Chapter 32: And I thought the wasteland was bad before.
"What's that old saying about out of the fryer and into the fire?"
Radiation. Fallout. Big bang, and lots of glowy stuff.
Okay, just how should I put this? Hmm, short of stringing together the most foul expletives, I didn't think I could express it. Even then I felt that would be lacking, that it would not convey how I felt. Oh, Fuck it! Why was it that every time we looked like having a solution, like we were taking a step in the right direction, some event or some asshole pony went and completely stuffed it up for us?
Although I didn't trust the Goddess, we had a truce of sorts, and she was a being that was advantageous to be on good terms with. Now she was nothing more than radioactive vapor and dust, and as such was now our enemy at a much more fundamental level. We couldn't fight that. We had no choice but to retreat, to get out of the area, to throw away our hope and hard work again, again. Yup, again. Any idea of moving the Stable Four mares here permanently had gone up in the smoke of a balefire explosion. As it was, we would be lucky to be able to keep using this place as an outpost to heal the crippled mares, assuming we managed to get a large enough supply of RadAway. There would be no point visiting the clinic if the trip itself turned them into ghouls.
So far, the radioactive dust had not penetrated as far down as the auto-clinic or Lee's spaceship, so we could still operate on the mares and build their prosthetics. The problem was that due to the massive radioactive pit that now replaced Maripony, we no longer had anywhere to house the mares on the surface, and space underground was at a premium. We had to literally climb over each other in the cramped tunnels, and that was only when they were large enough! Most tunnels were too small for that. Sure, there was space down in the lower level and Lee's ship, but that would be very taxing on our elevators, namely on the unicorns who could levitate. At the moment, a number of the less mobile mares had been parked in lesser used salvage routes. None complained though. Some said it wasn't that different to living in their home stable.
Immediately after the explosion I had started using my cleaning spell to decontaminate the ponies, and the areas of the collapsed stable that had been directly contaminated. That took me several hours. While I was doing that, Red Tape devoted his time to making sure the dust-proof and lockable door at the top of the main tunnel through the rubble was working, borrowing my material restoring magic a few times to repair damaged seals. The theory was it would keep out the radioactive local atmosphere, as well as any prospectors hoping to strip the stable of salvage after we left. With time, I figured some of the radioactive material would probably be able to work its way through the rubble of the collapsed stable, as it wasn't guaranteed dust proof. In fact, due to the explosion that had originally destroyed this stable, a lot of it was little more than dust itself, and certainly wasn't waterproof. There were damp areas in the tunnels, as well as the odd place here and there where water trickled in, and had to be contained and pumped out again. When I had the time, no, if I had the time, I would continue using my magic to reform the tunnel walls into something solid that was water and radiation proof. That was counterproductive in that it would cut Red Tape and Duct Tape off from their future salvage. Irradiated salvage. Damn, we were stuffed, weren't we. Our supply of Rad-Away was getting a bit low too. I mentally added Rad-Away to our Absolutely Everything shopping list. Rad-Away, or was that RadAway? Damn, it had taken me this long to realize there were two brands of the stuff!
In preparation for leaving, any pony that needed a quick visit to the auto-clinic was taken down there for treatment. Nothing major could be attempted, but not attending to minor issues like tweaking the neural processors and doing further calibrations to Cherry Sundae's eyes would have been stupid. As the auto-factory had finished making it, we fitted and calibrated Parsley's new cladding. Unlike her old cladding, there was no binding spell connecting it to her mind. It worked by interpreting the signals passing through her new neural processor, and actual movements of her body. Of course, Helvetica's new cladding functioned in exactly the same way. Unfortunately, any other mare that needed new cladding would have to wait, making do with what they already had, because there simply wasn't enough time for the auto-factory to complete any more before we left for Stable Four. Lee had taken the measurements of the mares yet to be fitted with new cladding from the auto clinic, and fed them into the auto-factory when she had gone down to retrieve Parsley's new cladding. Apparently she had "stuffed them in and hit the go button". What resulted we would find out next time we visited. Assuming nothing broke down, the data wasn't corrupted, and the machine was able to scavenge enough raw materials, we could expect anything from working cladding for those that didn't need it though to mismatched junk for those that did, and if we were really lucky, there would be some sets we could actually use. Crazy? Maybe, but Lee said there was nothing to lose by trying.
We were hoping that a good rain would wash the radioactive dust from the air, so we wouldn't have to breathe it. Instead, we'd have to wade and drive through radioactive puddles, but that was the lesser of two evils.
Fortunately, the blast had not damaged our wheelchair 'tractors', or the trailers. They were sitting in the shelter, and would be ready to go once they had been given a going over with my cleaning spell. Ruby, who now claimed to be "a child of radiation" had retrieved Lee's armored motorcycle from where we had left it after it had crashed. Lee had quickly repaired it, and now it was also parked in the shelter with the trailers. The repairs to it had been as simple as swapping out the damaged sections with spares she had already made. That alien robot pony really did like her gauss rifles! I had the distinct feeling we would encounter a number of pissed off ponies during our journey back to Stable Four, so I was glad to have the help of the gauss rifle obsessed 'mare' and her firepower.
How right I was.
We were on the move by mid morning. Those of us with able bodies really could have done with a few hours of sleep, as we hadn't taken a break since Maripony was blown up. As soon as we were ready to travel, we had set out. Most of the dust had been settled by rain, as we had hoped. It would not surprise me if the rain had been deliberate on the part of the pegasi. Now, even two hours travel from Stable Lab Four, we could see the sickly yellow green glow of the radioactive crater in Splendid Valley reflecting off the clouds. I was almost expecting to see clear sky above the valley when we had returned to the surface earlier, but the pegasi must have replaced the clouds that had been blown away by the explosion. Perhaps they had special radiation proof clouds they could use. I wondered how many pegasi had been killed, both those from the floating city that had come down through the cloud curtain, and those living on the clouds themselves. While I was staring up at the clouds pondering this, I noticed yet another small black form flit past under them. I had known I would see some of the Goddess' children flying around, but there were a lot more winged silhouettes up against the clouds than I expected. My guess was Enclave.
Our little caravan was much as it had been on the way out here, albeit slightly larger. Once again I was in my wheelchair-tractor, although this time I no longer felt trapped as I knew I could step from it any time I wished. Likewise Chicory was now able to leave hers as well. All the same, as we were the only ponies capable of driving them, thanks to Gadget's linking spells that allowed us to control them, we had to do so. The mares that had ridden out in the trailers were in them again, in their designated places, huddled beneath some waterproof plasticized cloth we had found, the theory being it would help keep the radioactive fallout and rain from them as much as possible.
Those who wished it had traded their Pipbucks for the more stylish Pipgirls. In either case, they each had the ability to monitor their own radiation levels, and drink from their personal supply of Rad-Away as needed. We hoped to be well clear of the radiation before we ran out of the foul tasting life-saver. The ponies that had to walk were wearing crude ponchos made of the same plasticized cloth. A hole was cut from the material just big enough for the ponies to push their heads though, where upon the poncho was draped over them, their saddle bags, battle saddles or whatever.
There were three more ponies travelling with us now than there had been when we came out from Stable Four: Lee, Red Tape and Duct Tape, well, four more if you counted Ruby, but she had been with us in body for at least part of the way. Red Tape was walking, but Duct Tape was small enough to fit in a trailer without making it any more uncomfortable for the mares riding in it. She was snuggled up with Helvetica in the trailer directly behind me. As for Ruby, to say she was walking wasn't exactly accurate, as she was switching between walking and flying as she saw fit. Lee was out ahead in her nice radiation-proof motorcycle, scouting, which was kind of funny, because of all of us non-alicorns, she was the only one that radiation couldn't kill, her being dead already, and all that.
"Ruby, are you in contact with the Goddess' other children?" I asked as she settled next to me, shook out her wings and began walking again.
"Not really," she replied. "I have my own life, so I've cast a shield spell to block them from my mind. I don't wish them ill, but for the moment, I have my own problems to solve, such as what I'm going to say to my little sister when I next see her."
"So you don't know why so many of them are flying around above us then?" I asked. "Or are they Enclave?"
"I'm not sure the ponies we can see are alicorns," she responded. "As you say, they may be Enclave. After all, if there was an Enclave flying city above Maripony when the balefire bomb went off, there are sure to be a lot of them buzzing around trying to work out what went wrong."
"They stuck their noses down here, where they aren't wanted is what went wrong," I retorted, thinking back to their propaganda poster. "FEAR NOT, EQUESTRIA! WE WILL SAVE YOU!" I quoted, shouting a little to emulate their emphasis. "Arrogant bastards. They will save us? When? After we've all died out of starvation? What about after the radiation has dropped to safe levels everywhere, so it won't hurt them? They have never had any intention of helping us, or they already would have, so there is something down here they want. And fittingly, the first time in two hundred years they stick their noses below the clouds in any significant way, the wasteland gives them the same message it's been giving us ground dwellers since the war."
"And that message would be?" Ruby prompted.
"Fuck you, my little pony, fuck you," I responded.
"Oh, that message," Ruby said. "Yeah, I think that particular message is a given down here."
"I hate to say it, but I think it's sending us that message again," Shadow interrupted. "Look behind us."
I did. It wasn't until I looked up into the air a little that I saw that to which Shadow was referring. A black and green camouflaged brick shaped vehicle was hanging quietly in the air some distance away, not that the selected camouflage pattern was particularly effective while it was in the air. I could make out the weapons bristling from its armored sides. It began to float in our direction. Of all the directions it could have taken, it had to come this way. Of course it did. I knew it was coming for us.
"Oh, great," I complained. "It's a flying tank full of pissed off pegasi."
"What should we do?" Helvetica asked from behind me, her head poking out from under the sheeting.
"Be polite?" I responded. "Like us, they are victims of the balefire blast. There has to be some common ground there. And Demi, I think you better keep your wing hidden," I suggested, not that her wing was visible, covered by both her barding and poncho.
Even as I was saying that, the flying tank flew over us so low that I felt I needed to duck. It slowed to a stop, and hovered there for a few seconds its rear door opening. It quietly settled to the ground, directly in our path, immediately disgorging a dozen pegasus soldiers, each fully encased in black armor of a design that suggested insects; yes, the armor from the poster I had been quoting moments ago. Each soldier wore a battle saddle resembling a carapace, complete with two 'antennae' jutting out, the magical green energy crackling at their tips suggesting they were magical energy weapons: armed magical energy weapons. Even their tails were protected by segmented armor, complete with what could only be described as a glowing scorpion stinger. These ponies had their safeties off. They were ready to engage.
Needless to say, we came to a stop.
The soldiers quickly surrounded us, blocking our escape routes. So much for a polite discussion. Maybe they were just paranoid. All the same, they weren't endearing themselves to us. The last soldier to leave the flying tank, clearly the ranking officer, walked down the ramp, directly towards myself and Ruby, mostly because we were in the lead. "Halt," he commanded unnecessarily. I can't say I liked his tone of voice. Maybe it worked on his soldiers, but we were civilians, and not part of any Grand Pegasus Enclave.
Apart from a few dirty looks directed at him, none of us responded.
"What are in the wagons?" he demanded.
"Our patients," I answered. "This is a medical caravan."
"Everypony, I want you out of your transport and lined up here NOW," the armored menace barked. "You too," he directed Chicory, observing her wheelchair mounted weapons.
In response to his command, the material covering the mares in the trailers rumpled, then slid to the ground. They started to file out of the rear of the trailers. Fortunately, they had the good sense to leave their weapons behind.
"No sudden movements!" another of the pegasi bellowed. Who the hell did these bastards think they were? What part of patients and medical caravan didn't they understand?
The officer turned his attention back to me, primarily because I was the closest pony to him.
"Why are you heading away from Splendid Valley?" he demanded, glaring at me. At least, that was the impression I got from his ugly helmet. Whoever had designed that either had no concept of style, or wanted them to look as unfriendly as possible.
"In case you failed to notice, there was a balefire explosion over that way," I responded. Next to me Ruby fidgeted nervously.
"So why are you running?" he demanded again.
"Because, as I said, there was a balefire explosion in Splendid Valley, and it dumped radiation all over the place." Was he belligerent or just a moron?
"We are looking for the perpetrators behind that explosion, and at the moment we are looking at you," he stated. Great. Just great. "Again I ask, why are you running from Splendid Valley?" Fantastic. This fellow was going to reject all answers other than us pleading guilty. Program: (1) Ask question. (2) If answer is not what you want, go to (1).
"As I said, there. was. a. balefire. explosion!" I said again.
"Don't get smart with me!" he barked striking me across the face with an armored hoof. When the initial pain subsided, I could feel a trickle of blood from where he had struck me above the eye. I resisted blasting him with my weapons for two reasons. First, they were still hidden under the rain-proof poncho I had draped over me, and second, they had more guns than us. Mostly the second reason.
"Don't get fucking dumb with me you smart-assed stuck up insect," I spat back, "A balefire explosion would make anypony run. Our clinic was in the fallout zone."
The only reason I didn't get whacked across the head again was the armored prick had noticed Parsley's nice new cladding. Sure, most of the mares were clad, but their scrappy old make-do affairs at worst could be mistaken for poor home made armor, but the cladding Parsley and Helvetica were wearing were obviously newly made and of high quality.
"FREEZE! Get out of that power armor NOW," the bastard barked. I had to admit their exoskeletons did resemble power armor, even if the pink, purple and pastel green colors were anything but camouflage.
"Sorry, I can't," Parsley answered. "It's not power armor, it's a medical ex..." ZAP.
The magical energy beam hit Parsley in the hind quarters, punching straight through the cladding, and straight through her as well. With a shriek she fell to the ground. Instinctively, I hit the release on my wheelchair-tractor, leaping from it with the intent of helping Parsley, but I hadn't got gone a pace before I was shot in the butt by the officer's next beam. Yelping much like Parsley had, I collapsed in a heap on the ground. I could feel blood trickling down my rear, but my barding had done its job and protected me from the worst of the blast. I could tell that my body remained fully functional, which was more than I could say for poor Parsley. The officer wouldn't know that though, because I was still mostly hidden under the poncho.
"I didn't say anypony could move!" the officer bellowed.
"I didn't fucking say you could shoot her," I hissed back, spitting dirt from my mouth. Poor Parsley. After all we had done for her, after how much her life had improved in the last few days, I hoped she was still alive, and not too badly injured. I would hate to see her go back to hiding to get out of the way of others. Meanwhile, with multiple weapons pointed at her, Helvetica had done as instructed and deactivated her cladding. It had opened, dumping her wasted body onto the ground, where she lay, an atrophied bundle of skin, bone and a little toneless meat, unable to move. If that didn't make it obvious to these winged assholes that we indeed were a medical caravan, I didn't know what would. I saw Duct Tape step forward to try to help Helvetica and cringed, waiting for the shot that would kill her.
"Sir, there is a foal here," one of the other soldiers announced. "And that big pony near you looks like an alicorn. I don't think an alicorn..." he was cut off.
"That is right, soldier. You. Don't. Think. Leave that to your superiors," the officer berated him.
"Then start thinking," I muttered. "Why is it you refuse the truth?" I asked loudly. "Clearly we are a medical caravan trying to get out of a radiated area. Why can't you see that? Why do you refuse to see that?"
"What? You are still alive? Then shut your mouth, kid, if you want to stay that way," the officer said, booting me for emphasis. "Who is in charge here?"
"That would be me," I answered, despite his instruction to remain silent. He booted me again, and repeated his question.
"Small minded asshole," I muttered, gaining myself an even harder kick. This time he left his armored hoof pressing heavily against me, holding my head to the ground.
"Let me get this, Anne," Red Tape said from a few paces back. "I am the owner of the clinic these mares were visiting. That would make me the leader."
Lying partially under the Enclave officer as I was, and facing away from him, I had perfectly good view of father as he announced that he was leader. It also meant I had a perfectly good view of him as he suddenly glowed with magical energy for a moment before the moisture in his body vaporized, all that remained of him settling to the ground as a pile of glowing ash. My mind went blank for a moment as the unbelievable, the unfathomable, the unforgivable forced itself into it. Little Duct Tape shrieked as she saw what had happened to her father; our father.
"Now you wasteland scum will listen to me!" the asshole was barking before I cut him off.
"You murderous winged abomination," I screamed, tensing myself. "You just killed that foal's father in front of her! You just killed my father. What for? For telling the truth! So NOW YOU DIE!" As I voiced the last three words, I unwound, much as my mother had when she had killed the Steel Ranger. My magic braced me against slipping forward, while my rear hooves lashed out and upwards, striking the officer in his guts. I felt my protective hoof walls break away, and the exposed the armor piercing duralloy cores punched straight through his armor, and into the flesh it was supposed to be protecting. Magical power armor versus starmetal hoof blades: I win. I had seriously wounded him, judging by his somewhat undignified bellows of pain. As I gave him a second gut penetrating kick for good measure, bedlam broke out. I don't think any of the soldiers expected they would get much fight from a pile of crippled mares, but even unarmed, these ponies were used to fighting against overwhelming odds. The wasteland does that to a pony and Stable Four had made living on the surface seem like a holiday.
Several soldiers were launched vertically by Duct Tape as she used her levitation magic on them. They had wings, so they were not greatly disadvantaged by her attack, but it did totally throw off their aim. Ruby threw up a shield around herself and attacked, trying to draw their fire. She was larger than the tallest of the soldiers, and with her wings spread, was quite an intimidating sight. Lightning flashing from her horn only emphasized the effect. I realized the lightning was just for show because she wasn't risking dropping her shield. Cherry Sundae and Shadow started doing what they were best at, casting healing spells. Other mares leaped at, or shuffled into the soldiers, mobbing them, dragging them to the ground, stomping them, trying to disable their armor and weapons. Shots were fired, but several of the soldiers held off shooting lest they hit one of their own. Nonetheless, I saw at least one mare evaporate. At that moment my hate of the Enclave cemented itself into my mind. These armored things were not ponies. Perhaps viewing them as their armored forms was the way to go: nasty black alien insects that were invading our homeland. That was when black armored heads started exploding. It wasn't me doing it. Even as enraged as I was, I wasn't capable of that sort of magic. If my last ditch survival magic kicked in and I exploded, I was the center of the blast. I didn't know who among could throw around that sort of battle magic, but I didn't care. I loved them!
Getting to my hooves as quickly as I could, I immediately blasted at the soldiers I could with my battle saddle mounted combat shotgun and Cybercorn carbine. My poncho disintegrated in a shower of plasticized fabric fragments as my weapons fired through it. The shotgun wasn't particularly effective against the insectoid armor the soldiers were wearing, so I switched to solid ammo the first time I reloaded. The Cybercorn carbine was more effective, but it wasn't knocking any of the black insectoid beasts out of the fight either. If anything, the wounds I was inflicting were just enraging them. I kept shooting anyway, trying to aim for their weapons instead, trying to get their attention on me to give the others a greater chance.
Chicory had leaped back into her wheelchair, and accelerated into the battle, firing the ex-robot stunners at soldiers before ramming them. It was an effective tactic, if for no other reason that it stopped the bastards from shooting while they climbed back to their hooves, and any stray shot wouldn't kill anypony we cared about. A couple of the soldiers took to the air, their heads exploding in succession. I noticed each time one exploded, their brains sprayed towards the direction from which we had come. I could be dense sometimes. Lee. Gauss rifle. She must have just arrived back from her scouting mission.
Another mare flared with bright colors then turned to ash, ripping another great hole in my heart. For them to die now, after their lives had taken a turn for the better was just too cruel. Guessing at which soldier had blasted her I targeted them, firing the Cybercorn carbine with all the strength I could put into my magic. On the third shot, their armor cracked across the breastplate. The fourth brought forth a gush of blood. Before I could put a fifth ball bearing "bullet" through them, they lit up with magical energy, and with the sound like tinkling glass disintegrated into ash. A missed shot? Had one of their own accidently blasted them? Another soldier lit up before disintegrating, and this time I saw the beam, a wide beam, much more powerful than the saddle mounted ones. I hit the ground when I realized it was one of the flying tank's heavy weapons, and I was between the tank and the other soldiers, I didn't know who was firing the weapons, but they were on our side.
"Girls, hit the deck!" I yelled as loud as I could, figuring the less of us that were standing, the better it would be for Lee and the heavy weapons operator. It was, because within seconds the weapons fell silent, all of the Enclave soldiers down, either disintegrated, or lying where they had fallen.
The hush was replaced by quiet whimpering, declarations of being okay, and requests for help. The whole gun battle wouldn't have lasted more than a minute at my estimation, and it was a minute I had no intention of letting the Enclave ever forget.
A pony near me moaned, so I turned towards them to help. That was until I saw who it was. The Enclave officer hadn't died of the wounds I had inflicted. He was still lying where he had fallen, blood running from the holes I had left in his armor. A swift, well placed kick dislodged his helmet, knocking it free. I found myself staring into the dark eyes of a rust brown stallion. He glared at me with pure hatred. I returned the hate.
A whine and the crunching of tyres on dirt announced the return of Lee in her motorcycle. It pulled up near me, balancing on two wheels even though it was stationary. The side opened to allow Lee to climb out. She immediately went bipedal, pulling a massive pistol from within the bike with her front hoof and its magical fingers. After a quick glance around to ensure we were not in immediate danger, she pointed the pistol at the fallen officer.
"Is this excuse for a pony the boss terrorist?" Lee asked me.
"He is," I responded, before returning my attention to the officer's scowling face. "Fucking great ambassador to the surface you were. Now we won't be helping your kind. We'll be killing them instead," I spat at him. "You picked a fight with the wrong ponies, you clueless moron. For what it’s worth, we really did have nothing to do with the balefire explosion. How does it feel knowing your belligerent stupidity cost your squad their lives, not to mention the lives of my friends and family, but you don't care about them, do you? We really are a medical caravan. That our patients are all combat veterans was your bad luck. The clinic we came from used to make combat cyborgs, of which I am one, which is why I am still standing while you are not. Oh, yeah, I really am their leader too. I may be small, but I've been around for decades. By the look of you, I'm well and truly older than you are. Hell, I don't know why I'm telling you this, because you knowing it won't make a sliver of difference. It isn't like you will ever have the chance to tell anypony. Maybe I'm just enjoying a bit of monologuing."
He huffed at me, and scowled harder.
I took a step closer to him, cuffing him across the head with my hoof, much like he had done to me earlier. I drew blood. "That was for kicking my head," I said to his scowling face. "I may be a cyborg, but those kicks still hurt. If your injuries weren't preventing you from talking I would ask who your drill sergeant was, so I could teach him a thing or two about training. Mostly by way of kinetic energy poisoning. Anyway, back to the subject at hoof. I could leave you here to die, but who knows, maybe that armor of yours is trying to heal you as I speak, and I wouldn't want that to happen."
I turned away from him, looking back at him across my shoulder. "By the way, this is for MURDERING MY FATHER!" I yelled as I bucked him through his skull.
Lee stared at his corpse for a few moments before speaking. "Don't forget your hoof walls," she finally said.
"Yeah, good point. Thanks." I levitated them out of the mess. A quick spell later they and I were clean, although the blood from my wounds would soon mess that up again. I lay down, so I could refit my hoof walls with my material manipulation magic. It is hard to touch one's hooves with one's horn while standing. This time I wasn't going to risk leaving telltale signs by walking around on my blades. Last time I made that mistake, several ponies had died in the ensuing fight.
Lee dropped a healing potion in front of me. "Drink that," she instructed. "You don't want your cybernetics starving your flesh of blood for too long." She had a good point, so I drank it without objection, but my insides were still in too much turmoil to appreciate the relief. My father hadn't been my favorite pony for more of my life than not, but hey, we were making amends. I had already told him I had forgiven him. I hoped he knew I really meant what I said, and that I was glad he had become a better pony. So now the wasteland had taken both of my parents from me, as it had for my kid half-sister. She would need someone to look after her now, and I knew that pony had to be me. I didn't see that as a burden. After all, what was one more pony when I was trying to look after all the survivors of Stable Four. And... that number had just gone down. Demi? Where was Demi? She had better not be ash, or I would be setting off balefire bombs under Enclave flying cities! Looking around I could not see her, so I called her name.
"I'm in here, Anne," came her voice from relatively close by. There was a reverberation to it, suggesting an empty room. Ah. I looked into the shadowy interior of the Enclave tank, and there she was, sitting on the floor, mostly hidden by her poncho.
Getting back on my hooves, I walked up the lowered rear door that was now serving as a ramp, glad my reinstalled hoof walls were preventing me from leaving identifiable tracks in the metal of the enemy's tank.
"That was you on the heavy weapons?" I asked the huddled and drooping creature before me.
She nodded sadly. "Anne, today I killed ponies."
"So did I, Demi, so did I," I comforted her.
She indicated the cockpit of the tank with a flick of her nose, so I walked over to see what she was trying to tell me. Hanging limply in the flight harness was a dead Enclave mare. She wore the same armor as the others, but her head was free, her helmet stowed in a purpose build compartment. There were very clear bullet wounds in the back of her head, and her blood was splattered all over the windscreen and gauges. This pony had never seen her foe, never been given a fighting chance. She had been executed. I left the cockpit, and walked up behind Demi, settling to the floor. Wrapping my forehooves around her, I hugged her.
"I shot her from behind," Demi said quietly. "What a horrible thing to do."
"Shooting those things from behind is the best way to do it, Demi. They don't get a chance to shoot first that way," I said quietly, the sadness in my voice indicating that I wished I didn't have to believe that myself.
"But..."
"You just killed a mindless, soulless slave of an institution that follows false and selfish ways. Today you saved many ponies. Not just our friends outside, but also the next set of ponies these Enclave insects would have murdered after they left here. They did not even ask my father anything! They just killed him to make a point, to scare us, to throw us into disarray. They did not listen to Parsley. They just shot her for not instantly obeying them. They shot me for trying to help her. They are not worth your tears. They are not worth harboring feelings of guilt over."
"But... but all pegasi can't be like that, can they?" Demi asked, a little hope in her voice.
"No Demi, they can't. You aren't. I'm sure there are many others that are not part of the Enclave. Maybe after atrocities like today become known, there will even be ponies in the Enclave who will stand up for what is right, but until then..."
"I'm an earth pony, not a pegasus," Demi said quietly.
I just hugged her harder.
Four metal ammunition boxes stood in a row in front of me. On each was scratched a name: Cinnamon, Black Opal, Sweet Pea, and Red Tape. The mares had carefully collected the ash of each of our fallen, and placed them in the only containers available - those taken from the flying tank. Three were to be returned to Stable Four to be emptied into the recycler, as was the tradition with these mares. The fourth, when time permitted, would be returned to his home, where he could rest beside his second wife. For that matter, the remains of his first wife, my mother, were somewhere around there too. That would be as much for Duct Tape's benefit as his. Pity help the Enclave if they murdered any more of my extended family. Pity help them anyway.
After the battle, we had moved the surviving ponies into the tank for protection. There they had been treated with healing potions and the magic of Cherry Sundae and Shadow as required. Thank Celestia we had the two healers with us! They could heal things better than a healing potion ever could because they had intelligence to go along with the magic. They could tailor the magic to deal with specific injuries instead of the one spell heals all shotgun approach of the potions.
The damage to Parsley's exoskeleton had been minimal, and it only took me a few minutes with my horn pressed to the damaged area to repair it. The same could not be said for Parsley's flank, which had been left hideless and raw after the magical energy beam had disintegrated that part of her skin. A combination of both Cherry Sundae's and Shadow's magic had been required to rebuild the bones, muscles and ligaments, and to grow the skin back. Time would restore her hair. Her cutie mark however was likely to be a permanent casualty.
Fortunately, as she had obeyed the Enclave officer, Helvetica's only wound had been to her dignity. She had spent the duration of the fight lying in the mud, unable to move. That had no doubt saved her. Once cleaned off, and helped back into her cladding, she had set about helping the others.
The other wounds received had mostly been limited to bruises, cuts and the occasional energy burn, my own wounds included, fortunately none of which were as serious as Parsley's.
Apparently Bubbles had hidden herself under Cherry Sundae's poncho, which she was sharing, and had remained there until Cherry had coaxed her out after the fighting had ended. Neither had been wounded.
Of the Enclave soldiers, just under half had been converted to ash by their own heavy weapons. The remainder had their brains blown out by Lee, Demi and myself. If we were counting, I think Demi had racked up the most kills, not that I told her that. She was upset enough. I wondered what had happened to the soldier that had raised the objection, more specifically, I wondered which corpse or pile of ash was his. I felt no guilt or regret over his death because he hadn't acted on his objections.
The bodies and ash of the soldiers were unceremoniously pushed into a hole Ruby and I had dug with our pushing magic. At Ruby's request, I had taught her my related pushing and cleaning spells. Fortunately, unlike the so-called upper class ponies from my home stable, she had no problem learning them. Once we had all of the black Enclave insects in the ditch, we had covered them, but not before first destroying the magic systems of their suits. I didn't know if they had locators in them as per Pipbucks, and I didn't particularly want the Enclave finding them. It would be better for us if this squad simply disappeared. While we were at it, we had looted them for energy cells and medication. Lee relieved them of their mounted weapons, even though they were of little use to us in their current form.
Once we had finished making the grave look as much a piece of the terrain as possible, Ruby had taken to wing, and flown some distance back along the route we had come, using the pushing spell to blow away our tracks. We saw no point in leaving an arrow, visible from the sky, pointing directly at what we were trying to hide.
The tank itself we were taking. We had to get rid of it one way or another, so we figured we could use it to move the survivors closer to Stable Four first. Maybe we could find somewhere we could hide it that would not give away the position of Stable Four should it be discovered, and yet be able to be retrieved and used if need be. A flying tank could be convenient to have in the current 'political' climate.
"Repaint it in sand and dirt colors," Duct Tape suggested. "Those nasty cloud dwellers might not be able to see it from up there then."
"Thanks, Duct Tape," I said, and was rewarded with the hint of a smile. While she had been subdued since the death of our father, it was good to see she wasn't going to give in to depression.
"Camouflage netting would be a good idea," Lee added her thoughts, "assuming there is anywhere left in this stuffed country that has such items."
"Ditzy Doo's Absolutely Everything," Demi and I chorused. Well, that made our following destination obvious, didn't it? First, take the ponies back to Stable Four, and help them batten down the hatches against the pending storm, so to speak. After that, hide the tank somewhere, and make a run into New Appleloosa for supplies.
The next half hour was spent loading the wheelchairs, trailers and ponies into The Brick. It was a bit crowded inside, but with many of the ponies in the trailers, it wasn't too uncomfortable. We couldn't shut the rear door, so we just raised it as high as we could, and posted sentries at the rear, specifically myself and Lee, although until the tank was airborne I was going to remain on the ground. Demi took up her seat on one of the tank's heavy weapons while Chicory took the other. Ruby, the only winged member of our team, had squeezed herself into the cockpit and strapped herself in. Now with a couple of flaps of her wings, the tank was airborne, where it hovered above me, while I blasted its footprints, our hoofprints, and the tyre tracks away. As I finished, little Duct Tape levitated me, allowing me to erase my own hoofprints, then deposited me on the platform created by the open rear door. Moments later we were heading home, the only evidence of what had happened below hidden under the dirt, hopefully never to be discovered.
Footnote: No new level Perk: none
Special thanks to the team of proof readers.