"... Baltimare!"

"Wait... what?" I shook my head, trying to reorient myself as Bishop jarringly brought me out of the fantasy world of my book. "Sorry, I was a bit zoned out, what did you say?"

"The town is called Baltimare. Right there, the one we're about to go into. It's our last stop before Whinnyappolis," Bishop said.

"Wait... I thought Baltimare was to the east, next to Fillydelphia. I found a map that says so!" said Knight.

"Don't be stupid, Knight. That map of yours defied everything we know about Equestria's geography. Fillydelphia is in the south next to Manehattan, Old Appleloosa is to the east and separated by mountains, and the Everfree Forest is to the west and touching Whitetail Woods to the north. See?" Chess pulled up a map on his PipBuck and shoved it in Knight's face.

Ignoring them, I looked ahead at Baltimare... There were a bunch of tall buildings, but the most noticeable thing was the giant wall around the perimeter.

"It doesn't look very inviting..." Stellar noted.

“Yes, this is Winkstepper territory. Don’t worry, I knew we’d be coming through here, I’ve dealt with them before," said Chess.

“Winksteppers? Are they raiders?” I asked, not sure how I would respond if he said yes.

“Hardly,” Chess said, rolling his eyes at the idea. “They put a giant wall around their territory and charge 50 caps each to let people through. They won’t hesitate to kill trespassers, but if you play by their rules they’re quite personable. Some might say they’re extortionists, but if you ask me it’s just business.”

“Why not just go around?” I asked.

“Well that’s where ponies get the ‘extortionist’ idea. They control the only way to get safely to the north. To the west there’s a river that’s pretty turbulent at the best of times, and that’s not even taking into account the Riverlurks.”

“Tainted gators. Fucking bastards are practically bulletproof,” Knight interrupted.

“Yes, and, unsurprisingly, the river itself is tainted as well. We can’t go to the east of the wall either because that’s Black Scorpion territory, and they really are raiders. Beyond them is a place rather infamous for Yao Guai, plus the land starts to get kind of mountainous at that point, so getting around that way would be deadly and take days,” Chess finished.

So they held a monopoly on travel and charged money for something that was usually free and was probably a necessity for some ponies. I could see that being viewed as extortion, but it wasn’t downright evil.

“So it'll cost 400 caps to get through. That's pretty expensive if ya ask me," Calamity said.

“Oh yes, but this job is going to bring in more than enough to offset the cost,” Chess said, a smug grin crossing his face.

As we approached the wall, I realized that I hadn’t truly appreciated the size of it before. Now that we saw it up close, I realized just how big it actually was. My PipBuck notified me that I had just "found Baltimare," (as if I couldn't figure that out myself), and, more usefully, it gave me a map of the area. It was about the size of two or three New Appleoosas lined up next to one another. I guessed that the population must be on par with some pre-war settlements. I'd heard that places in Northern Equestria tended to have bigger populations, but I had no idea they could get this big. In addition to the wall, I noticed that there was a virtual moat of mines all around it, and barbed wire at the top, not to mention sniper towers. There were even a few sharpened stakes along the wall as well, one of which had a sun-bleached skull resting on it, the word “trespasser” carved on its forehead. I'd seen skeletons already, but putting pony remains on display like that? That was just scary. Numerous signs had been set up too, warning people of the mines and reminding them that Riverlurks and Black Scorpions were the only alternatives to paying the toll.

“That shit’s all for show,” Knight said nonchalantly, tilting her head toward the skull. “Look at that skull! If they were really the badasses they’re trying to make themselves out to be, don’t ya think they’d have some fresher bodies to show off?"

"She only knows that because I pointed it out to her last time we were here," Bishop whispered to me.

There didn’t appear to be any gate inside, only an outlined area where the road met the wall with a couple signs promising that there were no mines there. Written prominently on the wall were the words “PLEASE WAIT.”

“Wait for what?” I thought aloud.

“Just watch,” Bishop said knowingly.

There was a flash of purple light and where there was once just an empty space now stood a unicorn buck in leather barding with a drawbridge for a cutie mark. So that’s why they didn’t have a gate; they didn’t need one because their gatekeeper could teleport. He looked at each of us, his mouth silently moving as he counted how many of us there were. “Hello there. My name is Porter, and I’ll be taking you guys through. Let’s see, there’s eight of you, so that’s 400 caps if you want in.” He spoke quickly, and didn’t make eye contact with any of us.

Chess raised an eyebrow at the nervous gatekeeper, but gave him a bag full of caps anyway. I assumed Chess had counted them out earlier, but the gatekeeper didn’t even bother double checking. That bag could have been full of sawdust and we’d have gotten away with it. Maybe they just weren't that strict about the toll?

“All right then… I’m going to teleport you all in. It may be a little disorienting, so be prepared.” A purple light enveloped us, and I was suddenly blinded by a bright flash. It took a second for my eyes to readjust, and I felt a little nauseous, but at least every part of me seemed to have made the journey.

When I fully regained my faculties, I noticed that this part of the Winkstepper’s land consisted mostly of wrecked, lightly graffiti-covered buildings that had only just barely been able to stand the test of time. Many of the structures that had survived had been partially dismantled to contribute to the wall. A road cut straight through the town, with a tarnished, grimy sign to its right proclaiming "Welcome to Baltimare."

Porter whistled loudly and called out “We got eight over here! I’m gonna need about ten of you!” At his command, a group of guards who had been waiting nearby trotted up and flanked us. Oddly, the unicorns generally had better and more well-kept armor and weapons than the earth ponies did. Some kind of caste system perhaps? I brushed the thought away. That theory didn’t really make sense, but why else would the unicorns be getting preferential treatment like that? I was tempted to ask Bishop about it, since he seemed to know a lot about the places we went, but I decided I’d wait ‘til we were out of Baltimare.

As Porter and the guards led us through, I noticed how trashy the place seemed to be. The graffiti that marred the buildings near the entrance only got worse the further we got in. With every step we took, we were met with more and more spray painted walls featuring everything from benign, coltish doodles to badly drawn porn and swear words. “They’ve really let this place go,” I heard Chess mutter under his breath.
Even stranger than the graffiti was the fact that most of what used to be Baltimare was deserted except for the occasional skittish pony who darted away when we walked by. Were all of the Winksteppers this cowardly? Once I saw a little filly run into view, but an overprotective parent pony in black barding suddenly came and pulled her away. At first I was surprised that so few ponies lived here, but then I managed to catch a glimpse between the buildings and saw what looked like dwellings off in the distance.

“Why do you guys have all your homes so far from the road?” I asked one of the guards, an earth pony.

“It’s for security. It’s not that we don’t trust you guys, but… well, you can’t trust everypony out there, you know?” He was even more shaky than Porter. This guy was supposed to be a guard?

About halfway through Baltimare, I noticed that more and more of the buildings were intact, with a few tall office buildings acting as sniper nests. Some of the smaller buildings even seemed to have been used recently, as if a few residents had set up stores. I supposed that, even with the toll road to provide income, they had to conduct actual trade somehow to get food and equipment. However, for some reason even these places seemed abandoned, the shop’s wares all gone.

Suddenly Porter stopped and motioned for us to do the same. “I’m afraid this is as far as we go…” A dozen red dots appeared and seemed to dance all over our bodies: snipers, each one using a laser sight to make it obvious to us that yes, there were snipers here. Our escorts turned their weapons on us as well. As if all that wasn’t enough, numerous flashes of light blinked around us, replacing empty spaces with unicorns armed with rifles and shotguns (the name “Winkstepper” suddenly made sense to me; teleportation must have been some kind of tribal specialty, which also reinforced the theory of a unicorn dominated society somewhat).

Porter turned around, shaking with both fear and forced anger. “We… We’ll be taking everything. You can leave afterwards, but everything you own belongs to us! All I need to do is cast one signal spell and our snipers will cut each and every one of you down. Just give up and give us your stuff and we’ll let you go. Just be glad that Mr. Atrox isn’t here…”

Oh crap.

This was not good. For all my cavalier thoughts on mowing down raiders like the oversized radroaches they were, and even with my experience with the ants, I knew at once that I was out of my league. The ants were all dumb and limited in their abilities, but it occurred to me that these ponies were all intent on robbing or killing us, and they were all armed with guns, plus some of were far out of our own range for counterattacks. Sure, Porter had promised to let us go, but there was nothing stopping them from murdering us all then and there once we were disarmed. Even if they made good on their promise, I’d have nothing when they let us go. The whole group would be out in the wasteland unarmed and without any food or water. What were the chances of survival like that? Even then, what side of Baltimare would they send us out of? If we were sent north, I’d have a barrier of Raiders and Yao Guai stopping me from ever getting back to my family unless I somehow managed to go through the mountains, something that would require equipment and resources that I had no way of getting in the near future.

Silently, I started praying. Celestia, Luna, some third guy, it didn’t matter. Someone was up there and my heart was screaming at them “please, make them send me back home!”

“Dammit! Ah knew something was wrong! Ah could feel it!” Calamity barked furiously, staring death at Porter and the other Winksteppers. He looked like if he had just a second free from the snipers, he would turn all of Baltimare into a shooting gallery.

“Stay calm, Calamity,” Chess said, standing firmly in place with not even a hint of fear in his voice or posture. Beside me, Knight and Bishop took on ready, alert stances, looking just as confident as Chess. Knight was even smirking, as if she knew something nopony else did. Bishop, on the other hoof, was attentively staring at Chess, who was swishing his tail back and forth in an almost casual manner.

“Now, Porter, was it?” Chess continued, looking almost dismissively at the Winkstepper. “I know as well as you do that you are not ready for this. The whole ‘raider’ thing is new to you Winksteppers. I was here just a few weeks ago, and there wasn’t any of that graffiti on those buildings. Sure the trespasser skulls have been there a while, but anyone with eyes can see that all that is just posturing to deter ponies trying to skip the toll. Your guards hardly ever see combat; the mines take care of most trespassers and even when somepony manages to get through there’ll only be one of them, maybe two, and they’ll only be the type of pony that’s too poor to pay your toll. 50 caps per pony really isn’t that much to somepony who can afford to adequately arm themselves like we can. Face it, we’re ten times as deadly as any pony you’re equipped to face. If you let us pass through now, nopony has to get hurt, but if you try to fight us, the Winksteppers will take losses that far outweigh whatever you could possibly gain from robbing us. Besides, just look at the way you’re all cowering like that! You’re not ready for this! You see the mare, Knight? I’ve seen her kill over a dozen ponies in just one fight. They were a bunch of wannabe criminals. Just. Like. You. Give up this charade and let us go, and we can continue on our way like none of this ever happened.”

Porter seemed to falter. It was now that I realized that the little lines on my EFS. were all blue: everypony here was marked as “friendly,” or at least as friendly as a bunch of ponies trying to rob you could be. That knowledge barely did anything to slow my pulse, but my mind began to desperately cling to the idea that Chess could talk our way out of this. Even if this did come to fighting, Chess’ description of Knight being enough to take out half our opponents was enough to give me a bit of encouragement. Maybe we had a chance after all!

Porter’s knees visibly grew weak, and his eyes began to get teary. “If…If… IF IT’S BETWEEN DEALING WITH YOU OR CANIS ATROX, I’LL TAKE YOU, DAMMIT! YOU’D UNDERSTAND IF YOU MET HIM! EVEN IF YOU SO MUCH AS SAW HIM YOU’D JUST GIVE US YOUR DAMN GEAR AND LEAVE!"

Chess maintained his composure, only raising his eyebrow curiously at Porter’s outburst. “Now calm down and tell me who is Cani-”

“SHUT UP! UNLESS EVERY ONE OF YOU THROWS DOWN YOUR WEAPONS BY THE TIME I COUNT TO TEN, WE’LL KILL YOU ALL!” Porter was sobbing with fear now. He was out of his league and he knew it. The scary part though, was that now he was desperate. Whoever Canis Atrox was, he was apparently scarier than a gunfight with all of us. My horn instinctively began to glow. I didn’t know what I was doing at first, but in retrospect I think that I just didn’t think I was ready to fight them. I think I intended to throw down the gun, cower on the ground and pray that I would get to return home, and when I got there I would never again leave the safety of New Appleloosa again.

Chess, on the other hoof, barely reacted. He just continued to stare down Porter, his tail still swishing back and forth.

“One… T-two… Thr-”

Porter didn’t even get to finish saying three. While still not breaking eye contact with Porter, Chess suddenly snapped his tail to the left, and in an instant Bishop’s horn began to glow, casting a spell that covered our entire party and most of the Winksteppers in a bright dome of rainbow light. All of the enemies caught in the spell suddenly staggered back, dazed. It dawned on me that Porter wasn’t the only one who could give signals to attack; what looked like a simple wave of the tail could just as easily be a sign for “cast a disorientation spell.” Chess and his crew probably had all kinds of messages like that.

While all of the hostiles in the immediate vicinity were stunned, anypony that was on our side was spared from the spell’s effects. Good thing, too, because if we were also stunned, we wouldn’t have heard Chess yell for everyone to move.

I jumped to the side, just in time to dodge a poorly aimed bullet from one of the snipers, who was probably having trouble shooting through the light from the spell. There was no hope for a peaceful solution now, they were shooting at us!

I suddenly remembered my gun, already in the grip of my magic. I saw it no more as just a tool for killing things, now it was a lifeline, my one hope for survival. It was kill or be killed, and if that was the choice, I didn’t even have to think about it.

I was going to kill.

I immediately turned my weapon on the closest target, the guard that I had spoken to. I almost shot him in the head, but that one memory flashed through my mind for a split second. Instead, I aimed lower and got him in the neck.

As I pulled the trigger, I remembered the hypocritical line that the earth pony guard tried to feed me on our way here. “You’re right, you can’t trust everypony,” I thought scornfully.

The pellets from my shotgun dug into his neck and somehow severed his head almost cleanly with the sheer force of the blast. It was almost surreal to see his shocked, lifeless face sail backward as his body collapsed to the side. I slipped into SATS and aimed three shots at a nearby unicorn, right in the chest. His barding took most of the first shot for him, but after a quick reload, the second one ended it. Somehow, SATS knew that the third attack wouldn't be necessary.

SATS had made everything so slow, almost peaceful, but as soon as the unicorn died, I was thrust back into a world of chaos and gunshots. Up above, Calamity was dealing with the snipers, both dispatching them one after another and drawing their fire away from the rest of us on the ground. Knight was beginning to make good on Chess’s claims about her, having already brought down four enemies and currently working on her fifth. Chess had pulled out an SMG and was putting it to good use. Not all of our team was doing good though. Chisel had jumped into the cart with his statue and tried to make himself look inconspicuous while the panicking brahmin ran off, taking the cart and Chisel with them. Tricky had started to panic and was shooting randomly, not even aiming. At least he kept a grip on the gun this time I guess... Also, Bishop’s disorientation spell was starting to wear off, and the Winksteppers had begun to fight back, and worst of all, some of their reinforcements began to hear the gunshots and started coming out of the woodwork, including some which wore jet-black barding. I noticed that said barding was decorated with scorpion insignias, and I realized that the Winksteppers had joined with their raider neighbors. Fighting the unicorns was much worse; In addition to their better equipment, every time they took a shot they teleported elsewhere. Their accuracy seemed to suffer for it, but not nearly as much as ours.

I saw Stellar in the corner of my eye, dropping one of the teleporters with one deft shot just as it reappeared.

But she didn't see the Black Scorpion behind her...

I found myself standing atop a speeding carriage, eleven years earlier. There were raiders behind us, at least three. I levitated a shotgun beside me, carefully trying to take aim at our pursuers. I heard my mom shout something to me, and then I looked up at her.

I was just in time to see her head explode.

Stellar was lucky. The bullet clipped the side of her head, but the wound looked survivable, no brain damage or anything. It was just like I'd realized with the ants: if we could get to her in time, we could save her.

I ran towards her, materializing my tiny shield to cover as much of Stellar as I could. It wasn't much, but it did manage to block a couple shots and confuse her attacker.

I leapt over Stellar's body and fired a shot point blank at the raider's chest, pulping his heart and lungs. Bishop reached Stellar a second later and cast a more sufficient shield around all three of us.

"Will she be OK?" I asked, fear in my voice.

"Hopefully. Pour a healing potion directly on her wound, that'll speed the healing process up," Bishop said, his voice showing obvious worry by now.

I drew one of the potions and got it all over the wound, even using my mini shield to create a wall around it so that all of the medicine could get in.

"That should be good," said Bishop. "Now come on, we need to get her to a safe place so I can dress that wound completely."

I carefully levitated her as Bishop used his shield and led me into an alley.

"Great, now you stand guard really quick. I'm gonna have to drop the shield for just a second..."

I planted my hooves firmly on the ground at the opening of the alley while Bishop carefully used some kind of spell to remove her hair and fur from around her wound so he could get a healing bandage over it.

Before he could finish, a Black Scorpion earth pony saw us and charged.

"If you want to get to them, you'll have to go through me!" I said as I entered SATS and queued my one shot at his leg.

BLAM!

He screamed and tripped, landing on his face in front of me. I picked up his gun, which he'd dropped, and emptied two rounds into his lungs through his back before going to reload my own.

No sooner was my gun full again than another pair of Black Scorpions came at me. One was a unicorn stallion, the other was an earth pony mare, the former coming at me with a bat while the latter stayed back and used a gun. My barding took most of her shots, but a couple grazed some of the bare skin on my legs, only sheer adrenaline keeping me from shouting in pain. By now, SATS was almost full again, and I used it to shoot the stallion down before he could get close enough to use his bat. He landed just a few feet in front of the mare, who didn't seem to care that one of her allies had just fallen. Rather than reloading, I instead used the gun that the other Black Scorpion had dropped earlier.

It only fired once. Apparently it hadn't had a full clip in it when I first picked it up.

Before I could get my shotgun again, the mare scored one good hit to my chest. My barding took some of the sting off, but I'm sure one of my ribs cracked, making me drop to my knees. As if that wasn't enough, another Black Scorpion unicorn buck came at me with his own shotgun right then, the mare deciding to stop firing to avoid hitting him.

Oh crap... Was I about to die?

I whispered to myself as a shot tore at my leg from the new raider, who was getting even closer now, probably to get a point blank shot. "I guess I'm coming to see you mom... Killed by raiders, just like you..."

Wait...

Something snapped in me when that thought hit me. Suddenly these raiders weren't Black Scorpions, they were the same ones that had been chasing us on our carriage that day. The same ones that murdered my mother.

And I was going to get them back.

The moron with the shotgun put the barrel of his weapon right up at the base of my horn, there was no way for him to miss or for me to survive the shot.

Fortunately, I didn't give him the chance to fire.

Using the butt of my own gun, I jabbed him square in the windpipe, making him choke and imploding his magic. As he fell, I brought the gun down again and again on his neck until I heard something crack.

Wide eyed, the other one started shooting again, probably thankful to be well out of my range, or so she thought.

Her stallion comrade's body was still near her feet, and with a quick levitation spell I threw him at her, horn first. She screamed as the horn dug into her neck and wrenched around inside her as I let the body fall, letting gravity kill her for me.

Suddenly I felt a body fall onto my back; one of the Winksteppers had teleported above me and was now bear hugging me. I grabbed the one buck's shotgun and brought it up to where I assumed the side of her chest or belly was, and, hoping that this gun had at least one more shot left in it, pulled the trigger. I was rewarded with loud bang a scream of utter agony. Her scream soon deflated to a sob, however, and I was enveloped by a bright light as she regained her faculties just enough to cast a spell.

I suddenly found myself in a jail cell, the unicorn sliding off me lazily and slumping on the floor. She seeming be trying to curl into a fetal position, but her hind legs just laid there limply. I noticed that my shotgun had hit her spine, probably leaving her paralyzed, not that that would earn any sympathy for this murdering thief. The guns hadn’t come with us when we teleported, but I figured one good stomp on the windpipe would leave her just as dead.

The little witch teleported herself away just before I struck.

I immediately checked my surroundings. It was just a little cell with only a cot and a toilet, with barely enough room to move around. Judging by the fact that we were in the middle of what used to be a city, I strongly doubted that this place was used for long term incarceration, probably just for keeping drunks overnight or perhaps more severe criminals temporarily until they could be moved to bigger prisons like Shattered Hoof. Somewhere in another room, I heard a radio playing very angry music, doubtlessly from channel 66.6. As unlikely as it was that the door would be unlocked, I checked anyway to no avail. Through the bars, I could see that we were in a long hallway full of cells, one of which contained Knight, sans her battle saddle. They must have gotten her already without me noticing and teleported the battle saddle off her. A moment later, a light shone in another cell, and a Winkstepper appeared in it with both Stellar and Bishop over his back. Stellar was now bandaged and thankfully had stopped bleeding. In an instant, the Winkstepper shoved Stellar off, waking her up, and teleported Bishop once more, this time winding up in the cell next to me. Over the next few moments, every other member of the team wound up in cells. As each one was brought in, their weapons were either left behind during teleportation or taken as they appeared in the cells. One unicorn had even managed to get Calamity (the Winkstepper himself didn’t actually appear in the cell with him, so I surmised that ranged teleportation was possible, but probably more difficult, otherwise the rest would have been doing it too.)

As time passed, the rush of battle wearing away and once again giving in to fear as the adrenaline passed and my injuries began to get really painful. I drank two healing potions, hoping they could fix my pain at least a little, but I knew I was going to die now; there was no doubt about that. We’d been offered a chance at survival and we’d completely thrown it away.

"Ugh... what happened?" Stellar asked, clutching her head.

"The Winksteppers went raider on us, and we were all captured..." Chess said ruefully.

Stellar's mouth fell open, in shock, the memories of what happened all coming back to her. "But... no, that can't..." she stammered in fear, but finally she laid down in defeat. "It’s… over, isn’t it?” she asked.

“No… no it can’t be!” Tricky insisted, his voice wavering in panic.“Bishop! You have some kind of spell that can help us, right?”

“Just one that might work…” Bishop said. His horn lit up, but the spell fizzled with a bright flash. “Damn! They must have some kind of anti-magic field inside these cells."

"Anyone manage to hang onto a weapon?" Knight asked. She had actually been completely stripped, teleported right out of her armor.

Chess laid down on his cell’s bed, thinking of possible courses of action. I heard Chisel in a cell beside me pacing about, trying to come up with some way to bribe his way out. Tricky was wailing in terror and Stellar just cried silently, facing away from the rest of us; I just couldn't bear to see her like that.

"Don't worry, Stellar," I said , "We'll get through this. I know we will." It was the opposite of how I really felt, but I still remembered Overmare Glitterdust's final act of lying to preserve hope.

"But we..." her eyes met mine, and her eyes began to water even more. Then she smiled. Somehow, I know that she realized what I was trying to do. "Yeah... we will."

I reached a foreleg through the bars, getting as close as I could to her. "Stellar... I..."

I was suddenly interrupted by somepony opening a door at the end of the hallway. A bright magical light washed across the room, after which we heard somepony say “alright, it looks like they’re all unarmed.” Great, a weapon detecting spell, these guys really knew what they were doing. Slowly, a black unicorn stallion walked into the room, looking from side to side at his captives. He had red goatee and wore yellow metal barding with a stylized black sun on the front. There was some kind of animal pelt on his head and on each of his sides he carried some kind of claw. In addition to the claw on his left, the side facing me, he also had a little keychain of a horribly beaten grey mare in a white hat. A trio of Winksteppers and a chubby mare followed in after him. The mare's armor was similar to the leader's, except it had a metal skirt on the back and she wore a helmet with a red plume as well. Her coat was the color of ash, and what I could see of her hair was pink, like meat that was cooked rare. Her hooves and maw looked like they were stained with blood.

“Is this all of them?” the pelt wearing pony asked.

“Y-yes sir, Canis Atrox, sir…” one of the Winksteppers responded.

“How many did you kill?”

“N-none. All captured.”

“And on our side?

“Um… I… I didn’t count. Including wounded, at think at least… twenty-five…” he just barely squeaked out the last word.

“Twenty-five... Mostly Black Scorpions I assume..." The black pony's voice teemed with a strange, controlled fury, like there was a flood of hellspawned rage behind it, held back somehow by a dam of tranquil restraint, only letting enough anger through in his tone to make those around him tremble rather than be reduced to utterly horrified blubbering.

The mare grinned, "But hey, at least you got them all alive! How very nice of you! You know how much I love playing with my food,” she said, putting her hooves on my cell’s bars and grinning from ear to ear at me. Her mouth was much longer than normal, her cheeks having been cut to extend it to ridiculous lengths. Not quite as creepy, but much more threatening, was that she had somehow replaced all her teeth with carnivorous looking metal dentures. I backed away, shaking with mortal terror. What was wrong with these ponies!?

“Oh, yes. We knew you’d like that, Miss Carrion,” the Winkstepper said, nodding enthusiastically. “That’s why we spared them!”

“Of course that’s why you spared them. Certainly not because they were too hard to kill,” Canis Atrox said quietly, “you sycophantic worm.”

Without warning, Canis whirled around and telekinetically levitated one of the claws, wrapping it around the Winkstepper’s neck as the other Winksteppers jumped back in horror. Carrion just smirked and watched.

Canis lifted the poor pony up in a chokehold, manipulating the claws as easily as if they were a part of his own body. As the Winkstepper struggled, Canis drove the free claw into the Winkstepper’s chest and began to cut in a circle, the claw slicing through armor and flesh almost as easily as air. I suddenly realized what animal the claws and pelt came from: Hellhounds. Where Tricky had lies and tall tales, this guy wore proof of his conquest on his head. The Winkstepper began to spasm and writhe as the Hellhound claw sliced through his lungs, but those weren’t Canis’ target. With one quick yank, the claw jerked back, holding the Winkstepper’s heart gingerly between its talons.

The last thing he saw was his own heart being sliced in half as the claw sheared through it like a pair of scissors.

Canis threw the corpse furiously against the bars of Stellar's cage, eliciting a scream of horror from her. The demoniac pony then clawed one of the other Winksteppers across the face and softly growled, “tell the others that the Legion takes no prisoners.” I felt sick to my stomach as I watched the poor pony turn tail and ran screaming, half of his face shredded into gore soaked strips of useless meat.

Carrion proceeded to casually walk over to the dead body and asked Canis "Are you gonna finish that?"

"You know I wont," Canis said with scornful passivity.

Carrion grinned widely and bit down on the corpse, eventually submerging her entire face into the body as she ate. Canis rolled his eyes at the sight.

I looked away and gagged. Was there no end to the atrocities these ponies could commit? Not only was I going to die, I was going to die in the worst way these psychos could imagine, and then if that wasn’t enough my remains would be desecrated by this cannibal.

“No, we don’t take prisoners,” Canis mused, putting one of the claws thoughtfully to his lip and turning about the hallway and looking at all of us “but we do leave witnesses... Which of you ponies... is the weakest?

"Me! Please! I suck! Just let me go!" Tricky screamed.

"I've lived my whole life in Tenpony! I'm not strong at all!" Chisel yelled.

Canis just smiled, and turned to the last Winkstepper, a unicorn. "Let them out."

The Winkstepper's horn glowed, and their doors swung open.

"Carrion?" said Canis with a smirk.

"Heh heh, you got it!" she said, grinning maniacally as usual. She produced a pair of knives, and tossed one at both Tricky and Chisel's hooves. "We only need one of you... I think you know what to do."

At first the two ponies just stared at her, stunned, but they quickly realized what was on the line.

The rest of us all started yelling at them to stop, to do something, anything, besides play along with the raiders' sick game.

Their calls fell on deaf ears. Each one snapped up their weapon in their magic and watched the other carefully, either too horrified to move, or waiting for the other to attack first. I just couldn't tell.

Finally, Tricky attacked, thrusting the knife at Chisel. The sculptor jumped back, just narrowly avoiding a lethal stab. Tricky rushed forward again, swinging furiously. Chisel backed away, but received numerous cuts.

"Yeah! You go, Whatever-Your-Name-Is!" Carrion cheered.

SPLRTCH!

We all went silent as the final blow was struck.

Tricky's knife clinked against the ground, his magic imploding as he realized he had a blade in his chest.

Chisel could only stare. As Tricky collapsed, the aristocrat fell to his knees in sheer horror.

I couldn't believe it... He was gone... I didn't even like him, but he didn't deserve that! If he would just get back up, I'd be fine with more of his lying if it meant he wasn't dead!

"Excellent. Carrion, take him away and get him branded," Canis said, completely nonreactive to Tricky's death.

"Hellz yeah! I love the smell of burning skin in the morning!" the mare said as she led Chisel away, the sculptor following in a blind daze. "Just make sure nopony takes that corpse, I want it!"

"Well, now that that is done with..." Canis said. "I have to admit, your group was able to do quite well against my soldiers earlier. Now that may not be saying much, but it never hurts to trade up. Perhaps since you are confident enough in your skills not to volunteer to leave, maybe you'd prefer to be our allies?"

“Hell, if it’s between joining and gettin’ all sliced up and eaten,’ sign me up,” Knight said, her voice sounding disturbingly confident for what she was saying. She had been as scared as the rest of us earlier, so she was practically jumping at a chance for survival. Calamity, Stellar, and I all looked toward her in shock.

“You there, did you see the battle outside?” Canis addressed the last Winkstepper.

“Y-yes.”

“Which ones performed the best?”

“These three,” he said, pointing to me, Knight, and Calamity. Really? I was in the top three? “The pegasus took out most of our snipers before Porter teleported his battle saddle off and brought him here. The unicorn and the earth pony were just... monsters. They each got at least seven. The white ones also had some kind of signal and spell system or something that helped their group get the jump on us, even though they didn’t really do much good otherwise.”

“Not bad... hopefully they have more than just those cheap tricks. One doesn't have to try hard to fool idiots like you." Canis said, waving a claw dismissively.“Wait… you said there was a pegasus?” He trotted over to Calamity, seeming curious, yet maintaining his passive nature, “you aren’t ‘Deadshot’ Calamity, are you?”

“What’s it to ya?" Calamity spat, glaring at him.

“Not much to me, but Lightbringer is quite a fan. She spoke very fondly of the way you handled your fellow soldiers when you left the enclave.”

“Who’s Lightbringer?”

“Our leader. Not of the Winksteppers, mind you, they are mine to control. Rather, she controls the Legion: the most feared and ruthless gang out of all the raiders in the wasteland, and it looks like you have the unique opportunity of joining us,” Canis’ voice took on a note of pride.

“'Most ruthless raiders in the wasteland’? Hmph. Ya ask me, that’s like sayin’ yer the smelliest piece o’ shit in the outhouse. Ah’ll die before Ah join up with the likes o’ you.”

Canis’s calm face broke into a mask of shock. Apparently Lightbringer’s descriptions of ‘Deadshot’ Calamity didn’t exactly match up well with the real deal. Then he scowled furiously, saying “Good. Because those are your options.” He turned to the last Winkstepper and said, “a few of the Black Scorpions wanted to join the Legion too, didn’t they? Go and tell Carrion that with these ponies here, I think we finally have enough to test ‘The School.’”

The School, formerly Springfoal Elementary, was the product of Black Scorpion and Legion sadism combined with Winkstepper resources. It was located on the eastern edge of the Winkstepper’s territory, where the city of Baltimare began to fade into what once were suburbs. Just another mile away was the wall, and the Black Scorpions’ home beyond it, clearly visible through a gaping hole that had been ripped open just ten short days ago by the Black Scorpions during the hostile takeover that turned the Winksteppers from relatively peaceful businessponies into bumbling bandits.

Pre-apocalypse, this place was a haven for education and fun. Everything about the school had been painstakingly designed to maximize its students’ ability to learn, and, perhaps more importantly, to protect them in the event of a Zebra attack. That is, a Zebra invasion. Sadly, the bulletproof windows, security cameras, and special emergency lockdown system didn’t stand the smallest chance of protecting against radioactive fallout from a megaspell. Now that the radiation was all but gone, this place that was meant to keep foals safe had been turned into a field for gladiatorial bloodsport.

Me, the rest of my group, and a few other ponies had each been blindfolded and led to separate rooms throughout the school and trapped there by the lockdown system. We were supposed to wait until they released the lockdown, then hunt each other down and fight to the death. Once we’d whittled our numbers down to a mere three, the battle would end and we’d be given the 'prestigious' title of Legionnaires. We had been stripped of our armor (the jerks even took my glasses) and given only a machete and whatever we could find in our respective classrooms which, at least in my case, seemed to amount to nothing more than some ruined books, desks, and a teacher’s broken terminal. At the front of the room was a chalkboard that bore the repeated message “I will not overreact to Derpy being changed. I will not overreact to Derpy being changed. I will not overreact to Derpy being changed," a now meaningless message from a debacle now centuries old.

I was led to my room relatively early, so I was trapped in the room for half an hour according to my PipBuck’s clock (they weren’t able to take that off at least, since they didn't have the proper tools and, I realized, I had forgotten mine back home.) I used that time to scavenge the room for anything useful, but unless I wanted to stab people with broken pencils or slap them to death with comic books, nothing would have matched my machete for sheer killing power. On a more useful note, I managed to find a pair of dusty old glasses in the drawer of the teacher's desk. I put them on out of curiosity, and amazingly they ended up working! Now what are the chances of finding a random pair of abandoned pre-apocalypse glasses that were not only a perfect fit for my head, but also exactly the kind I needed for my eyesight?

I kept searching the room, but I realized quickly that it was merely just something to do, as I was already as well armed as I could have been. As I searched, I silently hoped that the only ponies I met were raiders, because I would NOT, under any circumstances, kill one of my new friends. I didn’t even want to be a Legionnaire. My hope was that me and two of my allies would all make it out, and we’d take advantage of our relative freedom as Legionnaires to make an escape.

Wait… that means that even under ideal circumstances, most of my friends would be dead! Was I really in so deep that my best case scenario would come at that kind of price?

While I searched the room, Canis was ‘kind’ enough to play the radio over the school intercom to pass the time, and of course it was turned to station 66.6, or as its official name was, Legion Radio.

As the last notes of an angry, guitar heavy song finally faded away, a voice spoke up.

"Hey listener people!"

Wow... that was much more bubbly than I'd have expected for the DJ of the infamous raider radio station. Even the voice sounded almost juvenile, like a little filly.

"Thank you for listening today! I'm Trepan, and here is our host-slash-leader-slash-bestest-best-friend-ever: Lightbringer!"

"Thank you, Trepan." This voice was more like it. It was another mare, but much more mature and snide. Even if I hadn't known she was the leader of the gang that had murdered Tricky, I knew I wasn't going to like her. "Well, faithful listeners, today we're broadcasting from a chemical plant we found, and I got a piece of news that really put me in a good mood.

"Basically, I have a new favorite Legionnaire: Canis Atrox. Now, he's not as creative as a lot of you guys are when it comes to torture and just general evil and stuff, but he knows how to get shit done! Just less than two weeks ago, he was traveling the wastes when he came across another Legionnaire who wasn't doing so great... I'm talking about you, Carrion! Anyway, Canis decided to whip her gang into shape for her. You see, Carrion's Black Scorpion gang was nestled literally right next to the settlement of Baltimare. For those of you who suck at geography (that is, pretty much all of you) Baltimare is a town with a giant wall around it. The natives there, who call themselves 'Winksteppers," charge ponies a bunch of money for safe passage through their town, rather than having to swim through a tainted lake or risk going through Black Scorpion territory. Incidentally, that toll road they ran was the Winksteppers' only source of income, and the Scorpions were the main reason ponies used the toll road at all, so the Scorpions could have completely fucked Baltimare up by literally walking away. That's how easy it was to cause trouble there, and they still couldn't pull it off. Once Canis was in charge, however, he took control of the gang, attacked Baltimare, and completely made it his bitch! Which is fitting, I guess, considering that whole Hellhound thing that he has going on. Now he's got the whole place under his hoof and he's been robbing passerbys ever since.

"And now that the news is over, it's time for my favorite part of doing this radio thing. We have a special guest today. Why don't you tell us your name?"

Whoever she was addressing didn't respond, but in the silence I could hear a light crying that I now realized had been going on since Lightbringer's 'show' started.

"I said tell us your name!" I heard a bone snap and the crying turned to a bizarre, inequine scream. "Oh wait..." she said in obviously fake realization. "Hey, Trepan, do you think maybe he isn't responding because we cut his ears off and he can't hear?"

"Yeah!" Trepan spoke up again, just as cute and bubbly as before, as if watching Lightbringer's evil was just fillyish game for her. "Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that we cut his tongue, lips, and cheeks off too, not to mention his eyes and hooves. I guess that means he can't tell us his name. Ooh! Maybe we should call him 'Ribbons,' because we cut his skin up, just like ribbons!"

"That sounds perfect. Incidentally, remember what we found out about the stuff in these vats earlier?"

"Well, that infobot said it could eat through even the toughest lime scale!"

"Ugh... No, no, not that... fucking retard. I meant how when you get the stuff in a cut, it hurts like a motherfucker. I think Ribbons wants to test it out..."

"I'll help!" Trepan exclaimed gleefully.

There was a loud splash, and Ribbons began screaming in indescribable agony.

"Hey! Quit splashing, dumbass! You almost got it on me!" Lightbringer yelled. "Besides... Since you didn't get your Cutie Mark for suffering and bleeding, maybe you can get it in swimming.

"Anyway, I'm done with him, so back to the music, starting with a shoutout to Canis Atrox. Here's Disturbed, with Indestructable."

As the music began to play, my teeth were clenched in relentless fury. These ponies were just abominations! I didn't know what was worse, their remorseless torture and murder, or the fact that they did it so casually! If this is what those Black Scorpions aspired to, then I was looking forward to getting to use my machete on a couple of them. I even began entertaining the thought of joining up with the Legion and rising through the ranks until I met Lightbringer, just so I could kill her myself. Of course, being in the Legion would probably force me to hurt innocents just like Canis did, so it wasn’t really an option. Still… The thought of giving her what she deserved… I swung my machete at an imagined image of that evil mare. Although, I’d never seen her, so instead I just pictured her as looking like a villainous looking pony that I’d seen on the cover a Sword Mare comic that I found in one of the desks, except with that yellow armor that I figured was the Legion’s uniform. And horns. Because she was that evil.

Once the song stopped, Carrion spoke over the intercom instead. “Gotta hand it to that Lightbringer, she's good at what she does! I mean, personally I prefer eating them alive and raw, but shit, that was just brutal! I gotta try it next time! Anyway, I think it’s about time we got started! Today, many of our own ponies met their deaths at the hooves of six ponies making their way through town. Silly ponies, don’t they know that we are the ones who are supposed to be killing them? Ha! Well anyway, because they kicked so much ass, we’re letting them have a chance to be a part of something great: the all-powerful Lightbringer’s Legion! Not only them, but eight members of my Black Scorpions have decided to prove their worth as well. Even Pearly Gate, a Winkstepper, is out to join us. And I thought you guys were just a bunch of whimps. ‘Bout time one of you showed some balls! Fifteen ponies enter the School today… but only three will, heh heh, graduate. Thanks to the School's security system, we'll be able to watch the whole thing on these screens, and my new friend Chisel here is gonna watch the whole thing with us so he can tell the world what we do to people who piss us off! ... Or just to anyone we can get our hooves on, we really don't give a fuck. So let’s do this! Release the fighters!”

Applause rang out over the intercom, revealing that Carrion was speaking in a room with an audience. It occurred to me that perhaps it was the school’s auditorium, just barred off to prevent the fighters from getting in. Then, the school’s lockdown ended, and all the classroom doors simultaneously unlocked.

Oh snap.

This was really happening.

I was NOT going to let myself end up like Tricky.

My first thought was that the other competitors were just starting to hunt me and the rest of my party, so I should leave now and hit them first, but before I reached the door, I noticed a red line on my EFS nearby: a hostile! They must have put one of them in a room near my own. I froze up and decided to wait in the room until they passed me, then I could try sneaking up on them. I heard them loudly slamming open a door to a nearby classroom, then another one, and another one. They must have been checking the classrooms for potential victims, and based on the way the red line was moving, they’d hit my room any second now. That gave me an idea.

I got into a decently concealed position and levitated the teacher’s computer above the doorway. As soon as the raider, an earth pony mare, opened the door and stuck her head in…

WHAM!

The blow got her hard on the head, dazing her and probably giving her a concussion from what it looked like. I charged her, slashing at her with the machete, slicing her neck. As she collapsed from the terminal wound and I saw the horrified look in her eye, I almost felt sorry for her. Then I noticed that her cutie mark was a foal impaled on a stake and remembered that she was trying to join a gang of super-raiders. So instead I cut her again. She wasn't worthy of pity.

Carrion's voice burst over the intercoms, “Well, it looks like the blue guy from the Checkmate Company has already made the first kill! Too bad for that mare… I’ve seen what she can do and I honestly thought she’d do better. Ah well, at least this blue guy's got some moxy." I looked around and noticed that there were security cameras literally every dozen or so yards near the ceiling. When they built this place, they really pulled out all the stops.

I ran through the hallways, checking my EFS for more red lines. It paid off soon enough, when I saw that there was a raider coming around a corner. Without my EFS, he would have seen me before I saw him. Instead, I was able to wait near the corner and surprise him. I dual wielded the machetes, using one to pin his, and the other to slit his throat. He dropped his weapon and started to choke. I noticed, ironically, that his cutie mark was a bloody straight razor. Just a slit throat wasn't enough for him though. He kept struggling, but I had the upper hoof and made sure he knew that. I used both of my weapons and gave him everything I had. He didn't stand a chance.

Carrion commented again, “Ooh! Now that’s brutal! Another one for the same blue unicorn as earlier. Hey… Ah, he’s got a PipBuck, that explains the surprise tactics! The rest of you assholes better watch out and… WHAT!? That Winkstepper bitch just destroyed one of our cameras! Stop that! It’s not like I’m not gonna give away your position or anything! Well, I might if you break any more. Anyway, in other, less irritating news, my personal favorite Scorpion, Venom, has just teamed up with... some other guy (I can't be expected to remember all these guys, y'know.) Anyway, watch your asses... or don't, the look on your faces when you're surprised is priceless!"

One of the machetes ended up breaking. The things were in horrible condition. Checking to make sure that nopony was coming for me and ducking into a nearby classroom, I took the broken one and used it to repair one of the others, keeping the third one from my latest victim on hand in case somepony came at me. (I can’t tell you how I managed to combine two machetes into a better one, it’s a trade secret.)

As I came out of the classroom, Carrion made another announcement. “OUCH! That had to hurt! Word of warning: when your enemies include pegasi, make sure you look up! AND STOP BREAKING MY CAMERAS, DAMMIT!” I smiled as I realized that there were only 5 Black Scorpions left in here now and for whatever reason the Winkstepper was still getting on Carrion's nerves.

I explored the school a bit more, and eventually I found a wonderful sight: a blue line on my EFS.

“Stellar? Calamity? Is that you?” I said as I turned around the corner, but instead of a familiar pony, I came face to face with a unicorn mare.

“Don’t attack! I’m friendly!” she said, stepping back.

Carrion spoke again, “Good! Now that you two are together, KILL HER ASS!”

The mare then teleported up toward a security camera, machete in her teeth, and touched a hoof to the device. She teleported back to the ground again, except this time she brought the camera with her, severing it from its connection to the wall.

“FUCKDAMMITSHITCOCKSONOFABITCH!” Carrion screamed as her view of the potential fight was taken away.

“So… you’re on my side I take it? Well that’s a good thing for once. My name’s Click. She said your name was ‘Pearly Gate,’ right?” I said to the Winkstepper mare. She had a bright yellow coat with short red hair and her cutie mark was an archway with a beautiful meadow beyond it. It was the kind of natural beauty you only see in books.

“That’s right. I’m sick of these raiders forcing us to go along with their crimes. You and your friends have been the only ones who have stood a chance against them, so I’m going to help you get rid of them once and for all,” she said.

“Great. I assume you have a plan?”

“Yeah. We Winksteppers have always been tougher than the Black Scorpions, in matters of equipment if not bravery. The problem is those Legionnaires. There’s a reason they’re the most feared gang in the wasteland. They’re absolute killing machines, and unless we want to find ourselves on the business end of Canis’ claws, we have to do what they say. In fact, Canis alone knocked out thirty of us when we tried to fight him. He only left them alive so we’d be able to work as soldiers, but he was more than able to kill them.”

Wait, thirty? Alone? It took our whole group to do twenty-five!

I swallowed fearfully and asked “But if you guys are so scared of him, why don’t you just teleport away?”

“Some of us did. Unfortunately, the further we try to teleport, the more exhausted we get. It’s much easier to just jump short distances than is to reliably teleport far enough away that they don’t try to chase us down or snipe us, bad at sharpshooting as they are. Besides, no matter how scared we get, most of us refuse to abandon our earth ponies and children.”

I nodded in understanding. There was more honor to these ponies than I first guessed.

“Alright, what do you need me to do?”

“First, we need to gather up your friends. I figure that if we can get all of you rounded up, my allies and I can get you someplace safe. Basically, I'm going to teleport you all to one of my friends, and he'll relay you somewhere else. I know of an old winecellar in one of the old houses around here that will do just fine. Once you’re hidden there, you guys can come out at night catch Canis off guard. Out of all of them, he's the biggest threat. When he's dealt with, the rest of the Winksteppers should regain a bit of their courage and be able to fight off the Black Scorpions and maybe even Carrion on our own. ‘Cut off the head and the body will die,’ as they say. It’ll be a messy process, and we may lose a lot of good ponies, but as far as I can see, it’s our best chance.”

I wholeheartedly agreed. To prevent Carrion from seeing that we were teamed up, I gave Pearly one of my bloody machetes and then she ran into the field of vision of one of the cameras.

Carrion groaned over the intercom again “Aw, fuck! Great, now she killed my second favorite and, once again, she’s probably gonna-”

Pearly took out the camera.

“Of course…"

From then on we made it a point to take out all of the cameras before they saw me. For a while, Carrion only mentioned the lost cameras, not any killing yet, until her commentary brought chilling news of more bloodshed.

“Ooh! It looks like Venom and his buddy just found one of those Checkmate Company ponies!”

Oh no…

"How about Venom holds her back while the other guy guts her? ... Wait... oh, crap, she's actually holding her own!"

I wondered if that meant she was Knight then... knowing her, she might wipe them out.

"AUGH!" I heard a voice cry out from around a corner: I immediately recognized it as Stellar's.

I darted for the sound of her voice, forgetting Pearly's plan to stay hidden. We could figure something else out to fix that later, Stellar was much more important.

"Click! Wait! Aw, dangit..." Pearly said, seeing that her plan was already ruined.

I found Stellar within seconds. She was being assaulted by two Black Scorpions, one a bulky unicorn stallion with a purple coat, dark grey mane, and a skull and crossbones cutie mark, and the other an earth pony stallion with a red coat, orange mane, and a cutie mark of a bloody knife. Stellar seemed to be holding her own, but I could see what made her scream: one of them had gotten a lucky shot on her back left thigh, making a deep cut across her cutie mark, giving her a clear limp.

I didn't wait a second longer. I charged right at them, tackling the red one and slashing at him with both my weapons. Pearly was following close behind, and went for the orange one, giving Stellar just enough of an opening to get away, despite being hobbled.

"What!? The blue guy is alive?" Carrion shouted over the intercom. "Well, not that that's a bad thing I guess, especially since now that he's going toe to toe with Venom, we're probably in for one Hell of a show. I just hope the yellow bitch gets offed at some point."

The unicorn, who I figured was Venom, kicked me off of him, undaunted by the cuts I gave him. He telekinetically swung at me while I was stunned, but Stellar ran up and blocked it with her machete just in time. Even crippled, she wouldn't let us fight alone.

"Thanks for the save," I said as I refocused.

"I could say the same to you, but let's get this jerk first," she said.

Venom certainly put up a challenge for us. Even with three machetes against his one, he was clearly better at melee fighting than we were. We were making slow progress though, keeping him on the defensive and getting the odd hit on him.

I wasn't watching her, but Pearly apparently fared pretty well, as it wasn't long before Carrion came over the intercom
again. "OW! Right in the face! Yeah, I don't think Ven's buddy will be getting up from that. Dang it, I wanted the Winkstepper to die..."

As his ally fell, Venom realized that his defense wasn't working as Stellar got a good slash on his chest. Switching strategies, he made a wide and furious swing. While he was open I gave him a brutal gash right in his shoulder.

He got Stellar down the side of the neck.

She staggered back, clenching her teeth and grunting in pain, while Venom pivoted on his forelegs and bucked at us. His wounded foreleg threw off his aim in my case, but he got Stellar square in the jaw, twisting her head in a way that tore her wound open even further and knocking her across the floor, spewing blood.

"NO!" I screamed, almost forgetting that I was fighting a dangerous opponent. Venom almost attacked me, but with a bright flash of light, Pearly teleported on top of him like my capturer earlier and distracted him from getting at me again.

"I'll take care of this guy! Go to her!" she yelled.

I didn't think twice. I just turned and ran. Stellar was on her side in a pool of her own blood.

"Stellar! Oh Luna save her..." I prayed as I reached her.

She saw me coming and rolled onto her back to face me. Tears were running down her face and her entire side was covered in blood, which was cascading down her neck. "Click..."

"I'm here." I tried to remain calm for her sake, but inwardly I was screaming.

She forced herself onto her haunches. I wanted to tell her to conserve her energy or something, but I was too horrified to speak. She leaned forward and hugged me, her coat sticking to mine with blood. I hugged her back, and I started crying with her.

"I... I know I'm going to die. Don't try that Glitterdust thing, I can already feel it," she said. "I just want you to know... You're a good pony, Click."

"Nowhere near as good as you..." I said.

"Better than most of this world. I'm glad I met you."

I could only sniffle and cry.

"I want you to live Click. I was horrified when Carrion was talking about you dying, and seeing that you were OK made me so happy. And it's not just for me: The world needs ponies like you, and you deserve to be alive to give it what it needs. Promise me you'll get out of here and live. Live for both of us."

"I will. For you, anything," I said, holding her tighter.

She gently pushed herself away from me, allowing us to make eye contact for one last time. Despite her imminent death, somehow she was able to smile, like she was at peace as long as she knew that I had a chance to escape.

No words came to me. I wanted more than anything to say something to make things better, but there was nothing. I could see the same sentiments in her glimmering, tear-soaked eyes.

Slowly, she pulled herself closer to me, and our lips met. I hadn't expected the gesture, but returned it lovingly. The kiss wasn't lustful or erotic. It was a purely emotional seal of friendship, a promise of remembrance and a testament to what could have been.

We held it for a just few seconds. Just a few seconds of pure love and togetherness... Then it was gone. She finally exhaled and went limp. Her lips fell away from mine, and I opened my eyes to see her dead, unmoving. My tears came forth stronger than ever, and I hugged her again, sobbing like a child.

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to just sit there and hold her body forever. I wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out. I wanted to follow her soul into heaven. I wanted to tear down the world that had killed her and burn whatever was left.

I wanted to be left alone. The world, though, wouldn't have that.

I heard Pearly scream and get thrown hard against the ground, teleporting only just in time to avoid Venom's machete. From what I saw of her before she vanished, bruised and bleeding all over, there was no way she'd be able to fight again anytime soon.

Unfortunate for her, but it had a small upside...

It meant that Venom was all mine.

I gently laid Stellar down and got to my feet, shaking with fury.

"Heh, the little chickenshit got away. Ah well, I'll just have to hunt her down chick once I'm done with you," he said, smirking. Every word sounded like childish bullying, his voice easily the most annoying thing I'd ever heard. It was just salt in the wound on top of everything else.

I levitated my machetes and Stellar's, putting one of them in my mouth to make it easier on my telekinesis. I was so angry that I bit down so hard on the wooden handle that it cracked and I had to spit it back out.

"Aww, you look pretty angry. What? Did I kill your girlfriend? Sorry about that. If it's any consolation, you have great taste. I honestly wish I could have nailed her first before I-"

"You shut the fuck up!" I screamed. "Don't you dare talk about her like that!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? What are you gonna do about it?"

I stared at him with such fury that the look of it made him shiver a bit. I thought I heard Carrion say something over the intercom, but the message was lost to me. The whole universe was lost to me. All that was left was me, him, and all of my hate. The only thing in the world that could possibly make me happy was his slow, painful death. "I'm going to kill you," I said, my rage building, "except I won't just kill you. I'm going to torture you. I'm going to make you suffer worse than any being in the wasteland has ever even imagined. When I'm done with you, when you have the undeserved fortune to die, you're going to find burning in Hell to be a relief compared to me!"

His eyes widened in genuine shock. Evidently he hadn't expected that kind of thing from his next victim, but he managed to keep his cool. "Well, now that's some big talk. You really think you can-"

I didn't even let him finish before screaming and charging him. He didn't deserve one more second of life without being in indescribable agony, let alone the chance to speak another word.

He saw me coming and blocked my machetes with his own and one more which he quickly picked up from his fallen ally. The one thing he didn't block though, was my horn, which I drove right into the same shoulder I'd hurt before. He started to fall on top of me, but I shoved him back with my own magic.

However, when I did that, it distracted me long enough for him to use his own magic to disarm me. With my grip weakened, he took the opportunity to knock both machetes out of my telekinesis. It was an irrelevant victory for him though. Just behind him I saw a trophy case, and I knew just how to use it to hurt him far more than my machetes could. With my machetes gone, I put all my magic into throwing him instead, sending him careening into the trophy case, the glass shattering when he hit it and scattering all over the floor. Then I spun him in the air as he fell, making him land on his back in what I figured was just the right position.

I turned my magic on the trophy case itself next. It was heavy, but once I got it to tip a little, it went down quickly, the top part landing squarely on his chest, making him cry out. It was the only time his voice didn't irritate me. While he was down, I ran up to the fallen case, uncaring of the glass digging into my hooves, and jumped on top of it. I could actually hear his ribs breaking. I hopped off and dragged his body out from under the case, Venom offering no resistance other than screams as his broken ribs scraped and bent against the wooden frame.

I threw him down on the glassiest spot I could see, then began storming up to him. I realized, suddenly, that the glass which was now imbedded in my hooves could serve a useful purpose. Wanting to look him in the eyes, but do so in the most painful way possible, I rolled him onto his back as I approached him, then stomped on one of his rear knees. As he screamed, I kept going and aimed my next stomp on his crotch, then his gut, his broken ribs, and finally one last one directly on his wounded shoulder as I stared the object of my hatred in the face. I got my hooves onto the more solid ground for balance and levitated one of my machetes to me and placed it against his throat.

"Apologize," I ordered him, smirking sinisterly despite the tears flowing freely from my eyes.

He was now sobbing in agony. Clearly more scared than he'd ever been in his miserable, worthless life, he blubbered "I... I'm sorry, okay? I was just-"

I grabbed a bunch of the nearby glass in my magic and rubbed it deep into his shoulder. "No, give me a sincere apology."

"I'm sorry! Please! I'm sorry!"

"No. You're not sorry. You're a raider. You don't care about suffering," I dug the glass in more. "You don't care about others." I twisted the glass around. "You only care about whatever the hell it is that you get your kicks from. You aren't capable of being sorry. All you can ever do is make the world a worse place to be in. You don't deserve to live. You don't even deserve to have your blood spill on the same earth as ponies like Stellar."

All he could do was whimper. I could smell that he'd just pissed himself in fear.

"Venom. The big bad raider who murdered one of my best friends, reduced to this. How fitting, sobbing on the ground pool of your own blood, where you belong."

Just then Carrion's voice boomed, "Yeah! Now that's how we do it in the Legion! Kill him! We don't want crybabies like him!"

I smirked at Venom. Who would have thought I'd agree with that cannibalistic monster?

"Pearly Gate, are you still there?" I called.

"Did you finish him?" she asked weakly as she stepped around the corner. I didn't blame her for hiding, Venom had pushed her to her limits. I only had one thing to ask of her.

"No, he's alive, but I don't want to give Carrion the satisfaction of watching me finish him off."

She looked taken aback, but nodded. Rather than teleporting, she just telekinetically drove a machete into the camera lens. It looked like she was conserving her magic. "There. Now slit his throat and then let's go."

I almost did. But after all he took from me, I decided that he hadn't suffered enough. I jumped up and put all my weight into stomping on his broken ribs. As he screamed, I kept going again and again until I saw the bones exposed. The weight of Stellar's death and the prospect of finally getting rid of this hideous stain of a pony grew inside me and turned into a deranged rampage.

"Click! Stop it! I know he deserves it, but get a hold of yourself!" Pearly called.

"No! He murdered Stellar! I want him to hurt!" I kept stomping and stomping for what seemed like hours but must only have been less than half a minute before I realized he was dead. Then I just started panting... all my rage was gone... no, it was as strong as ever, but without Venom, there was nothing to rage against. All there was left to do was cry.

I left the raider's body alone and walked over to Stellar's.

"What are we going to do with her?" I asked Pearly Gate.

She sighed. "I understand that it hurts, but we'll have to leave her here for now. I promise we'll give her a decent burial when this is all done with."

Her words didn't help much. I was paralyzed, completely numb.

"I'm sorry," she said, walking up to me. "Was she a good friend? A lover?"

"We never said we were anything more than friends, but she used her last moments to kiss me... Really I only knew her for a few days, but... I liked her. We connected. She was the nicest pony I've ever met." My voice cracked and I began to tear up even more. I stomped my hooves and started screaming. "Darn it! I did love her! I did! And even if we didn't wind up together, she deserved better than this! She deserved better!"

I fell to my knees and cried over her. She'd been my best friend and I'd lost her.

Pearly let me have a moment or so, then said, "Again, I'm sorry. The last thing I want to do is get in the way of your mourning, but we have to get moving again. The best thing you can do for Stellar now is to avenge her by helping us to drive her killers away forever, and we're on a tight schedule. We've waited too long already."

I nodded and went to pick up my weapons. I would mourn again later, but for now, Baltimare had a huge problem, and I was going to be the one to fix it. "Alright. Come on, let's hurry."

Just then, I noticed another blue line coming at us. I immediately swiveled toward it and saw Calamity coming straight toward us. Or rather, coming straight at Pearly with his machete aimed at her neck. Pearly teleported out of the way, and I telekinetically grabbed Calamity by the tail.

“Calamity! Wait! She’s on our side!” I yelled.

Warily, Calamity calmed down and heard Pearly out. By the time she was done, he was more than ready to follow her. All that remained was tracking down the rest of the Checkmate Company.

“Prob’ly all hidin’ in classrooms,” Calamity explained. “I already came across Chess all holed up in one. It just stands to reason that if ya stay out of the fighting, you have a better chance o’ lastin’ longer. Though I wasn’t exactly about to risk those raiders getting to you guys first... I heard about Stellar...” He looked at me. "That isn't her blood is it?"

I nodded morosely. I had barely realized it, but my body was soaked in red.

"Ah'm sorry you had to go through that; Ah've watched allies die myself back when Ah was in the Enclave. Tricky was bad enough, but a pony like Stellar..."

A voice sounded over the intercom again, although this time it wasn’t Carrion’s. “Now be honest with yourself, Pearly Gate,” Canis Atrox chided. “Did you really think this little scheme of yours would go without arousing the least bit of suspicion? I gave you the benefit of the doubt about the cameras, maybe you were afraid Carrion would alert others to your position, but after you appeared alongside the blue one, I've opted not to take any chances."

“Aw, shit…” Pearly groaned.

“I’m afraid that I simply can’t risk letting this charade continue. Too bad for the Checkmate Company ponies, I had such high hopes for them. But don’t worry, all you Black Scorpions and Winksteppers who know their places, I’ll make sure you still get a nice, bloody show…”

Pearly’s face went pale. “Oh crud…” she said, “come on, we need to go! Calamity, where did you say you found that friend of yours? We need to get as many as we can, then I’ll get us all out of here!”

Calamity led us to Chess, who was hiding in the same room that Calamity had found earlier, watching the door warily. Upon seeing us, he immediately noticed Pearly Gate and approached her. "I take it you all already have a plan?"

"Yeah, just follow me!" Pearly said.

We kept running, hoping to find Bishop and Knight before the Black Scorpions found them or us. Fortunately, Knight proved easy to track... thanks to her snoring.

I could barely believe what I saw when we opened the door to her room. She had tried taking a nap between the time when she got put in her room and the time the lockdown was released, and hadn't woken up this whole time. Stellar died, and Knight was asleep!?

Chess was about to step forward and give her a rude awakening, but I decided to give her my own instead, grabbing her with my telekinesis and flipped her over, practically throwing her.

"Knight, how dare you! Stellar just got killed, and we find you asleep? You idiot!" I yelled.

"Wha-?" She looked confused.

Chess sighed furiously. "Just shut up and follow us."

The moment we left the room, I heard a noise to the left of us, and I whirled around and saw no less than five Black Scorpions armed with rifles. After our first battle, I wouldn’t normally be afraid on account of us just being better fighters, but none of us wanted to risk it with no guns or barding.

"Damn! Pearly, get us out of here!" Chess said.

"No! Bishop's still in here and I'm not losing another friend!" I yelled angrily.

"It's him or all of us!"

Our argument became a moot point. Before Pearly could do anything, the Black Scorpions all fired at us.

And hit a shield of green.

I turned around and Bishop standing in front of our group.

“Bishop!" I said, happily.

"I heard you yelling. Good thing I was so close!" he said with a small smile, but I could see from his expression that he'd heard about Stellar too.

"Great, thanks for the save. Now let's get out of here!" said Pearly quickly, rushing to teleport us.

Pearly's light flashed blindingly, and we vanished. But even though we lived, I, at least, would do so incompletely. I had taken the lives of other ponies, I had watched Tricky and Chisel fight to the death against their wills, and on top of all that, losing Stellar changed everything, ripping open the wounds left by my mother and reminding me that the world we lived in was cruel and unfair. Baltimare had been the swan song of my innocence, and it had breathed its last along with her.

Footnote: Level up! Level three.

Skills Note: Firearms has reached 50%

Perk Added: Intense Training (1)- You've made a promise to Stellar that you will continue to live a long life. Your promise has given you an extra boost of willpower, raising your Endurance by 1.

Next time on Fallout Equestria: Wild Wasteland: With the tragic deaths of two allies weighing heavily on Click's mind, he realizes the value of his friendships and resolves to strengthen his ties to those he has left. Before things can truly return to normalcy though, he must avenge Stellar and Tricky and free Baltimare from the raiders' control. But with the mighty Canis Atrox standing in his way, does Click even have a chance?

Author's Notes:

This was truly a difficult chapter to write. It has gone through more revisions than all of the previous chapters combined, and I think it's pretty clear why it needed such precise, careful treatment. The sad fact is that the Wasteland is a cruel place, and while I promise that things will return to their usual lighter shade of grey, Click's adventure is not going to be all balloons and streamers. For now, please allow me to explain a few things and say a few words about the characters we lost today.

Stellar and Tricky were not always envisioned as the characters you saw them as. Originally, they were just red shirts. Some readers might have picked up on the fact that they were based off of Stella and Ricky from the Honest Hearts DLC. The reason for these would-be extras getting so much screen time (page time?) was because Baltimare was originally going to be Chapter 1. It was the first chapter written other than the prologue, but I quickly realized that it would be very non-indicative of what I had planned for most of the series, so Stable 97 and the Mole Pony adventure were literally made from scratch to start things off a bit softer. This meant I had an opportunity to develop their characters a little bit more, so that they wouldn't be completely forgettable. Unfortunately, this also means their deaths were more painful. My prereaders have taken to calling me "Murderer" and one of my editors was absolutely distraught when he read the first draft of Stellar's death (which I admit was overly brutal and did not do justice to her character, which was entirely my bad) and he convinced me to redo the whole scene into its current incarnation.

As much as part of me wanted to spare the characters, or at least Stellar, most of the fic has already been planned, and I hope you'll trust my judgment when I say that things will work out a little better this way. I also wish to say that Stellar and Tricky will not be forgotten. Stellar especially holds a special place in the Wild Wasteland world planned for her. She is Click's Uncle Ben, his Obi Wan, his Ragweed (OK, that last one's a little obscure, but actually probably the most fitting example out of the three.)

Anyway, on one final note, I'd like to point out that this is also the first chapter that has been split. Mostly, this was due to length (I promise to never go 30k in one chapter) but also I wanted to make sure that the chapter was not heavy on humor after the Legion started all their terror, so I added gap between chapters will act as a palate cleanser. The rest of the Baltimare Arc will continue in Chapter 4, and, while still somewhat dark, will contain more of the quirky humor that I feel should be prevalent in Wild Wasteland. Even if the story does have its moments of horror, and darkness, I intend to keep it mostly humorous. There's even a couple Legionnaires I have planned who I are pretty hilarious, in their own dark way.

Also, in case there is any confusion about the map references at the beginning, the map Knight found is the new official map of Equestria that was released long after this fic was planned out. While I absolutely love the fact that we're getting some more background of Equestria, I already planned every geographical facet of this fic around the Fallout Equestria map made by SilentCarto, with some personal modifications. After all, that is the version that Kkat envisioned, so I thought it was fitting.

I'd like to thank Lauren Faust, the various creators of the Fallout Universe, Hasbro (even if they did for some reason take down those Abridged Serieses >:[ ) and all of my fans, editors, and prereaders, especially our new guy, Delta, who joined us after reading chapter two. Also, one of my editors, Trivial, also wanted to say a few things.

**Editor's note: I would like to thank Click for putting up with all the hell I'd given him for the first draft of this chapter, and for taking my criticism in the spirit in which it was meant, and not given. Stellar was my favorite character and I had absolutely fallen in love with her (take that as you will) and her death hit me very hard. And I wasn't the only one on our team to feel this way. I appreciate Click's efforts to completely change her death into something meaningful, touching, and tearjerking. And so, if Stellar cannot live, then her death was... decent. Thank you Click, for your patience, your willingness to listen to your team, and your acceptance of our playful name-calling! ... You Murderer. --Trivial