//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: Mouthbreathers // Story: Fallout Equestria: New Pegas // by Calbeck //------------------------------// CHAPTER 21: MOUTHBREATHERS "Live fast, party hard, and leave a pretty corpse." * * * * * Tag-End was still trying to catch his breath. "She's... long gone, boss." A full ten minutes, after just one hour at the gallop, and he was still blown. That's soft city living for you. He'd harden up, given time... and he'd also learn to start asking the right questions, instead of stating the obvious. "You're a bounty hunter now, Tag. In this career, 'long gone' can be days, weeks, even months, but you still have to catch your mark. Think about where we are right now." A frustrated snort blasted from his nostrils. "Oh, come on! She flew right over the walls, on a glider, landing where exactly we don't know, in a couple of minutes! She could be anywhere in West Pegas right now. We might as well be trying to find my Great-Uncle Needle at the Haystack Straw Festival." Patience, Cherry... you were younger and dumber once, too. "And who lives in West Pegas?" "Two kinds of people." He made a point to sit on his rump, lean back, and count them on both forehooves. "Strung-out junkies, and the Friends they buy from. A lot of Friends. Does 'outnumbered a thousand to one' mean anything to you... um, boss?" Getting to my hooves, I peered over the battered dumpster blocking the end of the alley we were sheltering in. Tag was right about that much: West Pegas was relatively thick with wandering addicts, both in and out of the Friends' gang livery. And we weren't even one block inside their territory yet. At least this was a good spot to let the colt get his breath back and vent his spleen a little. "Yeah. It means don't think in terms of trying to kill everypony you meet. Think in terms of finding your mark and fulfilling your contract, in the most efficient and least hazardous way possible. So: why would a diamond thief plan an escape which takes her directly into gangland turf?" "...because she's got friends in the Friends. That much, I figured out for myself." I nodded. "Keep going." Tag's muzzle scrunched up to deliver another snarky barb - then twisted into a frown, his eyes going half-lidded as the lightbulb behind them finally clicked on. "She's too smart to try hiding something that valuable anywhere some Mintal-muncher could stumble across it. She needs something like a bank vault, with security goons and..." The alley's shadows turned his lime-green smirk into a sour-apple grimace. "The Stable." Stable Twenty, [F(lim)&F(lam) Tools - show the industrial uses of Taint] [cover the fall of Gladmane, the original non-gambling version of The Strip, "Freemount Street", Flim/Flam's abortive takeover]