A new hope
'Luke... I am your father'
I could see Dice in the distance. It was hard to miss, just look in the direction of the bright lights. You couldn't miss it. I had been carrying Bell ever since the incident with the manticore. She had fallen asleep, but it seemed the peace and quiet that came with her sleeping was about to end.
"Hmng..." She mumbled while turning and yawning. "Good morning everypony.” She turned and pointed at something in the distance. “What is that?"
She was talking about the bright set of buildings in the distance. "Morning Bell, that there is Dice, the one city that we have that's full of drunks and gamblers..." I remember this city, not a single good memory from it.
"It sure is bright isn't it?" I could feel her rolling around on my back but then stopped.
"Something wrong Bell?" She didn't answer so I looked back at her and saw her laying on her back, staring at the sky with her mouth open, out of curiosity I did the same and looked up. I stopped right where I was and I could feel my mouth hanging open, I must've looked so stupid but I didn't care. What I was seeing was so beautiful I could just stare at it till I died.
"What are those?" Bell asked. I couldn't answer but I heard Sweet talking.
"Those are stars, and that big round white thing there is the moon, though it's not always round. sometimes it's not even there. I heard that before the war Princess Luna took care of it and all of the stars, and that she made every night look as beautiful as she could, I can't imagine how though..."
"So those are the stars... Wait, I thought the pegasi had made a cloud curtain so that they could protect themselves after the war, what happened to it?" I asked, no longer looking at the sky but at Sweet.
"I don't know, last I heard it was to stay closed, forever."
We continued walking but Bell was still looking at the sky and I could hear her whisper: "Princess Luna..."
I had hoped to have a nice walk, but this being the wasteland, that's impossible. It wasn't long before I saw some red dots in my E.F.S. Probably some wild animals from the wasteland.
I told Sweet about it and she decided to ignore it and to try to avoid it. I agreed and we started to change course but then, between the red dots, I could see a green dot.
I started moving towards the hostiles and as I got closer I could hear voices. These weren’t animals, animals don’t speak. The dots on my E.F.S. were right behind a hill and I started running to get on top of it, but before I could get a view on the hostiles a shot sounded from their direction.
The shot was followed by screams and a green dot vanishing from my E.F.S. The scene I could see when I got to the top of the hill wasn’t one for the eyes of a filly: Five raiders were surrounding a family of a mare and a colt. On the floor I could see the dead body of a stallion and a gun close to him.
"Bell get behind me." I said noticing her getting down, I took out my Varmint rifle and took aim. I tried using my zoom spell but it just made my head hurt, I decided to activate S.A.T.S. but before I could Sweet stopped me.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She had tackled me and pinned me to the ground.
"I'm trying to kill those raiders!" We weren't really screaming because of how close to the raiders we were, but even in whispers I tried to express my anger.
"And getting us killed along the way? For all we know they're another group of raiders, or murderers, what makes you think I'm going to risk saving them?"
"You saved me not two days ago remember?!" I had pushed her away and got up to take the shot, but the raiders were gone, the family was still there, on the floor without moving and above a pool of blood. "Damn it they're gone!" I then glared at Sweet "Are you happy now? The whole family is dead!"
"It was them or us, now let's get moving before more raiders show up." I couldn't believe her! She goes and lets that family die and then acts like nothing happened. I was angry... no, I was furious at Sweet for stopping me from taking the shot, at myself for not being able to do anything, and at the raiders only because they existed...
I glared at Sweet as she trotted away and was about to scream at her. I wasn't done with her yet, but Bell caught my sight. She was standing there, looking at the bloody corpses of the family that was killed by the raiders. She was shaking. She couldn't stop looking at them. I moved to her, all my anger gone away. She was visibly trembling and on the verge of tears, I got close to her and said in the softest voice I could: "Come Bell, we have to move now. We can talk later..."
But she didn't move, she wasn’t even reacting to my voice. I reached out with my hoof and when it touched her, she jumped up and looked at me, tears in her eyes. "Come on Bell, it's not safe here..." She could barely nod but started walking next to me. I didn't understand why she was so shocked, it wasn't the first time she saw a dead pony, but then I realized: what she hadn't seen before, was how a raider killed their victims, and the only thing she could do, was stay there and watch it happen...
---
"This is as far as we go." I said, looking at the great wall that surrounded Dice. There were many reasons for not going into the city, one of them was to get as far away from Sweet as I could, but the main reason was because I couldn't. You see to be able to enter Dice you must be 'worth it', you must have at least 5000 caps in your pockets. What you did with them didn't matter when you were inside. They just wanted to make sure that you had caps to use.
"Fine, good luck out there in the wasteland, you're going to need it." We hadn't spoke during the rest of the way. I couldn’t forgive her for what she did and I'm sure she was still angry at me, but we didn't have to speak of it. She then went into Dice with both her bodyguards behind her.
"Bell..." I hadn't had the chance to speak with her, at least there were ponies here and was relatively safe. She didn't answer but instead she looked at the ground. "Bell, look at me." She then looked up at me, she could hardly keep her eyes on mine. "Bell, what happened there wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could have done, if there is somepony to blame, it's the raiders."
If I knew my sister well she would be blaming herself for what happened, she did this a lot back in Clarefield when the other foals had accidents, she would blame herself for not stopping them from getting hurt.
"I know I couldn't have done anything, and that's what makes me so upset! I wish I could've done something! I wish I could have saved those ponies! I... I wish I could have killed those raiders..." The last part was just a whisper, but I managed to hear it and as I did, my heart sank in my chest.
"Bell..." I didn't know what to say, I knew what she was thinking was right, but I didn't want the wasteland to make a killer out of her, I didn't want her to become like me. Without any words, I pulled her closer and hugged her, and whispered in her ear: "I'm sorry Bell, I'm sorry..."
"For what?"
"For not being able to save those ponies, for forcing you to see what those raiders did to them,. I'm sorry for not coming back to you earlier at Clarefield..." She didn't say anything. We stood there, wrapped in each others embrace, for a while. But we had to get moving. We had to find a place to stay for a while, a place where we could rest and get some food.
I approached the security guard pony standing in front of the doors to Dice and asked him where the closest town was. "That would be Foretrot, it's a bit of a walk from here but you should make it before sunset if you leave now."
I gave my thanks as a beep sound came from my PipBuck, I checked it and noticed that the map had a mark that said 'Foretrot'. I'm starting to see why Bell wanted me to put it on so badly, it was a pretty useful little thing.
I walked up to Bell and told her what we were doing, I remembered the radio in this and decided to turn it on, to my surprise the frequency in which DJ-Pon3 normally spoke was emitting just static. I also noticed that there were other frequencies as well, which I checked the others, but they most only came out as static. I eventually found one that had music playing.
"... Ain't that a buck in the head.”
It seems I got to the station just before the song finished, when it did the voice of a stallion sounded in the radio. His voice was really different from DJ-Pon3 but it had something to it that made me want to keep on listening.
"Well kids it's me again and what do ya think, it's time for the news. The fights between the factions in Dice are pretty much as always, bloody, with a chance of gore. If you ever go to Dice make sure not to piss off any of them. This news comes from a place that’s a pretty far from here, and I don't think many of you have heard of it, it seems some raiders that call themselves 'The Red Army' went and destroyed a whole town full of ponies by the name of ‘Clarefield’. No survivor have been seen. If any of you have heard of this town, please come by my radio station, I'd like to know the details of what happened there. And that's it for now folks! Now I leave you with Sweetie Belle singing: 'Let it go’.'"
It seemed Clarefield was never going to leave my mind. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to forget, I mean how could I forget the town that had taken myself and my little sister when she was a foal so small she couldn't even speak? But the thing was, I didn't want to be reminded of my mistakes every 10 seconds.
Bell and I continued walking for a couple of hours, neither of us said anything, we just listened to the music on the radio. There were at least 7 songs, so they repeated a lot.
‘This place needs more music.’
Then I looked at Bell and wondered if she wanted to sing. Suddenly I had an idea, a way to cheer her up, but I was going to have to play my hoof well, or the chance would be lost completely, seeing how shy she is when it comes to that.
"Hey Bell, how do you like the music?"
"Huh? Well I don't know... I really like the way Sweetie Belle sings, but most of the songs have such sad lyrics they just make me feel depressed.” She shrugged. “Why do you ask?"
"What would you say if I told you I knew of somepony who can make great songs, and perform them on the radio? This pony tries to bring a bit of peace to other ponies in the wastes by singing with a really great voice."
"Really? I'd like to meet that pony! What's his name? Where did he learn to sing? Why aren't his songs on the radio?"
"I'm sorry Bell but I can't tell you anything about her, I promised her..."
"Her? It's a mare? Is she pretty? Is she really that good?"
"Oops, well yes it's a mare, but I can't tell you more. Sorry, Bell."
"Awww come on! I won't tell anypony! Pleeeeease, pretty please?" She said while shooting me puppy eyes. I had to sigh to hide my smile.
"I can't tell you, but it can't be helped if you find out by yourself can it?" I said with a wink. "That is, of course, if you're smart enough to figure it out." To that last part she smiled proudly and looked at me.
"Of course I can!"
"Well as you know she is a mare, right?", she nodded "Well, she has a crimson mane."
"Crimson? That's like red, right?"
"Yes that's it. What a smart filly, are you sure you're my sister? Anyway she's also very very young."
"Young? Hmmm... Do I know this mare?"
"Actually you know her very well, you might say that the only pony that knows her better than you is me."
"Hmm... can I have another clue?"
"Sure but this is the last, her name rhymes with sell."
"Rhymes with sell..." After a while of walking and thinking she finally said "I give up! I don't know anypony with a name that rhymes with sell!"
"Of course you do you silly pony, tell me, what words rhyme with sell?"
"Well there is gel, and fell, but I don't know anypony with that name. There’s bell, but I don't know of anypony that shares my name..." I gave her a huge grin. "Y- you mean me?" I nodded "But I don't sing in the radio and I don't make songs."
"That's because it was a vision from the future! It's a new spell I found that lets me see the future of a pony I care about, but it's only for a little while and it hurts my head after I'm done, but you want to know what I saw?" She nodded, her mouth hanging open in awe. It was a lie, obviously, but it was the only way I could get her to sing. She enjoys doing it, but doesn't because she thinks that other ponies won't like her if she does.
"I saw you, all grown up, singing on top of a big stage, with lotsa ponies watching you. But you weren't nervous at all, you were confident they would love you and started singing the most beautiful song I've ever heard, and when you finished singing, the spell timed out, but I could see that everypony was cheering and stomping their hooves on the ground because of how good you were!"
She just looked at me in awe, and after a while she managed to gain control of her jaw and say "Well... If it was a vision of the future, I guess I can’t argue... Might as well give it a try!"
Yes! I did it! She’s still a bit reluctant, but who cares! She’s going to sing! And when she sees that everypony loves her, she will keep on singing! She might even get a job singing and have enough caps so that she wouldn't need to scavenge or be hungry ever again! Ever since we left Clarefield things seemed to be going somewhat well, so I made a mental note to go visit Dice and talk to Show about that conversation we had back at Haysticks.
Once I had the caps to get in that is...
---
"Would you look at that..." We walked for a while, but before reaching Foretrot, I saw a junkyard that reminded me of the one around Clarefield. That reminded me of Clarefield and its... hard to describe how I felt about Clarefield. And then I was reminded of the Shishkebab and its components... so that was something. We decided to explore it and see what we could find, and to my surprise, we found everything we needed. I found a motorcycle that was really busted up, but its motor was working, and the hoofbreak was somehow still there. Later, Bell saw a lawn mower, and I quickly made my way over to her and started taking it apart. I managed to find that one of the blades, even if it was rusty as hell, was whole and could be used to make a Shishkebab. "If only I hadn't sold that pilot light."
"I'm sure we'll find another pilot light. There was one in, like, every kitchen right?"
"Yeah, when we get to town all we have to do is say: 'Hey we’re ponies you don't know, but could you let us take a part of your kitchen with us? We just need it to make a flaming sword, but don't worry, we're not going to use it on you'."
She looked away trying to act angry but I could see her trying not to laugh, so at least she was out of the bad mood she had been in before. "Anyway let's head to Foretrot, it's gonna get dark soon, and we need to find a place to crash." She nodded and we left the junkyard.
We approached the town as the sun began to set. I just wanted to get to the Inn, get a room and fall asleep in the first place I fell, but something stopped me. To be specific, it was a bullet that got buried in the ground next to my hoof. After recovering from the surprise I looked up and heard a mare scream: "That was a warning, another step and you're dead!" Right, crazy mare shooting at me, everyday stuff, what did I do last time? Oh right! I ran for my life, but those were completely different circumstances...
"Look, we're not looking for trouble! There are just two of us, and one of us was a foal who can't even fire a gun! If we were to cause trouble we’d be dead in 10 seconds!" I hope that worked...
There was silence for a while.
"Fine you can come into town. But we'll be watching you!"
Works for me. Bell and I started to walk into town. You could almost feel the stares of the inhabitants.
Then a mare with an amber coat and a black mane walked up to us. "Hello travelers! My name’s Amber, and we welcome you to the town of Foretrot!" I looked at the other ponies who just glared in my direction, some of them holding a gun in their mouths. "Or at least I do... Anyway, what brings you here, completely welcomed visitor?"
"If this is how you treat a 'completely welcomed visitor' I can't wait to see how you treat a bunch of raiders." I said with a smile on my face. It's nice to see a welcoming pony, specially after seeing the whole town want to shoot you. Instead of laughing like I thought she would, she looked kind of gloomy.
"Shouldn't be long before you find out... But that doesn't matter right now. It's not everyday we get visitors, most caravans decide to go straight to Dice." Amber told us as we walked around town.
"We're here because we need somewhere to sleep... and a place to eat... and we have to buy stuff, and sell stuff... We're like a caravan I guess..." Bell said and got the mare to chuckle a bit.
"Well if you need somewhere to sleep and eat, the inn is over there," And my PipBuck beeped, now showing the location of the inn. How it does that I don't know, but if the wasteland has taught me something, it's to be grateful for the good things, and to shoot anything that wants to kill you. "And there you have 'Filthy's General Store'." Beep "You can buy and sell supplies there, I wouldn't stay too long inside. Filthy isn't exactly known for bathing, then again almost nopony does, but for some reason he smells worse than everypony else..."
"Thanks Amber, but tell me, how come it looks like everypony but you wants to shoot us?"
"I’m not all that sure I should tell you. Tell you what, go talk to the mayor.. She might be able to help you." Before I could answer, I heard gunshots and screams. Then everypony hid in the closest building they could reach,and in 4 seconds the street was empty and I could feel something pulling me and Bell into a building. "Don't make a sound..." Amber whispered.
"What's going on?" Bell asked, but Amber didn't answer. We could hear more gunshots and screams, but these screams weren't terrified, they were screaming curses and saying: 'Come on out everypony!' They were raiders, or that's what they seemed to be. After what seemed like an eternity, they left just like nothing had happened, and everypony left their hiding spots.
"Time for explanations." I told Amber. She nodded and took us through the town. It was a pretty run down place, but what place in the wasteland wasn’t. We soon arrived at a building that seemed a rather... Alright, so it was as run down as the other buildings, but it did look slightly better. There were several ponies standing outside the building. Just as we approached, most of them left, while shooting glares at us, leaving a single pony.
“Hello there Ember. Care to introduce me to your friends?” She asked, a smile spreading across her face.
"Hello mayor, this is... ah..." Oh I hadn't introduced myself, stupid me.
"My name's Spark Wonder, and this here is my sister Bell. We came here because we needed a place to crash, but as soon as we got here we were shot at and then the raiders came. Would you care to explain what's going on?"
"Straight to the point I see..." The mayor said, she was a mare with a gray mane, but it was gray because of her age. I could see many wrinkles in her dark-gray coat. "First of all, I'm sorry about the actions of the citizens, as you saw we've been having problem with 'visitors' that aren't very friendly. We were going to try to fight back, but we got distracted when you arrived and that's when they attacked." She gave me a suspicious look, of course she did, raiders attacking when you are distracted because of a visitor? That's suspicious as hell, just my luck that I'm the visitor with the bad timing.
"What I don't get is, if they're raiders, how come they left just like that? I know raiders are crazy but that's not how they act."
"That's because they're not raiders, or at least not conventional raiders. Every month they come and demand supplies, and if we don't give them the supplies they start killing ponies, aside from that they sometimes just come here and start killing ponies just to 'let us know who is in charge'."
"That's horrible! Spark we've got to do something!" Bell said. She was right, I couldn't risk being here even for one night if these raiders can just come tomorrow and kill somepony.
"You're right, but it's not we, I'm going to do something, you are going to go to a safe place while I think about what to do." Then the door burst open and a mare, the same mare that was shooting at me when I got to town, came right in and punched me in the face. "What the-" Hay, but before I could finish my sentence I could see another hoof coming down on me but this time I was prepared and dodged to the side, with the momentum I turned and used my hindlegs to kick her in the stomach. She dropped to the ground and dodged my buck and then kicked at my legs, causing me to fall. I tried rolling but she got on top of me right after I managed to get on my back.
She had me pinned, and was about to start punching me in the face, but Bell jumped on top of her and used her hooves to cover her eyes and started biting her ear and pulling. "Get off my brother!" She got off of me and slammed herself against a wall to shake off Bell.
"Stop that!" The mayor shouted. It was so loud, my ears rang for a while and it made Bell stop biting on the mare's ear and fell off her back. I manage to catch her with my magic before she hit the floor, and put her down gently. The mayor was glaring at the mare that had attacked me. "What do you think you're doing?!"
The gray earth pony mare with a long red and blue mane was glaring back at the mayor. "I'm killing the bastard that killed Autumn!" She pointed a hoof at me, what is she talking about? I haven't killed anypony... in two days... She then turned to glare at me with her two bright yellow eyes, full of anger. Bell stepped in front of me staring straight into the mare's eyes.
"He didn't kill Autumn, those raiders did."
"Do you really think he didn't do anything? What a coincidence that the same exact moment we want to fight back a pony comes and distracts us and then bam! The raiders attack!" The only thing stopping her from attacking me was Amber, who was trying to hold her in place, with little effect.
"Hey it's not our fault that those raiders came at the exact same moment we did! It was just a coincidence!" Bell screamed at the mare. "If you want to blame someone blame the raiders that did this!"
"She's right, you can't blame us for something we didn't do, but I know of a way to make the ones who did this pay, and to make them stop attacking the town," I could feel all the eyes looking at me and I said "It's simple really: Kill them all."
---
"Like it's going to be that simple, you're one crazy pony if you think you can take care of all of them by yourself.” The mayor said.
"Well I've got to try, otherwise this town will never be safe. I know raiders, they just keep coming and coming until either side is dead." I was working on a workbench. When I told everypony my great idea they all laughed. Well the mare that punched me just gave me a confused look, but I was dead serious. When they realized that, they tried to talk me out of it. I heard the mayor sigh. “Besides, I owe you for distracting your defenses, even if it wasn't on purpose."
"There's no convincing you not to go, is there?"
"Nope." I was kind of glad she was worried. That was so hard to find here in the wasteland. "They're just a bunch of raiders that know that you get more from a town of working ponies than from ruins full of corpses. Raiders have lousy aim and are usually sick and hungry. All you need is to know how to fight to take them on."
"If it was really that simple, we would've sent a team to kill them before, but it's not. I know we are willing to fight, but we won’t send anypony on a suicide mission just because a stallion thinks he can take care of a bunch of raiders."
"I'm not asking for your help, at least not with the raiders, I just want you to take care of Bell while I'm gone." Finally I finished working on the workbench and smiled at the result, I had created a Shishkebab. Turns out Filthy had a pilot light and didn't know what to do with it, and Bell managed to get it from him for free, saying that she 'Really really really really really wanted it', after buying the supplies I would need, such as ammo and healing potions. I hunted for a workbench and it turned out the mayor had one in her office.
The Shishkebab was a sword. The lawn mower blade was connected to the motorcycle hoofbrake via a mechanism that filled the blade with magical fuel and held it in place. The fuel was supplied by the motorcycle gas tank that I strapped to my back, and the thing was, the tank pulls the magic out of the air, and turns it into fuel. I'll assume it uses more than it charges, and it obviously is out of fuel when the blade is no longer aflame.
I held the blade in a magic field and pulled the handbrake which made some sparks appear. The sparks made the blade catch fire. I turned to look at the mayor who had her mouth open and said: "Well, you might stand a chance..." I gave the blade a few careful swings and then turned it off.
I then left the mayor's building and began to head out of town. Amber was kind enough to look after Bell while I was gone. I didn't want to leave her alone with a stranger, but I couldn't take her with me to the raiders base. And Amber didn't seem like a bad pony.
Just when I reached the edge of town, the grey mare that had punched me stopped me. She was wearing some sort of armor. "What do you want now? Came to fight some more?"
"No. I'm going with you. You can't possibly think of killing them all on your own, and I want to kill those bastards myself."
"How can I know that you won't shoot me in the back once we're there?"
"Because those bastards have been coming for a long time now, and as I said before: One pony alone can't kill them all, that includes me, but with the two of us we might have a chance."
"How about when we're done, what will stop you from shooting me then?"
"If we manage to kill them all without dying you would've proven that you didn't have anything to do with the attack, then I would have no reason to kill you." That was good enough for me.
"Fine you can come. My name's Spark Wonder."
"Charcoal."
---
By the time we reached the raiders base, it was night and the stars and the moon decorated the deep blue sky. We snuck around the building they use as their base, trying to see how many entrances it had, and how many guards we could see.
Neither of us spoke the whole trip, but if we wanted to survive, we were going to need to come up with a plan. “So, do you have a plan?”
“You mean you don’t?!”
I shoved my hoof in her mouth. “Shh, we don’t want them to know we’re here, not yet at least.” She pulled my leg away from her.
“Get your that out of my mouth, who knows where it’s been,” She spat, totally uncalled for. “So you come here, boasting that you can kill them all and return to town with your sister, and you don’t even have a plan!? Just what I needed...”
“Hey I was giving you the chance to come up with a plan, seems it was too much to ask for. Anyway, here is what we’re going to do. Step One: Sneak around. Step Two: Kill raiders without the other raiders noticing. Step Three: Search the building. Step Four: Go back to town and be treated like heroes. Sounds good?”
“Works for me.” To my surprise she started to head to the raider base. As I stared at her she took out a raider guard by sneaking up on him and cutting his throat with a knife. Poor bastard couldn’t even scream. Then she looked back at me. “You coming?”
I sighed and headed for the door. I took out my Shishkebab but didn’t turn it on. When I got close enough I whispered “I was kidding when I suggested that plan.”
“I know, but I liked it.” I sighed again as she entered the building and followed her.
“Wait, let me go first.”
“Why? Because you’re a buck and you don’t want this little mare to get hurt?” She said, glaring at me.
“No, because of this” I said tapping my PipBuck with a hoof. “It shows me where the enemies are, kind of, that way we won’t be going into a room full of raiders.” Charcoal nodded.
I walked in front of her, as I did two red bars appeared on my E.F.S. and they were moving,they were just around the corner and were heading in our direction. I grabbed Charcoal and entered the first room to our left. It was an awfully tight storage room. Not exactly the most comfortable place but it sure beats being discovered. I could hear hoofsteps outside and see the red bars just outside this room. I started to fear they might find us, but then they moved back to where they originally were.
We stepped out of that cramped room and I signaled Charcoal to take care of the raider in the left while I killed the one in the right. They both died at the same time and we caught their bodies before they fell, and hid them in the storage room we were just in. Not before looting them, of course.
We continued sneaking around the building trying our best to ignore the pieces of ponies that the raiders used to decorate their base. I noticed two more raiders on my E.F.S. just around the corner, and raised a hoof to signal Charcoal to stop. The raiders were standing still in front of the door. I don’t think they were guarding it, but they weren’t moving from that point. I whispered to Charcoal: “Should we look for another way?”
“Fuck that! I’m tired of sneaking.” And there she goes again, she took out her shotgun and ran around the corner screaming “Hey assholes! You’ve better prayed for forgiveness ‘cause you’re all dying tonight!” And with that she shot at both raiders and the red marks in my E.F.S. disappeared, but in their place seven hostiles showed up. Of course the gunshots had caught the whole building on alert. I glared at Charcoal and she just shrugged saying “What? Now we won’t have to look for them.” I sighed.
As soon as the air left my lips, the doors behind the dead raiders slammed open and three raiders came in, surprised to see the bodies of the other two raiders and us. I took this chance, fired up the Shishkebab and slashed twice at the closest raider. He managed to dodge the first attack, but the second had still hit him and his armor caught on fire. He dropped and rolled taking out the flame, but when he got up, Charcoal was in front of him with her shotgun pointed at his face.
Bang!
With the raider pony dead, I took out the revolver I bought from Filthy and went into S.A.T.S., taking two shots at each of their heads. Once they fell to the ground I reloaded the revolver and ran past the bodies to a big room full of tables, and four more raiders that started shooting as soon as we entered. I used my magic to throw a table at them and flipped another for cover, but the raiders kept on shooting. There was no way to leave our small cover, and I could hear their hoofsteps signaling that they were drawing in for the kill.
“What now genius?” Charcoal asked, reloading her shotgun.
“Hey I wanted to keep on sneaking but you had to go and start shooting, telling everypony where we were”, She answered with a ‘Hump’. “Alright. Grab a grenade from my saddlebags. I’m going to distract them and then you throw it at them.”
“And how exactly do you plan to avoid the bullets?”
“Just do it, okay?” She nodded and started looking into my saddlebags for a grenade, once she found it I concentrated my magic and started making noises behind the raiders and screamed “Oh yeah reinforcements are here!” I could hear shooting, but the bullets didn’t come in my direction. My plan had worked. I left cover and aimed my revolver at one of the raiders.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I didn’t kill him, but I got him in his side, and he was on the floor screaming from the pain. The other three noticed it was a trap and started shooting at me. I flipped another table to get cover, but a bullet had got me in the chest and pierced right through my armor. Damn it hurt like hell! I’ve been shot before, but you never get used to it.
“Charcoal! Now!” I shouted through the pain. I heard the explosion, but how could I not? Charcoal was toppled over because of the blastwave. With the wave, all gunfire stopped, and I could see Charcoal looking over her cover, slowly making her way to me. I looked at the spot where raiders used to be.
“Would you look at that, your plan worked. You think those were all of- What happened to you?!” She looked at the bullet hole in my chest.
“Bastards got a lucky shot off. Would you be a sweetheart and toss me a healing potion? I can’t seem to be able to reach my saddlebags.” She looked at me skeptically.
“That bullet is inside of you, if we don’t take it out you might die later!”
“Can you take it out?” I asked honestly hoping that she could.
“Well no, but can’t you take it out with your magic?” I wish I could, sadly it wasn’t that easy and my concentration was fading.
“Just give me the potion, I’m dying over here!” Thankfully she obeyed and gave me the potion, I bit on the tip and drank the whole thing down, I could already feel the wound closing. I managed to get up, I still felt the bullet in my chest. “Look, there’s a medic in Foretrot right? He’ll get the bullet out when we get there. By the way, I think that was it, my E.F.S. isn’t getting any more hostiles. Say, want to see what we can find in here?”
She looked at me as I tried to walk normally, but walking with a bullet in your chest isn’t nice. “I’m going to need help carrying all this stuff Charcoal.” I said as I checked the body of a raider. I could hear her sighing.
---
“You will not believe how much that hurts” I said walking out of the doctor’s office. Getting opened up and having a bullet removed from your chest is not something you want to experience.
“That’s what you get from drinking a healing potion with a bullet in your chest.” She said and gave me a slight punch in the chest.
“Ow ow ow ow. Is that how you treat somepony who just got out of surgery?” She just laughed.
We arrived at Amber’s house and I knocked a couple times. The door creaked open, and a very sleepy Amber was behind it. Not that I was the most energetic pony in town. “Oh my... Welcome Spark! Since you came back in one piece and on your own I assume you did it?” I nodded as my answer. “Oh my gosh this is great news! We have to tell everypony right now! Everypony will be so excited to know that the raiders won’t be a problem anymore!” I couldn’t help but smile at her excitement.
“Hate to break your bubble, but it’s kind of late, don’t you think? Everypony will be kinda mad rather than happy if you wake them up at this hour.” Charcoal said from behind me.
“Charcoal? What are you doing here? Why are you up at this hour?”
“Well she was helping me of course, if it wasn’t for her I might be dead right now, though if it wasn’t for her I probably wouldn’t have gotten shot either.” Charcoal blushed and looked away with a ‘Hmp’
“Oh that’s great! Come in you two I’m sure it’s cold out there.” I nodded and headed into Amber’s house, it was actually a big place. it had a main hall with some furniture, a couple of sofas and a fireplace that was lit up. There was a hall that lead to the rooms and the kitchen, that’s where Amber was going.
“Thanks Charcoal.” I said when I was alone with her.
“Huh? Why are you thanking me?”
“For helping me with those raiders and... Well, you kind of saved my life.”
“Oh, yeah that. Don’t worry, it was nothing.”
“If you say so.” Then Amber came out of the kitchen with some food. I couldn’t tell what it was.
“Here, have some food. Don’t decline, this is the least I could do for the pony who finally took care of those blasted raiders.” I nodded with a smile and started eating. It was actually pretty good, actually it was the best thing I had tasted in my life!
“Wow this tastes great! What is it called?” Amber giggled at my compliment.
“It’s radscorpion cake.”
“This has radscorpion in it?” I hadn’t eaten radscorpion before. It sure was tasty.
“Kind of, it has its poison, but not like that! Let me explain!” She said, watching my expression of horror. “The poison is mixed in with other ingredients so that it won’t hurt you, but it’s needed because it’s what gives it the taste.” Well that explains it. I wonder if I could make it.
“That makes sense, could I have the recipe? It’s really tasty and if it’s not harmful I might as well try to eat it more.” But before she could answer a small snore caught my attention. Bell was fast asleep on one of the sofas in the room. I hadn’t seen her before because the sofas back was facing the door.
“Oh she said she was going to wait for you here, but I expected her to go to the room I prepared for her after she got tired of waiting.” I smiled while wrapping my sis in my magic.
“I’m going to take her to the bedroom, we’ll talk about the recipe tomorrow okay?” She nodded. “Good night, both of you.” I said entering the room Amber had pointed at with her hoof.
“I should be going home too. Good night, Amber.”
“Good night, Charcoal.”
I closed the door behind me and put Bell in her bed. I kissed her forehead. “Sweet dreams, Bell.” And not long after that, I was asleep myself.
---
I wake up from the same nightmare I had before, the room only lit by the light coming from the window directly into my face, glad to see Celestia’s aim is perfect even when she is not controlling the sun...
I stand up and notice that Bell was still sleeping, so I leave the room as quietly as I can. Outside I find Amber cooking more of her radscorpion cake. It was a good time as any to learn how to cook it. After a few lessons from Amber, I managed to make one and she tried it.
“Well you’ve actually done it! And it tastes delicious, even better than mine! Say, are you interested in a job as my personal chef?” I laughed at that.
“If I managed to do it is because I had a great teacher. Besides, I couldn’t even dream to reach your cooking skills.”
“Yeah right, I believe you’re already there. But seriously. Wanna be my personal chef?”
“Good morning Amber, good morning Spark. What’s that smell?” I wasn’t sure if she was completely awake.
“Morning Bell, it’s some radscorpion cake. I made it myself! Want some?”
She nodded vigorously. I gave her a bit and she started eating it right away. “Yummy! I told you he’d be able to make them!” She told Amber.
“What are you talking about Bell?” She took a deep breath and started talking.
“You, see last night Amber gave me some of her radscorpion cake and I told her how delicious it was, but then she said that she was the only one who could make it and I told her that you could make them, and that if you made them it would be even tastier, but she said that you wouldn’t be able to make them because it was a family recipe, but I knew she was just scared that you would make it better and made a bet with her that when you came back-” She stopped for a second, her eyes widening. “Ohmygosh! You’re back I was so worried I couldn’t even sleep last night wondering if you were going to come back! Why didn’t you wake me up when you got here?!” She said while hugging me and it made Amber go ‘Awwww how cute’.
“Because you were sleeping you silly pony, it seems you weren’t so worried as you said you were...” I teased her and for dramatic effect I sighed.
“Of course I was! It’s just that it was so late and the couch was so comfy I couldn’t resist it...” She whispered the last bit while blushing and looking off to the side.
“I believe you.” I said, messing up her mane.
“Hey! You know how long it takes me to make my mane look that way everyday? Now I have to start all over again!” Both Amber and I chuckled as Bell blushed.
---
We talked with the mayor, who thanked us for killing the raiders with some bottle caps and some ammo they were going to use on the raiders. I thanked her for it, and after visiting Filthy to sell some the stuff we got at the raider’s camp, I was ready to leave town when...
“Hey! Wait up!” Charcoal called from behind, no longer wearing her armor, but wearing her saddlebags. They looked pretty heavy actually.
“Hi Charcoal, I was just about to leave, what is it?”
“What do you mean you were just about to leave? Weren’t you going to wait for me?”
“Uhh, I am waiting for you right now aren’t I?”
“Spark, isn’t she the pony who was trying to kill you yesterday?” Huh? Oh right, I had forgotten about that incident.
“Well yes, kind of, but she also helped me taking care of the raiders and saved my life, so I had forgotten about that.”
“I don’t think we’ve been introduced. My name is Charcoal.” She offered a hoof to Bell but she just stared at her.
“Bell.” She didn’t shake her hoof, instead she was glaring at her.
“Okay. Let’s get going then.”
“Going where?” I asked, still not knowing what she was doing.
“I don’t know, you were leaving town and didn’t know where to go?”
“Well I know where I’m going, but I don’t know where you’re going.”
“I’m going with you of course!”
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Footnote: Level up!
Oh you silly pony you forgot to do a skill check last level! Well here it is:
Melee (25)
Repair (25)
Guns (25)
Sneak (25)
Survival (25)
(Author’s Note: Hello guys, it’s Shadowher here thanking you all for reading even this little piece I left at the end. Wonderful ponies all of you.
Anyway I wanted to thank Kkat for making Fallout: Equestria, the masterpiece as it is known, and also all of the FoE fandom for being awesome, specially No One for making ‘Heroes’, because if you haven’t noticed this happens at the same time in the same general area as that ‘Heroes’. If you haven’t read ‘Heroes’ yet go do that now.
And of course I’d like to thank all of my pre-readers Pata-K , Masquerade, AnonMD and v-dub for doing their jobs, they let me know how I messed up with grammar and stuff, thank you guys! Geez that was long I better keep these shorter next time.)