> Fallout Equestria: Raider's Rise > by Mochas Dungeon > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > It Begins > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kiss. A simple kiss.  What does it mean and what does it lead to.  Does it remind one of where their first kiss one was, or perhaps where their life changed.  That’s what happened with me.  A kiss.  I woke up to a kiss from my stallion in my stable.  Safe and sound.  The lights were still off and the curtains drawn letting in a very slight amount of artificial light from the hallway through the crack in the wall that maintenance will ‘fix later.’  The perfect way to wake up back then was a nuzzle and kiss.  No sex, no foreplay; just cuddling with his forelegs across me and his hind leg between mine in a nonsexual way. That was so long ago I barely remember his face.  Suddenly I woke up to a sting in my pussy and the reminder of where I was.  A raider camp, somewhere far from home.  Tied to a firm pallet that made a kind of mobile floor for me to stand on with a tree stump under my belly so they can have access to rape me whenever they feel like; rusted nails through my hooves to keep me in place. It hurts when they drag the pallet and I bounce, the log pulling my underbelly and nipples raw until they lift the pallet and carry me to the next place where they make camp and do it over and over again. I’m swollen, sore, beaten, and about to be raped again.  I can’t even cry anymore and I don’t dare to use magic or they’ll just beat me again and again until I beg like a foal for candy. Candy would be nice right about now.  “Ah!”  It’s the second patrol guard this time.  I fight the urge to scream as he pounds into me again, waking me fully with a dry humping, just how they like it. I’m learning them by how they violate me.  It’s sad, really.  I don’t even know their faces or cutie marks, just how they rape me.  Violate my backside like it’s nothing to them but a quick release.  Vagina, anus, doesn’t matter.  They know it’s not safe to violate my mouth now, though.  I don’t have to taste their blood when I bite them and the beating I got was worth it. “Rape? Handle with care” should be on a sign around my neck. I lost a tooth and lots of blood after that beating but when I woke up I had extra food, so that was something. “Done already? Wimp,” Ha, he’s the quickest of them all. I challenge him.  They won’t break me.  Ouch, ouch…  Pulling out slow fucking hurts… Celestia dammit, he’s the deviously smart one when it comes to this.  Knowing how much it hurts when he’s slow.  Even his lubrication stings me with its saltiness and stink.  I can’t help but whimper as he withdraws and I bet he thinks I enjoy it. “Hey, get off her, you fucking worthless walking cock!” a mare shouted to the colt that was on me. They’re all colts until they grow up. Every fucking male is a fucking colt. It’s her.  Gun Powder. That isn’t her name, is it? It has to sound tough to survive here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was something sweet and silly, like back home.  Out here in the wasteland, it was supposed to be a garden of eden.  What a fool I was, all of us were, to come out here and believe the Overstallion of its safety and plenty.  I haven’t even seen anything green since I’ve been out here.. Well, there’s the one that kisses my dock before he mounts me.  His coat is green, but that’s not what I mean.  I wish I had somepony to talk to more often, a normal mare. “Are you okay, Cunt?” Powder asks me like she doesn’t know the answer.  I guess this’ how she started, too.  “I guess not.  I have some water to wash you, it’s not that clean but it’s better than nothing.”  I feel her lift my tail and grunt.  I must look awful back there.  She’s the nicest pony I’ve met out here and she’s still the one that lashes my hide when I act up. The warm water washing over my backside hurts like always and my pipbuck is clicking, letting me know I’m being irradiated.  “Thank you,” I mumbled after the second pouring, “it’s nice to know somepony cares.” “A couple of us do.  It’s almost over, Cunt.  Only a little more of this and you’ll be let loose.  Remember what I told you,” she reminded me in a near whisper, “act broken and do what they tell you.  Eat what they offer.  Go where they point.  Okay?”  Yeah, like I’m their fucking slave.  Give me an opening and I’ll kill every male here.  I… don’t know if I can do that.  Murder or self defense doesn’t matter.  I’ll be taking a life. Am I ready for that? “Yeah,” I reply weakly.  I can see my health is low in my pipbuck readout.  The golden bars are the only thing I have to look at sometimes in my HUD besides the other readouts and if they knew about the radio they’d cut off my left foreleg.  I know they would.  I can’t let them know I listen to DJ Pon3.  The music is all I have to keep me from going insane and giving in; breaking even if there are only seven fucking songs. “There ya go, Cunt.  You’re not looking so good, I’ll give you some pain killers to take the sting away, but the next stallion might be so rough it won’t matter.  I’m almost out of meds for ya, Cunt.” “My name’s Swatter- AH!” she just slapped my fucking pussy with her hoof!  Why the fuck?! “Your name is Cunt until you earn something better or the leader says otherwise!” I growl through the pain and feel a trickle of blood run down my leg as I reply. “Yeah, whatever.” She was silent for almost twenty seconds before she leaned closer to my head. “I’m sorry about that, I had to.  I’ll try to keep you alive until they’re done with you.  Don’t use magic and take their meat, it’s almost over.  Trust me, I’m here for you.” She stuffed a pill in my mouth and I started chewing it right away. Then she was gone from my vision and slapped me too hard on my cutie mark with her cracked and broken hoof.  I felt blood on my leg and a stallion laugh in the distance. I know it’s blood.  I know I bleed from my pussy after they’re done with me.  I didn’t at first, but I know I’m so swollen and raw.  I haven’t even peed for two days.  What the hell does that say about me?  About my health? “I’m ready, you fucking pigs!” I scream in defiance. “Do your worst!” “Don’t ask for it,” a stallion in the distance calls, “or you’ll be begging for it me to stop,” he said with a haughty laugh.  Others joined in laughing.  Six of them.  Four males and two females, plus a couple scouts that take me for their three thrusts and then go back out into the Wasteland for whatever they look for.  All I can do is pray no other pony comes here to be my replacement.  I wouldn’t wish this on anypony else. The water felt good on my swollen backside.  I’m thankful for Powder, I think I need a talk with her later.  Maybe after I’m free I can escape and take her with me.  Wait, no.  She’s the one who nailed my hooves to the floor.  She’s as bad as them, we’re just females and we stick together… sort of. “Two weeks,” I mumble out loud to myself.  That’s how long I’ve been here.  I left my stable like a fool.  We were all fools to believe the Overstallion, that this place was safe and full of life.  The seven of us were supposed to explore the area outside the stable and I think I’m the only one alive.  Worse yet is that the stable can hear everything happening to me.  They stopped sending me messages to hang in there and they’re praying for me to be set free nine days ago. I can’t believe what they’ve heard being done to me.  It’s probably terrified them from ever leaving the stable again.  I hope we get another Overmare.  Mares are better leaders anyway.  Gosh, I hope I get released soon.  I’ve been looking at the same patch of rusted metal and old wood for over a week.  I wanna move and use a toothbrush, the small things in life I took for granted.  Even a shower of this irradiated water would be nice to wash the filth from my coat.   Am I light blue or blue that’s been coated white?  I can’t even see myself anymore… this is the worst way to live, or die.  Great.  I’m getting philosophical again.  What else is there?  The same few songs on the radio?  The sound of hoofsteps around the little mobile encampment here?  I can try to count the steps again… but no.  I guess it’s rest and sleep.   I woke up to a hammer cracking into the tip of my hoof and my own scream of pain before my mind realized where it was, where I was.  Normally hooves aren’t too sensitive on the outside, which helped when they nailed them all to the wooden pallet, but I felt that strike up to my postern.  I lifted my head for the first time fully in a week and gasped at the stiffness in my neck before I screamed right in the face of the stallion with the hammer. “I’ll kill you, you coward!  I’ll fucking kill you!”  He looked at me as tears leaked from my eyes and down my cheeks before a quiet chuckle left the back of his throat and spread to others around me.  I looked around with my eyes and slowly turned my neck to see a dozen or more raiders behind me. Mares and colts looking at me like I was the first salad in the stable after the days of fasting. My tail fell and tried to cover my aching marehood.  I felt my ears fall and my heart ached at the thought of what they were going to do to me. “We’re home, Cunt. Cut her loose, Soda, we’ve got ourselves a new raider,” the raider leader said from behind Soda, “and let her keep her hooves.  Don’t need a hobbler to slow us down.” With a satisfied grunt the hammer was turned around in his mouth and placed to the head of the nail and rocked against my hoof sending cracks across the front of it.  It hurt, but I’d live.  Then he did my other forehoof and I stood.  Oh goodness did it hurt to stand and move.  My belly was formed to the log and I lost some fur and skin getting my belly off it, blood dripped from the torn flesh but I paid it no mind as I tried not to fall again in pain from atrophied legs. Soda freed my rear hooves and trotted to my front.  Before he could say anything I recognized his hoofsteps as the colt that loved to make my anus raw and bleed.  I wasted no time and turned the hammer in his mouth and shoved it down his throat with my magic.  The claw end would make sure it’d stay put as I reared.  It hurt, like I was being torn apart at every joint. Every muscle screamed at me to stop, but landing with both of my forehooves on his forelegs was worth it.  The flesh tore and blood sprayed out onto my own forelimbs as he gagged on his own blood that the hammer had started when it tore his cheeks open. Cheering erupted behind me and I was ready to have my beating, after I gave him one.  Before they could get me I’d get him; I bucked back using the log as balance, so they’d think before grabbing me and making me their toy again. I fell to my hind knees with a cry of pain from the motions, but scrambled to all fours again as I raised my pipbuck high and brought it down onto Soda’s head with a gut wrenching crack.  He fell to the floor, his head bouncing twice as his body twitched. He was still alive and would live if he got any medical assistance, but I didn’t want that at the moment.  He was barely within reach as I raised my hoof and pressed it to his cracked skull and pressed lightly.  I could’ve killed him with a twist, but I didn’t have it in me.  I spit on him as I lifted my hoof and lay back down over the log before my body quit.  I listened to the cheering and some kind of coins were dropped behind me, but I didn’t care.  I waited for the ropes to return. The raping. The pain. The humiliation. Instead I got a sharp stinging pain in my rump and a filling sensation… but this time it wasn’t like being raped.  I was getting a fucking shot.  I felt a rush of magical energy and my backside stopped hurting, my cracks in my hooves, and my body felt fresher than it did since I left the stable. “Get up, Cunt!  You’re one of us and I can’t wait to see what you have to offer,” Powder said with a rotten toothed smile.  I never really saw her but I knew her breath and now I knew why it stank.  She only had a few teeth missing but the ones she had were rotten in a way I’d never hope to experience. She was purple.  Twilight Sparkle purple with a dirty yellow mane.  The ponies around me were the same. The filth, uncleanliness, and harshness of this world was all over them.  I took a careful step back, then another until I stepped free of the log and turned away from it.  I hated that log.  Despised it.  I turned and I bucked it hard and sent it rolling back, over the husk of the colt I’d nearly killed… and killed him. It wasn’t really me that killed him, it was the log, right?  I felt more metal hit my hooves and looked down.  There must have been twenty bottle caps.  I was ushered away and a plate of… something, was held in front of me.  I didn’t wait and gobbled it like it was the last thing I’d eat and didn’t even savor the taste of cram coated with sugar apple bombs mixed with radiated dirty water.  I had just killed a pony and one of their own and they didn’t even care?  Raiders were crazy, psychotic!  But they made good food.  Yum. I wonder what they’d have me do first?  Something horrible, probably.  A colt placed a hat on my head and whispered in my ear. “Conga.” “Huh?” I asked before a pony grabbed my hindquarters and I tensed up, ready to be plowed in a freshly healed hole.  But I heard a musical instrument and a steady rhythm that wasn’t sexual at all.  I felt a push behind me and stumbled as the pony shoved me to the beat.  I looked back to see either the whole gang having a sex train, or they were actually dancing. I couldn’t help but smile at the irony.  These horrible rapists, murderers, thieves were dancing with my as the leader?  I reared and took to my rear hooves and boxed the air with a whiny and landed, taking steps to the beat I laughed at my freedom.  My not being raped.  My life that was spared and the horrible pony I inadvertently killed. Hydra plus painkillers really fuck with a mares mind. I landed on my forehooves and bucked back, knocking the yellow stallion off me and turning my rump away from him as I scurried away. They laughed it off and a bottle of alcohol rolled to my hooves that I opened and began to drink freely. The rest of the night was the biggest party I’d been a part of with alcohol, food, sex for those that wanted it, and bottlecaps were traded.  I had had several drinks and had taken my caps in a bag and fallen asleep hugging the bag to my chest.  Not one pony touched me and I was okay with that. I woke up vomiting my last meal out onto some mare next to me.  She was out for the count and disgusting enough as it was it didn’t seem to be worse than what was already across her body, so I got up and moved to another spot.  The encampment was almost full of raiders and a few partly sober guards did their job with various knives and two rifles between the five of them. I noticed that my tail hair was pulling and stinging.  The cum, damnit.  Still a reminder of what I’ve been through.  How long until I could wash it out?  Not soon enough. “Hey, Cunt.  You got a name?” a mare asked me from a pile of orgy exhausted ponies that I was passing.  The mark of the colts all over the area and mare herself was a dead giveaway to what she’d been a part of. “Swatter.” “Heh, I like it.  That’s a raiders name for sure.  Anyone fucks with you you’ll swat them with a fucking hammer,” she chuckled and lay her head down, nuzzling some stallion’s sheathed member before she burped and drooled something that was white and creamy. Luna’s glorious clit, it’s cum.   I left her there, I wanted to leave them all, but where would I go now?  What would I do without resources or friends.  How far would I get with a bag of bottle caps and no currency.  What if caps are the currency?  It hadn’t come up, but makes some sense.  Not a lot, but some. I haven’t seen another pony outside these, what if they’re all there is for hundreds of miles? I walked to where the raider I’d killed had been butchered and what was left was just, awful.  I whispered an apology to him, only for taking his life though.  He deserved to die for everything he did to me and probably countless others.  I snarled and looked at what was left of his corpse and the hammer they left in his maw and turned away.  He wasn’t worth any more than that apology from me. I found a spot near the pallet where I was raped and violated for those weeks and lay down.  As much as I hated it, I was most comfortable there.  I hugged the bag close to me and fell back asleep. I woke up to a warm feeling on my back and hummed.  It was nice, like a shower.  In the wasteland?  Crap!  I rolled to my belly and looked at a colt that was almost done peeing, his eyes closed and a dull look on his face.  He seriously was sleep peeing?!  What else was wrong with these ponies.  I didn’t know what time it was but I wasn’t tired anymore.  I’d been peed on a few times, but it’s not something one can just shake off.  At least it cleaned some of the hardened sperm from my back. I sighed deeply and looked up to the clouded sky and the light that was starting to crest the horizon.  Beyond the wall of the sky was the sun and heavens we’d read about in books and seen in short videos.  I didn’t know it was clouded like this and if I’d known all this was even a remote possibility I wouldn’t have chosen this mission. I started to make my way to the edge of the encampment and stopped.  Maybe I’d be shot for crossing the line.  Maybe I needed to die.  I… was nearly broken as it was.  I crossed the imaginary line and kept walking.  “Be careful out there,” one guard said to me and cocked his rifle, “there’s beasties out at night.  Ya gotta shit, or something?” “...No, just walking.  Stretching my legs.” “Oh yeah, you’re the new member.  Better stretch them legs than your hole, right, Cunt?” “Swatter,” I corrected him.  Cunt wasn’t going to be my name. “Cunt Swatter?  I like it.  I’ll pass it on.” “Whatever,” I shook my head slightly and smirked at how stupid these ponies were.  I could run back to my stable in a couple days and they wouldn’t even chase me, I bet.  But as I looked at the brown sea of lifeless land before me it dawned on me that I was one of them, for the moment.  They weren’t trying to kill me and I couldn’t survive on my own with nothing but a bag of caps.  What was the cost of things?  Food, water, saddlebags, or clothes?  My barding was shredded when I was being…  I need to stop thinking of what happened to me, it’s not healthy. I need a way to get away from these ponies.  I’m not a raider, I’m a pony.  A sensible pony that…  I knew those hoofsteps.  Proud and confident, the blue one that ploughed me gently.  I turned to the right to see him, a pale blue stallion with a necklace of unicorn horns and a tattered blanket across his back covering most of his white mane and sides. I was slightly smitten by him, if only because he was the nicest colt I’d met out here so far, and that was based on how gently he raped me.  Something must have been wrong with me to think like that.  I didn’t smile at him, though.  I kept my neutral expression as he stopped a couple lengths away and poked at the ground. “H-howdy, ma’am.  Ah’m called Blue Balls, never caught your name,” he was so uncertain it was almost cute.  I couldn’t say anything though, it was awkward enough being allowed to live and become a sudden member of this group of horrible ponies.  Now I swear that this colt was flirting with me.  “Well, Ah’m rightly sorry fer what Ah did to ya before.  Never thought you’d live this long… Not that I was hopin’ you’d…” he paused and shook his head, “just, it’s nice ta see yer alive’n well.  This place changes us all, it’s nice ta know yer not gone,” he tapped his temple and the first thing I thought of was stabbing his temple with the horns on his necklace.  Something might be wrong with me. Mixed feelings so far. Feeling like Swatter should be (way) more traumatized than she is...although I’m not strictly the best person to be a critic. “It’s nice to meet you, Balls.  I’ll see you later,” I said meekly.  I can’t let him know that I’m not broken, not yet.  I turned to face him and backed away, lowering my head as I left him.  He turned back to the encampment and disappeared in the crowd of sleeping ponies.  I didn’t know where to go or what to do.  Only that I had to survive any way I knew how.  I could use my magic now, for all the good it got me.  First thing I did was killed one of my rapists, won’t mom be proud of me? I turned back the way I came and spotted the pony I’d bitten when he tried to shove his salty cock in my mouth and down my throat.  He was a guard and glaring at me.  I felt my marehood clench tight at I stared him down and approached him.  Neither one of us broke our gaze as I reached him and woke several ponies by walking over and stepping on them. A few complained but stopped when they noticed the look on my face.  They knew the look better than I did.  I stopped a length away and willed myself to not blink.  I wonder how many times he was behind me.  Was he the one who peed on me?  Was he the one who picked up my droppings and rubbed them into my mane? “Hey, Cunt.  Nice to see you’re walking normal, come for a free ride?” he grumbled at me.  And that was it.  I used my magic to tug his darn red mane down to the ground as I reared and kicked at his head with my forehooves, aiming for his eyes and cheeks but tearing up his ears pretty good for what it was worth.  I wasn’t new to combat, and I know what hurts the most.  Thanks to my broken hooves I managed to scrape his eye and blind him quickly. That sent blood spilling from his face as he screamed and dropped his rifle. I picked the rifle up and pressed the barrel into one of his eye sockets and fumbled with the firing of it.  He reared and knocked the gun to the ground and swiped blindly at me but he was in no shape to fight.  All he did was started to scream profanities and bleed.  I heard the cheering again and a moment later they were all shouting ‘Cunt Swatter’ in a chant.  That wasn’t my name, damnit.  I picked up the gun and looked at it, bit onto it’s trigger like an earth pony would, then it fired. A chunk of his hind knee splattered and he fell to the floor as I aimed the gun at his head.  I should have ended his suffering but I wasn’t a monster, I couldn’t kill every pony that’d raped me.  I’d never know them all and some of these might be useful in keeping me alive, so I spat the gun to the ground and turned away, giving him the treat of finally peeing for the first time in days, right onto his injured head. His scream was louder than the crowd and I have to admit that I was ashamed, but I kept peeing until my bladder was empty.  He spluttered and rolled away but I stayed firm. It was more than I’d ever let go and I think I got a lot of cred because the gang fell silent when I walked past them, through them.  It was almost eerily quiet as I made my way back to where I was nailed to the floor and looked at the dead pony again.  I pulled the hammer a bit and felt my stomach turn as I heard his jaw cracking around the tool so I pushed it in deeper and then pulled it from a meaty hole in his ribs.  It was covered in blood and meat from him.  I dropped the hammer from my inspections when I felt a pony touch my side.  I spun with a raised hoof that connected with a welding helmet, and I lost another piece of my hoof as the pony stumbled back. “Hey, Swatter, ya can’t kill everypony ya don’t like,” Powder said as she lifted the helmet.  I sniffled and lunged her into a tight hug.  I knew this could be the moment they saw me as weak and I didn’t care.  I’d just pissed on a pony that I’d blinded, I killed a pony a few hours before, and before that I was a sex toy.  I let it all out in a series of roars, grunts, whines, and blubbering. The whole time I didn’t see any pony staring at me and she held me close through it all.  It was more than enough to make me feel like a pony again, but different at the same time.  I felt warm in her embrace and even though I didn’t wanna stop it, I let her go before I was done crying and moved away from her.  I thanked her as I dried my face and picked the hammer back up.  She lowered the helmet again and lowered herself into a combat crouch. I brought the hammer down onto the head of the pony I’d killed again and again as I finished my bout of self-pity and sorrow.  I’d pulverized his head into chunks held together by what meat and brains were left and moved the hammer beside me, held in my magic.  “I need saddlebags,” I said flatly. “I’ll get you some,” Powder said as she backed off and left me alone.  Ponies stared at me but stayed clear as I spun the hammer around in my magic and looked at it and the bits of pony that were on it.  I couldn’t believe that these ponies had skinned and taken so much meat from a barely dead pony.  It looked like a carcase that had been picked at for a couple days by buzzards. I felt the saddlebag hit my side and I startledly looked at it, then Powder.  “Got yer bag, Chief.  What’s the plan?” “Ch-chief?”  Well, it sounded better than Cunt Swatter. “That pony you beat up, shot, pissed on?  Former tribe chief, Armor Sentry.  He was some soldier that took over, and you beat him, so now you’re the boss of the group.” My mind blanked for a second or ten. “Huhbazuhwah?” “The first day you’re in charge is to get you used to your position.  We’re raiders, not savages, mostly, “ she said to the group that spread quiet laughter. “We have rules, rights, laws, everything a society needs.  Ours are just little more bloody.  After your second day as chief anypony can challenge you for leadership; if they want to try it.  You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, so I’ll help you out.” “Uhm, hawah?  Uh, ahem… what?” I asked looking at the pony being hauled away with no hope of a successful life. “Well, first thing’s first, round up all the colts that raped me,” I told her as I began to slip the saddlebags onto my body. “Uh, shouldn’t you learn the laws and rules of our tribe before-” “Just do it.  What’d’ya care about a few colts?” “Sentry was an asshole, but he ran a good operation.  The first thing you’re going to do is murder every rapist we have?  Bold,” she turned to look at the tribe, “stupid, but bold. You’re gonna kill off almost the whole tribe?” “Wait, I didn’t want them killed,” I said looking at her with some shock, “just, I want apologies.  No mare should have to have that happen to them in the first place, but an apology and community service has always worked.” “Yeah,” she turned back to me, “in the stable.  What you don’t know is that out here you’ve gotta stay strong or you’ll be eaten alive, and that’s a serious statement, CS.” “CS? Oh, my name.  That’s not my name,” I started but she raised a hoof to silence me, “but it has to be…  crap.”  She nodded to me and gestured for me to continue. “You know, you’re a lot more civilized than I thought you’d be, no offence.” “Nah, not all of us were born into this.  My father,” she said taking a seat beside me as I put the hammer into the strap of my saddlebags, “was a caravaner.  He and my family went across Equestria trading whatever we had.  I was traded too; It turned out that nothing was off the market for my mother.  I was worth two hundred caps and a good quality brahmin so they could carry more stuff. “After a few trades and time as a slave I was skinny enough to slip out of my collar and ran away.  I joined up with a raider group near Hoofington before they died in some stupid raid.  I was enough of a filly, so I became a Crusader for a while before getting caught by a group of slavers, again. That time I was taken here to the south where I was freed by a raider pack and brought into their family, and here I am.” “So, every mare-” “Is raped into the tribe?  No, just the lucky ones.  Some fight their way in, others trade.  Still, most are born into this life and don’t know anything else. This’ their herd, their family. When families come together we survive better and we’re large enough to have rules. Most raiders are in gangs of just a few ponies with no relation that have no rules and do whatever they want; even cannibalism.”  She smiled when I winced at the thought of it. “So, we have rules?  Against cannibalism?” She leaned aside and snickered. “No, we have to survive and food can be hard to come by.  Mmm, tasty,” she said softly.  She laughed as I stood and backed away quickly. “Just kidding, kind of.  While we’re not for it, we’re not against it.  We’re ponies and can’t digest it right, but a bite now and then won’t kill us,” she said chomping her teeth at me. “Anything in an emergency, right?” I was officially uncomfortable now.  I kept an eye on her as she began to tell me the rules and laws of the tribe.  I found out there was a lot more to them than just raping, murdering crazies.  They actually were a small society with some aspects of civilization, but it was a lot of kill or be killed.  I could be challenged to a fight, or attacked at random.  If I lost, died, or gave up my position was theirs. My sparing the former chief showed that I was a violent but compassionate mare… I’d have gelded him if I’d had a little more time, but pissing on him showed that I had little mercy to give.  I was in the right spot to rule, even if I didn’t want to.  I couldn’t pass it on anypony else, and I was here for the long haul if I wanted to live. So, there I was.  A total mess of a mare in a half dozen ways, empty inside from what I’d done to two colts, and the leader of a tribe of raiders.  What else could happen to me today? Turns out a lot.  First I was a sex toy, then healed by some chemical concoction called Hydra.  Then I killed two ponies and became the leader of a tribe of civilized raiders… then I met the stallion I’d fall in love with.  His name was Falling Sun, a pegasus that was the kindest pony I’d ever been raped by.  Gosh, that sounds sick: I need a therapist, badly. Before I knew it he was following me and Powder around like a cat that was after some Brahmin milk.  He didn’t say anything and tried to stay hidden, but being blue didn’t help him hide in the small encampment.  I stopped and hid, giving him time to sneak close enough for me to give him a more formal introduction by slapping his side lightly enough to let him know I knew he was following me and shared something in a pot with him for lunch. “What’re you doing, following us?” Powder asked him with a sneer as she raised a hoof.  I didn’t notice she had a horseshoe with spiked on the bottom until then.  A punch would rend flesh instantly.  I really needed some barding. “S-sorry!  Ah, just wanted to make sure Swatter was okay… ya know, after everything.” “She’s fine, Cock.  Get out of here before I-” “No, wait,” I said to her as I looked at the blanket covering his wings move, “what’s that?” “My wings,” he said with some growing pride. “I’ll rip them off if you don’t-” “Wings?  So, you’re a pegasus?” I asked. “Are you even listening to-” “Yup.  Reckon I was since birth.  Born ‘n raised down here,” he stomped the floor once and stood taller with a smile. “Well, good for you.  I need a guard, you want it?” “Hey, why aren’t you listening to-” “Um, I-I don’t know.  You’re doing fine yourself,” he said. I looked to Powder and smirked. “I need a lieutenant, interested?”  That shut her up, she stammered and worked her jaw in silence. “I’m starting a militant organization, if you don’t like it you can offer some advice, but I need a leadership team and you,” I looked to powder, “are tough and kind while you,” I looked to Sun and then glanced to the sky, “can keep a lookout for dangers to me and the tribe.” They looked at each other then to me. “You’re crazy,” Powder said flatly, “you plan to change everything in a day?  It can’t happen, you’ll be killed first thing in the morning.” “She’s right, no pony wants to change the world in a day, much less a group of raiders.  We’re raiders, there’s an insanity that comes with what we do.  We can’t organize.” I smirked at him and turned to walk past him, keeping my tail low and covering my parts as I found a place to get everyponies attention. “Ponies, wake up and listen to your new boss,” I shouted.  They didn’t really move until I pulled the bloodied hammer from my side, “now or I’ll kill you myself!” That got them moving to wake up the rest and look at me with their filthy bodies and expressions.  I noticed most were so thin I could count their ribs and took note I’d become the same way over the past weeks.  All the filling I got should have-  Stop it, brain. “I’m the boss, so the first thing I’m doing is assigning Powder here to be my right hoof mare and Blue Balls here,” there was a chuckling through the crowd, “as my personal guard.  I need a few leaders to step forward!”  They looked amongst each other and finally a couple pushed their way to the front. “That’s it?  Two leaders out of all you?!  Fine, you’re my sergeants!  You’re top of the bottom,” I pointed to the two who pointed to themselves, then each other in confusion, “when you’re given a command you and your group will do it in the best way you know how,” I sneered at them and looked to Powder with a frown, “by raiding.” A cheer rose from the crowd. “Split into two groups behind your leader, ponies!” they complied and I had a platoon just like that.  If I had a way to, I’d have ribbed Powder.  Instead I stood as tall as I could and looked amongst the twenty ponies below me.  I had my own small army, and all it took was ten minutes… maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing. > Chapter 2 > --------------------------------------------------------------------------         The light in my eyes blinded me for nearly thirty seconds.  I held my pipbuck up to cover my eyes and lowered it as the bright pain faded.  I wasn’t the first to take a step out of the tunnel from the stable, and I wasn’t the last, but I kept walking with hint of pride as my vision cleared.  A face was peering at me and made me hop back into another body.  “Oh my, um, hello?” I said meekly.  “I wasn’t expecting to meet anypony so-” I was stopped by a heavy shove from behind and I stumbled forward and stopped with my chin on the pony that was in front of me.         His clothes stank of things I couldn’t identify, and poop.  I looked around and saw five more rotting toothed faces looking at me.  I didn’t feel comfortable all of a sudden.  “Um, I’m sorry, your friend bumped me-”         “Aw, look fella’s, she’s nuzzlin’ me!” the one I was removing myself from shouted.  He bit into my mane too hard and I shouted in pain as I was shoved from behind again.  The pusher was holding my flanks as I was pushed again, this time his forelimb brushed against my teats and I yelped, looking back.         I was being mounted.  I bucked him off and turned to run away only to trip over a skeleton.  Bleached nearly white by the white and grey sky.  I looked into the empty eye sockets of a unicorn pony and stumbled, landing chest first into some muddy water.  I heard my pipbuck start clicking as I was surrounded by the ponies.         “We gotta runner!” one of the hollered as I was bucked, hard, in the side.  I coughed as I rolled to my side and looked into a cracked hoof, in desperate need of a filing, as it rushed toward my face.  I knew this wasn’t going to be the experience I was prepared for at all.  The hoof connected and I felt it as though I were in SATS.           Time slowed to a crawl as I saw a flash of white and felt teeth popping loose from my gums.  I felt the sting of the hoof as it ripped some of my flesh and I know I heard them laughing and cheering as I fell flat into the water with a splash that covered me with irradiated wetness.  My pipbuck clicked. Clicked.  Clicked.  That was all I could hear as I gasped a mouthful of water and sat up enough to cough my lungs clear and my mouth free of blood.           The laughing.  The laughing that they made at me was terrible enough, but the stench of their breath was enough to rust the walls in the stable with a single breath.  The stable!  Maybe I could make it back, maybe I could get back in… maybe they’d let me back in and fight these monster ponies back and heal me.  I’d be in the embrace of my stallion in the medbay and before I knew it life would go back to the way it was.         I wasn’t being mounted in the disgusting water, held down with a hoof on each of my limbs and my chin being held up by the strength in my neck only.  I wasn’t being violated, he wasn’t…         I shook my head and looked around at the ponies around me.  Powder was talking with Blue.  I don’t care what his name is, if I’m gonna be called Cunt Swatter, he can be Blue Balls.  With a yawn I stretched my limbs and stood up taking a few steps toward the firepit that was burnt down.  I looked at the ponies around; they were just having fun so, what’d that mean about my leadership?  About how they saw me?         “Where’s the old boss?” I asked openly.  A couple looked at me and their ears fell while the rest ignored me.  Colts.  When will they learn?  A mare only has so far to be pushed before she breaks, and I broke in the wrong way.  I pulled my hammer free and swung it down hard onto the knee of a mare that had ignored me.  It wasn’t enough to break her leg, but she’d feel it for a while.         As she screamed I turned the hammer to the clawed end and held it next to my head and glared at a stallion, singling him out. “Where, is the old, boss?” I asked slowly, making sure he knew he heard me over her cursing and grunting.  I was impressed she didn’t scream and cry like I would have, but that’s what a life out here will do to anypony.         “He’s by the watering hole, we left him to die in the sun.  Should be about there,” he smiled.  Gosh I wanted to smash his teeth in… what was left of them.  He saw the look in my eye and closed his mouth and grimaced. “Ma’am.”         I put away my hammer and pushed my way through the crowd of ponies to the edge of the encampment, then looked around and behind me.  The ponies respected me?  Why, because I was a monster?  I felt my heart drop a little as I looked around and saw a pony in the distance lying about.  Might be him, I figured, so I went for a walk.         I caught up to the blinded and dying former boss, looking down at him as his ears slowly turned to me.  “Here to kill me, or rape me again?  Whatever you got ain’t nothin’ to me.”         “No,” I said quietly enough to make him freeze and look over to my with empty eyes oozing black and white fluids, “I’m here to see you before you die… I’m sorry.”         He rasped a cough and laughed. “For what?  You followed your instincts and took my place, good luck staying alive for a week,” he coughed dryly.         “I don’t care, I shouldn’t have hurt you and I don’t need your forgiveness.  I just had to say it.”         “...What?  I...” He fell silent and I left him like that and I swear I heard him forgive me, but I didn’t care.  I was a murderer now.  Two ponies had died by my hooves and there wasn’t any going back, I was a raider now.  A monster.  A broken mare who would be dead soon, by the hooves another pony who wanted my job.  I stopped and looked back to the blinded and infected pony behind me and shook my head.  The least I could offer him was some peace.  I returned to the encampment and told a random mare to give him some attention before he died.           She didn’t hesitate to call me every version of bitch I could think of and a few new ways, before she left me and did what I told her to.  Sex was as good as currency, I guess.  Might as well let them all know I’m willing to trade if I have to.  These aren’t normal mares, these mares do this all the time and for whatever they need.  I know how the world works out here, I’ve learned even though I was nailed and tied to a floor, raped and…         Stop it, brain.         I listened, I learned, I know a lot more than they think I do.  I can use that to my advantage until I can get home to my stable.  Maybe get a new life in some place that’s safe and peaceful, with farmable land and a nice creek with fresh water.  Ugh, great, now I’m fantasizing about nothing.         These ponies are simple and violent.  I can’t change them, but I can control them until I can figure out somewhere to hide away.  There’s gotta be a garden or paradise out here that I can slip into and-         “Hey, boss?” A mare called to me, snapping me back to the horrible reality I was in.  “We got a caravan coming by soon!  You want us ta take it?!” she grinned with several missing teeth.  I never thought I’d see a pony’s tongue through their teeth like that.         “Talk to your sergeant first.  Follow the chain of command or I’ll break your knees and leave you to die like the old boss!”         She grinned and nodded to me, then turned and cantered to the leader of her group who slapped her for whatever reason and that led to a fight.  I turned away and went to my spot, a pillow that wasn’t too rotten and Blue by my side.  I watched the fight for a couple minutes before I actually got bored and told a nearby pony to stop the fight.           A small gang jumped in the melee and the fight was over.  A few good bites, a couple good cuts, and a bit of an ear was missing from the mare I’d sent to her leader was it.  The sergeant, Low Chopper, what was with these names?  He came to me and spit her ear at my hooves and I took a step back as it flopped to a stop under me, between my forelegs.         I looked back to him and listened as he began to explain what the mare told me; the caravans were coming.  It was up to me to attack them or let them pass.  I could tell from the look on his face that he was ready to fight me on the spot for my position, or he’d poison me.           Whatever the case, I had to attack the caravan to spare my life.  But how to do it?  I had to plan.         “They’ll be here soon, what’s the plan… boss?”         Crap.  I had a few minutes, not hours, to plan.  I just let nature take its course, I guess. “Capture them, do what you must to them and bring the supplies here.  And, let two of them go so they can tell their friends about us.”         “About ‘us’?” he asked.         “Yes, we’re going to become organized and take over the area.  No pony will be able to travel through for free.  They’ll have to pay, or die.”  I turned my side to him and looked to the barren horizon.  He turned and returned to his gathered peers and a minute later they organized into squads and left the encampment to do the horrible deeds that they did.         I made several mistakes with my little speech.  First, was that I didn’t tell them to not rape and maul the survivors, the second was how in Tartarus was I supposed to take over the region?  Random thoughts began to flow through my mind including how I was now missing teeth and how I missed my friends.  I should have been focusing on survival and not being monsters, but instead I’m here letting my mind wander.           I just want to get revenge on the colts that hurt me.  I didn’t see them here, maybe they’re wandering the lands and bragging about me.  I’ll never forget the five that took me in that irradiated puddle the first time.  The taste of their semen was enough to make me want to vomit, but I just started being toothy.  I know my stallion didn’t like when I let my teeth brush his member, so I just let it happen until they stopped.  And when they kept trying I let them know my mouth wasn’t a toy and bit one of them.  I wish I could have taken it off, but a few scratches was enough for both of us.           I’m glad I have flat teeth, but just once having sharp teeth would have been nice.         Stop distracting me!         I stomped my hoof on the floor hard and looked around.  Apparently I’d made a bit of a scene, somehow, and all eyes were on me.  I looked at Powder and she had her mouth open in stunned silence, Blue was the same.  “What?” was all I could ask.         A stallion came up to me and reached to place a hoof on me in a comforting way and the hammer met the frog of his hoof and all I could do was scream in a panic for him to not touch me as the hammer swung in my magic wildly at him.  He fell back and ponies grabbed me with magic to restrain me to no effect.  I was tackled by Powder and the hammer flung from my magical grip as I thudded to the floor, her scrawny weight on me.         “Boss, what the hell?!  You can’t kill every colt we have!”         “Why not?!  It’s what they deserve!  I’ll get them, I’ll get them ALL!  Every single one that hurt me will pay!”         “You sound crazed,” Blue mumbled, “and that’s what we need!” he shouted, “A crazy boss is better than a mean boss!  Hear hear!”  The crowd changed from hapless grinning at my wanton violence to a short cheer for Blue’s words.  “For too long we’ve had bosses that’ve been male and mean, but none willing to take risks!  We have a boss that just may be what we need!  Let’s hear it for out boss!”         The crowd went into a murmur before one pony shouted my name. “Boss Cunt Swatter!”         The entire camp roared with that goddess awful name and I was branded Cunt Swatter ever since.  Boss Cunt Swatter.  What a wasteland name.  Filthy, just like me.  I let my mind wander on what my mothers and father would say to my name now and sighed, felt a single tear escape and sting like a bitch, then I got up and grabbed my hammer, placing it back into my strap.  I looked at the stallion I’d beaten and his broken forelimb he was cradling.  A couple good bruises were forming under his brown coat and who knows how bad he was hurting where I didn’t see…         “Get him cleaned and healed, I need every body we can get.  We’re cleansing the area of all life that isn’t pony and isn’t us.  Gather patrols and kill everything, loot it for all you can, and bring it all back here.  We need everything we can get, so don’t waste any time.”         I didn’t know who I was talking to but I heard several grunts in agreement before I heard hooves clopping and shuffling away.  I stared into the wasteland around us and to the humping forms in the distance and remembered how quickly everything had changed.  I prayed for my friends to be alive and well, or dead and spared of this nightmare.  Then I placed myself in the moment and made the hardest choice I think I’d ever made: I needed to be a boss.  A raider boss.         I went to the makeshift bed that was a few once cardboard boxes and lay upon them, my hammer poked my side so I adjusted myself and lay my head on my forelimbs and took in my apparent fate.  It was still early in the day, the mare that’d let the old boss have one last release was back with her tail low and a sneer on her face at me, and I was ready to sleep for the rest of the year.  It was too much for me, almost.         I dozed to an uncomfortable sleep, thankful that I wouldn’t be mounted or bothered while I rested my poor mind.  My dreams were of me walking in a field of green grass under a sun that Celestia controlled still, and I saw a bird.  A real bird!  Then I remembered where I was in real life and the grass burnt away, the bird shriveled into ash.  The sun set quickly and glowing clouds took its place.  It wasn’t a nightmare, but it wasn’t pleasant.  I began to walk, wander, and starve to death; alone and forgotten.         I woke up slowly under a tarp made of tattered plastic and some Brahmin hide to shield me from the sun and smiled.  I looked around and the encampment was nearly empty, save for a few guards I’d love to geld and my two right hoof ponies.  “Thanks,” I said stronger than I had earlier, “I needed that.  And for the cover.”         “It wasn’t our idea,” Blue said from the side of a barrel he was leaning against nonchalantly, “they respect you.  I haven’t seen it for a while, but you inspire them.  They want to do more than just survive, and you’re giving them a chance to live; even if it is doing little more than the usual.”         “At least they have guidance,” Powder spoke up from the other side of the barrel.  I didn’t see her, but knew she was there. “They usually have free reign and don’t know what to do.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they let three caravaneers live as a show of mercy.”         “Better than nothing,” I said to myself.  Time passed and all we did was talk about the territory around us.  I had the old bosses stuff, which was mostly three hundred and forty two caps, several blunt weapons that were crap, a couple guns that were on the verge of breaking and I didn’t trust them, so they were as good as blunt objects, too.         The one saving grace was some old armor that had seen a lot of wear.  It fit loosely and smelled like a stallion, but it would keep me safe from blunt attacks to my body and stabs to my barrel.  I was still susceptible to bullets, but I wasn’t too worried about that at the moment.  It seemed most weapons were poor quality, except the gun I’d used to blind my predecessor.  I’d wager whoever stole it during my beating of him was grinning.  It was shiny, so it was well kept up and probably the best weapon I’d have seen.           I wasn’t about to disarm my troops, so once this pony died I’d have it back.  I just had to work with Powder to find out who and send them on a mission with her.  She’d take the weapon and dispose of the thief, problem solved.  I’d have a new gun and be a body short.  Maybe that was a bad idea, in fact, it was a bad idea.  Powder and Blue told me so and I knew it, but sometimes it’s good to hear that an idea is bad before you put it into action.           Well, I’d have to wait to get my weapon and until then I’d just have to make due.  My first day was almost over and tomorrow I could be challenged for the position.  I didn’t like it, but if I had to be one of those idiots I’d die too soon.  No, I needed to know if my friends were dead.  I was so self focused when I was captured I hadn’t seen or heard too much from the others.  There were six of us, two males and four females.  I saw Silver Glow taken, screaming, around a boulder while the stallions were beaten.  That’s all I remember from before and during my first raping…  No, don’t go there.  I winced as I flashed back to it again.         I needed a therapist really bad.  But, all I could do was lean on the barrel and talk with the other two about my feelings at the moment, which they listened to and understood.  They let me know that tomorrow from the moment the sun rose I couldn’t talk like that anymore.  If I had an issue it’d have to be taken up in private with a trusted pony, and I understood right away but let her explain why to me.         I didn’t have the energy to say I was smarter than I looked and they thought.  I wasn’t much for strength and my magic was good enough since I was trained in basic combat and defense as an explorer from the stable, but I was smart and I would use that to my advantage by playing dumb or average.  I was just an average light blue mare with purple mane that happened to get lucky.         Now I had to keep my position.  Gosh, I feel like I’m rambling more than storytelling, and maybe I am.  It was a lot to go through, you know.  Well, I was surprised to see two Brahmin being led back to the encampment, loaded with stuff and with several beaten ponies in tow.  They didn’t kill them all and it was a great sight to see.         The Brahmin had two heads, which was creepy as hell, and they were deformed with massive udders that I hoped no pony drank from, but they looked healthy enough.  The stuff they carried was covered, but I knew it was a great haul and there were a half dozen raiders holding guard.  They got near the encampment and stopped, raised their weapons and led the captured over to me.         “We got ‘em all but three guards.  Two traders were cut free and sent limpin’, but whacha want with the rest?  Can we eat ‘em?!” A mare asked.  I could tell she was joking just by the look on her face, but they couldn’t see her.  They began to weep and tremble and a stallion let his bladder go a little.  It was actually kinda funny to be on this end of it, but I had to keep it professional.           “Go through their stuff and make sure there’s enough to go around.  Separate the stuff into piles on the tarps they come with before we decide what to do with this lot.  Take your time, ponies, and show these travelers some Raider hospitality,” I said waving a hoof to the captured ponies.  They were lightly beaten and herded away to near the hopefully dead pony that I’d blinded and broken and then mentally tortured.  I imagine my raiders telling them they were going to be next, left to die in the sun after they were blinded and beaten to near death.         And eaten.  Powder told me that that was a rumor that had to be kept up, more reason to fear all raiders than just the crazy ones.  So, they unloaded the freaky mutated cows and what a haul!  Caps, weapons of all varieties, junk, but not totally useless junk.  There was good condition barding I took right away and food.  It was canned and all, but it was food and there was a lot of it!  I got first pick since I was boss and I took a rifle and all the ammunition that went with it, a few cans of Cram and some Sugar Apple Bombs, and then I took a look over the junk and left almost all of it.  I did take a nice necklace and a toaster… there was some doll that looked like an orange mare bucking something, but I left that.                  Let somepony else play with dolls. > Chapter 3 > --------------------------------------------------------------------------         I was woken by a kiss to my ear, a nuzzle into my mane, and squeeze to my side from behind.  I moved my hips a little and didn’t feel him unsheathed and pressing against me.  It was nice to be cuddled, but I wanted sex, damn it!  But, it was so nice at the moment that I couldn’t help but melt into his embrace.  Today was the day we’d be separated for a month while my team and I explored the outside world.  There was more than enough anxiety to keep me borderline terrified and excited.         He nipped my ear and that was when I knew he knew I was awake and when I felt a poke on my dock I was more than ready to relieve some stress.  He kissed my cheek, let his forelimb slide down my body and he touched my teats; rubbing them softly he helped me roll to my belly and let his hard cock brush against my belly and I could barely contain myself.         He hitched his forelimbs to my hips and moved his hips back, letting me move my tail aside enough so I didn’t get hairs in uncomfortable places again and he thrust into me like the stallion he always was.  It stung for a few thrusts but my body took care of that and before I knew it I was almost climaxing.  He pressed deep and groaned loudly and bit my neck enough to hurt and send me over the edge.  I screamed his name and squeezed every drop of his essence into my body before I fell flat onto my belly, panting like it was mating season.           I know a minute is good time, but sheesh, he can get me there in half that.  Best stallion in the stable, I swear… not that I’ve had many, but comparatively he’s the best in every way.  Well, he doesn’t listen too well, and he focuses on the stable sports teams more than he does me, but other than that he’s a great colt that’s there for me when I need him.  I just hope he’s okay with having Red Clover take my place as his wife while I’m gone.         It’s a good time to start herding and repopulate the outside world, so I’ll be having three children within the next five years and so will she.  I think sex with a mare will be interesting, but that’s a thought for another time.  Sheesh, that was a great orgasm…         “That, was, awesome,” he panted as he lay casually next to me and looked at me with that deep love we shared.  I nodded back to him and leaned in to kiss his soft thin lips and he surprised me with a tongue in my mouth.  I felt my labia tingle and a shock of orgasm shot through me and I almost bit his tongue.           We shared an exasperated laugh and cuddled for a little while before I finally got up.  I had to pee and there’s no getting around it.  When I got back I dressed and kissed him goodbye, and then went to the training bay.  I met my friends and fellow explorers and we spent the next two hours working ourselves to physical and magical burnout before we were healed and gathered our gear.         No celebrations, no fanfare, no loved ones that were gonna wish us well.  It was a simple go away and come back with hard facts and information. A month away and I’d be welcomed back a heroine.  That’s when I’d get my ceremony, when I’d get welcomed back with affection and love.         As it was we had enough gear to help us for a week, by then we should have found and made contact with the surface ponies and by then we’d trade supplies for whatever else we’d needed.  So, with sixteen guards, armed with standard issue rifles, stood at attention and the door opened with a noise that I’ll never forget and we rushed out before the door shut behind us.   I wondered why the Overstallion had rushed us out so quickly, but maybe he knew.  Maybe he got the radio signal from DJ Pon3 like I had; it just showed up out of nowhere one day, somepony named The Stablemare had connected the towers, or something, and spread the message of the good fight across the Equestrian Wasteland.  No, I got the radio signal last week.  He couldn’t have heard DJ Pon3 before then.  Why was he so insistent we explore the surface so quickly?   Whatever, I had barding to put on and it had integrated saddlebags, a rifle to make sure worked, and a toy to give Blue.  That little orange mare looked like something he’d love to have, I thought.  When I gave it to him, post clothing, I smiled as he looked at it with awe and hugged it to his chest before placing it under his cloak, probably under a wing or in a small saddlebag.         I watched the raiders swarm the remaining stuff like vultures on a kill, and little was left.  No food, no clothing, no weapons, and little junk remained within a minute.  And not one blow was thrown, no blood spilt, and they even folded the tarps that were empty.  Wow.         “So, what’d ya get?” I asked Powder.  She opened her saddlebags and showed me that she grabbed most of the junk and some food.  Not much food, but I guess starvation made everything last longer.  I think I’d eaten a tenth of what I usually did over the last two weeks, so imagining a life like that was not something I wanted to do.         I sat on my bed and laid my head on the pillow for a second until I noticed it stank, so I tossed it to the side for some other pony to use while I used my forelegs if I had to.  I looked at the nondescript beaded necklace in my hoof and spent a while scanning its nuances and polished edges.  The gems were nice enough, but so small they’d be worth only a few dozen bits, so sayeth my Pipbuck.         I had saddlebags now, and my Pipbuck sorted and took account of all my inventory.  Priced it, too.  The exchange rate was crap out here, I’d pay six stamps for what would cost twenty caps out here.  “I just think this’ dumb,” I said to Powder, “why can’t they have better trade rates here?”         “Because it’s first come first serve and take what you can, kill them if you have to.  It’s not that difficult, just remember that it isn’t a Stable, all sunshine and rainbows; it’s Tartarus, and if you can’t make it, you die.”         She was so casual about it as she opened a box of Sugar Apple Bombs and shoved her muzzle into it.  I looked over to Blue and he was looking at the sky.  I told him to go for a fly if he needed to, but he shook his head. “Nah, Ah reckon that if I took to the skies I’d be shot before I saw my shooter, and pegasi have great eyesight.”         “Once we control some land we’ll have space for you to fly.  Oh!  We need a name, that’s what we need,” I said with an unusual amount of energy, “how about ‘Swatter’s Rangers’?”         “How about not,” Blue added with a grin.  He raised his hoof to pat my back but stopped suddenly. I felt myself grabbing for my hammer that I’d left beside me and I could see the fear in his eyes, both our eyes.  “Uh, how about the Traveling Barding?  Cuz yer the boss wearing used barding?”         “No!  I got it; Killer Tofu!”         Well, about an hour later the whole place had turned into a debate about the perfect name for our group, raider and leader alike had a say and I dare admit it began to feel like a democracy… until they chose our clan name.           “Fine, our official name is ‘Cunt’s Swatters’ and I hate you all!” I shouted at the lot of them.  That was the funniest thing that I ever remember happening in my life, up to that point.  While nopony touched me, and I was very okay with that, there was a sense of life that I hadn’t seen in them yet.  I’d had the captives blindfolded and tied together with a few guards to watch over them, but I bet even they could feel the energy in the air.           “Blue, take to the skies and tell me what you see.  If there’s a better place to camp and build a safe place, and any routes you see that are traveled that we can exploit.  I need to make sure we’ve got this set so that I won’t have to break another pony tomorrow that can fight for me the next day.”         “Wow,” A mare said from nearby.  Her stench was musky and had I met her in a casual setting I’d have vomited from it, but I digress.  She continued, “that was deep.  I’m, not really used to saying this, but do you wanna talk sometime?”         I shrugged. “Sure, why not?”         She grinned and lunged me into a hug.  I blacked out for a minute but she was okay, turns out they did break me!  Good for them, I couldn’t be touched without lashing out and screaming like a crazy mare and violently lashing out, at least this time I didn’t have my hammer on me or I would’ve lost a potential good friend.  I was being held down, again, by the combined weight of Powder and Blue.                  I snapped back from a sea of swirling colors and sighed deeply.  My body was tired and I was breathing heavily and the first thing that crossed my mind wasn’t anything but a wave of sorrow and the word ‘sorry’.  I cried again, into Powder’s chest while ponies who were watching my crazy moment began to move on.  My mood swing was understood now, and how the why was clear because I was screaming ‘don’t touch me’ again while throwing pebbles and dirt at the poor mare.         I calmed down and found her quickly, pushing Powder off me and trotting to the mare, startling her with a hug to her body as I sniffled into her stiff shoulder.  She trembled in my embrace and Blue had to pull me off with Powder’s help.  I stumbled to my rump and realized I was being foalish.  Crying and hugging ponies and begging for forgiveness, I need to be a crazy raider without being totally crazy.           I have stuff to work through and now I had three ponies to talk with.   Yay.         I spent the next hour gathering intelligence about the area and it turns out we were in what was once the southern provinces of Equestria.  It was pretty much a wasteland before it was a wasteland, being mostly desert and inhabited by buffalo once upon a time.  Now giant bugs, dogs, and other creatures called this place home.  Except for a few pony settlements this area wasn’t the place to be.  So, there was only one recourse of action.         “We have to move to a more populated area.”         “Yeah,” Powder spat into the small stack of sticks for the fire she’d be making for us leaders in a long twelve hours during nightfall, “ponies love raiders.  Why not just camp outside a military base?” she said sarcastically.  I rolled my eyes and started to poke at a stick that was the most out of the fire before I had a thought.         “Why not?”         “Why not what?”         “Why not take over an old military base?  There’s gotta be a bunch that’re abandoned since the war and all…”         “Nope, zombies.”         “What-bies?”         Blue snickered. “Undead ponies live in those places,” Powder clarified.  She smiled as my eyes widened. “Yeah, they’re rotting and all they care about is eating flesh.  They’re also about twice as strong as a normal pony.”         “And they don’t stop until they’re dead, or you are,” Blue mumbled.         “Don’t mind him, he’s only heard stories.  I’ve seen a herd of zombies in real life,” Powder claimed, “didn’t have to put any down, but it was enough to see ‘em to let me know not to mess with them.”         “Okay, what if we all go in at once and kill them before they kill us?”         “You’re telling us to find a military base, hope it’s deserted, clear it of zombies, then set up camp?”         “Yeah,” I sighed in resignation.         “I love it!  Finally, something crazy to do,” she grinned and moved to the mass of ponies.  Their enthusiasm built as she told them my stupid suicide plan and I could barely believe it as they went for it.  They roared with a crazed bloodlust and cheered with toothless maws as they raised their weapons and formed before me.  The hour I’d spent telling them about organizing into squads seems to have had been taken seriously.         A few maps were passed around and they began to plan before Blue flapped his wings and shouted to them to calm down.  We had to plan and it’d take a little while to find a place and all that fun stuff.         I got together with my leaders and we spent an hour planning a trek with our prisoners as leverage if need be.  I wouldn’t be beyond selling one or two of them for food to save them from being food.  We laid a plan to travel through tonight and into tomorrow north west until we came to an area inhabited by ponies and take a space between them and the next town.  It was a rookie move, but we needed a place to gather better intel and equipment.           We got our stuff together and muzzled our prisoners with rope.  Loose enough so they’d breathe, but tight enough so they couldn’t eat their way free.  I’m no fool and neither were my raiders.  For the most part it was a nice community I was in; They talked about the future, planned the end of their lives, and not all in bloody battle, and some were even in close relationships and wouldn’t raid without the others nearby.           Life was possible out here, and it could be beautiful if you looked at it enough.  The captives were the leaders of our… what’s the word, train?  Whatever, we were in a long line and they were dressed in the most raider specific garb we could fit on them.  It wasn’t my idea to have them lead, but it was my idea to make some of us look like captives for obvious reasons.         We made it to sunset before we were attacked by a band of bandits.  We were in a hilly area and these ponies were hiding in dugout holes covered with canvas.  They attacked the raiders at the front first, killing three captives and leaving us with four while the rest of us fought back.         I took three shots to my armored flank and started to pull my rifle and spat a curse since I didn’t load it earlier.  I’d have to go one bullet at a time while loading a magazine, what a rookie mistake.  I loaded a round and took aim down the barrel sights, held my breath, then applied the pressure to the trigger.  *click*         I took another shot, this time to my unguarded foreleg and was falling before I could scream at the pain in my upper thigh.  I dropped my weapons and ammunition as the pain took it’s hold for the time I knew it would.  I wasn’t new to pain, but there was a moment where pain would win before I gathered my concentration and took up my weapon again, this time cocking it and chambering the round before I found a bandit that looked like she needed a new hole in her head.  As far as I knew she was the one that just shot me, and this was a little payback.         I applied the pressure and my ears whined and whistled as the weapon fired louder than the ones I’d trained with in the Stable.  I missed her head but I got her attention, and the attention of several others, it seemed as I was the recipient of a hail of dings and thumps to my armor.  I finished loading another round and cocked the rifle, went into SATS and found a stallion that had his rifle aimed at me.           I locked in two body shots and a head shot, releasing the spell.  I felt the air vibrate against the blasts as the bullets tore into his neck on the first and third shots while the second missed.  I’d never seen a head roll free from a body before, never even imagined it, and I didn’t get to see it that time.  What happened was his head was cut almost free at the neck and it flopped around like an erect cock as what was left attached to his body tried to balance the head that wasn’t all there.                  I took an unhealthy shot to my flank that punched through my armor and pulled me back to the battle at hoof.  We were almost done mopping the floor with the bandits and I took another single shot at a fat mare that shouldn’t have been fat in the first place.  I laughed when I hit her in the side and she exploded her insides and white infectious pus that had caused her to bloat across one of the last of them.  The poor mare panicked, vomited, and tried to move, only slipping into a deeper mess of the exploded mare.         “Kill them all and take what you can!” Powder shouted in a victory cry.  She looked to me and choked back her jubilance as I glared at her.  “Leave some alive and take all you can!” she amended as she galloped over to me.  I was holding my bleeding limb up and limping toward her when Blue landed beside me and asked me if he could check me over.         I nodded and moved my hoof to him.  It hurt, a lot.  The shock wasn’t as prominent as I’d hoped and moving it burnt and stung at the same time while giving me a sick feeling.  He took my hoof and I felt the darkness begin to surround me.  I was on the verge of blacking out but then I saw his eyes.  Blue’s deep sapphire blue eyes were like pools of tranquil water in the sea of madness I knew and was living.  It calmed me enough so I didn’t lash out, but I still trembled in his touch, and not in the good way.                  Powder arrived and started looking at my flank.  It hurt to move a little, but not too bad.  The bullet was just inside my flesh and she was able to take it out in a few seconds when I was sure the area was safe now.  The mare covered in gore and pus was a new guest to our tribe and the only survivor from the bandits crew.         A slight beating and threat of torture and having to watch as I, as the boss, ate her limbs one by one in front of her was enough to get her to spill her guts, at it were, about where all the loot was.  There was enough to food to get us through our trip north and there was enough equipment to patch those of us in armor and enough weapons to scavenge parts from to repair the most damaged weapons.           Turns out the newest member of our tribe, who was tied and chained pretty well, was also an expert in repair so she was in charge of making sure my armor and weapons were in the best shape they could be.  Then the raiders started bartering who would get first dibs on her.  I took it as it sounded and was in the process of intervening but Powder stopped me and told me it was just how it had to sound.  They were fighting for order to get their stuff fixed, not to rape her.         Well, maybe some raping, when I wasn’t around or unable to keep her guarded, but I actually didn’t mind as much as I thought I would.  Maybe because she’d tried to kill me, maybe I was losing my sanity, or maybe I was just not caring at the moment since my favorite leg was in a sling and had dirty gauze packed into my oozing bullet holes and it still burnt and stung, but now at a steady pace that was distracting more than painful.         I took my leave as the mare cried and pleaded for mercy while the mares and stallions surrounded her, offering an auction style bid for order.  I heard a cheer erupt and figured they had struck a deal… then I heard the mare scream and sobbing, and I turned my tail to her and left her to her job of fixing what needed to be fixed.         She was going to be one of us now, whether she wanted to be or not.  We needed a pony to fix things, and now we had one.           We camped and made small talk, with me walking around and making sure my raiders were in good enough shape and the ones that were injured were given a share of Hydra.  Not a full dose, since we only had so much, but it was enough to keep them alive and heal their more serious injuries.         A single pony had to be put down, and he was one of the ones that’d taken me in the ass several times a day, and I spat on his corpse.  I hope he’s still writhing in Tartarus, but if not that he’s still in pain somewhere.         So, the next day we gathered ourselves and our equipment, now ready to make the rest of our journey and I had to keep up on my own.  I had a few mares that wanted to help me, but I didn’t want to seem too dependant on them, or anypony else.  I had to stay strong so I wouldn’t get into a fight and lose what little power I had.  If I lost a fight I’d lose everything and everypony, I couldn’t risk it.         When we stopped for a rest I slipped a spiked horseshoe to my wounded limb and kept it hidden while the rest mingled.  I had to be ready to fight at all times now, and try to keep my sanity when I was touched, otherwise I’d probably lose the fight to come and not even learn from it. > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Blossom struck at me with a hoof while I juked right and used my magic to grab her foreknee and pull her forward, off balance enough to give me an opening to her side.  With a jab of my horn, not enough to make her bleed, but enough to let her know I’d won the match.  We returned to the side of the mat after a slight bow to each other and watched the next match. Her sister, Night Strike, was going against my cousin, Left Out.  Despite her name, she was included in everything anypony did because she was an awesome mare, by nature.  She barely had to try succeed only to do just that.  She bowed to Strike and they took their stances.  A motion from Night Strike and in a flurry of motion, Left Out had the other mare pinned on her back, her hooftip resting firmly against the other mare’s throat. We were impressed; even for Left Out, it was amazing how fast she’d moved that time.  I wondered how long she lasted in bed, before I realized that not only was she my cousin, but I wasn’t into mares.  There’s still something that only a hard stallion can do that another mare can’t.  Spots that can’t be reached by a tongue, no matter how enthusiastic it may be. After class we’d gathered in the showers to clean up and while I was washing Night Blossom’s tail I felt a tug on mine.  I looked back to see Banana behind me with a grin as he held my tail in his teeth.  I wasn’t in the mood to have sex or cheat on my stallion so I shook my head.  I loved how respectful stallions were in the Stable.  He moved a bottle of shampoo over and put a drop on my tail and began washing it.  We both knew he was enjoying it too much and he didn’t need to put his nose where he did ‘by accident’. It was funny, though.  We all shared a laugh and watched with rapt attention as he mounted another mare and they went at it right in the showers.  Soap and foam all over their bodies mixing and washing away the mess they’d made of her coat and what was dripping in long strings from her back side.  It was a quick release and we all needed it sometimes, but I was patient.  I could wait for my stallion to fill me up; help me relieve the stress of the day. “Great fight, ponies,” our trainer said, “next week you’re leaving the Stable and bringing our lives to a new level.  However, you can’t be certain every creature is going to be peaceful, so you have to know how to fight, right?” she asked.  We agreed in unison before she continued. “With that in mind, unicorns have an extra two hours of magic practice starting now while earth ponies will meet in the weight room,” we collectively groaned, “and then it’s an hour of class time.  You need to be powerful enough to defend yourselves if your friend is unable or unwilling, Pastures forbid.” Pastures, when had we gone from worshipping Celestia and Luna to looking forward to dying and going to the Pastures that never ended.  A place of plenty that was on par with what the world outside was going to be.  The only difference is that the Pastures were heaven while the world beyond the door was supposed to be a lush paradise of green hills, clean water, and food apleanty.   I snorted awake as Blue poked my side harshly.  He hushed me before I asked him why I was woken up and he pointed to a gathering of five ponies around another that was lying down.  I didn’t know the five ponies but the mare with her tail tied to mane was one of our captives from the caravan.  I rolled to my hooves quickly but stopped as Blue blocked me and shook his head.  He leaned in closer to me and whispered. “She’s trading it for more food for her group, you can’t stop it.” I turned to hiss at him. “The hell I can’t, I’ll stop them,” I said drawing my hammer. “No,” he held a hoof up and close enough to make my forelegs tremble in fear and anxiety of his touch, partly excited because I liked his touch.  He didn’t make me go crazy when he fixed my foreleg, that was a good sign. “If ya stop the trade you risk losing respect from every pony here.” “Then why the fuck did you wake me up?” I asked him in a whisper as loud as my normal voice. “So you knew it was happening and didn’t think it was a raping later.  There’s a system to this, and you have to learn it isn’t like trading stamps in a stable.” “Fuck you and your laws,” I glared hard at him, “I won’t let a mare-” “Trade for food?  Do what’s right by her family?  Ah didn’t wake you for any reason but for you ta learn,” he said back to me. “There’s a way to go about it here, you can give them ponies more food and meds.  All the Hydra we have and booze ta kill their pain every night outta the kindness of your heart.  But,” he looked at me softly enough to melt my hard stare and make me blink, “if you give them stuff how can we survive?  How can your raiders make it another week under you when you’re giving away our supplies ta ponies that’ll be leavin’ us in a week anyhow?” I stopped and started a few tries at a word or syllable but didn’t make it.  He turned to look at the stallions and mares as they started to take turns doing what they wanted to do to the mare.  I raised the hammer and brought it down on Blue’s head.  He winced at the tap I gave him and snapped to look at me. “I get it, but I don’t have to like it.  If you want this law to stay in effect, I need to know about trades for bodies before they happen.  I’m amending the law, as Boss,” I smirked and put away my hammer as he touched the spot I bonked him on.  “And if you wake me up for something like this again, I’ll… do something really raider-y.”  He smiled at me and I felt myself smile back, until I heard the mare yelp as a stallion finished his turn. Blue placed a hoof on my side and I shot him a look that would have burnt a hole in steel… but instead I felt myself melt like butter.  My knees wobbled and he moved closer to nuzzle me, it was nice to not want to hurt a pony.  It was nice to feel comforted.  I still wanted to be back in the Stable and safe with my stallion.  He’s already moved on, I know it.  His new wife would get onto the breeding queue and replace me with a foal, as would a dozen other pony families.  I was, am, as good as dead to them.  I have full access to my Pipbuck and even tried to find a signal from the Stable, but no; I’ve been blocked.  They don’t  even listen to me anymore, I bet. ‘I’m as good as alone and I have to make due with what I am now.  A raider.  Who am I now?’  I thought often.  ‘Why can’t I be a stable mare, mentally?  Where’s Powder, she’s a good listener and advisor.’ I opened my eyes and it was morning.  I’d fallen asleep at some point, and I was happy this time.  This time I wasn’t surrounded by pain or death, no screaming about touching me, and best of all, Blue was sitting guard by my side.  I can’t be a mare of death, but I can’t be a mare of peace like I was hoping to be.  What can I do?  What should I do?  I hummed lightly and winced as I rolled to my belly before getting up and moving my wounded leg. It hurt, but it wasn’t infected and I wouldn’t lose it anytime soon, even if it was, infected.  What kind of horrible diseases have I yet to be exposed to, I wondered.  Not as many, it turned out, but enough to worry a new wastelander that knew enough.  “Where’s Powder?” “Well, Cunt-” “Don’t call me that, not you,” I told him, “I’m Fly Swatter.  Hell, call me Boss Swatter, just not that first word.  Don't let the others call me whatever they want, them too. But especially you and Powder don’t get to, okay?” “Yes, Boss Lady,” he smirked at me and turned to start a patrol.  Did he ever sleep?  I let my eyes trail his flanks to his tail and then I huffed as everything I wanted to peek at was under that darn cloak thing.  ‘Does he ever take it off?  Why hide his wings?  I think they’re nice.’ Well, anyway, I went back to sleep after the sex noises had stopped and relative silence befell the camp we’d made.  I dozed lightly, ready to fight whoever woke me up with a challenge for the title of Boss, but woke myself up as the camp came to life after sunrise. There was a fight over some cans of food I didn’t get involved with, but that wasn’t all.  There were mares with their tails held high and saddlebags full of stuff, trading sex for goods?  Never thought about that in the Stable but can’t get away from seeing it here every so often.  I stretched and got off my cardboard bedding and folded it tightly and packed it into my saddlebag, then went to pee behind a large enough rock. The group was really rough and rowdy, but kept to themselves.  When I got back the captives were untied, save for a length of enchanted rope that held them together in two by two’s by their hind legs.  No chance to escape unless they could perfectly coordinate their gallop from a hail of bullets. Well, all I had to do was walk through the camp and everypony calmed or tensed enough to let me know they were ready to get moving.  So I didn’t disappoint and kept walking past the group until I was a few lengths ahead of the camp edge. “You coming or am I gonna take the wasteland myself?” They hustled like crazy and gathered their stuff, finished their sex, meals, and whatever else they were doing and rushed behind me in a disorganized line so i stopped and turned back to them with the most strong look I could manage.  Using a spell I learned that was common enough I amplified my voice and shouted at them to organize into four rows and walk in line.  A little coaching and I was leading a nice gathering of troops. A couple hours later we’d found the remains of a town, mostly husks of houses and a couple warehouses that were collapsed in… and a lot of bones.  Pony bones scattered as far as we could tell across the town.  Not, literally like covering the ground, but there were enough in groups and in places that made it suspicious. I sent word for the tribe to stay close and shoot anything that was going to kill us before it had the chance.  The sound of silence, even the wind stopped, made my fur crawl as we walked through the town.  We should have gone around, but it didn’t seem pertinent at the time.  Until we heard the first groan.  I readied my rifle and took aim as a dozen rifles shot a pile of bones to shards and the zombie within it flopped around before dying, again. That was when the damn place came to life in a grumbling, groaning mass of un-death that had me practically wetting myself.  The creatures rose from the ground, from piles of dead bodies, from under our own hooves! We started firing like mad ponies with unlimited amunition at every moving spot on the ground around us first.  Lost two of our own in the scatter and a few more lost limbs that we grabbed and threw at the approaching horde.  When the undead grouped and started fighting over the limbs we’d shoot them until they fell. When I ran out of bullets, since I had less than I thought, I started picking up rocks and flinging them with charged blasts into the monsters.  For the most part they only got pissed off as holes ripped into their bodies and their insides splattered out without slowing them.  Finally I nailed one in the head and it dropped. I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize it before but headshots kill everything.  Totally a duh moment.  I turned to the nearest and shouted ‘shoot  ‘em in the head’ and to pass it on.  Our hooves were clear of rising dead so we bunched up and shot out in controlled shots.  We threw limbs and rocks at them to distract them while those with bullets still used them to take down some of the horde.  We were surrounded, must’ve been fifty to one against the nine of us plus two slaves. We were out numbered. We were as good as dead. Then we died, the end. Well, not really. > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reality was worse than the story could ever be, but I’ll summarize that we turned tail and galloped out of there like crazy.  I slowed behind the pack to make sure I didn’t lose anypony else and when I looked back the zombies were just shambling after us. Ya see, we got lucky that the town was so old. Most of the zombies were so old they could only shamble and crawl, the ones that could leap we took out when they came at us first. Pure. Dumb. Cowardly. Luck. That’s what saved the tribe. Not skill, bullets, teamwork, or some magic of friendship crap. We fought like rabid Brahmins before running away with our tails between our legs. We ran around the nearest hill and took count of what we had left, who we had left. It wasn’t as much as we even needed to complete the trek we’d planned so we did the only thing we could do. Blamed each other and fought for the rest of the day, but we came to the established rule that no weapons or crippling injuries should be allowed and that I’d stay out of it all. My armor I chose to take off, as it wasn’t useful in combat at all it seemed, and it encumbered my movement enough so that I couldn’t lead the terrified run away, so I made it seem like I’d fallen behind to make sure nopony was left behind. I had the hammer, they knew not to buck with me, especially after I’d risked my rump to make sure they all got away safe, but Blue knew what had happened. He and I were cut from the same cloth. When the zombies attacked he flew up and out of trouble, watching as we died and scattered, then as I was the first to run away… He sat on his haunches beside me while I sat on a small cushion at an angle. I realized then that I wasn’t mentally over having been violated and punished for so long when I was first captured. I looked at my Pipbuck and stared at the displayed map. “Where are we?” Blue finally asked softly from his spot a good legs length away. “North West of Zombietown.” “The town was actually named-” “No, dipshit. The town was named Meadows… Blue, what’re you gonna do about what you saw?” “Not a damn thing, Boss. Ah like ya, enough ta not try my luck at takin’ over the tribe. They’d pluck me… then sure as the sun rises over Cloudsdale they’d eat me.” I looked at him for a second, then returned to my Pipbuck. “Well, at least you won’t go to waste.” He snorted a laugh. “A little laugh is all we need, but I think it’d be better to spread it around, don’t you?” “What’re ya thinking?” I stood and channeled my magic into a funnel and shouted into it, effectively making a megaphone, for the first time. Based totally on a scene in a movie I’d seen in the vault that just stuck with me. “Tribe, hear me and cower at my hooves!” The words resonated and echoed as they all stopped and looked intently at me, one still holding the hind leg of a mare in his teeth. “I am the great and powerful Boss, and you shall obey my every command.” I pointed to the mare whose leg was being gnawed on lightly. “I command thee, to not be such a bitch.” There was a snort from the stallion as he practically spat her leg out. “You tell her, Cunt!” “And you,” my eyes burned with rage, “will all refer to me as Boss. Uh, Hammer! Boss Hammer, cuz if you don’t I’ll hammer your head!” There was a round of chuckles. “Why not Hammer Head? That’s a smexy name, if I ever heard one!” I looked at the stallion that shouted that and my ass clenched, as did my mareparts. That damned violent rapist just wouldn’t die, even under the best chances. But, he had a point, and as you know, Hammer Head is more my style. “Very well, I’ll be known as Boss Hammer Head, and my first decree is to name you my number two bitch. Get over here, Number Two! Get his flank over here!” I shouted as they all converged and pushed him towards me. The evening was upon us and I had a few bones to pick. “Number Two, do you challenge me for the role of boss?” “Wha-? N-no, Boss. I didn’t even say I did.” “Number Two, are you calling me a liar?!” His ears pressed flat to his head as I stood and stomped towards him, my magic disappating and forming a hammer shape of light. “No, ma’am! I like you as boss, you’re badflank and get shit done.” I stood over him on my dias of a sewn cloth cushion, stuffed with what I believed was a cotton polyester mix that actually held really well over the hundred fifty plus years since the bombs, all things considered. I raised the magical hammer over him and glared a look of hate and pain that silenced the entire tribe. “I find you guilty, Number Two. Your punishment-” “Guilty of what?! What the fuck did I do?!” “-is,” I dropped the hammer and it fizzled through him with a light hizzle. You know, hizzle, a hiss and sizzle… anyway. “To be the bitch you made of me!” The spell changed a little, but just enough. He squealed and curled up, fetally, placing his forehoof on his head and the other on his side. “Don’t kill me!” “Beg for mercy!” I shouted as the tribe chuckled. I used some magic to push his side and he reacted instantly, turning toward the assault and bowing lowly. “Please, don’t kill me! I just want my mummy, don’t let it end this way! Mummy!” then he actually started crying! He was the most pathetic pony I’d ever seen in my life up to that point. “You haven’t convinced me, so I shall end you!” I hissed from my throne of fluffiness. With a shiver and dry gulp, tears rolling down his cheeks and matting his fur, I brought my right leg down and bonked him with my hoof, thus ending the spell I’d cast. He winced and looked around at the ponies laughing at him, tossing insults, and the random rock. He looked to my smiling face and hate filled eyes and stood, proudly. “Number Two, you’re my bitch now. Everypony hear that? He’s my bitch!” The tribe erupted into cheers and the ground trembled from their stomps. Number Two and I stared at each other for nearly ten seconds, before he blinked and lowered his gaze, and head. Yeah, I’d broken the stallion that had tried so hard to break me, it was no big deal. Only, it was. We laughed and used him as a moving target wearing my armor. We threw stones, inedible plants we’d come across, and even a good buck to his side once in a while, sending him to his side, and he’d have to get himself up before I caught him or I’d hop onto his back and shout ‘Giddyup, Buttercup,’ and make him prance in a figure eight with me on his back, waving to the tribe. Did I mention that he had to smile through the whole being ridden part because I threatened to knock his teeth out if he didn’t.  Now, I’m not a truly bad mare, but I know what it means to have power and what it means to lose it. When he challenged me right at the start I pinned him to the ground and yanked an incisor out of his mouth with my magic. I still wear it to this day, actually. It’s… this one on my necklace. Between the green one and the blue one, yeah. Those other two are another story for another time, but this rotted yellow one was his. He didn’t know, but I’d pulled that tooth so it wouldn’t get infected and kill him, but not a single pony knew that back then, least of all him. We’d spent the better part of the day relaxing and recounting our supplies, Blue Balls went back over the town and used his flight to search the houses and collect whatever gear he could over the evening and into late night until he was spent. “My wings hurt, my legs hurt, Ah think I might have seen two’a them zombies humpin’... Boss, mind if I,” he pointed to an unrolled blanket near mine and trotted to it when I nodded in approval. “So, Boss Hammer Head? I think I like that way more that Cunt Swatter. So, are we the ‘Hammer Head’s’ now?” I giggled into my hoof, really prissy like because Powder always brought that out of me. “I guess so. Consistency, right? I haven’t seen you much since we left the zombies, what’ve you been up to?” I asked, walking to the firepit with her beside me. “Just watching the action play out. I’ll be honest, when we started bookin’ it, I expected you to be in the front of the herd, but you weren’t. Then to calm down nine crazed raiders like you did?” she laughed loudly to the sky. “I swear, Number Two’s earned that name after how bad you scared him. Where’d you come up with that, anyway?” We stepped over a pair of mares that were cuddling close and looked like they were fillies in love. “I actually was gonna pretend to be one of the lost princesses, or something. When I saw that ass freak I just kinda lost that idea and wanted revenge, but not to kill him. It’s weird, ya know?” “Yeah, I’m learning that about you, Hammer Head,” she winked. “You’re tough as nails when you need to be, but you’re always kind hearted. No matter what happens, don’t let the wasteland take that from you.” I stared into the fire, my mind relaxing enough to let me yawn finally. “I’ll keep that in mind, but a couple weeks ago I never imagined I’d have had such a change in my life. I mean, I’m glad I’m not dead or a slave to some sex addict or sadist, but I have to lead these ponies into battle. Into theft and robbery.” “Foalnapping and murder, too.” “Don’t forget contracts, we gotta have a few of them, right?” “Buh? Contacts? Like for vision? You have those here?” There was relative silence as we looked between each other, the few ponies around the bonfire and Gun Power. “What’s a contact?” “What’d you mean, you said you have them… how do you keep them clean?” “Clean contracts, or contacts?” “I’ve got a contact in Link Burrow,” a mare raised her foreleg. “Oh, I got one’a them too. Only, Ah think I killed her. Ah was on a lot’a drugs that month’n burned a few bridges… some with ponies still on ‘em!” There was a round of laughter at the mares joke, and it covered my faux pas perfectly. “So, contracts, you were saying?” “Yeah, we get to a town that needs something done. Then,” she grinned wickedly, “we do it, and get our caps.” I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “How’s that bad, exactly?” “I didn’t say it was, just that it’s a way to get caps.” “Why’d you look all mean?” “What?” “Huh?!” “Who, me?” “Wait, I’m getting confused,” I said looking around at the ponies reacting. “I’ve already been there for a few minutes.” “I’m hungry!” “Hi Hungry, I’m-” there was a gunshot and a stallion shouted in pain. “No jokes like that!” He stood and snarled like a feral dog. “You’re the joke!” “I’ll show you a joke, Pecker Head!” “We’ll see about that, Numb Nuts!” They began kicking at each other and I realized, at that moment, that ponies have a terrible naming system. We broke camp before light, Celestia knows if there even was a sun above those damned clouds. Sure, we know there is now, but that was way before the pegasi cleaned up their act and the whole Vault Dweller thing, as you know the story. Everypony’s had to hear that godawful martyr story, how can you not have! It’s the first book they give foals in school these days… Goddamnit, I am calm... Get yer hooves offa me... I’ll bite yer nose off with my last good teeth, ya whippersnapper. Where was I before we were so rudely interrupted by your ignorance? Ah, yes, we broke camp before light and packed our slaves with our remaining equipment, having them take the middle of the trail. For reasons I won’t go into, we avoided the nearby town like it was too dangerous for us and made our way northeast, coming across a nice little hamlet that was once a city. “Broken Arrow? What kinda name for a town is that?” “Ma’am, it’s our town so we call it what we see fit. You want history, talk with the harvest elder, I’m just the blacksmith. Need shoes, boots, cloaks? I’ve got ya covered right over there at my shop, after lunch, that is.” I watched him move past us, watching us constantly. The whole town was silent as everypony was either at a window or doorway staring at us while we walked through. “How many caps do we have, Powder?” “About ninety between us all. The zombies got a lot of our loot,” she leaned closer to whisper, “should we restock our supplies here, boss?” with a wink. “No, these ponies don’t have much of anything as it is, what’re we gonna do with junk that’ll just weigh us down?” “Resell it.” “I like your thinking, but still no. If they start something we can take it as it comes, but I don’t want anyone of us to instigate after we just got our flanks handed to us.” Powder nodded and fell back, whispering to various ponies words that hopefully would keep them from killing and being killed over a toy car or can of cram. I led us to what was supposed to be the town hall, not much more than a shack with a double roof and I think the only swinging door. Knocking heavily I called a greeting and waited. “Who’s knockin’ on my door like a trouble’s brewin’? Fun Time, is that you again? Ah swear if there’s a burnin’ bag ‘a,” the door swung open quickly and I saw a very old, grey, wrinkly and angry mare giving me the stink eye. “You ain’t anypony Ah know, what’s yer trade? Raiders, the looks of ya. Well, yer in fer a bit’a sad times, ain’t had nothin’ worth raidin’, rapin’, or killin’ in these parts fer a good eight years.” “Ma’am, we’re raiders, but we’re not here to cause trouble. We just need directions to the next town so we can resupply, then we’ll be on our way.” There was a thunderous boom and it started to rain for the third time since I’d been in the outside world. My tail dropped to cover my hind parts by fearful instinct and… I don’t really know what happened after that for a few minutes. I came to my senses inside the shack, warm, dry, and with a blanket over me. A song I can’t remember and haven’t heard since was coming from the mare in such a sweet way, I couldn’t imagine it being the same mare that met me at the door at first. Blue was lying beside me, a wing draped over me as well as the blanket, and it really felt nice. It was comfortable, like when I was with my husband and we’d snuggle before getting out of bed. “Hey, she’s back! Are you okay, boss?” “Hrmm… She’s got a mighty bright blush, maybe she’s caught a cold,” the old mare suggested. “N-no, I’m fine. Just, what happened?” “Seems you’re either scared of thunder, rain, or the only thing in the wastes that can touch you without sending you into a fit is that there colt beside you,” Powder nearly spat the last words. “Hey, ain’t my fault she’s a good judge of character.” “It’s partly your fault she’s afraid to be touched at all!” “You two keep at it and y’all can git from my home, town, and lands,” the old mare barked. “Really, you two, grow up. I’m fine now, and whatever happened I’m sure we’ll figure out a way past it. At the moment, I owe you thanks, Miss?” “Mystery. That’s all you need to know ta call me, and all I’ll ever tell you about myself. Like Ah said before you went all twitchy, we ain’t got nothin fer raiders. Next city’s Marshmallow Pikes to the East, don’t let the name fool ya. If yer goin in there as a raider, you’re not makin’ it fifty feet into the gates without a few new holes in yer body.” I nodded to her and used my magic to open the shack door, watching the rain fall. I didn’t feel anything, emotionally or physically, so I took a step out. And another until I was being rained on, and it felt nice. The clicking of my Pipbuck was another sign of how bad this place was, but it was a free shower and I figured I’d take whatever I could at that point. The other two left the shack and we closed the door. “Oh, I forgot something in the shack, I’ll be right back… if she goes nuts, get her back in here.” “Yes’m.” I lifted my muzzle to the sky, the lukewarm rain quickly wet me to my skin and I felt almost like a pony again for a moment, until I heard a muffled scream and something break inside one of the small houses. Blue heard it too and I could tell his wings were twitching, ready to take him out of danger’s way. A gurgling sound from a nearby house and the scream of a child… Sweet Celestia, no! I looked around and there weren’t any of my raiders to be seen, only the slaves we’d turned into pack mules that had mud over their closed eyes. I turned to the shack and used my magic in force to bust down the door, just in time to watch Gun Powder climb off the lifeless body of Mystery. “Heh,” she wiped blood from her hoof onto the dead mare’s back, “she lived up to her name. Nice decoy, boss. Town’s ours and I bet we got a new recruit out of it, too.” I was aghast, that they’d use my episode to cover their disgusting ruse. “Woah, boss… I’m getting the feeling you weren’t in on it. I did what you said.” It took a few seconds for me to say anything at all, staring at the body of the old mare. “Sh-she was gonna die soon anyway, rright?” “Exactly! I knew you were cunning, but this was pure gold! Using double talk to gather intel and tell us what to do,” she trotted past me and placed a blood hoof on my shoulder, “we were right to follow you. Number Two, cleanup in aisle five.” I felt a wing across my back. It was weird still, but welcomed. “Ah’m so sorry, I didn’t know you’d planned this, otherwise Ah would’a played a better part.” I turned my head to look at him. I couldn’t feel anything right then. “It’s cool, just, loot what you can. I’m gonna check the shack over.” “Yes, ma’am,” he said softly. I didn’t like his wing away from me, but I couldn’t very well keep it on me. Unless I cut it off and-, I cringed at the mere thought. I did rummage through the shack, finding several items worth at least something, but nothing worth killing over. I could have pilfered these items when she turned her back. I’m sorry you had to die, Mystery. I left the shack and outside the door the tribe was piling the bodies in the street, foals were the only ones missing from the bodies being dragged, instead they were tied to each other with well knotted rope leading to our two pack ponies. They wouldn’t look at anything besides the mud at their hooves, I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to watch your family and friends be murdered, then to be taken as slaves. We piled the loot and my Pipbuck tallied their worth at about two hundred caps. “Not a bad haul, but I know some ponies who’ll pay for these,” a mare said. I looked up from my foreleg and recoiled, nearly tripping over myself at what the unicorn mare was pointing at me. “Luna dammit, don’t go holding horns up in ponies faces, Fleece.” “What, unicorn horns can fetch a good cap! What’s it worth?” she used her magic to send it after my Pipbuck and tapped it. “C’mon, boss. Ten caps, twenty?” I glanced at my wrist and gulped. “F-forty.” She whooped and turned to the pile, violently yanking at the few horns while jabbing the dead ponies’ heads with a knife. I threw up on myself right then. “Hammer? Boss, let’s get you some water to wash your mouth out.” I nodded to Powder. “Never seen, a horn-” “Ah, ripped out? It’s worth its weight in caps, though. Sometimes it’s worth it to survive another day. You’ll learn, we all have.” “B-b-brain, still…” “Huh? Oh,” she chuckled, “yeah, and some of those magic fibers, too. They’re a package deal, so we gotta scrape the extra stuff off once it dries.” I shoved her with my magic. “Shut, up.” “Huh, oh, right. My bad,” she mumbled, looking at my horn. I left one of the outhouses after vomiting what little I had in my stomach. I stumbled down the main road and looked at the pile of equines that was slowly sliding into what I can describe as a sheet of bodies to the shack. They’d moved the body of Mystery to the pile and I was given the shack as a leaders nest, they called it. With Powder and Blue by my side I lay in the dead mares bed with my cushion while they got blankets on the floor and we talked about where to go next, or if we should move at all. We made the choice to stay where we were for a while. Certainly there’d be traders who’d come by and we could trade, under strict orders to not harm. With the taste of vomit in my mouth and an ache in my belly, and the hole in my heart, I fell asleep while the other two were making plans of what to sell for how much. > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Hammer Head? Boss?” a pony nudged me slightly. A harder push pulled me to reality and I frowned. “Blue?” “You were mumbling, kickin’ a bit and Ah got to worryin’.” “I’m fine,” I blinked and took in his face. “What time is it?” “Middle’a the night. Nearly everypony’s asleep, but Ah can’t sleep knowin’ yer havin’ a bad dream. Is it about the raidin’ earlier?” “No, I didn’t dream at all. Not even a memory of when I was in the stable, which is kinda weird. Why’re you looking at me like that?” His face was darkened by the night, but some firelight outside danced in his eyes, and I saw myself reflecting back, too. “Ah, well, you’re pretty when yer asleep. And when yer awake! But, yer just kinda peaceful like. Like, the world hasn’t broken ya yet.” I exhaled loudly. “I’ve been broken, twice now. I just haven’t killed anypony lately.” “That’s a good thing, cuz we don’t need more death in this world than there needs be. Well, Ah’m gonna turn in.” He smiled at me and began to turn away to his blanket. “Can you,” I stopped speaking as he turned around and pressed his lips to mine. His hoof touched my muzzle and I didn’t feel like I wanted to stop him. “Sleep with me,” I whispered, “just, hold me, please.” It was more of a command than a request and he happily obliged. With a few flaps he almost silently flew over and beside me. The bed creaked loudly but held him as he turned and moved his foreleg under my head and I couldn’t help but scoot closer to him. Using my magic I called his blanket over and covered us before I fell quickly asleep. “Fly Swatter, if you want to eat you have to use your magic. A proper unicorn doesn’t bury their muzzle in their bowl.” “But Mama, I’m hungry,” I complained. “You’re almost five years old, you have to practice or you’ll be teased. Do you want to be teased?” I glared into my bowl of oats. “No, Mama.” “Then take the spoon in your magic and lift it.” I looked across the table and my spoon lay in the center with my mom opposite, smiling with a hopeful look. I relaxed and visualized like I usually did. I felt the energy at the core of my chest stir, I moved it to the base of my horn before I imagined it at the tip and opened my eyes, focusing on the spoon. Mom smiled as it wobbled and lifted slightly. “Good! You’re doing it,” she said just before my focus changed to her. With a yelp her legs were scrambling and she laughed. “You almost had it, but your focus needs work.” I apologized as I did my best to set her down but instead moved her to the ceiling. “Honey, can you come in here?” she called to dad. “What’d’ya need?” he called from the bedroom. “Gravity!” With a groan I heard his hooves on the floor and he was in the doorway. He cocked his head and smirked. “I thought you were full of hot air sometimes, but this?” They laughed and when I realized I wasn’t in trouble I stopped my magic and mom fell, but she stopped before she landed because dad caught her. He floated her over and nuzzled her. “Falling for me again?” “I’ll fall for you every day of my life.” I watched with hopeful awe, that someday I’d have a lover that I felt like that for. I woke up alone in bed but still so warm and cozy I didn’t want to get up. There was a warm beam of light across my barrel that just seemed to weigh a million pounds and I couldn’t get free of it, but then nature made itself known with the usual pressure and sting that only it can that early in the morning. I rolled out of bed and trotted quickly out of the door and winced at the sunlight. It was too bright for morning, and the streets were cleaner than I’d seen them yesterday. No bodies, no corpses, no death. It was a good way to wake up. I turned and trotted quickly to the outhouse, but it was locked. I ignored the profanity that came from within and went between two buildings across the way that were barely large enough for me to fit, so I backed in and let it flow. It was maybe the best pee I’d had in days, too. Everything felt so much better, I shuddered when I was almost done. It was one of those good ones, ya know? I went for a walk down the road and took account of the area. We now had five more slaves, four were foals barely old enough to pull their weight. But, there they were. Rear legs tied to the next foal and a rope around one of their necks and tied to one of our pack ponies. It was a pathetic sight to see, they wouldn’t even look up from their hooves. But, they were alive. The tribe went to work turning the town into a small fortress but tearing down a house and using it to make walls around most of the town. It was clever but looked like horseapples. I wasn’t going to complain, though. We had a place, and that’s enough for me sometimes. There was little in the way of food, and I found out that one meal included pony leg. I was so hungry I didn’t care and gobbled the soup down as my Pipbuck clicked to me, telling me I was getting more radioactive by the meal and day. It was pathetic and we almost packed up and left before a trade caravan came near. They saw the shape of the town and turned to leave but the tribe wasn’t having any of that. We all, me included, galloped out to them and stopped them with weapons drawn. I was ready to kill them and take all their goods, but the fearful look in one of their eyes reminded me of what I’d said before. “Lower your weapons, we’re just lookin’ to trade,” I told the oldest one with a greying beard, “we’ve got a hungry bunch and foals to feed, what’s the cost?” I turned to look at one of the lower ponies in the tribe and glared at her. “Get the tradables, idiot.” “Yes, ma’am!” she turned and galloped back to town. “The rest of you, get back to your duties! Don’t make me live up to my name again,” I said with a glare as I looked over them all. They scattered and most walked back to the town, glaring over their shoulders at me, my friends, and the trader. “Ma’am, I don’t have much to trade, but I’ll pay you to let me go alive’n well.” “No, I said trade and I meant it,” I nodded to the pony galloping towards town, “lemme see what you’ve got for food, maybe medicine, too.” He nodded and backed carefully to the brahmin carrying his trade load and being an earth pony with earth pony guards, unloaded the packages and laid them on the ground. There were six boxes, torn tarps, and cloth wrapping their contents and even Blue was bristling his feathers at what was possibly in there. The thought of taking my hammer to each of these ponies’ knees and letting them take their chances crossed my mind as they began to unwrap the merchandise. There was enough food to feed the tribe for two days if we rationed it, torn clothes, trinkets and junk… and a variety of bullets each in a small bag of their own in a case. There wasn’t anything worth killing over when I looked at the goods closely. The three of us picked through what we thought would be worth our time until the mare arrived with a bag on her back. “Drop it and wait over there, I’ll do the trading,” Powder said firmly to the mare. With a glare she moved and let it fall, then backed away a few paces but didn’t stop staring at the trader. “What’d’ya want to trade?” “Powder,” I pointed to the crate that was mostly food, “we need food most of all. Second is armor, then weapons.” “I think you’ve got it mixed up, boss.” “No, we can fight with rocks and the limbs of our enemies, but it doesn’t mean anything if we’re swarmed again. Those zombies almost got us all and wouldn’t have gotten so many of us if we’d been protected properly.” “Boss…” I heard Blue moving closer and shook my head. “Right, Powder, it’s up to you.” “Alright, the food and the bullets, all of it. How much?” A moment of calculation. “One hundred thirty six for the food, eighty two for the bullets.” We looked at Powder who was glaring at the old stallion hard enough to melt ice in winter. “Fine,” she huffed and moved back to the bag of stuff. Something wasn’t right… I looked at the mare that brought the pack and she was leering, smirking, sneering. “Get back!” I shouted just as Powder touched the cloth. I force pushed the whole sack away just as it started a short beeping cycle. The stuff scattered, yet most of it was still ruined when the mine went off. I pulled my hammer from its holster pointed it at the mare that had tried to assassinate my friend. “You?” “I, dunno what happened, Boss, it must’ve been trapped by somepony else,” she lied. And I mean lied, poorly. I gripped her in my magic and pulled her toward me as I stomped to her. “No one fucking move or you’re next!” I shouted to the traders and my friends who were all waiting for me to outright murder this mare. “Wait, I wouldn’t lie to you, I’d never try to kill a pony, I’m, uh, a passing fist.” I reached her a few paces away from where we’d stood and the bomb would have gone off, killing my friend. “You’re a pacifist?” I asked. She gulped as I raised her higher than me then nodded. “Then you’ll appreciate this,” I hissed through clenched teeth. I brought my hammer to her left hind leg with intent to harm. She screamed after the first strike and I let her fall and I brought the hammer again and again to roughly the same spot. I stopped and stomped my hoof against her bruised leg and her scream could be heard for miles, I swear. It was hilarious. Two more hard stomps and I finally stopped. I still don’t know if I broke her leg or not, but she was spent and the message was sent to all the tribe. “Don’t let me ever even hear of your name again, or I’ll filet the flesh from your leg and wear your mark on my armor as a trophy.” She couldn’t talk, and I didn’t care as I stripped her of all her loot, caps, clothes, even an old, dried leaf that was wrapped carefully in plastic. I dropped the last item in front of her and stomped it under my hoof as she reached for it with trembling hooves. I looked into her tear stained face and twisted my hoof before leaving her behind me, forever, as I negotiated the trade with Powder and the trader. We traded for the food and bullets, minus large caliber rounds because most of our weapons wouldn’t use them, then we helped pack the brahmin and left the trader with a hearty thank you and two unicorn horns in trade for dragging the pile of crap mare a mile away from us before cutting her loose. Whatever he did to or with her isn’t any concern of mine since she was gone for good and I’ve always been better off without her. Didn’t even learn her name and nopony spoke her name around me for that matter. We returned to our town, distributed the food and dirty water, reloaded the guns we had, and started plans to scavenge the area for the rest of the day before splitting up. We’d leave four behind to watch the town and keep it ours while the rest went on to the next town to sell our slaves or trade whatever we could. A couple raiders left the tribe in the middle of the night with what they had on them because the goods were under guard and they knew not to mess with me and our supplies. I probably would have followed them personally and taken one of their hooves off each. As it was, they dropped some caps to the lookout and made their own way after that. No loss, no foul as far as I’m concerned. If they couldn’t handle the tribe, Luna help them make another and survive mine. Another couple days passed where I selected who would stay and who would come with me to Marshmallow Pikes. A choice of Bitch, Blue, and three others plus those forced into indentured servitude and one third of the food plus weapons. We took the longer path and I turned on my radio for the first time in days. “Hello Wasteland. DJPon3 here and here with me I have singer, songwriter, and one of the most attractive mares I’ve seen since the sun last crested the horizon; Jazzy Winter. Jazzy, what brings you to my studios today?” “Well, besides the chance to sing for you?” “You’ll have your chance, I’m sure. Now-” “Well, I’ve been the voice of many a pony in higher classes when it comes to taxes and reform. Even some of my songs are written to influence the votes, where applicable, to favor the wealthy or more fortunate. But, I’ve had an eye opening experience recently. One that’s changed my outlook of the way things are handled.” “Oh my, it must be something big to have caused such a change in mindset.” “Well, it wasn’t much of anything, really. But it was at the same time. You know how slavery is all too common amongst the better off ponies with low morals?” “All too well, and it’s not something any reasonable pony is fond of.” “There was a duo of stable dwellers, still in their blue stable suits and sporting injuries only runaways with their heads still attached would have.” “Woah, woah, wait. You’re saying a stable opened somewhere and it was taken over just like that?” “No, just a few came out and were attacked by raiders living right outside the door. The two couldn’t talk, but they could scream…” “What, what happened, Miss Winter?” “I, was in the yard of Monolith Townstead, where I was touring and receiving my usual stipends to turn a blind eye to the poor when the pair was pulled into the gates, practically dragged to the butchers shed, and their pipbuck legs were cut off with saws and hatchets.” “Sweet Celestia…” “The ponies were shoved from the hut and their wounded legs tied off, then I watched as they were beat with their own severed legs until I vomited and realized I was frozen, watching the horror that was done. There was laughing and opening of champaign, a mare in a nearly mint condition dress used her magic to take a turn at hitting the stallion as he lay unconscious or dead on the ground… “The other, a mare, was crying and trying to cover her head with her missing leg stump.  It was awful, the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s one thing to hear about it through stories or rumors, but to see it actually happen. “Before I left they offered me a cleaned and polished Pipbuck that I did, indeed, kindly take. It fits me like a charm and offers me information that I didn’t know, and still don’t understand. This’ the wasteland and I’m a star, not a saint.” “‘I’m a star, not a saint’, those are the best words I’ve heard in a while. However, you seem to be doing a saintly thing now. Would you care to tell them, or should I?” “I’m starting a new tour. Discouraging slavery and senseless punishments of current slaves. There was no reason to butcher two ponies and torture them just for laughs. Sure, I got a Pipbuck, but I wish I didn’t know where it was before I put it on. I know I’ll be taking a large pay cut, working for donations, and I’m putting a contract on my head over this. “It’s a choice I’m making based on what’s morally right, not what’s financially easy.” “A very saintly course of action, if ever I heard one. That’s all the time we have for now, thank you, Jazzy Winter for your declaration against slavery and advocacy of their rights to not be beaten without reason. Now, for your listening pleasure; here’s Sweetie Belle and ‘There’s No Home like Your Heart’.” “Boss? You okay? You look like you’re ready to cry.” “Yeah, Nails, I can listen to the radio over my Pipbuck and two of my stablemates are dead. Killed by some snobs for their Pipbucks and a laugh.” He took a step away from me. “They’re bastards, every one of them. They say we’re the monsters of ponykind, but we don’t just kill for pleasure like they do. Well, most of us don’t,” he chuckled, “look, I’m trying to be nice, but it’s not something I do often… but, if you wanna beat somepony up, with your hooves, I can take a few punches.” I looked at him and actually smiled for the first time in a couple days. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got Bitch for that. But I’ll keep it on my mind.” He grinned and fell back into line two behind me. “Anytime, Boss.” I looked forward and counted two ponies ahead, mares, with armor to stop a small bullet easy. For once, I thought of how lucky I was. > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I walked back to the town and explained what had happened as the rations were stored and weapons checked and reloaded. They took to fighting over some small cans of corn but I let them have at it. Turns out there was a stock of a week's worth of food for us all hidden below one of the houses in a buried cellar, I made sure to set a guard to watch over them, then two guards to watch over that one. And so on until everypony knew that if they did anything they’d be killed outright. Simpletons.  A stallion came up and gifted me something that made me quite happy shortly after I returned to town, though. A sledge hammer found in of one of the houses. It was heavy, but with time I’d build my magic to handle a lot more than that. At the time, though, all I wanted to do was break that mare’s leg for certain and I smirked when I’d taken the hammer and leered across the ponies looking at me. “Get back to work, you fuckers, or I’ll smash in your teeth!” Powder bumped her shoulder into mine and I looked at her smiling face. “Not bad, Hammer Head.” “I think I like that a lot better than my birth name,” I admitted and looked above as Blue flew overhead. I loved seeing that stallion fly, and the view from below wasn’t something I’d ever complained about. He circled as he went higher and I stopped watching after I couldn’t see his tail. I moved to the bound foals and loomed over them. “Look at me.” They hesitated but complied. “My name is Hammer Head, I lead these fucking waste of sperm and now I lead you. Do you want to eat today?” Some whimpered and cried while one stood strong. A short pink filly with yellow hair. I liked her. “You got something to say to me, piss stain?” I asked. She glowered at me like an old stallion and I frowned back, not to be outdone. “My mommy said waiders can eat poops.” My resolve wavered at that little tykes gall. “So, you think you’re tough?” I asked dropping the weight of the sledge with a thud beside the filly causing it to reverberate in the ground to make an impression. She and the other little ones moved back, there’s no being tough in the face of death at that age. “You get to be in charge then, what’s your name?” She blinked at me and I asked again, louder. She flinched. “C-candy Cane.” I snorted. “Fucking ‘Candy Cane’? Do you even know what that is?” She nodded and opened her mouth. “How about I feed you the end of my fucking hammer?!” I pulled out my smaller hammer and held the claw at her, then moved it as I walked along the row of foals. “This part is the claw. Everypony knows the flat part is good for hitting, but the claw? It’s best used to peel skin from foals that don’t listen. Who doesn’t want to listen? Who wants to eat what I have to peel off of them?” The foals grouped together in a trembling ball of snot and tears. “Cot, you’re the boss of these shit stains. Your job is to make sure they cook, clean, and maintain our new home,” I turned to a mare with a lot of knives, “you, cut them loose, but don’t hurt them… yet,” I sneered with a smile. The mare grabbed a blade in her teeth and it made a freaking wicked wild scccwwiing sound that should not have come from a wooden holder. I made sure to emphasize that they were not to be hurt before she nodded understandingly and swung the machete down between a colt’s hind legs, cutting the rope perfectly. “Think you can run from her blade?” I added casually as he wet himself. The mare cut them all loose much more carefully before sheathing her blade silently, which I never asked her about but it’s always made me wonder how it made sound coming out but never going back in. Anyway! Got’m all lined up and told Cot to tell each of the three under her what to do. With a swing of my sledge from the ground to my shoulder, she began to tell them what to do. It was fuckin’ adorable! She was all ‘Wed Hewwing, clean up over dere and you go shfeep,’ I had to turn away to hide my face, but saw several stallions looking on with the same expression, mostly. One was leering a little, but it wasn’t my problem, yet. Fuck me, how was I supposed to be a big bad raider boss if I couldn’t control foals or males? “Fuck, where’s Bitch? Get some bandages, damnit,” I shouted to a stallion who was smiling at the foalish scene. He ran off and into a house while Bitch was brought to me and tossed at my hooves. “Hey, Bitch. Remember when you fucked me in the ass and I cried and begged you to stop, but you didn’t listen no matter how many times I pleaded?” He started to get up and I swung the sledge down at him, landing it right beside his head. I meant to miss, but the thing is, I hit his hoof right at the crest. Shattered half his hoof right then. I picked up a shard of his hoof and scratched a line into my sledge handle before tossing it at him and making sure he stayed there to cry like the little bitch he was as I turned to the foals. “Now children, what happens to ponies that don’t listen to Hammer Head?” No answer. Of course, I didn’t guide them in what to say, or tell them my name. “They get the hammer! So, what happens to ponies that don’t listen to Hammer Head?” “They get the hammer,” four little voices said in unison. “Good. Now you do what your boss says, or she’ll put you,” I growled, “under the cot!” The lot of them scurried away together and once one stopped by a pile of lumber in the street they all started to move it into a stack beside a house. “Holy shit, Hammer, that was fucking great,” Powder said to me with a punch to my side. “‘Under the cot?’” “I just made it up, I was thinking of them taking a nap, ‘cuz they’re kids, ya now, and…” I let the statement answer itself. Powder laughed. “They don’t even know what that means! You’re fucking genius! We can start a slaver nest right here and-” “No,” I said as I began walking past her. “No slaving. I won’t sell ponies for money, it spits in the face of what I’m going to create here.” “I wasn’t serious, that’s way too much work, slavin’. What’s the plan then, boss?” She sided with me as I answered. “Become the best raider group in Equestria,” I shrugged and she chuckled. “Yeah, being in the top three works for me. Raiding’s a business, after all, and we need some competition to survive.” She stopped and I kept going toward my house and she caught up. “What the fuck? Are you serious or just fucking me in the ass without lube? Holy shit, you’re serious?! Celestia damnit, mare. What… how the hell are you gonna pull that off? There’s a hundred raider tribes,at least, and the only big one is Red Eye’s, but nopony’s dumb enough to fuck with them and… holy shit, you’re crazy if you think it’s gonna work and,” she inhaled still grinning, “I’m so fucking with you! I’m along for the ride one-hundred percent.” I chuckled and dropped my sledgehammer from my magical grip. “Then carry this, it’s fucking heavy.” She didn’t hesitate to grab it and drag it behind us in her teeth. She dragged it into my house and let it go by the door. “So, what’s the plan? We’ve got a few able raiders and a few places we can hit and be back in within a week. Where should we start?” I groaned as I fell into the bed and rolled to sit up. “Fuck if I know, but you’re going with them because if any of them get the idea of running off, stealing from us, or planning mutiny; you can break their hooves and work your way up their legs until the others get the point, got it?” She grunted. “Yeah, same shit, different boss. I’ll keep em in line.” “Recruit if you can, and don’t kill anypony you don’t have to. Just like that caravan, we have to sow a good rep. I’ve been thinking about how to play the system and I’m thinking we befriend and protect a couple caravans, raid travelers and small towns, and avoid big cities or groups until we’ve gotten enough troops.” “Troops?” “Raiders, whatever. I trained in some... military tactics in my stable and it’s just-” “No, I like that! Sounds badass. General Hammer Head,” she grinned at the implication. “That’d make me Captain Powder, right?” I mulled it over and hummed as thoughts ran through my head, grinning as I realized I could work with it. “The Hammers. We’re a new merc outfit named The Hammers that protect the trade from evil raiders that prey upon them. We’re looking for recruits to build our outposts and you’re in charge of recruiting.” “I fucking love it,” she giggled. “We’ll scam the wasteland!” “No, just the area. We’ll start with a raiding party roving the area, defeat them, then repeat the process. We can charge to allow caravans passage through our area of the roadway and when we get recruits voluntarily. If we have to, in a month or so, we can have our raiding party start killing some ponies to spread our message of dominance.” “Or their families?” Powder grinned with an evil glint in her eyes. I didn’t like it, but I had to go along with it so I smiled a little and nodded. “Whoo-hoo! Guys, squad one, form up on me, we’re going hunting!” “Keep to the rules I set, Powder, or I’ll have to-” “Yeah, yeah. Don’t kill too much and recruit; can we still steal shit?” “Sure, but remember you represent the new merc unit, so keep it under control.” I snorted in frustration and felt a tingle under my tail as Powder left, her tail swaying enough for me to see underneath it. I hated the feeling, but I had the urge to get laid. I tried a little self stimulation but that ended when I noticed my hooves were cracked to all hell and masochism wasn’t something I was really fond of. There weren’t any colts I found sexy in the camp, except Blue, and by the sun he was scouting again and wouldn’t be back for a while. A mare could always do the trick, but I have a strict brushing policy. As in brush your teeth and mouth before you stick your tongue in my snatch. I’m not gonna get a UTI in exchange for a quickie. I was left with an itch I couldn’t scratch until I noticed my new sledge. The handle was about the right size and still smooth up to the point it was bitten into by past users. The bottom was blunted but with a little scraping I rounded it out and tested it with my mouth. It was perfect and I just couldn’t wait. I laid it on the bed with the handle out and backed the bed to the wall and then turned around and took it all the way.  Fuck me it was nice. No emotion, no race to the finish, no pain. I was in charge and when I’d backed up as far as I could I used my magic to hold it in place while I rocked my hips and bent my knees. I know it should’ve been wrong at some level, but dammit I was in the mood. I managed to get it right on my spot and rubbed it there until I came. My knees gave out sending me to my belly panting and feeling amazing with the handle still lodged about eight inches inside me. I looked back with a smirk. “Was it good for you too, babe?” I snickered and laughed as I shakily got to my hooves and moved so it slid out of me. A trail of marecum dribbled to the floor as I climbed onto the bed and looked at my fill in lover. “Still hard for me?” I lifted it into my bed and kissed the hammer part and nuzzled it. I looked at the base and measured the wetness I’d left on it and nodded approvingly. “”About two feet, well done. I’ll have to see what I can do to make you a better lover though, we’re gonna be together for a while.” I giggled and sighed. I heard a fight starting in the camp and rolled off leaving Sledge on the bed. “I’ll be back soon, lover,” I winked at it and opened the door to see what the fuss was. It was a fight between a unicorn and earth pony. Both wearing barding with spikes and bones all over them. Blood stained faces glared at each other as one of them sent a cliche insult about the other’s mother and the other replied back before they charged each other and butted chests and exchanged kicks with their forelegs. I strolled right into the mix and pushed my way to the front row to watch.  “You asshole, I’ll eat your fucking lips!” “I’ll fuck you in the ear while you beg for mercy!” I burst out laughing and fell to my haunches covering my mouth with both hooves. They looked at me and then struck at each other again.  “You’re gonna eat my shit when I stuff it in your mouth!” “No, you are!” I fell to my side laughing and they both glared at me as the crowd parted and expanded to include me with their fight. I sat up and wiped my eye with a foreleg. “Oh, fuck. That was great. Give me more, I really need to laugh more!” They looked at each other then nodded, turning to me. “You want some, boss? I’ll fuck you like the cunt you are!” The earth pony charged me, followed by the unicor,n but they didn’t get far. I leapt and pulled my trusty small hammer and swung it as I lunged at the earth pony, striking him in the sternum. The sweet crunch of breaking bones was just what I needed. As the earth colt fell the unicorn saw me passing him and lit his horn.  I let the hammer go from my spell and sent a magic force bolt to the tip of his horn and startled him enough to make him stumble as I struck the back of his neck with my foreleg and sent him falling, into the earth pony’s leg. Earth pony leapt up and bucked, sending the unicorn several lengths back with a broken rib. It was really cool and totally unplanned, but got the tribe's attention. As the earth pony collapsed from his injury, I collected my hammer and laid it before me on the ground. “Hey! Shut up you fuckers! I got somethin’ to say!” They quieted from their rowdy cheers and hollers still grinning as they looked at me.  “Alright, what just happened was a joke!” I began to walk around the ring made by bodies facing me and looking at them. “Insults should be used to intimidate your opponents or prey. They should be directed at them and their self being. They should be specific without interpretation,” I pointed to the unicorn that was trembling, blood leaking from his mouth. “Eating a pony’s lips is not threatening. Ear fucking is not scary. Calling the leader of your own tribe a cunt is just stupid!” I pointed between the duo as the tribe laughed loudly. I rose my hoof to my lips and they quieted. “You, come here,” I pointed to a mare that hopped from the line and stood ready to fight. “Scare me from where you stand.” She sneered and started foaming at the mouth. I was impressed. “I’ll fucking kill you and watch as I make your father my bitch!” There was cheering and hollering, but I cocked my head and they quieted to hear my reply. “How can I watch you do anything to my father if I’m already dead?” There was mumbling in the crowd and the mare swallowed.  “Then I’ll kill you after I make you father my bitch!” “How?” I shouted as the crowd started to cheer and again fell silent. “How what?!” “How are you going to make my father your bitch?” I casually asked the mare. I cocked my head, flicking an ear. “I, uh, I’ll make him beg me for mercy while I skin him alive!” There were scattered cheers this time as the tribe thought about it. “Okay, so let me get this straight. You’re going to be standing with a couple other raiders and you’re going to tell me that if I don’t give up you’re going to make my father, who I might not know from foalhood, scream and beg you for mercy while you skin him alive?” “Y-yeah?” She wasn’t trying to be scary anymore. She looked kinda meek to be honest. “So, how will he be able to speak if you’re cutting his flesh? Won’t he be to busy screaming in pain?” “I, uh, didn’t-” I stomped toward her with my hammer in my magical grip again. “No, you didn’t! If you fucking fuck up again I’m going to take my hammer and crack each of your fucking hooves and nail your bleeding teats to the first board of wood I find,” I reached her and she scampered back into the wall of bodies, cowering from me and I hissed, “and I don’t have any nails so your fucking hoof fragments will have to do.” She flinched, whimpered and nodded. “That, is how you scare somepony!” I shouted and the crowd roared to life with cheers. The mare sighed and I helped her to her hooves and waved her to follow me. “A stomp for my assistant, she’s been volunteered to help me.” The ground trembled slightly with stomps as I reached the center of the ring and hushed the crowd. “Now, do you get what you have to do… what’s your name?” “Cream Pie,” she said with a smirk and several stallions and mares hooted at her. “Yeah, you know what I like!” “Well, you’re at least popular enough to not get killed today; just don’t do anything stupid,” I told her softly before speaking up. “So, can you scare me?” She turned toward me and growled as I tapped the hammer on the back of my neck.  “If you don’t give up I’ll break your hooves one by one and make you dance for me.” “Hrm, not bad, but how? I don’t see a weapon; how can you do that effectively,” I pointed out. She looked herself over and furrowed her brow. “Give up now or I’ll stick my rifle up your ass and pull the trigger!” “Then why would I stop running? You just gave me a better reason to run,” I answered with an ear flick. “Fucking damn it. I’m gonna throw you into a fucking bonfire and laugh as you beg for mercy!” Cream Pie screamed in my face. I smirked. “Better! But try this,” I said looking into the crowd. My ears pinned back and I sneered with the rage I had while I was being raped and toyed with as I scanned them. “If you don’t take a seat right now, I’m going to come into your tent some night and if you’re a unicorn I’ll smash your horn, then stab you in the eye with it. If you’re an earth pony, I’ll smash your teeth in with my hammer! Now sit!” Hesitantly the crowd sat and within a few seconds they had all planted their haunches on the ground, nervously. “I was serious, so you made the right choice,” I relaxed and looked at Coconut. “Can you do that, with what you have on your body right now, can you scare me?” She looked herself over and with her teeth withdrew a knife from a pocket in her barding. A small kitchen knife is still a knife. Her brows furrowed as she thought. Her eyes hardened and she glared at me and I got a tinge of worry. Not fear, but worry. A mare with that look and a knife in her mouth? “Stay there, little pony,” she cooed, “I don’t want you to run so I can catch you and dig my knife into your flanks. Stay there so I can make you bleed. Your cutie marks are mine, and nothing you do can stop me, little pony.” I took a step back when she took a step towards me and my tail flicked to the right as my ears directed themselves to her, to the threat. She brightened up and grinned around the knife in her mouth. “Did I do good?” I grinned at her and moved close to her again. “You fucking rocked! I would’a pissed myself if you’d caught me in the wastes with that,” I patted her on the shoulder and pulled her into a hug as I took her blade in my magic and thrust it into her chest. “But you never let your weapon go.” I told her with a pout on my lips as I twisted the knife two times. She collapsed to the ground, the knife stayed in the bleeding hole I’d dug into her. “Give each of the stallions one can of food a day, between them, for the next week. The rest of you, practice scaring each other. And get the foals to clean up Cream Pie’s body, they need to learn while they’re young that life is fickle.” They scurried into groups and started kicking at each other while shouting obscenities. I’d never seen it before then, but I’d read about it in psychology class, so I knew if I played my cards right most of these ponies would be good at intimidating new recruits into our ranks. It was early in the evening and I was showing combat moves to the other raiders with Bitch. First thing I did was grab Bitch by the neck, just under his chin, and suplex him into the ground using his own momentum to help swing myself around, since he was heavier than I was by about fifty percent.  I felt his back crack as I let him fall over to his side as I rolled to my hooves. “Quiet down you fuckers! Now, that was a suplex. As you can see I nearly broke his neck. He’s not dead,” I looked at him and felt myself do a sneer, “but he’s gonna wish he was. On your hooves, Bitch, and don’t fall or I’ll make it even worse.”  All he did was groan quietly, so I used my magic to lift him and turn him so his legs were under him. Then I dropped him, he caught himself just in time to get bucked in the chest by yours truly. Cracked his sternum with a single buck. I laughed to myself and he managed to stay on his hooves. I nodded to him, but he couldn’t see me through his tears so I moved my mouth closer to his ear. “You’re tough, and I can respect that. Hey, somepony help keep him standing!” I patted his side with a sly smile on my muzzle. I pulled my small hammer from a strap that had been made for it on my side and lifted Bitch’s muzzle up so he could look me in the eyes. “Do you want me to geld you, you worthless cock?” He shook his head, starting to cry like his namesake as I pulled his tail with my magic. I had to hold his head still while he tried to resist me sliding the handle in and out of his mouth. “You like that?” I asked as I shoved the handle all the way into his mouth until the head was the only part exposed. He coughed as it tickled his throat. “I think this’ a good look for you,” I said with a laugh and others joined in. “You get a whole can of cram,” I nodded to the stallion in charge of the food shed. He rushed to get me a can and returned with it. I laughed and went around the back of him and forcefully worked the can into his asshole. He stood tall and took it like a champ as I stopped just before it was all the way in. I pulled the small hammer from his mouth and tapped the can’s bottom that was almost all the way in. “Do you feel it? That large hard thing stuck inside you against your wishes? No matter how hard you squirm it won’t come out?” I asked, then pushed the rest of the can inside of him, watching his asshole close around it, practically sucking it inside of him. I moved to his front and looked him in the eyes. “That’s what you did to me, Bitch. You can eat that cram when you shit it out. Get out of my face.” The crowd dispersed and went into the houses, worked on the junk walls surrounding our complex, or held guard as I let Bitch go on his own way. He looked good beaten and broken, but I was only beginning with that stallion. Powder had left with a squad of five after cleaning up, changing their gear to look less menacing, and after a short fight to keep her squad in line. Blue was back and waiting for me in the shack. My shack, holding my sledge with his nose against the base and a smirk on his face. “Really, Boss?” I blushed, I know it because my face felt warm and he laughed at me. “W-well, I needed something and you’re the only colt that can touch me, and you weren’t here, and-” He flared his wings, tossing his cloak off and shushing me. He rolled onto the bed, lying on his back and using his free forehoof to pat his sheath. I stared and stared, watching as his cock extended. I was feeling hungry and an itch that needed scratching the right way was growing. I moved to the bed, climbed over him, and felt it under my belly almost to my barrel. A real stallion is way better than an improvised toy, even if I did add ridges to my sledge to make it better.