The Battle of Stableton

Lightning sighed as the dragon was taken down rather quickly thanks to the combined gunfire from everypony else. He would look around as the other ponies didn't seem hurt. There was a sudden flash that caught his eye but whoever was there, they were gone now. "So strange..." he murmured to himself. He scanned his eye over the downed dragon and wondered if she was really dead or just knocked out. Coming to a soft landing, Lightning looked back at the others and yelled out, "Everypony alright?"

Kes might have missed his shot but he still got to watch Faith smash down to the ground unconscious. The threat was neutralized for now.

Kes sat down and carefully reloaded his repeater, the click of the rounds as they slid home into the tube sort of comforting to the gryphon; he made sure to chamber a fresh round before holstering the gun on his back.

Pushing himself back onto his feet the gryphon began to walk towards the main group, joining the others for the battle to come.

But before he truly dedicated himself to wiping out the pathetic, dirt smeared pests that had invaded this little town he has one thing to say to the dragon that was now lying unconscious on the dirt. The gryphons voice rumbled up like a growl, starting from the bottom of his chest and obtaining its usual grit somewhere around the middle of the throat.

"'Night rookie, sleep well."

That said Kes was now ready to go, ready to purge this little town of what had inhabited it. Now if he could get his hands on his hunting rifle again he could really do some damage.

"We got time for a detour?" He grunted out, the question directed at no one in particular.

Lightning watched as the broken-winged griffon walked over and he gave him a brief nod of respect. He knew of this particular griffon's...talent for combat. Kes was somepony Lightning made sure to keep as an ally and not an enemy.

The blue pegasus was eager to get moving and drive out the last of the slavers out of his home. When Kes asked about a detour, he raised his brow curiously as he asked, "A detour? What for?"

"M'rifle. In that watchtower, on the table." Kes grunted out, pointing one of his razor sharp talons towards the tower he was talking about.

It wasn't to far, but it would no doubt cut into travel time if the group chose to take a detour to go after the Gryphon's primary weapon.

Shutter would have been half-way through reloading when the Dragon hit the ground, as he stared at it in shock.

"...That was a dragon...Dear Celestia, we just took down a dragon so fast that I didn't even get a chance to LOAD! Ahaha!!!"

Shutter laughed...he had no idea WHY he was laughing since that situation could have been incredibly deadly, but he was laughing like mad from his spot.

"I just...I just can't believe we did that! That's amazing!"

Lightning would look up at the tower the griffon was pointing at and he would grin, "Oh, that tower? I can fly up and grab it and be back before you guys know it." He extended his wings and flapped them once, taking off into the air and hovering as he said to Kes, "I'll be back faster than you can say 'rifle!'"

Performing a midair backflip, he would fly up to the tower and find a way inside. Lightning looked around and just like what the griffon said, the weapon was sitting on the table. A rather nice looking rifle too. He walked over and picked up the weapon with his mouth, carefully gauging the weight as he took off again into the air, holding the weapon in his mouth while using his hooves to carefully brace the weapon so it wouldn't slip.

Lightning would come to a landing back with the group, offering the weapon back to Kes, "Har yu go. Tis is it, right?" Not easy to talk with a rifle in his mouth...

Lucky started panting heavily after the dragon went down.

"Holy shit..."

He suddenly swayed to the side.

"That's... that's great guys... I.. I think I'm gonna..."

The stress and mix of alcohol and opiates was just too much. Lucky fell to the ground, and started shivering uncontrollably.

Kes nodded wordlessly and took the offered weapon from the pegasi's mouth. It was his alright, one fully stocked hunting rifle. Magazine fed, bolt action, firing the .308 caliber rifle round accurately enough to drive a nail into wood from 200 yards away.

Or de-brain a few raiders.

The Gryphon sat down and began to fiddle with the weapon, double checking the bolt, making sure it had not been damaged yet. It was still in just as fine a condition as when the bird had repaired it a few hours before the battle.

Now he was ready to do some serious damage.

The sight of Lucky passing out was enough to have Kes blink a bit, but otherwise remain unfazed.

Ashen was silent as the others cheered, sliding his reaquired Prism Rifle back into the holster on his back. He walked up to the unconscious dragon, light flashing off his goggles as he stoof in front of it.

"One moment." he told the others. He had no intention on just letting this creature just lay here, but he didn't have enough time to kill it. He suspected the dragon's spine would be too hard for him to snap. Its wings, on the other hoof...

His horn glowed green as a similar glow engulfed the dragon's wings. He slowly rose them into the air, before twisting them violently. A loud snap filled the air as the dragon's wings were fractured in several places by the move, rendering it completely flightless.

This dragon may fly again, but it won't be anytime soon.

His work done, Ashen turned away and walked back towards the group.

"I'm finished." he said flatly. "Lets go."

Had he been one to indulge such normalcy, Kes might have laughed at the irony brought about by the destruction of Faith's wings.

He was not one to do so however, thus, Kes settled on giving a curt nod to the unicorn that had done the deed. That would be fine for now, the rookie was down, and Kes did not think she was worth the effort or ammo to kill.

Lucky girl she was, lucky girl indeed.

Sky watched from the furthest building from the battle, She watched the dragon fly off to the center of town. She dived immediately to the center, only being able to see her head from the top of the building. Sky watched as the dragon fought on, but in the end. after a series of explosions, She watched Faith fly into a building and get defeated by an unknown force.

Sky sighed, really nothing she could do. Without her wings she was pretty much useless at this point, really nothing to do but...hello. The building faith had dropped her off was of her home, her old home. "what luck." Sky jumped off the building, landing on her still shaky legs. She walked in the building, And inside was a dead pony. His in the mouth, and it was broken and rusted to hell. But he did carry some clips of ammo, and two needles of Med-x. not much but something.

Sky finally looted the body, leaving his armor on. She looked to a chest next to her bed, and opened it. It contents was what Sky hoped for, Her family picture. Something She had kept since she left the stable, the only thing left of her parents. Sky grabbed the picture, and sobbed quietly in her bed. She didn't want any of this, would be better if she just ended it. She grabbed her pistol with both hoofs, this day is just the worst fucking day she had in her life. Closest to when she killed her parents, closest to when killed those raiders.

Sky sighed, she couldn't just end everything she did. The friends she made, the good times....or bad she spent with her fellow stabletons. She wiped the tears off her face, she put the picture into her saddlebags, she holstered her pistol. Sky pushed open the door and walked out into the hell stableton was in.


(((OOC wont be back in a couple of hours, ill read the other threads, when im back, godmod me if you want in the filly thread. and any other thread im also in,.,,,which is party.)))

Everything blurred together in a menagerie of sights, sounds and smells. Eventually the adrenaline overwhelm'd the drugs and Spark Fire felt better.

"yeah... taking down a dragon..." He said wistfully.

He furrow'd his brow, was that all he was, some big target that would be awesome to shoot?

He found himself walking toward the crumpled body of the dragon, only to realize it was Faith heart.

"Faith, is that you? C'mon, its Sparks, you know that dragon that help'd you fight off those hunters." He said, finding himself more upset by the turn of events then he though he would.

He reached down and held her head up. She felt... scared, terrified and cold. Her wings had bullet holes, her limbs bruised and bleeding. Faith, talk to me, wake up.... I'm here for you, I wont let anything more happen to you! Yo-You can't go, your the only dragon I have met, if you go, I'll be alone! He began softly but raising his voice steadily until he was shouting at the unconscious form.

He pull'd her up and draped his wings around her, hoping for a miracle, hoping that he wouldn't be alone again, hoping that he would not lose her to some stupid conflict over some stupid town... Hoping he would not do something stupid.

Trails let out a whoop and jumped into the air with a raised hoof. "We shot the shit outta that dragon! Brohoof!" He took another moment to collect himself, the battle wasn't over quite yet. "As awesome as that was we need to focus on the General now. I think we should split up now that we've got the ponypower and come at them from a pronged approach. Kes, you're one hell of a shot, that with your experience makes you the natural choice for the leader of the second team. Pick your team with distance and speed in mind. I'm going to take the heavy hitters with me and take out that barrier, no way something that large can take much punishment. Any questions?"

Kira checked her assault rifle as soon as the dragon had gone down, not from her shots as she were still not used to using any rapid fire weapons so it was as well when her gun ran out of ammo. Throwing up the rifle at her back next to the newly scavenge repeater she had taken earlier from one of the dead slavers, she walked up next to Trails.

"I trust your judgement where to go." She thought about going with both groups even if she could not fly and she learned to be fast on her feet and had really keen eyes, but then again she was not much for subtlety or the best shoot around but when it came to explosives that was more her thing.

Kes gave a nod and began to scan the group before him, looking for those who would be appropriate for the coming mission.

Ashen was the first person to be chosen; the gryphon pointing at him with a nod. Kes knew the unicorn from a previous mission. He was quiet, calm, and packing that prisim rifle he could do some decent damage from far off; even if it lacked a scope. From what Kes knew of the energy based weapon it fired concentrated beams of light to damage targets, hard to dodge something like that.

Lightning was next, though at the time Kes had no clue what the name was. All he did know is that the pegasus could fly fast and would be good for recon or ariel attack if the need arose.

But all the stealth in the world would be useless without some kick to back it all up. Kes needed one assault unit, scanning around the gryphon let his gaze settle on the only other gryphon in the square. Kira.

Kes had worked with her once as well, and her current load out could prove useful for defending or assaulting should the group get into a good position. He looked right at her and then flicked his neck back and to the side.

This would be his team.

"Oh! Trails! I have a question!" Starry declared, raising her hoof. "Well, more of a statement, really. I've sorta run out of missiles, see, I've got some grenades and firebombs, but I used my last missile on that dregon, er-dragon."

Starry glanced over at the dragon. She had no idea why it was here. Was it working for the slavers? Sparks seemed to like her, and Sparks was one of the good guys, so maybe it was just some random dragon. Either way, it was scary, and it looked like it was about to attack one of her friends. They could sort out the details later, though, there was still a battle to be fought.

"Regardless, the shield should dissipate soon, since Cross isn't maintaining it anymore. At this point, just bashing into the thing several times should be enough to break it, if we didn't want to wait a few minutes."

Lucky shakily got to his feet and wobbled his way toward Techno. In a weak voice he asked, "Doc, I think I'm addicted to somethin' other than booze, I can't think straight and I've got the shakes."

The trembling was causing Lucky to misstep and trip over his own feet, until he stumbled and fell back to the ground in front of Techno.

"Fuck, I can't do shit in a fight if I can't aim! PLEASE tell me you've got something on you that'll help?"

Techno winced as Lucky walked up and addressed his concern. "Yeah, you're probably addicted to the Med-X, since you've been getting shot so much. I don't have any detox equipment on me at the moment, but I can give you some meds to keep you focused until this is over." he said, presenting his suggestion to Lucky.

Lightning winced a little as he watched Ashen walk over to the dragon and snap her wings. He involuntarily shuddered at the thought of his own wings being snapped like that if somepony really wanted to do that to him. Shaking the thought out of his mind, he turned to the others and began to listen to the newest plan for (hopefully) the final battle.

'Hmm...two teams...not bad...' he thought to himself as the pegasus would look over to Kes to see who he would choose. Lightning could see the griffon pick Ashen as one of his teammates. To his surprise, Kes looked at him and silently picked him also. He would walk over and give a silent nod of understanding before looking back to see the last choice which was the other griffon that was in the square. Lightning couldn't help but smile slightly when he looked at the team. He had full confidence that they were going to do good...No, they were going to do amazing. He just knew it.

Trails shook his head. Lot's of reminders today, poor buck doesn't even know how bad it gets. Guess Lucky will just have to learn the hard way. He walked up to Techno and grabbed his shotgun off of the doctor's back, he turned and gave it to Starry.

"Use it to cover any shortcomings in your arsenal." He rolled he onto his back and walked to the barrier.

"You ready for this?" He asked no one in particular. "Well too late now."

Trails pulled out his pistol and slapped another clip into it, only to empty it again at the barrier. With each hit the shield flickered, the gap before it came back to life growing. With the last shot the barrier vanished and didn't come back. The path was clear now. He wondered for a second just what he'd find at the end of it, either Stableton's salvation or damnation he supposed depending on who walked away.

"Only one way to find out."

*FLASH*

"General the Straggler's are coming, Faith is de-" Cross just stopped mid-sentence as he stared at the Surgeon General, in his arms was the corpse of the mayor just ripped down through the middle with the intestines hanging out through the side, ribs forming a descrated fountain of blood. The Surgeon just grinned and chuckled slightly, he was out of it.

"Heya there Cross, you ready to fuck some shit up? The generals pupils were small, he couldn't be sure how "there" he actually was.

But the Surgeon killed the mayor....that wasn't ever part of the plan......

"You-u......you...." Cross's voice just came out like a record player stuck on loop, the mask repeating every syllable the exact same way as the precursor.....

"Thank the stars your still alive!" Sparks said excitedly,

Calming himself down a little he continued with, "just stop talking, save your strength. I'll be right back."

He craned his head, looking for Starry or Techno, they also helped those in need. "Starry! Techno! Please help! I a healing potion or some med-ex, NOW!" he roared. 

"They'll be on their way, I promise." he cooed and smiled.  

Techno turned to Sparkfire who was standing over the downed dragon calling for medicine. He went over and pulled out a healing potion and levitated it in an idle position near his head. "Sparks, not that I'm against it, but why do you want to heal a dragon that tried to kill us?" he asked as he kept the potion close to him.

Shutter...was not sure what to do at all now. His skills were all in reconnaissance and stealth, and while he wasn't bad with a gun, he sure as hell couldn't describe himself, with his semi-automatic .45, and his Jumpsuip, a 'heavy hitter'...part of him was honestly still surprised he had survived the charge with only a graze!

So...what did he do now? If he was on Trails team, then that meant charging and heavy force, which he would be a heavy weak link in!

However, before he could voice a ccncern to Trails, he was distacted by Sparkfire's voice calling out for medical assistance...had he found another wounded?
Quickly, Shutter turned to look, only to see the friendly dragon trying to get medical assistance for the DRAGON THAT HAD TRIED TO KILL THEM!

"Sp-Spark! What are you doing?! They're with the SLAVERS! The same ones who are still currently trying to enslave us all!! Not to mention, they just tried to KILL US!!!"