Missing Mail [Closed]

New Appleloosa, the town severely lacking in on time mail, dust devils whirling past and the sun high up in the sky at the time. There was a peculiar cowpony stood there, distinctive cowpony hat upon his head and a bizarre moustache on his face as he waited for ponies to arrive to go save the town's mail mare.

A white unicorn was already there waiting, and there were undoubtedly going to be several other ponies arriving in due time to come help, surely somepony would want to be brave and tackle with the slavers to rescue their mail mare... It's not like that's all they cared about, obviously. Sure, they wanted the Slavers gone as much as anypony else does, especially seeing as this could happen again.

Regardless, all that they could do right now was wait.

(Just arrive and such, do your own thing and, if needed, buy stuff)

Shooting Spectrum, on the other hand, would wake up after a swift smack to the back of the head. She would find herself in a cage, lacking all her equipment, not to mention her mail. Of all things, she would find a chunky slave collar around her neck.

Looking around, she'd find herself among a whole cluster of ram-shackle cages filled with ponies, some filled uncomfortably so. She would also find that she was more or less attached to the cage by a chain painfully clamped around one of her hind-legs, just above her hoof so she couldn't squeeze out of it. She had company in the cage too, but right now, they were asleep.

Night Shade had just returned from his 'adventures' in the Stableton area. It was kinda good to get back to New Appleloosa after what he went through over in the eastern side of Equestria. Then he heard about how the famous mail mare had been captured by slavers. Shade didn't get along with to many ponies in New Appleloosa, but everypony loved the mail mare. Looks like he was going on another adventure, but he would need to shop around some first.

(need merchant)

Lightning literally had a heart attack when he heard the distress call from Appleloosa. Well, New Appleoosa. He nearly couldn't believe it. The mare of his dreams, Shooting Spectrum, was captured by slavers! Caught while delivering mail to the town. The call was requesting ponies to come over and help rescue the mare...no...his mare and hopefully kill all the slavers.

Lightning was not going to let any slavers take his mare away. With his signature lightning speed, he put on his armor and gathered his guns together. His bag was on his back in a matter of seconds and he was out of his house and in the air before anypony else knew he just left. However, he had to make one stop though. Cross Roads.

He didn't even have to say much to the unicorn in order to get him to come. Once he explained the situation, Cross just decided to come along. That was good. It means he'll have a friend along. The two quickly set off for the desert town. When they arrived, Lightning took a look around before saying to Cross, "Let's go find who sent out that call...those slavers are going to be in a world of hurt once I get my hooves on them..."

Cross blinked as he gave a concerned to Flash. He was a bit worried for Flash...He remembered when he helped him get back Winter and he was forever indebted because of that... He placed a hoof on Flash's shoulder.

"Don't worry....we'll find her, no one has yet been able to escape us yet" Cross took a deep breath and followed Flash into the town, they'd meet up here and proceed therefore, with as little time as they should waste.

The wastelands had a habit of disrupting plans. One moment you could be going about your day, the next you could be fighting off raiders, dodging bloatsprite spines, or countless other things.

For example; Bakewell had not expected to be part of a rescue mission. This was just supposed to be a peaceful trip to Appleloosa with Scrap. A chance to get out of her increasingly cramped abode in Stableton and stretch her legs without having to deal with mafias, or insane underwater mutants, or killer foals. Just her, Scrap, and the open wastes.

But then as the two neared the town her pipbuck had picked up a distress call. Some pony was missing, and the town was worried about their mail. Most ponies in the wastes probably wouldn’t care much about the absence of one more pony in the wastes, at least not unless there was a hefty reward to make them care. Bakewell was different, however, and had instantly felt the need to assist the kidnapped stranger

“Come on Scrap, hurry up!” The mare said as she entered the town, stopping on a dime after entering and realizing that she had no idea where to go. “Uhh…” She trailed off, not wanting to admit her lack of perception in front of Scrap. While she had seen the Cowpony, it didn’t register in her mind that he would be the pony to see.


"Why don't you lead the way from here, Scrap?"

"Alright Bakey, I'll take the lead."

Scraps replied, before taking the lead, using his memory of his time when he bounced around to lead Bakewell towards where the signal had came from. The layout of the town's dusty streets came back quickly as he lead toward the cowpony.

Normally Scraps wasn't the heroic type, but he couldn't ignore the call to help a pony against slavers, Scraps really hated slavers, which he viewed as less than ponies. Especially after his trip through Filly.

Reaching the cowpony, which actually was Blitz, a unicorn he had met back in Stableton, Scraps spoke.

"Umm... we're both here ti help rescue the mailmare from the slavers, you're the pony ti see, right?"

Lightning simply sighed as he felt Cross lay a hoof on his shoulder. "I sure hope so..." He would walk into the town and glance around. So which of the ponies here would be the one who had sent out the distress call? The pegasus began to walk around when he noticed two familiar ponies just arrived at the town at the same time. Walking up to another familiar pony that he met back in that...Raid Town incident. Scrap Parts, Bakewell, and Blitz.

Without even checking if Cross was following him, Lightning immediately walked up to them, just cutting straight to the point without even greeting them. "Blitz, were you the one that sent out the distress call? Tell me, what's going on with Shooting Spectrum?" His tone held a mix of worry, anger, and fear as he wanted to find answers and he wanted them now.

Spectrum woke up with a start, her usually happy and joy-filled cardinal eyes now stone cold with pent up rage. It had been a couple of days since she was taken by slavers, one second she was taking a short breather as she was ahead of scheduled in her delivery to Apploosa and the next second she was missing everything and had a slave collar around her neck. Everything was a blur in the events so she didn't remember much, but she knew she wanted to buck every last one of the slavers in the face until they were devoid of a proper skull structure and there teeth lay spilled on the ground.

But she wasn't mad for the fact that she was labeled as 'goods to sell' no. She was mad because she was late in delivering Apploosa's mail. Spectrum prided herself in being a very efficient and dedicated mail mare, it's why people valued her so much because of her dedication and now it was all ruined thanks to these guys. She was also tee'd off at the slavers for the others around her, Spectrum was never the mare to stop and think about her own condition, she was always concerned for others before herself as such her own safety hadn't even registered yet, although she did understand the complications of the slave collar she had on and that is the main reason she hadn't tried anything yet, at least without knowing any information on the range and if there was any place to hide if such the occasion came that she got out of her confinement. That, and she couldn't just leave the others, she was far from having the skills to save them, she knew not to bite off more than she could chew, but she also had a heart, and knew that there would be help on it's way. If not for her sake then for the fact that ponies wanted their mail.

Blitz had been patiently waiting for others to show, stood right by the cowpony and looked around, curious as to who might just show up to save this mare.. Her name was Shooting Spectrum, right? Yeah, that's right.. He'd met the mare once before when they were going after a caravan or something.

Whilst waiting, he spotted several ponies he recognized, like Lightning Flash, who he'd been on a few ventures with but didn't really know, accompanied by some other pony who was loaded up with melee weaponry it seemed.

Blitz only just noticed Bakewell and Scrap as they approached the cowpony and Scrap started talking to him. "You guys here to help too?" He managed to ask before Lightning was right with them, asking Blitz if he set this rescue notice up.

"Huh? Oh, no, bro. That wasn't me, that was this stallion here who sent all that out. I just found out and rushed over, wanted to do some good, you know?" He explained quickly to Flash, not really picking up on the tone in his voice before the cowpony spoke up.

"Howdy, ponies, ya'll wantin' ta help get our mail-mare back from them slavers, right?" The stallion asked before counting out five ponies, just spotting Cross a little ways behind Flash. "Only five o' ya'll? We best wait a bit, can't have ya'll gettin' yerselves killed cause ya'll are lackin' numbers. Anyway, ah'll be showin' ya'll where the slavers were last, but that's all ah can do, ah'm no good at trackin' ponies. That sound good fer ya'll?"
========

As Shooting Spectrum lamented the lateness of her deliveries as well as the sight of all the other slave-ponies, all there waiting to be unwillingly sold off to other ponies. But if there was one thing this slaver group did that some others didn't, it was keeping the slaves remotely clean, even if it was by getting a powerful hose and just hosing them all down.

Good thing the collars were waterproof, eh?

At the point when Spectrum was thinking over whatever she was thinking, a slaver was just walking in, a unicorn no doubt, with the nozzle of a hose floating in his magical grasp. "BATH TIME, MY LITTLE PONIES!" He yelled out, causing some of the slaves to jump in surprise and some to just look over before the water was let loose, a powerful jet of ice-cold water sending a few of the ponies tumbling over, waking up whatever ponies weren't woken up by his shouting.

Night Shade ended up not having time for shopping -_-. So he rushed over to the now growing group of ponies. He say a couple familiar faces, but nopony that he personally knew.

"This is the 'Rescue Team' eh?" snickered Night Shade. "How do i always get involved in a rag-tag group of ponies." said Shade.

Lightning frowned as Blitz told him that he wasn't the one who sent out the distress call. At least the pony who did was standing right next to him. The pegasus would look over at the cowboy-looking pony and he couldn't help but frown a little more. He didn't want to wait. He wanted to get moving, find his mare. Who knows what the slavers could be doing to her while they were just standing around here?!

Lightning's impatience was already showing as he walked just a little bit away, pacing back and forward, "We're wasting time. We should get moving around now! Spectrum might be hurt! Or killed! How do we even know if there are more ponies coming?! We should at least start finding out where she was taken!" Another pony would come up to them, one that Lightning didn't recognize but he didn't really care. If it would make them leave faster, he'll figure out who the new pony is later.

Spectrum was to deep in though to notice the slaver come in, but her ears perked as he spoke, all of her pent up rage was meant to be cast at him, but instead her harsh gaze was met with an icy cold blast that sent her small frame tumbling into the back of her cage, the restraint around her back hoove going taunt and biting pain radiating from it as she huddled away from the cold water as it past over her.

Her hate slowly growing, sure she was now clean to say the least in in the littlest bit she was grateful for it but she wouldn't be saying thanks anytime soon. She hobbled over to her cellmate careful not to agitate the restraint on her back hoove least it start digging into her hide. Her hate dissolved only for the other captured her voice coming out in a soft cooing " Hey are you ok? " That was a stupid question to ask, she knew it, but it was a question that at least voiced concern and was engaging so one didn't seem like all one cared about was themselves. " I'm sorry you were waken so suddenly " her voice had a bit of a bite to it as her eyes quickly flickered her anger and gaze at the slaver before returning to her cellmate with motherly concern.

She wanted to state to the others that they had kidnapped the wrong mare, that she was carrying appleoosa mail and they would send a rescue party, but that would be a foolish thing to do, even if the slavers were out of earshot, she would love to trust the other slaves and instill hope but she couldn't trust the strength of there lips if one might see it as a bartering piece for freedom. If they were to have any chance of escape then She needed to put her hope in the people of apploosa, the rescue team that would be sent out and the trail she had left for them to follow, she had immense faith in all of them, as such she was able to focus on either being motherly too the other slaves or glaring daggers.

Spec looked at her now wet mane and tail, letting out a sigh as she hoped she would be saved soon, in making the trail she not only had let some of the heavier mail items out (as to not be blown astry by the wind) but had also kicked off her tail charm and thus her tail was left to the winds entanglement so when it dried, it would puff up into it's usual unkempt afro self. Her hate for the raiders multiplied on that though. If the mail went missing, well, not many would want to know just what spectrum was thinking if they messed with her status as one of the wast most dependable and trusted mail mares.

Rad flew to the plac they were supposed to meet, he didn't much care about the towns mail, just that there were ponies to rescue and slavers to kill, he hated slavers, even more than he hated raiders, so he approached the group, not paying much attention to who was there. "Are you guys goin after those slavers? I want to help if ya got room!"

Kira was actually not like most of the others here because she had heard a signal or anything, she was here on business that now had concluded for her employer. The gryphoness was leaving one of the building that New Appleloosa was made up of when she noticed the gathering of ponies, she recognized some of the mainly Scrap and Bake but also Lightning they all looked distressed especially Lightning.

"Lightning?" She asked as she had walked up to the group listen to what she had heard she did not really need a elaborate explanation of what was going on. "Don't worry I will do my best to find your Spectrum for you." It was the only thing she said as she made a quick inventory of her items, if they where going after slavers then she needed to be prepared.

Blitz was just fine for waiting, but it seemed that Lightning Flash was in some distress over this. Now, Blitz wasn't an expert in noticing the feelings a pony felt for another, but he could definitely tell right now that there was something more in this for Flash. So Blitz simply stepped towards Flash and gave him a serious stare, leaning in to quietly speak to just the pony in question to try and ease his nerves.

"Flash, you need to calm down, dude. I don't know if what I'm thinking is right, but if you want Spectrum to be safe when we go and save her flank, you need to have a clear head so you don't screw anything up. Think about it, if you're too obsessed over getting her back and you see her whilst we're still fighting, how can anypony trust that you wont go bolting off right to her and put your own life in danger? Patience is needed more than anything, it's been about two days since she was taken, but that isn't long enough for her to be sold off to anypony unless she was wanted specifically, which I doubt, even if she does look damn nice. You want to be her hero, right? Then believe that more ponies will arrive, bringing more gun to really show those slavers just who they shouldn't screw around with." Blitz quietly said to Flash, attempting to appeal to his feelings with a hint of vengeful justice.
========

The cowpony smiled at Rad's arrival, asking if there was room still. "We have room fer as many ponies as possible, muh boy!" He said before looking to the other ponies, and griffon. "Last ah saw them was two days ago, just north o' here, as ah said, ah'll be showin' ya'll where ah last saw them, then ya'll are goin' from there. Let's jus wait fer a little more boom to join the team, so to speak."

===========

Jose, the germane slaver pony laughed his head off as ponies were sent sprawling around by the hose before he shut it off and lowered his laughter to a chuckle. "Nice and clean now, ya?" He said with a devious grin, clearly enjoying the sight of so many ponies soaked through, but enough so that they could be classed as clean.

After shutting the hose off, he simply chuckled more and trotted away, taking his hose with him, his cutie mark actually happened to be a pair of clean horse-shoes, having that stereotypical glint of cleanliness shining off of the both of them... What an innocent cutie mark for a slaver.

The other slave in Spectrum's cage simply sighed and rolled themselves onto their hooves. "S'fine, ah'm used t' it." The pony, turning out to be a rather scraggly and scrawny stallion, said with a bored, almost lifeless voice. "Been 'ere fer a month now. No pony's comin' t' get us back an' ah know it."

Lightning couldn't say that he was exactly comforted by Blitz's words but he did speak logically and he knew that he was right. But damn it, he hated waiting around like this! Even if she was taken two days ago, he was here now and every second that passed by was a second they could be using to find Spectrum. Those slavers had messed with the wrong pegasus and he was hell-bent on doing whatever he had to in order to make sure the mare was released safely. "Fine, let's wait then. But if anything happens to Spectrum, I promise you that there will be blood spilling on the battlefield today."

Lightning stormed off, clearly still unhappy about the whole thing but at least he wasn't about to take off alone. Not yet at least. In his haste to get to Appleloosa so quickly, he had left some important supplies back home that he now should have considered bringing along. Like some ammunition. Lightning noticed a general store nearby and without even saying a word to the others, he would walk in, looking around for whoever was in charge before inquiring politely, "Hello. I would like to see what you have for sale, please?"

(Shop pony please. Barter 21)

Scraps waited quietly as the old cowpony explained that they were going to wait for more ponies. He understood the logic of waiting as to not get killed, but he didn't care for the waiting portion much, but he kept that feeling inside and stayed professional, just waiting at the ready for the ponies to show up, pleasantly surprised that he had at least worked with everypony here, if not knew them personally.

Scraps always kept himself stocked with ammo between adventures, he didn't want to chance running out of ammo in a bad situation, so he didn't need to run to a store, and thus he just waited for the others to return and more ponies to show up.

Bakewell nodded and gave a smile to most of ponies as they came up, even though she could only vaguely recognize the black unicorn and wasn’t sure she had ever seen the black and green maned pegasus before at all. At least the winged stranger seemed enthusiastic, much more so than the horn-head.


Flash, on the other hoof, seemed a bit over enthusiastic. Bakewell admitably didn’t know all that much about Lightning, having only really spent time with him twice. One time they had been stuck together in a Bakewell’s stable in a series of events she did not want to think about, the other they had simply travelled a bit in New Pegasus with Happy Trails. She couldn’t remember him doing anything particularly memorable during the New Pegasus trip, however. Maybe it was just that nothing seemed to be worth remembering in comparison to Scrap starting to get close to her. Though to be honest even that eventually life-altering landslide was overshadowed by Violet Star. The earth pony still had occasional nightmares about that story, even if the two were on perfectly good terms.

Point was, Flash looked particularly upset about this pony’s disappearance for some unknown reason. This meant that rescuing the captured mail-pony was now super important. Not that it wasn’t important before, but now it was important for other reasons. The mare watched with slight concern as the blue pegasus stormed off before giving Blitz a belated answer.

“Yeah, Blitz. Bro. Bro Blitz.” She muttered absentmindedly as she stared at the door Flash had gone through. She wasn’t really sure if the party’s ‘don’t use my nickname’ clause was still in effect or not, but this didn’t seem like a great time to worry about it. “You could say that.”

Night-Shade saw the crowd of ponies all deep in conversation. He noticed a pegasus storming away from a white unicorn. He also say 2 ponies talking to an old cowpony. Shade wasn't exactly with his crowd, and it looked like they were all busy. Maybe he could shop around a little.

Shade then walked over to the general store. Inside he saw the pegasus from before. Shade walked up next to him to talk to the vender. "What do you have?" asked Shade.

(we need SHOP KEEP)

Blitz chuckled a little at Lightning's words. "My friend, blood is going to be split regardless, I for one am not willing to bargain with slavers."

As ponies started heading towards the store "Absolutely Everything", presumably to get weapons and load up on things for the journey, Blitz decided to join them, trotting after Flash and the others.

"You can call me bro now, Bakewell, that party was an exception cause of it's game." He said to Bakewell as she tried to decide between calling him Bro or Blitz. Now he just needed to see if there was anything he could buy at the store, he needed something more than the few things he had. That Varmint rifle of his was one thing he needed to get rid of, along with the switchblade.

So entering the store, Blitz joined the group of ponies, currently consisting of himself, Flash and this new pony, whoever he was, in wanting to see the pegasus-ghoul's wares.

(Barter 17)

Absolutely Everything Inventory for Night Shade (prices listed will be bases due to lack of posting barter skill)

1x 5.56 mm pistol value: 1200
2x .357 magnum pistol value: 110
1x Assault Carbine value: 3950

4x Box of 5.56 mm ammo value: 1
6x Box of .357 magnum round

1x Combat Barding value: 6500

Shade can't afford any of the better weapons, he really wanted a cowpony repeater. "How much for all the 5.56 ammo you got?" asked Night Shade. He had wanted the combat barding but it was way to expensive.

Night Shade Transaction:

8 caps paid to absolutely everything in return Shade receives 4 boxes of 556 mm ammo.

Lightning Flash Inventory:

1x 5.56 mm pistol value: 1200
2x .357 magnum pistol value: 110
1x Assault Carbine value: 3950
1x .45 Auto SMG Value 5475
2x .45 Auto Pistol Value: 2555
1x Lever Action Shotgun Value: 2920

1x Combat Barding value: 6500
1x Reinforced Combat Barding Value: 10220
2x Reinforced Leather Barding Value: 1752
1x Mercenary Outfit Value: 73

10x Healing Potion Value: 110

6x Box of .357 magnum round
7x Box of 45 Auto Round Value: 4
3x Box of 20 Gauge Shells Value: 1

Blitz Inventory:

1x 5.56 mm pistol value: 1200
2x .357 magnum pistol value: 110
1x Assault Carbine value: 3950

6x Box of .357 magnum round

1x Combat Barding value: 6500

Lightning glanced at the small armory of weapons in front of him. Two of the guns caught his eye. The .45 Auto pistol and the .45 Auto SMG. However, he knew he couldn't afford any of them for now. Plus, he wanted to find a melee weapon that he could use in close quarters combat. Looking back up at the shopkeeper, he would ask, "Do you have any melee weapons? Preferably something with a blade. A sword or a knife perhaps?"

(Barter 21, Speech 21)

Ditzy nodded, flying up to a high shelf and grabbing a showcase. After setting it on the counter she buzzed over to what looked like an old umbrella stand, grabbed it, and carried it back the counter.

Lightning Flash Special Request Inventory:

Broadsword Value: 1460
Lead Pipe Value: 110
Vakara Value: 3650
Combat Knife Value: 730
Baseball Bat Value: 365
9 Iron Value: 37