Two hours. That is how long we have been in the Manehatten Ruins. I wish I could say that we’ve made good progress, but we have barely made it three blocks into the city. In the first hour, we encountered a group of six raiders, about four bloodwings, twelve bloatsprites, and three sentry bots. Luckily, not all at once and we managed to fight through them easily enough. Managed to score some good loot as well.

In hour two, we found out that the raiders had friends. Apparently, we wandered into the middle of raider territory. During this second hour, we were set upon multiple times by the raiders of this territory, we managed to fight off the first few, but eventually they halted our advance. Now, we are holed up in a two story apartment building hoping that the raiders get bored of looking for us and wander off.

Miraculously, we have sustained no injuries. Though I think that is mostly due in part to most of us wearing power armor. Rose and I were clinging to cover like our lives depended on it. Speaking of Rose, she appears to be quite shaken, but hasn’t had to fire a single shot yet. Which is good, considering my revolver was out of ammo within the first hour.

Thank the Goddesses that between Lightning, Thunder, and Arrow, they had an armory worth of ammo for their own weapons. A perk of being born in the Rangers, I suppose. But, they did let me keep any loot we came across, which means I now have quite a few spare guns with plenty of ammo. At least, for now.

The six raiders we took out used two shotguns, two assault rifles, a 10mm submachine gun, and a machete. After loading all the weapons while holeing up in the apartments, I have 67 shells, 35 5.56 bullets, and 13 10mm bullets to spare. I also picked up some medical bandages, food, and some Sparkle Cola from the raiders. And around 100 caps, can’t forget the caps.

“Well, they are tenacious, i’ll give them that,” Thunder mutters, checking over his weapons. Lightning and Arrow are doing the same. Outside, I can hear the echoing calls of the raiders as they shout derogatory remarks while looking for us.

“Yea, and such a cheery bunch,” Lightning adds. Some random gunfire in the distance followed by more shouting. How did ponies live on the other side of all this? It was like never ending chaos. Did we just pick a lousy route? I let out a sigh as I take a moment to look at the inside of the apartment we are in.

As you would expect from a city hit by a Megaspell, half the building was crumbling, the paint on the walls has all but peeled off, and there is so much dirt and dust everywhere I wasn’t sure if it could ever be clean again. This particular apartment, which would have consisted of three rooms, has had its interior walls destroyed, allowing the bedroom and bathroom to be seen from the living area and kitchen. Any personality or furniture the room might have had was either reduced to rubble or buried.

It certainly wasn’t the most luxurious apartment building, even before the war. But, I bet it was cheap and served its purpose. As i finish surveying the room, my eyes fall on Rose, who is shakily looking at the floor a little bit apart from the others. I quietly move over to her and put my hoof on her shoulder.

“It’s going to be alright, Rose. Sure, things have been chaotic so far, but no one’s been injured yet. We have that going for us, right? We’ll make it to Friendship City,” I tell her with a small smile.

Rose looks up at me nods her head and says, “Y-Yea...I’m just not...used to all this, I suppose.” I can completely understand that. I, myself don’t know how I’m handling this as well as I am. Perhaps my inquizitive spirit is keeping me going?

“Right?” I reply with a brighter smile. “While we are stuck here, let’s come up with a plan,” I declare. I open up my PipBuck’s map screen as the others gather around. I switch to the Local Map setting and zoom out as far as possible. Even though most of the area not to our west is missing from my map’s data, it does show a good two blocks in every direction from our current location.

“Ok, let me see...I wonder if I can…” I trail off for a moment as I concentrate my magic on my PipBuck. After a moment, a larger projection of the map appears above the PipBuck. “Awesome! It worked! Alright, so, using my magic to make it easier to see, we are currently here,” I put a blue colored dot on the magical projection where we are currently at.

“Now, judging by the direction the raiders were chasing us from, and the sound of their voices, I’m guessing they are around, here, here, and here,” I say, as I add three new red dots to the north of the blue one. “Of course, these aren’t exact locations. My EFS doesn’t work, remember,” I add.

“Since Friendship City is quite a bit south and a little ways east of us, them being in the north works for us. Assuming that door leads to a hallway and more of the building, we should be able to find an exit on the south side, or use a window if nothing else,” I tell them.

“From there, judging by the terrain mapping, a lot of the surrounding streets are blocked by rubble. So, I think we should follow this path,” I pause for a moment and draw a blue arrow on the magical projection. “Going through as many buildings as we can and only using the streets if necessary. This way, it will cut down on our exposure to anything hostile,” I decide.

“Assuming there is nothing hostile inside the buildings,” Thunder says with a hint of concern in his voice. “This also assumes we’ll be able to find entrances and exits in those buildings to follow this path. I don’t know anything about architecture, but i’m pretty sure not every building has an entrance on each side,” he says.

“True,” I reply with a nod, “but most have windows we can use. As for hostiles, I think i’d rather take our chances inside than outside. Especially if any of the raiders have a sniper rifle. That’d spell the end for Rose or me. If they had a high enough caliber, you three might be in trouble as well.”

“Fair enough,” Thunder nods. I look over the projection one more time and confirm everything in my mind.

“Alright then. As soon as the raiders settle down, we’ll move. This building here,” I mark a building with a blue X, “will be our destination. Once there, we’ll come up with another plan and move again.” After receiving nods from everyone, I continue, “By the way, Rose, how did you make it through these ruins the first time? Some sort of special route?”

Rose tilts her head and puts a hoof to her chin. “Something like that,” she says. “A few of us planned to head west to see if we could make contact with any other settlements. We had some guards who knew the city well guide us through it. The way we took, it was about two days, but we managed to avoid a lot of combat,” she informs us.

“But, I don’t remember it well enough, and with everyone else who came with me having…” she trails off for a moment, “...died...I…” I hold up a hoof to stop her. It looks like she is about to start crying, and that is something we can’t afford right now. Sadness can wait.

“That’s fine,” I tell her. “I was just curious, is all. We’ll get you back home safely,” I say, giving her a broad smile. She wipes a tear from her eye then nods and smiles back at me. Right, now I just need to make sure I can keep that promise.

“Let’s move!” I declare after the raider activity has died down a bit. We exit the apartment through a door opposite the gaping hole in the wall that we came through and enter a hallway with multiple doors along it. Moving southward, we enter through an unlocked door and enter another apartment.

This side of the building appears to be in better condition than the other, but is still a complete mess. Since the wall is intact, we break a window and carefully exit the building into a narrow alleyway. Directly across from us is a brick building, but the only entrance is windows about a pony’s height off the ground. “I got this,” Lightning says as he takes position under one of the windows. “Climb on up!”

Thunder is the first to climb up, break the remaining glass around the window and climb inside. After a moment, he sticks his head out again, “All clear, let’s go.” Arrow is next, followed by Rose and then myself.

Once inside, I look down to Lightning. “How do you plan on getting up here?” I ask him. Even if Thunder and Arrow use their power armor to attempt to pull him in, the position of the window would make it difficult to get a good grip.

“Just stand back away from the window,” he says as he turns his back to us and faces the wall opposite. I look at him in confusion for a moment before I see him run directly at the wall, jump at it, twist himself around and plant his rear hooves on it. A split second later, I dash to the side as he flies through the remains of the window and lands on his hooves with a metallic crash.

“Gotta love the extra power the suits give, right?” He says, surely hiding a smirk under his helmet. I roll my eyes and survey the room. It looks like some sort of filing room. Cabinets line all available wall space except for a door leading out. Papers have been scattered on the floor long since forgotten.

“Right, we must be in an office building of some sort,” I mutter. “Let’s keep going.” Opening the door leads to another hallway and the door across from us leads to a meeting room of sorts. A large table is in the center with numerous chairs around it. Resting in each chair, is a skeleton. Ignoring them as best I can, i approach the large bay window that has long since had its glass busted out.

After busting through some of the remaining rotted wood to make room for us to exit, we dash across the street and stand against the next building. A multiple story office building. The doors are locked, but against the power of Thunder’s armor, they splintered into a thousand pieces with minimal effort on his part.

The inside is a large open lobby with a decayed fountain in the middle. Between us and it was a reception desk. I could just make out the words ‘Humble Law Firm’ engraved on the front of it. I think I remember hearing about them. I never had much use for lawyers though. The first floor had a few doors to our left and right, and on either side of the fountain was a curved staircase leading to the second floor.

“If I remember correctly, the building south of us was rubble on the map, so we should probably try heading east for now. Wait a moment…” I say as I pull up my map. Just like I thought. “There appears to be a walkway linking this building with the one across the street. Let’s head upstairs and look for it,” I tell the others. After scaling the staircase and turning down a hall, we find the door to the walkway.

Carefully, I push it open and take a look. Towards the center, half of the walkway has been blown away, but the rest looks solid enough. However, sitting in the midst of a pile of sandbags holding a sniper and looking out the gaping hole is a raider. Even without an EFS, I can tell. They were covered in similar armor the raiders wear and clearly had blood smeared on his face and body.

“Those fucks, how did they lose the targets? Well, they won’t get past me. I’ll kill them and take all their loot for myself!” The raider says with a laugh, clearing any doubts that they were in fact, a raider. I hold up a hoof to the others, draw my knife, and make my way towards him.

About halfway there I suddenly hear a beeping. Without skipping a beat, I charge at the raider who begins turning towards me. The beeping stops as I magically throw my knife at the raider and pierce his eye before he has a chance to get a single shot off or yell. His head jerks back and then falls forward to rest on the sandbags.

I turn back towards the others, only to see a landmine magically floating near where the beeping started. Arrow is waving at me happily. She floats the mine to me as the others walk up. “You know, you’re lucky Arrow is good at disarming mines with her magic,” Lightning says. “Otherwise, you’d have been blown to bits,” he adds, unnecessarily.

“Yea, yea,” I tell him while rolling my eyes. Facing Arrow, I say, “Thanks, saved me again.” I give her a smile as she falls to her haunches and frantically waves her hooves in front of her. “No, no, seriously. Thank you Arrow. I should pay more attention to my surroundings,” I say, feeling slightly disappointed in myself.

“That you should,” Lightning chimes in. I roll my eyes again as I begin to loot the raider. His sniper is the same as Arrow’s, although in worse condition. He also has a few caps on him, but no spare ammo. As I’m about to move on, I notice a box under him. I push him aside and discover an ammo box. Inside, I find a large amount of .308 bullets for the rifle.

I pick up the case and hold it up to Arrow. “Here, it’s the same type of ammo as your rifle,” I tell her. She shakes her head. I frown. “Look, I know you all have your own supply, and you’re letting me have all the loot we find, but seriously. You use this ammo, and you just saved my life. Take it,” I repeat.

She stares at it for a moment. “...half…” she says quietly. I set the case on the ground and roll my eyes.

“Fine!” I say, as I scoop out about half of the rounds and add them to my bags. My inventory reads I got 43. “Happy? Now, take the rest,” I tell her. She nods and picks up the case in her magic then adds it to her bag. “Alright, let’s move,” I say and begin to walk to the other side of the walkway.

Suddenly, a frag mine floats directly into my face. I stop before I smack into it. The magic around it disappears and I quickly pick it up with my own. As i do so, Arrow walks past me and floats up another mine near the door. Like the other one, she deactivates it and floats it over to me. I let out a sigh as I put them both in my bag. “Thanks...again,” I mutter as we continue through the door.

Into another hallway of what looks like more offices. While looking for the stairs down to the first floor, we pass an open door. As I look inside, I lock eyes with one of three raiders playing cards around a table. “Oh come one!” I shout as I draw the shotgun and level it at one of the raiders.

As they go for their guns on the table, I pull the trigger and send buckshot at my target. However, despite the close range and the spread of the shotgun, the raider only gets nicked as I quickly move to get out of the doorway as gunfire erupts from the room. I take up position right around the corner and Lightning takes the side opposite. The others stay a good distance back.

“Gee Ratchet, you always us something good, don’t ya?” Lightning says sarcastically just as the raiders’ storm of bullets stops. Simultaneously, Lightning and I peek around the corner and open fire. His shots inevitably hit his target while I still manage to only lightly pepper mine. Well, that’s six wasted shells. We fall back against the wall as the raiders finish reloading and open up on us again.

“Yea, yea. Less snark and more shooting,” I tell him. A moment later, their fire stops and we fold around the doorway once again. Again, Lightning drops his target, while I waste my shotguns remaining clip. “Are you kidding me!?” I yell as I throw the empty shotgun at the raider. By some odd stroke of luck, it knocks the gun from his grip and catches him off guard.

“Really Ratchet?” Lightning says as he charges into the room. “Who throws their weapon at the enemy?” He drops his SMG and draws his knife, ending the raider moments later. With the threat dealt with, I enter the room as well and retrieve my shotgun.

“It was empty!” I say, blushing slightly. “But I mean really, how did I manage to miss at this range with all eight shots! Well, not miss, but only slightly hit him. Ugh, guns and their shitty accuracy!” I declare.

“Well, first of all you just suck,” Lightning says in his usual snarky tone. “It isn’t the gun’s fault you can’t aim it properly,” he adds with a laugh. “But, you actually hit him quite a bit. It just seemed like you didn’t,” he says, picking up an odd looking needle contraption. “He was using Stampede.”

“Stampede?” I ask stupidly. “Wait, no, don’t tell me. I think it was...a combat enhancing drug developed before the war?” I suggest, looking at the empty drug casing before going back to looting the bodies.

“Very good!” Lightning says. “It’s effects include increased aggression and a numbing of pain. He just didn’t seem like he got hit, when in reality, you did quite a number on him.” I finish looting the first two raiders and finally get a look at the one i’d been shooting at. His left side looks like it had been through a grinder.

“So I don’t suck!” I say with a smile as I proceed to loot him. Lightning just chuckles. “Hey, what’s that laugh for? Are you saying I still do?” I question. He just shakes his head and walks out of the room. “No, seriously! You think I do, don’t you!” I call after him.

I finish looting and return to the others outside the room. “...so she throws the shotgun at him,” Lightning says, getting a laugh from Thunder and a quiet giggle from Arrow as she holds a hoof to her helmeted muzzle.

“Yea, yea, laugh it up,” I say, as I reload the shotgun. Eight shells and I didn’t even bring down one. Yet Lightning brings down two with a single clip of his SMG and a third with his knife. I let out a sigh. “Alright, let’s keep moving,” I say as I start leading us down the hallway once again.

“They have anything good on them?” Thunder asks.

“I wouldn’t say good. Just some poor quality SMGs. I did get a good sum of bullets for them though. I suppose I can sell these three and use the good quality one I already have, if necessary,” I tell him. “I also found some more of that Stampede drug on them, and some Dash.”

“Since the other two had the Stampede, I think they might each be carrying one, at least. The others didn’t take it though,” I say. “Even during the war it was highly addictive and dangerous. I expect this crude looking manufacturing hasn’t done it any…” I’m cut off as some shouting echos down the hallway.

Hoofbeats quickly follow the voices and I begin to make out what they are saying, “Like I said, I heard shooting from up here. The fucks must have found a way inside behind us,” a mare’s voice calls out.

“Good!” shouts a buck. “I hope the others didn’t finish them off, i’ve been itching to kill something all day!” The sounds get closer until they seem just around the corner from us. I motion for everyone to hug the walls, except for Thunder who I have stand in the center. In this formation with Thunder at the center, Arrow, Rose and I are on his left and Lightning is on the right.

“Hey, don’t kill them all! I want to have some fun with them first!” Calls another mare. Shit, how many were there? In seconds, the first one comes around the corner, followed by four others. “Oh shit!” the mare in front calls out as Thunder’s minigun spins up.

Arrow shields Rose with her body as I drop to the floor and make myself as small a target as possible. Meanwhile, Lightning and Arrow open fire. Arrow’s bullet finds a buck’s left legs, piercing through both unarmored hunks of flesh.

Lightning sprays the pair closest to him as they fumble to bring their weapons to bear on us. I aim into the center of them and start pulling the trigger right as Thunder’s gun begins to roar to life. Arrow’s target falls on his side and receives a second bullet through his skull. One of Lightning’s falls to the ground with a thump as the other starts shooting madly at him.

The remaining two see Rose and myself, unarmored and focus their efforts on us, but as they do so my buckshot and Thunder’s swarm of bullets plows into them, causing them to shoot wildly as they trip over each other to get back around the corner.

Arrow sends a bullet through the rear leg of one right before they disappear from sight along with the one that was shooting at Lightning. “Fuckers!” I hear one call out from around the corner. A moment later, three metal apples fly around the corner and land in front of us. “How do you like them apples?” Another of the raiders calls out.

“Oh shit!” I scream as I drop my shotgun from my magic and scoop up the nearest grenade. I throw it out the nearest window. Arrow picks one up with her magic and throws it back around the corner. The third grenade is in the middle of us right in front of Thunder. Without hesitation, he throws his side onto the grenade.

Immediately after, all three blow up. Mine sends glass and brick spraying back into the hall, Arrow’s receives a chorus of “FUCK!” as red splashing into the hall and against the walls. The grenade under Thunder explodes, launching him a few inches in the air. I hear him call out as he crashes back down and red starts to seep out around him.

“Thunder!” I call out as I rush over to him. The others follow immediately after me. Surrounding Thunder, Arrow takes off his helmet and Lightning tries to help his brother up to his haunches. Thunder’s face is twisted in pain as he gets into a sitting position.

At this moment, I can see the slight smile on his face. “What? You think a grenade is going to take me out?” He says. “Grenades are my thing, remember?” Despite his encouraging words, the entire right side of his armor is crushed inwards, and from the cracks seeps blood. The minigun mounted on his side has been ruined, its barrels twisted at odd angles.

Arrow begins stripping the armor off his side and bandaging him up. Lightning separates the destroyed gun from his brother’s armor, and slams his hooves down in the dented metal, popping it back out the way it should be. While not in peak condition, it wouldn’t stab at Thunder’s side this way.

Somehow, Thunder manages to only have some cuts from the jagged edges of his armor when it got dented. Unfortunately, his only plausible weapon has been destroyed. But, it is a minor sacrifice as long as he is still alive. “Don’t do something like that again, alright?” I tell him. “There’s no need to sacrifice yourself for us.”

“It wasn’t a sacrifice,” Thunder replies while wincing from Arrow’s treatment. “Our armor is made to be able to take a grenade or two. Though, a rocket might be a different story. I wasn’t in any real danger.”

“He’s got a point, though I will agree, it was rash to do,” Lightning adds, finishing with his brother’s armor. “Good as new,” he says, kicking it back towards Thunder.

Arrow finishes up and Thunder gets to his hooves with a grunt. “Thanks,” he says as he puts his armor back on, except for his helmet, which he puts in his bag. “Sorry, Ratchet, but I think i’ll be needing to take one of their guns. I think i’ll take...this one,” he says, as he picks up a fairly good condition assault rifle and continues to loot the raider for more ammo.

“If you find any 5.56 on the others, toss it to me, will ya?” he says as he puts the rest of the raiders ammo into his bags and kicks me over a dose of Stampede. I pick it up, and proceed to loot the others. Two others have rifles and a good sum of 5.56 on them. I float it into Thunder’s bags and take everything else.

Like the others before, each one has a dose of Stampede on them, i’m up to seven now. Other than that, I find some caps, another SMG, two 10mm pistols, and plenty of 10mm ammo. As I get it all together and stand up, I say, “You know, I appreciate you letting me take all the loot, but honestly, I don’t think I can carry much more. Rose, you want anything?”

She shakes her head as she says, “If you can’t carry something, i’ll carry it for you. My bags are pretty light at the moment. But I don’t need anything.” I shrug my shoulders as we continue on, finding the stairs right around the corner.

We make it to our first stop without any more issues. I project the map once again, and plot us a course through the ruins. If we keep following my plan, we should reach the city in a few more hours. As we proceed through building after building, and cross street after street, we only find minor resistance from mutated animals such as bloatsprites.

We repeat my mapping process three times before coming to a large, crumbling overpass. It is a larger road than we’ve crossed before. “Stay sharp, we’ll be more exposed than usual crossing this road,” I say as I begin to lead us across.

Halfway across, and nothing has jumped out as us yet. Three-fourths of the way there, and nothing. Two feet from the next building, and a loud crack echoes through the city. An instant later a bullet pierces through my rear right leg. I trip mid-step and fall flat on my face as the others run to shield Rose and I as we move to the side of the building. Lightning grabs me with a hoof and drags me to my hooves, pulling me along.

Limping, I make it to the building with the others. Another loud crack, followed by a chunk of concrete exploding right next to my head, sending it cutting across my face. I flinch as the concrete dust gets in my eyes and the fresh cuts begin to send blood running down my muzzle.

Without wasting a moment, Thunder kicks in the door to the building and Lightning drags me inside while I remain dazed. The others follow and shut the door as best they can. I’m rubbing my eyes trying to clear them of dust as Arrow attempts to work on my wounded leg. “Shit, you good Ratchet?” Lightning asks as he looks around the room.

“Y-yea, i think so,” I reply. “Well, kind of. I can keep going,” I tell him. I mean, I did just get shot, but we can’t afford to sit around, they know where we are at. “Let’s keep moving,” I say as Arrow finished up on my leg, tying the magical bandage neatly around the wound. Down to one of those, I suppose. I hope I won’t need more.

The cuts on my face aren’t too bad, they should stop bleeding pretty quick. I frantically look around at the destroyed building we are in, some sort of hotel I think. I get my bearings, and begin to lead us south through the building, and into the alley between this building and the next. As soon as we are outside, however, a rocket detonates a foot away from us.

Lightning is closest to where it detonated, and as the dust settles, I can tell he is alright. “Keep moving!” I yell, as we smash through a window while another rocket is on its way. We pile in through the window seconds before it detonates, sending glass and mortar cascading down upon us.

“Well, this is going from bad to worse,” Thunder mutters as we run through the building. I thought we lost the raiders, what happened? Are they the same ones we lost earlier, or a new group?

We crash through the door leading to the street, only to be ambushed by four raiders. Thunder, Lightning, and Arrow quickly stand between Rose and I and the raiders. I peak around Lightning and fire a few shots of buckshot at a pair of the raiders. It strikes them and staggers them, allowing Lightning and Arrow to finish them off.

As I look to the other side, I see Thunder and Arrow just drop their opponents as well. Meanwhile, Rose is shaking behind Arrow, gun drawn and eyes wide. No time to loot, “Across the street!” I call out and begin charging towards the building across the street.

Gunfire begins to break out as we break into a department store and slam the door behind us. “Fuck! Do we just have bad luck, or do they know where we are going,” I say as I look around quickly. “We have to go, now!” I begin walking to the back of the store with the others close behind.

I reach the other side and start to open an employee entrance to the street beyond. Before I even get the door fully open, a hail of bullets start to ping off the door. I slam it shut and step away from it. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I scream. This wasn’t good. Did they have us trapped? “We might be stuck here,” I tell the others.

I stare at the door for a moment, eyes wide in panic, before Arrow puts a hoof on my shoulder. I turn to look at my friends, two wearing helmets with unreadable expressions, the terrified Rose, and Thunder, looking ready for orders. I relax for a moment and take a deep breath.

I close my eyes and think. After a moment, I open my eyes and give them a determined look. “Alright, they have us trapped. But, we aren’t done. Thunder, watch this door,” I say as I float out one of the mines, arm it, and place it in front of the door. Thunder nods, throws a table on its side and takes up position behind it.

“Lightning, watch the door we came from. Put this in front of the door,” I tell him, as I float the other mine over to him. He nods and takes off for the other entrance. “Rose, I think there is a circular sales desk in the middle of this floor. I want you to go and hide behind it. No matter what direction they come from, you’ll have protection,” I tell her.

She stares blankly at me for a moment, before blinking, nodding, and running off. “Arrow, you take the west side and make sure there are no other entrances there. I’ll look to the east. If you find one, yell...or, well, give me a signal or something I guess,” I say to her. She gives me a salute and takes off.

Alright, we can do this. We’ll hold this position, get our bearings, and take out any that try to get in. We need to rest, to catch our breath. Get our hooves under us again. I nod to myself, confirming my plan and begin to search the east for any other entrances.

After a quick trot along the wall, I confirm that there are no windows or doors. As I recall the map, that makes sense. No doubt Arrow found the same. If I remember correctly, this building is attached to the ones on either side of it. I return to Rose in the center. A few moments later, Arrow comes back and confirms that there are no entrances.

“Alright, they have two ways to get in. If we watch them, we should be fine,” I declare. I turn my attention to Rose, who looks quite shaken. “Rose, everything will be alright. We’ll make it. Just a few blocks more, and we’ll be there,” I tell her. She shakily nods, but doesn’t say anything. “Arrow, stay with her. I’m going to check in with the others,” I say as I begin walking over towards Thunder’s position at the south.

As I approach, I notice he has overturned a few more tables and fortified his position. I go over the plan with him, he gives me his approval and I head north of talk with Lightning. Similar to his brother, Lightning agrees and has fortified his position. Multiple tables overturned. Though, Lightning’s has a little more finesse in its design than his brother’s.

I return to Arrow and Rose in the center of the building and give Rose a bottle of Sparkle Cola. She takes it gratefully and begins sipping it. I pocket the bottle cap, of course. We sit in silence as we wait.

After two hours, the raiders still have not made an attempt to enter the store. They do, however, continue to holler at us. Thinks like, “Just come on out, we only want to play!”, “You’ll have to come out eventually!”, or even “Get out here you fucks!” A large variety of obscenities have been thrown at us, but nothing more.

From the amount of voices I manage to distinguish, I estimate at least a dozen at each entrance. An hour ago, Arrow and I went to the second floor windows in an attempt to find their positions and take a few out with our rifles. However, as soon as we approached the windows their snipers kept us from looking outside for more than a few seconds.

“Fuck…” I sigh as I slump against the desk. I figured they would at least try to come in and we could thin some of them out. But, it seems they are attempting to put us under siege. I roll my head back and look up at the ceiling, losing myself in thought.

My wounded leg was starting to hurt, causing me to snap back to reality. “Alright. Hey, Lightning,” I call over to him. “Come here. It’s not like they are going to come in anyway. Even if they do, we’ll know right away,” I say in a more relaxed tone that I should have in this situation. After a moment, Lightning hops over the desk with us.

“What’s up?” he asks. I look at him with a blank expression and shrug my shoulders. “What does that mean? You called me over, remember?” He says with a hint of irritation in his voice.

“I got a plan. A stupid plan,” I say, as I roll my head to the side. “Let’s go meet up with Thunder, I’ll explain it then,” I say, rising to my hooves and climbing over the desk. After a few moments of hesitation, the others follow.

“Hey Thunder,” I say as I approach. “I think it’s time we leave,” I say with little emotion in my voice. I sigh. It is almost like I am depressed. But, I know I’m feeling this way because this is a really stupid plan, and I really don’t want to do this.

“Whenever you’re ready boss,” Thunder replies. “But, how do you plan on doing that?” He asks. I nod my head as everyone gathers around. I let out another sigh as I prepare the details in my head.

“We go out guns blazing,” I tell them flatly. Well, that’s part of the plan anyhow. Now, for the sucky part. “But first, lend me some of your grenades, Thunder. About five will do. I’d like six, but I don’t think I could pull that off,” I say, muttering the last part quieter than the rest.

“Sure thing, but what do you plan to do with them?” He asks, digging out five grenades from his bags and setting them in front of me. I pick them up in my magic and float them beside me.

“I’m going out first,” I say as I draw the poor quality shotgun from my bag along with two doses of Dash. “I’ll shoot off the door’s hinges, drop this shotgun, grab the door in my telekinesis, and use it as a shield as I charge outside. Once outside, I’ll take one of the Dash and then find out where the raiders are positioned. I’ll then use the grenades to attempt to kill them, or catch them off guard,” I declare.

If I could see their faces, besides Rose’s, which was looking at me in shock, I bet they would be wearing the same expression. But I wasn’t done explaining yet. “Once I toss the grenades, I’ll slam the door into the ground and use it as cover, freeing up my magic to use my SMG. At this point, the Dash should wear off, which is where the second dose comes in,” I pause as I look them over.

“As soon as I pick up the door, you four will count to seven and follow me out. Keep Rose between you. Rose, pick up the shotgun I drop, if you can. Once in the street, engage any raiders you see while moving towards me. Once we are together, I’ll pick the door back up and use it as a shield for us as we move across the street and into the next building. Got it?” I ask.

Lightning is the first to speak up, “You are fucking crazy if you think that we’ll…”

“Shut up!” I yell at him. “I know, this is going to suck. I could even die, in fact, if I don’t i’ll be surprised. So listen, whatever it takes, I will make sure you all make it across the street safely. So do as I say,” I say, almost pleading with them.

Lightning sits and crosses his front legs. “No,” he says simply. However, Thunder and Arrow walk past me towards the door, Arrow deactivates the mine and floats it back into my bag. They take up positions on either side of the door.

“Whenever you’re ready boss,” Thunder says in a pained tone. Arrow nods in agreement.

Lightning lets out a sigh. “Idiots. But,” he rises to his hooves, “when they are like this, there’s no talking sense into them. He walks up to me and mutters, “I won’t forgive you if you die, Ratchet,” before taking his place next to Thunder.

Rose looks confused between us before she runs over to Arrow’s side. I walk a few feet from the door, close my eyes and take a deep breath. Slowly, I open them again and look at the ponies next to the door, looking at me, waiting for me. I grit my teeth, and float the shotgun up next to the bottom hinge.

Now! I pull the trigger, shattering the rusted hinge as I float the gun up to the top one and repeat the process. As soon as the door is free, I charge at it, drop the shotgun from my magic and pick up the door up. Heavier than I expect, but that just means it will be a good shield.

Already, bullets are bouncing off the door and building as I sprint through the doorway. One second, I make it a foot from the building. Two seconds, I take the first dose of Dash. Two and a half seconds, I pull the pins from all five grenades. Three seconds, I toss the first grenade at a pair of raiders to my left. Three and a half seconds, I toss the second grenade at three raiders at my 10 o’clock. Four seconds, the third grenade flies at a four of ponies behind some sandbags directly across the street.

Four and a half seconds, the fourth grenade is sent express to a pair nearing 3 o’clock. Five seconds, the fifth grenade soars for three raiders to my right. Six seconds, I reach the middle of the street. Six and a half seconds, I jam the door in the road horizontally. Seven seconds, the others charge out and begin shooting as I feel a bullet penetrate my flank. Seven and a half seconds, the grenades explode as I draw my SMG.

Eight seconds, I open fire at the ponies across the road from me as the flee the explosion. Nine seconds, I confirm the grenades killed five as I shoot to my right. Ten seconds, my friend make it a third of the way to me and have taken out two raiders. Eleven seconds, I feel the Dash about to wear off and put the second dose in my muzzle, pushing down on the injector.

Eleven and a half seconds, I toss aside the empty dose as I exhale a pink mist and level my SMG at my 3 o’clock. Thirteen seconds, I finish off the pair at my 3 o’clock. Fifteen seconds, I feel another round punch into my left foreleg as I reload the SMG. Seventeen seconds, I finish off the group in front of me as my friends reach me.

Nineteen seconds, and I turn my head just in time to have a bullet fly through my mane. Nineteen and a half seconds, and I point the sniper out to Arrow. Twenty one seconds, Arrow takes out the sniper as my second dose of Dash wears off. “FUCK!” I cry out as the pain of my wounds finally reaching my brain.

I wince as i pick the door up once again and swing it to our left. It seems all the raiders on our right have been dealt with and only four raiders remain. With the metal door between us and the raiders, we reach the building without further injury while the others take shots at them. I move to open the door, but find it to be a metal door chained shut with a sturdy lock.

I raise my shotgun to shoot off the lock as I hear the raiders from the north side of the previous building just reaching this street. I pull the trigger, but the buckshot only ricochets off the lock and hits me in the chest with a few pellets. I call out as I drop the shotgun from my magic and stagger back.

Shaking my head, I look behind us, from both sides of the street, more raiders have appeared. Thunder, Arrow, and Lightning move to stand between Rose and I and the raiders on the side opposite the makeshift door cover. “I can’t get the door open!” I say as I hold a hoof to my bleeding chest.

Fuck, could this get any worse? I think to myself. As if on cue, a loud roar echoes through the street. I hear the beating of wings right as a giant beast lands in the middle of the street. A lion’s head, wings of a bat, and the tail of a scorpion. “Oh fuck,” I mutter under my breath as my eyes go wide.

“Don’t move,” Lightning says as our group stops shooting all together. At the same time, the raiders stop shooting at us, and begin to shoot at the manticore. It lets out another roar and charges towards the nearest group, slashing its mighty claws and cleaving two raiders in half instantly.

I swallow hard as I watch it mercilessly attack the raiders. Within seconds, it kills the raiders on that side of the road and with a mighty rush of its wings, flies across the street into the other group. I keep watching until a metal hoot strikes my cheek.

Blinking a few times, I realize that Arrow hit me. I shake my head to collect myself and think. “Get away from the door,” I say, as I float out the remaining frag mine and set it on the chains holding the door closed. I arm it and back away from the door before covering my face and shooting it with my shotgun.

A metal rending explosion resounds before quickly dying down. As i look at where the door once stood, now a gaping entryway remained. “Inside, now!” I yell as I look towards the manticore. It has finished with the raiders and is now flying towards us.

I sprint through the doorway, followed by Rose, Arrow, Thunder, and...Lightning! Right as he is about halfway through the doorway, the manticore reaches out with its claws and catches him in the rear legs. I watch in horror as chunks of metal fly from the beast’s claws and Lightning is sent flying into the building and against a wall.

For a moment, I think the monster is about to descend upon us, but then I realize it is too big to fit in the doorway. It flails its claws around just inside the doorway and growls at us, but makes it no further. I fall to my haunches along with Rose and Arrow and Thunder run over to help Lightning.

I want to join them, but I can’t bring myself to move right now. I look down and see the blood pooling under me. Oh yea, I had been shot. My head begins to spin as I fish out the remains of the healing potion from my bags. I drink it as quickly as i can and then use my remaining regular bandage to wrap my injured foreleg.

It is a pretty shitty job, and Arrow would have done much better, but considering my vision kept flashing white, I think I did a pretty good job. White, normal, white, normal, white, and then darkness.

Level Up! x2

+17 Small Guns
+13 Medicine
+9 Explosives
+3 Melee Weapons

New Perk!
-Skittish - You’ve proven to be quite unpredictable under pressure. When under the effects of Dash, you have a 25% chance to enter a SATS-like state