The ground erupted.  Fountains of dirt burst into the air as half a dozen hellhounds tore themselves out of the ground.

Ditzy Doo pulled up as one of them swung her magical energy rifle around and fired at us.  Velvet Remedy let out a scream.  Calamity spun in the air, kicking the lever of his battle saddle, switching ammo.  One of the hellhounds closed on Xenith, taking a swipe.  The zebra ducked, turning and bucking the hellhound in chest, dropping her.  SteelHooves began to fire, his grenade machinegun tearing apart one of the hellhounds as she aimed a multi-gem magical shotgun towards Velvet and Xenith.

“Get to the wagon!” Calamity shouted as he took a shot, staggering a hellhound who was trying to climb onto the Sky Bandit.

The earth beneath SteelHooves blasted upwards as a hellhound lashed up out of the ground; the hellhound’s claw slashed in a long arc, slicing through SteelHooves armor.

SteelHooves’ armored body fell to the broken ground with a heavy thud.  His armored head rolled a few yards away.

The world stopped.

The battle still raged, but it was someplace far away.  All the color and sound seemed to mute, leaving just me, the beating of my heart, and the slow rocking of SteelHooves’ head.

SteelHooves was dead.

A cold, wet chill ran down my body.  There was no coming back from that.  I’d seen Xenith decapitate a Canterlot zebra.  But the little pony in my head was shaking in denial.  No, no, she insisted.  There will be an ugly warping sound and he’ll be right back with us, just like always.

SteelHooves was dead.

I couldn’t move.  Couldn’t feel.  Couldn’t breathe.  My mind was locked up, the gears jammed.

The hellhounds weren’t going to give me a moment to process, much less to grieve.  The hellhound who killed SteelHooves stepped forward, skewered his claws through SteelHooves’ helmet, then spun and hurled the armored head of my companion, trying to knock us out of the sky.  Ditzy Doo dodged and SteelHooves’ head slammed against her wagon next to me, splintering wood.  The impact cracked his helmet’s headlamp.

Something snapped inside me.

My horn burst with light, layer upon layer of overglow, brighter than even Ditzy Doo.  The hellhounds were surrounded with light as they shot upwards into the sky, all of them, higher and higher until they were nothing but dark specks.  Then they weren’t visible at all.

“SteelHooves!” Velvet screamed, dashing to the fallen, headless body and wrapping it in her forelegs.  All the others turned, eyes wide as they realized we had lost one of our own.

THUD!!

The ground shook as the first hellhound fell out of the sky.    The mangled, broken body oozed.

THUD!!  THUD!!  THUD!!
THUD!!  THUD!!  THUD!!

Fallout: Equestria Chapter 39