//------------------------------// // 37 - Resupply // Story: Fallout: Equestria - War Does Change // by tom117z //------------------------------// Chapter 38: Resupply “What’s done is done…” Gaaah that hurts! I don’t get why healing potions aren’t designed to set bones back into place themselves!? Would it really be that difficult to design!? We have fucking magic for Celestia’s sake! DO SOME MAGIC SHIT! ARRGH, make it stop! “Please, do sit still.” Sit still. Right. I love Xena, but she’s not the one with a fucking broken leg! We had found ourselves in an old charred building a short distance from Platinum Plaza. We’d gotten what we thought to be a safe distance from the continuing influx of feral ghouls before finding some shelter where she could attempt to remedy my whole ‘leg situation’. I haven’t a clue what the building used to be, it was burnt to a crisp a very long time ago. But it’s shell gave us enough cover for the time being, but oh goddesses why didn’t we bring Altrix!? “If I misplace the bone, we shall have to break it again!” Xena stressed. What does she mean break it again!? “Altrix would be a better choice for this, I know. But it is for that reason I cannot do this if you are struggling, so please, Scrap Heap, behave!” Right… right… Behaving. With a broken leg. And so much pain. Oh Luna, right… okay… yes. I can do that. Be a stallion, Scrap Heap. Be a- FUUUUUUUCK! My leg was on fire! I bet it was about to literally catch fire as well! Oh goddesses, why does this wasteland suck so much! I felt something be forced into my gullet, and in full knowledge of what it was, I held no qualms in downing the red liquid that flowed from the bottle! DAMMIT! That was a huge crack from my leg I’d just felt, it felt like the bones were moving by their own accord. Probably because they were, and it sucked so much! But then, sweet relief as the pain suddenly came to a halt. Or, well… at least became somewhat bearable as the potion completed its work. “Alright, there,” Xena said with a large sigh. “Can you move it? How do you feel?” “Like I wish I didn’t have that leg anymore,” I admitted as I experimentally moved my joints. I couldn’t suppress a wince as I felt another stab of pain from the movement, but it was moving… “I think that did it. Thanks.” “Here,” she said, stabbing me with a needle filled with wonderful Med-X. “For the pain.” The pain lessened even more, and I actually felt somewhat like a normal pony again. “Thanks,” I repeated, sitting up a little more again the blackened wall. “That was… not good. Fractured ribs and a broken leg… that hurt. I’m sorry, but your brother was an asshole.” “Trained to kill by the Remnant. He was not as skilled a killer when I last saw him,” she replied sadly. “I must admit, when he ambushed me and sent me through the window in a single kick… It was a surprise to be sure. I would have been dead if you hadn’t been there.” “Good thing neither of us was alone then,” I stated. “We need to thank Altrix for ensuring we were properly stocked with medical supplies.” “Yes…” she said a little sheepishly. “In the hindsight, we should have come together. I acted out of emotion and anger… And if she were here, her expertise and magic could have made resetting that leg a simple and far less painful procedure.” “Well, you did a pretty good job. I didn’t need amputation, so that’s a win.” “Still…” she said dejectedly. “If I hadn’t been such a fool, it may not have been needed at all. Look at what we accomplished with just the two of us. If we were all there…” “We got it done,” I interrupted before she went down the self-hate hole. “I get it, it was personal. They did too. And I mean… yeah…” “It was still foolish,” she refuted, looking away from me and staring out of a hole and into the blackness of the night. “You were hurt because of my idiocy. Xaro could have easily killed you, and he was but a moment from doing so. And now…” “Now we get to go back to Crossroads and get on with our lives. We got out of there, Xena. No point dwelling on what we could have done better,” I said, slowly getting up and experimentally putting weight into my leg. Seeing it wasn’t about to snap again, I walked over to Xena’s side and stood beside her. “Maybe some lessons learnt for the future, but everything worked out in the end.” She didn’t respond, and it didn’t take a Twilight Sparkle level genius to work out that us going in without our friends wasn’t the only thing bothering her. The stallion she’d killed, as much of a prick as he had been, had still been her brother… I sighed. “Listen… I know it’s probably sore, and you may not even want to think about it, even if you can’t help yourself, but I’m here to talk. If you ever need to clear your chest about Xaro, I can do that.” “It had to be done…” she replied regretfully, bringing a hoof up and wiping some emergent tears from her eyes. “He was a monster. A killer. A murderer. But… he was my brother.” “He was your brother,” I agreed, staring out into space alongside her. “Families are… complicated.” “Something I suppose neither of us has had much luck with,” she noted with a humourless chuckle. “Maybe we can change that for each other?” I asked hopefully, giving her shoulder a small nudge with my own. “I hope so,” she said. “But… I cannot get what was out of my head. My family before we made the mistake of traversing the Hoof. How I might have done things better, how I could have saved them. So many mistakes, so many places where everything could have been different…” “Like I said, there’s not much we can do about it now. I guess all any of us can really hope to do is do better now,” I muttered to myself as much as I was to her. “You dragged me out of a pit of regret, remember? I don’t like the pony I used to be, not caring about anything but himself.” “You pulled yourself from there, as I knew you should,” she rebuked. “And I have hope that, with our task at hoof, we are doing better. That if we succeed, everything might all have been worth it. And if by some chance there is some truth to the great spirits of zebra myth, that they have some kind of plan for us to follow.” I snorted. “I can’t see some spirit giving a fuck what we’re doing. But we’re helping people, that’s going to have to be enough.” “And maybe we can then be forgiven for our mistakes of the past, should we secure the future of others. I do not know how the changelings will fare in this ruined world should we succeed, but I have to hope they will contribute to its recovery in some way. Even if its just a small part for us to play.” “The recovery of the world, now there’s a lofty goal,” I joked. “Taking the ‘do better’ stuff to heart?” “I always have,” she responded. “Now, I believe that is enough feeling sorry for ourselves. It is still early morning and there is no sun in sight, perhaps we should attempt a few hours of rest before we return to the others?” “Not a bad idea,” I agreed, looking around the building. “We can probably make a go of it here for a little while. At least until we can see the hoof in front of our face outside.” We moved to find a nice little corner to bunk down and try to get some shuteye for a couple hours, though neither of us succeeded much in that regard. I think both of us had a lot on our minds, even after that little talk. The Remnant were gone, I doubted we’d see any more leaving Hoofington in search of Xena anytime soon. But we still had the fate of the entire Equestrian Wasteland on our shoulders… The sun was now breaching through the cloud cover, giving us enough light to make our way back to Crossroads. Things this morning almost seemed… quiet. I had to wonder whether the Equestrian Wasteland was giving us a break for once, or if everything that wanted to shoot and/or eat us had flocked towards Platinum Plaza in the wake of all the destruction. Either way, the lack of things trying to kill us was a nice change of pace. We’d retraced our steps through the ruins, making swift progress back the way we came. We hadn’t managed to get that much sleep in the end, but what we had was better than nothing at all. Still, one more night in Crossroads would probably do us some good anyhow. I think some beds would certainly be welcome at this point, and hopefully, Sheriff Spring Haze’s offer and free beds would still pass for at least one more night. Assuming Ruby didn’t object, that is. We hopped over a large pile of rubble, utilising my magic to clear away some of the more dangerous and stabby-looking pieces. I didn’t want to go through all of this only to be impaled by a stray piece of rebar amidst the rubble now did I? “We are almost there,” Xena noted. “Yeah. Hopefully, the town has seen some repairs since we were last there,” I stated. “And they stopped any would-be happy-go-lucky raiders who might have thought a hole in the wall meant an easy target. Or any mutants looking for a snack, at that.” “Some bloodwings, or particularly desperate balefire phoenixes, might very well take such an opportunity,” Xena mused. “But I would not worry. The Sherrif’s… unusual display during the battle has shown us that the town is well defended I think.” I almost felt sorry for anything that fell into the grasp of the fiery demon pony. Or Moon Blossom. I’m not sure which would be worse… As we walked down the shattered street, the familiar sight of a sign directing coming traders to the town emerged. We dutifully followed its direction, moving around the corner to- CRACK. Son of a butt monkey! Ignoring wherever that curse had come from inside my brain, Xena and I quickly ducked behind an old vehicle chassis after that sniper round had hit right by our hooves! There was one red bar on my E.F.S., causing me to draw my rifle as I also noted the excess number of green ones nearby… “Hold your fire, dipshit!” I heard a shout from the end of the street, specifically from the open gate of the town. “That’s them!” The red bar turned green, and Xena and I shared a rather unamused frown as we looked over from our cover… Two ponies were running out from the town, each looking quite cross. One of them was an earth pony guard, and the other was a familiar kirin. “Did you hear me? Stop!” the guard shouted as they came to a slow halt halfway down the street, both looking up at one of the sniper nests hanging from a building. “Are you nuts!?” “I saw a zebra!” the guard shouted back down in defence. “I thought those bastards from before had come back!” “That’s no way to treat a friend!” Sheriff Spring Haze protested. “If you hit Stripe, I would have been very cross!” “Sorry...” “Get your ass down here!” the other guard shouted. “We’ll get Quick Flash to take your shift.” “But-” “I agree!” Spring Haze seconded. “Get yourself to the office! I’m taking you through basic trigger discipline, since you clearly need a refresher course!” I saw the sniper mumble some curse word or another that was lost to the wind and distance, before he retreated into the building to make his way down from the post. Spring Haze then said a quick word to the earth pony, before said pony started to trot back to the town while the Sheriff turned to face us. “You’re back!” he stated brightly, galloping over to where we remained by the chassis. “And you’re okay! You are, aren’t you? DO you need medical attention? Ammo? Food? Water? A back rub? A complimentary-” “We’re fine,” Xena said, stopping the kirin’s tirade quickly. “But I would appreciate not being shot at for my stripes.” Spring Haze gave a sheepish chuckle. “Yeah, sorry about that. Our residents are still on edge after what happened before you left. Your friends were also quite worried for you, but we made sure they were looked after. Though, I hear they didn’t get much rest last night… You guys are really close friends!” I guess ‘fire forged’ just about described it. “And the town?” I asked. “Did we miss much?” “Well, we spent all yesterday patching up the wall, work has been continuing this morning,” he answered. “We scared off anything that started sniffing around the area, things are coming along. It’s… not going to be easy, seeing that we lost some good ponies. But things will get back on track soon enough, especially once the next caravan arrives for trade.” He then coughed, looking from left to right before glancing back at us with a question in his eyes. “So… did you do it? Will we be having any more trouble from these Remnant guys?” “I wouldn’t expect so,” Xena responded. “What few may remain have scattered to the wind.” “Assuming they escaped the ghouls,” I added. “Ghouls, huh?” he questioned. “Well, I’m not going to ask how you pulled it off. That’s your business. But you’re welcome to stay in town another night on the house, I’d say you’ve earned it. Anything else you need, just say so.” I was glad to hear that. We followed the Sheriff back towards the town, the earth pony guard at the barricade offering us an apologetic smile as we passed him by. When we moved in through the gate, I was able to see that the town was still in a bit of a state. Several of the stands around the central statue were still in piles of bullet-ridden scrap. Though, as Spring Haze had said, the wall seemed to have been mostly patched up, several residents still hammering away to reinforce what was there. There was also a rather sombre mood that permeated the air, but everyone was otherwise just about getting on with their day. “Next time, pay your tab!” I heard Ruby the Bartender shout as she threw some hapless unicorn out of the inn and into the dirt. “Come back when you actually have caps, jackass!” She seemed to spot us as she went to return into the inn, the griffon giving us a small nod as she returned inside with the ejected patron dusting himself off and shuffling away in embarrassment. And past all that, sitting outside the inn, three familiar figures all also spotted us. “I’ll leave you and your friends to it,” Spring Haze said, tapping me on the shoulder. “You did us a great service. Ya’ll are welcome in Crossroads anytime, ya hear?” “Thanks, Spring Haze,” I said back to the stallion. “I don’t suppose you’ll be needing anything else from us?” “Not as far as I know,” he confirmed. “Get on with whatever it is the Scavenger does for a quest, and good luck. We’ll be keeping an ear on the radio, we’re rooting for ya’ll.” And then, with a final friendly smile, Spring Haze turned from us and trotted back towards his office. Probably to give that trigger-happy guard a lesson or two in gun safety. I did not envy him for the coming lecture. After a moment of watching our newfound friend leave, I turned my gaze towards our friends as they trotted away from the inn and towards us. “You’re back!” Altrix was the first to exclaim, her voice both excited and worried. “Are you all okay? Please don’t tell me you’re injured!” “We’re fine… now,” I said, rubbing my recently mended leg. “Nothing wrong here I suppose?” “Boredom mostly,” Moon Blossom stated. “We’ve been stuck here while you went off to fight the bad guys! Really, that’s just unfair.” “If it’s any consolation, Moon Blossom, we would take you should we be afforded a way to repeat yesterday’s events,” Xena said evenly. “It was… quite an experience.” “And your brother?” Cobalt asked carefully. “Gone,” she answered instantly. “We did what we had to. The Zebra Remnant shall plague us no longer.” He nodded. “Well, that’s good to hear.” “I’m so sorry, Stripe,” Altrix said sympathetically, gingerly reaching forward and giving the zebra a hug. One which Xena accepted, if a little slowly. “So, what happens now?” Cobalt asked. “Are we to continue on to the hub?” “Yeah, I think we should blow this joint,” Moon Blossom supported. “Not that a bed isn’t nice and all, but I don’t like all this sitting around.” “You’ll have to suffer it one more night I’m afraid,” I said to the pegasus, whose wings instantly drooped. “We’re a little exhausted. It… wasn’t an easy fight.” Cobalt frowned. “What happened?” I looked towards Xena who, after disengaging from Altrix, gave me a silent indication to explain everything. So, I told them. I told them about our trudge through the Vanhoover ruins, and how we’d found ourselves a little vantage point above Platinum Plaza. I explained to them the plan we’d come up with, with us going around and taking out their snipers one at a time before moving onto the camp itself. I mentioned how I’d gone under the cover of my StealthBuck, setting charges around the camp while Xena kept them busy. I left out the details of her conversation with her brother, skipping right to the climax of the encounter with the ensuing gunfight and Xaro’s ultimate death at the hooves of his sister. Altrix looked physically sick when I mentioned my injuries, but she otherwise stayed silent about it. Still, I could almost feel her eyes scanning my body for any sign of retained trauma. “Blowing up an entire courtyard and that many of those striped cunts?” Moon Blossom said with a cackle. “You guys got busy!” “Still, it was risky,” Cobalt surmised. “The ghouls were an unaccounted-for variable.” “It explains the smoke we saw in the distance when the sun came up this morning,” Moon Blossom added. “I thought that might’ve been you guys.” “Well, we’re down some healing potions, Med-X and some ammo,” I counted. “Not to mention a StealthBuck, though I doubt we’ll find a new one here.” “We can restock up on everything else, though. Especially if the Sheriff is feeling as thankful as it seems,” Cobalt then noted. “Hm, we can make the day of it. Gather what we need, inventory everything… What’s left of the day can be spent resting or otherwise killing time helping with the reconstruction effort. Come tomorrow, we should be rested up again and ready to move.” “Right where we should have been had Xaro not made his move,” Xena mused. “Well, we got there,” I said. “Alright, let’s get it done.” Tomorrow was going to be a busy day, the MAS hub now in sight… And from there, maybe we could finally put an end to Kronos. Footnote: Max Level