Fallout Equestria: Tactics

by lordlaneus

Cross Roads

Chapter 3: Cross Roads

“We travel the road of generations
Joined by a common bond
We sing our song 'cross the pony nation
From Equestria and beyond!”

*Thump!*

My eyes opened with a jolt. I was pretty sure I wasn’t dead, but where was I? The only thing I could see from my current position was more of the weird grey smoke. I was lying on something lumpy, and felt myself being shaken rhythmically. A quick look around revealed I was in some kind of giant basket full of all kinds of bags and boxes. Beyond the basket I saw distant gray mounds steadily moving past. What the hell was going on?

Alright, stay calm and think back. The last thing I remembered was almost being mauled to death by a living corpse. Then there was a loud noise and her head exploded, and then… I don’t know. I must have passed out from blood loss. My wounds evidently hadn't been fatal, but they would still require some time to heal. So, why wasn’t I in any pain? Come to think of it, I felt downright good. How long had I been out?

I shifted positions to check my PipBuck. It had barely been three hours. I let out a confused puff of air, and a voice came back in reply. “Oh, hey. You awake back there?”

Another pony! One who could talk, and wasn’t trying to eat me! I turned around to see a tan buck sitting on the front of the strange contraption I was on. Behind him were two massive, brown …I don’t know, things. They were vaguely equine in shape… four legs, a tail, a head, another head- Okay, so not exactly equine. I filed them under ‘ask about later,’ and attempted to form a response. I only got as far as “Um... yeah…” before he interrupted.

“Glad to hear it. Name’s Lonesome Road."

"Please tell me-" I started, before a gurgle from my stomach rearranged my priorities, "Do you have any food? I haven't eaten in days."

“You’re lying on a bag of Sugar Apple Bombs, help yourself. Ten caps a box, of course.”

I had stopped listening after the words ‘apple,’ and ‘help yourself.’ I found the opening of the bag and inside were a dozen or so colorful rectangular boxes. Opening one of the boxes revealed a clear plastic bag full of small, yellowish puffs, which didn’t look remotely like food. Why would anypony store food in a bag, inside a box, inside another bag?

I ripped the bag open, and the smell hit my nose. The aroma was intoxicating. I had never smelled anything so sweet. And it wasn’t even the least bit sickly! The idea of eating something solid was unsettling, but the combination of odor and hunger won out. I stuck my muzzle into the bag, and scooped up a mouthful of puffs.

The smell was nothing compared to the taste. Every bite was like a crunchy burst of flavor. I didn't even care that food wasn't normally supposed to crunch. Three wonderful boxes later, my hunger was finally satiated, and I returned my attention to Lonesome Road.

I expressed my gratitude in a series of ‘thank you’s, while I tried to formulate which question to ask next. I had narrowed it down to ‘where am I,’ ‘what happened,’ and ‘why aren't I dead.’ Lonesome resumed speaking before I had decided.

“Well, let's see about how you can repay me.” he said, raising a hoof to his chin, “You ate three boxes so that's thirty caps off the bat. Now, I’d say two-hundred caps is more than a fair price for saving your life. The three healing potions from my stock are usually a hundred and twenty-five caps apiece, but I’ll just call it three fifty for the lot. And then the transportation out of the Barrens is gonna run you another seventy-five. Finally, I’m feeling generous, so I’m not even gonna charge you for the high caliber round I used on that ghoul, which brings your total to…. let’s see, carry the one… six hundred and fifty-five caps. Cash or barter?”

I just stared at him blankly, trying to make sense of his statement. We were somewhere called ‘the Barrens.’ He had apparently killed the ‘ghoul’ that was attacking me, with something called a ‘high caliber round.’ And based on their name I assumed that the ‘healing potions’ had been responsible for my current lack of injury. I guess that I technically had answers to all three of my original questions, but I was more confused than ever, none the less. And what the heck were these ‘caps’ he was demanding?

“Any time now, kid” He said impatiently.

Apparently I’d been staring at him for longer than I’d thought. I quickly said the first thing that came to mind “Please, I just want to go home.”

He completely ignored my question with one of his own “Bottle caps. Do you have any?” He asked the question slowly, over enunciating each syllable, as if I had a hearing problem.

“No.” I said waveringly, “Why would I?”

“What do you mean ‘why?’” He paused for a moment before his eyes widened in realization, “Wait a minute. Blue and yellow jumpsuit, metal thing on your foreleg, no idea about anything thing, You just got out of a stable, didn’t you?”

I hesitantly nodded in confirmation.

“Huh, well I’ll be damned. I've heard stories of you lot, but never thought I'd be welcoming one into the wasteland myself. Lesson one, I don’t know how you did things down there, but up here bottle caps are money, and you currently owe me six hundred and fifty-five of them, but I’m gonna give you a special ‘Welcome to the Equestrian Wasteland’ discount and lower that to an even five hundred, and I’ll even drop you back at your stable the next time I come through here.”

“B- But, I don’t have any caps.” I stammered.

“Well now, that is a problem.” he tsked, “See, most fellows in my situation would just chain you up, and send you off to Ferro to cover the debt. But I’m feeling nice so I’m gonna give you a chance to work it off. You help me move my merchandise and I’ll give you a ten percent cut. Now normally I wouldn’t trust anypony with less than no experience to peddle my wares for me, but if you really are from a stable, then that thing on your legs should be able to tell how much things are worth.”

His offer had sounded generous at first, but that last part dashed my hope. I probably should have just kept my mouth shut, but I informed him of the flaw in his plan anyway “But, PipBucks can’t do that.”

“Damn, seems I was fed some bad information. Well then you’re just gonna have to help me with the manual labor. For a two and a half percent cut of course. Sound fair?”

It didn’t, but the tone in his voice when he had mentioned chaining me up and sending me to Ferro told me I didn’t have much of a choice. “Alright.” I reluctantly agreed. “But you need to answer some of my questions.”

“Sure kid, shoot.”

I opened the floodgates in my mind and a torrent of questions poured out of my mouth, “How far does this place go? What’s that grey stuff above us? What did you do to that ghoul? What’s this thing we’re sitting on? And what are those brown things pulling it? Why did water fall from nowhere? Why does- mmmffff” My mouth was suddenly blocked by his hoof.

“Alright slow down there” He removed his hoof from my face. “Now give those to me again. One at a time.”

I returned to my first question, “How far does this place go?”

“The Barrens? It’s about twenty miles across.”

“Miles?” I repeated quizzically.

“Five thousand some-odd feet.”

This place was a hundred thousand feet across!? That was over fifty times the longest hallway in the stable, but at least it had an end. That was a little comfort restored. “What’s that grey thing above us?”

“What, you mean the sky?” His tone made it clear that this was obvious.

“Um, yeah I guess… What did you do to that… 'ghoul,' right?”

“Yeah, that was a ghoul, and I shot it with this.” he held up a small metal object. “It’s called a gun. Just bite down on this thing, and whatever this end is pointing at will die. Well not right away maybe, but hit ‘em enough times and they’ll go down.”

I made a mental note of that. “And what’s this thing we’re sitting on?”

“Seriously?” He looked dumbstruck, “Alright, kid, there’s fresh out of the stable, and then there’s you. Was your entire stable full of stupid gas or something?”

I ignored the insult, and simply said “Scout.”

“Huh?”

“Stop calling me ‘kid.’ My name is Scout.”

“Alright, Scout,” He said my name with exaggerated emphasis, “This here is a wagon. It’s used for moving heavy things long distances.”

“But what are those things pulling it?”

“Brahmin.” He replied, “There what you get when you mix cows and radiation.”

“Radiation?” I paused a moment then added “Cows?”

“Radiation’s this invisible stuff that’ll kill or mutate you if you’re exposed to too much of it. I don’t know, ask a scientist if you want the details,” he said with a shrug “And cows are a kind of animal, they’re pretty much Brahmin. ‘course they only got one head.”

“Animal?” I said sheepishly.

Lonesome face hoofed. “Goddess, what have I gotten myself into?”

***

Lonesome’s lessons got as far as what rocks were, before he instituted a five caps per question policy, and we mutually agreed to travel in silence for a while. It was during this period when the landscape suddenly changed to include sickly looking brown things (different sickly looking brown things from the ones pulling the wagon I mean.) Based on Lonesome’s explanation of what wood was, I gathered that these were trees. Why hadn’t we passed any until now? And why did they start so abruptly?

I was tempted to spend the five caps. It would only increase my debt by a measly one percent. But I knew that if I allowed myself even a single question I wouldn’t be able resist a follow up, and pretty soon my debt would have doubled. I didn’t know how long it would take to pay it off as it was, but one thing was sure, I had to get back to the stable before my week was up. I hadn’t thought to check the time when Jubilee sent me into the under-stable, but it had been a little after the renewal so probably around one in the afternoon. It was currently half past eleven, which meant that I needed to be back at the entrance to the tunnel in five days and ninety minutes. Adding in the fact that Lonesome had said the trip took six and a half hours, meant that I only had four days and nineteen hours to pay off my debt.

But this was all assuming that Jubilee intended to let me back in at all. I had trusted her to leave food for me, but she never did. Was it possible that she’d lied to me? Just sent me off to die? It made an uncomfortable amount of sense. With my dangerous and unexplained abilities I was definitely a potential threat to the stable, and I had to admit that tricking me into voluntarily separating myself from the other residents and then just letting me starve, would be a rather clever plan for dealing with an unknown entity such as myself. Jubilee wasn’t my real mother. She’d only even adopted me as part of her service to the stable as a whole. Why should I expect to be higher on her priority list than the entire rest of the stable? But still, as cold as she acted when she was the Overmare, I knew the real her. The real Jubilee. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t picture Jubilee doing something so heartless. In the end I trusted her, and when my week was up I was going to be at the bottom of that staircase and there wasn't a damned thing anypony could do to stop me!

The wagon came to a stop.

"Huh!? Why are we stopping?" I asked

Lonesome came back "It's getting late. The Brahmin need to sleep and so do I"

"But it's only four o'clock"

"Four o'clock?" Lonesome pointed to a hoof to sky and asked "Your clock must be slow. does that look like four o'clock to you?"

I simply shrugged.

"Right, forgot the sky's a new concept for you. Here's a tip, if it's dark that means it's night."

The sky automatically got dark when it was time to sleep? That seemed oddly convenient for the wasteland, almost benevolent. Maybe there was a chance this place wasn’t all bad after all. Okay, a slim chance. Wait. A thought occurred. “How dark does it get?”

“Don’t worry, it won’t go pitch black. At its darkest, you’ll still be able to see your hoof in front of your face, but that’ll be about it.”

“Every night?” I inquired.

“Every night.” He nodded, paused, and made an addendum, “Well, Sometimes you get lucky and the pegasi will leave a small hole in the clouds. And if you’re really lucky you might even get some direct moon light. On those nights it doesn’t get much darker than it is now.”

“Wait,” I said horrified “are you saying there are things above the sky?”

“Well, the sky just kinda keeps going and going, but if you mean the clouds, then yeah. There’s whole cities of those pegasi bastards up there.” Lonesome pointed his hoof up a spot on the clouds that was slightly lighter than the rest “Then past that there’s the moon, a big white rock that supposed to be as big as all of Equestria. Past that-”

“Wait,” I interrupted, “how big is Equestria?”

“Two thousand miles across, give or take.”

Two. Thousand. Miles. Each words hit me like a ton of bricks. That was ten million feet, and I had an uncomfortable suspicion that he hadn’t misspoken. “But you said the surface was only twenty miles across.”

“Huh?” Lonesome looked genuinely taken aback “No, the Barrens are. You must have gotten confused.”

I decided to make sure this issue was settled once and for all. “But, Equestria, that’s all there is right?”

“Sorry, nope. There’s also the Zebra Lands, the Gryphon Kingdom, Dragon Territory, a few other smaller places. and a whole lot of ocean.” He quickly elaborated, “The ocean’s a big thing of salty water.”

“But that’s it, right?” I asked, feeling smaller than I ever had before.

“Yep, that’s the whole world.” Lonesome assured me.

“And just to be clear: what happens if you get to the edge” I would not allow for further miscommunication.

“There isn’t an edge” Lonesome said matter of factly.

“What!? But how? Does it go on forever or not?” I was almost starting to suspect that my supposed guide was making a game of feeding me as much misinformation as he could, to see how much I would accept.

“The world doesn’t go on forever, but there isn’t an edge either. Walk far enough and you end up back where you started, see the worlds round”

"What?" I gasped. "We're on a sphere?" I took a second to form my rebuttal, "No. That can't be true. Even if we started at the very top, I should be able to notice us starting to go downhill by now. You’re screwing with me, aren't you?”

Lonesome seemed almost offended by my accusation. “I assure you, I am not. See, there’s a problem with your logic. No matter how far you go, down always points towards the ground.”

Was he seriously claiming that something as fundamental and constant as down could change? I just couldn't get my mind around it. But that didn't mean it was wrong. After all, just a few days ago I wouldn't have been able to get my mind around the concept 'outside.' Of course, my narrow mindedness didn't prove him right either, so I was still free to reject his claim. “That's ridiculous. Down is down. Always.”

"Well suit yourself, doesn't make a difference to me what you believe, just so long as you pay for all ten of those questions"

Crap. I'd forgotten about that. Had I really asked that many questions just now? I decided not to dispute the number. I was already suspicious of Lonesome's honesty. He was clearly a shrewd business pony, but he was also holding all the cards. The unfortunate truth was that he knew where my stable was and I didn't. Until that changed, he had total power over me. I would have to do my best to stay on his good side. "Alright, five hundred and fifty caps," I said, my reluctance poorly concealed.

"Great. Now I'm going to sleep and you’re gonna start earning your keep. I usually have to make this whole trip in one stretch, but tonight I’ve got myself a look out. Wake me up if you see anything dangerous." Lonesome lay down out of sight, before rising back up a few moments later to add "Oh, and by the way, anypony else qualifies as dangerous."

"Wait!" I began to protest.

"Sorry, can't hear you. I'm asleep."

I decided not to disturb him further, even if it meant spending the next few hours alone with my thoughts; I had always been good at that, and I certainly had enough to think about.

***

The sky was just beginning to regain some of its color (that is to say, grey) when I noticed the silhouette of something moving in the distance. I squinted my eyes but couldn't make out any details other than that it was getting closer.

Were vague silhouettes considered dangerous? If so I should definitely wake up Lonesome. But on the other hoof, I really didn't want to disturb his sleep with a false alarm, and that thing in the distance could be literally anything. Considering how little I knew about this place, it could just as easily have been a pack of those ghoul things as, say, a six-legged pony with a purple polka-dotted mane and shooting stars coming out of his eyes. Though, come to think of it, if it were the latter, it would still technically be another pony. Lonesome had explicitly said those should be considered dangerous.

I was suddenly aware that the silhouette was much closer than it had been a moment ago, and I was just able to make out a few equine forms. Well that settled it. I shook Lonesome awake.

“Gah! What is it?" Lonesome said in a startled daze.

“That!" I pointed to the increasingly well defined ponies charging towards us.

Lonesome was instantly wide awake, and clutching his gun within seconds. “Raiders.” he spat distastefully around the grip of his firearm. “Looks like five or six of them. Mostly just armed with blunt instruments, between the two us us we should be fine." Lonesome reached into a bag and passed me a gun. "You remember how to use this?"

He didn't wait for my response.

"Start shooting as soon they get close, and don't stop til they're all dead. Got it? Good."

I looked dumbfounded at the device in my hooves. Was he seriously telling me to start killing other ponies? I hadn't agreed to that. "Wait, why are-" the rest of my sentence was cut off by the sound of his gun firing. This was really happening. I was traveling with a homicidal maniac!

The raiders didn't seem like they were in a reasonable mood. This probably had something to do with the body of their comrade that Lonesome had already downed. I doubted that they would give me time to explain my innocence. It looked like I was stuck fighting for my life with a lunatic.

"What are you waiting for!?" Lonesome bellowed, "Shoot!"

Obediently, I lined up a shot, gulped, and bit down on the trigger.

*BANG!*

I was prepared for the noise, but I hadn't expected the gun to forcefully ram itself backwards into my face. In addition to giving me a nasty shock, the kick completely threw off my aim.

Lonesome made another fatal shot and a second raider fell, but at this point the remaining four had already reached us and were slamming against our wagon, again, and again. We were shaking too violently for either of us to aim, and the raiders kept bucking the cart further and further off balance until it tipped over completely, spilling its contents onto the ground.

Lonesome scrambled for his gun, but the raiders were on him in seconds. I had time to retrieve my own from the wagon wreckage. It seemed the raiders were ignoring me, at least for the moment. I turned back to Lonesome. He was putting up a fight, but his attackers were armed with baseball bats and pipes. He wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

I lined up a shot, but couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. I couldn't just end another pony's life like this. Could I? My eyes were welling up with tears as tried to make a decision.

From deep inside the melee, Lonesome look up at me. Half of his face was bashed in, and he was completely bathed in blood. His remaining eye still shone, pleading with my very soul. I tightened my grip on the gun, took a deep breath, and ran for my life.

There was one last crack, and the beating stopped.

***

I raced across the wasteland, with the raiders close behind. I pumped my legs as hard as I could, until my muscle felt like molten lead. My lungs burned with every gasp, and my eyes teared in the wind, but I refused to slow. I didn’t hear them behind me anymore, I’m not sure I had for some time, but I kept running. If I stopped I would have to think about everything that had just happened, but every frantic step delayed the inevitable just a little longer. I ran until my legs refused to carry me any further, and dropped me unceremoniously onto my face. I didn't even bother getting up. I just lay sprawled, sobbing into the dirt.

He had trusted me to keep watch, but I hesitated to wake him up until they were right on top of us. He had asked me to help him fend them off, but I barely managed to fire a single shot. He had begged me to save his life, but I ran for my own. He was dead, because was I a coward. I had the chance to save his life but I left him to die. I chose my safety over his life. A decision that could have been avoided entirely if I’d just woken him up at the first sign of trouble. If he hadn’t met me he wouldn’t have even been asleep in the first place. He saved my life, and in returned I got him killed. Lonesome Road was dead. I’d never even seen his cutie mark.

This wasn’t the first time I’d experienced death first hand. I was present when Jubilee’s mother passed away. Peacefully. Surrounded by loved ones. Dignity intact. Not like this. Lonesome’s death was so senseless, so brutal. Was that just how things worked out here? If so, that was just one more reason I had to return to the stable as quickly as possible. That was what was important now. I needed to keep moving forward. I lifted myself up with renewed purpose. I was determined to raise the money I needed to pay off my debt to-

Lonesome was dead…

The contents of my stomach somehow found their way to the ground. When I ran away, I gave up my only chance of ever getting home again. Something in my mind snapped, and I fell to the ground in a fit of choked sobbing and manic laughter. Half mad, trapped in an endless hellscape, and convulsing violently in my own vomit, this was my life now. As if on cue, I noticed the faint sound of cheery music, a perfect compliment to the tableau of insanity. What can I say? At least madness had nice sound track.

>>BZZT!<<

The music ended abruptly and was replaced by a tinny, inequine voice, “Are you alright?” I looked towards the direction of the sounds and saw a metal orb, hovering several feet off the ground.

“Yep, Just peachy!” I quipped sarcastically.

The metal ball floated silently for a few seconds before replying “Are you sure? Because I can tell from your barding that you’re from a stable, so I can understand why you might be kind of overwhelmed right now.”

My ears shot up at his mention of stables. “Do you know how I can get back to Stable sixteen!?” I asked desperately.

“Sorry, not off hand. Can’t your PipBuck lead you there?”

My ears returned to their folded and hopeless position. “This piece of crap? This thing doesn’t even tell the right time.” Despite my agitated state, I couldn’t help wondering why ponies kept overestimating the capabilities of my PipBuck.

“Hmm… Maybe if you tell me how you got lost out here, I can offer some advice.”

What did I have to lose? “Alright.” I took a deep breath and relayed my story in thorough detail.

***

When I had finished, the ball had a single question, “You just left him there to die?”

In lieu of answer, I shamefully directed my gaze downward

“I see.” The strange floating device suddenly made another buzzing noise then resumed playing music, before lazily floating away.

“Wait!” I called out, “I still need your help.”

The ball didn’t respond.

“Hey! Come back!”

Again, no reaction.

Now, I consider myself a relatively even tempered pony, but in that moment being completely ignored made me see red. Anger was more comfortable than despair. I rose to my hooves and chased after the hovering bastard. Despite my pursuit, the ball didn’t break its leisurely pace, and I was able to catch up in seconds. I lept into the air and tackled it to the ground. I still wasn’t sure what exactly I was trying to achieve, but began pounding on the device’s metal shell nonetheless. “Talk to me!” The ball just kept playing its increasingly infuriating music.

I continued to wail on the hard metal surface until my hooves were sore, but eventually my efforts were rewarded. The music buzzed off and the strange voice returned. “You do realize that I’m not actually here, right? Sprite-bots are basically just mobile intercoms.”

I released the sprite-bot from my grasp. I hadn’t expect that to work and was at loss for what to do next. My hesitation allowed the mysterious voice to continue.

“Look, you’re just not the kind of pony I have an interest in. But there’s a settlement just a little ways in that direction.” The sprite-bot jerked distinctly to one side, “Maybe you can find someone to help you there.” With that the sprite-bot began floating away again, much more quickly this time, and without any music.

I sighed and began walking in the direction the sprite-bot had indicated.

***

I walked so long without any change in scenery that I began to worry that the sprite-bot, had just been bluffing to secure its freedom. Just as this idea was progressing from stray thought to genuine concern, I spotted a wall on the horizon and broke into an excited trot.

As I approached the wall a pony made entirely of metal greeted me in voice only slightly more natural sounding than the sprite-bot, "Welcome to MegaSpark, traveler, I'm deputy Clank."

Long past the point of being phased by something as simple as a metallic pony, I introduced myself as well. "Hi, I'm Scouts Honor. May I enter?"

"Certainly," Clank replied, "I just need to hold onto all of your weapons for the duration of your stay."

"I don't have any weapons," I said, assuming that the gun I’d abandoned during my encounter with the sprite-bot didn’t count.

“I’m sorry but, I can’t let you in unless your surrender all of your weapons,”

“Wait, what?” I attempted to reiterate, “I just said, I don’t have any.”

“According to Section three, paragraph one, of the MegaSpark town charter, ‘Any party seeking entry into the town walls, must surrender all firearms and any other weapons, for the entirety of their stay, unless otherwise authorized by the sheriff, or by a sitting member of the town council.’”

There was definitely something off about this pony (though to be fair he could very well have been typical for a metal pony,) I decided to alter my approach. “I have no weapons, therefore the zero weapons that I’ve given you constitutes all of my weapons, and thus according to the town charter I should be granted entrance.”

Clank, took a second to respond, just long enough to get my hopes up, before replying “Incorrect. You have not given me any quantity of weapons, therefore you have not given me zero.”

“I- but- what!?” This was going nowhere. I briefly considered trekking all the way back to where I’d left my gun, but luckily the gate on the wall picked that moment to start opening on its own. A brown mare in a wide brimmed hat, and a star shaped cutie mark, stepped through the opening.

“It’s alright Clank, I authorize him to enter.” The mare turned to me and continued speaking, “Howdy. Name’s Starshot, I’m the sheriff ‘round here and-” She suddenly scrunched her nose in disgust, “Goddess! Have you been rollin’ around in vomit!?”
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Footnote: Level up!
New Perk Added: High Ho Silver, Away! --You’re a fan of cardio and sprints, especially if said sprints are done away from the direction from which the bullets are flying. Your movement speed is increased by 20%
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Author's Note:

Well, that took a long time to get published. I've actually had it written for a while, I just hit an editing bottle neck. I still have an editor who hasn't gotten back to me yet, so there might be minor changes to this chapter in the near future.

Anyway, big thanks to anyone who's stuck with me. Hopefully Chapter 4 will come out more quickly.

As always, send any comments, question, compliments or complaints to [e-mail], and if you tell me about a typo I'll give you a shout out in the next chapter's authors note.

Comments

[lordlaneus]

6208428 Thanks, fixed.