//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: Fallout Equestria: Equestrian Wanderings // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Edited by TacoTown Chapter 10-On the rocky road to Fillydelphia Part 1 The dusty grey skyscrapers rose up all around them, but Ethan didn’t spare them a moment’s notice as his mind raced. He had a friend to rescue from a city that was apparently run by a megalomaniac. A city that closely resembled the Pitt, run by a pony who resembled Ashur, except on a far grander scale with a much larger ambition and army with which to do his will. That was a recipe for disaster, and Sarah was sitting right in the middle of it. The question was, how could Ethan get her out of the city before that powder keg exploded? From what Holly and Day Kicker had told him, along what he’d gleaned from Homage during their discussions, the city of Fillydelphia was surrounded by both a large moat filled with toxic material so hazardous that it would melt the flesh right off of anything’s bones the second that they came into contact with it, and a giant wall that- “Ethan!” Holly shouted, breaking him out of his thoughts as she dived to the side. *BOOOM!* Ethan was thrown to the ground as a missile exploded in front of him. He rolled to his feet, magnum at the ready. To his surprise, he saw three large ponies wearing gray powerarmor marching down the street towards him; two of them were armed with large twin grenade launchers, while the third came equipped with duel missile launchers. “Well good morning to you too.” Ethan called as he checked his magnum’s chamber and quickly shoved in two armor piercing rounds into it. “Ethan, I know what you’re fucking thinking, and I have one word for you.” Holly told him quietly as she walked back over to him. “And what would that be Holly?” Ethan asked slyly. “Don’t!” She replied softly. “They’ll kill you.” “I doubt it.” Ethan whispered to her before he raised his voice so that the power-armored ponies could hear him. “It takes more than a few colts wearing second hand power armor armed with cherry bombs to kill me Holly. In fact, I’d say that considering how rusty that armor looks that I may be overestimating them.” A loud growl of anger emerged from the two ponies with grenade launchers, but the pony with the missile launcher gestured for them to stop before he took another step towards Ethan and began to talk. “I am Paladin Banana Shortcake of the Steel Rangers; you are in possession of an advanced AI. You will surrender the AI or we will obliterate you.” A steely mare’s shouted at him over a loudspeaker. “Hmm, definitely West Coast.” Ethan muttered to himself. “What was that?” Banana shouted at him. “I said, go suck a banana Miss Shortcake, although by the sound of your voice I’d be willing to bet that you’re more of the pie type.” Ethan replied with a smirk. “Why you-” Shortcake began but Ethan cut her off. “Let me be clear with you miss fruitcake. I’m in a hurry to save my friend, you’re currently standing in my way. That is bad for your health; move or die.” Ethan told her. “So be it then.” Shortcake said. The mare began to aim her missile launchers at Ethan, when suddenly her head exploded in a geyser of blood and gore, accompanied by the distinctive sound of a gauss rifle going off from somewhere above them. The two other rangers looked around wildly, searching for wherever the shot had come from. “Alright boys, you’ve got two choices.” Ethan said as he walked towards the remaining rangers. “You either give up and go home or you-” Ethan was cut off midsentence as the rangers opened up on him with their grenade launchers. The man’s eyes widened, but he rolled forward just in time to avoid the hail of shrapnel that exploded in the place that he’d been standing. He came up with his magnum at the ready, and sent two armor piercing rounds rocketing out of his magnum’s barrel and punched into the helmet of a ranger, who stumbled backwards with a spray of blood. He quickly holstered his magnum and drew the heavy shotgun off of his back. A trio bullets slapped against the last ranger’s armored head as Holly’s assault rifle rattled in her magical grip and he turned to fire upon her with his grenade launcher. A salvo of grenades shot towards the mare, who suddenly realized that she was standing in the middle of an empty road with an unspecified number of large grenades zooming towards her. A blue blur shot out of the sky and grabbed the mare before the grenades could land. “Thanks.” Holly told Day Kicker as he landed in a side street several feet away. “In the future, please attempt to take cover before the power armor wearing rejects attack.” He told her before he took his gauss rifle off of his back and leaned around the corner of the building that they were taking cover behind to find that Ethan had drawn his shotgun. “Hey mister ranger, have you ever seen what a blast of explosive buckshot does to an armored skull?” Ethan asked the ranger as he leveled the gun’s barrel with the ranger’s skull. “N-no.” The ranger squeaked. “Me neither bucko.” Ethan replied with a grin. “Now the more important question is, would you like to find out?” “No.” The ranger all but whined. “That’s good, I don’t exactly want to either. Like I said, I’m in a hurry. However, the fact that you and your dead buddies over there know about Eddie is a problem, and I don’t really like problems.” Ethan explained, keeping his shotgun leveled on the ranger’s head. “So, you’re going to tell me how you know about Eddie and how you found us, and then you’re going to run back to base and tell your Elder why it is a very bad idea to chase after me.” “I don’t know anything, I’m just an initiate! If you wanted to know things you shouldn’t have killed Knight Sassafras!” The ranger squealed. Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “Well that’s just fucking perfect; I’m stuck with the initiate.” Ethan said with an annoyed sigh. “Alright, fine. Get the hell out of our way.” He ordered. The ranger nodded meekly, or as meekly as somepony wearing power armor could nod, and stepped aside. Ethan waved to Holly and Day Kicker to come forward, and they stepped out of the side street. The two walked warily past the power armored ranger, and set off down the road. Ethan stayed behind, keeping his shotgun aimed at the ranger’s head until he felt that the other two were a safe distance away. “Okay, I’m going to follow my friends. The next time I see you you’d better be offering me a bottle of whisky.” Ethan told the buck before he began to walk away. Then he paused, and pivoted so that he was facing the ranger again. “By the way, what’s your name initiate?” “I’m Initiate Blueberry Pancakes, um sir.” The ranger said. “Well then Blueberry Pancakes, this is where we say our goodbyes. Oh, and I’d recommend giving yourself a limp before you get back to base,” Ethan said giving the ranger a salute with his shotgun before he walked away leaving an extremely confused ranger in his wake. “You should’ve killed him.” Day Kicker said unexpectedly. Ethan looked up to see the blue pegasus hovering at his left shoulder. “Na, this way they’ll know not to mess with me.” Ethan replied with shrug. “You do realize that this will just make you look weak to them correct?” Day Kicker asked. “Let them.” Ethan told the pegasus with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter what they think about me, as long as they realize that it’s a bad idea to chase after me.” “I rather doubt that they’ll pick up the hint, the Steel Rangers aren’t exactly known for their intelligence.” Day Kicker told him dryly. “If nothing else I can add them to the growing list of powerful wasteland forces who I’ve managed to piss off in under a week.” Ethan said with a grin. Day Kicker just stared at him for several seconds, silently contemplating something. “Ethan, what the fuck were you thinking talking to them like that?!” Holly asked him loudly as she walked up to him. “Well I was thinking that some arrogant bitch had just shot a grenade at me.” Ethan told her flatly. “Nice shot by the way Day.” He added with a nod towards the pegasus. “Thanks, it was my pleasure.” Day Kicker replied with a shrug as he put the gauss rifle back on his back. “Did you shoot from the air?” Ethan asked. “No, I was set up on a nearby rooftop.” Day Kicker told him with a shrug. “I thought you were scouting.” Holly said with an annoyed look on her face. “I was.” Day Kicker said. “I saw the Rangers long before you engaged them and found a good vantage point. “Then why the fuck didn’t you tell us about them?” Holly asked with an exasperated tone in her voice. “You might’ve not even needed to take the shot in the first place if you had!” “Because I don’t like Steel Rangers.” Day Kicker told her flatly. “But-but that’s not a good reason!” Holly said angrily. “We could’ve completely avoided them!” “They’d been tracking us; I doubt that we would’ve been able to avoid them for long, regardless of what we did. This way we know that they won’t be following us until that initiate gets back to whatever base they’re using.” The pegasus replied calmly Holly ground her teeth in frustration, but let the matter die. “In the future would you mind giving me a warning about things like this Day? It’s a hassle having to switch ammo types mid fight.” Ethan asked the pegasus, who nodded. “Of course; I’ll return to my scouting.” Day Kicker said before he jumped back into the air and winged away from them. “I don’t like it, he should’ve told us that they were there damn it.” Holly grumbled. “We have bigger issues to worry about.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “Like how those Steel Rangers know about me for instance.” Eddie chirped from the man’s wrist. “Exactly Eddie.” Ethan agreed with a nod. “Can you do a scan for tracking devices?” “Let me see. Hmm, yes, yes I do appear to have a rather loud, unblockable tracking signal in my coding. Odd, I don’t remember that being part of my coding, it’s even odder that I didn’t notice until now…” The AI trailed off with a slightly disturbed tone in his voice. Suddenly his voice was replaced by another. It was an athletic and feminine voice. “Hey Eddie, it’s Dash. If you’re hearing this, then you’ve found the tracker thingy that they put into your coding stuff so that our agents can track you down if you’re taken without our permission. Anyways, don’t worry about it little guy, one of our agents will be there soon. Till then, stay safe, Dash out.” The voice faded leaving Ethan and Holly staring at the man’s wrist. “Interesting, I always did like Rainbow Dash.” Eddie said with a contemplative tone to his voice. “She didn’t sound all that smart.” Holly said. “She wasn’t the technical type, but she was really smart when it counted, and now she’s dead.” Eddie replied simply, a slightly melancholy tone had entered into his voice. “Well now we know how those Rangers found us. Unfortunately, if they can track us…” Ethan said. “Then everyone else can too.” Holly said finishing his sentence for him. “Yeah, should keep things interesting.” Ethan said with a nod. “Hopefully Red Eye won’t notice it. If he does it could make things difficult.” “He’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind, the only reason I didn’t notice was the fact that I wasn’t supposed to unless I actually started looking for it.” Eddie said. “Well then our journey is only going to get more interesting from here on out.” Day Kicker said unexpectedly from above them. “How long have you hovering been there?” Ethan asked the pony, who shrugged. “Long enough to know that we’re going to have more unpleasant company incoming later on; oh, and there’s another group of rangers moving in on us from up ahead. Something’s odd about them though, I think that they’re from that other branch that Pon3 has been talking about.” The pegasus replied. “What?” Ethan asked in confusion. “Apparently they’re calling themselves ‘Applejack’s Rangers’, and they’re fighting for the good of the Wasteland, or something like that anyways.” Day Kicker said with a shrug. “I’m surprised that an Enclave member is listening to the radio.” Holly said. “And I’m surprised that you’ve gone a sentence without saying the word fuck; see, now we’re both surprised.” Day Kicker replied with a smirk as Holly shot him a dirty look. “So, they’re like the East Coast branch, but they’re new at it eh?” Ethan asked, mostly talking to himself. “Alright, I can handle this. Day, go up to that rooftop over there.” Ethan said while pointing to a nearby rooftop. “Keep the leader in your sights at all times, but do not open fire unless I command it.” “How will I know when you command it? I’ll be on the roof.” Day Kicker asked. “Because I’ll shout ‘now’, or something similarly dramatic. You’ll figure it out, you’re a smart pegasus right?” Ethan asked with a smirk. Day Kicker grunted and leapt into the air and began to wing towards the rooftop. Ethan turned to regard Holly with a wide smile. “Oh no, I really don’t like that fucking smile.” Holly muttered. “No worries Holly, I know how to handle these types of things.” Ethan said as his smile widened. “You’ve spent all of your time here pissing off increasingly powerful groups, what makes you think that you know what you’re doing?” Holly asked him incredulously. “Because, I’m not dead yet.” Ethan told her simply before he pivoted to face the arriving Rangers. “Well hello there, and to who do we owe the pleasure?” Ethan asked the leading pony. “I’m Paladin Fish Sticks of Applejack’s Rangers.” The leading pony said. He was wearing power armor that was almost identical to that of the other paladin except for the fact that there were three apples clearly visible on his insignia. “Well I’m the Lone Wanderer; it’s nice to meet you.” Ethan said with a smile on his face. “Quite.” The paladin said with a nod. “Now that that’s out of the way, we have to ask you to please remove your Pip-buck and give it to us along with the AI living inside of it.” “Or?” Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow. “Or we’ll take it.” The paladin replied simply. “That’s really not a good idea.” Ethan said casually. “And why not?” Fish Sticks asked. “Because you’re not the first paladin to ask me to do that today, although you’re much more polite then she was.” Ethan replied. “What?” The paladin asked. “Well a three pony squad of Steel Rangers tried to make me give them Eddie a few miles back that way. One of them is currently lacking a head courtesy of a gauss rifle.” Ethan explained. “A gauss rifle that currently has your head in its sights. So I would really advice that you don’t try and make me give you Eddie, if you do then I might become… disagreeable.” Ethan continued with a smile on his face. Fish Sticks stared at him through his helmet, and Ethan could almost feel the stallion’s eyebrows coming together in thought. “You realize that they will follow you much more doggedly now that you’ve killed one of their paladins.” The paladin asked him. “Yeah, but I’ve already declared war on Red Eye, the Goddess, and the Enclave, I might as well throw these West Coast posers into the mix as well.” Ethan replied with a smirk. “What was your name again?” Paladin Fish Sticks asked. “Ethan Smith.” Ethan replied simply. “You’re the one from the radio!” One of the rangers behind the Paladin exclaimed. “Give the mare a medal.” Ethan said with a chuckle. “I’m also the only human currently running around the Wasteland other than Sarah, and she’s a bit busy at the moment.” “So what now?” Holly asked from where she was standing beside Ethan. Paladin Fish Sticks let out a slight sigh. “I suppose that there’s nothing we can do unless we want to fight you, and honestly I don’t feel like it. We’ve got to many issues right now to add chasing after you to the list.” The armored pony grumbled. “Glad we can agree on that.” Ethan told him with a smile. “Hey Day, you can come down now!” He shouted up at the pegasus, a few seconds later Day Kicker landed beside him, gauss rifle across his back. “You’re traveling with an Enclave member?” Paladin Fish Sticks asked in surprise. “Oh, he’s just waiting for me to die so that he can take Eddie, the AI.” Ethan replied with a shrug. The paladin shook his head. “That is an odd traveling relationship.” “It’s the Wasteland, what traveling relationship isn’t odd?” Ethan asked with a chuckle. “I suppose you have a point, very well then, we’ll leave you to your peace.” Paladin Fish Sticks said. “Come along Knight Custard, Initiate Jelly Baby.” With those parting words the three rangers walked off the way that they’d come. “That went surprisingly well.” Holly said. “Don’t worry, I’m sure that something bad will happen to offset it by the end of the day.” Ethan replied with a shrug. “It is the Wasteland after all.” “You certainly seem to be looking on the bright side.” Day Kicker said as he took to the air next to Ethan’s shoulder. “Yeah, I’m a real optimist.” Ethan replied with a chuckle. The sound of propellers in the distance made Ethan’s head snap up and look in the direction. “How much would you two like to bet that those propellers are coming towards us?”