//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Greetings From the End of a Barrel // Story: For The Enclave // by RainbowBob //------------------------------// Neutral: Glare at them and don’t make a move. See how they react. Let them make the first move. A soldier’s best tactic. I glared at the creatures, my bionic eyes focusing in on every one of their features in case they made a move. Up close, they were even more disturbing than I first thought. Equine bodies of some sort like I first guessed, but from there the similarities ended. The strangest thing about them was that their faces seemed almost... human. At least with animals, their facial expressions never changed that much, but these things could look sad, scared, and even angry. Which just about all of them were doing, except for those that fell unconscious. I seem to have that effect on people. Remaining in a stoic position and glaring at a bunch of the strangest creatures I couldn’t even imagine in my worst nightmares was definitely not something I ever thought I’d do. At least not sober, anyways. Really, I didn’t know how to react. One second I wanted to shred whoever was annoying me so damn much to shreds. But seeing these... things, totally knocked me out of the ballpark. I’ve seen what I thought was the worst of the mutated freaks the Wasteland could throw at me, but these creatures now officially take the cake. After what felt like hours of tense silence, one of the creatures nervously walked up to me, its legs literally shaking like jelly. Didn’t even know bones could bend that way. Upon closer inspection, it had one of those tumor things sticking out of its head. Or maybe a bone growth that looked like a horn. There are tons of weird mutations out in the Wasteland. Heck, I’ve heard of a mutie with a frickin’ tree growing out of his head. I turned my head downward to get a better look at it, all the others back up in shock by even that small movement. Cowards, by the looks of them. The creature stopped before me, shivering like a mutie about to be executed at gunpoint. Which could happen shortly, really. Its hair was styled much like a human female’s hair. Not really Enclave style, but I’ve seen something like it from the old Pre-War magazines. And judging by the different shades of red hues, its mane was a dark color with a bright streak through it. Its huge, dinner-plate eyes looked like they were ripped right out of an old cartoon. The thing didn’t say anything for several seconds, its jaw clattering in fear. I just stuck to what worked out so far, which was staring at the creature without moving a muscle. Finally, it managed to spit out, “W-What are y-y-you?” It could speak. I knew someone was singing earlier, but seeing it with my own eyes right now was more shocking than I thought. An animal that can speak actual English. Only thing close to that was those intelligent deathclaws I had to deal with on that one mission. Easy enough to exterminate those guys, along with all those mutants in their care. And this will be no different if I have to do the same thing. “I am Frank Horrigan,” I replied, my voice causing several of them to actually faint before me. These creatures were even weaker than I thought. I guess the mutant was expecting more, because it shuffled on its... hooves, I’m guessing. “So, um, Frank... what exactly are you?” she said, much clearer now. Looks like it was the braver of the group. At least the thing didn’t look it was going to piss itself anymore. I tilted my head to the side, the slight movement creating a loud metal grinding noise because of my shoulder plates. “Why should I tell you that?” I growled, many of the creatures flinching at my dangerous tone of voice. “Why don’t you start by telling me just what in the hell you are?” The thing gulped, shifting its eyes at all parts of my body. Maybe judging me up? “Well, we’re all ponies,” it answered, its voice taking on a more feminine side without terror clouding it. “And I’m a unicorn.” Well, that explained that thing protruding out of her head. Wait... did she just say unicorn? “What did you say?” I asked, still trying to comprehend how exactly ponies and unicorns fit into this situation. “Unicorn. It’s one of the three pony races. The other two are earth ponies and pegasi,” she explained, apparently calmer now that she was talking. Guess she was one of those people... um, things, that liked hearing their own voice and sounding smarter than everyone else. I kill people like that. “Ponies? Pegasi and unicorns?” I said aloud, crossing my arms as I tried to work out this new information in my head. At least those pony things didn’t faint at me moving anymore. “Did I end up in a goddamn fairy tale land?” My more aggravated tone was definitely intimidating; by the looks of those ponies glancing at each other, wondering what to do at the moment. Christ, they looked like a six year old’s idea of what a pony should look like. Scratch that: a six year old high on some seriously messed up chems. The unicorn took another step closer, apparently finally growing a pair. “No, you are in Equestria at the moment. In a town called Ponyville, to be more specific.” “Oh lord,” I sigh, wishing I could actually touch my brow so I can rub it. “I had to end up in a place called Ponyville. If this isn’t Hell, then I don’t know what is.” “Um... Frank?” the unicorn asked, catching my attention again. These things were so damn small it was hard to keep an eye on them. “You still didn’t answer my question. What exactly are you... if you don’t mind me asking?” “I do mind you asking,” I answered back harshly, causing her to back away in shock. “What I am is none of your damn business. So take your questions and shove them up your ass, you damn mutie.” The look of hurt on her face was an enjoyable one, to say the least. The less they knew about me, the better. For all I know, these guys can be a threat to the Enclave. Can’t let them know the Enclave’s best weapon is standing right before them. “Hey buster, you can’t talk that way to Twilight!” one of the ponies yelled, approaching quickly from the crowd. I almost guessed it was a male by the voice, but on second look its body structure was very similar to the unicorn’s, so maybe a female? They all looked so creepily similar that it was hard to tell what gender they were. This one had a multicolored mane, or so I guessed from my limited colorvision. Didn’t have a horn on her head like the other one, instead two extra limbs stuck off from her sides. Almost like some of the more extreme cases of mutation I’ve seen out in the Wasteland. Extra limbs usually meant a high case of radiation nearby. “I can talk to whoever I want, however I want, mutie,” I replied back, taking a single step forward. My footfall caused a large crack in the earth to appear, causing those freaks to back up immediately. Except for that extra mutated one, along with the unicorn. “We already told you! We’re ponies!” she yelled, raising a hand... um, hoof I think, in anger. “I’m a pegasus, not a ‘mutie’!” “I don’t give a damn what you are, freak!” I yelled, taking another step forward and causing the ground to shake. The damn pegasus just stood her ground beside that unicorn. “Now, tell me where the nearest Enclave military base is, this instant!” The ponies traded confused glances, the unicorn being the one to speak this time. “‘Enclave’? What exactly is that?” Damnit. If these freaks didn’t know what the Enclave is, then I’m in real trouble. I expressed those thoughts through several nicely-worded curses, which I muttered repeatedly. This actually caused those freaks to blush in embarrassment. Sighing, I glanced to see how many of those freaks were left. There was the pegasus, the unicorn, and another unicorn with a curled mane design shivering beside a pony without wings or horns that wore a cowboy hat atop its head. It was the one currently glaring at me. And then there was a pegasus with its head literally hiding in the ground. And of course... that one pony with the puffy mane. Pinkie Pie, I believe they called her. Or something retarded like that. Her parents either hated her or had the most serious case of alcoholism I’ve ever heard of. I pointed at the poofy haired monstrosity, saying, “You! Is your name Pinkie Pie, or whatever the fuck that ridiculous name was?” Her pupils shrunk to pinpricks as her teeth chattered. The weirdest thing was that her puffy hair went straight down, as though someone had dumped a bucket of water on her. “Y-Yes, I-I’m Pinkie P-P-Pie.” Those other two, the fancy looking unicorn and cowboy hat wearing pony moved on either side of her. “Listen partner, we don’t want no trouble,” the cowboy hat pony said with a drawled out southern accent. “Well you already got it!” I threatened, taking another step forward. Because of my long leg length, a single step for me brought me towering before them, my shadow cast on the trio. “I don’t know how I ended up here, or why. Which means I’m pissed!” “Well, y-you don’t have to be such a meanie-head about it,” Pinkie muttered, wiping at her unnaturally large eyes with a hoof. “Meanie-head?” I laughed, not really surprised that these pathetic freaks couldn’t even come up with insults correctly. “I’m much more than mean, freak! Your damn singing nearly made me go on a homicidal rampage!” “Hey, leave her alone, you uncouth ruffian!” the prissy looking unicorn said, laying a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder in support. “I’ll have you know that Pinkie’s singing voice is top notch, and a joy whenever she sings. The entire town participates, so there’s really no need to get angry over it.” “I don’t get angry,” I said, letting my knife out of its sheath on my right arm. A large hack and slash weapon that’s wider than my arm and four feet long, more a sword than a knife, and ends in a fine, stabbing point. It can cut through power armor like it was made of cardboard. “I get violent.” A still silence hung over the area at the proposal of my threat. Now it was the unicorn next to the pegasus that spoke. “Okay everypony, I think we should all calm down,” she asked, giving me her best attempt at a calming smile. “Frank here is clearly frustrated, and... um, confused. We just need to help him... you are a he, right?” Okay, that was it. If these mutated bastards couldn’t tell that I was male, then they didn’t deserve to be sucking in oxygen any longer. Heck, I could just save my ammo and tear them apart instead. I took another step forward, intending to crush Pinkie Pie first under my boot. I did say I would kill that bitch, and Frank Horrigan always keeps his promise. It was a shame to have to get my foot dirty, but I was sure I could wipe her corpse off my boot later. Unfortunately for me, those ponies were damn fast, because she managed to roll out of the way along with the others before I could squish them beneath my metal boot. The three tried to hightail it out of there, but ultimately failed, the frilly-looking unicorn landing atop the cowboy hat one while Pinkie landed on her back, her exposed belly before me. An excellent target. Taking a single step forward, I was on her in an instant, my plasma gun aimed right at her stomach. “Your ride’s over, mutie,” I said, revving up the motors on my gun, the barrel spinning in preparation to fire. “Time to die.” “Are you crazy?” the pegasus off to the side yelled. She and her friends stared at me in shocked horror, their faces frozen in pure terror at what I was about to do. Faces I’ve seen many times before... “Are you crazy?” said Sergeant Arch Dornan. Well, more like yelled. Pretty sure he wasn’t expecting an answer. I just remained at attention, not moving a muscle as I stared at the pissed off Sergeant. One thing you learn real quick as a soldier was when to speak and when to keep your mouth shut. And this was definitely one of those times you keep your yap shut and get grilled. “Insubordination! Damage of military property! Soldiers wounded! Putting the President in danger!” the Sergeant continued on. I was pretty sure if he didn’t have his power armor on along with his helmet, his face would be as red as a beet. “Maggot, you better have a damn fine excuse for this kind of jackass behavior!” I continued to remain stoic, not saying a word. I still outranked him as a Secret Service Agent, so I didn’t have to say a damn word to him. In fact, why exactly was I sent here in the first place? “Not talking, eh?” he chuckled, moving around his desk to get right into my face. We were both decked out in power armor, common for Enclave soldiers. Once you get power armor, you almost never leave it unless you hit your bed. The more you wear it, the stronger you get and the easier it is to use. Plus, you never know when an emergency can happen. Better to be uncomfortable than to be dead. The Sergeant was an intimidating man, but I was still at least a foot taller than him as he moved right in front of me. Being seven feet tall wasn’t easy, especially since I lived in a place with doorways that were only six and a half feet tall. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of times I’d gotten banged on the head. He poked my chest with a finger, a metallic thump being heard. “Well, ain’t that peachy. You better start speaking before I have your ass on a dinner plate!” “I did nothing wrong,” I responded calmly. “Nothing wrong? Nothing wrong? Did your mother drop you on your worthless head as a baby, or are you naturally that stupid?” he spit right in my face, poking me on my chest to add emphasis to his words. “I was merely protecting the President, as it is my job,” I answered back, slowly growing more and more aggravated with each second. “Protecting? Soldier, you couldn’t protect a kitten from a radroach, even if you had a goddamn minigun with you!” the Sergeant yelled right in my face. At least I had a helmet on. If not, I was pretty sure my eardrums would be bleeding at this point. “You’re a damn crazy bastard!” “I’m not crazy!” I shot back. Big mistake. Sergeant Dornan was literally shaking with rage in his power armor. “Not crazy? What do you call firing at troopers? What do you call breaking down an entire wall in an Enclave base? What do you call putting the President’s life at risk by acting like a blasted idiot? A crazy, goddamn, mo-ron is what you call him!” Scratch that. I was positive my eardrums have burst by now. It was at this point any new recruit would be pissing themselves in terror. Which is a good thing that power armor can recycle that, or else they’ll have to clean their piss out themselves. I gulped nervously, but I just continued to stand at attention and stare straight ahead. “Those troopers did not have authorization to be in the area. They were a security risk.” “Oh really now?” the Sergeant mocked, rubbing the chin area of his helmet in thought. “Was that wall you blasted to the ground a security risk? Were those Enclave scientists you nearly killed also a security risk? Was the President a security risk, maggot?” “I, um... no,” I admitted. “It’s just that, I got just into it, you know?” “Into it? By those reports, you were acting like a damn psychopath!” he shouted. “You’re lucky I don’t throw you sorry ass out the doors so we can see how long you can survive in the Wasteland alone... private!” “Private? I haven’t been a private in years,” I questioned, gritting my teeth to keep back a couple of choice insults to shove down the Sergeant’s throat. “Well you are one now. You’ve been demoted and removed from the Secret Service.” “What? You can’t do this!” I argued. “Yes I can, maggot!” he growled back, not moving an inch. “I’ve just received word from high command! After your recent psychotic outbreak, they can no longer trust you to protect the President. Heck, they can’t even trust you to find your way out of a cardboard box!” I balled up my fists, my rage only barely held back at this point as I used what little self control I had to resist punching Sergeant Dornan in his smug face. Or at least I thought it was smug. Hard to read facial expressions through a helmet. “Do you know how much I’ve sacrificed for the Enclave? How hard I’ve worked to be where I am today? And you expect me to let all that go down the toilet and not say something about it?” “You don’t talk, private!” the Sergeant yelled, poking his finger right on the forehead of my helmet. “You don’t think! You just do your job! Or are you such a slack-jawed mo-ron that you forgot that?” “... no sir,” I said with the calmest voice I could manage. “I am not a sir! I work for a living, you mo-ron! You will call me Sergeant! And I don’t think you understand me! Let me explain it for you again, soldier!” he exclaimed, not letting up in the slightest on the ripping me to shreds. “Everything you are, everything you will ever be, is because of the Enclave! When the Enclave asks you to jump, you jump! To kill, you kill! When it asks you to die, you better damn well load a bullet into the chamber of your gun and blow your own sorry brains out! Do you understand me, maggot?” “Yes... Sergeant,” I spit out with as much contempt as I could muster. “Good. You’re on thin ice, private. One more psycho incident like before, and they’ll be feeding baby food to you through a straw in an asylum, after they lobotomize that already useless brain of yours!” Sergeant Dornan returned to his desk, opening up a top secret military file on his desk. Or at least I thought it was top secret. Though the large TOP SECRET stamp on the front proved me correct. “Okay, Private, now that you’re back to being a grunt instead of one of the President’s lackeys, here’s your first assignment. Collecting ‘volunteers’ to help dig up the recently discovered Mariposa Military Base. And by ‘volunteers’, I mean any mutant with usable arms and legs. Heck, throw in the disabled in the mix too. Culls their useless numbers.” I nodded my head. At least my new job wouldn’t be boring. Plus, no more boredom from regular Secret Service guard duty. I would even get to kill some mutants. In all honesty I was really looking forward to this new job. The Sergeant looked up from his desk, noticing I was still there. “What else do you want, maggot? You heard your assignment, and you will do a damn fine job at it, or else! Dismissed!” Frank! Frank! Alert to Frank! Hello, anyone home? “Huh, what happened?” I asked, finally coming back to my senses. You had another one of your ‘episodes’. The ones where you stare off into space for a couple of minutes. “Oh... oh yeah. What happened?” I asked, looking around me to see what’s changed in my short lapse of reality. Well, one of those creatures is currently attacking you. “Seriously?” I stared downward, where one of the ponies was indeed fighting me. Or trying her best. I think it was the pegasus one. She was currently smacking my leg with her hooves, but all that came from her efforts was the sound of metal being struck. Yes, it is actually quite pathetic. No hit points are being recorded. “It’s also pretty annoying,” I growled, noticing the cowboy pony and prissy unicorn dragging away the still shellshocked Pinkie from under me. All the while that other unicorn was yelling at the pegasus to stop attacking me this instant. Looks like the bitch wasn’t listening. Moving forward, I kicked the annoying pegasus out of my way as I brought the barrel of my gun to the faces of the trio if ponies before me. “Nighty night,” I chuckled, just about to pull the trigger. Too bad that damn unicorn had to stop my fun. She fired some type of energy blast at me. Probably laser. Weirdest thing is it came out of her horn. Guess these creatures were more dangerous than I thought. Anyway, she continued to fire blast after blast, each laser beam hitting my armor. “How much damage am I getting from this?” I asked my AI, feeling no pain or anything from her attacks. Nothing, apparently. Really, at best it’s just singing your armor. Not even a single point of damage. “Well, isn’t this cute?” I laughed, turning my attention from the trio of ponies to her. She had her eyes clenched, instead focused on attacking me with energy lasers. I crushed the earth in front of her with my foot, as I was right before her in only one stride. Her eyes bulged out as they stared at my metallic boot, the rest of her vision being filled with just me as she stared upward. “Surprise, surprise, freak,” I chuckled, lifting up my plasma gun to her forehead. And of course, before I could start blasting, one of those damn pony things had to stop me. Currently it was that insufferable pegasus again. Except this time she was actually flying. Wow, guess those extra limbs really were workable wings after all. And now she was whacking at the armored plate on my back. Still to no effect. I turned around quickly, trying my best to slice her to shreds with my knife. But the damn thing was too quick, already moving out of the way as my knife went through empty air. “Stand still so I can kill you!” I yelled, waving my fist at the flying mutant. “Leave her alone!” the cowboy pony yelled, running at me. Finally, a challenge. “No Applejack! Don’t!” the flying pony shouted, dive bombing at me. Too little, too late. I leaned downward quickly and caught the charging pony in my fist before she could attack. People think just because I’m big, I can’t move fast. That was a mistake I love taking advantage of every time. Well, she sure was a struggler, kicking here and there while trying in vain to pry my fingers from constricting her throat. Such a weak, worthless freak. I squeezed tightly for a second, her eyes bulging out comically. “Applejack!” the flying one yelled at me, landing on the ground next to the unicorn and others. “Let her go!” Karma Decision: Good: Let her go, but make sure to trap her on the ground with a foot to the back. Then aim your gun at those mutant freaks and tell them to start backing off, or else bullets are going to fly. Neutral: Don't let go of her, and instead take out your knife and threaten to slice the mutie's throat if they don't back off. Drawing a little blood here will let them know you're serious. Bad: They want her so bad? Give it to them, fastball style. You weren't the best pitcher on the Enclave Little League team for nothing. Lets see if she can fly like the other one.