“When Anger Rises, Think of the Consequences”
-Confucious

We were following the twin trails of drag marks. It wasn’t hard at all to see them. Nyota or Alguacil would stop us about once every two or three hours. We were running into the places where those dragging the tank had camped: fortified positions with entrenchments and fox holes dug. There was also a depressed spot where something heavy had been sitting. That has to be where they were putting the tank.

After two days of walking and dragging our own sled, we were approaching Taintwood on my map. I could see the overgrown plants and flora on long abandoned buildings. I looked up and noticed vines the size of an oak tree jutting out of the taller buildings, ten or twenty stories up. Either the place had grown, or I had become more observant. Nyota and Alguacil worked to create us a path, not that there was much work to do. Whoever had been hauling the tank had killed more of the plant-life as they dragged the tank over it.

The smell of dead animals hit my nose first. Why does dead-things smell make my eye itch more!?

Pink snickered and then flat out laughed, “Why do you think they call them eye, nose, ear, and throat doctors? They’re all connected like a big funnel cake!” I groaned at Pink’s imaginative explanation of biology. I wanted to give her a piece of my mind when my PipBuck beeped and I stopped to look at it.

Having one eye made it harder to read since I had to move the PipBuck to a closer position to overcome the lack of depth perception. I also had to stretch my leg further since my right eye couldn’t see it. Before my eyes, I watched the map on my PipBuck change. A location came up: “Parking Garage.” It was still some distance away but it changed the name. “Upsville.” What the—? How does it know to do that? My current objective marker also changed to reflect the position of this location.

‘Get My Tank Back’ came up and below it was the name: Upsville. All of this displayed on my H.U.D. and I stared, slightly confused. Wait, has this been so natural to me that I just ignored it before? I notice now, after having been left with one eye?

Pink laughed and rolled across my E.F.S. marker, “Well, when you actually set the objective instead of just lumbering around like a ninny all the time; yes! That is how it works! Your PipBuck is smarter than you, isn’t it?” I really wanted to slug Pink for that one but it did bring a smile to my face.

One day, we need to sit down and figure out how all these things worked. Nyota stopped my walking and I looked at him, confused. He pointed down, directing my attention to a crushed flower, one with the yellow petals and spiny parts that Jackal told us to avoid. I nodded to him, “Thank you.” I put my right leg down and carefully avoided it, now paying more attention to where I was going.

It seems that others weren’t as fortunate, as a few pony bodies around us were being mutated and mutilated by vines and plantlife. It was the beginning of the process that would turn them into things like the charging zombie creature we ran into last time we were here. Quick Stitch took out his flamer pistol and squeezed the trigger. The flowers and vines wilted and I swore we could hear a shriek, until they caught fire and burned away. Collectively, I felt our group wince and Quick Stitch turned to us.

“Would you want to be one of these things? Just like if you became a feral ghoul, wouldn’t you want me to put you down? I would want you to do that to me.” I nodded at him and noticed that without prolonged blasting from the flamer pistol the fires were dying down and not rampantly burning through the plant life.

“Well, at least you aren’t gonna start an inferno,” Nyota observed as the charred remains of a pony fell apart in front of us. It was horrific, knowing that was once someone who felt everything I did, who could talk, and had personality; now they had to be burned away for the greater good.

“How many of us has the wasteland just, charred away into ash? How many are forgotten?” I asked as the ashes bounced off my armor and fell into the dirt.

Alguacil spit. “Let’s just keep moving and not become like them. Besides, some of them were better left forgotten; like raiders.” He gnashed his beak a few times to emphasize his point. Scopola Mina just shrugged and skipped along, avoiding the flowers and ash all together. She had that really happy smile she had when she just took a hit of dash. Her laser rifles clattered against her flanks and the holsters bounced off her hips as she pranced along.

Chifundo cleared his throat, “Perhaps you are right about their terror, but to deface the dead is a grave error. Even in the case of an awful raider.” I smiled at this, it was a good point.

I turned to him and he gave me a wink, “I believe my tender heart has been kissed by her, from the lessons of mercy from my battle sister.” I stopped and gave Chifundo a hug, at least the best I could through our heavy armor and with the reigns of the sled on our backs. I looked down at something that pushed against my leg. Rainbowrise’s Protector was there now. It was in the hold-out holster across from Buddy’s Last Gift.

At this rate I’m gonna run out of spots for weapons or armor plating. That or have to invent new ones. I adjusted my leg in the hug to not press the pistol against Chifundo’s neck. Something about the way my new plating sounded against Chifundo’s armor really made me reassured at our new protection.

It was kind of like a metallic fork pressing against hardened glass; like someone pinging against a wine glass but the wine glass wasn’t protesting; like the fork itself was the thing actually in danger of breaking. Chifundo smirked at me and I smiled back as we parted and he nodded to me. I motioned my hoof for him to lead the way. He shook his head and instead motioned for me to take the lead again.

We started walking further, and it wasn’t long before I could see the parking garage. It had been heavily fortified, and all the plant life had been cleared from every building near it. The streets near the building were slightly remade, what with all the potholes filled in with rocks and concrete in some spots. It was so strange to see a building that had been patchwork reconstructed like this, while the rest around it were still decaying or falling apart.

I could see a couple of roof guard towers made of wood and dead dried plants with sandbags around them. A guard post was in front, made of scrap metal and sandbags with a frame of an old carriage. It was manned by a pair of leather-armored guards holding Equestrian service rifles and sharing a smoke. They suddenly stood at attention when they saw us. They both moved to their entrenched guardpost, putting sandbags between us and them. I nodded to my friends and we headed for a nearby building with the sled.

Alguacil and Quick Stitch worked hard to try to move the rusted doors open. It was a bank with heavy metal doors and broken glass windows at head level to look through. Scopola Mina pushed them both aside with a nod, “I got this yall. Hang on.” We stood by and watched Scopola as her horn lit up with power, it glowing brighter and brighter in the fading light. We knew it would be night soon as her magical aura wrapped around the doors.

They groaned and creaked as Scopola groaned back and strained till there was a loud pop and her horn proved itself a whole lot stronger than all of us combined. The doors snapped open and nearly ripped off their hinges with a loud clang as they hit the walls inside. I slowly turned to Scopola Mina with an expression of wide eyed shock as her horn kept glowing and I felt the straps of the sled being removed from my back.

Nyota and I both turned to see Scopola’s magical aura lifting the sled above the stairs that led into the bank. She pushed and pushed, her forelock ruffled in strain. Her body trembled as she moved all the tank parts as carefully as possible. She levitated the sled past the doors and tried to bring them down gently, but it was clear her magic couldn’t hold out for that long. With a slam that lifted me off the ground, the over four tons of parts and sled hit the checkerboard marble floor inside, kicking up a storm of ancient dust not disturbed since the bombs fell.

Snuggles peaked out from the sled and Chifundo walked over to pet the Manticore. I blinked a few times at how large she had gotten. Wait! Your lazy ass has been on the sled with me dragging you this whole time! I think Nyota sensed my fuming and pet my neck with a smile.

“At least she didn’t bother you the whole way here.” Nyota finished his petting and turned to Chifundo, “Best to leave Snuggles here, we aren’t sure if this may turn violent or not and she can certainly guard the sled.” I nodded in agreement, wanting Snuggles out of sight and therefore out of mind.

Scopola was panting but smiling, the kind of smile one would get when you accomplished a job with pure pride. Alguacil and Nyota quickly darted inside while I checked on her. The guards down the road looked up at us and I could swear, I saw one go slack jawed and drop his cigarette onto the ground.

“Are you alright, Scopola? You did not have to do that!” I started to try to hold her up but she patted my chest and shook her head.

She looked up as her trembling started to ebb, “I got it, Sunrise. I may only have one trick, but I’m really good at that trick.” She smiled more and I moved towards Chifundo as we checked the street around us. Save for a dead manticore corpse on the building roof across the partially repaired road, there was nothing. I turned back to Scopola, she stood up straight as Nyota and Alguacil walked back out.

“It’s clear, empty too, like the plants ain’t got inside yet.” Alguacil fluttered his wings as he cleared the dust from around him and off his body. Nyota nodded at me.

“So what do we do from here, Sunny?” Nyota asked. I looked over at the guards and the parking garage that my PipBuck marked as Upsville.

“Well, I will go up and talk to them. See if we can work this out peacefully to get our tank back.” I looked up at him and then over at the rest of our group.

“Chifundo, Scopola Mina, setup for cover fire and long range support.” I turned to Algaucil, “You,” and then to Quick Stitch since I couldn’t see him out of my right eye, “And you are with me. Alguacil and Quick Stitch can provide close-range cover; Alguacil knows how to look out for manticores since he is the only one of us who can fly.” I looked around for Nyota, “And Ny..ot..a…” He had disappeared and I smirked, “Right, exactly that.” I swore I heard Nyota chuckling somewhere, but I couldn’t make out where he was. It seemed like his chuckle came from everywhere around us.

Scopola Mina strained her horn again and closed the bank doors. It was easier the second time around, but still came with a loud metallic slam. Scopola and Chifundo made the best entrenchment they could out of a nearby slab of rubble. It had most likely been a house once, now it lacked most of its walls. A couple of pieces stood out, including something I assumed once was a window. Whoever these creatures were that lived here, they had cleared the flora away from this section of the ruins. Now Chifundo used that half a window seal for his rifle to brace on.

I walked up to the guards, making sure to not draw a weapon or look like I was going to start a fight. I looked back to see Alguacil with his talon on his gun and I shook my head, “Alguacil, non-lethal; got it? We do not want to kill them.” Alguacil grimaced at me and put his talon onto the pavement. Quick Stitch gave a nervous look back at the guards; I heard their guns shifting, and safeties click off.

I turned my head back to them and decided to finally introduce myself once we were only around ten meters away. “Hi, my name is Wandering Sunrise. What’s yours?” One of the guards was very light brown, the color of tree bark, and his hair was a mix of neon and teal blue. He gulped looking me over, I imagined his scared eyes was the result of the intimidating appearance I possessed. My armor plating was not something to laugh at, much less the myriad of weapons I was carrying.

“It’s Lunar Spice,” the unicorn replied with a dry rasp of his breath. He was clearly nervous about something, and then I made a show of examining the trail of drag marks. They led right to the large door of the parking garage behind them. I looked back up at him and back down at the drag marks.

“I think you know what I’m here for.” He nodded and grimaced at his guardmate, who was wearing a facemask. He was an earth pony whose details I couldn’t make out through the mask and his leather armor that covered him from hoof to neck.

“I’m gonna have to ask ya to say it out loud. You traders or raiders or somethin’?” I saw his magic lighting up and the navy blue aura wrapped around his pistol, lifting it slightly but not pointing it directly at any of us yet. A subtle warning, obviously.

“None of the above,” I motioned to the drag marks on the ground. “It seems you took my tank I was looking to—” A gunshot ripped through the air. I heard it bounce off something and I raised an eyebrow. I looked at Alguacil, then at Quick Stitch, both of whom were staring at me equally stunned. I turned back to Lunar Spice, and saw he was shaking. His magical aura was unstable, his horn struggling to stay lit. I looked down and discovered that the fabric of my armor had a graze.

Pink snickered, “Ha! Pistols and Service Rifles? They may as well have spitballs!” I was astounded; the armor was so incredibly resilient that I didn't even notice the low caliber bullet hitting me. The ricochet noise was from the bullet hitting a piece of concrete on a wall nearby. My head turned back to Lunar Spice and I lowered the ballistic goggles down, then raised my new faceplate that covered my neck and chin until it met the ballistic goggles at my nose.

I started to speak again but Quick Stitch didn’t give me the chance. He fired his gauss pistol directly into Lunar Spice’s leg and sent the unicorn sprawling onto the ground. I could see the white of broken bone sticking out from his gruesome wound above his knee. I had to look away, his screams and face of agony was not something I particularly wanted to see or hear. I entered S.A.T.S. and took aim with my shotgun.

Shoot to wound, this is just a misunderstanding. The world slowed down, I could see the details of the space around me much clearer, details like the second guardpony lifting his weapon to his mouth, Alguacil behind me drawing his revolver, and Quick Stitch’s gauss pistol charging. The number 54 reflecting off his gun’s display on his chest armor jumped up to 55, then 56 over the course of the two second recharge time.

Lunar Spice’s scream reverberated like a record on repeat, and agony was all his face could express. Trying my best to ignore him, I then directed the green circle showing where my shot would go to my next target. It was loaded with pure buckshot; nothing too lethal unless you hit somewhere vital I could feel the hooves of S.A.T.S. guiding me to where I needed to point, my accuracy further assisted by the aiming circle on my H.U.D. as well as a cone projected from my shotgun barrel to where it predicted the bullets to go. The PipBuck was really doing the brunt of the work.

Once I was certain I was only going to hit him in the leg, I queued up two shots. The name on my target display was: Cookie Crunch. The first shot was for his armor, the light metal and leather that would need to be ripped away before the second blast could break his leg. Quick Stitch can fix you later; at least this way it won’t kill you. I released S.A.T.S. to start the spell-assisted shot when I heard a snake tail rattle in my ears.

To my surprise, Sunray opened up with a jet of white hot flames instead of buckshot! My eyes went wide, yes, even the one covered by the patch. I didn’t load that! Pink whistled and then let out a loud wow as Cookie Crunch in front of me burst into flames.

White phosphorus stuck to him and I couldn’t stop myself; S.A.T.S. was great for aiming but it wasn’t something I could just stop midway. Despite my pleas to stop my body, my hoof cranked the pump and loaded another shot. My mouth clicked the bit and the second round left the chamber. In slow motion I watched in horror as a solid slug exited. Through the flames and fire, the world moved at an agonizingly slow pace. The bullet traveling out was made of plastic with a detonation cap on the end. Explosive round! Wait no! That’s for killing robots and heavy armor! I wanted to take it back, I wanted to stop it. The Wasteland was unforgiving and today, it was without mercy. The poor guard never had a chance as his leg was blown clean off by the 12 gauge explosive.

With its task completed, S.A.T.S. returned to recharge mode while the world gradually returned to normal speed as bits of flesh and bone sprinkled around me. Both guards were on the ground; Cookie Crunch was convulsing and going into shock while Lunar Spice was shrieking in agony. I dropped my weapon and ran towards them. Nyota appeared from the corner of the building and hastily joined us. Nyota tried to put a tourniquet onto Cookie Crunch’s destroyed leg. Quick Stitch was already working on Lunar’s leg; the one he had shot.

“Oh by the Twin Sisters! I--I did not load that! I am so, so sorry!” I pleaded, Nyota shooing me with a hoof to motion to get back and give him some space. My heartbeat was pounding in my head. My blood ran cold, my senses dulled as I looked at my weapon and picked it up. I hurriedly unloaded it, though to my complete and utter confusion I found nothing but buckshot inside. I looked at Pink for an answer.

“Well have ya noticed that your shotgun has a habit of shooting stuff you didn’t put in it? Well so did any gun I picked up! Welcome to Wasteland Comedy! Your shotgun is like an ice cream surprise, except with bullets instead of cream filling. That and a healthy dose of—, his leg is really fucked isn’t it?” She turned her attention to Cookie Crunch. I looked up to see Nyota gritting his teeth, pulling the tourniquet on tight over the gruesome stub.

Quick Stitch moved up to assist him, wincing at the damage to the leg. His horn lit up and mercifully a bolt of blue/green shot into Cookie Crunch. He went limp and Quick Stitch let out a sigh of relief. Any stealth we had was gone, erased by the screams and gunfire. I checked my shotgun again to confirm it wasn’t damaged then looked away. Alguacil looked as I felt: concerned.

“Da fuck did he do ‘hat made you burn ‘em alive and blow his leg clean off?” Alguacil snorted while pointing a talon at the guards. I shook my head in respond.

“That is not what I loaded this morning.” I spoke with a certainty as if denying being accused of any wrongdoing. My vision slowly looked down to Sunray and up to Alguacil who just looked back at me with a stare of concern. It was still strange to see his glass eye, but it was better than just looking into an empty socket. He approached and placed a talon on my shoulder.

“Hey, Sun ‘n fun, it’s okay. He’ll live, Quick Stitch’ll take care of it.” He gave a few pats on my shoulder before I turned back to the large warehouse door. Nyota was approaching us and shaking his head.

“Okay, Sunny. We tried it your way and it didn’t quite work out, do we just blow up the building now?” He snorted, poking at my chest. “Cause last I checked, we usually don’t let ponies shoot at us.”

I gave him a look of pain and shook my head, “No, we cannot stoop to that level. We injure and try to let them see the error of their ways. We do not blow up the building.” I looked at my explosives bag and then my PipBuck’s inventory. “Besides, I do not have enough explosives for that and it would destroy the tank.” Then my good eye narrowed at Nyota and Alguacil. “Shoot to wound, we do not want to kill if we can help it.”

Both of them glared at me. I could almost hear their thoughts, ‘They shot you! Are you serious?’ The stare only lasted long enough for the two of them to see I was quite serious. I reaffirmed it with a stomp of my hoof on the ground.

They both nodded as we then moved to examine the outside of the parking deck for entrances. The main vehicle entrance was barricaded with a new wasteland scrap metal door, though there was a side-entrance that Alguacil had began to pick the lock on.

Scopola Mina lifted the raider that Quick Stitch had just finished working on over to us. “Perhaps y’all should talk to him? Figure out why they shot at you.”

As soon as Scopola Mina’s magical aura stopped around the stallion, he jumped to his hooves and threw out a smoke grenade. Shit! We hadn’t checked him! He took up a martial arts stance, similar to the one Nyota used, except he was now missing his right foreleg.

“Huh? For a lefty, you sure do have a habit of taking it and delivering it to the right foreleg!” There was no time to process Pink’s zinger as the smoke surrounded us. Nyota was quick to act, stepping into a quick series of hoof strikes going back and forth with the guard. They were wild swings, kicking up smoke with every motion.

Nyota could block his opponent easily since he could only really attack with one forehoof, or by kicking his rear hooves. Finally, Nyota went to deliver a haymaker, as did Cookie Crunch. However, there was one problem for the guard pony: he forgot he had a stub for that leg now. The bandaged stub never came close, but Nyota’s strike hit him right under the jawline, right where his mandible and neck connected.

Cookie Crunch took the full brunt of the impact and collapsed like a sack of bricks. Moving swiftly, Nyota rushed in and caught him before his head could strike the pavement. I winced and Nyota shushed me, softly shaking his head.

“He’ll be okay, love,” Nyota said as Quick Stitch tossed the still smoking grenade away. “I just hit a pressure point and he passed out from the shock of losing a leg.” I let out a sigh of relief that Nyota had used his hoof instead of the new crystal shoes.

I noticed that Nyota wasn’t even wearing his new depleted crystal brass shoes, the weapon I had made for him in Stable Phi. I had his old shoes in my armored socks now. Tapping them against the concrete, I realized how much harder I would punch with them on. Is he intentionally trying to NOT kill creatures now? It was a thought I would have to save for later.

A griffin landed near us, cocking his shotgun to get our attention while wasting a perfectly good round that dropped to the ground. I genuinely felt bad for what was about to happen.

“Alright all of you! On the ground now! Surrender or else.” He had us genuinely at a disadvantage. I figured even with slugs at this range he couldn’t hurt me. At least not without a lucky shot, but Alguacil, Nyota, Quick Stitch, and Scopola did not have nearly the thickness of the armor plating. A shotgun slug would definitely kill them.

“Whoa whoa, wait a minute here.” The griffin turned the shotgun to aim right at me as I spoke through the muffling of my facial armor. “Your guards opened fire on us without warning. But here, look. They are both still alive.” I turned to point out the shallow breathing both guards were doing as hazey white smoke around us cleared. “How about we talk this out, ya know. We can give them medical treatment; they’ll be mostly good as new. There is no need to fight, we have been here before.”

The griffin pressed forward, keeping his shotgun trained on me. The smoke was starting to fade without the grenade to fuel it. “Shut up, tiny demon! I’ll deal with the little green monster later! Now, on the ground with weapons down!” He growled and tightened his grip on the weapon. His talon tightened against the trigger, ready to set the weapon off. I braced myself, expecting to receive a hit. There was no dodging at this range, but at least my armor would, probably, save me.

Pink giggled, “Oh boy! You’re about to get an F on the test of awareness and basic survival instincts! All of you! PROTECT THE SMALL!” I turned my head to glare at Pink, though in doing so saw something else.

The smoke cleared enough around us to see the glare from Chifundo’s battle rifle scope. The loud meaty shots rang out and flashes from his muzzle were easy to see. My head whipped back around to the griffin. He staggered back from hit after hit, all dead center into his chest. His lighter body armor stood no chance against the heavy rounds. Chifundo did not hear my orders to go for non-lethal. Scopola and Alguacil both drew their weapons and trained them onto the freshly wounded arrival.

As he raised his shotgun again, they didn’t hesitate. Scopola Mina riddled him with a burst of four lasers. The bolts disintegrated one of his talons into rainbow colored ashes. Alguacil fired another shot, this one going right through his face. He was dead and most of his face was gone before he struck the ground. I rushed forward to the griffin, foolishly thinking there was something I could do. I recognized the pink, bloody, gray substance loosely hanging from his skull, however...

I had seen so many dead bodies in The Wasteland, but once again my breakfast churned. It wanted to come back up and I had to swallow it down to avoid getting it into my faceshield. The trenches of The Roof and the battle with Breakfast Blend took place at night. If you didn’t put a light on it, or the gunfire didn’t light it, you couldn’t see it very well. I could tune it out. But this was so different from then, it was broad daylight and I couldn’t help but dwell upon the fact we had just killed another creature.

I spun around and snarled at my friends, “Dammit! I said no lethal shots!” I was mad as a hornet and both Quick Stitch and Alguacil staggered back from me. I stomped up to them, “I get it, he was about to threaten us with getting shot ourselves but,” I snapped my head to Alguacil, “I reinforced your armor and even tested it against my shotgun! Which is a whole lot better than this Wasteland-maintenanced factory stock hunting shotgun!” I pointed at the griffin’s weapon fallen onto the ground near his corpse. “I get it, I screwed up!” I pointed at Cookie Crunch’s missing leg now and Alguacil’s gaze followed, then his look softened.

Alguacil nodded, “Okay, Sunrise. Look, we’ll try it your way, but if things get dicey, I’m shooting fer th’ head.” I firmly nodded to him and motioned Chifundo and Scopola up to join the rest of us. Alguacil adjusted his stance to look around and search for anything else that might decide to come out and threaten us.

“Alright, so this has gone belly up. Are you still sure about this, Sunny?” Nyota tapped against the scrap metal door and immediately someone hit it with a heavy object on the other side. I motioned him over to us, checking my weapons while I spoke.

“Yes, I have some smoke and flashbang grenades, but hopefully we can talk this out.” I took out the smoke grenades and loaded a flash bang into Newb Tube.

Walking up to the metal door, I motioned Alguacil and Quick Stitch towards the side door. “You three,” I pointed at Scopola Mina as well. “Head around to the side door. Here,” I passed Scopola Mina a flashbang. It was different than the steel apple frag ones we normally used. This one was more like a cylinder cup with caps on the ends and a pin held trigger. “Use this if you need to get into the door. We will try to talk them out.”

I looked at Chifundo, “Get in position to cover the big metal door. If anything comes out with hostile intent, be very discouraging. Make sure you have plenty of cover to hide behind. Nyota, disa…” Why did I even bother? He had already vanished again. I shrugged after a moment of self-reassurance that Nyota was right there.

One of these days I’m gonna get him to show me that trick! Just so I can use it on him!

Pink snickered and smiled, “I swear you two have one of the best relationships I’ve seen in awhile! It’s like cookies with creme filling. Which you get every singl—”

Finish that sentence right now with all the terrible things I’m currently dealing with and I will find a way to put you in a gag for the next two hours! Pink deflated immediately and pulled a line of sandbags out of nowhere, hiding behind them. I walked towards the door and gently rapped against the metal.

“Hello? Listen, I am sorry for the misunderstanding. Your guards are still alive, except one. Quick Stitch is giving them medical attention. Hopefully you can come out and we can talk this out?” I turned to check on the wounded guards, Scopola Mina had used her TK to move them around the corner, away from the door.

The silence was deafening, even the creatures of Taintwood were quiet. We all waited. No one spoke, yet still we waited. Tension was building in the air. I gulped and cleared my throat, trying to deal with it drying out. I took a deep breath, “Hey listen, we are just here to negotiate for our tank back. Can we at least do that?”

Nyota’s voice echoed out right after I finished speaking, “Send Minty Fresh out to negotiate with us!” There was a snarl back from the other side of the door.

“Dammit, Minty Fresh! Wait for Soot!” said a mare’s voice from inside the parking garage, along with some shuffling.

“Shut up, cunt!” Minty Fresh, the pony we had seen here previously, stormed up and started shouting from the other side of the door. “Can’t be no little green monster bitch! Gotta be a fucking changeling conspiracy!”

“There you go with the changeling thing again, we haven’t ever seen a changeling you damn drug head! I wish you’d get fuckin’ clean.” The second voice was harsher than a pony’s, though oddly feminine. I tilted my head, trying to place it somewhere in my memory. If anything, it really sounded like Stormy Sky’s sister.

“Shut it, bird brain! And you out there--fuck off! I demand you surrender and throw down your weapons, you little pieces of shit!” I staggered back and looked at Chifundo, stunned. I couldn’t believe Minty Fresh was serious. “You’re all changelings! Ain’t no way the little green monster is back! That’s an ol’ raider tail to scare kids!” She shouted louder and louder by the second, getting more slurred with her words. Clearly she was drunk, high, or both!

I looked at Nyota, then back at Chifundo, and both of them shrugged. I turned back around, “We are not Changelings. You met us before, you traded with us. Remember the car? Look, your two guards are alive and fine. I am sure—”

“Shut up, Little Green Monster! I doubt they’re alive and if they are, ya should just kill ‘em!” She growled; I could practically hear the foam coming out of her mouth. “We don’t trade with hostage takers!”

I checked our prisoners, confirming that they were stabilized and the wounded tended to. There were bandages over wounds. Both were sleeping peacefully from the anesthetic bolt Quick Stitch had used. I trotted back to the door with a heavy sigh. We had not moved them very far so we could keep an eye on them, but now I wondered if they were in a possible combat area.

“Listen,” I repeated, “We just want to talk, negotiate a deal. You can send someone out and we can—”

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! You stupid—” Nyota silenced Minty Fresh’s rant with a slam of his hooves into the door. They left a dent in the metal and he snarled back.

“Do not talk to my mare that way! We are giving you a ton of patience, so be rational!” Nyota shouted, his back arched up as if ready to strike again. I could feel the anger rolling off of him.

“Back off, buckwheat! Your mare-cunt is lucky I don’t have all the boys take a turn with her cunt and her cunt-face!” I winced. I could hear the rage cracking in her voice. She was beyond reasoning, and threatened to do something so very raider-like. I hoped Alguacil couldn’t hear, but then I heard the muffled sound of his revolver click from somewhere back down the road we had come. He was already making his way inside the warehouse sidedoor, and ready to shoot.

Scopola Mina came back up to me and motioned me closer, “Look Sunrise, Alguacil and Quick Stitch found an office in that back door but the other door beyond is barred, so they’re looking for a way to fight their way in. Are we doing this or are we just gonna sit out here?” She was looking very concerned and motioning me to follow them around to the side door.

I walked up to see Alguacil and Quick Stitch with an unknown pony on the ground, tied up; he at us looked quite dejected. He had a bruise on his forehead from what was probably Alguacil’s revolver hitting it and his left eye was slightly closed from a punch to the face.

“What is with the prisoner?” I asked Alguacil, to which he smirked.

“Poor pony surrendered as soon as smacked him twice in the head. Didn’t even have to shoot at ‘em.” I glared at Alguacil and hoped he hadn’t done any permanent damage. I looked at the door that led deeper into the garage. It was locked up tight and barred from the other side, judging from the bolts and nails jutting through the wood near the frame.

“Alright, well…” I was hesitant. Distant voices of Nyota and Minty Fresh echoed off the wall, they were in a shouting match. I don’t want to order us to assault... but we might not have an option. What should we do? I held a hoof up to my chin in deep thought. I roamed over the basic tactics in the officer’s manual and consulted my experience in The Wasteland. “Okay, look. Alguacil and Quick Stitch stay here and try to force your way in. It may take time but it would give us an angle to outflank them from.” I turned around to Scopola Mina and put a hoof against her chest.

“We will need you at the main door. I need some suppressive firepower.” She gave me a sharp salute and trotted outside, beyond my sight. I could see the shrinking of her irises as before moved away; she was already starting her combat drug regimen. All four of her laser rifles levitated out as she turned the corner.

Quick Stitch pulled out a hammer and gave me a nervous smile. I smiled back at him, handing him another hammer out of my saddlebags. “This will take some time, Sunrise. Can you keep stalling them?”

I nodded with a faint smile, hearing more shouting from Nyota. “I think we can stall them as long as you need.” I gave him a hug and motioned Alguacil towards the door. “Keep him covered and make sure nothing happens.” I stayed there waiting while Quick Stitch worked as quietly as possible, pushing the nails out of the door. One at a time, each strike of a nail caused all three of us to sweat more. We weren’t sure if Nyota and Minty Fresh’s arguing would stop at just the wrong moment.

Alguacil walked over to the door and checked the lock, discovering it wouldn’t let him twist the knob. He took out his bobby pins and a screwdriver and immediately started working on it. One of Quick Stitch’s hammer strikes shook the door and there was a sharp snap. Alguacil growled and turned to Quick Stitch as he pulled out another bobby pin. “Think you can pick it for us?” Alguacil snorted and snapped another pin, then pulled it out with the screwdriver and glared at me.

That kind of glare made me physically step away from him. He kept working at it while Quick Stitch stopped trying to get the nails out of the wall. “Hey,” I reached up and put a hoof against Alguacil’s talons, “Listen, calm down, you got this, okay? There is no need to get frustrated. One obstacle at a time.” I felt the tension in Alguacil’s talons drop and, with it, his weight on the lock. This snapped a third pin and he grimaced.

“Sunrise, are ya done? I need to focus and not keep gett’n distracted.” Alguacil looked down at me and I shook my head. I leaned up and gave him a soft hug, he blinked a few times. “Sunrise, hun, do you honestly think it’s an appropriate time?”

I smiled at him, I felt the kind of smile that gives warmth and comfort to a friend. Rapidly, I shook my head and released my grip. “No, but when it is ever?” Alguacil deflated and groaned, as he reached over and restarted our hug. I wasn’t the one hugging him for once: he was hugging me. It was a moment I had not expected and both of us just sort of relaxed into it.

I saw him smiling back-- not that creepy, forced thing he had been doing-- a deep, more natural smirk was upon his beak. Quick Stitch coughed and we both turned to him with glares that could cut diamonds. He shrank back from both of us and lowered his head. When we finally separated, he took the fourth bobby pin out to start his work with the lock once again.

With a few more clicks and one heavy clank, he managed it and the doorknob finally turned. They would still have to finish getting the nails out, but at least the door would open now. The shouting with Minty Fresh had died down and I made my way back to the front door. Two shots from Chifundo’s battle rifle echoed through the air.

We didn’t get out of the door before Nyota appeared, holding an extra set of spiked shoes. “Minty Fresh decided to come outside to continue the argument. She umm… she needs a grave dug for her now.” I felt myself cringe, hearing those words. Nyota hung his head and clearly looked ashamed of his actions. “I thought we could incapacitate her, but she was too hopped up on drugs.” He looked up at me with guilt-ridden eyes and a grim determination on his face.

I nodded to him and reached up to pet his side. “We can’t save them all, hun. You did what you had to. Alright, we should go try to fix this.” His eyes narrowed and his face steeled as we headed back around to the front door, leaving Alguacil and Quick Stitch to continue to work their way into the side door.

Chifundo kept firing and Scopola Mina was shooting into the now open garage door. Several shots came back as they took cover across the street. Nyota and I ran towards the door. We could feel the rising urgency as the situation deteriorated. I could see Minty Fresh’s body lying in a growing pool of blood and it gave me a flurry of emotions. There were two clear bullet holes and several laser scorches across her frame.

I saw an earth pony against the big garage door frame with a skull for a helmet reloading her own M1 Grand Apple battle rifle. I slammed into her brown face with both of my fore-hooves in a leaping strike. A series of shots rippled through the air. Buckshot, pistol, and rifle rounds all bounced off my armored flank, the new crystalline ablative plating proving far too effective for me to notice I was being hit, beyond the sound of ricochets off the armor.

The skull-helmeted pony pushed me away and staggered as I could see where friendly fire was not being friendly to her at all. Just as we separated I spun around, bringing my new tail flail to bear. Pink did the rest, using my tail as a weapon and aiming it just right. The skull she was wearing shattered between the mace at the end of the flail and the concrete wall next to her.

She spasmed before her body fell limp against the wall. I nearly panicked at the sight of her, thinking I had killed her, then in a heartbeat I saw a shallow breath and saw she was still moving, albeit barely and slowly. Another gunshot impacted into my chest and the bullet bounced, embedding into the wall next to this earth pony’s exposed head.

Not wanting to take any chances, I grabbed onto her barely conscious form and dragged her outside. I did not stop till we were clear around the other side of the door where the concrete would provide both of us with cover. I noticed two bullets had hit her during our exit, however; she was bleeding badly from her right foreleg and upper right shoulder. There were deep red stains of blood forming upon her leather armor and brown coat. I took out some bandages and did as Nyota had shown me, calmly applying pressure and bandaging the wounds. It wasn’t the best, but I had to make sure she lived.

She flinched and yelped in pain, snapping back to the conscious world. I grappled onto her good foreleg and pressed my armored barrel in close to help hold her down. She couldn’t get up from my weight now pressing onto her belly and pinning her back against the wall that was providing us both with protection from the gunfire. “Calm down, I am not going to hurt you further. Let me treat your wounds and just... do not try to fight me okay?” Her eyes were heavy as she looked up and fearfully nodded at me. I finished with the bandage and tossed the weapon she dropped as far away as I could. I grabbed her pistol and tossed it away as well. Just to be certain I patted her down for any other weapons she might have hidden.

Once I was sure she was no longer armed, I directed her at the other two ponies, Cookie Crunch and Lunar Spice, who were sedated. “Watch after them and make sure they do not take any fire. They are your friends, right?” She nodded but didn’t speak. I could see the fear still in her eyes. It was the same fear I felt every time I had gone into combat, what set us apart; I had learned to not show it anymore. “Okay, go on, stay clear of the firefight.” As ordered, She lowered her head and limped over to them. I turned back to the mayhem at hoof, to see Nyota tying up a struggling unicorn in heavy metal armor. The unicorn had several bruises on the exposed parts of his skin, while Nyota looked untouched save for dirt and grime added from combat. When the unicorn’s horn lit up, Nyota cocked him in the head and said something I couldn’t make out over the gunfire.

I felt that blow and winced in pain as much as the unicorn did. Unconsciously, I took a step towards Nyota to hopefully calm both of them down. A shot hit my faceplate and jerked my head. My tactical sense jerked me back and pressed my body to the wall next to me. I felt the bruise on my cheek from the impact and pulled back to get completely behind the cover.

Damn! I need to thank Quick Stitch for this faceplate idea later! I pulled up my faceplate and rubbed the sore spot on my cheek. I motioned for Scopola Mina and Chifundo to stay down and tried to figure out how to cover us all.

While Nyota kept the unicorn subdued, I pulled out a smoke grenade; one we had taken from Cookie Crunch only minutes ago. I rolled it in front of the door and followed it up with another. Pink smoke started to billow out of the two cylinders. It expanded and engulfed not only the door but Nyota and myself. It was so thick it was hard to breathe without getting a tickle from the smoke, and I could not even make out Nyota from just across the two carriage wide doorway.

The gunfire died down now that no one could see each other. I yelled inside, “Hey! We can do this all day or we can agree to a truce and work this out?” Their response was a shot from a higher caliber rifle that tore a chunk of concrete off the garage door frame. I winced and yanked myself away to get clean of the dust. The blown away chunk bounced off my helmet top and jarring my senses for a moment.

Scopola Mina’s high pitched laser rifle’s whined up and several bursts of red incineration spells shot flew into the smoke, deeper into the warehouse beyond. There was a cry of agony and then it was cut off; as whomever just tried to shoot me had their lives snuffed out. Great this is going terribly! So far we all just wanna kill each other. Are they really raiders?

“Sunrise, one had a skull for a hat and they shot you the moment you mentioned the tank. Yeah I would go with these are raiders. I mean come on, look how bloodshot Minty Fresh’s dead eyes are!” I turned to the corpse that was only a couple of steps away in the thick mist of pink smoke. She had only been dead for a couple of minutes at most. Her eyes were still open in a wide eyed stare. More importantly, her irises were pin-pricks, just like the raider that had killed Buddy. I could see nothing but red veins and her snout was still curled back in a snarl of hate. Her forelegs and flank had several small sores-- needle marks.

I recognized it from the Med-X I had taken in the past. My body coursed with a pre-emptive need to take Med-X for the pain. I shook it off and steadied myself. Come on, Sunrise, they are relying on you to lead them. No more drugs like that, period. You’re pregnant now. You can’t hurt them before they are born-- not like that. These guys all wanna use you for bullet pin cushions! Now figure it out! I felt myself hesitating and knew the smoke truce wouldn’t last forever. As soon as the smoke evaporated, I would have to engage them again.

I pulled out my grenade launcher. I aimed it at the ceiling and fired, hoping to bounce it deeper into the garage. There was a blast and a flash with several creatures yelling out in pain. “Dammit… fuckin’ pegasi! Git back here!” Alguacil shouted, as I even heard him yelling in pain from the sudden bang and flash. The smoke had shielded us from the flash but the bang was loud enough I wasn’t sure my own ears were not hurt by it.

When no more shots rang out after a solid minute, I heard Scopola Mina’s voice shout, “Hey, give up yet? Do yall really think we can’t keep this up all day?” She put down another layer of covering fire with her quad laser rifles after she called out the taunt. The laser fire was having a secondary effect: it was burning away my smoke. The two grenades had burned out, meaning it wasn’t being replenished anymore.

As the smoke cleared, I got a good look at a metal armored earth pony with a half dozen scorch marks on his body. He was lying on the floor breathing shallowly and his battle rifle lay on the ground just inside his hoof reach. I pressed S.A.T.S. as figures and objects beyond the smoke became more than shadows. The earth pony on the ground registered as dead; his body just hadn’t told him he was yet.

Above us was a wasteland constructed catwalk in the tall structure. Scrap metal had been used to create it as well as pieces of wood from at least three different buildings. Even bricks were used to support this new construction to the inner deck. Much of the second level of the deck had been hacked away and removed to create an ultra-high ceiling. Boxes, lockers, and crates of a dozen different sizes were stacked around like a warehouse. I could see where the catwalk led off to the side towards the door that Alguacil and Quick Stitch were working on.

There were two pegasi flying around and at least five griffins. Two unicorns were projecting shields over the catwalk towards us, a soft green and bright orange glow showing the hard light magical cover there. There was no clear shot for us, but small holes in the shields were made for firing ports. I released S.A.T.S. and pulled back from the corner as two shots blew more small bits of concrete off. The smoke still kept us somewhat obscured as shadows and shapes. Scopola Mina’s continuous return fire was flashing away more smoke so others could see us. Nyota had vanished in the chaos and I suspected he was deeper inside the garage waiting for his chance to strike.

“Scopola! Focus on blowing out their shields!” I shouted over the chaos. Scopola snapped up and walked her laser fire up towards the unicorns. She wasn’t aiming anywhere in particular, she was just creating a consistent amount of fire to keep them pinned behind those shields and the catwalk cover points. There was a bright flash just a few feet away from me and a unicorn appeared in the center of the door. He had a shotgun trained on me with his TK and fired it in two quick bursts before I could move or react.

The two slugs staggered me and I felt the bruising under my armor while with another flash of magic the unicorn was gone. Dammit! That hurt! My armor had saved my life but now the muscles in my right leg and shoulder were incredibly sore. There was a shriek of pain and my head snapped towards the inside corner to see flames lapping along the catwalk. Someone had dropped a molotrot cocktail and set another pony on fire. They ran across the catwalk till they lost their balance and fell into heaps somewhere behind the boxes. Flaming pony shapes in the distance to me.

Scopola Mina had knocked out one of the shields and I took advantage. I pumped a fresh grenade into ‘Newb Tube’ and fired a high explosive bomb up at the catwalk. Scopola Mina’s lasers crackled with a loud pop as one of her gempack magazines glitched and another loud pop indicated another had flared out. I missed my shot and instead of hitting the catwalk the round impacted into the ceiling.

However, the rain of concrete forced the creatures on the catwalk to dive for cover or take flight to get out of the area. One of the unicorns extended a shield above the catwalk instead of towards us. The pieces of ceiling bounced off it and hit the ground. “WOW! Ya missed but you couldn’t have done more damage if you had gotta a direct hit!” Pink exclaimed with glee and a degree of happiness that sent chills down my spine.

Another unicorn appeared next to me with a bright flash, shotgun out. Damn teleporting— before he could fire, he staggered as Chifundo’s battle rifle echoed shot after shot. He hadn’t been shooting, he was waiting for the teleport trick again. He took two more steps and fell dead on the ground. I nodded at Chifundo. He waved and pointed back towards the doorway we were trying to force. I knew he was going to hold his shots to keep us covered from any more blinking or teleporting unicorns getting in close and cheekily getting out before we could retaliate.

I saw a flash behind Chifundo and my heart skipped a beat. There behind him was a unicorn with a double barrel shotgun. A flash of what must have happened to Buddy pressed into my mind. I dropped Newb Tube and reached for the nearest weapon I had loaded. I’m going to be too late! I’m too slow! Chifundo got turned around enough to see his doom coming. A black and white blur shot out from the rubble next to Chifundo and the unicorn raider turned his head just enough to see a pair of zebra hooves slam into his face. Nyota hit him so hard that he was taken off his hooves and flew almost four full meters to impact into a piece of wall; the one standing wall of the ruins Chifundo was using for cover.

He looked drunk and confused, staggering around on his hooves. Nyota came fully into view and was on him hard, slamming his hooves into his sides and neck over and over again. He pummeled the unicorn raider into the wall until he was lying on the ground bleeding to death and turned to Chifundo with a simple single nod. I took my eyes off him for a moment and Nyota had vanished again.

Chifundo turned back to me and shouted, pointing at me as he got up to move to a new cover, “Grenade, Evade!” I turned back and saw a steel apple rolled towards me. The stem already missing.

Scopola Mina’s magical aura flew past my vision, with a gem pack following right behind it. The gem pack impacted into the grenade and sent it flying back inside the garage turned warehouse. Fiery smoke and shards of shrapnel rippled and flew out from inside the garage. I paused and looked inside, smoke and debris clouding my view. I gulped and held up my hoof to signal everyone to stop firing.

Is Alguacil okay? Quick Stitch? As if to answer my question, a burst of flame emerged from their direction and I heard Alguacil’s pistol go off, followed by a shrieking pegasus flying back and crashing into a crate. Yep, they’re fine. I shouted at them, “Hey, listen! We don’t have to fight. Can we talk this out?”

“Throw down your weapon! We’ll show ya what we can talk about!” The female griffin that had been arguing with Minty Fresh called back. I gripped onto my shotgun tighter. I took the chance and stepped out in front of them all, exposing myself to any potential incoming fire. My shotgun was still up, ready to be put in my mouth and open fire.

Several heavy coughs came from beyond the unicorn shields above me. “Hey! I said put your weapon down.” I hesitated and gripped it. I remembered the last time I put my weapon down, they just shot me anyway. I slowly lowered my gun to point at the floor instead. I kept it in my grip.

“Look, I am not pointing it at you anymore. Come on out. We can work this out without any more violence.” I hoped they would listen and gulped behind my face shield. I imagined I looked like some over armored monster that felt like an immovable object or unstoppable force bearing down on them. I was buying time for Scopola Mina to finish reloading and Chifundo to relocate to cover me. I also hoped that Nyota was taking advantage to infiltrate in case we couldn’t talk this out.

The smoke and debris dust wasn’t clearing quickly. A zebra emerged from behind a crate to my right and narrowed his eyes at me. He put down his gun and pulled his head back warily. He seemed to be very concerned I would just shoot him. I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out a trail mix blend Scopola Mina had made and a bottle of pure water, rolling them to him. “Take your gun back and here have a meal on me. Just walk outside and stay out of the fighting okay?” He snorted at me and retrieved the items then pranced his way outside and around the corner to where the other wounded were gathered.

I had hoped the other creatures had seen this but when a shot slammed into my chest and several more scattered around me, I didn’t wait to check my bruises or possible wounds. Instead I bolted for the nearest crate and dug myself in. Oh come on! You didn’t see that! Are you serious?

Pink shrugged and shook her head, “You really think it’s going to be that easy? A bite to eat and not shooting a zebra? I bet that griffin doesn’t even like that zebra, just on the basis of griffin and zebra relations.” A bullet slammed through the crate and bounced off my helmet, dazing me. “Well, good luck! You’re gonna need it!”

Level Up Progress - Really? It’s mid combat! You really think the GM is gonna give you XP right now? Ha! Good one!