Chapter 29 Feeding the Fire

Ravager Blitzfire

Present Time: 207 Years After the Incident of Stable 14

We approached Clydesdale Valley Proper and hid behind a stone wall. I saw the feral ghouls the second we were there, and I realized it may be a much bigger task than we had first thought. It was a good thing we had so many friends with us. We were a battalion, nothing would get in our way.

"I see a sparkling ghoul," said OJ and I peered over the top of the wall. He was right. There was a sparkling ghoul. It was shining with rainbow colored arcana radiation and his mane was swirling like an alicorn's. Well, like most alicorns, OJ's didn't have any magical attributes. Not until he started using magic at least.

"I can take it out, easy." he stuck his tongue out at us.

"Not until we take out its minions. If we alert them they will fall on us like the horde they are." Lady Ashe explained. "We must take out the minions first."

"I kind of agree with OJ on this one, Ashe," said Buck. "That guy is our biggest concern."

"Why not just split up? Some of you take on the smaller ghouls, Capper, Cheshire and I will take on the bigger ghouls and Buck and OJ can work on killing the sparkling one." I said, my voice harsh. I needed to take command or nothing would get done.

All the ponies agreed and there were few grumblings before we decided on our teams. Buck took OJ, Wonder, Cherry and Riggs Bailey with him around the other side of the small houses on the right. They would sneak around so we were surrounding the ghouls. Ashe led her team; Pumpkin Spice, Felia Heart and Joyride, straight into the midst of all the little ghouls, the ones easily taken out. I took Capper, Cheshire, Combat and Salem around the left side, ducking behind cars and food stalls that had been abandoned a long time ago. They were rusted out husks now.

"Everypony ready?" asked as I located the toughest ghouls on my EFS compass.

"Yessir," Capper snickered at me and Salem joined in on his laughter.

"Now's not the time," I snapped but Capper's smile was contagious and I had to smile back at my tomfriend.

"Now is always the time," said Combat.

"Okay," I pointed toward the battlefield, showing off the hardest of the feral ghouls. "Combat, you take that one, Capper take the one nearest to it and help Combat if at all necessary. Salem, with me. There are those two laying there pretending to be dead."

"They must be pretty smart then," Salem said.

"That's what makes them dangerous." I told him.

"Not as smart as me, I'm sure," he was cocky.

"Let's do it!" I shouted and we ran forward of the cars, joining Ashe's team on the field. It was a small lot in front of a couple houses. My hooves crunched through the dirt and I started shooting at the two ghouls lying on the ground. They got up and stared angrily at me for disturbing their rest. Salem leaped forward, and he had flames on his claws. He slashed one and it caught fire. It screeched and tried to bite Salem, but the black cat easily dodged.

"It's bad luck to cross a black cat, you know." he smiled and slashed out again, this time using water to douse the flames. The ghoul was shoved back.

Meanwhile, my ghoul reared back on his hind legs, whinnying incomprehensible and rearing out at me, trying to kick me with its forelegs. I shot at its stomach and it fell backward. Then it got back up, still in the fray. I shook my head and used some of my magic at my disposal as the Element of Vigilance. My hooves glowed with red magic and Capper nearby winked at me as he enhanced my abilities the way he liked to. I felt powerful, energized and ready to face this beast. My revolver glowed with red and purple magic and I fired a few orbs at the ghoul, conserving my bullets.

"Die, piece of shit!" I heard Combat yelling. He needed a little help, as two big ghouls were rearing on him. I had just killed mine so I ran toward him and flipping around on my front legs I bucked out at the ghoul lashing toward Combat. My back hooves connected with the ghoul's chest and I heard a loud crunch. I felt its bones break beneath my hooves and I grimaced as it collapsed, dead.

"You're pretty spunky!" Combat laughed at me as he fired his shotgun at the second ghoul. Some blue orbs of light appeared around the bullets and I saw that Combat's eyes were glowing the same color. We were all taking advantage of our newfound abilities.

"As are you," I laughed as I fired at the same ghoul. It was thrown back and it tried to get up but I stood over it and fired a couple bullets into its brain.

The field was cleared of feral ghouls in that instance, besides the sparkling one. I looked over there and saw they were having a hard time with it. Orange Juice was thrown back by a burst of magic and he reared on his hind legs, then on all fours took a low defensive stance, his horn glowing with a powerful turquoise light. He shot a huge focused beam at the sparkling one. It screeched and absorbed the magic. Buck was firing a minigun at it. I saw Cherry pumping a semi-automatic combat shotgun, obviously a heavily modified weapon. The chamber spun as he pulled the trigger, about 4 to 6 bullets all firing at once before he had to pump it again. He was yelling, "Yahh!"

Erza rushed forward, her team ready to help deal with the sparkling one. Joy was in the air, flapping his wings and Felia was enhancing him with her violet red magic. He whooped and tossed some throwing stars that way. The sparkling one reared back in that moment of impact and I realized that OJ's magic wasn't doing any good. In fact, it was doing the opposite. I shouted to Ashe Erza, "Colonel! That thing is absorbing magic to heal itself!"

Erza nodded to me and requipped into a different suit of armor. She had two blades and tossed one toward OJ while calling, "Orange Juice, catch this!"

Orange Juice caught it up in his magic and used it at once to slash out at the ghoul. It jumped back, adept at dodging. "Gah!" Orange yelled and ran forward, slicing with all his might. The ghoul had learned to avoid him, besides that, OJ had no swordsmanship practice; he was terrible at it. I aimed my revolver and fired off a few rounds. The ghoul couldn't dodge bullets. A magical barrier was put up, blocking the oncoming ammo. I yelled in frustration and we all regrouped behind that same wall.

"He seems quite aware of all our abilities," said Ashe Erza.

"He did just watch us take out his minions," I said.

"I think we need to feed him some pockey!" Pumpkin Spice yelled and I saw her jump onto the top of the wall. She pulled from her saddle bags two large sticks of pockey, the size of one of Erza's swords. "Hey big ol' meanie!" she shouted and it came blundering up to us. She smashed it down on his head like a club. It screamed and I saw him reach up to rub its head. Pumpkin just kept on going, smash, smash, smash! She beat it back and jumped off the wall. I kind of felt bad for it, Pumpkin was vicious.

She beat it to a pulp and its glow faded away to nothing. A burst of energy shot from it and then fizzled away. "Hey! Looks like I win a prize!" having beat it like a pinata, and it being made of magic, candy had spilled from its guts, quite surprisingly. We all stared wide eyed as Pumpkin picked up the pieces of candy and stuffed it into her pouch. "What?" she said when she noticed all of us staring at her. "I love collecting Niponese candy."

"That's just gross," said Capper, putting one finger in his mouth and making the bleh face.

"I have to say I don't disagree with you there," Ashe Erza said. Buck was nodding and Combat was laughing.

"I'll get in on some of that!" he called and ran forward to grab some gut candy. Buck's cheeks puffed out as though he was about to vomit.

"I'm not getting on that bandwagon," he shook his head.

OJ followed after Combat and asked Pumpkin, "Can I have some candy?"

"Of course! You helped us beat the pinata pony, don't even think anything of it." Pumpkin encouraged him. I saw him pick up a Hi-Chew and unwrapping it, popped it into his mouth. I winced at that, thinking how gross it was that the candy had literally spilled from its guts. "Pray you don't get sick."

"Oh think nothing of it," Pumpkin patted OJ on the back. "Gut candy is still candy."

The strands of taffy between OJ's top and bottom teeth were fully visibly as he said with a wide smile, "You got that right, Pumpkin!" he was giggling like a school colt.

The Minute Hooves moved in, smiling and all shouting cheers of victory. We were all happy with our progress in the small village. We met up with the Minute Hooves near the houses in the square where the Railroad had gathered too. "It is good you cleared this place out for us, now we can set up a new settlement and another fast travel gate," said a Minute Hoof mare. She was all smiles, as were her crew. I saw one pony setting up a shop stand, the sign reading Callout's Brews and Bottles. I walked up to him, tapping him on the shoulder.

"What is it you got going on here?" I asked him.

"Hey there! I sell potions as well as spirits." he grinned toothily. He had crooked teeth.

"I suppose I'd like to buy a round of drinks for my friends and I, we do deserve it after all."

"I'll even throw in a victor's discount!" he laughed and began pouring some hard cider.

I opened my mouth to call to my friends when suddenly there was a loud explosion. It was on the edge of the village and there I saw a pink light form in the mushroom cloud. Somepony had used a mini nuke on us. "What was that?" I heard somepony call.

"We are under attack!" yelled another pony.

I ran toward my friends, apparently this wasn't over yet. But ghouls didn't use explosives or nukes. Who's pink magic could that be. Ashe Erza galloped up to me, "It is Priscilla and a small group of synths."

"That's not good."

"No, I can't say it is."

We rejoined our friends, and I already saw them preparing for the battle ahead. Capper had his kitty claws raised and he gave me a confident grin. I stood tall by his side and nodded to him while I activated my own red magic on my hooves. I had one hoof raised, bent at the carpus. I noticed Cheshire feeding energy to Capper and he smiled that wide smile at me as he floated through the air with ease. I saw turquoise magic on OJ's horn heat up and red magic on Erza's do the same. Buck had a large energy gun, Pumpkin Spice had her cherry bombs. She rather liked those. Combat had a semi-automatic and Cherry had a shotgun. Heart was already in the air in her violet red aura, and Joy was just now jumping up and gaining his wings. Salem was on Capper's other side, fire magic in one fist and water magic in the other, dual wielding.

We were all prepared for the worst, as the upcoming battle had been a bit unexpected. I was disappointed because we hadn't even had time to drink our victory drinks. It was like, give me a break! But in the wasteland, there were no such things as breaks. You had to be on your toes at all times. This settlement wasn't ours until we showed the synths and ashlings who was boss. Time to feed the fire, fan the flames of war. Because that's what this was, a war, and we would not lose. Not at any cost.

Ashe was the tallest of us all, and she started the fight off with a burst of magic from her horn. She targeted the nearest ashlings, keeping them pushed back. Suddenly the area around us grew dark and I noticed there were a few darklings in the mix too. I didn't like that, not one bit. Those darklings were a bit unnerving. It was too bad Double Diamond's doppelgänger tended toward that style of darkness magic because I hated having to fight them.

"I'm on cleanup duty!" I called, getting angry. Capper followed me and I tossed a few orbs at the nearest darkling. The first few hits were absorbed like it was nothing, then I got through and they began screeching at me and rearing back on their hindlegs.

This battle was not about to be easy on us…

"Capper, enhancements, now!" I yelled as a darkling charged me and I saw the Light magic building up. It had collected enough energy to attack and I was not prepared to see what their attacks looked like. I was hit full force before Capper could do anything and I was thrown backward on my haunches. I skidded a ways and cried out in pain. I had to ignore the pain, getting up and yelling at the top of my lungs in fury. I focused some magical energy on all four of my hooves and I jumped and kicked out at the darklings circling around me. They screamed and I laughed, "Die you fuckers!"

"I got you babe," Capper called and I saw Cheshire flying at full speed toward me. He got on my back, sitting on my and riding me like a horse. I mean, I suppose it wasn't a difficult thing to do, I was a pony, but it did feel a bit demeaning.

"I am thick as the thistle, fine as a thorn." Cheshire whispered in my ear. "Yah I say, yah!" I felt his heels dig into my sides and suddenly magic filled me and I felt fire in my veins. By Faust! I jumped forward, galloping at full speed. I felt my red fire magic all around me, not just on my hooves. Maybe it wasn't so bad having Cheshire ride me, though I felt as though I looked pretty stupid with a cat on my back.

I barrelled through the first few darklings and then I realized just how far behind enemy lines I was. I was coming up on a few ashlings and Cheshire yelled, "Whoa, whoa! Easy does it little pony." He eased up on the heels and I slowed down. It was like he was able to control me. Then I realized he had some sort of magical harness and he was pulling back on the straps. I whinnied and reared back, feeling a bit angry at being manipulated. There was nothing for it now, for I knew I hadn't ever felt more powerful.

"With the Element of Vigilance at my command I fare thee well," Cheshire said to the nearest ashling. "Blitz, fire!" My eyes filled with furious light and fire magic encircled me like a centralized tornado. It spun all around in a fury and the ashlings backed away from me slowly. I heard one yell, "Run!" right before my fire exploded outward with the force of a dozen megaspells. I had been Cheshire's trojan horse, delivering a sweet sweet care package upon our enemies. I don't think they cared for it.

A few of them now lie dead in the dust and I smirked. "How do you like them apples?"

"I don't think they liked those apples at all." said Cheshire and pulled on the reigns. I turned about and he had me trot back over to the main battlefield. The battlefield where my friends and our allies still fought with more than a few ashlings and synths. I saw Priscilla sitting back enjoying the show.

"What do we do now?" I asked Cheshire atop me. I think I was getting used to him being the white knight upon my back on the chessboard that was this battleground.

"I say we try to appease the red queen, but I doubt she would listen." Cheshire told me.

"Has that ever stopped you before?"

"No, I dare say not."

"Then the red queen it is. Knight to A5!" I shouted and we galloped to Priscilla Pen-Rose.