Fallout Equestria: The Light Within

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 46: Another City and Another Time

Chapter Forty-Six: Another City and Another Time

Equestria sped past beneath me, towns here and gone in the blink of an eye. A full moon was out tonight, only partially obscured by clouds, casting its soft light across the land below. Slowly, I began to descend, and the pegasi to either side of me moved in closer.

It wasn’t really me doing the flying, of course, but Roaring Thunder, in one of his memories. My body was lying in the back of the Clinic as it rolled west toward Vanhoover, but my mind was soaring through the sky over a century and a half ago. I felt confident that we could return to Vanhoover, what with four settlements now allied against the two NLC ones that remained. The Ponies’ Republic of Stalliongrad was still a threat, but from the little we’d spied of them while in Stalliongrad, they seemed more concerned with extending their reach to Railyard and sowing crops there.

Vanhoover was another story. Sure, there were five settlements that I knew of compared to three NLC settlements, but none of them were working together (other than Burnside and Bitter Lake, in the most rudimentary way). I had to convince them to join together if they hoped to stand against the growing attacks by NLC raiders. I had to admit, though I couldn’t remember my foalhood, that I had an affinity for Vanhoover as if it were my home, as if I’d grown up there.

“MAw Command to Thunderbolts, do you copy?” a voice came in my host’s ear, back in the memory.

“Copy, Command,” Roaring Thunder replied.

“Listen up, you’re part of the Ministry of Awesome now, not some corporate paramilitary force,” another voice cut in on the radio, belonging to the Ministry Mare, if I wasn’t mistaken, “We’re gonna see just what you can do. Fort Neighagara cannot be allowed to remain in zebra hooves any longer. The only reason they were able to take it in the first place was because of a dragon. It may still be around here somewhere, so while the regular forces assault the fort, you’re gonna find it and kill it. Got that?”

“Copy, Command,” Roaring Thunder said, much the same way as the first time.

Fort Neighagara came in sight as my host descended, perched near a set of waterfalls. All four of the other Thunderbolts were in sight now as well, fanned out on either side of Roaring Thunder. A shadowy shape moved below, nearer the fort. As we got closer, it turned out to be a ship floating in the air, hanging from a rigid cylinder. I wanted to stare, but apparently it was not so impressive to my host, and Roaring Thunder quickly looked away. Even now, with all I’d seen of the world before the megaspells, it still had the capacity to surprise me.

Guns on the floating ship began to fire on Fort Neighagara while pegasi launched themselves from the deck. Guns at the fort returned fire at the pegasi and the ship while also responding to the ground assault beginning to shape up below. A few griffins flew up from the fort to engage the pegasi, but otherwise the sky belonged to the Equestrian forces.

The Thunderbolts hovered out of sight, disguised by their armor, which was currently in dark colors to match the night, but were beginning to lighten as the sky to the east grew a little brighter in anticipation of the sun rising. A battle was unfolding below, but they didn’t interfere; it wasn’t their mission.

“Commander, heat signature rising beneath the fort,” one of the mares flying next to my host reported.

Roaring Thunder flicked a switch inside the helmet with his tongue, and his visor switched to a spectrum of blues, yellows, and reds. The brighter colors seemed to represent ponies, zebras, griffins, and other sources of heat, like the fiercely glowing engine on the floating ship and the fires now burning around the fort. Beneath the fort was a blindingly white shape on the move. As Roaring Thunder switched his visor back to normal, the source of the heat burst through one of the waterfalls, sending a sheet of water flying.

It was the dragon they’d been waiting for, long and spiny and mottled in blues and greens. As water ran off its scales, it snorted, and water wreathed in steam spurted out of a hollow horn on its nose. Pegasi hit, intentionally or not, by the boiling water fell back screaming. The dragon looked around for something to attack before fixing its eyes on the flying ship.

“Engage!” my host ordered, and the Thunderbolts dove toward the dragon.

It hadn’t spotted them yet and had turned the other way, gliding over the river that fed the falls. A deep rumbling came from the dragon as the Thunderbolts approached, and I was shocked to realize that it was humming, as if it were only doing a bit of light work instead of part of a battle. The dragon opened its jaws as it ducked its head into the river and came up a few seconds later, steam boiling off its hide.

It banked abruptly back the way it had come, and the Thunderbolts found themselves in range quickly. Magical energy weapons fired, the blasts doing little damage to the dragon’s scaled hide. It gave an annoyed snort, and a cloud of boiling water engulfed the Thunderbolts. An alarm sounded in Roaring Thunder’s helmet, and one of the indicator lights switched from green to amber and back, but it seemed his armor was none the worse for wear once the steam cleared. The other Thunderbolts all looked fine as well, and they followed after the dragon as it flapped toward the flying ship.

A powerful stream of water shot from the horn on the dragon’s snout, spraying boiling water across the ship’s deck. Ponies screamed in agony as they were scorched to death, some jumping from the ship to fall to the valley below. The stream had also been powerful enough to shatter some of the supports attaching the ship to the balloon above it, and it began to list dangerously.

The Thunderbolts swarmed the dragon, darting around it as they fired the weapons built into their armor. They were clearly having no effect, until one of them managed to shoot the dragon in its unarmored eye. It thrashed about, swatting its foreclaws and tail through the air, but not managing to hit any of the supersoldiers.

“Insects! Flying about!” the dragon grumbled before snorting out a dense cloud of steam.

My host and two other Thunderbolts flew over the cloud and along the dragon’s back, firing at its wings. They had a little more success here, burning holes in the membrane. The dragon gave a roar as it realized what they were doing and grabbed hold of the deck of the flying ship before folding its wings in close to its body. The dragon’s hindclaws latched onto the ship below the deck, tearing armored panels from the hull.

The Thunderbolts continued to harry the dragon, and one flew too close. The dragon snatched her out of the air, holding her between two of its foreclaws. She struggled to break free of the massive claws as the other Thunderbolts tried to help her. Methodically, the dragon moved its long thumb claw to position it over the trapped pegasus’s body and slowly jammed it through. She thrashed around, and her screams sounded close in my host’s ears as she accidentally switched her radio on. With a flick of its claws, the dragon sliced her in two before discarding her body.

“No!” Roaring Thunder yelled as a light in his helmet flicked to red.

The dragon threw itself from the ship, nearly capsizing it, and spread its wings, scattering the Thunderbolts. A couple of the pegasi flew after the dragon as it dove toward the river, firing their magical energy weapons at it. Roaring Thunder looked down, searching for his fallen comrade’s body, but she was barely visible even in the early morning light as she tumbled to the valley floor. As his eyes went back up, they fell on the holes torn in the side of the flying ship.

“Starshine, come with me!” he ordered, and one of the Thunderbolts followed him as he flew toward the ship.

The ship’s interior was in disarray, ponies trying to recover after the dragon’s attack had nearly torn them from the sky. There was nopony around the long rows of bombs that stretched through the lower decks. They were meant to be dropped from the ship, but there were no targets beneath it currently, so here they sat. Straps were attached to the bombs, a loop on each side, to allow two ponies to carry them to their dropping point. Roaring Thunder grabbed both straps on a bomb and heaved it up. Even with his increased strength, I could feel his muscles straining to lift the heavy explosive, but he managed to do it. Starshine imitated him, and together they flew from the damaged ship and after the dragon.

It was diving toward the river, preparing to take in more water for more attacks. My host put on extra speed, his wings aching as he pulled ahead of the dragon. The bomb fell, striking the dragon just as it began to submerge its head. Roaring Thunder’s aim had been spot-on, the blast going off just above the dragon’s snout. Its hollow horn for spraying water was blown off, along with a good portion of its upper jaw. Starshine followed up, with her bomb striking near the same place and doing even more damage to the dragon’s head. It staggered and submerged completely, sending sheets of water flying.

The dragon appeared to have vanished entirely into the river, though whether it was dead or just nursing its wounds was unclear. Soon, the rest of the Thunderbolts arrived, having flown back to the ship to grab more bombs after seeing their commander’s example. Bombs rained into the river, sending up plumes of water as they detonated. Steaming blood rose to the surface downstream, flowing over the edge of the falls. My host flipped his visor to view heat signatures again, and the bright signature of the dragon was fading, the heat of the torrents of blood flowing from it clear.

“Thunderbolt-1 to command. Mission accomplished,” Roaring Thunder reported, “One casualty.”

***

On returning to Vanhoover, we stopped at our typical point of resupply: Burnside. Our visit there was not just about restocking on food, ammo, and medical aid, though. All the settlements of Stalliongrad I’d visited in this last trip had agreed to work together against the Northern Lights Coalition, but there was no such agreement in Vanhoover. That had to change, and I intended to be the one to kickstart that change. Initially, I hadn’t liked it that DJ Pon3 had named me Wasteland Doctor and made it so that everypony recognized me wherever I went, but it had become useful. I now had more influence than I ever could’ve hoped to accomplish just by deeds.

As usual, Spruce was hanging out near the settlement’s entrance, though it was I that approached him this time. He was shocked when I asked him to convey to the Regulators that I wished them to convene—all of them, or enough to make a decision regarding the entire settlement—so that I could speak with them. Despite asking questions I had no intention of answering until I could bring them to the Regulators at once, he hurried off to do as I’d asked. While I waited for word, I went about the markets of Burnside, joining my friends and resupplying. About an hour after we’d arrived, an Apprentice Regulator found me and told me that I was awaited.

I quickly found myself in front of the assembled Regulators, explaining everything I knew about the Northern Lights Coalition. The room they’d chosen for the meeting had once been a visitation area, but they’d unbolted the tables from the floor and filled it with chairs for all the Regulators in their dusters of varying shades and colors. Five Regulators sat in their own row nearest me, the same who’d negotiated payment for the fuel tanker we’d brought to the settlement, and it seemed these were the ponies I really had to convince. One of them was Mossy Oak; not surprising, since he’d been involved with the negotiations to establish trade with the Republic of Rose. After explaining the NLC’s aims and what was already established in Stalliongrad, I had to answer some of the Regulators’ questions.

Once I’d said my piece and answered to the Regulators’ satisfaction, I was ushered out of the room so they could discuss it by themselves. I wasn’t sure exactly what answer to expect; it had been hard to gauge the room’s reactions. Some seemed concerned by the NLC, while others seemed to think it irrelevant. There would be no knowing what their decision was until they allowed me back in. Some ponies were stone-faced, clearly less than satisfied at the outcome that had been reached, but I couldn’t recall what stance they’d been likely to take.

“Thank you, Wasteland Doctor, for bringing this proposal to our attention,” the lead Regulator began, “It is our carefully considered decision not to bind our settlement needlessly in an alliance against an organization that does not pose a serious threat.”

“Does not pose a serious threat?” I said incredulously, “The Northern Lights Coalition has attacked you already!”

“And they were repulsed,” the lead Regulator said smoothly, though the mare seated next to him frowned at him.

“At the gates!” I retorted, “What about the next time they attack? Wouldn’t it be better to have some friends to lend a hoof?”

“The price and risk are not worth the possible payoff. To form a proper alliance with another settlement is more serious than a trading agreement or a defensive pact. If we expect to share soldiers to fight a common foe, then what else might other settlements expect to share? It is not good for our trade, not to mention the additional cost of having to bridge the gaps between settlements with patrols, something already difficult enough for the trade caravans with Bitter Lake. Too great a cost for too small a reward.”

“The reward is that the NLC doesn’t take over the Wasteland with their raiders and slavers,” I said, “If you think you’ll be safe here, isolated along the Vanhoover Crater, then you’re mistaken. Lord Lamplight will have you pinned into a corner here, with no way to trade for outside goods. The only way out would be to join him, but you’ve rejected him already.”

“Yes, well, thank you for your concern, but we Burnsiders can deal with things on our own,” the lead Regulator said before the mumbles of agreement in the crowd of Regulators could grow any louder, “You must have places to be; please, see yourself out.”

***

I was disappointed that the Regulators hadn’t seen the logic in joining with other settlements as easily as the Stalliongrad towns had. I shouldn’t have been surprised, though. Burnside cared about one thing, and one thing only: trade. I should’ve tried to play up how the NLC would strangle their trade, but I didn’t know that I could’ve, given that I had no idea what Lord Lamplight’s plans were on the subject.

The Regulators had been right about one thing: I did have places to be. There were NLC settlements in Vanhoover to deal with, just like Stallion Hill and Castle Bridge. Prophet Square was the one I currently had my sights on, a settlement in the west of Vanhoover. We wouldn’t make it there within a day, not when the Clinic wouldn’t be able to make it through the rubble-filled streets of downtown, so we settled for making it to The Strip before sunset. The Crimson Tide were happy to welcome us, and also open to working with other settlements, though I hadn’t expected anything else. At first light, we’d head to Prophet Square across a bridge recently rebuilt by The Strip’s mercenaries and try to convince them to join.

Sage was nowhere to be seen, out on a mission somewhere, so I turned in early. There was one memory orb left in the case from SOAR, and I intended to experience it tonight before returning the set to Roaring Thunder. I’d talked with him some about his memories on the way to Vanhoover, telling him what I’d noticed and asking questions. He seemed more open to talking about his past now, though still somewhat reserved, a habit that was hard to break.

Given the theme of the last three memory orbs, I was worried that this one would also contain the death of a comrade, but Roaring Thunder assured me that none of the Thunderbolts had died in this memory, though it had been an important battle. He explained what to expect, but much of it didn’t make much sense to me and probably wouldn’t until I actually experienced the memory. Leaning back, I touched the glassy orb with my magic, and the world faded away.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

I was standing atop an Equestrian Army truck, in Roaring Thunder’s body again. That itself was strange, since both memories since he’d become a Thunderbolt had begun in the air. I almost missed the sensation of flying, longing for something I’d never experience in the real world. Unless I became an alicorn, of course, but that thought must’ve made me shudder in my bed back in reality.

The other three Thunderbolts were nearby, one flying on either side and one ahead. Judging by EFS, there were more ponies driving the truck and in the compartment beneath me. I could also hear them shifting around nervously, even with the damp wind streaming past. I had no idea where we were, but then again, I hadn’t seen much of Equestria, and even if I had, it was a wasteland now. Without cues from the ponies around me in the memory, there was no way to tell; Roaring Thunder hadn’t told me the location of the memory, other than where it “ended up.” All I could deduce from observations was that the truck was bouncing along a forest path toward a nearby ridge of mountains, but I had the feeling this was somewhere in Equestria, not Tartarus.

The truck pulled to a stop before a sheer cliff face, and an Equestrian Army officer hopped out of the truck’s cab. Nervously, she trotted over to the cliff face and held out a key hanging around her neck. As it neared the wall of stone, the key began to glow, and soon lines forming a doorway appeared on the rock as well. The mare touched the key to a keyhole-shaped rune and a resounding crack sounded. A line appeared down the middle of the doorway, and two slabs of stone began to swing open. Once the officer had climbed back inside, the truck puttered on through the opening.

Within was a cavern where a small army base had been set up. The structures looked like they’d been meant to be temporary but had been here for years. There were a few scattered floodlights, but glowing crystals and luminescent mushrooms on the cavern’s walls cast plenty of softer light as well. The ponies in the base watched curiously as the truck trundled up to the shore of a lake that stretched off out of sight as the cavern twisted and turned as it went deeper into the mountains. Roaring Thunder hopped off as the truck turned itself around to back up against a dock, and he joined one of the Thunderbolts who’d also landed.

“What do we have here? Another magical creature or relic to lock away?” the base’s commander asked as she strode up to the truck.

The soldiers who’d been riding in the back jumped down and helped to remove their cargo from the vehicle and transport it to the waiting boat. Their cargo was a statue of a serpentine figure with mismatched body parts seeming to be stuck to it haphazardly. Discord, Roaring Thunder had called this being back in the present, a dangerous creature capable of untold chaos and mayhem. Apparently, the base commander knew that, for her lighthearted expression vanished as soon as she saw the statue.

“Why have you brought him here?” she demanded of the officer climbing down from the truck.

“Orders directly from Canterlot,” she replied, producing the necessary papers, “He’s beginning to break free from his prison again, and we need some place to contain him.”

“Break free of his prison?” the commander said disbelievingly, “The Ministry Mares can just contain him again, can’t they? Can’t they? Are you saying that the Ministry Mares can no longer use the Elements of Harmony?”

“I said nothing of the sort!” the officer snapped too quickly, the blood draining from her face, “Princess Luna felt a more permanent prison was necessary for Discord. Now, are you going to continue to delay my mission, or are you going to comply with orders and get your troops ready for the transfer?”

The base commander hurried off to prepare her troops while the officer looked back worriedly as her soldiers finished loading Discord onto the boat. More boats were quickly launched, filled with Equestrian soldiers. They escorted the boat with Discord and the soldiers from the truck as it pushed off, the Thunderbolts hovering above as extra protection.

Other than the occasional barked order, the boats sailed deeper into the cavern in silence. Every so often, ruins were visible along the sides of the underground canyon, some with sniper nests set up in them. It seemed that Equestria was not the first civilization to take control of the gates to Tartarus, if these relics were any indication. Nopony remarked on them as the boats sailed along.

After what seemed like an eternity, the boat reached an ancient stone dock and came to a stop. The Equestrian soldiers from the boats disembarked, and there was plenty of room for them on the sandy shore adjoining the dock. A sheer stone wall reared up behind the soldiers, an elevated platform jutting out with stairs cut from the rock leading up to it. The platform was empty except for two statues of sphinxes staring at each other from a distance of a hundred paces.

Two unicorns separated themselves from the rest of the soldiers, and I noticed through Roaring Thunder’s keen eyes that they had the symbol of the Ministry of Magic on their uniforms. Their horns glowed as they focused them on the sphinxes, and a glowing doorway appeared between them, stretching up to the high ceiling of the cavern. This wasn’t a real door, though, but a portal. It led out onto a dark land filled with broken stone landmarks: Tartarus.

A crane had been constructed on the cavern’s ceiling, and it lowered its line to be looped around Discord. The nearby soldiers fastened it to the statue, careful not to touch the stone itself, and motioned to the crane operator when it was ready. Steadily, Discord was hoisted up, and the crane began to move him toward the portal to Tartarus.

Something wasn’t right. Another unicorn with the Ministry of Magic patch directed her magic at the crane’s mechanisms and Discord suddenly stopped moving, other than swaying back and forth from momentum toward the portal. Confusion seized the soldiers as they tried to figure out who had interfered, not suspecting the unicorn at the edge of the crowd. The Thunderbolts had seen everything, though, and fired at the unicorn. She projected a shield over herself, blocking their shots, but they swooped down toward her.

The Thunderbolts swerved away as a pony on a minigun overlooking the scene opened fire. Shouts of treason went up among the Equestrian soldiers, the unicorns holding open the portal to Tartarus looking confused as to whether they should keep it open or try to fight back. Discord was hanging not very far from the portal, but it looked like they couldn’t divert magic to push him through without allowing the portal to close. It was chaos, and a small crack began to appear on the statue’s surface.

To add to the confusion, the unicorn who’d first attacked opened a portal behind her. In a second, zebra troops began to swell through, firing on the ponies. Shots fired back and forth as the enemies tried to kill each other. More small fractures appeared on Discord, and I thought I heard a rumbling laugh inside Roaring Thunder’s head.

“Take out that minigun,” Roaring Thunder ordered over his helmet radio, “I’ll see to Discord.”

The Thunderbolts hurried to comply, looping around the minigun’s fire to systematically move in on its gunner. My host turned his attention to the statue hanging from the now-useless crane. It was heavier than it looked, or else was resisting somehow, for he had a hard time of pushing it toward the portal. Bit by bit, though, Roaring Thunder pushed Discord closer, until the tip of his tail and a hindhoof were through.

“No!” yelled the rogue unicorn, and a blast of magic struck the statue.

It burst apart explosively, throwing Roaring Thunder to the ground. Bits of stone rained down while alarms sounded in his helmet warning of damage to his armor. He landed with his head bent forward, so that I could see the damage. The armor had suffered injury from the explosion all right, but for some reason, flowers were growing where the outer layers of the armor had been blown away. My host looked up at Discord, hovering now where he’d previously hung, stretching his body in unorthodox ways to get rid of the kinks acquired while encased in stone.

“Discord, lord of chaos!” the rogue unicorn yelled, bowing before him while ponies and zebras fought and died around her, “I beseech you to destroy Nightmare Moon!”

Discord looked at her curiously, eyes growing and shrinking independently as he sized her up.

“Now whyever would I want to do that?” Discord asked casually.

The unicorn’s jaw dropped open in disbelief. Discord paid her no mind and snapped two claws together. He seemed perplexed that nothing had happened, and worry crossed his face as nothing continued to happen as he continued snapping. Eventually, though, whatever he’d been attempting worked, and he vanished in midair. The other three Thunderbolts had taken out the minigun by this point, and as one of them tackled the rogue unicorn to the ground, the memory faded out.

***

By the looks of things, Prophet Square had once been part of a university, the square a green in front of a college building. That green was now dead and covered in shacks except for a small square still clear in front of the abutting building. The other half of the settlement’s name came from its leader Prophet, who was also a prophet (or at least claimed to be). Prophet himself, a stallion cloaked in robes once worn by important professors at the university, was part of the delegation that met us at the settlement’s gates.

“I have foreseen your coming,” Prophet said, which I thought was a bit of an ironic way of putting it, since the stallion was very clearly blind, “Why are you here?”

“If he foresaw our coming, shouldn’t he know that?” Ache whispered too quietly for the settlement’s delegation to hear.

“I wanted to speak to you about the Northern Lights Coalition,” I said, “You know my stance on it?”

“Yes, you oppose it,” Prophet replied, “Have you come to kill us, then?”

“I was hoping to avoid that,” I said, “Did you know the raiders of the NLC are attacking other settlements?”

“Of course,” Prophet replied with a snort, “How else would you deal with nonbelievers?”

“Nonbelievers?” Rare asked.

“Those who fail to believe in the plan,” Prophet said with an almost cheeky grin, “I know that Lamplight will be the one to unite northern Equestria; I have seen it, so why do you doubt?”

“Because I don’t want to see an Equestria united by raiders and slavers,” I answered, “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.”

“So be it,” Prophet said.

There was no warning other than his words before the pips on my EFS representing the settlers of Prophet Square all flipped to hostile.

“Get back!” I yelled to my friends as I dove for cover seconds before they opened fire on us.

“I don’t want to fight you!” I yelled from behind an auto-carriage, “Can’t we talk about this?”

The answer, apparently, was no. A stemless metal apple landed on the road near me, and I had to run out of cover to escape it. Bullets pricked at my doctor’s coat, but only one made it through. I took the opportunity upon reaching the wall of the settlement to remove the projectile and drink a healing potion. The gate to Prophet Square was closing, but before it was fully shut, I raised my rocket launcher, newly restocked with ammunition in Burnside, and fired at the gate. The gate was blown away entirely, as was part of the wall, as the rocket struck, the effect enhanced by grenades launched by Rare Sparks.

I almost hoped we’d find some sign of atrocities here now that they had turned against us, like at Stallion Hill, but I had the feeling that wouldn’t be the case. These ponies had sided with Lord Lamplight, but they were likely no more wicked than Castle Bridge, or The Strip, or Burnside (perhaps even less so, in that case, with their slave markets). Still, they provided a base for the Northern Lights Coalition, and if they wouldn’t defect to join the other settlements, then more drastic actions were required. It still felt wrong to attack a settlement.

Roaring Thunder flew over the wall as we entered the settlement through the hole where the gate had been. The pegasus took out threats before they could do us harm, turning a magical energy minigun to slag and vaporizing Prophet as he tried to climb into a suit of power armor. Rare, Ache, and I progressed on hoof, firing on anypony who fired at us. If I spotted a townspony that didn’t brandish a firearm, I didn’t fire on them, but they were few and far between. More than once that mercy resulted in being shot at from behind too, when it turned out they actually did have a hidden weapon.

The battle for Prophet Square was over before I knew it, concluded with the ponies who’d lived here either dead or scattered into the ruins of Vanhoover. I truly hoped they’d find their way to good settlements, like The Strip, although Crate City was closer. It was more likely, however, that they’d be caught by raiders or slavers before that, perhaps even NLC members. I didn’t know how far loyalty to the NLC went with raiders and slavers, but I suspected not far enough to keep them from doing their usual thing now that there was no settlement to back up the individuals.

I knew in my heart that the Northern Lights Coalition had to be stopped, but that didn’t make me feel any better. I’d always drawn the line between civilized and uncivilized, right and wrong, between settlements and the slavers and raiders in between them. I was realizing that maybe things weren’t quite as simple as that. If these settlers were in the wrong, what was their crime? Siding with the NLC for clean water and power? Were those crimes worthy of death? The fact that I was uncertain said a lot.

We’d finished a sweep of the settlement to make sure that there were no more ponies tucked away to ambush us, when a sniper’s shot sounded out from above us. Ache cried out as she fell to the ground, synthetic blood leaking from a hole in her head. I cast SATS and searched for the source of the shot, using the spell to lock on to the sniper. High above us hovered a griffin, just beginning to stow a peculiar sniper rifle on her back. Roaring Thunder had apparently also spotted her, for her took off in her direction as soon as time snapped back to normal.

“Ache, are you okay?” I asked as I ran over to her.

“I-I-I-I-I-I-I …” she struggled to speak as her eyes flickered erratically.

“No, no! Ache, don’t die on us! No!” I said frantically as I pulled medical supplies from my saddlebags and her eyes began to close, “Ache!”

Level Up
New Perk: Steady Hoof – Weapons you are physically in contact with have increased accuracy.
New Quest: The Replicant – Save Ache.
Barter +11 (71)
Big Guns +3 (72)
Medicine +3 (94)
Repair +9^* (99)

^{*The Tinkerer}