“Raider? I barely even know ‘er!”
Raiders are a fascinating and disgusting facet of the Wasteland. Ponies who have turned away from every ideal the old Equestria spoke of, embracing freedom in the forms of chaos, violence, and right by might. They are a perfect encapsulation of all the problems of-
My side is poked by Way, knocking me away from my musings, “Half, you’re zoning out.”
I blink, and look over at her, “Sorry, Miss Way, I was merely thinking.”
She grins, “What about?”
I pause, “Well… Raiders, Miss Way. To summarize my thought process quickly, I do believe it would be proper to say ‘screw them’.”
She smiles, raising some binoculars to her eyes, “Yeah, no, not even if you paid me. I say we just kill them.”
I blink, “I… that’s not what I meant and you know it’s not what I meant.”
She glances at me, grinning, “Are you going to complain or help me spot threats?”
I look down at the Pony Joe’s, which is the only standing building in a row of destroyed shops, and the filthy ponies trotting about it. Way and I thankfully managed to sneak into a higher position in a building across the street, specifically on the second floor, allowing a slightly higher view of the old building. The building we’re in is heavily damaged, allowing the dim, clouded sunlight in through a broken chunk of roof which shines on us. I look over at Way, “May I see your binoculars, then?”
She smiles, passing them over, “Sure. I’m not the best at spotting things anyway, well, things I should recognize.”
I nod at her, “Well then, leave the scouting to me.” I look through the binoculars at the Pony Joe’s, speaking as I notice details, “It looks like there’s a unicorn with a well-kept shotgun, three earth ponies, two with knives, one with a combat rifle, and another unicorn sat around a dying fire with another earth pony, both unarmed.”
Way nods, looking down there with me, “So… we sneak up as best as we can, take out the shotgun and the combat rifle first. Then, since we’ll be noticed, we fight with the knife ponies, and we should win since we’re more skilled. Finally, we’ll take out the two unarmed ones, since they should pose the least threat.”
I glance over at her, “How can you be sure we are more skilled than the knife carriers, Miss Way?”
She takes the binoculars back, looking down at the ponies, “One is favoring a leg, so he probably has an injury there and will be easier to take out. The other, well, she has a slight bump on her back left leg, meaning she either had some disease or something like that, and will not be able to stand up to our non-diseased selves. We just need to focus on those legs for both of those two.”
I smile slightly, “Very impressive, Miss Way.”
She smiles back, looking my way, “Yeah, well… I was taught good.”
I nod, “Whoever your teacher is should be-“ I look back down at the raiders as I speak, seeing the combat rifle pony raise his rifle in our direction. In fact, he’s looking our way too, and aiming. It’s only at this point that I barely notice a light on his cheek, a reflection from our binoculars. I shout, “Roll!”
Way wastes no time, rolling to the right as I roll to the left. The combat rifle fires with a loud bang, barely missing us and impacting into the broken roof above me. I scowl, crawling further into the building, away from the window and instead towards the stairwell, Way crawling right beside me.
She takes a deep breath, shaking her head, “Well, shit… thanks for seeing that.”
I look at her, “I do appreciate it, Miss Way, but perhaps save the thanks for when we aren’t in danger?”
She nods, “Fair.” She stands up, as we are now out of the way of any firing, “Alright, they’re probably stupid enough to send the knife ponies charging at us, so we should prepare here, at the top of the stairs, since high ground is better than low.”
I nod, rolling to my hooves and drawing my knife from it’s neck-sheathe, “Right…”
We both stand in our fighting position at the top of the stairs for a few minutes. After at least five minutes, Way slowly looks at me, “I think they were smarter than I gave them credit for…”
I look over at her, “So then what’s the plan? Wait until they grow bored?”
She shakes her head, opening her mouth to speak, but pausing right before, one of her ears twitching. She turns to look down the stairwell, as do I.
From down the stairs, echoing it’s way up to us, is the sound of metallic thudding, each loud thud followed by the sound of flooring breaking. Every thud is slow, but powerful and purposeful, slowly growing louder as it draws closer. Way’s eyes widen a bit, “Something big’s coming…”
I listen for a moment more, looking down the stairway. Slowly, I can see bright lights growing stronger with every step, slowly climbing up the stairs. I back away, “Steel Ranger.”
Way looks at me, backing away as well, “Steel Ranger? You can’t be serious… you can’t!”
I look back at her, “I’m afraid I’m deathly serious, Miss Way. We should run.”
She shakes her head, frowning, “No… I’m not running. Some fancy armor isn’t going to stop us, Half.”
I step closer, “Way, this is suicide. If he get close to him, then we are dead. We need to run.”
She scowls, drawing her sword again, “I don’t give a fuck about what we ‘need’, Half. Now are you going to help me?”
As I look in her eyes, I finally realize that Guiding Way might be insane. Those beautiful… by which I mean golden, eyes filled to the brim with confidence and hidden emotions. They sparkle like none other, and after a minute, I realize that… well, maybe we do stand a chance. Perhaps, with our combined skills, we can take down a Steel Ranger.
I nod, drawing my knife, and going next to a wall right near the stairwell. The thuds grow steadily closer, the bright light now shining out of the opening for the stairway, growing brighter with each passing second.
Finally, with two more loud thuds, a metallic head rises out of the stairway, it’s visor staring ahead blankly, and fog lights on either side of it’s head lighting up the room.
As soon as one of it’s hooves touches our floor, I sprung into action, lunging into their side with the sharpest point of my knife. To my surprise, the knife actually cuts into their armor, piercing all the way to the hilt. The only problem is that my face is where the hilt is, resulting in me slamming my face, full force, into tons of metallic armor.
I fall back in pain, my face already bruising, and my nose most definitely broken in some fashion. I hear some metallic chuckling from above me, bringing my sense of sight back as I look to the source. The Steel Ranger looks down at me, its chuckling sounding almost demonic from the voice modulator in the armor. It trots over to me, cracking the floor beneath it, and raises a hoof up high.
Before it can bring it’s hoof down, Way comes springing from behind it. Her sword reflecting the dull Equestrian sunlight as she thrusts it right into the Ranger’s metallic flank. The sword pierces through, almost as if without resistance, causing the Ranger to yell out in pain.
Way begins to draw her sword back out, but the Ranger doesn’t allow that to happen. Before she can pull the blade out and move away from it, the Ranger slams it’s back hoof into her chest. She goes flying back towards a wall, the force of her impact against it cracking away the old material. Crashing onto the floor limply, she coughs roughly, struggling to try and rise, her battered body not allowing it.
The Ranger turns to trot towards her, Way’s sword falling out of the it’s flank from the movement and clattering told the ground in defeat. Every step he takes towards Way carries a promise of death with it. I look at my knife, still lodged into it’s side. Slowly, I stand up, my mind protesting with a heavy sense of vertigo as I regain my footing. As quietly and as quickly as I can, I trot towards Way’s fallen blade, picking it up in my own mouth.
Looking at the Ranger, who now stands a few steps away from Way. With as much energy as I can, I charge forward at it, swinging Way’s sword at it’s neck.
It slashes across the armor of the Ranger’s neck, cutting into the metal and getting stuck in some hydraulics before it can reach the pony within. I try to wrench the sword away, grabbing tightly and pulling with all my force. Suddenly, the Ranger spins around quickly, the spin threatening to send me flying off the blade, but I barely keep hold of it. I learn quickly that that was a mistake, as it slams me and the sword into another wall, the sword flying out of both his armor and my mouth, down to the ground on the other side of the wall.
I groan from the blunt force, looking at the Ranger and slowly trying to get back up. It’s visor simply stares at my attempt to get up, watching my eyes all the while, even as I collapse back down into a coughing fit. Not content to have my try to recover, the Ranger picks me up from the ground with a single hoof, crushing my already broken ribs all the more.
From being it, Way finally gets up, yelling as she pounces on it’s back, flailing and punching at the cut parts of the armor’s neck. The Ranger ignores her pitiful attempts, looking to my right, at the new window made by Way’s breaking of a wall. I gasp, and crawl at it’s hoof in desperation to stop the inevitable.
The Ranger looks at me, it’s visor reflecting the dim sunlight back at me coldly.
I look back into the visor, gasping, “Please…”
The Ranger throws me out of the broken wall to the ground below.
———
Footnote: Level Up! (7)
New Perk: Them’s The Breaks: You’ve suffered many broken bones and blunt force injuries. The pain will never go away, but some of the damage will! All Blunt and Fall damage is reduced by 25%! If only you had this before today…
Skill Note: Melee Weapons (70).