[FO:E] The Southern Wasteland of Equestria 1

[Tychris1]

Southwestern Equestria- Weird Facility 3:33 PM

Maul Steel stares down at the corpse, floating the pistol away from the corpse before moving it to a more dignified pose. He lowers his head, slinking through the hallway hoping to find a way out of this hell hole.

Ponyville

Lamianos nods his head at Razoreye before unloading a round from his grenade launcher. In it's place he slid the Binoculars in and aimed it upwards towards the mysterious stranger, and shot. Hopefully it arced in a way that didn't bludgeon him. "Well, they aint coming out, and it looks like we aint going in.... Ah buck it, sitting around fiddling our hooves won't get anything done. They're in some kind of trans, best case scenario they stay in it, worse case I just collapse the roof on them." He says before walking over to the door and preparing to buck the door off its hinges.

[TAG Benson, Chaotic and Co.]

[BladeofObliviom]

Ponyville

Pineapple is mostly just looking around town, surveying the destruction when Razoreye comes back. She's not even paying much attention, really.

"You know, these buildings look pretty good! If we had materials and workers, we could renovate these..."

And then Lamianos goes to buck off the doors. The mare manages to put her thoughts back together well enough to stand a safe distance behind him, ready to fire through the door if necessary.

[Benson]

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"Or his sister," Lucky frowns. "Not sure which one would be worse..."

He sighs, and looks up at the cloud blanket above them. "Well... Not much we can really do for him now. He'll get the care and whatnot that he needs once he gets to New Appleloosa. There's a few nice mares in the town - maybe one of 'em will adopt him?"

He looks over at the body of the mare, then back down the hill. "It's a shame to leave her body just laying out here. She needs a proper grave..." he mutters quietly, so that only Gwendolyn care hear. "That bandit won't be out cold forever, though. Should I go grab a shovel from the boys, or should we deal with the prisoner first? Or you think we should just leave the shovel for Bright Eyes or one of them to use, so the cold colt can have time to say goodbye to her?"

Miles North of New Appleloosa


"I think right now, a certain bandit's legs get broken and is gagged and left to the wastes," Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes, not looking at anyone in particular.

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Radroach Room

"Yeah. Let's get the mirelurk and get back outta here."

Later, at the Sewer Grate

Sparky smiled brightly. "Good to be out here again."

He took off slightly into the air, looping around once and then settling back to the ground. "Woohoo! Anyway, town seems to be that way, let's get going before some kind of beast gets us."

Outside Radroach Sewer

The two would both be rather stinky at this point. But relatively fresh air felt good. Steel Creel took a deep breath. "Yea...north we go!" He happily replied cantering after Sparky. "Anyways, thank ya again...it was admittedly, kinda fun, heh, in its own way."

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Southwestern Equestria- Weird Facility 3:33 PM

Maul Steel stares down at the corpse, floating the pistol away from the corpse before moving it to a more dignified pose. He lowers his head, slinking through the hallway hoping to find a way out of this hell hole.

Southwestern Equestria- Weird Facility 3:35 PM

Updated Weird Facility

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It would get worse as he entered the next room down the short hallway. It was a somewhat large room with two machines that were flickering in front of him. Streams of data and info were scrolling down them on their own, on their screens. This room itself looked way worse than the first and smelled really bad. Like rotting bad.

Looking to his right he would see a creature looking right at him with a milky eye on some sort of stone and steel throne It looked to be some sort of restrained very decayed ghoul with many wires stuck into it. Some sort of metal rings melded into its horn. Behind it was a flickering water talisman in a weird mechanical set up. It was connected to the unicorn ghoul via the wires and a box with piping mounted on the wall near the ceiling.

It continued to stare at Maul.

[Tychris1]

Southwestern Equestria- Weird Facility 3:35 PM

Maul Steel stared back, his face turning to absolute horror as he took in the entirety of the ghouls scenario. Walking to it he stumbled on his words as he tried to help the poor thing "Dear Celestia.... How.... Uh. Can you speak?" he says almost dumbfounded, the pony was in such a terrible condition that he wondered if the ghouls vocal chords were shredded from screaming too hard for too long "Uh... Don't worry, i'll try and get you free. Don't worry." He begins to look around for any way to pry the ghoul free.

[TAG Benson]

[Lycan 01]

[/SPOILER]


Miles North of New Appleloosa


"I think right now, a certain bandit's legs get broken and is gagged and left to the wastes," Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes, not looking at anyone in particular.

"My idea," Lucky says with a low voice and a harsh glare aimed down the hill, "Is much the same. Only with the addition of a broken horn, a tree, some nails..." he growls. "Anything less is too good for him. Though a bullet to the gut would suffice just as well, I suppose. Certainly less time consuming. For us at least..." The look in his eyes is much harder and hateful than Lucky usually seems capable of. Almost uncharacteristically so...

He then looks down at the colt, and frowns sadly. "So, we gonna dig the grave now, after we deal with our friend, or just leave the shovel for Bright Eyes?" he asks quietly, his voice losing most of its previous edge.

[Drowlord]

South of New Appleoosa

"Well, if you put it that way..."

Sparky took slightly off, flapping along close to the ground. He corkscrewed to the left and then flew upwards.

"Ding ding ding! We just completed our first mission! Oh, I wonder what loot we get."

He flew back down to a low-altitude flight.

"But yeah. It was really fun. Wonder what the next one's going to be? Apart from getting a new gun for you and maybe one for me."

[MCerberus]

Slaver Train

Everything's still seemingly bucked-up. Finder is able to recover just enough to try and observe what's going on. The scavver doesn't know exactly, so just get the colts to safety. He won't be able to run at full sprint, but he rationalizes that he can still go faster than Elestre .

The stallion tries to grab the colt and take off, hoping to avoid any ninja fights via getting out of there quickly... Finder can't really handle any direct confrontation, and time's running out to get away form the slavers.

Ponyville

Razoreye grabs his assault rifle. The plan personally is going to be to empty the clip, then go in for his preferred style of combat. "Ready when you are."

Time to go loud and have some fun.

[Chaotic Bob]

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Ponyville

Well then, some kind of cult? Prayer? Summoning magic? Razoreye isn't really versed on that, but he hopes it isn't some circle to summon a rabid swarm of ancient devouring insects. Regardless, the balcony is going to be an easy way in. The griffin returns to his comrades.

"They're all... in some sort of trance. There's an unguarded balcony that we can enter the building from at once."

Ponyville

Lamianos nods his head at Razoreye before unloading a round from his grenade launcher. In it's place he slid the Binoculars in and aimed it upwards towards the mysterious stranger, and shot. Hopefully it arced in a way that didn't bludgeon him. "Well, they aint coming out, and it looks like we aint going in.... Ah buck it, sitting around fiddling our hooves won't get anything done. They're in some kind of trans, best case scenario they stay in it, worse case I just collapse the roof on them." He says before walking over to the door and preparing to buck the door off its hinges.

[TAG Benson, Chaotic and Co.]

Ponyville

Pineapple is mostly just looking around town, surveying the destruction when Razoreye comes back. She's not even paying much attention, really.

"You know, these buildings look pretty good! If we had materials and workers, we could renovate these..."

And then Lamianos goes to buck off the doors. The mare manages to put her thoughts back together well enough to stand a safe distance behind him, ready to fire through the door if necessary.

Ponyville

Razoreye grabs his assault rifle. The plan personally is going to be to empty the clip, then go in for his preferred style of combat. "Ready when you are."

Time to go loud and have some fun.

[Ponyville]

Pchooooo, away go the binoculars!

The pony-upon-the-hill makes himself notably absent from the landing point.
Perhaps he suspected it was an actual grenade, but one way or another, he seems to have quickly moved off down a different side of the hill.


Meanwhile, the three invaders stack up at the library's entrance, preparing for what would no doubt be a quite impressive breach.

Lamianos' legs will snap out and meet very likely inferior resistance from the old door, splintering the wood and tearing the remnants of the structure out of their frame with a loud crack.

There are two immediate reactions.

The buzzing becomes sharper, pitching up an octave and becoming more erratic. Painful, to most normal ears.
Additionally, their is a collective groan amongst the many raiders and then they proceed to slump down to their knees as one.

Except for one, a bright yellow stallion near the edge of the group by the door, dealing with twitching eyes and one hoof held to his head.
He's turning towards the now-destroyed door.

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Miles North of New Appleloosa

"I worry about the boy here, from the looks of it, that mare was probably family, maybe his....mother," Gwendolyn's beak kept a grim tight line as for a moment she seemed to be staring. It was then Lucky made mention of those silly twin stallions.

"They were discliplined for childish quarreling." She stated.

"Or his sister," Lucky frowns. "Not sure which one would be worse..."

He sighs, and looks up at the cloud blanket above them. "Well... Not much we can really do for him now. He'll get the care and whatnot that he needs once he gets to New Appleloosa. There's a few nice mares in the town - maybe one of 'em will adopt him?"

He looks over at the body of the mare, then back down the hill. "It's a shame to leave her body just laying out here. She needs a proper grave..." he mutters quietly, so that only Gwendolyn care hear. "That bandit won't be out cold forever, though. Should I go grab a shovel from the boys, or should we deal with the prisoner first? Or you think we should just leave the shovel for Bright Eyes or one of them to use, so the cold colt can have time to say goodbye to her?"

Miles North of New Appleloosa


"I think right now, a certain bandit's legs get broken and is gagged and left to the wastes," Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes, not looking at anyone in particular.

"My idea," Lucky says with a low voice and a harsh glare aimed down the hill, "Is much the same. Only with the addition of a broken horn, a tree, some nails..." he growls. "Anything less is too good for him. Though a bullet to the gut would suffice just as well, I suppose. Certainly less time consuming. For us at least..." The look in his eyes is much harder and hateful than Lucky usually seems capable of. Almost uncharacteristically so...

He then looks down at the colt, and frowns sadly. "So, we gonna dig the grave now, after we deal with our friend, or just leave the shovel for Bright Eyes?" he asks quietly, his voice losing most of its previous edge.

[Beyond Appleoosa - Freed Ponies]

The orange stallion and mare looks vaguely uncomfortable with the line of talk Gwen and Lucky are engaging in, although it's not immediately clear whether its the brutalizing-the-bandit part, or the dead-mare's-corpse part.

Until it is clear, anyway.
"We'll take care of Aura's body, but...
Horror inspires horror...isn't there a better way to deal with your enemies?"
"Just shoot him in the head."

They don't seem to like the idea of brutalizing his body.

[Drowlord]

Slaver Train

Everything's still seemingly bucked-up. Finder is able to recover just enough to try and observe what's going on. The scavver doesn't know exactly, so just get the colts to safety. He won't be able to run at full sprint, but he rationalizes that he can still go faster than Elestre .

The stallion tries to grab the colt and take off, hoping to avoid any ninja fights via getting out of there quickly... Finder can't really handle any direct confrontation, and time's running out to get away form the slavers.

Elestre stands his ground, digging his hooves deeply into the sand. "Finder, this is important. In fact, mister ghoul here might not mind standing with us here if he could blow up a few slavers, hmm?"

He's making a critical judgement here, based on what he's seen and leaping to a conclusion. The ninja must not be with the slavers, since he hasn't tried to help them and in fact has passed up many opportunities to capture them. If he's wrong, then Elestre's got his trusty stick, hasn't he?

[PurityIcekiller]

Bright observes and advances!

There's not much in the way of cover, beyond bits of broken garden-fence and shrubbery. Which, while serviceable, probably won't protect much in a fire-fight.

But!
That doesn't seem to matter, as the pony is now holding a shotgun-shaped piece of junk.
The look on his face isn't one of surprise or fear, however, but annoyed resignation.

"Figures."
The pony then runs off towards the back of the shed!

"Huh! This one's got some sense." Bright Eyes followed up to the shed and crept around the side to make sure there wasn't another ambush prepared.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Beyond Appleoosa - Bandit Shed]

Of course there was an ambush prepared.

After all, this fellow has some sense.

Said ambush mostly seems to be in the form of waiting for Bright to actually peek around the side...and then swinging a wooden board at her face.
"I've had enough surprises for today!"

Listening for approaching steps, when hiding behind a wall is a pretty useful trick.
With nothing but the crackling of the fire to serve as a distraction, it certainly can't be terribly difficult.

[PurityIcekiller]

[Ambush? Is That Like A Gorse-Bush?]

"Yah!" Bright Eyes swerved, and the bandit's swing managed to knock her hat off before striking her in the side.

"Oi! Nopony messes with the hat!"

She staggered back a bit and opened fire with the baton again. This time, she didn't aim for any part in particular.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Beyond Appleoosa - Bandit Shed]

Now with less ambushing and more plain fighting.

One benefit to having someone fire at you close-range, is that you have more of an opportunity to save yourself.

In this case, by letting go of the board, so his hooves are free to come down on Bright's little toy, trying to knock it away before it can cause harm.
"That all you have? A shiny stick? Show me your real claws!"

The stallion is seeming less resigned now, instead, slightly angry as he throws out that little taunt.

[PurityIcekiller]

[Going To Need Some Band(it)-Aids]

One of the weaknesses of the light baton, which Bright Eyes had failed to mention before, was its fragility. One hit was enough to knock the cap off and send the power crystal tumbling out.

"Got no respect, have you."

In response, Bright Eyes swung one of her saddlebags at the bandit's head. This was one case where she was glad she didn't travel light.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Beyond Appleoosa - Bandit Shed]

Crack.
That was the sound of the stallion's head bouncing off the side of the building, after the saddlebag thwocked into him from the other side.

Improvised fighting is a bit more difficult to anticipate, unfortunately for him.

More than a little dazed, and bleeding from where his skin split behind his eye, he spins around and snaps out a hind-leg buck towards Bright.
"Not...gonna get jabbed..."

[Benson]

Southwestern Equestria- Weird Facility 3:35 PM

Weird Facility Map

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The decayed ghoul's noised but a wheezing sound from its mouth and moved slower than sluggish. The restrains themselves don't look too hard to just tear off. The melded ring on its horn was connected to simple wires that could be severed. The weak and aged restraints could give Maul Steel just what sort of idea about the state this ghoul was in.

The left most machine would start making alarm sounds for ponies long dead to answer. Unbeknownst to Maul Steel due to lack of proper equipment was the moderate trace of radiation. Ah well, he may get sick later, but Foxfire may have some Rad-away.
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Miles North of New Appleloosa

"You go deal with the bandit, I'll....start the hole in the meantime," Gwendolyn replied grimly. She gave the group of ponies one more look and then hovered down the hill to the twins.
========================

South of New Appleoosa

'The loot we get is a nice cooked meal," Steel Creel grinned looking at the mirelurk carcass. The silly fanboyish Steel Creel glanced at Stormy Skies. "I'm sure something will come up, if anything, life down here on the ground is anything but static."
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Slaver Train Prime

Swift Star looked at Elestre, and then at the other two, and then back at Elestre who refused to have his companion drag him out.

He shook his head at Elestre. "i...aM No aLLY HeRE. yOU sIMPly fasCINAteD mE. i SUggeSt yOu Go beFore mY fasCINatioN enDs."

[Luka]

[Slaver train]

The stable colt just finally regains his balance.
"Tch. C'mon! We gotta go now or the slavers are going to get us again!"
He rushed towards Elestre and tries to grab his hoof and load him on his back
[Gun-hugger] "Finder we need to find the guns! we wouldn't do much with them, or you could take Elestre and I try to fly and get the stuff back...."
Though he mostly says that because he WANTS HIS GUN BACK!

[Tag: Drowlord, MCerberus, Benson]

[Lycan 01]

A Few Miles North of New Appleloosa

Lucky nods, and hops up to hover. With his forehooves free, he unslings his new sniper rifle, and checks the bolt. Locked and loaded, he flies back down the hill.


Flim and Flam both jump slightly when Gwendolyn approaches. "We're getting along!" they both proclaim with nervous grins.

They both lean to look around Gwendolyn as Lucky flies down the hill. "Hey, what's...?" Flim raises an eyebrow.

"Why does he have that...?" Flam asks.

Lucky pauses to hover over the bound bandit. He hefts the sniper rifle to his shoulder, holding it with his hooves so that the trigger-bit is right in front of his mouth. "I hate to shoot a pony who can't defend himself. But I doubt you gave that mare a second thought..." he sadly observes. "See ya in Tartarus."

Flim and Flam both pale, and raise a hoof to cover the others' eyes.

A sound of thunder rings out.



A moment later, Lucky flies back up the hill, the rifle slung over his shoulder, and his vest and face bandages splattered with flecks of another pony's blood. A smoking shell casing is held between his teeth. He flicks the shell to the prisoners, so that it lands in the sand in front of them. "Here. Give it to the boy when he wakes up. So he knows there's some justice in this Luna-forsaken world..." he states wearily, before turning to hover back down towards the caravan.

[PurityIcekiller]

[The Leader Of The Bandits Is Tired And His Eyes Are Growing Old]

Bright Eyes responded by seizing the offending leg and using it to try to pull the bandit off-balance.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Let Sleeping Bandits Die]

The rescued prisoners all stare at the bullet casing with sad looks.

It was for the best, they understand. Better than what Lucky had originally planned...
But still.

"Thank you."
The older mare does try her best to conjure up a smile for Lucky as he leaves, to cover thanks for both the rescue and the (relative) self-control, but maybe that isn't so important to him anymore.

The rest remain silent as he leaves once again.

"A merciful hell is still a hell."


[Beyond Appleoosa - Bandit Shack]

And this is why you probably shouldn't keep trying martial arts, when dazed.

"No, dammit..."
The stallion twists as he falls over, trying to swing his other leg up into Bright, but as before, the move isn't particularly elegant.
Just desperate.

[Benson]

A Few Miles North of New Appleloosa

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Flim and Flam both jump slightly when Gwendolyn approaches. "We're getting along!" they both proclaim with nervous grins.

They both lean to look around Gwendolyn as Lucky flies down the hill. "Hey, what's...?" Flim raises an eyebrow.

"Why does he have that...?" Flam asks.

Lucky pauses to hover over the bound bandit. He hefts the sniper rifle to his shoulder, holding it with his hooves so that the trigger-bit is right in front of his mouth. "I hate to shoot a pony who can't defend himself. But I doubt you gave that mare a second thought..." he sadly observes. "See ya in Tartarus."

Flim and Flam both pale, and raise a hoof to cover the others' eyes.

A sound of thunder rings out.

A moment later, Lucky flies back up the hill, the rifle slung over his shoulder, and his vest and face bandages splattered with flecks of another pony's blood. A smoking shell casing is held between his teeth. He flicks the shell to the prisoners, so that it lands in the sand in front of them. "Here. Give it to the boy when he wakes up. So he knows there's some justice in this Luna-forsaken world..." he states wearily, before turning to hover back down towards the caravan.

She had watched Lucky go and made no protest against his obvious what to come actions. She did hope he at least made the bastard suffer a bit.

Gwendolyn had stayed down there near the twins and borrowed a shovel and began to dig a grave there. She didn't dig the grave up there on the hill, because she figured it would be unpleasant for them to watch her dig a grave for one of their own there.

[Lycan 01]

Grave Digging North of New Appleloosa

Lucky checks the dead raider's pockets. Bullets, a couple of spare clips, and... a map? Interesting.

The pegasus then flies over to where Gwendolyn is digging the grave. He offers to take over if/when she starts to tire out. "Looks like the bastard had a map," he muses as they work. "A slaver hideout or somethin' of the sort, up near Manehatten. Perhaps that's something we can look into, once we're rested up and fully prepared."




(Map was mentioned to me by Bob OOC.)

[PurityIcekiller]

[But His Blood Runs Through My Instrument And His Song Is In My Soul]

Bright Eyes twisted to avoid the blow. "Quit squirming. You'll just make this more painful, you know!" She then pounced to pin him down with her bulk.

[Drowlord]

Slaver Train

Elestre complies with Luka's seizure of his hoof. He nods.

"I think Finder and me best get out of here; you go get a gun. We'll have a base set up in the Clovenhoofs by the time you're done."

He gives Luka his splint.

South of New Appleoosa

Sparky grinned enthusiastically at the prospect of dinner. "Guess you gotta start small. Anyways, I'm glad there's more adventure here than up there. It was boring up there. The only thing I ever got to do exciting was swing my sword and shoot at tiny targets. I got way better at it by doing it, though."

[MCerberus]

Ponyville

A now destroyed door with three very deadly quadrupeds. The griffin member is sort of trigger happy at this point, pointing his rifle at the yellow conscious stallion. Really, any excuse and the lead starts flying at the pony.

Slaver Train

While, due to being fully grown, Finder still makes the best carrier of the wounded colt, it's going to be an awkward and not quite as quick as one would want ride. However, you can't run fast enough from angry bands of armed slavers anyway... so yah.

Luka's being weird about getting a gun, so the scavver can give a piece of advice before running off. "Kid, it's not worth your life."

[Rebonack]

[Slaver Train]

Remember that comment before about 'CHOO CHOO! all aboard the terrible idea train!' well it's chugging full steam ahead once again.

Our heroes are running for it along with the rest of the slaves, but the slavers are going to be ready to give chase any moment now. They've already tried blowing up one of the collars (which just exploded harmlessly in the stock car) and since that didn't work it has dawned on them that their ponies have gotten away.

Chasing down over a dozen ponies on hoof who have scattered in all directions is... well...

It isn't a very easy feat.

But if one of them decided to stick around to grab a gun? Well! The slavers would be quite pleased that at least one of their slaves gets caught again.

[Luka]

Slaver Train

While, due to being fully grown, Finder still makes the best carrier of the wounded colt, it's going to be an awkward and not quite as quick as one would want ride. However, you can't run fast enough from angry bands of armed slavers anyway... so yah.

Luka's being weird about getting a gun, so the scavver can give a piece of advice before running off. "Kid, it's not worth your life."

He just snorts
"[Firearms] [Gun-hugger] That's the point, my life is guns and skills at using them; without one I have no life and I'm completely useless, so I want to get it back!"
"Plus we need something to defend ourselves in case of something"
He points out, he accepts Elestre's splint, a bit reluctantly since he prefers that he keeps it.

He just stays low and watches the train, he would keep looking until the slavers are on the train again and he could find a spot he could fly to and stay undetected. Unless Finder, Elestre or somepony else stops him though....

[Tag: Drowlord, MCerberus]

[MCerberus]

Slaver Train

Well Finder *has* to get going at this point or that's two ponies that get caught. He begins trudging away, but tries one last time to put sense into Luka. "You go back there, you either get shot or the collar goes back on, we can't come back to you. And how are you expecting to find us anyway?"

And they're off.

[Tychris1]

Ponyville

Lamianos groans at the sound, but presses on anyway "Get down or I WILL SHOOT!" he stomps a hoof in frustration as he readies his guns.

[TAG Chaotic]

southwestern Equestria- Weird Facility 3:37 PM

After ripping the ghoul free Maul Steel will cover the water talisman in a TK aura and try to take it for himself. Maybe he could find a way to fix it? In any event he looks at the ghoul and says "Come on, u'm getting you out of here..... Ok?" He'll give the warning signs a glance to make sure they don't say anything like "Self Destructing Bale Fire bomb activated" before heading to the other side of the room and continuing to try and escape.

[TAG Benson]

[BladeofObliviom]

Ponyville

That terrible buzzing noise invades Pineapple's ears, and it's all she can do not to collapse in shock from the pain.

She just barely manages to focus enough to back up Lamianos' threat by brandishing her own Grenade Launcher.