The Battle of Stableton

Shutter would have hit the ground hard as the pain shot through his leg, and another graze slashed along the side of his body.
Fighting back the urge to scream, Shutter waited for another shot that would no doubt end it all...only to be surprised when not only did it not come, but he heard voices, and further fighting.

However, by the time he had been able to force himself to open his eyes, both the Surgeon General and Cross had gone, and Starry was rushing over to help him.

"Starry? ...Yeah...yeah, that sounds nice..."

He muttered, as his eyes briefly looked around for his gun as he moved to a lying down position for Starry, spotting it about two hoofs away from him.

"...What happened? ...Did we win?"

Red you crazy bastard Kes said shaking his head and sheathing his rifle. The gryphon had seen the SG and Cross take a tumble off the cliff and heard that earth shattering roar a few seconds later.

For some reason Kes doubted Red had died though. Cross may have been cocky, but kill the attitude and the unicorn did have the skills to get away.

Hell even if he was dead Kes would still be unfazed. The two had never really seen eye to eye, more like they just permitted the other to live.

Ignoring the rest of the group for now, Kes got up, walked to the bottom of the cliff, and decided to see if he could pick up anything useful from the charred remains of the Surgeon General.

He found the horrible charred mess of flesh, fur, and bone in a small crater a few dozen feet from the base of the cliff. Not delayed in the least by the smell or sight of the body before him, Kes began to search it. Most things were charred or burnt beyond recognition, or use. But there, covered in soot and spirits know what else, was the first object of Kestrels intrest.

With a stomach churning sound of flesh tearing and fabric ripping Kes pulled free the fancy little revolver that the Surgeon had been toting. It was pretty banged up, and would need some pretty heavy repairs, but it was his for now. To bad he lacked the ammo for it.

The next little thing Kes was after had fared much better despite the explosion. The Surgeons horn. Kes actually had to pulss his knife out and use it to cut and pry awy the over cooked flesh around the dead ponys skull before he could start chipping away at the connection point between it and the skull itself. Again he used his knife, smacking the butt of the handle with his hand, making the blade into a chisel until finally, with a sickining crack the horn popped free.

It would need some cleaning, but it would make for a fine addition to Kestrel's...collection.

He slid it into the pouch that held the various baubles and trophys, both grim and innocent alike, for safe keeping. He would clean and polish the horn later, away from prying eyes. He may not give a damn what others think, but he did not feel like giving others anymore reason to fear him.

His grim, nigh disturbing, deeds done Kestrel began to look around the area; if only to see if anyone else was around.

(Will probably edit later.)

Lightning swooped past the plateau again and ascended until he was at a good altitude to watch the battle rage below. It was total chaos down there and somehow, in the middle of it, that Cross pony changed sides and attacked the Surgeon General. Both of them soon went careening off the edge of the cliff and disappeared in a fiery explosion. The blue pegasus' expression remained unchanged as he holstered his weapon and huffed, "Good riddance."

Looking down at the group, Lightning smiled and flew a quick victory lap before landing on the plateau and whispering, "Good job, everypony...we did it..."

Ashen was silent as watched Cross fall over the edge with The Surgeon General, followed by the explosion. He slid his rifle back into his holster, double checking his EFS to confirm that they were in the clear. After making sure, he slowly got up, making sure not to put any pressure on his mangled leg, before he started the long, and slow limp, back down.

Several minutes later, he arrived back at the site of the battle, with the other still patching themselves up and talking. Seeing that the some of the others were in worse shape than he was, and the medical supplies seemed low, he sat down on a rock and waited for the group to move again. He could get help in whatever medical facilities in Stableton that were left standing.

Spark Fire grunted in fustration. "At this rate she is just going to reopen her wounds. " he better put Faith Heart in her place before she injure herself. 

Sparks put one of his claws on her chest, "Listen, if I am to help you through this, you have to promise me a few things. First you get on my back. Second, you stop pushing yourself, your too important to me for you to bleed to death. Finally, don't provoke my friends, they helped you as a favor to me. "

With another grunt, he began loading Faith Heart onto his back. 

Kria had walked up to the edge of the cliff and was now sitter there looking over the burning remains of what was her home, she was felling metals and physically exhausted as the fires burned around her. When the bomb had went off she just watch the bright light that light up the town below and shock the cliff, she was relived that the bomb had not been more powerful so it didn't take down the cliff with it. But why was she not sad that Cross had just sacrificed him self to save them.

She looked down at the charred remains of what she guessed once were the Surgeon General and seeing Kes doing something to the body, but she just didn't care any more. This battle had change her in more ways then one something she had tired to suppress her entire life had awoken with the blood of slavers. This town was not her home any more even if her house would not have burned to the ground she felt that this town had to many memories that had woken. "You know Lucky I will take you up on that offer about the drink." She would leave the town as soon as she had managed to sell the weapons and drugs she had and were about to gather up from the remains of the slaver army.

Starry frowned at Shutter, "I'm not sure we can call this 'winning', but yes, the ponies of Stableton will stay free, at least those who survived."

She had finished bandaging him, when she spotted Roid Raid lying several meters away. She trotted up to him, and patted out the flames with her saddlebag. He was very badly burnt, and still bleeding out. "He's still alive, but barely. He hurt a lot of ponies, but the poor beast probably didn't even know what he was doing. What should we do with him?"

No one having arrived to question his actions or his claiming of reward, Kes turned and began to walk back up to the clifftop plateau. Didn't take too long to make it back.

He would no doubt need to go to the towns hospital after all of this, get some Hydra or something to heal up these wings of his. Ain't no way he was staying in town long enough to let the damned things heal on their own.

The Wastes were calling, and Kes was not one to ignore them.

Lucky walked towards Roid Raid's massive breathing body. He took the end of his hoof and flipped open Roid's eyelid. Lucky took one look at his dilated pupil and started tsking.

"Looks like the brute's in need of some of the same care as me, only it would take a REALLY large dose of the shit to purge this pour fuck. Probably wouldn't even clean 'im up, he'd need multiple doses over a time."

Lucky let the eyelid drop and looked at Starry.

"I kinda feel bad for 'im, even though he was trying to kill us. That many chems would've addled his brain, if there's any of it even left. I say we tie up his hooves and get him medical attention."

Kes noticed that the group seemed to be huddling around somthing, or somepony. With nothing else to do at this point in time the big gryph' made his way over to them looking down at the unconscious body of Roid Raid.

Kes had seen the buck once before, at a party no less. Even then it was obvious that his mind was to far gone on chems to be of any use saving him. Lucky had it right, it would take a lot of stuff to flush the pony's system.

Personally Kes would have just put a bullet through the stallions skull and called it a day. Less hassle and less cost that way.

Slowly, Shutter stood up, a mournful expression on his face as he followed Starry over to Roid Rage. However, despite his proximity, he didn't comment right away on what they should do with him. Shutters thoughts were focused on other things right now, and not a single one of them was positive.

Eventually though, he realized what the rest of the group was talking about, and did offer an opinion.

"...I don't know...He may not even realize what he was doing...but he was one of the head attackers, and do you think that fact will be enough to save him once everyone who was hurt, or the relations of those who were killed, finds out we've got a captured slaver on our hooves?
We can heal him...but I think if we keep him around, it'll just be dooming him to an execution..."

Starry knelt down, and pulled out what remained of the gauze. "It just doesn't feel right to let him die. He might not deserve a second chance for what he's done, but... well... damn it all to Tartartus, I'm giving him one anyway, and nopony is going to stop me!"

Starry wrapped the gauze around his wounds, to try and stop the loss of blood as best as she could. Afterwards, she lifted Roid's arm over her shoulder as she tried to hoist him onto her back. If she was aiming to be crushed by a two-ton pony, Starry might have labeled her attempt to carry him a success.

"Ugh, Trails, Kes, can somepony give me a hand carting this beast of a pony to the hospital?" she struggled to say, nearly being crushed under Roid's weight.

Lightning watched as all the ponies seemed to taken an interest in the large steroid pony. As he walked over, he caught bits and pieces of their conversation. He didn't need to be a genius to know that they were all thinking about saving the beast's life. In his mind, the beast was on the enemy's side and deserved to rot up there. But, after hearing their conversation, he had to admit that they were probably right. Mr. Roid over there was probably so full of chems that he wasn't thinking straight.

Lightning shook his head as Starry tried (alone) to carry Roid down to the hospital. The blue pegasus would walk over to the other side, hoisting the large pony onto his back to help split the weight between Starry and himself, "It's alright. I got it." The pony was a little heavier than Lightning expected and he gritted his teeth a little trying to hold him up.

Lucky got on Starry's other side and jammed himself under the mass of muscle, further dividing the weight between the other two ponies and himself.

'I REALLY hope this doesn't break my legs...', he thought as he helped hoist the giant back toward town. The med-x withdrawal was still eating Lucky up inside, but it wasn't near as bad as he had originally thought. He couldn't concentrate well and his joints all hurt, but it didn't deter him from his current goal.

A sudden thought then occurred to Lucky. "Does anypony know where they've set up the medical station? There HAS to be one 'round here somewhere."

Spark Fire was taken back by the sudden kiss, giving faith the satisfaction of a slight blush. He adjusted her on his back, "well... Ahem I best start walking if we are to make any progress. Feel free to tell me if you need a rest or if anything else starts hurtin. " he said, slightly embarassed by the show of affection. 

Faith Hearts words weighed as heavily upon Spark Fire's mind as she did on his back, despite the slight size difference.  He thought back to when he was captured and forced to be a guard dog for Tumbleweed and his crew.
 
"Was things so different with Starry and Silverhoof?" he thought to himself only to shake his head, "Of course they are, they don't beat me or force me to kill their enemies." he continued to reason. 

"Dont they? They were more then happy to have you kill slavers and you would have had The red caped pony not stopped you, in addition, there is little doubt that they will not be pleased with your... Treasonous choice in helping your fellow dragon. " a familiar voice rang in his mind. 

"No! That's not true, they trust me, they helped Faith, they healed her. " Sparks fired back. 

"They also snapped her wings after she was taken down. They made her suffer" the voice hissed and faded after maniacally chuckling.   
  
His only response to Faiths question was a deep sigh.

"Midtown I think." Kes answered Lucky, sliding under Roid and helping lift the buck. It put a hell of a lot of agonizing pressure on his wings but he had been given a job. He would bear through it, besides Kes was not exactly weak. His assistance would help move the big guy a bit eaiser.

Double post

Sparks stopped and tried his best to raise his head to meet Faiths. "Faith, you won't have to fight anymore, I'm here and we protect eachother. Not everypony wants violence, there's the likes of Starry and Silver whom rescued me and didn't sell me off to somepony in exchange for a lot of caps.  I just can't leave them yet... they saved my life, so I owe them mine. I know they hurt you, but they didn't torture you, not like those raiders." he lowered his head and kept walking. The thought of abandoning his friends was just to much.  

He felt what he thought was a light rain failling from above, he dared not check lest he be wrong. He just continued walking in silence, hoping that he might see another pony to add to this hospital march.  

Sparks shuddered when he heard her cry out in pain, he wasn't the smartest but he wasn't stupid, he knew somepony snapped her wings and clean broke them and it wasn't a slaver. He dug deep, trying to rationalize it but came up empty. He was sure Starry had a reason, she had to. 

"I was ambushed but not that injured, and I was forced to swallow tranquilizing agents like a dog. The unicorn that did it was as strong magically as the beast of a pony he kept as company was physically. He seemed familiar though, like an old aquaintence. Anyway Techno, thats the name of the Doc. He just gave me something to help my body fight the poison. So I didn't really get a chance to fight, I merely slept through most of it and happened to wake up to find you. " he finished, ashamed at his lack of action. 
He hung his head low as he walked "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I wasn't there sooner to to stop them or protect you. I'm just glad that I at least found you, and was strong enough to at least take you to the hospital and spare you the walk. " 

Starry began to carry Roid Raid down the hill toward the hospital. With the help of her friends it would be possible, but it would still be an agonizing task considering the wounds that each of the ponies had received.

There was a great amount of destruction to be seen as the ponies trotted back down the hill into stableton. Buildings were burning, some had collapsed entirely, and the streets were littered with corpses and spent ammo casings. The residents of Stableton may remain free, but looking at the devastation, it was hard to say that they won.

*cough *cough* Cross struggled to bring himself over the hill, somehow he managed to kick the Surgeon General down before he teleported, but his vision was still blurry and he was bleeding badly, he was in no condition to figure out what to do next....all he could do was hope he got away and could come back and tell them why he did it...if he could make it through the morning, but quickly he was losing consciouness......

...if he made it.....he promised himself he'd go back,

*beep* *beep* ...Cross turned over sighting a mister gusty, whatever the hell it was doing here at lea-............................... he never finished that thought, he put up no resistance as the robot incapacitated him, picked him up and traveled back to its owner, another pawn in the great game in the wasteland that never changed.