//------------------------------// // Which way did he go? Pt 2 // Story: Fallout: Equestria - Lovely New Pegasus // by No one is home //------------------------------// Which way did he go? - Part 2 “Okay so am I alone in thinking this is a lot of Sparkle Cola and Wild Pegasus bottles around your shallow grave?”  I honestly can’t say Princess is wrong.  “I mean say what you will, but those treacherous bastards set you off right.” “Sugar cube, I am programmed to be incapable of lying with a straight face.”  Jack-E chimes in.  “You are not the only one both worried and impressed by the collection of bottles.  Initial scans indicate most of the contents were already heavily corrupted by radiation, Med-X and at least one bottle was laced with hydra.  I reckon they shot him when poisoning just didn’t take…” “No wonder I have a headache. There was prolly med-X in everything.  That stupid Checker Suit Pony… I seriously plan on murdering him.”  I’m rambling… but I’m also sniffing the ground like a dog.  “He smoked these fancy NCR cigarettes… cloves…  or cloves is a burnt-toast type smell and part of the brain damage.  I dunno…  There is nothing worse than a hangover from some chem you can’t even feel going in, ya know?  I’m gonna call him checkers… because I’m playin’ murder chess.” “That doesn’t make a lick of sense, Sugar Cube.”  Jackie rolls up by me real friendly-like,  like she honestly gets perfectly normal friendship boundaries. “And yet!” I declare triumphantly.  “A pack of NCR clove cigarettes.  ‘Luna Lights’?  Who smokes a light clove?  And half this pack is still intact.  I’m keeping the butts as evidence.  But the rest of this pack is now part of my stash.” “Okay, color me impressed.”  Princess trots back a step.  “You actually found a clue at your own week old muder scene.  For a brain damaged, crazy pony, maybe you got it together… and now he’s smoking the evidence, Jackie, help me out here…” “The butts are the evidence!”  I righteously proclaim, throwing opposing hind and fore hooves in the air as if I would I cute little pony.  “The half pack of NCR Clove cigarettes are loot!  I would never smore cigarette butts like some hobo… Actually I also would never normally smoke ‘light’ clove cigarettes.  How and why is that even a thing?  But Tyrek’s flabby abs, they’re free!” “Honestly Sugar Cube, I think we’re lucky that’s all he’s smoking.”  Ah, Jack-E  the voice of reason I never asked for… “So when we get to Primm, and I talk to my boss… we can all just leave out the part where I got drunk with the guys who shot me?” I flash what I hope is my most charming smile. “Right?” “Can we talk about what happened back in GoodSprings?”  Princess trots in place, her voice is… nervous.  “You seemed to be mighty personally inclined back there…” “Can we just say I wish I’d lost a few extra brain cells?”  I don’t mean to growl.  She’s nervous around me.  She saw what I did.  She was in on it.  “There are ponies who want to sacrifice ponies.  And they always want to be forgotten.  They don’t want witnesses because they know they are guilty.  I took that from them.  They will be remembered.  That’s all I did.”