I cringed my head, then rolled behind the next crate. Shards of wood and glass raining out of the box I had just been hiding behind. All propelled by angry steel hornets. I hope that whatever is inside this wooden crate is more solid than the other one. More shots did not immediately rain down on me, so I couldn’t tell if they’d lost track of me or had ceased fire for another reason. Chifundo and Scopola Mina had stopped shooting as well. I looked at E.F.S. and rotated my head along my compass.

Yep, still five green dots. Still a ton of red ones. I felt a heavy weight settle in the pit of my stomach, and groaned, “Can we not talk this out? Ya know, instead of shooting it out?” I called out reluctantly. My heart was hoping my friends were still conscious and not actually lying on the ground bleeding out. Most of all, I hoped talking would buy them time to reposition or line up shots to help me.

“Depends on how much ya paying!” It was the older griffin shouting back. I resisted the urge to jump when a gunshot ripped through the crate I had just relocated from. Right about where my spine would have been if I had not rolled to this new one. “Cause you’re outnumbered, little missy!”

I pulled out my shotgun and made sure it was ready to go, clicking the safety off. “Well, we were outnumbered a few seconds ago, does not seem to have made much of a difference!” I checked on the number of prisoners plus the couple of ponies we had to kill. “I believe that number so far is four captured and two killed by us, regrettably, to your zero.” I really hoped that might words would not anger them more.

“Minty was a dipshit and disposable.” I rolled my eyes. I really wanted to kick this griffin in the nether parts just to get someone else to talk to.

“Oh, Sunrise! You’re so cute! She’s a griffin, she might be into that!”

Thanks, Pink, now I wanna throw up. I was weighing my options and glaring at Pink, leaning my head over to shout, so it would still sound closer to the previous bit of cover I had been using. “I just wanna talk about trading my tank back.” My voice now echoed off the metal and concrete wall next to me.

“That depends on how many caps ya got!” The laughter from the other creatures near the griffin indicated they were not taking us seriously at all.

Nyota shouted from the opposite side of the main road into the parking-deck-turned-warehouse, “Why don’t you give us a number, and we’ll work it out!”

The laughter got louder, and I felt a bit of rage rising within me. You are being shot at! You shot at us! You have wounded, we have captured several of you, and yet you are taunting us? What is wrong with these ponies? Isn’t this the place that traded us the car last time?

“Sunrise, ponies change, and sometimes they just act dumb in the face of certain doom. What can I say? We acted like this in the face of the bombs dropping; right up until they blew everything to little bits!” I looked at Pink in shock. She was right, these creatures were acting exactly how we did just before the bombs fell and killed everything.

“I’m thinkin’ a number with six zeros! HA! Doubt anyone’s got that many caps! Especially a bunch of scrappy raidery scavvers!” I really wanted to retort but resisted. Antagonizing them further would mean any attempt to talk was likely not going to work at all. Plus their shots were getting closer between shouts, probably zeroing in on me when I talked to them.

Nyota had relocated deeper into the warehouse and then disappeared from my E.F.S. Not in the fading light sort of way when someone died but in his ‘suddenly gone’ stealth sort of way. “So the number of graves we’re gonna have to dig, right?” Nyota’s voice echoed off the walls in a way that made my blood run cold. Either he had planned this or the acoustics were just right. His voice now sounded like there were a dozen of them, and they all sounded bone-chillingly serious. What was worse were his words implied we would have to kill a whole lot more creatures.

“Right,” I murmured and exhaled to myself. I pulled out a flashbang grenade, pulled the pin, and hurled it at the ceiling. “Laugh at this!” I shouted, their laughter got louder, the grenade bounced off a shield, but the fuse had already run its course by the time it got that far. I ducked out of sight and covered my ears. A deafening pop ripped through the air, and the laughter turned to screams and squawks of pain.

The walls all flashed like a single pulse from a strobe light had hit them. From the smoke, a unicorn stumbled, stunned and lost. I resisted the immediate instinct to strike him, but Nyota burst from overhead. He slammed the unicorn into the wall with one hoof, and his other hoof hammered into their forehead. In a one-two blow, the unicorn was bleeding from the right eye and nose. Two of his teeth flew out of his mouth, and his horn cracked. Nyota had struck with such ferocity that I wasn’t sure if the unicorn was still alive or dead. His eyes rolled back into his head, he twitched, and they shut. Nyota released his throat, and he fell in a heap.

I held in my stomach contents and shuddered. You would think I would get used to the brutality of combat! Pink laughed and shook her head. My tail was reaching around for something, and I glared at Pink, feeling a heated itch in my ribs. I now noticed I was sweating, and my hoof was unsteady. Pink…

“Oh, right! You don’t have that anymore!” I winced, realizing my body was looking for Med-X, right now, in mid-combat. That only made the feeling of impending death or maiming worse. Now I was feeling the desire to shoot up; to fight through the pain of bruises, and then my abdomen twitched. It twitched just enough that I swore something had moved inside it. My thoughts were interrupted by a bullet slamming right next to Nyota’s head. He darted into the building. I watched him seem to fit between two stacks of crates that he shouldn’t be able to squeeze between.

Scopola Mina and Chifundo opened up with volleys of suppressing fire. I yelled at Nyota, “Dammit! Did you have to kill him?!” I didn’t care this was mid-combat, I was mad. I wasn’t sure why I was so mad or easily upset, but I kept shouting at him. “We are trying to NOT do that!”

Nyota yelled back, “Check again! He’s still alive, assuming they don’t shoot him!” I looked back at the unicorn on the ground. His breathing was shallow, and Nyota had left a healing potion next to his head on the ground. I lunged up and grabbed the unconscious unicorn with both of my hooves, dropping my grenade launcher in the process.

Pink lunged my tail and caught the weapon, putting it back into the holster on my saddlebags. “Chifundo! Scopola! Suppressing fire!” A hail of laser fire erupted through the door, and the high-pitched whine of a plasma explosion erupted. I looked up to see a green ball of fire and magical disintegration rising to the ceiling. One of the shields flickered out, and I dragged the wounded unicorn out of the building. I shoved the healing potion into his lips and got him around the corner, towards the other unconscious and surrendered prisoners.

In the chaos, not a round flew at me. The zebra took his comrade from my hooves with a nod of solace. Okay one fewer for the reaper today. I tossed him a pair of magical bandages Nyota had made, and turned to head back inside. I did not get into the door.

My eyes caught the sight of a rocket flying towards me right as I got into the doorway, Scopola Mina missed it with her laser fire. I had no weapon out to stop it, and suddenly, I was airborne. It was the first thing I noticed, the world rotating, my hooves not touching anything, I felt dozens of hits ripple into my sides. My ears rang with bells. I saw concrete and asphalt kicked up into the air.

I felt debris hitting my faceplate and bouncing off my ballistic goggles. I hit the ground and all I heard was ringing in my ears. My eyes were closed into blackness and I felt nothing for the first few seconds. My body shuddered as feeling of where armor plating had slammed into the ground ripped into my ribs. At least it cushioned the fall enough they felt bruised not broken. I was used to the feeling of explosions and knew what it was like to hear the ringing in my ears. My instinct made me stand back up. My eyes opened and started to come into focus, something purple flashed in front of me. I immediately regretted not rolling for cover instead.

A unicorn appeared in front of me, wielding several black knives with purple auras around them. They shimmered with magical energy and lanced right at me. The knives slammed into me with the impacts of a high caliber rifle. I felt them trying to cut through the armor plating. If not for the magical material it was made out of, I felt like they would penetrate the layers of protection I wore. I staggered from the series of impacts, finding myself in my starting position for this fight, covered by the doorframe.

A half dozen shots slammed into the ground from the catwalk the various creatures inside were on. I panted and laid against the cover I now had, pulling out a healing potion, and sucking it down while the sound of a heavy rifle jamming echoed through the air. The higher-pitched yelp as someone obviously got their hoof caught in the mechanism ripped through the air. The shots died down, and I took the opportunity to load a flashbang into the grenade launcher to fire it inside, right at the catwalk. Scopola Mina saw me aim and pulled herself back around the opposite door frame.

I didn’t wait to see the effect. More of Alguacil’s heavy thudding revolver shots rang out, and another gout of flame shot across the catwalk, forcing ponies and griffins to flee from the safety of their high ground. I went to load another flashbang to hit them again, I slammed the tube closed and took aim. I felt the thud of the recoil against my shoulder and watched the round exit my gun’s barrel. It wasn’t a flashbang, it did not have the yellow stripe on it. In that brief instant of seeing the thumped out shell, I knew something was wrong.

I pulled back into cover as a bullet bounced off my lower facemask; the round left a dent I could see in the light-brown metal. Thank the Goddesses for Stubbornite. I did not have any more time to think; my grenade exploded with such force that a wave of debris and soot kicked out of the parking garage complex. Screams were cut short as the explosion ripped the air away and prevented them.

Pink, WHAT IN TARTARUS? I glared at Pink, who was laughing her ass off. She was rolling over my E.F.S. meter and pulled my health pony over to ragdoll it into a tight, plushie-style hug.

“Oh, wow! I forgot I removed the markings from all your Newb Tube Rounds! You sleep too much!” I was snarling at Pink; her laughter died down when she realized I wasn’t laughing.“Sunrise? It was a joke, I mean a scary grim one, but these guys aren’t gonna react to flashbangs, you needed something with some real surprise pizzazz.”

Pink, we talked about this! There was no need to kill them! I looked at my E.F.S. and saw at least four fewer blips on it. They wouldn’t have had time to get out of range or hide, no; they were dead.

“Sunrise, right now, they are in a firefight with Alguacil, who is only alive because Quick Stitch is healing him.” Scopola Mina yowled in pain, and her volume of laser fire was cut off suddenly. When I shot my vision to her, she was holding her shoulder, and her TK was flicking on and off to maintain her grip on her rifles. “They intend to kill you. So I put some bite behind your bark! Now they think you will kill them back! So, get on your hooves and put the ones who haven’t surrendered in the ground! There isn’t any backing away from this fight, not without drawing in manticores, and whatever else this hellscape called Taintwood has to bring to bear.”

I grimaced and felt a rage building inside me. I knew what Nyota’s anger felt like now, the rage to stop somepony at any cost. As much as I wanted ot argue, Pink was right. Save who we could but I had to stop hesitating and holding back; or my friends would die. Scopola Mina finished a healing potion, and I took out my shotgun, “Scopola! ADVANCE!” I shouted and pulled up, firing the weapon over and over again. The new set of shields on the catwalk were off to my right, and I pummeled them with repeated bursts. Scopola Mina ducked inside and shot up the stairs onto the catwalk herself.

Chifundo’s rifle resounded with four shots as two lower caliber weapons pinged me in the head, jerking it to the side. My ears were still ringing from the explosions, and now the ringing was drowning out anything at all. Through the smoke and debris, Scopola emerged on the catwalk outflanking their shields. She was laying down a fresh volume of fire, red streaks of lasers incinerating anything they hit. I threw a smoke grenade at her hooves, landing it right on the catwalk.

A unicorn flashed in front of her and unleashed an attack with those magical eldritch knives with the same magical aura that had tried to slice my ribs and stomach open. Scopola yelled out in pain, but she was still standing. I saw blood drip from her chest as she bit her lip. The unicorn in front of Scopola suddenly collapsed in a heap, a look of shock on their face, as Nyota’s hooves disappeared into the smoke with Scopola. Her head… it’s backwards… I ducked into the nearest crate against the shots still coming at me.

I was panting and trying to drive the ringing from my ears. My body ached in places I wasn’t sure I actually had. My right eye itched with a renewed vigor to see something besides the patch covering it. I could feel cold sweat beading over every inch of me. My other itches reached madding heights now that I was stopped. My mind was screaming for Med-X that I had to refuse. Even places that Nyota knew how to touch, now burned with the demand for the drug.

Nyota leaped across several of the stacked crates down from the catwalk and out of the smoke. He wasn’t hiding anymore; a set of blinking red steel apples appeared around the two of us. They teleported Grenades in! I thought we were done for as, suddenly, a lime-green shield shot around us as the explosions enveloped both of us. Fragments did penetrate the shield, and the shockwave hit us, but it was more like a bunch of dodgeballs all at once and not a series of life-ending fragmentation grenades.

“I got you, hun, here; drink.” Nyota put a magical potion up to my lips as he lowered my faceplate and started to wrap my neck in a bandage. He had a glowing green amulet on his neck. A shield talisman! Like the ones Breakfast Blend’s army used! The crate we were behind was dented, but its solid steel had weathered the blasts. We were inside now, deeper than before; past the catwalk where the initial fireteams had held us off. Scopola Mina’s rifles and Chifundo’s ping from his battle rifle emptying were the first things I heard.

I looked up at Nyota, confused, while sipping on the grape-flavored potion, drinking it down and feeling the bruises alleviate. “Nyota…” I wasn’t sure how I had heard him before my ears cleared up, but the healing potion was doing wonders. I still itched like crazy and had to ignore my body’s demand for Med-X. The cold sweat dripping into my eyes and making me wince. I kept rapidly blinking to clear it.

“Okay, go back to being invisible. I will work to draw their fire as we keep advancing. We got this.” I managed through my still-parched lips. Nyota smirked and nodded.

“Yeah, we got this together.” Nyota waited for Chifundo, Alguacil, and Scopola to all start their barrages and suppress them, then he darted across the walkway and back into the shadows between the crates. I stood back up and checked my shotgun; it was empty. I started loading fresh shells in, and then moved out of cover.

I kept advancing, any shadow or shifting form in the direction of a red dot on E.F.S. got a blast from ‘Sunray’. Over and over, when ‘Sunray’ ran out, I just loaded shells as fast as I could fire them. I was no longer checking for what shell types were. Their higher caliber snipers were down. The unicorn with her magical knives had a date with a broken neck. We, as a team, were pushing in deeper.

The griffoness who had been taunting me before flew right at me. I looked up and had to dodge down to avoid the talon that was swiping for my head, a gauntlet of some kind wrapped snugly over it. I rolled and saw a unicorn charging me—my vision inverted. What I wouldn’t give for the use of both of my eyes! Scopola Mina let loose a hail of fire at the unicorn jouster, and with only inches to spare, he was stopped cold—His body melting into rainbow-colored ash as her rifles incinerated him into dust. Dust that now covered my armor in rainbow remains. I’m sorry… A deep pity filled my heart and ate at my will to keep fighting.

I could only stand there stunned. The dull thump of a rifle grenade launcher snapped me back to the raging battle. The dull thump gave me just enough time to turn as a grenade went off right next to my hooves and sent me flying. My ears resumed ringing, my body impacted into crates, knocking several over. I landed back in a heap against the floor of the parking garage. Well, isn’t this a familiar feeling… I felt air refill my lungs much to my relief and agony. It hurt so much but at least continuing to breath meant I was still alive. I roused myself back to my hooves and tried to shake off the explosion; my ears had not stopped ringing for a solid ten minutes.

“Damn, Sunrise! I didn’t realize all your extra plating made you into a walking, talking bomb magnet!” Pink drew out her words of surprise while I tried to shake off the stun from the blast and impacts. A rifle cracked and my helmet rang again, making my world shake, and I could feel warm liquid trickle down my cheek. My body instinctively put a layer of crates between myself and where the rifle round came from. My hoof moved up to check, only to find that my helmet was dented, not penetrated. The force of the impacts against me made the skin break.

I groaned and had to stay there for a moment. The firefight was raging around me, and all I could really do now was gather my bearings and reload my shotgun. It wasn’t until I was trying to load 8 rounds into the tube that would only take 7 that I realized I was still trying to reload it. Do... I have a concussion?

“Sunrise, you took a rocket, seven headshots from a .308 Windcrester, a teleport grenade cluster, and a 40mm grenade landed within one centimeter of your hoof; if you don’t have a concussion, I don’t think you have a brain to be concussed!” I shook my head to get my senses in order and heard Chifundo’s rifle snap, followed by a groan of pain.

Maybe Chifundo finally got that sniper? A return shot from the .308 said no, as it tore open the crate next to my head. Okay, fine! I pressed S.A.T.S. and queued up a very specific set of actions. Here goes nothing! My tail hurled a magical fission cell grenade up at the griffin, while I stood up on my hind legs. My hoof tossed another MFC grenade, the same kind of plasma rigged explosive I had used against the Zebrican assassins, to my right. The sniper, as I expected, shot at it.

While his bullet whizzed by and he was resetting, I pushed myself around the corner. Now for the thing that actually held most of my S.A.T.S. spell’s attention. Celestia’s Hammer was in my hooves, ‘Sunray’ was falling to the floor. I saw the sniper on the second level, near one of the pillars that held the roof up. She was half-exposed from cover, a left-hoofed pony like me. Celestia’s Hammer lined up as her hoof worked the bolt. She was only thirty meters away now, at most. The gauss carbine charged in slow motion. 48 percent. The sniper worked the bolt enough to eject the spent round. 59 percent.

I was geared into the actions, I couldn’t change what I was doing. 72. The sniper pushed the bolt back into place. 89. I looked down my iron sights at the earth pony mare, I couldn’t miss at this range. She looked down the scope. 99, ding! The electricity discharged off the rifle, its many magnets charging and discharging in sequence as blue arces of power and purple magic flowed around the rifle. With a sonic-boom, the round exited. The mare’s entire leg was obliterated into paste. My world sped back up to her screaming in agony and shock.

My two grenades exploded, and then my side shifted from a dull impact. My ears caught back up to the world, and the sound of a riot shotgun firing as fast as the semi-auto mechanism would allow resounded from directly above me. My back and sides rippled with pain, but the slugs were only leaving bruises through my armor. Bruises that had just been healed by magical potions; it was like getting bruises all over again for the first time. Especially the part where the pain receptors were concerned.

Not a single round penetrated. I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or if The Wasteland was just prolonging how long it would take to kill me today. With a loud chink, the riot shotgun ceased fire while Scopola and Alguacil both tried to shoot the griffin down, but their shots missed. I’m done with you! I kicked ‘Sunray’ up and fired blindly into the air. I watched the green bean bag that came out slap into her wing, bringing the griffin crashing to the ground.

The firefight around us had all but died down. Chifundo wasn’t firing, but I could sense he was overwatching me. Scopola Mina stopped shooting as well, and I glanced up to see they were both okay. An earth pony charged out from the sniper’s position, holding a belt-fed light machine gun. He let out a heinous scream as he ran, but got only a couple of steps before every gun we had ripped into his body. He took every shot we had, and Quick Stitch laid down a burst of flame from his flamer pistol, enveloping him in fire, bullet holes, and laser burns in less than a second.

A shot slammed into my head, a loud crack of some gun followed. My helmet rang, and I could feel a burning down the side of my skull. I wobbled and heard Pink distantly yelling for me, “Sunrise! It’s a graze! Don’t pass out! Listen to me.” I fell against a crate to hold me up. My shotgun clattered onto the ground. I could see the light from the hole in my helmet, My ballistic goggles felt loose from the strap being ripped by the bullet.

A great weight hammered into me and sent me sprawling onto my back. I felt the rush of adrenaline, and my vision was hazy, I was seeing double and triple when the griffin jumped onto me. She was pulling at my helmet, and it went flying off. My hooves both came up to meet her other talon, desperately trying to bring the big hand cannon of a pistol to bear on my face. Her talon reached and tore my goggles off, throwing them away. She was strong, so much stronger than me. She used her free claw to hold me down and started to choke my throat, right above where the armor plating on my vest and stable-suit stopped.

“You stupid little runt! I might not get all of you, but I’ll get you at least!” She screamed, and we continued to wrestle. My desperation rising, the barrel of the pistol getting closer and closer to pointing at my now unprotected face. A shot rang out and ripped through my mane but did not hit anything solid enough to stop it. The blast against my face of gunpowder and fire, temporarily blinding my face.

“Your mother was a turkey! And your father smelled of pony shit!” Nyota yelled out, and in my hazy vision, the griffin stopped trying to shove the gun in my face.

--Insert Picture Here--

“You fucking zebra! I’ll waste this cunt and eat your ass!” The griffin lifted her weight off of me and in the moment of confusion, slapped me with the heavy barrel of her gun.

“”Eat my ass? Don’t threaten me with a good time!” I saw the vague image of Nyota slapping the armor plating on his flank and wiggling his ass at the griffin.

“NYOTA! Punch Fist! Innuendo and flirt later!” Pink yelled and hurt my already pounding head, making my vision worse. The feeling of wings flapping the ground around me; kicking dust up around me.

I couldn’t make out much as the griffin turned to shoot at Nyota. My hoof kicked the gun out of her talon as hard as I could. She turned back to me in rage, and that was all Nyota needed.

Nyota slammed into her, and I could hear the wing snap with a gut-wrenching crunch that echoed over the sirens of bells in my head. The griffin was thrown clear off of me as Nyota and her locked into a series of life-or-death punches. Nyota kept landing blows against her armored chest. I was trying to get to my hooves but found every movement shaky and weak. My right eye screamed, trying to adjust to the light, and I had to force it closed. My left eye burned with the warm blood and heated spent gunpowder seeping into it.

Nyota blocked the griffin’s talons and parried her with ease until he delivered a hard drop-buck to her chest, sending her sprawling back. While they were broken apart, the griffin pulled out a needle and shot it into her arm. I heard a screaming roar as a unicorn mare rushed forward, spraying a 9mm SMG at Nyota. I wanted to get up but couldn’t, my legs were wobbly and hard to move. She wasn’t hitting anything, but Nyota had her white magical aura around his throat, lifting him up, and choking him out. I wasn’t sure where she had come from, and everything around me was fuzzy.

A loud kaboom, with the same thud as Alguacil’s revolver, silenced the unicorn as her head and foreleg were both turned into ashes, her body falling limply onto the concrete. I could hear the fight and make out shapes and shadows of Nyota and the griffin, but nothing else. Quick Stitch appeared right in front of me.

His sickly yellow aura glowed bright and he touched my head. Suddenly, all the ringing stopped and my vision cleared. I felt the tingle and burning of his healing magic course through and cleanse my senses, as well as seal several of my wounds. My muscle aches died down as he held me there. Most of all, the itching and sweating stopped as he pushed the physical addiction symptoms away. He was straining, and he grimaced heavily.

By the time he was done, he was panting from exertion, and his legs were shaking. I looked at the impacts on the metal crate. He had jumped from the catwalk to get down to me. I took in a deep inhale and panted in time with Quick Stitch. “Did I… get shot in the head too many times?”

Quick Stitch smiled through my fatigue and his own, “Yes, but I have you now.” His voice was ragged, but still held that tone of a parent picking up their child that he always had when he healed somepony. “Now go find Scopola and help her. I will help Nyota.” While he kept talking, he put my helmet back on with my goggles and the facemask to protect my throat, chin, and cheeks.

I looked at E.F.S. and saw where Scopola Mina was, I nodded to him. “Try to not kill them and see if you can save them.” Quick Stitch patted my head and put away his flamer pistol; instead, taking out his new syringe shooter.

“Tranq. darts it is, Sunrise.” I headed towards Scopola at full speed, picking up ‘Sunray’ on the way. My tail scooped up Celestia’s Hammer and holstered them both. I got around the corner of a set of crates stacked against a support pillar and found that Scopola was on the ground with me. The catwalk she was on had collapsed.

A pegasus was zooming towards her, but the mare wouldn’t beat me to her. Pink tensed my tail and gripped onto the tail flail that stayed hidden inside. I came running out at her and jumped into the air, trying to deliver a flying kick with my forelegs. I was slow and easy to predict. The pegasus rolled to get out of the way; she did not see the tail flail coming.

This was the second time in as many minutes as I heard a wing collapse and break under the pressure of a blunt force trauma. She barreled past me and hammered into a wooden crate, demolishing it and sending Celestia Snack Cake packages everywhere. “Whoo! There’s cake with my violence, too! Yes, please.”

Shut it, Pink! Very inappropriate! I snapped back while checking on Scopola Mina. She was in bad shape, but she was awake and moving slowly. She had dozens of cuts, her armor would need repairs from the grenade fragments. Her rifles were scattered around her. Gotta stop this bleeding. One of the bigger struts from the catwalk’s collapse had cut her rear legs deep, and her hamstrings were visible. I poured out a healing position on her and put another one up to her lips.

“Scopola, stay with me. I do not know when Quick Stitch or Nyota will be here, but stay with me.” I started putting on bandages when a tink off the concrete caught my attention. “GRENADE!” I shouted and without thinking dove on top of Scopola Mina, covering her as best I could and protecting her head most of all.

My vision went white in my left eye. My right was still closed. My ears burned again, ringing and letting out a high-pitched whine this time. Oh, come on! I’m going to get tinnitus! That was my own tactic! Dampened SMG fire echoed from behind me. The pegasus that had been moving towards us materialized into view. She staggered as rounds that didn’t hit me—or bounced off my armored bubble ass—penetrated her and ripped apart her light leather armor.

Scopola Mina started to rise, and I shoved a piece of metal between us and the SMG fire. Scopola tried to return fire with her laser rifles, and they scattered around in every direction but at her target. She was just as disoriented as I was, and I jumped onto her to stop her shooting. “I’ve got you!”

She turned several pieces of metal to rainbow ash, two crates burst into ashes, and more snack cakes fell out, scattering over the floor. I thought I heard Pink make a coconut comment. I reached up to stop Scopola from shooting, and I winced in pain with an unholy shriek. My entire leg screamed in agony as I felt my hoof chip. The SMG hit me right on the hoof, where Nyota’s Brass Shoes were, and drove the brass shoe into my frog.

The pain made me drop the piece of metal that was keeping us covered. Scopola resumed her laser fire when I cried out, I was seeing multiples of everything I was hurting so bad. Chifundo’s rifle rang out and the griffin from earlier let out a shriek, and a loud thud echoed from their direction. Nyota appeared; well, four of him did. My attention was directed towards him as the earth pony trying to reload his SMG turned to see him just in time to have a zebra hoof slug him across the jaw.

He fell like a sack of bricks, stunned, and his jaw snapped when he struck the floor. I whimpered, wishing the bottom of my hooves were armored right now. Nyota leaned down to check on me just as I was staggering to my hooves.

Nyota’s head recoiled to the side, a spray of blood shooting from his mouth, and the sound of a pistol ripped through the air. I snapped and pulled out Rainbowrise’s Protector, turning in the direction the pistol’s shot came from, the gun now aimed at me. I couldn’t see straight, but I just started shooting. My hooves screaming as I pulled myself upright and stormed forward, ignoring the pain in rage. Over and over again, I fired and fired.

The gun clicked, and I dropped it. I pulled out Buddy’s Last Gift and let the revolver dump into the earth pony. Her body armor was ripping, a piece of kevlar was shredded off the riot police gear she wore. When the revolver clicked, and the earth pony was staggering, I threw it at her before slamming my tail flail into her face; after which, I fell over on top of her when my injured hoof refused to support me anymore.

I felt a leg catch me, I looked over to see the Starkatteri markings across it, and my heart skipped a beat. I looked up to see Nyota adjusting his cheek, where a bullet graze led up to his helmet, another deep groove there as well. By miracle of luck and over-engineering, the heavy pistol, a .50 Desert Griffin, hadn’t penetrated and it had bounced off,the blood was only surface damage. I went for my bandages and tried to apply them to the earth pony mare, lying face down on the floor. “Oh no! Please no! I am sorry! I just saw Nyota and and…” I hesitated as I put pressure onto her own wound, where the flesh had been ripped from her face. “Please, stay alive! Please! Just stop shooting my coltfriend.” I was scrambling over Nyota’s leg, and he held me back, shaking his head.

“Sunrise, no. It’s okay. I’m okay.” He whispered into my ear. My head was fuzzy, and all the sounds of gunfire were gone. “I’ve got you, Sunny.” Nyota pulled me away as the earth pony mare groaned, and exhaled.

“Her armor stopped the pistol shots, Sunny. You cleaned her clock through, nice blow with that flail.” I grimaced as Nyota leaned down to give her a healing potion and walked over to help Scopola. I staggered and limped over to pick up my weapons from when we were all interrupted.

How? Am I really that close to simply going full murder? All it took was Nyota being injured and I… My thoughts trailed off, and Nyota hugged me tenderly, pulling me as tight as our armors would allow and my wobbly hooves would let me. Before he could speak, we were interrupted very loudly.

“Who...wha… that feels so nice… stop playing hard to get, my handsome zebra.” I raised an eyebrow as the griffin from earlier was no longer sounding enraged and now was trying to sound seductive. I looked back at Nyota.

“Sunrise, I think they’re done fighting. You should go regroup with the others. Scopola and I will be there shortly.” He was already hefting the mare I had knocked out onto his back, and Scopola was holding her head, shaking it to clear her senses.

There was a painful moan from the griffin, then an excited gasp. “Oh, pretty zebra baby! We were meant to be darling, please hurt me more.” My confusion only escalated, and Nyota blushed and stopped in his steps while we looked at each other. I turned my head around the corner to see Chifundo on the floor, struggling to avoid being kissed by the griffin from earlier. There was a dart lodged firmly in her rear, and she had her tail high in the air. Quick Stitch was struggling to restrain her.

“Wait, no, my marefriend is—” Chifundo was cut off by a stern kiss as the griffin made goo-goo eyes at him while locking her beak to his lips. I pulled out my shotgun and cocked it with a fresh shell. The griffin stopped only for a moment, as Scopola limped up beside me.

“Ya know, even their griffin’s like us now? I’m not that drugged-out; can we stop this?” Scopola’s horn flared up, and she pulled the griffin off of Chifundo with her TK, lifting her up and securing her against the wall. “But, but baby! We were meant to…?” the griffin protested.

I looked up to see another earth pony, this one the sniper from earlier, trying to make out with Alguacil, “What in Celestia’s Golden Ass is goin’ on?” He squawked, and struck her on the nub of her leg that I had pulverized to get her to back off.

Nyota snickered, ‘Wasn’t Celestia’s ass white?” He nudged me, and I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I checked my E.F.S. for more blips and noticed there was still one more. Quick Stitch was busy tying up the love-drunk griffin.

“Well, you said not to kill anymore, I’m trying really hard not to.” Quick Stitch reminded us as I checked my compass.

“Did you use my compound from The Roof battle?” Scopola Mina nudged Quick Stitch’s side while Alguacil tied up the three-legged earth pony mare on him in order to secure her down. I noticed one more blip on my E.F.S.

“Alright, secure the prisoners, we will sort this out once all the wounded have been cared for. Bring the ones outside in too, make sure they are all in one spot.” I noticed a couple of crackling fires that were dying down around us and started towards the E.F.S. blips. “Nyota, cover my back. Scopola, see what you can do about those fires, we do not want to burn their home down.” I was doing my best to avert my eyes from the lewd displays from the two females that were being tied up.

I came around a corner, beyond where Scopola Mina had fallen and into a separate walkway that had a blue shielded hue. There stood a very muscular earth pony wearing scrap armor and wielding a sledgehammer in his mouth. He had ‘#1 Gard’ written in foalish writing across his chest, and the sledgehammer had barbed wire strung around it. He was the size of a large carriage, almost a solid three meters tall and two meters wide.

“Ummm, hi, listen. We do not want any more violence. Can we just talk?” I winced, pretty sure from the rage on his face that wasn’t an option.

“MONGOL SMASH PONY! BATTER UP!”

Pink held up a sign on my H.U.D. “Epic Chase Scene Mow?” I bolted back around the corner and nearly ran into Nyota.

“RUN! NO, RUN! NOW!” I called out to him as I ran past, and he looked at me confusedly before following my lead.

“I thought we were here for the tank?”

“GIANT EARTH PONY!” The ground under our hooves began to tremble as we rounded the second bend of crates and support pillar to our friends.

Scopola giggled, sounding high off her rocker. “Oh! That’s what knocked me off the catwalk.”

I pulled to a stop and motioned everyone to turn back. “Chifundo, Scopola, Alguacil! Firing line! Shoot for legs. Quick Stitch, take cover. Nyota, prepare to back strike him!” We all put our weapons down, ready to shoot, with around twenty meters between us and the corner. Mongol slid around the bend. He filled the entirety of both the car lanes that made up the path, his legs straddling the faded double yellow stripe in the middle.

Our gunfire did virtually nothing to the metal armor and thick muscles. He pulled out a monkey wrench and hurled it at me. I did not have time to dodge, and the massive tool as long as my leg hit me with the force of a major league buckball. I rolled across the ground and bounced off a pillar. “More Ponies! More Smiles! GO LONG!” He kept running, and our firing line scattered as two more wrenches missed the others.

Do you think he just wants to play ball?

Pink shrugged at me and patted my chest, “I mean, it’s that, or he collapses your chest when your armor fails. See if he just wants to go to the park?”

“WAIT!!!” Nyota shouted; everyone paused, turning towards him. Even Mongol skidded to a halt. Nyota trotted up to Mongol and pulled out the buckball we had used to play with Nugget. “Here, why don’t you play with this? We can play ball, right?”

Mongol jumped up and down with the bounding joy of a small filly. A bounding joy that vibrated and shook the building as well. Chifundo lowered his rifle and slowly walked up to Mongol; his voice a stern scolding as he spoke. “Now listen here, little child, you should not act so wild! Players do not hurl a wrench, lest I put you on the bench!” Chifundo was angry, and sounded like an irate parent scolding their foal mixed an umpire telling off a cheating player. He scared me more in that moment than my mother when I got an F on a report card!

Mongol teared up and fell to the ground crying and wailing as he stamped his hooves against the side of the pillar. Chifundo walked right up to him, glaring down the massive earth pony. Our gunfire hadn’t phased him, but Chifundo’s words and Nyota’s offer of friendship actually had subdued this great beast. I feared Mongol might pummel Chifundo when Alguacil started shouting too.

“Alright, Cadet! Get your shit togeth’r! You’re number One Guard? Act Like It! Git over ther’ and guard those prisoners! We will play ball after yer SHIFT!” Alguacil’s thick accent and drill sergeant mentality suddenly had Mongol onto his hooves. Alguacil pointed his revolver in the direction of prisoners that Quick Stitch was shielding. Mongol gave a sharp salute and marched right over towards the prisoners.

“Sir, yes, sir!” Mongol shouted in a way that you could only expect someone who wasn’t all at home could say it. Quick Stitch resumed working on patching them up while Mongol walked in a firm patrol circle around them all.

“Um, did that just happen?” I stared in disbelief. I was still holding my chest in pain while Nyota walked over to me and gave me somepony to lean on.

“There, Sunrise, are ya happy now? I didn’t kill ‘em.” Alguacil snorted and holstered his revolver. I smirked up at Alguacil and held my chest a little tighter.

The laughter was making my wrench bruises hurt more. “I am very proud of you, I never thought I would get to say that.”

Alguacil snorted and shook his head, “He’s a complete moron,” his expression softened, and he deflated as he patted my shoulder. “But he isn’t a bad pony; he just needs some guidance.” We gathered the prisoners and tended the wounded.

Most of them lived, not counting the ones Scopola had disintegrated, the ones I had blown up, and a couple of others that were either gunned down or burned alive. This was a brutal fight, we did not know why it was so bad. We moved our sled inside the parking garage and closed the doors. We were not going to interrogate any of them, not yet. Not till the love poison wore off, and all their injuries were treated.

The zebra who had surrendered was a decent medic, it turned out, and he had yielded to avoid getting injured in hopes of helping our wounded and their own. Quick Stitch had found this out while we moved the sled inside. The sound of an elevator caught our attention. I motioned Chifundo and Alguacil to check it out.

Quick Stitch had me near him, tending my wounds and doing field patching on my armor. “Sunrise, two grazes across your skull, all your ribs are cracked or were at one point. I’m pretty sure you have a concussion.” He paused and kept working his horn, the healing magic seeping into my flesh and delivering a cold tingle to my body. The soothing coolness that entered my flesh relaxed me. The aching, screaming bruises and various wounds I had sustained were minor compared to the three dozen ponies we had managed to incapacitate. Or kill… The rainbow dust on parts of my armor reminded me, that dust used to be a pony.

“Yeah, and all that fire would have gone to my friends if not me.” I could hear the salt in my voice as I worked the needle and thread to repair the rips in my kevlar. Alguacil flew overhead to get a view as I put my heavy plated vest back on. My hoof was bandaged, and it hurt to walk, but Quick Stitch assured me those were healing pains. I hadn’t looked at myself; only removed the sock, let him do the work, then put it back on.

“Hey, Sunrise, get up her’.” I looked up at Alguacil, he motioned a talon for me to come up there.

I looked at Chifundo, who was down the catwalk and adopting a sniper position, laying down upon his stomach and lining up his rifle. “Scopola, keep Quick Stitch covered,” I had to resist laughing as I turned to look at Mongol. “Make sure Mongol keeps his number one guard position.”

Scopola laughed and hiccupped from her high, ‘Daww, Mongol; he’s a big boy. I’m sure he’ll be real nice and sweet with all of us here.”

Nyota helped me scale the boxes in order to climb up to where Alguacil was. I would reach up and start to pull myself up, but my hoof would hurt too badly. Nyota would push against my rear and flanks to finish pushing me up, not hesitating to tease me with a grope to excite me up faster. I got onto the catwalk and then turned to help Nyota up. He jumped up effortlessly and patted me on the ass playfully.

“Hey! Not fair.” I called out while shuffling indignantly; my armor was now hot for multiple reasons. My flanks in particular squirmed because, despite the armor plating, Nyota knew exactly how to strike to make sure I felt it. Nyota just snickered.

“Come on, let’s see what that noise was.” Nyota pulled me towards Alguacil, and I drew my shotgun. We approached where Mongol had been guarding; a set of heavy doors opened to reveal an elevator. It had only been maybe ten minutes since the last shot had been fired.

Another tense thirty seconds ticked by as we trained our weapons on the elevator, the doors opening as the wires kept reeling the lift up. We saw the unbolted barrel of the tank coming up first, moving as though it were being held by someone, with a battle standard of the symbol I kept drawing on it. The pony angel with a shotgun standing in front of the new dawn displayed upon a white piece of cloth.

It was being held on one end by an older unicorn stallion and a very cute and hesitant looking brown pegasus with a bobtail and pointed ears. On the other end of the flag was a very young earth pony filly covered in a layer of grime and grit so thick that it was impossible to see her coat underneath. We were all taken aback, I could hear snuggles growling behind Chifundo, and Bodda Pett’s weight pressed into my back as he tucked himself in.

Chifundo held his battle rifle to point to the ceiling and shouted, “To those who are standing there, who are the ones walking towards our mare?”

The unicorn held up his hoof, proving he was not armed, “Ho there, don’t point that gun in my direction if ya wouldn’t mind.” The zebra did have a weapon in his hoof, but it was a .357 hold out pistol; he stood defensively near the filly.

“Ho! I am the extremely pissed-off mud pony artificer, Soot! Heir Apparent to superior unicorn Cinder, daughter to magus Anthracite, Scion of Super Critical Manifold, May She Always Slumber,” She kept going on as I put my hoof up onto the box I was using for cover. Nyota and Alguacil both looked at me with clearly confused expressions. Alguacil mouthed the words, ‘is she serious?’ at me, and I rolled my eyes before we turned back to the filly, still standing upright and continuing to rantingly introduce herself. “ What could you possibly want,” She took a deep inhale before shouting at us at the top of her lungs, “With a broken tank?”

Without missing a beat, Nyota replied, “We have all the parts to fix it and the engineer to do it too.”

Soot stared deadpan in disbelief. “You what?”

Alguacil rolled his eyes. “And why are ya brandishing the symbol of Sunrise?”

Soot shook her head and sighed, “That is a very long story you will have to earn.”

Chifundo cleared his throat to put us back onto the subject at hand, "What we are saying, miss, is that is our tank to fix!"

Soot slumped back onto her flanks, her expression even more confused, “Do either of the zebras talk sense?”

I stepped out of my cover, walking cautiously towards them. My tail put my shotgun away, “Hi, umm… I am Wandering Sunrise, and yes, we can fix the tank, good as new; I made all the parts we would need.” While I was speaking, I pulled my mouthguard out of the way and raised my bullet-resistant goggles.

Soot’s lips quivered, and she shook her head, “That’s not possible! It was missing several core components, it will never drive again, let alone fire its cannon.” She was talking lower and slower like she had somehow been defeated. “I mean, I was given a couple of years to get it running, you all are nothing but a bunch of mangy wasteland scavvers, what could you possibly know about this?”

Alguacil snapped and stomped his talon, “Did you just call me a mangy scavver?” I winced and turned to him.

Oh, boy… that was a mistake, here we go! Pink jumped into position to watch the scene unfold, and before she could speak, Alguacil was already ranting away.

“I don’t know who you are, bird, but you are kinda terrifying, with the whole glass eye and scarred scowly face, and covered in the blood of a guard,” Soot paused, hesitant to speak. “You look kinda raider-y.”

I stormed up to Alguacil and put both hooves on his chest, shaking my head frantically as he pushed me aside. “I, little missy, am th’ long eye of th’ law, and your guard shot at us first!”

Soot started and stopped, “Ya know, I’m not talking to the help, which one of you is the leader.”

“That would be the one we call Sunrise, she is the green mare if you cannot surmise.”

Alguacil turned to look down at me while Chifundo spoke.“Sunrise, we’re going to do this your way, but if they call me a raider again; I’m firing a warning shot.” Alguacil stopped trying to push me aside, turning back to put his full attention on Soot, her small band of the zebras, and the very bunny-looking Pegasus. I noticed a Stable-Suit collar frayed around her neck, but the number on the stable was ripped off.

Scopola Mina walked up and flipped a box open behind us. Her laser rifles trained on the inside, “Get out here, pegasus. We ain’t gonna hurt ya!” There was another pegasus crawling out of the box, this one red with a set of blue stripes, indicating he was a zony. He looked terrified; Scopola patted him on the head, leading him away towards the other prisoners.

How did she know he was there? I looked very concerned and worried, I hadn’t even noticed him.

“Do you have any idea how many combat drugs Scopola is on? She would notice Bodda Pett’s heartbeat from a hundred meters away!” I flinched as I felt the itch for Med-X rising, and Pink reached through my H.U.D., patting my mane to help me fight it off. The chills and cold sweat through, and there was nothing she could do about it; the sensation caused my heart rate to pick up, and I had to concentrate on not wanting a shot of sweet, cooling relief.

Soot set down the barrel of the tank, leaning it against the wall with a thud. “Can we all just calm down and stop the shouting?”I leaned in with my question and hesitantly took a step forward. A sense of hope that maybe we could see eye to eye and stop fighting starting to creep into my fight or flight instincts.

Soot looked at me incredulously and squinted her eyes, “And why should we listen to you?”

I turned, and Soot’s eyes lit up as my chest plate turned to face her. The word ‘Angel’ emblazoned across my armored plating. She stared at me, looking over every feature of me, holding up a hoof till she gave a very soft smile, “I umm…” We could see her teeth through the coal and engine-grease-covered coat. “I feel uncomfortable if I am not covered in grit. You say you are Wandering Sunrise and wear the tag, ‘Angel’?”

I nod slowly, “Umm… yeah.”

“What did you fall into?” Soot’s words took me aback, as I checked my armor and found only gunshot and explosive residue, nothing out of the ordinary.

“I did not fall into anything?” My voice was very uncertain. “I came to get my tank back when your guard shot me.”

“Ah yes, Wandering Sunrise. The Little Green Monster.” My head shook, and I took a step back like I had been stuck.

“That is a new one, never been called that.” The rest of my group looked at me as though I had some explaining to do, and I simply could not give an answer.

“I have been told the story of the Little Green Monster since I was tiny,” I looked her up and down, wondering if there was a joke there. She was smaller than me, after all. Her voice and words were now just as uncertain. “You are much more amicable than I was led to believe.” I held up my Pip-Buck and turned on the radio, and prayed that DJ Pon3 was live.

‘Mares and Gentlecolts! There is an interview with the survivors of The Roof! Someone who personally witnessed the Angel with the Shotgun and her group’s heroic actions to prevent their destruction! Stay tuned after this song; they are in the studio right now, just getting their mic check done!’

I turned the radio off and pointed at myself, “That is us, I am the Angel with a Shotgun.”

“How do I know that wasn’t a holotape or a log recorded onto there?” I shook my head and turned the PipBuck towards her to show it was a live radio broadcast as the song, ‘Ain’t that a Kick in the Head,’ started playing. Soot approached cautiously to get a better look, reading my PipBuck very slowly.

“Yes… that is a live broadcast…” Soot was more puzzled now as the zebra moved to protect the bunny-looking pegasus, the two of them remaining quiet. The older zebra had put away his gun for the time being.

“So why did your guard shoot me?” I asked, just as confused and puzzled as Soot was. It was like this entire battle had happened for no good reason.

“Because my guards were listening for anypony talking about a tank, and we had assumed some psycho-survivalist had locked the tank away.” Soot turned to me and blinked a few times, even more surprised. “They were told to shoot first and ask questions later. He wasn’t very smart, but he was good at his job.”

I took in a deep breath, and a weight pressed down onto me with a pang of guilt that rode into my soul. “Okay, let us try this again. Hi! I am Wandering Sunrise. These are my friends.” I pointed at Nyota, Alguacil, Chifundo, Snuggles, and back at Scopola, escorting the pegasus around the corner to where Quick Stitch was. “Nyota, is the Starkatarri, Alguacil is the law bird, Snuggles is Chifundo’s pet, and Chifundo is our zony shaman, Scopola Mina is our Filly Scout, and Quick Stitch is a wasteland doctor with an actual medical license somehow, tending to your wounded around the corner. Can we work this out?”

Level Up Progress - 17% of the way to Level 15.

Quest Perk Unlocked - Reputation’s Past Lives - To some, you are a Little Green Monster who will murder them in their sleep if they step too close to you. To others, you are the Angel with a Shotgun that appears at Dawn during the darkest of nights. It all depends on where they find you. - Karma Score is considered 100% higher—200% if you have Karma Beacon—to everyone you meet, for good or ill. Since you are a Paladin of the Wasteland now, expect raiders to shoot you on sight, and good ponies to be strangely disarmed by you!

Author's Notes:

Please Note, I have not finished what is called Writer's Touch (A final read through and analysis of this chapter by the writer!) but I am pressed for time today! So I will complete the Writer's Touch later tonight; this chapter may change slightly but only slightly.
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