//------------------------------//
// Water 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Prepper 
// by Kippershy 
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Fallout Equestria: Prepper

By Kippershy

Water


Just as I finished telling my story, I noticed the presence of a pony standing over me. Looking into their eyes, a prang of worry that they would get the wrong idea about what was going on gave me pause, though no such accusation of trying to steal foals came. 

Noticing that my focus now locked onto them, the pink mare spoke. “Excuse me, Miss Prepper? I’ve found something I’d like to buy please… assuming you’re done with telling your story, that is?”

Smiling at my customer, I nodded in affirmation. “Of course, always happy to help. What is it you would like to buy?”

There was a moment of pause from the mare before her eyes darted towards the now empty bottles held in my magical grasp, a hint of worry crossing her face through the corners of her eyes. “Well, we’re low on much of anything to drink, and I’ve noticed your sign saying you sell clean drinking water.” 

Hearing those words and realising how important this was to her, I did my best to calm her down by responding cheerily, pointing to the tap on a nearby wall. “Of course! We get our water straight from the buildings old source! I was lucky when I found this place that it was still connected.”

With that, one of the guards nickered and scuffed his hoof on the floor. “Some would call that more than just a little opportunistic by the sounds of thins then. Perhaps even downright unjustified.” 
Looking over to him, I recognised him as the one who had been the most untrusting to begin with. There was a look of disgust on his face as he stared at me, and it felt as if he was judging me based of what I was rather than what I was doing. Before I could retort, he added to his criticism. “Water is the most basic of needs, after all.”

“Yes it is, and food follows right after, but unless you’re a raider, you don’t simply expect to be given food for nothing, do you?” I took a scalding look at the guard who maintained his indignant stance. Seeing that his attitude hadn’t changed, I continued my rant. “The farmer who grows the crops you eat deserves their pay. Do you know what I had to do to get that water running clean enough for the average pony to safely drink from it? Of course you don’t.”

From the corner of my eye I saw the pink mare shooting a look of disdain at the guard, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy either of us. Drawing in a deep breath, I rose up to my hooves to become more imposing as I spoke. “It took some real effort from me too, and it still continues to be something that requires regular maintenance. It was simple enough to clean out the filters, but to fix and replace any broken or spoiled piping?” 

With a truly sarcastic tone of voice, the guard pony continued his verbal assault. “Wow, fixing some pipes and cleaning them. That’s a hard j-.” 

Using my magic to remove his ability to speak, I’d had enough of his backchat. Watching his mouth move but no sound coming out, I smirked as he began to panic. “Calm down, you’re losing your voice.” I said with a smug smile running across my face. 

“Besides, it took more than that. The biggest problem is the ongoing one of when I have to remove the pests. I had to track down the local water treatment plant where it comes from, and let me tell you, it was far from perfect. All sorts of creatures from bloatsprites, radroaches, even a lone radigator had made it their home. It was like somepony had told all the critters that this was their sanctuary. Only once I cleared all of those out of the area did the water quality improve. The bloatsprites were easy enough to cull thanks to my magic, and all I really had to do was destroy the radroach nests, but they were everywhere. The radigator moved out once there was no more easy prey in the area to feed off of. Say what you want, but I’m absolutely certain that you wouldn’t have wanted to risk getting into a wrestling match with that beast, and their hide is so thick that it’s almost as tough as Steel Ranger armour.”

“So, not trying to be rude in the least, but what quality is the water now then?” The mare asked from behind me.

“The plant once treated the water with magic, but these days that magic seems to have run out. Regardless of magical treatment or not, I’ve tested to make sure that it is safe and my repeat purchasers have never reported any problems.”

Dropping my magical control over the guard, I figured that maybe after hearing all of that he’d change his tune. Instead of playing nice, he simply huffed and continued shooting daggers at me with his eyes. Turning around, I didn’t want to see the face of this pony any more. If he wanted to be rude, he could talk to my backside. 

“Besides, I’m not heartless to the fact its a basic need. If you ask nicely, I might even let you fill a canteen each free of charge, with the exception of your guard. Anything larger than a bottle or personal canteen gets charged, but I don’t ask for much.”

“Please excuse Rusty, Miss Prepper.” The voice of the mare almost interrupted, barely waiting for my sentence to finish.

“It’s Trusty, and stop being a bitch, you know I hate you fucking with my name.” The guard spat back, his voice somehow carrying that nickname exceptionally well as it scraped through my ears.

“Yes,” The mare spat back. “And I fucking hate it when you fuck with our chance to make good deals and remain in good graces of somepony who has such a fine establishment and has shown nothing but kindness so far. So, guess what? That makes us even.”

Such a fine establishment? I blushed and looked to the side as I scanned what I had turned into my shop. It really wasn’t much, but I still felt pride knowing I had fixed this place up enough for it to be complimented so. For it to be called a fine establishment was a great honour, and even better was that rather than arguing back, the guard simply remained silent and let me bask in appreciation of the moment.

“Now, as I was about to ask; may we please take you up on your offer, Miss Prepper? It would be exceedingly gracious of you if we may refill a canteen each, and pay to have our larger supply tank refilled as well. We don’t know when we’ll next find a clean water source so I think it would be best to make the most of the opportunity.”

Looking into her pleading eyes, there was no need to use my power. The look she wore was more than enough to know that this mare was genuine. Perhaps it was the fact she was cute, perhaps she just had a charm about her that I simply couldn’t resist, perhaps it was just the thought of making her happy; it didn’t matter for what reason it was, I simply let out a small sigh of contentment as I prepared to give my answer.

Turning to the guard, I looked straight into his eyes as I spoke, digging into their soul and echoing the words into his mind. “You know, I could have quite easily asked you to leave after how you’ve acted. If you had refused, you would have been asked only once more to leave, and that would have meant everypony who you travel with too. If you had refused even still, you would have found out the worthless lesson of why it isn’t wise to upset an alicorn.”

Taking a glance at the container that they had pulled over towards my makeshift refill station, I made a mental note of the size and estimated capacity. It was large enough to keep even a group their size going for at least two weeks, if not longer when properly rationed, I guessed. 

Taking a deep breath before turning back to the pretty mare, I continued with my rambling decision. “I shall overlook such a hostile attitude, for you. Normally I would have charged thirty caps to refill such a large container, or even as much as fifty after receiving such an attitude, but I feel like you should only pay ten. Fair, no?”

The gasp from the mare as her eyes shot open in surprise was something to die for. The way her bottom lip quivered in shock before slowly. “I… you… do you mean that? Do you really mean it? Only ten caps? I was...”

“Prepared to pay more?” I asked, the warm feeling in my heart spreading through the rest of my body.

“Far more.” She muttered quietly, as if not wanting to admit that truth, perhaps worried I would change my mind on the price. “Some places would try to charge ten caps for just five canteens of water.” Lowering her head and craning it to the side, she muttered something almost completely inaudible.

“Pardon? I couldn’t quite catch that.” Again, she whispered something, though now the sound of water rushing to fill up their tank completely overpowered her words. 

Lowering my face next to hers, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from her cheeks, though she refused to repeat her statement. Leading my eyes to gaze into hers, I could now truly appreciate just how beautiful those lavender gems were.

~Oh Princesses, please don’t make me tell you how much I could just kiss you right now.~

Stunned at such thoughts, I couldn’t help but blush; I didn’t know what to say. If it wasn’t for Opal, I might have even given this cute little mare what she wanted for daring to be so cute and beautiful. Taking a deep breath and a moment to recompose myself, I continued to grin like a little filly in a sweet shop.

Before any more thoughts could run through either of our minds, one of the stallions I hadn’t yet interacted with properly approached, the smile on his face somehow accenting his over the top eyebrows. “Darling! I can’t believe the job you’ve done with this place! It’s absolutely magnificent! How in Equestria did you do it?”

Not entirely confident that he was speaking to me, I cautiously pointed a hoof at my chest as I gave him a quizzical look. His response as flamboyant as it was instant. “Yes! Oh I love it. Absolutely fan-tastic darling! Oh, the drapes over the windows and tables, the colour scheme, the layout, and even the small details like the dried flowers on the walls. When I saw your makeshift wall outside, I was certain that there couldn’t possibly be something so fabulous inside, but you have made me eat my hat!”

Lowering my head in a gesture of thanks, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with the praise. The tug on the corners of my lips began to grow sore with just how much I was smiling. “Oh, I just found this place. My partner, Opal, is the true architect of the decorations. Really, she’s a wizard with just making these things work out somehow.” For a second I paused, just thinking about my beautiful blue partner. She really was something special, my Opal. Jolting back to reality, I nodded before continuing to speak. “I may be the one who found this place and made it a place of living, but she really made it our home and was the support I needed to open shop, believing in me and helping to organise how we’d sell things.”

“Opal you say? Well judging from her artistic vision alone she sounds divine. I simply must meet her. I love nothing more than when I find other ponies, or other creatures in general, who understand that the world needs more beauty and its our job to restore it.”

From across the room despite the distance, I heard her lovely voice practically singing to me. “Did I hear my name being called?”