Dammed Dogs

When the light was shone on Southpaw, he screamed and tried to run, but the Reservoir kicked him forward toward the monsters. Stumbling forward, he heard the sound of a fire pump firing, then heat, unbearable heat.

So what the ponies would have seen emerging from the tunnel would've screamed, staggered forward, and burst into flame. A screaming, burning diamond dog was propelled towards them.

The streaming sound of lead being spit was all that came next. Shala unloaded her gun into the flaming beast, intent to stop it at all costs from reaching them.

Brown simply screamed in horror as the flaming monster ran toward them. He locked up and couldn't move. Nothing could have prepared him for horror like this.

When the monstrosity suddenly burst into flames Double Barrel lost it and quickly fired both barrels at once into the advancing figure. He dropped back down, shakily reloading his weapon. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, HOLY SHIT!"

Southpaw died, as so many of bretheren did, in the rush of heat and light. But unlike his bretheren, his death would the first of many meetings between the Dogs and the Ponies a relationship scarred by this initial conflict. The reservoir was to slip quietly back into the tunnel, using the dying digger as a distraction, to tell his superiors his suspicions of the culprits of the massacre before. They would then make plans to conduct an appropriate retribution.

This of course was no matter to Southpaw, a damned dog.

Shala let out a long slow breath as the 'thing' fell down, dead and burning. Brown had given up on lighting up the scene, but the flaming corpse did the job for now.

She looked around, checking for any more threats before going to Brown. He was on his back in a near fetal position. "...Brown. Its over. Get up now. Your safe."

Brown shuddered and nodded, but did not get up yet, making Shala sigh. "Are you alright at least?" She said to the other pony.

He stood up, still shaking. "Yeah... Yeah I'm going to be fine... That thing was going to kill me. I know it was. If not it, then the lurks would have." He sighed heavily in relief. "Oh sweet Celestia, I thought I was done for. Thank you so much for the assist."

Shala rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Eh. Whatever. Anypony would have done that. Got any ammo?" She said looking over his cart. She hardly had much an interest in prolonging their stay here. Being a wanted pony, the longer she was here, the worse. And being memorable was even more terrible with a trade pony that was bound to spread the news.

Brown took a few deep breaths, managing to get up on his hooves and collect his revolver. "S-sorry...I....Really was scarred."

He nodded quickly and walked back around the cart to look over the remains of his livelihood. "Oh.. this is going to take me forever to pack back up... What gun is that again? A Kalash?" He drug out an old wooden ammo crate and opened it, revealing several drum clips of ammunition for the rifle. "This is the least I can pay you back for helping me with that... thing. The hell is this thing anyway?"

Shala took the ammo and held out a bottle in which to offer him some payment. "I insist. And i don't know what that was."

Brown looked at the burnt body and looked away quickly. "Diamond dog....I didn't think any of them lived near this city, or that they were still surviving after the blast."

For the moment being he ignored Shala's payment and shut the crate and kicked his cart back to standing rightside up on the rails before loading the heavy thing in. If she pressed the issue he would of course accept it. "A what dog? And do they try to eat ponies and burst into flames before they attack?"

"Well...They are carnivorous. So they could eat you. As for the fire....I don't think that was his intent." Brown walked past the body, keeping it out of his view, and looked at where it came from. "I think there was something behind it. The way the flame enveloped him suggests that it propelled from behind him and around."

Shala did indeed press the issue. "Take the liquor, or I'll drink it right in front of you and belch it in your face."

"Okay, okay. If you insist." And quickly swiped up the flask and hauled the heavy crate back into the cart. "Hey boy, could you put a light on that tunnel so more don't try to sneak up on us while I load this thing?"

Brown shone his light on that tunnel, but Shala was already moving toward it. "Uh, Mom, what are you doing?" Brown asked but she did her usual thing and ignored him.

Shala peeked into the tunnel, even going in a few feet, before backing out and returning to them. "We should get moving. Thanks for the ammo." Shala said to the other pony before motioning to Brown. "We have a lot of ground to cover."

He loaded the mess quicker, wanting to be as far away from the tunnel as possible and at the next station with a drink. "Do you mind staying just a bit longer till I'm all loaded up?"

Shala was already moving, but paused in place. She was facing away from him, but her expression was wincing. There were a lot of reasons why she should just keep going. But....

"Sure." She turned around and looked at what things had spilled out. "...You scavenge?"

He spoke as he loaded in item after item, a lot of it was junk that would only appeal to individual ponies, but the bulk of it was trade goods. "Oh no, I don't have the demeanor for that, I can barely handle the mutants in the tunnels. I travel the Round Line buying and selling. Right now I'm heading up to that Colonel (Indigo) fellow's station. They pay premium on ammunition and food. They haven't quite gotten their own shroom farms set up yet so I'm heading up to make a couple more drops before that market dies off. Where are you two headed?"

Shala really wanted to get moving, but now she knew they would probably be stuck together. "...Same place. I suppose we can stick together until we get there." She just was about to ask for this ponies name, but doing so would mean telling him her own. Until she got to a safer place, she rather keep her name and destinations separate.

"Do they have a library there?" Brown asked, detracting his attention from the tunnel.

He stopped for a moment after finally loading up all of his equipment. "Well you're welcome to come along for the ride, I could use some backup. As for a library, hell if I know. I don't get into that stuff."

Shala nodded. "Then we move together. Brown, no reading this time. We have to move."

Brown sighed, thinking about all the potential reading he could do while they walked. "Fiiine."

Double Barrel pulled out some rope and quickly tied it to the handles of his cart after removing his cut and totally worthless harness, creating an improvised collar and hames harness. "I'm going to guess you two aren't from Horsna, like me seeing as you're headed in the wrong direction and don't have the accent. Just stay close to me, I'll get you in."

Shala and Brown nodded. Shala knew about Horsna, and had managed to get in once before with the assistance of a pony she made a deal with, but Brown had not ever been outside his home station much ever.

"Thanks skip. Maybe I will share a drink with you." Shala smiled. Brown on the other hoof just sighed.

His eyes practically bulged when he started to pull on the rope, once the cart was moving on the rails again he relaxed and let out a sigh. "When we get to Merger, the drinks are on me, I owe you."

Shala chuckled. "You are going to find my tastes rather demanding if you are indeed going to do that."

/fin?/