//------------------------------// // Act 1 - Part 7: You Shouldn't Behir // Story: Fallout Equestria: Souls // by JustMoth //------------------------------// Fallout Equestria: Souls Act 1 - Part 7: You Shouldn't Behir Waste Land Survival Lesson 10: “Never go looking for trouble. It’s already looking for you.” “Everypony up, breakfast is on!” Desert cheerfully called out as she carefully poured soup from an old cast iron pot into two dented metal bowls. Since Desert had the last watch of the night, and nothing eventful happened, she had passed the time sifting through the ruins of the collapsed house. Most of it was unusable, but in the remains of the kitchen she did find some old metal dishes and utensils. Lucky thing too, since Hoof had made the classic inexperienced wastelander blunder of not considering everyday pedestrian needs when out in the wilds. It’s all fine and good to be carrying an arsenal and loaded with healing items, but good luck doing much cooking without a pot or a skillet. Up till now, they only had the two small bowls that Blossom took from the underground shelter where she found the soup talisman. “Aww, Mistress. You shouldn’t be doing that.” Colt said rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the back of her hoof. “I should be the one serving you.” “Oh, it’s all right Colt.” The pegasus waved a hoof dismissively. “I was already up anyways, and had some time to kill after watching the sunrise. The clouds turned beautiful pinks and oranges just as the sun was coming up, and the sparkling on the horizon was really pretty!” “Sparkling?” Colt asked confused. “You know, that patch of sparkles you can sometimes see in the distance just as the sun is coming up or down. What is that called?” Colt just stared blankly at the pegasus. I had no idea what she was talking about either. Whatever she saw was too far out of my sphere of view. Well, anyways.” Desert said with a smile. “I also wanted to do something to thank you for last night.” “What about last night?” Hoof joined the conversation as he sleepily trotted over to the dwindling campfire. “Oh! It I was nothing. Nothing at all!” Colt quickly said nervously. “It was far from nothing.” Blossom said firmly. “I haven’t felt this good in… Well, as long as I can remember, which is just over a week.” Hoof raised an eyebrow as Colt frantically tried to explain. “No… it wasn’t… I didn’t really do anything…” “Nonsense, you were positively glowing afterwards! Thinking how much I had in me… just makes me shiver.” Desert said with a shiver, like she described. If I didn’t know just how clueless Desert is to this kind of thing, I would suspect she was intentionally wording it that way just to watch Colt squirm. Odd that the blue mare is getting so flustered over these unintentional innuendos. From the stories she was telling yesterday, she’s completely open about all matters sexual. A bit hypocritical for her to be sensitive about her own reputation. Colt’s eyes were looking around frantically for some kind of distraction. “It’s not like that. I mean. What Mistress means is…” “Ugh!” Hoof groaned, rolling his eyes. “Can you two hold off on the whole gay routine until after breakfast? That way, I’ll at least have something to throw up.” Really Second? You don’t even like filly foolers? What straight stallion could be against two mares getting it on? Perhaps you’re really one of those top secret robots that look just like a pony that I’ve heard stories about… “Oh! Right, it’s a gay thing!” Colt said, suddenly relaxing, and letting out an unconvincing laugh. “He’s right Mistress, we’ve teased him enough already, let’s not talk about that anymore.” She ended by giving a pleading look to the pegasus. “O...K…” Blossom said confused. She’s not the only one. If Colt doesn’t care about what Desert said being misconstrued as filly fooling, then what was she getting so nervous about? Desert pushed two bowls of soup towards the unicorns. “Well, dig in. I tried something different this time.” Hoof levitated his bowl up warily, while Colt eagerly floated hers and took a sip. “Wow Mistress, this is really good.” The young mare proclaimed. Shrugging at the endorsement, Hoof took a sip and his eyes widened. “Hey, that’s actually rather good. It’s sweeter than the talisman’s soup is normally, and it helps that it’s warm.” The yellow pegasus beamed. “I mixed a can of apples into the soup and heated it over what’s left of the fire.” Colt took a large gulp, draining the rest of her bowl, and then wiped her muzzle with a hoof. “Mmm.. zesty!” Blossom suddenly froze in the middle of pouring a bowl of soup for herself, her eyes going wide. “What?” “The soup has a nice kick to it at the end, sort of like… Umm, you’re spilling your soup mistress.” Blossom relaxed just as suddenly as she tense up and quickly stopped filling her overflowing bowl. “Oh, that taste was an accident. I think one for the spark batteries is leaking.” Hoof immediately spat out the mouthful of soup he was in the middle of drinking. “Oh, that’s where I knew that taste from!” Colt nodded her head. “One of the ponies in my clan used a bit of spark battery juice in his moonshine recipe.” She then turned to Hoof, who looked like he was trying to induce vomiting. “Oh relax, ya big baby. If you don’t go blind in the next hour you’ll be fine!” “I would like to find some other ingredients that would change the flavor, if we can.” Desert said as she leaned down to take a sip of soup from the bowl on the ground. The pony that invented tables had to be an earth pony, it’s so much easier to eat and drink things when they are at chest height. On the other hoof, whoever invented the fork had to be a unicorn… What’s the point of a utensil made for picking up food that can only be used by ponies that can just as easily pick the food up with telekinesis? Were they worried about getting their magic dirty? “Hmm, a bit of salt and spices would help.” Colt agreed. “But what this soup really needs is some meat!” Hoof groaned to himself. “The raider is a carnivore, quel surprise.” “Ferme ta gueule!” Colt spat back, and then smirked at his blank response. “Ha, looks like I know more Fancy than Piezo.” Just how many languages did she pick up in that raider camp, and does she know more than swear words? “Ummm…” Desert interrupted the two unicorns glaring at each other. “Can ponies eat meat?” Hoof’s “No!” came at the same time as Colt’s “Yes!” They returned to glaring at each other until Hoof sighed in defeat. “Technically, yes. Ponies can digest a small amount of meat.” The merchant rolled his eyes and then looked pointedly at Colt. “But it can’t be the major part of their diet.” “Spoken like a pony that’s never been stranded in the darker parts of Equestria.” Colt rolled her eyes right back at him. “Can’t be all picky about diet when all there is to eat are rad-roach, rats and…” “Did you say we can eat rats?!” Desert interrupted with a downright maniacal look in her eyes. “Yeah, but they’re not all that tasty. Rad-hog, now that’s a tasty…” “Ha ha! Who’s atop the food chain now vermin?!” Blossom called out to the wasteland. She’s never going to give that whole ‘revenge on rat-kind’ up is she? If she was around 100 years ago and wronged by a zebra, we probably would have won the war with her tenacity alone. The vengeful pegasus turned back to Colt. “Keep an eye out for any signs of rats while we travel. With luck, tonight we’ll dine on rat soup!” “Ugh. I’ll stick to battery acid flavor.” Hoof objected, and was completely ignored by the mares. “Aye, aye, Mistress!” Colt stood at attention. “It’s been a while since Mulberry and I were on a hunt.” “Mullberry?” Desert tilted her head questioningly at Colt. She mentioned a Mulberry yesterday too, didn’t she? “Six griffin mercs attacked my clan one time. And the best of them carried this.” The young unicorn floated the large spiked handled knife from her fore-leg holster. “He took a swipe at me but overreached, so I bit down on his arm hard enough to break the hollow bone. I then telekinetically grabbed his crippled talon, still holding the knife, and made him stab himself in the heart.” Colt then gave a prideful grin. “It is my very favourite knife. I call it Mulberry.” “Wow.” Blossom said in awe. “I’m not sure what a Griffin is, but that’s a much cooler story than how I got Soldier.” Now I guess it was Colt’s turn to look confused. “Soldier?” “Yeah, it’s the name of the super powerful zebra gun that I found.” The yellow nodded her head. “Which we still have no idea how it even works.” Second added, rolling his eyes. “Oh? Can I see it?” Colt said as her ears perked up. Hoof gave and exasperated sigh and floated out the gun that I was tied to. The unicorn mare then snatched it out of his magic grip with her own silvery glow. “Hey, be careful with that!” Second protested. Colt examined the gun all over for a few seconds and then deadpanned. “It’s made of wood.” After a moment of thought she face hoofed. “C.Z. told you this was super powerful and mystical, didn’t he?” “Umm, yeah…” Hoof answered hesitantly. “C.Z . loves to mess with ponies’ preconceptions that all zebras have some kind of access to mysterious powers and wisdom.” Colt rolled her eyes. “Looks like he fooled you guys too. This thing is probably just some zebra foal’s toy.” Now it was Seconds turn to face hoof. “I should have guess as much after his trick with monster naming.” While that does fit with what little I know about Colourful’s personality, it certainly doesn’t explain how the hay I was killed by a toy gun or why I’m now stuck following it around. Then again, these three ponies don’t even know I’m here. “Any ways.” Colt said with a shrug. “Since it belongs to Mistress Blossom, it should be with her.” She then floated the red gun over to Desert and placed it in one of her wing-cover pocket before turning back to Second. “Have anything else belonging to Mistress Blossom? You know, just in case you get the hairball notion that you’ll be better off ditching us.” Hmm, was that a warning or a suggestion? “Just the remains of her duster, there wasn’t even enough left for Lavender Rain to patch up.” Hoof said with a shrug and levitated the burnt pile of burlap out of his saddle bags and tossed it to Colt. “Now, we need to be heading out soon.” “Just where are we heading anyways?” Colt asked as she stuffed the ex-duster into her own saddle bags. “Manehattan. I have some… uh, trader type business to do there.” Hoof answered hesitantly. Really believable performance there Hoof. More likely you’re going back home to Tenpony to feed your cat, or visit the Spa to get your mane done. “Well that works out well.” Colt said casually. “There’s a Sinister Plot safe house just past Red Hoof turf in that direction, we can take a break when we get there.” “Hey, maybe we can meet some of your clan there!” Desert said with a smile. “Yeah… maybe.” Colt didn’t sound like her normal perky self when she said it. ~~~***~~~ Since the red gun was put into Blossom’s pocket, I figured I’d finally be able to hear some of Colt’s stories to completion, but no such luck. The blue unicorn seemed to be rather quiet the whole morning as they walked, barely even responding when Desert tried to start up conversations. By the time they finally reached the safe house, just after noon, I was almost ready for one of Second’s history lessons just to break the silence. “You sure this is the right place? Doesn’t look much like a raider base.” Hoof asked skeptically as they approached the nondescript two story building from the side. I was wondering that too. It looked like it was some kind of inn or tavern at some point, and was the only intact structure in the area, but nothing I could see really made me think that this was actually a home for raiders. Say what will about the Cleaners or your average ‘savage’ raider, at least you could recognize their bases and keep far away. “That’s the point Piezo.” Colt rolled her eyes. “This place is meant as somewhere that clan members can hide out and rest without drawing attention to their location. Places like this are usually used by scouts or members that get separated from a raiding party. There’s a marker at the front that shows other clans that this is our turf, but your average wastelander pony would just think is graffiti.” As they walked around to the front of the building Colt stopped in her tracks. “Why is your clan’s marker a giant red hoof mark?” Desert asked curiously as she looked at the large, hastily painted, hoof print on a wall beside the door. “It’s not.” Colt replied in a low angry tone and floated out her large knife. “The gorram Red Hooves think they can just set up shop. They need to be taught otherwise.” Second shrugged. “As fun as taking part in a raider turf war sounds, I think we should just keep moving on.” “But what if some of Colt’s brothers are still inside and need our help?” Blossom asked the stallion. “No.” Colt shook her head. “Those red painted losers would never have gotten past the front door if any of my clan were around. The place must have been empty when they moved in.” Suddenly the sound of gunshots came from inside the building. “It sounds like somepony is fighting in there!” Desert said startled. “It’s probably just the raiders target practising.” Second waved his hoof dismissively. “Ha!” Colt whinnied. “If the Red Hooves ever practised shooting they wouldn’t be as much as a joke as they are. No, somepony else must be in there too. Which makes the perfect distraction for us to strike back.” “Well you two can charge in, knife and wooden gun blazing, but I’m going to continue on to Manehattan.” Hoof said, oddly happily, and began to trot away. Was he really fine leaving two practically unarmed mares take on a building full of raiders? There was the sound of more gunshots. Blossom turned to Hoof. “What about how you keep saying that ponies should help each other? There are ponies in there that might need our help.” That stopped the merchant. He ground his teeth together in frustration for a moment before stomping back to the two mares. “Arrg! Fine.” Hoof spat and floated out a rifle and a shot gun from his saddle bag. “But I’m only doing this to help whoever is in there shooting up raider scum. NOT to help Colts stupid blood feud.” Well, I have to admire that Hoof is sticking to his morals, even if Desert had to remind him of them, despite the clear danger of the situation. Colt slowly opened the front door as the three of them trotted up to the house. “It sounds like the fighting is on the first floor.” Hoof said as more gunshots rang out. “I’ll take all the guns and check it out, while you two take all the crazy and cover the second floor.” Desert nodded silently as Colt stuck her tongue out at Second. The two mares quietly climbed the staircase near the front door as Hoof snuck out of my field of view towards the sounds of gunfire. The stairs lead up into a hall with several doors on either side. On the far end a door was partly open, and I could hear voices coming from inside. As Colt and Desert crept up to the doorway, my sphere of view came close enough to see into the room. Four stallions, one unicorn and three earth ponies, were lounging around talking. They all wore basic leather barding, and the only distinguishing feature was that each one had their front right hoof painted red. I guess that’s what their name refers to. “Hey, since we’re doing all this expanding, I was thinking that we might wanna change our hook.” A thin black raider with a dirty green mane was saying. “We’re in the big leagues now, and one painted hoof isn’t gonna cut it.” “What did you have in mind?” A short blue stallion said while taking a sip from a whisky bottle. “Three painted hooves?” “No…” The black raider rolled his eyes. “I was thinking, since we’re mostly stallions, we could up the anarchy and call ourselves the Guys of Chaos!” “Three problems with that.” The third earth pony, a dark yellow older stallion in glasses, spoke up while resting on a couch. “First, the higher ups in the clan would never go for it. Second, chaos is the realm of Discord and every clan that tried to use Discord as a hook have wound up dead in some hilariously ironic fashion. Third, if Needle Poke hears you made a sexist suggestion like that, she’ll make it so that you’re no longer one of the guys.” This last point made the black earth pony cringe while the blue one whinnied with laughter, the grey unicorn in the corner just quietly nodded and drank his beer. The dark yellow raider sounded intelligent (I’m a sucker for lists), and was rather attractive, shame he was a raider… and me being dead and all. “Ok, it sounds like there are three of them in there.” Colt whispered to Desert as they crouched beside the doorway. “This should be no problem.” No wait! There are four in there, the last one is… “Wait, there are four in there.” Desert quickly whispered. How in Equestria did she… “According to the red marks my Pip-Buck shows me, there are two on that side.” Blossom pointed a hoof at the wall in the direction of the dark yellow and black raiders. “And two on this side.” Pointing towards where the blue stallion and grey unicorn were. Oh yeah, I forgot that Blossom could do that with her Pip-Buck. Hmm, I wonder if the Pip-Buck has the same kind of sphere of perception as I do. Would be creepy to think that every Pip-Buck actually used mysterious ghost powers. “Thanks Mistress.” Colt beamed. “We make a great team.” She then took a small peek past the door frame and floated Mulberry into the room, low to the ground, and behind the couch the dark yellow stallion was resting on. “Speaking about the bitch…” The blue stallion continued. “Shouldn’t she and Boot Licker be back from dealing with our little intruders by now?” “You don’t suppose…” The black earth pony said nervously. “That it’s the Plot, do you?” “Can’t be, Boot said that they had a little filly with them.” The pony in glasses said with a wave of his hoof. “Besides, all of the Sinister Plot were taken to the Cleaners months ago.” “You better be right.” The black raider said uneasily. “I have no interest in getting my rump rammed by one of those freaks.” “Oh, I doubt you boys would have to worry about that.” Colt said in a sultry voice as she entered into the room, swishing her tail slowly. Wow. While she was a little too young to pull off the seduction act, at least in my opinion, Colt sure caught them off guard. “None of my clan would waste their time plowing the likes of you.” The light blue mare continued as her horn glowed faintly. “They might catch a nasty disease, like red-hoof, or something. “Who in the hoof is this?” The blue earth pony said as he set his bottle of whisky down on a table. “I’m Colt of the Sinister Plot.” Colt purred as she flicked her tail past the face of the sitting dark yellow raider. “And I guess I’ll just have to buck with you myself.” The raider in glasses raised an eyebrow at this, but then his eyes went wide as Colt’s back legs suddenly bucked backwards, smashing into his cute face. What a waste. At the same moment, Colt’s knife flew out from behind the couch and sliced deeply across the neck of the black pony. He barely let out a gurgle before dropping to the floor. The two ponies on the other side of the room took half a second to process what just happened, which gave Colt just enough time to telekinetically fling Mulberry across the room and embed it into the blue raider’s skull. The grey unicorn raider floated up a nearby shotgun and Colt dove behind the couch for cover just as he began to opened fire. If the dark yellow raider on the couch wasn’t already dead from Colt’s buck, he certainly was now. The glow of Colt’s horn and around her knife grew brighter, but the blade remained stuck inside the blue raider’s face. After nearly lifting the raider’s whole head up, the silvery glow switched to surround the nearby whisky bottle. “Hey now, calm down.” Colt popped her head up from behind the couch. “Have a drink!” Before the grey raider could get another shot off, the whisky bottle flew across the room and smashed into his horn. The impact, and getting glass and whisky in his eyes I bet, caused the stallion to lose his magic grip on the shotgun. Colt leapt out from behind the couch and tackled the stallion onto his back, much like what she did to Second yesterday. This time though, one of her back hooves landed firmly on his crotch and both her fore-hooves pressed deeply into his neck. The Red Hoof raider struggled desperately to breath for several horrible seconds before falling limp. I don’t know if he’s dead or just unconscious, but Second certainly got off easy that other time. Taking a moment to look at her hoof work, Colt walked over to the dead blue raider. “And that’s…” She bent over and grabbed the handle of her knife, spikes out, in her mouth. Putting her forehooves on the dead body, she wrenched the blade out of the pony’s face with a disgusting sound, then floated it up beside her. “The other reason you don’t want the Sinister Plot bucking with you.” “COLT!” Desert called out. Oh no! I was focusing so much on the fight that I wasn’t paying attention to Blossom… “It’s ok Mistress. You can come…” Colt turned to see that a large unicorn stallion was holding the yellow mare hostage with a revolver pointed at her head. “Impressive work Plotter.” The red stallion said in a deep voice. “Now toss that rad-hog sticker to the ground or your little friend here gets a few extra orifices.” “Fat chance Hoofy. I can kill you before you even know you’re dead.” Colt replied in a dangerous low voice. Wait, that threat doesn’t even make any sense. “Do it Colt!” Desert said in a scared voice as the gun pressed harder against the side of her head. Colt let out a growl of frustration. “Yes, Mistress…” and stopped the magic round the knife, letting it clatter to the ground. “Stupid move, Plotter.” The stallion said with a sneer as he turned the revolver towards colt. “NO!” Blossom called out as she spread her wings, knocking the raider stallion aside just as he fired. The bullet tore right through Colt’s chest at an angle and came out through her shoulder, dropping her to the ground. Desert ran from the stunned stallion and knelt on the floor by Colt, pressing a hoof to the chest wound to slow the bleeding. “Heh, a pegasus eh?” The Red Hoof raider sneered as he walked over to the two mares. “I’m going to have fun with you. Maybe the Plotter bitch too if she doesn’t bleed out by the time I’m done.” The hay you will! ARRG! If I was alive, you wouldn’t be! Where the hoof is Hoof? “Since that would only take you 30 seconds, I think I can last that long.” Colt sneered as blood dripped from her mouth. “But you’re not going to get the chance.” The blue mare’s horn glowed weakly as her magic surrounded Mulberry. The red stallion brought his painted hoof (what’s the point if it’s already red?) down on the flat part of the knife. Colt grunted as the glow around her horn grew stronger. “What’s wrong Plotter?” the stallion grinned as he continued to stand on the knife. “Your magic not strong enough to lift the Red Hoof?” “It’s strong enough to lift a shotgun.” Colt grunted in pain. “Well too bad my Red Hoof is heavier than a…” CLICK The red stallion turned his head to see the grey unicorn’s shotgun floating right at his face in a silvery glow. “You’ve been Dispatched!” Colt grunted in a terrible Sylvester Stallion impression. BANG The stallion’s head was blasted apart in a horribly satisfying way. Now Blossom just needs to find some kind of healing… Did Colt just quote me? I’ve never told anyone about my idea of Dispatch being a badass mercenary, and I was just thinking about that last night. No way could this be a coincidence… “Why did you drop Mulberry?” Blossom asked Colt as she tried to stop the shoulder wound from bleeding with her other hoof, tears begging to well up in her eyes. Oh, right! Focus on critically injured mare first, mysteries of the afterlife can wait. “You ordered me to do it, Mistress. I had to follow your command.” Colt said weakly. “I meant for you to do the whole ‘kill him before he knows he’s dead’ thing!” Colt looked wide eyed at the yellow pegasus for a moment before giving a little laugh. “Sorry Mistress, my mistake.” Her laugh was cut short as she coughed up blood. “Hold on!” Blossom pleaded. “I’ll see if we have any healing items.” After dumping out the contents of Colt’s saddle bags, Desert turned back to the already paling blue mare. “No good, Second must have all out healing stuff.” “That’s a bloody stupid idea.” Colt grunted weakly I agree! One of my Waste Land Survival Lesson even addresses that. “This will have to do for now.” Blossom said quickly as she took the remains of her old Duster and started tearing it into strips. With the help of Colt’s fading magic, she started to wrap the strips around the wounds. ~~~***~~~ “Wait here and I’ll go find Second!” Desert said as she finished binding the blue mare tight enough to slow the bleeding a little, and then galloped out of the room. As she ran towards the stairs, the sound of a high pitched shriek came from a room at the other end of the hall, followed by loud wet explosion. “Second!” Blossom called out. Oh be fair to the stallion! His screams are not that high pitched. That sounded more like a little filly. Blossom buck open the door of that room the scream came from. There was blood everywhere! Gore dripped from the ceiling, fragments of bones were embedded into the floor, and scraps of hide were splattered against the far wall. Ugh! This room really makes me hate this omnipresent perspective! There was no scorch marks or signs what could have done this, but all the pony bits spread out from a centre point in a cone like pattern. It looked like someone blew up a pony like a grenade, not with a grenade, but the pony itself was the grenade. At the far end of the room, where the pony explosion looks to have originated, was a small cream coloured filly with a lavender mane. She was facing away from the blast with a blank look of horror in her eyes. The only blood on her was around her hindquarters. Just what the hay happened in here?! “Oh, hi.” Blossom said in a friendly voice. “Do you have any healing items?” DOES NOTHING FAZE THIS MARE?! The little filly turned around in surprise at Blossom. “Or have you seen my friend Second Hoof? He’s a stallion, dark olive coat, average height?” Just then a bloody chunk of lavender skin fell from the ceiling, landing in front of Desert’s hooves. “Oh good, this wasn’t him.” The stable pony sighed in relief. The filly seemed to finally snap out of her shock and began to look frantically around the room. Her little horn then glowed as a nearby tiny set of bloody saddle bags were lifter in the same golden glow. She quickly levitated them to herself and placed them across her back, covering her little wings, but the bags were so slick with blood that they just slipped off. Wait. What?! “Oh, you don’t need to hide your wings from me.” Desert said quickly, and stretched her wings out from under the side pocket flaps of her jumpsuit. “See? I’m a pegasus too.” She then added cheerfully “We can be pegasisters!” Umm, Desert. She’s not a pegasus. That’s an alicorn! How can an alicorn be here? There are no other alicorns, Celestia and Luna were the last ones, and they died a hundred years ago! Suddenly two stallions ran into the room, sliding to a sudden stop on the blood covered floor. One of them was a tall, lanky, purple unicorn with a midnight blue mane. He wore a simple brown jacket with several pockets and a badge with the silhouette of a running pony on each shoulder. He didn’t look that old, mid twenty-ish, but there were stray strands of silver hair running through his mane and tail. Also, he wore a wide jewel covered ring on his horn, and his cutie mark was of a bold green arrowhead. The other was rather the opposite. He was a short, stocky, brass coloured earth pony with… no mane? Strange. He wore black leather barding, which looked like it was reinforced in several places, and had an emblem of a white hoof print inside a circle on the chest. On his left forehoof was what looked like an old shackle, without the chain, and his cutie mark was… He didn’t even have one. Wait, he didn’t have a brass coloured coat, that was his tanned skin. This pony is really, really, bald! No wonder I couldn’t see his cutie mark, they only form on a pony’s coat. Neither of them had red paint on their hooves, so I at least they’re not more raiders. This day just keeps getting more and more weird. “Celly, are you all right?” The Tall unicorn asked, looking around at the state of the room. “Yeah.” The filly said with a nod. “A raider came out of nowhere and grabbed me from behind. I just reacted without thinking and…” The alicorn filly suddenly stopped when she looked over at Desert, who still had her wings out and was staring wide eyed at the bald pony, finished in an exaggerated foal-like voice. “An I wus so ascared that I don’t know wut happened next.” The bald stallion face hoofed with a groan. “Can the filly act Celly. The mare already saw your wings, and I doubt she’s much of a threat to us. Remember that talk we had about the importance of honesty?” “Hottest tea? Mmm that sounds good right about now.” Colt’s voice slurred as she staggered into the room. Her mane, tail, and cutie mark were now a pale yellow. The lanky unicorn looked down at the blue mare. “You shouldn’t be up so quickly.” “Ah, can’t rest. Ah need to find my mississterest.” Colt responded. “She’s a pweety yellow pegasuasus.” “No, I mean that you shouldn’t even be able to stand yet, those potions don’t work that fast.” The purple unicorn said in confusion. Desert finally pulled her attention away from the bald pony and noticed that her young slave was in the room. “Colt! You’re ok!” Yeah, ok, other than apparently drunk off her flank. “Oh! Thar you are misstersses!” Colt smiled at the pegasus, and then she must have noticed the alicorn filly, who I gather is named Celly. “Ooh! You founds an alicon!” Colt stumbled towards the filly, rambling excitedly. “You’re just like the goddesessess. Are you a princess too? I’d love to comb your hair, it’s so beautiful! Can I be your best friend? Your wings are so pretty. Let’s fly to your castle, you can light the way!” Celly took a step back and looked at the inebriated mare, most likely trying to process what the hay she just said. “uhh, Sure…” “Spectacular!” Colt declared, and then passed out. “You gave her one of Confection’s special healing potions didn’t you?” Celly said in a dry tone to the tall stallion. “Two actually.” The stallion replied sheepishly. “We found her in another room, surrounded by dead Red Hooves, and bleeding out quickly. Since she didn’t have a red hoof, we figured that she wasn’t a raider.” Reasonable assumption, but technically wrong… “Then we heard you scream, so we left two bottles with her. She lost a lot of blood, but they shouldn’t have worked so fast, or so strongly.” “What’s so special about those potions?” Desert asked, staring again at the bald stallion. Heh, I think I now have an idea why Blossom’s wings are still extended like that. Settle down filly, you could put an eye out with one of those. “Confection, the mare that makes them up, adds a rather sizable amount of alcohol to the mixture.” The tall pony answered. “I take it that you’re the pony she was looking for?” Desert nodded absently, and then her ears suddenly perked up. “Oh! I was also with a stallion named Second hoof, dark olive coat, average height. Have you seen him?” “Yeah, we met him down stairs.” The bald pony replied. “He saved our flanks. We were pinned down in the kitchen behind a table by some crazed foul mouthed raider and her filly who were armed to the teeth. Then this stallion just strolls in dual wielding a shotgun and rifle like they were nothing and takes the mare out. He didn’t kill the filly though, just sent her running with a warning shot across the flank. Not many ponies would give a raider foal a second chance like that.” Hard to picture Hoof being heroic like that. More likely he stumbled on them by mistake, got a lucky shot on the mare and then just missed the filly. Desert didn’t argue the point though. Mainly since her eyes were glossed over ever since the bald pony mentioned Hoof saving ‘his flank’. “Then, while helping us make sure the rest of the ground floor was clear, he came across an old memory orb.” The bald pony continued. “For some reason he thought that it was a fine time, being in a raider base and all, to check out what was inside. Kind of a strange friend you have there, dispensing with raiders like it was nothing one moment, and then sticking his head into orbs like a fool the next.” Now that sounds a lot more like the Second Hoof I know. “Must have been a rather interesting orb.” The tall stallion chuckled. “We waited a few minutes for him to come out of it, but then we noticed that he getting rather… excited by whatever the memory was. So we let him have his privacy.” Oh my… I wonder if the contents of that orb were… “AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” Second’s scream echoed from down stairs, sounding a lot like the scream he woke up with last night. ~~~***~~~ After Celly levitated the still sleeping Colt down stairs, all the ponies met up with a still shaken Second in the kitchen, and proper introductions were exchanged while Desert started setting up her soup talisman. Turns out that the bald pony with skin like brass is named Brass Tacks, and the tall pony with the midnight blue and silver mane is called Star Mane. They must have had some unimaginative parents. “I can’t believe that you’re really an alicorn. Where are you from? Are there others like you?” Second asked Celly in amazement. He seemed to be even more interested in her than Desert was of Brass. I’m just glad that it doesn’t seem to be for the same reason. She may be an alicorn, but she’s still a foal! “I have no Idea.” Celly said with a sigh. “I don’t have any memories of where I came from or how I got here. I’m actually travelling with Brass and Star to try and find out about my past.” “Hey, you’re just like me.” Desert chimed in. “I don’t have any memories of my past either.” “It’s nothing like you Desert.” Hoof snapped back. “Celly’s actually trying to recover her lost memories, like any normal pony would do.” “Desert?” Star Mane asked. “I thought her name was Mistress.” Oh, I bet she would swoon if Brass called her that. “No, that’s just what Colt calls her.” Second waved his hoof dismissively. “She’s calling herself Desert Blo..” “Actually…” Desert interrupted, blushing a little and facing Brass Tacks. “My real name is Lemon Zest.” “Lemon Frisk?” Colt asked groggily, finally waking up. Her mane and cutie mark had faded back to clear. “No, Zest.” The yellow pegasus corrected. “Not this again.” Second groaned and buried his face in his hooves. I sort of agree. All of this name changing is getting a little confusing. “I mean it this time.” Lemon protested. “Brass said that honesty is important, and that’s honestly what my name is. My Pip-Buck told me so.” Well, I hope that means she plans to stick to it. It’s a little unoriginal for a yellow pony to be called Lemon, but I guess it fits better than Rock Flower. “Well I think it’s a pretty name Mistress.” Colt gave a weak smile and then groaned. “Ugh, my head. Just what was in those healing potions? Last thing I member was seeing little alicorns.” “Just for the record.” Celly said with a smirk to Colt. “I’m not a princess, and I don’t have a castle. At least, I don’t think so.” Colt covered her head with her hooves, not that it did much good, she was blushing up to her ears. “Nearly killed by a Red Hoof, acted like an idiot in front of a real live alicorn, and topped off by a hangover. How could this day get worse?” “Hey, at least you’re alive.” Star said with a smile. “Yeah.” Colt lifted her head up and looked over to Star Mane and Brass Tacks. “I somewhat recall that I have you two to thank for…” She stopped suddenly with a look of absolute terror on her face. “CLEANER!!!” In an instant Colt was leaping across the kitchen towards Brass Tacks, Mulberry already unsheathed and flying ahead of her. The look on her face was no of total rage and hate. A golden glow surrounded her and she stopped in midair, the tip of her knife almost touching the bald pony’s nose. Star Mane exhaled sharply. “Nice catch Celly.” Brass, who didn’t even flinch when Colt attacked, just looked the blue mare in the eyes, and said in a deadly serious tone. “I am not a cleaner.” Colt just struggled and raged, trying to move in the magic glow that held her. “COLT!” Zest said in a scolding tone. “Brass is our friend. You’re not allowed to attack him!” With that order the fire in Colt’s eyes died down and she seemed to deflate. “Yes Mistress.” She finally said. What a weird turn of events. Why in Equestria did Colt think Brass was a Cleaner? Seeing that the situation was resolved, Celly lowered Colt down to the ground and released her magical grip on her. That was some rather impressive levitation for a little filly, maybe it’s an alicorn thing. Colt just walked over to a corner and sat on her haunches, muttering to herself. “Don’t worry about it.” Second waved his hoof dismissively while addressing Brass. “She threatened to kill me twice yesterday.” He then turned back to Celly. “No memory huh? So I guess you can’t shed any light on the Four Hooves group?” “Wasn’t that the group running the fighting tournament you won a few years back?” Star asked Celly. “No, that was the Clover Hooves society.” Celly shook her head. “What a waste of time that was. They couldn’t fulfill my wish of telling me who I am.” Brass gave a chuckle. “I heard that after your match they added a rule that it’s now illegal to pick the whole top of the tower and drop it on your opponent.” “The Four Hooves group equinitarian organization designed to maintain public moral for most of the war.” Celly explained to her two friends. “It was run by a representative of each of the four kinds of ponies.” She then turned back to Hoof. “And no, as far as I was able to uncover, I wasn’t the alicorn member.” “Colour me impressed.” Second said in awe. “Very few ponies these days know anything about the group.” “For a while it was my main lead to who I was.” Celly sighed. “There’s no record of me in any orb, data file, or terminal in all of Equestria. The same was true of the Four Hooves alicorn, so it looked like a strong possibly. But after a decade of following leads, I’ve determined that it had to have been a full grown alicorn, if there was one at all.” “Hmm, That would make sense…” Hoof thought, and then looked puzzled. “Wait, you searched for a decade? How old are you?” “I’ll skip the joke about never asking a mare her age.” Celly rolled her eyes. “My memory goes back about 50 years, and I’ve been trying to find out who I am for the last half of that, anything before is a white blur.” Wow, she’s nearly as old as I am. Shame she looks like a filly… “You look good for your age.” Zest said earnestly. “Thanks.” Celly chuckled. “So Second, what made you ask about the Four Hooves group? Most ponies ask if I’m related to the princesses first.” “Oh, it’s just relates to a theory I’m working on. The pegasus of many names over there…” Second pointed a hoof at Zest. “Somehow has a founding member medallion of the Four Hooves Group.” Zest pulled out the medallion from under her jumpsuit and proudly showed it off to Brass. “And I… umm… recently came across another historical artifact relating to the group.” Hoof said a little embarrassed as Star Mane tried to stifle a laugh. “You being part of the group would have gone a long way towards proving my theory.” Colt seemed to be thoroughly disinterested in all the academic talk, and floated out of her saddle bags a small bottle filled with a clear liquid. “Umm, what is that?” Star mane asked, pointing to the round bottle. “It’s water.” Colt said with a glare. “For my hangover.” “It’s in one of Confection’s healing potion bottles…” The purple unicorn observed. Wait. Did she use her detox spell to absorb the healing magic and alcohol directly out of the potion, leaving only water? No wonder she got both healed and smashed so quickly. “I refilled it.” Colt said evasively. “When? You’ve been with us the whole time.” Star raised an eyebrow in suspicion. “When you weren’t looking.” Colt said hastily. “That’s my special talent. I can turn invisible if nopony is looking at me, that’s why my cutie mark is clear.” Lemon looked puzzled at Colt “But I though your talent was hea…” “MISTRESS!” Colt snapped. “We need to talk in the other room. Now!” The young blue mare stomped out of the kitchen with the confused pegasus following behind. Since Zest still had the red gun, my sphere of perception went with them. “What exactly is the relationship between those two?” I heard Celly asked confused as she blurred away. “Complicated.” Was Hoof’s only reply. ~~~***~~~ “Is something wrong Colt?” Zest asked after Colt closed the door to the room they entered. It looked like some kind of game room, with a moldy pool table and an old jukebox. “You’ve been acting odd all day.” Colt hesitated, looking unsure of what to say. “Mistress, I know it’s not my place to ask you to do things for me, but this is something very important.” “It’s ok Colt, what do you want me to do?” Zest said earnestly. “Don’t ever tell anypony what my special talent really is.” Colt sighed. “What?” Zest looked confused. “Why not? It’s a wonderful talent.” “That’s the problem.” The blue unicorn grimaced. “It’s too wonderful.” Zest blinked in surprise. “I don’t understand. How it that a problem?” “You’re new to the wasteland Mistress. You haven’t seen the terrible things that ponies are capable of.” Colt began pacing around the pegasus as she spoke. “I’ve seen ponies steal, fight, and kill just for a pouch of rad-away or a vial of anti-venom. Now just think what some ponies would do to get their hooves on a pony that could instantly cure sickness, poison, and radiation.” Lemon’s eyes went wide in realization. To be honest, I didn’t even think about that. No wonder she was so evasive this morning. “Yeah.” Colt stopped and gave a long sigh. “I don’t want to become a slave to a cruel master, somepony who would force me to use my talent until I died from it.” The young mare looked Zest in the eyes. “That’s one of the reasons that I chose to be one of C.Z.’s slaves. He has security measures in place to not only protect his slaves from other slavers, but also from bad masters. I figured it would be better to be a protected slave with a kind master like you, than to be free and targeted by the horrible kind of slaver.” I guess that makes sense for a young mare on her own, but doesn’t she belong to an army of colt cuddling raiders? “I understand what you’re saying Colt, but Brass and the others aren’t like that. You can trust them.” Colt rolled her eyes. “You don’t know that, you just met them. Even if they are good ponies, who’s to say that they wouldn’t let it slip accidentally to the wrong pony. Then that pony tells an even worse pony, and that pony hires a bunch of really good mercenaries…” Colt began waving her for hooves in the air as she talked faster. “And they track us down one night and kill all of you in your sleep and then sell me off to the highest bidder!” She then dropped her hooves to catch her breath. “No, the fewer ponies that know, the safer we all are.” “Ok…” Lemon said resignedly. “But even Second?” Colt let out a harsh whinny of laughter. “Especially not Second. I don’t trust that stallion, and neither should you. He’s scheming something, I’ve seen it in his eyes.” “Oh Colt, you need to trust ponies more.” Zest laughed and tussled the younger mare’s mane with her hoof. Colt just stared flatly back at the pegasus. “Fine, I promise not to tell anypony else about your ability.” Lemon agreed, lowering her hoof. “But you have to promise me something in return.” “You do know Mistress…” Colt smirked. “That I have to do whatever you command.” “This isn’t a command or an order.” Lemon clarified. “It’s something I would like you to do freely.” Colt looked surprised. “What is it?” “I want you to promise me that you’ll try to get along with Brass and his friends.” “Get along with that….” Colt started angrily, but then softened when she looked into Zest’s pleading eyes. “… Fine! I’ll be nicer to them, but you might not want to tell them I’m with the Sinister Plot.” “Why not?” “They seem the type that would kill raiders on sight, given that they were shooting Red Hooves when we found them, so they might try to kill me if they knew my allegiances. If that happened, I’m going to exercise my Celestia given right to try and kill them right back.” Given that Brass and Star had to be saved from a mare and filly by Hoof, I wouldn’t give them much of a chance in a fight against Colt. As long as Celly doesn’t just stop her in her tracks again… “I guess that’s fair.” Lemon nodded. “Your talent and background will be our little secret.” ~~~***~~~ When the two mares returned to the kitchen, the three stallions were huddled around the kitchen table, looking at some maps and sheets of papers with calculations. Oooh, looks like really riveting stuff… “So, what was all that about?” Hoof asked as they walked in. “Oh, I just needed to talk to Mistress about my estrous cycle.” Colt answered casually. Hoof instantly coughed in surprise while Brass and Star became very focused on whatever it is they were looking at on the table. “Ha! Typical stallions.” Colt laughed. “They get all awkward as soon as you bring up a mare’s plumbing. Isn’t that right Celly?” Celly, who was floating by the counter and pouring some tomato soup from Zest’s talisman into a cup, just shrugged. “Don’t ask me, I’ve never even been through puberty.” “Oh, lucky.” Colt sighed. “Well, I don’t know much about magical half-life...” Hoof said, looking up from a sheet of numbers, clearly changing the subject. “But all your calculations check out. There’s certainly something odd here.” “I told you they were right.” Brass said to Star, who just rolled his eyes. The bald pony then addressed Hoof, gesturing at the purple unicorn. “He has many great qualities, but a head for numbers isn’t one of them.” “Yeah, but I’ve got a great eye for figures.” Star said to the shorter pony with a leer. Wow, a bald pony sure can blush! “What’s odd?” Lemon asked, looking at all the papers on the table. “Other than Piezo’s cutie mark?” Colt said in a low giggle to Zest. “Oh, it’s just a little side project of mine.” Brass Tacks began to explain. “Star mentioned once how Runners can wind up dead real quick if they wander into an irradiated area without a working magical geiger counter.” “Runners?” Zest cocked her head. “It’s a term for speed couriers.” Star answered and pointed to the running pony emblem on his jacket shoulder. “I’m with the Pony Express. It’s our job to deliver parcels and information as fast as possible across the wasteland. Celly helps us get from place to place in exchange for us helping her look in those places for information about her past. While Brass watches my flank in exchange for watching my flank.” Oh, there he goes again! I guess if Brass had a coat of hair that blush wouldn’t be so obvious. “So you’re a Runner too?” Zest asked the blushing pony. He certainly didn’t have the build for running. Brass quickly composed himself and tapped the white hoof print on his barding with a hoof. “No, I’m a mercenary with the White Line company.” He then gestured to Star Mane with a smile. “I currently have a permanent contract as a bodyguard for this lanky oaf.” I could see how a bodyguard would watch his flank, but how does Celly help them get around? Is her magic strong enough to lift and fly all three of them? “Which brings us back to the issue at hoof.” Second interjected. “Brass started to take readings of magical radiation levels everywhere they went, and marked them down on this map.” He pointed to a large map with green dots of various sizes marked all over it. “I figured that a map like this could help other runners plan their route so that they avoid high radiation areas.” Brass finished. “Isn’t he clever?” Star said, patting the top of Brass’ bald head. “So what’s odd about it?” Colt asked, finally bringing the conversation back to where it started. “The radiation levels in some areas make no sense.” Brass said with a sigh. “There are pockets of low radiation in places where it should be much higher. It’s mostly around the eastern equestrian border, in the desert, but there are some odd areas past the eastern mountain range too.” Brass pointed a hoof at several smaller green dots among large ones. “The city of Camelton is almost radiation free.” “Not any more…” Hoof mumbled to himself. Come on, I’m sure that mini-mega spell Zest set off isn’t going to cause too much long term magical radiation. “Hoof just mathematically confirmed that the lowered radiation couldn’t be due to magical decay.” Brass pointed out. “So we don’t know what could be possibly causing it.” “Wow.” Colt yawned. “That sure is fascinating. Hey Celly, can you pour me a bowl of that soup too?” “Sure thing Colt.” Celly said with a laugh at the young mare’s blatant disinterest in the stallions’ findings. After pouring Colt's bowl of soup, She floated over to Zest, sipping some of the soup form her cup. “This soup talisman you rigged up is an incredible invention, and the soup is really good.” “Aw, I didn’t invent the talisman, I juts figured out how to make it portable.” Lemon replied modestly. “I just wish we could have found some rats to add to it.” “Why would you want to add rats?” Celly said puzzled. “You don’t want to kno-” Hoof’s snide comment was cut off by the room begging to shake. “What… did... you… do… now… Rock?!” Hoof asked as the room continued to vibrate even stronger. Come on, you can’t blame her for causing earthquakes. “It… wasn’t…. me! And…. my…. name… is…” The pegasus was interrupted by a deafening high pitch roar, and what sounded like an approaching stampede. “Looks… like… our… little… friend… is… back… Celly.” Star stuttered out as he made his way across the rumbling room. All the ponies awkwardly scrambled out of the building as chunks of plaster began to get shaken off of the walls and ceiling. Well, all except Celly, who just floated herself out easily. Once they were outside, I could see that far off from my perception sphere was a large blurry blue shape rapidly approaching. “What is that thing?” Hoof asked. “No idea.” Brass Tacks answered. “We stumbled across it’s den a few days ago, and it was none too happy about it. We thought we gave it the slip though.” Gave what the slip? Could you describe it for those of us without standard pony percep… Oh my. Within moments the creature had already reached the edge of my range of perception, and I was able to get a disturbingly clear look at it. This thing was like a giant blue dragon crossed with a cazapillar. It had a long serpentine body and a dozen legs. The legs transitioned from the back most pair being just simple stumps, to the centre pair being crude feet, and the front most pair being fully formed talons. Its head was very much like a dragon, with rows of giant spiky scales across its neck, sharp yellow eyes, and way too many teeth to count. The beast reared up its front six legs, standing nearly as tall as the building and let out a screeching roar. “Ok Celly, you can handle this one.” Star mane said, taking a step back. What? You’re letting the filly handle that monster? Ok, she’s a fifty year old alicorn filly, but still! “You can’t just let Celly face that thing!” Hoof protested. I don’t often agree with him, but he was right about this. “You’re right.” Brass Tacks said, also backing up. “Celly, try not to kill it right away. It’s part dragon, so maybe you can reason with it.” Don’t kill it right away?! Just how powerful is Celly’s magic? “Fine…” The filly alicorn said, rolling her eyes and trotting over to the multi-legged dragon. “Excuse me! Dragon thing?” Celly called up once she reach the front row of feet. One of its talons was as long as she was! “We’re really sorry for disturbing you before, but I strongly recommend that you stop pursuing us.” The towering beast looked down at the little filly and opened its giant mouth. Could that thing actually understand her and… HOLY CRAP! The thing just spat a lightning bolt from its mouth at Celly! Dragons breathe fire, or maybe ice, not lighting! But then they don’t normally have a dozen legs either… The dust cloud from the blast cleared, and Celly was standing in the centre of a giant black scorch mark. Her mane wasn’t even frizzy! How could she have dodged that? “I don’t think diplomacy is working!” The unscathed alicorn called back to her friends. “Can I move on to ‘Plan B’ ye-” The dragon creature slammed a massive foot down on the little filly, stopping her mid-sentence. “Celly!” Lemon called out at the shock of seeing the alicorn stomped on. “Ten caps says that she gets it over the mountains.” Brass casually said to Star. “You’re on.” The unicorn agreed. Umm guys? Your little friend was just squashed. Shouldn’t you be running away, or avenging her, or something other than taking bets on whatever it… Suddenly the entire dragon-pillar was surrounded in a golden glow and began floating off the ground. Celly then stepped out from under the creature’s foot, with a very annoyed expression on her face, and dusted herself off. “Bad dragon!” The little alicorn yelled. “Go… home!” And with that, the dragon was magically flung far away from my sphere of perception and off towards the horizon. “And…” Brass said as his eyes followed the dragon’s flight for several seconds. “Yes! To the mountains!” The purple unicorn grumbled and floated out ten caps. “I’ve forgotten how much she hates getting stepped on…” “But… how did she…” Hoof stammered while Celly trotted back to them. Colt seemed to be stunned speechless by the display of durability and raw power. Even Lemon looked rather shocked, and not much fazes her! “Oh, didn’t we tell you?” Star said with a laugh. “Little Celly here is completely indestructible.” “And insanely powerful” Brass added with a smirk. “Yeah, and I’m cute too.” Celly finished and rolled her eyes. She then turned to Colt, Zest, and Hoof. “By the way, I should have asked this earlier, but do any of you three know anything about Twilight Sparkle? She’s pretty much my only lead to my past.” Colt and Lemon looked blankly at each other and shook their heads. Second, on the other hoof, had a grin so large that he looked like a foal that just got his Hearth's Warming Eve presents early. “I know a bit about her.” He said slyly. “And I think I know some ponies that may know even more…” I really don’t trust that grin… ----- This fan-fic is just part of a larger story... -Hear another side of the larger narrative with Fallout Equestria: Sounds -See the bigger picture, take a look at Fallout Equestria: Sights. -Follow the progress of all three tales at the Sights Sounds Souls Tumblr (and ask Colt questions). -Track all the parts in one place at the Project Hub! Author note: This chapter was a real trail to get done on time, and it was really down to the wire. Nyerguds and Hidden_Fortune went out of their way to edit this chapter, which was dropped on them at the last minute this morning! I hope this won't happen again... Huge thanks to all my editors! My Souls editors Nyerguds and Hidden_Fortune, without whom this fic would be 20% lamer. My Sights editor Julep, who keeps all the pictures nice and derp free! My Sounds editor No One, whose constant encouragement is what got this insanity off the ground to begin with (and for making FoE: Heroes the best Fallout Equestria side fic ever)! And super thanks to Kkat for making this wild wasteland we all play in!