Chapter 18:
We set down hard and fast outside of town. The guard house was nothing more than a pile of ash, two ponies I didn't recognize lay outside the gate in a still drying pool of blood. The gate to the city had been blown open, a half dozen blast marks around the frame showing where the explosives had been placed. We didn't have time to slow down though. Lily was running full tilt into the city in a blind panic and we were struggling to keep up with her. She was so frantic she seemed to completely forget she was able to fly, but changelings were surprisingly fast on the ground as well.
We rounded the corner of one of the blocks, what had been an armour shop was now a blasted out shell, burnt and broken armour pieces scattered around the immediate area, splattered blood on the pieces of window that lay amongst the armour outside, I could only imagine the gore within.
“Oh shit oh shit oh shit...” Lily started muttering as we came to the end of the street. The Phoenix was leveled, still smouldering. “No no no no no no!” She finally leapt into the air and raced towards the building, leaving a green trail in her wake. Ruby shot up after her and we ran as fast as we could.
“MOM!? MOM!” Lily screamed, her magic ripping at the debris, tears streaming down her face. CB and I reached her next, trying to pull the debris apart as fast as we could. CB pulled up massive piles of rubble, pulling it all apart carefully before putting it back down. “I can't find her!” Lily cried, prying more and more, but there was so much rubble, so much still burning or smouldering.
“Lily...” Ruby started, putting a hoof on her shoulder but Lily jerked away.
“Just help me!” She yelled, pulling up more and more debris.
“No! Lily...Lily STOP!” Ruby yelled, grabbing her and pulling her back.
Lily turned her head and fired a concussive shot out of her horn right in Ruby's face, but a shield flashed up between them and the shot exploded harmlessly, CB putting up a full barrier between them.
“What the hell was that?” Ruby fell back in shock when the shot exploded but her building anger was short lived when Lily broke down into tears, collapsing in a heap on the ground. CB looked to Ruby for approval before dropping the shield and did once Ruby nodded, before the pink pegasus stepped forward and hugged the weeping changeling.
“Ahem...” I turned slowly and came face to face with...”Mare-Do-Well?” I admit it, my brain stalled out for a minute. She wore armour almost identical to Lily's but clearly older, more worn. It was singed and pock marked pretty badly, most of the damage looked fresh, her helmet snapped open to reveal Firebird, smiling tiredly, looking at Lily sadly.
“MOM!” Lily shot up and tackled the power armoured mare like she weighed nothing. Maintaining their cover didn't matter, the tragedy that still raged around us didn't matter, none of it mattered to Lily. She hugged her mother tightly and just wept.
Firebird hugged her comfortingly, or at least as comfortingly as she could in the thick armour. “Lily, sweetie, it's alright, I'm fine. As soon as the Pyros attacked I ducked out through the basement, suited up and came out in the square, and you know there isn't a flamethrower built that can pierce our armour.”
Lily finally sat back and nodded, wiping tears from her eyes.
“What happened?” Brutus asked. “Besides the obvious I mean...”
“I don't know the full extent of the damage, but it looks like they took the children.”
“Dammit, of course they did.” I snapped. “Remember Xekron tried to take CB when they attacked the collective base?”
“We should focus on helping everypony don't you think?” Crackshot asked, looking at the chaos around us.
“I think for now that's the best we can do. Help survivors, get fires put out, try and figure out how bad the damage is.”
//////////
The rest of the day was a blur...putting out fires, moving debris...moving bodies...The more ponies we talked to the worse things seemed to get. They raided stores, stole all the supplies they could carry...a whole squadron dropped on the school and the changeling teacher had put up a hell of a fight, taking out 5 of them with just his talons, he'd transformed into a dragon, but they had finally put him down, and taken all the children, muzzling them with masks and loading them into the sky wagons. Parents had gathered at the apartment tower, which had weathered the attack surprisingly well, the old brick and stone building very resistant to flame, much like the city hall building in Clopton had been, and as fires were put out and the injured rescued and brought over, slowly the remainder of the town was gathering together, connecting with friends and family to find out who was safe, who was hurt, or worse...
Ratchet and Clank sat together towards the back of the group, both in full armour, both looking exhausted and badly banged up, a half drunk healing potion sitting between them. They were both leaning against each other, looking beyond tired. Ruby and I moved to sit with them. “How are you guys holding up?” She asked when we got close enough.
“As well as can be expected...” Ratchet muttered, looking up tiredly. Clank just nodded and took another drink from the healing potion.
A new set of indicators appeared on my EFS and I turned my head towards an alley that sat between two scorched homes. I looked up and saw Bottle Cap walking slowly towards us, looking kind of like she was in a trance. Her horn was glowing softly to light her path, a baby carrier saddle on her back, two sleeping infants in them. Two vaguely familiar foals...
Ruby shot up from her spot and raced over to them. “Bottle Cap? What happened? Why do you have the Storm's babies?”
“I...I'm not sure...” She wandered past Ruby and sat down beside Ratchet. I realized she had blood coming from her ears and dried around her nose.
“What happened?” I asked again, moving to sit beside her while Ruby gently took the baby carrier from her, checking the foals for any injuries.
“Uhh...There...was a bomb...I think...” She said slowly, looking up at us finally. “There was this terrible bang, a huge flash of light...and I must have blacked out...I came to and they were gone...Sky and the merchants we'd been talking to, the blast had thrown me into a dumpster, the babies had been sleeping inside the house. I could just barely hear them crying...my ears were ringing so badly. I managed to calm them down and I just sort of wandered around till I got here...have you seen Sky? She doesn't do very well on her own...”
“We'll find her, don't worry.” Ruby said and Cap just nodded. “The babies are alright, they don't seem to have any injuries or anything.”
“Think you two could keep an eye on the babies while we try and look around for the Storms?” I asked the two bucks beside us and they nodded.
“We need to do something.” Brutus said, coming up beside me as I started to try and search the crowd. “We know where they've taken the children and the ponies they kidnapped, we need to rally the troops and take the fight to the Pyros for once.”
“I agree, but is it our place to rally these troops? We need to think about this before we go riling everypony into a frenzy. What about the members of the collective at the hospital, they'll want to be informed and given the chance the come in on this too right? Or what about the unicorns working on the mask altering magic? How ready are they? Are they at a point where the spell can be taught out to as many unicorns as possible?”
“I suppose you're right.” He nodded, unfortunately the decision was made for us when...
“HEY EVERYPONY!” CB's voice echoed and we looked up in horror at the platform where they usually had auctions. “WE KNOW WHERE THE PYROS TOOK EVERYONE THEY KIDNAPPED!” CB was standing in the middle of the platform, her horn glowing brightly with the voice amplification spell. Xem stood off to the side looking horrified, he'd obviously tried to stop her right up until she'd started talking to the crowd. “WE CAN GO THERE AND GET THEM BACK!”
The crowd were starting to get riled up quickly and Brutus and I shared a look before he rushed over and jumped up on the stage. “CB that's ENOUGH.” He snapped at her before amplifying his own voice. “LISTEN EVERYONE, WE DO KNOW WHERE THEY'VE TAKEN THEM, BUT WE CAN'T JUST RUSH INTO IT, THEY'RE WELL ARMED AND DEFENDED, IF WE GO OFF HALF COCKED MORE OF US COULD END UP CAPTURED OR KILLED. GIVE US UNTIL MORNING AND WE CAN MAKE SURE WE'RE AS READY AS POSSIBLE TO RESCUE THE CAPTIVES. WE'RE ALREADY WORKING ON A PLAN, WE EVEN HAVE SOME NEW DEFENSES TO IMPLEMENT.” The crowd didn't seem too thrilled with the idea but Brutus pressed on. “LOOK AT THE DESTRUCTION THEY CAUSED TO THE TOWN, HOMES DESTROYED, FAMILIES TORN APART! DO YOU REALLY WANT TO RUN IN THERE WITH NO PLAN OR PREPARATION?” More and more of the crowd seemed to be staying in their places. I could see the wheels spinning in his mind as he tried to figure out where to go to keep the crowd on his side. “ALRIGHT, HERE'S WHAT WE NEED! ALL GUARDS COME TO THE FRONT, ANYONE WHO DOES CARAVAN ESCORT DUTY, OR HAS ANY KIND OF SPECIALIZED FIREARMS TRAINING, BEHIND THEM, ANYONE WITH STANDARD FIREARMS TRAINING AFTER THAT.” The massive group slowly organized itself in row after row of ponies.
“ALRIGHT, ALL UNICORNS WITH A SPECIALTY FOR MAGIC MOVE TO STAND ON THE RIGHT.” The rows reorganized quickly. “ALRIGHT FINALLY ANY PEGASI WHO ARE PART OF THE COLLECTIVE MOVE OUT OF THE GROUP FOR THE MOMENT...” A dozen or so ponies moved out of the group curiously as Brutus walked off the stage.
“Who the hell gave you the right to start mobilizing and organizing our forces?” An Earth pony buck demanded from Brutus as he came off the stage.
“Oh I'm sorry, didn't you want to get your friends and family back?”
“Well I...”
“Did you want me to get back on stage and just tell everypony to go home and let this sort itself out?”
“No...”
“So why don't you shut the fuck up and go back to being a bureaucratic coward?”
“How dare yo...”
“Well you weren't one of the ponies that stepped up when I made the call to arms so I can only assume you didn't want to come with us.”
“What qualifies you...”
“You see those ponies?” He pointed to me and Ruby. “They, along with myself and a few other ponies in the collective are the closest thing to 'experts' on the subject of the Pyros, so if you want to take over and just make shit up by all means go right ahead.” Brutus gestured to the groups he'd just organized. The buck stammered and faltered for a moment before finally just slinking away, muttering bitterly to himself.
“That's what I thought.” Brutus smirked, watching him go for a moment before returning his attention to his new soldiers. “Alright, so here's what we need, “Collective Pegasi! You are going to return to the hospital with Lilith and Ruby and round up anypony who wants to join the fight. Get weapons, wagons and whatever else we need and head back fast as you can. GO!” They saluted him and took off for the Sky wagon bay.
Ruby and Lily looked at each other curiously, because obviously they hadn’t been told that part of the plan, but they shrugged and nodded, saluting Brutus with coy grins and hurrying off after the others.
“Earth Ponies, prep your weapons, spend some time doing some target practice. We’re going to try for as non-lethal an assault as possible. Most of these Pyros are under mind control and we want to free them, not kill them! Unicorns, come with me, we have a spell for reprogramming the masks that control the others, and we need every pony able to learn this spell.” The Earth ponies hurried off to their work, the unicorns stepped forward to fill the gap and Brutus looked to me as I walked up to the group.
“What? I don’t know how to cast the glyph change spell.”
Brutus sighed and set to work as the only teacher…
//////////
Luckily two hours later the first sky wagon returned, bringing the unicorns that had been studying the masks, so they broke the unicorns up into groups and started training them, having the actual masks now to show if they were succeeding or not. Brutus left the training to the unicorns that had spent all the time studying and learning the masks. He took one of the masks and finished teaching me how to cast the spell and then we moved on to other areas. We met with the remaining council members, both of the collective and of the city, and laid out everything we knew of the town we were attacking, of the camouflaged building and of the dangers we were going to be facing. Lily, Ruby, Crackshot and Firebird (Still in her MDW get up, and acting as such) added their own pieces to the puzzle and soon the council was coming up with the best plan of attack, chock points, everything. Despite the arrogant jerk who’d tried to usurp our initial orders to the troops most of the councilors here were trained warriors, soldiers, retired caravan guards…they knew what they were doing and we were happy not to have all the burden on ourselves for once.
“Why don’t you leave the rest of the planning up to us?” One of them said finally once we’d finished giving them all the information we could. “You’ve done more than we could hope for, go get some rest or something. We’re going to reorganize everypony at 0830. It’s 0225 now, you could probably use some sleep. I know we all could, but you guys are going to have the most important part of the job, go crash in the Inn for now.”
I was going to protest but one look at my friends told me I shouldn’t be making that call. “Yeah alright…I think we could all use some sleep…” I could almost hear the sigh of relief from my friends when I said that. Crackshot stayed with the council since she didn’t technically need to sleep, but the rest of us were more than happy to leave the stuffy war room and head downstairs.
“You do realize this might be our last night together?” Lily asked. “We might not all come back from the battle tomorrow...”
“I don't care, you're still not sleeping with my Sugar.” Ruby said, grinning at her cousin.
“Uhh don't I get a say in the matter?” I asked, smirking back at her.
“Nope.” Ruby shook her head. “I expect to be the only mare to share your bed.”
“I'm not technically a mare.” Lily offered with a coy grin.
“What if I want to have a go at him?” Brutus asked. I glanced at Ruby my eyebrows shooting up. I stuck my hoof out in front of me, and pointed at Brutus. I nodded my head furiously, drawing my lips into a curious frown. A look that said 'he has a point, he has a point' without needing the words.
“No!” She said, hugging me defensively. “Only female! Only male too! Only living creature!”
“Cracksh...” Brutus started.
“OR UNDEAD CREATURE!” She cried, struggling not to burst out laughing.
“So when our daughter is born I'll just have to tell her to go sleep on the couch when she has a nightmare? Or when our son is sick he'll just have to cuddle a pillow? That hardly seems fair.” I said, pulling back from her and giving her a serious look.
“They'll be the exception to the rule.” Ruby smiled, kissing my horn and finally starting down the hall again.
“What if I only slept with him while I was you?” Lily asked, flashing green and turning into her cousin.
“That's just weird Lil.” Ruby sighed. “Besides, his pipbuck would tell him it's you.”
“I can take the pipbuck off.” I offered without really thinking and Lily finally broke down into a fit of laughter. Ruby put on her best hurt look but broke down pretty fast. “Alright alright, why don't you two go ahead and see if we can get a room to crash in for a few hours?” Ruby asked. “Lily and I have to make a quick pit stop.”
“Yeah alright.” Brutus nodded, walking on with me as they vanished around another corner.
“Everything seems so calm doesn't it?” I asked. “Can't see outside...the carnage, the ponies preparing to go to war...it's like it's all so far removed from us. How did we end up here?” I sighed.
“Yeah, if I'd known all those months ago that thawing you out would lead to this I might have just left you.” He chuckled.
“You know I never did ask, what made you decide to thaw me out? I mean I know I was the only one alive, but you didn't know who I was, if I would be a help or a hindrance to your cause, why even bother risking it?”
“Honestly?” He asked and I nodded. “I figured since you were still alive and untouched you might have good loot tucked away in your storage compartment...” He glanced at Ebony and Ivory tucked away in their holsters and smiled, “but when I saw you laying inside the pod...I thought you were really cute and let my other head do the thinking. I realized what I'd done and kind of panicked as the pod opened, which is why you ended up with a shotgun in your face...”
I looked at him quietly, not sure if he was serious, and trying my damnedest not to laugh in his face if he was. “Well...that's...creepy.” I said finally and he just blushed. “Don't worry about it Brutus. If circumstances were different, I might be going to find a room to sleep beside you instead of Ruby.” I smiled and, despite myself, leaned up and kissed his horn, much like Ruby always did for me.
He blushed even worse and just looked down at the ground, muttering to himself and hurrying off down the hall.
“Huh...I didn't realize I had the effect on guys...I should ask Ratchet and Clank if they have trouble keeping themselves composed in my presence.” I chuckled to myself and continued on.
The whole central tower had weathered the battle quite well, and the foyer section was hopping with ponies. A lot of them lived right here in the tower, making it probably the best target, but also making it the most defended. It looked like most everypony put out by the attack was either out prepping for the coming battle, something I felt I should still have been doing, or they were making arrangements with friends here. It was amazing to see everypony coming together like this, organizing, planning, sharing, checking on friends and family, making sure they could help...it reminded a lot of the Equestria I had left behind, not this war torn wasteland I now called home. It made me feel a lot better to know that all the good of pony kind hadn't been lost in the war.
Walking into the hotel the unicorn behind the desk looked up and smiled. “Doctor Sugarcane? Grimrock called down and said you wanted two rooms?”
“Uhh, yeah I suppose we do.” I nodded. He pulled two keys off hooks and set them down.
“Thanks.” Brutus swept past, grabbed a key and kept going without looking back, vanishing down the hall quickly.
“Oh...uhh...that's okay, the other one was for him anyway.” I said when the unicorn looked like he was going to go after him. I took the other key, thanked him again and headed off. The room was small and simple, a bed big enough for two, a couch, a table and a small bathroom. I turned off the lights and flopped into the bed, tiredly tugging off my armour, setting Ebony and Ivory on the bedside table, and then just letting the armour fall to the floor before I flopped back to sleep.
Sadly that was short lived when I heard the door squeak as it opened. I opened an eye and looked down at the door. The E.F.S. came back green. “Ruby?”
“Yeah?”
“You don't knock? You just wander in? What if I'd been in the middle of pleasuring myself?”
“It would have been awkward for a moment but I'm sure once I came over and started helping you'd have gotten over it.” She chuckled, closing and locking the door and shedding her own armour before crawling into bed on top of me and cuddling down, kissing my neck lovingly.
“I, uhh, wanted to ask you something.” She said softly, nuzzling against my neck.
“So heavy cuddling and a coy act have to be done first?” I asked, chuckling a little.
“I'm worried you'll freak out...” She admitted, shifting and sitting beside me.
“Well spit it out and we'll see what happens.”
“I want to have a baby.” She blurted out finally, blushing brightly and looking down at her hooves. “I...I went and got the implant removed so I could get pregnant.” She added, barely above a whisper.
“That's where you and Lily went?” I asked and she nodded. “So you figure...” I paused and studied her a moment, trying to think her reasoning through. “...best case scenario, we survive, we have a baby, life is great. You die, I live, we'll never know if you were pregnant anyway. I die, you live, maybe get a baby, maybe don't...or we both die and it doesn't matter.”
“Well don't you just know how to put a romantic spin on things?” She sighed. “Forget I asked, don't worry about it.” She pushed herself up and turned to go. “I'll have the implant put back in tomorrow when we get back from the baaaaaattle...” She trailed off into a groan as my tongue slid along her back side. She turned back and looked at me, and I sat there, tongue still hanging out of my mouth, a curious 'should I stop?' look on my face. I didn't know if it was just the tension of the situation, or simply that I was a guy, but I felt like I had never needed anything so much in my life as I needed her right at that moment.
She sighed and smiled. “Thanks Sugar...” She leaned back towards me but I just tugged her down over my side and kissed her deeply. “Well...if you're sure.” She giggled, breaking the kiss for only a moment before pressing her lips back to mine.
//////////
“Are you sure about this?” Brutus asked as we flew back towards the zebra village early the next morning. His armour was cleaned and ready, a pair of shotguns on his back, his powerhooves armed and loaded.
“As sure as I can be.” I shrugged. “We can't leave the crimes they've committed unpunished.”
“I meant the part where you jump out of a moving sky wagon with a fireworks display strapped to your back.”
“Oh that, yeah I'm questioning the sanity of that one too.” I grinned.
When we had rejoined the attack force a few hours later I had insisted on being given one last chance to reason with Venture, but nopony was willing to risk their hides for so stupid an idea, so instead I came up with this plan.
Our wagon was going to fly over the city and I'd jump out, landing gracefully on the edge of town closest to the field the cloaked base sat in, using a spell CB had taught me. I'd demand to talk to Venture and if he wouldn't, then I'd go to phase two, firing a massive display of Fireworks I had with me, sending the signal for the armada of sky wagons that would be hidden in the valley beyond the town to attack, hopefully not getting killed as I ran for my life back to my friends, and then turn around and charge right back into the fray to fight the ponies I just ran from...yeah I was excited for this...
Ruby had a padded set of armour on, her battle saddle sitting strapped to the wall for the time being until she could unhook from the pilot harness and put the saddle on. Lily was again in the Co-pilot harness, back in her mare-Do-Well armour. Firebird sat on a bench with Xem and CB. She had repainted her armour during the night, it was a gleaming white now, so she'd be able to truly see just how much damage she sustained in the fight. The children sat, looking far too armed for my tastes, but we needed all the help we could get. CB had been properly trained in the use of grenades and plastique, or at least as properly trained as somepony could be in only a few hours. She also had a grenade launcher strapped to her back, a machine pistol in her left holster and a normal one in her right. Xem had a battle saddle on, a shotgun in the left, a hunting carbine in the right, as well as his own bandolier of grenades. It made me genuinely sick to think of them going into battle, and seeing them armed and ready for war just made it worse.
Crackshot stood at one of the turrets, keeping an eye on the skies. She had gone all out for her armaments. Her battle saddle had the recharger rifles I had given her, and she had the Fatbuck close at hoof. She planned on starting the party with a bang, by leveling a whole building.
“Ready?” Ruby called back to us as the back door opened.
“As I can be!” I replied, moving into place. Oh shit it was so far down...
“GO!” Ruby yelled and with a magical shove from Brutus I was soaring down towards the city.
“Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit...” I closed my eyes and focused on the spell to slow my descent. I felt the amulet around my neck warm as my magic activated and soon felt my descent slowed significantly. I opened my eyes slowly to find I was drifting downwards slowly, right on target to land at the edge of the 'clearing' the building would be just a few dozen meters in front of me.
Ponies on the ground quickly took notice of me but none seemed to think to take a shot at me as I came down, a little harder than I'd have liked, rolling forward on impact and pushing myself back up quickly.
“VENTURE!” I called towards the base, amplifying my voice magically. “I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! COME OUT AND TALK TO ME! I WANT TO WORK THIS OUT!” I stood silently, not sure what to expect next...a dozen soldiers all stood around me, weapons trained on me, though they were either still shocked by my brash entrance, not to mention my flat out demand to talk to their boss, or they recognized me and had orders not to engage? Either way they made no move against me...Of course there was no response from Venture either...
After a few tense moments there was a shimmer in front of me where the front entrance had to be, and Xekron, the Pyro from the base, emerged. He wore no face mask this time, goggles sat just above his horn, his right eye was scarred and the eye itself a robotic prosthetic, when Crackshot had bucked him out of the sky wagon the broken goggles must have shattered right into his eye.
“So Sugarcane. You finally found your way here. Guess Coal owes me 15 caps. He said you'd be here a week ago.”
“I want to talk to my brother.”
“He doesn't want to talk to you.”
“This madness needs to end!”
“We don't want it to end.”
“You've enslaved hundreds of ponies and murdered countless more.” I gestured to the guards around me, most of whom wore control masks and stood with blank eyes, training their weapons on me on the orders of one of the few in the group who didn't keep his mask on. “Let them go, let them return to their families.”
“Most of their families are either here with them or dead. What's the point of freeing them when they can just stay here with their family while serving a noble cause?”
“There's nothing noble about what you and Venture are doing.”
“There's no way for your to stop us.”
“Do you think I came here without a plan?”
“What? Calling in your cavalry from over the hills? Come on Sugarcane, even you know that you're still outnumbered almost ten to one.”
“I thought you were keeping better tabs on me than that. The cavalry is just part of our attack force.” I said casually. “You don't even realize just how fucked you are.”
“Oh really?”
“Ya really.” I smirked, gathering magical energy into the talisman around my neck so it was ready without my horn glowing to give it away. “Remember Concussive Blast? The filly who kicked your ass back at our base?”
He nodded slowly. “Even her powerful magic will only carry you so far.”
“Oh I know, but her magic doesn't have anything to do with it. See she made a friend. Someone I think she will grow to love over time.”
“No pony is strong enough to pose that much of a threat.”
“I didn't say somepony, I said someONE. A zebra, named Xem.” He just gave me a blank look. “You probably don't know him. His grandfather though, a tailor by the name of Xeha?” This made his eyes go wide. “There's the look I was waiting for.” I drew the magical power out of the talisman and released a burst out energy outwards, wiping the zebra glyphs from the masks of the ponies that surrounded me. Suddenly I was faced with 3 actual guards and 9 very confused ponies. “RUN!” I yelled, hurling the fireworks into the air with my magic and exploding the whole thing with a quick shot, the fireworks soaring upwards and exploding in a beautiful display.
The now freed ponies scattered, shooting at the pyros that had held them captive for so long and in a matter of moments the whole immediate area devolved into a firefight. I dove for cover behind a dumpster with one of the newly freed earth ponies. “I've been enslaved by these bastards for months. How can I thank you?” She asked, reaching up and pulling the mask off.
“Stay and fight with us.” I said, pulling Ebony from the holster and firing towards Xekron, but he had moved from in front of the building and I saw he was taking on two of the freed ponies himself.
“You don't have to tell me twice.” She smirked. “Name's Death-Stroke.” She leaned out and fired her battle saddle at the coming guards. The sky wagons were swooping in low and fast, ponies leaping out and joining the fray.
“Pleasure to meet you.” I said, firing at a group that was coming from down the block to join the fight.
“INCOMING!” I heard CB yell from above. A pair of silver apples whipped down the block and exploded in a massive of plasma energy, liquifying the group I had been shooting at. CB and Xem landed on top of the dumpster.
“What took you?” I asked.
“Traffic was a NIGHTMARE.” CB said dramatically and Xem laughed. “Now, lets fuck shit up!”
“Hey! Language young lady.” I said flatly.
“Oh sorry, let us go disrupt their expected course of action in an explosive way.” CB said in a serious tone, bowing to Xem. “If you would be so good as to escort me my fine stallion?”
“But of course my dear.” Xem replied, bowing in return to her and they leapt down off the dumpster and tore off around a corner, guns blazing.
“She yours?” Death-Stoke asked.
“Yeah she is.” I smiled softly.
“You're lucky to have raised a girl like that. Strong, independent, good with a grenade...”
I paused and reflected on it, but now wasn't the time to be getting into explanations about CB's family. “Thanks.” Was all I came up with.
“Now can WE fuck some shit up?”
“Absolutely!” I grinned wickedly and the two of us finally tore out from behind the dumpster and into the fray.
Our group was very very quickly over running the city. Unicorns shot spells at anypony wearing a mask and they would all, almost without fail, turn on their former allies.
We already controlled the skies, the pegasi that were under pyro control were the first ones the unicorns had freed of mind control, and the loyal pyro pegasi were shot down.
Ruby, Brutus, Crackshot and the rest of our group were pushing up the main street towards the cloaked building, our intention was for at least our group to breach Venture's base, others joining us if the fighting outside could be brought under control.
I made my way towards them from the opposite direction, my horn blazing with power as I wiped one control mask after another, or my guns coming up and dropping unsuspecting pyros.
As I closed the distance with my team a jet of fire lanced across the street, cutting us off and I looked up, seeing Xekron standing on the roof of the building across the street, blood splattered on his armour and face, a mixture of what I assumed was dirt and blood caking his hooves, both flamers in his battle saddle were still blazing with fire. I took a few potshots at him but was forced to fall back into an abandoned store, putting the stone walls of the building between me and him, though it didn't look like he was going to try to pursue me.
I saw my friends duck back from the fire themselves and dash into the alley between this building at the next. I moved through the store, which had long since been picked clean, shooting the lock off the backroom door, I moved into the massive empty storage room in the back just in time to see my friends coming in through a side door.
“Hey guys! Over here!” I called to them, moving past and old desk with a long dead computer terminal sitting on it.
“So what do we do now?” Brutus asked. “Xekron has us pinned pretty firmly in here...”
“We could go out through the shipping door and around?” Crackshot suggested.
“That would leave us too great a distance to cover and not enough knowledge of our enemy's positions.” Lily said, the synthesizer in her helmet switched on, giving her a neutral robotic voice.
“We could blow out the front of the store and make a run for it in the confusion.” CB said, juggling a group of plastic explosives in her magic.
“That might bring this whole place down on top of us.” Xem said and I nodded in agreement.
“What if you just walk out and into the building?” A robotic voice asked behind me and we all jumped.
We turned to see the strange robotic avatar of Venture watching us from the computer I had thought was dead.
“Venture? You'd really let us just waltz in?” I asked sarcastically.
“I have no problem with that. Xekron is the pony you pissed off, not me.” He chuckled.
“Will you talk with me?”
“Of course I will. You're my brother, the least I could do is give you a chance to change your mind and join me.”
“I was going to say the same thing to you...”
“Well why don't you come in and we'll talk about it? I don't have any cola or anything but we can still sit and go over things. I promise you safe access to the facility. Though everypony else out there fighting is going to just have to keep on doing that.”
“Fine, lets do this. I've been waiting a long time to see you face to face again.”
“Such as it is.” He said simply, the monitor winking off.
After a moment a P.A. Blared out a message. “SUGARCANE AND HIS TEAM ARE TO BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE BASE UNHINDERED! ANY ATTEMPTS TO STOP THEM WILL BE MET WITH THE MASTER'S FULL WRATH!”
We walked out of the store slowly. The strip of flame was still burning on the street and the battle raged around us, but nopony tried to stop us as we walked up the street towards the field that the cloaked building sat in. As we got close the spell that camouflaged the area lowered and the building came into view. It was identical to the old building, except no where near as worn looking as the other had been.
The front doors swung open and we all shared a look.
“I guess this is it?” Brutus asked. “Well if things go south...it's been an honour.” He grinned. Crackshot smacked him upside the head.
“Now's not the time dumb ass.”
And in we went...
Footnote: Maximum level reached.
This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.
You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily
The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect.
If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan
The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.