Chapter 21-2: Trickle Down

“And I can’t believe she just dropped it!” I ducked as a frozen pistol flew through the air.

“...” Wings slashed the throat of the Raider who’d thrown the weapon. The Woodpecker mare gurgled and gasped as blood spurted out from under her hooves. “Just let it go.”

“I-OOF!” The second Raider, a Barnstormer colt with a spiked bat, had walloped me between the shoulder blades. My Molar Bear hide cloak caught the worst of it, but it still hurt a lot and sent me sprawling. Scrambling back, my horn glowed on impulse, coating the ground around me in a slippery ice sheet. I popped upright just as the colt lost his footing and went hooves-over-haunches. Kicking aside his fallen weapon, I willed the ice to grow over him, pinning him to the dirt. “I can’t just let it go! I would never do that to her!”

Wings had retrieved the bat and was using it to fence with a Haylander unicorn telekinetically swinging a wrench. “It’s almost like she’s worried about meeting family for the first time.” She replied caustically, before she sidestepped the floating wrench and javelined the bat straight into the Haylander’s nose. A shot from the hip finished him as he fell.

I failed to pick up on her meaning. “Just because I didn’t say anything to Al about her doesn’t mean I don’t love her just as much as I do her brothers. And they ARE her brothers!” I offhoofedly put the wrench through the eyes of the ice-bound Barnstormer. He couldn’t even move, frozen as he was.

We both leapt away as one of the two remaining Raiders produced a rusty submachine gun and opened fire. I dove behind the Raider-igloo, and Wings went skyward, shooting back as she did. “I. Know. You’ve been talking about this the entire time we’ve been looking for these chumps. Give it a rest!”

“Chumps? ‘ey lass, tha’s no’ nice!” The gunner turned his attention to Wings, rattling off another short burst.

I popped out of cover for a shot at him, but his friend flicked a grenade my way. Ducking back down again, I tried to shout over the explosion. “You don’t want me to be upset with her? What she said really hurt!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” The griffon wheeled around in a dizzyingly tight curve, dropping inside the arc of the Haylander’s fire, and caught him in the chest. She thudded down in front of me, blue fire eyes burning cold. “She was worried tha- hold on, grab that guy with your ice one sec, would ya?”

The last Raider, the grenadier, was hot-hoofing it in the direction of away-from-us. Still devoting most of my attention to Wings, I had a Cryo Serpent chase him down, freezing his hooves mid-gallop.

Wings followed behind the spell and, when it was clear that his limbs weren’t gonna be moving anytime soon, sailed leisurely past him, taking all but two of his remaining explosives, and also the pins for those two grenades.

She just touched down back in front of me when he blew apart. “Saves Breeze spending caps to restock. Now, about Undertow...” Her glare returned. “You’re being an idiot, and frankly I’m tired of listening to you about it.”

“How am I be-”

“It’s not about you.” Her matter-of-fact response cut straight through my potential tirade.

“What do you mean?”

Hastily packing away the grenades, Wings was already set to go. “Take yourself out of the picture, and think about it.”

I held up a hoof to stop her. “Hold on a sec.” Hunting around, I spotted something catching the light. Picking it up, I saw that it was a little red pin badge with the words “Red Racer” emblazoned over a push scooter. I held it out to Wings. “Give this to Undertow when you get back. Let her know I’m thinking about her.”

She took it without looking, already rising off the ground. “See you back with the others.”

As I watched her glide away, mind buzzing about what she’d said, my last word in the conversation was “We’re splitting that last guy!”

~~~~~~

“Nobody? The entire place is deserted?”

Bosco and I were in the central square of the Woodpecker village. I was standing, while he was slouched against the a shack wall, still have destroyed from the battle we had all fought against each other. Bosco’s grey mane covered his eyes as his head hung, focused on the Memory Orb he was rolling between his hooves. The only one of the three we’d been able to find so far.

Taking in and releasing a slow breath through my nose, I asked the obvious question: “So what now?”

The rolling stopped for a moment, and he looked up. stone grey eyes almost disappearing in what little light there was. He spoke tiredly. “We’ll scout around the surrounding area in the morning, then double-back towards Vanchoofer later. I’m not giving up just because the Raiders have moved out.”

“Hey,” I said softly, giving my best smile. “we’ll find your Orbs. Don’t get yourself down about it.”

His head lifted slightly. “Yeah… yeah. Thanks, Snow.” His head lolled towards a nearby building. “Undertow’s asleep with Naiara in there, if you wanna check on her.”

“I… yeah. I will. Make sure you get some sleep too, Boss Colt.”

He nodded, returning his attention to his Orb.

Stepping away, I walked towards the ramshackle structure where my friend and sister slept. Quietly pulling back the, for lack of a better word, door, I peered in.

As befitting her scouting prowess, Naiara reacted almost instantly, raising her head at my entrance. Once she ascertained that I was no threat, however, she sleepily smiled and laid her head back down.

Undertow hadn’t stirred in all this, but I wasn’t gonna push it. Gingerly moving inside, I made my way over to where she was huddled in the corner.

I hadn’t made any progress on what Wings had told me, but seeing her sleeping calmly helped. She looks okay. Maybe I should just leave her alone for a little while? Give us both time to think. As I turned to leave, she shifted in her sleep, mewling softly.

Two… somethings fell from her grasp and landed at my hooves; the blue and red marble, and the Red Racer badge.

Aww, little sis, you fished it out of the well. I scooped both up, and slipped the badge back into her lap. I pocketed the marble myself. Reaching in, I left a gentle kiss on her forehead, light enough that it didn’t disturb her sleep. I had plenty of practice with those kinds of kisses, thanks to Buff, Al, and Lo. We’ll each keep one for now, Undertow, and I’ll bring mine back WITH another one for you.

A much lighter heart carried me back outside. The night was warm enough, so I ambled back over to where Bosco sat. Another smile greeted the colt as I plopped down next to him. “Tomorrow’s gonna be better, Bosco. I just know it.”

~~~~~~

I woke early the next day, just as light started to come through the cloud cover. I roused Wings and Bosco, and we decided that we could squeeze in one more Blue Fire/Red Ice fight while the others double checked the Woodpecker village, and we’d meet them with plenty of time to go exploring in the surrounding area.

Bosco was pretty firm that this would be the last time we went hunting. Strictly targets of opportunity after this, which was fair.

Checking to make sure Undertow’s marble was safely stashed in the same secure pocket as Sombra’s horn, Wings and I set off.

We’d been walking for maybe half an hour before a thought occurred. “Hey, Wings?”

“Yeah?”

This is gonna be interesting. “I’ve been thinking about our act.”

She snorted. “Our ‘act’? Are we putting on a show now?”

“...Yeah, kinda.”

She clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth. “What’s your point, Snow?”

I stayed silent as we walked, choosing my words carefully. “I think it would be good if… one or two times, at least… Red Ice wins.”

Her blue eyes blazed up for a moment, before settling. She gave me a side-on glance. “You want to have the Raiders win? Just leave whoever they attack to die?”

Grunting, I shook my head. “That’s not what I said. I said I should win sometimes, not the Raiders. We’ll still kill all of them.”

Her glance shifted to confusion. “Then why would Red Ice win?”

Ah, the tricky part. “Well, if Red Ice is getting beaten back by Blue Fire one hundred percent of the time, people might stop thinking of me-I mean HER, as a threat. If they do, what we’re doing here loses its effectiveness. Nobody will care if Blue Fire is constantly fighting a weak villain.”

Her eyebrow had jumped at my slip of the tongue. “Uh huh. So you want to win this time, I take it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe, I dunno. I can’t exactly confirm what I said. It was just a thought.”

We’d both stopped by this point, and I waited as she stared into space, mulling it over. Eventually she shook her head slowly. “I… don’t think it’s worth it, in the end. We could end up making things worse. I mean, I do kinda see where you’re coming from, but it’s dangerous to try to make this more complicated than it already is.”She paused for a moment. “Besides, you suck at acting.”

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!”

“Why don’t you make me?”

“I am totally gonna try to win for real this time!”

“Bring it on!”

“I will!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

“FINE!”

“FI-oh, let’s just go.”

~~~~~~

We had our target. It was a group of Woodpeckers, around a dozen strong. Some aerial recon from Wings had shown that they were heading for a group of armoured stallions with actually halfway decent weapons.

With no time to lose, I set off running towards the stallions. They were trudging along, tightly bunched but not looking anywhere but where they were going. This made it really easy to put myself in their path, a thirty yards ahead of them.

Slightly flushed from the run, I took a second before speaking. “Good afternoon, sirs-”

A bullet tore past my cheek, drawing blood. Yelping, I dove to the side and summoned a small ice wall, barely up to my shoulder, which I scuttled behind. “Hey, what was that for?”

“Get out here so I can shoot you, Red Ice!” One of the guards, a burly unicorn, kept his hunting rifle up, firing three more shots into my shield. “You’ve got a lot of guts being out here all by yourself!”

Okay, whatever. That works as a segway to warn you jackholes. Putting on my most confident, Raider-ish voice, I ‘casually’ laughed aloud. “And what makes you think I’m alone? The Raider Queen never goes anywhere without her subjects. Remember that before you think about shooting me again!”

Hunting rifle-stallion ignored my words and shot twice more, causing an ominous crack to appear in my ice wall. His companions, however, gave a much more favourable response.

“Hey, is she really Red Ice?”

“She said there were more Raiders coming!”

“Where? I don’t see them!”

“Just keep looking!”

Rifle-guy didn’t care. “You ruined our lives, bitch! We’re all out of a job because of you and your damn Raider army. Can’t even go home, gotta come all that way out here to fucking Vanchoofer!”

Can’t go home? Where’s home? Easing an eye over my barrier, I took another look at the stallions. All of them had their weapons out now, but only Rifle-guy was looking in my directions. The others were looking every which way.

One thing that caught my eye was the uniforms. They were all wearing the same outfit. I know I’ve seen that before, just kinda… stretched. Oh! I mentally kicked myself as realisation dawned. These guys are Lethbridle guards! But what was that he said about losing his job, and moving to Vanchoofer?

CRUNCH!!

I howled in pain as the rifle shot busted through my weakened ice and straight into my shoulder. The limb instantly gave out, putting me in the dirt. “EEEEYAAAARGH!” FUUUCK that hurts!

I dimly heard Rifle-guy shouting through the pain. “Haha, bitch! Stay right there and I’ll finish you off!”

Nonononono! Wings, where are you? Adrenaline surging through me, I rolled onto my stomach and started dragging myself along with my useable front leg, alarmingly aware of the approaching hoofsteps.

Gasping in pain with every movement, I didn’t see the rifle butt slam into my punctured shoulder. I felt the pain though, instant and intense. I screamed as the weapon ground into my ravaged flesh.

Rifle-guy was evidently enjoying himself. “The big, bad Red Ice, crawling in the dirt like just another worm.” Gloating was the order of the day, it seemed. “You had this coming, bitch, for everything you’ve done.”

I said nothing, just tried to push myself up to standing. The levitating rifle swept around and knocked my good hoof out from under me, pitching me snout first into the dust. Come on, Raiders. Can’t you be punctual for once? I need a distraction here!

Shockingly, it worked. Wild howls sounded from behind the other guards, and soon the sound of gunfire filled the air, as the Woodpeckers and guards did battle. Rifle-guy was still standing nearby, but wasn’t looking in my direction anymore. He was aiming at the Raiders.

A lucky shot made his day much worse, and he collapsed next to me, blood leaking from the forehead hole. He was gone.

A gust of air on my blind side alerted me to a new arrival. Wings stood over me, eyes dancing with concern. There was smoke coming from the barrel of her revolver. “Oh, shit, Snow, your shoulder!”

“Yeah,” I hissed between pain pulses, “I can’t use it.”

She shoved a Buck in my mouth. “No potions with me. Use that to get away. I’ll ‘help’ those guys and come find you afterwards.” She glanced over to the guards, who were still engaged with the Raiders. “I can’t do anything more for you right now, Snow. You have to move!”

Biting down on the Buck, I swallowed hard. “A-alright.” Shakily, agonisingly, I pushed myself to my hooves. Grabbing the damaged limb in my jaw, I jerkily hop-ran away from the fight.

I heard Wings take flight behind me, shouting out to the other guards, proclaiming her Blue Fire-ness, and desire to help.

With the Buck finally starting to flood my system, I picked up the pace a little. Like you’re one to talk about acting.

~~~~~~

Drip.

I staggered around the… wait, where am I again? I was in some small building, half-destroyed by apocalypse and time. Knick-knacks littered sagging and rusted racks, and dust covered everything.

Drip.

Slumping against a wall, I immediately hissed and jerked away again. It took a few deep breaths for the jolt of pain that’d run through me to fade. A dark slickness coated the wall where I’d put my shoulder. Now how did that happen? Oh right, I was… Wings and I were doing a pretend Red Ice, Blue Fire fight. Then that jackhole guard…

Drip.

I looked down. There a small splash of crimson stained the floor by my hoof, joined by another as I watched. Frowning, I looked back down the aisle, seeing a trail of similar splashes.

Craning my head awkwardly, because I could barely move the limb, the damage done by the guard’s rifle came into view. The bullet wound was neat enough, but not small. A ginger attempt to move the shoulder just made me wince and look away.

As I did, I caught sight of another pony watching me. “Shit!” I ducked down, limping back down the aisle and around the corner. My gaze shifted this was and that as I slowly retreated, searching for other stalkers. Who was that?

I hadn’t gotten a good look at the pony, just a fuzzy image. The pony wasn’t the only thing that was looking fuzzy either. The edges of whatever I looked at seemed to blur a little, and I couldn’t focus well enough to read the faded writing on some of the oddities on the shelves. That’s… not good. I can’t fight like this.

I couldn’t see an exit except past where I’d seen the other pony. ABANDONED STORE! Right, yes, that’s what this place is. Of course, I remember now. I’d have to get past the pony to get out, and I doubted I could outrun a newborn foal with a rifle bullet in my leg. The comedown from the Buck wasn’t helping either.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” I whispered to the unknown pony. My millimetre-by-millimetre lean put my eye just around the corner at the same time the other pony caught sight of me. Silently, we stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.

Drip. The sound of my escaping blood made me wonder why the other pony hadn’t attacked yet. Surely he or she could see that I was in no shape to fight? I was tired, woozy, hooficapped, and couldn’t even get my head clear enough to see any specifics of my opponent.

Drip. That wasn’t going to get any better, so I had to act before I was too weak to move. Gritting my teeth against pain I knew was coming, I charged wonkily around the corner and straight at the other pony, hoping that the idea of a pony with a bad leg running straight at them gave them pause, as if expecting a trick. “YAAAHHH!!!”

Shockingly, the other pony hadn’t moved. Is this going to work?

Two steps… one… still no movement.

Then I hit the mirror.

Then the mirror fell and hit me on the way down.

“Son of a bitch.” I managed to mutter, red-faced, once the clatter had died down. Luckily, the thing had stayed intact, so I could avoid picking shards from my shoulder hole.

Unluckily, it was now both heavy and lying atop me. Batting at it with my hoof, it felt like my red face would turn purple. “Get off!” I protested weakly.

I went to smack at the heavy weight again, but froze as a soft click sounded, accompanied by a growl. “Who’s there?”

The weight of the mirror was forgotten for a moment. I knew that growl! “Wings, in here.” I gasped out.

“Snow?” Paws thumped on the shop floor as she rushed through the door. I caught a glimpse of her sapphire eyes as she spotted me. “Snow!” Two claws grabbed the edge of the mirror and heaved. The heavy reflective surface flipped over and burst as it hit the floor. Wings’ claws immediately moved to block my face as we both looked away.

I hissed as something bounced across my wound, but didn’t feel any other strikes. “We’re gonna get bad luck from that.”

She helped me up. “You got shot because we pretended to fight each other to make a bunch of people we’ve never met love me. We already had bad luck. The mirror can get in line.” She dug out a few magic bandages. “Here, put these over the wound. It’ll close it up for now, and you can have a healing potion when we get back to the others.”

As I clumsily wrapped the bandages around my shoulder, Wings inspected the scattered knick-knacks. “Anything here worth taking?”

Shrugging, I made my way over to her. “Haven’t really looked yet…”

“Snow.”

What did I come in here for again? “...but there should be something we can take. Maybe Breeze can cobble something together.”

“Snow.”

I tried shaking the cobwebs out. I got shot, ran from the fight, and then… oh right, I need a present for Undertow. “I need a gift for-”

“SNOW!”

Her outburst halted me. “What?”

She was looking down at the floor. “You just walked all over the busted mirror. Your hoof’s bleeding!”

Idly, I lifted them, one by one, until I found the affected hoof. A sliver of mirror shard was protruding from the ankle. It was promptly flicked out and away. “No big deal.”

Now she looked me in the eyes. “You sure you’re okay? Maybe you should lie down for a few minutes and take it easy?” The other blood splatters I’d been leaving around the store before her arrival caught her eye. “Wait, Snow, is all this you too?”

I picked up a little blue tin whistle on a chain. This could work. “It’s no big deal, Wings. You patched me up.”

Her eyes bugged out. “It IS a big deal, Snow. I may have slowed the bleeding, but I was looking for you for at least a few hours. You’ve gotta be pretty low on blood right now.”

“I’m fine.” I looked up too fast, causing me to stagger.

Throwing her claws up in the air, she moved towards the door while dragging me by the tail. “Come on, we’re going back to the others and getting you a potion, some food, and a nap.”

“Wait, before we go, does this thing work as a present for Undertow?”

“Now, Snow!”

~~~~~~

“Wake up, please.”

I murmured and tried to go back to sleep.

“Snowflake, it’s time to wake up.” A hoof poked softly at my snout.

No. Go away, it’s sleep time now. I rolled over, trying to get the speaker to leave me alone.

A new voice chimed in. “We don’t have time for this.”

Then somebody kicked me in the shin. “Get up, Snow.”

“OW, JACKHOLE!” I shot up, front hooves reaching for my aching leg. “What’s the big idea?” I glared at both ponies present.

Undertow said nothing, while Bosco frowned back. “We can’t be waiting around for you to wake up, Snow. We think we found something.”

I pointed at my bruise. “So you decided to kick me awake? Couldn’t have done it without viol-wait!” I brought my pointing hoof back before my eyes, then followed along the limb to the shoulder.

While it wasn’t completely healed, it was most of the way there. The bullet hole had healed up nicely, and best of all… “Doesn’t hurt anymore. Awesome! How’d that happen?”

Breaking her silence, Undertow tapped at a familiar tin whistle that was poking out of a pocket of her Sprinkles Supplies barding. “Wings brought you back yesterday evening. You were… lightheaded.” I appreciated that she made an effort to be diplomatic.

Bosco didn’t. “You wouldn’t stop babbling about random crap, and could barely stand up straight.”

Frowning slightly at the colt, Undertow continued. “So we gave you a healing potion, got you to choke down some food and water, then… well…”

I cocked an eyebrow. “‘Then… well...’ what?”

Again, Bosco chose the direct path. “Then we basically let you fall over. Though it wouldn’t have taken much to knock you out. Undertow probably coulda done it with a kiss on the cheek.”

“Fantastic.” I deadpanned, before changing the subject. “You said you found something?”

Some enthusiasm crept into Bosco’s demeanour. “We did. Well, Naiara did. The three fliers are checking it out right now to be sure.”

“Checking what out?”

Before they could answer, Bosco’s gear began to buzz and vibrate. Digging through his stuff, he finally drew out one of Breeze’s communicators. “Bosco here, who’s this?”

“It’s Breeze,” the Pegasus sounded more excited than I thought I’d ever heard from her. “looks like Naiara was onto something here.”

The three of us looked at each other for a moment, then Bosco spoke into the device. “You think it might be what we’re looking for?”

“Pretty good chance it’ll be important, at least. A big fuck-off forest like this doesn’t just spring up overnight… except this one, uh... did.”

“A forest?” What happened while I was asleep?

Breeze’s usual harsh wit returned. “Green, lots of trees.”

“Not what I meant and you know it.” I groused.

“krrzk! Zrrt! What’s that, Snow? I bzz can’t rwwwt hear mrrc you. Bad connection, I think. Just get over here quick.” Faint snickering came from the speaker just as before the transmission cut out.

“That fu-”

“No time for that now, Snow.” Bosco interrupted. “We gotta get going. I don’t want to miss the chance to check this place out. It could be a clue to my Memory Orbs.”

“But,” Undertow cautioned. “it might also be a trap. The situation is, as Aqua Breeze said, ‘kinda suspicious’.”

The colt wouldn’t be denied. “I don’t care! If it’s a trap we’ll keep our guard up, but we ARE going to check it out. It’s too good of a chance not to.”

Both of us had to reluctantly agree to that. We’re dealing with strange creatures and magics more and more these days. We can’t run away from this if it’ll help Bosco. Even if I kinda wish we weren’t going in blind, again.

As we set off, my sister had one more question. “What about Naiara, and Schwarzwald?”

Bosco, focused on his new opportunity, didn’t slow down to answer her. He just spoke over his shoulder. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“You mentioned that Wings, Cassie, and Breeze were checking out Naiara’s find. So where are Naiara, and Schwarzwald?”

“Oh, right.” He looked over his other shoulder at me. “Schwarzwald went to pick us up some more food, and some parts for Breeze for a… thing she’s working on, from Sprinkles Supplies. They’ll meet us with the others.”

I perked up. “From Lexi? Did she-”

“Yeah, Schwarz said she’d say hi to your brother for you, and also that she’d make sure him and Lexi knew your fights with Wings were staged, that you’re not really going Red Ice again.”

His words stopped me in my tracks for a moment. “Y-yeah, that’s… that’s a good idea. I’ll have to thank her.” Shitshitshit! Why didn’t I think of that? I promised Lexi I’d stop all of that, then I turn right around and do it again. She’s gonna be so disappointed in me!

Since I couldn’t apologise to Lexi directly, I did the next best thing and apologised to the other pony I’d made that promise too. “Sorry, sis.”

~~~~~~

No level gain.

~~~~~~

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay.

As always, a big thank you to KKat, Y1, Auramane, Cascadejackal (he did the original cover art, which is still on the Fallout Equestria wiki), Void Heart (he did the new cover art), Shunketsunoponi and you, the readers. Please read and comment, and pass the word along if you like the story.

That’s all for now, folks. Please keep reading, commenting, and spreading the word on Old Souls. I really appreciate your feedback.