Old Oaks was a half burning ruin by the time we finally reached it. Even by air, it’d taken us almost an entire day to cross the wide plains beyond San Ponsisco’s wall. The small pony town was located some eight hundred miles west of the Saddlera Mountains, the same rocky range we’d crossed by rail two weeks earlier. Still, it was better time than I’d made by hoof on my own.

As it turned out, Old Oaks was the first town with that name. It was also the only surviving town with the name as New Oaks was little more than a radioactive crater some eighty miles further north. How such a small town could have been singled out for a Balefire bomb was beyond me. At least it was until Stone explained what it was that the town did.

As one might suspect from a town named Old Oaks, a good number of Equestria’s lumber came from the area. Much of it was procured from the enchanted forests that dotted the hillsides of the area. I had been a bit confused over the term ‘enchanted’ as I was fairly sure trees were not magical in nature.

Stone went on the explain that according to what he’d been told, the Princesses had decided long ago to try and preserve as much of Equestria’s forests as they could. To that end, they set aside the hilly countryside of this area to become a sort of tree farm. Earth ponies would plant and tend to the trees as they grew, while unicorns would help the trees to grow even faster than normal.

As the war began, Old Oaks, or rather New Oaks, as most of the population had moved to the larger and more modern city, sent much of their lumber to the Equestrian Military to help in the war. A lot of things the army had used every day called for wood; from packing crates to weapon stocks.

Wild, who had been listening into our conversation via the headsets and mics, commented that in between the sky chariot’s armored plating was a wooden frame. The lighter material gave the chariot greater lift and made it easier for a pegasus to pull.

Of course, this made the town a target for the zebras, as did anything that even remotely had something to do with the Equestrian Army.

A town littler bigger than Crossroads was wiped from the face of the map by a single balefire bomb, which also turned the surrounding hillsides into a firestorm when the thousands of still uncut trees caught fire. Carrion had spoke up then, saying that even for a year after the bombs had fallen, he could still see a green glow on the horizon north west of Kanter City.

Before Wild began descending towards the smoking town, I managed to get a good look at what we were getting into from high above. Standing in the open doorway of the chariot, I felt the wind whipping at my face, mane, and hat as I scanned the landscape below us. My right foreleg was raised to brace myself against the doorframe of the passenger compartment and held me in place as the chariot rocked in the winds flowing about it.

I could see hundreds of blackened stumps and, in some cases, whole trees pass below us. They were mixed in with the usual browns, tans, and grays of the wasteland. All of them surrounded a small collection of ponymade buildings. I also saw a number of small ruined buildings as well, sawmills I’d guess according to what Stone had told me. The graveyard of dead trees was held at bay by what I generously had been told was a wall. From up here, Old Oaks looked like any other town or city I’d had the fortune (or misfortune in Kanter City’s place) of seeing since coming to the surface. It was a pale shadow of its former self, empty streets and deserted buildings. Like everywhere else I’d been, the town hardly matched up with photos and videos of the time before the war. I shook my head and focused once more upon the town below.

It had been built along one of Equestria’s many highways. The black asphalt was still visible in places where sand and dirt had been blown away by countless storms and summer winds. From what I could make out from here, it appeared two gates had been built where the highway met the walls. Then again, maybe they’d simply dumped more junk in those places. Behind the wall, the highway formed the town’s main street along which the majority of the larger buildings had been constructed. Side roads spread out from the central one forming two more streets, one on either side of the main street. Along each street were more buildings, these looking more like homes where, once upon a time, happy ponies lived and played.

As Wild began to bring us in closer, I could see more details of the wall itself. It was made from the typical junk usually scattered about the wasteland. Broken sections of chariots, homes, rocks, and even a half a skyliner (a larger version of the sky chariot, made to haul large numbers of passengers to a number of destinations both in and out of Equestria) was shoved into the making of the wall. Only this time, that was quite literally what they had done, piling trash atop itself until a wall had formed around the town. It was hardly the most impressive defensive barcade I’d seen, San Ponsisco’s walls dwarfed this one in all ways. Even the walls around Tombstone and Crossroads were higher and far better made, despite being largely made of the same type of salvaged junk.

Still, if what I’d been told by Stonehoof and Balefire was correct, then the town had never been seriously bothered by beasts or raiders for a good sixty years when ponies first resettled the town. The crude barrier had done it’s job of keeping the ponies within the town safe from the horrors of the wasteland for all that time. Stone had told me he’d visited the town once as a caravan guard some years ago, and had heard the townsponies talk about how peaceful things were in the area; about how they’d not been bothered by many of the things that had plagued other towns all across the wasteland.

At least they hadn’t until today... I suppose everyone’s luck runs out...

Large sections of the wall had been blown to bits. The pieces were scattered about the landscape and craters were blown into the hard packed earth where the wall had once stood. It was still a bit difficult in judging the depth of those holes from our height, but given the distance some of the pieces had been blown... I doubted even those thicker, stronger walls of Crossroads could have hoped to withstand such a blast. It was ominous to say the least that raiders suddenly seemed to have possession of explosives they’d never had before... at least in the numbers coming from the radio reports.

I felt the chariot tilt more towards the ground as Wild began our final descent towards the smoking ruins. I placed more of my weight on my right fore hoof, which was still thankfully braced in the doorway. As we came in lower, the winged mare slid us skillfully between the rising smoke columns and I could make our more details of the town itself from between those pillars.

The buildings were made of stone and wood, in a style that seemed to dominate the Equestrian west. Like other towns I’d visited, they stood no higher than three stories in height. I also began to discern a few other buildings of note: a red school house, a grocery store with most of its windows boarded up, a police station, and a fire station. All were small buildings compared to what I’d seen in San Ponsisco. Still, it had likely been enough for a town of just under a two hundred ponies. Back when there were more ponies to call this place home anyway.

Now many of the outer buildings were burning, the source of the thick black pillars of smoke Wild was forced to dodge as we came in. Looking back skyward, I saw those pillars reaching high into the air. They were so high that we’d spotted them long before we’d seen the valley the town had been built within. I wondered if the smoke had caught the attention of the pegasi... likely not. They didn’t seem to really care about what went on below their own hooves, so long as it didn’t bother them.

Looking back down into Old Oaks, I could begin to easily see the path the raiders had taken once the walls had been breached. The lines of destruction were as clear as crystal and cut straight through from the destroyed sections of walls to the burning buildings. Those constructions that had been nearest the walls were little more than charred ruins, now merely smoking frames of former homes and stores. Those nearer the main street were still burning, and even from here I could smell the acrid scent of burning wood and plastic as well as the scent of metaling plaster and metal. Under it all, I could smell the all too familiar stench of burning flesh.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust and narrowed my eyes upon the fires. Cursorily, I wondered how many ponies had perished within their homes rather than at the hooves of the raiders. It had likely been a better death...

The fires had been burning out of control for hours, even before we’d left San Ponsisco. It was doubtful if the raiders even cared if Old Oaks burned to the ground around them. In fact, given what I knew of them, I half expected they’d likely had a hoof in helping the fires spread so quickly throughout the town. At least the fires had yet to reach the center of town, where Town Hall was supposed to be standing. I’d not been able to see it due to the smoke. I prayed we’d not arrived too late to help any survivors who may still be within its walls...

Incoming rounds struck the black armored hull beside the open door, pinging loudly near my head as they bounced harmlessly off the plating. We were taking fire from the town below, the raiders no doubt seeing us as we came in. I pushed off the door frame with my right hoof and stumbled back into the passenger compartment as more rounds struck the sky chariot. The impacts echoed about within the armored hull like hail stones on a tin roof (a rather interesting sound I’d recently heard back in San Ponsisco.)

Just as I was getting my hooves back under me, a pair of rounds flew in through the doorway. The bullets embedded themselves into the softer material that the inside of the chariot was made of. I suppose whoever had designed the armored personnel carrier had thought of that, hopefully before it proved deadly for those riding inside. Another half dozen strikes on the hull rang out loudly. I glanced to the pony standing beside me as I rose to all four hooves.

Stonehoof stood silently with his ears laid back and grinding his teeth at each strike on the chariot. His eyes stared worriedly towards the front where Wildfire was all but exposed to the raiders’ incoming fire. The only thing between her and getting shot was the fact the raiders were such horrible shots, the lightly armored sides of the flight harness, and the bits of armor she herself wore. The two had become closer in the weeks since I’d seen them last, and the stallion was understandably unhappy with her risking herself like this. Then again, this is what Wildfire had been trained to do back in the Enclave. Perhaps she’d not always pulled a chariot into fire, but she’d been a soldier, always ready to fight. She was trained to take risks.

I placed a hoof gently upon my closest friend’s shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile and nod of my head. He returned the nod, but quickly returned his gaze to the wall separating him from his lover. Behind us waited Balefire and Carrion, the two unicorns’ horns alight with magic as they held their weapons beside them. The pair was ready to unload on any raiders nearby once we landed. I fully expected we’d be in for a fight the moment we touched down and checked my own weapons as I looked over my two other friends.

A set of revolvers floated within the green glow of Balefire’s magic just to my left. The custom made mouth grips of the pistols that were beautifully carved into the likeness of the twin alicorn princesses seemed to come to life in the soft magical glow. To their right floated an old model Equestrian assault rifle beside the rotting face of Carrion. It’d seen more combat than anyone in this chariot, with the exception of the chariot itself and its owner. While in good working condition, the rifle still bore signs of heavy use and it’s own customization and repairs over the years.

Both stallions were ready for what we were about to step into, having been trained most of their adult lives for combat by the military (though Carrion had been fighting for much, much longer than anyone else.) The ghoul pony calmly checked over his rifle, a sudden drop by the chariot not seeming to bother him at all. A quick look down showed his legs spread out evenly to absorb the sudden changes in directions the chariot was forced to do. It was clear he was used to this sort of transport into combat, and given the unit he’d been a part of before the ‘Last Days’ of Equestria, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised.

My eyes then slid to the left where Balefire’s youthful energy was bubbling to the surface as he pawed at the armored floor with a fore hoof. He was ready to get to grips with the ponies outside shooting at us. Like Carrion, he had his hooves braced against the rocking of the chariot. I recalled reading that the Confederate Army had a number of pegasi within their ranks, as well as sky chariots similar to this one. Balefire was a member of a Ranger Unit, and had likely been deployed far away from the city by chariots before.

Behind them both stood the massive form of our misfit team’s medic, Spirit Walker. The female buffalo towered over all of us, even Stone. Like Stone and myself, she seemed less at ease within the rocking armored chariot than the unicorns. She shifted her weight as the chariot dipped and turned, almost losing her hoofing a couple times throughout the trip. Her thick, curly brown coat was once more covered in bits of salvaged armor, all of them showing signs of rust and past battles. All of it held to her body by cord or lengths of wire. It was the best she could do, as few made armor in her size unless it was for a griffon or diamond dog. Even then the proportions were simply all wrong. Across her back was the old rifle she’d used when she’d first found me back in Wastefall. It had seen little action since then, but the saddlebags she wore across her back which contained her medical supplies would likely see a lot of use.

The scent of smoke flowing into the chariot’s door seemed to increase suddenly as the armored floor straightened out beneath us. I looked away from Spirit and back towards the open doorway. I could see the ground outside rising up to meet us. Bits of the wall that had been blown away, rocks, and the odd bit of scrub grass that stubbornly grew all across the wasteland dotted the landscape. Beyond it was the wall that circled the town, along with one of the holes that had breached it. The gaping hole was only a short distance away from where we’d be landing.

As I braced myself for the drop, I caught sight of three rapid bursts of light along the ruined wall. Muzzle flashes appeared once again as I looked away from the wall and to the gap that had blown into a section of it. Already my E.F.S. was beginning to update itself with a number of red dots located just ahead of us. My ears flicked back against my skull as rounds struck the hull of the chariot once more. The ground just in front of the doorway was riddled with puffs of dust and dirt as bullets landed short. I counted a total of nine hostiles located among the ruins of the wall. Nine raiders between us and the town.

“Lock and load, everyone!!!” I yelled over the sound of bullets impacting the metal hull around me. I reached down to the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse and brought the weapon up, taking a step towards the doorway. A second later, Wild’s voice came through the headsets hanging about the passenger compartment, agreeing with me in her own, very colorful way.

“Touch down!! Grab yer shit and kiss yer flanks goodbye, fillies, cause the weather’s Celestia fucking NASTY as shit out here!!!” the mare yelled into her mic as a jolt rocked the entire cabin. The landing wheels of the chariot gave only slightly as the hard packed wasteland soil made contact with them beneath us. The chariot creaked and groaned as it settled, but I spared it not a second thought as the fire from the breach focused in on us.

“Alright, let’s go kill us some raiders!!” Balefire added his own shout to the mix from just behind me. I could imagine the young buck grinning widely as I heard his hoof pawing heavily at the metal flooring. The kid was good, but he was likely to get himself killed if I didn’t keep an eye on him. I doubt his sister would like that very much, though I wondered how he managed to slip away without alerting either his sister and fellow soldiers.

With the sounds of incoming rounds pinging off the armored hull, the distant sounds of gunfire and raider yelling, we began making our way up to the doorway. With our weapons gripped tightly, Stone was the first to reach the door, being on my left and closer to the opening. He wasted no time in dismounting the chariot, as his large form would have been the perfect target framed in the door.

The earth pony dropped down with a slight grunt as his hooves struck the ground, sending up a cloud of dust around him. A round bounced harmlessly off his already chipped shoulder pad, and the large pony simply ignored it. I followed him out, allowing my knees to bend and take my weight as I dropped the short distance to the ground beside him. All around us, rounds tore up the soil or struck the chariot.

I’d barely began moving away from the doorway when Stone brought his rifle up to bare on our attackers. He quickly snapped off his first shot by aiming for the muzzle flashes of the raiders’ weapons. The round exploded from the muzzle of the rifle in a small ball of fire before ripping through the air towards its target. A second later, a distant yelp signaled a hit and forced my Pipbuck’s E.F.S, to update itself and display eight red dots now. The sudden death of one of their own seemed to give the raiders pause and us time to fully exit the chariot. It wouldn’t last long, however, as raiders didn’t seem to care much for one another.

Moving forward quickly, I began to size up the terrain around us. I was looking for the quickest, safest route to reach the wall, while the others behind us caught us. Balefire and Carrion spread out at once, taking up positions on either side of Stone and myself. Spirit followed a second later. The buffalo would make an easy target for the raiders, standing over us as she did. She did not seemed troubled in the slightest about this, however, and simply scanned the others for any signs of wounds before dropping into what cover she could find.

I’d only just registered a second break in the wall off to our left when the sound of flapping wings distracted me. Wild, who had been unhitching herself from the chariot’s front, came flying around towards us. Her hooves were mere inches from the ground as she flapped her wings quickly. A shot rang out, and the following bullet skimmed past the mare’s flanks, embedding itself into the ground. Seems our time was up. Turning back around, I saw Stone pointing a hoof ahead of us, at what appeared to be a long dried up creek bed. It was now little more than a narrow trench, but it’d give us some much needed cover.

“Take cover, everyone!” I shouted over the increasing noise of gunfire before diving into the ditch. My hooves and knees slammed down upon rock and dirt as I landed, grunting from the impact. The others followed closely behind me in a clatter of loose stones and small clouds of dust. The raiders’ poor aim followed them, rounds striking the edge of the ditch or the opposite end. We’d be safe for the moment, but it wouldn’t last long. The raiders’ patience would wear down and they’d likely rush us. A result that would likely see most of them killed, but also bring unnecessary additional risk to us... and I doubted the townsfolk had that sort of time to give us.

Peering over the edge of the ditch, I looked out to where the red dots appeared on my E.F.S. It was pretty much as I’d expected, the group of raiders had all taken cover in the breach they’d blown in the wall to gain entry into the town. Luckily for us, the wall seemed to lack any sort of walkway atop it. Given its haphazard nature, the wall was likely deemed too dangerous to walk across. This denied the raiders any real high ground over us and canceled the risk that we would be fired upon from above.

As I looked further away from the hole, I could see a large number of broken bits of junk scattered across the ground between us and the raiders. Most were pieces of the wall that had been blown away. They might provide cover for two ponies to hide behind as they approached the breach, but it’d be risky. The hole itself was large enough for the chariot to be flown through, with room to spare on either side.

Through the hole, I could see the fires burning along one of Old Oaks’ side streets from collapsed buildings. Along much of which was most likely the bodies of the dead. I would have liked to think most of them were raiders, but seeing how not all of them had spiked armor I knew some of them were not. Beside the sounds of gunfire coming from the raiders in the gap, I could hear fighting going on deeper within the town. Along with the unsettling noise of raiders laughing and somepony screaming.

Were we too late? Had they finally taken Town Hall from the survivors? I was forced to duck back down as a round struck the ground, inches from my face, sending a shower of loose dirt and stones into my eyes. Swearing, I rubbed a fore leg across them as Stone’s rifle barked loudly next to my ears. I heard the sound of the bullet zip out across the narrow space as I blinked my eyes open several times to clear the grit from them. I heard another yelp of pain a second later, only this time one of the red dots did not wink out. Likely it’d just grazed him, a thought the pony confirmed a moment later.

“Bastard moved at th’ last second,” Stone said as he lowered himself back into the ditch beside me. His hoof worked the bolt action of his rifle, the single brass casing rolling about between us. To my right, Carrion was attempting to edge up to the side of our low cover, trying to get off a couple shots himself at our attackers. The ghoul was forced to duck back down by a fury of shots aimed towards his horned head. We really couldn’t stay here for long... if the raiders had taken the last holdouts, then they’d be drawn to the sounds of fighting... and if they hadn’t... every second counted.

“We can’t stay here forever,” Carrion said, voicing what I and everyone else already knew. He floated his assault rifle up to the rim of the rocky trench, the weapon barking angrily as he fired it blindly towards the raiders. “Rushing that wall would likely just get us all killed... not that I’m against such a plan, having been alive for far too fucking long... but does anypony else have a better idea? Perhaps one with a chance of us killing more raiders?”

“Actually... I do,” I began, before outlining what I was thinking. “Carrion, I need Wild, Stone, and you to keep them focused on you three while Balefire and I flank them. There’s a smaller breach in the wall just to the left of us. I saw it a second ago while we were diving for cover. It’s not far, but it’ll take us a few seconds to reach it from here.” The old unicorn risked a quick glance over the edge, glowing orange eyes finding the hole I’d mentioned before ducking back down.

“We should be able to cover you long enough, I think. Though it looks like it’ll be a tight fit,” he said as his horn began glowing more brightly. He once more snapped off a few random shots into the raiders’ cover, keeping them busy and less likely to charge us while I explained the plan to them.

“From what I saw in the air, once we’re past the breach, it should be a straight shot to where the raiders are holed up. Once we have their attention, you guys can move forward to catch them in a crossfire,” I finished up, chancing a look over the edge of the ditch. Carrion’s fire must have forced them back into cover as nopony shot at me. I once more eyed our target before looking back into town. It didn’t look good. I hurriedly ducked back down, lest someone decided to get brave and snap off a couple shots.

“I got your back, boss!” Balefire said from across Stone’s back. The green unicorn grinned as his revolvers floated beside him, their cylinders spinning in his magical field. The older grey stallion glanced over his shoulder and snorted a bit at the cocky comment before speaking up himself. His green eyes slid from the unicorn to me.

“Ya sure ya wouldn’t rather Wild or Ah come with ya, Shadow?” Stone asked, glancing back at the young buck beside him once again. Balefire either ignored the implied question of his skill or had not heard him.

In truth, I would much rather have one of them with me as both had proven themselves capable fighters under pressure. Both had been with me since I’d began my journey to save my sister, and I knew we worked well together... but that wasn’t exactly fair to Balefire. The green unicorn had proven himself ever since joining us aboard the raiders’ prisoner train. He’d fought with us in Tombstone, storming the bank beside me and later when I’d chased Bufford into that store in Oddwick. He was a skilled fighter and a trained soldier of the Confederate Army. Not to mention a Ranger in said army. One did not earn that position easily... at least I hoped not. There was also another reason for my choice in backup.

“Both Balefire and I have short ranged weapons (though I’d made some rather amazing long range shots for a shotgun over the past month) and it would be better for getting in close with the raiders,” I answered Stone’s question. The grey stallion nodded his head and glanced back to the lip of the ditch we lay in. I followed his gaze while adding, “Plus, if I get into trouble, I’ll need somepony to blow the raider’s face off with a well placed shot.”

“Ah think Ah can do that,” Stone said with a chuckle, his lips curving upwards into a smirk. From the other side of Carrion, I heard Wild snort loudly and I grinned myself. “Just don’t go makin’ a habit outa it,” he added.

“I’ll do my best, Stone... but you know how I am.” I smirked and looked back towards the edge of the ditch and at what my E.F.S. showed me. Eight red dots stood between us and the town of Old Oaks, a town that was quickly being consumed in fire. Every so often a couple of other dots would appear as raiders wandered into my Pipbuck’s range. Beyond the six of us, the rest of the town was devoid of life. Perhaps they were just out of range? After all, I wasn’t picking up every single raider in town either, and there were a number of them beyond the wall. You could hear them from here over the sounds of fighting and ringing... wait... what was that?

I blinked and sat up a bit more in the shallow trench we lay in, ears perking towards the new sound: a high pitched, ringing noise. It was faint, likely due to it coming from so far away and the louder noises nearer us... but I could still hear...

“Do you guys hear something?” Wild asked, the orange mare’s head tilted to the side as her own ears perked up. Like me, she’d caught that sound ringing out across the blazing ruins. Stone and Balefire both stopped and listened, heads angled towards the lip of the ditch. We weren’t the only ones to hear it though as the sound of laughter and shooting slowly came to a halt as the raiders too listened to the sound.

“Is that... a school bell ringing?” Balefire asked, his eyes looking over to Stone. “I could have sworn it sounded like the school bell from my old home town...”

“Why would raiders ring a school bell?” Carrion asked. Despite the fact they were glowing, I could see confusion in the ghoul’s orange eyes as he glanced about the group. His tattered ears twitched to the steady rhythm of the bell.

“It ain’t th’ raiders... it’s th’ survivors,” Stone answered their questions. His hoof reached up to tilt his hat back from his widened green eyes. “They musta saw us fly overhead...”

“And they’re letting us know somepony’s still alive in there,” Wild finished for her coltfriend, narrowing her own stormy blue eyes towards the wall and the raiders beyond. “As well as everything else in town...”

“They won’t be for long. If they have not focused upon the schoolhouse before, they will now,” Spirit stated calmly from behind us. For such a large buffalo, she made almost no noise when she wanted to. She had her rifle off from around her neck, and the barrel pushed up against the rim of the ditch.

“She’s right,” Carrion added. The ghoul pony’s horn glowed steadily as he ejected the nearly spent clip from his assault rifle. It switched places with another, going into his saddlebag as the fresh clip clicked home into the weapon.

“Not if we can help it,” I growled. “Alright everyone, get ready to cover us. Balefire... it’s time to pony-up.” I inched towards the left side of the ditch, carefully moving around Carrion. As I passed him, the unicorn readied his assault rifle to open fire on the raiders. Balefire followed closely behind me, keeping his head lowered as he worked his way between Stone and Carrion to join me near the shallow end of the trench.

As we readied ourselves, waiting for the right time to give the signal to open fire, my eyes wandered towards the town’s wall. I looked over the shadows playing along its uneven surface until I spotted our destination. Just beside what had once been a washing machine, was the gap I’d seen. The shadows were a bit darker where the hole disappeared into the wall. Carrion had been right, it wasn’t very big at all and had likely been caused by a smaller explosive. Still, it should be enough room for us to get in single file and we really had no other choice at the moment.

So... this was what I’d come back out into the wasteland to do? Once more into the breach and all that shit?

Despite what I was about to do, I found myself oddly calm. Here was something I’d become used to, risking my life for strangers who would very likely not do the same thing for me if our roles were reversed. Doing the right thing. Not for pay or praise, but because it was the right thing. As my parents had taught us. As Ebony would have wanted me to do.

“Ready,” Stone whispered, rifle gripped tightly between his teeth. His eyes narrowed as he watched me from beneath his dusty, old cowpony hat. I had no doubt he already had a target lined up who would very soon be dead.

“Let’s do this,” Balefire whispered from beside me. He was hunkered close to the ground with his revolvers floating beside his face. I looked away from the grinning buck and back towards our target.

If ponies only did something for somepony else, expecting to get a reward for the deed, then why did we put so much faith in friendship? It had been what had saved us so long ago when Equestria had first been founded. It had been what united us all against those foes who had sought to destroy what we’d built. Helping others was the right thing to do. It was the pony thing to do. These ponies needed help. Needed somepony to save them from something nopony else would. Did that make it my destiny then?

Was it my destiny as Second Sight had said? Was I destined to be some great hero? A forerunner for those who would come after?

I honestly didn’t know... maybe it was... maybe there was a mare somewhere who would make everything better... who would bring the old Equestria back from the grave...

The weight of Luna’s Ruse lightened as I took the firing bit once more into my teeth and shifted my weight on my hooves. As I did, I felt the small stones and bits of smooth glass mixed into the soil brush against my hoof. Closing my eyes, I steadied my breathing and readied myself for the mad dash. Oddly, despite it all, I felt a smile spread across my face. Was this my destiny? It really didn’t matter in the end.

I opened my eyes and looked towards the small breach, ears rising upwards as my smile widened. Regardless of the reasons, they didn’t really change anything. I’d have been here regardless of what some zony said.

“Covering fire!” I growled quietly so that only those nearest me could hear.

Carrion opened up first with his assault rifle. The glowing weapon floated inches above his head as he squeezed the trigger with his magical grip. 7.67mm rounds screamed from the gun’s barrel and down range into the hardcover in which the raiders had set up their welcoming committee.

Stone was quick to follow, and though lacking a horn that the ghoul soldier possessed, the earth pony rolled up to the edge of the ditch to brace the wooden stock of his rifle upon the soil. Almost a second later and without seeming to even need to aim, the rifle cracked to life, sending its’ deadly round towards a raider.

The orange mare beside him simply tossed caution to the wind and stood up, clamping her teeth down hard on the firing bit of her battle-saddle weapons. The twin heavy rifles on either side roared to life, drowning all other sounds of battle. Spent brass rounds rattled from the ejection ports of the weapons as orange flashes of light flared at the ends of the barrels. New holes were blown into the junk pile of a wall, sending bits of metal raining all around in a deadly shower.

Even Spirit added to the storm of lead being flung towards the raiders, her clip-fed rifle popping as quickly as she could squeeze the trigger. Her aim wasn’t anywhere near as good as the others’, but it didn’t have to be for this. It just had to make the raiders keep their heads down, all happening within seconds of my shout.

Flicking my ears back, I dug my hooves deeply into the soil beneath me, kicking up bits of rock odd bits of debris as I came charging up and out of the ditch. My mane and tail flew behind me as I galloped hard for the wall and the narrow gap half hidden within the shadows. Behind me came another set of pounding hoof steps as Balefire followed me across the open ground. Further behind me, the sounds of firing began to peter out as clips and magazines were emptied or they were forced back into cover from the raiders’ returning fire.

At least those still capable, since my E.F.S. had once more been forced to update the enemy count from eight to six. I had a feeling I had Stone to thank for at least one of those... if not both. That stallion was a damn good shot.

I doubted any of the remaining raiders could draw a bead on us from their position, and it didn’t look as if they’d seen us either. I skidded slightly in the loose gravel near the wall as I adjusted my path, leaving a cloud of dust and loose stones to drift away from me. The gap was just ahead and was far more jagged than I’d expected. Bits of metal, rock, and wood seemed ready to cut into our flesh as we approached the breach. Well, it was the only way past the raiders and would be the least likely thing to kill us.

I lowered my head and lunged forward, intent on forcing my way through and trusting in my combat armor to protect anything vital from being cut to pieces. Somehow, I managed to avoid the worst of the sharp bits, though I hardly got out scott free.

As I passed between the two ends of the hole, I felt something nick my armored shoulders and forelegs. The scrap of metal sounded as loud as a gunshot to my ears as sparks shot off from my right shoulder pad. Something else brushed across my face, leaving a scratch along my cheek and just above my right eye. That same something caught hold of my mane and jerked my head backwards a bit as I pushed through. I snarled as the strand of white hair came free of my head. Son of a bitch, that hurt! I was forced to hurriedly lift a hoof up to my head, least my hat join the bits of hair that had been ripped free from my scalp.

Lastly, I felt my saddlebags being pulled back just as I set hoof on the town side of the wall. I frowned and briefly thought of seeing if I could free them. After all, my spare ammo, food, and water was all contained within them. A sudden increase in the number of red dots around us, however, made me decide against it. I pushed on through, hearing wood snap and metal twist as I reached the other side of the breach. Luckily, the tough, old bags were more rugged than I’d given them credit. They managed to remain on my body while being ripped free of the grasping bits of junk I’d ran through; all without the buckles or straps snapping free or any deep tears in the fabric.

I wasted no time in turning back towards the larger breach in the wall, where the cluster of six red dots lay pinning the rest of my friends down. Behind me, I heard Balefire struggling through the narrow gap I’d just come through. Like me, he’d run into many of the same problems and I briefly glanced back to make sure he was alright. The unicorn had fully pushed his way through the twisted grasping bits, his revolvers floating several inches out in front of me. He slowed a bit to shake himself off before looking back towards me and nodding his horned head. He was good to go on, despite a deep cut upon his cheek and a number of smaller scratches across his neck and flanks. He looked unharmed otherwise.

Turning back towards the raiders nearest us, I slowed my pace a bit to allow Balefire time to catch up with me. As we trotted forward side by side, I scanned the area around us. The buildings nearest us were little more than smoking husks, their blacked timbers and bricks scattered about the still glowing ashes. Past them, further into town, the homes of the townponies burned brightly. The heat easily reached me as we pressed onward. Beads of sweat ran down my face and neck, and under the black combat armor my jumpsuit was getting damp with my perspiration.

We’d barely taken a dozen steps when the broken remains of a section of the town’s defensive wall came into sight. Fallen refrigerators, metal chariots, tractors, and bits of stone and concrete lay about the ground where it’d been blown about by the explosion that had breached the wall. Laying among them was the source of the red dots on my E.F.S. and the burning buildings behind us.

Six raiders took shelter in the broken bits of the wall, spiked bits of crude hoofmade armor covering their patchy scarred and tattoo covered hides. Bits of chain, rope, and cable hung from about the armor, holding everything from spare clips and magazines to grenades and bloody trophies. All of it was covered in rust, dirt, and dried blood. They were a collection of unicorns and earth ponies, and wielded rusty weapons; most commonly, battered old Equestrian assault rifles. It was the most heavily produced weapon of the war, so it made since it was the most widely used gun in the wasteland.

Their focus was largely on my friends taking shelter in the ditch just beyond the wall. One appeared to actually be patching up a wounded comrade who’d taken a round to the shoulder. The wounded raider snapped his teeth at his would-be medic in pain before looking away from his bleeding wound and over towards the burning town... and us. His yellowed, sickly eyes widened in surprise at seeing two armored ponies standing behind them. He lifted his unwounded fore leg up to point towards us and opened his mouth to shout a warning to the others.

He was unarmed.

He was already wounded.

He was a raider.

I didn’t hesitate.

Luna’s Ruse came up just as he was opening his mouth. The custom combat shotgun roared to life as I squeezed the trigger. Smoke and fire blossomed from the weapon’s black barrel and launched the solid metal slug through the air towards my target. The wounded raider’s chest exploded in a fountain of blood and bone as the shot tore through his unarmored body and out the other side. He was dead before the force of the blast knocked him back against the ruined wall, bouncing his head off a chariot’s rusting wheel and sliding down onto his side.

The raider standing over him jerked his head back in shock as bits of blood and flesh from his dead friend covered his face. He turned towards us and, as he did, I saw the horn atop his head snap to life. His magic took ahold of the assault rifle propped up beside him on the wall, intent on returning fire.

However, he didn’t have any more luck than his dead comrade, as Balefire opened up on him with both his revolvers. What the smaller weapons lacked in raw force and stopping power over Luna’s Ruse, they more than made up for in rate of fire. My friend’s horn glowed brightly as he pulled the triggers one after the other, sending each gun’s barrel climbing from the recoil as the round shot out towards his target.

This was why unicorns rarely dual-wielded weapons. The focus required to manipulate two guns at the same time left the focus of simply holding the weapons aloft weaker. The weaker magical field meant the weapon’s recoil would be much greater than if they were holding a single gun. Dual-wielding would spring back much more, throwing off the wielder’s aim.

While Balefire was young, cocky and sure of himself at times, he was still the most skilled pony I’d ever seen using two revolvers. Where most unicorns seemed to fight the recoil fully, he allowed it some freedom, while still holding the mouth grip firmly as he could in his magic. As he fired the second revolver, the first was already being lowered back into position, where it would be fired again.

The result was the second raider’s body jerking backwards as bullets ripped into his exposed flesh. The glow about his horn flared as his focus on his magic faded from the pain of a number of wounds, before going out completely as a round struck him in the throat. The battered assault rifle clattered uselessly to the pavement. A shaky, dark brown hoof reached upwards the bleeding wound as he attempted to stem the flow. He was as good as dead, however, and stumbled to the ground beside his dropped weapon. Two down, four to go. Celestia knew how many more still waited within the town behind us. A problem for later though.

His attention drawn to the rear, a raider near the breach turned around and brought his rifle to bear upon us. His face twisted up in a snarl as he squeezed the trigger of his weapon. The round cut closely to my flank as Balefire and I took cover behind a fallen piece of the wall. Another round pinged off the metal slab before burying itself into the soil as a second raider caught onto what was happening. More rounds struck around our cover and even over our heads to strike buildings further in town.

“I think we got their attention, boss!” Balefire said with a grin, his revolvers floating up to his chest as he began to reload them. The cylinders slid out to either side of the pistols, releasing their spent shells which rattled about the ground between his hooves. Fresh bullets floated up to them from the belts his guns hung from. Once more, I found myself impressed with his skill as he managed to reload both weapons at once.

“Yeah, I sorta noticed that,” I shot back and snorted at the young pony’s humor. Peering over the edge of our cover, I saw the remaining raiders turning their focus on us. It was just what I was hoping they’d do, and what the others had been waiting for. Four green dots began rapidly approaching the remaining four red dots from just beyond the wall. A moment later, one red dot winked out.

A bullet ripped through the skull of the raider still nearest the wall. His old, battered military helmet did little to save him due to the damage it’d already taken both from combat and its owner. The chin strap snapped and sent the spiked helmet rolling away from the dead body as it too toppled down to the ground, the top half of it’s head missing. A raider turned, unsure who to attack before starting to move back towards the wall. He paid for his hesitation with his life as I brought Luna’s Ruse up and fired off two rapid shots towards him.

The first round caught him in mid step and staggered him sideways, nearly knocking him off his hooves. His forward movement, however, drove him into the second shot. It had originally been aimed for his chest as well, but instead struck his right shoulder. The crude cooking pot he wore as armor upon his shoulder did nothing to stop the slug, which all but ripped the limb from his body. The raider screamed in pain and slumped to the ground, his remaining hooves lashing out wildly as he bled to death.

The remaining two raiders charged towards Balefire and I, intent on at least killing us if nothing else. I shouted out a warning to the green unicorn beside me before turning my shotgun towards the pair. I didn’t need to have bothered, as one simply seemed to disappear in a hail of high caliber rounds that poured like heavy rain through the breach, leaving bright orange tracers behind them. The other staggered as he was peppered with shots from two revolvers. He dropped to his knees as his partner’s gun spun away from the bloody mess that its’ owner had been reduced to after being hit by both of Wild’s guns.

The wounded raider’s eyes locked with mine as he struggled to bring his own rifle up towards me. He didn’t even clear the ground when Carrion calmly stepped from behind the wall and put a bullet through the back of his head from nearly point blank range. The body dropped to the ground a moment later, smoke drifting up from the hole that had been drilled through his head.

“Well, that was easy,” the ghoul said as he wiped the barrel of his assault rifle off on the filthy clothing of the dead raider. The former Equestrian army officer looked up from the cooling body and towards me. “So, what now?” Behind him, I saw Stonehoof already beginning to strip the dead raiders of anything useful as Wild helped. The winged mare tossed any medical supplies they found to Spirit who was placing them into her saddlebags as she brought up the rear of the group.

As the ringing in my ears began to clear from all the gunfire, I could once more pick up the sounds of still distant fighting going on. Along with the clear sound of a bell ringing out.

A call for help.

“Now, we save some ponies,” I answered, rising up from the cover Balefire and I had taken shelter behind. I slid open the drum feed of my weapon and began reloading it, knowing I’d likely need every single shot. My E.F.S. had begun to update itself after the fight and crossed over into the town. Red dots were beginning to appear in larger numbers. Unfortunately for us, nearly all were together and deeper inside the town. I counted at least thirty of them, maybe more if they were too close together for my Pipbuck to pick up individuals. But there was something else it was picking up: green dots. Well over a dozen of them and all of them right in the middle of the red dots in two locations, though there were far more in one location than the other. Likely Town Hall, since that was where the majority of the survivors were supposed to be holed up.

Thirty raiders versus the six of us. It would have been better if the raiders had been more spread out. We could have thinned out their numbers a bit. Now... now it appeared we’d be facing a small band of the mad ponies.

I snapped the drum shut on Luna’s Ruse and turned towards the center of town. Behind me, I heard the flap of wings as Wild took to the air. A gentle breeze announced her arrival beside me a moment before the orange coated pegasus mare dropped down. Her ears swiveled towards the still ringing bell before she asked a question.

“So, how many of them are there between us and the survivors?”

“At least thirty, maybe more since they’re so densely packed in a single area,” I answered, ears twitching to the sound of the bell. My hoof pawed at the ground. I was ready to rush in and save those trapped, but doing so would get us killed and help nopony.

“Ah reckon that’s bout five ta one,” Stone said as he joined Wild and I. His green eyes scanned the empty street and the burning buildings ahead of us. “Not good odds, but Ah’ve seen worse,” he added as he calmly sat down beside the orange mare and began checking his rifle for any dirt.

“Odds never been something he’s worried about,” Carrion said from behind us. I suppose he meant me, and he was right of course. The odds have never been in my favor since leaving Stable 45, but somehow I manage.

“So, what's the plan?” Wild had been watching Stone work on his rifle before turning away and looking over towards me. Her wings folded back against her sides as she waited on my answer.

“Did you get a look at the center of town while we were flying over?” I asked, looking away from the road ahead and to my friend. “I couldn’t see much thanks to the smoke.” I waved a hoof towards the sky, where smoke hung over much of the town.

“I did, it’s hardly much more than an intersection with a large stone building on the street corner, likely Town Hall. I think the town’s police station was beside it and the school was further on down the road, so that’d put it between us and Town Hall.”

“That sounds ‘bout right from what Ah can remember of this place,” Stone added from beside his marefriend, his check of his rifle finished. He looked once more down the street ahead of us.

I’d spotted both the police station and the school through the smoke, so I had a better idea where she and Stone were talking about. The two buildings we were most worried about would be within a quick run of each other, that would save on time. With them being so close together, we could more easily drive the raiders back from both. Still, that was thirty raiders to drive back and only six of us. Granted, we were damn good at killing raiders by now.

“Those trapped within the school house will need our help soon. The only reason they have not yet been killed is due to the fact that the raiders had not seen them inside,” Spirit added as she joined us upon the road into town. The buffalo closed her saddlebags as she came to a halt beside us. She had a point. Town Hall had held out thus far (if it still had and, judging by the green dots, I was sure it had.) The only thing that had thus far saved those ponies in the school was the fact they had managed to avoid being found by the raiders. The building itself would likely have little protection from the raiders and would fall sooner than Town Hall. Damned monsters loved going after those weaker than themselves.

I looked back around at my friends. This was going to be a hell of a fight. While getting in and out of Kanter City had been hectic, this would be far more different. At Kanter City we were going in quietly, and even though we had had to fight our way out, we had still been moving forward. Being mobile had saved us from being truly swarmed by the raiders’ sure numbers. Here, we’d almost have to go hoof to hoof with the raiders if we had any chance of saving the survivors.

As I thought once again of that nightmarish city, my eyes stopped upon Carrion who was reloading his spent magazines. He’d survived for years in the tunnels and sewers of his former home fighting raiders. He’d been out numbered badly, but had managed to come out alive... for the most part. Shame we didn’t have tunnels to fight the raiders in... wait a second. I turned back towards Wild and quickly asked.

“Were the buildings around them on fire yet?” It would be just like the wasteland to spare the survivors from the raiders only to burn them alive, but that wasn’t my only reason for asking.

“No, I don’t think the fire’s reached any of them just yet.” The orange mare stood still for a moment and lifted her muzzle towards the sky, spreading her wings. I arched a brow, wondering what she was doing before she looked back to me. “The wind is actually blowing away from the center of town and towards us. Unless the raiders have begun setting fires, which I doubt they have with their focus on the survivors, the buildings should be alright for the time being.” Wild flicked an ear back towards the street as a loud blast of gunfire drowned out the bell for a moment. She returned her full attention to me, however, when she noticed the smile I was wearing and arched a brow towards me. “What?”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned about raiders over the past month, it’s that they can’t resist a helpless target.” I waved a hoof towards her. “Without all your weapons, you could pass for a harmless mare well enough I imagine.” I began rubbing my hoof along my jaw as I thought about it. Yeah, this could work... but she’d need to be unarmed for them to take the bait.

“Ah can honestly say, that even without her guns, she an’t a harmless mare,” Stone added, earning a slap from Wind’s tail a second later. “Ow... see what Ah mean?”

“Carrion, how many mines do you have on you?” I turned towards the ghoul, my plan already forming in my head. In truth, it had been recalling how Carrion had survived in the sewers and tunnels of Kanter City for so long that I’d gotten the idea. To answer me, the ghoul sat down and reached back with a fore hoof, opening the saddlebag facing me. Inside was a number of small round disks, along with a couple square boxes that looked homemade and a few grenades nestled beside them, “Right... silly question. How long would it take you to set them up?” he arched a rotting brow towards me before a slow smile began to spread across his snout.

“I think I see where you’re going with this, how many buildings do you want to rig?”

“Two at most, I don’t want to split us up anymore than we have to and there’s no telling how many would actually take the bait. We’re already outnumbered as it is.”

“About twenty minutes if somepony helps me. If this works, it should even the odds a bit in our favor.”

“If what works?” Balefire asked, looking between us all. His ears folded back against his head in confusion before shooting upright at another burst of gunfire echoing down to us from deeper within the town.

“I’ll tell you on the way to the center of town, for now we better hurry. We’re on the clock here.” With that I took off at a dead run up the road, praying we’d have time to set everything up before things went to hell. I could hear my friends’ hooves clattering close behind me as they quickly caught up with me. We’d not gone far when Balefire pulled up alongside me.

“So, what’s this plan?” His revolvers were floating closer to him as he ran. He was unwilling to holster his weapons while we ran, the risk of being attacked at any moment being on mind. A smart move he’d likely been trained to do.

“I’d like to hear that myself, since it seems I’m going to be used as bait, once again,” Wild added as she flew just above and to my right, her eyes on the path ahead looking for any signs of trouble. She nor Balefire need not have bothered, my E.F.S. still seemed to place the raiders further down the street.

“We can’t go head on against that many raiders and hope to come out in one piece. Getting ourselves killed won’t help the ponies of Old Oaks any. I actually got the idea from Carrion.” The ghoul looked over towards me and cocked his head. “How you held out in the tunnels of Kanter City. By laying traps for any of the patrols sent down to kill you.” He nodded his horned head and looked back ahead. “We’re going to do something similar.”

“Ah reckon that’s why ya was askin’ bout the buildin’s around th’ survivors. Yer plannin’ on lurin’ th’ raiders into some of’em and blowin’em ta bits,” Stone spoke up from just behind me, the larger stallion’s hoof steps easy to make out as he ran.

“And you’re planning on using my sexy flanks to get them into the buildings?” Wild snorted as she looked down at me as she flew over. “Ya know, one of these days you boys are going to have to be the bait. Raiders like stallions just as much as mares. After all, they just want something warm to put their...”

“Next time we need bait I’ll do it,” I hurriedly added before she could finish that sentence to it’s no doubt colorful conclusion. “And you’ll only be luring them into one of the buildings, not both. The raiders won’t be able to resist chasing after a single unarmed mare after spending a couple hours fighting to a standstill outside of Town hall. You lead them into the first building that Carrion rigs up with some traps. We’ll let them stumble around and pick off the survivors from the safety of cover.”

“And the second building?” the ghoul asked as he jumped across a small overturned cart, bits of stone and junk lay scattered across the pavement. Perhaps they’d been attempting to repair the damages to the wall from the first attack on the town. I tried to ignore the large red stain beside the harness of the wagon and the discarded doll laying in the debris.

“Those of us not backing up Wild will be holed up in there. We’ll take a couple pot shots at the remaining raiders to draw their attention to us and then let them come storming inside. I doubt they’ll just sit back, knowing how much they love getting in close. Once inside, we’ll let the mines and other traps that Carrion sets up do most of the work like Wild’s building and we pick off the survivors.”

“And if they do hang back?” Balefire asked. “You're right about them loving to get in close... bastards love looking in a pony’s eyes when they got them.” The stallion’s ears laid back and he locked his eyes on the street ahead. “But they might just return fire on us while the others go after Wild.” I recalled how he came to be in San Ponsisco and answered his question. We all had reasons to hate the raiders.

“Then Wild and the others can flank them once they’re finished with the raiders they’ve lured into her building, or they can slip out the back and rejoin us.”

“Its a good plan, Ah reckon we’ll get at least ten or fifteen of’em like this, maybe more dependin’ on if we can shoot a few of’em from th’ buildin’s. Only thin’ botherin’ me is this plan depends on them raiders chasin’ after Wild. What if they don’t and all stay back ta fire on us?”

“Then we’re in defendable positions from where we can pour fire down onto them. If things start looking bad we can fall back into town and perhaps draw some of them with us, giving the survivors some breathing space,” I answered, darting around a flaming piece of debris that had managed to find its' way into the middle of the street. “I know the plan isn’t perfect, but I think it’s our best chance at saving these ponies.”

“Good enough for me. If th’ survivors got any ammo left from all th’ fightin’ they’ve been doin’, Ah reckon they’ll more than happily take a couple shots at any raider comin’ outta cover.” Stone drew up alongside me, his ears laid back atop his hat as it rustled about in the wind. “Ah’ll be goin’ with Wild of course ta th’ first buildin’,” he added, and by the tone he used it was clear this was not up for discussion. I glanced over to my friend.

In truth I’d rather have him in the second building. He was the best shot we had, and up on a second floor he’d likely pick off a half dozen raiders all on his own. He could do the same from the first building, but if Balefire was right, the others may hang back and shoot at us. However, I had half suspected going into this that he’d refuse to leave Wild’s side. Especially knowing she’d be unarmed for the beginning of my plan. I supposed there was no pony better to watch her back... and I really wasn’t going to change his mind at any rate.

“Alright, that’s fine, Stone. Wild, Balefire and yourself will be in the first building. Carrion, Spirit, and myself will take up position in the second.” I looked back ahead of us and flicked my ears back. The street was blocked by a pair of broken wagons turned onto their sides. Somepony had likely set them up as a hasty barricade to slow down the raiders. All around them were signs of heavy fighting; spent shell casings, empty glass bottles (which had likely been filled with health potions), and the still bodies of a couple of raiders lay about the wheels and on the sides of the wagons. From beyond them, we could hear the sounds of a large number of ponies. I could see the red and green dots more clearly. My original number of raiders had grown from thirty to closer to forty.

“That’s gotta be town hall there,” Wild whispered as she dropped from the air to land on the ground. She moved up between Stone and myself to point it out. She didn’t need to bother, as even without the orange hoof raised beside me, I could clearly make out that this was an important building.

While none of us could see the lower floors, what we could see was impressive for such a small town. The corners of the building were made out of the same dark brown and red stone I’d seen throughout the wasteland, while the walls themselves were made of brick. It reminded me of the bank in Tombstone, thought it lacked the pillars that lined that building’s front. The windows were arched and outlined in white stones or bricks. Like the wagons that separated us from it, the building bore the marks of fierce fighting.

Bullet holes pot marked the building’s stone work, leaving small to large holes all across it’s once smooth walls. Those windows I could see had been hastily boarded up from inside with whatever the ponies had at hoof. In some cases, it appeared fortune had been pushed against them in an effort to keep the raiders out. There were still a number of small openings near the bottom or sides of the windows for those inside to fire. If the size and grandeur of the building wasn’t enough to mark this as town hall, then the radio tower atop it would be. Or rather, the remains of a radio tower. One of the raiders had gotten a lucky shot with something heavy and had blown the metal tower in half. The twisted remains were now hanging over one side of the roof. That would explain why they’d suddenly stopped transmitting their distress signal.

No one needed to point out the schoolhouse, the sound of a ringing bell solved that mystery. The small bell tower atop the building’s slanted room bore a number of bullet holes itself. As we slowly approached the wagons, another gunshot rang out and a new hole appeared in the tower. The round struck the bell, causing it to ring out harshly from the force. I heard the raiders beyond roaring in laughter as they toyed with their targets. At least the red dots around both buildings were outside, as best as I could tell with my E.F.S., and the green dots were all located inside.

Edging closer to the wagons, I pressed myself up against one of them and rose up onto my hind legs. I placed my front hooves on the wagon’s side to help myself balance. Beside me, my friends took up similar positions as they attempted to get a look at what we were up against. Before I leaned up anymore, I hurriedly reached up and removed my hat before poking my head up over the side and scanned the center of town.

The raiders had split into two groups, the first group had the majority of them with around twenty eight or so. They surrounded the Town Hall and had set up a crude camp of sorts in the street in front of the building. A number of cooking fires had been set up around ratty tents and a pair of wagons. My stomach twisted at the smell coming from those fires and the thought of just what they were eating. Worse still was the sight of bodies strung up on lamp posts along the side of the road, mutilated in any number of horrible fashion. Even worse, a few were still alive. Their pitiful whimpers and prayers for death were all but drowned out by the harsh laughter from their tormentors.

My eyes narrowed as I looked over the monsters that were once ponies and searched for any signs of black power armored raiders among them. Balefire’s comments in San Ponsisco made me wonder if we’d have to face one of them here. If they were indeed twisted Steel Rangers in those suits, then that could explain the raiders’ sudden use of tactics. Stories I’d read about the Rangers back in the Stable had made them out to be powerful warriors in mind and body.

Thankfully the search turned up empty. However, there were still a good deal of the spike armored variety, as well as a few with battered security barding from a number of different Stables judging by the numbers on some of them. At least those that I could still see the numbers, most were covered in filth.

The second small group of raiders had broken off from the main group and were milling around the school house, occasionally firing off their weapons into the thin wooden walls. Spirit had been right; the trapped ponies inside there would need our help the most. What little separated them from the laughing beasts was just wooden walls and doors. The only thing that had kept them alive thus far was the fact the raiders were only making half assed attempts at getting inside, seeming to enjoy mocking the trapped ponies.

Movement from my right drew my attention away from the raiders. Carrion was quietly making his way over to me, the ghoul rising up to peer over the wagon at my side. His orange eyes took in the scene quickly, before lingering on the ponies hanging from the lampposts. It likely reminded him of Kanter City as well. He was silent for a moment longer before he finally spoke, keeping his voice low due to the proximity of the raiders.

“There’s more raiders than you thought, but I take it you’re still set on going through with your plan?” When I nodded my head in response to his question, he snorted softly and looked back out to the street. “I thought as much. The buffalo was right, we need to get those raiders away from that school. I suggest we set Wild’s group up in one of the building to our right. Most of them looked to have been mostly residence, so any of them should have a number of doorways for me to rig up with trip wires.”

“We don’t need them all trapped,” I said, eyes going from the ghoul to the raiders near the school. One opened up with his assault rifle, laughing the whole time as the rounds struck the walls. Empty shells rained down between his hooves.

“No, but we’ll want at least the doors leading off from the path Wild takes rigged. Just in case these clowns try and get around in front of her.” He glanced towards our left. “The second building should be more straightforward, it looks like it was a store of some kind. I’d also suggest we use those nearest one another, that way if things go badly we can at least provide fire support for each other.”

A store meant fewer rooms to lay traps in, but fewer ways for the raiders to get at us. Both of the buildings he was suggesting were also two stories, so we could set up on the second floor and only have to worry about the stairs. That made me think of something else and I looked back over to the explosive making unicorn.

“We’ll need to check them for back doors, or another way out.” The last thing we needed was to get trapped in our own trap. I started to ask Stone to check the right building while I got the left, when the sound of hoof steps from behind us caught my twitching ears. I looked back, ready to bring Luna’s Ruse up, half expecting a raider to have come up around us. However, it was Balefire who came trotting out from the narrow space between buildings.

“Got ya covered, boss. Both buildings have another way out. The house has a back door that leads out into the next street over and the hardware store has a fire escape on it’s backside. It’s collapsed from neglect, but it’s done so by falling across the neighboring building’s roof. It should be strong enough to allow us to cross to the other building. From there, it’s a simple matter of working our way down the collapsed roof to the street below.”

“Alright. Lets get the explosives set up. I doubt the raiders are going to be patient for much longer.” With that, Carrion began trotting towards the home to our right, horn glowing as a number of things floated from his saddlebags.

I looked back towards Town Hall, which stood over the raiders’ camp. For a moment, I saw a white face appear in one of the upper windows. Only for a moment before it quickly disappeared back into the shadows.

Hang on, whoever you are... you’re not alone...

In the end, it took Carrion a little under an hour to finish rigging both buildings. We had enough explosives to slow, maim, or kill the raiders we were about to attract. I could hardly blame him for taking the extra time, as we were dealing with a few more raiders than any of us had originally expected to be going up against. Luckily for everyone involved, the raiders seemed content enough to simply torment their victims from outside the school house. It also allowed us time to find the best possible firing positions within our respective buildings for the coming fight.

The building that Carrion, Spirit, and I had taken up position in had indeed been a hardware store as Balefire had said. It still was judging by the merchandise on display downstairs. Shelves of old tools, parts for houses and wagons, along with bits of junk lay scattered about the store beneath our hooves. There were also a number of mines, trip wires, and other hazards mixed in with all those things. Even more, so was the front door and the stairs leading up to the apartment Spirit and I was sitting in.

Like many of the other stores I’d seen throughout the wasteland, it seemed the shop owners here (both the original builder of the store and the current one) made their home on the second floor. I suppose it made better sense than using the room for storage, seeing how many of the shops I’d been in had back rooms for that sort of thing. Thankfully, they also made excellent places to shoot at raiders. As Carrion finished wiring the first floor, Spirit and I had rearranged the little furniture that was in the room. The nightstand, chester drawers, small writing desk, and trunk had all been pushed over towards the stairwell to offer us a bit of cover. While nothing could stop any high caliber rounds completely, it was better than standing out in the open yelling, ‘hey raiders, shoot me!’

As for the bed, it had been left where it was. It would block out the windows completely if we were to prop it up across them. I’d also scattered a number of personal effects across the top of it, taken from the items we had used for cover. Photos, odd little trinkets and the like lay upon the wrinkled grey blanket. I hoped the owner of those items would be able to reclaim them soon. I looked away from the bed and the random bits of a pony’s life, to the window I sat beside. For the third time in the past hour, I checked the iron sights of my newly acquired repeating rifle.

The weapon had been pulled from Stone’s saddlebags which he had in turn pulled from the dead hooves of one of the raiders at the breach. Like everything the raiders owned, it had seen better days a very long time ago. The wooden stock was cracked in a number of places and had a chunk missing from the underside. There was a good deal of dirt and rust all along the metal workings of the weapon, and strips of cloth had been wrapped about the barrel for some unknown reason. I finished looking the weapon over and turned it onto its’ side, inspecting the lever located just in front of the firing bit.

Like the bolt action rifle, the lever action rifle was one of the older styles of firearms found in the wasteland. At least according to Stone, that pony knew his guns. Unlike a bolt action rifle, the repeating rifle worked by way of a lever that slid down and up by hoof. It had originally been made for earth ponies, allowing them to fire off a greater number of shots much more quickly than they could with a bolt action rifle.

At least, that’s what the history books say. After seeing what Stone could do with his bolt action... well, I wondered if he couldn’t out shoot a pony armed with this. Still, this would give me a bit more range over Luna’s Ruse. It also helped that it was a Winnychester rifle. A weapon seen in every western movie I’d ever seen in the Stable and written about any any number of novels. If anything was going to give me an edge in this long ranged fire fight, it’d be this gun. At least until they got close. I looked up from inspecting my new weapon as Carrion trotted up the stairs. Across from me, Spirit also regarded the ghoul as he crested the final step and looked over to us.

“That’s all I can do, short of bringing down the entire building on us and the raiders,” the ghoul said as he slipped his shoulder strap for his assault rifle up and over his head. “Balefire is going back over to let Stone and Wild know we’re ready.”

“How is his eye?” Spirit asked from where she sat upon the floor. After helping me move things about the apartment and checking her rifle, she’d settled down and attempted to commune with the spirits. At least, that’s what she had told me once when I’d asked her about it on the train trip from Tombstone to San Ponsisco.

“I think he’ll be able to see out of it just fine... Stone held back a bit,” was the answer, followed by a chuckle.

Balefire had the misfortune of being in the room while Wild had been removing her armor and battle-saddle. Unfortunately for him, one of the buckles on her saddle had become jammed. In attempting to free it, the mare had bent forwards. I supposed that wouldn’t have been so bad, if she hadn’t flicked her tail in annoyance and exposed... well... Stone wasn’t happy about the young unicorn’s sparking horn.

“Got anything left?” I asked, changing the subject and waving a hoof towards my friend’s notably flatter looking saddlebags.

“I saved a few trip mines in case we need to bug out quickly.” His horn glowed brighter as he levitated three clips from his bags, placing them upon the window ledge he would be shooting from.

“A wise precaution,” Spirit added, picking her rifle up from where she’d laid it up against the window. the buffalo looked from us to the street below the building and frowned. “It would seem you also finished your task at just the right time. The raiders seem to finally be preparing to take whoever hides within the school house.”

Both Carrion and I quickly looked out our respective windows to the faded red building across the street. Spirit was correct, and judging by the half dozen raiders climbing the school’s steps, they were about to force them open. I frowned and flicked my ears back in worry. Wild was supposed to wait ten minutes once Balefire returned before stepping outside. It was supposed to allow everyone time to get into position for the coming fight... but now it seemed likely to doom the two ponies hiding within the school.

“If we open fire now, they’ll rush us first. There’s not nearly as many explosives between us and them as there is between the others and them...” Carrion had likely noticed my worried look, and quite correctly guessed what I’d do to stop those raiders.

He was right of course. The building we’d picked had fewer rooms in it than the home Wild and the others had taken position in. This meant that the raiders would have only one way to go to find us. Up the stairs, behind the shop’s counter. The home, meanwhile, had a number of rooms all leading off to others with the stairs to the second floor located near the rear of the house. They’d be forced to search for the way up, and would set off more of the traps.

“Dammit,” I swore softly, eyes fixed on two raiders as they made their way up to the school’s small porch and finally up to the double doors. The larger of the pair, an earth pony stallion, who was so covered in scars and filth that I wasn’t sure if his coat was red or brown, approached it first. He began pounding his large hoof upon the door, causing it to shake visibly from the impact. The smaller, another earth pony sat down beside him. The fellow had a slight twitch to him, and wore a manic grin upon his face. Like the larger stallion, he was covered in scars that looked more self inflected than random... I was sure if they had been from fighting, that the end result would not spell out ‘fuk u’ across his side.

They both laughed as the larger raider called out for whoever was inside to open up, that ‘they just wanted to talk.’ Yeah right. I glanced down to the clock on my Pipbuck’s screen and saw only a couple of minutes had passed while we’d been watching. Looking back up, I saw both raiders had gone from pounding on the doors with a hoof to pushing themselves up against the entrance. Neither of the doors moved much, and despite the abuse the raiders had inflicted upon them, they thankfully remained outside. I watched worriedly as the larger of the two lifted a hoof and shoved his smaller companion back towards the steps. He seemed ready to decide on a new course of action on getting inside.

Turning around, he looked back over his shoulders at the doors and gave them both a hard buck with his hind legs. The wooden barriers shook under the strike, but remained shut. The raider narrowed his yellowed eyes upon the doors and bucked again... and again. Stubbornly the doors held their ground, though I began to see cracks running out from where his large hooves struck. As he hit it once again, I began to see sizable splinters falling off the damaged sections. This only seemed to make the raider all the more angry. He stomped his foreleg hard into the porch, punching through the wooden boards completely. The raiders watching from out in the street began booing and jeering the huge pony, further angering him as he attempted to extract his foreleg from the porch.

Meanwhile, the smaller raider made his way once more back up onto the porch. Moving around his angry friend, he trotted over to one of the windows to peer inside and see what was blocking their path. His tattered ears stood upright as he turned his head this way and that.

Come on... just a couple more minutes. I brought my rifle up to bear on the raiders below, aiming for the large earth pony as he extracted his hooves from the hole on the porch. The barrel of my rifle pressed against the window ready to fire. We didn’t want to risk the raiders hearing us breaking the glass out since we had no way of keeping all the pieces from falling down onto the street below. Granted, the raiders were making a lot of noise, but we didn’t want to risk it. We’d also been forced to give up opening them after spending ten minutes failing to so much as budge them. Time or paint (or perhaps both) had sealed them shut long ago. I suppose there was little reason for anypony to want to actually open the windows. The fresh air of the wasteland smelled either of smoke, death, or dust and likely had trace amounts of radiation mixed in with it.

As I sat watching, the shorter stallion was squinting his eyes to see past the grime that covered much of the glass panes. Rising a hoof up over his forehead, he looked about the room beyond before his ears sprung fully upright in alarm. A second later he jerked his entire body back and narrowly avoided a bullet that shattered the glass pane. The round got the jeering crowd’s attention and a couple of the crazed ponies actually ducked down to avoid getting hit.

“Th’ bitches are armed and they got th’ door barricaded from th’ inside!” the short raider yelled. He picked himself up from where he’d fallen over in his haste to avoid getting a bullet to the brain. Meanwhile, the gunshot had attracted a fair amount of attention. Raiders, who’d been busy in their camp, began coming over to investigate with their weapons drawn. The new comers, however, came to a halt when a mare screamed out in terror. I admit I jumped in surprise and, judging by the sound of dropped clips, Carrion did as well.

Shifting my position, I pressed myself more closely to the window and attempted to see just who had made that noise... what I saw made me thankful I’d not been living next door to Stone and her for the past two weeks.

Wild stood several feet from the front porch of the home she and the others had set up in. The pegasus mare was devoid of her black Enclave armor and the large battle-saddle she always seemed to have across her back. The mare’s wings were spread open wide, in what I’d come to understand was fear, and her stormy blue eyes shifted about wildly as she took in the large group of raiders before her. Her ears flicked backwards and she tucked her tail between her hind legs. It definitely would be seen as a classic display of fear for any pony. The glance towards my window, followed by the cocky smirk and wink would dash those thoughts... if the raiders had bothered to see it.

They were far too busy looking at a unarmed single mare and, in their minds, just asking for their attention. As she turned to flee, she hiked her tail and all but flashed herself at the group of stallions. I wondered if they’d even manage to reach the traps Carrion had set up for them, or if Stone would punch them all to death first.

I quickly lost sight of Wild as she slipped past the range of my window and hurriedly looked back towards the raiders. Oddly, they seemed a bit dumbfounded by this... at least for a few seconds, before the large buck who’d been attempting to force the schoolhouse doors open all but ran over his shorter companion to give chase.

And that was all it took, as the herd of raiders let out a shout of approval and began following after the larger stallion. They fired their weapons into the ground, the air, the buildings around them, and in one case their fellow raiders. I had already begun counting them as they followed after Wild. Five, six, eight... a couple more and we’d open fire. We didn’t want the others getting swamped in raiders.

As my weapon tracked over the eleventh raider, I narrowed my eyes on him and pulled the rusty trigger of my rifle. I felt the weapon buck in my teeth as the round was flung rapidly from the barrel. The glass panel I’d pushed the muzzle against shattered out, sending glass shards flying as the snub-nosed 30.30 round flew through the air. I loosened my grip on the firing bit and brought my right fore hoof downwards, working the lever action of the rifle to chamber a new round. As I did, the first spent casing flew out of the ejection port. It spun past my right eye as it dropped towards the ground, landing with a soft clatter even as the bullet struck my target.

A raider stumbled among the group, a hole blown through his shoulder and out the other side. He wasn’t dead. I’d missed my target of his lungs due to being unfamiliar with the rifle. Still, he was out of the fight, and would bleed to death if not helped. Behind and beside me, I heard two other weapons discharge as Spirit and Carrion opened fire.

Sighting down the barrel of my rifle, I saw Spirit’s shot strike the raider next to the one I’d dropped. While the round that her rifle fired was smaller and did less damage, it was still a hot piece of metal being shoved into flesh. The raider dropped to the pavement heavily as his right hind leg gave out on him. A moment later his head exploded in gore as Carrion swept the street below with point-tipped rounds of death. The raider I’d shot slumped backwards as rounds ripped across his flanks and neck. He staggered before striking a third raider who’d been forced to slow down around the two fallen bodies.

Firing again, I pumped the lever down and back up as the remaining raiders began turning towards us. My ears twitched towards the neighboring building where Stone and the others were. I thought I’d heard a small explosion, but over the sounds of gunfire and screaming I wasn’t sure. Some of the raiders below began returning fire on us, blowing out the remaining glass panes of the window I was firing from and forcing me to duck. I heard more rounds strike the sides of the building, most stopping in the aged wood, but a few higher caliber rounds pierced the walls and embedded themselves in the roof.

Bits of wood rained down on me as the bullets struck all around the apartment. A good number of the raiders, however, reached the door to our building and began pushing their way inside. That was judging by the red dots merging with the green of my friends. I rose up and began moving towards the stairs, as hoof steps pounded around the first floor of the store. I heard items falling off shelves as the raiders, in their hurry to get to us, bumped into them. It would be their doom.

Carrion had laid a trip wire across the front door. When it was opened, it would trigger a bundle of grenades he had taped together that were stuck on the shelf beside the door frame. The grenades of course were on a timer, only a few seconds, but it allowed a good number of raiders to pass by. The door would then become jammed in bodies. I had just reached the top of the stairs when the blast struck. Bits of wood, metal, and flesh exploded from the edge of the stairwell.

Like a young foal’s set of dominos, the blast set off a chain reaction that went from one end of the building to the other. Bodies were sent flying from the edge of the blast and struck the shelves of the store. In turn, it sent them toppling over onto other raiders seeking safety. Most of the shelves had been rigged with their own smaller explosives, which upon being disturbed began going off. A unicorn stumbled out of the smoke, his battered pistol floating beside him. He only had a second to look up at me before a mine removed his legs out from under him. I watched as he spun in the air, his limbs trailing blood as they dropped out of sight. Another pushed the screaming mess of a raider out of his way and snapped off a quick shot from his shotgun.

I ducked back behind the dresser we’d pushed over and heard buckshot ricochet harmlessly over the furniture. I came back up a moment later and quickly returned fire on him before he could get off another shot. My own shot was hurried and simply grazed his flank, but it was enough to make him move for cover. Behind him, another mine exploded which was followed by another, and another. Raiders screamed from below as they were blown to bits or lay wounded and were trampled by their fellows.

I felt no pity for them.

“That’s the last of the traps... we’re on our own!” Carrion yelled over his shoulder. The ghoul pony had somehow managed to keep track of the rapid blasts coming from beneath his hooves. He looked back towards the window he stood beside and fired his weapon on full auto. Spent rounds rained down onto the floorboards between his hooves.

A raider stumbled into sight from the first floor. His hind leg had been blown off and he looked a bit dazed. I brought my rifle up and fired quickly, striking him in the chest and dropping him to the floor among the other dead bodies.

I turned my gun as another raider rushed the stairs. Blood was running down his ears and nose from the force of the explosions. He held a woodcutting axe between his teeth and had a crazed look in eyes. I pumped the lever of the rifle, ejecting the spent round and fired again. Not bothering to aim this time as he was nearly point blank. The raider stumbled and dropped his axe upon the steps before falling dead across the desk.

Three more raiders appeared, mostly uninjured and likely entering in after all the mines had gone off. I ducked back as one unloaded his pistol up at me, peppering the body before me with rounds and splattering me with his blood. I was lucky he hadn’t shot me with something more powerful, as I doubt the raider’s body would have stopped the rounds. I heard them beginning to climb the stairs, even as another opened fire on me to try and keep me pinned down. I looked from the floor to the body and narrowed my eyes.

With a growl, I threw myself against the desk, digging my hooves into the floor as I began pushing it towards the edge of the stairs with my shoulder. The added weight of the raider slowed me down, but I was fueled by adrenaline now that the fighting had begun. Once the edge of the desk reached the stairs, his weight was his friends’ doom. The desk toppled over and began sliding down the steps, its’ legs shattering like twigs as it bounced down. The speeding piece of furniture caught the raiders below by surprise. It jerked to a halt about half way down, becoming stuck on a wall and the bodies of the raiders who’d gotten caught between it and the stairs. It hadn’t killed them, but then it wasn’t meant to do so. That job was for my rifle.

I entered S.A.T.S. and, despite being slightly unfamiliar with the weapon I was using, I had a few factors on my side. First was the fact that two of my three targets were all but pinned to the walls and desk, rendering them immobile and increasing my chances of hitting them. Second, while it wasn’t a shotgun, the rifle worked closely enough that my skills with the other weapon seemed to translate well enough.

Still, it was barely above sixty percent chance of a hit, less for the target who was free of the desk. I lined up my shots on the raiders and made sure to give the lowest rating a double dose. Four shots, three raiders, with a sixty forty percent chance of hitting them. Releasing the targeting spell from my Pipbuck, I raised the rifle up and fired my four shots as quickly as I could.

The first blunt nosed round spun through the hazy air of the stairwell until it reached its target. The raider had attempted to dodge the desk by pressing himself against the wall as it passed. It would have worked too, if not for his spiked armor making it almost impossible to press himself up to the wall entirely. It was his own actions that had caused the desk to become stuck, as an edge of it pinned him by his flanks. His struggles ended as a bullet ripped through his exposed chest and was stopped from exiting by the armor he wore on his back.

Shot number two was fired after turning the barrel of my rifle over to the right. A raider was climbing over the top of the desk, a wickedly curved knife between his teeth and two pistols floating within his magical grip. The yellow glow around the guns winked out as a round struck him just below the chin. I’d missed his head by only a couple inches, but luckily the shot struck his neck and killed him, if a bit slower. The dagger he’d been holding between his stained teeth dropped out of his mouth as his lower jaw ceased to exist. The rusty, blood stained weapon clattered across the desk top until it dropped from sight.

Once more, I turned the rifle away from the soon-to-be corpse of a raider and towards my final target. Somehow, he’d managed to avoid the desk entirely, likely due to his companions slowing it down enough for him to outrun it. He stood up slowly from where he’d been kneeling behind the desk and brought a rifle up towards me in his mouth. I could see the trigger starting to pull as his tongue yanked back on it. Thanks to S.A.T.S., I managed to fire before him.

The third round left the barrel of my rifle and slammed into the raider’s chest armor. Somehow, it appeared to be in much better shape than the others. I noticed this as my first round was stopped by the thick metal plating, the bullet’s blunt nose giving it almost no armor piercing ability. The armor allowed him to remain standing mostly upright, and to finish pulling the trigger on his own rifle.

Still held within the grip of the magically aided targeting spell of my Pipbuck, I was unable to prevent what was about to happen. My hoof pumped the lever of my rifle, chambering the next and final shot. I lifted the weapon up to my shoulder, teeth sliding across the firing bit as the butt of the rifle pressed into my shoulder pad. Almost like a mirror image of myself, the raider did likewise. His yellowed, insane eyes narrowed upon me as he prepared to fire. I fixed my eyes upon the pony on the other end of the barrel and pulled back on the firing bit with my tongue. I heard and felt the trigger click, as the inner mechanics of the weapon triggered the round. Almost at the exact moment, the raider’s weapon jerked back as he fired at nearly the same moment.

The final round tore from my rifle’s barrel, literally. The weapon had already been heavily used and I suppose it was only a matter of time before it happened. It just chose a really, really shitty time to do it. As the rifle fired, the cracked wooden stock pressed hard into my armored shoulder and snapped in two. This put nearly the full force of the recoil on the firing bit and my teeth, which were raked hard by the metal bit. The feeling of metal harshly rubbing against one's teeth was hardly pleasant, but I had gotten use to it. Being an earth pony meant you got used to having to hold your weapons in your mouth. That included the unpleasant things that brought with it like recoil and misfiring. This however, hurt a lot worse than normal recoil, and I’d never had a weapon misfire before.

It felt as if a fellow earth pony had bucked me fully across the chest. I stumbled backwards away from the cover of the furniture set across the stairs. To sweeten that, I dropped the useless rifle to the ground, its’ barrel still smoking from the final shot. As I began to drop to my knees, gasping for air, my eyes went back towards the stairs where I could just barely see the remaining raider.

Despite the damage to it, my borrowed rifle’s final round still managed to strike its target squarely where I’d been aiming. The pony, who had foolishly been standing more or less out in the open while aiming his weapon towards me, was struck just above the armor that covered his chest. The blunt nosed round had buried itself into his unprotected flesh. He yelled out in pain and was pushed back by the force of the blow. His hind hooves slid over the edge of the steps and he fell back down them, hooves and tail flying as he rolled down them and out of sight.

Only after his red dot on my E.F.S. winked out did I allow myself a moment to check myself over to see how bad the damage was. With a grunt of pain, I lifted my right fore leg up and gently pressed my hoof lightly to the spot that the raider’s bullet had struck. I could feel the sizeable dent placed within the armored shoulder pad as my hoof shakingly traced over the crumpled metal. It’d saved me from a nasty wound that most likely would have crippled me, but in so doing, the pounding that the armor took had driven it right into my flesh. I imagined I had a sizeable bruise under there. At least no broken bones as the injury report from my Pipbuck normally threw up was noticeably vacant. I lowered my hoof back to the floor and painfully stood up on my injured limb. It could wait... we had ponies to save.

“How we doing, Carrion?” I asked through gritted teeth as I reached for Luna’s Ruse, still hanging about my neck. The rifle had been nice, its’ longer range a blessing in the opening of this fight, but now it was time for something I knew well. Something that wouldn’t fall apart in my face, or nearly take all my teeth with it. Something that, while lacking range, made up for it in brute force. As I moved, the armor over my shoulder rubbed into the flesh and caused me a bit of pain. Pain I would ignore though.

“It looks like Stone and the others are still with us,” the ghoul began. A quick check of my E.F.S. confirmed the fact as three green dots appeared to our right in the second building. “The raiders themselves have actually begun falling back to a couple overturned wagons between Town Hall and us. We also caught the survivors’ attention as they’ve begun firing on the raiders a lot more than they have been. They must have been conserving their ammo before.”

“And the schoolhouse?” I asked. I could already see a lack of red dots around the two green ones that had barricaded themselves within the small building.

“It’s taking the odd shot from the raiders, but for the most part they’re focusing on Town Hall along with Stone and the others.” The ghoul pony floated his assault rifle this way and that before finally lowering the weapon and flicking his ears back in frustration. Glowing orange eyes narrowed on whatever had caught his ire. “Damnit! I can’t get a target from here.” He stepped back away from the window and lowered his gun. The light from his horn grew brighter as he began picking up the spent magazines laying about his hooves. As the slender steel boxes floated up beside him, he began reloading them with spare rounds from his saddlebags.

“Nor can I,” Spirit added, having lowered her own weapon as she stared out her window. She too began reaching for the few spare rounds she carried with her. “I believe if you wish to save those within the schoolhouse, now would be an excellent time to do so. The raiders are distracted and we have cover from the others should that change.”

I limped over towards the window I’d been firing from before and cautiously leaned forward to look outside. Without the crusted over glass, it was much easier to see the street and buildings around us, along with the raiders still fighting. They had indeed erected a crude bit of cover for themselves, in the form of the two overturned wagons I’d spotted earlier near their camp. Judging by the red paint and bloody trophies that covered them, I imagined they belonged to the raiders. Below our building in the street were six dead bodies, blood and spent shell casings littering the pavement all around them. Even more had died below us in the building. Not a bad start to this fight.

“Shadow, you are injured.” I looked away from the street, to the buffalo who’d somehow managed to quickly and quietly close the distance between us. Spirit had likely noticed my limp as I’d walked past her, and the dented shoulder armor was also a dead give away. I waved her away, but the buffalo refused to do so until she’d at least inspected the wound. As much as I appreciated her concern, if I didn’t stop her, she’d likely have my armor off and wrapping the wounded shoulder up in a sling or something. While it’d help with the pain, we didn’t have time to mess with all that. The raiders could attack us again at any moment.

“I’ve had worse, Spirit. My armor stopped the bullet and nothing’s broken, it just hurts like hell. I’d rather not waste a health potion on a bruise. We can fix it up after this is done.” The medical buffalo looked as if she wanted to argue with me on that, but she finally sighed and nodded her head slowly. While she clearly wished to ignore me and treat the wound now, she knew I was right and resisted her urge. Instead, she withdrew a small syringe from her saddlebag and swiftly injected it into my neck. Immediately, the pain began fading as the Med X coursed through my system.

“That will help with the pain until we can attend to your wound.” She pushed the empty vial back into a pocket inside her saddlebag before returning to finish reloading her rifle.

I returned to scanning the center of town. Carrion was right, there was no way we could fire on them from here. Whoever was leading them had some basic knowledge of tactics, even if he didn’t have complete control over his troops. Stone had been right when he’d once said that raiders were little better than animals nearly all of the time. The wagons had been turned over in such a way that provided them maximum cover from our building. The action only exposed some of their number to the others’ weapons. The only real worry for them came from the survivors of the town. Their fire had indeed increased, but was nowhere near enough to drive them off. I could only imagine how little ammo they had left.

Looking away from where the raiders took shelter, I could just barely see the house that Stone, Wild, and Balefire had set up in. I could immediately see why the raiders were not worried about fire coming from my friends. From where I stood, I could see that the roof and bell steeple of the schoolhouse appeared to block nearly all firing lanes from the second floor of the home. This unfortunately allowed the raiders the option to ignore it almost entirely.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt to link back up with the others either. Both so we can figure out our next move and just in case those bastards decide to rush us again. Given how a raider thinks, that’s very likely. Without all those traps to slow them down, they’ll manage to overwhelm either building with sheer numbers unless we can bring a mass of fire onto them.”

He was right once again. The traps he’d set downstairs had saved both groups’ lives by stunning or killing the raiders rushing inside. It had made the job of killing those that survived almost too eas... the armor over my shoulder brushed against me again and I decided not to finish that sentence. Still, without them to even the odds, we’d be as good as dead. I suppose that was why Carrion had climbed to the rank of Lieutenant.

I nodded and turned away from the window, to begin slowly trotting across the room towards the bed and the window beside it. Smashing my hoof into the window while shielding my face with my other foreleg, I watched as shards of glass rained down onto the floor before me. As the last piece settled, I lowered my leg and stared out onto the fire escape. At once, I noticed a problem that Balefire hadn’t. While it had indeed broken away from the store, and lay half atop the roof of the building next to us, it still looked good enough to support us... at least ponies. There was no way the much larger and heavier buffalo would ever manage it... there was also the problem of the window.

“It would seem Balefire did not take into account my larger size over that of the average pony,” Spirit said as she approached where I stood. She eyed the small window and the rickety mass of rusted metal bars. “Nor would it seem wise to trust the fire escape with my greater weight.” A piece of the support bar gave a small shudder and broke off, as if just looking at the thing was enough.

“It should be safe to leave the way we came in. The fire escape was mostly there should we need to make a hasty retreat,” Carrion called out from where he busily stood reloading his weapon. The steady click of rounds sliding into magazines could barely be heard over the sounds of gunfire coming from the street beyond the windows. The raiders seemed determined to kill the survivors for some reason or another... though given these were raiders, that was likely the reason. Just to kill somepony.

“A good thing we did not have to use it then.” Spirit turned away from the window and began eyeing my shoulder once more. A frown formed on her snout as she saw me shift my weight on my forelegs a bit. “I do wish you would allow me to treat you, but I understand that time is a factor.”

“It is indeed, enough ponies have already died due to wasted time,” I said, looking away from the window and back across the room towards the top of the stairs and the makeshift barricade we’d set up. It would need to be moved before we could more easily make our way down the steps. Spirit followed me to the stairs and, seeing what I was doing, began helping me to push the furniture away from the stairs. It would have been painful work given my shoulder, but thankfully the Med X continued to work its’ magic.

I moved over to the final piece, the heavy chest of drawers sitting on one side of the stairs. Turning to the side, I pressed my unwounded shoulder to the thing and began pushing it towards the side. However, it seemed to resist moving from its’ new home. With a frown, I dug in my rear hooves into the floor and pushed more firmly against the stubborn piece of furniture. Still, it refused to budge and by now I had sweat running down my forehead and around my eyes. Finally, I stepped away from the heavy thing to wipe my foreleg across my face.

“As soon as you're both ready, we’ll work our way over to the schoolhouse by circling around Stone and Wild’s building. We’ll collect the two survivors from within and fall back to the others,” I said as I prepared to give the drawers another shove. Before I did so, Spirit stepped between me and it.

“A sound plan,” Spirit added as she easily shoved the heavy chest of drawers away from the steps with her horned head. “I am sure you loosened it for me.”

I sat my rump down upon the floor and arched a brow towards my large friend. She had turned away to look over towards Carrion. For a moment, I could almost swear I’d seen a smirk pass across her face as she said that. Wildfire was likely to blame for that... she corrupted everyone around her. I chuckled softly and shook my head before looking over to Carrion as well. He was just finishing up his preparations on leaving. Four reloaded clips floated across his body and slipped into two small pouches along his chest. He glanced up towards me.

“Indeed so,” Carrion said as he shut his saddlebags and slipped the final reloaded magazine smoothly into his assault rifle. The slide of the weapon was pulled back as he chambered a round and turned his glowing orange orbs upon us. “The sooner we move, the better. Raiders can’t focus on anything for very long.”

“Alright, let’s move.” I rose up from where I’d been sitting and began descending the stairs. Spirit and Carrion fell into step behind me.

“Just try not to harm yourself again,” Spirit suggested helpfully, to which I simply rolled my eyes. As we neared the lower stairs, she gave them a questioning look. The spilled blood of the raiders had now stained them. “I would suggest we be careful upon leaving this floor. A raider may have survived the traps set for them below and may be awaiting us.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Spirit. According to my E.F.S., it’s pretty clear around us as far as I can tell,” I answered, working my way carefully down the steps. While I wasn’t worried about raiders suddenly popping up from the shadows, I was worried about slipping in their fluids.

“E.F.S.?” the buffalo asked as she followed me down the final few steps. Her brow arched a bit before I waved a hoof towards my Pipbuck. She nodded her horned head slowly. “Ah, yes I have heard other ponies speaking of the many abilities of the thing you call a Pipboy.”

“Pipbuck actually.”

“Again with the pony names for everything.” She shook her head and continued to follow me down. “I have often wondered why it is your people have taken to naming your cities after yourselves so much.”

“Hmm. I never really thought about it like that.” I looked about the first floor of the shop. Smoke rose from the dead bodies of the raiders, many of them missing parts of said bodies. It was a grisly scene, even considering what I’d seen them do to their prisoners. I pushed the body of a dead stallion out of my path and spared him no more of my time. Mourning evil ponies could be the job of somepony else. I wouldn’t waste my time on it, not while there were others I could still save.

Once we had our hooves on the first floor, we quickened our pace as best we could through the carnage of Carrion’s traps. The floor was littered with debris that had fallen from the broken shelves and displays that had once lined the store's walls and aisles. Among the scattered wares, lay the remaining bodies of the raiders, bits of broken glass, and metal parts laying across them. Our sudden increase in pace was brought to a near crawl by the sure amount of things littering the floor. Being in the lead, I managed to make my way towards the front of the store and the door more quickly than my friends. Or rather to the doorway, as the door itself was missing.

Looking through the open portal, I scanned the small covered porch. It was clear of any bodies, as the killing had taken place either within the building or on the streets beyond. The door itself was laying out in the street, broken into three pieces with shrapnel peppering the surface of each part. Leaning a bit more out from the doorway, I could once again see the barricade that the raiders had set up just down the street from us. It appeared nopony was looking our way for the moment. Their focus was upon the ponies firing down on them from Town Hall. It seemed they’d increased their efforts since we had joined the fight.

I was just about to turn away and check on the others’ progress, when a sudden increase in green dots began appearing in the corner of my vision. Looking back towards Town Hall, I saw no real change in the building itself. However, I could see a few more windows that had been boarded up were now uncovered and more ponies firing from them. This could be a problem if it drove the raiders back towards us before we were ready.

Although, that wouldn’t explain the new friendly signatures my E.F.S. was picking up, as those within the building showed up more or less as a large green dot. Movement from just down the street from the hardware store caught my attention and I quickly focused my eyes upon a narrow alleyway running between two buildings.

A small group of ponies moved into view, using the building on their left as cover from the raiders clustered not far away. My ears perked upwards as I focused on these newcomers, quickly looking them over. There was six of them as far as I could see, four mares and two stallions.

Only two of the newcomers seemed to be wearing any sort of armor. They wore a mish mash of combat armor and security barding, along with a few hoof-made pieces. All of it was well worn and heavily scarred with recent combat. However, they lacked any signs of belonging to raiders. I’d seen everyone from town guards to mercenaries wear armor similar to this, so I wasn’t sure what to make of them. The four unarmored ponies, however, seemed to be looking to these two for leadership. They followed their whispered instructions on where to stand and when to move. They weren’t likely mercenaries then, unless they’d been working with the townsfolk closely for a while. No, it was more likely they were members of the town's former guard or police force.

I hurriedly looked over their weapons next. All six ponies were armed with a variety of weapons; from pistols and shotguns to rifles and even what looked like a homemade gun of some sort held by a mare. It was the two armored ponies who seemed to be carrying the far better maintained weapons. Likely the townsfolk had taken whatever weapons they could when the attack started, while the guards had already been carrying their weapons.

As Carrion and Spirit at last reached me, I was about to point out the little group of ponies to them. However, one of the mares in the group looked over towards me. The light blue coated mare’s purple eyes widened in shock upon seeing me. I saw her mouth start to open to call out to the others. However, she quickly thought better of it and instead began jabbing her hoof into the shoulder of the nearest pony, which happened to be one of the guards. The guardpony, also a mare, turned around to see what had the other in such a panic. When the first pointed a hoof towards me, the guard looked and blinked in surprise. Rather than shock or fright though, an almost relieved smile spread across her face.

“If we’re going to link up with Stone and the others, we better get moving while those raiders are distracted. Those ponies in Town Hall are really pouring it on for some reason,” Carrion called out from behind me. I looked away from the new comers to my undead friend.

“We’ve got us some company... the good kind for once.” I sidestepped from where I’d been standing, across the doorway and to the other side to make room. Carrion quickly moved up to where I’d just been standing and poked his head around the doorframe. His orange eyes landed upon the two mares looking towards us and the hardware store. His tattered ears shot upright and he looked over towards me.

“Where the hell did they come from? I thought they were all in Town Hall.”

“They’ve likely been hiding somewhere on the other side of town from us, out of range of my Pipbuck’s E.F.S.,” I answered ears flicking a bit to the side as I thought about it.

“So, your ‘Pipbuck’ is not infallible then?” Spirit asked. I had the feeling she already knew the answer and was simply making a point.

“Regardless, we need to contact them before we stir up the raiders.” I continued glancing over to the buffalo who merely stared past me out into the street. A second later, she lifted her hoof up towards the doorway.

“I believe they have that taken care of,” she said simply and I followed her hoof out to the street. Hugging the light blue mare, the armored mare pulled away and gave a last look towards the raiders before she darted away from the others. It was clear she knew the town well. Her path took advantage of every bit of cover she could put between her and the raiders, to hide her approach.

As she drew closer to us, I began taking in a few more details about her. What I could see of her coat, under the mostly black combat armor, was a light grey color. It was far lighter than Stone’s, and looked almost silver in the light of a nearby fire. She was a unicorn, her spiral horn rising up from between the uneven bangs of her mane. Both it and her tail were cut shorter than most mares I’d seen. Likely it was to keep out of the way while fighting. Both were royal blue with lighter blue stripes through them. A sudden turn into the cover of a building’s steps gave me a look at her flank and the cutie mark there. A single starburst with a blue circle around it.

Like us (and any wastelander according to what I’d both seen and been told) she was loaded down with weapons and gear. Strapped across her armored chest was a small semi-automatic pistol. Nothing as powerful as the Raging Buck judging by its mouth grip, but a good sidearm should she need it. On the other side of the pistol was a long bladed knife, down low enough to allow her to draw it with her mouth if she needed. Across her neck was a zebra style assault rifle, with a cherry wood stock and black metal finish. Like Carrion’s, it showed signs of heavy repair and customization. The sickle style magazine was wrapped in red tape for some reason, as were a few of the clips hanging from pouches across her body. What was most surprising was what she was wearing on her left foreleg: a Pipbuck.

When she suddenly stopped moving I looked away from her equipment to see what had happened. It became clear as I took in her surroundings. There was an empty lot between the building she was hiding beside and our’s. I looked off towards the raiders, seeing their focus had not changed, then back to the mare and arched a brow. She’d lowered her forelegs down and kept her hindquarters up... wait... was she getting ready to...

Looking over to the others, I noticed I seemed to be the only one left standing in the doorway. Spirit had taken a number of steps back the way we’d came. Carrion was pressed up against the wall beside the door, assault rifle floating beside him and ready to fire. Hurriedly, I stepped back just as the sound of hooves kicking off against the pavement came from outside. The mare dove in through the open doorway, ignoring the steps and porch completely in her mad dash to cover. She likely wasn’t expecting the store to be in its current state as I saw her purple eyes widen and heard a soft yelp of surprise as she sailed past me. This was followed by a crash as a body struck said mess.

I winced and looked back towards the doorway, where Carrion had already returned to his previous position. His eyes were no doubt fixed upon the raiders.

“Doesn’t look like they heard her,” he said. I doubted they would over the sound of so much gunfire.

Confident we weren’t about to be rushed by the remaining raiders, I turned around and looked for our new comer. She’d somehow managed to land on something soft rather than the sharp jagged tools and assorted junk that was once for sell in the store. The only problem was the soft thing that had broken her fall was the body of a dead raider who was missing all four limbs. Most of his blood had also drained out across the floor.

A bit dazed, the mare shook her head slowly to clear it before she noticed just where she was, and what was under her. She all but lept off the raider as if he was on fire and stumbled back several steps before regaining her balance. Her eyes dropped to the red stains covering her armor and coat, making a disgusted face. She hurriedly wiped a hoof down her armored chest, leaving a red smear in its’ wake.

“Are you alright?” I asked, taking a few steps towards her to help steady her. Her ears perked up at my voice and she quickly turned away from the body and towards me. She took a moment before answering to scan my face and armor.

“I’ll live, it’s not the first dead body I’ve seen this week,” she answered finally. Her eyes stopped for a moment on my Pipbuck before returning to my face, a questioning look in her own. Whatever she was thinking, she kept to herself and instead looked over to the two others beside me. “Is it just the three of you? I thought I’d seen more...”

“No, there’s more. The others are in the home across the street from us,” I answered, indicating the direction the others were before getting to the introductions. “My name is Shadow, and these are my friends: Carrion and Spirit Walker. The ones across the street are Stonehoof, Wildfire, and Balefire. We picked up your signal in San Ponsisco and flew out here as quickly as we could to help.”

“My name’s Silverluck... and did you say San Ponsisco?” I nodded and a small smile appeared on her lips. “So Jinx really did see a sky chariot fly over the town...” the mare muttered to herself before she addressed us once again, “I was beginning to think the Confederacy was going to leave us to die, like some of the others had been saying.”

“Well...” I looked back to Carrion and Spirit for help. However, it looked like no help would be forthcoming. The buffalo’s face was once more unreadable, as she looked over towards Silverluck and I. Carrion merely grunted and shook his horned head before turning away. He once more focused his attention out across the street, intent on keeping an eye on the raiders. As I turned back to the mare, I saw her ears once more wilt and a slight look of worry cross her face. It soon replaced the smile and relief that had been there moments before.

“You mean... you're really it?” she asked, “Just the six of you?”

“Well, I suppose when you put it like that it sounds bad,” I said, feeling a bit under appreciated here. “But I believe we’ve more than made up for the lack of reinforcements.” I waved a hoof about the store and our recent victory against the raiders. Once more the mare’s facial expression changed rapidly from worry to one of shock as she took in the carnage all around her.

“Sweet Luna’s horn...” she muttered, “You three did all this?”

“Yes we did, with a little help of some well placed explosives and a bit of planning ahead.”

“Planning ahead? Since when?” Carrion muttered from the doorway. I shot a glance towards the ghoul, who pointedly ignored the look as if he’d not said anything.

“There looks to be a dozen raiders in here...” she said aloud, carefully stepping over a hoof. “More or less.” She looked away from the blood splattered walls and floor to me. “I was wondering where the rest of the raiders had gotten off to... wait, you said there were only six of you?”

“Yeah, there’s just six...”

“Then who’s in the schoolhouse?” She lifted her foreleg up and showed me the soft green glowing screen of her Pipbuck.

“I have no idea who’s inside. We thought it was some of the locals who’d managed to hide out when the attack began. Whoever they are, they risked their lives to let us know someone was still alive within the town when they started ringing the bell.” A bell that had finally gone silent I noticed.

“Jinx was trying to convince me she’d seen your chariot when we heard the school bell ringing ourselves from the cellar we’d taken shelter within. As the others and I got closer to the main street, I began picking up friendlies away from Town Hall. At first, I was worried the raiders had captured somepony. When we didn’t see anypony being... well, you know... in the streets, we started thinking somepony had actually come to help us.” She looked us over again before glancing towards the doorway. “I suppose it could be somepony from town who’d escaped the raiders... I don’t know... everything just went to hell in a handbasket so quickly...” She shook her head and ran a hoof across her face. “Look... there’s maybe around twenty or so raiders left out there. They’re bunched up pretty good behind those wagons and I can’t get a good count on them.”

“Neither can I.” I lightly tapped my own Pipbuck and she smiled a bit.

“Never thought I’d meet another Stable pony out in the middle of nowhere.” She smiled towards me before returning to the matter at hoof. “We need to finish this, and soon. We don’t have a lot of ammo left, and I can’t imagine those within Town Hall do either. The raiders took the police station before we could really get much of our reserves out.”

“Do you have a plan?” I asked. It was her home after all, and she may know of a way to quickly end this. She shook her head, however, and dashed those thoughts at once. I sighed and nodded my head, she continued on.

“Sorry, we’ve been running for the past couple hours... I haven’t given much thought to retaking the town while focusing on keeping us all alive. I started with eight ponies...” she looked away and I placed a hoof upon her shoulder gently.

“I’m sorry...” I offered quietly before looking away from Silver and back over to Carrion and Spirit before continuing. “We were just getting ready to rescue whoever is in the school before we spotted you. Afterwards, we’re going to regroup with the others and try to plan something out to take out those remaining raiders. You're welcome to join us. I doubt the raiders will attempt to take Town Hall now that we’ve bloodied their snouts.”

“Alright, sounds better than just shooting them in the backs and hoping we kill them all before they kill us,” Silver answered. “But then, Buckshot’s never had a lot of good ideas.” She chuckled a bit before looking back up and over to Spirit and Carrion. “And... just in case this all goes to shit... thanks for helping us.”

“You’re welcome, Silver, but it hasn’t gone to shit just yet.” I smiled to the mare and helped her stand back up, putting on my most confident smile. “We’ve killed twice our number already... what's a few more?”

“I suppose you're right.” She smiled back and nodded her head. “Alright, I won’t be long, we’ll need to cross quickly so they don’t...” Her words were drowned out by a sudden flurry of gunshots followed by a yelp of pain. The grey coated unicorn’s ears stood straight up and her pupils shrunk to pin pricks. “Jinx!”

“Shadow... I believe it’s all gone to shit now,” Carrion said calmly as Silver pushed her way over to stand beside the ghoul. I hurriedly turned back to look out through the doorway and felt my blood run cold at what I saw. The blue mare who’d spotted me originally was laying on the ground with a hoof over her right flank, blood running out from a gunshot. The armored stallion was firing off towards the raiders as two of the townsponies scrambled to drag the wounded mare back into cover.

“No! They shot my sister!” Before any of us could move to stop her, Silverluck took off running towards the downed mare. Jinx, if that who the blue coated mare was, was screaming at the top of her lungs as she was dragged back into the cover of the wall. A trail of blood spread out behind her. I was about to call for the others to give them covering fire, when a large brown shape pushed past Carrion and I and out into the street.

Spirit Walker had heard the wounded mare’s cries and her caring nature had gotten the better of her. Now, she was hot on Silver’s trail. The sudden appearance of the large, brown furred buffalo on the streets seemed to stun the raiders as their fire slackened off noticeably. A buffalo wasn’t exactly a common sight in the wasteland it seemed. They quickly got over their shock, however, as the fire began to increase once again upon the two females. Even from where I stood watching, I heard a round ping loudly off Spirit’s makeshift armor and swore loudly.

Looking away from the pairs’ retreating backsides, I saw six raiders rising up from behind their wagons and break from cover. Like any group of raiders they carried a mixed bag of weapons. Those with firearms continued to fire towards my friend and the guardpony. The raiders’ intent was clearly written on their twisted, leering faces. They’d spotted easy prey and were going to sate their bloodlust on them.

Yep... things have most definitely gone to shit... well, why the fuck not? It was what I did best after all...

“Change of plans, Carrion...” I said simply before pushing forward with all four hooves. As I began clattering across the porch, I heard the ghoul swearing about damned foolish heroics behind me. I raced after Spirit and Silver, catching the sound of Carrion’s hooves pounding across the pavement behind me.

As a round sped past my face, I brought Luna’s Ruse up from where it was slapping itself against my chest armor. Biting down on the firing bit, I turned the barrel towards the six raiders rushing to meet us and squeezed the trigger. I knew there was no chance of hitting them, due to the speeds we were all traveling. My snap shots were simply to try and slow them down. I’d barely taken two shots when the steady rhythm of Carrion’s assault rifle joined in. Red hot tracer rounds ripped across the narrow space between us and the raiders. A space that was rapidly narrowing.

I put everything I had into running as hard as I could towards the raiders, in the hopes I’d reach them before they got to the others. I risked a quick glance towards Silver’s group and saw that both she and Spirit had arrived. The kind hearted buffalo was already rapidly digging through her saddlebags, yanking out a health potion and some bandages.

Silver, meanwhile, was attempting to help calm her sister as she fired blindly at the approaching raiders. When Spirit passed her a syringe of Med X, she quickly plunged the needle into her sister’s flank, just above the wound. At once the screaming stopped and Jinx collapsed against her sister, sobbing quietly.

The rest of Silver’s group seemed about as even in their effectiveness. The other guardpony, the stallion who’d been firing before, now lay against the wall of the building and held a hoof to his neck where he’d been shot. His rifle held weakly in his mouth as he attempted to keep firing while the other stallion attempted to help stop the bleeding. The remaining two townsponies had taken up positions close to the wounded guard and were attempting to help drive the raiders back.

The older mare of the pair was missing badly with a hunting rifle that looked in as good of shape as a raider’s weapon. The second mare was quite a bit younger than the others around her. She was the one I’d seen earlier wielding the home made weapon. The gun was larger than the grenade launcher I’d ‘borrowed’ from a robot back near Steeldome, and looked cobbled together from any number of parts. Before I could ponder just what it did, the brown-orange coated mare clamped her jaw down tightly on the trigger and it fired with a loud snap. A spinning disk flew from the wide muzzle of the weapon, and sliced through the air... wait... was that a saw blade?

A moment later I had my answer, as the spinning disk slammed into the lead raider’s throat. The sharp thin piece of metal collided into the stallion with such force that it sent him tumbling backwards. As I looked more closely, I saw just how sharp that blade was. It had nearly severed his head from his body and blood was spreading out across the pavement. For a moment I’d hoped the raiders following might slip and fall in that pool, but they seemed familiar with having to avoid such things and easily avoided it.

We reached the group of survivors a second later, as did the remaining raiders. A crazed, wild eyed unicorn stallion came rushing towards me, his horn glowing brightly as he held both a pistol and a serrated knife in his magical grip, intent on murder. The pistol leveled itself at me and fired off a single round, the muzzle flaring with fire as the round tore free from the weapon. There was no time to dodge as I was still running towards them. Thankfully, my armor deflected the bullet away from my body and sent it downwards into the pavement near me.

I ignored how close I’d come to dying and lashed out with my left front leg, knocking the floating pistol away from me. At the same time, I brought Luna’s Ruse up to block the knife’s swing towards my face. The sturdy metal that my weapon had been made from easily halted the attack with a loud clank of metal on metal. The raider locked eyes with me as we stood close. I could see the madness in his, as he could see the determination in mine.

Nopony else was going to die here.

I quickly followed the blocked attack by swinging the barrel around to slam into the stallion’s face. He was a born fighter and killer, however, and saw the attack coming the moment I began turning my head towards him. He swiftly stepped back and avoided the blow before trying to bring his pistol back up towards me. His magic was already squeezing the trigger.

Narrowing my eyes upon the weapon, I moved quickly towards him and lowered my wounded shoulder to slam into his chest. I felt and heard the impact, as my armored shoulder knocked the air from his lungs. Foul smelling breath washed across my face as I pushed the raider away with my right foreleg. His balance off, he stumbled back a few steps, weapons already coming back to threaten me. He never got the chance. I turned my head back towards him, and squeezed the trigger.

No more.

Luna’s Ruse fired and the solid slug impacted the still dazed raider in the chest, just a few inches from his left shoulder. It was all but blown apart by the near point blank shot, the crude rusted armor doing nothing to stop the slug at this range. Blood, bone, and metal fragments scattered out from the wound. I was splattered along my chest, neck, and face with bits of my foe. His crazed eyes went wide for a moment before the twisted life within them began to fade.

He slumped to the pavement, blood gushing from the large hole where his left fore leg had been seconds ago. Now, his blood joined the spreading pool from the other dead raider behind him. I had no time to relax, as a second raider leapt across the fallen bodies. A massive earth pony swung an equally massive club towards my face. How something his size could move so quickly... but again, I found myself with no time to dodge and did the only thing I can think of. I brought my right foreleg up to block the downward blow. I knew it would break, but it was better a leg than a skull.

The end of the club came down hard on my leg, striking just below the knee and above my hoof... right across my Pipbuck. Sparks flew as the metal bits that had been driven into the wooden club impacted the metal casing of the old magical device. A Pipbuck was far more than just any magical device however. It was made to withstand a lot of punishment... including Balefire blasts should it come to it. Despite the force the raider put behind it, my Pipbuck did not break. I wish I could say the same for the limb inside.

Despite padding around the inside cuff of the Pipbuck, I still felt the strike through it and grunted out loudly as pain flared up in my leg and raced up to my shoulder. Alerts began flashing in the corner of my vision about a fractured leg bone, but I ignored them. I could be in pain later... right now I needed to fight.

I attempted to get some room between myself and the club wielding raider. Favoring my wounded leg as best I could, I backed away. I wasn’t going to be fast enough, however, as he was already twisting his head about to bring the club back down upon my head in what would be a killing blow. I doubted I’d manage to stop that with just my leg, even if I could get my Pipbuck to take the second hit. I brought Luna’s Ruse up and entered S.A.T.S. as it finally finished recharging.

In the familiarly almost frozen time state I found myself, I had the chance to more closely see my attacker. It wasn’t pretty. Like most earth pony raiders I’d had the misfortune to come across, he was larger than any other I’d seen. Larger perhaps than even Stone or Bright. It seemed a life of killing turned ponies into muscle bound monsters with a taste for pony flesh, if his sharpened teeth were anything to go by. His pale green coat was patchy and the pink flesh below was a mass of scars and sores. I doubted he’d feel much of anything really and this would be a problem. I wasn’t sure if Luna’s Ruse would have the power to knock him back... or even stagger him before he completed his downward swing. I was sure it’d kill him... but in time to save me, too?

Looking upwards, I eyed the club held in his rotting, yellowed teeth. It looked as if somepony had ripped a limb off a long dead tree and beat metal spikes into it. I suppose that very well could have been what had happened. The spikes had not been placed so that the pointy ends showed, but they had the large, rusted flat heads exposed. With the force of the swing, the weight of the club... they would cause massive blunt force trauma. The club WOULD crush my skull, I was sure of it, and likely my neck and chest. The club was the weak point... it was just wood and metal, something I could stop. If I was lucky.

Despite it taking a lot more from the spell to hit the fast moving object, I locked everything I had onto the club and offered up a prayer to Celestia that this would work before releasing the spell. I’d get only two shots. Time once more began to resume it’s normal speed and I felt myself already beginning to bring Luna’s Ruse upwards. Away from the raider’s body and to the long wooden stick he held in his mouth.

Luna’s Ruse shook in my mouth as I squeezed the trigger and fired the first shot. The slug spun slowly through the air as it approached the club half way between the top and the raider’s mouth. It barely missed, instead grazing the wooden haft on the very edge and shaving off bits of wood as it sped off towards the sky. I squeezed the trigger again with my tongue, and felt the shotgun buck once more as another slug left the barrel. This round sped towards its target and struck squarely where I wanted. The aged, wooden weapon shattered in the middle, sending splinters of wood flying off in every direction. Some pelted my face, leaving scratches and even sticking into my cheeks and along my neck, while the raider got the worst of it. A large piece struck him squarely in the eye and he yelled in pain.

“You fucking piece of shit!! I’ll gut you!! I’ll gut your family and friends!!!” the raging beast screamed as he opened his mouth and let the useless piece of wood fly towards me.

I hadn’t expected that, and the still heavy lower half of the club struck me in the cheek, knocking Luna’s Ruse from my mouth. The raider took several steps towards me, swinging his huge iron shod hooves towards me. I ducked the first swing, but my wounded right leg gave out. I fell to the bloody pavement within inches of landing atop the steel topped club head. Well, that would have been a shitty way to go after all the trouble I’d gone through to avoid it the first time. Hoofsteps near me prompted me to turn over and look, as the massive earth pony raged above me.

“I’ll feed you your own balls!! I’ll rip off your head and...” the raider screamed madly, spittle flying from his lips as he loomed over me.

“Eat your own goddesses damned head!!” I screamed back, grabbing up the fallen club head with my left foreleg and sending it towards his face. Much to my surprise and his, the heavy steel spikes that had been pounded into the wood struck him in the snout. I heard bone break as his nose shattered and he screamed even louder as the sizeable splinter of wood was shoved deeper into his eye socket by the club. He stumbled back and gave me room to move, but quickly reared up and attempted to stomp me into the pavement.

I rolled away as his hooves came down where my head had been, but I was struck by bits of broken concrete. As I rolled back onto my side, I saw I was just to the right of the frenzied raider. I clamped my teeth about the firing bit of Luna’s Ruse and brought the shotgun back up to fire. I didn’t need to worry about S.A.T.S. or aiming, as the raider was close enough and large enough not to miss.

Slugs flew from the weapon’s barrel towards the raider’s left side. I squeezed the trigger repeatedly, striking his flanks and eradicating the twisted cutie mark of a pony raping another (how do you even get that?!) The second and third shots hit him in his exposed underbelly, the most vulnerable spot on a pony. The slugs did horrific damage to his body, easily passing through his stomach and leaving large exit wounds on his right side. The fourth shot struck his left front leg and removed the limb from the knee down. That finally sent the raider crashing to the ground in a pile of gore and smoke, very much dead.

A grunt of relief escaped my lips as I looked back to see how the others had fared during the fight. Spirit had finished working on Silver’s sister and had moved on to the wounded guardpony. The light blue mare seemed calmer now that her life wasn’t flowing from her wound. Her sister was busy with the last of the raiders trying to attack them.

Silverluck was no stranger to hoof to hoof combat and seemed to easily avoid the larger pony’s wild swings. After another strike failed to land, the raider screamed in rage and threw himself towards the mare. This seemed to be what she’d been waiting for as her horn flared to life in a bright white glow that also surrounded the mouth grip of her pistol. It was pulled smoothly from its’ holster and leveled at the charging raider. Four rapid shots later and the crazed pony had been dropped, four neat holes through his neck and face. While we were clear for the moment, the overall fighting wasn’t over. A number of rounds striking near my hind quarters kindly informed me on that detail.

I quickly rolled over onto my side and pressed myself up against the only cover I had out in the middle of the street, the smelly hide of the large earth pony raider. I ignored the gore that matted my fur and smeared across my armor. I had more pressing worries than that. A quick glance to my E.F.S. told me we barely had a dozen raiders left behind their makeshift cover. Already that number dropped by one as the report of a rifle shot echoed out across the street. Looking off towards the buildings we’d recently been holed up in, I saw Stonehoof laying upon his belly atop the roof of the home that he and the others had been in. Balefire, meanwhile, was galloping hard across the open street to reach us. His revolvers blasted away towards the raiders’ overturned wagons. I saw no sign of Wild, and wondered where the pegasus had gotten off to. However, I soon heard her battle-saddle open up and the number of red dots in my E.F.S. dropped once more.

Twisting my head back around, I saw the fiery maned mare sweeping down low across the rooftops of Old Oaks. The barrels of her rifles blazed as she strafed the raiders behind their wagons. They had nothing to stop the rounds as they tore up the aged pavement and their pitiful armor. It truly was death from above. Seconds before she would have plowed into the ground, Wild flared her wings and pulled up, giving out a very excited, “YEEEEHAWWW!!” She then sailed over low over the panicking raiders’ heads.

It seemed to be the final straw for some of them, as five of them broke cover and fled away from the wagons and us. They galloped northward to the other side of the small town, trying to find better cover. The ponies within Town Hall raked them with unforgiving fire from their second and third story firing positions, though they only managed to drop two of the five raiders. Stone, however, made up for this and dropped another two quickly; one with a bullet through the back of the head and another with a shot to the neck. I doubted even an entire squad of trained soldiers with assault rifles could have out shot Stone.

I hurriedly ducked back down behind the dead raider’s body as a number of rounds struck the pavement and his armored side. The raiders still alive seemed to be firing at anything and everything now, their easy victory against a small town having turned into a horrible slaughter for them. Their already poor aim was further lowered by the fact they were panicking as it seemed likely they’d soon be dead. They were shooting everywhere, even in places where nopony was remotely visible to them. I snorted and flicked my ears back, feeling a bit of satisfaction at seeing raiders afraid.

“Shadow!” A voice called out from down the street we’d just recently charged up. Looking away from the raiders, I turned around just in time to see Balefire skid across the last few feet of pavement to come up beside me. “You look like shit.” Despite his words, he was grinning ear to ear at me as his horn sparked to life. A health potion floated up from his saddlebags and over to me. This time I didn’t argue at being given one and quickly pulled the cork free with my teeth. I chugged the thing down hurriedly and dropped the empty glass bottle beside me, relaxing as I felt my right leg begin to mend.

I rolled back onto my hooves once I was sure I could put some weight on my leg and peered across the dead body of the raider once again. Between Wild’s strafing runs and Stone’s sniping anypony stupid enough to expose themselves to his rifle, the raider numbers were shrinking.

“I think we should get into better cover, boss. I doubt this fellow can take much more,” Balefire said from beside me, before pulling his revolvers back out from the hostlers on his sides. After nodding to him, the young pony rose to his hooves and made a dash for the safety of the building. The raiders for the most part ignored him, focusing on firing off towards the orange mare flying over head.

I followed closely behind my young friend, ignoring the last lingering pains from my foreleg as the healing potion finished repairing the damage. Coming to a halt beside Carrion and Silver, I looked once more over towards the wagons and the remaining four raiders. Despite the fire, the remaining unicorns had managed to haul what was left of the second wagon over top them, giving them a bit of cover from Wild’s attack runs. Not by much though, the high powered rifles on her battle-saddle easily punched through the wooden bottom of the wagon. What wasn’t riddled with holes now had a number of saw blades sticking out from it. This fight seemed all but over now... it was only a matter of time before Wild shattered the raiders’ cover or Stone picked them off one by one. I dropped tiredly to the ground and ran a bloody hoof over my still aching shoulder. The shoulder pad was biting harshly into the flesh, making it tender despite the health potion and Med X.

“Hold your fire everyone... there’s no sense in wasting ammo,” Carrion said to the survivors beside him. “We have them as good as dead.” Smoke slowly rose from the barrel of his rifle as it was lowered down beside him. Those still able to fight, seemed to agree and did as he said. Even Silver and Balefire lowered their weapons. One, however, seemed unwilling to do so.

“They ain’t dead enough ta suit me...” the mare with the saw gun muttered from beside Balefire and I. I suppose she was old enough to be considered a mare, although she looked quite young. Perhaps younger than even my cocky, green coated friend. She was not one of the town’s guards, that much was clear by the lack of armor. She seemed more likely to be the town’s mechanic given her clothing. She was dressed in a faded pair of blue work overalls that had a number of oil stains all across them. There were also more recent blood stains mixed in with the oil. She was an earth pony, a bit taller and stockier than most mares, even for an earth pony. Her coat was orange, thought it was far darker than Wild’s and as oil stained as her clothing. Her mane and tail was blue green in color, fading lighter near the tips. Both were worn about normal length, though like the rest of her appearance, were also messy and oil stained. From where she stood, I couldn’t really see what her cutie mark was and instead looked to what she was carrying.

Beside the saw gun she reluctantly lowered from her mouth, I saw no other weapons on her. It was cobbled together from a number of parts. I saw everything from a small air compressor to a couple of spark batteries, seemingly held together by Wonder Glue and duct type. The only things she carried were a number of tools across her chest as well as a pair of aged saddlebags. She narrowed her light pink eyes upon the raider she’d killed before finally looking away and around at the others.

“I wouldn’t worry. Once Wild’s finished with them, they’ll be plenty dead,” Balefire spoke up to the mare with a grin. His red eyes shifted from the wagons to her, nodding his head towards her weapon. “That’s a nice gun you got there... never seen one fire saw blades before.”

“Ah reckon’ ya wouldn’t, seein’ how Ah made it myself,” the mare answered. A note of pride laced her voice, even as I could hear the anger at being unable to kill the raiders. I turned away from the pair, to check in the others.

Spirit had finished with the wounded guard stallion, who was laying against the wall of the building, drinking water with the help of one of the other mares. Silver sat beside her sister, holding onto her with her fore legs wrapped around her shoulders gently. I was about to ask her how we could contact the rest of her friends in Town Hall, when a mare’s fearful scream ripped across the street.

We all reacted and reached for our weapons, looking about us for the pony who’d just screamed. As I was scanning the nearby buildings, I saw something back the way we’d come and froze. Thick black smoke was pouring out through the shattered windows of the school house. The doors that had been whole at the start of this fight... another scream came from within the building and I saw two red dots on my E.F.S. mixed in with the two green. Shit! A pair of raiders had somehow gotten past all of us in the chaotic fighting and had managed to get inside the small red building. They would kill the two ponies inside without a second thought, likely just to get back at us...

NO!

“Shadow?” Spirit asked, looking up from where she’d knelt down beside the dark orange mare and wrapping a bandage around her left foreleg. She must have gotten injured during the fighting. The questioning tone in Spirit’s voice caught the attention of the others who turned away from whatever they’d been doing to her and finally to me.

Carrion stopped reloading his assault rifle and narrowed his orange eyes at the sight of me already rising up from where I’d dropped tiredly to the ground. I checked Luna’s Ruse again for how many rounds I had left..

“Fuck...” he growled out as he slid the empty magazine from his assault rifle and slid another in quickly. The swear earned a glance from Spirit, who was about to ask what was wrong. “He’s about to do something recklessly stupid,” was the answer he gave her.

“Doesn’t he always?” Balefire asked as he spun his revolvers in the air beside him, rising up to his own hooves to likely give chase.

“How do you...” she started to ask before I took off at a dead run towards the burning building and the screaming mare, “... never mind.”

Rounds almost at once began zipping past me as the raiders holed up behind their wagons likely thought I was either coming for them, or attempting to flank them somehow. I galloped hard towards the burning school, the raiders all but ignored as my focus was on the two ponies trapped inside. Plumes of dust and pulverized concrete rose up into the air all around my hooves as I pressed on through the incoming fire. The sounds of gunfire rose suddenly in volume and, for a brief moment, I thought I might be in trouble... at least until the amount of fire I was taking slacked.

I risked a glance to my left and saw the raiders forced back into their dark hole as rounds struck the wagons. Looking further back, I saw Carrion standing out in the street while laying down suppressing fire along with Silver and the wounded guard stallion. Balefire must have been following me, as he was some distance away from the others. He was forced into cover and was now emptying his revolvers into the wagons now as well.

Turning back around, I urged my tired limbs to go faster. My tail and mane flew behind me as I charged straight for the school house. I couldn’t go through the door, they might be waiting for someone to try and save the ponies inside. I’d have to find another way in. As I drew nearer, I saw my way in and turned towards it.

Nearing the porch, I used S.A.T.S. and snapped off a single round, blowing the guard railing away just in front of one of the windows. As my hooves reached the porch, I ignored the stairs and instead lept from the ground, kicking off with my hind legs. I flew through the air for a moment before coming back down atop the porch with a clatter of hooves. I heard someone from inside ask what the noise was. Using my momentum, I launched myself into the air once again and ducked my head as I flew through the window.

The remains of the window frame shattered and flew in with me, sending small shards of sparkling glass flying across the room and into the backs of two raiders cornering a pair of wounded mares. One of the raiders turned back at the sound of splintering wood and blinked in surprise at seeing me coming in through the window.

“What the fuc...” My fore hooves slamming into his back cut off the rest of his curse as he went down hard onto the floor under my weight. As he did, my legs buckled and I was sent tumbling to the ground myself. However, my training as a security pony and weeks of fighting all across the wasteland kicked in and I rolled with the fall. I didn’t get away clean though. As I twisted around to land on my right shoulder, I felt something pull and pain flared up through my limb. Still, I could fight through the pain as I’d had far worse. I came up before even the still standing raider had recovered from my sudden entrance.

“I believe you boys have earned detention...” The raider’s yellow eyes had only a chance to widen as I leveled Luna’s Ruse towards him. “... FOREVER!” The shot was almost point blank and, at this range, only power armor could have saved him. The crude, rusty scraps of flak armor he was wearing was little better than paper. It shattered as the round struck it, sending metal shards flying away from him as he tumbled backwards. Blood spurted from the hoofsized wound I’d blown into his body. He landed in a heap among the tables and chairs that had been piled up around the front door and lay still. By then, his buddy had gotten himself to his hooves and was charging towards me with what appeared to be lightning dancing across his hoof.

I ducked, trusting that it would be bad to get hit by a pony with a light show flickering across his fore leg. As I did, I noticed his leg was in fact encased in metal with a number of wires running along it from the hoof to the other end. A power hoof? That’d explain how they got into the schoolhouse and why dodging him was a very good idea.

I attempted to bring Luna’s Ruse up to bear on him, but he was far too close and I was forced to dodge once again as he swung once more for my face. He was a bit more skilled with his weapon than most raiders I’d seen. He knew he had to keep close and keep attacking my head. I’d be forced to dodge and twist my neck around to avoid the strikes, thereby throwing off my aim, an earth pony weakness when it came to using ranged weapons. I’d have to switch tactics with him.

I once more attempted to get some space between us. Once again he came in for a punch to my face, likely seeking a quick end to our fight. Again I dodged the blow by ducking beneath it, but instead of backing up as I had before, I moved forward. Tightening my grip on the mouth grip of Luna’s Ruse I rose upwards into the raider and brought the butt of my gun into his jaw. With a crunch of bone, the wooden stock slammed into his snout, sending a few teeth flying across the room. He grunted in pain, but held his ground, refusing to back up when that would give me room to shoot him. I expected as much.

Luna’s Ruse dropped from my mouth as I reared back on my hind legs and lashed out with my front. My hooves slammed into his chest and sent him backwards a bit from me. Letting gravity take over, I dropped back to all fours and lunged forward with my neck down and head out. I winced from the impact of my head against his bruised chest, but it further unbalanced him and he dropped onto his flanks. The power hoof he wore slammed hard into the wooden floor of the school house as he came down. Like the large brute of an earth pony earlier, his hoof became trapped within the flooring.

He was attempting to struggle back upright when I stepped back and lifted my left foreleg upwards. My knee struck Luna’s Ruse and sent the weapon up from where it lay across my chest. Clamping down on the firing bit as it came close to my mouth, I jerked it up into the raider’s face and narrowed my eyes as I pulled the trigger. His skull burst like a wet melon, splattering blood and bone all across the wall behind him.

Staggering back a few steps, I shook myself off and turned towards the mares hiding at the back of the room and their wide fearful eyes. I glanced down to myself, realizing I must have looked as bad as the raiders with blood matting down the fur on my neck and face, running down my armored chest and shoulder pads. My hat had fallen off somewhere in the fight, and my mane was a wild mess. I dropped Luna’s Ruse from my mouth gently, and held up a hoof towards them.

The older looking of the pair held a 9mm pistol in her mouth, the barrel of the weapon shaking wildly about as did the owner. She was a soft yellow colored earth pony with a green mane and tail. Her purple eyes were wide with fear as she kept the pistol fixed upon me. However, they quickly darted to the pair of raiders laying dead nearby. The younger pony, who was hiding behind the armed mare, wore a faded brown shirt with a number of holes in it where I could see her white coat. Her mane and tail was blue in color, and matted to her forehead and neck with sweat. Both mares were dirty and had a number of minor wounds over their bodies, but it looked as if nothing serious had physically happened to them.

“It’s alright... I’m here to help. Are you...?” I never got to finish as the sound of a pistol striking the floor rang out from where they’d been standing. The pair of young mares wrapped their hooves around me and began sobbing into my chest despite the stains. Blinking, I stood there and lowered my raised hoof down onto one the yellow coated one and gently stroked her messy mane. “It’s alright... it’s over now. You're both safe,” I said softly.

“They... they said they were going to kill us... after they... they...” she managed between sobs. I could well imagine what they’d said they’d do to two young mares.

“They won’t be hurting anyone else, ever again.” I held the two shiving forms against my chest and looked up to the two still bodies of the raiders. “Never again.” The sound of hoof steps rapidly approaching the front door drew my hard glare away and over to the faces of Balefire and Silver as they entered the school.

“Shadow? Everything alright?” my young friend asked as he leveled his revolvers down at the two bodies bleeding over the floorboards. After carefully looking them both over, he realized they’d not be causing us any more trouble and lowered his pistols. “I suppose you had it all in hoof then,” he said with a smile before noticing Silver walking past him.

“Honey?” Silver asked, her voice uncertain and flicking her ears to the sides in worry. Tears began forming in her eyes as she took a few steps closer to us, a hoof going up to her mouth. “Oh thank Celestia and Luna... it’s you...”

In answer to the name, the yellow mare who’d been holding tightly to me eased up and lifted her head upward to see who it was. Her purple eyes widened upon seeing Silver and she pushed herself away from me, taking a few unsteady steps towards the guard mare before calling out in question.

“Mom?” The name had barely left her lips when the older mare closed the distance between them and wrapped her daugher up into a hug, breaking down into tears.

Balefire smiled at the sight and slid his pistols back into their holsters before he began walking over towards me. I felt the other mare begin pushing away from my chest to see what was going on. Upon seeing her friend and mother, she broke away and rushed past Balefire to reach the two, throwing her hooves happily around Silver’s neck. The older mare was nearly pulled off her hooves by the sudden weight of another pony holding onto her. She blinked and looked over to see who it was, a smile forming on her tear soaked face.

“Rachel? Oh, your father’s going to be so happy to see you...” Silver leaned over and kissed the younger pony on her cheek. “Come on... I’m sure he’ll want to see you as soon as possible.” Without another word, the three began making their way out of the building, leaning heavily upon one another. As they left, another pony entered, folding her orange feathered wings across her sides. As she trotted up to us, a smile formed on her snout.

“Well, I see it’s how things normally end up around you,” she said, the smile turning into a familiar looking smirk. As I looked over my friend, I noticed she’d not come out of the fight unscathed. All in all, it could have been worse. She had a half dozen red slashes across her neck and flanks from grazing shots. I suppose I had to give the raiders a bit more credit with their aim. A few feathers on her left wing looked out of place, and like the rest of us her coat and long red mane was damp from sweat.

“Are you alright, Wild?”

“Bah, I’ve had a lot worse...” She waved a hoof dismissively at the shallow wounds. “I suppose I’ve just gotten a bit soft, living with Stone the past two weeks. As for the wing, it’ll heal once I get those feathers back into place. Got a bit too close to a roof when a raider took a pot shot at me.” Speaking of, I hadn’t heard any shooting since they’d arrived and I noticed a lack of hostile targets in my E.F.S. “And before you ask, yes, its over.”

“The remaining raiders?” I hardly expected they’d give up, but I did wonder if they had managed to escape in the confusion. I found the idea a bit disappointing really. However, I didn’t need to worry about that judging by the cocky grin Balefire was giving the winged mare.

“They didn’t get away... let’s just say if you ever find yourself taking cover under wooden wagons from somepony using anti armor rifles... save them the trouble and just kill yourself,” Wild said with a flick of her wings and the metallic click of her large guns sliding forward and locking into place.

“After seeing what you can do with them, I doubt even a building would protect somepony from them.” Balefire waved a hoof over towards the rifles as they began to slide back to rest under her wings with a flick of the firing bit. Balefire turned his head away from Wild and over to me. “Spirit said Silver’s group is going to be fine, don’t worry yourself over them. We sent Tinkerbell up to Town Hall to let the rest of the survivors know it’s safe to come out.”

“Tinkerbell?” Okay, it was a perfectly normal name for a pony, as I recalled they’re been a mare in Stable 45 with that name a couple generations ago. Still, I couldn’t help but arch a brow towards my young friend as I began making my way towards the door. I stopped beside the window I’d burst in through as I found my hat on the floor beside it. Picking the old marshall hat up, I turned it over and let a couple shards of glass slide off it and onto the floor before placing it atop my head. Despite the hundreds of shards, it appeared to come through without a scratch.

“The mare with the sawgun,” Balefire explained as he followed behind me, “We’re supposed to meet with their town leader there. It’s also where Spirit’s taking the wounded, given its’ defendable position. It was Carrion’s idea. Said if the raiders had any reinforcements, it’d be a good idea to have someplace safe to be gathered in rather than out in the open.”

“He’s right, though if there’s anymore raiders about, there’s not going to be enough of them to cause us any trouble... and they likely took off once we killed the last of their buddies,” Wild added as she walked behind me.

As we stepped out onto the porch, I looked over the town’s center and over the bodies of the dead. Nearly all were raiders, their spiked armor and mutilated bodies easy enough to make out. Looking over towards the wagons, I saw little left of them save for the wheels and bits and pieces. Between them lay the bodies of the last couple raiders. Ponies wearing armor similar to Silver’s were walking between them, retrieving their guns and ammo. I smirked a bit, wondering if Stone was somewhere trying to stay one step ahead of them. Speak of the devil...

“Mighty good plan ya had there, Shadow,” my large, grey coated friend said. He trotted to a halt at the bottom of the steps, Carrion beside him.

“Thanks, Stone... you come out alright?” I asked. He didn’t looked wounded, but I still wanted to make sure. To my surprise, he actually laughed and nodded his head.

“Ah reckon Ah come out alright. Better than them raiders at least.”

“After the raiders pulled back, and while we were trying to figure out how to get a shot on them from where we were, Stone took the liberty of looting the bodies of the dead,” Wild said as she trotted down the steps to nuzzle the large stallion’s reddening cheeks.

“Ah was just restockin’ our supplies is all...” was his answer, and to everyone’s surprise I laughed.

“Stone... you need professional help... but then, so do I.” I held up my right hoof and after a moment, he bumped it with his own. “Now, come on, we need to meet with the rest of the survivors and see what we can do to help them.” Trotting down the steps, I began making my way up towards Town Hall, my friends following closely behind.

We passed a dozen ponies running the other direction, four of the stronger looking stallions pulling an old model fire engine behind them. I doubted they’d have much luck putting out the fires that still raged around Main Street. There were just too many of them for a single hose to ever hope to put out. Looking back, I saw that instead of going to the burning buildings, they had pulled up near a home that was near the fire, but not itself ablaze. As I watched, they began to spray water over the roof and walls of the home, in an attempt to slow the spread of the fire.

Turning back around, I spotted Carrion and a pair of armed ponies I’d never seen before coming towards us. Despite the worried looks the two others were giving the street and buildings around them, Carrion had his assault rifle resting against his chest. Behind them, came a single unicorn mare carrying a pair of white saddlebags with pink butterflies on them. She herself was followed by a pair of young foals, a bit older than Sugar in age and looking up at the ghoul in amazement.

“Still among the living I see, despite your stupid heroics,” came my undead friend’s first words as we neared one another.

“Sorry to disappoint,” I shot back, before nodding my head to the mare.

“This is Fiona, the town’s doctor.” Carrion waved a hoof towards the mare. “Spirit’s helping her with the wounded, but she needs some supplies from her home on the next street over.”

“I suppose chivalry isn’t completely dead then,” Wild piped up from the back.

I started to make a comment about that when I felt someone tugging on my sleeve. I looked down to see one of the young foals had approached me. He was pointing a hoof up at my armor and I cocked my head to the side.

“Are you our new Sheriff, mister?” he asked. I smiled and shook my head. “Then why are ya wearing a badge?”

“You're the pony the radio was talking about,” one of the armed ponies said as she looked me over, and looked to my friends behind me. “Are you mercenaries or something?” she asked. The young colt who’d walked up to me turned to the mare and frowned a bit.

“He’s a sheriff... can’t ya see his badge?”

“Sweetie, he’s not a sheriff... it’s a marshal's badge, says so right on it,” Fiona said, as she stepped forward and guided the young colt away from me.

“What's a marshall?” he asked.

“Well... they used to be like sheriffs... except they protected ponies all over the place instead of just one town. I don’t think there are any now though.”

“It’s still got one.” For a moment I wondered who’d said that. After all, it was an odd thing to say when she’d said the truth. There wasn’t any anymore. I arched a brow when I saw all my friends looking at me oddly, and even the doctor and the two armed guards. The colt blinked and perked his ears towards me as he wormed his way out of Fiona’s hooves. Wait... I’d said that?

Looking down to my chest where the silver badge hung proudly, somehow free of the blood that covered the rest of me and seeming to almost shine despite the lack of direct light. My eyes followed the writing across it.

To Protect and Serve Equestria.

I looked back to the colt as he watched me, waiting for me to say something more. I smiled and knelt down beside him before offering him my hoof, when he shyly took it with his smaller one, I began shaking it slowly.

Why the hell not?

“My name’s Shadow, Equestrian Marshall. My friends and I are here to help.”

Welcome to Level 17!

Perk Added: Light Step: After seeing the mess Carrion’s traps left of those raiders, you’ll be sure to watch your step from now on! This perk halves your chance of setting off traps. But let’s face it, you’ll probably run through a landmine field to save some filly’s cat stuck in a tree... so why do we bother with these perks?!

Author's Notes:

Sorry if this took a bit longer to get out than I had originally expected. I believed the chapter would only be 25k in length due to it being one long fight against the raiders attacking Old Oaks, however a bit more snuck it's way in when I realized I needed to tell a bit more about the location than I had planned. Darn world building...

Another reason for its lateness was due to be writing a short story for a contest held in one of the FoE groups I'm in here. I didn't win, but that's okay as I wasn't expecting to. :) If your interested in reading a short 3000 word story set in the Fall of Hope setting then give this a try.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/93644/fallout-equestria-the-misadventures-of-commander-shepard

I know it sounds odd, but the ending explains everything, at least for fans of a certain small character I made in the main story.

At any rate, I am already working on the next chapter. I'm going to shot for a release of that one around the end of next month. Until then, stay magic my friends.

Editor and Chief: TheGamefilmGuruman

Editor: Avi

Pre- Reader: MagicLlama

Pre- Reader: Bronyken

Original Cover Art: TimeForSP

Current Cover Art: MisterMech Go. Worship his work.