[FOE] What Happens After The End (IC)

[DigoDragon]

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDeBSbAeLKU) [Video]

Hope. Hope never changes.

Since the dawn of pony kind, when our ancestors first discovered the magical power of love and tolerance, battles had been fought in the name of everything: from Celestia to justice to simple, psychotic friendship.

In the year 10XX, after months of armed conflict with the zebras, the destructive nature of megaspells could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of balefire and magical radiation.

But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another challenging chapter of Equestria's history. For ponykind had succeeded in destroying the world - but hope, hope never changes.



What Happens After The End
The Day of Sunshine and Rainbows

Day 1
It started with a low whistle.

The whistle grew louder by the second, closer with each passing moment. Breaths were held. Then, the very ground shook. A rain of gunfire swept the landscape. Two armies march across the wasteland fields outside Fillydelphia. A great battle has begun, catching dozens if not hundreds, in its wake. The shouts and screams of ponies sound in all directions, drowned out by the explosion of grenades tearing the landscape apart.

If you weren't an early riser this morning, you are now.

Adrenaline kicks in as you can see the clashing of armored ponies all around. Flights of pegasi swoop down upon earth ponies, gunfire exchanging blood for blood. In the midst of the battle there are those caught in the crossfire who flee in all directions. Some are hit by stray fire, others manage to cower behind the cover of the landscape. Whatever is going on, it's big, and no side wants to lose.

[OOC~ Go ahead and describe how you enter the scene]



REFERENCE LINKS:

FOE System Documents
Core Documents (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fsNLwKTWEt0pawFWLRzBtEPfvDQGitGPh8NN3Zk0xo4/edit?pli=1)
Weapon List (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar_2-YbjBwHUdHdlYWRrcGFaOWhWQ0E3V0xpWDVyRnc#gid=17)
Items (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar_2-YbjBwHUdGdRTTg4WkloY1pPYU1UemF6aThINmc#gid=3)
Perks (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmdxxHLawBxTdDRrNTRseGs2cThPRmhOQ01kbWdPb 0E#gid=0)
Forum (http://forum.fallout-equestria.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=394&sid=f03165530979576ec7334d43f740941d)

Dramatis Personae
Sheriff Straight Arrow: A Rotten Lawpony (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhsDkSYRcU_adC0xWmE4Tk50eXlwOENUS1VITW1YV VE&usp=drive_web#gid=1) (played by Balmas)
Manco Correo: The Zebra Without A Name (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgEntF9igYMudEhrdlhTdFUzTkdSZ29Zd1ZWejZaU mc&usp=sharing#gid=0) (played by Digo Dragon)
Ajax: A Wandering Monster (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlvsCespysB6dFp6cWNhN2ttcVZsblJydTBWcmRIV 1E#gid=1) (Played by Pokonic)
The Alicorn: Really Doesn't Have A Name. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AovH4PsCCUmidG4xNlZ4RVFJRUx1NHRJOGQzS3dxO Xc&usp=drive_web#gid=0) (Played by RCGothic)
Gerry Rig: A Slightly Irate Scientist (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkX-7rQ2kSDrdGR2N2Q5UFVJZjJDcG54aVRyVHJBM3c&usp=docslist_api#gid=0) (Played by SiuiS)
Blank Slate: This space intentionally left blank (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqnyjTvcvmthdFBTMjRlVnFlYzF0RFlMTkNEZVpGO VE#gid=0) (Played by Forum Explorer)
OOC (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?370755-What-Happens-After-The-End) Thread.

[DigoDragon]

A zebra and earth pony dive down into a ditch under fire from Celestia knows what. The zebra reaches under his serape of zigzagging earth tones for bullets. He quickly expells the spent casings in his revolver and loads a fresh batch of ammo. Meanwhile, the earth pony takes a swing from a bottle of whiskey he's been coveting.

"You want a swig? Might as well since we're about to die," the pony said.

The zebra shook his head. "Dying ain't on my to-do list today," the zebra responded. "Sides, I need my wits sharp right now."

"Manco, you sure are a strange one," the pony said. "What kind of letter carrier are you? There's no mail in these wastelands."

"You might want to duck, Taco," Manco suggested.

Before the earth pony could ask why for, Manco raised his revolver and fired two shots over Taco's head. The chocolate earth pony hit the dirt, protecting his booze above all else. Behind him another pony dropped dead. Manco sighed and peeked over the trench for signs of more gunponies.

"You could of warned me, you loco!"

"I did," Manco said tersely.

The zebra saw a group of unarmed ponies looking for cover several dozen yards away. He got up and galloped out of the ditch to help them. Taco scrambled up to his hooves, trying to take one more gulp of whiskey before running after the zebra. "Hey, you're gonna get us both killed, you know that, Manco?!"

[Pokonic]

Off to the side of the main conflict of the day, inside a crumbling little house, the remnants of a caravan huddles together for warmth. Six ponies in total, with three adults, their actual home of several years was currently on fire outside, having been shot with some sort of flaming bullet some time ago.

Also within this dim, moldering place, near the other side of the room, was Ajax the Minotaur. Six feet tall at the shoulder and heavily built, he sat on the ground, examining his supplies. His horns were forward-sweeping rather than sticking straight upwards, and they were curved at the edges, and his fur was black and bristly looking. He had on a suit of leather armor, which was a dark brown and looked remarkably solid; 'suit' might not be the correct term, but it had shoulder guards, at least, and the area covering his chest seemed reasonably sturdy. His hooves were shod with bronze and his horns were sharpened, and he had a small amount of food that he kept in a plastic bag next to him.

Ajax wasn't sure what to make of the ponies; he had joined them not a day before, as they were leaving the town he had spent so much of his life next too, and he had nowhere to go. They seemed ambivalent about him being with them, but they seemed like reasonable ponies, unlike the ones that were shooting at each other outside. But, he had yet to learn any of their names; he hadn't given his own, either. He had only spoken to them a few times since they had arrived to the little building, and even now he suspected that they would wish to start moving.

He had no desire to fight, but his legs were tired and his ears hurt from the constant conflict outside. This was a great folly, whatever the ponies were doing, but it was also a folly to believe that they would stop anytime soon. He would likely have to join forces with ponies who were willing to fight, if he was to make it to the end of the day, alive.

[Balmas]

"You know, I remember when this used to be a nice place."

In the middle of a battlefield is not the best place for a conversation. The shrieks of the dying are more than drowned out by the whistles of mortars and the angry chatter of machine guns talking back and forth. Straight Arrow's ears flicked backwards as he braced himself and bit down on the trigger of his battle saddle. His varmint rifles weren't nearly as loud as the thunder of the Talon mercs' anti-machine rifles, but when they're right next to your chest, they're still plenty loud.

Idly, the ghoul wondered whether his hearing loss was due more to gunfire or being 200-some-odd years old.

"Yeah, and I'm sure that long ago, you were pretty handsome, too." Sarcasm. Charming. Cut Throat always had a way with words. She spat them out as if they tasted vile, before tonguing her pistol towards the nearest head. Straight wasn't sure she'd even had time to figure out whether it was a hero or another raider before she'd taken the shot.

"Damn straight I was! I'll have you know I was quite the looker! Had mares hanging off every which way." The ghoul's raspy chuckle was a bit like a troll had tried to gargle with a river's worth of pebbles. "And I do think I've kept my boyish charm."

"Sure, loverboy." BLAM! The raider tongued her trigger again. Downrange, a particularly loud scream marked her success. "Just keep telling yourself that."

[RCgothic]

"Shields!"

The purple alicorn with the charcoal and cornflower mane isn't sure which of her sisters screamed the warning, but when the deafening concussion and shower of dirt subsides all three of them have their translucent barriers in place.

It probably wasn't Emerald; she hasn't spoken much recently. Sapphire, her blue sister, had certainly come out with her fair share of Unity's perceptive powers. But it could just as easily have been her own voice. Despite the passage of ten days since The Destroyer set off a balefire bomb under Maripony she still felt fragmented. Conflicting, impossible memories cloud her judgement. Wildly swinging moods steal her focus. The middle of a battlefield is probably the last place she should be.

"Good call, sis!" Sapphire complements, before blasting a bolt of lighting at a flight of black-carapaced enclave pegasi strafing Red Eye's lines without dropping her shield. The alicorn feels a momentary stab of jealousy. She'd been unable to manifest any offensive magic since the hive mind fell, forcing her to drop her shield to attack. She manages to wing one of the pegasi, and a howling mob of Red Eye's forces descend on the wounded soldier, cracking open her power armour and rending her into bloody giblets. The alicorn curls her lip in distaste.

"Somepony remind me why we're still fighting for that idiot's pet griffin." Sapphire's comment earns her a sharp rebuke.
"Because mother willed it!"
"Mother is dead!"

The pair glower at each other while Emerald stares mournfully at her hooves. Bringing up mother had been a mistake. She hadn't even bothered to name herself - Sapphire had given her green sister the appellation to distinguish between them. She'd tried to call her Amethyst too, until the alicorn had slapped her upside the head with the back of a wing. Though that hadn't been through apathy. A name just didn't seem appropriate right now.

Then a squad steel rangers crests the edge of a nearby crater and the battle takes on a new, horrible intensity. Bullets spray overhead, chewing into Red Eye's mob behind them. A unicorn screams into a radio for artillery, which promptly arrives courtesy of a muffled whump! whump! whump! followed by a trio of explosions so close and loud that they're felt rather than heard. The shells toss one of the rangers back down the slope he'd just climbed, and Sapphire's lightning bolt causes another to topple sideways, armour dead. The alicorn's battle saddle roars, but the bullets spark harmlessly off the nearest ranger's helmet. She gulps as the ranger turns his minigun towards her. Not even her shield could repel firepower of that magnitude! At least, not since Maripony...

She hurls herself into cover just in the nick of time, getting a faceful of torn up earth for her trouble. Urgh, fighting like this is for mud ponies! Still, fighting in the air would be suicide with the swarms of enclave soldiers up there. She tries to flatten herself even closer to the ground as bullets chew through the earth around her. A shadow passes overhead, and her ears flatten against her skull as she finds herself looking down the barrels of a battery of raptor plasma cannons. Then they barrels retarget the lip of the crater and the hapless rangers are immolated with magical energies. She watches transfixed as a missile streaks up from beyond the near horizon to detonate against the raptor's armoured hull. Immediately the massive craft's storm clouds thrum with barely-contained energies as it veers off to bombard this new threat.

She feels a tug at her hoof - Sapphire, also pressed into the earth, trying to get her attention. Blood pours from a wound in her shoulder, and the alicorn staunches the worst of it with a pass of her horn."Seriously, what the buck does Stern think he's doing? We're completely outclassed!"

Glancing around, the alicorn realizes she can't see the rest of Red Eye's squad. They must all have died or fallen back, stranding the alicorn wing in the middle of the fight. The sounds of distant artillery batteries at least indicate that Red Eye's forces are still in the fight elsewhere. With a sinking feeling she realises a face is missing. "Where's our sister?"

Sapphire's ears flatten in dismay as she shakes her head. The two alicorns dust themselves off, share a look, and then gallop towards the nearest sounds of gunfire. By the time they reach the source, both alicorns are out of breath, and Sapphire's face is still pale and pinched from her earlier pain and loss of blood. It drains still whiter at the scene before her. Ten magical energy weapons in the saddles of the black-armoured ponies turn to point towards them, as another remains firmly fixed to the temple of a green alicorn, her wings and flank scarred with fused.

"Emerald...?"
"Sister?

The officer holding the pistol to her head just grins as the green alicorn turns a mournful gaze towards her sisters, before bowing her head and closing her eyes.

Sister! Sister, defend yourself!"

The sound of a shot rings out and Emerald's headless body slumps bonelessly into the dirt. Two alicorns, stunned by the death of their sister, nearly miss the smirking officer's quiet order. "Kill them."

Nearly. A translucent shield snaps into place just as the air fills with magical energy bolts. Lucky shots penetrate her shield to punch through and graze her flank. The alicorn grits her teeth as her bulk shields Sapphire from the worst of it. "Run!", she urges her sister. She doesn't look round as the sound of pounding hooves fades rapidly into the background noise behind her, so focussed is she on maintaining her shield. Then just as the magical fusilade becomes too much, she too turns tail and runs for her life, blinking back tears of rage, pain and loss.

[DigoDragon]

Ajax was here.
Several bullets rapped loudly against the crumbling wall of the house and punctured into the room. The three children screamed and cried into the embrace of the adults, but one of the grownups collapsed clutching his leg. He cursed out angrily as one of the stray bullets hit him in a hind leg. The other two adults attempt to help him in some way, but they do not appear to have any medical supplies on them.

The compromised section of wall burst open as two armed ponies crashed into the house, prompting another round of screams from the children. They were both covered in torn armor, blood and dirt, with the significant difference being one was an angry pegasi with a broken wing and the other a non-responsive earth pony with a broken neck.

The pegasi spat some blood on the floor and scowled at the huddled family. He pointed the wingblade of his remaining good wing at the adults. "On the floor, all of you!!" he hissed. The adults shielded the children and got down low. The pegasi checked them over for weapons, but didn't seem to find anything.

"Please, just let us be," the injured earth pony begged.

The pegasus lowered his wingblade to the beggar's neck. "Keep your mouth shut," he said simply, resuming his search.


Straight Arrow Arrow Bo Barrow, Banana Fanna Fo Farrow...
The ghoul could see two mares in metal collars and broken chains racing across the field. A mortar landed in their path, exploding with enough force to send them both backwards. The one closest to the impact landed in a very awkward position, still as a rock. The one farther back, a soft yellow earth pony, rolled across the ground and came to a stop.

"Help! Help me!" she cried out, unable to see with the face full of dirt she took.

An armored griffon swooped in with a fresh set of slaver chains to recapture the mare. He grabbed her by the neck and held her down. The pony tried to fight back, but was no match strength-wise. The griffon back-handed her.

"Hold still or I will put you down!" the griffon commanded.


??? Purple Alicorn ("Enter Name of Hero" --Every JRPG Ever)
The ground shook with the sounds of mortars exploding in the distance. The purple alicorn's tears gave way just enough that she saw a young gray unicorn darting away from a pegasus soldier.

The pegasus pounced upon the smaller unicorn and tore some kind of device from the little pony's foreleg. "Where'd you get this?!" the pegasus mare demanded.

The unicorn shot out pathetic sparks of colored light that did little beside cause the pegasus to flinch and shield her eyes. The pegasus drew her gun and fired at the unicorn. It was pure luck that the unicorn jerked his head to the side before the bullet went through him.

"Oh, I'm mad now, you little punk!" the pegasus growled. She lifted the unicorn up and slammed him head-first into the ground.


Manco Yikes Stripes!
The zebra and earth pony reached the group of three they darted for just moments ahead of the mortar. The explosion sent ponies in all directions. Manco coughed up a lung full of dirt. He was shielded by Taco, who took the brunt of the shrapnel for the two.

"Cough... damn it... I... told you," Taco said, half angry and half joking.

Manco tried to patch up his acquaintance of only two days, but Taco refused. The earth pony reached into his pocket with great labor and drew a cigarette. He then looked for his lighter, but was unable to find it. Manco obliged with his own.

"Thanks," Taco said, taking his last puffs. "Don't you... got a damn letter... to deliver?"

The zebra shook his head. "Not really," he replied.

He heard a yelp behind him. One of the three ponies survived the explosion, limping to his hooves. Taco waved him away, slowly passing out puffing on his cigarette. Manco hurried over to the surviving pony, an earth pony with a charcoal coat and light blue mane. "You alright?" Manco asked.

"Ack... damn... just... damn," the dark stallion responded. "Yeah, I... just where'd all these jackasses come from?"

[Balmas]

Straight's eyes narrowed, and he angled towards the griffon. Plang! The twin 5.56 bullets whined past the griffon's beak like angry lead hornets. "Hoi!" Straight braced himself for another shot. "Ease off already. She's already been captured."


25 AP: Shoot at Griffon, 84 over 40. Miss.
30 AP: Dodge. Griffon takes -15 to attack Straight.

[Pokonic]

Ajax, after a few moments of silence, stood up. He was not going to sit and watch the slaver harass the carvaners.

"Kneel, Pegasus." Ajax grumbled, making a show of bending slightly, as if to not scrap his horns on the ceiling, "On the floor."

[DigoDragon]

Ajax
"Oh ****ing hell!" the pegasus shouted. He abandoned the ponies and backed away from the minotaur with the wingblade pointed at the huge creature. Apparently this pegasus did not have good perception and had missed the elephant in the house. "Y-You keep away from me!"

He backed up toward a door, stumbling the entire way due to his wounds and nerves. He appeared to be ready to bolt out that door.


Straight Arrow
The griffon let the mare go and quickly drew his rifle. Either he didn't recognize he was outgunned or there was enough bravado in those feathers that he didn't care. The griffon kept his aim trained on Straight. "You back off, dead beat. This property is mine."

Cut Throat backed Straight up, aiming her own guns back at the griffon.

The soft yellow earth pony remained on the floor. She whimpered, tears dripping down her cheeks as her eyes begged the ghoul to help her. The griffon kept one clawed hand on the rifle trigger as the other moved to put the chain's hook on the mare's collar.

[Pokonic]

Ajax took a step forward the moment the Pegasus took a step back.

"I told you to kneel." Ajax retorted, "If you run, Pegasus, I will chase you. You will beg for hell if I am forced to chase you. Now, kneel."

[Balmas]

"Deadbeat. That's a new one." Straight coulda given a poker champ a run for his money. That was, if anybody knew how to play poker anymore. "Most griffons are too damn stupid to figure out anything past 'zombie.' The smartest might figure out 'ghoul.' But to actually make a pun? That's refreshing. Which makes your behavior all the more puzzling." The pegasus fluttered a pair of desiccated wings to get right in the griffon's face. "You seem like a smart guy--at least, by griffon standards. At least capable of basic arithmetic. So lemme put some math out there. Two ponies is greater than one griffon, especially when either of us individually can shoot four times as quickly as you can. So the question is, are you going to fly away peacefully? Or are you curious to see how well you can fly with a dozen bullets buried in your face?"

[Forum Explorer]

Blank Slate half landed-half crashed on the roof of the school building. She rolled to her hooves, and touched one hoof to her face, dabbing away at her bloody nose. She tried stretching her wing and winced at the sharp shooting pain that shot through her. Shaking her head to clear it, she pulled the door off it's hinges in her rush to get down to the foals. It was a long trip down to the basement, the elevator was disabled, and there were barricades on every level to be navigated, but Blank Slate slowly pushed through them all. Finally she reached the basement level, noting with disgust that it was unguarded and simple steel. She knocked on the door and a tiny voice answered back.

"Who's there?"

"It's Blank Slate," she said, trying to keep her voice gentle.

"An alicorn?" the foal hesitantly opened the door.

"Yes child, now where is your guardians? Surely someone was left to protect you,"

"Ms. Stern said she could afford to have anypony who could fight foalsitting. So she called away all our guardians the day before. When the fighting started, Thinking Cap said we should all go into the basement."

"That was very smart of him. But now I'm going to escort you to the Vault Bomb Shelter alright? This building will collapse if an unlucky shot hits it, and we're going to get out of here before that happens. Now it's going to be dangerous out there, so you all have to listen very closely to what I say understand?" Blank Slate said.

"Yes Ma'am," the foals coursed obediently.

"Great. I'll take care of anypony who tries to stop us, but if I do, you are to hide in the nearest cover available alright?"

"Yes Ma'am,"

"Alright. Lets go."

Blank Slate lead the group out of the building and into the roar of the battle. Thankfully the direction they needed to head was away from the fighting, but that might not be the case for too much longer.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn gallops away from the scene of her sister's death, vision blurred by tears, occasionally breaking into short, desperate flight to put as much distance between herself and that dreadful place as possible. Emerald probably hadn't even bothered to fight, surrendering meekly to the overwhelming foe. Had she even sought that fate? No, it will do no good to think about!

Luckily the enclave squad behind and the others above don't seem interested in chasing a single fleeing alicorn across a battlefield, for she's sure they could have caught her I'd they'd tried.

Flight is another skill she found herself basically having to relearn since mother's death. It was...frustrating to say the least! Though her increased breadth of spellcasting did somewhat make up for the loss of magical and aerial power; that even as much as she missed being able to cast lightning and impenetrable shields, she has to admit her new targeting and medical spells do have a use.

Blinking back her tears, she nearly stumbles right on top of the pegasus and unicorn before her. Scrabbling and backing her wings to halt her forward momentum, she still manages to bring her guns on target. An ultimatum? No, the pegasus has already fired once, the unicorn doesn't have the time. Chomping down on her bit, the alicorn fills the air with lead!


3 attack actions @ 25AP each = 75AP. 7AP gives 3% dodge chance. 82AP total.

Twin linked varmint rifles Attack 1
Hit [roll0][roll1] vs 41
Damage [roll2][roll3]

Twin linked varmint rifles Attack 2
Hit [roll4][roll5] vs 41
Damage [roll6][roll7]

Twin linked varmint rifles Attack 3
Hit [roll8][roll9] vs 41
Damage [roll10][roll11]

Magazine status: both guns 2/5, 40 spare.

[SiuiS]

Two grimy earth ponies cringe away from the sharp sounds of metal and wood striking each other while the stranger Sif's through their life, their valuables, everything they've collected together and set aside for a future, their future. Maybe even their colt's future, who the hay knows anymore.

One, thin red beard covering the whole jaw Amish-style, silently clenches a cleaver in his jaws and stares hate through the dark of the house under his speckled bandana and lifted eyepatch, also Amish-style. "I'm gonna gittum," he murmurs around the old, scarred wood of the handle. "Aint nopony rifles trough our goods and trifles with aplomb, 'specially not the expensive techy stuff!" and to the dismay of his blue mottled friend, the land-pirate sneaks carefully up the wooden steps, hooves planted firmly in the spots that don't creak none like momma taught him.

Only a few beams of filthy half-light came through the shutters, illuminating the dust and the scummy looking bronze bands the raider wore for armor. But mostly just the dust. Stranger was kicking up a storm's worth of the stuff just rooting through their valuables, looking in the few places other ponies didn't, finding the few things Red Eye's crew hadn't scavenged on their last pass.

The last steps are always the worst. Ya get jittery. Ya go too fast or too slow, and ya give yourself away. He decides he's not gonna risk the last steps. He coils up like an over-wound sprig, years of hard living and malnutrition giving way to this one moment of heroism, and he springs! "Daah Murrr-ah'rrr!" he manages to hiss at the last.

Metal strikes metal and fiber and flesh, the cleaver sinking partway through the plating into the invader's rump and knocking some dewdad out of his hoof to roll on the ground. Instead of wincing or moaning or, hell, screaming maybe? Screaming woulda been nice. Instead of any of that, the stranger just... Turns.

Well, turns and changes. Hitherto I noticed plates of polished metal and rings and toothed wheels spin and swing, bulking out the suave silhouette as it spins and Addison a more menacing cast to guy, helped by the sickly green glow of the internal works of whatever fancy schmancy gear he was runnin'. The face plate closes last, four bands of iron dropping like a curtain before even more sinister green fire lights up the inside.

"Marauder huh? So impersonal. Call me Rig."

A few servos whir like a dentist's drill and the home defender's cleaver falls to the floor with a loud clang as he puts all his focus into staring down the rifling of a vintage custom Boffenshot Harmonizer. "And you shot me, remember? I was just checkin' under the good of that ol' transport for parts. Used to be we would talk things out, maybe fisticuffs, but I would just leave. Nowadays though, can't be too careful."

The earth pony begins to sweat. After all, y'know, Harmonizer. Ain't never seen one before but boy does that look like a gun if ever a gun did get looked like... "Now mister, uh, mister Rig, ain't wanton' any trouble. Was just takin precautions, and the like. But this, scavengin' through our goods and maraudin' the countryside? Caint tell me you ain't a marauder, really. And look, all we've got of interest are some old generator coils, and—YAAAARGH!"

This last was punctuated by a trick shoe producing a rather slick little knife coated with some chem or other, thrust pretty damn straight for Rig's neck as he turned to look where the home owner was a'lookin'.


*


Miss Dandy's lip quivers downstairs, as she listens to what she can of the exchange. Things seem to be turning' round though, seem to be goin' well, maybe they'll get hitched next month like Sparkle Chaser had been promising? She rubs her belly, years forgotten in fantasies of getting out of the wastes and being made an honest filly by—

The deep blue flash might not have set her to bawling, if' it weren't for Chaser's headless body tumbl in' down the old wooden stair right after, face sheared clean through leaving naught but beard. The mechanized bronze statue what was ransacking their home walking jauntily down after didn't help matters much either.

"Don't cry, ma'am. This is how it goes, you live by the sword you die by the sword, they say. Or they said. I get those mixed sometimes, it gets... Foggy." the invading pony sort of half taps, half runs where a forehead wound be under all the industrial armor. "Anyway. I've caused you enough trouble, don't want any more. I'll be going. I'll even leave your condenser coils, those are worth a few caps. Get out of here, find someplace nice. Someplace safe. And Moon's Light lady, don't start gunning for folks until after you say a howdy-do next time."

Miss Dandy doesn't stop her bawling of course. Sparkle Chassr was gone and now who would... Who would help...? All she had for satisfaction was seeing, through eyes blurred by tears streaming like saltwater rivers, a few silhouettes make their way quietly down the stairs behind the interloper, so quiet and so hidden, jut blobs of dark and comically visible, cartoon eyes.

[DigoDragon]

Ajax
The house shook from a nearby mortar and 'Fight-n-Flight' instincts took over the pegasus' actions from there. He pulled off the bent blade from his broken wing and chucked it at the minotaur. The throw was terrible and it flew far left over Ajax's shoulder. "No! Keep away!" The pegasus slammed the door open and took off out into the field, hobbling as fast a gallop as he could muster.

The caravan family meanwhile remained huddled together. The female adult weakly piped up to Ajax in a moment of bravery. "Please, help us? Graham can't walk."

Straight Arrow
The griffon pondered his options for only a second. He lowered his rifle and took a step back. "Fine. If you want her that badly, you can drag her useless carcass around," he said with a smirk, "But math ain't gonna help you when someone lights a fire under your ass." He took off into the air, retreating toward Fillydelphia.

The light-yellow mare crawled over to Straight and held his hoof in gratitude for being rescued. She was definitely a slave girl, one not a stranger to lashes and poor treatment. "T-Thank you... thank you," she said teary eyed.

"We need to move, hero," Cut Throat warned.

Blank Slate (Just Add Chalk)
The foals kept close to Blank as they traversed the battle field. The gunfire in the distance resembled a cloud of gnats more than bullets. As the group continued away from the chaos, two bodies crashed nearly on top of the children.

One was a female griffon, bluish-white feathering with darker streaks on her head plummage. Her armor was torn up and one wing looked a bit burnt. The other being was a red pegasus with a white mane. He wore what was left of an armored flight suit. The children themselves began to scream as the two wrestled with each other.

The griffon drew a knife and went in for a strike, but the pegasus grabbed one of the foals as a body shield and drew a pistol. The griffon immediately halted her attack.

"What's the matter?" the pegasus asked, "Morals gettin' in the way?" He noticed Blank Slate and gave a curious glance, as if not sure what he was looking at. The pegasus shifted his little hostage to be between himself and Blank while keeping the gun trained on the griffon. The other children hid behind a large rock, still screaming in fear.

??? Purple Alicorn
Because the pegaus failed to notice you, I'm treating your first attack as a Sneak Attack. +30 to hit, +20 to crit.
If I'm doing the math correctly, you scored a crit with the first attack.

The bullets showered the pegasus, with one striking true against her barrel. She let the unicorn go and fell over in pain. "Ack... damn... ffff..." She was now preoccupied in stopping herself from bleeding out.

The unicorn ran over to his savior. "Thank you! Thank you!" he shouted. "Wha... who are you?"

Gerry Rig "We're gonna need a bigger roll of duct tape."
As Gerry began to leave, two heavily powered-armored ponies collided and took out a corner of the house near him. The one in red armor drove a blade into the gray-armored one, snapping the weapon at the hilt, but killing the opponent. The victor pulled off his smashed helmet to reveal a chocolate-colored stallion with a reddish-rust mane and blood on his lips. He pulled off one more piece from the smashed armor just before collapsing.

"Hey, you," he weakly called out to Gerry. "Tell me you're a friend. I could use a little help here, eh?" He nodded in the direction of two more gray-armored ponies approaching from the distance.

The rust-mane stallion appeared to be unable to move faster than a crawl due to the severely damaged armor he was now trapped in, and the two approaching armored ponies each had rifles trained on the helpless stallion.

Manco
The zebra shrugged and looked around. "No idea, but they aren't going anywhere," Manco said. He started to move and the and charcoal pony followed.

"Mind if I tag along?" he asked the zebra.

"Nope, so long as you aren't gonna gun me down," Manco replied.

The pony opened his saddle bag to reveal he had no weapons. The two moved quickly to find cover behind a bit of standing concrete wall. As they got close the wall made an audible 'Beep!' sound. The pony dropped his saddlebag and shoved Manco aside with his now revealed pegasus wings. "Look out!!"

The improvised explosive detonated and took out the concrete wall violently as the two dove in opposite directions. However, Manco and the pegasus were mostly unharmed aside from bruises. The zebra stood up and waved off the cloud of dust. "You got any other surprises?"

"None, I'd want to share," the pegasus replied, "And you're welcome for saving your stripped ass. Name's Skywarp."

"Manco," the zebra replied hesitantly. "You looking to make a friend?"

Skywarp shook his head. "I'm just looking to get out of here alive," he responded.

Manco smirked and helped the pegasus up. He nodded. "Alright, we'll start with that."


All:
There was a flash of white light from the northeast horizon. For a moment the gunfire slowed down a bit. Then... a brilliant beam of light cut across the sky and through a raptor without effort. The large battleship fell out of the sky and exploded upon impact in the distance. The gunfire picked back up, but there were noticeable changes in troop movements, recollecting and moving in different directions to best the other side.

[Pokonic]

Ajax looked at the wounded stallion - Graham, apparently, - and nodded his head.

"I will, pony." he said, kneeling down a bit, "Do you have another place in mind to avoid the fighting?"

Ajax grew alarmed by the sudden burst of light that came into being outside, but he waited for one of the ponies to react. He wasn't nearly as certain about staying where they were anymore.

[SiuiS]

The sudden influx of "daylight" (such that it is) flashes across the grill of Gerry Rig's helmet, revealing a motley of scratches and sings polished out repeatedly. The green glass turns first to the hole in the house, then then cowering blue mare in the dark of the house. "Wow. I'll draw them away. Stay down and act like a civilian."

The still-smoking Harmonizer whirs and slides upward to an at-ease position (or flare position, he could never remember which). "Yeah, yeah buddy. Hey. I'm a friend. Probably, y'know? What's... What's going on, exactly? Who're they?" his voice shakes even through the helmet's synthesizer. This was wartime, these were soldiers, and that's a far cry from the starving half-wit marauders and wasteland wandering he was used to.

Flick, it was why he was wandering, avoiding all the military stuff altogether. Ever since things first went bad... Wait, bad guys.

Rig interposes himself as best he can between the fallen color and the new arrivals. Well, I mean, as best as he can considering the fallen colt was between him and the new arrivals by an appreciable distance. "HEY THERE! What's going on, fellas? Just a bit of rough and tumble, right?"

[DigoDragon]

Ajax
Graham stood up, biting back the pain like the stubborn old stallion he was. Well, maybe not that old. Mid-fifties at the worst. He huffed, "There's a... old building not far from here. The building's pretty much gone, but the basement is mostly intact. Might be a better place to hide then this rickety old place." His family grabbed whatever they could carry without effort and Graham point out the way. He hobbled quite slow without help, but for the moment the way across the battlefield was clear and an armed ponies.

Gerry Rig
"They're... well, here to finish me, I'll bet," the chocolate stallion remarked.

When Gerry confronted the two armored ponies, they appeared to look through him at the helpless stallion on the ground. "You best not get yourself involved, stranger," one of the figures responded. "This is ranger business and that one behind you is a wanted pony."

The chocolate stallion snorted in an amused way as he tried to pry himself out of his mangled power armor. "Yeah? Tell Mr. Harmonizer there why I'm wanted. Hell, spoiler alert-- It's cause you rangers are hogging all the tech and don't want to share it with the rest of Equestria, eh? So I copied your basic plans for giving the world water and power."

"Shut your mouth," the second armored pony stated. "We preserve the knowledge. Wastelanders aren't capable of handling it! It's how this world was ruined to begin with!"

"Hey, Mr. Harmonizer, knowledge should be shared, right?"

The two armed ponies pointed their guns at the downed stallion. "I said shut up!!"

[RCgothic]

The alicorn seems startled by the unicorn's thanks!

"You are welcome? We are nopony of importance." She picks up the device the pegasus had stolen earlier in her telekinesis and tosses it back to its owner, studiously ignoring the moaning pegasus. "We... um, seem to have misplaced our sister. Did she pass this way?"

The alicorn shields her eyes as the blinding flash splits the horizon, but it still leaves burning after images.

Not hoping for a reunion anytime soon, FYI.

[Pokonic]

Ajax followed behind the ponies, trying to keep an eye out for the Pegasus who fled from him earlier. The noise of battle and general chaos was a little overwhelming to him, however, and eventually he decided to voice his question.

"What is the cause of this violence?" Ajax grumbled, taking a careful step over a piece of shrapnel as he did, "I do not understand it. I look around this place and see a ruin, but ponies seem willing to die for it. The winged and horned ones fly with the griffons now to fight the pegusi, but for what?"

[DigoDragon]

??? Purple Alicorn
"No ma'am, I didn't see anyone like you pass here!" the unicorn said as he fiddled to get the device strapped back on his leg. He looked real young, maybe 16-17 at the oldest. He was startled a bit by the visual blast of light above him, but not so much by the sounds. "Golly, maybe we could find your sister together? I know a neat place to hide that she might have gone to. Has food and stuff in it!"

The device, for all it's worth, didn't seem to do anything. In fact, it looked like something cobbled together from junk. The unicorn point in the direction of the hiding spot he mentioned.

[Forum Explorer]

Now listen to me very carefully. You will put down that foal, and fly as fast as you can away from here. Otherwise I will tear you limb from limb. Blank Slate said, glaring as her horn lit up.

If you harm that foal, I will make it slow, tear the thoughts from your skull, and then do the same to everypony you've ever cared about. So just back off and you can go fight some other pony.

[Balmas]

"Right." Straight Arrow scanned the field, and began heading for the direction with the least shooting. That'd mean there were fewer ponies there, or at least fewer living ones.

"Cut, the filly needs a weapon. I know you've got a knife or two; lend her one, will ya? I'll fly above, make sure nobody harasses us."

[SiuiS]

"I don't suppose y'all would be okay letting other ponies look at the schematics, would you? Tech is cheap" hahaha, score! "but knowledge is free and propagates. If you're not using tech, why keep it?"

He was stalling, of course, and doing a bad job. But the barrel was still smoking and he needed to give it time to cool; Boffenshot cores were priceless and prone to explosions like their inventor. Explosions and fire and strange rivalries with wizards.

[DigoDragon]

Thunder began to sound across the sky. ...except it wasn't weather. It was a massive flying fortress firing huge cannons at a giant cybernetic dragon that clung to it's side. The colossal Thunderhead blasted the dragon in the chest, forcing the creature to slide down the side of the huge ship. The mechanized dragon tore at parts as it fought to regain a hold.

The brilliant beam of sunlight streaked from the northeast and carved into the ground. Artillery pieces and their crew vaporized in the intense blast of heat. A third followed soon after and struck another Raptor ship, causing it to fall out of the sky. The resulting crash kicked up a huge plume of dust, obscuring dozens of ponies that ran from the impact. The armies above and below were running out of non-infantry units. They began to form rows for another final charge against one another.


Ajax
Graham looked around and let out a snort. "I dunno, but this is big. I'm seeing Enclave and Steel Rangers out here. I think at least two kinds of Talons... beats me what this fight is about. Never seen one so bloody. I reckon this is going to be a doozy."

Graham pointed at a wide hill ahead. The remains of some kind of building sat on top. "There's the shelter. Just got to find the hatch at the base. I tend to bury it pretty well under some rocks."

The group gets closer to the hill, and near it is an earth pony lying in a pool of her own blood. She was unarmed and wore just rags and a metal collar. The pony looked up weakly at the approaching behemoth creature. Her injuries were one gunshot wound and a leg caught in some kind of bear trap.

"Graham, we should help her," the female adult said.

Graham looked to Ajax for direction. "Well, we also need to uncover the hatch quickly. I dunno..."

Blank Slate
The pegasus studied Blank Slate, trying to calculate how much of this odd-looking pony's words were a bluff.

That's when the griffon pounced. She seized the pistol and pointed it down against her armor. The weapon discharged, splattering dirt, feathers, and blood on the ground. The pegasus dropped the foal to yank the gun back with both hooves, but the griffon kept her clawed fingers jammed against the trigger, preventing it from finishing it's cycle. The dropped foal scurried toward the other children crying.

The two were in a tense lock with one another for the weapon.

Straight Arrow
"Give her a knife?" Cut asked back. "How do I know this pony won't stab me with it?" She watched Straight take off for a sec, then grumbled at the slave. The raider pulled out a knife and handed it to her hilt first.

"Pointy end goes into griffons, got it?"

The yellow pony nodded and followed Cut across the landscape after Straight.

Straight Arrow got a good vantage of the bloody field below. There were all sorts of ponies here from several factions trying to kill each other. Farther ahead he saw two ponies in gray-blue jump suits running toward what looked like the remains of a saloon. It only had two walls and part of a roof, but it was more cover than anything else around. Unfortunately the two ponies running in that direction were being shot at by an armored pony with a large rifle.

Gerry Rig
"It's none of your business," the armored ponies reiterated. The one on the left kept an eye on Gerry from doing anything funny while the other attempted to walk around and aim his battle-saddle rifles at the stallion's hooves.

The downed stallion took a deep breath. "Well Mr. Harmonizer, it was nice talking with ya, eh?" He shut his eyes and cringed with the expectation of pain.

Manco
The zebra and pegasus huddled down behind a bloody concrete wall. Underneith them was the stumpy mess of a pony that didn't fare well against a mortar head-on. Skywarp grabbed a pistol off the body and checked the remaining bullets.

"Well, seems like any which way we go, there's fighting," the pegasus stated.

Manco nudged him and pointed toward a hill. "There, I think I know that creature."

"The hell is that?" Skywarp asked.

"Angry muscle we could use to survive," the zebra said as he darted for the hill.

Skywarp sighed and chased after him. "Does anypony ever think my pretty face will save us in a fight? Nooo, it's always guns and muscle. Damn muddy earth ponies."

[Balmas]

"If she tries to stick you, you have my permission to murder her horribly," Straight said. Cut'd probably enjoy that, even. "Then again, we just saved her flank from a griffon who was planning on dragging her back into slavery, so that oughtta be worth something."

Not for the first time, Straight wished that the Ministry of Technology had made more 5.56 AP before Balefire day. "We got a bogey. Armored with a big rifle."

Armor? As in leather, combat, power?

[Pokonic]

Ajax scowled at the stallion's words, and at the mare on the ground. She did not seem armed, but she also looked weak and skinny. The collar and the trap didn't do her any favors, either. But, to leave the pony out in the middle of what seemed to be the end of the world, with armies that flew and dragons and great sky-ships, that would be a terrible act.

He made his decision.

"I shall carry her, then. Go find the hatch."

Ajax kneeled down on the ground, and considered the beartrap. While he didn't know why ponies even created them in the firstplace, given their cruelty, he still knew that they were pony-made, and thus able to be broken. Carefully, he attempted to force the trap open, hoping that the mare didn't move around as he did.

Str roll [roll0]

[SiuiS]

"Ah."

As quick as he can, Gerry Rig swings the gun back around, aiming to disarm the pony putting gun to the pony's head. really need to start getting names from these guys.

"Let's not make this a contest, man. Talk it out yeah?"

Banter aside, Rig is on a hair trigger and keeps the barrel poised on the elbow joint – any closer to the gun and he might take off the poor Vic's head.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn nods her head in agreement as the battle around them intensifies. She flinches as the enormous raptor that vaporized the rangers earlier is struck by a beam and disintegrates, crashing nearby.

"We concur, it is not safe to remain in the open. We will follow you to this refuge, and hope our sister is already there."

[DigoDragon]

To the north, two armies collided in their charge against each other, bullets and blades piercing one-another. To the west, a flight of pegasus dived upon a group of earth ponies, with weapons both magical and mundane exchanging fire into each other. The land started to dim as the shadow of the Thunderhead started to creep you way, it's massive guns still trying to fight off the huge cybernetic dragon that was clawing at it's hull.


Straight Arrow
The pony is wearing a piecemeal armor of various components and a pot helmet. Most likely a raider, scavenger, or general wasteland wanderer taking advantage of the looting situation. That rifle looks too nice to fit with the rest of his 'used' style of warez.

Cut Throat fires a pair of shots from her battle saddle, failing to hit, but getting the attacker's attention. Cut curses her luck and veers left as the opponent decides she's got better goods to kill for. The slave girl follows Cut closely.

"You have a plan, Straight?" Cut shouted as she looked for something to use for cover. "You better have a damn plan and it better damn well involve shooting this drek!"

The pony with the rifle took aim at Cut, but curiously stopped to look up. He noticed Straight and fired wildly into the air. Missed Straight by a good margin, but he was aware of the danger above him now.

Ajax
The injured mare didn't move. Whether it was because of the pain in her leg or the fear in her eyes, it was hard to say. However, Ajax managed to smoothly pull the trap open and away from the mare's leg. The pony looked up at Ajax. Her lips tried to make the motions of a 'Thank you', but no sound came out. Either way, she could not walk into the shelter herself.

Graham's group found and dug out the entrance quickly, tossing the rocks aside. A nearby explosion pelted them with clods of dirt and pebbles, but they had the hatch opened without delay. "Oh, consarn it all!!" Graham cursed. The basement shelter was there, exactly where he left it. The hoard of supplies he hid in the shelter was also there where he left it. However, the shelter's ceiling (the top of the hill) had collapsed, likely from a stray mortar. Worse yet (to Graham at least) a bunch of unarmed wasteland settlers had taken refuge in it, hiding among the large stash of goods Graham hid here.

"They don't make freakin' shelters like they used to."

A pegasus landed beside Graham and took a swing at the middle-aged merchant with a wingblade. Graham stumbled backwards but avoided the razor-edge. The pegasus reared back for another strike.

Gerry Rig
Gerry's barrel to armored pony #1's head incited armored pony #2 to put his barrel to Gerry's head. In kind, the stallion on the ground pulled reacted and pointed a pistol to #2's head. Unfortunately the stallion was a bit too rash and accidentally discharged his pistol.

Into armored pony #2's face.

"Arrrggg!!" #2 screamed as his visor was now just a blood-splattered mess. He pulled the trigger on his battle saddle reactively, shooting up the ground.

Armored pony #1 fired his rifle at the stallion on the ground, striking him in the hoof that held the pistol, then he swung around and fired a second shot at Gerry. And missed!

??? Purple Alicorn
The colt smiled. "My name's Rocket, by the way. Come on, this hiding spot is really keen!"

He led the way quickly across the battle field toward a hill, weaving around the dead ponies strewn about. Along the way he idly picked up bits of scrap metal, but nothing useful like a weapon or piece of armor. Rocket either had odd priorities or wasn't familiar with guns. The colt was leading the way toward what appeared to be some structure that was half-hill and half-crater. "Over there, ma'am! It's got lots of goodies inside!"

One of the seemingly dead ponies sprung up and seized Rocket by a leg, tripping the colt over. The attacker, a bloodied stallion in piecemeal leather, drew a knife to stab Rocket in the back.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn doesn't hesitate. Click! Click! She looks at her gun in confusion as she struggles to clear the blockage. "Rocket, watch out!"


2 attacks @25 AP each
Clear Jam action @30 AP
80 AP total.

Battle Saddle Attack 1
Varmint Rifles [roll0] vs 41.
Damage [roll1][roll2]

Battle Saddle Attack 2
Varmint Rifles [roll3] vs 41.
Damage [roll4][roll5]

[DigoDragon]

??? Purple Alicorn
"Ahhh!" Rocket shouted in fear. The colt kicked at the attacker, breaking free just as the knife came down.

The attacker not only missed Rocket by inches, but the tip of the knife broke against a stone on the ground. The colt scurried away to a safe distance, leaving the attacker to turn and growl at the purple alicorn.

[RCgothic]

The jam cleared, the alicorn once more turns her guns on the attacker. Blam! Blam! Reload.


Actions:
2x Attacks @25AP each
1x Reload @20AP
Dodge @ 12AP (6% dodge)
Total 82AP.

Attack 1:
Battle Saddles [roll0] vs 41
Damage [roll1][roll2]

Attack 2:
Battle Saddles [roll3] vs 41
Damage [roll4][roll5]

[Forum Explorer]

Thank you for your assistance. Blank Slate says to the griffon, casting a spell over him. Come on children! Let's get out of here before more trouble arrives.

Casting Spirit of Diamonds on the griffons weapon giving him increased Armor Penetration.

[Balmas]

"Nice gun!" Straight shouted down, before biting down on his bit. PLANG! PLANG! The first shot went wide, but the second dug a hole in the pony's armor. "Too bad ya don't know how ta use it!" PLANG! And another shot, for good measure.

...Then again, maybe he should have just let the second shot speak for his skill, instead of shooting wide with the third. Yeah, that would have been better.


25 AP: Shoot rifle. 60 over 40. Miss.
25 AP: Shoot rifle. 20 under 40. HIT! 31 Damage + 31 damage
25 AP: Shoot rifle. 46 over 40. Miss.
20 AP: Reload.

[Pokonic]

Ajax looked up from the bloodied mare, only to see another pegausus harassing the ponies he was with.

This wasn't a good day.

Ajax, after giving the mare a reassuring nod of his head, stood up and rushed towards the Pegasus, hoping that it would focus it's attention on himself, as apposed to the pony with the shelter.

15 AP: Sprinting, 9 + (6x2)= 21 yards. Should cover the distance.

[DigoDragon]

The Thunderhead rolled toward the cybernetic dragon, it's crew showering the giant beast with explosives. The dragon relented its grip, attempting to put distance between itself and the colossal ship. The large guns on the battleship turned and opened fire, tearing at the dragon's hide as it retreated. The beast glided to the horizon, impacting against the ground and disappearing in the ensuing cloud of kicked up dirt.

The skies lit up with another bright beam from the northeast. This time it hit the Thunderhead, cutting into the ship like a hot knife. The gargantuan platform began to list forward, smoking as it descended slowly. It's enormous shadow moved over the battlefield like a wandering patch of night. As the Thunderhead drifted into the distance it began to break up, raining across the southern plains in fire and debris.

Manco
"Damn, that was something I thought I'd never see," Skywarp commented, watching the Thunderhead break apart and crash.

"Did you want to?" Manco asked him.

Skywarp shrugged, having no answer. The two reached the hill and climbed up top. They looked down into the crater area and found several dozen ponies huddling to survive. Manco pointed out the large minotaur not far away, helping a pony out of a bear trap.

"Anyone here in charge?" Manco asked the refugees in the crater. no one responded. They continued to cower between crates and bundles of goods.

"Ideas?" Skywarp asked.

Several stray bullets zipped by them. Manco shoved Skywarp down into the crater. "Yeah, get cozy." The zebra drew his rifle and sat at the crater rim, looking to provide cover for any other ponies trying to escape the slaughter on the battlefield.

??? Purple Alicorn
The bullets shredded the attack quickly, leaving a splattered mess on the ground. Rocket watched on with wide eyes, a bit shocked, but also quite grateful. "Jeepers, that was scary! But thank you, ma'am! No one is going to mess with you! Come on, we're almost there!"

Rocket ran up a little hill. He stopped most of the way up, when he saw a zebra shove a pegasus down into the crater area within. Thankfully, the zebra pretty much ignored him. Down below in the crater, refugee settlers and slaves that escaped the crossfire huddled in fear, hoping it would be over soon. Rocket turned back to the purple alicorn. "There's a bunch of ponies in there. Maybe one of them is your sister?"

Several shots rang out from the air. A raider apparently was gunned down by a flying ghoul, saving two ponies in jumpsuits. The two saved ponies ran up the hill past the purple alicorn, not stopping to say hello.

Blank Slate
The griffon is left behind, but with the magical buff, she seemed to get a second wind and the upper hand on the pegasus, pinning him down. The children race behind Blank, keeping tightly packed as they trek across the battlefield. The dead bodies piling up all over began to unnerve the children, though at this point they were pretty shaken up as it is.

Blank Slate and the kids near a hill with the remaining face of what was once a building. Lots of ponies appeared to be gathering here for safety inside the cratered area, including what looked like a Zebra up at the crater's rim on lookout and a purple alicorn following a little gray colt.

Straight Arrow
The rain of bullets didn't give the raider room to dodge. Two bullets tore into him, crippling a foreleg. He dropped onto his back, letting his rifle fall beside him. Cut Throat turned and fired her battle saddles twice. At least two bullets hit and the raider did little more than appear to flinch before going completely motionless.

The two jumpsuit ponies that Straight had rescued ran up the side of a cratered hill, passing a purple alicorn. At the rim of the crater sat a zebra, seemingly watching the area for trouble and ignoring any pony unarmed that was seeking shelter here.

Cut dragged the light-yellow pony behind her and snatched up the shiny rifle from the dead raider. She figured waste not, in case Straight didn't call dibs on it later. "Well Straight, whatcha want to do? Keep running, or see if your rugged good looks opens them up to us?" she asked the ghoul.

Ajax
The pegasus freaked out upon seeing what amounted to a huge horned beast charging up into his face. He swung at the minotaur, but missed. Graham pulled out a hidden pistol under his saddlebag and fired it twice in the pegasus' direction. Both shots missed, but it was enough to scare the attacker away. The pegasus took to the air and fled up and away.

Graham chuckled. "Sheesh, I'm getting to old for this. If I were 10 years younger, I wouldn't have missed like that. Well, come on big guy, lets hunker down here until the fightin' stops. Might still be something left to eat if the misses hasn't already given it all away."

With the rescued mare and Graham safe now, Ajax gets a good look at many of the other little ponies that have gathered here. There was a black-and-white stripped one on the rim of the hill's crater watching out for more attackers. There was another pegasus flying nearby with... what seemed to be a bit of rotting flesh on him. Then there was a fairly tall looking pony that came by leading what looked like a group of children. This place sure got packed, yet there seemed to be enough room for everyone.

[Pokonic]

Ajax, stepping into the room, found that his horns did not touch the ceiling. Considering the various ponies in the room, however, he quickly found himself a little delirious; he had never been near so many at one time, and not in such cramped circumstances.

Disireing air and space, he slowly made his way towards the zebra who was on guard, hoping that it was a quiet individual.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn nods her head slightly, acknowledging the possibility that her sister may be in the group, before cantering up the slope to look for herself.

[DigoDragon]

Ajax
Manco didn't see a lot of action out on the field. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a gentle puff to relax.
When Ajax approached, the zebra simply nodded and adjusted his place so that the minotaur was upwind. "Hmm," he said simply.

[Balmas]

Straight deliberated for half a second, before shouting down, "Grab whatever deadie there had on him--bullets, food, everything. We're gonna see if my boyish charms have lasted, but be ready to shoot, loot, and vamoose. You!" he cried, flying closer. "Friendlies incoming!"

[Forum Explorer]

Alright children, remember to stick together. Blank Slate says as she guides her little herd into the group. She's too focused on her little ponies to notice the other alicorn in the crowd.

[DigoDragon]

The alicorn nods her head slightly, acknowledging the possibility that her sister may be in the group, before cantering up the slope to look for herself.

When the purple alicorn reached the crater rim, she saw quite a number of ponies down below. A lot of them looked up at her in return, many with wonderment at what they were looking at. A charcoal pegasus climbed up to get close. "Well, hello there. Looking for somepony in particular?" he said with a smile.

Rocket slid down into the crater, emptying his pockets of all the junk he collected in order to see what he wanted to keep.



"Grab whatever deadie there had on him--bullets, food, everything. We're gonna see if my boyish charms have lasted, but be ready to shoot, loot, and vamoose. You!" he cried, flying closer. "Friendlies incoming!"

Cut Throat grabbed whatever valuable the raider had and then climbed up the crater with the ex-slave.

The zebra looked up and saw Straight. He nodded with another puff of his cigarette. "You know anything about this battle?" he asked.

[SiuiS]

"Well this could have gone better. Especially for you guys, because I haven't fired yet. But I have a better idea." Gerry Rig lets his posture slump a bit, almost getting ready to sit in the dirt. The cyclonic coil of the harmonizer's internals continues to whirr up a charge, however.

"Let's deal. Down-and-out guy gets to go free and run or whatever. And when he's out far enough you can't track him on S.A.T.S., I'll disarm and give you my gear. Fair trade? You get rare, prototype pre-war tech and a radical face scar after the chems kick in and you get stitched up, he gets his life, and I get to see everypony walk away happy. How does that sound?"

Gerry Rig looks to ranger who is not dancing around clutching his face, and keeps the weapon barrel trained on the same spot for good measure – now keeping the colt he was protecting from taking advantage of the situation. Probably.

[Pokonic]

Ajax sat down next to the zebra, watching the chaos occurring in the sky. Never before had he seen so many ponies, or so much violence. He considered going back to the collared mare for a few moments, or to check the foals, but he thought against it.

"Do you believe this is the end of the world?" he asked the zebra, without turning his head.

[Balmas]

"Yeah," Straight snorted. "Somepony offed the big guy, and now everypony's trying to pick up their piece of the pie. Name's Straight. Don't mind the necrotized flesh, tourist, I don't bite."

[RCgothic]

When the purple alicorn reached the crater rim, she saw quite a number of ponies down below. A lot of them looked up at her in return, many with wonderment at what they were looking at. A charcoal pegasus climbed up to get close. "Well, hello there. Looking for somepony in particular?" he said with a smile.

Rocket slid down into the crater, emptying his pockets of all the junk he collected in order to see what he wanted to keep.

The alicorn looks on in a mix of wonder and puzzlement at so many ponies in such a small space.

"We are looking for our sister. What are you all doing here? It is not safe!"

[DigoDragon]

Alright children, remember to stick together.

The foals climbed up the hill together. At the rim they slid down carefully and huddled in a spot where they found some blankets to fiddle with. Most of the other ponies here kept to themselves or in small groups. A lot of them took notice of Blank Slate's unusual appearance and were a bit awed by it.

Nearby there appeared to be a ghoul, zebra, and minotaur holding a conversation.



"How does that sound?"

The armored pony weighed his options for a moment and then lowered his gun. "Very well. Drop your equipment and go." He took a few steps back and his weapon, although lowered, didn't leave his hooves entirely.

The stallion on the ground finally managed to climb mostly out of the tin can of armor he was stuck in. He wrapped his shot hoof with a strip of cloth from his shirt and then hobbled over to Gerry's side. "Thanks, mate! Say, no one has ever gave up something that valuable for me. I really owe you one! Why don't we travel together. Might double our chances, eh?"

The remaining pony, the one shot in the face, was too busy removing his helmet and bandaging his face to chat.



"Do you believe this is the end of the world?" he asked the zebra, without turning his head.

"Yeah," Straight snorted. "Somepony offed the big guy, and now everypony's trying to pick up their piece of the pie. Name's Straight. Don't mind the necrotized flesh, tourist, I don't bite."

The zebra looked at the minotaur, then to the ghoul. "Some folks call me Manco. I'm not bothered much by the dead skin, or the horns on the big guy here. As for the world, I think it'll still be around tomorrow."

Cut Throat helped the ex-slave down into the crater and then hung around up top as well.



"We are looking for our sister. What are you all doing here? It is not safe!"

The pegasus brushed back his spiky silver mane. "It's plenty safe with me around. Name's Skywarp, ace flyer," he introduced with a big smile.

[Pokonic]

The minotaur considered the ghoul, but the zebra's answer concerned him more.

"The pegusi have descended to fight those ponies who live on the ground, the griffons fight amongst themselves, a dragon fought a mountain made of metal, and alicorns fly in the hundreds. If this not the end of the world, what is it leading towards?"

[Forum Explorer]

The minotaur considered the ghoul, but the zebra's answer concerned him more.

"The pegusi have descended to fight those ponies who live on the ground, the griffons fight amongst themselves, a dragon fought a mountain made of metal, and alicorns fly in the hundreds. If this not the end of the world, what is it leading towards?"

It's rebirth. Blank Slate says smiling.

[Balmas]

"Damn straight it is," Straight said, cracking a crooked grin at the others. "Best place to go when you're on bottom is to start crawling back on top. How many ya got here?"

[Pokonic]

It's rebirth. Blank Slate says smiling.

The minotaur seemed slightly unsettled by Blank Slate talking to him; but neverless replied.

"For who? I cannot comprehend the cause of this."

[Forum Explorer]

For all of us. For Equestria. We are fighting to finally secure a future where foals can live in the sun, and never have to learn to fight in order to survive.

[Pokonic]

For all of us. For Equestria. We are fighting to finally secure a future where foals can live in the sun, and never have to learn to fight in order to survive.

"Who's side are you fighting on, then?" the minotaur replied, sweeping a hand towards the horizon, "That of Red-Eye, or that of the pegusi? Tell me, how this is all going to lead to a better world?"

[Balmas]

"Trust me, big guy." Straight clapped a rotting hoof on the minotaur's lower back. "The end of the world doesn't mean the end. Take it from someone who lived throught it. As for the pegasi and Red Eye's forces, I'm neither. I'm somepony who's here to help."

[DigoDragon]

"How many ya got here?"

Manco put the butt of his cigarette in the ground and rubbed it out with a hoof. "I like the words I'm hearing." He then looked down into the crater and... well there were a lot of ponies there and counting them seemed difficult as some of them shuffled around.

"I'd guess there'd be... at least seventy heads present. Maybe more?"


Cut Throat cleared her voice very loudly to get everyone's attention. She pointed to a group of griffons that were flying towards the crater. The group circled around at a fair distance for a minute before most of them landed and walked to the base of the crater. A quick count came up with about eight griffons surrounding the ground and four more still circling in the air. They wore matching uniforms and were all armed with various guns, but no one had any weapons drawn. Yet.

"Hey, deadbeat!"

And that voice was very familiar to Straight Arrow. The griffon that the ghoul tangled with earlier appeared to be leading this group from above. "I thought about your fancy mathematics, and I decided to do a little addition of my own. So what do you got here, a party?"

[Balmas]

"Now you're just being unoriginal," Straight snarked. Oh, this wasn't good. "I was more impressed with your intelligence before. Now I'm just disappointed. Yeah, we're throwing a party; I figured it was appropriate, since this used to be an amusement park." The ghoul scanned the griffons, raising an eyebrow. "And look. The clowns just showed up."

Weapons and armor, huh? What kind, do you think?

[DigoDragon]

"And look. The clowns just showed up."

You can make out service rifles, 10mm pistols, and .32 revolvers among them. Armor is light, equivalent to security armor, except for the leader. His armor looks beefier.

Brb, laughing my butt off at Straight's response.


The griffons had their clawed hands resting on their weapons with that last remark. The leader scowled as well. "Alright then, I'll cut the bull****. You got some slaves in there that don't belong to you. Any of those ponies wearing a collar or a jumpsuit is one of them. Hand 'em over peacefully, and no one gets hurt."

A glance down into the crater, and there were maybe two dozen ponies that fit the description.

[SiuiS]

The armored pony weighed his options for a moment and then lowered his gun. "Very well. Drop your equipment and go." He took a few steps back and his weapon, although lowered, didn't leave his hooves entirely.

The stallion on the ground finally managed to climb mostly out of the tin can of armor he was stuck in. He wrapped his shot hoof with a strip of cloth from his shirt and then hobbled over to Gerry's side. "Thanks, mate! Say, no one has ever gave up something that valuable for me. I really owe you one! Why don't we travel together. Might double our chances, eh?"

The remaining pony, the one shot in the face, was too busy removing his helmet and bandaging his face to chat.

"Sure. How about you take a walk now? Should give you sufficient distance to be reasonably safe if things go bad while I'm removing this thing."

One of the few benefits you can find from building your armor around a gun instead of building a gun into your armor, is it expedites the disarming process. Gerry Rig is already peeling back ratcheting metal plates and ablative ceramics (fine china, or regular china, morelike) to get to the buckles that fasten the saddle onto the deep work suit. "See, nameless Steel Ranger? Sometimes even in the wastes, all you need is a little kindness."

[Pokonic]

You can make out service rifles, 10mm pistols, and .32 revolvers among them. Armor is light, equivalent to security armor, except for the leader. His armor looks beefier.

Brb, laughing my butt off at Straight's response.


The griffons had their clawed hands resting on their weapons with that last remark. The leader scowled as well. "Alright then, I'll cut the bull****. You got some slaves in there that don't belong to you. Any of those ponies wearing a collar or a jumpsuit is one of them. Hand 'em over peacefully, and no one gets hurt."

A glance down into the crater, and there were maybe two dozen ponies that fit the description.

Ajax glared at the griffons, and made his way in front of the leader.

He was hardly in a good mood; he was surrounded by ponies, for one, and now there was a alicorn and at least one ghoul in the general area. He did not follow some caravan ponies for the sake of it; he did not want to be here. But, he disliked the griffons more.

"There are no slaves here." he said to the griffon, snorting. "Go, griffon. Go fly, to someplace elsewhere. I will not suffer talk of petty things such as the lives of slaves when we are at the precipice of the destruction of the world."

[Balmas]

"I appreciate your directness, so I'll cut the crap as well." Straight Arrow stepped forward to match the minotaur. "You're right; the ponies here don't belong to me. And they don't belong to you, either. There are no slaves here."

The pegasus pointed a featherless wing at the fallen raptor, the dying dragon, and the lance or pure light that was tearing both apart. "Red Eyes is dead. Stern is dead. Anyone that might have had even a pretense of ownership is gone, and so are the people to whom you owe your contract.

"As for fighting us, your math is faulty again. Look around you, what do you see? We have guns. We have the numbers advantage. We have a bunker to defend, while you have open space to get shot in. You don't have an air advantage; we have two alicorns that will pull you down to earth, a swarm of ponies that could simply mob you and crush you with their weight, and a minotaur who, if I'm any judge, is just aching for the chance to tear your wings off.

"Oh, and Math-boy?" Straight Arrow smirked. "You're forgetting one thing that we have, that you don't. Me. Major Straight Arrow of the Equestrian Royal Air Force. I fought in the war. I lived through the Apocalypse. I eat bullets and s*** grenades. For almost two hundred and fifty years, I've stayed alive; I've gotten really damn good at it.

"It'd be no problem to order these ponies to kill you. I see at least two dozen that are probably itching for their chance to feed you your own tails. But, all appearances to the contrary, I'm a nice guy. So, I'll give you a choice: would you rather die slowly and painfully? Or would you care to join us in building a new world?"

[RCgothic]

The pegasus brushed back his spiky silver mane. "It's plenty safe with me around. Name's Skywarp, ace flyer," he introduced with a big smile.

The alicorn gives the Pegasus a flat look. "We're being bombarded by mortars and artillery," she points out reasonably.

Scanning the crowd briefly, her heart skips a beat as she notes a blue alicorn in a crowd of fillies, but quickly realises it can't Sapphire. Not with an ethereal mane like that. Just another trick that nopony in her wing had been able to manage since The Destroyer came.

Still, that was a lot of refugees. Standing a little straighter, the Alicorn assesses the situation with the refugees and the griffins. This could be disastrous, especially if any of them have grenades.

When she speaks next, her tone is more commanding, her posture a little straighter. "Get those ponies into cover, ace! We think this is about to get ugly."

Bringing up her targeting spell, the alicorn launches herself into the air, preparing to protect those below from assault from above. Queuing up shots on the first of the airborne griffins, she waits for things to kick off from a medium range.

[DigoDragon]

"See, nameless Steel Ranger? Sometimes even in the wastes, all you need is a little kindness."

The ranger said nothing, he simply collected the components as they came off. For what it's worth, Gerry's act seemed to have placated them into not shooting.

The stallion, however, didn't take more than two steps away. He waited for Gerry to finish undressing, still holding on to the handgun he made a lucky shot with. Once all the armor was off, the rangers would leave, but the remaining stallion stayed behind, waiting for the rangers to be out of hearing range before he spoke.

"Hey, no one's ever done something like that for me, and I'd hate for you to just wander off without a weapon," he said to Gerry. The stallion offered the gun, a .357 revolver. "Here, you're probably a better shot than me. Especially since my shooting hoof is a bit shot up, eh? I only got lucky. Name's Nikola Apple. I'm a bit of a tinkerer at times." He pulled out some crinkled pages from under his shirt. They had scribbles and drawings all over.

"This was what they're after. My ideas. Well, okay, I borrowed them off their ideas, but is it a crime to be inspired? I think not, eh?"



"Get those ponies into cover, ace! We think this is about to get ugly."
Bringing up her targeting spell, the alicorn launches herself into the air, preparing to protect those below from assault from above. Queuing up shots on the first of the airborne griffins, she waits for things to kick off from a medium range.

Skywarp crawled back down into the crater and helped the foals hide under whatever materials were available. To the alicorn's benefit, the griffons haven't noticed her yet. She had her pick of the litter if things went sour.



"There are no slaves here."

"It'd be no problem to order these ponies to kill you. I see at least two dozen that are probably itching for their chance to feed you your own tails. But, all appearances to the contrary, I'm a nice guy. So, I'll give you a choice: would you rather die slowly and painfully? Or would you care to join us in building a new world?"

One of the griffons threw down her handgun. Blank Slate recognized her as the griffon that helped protect the one foal from the pegasus earlier. "Mack, this is BS," she said to the leader. "The ghoul has a point. By now everyone who could afford us is probably pushing daisies."

"Linda, you pick up that gun, or I will shoot you myself!" Mack commanded. "I got connections, we can sell the slaves to the caravans out west. And these ponies? They ain't got nothing but a crater full of future casualties."

"And what do we have?" Linda countered. "Unfulfilled contracts? Geez Mack, look around you! Something is happening here! I don't know what, but the winds are changing directions."

Mack drew his rifle and pointed it at Linda. "Ain't nothing change in the wastes! And I will blow your head off if you so much as think about going against me."

The other griffons hesitated, pondering which side to take. Straight Arrow's words seemed to have been getting into some of their heads (though the fact that Straight was surrounded by an impressive minotaur and several armed ponies helped that a bit). The griffons were about an even split between fighting on Mack's side or joining the ponies. The standoff was a powder keg one spark away from exploding.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn can only hear bits of the conversation going on between the griffins and the refugees delegation, but the tone and body language are clear enough. The griffins are clearly wavering, and what happens next could be a defining moment.

When the leader turns a weapon his own, the alicorn swaps her target priority to line up a headshot, but curses as she thinks twice. That move might save one griffin only to lose them the rest. Time for some heroics!

Launching herself into a steep dive straight through the middle of the griffins' top cover, the alicorn slams into the earth right by the two griffins! Her horn glows and a translucent bubble shield snaps into place around her and the female griffin in defiance of the leader's pointed weapon.

"Hope this works," she mutters so only the female griffin can hear.


DT 22 shield, 110hp. Damage above the DT is split between shield and target. Target's own DT is effective against leaked damage.

Strain now 58.

[Pokonic]

Ajax looked at the Alicorn who decided to intercept the two arguing griffons, and decided that now was the time to act.

"GRIFFONS!"

His arms were stretched outwards and he held his head high in the air; he raised his voice only so that it was audible in the air, with all the chaos occurring around them.

"Listen to me! My name is Ajax, and I demand your attention. Your leaders are dead; you are fighting to take slaves who have no masters now. To continue to fight for them would make slaves of you all. If you desire a fight, many of you will die, and those who live will live in shame. To descend and harness your weapons, you will find shelter and food, and safety from the destruction around us. Do you all wish to die today?"

[Balmas]

"You are divided and weak. We are united and strong. If you join us, you will be granted a place among us, and will share our profits. Your choice. Join us, or die." Hey, his bluff might actually work out without anybody dying horribly.

[DigoDragon]

Mack snorted as he continued to hover. The griffon aimed his rifle at Straight. "Listen ghoul, you got till the count of three to give up the slaves or I'm going to finish off what the bombs didn't. One--"

There was an audible click as a hammer was pulled back into firing position. One of the youngest griffons had his rifle aimed at Mack. A second joined him. Then a third. Fourth. In a few seconds all seven griffons on the ground had turned against their leader, weapons aimed and ready*. The only loyal griffons left were the three hovering with Mack. The leader was so furious that even from the ground one could see the blood vessels in his eyes.

Mack lowered his rifle. He didn't say a word, he simply turned and flew off with his three remaining loyalists. If left alone, they would keep flying west out of sight. The remaining griffons put their weapons away and looked at the ponies for leadership.



*Linda would be the eighth, but she's unarmed.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn keeps her guns trained on the retreating Mack until she's sure he's not coming back, then drops her shield. "Are you all right, miss?" she asks the young griffin she'd protected.

"And what's our situation?" she asks Ajax and Straight Arrow.

[DigoDragon]

"Are you all right, miss?"

"I certainly am, thank you," Linda replied. "I was worried things were about to get ugly."

[Forum Explorer]

Thank you Linda, you are a very brave griffon. Blank Slate says with a smile before turning to face her fellow alicorn.

We're safe at the moment but that won't last much longer. This battle may be ending, but none of us have a home, and everypony is going to be fighting over territory soon enough. I suggest we continue on our way to the Stable Bunkers. Once we're there we'll be incredibly safe from anypony who tries to take advantage of us.

[Balmas]

Straight Arrow watched the departing griffons until they were specks on the horizon. "Part of me wants to shoot 'em in the back. They're only going to come back when they think they can take us on, and I did say join or die."

The ghoul grumbled, before turning to Blank Slate. "A sound idea. I know of a few in the area, but I haven't been able to get at them with the Steel Rangers and Red Eye's goons at them."

[SiuiS]

Gerry Rig starts walking in silence, putting a few yards more between himself and the rangers before letting his guard down.

"It's a pleasure, Nikola. And I have to say, I'm surprised, I was expecting a shot in the back after I disarmed." He cranes to look back at the now distinctly yellow-tinged SATS readout on the two. "Not that it's bad, but a shot in the back would be a whole lot easier, I think.

"So, a tinker eh? Anything good rattling around up there in yer noggin, or did you spill it all out on paper? I like to tinker myself, though it's mostly with scraps of the older stuff."

The earth pony just holds the revolver for a while, letting it's weight sink in. This is the law now, isn't it? Ans worse, unlike a saddle, this one has a traditional firing mechanism. Which means taking off the helmet to use.

Ah, hell, why not? He's earned some karma, time to cash it in.


The bronze plates of the under suit shift with a ratcheting sound and lift like an automated gate, sliding together into one band before breaking apart and revolving to rest beneath the pony's ears like gaudy Egyptian earrings. He smiles, but it is strained, the mottled grey and leathery skin around his thin, purples lips still covered in a lively orange fur, but just barely. And that's all he can see; the Moon knows what the rest of his face looks like, he doesn't haunt the wastes looking for mirrors.

"Name's Gerry Rig, second sergeant of Her Majesty's service, engineer corps. A pleasure to meet you, Nikola Apple."

[Pokonic]

"We must understand our capabilities. We have food and shelter here, but we also have many bodies." Ajax replied to the alicorn, "Many bodies who are too small or weak to assist. If we are to move, than we must have order; no slaves favoring other slaves or solders grouping with other solders."

[DigoDragon]

"Name's Gerry Rig, second sergeant of Her Majesty's service, engineer corps. A pleasure to meet you, Nikola Apple."

Nikola nods. "Ah, a pony who speaks my language, eh?" he says happily. "Well, there's quite a lot rattling up here, but it's the kind of ideas more suited for Stables than scraps. Unfortunately my big ideas tended to get pushed aside for simpler needs, like weapons and food. Not too good with that kind of stuff..." he seemed to trail a bit on that last sentence.


~ ~ ~


The battle appeared to be winding down to a halt. What scattered troops remained were all in retreat. There were only occasional gunshots heard in the distance and the shelling had certainly stopped. The land appeared scorched and bleak. Small fires still smoldered everywhere. There were debris and bodies in all directions, and no structure larger than an outhouse remained standing. buzzards, crows, and other scavenging animals began to arrive for the feast laid out for them.

There was a flash of light behind the clouds.

A low rumble rolled across the sky. Thunder? No, the pitch wasn't right. As the sound traveled, the clouds began to crack and weaken. A wave of energy broke the sky apart like a melting ice floe, revealing a sky of pure brilliant blue with a single warm yellow-white light that shined above all else. This was something new.

Also, that light was painful to stare at.

[SiuiS]

"CELESTIA'S PLOT! LOOK!" the ghoul shouts, flabbergasted. His flabber has been gasted quite severely, indeed; it may never recover. Terminal gasting.

"Nikola, have I finally cracked? Is this the deep end? Or is that sunshine and blue skies?!" He of course, does not wait for an answer. "Come on! We have to find the epicenter, if it's an isolated phenomenon we need to learn how to replicate it! And that enclave is going to be getting involved if someone is tearing open the heavens without a permit – time is of the essence!"

Gerry Rig breaks into a full-on run, more lively of body and voice now than any other point in their short history together. He's smiling a real smile now, genuine and warm even if still a touch ghoulish from the sight of a half dozen too many teeth.

[Pokonic]

Ajax the minotaur winced at the sudden light, and turned to the sight of the sky opening.

He was horrified.

This was the end of days. The sky had cracked.

"By Tirek." he swore, quietly and fearfully.

[Forum Explorer]

Look! Look children! Sunlight! Blank Slate laughed letting the light bathe over her. Ah, be careful there Pursuit. Staring directly at the sun like that can hurt your eyes. she scolded gently.

[Balmas]

"By the sweet Goddess Celestia," Straight breathed. His flanks dropped into the dirt, and he stared upwards. Sunlight... It couldn't be... "That sweet bastard actually got it to work."

"Sunlight... Sunlight and blue sky!" Everything had gone blurry. The ghoul wiped his eyes and grabbed Cut, shaking her. The raider had gone quite white, but the shake seemed to snap her back. "Look! The sun! The sky! WHOOHOO!"

His legs refused to sit still, and the leather-skinned ghoul began to dance in the sun. It had been a long time coming.

[DigoDragon]

"CELESTIA'S PLOT! LOOK!"

Nikola tries to keep up with Gerry, his injured hoof making him hobble noticably. "Wha... ow, how did... ow, that's just... ow, but that..."

As Gerry races across the battlefield, he sees not too far away a hill here a lot of ponies are standing upon, staring up and just as agape as anypony could be.



"By Tirek."

Look! Look children! Sunlight!

"Sunlight... Sunlight and blue sky!"

Reactions from the griffons and ponies around the crater were heavily mixed. Graham was slightly annoyed at the sudden glare from the sky. Linda was awed at all the blue as far as her eyes could see. Several ponies openly wept, thinking that the world had ended. Manco simply lit up a cigarette and enjoyed the fact the fighting had ceased. Skywarp... was very confused.

"The hell happened to the SPP?" Skywarp muttered quietly.

[SiuiS]

Gerry Rig was an engineer at heart, and being an engineer meant solving things. Today, it also meant giving away a lot of equipment.

"Here, take these. Modified cleared hooves on a hydraulic system. They're designed to work with powered armor or drilling rigs, but if you lock them into the extended position they'll move weight from your hooves to your elbow and shoulder joints. Should be able to hold you for long enough to get around to safety and off that wound."

Gerry Rig pulls the eponymous hydraulics from what's left of his armored rig and works to strap them onto Nikola, extending the powered braces to hold the pony's weight and keep his bones aligned proper.


[medicine or science? Roll needed at all?]

[DigoDragon]

"Here, take these. Modified cleared hooves on a hydraulic system. They're designed to work with powered armor or drilling rigs, but if you lock them into the extended position they'll move weight from your hooves to your elbow and shoulder joints. Should be able to hold you for long enough to get around to safety and off that wound."

[No roll needed]

Nikola was happy to wear anything that would take pressure off his injury. "You sure know a lot about power armor. You could probably teach me a few things."

[Balmas]

Straight Arrow ceased his frenetic dancing as a strange look crossed his muzzle. "It's not often a surface pegasus knows about the SPP. Howdja hear 'bout that?"

[Pokonic]

Ajax was conflicted; he wasn't too certain if he knew what was going on, anymore, but he was far from dead and he was still surrounded by things smaller than him who had guns.

"We must go." he said, mostly to himself.

[DigoDragon]

Straight Arrow ceased his frenetic dancing as a strange look crossed his muzzle. "It's not often a surface pegasus knows about the SPP. Howdja hear 'bout that?"

"Eh, something I overheard from enclave troops once," Skywarp answered, scratching the back of his head. "I travel a lot and picked up little bits of info here and there. We've crossed paths a few times."



Ajax was conflicted; he wasn't too certain if he knew what was going on, anymore, but he was far from dead and he was still surrounded by things smaller than him who had guns.

"We must go." he said, mostly to himself.

"I agree with the big guy," Cut Throat spoke up. "As much as I like getting burned by whatever that big bright thing is, I think we ought to start looting food and guns from wherever we can muster it."

[SiuiS]

Rig nods absently and starts to lope forward again once the braces are in place. "Luck really. I was on the ground floor of the division that prototyped them, although they weren't so... Powered back then. But yeah, it's a hobby."

[DigoDragon]

"Luck really. I was on the ground floor of the division that prototyped them, although they weren't so... Powered back then. But yeah, it's a hobby."

"Neat!" Nikola said with curiosity. "I bet you know a lot about mechanics then. I'd love to talk shop about the A to Zed of things. Most of my knowledge comes from whatever got left in the Stable."

As Gerry and Nikola continued their trek, they got a better view of the ponies on that hill. Quite a number of them with guns and there was a minotaur among them. There were several griffons there too. Looked like they were all armed as well. The diversity there was very peculiar.

[SiuiS]

"I admit I'm still puzzling through this newfangled tech they rolled out. Before the Ministries everything was either unicorn-calibrated or purely mechanical, but now things are advanced enough, a pegasus could make magically charged gear. But talking shop is basically how I spent my retirement – that and clad clubs.

"topic shift, I've stayed alive this long by mostly avoiding groups of waste landers with guns who are all in clusters. I've been rooting through shadows and occasionally tangling with isolated families, but a militia like this makes me nervous, haven't dealt with the like since Iron Wing's attempted coup or whatever back in civilized times. So, uh, suggestions? We're coming up on 'em awfully fast for a stealth approach."

[Balmas]

"Right. Everypony!" The ghoul called, waving his wings to gather everyone in. "If we want to stay alive, we're going to need supplies. That means scavenging, so if you're squeamish about looting the dead, you're going to have to get over it real quick. I want two griffons guarding the sick and injured, if you please? You, the one who stood up to your friend first? Congrats, you're in charge. The rest, split up! One griffon, at least one pony with a gun, and a team of scavengers. That makes six teams, and a group here. Any questions?"

[DigoDragon]

"topic shift, I've stayed alive this long by mostly avoiding groups of waste landers with guns who are all in clusters. I've been rooting through shadows and occasionally tangling with isolated families, but a militia like this makes me nervous, haven't dealt with the like since Iron Wing's attempted coup or whatever back in civilized times. So, uh, suggestions? We're coming up on 'em awfully fast for a stealth approach."

Nikola studied at the group they were approaching. "Well, there's a group of similarly dressed griffons. The ponies are all dressed haphazardly. No one appears to be shooting one another. I hypothesize that the griffons are of one faction and the ponies may be either surviving refugees of the battle that took place, or raiders of a sort. Perhaps they are negotiating to work together?"

[SiuiS]

Ah, perceptive. A good trait. "Maybe. Either way they have aerial support and better recon, so we should make ourselves know rather than get found.

HEY! GIRFFONS AND PONIES! ON YOUR THREE O'CLOCK!" Gerry Rig shouts, reactivating the protective measures of the suit, most especially the obscuring faceplate. No need to deal with undeath and prejudice so soon.

[Balmas]

"We won't shoot if you don't!" Straight hollers back.

[Pokonic]

Ajax turned his attention to two ponies standing away from the crater, one fully armored from head to toe. A bad sign, if any. While the ghoul Pegasus seemed to be doing somewhat well at commanding the ponies, he was still concerned with getting everything organized; outlier ponies do not make orderly situations. He glared at the armored pony, unsure what to make of it.

[DigoDragon]

"If we want to stay alive, we're going to need supplies. That means scavenging, so if you're squeamish about looting the dead, you're going to have to get over it real quick. I want two griffons guarding the sick and injured, if you please? You, the one who stood up to your friend first? Congrats, you're in charge. The rest, split up! One griffon, at least one pony with a gun, and a team of scavengers. That makes six teams, and a group here. Any questions?"

Graham raised a hoof. "What are we doing about sleeping?" he asked.

"Yes, you do get cranky after four, don't you?" the mare beside him joked. Several ponies laughed. Graham was not one of them.

Skywarp inched over to be beside the purple alicorn. "I'll take the lady here out. Scouting. Take the lady out scouting, yes?"

Linda and the youngest griffon took the guarding job. The other six paired up with able ponies and they began leaving off in different directions, scavenging for what they could find among the dead. Manco stood up and turned to Straight. "I've done a good bit of traveling. If you got a direction for us to go, I can scout ahead to ensure none of the armies retreated over to those parts," the zebra said.

"I can fly. It'll be faster," Skywarp added.

"You'd also be an easy target," Cut Throat corrected. "Actually, that's an upside, right?" She didn't flinch when Skywarp gave Cut a dirty look.



HEY! GIRFFONS AND PONIES! ON YOUR THREE O'CLOCK![/color][/b]" Gerry Rig shouts, reactivating the protective measures of the suit, most especially the obscuring faceplate. No need to deal with undeath and prejudice so soon.

The group was suddenly greeted by two more ponies in their midst!

[Balmas]

"Cut, I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to antagonize our new friends," Straight said, a tired edge creeping into his voice. "I'm having a bit of a good idea, I think. Zebra. Manco, I think you said? I know of several Stables in the area, but Red Eye had his roving murder crews out looking for them too. Dunno which, if any, is actually intact. Still, even a bombed and stripped stable is better than half a destroyed building."

[SiuiS]

Gerry Rig stared down a stoic bull-beast through the green-lit grill of his helmet.

Gerry Rig lost.

"Geez, probably a good thing those rangers took my heavy load out. Hey there! Is the Minotaur friendly? Or is this the appropriate distance for non-punched relations?"

[RCgothic]

The alicorn acknowledges Linda's thanks with a nod, and then the others in what has apparently become a high level staff meeting, skipping straight past the fact that they've somehow become responsible for four score ponies and griffins.

The first respondent was the other Alicorn, so she addresses her first.

"Greetings sister. We are surprised to see you here. Aren't you a long way from your station? We agree that an abandoned stable would provide initial shelter, however a prime settlement site requires more than that - building materials, access to food, water. In the long term, trade links. But in the short term your suggestion had merit. Assuming nopony else is already resident."

Next, the ghoul pegasus, whose statement she apparently takes face value. Either that she's currently sporting a very dry sense humour. "We would advise against that unless you wish to alienate our new allies. You may have convinced them to believe in this vision you offer, but unprovoked violence against their former comrades runs contrary to that."

"A good point," she agrees with the minotaur. "For now we should identify those who need help and assign somepony or griffin to assist them. All those who can fight should be armed with scavenged weapons and formed up into an escort." As she lists these requirements, our becomes clear she's making no effort to order anyone into completing each task, her words merely suggestions, leaving it to others to do the commanding. "We can get a breakdown of useful skills once we're someplace..."

She tails off as the earth rumbles and overlapping waves of rainbow light spread out from multiple points on the horizon, obliterating the cloud cover and swatting the remaining enclave Raptors out of the sky. "The enclave is defeated! But... how..?" For a while all she can do is stare as the sun returns! Then she closes her eyes and spreads her wings to feel its warmth on her feathers, for moment oblivious to the pegasus suggesting she should go scouting and arriving newcomers.

[Forum Explorer]

I know the way to the a Stable that was refitted to be a bomb shelter. These children were meant to be taken there immediately, but apparently Stern neglected that duty. Blank Slate said with a sniff. I would recommend we all get to shelter first, and then send out the teams, so we can just return straight to base, while whoever is left behind to guard the non-combatants can fortify the location.

I agree, sister. It would be unsuitable long term, but hopefully we won't need it for that long. As for my station, it was destroyed. There was no point remaining at the Cathedral after the battle there.

[DigoDragon]

"Geez, probably a good thing those rangers took my heavy load out. Hey there! Is the Minotaur friendly? Or is this the appropriate distance for non-punched relations?"

Manco shrugged at Gerry. "He's friendly enough as long as you're polite," the zebra said. "How about you? You look like you could hurt a pony if they get on your bad side."



"I'm having a bit of a good idea, I think. Zebra. Manco, I think you said? I know of several Stables in the area, but Red Eye had his roving murder crews out looking for them too. Dunno which, if any, is actually intact. Still, even a bombed and stripped stable is better than half a destroyed building."

"A good point," she agrees with the minotaur. "For now we should identify those who need help and assign somepony or griffin to assist them. All those who can fight should be armed with scavenged weapons and formed up into an escort." As she lists these requirements, our becomes clear she's making no effort to order anyone into completing each task, her words merely suggestions, leaving it to others to do the commanding. "We can get a breakdown of useful skills once we're someplace..."

I know the way to the a Stable that was refitted to be a bomb shelter. These children were meant to be taken there immediately, but apparently Stern neglected that duty. Blank Slate said with a sniff. I would recommend we all get to shelter first, and then send out the teams, so we can just return straight to base, while whoever is left behind to guard the non-combatants can fortify the location.

Nikola's ears twitched with intrigue every time the term 'Stable' was mentioned. "I grew up in a stable, I could help with making it comfortable, eh? Well, I'd be more help once my hoof heals, but that shouldn't be long I don't think. When do we leave?"

Several of the refugees in the crater have been listening to the conversation. Expecting that they'd be moving someplace, they began to take a little initiative and pick up whatever remaining supplies they could carry. One of them, an egg-shell white mare unicorn, started organizing a few ponies to make some sleds with the crate panels so that the heavily injured can be pulled.


Meanwhile, two of the Griffon-Pony teams came back early. Both pairs managed to acquire some weapons and a little food, but they were more concerned about the two dozen pegasi that followed them back here. One of the griffons spoke to the present group. "Excuse me, but this group of pegasi behind us want to speak to whichever one of you is in 'charge'. They said something about losing their home from the enclave, and while they don't seem armed or dangerous, I'm not sure what we should do with them."

[Balmas]

Next, the ghoul pegasus, whose statement she apparently takes face value. Either that she's currently sporting a very dry sense humour. "We would advise against that unless you wish to alienate our new allies. You may have convinced them to believe in this vision you offer, but unprovoked violence against their former comrades runs contrary to that."

"I know that," snapped the ghoul. "Still, that little hen is gonna be trouble. He's going to come back someday, and I may not be able to talk him down again."


I know the way to the a Stable that was refitted to be a bomb shelter. These children were meant to be taken there immediately, but apparently Stern neglected that duty. Blank Slate said with a sniff. I would recommend we all get to shelter first, and then send out the teams, so we can just return straight to base, while whoever is left behind to guard the non-combatants can fortify the location.

"Right. You know the way. Manco... Er, actually, I don't think I caught your name, Alicorn. Don't suppose you know enough about Old Fillydelphia to say where it was. Whereabouts is it?"


Nikola's ears twitched with intrigue every time the term 'Stable' was mentioned. "I grew up in a stable, I could help with making it comfortable, eh? Well, I'd be more help once my hoof heals, but that shouldn't be long I don't think. When do we leave?"

Several of the refugees in the crater have been listening to the conversation. Expecting that they'd be moving someplace, they began to take a little initiative and pick up whatever remaining supplies they could carry. One of them, an egg-shell white mare unicorn, started organizing a few ponies to make some sleds with the crate panels so that the heavily injured can be pulled.


Meanwhile, two of the Griffon-Pony teams came back early. Both pairs managed to acquire some weapons and a little food, but they were more concerned about the two dozen pegasi that followed them back here. One of the griffons spoke to the present group. "Excuse me, but this group of pegasi behind us want to speak to whichever one of you is in 'charge'. They said something about losing their home from the enclave, and while they don't seem armed or dangerous, I'm not sure what we should do with them."

"The sooner we leave, the better. Manco, I want you to scout ahead, see if there's any trouble twixt here and there." The ghoul turned to the griffons. It was almost depressing to think that here, in the sunlight, there was still the Wasteland to deal with. "I don't know much about the Enclave, save they don't much like rotters invading their cloud cover. Still, they just had their houses burst apart like a head by a .50 cal. They probably don't know much about the wasteland; if we can help, we should. Do they have a leader?"

[Pokonic]

Ajax went over to the pegusi, far more concerned about two dozen pairs of wings than stragglers in heavy armor.

He looked at them; he didn't trust them at the slightest, given that, not a hour or so ago, he was threatened by a Pegasus. He was seeing more pastel colored wings today than he ever thought he would see in his life.

It was unnatural, this day. The sky broke open, and now alicorns and pegusi walk among ponies, to say nothing of the battle.

He glared at the group of pegusi, hearing the ghoul nearby talk but not listening, especially. Crossing his arms, he tried to find anyone in the crowd who looked like a leader.

[SiuiS]

Oh, man. This was it. This was the third or fourth or fifth best thing for Gerry Rig, after grease and wrenches, after Poñya coladas, after a fine-tuned work of the hoof coming to life; a plan coming together. Logistics.

He reactivates the vocal synthesizer and steps up past the other ghoul (?!), throwing a bit of swagger into his shoulders. "Perfect. Tell them we have multiple leaders and a bifurcated command structure. Ask them if they are combat branch or resources branch, or civilian. Keeping a disciplined structure is going to be good for them, give them somethig to work with while adapting to the trauma." Now if only I can remember more than the buzzwords I used, I'll be fine.

Gerry looks at the ghoul with what he hopes is the right mixed of taking charge, waiting for approval and respectful equality ness. It's been a while, so hopefully the look just doesn't scream 'Yo Momma', really. "We will need someone they won't mind getting their number and structure. I suggest we redivide; some number of you will have to be home office – the people who stay at HQ and deploy for census data.

"We should bivouac for now and establish protocol. It's better now that trying to reorganize when you have others bucking for command." he whispers to the other ghoul, "Like, having an officer who can deploy the Pegasi will do better than letting them think maybe they should form a clique and take over. And there's a house missing a corner not too far from here, has a small tech cache and a pregnant mare – and a basement. Two and a half stories, could be retrofitted as an outpost if you put civilians in the ground and keep lookouts up top. Even has a place to house the wings, so they don't get antsy with roofs overtop. If nothing else, it buys a few hours of calm to talk things out. Everyone's looking at you, Ace. Better consolidate that."

[Balmas]

"That sounds like a good enough plan, though we'll have to wait on some of those elements for when the scavengers get back. Ideally, I'd like to have everyone mingle now, so that cliques don't have time to develop, and we can break up any super-strong divisions." The ghoul cocked an eye at the armored figure. "That's more syllables in a few sentences than I think some ponies say in a day. I'd almost say Steel Ranger, but that ain't T-45 you're wearing. But I'm being rude. Major Straight Arrow."

[SiuiS]

"The synthesizer helps. My throat isn't what it used to be!" Gerry Rig laughs. "Its just... The sky. The sun. For the first time in a long time, ponies – and griffons and minotaurs – can get out of the diet and filth. They can have homes and jobs and safety. I want to capitalize on that.

"Name's Rig. Gerry Rig. Second sergeant of Her Majesty's service, engineer corps., retired before the war effort.[/b]" He salutes. "Forgot most of it long ago. I'm a muck dweller and scavenger now. Spent most of my time fishing for parts for a rad purifier I've been tinkering on. This fine colt is Nikola Apple, who I have only just had the pleasure to meet. This empty saddle is the cost of doing business with rangers, and may well nip my mark soon. And this magnificent specimen is. Princess? And her entourage I assume?" Rig gestures vaguely at the purpllicious Alicorn and the Minotaur and zebra.. And... Other Alicorn?

"Princesses?"

[DigoDragon]

He glared at the group of pegusi, hearing the ghoul nearby talk but not listening, especially. Crossing his arms, he tried to find anyone in the crowd who looked like a leader.

The griffon opened his beak to say something... but then just closed it and remained quiet. He seemed a bit intimidated. This was nothing compared to the pegasi, which apparently had never seen a minotaur before. The group flapped their wings fearfully and backed off, except for one young mare who appeared to be the bravest of the group. She puffed a stray lock of hair out of her face and spoke up.

"So what are you, exactly? The enclave always said the ground was unlivable and that we shouldn't come down here because there's nothing around, but our homes are now gone and we're seeing tons of ponies and places here. So where are we?"

[Balmas]

"The synthesizer helps. My throat isn't what it used to be!" Gerry Rig laughs. "Its just... The sky. The sun. For the first time in a long time, ponies – and griffons and minotaurs – can get out of the diet and filth. They can have homes and jobs and safety. I want to capitalize on that.

"Name's Rig. Gerry Rig. Second sergeant of Her Majesty's service, engineer corps., retired before the war effort.[/b]" He salutes. "Forgot most of it long ago. I'm a muck dweller and scavenger now. Spent most of my time fishing for parts for a rad purifier I've been tinkering on. This fine colt is Nikola Apple, who I have only just had the pleasure to meet. This empty saddle is the cost of doing business with rangers, and may well nip my mark soon. And this magnificent specimen is. Princess? And her entourage I assume?" Rig gestures vaguely at the purpllicious Alicorn and the Minotaur and zebra.. And... Other Alicorn?

"Princesses?"

"I must have been especially kind to puppies in a past life," Straight Arrow exulted. "I come home to see if I can't help some ponies, and Celestia sends me an engineer." The ghoul grins, and returns the salute. "Good to have you. Engineer corps? What's your specialty?"


The griffon opened his beak to say something... but then just closed it and remained quiet. He seemed a bit intimidated. This was nothing compared to the pegasi, which apparently had never seen a minotaur before. The group flapped their wings fearfully and backed off, except for one young mare who appeared to be the bravest of the group. She puffed a stray lock of hair out of her face and spoke up.

"So what are you, exactly? The enclave always said the ground was unlivable and that we shouldn't come down here because there's nothing around, but our homes are now gone and we're seeing tons of ponies and places here. So where are we?"

"Er." The ghoul coughs, and does his best to look heroic. With all the grey in his face and mane, he'd either look like a veteran or a movie star. Hopefully not a zombie movie star. "This is the city of Fillydelphia. I'm Major Straight Arrow, of the Equestrian Royal Air Force. In case you hadn't noticed, the Enclave has been lying to you. We're here. We're alive, and if you're willing you can join us and help rebuild. I won't lie to you," he warned. "The surface is a dangerous place. You'll want armor and weapons, and most importantly, friends. If my guess is right, things will become a bit difficult for the Enclave for the foreseeable future. They aren't very popular; they've been wiping out our towns and cities, and we've no idea why. I know this is sudden, but I'd like to help."

[Pokonic]

The griffon opened his beak to say something... but then just closed it and remained quiet. He seemed a bit intimidated. This was nothing compared to the pegasi, which apparently had never seen a minotaur before. The group flapped their wings fearfully and backed off, except for one young mare who appeared to be the bravest of the group. She puffed a stray lock of hair out of her face and spoke up.

"So what are you, exactly? The enclave always said the ground was unlivable and that we shouldn't come down here because there's nothing around, but our homes are now gone and we're seeing tons of ponies and places here. So where are we?"

Ajax was rather glad that the Pegasus ghoul spoke up first; the little mare seemed more focused on him than anything else, however, and he knew he had to reply.

He knelled down slightly, so he could at least tilt his head downwards and meet the filly in the eyes, and spoke, doing his best job to sound moderately reassuring.

"I would think that the Enclave lied to you. This is the land of Equestria, and while it is dangerous, this place is the safest you could be. My name is Ajax; I am a minotaur."

[DigoDragon]

"This is the city of Fillydelphia. I'm Major Straight Arrow, of the Equestrian Royal Air Force. In case you hadn't noticed, the Enclave has been lying to you. We're here. We're alive, and if you're willing you can join us and help rebuild. I won't lie to you," he warned. "The surface is a dangerous place. You'll want armor and weapons, and most importantly, friends. If my guess is right, things will become a bit difficult for the Enclave for the foreseeable future. They aren't very popular; they've been wiping out our towns and cities, and we've no idea why. I know this is sudden, but I'd like to help."

"I wager to keep up the lie," Manco suggested.

The little pegasus puffed that stray lock of green hair again. "Dangerous you say? I can handle dangerous. I've snuck into lots of places that were so called 'dangerous' and did any of those places get me killed? Obviously not!" She stood proud of herself and whatever those accomplishments were.

The other pegasi have the little one a scowl. "Forgive her, she's young and impetuous," one of the older pegasi stated. "So... Fillydelphia you say? Would you mind if we accompany you, at least for a little while? Some of us can fight decently."



"I would think that the Enclave lied to you. This is the land of Equestria, and while it is dangerous, this place is the safest you could be. My name is Ajax; I am a minotaur."

The little pegasus ignored her detractors and held out a hoof to Ajax. "I'm Spring Locke, I'm a ninja!"

The look that the other pegasi gave was a definite sign that she was most certainly not a ninja.

[Pokonic]

"
The little pegasus ignored her detractors and held out a hoof to Ajax. "[COLOR="#006400"]I'm Spring Locke, I'm a ninja!"

The look that the other pegasi gave was a definite sign that she was most certainly not a ninja.

Ajax reached out and shook the little pony's hoof, taking care not to put any pressure in it; he didn't know what a ninja was, but presumably it was nothing akin to a official placement with the pegusi, like a priest.

[SiuiS]

"I must have been especially kind to puppies in a past life," Straight Arrow exulted. "I come home to see if I can't help some ponies, and Celestia sends me an engineer." The ghoul grins, and returns the salute. "Good to have you. Engineer corps? What's your specialty?"


"Oh, uh, arhrmmmhrmmm. Sapper and saboteur, Lunar division. But my skill is in physical sciences and engineering in general, and I hope I can find good use for it."



"Er." The ghoul coughs, and does his best to look heroic. With all the grey in his face and mane, he'd either look like a veteran or a movie star. Hopefully not a zombie movie star. "This is the city of Fillydelphia. I'm Major Straight Arrow, of the Equestrian Royal Air Force. In case you hadn't noticed, the Enclave has been lying to you. We're here. We're alive, and if you're willing you can join us and help rebuild. I won't lie to you," he warned. "The surface is a dangerous place. You'll want armor and weapons, and most importantly, friends. If my guess is right, things will become a bit difficult for the Enclave for the foreseeable future. They aren't very popular; they've been wiping out our towns and cities, and we've no idea why. I know this is sudden, but I'd like to help."

"And more importantly, if the Enclave has been keeping is a secret for so long, they may execute anyone who comes home with news for a few weeks while they decide how to spin these events. But hey, some of my best friends were Pegasi! Compass Rose for example, helped lead an expedition a good log time ago. Quite the lass."



"I would think that the Enclave lied to you. This is the land of Equestria, and while it is dangerous, this place is the safest you could be. My name is Ajax; I am a minotaur."

Rig nods, noting the name.

"Right. Priorities are shelter for the group, food and water at shelter, and weapons to secure said shelter. Ajax, could you take some of the Pegasi and see to that house over yonder? It would be a good way to start building relations and will be comfortably dark on the inside for you."

[DigoDragon]

"Right. Priorities are shelter for the group, food and water at shelter, and weapons to secure said shelter. Ajax, could you take some of the Pegasi and see to that house over yonder? It would be a good way to start building relations and will be comfortably dark on the inside for you."

"What about the rest of the group we got?" Cut Throat asked. "Might be better if we first house everyone before we go take a casserole dish to our neighbor."

[SiuiS]

"Politics is the art of being homeless, taking a casserole dish to the only neighbor with a house, and being invited in." Rig says.

Actually, politics is the art of saying "good boy" until you have a clean shot, but that's not situation appropriate.

[Pokonic]

Ajax, could you take some of the Pegasi and see to that house over yonder? It would be a good way to start building relations and will be comfortably dark on the inside for you.[/b]"

The minotaur was slightly startled by the armored pony starting to give him orders, as if it did not just arrive ten minutes ago. He pet the little ninja Pegasus on the head before turning to look at Rig.

"I do not trust pony buildings." he lied, "I would think a pony would be more suited to explore them. I am content to keep guard here, even if it pains my eyes."

To be blunt, the ponies were the one's hurting his eyes. He was used to brown, earth tones, and peace and quiet; all the ponies here made for a riot of colors, to say nothing of all the noise, and it was starting to give him a headache. This day was unnatural, and he didn't believe it was going to get any better.

[Forum Explorer]

I know the way. I shall guide the children and anypony else who isn't capable of fighting to the shelters and get everypony settled in while you all scavenge for supplies.

Oh, and I'm not a princess. Just an alicorn of the late Goddess. she added to Gerry.

[SiuiS]

"I do not trust pony buildings." he lied, "I would think a pony would be more suited to explore them. I am content to keep guard here, even if it pains my eyes."

Rig nods and claps his wounded companion on the back. "Acknowledged. My friend Nikola here is somewhat of an artist, if you work with him to make sche… matics, we can get you a Minotaur building soon, so you don't have to be uncomfortable."

It's hard for a pony without a visible face to really show emotion, but Gerry Rig is doing a damn fine job of very obviously covering up his catch there. "If someone else could round them up, then? Go ahead and give this back to them, and see if you can scrounge medical supplies. Is anyone hurt? Besides you, Nikola, I'm doing a count."



Oh, and I'm not a princess. Just an alicorn of the late Goddess. she added to Gerry.

"Well, you may well be a princess before the day is through. In fact..." he rubs his iron chin thoughtfully, eliciting a few sparks. "Sisters..."

[DigoDragon]

The egg-shell unicorn from below climbed up to join the discussion. "Excuse me," she said to Gerry, "I know a little bit about rendering aid and I can tell you that we have about twenty injured ponies. Four of them cannot walk under their own power. If Celestia be willing they might pull through, but they'll need to be moved out of the elements. I overheard you and your friends discussing moving these folks to a stable or shelter?"

Manco spoke up. "If any of the Stables were being used as storage, they're going to get looted quite soon, now that the soldiers defending them have been killed."

"The Enclave would want to destroy those supplies if they got to 'em first. A starving army can't fight back," Skywarp added.

Cut Throat jumped up to a standing position. "Well then maybe we should recall our Griffon-Pony teams and grab one before they're all taken or torched?"

[Balmas]

"Right. Skywarp, you said you could fly quickly. Any other pegasi good at flying quickly?"

[DigoDragon]

"Right. Skywarp, you said you could fly quickly. Any other pegasi good at flying quickly?"

One of the wastelander pegasi raised a hoof, along with five of the former two-dozen sky-based pegasi. Skywarp saluted with a wing. "Point me in a direction and stand back," he boasted.

[Pokonic]

Manco spoke up. "If any of the Stables were being used as storage, they're going to get looted quite soon, now that the soldiers defending them have been killed."

Ajax grumbled.

"What are we waiting for, then? Surely one of the ponies here knows where one should be, or even the griffons. Send a group to check on one, and then this group can move into it."

[Balmas]

"Here's the plan," Straight said, motioning to gather the others in towards him. "We have seven pegasi, good at flying. Six of you will go and tell the scavenging teams to regroup. Skywarp, I want you to go with the alicorn and see if that bunker is still open. Report back as soon as possible, so we can start moving the sick and injured there if it's still available, or figure out our strategy to take it if it's not. Questions? Suggestions?"

[DigoDragon]

"Questions? Suggestions?"

"Not sure you want to pair the horndog with one of the alicorns," Cut Throat commented, "But otherwise it's a fair plan to me."

Skywarp folded his wings across his chest. "I can be a perfect gent," he responded.

Manco simply nodded in agreement to the plan. The pegasi who volunteered agreed with the plan as well, having no questions right now. The egg-shell unicorn went back to work on prepping the injured for transport.

[RCgothic]

"I know that," snapped the ghoul. "Still, that little hen is gonna be trouble. He's going to come back someday, and I may not be able to talk him down again."


The alicorn nickers in response.


"Not sure you want to pair the horndog with one of the alicorns," Cut Throat commented, "But otherwise it's a fair plan to me."

Skywarp folded his wings across his chest. "I can be a perfect gent," he responded.


"We are perfectly capable of repelling unwelcome advances. Your name is Skywarp? Let us be off." The alicorn spreads her enormous wings and takes to the air. Though not an especially advanced flier since the bomb destroyed Maripony, she makes up for a lot with sheer power.

[Forum Explorer]

Then in the meantime, I shall remain on guard duty. Blank Slate said.

[DigoDragon]

Pegasi took off in different directions to retrieve the scavenging team. Despite the short time out, the teams managed to secure some ammo and food rations from dead soldiers. Counting the goodies and adding it to the stores in the crater, and there was a bit of hauling to be done. Graham helped count out the supplies as he was good with numbers.

The total warm body count came to 104. Among the supplies there were about 40 bottles worth of clean water in various canteens and containers, another 20 bottles worth of dirty (but still drinkable) water, 20 MREs, 15 'fresh' meals, and 10 'prewar snacks' that were still edible.

Weapons found were:
Four 9mm pistols (25 rounds of ammo)
Three .32 rifles (15 rounds of ammo)
Two .10mm pistols (20 rounds of ammo)
Three Service rifles (25 5.56mm rounds of ammo)


"We are perfectly capable of repelling unwelcome advances. Your name is Skywarp? Let us be off." The alicorn spreads her enormous wings and takes to the air. Though not an especially advanced flier since the bomb destroyed Maripony, she makes up for a lot with sheer power.

Skywarp flew alongside the alicorn, giving her a smile if she looked in his direction, but otherwise he remained quiet. After several minutes of passing a few hills and ruins, they saw something in the distance of interest.

It appeared to be a bunker, or maybe what was left of a Stable, built into the side of a little hill outside Fillydephia 'city limits'. From this distance there were upwards of about 10 ponies pulling small containers out of the bunker, but they were too far to make out what was in those containers. Skywarp made an amused clicking noise with his tongue.

"Those might be former Red Eye troops," Skywarp guessed. "Certainly not Enclave from what I can tell from up here."

[RCgothic]

"Red Eye's forces you say? Your vision is better than ours. They... may respond to our commands, but not all of his forces were simply following orders." The alicorn holds position, trying to get a feel for the situation.

"We require those supplies. Options: One, we engage without warning and force them to surrender; Two, we attempt to talk them down and secure the supplies for ourselves, at the risk of weakening our position should our negotiations fail; Three, we head back to the others and return with sufficient force, allowing them to loot the supplies in the meantime."
[roll0]

[Pokonic]

Pegasi took off in different directions to retrieve the scavenging team. Despite the short time out, the teams managed to secure some ammo and food rations from dead soldiers. Counting the goodies and adding it to the stores in the crater, and there was a bit of hauling to be done. Graham helped count out the supplies as he was good with numbers.

The total warm body count came to 104. Among the supplies there were about 40 bottles worth of clean water in various canteens and containers, another 20 bottles worth of dirty (but still drinkable) water, 20 MREs, 15 'fresh' meals, and 10 'prewar snacks' that were still edible.

Weapons found were:
Four 9mm pistols (25 rounds of ammo)
Three .32 rifles (15 rounds of ammo)
Two .10mm pistols (20 rounds of ammo)
Three Service rifles (25 5.56mm rounds of ammo)

Ajax was displeased by the amount of food the trader's stores had, or, rather, the lack of it.

Does the alicorn eat? he thought, unsure about it himself. He wasn't going to ask the creature that, even if it was large; he was focused on how the feeding of the ponies themselves would go. He was very much focused on getting everything sorted and moved, and let the work distract him from all the ponies around.

[DigoDragon]

"We require those supplies. Options: One, we engage without warning and force them to surrender; Two, we attempt to talk them down and secure the supplies for ourselves, at the risk of weakening our position should our negotiations fail; Three, we head back to the others and return with sufficient force, allowing them to loot the supplies in the meantime."
[roll0]

"Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it's reasonable to think that given the area," Skywarp replied. "I think we should go back and tell the others. If we show up with lots of guns, I think negotiations will go over much easier."



Ajax was displeased by the amount of food the trader's stores had, or, rather, the lack of it.
Does the alicorn eat? he thought, unsure about it himself. He wasn't going to ask the creature that, even if it was large; he was focused on how the feeding of the ponies themselves would go. He was very much focused on getting everything sorted and moved, and let the work distract him from all the ponies around.

The ponies gave the minotaur plenty of room whenever possible to work. Many were uneasy being so close to such an imposing creature. Others weren't as fearful, but stood back and his impressive strength have the right of way.

[RCgothic]

"Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it's reasonable to think that given the area," Skywarp replied. "I think we should go back and tell the others. If we show up with lots of guns, I think negotiations will go over much easier."

"You are a fast flyer, correct? Then demonstrate. We shall attempt to stall their operations."

The alicorn circles slightly away from Skywarp so as not to draw undue attention to him as she then approaches the group. Though not posturing aggressively, she keeps her shield on standby in case things turn violent, and casts a quick soft light spell to give herself the best possible chances. Instantly her mane and tail aetherise, a shimmering inky gray populated with stars and a pale blue nebula. So that's how that works, she thinks, surprised by the effectiveness of the improvised spell. An aura of soft power radiates from her body in spite of the accumulated battlefield grim. For the moment she looks every part the avatar of a goddess.

She touches down gently not far from where the ponies were handling crates.

"Who is your commander? I bring new orders."


Soft Light spell, +15 barter and speech, 5mins.
Readied action: Cast Alicorn Shield, activate at imminent hostility.
Strain: 73/120.

[DigoDragon]

"Who is your commander? I bring new orders."

Skywarp managed not to confuse the alicorn's 'we' to mean he join her on the ground, though he paused a moment to make that connection. The pegasus pulled a 180 and zipped back to toward the crater at a fairly impressive speed.

The alicorn's presence cause the ponies on the ground to get defensive. Three jumped inside the shelter and drew weapons, as if spooked. The other seven remained cautiously calm. A large red stallion stepped forward. "If you're looking for a 'commander', I think he's one of the dead bodies about a hundred yards behind ya. If you're looking for who's calling the shots here, that be me."

[RCgothic]

Uh oh, this wasn't good. Stick to mostly-truths.

"Our fallback location has likely been compromised by the fighting. We've been sent evaluate this site as a backup site. What's the situation?"

Note: another effect of the soft light spell is to increase NPC disposition one level - might be relevant!

[DigoDragon]

"Our fallback location has likely been compromised by the fighting. I've been sent evaluate this site as a backup site. What's the situation?"

The stallion shifted his weight. "The city's fallen for the most part. There's some pockets of fighting in the factories, but we're grabbing what we can carry out of this place. Gonna head for the hills to regroup and play the long game."

[Balmas]

Pegasi took off in different directions to retrieve the scavenging team. Despite the short time out, the teams managed to secure some ammo and food rations from dead soldiers. Counting the goodies and adding it to the stores in the crater, and there was a bit of hauling to be done. Graham helped count out the supplies as he was good with numbers.

The total warm body count came to 104. Among the supplies there were about 40 bottles worth of clean water in various canteens and containers, another 20 bottles worth of dirty (but still drinkable) water, 20 MREs, 15 'fresh' meals, and 10 'prewar snacks' that were still edible.

Weapons found were:
Four 9mm pistols (25 rounds of ammo)
Three .32 rifles (15 rounds of ammo)
Two .10mm pistols (20 rounds of ammo)
Three Service rifles (25 5.56mm rounds of ammo)

That wasn't too much. Straight bit back a scowl, and began directing the splitting up of weapons. That was enough food for maybe half the group for a day. Still, twelve weapons with ponies and eight armed griffons was enough for a half-way decent militia. Now the only thing was to wait for the report; hopefully it was good news, since there didn't seem to be any medical supplies.

[Pokonic]

Ajax, having since placed the last box of pony military-meals down and placed the box filled with the little snacks on top of it, was distressingly bored. The ghoul seemed to be keeping himself busy; the two alicorns as well.

Slouching in a corner recently free of a box, he looked on at the crowd. Ponies; a lot of ponies. By Tirek, that was a lot of ponies. There was not enough food to feed everyone; he hoped that some had there own food, because if the food situation was not solved by the night, he was going to leave. He had not intentions to stick around near a bunch of hungry ponies, just from having a general idea on what would likely happen.

[DigoDragon]

Now the only thing was to wait for the report

Ajax was distressingly bored.

Skywarp swooped in fast and skidded to a halt just outside the crater area. He turned and jumped up the side to the ghoul, his breath a bit labored. "Okay, good news is that there's a shelter with goodies about 10 minutes or so toward the town in that direction if you hustle it. The bad news is that there almost a dozen ponies raiding it right now. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think they're what's left of Red Eyes' troops. The ugly news is that the pretty purple alicorn went down to talk to them and I really don't know how that's going to turn out cause those troops are all armed and most likely ornery."

[Balmas]

The ghoul listened, then snapped off a nod. "Right. Ponies and griffons in fighting condition! We're going to need to make a show of force. Does anyone not feel confident in fighting? I hope we won't need it, since we outnumber them two-to-one, but it may come to shots."

[Pokonic]

The ghoul listened, then snapped off a nod. "Right. Ponies and griffons in fighting condition! We're going to need to make a show of force. Does anyone not feel confident in fighting? I hope we won't need it, since we outnumber them two-to-one, but it may come to shots."

Ajax heard the ghoul's words, and went up to where the two pegusi were talking.

"If there are cowards here, then I will go first." he said, more of a show of will than anything else. Preferably, a few of the griffons would be in whatever force that would meet the troops; they seemed like the only reliable fighters here, and the fact that they have wings only helped there.

[DigoDragon]

"Right. Ponies and griffons in fighting condition! We're going to need to make a show of force. Does anyone not feel confident in fighting? I hope we won't need it, since we outnumber them two-to-one, but it may come to shots."

"If there are cowards here, then I will go first." he said, more of a show of will than anything else.

Ajax's instincts proved right when the griffons answered the call to arms first. Linda picked out three of them to join her as part of the force. The remaining four griffons offered to remain guards for the noncombatants here. On the other hoof, Manco, Cut Throat, and Skywarp, were ready to bring their A-Game. That was seven capable fighters, with five of them able to fly.

"I'm ready to get going," Skywarp said as he gestured to the sidearm on his belt. "Let's go rescue our alluring alicorn!"

"If you shoot a gun half as well as you shoot your mouth..." Cut Throat mumbled.

"We should try diplomacy first," Manco stated, "But we need to show strength from the start that we're willing to shed blood."

"Exactly!" Skywarp agreed.

"Just don't bully them," Linda warned. "A cornered rat will bite."

[Pokonic]

Ajax's instincts proved right when the griffons answered the call to arms first. Linda picked out three of them to join her as part of the force. The remaining four griffons offered to remain guards for the noncombatants here. On the other hoof, Manco, Cut Throat, and Skywarp, were ready to bring their A-Game. That was seven capable fighters, with five of them able to fly.

"I'm ready to get going," Skywarp said as he gestured to the sidearm on his belt. "Let's go rescue our alluring alicorn!"

"If you shoot a gun half as well as you shoot your mouth..." Cut Throat mumbled.

"We should try diplomacy first," Manco stated, "But we need to show strength from the start that we're willing to shed blood."

"Exactly!" Skywarp agreed.

"Just don't bully them," Linda warned. "A cornered rat will bite."

Ajax saw those who were willing to go, and let himself smile lightly.

"If a rat threatens to bite, you stomp on it's head." he said, keeping his voice even, "The same logic applies with ponies."

[SiuiS]

"Here's the plan," Straight said, motioning to gather the others in towards him. "We have seven pegasi, good at flying. Six of you will go and tell the scavenging teams to regroup. Skywarp, I want you to go with the alicorn and see if that bunker is still open. Report back as soon as possible, so we can start moving the sick and injured there if it's still available, or figure out our strategy to take it if it's not. Questions? Suggestions?"

"Hunting. A small party, coordinated, could bring down a timber wolf or the like. Pulpy, but succulent. Wouldn't taste good and would be sparse, but survival is survival."

Gerry Rig takes the time of discussion to remove his tool sets from his saddle bags and reassemble them; a joined double duty nail-and-river driver, a mostly non-functional extendable rotary saw and, of course, a light.

"I'm going after purple winged unicorn and silly Pegasus. If nothing else they would be able to point me to a good place for scavenge, and—"

Skywarp lands and reports, and the engineer swears. "Damn saddle takes longer to reassemble than I thought. Lead the way, Skywarp, we'll supply basic backup. The rest can follow when they arm up, and hopefully be the cavalry we won't need."

Regardless of he response from anyone else, the metal-ribbed ghoul with nail guns taped to his side motions to the Pegasus and runs off in the direction the Alicorn flew. Who knows? Ghouls didn't really have 'fatigue' so much, maybe he could pace a flier? A slow flier.

[RCgothic]

The stallion shifted his weight. "The city's fallen for the most part. There's some pockets of fighting in the factories, but we're grabbing what we can carry out of this place. Gonna head for the hills to regroup and play the long game."

The alicorn pauses, as if giving the stallion's information careful consideration.

"We can find no fault with your assessment. Stern and his lieutenants are dead, our forces decimated. Even our own sisters are lost...."

She lets the silence continue. The longer they spend occupied with her, the less time they have to plunder supplies and go somewhere else. Maybe they might find the opportunity to recruit an alicorn tempting?

[DigoDragon]

"If a rat threatens to bite, you stomp on it's head." he said, keeping his voice even, "The same logic applies with ponies."

"I like this guy already," Skywarp commented. "If a fight breaks out, big guy, I'll be sure to hold the rat down for you to stomp."



"Damn saddle takes longer to reassemble than I thought. Lead the way, Skywarp, we'll supply basic backup. The rest can follow when they arm up, and hopefully be the cavalry we won't need."

Regardless of he response from anyone else, the metal-ribbed ghoul with nail guns taped to his side motions to the Pegasus and runs off in the direction the Alicorn flew. Who knows? Ghouls didn't really have 'fatigue' so much, maybe he could pace a flier? A slow flier.

"You got it, helmet head!" Skywarp said. He took off and flew low so that Gerry could follow. The griffons followed in flight as well, keeping in a close formation. This left Manco and Cut Throat to look at Straight for the 'go ahead' before taking off.



"We can find no fault with your assessment. Stern and his lieutenants are dead, our forces decimated. Even our own sisters are lost...."

She lets the silence continue. The longer they spend occupied with her, the less time they have to plunder supplies and go somewhere else. Maybe they might find the opportunity to recruit an alicorn tempting?

"Alright then... so, did you have some actual orders or were you just wanting to chew the fat?" the red stallion asked.


[roll0]

[Balmas]

Straight nodded, and took off on a pair of fleshy wings. "Remember," he called down. "I want big, intimidating. I want them to look at us and soil themselves."

[RCgothic]

"Alright then... so, did you have some actual orders or were you just wanting to chew the fat?" the red stallion asked.


"That doesn't sound sanitary," the alicorn deadpans.

"We did have some orders for you, but we try not to make a habit of issuing ones we suspect will not be followed." She sits, and takes a swig from her canteen. "Got much left to do?", she asks conversationally.

[DigoDragon]

Straight nodded, and took off on a pair of fleshy wings. "Remember," he called down. "I want big, intimidating. I want them to look at us and soil themselves."

"Should be easy to accomplish with the minotaur," Manco said with a smile. The zebra ran down the hill and followed Straight, along with Cut Throat right behind him.



"That doesn't sound sanitary," the alicorn deadpans.

"We did have some orders for you, but we try not to make a habit of issuing ones we suspect will not be followed." She sits, and takes a swig from her canteen. "Got much left to do?", she asks conversationally.

The stallion gave the alicorn a curious glance. "Yeah... going to drag off two dozen crates of food and then come back with the others for the water. Why?" There was a tinge of suspicion in his eyes.

[RCgothic]

The stallion gave the alicorn a curious glance. "Yeah... going to drag off two dozen crates of food and then come back with the others for the water. Why?" There was a tinge of suspicion in his eyes.

The alicorn sits perfectly calmly as she takes another swig. If she notices the suspicion in the stallion's eyes, she doesn't react to it. "Two dozen crates between a dozen ponies? We find that... ambitious." She shrugs her wings. "It matters little. In any case, you have been inside and we have not. It would speed our mission considerably if you could describe to us the interior layout and condition. We were tasked with performing a survey, but we judge you would prefer us to remain out here."

[Pokonic]

"Should be easy to accomplish with the minotaur," Manco said with a smile. The zebra ran down the hill and followed Straight, along with Cut Throat right behind him.

"The griffons should be of assistance." Ajax allotted, "With the four of them in the sky, it shall be as if there are two minotaurs with us."

[SiuiS]

"Stay in reserve behind high ground," Gerry advocates, "And be ready for ambush if necessary. In fact, on my cue, attack but try not to win or lose. Play along."


*


Gerry Rig gallops, loudly, around the bend in the hill toward the troop of soldiers and Alicorn. Loudly enough to draw beads from guns, and also loudly enough to look like he's not a threat so much as panicked. Hopefully, that draws just beads, no bullets...

He skids to a halt, salutes. "Commander! The scouring has been compromised. Our unit failed to distract the civilian mob and rhey are using aerial recon. A small troop knows our location and may be en route – we need to either... Uh, what's all this?" he feigns, seeming to finally notice the other troops.

[DigoDragon]

"Two dozen crates between a dozen ponies? We find that... ambitious." She shrugs her wings. "It matters little. In any case, you have been inside and we have not. It would speed our mission considerably if you could describe to us the interior layout and condition. We were tasked with performing a survey, but we judge you would prefer us to remain out here."

The red stallion took a step back. "Wait, a survey? Who did you say sent you?"



He skids to a halt, salutes. "Commander! The scouring has been compromised. Our unit failed to distract the civilian mob and rhey are using aerial recon. A small troop knows our location and may be en route – we need to either... Uh, what's all this?" he feigns, seeming to finally notice the other troops.

The red stallion puts a hoof on his rifle and slowly lifts it up. The other former Red Eyes stop what they're doing and pay attenton, but only the three inside the shelter still have guns out. The red stallion studies Gerry.

"Commander? I ain't never the commander. Just who the hell are..."

His sentence trailed off as he saw Skywarp and four griffons crest over the nearby hill from the south. Just behind that was Straight and everyone else who joined this combat team (I'll leave it to you if you charge in or shoot from the hill). The ten Red Eye ponies move to use the scattered crates as cover as they draw their weapons. "We're being ambushed!!"


The Red Eyes are ready to fight for the supplies.

There are 10 of them. Seven are outside the shelter using crates for cover. Three are inside the shelter using the entrance way as cover.
They have an eclectic mix of weapons, and light leather armor. The leader (red stallion) has a saddlebag filled with unknown stuff.
Purple Alicorn and Gerry are not yet targeted by any opponents. Everyone else that comes over that hill is fair game.
The distance from the top of the hill and melee range with the Red Eyes is 200 feet (Medium Range).



All PCs who want to be in the fight can be assumed to be here. Roll initiative and let's see how this plays out. :smallsmile:

[SiuiS]

[gerry reported to Alicorn Sans Nom, to create illusion of her legitimate command. Thought I had said that but was typing in a rush]

"Damn! I didn't think they could follow that quickly. EAT LEAD YOU REVOLUTIONARY BASTARDS!" Rig screeches, diving for cover alongside the Red Eye leader and pulling his freshly acquired .357 revolver from his saddle and using a bent tooth on the circular saw, he begins to fan the hammer, launching bullets into the crowd of fliers. He's not even particularly trying to miss, trusting his innate lack of skill for that.


Actions are intended to convince guy we are on his side versus the fliers. Will roll as needed. Charisma?

Action: movement 15 + drop prone 10 + retrieve gun 10? + fire gun 25 + wild shot 16 (9 short)

[roll0]
[roll1]

[Balmas]

"Surrender and be annihilated!" A little notice woulda been nice. Still, Straight did his best to make it look convincing. PLANG! And now to avoid dying. That was an important bit.


Shoot: 25 AP. 93 over 30. Miss.
Shoot: 25 AP: 32 over 30. Miss
Shoot: 25 AP: 81 over 30. Miss.
Dodge: 20 AP. -10% to hit him, on top of the -10% from medium range.

[Pokonic]

It took Ajax a few moments to realize what was going on, but when he did, he was rather displeased. He ran towards the Red Eye ponies, head lowered as if to charge, but before he actually reached them he raised up his head and bellowed.

"RED EYE IS DEAD! ENOUGH OF THIS FOOLISH POSTURING!"

He raised his hands up in the air, like he was showing something off.

"WHO DIES FIRST!"

He really hoped the griffons were going to take the hint and would look suitably intimidating.

15 AP: 9 +(6x2)= 21 yards, should be enough to get close enough to the Red Eye ponies.

Talking is a free action, I think. Will role charisma if necessary.

[RCgothic]

The red stallion took a step back. "Wait, a survey? Who did you say sent you?"


"We did say we had been sent to evaluate this site," the alicorn replies calmly as Gerry Rig charges up. She doesn't get a chance to say who sent her, which is probably just as well.


The red stallion puts a hoof on his rifle and slowly lifts it up. The other former Red Eyes stop what they're doing and pay attenton, but only the three inside the shelter still have guns out. The red stallion studies Gerry.

"Commander? I ain't never the commander. Just who the hell are..."

His sentence trailed off as he saw Skywarp and four griffons crest over the nearby hill from the south. Just behind that was Straight and everyone else who joined this combat team (I'll leave it to you if you charge in or shoot from the hill). The ten Red Eye ponies move to use the scattered crates as cover as they draw their weapons. "We're being ambushed!!"



"Damn! I didn't think they could follow that quickly. EAT LEAD YOU REVOLUTIONARY BASTARDS!" Rig screeches, diving for cover alongside the Red Eye leader and pulling his freshly acquired .357 revolver from his saddle and using a bent tooth on the circular saw, he begins to fan the hammer, launching bullets into the crowd of fliers. He's not even particularly trying to miss, trusting his innate lack of skill for that.


"Trigger discipline, sergeant," the alicorn chides gently.

Well that could have gone better. In her judgement and reading of these ponies, an ultimatum of 'Surrender or Die' would likely be met by 'die', and bullets are about to start flying for real. The alicorn does not want to be on the wrong side of this. She walks over to Gerry Rig, calm as anything, and then her shield snaps into place around them both.

"A nice try sergeant, however I have insufficient authority here to play along," she whispers. Turning to address the red stallion, her voice takes on a more commanding tone. "We suggest you do not fight. We said earlier that whether you took the food supplies mattered little - in truth this was because we knew you could not get far; We have air superiority and you are encumbered. Who sent us? We are in part responsible for over a hundred ponies and griffins who will starve without those supplies. We cannot concede them to you."

"We believe you now have three options:
One: Join us and share in the community we are building. Your individual share may be less than you hoped, but you would gain security in return."
Two: Flee now, and we shall let you go. We have no interest in violence beyond what is necessary for our own survival."
Three: Attempt to deny us and fail. We shall take what we need by overwhelming force."

Charisma check: [roll0] vs 3
If that fails, telekinetic grasp of all 24 crates or up to 5ft^3 crates and raise them into the air, denying the ponies behind them cover.

Shield DT: 22, Shield HP 120 Half damage over DT to shield, half as bleed through.
Own DT stacks. (Alicorn and Gerry Rig)

Strain: 88

[SiuiS]

Well, hay, we tried.

"What is that? What happened?!" Gerry Rig sorta begins to shout, his helmet ratcheting open. He's clearly flummoxed. "You didn't even give this a chance. We could have easily gotten these guys without killing or hurting anyone, and you roll over immediately? Why?"

[Forum Explorer]

Blank Slate's horn shimmers for a second, before she vanishes completely. Invisible, she charges towards the enemy, depending on them focusing on the visible targets shooting at them rather then herself.

Go invisible (15 strain, lasts 5 turns, 45 AP), charge 26 yards for 20 AP

[DigoDragon]

The Red Eyes responded to the gunfire by pulling triggers. Bullets went flying into the air, but missed their intended targets. Several rounds zipped passed Ajax, one below Straight, one fell short of hitting Cut, and none of the griffons felt a thing. The Red Stallion leader fired upon the hulking minotaur, but his hooves could not hold steady for a clean shot at the moving target.

Skywarp and the four griffons swooped down and returned fire in kind. With the cover denied by the Purple Alicorn, the Red Eyes had to move about and get out of the way from the descending hot death.

Cut Throat double-tapped her Battle Saddle and nailed the Red Stallion with a pair of bullets to the chest. The enemy leader flinched in pain, but turned to locate his attacker. Manco pulled out his rifle, leveled it at the shelter entrance, and shot clear through the foreleg of one of the three Red Eyes guarding the doorway.

The Red Eyes appeared not to give ground yet, determined to defend the cache they laid claim to.

[Forum Explorer]

Blank Slate ran for a bit more before coming to a stop. Her horn glowed brifly before a beam of light shot out at the Red Eye's leader.

Keep charging for 10 AP, slow down for another 15. Total distance traveled is 39 yards. Casting Energy strike for 45 AP. 5 AP spent on dodging for a -5% to hit. Still invisible for 4 turns.

[RCgothic]

Well, hay, we tried.

"What is that? What happened?!" Gerry Rig sorta begins to shout, his helmet ratcheting open. He's clearly flummoxed. "You didn't even give this a chance. We could have easily gotten these guys without killing or hurting anyone, and you roll over immediately? Why?"


The Red Eyes responded to the gunfire by pulling triggers. Bullets went flying into the air, but missed their intended targets. Several rounds zipped passed Ajax, one below Straight, one fell short of hitting Cut, and none of the griffons felt a thing. The Red Stallion leader fired upon the hulking minotaur, but his hooves could not hold steady for a clean shot at the moving target.

Skywarp and the four griffons swooped down and returned fire in kind. With the cover denied by the Purple Alicorn, the Red Eyes had to move about and get out of the way from the descending hot death.

Cut Throat double-tapped her Battle Saddle and nailed the Red Stallion with a pair of bullets to the chest. The enemy leader flinched in pain, but turned to locate his attacker. Manco pulled out his rifle, leveled it at the shelter entrance, and shot clear through the foreleg of one of the three Red Eyes guarding the doorway.

The Red Eyes appeared not to give ground yet, determined to defend the cache they laid claim to.

The alicorn grunts under the strain of holding up two dozen crates and maintaining a shield at the same time. A layer of overglow envelops her horn as her ethereal mane flames out, reverting to strands plastered against her face and neck by sweat.

"Apologies. We did not... have the authority... to avert this! If you wish to fight... we shall... lower the shield."

[DigoDragon]

Blank Slate kept running towards the enemy, not wanting to reveal her presence quite yet.

Keep charging for 70 AP. Total distance traveled, 117 yards

That'll put you behind them if you want. :smallsmile:

Distance was 200 feet, or about 67 yards.

[Forum Explorer]

That'll put you behind them if you want. :smallsmile:

Distance was 200 feet, or about 67 yards.

Hate the Imperial system so much! :smallmad:

Alright, completely redoing my turn. :smallsigh:

[Balmas]

"So much for that plan," Straight muttered. "Fire at will!" The rotten pegasus soared closer, and unloaded into the leader.

30 AP: Fly 150 feet, brings him into close range.
25 AP: Shoot Battle Saddle. 25 under 40. HIT! 26 Damage + 31 damage.
25 AP: Shoot battle Saddle. 6 under 40. HIT! (And almost a crit, too.) 26 damage + 29 damage.
15 AP: Dodge. All enemies take -7% to hit Straight.

[SiuiS]

[roll0]

"Just open the back of the sphere," Gerry Rig sighs, metal sighing back into place. "Use it as a forward wall, I will maneuver around."

[Pokonic]

Ajax felt his heart skip slightly when he saw the numerous guns pointed at himself, but he felt a boost of confidents when he didn't feel death overtake him in the form of little bullets.

He decided to make his way briskly down the hill, close enough to get towards the nearest outlier solder, head lowered to gore the closest pony near him and arms guarding his chest.


30 AP: 9 +(6x2)= 42 yards; should be enough to get close to the nearest Red Eye solder.

Unarmed: (1d100)= 34 It's a hit.

15 AP: Horns attack : 18 + (1d20)= 27

[DigoDragon]

Hate the Imperial system so much! :smallmad:

Alright, completely redoing my turn. :smallsigh:



I shall endeavor to translate numbers into both systems for better clarity.

Blank attempted an Arcane Strike, but the alicorn's fore-hooves met with a particularly well-hidden rock, causing her to trip and faceplant. The spell drilled into the ground and rebounded, dealing the damage to herself!



"So much for that plan," Straight muttered. "Fire at will!" The rotten pegasus soared closer, and unloaded into the leader.

Straight shot up the Red Eyes leader so full of lead that he may have been cured of any lingering radiation in his body! The Red Stallion stumbled on the ground, profusely cursing and bleeding, but was somehow still going on sheer willpower at this point.



Ajax felt his heart skip slightly when he saw the numerous guns pointed at himself, but he felt a boost of confidents when he didn't feel death overtake him in the form of little bullets.

He decided to make his way briskly down the hill, close enough to get towards the nearest outlier solder, head lowered to gore the closest pony near him and arms guarding his chest.

The unfortunate Red Eyes stallion closest to the business-end of Ajax's attack let out a gurgle of painful yelps as he was impaled in the chest by the minotaur's horn.

[SiuiS]

Rig sighs and his automated nail-and-rivet assembly rotated and locked on what was left of the Red Eyes leader. When the shield falls, he's ready.

"Better just stand down, friend."

[Balmas]

"Those who surrender and join us will not be harmed further," roared the pegasus. "Right now, I believe your former leader would die if he sneezed wrong. Throw down your weapons if you wish to live!" The reloader on his battle saddle ch-chnk!ed meaningfully as he leveled the twin rifles at the raiders.

20 AP: reload.
30 AP: Dodge. All enemies take a -15% to target Straight.
18 AP: Precise shot for the next round.

[RCgothic]

[roll0]

"Just open the back of the sphere," Gerry Rig sighs, metal sighing back into place. "Use it as a forward wall, I will maneuver around."

"Magic doesn't... work like that!" she gasps, but drops the shield anyway. The moment it does, the layer of overglow disappears and her strained expression eases, despite the two dozen crates she's still juggling. Freed from the constraint of having top remain still to encase Gerry Rig inside the limited diameter her shield, she spreads her wings and makes off with the crates to a safer distance.

Actions: Sprint, 5x = 70AP, not stopping.
Distance = 27x5x2 = 270yds = 810 ft.

Should now be at extreme range? >450ft.

12AP to dodge = -6%

[DigoDragon]

The Red Eyes either didn't want to listen to reason or they couldn't hear Straight over the sound of the gunfire. Adrenaline steeled their aim, because now their shots were hitting close to home! The ones that missed attempted to shoot down the Purple Alicorn as she took off with their loot. Those bullets wizzed harmlessly below her. Others were not so lucky.


Ajax took a minor hit for 10 damage, from a Red Eye who came to rescue his impaled buddy.
Straight dodged most of the bullets aimed at him, but the Red Stallion got a lucky shot and dealt 21 damage.



I have already reduced damage by your DT stat.


Manco and Cut failed to land a hit, but Skywarp and the griffons picked up the slack. Skywarp finished the Red Stallion off with two shots to the chest. The leader gasped his last and expired. Three of the four griffons landed solid hits against the two Red Eyes on the field closest to Ajax, softening up the opposition. One of the Red Eyes stopped shooting, turned and fled the scene. He ran away Northward away from the battle at a full gallop.

Red Eyes leader is dead.
1 Enemy is fleeing. Can still be attacked at medium range penalties.

2 Red Eyes closest to Ajax are injured.
3 Red Eyes on the field have not been injured.

1 Red Eyes inside the shelter has been injured.
2 Red Eyes inside the shelter have not been injured.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn lands at extreme range, stacks the crates neatly, and then stands guard over them. Ammunition is not so plentiful that there's any point wasting bullets at this range, even with her targeting spell.

[SiuiS]

"I'm not well versed in shielding magic, lady, Sorry!" Rig quips in his haste, so distracted he doesn't even consider apologizing (yet).

Damn it! I don't have much juice, I can't afford to keep doing this... "Targeter, engage!"

Gerry Rig's double-barreled automatic nail rig swivels from the downed corpse of the Red Eyes leader to others, swiveling onto the fleeing soldier while he waits for the shield to drop.

[LSC TARGETING v. 3.11.2 active
LUNA NOS CUSTODIT


Targeting protocol: ACTIVE
Acquisition of YANKEE: FAILURE
Acquisition of XRAY: FAILURE

Condition state: MODERATE
Wellness state: CRITICAL!

triangulating NLR Forces MASH unit location
... Searching
... Searching
... Searching

ANTENNAE FAULT DETECTED


Corona sweep: gunfire present, armor present, magical signatures present
Suppression protocol ACTIVE
Fleeing signature acquired

... Calculating]

[Balmas]

"You heard their answer. Kill 'em all!" Shouting over the noise of battle was ridiculous, doubly so as the twin blast from his battle saddle stole the words from him. Twin hornets blasted their way through the fleeing pony's mane, but just missed the skin. "Dammit!"

He wasn't going to get away. Straight shot after the fleeing pony, and bit down on the bit.

25 AP: Shoot Battle Saddle. 49 (!) over 48. Hairline miss.
15 AP: Move to get in short range. 144 feet hopefully is enough.
43 AP: Precise Shot: 90 over 40. Miss.
12 AP: Precise shot for next round.

[Forum Explorer]

I'm so glad nopony saw that. Blank Slate muttered to herself. Her horn began glowing as she prepared her next spell.

Casting Eldritch Knives for 45 AP

15 AP spent on dodging

trying to hide even the small traces of her magic [roll0]. Under 20 is auto success but do I get a bonus since I'm just trying to hide the glow of my horn and I'm otherwise invisible?

[SiuiS]

[now now, lemme actually finish my turn fore y'all jump the gun :smallwink:]

targeting/Aim, 3x PER AP
Aiming 12 + full autofire 30 + full autofire (linked) 0 + movement sufficient to catch up to guy and reduce range penalty n

With his fritzy auto targeting system compensating for movement and target's movement, Gerry Rig bolts after the X-ray, leaping to gain a height arc advantage and letting the saddle unload from a side-lock position.

target 53 -25 (autofire) + 12 (precision) = 40

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]

[roll5]
[roll6]
[roll7]
[roll8]
[roll9]

20 rounds expended

[Pokonic]

The Red Eyes either didn't want to listen to reason or they couldn't hear Straight over the sound of the gunfire. Adrenaline steeled their aim, because now their shots were hitting close to home! The ones that missed attempted to shoot down the Purple Alicorn as she took off with their loot. Those bullets wizzed harmlessly below her. Others were not so lucky.


Ajax took a minor hit for 10 damage, from a Red Eye who came to rescue his impaled buddy.
Straight dodged most of the bullets aimed at him, but the Red Stallion got a lucky shot and dealt 21 damage.


Ajax grimaced when a pony actually connected with one of his horns; the noises it was making was unpleasant to listen to, and, furthermore, it was getting a little bit of blood on his face. He felt a small sharp pain go up his spine when he felt what could only be a bullet before he could image any doubts as to what he was doing, however, and in a fit of rage he swung his head upwards in a sweeping motion, doing his best to throw the pony off his horns.

30 AP: Unarmed role: 1d100 = 39! Close save.

Attack: (1d20)=16

18 + 16 = 34

STR Check: 1d10 = 4

[DigoDragon]

Purple Alicorn was indeed safely out of range from the Red Eyes' gun skills. The enemy may have accepted the loss of their loot, or maybe they were preoccupied with their very survival at this point!

Gerry's twin automatics imitated what could possibly be described as 'Death Blossom' The ghoul managed to nail six ponies with his hail of bullets, which included the two fighting Ajax, the one trying to escape, and all three Red Eyes by the shelter entrance. The rattle-tat of dakka was rivaled only by the screams of pain of the victims.

Straight Shot may have missed the escaping Red Eye, but with Gerry's hit that pony was leaving a little bit of a blood trail and he hadn't left medium range just yet.

Blank Slate's spell was indeed unnoticed by anypony! Along with her invisibility, she was silent death waiting to happen.

Ajax's swing sent the Red Eye sailing off his horns into the air. The victim flew about 5 yards back and hit the ground like a rag doll. He was dead before he even landed.



The heavily injured Red Eye by the shelter entrance collapsed in a fit of tears and pain. He attempted to bandage his wounds. The other two abandoned their post and attempted a 'tactical retreat'; that is to say, they fired wildly into the air as the booked it to escape. Out in the field, with the second enemy down, the remaining four regrouped. They attempted to alternate-- two shooting and two trying to patch up their injured buddies.

Skywarp and the griffons concentrated their fire upon the four standing ponies, while Manco and Cut took shots at the two Red Eyes that are in 'tactical retreat'.

Rolls~
[roll0]
[roll1]

[roll2]
[roll3]

[roll4]
[roll5]

[roll6]
[roll7]

Results:

One of the Red Eyes in 'tactical' retreat nailed Manco with a lucky shot! (crit)
Gerry takes a hit from one of the two Red Eyes in the 2-by-2 formation (16 damage, I assume no armor?)
Skywarp just manages to hit one of the two Red Eyes in 'tactical retreat'
All other NPCs missed their shots.

[Balmas]

"You're beginning to annoy me," Straight muttered, lining up another shot. The bullets finally flew true this time. Straight bit down again, just to make sure. Then, fairly sure that the pony was dead, he headed back to the main group.


31 AP: Precise Shot. 16 under 58. HIT! 24 damage + 24 damage.
25 AP: Shoot Battle Saddle. 15 under 40. HIT! 23 damage + 28 damage.
20 AP: Reload.
15 AP: Fly back towards the main battle. 144 feet.
4 AP: Dodge. -4% on attacks to hit Straight.

[Forum Explorer]

Blank Slate moves forward before flinging the knives out as they materilize at the closest Red Eye still fighting.

Move forward 9 yards before casting Eldritch Knives

to hit [roll0] dealing 120 damage on a hit. Science skill of 50.

dodgeing for 15 AP for a -15% to hit. Remember that they get a +5 to hit due to being an alicorn.

Oh, but I'm still invisible for this turn. It fades next turn.

[DigoDragon]

"You're beginning to annoy me," Straight muttered, lining up another shot. The bullets finally flew true this time. Straight bit down again, just to make sure. Then, fairly sure that the pony was dead, he headed back to the main group.

The fleeing Red Eye was just a bloody mess after all those bullets blew through him. He collapsed dead without a sound, dropping the handgun he had.



Blank Slate moves forward before flinging the knives out as they materilize at the closest Red Eye still fighting.

One of the Red Eyes in the two-by-two formation developed a sudden case of chestburster. The spell ripped through him so quickly that he likely felt nothing when he died. The stallion adjacent to him dropped the medical supplies he was trying to use and yelled out in a panic, unsure of what he just witnessed.

[RCgothic]

The alicorn merely sits by the crates, guarding them from any others on the battlefield who might try their hooves at opportunism. She stoically watches the developing massacre unfold.

[SiuiS]

"SERIOUSLY!" Rig shouts through electronic amplification. "NOW is a very SWIMMING time to stop fighting and SURRENDER." combat was one thing, but executing downed soldiers from under the medic's knife was making him sick, even if they were still shooting.

[Pokonic]

Ajax snorted after he tossed the pony away from him, not even bothering to see if it was still moving. Turning around, he saw that there was far fewer little ponies around then he expected. With his horns bloodied and his face in a scowl, he watched as the ponies shot at each other; he was far from stupid, to try and rush into a shootout.

[DigoDragon]

The writing was on the wall and some of the Red Eyes knew it. The two in 'tactical retreat' went into a full out run for their lives. Two of the three ponies on the field also booked it. They didn't leave as a group, but they were all relatively headed in a similar northward direction.

This left one pony on the field who was too injured to run. He dropped his weapon and put his fore-hooves up, surrendering. The other pony left was by the shelter entrance. He was still trying to patch himself up, but had otherwise give up the fight. Unless anyone went after the four fleeing Red Eyes, this shelter appeared to be finally secured.

[Forum Explorer]

Blank Slate finally popped back into visibility as she started gathering all of the weapons of the fallen and surrendered into a pile far away from either of them.

[Balmas]

Straight dropped the pistol on the growing pile of weapons. "Alright. Any wounded? Now's the time to say." The ghoul sighed, and trotted to where the surrendering stallion stood. "You can put yer legs down, son. I won't hurt you. Where's it hurt?"

[RCgothic]

Once it's clear resistance has ended, the alicorn picks up the crates again and conveys them back to the stable entrance. Stacking them neatly, she begins triage of the wounded, starting with the injured foes. She walks up to the pony by the entranceway, offering to help bind their wounds with kind words.

"Here, let us help with that."


Restoration x4 across ponies that need it.
20 strain

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

[RCgothic]

d10s not d20s!

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]

[DigoDragon]

Blank Slate finally popped back into visibility as she started gathering all of the weapons of the fallen and surrendered into a pile far away from either of them.

Blank recovered four 10mm pistols and a varmint rifle.
Ammo amounted to twenty-four rounds of 10mm bullets and two 5.56mm rounds.
The real cache was the Red Stallion's backpack:
2 frag mines
1 pair of binoculars
3 doses of RadSafe
5 does of Healing Potion
2 doses of Rage
1 Magazine entitled 'Front Toward Enemy' (+10% one time bonus to Explosives)



Straight dropped the pistol on the growing pile of weapons. "Alright. Any wounded? Now's the time to say." The ghoul sighed, and trotted to where the surrendering stallion stood. "You can put yer legs down, son. I won't hurt you. Where's it hurt?"

The Red Eye put his legs down and showed the two bullet holes he took. The other by the door did a decent enough patch job and just sat there awaiting his fate. Skywarp and the griffons appeared alright. They stayed airborne and watched the retreating ponies flee.

Manco limped over to Straight, showing off the lucky shot he took to the chest. Cut poked at it for no real reason.

"Ow. Please don't do that," Manco said to Cut.

"Why, does it hurt?" Cut asked, poking it again.

The Zebra sighed. "If you want one so badly, go get yourself shot. Wanna borrow my gun?"

"Hmm, tempting," Cut said. She stopped poking Manco and looked up to Straight. "Well, I guess we got ourselves a shelter. Nice leadership."

[Pokonic]

Ajax walked over towards the single pony who had yet to flee, very much prepared to have a 'conversation' with it when the alicorn finished it's spells. He noticed that some of the others were going though the dead's things; while he wasn't especially surprised by ponies scavenging from their dead, he was slightly unnerved.

[DigoDragon]

Once it's clear resistance has ended, the alicorn picks up the crates again and conveys them back to the stable entrance. Stacking them neatly, she begins triage of the wounded, starting with the injured foes. She walks up to the pony by the entranceway, offering to help bind their wounds with kind words.

"Here, let us help with that."

The surrendered stallion by the entrance-way accepted the help, though he appeared a bit confused. The Purple Alicorn could tell he wasn't that well versed in bandaging. Or receiving help. The other prisoner was slightly better off, but still needed the help.

[Balmas]

Straight nodded his thanks. "I think the thanks goes to everyone. Good job, folks! We have a new home, at least until we find somewhere better. Wounded should take a healing potion, unless one of our resident alicorns has some more healing juice tucked in their horns. Skywarp, once you're healed, you and I will go bring the rest of the group."

[DigoDragon]

Ajax walked over towards the single pony who had yet to flee, very much prepared to have a 'conversation' with it when the alicorn finished it's spells. He noticed that some of the others were going though the dead's things; while he wasn't especially surprised by ponies scavenging from their dead, he was slightly unnerved.

The prisoner couldn't meet Ajax's gaze, likely out of fear. He remained quiet, other than what sounded like he was whispering a prayer to himself.



Straight nodded his thanks. "I think the thanks goes to everyone. Good job, folks! We have a new home, at least until we find somewhere better. Wounded should take a healing potion, unless one of our resident alicorns has some more healing juice tucked in their horns. Skywarp, once you're healed, you and I will go bring the rest of the group."

"I'm good to go," Skywarp stated after a quick check. "I bet they'll be pleased to have a roof over their heads."

[SiuiS]

[LSC TARGETING v. 3.11.2 standby
LUNA NOS CUSTODIT


Targeting protocol: ACTIVE
Acquisition of YANKEE: SUCCESS
Acquisition of XRAY: FAILURE

All XRAYs within range suppressed
... Searching
... Searching

Corona sweep: armor present, magical signatures present, wounded present
All protocols DEACTIVATING

Remaining power CRITICAL!!
Sleep-mode recharge. Goodbye RIG, GERRY: SERGEANT

LUNA NOBIS PROVIDET]

Rig sighs and looks after the routed fighters. "Tell me, kid. What are the odds your friends are running to get more soldiers and take this place?" he asks. He tries to poke around at the red eyes' wounds, but the Alicorn seems to be handling that on her own...

"Just in case, anypony wanna help me stuff these crates full of dirt and use them as a barricade?"

[RCgothic]

"There there. We have others to tend to, but our sister shall keep you safe," the alicorn reassures the remaining Red Eyes, shepherding them in the direction of Blank Slate.

"We are nearing our limit, but we shall see what we can do," she tells Straight Arrow as she begins looking over the remaining ponies. The weariness in her gait is becoming uncomfortably obvious.

Once that is done, the alicorn turns to helping Gerry Rig. "Leave it to us. Just tell us where you would like the barricade and we shall make it so." Despite her weariness, she uses her telekinesis to empty the crates, passing the food rations to other ponies and then scooping up great clumps of earth to fill each emptied crate with sod. Then she piles a rampart of earth in front of the crates for good measure. With Gerry's direction, the fortification is a good one.



3 additional restoration spells.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Telekinesis 10 mins, 1 strain.

The alicorn is now very near burnout, at 143/145 strain.

[Pokonic]

Ajax grumbled at the pony seemingly ignoring him, and kicked at the ground lightly, near the pony.

"I do not suffer fools in my presence, least of all ponies who refute me. Look at me, pony, and tell me your name, or I will undo what the alicorn did and worse."

[Balmas]

Rig sighs and looks after the routed fighters. "Tell me, kid. What are the odds your friends are running to get more soldiers and take this place?" he asks. He tries to poke around at the red eyes' wounds, but the Alicorn seems to be handling that on her own...

"Just in case, anypony wanna help me stuff these crates full of dirt and use them as a barricade?"

"We'll want to do that anyway. Make our position more defensible in case anyone else wants to try their luck."


"There there. We have others to tend to, but our sister shall keep you safe," the alicorn reassures the remaining Red Eyes, shepherding them in the direction of Blank Slate.

"We are nearing our limit, but we shall see what we can do," she tells Straight Arrow as she begins looking over the remaining ponies. The weariness in her gait is becoming uncomfortably obvious.

Once that is done, the alicorn turns to helping Gerry Rig. "Leave it to us. Just tell us where you would like the barricade and we shall make it so." Despite her weariness, she uses her telekinesis to empty the crates, passing the food rations to other ponies and then scooping up great clumps of earth to fill each emptied crate with sod. Then she piles a rampart of earth in front of the crates for good measure. With Gerry's direction, the fortification is a good one.



3 additional restoration spells.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Telekinesis 10 mins, 1 strain.

The alicorn is now very near burnout, at 143/145 strain.

"Thank you. If you're tired, you should try to take a nap somewhere, regain some of your strength. You've done a good job today."


"I'm good to go," Skywarp stated after a quick check. "I bet they'll be pleased to have a roof over their heads."

Straight nods, and, after shooting a look at the minotaur, spreads his wing. "Please, take care not to kill him before we get back. I did say that those who surrendered wouldn't be harmed."

[DigoDragon]

"Tell me, kid. What are the odds your friends are running to get more soldiers and take this place?" he asks.

Prisoner 1: "Well, probably none? We haven't met any other surviving groups yet," the young stallion answered. "Not since losing the big battle earlier today."



Once that is done, the alicorn turns to helping Gerry Rig. "Leave it to us. Just tell us where you would like the barricade and we shall make it so." Despite her weariness, she uses her telekinesis to empty the crates, passing the food rations to other ponies and then scooping up great clumps of earth to fill each emptied crate with sod. Then she piles a rampart of earth in front of the crates for good measure. With Gerry's direction, the fortification is a good one.

The Purple Alicorn, despite her weariness, managed to replace enough crates with sod to get a nice wall build up around the shelter entrance. The contents inside the crates was indeed food-- military rations and water for the most part, but still edible and potable. Occasionally a box of snack cakes would be found among the rations. There was probably enough to feed the whole of the survivors for a few days, longer if carefully rationed.



"I do not suffer fools in my presence, least of all ponies who refute me. Look at me, pony, and tell me your name, or I will undo what the alicorn did and worse."

Prisoner 2: "I- My name is Flashpoint. Please don't break me! I'll do whatever you say!"



Straight nods, and, after shooting a look at the minotaur, spreads his wing. "Please, take care not to kill him before we get back. I did say that those who surrendered wouldn't be harmed."

Skywarp flew alongside Straight back toward the crater. In a few minutes they arrive and can see that the survivors were all milling about waiting to move somewhere, anywhere, just to get out of the sun's burning light.

[RCgothic]

"Thank you. If you're tired, you should try to take a nap somewhere, regain some of your strength. You've done a good job today."

"We... we do not require sleep. We shall recover in a few hours."

Even so, she sits in the lee of the new fortification and stares unfocussedly into the middle distance.

[Pokonic]

Prisoner 2: "I- My name is Flashpoint. Please don't break me! I'll do whatever you say!"


Ajax looked at the pony, rolled his eyes, and nodded his head.

"My name is Ajax, pony. You seem to understand the situation well enough. There are many ponies who were once slaves, who will be coming here very soon. If you do not prove yourself obedient to me, I shall tell them that you served Red Eye, and then you shall surely die. This is the end of days, but you will die just like every other pony here if you act against me. Now, get up."

[Balmas]

"Good news, everypony!" Straight hovered over the group. "We have a new home, and enough food for everyone! I'm going to need your help to get everyone there! Please, those who are least injured, help those who can't walk or fly there."

[SiuiS]

"There there. We have others to tend to, but our sister shall keep you safe," the alicorn reassures the remaining Red Eyes, shepherding them in the direction of Blank Slate.

"We are nearing our limit, but we shall see what we can do," she tells Straight Arrow as she begins looking over the remaining ponies. The weariness in her gait is becoming uncomfortably obvious.

Once that is done, the alicorn turns to helping Gerry Rig. "Leave it to us. Just tell us where you would like the barricade and we shall make it so." Despite her weariness, she uses her telekinesis to empty the crates, passing the food rations to other ponies and then scooping up great clumps of earth to fill each emptied crate with sod. Then she piles a rampart of earth in front of the crates for good measure. With Gerry's direction, the fortification is a good one.



3 additional restoration spells.

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

Telekinesis 10 mins, 1 strain.

The alicorn is now very near burnout, at 143/145 strain.

"I uh... Welp. Thanks, lass."

The ghoul watches for a while, getting a feel for the crowd before moving. His first action is to take a stick, one of the few growing things of the wastes, young and succulent, and mourn it's death at the hands of a magical repeater. His second act is to take the sizzled thing and use it as chalk, scrawling on the side of a crate;

GOALS


Civillian
Military
Engineering


• food
• Water
• partitions/Privacy
• sanitation
• recreation
• weapons
• armor
• watch rotation
• Workbench
• tools
• supplies (medical?)


[names]
[Go]
[here]




With that done, he waves Straight Arrow to the "planning board" and then walks past the Minotaur and his interrogations. "Alright, Listen up! These ponies who died are still people. They still deserve some respect. So instead of leaving them to the scavengers, I aim to give them a proper send off and service! That means burial and that means digging. Can I get some volunteers?"

[SiuiS]

Gerry Rig scowls behind his faceplate at the simultaneous orders. He doesn't want to be in charge, but he does want a decent group of ponies... How the crowd responds is going to be critical to their future...

[DigoDragon]

"My name is Ajax, pony. You seem to understand the situation well enough. There are many ponies who were once slaves, who will be coming here very soon. If you do not prove yourself obedient to me, I shall tell them that you served Red Eye, and then you shall surely die. This is the end of days, but you will die just like every other pony here if you act against me. Now, get up."

Flashpoint stands up, wobbling a bit having only just (mostly) recovered from his near-death experience and standing before another of the same. "Y-Yes sir, Ajax, sir. Um, what do you want me to do, sir?"



"Good news, everypony!" Straight hovered over the group. "We have a new home, and enough food for everyone! I'm going to need your help to get everyone there! Please, those who are least injured, help those who can't walk or fly there."

Straight notices that the eggshell unicorn was pretty good at organizing the injured. The large group managed to get moving with just a little work and made the trek over to the shelter without difficulty, although the different speeds were apparent. Fliers were moving the fastest, followed by ponies that weren't carrying anything or were only lightly injured. The slowest were the ones carrying the injured or the majority of the few supplies left at the crater.



With that done, he waves Straight Arrow to the "planning board" and then walks past the Minotaur and his interrogations. "Alright, Listen up! These ponies who died are still people. They still deserve some respect. So instead of leaving them to the scavengers, I aim to give them a proper send off and service! That means burial and that means digging. Can I get some volunteers?"

The first of the group to arrive were the pegasi. Three of them volunteered to help dig, along with two griffons.

[Pokonic]

Flashpoint stands up, wobbling a bit having only just (mostly) recovered from his near-death experience and standing before another of the same. "Y-Yes sir, Ajax, sir. Um, what do you want me to do, sir?

It took only a moment for Ajax to think of a suitable task.

"Take what you can from your fallen comrades." he commanded, pointing at the nearest pastel pony corpse, "If you see a gun, alert someone else for them to take it. If you take a gun, or any other weapon, I shall rip off your head."

He was rather pleased with himself. He had obtained a helper pony. This might be at the end of the world, but today was looking towards it being a good day.

[DigoDragon]

"Take what you can from your fallen comrades." he commanded, pointing at the nearest pastel pony corpse, "If you see a gun, alert someone else for them to take it. If you take a gun, or any other weapon, I shall rip off your head."

The stallion did as he was told and collected two used (but still usable) suits of leather armor, a fedora, and [roll0] caps change. He did not touch the weapons at all.

[Balmas]

Straight hovered over the pearl unicorn as the caravan moved. "Good job getting all this organized. What's your name?"

[Forum Explorer]

Blank Slate gives Ajax a dirty look before helping the others dig graves, pulling the extra dirt away to use on supporting the barricades.

[DigoDragon]

With the last of the survivors arriving, things were pretty busy now. The shelter entrance was a short tunnel that led into a sort of 'antechamber'. Likely there was once a heavy door here, but had been stripped long ago. The room's floor had a wide 'speed bump' design to it, likely to keep rain water from flodding the shelter.

From there the tunnel slopped down into the next room, a wide area where most of the supplies were stored. Off to the right were two small rooms that still had a few pipes left of what was once plumbing. The back wall had some makeshift shelving carved into the rock, though the many drill holes indicated there may have once been actual steel shelving once. On the left side was a short hallway into a long room. In here were piles of dusty blankets. The room might have once served as a sleeping area suitable for about one dozen ponies, but now it was nothing more than a large linen closet.

Still, there was plenty of room in the main chamber for everyone to sleep, and the blankets would be useful in that regard, as long as most folks didn't mind sharing.



Straight hovered over the pearl unicorn as the caravan moved. "Good job getting all this organized. What's your name?"

"Sama Rita, sir," the mare responded. "I am but a humble servant of the great Celestia, doing what I can to help our survival."



Blank Slate gives Ajax a dirty look before helping the others dig graves, pulling the extra dirt away to use on supporting the barricades.

The extra dirt proved helpful and after an hour of work the crates were set up in a useful defense formation. The filled crates had considerable stopping power against anything short of an explosive (and even then the crates would probably still offer some protection).

The graves were dug and the bodies buried. None of the volunteers thought of anything akin to a grave marker, unless any of you had an idea to set one up.

[Balmas]

"Sama Rita, sir," the mare responded. "I am but a humble servant of the great Celestia, doing what I can to help our survival."

"From your lips to Celestia's ears," Straight murmured. "Anything I can do to help with that? Any skills you can bring to the table would be extremely helpful."

They had a bit of a working defense set up. Straight sought out the armored engineer's eyes, and nodded gratefully. He'd need to organize people, but for now, he just needed them to be calm.

[Pokonic]

The stallion did as he was told and collected two used (but still usable) suits of leather armor, a fedora, and [roll0] caps change. He did not touch the weapons at all.

Blank Slate gives Ajax a dirty look before helping the others dig graves, pulling the extra dirt away to use on supporting the barricades.

Ajax saw how the Alicorn gave him a unfavorable look, as he watched the pony go through the corpses of his fallen friends, but he did not especially care for either one. He had the stallion put the pony clothing into a single pile, and let him keep half the soda-caps. He stopped paying any attention to Flashpoint when the mob of ponies came into view, content in knowing that he would likely not be able to flee from the area.

As the masses of ponies went inside the shelter, it seemed rather clear that even it would not suffice for too long, and he quickly separated himself from the main group after moving some of the crates. He made himself clear in choosing a spot in the room of dusty blankets, allowing himself some amount of space and peace.

This was a strange and frightening time, one filled with chaos and destruction. Worst of all, he was surrounded by ponies.

[DigoDragon]

"From your lips to Celestia's ears," Straight murmured. "Anything I can do to help with that? Any skills you can bring to the table would be extremely helpful."

"I have some experience as a midwife, but I doubt that will be something you can make use of right now," Sama said with a smile. "However, I am sure Celestia is with us, and I can provide a sermon later this evening to thank her if you don't mind. It might bring calm to the masses."



This was a strange and frightening time, one filled with chaos and destruction. Worst of all, he was surrounded by ponies.

Speaking of, one pony seemed to poke his head into the long-room. It was a unicorn with a strawberry blonde mane. He seemed to be curious. "Hey mister, whatcha doin' all alone here? Are you scared too?"

He walked in and sat across from the minotaur, watching him with interest.

[Pokonic]

Speaking of, one pony seemed to poke his head into the long-room. It was a unicorn with a strawberry blonde mane. He seemed to be curious. "Hey mister, whatcha doin' all alone here? Are you scared too?"

He walked in and sat across from the minotaur, watching him with interest.

Ajax was going through his meager things, sitting in a corner of the room, when the pony came into the room. Ajax wasn't startled by the pony, but he was a little annoyed by how he couldn't tell how old it was. The differences between a pony of twenty and a pony of forty years still alluded him.

"I have had a long day, and I have fought and bled. I am not used to so many ponies in one place." he said, groaning lightly as he brushed the single wound he had obtained over the course of the day, "I am far from scared, however, in this dark time. Unsure, yes, but I would be mad to be confident in the world on a day when the sky broke. Tell me, are you scared, pony?"

[Balmas]

Straight chuckled. "Nope, not much use for a midwife, s'far as I can see. Not yet, anyway. Not even sure I have the necessary hardware anymore. Mighta fallen off a few decades ago. But yes, maybe a rousing good speech could lift some spirits. Focus on how there's hope in our lives."

The ghoul patted the unicorn on the shoulder, and then trotted off to find Gerry.

[DigoDragon]

"I have had a long day, and I have fought and bled. I am not used to so many ponies in one place." he said, groaning lightly as he brushed the single wound he had obtained over the course of the day, "I am far from scared, however, in this dark time. Unsure, yes, but I would be mad to be confident in the world on a day when the sky broke. Tell me, are you scared, pony?"

This unicorn's age seemed somewhere between the little foals and the adults, based on his size at least.

"Well, yeah mister. I'm plenty scared," he said. He idly pushed some buttons on an odd device strapped to one of his forelegs, but the object didn't seem to make any kind of response. As if it were a prop. "I'm a long way from home and nothing looks familiar. I still get dizzy looking up at that big space you call the sky. Back home this ceiling was about as high as our sky got."

[Pokonic]

This unicorn's age seemed somewhere between the little foals and the adults, based on his size at least.

"Well, yeah mister. I'm plenty scared," he said. He idly pushed some buttons on an odd device strapped to one of his forelegs, but the object didn't seem to make any kind of response. As if it were a prop. "I'm a long way from home and nothing looks familiar. I still get dizzy looking up at that big space you call the sky. Back home this ceiling was about as high as our sky got."

Ajax considered what the young-sounding pony said.

"I once lived in a cave, a few days travel from here. I understand what you mean."

He paused, looking at the strange thing on the pony's leg but deciding not to comment on it.

"Do you have no family here?" he said, after a while, "Or are you alone here?"

[SiuiS]

The stallion did as he was told and collected two used (but still usable) suits of leather armor, a fedora, and [roll0] caps change. He did not touch the weapons at all.

Gerry gives the Minotaur a look, too, but it's behind flattened metal caging and probably goes unnoticed. Since the soldier left any weapons behind though, Gerry decides to scoop them up himself, for parts and for the pile.


"From your lips to Celestia's ears," Straight murmured. "Anything I can do to help with that? Any skills you can bring to the table would be extremely helpful."

They had a bit of a working defense set up. Straight sought out the armored engineer's eyes, and nodded gratefully. He'd need to organize people, but for now, he just needed them to be calm.

Sama Rita gets added to the board, after overseeing the burials. There are no markers, but the engineer was both morbid enough and technical enough to remember where they were lain.


"I have some experience as a midwife, but I doubt that will be something you can make use of right now," Sama said with a smile. "However, I am sure Celestia is with us, and I can provide a sermon later this evening to thank her if you don't mind. It might bring calm to the masses."

"Dont be too hasty," he whispers just within earshot as he makes his rounds. "There's a mare heavy with foal not too far from here, maybe half a day's hard run, who we should be seeing soon. I uh, may have executed her husband for attacking me repeatedly. So some bad blood there. Be careful about that."


Eventually, in the mess that is the swirl of society trying to crystallize amongst dozens of creatures who all know best and dozens upon dozens who all wish someone else knew what to do and a full gross who just wishes to be comforted but turned to a hard external mask instead, Gerry Rig finds the ghoulish Pegasus directing tragic from slightly above ground level.

"Hear you've been lookin' for me?"

[Forum Explorer]

After finishing her task, Blank Slate looked around the shelter for all of her charges, taking care to say some encouraging words to each one as she found them.

[Balmas]

Eventually, in the mess that is the swirl of society trying to crystallize amongst dozens of creatures who all know best and dozens upon dozens who all wish someone else knew what to do and a full gross who just wishes to be comforted but turned to a hard external mask instead, Gerry Rig finds the ghoulish Pegasus directing tragic from slightly above ground level.

"Hear you've been lookin' for me?"

"That's right," Straight said, signalling a pegasus to come up and replace him, so he could talk. "Let's walk and talk, shall we?"

"Lemme tell you some things. I was born here. Not here, this bunker, but here in Fillydelphia. Died here, too. I've been around since then, trying to do some good. I came back 'cause I heard that Red Eye bit it recently, and figured I could save some few ponies, lead 'em away to a better life."

The pegasus watched as a filly cried, and a weary unicorn--probably not its mother, different coloration--ambled over and lent a shoulder. The filly huffed and snuffled until the tears were spent, and Straight sighed.

"Thing is, I never expected to have this many. I didn't quite plan on over a hundred mares, stallions, and foals. If it were a small group of ponies, or if we weren't surrounded by Hellhound country, I'd feel better about packing up and seeing if we can't manage to hit New Appleoosa before the rations run out. Thing is, I don't think some of these ponies would make it. Too many wounded, too many foals. Too many civilian pegasi, too. Flyers're useful, but I'll bet there're some of them probably don't know which end of a gun goes bang.

"So, way's I see it, we're going to have to bunker down, see if we can't establish ourselves a bit here. Good job on the gate, by the way. Glad to see that. Initiative, shows brains. That's why I wanted to talk to you. You're an engineer, you're good at that sort of stuff. I can lead just fine, but I'm going to need your help in figuring out how. First thing we're going to need is more food and water; we have enough for a few days, maybe a week if we stretch it, but we need to find a reliable source. Weapons, armor, bullets, and healing supplies. We can probably pick some from the battlefield, but I'll wager there're others with the same thought. Between all o' us, there's probably enough to give the civilians some gun training, so we can at least count on that.

"Guess what I'm tryin' to say is, I need your help. What can I do to help you?"

[SiuiS]

"I'll be honest, Staight Arrow. I think we've jumped the gun a little bit. Ponies see the sky for the first time and decide to hunker down?" the worn and broken armor pieces come off, bit by bit. Gerry's grueling and mummified fleshed twitches a bit as he scratches his chin with a hoof. "A bunch of decisions that made sense at the time and add up to a whole heap'a... Somethin'.

This is a chance to fix things. All the crap that led to the wastelands in the first place, that's been sorted. Now it's up to pony folk whether the wastes stay wastes or not. And that's exciting. You've got a lot of people, and first thing we need is infrastructure. I can do that. Helping out ponies is what I do, hard as the Rangers made it sometimes. And for infrastructure, you need parts. Parts I can do. But there is where things go sour.

You want parts fast? You raid for 'em. Then suddenly you're not the hope in a dark land, you're another Blueblooded narcissist who wants to be Princess at someone else's expense, and that's bad. But you don't go raidin', you'll be hit hard by someone without those qualms.

So you have a few choices. You raid and rummage, can be done nicely by taking apart unstable powers near abouts. You trade for parts, start enough commerce other places want to keep you around, get legitimate that way. Or... Shoot. You go hunting? What do ponies even eat? I've been dead long enough it never bothered me. Wasteland. Land of wastes. No farms, no oases, nothing. So it's gonna have to be raiding or trading. Leat until we get the parts to build a humidity collector and start growing fungus farms."

Gerry Rig collects and takes stock of Every. Single. Weapon. in the compound as he talks, up to and including anything strapped to the others Luna willing. He also co answers the pipes, examining and measuring them for armor, weapons tubing, or simple irrigation.


Since crafting anything just requires certain components at certain cap value (like 'mechanical parts [20] or medical rummage [15] and herbs [5]), we may as well consider collecting everything possible and drawing from a. Communal pool to build stuff.

This has the benefit of functioning like one of those "buy upgrades for your town, your barracks, your economy" things like in civilization or an RTS. Also makes book keeping easy, especially with Diego's knack for excel documents.

"So that's really my plan, Major. I'm going to help ponies survive. Make them comfortable. The ponies I leave behind, I want to set them up to keep them clean, and safe. I'm going to take stock of what and who we have, and if we have fewer able bodied fighters than weapons, I'm going to consolidate parts for you guys. And then I'm going to go to another town or settlement, and I'm going to do the same and probably being parts back. I'm going to leave lots of notes discussing ideas and suggestions, and I'm going to start with tearing down everything in a twenty mile radius and building houses and buildings above-ground, leave the as able as a fallback.

Because the sky is clear and blue, Major. The sky is clear. And it's blue. And you're going to do what you need to do while I clean and I jam an. Polish everything here. You're going to match those kids outside, every damn filly and colt, and you're going to give them a ball, and then you're going to fly. You're going to take the rest of the day to enjoy the god damn sunshine and count your blessings. Because we both know in a few days you and I both are going to need to dip into some rads and that means you either magically find a quarantine room and a broken vale fire bomb, or you leav town, too.

Give these people a reason to like you, not just respect you, and then maybe you can come back. Because right now, the very next thing that's gonna happen in your life is somepony is gonna be a wise ass and realize the only reason you're in charge is you started talking first."

[DigoDragon]

"I once lived in a cave, a few days travel from here. I understand what you mean."
He paused, looking at the strange thing on the pony's leg but deciding not to comment on it.

"Do you have no family here?" he said, after a while, "Or are you alone here?"

The unicorn fidgeted with his hooves. "I... guess I'm alone. Don't know where my family is, where anyone is, since we fled the fire-breathers. I was hoping I'd find someone I knew, but... no. At least I found you nice folks. I can stay with you all, right? Until I can find my family?"



After finishing her task, Blank Slate looked around the shelter for all of her charges, taking care to say some encouraging words to each one as she found them.

She managed to locate every foal. They were a bit apprehensive about their surroundings, but much calmer compared to hours earlier when they were fleeing the battlefield. They stuck together, although several started making friends with some of the other foals that came with families that fled as well.

[Pokonic]

The unicorn fidgeted with his hooves. "I... guess I'm alone. Don't know where my family is, where anyone is, since we fled the fire-breathers. I was hoping I'd find someone I knew, but... no. At least I found you nice folks. I can stay with you all, right? Until I can find my family?"

Ajax considered the prospects.

"No, you shall not."

He stood up, and arched his back. The room was big enough so that he could stand as tall as he wished, but it was a habit that refused to die.

"Come with me. There are ponies here that would accept you, and have better food and drink than what I could offer." he said, trying to sound reasonable.

[DigoDragon]

"No, you shall not."
He stood up, and arched his back. The room was big enough so that he could stand as tall as he wished, but it was a habit that refused to die.

"Come with me. There are ponies here that would accept you, and have better food and drink than what I could offer." he said, trying to sound reasonable.

Rocket followed him, unsure where Ajax was taking him. The minotaur could see that the ponies were busily organizing the food. A few meandered back and forth through the exit as well. The littlest ponies were gathered together with one of the alicorns. An eggshell unicorn was getting a circle together and speaking to them about someone called 'Celestia'. Several ponies were going through the weapons, taking some apart and putting others together. Ajax could see Flashpoint with this group, though he was not touching the weapons himself, only discussing them with the others.

[Balmas]

"Yeah, that's what I figured. Bout the raiding and trading, I mean." Straight cracked his neck, and slid off his helmet. "Right. If you need anything, you come and find me, kay?"

[Pokonic]

Rocket followed him, unsure where Ajax was taking him. The minotaur could see that the ponies were busily organizing the food. A few meandered back and forth through the exit as well. The littlest ponies were gathered together with one of the alicorns. An eggshell unicorn was getting a circle together and speaking to them about someone called 'Celestia'. Several ponies were going through the weapons, taking some apart and putting others together. Ajax could see Flashpoint with this group, though he was not touching the weapons himself, only discussing them with the others.

Ajax took his time looking over the ponies doing their work. Seeing Flashpoint, he did nothing; he made sure the unicorn saw him, however.

He eventually elected to go towards where the white-coated unicorn who was speaking of Celestia; vaguely interested in what the pony had to say. The ponies going through the food and weapons did not need his assistance, and it wasn't as if the alicorn would need his as well.

[DigoDragon]

He eventually elected to go towards where the white-coated unicorn who was speaking of Celestia; vaguely interested in what the pony had to say. The ponies going through the food and weapons did not need his assistance, and it wasn't as if the alicorn would need his as well.

The unicorn in question was giving a sermon. "-all of us, and guides our hooves to work together in harmony. Let us praise Celestia for the chance we have been given here to spread her word of love and tolerance." She stops when she sees the minotaur approach.

"You are welcome to join us. We are giving thanks for the food and shelter we have received today."

[Pokonic]

The unicorn in question was giving a sermon. "-all of us, and guides our hooves to work together in harmony. Let us praise Celestia for the chance we have been given here to spread her word of love and tolerance." She stops when she sees the minotaur approach.

"You are welcome to join us. We are giving thanks for the food and shelter we have received today."

Ajax decided to take a seat nearby, only speaking after he did so. He looked over the gathered group of ponies, trying to see the sort of ponies who were gathered here.

"I am glad I am welcome." he said, giving the unicorn a questioning glance.

[DigoDragon]

Ajax decided to take a seat nearby, only speaking after he did so. He looked over the gathered group of ponies, trying to see the sort of ponies who were gathered here.

"I am glad I am welcome." he said, giving the unicorn a questioning glance.

Some of the ponies scooted aside to give Ajax room. It was hard to pinpoint what this group had in common. Some appeared to be battle-harden wanderers, others destitute slaves, and a few seemed like well-to-do survivors. Your best guess would be that the commonality was that they were all previously injured today. Even the zebra was here. Rocket sat down with the crowd, having no objection to watching for now.

"Tell me, what is your name?" the unicorn asked of the minotaur.

[Pokonic]

Some of the ponies scooted aside to give Ajax room. It was hard to pinpoint what this group had in common. Some appeared to be battle-harden wanderers, others destitute slaves, and a few seemed like well-to-do survivors. Your best guess would be that the commonality was that they were all previously injured today. Even the zebra was here. Rocket sat down with the crowd, having no objection to watching for now.

"Tell me, what is your name?" the unicorn asked of the minotaur.

"My name is Ajax." he said, after he had scanned the gathered group, unsure of what else he could say.

[Balmas]

Straight wandered through the Stable, quietly wondering at all the activity. It'd been a long time since he'd seen so many ponies that weren't shooting at him. So many different pastels.

The old pony had a disturbing desire to squee at the sight. Instead, he indulged in a face-splitting grin.

"You know," he said, finally stopping next to a group of foals and foalsitters. "It's been too long since the sun has been out. Too long since we've been able to run and play in it. I say it's time to take it back, don't you think?"

[SiuiS]

"Yeah, that's what I figured. Bout the raiding and trading, I mean." Straight cracked his neck, and slid off his helmet. "Right. If you need anything, you come and find me, kay?"

"Definitely. Hey, try stuffing some blankets into themselves. Makes a lumpy but working ball. Play some rugby."

One blanket, the most clean (or at least most evenly dirty) is snagged for an impromptu workbench over a few crates. Gerry Rig has enough miscellaneous cramp floating around to handle the basics of the procedures, and one by one he disassembled, cleans, and reassembles what the crew has, noting it's quality along the way, swapping comparable parts to hodgepodge together whatever high quality arms he can and relegating any really bad pieces into really bad fire arms, marked with a file. Just in case.

Ten pistols, half chambered for 9mm shells and half chambered for 10mm shells (more or less), arranged in crescents to either side of a set of .32s, one rifle, one revolver. The service rifles and the remaining .32s stares each other down like rival families at a joint wedding, and the varmint gun presided over all. The under-maintenance gear of the organizing heroes sat to itself in a crate, to avoid mining with the common riflery.

Eleven small arms, seven long arms, enough ammo to make a foal trigger happy and a wise man cry, and forty combat-ready folks all who would just be itchin' to hold some iron when things go the way of the succulent and calipygian fruit. Damn. And that's not even counting the...

...


The engineer looks up from his task, sighs, and and hammers the internal trigger to activate the pneumatics in his rig. Metal slams into place, slides, opens, covers and clears before the facegrate flares alight with a quick bark of static.

"Whete did we put the armor from the fallen? We need to scrounge whatever we can."


Blank recovered four 10mm pistols and a varmint rifle.
Ammo amounted to twenty-four rounds of 10mm bullets and two 5.56mm rounds.
The real cache was the Red Stallion's backpack:
2 frag mines
1 pair of binoculars
3 doses of RadSafe
5 does of Healing Potion
2 doses of Rage
1 Magazine entitled 'Front Toward Enemy' (+10% one time bonus to Explosives)



The total warm body count came to 104. Among the supplies there were about 40 bottles worth of clean water in various canteens and containers, another 20 bottles worth of dirty (but still drinkable) water, 20 MREs, 15 'fresh' meals, and 10 'prewar snacks' that were still edible.

Weapons found were:
Four 9mm pistols (25 rounds of ammo)
Three .32 rifles (15 rounds of ammo)
Two .10mm pistols (20 rounds of ammo)
Three Service rifles (25 5.56mm rounds of ammo)




Okay, some numbers pulled out of a hat~

Total population not including yourselves: 108



\
Earth Pony
Unicorn
Pegasi
Griffon


Adults (Combatants)
23
3
6
8


Adults (Civilian)
14
16
21
0


Children
17
0
0
0



NPCs with Known Names


Name
Approx. Age
Pony Type
Useful Skills


Cut Throat
? F
Earth
Combat


Linda Marie
30 F
Griffon
Combat


Skywarp
21 M
Pegasus
Combat


Flashpoint
20 M
Earth
Gunsmithing


Graham Biscuit
56 M
Earth
Merchant


Nikola Apple
27 M
Earth
Civil Engineer


Sama Rita
36 F
Unicorn
Midwife/Preacher


Spring Locke
19 F
Pegasus
Infiltration


Rocket Spark
17 M
Unicorn
?

[DigoDragon]

"My name is Ajax." he said, after he had scanned the gathered group, unsure of what else he could say.

"Welcome, Ajax," the unicorn replied warmly. "I am Sama Rita." She proceeded to name off the various ponies in the circle, getting most of them right in two tries. Sama also got Rocket to introduce himself. With that done, Sama continued with her sermon.

"Dear Celestia, we think you for guiding us to this shelter and giving us back the skies." She then continued to speak, telling about the days before the war, days she read about in books and heard from ghouls. Some more ponies joined the circle and Sama had them introduce themselves as well.

Overall is was probably one of the longest moments Ajax had seen of ponies who were strangers, but actually got along with each other. Rocket seemed pretty entranced by the stories Sama was giving, to the point he probably wasn't noticing anything else around him.



"You know," he said, finally stopping next to a group of foals and foalsitters. "It's been too long since the sun has been out. Too long since we've been able to run and play in it. I say it's time to take it back, don't you think?"

The three children with Graham looked quite happy and turned to the merchant for approval. Graham shrugged. "So long as you got somepony watching you. And don't wander off. Don't want none of you stepping on a mine."

The foals under Blank Slate's charge looked to her for the same approval. Many of them put on the 'puppy eyes'. They would love nothing but to enjoy some time outside. The griffon Linda came up. "I'll volunteer to help watch them. I could use a little air as well."



"Where did we put the armor from the fallen? We need to scrounge whatever we can."

Skywarp came over and dropped a pile of armors by Gerry. "Yo, here's a stack that was salvaged earlier. I was thinking of going out for a quick reconnaissance and recovery with some of the other pegasi before sunset. You want me to poke around for anything while I'm out?"

[Pokonic]

"Welcome, Ajax," the unicorn replied warmly. "I am Sama Rita." She proceeded to name off the various ponies in the circle, getting most of them right in two tries. Sama also got Rocket to introduce himself. With that done, Sama continued with her sermon.

"Dear Celestia, we think you for guiding us to this shelter and giving us back the skies." She then continued to speak, telling about the days before the war, days she read about in books and heard from ghouls. Some more ponies joined the circle and Sama had them introduce themselves as well.

Overall is was probably one of the longest moments Ajax had seen of ponies who were strangers, but actually got along with each other. Rocket seemed pretty entranced by the stories Sama was giving, to the point he probably wasn't noticing anything else around him.

Ajax was quiet, as he heard the pony talk, but he took in everything she said. However, this was not because he believed what she was saying; rather, he focused on the name she repeated. Celestia, he had seen that name before. One of the Two Sisters, who ruled Equestria for a thousand and ten years before stepping down. She, who had defeated Discord and Tirek and her own sister, decided that facing another enemy was too much, and gave the reigns of her rule to her sister and six untrained, unskilled ponies. The world burned for that mistake.

Ajax wondered if the mare considered that, that she was talking about a pony who made a terrible mistake; he eventually decided that she probably did not. He vaguely considered going to one of the two Alicorns in the area, to ask them what they thought of their fellow pony princess; did they tend to the foals like Celestia once did with ponies?

He did not know, but, ultimately, he did not especially think it was important. If the ponies thought that the one who made the biggest mistake in their history was someone to look towards for guidance, then that was their folly.

[Forum Explorer]

Oh all right. Blank Slate said with a smile. But I want you all on a buddy system! You keep track of your buddy and they'll keep track of you. Blank Slate busied herself organizing all the foals before they went out to play. Afterwards she looked around, some armored ghoul had been making some passionate speeches to another ghoul and she was curious to see what they were planning. As she searched she noted with approval. that the minotaur from earlier no longer had that 'prisoner' at his side. Hopefully he had been released or had even joined their new community.

[DigoDragon]

He did not know, but, ultimately, he did not especially think it was important. If the ponies thought that the one who made the biggest mistake in their history was someone to look towards for guidance, then that was their folly.

Once the sermon was done, the ponies talked about their experiences today and what would become of them. Many mentioned the two alicorns and the two ghouls being candidates with some kind of leadership quality. They didn't say anything about the minotaur in their midst, but that might be because of a little bit of respectful fear.

The zebra Manco got up and passed by the minotaur. "I'm going out for some air. You want to come with?"



Oh all right. Blank Slate said with a smile. But I want you all on a buddy system! You keep track of your buddy and they'll keep track of you. Blank Slate busied herself organizing all the foals before they went out to play. Afterwards she looked around, some armored ghoul had been making some passionate speeches to another ghoul and she was curious to see what they were planning. As she searched she noted with approval. that the minotaur from earlier no longer had that 'prisoner' at his side. Hopefully he had been released or had even joined their new community.

Four volunteers (Linda, two other griffons, and Graham's wife Ginger Snap) accompanied the school of children outside as chaperons. All four were armed just in case trouble showed up.

The minotaur's 'prisoner' Flashpoint seemed to be getting along fine with the ponies he was with. He seemed to be giving some advice as the group serviced the scrounged weapons. Blank could tell that Flashpoint still had some reservations, occasionally glancing around at nearby ponies, but he seemed otherwise alright.

[SiuiS]

Skywarp came over and dropped a pile of armors by Gerry. "Yo, here's a stack that was salvaged earlier. I was thinking of going out for a quick reconnaissance and recovery with some of the other pegasi before sunset. You want me to poke around for anything while I'm out?"

Now this we can work with.

"Actually, yes. Construction supplies. Anything you wouldn't want to have to make, pipes, wood, bars of metal. Sheets, nails, whatever. If it looks like junk to you I can probably use it. You don't need to bring anything back if it's too burdensome but mark locations, and we'll send out a team to help retrieve. Need to get ponies furniture and facilities, y'know? And some roosts for the griffons would be good. And, uh, how are you guys on weather control? If we could get even a single small rain cloud..."

[DigoDragon]

"Actually, yes. Construction supplies. Anything you wouldn't want to have to make, pipes, wood, bars of metal. Sheets, nails, whatever. If it looks like junk to you I can probably use it. You don't need to bring anything back if it's too burdensome but mark locations, and we'll send out a team to help retrieve. Need to get ponies furniture and facilities, y'know? And some roosts for the griffons would be good. And, uh, how are you guys on weather control? If we could get even a single small rain cloud..."

"Uh, I'm more a soldier than a weatherpony," Skywarp said. "I don't think the... well nevermind. I'll talk to the oter pegasi about that later. Pipes, wood, scrap-metal. That I can do." He whistled for two fellow pegasi to follow him outside.

[Balmas]

"Right!" Straight bounced an irregular blob from one wing to the other. "I want to teach you all a game I used to play back when I was a colt, waaaay back when. You know, when dragons wandered the earth and dirt was brand new!"

The group of foals, at his bidding, yanked a quartet of barrels into a pair of rough goals. "Who here has ever heard of football?"

[SiuiS]

After setting aside the armory components for a while, Gerry Rig seeks out the blue Alicorn of all persons. He has questions. Questions which need answering.

"Hey, there. I have some questions about your gear if you've got time?" he asks, head tilted inquisitively to make up for his fully covered face. The gaggle of children had fled, so his timing seemed to have been perfect.

[Forum Explorer]

Sure, what do you want to know? And I couldn't help overhearing the end of your conversation there. It seems that The Destroyer has taken control over the SPP. As such all weather will now be directly under her command. All you need to do is to bargain with her in order to get what you need. Blank Slate said, smiling at first, but unconsciously losing the smile as she started talking about The Destroyer.

[DigoDragon]

The group of foals, at his bidding, yanked a quartet of barrels into a pair of rough goals. "Who here has ever heard of football?"

Sadly, not one foal raised their hand. The only response Straight got was one colt murmuring "What's a foot?"

The other adults watching the area for trouble didn't appear to pay a lot of attention, more focuses on watching out for signs of trouble. However, the area seemed pretty quiet outside the small gatherings of carrion-attracted wildlife out there.

[SiuiS]

Sure, what do you want to know? And I couldn't help overhearing the end of your conversation there. It seems that The Destroyer has taken control over the SPP. As such all weather will now be directly under her command. All you need to do is to bargain with her in order to get what you need. Blank Slate said, smiling at first, but unconsciously losing the smile as she started talking about The Destroyer.

"Discusing permissions with what is for all purposes an omniscient death not might even work, but requires getting to the omniscient death not. Or radio-backed prayer. But come on, she's not some sort of godmachine, is she? Ha ha ha.

No, I wanted to ask about this recharge stuff. It's later tech, got going mid swing in the war. It's above my pay grade and I want to fix that. What I know is you've got a gun that's a collection of tubes and you've for magic, and somehow it shoots. Can you explain how this thing really works?"

[Pokonic]

Once the sermon was done, the ponies talked about their experiences today and what would become of them. Many mentioned the two alicorns and the two ghouls being candidates with some kind of leadership quality. They didn't say anything about the minotaur in their midst, but that might be because of a little bit of respectful fear.

The zebra Manco got up and passed by the minotaur. "I'm going out for some air. You want to come with?"

Ajax glanced at the zebra after he spoke, and shrugged his shoulders. Perhaps he would have something interesting to say about what the priest said?

Regardless, in response, he nodded and made his way towards the door, figuring that his nod was enough of a response.

[Balmas]

Sadly, not one foal raised their hand. The only response Straight got was one colt murmuring "What's a foot?"

The other adults watching the area for trouble didn't appear to pay a lot of attention, more focuses on watching out for signs of trouble. However, the area seemed pretty quiet outside the small gatherings of carrion-attracted wildlife out there.

"You know, I never actually found that out?" Straight tossed the ball on the ground and rested a hoof on it. "Met a zebra maybe eighty years ago who taught it to me. Old coot, had almost as many scars an' sore spots as I do. And lemme tell you, that old coot was the scariest bastard I've ever seen. Guy could disappear easy as whistling, and you'd never find him until his hooves were crushing your windpipe." The pegasus reared up on his hind legs and threw some pretend punches to demonstrate. "From what he told me, football used to be a way to teach li'l zebras how to fight. Honed their skills. I dunno if there's any truth to that, but I know that it's some damn good fun. See those two barrels at either end of the field? Point of the game--it's a game, see, two teams playing against each other--point of the game is to play with your team and get the ball through the other team's goal." Straight rattled a barrel.

"One catch: you can only touch the ball with the bottom of your hooves, like ya would if you were punching it or bucking it. Make sense?"

[DigoDragon]

Ajax glanced at the zebra after he spoke, and shrugged his shoulders. Perhaps he would have something interesting to say about what the priest said?
Regardless, in response, he nodded and made his way towards the door, figuring that his nod was enough of a response.

As Manco walked wit Ajax, he started up the conversation. "I'm curious, are you planing to stay with us? You are a bit of a rarity, but I think the ponies here would welcome you. You'd probably make some friends if you lend the ponies your strength."

When the two reached the outdoors, the first thing they noticed was Straight with an improvised ball and all the foals gathered around. Manco tilted his head to one side. "Okay, that's certainly different."

[Forum Explorer]

"Discusing permissions with what is for all purposes an omniscient death not might even work, but requires getting to the omniscient death not. Or radio-backed prayer. But come on, she's not some sort of godmachine, is she? Ha ha ha.

No, I wanted to ask about this recharge stuff. It's later tech, got going mid swing in the war. It's above my pay grade and I want to fix that. What I know is you've got a gun that's a collection of tubes and you've for magic, and somehow it shoots. Can you explain how this thing really works?"

Omniscient death not? Regardless, I do think she's in what may be the first megaspell using pegasi magic instead of unicorn magic. And that blast of light that took down the Thunderhead, I'm almost positive that one of her allies wielded that.


I shouldn't know but...
[roll0]

it's basically a couple of gemstones that feed off my own magical energy and the ambient energy of Equestria. These gemstones feed a spark battery that releases energy when you pull the trigger. The barrel is basically an artificial unicorn's horn and conducts the magic down it into a simple spell matrix which releases the bolt of combat magic, much like one of my spells. The length of the barrel actually makes the spell much more efficient then it would be normally, allowing the spell to go much further distances then a normal cast one. Though it loses a lot of power as a result. However due to the-

Blank Slate suddenly winces and raises a hoof to her head. I'm sorry what was I saying? I've lost my train of thought.

[DigoDragon]

"One catch: you can only touch the ball with the bottom of your hooves, like ya would if you were punching it or bucking it. Make sense?"

The foals were slightly confused, but some of them picked up on the 'forming teams' part and started gathering into three, and then down to two teams. The older children helped the younger ones divide out between the groups. Once they were split up 8 to 9, the foals looked to Straight for more directions on how to play.

The 'guards' out here were now a bit interested in this game and were glancing at the improvised field as they scanned the perimeter.

[Pokonic]

As Manco walked wit Ajax, he started up the conversation. "I'm curious, are you planing to stay with us? You are a bit of a rarity, but I think the ponies here would welcome you. You'd probably make some friends if you lend the ponies your strength."

"I intend on staying here as long as I must." he replied back, "Given the events of today, though, I don't know when I shall leave, given the comparable safety of this place."


When the two reached the outdoors, the first thing they noticed was Straight with an improvised ball and all the foals gathered around. Manco tilted his head to one side. "Okay, that's certainly different."

Ajax watched the ghoul with the ball; he wasn't sure how something who had stubs for wings could fly, but he had long stopped questioning how ponies did some of the things they did.

Well, besides holding things with their hooves, like how the ghoul was doing. That continued to baffle him, and will likely do so until the day he died.

[SiuiS]

Omniscient death bot?

"Ayup."


Blank Slate suddenly winces and raises a hoof to her head. I'm sorry what was I saying? I've lost my train of thought.

"You lost me at 'cast spells like normal', so don't worry about it. I get the basic idea of circuitry, power conduction and a castor weapon, there's just somethig about infinitely generated energy anypony can use but that hasn't been used to power entire cities that eludes me."

Gerry Rig nods, or kinda bows, or just generally acknowledges the other pony, before turning inward again. Things were gettig desperate as he crunched the numbers but they were also getting exciting as he realized the possibilities.

There's a reason he was an engineer, after all, and it wasn't just his latent cynicism. Tearing apart some of the barding, the ghoul refurbishes his own suit. It's no long her environmentally sealed, but it sure as shootin' is going to look plum dandy when he finishes!

[roll0]

[Balmas]

The foals were slightly confused, but some of them picked up on the 'forming teams' part and started gathering into three, and then down to two teams. The older children helped the younger ones divide out between the groups. Once they were split up 8 to 9, the foals looked to Straight for more directions on how to play.

The 'guards' out here were now a bit interested in this game and were glancing at the improvised field as they scanned the perimeter.

"Now, I may offer a few tips," Straight said. "You may have noticed that it's a bit hard to hit something in front of you with the bottom of your hooves. We just don't bend like that. So you kinda have two options: turning around and bucking it," BAM! "Like so. You mind passing it back? Yeah, you. Thanks. Something that's harder, but good to learn is to stand on-hup- on your hind legs, and punch it!"

The ball soared across the field, and tmp-tmped to a stop just inside the goal. "Only other real rule, I suppose, is not to hurt each other too badly, and try to stay inside the play area. Any questions? No? Okay, you--the one with the blue mohawk--you get to start the game! GO!"

[DigoDragon]

"I intend on staying here as long as I must." he replied back, "Given the events of today, though, I don't know when I shall leave, given the comparable safety of this place."

Ajax watched the ghoul with the ball; he wasn't sure how something who had stubs for wings could fly, but he had long stopped questioning how ponies did some of the things they did.

"Alright. Just don't sit in the corner the entire time," Manco suggested. "Maybe you'll find a friend or two if you talk with the others. I've wandered around a lot and this little group here seems to have potential... like, maybe here these ponies will actually stop fighting and start living. It's worth a chance to see." The zebra walked over to the field to get a closer look.


Skywarp and two pegasi came out shortly after. They appeared to be ready to head out somewhere. "Hey Slim, what's up?" Skywarp asked Ajax. "I'm going out with these ladies to scrounge up parts for Helmet Head. Need me to bring you back anything? A weapon? Armor? Some meat for dinner? What do you eat, if you don't mind me asking?"



"Now, I may offer a few tips," Straight said. "You may have noticed that it's a bit hard to hit something in front of you with the bottom of your hooves. We just don't bend like that. So you kinda have two options: turning around and bucking it," BAM! "Like so. You mind passing it back? Yeah, you. Thanks. Something that's harder, but good to learn is to stand on-hup- on your hind legs, and punch it!"

The ball soared across the field, and tmp-tmped to a stop just inside the goal. "Only other real rule, I suppose, is not to hurt each other too badly, and try to stay inside the play area. Any questions? No? Okay, you--the one with the blue mohawk--you get to start the game! GO!"

At 'GO' the foals scrambled around like radroaches startled by somepony turning on a light. The older ones pick up on the game first, which then the younger ones learned by mimicking the older ones. The ball went flying out of bounds several times. Manco caught it on one wild kick and threw it back in, watching from the sidelines. After a few minutes of finding their legs, the foals started to get an almost proper game going.

[Pokonic]

Skywarp and two pegasi came out shortly after. They appeared to be ready to head out somewhere. "Hey Slim, what's up?" Skywarp asked Ajax. "I'm going out with these ladies to scrounge up parts for Helmet Head. Need me to bring you back anything? A weapon? Armor? Some meat for dinner? What do you eat, if you don't mind me asking?"

Ajax was thinking over what the zebra said before he was interrupted in his thoughts by three ponies, armed and armored.

"I eat fruit and meat." he replied.

[DigoDragon]

Ajax was thinking over what the zebra said before he was interrupted in his thoughts by three ponies, armed and armored.

"I eat fruit and meat." he replied.

"Fruit and meat," Skywarp repeated. "Okay. Well, not sure what kind of fruits you have out here, but I think tracking some meat down should be easy. Well, non-pony meat I hope. Alright, see you around!" He flew off with the two other pegasi eastward.

Meanwhile, the psuedo-ball from the football game rolled up and bumped into Ajax. The foals stopped running and looked slightly worried that they were bothering the minotaur.

[Balmas]

Straight looked up from the game, and noticed the three--no, two now, since Skywarp flew off--standing at the edge of the pitch. "Don't be shy, now, come on down! Manco, have you ever played football?"