Fallout Equestria: Fly Away
By Freeflyingwolf
Chapter 17: Gift of Flight
“ Birds have wings; they're free; they can fly where they want when they want. They have the kind of mobility many people envy.”--Roger Tory Peterson
The two ponies and manticore stood outside the coliseum with their griffon escort. He was dully giving them information on where everything was. Sunshy kept glancing over his shoulder in worry, hoping that Zen would arrive at any moment. The griffon snapped his claws in front of the pegasus’s face to catch his attention.
“Most important is to know that you want to rent a room at Venus’s Blessing. The zebras there take her seriously and promote all kinds of love. By that, I mean they’re friendly to everyone and some of the staff might want to get some heavy tips. I don’t recommend going anywhere else, as the rest of the hotels are made for the soldiers. Good luck, and ask for Walsh if you need anything. That’s me, if you didn’t get it.” Walsh had pointed to the basic south-east direction.
“Thank you ever so much, mister Walsh. You said the dress stores were this way?” Royal Lace pointed over to the west.
“Not dresses as you know them, but armored stuff. So yeah, good luck you two.” Welsh flared out his wings and flew off, taking out his gun as he flew.
“I suppose you’ll wait here for Zen?” Royal Lace questioned. Sunshy nodded almost instantly. “Alright, you lovebirds, I’ll see you later. Uhm, if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind if I took Celly with me?”
“Is that okay with you?” Sunshy asked the manticore. Celly nodded and strode forward to stand next to Royal Lace.
“Thank you, both of you. Come along, Celly, I’m sure we can find someone here to make you all pretty. How does a bath sound?” Lacey had already begun trotting away. The manticore followed behind, grimacing at bathing that involved water.
“Give her some cute bows.” Sunshy called out with a smile. His sister turned her head over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at him.
So there Sunshy sat, outside the coliseum where ponies were killed minutes before. Waiting for his fiancé that was most likely the son of a monstrous dictator who thought he was the reincarnation of a two-hundred-year-dead cause of the war. That brought up a question…Why did he not ever say this? Why did he hide his heritage? Did Zen think that would change his feelings? Would he even answer any of these questions if Sunshy asked?
“Deep in thought?” Zen spooked Sunshy from his questions. The zebra had lowered his hood, but still wore his cape.
“Is Caesar your—“ Sunshy tried to ask, but the zebra shoved his hoof on ‘Shy’s mouth.
“Not here.” Zen lowered his hoof and began walking forward.
A zebra in red tunic armor stopped the taller zebra by blocking his path. “Is Caesar your what?” The zebra questioned with a suspicious glare.
“Lord and master, of course. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to escort his guest to his hotel room.” Zen shoved the other zebra aside with his greater strength.
With a snarl, the zebra stood and galloped away. Sunshy quietly followed Zen as he led the pony. Zen seemed to know exactly where he was going, as he expertly took shortcuts through alleys, weapon drawn for a source of light. They arrived at a hotel with a picture of a pink pony mare with a luxuriously flowing long red mane and tail. She stood up in a giant clam. Her mane and tail covered her chest and between her legs. There was a sign under the picture stating in Zebra, Venus’s Blessing Hotel.
Zen opened the door into the hotel and was bombarded by bright warm colors. There was a blend of yellows, oranges, reds, and violets. Everywhere, all sorts of ungulates walking around beaming at their guests. Any female ponies were colored the same as the Venus picture outside, while the males were all warm colors. Overall, the hotel gave off the feeling of happiness and comfort.
An earth pony mare in a translucent pink dress walked over and bowed to the two. Her mane was so long that it touched the floor with her head held up. She smiled warmly at them and cocked her head to the side.
“Hello pony and zebra, are you here to rent a room?”
“Yes, one bed for the two of us.” Sunshy answered.
The pony nodded and motioned for the two to follow her. She led them over to the counter, where a unicorn mare stood in front of a wall of keys. The earth pony mare told the other mare about their request. Using a blue glow of magic, she levitated over a key to Sunshy, who held it in his mouth.
“Third door on the left upstairs, lovebirds. Don’t keep everyone else awake, okay?” The unicorn winked at the two with a knowing grin.
“Isn’t that the point of this hotel?” Zen questioned with a confused look as he handed over fifty caps.
“Our hotel is not some dirty, disgusting motel that you go to with a hooker. We don’t even allow those not married or engage to have a one-bed room without deep questioning of how much they know each other. Venus is the goddess of love and beauty, not skanky sex with some whore you met on the street. We have to keep up our image.” The unicorn seemed offended at first, but slowly became proud as she talked.
“So we’re only getting in without interrogation because Sunny is wearing this engagement band?”
“Such a beautiful one, at that. I’ve never seen such a well-cut gem in my life.” The earth pony held up Sunshy’s right hoof to admire the white gold band.
“Cost a hoof and a leg, but a small price to make you happy.” Zen commented as he nuzzled Sunshy.
The two mares Awww’d at the display of affection, which got the yellow pegasus to flush orange. The unicorn used her magic to push the two forward as she and the other mare giggled like fillies. Zen shook his head and rolled his eyes at their display with a chuckle before walking away. Sunshy kept close, warily shying away from anyone as they made their way upstairs. The way everyone smiled was rather creepy.
The pony opened the door with the key and put it in his saddle box. Zen went inside first, checking out the room before letting Sunshy inside. Sunshy was unsurprised to find it was the same warm color scheme as the rest of the hotel. Dominating the back was a large heart-shaped bed, which Sunshy thought was cheesy, and a huge pile of pillows to the right. There was a bathroom off to the left with a rather clean toilet, sink, and bath. However, when Zen drank from the sink, his PipBuck began clicking at him.
Once done with his mildly radioactive drink, Zen took off his cloak and saddlebag and put them by the heart bed. Then he walked over and lied down on the pile of pillows with his front legs crossed in front of him. Sunshy took off boarding and saddle boxes before lying down next to Zen. The zebra began fiddling with his PipBuck, and something caught Sunshy’s eye. He had Zen go back and let him read something that called itself Stats.
Strength: 8 came with a picture of a burly zebra. Perception: 4 a picture of the zebra with an eye, ear, nose, and tongue above his head. Endurance: 6 had a picture of a zebra running and swimming. Charisma: 6 the zebra was now winking flirtatiously with a movie-star smile. Intelligence: 5 came with a picture of a zebra sitting on books with his face behind an open one. Agility: 5 had a picture of a zebra balancing on a pole upside down on his head. Luck: 6 a picture of the zebra walking casually with a black cat hissing and an anvil about to fall on his head.
“How does it know all that?” Sunshy questioned.
“Guessing on the prick I felt when I put it on, this thing linked itself into my nervous system. And now it’s judging me, stupid judgmental piece of awesome. Didn’t Drakon tell you about that?”
“No, he didn’t have any idea, either. He just chalked its powers up to pony magic and left it at that. If it’s judgmental, then why is it a piece of awesome?”
“Because it knows…everything.” Zen opened his eyes wide at Sunshy in a creepy manner.
“Like what?” Sunshy moved back a little from the stare.
“Like it takes down notes of things I’ve heard and it gives me waypoints to go to. It tells me what ‘perks’ I have and how they help me. It shows my standings with all the factions I’ve discovered, too.”
“Will it tell me why you didn’t tell me you’re Caesar’s son?”
“Nope. But I will.” Zen nuzzled Sunshy again and wrapped his tail around the pony’s flank. “It’s simple, really. I thought it wasn’t important before, not to mention you didn’t know we still had a Caesar. And I thought you might not like me as much after finding out.”
“You’re still you, Zen, and I love you. That’s all that matters.” Sunshy smiled as he rubbed his face against Zen’s lovingly. “Did you really have to get a room just for us to talk about that in private?”
Zen stared flatly at Sunshy before nipping at his ear. “I would not waste fifty caps just to talk about my deadbeat father in a hotel made for couples.”
Having no suitable response to this, Sunshy said nothing. Zen took advantage of his silence to kiss him.
~*~*~
The couple walked outside early the next morning with their boarding and saddle boxes/bags. All their valuables were stored in their room’s complimentary safe, allowing them to carry only the things that they were to sell. As Zen had weapons and ammo for trade and Sunshy had boarding, the two split up.
Once he was all out of things to sell, Sunshy went to buy a few enhancements for his Zebra Assault Rifle, such as a scope and a stabilizer. He also had a mechanic re-enhance it so it could fire single shots at a time. While he was at it, the pony got a few armor-piercing rounds.
Trotting along happily, Sunshy was stopped by someone calling out, “Hey, Pegasus!”
In front of him stepped a zebra buck in the armor of Legion front line soldiers. The zebra, upon seeing he had Sunshy’s attention, smirked at him in an alluringly way. “Say, how about you and I find a motel?”
“I don’t under—Oh! You’re flirting with me.” Sunshy fluttered his wings and flew around the zebra. Upon seeing his Glyph mark was two spears crossed, Sunshy landed in front of him. “Can you do any tricks with spears? I mean, other than killing?”
“Uh…yeah, I can.” The zebra had a couple spears mounted on each side atop his saddlebags. He pulled one out and set it down, despite being weirded-out by the pegasus. Then, with a well-placed stomp, the spear flipped end over end in the air. The soldier watched it flip until it was close enough for him to catch in his muzzle.
“Okay, now say…not what you said, that was terrible. Something better, like…” Sunshy tapped his hoof on his chin, trying to think of a pickup line.
“I think I get where you’re going. So, like” The soldier set the spear back down, “…Hey, babe, wanna see my other spear?” Then he flipped it over again and caught it in his mouth.
Sunshy floated to clap his hooves together. “Very good, now you’ll be sure to hook up with someone just as shallow as you.”
The pegasus flew away, leaving the soldier to drop his spear in open-mouthed shock. The close-by fellow soldiers began laughing loudly at his expense. A soldier ran by, shouting that a fight had started over at the coliseum. Almost instantly, all chatter redirected to talking of the fight as everyone made their way to the coliseum.
Appalled at their idea of entertainment, Sunshy made his way back to his hotel room. When he was there, the pony decided to pack his medical supplies and boarding, but wear his Watcher’s coat. As a last-minute thought, the pony slung his Z.A.R. across his back. Once out in the hotel, he heard the muttering of the staff. Even they were talking about the coliseum fight.
Deciding he might as well, once Sunshy was outside, he flew over to the coliseum to see the fight. They might need a medic on hand and this doctor was armed to the teeth with medical supplies. Sunshy flew high up so he could land on the top of the bowl-shaped outdoor arena. What he saw pierced his heart with an icy dagger.
Zen was fighting a zebra mare.
Neither wore boarding. Both held machetes. They were cutting each other up rather badly.
Had Sunshy taken the time to really watch, he would see that Zen had sported only a few rather minor cut while the mare was on her last legs.
However, seeing his lover fight in this coliseum brought back the images of the gore he had seen yesterday. It forced the image of Pretty Cow’s guard gutted on the wall. Sunshy didn’t notice Celly calling out to him from Caesar’s box. His mind was focused only on Zen.
Everyone noticed as a yellow and pink pegasus flew down into the middle of the coliseum. They shouted out and Caesar acted quickly; rising from his throne, he got to the microphone and shouted at the pegasus to leave the fight. Zen dropped his guard to look up at Sunshy diving down, wings folded to speed up his descent. The mare took this opportunity to bite a button on her machete’s handle. The machete lit up with magic electricity.
She charged as Sunshy was landing next to Zen, his wings flaring to slow his descent. He shouted at the pegasus to leave as Caesar shouted for the guards to get that mare out for using an illegal weapon in the fight. Zen finally saw the mare charging at him, and Sunshy was between them. Time slowed as she readied to swing and Sunshy touched down. His wings were still up. So was her magic weapon.
The lightning blade came down.
A resounding soft ‘thump’ was the only sound.
The silence was more deafening than the endless shouts.
Stunned, Sunshy looked down at the ground to his left. There, lying on the dirt, with a pool of blood, was what appeared to be a yellow wing. Funny, it looked so much like his wing.
Caesar was shouting for medics, guards, anyone who could fix this. Most everyone was roused from their stupor and began shouting. There was that background white noise… Zen tried to attack the mare, but she was captured by the Children of Mars and dragged away.
A laughing escaped Sunshy’s throat as he picked up his wing in his hooves. His right hoof stroked the shiny feathers. So soft… even when speckled with blood. Turning his head, he saw the stump left over on his body. The magic weapon had cauterized the wound. Any blood was not his own.
And then a zebra tried to take his wing away.
“That’s mine!!” Sunshy screeched.
The pegasus whipped out his Assault Rifle and stuck the barrel straight into the mouth of the zebra in the red Legion armor. Good, not Zen. So, red was dead.
The Legion soldier’s head flew back as his body caught on fire from the bullet. The body fell to the ground. Sunshy picked up his wing again and sat on his haunches, staring at the thing in his hooves in a trance. A hoof placed itself on the pegasus’s shoulders. Sunshy turned, pointing the barrel of the gun at the throat of Zen. The pegasus held his wing against his chest, despite Zen’s sad expression and sorrow-filled tone of voice. The words were lost.
Another soldier put her hooves on Sunshy. The barrel was pressed to this mare’s head and fired. Her body was engulfed in flame, but she was dead before the enchantment kicked in. Then soldiers swarmed at him en masse, moving Zen away as they did so. With a war cry of his own, Sunshy unleashed a flurry of fiery death.
Soldier after soldier fell before the enchanted weapon. They were creating a circle of flaming bodies around him. He had to stand to fight those behind him, but he kept his wing pressed against his chest by his left hoof. The pony changed magazines too quickly for anyone to get close enough to restrain him. The weapon spread reducer worked its magic, keeping Sunshy’s aim close to home.
Then he was face-to-face with Zen. The zebra had climbed over the bodies, some of which were still burning, that had formed a circle around Sunshy. The Zebra Assault Rifle was pointing right at Zen’s forehead. Taking a step forward, Zen placed the barrel of the gun right between his eyes.
Cerulean blue eyes welled with tears. The gun shook in the grip of his mouth. Zen’s brown eyes remained calm. The rifle dropped from Sunshy’s mouth as the pony cried loudly, lowering his head to his wing against his chest. Something injected him on the neck and he blacked out.
Level up! You are now level 17!
Perk added! Rapid Reload: All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster than normal.