Fallout Equestria: Wasteland's Beauty.

by D1scordant

Twenty

Chapter Twenty
“Would you kindly.”

We sat at a one of the outdoor tables at Shady Dunes’ restaurant, Brass Lantern’s Noodles and Shakes. Lead glanced around nervously, so did I. This was a little awkward.

As if reading my mind, Lead broke the silence.

“Well, this isn’t awkward at all,” he said smiling sheepishly.

“yeah...” I replied with a chuckle,”Totally not.”

With a sigh, he asked me about my stable. I shrugged.

“I don’t know, aren’t all stables the same?”

Lead shook his head

“No, almost every stable had some kind of social experiment going on in it.”

“Really?” I asked,”that’s messed up. As far as Stable-Tec knew we were the last of ponykind and they ran experiments on us!”

“Yep.” He replied, "My stable, sixty-six, was divided between the warden and their guards, and the descendants of the prisoners that were put in there. The Blues and Greys. The Blues ran the administrative jobs and the Greys did all the other work.”

“Just because somepony’s parents were bad, dosen’t mean they are.”

“That’s the funny part, most of the Greys were good ponies, and the Blues were mostly just assholes. After a while though, there was a big fight and we broke the water talisman. Everypony had to leave, and we all went our separate ways.”

After he finished, a robot pony walked up to our table. It was basically shaped like a pony, except it had a domed metal head with a glass ‘face’. Behind It’s face, dozens of gears turned, lit by a series of blinking red lights. It also had a chef’s hat.

The mechanical pony whirred.

“Nani-ni shimasu-ka?” the robot asked, it’s voice tinny and artificial.

“What?”

Brass Lantern, the brass-colored unicorn mare standing behind the counter, face hoofed, then walked up to our table.

“Sorry about that, I thought got the voice module working right. Anyway, what would you two like?”

“My usual.” Lead replied

Brass nodded, “One big noodle bowl, and a Sparkle~Cola,” She turned towards me,”And you?”

“I’ll take the same.”

“I’ll have that right out,” she said grinning, then she walked back to the counter, stepping around the armored griffon that had landed nearby. She looked around for a second, then strode towards the table.

“I hear you’re the buck to see about guns in this little town.”

Lead turned towards the griffon and nodded

“Depends, what company you with?”

“Moira’s,” the griffon replied gruffly.

With a pause, Lead glanced at me, then back at the black armored mercenary, then spoke.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll meet you at my store in an hour or so, and we’ll talk business.”

The griffon nodded. “That’ll work for me.”

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I was sitting in the hotel’s lobby staring out the window, feeling kind of warm and fuzzy. I glanced to my left where Chip sat at the table, tinkering with his battle-saddle’s minigun. He looked up with a grin, then returned to his work. The small metal bell over the door chimed. I turned at the sound, as a griffon walked into the building. This wasn’t the same one from earlier, he had light grey feathers covering his chest and head, with burnt orange feathers covering his wings.

Chip looked up at the new arrival, then grinned.

“Been a while, Red Wing.”

The griffon’s beak twisted into a smirk.

“Finally decided to settle down, I see.”

“Nah, Ah’m just taking a break,” the large buck replied with a chuckle,”So, what bring y’all here?”

“Two things,” Red Wing replied, holding two of his talons up,”The first thing is, the boss heard about a pre-war military installation off the coast, and the other, she’s looking for some to do a job for her.”

“What’s the job?”

The griffon shrugged.

“Hell if I know. You’d have to talk to her about it. You know how Moira operates”

“Eeyup," Chip said, nodding,”Same way every other Grimfeathers 'fore her has.”

“So...”

“Ah’ll talk with mah friends an’ see what they say. She still at the Overwatch?”

Red Wing nodded, and turned to leave. Before he walked out the door, he turned.

“See ya 'round, Chip.”

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After some debate, Chip had convinced us that helping Moira’s Talons, was a good idea. Lead, had instantly sided with Chip, Winter and I were, however, skeptical about this job. But, he had finally persuaded us to go, saying that Moira was a good person, for a mercenary anyway.

The trip to the talons headquarters, the Overwatch, was relatively uneventful. The worst we had run into was a nest of radroaches. It turns out, miniguns are stupidly over powered against the things. Chip still managed to get bit somehow, and I still had radroach in my mane. Goddesses, if I could have one day without getting something disgusting in my mane.

The Overwatch was a T-shaped piece of highway just east of the ruins of Las Pegasus. On top of the overpass, the griffons had built several metal structures scavenged from several huge sky chariots. Almost a dozen of the black armored mercenaries filled the sky above the base, watching for potential threats. one of them broke off, and flew towards us.

With a hard flap of his wings, he stopped and hovered in front of us. He was a larger griffon, fully encased in some kind of black carapace-like armor with an orange visor.

“State your business, ponies.”

Chip spoke.

“Red Wing sent us. He says Moira has a job we can help with. Ah reckon She’ll wanna see us.”

“Right,” the griffon nodded.”Follow me. Don’t try anything.”

Without a word we followed the hovering griffon towards the overpass, then stepped into the large elevator that lead to the Talon’s base. At the top, a middle aged female griffon stood, a huge rifle slung under her right wing. Moira Grimfeathers.

She had almost white feathers covering her body, as well as dozens of pale scars. The right side of her face had been burned, half her beak twisted into a permanent smile. She glared at Chip, then spoke.

“You,” she pointed a talon at the buck.

“Howdy, Moira,” Chip said warmly,”It’s nice to see you too.”

The griffon chuckled.

“Yeah, it isn’t. Go away before I shoot you.”

“Listen, Moira, ah’m just here for the job ya’ll have, this is just business.”

“Fine.”

Author's Note:

sorry about being later than I promised

Comments

[D1scordant]

8196881 don't worry I definitely will not take quite as long from now on.