Fallout Equestia: Under the Shades

All through out the wasteland, radio signals and transmissions fell silent, no music being played and nothing being said. Well...nothing being said, yet. Granted, that ended fairly quickly as a loud bit of static cut through and a horrid cough sounded off in the background. Then a raspy voice started talking, "This thing on? Ah yes...Hello Wastelanders. I have a job for anyone willing. It'll pay handsomely, about *bttzz* million caps, and best of all, you'll get the *btttzz* destructive weapon in the wastes. Go find a stable in Hollow Shades, a *bttzz* town in that forest that's *btzz* the Everfree. Get to the Overmare's ter*btzz* and *bbtttzzzz* a file on it. It *bbttzz* *btzz* called EP-112. Bring it to me in Canterlot on Ministry Walk. You'll find me *btttzzzz* easily. Good day *bbbbbtttttttzzzzzzzz*" The message was cut up with a loud bit of static that lasted for a good few moments before being replaced with whatever was originally being played.

For those who were listening to DJ-Pon3, they got an nice little message from their favorite DJ of the wastes on the matter. "Wastelanders I have a terrible feeling about what that pony might want from something pre-war. If anyone gets their hooves on that file, please be a better pony and destroy it. This is DJ-Pon3 and I'll keep up-to-date on the situation."

---

It's been about a week and a half since that message went live and those willing, desperate, looking to the the right thing, or even looking for an adventure went after this stable in Hollow Shades. Luckily or unluckily, depending on how you see it, the small settlement of Kazba was getting quite a lot of attention for it's closeness to Hollow Shades. But despite how many ponies have made it to Kazba, done their trading and went off into Hollow Shades, no one seems to have gotten this file yet. In fact, some ponies come back screaming about a monster in the forest that's been slaughtering everyone who goes in.

Kazba itself today was fairly quiet. Nothing to disturb anyone from their work or rest or whatever they were doing. The settlers themselves were just lumbering about, improving their defenses, bartering with the ponies visiting, serving said ponies food/water/alcohol. Everything was normal to an extent. How long will that last int he wasteland? Who knows, but it's always nice to have peace and quiet.

With a long, defeated sigh, a snowy-white unicorn mare rolled off the bed she had rented the previous night. Mornings had always been an issue for her, waking up just never felt… good. Her mouth was always dry, her head always hurt, and her hair was always in her eyes. The mare began to stretch her hooves, yawning heavily before moving towards one of the few bits of furniture in the room. A mirror. She produced a hairbrush with telekinetic magic from somewhere within saddlebags that lay in a heap not too far from her and began to work on her mane.

Five minutes later, the mare let out a content ‘hmph’--- her mane was now neatly brushed back, its obsidian locks feely reaching down onto her back. She put away the hairbrush, bringing the aforementioned saddlebags to her bed top where she spent half an hour in silence sorting through its contents. Medical supplies were checked, caps and ammunition were counted, and various miscellaneous objects, including clothing, a canteen and non perishables were accounted for--- though, in the case of the canteen, the mare did take a very long drink.  

She then approached the only other piece of furniture in the room; an old armoire, which she opened and pulled from her usual outfit: a stable 13 jumpsuit which had been reinforced with several leather plates and a shoulder guard for additional protection, and had two separate weapon holsters--- the sort which were the ideal size for small calibre pistols. The mare donned the equipment with the expert ease of somepony who had clearly done this hundreds of times before, and strapped on her saddlebags--- all with the aid of her magic. Indeed, this pony was one who relied heavily on her arcane talents.

From underneath the bed, encased in the same white magical aura as all the other items had been, came three pistols. Two were standard N99 10mm pieces, and the other a AEP7 Magical Energy Weapon. The MEW, and one of the N99s floated gently into the two holsters on the mare’s barding, whereas the other N99 disappeared in a bright flash of white, teleported by the unicorn into her saddlebags. Naturally, all three weapons were fully loaded, and their safeties on.

The mare then brought her left forward hoof up to eye level, allowing for easy viewing of the arcano-tech device strapped onto it. She fiddled with her pipbuck, tabbing through each menu as a sort of final checklist. Another five minutes passed, and she was content enough to leave her room. Her intention was to make her way out of Kazba, and into the nearby forest, where she would begin her search for the fabled Hollow Shades Stable.

And just as Sharp finally felt content with all her things, an explosion and gun fire sounded from the south of the town. Panicked shouts could be heard outside in the actual town as ponies seemed to rush about. If Sharp were to look out the window of the room she had rented, she'd see some earth ponies with battle saddles running to the south while others, mostly foals and some mothers and fathers, running away from the south. Looking to the south would provide the answer to what the heck was going on. She could clearly see a fairly large amount of raiders having a fire fight at the settlers who were running towards them to defend their settlement.

Even if she hadn't looked, she was soon visited by a dark blue earth pony with a blueish green mane, one she'd recognize as the inn keeper for the inn she was staying in. "Just letting you know...There's a large group of raiders here. I suggest you run away, we should be fine, but if you want to help, be my guest." He said before moving onto the next room to inform more people. Right behind him a violet unicorn stallion with a sniper rifle in a light green magic grip. And right behind him was a light green filly following behind with a belt of grenades.

“It’s always something in the wasteland, isn’t it?” Sharp asked herself as she watched the ponies running to and from the attacking raiders. “Well, Sharp, let’s go send a few more ponies to tartarus, shall we?” she continued to talk to herself. It was a habit she had picked up over her six years of wandering the wasteland alone. She was her own best friend.

The mare calmly trotted out of her room, brandishing all three of her pistols. Safeties clicked off as she made her way down the hallway, where she came face to face with the innkeeper and his companions. She listened to the stallion with a look of mild amusement. Little did he know she had every intention of helping Kazba with its newly developed raider infestation. “Mmm. Well, I’ll help. Why not, right?” She asked rhetorically with a tone similar to her expression.

Sharp then continued her way out the inn, and towards the south of Kazba.

The sniper pony paused for a moment and smiled at Sharp as she went off before continuing along with what he and the foal were going to do. Sharp would have a fairly easy time getting out of the inn, only running into a few other ponies who were either taking heed to the inn keeper's advice or joining in on the fight. As she headed to the south, she'd be able to get an even clearer view of the battle happening. There were even already dead bodies on the ground, both raiders and settlers/visiting ponies it seemed. Hell, she could probably spot an explosive or two being thrown about, one even coming from one of the windows in the inn she had just left. There were even a couple of molotovs being thrown about too.

Needless to say, it's be fairly easy to get in on the fight as many of the other raiders were distracted by other the other ponies. Though, it was very clear that the raiders were getting closer to the defenses the settlers had made for these such attacks. Some of the more crazy suicidal raiders were hopping over the makeshift wall of sandbags to attack some of the gunners. Granted they quickly got shot down, but the evidence of the raiders maybe getting more lives then the town had intended was very clear.

And as Sharp got closer to the fight, one or two raiders noticed her and would take a few pot shots at her, most going wide as they were also under fire and were trying to save their own hide a bit.

Sharp made it a point to try and grab what enemy explosives she could, going as far as holstering both her n99’s to free up her magic. Every explosive flung back was, hopefully, a raider killed. With both pistols holstered, she was operating at only a third of her normal firepower, but the less she had to focus on levitating, the more effectively she could prevent the raider’s explosives from breaking the townsponies’ line of defense.

When Sharp began to take fire from the two raiders, she lept behind a nearby sandbag barrier, jumping into SATS while airborn, and queued up two shots from her MEW for each aggressor.

Sharp's attempts at throwing the explosives back at the raiders proved fruitful, managing to catch a molotov and a grenade or two. The molotov hitting a raider square in the chest, catching them on fire as they scared in horrid pain, going as far as running around a bit before keeling over and dying. The grenades weren't as lucky as a throw, but she kept them from exploding any settlers so it worked out in the end.

As Sharp queued up her shots and let them go, her first shot on the first of the two went wide, the second hitting him square in the chest and staggering him a little. The two shots queued on the second raider both hit and killed him. It took the first raider a second to shake off his shock at being shot at my an energy weapon before noticing his friend was killed. "Ah'm gonna kill-." The raider had tried to shout but immediately had his head popped off by one of the ponies who was behind the sandbag barrier Sharp hopped behind..

"Ain't gonna do nothin' now, ah say." The pony, a maroon earth pony with a hunting rifle strapped into a battle saddle said. "Saw ya throwin' them explosives back at the damned raiders." He idly commented to the unicorn mare as he focused on popping the tops off some raiders. "Always was envy o' you unicorns fer yer damn magic." He bit down on the trigger for his battle saddle and set a bullet straight into the chest of a raider trying to stab at another pony.

Though there were no more shots being fired at sharp directly, it was clear that there were shots being fired at the maroon pony. And given the fact he already had some bullet holes in him, They;ve probably either lucky shots, good shots, or have been having a pop at him for a while.

Sharp floated out a healing potion from within the medkit in her saddlebag, positioning it in front of the maroon stallion’s mouth. She glanced at him with a cheeky smile, before ducking out of cover to give him enough breathing room to actually drink it. With SATS recharging, she mostly aimed for the largest chunk of whomever was shooting at the stallion.

Should she attract counter-fire, she would once again enter the relative safety behind the sandbags, and pull out both her N99s to supplement her firepower. Of course, this meant she had less magical presence as far as counter-bombardiering went, but, she figured even raiders weren’t stupid enough to keep throwing bombs after seeing that they kept flying back at them.

With all three pistols in her magical grip, Sharp began to fire another volley at the attacking raiders. The shots from the 10mm loaded with hollow-point bullets was mostly dedicated to the less armored raiders, or, the ones unfortunate enough to be caught out of cover, whereas the 10mm loaded with standard rounds was mostly dedicated to suppressive fire. The MEW’s discharges had to real pattern to them, firing at whatever hostile Sharp had even a remote chance of scoring a hit against.

Her barrage would continue until all three weapons were spent, or, until she drew enough fire to warrant hiding behind the sandbags till it died down.

The stallion looked at the bottle in front of his mouth for a moment before snorting and biting down on it. He then quickly ducked down behind the sandbags and downed the potion as fast as he could, wanting to get back into the fight as fast as he could. Sharp would easily hit at least one pony in the chunks of raiders that had been firing at the poor stallion. Though he glanced over at Sharp as she started to attract some of the fire herself...then proceeded to duck behind the sandbags and take out three pistols. In his eyes was a..."Friendly" envy, one can say.

Sharp's volley of fire would easily take out a raider or two, but it was also drawing quite a bit of fire on herself, meaning there were quite a bit of bullets flying towards her. Some of those bullets flying more accurate than others were. It was pretty evident that she wasn't going to get to empty her guns of their clip quite yet. And the fact she was hiding in the same spot the earth pony is meant he was also pinned for the moment.

But at the same time that wasn't a bad thing since he had to let the magic from the healing potion do it's thing. "Well you are certainly an interestin' pony. First ah seen a unicorn usin' three pistols at once." He idly commented as he fidgeted to take his hunting rifle from his battle saddle, struggling for a few seconds before being able to hold it in his hooves. He quickly peaked around the edge of the sandbags before taking a pop at a raider who was pinning them down.

When the raider’s fire began to get too close for comfort, Sharp once again ducked behind the relative safety of the sandbag barrier, luckily unscathed. At the very least, there were now less raiders to shoot at her. The mare didn’t stop firing, however, electing to blindly fire over her cover. That was one of the perks of telekinesis, you didn’t need to leave your cover to use it.

Sharp knew the odds of her actually hitting something with nothing but her EFS for approximative aiming were pretty slim, but she figured the suppressive power of three separate firearms should put a dent in the returning fire both she and her new friend were in the receiving end of. It wouldn’t take very long for her N99s to run dry, and, when they did she brought them down near her for reloading. It took the mare a few seconds to levitate out new clips, eject the old ones, load the new ones, and store the spent ones away, but all the while she continued firing with her AEP--- which, after all was said and done, was also dry.

It was around then that the Stallion spoke up, and Sharp had brought down her MEW for reloading. “I can do more, just don’t expect me to hit anything.” She said in jest, finishing her reload. She’d try to give the stallion a helping hoof with telekenisis once she noticed what he was trying to do, and, when he peaked out of cover she’d do the same, opening fire with all three pistols.

Sharp's blind firing over the cover would prove to be fairly useless as she wouldn't hit anyone, but she couldn't know that since she's hiding behind her cover. He snorted a little at her comment, shaking his head. "Never more the merrier with guns. One well placed shot is better than multiple wild shots." He idly spook. When the unicorn mare helped out the stallion with taking out his hunting rifle, he gave her a nod of appreciation before continuing his own fire of the raiders from behind the cover of the sandbags.

Each second ticking by just meant another second the battle would be over. Sharp could easily notice how the raider gun fire was getting weaker and weaker. Even the settlers' gun fire had gotten a bit weaker, proving that the raiders had taken some of them with them to the grave. The earth pony with Sharp stopped his firing for a moment, just looking around the cover. One hoof reached into a satchel he'd been wearing and took out a grenade. He pulled the pin and waited for a few seconds before throwing it over the sandbags.

Three seconds later, the explosion could be heard as well as a smile from the earth pony. "One good grenade is better than many grenades too." He commented before perking his ears and frowning. The raider fire was subsiding faster now as a shout could be heard from somewhere else along the line of sandbags. "They're retreating!" The earth pony tisked before peeking over the top of the sandbags. He rested the hunting rifle on the top of the sandbags and aimed, firing off one last shot on the retreating raiders.

“Can’t really argue with that. Problem is you’re usually not only fighting one target. Helps to have more than one gun.” Sharp responded to the earth pony. With the raiders’ offensive waning, she considered pushing up, but figured either way the town would win the fight, and, leaving cover was a pretty good way of getting shot, so, she decided to just sit behind the sandbag barrier and queue up another four shots from SATS--- which had finally recharged, at the best target chance to hit.

Sharp chuckled a little at the earth pony’s witty comment about explosives. When it was made clear the raiders were retreating, she let out a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s that, I guess.” She said, bringing her weapons down for reloading, and taking a moment to do just that.  She made a mental note to refill both her spent and partially spent clip, as well as resupply on sparkcells before leaving Kazba.

“So, I didn’t really catch your name between all the bullets, lasers, grenades and molotovs. I’m Sharp.” She said with a smile, offering the stallion a hoof in greeting.

The earth pony shook his head, resting against the sand bags for a moment before standing up and stretching. "Yeah...Ah guess it is. Poor townsfolk, cause o' that damn radio message, they've been getting more attention." He said quietly as he eyed all the dead/wounded ponies. "Yanno what they say, war never changes, right? Fightin' never changes either..." He snorted shaking his head as he started reloading his hunting rifle.

He paused and looked at Sharp as she properly introduced herself. He shook his head, taking her hoof and shaking it. "Well that's a mighty nice name. Ah call mahself Cypher, mah friend calls me that too." He gave her a small smile that, if she was paying very close attention, would seem to give off a dangerous warning. But he quickly laughed it off as he finished reloading his rifle. He proceeded to reattach his rifle to his battle saddle.

"Well ah know fer certain, ya ain't one o' the townsfolk, so ah'm gonna guess yer here t' go t' Hollow Shades? Wouldn't blame ya if were. Ah guess the real question is, who are ya gonna listen t'. That ol' DJ o' that ghoul? Doin' the good thing, o' self desire. Ah find it interestin'." He shrugged to himself, finally getting his hunting rifle back on his battle saddle. "Oh, if ya are goin' t' Hollow Shades, ah suggest ya talk t' Rivercreek. Ya can find him in the bar here, hard t' miss him. Ah have t' run and find mah friend, make sure they didn't get shot while ah was out over here. Ah hope t' see ya in the future, Miss. Sharp." He then ran off into the rest of the town without another word.

On Sharp's E.F.S., a new compass marker was pointing towards one of the other buildings in town unlike her other one that was pointing towards her actual goal, Hollow Shades.