Fallout Equestria: Wasteland's Beauty.

by D1scordant

Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-one
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse”

“Here’s the deal,” The griffon spoke, as she lit the cigarette dangling out of her beak, “I sent seven of my talons to the trading post down near Pinkie World; I haven’t heard back from them.”

She paused, as she exhaled a ring of smoke, “I need someone to go there, figure out what the situation is, then come back. Simple.”

Chip nodded, then Moira glanced towards me.

“I want her to stay here,” she said, pointing a talon in my direction, “as insurance.”

The large buck shook his head, “Tain’t happin’, Moira, Mah word’s all the insurance ya’ll need.”

He paused, then added with a raised eyebrow, “Unless you’d rather fly there yourself.”

The griffon’s beak twisted into half a scowl.

“Fuck you.”

“So, that a 'yes’?”

“No, it’s...” Moira said with a sigh, “Fine, you have yourself a job.”

She paused

“Now get lost.”
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We were headed south following a small path worn into the rising crags between the Las Pegasus ruins, and the San Palomino Desert. I glanced back briefly at the blackened skyscrapers jutting from the ground like daggers. I tried to imagine life before the war. I frowned, it was a depressing thought.

We’d been walking for about an hour when I tripped and fell on my face. Stupid hooves, now my head was killing me.

Winter look towards me with concern, then horror.

“What?”

“You have a piece of metal embedded in your skull,” She replied.

What... Oh, goddesses, get it out!

“Easy, darling.” She said, “I’ll get it out.”

She turned in Lead’s direction.

“Lead, I need alcohol, bandages, and med-ex,” She said, “and if you have one, a memory orb.”

“Got it,” He said, rummaging through his saddlebags.

“Memory orb?” I said, not sure how one would help.

“memory orbs can be used as anesthetics.” Lead replied, as he drew it and a bottle of Wild Pegasus from his saddlebags, ”on unicorns at least.”

“What’s on it?” I said.

Lead shrugged as I casually levitated the orb. As soon as my magic touched it, the world disappeared and I was standing in front of a mirror. Not me, a grey earth pony mare wearing a crown like device on her head. Okay, no horn, this was new. At least it wasn’t a buck. That would just be too wrong.

The mare looked at the mirror blankly, then spoke.

“Pinkie Pie, it’s your sister, Maud.”

She paused with a slow blink.

“I heard a rumor,” She continued in a slow, almost monotone voice, “Pinkie, if you are using those zebra chems, you need to stop.”

She paused again, the slightest worried look appearing on her face.

“I heard about the fight you had with Twilight, your friends are important, don’t loose them.”

She shifted with a little cough.

“I’m going to Hoofington soon. Mr Horse needs my expertise on mineralogy. See you soon, Pinkie.”

With that, the world returned in an explosion of pain. This was worse than the metal pipe Chit had pulled from my foreleg.

“Memory orb, now!” Winter snapped as I felt something touch my horn. I grabbed onto it with my magic and reentered Maud’s memory.

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I sat against a rock, my head aching from Winter’s impromptu surgery. Laying nearby was a pencil sized steel rod, half coated in dried blood. My blood.

“You are a very lucky mare, Diamond,” Winter said with a frustrated sigh, “Do you know how close that piece of metal came to damaging your brain?”

“Thank you,” I replied lamely.

Winter sighed, then smiled.

“We almost lost you.”

I glanced down at my hooves, “I’m sorry.”

Winter wrapped her forelegs around me in a hug. When she finished, she trotted over to a nearby sky carriage Chip was searching.

“Is my girl okay?” Lead spoke from my right, setting a half empty bottle next to me.

I nodded, grasping the bottle in a field of magic. I levitated it to my mouth and took a long pull.

“As okay as you can be in the Equestrian wasteland,” I said, “Stupid way to die.”

“Falling off a bridge would be worse,” he replied with a chuckle.

He frowned.

“Diamond, I can’t lose you,” he said, sitting down next to me, “I... I don’t know if I... I think you’re the only thing holding me together.”

He looked away with a sad chuckle.

“look at me acting like an angsty idiot.”

I turned his head toward me with my hooves.

“I don’t deserve somepony like you, Diamond.”

I rolled my eyes, then kissed him. “Don’t start having an existential crisis on me, Lead. I don’t need to see it again. You’re a good pony.”

He nodded, then grinned, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Thanks.”

I heard a deep muffled voice, then winter spoke from the direction of the sky carriage.

“Chip.” She said with a disapproving tone, “None of us can fly.”

“wy cun puf tweds on it,” He replied around the wrench stuck in his mouth. He spat the wrench out, then repeated, “Ah can put treads on it.”

Winter frowned.

“Some armor, a magical energy turret,” he continued thoughtfully, “An’ we’d have a tank, Winter. A tank!”

“Chip, darling, we do not need a tank. We have you.”

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We where in a narrow canyon, rocky crags climbing up on either side. At he far side, there was a small metal shack blocking the path. A pair of yellowed eyes stared at us from the doorway of the structure. As we moved closer, a filthy red unicorn stepped out and trotted towards us. She was unarmed, and grinning warmly, and Goddesses, she reeked.

“Hello” she spoke, her voice gruff like a ghoul’s, “How are you?”

She smiled, revealing her teeth. They had been sharpened!

“Soup’s on everypony!”

Comments

[nightflyer]

very short and vague but not bad

[Doomande]

9173040
I would not say that I pre-read, I do just comment on the stuff that I read on