Silver Skies

Chapter 4. Falling into the Black

Authors note: Congratulations to RavenSong for her idea for Orion’s cutiemark and talent. Out of all the entrees I got, this one fit so well it had to be used!
Also props to deathtap for being an epic proofreader!

It had been almost two weeks since we had made our return to Radar. Two fun and confusion filled weeks.

Nighteyes had become a favourite with the town's younger ponies, the little fuzzball let them chase him around town all day. Silver Skies had become my stalker. Every time I Looked around there she was, peeking around a corner or crouched behind something... always blushing when I looked her way. I still was unsure on how to deal with her, I mean I liked her. I really liked her! But after her life to date she deserved somepony better than a smart mouthed pegasus with epic hair.

As for Ironclad? He had spent that time hiding from Happy Trails. When Happy finally noticed Severance she was reduced to near hysterics. That girl is a total gun nut!

I was wandering around town in search of Ironclad. He had promised me yesterday that he would teach me to shoot, and with what he did to the firing range I was convinced he was the pony for the job! The range used to consist of five logs with target rings roughly painted across the chipped bark. Ironclad had taken it as a personal insult at the low quality and enlisted Dozer in his project. Three days later the range was transformed; The logs had been replaced with steel plates mounted at different ranges. A wind powered turning belt moved small targets the size of playing cards along at always changing speeds. The range was helping a lot of ponies get better with their guns... except me. My current skill was... well I was a terrible shot at best. Vista’s aim assist was a great help but I had real issues with shots over a hundred yards and as for moving targets? Best not to think about it.

I headed to the Array, wondering if Happy had any idea where to find Ironclad. With her fixation on his guass cannon she had to have some idea where to look. Dozer waved me through the door. Being friends with Happy and Blackshot meant I pretty much had the run of the town.

A gunshot echoed from Happy’s workshop followed by muffled shouting. I burst through the door, wings spread in a fighting stance. Ironclad stood frozen in his armour, a spark round still crackling on his armoured leg. Happy stood with both front hooves on Severance, a screwdriver in her mouth, wrenches, pliers and a smoking pistol levitated around her head.

With a sheepish smile the blue unicorn spat out the screwdriver. “This isn't what it looks like!”

“So you never immobilized Iron so you could take his gun apart?”

“Ok, so maybe it is what it looks like...”

“Happy, Can you get his armour working again?”

“We do have a few damaged PipBuck’s our scavenger teams have recovered so in theory I should be able to reboot the spell matrix with the core programs.”

“Once more for the not so smart pony please.”

Happy gave a sigh, “Yes I should be able to get this armour moving again but it will take a few hours to find a PipBuck with a fully functional O.S.”

“Can't you just use my PipBuck?”

“No offense Orion, but I have no idea what that thing can do or even if it is a Stabletech model.”

“So this PipBuck isn't normal?”

“It decrypted a military frequency, it has an A.I. program built into it so... no it's not a normal one.”

Ironclad’s muffled shouts through the metal of his helmet reminded me I was forgetting him. With a bit of fumbling at the catches I managed to remove it. Iron looked from me to Happy and shouted, “Keep that fucking crazy bitch away from me!”

I had to admit, seeing the one pony army himself scared of a cute mare was pretty funny. Still with help from Happy and her levitating tools we soon had him out of his Power Armour. Without his trademark gear Ironclad looked surprisingly thin. His blue coat with crisscrossed with faded scars. His cutiemark was surprising, I had expected a crosshair or maybe an explosion, instead his flank sported a large red bound book. I was going to ask about it but the smoldering glare he was still directing at Happy convinced me not to press the issue.

Happy gave us a bright grin, “So I hear you're going to teach Orion to shoot? Then he will need his weapons!”

Happy’s horn glowed pale blue as she levitated Vengeance and my 9mm pistol down and fastened them to me. Her fixed grin was kind of unnerving to say the least. Then I noticed how her eyes repeatedly flicked to Iron’s guns where I had left them on the workbench.

“Happy... you're planning to strip Severance as soon as we are out of the door aren't you?”

Happy gave me a pout, a sure sign I had hit the nail on the head. “Maaaybe...”

“Happy. As hard as it is for me to say this, if you mess with Ironclad’s guns while we are gone and his armour isn’t repaired then I’ll have Dozer do all of my gun maintenance from now on.”

“Dozer? But he doesn't clean the barrel or polish the breach! He doesn't even take the mechanisms apart before oiling them! If he even cleaned your saddle then it would explode when you...” Happy sighed, “Ok, Orion you win. I’ll just get his armour running.” The disappointed expression on my friend almost made me feel bad but if this is what it took for her to stop and not do something she would regret later, then so be it.

Happy opened a draw on her workbench and lifted out a selection of PipBuck’s. As we left I flashed a smile at the window where a silver face dipped below the window pane with a loud squeak, leaving Happy muttering under her breath me and Iron headed out.

Ironclad muttered under his breath almost constantly as we trotted to the firing range, for once I resisted the urge to smartass him. Who am I kidding? Let the smartassery begin! “Iron? what do you think of Happy?”

The scary eyed pony gave me a look, “You want my honest opinion?”

“Of course! I’m thinking of setting you two up on a date after all!”

Ironclad’s eyes grew wide. “You wouldn't dare! Kid, I've faced killer robots without batting an eyelid. I've killed feral ghouls by the dozen and even a hydra once, all with a smile. Happy Trails scares the fuck out of me. When that girl sees a gun she wants to mess with it. It's like a switch is flipped. Nopony is safe!”

“That and she has a cute flank.”

“Right, she does have a cute flank. Gun craziness aside, she is one fine looking mare.” Iron stopped and turned slowly to me with an apprehensive look. I had fluttered along beside him while he ranted and had recorded him with my PipBuck.

“Orion, please tell me you didn't do what I think you just did...”

I tapped a button and Iron’s voice played, “...she does have a cute flank. Gun craziness aside, she is one fine looking mare.” The look of horror on his face was priceless.

“Kid, I’ll pay you whatever you want to delete that recording.”

“Oh I think I will hang on to this for future blackmailing.”

“Orion, one of these days you will annoy the wrong pony and get shot for it.”

“One day maybe.” I gave Ironclad a wide grin. “So before we get started shooting things can I ask you something?”

“If you're just going to annoy me again...”

“Oh, no I just wanted to ask what EFS and SATS is. I keep hearing the terms but I got no clue what they mean.”

Now in my time in the wastelands I have had a lot of ‘are you serious’ looks but the one I recieved then could have been framed and used as an example to future generations of ponies. In short I was impressed, heck I fought the urge to clap.

“You're joking right? Please tell me you're not serious?”

I just gave a small wing shrug, I wasn't going to lie. I had no clue at all.

“What does your PipBuck’s HUD show you?”

“Well I have an ammo counter, It names stuff I look at in green boxes. Oh there's also a bar labeled HP”

“How the fuck are you still alive, kid?”

“Pure talent my yellow-eyed friend, That and I’m far too pretty for Celestia to let me die.” I ran a hoof slowly through my mane with my other front hoof resting on my flank.

Iron actually laughed, “Goddesses dammit, kid your stupid fucking jokes should not be so much fun! Ok, EFS stands for Eyes Forward Sparkle. It is basically a compass that sits on the top of your HUD and shows you direction and any tags on your map. It also uses a threat detection system, yellow bars show non hostile creatures while red show things that will kill you just for existing.”

“So it's sort of a friend and foe detector?”

“Exactly, Now SATS is harder to explain. When the spell is triggered time for you slows to a crawl, a second becomes roughly ten minutes. Now, When in this state you will see enemies covered with a green outline. Focusing your sight on any part of them will give you a percentage number. The closer to 100% the higher the chance to hit it will be, you can target attacks up in a queue and when the spell is released your weapon will fire automatically.”

I could hear my brain break as Iron explained; EFS was pretty simple but SATS seemed confusing as hell. Still I nodded like I understood. If Iron continued with an explanation like that my brain would melt down in protest!

To distract myself I flipped my PipBucks radio on, just in time to catch the end of one of DJ Pon3’s news segments.

“...and finally some news from up north; ponies rejoice! Trottingham has fallen and Redeye’s operation has been all but wiped out. Now children I know what you're thinking ‘But DJ Pon3, The Steel Rangers have been trying to take Trottingham all year!’ Well my little ponies this is where the story gets strange - a single pony, just one single pony, went in there and obliterated the largest of the slaving gangs and then did Equestria an even bigger favor and took down the alicorn in charge. Unbelieveable I know, but there’s more! This pony was not the Stable Dweller. Nor was it Security. No this is the part that warms my heart: a young pegasus buck did it.

“Now I know what you're thinking but this was no Enclave soldier. This was a youngster who went to Trottingham to visit a grave of all things. One of the former slaves freed by this young hero visited Tenpony Tower yesterday and gave my assistant an interview.”

The soft voice of a mare spoke up, “My name is Autumn Breeze, I... I was taken from my family by Redeye’s slavers as a tribute when they attacked Armour Vale, my home town. The things I saw in Trottingham... the horrible things they did to that young girl...”

“Would you like to take a break before we continue?” A second mares voice asked with concern. Whoever this second mare was, I liked her already.

“No, no I’m ok. There was a young alicorn girl in the cages. those monsters made us watch as they raped and beat her every day. Not every pony brought into the cages was nice to her either; I saw her raped by enslaved stallions while those slavers just watched and laughed... it was like a nightmare.

“Then they dragged this scrawny little grey pegasus colt in and threw him into that girl’s cage. I love that girl, she tried to help the colt without thinking. She healed what, from the amount of blood coating his fur, had to have been a skull fracture at least. when the pegasus woke up I was expecting to see him use her like all the rest, but he didn't. He just... talked to the mare. When that kid found out about what she was, about this ‘Unity’... well lets just say his language to that so called Goddess would have had any child in my hometown grounded for a month!”

Both mares laughed loudly.

“I didn't realise that the girl had no name until then, that nice kid gave her such a beautiful one ‘Silver Skies’. If I ever have a daughter I’m going to name her that. Then that red coated bastard, who led those Slavers, came for that sweet girl. I’ll never forget seeing that boy stand strong in front of little Silver and telling two armed stallions he would kill anypony who touched her. He was true to his word too. Somehow Silver teleported the boy out of the cage and the first thing he did, very first thing, was to try to free her. Even with the gang heading towards them he still took the time to reassure her that he would be back and instead of flying away he actually ran into the museum to find a key!”

“Can you tell me more about what the colt looked like?”

“Well he was a dark grey pegasus with black hair, streaked with white or silver. Blue eyes, wearing a PipBuck and he had no cutie mark.”

“A blank flank? That's amazing, will you tell me the rest of the story?”

“Well after the colt entered the museum there was a lot of gunfire, then a few minutes of silence. I was sure he was dead then. Then I heard the roar of a new gun. I don't know what it was but it was loud. The rest of the slavers had arrived by that point and that terrible alicorn mare who gave them orders. There was some shouting then that gun sound came again. After a moment there was silence. I again feared the worst, we all did, but then he staggered out through the museum doors. He looked like he was sleepwalking, covered in blood with a bullet hole in one of his legs, but he held keys in his mouth. There were guns strapped to his flanks and some kind of big rifle tied between his wings. He wore the powers hooves of the red slaver bastard. He unlocked random cages as he went back to little Silver’s cage. After he unlocked it he threw the keys to me and asked me to let everypony else out. Then he collapsed. The poor thing... Silver screamed his name but with everypony suddenly talking I couldn't make it out clearly, but I think he was named after something in the stars.”

“He died after freeing you all?”

“No, he was hurt bad but I found a few healing bandages in the museum and bound his injuries with them. That sweet girl refused to leave his side. When he came round he sent little Silver to some town, I won't tell you the name as I'm sure Redeye has ponies looking for payback. He was limping badly and could barely fly a few feet but he promised to lead us to a safe town. He led us out of Trottingham and not a single gang dared attack. But when we got out of town two Steel Rangers stopped us, one opened fire and killed my sister...”

I could hear quiet sobbing as I sat on my rump in a daze.

“He went berserk! I don't know how he did it, but he covered those two Rangers heads with a snowstorm then threw himself at the pony who attacked. I would've never believed it if I hadn’t seen it but the kid actually beat that pony’s flank bloody with those power hooves that red bastard used on us before he died. When they broke, the kid stared down the second Ranger. A third Ranger then arrived and in no uncertain terms expressed his feelings on what they did. The Ranger forced the first two to escort us to the kid’s town. I don't know what happened to him after that.”

“Well my little ponies, your old pal DJ Pon3 has some idea, A bounty was issued by the Enclave on a young pegasus matching that youngsters description of ten thousand caps. With no name confirmed Trottingham has been referring to the youngster as ‘Darkstar’. Well kiddo, if you're ever in Manehattan drop by Tenpony Tower and let my assistant interview you. This has been DJ Pon3, bringing you the truth... no matter how much it hurts. Now here’s a little Sapphire Shores, From me to you.”

...what the fuck? Sure that all happened but... I’m no hero! I mean sure from another pony’s eyes what happened might have seemed a big deal, but it was just blind luck! If I never found Vengeance I would have been killed for sure! I must have been staring into space as Ironclad waved a hoof in front of my eyes.

“Orion! You in there kiddo?”

I gave my head a shake to clear the fog. Hero? Sweet Celestia the very idea was terrifying. I'm just a pegasus who got thrown into situations beyond my control. A hero? No way was I a hero.

“Ironclad? Do you agree with that stuff? That I’m a hero?”

“Orion, heroes aren't usually as annoying as you are.” I have never been so relieved to be called annoying in my life. “But I will admit what you did back in Trottingham was pretty heroic.”

With a groan I covered my face with my hooves, Celestia, what did I do to deserve this? Is this payback for the time I said your sister had the hotter body? To distract myself from the thoughts swirling around in my head I began to sing to myself as we trotted towards the range.

“I see you standing here

But you're so far away

Starving for your attention

You don't even know my name

You're going through so much

But I know that I could be the one to hold you

Every single day

I find it hard to say

I could be yours alone

You will see someday

That all along the way

I was yours to hold.”

I was so lost in my song I never noticed I had a crowd of young mares watching me with wide eyes. Great I just traumatised half the towns young fillies with my horrible singing...

One of the girls, a cream coated earth pony with a green mane, stepped forward and shyly said, “Orion, please don't stop...your song was...nice.”

The other girls all nodded. Even Silver had forgot to hide and was staring at me with shining eyes.

With all of this attention I did what any hero would do: I turned bright red and ran for it. Ironclad found me hiding under a box at the range a few minutes later.

“They didn't follow you did they?”

Iron didn't even try to keep a straight face as he burst out laughing, “So the great Darkstar, scourge of slavery, is afraid of a few girls?”

“Yes! And you're the last who should mock anypony for being afraid of a girl. Remember Happy?”

Iron sighed and in a humourless voice said, “There is a big difference here Orion, you got embarrassed about girls liking your singing. Happy shot me.”

“Well we can argue about this all day or we can shoot stuff.”

Iron gave me a grin and beckoned me to the closest target. The metal plate was fixed to a post at around two hundred yards from the low bench each pony was to shoot from.

“Ok Orion, first I want to see you shoot with the pistol then the saddle.”

I leaned forward and bit down on the pistols mouth grip. Vista’s aiming assist lit up, the green dot steadied as I took aim. My tongue worked the trigger and three rounds spat from the muzzle. All three hit but only one was near the central rings.

Iron rubbed his chin with a hoof, “Well that was decidedly average... let’s see what that saddle of yours can do.”

I spat my gun back into it's holster and gave Ironclad a grin. With my saddles bit clenched between my teeth I took aim. Vengeance roared and the short burst tore the middle of the metal plate apart like it was paper.

“Sweet fucking Celestia! Why the fuck are you using AP rounds for practice shooting?”

“I’m not! These are normal rounds.”

“Kid, you just shot holes in half inch steel plate; those are AP rounds.”

“Ok... I may have lied to you back in Trottingham, just a little.”

Ironclad’s yellow eyes hardened as he glared at me, “Explain...”

“Well this saddle is named Vengeance, it enchants each bullet it fires with armour piercing magic and has a spell to stop it moving around as I fire.”

“You're telling me it's an advanced battle saddle with dangerous enchantments and you lied to me that it was not fully functional? Why?”

“If you knew would you’ve given me it back?”

Ironclad sighed, “No, it would have just ended up on a shelf back at base gathering dust. Where did you get it anyway? Something like that would only be issued to an officer or special forces.”

“Well not long after I woke up in that freezer tube I just sort of wandered along in that dead forest near town. It was getting dark so I headed to a cave I spotted for shelter.”

“And that battle saddle was in it?”

“Not quite... I tripped over a pony’s skeleton in the dark. It was wearing Vengeance. The gun was a rusty wreck, I took it as I was curious and didn't have any idea what a gun was at that time. Happy found me in that cave and rebuilt Vengeance. You know how she is with guns.”

“Again, she fucking shot me to get a look at mine!”

I had to laugh, “Well Vengeance fascinated her. I’ve lost count of the times she took it apart or swapped out a part. Still, if she wasn’t so obsessed I would’ve died in Trottingham. Vengeance is the one reason I'm still alive.”

Ironclad looked torn, “Kid, my orders mandates tell me I should take that PipBuck and your saddle from you and return them to base. All my training and my oath tell me to take them...” Iron looked so conflicted, “but I won't.”

I looked around the town feeling confused, if Iron tried anything in Radar there was enough firepower to reduce him to a smear even with his armour.

“Orion, remember I told you about my mentor? Steelhooves? One of the things he taught me was never do anything that makes good or innocent ponies miserable. I will kill when I have to but I refuse to hasten the deaths of good ponies just trying to survive. If I took your PipBuck and your gun then the wastelands would soon take you. I know you’re a lot tougher than you look, not that that's saying much, but you said it yourself. If you never had your PipBuck or that gun then you would have died or worse.”

“Wow, Iron, you're sure chatty today.”

“I guess I am... you just seem to bring out the teacher in me. I know it sounds sappy, but I think of you like a little brother, kiddo.”

Embarrassed? Nope, I wasn't embarrassed. Even if my face had turned more red than Silver’s when I smiled at her. “Iron, you barely know me. How can you even think of me in any other way than a handsome pegasus?”

The blue earth pony gave a loud laugh, “Kid that's exactly why. You have had the worst possible rude awakening to life in the wastelands and instead of breaking you, it's made you more confident. Even if you’re sort of tough I still get an urge to be protective when I look at you.” Iron reached out with a hoof and mussed up my mane, “Besides Kiddo, you're just so adorable!”

“I am not adorable! I'm a pegasus with some serious skills in the air!”

“And a fluffy mane?”

“Yes and a fluffy... I hate you Ironclad.”

Iron gave me a smile then pointed at the belt targets with a hoof, “Ok enough fun, lets see you hit one of those and no spray and pray kid.”

With a scowl I took aim with Vengeance and sent a stream of enchanted lead at the thousand yard target. The burst of lead flew straight and true... and missed the target completely.

Iron gave me an odd look, “Shoot at the target again...”

With a shrug of my wings I took aim again and fired. This time the lead clipped the edge of the metal plate.

“I see your problem Orion, you're aiming with your body.” After a few moments of watching my blank stare the blue stallion gave a frustrated sigh. “You're not too bright are you, kid? Ok I'll say this as simply as possible. You’re turning your body to aim; you’re using the reticle... the dot to aim. I want you to try shooting with your eyes-- don't even look at the dot just see the target and shoot.”

Ignore the aim assist? but that's the only thing that has let me hit anything! Who am I kidding? My shooting is embarrassing, and in the wasteland you get good or you die, so suck it up Orion and do it! Great even my brain is arguing with me. With a sigh I turned to the range once more, my front legs bent slightly and I braced my back legs. The dot was way off the target but instead I tried Ironclads way. My eyes locked onto the plate and Vengeance roared, the stream of lead flew and shredded the metal plate like it was made of paper. It was far from a perfect shot but I had hit it!

Ironclad messed up my mane again with a hoof, “I told you Orion. Never rely on any helper besides SATS. Eyeball the target, aim with your eyes to judge where the shots will land. Now we got you better than spraying and praying. I’m going to make you a sniper, kid.”

I remembered Blackshot’s explanation about snipers. Even if Iron had in a few minutes improved my shooting, I doubted I could be good enough to nail a shot at the kind of distance required. Still I followed Iron to the last of the target lanes. Around a thousand yards to the targets, the playing card sized target plates moving along on that wind turned belt. I could barely make them out.

“Um... not to put a downer on this idea Iron but I don't think I can hit those.”

“Orion, don't be so hard on yourself. You can do this.”

With a nervous smile I took my stance, Eyeball the shot... Vengeance roared once more, The enchanted lead flew and tore through one of the targets... just not the one I aimed for.

“Ok, kiddo, can you tell me why you missed?”

“Easy, he can't shoot for shit!”

With a groan I turned around and sure as night follows day, there was Firefly. The green coated earth pony colt grinned at me with his usual self confidence. With all I had done in the time since I woke up in the tube, I think I outclassed him in almost every way. I think he knew it too, so he mocked me about the one thing he could still beat me in: marksmanship.

“So, Orion is learning how to shoot like a Steel Ranger now? Well I suppose anything is an improvement on his current skills.” Firefly gave me a smug grin. As much as I wanted to I couldn't argue with him; I was a terrible shot.

Iron pointedly ignored Firefly’s trolling attempts and continued his lesson, “Now then Orion, this time I want you to try leading your target. Don't shoot where it is, shoot where it’s going to be.”

I watched the targets for a minute or two, trying to judge their speed. Then I let loose with a quick burst. Once again I missed my target but it was a lot closer than my first attempt. Firefly burst out laughing again. I’m a pretty tolerant pony but the way I was being harrassed for no reason like this was pissing me off.

Firefly’s eyes grew wide as a deep growl came from behind his head. I watched with interest as sweat began to roll down his muzzle and his whole body shook.

“Nighteyes! Stop that now!”

With a happy bark, my liger pup fluttered past the astonished buck and settled on my head once again. With a smirk at Firefly I reached up and rubbed the little fuzzball behind his ears. After a moment Firefly finally spoke.

“Holy fuck... I thought there was a Hellhound behind me when that thing growled...”

Ironclad gave me a sour look, he never did really bond with Nighteyes. “Ligers were engineered to produce fear. Their growl is able to produce a frequency that interacts with the neural pathways of your brain in a way that produces a fear based paralysis.”

Firefly looked from Ironclad and then to me, “You know what language the tin-pony is talking, Orion?”

“I think he means when the flying hairball here growls you piss yourself in terror.”

Iron gave me a dirty look, “Well that's very simplified but quite accurate assessment.”

Heavy hoofsteps interrupted our banter as Dozer arrived at a gallop. Skidding to a halt, the big pony panted for breath, "O-Orion... Black... shot.... Blackshot..."

“Wait, take a moment to breathe big guy and in that moment please consider laying off the sugar bombs and getting more exercise.”

Dozer panted for a moment then gave me a sour look. “Orion, Blackshot sent me to find you. Remember the info you brought back on your PipBuck?”

I cocked my head to one side and gave my award winning not a smart pony look. Dozer sighed while Ironclad gave me a curious look.

“Orion, the map info you had on your PipBuck? Happy downloaded it when you got back?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

I think Dozer wanted to scream in frustration but in my defence the day I got back Happy had gone loco over Vengeance and had done all sorts to it and did some repairs to the damage on my PipBuck. Apparently bullets bouncing off the thing wasn't good for it - who knew?

“In any case we used that info to scout out new scavenging sites and we discovered an entrance to the southwest into some kind of underground facility. Blackshot wants some extra firepower on this run and you fit the bill.”

Firefly looked shocked, “You're actually going to take this guy over me? Dozer I’m a far better shot!”

I burst out laughing, only for Firefly’s angry glare to silence me. “Oh... you’re serious? Then let me laugh harder!” I laughed so hard my sides ached and Nighteyes almost fell off his perch on my head. “Firefly, Blackshot wants firepower. I’m packing duel assault carbines with drum magazines that fire AP enchanted rounds at a fire rate good enough to cut a pony in half... you're packing a 9mm peashooter.”

The green colt stomped away muttering under his breath while I grinned like an idiot.

<====0o0====>

Ten minutes later, myself, Ironclad, Blackshot, Happy and Dozer had gathered in the Array. Dozer had shown us into a large room near Happy’s workshop. The only furniture in the room was a huge table in the middle, covered in maps. Blackshot looked at each of us in turn and frowned at Ironclad’s presence.

“Right everypony I’ll get right to business. Around three hours ago one of my scouts reported an entrance into an underground complex, we assumed it would be a subway but initial scouting has shown it to be some kind of military complex. It seems pretty standard, a few ferals but one of our scouts who got deeper reported something disturbing. Ferals using firearms to cover their advance. I think we have discovered Reavers down there.”

I raised a hoof, “Question! What the hay is a Reaver?” Everypony looked at me like I was insane, I knew what a feral was... sort of. Happy had gave me lectures on the hazards of this wasteland world and had told me of feral ghouls. Zombie ponies, freakily aggressive and fast, with a taste for living pony flesh. Reavers were a new one for me. I gave a sigh, “Freezer pony? New to the wastelands? Any of this ringing a bell?”

Blackshot gave me a smile, “For the freezer pony then. Reavers are an urban legend in the wasteland, almost a ghost story. Feral ghouls with intelligence and the ability to plan and use firearms.”

“Wait... you're telling me there are zombie ponies out there who can shoot until their friends are close enough to rip you apart?”

“Not just ponies, Reavers are said to be made up of Diamond Dogs, Zebras and even a minotaur.”

Ok that was a scary thought, I now saw why Blackshot wanted my firepower along. Plus, with my flying, I can get to where I'm needed fast.

“I’m coming too.”

Ironclad’s announcement stunned us all. He had no real ties to the town. I would back everypony up in a heartbeat, they adopted me with no reservations and gave me a home. Iron belonged to what was pretty much an army, his loyalty would be with them first so why would he come on this scavenging run?

“Don't anypony get the wrong idea, I’m not coming for this town or to steal any tech you find. I’m going with you to confirm the existence of the Reavers. If I can locate them and confirm they exist then I can request a few squads of Knights to wipe them out.”

Blackshot gave the Ranger a nod, “We leave in one hour, Happy will stay here with Dozer. We need those IF-422 assault rifles we traded for fixed up.”

Happy trails gave a loud squeal of joy. That girl is a total gun nut.

Blackshot looked at me with a frown, “Now the final problem. The Enclave has been sniffing around again. With the bounty on the kid we’ve have a lot of ponies looking for a quick pile of caps. If Orion goes out those gates now, then we will be attacked for sure but I want that firepower of his backing us up down there. I have a feeling we will need it.”

“So what are we going to do? Sneak me out in a crate?”

Happy gave me a sly smile that immediately made me nervous, “Leave that to me!”

<====0o0====>

“I hate you guys!”

Ironclad was rolling around the floor of Happy’s workshop, roaring with laughter as the blue unicorn added the final touches to my disguise. A talisman hung from my neck, it's magic had turned my coat a bright yellow. Happy had covered my stylish mane with a long haired red wig and had braided it so it hung down one side of my body. A bright pink dress covered my wings and a fake horn completed the look. She had made me look like a unicorn filly.

“I will get you back for this...”

Iron grinned at me, “Lighten up, missy. If you keep talking like this you will never get a coltfriend!”

I lifted my PipBuck and tapped it's case meaningfully, Iron got the hint immediately as his eyes grew wide as he remembered the recording.

“What's with the PipBuck Orion? Something to do with Ironclad?” Happy gave us both a curious look. My face broke into a wide grin. Payback time!

“Why don't you explain, Iron?”

“U-u-um...well...” It was hysterical watching the Ranger stammer and struggle to find a way out of this. Oh! I thought of a way to fix up Orion’s PipBuck!”

Wait what? He's thought of WHAT? He can fix Vista’s screwed up repairs?

“If I download my armour’s EFS data to that PipBuck then the AI can use it to reinstall the missing data!”

I could have EFS and SATS? I don't really understand SATS but the EFS would be amazing, if I’d had that those slavers would never have caught me. Then again I would never have met Silver...

Iron beckoned me over to where his Power Armour stood next to Happy’s workbench. I watched curiously as he ran a hoof across the flank of the metal suit, A panel slid back revealing a screen similar to my PipBuck. With that earth pony deftness I admired so, he unhooked a cable and plugged it into my PipBuck.

“Ok Orion, here we go.” The blue stallion reached out and tapped a few buttons on his Power Armour. Vista’s green text began to scroll down in front of my eyes.

>Transfer Completed.

>Configuring Data.

>Configuring Complete.

>Reinstall Complete.

>Rebooting Eyes Forward Sparkle Protocols.

My sight turned green for a moment. When I could see clearly once more something new was in my sight. Under my HP counter was some kind of new bar. As I turned my head it moved, letters floated above directions. N must mean north. In the directions of both Happy and Ironclad was yellow bars and as I scanned around slowly I could see other yellow bars, the townsfolk I assumed. I reached out with a hoof and tried to touch it.

“It worked then?”

“I think so? Theres something like a compass.”

“Ah the EFS is working, how about SATS?”

I reached down to my PipBuck and tapped that blue button, “Vista, Is SATS working now?”

>Checking Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting System Protocols.

>Checking.

>Checking.

>Error.

>Data Corruption Detected.

>Beginning Data Recovery.

>Unknown Recovery Time.

“Well...no.”

Ironclad gave me a sigh, “At least we do have some progress. With some luck that weird AI of yours will get it working eventually.”

Happy levitated a pink saddlebag over to me and fastened it to my flank. Could this get any weirder? A thought occurred to me. Happy had been drumming her gun knowledge into me at every opportunity and well... it had sank in more than I would admit. I couldn't think of a way to thank her for all she has done so I tried my hand at repairing a pistol I had bartered for a week back. The traders were in love with the combat knife I had found and the random foodstuffs and junk I’d collected gave me almost five hundred caps. All of that went to buying a gun I had seen in their packs and some scrap parts. A heavy automatic pistol, it was rusted and jammed when I got it so it took me awhile to figure out how it worked. Iron had helped me alot in the repairs on it and I had even carved some wooden grips. After six days of work and a bucket load of oil, It worked like a dream. I had tried it out on the range and the recoil had almost broke my jaw!

Iron had informed me it was a 50. calibre ‘Desert Dog’. Apparently it was a limited run for officers during the war but was discontinued due to the limited ammunition available. I had no idea what most of that actually meant but I wasn't happy with the seven round clip so with a lot more help from Iron I had converted an extended magazine to fit the big rounds. twelve rounds were better than seven! As a final touch I had engraved Happy’s cutiemark into the grips... well begged Iron to engrave it. I had engraved one word into the slide myself ‘Reckoning’.

“Hey happy? Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure Orion, what's up?”

“There was a red metal box in my saddlebags, is it still around here?”

“Red box? I don't think... Wait!” Her horn glowed for a moment and the familiar red box floated down from a shelf.

“Can you open it? I... got you something...” I felt myself blush in embarrassment. Iron gave me a smile. He knew exactly what was in the box.

Happy gave me a confused look and flipped the latch open. the box clattered to the ground as the heavy automatic was lifted by the blue unicorns magic. Her eyes grew wide as the gun slowly rotated, the slide slid back with a dull rasp. I watched as she ejected the clip, took a closer look and slapped it back in with a snap.

“I saw this in the traders junk, it was a wreck... You did all this Orion?”

“Well I did have help.” I pointed to Iron who was doing his best to hide behind his Power Armour.

“Well I will have to give our big tough Ranger a kiss!”

Ironclad gave a hilarious panicked look, “Come near me and I swear on Celestia: I will shoot you!”

“Take it easy, Iron. If you act like this you will never get yourself a filly friend!”

Dozer poked his head through the door, much to Irons relief. “Orion, Ironclad. Blackshot says to shift your flanks. You leave in five minutes.”

Iron gave a nod and began to pack Vengeance and my pistol into his armours saddlebags.

“Wish us luck, Happy.”

“Just come back safe Orion. You too, Ironclad.”

With Iron now inside his trademark armour and me looking ridiculous we headed to the gates to meet up with Blackshot’s crew. The scavenger team seemed to consist of unicorns and earth ponies, it was still an odd thing to me that pegasi were so rare. Actually that makes me feel special! The firepower we had brought along was pretty formidable; Blackshot sported his anti machine rifle, Ironclad had that heavy machine gun of his and Severance. Ironclad carried my battle saddle in his packs. The dozen ponies with us, five unicorns and seven earth ponies, had brought along battle saddles fitted with shotguns, machine guns and assault rifles. Each unicorn carried a rifle slung over his or her back and a pair of pistols or revolvers. It shames me to say but I spent the seven hour march chatting to Blackshot and Iron and never got the names of more than two ponies.

As soon as we left Radar my EFS tagged a red bar following us, Iron noticed before me and made sure I knew not to talk about it. Blackshot spent the time addressing me as ‘Meadowlark’, and when I spoke I had to use a squeaky voice that had me cringing inside. The dress was rubbing my wings and felt so very wrong. Though the dress does make me feel so very pretty! And that thought was then beaten into submission and locked away.

Finally our tail lost interest after five hours of trailing us and I could finally remove the disguise and stretch my wings. After gearing up and loading my guns I felt myself again.

Blackshot informed us that we would camp the night before tackling the facility. With our EFS both me and Ironclad volunteered to take the first watch.

“Orion, Ironclad. I’m giving first watch to the kid, I want our Ranger here to take the midnight watch. This is feral territory and I need somepony with experience to be awake and armed in the dark hours. That's when ferals are most likely to come above ground and attack.”

One of the unicorns with us, a green coated mare with a grey mane, looked up from the shotgun she was cleaning and called over. “Hey Boss! Why are we giving the kid a watch? What has he done to deserve the respect you keep showing him?”

The big stallion gave a wide smile, “The kid was the one who broke Trottingham and killed that alicorn in charge.”

Everypony was staring at me in surprise and muttering under their breaths, it was kind of scary to be the centre of attention when the crowd is packing that much firepower.

“So this scrawny little feather brain is Darkstar eh? Well the boss’ word is enough for me.”

“Well that was easy; I expected to have cries of ‘Hes just a kid!’ and the like.”

“Blackshot doesn't give out his respect easily. The boss vouches for you then that's all I need.”

So Blackshot respects me? Ohmygosh ohmygosh! I knew that my adventures had been a little off the wall, but to have earned the respect of somepony like him? I’ll admit the very idea blew my tiny Luna obsessed mind.

My watch was pretty boring, other than a radroach that I just stepped on and a radhog I took out with a few shots from my pistol, nothing of note happened. One of our earth pony crew took over and I took the opportunity to grab some shut eye.

Gunfire woke me, the camp was in chaos. Ponies ringed our campfire, guns blazing out into the night. Blackshot and Ironclad stood side by side, the hollow thump of Severance mixing with the deafening boom of Blackshot’s rifle. I had taken off Vengeance to sleep so drew my pistol from it's rig.

Something lunged at me from the darkness, jaws snapped at my face. In surprise I threw my hooves up and the thing bit down on my PipBucks case. The firelight revealed my attacker, It was a pony... sort of. Eyes glowed yellow as the rotting face pressed forward with inequine strength, forcing me down onto my back. A zombie pony! This must be a feral ghoul. I jammed my pistol into one glowing eye socket and fired a trio of rounds; The light in those eyes faded away. With some effort I pushed my way free from under the dead weight as a second feral raced out of the darkness. Five rounds dropped it dead. Everything became a blur, reloading, firing. I soon lost track of how many we killed.

One of the creatures barreled into me from the side, sending me rolling across the rocky ground. Fuck! I lost my gun in that tackle, but before I could do anything the feral launched from the darkness and bit down on my left front leg, I screamed in pain as it began to chew. A second zombie pony bit down on my right rear leg and began to pull, I couldn't do anything but scream and thrash as I felt chunks of my flesh being torn away.

“Get the fuck off him!” The armoured figure of Ironclad came barreling into the monsters, his charge sending them bouncing away. Severance and his machine gun blew the ghouls into chunks. I couldn't move, I hurt so much and I felt so very cold.

Iron knelt down beside me, “You're going to alright, Orion.” He turned to the firelight and shouted with panic in his voice, “Get some fucking potions here now! The kid’s hurt!”

I guess I looked worse than I felt. Hoofbeats came from around me, dimly I felt the bulb of a healing potion being pressed to my lips, which I drank quickly. I could feel the pain recede a little but it did nothing for the feeling of the missing chunks from my legs.

I heard Blackshots voice. “Give him some Hydra! Do it now!”

I felt a needle stab into my flank; I hate needles. There was a very odd feeling like my limbs were made of soft wax as whatever they injected me with went to work.

I must have passed out as next thing I knew it was daylight. Somepony had draped a blanket across me and the still form of Ironclad sat next to me, his visor facing out into the wastes.

“Hey Iron, what I miss?”

“How you feeling, kid?”

“Little sore, but at least I know now that I look good enough to eat. It's a curse being so handsome and sexy.”

The Steel Ranger laughed, “Orion, you are so random! Only you would make a joke about being eaten alive.”

“I’ll be honest with you Iron, if I didn't make a joke about what's happened to me then that's when you should be worried. It's how I deal with the fucked up life I got now.”

It's weird how sad a visor can seem as my armoured friend stared down at me, with a feeling of dread I lifted my injured front leg from under the blanket expecting to see bloody chunks missing. I had to gasp in shock at the sight, Instead of a bloody ruin there was just bald patches in my coat. The flesh looked pink and fresh. “How the fuck?...”

“You mean you don't know what Hydra is and does?”

“Iron, until a month back I never knew what a gun was, let alone any of these drugs you ponies seem to use.”

“You have something against drugs, kid?”

“Actually yes, I was taught that if I achieve anything because of a drug then it wasn't me that did it. If I rely on a drug and then run out when I need it. I'm pretty much fucked.”

“That must have come from your parents. Was it difficult growing up in your father's shadow?”

“Actually to me all he was was my Dad. It wasn't until he saved me that I realised just how strong he was.”

“Ok we are getting off track here. Are you up to tackling this place, Orion? We can have a few ponies wait with you.”

“What? And miss out on the fun?” A wide grin spread across my face, I had walked all day in a freaking dress to help out here, there was no way I was going to miss this. With some help from Iron, I was soon kitted out with my weapons. As odd as it seemed, I felt more myself with Vengeance hanging from my flanks. I must have changed a lot in the last month. Then I guess when you are forced to kill just to stay alive, you grow up real fast. I still wasn't ok with killing anything, especially ponies, but given the choice again I know I would have pulled that trigger again. My innocence was a small price to pay to save Silver’s life and rescue everypony... Wow I am the worst excuse for a hero in the wastelands, I bet Security and the Stable Dweller never had the kind of issues I’m dealing with.

Another hour's walk, or in my case flight, had us in view of our destination. From the dust and rock filled landscape rose a two story building. Well most of a building. Grey walls had collapsed on three sides leaving a single wall intact. Through the shattered windows and gaps I made out desks and cabinets. It must have been some kind of office before the war, even an idiot like me could see that.

Blackshot led us to the southern corner, This EFS was cool! I can tell where I'm going with ease now. A tunnel stood partly hidden by the rubble. A concrete ramp led down into the darkness, oddly clear of debris, almost looking like it had been swept clean. Blackshot turned to us.

“We do this in twos, you each know your pairs. Orion, you're with me, I want you above me spotting with those sharp pegasus eyes. Ironclad, you buddy up with Sparkfly. You’re our big hitter, so I want you in the middle where you can support as needed. Watch your corners and watch each other’s backs. Lights on, safeties off.”

That was Blackshot through and through; quick, to the point and amazingly clever. No wasted words, no doubts in his plan.

With the plan explained in simple terms, Probably for my benefit, Blackshot took the point with me flying above his head. Between my PipBuck’s light and my own eyes, I could see pretty well. Behind us I could hear the soft hoofsteps of the scavengers and the heavy tread of Iron’s Power Armour.

We descended into the darkness slowly,, everypony watched for anything the others may have missed. Blackshot and the scavengers had flashlights fixed to the side of their faces with some kind of straps so the light shone where they looked. Iron switched on the lights on his helmet, the powerful lamps cut through the darkness like a knife.

The ramp continued downwards, the tunnel going deeper underground as we continued. After around ten minutes we reached two huge metal doors. Rust coated their surface and blackened marks showed where explosives had forced them open. The corroded metal bent inwards leaving a gap between the twin doors almost a meter wide. Blackshot motioned me forward with a hoof. with a flap of my wings I span through the gap, my PipBuck’s light shining into the blind spots behind the doors.

“Clear.”

Everypony filed through the gap and spread out, Flashlights shining into every space. Even a total idiot like me could see how each pony covered the other’s blindspots. Rubble filled most of the passage, a pathway through a side door let us advance further. The scavenger crew picked over each room as we went; from the disappointed muttering I guess they never found anything of note. After a while it seemed to me that the way the rubble lay was almost strange, often we were forced to detour into side rooms and through holes in the walls. I lost count of the times we had to squeeze through gaps one pony at a time.

“Blackshot? I know I’m the rookie here, but doesn't it seem like somepony changed the layout of this place to slow down anypony coming in here?”

“I think you're right, there are too many choke points and detours for it to be natural for the rubble to fall this way. Everypony stay alert, I don't like this.”

My EFS was acting strange, red bars appeared and disappeared seemingly at random. Have I broke it already? “Ironclad, is your EFS acting strange?”

“I'm getting phantom readings, something is in here with us and it can hide from EFS. Not a comforting thought.”

Blackshot turned his light on me, “Kid, eyes forward. With your fancy machines not picking anything up I need those sharp eyes of yours.”

I gave a nod and peered forward through the darkness. The walls remained the same uniform grey stone, rubble was piled across every doorway -- but one and blocked the hall a few hundred meters in front of us. Blackshot opened the doorway silently. keeping quiet as possible we filed in. The door opened out into a huge room, almost like a hangar or a warehouse. At the edge of my sight I could make out piled metal crates. Our party fanned out, each pony covered a different angle while I gained some height and swept the twin muzzles of my battle saddle around nervously.

One of our unicorns deftly picked the lock on one long crate and flipped the lid open. The purple coated mare blew a strand of her yellow mane from her eyes before letting out a whistle of appreciation. “You better see this, boss. We have a full crate of assault rifles here in factory condition. This place is a treasure trove, when we pick it clean we can retire!”

A noise echoed, no pony throat could make a sound like that. It was halfway between a roar and a scream. Everypony backed together in a rough ring with me hovering above the centre. My EFS went wild, from a clear bar it instantly turned solid red. From Ironclad’s grunt of surprise I guess his did too.

“Um... Blackshot? There's more red bars out there than my PipBuck can read...”

“How many can it pick up?”

Iron’s voice came from his helmet’s speaker, “With the military protocols I installed for him... over a thousand.”

Two yellow dots lit up in the darkness; eyes. More of those glowing eyes lit up, and more... and more. Oh fuck they are all around us. Unicorn magic levitated the crates around us into a rough barricade. That scream came again, almost deafening as hundreds of those creatures out there joined in. In every direction and even across the ceiling were those eyes. Whatever those things were, they were not ferals. Ferals would have charged, these things seemed content to watch and silently assess us.

Then they attacked.

A storm of lead bit into our barricade, forcing us to duck behind cover. Something dropped from above us with that horrific scream, I spun in the air and fired, my enchanted lead shredding the thing. The corpse landed in our pool of light revealing a ghoul with two swords strapped to his flanks.

One word came to my lips, “Reavers...” The way these things fought was terrifying, a covering fire of bullets let screaming ghouls charge us while others dropped from above. Pegasus ghouls raked us in precision fly bys. My bullet count was getting low and more than a few of us were hurt. We had lost two ponies to a zebra leaping over our barricade and with an almost graceful spin, caving in the throats of two of our earth ponies with it's back hooves.

This was bad, there was no way we had the ammunition to take down this sea of undead ponies. Think Orion! There must be something you can do to salvage this! Be smart and think...Fuck it, something stupid then.

I took in a deep breath and shouted out at the top of my lungs, “Wait! Time out!”

Oddly the fighting stopped, everypony looked at me like I was insane. At least we aren't being killed at the moment. I pulled a bottle of purified water from my saddlebags and took a long drink, I doubt a pony drinking a non alcoholic beverage has ever been the centre of so much attention.

I looked out into the dark at that sea of eyes, “Before you kill us, might be some torture, I dunno. Can I ask one thing? Why are we fighting? You guys aren't ferals, even I can see that. So can't we talk about this or if we have to fight, can't we just have a one on one so nopony else has to die?”

Ever have the feeling that everypony was looking at you and thinking ‘Is this pony for real?’ Well I had that then.

Without warning, lights lit up the room, blinding us with the sudden glare. In the new light I could see how hopeless our situation was. There was thousands of ghouls out there. Zebras stood in groups, some balancing on their hind legs while pointing rifles at us, pegasi pointed those odd box weapons at us from near the ceiling, unicorns and earth ponies by the hundreds lined every surface, even the ceiling! Strange bipedal dogs with long claws stared at us, probably what Blackshot had called Diamond Dogs, and striding through it all came a massive figure. Pale blue fur covered it's upper body and head, A small mohawk of cobalt blue hair sprouted from between two curved and cracked horns. Dark blue fur covered it's legs, its arms ended in claw tipped hands, it's muzzle was pierced with a nose ring and for some reason a tattered black tie hung from it's neck. Glowing red eyes stared down at me. Then it spoke.

“Iron Will is the name and breaking ponies is my game! Iron Will accepts your challenge little pony. You and Iron Will can fight for the lives of your friends. No guns, no blades. Just you and Iron Will until one surrenders.”

And now we are fucked.

<====0oxo0====>

Me and my big mouth...

I had expected if it had worked for Blackshot or Ironclad to fight another pony. Now here we are in a circle of Reavers, the scariest things I have ever encountered, with me about to have a bare hoof battle with a fucking zombie minotaur!

Lets see how we measure up to each other; he has around two meters of height on me, a few hundred pounds of muscle, his horns and clawed hands outclass my hooves, his arms give him a reach advantage, and being a ghoul, he won't tire out....

I can fly and he can't! That's something I suppose.

Yep, we are so very screwed here.

I was at one end of the circle of Reavers, standing with Iron, Blackshot and the remaining scavengers. All our guns and weapons had been taken from us and stored in a crate nearby that a ghoul donkey and zebra sat on. Blackshot was trying to coach me, but let’s be honest, I was going to get my flank kicked here.

“Don't fight on his terms, you're a pegasus so take it to the air. You're faster than him so use it to your advantage. Remember one thing, Orion, no matter what happens now, nopony hates you. You gave us a chance with that stunt, we would all be dead otherwise.”

“Iron Will is tired of waiting! Come little pony, let Iron Will make this quick.”

“Looks like it's time for me to go get my ass beaten, sorry guys...”

Ironclad gripped me around the face, forcing me to look into his visored face. “Orion, You have a habit of doing the impossible, through blind luck you have achieved things that an army failed to do. Don't doubt yourself, you can take this guy down. Now show me the pony little Silver fell for! Show me the hero.”

Hero...

No I know I’m no hero, but for everypony else I will try to be somepony who is. For my friends I will fight. For Silver I will try. For Silver I will try? Seriously, Orion who are you kidding? You have feelings for that girl so just admit it already. Not now brain, I got a monster to fight.

Iron Will glared down at me before blowing a plume of pink mist from his nostrils. Slowly we both circled each other. Suddenly the minotaur lunged forward and threw a punch down at me. I leapt back just in time to avoid that fist smash into the concrete. Now I expected a shout of pain after punching stone, what I never expected was that fist to bury itself up to the wrist. If one of those punches connect then this is over!

Iron Will pulled his hand from the broken concrete and gave me a measured look. With a flap of my wings I went airborne. My only chance was to take this to the one place I had the advantage. The big minotaur threw another of those big punches, I spun to the left, the fist passed my head so close the wind from it stirred my mane. I swear I heard a ‘swip’ noise as it passed. Taking advantage of being inside his reach I shot forward and landed three quick strikes into his face. Iron Will responded by slamming his forehead into my face, staggering me backwards. Before I could recover he drew both hands together over his head and brought them down onto my back. I hit the concrete so hard, I bounced and screamed in pain as I felt my left back leg break from the impact.

I forced myself to my hooves and through my now blurred vision, looked up to see the minotaur draw back his arm for one final blow. The fist began to descend. This is where I die...

Everything froze.

>SATS Restored.

>Beginning Introduction Protocols.

What the fuck? Green text began to scroll down my vision.

>Welcome to SATS: Stable-tec Assisted Targeting System.

>Stable-tec is proud...

>Rewriting message to Orion Levels.

Great my PipBuck thinks I’m too stupid to understand whatever the message was.

>Rewrite Complete.

>SATS Uses Action Points To Queue Attacks.

>The Closer the Displayed Number Is To 100, The More Likely Orion Is To Hit.

>Focus On Body Parts To Queue Attacks.

>When Ready, Attacks Will Begin.

Right... I sort of understood that, but what does that even mean? My sight turned green, As my eyes traveled around the frozen minotaur’s body, parts of him glowed green and numbers appeared next to them. This was so very freaky. I looked at his face and tried to focus, three beeps came in my ear, how can there be sound with no time?

Time returned with a weird hiss sound, my body moved without me controlling it! I leapt forward, my wings launching me towards Iron Will’s face. My left hoof slammed twice into the side of the minotaurs head before my right hoof connected with the cracked horn on the other side of his head. My hoof thundered down hard onto the slightly yellowed and cracked horn, amazingly the thing broke under the impact! The broken point clattered to the floor as the minotaur staggered back with a roar of pain. One arm waved around to keep me away as his other reached up to cradle the injury.

There was a flash of light behind me, but I ignored it as I dove forward between Iron Will’s legs. My jaws closed around the broken horn and I spun, driving the point into the back of his knee. I pressed forward, using all the strength in my three working legs to push the jagged point deeper. The Minotaur fell backwards, roaring in pain and almost crushing me. I ripped the horn free and pounced onto his chest before the big minotaur had a chance to recover. The point pressed against his throat as I looked into those glowing red eyes.

Please don't make me kill you, please...

There came the last sound I expected, laughter. Iron Will laughed loudly and before I could react, gripped me in one hand and lifted me free.

Oh fuck he's going to smash me into the floor like a rag doll!

I was set down gently, I looked at the minotaur in confusion, then shock as a pink glow came from the wound on his knee. The flesh closed up and Iron Will rose to his hooves, still smiling.

“Iron Will gives up, Iron Will finds you impressive for such a small pony.”

I spat out the horn, “You're not going to kill us?”

The considering look I was getting from those red eyes was unnerving me more than a little. “Iron Will keeps his word, you are all allowed to leave. But Iron Will wishes to ask a favor of you first.”

Wait. He breaks my leg, kills some of our friends and forces me to fight him and now wants a favor? Is he serious?

“What kind of favour?” I was curious and it cost nothing to ask.

“Deep inside this facility Iron Will’s followers found a door. We cannot open it and it took us almost forty years to cut a hoof sized hole through it. I want you to try to open it for Iron Will.”

Blackshot hoofed me a potion and gave me an injection of Hydra, between the two I felt my leg heal. Although the feeling of the broken bones snapping back into place was revolting.

“So what makes you think I can open it?”

“Iron Will looked through the hole, there is a metal chest in there bearing your cutiemark. It is yours if you aid us.”

“I don't have a cutie mark, don't mock me like that...”

Ironclad poked me with a hoof, “You do now kid.”

I glanced back and in the reflection of Ironclads visor I could see a picture on my flank, a green four leaf clover with a strip of red cloth tied around it. What the fuck does that mean? Clover... Luck? My talent has something to do with luck? But the cloth? tied luck? no that doesn't make sense. Bound luck? Bound to be lucky? No I get hurt too much for that... a blindfold maybe? Unseeing Luck? Blinded Luck? Blind...

I let out a loud groan, my talent is blind luck? Even my own cutiemark mocks me.

<====0oxo0====>

The blue minotaur led us through the twisting maze of rubble and rooms. I’ll admit this chest had me curious but at the same time I was curious about the minotaur we followed.

“So what's your story Iron Will? I’ve never seen anything like that pink glow when your knee healed.”

“Iron Will is a Canterlot ghoul.” The big ghoul looked at my blank expression, “Ask your friends to explain about Canterlot ghouls. Before the war Iron Will was a self help guru, Iron Will taught ponies to be assertive. When the war began nopony wanted to attend Iron Will’s seminars. Iron Will made his way making slogans for the wartime companies and giving speeches to the troops. I was in Canterlot when Equestria died...”

The big blue minotaur looked sad, also he had stopped talking in that really annoying third pony way.

“I was in a studio, recording the new slogan for Sunset Sarsaparilla when the bombs fell, trapped in that pink cloud... I died. I woke up a few days later, the studio had all but collapsed and I was trapped in the sound booth. through the glass I could see another pony as trapped as I was. He had gone feral, I don't know why my mind was still intact but I was still me, even if I was dead. I had to tunnel my way out. To pass the time while I worked I found myself talking to the feral. For almost a solid week that ghoul clawed at the glass between us and made growling noises. As was my habit, I fired off my self-help slogans, I talked to him, never once expecting a response. But then... he spoke.”

The minotaur looked almost wistful as he continued, “It was strange, my slogans and self-help jargon gave his mind something to latch onto, that pony became my best friend and my second in command. Together we left Canterlot and wandered the wastes. We captured feral ghouls where we could and tried to bring them back to themselves. That's what the Reavers really are, we are all feral ghouls with minds. All the berserker strength and speed but with a mind behind it and in control.”

Blackshot spoke up, “Then what of the horror stories about the reavers? Are the tales of you destroying towns true?”

“Sadly it's true, all we want is to be left alone. Each Reaver has lost everything they knew. we gave them a family and we stick by our own. Occasionally we run across a town who will see us as monsters and try to wipe us out, we make sure they learn that we won't lay down and die. I put it to you, if we killed everypony then where do the stories come from?”

Blackshot was silent as he considered the ghouls question. It made sense to me, if there was no survivors then there would be no stories. We stopped before a rusted doorway.

“Iron Will would like you to try and open this door.” I barely heard, the symbol on the door held my attention. An ornate shield, split into two displaying the sun and moon. Wings spread on each side or the shield. I knew this sigil, my Dad wore it every day. It was the symbol of the Sky Archons. The pegasus heros of Equestria. I reached out with a hoof and touched the rusted symbol, the door gave a groan and began to rise. I jumped backwards in surprise. The room beyond the door was filled with rusted armour and weapons. Crates filled the floor in uniform lines, in the middle, where anypony walking through the door would see it lay a metal chest. On it's side was two symbols, a four leaf clover cut by a starburst, my dads cutiemark and a four leaf clover wearing a blindfold, my own cutiemark.

The Reavers fanned out and began to pick through the weapons and armour around the room and broke open crates. Our own party began to do the same. This was a Sky Archon weapon stockpile. I popped the clasps on the chest and flipped the lid. Inside was a small figurine of a blue pony mare with rainbow mane, a strange metal ring, some kind of gun and a weird metal crown with a faintly glowing ball of glass set onto it. Ironclad peered over my shoulder.

“Thats a memory orb, put the crown on your head and you will see another pony’s memories.”

The very idea scared me, but with shaking hooves I placed that copper coloured crown on my head and watched as the world whisked away from me.

<====0ox0====>

I didn't like this body, whatever I was seeing was twitching almost constantly and there was a maddening itch behind the left ear. A mares voice, filled with an almost scary kind of glee spoke.

“Okey Dokey Lokee! It's all set up!”

The view turned around and faced another figure and my heart almost stopped in shock. My dad stood there looking tired and worn out.

“Are you sure about this, Pinkie? You know I’m not comfortable with this future stuff you predict.”

“Of course, silly! Orion is watching this now.”

What the fuck?

“Oh, and he has a dirty mouth. Young ponies should not talk like that!”

Wait...you can hear me?

“Oh no, but I my Pinkie Sense tells me what you were going to say when you saw this!”

“Pinkie Pie, who are you talking too?” My Dad looked confused, heck so was I!

“Oh Orion is confused, talk to him!”

Oh this was a level of fucked up way beyond what I can deal with.

“Stop swearing! Bad pony!”

Fine! I’m sorry! Just let my Dad talk already!

“Okey Dokey Lokee! Orion’s listening now!”

“I hope you’re right Pinkie.” My dad took a deep breath. “Orion, I’m not sure if this mare is crazy or not, but on the off chance she’s right and I’m supposed to talk with you here like this, then I have to say one thing: I love you, son.

“I know you must be confused and maybe scared, but if even half of what Pinkie has told me is true then I have to try this. Your mother and I left you this crate and message as a care package of sorts, you should get it after gaining your cutiemark. Inside is this message, Pinkie tells me your armoured friend will tell you what it is, whatever that means. There is a figurine of Rainbow Dash, it will keep you safe, don't ask why. The gun is a gift from me, it's a one of a kind sniper rifle, It's name is Dragon’s Roar, you will see why when you fire it. It uses 7.36 mm magnum rounds and had increased velocity enchantments. In the bottom of the chest you will find three thousand rounds for it and a loader that will help make more rounds. Pinkie tells me a mare named ‘Happy’ will fit it to your battle saddle.”

The black pegasus rubbed his eyes with a hoof, “Lastly you will find a metal ring with three gemstones. This is your mothers gift. She tells me you have to slip the ring around your hoof and say...” My dad actually looked at a scrap of paper for the right words! “Integrate systems. She tells me it's something for your PipBuck, I don't understand this science jargon but she told me it will help you.”

Dad looked right at me, “See you son. Remember your mother and I love you and we are proud of you.”

As the image faded the voice of the insane mare I looked out from called out, “Give Silver a big kiss for me!”

<====0oxo0====>

Right... that was so fucked up I need to find some brain bleach and scrub every memory of Pinkie Pie out of my head. How did that mare know everything I was going to say hundreds of years before I said it? Somepony had moved me, I lay on a dirty mattress in a small concrete room. The chest with my care package lay nearby. I could make out Blackshot and Iron Will arguing through the rusty metal door of the room.

“Iron Will won't say it again! The Reavers don’t attack towns for fun!”

“Bullshit, there’s has been reports of Reavers wiping out settlements in this area for years!”

“Iron Will is getting angry! All we Reavers want is to be left alone and to help feral ghouls regain their minds!”

“Actually Blackshot, I have to side with the Reavers on this one.” That metallic tinge to his voice made it clear Ironclad was talking. “The Rangers have investigated many of the towns said to have been hit by Reavers, almost every one had evidence of Raider or Slaver activity.”

I pushed the door open and trotted through, Ironclad sat next to Blackshot on a scrap metal bench. A flat piece of rubble made a table which Iron Will and an odd looking ghoul sat. I know all ghouls look strange being dead and all, but how many wear a pink shirt and sunglasses? His black mane was slicked back with what looked like oil. His white flank showed a cutiemark of a yellow star.

“Welcome back to the land of the living Kiddo. Have fun in the memory orb?” Blackshot gave me a smile.

“Sort of. It was a message from my dad... Hey, what do you guys know about a mare named Pinkie Pie?”

Ironclad spoke up, “Pinky Pie was the head of the Ministry of Moral, or MoM. During the war she sought out plots and spies. Her agents seemed to find spies from thin air. There was a rumour that she could see things before they happen.”

“Pinkie Sense?”

“How do you know about that?”

“Well it was her memory. She knew I was watching and what I was thinking.”

“That can't be true!”

“She told me off for swearing when I thought it was fucked up.”

Everypony stared at me as if to see if I was making joke. Ironclad stared at me through that blank visor of his. “You're serious? Pinkie Pie knew what you were going to think two hundred years before you thought it?”

I gave a confused look, “How do you think I feel? A pony I never met told my dad I swore! It’s a serious headfuck.”

“Iron Will can only imagine, Iron Will met Pinkie Pie once and she... Well let Iron Will just say Iron Will has no idea how she did the things she did.”

“Right, before my brain melts from excessive confusion can somepony tell me anything about my care package?”

Everypony stared at me for a moment before Blackshot asked the obvious question, “What care package?”

“Right... sorry I never explained did I? The chest was left by my folks, Pinkie Pie knew I would need help so they left me some gifts.”

Blackshot stood and trotted into the small room I awoke in, after a moment the big pony dragged my chest out and with surprising jaw strength, flipped it onto the makeshift table. I laid out the contents, the rifle, the small figurine and the ring. then I surprised everypony when I laid out the boxes of ammunition and the bullet making kit. Finally I flipped the rusted chest to the ground. Ironclad predictably picked up the gun and began to play with it.

“Hmm, It can't be...”

Not wanting to break his train of thought, I watched the Steel Ranger strip the weapon and begin to clean it with a bottle of oil and some rags from a compartment in his armours flank.

With a shrug I picked up the ring while Blackshot and Iron Will examined the figurine and the ammunition. I found myself musing over Dads words, ‘something for your PipBuck’. With a shrug I slipped it over my hoof and let it slide down to my PipBuck with a faint clink of metal on metal.

“Now what was that phrase Dad said... Inter...bate? Inter... hate?”

I scratched at my mane in confusion, What was that word?

The pink clad earth pony ghoul spoke up for the first time in a surprisingly smooth voice, “I believe the word you are looking for is integrate.”

“That was it! I’m supposed to put this ring over my hoof and say ‘integrate systems’.”

My PipBuck began to shake, odd beeping noises came from it and my leg froze in place. I began to panic as the ring began to slowly rotate on my leg.

“Somepony... something is happening here!”

Everypony stared at me like I was making one of my jokes, I think Ironclad saw the fear in my eyes as he rushed over to me and gripped the ring with his metal clad hooves. Metal squealed on metal as the middle and largest of the three gemstones lined up with my PipBucks screen.

>Integration Complete.

>Beginning Test Activation.

“Iron move! Something’s about to...”

I never got to finish that sentence as the ring activated, the gemstones shone with every colour of the rainbow then light erupted. Iron fell back in shock as the light wavered for a moment before seeming to shrink. I just stared in open shock at the sight. From my PipBuck protruded what I can only describe as a blade of light. I moved my leg back and forward slowly watching as rainbow colours flowed across the leaf shaped blade seemingly at random.

Ironclad stared through his visor at the spectacle for a moment before glancing down at his hooves. The weird blade of rainbow light had cut lines of slightly melted metal through his armor. Thankfully it didn't seem to have reached his flesh.

>Test Activation Successful.

>Prismatic Blade, Series 4, Model Number 001 Now Configured To Users EFS.

“Prismatic blade? I... I don't even...” For the first time in weeks I was utterly lost for words.

Everypony stared at the rainbow blade. Finally it was Blackshot who broke the silence.

“Fuck me, Orion you always find the coolest shit!”

And now everypony was staring at Blackshot. Did our gruff and sensible leader just say that? Blackshot coughed loudly, “I mean that is some serious tech, don't let the Steel Rangers see that...”

And now everypony was staring at Ironclad, what was this? Musical stares? Ironclad was peering at my raised hoof, studying the weird energy blade.

“Three emitters, the central being the strongest. Not a clue what enchantments are on the gems, but it seems to run off your PipBuck’s battery which in turn is powered by your heartbeat. Looks like an offshoot of the generation three magical energy weapons... maybe early generation four. From the shifting colours it's intentionally destabilised so it won't fire as a beam but instead forms a blade. Destabilised means it won't cause reactive disintegrations but it shows a high potential as a cutting weapon.”

I think it dawned on the Steel Ranger at that moment that everypony was staring at him.

“Why is everypony staring at me?”

I decided to answer in my usual timid fashion. “They are worried your leaders will have multiple orgasms over this pris...pras... Rainbow blade and demand you kill me and return it to them. I’m not worried myself Ironclad, you’re my friend. Plus that recording for Happy is set to be sent to every one of those scrap PipBuck’s in her workshop if my heart stops.”

I so wish I could have seen the look on Ironclad’s face at that moment. The Rainbow... screw it I’m just calling it my Rainblade, switched itself off. I reached over and tapped the blue button on my PipBuck.

“Hey Vista, how do I turn that thing on and off?”

>Designation Rainblade Configured To Users EFS.

>Thought Activation Is Simplest Explanation.

“So I think it and it will turn on?

>Correct Subject Orion.

Even with something as simple as thinking turn on, it still took me a few minutes to get it down. Still... this thing is going to be handy for getting into those cans of food! Well now that's out of the way, time to take a look at the figurine.

“Hey Iron Will, can you throw me that little pony thing over?”

“Iron Will has no interest in this thing.” And with that, the blue minotaur sent the little figurine bouncing across the table. I dove for it, this thing was my chance to find out who Rainbow Dash was and why everypony said I looked like her while I was growing up and he's going to smash it! I swept it up in my hooves and gave Iron Will a sour look. Miraculously it was unharmed, not even a scratch!

Rainbow Dash turned out to be a small built pegasus mare with a striking rainbow streaked mane and tail. The wide grin was so much like my own it was startling. I’ll admit now she was one good looking mare, I could appreciate a toned athletic body like hers. Although Silver’s body isn't toned like that you still appreciate it, Orion. Come on brain, cut me some slack here! It's not like I was having dirty fantasies about that trim, sexy blue mare... so flexible...

Blackshot called over from where he sat examining the rifle from my chest, “Orion, you’re drooling.”

Celestia dammit! Why does my brain have to drift away into perverted thoughts about every cute mare I see? First Luna, then Happy, then Silver and now Rainbow Dash? Don't I have any self control? So you find little Silver cute? For fucks sake brain! Not now! Fine but I will be here if you need me. Let me just leave your with four words: Silver in her dress.

“Orion, you're drooling again and I swear to Celestia, I will throw something at you if you start staring off into space again.”

“Sorry Blackshot...” I brushed at the little blue pony. Two hundred years in the box hadn't stopped it from getting dusty as hay, my hoof uncovered a word engraved into the base. ‘Be’. ‘Be’ what? I stole one of Ironclad’s rags and used up some of my water supply to give it a real cleaning, after a few minutes of careful wiping the thing almost shone. Now I can see what it says! My rag rubbed at the last of the dirt and dust on the base.

“Be Awesome.” I don't know why but once I read those words out loud I felt... better somehow, more confident. Be awesome... well have awesome mane, will travel!

“Hey Blackshot, Hows my new gun look?”

“Well kid, when Happy gets a load of this thing her squeal of joy will burst some ponies ear drums.” The big pony gave me a smile before sliding it across the table to me, what was it today with everypony trying to scratch my new stuff? The gun was a matt black colour and pretty long. most of it's length seemed to come from it's extended barrel. Twin curved magazines fitted into slots cut to the back of the guns body, a single ejection port was cut into the rifles side at a point where the hot ejected rounds would clear a ponies wings safely. The muzzle was very cool, shaped like a dragons head. The bullets would spit from the dragons mouth. Red gemstones made up the eyes and shaped red stones lined the barrel all the way to the body, looking like a ridge of spines. In short the rifle was shaped like a black dragon... sort of. Well if I count the curved magazines as wings...

A thought occurred to me, “Mr Will? Aren't you worried a pony you just fought with is holding a high powered rifle? It just seems that you're giving us a lot of trust here...” Everypony looked at me, I think I just asked the question each of them were trying to avoid.

“I’ll field that question if you don't mind.” The pink shirted earth pony nodded in my direction. “As your young leader there as stated, you have just recently battled my colleague here and gave him quite the trouncing. The name’s Lonestar by the way, anyway I digress. The reason we don't fear you handling a gun in our presence is because you are quite the honourable young colt.”

“Honourable? what do you mean hon... wait Blackshot is our leader, not me!”

“Spokespony then. We are merely arguing semantics now. My point is still valid. When my esteemed colleague here made himself known to you,” Lonestar waved a hoof in Iron Will’s direction, “you had quite the opportunity to gun him down and with what I saw from that saddle of yours it would have been quite the simple task. Put simply as I can make it, you held up your end of the compromise and what's more, even aided our wayward flock to acquire new function weaponry to replace our own failing supplies.”

This pony was way smarter than me, not a big accomplishment I’ll admit but he is very smart. Wait an applebucking minute...

“What do you mean by failing supplies? From what I’ve seen you guys are sitting on a pretty big stockpile of guns and ammo here.”

“Thats part of the problem my curious young friend, we have guns but precious few work. also this facility is far from secure, I’m sure you found the maze we built of rubble disconcerting? Well those defences deter the casual scavenger but recently more heavily armed groups have been venturing into our little home. Each attack hurts our numbers and wastes more of our dwindling stocks.”

“So your biggest concern is you have no way to fix the guns you have?” I gave a grin to Blackshot, who for his part looked as confused as the two ghouls. “Do you have any caps?”

Blackshot leapt to his hooves, “Orion, you're not suggesting what I think you are?”

“Iron Will is confused, what does Iron Will’s savings have to do with this?”

“Blackshot, hear me out before you get mad at me. The Reavers have a stockpile of weapons that is pretty much scrap metal for the good it does them and we have some of the best gunsmiths in the wastelands back home. Plus we have Happy Trails.”

“Is this ‘Happy Trails’ really that good, young pony?” Lonestar seemed curious to where I was going with this.

I had to grin, “Lonestar, you give that girl a paperclip, some turpentine, a tube of wonderglue and a glass of water and she will hand you back a Balefire bomb. You’ve seen my saddle, right? Would you say those carbines were stored away during the last couple hundred years?”

“Well in my uneducated opinion I must say they had been stored away somewhere to be in that sort of condition...”

“Try on the remains of a pony in the middle of a woodland. She is that good with guns.”

Lonestar rubbed his chin with a hoof. His minotaur companion looked more than a little lost about the way this conversation was going. Finally Lonestar let out a sigh.

“Well my young pony you have quite the proposition there, having some way to keep our arsenal in repair would solve one of our two biggest problems. Alas though, our funds are stretched far too thin to pay for such repairs. It was a such good idea too.”

Ok. now I felt kind of down. I thought I had found a way to help both factions at once. now I’m going to sulk.

“I have an idea.” Blackshot surprised me, I thought he hated the very idea of helping the Reavers. “How about barter instead of currency?”

“Iron Will does not follow.”

“It’s quite simple my friend. What this gentlepony is suggesting is that we hand over items in payment for the repairs we need. Quite the compromise for both parties, please continue.”

Blackshot pressed his hooves together and stared over them at the two ghouls. “I am still not convinced your group is as peaceful as you claim but Orion raised a good point. I must do what I can for my town. Now I won't ask for an inventory on your supplies. What I suggest is we keep half of what you bring us for repairing the rest.”

“Half seems a lot, Let us say ten percent.”

“Forty.”

“Fifteen.”

“Thirty.”

“Twenty five.”

“Done.” Blackshot held out a hoof which Lonestar shook with a smile. Iron Will looked on seeming confused at the exchange.

“Iron Will wants to know what you just agreed to Lonestar.”

“It’s quite simple my friend, we take our non working firearms to this gentle pony’s town, his ponies will fix them for us. They will then take a quarter for their payment and return the rest to us. In short we are losing nothing and have a lot to gain.”

“Iron Will is impressed, this little pony has a good heart.”

Lonestar leaned over to me and stage whispered, “That's about as high praise as my bipedal colleague gives out, slightly depressing but we take what we can get from such a maladjusted leader.”

“So Iron Will is the leader of the Reavers? Wait a Luna loving minute here... why am I asking the questions? Ironclad and Blackshot are the experienced ones here, they should be the ones talking!”

Blackshot shot me a smile while Ironclad... Well I can't see through his helmet so I’ll guess he was smiling. Why is everypony giving me that smile? it's creeping me out. Finally, after a minute of me shuffling uncomfortably, Blackshot enlightened me.

“Actually Orion, Ironclad and I are curious to how much more you can get from this situation. You already got us out of a shooting gallery, made friends with what, lets be honest, is the biggest threat in the area. You got us a trade agreement that will benefit both groups. I’m honestly wondering if you will suddenly find a super weapon or a stockpile of Power Armour.”

I had to groan, even when I do well, everypony mocks me. Can't somepony just say, ‘Well done Orion’. Even something simple like that I would love, but no. It's: ‘you did something good, now lets see you upstage yourself’! I buried my head under my hooves to escape the laughter.

“Iron Will is pleased he met you ponies. Now we have one less problem to solve.”

Ironclad gestured to me with a hoof, “Why not ask the kid about the rest? He seems to have the answers today.”

“Iron Will is unsure but... I don't know what to do. We are running out of food. We don't need to eat, but our feral brothers need it. We have no real place to contain them until we can bring them back to their senses. This place is a good hiding place but we have nothing but rubble to contain the ferals while they are here. We need somewhere to set up shop.”

I rubbed my chin, trying to think. Trottingham was out, there was no way I was going to start a war. Radar was out as we didn't have that much extra food supplies and no place to house thousands of ghouls let alone cage ferals. The facility I woke up in was gone, lost somewhere in the forest and even though I really looked hard, I was unable to find it. There was no place I had seen that would work!

“Sorry but I can't think of anyplace, but if I ever do, I’ll come and tell you guys.”

“Iron Will understands, you have helped us out enough already.”

“Can I ask one final question? Why do you keep forgetting to use that annoying third pony thing you do?”

Lonestar laughed, “He’s got you now my friend! As long as I have known Iron Will he has used the third person when speaking to anypony to give himself an air of confidence. The times he drops it is when he is far too worried about other things to keep up the charade.”

“Have you known Iron Will long?”

“A few hundred years now. This gentlepony is the reason I am no longer a feral trapped in a sound booth.”

I just stared. Iron Will had told us about helping a pony regain his mind but to actually meet him... Blackshot stood and shook out his muscles.

“As fun as this has been we should get geared back up and head back to Radar. I trust the Reavers know where that is?” Lonestar gave a nod, “Ironclad, Orion. Gather your shit and meet up by the exit in ten minutes. I am going to sort out the final details on our trade agreement while you two get the team together.”

Exactly ten minutes later, I checked on my PipBuck. Blackshot strode out into the pale glow of the early dawn. The black stallion trotted over to the group and nodded to each of us in turn. I got a frown instead.

“Orion, I am sure I told you to gear up for the trip back correct?”

I looked myself over, Vengeance was loaded and hung from my flanks. My 9mm hung from my leg in it's rig, a fresh clip already loaded. my supplies and my Rainbow Dash sat in my saddlebags and Dragons Roar, my newest gun, was tied between my wings.

“Blackshot, I’m packing enough firepower to take out a couple Enclave. How am I not geared up?”

The dark stallion gave me a strange smile and pulled something from his saddlebags, I saw a flash of pink and bolted. The combined magic of four unicorns pulled me slowly back to the ground in the centre of the group as I struggled and thrashed in horror.

<====0oxo0====>

“I hate you guys...”

Ironclad sighed, “We know Orion. that’s the forty second time you have told us.”

We had been walking for five hours and I was still sulking. In my defence they had took my stuff and forced me into that stupid dress again. I hated looking like a filly. Sure I understood that I had to stay incognito so we didn't get attacked, but there had to be a better way than dressing me like a mare every time I left town.

Radar was in sight and my hooves were killing me. The saddlebag the disguise came with was light as with it's small size we couldn't fit anything bigger than a bottle of water in it. Everypony was carrying my gear for me. It got to me that I had to do this and not be able to carry my own weight. The gates loomed before us, Dozer opening them as soon as we reached the welded metal. Happy came galloping out of the gates before they opened fully.

“Did anypony bring me a new gun to play with?” The blue unicorn mare looked between us with shining eyes.

Ironclad pulled Dragons Roar from his back and hoofed it over. “This is Orion’s new gun, be careful with it, it was a gift from his dad.”

I took a step forward to explain the story behind it but found myself knocked flat by a perfect flying tackle hug by my favourite alicorn. Favorite? Sweet, Just tell her you like her already. Shut up, brain...

“Orion! I was worried, I heard about the Reavers being there... the Goddess had been showing me images of them... it was horrible.”

Yep, time for another heart to heart with the Goddess, “Silver, is she watching now?” Silver gave a worried look and nodded. “Right then, Goddess? Leave her alone or I swear one day I will find a way to kill you.”

“The Goddess is laughing Orion, she doesn't think you're a threat to her.”

“Not now, but then neither did her alicorn buddy in Trottingham.”

Blackshot and Happy were giving the two of us odd looks, Blackshot was the first to break the awkward silence.

“Orion, we will get the gear packed away. Go get changed and grab some food. Take Silver with you. If I know that girl she never ate anything while worrying about you.”

Well I was hungry. “Come on, Silver, lets get some food. I’m starving, then I’m going to burn this dress.”

Happy gave me her trolling grin, “But Orion, it looks good on you! It brings out your eyes.”

Not rising to it, with a wing shrug I turned and trotted into town, Silver following at my side. As we passed the gates I heard Happy ask the question I dreaded most.

“Has Orion admitted he likes Silver yet? Those two would make such a cute couple.”

Level Up!

Guns 40

Unarmed 30