//------------------------------// // Confrontation and Employment // Story: The Long Road Home // by The Midnight Stalker //------------------------------// The Long Road Home By The Midnight Stalker (Remember I'm Watching You) This is my first FoE side fic. I've been inspired by Kkat and my friend Cascadejackal. Kudos to you, My Friend. Lonesome looked between the two two mares in front of him. One was clearly Pissed and the other was mollified at the sight of the other. He did everything in his power not to laugh at the scene. Mostly so he didn't anger the older mare. He didn't want to start off on her bad side after all. He saw that Cinnamon was clearly terrified her mothers possible reaction. After all you didn't know how she'd react. It stayed like this till Cinnamon Decided to speak. " Sorry Mom I didn't mean to worry you, I just got lost. Please don't be mad at me." Her Mother took a second herself before she responded. " I know that Cinnamon, I just don't like it when you go off like that to start with, but this time you were gone over a week and a half." She got up and went over toCinnamon and gave her a hug. " How did you get lost anyways? I thought you were with some friends?" " I was but i got separated from them..." The mare stared at her daughter, wanting her to go on." Okay... I wondered off. I thought I saw something and I wanted to go see what it was. Turns out it was an old wagon. So I went back to get everypony and tell them to help get it. I figured it could be used to help haul some stuff back to town. But when i got there they were all gone. Their stuff was all there, but they were gone. I sat there for awhile hoping they'd come back." " And they never did. Why the Hell didn't you come straight back to town then? You know better than to stay out there!" "I did! I swear Mom! I just got lost on the way back." She said. Though with a shaky voice. "Really? I swear that your hopeless sometimes. How hard is it to find this place? All you gotta do is find the city limit sign. It's like a damn billboard." "Sorry Mom, It was dark or something I guess. I really don't know." "Huh. What ever. Now who is this? He better be important, because I've got quite the mess to fix because of you going missing like that!" "Um.. well He kind of save me I guess....." "Save you?" She was clearly skeptical. " How?" "Well He found me out wandering a couple days away from town and drug me along." "I see. And how did that happen? Knowing you ya probably just followed him till he saw you. Didn't you?" "Well yes." "And I suppose you want to me to think you or something." She said to Lonesome, Whom was unaware he was being spoken to."And I guess you'll want a favor as well." It took Lonesome a minute to realize he was being spoken to, because he'd zoned out and was thinking about other things while Cinnamon and her Mother were speaking. "Huh? Sorry I was thinking." " A bit scatterbrained I see. Oh well. I said that you're probably thinking that your gonna get a favor or something. Isn't that right?" Lonesome raised his eyebrow and gave a little smirk. Because with that phrase Lonesome knew she'd just walked into the exact trap he'd hoped she would. She could've let Cinnamon pay off her debt to him, but now she had to do it for her. She just didn't know it yet. "Yes actually. I'm glad you brought it up instead of me." The mare in front of him clearly wasn't enthused at what he'd just said. "What exactly do you mean? I meant I guess I could give you some supplies or maybe some caps..." "No. I'm not looking for any money. I've got plenty of that. And I can get my own supplies. Right now what I really need is a bit of help." " Depends. What kind of help? I mean I gotta know why you're even out here. I just don't help anyone." 'I should've known it wouldn't that easy. ' He said to himself. Then he Spoke up. "I'm looking for a Gadget of sorts. I'm not really sure what it is or even what it does. All I know is I was hired to find it. I've followed a few leads down and every thing I've found seems to say it's located in some ruins not to far from here. Now I'm now dumb enough to go in there by myself, I was hoping to find somepony to go in there with me, some backup so to say. But finding your daughter was just the break I needed. I really didn't know just how important she was till she said something about you. Otherwise I would've simply dumped her at the edge of town." The mayor appeared to grimace at the thought of him just dumping her daughter in any old section of town. Hopefully by now she knew that he meant business "I see. Look I get it now. You're simply looking out for Numero Uno. Helping out my girl here was just your good deed for the year. You might not have helped her if you haven't been going the same way...or if she hadn't been stalking you. Just tell me what exactly it is you want so I can get you the hell out of town." The trap had sprung and now she felt obligated to help him. Perfect he thought. " Good. I simply need to find a pony crazy enough to go into those ruins for me. While you don't need to know the detials of what's going on they do, so when you find a pony or whatever who's willing to do it just send them to me. Okay. I'll give them all the details they'll need to get the job done.That's all I'm asking. And don't worry if you can't come through I can always find another way to collect that favor." "O- Of course. I'd never cheat anyone. I'm sure with all the crazy folk in town I can find someone." Clearly that last statement unnerved her a bit. Now to seal the deal "By the way. Names, Lonesome. If were going to be working together we need names. " Whatever. Call me Goldenrod. Don't let the name fool ya', being mayor isn't easy and I'm good at what I do. So don't cross me. And were not working together. I'm just trying to get riff-raff like you out of my town. Folks live here 'cuz I keep scum like you out." " Pleased to meet you to. I hope you don't mind me saying that I am glad this has gone a lot better than expected." " I'm not. This isn't the first time I've done an odd favor. Just go before I decide to kill you. And Cinnamon?" " Yes Mother?" " Please be kind and help our new acquaintance find a place to stay, I'd rather be able to keep track of him. Now go, I need to get to work. And find a pony crazy enough to go in those old ruins." " Alright." ______________________________________________________________________ " So, what do you think of my mom? I mean she's tough, but knows how to get the job done. That's why the town likes her. If she says jump they strap a rocket on 'em and blast off" " That's nice. I could really care less, so as long as she keeps her promise to help me. If she does manage to find a pony crazy enough to go in those ruins for me I'll be happy. That's all a care about." " Well if you don't like her just say so. Anyway it'll probably be a few weeks before she can find anyone to do it. Every once in awhile a few crazies come through, but it's been quite a long time since anypony, or anything, has tried to make a run for the center of the ruins. We all know if you made it there and back you'd be rich. But we also know you'd have to be nearly suicidal to go." " I'll wait as long as I need. In the mean time i need to find something to do. Otherwise I might so stir-crazy. And you don't want to see that." " Ewkay. If you say so. I guess someone around here has something that need to be done. With the expansion going on there's almost always some sort of work. Buildings being torn down and others going up and all that. More ponies are showing up in town all the time so maybe you could help one of them get moved in." " As tempting as all that sounds none of it's not really in my line of work. I prefer something with a lot of action. I mostly work as a freelance retrieval specialist. Sometime I take on a kill for hire type job, but not very often. So anything like that I might be interested in." " Well Um... I don't know about anything like that." She was clearly a bit Intimidated. He noticed her change to subject. "How about I just show you where mom wants you stay while you're here in town?" "Sounds good to me." And then they took off into town. Lonesome noted many of the sights and sounds of the town as Cinnamon lead him through. Down one street and up the next. It was crazy. Everywhere you looked there were ponies moving and bustling about. Some going home others heading off to work or to go out and have a good time. As he looked around he noticed that the buildings were getting a bit closer together as He and Cinnamon went. It was obvious that they were near the center of the old working class district. It was at that point that Cinnamon stopped. He looked up and stared at the building in front of him. They entered the front of the building and looked around. The interior had clearly been updated at some point. While it wasn't lavish it was a lot better than the typical appearance of most building you saw in The Wasteland. The walls had been freshly painted light green with the trim along the floors an off-white. Almost yellow really, but not quite. After taking another minute to examine the lobby Cinnamon motioned towards the desk. Getting the hint Lonesome followed her up to it. When they approached the desk the clerk, A pale green unicorn, looked up at them and ask what they wanted. " Excuse me, but are you going to tell me what you need or are you going to continue staring at the walls. If you are please move out of the way at least. You're blocking other customers from getting to the desk." "Sorry about my friend. He's new in town. Never been anywhere with this many ponies." "I don't care! Now either tell me what you want or leave. If you don't I'll have to get security to remove the both of you." Lonesome scoffed at the thought of what likely passed as security around here. He was about to say so when Cinnamon told off the desk clerk. " Well Sir, my Mother The Mayor requests that this pony behind me to have lodging at your fine establishment. He just recently saved my life and she currently owes him a debt of gratitude on my behalf. So please be kind and give him a room now." "The nerve." "Whatever. Just give him a room. Before either him or I have to get unpleasant." While the clerk clearly wasn't bemused he handed over a key to a room on the second floor. Room 34. The clerk looked Cinnamon dead in the eye. "You're mother clearly didn't do enough to teach you proper manners." Then he turned to speak to Lonesome. "If I were you good sir I'd not get involved with her or her mother. They're bad new. There is a reason Miss Goldenrod is the mayor." Lonesome just started chuckling. "Don't worry about. I've handled worse than a couple of admitantly formidable mares. And as for your security I'm sure I could've handled them as well." Soon He and Cinnamon were upstairs looking at His new room. It wasn't mush to look at. It was glaringly obvious the clerk had given him the worst room in the entire place. Not that it bothered Lonesome any. He was laying on the bed and Cinnamon was pacing in circles. "Well at least it's a room, right Lonesome?" "Yeah. For once I agree with ya runt. I've defiantly stayed in worse. It'll do me fine. Really It's better than my own place back at The Canyon." The room was small and cramped, but it had a half decent bed. And a nightstand. "Really? you must not stay there a lot then." "Not really. I'm normally out looking for one thing or another." "Must be awfull moving around all the time like that. At least I'd think it would be." "I't's not bad. Plus it keeps me from making any friends. Don't look at me that way. In my line of work friends are a liability." "Okay. I guess I need to go now. Mom's probably gonna want me to cook supper tonight. It might be my first night back in town, but It's still no excuse." He the watched as she started towards the door, but he got up from the bed and stopped her. "Not yet. I want to talk about what happened down in the lobby.That's the first time I've seen you act like that." "Huh? W-w-hy do you care? You barley even know me." "Well to be frank you're partly correct. We've only known each other just a few days, but I have a feeling that since I'm stayin' in town for a bit that I'm going to be seeing you around. It only makes sense." "So......" "If you're going to be around me I want to know about any negative Behavioral traits that might be of use to me. And don't worry. I plan on getting around having a chat like this with anyone I deem important" "....." "Well speak up." "I really don't know. I just have outbursts like that sometimes. Normally I can keep them under control, but every so often I just explode like that. Mom says it's a phycological something or another, but I know she's saying it's something to do with my brian..... I was hoping it wouldn't happen around you...or anyone else new I meet." He really didn't know what to say. He didn't exposit that. He was a complete loss as what to do. He pretty much lost any sympathy for anyone a long time ago, so that wasn't an option. So how to go about this? He really didn't know at all.....Then he noticed his silence was worrying her. Think! Got It! " Huh. didn't see that coming. Don't worry, I've dealt with far worse. Hell half the folks I meet are either drunk or So damn paranoid they'd shoot themselves for trespassing." She smiled at that. "Really?" "Yes. Now if you're going to be around me I want you to know that I am not to be disturbed at night, or whenever I'm in a foul mood. Otherwise you'll be sorry. Now you need to get back to your mothers house." Cinnamon looked at him briefly before departing. She was clearly unnerved by their conversation, not that it was any of his concern. Right now he just wanted to relax, but it was too early in the day for that yet. There was his need for employment, if not for the caps then for the distraction it would offer. Surely there was something for him in a growing town like this? After all, somepony, somewhere, had to have a grudge that needed settling or something got lost, or they had something that needed to be... acquired, through less-than-legal channels. Or was this really that nice of a town the ponies didn't do that? He didn't believe it for a second. He was sure that, even before everything went to hell, ponies were just like they were today. They may not have realized it, but if a race can wage war then somewhere in there is a naturally deceptive, dangerous urge. He just lay there like that until it was late. He was a natural cynic. Everything in his life had taught him that good things didn't last. Eventually, tragedy would strike and then you'd lose everything.