Part 2 of my FoE fanfic, Stars and Steel! A new player enters the field, and Aether has her first taste of combat!

Chapter 2: Raiders, Glint in the Scope

The overcast sky was adamant in forbidding all but the dimmest rays of sunlight breach its all devouring monopoly above me, casting a thick blanket of shadows across the depressing landscape unfolding in front of my view. I had turned left from the shack Moonshine and Brandy occupied like they’d said, I did take a small glance towards the shacks up on Mare Hill but I saw a few incredibly jumpy looking earth ponies atop them, at least one had a scoped rifle, so there was no way in hell I was going near them. I kicked an old rusted can down the road as I walked, my hooves clopping against the cracked paving loudly, reminding me of my size. I’d put Annabelle, the old shotgun Moonshine had begrudgingly given me, into a holster nestled under my right wing, a handy way of quick drawing it should I encounter trouble. I craned my neck left and right, scanning the gutted, burnt out buildings lining the street along the way to the stores still standing, what manner of calamity had happened here to cause such a mess? I tried to wrack my brain for the answers but like last time, naught but empty echos in an uncertain void. Shaking myself from my thoughts I noticed that to my left, one of the buildings not completely burnt out had something in it that was poking through a pile of rubble and bricks. I walked over to it, seeing the dull but noticeable gleam of metal within the pile, and my horn glowed green as I plucked the item from its resting place, although another, much more undesirable addition was unearthed with it. A skull. An earth pony’s skull. The item was a fairly battered but serviceable looking Colt revolver, the owner still gripping the weapon in his or her teeth long after death. I didn’t scream, but the sudden surprise did elicit a startled gasp from me as a wave of sudden cold washed over my body. With some fiddling I was able to remove the gun from the skull without damaging either, I may not know who this pony was in life, but if I was going to essentially grave rob them, I’d be damned if I was going to damage their final resting place like some deplorable scavenging beast.

I inspected the revolver closely, using my telekinesis spell to bring it closer to my face: Dulled but still shiny finish, barrel was straight; no damage beyond some dings and dents here and there. I don’t know how I was able to glean such info so quickly despite the gaping holes in my memory, but maybe I was a gun expert before…whatever happened to me? I pondered a little more and then realized that a new gun was worthless unless it had something to shoot with, so with great care not to disturb the earth pony’s final resting place too much I pawed through and levitated the rubble away, my searching paying off as I discovered the deceased pony’s body was shielding 3 small boxes of .357 magnum rounds, perfect for the revolver, as well as some scattered but unfired shotgun shells, I put all of them into my satchel and gave a smile to nobody, my first time scavenging the wastes and I found something useful! Huzzah! …Huzzah? Oh my goddesses what the hell did I just think? My throat still felt dry and burnt from earlier and as much as I really did not want to, I removed the dirty looking water from my satchel, it was hopefully actually drinkable and not given as a cruel prank. I smacked my lips together, bone dry, so I guess I’d better soldier on now.

With a groan I uncapped the bottle of murky liquid and recoiled from the offensive stench, it smelt stagnant and rusty, but it was still better than the alcoholic swill Moonshine had given me, so I shrugged, prayed to the goddesses this wouldn’t kill me and downed a huge swig of it in one gulp. And then immediately regretted it when the damn death-drink tried to escape several times before settling with an indignant gurgle in my stomach. I shuddered and a sickly burp escaped my snout. I was NOT drinking this crap again if I could help it. It tasted a hell of a lot worse than it smelt, and I didn’t want to dwell on the awful aromatic peculiarities making such a once precious fluid become so vile. I got back up and walked on, being sure to cover the skeletal remains back up after me to give the poor deceased individual some semblance of a private grave before I continued, still feeling sickly from that disgusting water sloshing about my innards and no doubt probably changing into something capable of violently escaping from there. I chuckled at my attempt at humor and scanned the horizons for anything more useful, and I was in luck! A small store was coming into view, mostly intact with a faded sign reading “Honest Buck’s General Goods”, and from its undamaged (If dirty) windows I could see it still had contents within it, hopefully including something ingestible that my stomach would not protest at. A quick look around revealed nopony within sight so I was able to just walk across the dirt road to the store’s front door and push it open…it fell off its hinges with an almighty creak and a thud, making me facehoof a little at the sheer unexpected comedy of it. With a shrug of my shoulders I slowly trotted in, my hooves now clacking against the marble tiled floor loud enough to worry me, in case anything was alive in here.


I froze up and waited, just to be sure nothing was going to jump out at me from behind a shelf or something. A tense moment passed and when I was sure nothing was hiding in there, I breathed out and began what was pretty much looting. A few empty old tins here, some old empty boxes there, ugh, nothing useful! I kept going further back into the store until I found old and obviously inoperable cooler containing bottles of a brownish liquid labeled “Sunrise sarsaparilla “. Hmm, seemed to be a drink, so I picked up one of the bottles, opened it and took a sip. My goddesses it tasted great, my tongue practically leapt from the sensation, which was more than enough motivation to bag a good few bottles for later. After putting the drinks in the satchel, I noticed that on the nearest shelf to my right were a few cans of sliced apples, no doubt still edible from being sealed. I grinned and put them in my satchel, as well as with some of that sweet sarsaparilla nectar, and kept browsing. More canned apples, some tins of candy apples, some assorted preserved nuts and berries, nothing that would last me more than a few days overall, but it was something.

*CLANG*

I jumped, what the hell was that!? Was someone there? I instinctively drew Annabelle from its holster and span to face the store entrance, but nopony was there. I was worried, that loud noise could have been anything, to hell with scavenging for now, and I’d rather know that whatever made that noise was either harmless or gone. Cautiously I crept back up to the entrance, Annabelle cocked and ready, and peered outside, looking left and right to check if anything was-

*KZZZRT!*

A bright green lance of energy impacted the wooden wall beside me, searing a sizeble hole into it and leaving a scent of burning and smoke. What the fu-!? I ducked down low and craned my neck sideward to see what the hell was shooting at me, and lo and behold I saw it: A rusted but still operable old Ponytron robot was trundling its way towards the store, its gemstone eye sensors flickering as its body jerked and lurched in a slow, unnatural fashion towards me, synthesized voice screeching “Alicorn detected. All ponies must evacuate immediately. Alicorn detected. All ponies must evacuate immediately.” As it finished, an inbuilt energy blaster whined and fired off another lance of charged power at me, its targeting systems thankfully degraded enough that the second shot also missed by a wide margin, striking a marehole cover by the road nearby.

*KZZZRT!*

Alicorn detected? Was my kind really so hated, as to cause security robots to become programmed to target us? I also wanted to know how I knew the name of this mechanical menace, but that could wait. Right now it needed to go before it fried me! I looked at Annabelle and sighed, it’d be both a waste of shotgun shells to try and blast it and also suicide to run out close to it where it wouldn’t *need* a targeting computer to hit me, so this meant it was up to my new little sidearm revolver to save the day.

Holstering my shotgun I instead took out the Colt, and I somehow knew exactly how to operate it; clenching the gun between my teeth and leaning out of my cover enough to get a clear view of the slow moving robot that was whirring its neck about to spot me. I took careful aim at it, and was about to fire off a single shot when it snapped its gaze to my hiding spot and screeched again. “Alicorn located. Primary objective: Exterminate.” I panicked and fired off all six shots in its general direction. Four of them bounced harmlessly from its chassis, the fifth one struck an exposed leg joint, making it buckle to the side with a loud mechanical groan as it tried to compensate for its disabled limb, and the sixth shot struck one of its optics, smashing through the gemstone and most likely bouncing about the insides of its head, judging by the sparks erupting from the shattered eye. With a shuddered chorus of metal buckling, the Ponytron slowly slumped to the side before collapsing into a clattering heap of metal, sparks still fizzling from its eye socket and ruptured leg as the remains of its cybernetic “life” shut down. My first confirmed kill. I didn’t know whether to feel elation or fear as I moved over to inspect the downed machine. I stopped to reload the Colt and felt the excitement and adrenaline still pulse through me, I destroyed a killer robot and I’d only been awake for a few hours, my life was exciting! I snorted to myself at how dumb that sounded and began the process of slowly pulling the Ponytron’s blaster from its body, I could just *feel* it contained something useful, like power cells or something, and hey it did! So I pocketed them. With that done I left the disabled robot where it fell, hopefully it would rust and be forgotten, with nopony using it to hurt anyone else.

I did a rummage through the other remaining stores and found to my disappointment that they had been picked clean already, neither a single tin nor bottle nor bottle cap to be found. I sighed and continued down the road, I was now leaving Pranceton for the wide open wastelands, and I guessed that if I followed the road, I’d find the next town within a day or so. With inventory taken, a small snack of canned apple and another drink of sarsaparilla to tide me over, I was on my way along the worn and element beaten road. Though as I walked my mind still swam with questions. Who was I really? Where did I come from? Where did that robot come from? Was it sent to kill me by the townsfolk not welcoming of my kind? And just where *were* the rest of my kind anyway? I tried not to lose myself in my thoughts as I noticed the pitter patter of rain begin to creep into the wasteland around me, first time I’d seen rain that I could remember, and I welcomed it as an alternative to the dust and heat the day had given constantly. As the downpour began I
smiled a little, something about the cool rain and the smell of it coming down relaxed me and soothed my nerves. Though I needed to find somewhere to make camp, it was getting late and campfires don’t work in a rainstorm, it didn’t take a genius to figure that out, nor an amnesiac alicorn. I broke off from the main track to clamber up a hill and survey the landscape, it seemed I was beside a sprawling valley, at the bottom of which flowed a murky looking river, with the crumbled remains of old docks and shacks along its banks, no doubt unoccupied given the deficit of fish in that filthy water for such inhabitants to catch. An old road sign caught my eye; I got close enough to it to make the letters out in the rain and it read “Mane, next exit”. Mane? Must be the closest town! With that in mind I was about to go back to the road and continue on a little while longer before seeking shelter but then…it happened.

*CRACK!*

A rapid galloping approached me from behind as I turned my back on the view of the valley, and before I knew it something hard and solid clubbed me in the head, sending me tumbling down the muddy hill in a sprawled mass of pain and confusion. “Ha! Nice one Doomsday, ya got her good!” croaked a harsh voice, thick with aggression and low in intelligence. “Yeah, now go git her, that thar’s one of them alicorn thingies, they’s do fetch a goooood price with them slaver folks!” another, equally as horrible voice responded. My vision was a blurred mess and I couldn’t stand, the blow had sapped me of any strength I had and all I could do was lie on my side barely conscious as these two voices guffawed at me and made disturbing remarks about my plot and what they would do to me to “Break me in” for sale. “Git her back tah camp, the boys’re gonna be thrilled with this here beauty!” the voice identified as Doomsday commanded. At this point my awareness faded as darkness took me.

Oh goddesses my head…I awoke slowly, like the first time I woke up from a painful haze I was again disorientated, but unlike that first time where I awoke to relatively kind faces and help, here I was greeted by leering unicorns and earth ponies clad in makeshift armor, inhabiting an old service station of some sort like a camp. I was in a cage, a rusty iron cage! These…ponies had put me in a cage! “Har har, you be a good bitch now lil miss alicorn, yer gonna fetch us a pretty cap when the slavers come in the week! We’s gonna sell you to the hiiiiighest bidder!” the pony in charge, a tan coloured, thick bodied unicorn grunted at me, smiling and revealing many missing or malformed teeth, eyes a dull slate colour and cutie mark a cracked skull. “You must be Doomsday.” I said meekly at him, I was afraid yes, but I wasn’t going to show it as much as I could. “Hmmrrph, yer a smart one ain’t yeah?” he drawled “We don’ appreciate no smart-ass slave stock girl, so we’s figuring that we’s gonna have tah make sure yer not a problem fer no buyers, yeah?” I did NOT like where this was going. “’Sides…we ain’t had no company a’ no mares fer a loooong time ya know.” Oh Goddesses no. He wanted to- “You…you’re going to…” I murmured. “Eyup. Now you be a good girl an’ don’t squeal too much ya hear!?” My heart pounded in my chest, my stomach churned, I was sweating, shaking now, he was going to violate me, and I could feel my fear raise…my anger raise. How *dare* this pathetic excuse for a pony think he can touch me like that! How dare he! “HOW DARE YOU” I suddenly found myself booming, my voice so loud it caused some of the raiders to cower back in fear. “YOU THINK THAT SUCH MISERABLE EXCUSES FOR PONIES CAN DEFILE ME!? I WILL PURGE YOUR FOUL GROUP FROM THIS WORLD YOU DEPLORABLE WRETCH!” Whoa, I scared *myself* just now with that, my anger boiled over and I roared that at the group, Doomsday visibly flinched and backed away from me as I bellowed, the faintest glimmer of fear in his bloodshot eyes. “What the…” he mumbled. “Bah! Yer gonna learn yer place so enough bitch, no fancy Canterlot voice’s gonna save yer ass here!” I growled and glowered at the bunch as they laughed grotesquely. I saw my satchel and guns outside the cage, they’d taken them from me…I needed to get out, but how? “Think Aether, think!” I scraped my brain for anything at all, something, *anything* to help, but nothing was coming out. I dejectedly looked to the window and was about to resign to my fate, but then I saw it…the glint from the cliff. A glint aimed here.

*BANG!*

The raider nearest to the window, a crinkly looking old unicorn with silvery mane and dull blue coat, suddenly *exploded*, his head just detonating into a cloud of flying chunks and gore as a loud gunshot ripped through the air, within seconds the raiders panicked and began shouting to each other, their attention diverted from me. Someone was shooting at them! Was it to free me?

*BANG! BANG! BANG!*

Three more shots, three more raiders relieved of their craniums. They had all gone outside, leaving me alone in my cage. I tried to kick the cage open but I was still weak, so with all my magical might, my horn glowed a bright green and with a yell I was able to rip the lock from the cage door and shoulder bash it open, freedom! I levitated my belongings back over to myself and had just finished doing so when one raider, a fiery red earth pony came back in and saw me. “Hey! You-!” he didn’t finish, I quick drew Annabelle and fired both barrels in quick succession, his body peppered with buckshot and crumbled into a bleeding heap with eyes still wide open in fatal alarm. My first confirmed pony kill. I felt…conflicted. But now wasn’t the time to get emotional, I could worry about this later, right now survival was key, and getting out of here was top priority! I reloaded my shotgun and dashed outside, the raiders were mostly scattered, and either dead or fleeing as the mysterious sniper picked them off while avoiding me. I was about to be home free when a much closer gunshot sounded from nearby and a searing pain ripped into my left flank, causing me to stumble and fall to the ground. “You fuckin’ bitch!” It was Doomsday, a gruesome wound to his side meant he was hobbling towards me, seems the sniper missed the kill on him. “Yer not getting’ away! If’n I can’t sell you as a slave, if’n I can’t have no gang anymore because of you! Then I guess I just have ter kill you!” he growled, blood dribbling from his mouth. I groaned and pushed myself up before he could fire again, a pistol levitated by dull grey magic. “You got a fire in yer, if’n you can stand up after that!” he laughed, and went to fire at my head. I wasn’t going to die here. I was NOT. Going to die. HERE! With newfound adrenaline and strength I was able to leap up despite the great pain in my flank and strike Doomsday’s horn with my hood, the raider boss yelling in pain as it shattered, his gun dropping. He staggered and growled before finding his balance, I struck him again with my other hoof, breaking his snout and sending blood spurting out. He was trying to back away from me now, that bloodlust having turned into pure fear, I instinctively extended my wings (That I did not even remember having until now) to make my presence even more imposing, and with a loud whinny of rage I lowed my head and charged him.

“No! Liss’n! Please! I won’t cause no more trouble! I won’t! Y-you don’t need to-!” His pleas for life ended in a scream and a gurgle as his soft body found itself impaled on my horn, with a retching gasp he looked at me as his eyes clouded over “You…bitch…” and with a cough and a wheeze, the raider’s life was extinguished, and I shook his limp body away from my horn, which dripped with thick red ichor. I panted and snorted, nostrils flaring, I could see my red eyes in a puddle’s reflection almost gleaming in overflowing rage. And then it dawned on me. I had just taken the lives of two ponies, and messily too. The adrenaline wore off and the pain of my wound and the exhaustion of this whole ordeal came rushing back to me, causing me to sink to the floor and pant. I weakly looked up at a shadow moving closer to me; hopefully it was my mysterious savior and not a surviving raider. Footsteps in the mud got closer and closer to me, and I was too weak to look up. For the third time in a row, I was losing consciousness, what luck I seem to have, I thought to myself, as once again things faded into dark obscurity.

Ow. My head hurts. My flank hurts. My hurt hurts. I tried to move but felt incredibly groggy, my limbs were numb and rubbery and my head and horn pulsed with pain. “Hmmph, if I’d known ye was one o’ them bleedin’ alicorn things I’d ‘ave left ye to those raider arseholes.” An unfamiliar voice scoffed. Who was this? Was this the same person who had saved me? It sounded female…harsh and gritty, but definitely female, with a curious accent. “Whuh…whussah gun on?” I slurred, not my proudest moment. I’d bury my head in my hooves if I had the strength. “I can’t believe I wasted so many o’ me best rounds tah save yer arse when ye turn out to be a fookin’ alicorn! Bah, by me feathers this ain’t been a good day!” the voice continued to spit. I very slowly tried to sit up, groaning. “Ohhh no ye don’t, yer keepin’ that huge arse right there on the mat ya crazy fool. I saw ye gore that raider, I’d be impressed if I had the capacity tah care fer ye more than basic medical services.” Ok, big arse? Really? “Whuh’re yuh sayin’ muh ursh’s big?” I grunted, still rather out of it. “Big? Fookin’ hell lassie yer arse’s so big Luna herself’d raise it!” this unknown speaker quipped, my brow furrowing in annoyance again. I just heard a tut from this speaker and her footsteps, they sounded not like hooves at all, come closer to me. “Here, sniff this.” She barked, shoving something up my nose. I took a deep breath instinctively and-OWWWWW! I bolted upright and yelped loudly. “What in the name of the goddesses was THAT!?” I shrieked, eyes watering. “Smellin’ salts lassie, lil thing I picked up on me travels. Also, hello to ye too.”

I finally got a good look at this girl: She was definitely not a pony; she was what my brain was identifying as a griffin. Her wing feathers and body fur were a somewhat striking fawn colour, her head feathers were a lighter cream, styled into a sort of Mohawk-esque fashion. a sharp yellow beak clicked and bright, predatory hazel eyes glared at me. Her clothing was a mixture of black leather jacket and gauntlets over her forelegs, protecting the taloned feet and giving extra grip. Perched on her head were a pair of goggles, gleaming in the now shining wasteland sun. But her most curious feature was those wings, they looked…stunted. The feathers badly matted and the wings themselves look small and weak, like they were crippled or injured. She gave me a loud huff and shook her head. “If yer done admirin’ me body, ye can explain what the fook ye were doin’ out here, alicorn.” She said bluntly. I blinked and blushed a little, I *was* staring at her. “Oh. Um…sorry.” I said timidly and looked away, making her snort.
“So then. What’s yer name, alicorn? I imagine ye have some oh so fancy one. Master race my arse.” The griffin grunted, rolling her eyes. “My name is Aether Flow.” I said, smiling a little. I didn’t know why since all she was doing was being unpleasant, though better judgment stopped me from thinking all griffins were like this. “Oh how poncy, peh.” She spat, sniffing. I did not like her, she was a mean dummy. “Ye can just call me Havoc, aye? Just Havoc, nothin’ more, nothin’ less.” I had a feeling this wasn’t her real name, Griffin names were…like the one on my shotgun actually. “Well then Havoc, nice to meet you. Its not every day a girl gets assaulted by raiders then is saved by a rude, uncouth, smart mouthed griffin with a funny accent.” I barked, smirking at my retort. “And it ain’t every day I get tah save a fookin’ settlement destroyin’ ponynapping life ruinin’ mutant.” She responded. Wait, what? “I’m sorry, what?” I said dumbfounded. “What do ye mean what? Yer a bloody alicorn, that’s what ye *do*! Ye prance about like ye bleedin’ own the place an’ ye drag off ponies to fook knows where an’ occasionally shoot up settlements like its goin’ outta style!” she growled, now angry with me for some reason. Was that really what I was? A…monster? I wanted to ask her but thought it best to hold my tongue, at least for now. “Oh sweet, ye have Sunrise Sarsaparilla, better than that Sparkle-Cola crap!” Oh what the hell, she was going through my satchel! “Hey! Those are my personal belongings and you are not permitted to purvey them!” I snapped, ruffling my wings to seem bigger, though that would probably do little seeing as Havoc was a rather large specimen of griffindom. “Hold yer hor-I mean yerself lassie, I ain’t stealin’ anything, just browsin’. I scoffed at her joke, they were only funny when *I* made them.

“Very well, just don’t steal that sarsaparilla, it’s heavenly and I will hurt you.” I half-joked. I could’ve sworn I saw Havoc’s beak contort into a slight amused smirk. “So then, “Aether Flow”, what’re ye doing out here?” she asked me. “I…don’t know.” I replied, being honest.

“Oh? Well, where’re ye from?” Havoc grunted, getting more and more annoyed.

“I don’t know.”

“Why did ye go into town?”

“They found me unconscious.”

“Who did?”

“Moonshine and Brandy.”

“Oh, the rumrunners.”

“You know them?”

“Aye, shits keep rippin’ me off with their pisswater swill, bah!”

This line of questioning continued for ages, and we shared some sunrise sarsaparillas as we waited for my flank wound which Havoc had managed to fix up using stimpacks and magic bandages (Who knew they were a thing?). “So Aeth…can ye fly?” she suddenly asked. Fly? I…I’ve not tried as far as I can remember; maybe I could before the blankness hit me, but not since then. “No…no I don’t know.” I said dejectedly. The griffin grimaced at me irritably. “Ach, yer wings look perfectly fine tah me, not shriveled an’ useless like mine.” She groaned. I wanted to ask her about that still but figured it may be a personal question. “I…haven’t tried.” I was half-honest, I’d NOT tried recently. Havoc just snorted at me again. “Well then lassie, tomorrow, I teach ye ter fly. No ifs, ands or buts about it!” she laughed. I gulped; tomorrow wasn’t going to be a fun day, was it?