Chapter 5: Repercussions
Fallout Equestria: Black Sky
Chapter 5: Repercussions

My day used to consist of me getting up, going to work, coming back, reading, and then going to bed. That's the way it was less than a week ago. Now I was being hunted down by a group called the Rusty Hooks because I went and ruined one of their bases with a high speed freight train. Funny how things can change.

The seven heavily armed ponies spread out and began their search as their apparent leader climbed up onto the bar and began to address everypony in the room. "We're after the ponies responsible for slaughtering our boys at the freight yard" he said as he scanned the room "one with an orange mane and blue coat and one changeling" he yelled before jumping down from the bar. Everypony in the room had faces that ranged from annoyed to terrified. I for one was part of the terrified crowd as I slumped down in the booth.

Right before one of the searching ponies caught sight of me Skitters pulled me and Butterscotch under the table and put his hoof over my mouth. "I have an idea" he whispered as a green glow rapidly swept across his body. As he adopted his new look I could have sworn I was looking in a mirror. He had my mane, coat, eyes, and barding. Butterscotch looked about as confused as I was. "When I say when run out from under the table and go left" he whispered as he readied his rifle. I checked the clip for Argus to find it was full just as one of the search ponies walked over to check under the table.

"Now" he quietly shouted as he fired a round into the armored mares back leg.
The pony screamed out as Skitters pushed her aside and bolted out to the right. Almost simultaneously I ran out to the left. It didn't take long for the Rusty Hooks to take notice of the two of us running in our separate directions as they began firing at us with shotguns and assault rifles. Bar-goers ducked beneath the speeding rounds but I could hear more than a few grunts and screams as stray bullets slammed into a fair share of innocent ponies.

I tried not to dwell on the thought of everypony suffering at my expense as I wound through the tables throughout the bar trying to keep from being hit. I glanced over to see Skitters who was still posing as my doppelgänger slam the butt of his rifle into an armored ponies face. He was holding his own but he still had half the Rusty Hooks firing at him while the first one was clenching her leg and groaned in pain by our table as the other three continued trying to pin me down.

I turned with the mouth bit for Argus clenched in my teeth. I jumped into S.A.T.S. and targeted the nearest hostile ponies leg twice. I activated the program which sent one round through his ear and the other into his leg. He collapsed to the floor screaming. "my ear! I got shot in the ear" he cried out. If I were him I'd be more worried about the leg but I didn't really have any experience on which hurt more having only been shot once in the side.
I kicked a table onto it's side and ducked behind it as the leader of the angry bunch opened up with his shotgun. The buckshot sent chunks of table flying. I tried to figure out where he was with my E.F.S. but there were too many amber colored friendly bars moving around to pick out the few red ones that were shooting at me. Everypony around me had either ducked under tables and behind cover or were trying to escape the building.

Two ponies continued to fire into the table I was hunkered down behind with machine gun rounds and shotgun shells. When they stopped to reload I was able to fire off two shots but due to my lack of aim and the fact I was terrified both shots missed. I noted that I was down to one bullet as a grenade landed right beside me. Remembering what Skitters had told me the other day I quickly picked it up with my mouth, stepped out, and flung it back. It landed at the hooves of the machine gun wielding pony. I ducked back behind the table as the grenade exploded.

The stallion flew forward from the blast and crashed into my table. At this point the firing had stopped so I had to assume Skitters had taken care of the other three ponies. The other pony had ducked out of the way and was in the process of getting back up. I bolted out with Argus' mouth bit clenched in my teeth as I pressed the barrel to his head. "Don't move" I shouted at him through my teeth. Before I could disarm his Battle Saddle his head exploded which sent blood and bits of flesh in all directions including my face. The blood splattered against my face as I clenched my eyes shit. He collapsed onto the floor as a pool of blood collected where his head used to be. I looked up to see Butterscotch trotting over with a heavy looking pistol in her mouth. I released Argus and let the rifle fall into my hoof. "What the hell did you do that for" I yelled at her.

She rolled the stallion over and a knife clattered onto the floor. "He was about to stab you" she said firmly "then he was very likely going to kill you" she continued as she picked up the knife and setting the hefty blade in my hoof. I stared down at it before sliding it into my bag.

I looked around the bar. Everypony had either cleared out or was bleeding on the floor from all the stray bullets. There was no sign of Skitters who must have taken off somewhere. A thin layer of smoke had collected inside and the floor was partly covered with puddles of different liquids from alcohol to blood. The place smelled like somepony had thrown up in one of the Stable air vents....Don't ask me how I know that.

A mare was weeping over a limp stallion in the corner. I didn't get too close but I got the idea. A lot of ponies just got hurt because of me. There was no denying that as I leaned my head against the wall. When I looked up again Butterscotch was on her way out the door. "I'll go get Spearhead and somepony from the hospital" she said as she passed through the door.

I turned at the sound of a moan from behind me. Collapsed on the ground was the earth pony stallion I had shot in the ear. He had now focused his attention toward his leg which I had also shot and was starting to bleed quite a bit. As I trotted up to him he looked up into my eyes with a terrified expression on his face. "Help..." he said weakly trying to reach out "help...me".

I pressed my muzzle up to his and gave him the most pissed off face I could conjure up. "And why in the wide wide world of Equestria should I do that?!" I yelled at him which made him crawl away from me "seven ponies including you just stormed into a bar with zero regard for anypony but yourselves. Luna knows how many ponies you killed in the crossfire trying to hit me" I continued to shout at him as he crawled away from me as I drew closer. "So for your sake..." I yelled as he stared into my furious gaze "you'd better have a damn good reason for me not to shoot you in the head!"

Blood continued to pour from his leg as he sat up and faced me with terror in his eyes. Just as I was about to put a bullet between his eyes he spoke. "Honestly...I don't know" he said with a sigh as I eased myself "I've been with the Rusty Hooks for years...and I've done some things I'm not proud of" he explained as I tucked Argus back under my bag strap "I'm not going to beg for my life. You have no reason to help me."

If he was trying to guilt trip me it wasn't working but I reached into my bag and threw him the healing potion that Tourniquet had given me. Before he could drink it I stamped the ground next to him and got in his face again. "I am not helping you out of guilt" I said to him "I'm letting Spearhead deal with you so that you get what you deserve" I said before walking away slowly. I didn't believe he was a good pony but I also didn't believe death was what he deserved.

I continued walking through the bar glancing over the injured ponies that let out a whole choir of moans and grunts. It was distracting enough that I bumped right into Skitters who was standing in my path. He had changed back to his Golden Blaze disguise and was looking around the room. "Great...I'm gone and you ponies get all the action" he said in a sarcastic tone. I was about to smack him across the face when he winked at me. First I didn't understand but it quickly occurred to me that he was still trying to keep the whole changeling thing a secret.
I knew I'd have to deal with explaining this to Spearhead but first things first...I needed a sink to wash the blood off of me.

I didn't plan on it, but planning something and actually making the plan survive the first encounter with the enemy where two different things, more so when the enemy was Reality, I had made my way back out of the bathroom. Once the door closed I felt my legs wobble and my hooves felt cold, I barely made it to the sink before I felt everything in my gut force itself to escape.

I was aiming for the toilet, but everything that wanted out wouldn't wait that long. The acidic taste mixed with my drink really made gag, the smell didn't help matters, it was only when I was empty and I finished the dry heaving that I turned the water on to help the gunk go down the drain before I got back up and put some water in my mouth.

Washing it out I got a good look at myself again, and I saw somepony that wasn't me, she looked way too frazzled.

Her mane was unkempt with and looked like there was bits of blood somehow got into it and was clumping parts of it together, parts of her coat looked like a bruise was starting to form on her neck.

“Ughh, what have I gotten myself into?” I said to myself, I could see the eyes of a Pony that is just now getting over the shock, or going into it, I couldn't tell.

All I knew at that point that this sure wasn't something out of a Daring Do book, sure the later issues did tend to get a bit out there, but nothing as bad as this. “This is almost like it's out of a bad spin-off novel.” Much like Daring Do and the Golem of greed or something from the Beyond Equestria line of books.

I don't know how long I was in there but it seems that I was there for a bit, that's when the Bartender got my attention.

“You okay? You've been in here for a while.” The Unicorn from the bar before had shown up, she looked at me with a bit of concern, “Holy Celestia!”

“Wha?” I said as I looked down where she pointed, below me, it was then that I noticed the small pool of blood that was under me, it took me a few second before the situation finally hit me. I was bleeding. “Wha?” I said as the shock of the night's events finally started to take their toll and I pretty much blacked out.

It felt like I was in that black nothingness, floating with pinpricks of stars in a vast black ocean, I couldn't move, the only sound was my breathing and heart beat as I just floated. I felt constrained, held in, like I was wrapped as I just...existed for lack of a better word, the Moon came into view, rising bit by bit until it filled my view of everything, I couldn't stare away from it,
like it held me in it's trance.

“It's beautiful.” I said to myself looking at the warm glow.

“Thanks!” Wait, who said that? “I did.”

That's when the moon started to turn and soon revealed the face of a changeling most frightening goofiest smile to ever exist and I did the only thing I could do. I screamed to the top of my lungs.
“AGGGHHHH!!”

I shot up, giving a shout only to end up headbutting Skitters while got knocked back. He then fell back on his back losing his disguise for a second there before it reformed.

“Ow, why did you go and do that?” He said rubbing his forehead.

“Me? What about yourself? What was that anyway? Did you got and read my mind or something?” I too was rubbing my forehead.

“Sorry about that, you've been out for hours and I was getting worried, as for what I did it was less mind reading and more like mind feeling.”

“Wha...that doesn't make much sense.” I said to him as he got back up.

“Yeah, it's very hard to describe the trick, and not many of,” He looked around to see if anyone was listening before he came up close and whispered to me the rest. “us have this ability, it's pretty rare. I'll tell you more later.”

Just then Spearhead came by, “Well it's good to see you up and about.”

“Yeah, I guess the situation just got to me finally.” I said to him as he came into the room.

“That's good to hear,” He said, “Soon as you're on your hooves there's something I might need from you.”
“Oh, what is it?”

“Well, we kind of need you to help with that one bloke that survived,” Spearhead said, the look he was giving me was kind of cold, or at least I thought it was at the time. I couldn't tell what he was thinking but looking back I kind of can guess what he was going over wasn't something he was liking.

“The town kind of wants to string him up in place of the others that shot up the bar, but he's barely a colt going on to a stallion, and I really don't like the talk around town.”

Yeah, It wasn't looking good, but I'm not sure I should, but then it kind of hit me, the pony said he had been with the rusty hooks for years, and he's barely old enough to be considered a stallion? I had a rather sick feeling in my stomach that second, however I held it down because the implication alone would make me kind of get sick and I was already feeling faint from the blood loss.

“Well, what do you want me do about it?” I said a good bit of denial in my heart and head trying to stomach what I was thinking about. “Shouldn't he pay for his crimes?”

“Maybe so, but I can't bring myself to let that happen, plus there's also the threat that the other survivors of the gang poses,” Spearhead said. Skitters still in his 'Golden Blaze' form at this point spoke up.

“You don't mean Flayer, please tell me she's not here!” Skitters nearly shouted, the fear in his eyes completely exposed.

“Uh, who's Flayer?” I asked raising my right hoof to get their attention. Spearhead looked to me, he was almost looking at me with either pity or jealousy, most likely it was both given just how much he knew about the tales of this pony.

“Flayer Claws, she's a lieutenant in the Rusty Hooks, there's tales of her being a rather nasty enforcer for the gang as well as a lieutenant, anyone that's seen her and lived only did so because she needed to send a message. I've personally had the misfortune of meeting her, I saw her curse somepony with a spell that caused them to slowly kill themselves, I can only wish I won't have to see it again. Her only saving grace is that she keeps to her word, but how she interprets it is another matter, but it's the only reason I'm still standing.” Spearhead said, his face going a bit pale at what that encounter was like, I am glad I wouldn't have to live it, I just had to live something just as bad later down the line.

Skitters looked like he was about to lose it. “BUT IS SHE HERE?!”
Spearhead at least looked at bit relieved at this point,

“No, according to the prisoner, she's still at least two days out on some raid somewhere before coming into the area. But word will get out of what happened, and more then likely soon, which is why I need you to help with this matter.”

Later, in the Town hall, which was made up of a ruined operations theater in an unused part of the hospital, from everyone's looks I could tell something was up, the mummers and the small conversations between everyone's groups was almost defining. You could hear some talking about my actions at the Rusty Hook's base, about how some seem to be regretting having me get rid of them.

Some even sounded like they wanted me strung up along with the pony that shot up the bar, skitters was with me and what we heard he didn't like what was being said himself. Not that I could blame him because he was also named a few times from his pony identity, it was starting to seem like it was getting out of hoof when everyone's attention was brought to the center of the stage as the town mayor and what I was told the city council walked in.

The Mayor herself was a Unicorn mare, blonde mane and tail with a blue streak going through it, her coat was that of a very light gray, and she had a very tall stature, almost like an alicorn's build, but without the wings. Her cutie mark was of a cross between a gavel and a rifle over a gold heart, and she looked well into her later years. Her name was Indigo Hearts, and she had a very experienced look about her, on her left hoof she also had a pipbuck, it looked like it had seen some years of use, it also looked like one of the early models. If I had to guess.
Behind her came, a black, raven-like Griffon that was all black with a Raven like head and a with a Spotted Leopard half. He was dressed in Griffon battle armor and carried a rather nasty looking sniper rifle. Next to him Stood an absolute behemoth of an earth pony by the name of EarthShard, and he was big, white muzzle and brown coat, tall and muscled, with his red mane and tail, and a Plow Cutie mark
Finally came a Pegasus mare Shady Suns, bright green coat and orange mane and tail, she looked to be wearing what I didn't know at the time was an Enclave officer’s dress uniform, I'd later learn why.

As soon as Indigo raised her hoof the room quieted down. “As you all know, the Rusty hooks base-camp near our town has been destroyed, and with it their attacks have already stopped hitting any of the caravans, no debate why, however with this news comes a revelation. It seems that this blessing comes with a cost, the Hooks' Lt. Flayer Claws was in the area coming to inspect the camp while they were searching in the nearby military ruins, for now she and her team it seems will be back when they hear of what happened to their camp.”

The Room exploded into shouts of 'what are we going to do?' and 'By sweet Celestia's black beard!' and such before Indigo started to slam her hoof into the ground.

“ORDER! ORDER! WILL YOU PONIES CALM DOWN!” She yelled, she had enhanced her voice with a spell that coupled with the room's acoustical properties quieted the panic down. “Now we have a plan to deal with this but it will involve everyone's cooperation in this matter. For now though the town will be on lockdown, no one in or out without our say so. No one is going to be able to leave until the threat has passed.”

More murmurs and mumblings from the crowd, some looking worried to the news of the lockdown itself.

“I'll leave the details the others,” She said leaving the stage. “ Spearhead, please bring our guests.”

It was at this point that Spearhead had encouraged me, and by encouraged I mean yanked, me and Skitters out of our seats out into the hallway to another room in the hospital.

“HEY! What gives?” I said as I got loose from him. Skitters having a much harder time of it himself.

“The mayor wants to talk do you about the plan.” He said still holding his death grip on skitters.

“Okay, but why did you drag me out of there like that?”

“Because we need to hurry, there's no telling when Flayer Claws will be back, and I for one don't want to keep the mayor waiting, let's just say that she's not lasted this long by being dumb. Now come on you two!”

In the office we stood before Indigo Hearts, it was rather awkward given the cold stare she was giving us. Skitters was particularly unnerved as he would later tell me why, but at the moment Spearhead was standing behind us, as if to prevent us from running.

“Now I know you two have done us a service in ridding us of the Rusty Hooks, but your actions has caused us more trouble.”

“WAIT! OUR ACTIONS?! You guys were the ones in need of help, I'm surprised you didn't try to get rid of them yourselves given how easy it was!” I was furious, she was trying to pin all the blame on us? “Not to mention where were the guards when the bar was shot up?”

To say she wasn't impressed would have been an understatement, she just looked at me as if I was a mere foal throwing a tantrum.

She slammed her hooves onto her desk as she stood up from her seat, “YOU WHERE THE ONE THAT VOLUNTEERED TO DEAL WITH THEM!” She shouted in a voice that would match the mythological royal Canterlot voice. She then composed herself before sitting back down in an impassive state. “As for the other guards, the Hooks busted though one of the gates killing three guards in the process, I'm still not sure how they left such a huge hole in the doors without making a sound. The Hooks may be organized, but they don't have anyone outside of maybe Flayer Claws with high level magic like that, and she isn't here yet, but that's besides the point, you two brought more trouble down on us, but we can use that to our advantage.”

“How?” I asked skeptical of any plan.

“Simple, as of this moment you are a newly-established bounty hunter and were here to collect on the wanted posters for leader of the gang, but since you blew practically all of them up as well as the dead leader back in the bar, you will be taking the only prisoner left to Los Pegasus.” She then pushed a paper with my name on it stating that I had come here to collect on the reward for the capture or killing of the local Rusty Hooks gang. Mind you 25,000 caps was a pretty big sum, but I wondered why no one would want to collect this.

“Why are you pushing this plan?” Skitters spoke up. At that point spearhead spoke up.

“It was either this or hold you two for the Hooks to send some ponies after us all and we'd just serve you two up, and blame the deaths of everyone of the Hooks on you two.”

“What!? You can't be serious about this!” I was livid at this point, “are you two seriously considering this?

“What choice do we have?” Spearhead said with a shameful look in his eyes. “We don't have the firepower or the numbers to properly defend from any kind of attack at the moment. So it is either giving up you two, or we set you off and have you two lure the hooks away from the town.”

“We've already are spreading word about you and your friend here that you two will be taking the prisoner to Los Pegasus, right now they are the only thing with any kind of functioning justice system, the local NCR garrison will be interested in your story of what you did for sure.” Indigo said as she used her magic to pull up a saddle bag that she opened used it to pull out another document. “Here, this letter will say that you did the job of taking out the camp, but the reward will be going to us.”

“We did the work of getting rid of them for you.” Skitters protested.

“Yes, but then who's going to pay for the damages to the town? What about the bar itself?” Spearhead said. “I sure don't have the kind of caps on hoof to fix up the gate, but that reward money will. And since you brought the Hooks on us you’ll have to pay for it, besides, this way we get them bloody raiders off our backs and you get to not only keep your freedom but stay alive over being raped, murdered, and possibly using your body as a shooting dummy. If you’re really lucky and the hooks are in a good mood, in that order.”

Me and skitters both gulped at that last one, “Yeah, I think that would be better.” I said. “But you can't let us go just like that.”

“No, we won't.” Indigo said as she pushed the saddle bag to me after putting the document back in. “There are 3000 caps in that bag, the shops in town are going to sell you some of their better wares at a discount. You're going to need every advantage you two can get your hooves on, think of this as your reward for getting rid of the camp, but remember, you need to stay ahead of the Hooks from here on out. They will be on your tail from Here to Los Pegasus. Spearhead, take them shopping, I've got to plan on how to convince a bucking Shit-storm that's coming our way and redirect it away from us.”

He nodded as he walked to us and ushered us out. “Come on you two, we need to get you two ready.”

Now 3000 caps is a lot of money, but given how hard it was for Spearhead to not only enforce normal prices but the promised discount, it didn't last very long. Getting things like ammo and supplies for the trip wasn't to bad, about 800 caps covered it and our bags were full of healing potions, rad-away, clean water, and some much needed food. It was when we went to get armor and guns that we knew that this was going to be a hard trip.

We had just walked into store called the War Memorial which sold weapons, armor, and parts, strangely no ammo, seems the owners had a deal going with the store next door for our supplies. It was built out of three train cars, a pegasus bus carriage for a desk/counter-top, and all this was the front which was attached to a warehouse with a very surly ghoul Earth pony stallion who welcomed Spearhead and nearly shot my head off yelling at me to get out until his boss a rather young dragon hatchling named Quartz to calm him down and have him go into the back so she could deal with us.

“So what can I get you fine ponies this day?” She said with a cheery voice, she had on her what looked like a mane which were just very long very fine scales with spikes/dorsal like fins coming out of her head and going down her back. All of them were a dingy shade of light blue shade of blue-white while her body scales Bore a darker,held a more dark glowing sea green, and her tail had a spike club at the end, She stood almost as tall as me.

“Well, we were looking to see if you have anything that we could upgrade to.” I said as I walked up to the counter-top, “Got anything you can recommend?”
“Well, let's see what you have currently.” She said as me and skitters showed her our main weapons. “Esssh! No offense, but these poor things have seen better days. Yeah, the rust and dents on them really need to be taken care of, let's see then.”

She then went to under the counter and started to rummage around tossing a few things around as she hummed a little tune, her tail wagging this way and that do the beat of the tempo she went at.

“AH! Here we go,” she then brought up a very nice and rather clean looking rifle. “I call this little girl the Spit fire, she can take down an armored foe up to a mile away with her 12x zoom, three fire rate settings of single shot, three shot, and 'DAMN THE TORPEDOES!' She's able to shoot anything from a .45 all the way to a 50. cal thanks to the mod kit that lets you change the caliber as needed in the field thanks to the easy change system. She also comes with a set of muzzles and silencer options and a tripod for long range ambushes. She was an early Enclave model before they when to near full energy weapons so she has a few experimentational mods to her. Some which will let your bullets spit fire, plasma, acid, and my personal favorite, throwing star shaped lighting! Her range finder also has several modes that will help track your targets, see through the dark, body heat, and in tight areas, through walls. All this for the low low price of 75,000 caps, with the discount of course.”

Both me and skitters just stared at the gun, but then back to each other, we both knew where this was going. “Uh...I think that is a tad out of our price range.”

“Oh?” She said as she looked Spearhead who only shook his head no. “I see.” She said a tad deflated.

So back went the gun as she looked at us both with a bit of sourness on her face. “So what is your price range then?”

“2,200 caps.” Skitters replied.

“Oh, I see.” she said as she went back down and rummaged again, this time no happy tune as she brought out a bucket of what looked like scrap parts and broken pieces of other guns. “I can sell you this.”

“Come on Quartz, the mayor did say to do better than that.” Spearhead spoke up.

“Hey, I'm trying to run a business here, the Rusty Hook haven't been kind to my suppliers here, and they sure won't be paying me if I tried to do business with them.” She huffed a bit of smoke from her nose. “Okay, listen, I know I'm suppose to show you two some of the good stuff, but I deal with stuff that's very hard to come by, as in factory new if I can get my claws on it.” She took back the bucket and put it back into the place she found it at, walking around the counter-top to a door from the carriage part, walking to a small area of the shop.
“So while I do have a few guns in that range, you two need way better, and what I got isn't much better at that price, but I do have another option.” Quartz then pulled a lever on the side of the wall and it slid to the side opening up another room that was what you could call a walk in closet, she beckoned us both into the room. “I don't normally sell this outside of my V.I.P. list, but given what you two will be heading into you will need some kind of edge. So have a look at my weapon and armor mod selection.”

And what a selection it was, she had all kind of weapons mods from lighter barrels to specialized chambers, to better mouth grips to all kind of battle saddle mods for different ammo's or damage properties. She even had enchantment mods that she claimed that she got from some pony that gave it to her for a steal. She even claimed that she was able to make more of them, but she wouldn't say how.

“Whoa!” Skitters exclaimed. “This sight mod, you have one that can see changelings?” He was a tad nervous of that one, not to mention the price on it was about 1/5th of the first gun she showed us.

“Yeah, that one is exclusive to my store only, can't find it anywhere else in the wastes, given that I'm the only one that can make and sell them. Still, way out of your price range, here these might suit your weapons better.”

She said as she held up a box of weapon mods that were rather priced better for us. By the end of it she also showed us the armor mods that she could show us, and they weren't the greatest, but they should give us a little bit extra edge to survivable out there. Skitter's and my weapons were cleaned up with replacement part mods that at least would give us some better damage and range, and in total we spent almost all of the caps we had, we only had about 34 caps left over.

Sure they where the bottom tier items, but they still improved our chances if you asked me, a better chamber mod for both our weapons, new sights, a few extra things that would help like one-time-use spell enchantment mods for our bullets, some radiation insulation for my suit with a few added pieces of cheap light armor, but I guess my favorite was the mod kit that took up almost half of our caps.

“So this kit will let us change up our weapons and armor?” I asked as I fiddled with it as Quartz showed me to prances on some junk weapons that were going to go into the scrap pile.

“To a point,” She said. “You'd need a workbench to do anything more extensive than some light work. Most work benches with a minimum set of tools will work with this, if you need to make it and this can help, but if you don't have the work space all you can do is maintenance and using it to swap mods.”

“Wow, and why haven't you sold this to the militia Quartz?” Spearhead asked looking a bit miffed.

“Because I have to make them and the parts are very hard to come by, this one here isn't even the best I got, and it took almost a year of searching for the parts alone to make this, I've only two in the back that are the best to make anything I want and that is almost a total of five years of looking. What I selling is the bare bones model, it's got templates, if you want to do more with it you have to be a really good tinkerer or very very creative with how limited it is. Hell the mayor is pushing me to let the city guard use my weapons benches, but I'm not letting anypony near them until I can find someone as good as old Cast Iron, and so far Dragonlily here, she show talent, but no where near what I need.”

“Thanks I think.” Sounding somewhat proud.

“Don't take it as a complement just yet, you'd need a lot more time than what you have to get to Cast Iron's level, and he's been around since before the great war. Still, if you ever do decide to go full time, just come back here, you might like it.”

“I'll think about it, maybe, right now we've got a prisoner to pick up.” I sighed, Skitters following me as Spearhead gave a nod as we left.

Now we just needed to pick up our charge and then get out of town, we could only hope that this crazy plan of theirs worked because from what I learned later, I really didn't have a clue as to what I was getting into or where it was going to lead.

Footnote: Quest: Saddle up: complete
Quest skill/Perk gained: Mod Crafting: With a workbench and the mod kit, you can now modify nearly any weapon or armor you come across, you can't make your own mods yet outside of a few templates, but with time and practice you might be able to make some wicked items. Permanent +5% damage to all ranged and melee damage, Permanent +3% damage resistance to all armor, Permanent +1% accuracy, Permanents can increase with more practice to a max of five times with an increase of cost to invest, can now take junk items and scrap them for needed components.