Chapter 15: Pearly Gates

The Figure sat there in silence.

Dawn sat there in silence.

It was just them.

No Trouble.

No Ranger.

No Pony.

Just a little girl who lost her innocence and a faceless bastard asking her how she done it.

“I don’t hate you for this.” Dawn said, avoiding eye contact, she had to tell him.

The Figure raised his head about to speak but Dawn cut him off.

“I know more about you than you think I know. The signs are there, all I did was read them.”

The Figure shifted slightly, his hooves still crossed across the metal table. Dawn extended her hoof to him, he shrunk away.

She shook her head, “He’s not what you think he is, none of them are. He wasn’t the family, only part of it. Just because Trouble adopted me doesn’t mean that I am him, you should know better.” Dawn was never good with words, but she felt this should suffice. She really didn’t hate him, that was no lie to earn sympathy.

The Figure slunk backwards, his hooves leaving the table. He exhaled.

“Don’t tell me about your ‘family’ it was just Trouble trying to re-fabricate the Death Dealers in his own sick little way. You were all just a bunch of misfits and murderers, so I guess in a way he succeeded. And if you think for one second Trouble took you in, you’re wrong. He wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire. I do know better Dawn, and I act as such.”

Dawn sat there absorbing his less than kind words, she slunk backwards as well, each feeling alien towards one another.

Dawn bit her lip, and came back with a gentle yet short rebuttal.

“Fuck you too.” She said grinning stupidely.

The Figure let out a small chuckle, very out of character for him.

“C’mon lets get this over with.” Dawn said smiling.

“We were coming up into Freeside that place was a fucking dump.”

_____________________________________________________________________

It was late evening, the orange shade the of dusk was cast over the wastes. Infront of them less than 400 yards away was a circular metal fortification. The sun enhancing the already visible rust, a bright burnt orange aura was being given off as they encroached. Behind the shabby metalwork black smoke clouds were rising.

The gate to this slum was open, it was a large metal gate that met half way with another metal panel. Easily 10 times larger than a pony at about 60-70 feet in height.

Dawn could see inside if she squinted, the place was lined with ragged ponies loitering in small groups, drinking cheap beer, fondling primitive weapons and huddling around fires they made inside barrels.

Dawn had long since wiped the tears from her face and walked it off, but she felt vulnerable. Trouble at the head of the column turned his head and called back to Dawn and Night Light.

“Safety’s off, I dun nay like these fuckers.” He grunted with disdain in his voice.

They approached the gate, high above the metal slides was written in smashed neon lights in an attempt to make the place less hostile.

“Welcome to Freeside.” Somehow it was the most unwelcoming sight Dawn could imagine for this place.

They walked inside, all around them was bleak grey ruins littered with  vagrants and other undesirables. They were surrounded by thugs trying to look tough. Many stared at them with contempt, trying to look unimpressed. Many squatters lay among the crumbling debris of the buildings, one of them a small pink filly the stains on her coat contrasting with her bright coat was coughing up blood.

Others nudged each other and pointed in awe towards the armed ponies ambling boldly amongst them.

Trouble kept his eyes centred on the road all the while, his ears twitching the odd time. Night Light was scanning the streets with narrowed eyes, Dawn could have sworn she was counting.

Dawn felt intimidated. These destroyed high rise structures, street urchins darting around alleys. This overcrowded slum was making her nervous. All those eyes riveted on her, as they walked the murky streets. All the while there was a deafening permanent background noise, cries or gunshots, or idle chatter. The occasional malicious laugh echoing throughout demolished streets.

Dawn felt a chill creep down her spine, all these ponies were beyond the point of caring, how could they live in this filth? In this hellish pit of sickness and poverty? In her heart she knew the answer, but didn’t want her brain to accept it.

To their right the street was riddled with kiosks and single story shops brightly lit inside. Most of what they were selling was junk, putrefied meat and dirty water. All the ponies here had filthy faces, their coats and manes stained. At the end of the road was a burnt out building and a T-Junction.

At each corner of the road was a hooded character slinging something in cellophane bags to eager customers.

They came to the junction, Dawn had an overwhelming urge to just unload into the fucking crowd, but she knew better. The horde of sick and impoverished ponies would be upon her in seconds, and maybe not even the Red Queen’s level of bloodshed would be enough of a deterrent.

There was others like them, travellers poorly armed shuffling through the streets trying to avoid attention. Dawn wanted to do what they were doing but Trouble had an air of confidence about him, she always found it best to follow his lead. Just do as he does and you’ll be fine.

There was a band of 3 travellers ahead of them. Insecure of their surroundings, hurriedly shuffling along. Concealed by black filthy cloaks from the long road.

Four of the thugs approached the travellers, adorning ripped clothing and makeshift weapons. Crowbars, lead pipes and baseball bats. One beige unicorn pony stepped forward as the leader. He spoke with a jumpy voice.

“Watcha hauling?” His voice excited and uneasy.

The beige unicorn’s head was twitching, cocking while he made weird ticking noises.

The travellers ignored the sporadic unicorn and increased their speed.

The thug thundered in front of them, blocking their path, he halted them with his bat. Swinging it out to the lead pony’s chest.

“Nuh-uh, cough up. Pay the toll fucker, everything ya got. Or me and my boys here will waste you sorry sons of bitches. Ya dig?” The unicorn asked his voice giddy, you could almost see the excitement seething from between his brown teeth.

The cloaked ponies stopped, forming a tight band. The thugs encircled them. Dawn felt her lip quiver, she reached for Amigo but Night Light stopped her, shaking her head in silence.

They stopped to watch the scene unfold.

The unicorn leader fuming stepped up “Hey! You Deaf! Pay the fuck up!” He jabbed the cloaked pony in the chest with his bat.

The pony staggered, a feminine grunt came out. To which the beige unicorn laughed.

“Hehehe, too easy, pay up skank. Or I’ll make a real mare outta you.” He moved in close to her, breathing on her concealed face.

She began to shake at what Dawn assumed was fear, she spoke.

“When somepony tries to block, show them that You Rock!” The Mare growled.

She snatched the bat from the Unicorn’s grasp with her teeth and swung it into his big mouth, with a sickening crack shards of shattered teeth flew from his bloody maw.

She spat out the bat and ripped free of her cloak, exposing a lime coated earth pony mare with a blond mane in a black 3 piece business suit. Wrapped around both her shoulders was a holster holding a sleek well preserved pistol, Dawn could see from where she was. Boldly printed on it’s slide M1911.

All at once the other concealed ponies burst from their cloaks, revealing two more sharply dressed ponies; one sand coloured earth pony stallion with an oiled back brown mane and goatee with an identical suit and guns. And the last concealed pony  was a blue unicorn mare with a fiery red mane, she was much smaller than the others but just as fierce. She was in a hunched position snarling in a suit identical to the others and the guns to match.

The thugs all at once backed down, one even fled from the ponies. They in unison reached for their pistols, they small unicorn going for both, growling as she did.

The lead mare aimed for the the lead thug’s head “Tsk, tsk you should know how to treat a lady.” She snidely said.

“BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG” The ponies unloaded into the thugs, two shots from each, killing all four. Precision shooting from the immaculate ponies.

Dawn looked to Trouble for guidance, shocked and in awe of these ponies, he had a ridiculous smirk on his face.

“Show Ponies.” He began “ Assassins from the ‘Thundering Herd’ watch and learn kid, these ponies are professionals.” He concluded, energized.

One of the corner gangs, a shifty group of 6 pulled rusted machine pistols breaking ranks, before they even had them to chamber a round the Show Ponies were upon them. With one unified motion they unloaded into the gang swiftly cutting them down, the slides of the immaculate pistols expelling bullets at a phenomenal rate. The bellowing of the pistols silenced the entire street, the muzzle flash flaring their stoic faces.

Smoke rose from the piping hot barrels and the retracted slides of their pistols, the ponies stood watching the murdered group for no clear reason.

Dawn’s mouth hung agape at their speed and combat prowess. They were a magnificent spectacle, those well groomed shooters. As soon as they began to lower their weapons a trio burst from a nearby building. Headed by an obese middle aged stallion smoking a cigar carrying a pump action shotgun.

He and his companions, two grizzly ponies wearing bent out of shape sunglasses pulled sub machine guns from their backs, the grossly overweight  stallion pumped a shell into the breach. With that solid and unmistakable noise, the small unicorn hit the deck with her two emptied pistols as the other two Show Ponies reached for their secondaries spitting out the empty pistols.

The two Show Ponies threw themselves forward, diving unto the ground while gripping their spare pistols. The rag tie thugs were too surprised by their actions to think quick enough and “BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!!!”

The overweight stallion’s body fat was splayed over the ground as the bullets tore through him and his entourage. The Show Ponies slide across the ground came to a dusty halt.

The entire street fell deathly silent, no more gangs made any moves. The Show Ponies slowly and Dawn thought given their position elegantly rose from the dirty street, patting themselves down from the grime.

They reclaimed and reloaded their pistols, all except the small unicorn she was scanning the semi demolished high rise buildings. As if on cue a band of four emerged at windows with rifles peering down upon them, the small mare let out a vengeful cry.

In a split second her guns were reloaded and she frantically fired upon them. The exchange of fire only lasted a moment the small mare cut down all four ponies in a blaze of lead.

She worked from left to right cutting them down 2 shots a piece. All except for the last one, he refused to fall down, the mare screamed and fired into him with venomous fury in her cries. The lead perforated the resilient stallion, chunks of his innards left his body in humongous exit wounds.

Finally the pistols’ slides locked backwards, the peppered stallion, trembled his body began to slouch. The small mare cried up.

“Fall You Fucker!” In an enraged high pitch voice. She was the only one who didn’t pat herself down of all the filth.

The stallion gave in, he fell forward soundlessly off the side. His body landed with a loud “Thud”

The little blue mare smiled in satisfaction.

The Show Ponies had concluded business. All of them were about to reclaim their cloaks and proceed when Trouble started boisterously laughing.

“HAHAHAHAHA! Fillies and Gentlecolts! I give to you, the Show Ponies!” His laughter continued.

The Show Ponies abandoned their cloaks instead they formed up to face Trouble.

The small blue mare was quivering with rage.

She screamed in her high voice “I Amuse You!?”

The Stallion with the oiled hair came forward to try and sooth the small mare.

“Easy, Tyke. He don’t mean nothing by it.” He leaned inward and whispered something into her ear.

Once he began speaking she exploded with pent up anger.

“I’m not gonna let that cunt take the piss outta me!” She roared.

The Stallion backed away looking disappointed.

The little pony stepped forward her cheeks red with rage.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you know who we are!?! Do you have any idea who you’re fucking with!?” She spat at Trouble, his smile never fell. If anything he was enjoying her abuse, he found it amusing. Dawn was shying behind him, getting nervous.

Trouble took out a cigarette, he lolled the butt around in his mouth before lighting it.

He inhaled deeply, the embers draining as he sucked on it. He rose his head into the air and exhaled slowly savouring the buzz that whirled around his head. The little mare went to charge Trouble infuriated by his ignorance of her, before the Stallion restrained her.

At this Trouble began

“I think I’m Trouble, I think I’m a bad bastard. I think your Show Ponies, some other bad bastards, and I think I’m fuckin with professionals, so let’s treat each other as such.”

The small mare calmed slightly, enough at least for the stallion to stop restraining her with his hoof.

Her face was still venomous, Trouble rose unto his hind hooves exposing the length of his armour and flashing his pistols. He settled his hooves on the grips.

The lead mare spoke up “Tyke, chill out! Sorry about this!” The mare called over slightly embarrassed by her comrade’s actions to Trouble.

Trouble chuckled one final time “Nuthin to be sorry fir, nice ta see there are a few professionals still goin’ this ol’ stallion can’t keep runnin’ fir much longer afterall!”

The mare approached them, her companions staying stoic behind her, the stallion  attempting to ease the fiery one, Tyke.

She cocked an eyebrow quizzical “Do I know you?”

“Maybe,” He vaguely said “Trouble they call me.” He stagnantly added.

The mare’s face was shocked, or confused, but Dawn recognized it as the exact same face Night Light pulled when Trouble revealed his name to her.

“The Trouble?”  She asked skeptically.

“Yeah, why not?” Trouble chimed.

“Eleventh Black Joker? Death Dealer? Belonging to,” Trouble cut her off

“House of Spades yeah yeah, I know my own life story backwards thanks, I pissed off you’re eh ‘little’ friend there, I always liked Show Ponies. I’ll buy ya a round at the Coltic.” Trouble had appreciation in his voice. For what Dawn hadn’t a clue, his ways were still largely a mystery to her. So were the ways of the wasteland in general.

The lead mare smiled, “The name’s Flint Fang, the stallion over there is Blood Letter and the mare is Little Tyke, but for the love of Celestia jus call her Tyke.” Dawn looked behind the mare, out of earshot the one identified as Tyke was having a heated argument with Blood Letter. There was a lot of hoof pointing going on.

Trouble took charge of the conversation returning the courtesy “The kid with the rifle is Black Dawn, she’s my sniper and this ‘ere is Night Light a Marizona Ranger, formerly anyway.” Night Light shot Trouble a dirty look, he looked back at her as if to say “What?”

 Flint Fang cleared her throat and cautiously asked “Isn’t she a little... green to be with you?” She gestured to Dawn, she looked over Dawn inspecting her for weakness, her eyes riveted on her scar.

“Nah, she doesn’t look it but the kid’s an artist with that rifle.” Trouble said confidently, Dawn felt flattered. She silently thanked Celestia for her jet black coat so they wouldn’t be able to see her blush. She felt vulnerable enough out here.

Flint Fang began nodding sheepishly when she said “Enough dawdling, you wanna roll with us?”

Trouble shrugged his shoulders “Psshhh Why not?”

“Tyke! Letter! We’re moving with these cats!” she called back to her companions, they shot each other a look before bundling their capes into their suits somewhere, Dawn found it weird that these ponies were forsaking saddlebags.

_____________________________________________________________________

The two bands integrated into one solid unit, mouths hung agape as they strutted down the ruinous streets of Freeside. They were no longer keeping silent or maintaining a low profile, through the Show Ponies valiant performance and strength in numbers.

 The loiters and gangs jaws’ were wide as the formidable band of half a dozen wandered through talking amongst themselves.

Dawn had begun her first proper conversation with a stranger... Little Tyke, she found she was a little short fused but generally a likable pony.

“So where you from?” Tyke asked Dawn, making casual conversation as Trouble chatted away with Flint Fang and Night Light with Blood Letter.

“NCR, Dry Town, ever hear of it?” Dawn asked, she was finding this pleasant, it took her mind off where she was. And all those eyes boring into her.

“Can’t say I have, nice country?” Tyke asked her high voice had a certain cuteness to it.

“No, where you from?” Dawn quickly deflected not wanting to dive further into it.

“The Fringe, you probably heard of it.” Tyke replied, Dawn’s lack of general knowledge failed her again, she thought it best to try and play it cool. A.k.a Mimicking Tyke. Or any pony else she gauged as “Cool.”

“Can’t say I have, is it nice there?” Dawn was doing a good job of socialising, it was never one of her strong points.

Tyke let out a sigh “Nope, the Fringe is hell. Or on the edge of it anyway.”

She left it there but Dawn pressed for answers.

“Edge of hell?” asked Dawn baffled.

“To the South west of the Fringe Mountain range is hell, the fiery tundra some call it. We call it hell, I’ll tell you about it when we’re on the strip, over a few drinks maybe...” Tyke’s voice grew quiet, Dawn hadn’t any idea why. Maybe for a fiery pony, she was a shy one and the anger was her way of venting her insecurities.

“Sure, why not.” Dawn said desperately searching in her mind how to make a friend, so far so good though.

Tyke sharply turned her head to face her “Really?” She sounded surprised.

Dawn taken back by her inexperience of how to handle social situations and her inability to read emotions didn’t really know what to do.

“Eh, yeah why wouldn’t I?”  Dawn bashfully asked.

Tyke looked her in the eye a little confused, but her eyes quickly jumped to Dawn’s spiralling scar, “How the buck did you get such a sick scar?” Tyke asked a small smirk on her mouth.

“Eh...” dawn replied, she didn’t think her scar looked ‘sick’ she actually thought it looked good. Maybe she was wrong... So instead of answering Tyke she kept silent, Tyke kept looking at her in hopes of a response but got none.

She exhaled at Dawn’s stonewalling “Later than.”

Luckily the awkwardness came to an abrupt end, around the final corner of this shithole Dawn was trying to block out was something of divine beauty.

A gateway. More than that though. This was Celestia’s downscaled version of the outer gate. This straight road was the only angle at which the divinity of the legendary city could be basked in. The walls surrounding the gate were made from stainless chromed metal, there were white steel plates that were adorned with bronze filigree, or was it gold? The Lights on the top were so crystal clear and pure they could have been pure energy, reading

“Welcome to Las Pegas Enjoy your stay!”

Their party stopped all at once, even the hardened Trouble whose seen more than anypony probably should ever have to see halted to admire it. Dawn’s mouth watered slightly, she struggled to crane her neck down to street level, every part of her urned to be there. Behind the Heaven those gates greedily kept from her.

All along the street, were ponies doing the exact same, frozen solid, just staring idly at the brightly lit buildings and their odd impossible beauty this picture of old world glory portrayed.

All this time, this had been her goal. Trouble promised her since Dead Water that she would be here. It wasn’t easy, he never said it would be. Her salvation awaited, her escape from torment was almost complete.

All that stood between her and freedom was the gate, where she would be deemed worthy of release.

All the things that have happened to her over the last week, they were tests. testing her meddle, to see if this whelp had it in her to become so much more. Rebirth awaited beyond that gate.

A new life, free of isolation and torment.

Free of the chains her old life held her by.

Free of her boring, dull, pained existence.

A new dawn.

A new day.

A new life.

And one that was filled with Trouble.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Stubbornite Skeleton -- You’re one stubborn bastard to kill. With the Stubbornite Skeleton perk you’re limbs only receive 50% of the damage they normally would.