Thunder and lightning.
it flashed all around me through the bars of the cage I found myself in. Rain flooding in through the bars and made mud under the cage causing me and the cage to sink slightly into the thick liquid dirt below. The small shocks zap me every now and then from the random car battery hooked up to this particular cage. thankfully the slavers were stupid enough not to put something under the cage so most of the voltage just went straight into the ground. I didn't have any cushions or bedding just a poorly welded together shitty cage out in the middle of old appaloosa in the pouring rain. FUCK how the hell did that fucking griffon not find me in the three days I was scouting a safe path around this fucking place for my trade caravan. Only for the one day, I decided to take a nap and then head back is when he finds me, drugs me while I slept, and drags my ass in here. I tell you what if he caught me awake I would've ripped his beak out and shoved it right up his... *BANG*
My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the loud set of gunshots, in the distance. When you've been out here in the wasteland long enough you learn to distinguish gunshots from thunder. it can save your ass sometimes, something these slavers never understood. As time went on I could hear more gunshots ringing out, I started following them as they slowly moved through the camp. With how spaced out it was it sounded like just one pony was trying to be stealthy and muffle their gunshots with the thunder and sneak through the camp. Their timing was god awful though.
As I followed the gunshots, keeping my eyes keen on any changes in the environment. As I scanned the area towards the gunfire I was a door open in a rinky dinky shack and a floating revolver poke out. Followed by a short and rather tiny mare. If she was trying to be sneaky and crouched down I would have taken her for a filly. She darted her head left and right until I saw her gaze fall upon me and our eyes locked. The one cage in the center of old appaloosa away from all the rest. no guards to be seen nearby. She could probably tell something was fishy about me or this scenario I was in... or both.
I then saw slaver with a later above where she stood atop a guard post they used to make sure I was still 'here.' he wore a battle saddle with a lever action rifle on it and he stared at me. I looked at him and back to the mare. I took my finger and pointer upward, not saying a word. Watching both the slaver and the mare look up was funny in a way. The slaver was looking up all confused and the mare saw him as she looked up and lined up a shot. A second later and a lightning book streaked across the sky and she fired. Timing the gunshot with the thunder perfectly for the first time I heard all night. the shot struck the underside of the slaver's chin and he tumbled off the tower and hit the ground with a thud. she turned back to look at me and gave me a nod of thanks and I waved her over. she was hesitant but slowly sneaked over, keeping an eye everywhere around her as she approached.
Once she was close enough to speak to I asked "So... you come here often?" and I gave a slight smirk.
she looked so confused I managed a chuckle "what? no?! Im here to recuse ponies!"
"a more noble cause there is not" I replied getting to my feet. "I got some scores I gotta settle here so how bout you get me out of here and I can lend a helping hand? hoof? whatever you ponies prefer."
she looked starstruck that anyone here had even bothered to offer help. it seemed like she had actually come alone to this place which made me want to help her more because she was an idiot coming alone. But she was wasting time standing there staring at me.
"come on now we don't have all night! won't take them long before they realize that poor bastard isn't back yet" I said urgently. pointing to the dead pony over yonder.
she snapped out of her confusion and levitated out a screwdriver and bobby pin (thank god she was a unicorn) and unlocked my cage in record time. Almost faster than the actual key did. As soon as the gate opened I ran to the dead pony and stripped him of his lever action. I needed a gun and this was the closest one. He also thankfully had something silent, a large bowie knife. He didn't bring a whole lot of ammo either. I mean he was just checking on me like he normally would and never needed a lot anyway. I jerry-rigged a makeshift rifle strap and slung the rifle over my should and kept my knife at the ready. it was horribly unbalanced, too heavy in the blade but ill make do.
I regrouped with my savior as she sat around a corner of a building and I slowly peaked around the corner, her doing the same. there were two ponies with battle saddles and lanterns trotting towards us. I noticed the mare lift her revolver to take aim but I quickly pushed it away and whispered "allow me, that's not exactly quiet" and I readied my knife in my left hand.
As they were about to turn the corner whipped around the corner and drove the knife into the wide eyes of the pony on the right who was closest to me, he dropped dead before the knife was all the way in. Keeping the momentum and I used one of my legs to sweep the other one's hooves out from under him and hit the ground with a thud. I ripped the knife from the other pony and flipped it in my hand so the blade went down past my pinkie and drove it down upon the pony. Pressing my right hand against the pommel for more strength. No noise.
I looked back to my ally who seemed shocked at either the skill I possessed or that I did it with no remorse or restraint. either way, I urged we press on and she followed without objection.
We worked our way to the multi-story barn in the center, she insisted we go through the balcony rather than the front door which I absolutely agreed with. I boosted her up and I followed shortly after her. I heard a very familiar voice from within the barn as we crawled through the upstairs part of the barn until we came upon the lovely voice of the slaver's new medic who I personally grown attached to. she secretly brought me food so the slavers trying to starve me into cooperating plan never worked. My ally however was thoroughly entranced by her. Like a hungry dog to bacon. I elbowed her side catching her attention. I whispered "sightsee later, we got a job to do" she nodded and we both noticed guards making rounds. we quickly retreated out the balcony and tried to find the slaves elsewhere.
Once outside I noticed several slavers standing over a dead one in the middle of the road. I didn't kill that one. I turned to my ally and said "have you not been hiding your kills?!" I asked dumbfounded. she shrugged with a nervous grin scratching the back of her head with a hoof. I facepalmed "good god this is gonna be one of those nights huh," I said with a defeated sigh as a bullet struck the wall next to me. They had spotted us.
I saw a door and tried to open it only to find it locked, I looked to my ally as she fumbled her lockpicking tools out of her bag. I frowned in disappointment slightly pulling off the lever action and dragging a piece of scrap metal near us for cover. better than nothing I thought as a twin shot rung out in the night as one slaver dropped dead mid-gallop and the rest dove for cover. I looked up to see a pegasus in a cowboy hat giving us covering fire.
"one of your friends?" I asked my ally taking a shot at a slaver as he peaked around his cover. Splattering his brains across the ground.
"yup that's calamity, my backup," she said breaking a bobby pin. I took another shot at another slaver missing slightly as he ducked back into cover. Only just now realizing whose name my ally just said. "you know calamity?" I said taking another shot and blowing out one slavers knee causing him to tumble who was then hit by a twin shot by our aerial cover. "I trade with him all the time when my caravan comes through new appaloosa" I heard her break another bobby pin. which did it for me. I whipped around slinging my rifle and pushed her aside. "allow me" as dropped to one knee and stuffed the tip of my knife into the lock and put a lot of pressure on it. I picked up a nearby rock and smashed it into the pommel and the lock snapped off and the door swung open.
Four loud shotgun blasts went next to my ear off as my ally whipped out a combat shotgun and blasted the shit out of the two poor guys sitting playing cards. I put my hands to my ear as it tinged with pain and I yelled "DONT FIRE THAT SHIT SO CLOSE TO MY EAR FUCK" she apologized profusely but I got up and closed the door and dropped a nearby filing cabinet in front of it. After looking around I realized we were in the armory, and behind the massive cage was all my gear from before my capture. I kicked open the cage with a righteous fury only to realize my ally had unlocked it via the terminal in the corner. I quickly strapped on my armor and holster belt. im glad to see these slavers couldn't break the enchantment on it to get their hands on my revolver, but it was more like a hand cannon at this point... actually, im gonna call it that now until I can give it a proper name. I ditched the shitty lever action in favor of my much better assault carbine, I was surprised none of the slavers were using it, it hooked onto my back as it was supposed to I strapped on the homemade pip bug I made from scavenged parts from fucking all over the place it flipped open and booted up quickly with a blue hum and glow. I slipped on my helmet its darkened eye panels signifying it was turned off. I pressed a button on its side as the inside lit up and gave me my full vision along with a compass, tracker, E.F.S, and a bunch of other shit. the last thing I strapped on was my gladius, my always trusted and deadly sharp blade along with a few throwing knives. Lastly, I slung on my rucksack full of supplies for the trip, also untouched with its enchantment preventing anyone but myself from accessing it.
After fully equipping myself back to full power I turned to see my ally had finished listening to some audio logs on the terminal and was thoroughly pissed off. which is understandable considering what was probably on that thing. she did her own fair share of scavenging as I kept eyes on the door. The slavers were trying to bust in but failing horribly. Once we finished pillaging the armory for anything worthwhile. we started tearing down our barricade since staying here did us no good. I was picking up the filing cabinet whing the door blew open in fire and debris as I was flung back into the wall, the filing cabinet slamming into me dazing my vision and making me see stars. I heard gunfire and shouting but couldn't make out any of it. I put my hands on my helmet and my vision focused, my head pounding as I groaned and stumbled to my feet. I checked myself seeing my armor had protected me from most severe injury but I probably had a concussion of some sort. I looked to see a familiar rust-colored pegasus helping my ally to wrap her wounded and bleeding leg. I dropped to a knee and rummaged through my bag until I found a small blowtorch.
"aight look this is gonna hurt like a mother fucker but it will stop the bleeding at least," I said grabbing a nearby piece of metal and began heating it with the torch. My ally was horrified and was almost freaking out as she watched what I was doing. The pegasus trying to calm her down. I put a big piece of leather in her mouth surprising her and told her to bite down. Then I pressed the hot metal against her wound, my metal gauntlet protecting my hand. she screaming through the leather as she bit down. tears flowing out of her eyes as I held her bucking leg still. after a few seconds, I removed the metal and threw it across the room, and finished wrapping her leg.
As she got to her feet she was shooting me daggers from her eyes which I ignore in favor of calamity. "well shoot, if it an't the leader of the best darn wandering trading caravan in the wasteland!" he said with a smile tipping back his hat. "and if it ain't the trigger happy pegasus who always brings me and my guys the most random shit to sell" I said smirking under my helmet as we both gave out chuckles. We spent a few minutes planning our next moves, calamity was going to the security office and my ally who I found out her name was littlepip was going to look for someone called "velvet" and then they asked me who I wanted to go with. I stood up and pulled the rifle off my back. "I'm gonna go make some noise, I got some scores to settle here" and without another word, I ran out the door.