Chapter 3 Whitetail Wood Raiders

I jerked awake, I was  breathing heavily, it was just a nightmare. I lifted my head off the mattress and could see that it was dark, I was feeling rather cold. It must be night time, something I had never experienced before. At night in the stable the lights would just dim in the hallways and when I went to sleep I would just turn the lights off. Now it was just dark and gloomy. I could hear all kinds of noises such as the rustling of grass in the wind and night insects making noises around the barn I was sleeping in.

I levitated my canteen over and took a sip of water then put it back at the foot of the bed with my other possessions.

I laid back down on the mattress and pulled the mouldy covers over myself thinking about what I was going to do the next day. After thinking for a bit I decided just to wing it and hope I stumble across somepony who will give me some directions. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep once more.

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I awoke to the familiar sound of a shower accompanied by a drip, drip sound. I pushed myself out of bed into the freezing yet dank air and stretched looking around the room. Water was leaking through some cracks in the ceiling. I wandered up to a broken window to look outside where the sound of water was filling my ears. My jaw dropped to the floor at what I was seeing.

Water.

Tonnes and tonnes of water was pouring from the sky like some monumental shower causing small streams to appear on the ground flowing no doubt to the nearest river.

I decided to stay in the barn to wait it out. I levitated an apple out of my saddle bags and began to eat it while viewing my orb, the beautiful pegasus and I playing in the snow made my heart melt every time I saw it. I clearly long for companionship. I hate being all alone.

Once I had finished my apple, I packed my orb back in my saddlebags before switching on the radio of my pipbuck to a song that we had in the stable playing. It was Sweetie Belle my favourite singer, not that there were many singers to choose from. This song would occasionally play on our stable radio among a few other Sweetie Belle songs and a few others. I sang along to it.

“Coming out here, the bombs raining down

The blood of the ponies, all the ponies

I just want it to stop, all too stooooppp”

When the song finished the DJ popped up so quickly and suddenly I started.

“Helllo Children, this is DJ Pon-3 master of the airwaves giving you Sweetie Belle, singing for hope that so many of us wish for out in the Equestrian Wasteland.

“Now it’s time for the news;

“Seems another town west of Manehattan has gone quite, rumour has it that it was taken out by those Alicorn monsters that have only very recently began showing up in numbers all around Manehattan. We have had some sightings around New Saddle and Trottingham as well. But as I have told you more than a millions time, stay away from Trottingham. Its more dangerous than Splendid valley and Fillydelphia combined. And that’s damn dangerous

“Remember children to be vigilant around Manehattan and do not approach these monsters. Those around New Saddle remain vigilant otherwise you may end up dead. They tend to hunt in small groups and will kill anypony who gets in their way.

“I can report exclusively from a reliable resource that another has joined our number in the wasteland. Yes children it looks like a young mare has stepped out of a stable into this hellhole. Why she’s out here who knows? I wish her luck because she’s going to need it.

“Now I give you Sapphire Shores.

I clicked the radio off stunned. How did he know that I got out of the stable? I only got out yesterday and I have come across no pony or even monsters. From the sound of the DJ the Wasteland seems like it’s going to be tough. These Alicorn things wiped out a population of ponies, a whole town. It made me chill as to why they would do that.

Shaking my head to clear it of what I just heard, I decided to take a look around the barn, as I walked into what had once been the living room. Water was pouring through a gap in the roof and causing water to pool in the middle of the room. Old rotting furniture laid smashed or broken throughout. In the corner of the living room was an old desk which had collapsed under the weight of the safe lying in the wreckage. I walked back into the bedroom and levitated out my screwdriver and some bobby pins before returning to the safe and began to pick at the lock.

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After about 10 minutes of picking and 2 broken lock picks, I was considering leaving the old safe. Lock picking was a skill I just was not good at and the only thing that kept me going was curiosity. I decided my third bobby pin to be my last, not wanting to waste the pack I had bought from the stable.

Finally a soft click told me that the lock had finally unlocked. Pulling out the bobby pin which was now very bent from my amateur lock picking skills, I pulled the safe open.

It was filled with a variety of items. I found some pre-war coins, a metal tin that was quite heavy for its size and some other pre-war items. I looked inside the metal tin which was filled with what appeared to be bullets. I did not have a firearm but I would keep them anyway in case I did come across one.

While holding the tin I realised how stupid I was to come out here without a weapon. I had no idea what kind of creatures or monsters lived out here. If there was a radio out here, it must mean that there are ponies out here too. If ponies were out here so are all kinds of creatures and monsters that might look upon me as nothing more than a yummy snack.

Setting the tin aside, I continued to search the safe and found a book called ‘Guns today.’ I set this aside as well with the bullets and coins and levitated out the last item in the safe. It was a heavily degraded poster revenged by silverfish. I unfolded it carefully to an image of a pretty yellow Pegasus mare with pink hair and a few lines of grey flecked throughout. The poster read ‘War, Fear? Death? We must do better’ on the bottom of the poster. Between two pink butterflies were captioned ‘Ministry of Peace’. I folded the poster back up and levitated all my new treasures and put them back in the saddle bags in the room.

I don’t know why I kept the Ministry of peace poster; it’s a relic of the past from the war and was not in the best condition. It is a treasure from the past and part of me wanted to conserve the image of the yellow mare.

I checked the kitchen of the barn which still had an old and very rusted fridge. Inside was spoiled food and tins of nearly 200 year old food. I left it all alone. I wouldn’t eat that or the tins of 200 year old food if you held a gun to my head. The bathroom had a medical supplies box that had already been raided by somepony else. I left the bathroom as there was nothing of worth inside.

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I was lying on the old mattress reading the book I found. If I was to find a weapon I will need to know how to use a gun and how to put the bullets inside. I found in the book that most guns don’t use the same ammo and some guns spray pellets instead of a single bullet. To fire a gun it had a trigger that needed to be pulled back to fire a bullet.

After an hour of reading I put the book back in my saddlebags. I wandered over to the window, the rain still coming down thick and fast. I came to the conclusion that the rain would not stop any time soon. I levitated my saddlebags and strapped them back into place and strung my canteen and set off to the front door of the barn.

I stepped out into the freezing rain, the wind blowing quite strong matting my mane and drenching me to the skin beneath my coat. Head bowed in wind I decided to head towards the east, sloshing in the muddy water on the ground. I would activate my shield spell to reflect the rain however maintaining it more than a a few seconds or so was difficult so there was no real point. Even if I did get attacked, I would daresay the shield is so weak that it would probably collapse after a single buck. “Goddesses why am I even I unicorn” I sighed. I only know two spells, one of which can be performed by any unicorn. Why can’t I be like mother who had ten spells at her disposal, or Berry who had five spells and can freeze water or turn it to steam at will?

I was the least magical unicorn at school. I was the last to pick up telekinesis. My lack of magical skill led to my downfall in being a medical pony when unicorns are expected to mend bones magically, have aesthetic spells among other things. When I did my medical course as a blank flank I had to wrap my bandages manually by mouth, set a brace on a dummy with a broken foreleg by mouth and do everything the “Earth Pony way”.

To add to insult, mother had taken me to the clinic to have me checked as to why I could not perform magic. It turned out I was just late in my magical prowess, or lack of to appear. I could only do telekinesis until I was able to perform a second spell which I had learnt only last year. Not that the shield was any good. If I walked into a wall with it on it would collapse and it was taxing to keep it up for long anyway.

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Sloshing my way through rain with poor visibility due to the thickness of the downpour, blinking water out of my eyes, I could make out the silhouette of a building not too far away. I began to slosh my way towards it wondering if somepony might be there.

A loud crack sounded through the air like a crack whip. Something hit the water at my feet sending muddy water all over me.

BLAM BLAM

My Eyes Forward Sparkle, automatically came up with 8 hostiles. I could see the silhouettes of ponies around the building I had started to walk towards not long ago. I could see light glowing from three horns of unicorns whose magic seemed to wrap around the very items I had seen in my book a mere few hours ago. I could only just make out the magic through the thick rain at the building that I had approached.

Panic surging within me I screwed my face up in concentration to activate my only defence. My transparent shield slowly rose in a dome around myself.

Just as the dome closed off, a loud “BLAM” cracked through the air. I saw a bullet strike the surface rippling the shield. It punched a hole through and with a scream of pain I felt the bullet hit me in my right shoulder, blood soaked into my already soaking wet coat. I then heard another “BLAM” and felt little prinks of what felt like glass spray my side. Pain bursting through my body I looked and found that the entire right side of my body was blossoming crimson.

My vision began to swirl as the pain of my body was screaming agony. I hit the ground in extreme pain, my blood mixing with the water on the ground. I could feel the rain get colder and stinging my wounds. I began shaking uncontrollably and was going into shock. Fighting to remain conscious I floated out a healing potion and drank it. The bottle fell into the mushy ground with a plop. Darkness finally overcame me and I lost consciousness on the soaking wet muddy ground.

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I came round to the sound of silence. I opened my eyes without attempting to get up, I was looking through the bars of a cage. The smell of the place made me gag. I propped my head up, stars popping up as I did so. I was in some kind of administration building judging from the smashed desks and chairs.

The place was rank of faeces, urine and death. From the ceiling hung copses of dead ponies, some were missing limbs, some were missing heads and some had been skinned. The walls were covered in heavy graffiti, most of it was obscene. Heavy swear words and pornographic images filled the peeling paint on the walls of the building.

There was a pile of rotting corpses in the corner surrounded by blow flies filling the air with heavy buzzing. The smell combined with the sound of blowflies and the thought of what kind of ponies could possibly do this caused my stomach to release my breakfast onto the floor of the cage.

The cage I was in was barely large enough for me which hung from the ceiling from a chain, so when I moved the cage would rock. I looked at my coat and found I was stripped of my barding and my belongings. My white coat was matted with my own blood staining it black-maroon. My wounds were partially healed thanks to the healing potion I had taken just before passing out.

A scary looking unicorn mare walked through the door to the left. She was so dirty that I couldn't tell what her original coat colour was. Her mane was set into a spiky and terrifying style. She wore blood matted spiny armour that made her look fierce. Her eyes were bloodshot.

She walked up to my cage and smiled at me with rotting teeth. I cringed. I could smell her through the blood and death that filled the room.

She spoke to me with a deep rusty voice “Looks like we have ourselves a fresh young mare”.

I let out a squeak, “wh-who are you and what do you want” I asked softly.

“You don’t know who we are or what we are?” she let out a bark of a laughter that made the hairs on the back of my mane stand up. “We dear girl are central whitetail raiders, and you wandered into our midst.” she considered me for a moment before adding “You would already be dead if the bucks here didn’t take a liking to you” she pointed a hoof at me.

“Wha-what do you mean” I whimpered. She laughed even harder, the sound echoing in throughout the building.

“Well let’s see.” she put a hoof on her chin in mock thinking. “We are going to feed you and make you our queen… What do you think? We’re going to fuck you, then kill you, then dismember you, then skin you and then we will hang you up with the rest.”

Her laughter held no remorse. These ponies are crazy.

She walked away leaving me in this cage. I looked around for any keys or hope for escape. If I didn’t get out, I was going to suffer a slow cruel death and what would happen before I died scared me. I was blinking back tears. I needed to get out.

I looked around and saw two small cages near mine. Both had a pony inside. From what I could tell there was a mare, she looked older than myself and next to her in another cage was a young colt. My heart tore for them as well.

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The smelly raider mare had returned. She stood around before pacing every few moments, eyes on the surroundings, and on us. She looked like she was keeping guard. She had a large firearm with two barrels hovering just near her head pointing forwards.

I cleared my throat and asked “Why are you all doing this? What’s with the dead bodies? Why did you kill all these ponies?”

The raider mare stopped and looked at me bewildered “Because it’s fun, why do you care anyway? You’re a stupid fucking bitch for even walking into here.”

“Well-“I began but she unsheathed a cruel looking knife from her barding and pushed it into the cage to my throat.

“Shut that fucking hole or I’ll cut your tongue off”

I nodded vigorously backing up. She withdrew the knife and I let out a small sigh as the raider paced around.

I looked around and hoped to find something to assist with my escape. With all these flayed bodies everywhere I hoped to find something sharp or pointy.

I leaned against the cage to get a better look around when the cage turned forwards and rocked causing me to fall over inside, landing in my own sick. I tried again and tried to even my weight to not cause the cage to rock.

I saw on a bench next to a bloody butchered pony corpse, a pointed serrated knife about midway through the room a few desks away directly in front of the guard raider. It was quite far away and if I levitated it, I risked the raider mare would see it and blow me to bits with that gun. I came up with an idea that could go so totally wrong.

Just before I executed this totally crazy plan, I sent a prayer to the goddesses to help me survive this horrifying nightmare I was in. I opened my eyes when I finished my prayer and levitated an old pot that was sitting on a table behind the guard raider. I then smashed the pot against the wall at the back of the room letting out an ear smashing crash that made the guard jump and turn around pointing her gun.

“Come out you fucker” she yelled through the stillness. I wrapped the bloody knife in a telekinetic sheath and pulled it into the cage as fast as I could.

I put the knife on the floor of the cage and I dropped to the floor of the cage, the knife under my belly.

The raider mare was searching the back room yelling out obscenely to the apparent “intruder” that had waltzed in. After a minute or so she muttered something about “must have been a radroach.”

She looked at me and laughed again saying “Buff will be with you soon pretty filly, when he is done with the others”.

I began to feel serious anger at what I was seeing. From what she was saying there were more of these ponies in this place. I remembered my EFS lighting up with no less than eight red lights and realised that there were quite a number more in here.

I had no choice. Stay here and get raped, killed and possibly tortured like the ponies that resembled nothing but slabs of meat hanging from the ceiling. I got up slightly, wrapping the knife in my magic.

I hesitated, I did not want to kill a pony and I had never killed anything before, except for perhaps a few insects.

I grasped the bloodied rusty knife in my magic and slid it through the bars. I held the knife just behind her neck, holding my breath I sent a prayer to Celestia to forgive me for what I was about to do. I closed my eyes and drove the knife as hard as I could into the back of her neck. I heard her scream and the gun clatter to the ground. I pulled the knife out and opened my eyes levitating it back into the cage.

I, I just killed. I cannot believe I just killed somepony. I began to weep, my eyes filling with tears as I heard the mare trying the breath through the bloody hole in her neck making gurgling sounds, blood pooling around her dying body.

She then went quite.

The other two ponies in the cages were awake and were staring at me in total shock.

I levitated the double barrelled gun but it would not fit into the cage.

“Daisy what the fuck is going on in here. I’ve been hearing you shout shit for the past ten fucking minutes.”

A black stallion in raider armour and a small pistol in his mouth came clattering into the room on spiked steel hoof shoes. He stood stunned at the bloodied corpse next to my cage. He fired a shot at me as I picked up the shotgun and slipped into SATS (Stable-Tech Assisted Tracking System), I shot him twice with the fierce looking gun.

I was a terrible shot. My first shot missed, striking the wall next to the black stallion, my second shot hit him causing his body to erupt in red crimson as his body was sprayed with pellets.

Just before he dropped to the ground, he let off another shot skimming my right shoulder and causing me to bleed a fresh from the gash like wound. He was still breathing and trying to get back up. I pulled the trigger again manually and missed again, I tried again and the gun clicked and nothing happened. I dropped the gun and pulled out the knife I had. Cringing at what I had done, I slit his throat causing his ragged breathing to become gurgling until he finally stopped.

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I was crying as I tried to find a way out of the cage, the heavily rusted padlock not possible to pick or break without any tools. I sniffed, breathing in the stench of the room and gagged. Once again I vomited on the floor of my cage looking at the blood of the two ponies I had just killed.

Shaking, I looked around and found an old piece of pipe. I levitated the pipe over and slot it into the gap of the rusting padlock.

With all the strength I could muster on my telekinesis, I pushed the pipe against the rusting metal of the padlock. I could feel the metal buckle and with a very loud BANG the padlock broke and it clattered to the floor.

I swung the cage open and attempted to get out gracefully. Instead I fell out and hit the ground with a thud. The wound to my shoulder searing in pain I got back onto my hooves.

My saddlebags and canteen were stashed on the desk no doubt ready to be looted once I was killed or being killed. I levitated them back onto my back and strapped them back in place. I looked around the bloody horrifying place, splayed with pony corpses, blood and graffiti and felt a fresh wave of sick coming up. I held it down. My eyes set on the mare and the colt.

The earth pony mare whispered out to me “Save us, please.”

I looked at her and hesitated. I felt myself shaking in fear and wanted to leave really badly. I gulped and looked at her “okay” I whispered, I gave her what I hoped to be a warm smile. I will save them as I wouldn't be able  live with myself leaving these ponies here.

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I was just about to open my saddlebags to get my screwdriver and bobby pins to pick the lock as I did not wish to encourage more raiders to come.

As if somepony was listening to my head I heard several loud bangs and the roar of a buck came closer. Three hostiles shot up on my EFS.

I could hear him screaming in rage as he got closer “What the fuck are you doing down there Kelp, I told you to go check on Daisy you fat fuck”.

Just as I thought it would be a good idea to hide, the door banged open, swinging from its hinges revealing two stallions and a mare. All were wearing heavy raider armour, all were earth ponies.

The stallion at the front froze over the threshold staring at the dead mare to the dead stallion. His eyes hovered on the cage then he shifted his gaze to me in the middle of the room. He let out a bull roar through the gun that was held in his mouth.

I dived behind a steel table and turned it on its side as a makeshift shield. Bullets embedded on the metal and some managed to punch through the table. A large metal apple hit me quite hard on the side of my body. I levitated it up knowing that it could not be good and lobbed it back. True to my suspicion an explosion ripped not far from my metal shield.

One of the lights on my EFS went out, two were remaining. Braving a peek over the top of the heavily dented table I laid my eyes on some wreckage. The metal apple had exploded, judging from the third raider pony I had killed. He was missing limbs and part of his body had been ripped away.

BLAM BLAM.

The remaining two raider ponies were standing side-by-side firing back at me. I ducked and bullets sprayed my metal cover, a few punctured through the metal table top. I felt searing pain strike me in my left hind leg, blood flowing out of my fresh wound. Tears of pain filled my eyes. I had to do something or I may end up dead. I very quickly braved another peek over the table; the two ponies appeared to be reloading their weapons.

I levitated my makeshift shield slightly off the ground. I then got gingerly to my hooves, my left hind leg screaming in protest. I pushed the table as hard as I possibly could against the two raider ponies that opened fire on the table before a huge crunch told me I had hit them.

I didn’t stop there, I pushed the table against the wall and pushed as hard as I could, attempting to crush them. I could hear the crunching sound of breaking bones.

I then fell to the floor dropping the table with a clang, my hind leg not willing to co-operate. I levitated out my final healing potion and drank it. The bleeding wound on my left hind leg and the gash on my right shoulder began to heal, skin stretching over my wounds.

I got back to my hooves. I could feel myself trembling, out of fear or shock, probably both.

I shifted the table finding the still alive but very broken raiders I had just crushed with the table which were unconscious.

I looted the weapons they had, one had a small pistol like gun, I put this in my saddlebags. The other had a cruel long gun that must be some kind of rifle. This was the gun that I guessed had managed to punch through the table. It was quite long so I strapped this one to my side tucking it under my left saddlebag for easy access. I also took the ammo they had.

The third raider who had been blow up had a gun too. But it was unrecognisable, it was damaged beyond repair.

I slit the unconscious raider’s throats for good measure to ensure they cannot do this again.

I slipped up to the first cage and attempted to pick at the lock the aqua mare was in. Inside the cage was filled with her own waste. She was very thin, her ribs visible and she had several wounds on her body and a daffodil for a cutie mark.

The lock was of poor quality and was aged with rust which gave up easily, she was however bound. I levitated the serrated knife over and cut the rope binds and let her out of the cage.

I moved onto the young brown colt. He was a blank flank and he looked quite ill. I picked this lock as well and once again due to the poor quality of the lock and sheer luck the tumblers fell into place.

I levitated him to the ground as he was too small and too sick to get out himself and joined the aqua mare. “Thank you” she said weakly and they both dashed out the door of the facility.

I started towards the door when a thought struck me. What if there were other hostages? I did not check the facility. I closed my eyes and turned away from the door to the outside.

My eyes were swimming with tears. I wanted to get out so badly yet I could not leave the other ponies in here. I walked through the door my enemies hammered through and found a staircase that lead upwards. I stumbled up the steps, my legs feeling like lead jelly. When I reached the top my EFS came up with two hostiles behind the door directly ahead.

I levitated the rifle and telekinetically open the door. The moment I opened the door, the two raiders were both in battle stances and began to fire.

I slipped into SATS and hit one in the neck causing her to scream and she hit the ground in a bloody thump. I missed the second unicorn stallion raider. He had a thick gun that looked like the barrel was roughly sawn off. He turned it right at me and pulled the trigger, his gun exploded in a loud bang letting off large puffs of smoke filling the air with the stench of roasted flesh and gun powder. The unicorn was missing part of his face.

I retched, unable to vomit any more as my stomach had already released all its contents. All I could smell was cooked pony.

The earth pony mare that I shot in the neck had stopped breathing. Her gun was a shorter and smaller version of the rifle I had. I fumbled with the rifle I had, trying to get the ammo out. I did not know how to get the ammo out of the gun. I pulled a small clip and three bullets fell to the ground, I levitated these bullets and remembering the book I read about loading guns. I managed to put the three bullets into the smaller rifle which seemed to still have some ammo in it.

I levitated the new rifle and discarded the long one. I turned a corner to an incoming raider galloping towards me with an axe.

My EFS telling me he is the only enemy, no doubt drawn by the gunfire and of the gun that had exploded. I entered SATS, my first shot missed. My second hit his horn and embedded into his head causing him to skid in a line of blood along the stained floor, dropping the axe as he did so.

A door to the side burst open revealing two more raiders. One of the raiders ran at me with a nail board and another threw one of those metallic apples at me which I wrapped in my magic and lobbed it back.

“Fuck” one of them yelled.

BOOM

An explosion ripped through the corridor sending bits of concrete, heat and shrapnel into my face and ruffling my mane.

I blinked once a little shocked. The two raiders were both dead slabs of meat that were completely unrecognisable. The corridor smelt strongly of gun powder and cooked meat. At the end of the corridor was one door, my EFS brought up one hostile and two friendly.

As I approached the door I could hear a mare screaming followed by a loud thump and a grunt. I approached the door, gun ready before wrapping a field of magic around the door knob and opened the it to find a buck on top of a screaming and crying mare that looked like she had been tortured. She was filthy and very skinny. At the back of the room I noticed a blank flank filly tied to the bedpost crying.

He had no time to react. Before he could get off her I had the gun pointed to the side of his head.

I pulled the trigger.

Click.

Pushing the mare away he back hoofed me across the face and once again stars popped inside my vision.

I stumbled, the telekinetic sheath on the gun almost slipped away. I gripped the gun and as he charged at me a second time, I brought the gun over his head. I smashed his head a second time causing him to pass out with a small bleeding wound on his head.

After knocking out the raider, the green mare then stomped and bucked his head until the sound of his skull cracking began filling the room. After it was clear he was dead she yelled at his corpse “take that you fucking sick bastard”

I fell onto my stomach beginning to cry again. Today was robbing me of me, of my innocence. I will remember this gruesome day for the rest of my life. I had killed nearly ten ponies in an act of self-defence and to save innocent ponies. Killed the ponies that captured me. Ponies who intended to rape me and torture me every day until I was dead.

After I had pulled myself together I untied the little and very dirty yellow filly. She gave me a hug around the neck and said in a tiny voice “thank you miss.” I pulled her into a small embrace tears filling my eyes as I did so.

Pulling away she looked up at me and said in the same small voice “please don’t cry, it’s alright”. This poor child had been through so much and yet it was her telling me not to cry. I cringed at the thought that this filly was telling me it’s going to be okay. I looked her in the eyes and gave her a small smile.

“I’ll be alright. You should get going” I said pointing to the green coloured mare that was clearly waiting for the filly.

Footnote: Level up

New perk: Combat that -- You gain 20 points to small guns, in addition your shield spell is also 20% more powerful