Chapter 23: What’s your rate?
Chapter 23: What’s your rate?
“Grab a new partner; here we go!”
“Well, if it isn’t Riverbed Ransom, speech impediment extraordinaire!”
Riverbed grinned widely, sitting on her haunches. “Frosty! How’s things?”
Since the last time we’d met, she’d had a decent upgrade in equipment. The plasma rifle that she’d stolen was now mounted on the left side of her brand-new battle saddle, and some sort of belt-fed shotgun took up the right side of it. Her miniature Talon Merc armor had been slightly refurbished, but it could have been a new set. A helmet with a raised blast visor rode on her head, heavily dented and blackened.
I plopped onto my own haunches and neutrally grunted, “Bleh.”
“Bleh?” She tilted her head at me.
Considering the day I was having, it seemed to be a reasonable summary. “Bleh.”
After a second, Riverbed cautiously responded with, “Yay?”
“What the buck does that even mean?”
“Like, what’s with the…” She gestured at the red band around my neck. “Y’know, the bonda—”
I’d had just enough of this dumb collar, and everypony bringing it up was getting on my nerves. “Don’t. Even. Start.” With a glare that could melt steel, I threatened her to continue. Why was this thing so warm, anyway?
Thankfully, Riverbed understood and defensively raised her hooves. “Okay, okay. Touchy, guy. Sheesh.”
More importantly, I asked, “What are you even doing here? I thought you went home or whatever.”
She shrugged. “I got thrown onto shovel duty, guy. Been digging holes for, like, days.”
“For what?”
“Mines.”
“You’ve been digging a mine?” What were the Talons going to do with a mine, especially out here?
A spectacularly exasperated look appeared on Riverbed’s face. “The kind that go boom, guy.”
“Oh.” Suddenly, I remembered Rhombus saying something about a sapper team and everything made sense. “Oh, I heard ‘mine’, singular.”
Riverbed plodded up to me and patted my head. “It’s okay, guy. We’ve all had some long days.” Feeling like some sort of pet, I jerked away immediately.
“Shit needs doing, and it’s sure as shit not gonna do itself!” Rhombus yelled, presumably at Riverbed. “Battle planning, let’s go!”
Riverbed rolled her eyes and groaned. “Uuugh, I hate this guy.” After shooting me an unsure look, she turned and trotted to the now much larger gathering of Talons. Was this place a Talon merc hangout? Where’d they even come from?
At least the burning around my neck had begun to fade. Huh, so Riverbed was back. Maybe I had enough caps to hire her, simply so I had somepony I didn’t hate or had tried to kill to talk to. Judging by the increase in confused squawking from the gathered griffons, she might not have time.
I heard somepony trot up beside me. “What did I miss?” Violet asked lazily, not actually looking at me while she did so. “Anything important?”
Glancing at the confused pile of birdcats, I off-hoofedly replied, “Something blew up. Enclave is on their way down. Deciding whether to hire a merc.”
Either Violet was distracted, or she didn’t care. “Your sarcasm needs work.”
“I wasn’t being sarcastic.”
Violet examined my expression anyway, eventually deciding on: “…Huh.”
The fact that the Enclave was coming was quickly throwing the Talons into disarray. Unfortunately for Rhombus, he didn’t seem to have the clout to keep the rest of the griffons in line. Several griffons had already decided that they’d had enough and buzzed off, while a few others had returned to milling about aimlessly. The two mercs that had pushed Sparkle and the other Rangers away were still keeping an eye on them.
Out of the Talons that ditched the scene, one of them happened to be Riverbed. She came trotting back, a displeased grin on her face. “Yeah, he has no idea what he’s doing.” With a sigh, she shifted her armor and plopped herself back onto her rump.
I wasn’t really sure what I was doing next, so I asked, “So… what are you up to now, then? Need a party?”
“Iunno. Like, I’m probably not going anywhere until whats-his-face gets here. Gonna wait around and see if I get any orders or something,” Riverbed replied, then she happily stamped her hooves on the ground. “But hey, guy! If you’ve got the caps, I’ve got the guns.”
“What’s your rate?”
“Half-cap an inch.”
I weakly chuckled. “Are we still on that joke?”
Instantly, Riverbed’s face lit up. “You remembered!”
“No, but seriously—how much do you charge?” Having her company back would make me feel a lot better. “I might need to buy some new friends.”
“Five hundred caps for the week sounds fair, guy. Caps are caps, and I’m just about done as dicks with dicks.”
Now was a bad time not to know exactly what the going rate was, and whether or not Talons were even unionized. Did unions exist down here? I pretended to know what I was doing, so I thoughtfully tapped my chin and made thinking noises. After spending what seemed like a reasonable time deliberating, I finally decided on, “I’ll think about it.” It seemed like a lot of caps, though.
Note to self: figure out whether Riverbed is a shark.
“She’s not a shark, dum-dum,” Filly Frosty helpfully squeaked.
I groaned, “Not that kind of of shark.” Riverbed opened her mouth to predictably ask what was going on, but I was ready. “Not talking to you.”
She blinked, then shrugged. “Alright.”
Since I was still bored and Violet wasn’t contributing to our little discussion, I awkwardly coughed and asked, “Hey, you never did answer why you were here.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Your exact words were, ‘I got thrown onto shovel duty’. Try again,” Violet disinterestedly chimed in, before returning to whatever writing she was doing into a scroll.
Riverbed looked confused. “How did you, like… I mean, even I don’t remember what I said five minutes ago.”
“I pay attention,” Violet replied, pointedly looking like she wasn’t paying attention.
“How?”
“By using my brain, which you two appear to not be using.”
Thanks, Violet.
I nervously chuckled and gently slid Violet over a little. “O-kay! Just ignore her.”
Still glaring daggers at Violet, Riverbed remarked, “She’s kinda a schlong, guy.”
Once again, Violet’s two-grit abrasiveness was coming into play. “Let’s just get back on topic. So, uh, why’d you guys come out here?”
With one last dirty glare at Violet, Riverbed turned her attention back to me. “So, like, I got back, Bitch Bird got pissed and threw me onto the next flight out to be their bitch, guy. So yeah, I’ve been digging holes.” Obviously, Riverbed didn’t sound too happy about it.
Oh right, she’d been with us to deliver a message that didn’t need delivering in the end.
Riverbed groaned and rubbed her eyes. “I gotta figure out what’s going on, guy. We’ve got camp set up, like, right outside the south exit, in the apartment building-looking thing. I’ll probably go, like, find the sarge and see what our orders are. I’ll get back to you on it. See ya ‘round?”
As much as I would have liked to make her stay and chat with me, she had priorities too. “Yeah, see ya.” Before she left, I at least managed to get a last-second hoofbump off her.
Now I was alone, bored, and back to worrying about my continued existence. Now that the Enclave was coming down, I needed a plan forward. Ditching the armor could be step one—it made me identifiable as Enclave, and the second they found out I wasn’t one of theirs I would be as good as dead. Lay low for a while, see what was up, and pray to Luna that I wasn’t the one being hunted.
Hopefully the Talons wouldn’t care if the Enclave issued a wanted poster on me. From experience, they usually didn’t care much about completing Enclave bounties. Who knew whether they wanted to change that now? Did they want to be on the winner’s team?
Gala politely coughed, “If it’s not too much trouble, could I have a word?”
Hm? “You now own the rights to ‘bucket’.” I self-satisfactorily grinned. Who was a witty pony? I was a witty pony.
With a roll of her eyes, I realized she wasn’t looking for a cheap joke. “Seriously, please.”
“Yeah, yeah. Go ahead.” Did nopony appreciate my humor anymore?
Gala shuffled her hooves for a bit, then alternated to uncomfortably glancing at me. “Can I have a name?”
I blinked. “…What?”
“I mean, Toasty has her own name, and I was wondering, well…”
Hold the name train! “Where is this even coming from?”
Gala turned a bright shade of red and she bashfully blurted, “I’m a little bit jealous, okay? I was first and it’s only fair.”
“Did… did you have anything in mind?” I hesitantly asked, almost fearing the response.
“I was hoping for Happy.” I gave her a disgusted look, and she immediately responded with, “What? It is the most parallel with our existing names.”
“That’s dumb.”
“You’re dumb.”
I sighed and admitted, “I am dumb.”
“Well, do you have anything better?” Gala crossed her forelegs and stared at me expectantly.
Now that I thought of it, there weren’t many other names that followed the same pattern as Frosty and Toasty. Windy? “Yeah, how about Windy? That has a nice ring to it.”
“Windy Winds? I think the Department of Redundancy Department wouldn’t allow it.”
“Woah, who said anything about sharing last names?”
“What? I’d like to sound aesthetically pleasing, since looking it is a bit lost on you.” She thoughtfully tapped her cheek, staring off into the distance. “What about Gale? It’s already close to what we’ve been calling me.”
“Gale?”
“Strong winds and the like. Windy.”
It did sound nice, even if it didn’t match up quite so well. “So you want me to call you Gale now?” Gale. Gale, Gale, Gale. I stared at her and mulled it over, and decided that it fit. Gale. I could get used to it. It wasn’t too much of a difference.
At some point during my own little existential crisis, Violet had been giving me a judgmentally baleful stare. “What’s the plan, miss indecisive?” How long had she been watching? More to the point, how much had she heard?
And I still hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. “Uh…”
“Wait, did Tangerine dash over here without the box of stuff she took from Famine?” Gala—er, Gale quickly piped up, “Maybe we could go see if there’s anything good in it.”
That was as good of a plan as any. In the event that Tangerine had looted the stolen goods first, I’d have to wing something. It wouldn’t be a huge loss, but it would annoy me greatly. Hopefully Riverbed wouldn’t notice that I had stolen Talon property.
“Hey Violet, want to go on a field trip?” I hopefully suggested to her.
The mare regarded me, then replied, “It’s not like you can go anywhere without me with that collar of yours, and I’m not done with my research paper on you. Don’t get us lost.”
Close enough! Now that I had convinced Violet to follow me back to the library to retrieve the box, I checked to make sure that Sparkle and the other Rangers were still tied up by the angry birdcats. From the looks of it, a few additional mercenaries were doing their best to control the situation. I broke into a brisk trot, nearly dragging Violet behind me to get back to where we had been camped out.
Sure enough, the crate of goods we’d stolen was still on the desk I’d slid it onto. A cursory examination revealed that nopony appeared to have tampered with it, so I dragged it off the table onto the ground so I could dig through its contents.
Ammunition, snacks, rations, water, and “water”. Apart from the small bundle of books, nothing immediately stood out to me until I got to the folded canvas underneath them. I scooped everything else out and piled it over to the side so I could get a better look at it.
After unfolding the cloth, I finally realized what Tangerine meant by there was something I would have liked in the Talons’ crate. One of them must have a penchant for collecting vintage weaponry, because nopony else in the Wasteland would even consider using a weapon like this—in good condition, too.
It was an old-model charge laser, part of the initial technological weapon rush in the early months of the war. The receiver of some kind of griffon markspony (marksbird?) rifle had been modified to hold all the workings of a rudimentary laser, as did the carry handle. The base of the carry handle had a hole at either end for a sight. Heat vents pointing upward and away from the user were built into the either side of the weapon above the magazine port and a charge indicator poked out of the middle of the body on the left.
Of course it would be on the left side—where I couldn’t see it if I were using it. “Come with me, my little friend,” I chuckled to myself, lifting it out of its cloth covering. I could probably repurpose the rear sight on my anti-machine rifle to use on this, but I needed to find out exactly why there was already some sort of device mounted on top of the carry handle.
So now the task at hoof was to somehow dump enough random junk so that I could shove this brand-new laser rifle into my bags. There was already a lot I shouldn’t be carrying, but I couldn’t come up with reasons to drop much else I was lugging around. I briefly considered throwing out my submachine gun since I barely used it anyway, but having options just in case was always a good idea.
After throwing out a few other miscellaneous bits of junk that I hadn’t been given opportunity to sell, I was still far too laden down. “Screw it, out with the helmet.” Like I was going to ever wear it—Dad’s hat was too important to me. The Enclave Power Armor helmet thumped onto the table, followed by a curiously sparse suit of power armor. It seemed like I still had one last one spare for parts, so there was at least that.
My gaze finally fell on my anti-machine rifle and hesitated. Maybe it was time for a change in scenery. This trusty gun had helped me through the past few… weeks? It was beginning to show its age—dings and scrapes covered the surface, a bit of blood still stuck to the grip—but that gave it character.
But it reminded me of the Rangers. It reminded me of Rumcake, and he didn’t have a very good track record at the moment.
I needed a change of pace.
More importantly, I needed to make sure that nopony would steal this stuff. “Hey, Violet? Can you do a magic thing so nopony else can do stuff to this box?” I asked, only to be answered by a very disinterested mare nose-deep in a book (Coffee and You – Brewing for Morons!). I wasn’t sure whether she’d heard me or what, so I repeated myself. “Vi-vi, anything you can do to hide the box?”
Violet only spared me a momentary glance. “Don’t call me that.”
“C’mon. Please?” I begged.
“Please what?”
I groaned. “Violet, do you know any spells that you can use on the box?”
Without bothering to stop reading, Violet dryly replied, “I know many spells that can be used on the box.”
Maybe I should have strangled her instead. “Violet, can you make the box invisible to everypony except Tangerine?”
Finally, Violet put down her book and actually looked at me. “Well… it depends. How much credit are we giving her?”
“Uh… enough?” I hesitantly replied.
“That’s more confidence than I have in her, so no.” Violet stared off into space, then added, “I really hope she doesn’t turn herself into a turnip.”
The number of times they’d brought up “turnip” was making me think it could actually be a serious issue. “Is there a way to hide this box though?” Motioning at the array of things I had piled up on the table, I suggested, “Maybe like, invisibility?”
“Oh yes, I could make the box invisible, easy.”
Okay, that was solved. Now, as I was angsti—
“Except that making the box invisible makes everything in it visible.”
“What.” How did magic even work?
Smartly nodding, Violet levitated her normal book back out. “That’s how it is. Area spells usually require regular maintenance, but a simple enchant will last long enough. Something like this, maybe a few days. Maybe a week, if I feel like it.”
Then how was I—
Picking up the crate in her magic aura, Violet dropped it into the pile of books against the wall. Several of the books floated away and stacked themselves on top. “See how easy that was? I’ll write up a scroll to make sure the fruit finds it.” She shot me a smug grin and let it sink in.
At this point, I was pretty sure that Violet was intentionally trying to annoy me. “Just… just go do your dumb things. I’ll finish up here.” I didn’t want her to get away with making fun of me, but I was having a slightly more serious problem at hoof.
Having two rifles on my body wasn’t particularly useful. AMR, high power, good penetration, cumbersome, uncommon ammunition. Laser rifle, plentiful microspark ammunition, normal fire rate, lower damage and high maintenance. I weighed the pros and cons and my choice soon became apparent.
It was time to ditch my old anti-machine rifle and pick up an energy weapon. A new change of pace. Maybe Rumcake would want it back, seeing as I’d basically stolen it for myself all that time ago.
My decision made, I dismantled my anti-machine rifle for the last time and tucked the parts into the crate, along with the rest of my ammunition for it. The only things that didn’t join it were the enchanted rear sight and the carrying strap, which I held onto so I could attach them to my brand-new laser rifle later. For now, I opted to tuck the rifle under the flap of my saddlebag and secure it there with some extra tape.
I needed to leave before Rumcake got back. Maybe leaving a note would be enough explanation on my part.
Theatrically clearing my throat, I called out, “Violet, take a letter.”
“Go buck yourself.”
Aww. Slightly demotivated, I asked, “…Can I at least get some stuff to write with?” I shouldn’t have asked, because Violet yanked out one of my feathers and presented it to me, along with a tiny pot of ink and a sheaf of parchment. “Ow! Really? I need those!”
~~~~~
By the time I got out of the library, new gun and Violet in tow, the Rangers were nowhere to be seen. Getting out of here was my first priority, but I needed to grab Riverbed. Money couldn’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell could buy me a friend.
Sure enough, Riverbed’s directions hadn’t been wrong. The Talons had sloppily fortified the front of a building right past the south gate and posted several identical guards outside of it. Before I could trot up the squat concrete stairs, one of the black-armored griffons stopped us.
“Hold it, Talons only. Are you looking to hire services or just inquiring?” His full-face helmet hid his face, but he still managed to sound bored enough for me to picture the dead look under it.
Looking to spare this poor catbird as much stress as possible, I simply replied, “I’m looking to hire. I’ve got somepony specific in mind.”
The guard tilted his head and motioned at the metal door behind him. “Head in and talk to the sergeant. Don’t go anywhere else or we will shoot on sight.”
“Thanks.” Motioning for Violet to follow me closely, I shouldered through the door and found myself staring down a strange-looking griffon with patchy feathers across a coffee table she was using as an impromptu desk. I was about to wonder who I was supposed to be looking for until I caught a glimpse of a sergeant’s emblem sticking out from under her crumpled jacket.
Curiously, she didn’t have any visible body armor—simply the old ratty gray-green jacket she was wearing, a pair of empty gun holsters, and combat boots on her rear legs. Most of her feathers were a mottled brownish-white, with the common white-chest pattern that nearly every griffon seemed to have.
The griffoness arched an eyebrow and stared at me expectantly. “I’m looking to hire Riverbed Ransom,” I told her uncertainly. “Sergeant…?”
“I am Sylvia, but you can call me Nana if you wish.” She had a surprisingly gentle voice for having such a menacing visage, all things considered. “Is he the pony one from the other division?”
“She is the pony from Thundercane, yeah. She around?” Either Sylvia hadn’t cared enough to learn faces and names, or she was subtly reminding me that griffons also had the capacity to be racist pricks. Hard to tell.
Sylvia made a beckoning motion with her talons over her shoulder. “I can check in a bit. Make yourself comfortable,” she told me and Violet as Soundwave the radio griffon trodded in, huffing and puffing. The two of them exchanged words, and I made out one of them mentioning Riverbed.
Giving the the griffons a suspicious look, I tried to make myself comfortable by the weakly crackling fire pit dug into the floorboards. There were a pair of matching couches pushed near it, but I wasn’t going to destroy them by trying to sit in them with power armor. It took an additional moment for Violet to realize that I wasn’t in front of her anymore, so she slammed her book shut and trotted over to me and opened it back to the same page.
Waiting was boring. I didn’t want to ask Sylvia how long it would take for Riverbed to come back to us, so I told myself that she was probably out on assignment. Sighing, I sat down and stretched out my wings. Violet had finally noticed the couches and slithered onto one to comfortably lounge while reading.
Now was a good time as any to secure my old rifle strap to my new rifle, so I did exactly that. The hooks on either end of the strap were slightly too large for the little ring built beside the stock, and the other mounting point appeared to require a different ring for attaching to the base of the barrel. Hmm.
While I struggled with that, I asked out of boredom, “Violet, how do I do more magic?” It would be useful in the future, if I could figure any of it out.
To my amazement, Violet actually stopped and had to think about it. She even flipped her book open and began to skim through pages, periodically pausing to read. “Uh… I really don’t know. The Dispersed Magicka Proof really didn’t intend to put anything into practice; it was merely meant to prove a point.”
Did Violet not know something? “What does that mean?”
Thoughtfully, Violet flipped through a few more pages and tapped a page. “Here is is. Old magic technique involves what essentially boils down to ‘magic batteries’ for the caster to draw power from, which would prove to be redundant after the Thaumic Revolution.”
Seeing a moment for comedy, I added, “There are only three important revolutions—Equestrian, industrial, and dance dance.”
Unfortunately, I’d forgotten who I was talking to. Violet continued explaining without missing a beat, not bothering to acknowledge me at all. “After that, the practice died out. Little documentation exists after this point.” She began to flip through more pages and paused.
Groaning, I interrupted, “Come on, laugh. That was funny.”
“No.” Pointing at another section of her book, she continued, “Okay, here’s another one, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Why?”
“Zebras.”
“No thank you, next.”
“It seems to be the most viable choice if you really want to perform magic.” Violet turned her book toward me and showed me a page—a mess of lines with more lines and bars connecting to something that looked like a necklace. “Zebras are one of the most skilled practitioners of magic. There’s a reason for that, you know.”
“Nope. Next way.”
“Talismans are basically prepared spells ready to cast, and that might just be what you’re looking for. Unfortunately, we might need to find an actual zebra to make one.” Violet sighed, turning the book back to herself. “I have diagrams and theories here, but the theory does not in actuality make.”
The thought of having to cooperate with a zebra kind of frightened me. “Forget I asked.”
“I mean, whatever they do with their art is astounding. They don’t have horns, which makes their magical conductors the totems and glyphs. It’ll be something to look into, surely.”
“Can we please stop with the zebra crap? Zebras are dumb.”
“Fine, we could try imprinting a circle onto a necklace or bracelet for you, but the problem still remains: besides your natural pegasus abilities, you have almost no magical power. Even if you have it, you still won’t be able to use it properly. A zebra glyph, however… there might be potential there.”
“Buck zebras. Just stop. Please. I don’t want to think about it.” I irritably flapped my wings and looked around. “Where’s Riverbed? I’m getting bored.”
Glancing back at the page she was on, Violet replied, “You’re going to have to get over it eventually. War’s over, Frosty. Everypony lost.”
“That’s not it,” I murmured.
Apparently Violet wasn’t paying attention to me. “I’ve got the basics of what seems to be some sort of summon glyph copied down, so I’ll test it and get back to you on whether I can find something like ‘summon competency’ for you.”
Hooves clopped down the stairs behind me. “Doctor Shot, Doctor Rim Shot to the burn ward.” I looked around, and, of course, Riverbed was standing at the foot of the stairs with the largest shit-eating grin on her face. “Hey there, guy. Got some caps for me?”
Finally, a friendly face. “What took you so long?”
Happily, Riverbed responded, “I had to take a shit of planetary proportions.”
Oh. “TMI.”
“Planetary, guy. Planetary.”
I faceclawed and groaned, “Yes, thank you.”
Still looking quite pleased with herself, Riverbed trotted over to the couch and slouched onto it, completely ignoring Violet’s hindlegs. “So like, what’s the job and where are your caps, guy?” Shit, I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. I scooped out cap pouches as I tried to come up with exactly where I wanted to go.
“Here, five hundred, give or take a few.” Riverbed groaned and dumped out the pouches of caps I’d passed her to count. “And no, I have no idea where we’re going. Anywhere but here, I guess.”
With a neutral shrug, Riverbed distractedly said, “Eh, works for me, guy. Like, as long as I get paid.” She was in the middle of her twelfth stack of ten when she looked at the pile and groaned, “Screw it, that probably looks close enough.” She dropped her saddlebags and scooped my caps into it.
Maybe having a travel plan wasn’t a terrible idea. “Any requests on destination? I just want to get out of here,” I asked my new friends.
Riverbed shrugged. “You’re in charge, guy. I’ll follow.”
“Violet?” I somewhat anxiously pleaded, hoping she had an idea.
Flipping to a different page, she unfolded a taped-in pamphlet. “There’s an old research institute a few dozen blocks away. I think that could be the solution to your magic-related problem. Otherwise, I really don’t care.”
I didn’t have a better idea, so I decided that the research institute—whatever that was—would be our next stop. Besides, the idea of being able to use magic sounded cool. With a little begrudging assistance from Violet, she helped me mark the location on my PipBuck. While she was doing that, Riverbed went off to talk to Sylvia. From the bits that I’d overheard, it sounded like clerical stuff.
Searching through my bags again, I belatedly realized that my vintage laser rifle only came with five microspark cells, and I still didn’t know how much charge each shot used. “Okay, so like, Syl says I can goof off with you guys since Pogo already bucked off without me,” Riverbed happily relayed to me. “To adventure!”
I pumped my claw in the air and exuberantly agreed, “Adventure!”
The two of us giddily stared at Violet. “What?” she snapped, noticing our combined looks. “Ugh, fine.” She halfheartedly raised her hoof and sighed, “Adventure. Woo.”
With things taken care of, the three of us promptly set off. The surrounding city blocks seemed to have been stripped of all useful materials, which also meant they’d probably been thoroughly looted. We trotted past hollowed-out husks of buildings in relative silence. It was a bit surreal not seeing signs advertising shops, bars on windows, or anything of the like.
The three of us traveled in a line formation—I took the lead, Violet absentmindedly followed me, and Riverbed took up the rear. As much as I wanted to fly around, I decided to walk so that my sore wings could recover a bit more. It was also partly because getting choked by the collar wasn’t very fun, and flying would remind me of it.
Keeping one eye on the path ahead of us, I called over my shoulder to Violet, “So what makes you think there’s something there?”
“From what the brochure said, it was a research lab for the local college. The MAS appropriated it for the war effort under the excuse ‘Know thy enemy, for then you shall know no fear’ or something self-righteous like that.” Once again, Violet checked the fold-out pamphlet tucked into her book. “It’s likely that they’ll have papers on zebra magic, under that logic.”
Now I immediately regretted bringing up the question. “Okay, never mind.”
“I just want to see if zebra magic works with non-zebras, especially now that we’ve found out that you can actually conduct magicka.” Violet carefully closed her book again and actually stopped talking.
“Hey guy, can I ask you a question?”
“No.”
“Like, where’s th—wait, what d’ya mean, ‘no’?”
“I’m just joking.”
“Guy, you’re supposed to say yes! What kind of monster would, like, ever answer no?”
“I said I was joking.”
It made me chuckle when I heard the annoyed growl of frustration from Riverbed. “As I was saying, guy—what happened to, uh, Tangerine?” she asked, once she had regained her composure.
“We had to go our separate ways,” I emotionlessly responded over my shoulder.
“Aw, and I liked her too." Pausing, Riverbed must have turned her attention to the one other pony with us and remarked, "Oh, like, I didn’t introduce myself to you, did I?”
“We’ve briefly met. Don’t talk to me,” Violet said emotionlessly.
“Riverbed Ransom, gun for hire.” The glee in her voice was apparent, and it sounded like she’d paused to hold out a hoof out to bump.
With a defeated sigh, Violet responded, “Violet Dusk. Stop talking to me.”
“Well, aren’t you just a bundle of joy, guy.”
I let myself grin. It was a little strained, but that was okay. Little moments like this were exactly why I’d decided to hire Riverbed. There wasn’t any romance, any cold analytics, or any clingy adoration attached to her—she was simply fun. I liked having her around, and she was the closest pony I could call a normal friend. Although if I was paying her to be with me, did it make her a prostitute? Should I have paid her in half-caps?
“Hello? I said, when are we stopping?” Violet nagged, even going as far as to throw a rock at the back of my head. “My hooves hurt.”
Riverbed double-timed it to my side and chuckled. “We haven’t even, like, walked that far. Vi just needs exercise, guy.”
Picking up her pace, Violet galloped up beside her and snapped, “I get enough exercise, thank you very much.” Sparing a glance, I couldn’t tell if she did—her patchy robe covered her enough and I hadn’t actually ever seen her out of it.
“You need some muscle. What you need is some meat.”
“Sorry if I can’t stomach eating a dead creature’s flesh on a frequent basis.”
Riverbed stopped, and the rest of us followed suit to watch what she was doing. It took a bit longer than anticipated, but she finally dug out a leather pouch and tugged it open. “That’s because you need protein.” The two of us peered inside and realized it was full of dried meat.
“You can’t be serious.” Violet gagged a little after getting a whiff of the frighteningly delicious-smelling meat.
Grinning, Riverbed brightly responded, “No, I’m Riverbed. Hi.” She popped a small piece into her mouth and made a show of chewing it.
“You’re intolerable.”
“I’m still Riverbed.”
“Girls, let’s just keep moving. We’re going to get ambushed out here in the middle of the street.” I furtively glanced around, turning my ears at the sounds bouncing off the buildings around us. “Violet, just let Riverbed cram meat in her mouth. Riverbed, just cram meat in your mouth. Let’s go.”
Still slightly dribbling meat crumbs from her face, Riverbed casually asked, “What’s the rush, guy?”
Something in me snapped, and I exploded in her face, “I don’t want to get spotted by an Enclave patrol so that they can turn me into a motherbucking crater.”
More importantly, where were the patrols? Where was the inevitable takedown team? If the Enclave really had come down, they had to have set up a forward operating base somewhere. Maybe if I found it, I could get some answers. I still had the major’s pins, so that could be my ticket in. And why did I get the feeling we weren’t alone?
Behind me, Riverbed muttered, “What’s your beef, guy?”
“I’d say menopause but I know otherwise,” Violet thoughtfully responded.
I grimaced and pretended not to hear them. So much for having friends.
“Wuh?” Thanks, Riverbed. I didn’t know what that meant either.
“Never mind.” As an afterthought, Violet added, “Don’t talk to me.”
Whether or not they were actually my friends, I still needed them around for meat shield reasons. Just ahead we had to make a right, so I steered us to the sidewalk for safety. I was hearing echoes and things, but it could just be the creepy deserted buildings being creepy.
Or I was crazy.
I allowed myself a weak chuckle. It was probably just the sound of other ponies around, since I totally wasn’t crazy.
“Hold on, you are aware that contacts are approaching, right?” If I had been any more on edge, I would have punched Gale out right then and there. “We should find some cover.”
Sure enough, a collection of blue and yellow bars were having a great time to the leftmost side of my E.F.S. bar. I turned around and gave the other two the “get down” motion with my claw. All three of us flattened ourselves against the wall to our right, Violet only because I had to shove her there. The sound of Riverbed’s weapon safeties being disengaged reminded me that I should also bring out my weapon as well.
In a hushed whispered, I asked Riverbed, “Do you have a radio?”
“Like, ‘course I do, guy.” She tapped the side of her helmet and smirked. “Never leave home without it.”
I rolled the shoulder with my radio on it. “Good. Can you tune me into your frequency?” The only reason I didn’t do it myself was because I didn’t know how, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.
Riverbed quickly trotted behind me and bodily mounted me. Before I could fire off a snappy, angry, and/or confused remark, she tweaked a few things on my radio, then clambered off and responded, “Done.”
Allowing myself an extra three seconds to snap out of how violated I was feeling, I finally came up with, “That was unnecessary.”
Nodding, Violet agreed, “Seconded.”
“Yet somehow arousing,” Riverbed happily whispered to me.
Was… was I actually the only straight mare in the Wasteland? “Not really, no. Sort of awkward and weird, guy.”
“You liked it.”
“I’m not half-capping you. Not interested.” Back to business.
Eyeing the bar on the top of my vision and echoes of sound coming from around the corner, I fiddled with the sling on my new laser rifle so that I could hold it in my claw single-hoofedly. That way, I could still use my other three legs to stand on. Aiming it was going to be a different problem that I’d solve later.
The building next to us had a second floor that looked like it had been forcibly de-roofed at some point, which also made it a great vantage point. “Violet, I’m going to hop into the second floor of this place. I don’t want to implode, so stick to the wall.” Thankfully she did as I asked without question.
All I managed was a half-assed flap upward so that I could grab the ledge without applying too much extra stress to my wings. I pulled myself up and crept to the corner wall, keeping in mind to find something to stabilize my rifle with. Maybe I should have also stolen the bipod off of the anti-machine rifle.
A short end table would have to do for stability. Rearing up on my hind legs, I made sure that the muzzle of my rifle didn’t protrude over the edge of the building while I took aim. I leaned forward to set up a comfortable firing position and placed my other foreleg underneath my rifle to observe the approaching group of Wastelanders.
They weren’t traveling in any sort of formation and they didn’t have any equipment that made them seem like a caravan group. The scattered four ponies seemed to be arguing with each other, but only in hushed whispers. There were a surprisingly diverse little group—a pegasus, an earth pony, a unicorn, and a walking corpse.
The pegasus in the front was wearing some very familiar-looking combat fatigues usually issued to the Enclave reserve forces, as indication by the “R” overlaid on a winged shield. She had a dusty gray coat that almost shined in the low light, and her light blue mane and tail looked equally taken care of. Both were even neatly braided, surprisingly enough. She had a sort of wrapped bag slung over her back, but I didn’t pay it much mind. She had a PipBuck as well, but I couldn’t tell which variety it was.
Right next to the pegasus, the unicorn mare arguing with her was a sort of orangey-red shade, with bits of light gray mane sticking out beneath her hoofball cap. Unlike the pegasus, she actually had patched-up shoddy combat armor with some faded and crossed out logo on the chestplate. A trio of canteens dangled from her left side with her saddlebags, since the other side was occupied by a massive double-barreled pump shotgun.
Lingering near the back, a spry earth pony was idly surveying the rest of the surrounding buildings. He had a purple coat and a brown mane tied into a ponytail, along with a scraggly goatee and a purple bandanna was tied around his neck. His bulging saddlebags nearly covered up his battle saddle—another shotgun and some sort of rifle. A fire axe was secured on top of everything.
For whatever reason, the last member of their was a ghoul. This one looked like it was in the same shape as Sleazy—more rotting corpse than pony. It didn’t have much more armor than a ratty-looking pair of coveralls and a much newer-looking ballistic vest. A saddlebag on his right side trailed a belt of shells that fed into an automatic shotgun strapped to his other side.
“Looks like four contacts, mostly shotguns. Earthie, Birdie, Cornie, and a ghoul. They still haven’t seen us yet.” On a gut feeling, I glanced skyward and hastily added, “Five. They’ve got a pegasus on recon—really?”
This one seemed to be one of those wannabe dark and broody rookies that would periodically join Recon and Scouting Teams. I’d bet any caps I had that his gray mane was probably dyed because of how patchy it looked, and he’d run out of dye to paint his white coat coat similarly. As for his armament, it appeared he only had a shotgun, knife, and some light Enclave armored barding. He even had a muzzle-covering gas mask, which made me snort. Probably one of those colts that believed all the propaganda.
Through my earbloom, I barely made out Riverbed asking, “Think they’re hostile?” I pressed it a little farther into my ear and hoped that would fix it.
By the way the ones on the ground wouldn’t stop arguing with each other, I wasn’t sure. “I don’t know. Those pegasi worry me, though. If they report back to command, I’m toast.”
“Guy, they’re not even Enclave. Probably like, adventurers looking for a quick score.” Ah, problem fixed. I could hear her fine now.
With mister dark and broody up there, I had the feeling that the others were being paid to follow him. “Or they’re hunting for me.”
While I kept my eyes on the group of hunters and their Enclave handler, Violet lazily asked, “So… what’s the plan?”
If any of them got away, I’d be in trouble. If they somehow managed to take me alive, there was no telling what they would do to me.
“We could brutally murder them! Better than that shit you pulled last time,” Toasty enthusiastically suggested.
I leaned out of scope and gave me a sidelong glance. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Remember the first time the Enclave wanted to say hi?” Sarcastically tilting her head, Toasty snarked, “Oooh, I caught the feeeels. I’m sooo sorry. I’m so sorry I killed you and all your bird horse friends. Here, I’ll let you go so you can tell everypony that I committed treason.” With a snide chuckle, she added, “Wimp.”
Examining the several ponies very slowly bearing down on us, I asked, “What does that have to do with this?”
“You want a repeat of that shit?” Toasty glared at me expectantly, an evil glint in her eyes.
Damn it.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! She made a good point.
“We have to kill them.”
“Really, guy?” I heard Riverbed’s face shield come down as she sighed. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”
Scoffing, Violet responded, “Leave me out of it. I’ll be here if you need me.” Unfortunately, that meant I was stuck in the rough neighborhood of right here. I could work with that.
For whatever reason, they still hadn’t spotted Riverbed or me. The pegasus with the PipBuck hadn’t seen me either, so maybe we were still out of range. “Okay, we need to eliminate their air superiority. I’ll take out the flying one, you take care of the one on the ground.” Being tethered to Violet would keep me grounded, so I wouldn’t be able to engage anyway.
“On three.”
“Ow! Shit, ow.” I stopped observing the group to glance downward at Riverbed, who was doing her best to climb up the side of a dumpster and onto the opposite building. “Hold on, guy. Like, let me get in position.”
As I waited for her, I tried to adjust to my new rifle. Not only was it lighter than my previous one, but I had to keep reminding myself that I didn’t have to lead targets nearly as far anymore. Losing vertical peripheral vision was also a little weird, since I still didn’t know what the little box on the top actually did. It wasn’t another sight, that was for sure.
Gasping, Riverbed finally responded, “Ready, guy.”
The one with the PipBuck was looking around now, so that probably meant I was showing up on it. “On my mark.”
“One.” I took a deep breath and focused in on the pegasus.
“Two.” There was a moment of doubt, but I brutally threw it aside. He was here to capture me, kill me, whatever.
Taking aim slightly ahead of the flying pony’s nose, I breathed, “Boom.” The energy bolt left the gun almost a whole half-second after I released the trigger. As expected, it burned through a layer of foreleg armor and into the pony wearing it. However, it didn’t seem to do much more than leave a nasty third degree burn.
I leaned out of scope and looked with my own eyes. “What.”
A firm claw closing around the back of my collar accompanied Toasty’s outraged cry of, “What?!”
At least nopony was more surprised than the one I’d shot. “W-what? Where did that come from?” He listed to one side and smashed into a wall as a result.
It was at this point when I’d realized my error—this was a vintage laser rifle, probably the end of the second era by my guess. In all the excitement, I’d forgotten that laser pre-igniters hadn’t been invented yet. That meant I’d just fired a low-powered shot that had the bare minimum charge instead of a deadly leg-melting laser that I’d tried to use.
Whoops.
On a related topic, how was I supposed to charge this thing? Why hadn’t the griffon who wanted this thing steal the instruction manual as well? Why did the other pegasus have a scythe? I’d be damned if my next thought was going to be “Why are my intestines over there?”
All hell broke loose, almost as if somepony had shot a pegasus and done no damage. The ponies on the ground dove for cover or dashed to help the one that I’d shot. Riverbed hadn’t fired for some reason, and I snarled, “How come you didn’t shoot the other one?”
“You didn’t bucking say three, guy!” Belatedly, Riverbed let a few half-assed shots loose at a pile of rubble.
“I said three!”
“Like, you said boom.”
Uh. “That was implied to be three!”
“How was I supposed to know, guy?”
Was this not common knowledge? “Just do what I mean and not what I say.” Speaking of shooting ponies, the ghoul seemed like a great candidate for free laser surgery.
It looked like nopony knew how to track the heat trail from a laser, so I had an extra shot of opportunity. The group of hunters had gone to ground, currently hiding in one of the alleys and behind a collapsed section of building on my side of the road. The giant double-barreled shotgun hovered out of cover by the alley, which only meant its user was right around the corner.
While I tried to come up with a reason why anypony would even consider using a scythe for actual combat, I lined up my sights with the floating shotgun. I waited for an additional beat for somepony to peek before attempting to vaporize the shotgun. Once again, the shot was delayed and on impact it didn’t do much more than burn a hole through the barrel. The gun retreated back to its owner, at least.
A few bolts of plasma splashed against rubble where the other half of the hunting party was hunkered down. “They’re pretty dug in, guy.” She fired off a few more shots then added, “I think they’re actually leaving. You have eyes on the other pegasus?”
Speaking of which, I caught sight of him rocketing back into the air while he swerved and spun. It looked like he had opted out to a pistol, but he was actively searching and dodging. I tried to track the dodging pegasus, but he was simply moving way too much for me to predict for the express reason that he knew there was a sniper around.
I toggled S.A.T.S. in order to take care of him. Cue freeze frame, zoom and enhance— “Wait, what do you mean, thirty-four percent? Come on!” Since the headshot percentage was even lower, I decided to let the spell take the bodyshot instead. Strangely, I was only allowed to queue one attack. Nevertheless, I confirmed it anyway and let it go.
The spell helped me track the pegasus, and I noticed that I was being told to squeeze the trigger and hold it. About two seconds later—an eternity in S.A.T.S.—I finally let the shot fly, and this time it was no disappointment. A blazing red beam bolted from my rifle and impacted against the pegasus’s right foreleg with a satisfying burn and heat bloom.
That time, the shot had the desired effect. The pegasus wailed in pain and crashed to the ground in no-pony’s land between us and them, clutching at his burnt leg. A nice clean hole had been burnt right through bone, armor, and flesh. As I began to line up a shot to finish him off, a bloody talon tugging against my jaw made me stop.
“C’mon… double or nothing. They’ll want to say hi to their little friend eventually.” Toasty throatily whispered into my right ear. “Make it two, three, four kills, easy.”
She had a damn good point. “Okay, let me at least maim him a little more. I think I cauterized him with that hit.”
Toasty chuckled. “I like that shit. Go.”
With the strategy in place, I let one more shot loose right into the downed pegasus’s unarmored wing. It hit a bit off my intended target, but a bolt to the leading edge of his wing would keep him grounded anyway.
Right as I was getting into the zone, a rude interruption jolted me out of it. “Howdy to all ya cooool cats out there! Listen up, a little birdie dropped this little number on Uncle Soundwave—intel, fresh off the presses! Enclave morale boosters haven’t been this exciting since your mom!” Wasn’t that the radio griffon from Stronghold? What the buck? “Incoming crazy shit!”
“Hey Riverbed, can you squelch him?” I tried to land a more lethal shot on the unicorn trying to peek their corner, but the unpredictable fire delay was messing with my aim.
My earbloom beeped, then it continued with Soundwave’s broadcast, but it was a different voice altogether. “Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a single daring terrorist act. Earlier today at approximately oh-eight hundred hours, High Councilor Harbinger and his protective detail were taken from us with a balefire bomb—one of the very devices that forced the creation of the haven we have made for ourselves. This act of terror was intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our nation is strong.
“A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. These Wastelanders—these filth—think they can intimidate us with a brutish show of force. Today, our nation saw evil—the very worst of our nature—and we shall respond with the wrath of the Enclave Military. Fear not, citizens. You will be safe. You have my word.”
“Can’t do anything about it. He’s broadcasting to all Talons,” Riverbed shouted over the broadcast and the din of her plasma rifle.
I was forced to scoot backward and seek cover because one of them had finally spotted me and was trying to feed me free birdshot. “And they’ve seen me. Great.” More importantly, what was going on? What kind of press release was this?
“—rch is underway for those who were behind these evil acts. I have directed the full resources of our intelligence and military to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. We w—”
“I think they’re trying to kill me!” Riverbed screamed, wildly spraying plasma. “Bucking helmeted me! I’m backing off.”
Soundwave returned, accompanied by a burst of static. “Yadda yadda yadda. So if you’ve ever wanted to be part of an underground terrorism syndicate—or if you’re a Steel Ranger listenin’ in, a literal underground terrorism syndicate—today’s your chance! And now for the weather. Off to you, Nobeard.”
A gruff, almost bored voice followed. “Norbert. My name is Norbert.”
“Same thing.”
“I could feed you to the hounds.”
If I wasn’t so busy trying not to die, I would have laughed. Falling back was starting to look like a better and better option.
Soundwave happily answered, “I could shut up, Nob.”
Silence. “As I was saying, tonight’s weather is going to be pigeon filth, followed by cloudy skies. The Freakshow Feathers Talon Branch will be paying thirty caps per Enclave pegasus, fifty if they’re still kickin’. Bring your shit to Stronghold for payment. We’re moving out in three days, so stay tuned.”
“Time to get paid, boys and girls!” Soundwave happily chuckled. “Happy hunting!”
Yeah, buck this place. If this group wanted to take me down, they’d have to fight a little harder for it. I could have politics hour later.
X~~~X
“I’m going to kill her.”
Tangerine sighed, then groaned. “Rumcake, we know. She’s just distressed and angry.”
That still didn’t change anything. “Am I the only one that cares that Frosty lied about knowing us just so she could run off again?” I demanded to my Rangers, to no reply.
The room that the griffon mercs had tossed us in was somepony’s office, but they were only preventing us from leaving until their “leader” gave them the go-ahead to leave. Sparkle was lounging in one corner trying to squeeze in some well-deserved rest, while Tangerine was still trying to decipher the mysteries of the scroll she had been reading for the past several hours.
Why was Frosty doing this to me? This wasn’t the mare that I’d fallen for. I held my head in my hooves and tried to come up with some kind of reason. Did she get a kick out of making me miserable? All I wanted to do was help her. Why couldn’t Frosty just get it?
“Uh… Rumcake? C-can I talk to you?”
Say her name thrice, and she shall appear. I sat up and glowered at the doorway where Frosty was poking her head in.
For once, she looked meek and vulnerable. At a nod, Frosty slunk in, head down and tail tucked, muttering, “I, uh, I’m sorry about how I’ve… how my attitude has been recently. It’s just—” She let out a hiccuping sob and shakily continued, “It’s just so hard to focus when you’re in five pieces, okay? I’m sorry I’m just so… stupid!” She looked like she was on the verge of having a complete breakdown.
My heart simply melted at the sight of Frosty dejectedly sniffling. Seeing her so vulnerable and weak after being used to a more recklessly feisty mare made me realize I was finally seeing a side of her that rarely showed. “It’s okay, Frosty. C’mere. I’m here for you.” I held open my forelegs and motioned for her to come to me.
Frosty let her saddlebag and her rifle drop to the floor. “I’m so sorry,” she whimpered, limping into my embrace. She tightened her forelegs around my neck and leaned in close. “I shouldn’t have done all those stupid things without thinking. I should have listened.”
It was about time that Frosty came to her senses. “Hey, it’s okay. Shh. I did a few stupid things that I shouldn’t have done too.” I was already regretting hitting her earlier, and the bruise on her face still looked tender. “We all make mistakes.” As I comforted her, I also noticed that the collar that I had given her wasn’t belted around her neck anymore. “What happened to your safety collar?”
Frosty pulled herself away and stared at me with those tear-stricken purple eyes. “I… After you hit me, I made Violet take the collar off so I could fly around. Collect my thoughts, I guess.” She sniffled a little and wiped her eyes. “And I sort of told her to go buck herself and she teleported away.”
Damn it, Frosty. “It’s okay. Let’s get you cleaned up and then we’ll go find her,” I sighed.
“I think she teleported back to Perma,” Frosty mumbled.
Even if Violet wasn’t particularly good at anything, having an extra unicorn on hoof was never a bad thing. “You don’t know that. Maybe she’s in the book place.”
“Oh! I left all the stuff in the library!” Tangerine suddenly interjected. “I need to go!”
Frosty tilted her head at the door. “You could totally leave. I already told the catbirds out front to buzz off.” Like a frightened little filly, Tangerine stared at me for direction. Giving her the go-ahead with a nod, she darted out and away.
For now, I just wanted to comfort my broken little pegasus. “Frosty, I’d like to formally apologize right now for slapping you earlier. I was mad and I wasn’t thinking straight.” I allowed her to slouch against me and attempt to pull me into a hug.
“Forgive me?” As she stared me down with those beautiful eyes, I realized I just couldn’t stay mad at her any longer.
“Will you actually listen to me now?”
“Promise.”
With an almost relieved sigh, I replied, “Yeah. All is forgiven.” I looped my foreleg behind her and under her wings, pulling her up against my body. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Something kept tugging at the back of my mind, though. “Hold on, since when have you had purple eyes?”
Frosty briefly showed surprise, then mild annoyance. “You’ve got to be shitting me. You don’t even know what I look like.” She calmly tilted her head up, her intense gaze boring into my skull. "I have always had purple eyes."
I gaped dumbly at her for a moment, before blinking and shaking my head. Of course, of course. What was I thinking? “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I guess I was just being stupid.” Where had I even gotten that dumb question from in the first place?
Frosty purred in contentment. "That's okay. Just hold me, please."
If she wasn’t going to hold it against me, I was going to take as much advantage of it as possible. Gently scooping up Frosty in my forelegs, I slouched a little lower so that she would be comfortable with her head tucked under my chin. After she was done settling onto me, I lovingly stroked her mane and held her tight, praising whatever goddesses watching that had brought my Frosty back to me.
Brushing back an errant lock of her mane, I nuzzled Frosty’s ear and muttered into it, “I love you.”
“I know.”
Footnote: Level up!
New Perk: Money Talks – Mercenaries and free agents are cheaper to hire when you have no other followers or are acting as a follower. Quest-related characters do not count toward using this skill.
Current Sub-perk: Diplomacy – Remember thy Charlamane. You gain +8 to Speech.
Hallowed Ground DLC installed.
Alternate ending now available.*
Six new items have spawned in crates. Some may be locked!
New areas will become accessible upon proper story triggers. Saves in Act Four will require a restart.
Special items from Hallowed Ground acquired (2).
1 × “The Vintage Vaporizer” Laser Rifle
5 × Vintage Rechargable Microspark Cell
*Accessing this ending is not guaranteed and may require multiple playthroughs.
Pic related.
(Sauce)
Several OCs featured belong to their respective owners. TheBobulator is not responsible for death, loss of limbs, injury, spontaneous combustion, and/or prizes. You knew what you were asking for.
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Is Tabber back, or this is a completely different changeling?
...well, THAT'S not good.
5203029
I'll let you figure this one out. Pay attention to the intermission chapter.
5203029 From Intermission 2:
Really, though, why would it be anyone else?
Edit: Ninja'd. By the actual author.
5203029
my money's on him/it
Kill it with fire! Unleash the Toasty! Burn the Bug!
Well shit. What's his face is, going to seduce the Ass whole Rumcake! Now, if you excuse me I have to go pay someone some caps.
Dun dun dunnnnnn!
Would it still be cheating if Frosty walks in on them? Can Rumcake POSSIBLY get in more trouble at this point? Tune in next time to find out!
Changeling!
5206091
Welcome back! Let's keep going.
-"angst hour"- Angst hour is ok, but ANGST: THE MUSICAL is not ok.
" It was going to be something exceptionally more witty, but it was pointed out by Unknownlight that On'O was a thing already.
-"Ummm, what? How? Were the 'bandits' the Train Ponies? and how would he have heard anything this quick?"- Plot convenience. Work with me here.
-"You're ponies, you're use to being naked." Okay, I only did this for the scene. Yeah, I'm aware but like... it makes the scene WORK.
-"As much as this is being built up, we're never getting the details are we?"- Interesting things happen off screen, like real life. It's fine!
-"Psycho broke free, because she needed to chase a laser pointer?"- Remember, Raider is actually just a big dumb kitty.
-"It's coming from the Enclave."- Thank you for saying it!
-"Though umm, should Rummy be worried about catching anything?"- By the end of this story, somepony should contract balefire crotch. For the sake of funny.
-"CALLING IT OUBLIETTES AND OGRES!? That... is.. so.. AWESOME!
-"Don't feel bad.. I don't get it either."- If it makes you feel better I don't remember which song this is.
-"But, that wasn't 'days' ago, that was.. yesterday at most, wasn't it?"- None of these characters know what a calendar is, bear with me.
Yeah, this chapter and one other were originally two-parters that got merged up, which is why it has an absurd word count. Yay, Team Frosty!
*sobs* I called him poker!
Well, at least I have a spare for him.
Plot twist: Shotgun still works because it was a clean shear of the barrel.
Oooh, shit is going doooooooown!
Aren't changelings always the most irritating things? Still, no doubt Frosty will squash it in some creative way. And then words will be had with Rumcake.
Quick, guys! We need a situation where Frosty normally would be arguing with herself, and make Tangerine and Rumcake at least somewhat suspicious, as I don't think that anybody will find anti-schizophrenia medicine in the Wasteland (let alone either making or finding it in just a few hours), nor would therapy for this (if you can even hold effective therapy sessions for schizophrenia) would work within the space of a few hours. Also, Tangerine (and Rumcake, if he would show some amount of intelligence for longer than about 2 seconds) should feel that something was off about the insulting Violet and making her teleport off story, as she has stuck around through Frosty and crew's antics for a bit, and doesn't seem to be one who lets her emotions get the better of her very often. I could forgive Tangerine for not noticing Frosty's incorrect eye color, as she is probably not going to look at Frosty for very long or closely, being somewhat terrified of her, with the death threats and all.
Why is the changeling so focused on taking over Frosty's life?
5214738 Petty revenge for inadvertantly screwing him over. Everything was explained in Intermission 2.
5214791 Oh that, the whole I'm the biggest bitch thing.
I groaned so hard I got a headache.
Double barrel shotguns have NEVER been pump-action. Either remove 'double barrel' or 'pump'.
5215478
You know you liked it.
5215764
It's literally two shotguns glued together. Work with me here.
5215793
If it's two shotguns glued together then wouldn't it have two pump handles?
5215872
Welcome back!
-"This.. actually makes sense. " Wait, I was right for once? Celebrate!
-"It's her brain, this is all in her mind.. what does her physical shape and conditioning have to do with it?"- Let me be funny, dammit!
-"Well that scene... ended on a funny note but... bleh didn't really care for it."- It's a cute reference to Outlaw, where Mach is from. It's a good read.
-"Sparkle does use those little carvings of other ponies to play out her own little slash fics, doesn't she?"- O-of course not! totally. All the time.
-"Who puts chips in a box? Or potatoes for that matter."- I like to think it's a box with one singular potato in it.
-"Though, the sniper must have it rough here.. how does he eat?"- I like to think he just badmouths them until he gets fed. Or he's the reason that pegasi aren't allowed anymore.
-"What mod gives you THIS feature?"- Having a good production team! Or something.
Well here's hoping the next chapter isn't too silly.
5231558
Yay! Now I have something to do in class.
-"Also, Enclave armor didn't really work that way"- I... I did not know that. Neither did my editors at the time, so shame on them!
-"It's a "Push to open" door, isn't it?"- I was very, very tempted to do it here. You have no idea. Saved it for later, for comic effect.
-"Okay, what is going on?" It has now occurred to me that I have used the wrong scaling for radscorpions. In my mind, I was thinking the really giant fucker that hangs out by the Brotherhood base in Vegas was the "normal" size, and the rest were tiny fuckers like the mantis nymphs. Oops. You know what, that would explain a lot about the qualms bout this scene.
-"How did Violet get in in the first place?" Magic you fool, magic!
-"Aforementioned survival kit"- Uh... Okay, I think this was one of the things that might have gotten cut in post, or I was writing and I forgot to complete a thought. Dunno, I dropped the ball on this one. OR my editors did for not noticing! HA!
-"seriously story, explain what the hell is going on!"- Yeah, sorry about that. It needed to be a little vague for story reasons, but maybe I hand't realized how vague I'd made this scene. That, and I added this scene during the rewrite so it's a little stupid looking.
-"Ummmm, no. I mean nice try and you're close but, that's not how it was."- Why didn't any of my editors point this out to me? I was told there was no canon about it! I think!
-"So we going to end up meeting that pony?"- Cheeky Call of Doritos Mountain Dewdy reference. Couldn't resist.
-"Ummm, the angry pony that yelled at them was a sergeant, not an officer"- I want to blame changes in post, but I think this is just me being a moron.
-"And not just for the having no fucking clue what is going on stuff." The literary genius in me says it's because she's poisoned and delusional, but we both know the truth.
-"How does she know this?" .....pipbuck, I hope?
-"mmm, okay.. why did we need the recap of who he was?"- This takes into account people who forget characters after like, five chapters or something.
-"Does he even know to meet you here?"- Rumcake probably has a quest waypoint over her but he's too busy being awesome to take care of it. Work with me here.
-"... do I want to know?" Anything tastes good when it's golden brown, deep fried and delicious.
I'm terrible with explaining things, so sorry about that. Can I just get away with "Frosty advanced the main plot"? Although, Ice Storm's whole schtick is kept vague and stuff for story purposes.
5231634
Yeah your editors totally suck, did they even read the story?
Especially that Unknowlight guy. (Kidding kidding.) It's not like it was a major point in the story, just a single bit where Calamity and Steelhooves were comparing their respective armors. And hey, did come up with a way it could still, kind of, make her at least feel stronger.
And, it really did work great as written too.
Ah these are meant to be GIANT radscorpians. that, makes more sense.
There's a back door that she used, isn't there?
Yeah like I keep saying, vague in some spots works, and increases the tension, the mystery, but there needs to be balance, some sign of information coming, some hints, something we can use as a base state, some hard facts that we can work out from the start and build off of. Ice Storm has none of those. He shows up out of nowhere, doing stuff that should be impossible, acting so mysterious and vague and what not, and we are given nothing about him at all, not one thing to start to build a base of of to work from. The programming, the virus, all the other mysterious are done really well, because we have enough know to work with and guess at, and to form that solid base. Ice Storm.... nadda. And he's not "Interestingly vague" but "Frustratingly annoyingly vague."
Yeah, there is. Then again, not like a whole ton of people would notice I just 1. have read the thing three times already, one pass being accompanied by a MASSIVE chapter by chapter review and analysis which the commentary here is more of an outline of. and 2. Have a really REALLY good memory.
But it was just a single line near the end, that wasn't even in a scene about the Enclave. It was talking about Life Bloom's home town kicking him out for being gay, which led to Calamity talking about the Enclave's view on same sex relationships and how while not officially endorsed or pushed for, they are quietly encouraged because of the extra foal thing.
Okay so reference I just didn't get.
Yeah, true, but that does make a good cover. Though that was more about Ice Storm. the dream itself being weird because, well dream.
That's what I was thinking was the onl wa she could but, then should have made clear that's where she knew it from. Plus, ou know, this is Frosty, how would she know her Pipbuck could even do that?
Fair enough, still rather awkwardly worded though.
But yeah, despite the snark and the nitpicks... most of which are just snarky fun or pointing out ways it could be better to help out, overall still loving the story. Really the ONLY Major issue I have right now is Ice Storm and just how utterly vague and unanswered ANYTHING about him is. I get keeping some stuff vague but, with him, it's to much, to long. With him being to major a character We know so little... as in nothing.. about him. So, it's just.... really really frustrating since we have nothing to work with, and no sense or hints the story is working towards it well. That an reveal won't just be an out of nowhere asspull rather then feel like it was built up, because we have so little to build with.
If it was with the whole power thing... not really because it comes so out of nowhere, makes so little sense, has so little explanation, so little.. anything.. that it distracts from the story to much to just go with.
5231739 I checked. Ice Storm is pretty much fully explained (as long as you're paying attention, which you clearly are) in the first scene in Ch. 20. So... soon.
5239863
Welcome back!
-You would not believe how hard it was to come up with the technobabble.
-"Can these rangers do ANYTHING right"- This one is more like Violet being intolerable.
-"and spells and what not that she thought was a guide for real magic.. isn't it"- That's what they wanted you to think.
-"Why did Boss let her weapons through this time?" Uh... Your reputation with Perma has increased to Trusted!
-" Just using nothing but visuals to explain that they were taking the enchantment from one gem "- Yeah, that was pretty annoying to put together but it's good to know I didn't mess it up!
-"Now as to them arguing about whether or not to save the slaves... " There was actually a scene here last version with combat and all that good stuff, but it got cut in post.
-"it was like, a few seconds, minute tops"- That's what you think.
-"She's.. across the street from them? As in outside the building?"- me being shitty at describing things. Sorry.
-"You planned that didn't you Rummy?"- You wouldn't know it, but he's smart sometimes.
-"Okay, starting to see what's going on here. Timing... MIGHT work"- I'm being super vague with time because I'm just not sure where and when things happen.
-"Frosty really REALLY needs some pony to talk to"- She's fiiiine.
-"Impossible. So which is it, armor or no armor?"- Would you believe both? Yeah ok continuity error
-"Just, the shear under-reaction... so freaking hilarious."- There's a certain point where you just gotta stop caring.
-"seriously Frosty.. what the buck were you thinking?"- totally could just be something like 'lol hold my beer it's gonna be funny'.
I thought about naming the voice in my head earlier today. But he liked just being called "The voice in my head." Makes it sound like I'm crazy when I refer to him. Plus, there's only one of him.
Nice to see Frosty getting some Energy Weapons. Mostly because I felt like the Enclave Training perk was going to waste with all these combustion-propelled weapons.
One full minute after accusing the Griffons of being racist.
Adventure!
...I probably broke some FIMFic rule about replying with only one word or something but screw it I wanted to join in.
Hey, I know this guy! He's probably gonna die. Not for lack of trying though.
Party's got a huge disadvantage being primarily shotguns and melee. That much firepower is pretty good for turning wasteland wildlife into chunky salsa, but anyone with range can cripple them. Y'know, kinda like what literally just happened. This pony seems to be the only one with a long-ranged weapon, but Frosty has multiple advantages: Height, cover, a scope, military training, and they don't know where she is. Knowing who this earth pony is, I know he's a good shot but I also know Frosty will be quicker on the trigger even if he did know which direction to shoot. The fact that the laser needs a charge will give him a little time, though.
My plan for this situation? Pray there's a manhole or doorway in that alley and get out.
Wait, forgot the wounded pegasi that has just turned into bait. Hm... Yep, anything short of building a makeshift turtle shell out of random junk in the alley for mobile cover will end badly.
Classic Enclave propaganda. I hate Enclave propaganda.
5242587
Oh hey welcome back!
Seriously, the cameo party had a LOT of shotguns. I improvised with what I had. And let's face it, propaganda's great. You know you like it.
5242676 Did I go somewhere? Heh, well nice to know I'm a familiar virtual face.
Yeah, random selection can do that. As a shotgun guy I bet my character would get along with these guys. Though having gotten pinned helplessly behind cover with only scattershot and my only choice being to run forward and eat a ton of bullets before I can do any damage before, I gave this guy a rifle for this very reason. Also because rifles are fun.
Well, the propaganda is great at making it easy to hate the Enclave. A community built on lying. They lie to their enemies, to their civilians, even the soldiers that are willing to die for them. (Like Frosty.) I imagine an Enclave troop could kill your friends and family in front of you before saying to your face "How could you have killed all these innocent people!? Good thing I showed up to stop you!" (Only hopefully less cheesy) then shooting you in the head and going home a hero.
5242587
Shotguns aren't actually that inaccurate, especially if loaded with slugs.
Now everything else was pretty true, but don't discount the potential accuracy of a full sized shotgun loaded with rifled slugs.
That being said I do hope my poor double barreled pump shotgun wielder doesn't die. I like that character.
5254741
Uh.
UH.
OH YEAH I KILLED YOUR ZEBRAPONI TOO.
Oops.
5254741 I always forget slugs exist. You're right!
5254784 Yep.
I was sad then, too.
Please don't make me sad again.
Said double barreled pump shotgun wielder would be a good acquaintance to have an owed favor from...
Aaahhhh, I'm like, how did I not review this chapter sooner? I remember reading this the first time and was like ecstatic, overjoyed and pumped. It was a pretty moving chapter that pushed the story along a good bit. I will toss it up as me getting lazy in life in general here lately. Yes, that's it, I was lazy. I am sorry. It will and might possibly happen again. I can't help myself sometimes when I get lazy and sluggish with my reading/reviewing. But enough of that, onto the review!
It was a moving chapter. That ending finally connected Tabbers back into the story placed her in with Rumcake and the Steel Ranger gang. But from real Frosty's perspective, Rumcake and her are essentially over. I'm not sure, but I really was thinking there was going to be some kind of dramatic statement. Not just, she walks out and convinces Violet to follow her. Not really convince Violet either, just sort of wants goes and Violet's like, "I'm studying you bitch." But yeah. The gang has broken up and now Frosty is finally away from Rumcake, and poor Rumcake is about to become Tabber's next food source. What a shame. To bad he lost a shit ton of cool points the last few chapters. perhaps he'll redeem himself? Unlikely. Even though they were a cute couple while it lasted, I liked that you wrote about a relationship that fell apart in the end. If they get back together I will be very surprised. But you know, Frosty's gonna die soon and Rumcake will be in love with a gender bending changeling. Woot.
Riverbed Ransom is back. She's cool guy. You've said you hated accents, but I love that you stick with her guy thing. Little things really help a character along. Violet's character is really defined by the Raven from Teen Titan's feel about her. Riverbed Ransom though, she's just an all around fun character. A good match for Frosty. In any video game you can hire someone, Ransom is the one to go to for the best time. Friendship is magic. And in the Wasteland, it comes at the price of a lot of bottle caps. Perhaps Ransom will later save Frosty or something without being paid, or exchange snarky comments as she's shooting at Frosty. Whatever the case, she's with our protagonist now!
Their destination, still not really defined outside of go check out something for Violet and not get killed by the Enclave! Why is it that I feel Violet might be a potential life saver for Frosty if they keep on with this magic stuff? Perhaps she finds out about Frosty's pact with Death. Or perhaps she just gets Frosty do play with a little bit of magic and blow our crazy mare up. Or maybe she dies in the firefight Frosty got them all into.
Really, you listened to Toasty, you stupid and psycho paranoid pegasus. How hard is it to have a conscious! Wait, you have none, you're a psychopath that's lost her mind. A cute adorable little psychopath that we all want to see live through all of this somehow. Frosty hates zebra's for reasons not really defined outside of racism. (Perhaps all Enclave are raised to despise Zebras. I forget if that was the case in this story.) Frosty also goes and declares war against strangers. Out numbers, and who knows if she's out skilled or not. She just goes and tries to kill them. Dangit Frosty, you should know by now that Toasty is never a good pony to look to when deciding something. She is your little evil ego that hangs on one shoulder. Gala, I mean Gale, and Filly Frosty, are far more superior to listen to. And Ice, well, Ice is just a creepy demon of some kind. Still, just don't listen to Toasty!
My character and every other OC in that band it going to die, horribly. How wonderful! *Claps* I'll look forward to seeing Blue getting killed by Frosty or Ransom. It'll be fun.
I liked that a lot of this chapter was mostly details around that fight. I didn't realize that was the case when I was skimming the chapter to remember what I wanted to review about. The narrative through the weird radio was actually a pretty neat idea to fit exposition in along with the action. I'll have to use that in my book sometime. I already planned on having one part where there's like, blaring violin music. But that's more of the environment than exposition that further's the story. And man, that exposition game me chills when I read it. Yes, chills. I need to sit down and reread the original Fo:E sometimes, just so I can study the smaller details. :)
You know, whatever anyone else tells you, I believe your writing is pretty dang good. I think you've got the potential to write a professional novel, or the first draft of one, and then spend a year or two editing it all out. Yes, it would be a pretty dang big novel with how you write, but it would be a good one at that. Or, if you decide to stick with fanfiction, know that I'm a fan of your literature. I'm slow sometimes in reading and reviewing stuff, really slow sometimes, but I love it all the same even with the extra time between each chapter. Looking forward to that next chapter.
Quaver Ava
Okay, so, Enclave is down, we know exactly when this is taking place compared to FoE, now, will this cause the group to get over their bullshit and stop acting like assholes to each other.
Or just make it even more annoying that they seem to have no purpose in being together beyond making each other miserable.
Also, how long till Frosty realizes they aren't coming down just for her?
Though, given Operation: Cauterize, wouldn't be surprised if her name was added to the list of "Wipe them out" orders.
Nice upgrades. So, given the heavy loadout, and Tabber's rather limited resources.. less likely that's him.
Yeah, not a good subject to bring up right now Riverbed. And because the rest of the group it's tied to is on the edge of it's range.
Though you could always just get Riverbed to untie the thing for you.
Nice joke, though took me a bit to get it. Didn't realize Frosty was thinking the other type of mine.
So, time to actually deal with this and confront Rummy about this bullshit? Or just accepted it, repress it, and move on ignoring this until the next time the story wants some angst?
You know, it's rather odd to me that ALL mercenary griffons are portrayed as Talons. Like it's the only group, with each smaller group being one company. Especially given the issues between Riverbed group and Blackwings. Just seems like it would be more realistic and make more sense for there to be different mercenary companies then just the talons. Maybe with the talons being the biggest and most well known.
Yeah you really REALLY need that right now. Hell the story needs somepony besides you that we can actually like and not want to see get bucked in the head a few times for their idiocy.
But ummmm, forgetting the whole, descending pegasus fueled Apocalypse?
Just weird that Riverbed's return is being treated as the big event that needs to be addressed, over, you know, Enclave invasion.
To be fair... so does yours miss "You'll implode."
Okay so we are going to address this rather huge development.. good.
Well looks like you might have a merc freed up. Though still liking Rhombus. Really he's just gotta hold them together till his dad gets back I guess.
Roll credits.
But d'awww, okay that was a really nice touch. Please tell me she's sticking around for awhile? Rummy's still in the "Utter asshole" list, Tangerine is still rather dislikable till she actually apologizes for the shit she did to Frosty. Sparkle is to quick to go along with Rummy's BS and not call him out on it directly or stand up to him about it. And Violet... is Violet. So yeah needs somepony Frosty can talk to without worrying about being treated like shit. Or ignored.
It would make me feel a lot better too. Plus... yeah either get new ones, or fucking call out the ones claiming to be your friends on their bullshit and don't let up till everything's been worked out.
Why would they exist up there either? last thing a authoritarian regime that controls the populace with an iron hoof and works endlessly to keep them all in line would want is that kind of organization for lesser ponies.
..... Filly......
See Violet's an asshole too, but her I like. Since she's an equal opportunity ass to everypony, and it's just who she is. It's not the personal level of suffering Rummy and Tangerine are putting Frosty through.
Plus, while she over does it a bit, she isn't wrong about the rest of hem needing to fucking use their head more and actually think about things rather then ignoring anything they don't want to take the time to consider.
NOOOOOOOOOOO Don't go!!!! That will leave onyl assholes for her to suffer with.
Granted it also means either dealing with their crap and making them face it and work things out.... or utterly ignoring it and moving on.
Not to mention cause issues with the ground ponies now that they have a reason to know about and hate/fear pegasi.
..........?
wait....
okay.. that took me way to long to figure out, but once I did.. yeah that was a good one.
Hmmm, yeah I like it.
And the other Frosties wanting names now... this leads to some.. interesting questions. Just how independent are they? They are parts of Frosty's mind but, also seem more then that, more then just aspects of herself but.. growing into full fledged personalities. Well other then Drunky, she's just around to be Drunk. What about if Frosty gets better? Her mind starts to un-fracture? Or has it gone on so long, that's impossible? So.... yeah I really like this bit. Expanding on the Head Frosties, and rising even more questions... in the good way this time.
Frosty, you are WAY past the point of worrying about that being at all relevant.
You'd think that the whole invasion force form the sky would snap the rangers out of caring about anything else.
Why? Wouldn't the table be low enough for a pony to deal with anything on it? Or, you could just hover over it.
huh?
So empathize with her over this. I'm one of those people that NEVER uses anything I can't replace, and keeps so many different items in my inventory "Just in case" even though I never use them. I often find myself pulling out random guns just because I haven't used them in so long I feel like I need to to justify keeping them.
I think that blow to the head is messing with you Frosty. that made no sense. I know what you are trying to say, but the wording was totaly messed up.
Also, well, no helmet it is. Though again that does limit the effectiveness of your armor.
While I agree on the first point that right now anything that reminds ou of those assholes can be an issue and you need to change things up. Ditching your most powerful weapon. One of the only weapons in the Wastes that can reliably take out not only steel Rangers, but Hellhounds, and damn near anything else. That is not so good.
You are keeping the submachine gun you never use. "just in case" but ditching the weapon you use all the time, and that, again, is one of the most powerful weapons in the Wastes?
Frosty.. stop being an idiot.
So is that an actual risk, or just Vi assuming something bad is going to happen and guessing at what?
okay frosty.. get out of my head.. I have enough issues of my own without your brand of crazy.
Hmm to easy anf the way she said it.... expected follow up in
3...
2..
1....
Saw that coming.
Yeah.. but still not as annoying about it as the rest.
I'm guessing it will be the one that seems to utterly lose based on that run down. Again there is not one weapons short of a Tesla Canon or other huge weapon of that type that will match the firepower of that AMR.
And story.... you ONLY get points for this, in anyway, if she actually DOES change at this point. If thing do get better, she does stop ignoring or repressing this shit and deal with it. I.E. you actually make a change. Even then, this would work a lot better if it hard more force to it, if something had actually built up to this whole 'I need to change" thing.. beyond what happened, that was showing why she'd want to, but nothing till now showed she was likely to. Have her confront Rummy and the other Rangers on their bullshit. Show she's not taking it anymore, have her actually do something beyond this first, then it would make some sense.
As is... it's just stupid to ditch her most powerful and reliable weapon for some ancient prototype she doesn't even know works. And is unlikely to be even a fraction as powerful. Which is all this is since the "i need to change" rings hollow given how little change she's done,"
Again weren't the sights integral parts of the gun, and require both the front and rear ones to work? That's the way i was first described.
Yes again find any reason you can to avoid actual character development or characters dealing with their issues. Just ignore it and move on to the next thing.
Again just ditching the rest of the characters.
Yeah they were assholes but.. that was something to be worked through. So.. why care about an character if they just rotate in and out without any real development or actually getting a chance to matter? Just... leads even more to the sense of utter aimlessness and lack of purpose or cohesion to the story.
Again if you are doing this whole leaving hing.. Why the fucking hell are you keeping the collar on?
Ugggghhh...
that makes no sense at all.
I mean in 'verse.
I'm with her, no it wasn't
Yay for more issues that apparently won't go anywhere. How about you take a moment to actually work out why, and thing about things rather then just ignoring everything possible?
And Violet makes the important point.. now how badly will Frosty have to twist to avoid addressing it?
Then what the buck is it? So avoids it by, ignoring it completely.
I really feel myself feeling sorrier and sorrier for Violet. Surrounded by imbeciles that won't even try to think or improve in the slightest.
Ooookay then. Well.... with her, that could be true, or just her messing with Frosty, either one works.
This much is obvious.
A few dozen blocks is hardly 'away'. And how do you know this? And what 'research station' why would one be in the middle of a town? And if it was, how the hell do you expect it not to be picked clean?
Isn't that the kind of thing you should make sure of BEFORE taking her money?
So why the buck are you still wearing it!?
Oh.. well.. okay that explains how she knows about it, and what it's doing in the middle of a city. Ummm, point to you story.
Huh. And also why she thinks there might be something worth going there for. What she's looking for are things that are unlikely to be stuff others would want to loot or see any value in. So again, point, Story.
Yes, yes she is.
All reasons I am liking her being back in the story. But still not liking just dropping the rest of her group like that.
Sadly true at this point.
Was unclear if this was Riverbed or Frosty speaking. Figured it out later through context, but was confusing at first.
And the story suddenly remembers this is a thing that happened and a pretty damn large one.
Also, Frosty, even for the Wastes, you are apparently in the ass end of nowhere. Why would there be patrols that far out.
And weren't you JUST thinking the best idea would be to hide? Now considering walking right into their main base... just out of curiosity? Make up your mind!
How noble and caring of you Frosty.
Maybe the reason you're having such a huge issue with making and keeping friends, is your own attitude as well.
Not that it excuses some of the other assholes their assholishness.
Again, the Head! Frosties, and especially Gale playing avatar for Frosty's subconscious. I really like this. And how this whole bit was done. Frosty clearly noticing something. Even knowing she does, but being so distracted by other issues, she's ignoring it. The growing sense of maybe there is something. But still trying to rationalize it away. Then Gale pops up as her mind trying to make her stop wallowing in.. whatever it is ponies are supposed to wallow in... and notice what is going on.
"There are no straight mares in the Wastes. Only those who have yet to meet Littlepip."
Though in River's case, not sure if it's her being gay, bi, or just after so long being a whore for the Gryphons, she just doesn't care anymore.
...................... I.. hold in claw.... single hoofedly.... it... does not compute... does not compute...
She.. already knows that's not what is going to happen. Or, was that her trying to joke? I, really can't tell.
Also, since you keep making a point of this story.
Why the bucking hell does she still have that thing on!?
Or, I don't know.... not have abandoned a weapon able to punch through Power Armor easily.. when you just learned a whole shit load of ponies in power armor and who have good reason to be trying to track you down and kill you are around in the first place!
okay, first.... another pegasus? really?
Second... Frosty... you DO know what a ghoul is.
Okay, so Frosty just called it a walking corpse because........ reasons.
Two pegasi? I'm with Frosty... really?
I... huh... wha!? okay.... Frosty.. so many pegasi down here is odd enough as is. But... why in the everloving bucking name of Faust would they be teamed up with the other three if they were still part of the Enclave?
Okay, so it's just Frosty being an idiot.
Fuck you Toasty. Fuck you so damn hard you arrogant, psychotic.....
... deep breathes... this wouldn't' be so horrible, if I wasn't half sure Frosty agreed with her and was about to do it.
.............................
.........................
Seriously? Seriously? Just because you think they might be something that every point of logic and reason says they aren't... just outright fucking MURDER a group of innocent ponies, for no.......
FUCK YOU FROSTY!
NO HE ISN'T YOU PSYCHOTIC, STUPID, IDIOTIC, BLOODTHIRSTY MORON!
Gee almsot like.. you should have made sure that the fucking antique gun actually bucking worked before ditching the one you KNEW did!
These attempts at humor might be good... if they weren't in the middle of Frosty trying to fucking MURDER innocent ponies for no fucking reason beyond paranoia, that has not one single rational basis and which even Riverbed could see was bullshit!
Shut the fuck up you psychotic bitch.
......................
I..
I...
I don't know if I can do this.. this is just getting to fucking dark, stupid, WRONG.... and for... no point.
What is the fucking point of all this!?
Frosty seems to be completely immune to any kind of character development. Well any good kind. Just getting worse, and worse, and worse. Ignoring every change to improve that comes up. Any bits where she starts to realize something is wrong being, start to maybe show some glimmer of hope that maybe this is leading somewhere... just get ignored and forgotten about by the next scene.
I even fucking defended her over that Zony bit. because at least there... while wrong, horrible... her action made sense for why she was acting that way, why she was doing it, and it was clear that she hated it at some level. That she did regret it, that she knew it was wrong. Even if she was hurting to much from everything else, in to much pain already to really understand it. And I could tell where the anger and rage that made her do it came from.
I was actually hopeful.. I thought it might lead somewhere. I was eager to see the development, to see her dealing with those issues, to see how she'd grow from it. To see her overcome it.
But... she hasn't even tried.
Here? Here!? This is... this is just her being a paranoid, insane, psychotic, murdering nutcase.
And cut off.. for some comedy.. in the middle of Frosty turning into a cold blooded murderer. Reveling in the idea of torturing and maiming, and making a pony who hasn't done a damn thing to her suffer before killing him and his friends. Yeah it doesn't work. It doesn't lighten the mood. It just comes off as even more wrong.
..... They only want to 'take you down" BECAUSE YOU FUCKING TRIED TO MURDER THEM FOR NO REASON!
Look.... I get you are trying to make this be her defending herself from the Enclave. But... that doesn't work when there is no freaking logical, rational, or even close to realistic reason to believe that they are with the Enclave. It doesn't work. It's not a tragic mistake. it's not a misunderstanding. it's not.. anything but cold blooded murder.
And all... for no reason. At least as far as I can tell.
Frosty has never learned from anything yet, other then in the most basic ways. Never grown from her mistakes, never seemed interested in even trying to be better, to trying to develop. The story.. has no goal in sight, no mission.. nothing but randomly goof around... when we aren't turning the main character into a monster and/or making her feel like crap.
I was cautiously hopeful that the Enclave coming down would actually give the story a point, give it something to do. Some goal. Make it slip into some kind of path. And I'm seeing none of that. Just, adding more crap for Frosty to deal with so far. And pushing her towards.. I have no idea what.. only that it's making me hate caring for her so much.
Is this supposed to be showing the virus taking over? Making her worse and worse? Except, nothing in the story is showing this. It's... no her realizing she's getting worse. No feeling like that thing is mattering in the slightest. Or that any of the man, many plots and major issues that have come up matter in the slightest. When was the last time her time limit from death was mentioned? Or her missing memories? Or programming from the Enclave? Or... anything beyond the latest 'What is making Frosty miserable this time" occurrence?
I... I care. I really DO! If I didn't care so much for Frosty.. I wouldn't be so utterly horrified at what she's doing here. I just.... I don't know how to take this.. how to.. work out what the hell is going on.... what is the point to so much senseless suffering, darkness, angst, just.. so much vicious.. wrongness?
Oh and the ending.... whoo-hoo they re in the story still... yay.. so happy......
Not a fan of that much either. More, Rummy still having no fucking clue why Forsty would want to sy she doesn't know them. After all the shit he did to her.
Then Tabber.. it's not even the idea of him replacing her like that I have an issue with.. I just think how it was done was way to pat, plot convenient, and just.... to easily done. And suddenly, Rummy is all "I'm sorry" and over his issues? I get Tabber is trying to make up and get on his good side but.. still that went WAY to smooth, way to easy...
Development that was SORELY needed, and it just gets skimmed over like "Oh doesn't matter" Yet another plot point, another piece that served only to break Frosty down.. and any possible good pay off to gets ignored or swept aside without mattering. This is why I'm saying the story feels hopeless. There are so many ways things could go better, so many chances for development, so many things that could lead to incredibly powerful, emotional moments, to growth, to light, to things seeming to matter and be worth going on for. But, they always get ignored, swept aside, pushed away once their job of making Frosty suffer is done. Same with all the plots in the story that should matter. none of them feel like they do. It really does feel at this point that the only purpose for the story is to make Frosty suffer, and see how far it can go before she just snaps and becomes an out right murdering, psychopathic raider flat out.
And without that sense of things getting better, that maybe all this bad will lead to some good in the end, will be worth it..... it's just left with. why? Why go through all this despair, all this pain, all this suffering, why care about a character that is only there to suffer and turn into something despicable?
Yes Unknown's hinted at things getting better, that there is a point, that this will all come through.. but.. right now... I can't see it. I can't find anything in the story that leads to a sense of hope that this isn't all there is.
I WANT to love this story. I WANT to see Frosty overcome her struggles, see her triumphant, see her happy. I care for Frosty... or at least up till here I did, now, it's getting a lot harder to do so when she's devolving into this.
I'm sorry, I really really am. I don't want to be this. negative.. i HATE being this negative about a story with.. so much promise, so many great ideas, so many opportunities for.. INCREDIBLE character development. But.. story.. you have to meet me halfway by actually showing some sign you ever intend to try and use those ideas, to try and be about something, to actually have a point beyond making the audience watch Frosty suffering and slowly slipping into a murderous lunatic without any hope of things getting better in sight.
I love Dance Dance Revolution!
..... I wonder if the game gets harder with four limbs instead of two.
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*Accessing this ending is not guaranteed and may require multiple playthroughs.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT THAT!!!!!
Ooooooohhhhh shit!
the seed has been planted, I repeat the seed. Has. Been. Planted.
NIGHTFALL my ass, this is fucking ECLIPSE level shit here!
Good thing the real Frosty left a note for Tangerine
dumbass bugs. Not as omniscient as they thoight, eh?