And we start with the other ponies having a little fun at Li'lpip's expenses, giving her a bit of good natured ribbing over her curiosity and need to explore every nook and cranny. As she works to open a safe in a building she just had to go explore. And she gets it open, only to find that it was already opened, from the other side, very very forcefully. Though looking further, it seems it wasn't intentional, it just got caught up in somepony looting the next building over, a bank.
While looking around the clinic, she finds a poster warning ponies of "Wartime Stress Disorder" our first hints of just how BADLY ponies were able to handle the fact of being in a state of near constant war.
And Li'lpip being Li'lpip, decides to crawl through the safe and check out the bank, promising to move enough rubble to let the rest in through a bigger entrance. And the rest, simply agree, knowing there was no stopping her from indulging her curiosity.
And it turns out to be a raider nest. And again, the graphic description of the first nest in Ponyville, still serves the purpose, allowing only the briefest description of "splayed corpses" and the smell of the place to actually be told about, while letting our minds fill in the rest without having to go into gory details.
And there are signs of a fairly recent battle having been fought in the building as well, there thoughts on it disrupted by hearing the sounds of somepony on the floor above them. The rest getting ready to fight while Velvet asks them if any of them have considered the ponies up there might be friendly, to which the rest simply reply. "Nope"
And, I'm with them, well, at least I can understand them, they have every reason to not expect friendlies here, and every to expect ponies that will kill them the instant they get a clear shot. But Velvet is right, they SHOULD make sure first, and this shoot first mentality, well, we'll see where it leads later on.
So instead of waiting to be surprised by them, Steelhooves blows the floor out from under them, and the group goes to work. Two of the raiders running for it, which amazes Calamity, as he wonder why raiders run from them now, to which Velvet points out the blindingly obvious.
“The smallest of us is a walking arsenal. You’re a pegasus with a custom-built battle saddle, and Steelhooves… is Steelhooves. By Luna, we look like grim reaper ponies.”
And then pointing out just how well armed the raiders were in comparison, most only have crude makeshift melee weapons. They split up Li'lpip and Calamity heading down to check out the vaults in case they were locked and still full of loot, Steelhooves and Velvet to check the rest of the building in case there were more raiders, or the ones that fled were laying traps, figuring,
Between the two of you, I’m sure you can greet anypony you find up there with the appropriate levels of loving kindness or overwhelming force.”
And turns out the lower levels were full of loot, since the automated defenses were still working. And Calamity proves yet again, Li'lpip may have a penchant for exploring and letting all sorts of interesting things fall into her saddlebag, but Calamity is THE Kleptomaniac Hero of the Wastes.
And inside the vault, they find most of it looted already somehow, though still find two prizes "Spitfire's Thunder" a custom 50 cal rifle that Calamity claims, and a small box with four memory orbs. Which Li'lpip immediately tests out, telling Calamity to stand guard and diving in before he can respond.
And ends up being addressed by AJ, delighted to have found herself in a memory pertaining to the Mane 6, and that delight, quickly turning into uncomfortableness, and a slight panic as she realizes she's in Steelhooves body, and him and AJ are flirting. Steelhooves, ahem, reactions, to it very very VERY unsettling to the mare inside his head.
Way too much information! Please, Celestia, Luna, anypony… stop the memory… need to get off now! Aaaah! I mean leave. Need to leave now!
Though she's spared from having to experience what she was afraid of when AJ gets a call, telling her one of the companies under her Ministry had just developed the Anti-Machine-Rifles, with AJ instantly seeing that they were also, Anti-Powered-Armor-Rifles, completely negating the protection of Steel Ranger armor, and furious at them for making something like that, rushing out to try and put a stop to it, telling Steelhooves to call her personal carriage. Though once she's in the elevator, heading to the roof, we learn this was the "Accident" we'd heard about, as the cable snaps, sending the elevator rushing to the bottom.
And Li'lpip comes out of the memory with Steelhooves standing over her. Oops.
As the rest head past them Steelhooves demands to know what memory it was. Calming down when he learns which it was. And explaining things a bit. Saying he didn't actually mind the idea of the AMR, since the Zebra's had started fielding some very hard to kill robots, and they needed that firepower. And mentioning that the Zebra developed armor piercing ammo on their own not long after, which while not quite as able to take out a Steel Ranger as an AMR, could still do it with a lucky shot. Stopping to mention Lil Macintosh could easily take out a Steel Ranger if armed with AP ammo, being the most powerful gun it's size ever made, custom designed for AJ.
There discussion is interrupted as they hear Calamity trying out his new toy, rushing to find the two of them facing off against a troop of Steel Rangers. One of them having been shot through the leg, Steelhooves infuriated with Calamity for shooting a Steel Ranger, though both he and Velvet defending the action, the other Rangers having started trying to kill them the instant they saw them. Steelhooves eventually pulling rank on the other ones, getting them to stand down, telling Calamity they would have words later. Though the group insisting that Steelhooves come with them to meet their elder.
While being 'escorted' one of the younger Rangers speaks up to Steelhooves, giving us more hints at the divide in the faction Steelhooves had mentioned earlier, letting the group know he had been offered a position as Elder, but turned it down, and that there were many Rangers that would have eagerly followed his ideas, and still want to.
While moving they end up engaging a group of slavers, one Ranger getting killed by an AMR equipped Pinkie balloon, the rest trying to deal with the forces on the ground. Li'lpip struggling to get a clear shot on the slavers hiding behind the wagon full of slaves before remembering, oh right she's her, and simply lifting the entire slave wagon out of the middle of the battle. just in time for Calamity to take out the air troops, and their balloon, that was apparently filled with hydrogen, and was now on fire, and heading right for them......
The group manages to run, Li'lpip bringing the slaves with them, though two of the Rangers were lost. The leader stops to ask Pip why she saved the slaves, leaving her astonished, amazed that somepony even has to ask that. Responding with asking why the Rangers engaged the group, to which it was simply because they were allies with Redeye, and while the rangers didn't have the forces to take him on directly, they did their best to cut his supply lines. And the callus disregard for just what those "supplies" were royally pisses her off, as it should.
She takes Steelhooves to the side, the two needing to speak alone, demanding he explain why he was with the group. responding that since his talk with Calamity in his shed, about what he though she was, he's changed his mind, he believes she's a good pony, and shares her goal, wanting to help the ponies of the Wastes, reminding her that most Rangers aren't like that, thinking only of hoarding tech, not using it to protect others, that being with her lets him do that again.
Which she accepts is the truth, before calling bullshit on it being the only reason, since all of that had to have come to him after joining and being with them, and doesn't explain why he joined them in the first place. Which he finally admits, what he told Calamity, was what the Elders of his order believe, and he was assigned to find out if it was true, and to figure out how big a threat her group, and the stable she came from were to them.
As a show of trust, he gives her the box of memory orbs, insisting she watch them, and she does, remaking that in return she'd be trusting him, by leaving herself helpless in front of him.
And she's back inside Applesnack, getting ready to board a personal carriage, talking to the pegasus, being friendly. before suddenly leaping on him once he's strapped into the carriage, breaking his wing and starting to push him of the side of the building. Letting him know he's found out the pegasus had set up AJ, was the one that caused her accident, and then shoving him off the roof, the carriage and the broken wing making sure he doesn't survive. before walking to a terminal and reporting that there had been a terrible accident, the sky carriage had crashed trying to land on the roof.
Li'lpip comes out of the memory, horrified.
A bit later as they move on Calamity flies up to Steelhooves, trying to talk to him, saying that the two aren't so different, since Steelhooves was given that chance to be a leader to his people, and refused it. Steelhooves saying they are nothing alike, that Calamity was running towards his responsibilities, while Steelhooves was avoiding them, not wanting to risk being the cause of a civil war within the Steel Rangers
Perk-More DT, yeah take as much of that as you can Li'lpip
Thoughts- Well, like Steelhooves said, he is not a better pony. He really is Lawful Neutral. He had absolutely no remorse or regret taking just pure cold blooded revenge on the pony that nearly killed AJ. But despite that, he truly does want to help other ponies. To be a "better pony" And the rest of the Steel Rangers.....I fucking LOATHE them, out of everypony in this story, I really do think I hate the non-Steelhooves siding Rangers the most. Just for what they do, how little they give a fuck about other ponies, and all the shit they get away with just by having better guns, they are nothing more then bullies, that try to justify themselves and make themselves out to be right. Not even the Enclave leadership is THAT fucking deluded and self serving, or that just plain sickening. (though they are a very close second.)
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