Authetius

A large earth pony stallion blew open the doors to the depot and stepped out. He took one look around and quickly spotted Strong Hooves and decided to target the big one. He stomped once and his battle saddle kicked into action, loading the two mini-guns. He bit down on a control lever and they started spraying small caliber bullets in his direction, trying to hit him before he got behind cover. (Rolled a few things on the danger of this place, heavy battle saddle came up. merry christmas Strong Hooves - Battle Saddle loot for you if you can kill the fucker.) "I didn't even get the chance to look at him. He may have been savable."

(Pffft. Fuck if I know - I lost control again cuz I walked away for pizza. *shrug* I'll roll with it. Say *rolls 1d20*... 5) Aria dropped her rifle and looked at Gizmo in shock. "Did you just... shoot Jettson?"

(leh lol - just roll with it. Skull - please look at your grammar and spelling. It's driving me and linguz crazy here. Try to stick with info you are given, ask about details you are not but want to know.) Aria continued firing, completely focused upon operating the rifle. She was soon in a rhythm of firing, landing one out of every three or four shots into a raider. She counted three ponies laying on the ground due to her bullets and shivered sub consciously. The raiders had already had their population cut in half, and they started to hide behind barriers more often. One sat behind a corned and cooked a grenade for a few moments before slamming it down with her telekinesis a few feet from Jet's hooves, detonating instantly. There was no escape from this explosion.

Aria frowned. "You speak as if you know their already hostile." She took her eye off her scope and watched Gizmo, studying his actions. As Strong Hooves approached the town, the same drunk ass pony wandered out of the depot and spotted the group on the edge of the town. Her eyes widened with recognition. "Fuck!" She stumbled back into the building and came out with a shotgun and started shooting in the general direction of the group, missing entirely. Several other raiders inside started scrambling for weapons and running towards the street shouting curses. The gunshots hit Aria's ear and she snapped back to her scope and focused on the pony standing in the street. She put the cross hairs on her head and hesitated for a moment before finally pulling the trigger. The shot from the gun brought pain to her ears and she flinched. The bullet flew left of the raider and she quickly ripped at the bolt, unloading the spent casing and bringing up the new one. She corrected for the bullets movement and fired again, this time using her magic to silence the gun, and placed the bullet firmly her chest, sending her to the ground.

(Absolutely positively hostile - but the E.F.S. can't tell the future. It will label them neutral/friendly 'till they see you and start shooting.)

Aria's ears perked up at Gizmo's words. *Sharp Shooters? That's plural.* "I agree. Me and Gizmo can cover you with our scoped rifles while you all go down and see who's down there. If a shot is made, we'll start shooting at the ponies down there, if not you come get us. Now go, scat. Let's get this over with."

Aria scowled. "You know I'm not a fan of the first option, but I will admit that I'm not to keen on running in unarmed anymore." A pony stumbled out of the store and continued to stumble into the depot. Aria quickly put her eye to the scope and frowned. From what she could tell, that pony was wearing plates of metal and other random bits strapped together into makeshift armor, much like the three raiders from earlier. She also had a rifle strapped to her back. Not much more could be made out. "That looked like a raider. Anyone else see that?"

(TIME SKIP!) And so the group traveled forwards for a few more hours, passing nothing of any value or particular interest. Few trees dotted this area and the terrain was relatively hilly and devoid of life. Before long, night fell upon the wasteland. The group now finds themselves on top of a hill. two or three hundred yards ahead, a small pre-war village stood, composing of ten or so buildings, though three had collapsed on themselves. They are all were somewhat small houses with the exception of two that were a bit larger. The first was probably a store or trading post of some sort at some time. The second had a line of rails running behind it and was clearly a railroad depot once upon a time. Experienced wastelanders would know that this rail runs straight to new appleloosa in one direction, and curved north to Canterlot in the other. Light flowed out of the depot and store's windows and some light could be seen coming from other buildings. Aria removed her eye from the scope of her rifle and looked around. "I don't see anypony down there. What do you think we should do?" She was a bit more wary of other ponies now that she had met two groups in the wasteland that hadn't hesitated to shoot at them.

(lol - not much one can do with that scope on the sniper rifle - has a crack in one of the lenses if I remember what I posted correctly. The hunting rifle's scope and mechanisms are all fine though. Also, fix your format plz.)

The hunting rifle was in decent condition, a little battered and worn from use but still 100% functional. The scope itself seemed to be in perfect shape too.

Aria shook her head at Jettson's suggestion "Not until I figure out exactly how it works." The real reason was that she didn't want to give up her spot on Garth's shoulder, but she wasn't gonna say that out loud. She studied the page that Strong held out. "And just pull out the box thing on the bottom and stick in another when it runs out?"

Aria took the bullets and dumped them into her bag, trusting the inventory sorting spell on her pipbuck to organize them towards the top. She looked over at Strong Hooves. "Bring it here then. I should probably figure out how it works before having to actually use it."

Aria frowned, contemplating the gun for a moment. "I'll take it. I'd rather not get up close anyways." She snatched the rifle with her magic. "Whoever has the bullets to this thing, hand them over. Now let's move." She inspected the rifle for a moment. "I will also be needing someone to show me how this thing works. I get the trigger part, but I don't understand the reload mechanism. It isn't the same as the pistol."

(Switching name to Aria so I don't have to keep making sure I say Melody all the time - Melody Aria Harmony is new name.) Aria brought up the compass on her pipbuck and pointed in their original heading. "Unless anyone has anything to do first, let's get moving again."

Melody smiled and took what she considered to be a small victory and leaned on Gizmo. "Thanks." She nuzzled his neck affectionately.

Melody suddenly saw this as an opportunity. "No thanks Strong, but if Gizmo wouldn't mind - I'd like his help."

"Not your fault. How did you get up there?" She didn't even argue with the killing of the three ponies - they had shot her after all. Melody shakily got onto her hooves and started to dust herself off.

To the north, the smoke from the camp near the stable still blotted the horizon, though it was difficult to make out against the dark sky, and the city of Canterlot could be just barely made out against the horizon and the now setting sun. The group was just leaving a not so dense wood, and to the south and west the trees thinned into nothing but barren and hilly ground. Something could easily be over the hill a hill and go unnoticed. Melody took the potion, popped the cork and swallowed the liquid greedily. She sighed in relief as the flesh weaved itself together under the bandages and almost completely healed itself. She decided to not use another potion on herself and let the bandages do the work. "Thanks." She looked up at Gizmo. "They dead?"

(lol - will be implementing a rolling system on my side from here on out. Gonna be shit like whether or not Gizmo makes it to the raiders sneaking without being detected and accuracy. From here on out, I will say ponies are being shot at, but it's up to you if you want your characters injured. I will be forcing injuries and wounds on occasion though simply for realism. Can't let you get away without a scratch now can I?) The Sniper Rifle now in possession of Gizmo proves to be in poor condition. The bolt was bent and tends to get stuck and the scope has a crack in it, but still usable. Some unseen damage may exist on the inside. Besides that, the bottled water that gizmo gets looks a bit dirty, though not dangerously so, and the food is packaged pre-war food from 200+ years ago. He also discovers some sort of soft drink - 'Sparkle Cola.' Melody shivered and snapped her eyes open. "Someone get the half used potion from my saddlebag please," she whispered.

The three raiders froze and stop firing. "So what is it you expect us to do then?" asked the sniper in the center.

(*Cough* - Grenade lands short, probably didn't say this right out in the obvious (make sure to next time), but snipers dont fire within throwing distance. I'd say about 100 yards. Can Strong Hooves throw 100 yards? Wanna take back that grenade or make it cannon? lol.)

The sniper pony went at the bolt action again and started swearing the foulest of oaths in his dictionary. "Fucking bolt keeps getting stuck!" He finally got the bolt open and the casing out and took aim again. The shot kicked up dirt at Strong Hoove's hooves and the sniper proceeded to take more shots, each one about five seconds apart. The second pony had a lower caliber hunting rifle with scope out and was taking more rapid shots at the group, but most of them were going wild from this distance. Melody lay in the dirt at the base of the tree whimpering in pain, eyes squeezed shut and flinching at every shot that rang across the land. ((Off to bed folks, it's 12:40 and I promised myself I can't stay up much later than this so as not to fuck up my sleep schedule for school so as not to fuck up my grades so as not to piss off my parents so as not to lose my internet. So yea, night all.))

The sniper pony in the center was leading the largest pony with his scope and pulled the trigger when Strong Hooves suddenly stopped. "Damn! He stopped moving!" he cursed as the bullet flew right in front of Strong Hooves and started working at the bolt action. Melody jumped as the bullet whizzed by her and landed in the ground near by. "Everypony, find cover!" she yelled as she ran for a tree. --- The sniper pony finished fiddling with the bolt and took aim again. "Quick! Get the one heading for cover before she's out of sight!" He pulled the trigger again, this time the bullet finding it's mark in melody's leg, throwing her to the ground as she skid behind the tree, screaming in pain.

(BTW - you will notice that I'm dumping the whole 'Melody is an absolute pussy' thing out the window. Need a back bone or I will simply hate this character and kill her off.) "So - watch out for ponies, they will kill you. Water and food is poisonous with radiation, animals are mutated and evil, and stones are out to get us. We. Are. Bucked." Melody laughed, despite all the horrors of the past two or three hours. Not something she expected, considering the death she saw today.

(OK - I'm gonna be deleting this poll and throwing up a new one - Do you mind me ninjaing the FoE story a bit? It wouldn't be the same, but I would be ninjaing watcher and that bit. Anyways - I'll just be throwing in a bit o' combat here.) A short whiles off from the group, a party of three ponies lay prone on a hill. "What do we got?" asked one. The one in the middle smiled and removed his eye from the scope of his high powered rifle. "Seven ponies, six with pipbucks. I'm willin' to bet that stable finally cracked open. Easy pickings and good loot," he said with glee. "Should we get the others?" asked the third to the sniper's left without removing her eyes from her binoculars. "Naw, stable dwellers are easy pickings. Plus we'd have to split the money with them if more came with." "Alright. Let's give them another moment or two to get within our effective range, then pick them off one by one." ------ "Plants!?! What the hell? Even vegetation out here is deadly?" Melody asked in awe. She started to continue to travel towards the town Sigh had pointed them towards, and away from the potentially deadly water. "Anything else we should expect to kill us that's not deadly in a stable? Stones perhaps?"