bell’s attempted assassination, Death Scythe hasn’t left her fortress since.”  Steampunk explained as he turned off the image. “In fact, that’s why she had those holobots created, so she could stay in her comfy fort without a care in the world.”

Like usual, everything has to be the hard way all the time.  Not wanting to continue this conversation any longer, I instead focus on Sapphire beside me.

“So, uh…” I looked towards the oddly attractive daughter of my two best friends. The curves down to her- Bleh, stop brain. Stop! “Um, you ever been on one of these before? I mean, I guess you maybe have, being a Ranger and all…”

“...No, actually.”

Wah?

“I’ve never really stepped more than a few feet out of the stable before…” she admitted. “Spent pretty much my whole life in there. Mum never wanted me out, stopped the Elder from sending me far into the wasteland. Most I’ve done is take radiation measurements after a storm, not much else. Boring work for a scribe.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly describe gunfights as a cure for that. Unless you really get off on mortal terror and new holes in your hide,” Coffin warned.

“I can handle myself,” she shot back. “I’m rather looking forward to seeing the inside of the Hades tank model. All the gadgets and gizmos I could dissect…”

“Well, don’t do that before we get it back to ya folks. Can’t rightly drive something that doesn’t have a control panel.”

“Heh, don’t worry. I’ll indulge myself when we’re not facing down a dozen energy rifles,” the pegasus assured us. 

That would be good, yes.

More time passed us by, more wasteland shooting past our vertibuck as we continued to make good time. The others said a few things here and there, but I didn’t really pay all that much attention. Nah, my thoughts were elsewhere…

What was I supposed to do to fix Calamity and Velvet? They’re broken. It’s my fault they’re broken. How do i fix it? It’s not like I can take a fucking screwdriver and pry them open for reprogramming like I would a PipBuck. That would be weird if I coud… and royally screwed up. So, just another day in the wasteland. But not by me. Stop thinking about that shit.

There had to be a way, right? Maybe I could ask Coffin? Ha. Like he knows anything about lovey-dovey crap. I wish I could say that I knew anything about lovey-dovey crap, but Homage is the one that kinda takes the lead. I mean, I like it that way sort of and… um…

Mind moving away from that before they see my blush…

Damn it, why is this so hard!? Sapphire could help I suppose. She’d probably do it in a heartbeat. She did seem pretty bummed out that they are still fighting one another. So I can put that on the ‘probably’ to-do list. Plan with Sapphire a way to get them smooching again so I can stop feeling like a massive cunt.

“We’re approaching the drop off sight, some ways south of the gorge,” the pilot announced. “I’ll set you down and head back to base, you’ll have to make your way back in the tank.”

Yeah yeah, something something mission, busy planning! Stupid Steel Rangers…

Okay, so Sapphire is a must. Maybe I could get them to express their feelings? How the hay would I do that? I’m not a freaking matchmaker, why do I think I’ll have any idea where to start? Maybe I could get us together on a good old wasteland adventure to get all nostalgic about nearly dying next to one another or some shit.

And on that note!

When could I tell that I was me!? You know, actual me rather than fake Sparkplug me. Silver Bell and Life Bloom really didn’t want me to do that but fuck them! This sucks. Everything sucks. Can everything stop sucking yet?

Celestia bloody-

BANG.

Explodium. Pure. Explodium.

At least that was my thought when my face met the ceiling, and then my ass against the floor once the massive jolt had finished.

The. Fuck.

“Gah, what just hit us!?” Granite shouted out as he checked on his two ponies. “I hope you’re about to tell us that it was a mutant pigeon!”

“‘Fraid not!” the pilot denied. “We’ve got Cerberus AA batteries right by our LZ! We need to-”

BANG! The Sequel!

Oh, we were on fire now!

“Damn those things!” Coffin swore. “Put us down! We’re not staying in the air with them targeting us!”

The pilot didn’t respond, but the vertibuck jolted again and the world became a dizzy mess as we took a very fast give! Grabbing hold of a railing, I managed a glance out the window to see one of our rotors full engulfed as we span towards the surface!

I could feel the sick rising in my stomach as we struggled for control, more explosions rocketing outside as the Enclave lobbed shell after shell of death at us! My vision was still a little shot after hitting my head, but I could tell that we were in massive trouble! It felt like our ‘putting ourselves down’ was less of a controlled landing and more of a freefall with the occasional bit of control coming back for a couple of seconds before we started to plummet again.

We’d already been hit twice, one more and we were so screwed!

Fuck, we were there already!

As I held on for dear life, dearly wishing my PegWing had a parachute function somewhere in its weird bigger on the inside-ness, I saw the others doing much the same as the helicopter span and flipped and did every trick under Celestia’s sun that it didn’t mean to do.

We jolted from another near miss, suddenly gaining some height as the Ranger pilot pulled against the controls.

“I… can’t… hold h-”

There was another detonation up front, and suddenly we had no cockpit and the pilot was jam!

Annnnd we’re dead!

Air was now ripping around us and the vertibuck really WAS falling with no control. There was just a big hole where the front used to be, flames all around us as I spied the ground coming up quick!

“Out!” Granite shouted in alarm. “Pegasi, carry the non-fliers!”

He’s doing wha-

FUUUUUUUUUUCK!

I’m falling! Falling! Dying! Falllllliiiiiing!

Something grabbed me, and suddenly I was not doing any of those things and my mind caught up to the Celestia fapping shit face heck just went down!

In a scarily fast motion, the former Enclave soldier had pulled an emergency release that blew open the door next to me and blew me out into the air! I remember the falling, that I’ll never forget ever oh Goddesses! But then, right after, somepony had grabbed me and slowed my descent. Looking up, I saw the face of Sapphire as she gritted her teeth in an effort not to drop me!

Don’t drop me! Don’t drop me!

Looking around, we were still descending as the tanks below us continued to shoot! The vertibuck fell faster, getting hit again before crumpling against the ground and going up in a gigantic radioactive mushroom cloud! My Geiger counter started to go nuts as we all flew fast down to the ground. Coffin was being carried by one of Granite’s soldiers while the pegasus himself flew with his other buddy alongside us.

But now those special Cerberus tank bastards had finished chewing up our vertibuck like it was nothing, it looked like they were turning towards us!

“We need to dive!” Sapphire shouted. “Go for a fast and rough landing! Go!”

We picked up speed, shooting down towards the surface as more explosions went off above our heads. I hoped to Celestia and Luna that none of the shrapnel hit us, or the explosions themselves, as the ground got close and closer until it was right there!

Okay. Landing. Roll? Face first? No, okay, shit…

It was right there.

Oh cra-







Ugggggh…

My heaaaad…

My everything, but especially my brain, throbbed as consciousness returned to me. Or at least I assume I went under, I didn’t remember actually landing. But that was wasteland dirt beneath my battered body, so I was still alive…

Unless hell was the Equestrian Wasteland MK II. Which wouldn’t surprise me at this point.

Well, my PegWing’s avatar looked pissed off at me for doing this. So I was probably alive.

“Spark! Thank the Goddesses…” Coffin said as his face came into view above me. The far prettier Sapphire was with him, urgently forcing healing potions down my throat.

Oh, so that was the healing potion taste. Neat.

Ack!

Ow! So, that’s my everything now popping back into place. Ah, and now everything was suddenly feeling a lot more real again. Can I go back into not hurting quite so bad? It still hurt before, but fuuuuck.

“Come on, get up!” Coffin urged. “We ain’t outta this yet!”

“We’ve got incoming!” I then heard Granite call out. “My E.F.S. is showing the tanks and a platoon coming in over that mound. Given what happened to our bird, they’ll peel through our power armour like a candy wrapper!”

I rolled onto my front, wiping my eyes to better clear my vision before shakily getting up and onto my hooves. My own E.F.S. was also showing some very angry red dots on the move towards us. I guess it was too much to hope that they’d believe we’d all gone up with the vertibuck, huh?

I moved up the mound towards where the others were peeking over. Setting up alongside them, I could see the Cerberus tanks moving across the landscape towards us. Unlike the previous Cerberus tanks I’d seen, with all their cannons and plasma miniguns of death, these ones were outfitted with large flack guns similar to Little Gilda that had flying targets in mind. Though I don’t think they were going to differentiate too much when they reached us…

They must have set them up here to protect the Ghastly Gorge and their operations there. Wish we’d known that sooner, we'd have landed further out and just walked in! Probably would have been smarter, and we would be on the cusp of being trampled beneath the stompy legs of those freaking things!

Maybe Little Gilda could be of help? Anti-air versus anti-air? Ah, I’m not so certain any of the weapons we were carrying could actually penetrate the armour of those tanks. Scratch it maybe. Or tickle it, make the Enclave laugh. Laughing shits…

I guess we were doing this the old fashioned way.

“Get on top of it, pry open a hatch and shoot anything that looks important?” I suggested, retrieving my assault rifle and laying it down in front of me.

“Open up some of its armour to access the innards, throw a couple grenades inside and that’ll do it.,” Granite agreed.

Neat!

“Only other way out of this is running. But those are long-range weapons. This mound is keeping us out of their sights, but the moment they spot a single hair on our manes…”

“Boom,” Sapphire finished with a shudder, her wings ruffling in discomfort. “How do we get close to them to do this? There’s three of them far as I can see, and as you said, they’ll shoot the moment they spot us.”

“We’ll have to take all three of the tanks out at once to have a fighting chance,” Coffin mused. “Else the others will just blow us to hell and back.”

“Alright, so this is what we do…” I spoke up. Right, time to see if I can still butt miracles out of my hat I don’t have. “Sapphire, if you drop me on the lead one, we can take it. Granite, you do the same with Coffin. You other two can then go after the third. Go in fast and shit them up before they know what hit them.”

“Risky, but we don’t have many options,” Granite concurred. “Alright, let’s do it. On your word, Spark.”

Right, on my word. I always end up in the leadership position for some reason. Why does this happen? I have the leadership skills of a radroach juiced up on Party Time Mint-als. And I know how those things can mess you up.

Don’t get them killed. Don’t get them killed…

But the tanks were almost at the mound. They weren’t travelling at the fastest speed in the word, but in less than a minute they’d been right on top of us.

“Alright, crap, let’s-”

BOOM!

Hey, that wasn’t me!

Whoosh!

BOOM!

One of the Cerberus tanks shuddered as it was hit by the rocket, my eyes following the trail of smoke off to one side to find the missile launcher that fired it. New green blips were appearing on my Eyes Forward Sparkle, running towards the tanks with a recklessness that impressed even me.

“Kill the smoothskins!”

Ghouls! A horde of non-feral ghouls were rushing the tanks in force, a couple dozen of them! They were equipped in largely scavenged armour, some even having strapped on pieces of X-02 to their hides. Actually, some of it might’ve even been fused into their hides, kinda like my old PipBuck had been thanks to the pink cloud in Canterlot. But the issue of my old PipLeg behind, and whether these ghouls were pink cloud or just radiation created, they ran towards the Enclave position with wild abandon while firing their mismatched array of weapons at the vehicles.

I saw their turrets all turn towards the ghouls, immediately rushing whatever advantage their flanking manoeuvre might have given them, and fire. They scattered, but six lights blinked out in the forest barrage as weapons fire tore up the landscape around the poor mutated bastards.

“Alright, fuck, now!” I shouted.

I felt Sapphire’s hooves wrap around me as I was lifted into the air, the mare giving a large bat of her wings that sent us shooting forwards towards the first tank. With the robotic whatever's inside those Enclave tanks entirely distracted by the ghouls, they didn’t even turn towards us as I was dropped down towards the thing.

I lit my horn, encasing myself in my own magic to levitate gently down onto the hull. Sapphire landed next to me, looking rather impressed.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“Hey, it’s about the only magic I can pull off,” I told her. “Let me have it.”

“Hey, no complaints from me!”

I smiled at her, turning my attention to the hull as I shifted my magic from myself and to it. I can’t do combat spells, teleportation or anything that’s actually versatile. But fuck if I can’t lift shit and lift it good!

Using my S.A.T.S. I found a spot where part of the armour can be pried off, so with all of my strength, the piece of armour strained against my attempt to pry it open, but with a satisfying POP I pulled it free and threw it casually aside.

There was a bunch of sparks and a flash of flame as something came out with it, but the tank didn’t really seem to notice. I shared a glance with Sapphire, levitating up my rifle over the exposed systems and pulled the trigger.

There was a chorus of pings and bangs as my bullets ricocheted around the insides of the tank, then a few seconds later, another wave of sparks and flames shot out of the trashed components I’d left behind. The tank stopped shooting and immediately started to shake and fucking buck as its legs swing widely like a jittery spider in an attempt to shake us off! The metal beneath our hooves went wild as my legs gave out from under me and I face planted the armour plating, not even having time to grab onto anything before the tank reared back and I started to slide off the side!

With not enough time to even channel mana through my horn, I went rolling off the edge as I saw the bare ground beneath me, fully expecting to be trampled beneath those gigantic rampaging metal legs below!

But I just hung there, and when I looked up I saw that Sapphire had bitten down onto my barding, her jaw straining from my wait as she used her wings to keep herself steady in spite of the tank’s attempts to loosen us.

“Thanks!”

Her reply was muffled by my gear, my horn finally lighting in another levitation spell to help her bring me back up. I gripped onto a metal bar by the section we damaged, resisting its continued attempts to send us flying from the chassis.

Then, finally, it stopped, and as I peered down below I saw several ghouls were now below the tank and shooting up into its belly. The tank tried to peer down at them, but with a lot of its circuits fried, it wasn't getting a good shot as it resorted to trying to stamp down on the ghouls. It succeeded, its gigantic leg thrusting down onto one of them who didn’t vacate in time and turning him to paste.

“Hey, smoothskins!” one of the ghouls shouted up at us as they dodge another attempt. “Catch!”

Something small was thrown up towards us. And it was a very good throw, I’d clap my hooves if I wasn’t holding on for dear life.

But I caught it in my magic anyway, bringing up a small satchel charge that-

Crap, it’s timer was active!

“Out out OUT!” I shouted, throwing the charge down the smoking hole as I threw myself from the tank while Sapphire followed quickly behind me.

I slowed my descent, but the subsequent explosion behind me sent me hurtling forwards and towards the ground!

Not this shit again!

The impact took the wind out of me, but didn’t knock me clean out this time, but I did feel something hit my left hindleg as I landed, and something even more sludge-y splatter against my barding. Goddesses knows what, but I was more focused on the fireball passing over me as I stuck to the ground.

But then it dissipated, and when I looked up I found the Cerberus tank was no more. All there were four severed legs clattering to the ground, the hull and AA guns were little more than scrap metal flying through the air.

I looked to the side, relieved to find Sapphire nearby no worse for wear. Well, her feathers were a bit charred, but that’s just wasteland fashion really.

Whew. But we’d done it. Tank zero, us one! And as I looked around beyond the wreckage, I saw the other two start to go down as well. There… well, I couldn’t see quite so many ghouls as there had been to start with… Dammit. Ugh, I hope my other friends were okay in this mess, I couldn’t see Coffin and Granite and his ponies anywhere…

Huh? Why was Sapphire looking at me like that? You know, wide-eyed horror like I’d deserved after Arfu or something?

“Spark…” she spoke shakily as our eyes met. “Your leg…”

Huh?

Oh crap.

I only now became aware of the blood pooling around me, soaking into my barding and fur… My blood. My own blood. The adrenaline wearing off, I could feel a sharp pain coming from one of my back legs. I shifted myself, and I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing…

Oh no. No no no…

I looked down, finding my barding covered in green goo that had probably been from the tanks engine or something. My PegWing’s Geiger counter was going nuts over it, but that didn’t matter. When I looked past that, my leg…

It was gone.

Well, not gone, but… Fuck. Severed. Through most of the muscle and the entire bone, my hind leg was barely held to the rest of my body by a torn flap of skin.

Dammit dammit dammit!

Dammiiiiiiit!

“Hey, uh, hold on…” Sapphire ran up to me, and I saw some of the remaining ghouls also approaching with great interest. Glad I was putting on a show for you fucktards! GAH! “Looks like a piece of debris when clear through the bone, only a little bit of muscle keeping the leg on… I wish I had some hydra, I could regrow the lost tissue and reattach no issue. Ah… what to do…”

I just laid there, my eyes glancing up at the clouds dominating the sky. Was I going to be stuck like this? Maimed, unable to walk properly? What was I supposed to do then!? Get fucking crutches!? Universe, for once in your SHITIING and CELESTIA SPANKING life could you cut me a break!? Fucking once!?

Ah… Looking back towards Sapphire, I saw a panicked look in her eyes as she retrieved a healing potion and tried to think of something.

“Okay… Dad told me this story once…” she started. “Mum lost a leg while with the Stable Dweller. Clean off, but they held it back on and a healing potion healed most of the damage. Left a nice scar, but… She was lucky, but it’s a chance. If your body doesn’t reject the reattached limb then- Wha!?”

I started to feel a tingling sensation from my left, and I became aware of a warm glow throughout my body. I frowned, looking down and watched in morbid fascination as my mangled limb started to warp and twist like it had a life of its own.

Ohhhh.

Oh.

I spared a glance at my PegWing. My radiation levels were rising fast thanks to the gunk on my barding. And that meant…

Before our eyes, my leg started to stitch itself back together. The muscle tissue that was still attacked dragged the limb back to the cut and brought it back in line. It barely even hurt as the bone fused back together, the muscle reformed and soon enough even the fur around the cut began to sprout as good as new.

I lit my horn, removing the radioactive whatever from my and throwing it aside. I experimentally bent my leg, and it felt… normal.

Just like Maripony. Only then I’d lost a leg and grown an entirely new one. This time, I got to keep the original… Or what was left of it, after Life Bloom altered me.

But it worked. The newly crown coat around where the break happened was a pearly white, as good as new in contrast to the dirtied and bloodied fur around the rest of my body. I looked from it up at Sapphire, giving her a sheepish grin.

“Uh… lucky, huh?”

“That was… that’s…” She gave me a concerned look. “That’s not normal. At all. That’s…”

“Vert ghoul-like…” one of the ghouls said, and his hat signified him as the leader. It was very leader-y. “But your skin is as smooth as anything, interesting… Your mother an alicorn or something? I thought they were barren.”

“Uh…”

“Eh, whatever. You can call me Rot, everypony else does,” the ghoul introduced himself. “Good fightin’ back there. We had it ourselves, but the explosions were worth the intrusion.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you…” I replied slowly.

“No. Wait. Time out…” Sapphire interrupted. “Nice to meet you, Rot. But Sparkplug, you do not get to dodge the issue here. What was that!?”

Uggggh, why was keeping my identity a secret so hard!? How was I now meant to say I was partially mutated into an artificial alicorn by the Goddess’ potion when I blew her and the facility that created it to kingdom come?

“Sapphire…”

“Bah, alright, tell me later. I guess we have bigger things to worry about now…” she said, glancing off to one side in what I assumed was a search for the rest of our group. “We need to find the others, maybe Coffin has some answers.”

“Wait! No!”

She glared at me. “What?”

“Please, don’t say anything to the others!” I pleaded with her. “I’ll explain later, but in private. Please…”

She stared at me for a moment, seemingly looking for something. Or at least I guess that she was, her glare was eerily similar to the one I was used to receiving from Velvet when I’d done something stupid and very me. But, after a few moments, she relented with a sigh, looking like she was ready to reluctantly drop the matter.

“I’ll hold you to that. At least you’re okay…” she said, her smile turning a lot more friendly for a moment before it morphed into a look of concern. “But the others… where are they…?”

I got to my hooves, carefully putting weight onto my restored leg as I moved next to the pegasus mare to overlook the battlefield. Rot joined as, giving a shrug as he directed over to a specific spot.

“That them? I certainly didn’t bring them,” he pointed out.

Oh, thank the Goddesses!

We rushed over to Coffin and the others as they emerged from among some of the wreckage, accompanied by some of the ghouls that had been fighting. In all, there looked to be around half their number left, maybe just under that. One of Granite’s ponies also looked like he’d taken a bit of a beating, his helmet off as he limped over with the help of his buddy.

“Spark! Sapphire!” Coffin greeted in relief. “Good to see ya made it. Was touch and go for us, but we managed to take out the last two.”

“Yeah, I know the feeling,” Sapphire commented. “We… nearly didn’t succeed.”

Coffin regarded what was left of ours, giving an impressed whistle. “And yet yours is toast. Legs and scrap, eh? You don’t do anything by halves.”

“Rot’s the guy who threw a live bomb at us…” I deadpanned.

“You survived. Mostly,” Rot defenced himself. “You Smoothskins are too fragile.”

“You in charge of this group?” Granite asked the ghoul.

“You’re a perceptive one, aren’t you?” the undead pony remarked. “Yeah, I head up this ragged up team, we’re part of a larger freedom fighter group. We used to be captives, slaves, at the Enclave mining operation near here. We got loose, been fighting ever since.”

“Mining operation? In the Galloping Gorge?” Sapphire wondered.

“That’s the one,” he confirmed. “Lots of eels and other critters ready to eat ya, all while the Enclave sit back and make sure we’re the ones getting eaten as we deliver them the irradiated materials. Nothing there but death and a gutted stable.”

“Never mind Stable 77, is there a Hades tank there?” Coffin asked urgently.

Rot gave us all a suspicious glare. “...There might be. What I want to know, Smoothskins, is what’s it to you? I see some very Enclave-looking ponies before me, even if you helped us with those tanks, so what are you after here?”

“Former Enclave,” Granite corrected, his barbed metal tail twitching in irritation. “I would have thought the Resistance sigils would have given that away.”

“Anypony can paint up their armour,” Rot rebutted. “Could be a trap for all I know.”

“It’s not,” Sapphire assured. “I’m a scribe with the Applejack’s Rangers, we’re here to take that tank away from Enclave control.”

“Aw, and here I thought just maybe you’d actually come to free the slaves still held here.”

“Hey! It’s an objective! But we need that tank to help a lot more ponies,” Sapphire shot back. “We want to use it to pry Enclave control from Equestria.”

“Yeah, right,” he dryly doubted. “I know you Steel Ranger types, met a couple back before the Enclave moved in and made everything worse. And they did not exactly like my kind.”

“The Applejack’s Rangers are different, we were founded to follow in Applejack’s original ideals for the Steel Rangers. By a ghoul,” she informed him. “I’m sorry if you thought by my words that we didn’t care about the people still trapped there, that’s not the case.”

“Really now?”

“Yes. The tank may be our mission's primary objective, but I promise we will do whatever we can to help those that need it,” she pledged softly and kindly. “I’m out here because I want to see things get better for everyone. Of all species.”

Nicely said…

She does take after her parents.

“Hm, well then, I guess we can put that to the test…” Rot decided. “We took some casualties today, but there are more of us out there. We’ll lead you to the gorge and get some reinforcement on the way. Then, you’re going to help us take it.”

“You intend to attack the place outright?” Coffin asked worriedly. “That’s brave, but we have the firepower?”

“You want a better plan, come up with one before the attack begins,” Rot told us. “You can deal with your tank problem, but I’m freeing those slaves. You can come with, or you can do this by yourself. Your choice.”

We all glanced at one another. Attacking the Enclave’s operation there head-on did seem a little risky, but what the hay, I recently ran into a high-security research base to try and rescue a dragon. What room did I have to talk?

“I say we do it,” I said to the others. “I mean, what the hell, right? Maybe if we grab the tank before the rest of the fighting starts, we could use it to stomp out the Enclave?”

Coffin hummed. “I don’t know, there is still the chance we can screw this up like at Rope Gallows’ compound.” Thanks for rubbing that in. “We need to play this smart. Sapphire, Granite-”

“Bugbear-1, report your status?”

We all looked towards where that voice came from. It was towards the pile of dead Enclave soldiers the ghouls must have got while we distracted the Cerberus tanks. I suppose they’d had an escort at the back somewhere. Or a group of technicians… Whoever they were, the ghouls had stomped them pretty hard.

But now their bosses were trying to say hi.

“Bugbear-1, do you copy?”

The voice was coming from one of the bodies that had a radio attached to their helmets.

“Don’t worry, I’ll smash it.” A ghoul was walking up, but Granite stepped in and stopped him.

“Let me deal with it.” He walked up to the dead soldier, took off his helmet and cleared his voice and bit before speaking. “Roger, Ma’am, we were in a dead zone for a bit.”

“Status on potential hostiles?”

“All targets eliminated.”

“Alright Bugbear-1, resume patrols and program Cerberus AA Tanks back to position.”

“Roger ma’am,” Granite said, but then I could see that an idea was forming in his head. “Ma’am, requesting to send fifteen soldiers back to base.”

“For what reason, Bugbear-1?”

“Battle fatigue, I need the rest up to resume patrols.”

“...Permission granted Bugbear-1.”

“Thank you, Ma’am. Roger and out.”

Huh… So, stealth mission? This sounds like another disastrous stealth mission. We should really stop doing those…

But we’re doing it anyway.

“So, what, a group of us walk in pretending to be them?” I questioned. “Seems legit. But, uh… I think they’ll have to wear helmets.”

“That’s fine, we have plenty to choose from,” Rot noted, gesturing to the Enclave corpses. “You six and nine of mine. Get your tank before we start shooting, because we will start shooting.”

Understandable.

“Okay, let’s go with it,” I decided. “Uh, unless someone thinks this is a terrible idea and tells me just how terrible I am for voting for it.” 

“So long as we can get what we came for and help those slaves, I’m good for it,” Sapphire agreed.

Granite nodded. “It’s what we’re here for. Though we could use some medical attention over here, we have an injury.”

“I can help with that.” Sapphire quickly started to move off towards the injured former Enclave soldier. “And anypony else that’s taken a knock or two.”

“We could do with a rest and resupply before we head out,” Coffin suggested to Rot. “You okay with that?”

“Sure. And save your healing potions for yourself, we have the radiation to patch us up,” the ghoul confirmed. “Twenty minutes, then my boys and I are heading out.”

Rot and his ghouls moved away, making good on their words and searching our more piles of radioactive sludge they could use to power themselves up. Sapphire tended to the injured pony’s wounds, and I was left to look around at the devastation around us.

Another day, another fight. Only this time I’d outed myself as a mutant to Velvet and Calamity’s daughter…

“You okay?” Coffin asked as he walked up beside me.

“Yeah, fine,” I lied. “Just fine…”

Pretend to be Enclave soldiers. Get the Hades tank. Save the ghouls. Leave. Then we’d have Ranger support and could free New Appleoosa from Enclave control…

Simple…







The first thing I noticed about the canyon was the broken bridge that once spanned across the middle. It had collapsed in the centre, sending cars and tanks into a crumpled heap in the middle of the Galloping Gorge. There might’ve even been a bent Sky Bandit down there, but I couldn’t be sure from our position.

But down there… Yeah. That was what we were after.

I could see it, several buildings in that normal boring black and grey style the Enclave had a tendency of using. For a group of dudes who came from the literal sky, they were really uninspired with their designs. Pre-war pegasi might have used marble, clouds… Ya know, flying fluffy shit.

But I suppose that doesn’t inspire ‘har de har fear us for da evilz’ quite as much.

At least, that’s what I assume they’re going for. Because if they’re trying for something else they’re fucking something up really fierce.

But the buildings, as well as being flanked by the walls of the gorge, were surrounded by a probably electrified fence that had a single checkpoint in and out. Inside I could see Enclave troops roaming around, even more of them patrolling the exterior side of the fence as the ghouls slaves Rot mentioned dragged the Enclave’s loot from the mines. There was even a normal Cerberus tank standing in the middle of all of that, I suppose watching for any excuse to turn a ghoul into bubbling green goo.

But as wonderful as another of those bastard things was, the towering Hades tank was far more obvious. It was set down inside the compound, the lights were off and just waiting for somepony to steal it.

Or it would wake up and stomp us into paste. Either or.

“Well, there she is…” Granite mused, dusting off his recently un-graffitied power armour. “I think I’m all clean. You ghouls got your helmets on?”

There were various responses of scaling vulgarity, but the ghouls we’d taken with us were completely obscured by the armour they’d scavenged from the dead soldiers earlier on. So long as they didn’t lose a helmet or something, nopony was going to be able to tell that they’re not normal ponies.

“I’m set,” Coffin remarked from inside a scavenged set of combat gear, having stored his usual X-01 helmet into his PegWing and replaced it with that freaky helmet the lighter soldiers wore. At least on the other helmet, the eyes only glowed when the lamps were turned on…

Creepy cunts.

“What about you, Spark? Still not into wearing these?” he then asked me.

“Well no, I was already in a technician’s jumpsuit!” I retorted.

“What about those armour pads you added?” Sapphire stated.

“It’s the WASTELAND! What, are they wanting their fixer ponies to be munched on by a mole rat?”

“Even so, it's for the best that we all go in as soldiers,” Granite said. “I know you seem to come up with a lot of the plans, but let me do the talking. I actually know what to say to stop them from opening fire too quickly.”

Ugh, fine.

I levitated the helmet over my head, and I immediately noticed that my E.F.S. was gone and replaced by a digital version of my E.F.S. would show. Making sure it was on tight, I equipped my revolver and gave a nod to Granite.

“Ready.”

Another I don’t like was how these helmets altered a pony’s voice to sound more menacing. If it had an off switch I would press it, but what can you do.

We started to move off from the edge, moving out way along towards a pathway down that seemed to have been carved into the cliffside. I guess by the Enclave since the bridge and the catwalks near it were out? But either way, our group started to descend into the pit and towards the outpost.

And so far, all the bars in the helmet’s E.F.S. were green…

Knowing us, that won’t last long.

...Sheesh, when did I become a massive pessimist? I swear I used to at least try to look for the bright side? No? Never? Come on, I’m all about making shit better and stuff. Even if our plans normally ended in half a city falling apart.

Okay, Pip. Try to focus and not argue with yourself. Okay, thanks.

I’m such an idiot…

Hrmg, anyway… Now that we were getting closer to the bottom of the gorge, the activity down there started to become a lot clearer. The Cerberus tanks attention remained on the ghouls, I could see the poor bomb collared people hauling mining gear into the shafts and pulling crate loads of radioactive materials out again. Some looked a little worse for wear, missing limbs, bleeding a mixture of blood and irradiated puss…

It wasn’t just pony ghouls either. I see a couple griffons, maybe a zebra...

Fuck, I wonder if some of them were even ghouls when they arrived here.

...And we’re just supposed to be here for the tank. Screw that, the Rangers can get their tank whenever. But Rot is waiting somewhere up above for the shooting to start, and then he’s bringing in his crew to free this place. What kind of pony would I be if I got into the Hades and then just left them to it? No, I can’t leave these guys. Slave owners are the fucking worst, Enclave or not, I don’t care what Strawberry actually wants me to do here.

I’m supposed to be fixing shit, right? Then let me fix things. I don’t care what Life Bloom, Silver Bell or anyone else might say. I can’t put one death machine over the lives of all those slaves.

I can’t.

I can’t be that pony.

Because then I really would deserve being called the Hellmare.

...On another note, WOW that’s a big hole!

“Do I want to know?” Coffin asked, also seeing the big tunnel a little ways above the trail that didn’t look like it had been dug… well, but ponies.

“Oh, just a giant eel tunnel. No need to worry,” Sapphire commented.

Well, that’s good.

...GIANT EEL!?

“Oh yeah, no worries, why would I worry about a fucking giant eel!?” Was I being too lad? Screw it. EEL!

“Calm down,” Sapphire shot back. “As far as we know, they don’t really come out here much anymore due to the Enclave moving in. They tend to get shot, you know.”

“That’s a big tunnel for something that doesn’t come here…”

“It’s an old tunnel, was here before they dug this path, and they just dug through it. The creatures have lived in this canyon since before the end of the world. Now they probably stay burrowed…”

“And eat the poor sods digging around in these rocks,” one of the ghouls commented.

Sapphire shivered. “Yeah… I didn’t really want to think about that, but yeah. Poor guys…”

“All the more reason we need to get them out of here…” I muttered.

“Whoa now, that’s Rot’s job, remember that,” Coffin said. “We promised Elder Lemonade we’d get the tank, and I don’t make a habit of goin’ back on my word.”

“Come on, she’ll get the tank, but these guys need our help more. Back me up here, Sapphire. Like you said back there, we need to be helping people.”

“I know what I said,” she responded. “And she’s right. If we can, we should help them out. The Rangers could get all the weapons in the world, but it won’t mean anything if the people we’re meant to save with them are already dead.”

“Huh… Yeah, I know…” he replied. “You’re an odd Ranger, though. I always thought technology trumped everything with you ponies.”

“That’s not what the Applejack’s Rangers stand for. At least, it’s not meant to be,” she retorted. “We split from the Steel Rangers to get away from that mindset. What’s the good of getting all this tech if the world has to suffer more for it? There are kinder ways to operate in this world.”

Yeah. Yeah, there is…

“Whatever you want to do, I’m following you,” Granite said as we reached the bottom. “But talk philosophy later, right now we need to get inside.”

I shut up, looking around at the fence looming ahead of us. Already I could see the various patrols eying us up, but so far they didn’t seem to find anything particularly odd. We were just another group returning from a little trot in the wastes, no big deal…

Up ahead I could spot a gate opening to great us, the guards outside remaining so still I could swear they were statues. Or maybe their armours had just locked up. Or maybe they were asleep? It’s hard to tell behind those helmets.

Oh, and there was a little shed just beyond the entranceway. You keep goodies in a shed, right? Guns? Loot? Things to poke and prod? Huh, anything could be in there really. I wonder if I could sneak away for a moment and take a look?

Ah, but here I am, stuck in the middle of the group and, yup, there it goes, passing on by…

Ugh! What does it take for a mare to satisfy her insatiable curiosity around here!?

Maybe next time, little shed…

Stupid shed…

Oh look, we’re at the gate.

“...Bugbear 1, reporting back for relief,” Granite spoke to the gate guards. “Requesting permission for entrance, reports from the field come back all clear.”

“Copy that,” the guard confirmed. “Permission granted, we were informed of your arrival. You, Sergeant, plus fourteen others?”

“That is an affirmative.”

Blah blah military jargon blah…

“Visual confirms that. Okay, you're clear for entrance. Make your way inside and wait for the second set of doors to open once the all-clear is sounded.”

All clear? For what?

Even Granite seemed to pause a moment at that.

“...Understood. Bugbear-1, fall in behind me.”

We did so, following Granite inside. I could feel the stares on our backs as we passed, and I suddenly felt the need to tuck in as tightly between the larger power armoured ponies as possible to obscure myself. If I ever thought I’d miss being… ‘below average’ in height, that unlikely day has come…

But we made it inside, the doors closing up behind us. We were inside a little tunnel, an airlock or something I guess? Checkpoint? What would the word be? Whatever it is, we were… pretty stuck in here. There were a couple of lights on the walls and roof letting us see, and a terminal in the corner by the doors ahead of us. For debugging the security system, maybe? Something maintenance-related the technician in me had to assume.

Well, whatever the case… we were now waiting. Waiting for what, though?

Then an amber beacon started flashing, and a blue wave of magical light started to wash over the tunnel!

“Scanning in progress,” a female robotic voice that was strangely sexy remarked from all around us. “Searching for biological impurities.”

“Impurities?” Sapphire asked. “...Do they mean ghouls?”

“Crap,” Coffin swore. “This is a facility that deals with ghouls, of course they’d have countermeasures to what we’re trying to do!”

“Our reports didn’t indicate anything like this!”

“Well, then it’s clearly new!”

Shiiiiiiiit!

The ghouls were already backing up towards the sealed door behind us, but there was no way out back there. We were contained, and the magical blue stuff was slowly coming at us!

“We’re all fine…” Granite noted, gesturing to us six non-ghouls. “But them… There must be a way to turn it off, try the terminal over there!”

“Spark?” Coffin said questioningly at me.

I guess I’m doing a hack!

I began moving off towards the terminal, lighting my horn and readying my PegWing’s interface. No way it’ll let me just mess with it, especially during this whole party. But history has proven I can deal with that, so I just need to figure it out before the light reaches the others and-

Huh, now that I’m walking into it, it’s kinda tingly.

“Unity alicorn mutation detected! Emergency incineration initiated!”

Uh oh.

Alarms started to blare all around us, and I knew I’d messed up bad. How could I forget!? I just had a demonstration today! And now…

The others were staring at me.

Agh, as tempting as incineration was right now, I had to focus on that problem first!

I shot forward, sliding into the terminal and activating the device. As expected, the terminal was locked down and not about to budge for any old hacker. But hell if I’m going to let that stop me, so I plugged in my PegWing and got to work!

“Spark…” Coffin said urgently as fire started to spit from some nozzles that had just emerged from annoying little hatches in the walls.

Already some of the ghouls were beating on the door out of here, but that wasn’t going to work. But that’s their business, I was more focused on the numbers and letters floating around my PegWing’s screen. But all I had to do was re-adjust a line of code here, activate a sequence there, and…

Ding!

The terminal granted me entry, bringing me to the password screen. And, seeing as I don’t have a password, I need to hack that as well. At least that’s more standard operation, so I pressed the keys to bring me into the system menu and got to word cracking the protection.

It was starting to feel a little hot in here.

“Spark…!”

Working on it!

Muffin? No, that’s a dud. But I think those two fs are about right, so that rounds it down. Three attempts left. Puffin? No, not that either. Ah, a sequence here. Tries reset. And another, dud removed…

“SPARK!”

Guffin.

Password accepted.

Open!

And then my flank was fire.

An inferno was spilling into the tunnel, the others retreating towards the opening inner door as the unleashed firestorm cascaded towards us! I could feel the burning as I joined them, jumping through the door and out of the sudden furnace!

I was among the first out, several of the ghouls being caught in the blast, and yet they stampeded out only mildly toasted thanks to the protection of their stolen combat armour. And yet my PegWing screamed at me to check my backside, and the combat armour had definitely caught alight back there!

How annoying!

I patted it out quickly, not having time to check for damage on my now partially exposed ass before red bars started popping up around me! The fire also damaged my helmet as well, so I threw it off my head.

“Um… I think the jig is up…” Sapphire noted solemnly, taking her helmet off as well.

“You think!?” Coffin shouted. “Alicorn!?”

I winced. “L-later! Shoot now!”

“Shit!”

If Rot was waiting for a signal, this was it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an Enclave soldier rushing towards me with, of all things, a nightstick. Given the fact that they were only in their undersuit, without the extra bits of barding that made up normal combat armour, I guess we’d caught them at a bad time.

Good.

I pulled out my revolver, ducking away from a swing of the baton before raising my pistol and unloading a single round into the pony’s skull. They dropped, but more soldiers were now funnelling towards us to take his place.

And a few of them did actually have their gear on.

To make things worse, I heard the inferno stop and the outer doors begin to open again, likely about to let in the Enclave we’d passed by outside.

And then I heard a scream only a ghoul could manage, the shout echoing all throughout the canyon and probably a ways beyond.

Looking up at the walls of the gorge, at the very top I could see gunfire begin to spray into the canyon. Rot and his crew had very much chosen this moment to join in, and now the Enclave were scrambling to deal with them too!

“Verdammt! Vat is going on in this Scheißloch!?” a strangely familiar voice shouted out, and as the fighting continued around me I turned to see a light brown earth pony stallion walk out of what I assume to be the command centre, raising his metal claw to irritably scratch his cheek. “Zis is a birthday for ze Private, party must be had and ein- Oh.”

What was that about parties? From my last experience, Erdnussbitter didn’t seem much like the partying type.

I stared at the pony, our eyes meeting as he seemed to recognise me.

“Ah… Zeems a bit of bad timing, Fraulein Sparkplug, was it?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Coffin do a double-take at the sudden appearance of his uncle, but I couldn’t worry about that, right now he was standing between us and the freedom of every slave here!

I charged.

“Oh dear.”

He took a step back as I ran straight for him! I saw a couple more Enclave soldiers make a go for me, and I rolled beneath one as his rifle shots went high and used the fucker for cover against his friend! Staying behind the soldier, I opened fire on the second and forced them to stumble backwards before he was pounced upon by one of the power armoured ghouls! The said ghoul’s stinger tail punctured into the Enclave pony’s armour, and as that was dealt with I jumped onto the first soldier’s back, pressed the barrel of my gun into a gap in his gear and pulled the trigger.

Two more bars down.

I released quickly as I turned back to Erd, who seemed to decide fighting was not in his favour today as he backed his way into the building behind him.

Not so fast!

I jumped through the door as he moved to close it behind him, tacking into the stallion and sending us both to the ground. But before I could do anything else, I felt his metal claw, balled into a fist, meet the side of my head as the world became stars and I was now on my back staring up at the ceiling.

Owwwww…

“Wait! Zis is not as it appears!” he shouted out sheepishly, rolling onto his hooves and hopping over a table. “Zer is really no need to fight.”

“Yeah, tell that to the milkshake!” I shouted back at him, bringing up my revolver and-

Where did that confetti come from!?

I lost sight of him there was so much! And then, like lightning, he was next to me with his claw taking hold of my gun as my next bullet went wide! My magic struggled against his grip, but damn that prosthetic was strong!

“Ja, I do quite like milkshakes. Yet I realise last time wasn’t an… ideal demonstration,” he remarked in what I almost mistook for a genuine apology. “But I had to-”

“To what!? Drag an innocent pony to his death!?”

“Well, you see-”

I bucked him. Hard. Hard enough that he released his grip and fell to the ground, though before I could follow up another explosion of confetti again allowed him to roll away, overturn a desk and use it as cover.

“Stop doing that!”

“Most amusing, yes?” he said with an odd squee. “Good for running away, bad pony emergencies and making surprises, well, surprises!”

Surprises, huh? I kept my distance from the desk, something telling me this guy had a few more tricks up his sleeves.

“But you are no bad pony, ja?” he continued. “But fate be have it, we are fighting. Zis really is not necessary. Friends could be had, just walk away.”

“Friends!? You’re an Enclave officer, you hunt down ponies and take them to be tortured!”

“Ah, from where you stand, das may be true. But you do not know me, but I know you. Heh, I do like to know ponies…”

Yeah, to get information out of them, maybe.

“Yeah, you seemed real friendly the last time. A little different now someone else holds the gun, huh?”

“Nein, zis is different as we are alone,” he replied cryptically. “Ze watchers mean I must be what you see me to be, a depressing lack of fun and laughter I feel. Yet here we are, though I can hardly spill all my little secrets, I can say I am no enemy.”

“You’re overseeing a slaving operation. Oh, you’re my enemy.”

“Ah… If it were that we could have talked in a more… controlled environment, I think you would have come to see me most… differently…” Now what did he mean by that!? “But I know when zis will end with bullets. If reason cannot be heard in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, zen I will do what I have to do, Fraulein…”

He threw something! Duck and co- Huh?

As a sack of… something hit the ground and rolled next to me. I couldn’t help but feel… confused? Underwhelmed? What was the point of that?

I looked back up towards the overturned desk.

He was there, and some kind of tube had emerged as a literal trick up his sleeve, pointed straight at my face.

He fired.

My world became confetti.

I spluttered and fell to the ground as the stuff entered my eyes, nose and everywhere else it could enter!? Who fights with confetti!? Who does this asshole think he is!? Pinkie Pie!?

I cleared it as quickly as I could, rushing back to my hooves as I expected a bullet or a knife to the back, or maybe a claw to the face, at any moment! And yet… nothing happened, and when I finally looked around, Erdnussbutter had gone.

...What the hell was any of that?

There was no sign of him anywhere, I couldn’t even see his bar on my E.F.S. anymore. He was a slippery one, though I guess that helps him in his particular line of work. Ugh, I can’t believe he got the best of me like that! What was he even trying to do before? Win me over? Just distract me more while he got ready to escape? He seems to be good at the ‘playing nice’ routine to get what he wants, as that stallion I met in the diner found out...

Ah, forget him. What was it he threw at me? I am SUPER dumb for letting it distract me, but the heck is even in the sack?

I gently kicked it open with a hoof, and… What? That’s… a memory orb? Why, of all things, would he use one of those to distract me? What’s his game? Or was it just desperation on his part?

I wonder what’s inside it…

The door opened behind me, and I pocketed the memory orb for later as the others ran inside with gunfire following them in.

“There you are!” Coffin shouted, taking cover behind the doorway and firing back at the Enclave outside. “Where is my uncle!?”

“Ah, he ran off,” I responded. “But he’s here somewhere.”

“Well, can we leave the family drama for later?” Granite asked. “That’s a problem we do not need right now.”

“...Yeah, if he recognises me that’s going to be a problem,” Coffin agreed. “We should avoid him.”

“Are you alright?” Sapphire asked sympathetically.

“I’ll be fine,” he assured. “Now, Rot’s people are giving the Enclave a big fight right now. If we move now, we should have a shot at the Hades tank.”

“Is it still turned off?” I asked. “Because I don’t want to explode the moment we go outside. That would be bad.”

“It looked like they were readying it for departure,” Sapphire explained. “So if we want to take it, we need to go now. If we have it, then we can actually use it to help free the slaves while we’re here.”

Coffin nodded. “She has a point. From last time, I can say that’s a lot of firepower.”

Yeah, that definitely is.

“Okay, let’s go get it!”

I reloaded my revolver, retrieving my shotgun for good measure and holding them both in my magic. I took in a breath, preparing myself as the others fired at a group of Enclave outside to make them scatter.

And then I went for it.

I burst out into the upon, spotting one soldier scrambling out of the way just to my right as my hooves hit the bare dirt. I lifted my shotgun as the helmeted pony looked towards me like a radroach down a sniper’s scope. As a blast from my gun turned his insides into his outsides, I dropped into S.A.T.S. to better survey my surroundings.

Rot’s ghouls were still tackling the Enclave defenders, and I could even spy a couple of slaves getting in on things. Or at least those that had already managed to pry the bomb collars from their necks, picking up whatever weapon they could carry or just ducking for the safety of cover.

But they were still a group of ragtag resistance fighters against the Enclave war machine, and what ground out little surprise attack had gained was already being lost.

My eyes glued to one stallion, a unicorn, who held a detonator in his magic that was in the process of being armed.

The bomb collars.

Shit!

I aimed three shots from my revolver at the stallion and a single blast from my shotgun at another pony who was bearing down on one ghoul with a super sledge. I let go of the spell, my revolver opening up at the first pony as he dropped the detonator in pain. He remained standing, however, his armour actually taking the hits.

My shotgun blast, meanwhile, hit the other soldier’s sledge and sent it flying. 

I’ll grab him first.

I charged forward, headbutting into the bastard as his would-be victim scrambled away. I fell over, crashing to his side as I placed my revolver to his head and pulled the trigger. I raised it up again, firing a few bullets at a squad of Enclave a short distance away before pointing the final couple at the detonator pony as he tried to recover the device for which I have decided to name him not-so-affectionately.

I jumped from the corpse, rushing for the detonator as I lifted a hoof and stamped down on the thing before it could be used again!

...Okay, so it’s crushed, didn’t think that through. That’s not actually going to set it off, is it?

…

So, no heads popping, that’s a good sign.

“Why, you…!”

Oh crap, yeah, he’s still alive!

BLAM.

His body fell into a heap mid-swing of a retrieved super sledge, my eyes locking into Coffin as he grabbed onto my shoulder and yanked me forward!

“Come on, Spark!”

Sheesh, I’m coming!

I rejoined the others in running for the Hades tank, the sound of fighting all around us as I moved wide to avoid the coming explosion of a clattering grenade that then exploded behind me. A piece of shrapnel might’ve even struck my barding, but problems for later!

I reloaded my empty revolver as we went, using my shotgun to ‘discourage’ anypony trying to be clever and slow us down.

The tank was right there, but I could see several ponies loading themselves into it. Hey, you guys are NOT getting that thing rolling without us, because that would be really bad for us so no thank you!

I jumped over a section of fallen, battered and twisted fencing as I made note of the five red bars directly ahead of me. Celestia knows how many are behind, but I can’t exactly worry about now, can I?

I locked my eyes onto the first pony as we got the jump on them, unloading another shotgun shell into his back before moving onto the second. Granite and Coffin teamed on another guy, the latter putting a bullet into their kneecap while Granite reared up and stamped down onto the now jellified pony with his power armoured hooves.

Out of the corner of my eye, meanwhile, Granite’s buddies found themselves grappling with one of the Enclave’s one power armoured ponies. Sapphire, however, decided to take to the air and go for one who was in the process of climbing into the tank’s hatch. The pegasus grabbed them from behind, sending him rolling back down towards the ground where I spied Coffin and Granite turning their heads towards him.

And then there was me.

I lifted both my guns towards the next guy, but both guns actually missed as the fucker dropped down and rolled his ass towards me! Suddenly, my face was all Enclave as I gave a shout and tried to step back!

And then I saw more stars, covered hooves striking me in my irritatingly white snout. I could feel the blood dripping free as I suddenly forgot which way gravity was and rolled away from the shithead. Ugh, but hey, I wasn’t dead yet…

Yet.

Hey, that was my shotgun he was now picking up! Not cool!

I dropped into S.A.T.S. again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was doing the same. My revolver was just next to me, my horn already wrapping my magic around the handle to lift it back towards the stallion.

But he was already aimed, so…

Crap.

Well, let’s try this!

I abandoned S.A.T.S. and instead lifted my revolved in front of the shotgun’s barrels! It went off, and my revolver exploded into scrap metal as all the bullets inside it detonated and created a small explosion that sent us both scrambling in opposite directions!

Ugh, and that’s another gun I’ve lost. That is so lame!

Screw you!

I rolled onto my hooves and charged forward with a very cross shout! I scooped up my, blasting away the rest of my shells into the soldier as he exploded into all kinds of little bloody giblets! I didn’t stop to admit and/or throw up at the sight, following the others as we climbed up the boarding ramp and squeezed into the tight interior of the tank.

“Hey, what!?”

Coffin punched out the pilot that had been powering the tank up, dragging him from the control console and throwing him clear of the hatch.

“All good here!” he shouted in satisfaction.

Okay, Hades tank! This again. Oh boy…

“Okay, let’s see to this baby…” Granite commented as he replaced the pilot and continued to press all kinds of blinky buttons. “Starting her up. Weapons are green, the reactor looks good…”

“This looks so complicated,” Sapphire noted. “I could spend so long in here cataloguing every control and their purposes…”

“You’ll get the chance back at yer stable,” Coffin pointed out. “Come on, we need to get this thing going.”

“Almost there,” Granite confirmed. “Spark, the door!”

Right, we probably should close that.

I trotted back to the hatch, taking hold of it just as something big, red and very mean ran full speed up the hatch straight at me.

“Oh sh-”

For the millionth time today, I saw stairs as something punted me away from the hatch and into the back wall. The others all shouted in alarm as something bright and hot flashed in my vision, the sound of a chainsaw revving coming with it as the blur slowly faded, my PegWing complaining as fucking usual, and I saw just what it was that had so rudely shoved past me.

I am really starting to hate these Tartarus troopers.

If the deep red X-03 Hellfire power armour wasn’t a dead giveaway, the flaming ripper built into his gauntlet certainly was! The weapon was already cutting into Granite’s own armour, sparks flying everywhere as he simply ignored the bullets coming from Coffin and Sapphire! I shakily raised to my hooves, grabbing a healing potion as I did so from my PegWing’s inventory. The pain died away with an extra helping of Med-X, and I was acutely aware of just how much of the stuff I must have used in my life. Goddesses that can’t be good for my health.

Well, neither is being a half-mutant alicorn, so…

There was a clash as Granite’s squadmates grabbed onto the soldier and pried him from their leader, who let out a gasp of relief as he clutched onto the smouldering gash in his helmet. But even as I retrieved my shotgun to go and help, the trooper headbutted one of the pegasi away before somehow flipping the other one over and chucking him towards Coffin and Sapphire! They ducked before they were squashed beneath several tonnes of pony-shaped armour plating, but it did cause a momentary lull in the gunfire.

But I think that’s all he needed.

“For the SG!” the Enclave soldier shouted as something appeared before him, a green sphere of contained balefire straight from his own PegWing inventory! “For the Enclave!”

I didn’t even think, I just expanded my magic to tug the others all towards the hatch as I jumped out of it and rolled dizzyingly down the ramp! I didn’t even see if the others had followed as I heard the explosion, the sky tinting green as my Geiger counter erupted into furious clicks alongside the mushroom cloud rising up into the air.

The balefire egg had done its job, and as I came to a stop and looked up at the result, I found the Hades tank but a burning wreck.

“Oh FUCK!” Coffin swore out loud. Good, the others had all gotten the idea and bailed before the detonation. Phew. “That was… FUCK!”

“Ugh, fanatical idiot…” Granite seconded. “I guess asset denial became the most obvious solution. Consider ourselves lucky that the explosion didn’t detonate the balefire eggs stored for the tank’s own launcher.”

Damn, that’s a point. Now that I looked, most of the tank was largely intact. Or, at least the aft end of the thing was. But the cockpit was completely gone, not so much protective armour on the inside…

“We can’t wait around, or else they MIGHT go off!” Sapphire then shouted out. “That fire is spreading… Forget the tank, we can still help the slaves here!”

The Elder ain’t gonna be happy, but at this point what the heck does she want us to do?

Ugh, what a bust.

We got to our hooves, and I dusted off my shotgun as I saw Granite seem to look around in contemplation. I could still see plenty of bars on my E.F.S. as he did his little think, both green and red, so we far from done yet!

“Continue you,” he told us. “My ponies and I have something else we can do.”

“What you thinking, Granite?” Coffin asked.

“No time, go!” he urged. “You’ll see!”

He ran off before Coffin could protest again, the others following until the disgruntled unicorn was alone with Sapphire and I.

“Agh, what a disaster!” he complained. “Spark, what’s the play, here?”

I looked towards the bulk of the fighting, which seemed to have moved towards the mines. Just beyond the fences and general chaos, I could see the other local tank of the Cerberus variety grinding up a group of slaves who were trying to flee.

“That thing!” I pointed it out. “It’s going to tear the ghouls apart! We need to help them out.”

“Right!” Sapphire confirmed. “But… there has to be a lot of wounded I could tend to. Do you want to do the same plan as before? I could fly you up, but there’s a lot of people out here that could use me too…”

Flying would be the smart thing, but… She wasn’t wrong, I could see plenty of wounded resistance fighters and slaves alike from here. How many would die if they didn’t have the medically gifted Sapphire coming to their aid…? Velvet would do it any day, and I wouldn’t exactly stop her, so why would I stop her daughter either?

“Go,” I told her. “Coffin and I have this.”

“You sure?” the stallion asked doubtfully.

“I can do more back here,” Sapphire argued. “These people need help, so I’m going to give it. Go! Take that thing out… Just… Be careful, okay?”

“We’ll try. But no promises!” I replied, making sure my shotgun was fully loaded as I nodded to Coffin to follow me. “Come on! We have a tank to blow up!”

“You’re crazy, just for the record.”

Ohhhhh yes.

We ran back towards the fighting, Sapphire accompanying us for a short time before breaking off to help up a wounded ghoul who was newly missing part of their leg. Now with just Coffin, we barged our way towards a group of ghoul fighters, including Rot, who were ducked behind the burning remains of one of the outer buildings. I wasn’t sure if the tank got it or the ghouls themselves, but didn’t think too hard as we skidded to a halt.

“Ah, the smoothskins return!” he said too cheerfully as he traded fire with some Enclave soldiers. “Shame about the tank, we all saw that pretty little firework. But maybe now you can focus on, you know, helping those who actually need it.”

“Yeah, we’re on it!” I shot back. “So, other tank?”

“Riiight, our favourite little problem right now. Yeah, we need that thing gone if we’re going to last. The guards are pretty scattered, if that thing goes, we can probably overrun them with numbers alone. But we’re losing too many so long as that thing is up.”

“Not going to just rush them again?”

“Those were AA variants, they struggled to hit ground-side targets,” he shot back. “This thing is very much designed to kill ghouls like us. It’ll take somepony truly insane to want to rush that thing head-on.”

I raised my hoof into the air.

“...Seriously? We could dodge missile pods with enough motivation, but those plasma cannons and railguns? It’s like the Hades tank’s baby cousin of fuck you.”

“Yeah, and I have some big guns too!”

“We really should have kept our resident pegasus…” Coffin sourly remarked.

“Probably,” Rot agreed. “Flight would be another story, but we’re fresh out of pegasi ourselves. At least at this cozy little spot, so if you actually want to get in close, you’re going to have to run.”

Oh, what fun…

“Hey, unless anypony has ANY other way we’re going to take it out?”

Silence.

Yeah, thought so.

“Really wishing we hadn’t lost our Hades…” Coffin said with a sigh. “Okay, if we’re doing this-”

BOOM.

Oh, that railgun shot was close by. That thing seems… uh, eager…

“...Ugh, like I was saying, if we’re doing this we should split up,” Coffin suggested. “Maybe one of will make it close enough to clamber up.”

“Rot, give us some covering fire? Maybe get its attention?” I asked the ghoul.

“Sure, so long as we’re not the ones on the suicide run,” he agreed. “Alright, my little ghouls! The smoothskins wanna play hero, so we’re gonna sit tight and give ‘em some cover while they die like badasses!”

Why do others always have so little faith in our dumb ideas!

“Ready?” I asked Coffin.

“...Sure. Fuck it. Let’s get this done.”

I peered around the corner and glanced towards the tank. It was kicked away some poor slave as they, whether through desperation or pure rage, tried to hit it with a sledgehammer of all things. I waited a moment, counting my own breaths as its turret tracked around in search of targets. I saw some other ghouls move in from the other direction, firing assault rifles at the death machine. The bullets just pinged off of its armour as the thing’s giant guns turned around the eviscerate the attackers.

“Now!”

I moved around the corner and spirited towards the next piece of definable cover, a piece of wreckage a short run across the rocky canyon floor. Gunfire erupted in force behind me, sending the few Enclave soldiers in my way scattering as I rolled into my destination. Coffin also reached his one bit of cover, trading fire with another pony as he pressed himself up against some large metal crates left abandoned in the middle of the battlefield.

I heard some explosions and a stream of magical plasma fire as the green bars of the ghouls I’d seen a moment ago blinked out. Peeking out, I saw the Cerberus tank reposition to fire back at Rot as he and his ghouls ducked back down to avoid the incoming fire.

Okay, shotgun not gonna work for this…

I put the gun away, swapping out to Little Gilda for the added firepower. Holding this thing when it fires is always a challenge, but I should be more ready for it this time…

Okay… now just to get under it…

As I prepared myself, I saw an unarmed slave break cover and make a run for it. As he did, I became aware of another red bar on my E.F.S. moving for them. I looked up, but could do nothing but watch as I saw a power armoured Enclave pony with some kind of large metal boxy-device strapped onto their battle saddle. Its barrel was glowing a bright red, and then in a moment a fucking HUGE red laser erupted from its end and cut across the area in a line. Everything in its path, the slave included, was cleaved in two before the beam cut out with a hiss and a sizable power core was ejected from the weapon.

A rock, a crate kinda like the one Coffin was hiding behind… All cut in two. That thing was like a gatling laser on Party-time Mint-als!

Oh, that had to go.

I lifted Gilda up, pointing the powerful AA gun at the soldier and opening fire! The round cascaded towards the pony, ripping through the power armour with ease and shredding them before they could even reload the crazy weapon! I almost lost my grip on the few moments the thing fired, but I grit my teeth and flared my magic to keep the recoil in check until the deed was done. Maybe I need to fire that thing in shorter bursts...

And then the tank noticed me.

A stream of green magic came my way, and I was forced to drop Little Gilda and fall back behind my little piece of debris to not get melted into sludge! But my cover wasn’t so fortunate, sizzling away and opening me up.

“Spark!” Coffin shouted, making a move to my aid before a burst of bullets from another shoulder ended those plans. He grunted as he ducked back, helpless watching as the tank loomed over me.

Maybe I really should have brought Sapphire in for this…

Fwoosh.

Whatever the death the tank would have given me next, the attack went wide as the vehicle was knocked aside from a sudden barrage of rockets! A gust swept over me as I looked up to see a large quad-turbine vertibuck flying overhead, guns firing and picking away at the tank’s armour!

“That’s right you mothers! Run!” Sergeant Granite’s voice emanated from the vertibuck, amplified by onboard speakers or something! “Spark, get on that PegWing and link to the targeting system! Paint me some hostels!”

Huh?

I opened my PegWing and, sure enough, the vertibuck was attempting to link up with it. Specifically, it wanted access to the on-board S.A.T.S. spell.

Okay, I can work with this.

I accepted, engaging S.A.T.S. and bringing the world to a halt. Things were… a little different than usual, but familiar enough that I got the gist pretty quickly. The interface in my vision seemed to want me to select targets for each of the gunship’s weapons. I selected as many missiles as I could for the tank directly ahead of me, rather keen on finishing it before the tank could recover from the first barrage.

And then I started highlighting ground targets. I saw a group of soldiers attempting to flank rot, so I had one of the guns target the entire group. I selected a few more individual targets, members of the Enclave either fighting with more ghouls or trying to hunt down fleeing slaves.

I used up every option available, targeted as much as I could until the spell reached its limit.

And then I engaged it.

Missiles flew free from the vertibuck, smashing into the Cerberus tank and beating it down in a flurry of fire. It tried to move, but the gunship let loose its whole payload into the collapsing machine as its armour ruptured and the cabin exploded into metal shards and fire. The pilots inside stood no chance as its legs gave out, the tank crashing down into a heap that was never to rise again.

As it did so, the gunship’s side turrets also opened up, unleashing Tartarus onto any Enclave soldier that was standing in its path. Red bars blinked out all around me as I backpedalled towards Coffin, grabbing Little Gilda as I went and placed her pack into my PegWing. Coffin covered me as I came, gunning down one panicking soldier that tried to shoot me in the ass on the way back. When I reached him, I tackled him to the ground and stayed low as hell continued to pass all around us.

Granite did not mess around and, assisted by my S.A.T.S. target lock, the gunship snapped from target to target with supernatural efficiency. Dirt and rock were kicked up by the constant fire, and I had to scrunch my eyes and fold in my ears just from the noise of it all! It was deafening, vibrating the very earth beneath us as the assault seemed to go on forever!

But then, just like that, it ended.

The wasteland became silent again.

I slowly looked up, all gunfire having stopped as Granite’s new toy just hovered above us. What few red bars remained blinked to green as the Enclave ran for their lives, the ghouls all giving victorious cheers as the battle came to a close.

...We’d won. The camp was liberated, the slaves were free.

But I looked around at the bottom of the gorge… And once again the accusations of a filly screaming at the Hellmare rang in my mind. Enclave corpses littered the ground, but so too did a not so small number of ghouls. Slaves and fighters alike, torn up and spat out by the fight I had started. 

Started for something we didn’t even get.

Ugh… I feel sick…

And the memory of the Dealer’s laugh just rang in my ears.

“Shit…” Coffin muttered. “Did… did that just happen?”

“Yeah…” I replied, ripping my Enclave combat armour free and tossing it aside. It was pretty fucked anyhow… “Why am I always messing up? Coffin… WHY!?”

“Whoa, Spark. Calm down there…”

“No! In, out, use a tank to clear out the Enclave. Easy! Quick! But no! We got caught, we started a fight that we dragged Rot’s group into and we didn’t even get the Hades tank! I got them killed! Those slaves… more could have lived, but I fucked up! I ALWAYS fuck up! Everything! All this! It’s my FUCKING fault!”

“...What are you-”

“Well, would you look at that…” Oh, and here comes Rot. Doesn’t he look peachy… “You smoothskins actually did it. Nice touch with that vertibuck…”

The ghoul whistles in appreciation, gazing up at the gunship with an approving nod.

“Now THAT we could use. Maybe hit some of the larger mines up by the Badlands. That would be a sight to behold.”

“Oh, well I’m glad YOU are fine with this!”

He just gave me an odd look. “What’s with her?”

“I’m wondering about that myself…” Coffin mused, but then he seemed to stiffen after a moment of studying me.

Ugh, now wha-

“Spark?”

Sapphire…

The pegasus mare approached me, a look of concern on my face. “I heard shouting, are you okay? Injured? I can help…”

“No, not injured, just…” I let out a sigh. I guess there’s no point in just shouting about it, is there? We all know I’m a fuck up. I keep telling myself I can’t fail them again. But I do. Okay? I just do! “Just… How’re the others…?”

“I… I’ve done what I can, but some still need urgent attention,” she answered. “Spark, you don’t look so hot. Really, do you need help with something?”

I sighed. She truly is her mother’s daughter, fussing over me like that… Even when I’m not worth fussing over.

Dammit, and now I’m worrying her over this. I guess I-

“It’s you…”

Coffin?

I looked towards the stallion, the unicorn having removed his helmet and was staring at me with wide, shocked and betrayed eyes…

“You’re her…” he said slowly. “I knew they had gone and hidden something from me. Things didn’t add up… Your skill for being a newbie, but I just figured you were some special operative they’d been hidin’. But… that…”

He pointed at my flank.

Why was he-

Oh.

Oh no.

The fire. It had burned straight through both my armour and my jumpsuit. But that hadn’t been the only thing it had burned away…

On my right flank, my cutie mark decal was gone.

There was no PegWing, just a familiar PipBuck for all the world to see.

Sapphire stared at it, her own eyes going wide as her gaze then shifted to me with renewed understanding.

Oh, Silver Bell is going to kill me…

“You… But… You died. Dad told me, he was there when you died.”

Coffin shook his head. His glare hardened quite significantly for somepony who supposedly idolised me…

“She lied to us. They all did. Just one big lie,” he spat. “Sparkplug, huh? You had us going, but… Why? Why couldn’t you tell us the truth?”

Coffin…

“Why couldn’t you tell, huh? You’re Littlepip. You are the Stable Dweller.”








Footnote: Level 9

New Perk: Quick Draw - Makes weapon equipping and holstering 50% faster.