//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Fallout Equestria: War Never Changes // by jarmari //------------------------------// Chapter 10: The sky, such as it could, was getting dark when we left the store. Fire Bird told me a little more about the town. Started by a caravan company because there was a massive stretch of road with no towns or rest stops so they created the town first as a simple hub, but others had come and it had turned into the town that it was now. The bar was a two floor warehouse, identical to the one that housed my cryopod program. Of course this warehouse had been overhauled heavily. The loading bay doors were all barred except one, which was the entrance now. The raised platform was where the bar itself sat and the main reception area beyond was the storage. The second floor walkways were patrolled by guards, netting set up to keep pegasi from attacking them should something bad happen. The roof had double the number of lights my warehouse had, but they were jury rigged into the electrical system. Ruby sat with Ratchet, Clank and Lilith at a big table in the corner when we arrived, a number of bags sat beside their chairs. All of them were sitting around bridal magazines, giggling and commenting. “I hope you've saved up a lot of money for this wedding.” Fire Bird said, smirking at the sight of the excited group. “I have about 3000 caps to my name.” I said, gulping comically for effect. “I have about a million bits in the bank, but that hardly helps anymore.” “Yeah, not so much.” She said, heading towards the table. “Oh hey you two.” Ruby grinned when we came up to the table. “I was just gonna come looking for you.” “I got side tracked with the books.” I said simply. “I found a bunch of books I told Crackshot about so I figured I'd take them and see if I can't get her to try her hoof at reading a book or two.” “Oh good luck with that Sweetheart.” Clank said, giggling into his hoof. He had changed out of his armour. He was a dusty beige colour and had a buzz cut mane that had been dyed a few different colours. “I'm sure she'll give it a try for me.” I said. Ratchet got up from his spot beside Ruby so I could sit next to her, moving a spot on the far side of Clank. Fire Bird sat between Clank and Lilith. “So looks like you did some VERY serious shopping.” Fire Bird said, looking at the bags around the table. “Oh yes.” Clank replied, grinning ear to ear. “Wedding plans, decorations, clothes, the works.” “Not to mention all the stuff for the bachelorette party.” Lilith added, smiling wickedly at Ruby, who blushed furiously. “I'm so sorry.” Ruby muttered, leaning close to me so the others couldn't hear. “I know we weren't exactly planning on having a wedding any time soon, I know we have more important things to worry about short term, but Lilith dragged me out, announced to everyone in the immediate area that I was getting married, Clank heard her and the two of them combined to form some sort of unstoppable wedding planning super monster. I can fight ghouls and slavers, but I cower in terror at those two working on a party...” “It's okay. I suppose it's good to have people to help with it. We don't exactly have a lot of resources to put it together ourselves. Should I be worried about the bachelorette party stuff?” I added, looking at the dozen or so black bags that Lilith was keeping close to her legs. “I have no idea...She bought it all while Clank kept me distracted. She won't let me see what she bought or tell me any of it...” “Well then I won't be angry if you come home that night with anything weird.” I laughed. “That's good, because she's going to.” Lilith said quietly in my ear, making me jump in surprise. Okay so EFS indicator was no good when she was behind me. “Don't sneak up on me like that, I'll have a heart attack.” I sighed. “Aww want me to kiss it better?” She asked, changing into Ruby. “Hey, keep away from my buck.” Ruby said flatly. “That other offer is still open.” She said, turning back into me. “Ooo I might take you up on that one darlin',” Clank purred. “You are NOT allowed to have sex with him in my body!” I snapped, realizing how silly that statement was, though it was echoed by Ratchet at the same time except he said 'in HIS body' instead, which just made everypony else at the table howl with laughter as the two of us blushed at our reactions and Lily turned back into her normal form. “Oh come on Sugar, like I would ever let someone else be you in the bedroom.” Clank grinned. “Where's the fun in that?” “Besides, I like being a male while I'm with a female, not a male while I'm with a male.” Lily said, making Fire Bird glare at her. “Oh come on Mom, don't act like you're disgusted by it, it's just the way it works.” “The way what works?” I asked, getting 'are you fucking kidding me?' looks from everyone at the table. “What? I don't know that much about Changlings!” “We're all bi-sexual.” Lily explained. “Only the queen has an actual gender, the rest of us are technically asexual when we're in our normal form, we can choose to act in a more masculine or feminine way but that's mostly just a personality thing. When we mate...” She transformed into a muscular pegasus buck, which clearly excited Ratchet and Clank. “Or...” She flashed with green magic and the pegasus was replaced with a slim beautiful earth pony mare. “Then we spend a few days in this form, and when we know we're pregnant we change back.” She flashed back to normal. “And then we stay with the anatomy of a female until the child is born, at which point we change back to our original non-gender setup back there, it also allows us to have children with real ponies, or griffins, or sand dogs, zebra...really any creatures. We're very genetically flexible like that.” She grinned. “How do you know all this if you're adopted and raised by a pony?” Again this earned me looks of disbelief. “WHAT?!” I cried. “Seriously? I've met other changlings before.” She laughed. “One of the teachers at the school is a changling, I learned everything about it from her. Just because I lost my parents at a young age doesn't mean I know nothing of my culture or how I work. You aren't BORN with mastery over the ability to shape-shift any more than unicorns are born able to use magic or pegasi able to fly. I was lucky to still have someone take me in and care for and love me.” She said, hugging Fire Bird gently. “I can only imagine what would have happened to me without a mother.” Fire Bird blushed a little but smiled, returning the hug. I suddenly realized why her story had struck me as odd, and now it was like my brain had kicked into overdrive as I looked over at Ruby and smiled. “I think we need to talk about something.” I said to her. “We are talking about something...your clear ignorance of the Changlings.” Ruby smirked. “We should adopt CB.” I said bluntly, no point in beating around the bush after all. “I mean I know that she'll be cared for by everypony in the group but at the end of the day where is she going to go to sleep, who's going to make sure she does her homework and ensures she doesn't make mistakes with some young buck when she's older? Who's going to be responsible for her life, not just her continued existence?” Ruby looked at me quietly for a moment and I was worried she might get mad or freak out at the thought. “I...” She paused, clearly thinking things through. “I think that's a good idea.” She said finally, smiling warmly. “Who better to raise her than the smartest pony in the wasteland?” She asked, leaning in and kissing me sweetly. “I think it's wonderful that you want to take on that responsibility.” Everybody else at the table seemed equally impressed with the idea. I blushed brightly and smiled. “Well I guess in the end it'll be her decision, assuming she wakes up.” I sighed. “True.” Ruby nodded. “Speaking of which, we should get back soon, it's getting late and I don't want Brutus or Crackshot worrying.” “So we'll head back after we eat?” I asked, my stomach growling loudly in agreement. “Yeah I think that's fine.” Ruby said. ////////// So it was that an hour and a half later, after bidding everybody goodbye and starting off again with all Ruby's new clothes and such tucked away in my saddlebags, which amazingly held it all, and promising we'd be back in a day or two at most to finish the rest of our business in town we were through the gate and headed back to the medical center. Ruby cuddled against me while we walked the stretch of highway. Of course what fun would this story be if we'd just cuddled and talked? About half way back a pair of ponies emerged from behind some rocks off to our side. I had seen them on my EFS and already slipped Ebony out of it's holster, the one sadly empty still. The two finally showed themselves by leaping down from a large boulder. They wore patchwork barding and were very skinny. “Alright, no funny business just hand over your...” *ZAP * She fell back, the knife floating in her grasp clattering to the ground as Ebony burnt a hole in the ground in front of her. The other one was a pegasus with a pair of non-functional powerhooves on her front hooves and moved to help the unicorn up quickly. “Really?” Ruby asked, rolling her eyes, not even budging from her spot against me. “You're gonna rob us with barely functional melee weapons? You two have a lot to learn about mugging ponies that's for sure.” “Come on Cap I told you this was a bad idea.” The pegasus said quickly. “No it wasn't.” The unicorn, Cap, snapped. Her horn glowed a bright yellow and a bolt of energy fired off of it, exploding harmlessly against a shield I threw up as soon as her horn had started to glow. “DAMMIT!” She cried, collapsing in a defeated heap. At this point Ruby stepped away from me and moved towards them slowly. The pegasus stepped in front of the unicorn protectively. “I'm not going to hurt you.” Ruby said, shaking her head. “Neither is he.” She gestured to me with a wing. I nodded and holstered Ebony, but kept it in my magical grip. “What are you going to do with us?” Cap asked bitterly, sitting up slowly. “If we were going to do anything we'd have done it when you were smashing your way towards us for the last five minutes.” I said, tapping my pipbuck with my other hoof. “One does not simply walk up behind somepony with a pipbuck. We always know.” “Where are you two from?” Ruby asked. “The Island of Nun-ya.” Cap replied angrily. “Oh I've been there.” I answered before Ruby could fall into the insult trap. “It's full name is Nun-ya-business isn't it?” Cap just glared at the ground, her line spoiled. “We're just nomads.” The pegasus said. “I'm Sky Wagon, this is Bottle Cap.” “Friends? Sisters?” Ruby asked. The two exchanged looks and Ruby smiled. “Alright lovers then. Why are you out here trying to rob people? You realize this road is only going to be traveled by caravans or well armed ponies like us?” “We're desperate.” Sky Wagon said. “You're 20 minutes from a town, why not go there?” “Like they'd let us.” Cap snorted. “We're from a tribe of bandits, we left because we don't want any part of it...” “That's kind of ironic.” I interrupted. They ignored me and she continued. “But we're branded with the tribe mark so they won't let us in town. Even if they did, nopony in town would trust us because they'd be constantly afraid we'd do something bad.” Ruby looked from them to me and back again, clearly deep in thought. Finally she came over to me and grabbed my leg, lifting the pipbuck up to her face. “Hey! You mind?” I asked, stumbling to keep from falling flat on my ass. She ignored me and flipped through to the inventory screen, going through my stuff. “What are you doing?” I demanded. She finally floated out a few things of food, two healing potions and a small white box from the things she'd bought earlier. She looked up at me and I just nodded, lifting the boxes and floating them over to the other two. “Here, food to tide you over, some medicine just in case, and something to help keep you warm at night.” Ruby said. Bottle Cap still looked annoyed but Sky Wagon came over and picked up the food and medicine, tucking it into her pack. She looked curiously at the white box, lifting the top of it she squee'd at the sight inside and put the top back on quickly, looking at Bottle Cap with a wicked grin. “Are you sure it's okay?” She asked, looking back at Ruby. “I'm positive.” She said, gesturing to me with a wing again and Sky Wagon giggled and nodded, adding the box to her pack. “We're coming back here in three days, meet us back here then and we'll take you into town with us and see if we can't find somepony to help you alright?” Ruby said. “It's up to you if you want to show or not, but here, in three days, at noon, understood?” Sky Wagon nodded and moved to the still pouting unicorn. “Come on, we gotta go.” She said excitedly. “He shot at me, I'm still not happy.” Cap said. “You will be, now get off your rump and lets go.” Sky Wagon said firmly, grabbing her by the tail and dragging her along for a minute before the unicorn finally gave up and pushed herself back to her hooves and started away slowly. “See you in three days.” Sky Wagon said, waving to us as they started off. “What did you give them?” I asked Ruby as we started down the road again. “Nothing you need to worry yourself about.” She replied simply. “Oh come on, it's gotta be something interesting.” “Nope, not really.” She shrugged. “It was interesting enough that you bought it in the first place.” “It was just a novelty.” She replied. “Nothing to dwell on, I might tell ya later.” I just sighed and shook my head, no point trying to argue with her was there? We started up the road again, Ruby cuddling back up to me contently as we continued back. Footnote: 75% to next level. This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding. You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily The Fallout: Equestria logo used above was designed by DotRook, who, according to the original deviantArt page, allows usage in supplementary materials created for and associated with the series. Images really do make a difference, so he has our eternal gratitude and respect. If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check the Fallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and the Fallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.