"Fucking Celestia!"

Your gaze shoots over to the source of the outburst. It's Vee, coated in blood and brains, screaming hysterically over the clatter of machine guns and cracks of energy rifles. Absolutely disgusting, but it wasn't her own bodily fluids, you note. It was Reich's, fucker had gotten his head blown off. Would have to bury him later, if you could even move his fat ass.

On a more pertinent note, you were now leaderless. And the only thing between you and wall of lead coming from that raider-infested building was a concrete wall. You groan. You're getting too old for this. Ah, well, only one thing to do. You shout. "Skeeter, get over here!"

"Right away!" He yells back. His voice is shaky. He's young, and new to this, and it shows. Head is ducked the short walk to you, he jumps every time a bullet wizzes over the concrete barricade. Crack shot with a rifle though, and that was what you needed. You pull him close, take his head in your hooves, talk nice and stern. "Look, that raider, fucker with the plasma rifle? I want you to pop his head when I say, understand?" He nods, intently, nervously. You grin in turn, drop your hooves from his temples, skulk away.

You nearly miss Sambo. She's as drab a grey as the concrete, and you suspect she's built tougher. You tap her shoulder with a hoof, get her attention. She moves her head up, draws her gaze from the ground. Speaks a word. "Da?"

You try not to giggle, the Stalliongrad accent killed you every time. "Skeeter's gonna kill the jackass with the plasma rifle, it's open season on the raiders after that, sound good?"

She draws a hoof up with all the deliberation of a glacier. Stares at the powerhoof encasing her foreleg, and the tally on it. You'd lost track last time you tried to count it.

She allows herself something between a smile and a snarl. Unfurls her massive wings. "Is good."

There's that bloody accent again. Beautiful. You nod, nothing more needed saying.

You turn to find Vee, and she's in your face already. Eyes wide, breathing heavy, scarlet mane frazzled. "S-sir, the raiders, dey got working power armour coming dis way!"

That's a bother. You don't respond to her. "Sambo, you heard that, they got power armour. Sounds like a chance to up that number a bit, right?"

She responds, in a typical fashion. "Da."

Gawd, they needed more mares like her. "Alright then, Vee, take point with Skeeter, keep the raiders occupied.  Sambo, you got a tin can to ope-"

You don't finish that statement, something big and heavy crashes into you, and you stifle a scream as several of your minor bones relocate themselves to new and interesting places. You're pinned under a mass of spiny power armour, and the only thing preventing the raider's hoof from mashing your skull is the intense glow of Vee's telekinesis around his leg. Her magic is wavering, and the second the field of telekinesis pops, Sambo tackles the raider to the hard concrete, leaving you free to wheeze and sputter.

They exchange blow after blow, the fight is over by the time you've hauled yourself to your hooves. Sambo finishes crushing the suit in a burly hug, and lets it fall to the ground unfettered. She's been better, the spikes laced cuts on seemingly every square inch of skin she had. The way she acts, it might be a papercut. "Alright... Sambo, you still good?"

She nods. "Da."

"Okay, okay, good... Skeeter?" The kid's ear twitches, he hadn't moved from the spot you left him. Good kid. "Please splatter that pesky raider."

He takes aim, fires. The last .308 round your group had leaves Skeeter's rifle with a thunderous roar, and from the manic screams of the raiders, you can only assume it met it's mark.

Sambo is gone before you can gesture to her, a sonorous wingbeat marking her departure. She doesn't beeline for the raider nest, but ever so casually circles up into the sky. Bullets fly towards her, some miss, some don't, but it's ineffectual compared to what the plasma might do. She decides she's high enough, dives, and opts to simply careen through a wall in the small office building.

The raiders are dealing with Sambo, and you capitalize, breaking into a sprint for the raider's den. One of the leather-bound freaks takes notice, and fires once before Skeeter puts a 10mm round into his skull. Beautiful, you might just give the kid some spare caps.

You jump, and hook your forelegs into the hole your team pegasus left in her entry. You haul yourself up, noting with glee this room was cleared, Sambo had quite literally turned the raider's into a thin red paste. The only thing left alive had  been a ranger in fried armour. For whatever reason, the steel covering her stomach had been cut away. You'd deal with that later. You book for the stairwell, find it. The raider guarding it is dispatched swiftly with a mouth-held knife. You damn near skip over his body, almost had what you came for.

Three flights of stairs later, you're on the top floor. Opposition had been nil, every raider was convinced they'd be the badass who killed the pegasus, and they were all miserably wrong. Their screams had died out when you hit the fourth floor.

A quick bout of searching, and you find it. It was an ordinary safe. You couldn't open it, but Vee could. You open your mouth to call her, and hear that odd ringing that signaled her invisibility spell dissipating. "Right 'ere sir, lemme see the bugger."

She has it open in quick order. Vee wasn't much in a fight, but her expanse of sneaky and looty spells was exhaustive, and she was a hell of a lockpicker.

Skeeter enters right as the safe pops open, trotting over and sitting meekly beside you. "Finally got it, huh?"

You say nothing, but grin wider as you peer into the safe. Reach your hoof in, retrieve the single object inside.

It's a simple object, a bottle of Sparkle-Cola. This particular bottle was glowing an intense alabaster.

Behold, the last bottle of Sparkle-Cola Celestial in existence!

You hold in front of you, cherishing the find. You're about to put it your saddlebag, right as the floor underneath you burst and flings you away like a limp doll.

You gain your senses in seconds, just in time to hear the precious bottle drop to the floor below yours and shatter. A certain muscular pegasus drops the raider she has in a bearhug, steps on the psychotic mare's head, and shakes herself to remove the dust bursting through a ceiling coated her in. "Was interrogating mare. Said she knew where loot was. Came to you immediately."

You normally love that Stalliongrad accent. As the gray pegasus frowns and peers downwards into the hole she made, cursing in her native tongue, you feel nothing but hate for that accent and the pony who owns it.

"Sambo, give me a reason I should not gut you like a fish."

Vee steps in, unusually composed, given the gore still plastered on her coat. "Was browsing a few terminals while you sprinted up here, dis wasn't the last place dey sent samples of tha Cola to."

You just groan. With any luck, it'd be some manufacturing plant a day's journey away. "Yeah, and where'd that be, Vee?"

"If tha data was right, and it rarely ain't, should be another bottle of the stuff in Canterlot."

...

"Sambo, if I die getting that soda, I'm haunting your ass. Everyone, suit up, we're heading out at night."
[end]