Nothing but the Shirt on your Back.

Tesla looked up from the map, at the Earth pony with a confused look on his face. "Hello...um welcome to BlackPowder Repairs, I'm Tesla, anyways...I'm actually not selling anything right now." Tesla gestured to the mess that was now his store. "As you can see, it was kinda robbed. All I have are spare parts, and even those are at a minimum. I mean I guess I could fix up your gun if you'd like...though it would cost a nominal fee, but other than that, I'm sorry but I can't really help you. Especially if you are wanting to find an energy weapon...actually I don't think there are any of those in all of Stableton."

Gunner looked dumbfounded at Tesla, the frustration building.

"Argh, but I don't know how to shoot things, I only know how to zap'em, how am I supposed to help the wasteland if I can't zap some stuff from time to time ?"

The stallion sighed and took back his gun.
"Okay, what kind of spare part you have laying around ? Maybe I could tinker something up."

Gunner started tapping his chin deep in thought. "Maybe if I connect some spark batteries with some lens and reflecting stuff to strengthen the laser. I'll also have to make some sort of focusing chamber, and have a trigger system so the gun doesn't shoot continuously. I'll also have to tinker a make-shift boxing case to hold all the stuff in place..." The stallion rambled on and on for several minutes.

"Hum sir ?" asked tentatively the young unicorn.

"Hum ? oh yeah ! So what do you have ? Maybe I'll be able to zap things after all !"

Tesla continued to have a quizzical look on his face...was this pony trying to make an energy weapon? the unicorn shook his head focusing back on the customer "um...again I don't have anything that could help you with making any form of energy weapon...I have scraps and spare parts from...well...broken guns, like pistols...some shotguns...and maybe if I'm lucky I can find some pieces that once belonged to a rifle, as well as some hardened leather strips that was for armor but I'm even low on that, and besides you would need a lot more if you wanted to even begin to attempt to juryrigg a prism blaster, not to mention that your rough design sounds more like something of a grenade then an actual energy weapon, no offense of course."

Gunner couldn't believe that this unicorn could doubt of his talent like that.

"Hey, I almost built one once ! Okay, the darned thing broke up the first time I tried to use it, and it left a huge hole in the office of the maintenance department of 113, and my mane took a month to regrow, but the point is, it worked !" said the stallion, stomping a hoof for good measure.

Looking around the article-less shop Gunner took into count the numerous pony.

"Anyway, what are you all doing here if there is nothing to buy ?"

Listening to the Earth pony's description of the last time he tried to build an energy weapon, Tesla's eyes shifted from left to right, trying to understand how at all that had been anything but..."um sir...that indeed sounds like a grenade to me. But to answer your other question, a raider problem has kind of descended upon Stableton and its caravans as of late, and we, are trying to fix it. The only reason we're here is that its a good meet up spot to plan out what we're going to do."

Lightning would listen to each of the ponies and give a light nod as he came up with a plan. "Alright." He was about to speak and tell them what he believed was the best strategy for this but suddenly, a new pony arrived and began to talk to Tesla. Well, looks like his plan would have to wait. "I got a few ideas of how we should approach this..." was all he said to the others while he waited for Tesla to finish up.

In the meantime though, this gave him the perfect opportunity to give Silver a little extra weaponry. The pegasus walked up to the unicorn and took out his hunting rifle, equiped with a scope. "Silver, you say you can snipe? Then take this. You can borrow it for the journey." Lightning also took out two magazines worth of ammo for the weapon and handed it over to Silver, "Keep it safe. It's a good gun."

Silver sees the new pony come in. Sweet Celestia, I bet this store was never this popular with with Mr. Powder still around. Silver was waiting for the eager earth pony to take a pause in his rambling to introduce himself when he noticed Lightning walk towards him. He brought out a nice hunting rifle with a scope. "Silver, you say you can snipe? Then take this. You can borrow it for the journey." Lightning also took out two magazines worth of ammo for the weapon and handed it over to Silver, "Keep it safe. It's a good gun." Lightning said.

Silver grabbed the rifle and looked it over. It was one of the most intact guns he'd ever seen. "Why thank you Lightning. I will take care of it. By chance, does it take .308 rounds?"

YES!! Finally! An Earth Pony has come to their midst! Now the collection is complete, the higher powers are greatly pleased! All they need is an Alicorn, a Dragon, and a talking Dog to complete the set!! As the new Pony and Tesla conversed, Sound Wave merely stood there and listened, a little tune playing in his head as he stretched out his wings a little bit. "It's almost like a party! The more ponies in one room the more likely others are gonna join in!" He joked, mostly to himself as his shoulders shook.


As Lightning and Silver exchanged weapons, the Pegasus soon found himself bored. BOOOOOORED. He's always at going at one's own pace but this was one of those times where he just wanted to keep on going! Tirelessly, his left hind leg began to insistently tap against the floor in a rhythmic, beat, just for the sake of passing the time as he examined the state of his forehoo- ew, what is that? Narrowing his eyes, he peered at the strange little smudge on his front right hoof and with a grimace of disgust, he opted to shake it loose but only found that it did nothing to get rid of it. Rubbing his hoof against the floor, all it did was smear the strange smudge onto the surface and color most of his front hoof brown. "Oh gross..." He muttered under his breath.

Looking about for an item that could wipe off this strange gunk from his hooves, the Pegasus found none, to his dismay. Trying to wipe it off against the floor once again, it just got worse. "Oh Celestia..." Reaching into his Saddlebags he dug around for a sheet of paper.... or maybe a cloth rag... a bottle of water maybe....?

.....

.........

.............

Ah Feathers...

"Psst... hey..." He whispered to Jack, his voice low and conspiratorial. "Do you have a cleaning rag with you? I got something gross on my hoof."

Lightning smiled as he could see Silver looking over his weapon. It wasn't with him as long as his SMG or his pistol but it still had it's memories. One of the greatest weapons he had ever laid his hooves on. His ears would perk up when Silver asked him about the ammunition the weapon used. His smile would slowly turn into a grin as he nodded. "You're in luck. It does use .308 ammunition. I got a couple more clips in my bag. When you run out, I'll be more than happy to give you more when the time comes."

The pegasus would look over at Tesla and the new pony as they still continued to speak, calling out to them, "I don't mean to be rude, guys, but we need to discuss our game plan. It's best we know what we are doing before we encounter those raiders."

Tesla turned back to Lightning, "Right, sorry sorry sorry, we need to get going so...hows this, all I have weapon wise is a magnum with six shots, while my 9mm pistol has three spare mags. Both are in good condition so I should be able to provide some fire. Nothing with any real kick, but enough."

Looking around the room, he thought over what they more than likely had...four pegasi, three unicorns and an earth pony if this newcomer wanted to come..."ok so we have Silver who can run as our sniper, myself, and Sound...probably not a lot of fire between myself and Sound...if anything we can run distraction while you, Sky, and Jack hit them with something with more power to it. I mean we can only get rather general with our plans of action."

Tesla looked back to the map, the only real indication of features along the northern road was that of a set of hills that the trail ran threw...that would be the best place to look first. "Do you think thats a good plan Lightning? I'm kinda winging it right now." {hee winging it...puns are fun} Tesla silently laughed to himself, "Oh and new pony...want to help out in this? It might be a good way to get the supplies you want, or hell we might even find a gun somewhere that goes zap zap."

Silver was overjoyed at the fact that the rifle used .308 rounds. Looks like those 5 rounds I found in the basement won't go to waste after all. Silver heard Tesla's plan of action and decided to throw in his two bits.

"If you don't mind, I'm gonna interrupt. That's a fine plan Tesla, but not a great plan. I think all of the pegasi should scout from the air. Except for this town, pegasi are rarer than clean water. They won't think to look up. All us land stuck ponies will travel on the road." Silver points to all the pegasi. "When you've found them, report they're position. We'll ambush them. 'Bout time those raiders got a taste of they're own medicine. I'll take sniping position in the hills. All you pegasi will provide air fire. That should clear a vast majority, if not all of them. Then every pony goes in from the ground. Search and destroy. Caps will be split evenly, everything else is you find it, it's yours. Oh, and I call any sniper rifles or .308 rounds." Silver faces the group. "What do you all think?"

Ugh, raiders, they were ugly, stupid and all they did was break stuff and kill ponies. How was Gunner supposed to save the wasteland if they broke everything ? Or killed everypony for that matter...

But again, all he got was this stupid gun to defend himself.

But again, raider where looting everything they could and they may have something cool and sciency !

But again raider where dangerous, dangerously stupid, but dangerous nonetheless.

But again, after 113, Gunner swore to himself to never let somepony get hurt if he could avoid it, and those ponies where going to raid the raiders ! (Huh, raid the raiders, funny.)

Finally taking a decision, the stallion said to the ragtag team assembled before him "Okay I'm coming, but dibs on any energy weapon !"

"Silver has a solid plan there. We should split our flyers into two teams, have them scout ahead on the road. Unfortunately, we lack radio equipment, se both teams would have to return back to the core group every, say, hour for situation update. When one of them finds something, they'll return, we wait for the other team and move in fast and hard. Not much to screw up, not much to go wrong."

Arc then turned to Gunner, frowning.
"I call dibs on the second EW we find, if we find any at all."

Lightning smiled slightly as Tesla and Silver both had similar ideas to what he was thinking. "Not bad. But we still need to work out on our approach. We still have to travel up there, after all." He would look around at all the ponies around him before saying, "Silver, Tesla, I don't mean to steal your thunder but I believe when we start traveling, I should take point. In other words, I'll walk in front. I know a few things about stealth and I'm sure I can guide the group in a way where we can catch the raiders off guard. Sky, you can cover my back and Sound, Jack, I would love it if you can cover our rear. Silver, Tesla, you two know where the raiders are. I need you to be close by in case I have to ask you for directions."

He paused for a moment to give the ponies time to process what he told them before adding, "I just want to add that nopony shoots until we are shot at or until we are all in position and either Silver or myself gives the order. We have to make sure we're ready before bullets start flying. Does that sound good to everypony?"

Sky heard the three different plans the ponies came up with, with Lightning's plan seemed to make the most sense. After all we both had experience with raiders, with these ponies there was no saying what would happen if they got faced raiders. But they want to fight with raiders, why not let them. "Lightning's plan seems to make the most sense, as we already did something similar a while back. And it worked without anyone getting hurt," Sky turned to lightning. "So yeah I could watch your back lightning." Sky said to the entire group and lightning.

Tesla thought over the plan, yeah it seemed to make sense. Though...he had never actually planned on taking point, he had no real experience with killing raiders, and aside from testing the merchandise, no real fighting experience either, so him being out front would have been a very very poor idea. "Yeah I like this plan, I'm excited to be apart of it." The unicorn said with a smile on his face and optimism in his voice.

"U-uh, no." Jack Trades said, moving a bit away from Sound Wave. He
didn't want to remove a page from his precious book, as they are
incredibly rare in the wasteland. "Sorry, but no." However, with the position that Lightning was ordering him in, he had no complaints. "Perfect."

"U-uh, no." Aw, Come on! He wanted to whine at the red Pegasus, but as he moved away from Sound Wave, fearing mostly for his book apparently. "Sorry, but no."

Why hath thou forsaken me, Jack!?

Visibly wilting, the blue Pegasus, tried once again to wipe off the strange grime off of his hoof against the floor only to get the same results, more of said grime smearing all over his hoof and a strange stain of similar color smudging the floor. This. Is. Disgusting. Holding his hoof away from himself, as he made a face of great disgust, and with nothing to wipe and/or wash off the grime from his hoof, he finally settled to just ignore it and pay his attention back to their planning. Although his eyes do keep glancing back to his dirtied hoof every now and then.

Plans and ideas began to bounce back and forth between their group, the Earth Pony seems to be more concerned with getting an Energy Weapon. Better watch out for him... He mentally noted, something just doesn't seem to be quite right and his obsession for getting an Energy Weapon could end up endangering them all. Although it was refreshing to see such enthusiasm!

It seems that Silver, Tesla and Lightning were now topping the other's plan with their own. Heh, it's like Enclave HQ all over again... He could still remember Uniformed Pegasi gathered around tables, shooting strategies back and forth, arguing over who's plan is better, where to send what squad to which sector, good times, good times... that is until he got branded. Unconsciously tightening his wings around his sides to cover his burnt flanks, the feeling of nostalgia was quickly replaced by a feeling of sorrow. But as quickly as it came, it disappeared, his mind forced onto other things.

"Sound, Jack, I would love it if you can cover our rear."

Upon instinct and habit, Sound Wave stiffened and gave the Pegasus a crisp Salute. "Yes, sir!" His pupils shrunk as he realized what he had done and quickly assumed a more easy going pose as he blushed, a sheepish smile on his face as he nodded his head in an attempt to cover up his little blunder. "Uh... yeah.. sure. Rear Guard. You can count on me."

"Well we can always iron out any kinks later. And I do believe your right Lightning. We should start heading out. Ready when you are. Allonsy."

Lightning would nod his head gently, seeing that the others seemed to approve of his plan. "Alright, then it's settled. Once we get up there, the pegasi will scout out the land, find out possible ambush locations and the best position for all of us. For the meantime, while we are traveling, pegasi, we will do a recon flight around us every half an hour. Let's go." He smiled slightly to himself as he glanced over at Sky, knowing that she'll know where he stole that idea of periodic recon flights. Securing his bag on his back, the pegasus would make his way to the door, looking back at the others to make sure they started moving.

Sky Just smiled at lightning, she did in fact know where he got the idea from. A nice move on his part to play, Now she just nodded at him and followed him to the door. This will be an easy little adventure the group was going to do, easy enough to handle on the teams part. Sky without a word said, followed lightning out the door.

"So let's go.", thought Arc as he exited the burned out shop. The pegasi had more experience, and his plan sounded solid, there was nothing to argue about.

Jack smiled, seeing that everything was fully handled and good. He closed his book, and put it in his saddlebags. He stretched his wings, feeling great. He walked out the door and followed their lead. He took to the skies much faster then anypony else, it felt natural being in the sky, and he was always eager to do a recon.

As Silver started to follow the group out he stopped. "Oh, one last thing. After the raiders, we are hitting that stable. Okay then, that's all. Allonsy." Silver walks out of the store.

(I feel lazy...)

Time to go on an adventure! Hooray! Hanging back as most of everyone left first, the Pegasus quickly smeared his grimy hoof all over the floors, trying to desperately wipe the unknown concoction off of his fore hoof but to his dismay, all he did was just paint the floor a strange shade of color once again. Seriously, he had to get... WHATEVER this is off! It was starting to itch!

Reluctantly, he followed the rest of the group, whilst staring at his stained hoof, his large wings unfurling as Jack took off the ground. With a powerful flap of his wings, he lifted off and flew right after.