Fallout Equestria: Fly Away

by Freeflyingwolf

Chapter 13: Calm

Fallout Equestria: Fly Away

By Freeflyingwolf

Chapter 13: Calm

”After a storm comes a calm.”--Matthew Henry

Celly opened her wings wide and beat them down to soften her landing. The manticore’s muzzle turned up into a smile as her paws touched upon the soft grass. Not far off, there were some nests with ostriches bedding down and others milling around, guarding. At the gate, there were zebra guards and buffalo on guard. More pedestrians were walking around and grazing.

All eyes turned to the manticore pulling a flying wagon that was painted to match the sky, with glass doors, and equines inside. Once the guards assured the zebras and bison that they were not hostile, they went back to grazing and chatting. One guard went inside while the group got out.

While the boys picked up their saddlebags, Lacey jumped outside and unstrapped Celly from the Sky Carriage with her magic. As she turned back to watch the boys step out, the mare noticed words on the side of the carriage she had missed previously. In what she had mistaken as a pattern of clouds, there were the words ”Alicorns’ Bane”. The pony frowned at that.

“Tall Soft Heart!” A booming voice called out.

Sunshy turned just in time to be swept up into a great big hug by the crushingly large Chief Fluffy Doom. The doctor was sure he heard and felt something of his break. Trying to be nice, he bit back the pain and forced a weak smile. The bison dropped the pony, allowing him to fall to the ground. The spike of pain in his legs caused him to collapsed; yep, broken.

“Great to see you, gotta get back to our hut, bye!” Zen saw his colt-friend in pain and quickly covered for him, walking over to him with the intent to sweep him away.

The manticore saw it too and acted quickly. She closed the space between them in a single bound, grabbed Sunshy by the mane, and deposited him on her back. Celly jumped up into the air and soared over the wall. All the huts appeared the same to her; a helpful buffalo mare pointed her in the right direction. While she could not see it, she heard the other two galloping after them.

Celly kept her wings open as she bounded off to keep her landings as soft as possible. Sunshy pulled on her ear when she bounded right past their hut. The manticore skidded to a stop, turned back, and pushed the door open with a paw.

The hut was surprisingly tall; however, Sunshy recalled that full-grown buffalo did live here. Celly was able to walk inside with only minimal ducking. The inside was scarcely furnished, with only a pile of hay on each far sort of end that a circle hut could make, a table opposite of the door with a lamp of werefire, a fridge running on a few spark batteries against the right wall, and a pile of things they had gotten for presents dumped into the middle of hut.

The manticore walked over to one pile of hay and waited as Sunshy fluttered over to the pile and gingerly lied down, favoring his broken leg.

“I’ll need a brace to set this in before it heals improperly.” The pegasus doctor told his sister.

Celly nodded and walked out, bumping into Zen and Royal Lace. The latter squeezed inside and saw the state of Sunshy’s leg. It had begun swelling and was bent at an unusual angle. She quickly bolted out of the hut, shouting for a leg brace as Celly circled into the air. Zen lied down next to Sunshy, who continued to favor his injured leg.

“Can’t believe you really broke your leg from a hug.” Zen stated.

“I have a fragile bone structure.” Sunshy offered weakly with a wing-shrug.

“Even your leg bone? Isn’t that one of the strongest bones?”

“Hard to not see how skinny I am. I’ve always had a rather weak bone structure. Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t broken anything before this. Like falling out of that slide from…Wait a minute! Discord, can you hear me?” Sunshy leaned his head back and tried to get his “gift” from Discord into his sight.

“Kinda hard not to with you yelling, Sunny. So, what do you want?” The voice of their benefactor floated from the translucent collar. Zen was rather shocked at how clear it was, but kept quiet.

“What did you mean ‘How swell things had been going’? I was almost raped and then gutted!” Sunshy stated strongly; the zebra nuzzled his cheek in an attempt to calm him down.

“But you got away, made your first kill, and realized your true feelings for Zen. It all worked out.” The voice was followed by a chuckle.

“I never wanted to kill anyone. Ever…”

“You have to out in the wasteland. It’s sort of my rule.”

“Well…well…” Sunshy stared around, trying to find the right words for how he felt.

“Yes?” The spirit of Chaos prompted. Zen could envision him here, floating up with his head in his hands, staring down at Sunshy with that stupid grin, just waiting for his response.

“Fuck you!” Sunshy shouted, startling the zebra into staring at him wide-eyed.

“Ah, there’s the real Sunny. Nice to meet you.” Discord chuckled.

“Arrggghhhh!” Sunshy floated so he could stamp down his good hoof, “I used to be a kind, caring, never-lost-my-temper pony! And now I’m turning into an asshole! I hate this wasteland!”

“Hey, I think I’m doing a good job. You saw my cave, would you like the rest of the world to look like that?”

“No…that made my head hurt.” Sunshy resigned as he landed and lied down, holding his injured leg out awkwardly.

“Really? Too bad, I was thinking of turning the world into that nice insane chaos and not this kill-everything-that’s-alive chaos.”

“I change my mind! I want that world; I’m fine with that world.”

“Nope, too late, I’ve made up my mind. Wasteland stays as it is.”

“You’re just messing with me, aren’t you?” Sunshy grumbled, laying his head on his hoof.

“It’s really quite fun. You’re easy to annoy.”

“If you weren’t so darn powerful, I’d tear off this collar and just tell you to buck off.” Zen couldn’t help but snort at Sunshy’s sudden restriction of swearing.

“Good thing I have your life and the lives of your friends in my claws, then.”

“Sunny? We got you that leg brace.” Royal Lace said from outside the hut.

The unicorn mare floated the blue leather-and-metal contraption inside their home before she walked in; Celly stayed outside, sitting guard. Mentally preparing himself, the doctor stood up and held his broken leg out. Lacey slipped the brace on and then enveloped his entire leg in her magic. The two locked eyes, the unicorn asking if what she had to do was alright with him. Silently, the pegasus nodded and scrunched his eyes shut.

Zen dug in Sunshy’s saddlebox, pulled out a Med-X, and injected it into his buckfriend’s leg moments before Lacey used her telekinesis to pop the bone into place. Even with the numbing effect from the drug, the pegasus still shouted in pain and collapsed, trying not to cry.

The zebra lied down next to him and cuddled, trying to ease his pain however he could. The unicorn floated out a pink healing potion to the pegasus’s lips. He finished the drink in one go, letting out a sigh of bliss as the bone that would have taken months to heal mended itself in a matter of moments. Lacey smiled as she took off the brace, folded it up neatly, and placed it in Sunshy’s enchanted saddlebox.

“How in the world did you break your leg?” Discord asked through the collar. His voice startled Royal Lace; she whipped her head around, trying to find the source, but came up with nothing.

“A hug from Chief Fluffy Doom.” Zen answered, finding it so terribly ironic when said aloud.

“Zen! So glad you’re here, I have something for you.”

Without another warning, the spirit of Disharmony and Chaos appeared in the tiny hut. Apparently, he was not expecting it to be so small, as he tried to stand and hit his horns on the grass roof. The zebra and unicorn had to hold back their giggles as he pulled the dried flora from his horns and brushed it off his head. His tail snaked to the door and closed it; the werelight lantern flared up instantly as a bright red and yellow flame.

“I forgot to give you this before you all left in such a hurry.” Discord proclaimed before producing a necklace from nothingness in his paw hand. Sunshy wanted to point out that he was the one to send them away, but restrained from doing so.

The necklace Discord had conjured was blood red. In the middle were a couple of gems in the shape of a chest with a padlock on it. Zen stared at it for a while before proclaiming, “That shit is girly.”

“Of course it’s girly; the last bearer was a pony mare. And that’s why it always kills me to read those old war propaganda posters. Like there’s this one on the Manehatten Celestia Line that just slays me!” Apparently it was really funny, as he started laughing his head off…literally. Even though he was the one to close the door, there were probably others outside wonder what the hell was going on. Once he had his head back onto his body—it had been rolling around in the air—then the spirit looked to Zen. “Alright, enough fun, take it.”

“Hell no, I ain’t wearing that girly shit.”

“Wear. It.” The draconequus held it up at Zen, who shook his head.

Then the zebra bolted to the door, but found it would not open. Discord floated after him, still holding the necklace in his eagle claw hand out to the zebra. Zen dashed under the floating creature and out of his grip. It quickly turned into a chase scene straight out of one of those stupid television shows Sunshy watched as a colt.

The chase was short, especially since Discord just threw his tail out and ensnared the zebra by the hooves. Once on the ground, he was lifted up in a way that his bound hog-tied-hooves were up in the air. Discord smirked at the zebra in triumph. Zen just huffed and squirmed against his bindings.

Discord used his free hands to hook the necklace around the struggling black and white equine. Almost instantly, the necklace glowed and changed form. After a few moments, it melted into the shape of a platinum spiked collar with his black circle of Zen in the middle.

“Proof! You really are the Bearer of the Element of Greed.” Discord chuckled as he let Zen drop to the floor ungracefully.

The zebra landed heavily and groaned. Sunshy helped him roll onto his hooves and checked over his back with the eyes of a professional. The pegasus fluttered over to the pile and dug around, though no one was sure what he was hoping he would find. Discord snorted in laughter when the pony became little more than a rump, tail, and hindhooves; the rest was buried in junk.

“Quit lookin’ at my stallion!” Zen shouted before launching himself at the spirit. The lithe creature moved his snake-like body forward just a bit so that he was in the shape of an S, dodging the attack entirely.

“Really? You really tried that again?” Discord sounded disappointed more than anything as he floated above the zebra.

“I learn slow…” Zen acknowledged with a frown.

With an exclamation of triumph, Sunshy wiggled himself out of his pile—which filled in the hole after him—and walked over to his coltfriend with an icepack in his mouth. The pony placed it on the ground and stomped on it; the pack crackled and solidified. He then picked it up and set it down on the zebra’s back. In response, he let out a moan that was almost orgasmic, making the pegasus flush red and trot over to the other side of the room, pointedly staying quiet.

“I think he did that just to make you uncomfortable.” Lacey pointed out to the pegasus with a slight frown and a shake of her head at the zebra. Then the unicorn thought of something, “Hey wait, it rained yesterday, so our prints would be washed away…”

“Yeah?” Zen questioned as Discord conjured a cotton candy cloud.

“Then how did Shorty find us?”

“I led him to you.” The spirit of Chaos answered simply, his muzzle coated in the sweet treat.

“Why?”

“So you’d be near my slide. I wanted us to be on good terms for our first meeting.” Discord answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

“I just thought of something. Zen, isn’t your cutie, I mean Glyph Mark about teaching self-enlightenment?” Sunshy questioned, finally turning away from the wall. “I thought you said you liked helping others.”

“Oh, I like it, I just like charging others if they want my help to know themselves. I got my mark when I was enlightened about myself, not others.” Zen answered, still lying on the ground in icepack bliss.

“Selfish asshole. I had you pegged from the beginning.” Lacey shot at the zebra.

“You’re not any better, miss Bigotry.” Discord chuckled as he floated above the unicorn mare.

A blood red necklace was in his eagle claw, one with a gem of a bubbling beaker tube and bubbles foaming from the top. The necklace was dropped from his claw and landed on Royal Lace’s horn, which stuck out from under her hat. The necklace glowed white and slid down to her neck. The necklace changed into solid gold with a decoration in the middle of a crown made of lavish and beautiful lace. The gems that made it sparkled, as though it was diamond. At a second look at Zen’s collar showed that his glyph mark on it was comprised of black jewels.

With a smile, Discord stated, “My work here is done,” and then vanished in a blink of white light.

“Someone has some explaining to do.” Zen said in a sing-song voice.

“Fine!”

Royal Lace quickly and messily took off her duster, tearing parts off in her haste. It was thrown messily onto the ground, along with her hat. Her mane and tail were a little rustled from such action. Then her horn glowed briefly, making her cutie mark flash. Once the light faded, the icon on the necklace appeared on her flanks.

“I lied about my cutie mark, but the rest I told you is true, Sunshy. I was old enough to at least have my cutie mark when that Legate came to marry me and I ran away. My cutie mark means that I’m exactly what you’d think. I was raised to know and still know I’m a fucking princess who looks out only for number one: me.” Royal Lace told them boldly, daring them to think less of her.

“But…I thought we were friends.” Sunshy stared at Lacey with a visage of utter heartbreak.

“I…” The unicorn’s huffy attitude deflated. “You’re a pegasus, and I’ve seen maybe one other in my life. So I thought you could be a useful ally, like with aerial attacks. Finding out you were a doctor…I knew I’d have to stick with you. Like I said before, doctors are rare and I knew if I befriended you, I’d be able to live a hell of a lot longer.” To her credit, Lacey appeared slightly ashamed of herself.

“Get the fuck out of here.” Zen stood up and walked over to the unicorn mare with a heated glare.

“What?” Royal Lace had the decency to appear shocked.

The zebra refused to repeat himself, instead stomping his hoof down close to her own. She turned to Sunshy for help, but he stared down, unable to look at her. Dejected, she held back her hurt and turned around. The unicorn mare pushed the door open and walked outside, past Celly. Curious at this, the manticore poked her head in and growled curiously.

Seeing her brother sulking, she crawled inside and curled around him, nuzzling his face in a comforting manner. Zen dug his hoof in the ground awkwardly, unsure as to what he was allowed to do. A scorpion tail wrapped around his body, lifted him up, and pulled him over. She set him down next to Sunshy and draped her wing around the two as the pegasus snuggled up to his coltfriend.

“I thought you’d be angry at me too…” Zen admitted.

“I’m not angry…I just feel…disillusioned. I should have been expecting this…I was told by just about everyone that everyone in the wasteland are bad ponies.” Sunshy muttered.

“I am a pretty crappy pony.” Zen agreed; Sunshy sputtered a laugh and giggled.

“If you were a bad person, I wouldn’t give you the time of day.”

Celly pulled her wing back and licked the two stallions on their heads. Then she walked over to the still open door and went outside, pulling it closed with her tail. Before she closed the door, she gave the boys a knowing smile as they cuddled up against each other.

However, the two jolted upright when the door suddenly slammed open. Zen glared at the intruder and then snarled upon seeing it was Lacey pushing Celly back inside. The pony ignored his anger and walked inside, her horn glowing. First, the couple were lifted up slightly and placed on the left hay pile; Celly walked after them and lied down around the two. After they were set down, the pile of junk in the middle glowed pink and was scooted off to the bottom-right of the hut.

The glow lessened until only a small hoof-sized section on the top was enveloped in pink. The items inside the magic floated in the air; a gun, some ammo, and a book. Lacey laid them down in seemingly random spots in the middle of the hut.

This process of hers was repeated until the pile of junk turned into two lines of organized items. Then she lifted up the saddlebag/boxes of the two boys and one manticore and dumped their things out. She repeated her process of organization while the slightly confused and rather miffed bucks simply watched.

They were grumpily thankful that she gave them a couple cans of corn; it was at that moment that they remembered they had yet to eat. One slab of Brahmin meat was thrown Celly’s way and was snapped up in an instant. As an afterthought, she floated over a couple canteens of dirty water.

The last organizing she did was setting their caps into piles of twenty. The majority of caps came from Zen’s saddles. Unsurprising, given what they now knew of him. He didn’t miss the sideways glance she shot him.

“Alright, now that we’re organized, we have to decide what to keep and what to sell.” Lacey stated as she placed their saddlebags in front of them, wide open. She also placed a spare, which they guessed would now be hers.

“All the medicinal items we keep in Sunshy’s boxes. I say we keep food not in cans with you, too, that way they won’t get punctured by stray bullets if we ever get into gunfights.” Zen offered, his anger set aside for this task.

“Okay.” Lacey floated most of what had been in Sunshy’s boxes back into them. A few wrapped-up sandwiches also went inside.

“That tiny stick is Zen’s, so put that back.” Sunshy walked over to the northern end of the pile, pointing to a tiny wooden cylinder under the Misc. pile.

“Don’t get why you need that.” Royal Lace muttered as she lifted it in her telekinesis.

“It’s my retractable lance, remember?” Zen told her in a ‘god-are-you-stupid’ tone of voice.

In response, she ‘accidentally’ poked him in the eye with it before settling it into his saddlebag. The zebra had quite a few colorful phrases for her as Sunshy placed the still-functioning icepack onto Zen’s eye.

After a few minutes, Sunshy, Celly, and Royal Lace were walking toward the center of town with their saddlebags full of items to sell. Zen refused to go anywhere with the unicorn and opted to brush up on Zebra Infiltration Tactics even though Sunshy was sure the zebra was able to sneak past Killing Joke.

“Hello, hello my pony friends! The fun at Wairu’s never ends!” A zebra shouted at them over the bustle of town square.

Sunshy quickly brightened upon seeing the zebra and walked over to him, remembering his tipi from his encounter with Versatile and the robot –pony’s friends. Sunshy wondered how they were doing and a pang of guilt struck him upon remembering he was not able to help more. The zebra smiled at the three as he sat in the entrance to his colorful tipi.

”Hello Wairu.” Sunshy greeted in Zebra.

”Ah, Tall Soft Heart, it’s so good to see you alive and in one peace. Chief Fluffy Doom was all riled up at your disappearance, but I’m sure you’ve heard. Now, what can Wairu do for you today?” The polite saleszebra smiled at his potential customers.

”We have some things to sell or trade, depending.” Royal Lace answered, surprising Sunshy. He admonished himself mentally; of course she could speak Zebra, she grew up with them, after all.

”Come inside, please. Take a look at my wares and we can discuss sales.”

Wairu got up and led the three inside. Celly had to crawl again to take up less room, but she didn’t seem to mind. Sunshy openly gasped at the amount of objects that the vendor had displayed inside his tipi. Guns of all variations, melee weapons, ammo, food, bottled water of varying cleanliness, outfits, and other items were strewn about in organized chaos. Sunshy, however, had his eyes set upon the drying plants hanging from some shelves.

”An alchemist, I take it?” Wairu questioned upon seeing the pegasus’s face.

”Hold on, we don’t really have any caps. Side effect of being slaves and whatnot. So we’ll have to trade you a few things in exchange for anything we want to buy.” Lacey told the vendor while browsing his ammo.

”Ah, is that where you were? You have my deepest apologies for your plight. I’m sure we can come to some agreements for whatever you want.”

”I’d really like this ammo for my gun, how about we trade you a fully functioning Zebra Assault Rifle for it?”

Wairu made a face as Lacey floated out the gun she talked of from Celly’s bag. Sunshy had fluttered to the plants and was inspecting them while mentally searching over what he knew how to brew and what these ingredients could make.

”As you can see, I already have some of those guns.”

“I’m sure you do, but are they in such pristine condition? Look at this one closer. Most guns you find are more rust than metal, but not this one. Just look at how it shines in the light and not a speck of red anywhere. Not to mention the condition means that the enchantment is stronger, able to do so much more damage. You do want repeat customers, right? No better way to make sure they’ll be back than to guarantee that they’ll be alive long enough to return, singing praise of the gun that saved their lives.”

“Alright, siren pony, you have twisted my hoof. Take all the 12 gage ammo for the gun. Now, what about you, Tall Soft Heart?”

“I’d like one of everything.”

“Oh, I think I have enough ammo to trade for that.” Lacey replied with a well-hidden smirk.

The ponies and manticore left Wairu with lighter bags and heavier sacks of caps. They made their way to the hut, but Sunshy stopped and told them that he left something behind. The two continued on at his insistence while the pegasus turned around and made a beeline back to Wairu’s tipi. Upon seeing the very recognizable pony return, Wairu appeared rather surprised.

”Tall Soft Heart? Not that I’m complaining, but what are you doing back here?”

“I have a couple favors to ask, but I’m willing to pay for them.”

“Name it, brother of Dry Land tribe.” Wairu smiled at Sunshy, but it faltered at the pony’s appearance of awkwardness.

”Can you teach me to barter like Lacey did? I haven’t had much interaction with vendors in my life and I don’t want to get ripped off while she’s not around.”

“Is that all? I’ll be more than happy to teach you, free of charge. Consider it a gift on the promise you’ll be back. What was the other favor you wanted?”

Sunshy motioned asking if he could go inside the tipi. Wairu nodded and backed up, allowing the lanky pony to walk past and inside. The pony walked over to a stack of books and scanned their spines. Seeing this, Wairu set the books out in a line on the ground for him to choose easier. With a heavy blush that turned his face straight to red, he placed his hoof on one book in particular.

”Was not expecting that…Ah…I can surely give you a discount for that. How does half off sound? That’ll bring it to, ah, one-hundred caps.” Even the zebra had a slight tint of red to his monochrome face.

Embarrassment not lessened in the least, Sunshy dug out five sacks of caps, each with twenty inside. He opened the bags, handed over the caps, and replaced the empty sacks. Then, with his ears and the back of his neck turning the same shade of red as his mane, the pegasus picked up the red book and placed it in his box.

”Do you want that barter lesson now, or would you like to come back later?” Wairu asked cautiously as he slid the caps into a lockbox.

“Now is fine.” Sunshy muttered as he tried his hardest to not make eye-contact. The red on his face had lessened to a nice orange thanks to his yellow coat.

”Okay, first thing you have to know is how to read someone’s face, like in poker.”

Roughly an hour later, Sunshy returned to his hut. Upon finding it, he saw that there was a large X marked on the wooden door. A drop of something green splashed from the end of one corner onto a small puddle. Celly had apparently used her tail to draw an X on the door so she would be able to find the hut again. Why she didn’t use her claws was beyond Sunshy. He also noticed that the sky carriage, named ”Alicorns’ Bane”, was sitting between their hut and the one next to it.

The pony pushed the door open and stated, “I’m back.”

And he was then tackled to the ground.

“Sunny, I missed you so much, baby!” Zen shoved his face against Sunshy’s while crushing his windpipe.

“Crushing…me…”

“Sorry!” The zebra quickly released the choking pony. “Where were you?”

“With Wairu; he was teaching me how to barter.” Sunshy answered after clearing his throat.

“Oh, that’s a good idea. Anyway, the bitch is out target practicing with some rubber bullets and Celly’s out flying. I was going to go talk to Chief, wanna come?”

“Uh, no, that’s okay. I was going to read.”

“’Kay, see ya.” Zen kissed Sunshy before trotting off to the town center.

The pegasus let out a heavy sigh of relief before walking inside his hut, being careful to close the door; the werelight flared up in response to the dark. Sunshy slid his saddle box off and then took off his doctor’s coat and leather boarding. Much more comfortable, Sunshy nosed open one box and pulled out a daisy sandwich and the book he recently purchased.

He lied down on the clean pile of hay with the two items, tearing the plastic off the former as he tried to brace himself to read the book. The book was a hardcover with deep blue coloring. The front was innocent enough, with a picture of a silhouette of two equines kissing. It was titled ”Pony Sutra”.

“I can’t believe I bought this.” He whispered in a squeak of a voice.

For what was roughly pornographic, the intellectual in Sunshy drank in the information. The socially awkward never-had-a-buckfriend-before part of him squealed, stomped in place, and demanded the book be burned. Thus, the pegasus read the book in fascination with a face so red, it was impossible to determine what was his coat and what was his mane.

“What ‘cha reading?”

Sunshy shouted before quickly lying on the still-open book and turned his head up to see Zen, staring down at him in confusion. The zebra chuckled and poked his nose with a hoof.

“Whoa, your face is red. I think I’m piecing it together, but why are your wings raised?”

The pegasus squeaked as he looked over his shoulder and saw that his traitorous wings were indeed raised, as if in preparation of flight. To right this, he quickly took control and plastered them against his side before shoving his nose against the dirt and hiding under his hooves.

“Wing boner?” Zen questioned blandly, trying to hold back his laughter. A tiny squeak was all that he received for an answer. “Were you reading porn? An old copy of Colt Cuddler, perhaps?”

Resigning himself to his fate, the pegasus stood up and walked over to the other hay pile. This allowed Zen to see the accursed book that Sunshy regret buying. His damn face felt like it was going to melt off.

“Whoa. Can a pony really bend that far?”

Sunshy quickly buried himself under the hay and decided he was never ever going to come out. Not in a million billion gazillion years. Nope, no amount of Zen poking his flank was going to get him to move.

“Quit being embarrassed, it’s not that bad. I think it’s rather nice you went to the trouble of getting a book on sex. Not that you need it, trust me.”

“Can we stop talking? I’m sure Discord can hear us.” Sunshy squeaked out.

“Oh no worries, I was just about to turn off everything, goodbye.” Discord’s voice floated through the collar before the sound of something shorting out followed.

“See? Now we’re all alone.” Zen brushed the hay off Sunshy enough to nip his ear. “I want to see what you learned.”

That was the moment Zen took down a mental note. Do not stand next to a pegasus while purposely arousing him. For getting clipped on the jaw by a wing hurts like a bitch. Also, falling to the ground after said unintentional attack kills the mood, especially since the doctor pony will rush around trying to get things to help while profusely apologizing. Note taken, fix these idiotic mistakes next time.

“Even though I’m sure we could get the mood going right away,” Zen said as he had his smarting jaw patched up, “we seem to have a recurring theme that some purple pony kills it for us at just the right moment. It’s happened about three out of four times.”

Speak of the devil, and she will appear.

Royal Lace threw the door open, blowing out the werelight and walked inside. The two males were rather taken off-guard, as she was wearing a silver silk dress with lace trimming. It framed her necklace quite nicely. Atop it were her new saddlebags, stuffed full of bombs, ammo, and her prized gun.

“What’d I tell ya?” Zen muttered to Sunshy, who had to frown a little.

“Alright you whores, we’ve had plenty of time to chill. Where are we going next?” Lacey questioned as she walked over to the fridge and pulled out an ice cold Sparkle~ Cola.

“Good to see you too.” Zen replied in a snarky manner, “We’re going to Baston, a town about halfway between here and Roaming. Should take only a couple hours on the Alicorns’ Bane.”

“Did zebras just name things after hitting a keyboard and adding vowels?” She asked as she popped off the cap and placed it in her saddlebag.

“Yes. That’s exactly what we did, Lacey. You caught us.” Zen shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“Then we should get going already.” Lacey turned and walked out the door while taking a swig of her soda.

Sunshy sighed as he went to put on his leather boarding, doctor’s coat, and saddleboxes while Zen did the same, sans the coat. The pegasus was surprised when the zebra took Pony Sutra and stored it in his saddlebag. At the confusion, Zen shrugged and said, “Not like I can’t learn anything.”

The two bucks walked outside to find Celly strapped into the sky carriage and Royal Lace sitting inside, still drinking her soda. Zen closed the hut’s door while Sunshy climbed into the Alicorns’ Bane and then quickly followed suit. Celly beat her wings against the ground and then they were off, a marker placed on Zen’s E.F.S.

About halfway to Baston, the carriage suddenly lurched down. A few minutes later, and as it became harder to steer and heavier, Celly was forced to touch down in the middle of nowhere. Not really nowhere, as there was an abandoned warehouse near them. The equines got out in confusion; Lacey unstrapped the manticore while Zen got under the carriage.

“Damn it. The spark battery ran out. Don’t suppose any of you have a spare on you?” Zen told them as he crawled out.

“Oh, I must’ve left them in my other dress.” Royal Lace sarcastically remarked.

“I feel stupid, knowing these run on spark batteries and forgetting to bring spares.” Sunshy told them while looking ashamed.

“Well, nothing for it. Celly, you know what a spark battery is?” Zen questioned, turning to the manticore.

“It’s this thing.” Lacey answered for the manticore as she levitated out the power source from under the carriage.

Celly sniffed at the small blue box. Then she picked it up in her mouth and flew off, back towards Nchi Kavu.

“Should we wait here for her?” Sunshy questioned.

“With a whole building to explore? Fuck that, I’m going spelunking!” Zen replied as he walked over towards the abandoned building.

“Spelunking is for caves, numb nuts.” Lacey shouted at him. She saw Sunshy moving anxiously in place and sighed. “Go on after him, I’ll stay out here.”

Sunshy quickly galloped after Zen, catching up with him in a matter of moments. The zebra found the front door locked, but a strong buck fixed that. Sunshy had to marvel at how strong Zen was as they walked inside the dark and abandoned building. The zebra kicked on his PipBuck Lantern spell, which cut a swath of light through the darkness.

That was when the discovered it was not abandoned.

Zen quickly shut off his Lantern spell and held his breath, as did Sunshy. In the glimpse they had gotten, they had seen Ghouls. Whether they were zombies or not was yet to be determined. At the moment, Zen saw his Eyes Forward Sparkle had a few red dots in the blue. A couple of glowing yellow orbs peered out to them. Then they hissed in a terrifying way and all the blue changed to red.

“Get the fuck out of here, Sunny!” Zen shouted as he whipped out his lace and kicked on his Lamp spell.

The pegasus instead took out a Zebra Assault Rifle and used the enchanted weapon to fire enflamed bursts at the zombies. The head of one exploded and the body was engulfed in flame, casting more light in the dark building. The zebra shoved aside his shock and dove into the fray, slashing his electric lance.

A hissing alerted Sunshy to a zombie closing in on him. The glow of its eyes gave away its position, allowing him to whip his gun at the source and fire. The zombie caught on fire but continued advancing. Sunshy screamed through the Assault Rifle as the disgusting teeth broke through his skin. The gun muzzle was placed on the zombie’s head and Sunshy pulled the trigger with his tongue until the magazine was empty.

The flame-coated zombie fell to the ground as Sunshy jerked his leg away and flew backwards, out into the sunlight. The sounds inside told him that Zen was still fighting the rest. Sunshy studied his wound and found there was nothing but zombie saliva mixing with his blood. The pony quickly drank a healing brew and went back inside to see Zen breathing heavily as he walked up to the door.

The zebra was coated in bites and appeared to have a small chunk of his side almost torn off. He seemed to be more black and red than black and white. Doctor Sunshy quickly opened a nice pink healing potion and nearly forced it down Zen’s throat. The zebra drank it as the doctor ordered/forced and his wounds healed rather beautifully, despite the rather gruesome amount of blood.

Sunshy then picked up the dropped gun and slid it back into Zen’s saddlebag. The zebra replaced his retracted lance and then took out the zebra assault rifle. Zen ejected the magazine and replenished the ammo. Then he quickly took out the rest of the ammo for it, dumped it into Sunshy’s saddle box, and then put the sling on the gun around his neck.

“You’re keeping this gun. If that was just the opening room, I can’t imagine what must be hiding deeper inside.”

“Oh…okay.”

The two walked back inside the building, the zebra quickly brandished his lance at the appearance of red dots. The catwalk went to the left and up some stairs, so they followed the line. Upstairs, there was a table with some ammo inside a drawer. Sunshy asked why, and was met with a shrug and an “I dunno.”

Following the way forward, they came out to a crap-ton of ammo boxes below them. Milling along between the boxes were robots shaped like ponies with brain casings. Brains were floating inside gel in their head. Sunshy had to hold back his bile seeing that.

“Those aren’t…real brains, right?” Sunshy whispered.

“I think they might be.” Zen replied, just as quietly.

“Hello there, friends! Please stay still while we disintegrate you.” The voice of a nice mare called out from one of the bots.

It shot some red laser at them, right at Sunshy’s shoulder. The doctor’s coat grew a sizable hole, but the leather boarding saved his hide. The pegasus quickly fired off three rounds right at its head, blasting its brain out onto the ground in a pile of pink mess. The rest of the robots began firing as the pegasus took off into the air and danced his way around the shots while counter-firing.

Shocked at this display, Zen was rooted to the spot. Upon seeing Sunshy’s breast taking a shot, he quickly jumped down and charged at a brainbot, spearing its brain. He pulled his weapon out and charged at another. The zebra slashed the weapon off another bot before spearing its brain.

Zen stopped to check his E.F.S. The zebra found that there was nothing but one blue dot left. The dot moved until Sunshy landed in front of him. His leather boarding was scorched under the multiple holes in his doctor’s coat. The pony manually ejected the magazine and reloaded before strapping it back around his neck.

“I like the gun.” Sunshy admitted sheepishly.

“I’m…shocked you know how to use it. You sure you don’t want this PipBuck? The S.T.A.T.S. would make you a lot better…though…the way you shoot, I don’t think you need the help.”

“Actually, I missed a lot of shots.”

“Quit being humble. There were like ten of those damn robots and I only killed two.”

“I’m just good with anything that uses fire, I guess…Kinda my specialty go-to weapon.”

“I can smell the burning rubber and brains.”

“Are we going to loot all these boxes of ammo?” Sunshy questioned, looking around at the seemingly endless boxes with worry.

“Oh hell no, that’s way too much shit for us to carry. I am, however, going to tag it on my PipBuck so we can come back later.” Zen used his hoof to push buttons until there was a mark on their location: King’s Ammo Warehouse. “You should look for some more ammo for that assault rifle.”

Sunshy nodded before taking to the air to scan the boxes. Each one had a crown logo on it with the type of ammo printed in the middle. It didn’t take long until he found a box marked 5.56mm, landed next to it and then wondered how the hell he would open it. A crowbar floated over to him, swathed in a pink light. Looking over, he found Royal Lace standing in the darkness; only her face could really be discerned by the glow from her horn.

“Come on boys, get your stuff and let’s go. Celly’s got at least three hundred caps worth of spark batteries. I’m guessing most of it was for free. Also, I don’t think we’ll be having any problems with the Alicorns’ Bane for a while.”

Taking the crowbar in his mouth, the pegasus shoved it in the space between the box and the lid and tried to pull it down. Once that didn’t work, he flew up and jumped up and down on the crowbar. Eventually, the lid popped free and Sunshy almost took a tumble. Thankfully, he managed to right himself in the air and pushed the lid completely off.

There was at least a thousand or so bullets just on the first layer. Goddesses only knew how many were in the whole container. Sunshy opened one of his saddleboxes and began scooping up two hooves full of bullets at a time. When he felt he wouldn’t be wanting for bullets in a long time, he pulled the lid back over.

“Alright, I think we’re good to go.” Zen announced as he wandered back over, his own saddlebags slightly pudgier.

Sunshy landed on the ground and wandered outside with his two companions. Zen kept glancing over his shoulder as they walked out to the door, as though he wanted to continue exploring. However, they had places to be and Sunshy had people to heal.

Outside, Celly was already strapped to Alicorns’ Bane, ready to go. And so was Discord, lounging on the top of the carriage with his mouth wide open as a cotton candy cloud rained chocolate milk.

This was going to be a long day.

Level up! You are now level 13!

Barter at 40

Guns at 35

Perk added! Pyromaniac Mk 2: Once again, you are 30% cooler with fire-based weapons. These weapons do an additional +10 damage.

Side quest added! Pony Sutra: You are experienced in the art of giving and receiving physical pleasure. You are more likely to have sexual encounters with specific characters.

Completed: Element of Bigotry found.

Update: Elements of Treachery, Sadness, Deceit, and Cruelty left.