CHAPTER 3

“Following the lost”

_________________________________________

So finally, I was free of the shackles of the NSS regime.

Free to roam the wastes and create whatever life I wanted for me and Fable, but not before we made our way to Trotsvok and had Rhinestone give us a headstart on our new life.

We had no place in the NSS any more.

Of course there was the first roadblock of my new life, the very predicament I found myself in right now.

I raised my weary, aching head to the sound of humming.

I was tied to a metal chair that was bolted heavily to the floor.

Before me was a unicorn mare, she had a long silky brown mane and a clean sky blue coat with several small tattoos around her lower body, as well as a large one, stretching from the right side of her chest all the way down her foreleg to her hoof.

The mare’s mane was draped over the left side of her face, obscuring one eye and partly concealing her features.

The mare turned around and looked back at me with a purple eye nearly as dark as the shadowed one on her left side.

"Well well, look who is finally awake!" she said, standing up from her desk and striding over to me.

The mare looked older than me by a few years give or take, and despite her youthful appearance she definitely had some wasteland miles on her, that's for sure.

She donned a set of reinforced leather armor with a white finish.

"I am Rusty, leader of this gang. You belong to me now, same story with your sister, who will be joining us shortly."

She lowered herself down to my height and stared directly into my eyes.

"Before we do anything else, why were you in my turf?  Are you just a small NSS scout?"

I chuckled at that "Come on, you see a scout under all of this? You flatter me."

Rusty lit a cigarette and puffed on it lightly whilst turning my comment over in her head.

"Decent point, still doesn't explain what you were doing snooping around 400 metres from my camp."

"We came out of that underground city. By the way, the group you sent down there to salvage and loot was killed by a dragon."

Rusty again tongued at her cigarette before replying.

"Interesting, it's a shame you're full of shit, otherwise I might believe you."

I rolled my eyes "You can believe me if you want, I don't care."

Rusty yawned and looked back at me “Okay, if you’re my new property we can’t have that tone.”

She floated the cigarette from her mouth and brought its glowing red tip right in front of my face.

Before I could even react, she brushed the skin beneath my left eye, ever so slowly burning a black scar all the way beneath it.

I screamed in agony. Even under the heavy odor of the cigarette, I could smell my flesh burning. I felt my skin die and flake away as she streaked the glowing ember across my hide.

I made a point to never cry after what happened to my parents, to stay strong for Fable, but I couldn’t help it.

It just hurt so much.

"You know, there is a pony out there, willing to pay 20,000 caps for you and your sister. Some weird buck called Jericho, got that whole mute sniper motif going on, he's even got a full set of riot gear."

I raised my brow again, stinging my burn and causing me to grit my teeth before looking back down again.

”Riot gear, that’s the NCR, isn’t it?” I said quietly.

She looked at me and nodded “Defector, runs away and gets to keep their toys, sounds like something I would do, but don’t worry about him, you’ll meet the buck eventually.”

Rusty butted her cigarette against her desk and dropped it into a chipped and faded ashtray.

“I’m not letting him buy you, he is actually a regular, comes around once a month, he also defends the place from mutants and such, buys some slaves once in awhile, does something with them, whatever it is, probably dangerous, he keeps returning for more every month.”

She cleared her throat and turned to stand before me.

“This month I thought I’d keep my catch.”

“Where’s my sister, I swear if you hurt her....” I growled.

Rusty sat down at her desk and spun around to look at me again “She is fine, she’s asleep in my room upstairs, no one would dare touch her. I’m in charge here and I’ll put a bullet between their eyes if they disobey me. You’re both my property now, no one else's to share.”

I looked at her confused “So if you’re not going to string us to a rack and cut us up, what are you planning?”

Rusty got up and walked over to me again “I don’t know, really. Your sister? Maybe I’ll break her, then resculpt her to be my protegée, I could use a partner in crime.”

She tapped her chin “You? I don’t know, I’ll probably just make you my boy toy or something, little less complicated.”

I really didn’t like how open she was being with all of this...

There was a knock on the door.

“Shit, I was hoping to have a little more time with you before he showed up”

Rusty grunted as she unlocked the door and invited a large guest in.

“Come in Jericho, have a seat”  Rusty said quietly as she returned to her chair at the desk.

I will now introduce you to the most intimidating thing I have ever seen.

A tall Earth pony, almost bigger than the doorframe, walked in.

Head to hoof he was covered in big, yet smooth power armor with a helmeted full-face gas mask. The two eye pieces glowed a hellish red.

Jericho turned to me and stared, those hellish red eyes gazing into the very threshold of my soul.

Eventually, the huge Earth pony took a seat, not breaking eye contact once.

"I think I know why you are here" Rusty said, looking at Jericho.

The head hidden behind the mask turned to Rusty and stared at her with the infinitely red voids that were apparently his eyes.

"You can't have these two, I want to keep them for myself. Now I know you always buy them to feed your pet fucking Hydra or whatever, but these two are mine, you can have the next ones we pick up.

Jericho continued to stare. His glowing demonic eyes remained fixed on Rusty.

After a few awkward minutes of silence Jericho stood up and walked slowly to the door before looking back at Rusty.

He reached into his pocket and fished out a long cylindrical object. It had a red stripe painted around its length.

His hoof pushed down on the top and with a click he threw the object right into the middle of the courtyard.

The cylinder exploded into a crimson cloud which plumed up into the sky.

Oh no.

I struggled and pulled on my chair, but it was no use.

"What the fuck does he think he's doing!" Rusty growled then started yelling "Kill that mother fucker!" to the various raiders outside.

Those who were armed and ready opened fire at the huge buck blocking the doorway, their bullets uselessly pinging away like they were mere pellets.

Rusty growled before running to a radio on her desk.

“Sapphire! Turn around and shoot at Jericho, give him the biggest round we’ve got for the Anti-Machine Rifle!”

The radio barked and a grainy voice returned communication “Aye Aye.”

A loud thundering gunshot echoed out.

Jericho's left shoulder was thrown back by a hefty bullet, striking right to his side.

I believed him to be wounded but once he recovered, it became obvious that the bullet hadn’t even penetrated his armor.

The demonic Jericho remained still, staring at the raiders who fired and the arriving members who were fishing out their guns.

After a few seconds of waiting, his back buzzed and unfolded, revealing two heavy calibre looking turrets, that erected themselves and aimed at the group.

THWOP

One of the turrets roared and a nearby raider was nearly ripped in two by its sheer force.

THWOP

Another raider blown in two.

THWOP

Another.

THWOP

THWOP

THWOP

THWOP.

It kept going, bullet after bullet, ripping ponies into giblets like they were made of jelly.

The raiders’ guns fired, their bullets still uselessly pinging off such heavy armor.

Even grenades were lobbed, but to no effect, Jericho just stood there taking enough fire to knock out a battle tank.

In the distance I heard screaming, the sound of air being ripped apart by the speed of a thundering object.

They were here.

It was a fighter Pegasus company, drawn to the sight of a strike request marker that shimmered into the sky.

Rusty apparently heard it too, as she threw up a shield to protect herself, accidentally catching me inside its boundaries.

Outside, the ground exploded into fire, sending plumes of smoke, flames and debris flying.

Around us, Rusty's building collapsed as the Pegasi flying overhead gunned down raiders and buildings one by one.

Jericho's demonic eyes shone through the dust and fire. He strode back into Rusty’s building and plucked a restless pony's body from the rubble.

It was the figure of my dear sister Fable. She yelled something at him, desperately looking about. How she had survived a fall from the second floor as it collapsed, I will never know.

Jericho glanced at her before stopping shortly to look left and right. Then, shaking his head at her, he yanked at my protesting sister’s foreleg and galloped off quickly into the nearby forest. Fable following quietly behind.

Where was he taking my sister!

What if he did have a pet Hydra?

What if he was planning on feeding her to it?!

I ran after them but slammed face first into the shield Rusty had erected, which separated the flaming dust filled outside from us.

Rusty dropped her shield and hit me on the back of my head so I would look at her.

"Shut up and follow, or you will die!" she yelled as she put her thick saddlebags on and waved her hoof at me.

I reluctantly followed behind Rusty, keeping a brisk pace as I did so.

We retreated into the treeline, hiding from the returning Pegasi who were still gunning the camp’s boundaries.

After minutes of silent walking we eventually stopped at a small lake for a drink and a chance to catch our breath.

As Rusty bowed down to refresh herself, I contemplated killing her.

Pushing her in, holding her down, It'd be easy.

She'd die in seconds...

"You're wondering why you shouldn't just kill me, aren't you?” Rusty said, standing back up after getting her drink.

I snorted at her "Really? What gave it away?"

"I've been around ponies who wanted me dead twenty four seven, I can pick up on the mood the moment it changes, trust me."

"So yeah, humor me then, why shouldn't I kill you right now."

Rusty blew out air as she thought.

A thud echoed out as another bomb detonated in the raider camp.

"Well, beside the fact that I have taken out stallions older, stronger and bigger than you, with my bare hooves before."

I rolled my eyes at Rusty's little ego stroke.

"...I also happen to have your equipment in my saddlebag, despite only one thing being of any remote use. And finally, the most important one yet"

I urged her on with my hoof "Is...?"

"I know where Jericho set up camp, I’ve had my bucks follow him back to his lair. It’s a little drainpipe west of here that he did up. Actually a pretty nice pad, I admire Jericho’s artistic design.”

She bowed down again for a second drink as another, much closer thud echoed from the camp.

Rusty stood up again “See, I ain't an idiot, I know his type."

"The moment Mr Lone Wanderer in power armor doesn't get what he wants, he has a bitch fit like that. So in preparation for that I did a little recon."

She smirked at me "So, you help kill Jericho for crossing me, and you get your sister back, sound good?"

What alternative did I have?

Celestia doesn't even know what Jericho is doing to her right now, besides, she had my gear.

What advantage did I have?

"You have me in a tough spot, so maybe I'll help you. But how do you propose we do this, run up to the killer pony with power armor and auto turrets and punch him to death?"

Rusty shook her head, a terrifying grin forming on her face.

"My secret armory, back under my little office building."

I looked back at the camp in disbelief.

As if by convenience a thud echoed out as another explosion rippled through the ground.

"You know, the guards are probably rounding up your clan right now as we speak, going back there would be suicide."

She smiled "You think I'm scared of those stupid lackeys you call soldiers? Don't make me laugh."

"Well what weapon do you plan on getting?” I said, moving closer to her. “Jericho took a direct hit from an Anti-Machine Rifle and shrugged it off, I don't think any gun you have could do anything after seeing that" I continued whilst looking her in the eyes.

"I don't plan on using an Anti-Machine Rifle, I have something much better" she said rubbing her hooves together.

She smiled "Anti-Tank Cannon, I have one round left for it, and I saved the best till last."

Rusty pulled a long glimmering shell from her saddlebag.

"Tungsten Stubbornite alloy core, full metal jacket with an armor piercing tip, this coupled with the insane acceleration it gains in the cannon could punch a foot long hole in a Thunderhead's hull."

She slipped the cartridge back inside her bag "All I need is the launcher, which is in my armory, which lies beneath my office, which is back in the camp."

I rubbed my temples "Right, so we're talking about sneaking in and ducking under the radar right? Because if you aren't thinking that, you won't survive long."

Rusty looked back at me and smiled "Oh when you put it that way..."

"You can't be serious...that's a Pegasus strike team and possibly a dozen or more troops, I don't care if you think that the soldiers are wimps, but 12 'lucky hits' can still kill you!"

Rusty groaned loudly in order to annoy me "Fine...we'll do it the lame sneaky way" she conceded, with a hint of poutiness in her tone.

We headed back to camp for a reason, I didn’t really understand yet.

* * * * * *

Once we had arrived at the outskirts, we did a little recon.

In the camp were several troopers, meandering about or patrolling the area while others looted the tents and buildings still in one piece.

The surviving raiders, all of different sizes and shapes, sat in a recently erected cage made out of temporary fences.

Our target was the now smoldering ruins of Rusty's office room, around which one or two soldiers stood staring into space.

"Okay, so the plan goes like this: we sneak around the back of my VIP tents and then follow them forward to the edge of the office building."

She smacked her right front hoof into her left one.

"We quietly take out that guard and hide the body in one of the tents, before sneaking back onto the ruins and getting into the cellar through the ensuite’s marehole, sound good?" she questioned, looking at me as if I the pathetic little street rat would have any input for a stealth assault.

I nodded and Rusty sighed "Okay, lets go."

We moved toward the tents that Rusty reserved for her VIPs.

They were bigger than the tents or shelters the thugs got, but they were still just simple 11x11s.

A Vertibuck flew overhead, most likely for reinforcements or a guard changeover.

After they were clear, we moved again, slipping past a guard who had snuck into one of the VIP tents to loot and have a smoke.

I looked back at the now landing aircraft.

Besides the ever so subtle giant red NSS shield painted on the side, it had something more important on it.

The nose had the letters 'N.S.A.S.F 1' stenciled on in glossy white paint.

New Stalliongrad Affairs and Special Forces.

These bucks were the ponies who were called when the veterans couldn’t do the job.

They were the blackest black ops teams in the whole of Equestria, if you saw a team after you, one of the Chairponies on the Board really wanted you dead.

Five figures jumped out the side, four of them were huge, obviously muscular giants of ponies, who donned heavy, yet agile and compact sets of armor, that covered them literally ear to hoof.

The four in armor were Elites, they were the best soldiers in our military, bar none. They’d kill you, no matter how big your gun, no matter how good your armor was. An Elite was 110% better than you by default.

It was common word of the mouth back in the city’s streets and workshops.

“Hey, you hear that they cleared an AJ Ranger remnants camp out near Petrovich?”

“Who hasn’t? I heard, one N.S.A.S.F team cleaned the base out, that’s only like  four Elites on like 20 AJ rangers or something, right?”

“Definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of an Elite.”

They had a reputation for getting the job done.

Every.

Single.

Time.

The only unit that could stand hoof to hoof were the Marenburg Faceless, but those things aren't ponies, they are some mess of machine and pony.

Elites were all pony, their veterancy was forged through the fire and blood of years on the battlefield followed by years of specialised and agonising training.

They had a glistening opaque sky blue visor that hugged their faces from the lower jaw all the way to just below the ears, the rest of their armor was brilliant white with red trims.

And their emblem was a sword through a dragon's skull with the words

“Kupaemza v krovi nashikh protivnikov”

We bathe in the blood of our adversaries.

The fifth pony in their group I knew immediately.

Commander Coal, the tall and authoritative stallion I saw in the sewers, stood but 40 metres away.

He strode to the highest decorated trooper, a unicorn mare with an elaborate set of armor of black and silver, a lieutenant. She seemed to visibly shrink as she watched the four huge Elites storm over behind Coal.

I followed Rusty in a sort of half interested state, my focus entirely on Coal. What was he here for?

When we stopped again, we were within earshot of him, I could just barely hear their conversation.

"...cleaned up, this camp is one of the biggest I have ever seen, was quite a firefight too. Three casualties: one dead, two wounded" the Lieutenant reported.

She was definitely not from New Stalliongrad, you could tell by her accent, most likely an NCR defector, they were paid lots of money to come down and join our army.

"Excellent work, Lieutenant. Any sign of our little fugitive friends?" Commander Coal said as they paced to the front of Rusty's office.

Coal's voice sounded young, yet at the same time appeared educated, refined and calm, like the kind of speech a gentlecoltly library assistant would have.

"I'm afraid not, sir. We can confirm that they were here from the statements some of this scum have given us, but for whatever reason, they are no longer present."

Coal nodded, disappointment in his eyes "It doesn't matter, Lieutenant. You worry about getting this place cleaned up, I will remain in order to take a look around, but I must return to Stalliongrad Tower soon."

The Lieutenant held her hoof to her chest for a salute "Chest' I Khvala" the Lieutenant grunted.

"Slava vsem nam" Coal replied bringing his hoof to his chest.

I couldn't believe it, as if my luck wasn't bad enough. The 1st Commander of the entire NSS armed forces and an N.S.A.S.F team were tasked with finding me.

Why did I matter so much? Was I the first fugitive to ever escape the city? Was that it?

Was I damaging their rep?

"Come on you stupid git, we need to get my guns, we can't stay here for any longer."

We walked to the corner of the final tent. There stood a tall mare, she looked like she was sleeping with her eyes open, the way she just stood there staring blankly.

"I got this bitch" Rusty said as she snuck behind the soldier and withdrew a knife from her saddlebag.

She lunged forward, violently jamming the knife right into the mare’s throat, whilst sticking her wrist into her mouth in order to gag her.

A spray of blood shot all over the ground as the mare died silently, unable to react or call for help.

I had seen a lot of ponies die in my time, for all manner of violent reasons, but witnessing a pony kill another in cold blood is something you never forget.

I won't dwell on it, you are an obviously a seasoned reader of these wasteland stories, so you have probably heard it told dozens of times before from other ponies.

But let me tell you: after you start realizing that this person who has died had been a living, breathing pony just like you, had hopes and dreams, maybe even a family, a wife or a husband, or foals waiting for her to return home, that’s when it really hits you.

What stories would her voice have brought to the wasteland?

You'll never know, you can only guess and that's the part that gets to you the most.

"What, never seen a corpse before, you little pussy?"

I really wanted to kill that mare.

"Come on bitch, help me hide this body, grab her legs."

I walked around to her back hooves, grasping tightly and lifted them up as we awkwardly trotted back to the nearest VIP tent.

After dumping the body, we returned to the building and, making sure I carefully followed behind, we snuck into the smoldering ruins of Rusty's office.

She waved me to the firebombed remains of a bedroom that actually had a decent bed in it.

We entered an ensuite that was attached to her bedroom.

After a few seconds of slowly moving equipment I saw that beneath her freestanding towel rack a metal trapdoor was hidden.

Shifting a few locks Rusty slid it back and climbed down, telling me to drape a towel over it as I followed.

After doing so I slowly climbed down the ladder after her.

The room was completely black, so dark you couldn't even see the floor.

"Hang on, I had a light switch in here somewhere..." Rusty said, somewhere next to me.

After a few moments of tapping around, she finally found the switch and turned it on.

The lights buzzed to life, the small fixtures on the ceiling glowing brightly.

The room we were in was narrow, with a large metal door separating us from the armory.

She walked over to a small scanner and flicked a chipped but still whole card through the gap.

The machine chirped and the door squealed, as its rusty joints folded back to let the door retract into the walls.

Once we were inside, my jaw dropped.

This larger, metal lined room held rack upon rack filled with weapons and ammo.

The armory held tables and racks to accommodate dozens of the same type of weapon.

"Okay, how's about you pick out a toy whilst I assemble this big-ass gun?"

Rusty walked over to a chest in the corner and started to gather pieces.

Where was I to start?!

I walked over to the table with the shotguns laid out in a neat fashion.

Most of them looked like double barrel and over under, except one.

It was pretty much your average run of the mill pump action hunting shotgun, the butt had however been sawn off and it was in decent condition.

I lifted it up with my wing and rotated it slowly in my grip.

Like the child I was, I pumped the shotgun as hard as I could to get that sweet noise to ring out.

'CH-CHICK'

So awesome.

"Good choice, that shotgun is as rare as they come, somewhere in here is a kit for it, which adapts it to shoot 20 gauge. So if you hold onto that and install the kit, you can get it to shoot both kinds of shotgun shells."

I nodded and decided to keep it. Rusty told me that there was a sling for it lying around and once I had found it and the kit, I stuck them in a little pile on the floor of stuff I planned on taking.

"We need to get you an adapter so you can shoot it, the one that came with it should be lying around somewhere."

"Adapter? You mean a battle saddle, right?" I replied.

"No I mean an adapter" she corrected as she slid another piece into the now monstrous weapon forming beside her.

"You can't use that kind of shotgun on a battle saddle, you'll blow your own fucking chest off with the spread" she continued "And because you are a damn featherbrain you need the adapter."

"Okay so where is this adapter then?"

Rusty waved her hoof to shut me up "Check in the brown box under the table the shotgun was on."

I peeked under the table and opened a cabinet to reveal a brown box and a series of cleaning kits.

I took two cleaning kits and removed the brown box, taking out a heavy set of folded up metal poles.

"This them?" I asked, waving the adapter left and right in her direction.

Rusty glanced back and nodded before returning to the project beside her.

I was gathering a considerable pile of stuff, I really needed a bag.

After glancing around, I saw a whole pile of them stuffed in a corner, gathering dust.

I walked over and yanked the one in the best condition from the pile, which promptly set the whole mountain tumbling over and revealed a small SMG, that had been buried beneath its surface.

The SMG was clearly some sort of Griffin weapon, you could tell by the grooves and indents made for claws all along the surface.

It had a medium sized wooden stock with holes around the size of a Griffin’s foreleg, for the sole purpose of threading their arms through to get a better grip.

The rest was a small compact body of metal with a silencer, which was manufactured onto the weapon.

It looked like it was a really powerful gun.

"Ah, I've been looking for that for ages, thought I sold it, really good weapon, assembled in good old Stalliongrad. That one is for Griffins, but a majority of them were made for ponies. I can work that with the adapter for your shotgun, but I'll need some time, so I'll leave that for when we're not in an area swarming with bad guys."

"Oh by the way, Pipsqueak, your wingblades are still in my bag, you can get them out if you'd like" Rusty said, rasping another piece of her cannon into place.

I raised my brow "Sorry, my whats?"

She stopped her working and turned around, giving me a look that was somewhere between 'You're kidding, right?' and 'Are you for real?’

"Your wingblades, retard, the shiny lengths of cold sharp steel, you attach them to the primary bones of your wing?"

I looked at her funny, really confused.

Rusty replied by groaning and moving to my side, taking out the lengths of steel that I had acquired in the catacombs beneath New Stalliongrad.

"Pomf" she requested.

"I'm sorry what?"

She smacked her face with her hoof.

"Pomf, you idiot, smack the air, catch the wind!"

I just looked at her like she was crazy. What was she on about?

"What!?" she yelled "Do I gotta show you my ass? Flair your fucking wings, kid!"

"You could have said that for Celestia's sake!"  I yelled back before sighing and unfolding my wings.

My beige wings flapped out and held strong as Rusty unfolded my 'wingblades'.

She looked up at me as I stood there, awkwardly shifting my weight. My wings stretched out on either side, Rusty’s eyes widened as she inspected them both.

"Sweet Celestia almighty, kid!"

I looked at her funny "What?" I said, raising my brow at her.

"That's...impressive...unbelievable, like the kind of thing you'd see on a griffin, a big griffin."

I shook my head at her "What are you talking about?"

"Your wings...they're huge!" she said smiling at me.

I looked at them, looked back and shrugged "I don't see the big deal."

"Goddess damn, look kid, in the future just know this: there are male griffins twice your size that wish they had wings like that."

I looked at her like she was insane.

"I hope you never read a wingboner magazine in a small room, you'd knock the building off its foundations!"

She walked over slowly, levitating the wingblades beside her. She stared at my wings as if she was intimidated by them.

I kept looking at them to see what the buzz was all about, I couldn't properly appreciate their size from my perspective though.

She finally reached my side and began placing the unfolded blade atop my wing and forcing it down.

The wingblade snapped into place and sat comfortably on my flight bone.

She walked around my back, blushing as she did so and, finally returning to my opposite side, she attached the second one.

Once she was done, she stepped back and looked at me, still blushing. Was she high on Dash or something?

"Put them away and then flair them again" she said neutrally.

I did as she asked, watching in admiration as the steel wings sitting atop my own folded away to a dime exactly like my natural ones, without catching a single feather.

Once they were stored away, I flared my wings out again and watched once more in awe as the pieces of steel unfolded simultaneously, not ruffling a single hair or feather.

Rusty was nearly blown over by the sweeping current my wings created, and once she had regained her balance, she lifted a light piece of wood up in her magic.

"Hit your wing against this" she said, holding it away from her person.

I nodded and struck the wood as hard as I could.

The blade on my wing went right through, a clean cut.

I whistled in admiration, I couldn't wait to see how something like this fared in combat.

"I heard those things are meant to be unnaturally sharp, so I guess that's two myths that were proven today" she said slyly as she returned to her cannon.

"What's the other myth...?" I asked as I walked to the reloading bench and loaded up on ammo.

"Oh nothing" she replied in a sing song tone.

I shrugged to myself and opened the cabinets beneath the workspace to reveal box upon box of shotgun shells and different sized cartridges.

"Wow, you really stocked up on ammo!" I called admiringly as I ratted through the boxes, getting all the shotgun shells I could find.

"I had to arm a mob of idiots who shot around the target before they shot the target, you wouldn't believe how much ammo those morons burn through" she replied.

"I'll tell you a secret kid, why do you think ponies form raider groups, why there were and still are so many of us?" she continued.

I paused a moment in thought and replied "I don't know, psychos like strength in numbers?"

She laughed a little "No, because the head honcho, aka me, is a genius. We work a perfect pyramid scheme, you see" she replied.

I snorted "Really? How so, oh Great and Powerful Rusty?"

She tsk'd at me "Now now kid, just humor me for a second."

"Fine, tell me."

I turned around to face her as she spoke.

"You see those toothless barbarians up in that cage? All they are, are psychopathic morons, all they want is to pillage, steal, destroy and rape."

I nodded for her to continue.

"Then you have me, I grew up in a nice little foster family in Friendship City, good education, proper medical care, clean water all that good shit."

"What do you think I see when I look at these thugs, hmm?" she made a gesture in the general direction of the cage filled with raiders.

I shrugged and she smiled like she was secretly wanting me say that.

"I see tools kid, leaderless, directionless idiots, just asking to be used by a superior entity such as myself. All they want is to pillage and rape, I provide them with equipment and they work for me, looting trading caravans and small towns."

She laughed sadistically "And all I have to give back to them in return is the freedom to go crazy on these ponies, as well as feeding them and giving them cheap shelter, which costs me nothing anyway, considering they take care of that themselves most the time."

She stood proudly, as if showing off to a crowd "I keep the loot, they're happy occupying themselves with breaking shit."

I nodded my head. Impressive thinking. Here I was, assuming she was just another thug, but in the end she did actually possess some brains, manipulating these bastards into doing her bidding.

She had probably acquired thousands of caps worth of equipment because of this plan.

"Now you know kid, you can thank me later. By the way, the SMG you picked up uses 12.7 mm rounds" she said, pointing toward a group of blue boxes.

Rusty returned to her work and I kept packing bullets.

I picked up a blue box and read its faded label.

Ministry of Wartime Technologies

12.7mm rounds 180 cartridges

Beneath the bold logo was a picture of a smiling yellow mare with a long pink mane.

(50% of your purchase will go to Lady Fluttershy's 'Rebuild Equestria Campaign' to help the war-torn southern settlements rebuild)

So they were sending funds received in a purchase of a box of ammunition to a conflict relief effort?

I can't tell if the irony was intentional or not.

Rusty laughed "Ha ha! All done, check this out kid!"

I turned back to look at Rusty's cannon.

The monstrous weapon she held was easily two metres long and looked about as thick as my foreleg.

"Look me in the eye and tell me this won't punch through Jericho's precious power armor."

I smiled in admiration "You only got one shot though, so you better know how to shoot it."

"Shooting it isn’t the issue, it's carting the weapon around that we need to worry about. Hurry up and grab the last of your shit, we need to get moving.

* * * * * *

Once we had gotten everything we needed, we moved out.

We wrestled awkwardly with the cannon to get it out of the marehole.

When we finally reached the top, and after shimmying away from the hole (an enormous gun hanging over our heads), we covered it up and moved on.

I peeked my head over the smoky debris to see if I could find Commander Coal.

He was nowhere to be seen, all that remained were five soldiers located all around the camp while three or four guarded the raider’s cage.

We snuck away from the camp, Rusty at point, shifting through trees and brush.

Once we had reached a snowy clearing, we sat down and rested the gun beside us.

To be honest, this part right here, I wonder what would have happened to Jericho had it never occurred.

The trees shifted and a noise grew.

It was the sound of blades spinning, slowly approaching us.

Before we even had the chance to move, a helicopter was on us, casting the whole clearing in a bright spotlight.

"Cease movement or you will be shot!"

I looked back a Rusty, her face painted with absolute anger and fury.

"C'mon Rusty, we need to get out of here, the guards are coming!"

Her expression was telling me more than a thousand words.

"Not a chance kid" she said, a sinister smirk climbing her face.

She floated the Anti-Tank Cannon over her back and traced the chopper in its sights.

I couldn’t believe she was considering using our only weapon which could punch through Jericho’s armor on a helicopter we could most likely lose in a thin brush of trees!

"Rusty! We need that shot to fight Jericho! What are you doing?!"

Rusty chuckled quietly as she bolted the long gleaming round into the chamber.

"I'm sure there’s a bigger gun somewhere in Equestria..."

"Rusty wait!"

She pulled the trigger, and in one deafening motion of light and sound the cannon she was holding was thrown back by its own recoil, sending a huge spear of flames spewing out of the barrel.

The round slammed into the helicopter with such force that the it lurched back.

Once the dust had cleared, I noticed that the aircraft above us had a hole I could easily fit through punched right through its surface.

Not even a second after I noticed this, the Vertibuck exploded into flames and fell apart, careening onto the ground.

"You just used our only round on a fucking helicopter we could have run from!" I yelled at Rusty, who just sat there blinking absently.

I heard the ever recognizable sound of wind screaming toward our direction.

The Pegasus group was headed for us.

I yanked Rusty's arm and ran toward a thick set of trees.

I pulled Rusty onto the ground and pushed her deep into the crunchy snow.

The Pegasi screamed overhead searching for us, unable to spot us beneath the trees and in the evening’s fading light.

I pulled Rusty up again and we started moving once more, carefully staying under the trees.

The Pegasi returned, still searching and I pulled us to the ground again, where we laid low while the Pegasus group passed over us.

It continued over and over.

Pull her up, run for two minutes, push her down, hide from the fast movers.

Rinse and repeat.

"We need somewhere to hide from these Pegasi" I exclaimed.

Rusty looked up at me "Jericho's camp! It's really close to here, we can hide there!"

She broke free of my grasp and ran toward a thicker group of trees, obviously headed to the secret location.

I followed behind her, dodging from tree to tree. We didn't have to stop here but that didn't prevent me from burying myself when the Pegasi were overhead.

I could just barely keep track of Rusty, who was constantly disappearing into the undergrowth.

Once we finally broke out of the thick set of trees, I saw a small semi-circular hole with vines and fake scrimmage sheets covering its entrance.

We ran as hard as we could toward it and leaped past its camouflage.

Once we were in the drainpipe, we hid, as the Pegasi continued to soar overhead.

After a few uneasy moments, we began to sneak further to the wooden door separating Jericho's house from the pipe.

Rusty peeked through the holes in the wooden wall and grunted after a few seconds.

"He ain't in there" she whispered before turning around and kicking the doorknob hard enough that her hoof went right through the wood.

After freeing herself, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Jericho's home.

I didn't think it was actually possible, but apparently Jericho was in fact a pony who was alive.

His home had a bright hardwood floor that looked like it was constantly washed and well looked after.

He had a faded area rug in the centre of the room and an extremely new looking bed.

His darkwood walls were plastered with old pre-war posters, particularly old Ministry of Morale ones and pictures of Lady Pinkie Pie.

One particular picture was on a chipped and faded table, which sat in the corner.

On it Jericho stood in his tall set of dark armor, eyes staring at the camera like he knew I was watching.

Beside him on the photo were two creatures distinctly equine yet with longer ears, I think they were called Mules or Donkeys or something.

One was fairly elderly, he had an inky black mane that looked ridiculously out of place on his head, almost like it was fake hair.

He wore a dark grey military dress fatigue, although it may have been a different color, this being a black and white photo.

The old Donkey soldier was grinning and embracing a similar sized Donkey mare beside him.

She also looked quite old, but clearly a few years younger than him. The way both of them just stood there grinning, while Jericho stared emotionless at the camera was really unnerving.

The bottom of the photo had faded yet still legible writing.

The calligraphic ink read

"Remember this day as long as you live, love you XOXO Tild'y"

I chewed my lip, idiotically asking myself if I knew anyone named like that and whether I could decode this pet name, but obviously no such luck.

I looked around at the other content on his desk. There was everything from spent bullet casings to old knives.

I flicked through his papers and found a letter, which I briefly scanned through.

Dear Jericho.

Alright, just as I promised I cleared out the drainpipe like you asked, there was nearly nine times my weight in stone in there, but you know me.

I understand what you see in this place, based on the plans you showed me. What you are making looks like a pretty nice design. When the place is done it will make a nice home to live in, that's for sure.

But yeah, this is just a confirmation that I am done for when you get back from New Canterlot City.

Cheers.

Flecker O'paul.

I raised my brow at the letter and simply threw it away.

Who was Jericho, really?

He obviously talked, or at least communicated to ponies, so who was he?

I couldn't help but wonder.

"We can't go running out, we have to lie low for a while" Rusty said, peering out the door into the world outside.

I nodded and looked about for a way to pass the time, the bed in particular called to me.

Just looking at its feathery, plush and soft promises made my joints quiver in anticipated comfort.

Believe me when I say, I had not slept in a real bed for years. Back in our New Stalliongrad 'home' we slept on layered cardboard bedrolls with sheets.

A real bed to rest on was too much of a jackpot for my body to refuse, even if I had wanted to say ‘no’ and tried to turn my back, I doubt my body would have listened.

I zombie-walked to the large kingsized bed and flopped down face first.

It was all that I had imagined and more.

"Wake me up in a year, would you?" I called absently, as I could feel myself begin to drift away.

"Good goddess..." I heard Rusty mutter.

Rusty, whether because she wanted to be nice or because she wanted to hide in the building some more, blew out the lit candles and sat cross-legged against the bed, her nice looking 10mm SMG sitting beside her, as she watched the door and thought.

I slept so carefree and restful, I couldn't believe it myself.

. . . . . . . .

A dream, for once a pleasant one instead of the usual anxious fear driven ones I used to get in New Stalliongrad.

I was looking at myself in a mirror. I was clean, well kept.

I brushed the stripes on my back and smiled, before rubbing some cologne on and getting dressed into a nice well-ironed suit.

I could feel the sensations of my body move yet I wasn’t commanding it, almost like I was reliving the memory of another.

I stepped outside, the air clear and clean with a hint of freshly mowed grass. So crisp, you could drink it like water.

I was in a nice quaint little neighborhood, complete with a white picket fence and everything.

I walked outside, I felt clean, alive and happy as I walked along, dressed in my good business suit.

A oddly familiar Zebra mare tended to an exotic garden in the front yard beside 'my' house.

"My my, your garden is looking beautiful today my dear..." instead of her name, all I heard was an electronic yelp, of static and white noise.

She looked up and smiled, I finally recognized this mare, she was the one who murmured creepy ghost prophecy things in the catacombs beneath New Stalliongrad.

"Your compliments are so kind, my dear neighborly friend. Maybe I'll help you with yours if I can find the time" she said in a husky and exotic voice.

I tipped my hat and continued to walk down the street picking up another buck in my little pony bus. He looked like me but without the jacket on, I could see he was stripeless.

"How'doya do there today Nimbus!"

"Absolutely swell Nimbus, it's a humdinger of a morning ain't it?"

"You said it friend, it's nearly perfect, except for one glaring fact..." the stripeless me said.

He pointed to my Zebra mare neighbor who, even from here, I could hear humming an exotic tune.

"Figures! We build a nice neighborhood for ponies, and a...a striped devil moves in!" stripeless said.

Why would I be racist to Zebras? I am one, this dream makes no sense.

"When ya put it that way, you're right friend, we need to teach that...that Evil Enchantress that she ain't welcome in this here town of ponies” said business suit me, who had just earlier been complimenting the Zebra's garden.

This made no sense, business suit me was a Zebra, why was he racist to them?

They sternly walked to my neighbor’s front yard.

The moment they set foot on the grass of her lawn the world exploded into green, a balefire weapon detonated a few blocks away, vaporizing the various other ponies into dust, their houses turned to ashes, changed into ruined buildings and skeletons like the wasteland I knew so well.

All except for the Zebra and my doppelgängers.

My clones had transformed into sinister and blood-thirsty raiders, tattoos, mohawks the whole sha-bang.

Business suit no longer had stripes.

"YOU AIN'T WELCOME HERE STRIPY!" former business suit yelled in a completely different tone.

The Zebra looked up in disgust before attempting to run away into her ruined home.

Former stripeless ran forward and tackled her down, he sat on her midsection and chuckled as former business suit stalked forward, a sinister look in his eyes.

"Hold her legs up!" former business suit called, as he continued further toward the thrashing mare.

Okay! I want out! Let me out of this dream, brain!

"Ohhhoho, I love it when they scream!"

Let me out! I've seen enough, I really don't want to see my creepy racist doppelgängers rape some Zebra.

"I hope you are watching, Nimbus. I got some new techniques to show you!"

I'll pass, brain!

Let me out!

. . . . . . . .

I screamed and thrashed out of my slumber, breathing heavily as Rusty laughed lightly.

"Scared the shit out of me, kid. What made you jump like that?"

"Nightmare, weird, weird nightmare..."

She walked over and belly flopped on the bed. "What happened?" she questioned.

"Two clones of myself attacked and tried to rape a Zebra" I said, really wishing there was coffee or something better around.

"Kinky" Rusty replied eagerly.

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head in confusion at her.

"You were asleep for a good three hours, I think the Pegasi have given up. I haven't heard a peep out there for at least an hour" Rusty announced, trotting over and peeking through the door’s hole to inspect the outside.

Of course, despite everything she was saying, the one thing I noticed was her flank, hanging in the air, and her strange cutie mark.

It was a leather-bound book, open to a page with a magnifying glass inspecting a sentence.

"What's up with your cutie mark, Rusty? I thought raiders were meant to have skulls and blood-soaked clubs for cutie marks, not books."

She turned around and smirked "Staring at my ass now, are you kid?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

She sighed "Well, I think I told you I had a foster family in Friendship City, right? Well, my job for a while was that of the town librarian. Then the Enclave blew everything up and my family moved to Junction Town."

I perked up, that got my attention.

"Junction Town...That's Junction R7, is it not?"

Rusty nodded.

"So you've met Fluttershy?"

She shrugged "I met her a few times, once when I offered to organize the town’s books in Dewey Decimal, she brought me tea."

She had met Fluttershy, Ministry Mare of Peace. Apparently, she had been cursed, locked in a tree for 200 years, only to mourn the loss of her world and everypony she loved.

I nodded. "What's she like?" I asked. I really wished Fable was here, she'd love to hear everything about the pony she idolized.

"What can I say? She's kind, obviously, apologetic, shy of course, soul crushingly depressed sometimes, so much so she never left her room some days. She was obsessed with the foals and spent nearly every hour of her day at the schoolhouse."

"Sounds like a really nice place, why'd you give up everything for...you know raiding?"

She sighed "This was sort of a thing I did out of boredom, it happened by accident. It all started eight years ago, when I was still a little younger than you."

She stood up and started lighting the candles again. "Joined the armed forces, NCR aerial marine, 4th battalion Delta co."

"Why'd you join the marines? That's quite a step down from a cushy job in R7, don't you think?"

Rusty reclined back on a chair and looked at me.

"The war with New Stalliongrad started, everyone was talking about 'the red threat', all the different governments and stuff and how huge their army was, so I signed up and ran off to protect the country and all that cool shit."

She kicked back further on her chair "When shit got really bad in the Stalliongrad ruin’s front lines, I saw some pretty fucked up things being done by both sides. It was all too much, so I deserted and ran off. Like a month after I did, the ceasefire was declared, so it was pretty pointless anyway, but yeah, now I’m talking to a teenager about my life, while sitting in a drainpipe, funny how life works.”

She looked up at me "What's your story, kid? I don't think I even know your name."

"Not much to tell you, I'm an orphaned street rat and my name is Nimbus. My parents were arrested and sent to a work camp because my mother was a Zebra and my dad married her. I don't even remember my mother's name, it's been so long, hell of a world to be born into."

“Well, there goes my optimism kid, thanks” she replied, turning back to the door.

I flopped down and hung my head off the side of the bed and looked down at a note.

It was another letter, it laid face up on the floor.

Alright, I'll be there, taking your word for it Jericho.

You'd better be at the bathhouse on Tuesday next week or I swear I'll knock on every door and ask where the big scary bitch in the riot gear is. Bound to he at least some pony in Frozen Lake who knows where you are.

Don't fuck me over Jericho, you'd better have some good bartering, too.

Flecker O'Paul.

I jumped to my hooves.

Jericho was going to use Fable as payment!

I was nearly sick right then and there. I thought it over in my head as quickly as I could.

It said Tuesday next week, it was Thursday back in Rusty's camp.

Therefore this letter was hopefully received two days ago, if the courier was fast.

It struck me that I now knew exactly where Jericho was headed!

"Rusty, look at this" I called as I passed the note to her.

I watched her eyes scanning left to right while she read the letter.

"That is dated this week, he's headed to Frozen Lake next Tuesday to settle payment with the writer of this letter, who renovated his house."

She tapped her chin.

"Wasted our only shot on a helicopter.”

"Yeah, who's fault was that?" I said, genuinely annoyed that Rusty had done that, knowing full well that we needed the shot, yet still firing it anyway.

"I didn't ask that, kid. I asked whether you had some other plan of killing Jericho."

"No..." I grunted, as I searched my own head for answers.

"I know who does though..." I said, clopping my hoofs together when I remembered.

This is probably as good a time as any to bring up Rhinestone.

Rhinestone had only been asked by my dad 'Greywing' whether he'd hold the kids, he had no idea my mother was a Zebra, and this was important because our godfather was a spec ops spook. His job, just like that of all the others, was to be a soldier, and that obviously meant he'd have to arrest Zebras, but hopefully I could talk him out of doing so with us and instead get him to help.

Hopefully.

"Alright, your friend will have to do, now come, every second we are here is another second I don't have Jericho dead."

I nodded and gathered my things.

As I did so, I couldn’t help but wonder why I had been so quick to trust Rusty.

She was a raider, her job was to kill others and steal their belongings, nothing more than that.

She had also kidnapped me, with the intention of brainwashing my sister and keeping me as a stress reliever.

Yet despite how much I hated myself for it, I trusted this mare to help me find and rescue my sister from Jericho’s evil plans.

Rusty opened the wooden door and stepped outside into the open field, her magic stroking her gun, ready to pull it out on any random attacker.

I followed after, useless besides my wingblades, as Rusty had not taken the time to try and set up my shotgun adapter.

Once we knew it was clear, Rusty somehow oriented herself westwards (I think she may have used the stars) and we continued in the direction of the shear and jagged cliffs.

We trotted up along the hills and once we reached the top, we stopped to admire the view.

You could see a lot from up here. To the east in the distance were the lights of nighttime New Stalliongrad as well as the much closer skyline of what I think was Midnighton.

The city of New Stalliongrad was so small in the distance, probably no bigger than a pen's nib at this range, yet the light it projected could be seen for miles, especially the long lance of Stalliongrad Tower stretching high over the city's skyline.

It occurred to me, or more accurately, struck me, that despite how bad it was there, I would never be able to go back, and how despite every guard there wanting me dead, I still considered it my home.

I had friends, workmates in the foundries and factories, that if I strained hard enough, I swear I could still hear clunking and hissing as they hammered away endlessly, creating armor, guns and vehicles for the huge army of the red flag.

New Stalliongrad wasn’t where I had been born but where I was raised, where the harsh conditions chiseled me into the stallion I didn’t want to be, but had to become to protect my sister.

And somewhere out there, Fable was being held captive, thinking I was dead and distraught as hell, while Jericho led her to her death.

To our west laid the most notorious road and city in probably all of the new Equestria.

Prometheus.

The long concrete streak stretched all the way to Trotsvok along the old pre-war highway, the narrow road paved all the way to a tiny blue glow in the distance.

Nopony lasts long in the areas around Prometheus if you leave the highway, even then caravans hire extra guards and NSS convoys double their armor on this stretch of road.

Prometheus had a really bad rap.

Ponies going missing was commonplace there, you and anyone around you just disappearing with nary a whisper or noise.

No evidence, you just vanished. Some say you are taken into the city, if that’s true, abandon all hope of ever being saved. The actual city of Prometheus is protected by some sort of experimental energy shield, forming a huge dome around it.

Nopony knew why it was there, knowledge of the reason behind the shield’s existence died along the only ponies who knew, when they were vaporized by walls of plasma in the exchange.

I secretly hoped I would never have to find out what was under that dome.

I don't think even the Arcane Dominion knew what Prometheus contained.

Behind us, Dawn’s rosy fingers stretched across the horizon.

Friday Morning.

We had little more than four days to get to Frozen Lake, that's a hell of a walk in a hell of a short time.

But Fable, my dear sister, the only family I had left in this cruel world, was in danger. Her young life was but a hop, skip and a jump from its end.

That was not going to happen.

I would fight tooth and claw to get her back, I would walk until my hooves were raw and bleeding to find her.

It was my job.

As her big brother. Best friend.

Forever.

LEVEL UP: WELCOME TO LEVEL 3!

PERK ADDED:Swooper.

A Pegasi’s wings are a Pegasi’s strength and this perk makes that strength stronger.

You can now hold much more using your wings and when used in combat they do a nifty 10% more damage, excellent for use with a set of wingblades!

“Welcome back folks, nice to see you back reading my silly little story, thanks for waiting for so long for this chapter and still coming back to keep reading.

Special thanks to the new editor Tebee who answered up and beyond the call of duty and is now helping edit this story and make it pretty for y’all.

DARCYSUPREMEST.

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