“The True Warrior fights not because he hates what is before him, but because he loves what is behind him.” -Shaka Zulu.

I heard the flapping of wings through the rain squall and two pegasi emerged, heading for the pieces of flares around me. They flew right at me, and I saw blades lining their wings. Like swords built specifically to fit onto their wings and made for slashing or decapitating creatures on the ground. They wore the same standardized armor of the rest of the soldiers-turned-raiders.

I felt more memories trying to well up and I had to shove it down while they closed right at me. I stood up to my hind legs just as Nyota had trained me. My tail held onto the detonators while I raised my shotgun to block. With a clang that shook me to the core the first pegasus impacted and I found myself tumbling backwards. I was off the ground as my tail slapped S.A.T.S. and slowed the world to a crawl.

The second pegasus was closing in and would strike me without giving me an opportunity to block, and with no foundation to stand on. I watched him closing in while the first one was grinding off my armor plating. He’s going to cut me in half! What am I going to do? My PipBuck suddenly lit up with a queue for a melee hoof strike. I scrolled through the options I had, one of them said: “Body Check”. Well, that might work; I got nothing else!

I targeted the pegasus grinding his blade across my barrel and let the spell do the rest. With the full force of an Earth Pony bucking, I slammed into the pegasus with my hips and my hoof clipped him right in the groin. I could feel his pride smashed under my hoof as he curled up mid-flight and plummeted back while I kept flying towards the dirt.

The sudden course change of his wingpony caused him to tumble right into the second pegasus. The two of them went flying as they bounced off each other. The one I hit slammed into the dirt where I’d been standing, while the second flew over my head. I watched as he dive bombed face first, right in front of one of my claymores with sprinkles.

I slowly rose to my hooves with a groan and checked my tail to make sure it still had the detonators. I held it up at the pegasus still recovering in front of my mine. He saw the red button in the dim flare light. “Move and I blow the mine! Stay down!”

I turned back to the other pegasus I’d kicked and he stood up, shaking it off and snorting at me. Rifle fire riddled against my armor. The plates still held, but the bruises were getting bad; bad enough that I wanted more Med-X. Scopola Mina’s laser rifle mixed with a sudden gout of flame from Quick Stitch’s pistol silenced the rifles, at least temporarily.

I stood up on my hind legs. My shotgun was lost in the mud. Pink, if that Pegasus moves, press the button. I will not be mad.

“WHOO!! I get to fire a party mine! It’s almost as good as a party cannon!” Pink shouted with glee and waved a salute to me just at the corner of my eye. The pegasus leapt from the mud right at me, swinging his hoof in a haymaker and throwing his wings at me as well. The wingblades—without the velocity of flight—couldn’t find purchase against the stubbornite plates, but they did slice right through the kevlar fabric. I ducked his punch and hit him in the gut.

My fist pressed in and I found out he wasn’t wearing a rifle plate; only cloth kevlar. I watched the wind go out of him. “Stop! Please.” I turned to see the other pegasus stand up and start to pull out a Horse and Keller - 5, HK-5 9mm submachine gun. My tail flicked the switch and in an instant; the pegasus went from being there to just smoke and fragments as the explosion of the homemade claymore lit up the night.

The rainbow color of sprinkles dotted the mud beyond while dirt flew up all around where he once stood. There wasn’t anything left, his very being was simply annihilated by the blast. His friend stood there in shock as the firefight died down around us. It was a moment that was burned in my mind. “Dog Fighter! NO!!!” The pegasus in front of me screamed and ran towards the dust settling.

Dog Fighter’s wingblades were scattered everywhere. His armor was loaded with holes and rainbow sprinkles, all fire hardened to make penetration possible. The submachine gun lay in the mud, crumpled and wrecked. The pegasus I’d been fist fighting broke out into tears and held the armor against his face. I could see the smear of blood along his cheek as what was once a living pegasus dropped from the clothing.

My stomach wretched and my whole body was covered in goosebumps. I’d just done that. I’d created that weapon. I’d taken ice cream toppings and a child’s lunchbox and turned it into a killing weapon. Celestia forgive me! He never stood a chance!

The pegasus holding what was left of his friend just wept into the bloody, pegasus-meat-covered clothing. He couldn’t look away, I didn’t understand just what he’d lost. But I knew it was my fault. A bullet hitting my stubbornite rifle plate on my chest forced me to move.

I dove for the dead raider with the bumper sword I’d downed earlier. He was right next to my shotgun. I moved up to use the dead body as a bi-pod, “Oh, come on! Just surrender or retreat already!” I declared. The bullet had snapped me out of the horror of my actions and reminded me of what we were here for.

Sunrise! The orders here are simple! Kill or Be Killed! Pink declared, and I felt my tail tighten the grip on my shotgun. ACT! Or lose your friends! I’ll monitor the mines for the Goddess with a Gun!

I pulled the trigger at flashing lights in the darkness . The strangest ammunition came out. Instead of the usual kick and volley of shotgun pellets or a slug, a gout of flame burst forward. It went almost 20 meters from the barrel. The grip on the shotgun heated up from use of this round. Pink bounced in my vision with glee, Dragons Breath rounds! With REAL Dragon’s Breath! His name was Smash Claw before we made him ammunition!

I wanted to cringe at Pink. I had no time, as a more heavily armored soldier stepped into the blazing firelight. His hoof held a humming magnetic gauss pistol and his helmet had three sergeant chevrons on it. He pointed at me and fired. My rib exploded in pain; even the Med-X couldn’t deaden it. I fell onto the side opposite where I’d been hit, with a yelp. I wasn’t sure how bad it was until the initial shock passed. My hoof reached down to find no blood.

I stayed down behind the dead body that was absorbing hits for me as the volume of fire renewed. I kept checking my ribs where the round hit. My PipBuck indicated minor damage while it showed a hole in my armor plating. It penetrated but it didn’t penetrate? I was very confused when Pink walked into view looking like a tank on hooves with a giggle.

“Your armor broke but it didn’t have enough left to break you! You’re literally a walking, talking, mini-tank!” I wanted to be upset about the ‘mini’ part but she was right. My right side was now dangerously exposed. The stubbornite plating there was cracked and broken. There was no promise it would stop another bullet. I could feel my bruised ribs, and at least everything from my chest down had been bruised by the gauss pistol.

I took a moment to look over our enemies. With the flares up and the burning fires around us, the area was well lit, despite the rain and nighttime darkness. They all had the same uniforms, same combat armor, and similar weapons. It was so strange to see that in the wasteland. Even the Silver Fang Mercenaries were not this uniformly equipped. The Roof guards were equipped as varied as our party of ne'er do wells. But these soldiers were no raiders; they were outfitted like an Old World military.

We’re in trouble. There are a lot more of them than us and we’re starting to fall apart. The sergeant with the gauss pistol noticed me but he didn’t have time to turn. Alguacil’s gun sounded his revival to the battlefield. Chifundo’s higher pitched varmint rifle echoed close behind. The sergeant fell dead into the mud from a volley of fire from The Roof’s defenders; our support had seen the flares and fires and knew who to shoot.

There were quite a few ponies pinning down Scopola Mina, Quick Stitch, and myself ,but now they were scattering or falling dead as every long range weapon in The Roof laid down a withering barrage. My PipBuck crackled, “Sunrise! We’ve got ya cover’ed! Take th’ fight to ‘em!” It was Alguacil, squawking out.

Scopola Mina didn’t need any more encouragement. Quick Stitch was done fixing her leg enough to stand and she rose up, loading a fresh gem pack into her laser rifle. Another pony bearing sergeant chevrons stepped forward. “We aren’t finished yet! Drive them—Yeowwww—” Before he finished the command he was already taking laser fire. Scopola Mina was relentless, pulling the trigger as fast as her chamber would cycle the blasts of death. The rain steamed and sizzled off the beams of light. I watched as the stallion’s leg turned to ash, then slowly Scopola Mina worked her way up his body, every part of him flashing to ash. His gear, flesh, and bones all incinerated.

The new officer of The Goddess with a Gun was nothing but bright pink ashes the color of bubble gum. Any attempt at return fire towards us resulted in a volley of fire from The Roof ripping apart tents, crates, and anything that was being used for cover. If a gunflash wasn’t from one of the three of us, its wielder was volleyed down by the overwhelming fire from The Roof.

Quick Stitch and I joined in, him spraying his flamer pistol and me pouring fire from my shotgun as fast as I could load more shells into it. Nyota burst from behind a tent, smashing another pony to the ground. He grappled him by the neck and held him up as shield against the flaming camp. I took aim, but even with S.A.T.S. there was no clean shot to hit the pony struggling with Nyota. All we could do was keep their side suppressed.

With a headbutt and a kick to Nyota’s pride, the stallion broke from his grasp. He lunged for a gauss pistol, the same one that had penetrated my armor. Nyota’s armor wouldn’t stand a chance against it. He missed, amd the gauss round blew apart what was left of the dead pony’s head I was using for cover. Nyota didn’t miss, bucking him in the jaw hard enough to break it and followed up with a set of punches to the stallion’s throat. He fell face down in the mud, unmoving.

“Nyota! Fall back! Get to cover!” I shouted, then gripped and fired another shot at a flash in the darkness. Nyota sprinted towards us, not needing anymore urging. A stallion stepped between us, a baddle saddle with twin machine guns on it.

“I got you now, Zigger!” he growled, moving to bite onto the mouth trigger.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” My rage boiled over. The visions of dead flashing before me. The thought Nyota could be turned to a pulp like Dog Fighter moments ago. I couldn’t stand it. I shoved whatever round I could grab into the shotgun and fired. My shoulder went numb, the Med-X keeping the pain away but not stopping the muscle failure. That was no solid slug or even a magnum buckshot round; S.A.T.S. was scrolling suddenly as I saw a pure quartz crystal; turned black from depletion of its magic. The crystal was flying towards the stallion and punched right into his rear end armor, ripping him from groin to his ribs.

He fell screaming in a high pitched voice that belonged to a school filly, not a full grown stallion. There seemed to be another lull after that shot as Nyota dove into the shell crater and mud behind me. “Sunrise, we don’t shoot creatures ther’. Even I think that was unnecessary.” Alguacil squawked over the radio. Nyota winced in the corner of my eye and Pink giggled like she knew a secret.

“Sunrise! That was Mad Mac’s war crime round! Depleted crystals are used to penetrate high armor tanks! You just cookie-cuttered that stallion like a can of biscuits!” I was furious, and Pink’s laughter died down. She shied away as I growled and my fury grew manifest.

I was as mad as I had been at Corners on Hearth's Warming Eve. I released my shotgun trigger to scream, “GODDESS!!! Show yourself! END THIS!” I didn’t want more ponies to die. Not because of some blood feud I didn’t remember between Breakfast Blend and myself. “Get out here! Face ME!”I bellowed as loud as I could. My voice carried with the rain and even the gunshots grew quiet. I know you heard me. Now show yourself. The sudden quietness of the battlefield reminded me the entire time we had been fighting; my PipBuck’s rad counter had been clicking. There was a lot of radiation we had absorbed. The iodine pills would not be enough; we needed more RadAway and soon.

A gun nest suddenly opened fire, twin 40mm flak cannons ripped across The Roof. Flak and explosions lit up the structure. Our support fire silenced while the volley suppressed them.
Another shotgun, not mine, echoed in the air as Nyota picked up a dead body and used it to advance against the weapon. Blast after magnum-loud blast rippling apart flesh of his dead shield. Nyota threw the remains into his attacker and then started to repeatedly punch and kick him.

I could see the blood and bruises forming from the brass shoes. One good blast from the shotgun caught Nyota and I thought he was gone from how his head snapped. I fired at two other gun flashes, trying to regain our momentum. “Nyota! Please, no!” The shotgun of his assailant clicked and didn’t fire as I rushed towards them. Nyota rolled his head back. His face was cut and bloody but he was alive.

He slammed his hoof down into the pony under him with all his fury, and kept hitting the soldier until his face was half-buried in the mud. The AA gun fell silent, then I heard the crack of several rifles from The Roof. Our snipers had found the AA crew and now the gun was silenced.

The Roof began their suppressive storm again; the firelights were starting to die down. I searched around us for one of the flare guns, then quickly loaded and fired it to light up the sky again. I searched for more flares and felt Pink tug at me. I’d stepped outside our minefield ring, almost pulling the det-cord out of my tail’s grip.

I grabbed Nyota and we retreated back. The last of their guns was silenced with an explosion; one of The Roof guns found their shell storage and got a direct hit. Scopola kept firing, ripping apart any of their soldiers dumb enough to step into the light. Her laser rifle was turning a searing white-hot and I was afraid it would melt its metal containment shell.

Quick Stitch searched for a weapon, his flamer pistol was out of fuel and his dart gun was no good against their armor. I tossed him my back up pistol and three rolls of bullets. He looked at me distastefully as his telekinesis picked up the weapon and ammo. “Quick Stitch, no time for morals; even my own. It’s kill or be killed now. Keep us healed but defend yourself if you have to.”

I turned, scanned for Breakfast Blend, the so-called Goddess with a Gun. She had to reappear soon. Her soldiers were getting decimated. I’m sure we had dead back at The Roof and we certainly couldn’t keep up our fighting much longer. I reloaded my shotgun and flipped the charging switch on my gauss carbine to fully recharge it. Quick Stitch’s horn went to work on Nyota, but he was sweating; that wasn’t just rainwater on him. Quick Stitch was starting to burn out, his limits well beyond being tested.

If we tried to retreat across the open field, we were done for. If we stayed, we were done for. I was out of miracles, Nyota had lost the element of surprise, Quick Stitch’s magic was at its limit, and Scopola Mina’s rifle was dangerously close to melting. I looked to the pegasus, still holding what was left of his friend, weeping in tears. Then a bullet bit into my flank right at my cutie mark, without hesitation, I set off a landmine in that direction and hit S.A.T.S.

Breakfast Blend was sitting right there, with her tommy gun, firing at me and looked on in shock as her horn lit up to teleport her. The milliseconds played out, as the explosive went off in slow motion. I could see the sprinkles tearing towards her, along with a sheet of flame and smoke. Some of the sharpnel ripped at her and she dropped her Manehattan typewriter, as she was there one moment and gone the next.

S.A.T.S. released and the world sped back up. There was no sign of Breakfast Blend, except the crumbled gun on the ground and some blood in the mud. The rain stopped as the night grew slightly darker and the fires burned dimmer. “COME OUT! Face me!”I screamed out, knowing that the blast had wounded, but not killed her. A final two ponies charged me, the mares screaming as they threw grenades which I immediately kicked back.They fell to the ground, screaming in agony, as the two explosives went off beside them. There was a flash just after the grenades, this one more controlled and dimmer.

Breakfast Blend stood there, her clothes a bit ruffled as a solid blue shield extended around her. In her horn’s grip was a teacup along with a gauss cannon, the gun she was famous for. I knew it, because I remembered that I had built it. It was the same weapon that Cross Stitch had hit me with a grazing shot. A gauss weapon normally used 2mm electro-magnetic cadmium-tungsten rounds, 2mm EC. This one used 10mm and surrounded it with a field of plasma, like a plasma rifle firing its disintegration spell. A direct hit from that thing and I’m dead, even in my armor. It will kill any one of us.

“Well, you have my undivided attention now, Sunrise.” She was a grey-coated mare with a blonde, curly mane. The flash from her teleport cleared and I could see her more clearly. Several sprinkles from my mine were embedded in her armor; armor I made for her. I could see where her soldiers got the armor design they had. Hers was more elegant, but also thicker and much higher quality. Little bits of beige stubbornite pressed out of the damaged kevlar fabrics.

Sniper bullets slammed into her shield harmlessly. She spun the cannon in her TK towards The Roof and fired, “Ya have to do better than that, bird brain!” She tried to shout over the deafening roar of nearly a full megawatt of electricity firing a round at ten times the speed of sound. The Roof had stood strong through the siege. Where the round impacted however, several plates of metal and chunks of concrete the size of a car were blown apart and hammered into the ground.

“Dammit! Dat stupid shield! Sunrise, I need a medic!” Alguacil screamed over the radio.

“Thank you, I made it myself. Now, how to deal with finishing you off?” Breakfast Blend shouted, thinking she could talk back to Alguacil.

What do I do? Her shield is keeping us out. Pink shoved a round into the shotgun and I saw her appear on my H.U.D. with a huge electric tesla coil, shooting off sparks around her.

“Well! It is a spell matrix for that shield talisman, I think those new pulse rounds you made for their shields might just do the trick.” I smiled and nodded, sliding another round into the shotgun and cocking it to clear the chamber of my previous round.

“Really now, Sunrise? This isn’t some Old World action movie. That is just a waste of a shotgun shell and you know it. You can’t scare me.” She rotated her cannon back in my direction with a sinister grin on her face. “I’ve been looking forward to this. Though I would have liked to do it my way, but you seem awfully entrenched with doing it right here and now.”

I fired the shotgun without a word in response. The pulse round fired off like a lightning bolt from ‘Sunray’. The round hit the shield, and with a loud metallic pop the pulse slug punched right through the shield, and the sound of shattering glass filled the air. Her armor stopped the slug but it stunned Breakfast Blend and made her stagger back. “What!? Impossible!”

Nyota jumped forward and bucked the gun in her grip with all his might, “Leave my mare ALONE!” He was just a second too short as the cannon returned fire. Between Nyota’s buck and the recoil from my shotgun; the cannon didn’t hit me directly. It grazed within a meter of my face. My ballistic goggles blew apart as did my muzzle protector and my helmet cracked under the strain.

My eyes watered, but I was alive, and I blinked away the tears as blood ran down my cheeks from my skin cracking. My ears rang and even through the Med-X wearing off, my entire body shuddered with pain. “That was a graze!!! Sunrise, what crazy party cannon did you make her?” I hit the mud with my breath driven out of my lungs and scrambled to try to get back to my hooves.

Scopola Mina fired off laser blast after laser blast right into the chest plate of The Goddess; but Scopola’s gun sparked out and the spell-matrix overloaded inside it, preventing it from firing further. The stubbornite turned to pink ash with her final shot, drifting in the wind. The Goddess with a Gun was vulnerable.

The tent fires had burned out and the flare died. Breakfast Blend cried out in agony and a high pitched shot echoed from Chifundo’s rifle. That broke the ringing in my ears to hear the cannon fire again, lighting us back up and Nyota whinnied out in pain. We plunged into darkness and I hit S.A.T.S. only to find the electro-magnets from her gun was causing my PipBuck to malfunction.

My light went out, leaving us all in total darkness. I slowly got back up, mud and blood dripping from my face. My armor creaked and groaned in my ears, and every sound felt like it was amplified with my roaring headache. My tail pinched my flank through a hole in my plating and I felt the icy chill of Med-X coursing through me. It was like my mind needed that just to relieve all the tension.

My PipBuck light cut back on with a few flickers. The light stabilized as Breakfast Blend got to the edge of it. On one side of her was a broken teacup, held in her TK. On the other side, the gauss cannon. She shot down the last sip of her coffee as I gripped my shotgun in hoof and brough the trigger up to my mouth. Breakfast Blend threw the cup on the ground and spat out the liquid after rinsing her mouth out.

“That was the last of Sergeant Dunken’s special blend. Ya know, he died when you launched that megaspell at us.” She took a breath and I knew if she fired that gun at me right then; I’d be dead. There were no more snipers to cover us. Scopola Mina let out a wheeze of life as her drugs wore off and her injuries along with fatigue caught up to her. Quick Stitch stumbled and I could hear him shuffling for potions even if I couldn’t see him. I didn’t know where Nyota was, and I hoped he was alive; somehow. “I have to give credit, hurling that car at us with that bomb? Great plan. But now you’ve cost me all my best lieutenants and the last of my sergeants. I’ve got no officers left except me. Now, you wanna have this duel?”

“Honestly, no. I came here to rescue Nyota from getting into too much trouble, and this just turned into one giant battle I didn’t plan on.” I replied and racked the shotgun to clean the spent shell, which thunked into the mud.

“Oh, I think he’s dead. That or his stealth is beyond even my PipBuck. Now, to deal with you; permanently!” She raised her gun and I fired my shotgun into the mud. The dirt kicked up in a cloud that covered me as I dove for the ground and shut off my light. The cannon fired over my head, I could feel my tail hairs burning away as it passed close to them. But she missed.

“Would you just die already! Sunrise, you cannot withstand the storm! Lay down and die!” She screamed searching for me. I knew it would take several seconds to recharge that gun and I had to move. I dropped ‘Sunray’ and pulled out ‘Celestia’s Hammer.’ It had overcharged to 120%. The shot might damage the gun but it would kill anything it hits.

The Med-X made it so my muscles would work, and I felt the presence of the thing from my memories with her. The monster deep inside me wanting to come forward.

I almost let it through to help me finish her. I bolted to where she last was. I was rewarded with the glow of the magic from her horn.

“I am the storm.”

She turned just in time as the gauss round pulverized through what was left of her helmet, her face exploding into fragments. I hit the ground and Pink flicked my tail to turn on my light. The headless corpse of The Goddess with a Gun fell into the mud.

Suddenly, the world around us grew brighter. The sun poked through the clouds just enough for us to see it rising in the distance. Is it over?

Level 12 Progress - Level 12 Reached, Because the GM is being nice about you killing a boss!

Perk Gained - Team Leader - All members of your party so long as they are within 1 movement range of you gain +5% to all Skills! BUT you do not get the bonus yourself, come with being the leader.

Stat Reveal - Sunrise only have a 4 Strength but a 9 Intelligence.

Quest Perk Earned - Matrix Casting - You can combine efforts to cast with other ponies in order to make magical spells work with increased potency equal to your own. Don't Ask me how you're going to do that; ya know NOT being a unicorn and all. But this will allow you to build spell matrices assuming you have a unicorn to cast the spells; while you make the mechanic parts.