//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: Why we Fight 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Paragon 
// by donutsforthewin 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 3: Why We Fight
 

The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for. ~ Mark Twain


What is my purpose here?

I woke up a few hours ago with a single memory. A single memory and one friend, that is. I had a life back then. I have memories of it, so he tells me. I can't remember them, but he says they're still there. Just like the memory I have now. The one memory I have recovered. I just have to find them, he says. I just have to search and they will come, he says. It makes no sense to me. Nothing makes any sense right now, but that isn't the strange thing. Nothing should make sense right now. Why would that surprise me? What does seem strange is that I'm so easily trusting this new 'friend' of mine. Am I just trusting him because what he says is the only anchor I have to piecing my life back together? Is it because his words are the only hope I have right now?

Or is it something more?

It makes no sense, but, for some reason, I don't care anymore. Sure, it doesn't make sense. It doesn't have to. I can't make sense of my predicament, but it feels like he can. I feel like I can trust him.

So why does relying on that alone feel so wrong? Why can't I simply believe something based on a feeling? Why does my heart say 'yes' and my head say 'no?' Why can't I believe myself?

I have to stop this. I have to focus. I have to do something. I know I have to.

But why?



<------------------------->


We continued walking, with the barren landscape stretched out in front of us. I gazed across the dust and stone. There were no trees here. In fact, there was no life here. Just a landscape. No, that's not right. Just a wasteland.

"Do you have a plan?" Paragon's words cut deeply into my thoughts, dragging me back out of them. I blinked twice as I realized I had just been standing still for a while.

"No."

My response seemed so small, so insignificant, in the deserted wasteland that lay before me. It was as though that lonely word was swallowed up, devoured, and all that came back out was an insignificant peep. I felt my will to move, to do anything, plummet.

I shook my head. What was happening? When had I ever been so depressed? Actually, I have no idea. I can't remember. Stupid memory.

Paragon dragged me back out of my thoughts once again. "Well, if you don't have a plan, we should at least get moving to try to find some food. I can sustain you using organic materials, but if you haven't noticed yet, there isn't any life out here."

"Right, ok, lead the way."

Paragon paused for a second. "...well, if you insist."

I hadn't quite realized the implications of my command until I felt the armor move on its own, quickly reaching a full gallop. I had yet to test just how fast I could gallop in this armor, until now that is. I looked from left to right seeing the barren plains of rock and dirt flash through my vision. My mind tried to process everything that I saw as I flew by, but to no avail. It became a blur of browns and grays, and not a pretty one at that.

Then I noticed three red dots on my EFS.

"Oh sh-"



<-------------------------->


The brown unicorn continued glaring at the map in his hooves, attempting to make sense of the senseless jumble that was marked as Fetlock.

"Why does a pony who lives in Fetlock have a map that doesn't even show what Fetlock looks like? I practically did him a favor by relieving him of this junk."

The gray mare looked over at him. "What are you talking about? He was already dead when we took the map."

"Well he probably starved to death wandering around Fetlock holding onto a map that shows everything but Fetlock!"

"There was a knife between his ribs; he didn't die from starvation."

"Well he wouldn't have been clumsy enough to get himself killed if he hadn't been so hungry."

"There was a Luna-damned knife in his back! No starvation involved!"

"Well how do you know?"

"Because I was the one who put the knife there, and if you don't shut up you're next!"

That seemed to effectively quiet the unicorn down, if only for a moment.

The unicorn's ears perked up. "Do you guys hear that sound?"

The gray mare glared at him once again. "Is it the sound of you preparing your last words?"

"I don't think so- I mean no! It sounds like somepony yelling off in the distance."

The blue stallion finally spoke up. "All right, what the hell is that sound?" He gazed off in the direction of the noise, and his eyes went wide. "GET DOWN!"

The stallion slammed into his companions, pushing them out of the way. He yelled something else, but it was drowned out by another panicked yelling noise, mine to be precise, as a metallic blur nearly rammed into the unicorn. The three ponies's eyes followed the blur as it disappeared into the distance.

The unicorn turned to the other two. "It's not my fault this time, I swear!"



<-------------------------->


I watched the three red dots quickly disappear. "Can we slow down now?"

"Hold on, we're about to pass something on my map."

"You have a map?"

"Yeah, but the program I have for reading the map is pretty horrid. I can barely make out the words. St- Stee- yeah, I can't read the first word, but the second one is definitely 'shack.'"

Well that was incredibly pointless. "It doesn't matter now; I saw the blur of it twenty seconds ago. Seriously, can we slow down now?"

We slowed to a trot, then Paragon relinquished control of the the suit. I stopped and sat down, marveling at how the suit allowed me to keep up that speed for so long without tiring. Paragon sure did have his uses.

I looked around to see if there was any sign of life. Nothing stuck out as my eyes swept across the landscape. Still just boring old dirt and rocks. The rocks looked as though they had sat there in that condition for centuries, without a single drop of life. I was beginning wonder if there ever was life around here to begin with.

Then, a small patch of grass caught my eye. I swung around to look at it, and I saw more grass. Soon, my entire field of vision was covered in a flowing meadow of grass and flowers.

I looked up to see the sun setting on the horizon. The red and pink clouds swept across the sky as they caught the sun's rays. It was just...

"It's so beautiful."

I heard a sweet voice to my right, then felt a warm muzzle nuzzle into my side. I turned to see a beautiful mare, a light green Earth Pony, sitting next to me. She snuggled against me again.

"Yeah."

I looked up at the sunset once again, and it all peeled back. As it was swept away, the happy feeling in my stomach twisted into a peal of remorse and confusion. I remembered something... or someone, I guess, and along with that someone came a feeling. A feeling I haven't felt in two hundred years.

Love.

For that moment, I felt like I could take on the whole world. For just a single second, it didn't matter if I was going to live, or die, as long as I had her in my arms. In that small, fleeting instant, I was happy.

And now it's gone. It's gone, and it took her with it. I wanted to cry, but I just held it in. I don't cry. I'm a full grown stallion.

A tear streaked down my face.

I loved her, my dearest...

Gah! What was her name?

I loved her, but I forgot even her name. What am I? I'm just a shell of what I used to be. Just a body with it's soul stuck a few hundred years away. Nothing more.

I'm lost, and I'll never find my way back.

"Hey, Razor, you ok?"

I sniffed and focused back on my situation. "Hmmmm?"

"I said you ok?"

"Oh... yeah, we should get moving."

"Sure..."

We began trotting across the desolate landscape once again.



<------------------------------>


After a long, uneventful hour, Paragon noticed something on the horizon. "See that?"

I squinted my eyes and looked ahead of us. "No."

"Well, I can just make out something over there. I say we check it out."

"Sure, why not? I don't have any other plans today."

We trotted towards the... ummm... whatever it is that Paragon saw in the distance. After a minute or two, we stumbled upon a town, if you can call it that. I gazed up at the buildings and sighed. This had to be the worst looking town within 500 miles.

"Paragon, where are we?"

"I'm not sure, this place isn't on the map."

Of course it isn't. Why would we come across someplace we actually had any information on? Just perfect. "You sure you're checking the right spot?"

"It took me about ten minutes to make sure, but I'm pretty confident now. Either this place wasn't even worth putting on the map, or it sprung up some time in the last 200 years."

"I can't imagine either of those are wrong, but I guess it doesn't matter. I'm headed in and it looks like you're coming with me."

We walked towards the shacks and I began to get a good look at them. Every house was made out of wood. Where the heck did they find trees around here? They weren't painted, and they certainly weren't made to last. It looked like I could knock some of them down by simply blowing.

I marched into the center of town and looked around. There was a nagging thought in the back of my mind, but i couldn't quite pull it to the front. It felt almost like something was missing. There were houses, stores, and a kind of dirt road. What else is a town supposed to have?

"So, where is everypony?"

Paragon's statement almost made me facehoof. Of course, it was missing ponies. "I have no idea. Heeeeelllllllllooooooo?"

...

No response.

I broke the silence. "Maybe they're all asleep?"

"Razor, check the sun." Paragon took control of the armor just long enough to point my head up towards the sky. There it was, a big circle of brightness just beyond the clouds. "It's midday."

I was unconvinced. "Oh, well, they could be taking naps."

"No, there's something strange going on here, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

"All right, but don't wake them up when you find them."

"You mean when we find them," Paragon replied with a touch of annoyance.

"What, can't search on your own?"

"No, I just can't leave you anywhere by yourself."

Hmmm... Paragon was smarter than he looked. I sighed. "Ok, let's go."

We walked up to a house and I raised my hoof up to knock on the door. Before I could knock a loud, high pitched voice called out from the house. "Nopony's home!"

"Shut up, Moonlight!" The sound of two ponies scrambling about could be heard from behind one of the windows.

I glanced at the window to see two heads quickly disappear from view. This was weird. It seemed almost like they were scared of me. Why would they be scared of me? I mean, it's not like I was shooting at them or anything.

Before I could say anything, a voice called out from the house. "Go away! Steel Rangers aren't welcome here." I recognized this voice as the second one I had heard when I had tried to knock.

"Wait, you think I'm a Steel Ranger?"

"Well, you don't look like a raider or a slaver."

Why would he think I was in with those armored ponies I saw earlier?

Paragon basically answered my question. "Ummm... Razor, I probably should have mentioned this before, but my diagnostics indicate that I look exactly like the armor the two Steel Rangers we met earlier were wearing."

Well, there we go. Thanks for not telling me until now, Paragon. "It's the armor, isn't it?"

The voice replied once again. "No kidding."

"Yeah, it turns out that my armor looks exactly like the Steel Ranger armor, but we don't actually have anything to do with them."

There was a long pause, almost like the pony inside expected me to continue. Eventually, he replied. "And you think I'm just going to trust you because...?"

"Ummmm..."

The first voice I had heard, apparently from Moonlight, cut in. "Well, he certainly doesn't sound like a Steel Ranger to me. Really, Crimson, have you ever seen a Steel Ranger that wouldn't just force his way in? Not to mention a pony with that armor could really help you."

"I'm not taking help from a Steel Ranger!"

"But he says he isn't a Steel Ranger."

"Wait, you actually believe him?"

"Well sure. I can't see any reason not to."

Crimson sighed. "Fine. But I'm not letting him out of my sight until he's gone."

The door creaked open, and I looked up to see an charcoal coated Earth pony with an orange mane. Judging by his looks, he had to be fairly young. He was staring coldly at me, then motioned for me to enter. I walked in and looked over to see a pale green mare with a bluish green mane. She was smiling at me. Finally, a friendly face.

Crimson stepped forwards and launched right into the questions. "Why are you here?"

Moonlight walked over and gave him a friendly push. "Don't be so rude." She turned to us. "My name's Moonlight, and this is Crimson Hope."

Crimson groaned at the sound of his name. "Just call me Crimson. So, why are you here?"

I turned back to respond to Crimson, but Paragon's metallic voice beat me to it.

"We're here because of an accident. We need to know where we are so we can figure out where to go."

Crimson and Moonlight stared at us with wide eyes, then glanced at each other.

Paragon continued. "Oh, right. This pony in the armor is Razor, and I'm Paragon."

Crimson walked towards us. "So, Paragon, what exactly are you?"

"I'm the armor."

There was a few seconds of silence, then Moonlight spoke up. "See? Nothing like normal Steel Rangers."

I interjected. "By the way, do you two know anything about these 'Steel Rangers?' We ran into a few of them earlier, and I'm pretty curious about why Paragon looks like their armor."

Moonlight replied. "The Steel Rangers mostly just go around gathering and, in most cases, stealing technology. They're a pretty nasty group; I'm surprised you haven't heard of them."

That explained a few things. "Yeah, we're pretty new around here."

Crimson rolled his eyes. "Stable dwellers?"

I stopped for a moment to think. Stable dweller... stable... oh yeah! Stables were set up by that Stable-Tec organization. They were set up in case of an attack from... um... uhhh... something. Dang it, I can't remember!

I looked back up at Crimson. "No, we're not from a stable. What were the stables supposed to be for?"

"Hell if I know. Every once in a while some pony will waltz out of a stable, find this wasteland, and have no clue what they just stepped into. Sometimes there's an exception, but most end up dead in a week."

Moonlight turned to Crimson. "Well, you still need some help, and I can't imagine passing up the opportunity to get some help from a pony with Steel Ranger armor."

Crimson looked like he was about to reply to her, but sighed and turned to us. "I still don't understand you, but you don't seem to be dangerous, or Steel Rangers, so... can you help me?"

Help him? That came out of nowhere. "Help you with what?" I asked hesitantly.

"Blackdart, my brother... he was taken by slavers. I-I need to rescue him, but I can't take on the slavers by myself. I ca-"

I couldn't hold it in. "I'll help." His story was ringing way too many bells in my head to just stand by and watch him. He still had the chance to grab hold of somepony he loved, unlike me. He wasn't going to end up like I did as long as I could help it.

Paragon seemed to approve of this. "And you're not going anywhere without me."

Crimson's eyes seemed to light up a bit. "I don't have much, but I can pay you." He held out his hoof to reveal three bottle caps.

Bottle caps? What? Was he going to offer me two balls of lint and a piece of string next? 
"Ummm... no thanks. You can keep those."

Crimson shrugged. "Your choice. Now, we should leave soon to catch up with those slavers, so get whatever you need sorted out now."

I thought for a moment. "Paragon, do we have anything we need to do here?"

"Not really."

"Well then, we're all set."

Crimson looked up at us again. "Hold on a sec, I'll be back." He dashed out of the room, and came back a minute later wearing what looked like a pair of rifles strapped to a saddlebag.

I motioned to the device. "What the hay is that?"

He glanced at it, then rolled his eyes. "Newbies. This is a battle saddle. They're pretty common. Most ponies have at least seen them."

"Yeah, we haven't gotten around much in the past... oh, you know... few centuries."

Crimson stared at us for another second or two before shaking his head. "Whatever, you'll have to fill me in later. It's time to go."

I noticed that Moonlight wasn't at all prepared to leave. "You're staying?"

"Oh, I'm not really a fighter, and-"

Crimson cut her off. "She refuses to kill another pony, so she'd just get in the way."

I realized, with no small amount of shock, that Crimson was expecting me to be a killer. I wasn't sure I was up for this anymore. Maybe I should just... No. I needed to help Crimson get his brother back. I wasn't going to let this pony's life fall apart like mine did, and if I had to kill to do it, then so be it.

I strode out of the house just before Crimson darted out and looked around. I realized once again how empty the town was. "Is this place always so... empty?"

"No, most ponies are probably hiding right now."

"Hiding? From what?"

"Hiding from you. You look exactly like a Steel Ranger, and this town hasn't had the best history with strangers."

I followed Crimson out of the town towards the southeast. "What's this place called, anyway?"

"Gutterville."

I looked over the ugly, broken buildings that made up the town. "It seems... fitting," I offered weakly.

"It may not be impressive, but it's home."

"Yeah... I guess it's better than nothing." Better than what I've got, that's for sure.

Crimson chuckled, completely oblivious to my situation. "Heh heh, I guess so."

We trotted in silence for a little while. I couldn't seem to form an opinion of Crimson. He was hesitant to trust me at first, and for a good reason, I guess. Then, he just opened up, every once in a while still slipping back into being somewhat more judgmental and callous. I'm beginning to wonder why he does that.

I looked around at the lonely, desolate landscape around us. There were a few towering buildings just on the horizon as I looked to my right.

Crimson noticed me gazing towards them. "That'd be the skyline of Manehatten, or what used to be Manehatten. There's some pretty strange rumors about that place. Your best bet is to stay away it."

I nodded absentmindedly, still a little lost in my thoughts. Quickly getting bored of thinking, I decided to strike up a conversation. "Hey Crimson, you said earlier that your town had a bit of a history with strangers?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," he said flatly.

I paused for a second. "Oh." We trotted in an awkward silence for a while. There's that callous shell again. I wonder if he ever fully opens up.



<------------------------------>


As we set up camp for that night, I began to wish I could just put all my thoughts away in my head and wait till morning for them to come back. Unfortunately, when I lied down to fall asleep, there were about a hundred things that jumped to the front of my mind. Am I ever going to get my memory back fully? What was my life like before that day 200 years ago? Who was that group that attacked the outpost?

As the questions flooded my mind, I seemed to get less and less tired. There was no way I was going to be able to fall asleep right now. I glanced over at Crimson to see him on his back, staring at the clouds. He had a whole life's worth of memories, I guess. Lucky guy.

I stared up at the immense cloud cover. This wasn't in either of my memories. Lets see, one memory took place underground, for the most part anyway, and the other was out in some meadow or something. The second one had clouds in it, but they were wavy and had holes in them, with the beautiful sky peeking through. These clouds didn't have holes, or any way for the sun to peek through. These clouds weren't like the ones I remember. Nothing's like I remember.

Ugh! I need to get my mind off of this. "You awake, Crimson?"

"Yeah."

"Where are we headed, anyways?"

Crimson looked back over at me. "Towards Fillydelphia. That's where almost all slavers go to sell their captives. Some group's doing something big in Fillydelphia, and they're using a bunch of slaves to do it. I don't know the details too well, but it's not a place I'm going to let anypony from Gutterville be taken as a slave to."

"So does that mean that your brother wasn’t the only one taken by the slavers?"

"No. In fact, he was only captured because he refused to hide while there were still some foals out there in the open. As he was rushing out to help some foals, he got shot in the leg. He was done for the moment he fell to the ground. Moonlight and I just stood there and watched, frozen in horror. Ugh! I was such an idiot! I should have helped him right then and there, but instead I just sat there, hidden from sight as the slavers rounded up him and some foals and left.

"He always did that. He was always the first one to rush into danger if anypony was in trouble. Nearly got himself killed saving me from a burning house once."

I looked at him in confusion. "Why was a house on fire?"

He chuckled and pointed to his cutie mark. I looked at it and saw a single flame. "I started it. My brother and I once found this old burned down house with a bunch if these bottles in it. Took us weeks to figure out what they did. We tried everything. Didn't take too long to find out it wasn't for drinking." Crimson shuttered. "One day, and it was a rough day I might add, I was having no luck finding the secrets to that strange liquid in the bottle, so I threw it against the wall. There was a nice, resounding crash as it shattered. The liquid, however, spilled all over our radio. There was some staticky noise, then a spark. Next thing I knew, Blackdart was dragging me out of our burning house.

"As I watched it burn, I started to feel strangely... at peace... inside. My brother pointed to my flank with a smile, and there it was. Of course, he was still pretty annoyed that the house was burning down, but I'd say it was a worthy trade. One house for one cutie mark."

I looked at my flank, but there was a layer of metal in between me and whatever my cutie mark was.

"Afterwards," Crimson continued, "I went back to that first burned down house and found a whole basement full of those bottles. I've got a life's supply now, and there's still more in that basement."

Crimson continued speaking after a long pause. "I never did understand him, though. My brother didn't think this damned wasteland was all evil. He said there had to be some good somewhere. Felt that way about ponies too. He must have rubbed off on Moonlight, or the other way around, I'm still not sure which, because soon he and Moonlight were always trusting everypony they came across."

Crimson took a long breath, then let it out with a sigh. "He would have told you this a while ago, but the real reason our town is so cautious of strangers is because of this scientist that killed half our town in his experiments with the taint. My parents were two of the first to die. Moonlight lost her parents to that monster too. That's why I'll never understand Blackdart and Moonlight. How could they forget something like that? How can they still be so trusting after what that monster did to us? Our parents died for some stupid experiment! And he still didn't give up hope."

Crimson closed his eyes and went still for a second. "He didn't give up hope that there was some good in everypony, no matter what. That was what he lived by, and I sure as hell am not going let him get sold as a slave because of it."

I saw a fierce look in Crimson's red eyes. It gave me chills as I sat there, staring at him. I finally broke the silence. "Mind if I see one of those bottles you were talking about earlier?"

Crimson began to rummage through his saddle. "Sure." He pulled a few things out before reaching a bottle. He hoofed it over to me, and I looked at the label. The words had worn off over the years, so I couldn't make out anything. As I hoofed it back, I noticed a needle laying in the pile of things Crimson had pulled out of his saddle.

I pointed to the needle. "What's that?"

Crimson picked it up carefully. "This thing is one dose of a combat drug called 'dash.' It's supposed to drive up your heart rate and numb any pain for a short period of time. Probably best to use when you're exhausted in a fight."

I gazed at the needle inquisitively. "Where'd you learn about that?"

Crimson grimaced. "You learn a lot when you're held captive by some insane scientist who won't stop talking to himself." Crimson stopped and stared off into the distance for a little while, starting to grit his teeth. I could only assume he had that scientist on his mind now.

Finally, Paragon broke the silence. "Your conversations are truly interesting, no really, I could just listen to you two all night long," I rolled my eyes, "but what about tomorrow? How many slavers are we going to be facing if we catch up to them?"

Crimson turned back towards us. "I only got a quick glance, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were, like, 10."

Hmmm... 2 vs 10. I'm no math expert, but these don't look like good odds. They look more like suicide.

"Then we'll need a plan," Paragon announced, "and if neither of you have one..." he paused a second. "Thought so. Then, how about this?"



<------------------------------>


I heard a strange, and increasingly annoying, beeping sound. "Rise and shine!"

My eyes flashed open to see daylight just barely peeking through the clouds on the horizon. I rolled over. "5 more minutes."

"I don't think so," Paragon retorted as he took control of the armor and pulled me to my hooves.

"No fair," I groaned.

Crimson walked towards me. "Come on, Razor, we've got to be close by now, considering they'll be slowed by the captives. If we get moving, we should be able to catch them by noon."

"What if they haven't been slowed down by the captives?" I asked, skeptically.

Crimson grinned for a second or two. "I wouldn't worry about that too much, at least not while my brother's there."



<------------------------------>


A grey-coated, red-maned stallion glanced left, then right, with a pair of fierce, red eyes. Then, he sat down.

A large, muscular slaver with a large streak of a scar over his face walked over to him. They locked eyes for a moment, almost in a silent battle. Suddenly, they were the center of attention. The group of foals watched intently. Then the slaver kicked the seated pony in the snout.

The scarred slaver turned to continue their trek to Fillydelphia. "Geddup and keep walkin’."

Blackdart wiped a trail of blood from his nose. "No."

The slaver stopped in his tracks. "No?" He turned to face Blackdart once again. "NO?" The slaver pulled his shotgun out with his mouth and smacked the handle of it across Blackdart's face, leaving another trail of blood. "When ah tell you ta move, you move! Not when ya feel like it, not when ya want to, WHEN AH TELL YOU!"

The slaver pulled his shotgun back to strike again, but one of the foals ran over to the bloody pony. "Stop hitting Blackdart!"

The scarred slaver turned to the foal and spat. "You wanna be next?"

The foal cowered behind Blackdart's foreleg and whimpered. The slaver let out a laugh and walked towards them. "Yeah, that's wh-"

"Shut up!" interjected another one of the slavers, "all of you!" He glanced around a bit nervously. "This is hellhound territory, so unless you want to get all of us killed," he glared at the foals, then at the slaver with his gun in his mouth, then right at Blackdart, "then you'll keep your mouths shut."

The scarred slaver yanked Blackdart to his hooves, shoved a hoof at Blackdart's chest, and muttered, "Ah'm watchin' you."

Blackdart grinned with a look of determination. "Well then, don't blink," he said as he threw a hoof-full of sand into the slaver's eyes. The slaver reeled back and Blackdart bolted.

"GAAAHHH! Somepony get that buck and tear his legs off!"

Blackdart's gallop slowed to a hobble as he felt his wounds from his treatment by the slavers over the past few days reopen from the movement. He was soon outpaced by two of the slavers who tackled him to the ground. The held him down as they whispered among themselves.

"This one's more trouble than he's worth."

"We'll just have to get rid of him."

The first slaver hobbled up to them, still wiping sand out of his eyes. "Ah'm gonna kill him!"

The two slavers holding Blackdart down looked at each other and nodded. "Go ahead," replied one of them.

The scarred slaver began to chuckle to himself. "Oh, ah'm gonna have fun wit this one." He pulled out his shotgun and rested the barrel on Blackdart's nose.

Blackdart glanced from the barrel into the horizon and his eyes went wide. "Say, ummm," his eyes darted around, looking for a way to buy a little more time, eventually falling on the slaver's face, "how'd you get that scar?"

The scarred stallion's face wrinkled into a grimace. "Well, we were in Manehatten."

The whole crowd of slavers groaned, and most of them sat down. One of them mumbled to another, "Not this story again."

The scarred slaver glanced around for a second, then looked back at Blackdart. "As ah was saying, we were in Manehatten. Now, manticores are some big beasts, and ah mean big, but you've ain't never seen one as big as the one we saw. And by the time we see 'em, he was already barreling towards us. Ah had just enough time to get ma neck outta the way, but ma head wasn't so lucky. His claw left this here streak," he motioned to his scar, "across ma face. So, I got ma shotgun and shot 'em 17 times in 'is face.”

The scarred slaver pressed the gun a little harder into Blackdart’s snout. “You know, you outta tell 'em 'hello' for me."

Blackdart glanced into the distance once again and a smile cracked across his face. "Tell him yourself."

A pair of gunshots rang out, followed by the screaming of a missile. All eyes were on the scarred slaver and the red mark quickly spreading from his lifeless skull. As the bullet had passed through his head, he jerked forward and pulled his trigger, sending a spray of bullets into Blackdart's chest. Blackdart let out a cough of blood just before the missile landed and launched up a cloud of smoke.



<------------------------------>


Crimson looked down the scope of a rifle. "I can't tell which one is Blackdart. They're all moving around too much."

I looked at the group of ponies in the distance. "Hey, Paragon, do you have any kind of binoculars in here?"

Paragon chuckled. "No."

"Well, why not?"

"I'll just skip the argument and zoom in."

Suddenly, I found I was looking at a well defined view of the group in the distance. "Hey, these look like binoculars to me."

"They're a little more scientific than binoculars."

I rolled my eyes. "Binoculars are binoculars, Paragon. Now stop being silly."

"...sure," Paragon eventually retorted.

Crimson interrupted our debate, "You guys ready or not?"

I jumped upright. "Yeah, I'm ready."

"Good, 'cause I think I've figured out which one is Blackdart. Wait... what are they doing?"

"On three?" I suggested.

Crimson's eyes widened. "Oh shit! Three!"

Thankfully, Paragon was more ready than I was. Crimson shot his rifle, and Paragon fired the new smoke-bomb missile he had been working on. Then we galloped towards the chaos.

We didn't even have to go into the smokescreen. We could hear the gunshots as the panicked slavers ran about, yelling something about a sneak attack. Then, a slaver managed his way out of the smoke. He stared at us in surprise for a second, then yelled out, "They're out-"

He was cut off by a spray of bullets from Crimson's battle saddle, however it was too late. The gunshots began to die down as the slavers realized what was happening. They finally all stopped firing and the smoke started to disperse. There were only five slavers left standing, all looking pretty annoyed.

Crimson had taken the time to circle around them while the smoke was clearing, and they were all facing me when the smoke cleared. I charged them, bullets bouncing off my armor, as Crimson dashed over to Blackdart, who was still coughing up blood.

I began to open fire on the slavers... except my 'open firing' seemed to be a little lacking in the firing department. In fact, I wasn't shooting at all. "Paragon! Why aren't we shooting? I thought I just had to think about firing and you would do it!"

"Combat mode isn't on."

Dang it! How'd I forget that? "Turn on combat mode."

Now I started to see some results. I mowed down the first slaver to approach me, except he didn't look like a pony anymore. I blinked, and saw four striped pony-like creatures running towards me. An inexplicable rage coursed through me, and I charged to meet them. I picked up one of them, with relative ease thanks to Paragon, and threw him into another zebra. My armor-coated hoof found it's way into the skull of a third one. I began to loose bullet after bullet into the last one, even after I heard the clicking of an empty machine gun.

"Razor, stop."

I blinked as reality started to sweep back into my head. My eyes fell on the torn mess of a pony at my feet. I slowly backed away, horror creeping up inside of me. Them, my hoof stepped into the remains of a pony without the face. His brains were leaking onto the ground around my hooves.

What happened?

"Where did that come from, Razor?"

I started once again at Paragon's voice. "I... I don't... know..."

I began to stare at the ground. What just happened? I glanced at the two remains on either side of me. What did I do?

"Don't die! Stay with me!"

Crimson fleeting cries fell dead upon my ears.

"Crimson... get away... *cough*... you have to... have to get away... it's coming..."

Finally, I saw some movement in the corner of my eye. The slaver I had thrown into another slaver had recovered. He had a gun in his mouth and was headed towards Crimson. I finally jumped into action. He aimed a pistol at Crimson.

Then, the ground underneath the slaver exploded as something surged out of it, tearing the slaver to shreds. The beast glanced from one of us to the next, his eyes finally stopping in me.

Crimson let out a fearful groan. "Hellhound."

It launched at me and I fired a bullet at it. The bullet didn't even pierce its hide. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know where it came from. I didn't know what it could do. I did know it scared me half to death, and I did know that I needed to get out of there. I turned around and began to gallop in the other direction, with it quickly catching up.

Blackdart grabbed Crimson and tore his battle saddle off.

"What are you doing?!" Crimson blurted.

“Wh... whe... where is it?” He began to pull things out in an increasingly panicked manner. Finally, he found his quarry. His quivering hooves raised the needle of dash, then he jabbed it into his chest, puncturing his heart.

Crimson stared, with his mouth agape. "What are you- Oh! Right, that can keep your heart going! You can make it. That can save you!"

Blackdart jumped up as the drug coursed through his veins. "I'm not trying to save me."

Then, Blackdart ran after us, grabbing the shotgun from the scarred slaver's limp grasp. I had circled around, headed straight towards Blackdart. As we met in the middle, Blackdart flashed me a smile, and I returned a shocked stare. The hellhound lunged at me, claws bared, as Blackdart leaped over me, straight into the hellhound. He shoved the barrel of the shotgun into the hound's mouth, and fired, as the claws tore through Blackdart. 

Both bodies fell to the ground. The hellhound was dead by the time he hit. Blackdart, having lost far too much blood, just stared back up at me. "My gift..." he coughed up a mouthful of blood, "to... you..." The life slowly drained from his eyes.



<------------------------------>


Crimson patted down the last of the dirt on his brother's grave. "I didn't save him."

I walked up next to Crimson. "He saved me."

Crimson looked up at me. I could see a tear falling down his face.

"He saved those foals," I continued. "He saved you from your burning house."

Crimson sat down. "And after all that I couldn't even save him."

I sat down next to Crimson. I was about to speak, when Paragon cut me off. "He was a great stallion. He deserved to live. He could have lived, but he chose to die instead. Now why would he do that?"

Crimson shook his head. "I don't know."

Paragon took control of the armor and touched his hoof to Crimson's chest. "You do know, and it won't help to pretend you don't."

"Ok, he was saving you two."

Paragon put his hoof back on the ground. "Exactly, and don't you ever forget that. Your brother didn't die in vain. In fact, if he hasn't stopped that hellhound, it would have killed all of us. All three of us owe our lives to your brother. If it weren't for him, none of us would be here. So, are you going to mope around wishing you could have saved him, or are you going to start acting like he saved you?"

Crimson looked up. "I guess I'll act like he saved me."

"That doesn't sound too confident."

Crimson stood up. "I'm going to make sure my brother didn't die in vain. All three of us are gonna make sure of it, right Razor?"

I jumped a bit, now realizing I was in the conversation again. "Oh, uhh, right! Let's go change the world, or something!"


Footnote: Level Up
New Perk - Buddy System
Whenever you are fighting with a friend on your side, both of your defenses are +3.