//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Just don’t care! // Story: Fallout Equestria: Shattered Armour // by willm111 //------------------------------// Chapter 4: Just don’t care! Who here is willing to kill to protect their family and friends? ... Everypony, of course. Now keep those hooves up if you’d be willing to steal to feed your family? ... I am going somewhere with this, and I see most of you are lying. Really? You wouldn’t steal food to feed your family? Be honest I’m not going to arrest you. The point I’m trying to make is in the wasteland you have to be prepared to act and sometimes do bad things if you want to protect yourself and the things you care about. That said what is with those raiders?! Banditry I can understand if you have no way of feeding yourself but the rape? The torture? Leaving bodies around looking like they have been tore apart by rabid dogs? Why do that? I have always been a curious pony not afraid to ask questions so ask that question I did. ... I got an answer, you want to hear it? ... Okay so there we were looking down on this little slice of Tartarus... <----------------------------------------------------> “This... I don’t... WHAT IS THIS!” I stammered looking down trying to comprehend the scene below. That pony’s ribs... were they BACKWARDS? “I said keep down!” Scarlet shoved me down with a claw on my nose. “Get your head in the game. I count fifteen of them, what about you?” She was right, this was combat. Time to live up to my words and make a plan. I surveyed the valley below trying to focus on the layout rather than the things that used to be ponies scattered across it. The dominating feature was a massive three story building with solid concrete walls, the Ironshod factory I assumed as it was the only structure in the valley still standing. Surrounding it was a maze of smaller ruined buildings none taller than one and a half stories. There were also barricades that faced inwards to the warehouse made of scrap metal. The barricades were patrolled by earth ponies and unicorns with a variety of weapons. I tried to do a count of them but my eyes had never been too good at range. “Okay fifteen seems about right. But fifteen what? Who are these ponies?” “Raiders.” She said it like it was all I needed to know. “Ahem. Memory damaged Alicorn over here!” “Raiders are...” Scarlet waved her claw vaguely in the air. “They’re nutcases. And idiots, they just kill, torture and rape everything in their path. They’re not too tough, they usually have crappy equipment and I don’t think sleeping where they kill their victims is any good for their health. We should be able to handle this if there are no surprises.” She slipped her gun out of her holster and checked the clip. “You got a plan yeah?” I didn’t. I was still processing the kill, rape and torture everything part. Why would any pony do that? How could that accomplish anything? And now we’re just going to kill them all? There had to be another way. “Didn’t you say you have worked with raiders before? What are our options for negotiation?” Scarlet looked at me like I had started to drool. “Uh... none. Didn’t you hear the kill EVERYTHING part? And I never worked with raiders. Now come on let’s get down there and kill em.” With that she vaulted over the edge of the overlook and vanished. I scrambled up onto my hooves hoping to see where she had gone but could not find her. There was about fifty meters of open ground between the overlook and beginning of the ruins. There was nowhere to hide, did she have a... what were they called? Those cloaking things from Stable-Tec. It didn’t matter, one against fifteen was not good odds. I leapt down the slope and charged towards the cover of the buildings at full tilt then dived rolling to stop with my back against a scrap of brick wall. No shouts, no cries of alarm, against all odds they hadn’t seen me coming. Okay planning time. Scarlet was probably somewhere ahead of me silently taking them out one by one. If I charged in it might upset her plans. I wasn’t sure I could be of any use in these confined spaces anyway with no weapons or armour. Then again my magic provided both. With my shield and magic bolts I could probably take them all out myself. But... I really didn’t want to put Scarlet at risk, so long as she remained... A cacophony of gunfire broke out. I could hear the quieter retort of Scarlets weapon mixed in with it. Oh bucking hay! Well charging madly had worked pretty well until now. I charged around the corner heading for the noise, numerous paths between building and piles of rubble were on both sides. A good place for an ambush. I summoned up my shield and slowed down to a trot keeping my eyes scanning everything around me. Out of nowhere an earth pony mare came charging out of a side alley only to be knocked back by my shield. I turned to face the pony, she was a raider I assumed. She was wearing some sort of leather harness with metal spikes on it and large knife in a sheath. She seemed more surprised to see me than I was to see her but her shock quickly changed to hatred and rage. She drew the knife from the holster with a scream and swung it at me. I will never feel more grateful for my shield than I did then. The knife smashed into the shield and broke into pieces. The raider stared at the broken hilt her expression changing to panic. She started wimpering tried to shuffle backwards away from me only to trip and fall on her rear. Goddesses help me she just looked pathetic, she wasn’t even that old, nineteen perhaps? Only a few years younger than me. I couldn’t kill her like this. I picked up a large jagged sheet of metal with my magic and slammed the flat of it into her side and wrapping it around her body tightly. She collapsed under the weight of it and drove the jagged edges into the ground pinning her in place. She couldn’t move without shredding her legs on the jagged edges. “You. Stay. Here. Understand?” I glared at her trying to make myself as menacing as possible. “Okay.” She whispered. I then I realised the noise of gunfire I had been following had stopped. I accelerated to full gallop towards where I had last heard it. A few seconds of panicked charging later I heard a new noise to follow, a meaty thud followed by a groan and voices. “You bitch. You must think you’re something special taking on all of us by yourself. Well now you’re gonna spend all night paying for it. Spread her wings out and bring me that gun.” I slowed to a trot creeping forward as quietly as I could to peer around the corner of a ruined building taking in the sight beyond. It was, I assumed, the raider’s camp. It was an open clearing among the buildings with several leans-to’s made of scrap metal and canvas bordering it. In the middle of the clearing eight raider ponies surrounded Scarlet. Two of them were on top of her pinning her down and trying to spread her wings out on the ground. She was in rough shape with a black eye and numerous cuts on her face. Directly in front of me with his back to me was the pony I had heard speaking, a heavily built unicorn stallion with greying hair and cutie mark of a gun pressed against a pony skull. He held Scarlet’s gun in his magic trying grasp the weapons trigger mechanism. “Let’s try this, your wings, your gun.” He pointed the weapon at Scarlet’s thrashing wings. “NO!” I shouted I leapt around the corner I unleashed a bolt of magic the back of the unicorn's head. It stuck dead on, not hard enough to break anything but enough to knock him unconscious and flat on his face. I followed with four more bolts at the two earth ponies pinning Scarlet down. The shots slammed into their chests hurling them off her. The five remaining raiders opened up with their own weapons, a sorry assortment of mouth pistols and one bolt action rifle. The shots struck my shield making my horn ache, but my attention was focused elsewhere on Scarlet and her weapon. I grabbed it with my magic and thrust it into her claws. I reared up on my hind legs thrashing my forelegs wildly and shouting. The display momentarily stunned the onlooking raider making them take a step back in shock. That was all Scarlet needed to roll onto her back and bring her gun around firing wildly into their midst. The barrage of shots at short range knocked them down like dominos; their ragged leather armour did nothing to stop the bullets. Scarlet didn’t let up until the clip ran out then she collapsed panting on her back. I dropped my shield and advanced towards her keeping my eyes on the two earth ponies that had been holding her down. The one on the right was definitely dead, my shots had slipped in under his ribcage and likely pulped his insides, the other had gotten lucky and hit the center of his chestbone only knocking him back. This spell was more unpredictable that I remembered, or rather my control of it had become sloppy with my increased power. As I advanced on him his eyes opened and looked at me in terror. Be honest am I that intimidating? ... Oh buck you! What was I was to say... what could I say to somepony whose friends I had helped kill and who had been trying to kill me? It didn’t matter, a bullet low to the ground came from behind me striking his head and distributing his face across the ground. I tried to turn to face the attacker but ended up crashing to the ground as I felt a searing pain in my left foreleg. The bullet had torn a chunk out of my leg on the way to its unintentional victim. I could turn enough to see my attacker, the raider leader I had knocked out in my initial attack. He had drawn a massive revolver and was struggling to use his magic to aim it after my attack had rattled his brain. I gritted my teeth trying focus through the pain as he tried to line up another shot. I threw up my shield moments before he fired again but force of his shot was too much for my hasty shield, it punched through it and grazed the heavy muscle of my right rear leg just above my cutie mark. I lost control of my shield and it collapsed around me. I thrashed in pain as I focused on a new approach, reaching out with my magic I gripped the barrel of his gun jerked it upwards. The unicorn stallion started cursing under his breath as we struggled with control of the gun and pulling ourselves to our hooves at the same time. Gradually I gained the advantage pointing the gun upwards then gradually turning it around to point towards its owner. Goddesses the look in his eyes! The fear, the panic, that expression that said I know you have beaten me and I know you will kill me. I loved it. I squeezed the trigger triumphantly. *click* The gun was empty, the raider was just a surprised, his expression of defeat changed to one of triumph as he abandoned his struggle to control the weapon and charged at me with his horn trained on my throat. He was interrupted by Scarlet tackling him from the side claws gouging his face and belly. She knocked him to the ground then grabbed his horn with both claws and in one savage motion snapped it off. The effect was immediate, he went into shock from the pain and started shuddering violently unaware of Scarlet standing above him his own horn gripped like a dagger poised to strike. “NO!” I shouted snatching the horn out her grip and bringing it to my side. Scarlet turned to face me wide eyed, “The fuck do you mean NO? This fucker was going take me apart, he’s a raider, he deserves to die, why do you want him alive?” Damn good question. I had just acted without thinking and now this pony’s life was in my hooves. “We need intel, how many raiders there are why they here. He’s their leader he should know.” A lie. The truth was... I was a bucking moron; this guy was a psycho all of them were. I had been ignoring it but the results of their savagery were everywhere. Even in their own camp there were bodies or parts of them everywhere. “You are mistaken.” A dark voice spoke behind me. I turned to see three more ponies had entered the camp two earth pony stallions and a unicorn mare. The mare drew my attention first as she was levitating a grenade and had just pulled the pin out. The stallion had battlesaddle with shotgun on his right side. The one in front of them was the one who had spoken. He was one of the biggest ponies I had ever seen, his head came up to my neck where most ponies would be level with my chest. He was covered nose to tail in armour made out of scrap metal, with jagged spikes and blades pointing in all directions. I turned as carefully as I could trying not to put any weight on my injured leg, I still had the horn in my grip so I threw it at the unicorn grenadier. The lead stallion dodged thinking my target was him and charged forward. Behind him the horn struck the mare’s shoulder digging in and making her loose her grip on the grenade as she turned to see what had hit her. The other stallion was more focused on trying to line a shot with his battle-saddle than the dropped grenade. *BOOM* The blast obscured them both in a cloud of dust and sent a shockwave that knocked my attacker forward on his face to land at my hooves. I couldn’t miss such an opportunity; I reared up on my hooves and brought my good foreleg down as hard as I could on him. My blow stuck his neck armour, he twisted out from underneath me and rolled to the side back onto his hooves and straight into another headlong charge at my side. I wheeled to right trying to circle around him but he was too quick. The jagged metal that made up his shoulder pads slashed my sides a he hurtled past. I tried to block out the pain focusing on making this punk pay for it rather than the burning in my side. As I turned to follow my opponent I felt my wings flare out to the sides again threatening to throw me off balance. Stupid things! Good for nothing but flying... Or maybe... The raider charged at me again, I wheeled left this time but this time he was ready. He leapt head down aiming straight for my neck with the blades mounted on his head plate. He was ready for my dodge, not my wing. I brought it around at full extension to slam straight into his side while he was in mid air sending him sprawling on the ground to my right just a meter from me. I followed up by rearing on my hind legs ready to slam down with my both forehooves on his head but he recovered even faster than before leaping to his hooves and out of the way. I pivoted on my forehooves swinging my rear legs around to unload an applebuck straight to his chest that sent him flying into one of the lean to tents the raiders had around the clearing wrapping him in the tough canvas. I tackled the writhing mass of canvas wrapping my forelegs around the neck of a pony shaped lump of canvas pulling it into a neck lock. ... A neck lock works like this... ..! Yeah it’s pretty damn uncomfortable; hold it for long enough on anypony and they will die. Doing it on a pony wearing spiky metal armour however... I could feel the blades of his armour scraping my chest through the canvas. I was lucky I was much bigger than him or those blades would have been tearing up my groin. He kicked and struggled like mad as I squeezed tighter pressing my foreleg against his neck but his armour protected his throat stopping me from crushing it. Worse the pain from my own damaged leg stopped me from squeezing as hard as I could. He was just starting to wriggle free when Scarlet appeared by my side and pressed the saw off shotgun to the side of his head. BLAM! I dropped the raider turned sack of pony mince and pulled myself free of the ruined tent to survey our battlefield. The two ponies that had accompanied the large raider were dead killed by the grenade; the raider leader had passed out from the pain of having his horn snapped off. “Those were some pretty fancy moves there.” Scarlet said holstering her weapon “So what are we going to do with that guy?” She gestured to the unconscious raider. I tried to stand up and speak but gasped instead as the pain of my injuries hit me. I managed to choke down my rebelling stomach and focused instead on getting all four hooves on the ground. Most of my injuries seemed superficial except for my damaged foreleg. It held my weight but I was losing a lot of blood. I tore away some strips of canvas from the ruined tent and shaped it into a rough bandage. Once that was done I addressed Scarlet. "We... Make sure he doesn't go anywhere. You tie him up, there was another I caught earlier. I'll go get her." I walked quickly back the way we came thinking up a plan on the fly. Two prisoners, what could we do with them? They had already committed crimes that would have gotten them a life sentence in an Equestrian court, but Equestria didn’t exist anymore. Perhaps a local prison or court could deal with them? Best to just ask Scarlet how to deal with them, anything short of executing them would do. I came upon the bound mare to find she had tried to wriggle free despite the ragged edges cutting into her. She recoiled in terror when she saw me and began shivering, I pretended to ignore her reaction and picked up her and the sheet magically and carried the sorry bundle back to the camp. Scarlet had secured the stallion by tying his forelegs in front of him using canvas strips. She was just securing his neck the same way to a concrete pillar when I trotted up and dumped the mare next to him. She took one look at her slain comrades and sobbed. Scarlet approached me with an annoyed look on her face. "So fearless leader, what the flying fuck are we going to with these two?" Yep she was annoyed. I put a smile and tried placate her. "I told you, interrogation. We need to know what they're doing here, how many there are, if they have any supplies stashed nearby. We just need to get them to talk." This seemed to perk her up. She grinned broadly. "Ooohh, I get you, I get you, interrogation, good idea. You do that, whip out your blade give em a scare then get to it. I'll watch your back make sure no one disturbs you." Then she dashed off before I could say anything. Me interrogate them!? I knew nothing about interrogation, but now I had to do it. Ok. She said take out my blade, give them a scare, I had forgotten I still had the machete from the cave. I walked with my side facing them as drew the machete slowing giving my captive audience a menacing glare. ... What? I was part of the Royal Guard I know how put on a show to impress. And I wasn't shy about showing off my flank. ... It's not that kind of story alright! Unbelievable. Wasteland ponies have nothing else on their minds do they? ... Errrr... Eh heh maybe later? Just let me finish this bit then I'll meet you out back. As I was about to say my show only had half the impact I hoped for, since only half my audience was conscious. The mare was obviously terrified, she was sweating bullets and shaking like a leaf, the stallion just hung there like a piece of meat. Was he dead or dying? I didn't know. I prodded him gently in the ribs with the tip of the machete; he groaned a bit but otherwise didn't respond. This was daft, how could I wake him up? Then I remembered just how sensitive my horn had been after it had been after it broke. I turned the machete around and tapped the stump of his broken horn with the back of the blade. His response was instant. His eyes flew open and he screamed like... Like nothing I had ever heard before. It was quite a shock, I must have leapt a foot backwards. Once he stopped screaming, he started swearing, oh what a tirade! I don’t have a problem with swearing I just choose not to do it, but listening to this was physically painful. I tapped him on the horn stub lightly again, he clenched his jaw and growled but didn’t scream this time. “Now there’s no need for such behaviour, I just want to ask some questions, you answer them all, I let you go. Clear?” I said in my most reasonable voice. The raider barely looked at me, he was glancing all around the camp at his fallen comrades. “You made a mess of my boys.” He said blankly. I shifted nervously; this was not how I imagined somepony would react. “Well yeah you would have done worse to the ponies in that building if we hadn’t. Speaking of which exactly why are you here?” ... Yes I know striking up casual conversation is not exactly the best method for interrogation with a raider. In fact it was exactly the wrong method to use. “You know what I did to the last hero who thought she could take out me and my boys? She was cute little unicorn, found a Pipbuck, thought she was the second coming of the Lightbringer...” “That’s not important. I just want to know why you...” “So after we caught her one of the boys mentioned they knew where we could find some barbed wire...” “Hey I’m asking the questions! How many of you...” “The best part however was when her friends arrived and tried to clean up the mess...” “SHUTUP!” I meant to hit him the flat of the blade I swear. I just wanted him to stop talking about doing such... horrible things! The worst part how he managed to make it seem ordinary, like he was just chatting about going to the shops. The blade cut into his neck almost taking his head off and spraying blood onto the mare and me. I watched him the whole time he seemed shocked at first but then her seemed to smile and then he was gone. I killed a pony I had tried to save, the only reason I didn’t freak out there and then is the mare was doing enough freaking out for the both of us. “Ohgoddessespleasepleasedon’thurtmetheresonlyfifteenofusIjustjoinedyesterdayJUSTLETMEGO!” I could feel a terrible cold creeping into my gut, I needed to do something, anything! If I just stood there I would crack. “Silence.” I hissed at the mare. “I’lldoanythingyouwantyoulikemaresrightIcouldsuckyour...” “SILENCE!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs. The mare's mouth snapped shut, the rest of the world seemed to take a hint too, I couldn’t hear anything except her teeth chattering. “Now that I have your full attention, there were some questions I wanted to ask you, answer them and I will let you go, don’t answer them and we have a... problem.” I slowly glanced at the dead unicorn making myself look at it. “Ye...Yes sir.” She barely managed to say it her teeth were chattering so much. “First what is your name?” “Lovely Dagger, sir” A good name for a raider I suppose, she certainly was quite lovely even with the blood and dirt covering her. You know she probably would do anything I asked her... I mentally slapped myself. I was still a soldier! That sort of behaviour was just not done! ... Well not done by the Canterlot Royal Guard at least. “And how many are in... were in your gang?” “Just fifteen of us sir, like I said.” Dammit, being called sir by a pretty mare was starting to do things to me, I needed to wrap this up quickly. “And why exactly did you attack this place? I thought Rusty Nail sold to everyone?” “The boss had a plan, thought we could rush them when they opened the doors but they saw us coming. We’ve been camping here half a day trying to find another way in and getting any customers who come.” Stubborn ponies, haven’t they heard? ‘It’s not retreating, it just advancing in a different direction.’ My sergeant always liked that line. “Okay then, we’re done.” I used my magic to unwind the sheet metal around her body. She was just getting to her hooves shakily when something occurred to me. “Actually there is just one more question I would like to ask.” She stop dead stared at me eyes wide. “Ye...yes?” I took a deep breath, I wasn’t sure why I was asking this but I knew I would never get a better chance than this. “Why? I mean why all this? I can understand killing to survive, I’ve done it myself but why the torture? Why all this?” I gestured vaguely to the campsite and its victims with my forehoof. She looked at me like I just asked if the sky is green. “Just... why? Why not live like normal ponies? Why be raiders?” I finished lamely. She stood there for a while staring at me blankly. Then she surprised me and answered. “I suppose it’s because when you’re a raider you can just not care. Stuff like morality, ethics, law they complicate things. If you want something and you can take it you do, if somepony’s too weak to keep it then it’s their problem. And if you hurt inside because you have nothing, or you’ve lost something or been denied something you get somepony else and write you pain on their body to make them scream in your place if only for a little while.” A raider with a bit of poetry in their soul, weird but stranger things have happened. I don’t know how long we stood there just staring at each other she broke the silence first. “Um... can I go now?” “Eerrr... yes. Run along, and don’t get into any trouble.” She bobbed her head in a small bow then trotted briskly away heading south. “I cannot believe you actually let her go. You’re something else Thorn.” I managed not to jump out of my hooves as Scarlet appeared beside me. I really needed to find out how she did that. “She’s harmless, barely a grown mare she’ll be fine on her own.” I turned to face Scarlet. “How are you? Did they hurt you at all?” Scarlet rolled her eyes. “Oh now you worry about me instead of the ponies who tried to kill us. I’m fine they just roughed me up a bit. What about you?” “I’m fine, don’t like this leg though.” I winced as I lifted my damaged fetlock to Scarlet’s eye height. “Meh. Don’t such a baby. Doesn’t matter how bad you get beaten so long as you can last long enough to get one of these into you.” She pulled out a canvas sack and passed it to me. I picked it up with my magic and opened it, three very welcome bottles of healing potion rattled against each other. “You’re like my own divine guardian Scarlet.” I said as I chugged down half of one of the potions then poured the rest onto my damaged leg. “You find anything else?” “Some caps, some ammo, only one gun that’s worth anything.” Scarlet pulled out the huge revolver that the unicorn had shot at me with and twirled it on a talon. “Lovely.” I examined the damage on my fetlock making sure it had closed up completely. The pain was gone but it pays to check these things. “Shall we go see if anypony’s alive in there?” I nodded towards the factory. “Sure, but first.” Scarlet gestured to the ruined campsite. “Aren’t we going to clean up?” I glanced briefly to the bullet ridden bodies and ruined canvas tents before my eyes settled on the unicorn still tied to the post. Flies were starting to swarm over the blood staining his chest. I could have left him there, but how would I be any different from him if I did? I walked over and undid the canvas strips holding him and left him flop to the ground on his side. “That’s enough, we’re done here.” I turned and started walking towards the factory. ... It is stupid isn’t it? I buried the ponies I killed accidently but didn’t bury the ponies I set out to kill. To be honest I just wanted to get out of there. ... I understand that almost anyone wouldn’t care about leaving them lying in the dirt and sun like that but I was trained to be an honourable soldier, I couldn’t not care. I just didn’t care enough to actually do anything about it. ... Well I don’t feel like that now looking back, but does it really matter? For me it was a matter of keeping moving or I would panic and freeze up and I couldn’t do that in front of Scarlet, I was supposed to be the leader! So anyway where was I? Oh right, we were heading towards the factory with my shield up because Scarlet said... <----------------------------------------------------> “I told you didn’t I! Alicorns are not welcome anywhere!” Scarlet screamed in my ear over the sound of gunfire. Somepony I could barely see was firing at us from a window above a large set of steel double doors. They had started firing the moment we had approached. Only my shield and an ungainly dive for cover behind a brick wall saved us. Every now and then a few bullets broke through the wall to strike my shield. “Okay, okay I get it already! Everypony hates my guts, now how do we stop him shooting?” Ironic words, the gunfire stopped just as the words left my mouth. Then we heard a voice that spoke with, of all things unexpected, a Canterlot accent! “I say! Is that a Talon uniform I see out there? Come on now! Don’t be foalish; come out where I can see you and we can settle this peaceably.” Not the sort of language you expect from somepony who let loose thirty rounds a second at you with no warning. “Can we trust him?” I asked Scarlet as she crouched next to me. She had a rather intense expression. I wondered if I looked like that when I was planning? “I don’t know. Nail loves money but he’s kind of a bastard. Still he respects the Talons so I think I can use that.” Scarlet got back on all fours and moved out of my shield and around the cover. “Hey Nail you fancy dickhead!”She yelled. “Quit shooting at my partner! Have you finally lost your marbles? I barely managed to stop her ripping the building apart along with your stupid thick head! Let us in already, you owe us for wiping out the guys gutting your customers!” “Upon my word, is that the one and only Scarlet I see? In the company of an Alicorn? Celestia help me, don’t say that bore Redeye has risen from his grave?” The voice called back. For somepony who had just been insulted he sounded remarkably cheerful. “See! You are going mad! Redeye’s dead and nothing to do with you, me or anyone! Now open up already!” Scarlet shouted back. There seemed to be a bit of an edge to her voice like she was nervous. Well being an easy target can’t be good for one’s nerves. “Oh very well! Don’t worry I’ll be but a moment, wait right there!” The shadow in the window moved back into the darkness inside the building. I released the shield and got to my hooves. I walked around the corner to glare at Scarlet. “Well done, but what did you mean by ‘stop HER ripping the building apart’?” Scarlet signed deeply but didn’t turn to face me. “I told you, there are no Alicorn stallions. Go swinging around your junk in everyone’s face and you’ll just get in trouble. It’s best to keep a low profile. No one will be looking for an Alicorn stallion so just try to act feminie alright?” “Alright.” I said and grinned behind her back. Scarlet had been using her sneakiness to mess with me since we began travelling together, but I had a few pranks up my sleeve too. I made a few alterations to my illusion spell. “How about this?” I said doing my best impression of Scarlet’s voice. “I’m serious!” She started to turn around. “If the wrong sort of people find you they... will... wha?” She stopped speechless. The thing I love about my illusion spell is that it’s very simple but really flexible when combined with my abilities, changing my hair colour is just the simplest use for it. It can create some very detailed illusions and hold them indefinitely. I had made my hair longer and my face shorter and more feminie. The blood coating the front half of my body was gone and so had certain other *ahem* equipment. ... Yes, I can change my appearance to female even now. ... No I will not tell my story while I’m the wrong sex for your enjoyment! Seriously? Is that what you came here for? How about a strip tease while I’m at it? ... Drop dead. Rot before you touch the ground. Anyway, back to Scarlet. Her expression of shock changed to one of anger "So what are you? A changeling? Or are you just too fucked in the head to get over losing your dick?" If looks could kill I would have been smashed through the wall by Scarlet's glare. "I have never lied to you or hidden anything. It's just an illusion spell, see." I altered the spell changing my coat to an entire rainbow of colours. "I learnt it a long time ago and I've gotten very good with it. I never used it for something like this before but it's not hard to work out." Scarlet huffed angrily relenting only slightly. "Okay fine. I get it you're Magical genius, la de da. You should have told me you could do something like that, everything will be a lot easier if I know what you're capable of." Why that little..! That's the very definition of the pot calling the kettle black! She wanted to know everything about me but she dismissed every question about herself! I wonder if she used to be a lawyer? Before I could say as much I was stopped by the sound of a key turning in the lock of the factory door. I had forgotten Rusty Nail was on his way to us. "Change your coat and mane to purple now!" Scarlet whispered harshly. I complied grumbling only a little. The steel double doors swung open and a rust brown earth pony stallion trotted out. His face had such a large grin going from ear to ear it looked like it had been nailed there. He wore a suit of combat armour in impeccable condition with a large mini gun on the left of his battle saddle connected across his back to an ammo container on his right. Celestia knows how many rounds he could fit in that thing. He grinned at Scarlet and I then swung his hoof and bowed so low his mane brushed the ground. "Greetings ladies!" He said boisterously as her straightened up. "It's always good to see new and old customers. Especially after enduring the company of... Cheapskates." Her sneered. "Yeah, yeah it's good to see you too Nail, now let us in already, you owe us some supplies." Scarlet drawled. Nail raised a hoof to his chest and gasped in mock horror. "What nonsense do you speak of!? You should know Scarlet I never give... credit.” He said darkly. I felt it was time I stepped in. Negotiation was the leader's job was it not? "Sir, we just risked our lives clearly away those cheapskates who would have robbed you, killed you and left you smeared on the wall. We could have left you and taken our business elsewhere, instead we helped you the least you owe us is some travelling supplies and equipment for our trouble." Nail's jaw dropped in shock. "She speaks! And what a sound to be able to shame me so! Very well, to be in debt is not proper. Let us say... Ten percent off everything?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Thirty percent off everything this one time or ten percent for life. Your decision of course.” I wondered if I should add a little flirting for good measure, then dismissed it. Having an Alicorn come onto you may not be the most pleasing thing. … And yet no one has trouble coming onto Alicorns! … Later! Various emotions played across Rusty Nail’s face threatening to wipe of his chronic smile, but he finally managed to return showing as many teeth as possible. “Well… yes. You make a good point my dear. But I am running a business here and I was just planning to wash away those scoundrels myself when you intervened. Shall we say fifteen percent of this one time? Of course I do hope you will come back? We are the only ammo manufacturing plant outside Fillydelphia after all!” “Twenty percent, or we won’t be selling the swag we got from the fight!” Scarlet blurted out. Lucky she did, I was about to settle for fifteen percent. “Oh very well, come on in. You head over to the store and I’ll take my new customer for the grand tour yes? Come along my dear let me show you the wonders of New Ironshod Firearms!” He turned and trotted back through the doors. Scarlet gave me a nudge in the ribs. “He means you dear. I’ll trade in what we have for what we need and meet you back here. You follow fancy prick and make a good impression. Try not to make any trouble okay?” O sweet Celestia why couldn’t I have used a different disguise. Because you charged ahead without thinking or gathering any intelligence, Scarlet was starting to rub off on me. I followed Nail into the building muttering under my breath while to think of some way to get back at Scarlet for that dear. The building’s interior wasn’t much better than the outside, stained walls and piles of litter in the corners, it almost looked like nopony lived here for years except for the desk. I think the room had been some sort of reception but Nail had made some improvements to the receptionist’s desk. A large cage of steel mesh surrounded it going into the walls and floor, I couldn’t see much other than a single very bored looking unicorn mare inside surrounded by racks of guns. “As you can see we take security very seriously. All transactions take place here, most customers never see beyond this, but for you my dear I think you deserve to see the whole picture. This way please!” Nail lead me off to door the right as Scarlet passed us heading to the counter. I looked back at her as Nail fumbled for a key to the door, she looked grim. I think. Griffon facial expressions are weird. “Ironshod firearms was established before the Great War. It was one of Equestria’s first major arms manufacturers. Throughout the war it made millions of guns and ammo all for Equestria’s finest soldier’s.” And anyone else with the bits to buy them, I remembered my farther talking about buying one but he never did. I followed Nail into down the hallway the left into what must have been the factory floor. “And now thanks to a little ingenuity and effort on the behalf of yours truly it does so once again!” Nail continued. He was right, the room was packed end to end with work benches crammed with parts and at least two dozen ponies sitting on stools bent over furiously assembling guns of all kinds. “Our production rate is on par with that of workers before the war despite the disadvantage in tools and materials. How do we do it you ask? Good old pony know how and a little elbow grease. Isn’t that right lads?” He ruffled the hair of an earth pony worker; he twitched slightly but otherwise didn’t move, he just kept on doing up screws in the butt of an assault rifle. None of the workers had so much as twitched an ear when we came in. It was odd and a little unnerving. I quickened my pace to catch up with nail and walked straight into the back of the one the seated ponies. “Sorry.” I muttered under my breath but I don’t think he heard me over the sound small flat tin falling out of my saddle bags and spilling it’s contents across the floor. I don’t know how the Mintals ended up in my saddle bags. Scarlet must have put them there but when? Why? Did she have no room left in her bags? Did she know what would happen? I never dared ask. The effect was immediate. Every single pony in the room turned their head towards the sound. This was followed by everypony that could see what had caused the noise diving for the scattered pills. They didn’t make a single sound, no yells no shouts, they just piled in on top each other desperately snapping at floor trying to snatch up pills with teeth and tongues before some other pony could push them out of the way. They ignored me completely, none tried throw me out the way or knock me down. I was nearly swept of my hooves by the tide of ponies sweeping around and under my legs however. The worst part was when one poor sod head butted me between the legs. You see my spell doesn’t actually change my shape, it just makes me look different. So parts of me that that don’t fit the illusion effectively become invisible. So when he dived into the space between my legs he actually went straight into... ... Uh, yeah you’re right who wants to hear about that. After that it was over in a heart beat. Once they realised the pills were gone they just slipped back into the seats like nothing had happened. The only things left were a patch of concrete floor that had been licked clean and a small bloodstain. “... And that’s how I found this place using a broken Pipbuck, a paperclip and goat’s skull! Are you alright my dear? You look rather pale.” The self centred fool hadn’t noticed a thing! Although in fairness, whatever he did with goat skull may have been more interesting than I gave it credit for. “I’m... fine. Just admiring your employee’s work ethic.” And the bite marks they had left on each other. “Oh very good, let’s carry on shall we?” He smiled cheerfully and trotted onwards. I won’t bore you with the rest of his tour; it was just more of the same. Workers working as hard as they could. Some of the unicorns moved parts around so fast they were a blur! After the incident with the Mintals it was pretty clear what drove them to work so hard. I needed to confront Nail about this alone without any guards. Although come to think about it there were no guards. The only pony I’d seen armed and armoured was Rusty Nail. Even more suspicious. “Well that wraps up everything of interest. All that’s left is this! My own little sanctuary of peace and relaxation.” We ascended to the top floor on a flight of steps. There wasn’t much here, it was just two doors ending in a large window reaching from the floor to the ceiling, likely the same window Nail saw us approach from. The two doors stop opposite each other, one was a regular internal door but the other was like something out of bunker or a Stable, solid steel with a large keypad lock. Nail went to the regular door and opened it with a hoof. “Come in. I’d offer you a seat but... well I’ve never had a guest of your dignified stature before.” He was right; the rooms contain two swivel chair that couldn’t fit me on either side of a large battered desk. “Now finally to business.” Nail sat down in the chair on the far side of the desk. “I need somepony like you, powerful, brave, intimidating! Recently some of my suppliers have been getting disagreeable. I need you to meet with and get them to agree once again. Easy enough no?” Ever hear the saying; don’t assume it makes and ass out of you and me? I got the feeling Nail was making a few too many assumptions about me and Alicorns in general. “Hold on! What exactly are these supplies you need?” I said slamming a hoof down on the desk for emphasis. Nail vaguely waved a hoof in the air as if trying to dismiss it as unimportant. “Oh the usual stuff; food, scrap metal, medical supplies...” “Like Mintals?” I interrupted. Nail’s constant grin froze on his face like he’d choked on it, then he recovered and coughed into hoof. “Ah... you are sharp one aren’t you?” No just stupid and lucky but you don’t need to know that. “It’s true, most, well nearly all my workers are on chems, Mintals in particular. See when I first started this place we had a big problem with employee motivation. Most were just homeless drifters or slaves not even Fillydelphia would take. The work was sloppy and slow. Then they refused to stay when we weren’t earning enough to feed them all! All because they couldn’t work hard enough! Stupid lazy scoundrels!” He slammed both hooves into the desk hard enough to snap a chunk of it off and sending him sprawling face first on to the floor. Slowly he pulled himself back onto the desk with his forehooves and continued his rant. “So I tweaked them a little. Mintals to improve the quality of their work, Dash to make them work faster, a few unique combinations of my own and voila! The perfect work force! Not even pre-war workers match our level of production.” I am not a violent pony. ... No really! Yes I was a soldier but we were trained to control ourselves and flow of battle. I wasn’t that good at either of those things but still I always considered violence to be the last resort. ... I... no you’re right. It was only just starting to get to me, the wasteland I mean. To lose everything and have it replaced with a world of pain and blood. It’s inevitable that a bit of it becomes part of you. I reached out with my magic and seized the minigun mounted on Nail’s battle saddle. I lifted it up with Nail still attached and swung him over the desk into the ground at my hooves. “Wh... Why?” He gasped as he tried to grasp the firing bit for his weapon. “Those ponies. They would kill each other for their next fix. How do you stop them murdering you in your sleep?” I stamped down with a hoof on the firing bit crushing it and trapping an ear between my hoof and the floor. “AAAHHH! THE SAFE! Only I know the code for the safe! Goddesses let me go! I’m just trying to run a business!” His Canterlot accent was suddenly gone, another thinly veiled lie. “That safe?” I looked out the door to the heavy vault door opposite the office. “What is the code?” He didn’t answer, so I ground his ear into the floor squeezing blood from it. “GAHHRRGH! It’s five, seven, nine, one! You crazy bitch!” That surprised me, I had forgotten I was still wearing that illusion. I let it fall away. “That’s crazy bastard to you.” I said in my normal voice, wow it’s amazing how much strain putting on a fake voice can have, it’s such a relief when you don’t have to do it anymore. Nail rolled over just enough to stare up at me in shock. I released the magical grip I had on his weapon and stamped my other hoof down on his neck. He made an unpleasant gurgling noise and kept breathing and struggling pathetically. I turned my magic towards the door keypad and entered the code. You know I can never thank the goddesses enough for my luck. Sometimes I thank Discord too. Three sharpened metal poles suddenly thrust out of the door right through the space where a pony entering the code by hoof would have been standing. “Naughty.” I picked him with my magic threw him out into the hallway into the vault door. “Naughty Nail. The REAL code if you please.” He gulped. He was pressed against the spot the spikes had emerged. “Two, one, seven, six... NO! Err... Two, one six, seven! That’s it!” I entered the code and the door swung open. I trotted to the doorway and peered inside. Countless boxes of syringes, inhales and pills sat on shelves all around the room, enough drugs to keep an army of junkies happy. It took my breath away, even pre-war it would have been worth a fortune, now. Priceless! Now can anypony guess what incredibly stupid thing I did at that moment? ... Correct. I let Nail go. “Now that wasn’t so hard let’s take all this downstairs and...” I interrupted by an incredible pain in my side. While I had been gawping at the vaults contents my grip on Nail had slipped and put a knife in my side! “YOU IDIOT!” I roared, I pushed outwards with my magic rapidly forming it into a shield that exploded outwards from my skin forcing Nail and his knife away from me. Quite far in fact. Rusty Nail flew through the air down the corridor bounced once then hurtled out the open window. I walked over to the window and looked see Rusty Nail on the ground with neck in very wrong position. I walked back to the vault trying to figure out why I kept on accidently killing ponies. I mean come on! That makes what? Five in two days? What the buck was wrong with me? ... Yeah I know it probably would have ended like that anyway but still. I needed to focus on my priorities, first up: stab wound. There were a few potions in the vault I chugged down one for the stab wound then another for my injured leg, it had started hurting again. Next, the junkies downstairs. What to do with them? I started trotting back down the way we came. Probably be best to give them the drugs but would that really help them? No. I had disrupted their lives so I had to take responsibility for that, there had to be somewhere that could help them kick the habit. By the time I had reached the floor I didn’t really have a plan but I did have a speech! It was inspiring! Moving! It would drag those junkies to their hooves by their hearts! “ATTENTION EVERYPONY!” I bellowed. Everypony in the room stopped working and stared blankly at me, a good enough start. “Rusty Nail is dead and his vault is open! Now is the time for...” *Sigh* I really wanted to do that speech. ... Well what do you think happened? Level up! Level 4 New Perk: Stone wall – You know how to plant your hooves when taking a hit, you are less likely to be knocked down in combat. You are still covered in blood and are beginning to smell a bit. You are also feeling a bit flat.