AsthmaticPegasus

moog. I miss you

I think all of my screams died ;~; oh wait, no, theyre there. They just turned into mumbles of resignation

....what do we do now?

burp

hi

Okay, so this shouldn't be too hard, right? Just some simple distract and explode tactics, right? It's not like the big mean scary raiders would come looking for them and kill them to death, eat them, and then sew their skin into their clothing or anything, right!? Sprite started panicking, she knew it was a VERY bad time to panic but she couldn't help herself, what was a little filly to do? At least she had three seconds to prepa-nevermind this was happening now. "ohdearohdearohdear...." Sprite muttered to herself, hopping around in place. Pops ran away to hide and reload and in the mean time the little changeling was left to think of a way to distract them and live. Wait she was a changeling! She could do something with that, right? Pops wasn't looking, this could still be a secret for awhile, she just had to remember one of those raiders from earlier, change into one of them. Maybe it'd work... and maybe it wouldn't, but other than insult them and hope they couldn't kill her before Pop could kill them she didn't really have any options. Bounding off as stealthily and quickly as she could Sprite moved to the other side of the house, changing into the best raider disguise she could muster. Step 1 complete. Now what to do to get their attention... ugh, her brain did not work well in full fledged panic mode. "Hey, you two, what's going on over here!" She shouted, her voice surprisingly gruff and haggard. Maybe this would distract them for long enough...

Blowing ponies up? Wouldn't that make her more of a monster than she already was? She was too young to make these moral decisions! But weren't these horrible ponies worse than her? They murdered and did bad things to ponies everywhere, and they'd surely attack the fillies if they saw them. So perhaps it was for the best, blowing them up before they had a chance to scream at and mangle the intrepid duo. There would be no sound sleeping either with these evildoers in the area. "Okay... okay... it seems like our only option..." She muttered, still quiet. "How many grenades do we have?"

OHDEARCHRYSALIS Sprite was not used to going this fast! It was like... well, she couldn't really draw any accurate comparisons to having an adrenaline powered filly clinging to her back! This was not the caution and fear she usually approached situations, what if there were awful ponies ready and waiting for them because of the yelling? Wait, was she singing!? Ohdear ohdear ohdear Sprite needed to stop this before it got out of control... or at least more out of control. Sprite slammed her hooves into the ground, dragging them and kicking up a cloud of dust. She effectively halted herself, and before Pops could zip off like a rocket propelled hummingbird Sprite grabbed onto her hooves and brought her down, maaaybe accidentally slamming her face into the dirt. Just a little bit though! Ready to hop to her friends side with apologies and explanations for the screeching halt Sprite heard something... the faint sound of two ponies grumbling at one another. Hopping up in the air the changeling spotted somepony approaching the house, which the two girls were now surprisingly close to. Now, two ponies out in the wastes talking to one another wasn't the worst thing to run into, but with a spiky, bloody getup with what Sprite could only assume were pony bones strapped to their armor, these were raiders. And if theres one thing that Sprite did not want to see right now, that's raiders. And mutants, and slavers, but mostly raiders (since she was looking at two of them right now, mostly) "Pops, shush! There're two raiders, with guns and armor and everything!" Sprite whispered to her downed friend, obviously frightened. "What're we gonna do!?"

Okay, they had a plan, sort of. Water and food were tip top priority, with grenades coming in a very close (debatably first) second. They could do this no sweat, and look, they were already approaching some buildings! It could be some nice ponies willing to offer charity... okay, probably not but they could at least offer shelter? That is, if they didn't try and kill the two of them first. Maybe they could sell the empty pistol and meat for something? Sprite was really desperate at this point. "What are those buildings over there...?" Sprite pointed out, being the captain obvious of the two. After a couple of seconds of looking she couldn't seem to spot anypony moving around down there, but she was still nervous. "Should we check it out? What if there are raiders or bad ponies?"

Sprite wasn't surprised with this clever little idea Pops came up with. It did have it's issues of course, like the fact that the caravaners and looters who might be able to help them were known for holding money above all else. It was a good goal to have, but they had to focus on finding supplies and money of their own before then. They wouldn't be getting very far without them. Sprite bounded off after Pops and the intrepid duo set off, away from the dead Geckos and their nest. On their way past the scorch marks Sprite nabbed her useless weapon and some hunks of meat, stashing them in her makeshift pack. Hey, they could get hungry, and how hard could cooking meat be? They just had to hold it over a fire for like, a few minutes. Speaking of getting hungry, the little nibble of love she'd taken the night before had doe little for her, mostly just rekindle her hunger... and now that all she had around was Pop the last thing she wanted to do now was feel hungry. She could just ignore it anyways, right? She'd need to, at least for awhile. "So... we need to find someplace to get stuff. You have any ideas?" She said keeping pace behind her friend. "I can't really think of anything other than running around and getting lucky finding a stash or something." Well, she could think of another way. But that involved fighting, and danger, and explosions. That might be kinda fun, like blowing up those geckos... No, no Sprite, that would be dangerous! Sprite kept thinking to herself that maybe Pops was starting to get to her, but that's just ridiculous

Maybe they could turn this around, head off in any direction and find their way back to Chapel and have some fun along the way, like Pop said. But spending their time out on the dangerous wastes hardly seemed like any fun at all, at least to Sprite. Except for blowing stuff up, fighting off slavers, discovering old cities... oh, Pops did make it seem like they'd have a blast. Of course, anything the filly talked about made it seem like it would be a blast. She really should become a sales mare or something, she could probably sell a tin can to the Brotherhood of Steel saying it was some Pre-War Awesome-o-matic. Sprinting after Pops as they fled the gruesome scene where many a gecko had met it's end, Sprite wordlessly snagged some gecko meat from the wreckage. They could cook it later, maybe, or just chew on the raw bits. Ponies liked that, right? That wouldn't be weird if she saw the changeling doing it later? Sprite could always use the excuse of 'anything to survive' or something like that... "Okay, Um, first things first... we have to find supplies, right?" Sprite peeped, still a little shaken from their brush with scaly, fiery death. "How about some water... or maybe we should get more grenades? Oh dear, what if we run into raiders!?" Her voice squeaked embarrassingly and she started wondering how in Equestria they were going to make it back to safety.

What did she mean she didn't know how to get back!? Sprite followed closely behind Pop as she headed off in one direction, but when she turned around the seeds of paranoid doubt had already planted their malicious seeds in her head. What were they supposed to do all on their own? They'd handled one severe situation, but that was a cakewalk in comparison to the other dangers of the wastes. The others could be in the same danger! Or worse... Sprite sat down and started freaking out a little, trying to compose herself like Pops. "W-well.... we've got to go somewhere, what if those geckos come back!?" She said, looking at the splattered bits around their rock. There's no way they'd be able to take more, and she hadn't noticed too many more grenades in Pop's pouch. No matter what, they were in trouble.

Sprite shuddered at the thought of a dragon-gecko-thing coming after them, spewing flame and trying to turn the two into a tasty lunch. But they didn't have bat-wings, and heck they couldn't even get on top of this small boulder. With another calming breath and a click of the chamber Sprite smoothly slid in another grenade, giggling a little with Pop. "Yeah... that'd be pretty scary." She mused, gaining a little confidence in the fact that most of the Geckos had fled or were severely bloodied. Raising the grenade rifle for what she hoped was the final kaboom she aimed at where the Geckos seemed to be clumping most, and even with some resounding beginners luck Sprite needed awhile to prepare a shot. With one final *fwoomp* and the best shot yet several Geckos were tossed about in a fiery explosion, adding some more blood spattered across the ground and a few more meaty chunks being flung the filly's way. The rest of the remaining Gecko's hissed and fled to follow the smarter ones, leaving the area in an eerie stillness as the dust settled. "Um... I guess we can escape now...." Sprite mumbled, still a little surprised at herself from the not-fear that had gripped her, though she'd hardly call it courage. "Ohandhere'sBoomBoomback." She muttered quickly, shoving it towards Pops much like she had done before as she suddenly became embarrassed and nervous for no reason once again.

Again? Why wouldn't Sprite want to go again? That was as awesome as Pops had made it sound before! No wonder she was so spazzy all the time, explosions (especially ones as close as that one!) were quite the adrenaline rush. But as she calmed down Sprite felt her nervousness return, mainly at the fact that there were still a lot of geckos around them and explosions seemed to have no effect on their morale. And they could still breathe fire at them from the ground, but if they treated the edge like they would a malfunctioning oven then the two of them should get out of here burn free. With a quiet click Sprite opened the chamber just like Pop had showed her, taking another grenade with a small smile. "Uh, yeah." She said in the same small voice as before. Is that what Pop needed to get the filly out of her proverbial shell? Explosions? That would be make for some interesting therapy. The changeling looked up and closed the grenade rifle, seeming to get uneasy again as she aimed it at the undeterred geckos, taking almost as much time as she had before. Okay, so she couldn't be totally cured of her chronic unease, but perhaps some progress could be made. Another soft thump, another fiery dust cloud sending rocks and bits of meat scattering in all directions, and a few less geckos. Her inexperience showed, it wasn't as good as the first shot and only one Gecko was thoroughly exploderized, but several more seemed to ave injuries. Maybe they'd get out of here sooner than they'd thought.

Taking the grenade rifle in her hooves Sprite stood up next to Pop, looking uncertainly over the boomstick as she memorized the simple instructions that had been given to her. This wouldn't be so hard... She just had to aim the way Pops had told her to and pull the trigger. Teaching somepony else how to blow things up seemed to please Pop to no end, her enthusiastic explanation even getting Sprite a little excited for the friendship bond strengthening activity of killing Wasteland beasties. "Okay, okay, I think I've got this." Sprite muttered, holding the grenade launcher up and tensing her muscles. She was shaking she was so nervous! With a few deep breaths Sprite began to focus, aiming... aiming... aiming... and aiming some more just to be safe. Probably a solid minute of nervous looking down sights while the monsters scrabbled uselessly around the rock. Hopefully she didn't put Pops to sleep, because when she was ready she pulled the trigger and sent a grenade flying with a soft 'thump' followed by several hissing shrieks from the geckos. When the dust and smoke cleared one of the bigger ones was now just a big red splotch on the ground, with another small one was obviously dead with all of it's missing limbs. After a moment of silence Sprite piped up in a small voice. "Um... was that good?"

Now that the situation had cooled down a little Sprite was able to think. It certainly wouldn't help if Pop left without Sprite, though it would certainly have given her a nice way of avoiding any future complications. But Sprite needed to stop thinking about that, it was making her too nervous and paranoid to think! Right now she needed to stay focused and make sure that the two of them escaped the monster Geckos and survived together as friends. Because that's what friends did, right? Avoided near death situations and survived in the Wasteland together. And how did you survive life threatening situations? Hiding! At least that was Sprite's way of doing it. "Let's just stay..." The trembling Sprite began to say, looking up at Pop who had all but returned to her upbeat positive self. "...or-or maybe now could be a good time to show me how to use Boom Boom?" She finished saying, the words coming as both a surprise to her and probably to Pops. It could give some levity to the situation, and even though Sprite was scared out of her mind maybe that's what the both of them needed more than survival instincts. Sprite wanted to make it up to Pops for not hanging out with her before, perhaps? Or maybe some of that affection was having some effect on the emotion fueled changeling filly?

Sprite was really surprised with how dedicated Pop was to ponies, even those she barely knew like the little filly she so lovingly crushed in her arms. Pops had been so open about her feelings and her history, she seemed like a nice understanding girl, and Sprite really found herself liking the company (especially the hugs, those made her feel all fuzzy even though she knew deep down she had a hard, black carapace.). Sprite knew though, that no matter for good or worse, SOMETHING big had to happen eventually. These brooding thoughts only made her feel worse, so instead she decided to push them to the back of her mind and cheer herself up with the fact that Pop's really cared and her mood had drastically improved. She even got a little nuzzle, which made her feel a whole lot fuzzier. "How will we get away though? We can't just sit here, what if they find a way up?" Even though she was trying to stay positive with Pop she couldn't shake her mind out of the worst case scenarios

Wait, Pops was crying? The optimistic, upbeat pegasus filly was starting to cry with Sprite, muttering about her own mistakes and how this was all a horrible idea that had gone horribly wrong. She'd tried to stay positive, but it seems that even this grim situation was a little too much for both girls. Sprite simply tried to hold back the floodgates, but soon tears were pouring from her eyes without restraint. They were surrounded on all sides by foal eating spike monsters, they'd been abandoned by Pop's friends, and were very very lost with no way of getting back to Po's home. Even if Pop was to blame for the idea Sprite had helped, so it was pretty much both their faults. Sprites full on crying subsided to a sniffling and whimpering after a minute or two, still hanging on to Pop's for dear life. Her panicky mind went instantly to survival, maybe she could help Pop's for once, instead of the other way around. Maybe one of them would have a chance of getting away, but never both, and since Sprite would starve to death in a couple of days by herself anyway.... "Pops.... Pop, you've got to fly outta here..." Sprite choked out, still sobbing a little. She could also fly in this desperate situation but...

Being a changeling and having her own set of wings Sprite really shouldn't have been as shocked with the change in altitude as she was that she took flight, probably had something to do that her mind and body was terror stricken at the moment of her escape. Nonetheless she began panicking, flailing her legs frantically in some childish attempt to propel the both of them up and away from the monstrous creatures. Her mind was a haze of panic and despair, and while it did occur to her briefly that perhaps she might change her form in this life threatening situation to fly WITH Pop instead of relying on her the thought was quickly doused by her previous downpour of doubts and a sudden gush of flame singing her tail and rear. As the two terrified children landed Sprite still clung tightly to Pops, the gun clenched immovably in her mouth for fear of losing her one method of useless defense other than running away. After a few moments she slowly regained composure. Pops would undoubtedly be a little psyched at the exciting turn of events and reassured that everything was pretty alright, but Sprite was feeling a little more on the downtrodden side. She'd essentially failed in helping the group, and had even gotten Pops and herself cut off from the rest of them. They were in a heap of trouble, and right now she felt like it was her fault. So, spitting the gun out onto the rock, she let her scaredy filly self take over and clung to Pop as she started sniffling, tears forming in her eyes.

The gun trembled in her teeth as Sprite inexpertly tried to aim at one of the bigger geckos, hopeful that maybe the fact that it was so large would increase her chance of hitting it. Then again, with her never having done this before, she probably couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. At least she had plenty of time to prepare herself since Pop was busy explaining her plan and waiting for the perfect moment to strike, but all of the waiting and timing only made her feel more nervous. You know how in those movies with a huge standoff there's always the new guy who fires the first shot because he's so inexperienced and edgy? Well, that would have been Sprite if Pop hadn't fired when she did. Sprite found herself breathing a little heavily, the scaredy filly side of her showing a little. This could all go horribly wro- oh sweet Chrysalis, okay, explosions going off, start shooting! First having to suppress the urge to run and hide she began firing sporadically, missing most of the time but dealing a little damage with her spraying and praying. AND NOW THEY WERE BREATHING FIRE! Sprite whimpered a little in fright, scampering backwards before tripping and falling on her back hard. The wind was knocked from her lungs, leaving vulnerable and gasping on the ground in front of the advancing monsters as the other kids tried to fall back. It was now that Sprite kept praying, though she had to try and get her breath back before the spraying resumed. There was precious little time for that however, as one of the advancing spiky beasts turned it's attention to the downed filly and promptly ran at her full speed, spewing flames. In a panic she kicked at the dirt desperately to squirm away while pulling the trigger in her mouth. *click* ...... *click**click***click**clickclickclickclickclick* A muffled shriek came from behind the gun as she stared on paralyzed in fear, hearing the others move even further away with the other geckos chasing them. At least this death might be easier for Poppy to take than the fact that her new friend was also somewhat of a monster.

O deary dear, those were the geckos they'd have to fight? They made Sprite all sorts of nervous, before she had thought they'd be the smaller ones that you usually saw, but these things? They could probably do some serious damage. Perhaps now was the time to be a voice of reason, talk Pops out of this craziness. They'd come pretty far, and to trek back with nothing to show for it would be a little more than disappointing. Besides, the Crusaders seemed to be relatively professional about this sort of stuff and well prepared. Sprite had overheard that thing yesterday about them being low on food anyways, so maybe this was more necessary than she had originally thought. Trying to bolster her best friends confidence she stepped up to her side, taking the gun out of her mouth this time before speaking. "Yeah, you guys take out raiders and stuff, right? How much worse can these things be. Look, they even have less spikes!" Sprite certainly seemed to be a little more confident than she'd been, a mixture of Pop's unrelenting friendliness and the little emotional nip Sprite had taken last night. Or maybe it was just an act to help out Pop.

The mention of the omellettes and their fabled deliciousness again made Sprite drool over her newly acquired firearm. She couldn't deny, even with all of these doubts running through her mind, that these omellettes would probably be worth it. She was a little kid, how was she supposed to resist the temptation of an unforgettable breakfast at the expense of danger and possible physical harm? It was the Wastelands, and luxuries like this were few and far between, at least for an isolated changeling filly. The stealthy travel part was easy fir Sprite, She knew all about steering clear of roads and sticking to the shadows. Over dunes of dirt and sand and around piles of rubble they scampered, everypony knowing where they were going except for Sprite. How far was this den anyways? It would be hard to carry very many eggs back to Chapel at this point. "Popsh, how for ish thish plasche?" Sprite awkwardly mumbled out from behind a gun handle.

It was reassuring how serious everypony became once the preparations began. It gave Sprite the feeling that all these guys were sort of old pros at this, getting in and getting out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Of course then there was Pops with her grenade launcher and sporatic attitude, but Sprite had faith that she was just as skilled if not more so than the others here (probably a better shot than Cyclops....)This time she would be able to help too, now that the gun safety tutorial was out of the way and she was taking the thing from Pops and gripping it in her teeth. Trying to keep her cool like all the rest she adopted a serious expression, determined to do something for the kids for once instead of sit off to the sidelines. Giving a quick nod Sprite stuck right by Pops' side, trying to bolster her newly gained confidence. She tried telling herself she wasn't going to hide or run, that this time she'd act differently. Maybe it was just her trying to make it up to both herself and the ponies of Chapel for what she had done, what she was going to do? Her guilt had overwhelmed her thoughts before she had forced it out and gone to bed, but she could feel it creeping back...

Backing out wasn't really an option at this point, Sprite had already committed her support to Pops and leaving the party now certainly wouldn't help her with the others. She hadn't done anything to gain their respect or acceptance even, just went on one scavving run and didn't really help that much. She hadn't even played hoofball with the others! At this rate she was doing a pretty crappy job of gaining their trust and friendship. Sprite was surprised that Pops had started to like her with how all of this was going, though Sprite certainly wasn't going to argue with the compassionate filly's attitude. All that didn't quite matter right now though, the hunt was on! Their little expedition now had 7 little kids, all ready to do some egg stealing for the sake of a delicious and nutritious breakfast. Sprite was following along, Sticking right by Pops' side as they went on their way through the series of tunnels and hidden pathways. "Um... Pops? I don't have a gun..."

Guns? Sprite wasn't very good with guns, she had stayed away from them on purpose her entire time out on the wastelands. Last time she had used one... was... never pretty much. But She'd hate to be a useless tag along like she had last time, so perhaps picking one up and pointing the shooty end at those "Easy Peasy" Gecks wouldn't be out of her skill range (or at least that's what she'd tell Pops). So, standing by her friend as Pops got to convincing, Sprite smiled a little at her and the other foals. "Yeah... I mean, you guys have done stuff like this before... right?" She piped up, nervously glancing at the boy who only had one eye and thinking to herself that perhaps they had, and perhaps it hadn't gone as smoothly as they had wanted.