Littlepip and Friends slaughter over a dozen Hellhounds.

BLAM!!
BLAM!!!

The air filled with the sound of ear-splitting thunder as we began to fire down on Old Olneigh. I watched as the head of the hellhound in my sights burst in a bloody spray. I moved to acquire my next target. The hellhounds were all looking up now, turning, beginning to move. I found a second and fired, but the creature moved too fast. I aimed ahead of him, firing a second shot and then a third. I was no longer able to aim for a specific part of the body; I was just hoping to hit him at all. My second shot did, but it only slowed him down. The third missed entirely.

I kept trying.

Several shot back, beams of magical energy cutting the air, but we were too far away and too well protected by the overpass to be in danger from anything other than a dedicated sniper.

Calamity was having far better luck. Every shot hit its target, crippling or killing. He started picking off the ones in the street as I turned my focus to those just coming out of doorways. That worked better. I felled a second. And a third.

“Aw crap,” Calamity hissed as the hellhound he had turned his aim on dove into the ground, digging through the street like it was wet toilet paper. Calamity fired, blowing the creature’s tail off as it disappeared.

They weren’t coming out of the doors anymore. And as I looked up, I saw the last of the hellhounds on the street disappear into a hole.

We had killed ten of them.

“Well brilliant,” Velvet Remedy facehoofed. “Both of you. Now they know we’re here and we’ve attacked them first.” She looked cross.

Calamity wiggled his wounded wing. “Muh wing disagrees.” Velvet Remedy’s ears drooped.

“Now,” Xenith told Calamity, “You are prey. We are all prey.”

*** *** ***

They came for us on the overpass while I was still paralyzed by the anesthetic spell. The hellhounds weren’t foolish enough to come running up the on ramp like we had hoped. Instead, they dug their powerful claws into the pier beneath us and began to climb.

The first one clawed its way over the railing almost on top of us. Pyrelight was the fastest to react, filling it with a face-full of radioactive green flame. Calamity recovered quickly, firing two of the novasurge rifles in his Enclave armor directly into the hellhound’s torso as it lashed out with its claws, barely missing the balefire phoenix. The monster tilted back, dissolving.

“They’re coming up from beneath us,” Xenith warned before turning to dig in her satchel.

Velvet Remedy cooed to Pyrelight, “Would you be so kind as to burn them off the pier?” Pyrelight hooted happily and leapt over the edge. I could hear the roar of flames beneath.

Pyrelight was able to take out two of them before more on the ground abandoned climbing and started shooting at her. She appeared, dodging and weaving between shots as the magical energy attacks drove her away from the overpass and the ponies she was protecting.

Xenith produced a bottle and passed it to Velvet Remedy. “Dip your slugs in this before you load them,” she instructed. “The poison will cripple the creatures if your shot isn’t enough to kill them.”

Velvet Remedy opened her combat shotgun, floating out the slugs and dipping them as instructed, a grim look on her face.

Two more crawled over the railing. I was ready this time, floating up Little Macintosh as I slipped into S.A.T.S. and fired into their heads. The hellhound’s brains splashed out of the exit wounds.

Three more replaced the two I had just killed. And the sound of rending concrete warned me that more were digging directly up through the overpass from the top of the pier.

Velvet Remedy’s anesthetic spell hit one of the hellhounds, causing the creature to fall. She lifted her shotgun towards another. And hesitated.

The hellhound lashed out at her, his claws slashing shallow lines of red across her breast and throat as I telekinetically shoved her back.

“Surrender,” she offered to the creature. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

“Galdangit!” Calamity shouted, firing a bevy of magical energy bolts into the hellhound. The creature collapsed into a steaming puddle, leaving Velvet Remedy and Calamity staring at each other through the rising smoke. “Don’t reason wi’ ‘em! They ain’t interested!”

“They’re people!” She shouted back. “They have a right to live.”

“Y’all heard the zebra!” Calamity shouted, turning to fire at another hellhound as he dug up through the overpass asphalt. “They’re huntin’ us.”

“And whose fault is that?” she quipped back loudly, throwing a protective shield around Xenith. The hellhound’s claws tore through Velvet’s shield like it was made of colored air. The zebra stepped inside the attack, rising on her hindlegs and throwing up one hoof to stop the monster’s swinging arm while driving another hoof against the thick hide of his throat. The hellhound collapsed, choking.

“Has anypony even tried just talking to them?” Velvet cried out in exasperation.

I reloaded Little Macintosh as quickly as I could. They were coming faster now. It was getting harder to put them down as quickly as they surfaced. And one good swipe from their claws would kill any one of us.

There were bloody hellhound corpses and piles of sludge all around us. We’d managed to kill nearly ten more, miraculously without getting crippled or killed. Even if Velvet Remedy had a point, it was far too late now. I told her so as I fired point blank at a hellhound and somehow missed. The creature bore down on me with its claws.

Velvet Remedy sang. A single, high-pitched note. The hellhound immediately fell back, its clawed paws covering its ears. It turned and fled back down the hole it had come out of so fast that I didn’t have time to bring up my targeting spell and shoot it in the back.

Velvet continued to hold the note, clear and strong. I looked around, and the other hellhounds were disappearing, fleeing the overpass.

Once they were all gone, Velvet’s voice finally broke. Panting she fixed all of us with a glower. “Savage animals and monsters are one thing; but with people, there’s usually a way that doesn’t require killing each other!”

...

A hellhound lurched into the doorway behind us… only to find Xenith waiting for it. A swift blow beneath the ribs froze the creature in place, paralyzing it. As it fell, a bolt of magical energy shot through the doorway, striking the zebra in the throat. She glowed brightly and the orbs over our heads burst. Xenith fell, bleeding from a wound in her throat the size of a memory orb.

Velvet Remedy struck the monster with an anesthetic spell, then rushed to Xenith, floating out her dress and using it to apply pressure to the wound. The dress was quickly ruined as it soaked with blood.

“C’n Ah please kill ‘em?” Calamity huffed. Velvet frowned, not saying anything. Xenith rasped, “Yes… silently… and cut them open… the blood… smell…”

The hellhounds were hunting us, tracking us now clearly by scent. I understood what Xenith intended, as did Calamity. Velvet Remedy turned away, unwilling or unable to watch as we slew the two hellhounds. We made it quick, merciful. It was the least we could do, considering that we were about to defile their bodies.

“This ends any chance of diplomacy,” Velvet moaned.

I hesitated, floating a jagged piece of sheet metal out of the debris and positioning it over the hellhound’s body. I had to disembowel him. Spread his stink. Cover our path with the stench of his death. It was vile.

...31...

I stared in horror at the mob of hellhounds pouring into the streets. They came from the alleys and the shattered ruins. They climbed out of windows and emerged from darkened doorways in nearly every building I could see. Every one, that was, except for the one place we intended to go: the hospital.

The first had already reached the Maripony Mining and Administration Building. Some were dashing inside. Others sunk their claws into the brick façade and began to scale the walls.

Calamity turned to the Enclave crates, shoving the claw-torn containers away until he reached the single undamaged one. I could hear him whisper what sounded like a prayer, although I knew no higher being that Calamity would pray to. Then he furiously clopped at the lock’s cloud keypad.

The crate opened with a hiss and a wash of cool air. Inside was… a bundle of fluffy white clouds.

I would have facehoofed if the noise Calamity made at the sight hadn’t been one of triumph. The pegasus lowered his head and kicked off his helmet, his orange mane bursting free. His wide eyes and self-pleased smile gave me a boost of joy. He’d stayed hidden behind that black, insectoid mask too long, and I had missed him.

“How did you know the combination?” Xenith asked curiously.

“Oh-one-oh-four. Harbinger’s birthday.” Calamity grinned proudly. Then sheepishly admitted, “’Twas on the terminal.”

“A cloud?”

“Ayep! Y’all are in this mess cuz o’ me. Ah plan t’ get y’all out o’ it.” He leaned his head into the Enclave crate, grabbing the cloud bundle in his teeth. (He bit the clouds and picked them up! The little pony in my head was having an aneurysm.)

“Obferf!” he boasted through the clouds in his mouth. He trotted to the roof’s edge, facing the hospital. A hellhound clawed her way up onto the roof in front of him, raising a paw full of long, flesh-and-armor tearing claws. Calamity backed away, dropping the cloud bundle (which simply floated where he’d let it go).

BLAM! Velvet Remedy’s shotgun went off, the slug hitting the hellhound in the center of her left breast. The flesh rippled, but did not give. The hellhound howled in pain, toppling backwards from the impact.

“Thank Celestia!” whimpered Velvet Remedy, letting out a sigh of relief. I winced as I realized she was thanking the Goddess that hellhound’s had thick enough hides to stop a shotgun slug at close range. Until now, I had only used Little Macintosh and the sniper rifle against them. I’d been lucky in those choices. Nothing else I had would likely penetrate.

Another hellhound clawed his way onto the rooftop directly behind Xenith. The zebra danced, giving a well-placed buck to the creature’s chest. I heard ribs break, and the hellhound fell, rasping, fighting for breath from what I knew was a punctured lung. A second buck sent the hellhound over the edge, catching another climber in the face and knocking them both to the alley below. One of them hit an open waste bin with a back-breaking clang.

I didn’t know which had become scarier, hellhounds or Xenith who could take them down with her hooves.

“Thank ya kindly, Velvet!” Calamity stepped back up to the floating bundle and gave it a kick. The cloud unfurled, rolling outward like a carpet, stretching over the street below.

Three more hellhounds pulled themselves onto the rooftop. Velvet Remedy backed up and let out a song, hitting that perfect high note. All three hellhounds clutched at their ears. Two stopped, backing up to the edge of the wall. One climbed back over the side while the other backed up a step too far, her arms pirouetting comically as she fell backwards off the roof.

The third lurched forward, striking at Velvet Remedy in a half-blind swipe. Velvet jumped away. Her right foreleg did not, falling to the rooftop in a spreading puddle of blood. Velvet’s note ended in a strangled whimper as she lifted her right foreleg, eyes locked on where the stump ended inches above where her right knee should have been.

The hellhound drew back her paw, one claw wet with Velvet Remedy’s blood. Four bolts of magical energy struck her in the offending paw. The female hellhound glowed and liquefied.

“Velvet!”

I screamed in horror. Calamity dashed to the charcoal-coated unicorn’s side, catching her as she wobbled and fell, her eyes still locked on where her right foreleg should be. “I… can fix this…” she whimpered. Velvet fainted in Calamity’s forelegs.

Pyrelight pierced the air with a mournful cry.

NO!

Xenith moved fast, pulling potions from her satchel until she found the right one. She shattered it on the rooftop, commanding our pegasus, “Push her wound into that! Quickly!” It looked like the same pudding that Xenith had given Velvet to stop Calamity’s wing from bleeding him dry.

Wrapping Velvet’s sundered leg in my magic, I floated it to the pudding and pressed it into the glop as well. “We can fix this,” I moaned with determination. “She can fix this. She said so!”

I could hear more hellhounds tearing their way up to the roof from inside and out.

Calamity held Velvet, looking stunned. His eyes glistened; his armor was slick with Velvet’s blood. “Calamity, now!” Xenith shouted into his ears, breaking the pegasus from his trance. He shoved the bleeding stump into Xenith’s medicinal goop hard enough to make the unconscious Velvet moan.

Turning to me, Calamity commanded, “Xenith, put Li’lpip on muh back. Li’lpip, levitate everypony but me an’ yerself. An’ don’t forget Velvet’s leg!” He let Velvet Remedy slide out of his arms and galloped to the cloud carpet, stepping onto it. The cloud held him like it was made of surest steel.

I felt a harsh tug at my mane as Xenith lifted me onto Calamity’s back. I winced, but the tears blurring my vision were for Velvet. I floated her limp, maimed body into the air, wrapping her severed limb in my magic as well. And finally, Xenith.

Two hellhounds burst up through the roof hatch. A third dug her way up through the ceiling itself, one of the torn Enclave crates knocking her in the snout as it slid into the hole.

“Let ‘m chase us across this!” Calamity broke into a gallop, carrying me over the street on a bed of clouds, my mare friends swooping across the urban canyon, towed by my magic.

The two hellhounds from the hatch dropped to all fours and ran for us, leaping for Calamity and me. They would have landed right behind us, but they fell through the clouds (as was proper for creatures and clouds) and dashed themselves on the street below. One got up, dusting himself off, then took one look at the building we were heading onto and turned the other way. The second had broken her neck and never got up again.

*** *** ***

“Ah figure y’all got ‘till that beacon shuts up t’ scavenge what we c’n get from the hospital,” Calamity barked, turning to look back over the walkway of clouds. The hellhounds continued to swarm the Maripony Mining and Administration Building, heedless of our escape. “Ah’ll stay here an’ get this here whirligig fixed.”

“And I… will stay… here,” Velvet breathed weakly. “And… protect… Calamity.”

“Y’all are gonna protect me?” Calamity gave her a politely disbelieving look.

She smiled back with a glare of her own. “If my voice cannot… soothe the savage beasts… it can… at least… send them running.”

I hated this plan.

Words could not describe how much I hated this plan. The only things making me agree to this plan were a severe lack of time, an inability to see a better way, and the spark of hope borne from that one hellhound’s reaction. A hope that, maybe, the hellhounds had an aversion to the hospital that would protect us.

Turning to Xenith, I motioned her to follow. We had no time to lose, and we now had two major injuries that demanded top tier medical supplies. I prayed to Luna that this place had not been stripped clean already. That somehow, for any reason, this hospital was still well stocked.

“Ah crap,” Calamity said, still staring across the cloud bridge. I turned in alarm, my stomach dropping. Oh Goddesses, please, not anything else! Please!

“Ah left muh helmet.”

I wanted to buck him so hard. “Leave it. You look better without it anyway!” A thought struck me. “Can you still shoot those rifles without the helmet’s interface?”

“Nope.”

That sinking feeling was reinforced. “How many shots do you have left for Spitfire’s Thunder?”

“Ah’ll swap t’ a fresh clip, but Ah’ve only got three. Plus the two shots left in the current one.”

More than he’d have time to fire if he was shooting alone. I looked to Velvet Remedy bleakly.

“Go, Pip. I’ll take care of him,” Velvet insisted. Pyrelight landed next to her, puffing out her breast and looking fierce.

I nodded before looking back to Calamity and then to the candy-colored heap that was the Griffinchaser II. “Can you fix her?”

“Ayep. Positive. Now go!”

Pyrelight gave me a heartbreaking look.

Xenith was already waiting for me at the rooftop access doors. I nodded one last time, praying to the Goddesses that this was not the last time I would see them alive, then galloped silently away.

Fallout Equestria: Chapter 30 and 31