Max was walking through a rocky gorge, her blue and yellow jumpsuit already stained and rumpled from a few days hard walking and sleeping with no shelter. Her eyes darted around nervously; there were red bars on her Eyes Sparkle Forwards, but she couldn't see anypony... "H-Hello? Is anypony there?" She called out, stopping for a moment to see if she could hear anything. Her ears perked up at the sudden sound of rocks falling from the ridge above her, and she readied her 10mm pistol, the weapon shaking unsteadily in her telekinetic grasp. "I don't want any trouble!" She shouted, looking up at the ridge. "Well you done found it anyway, aint'cha?" Rasped the ragged looking pony who appeared at the edge. He almost looked like a shipwreck survivor, bedraggled and wearing pieced together clothing, only, shipwreck survivors didn't tend to carry hunting rifles... "Look what we got here lads!" He croaked, his voice filled with contempt and loathing, "One of those cowards from one o' them fancy Stables!" He wasn't alone; as he called out, four similarly angry and armed-looking ponies gathered around him. Max looked at them all and gulped, before diving for cover behind some rocks as the gunfire started.
Ace woke up......in blackness (is...is it dark) he thought standing up carfuly his head pounded he turned his head left and right and saw some light off to one side (no....im in a cave....or tunnel) he then slowly made his way to the entrance once her got there he almost collapes with the effort "ugh....my head" he mumbled to himself as he looked around at the gorge he was in as ace stood there he remembered he had some medical training cause he was a......was a......ugh....somepony that shoots ponies for a cause.....Solder! he was a solder he then took out all his gear looking for anything that might help him he had a sword a sniper a 44 magnum several kinds of bullets but few for the guns he had a black duster he kept on his body and a medical kit ace carefuly opened the medical kit to find that he only had med X (it will have to do) he thought as he used one and started to put his stuff back then her heard gunshots and dropped to the floor out of instinct (what the heck) he thought as he inched his was forward to the edge to see what was going on
Max hid behind the rocks, bullets smacking into the dirt around her and ricocheting off the stone. After a moment, the bullets seemed to stop. She peeked her head out, only to lose the tip of her ear. "Arrrgh!" She cried, falling down and crawling back into cover. As she felt her ear and saw her hoof covered in blood, she could hear the ponies laughing and hollering. Eyes watering from the pain, she employed a simple healing spell; the wound wasn't bad, but she was unused to performing her healing magic on herself. Once it was healed, she remembered the firearms training she'd received in the Stable; her best bet was... V.A.T.S! She'd forgotten about V.A.T.S! After fiddling with her pipbuck, she popped back up and managed to tag one of the ponies a few times with the slow-motion goodness of V.A.T.S. When it ran out, she saw the pony fall, and ducked back down. One down, four to go!
Ace pulled out his sniper and took aim as he let his instinks took over he had done this so many times before that it was natural (breath in) *BAM BAM* (breath out) one of the ponies fell his boddy being thrown off the cliff side by the force of the impact to his heart and head
Max peeked over the rocks again, and saw one of the ponies fall. She looked at her gun. She hadn't been firing, had she? "Ricochet?" She muttered to herself, in confusion. She shrugged and popped up again, ready to fire; *CLICK* *CLICK* Crap! She was out of bullets! She dropped down again, fumbling with the gun, trying to get the magazine out. She really wished she'd spent more time at the firing range now...
two more shots rang out and a pony fell leaving on more left *BAM Click* (dang...so this is a five shot) he thought as the last pony fell
Another one? She thought to herself. Max had managed to reload the gun by this point, and was just taking aim on the pony when she fell. She stood up cautiously and looked around. Noticing another pony with a black duster and a big rifle, she aimed her gun at him instead, taking no chances. "Who are you?" She called out, standing about thirty feet away from him.
ace lifted his rifle and put it away (save a pony...get aimed at said pony.......wait....what is my name?) he thought "um.....im not sure" he said slowly making his way down the cliff
"Hey! Stop right there mister! I know how to use this thing!" She yelled, hoping he hadn't seen her fumbling attempts in the firefight. His bar wasn't red on her E.S.F, but she wasn't taking any chances... Now that he was closer, she noticed something glittering against his chest; dogtags! "You don't know your own name? What do those say?" She demanded, motioning at the tags.
"huh?" he said before looking down and reading the tags "ace.....my name is ace" he said then let the tags go and let them hang around his neck once more "thats a lot of blood....you ok?" he said seeing the drying blood on her ear and side of her face as he kept walking towards her
"What?" Max frowned and looked at the blood on her jumpsuit. "Oh, yeah; I'm fine. I fixed it." She looked back and noticed Ace was still moving towards her. "Hey! Would you stand still!" She repeated, desperately. It was one thing shooting ponies who where shooting at her, but she wasn't sure she could shoot somepony just standing there...
"you didnt cock the gun" ace said as he got to her and sat down watching her "so you cant shoot me even if you wanted to"
"I didn't wha?" She frowned and looked a the gun. She pointed it at a rock and pulled the trigger. *CLICK!* She blushed and put the weapon back in it's holster. "Er... I could tell you weren't a threat anyway..." She muttered. "So what are you doing out here? Are you a soldier or something?" She asked. He was the first pony she'd come across out here who hadn't tried to shoot her, and she still knew next to nothing about the state Equestria was in now...
ace opened his mouth but closed it thinking "im not really sure i think im a solder" he said as he turned his head away from her relieving a gash in the back of his head where he was it my something blunt
"We'll that might explain why you can't remember," Max said, grimacing at the sight of the wound. She thought for a moment, then sighed; this pony seemed to be telling the truth, and he had probably saved her life, so.... "Just, hold still a moment," She said, approaching him and gently putting her hoof on his shoulder. She inspected the would more closely; it was still pretty fresh, and hadn't had the chance to get infected yet. She closed it up and healed it over pretty easily using a couple of medical spells, then sat in front of him. "Okay, that's the external injury healed, but I just want to make sure you haven't sustained any brain damage. Follow my hoof with your eyes." She proceeded to test his vision tracking and basic cognitive functions. He seemed to check out.
"what are you-"he started as she got on him but once he realized she was healing him he calmed down and let her work he even did the silly test "you done yet" he asked sitting there
"I am." She said, nodding and sitting back. "I can't speak for your higher functions, like memory or personality, but your basic brain functions seem fine. You've taken a blow to the back of the head, probably in the last few hours, a day at most; do you remember anything about that?"
he shook his head "no...i just remember waking up in a cave.....every thing else is fuzzy" he said after a few seconds he frowned at her "whats your name"
