//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Eschaton Storm 
// by TheCopperDragonBard 
//------------------------------//

Kenny

"Where are they?!"

The Griffon jabbed a hellhound dagger into the left lower knee of a changeling ghoul with yellow markings smeared across his body, the latter tied to a chair and propped upright. The changeling stifled a scream of agony as it's joint fractured, the incredibly-sharp blade puncturing through it.

"Tell me where they are, you bastard! What did you and your craphats do to them?!"

The raider didn't talk, so Kenny pressed the blade deeper into it's destroyed kneecap, piercing through it entirely this time. This time, it's attempts to withhold it's agony failed, and the ghoul howled in pain.

"Tell me. Where. They are."

Still no answer. Grabbing the knife with both talons, he proceeded to twist the blade around in place, splintering apart the bone even moreso now. Another yell of pain, this time louder.

Kenny noticed the bones of the ghoul's ankle already repairing themselves, drawing from the omnipresent radiation in the atmosphere to heal the grotesque wound.

"Use your energy-draining innate magic all you want- it won't make this easier for you. Do try, though- it'll just prolong your torment here."

Yanking out the dagger, which was now coated in green, viscous slime, he proceeded to plunge it into his right knee, starting the process anew.

"Alright, I'll talk! The other Hornets are taking them to Dodge City! Home of the Spiders!"

Kenny roared, knocking his captive over on his side, still bound to the chair. The Spiders were the Wretched Hive's trade division; while the Roaches collected the equipment, the Spiders actually distributed the weapons and tech the Wretched Hive possessed, while simultaneously dealing and selling all sorts of illicit trades with other species- include slave trafficking.

His bestial howls faded into a growl of equal parts predatory and vengeful drive. He went back over to his side-turned hostage, yanking the blade out of his kneecap- before slamming the blade through his skull, impaling it to the floor and ending his misery. Kenny turned away, leaving the shed he had been interrogating the raider in, grabbing the ghoul's map of Equestria on his way out and unfolding it. He found his current position, and then Dodge City.

'Don't worry.' he thought, determination dominating his thoughts. 'I'll find you, and I'll save you.'





"Kenny?"

The Griffon had been lost in his thoughts, and the sound of Scorch's voice brought him back down to earth. He realized he had been crushing his radroach in his claws, covering them in green goop and exoskeleton pieces.

"Are you... doing okay?"

Eschaton Storm and Scorch had both seemingly gone out last night and had found a shed full of radroaches in the mountains, and had decided to kill all of them and bring them back as food- the ones Scorch had killed were crushed to bits, and Storm's were pre-fried due to her electricity. The fire was going once again, being used to cook their insectine breakfast on sticks.

For the record, Kenny and, as far as he knew, Scorch, were both fine with eating bugs at the moment; they had both gone days without eating, and what little food Kenny had been given while a prisoner had lacked both taste and quantity. He also noticed that Storm was also munching on some of the radroaches, and given the ghouls lack of a need for sustenance, he could only assume she was doing it for the taste.

"Yeah." he lied. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good." Scorch accepted, before looking down at the radroach remains in Kenny's talons. "You should... probably eat that. We're about to head out soon."

Obliging, the Griffon began chomping down on the crunchy bug. They kept eating until every last radroach was gone, Kenny and Scorch having eaten the most due to their hunger, with Storm herself only having one- again, because she didn't really need it. With their food gone, Scorch smothered the fire pit, his dragon scales preventing the coals from burning him too much.

"Alright, now that that is said and done, we should head to Canterlot and stop the Wretched Hive from whatever they want to do. And thankfully for us, we have a Vertibuck, which should get us to the ruins toot-sweet."

Scorch trotted over to the helicopter and climbed within, himself and Storm following him in, taking their positions at the turrets like they did yesterday. They felt the vehicle shudder to life underneath them, and heard the blades begin to rotate above them.

"Alright! Into the wild blue- well, gray- yonder we go!"

They began to lift off the ground, ascending slowly, steadily, from the earth...

...only for the helicopter to sputter and cough, before rapidly plummeting to the ground only a few feet below.

The impact sent the two skyward, slamming them against the roof and back down into the passenger area. Storm groaned in pain, clutching her head and cradling herself back and forth, fighting off what he assumed to be a thunderclap headache. Kenny was hardly any better- he had a bloody beak(both nose and mouth) and his chest pulsed with agony, the roof of the Vertibuck having made contact with his ribs.

"Hmmm... it seems the Vertibuck had a lot less fuel left in it than I thought..."

"No motherbucking crap, Sherlock!"

Kenny didn't say anything; he was still in pain, and the effects of his drugs had long worn off from last night, so there had been nothing to buffer the contact. Not to mention, he didn't have Storm's regeneration, which probably explained why she had(or was) recovering faster than he.

Once everyone could see straight again, they dismounted from the military aircraft, checking their weapons to see if they had sustained any real damage. Thankfully, no.

"So... I suppose we're walking." Scorch deduced, looking to the east. "I guess it's a really good thing we ate now."

"So I assume we're supposed to walk all the way to the Canterlot ruins?" Storm growled. "No way. If we even were to do so, I doubt we'd be there in time to stop the Wretched Hive from obtaining whatever the buck they're after. I would much rather prefer a way there that consumes less energy and time."

"Well, we may not have a choice," Scorch bluntly stated, frowning, "because the railroad is out of the question, since Vanhoover is likely still occupied by Wretched Hive, and even if we made it to the train station, it's likely been down for centuries- literally. And I sure as Tartarus don't know of any more possible was to get a train or any other faster-moving form of transportation, for that matter."

Kenny's mind began to process things once again, and doing so allowed him to recollect; although he had read few maps of pre-war Equestria, he had read them enough to know that another city existed just south of Vanhoover which was also connected to the railroad- and Kenny could only assume it was just as vacant as Vanhoover was... well, typically was.

"Actually, there may be somewhere we could go to that may have a train."

They both turned their heads towards him, their eyes carrying an expectant glint to them.

"From what I believe, it's a town just south of Vanhoover called Tall Tale, and it should be completely empty, given it's similar distance from the Heartlands. It's connected to the railroads, so there might be a train we can use, and even if there isn't, it should be nearly untouched, just like Vanhoover, so we'll probably find a good deal of supplies there- something else we're currently lacking."

"I should remind you that Vanhoover was another location that is rarely touched by wanderers and raiders, and we had to escape numerous Roach squadrons from that same city. Not to mention, Tall Tale is only a few miles, give or take a couple, from Vanhoover... what stretch is it to assume that they may have gone there, too?" Storm butted in, objecting.

"They gave up chasing us when we were escaping on the Whirlybird, so I don't think they'd bother searching for us. Besides, I highly doubt that they sent extra teams there."

"I should also remind you that that we had machine gun turrets pinning them down as we were flying off, and our flight speed was much faster than theirs- they didn't have much of an option except to retreat. With our helicopter down, we only have a rifle with a couple bullets, an enchanted revolver, and my ruined horn, and we barely escaped that hellhole with those."

Kenny was about to argue, when Storm's eyes suddenly widened, seemingly with realization. She turned towards the half-dragon, who was turning investigating his maroon weapon, seemingly to kill time. He raised his head in acknowledgement of her presence.

"You're a Unicorn that can actually use his horn. Why don't you just use telekinesis and carry both of the turrets around with us? Nobody would threaten a wandering group with two machine guns floating around them at all times."

"About that..." Scorch said, looking down nervously. "I... can't really use magic."

"That's a lie. I saw you start a fire yesterday with your magic, and you used your magic to heal yourself during our skirmish with the squadron when we first entered the city."

"Well, I'm not saying that I can't use magic, but I can't use it for a whole lot. The most I can do are cantrips and small spells, like that combustion one you saw yesterday. As for me healing myself, that was actually my rifle." he patted his gun on the body, drawing attention to it for emphasis. "It's enchanted to steal life force from living things it hits, and uses the stolen essence to heal it's wielder. So yeah, all but the most mundane spells- way out of my league."

"You can't be serious. You don't know a single spell that might save our hides in a fight?"

"Well, I can teleport, but I can only use it on myself, and doing so exhausts me way more than it typically would with a Unicorn- which by itself is next to none."

Storm groaned, planting her muzzle into one of her hooves. Getting the feeling that their conversation had ceased, Kenny resumed his own point.

"Well, it seems we don't really have much of a choice regarding what we do. If we want to get to Canterlot, quick and efficiently, Tall Tale is the best chance we have."

"Very well." the Unicorn ghoul replied, removing her hoof from her face. "Let's just head over there as fast as we can, and get this done and overwith- because we're still going to have to walk, and although it's not as far from here as Canterlot, we'll still need to travel some distance if we're going to get there in a timely fashion."

"Let us begin, then." Scorch stated, speed-walking ahead of them. They were about to follow him- only for him to stop, clutching his head as he kneeled down with a grunt of pain. They both ran forward to brace him, to prevent him from falling. Kenny looked over towards the other Unicorn, her expression... concerned.

That was odd... she clearly had no positive feelings about being on this team; why would she care about one of her teammates as anything but?

Her voice, while considerably calmer than her expression, still carried the same air, if more subdued. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, just... a migraine."

"Did you slam your head on the roof of the helicopter when it fell?"

"No, no, I had my seatbelt on when I had started it up. Safety first, you know?" He chuckled- although it seemed forced.

He got back up. "Well, we shouldn't stall any longer," he declared, still pressing the side of his head with one of his talons, "we had best get going."

He looked over to Kenny. "Why don't you lead the way? You're... more likely to know where we're going."

And so the Griffon did, marching forward as the other two followed behind him. Even then, however, his task was half-hearted.

He couldn't unsee the look of concern on Storm's face, her willingness to see if I teammate she supposedly only tolerated was okay. That didn't seem natural for an amoral wanderer in the slightest.

'Perhaps... there is more to her than she let's on.' he thought. 'Perhaps... she is more than just a self-serving lone wolf.'