Fallout Equestria: Wanderers

by Mach Speed


Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Revenge
“It’s best served cold.”

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. The knocking of the old wooden door came loudly and startled me awake. It had been a fair few hours since I had woken Bolts for his watch and returned to the chair by the window. Surprisingly, the sun didn’t wake me before the knocking. I had been resting uncomfortably in the chair and didn’t notice I had started to make it lean.

“Hmmm… gah!” Surprised by the knocking, I fell backwards in the chair and toppled over, hitting the ground hard. “Ow… geez…” I winced and rubbed my head, already starting to feel a bump forming.

“Open up in there, we just want to talk.” A deep, booming voice called from the other side of the door, it was a stallion I hadn’t heard before. Still rubbing my head, I stood up and looked around the room. I was the only one awake, Starry or Bolts had fallen asleep during one of their shifts and laid against one wall, leaning against each other. Shrugging it off I gingerly moved to the door and opened it. I ended up staring up at two large stallions. As I peered at them through my half closed, tied eyes, I noticed that they wore the armour of the random stallions in the bar the previous day, it was basic armour, but they all had a single purple star painted on their chests.

“Hmmm, can I help you two?” I yawned.

“You were the one who threatened the slaver in the pinstripe suit in the bar yesterday, correct.” With the mention of White, my interest was piqued and I quickly started to wake up.

“Yeah… yeah, that was me. What about it?” The two were silent for a moment and turned to each other, sharing a silent thought before turning back to me.

“We need you to come with us.”

“What for?” by now the others had started to wake. Behind me I heard the sound of Starry gasping and pushing Bolts away, followed by a slight groan of pain from the young stallion.

“The Law would like to have a word with you.”

“The law?” I asked, confused.

“You are to come with us immediately, you do not need any belongings, including your armour. Weapons are to be left here as well. We only need you, not you companions. Please, follow us.” The two were very professional in their speech. Their strong, threatening presence also helped them as well.

“Clear? Is everything alright?” Starry called behind me.

“Yeah… Yeah everything’s just fine. I’m going to step out for a while guys, don’t wait up.” I didn’t turn to them as I spoke.

“Are you sure you don’t need our help?” Bolts asked as he sat back up.

“Positive… I’ll… I’ll see you guys soon…” I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me, now alone with the large stallions. I could hear chatter coming from down the hall, showing that other patrons of the pub were awake.

“Follow us, everything will be made clear soon.” One of the stallions stepped off, making me follow while the other walked behind me, making sure I wasn’t able to leave.

*** *** ***

The two walked me through the city, heading ever closer to the centre. Even for the fairly early hours of the morning, there were already wastelanders walking about as some vendors had started opening their stalls and stores late. I was still curious about who wanted to see me.

“So… which member of ‘the law’ wants to see me? Do you mean like the head of security or something?”

“It’s not a member of the law that wants to see you, it is The Law who wants to see you.” The stallion’s words just made me even more confused.

“Don’t worry kid, you’ll understand soon enough.” The other said behind me as we walked along through the slowly forming crowds of ponies. It wasn’t long before we came to the large tower that stood in the middle of the city. The tower was surrounded by another wall with more armed guards patrolling about with even stronger weapons than the ones out the front of the city. The guards escorting me didn’t say a word to the ones that stood guard at the front of the tower, they just silently nodded to each other. With the permission from the nod we were allowed to move into the tower. I had no clue what the tower had been before the war, some sort of office building or maybe a hotel, it was hard to say as I didn’t get any time to look around as I was lead into an elevator and taken up to one of the top floors. Once the doors opened, the stallions quietly lead me down a hallway, its carpet old, dirty and torn in places. Much like every other building in the wasteland, the inside was covered with years of dirt, dust and grime. The hallway was deafly quiet, it was as if no one else was on the floor except us and I started to wonder if the guards got the wrong floor. Soon they stopped me at a door, one that had a large purple star painted over the front, mirroring the smaller ones on the guards’ armour.

“This is it.” The lead stallion said before knocking on the door and opening it up. “We brought the one that started that fight yesterday.” I tried to look passed the stallion to get a look at the pony inside. I got a glimpse of him, the pony had his hooves resting on his desk as he laid back, a large hat covering his face. The pony raised a hoof and shook it, dismissing the guards. “Understood.” The lead stallion said, how anything got done around here without words was beyond me. The stallion moved aside and let me step in. “Best be on your good behaviour, kid.”

“I’m not a kid.” I retorted just before he closed the door. I still couldn’t see the pony’s face but he was clearly awake, just didn’t start speaking, so I thought I should take the lead. Clearing my throat, I started to speak. “I’m sorry for all this trouble, I think all this is just a misunderstanding. The stallion I was having that argument with is a notorious slaver by the name of Whi-“

“Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to speak until spoken to?” The pony spoke up and cut me off. But my reason for stopping was more than just because they started to talk. The main reason was their voice. Where I expected a deep, gruff, gravelly voice of a stallion, instead my ears were met with the voice of a mare. It was still a voice that commanded respect none the less, but I didn’t expect to face a mare upon walking into the office. “Well?” the mare called again and raised a revolver. I expected her to point the weapon at me to start an intimidation, but instead she used it to lift her hat slightly, revealing one of her eyes, her horn and her long purple mane. “Didn’t your mother even tell you to actually respond to when somepony is actually talking to you?”

“I… umm… yeah, she did… sorry, I just didn’t expect to face a mare when I was brought up here, your guards didn’t tell me anything.”

“And why should they have?” Her speech wasn’t aggressive but it had a tone to it that made me silence myself again. “You were told that I wanted to see you, what else needed to be said? You had no reason to know who I was, only that I wanted to see you because you decided to start shit in my city.” She glared at me through squinted eyes from under her hat before she put her hooves down and stood up. As she stood she took off her hat and I finally got to see her face. She was a light grey mare with a few scars on her face, but otherwise she was beautiful for an older mare. Her deep purple mane flowed off her head and curled at its ends, part of her mane flowed over the front of her face, covering her right eye. “If you must know who I am, you will address me as Marshall and I am The Law of New Sydneigh, I am the one who put the ‘safe’ in Safeway. Now, you understand why you are here don’t you?”

“Umm… Would it be because I started a fight with a slaver?”

“Good at least you know that part. You’re not as dim-witted as I thought. It is my understanding that you acted without being provoked, pulled a gun on the stallion known as White and threatened to blow his brains out. Is that correct?”

“No, no it’s not. Well… it is for the most part, but I was provoked. Please, you don’t know how dangerous he is. If you could arrest him, it would make my job a lot easier.”

“Oh will it, so by making my job more complicated I would be making yours easier.” She turned away from me and used her magic to open the blinds of the large window that had been behind her desk. Once she opened the blinds, the room flooded with light as we could see to the outside world. The room’s window was pointed directly at the entrance to the city. “Do you know why this city is so safe?”

“Isn’t it because of a zero tolerance policy on violence?...”

“That is correct and it has been like that for years. Though only in the last twenty has the shoot on sight order been given.” The mare didn’t turn to look at me. I could see the reason why the guards all had purple stars on their armour, because she had a large one on the back of her duster. Though I couldn’t see it, I could almost guess that it was her cutie mark. “It’s my understanding that while my guards had the order to shoot you on sight, they didn’t because civilians would have gotten in the way. You got lucky.”

“So what? Did you bring me here to shoot me yourself?” I asked, ready to run, but she just started to chuckle.

“Ha ha ha, if only it were that simple. No, you see, you’re actually quite useful. Mr, Clear Shot.” I was surprised she knew my name.

“So you know of me?”

“Indeed I do, the buffoon upstairs hasn’t shut up about your exploits, hoping that you’d one day show up at our gates. Personally I didn’t care either way if we saw your face around here. Then when the guards changed shifts at the front, word started to spread about your being here. All I had to do was put two and two together to realise just who it was causing a ruckus in my peaceful city.”

“Buffoon?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard that hack on the radio. The host with the bad puns has barely shut up about you.”

“I see… so, now that you know who I am, you’ll let me kill White?”

“HA! Yeah right.” She laughed loudly at me.

“Well will you at least arrest him?!” I was starting to get frustrated as she didn’t give me a straight answer.

“Do you see a prison here?!” she finally raised her voice at me. “Sydneigh has no prison, we have the shoot on sight law for a reason! With the law, my guards keep the peace because no raider is going to try anything knowing that ten guns would be on him in a second. I brought you here to give you a warning. My guards could not fire on you yesterday, you will not have that luxury again.” She stopped for a moment to sigh. “Don’t get me wrong, I like what you are doing in the wasteland, but do not bring it into my home. This is your only warning, keep your guns holstered, or die.”

“This is crazy! Right below you there are dozens of slavers and raiders, all manners of scrum from the wasteland, you could do the place a favour by getting rid of them all! But instead you have these stupid rules!”

“Stupid rules!?” she spun around and glared at me, even though I was fixated on her eyes, I did get the chance to notice that she wore two holsters, each containing a revolver. “How dare you! You’ve been wandering the wastes for how long? A few weeks? And now you think you have the right to tell me how to run my city?! Inside these walls I’m the one that keeps ponies safe, I’m the one that makes sure there’s peace, in here I AM THE LAW!” She slammed a hoof down on her desk. “And I’m not going to have some cocky little shit from the wasteland tell me otherwise!” I tried not to back down and stand my ground.

“Look… there are ponies down there who are dangerous… I’m guessing you’ve been here your whole life, it’s a dangerous place out there…” I said, quickly changing my tone.

“Oh I know more about the wasteland and about those raiders than you think I do.”

“You… you do?”

“Of course, I was one of them once.” She said flatly. I was shocked and dumbfounded that the head of security for the city used to a raider. It seemed so out of place.

“How… how did a raider become the most strict head of security I’ve ever seen?!”

“Simple, I saw something I wanted and took it.”

“Please, enlighten me. I want to hear the full story.” The mare was quiet for at least a minute, not answering me. “What? Is your past really that bad?”

“No, I just have no reason to tell you.” She turned around and started looking out the window again. I knew that one day my curiosity would be the death of me, but I still wanted to know about her past.

“If you tell me, I’ll leave you alone and leave Sydneigh as soon as I can. I’ll be out of your mane.” The mare paused a little longer before giving off a sound that was both a groan and a sigh.

“Your parents didn’t teach you any manners at all did they? Fine, but once I tell you I want you gone.” I nodded, my reflection in the glass telling her I understood and agreed. “Okay. It was about twenty or so years ago, I was about your age and like I said, I was a raider. Back then Sydneigh didn’t have the shoot on sight rule, instead the guards just threw us out, but we could get back in the next day. It was more of an annoyance than anything, you break a chair over some dumbass stallion’s head and then you’re back out in the cold. I gained a bit of a reputation for, as they put it so kindly, being a real fucking bitch.” I listened intently to her story, the details not surprising me anymore. “In fact, it got so bad that the last head of security personally came to throw me out one night. He was an old bastard, didn’t take shit from anyone, real stubborn too. He kept going on about how I was throwing my life away and that I’d never be anything great. I don’t know what it was that night, maybe I took it as a challenge or maybe I just wanted to rub his smug face in it, I can’t remember, but I wanted to prove him wrong. The next day I marched into his office and told him I wanted to be part of his guards. We argued for hour but I eventually wore him down.” A smug smirk started to cross her face. “He let me train and join. Over time I rose through the ranks until I was next in charge under him. I still remember when he gave me that promotion, he smiled and finally said he was wrong and proud of me. He said something along the lines of I was the daughter he never had.”

“Sounds like he cared for you.” I spoke up. “Don’t you think he’s upset about the shoot on sight law?”

“Possibly, but he’d be hard pressed to be upset, seeing as he’s dead.” My ears dropped, feeling bad for the mare.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Don’t be. It was a long time ago. As I stayed as his second in command, I noticed that he started become more lenient and lazy. Fights broke out over town and he told me that it was now my job to stop fights instead of start them. And I did, for a while. But as time went on, I saw the old stallion change. He wasn’t the stubborn bastard I knew before, now he was just lazy. Over a month I started making connections with the other guards, told them about how the old man had changed and he wasn’t fit to lead anymore. I staged a coup against him and we threw him out of the city.” Now I was back to being shocked, the mare seemed less like a marshal and more like a dictator.

“So you threw him out, doesn’t mean he’s dead.”

“Oh yes it does. We threw him out but he fought back. He yelled at me, told me that I was no longer the mare he thought I was and as I turned my back on him, he pulled his gun on me. He didn’t get to fire though, because before he could, I turned and put a bullet between his eyes.” My mouth dropped. While she could have claimed it was self-defence, I’m almost certain she did it without remorse. I quickly fixed my mouth back in place as she turned around and pulled out her two revolvers. “This was his.” She said as she placed an old revolver with a pearl grip on the desk. “A this was the gun I used to kill him.” She put down her second revolver, one that was pure black. “That old bastard may have been the last reason Sydneigh was safe and prosperous, but I’m its new reason. Before me slavers were not allowed to sell slaves and there were always fights. Now ponies are too scared to raise their hooves in anger and slavers can sell here, bringing more business to the city. Now I’m going to say this one last time. In here, I am the law, and you will obey my orders. I don’t care who you are outside these walls and I don’t care about the anger you have for those who walk in. You will not start anymore fights or my guards will shoot you where you stand. I don’t care what you do or who you kill outside the walls, but in here, you will keep your weapons holstered. Have I made myself clear?” I remained silent and didn’t look at her, still processing her story.

“Crystal…”

“Good, now get out of my sights.” I didn’t say a word as I turned and opened the door, only to have her call out once more. “Oh, and enjoy your time in the city.” She said in an ironic tone as she put away her revolvers. With nothing more for her to say, I left, almost slamming the door as I left.

*** *** ***

I made my way out of the tower and moved back towards the pub my group had stayed at the previous night, the mare’s story weighing heavily on my mind. Along the way I bumped into Soulful as he was headed for the same tower, hoping to audition for the radio with his music. He had questioned why I looked down but I passed it off as not enough sleep and wished him luck as I moved to the pub. Upon my arrival I was called over by Bolts, Starry and Minty who had all sat down at a table, dirty plates in front of them.

“Hey Clear, we were starting to worry about you.” Bolts said, calling me over.

“It was mainly just Bolts, he was starting to say we should go out looking for you.” Starry added.

“I’m fine guys, though I’ve learnt a few things.”

“Hmm? Like what?”

“That the head of security is a mare and she’s got a few screws loose. She killed the last head of security after he took her in because she didn’t think he was running the place good enough.” The three of them looked at me dumbfounded. “Yeah I had the same look when she told me. I don’t think we should stay long. I’m going to get dressed then I’ll be down and we’ll work out a plan.” Without any of us saying another word, I moved upstairs to get changed. I wasn’t sure of the time, between the late wake up and talking to Marshall, it must have been close to the middle of the day now. It wasn’t long before I reached the room I had rented and entered it. I quickly put on my armour, bandoleer, duster and rifle, I was starting to look like a walking armoury, a stallion covered in bullets and armour. I was just about to strap my holster to my ankle when I stopped and looked at it. Marshall’s story still on my mind, I considered for a moment to leave my weapons behind and just spend the day enjoying my time with the others, but I couldn’t find it in me to put the weapon down. With White so close, I leave myself open if leave my weapons alone. “Is this what my life has become?” I asked softly to the empty room. I stood there for just a moment longer before strapping the holster to my ankle and walking to the door. I exited the room and started walking down the hall when I got a surprise.

“Clear!” Bolts and Golden were running up to me fast.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s White!” Bolt’s called as they ran right up to me.

“What about him… wait…” I took note of Golden being there “He’s leaving!?”

“Yeah, I saw him heading for the gate pretty quickly, his goons carrying their stuff, he’s about to leave.” Golden said at a quickened pace. It was my chance, he was leaving so once he was outside I could kill him.

“let’s go! I need some answers.” I pushed passed the two and took the lead as I ran down the stairs, I could hear that they were close behind me. As we barrelled down the stairs I ran up to Starry and Minty. “Starry, take care of Minty, we’re going to go get some information.” Before Starry could open her mouth, I ran out the door and started heading down the street towards the gate, Bolts and Golden right behind me. The streets were a little crowded as we raced down towards the large, closed gate.

As we approached the gate I yelled out to the guards. “Open the gates!” the two in charge of opening the gates just looked confused as I skidded to a halt in front of them. “I need those gates open now! Someone just left that I need answers from.”

“The white stallion in the suit with a couple of guards.” Golden said behind me, I could tell she was putting feminine charm into her words as the guards started moving to open the gate.

“Ummm… yeah he’s just outside, you haven’t missed him yet.” The guards moved and started opening the gates and as they were beginning to open, I could hear White on the other side.

“Hurry up yous mugs. We haves to get backs to Crimson before she starts getting pissy. Plus that kid’s bound to finds out that we’s leaving.” The gate seemed to move slowly but as the gap opened in the middle, I could see him. With my anger starting to come out, I raised my voice.

“White!” the mention of his name made the stallion turn around, he was standing on a cart with packs loaded onto the back. I could just see Knuckles and Bullwhip hitching themselves up. But White didn’t look scared at all, in fact he was grinning.

“Ahh kid, goods to see ya. Sorry I can’ts stay and chat, I gots a date I can’t miss. We mights sees each other soon though~.”

“Boss, we’re ready.” Knuckles called up to him.

“Then get movin’ and double time it wills ya? See ya kid, better luck next time!” he laughed as they set off, but I wasn’t going to give up. I didn’t wait for the gate to fully open, instead I squeezed through the gap and ran out trying to see him. He hadn’t made it far at all but before I could draw my rifle, Bolts called out to me.

“Clear! Over here!” I turned to see him and Golden hooking themselves up to one of the carts we had brought with us, thankfully Gyp hadn’t done anything with them yet. I didn’t say anything as I ran and jumped into the cart and we took off. We gave chase to the slavers, but since their cart was full of supplies, they were weighed down and we started gaining on them. Even though we were gaining on the slavers, they were still a fair distance ahead and I decided to stop them, for good. Taking off my rifle I made use of its new bipod and used it to rest it against the top of the cart and stead my aim.

“Remember Clear!” Golden called over the wind rushing passed my ears. “If you want information, you’re going to need him alive!”

“I know!” I called back and took aim. My bobbing crosshairs moved from the back of White’s head to just the left of him. His guard Knuckles’ head was only just bobbing in and out of view in front of his cart. It wasn’t an easy shot, but I took aim none the less. I steadied my breathing and focused on the back of Knuckles skull. I counted the seconds between bobs and waited until my crosshairs lined up and did my best to cut all noise from my thought. Time seemed to slow as I held my breath then gently exhaled and squeezed the trigger, letting the round fly. What happened next was something I hadn’t counted on. The bullet blew out Knuckles’ head and his body immediately went limp, falling under the cart. The stallion’s large corpse acted as makeshift stopper, but it didn’t stop the cart, oh no. instead, the force of the almost immediate stop caused the cart to flip forward, making Bullwhip trip and crashing on top of her while also sending White and the supplies flying into the air.

“Well that’s one way to stop a cart…” Bolts commented as they started to slow down, no longer needing to give chase.

“Fuck…” Golden added. I was speechless at what I had seen, it would be a surprise if any of them had survived the crash. I put my rifle on my back as we pulled up to the cart and I hopped off. Food, caps and ammunition were spilled all over the ground and went on for a few metres. I could hear Bullwhip gasping and coughing under cart as a pool of blood quickly started to form. As we moved to the front, I could see her face and head poking out of the wood, contorted in an expression of terror. Her neck was broken and she couldn’t speak, it wouldn’t be long before she died. I was just about to look for White when I heard his cry of pain.

“UGH! FUCK! My legs! URGH!” I looked over to where the cry came from and saw him not far away. I started walking over to him and it wasn’t long before the damage became apparent. His suit was completely torn up with his pistol not far from him. One of his front legs was snapped, a bloody white bone sticking out of it. His face was also messed up with a broken nose and a bloodied lip. Slowly he looked up and it was like he was taking a second to register who I was before crying out again. “YOU! YOU FUCKING CUNT!” he whipped his head around looking for his pistol then started crawling towards it once it was found. He couldn’t move his back legs at all, or at least he wasn’t trying to, he was just crawling forward on his one good, though heavily bloodied leg. It was a sad sight to see, but it didn’t deter me. Slowly I walked up and kicked his pistol away. I glared down at him and he glared back, through what I thought were tear filled eyes. “You piece of shit! I’m going to fucking kill you! I’m going to murder you! AND YOUR FAMILY TOO!” he wailed but he was quickly losing blood, even if I wanted to save him, he’d have a slim chance of surviving.

“You really are pathetic aren’t you?” I said quietly.

“ME?! You’re the pathetic one! You… you piece of shit! ARGH!”

“You’re not going to live much longer. If you want even the faintest chance of living, you’ll tell me who you’re working with.” I was bluffing, but he was in no position to decline, yet he just smirked up at me.

“You don’t get it huh? Asshole! You don’t know who you’re messin’ with! Crimson will find you! And she’ll kill you!” His eyes were completely focused on me. I kept an expressionless face as I took out the gilded revolver and showed it to him.

“You mean the bitch that owned this?” I showed him the markings on the revolver and his smirk quickly left.

“No… NO! you… YOU DIDN’T KILL HER!” I don’t know what came over me, but I started seeing red. My anger got the better of me and I gritted my teeth, gripped the revolver tight in my magic and slammed it across his face, making a tooth and blood fly out.

“NO I DIDN’T KILL HER! I tortured her and THEN I killed her! I made her feel the pain that she made dozens of mares feel!” (what am I doing?...) “Now tell me who the fuck you’re working with and I might just fucking spare you!” I placed the barrel of the revolver against his head as he slowly looked up and spat out a mouthful of blood. For the first time, he actually looked scared, and I was actually feeling some joy from it.

“Okay… okay… just… please don’t kill me…” I pushed the barrel harder against his head.

“Then tell me.”

“Okay… there… there’s four of us… you’ve already… m-met Crimson… we… we were all given part of Hoofstralia to take care of… I… I was the North and Crimson was the East…” his speech was mixed with hints of pain and he stopped every so often to wince. “C-Cobalt Sabre runs a slave mill in the south and Emerald Tempest is over on the… the West… Please… that’s… that’s all I can say…”

“What about your boss?”

“I… I don’t know… he keeps moving… The… the others might know… that’s all I know now… please let me go…”

“Are you positive that’s all you know?”

“Y-yes… now… please…” I was never going to let him go, not after what he had done. I pulled back the hammer on my revolver, letting it give off a very audible click in the silence of the wasteland. Suddenly White looked up at me as tears started streaming from his eyes. WHAT?! No!... NO PLEASE! SPARE ME!”

“Sorry, it’s just business.” I echoed his words to me when we first met.

“PLEASE!” BANG! I released the hammer and sent the bullet through his head, making blood splatter over my gun and my face. Sighing, my anger slowly left my mind and my body started to relax as my vision returned to normal and I turned back to the others.

“Two down.” I said, I almost felt like smiling, but as I saw the faces of the others, that quickly changed. Bolts looked like he had turned pale and was speechless, Golden had her mouth slightly open and… Starry was there too, with the same expression that Golden had. Then I heard it, the faint sound of sobbing coming behind Starry, Minty had seen what I had done and was cowering behind Starry.

“Clear… what… what was that?” Bolts asked.

“I… I don’t know?... he… made me angry…”

“Didn’t you hear us at all?!” Starry asked.

“Heard you?”

“We were yelling at you to stop, you were scaring Minty!”

“You didn’t have to kill him like that Clear.” Bolts added, regaining some of his colour. “He was dying, he wouldn’t have lasted the next hour. But you turned into… that and you killed him… Will this happen whenever you meet up with one of these assholes!?”

“I… I…” I noticed Starry gently hug and comfort Minty who softly muttered something to the pegasus mare.

“Minty and I are going back, she needs something to take her mind off what she just saw.”

“I’m… I’m sorry…” I said softly, taking a step towards them, just making Minty flinch and look like she wanted to run off.

“Clear… I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come back for a little while…” Bolts said to me. “You’re unstable and I don’t know the others want to be around you right now…”

“But… you want to… right?” I asked the stallion who took a step back.

“Clear… I know you mean well… but I think you need to think about what just happened… that wasn’t normal… that wasn’t the stallion I joined all those weeks ago… please just… just stay away for a while…” I was speechless as he moved. I was distraught, my friends were abandoning me. I needed to get my head together. Golden hadn’t moved away but she wasn’t looking at me. I figured it wasn’t best to talk then and there and decided to let her be and I walked off. I needed to be alone with my thoughts, I needed to know what was happening to me.

*** *** ***

I had walked passed the gate of Sydneigh to the other side where just a little bit away was the ocean. I sat just a little bit back from the cliff where it was just a straight drop to rocks and crashing waves. Not too far away was the remains of an old bridge that used to connect the mainland with a small island just off the coast. I had sat there for a solid hour just looking out towards the sea. I was trying my best to wrap my head around what had happened. Whatever it was, it was driving my friends away and I needed it to stop. Slowly I took out the revolver that I had placed in the holster without cleaning. It was very bloody, yet my slight reflection still shined through. I looked down at my reflection in it, but I wasn’t sure who’s eyes I was looking at in the blood stained chrome. They were mine, but at the same time, they weren’t. I gave a deep sigh and tried to clear my mind more when a voice appeared behind me.

“Hey… mind if I lay with you?” I turned to see Golden Shield standing there, her mane and tail blowing in the sea breeze “I collected all the supplies and stuff I could get and took them to your friends…”

“Oh… Hey… yeah… you can lay with me, so long as you don’t mind laying next to a murderer.” She gave me a soft smile.

“So long as you let me give you the same option.” Golden laid down beside me, close. “What was that Clear? That was crazy…”

“I know… I don’t know what it was… I was just… overcome by anger… I… really hated him… what did you mean by letting you give me the same option” I wanted to change the subject.

“You know it’s hard to live a life now without killing. Even without White, you’ve killed before and so have I. It’s about survival.” I sighed and looked down.

“It wasn’t like that this time… this wasn’t about survival… it was about hate…” I felt her move in close and nuzzle me.

“You’re a good pony, don’t let this get you down, sometimes we just need to get some stuff out of our systems.” I don’t know why, but I felt safe with her and she made me smile.

“You think so?”

“I do.” She smiled up at me and she leaned up and kissed me. The fact that she was kissing me still felt a little awkward, but after a moment I kissed back. It was nice, I had a mare that cared about me that I cared for as well. I wanted her to travel with me. Before I could pull back, I felt her magic wrap around me and she started removing my rifle and revolver.

“Umm… what are you doing?” I asked, finally pulling back.

“Just getting… comfortable~” She smiled at me as she place my weapons behind us and she started to remove my duster. Embarrassed, I spoke up, trying to think of something else.

“So… umm… you… you said to ask when White was dead… if you wanted to join us…” she stopped removing my duster for a moment before continuing.

“Umm… about that… I have another idea.” She said after her pause. “The others don’t seem to want to travel with you now… so why not come with me?” she removed my duster and then my bandoleer, I wasn’t fighting her at all. Then she started to remove my armour.

“I… I don’t know… I really want to keep them close… I trust them…”

“Don’t you trust me?~”

“I… I do… I just don’t know right now…” she slipped my armour off and threw it behind us, I was now completely naked. She then removed her own and did something odd, she got up and moved behind me and she started kneading my back with her hooves, making me feel more relaxed, though feeling her body against mine just made me focus tension in a different spot.

“Tell me Clear, why are you out here? Why are you killing these slavers?”

“I mmm told you why… slavers killed my little sister… then White caused Barley at Merry Burrows so much pain… and the less said about Crimson the better…”

“You really hate them huh? Ever think in a different life you could have given them another chance?”

“Hell no. I hate them. They’re the scum of the wasteland and in no matter what life, I’d rather see them all burn.” Click. My heart came to a complete standstill as I heard the cocking of a revolver and felt cold steel being gently pressed against the back of my head.

“That’s just too bad~”


Footnote: Level Up!

New Perk: Primal Rage: When confronting a ‘boss’ like enemy, you may lose all consciousness to the world around you, but your damage dealt, damage threshold and damage resistance are increased tenfold until the deed is done. PER reduced to 0, ST raised to 9 during confrontation with ‘boss’ enemy.