Fallout Equestria: Heartless

by dmgd_mind

Chapter 12: Wind Shear

Chapter 12: Wind Shear

After Canter and I had made love, the week had passed by in a state of bliss for the two of us. We almost never left each other’s hooves, much less sight. Even when we were around other ponies we held each other close.

Riverbed was back on her feet and moving around thanks to Headcrash taking care of her. Currently the four of us were attempting to lounge at an old table in the prison cafeteria. Around us some of the prison security hummed quietly, Crash having reprogrammed them to fire only if fired upon so that the escaped slaves had some additional protection.

Night, can I talk to you for a minute?

I turned to River and nodded while I continued to gently stroke Canter’s mane with my hoof. She purred contentedly and rubbed her head harder into my chest, half asleep. “Did you want to talk privately?” I asked the small mare. She was still wearing her cloak and it had become readily apparent that her scars and mutilation were a source of constant shame and pain.

She shook her head and wrote something else.

I’ve been meaning to talk to you about leaving.

I cocked my head to the side, not quite sure what she meant. She quickly wrote an explanation.

I don’t want to stay here. I trust you, Canter, and Crash, but I don’t want the others to know about me.

I nodded. I could understand that. I wouldn’t share my scars with just anypony either. River wrote some more and presented her board to me.

I was talking with Crash, and he’s okay with leaving but he’s scared we won’t be able to handle ourselves alone in the wasteland. He suggested I ask you to come. You don’t exactly seem comfortable here either.

“I’m not,” I stated agreeing with her, “I keep thinking that mare from earlier is going to attack either me or Canter. I could handle her just fine but I’m scared she might hurt Canter. And the others…I don’t feel like they hate me, but they certainly aren’t comfortable around me. So if I can convince Canter to come I would be fine traveling with you two.”

“mmm…I was kind of hoping we could settle down” Canter murmured from my chest.

I smiled down at my love. “I would love to settle down with you Lu-Canter.” I paused. I had almost called her Luna. Thankfully she hadn’t seemed to catch it. It was the first time I had slipped up like that, and it was very disconcerting. I took a breath and continued. “It’s just that this isn’t the best place to stay. It’s too problematic for us.”

Canter sighed and popped one eye open to read River’s board. “You really want to leave, River?”

The crippled Pegasus nodded.

“Alright then, I’ll go under one condition,” she raised her head level with mine and kissed me deeply. “As soon as we find a safe place to settle down,” she whispered in my ear, “we do just that.”

“I promise love,” I returned quietly. I turned to River, “when did you want to leave?”

As soon as possible

“Alright, give Canter and I an hour to gather our things, then we’ll meet you and Crash in front of the prison.” I thought for a second before speaking again, “Where were you thinking of going.”

River wrote something quickly on her board.

Someplace small and safe and hidden

“Alright, I’ll start thinking of places we could go,” I stated as I got to my hooves, gently moving Canter off of my chest. “We’ll meet you in an hour.”

---

We had been walking down the road from the prison for about an hour, saddlebags filled with our supplies and with no destination yet in mind.

“Gorge!”

“What?” I asked as I turned to Crash, confused by his sudden outburst.

“That’s where we can go,” the green unicorn replied, grinning proudly.

“What’s Gorge?” Canter asked from my side.

“I’ve never heard of it either,” I added.

“It’s uh, it’s where I grew up. I’m kinda supposed to keep it a secret but I doubt it’ll be a problem to tell you,” He began. “It’s a little farming community halfway from the Ponyville ruins to New Appleloosa. It’s in this little gorge with a bunch of hills around it so it’s pretty damn hard to find. I left about ten years ago, after my parents died, but some ponies there should still remember me.”

“What’s it like?” Canter asked.

“It’s pretty nice, if rather slow. There’s not much to do other than take care of your crops and sit around and talk. Safe though. The guy protecting it is a badass.” Crash answered.

Canter sighed and leaned into me. “Sounds nice.”

“Why did you leave?” I asked, curious.

“I was bored and with my family gone I didn’t have any reason to stay,” Crash returned with a shrug.

“You still know where it is right?” I questioned as I pulled out my map, “can you point it out on here?”

He nodded and poked a small area right in between Ponyville and New Appleloosa. “Right about there,” he said confidently.

“Well,” I began, “Canter seems to like the idea. How about you River?”

She wrote something while she walked, Crash holding her board in front of her with his magic. “She says that sounds fine,” he replied after looking at what she had written.

I nodded and began plotting our course. “We should be there in about five weeks. We’ll have to find supplies along the way, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.”

We changed our direction a little and set out towards what we hoped would be a home for us.

---

We had managed to stretch out our supplies for four weeks, but we were now dangerously low. So far we had managed to avoid trouble, but now that we needed to go out of our way to find the food to take us the rest of the way to Gorge we were going to run into some. The raiders patrolling the Ponyville ruins below us confirmed that sentiment, their figures brought into crisp focus through my rifle’s scope.

“What is it looking like?” Crash whispered from my side. He didn’t really need to whisper considering we were at least a mile from the nearest raider, but I figured it was more habit than anything else.

“I’ve spotted at least a dozen raiders so far,” I replied at normal volume, “there is probably more lounging inside the ruins.”

Those are bad odds. Take the rest of the supplies for yourself and leave.

“So what are we going to do? We were kind of relying on Ponyville for supplies.” Crash asked with concern.

“Their presence just means that there are sure to be supplies for us down there. We just need to take them.” I shouldered my rifle and took aim at a stallion relieving himself in an alley. I tongued the weapon’s trigger and a few seconds later gore exploded out of the raider’s side, coating the wall next to him.

I scanned the rest of the area. None of the other raiders seemed to have heard their compatriot die. I settled my sights on a pair of raiders talking in the center of the ruined town. I held my fire and waited. After a few minutes one of the pair moved to shift positions, bringing her in front of the other. My gun bucked and both raiders dropped. The second screamed in pain as he bled out; the bullet’s velocity had been decreased enough to prevent him from being killed immediately.

The raiders began to run about in confusion, attempting in vain to figure out what was happening. I fired three more times, dropping a raider with each shot. I had my rifle reloaded and ready to fire again in less than ten seconds. Five more shots arced out, each taking a raider that was attempting to hide in cover. Even if I just grazed my target, the rifle had enough power to cause terrible damage.

I looked around once more, no targets presenting themselves. I packed away my rifle and drew out my shotgun, turning back to my friends.

Friends. The word felt good, it gave me a feeling of calm and happiness. I smiled involuntarily.

“I took out eleven of them; we’ll have to deal with the rest when we’re grabbing supplies.” We began heading down to the ruined town with weapons drawn.

We reached the center of the community without incident. Rows of buildings in various states of disrepair surrounded us. I pointed towards one of the buildings. “Might as well start here.” I moved up to the door and slowly pushed it open. No shots came our way, and no shouts of alarm sounded from inside. Crash and River headed upstairs while Canter and I began searching around the ground floor.

Fifteen minutes later all we had found was an ancient can of baked beans. “All right, next building,” I instructed as I moved back to the door and peeked out into the street. It was still empty. We continued searching through the buildings for a couple hours, staying as silent and careful as possible. We had found some supplies, but not enough for the next week.

I sighed and turned to look at a large carousel shaped building near the edge of town. Long ago it had been an aesthetically pleasing sight, but now it was as dirty and ruined as anything else the wasteland touched. “I saw one of the raiders run in there,” I said pointing, “Since we haven’t found much of anything in the rest of town we might as well look in there. Hopefully that’s where they’re keeping their supplies.” We began moving towards the building, keeping an eye on our surroundings.

I reached the door and motioned for my companions to stop moving. I leaned up against it and closed my eyes, listening. I could faintly hear two ponies whispering urgently. I waved for my friends to ready themselves, paused, and then quickly pushed the door open. I darted inside, dropping a surprised raider with one of my shotgun’s barrels. Shouts started filling the building as I was followed by my companions. I dived over a rotted fainting couch, driving the raider taking cover behind it to the floor with my weapon pressed against her forehead. The gun’s blast pulped her brainpan and splashed me with a little blood and grey chunks of brain matter.

We quickly took cover behind whatever objects were available and settled our sights on the room’s exits. A few seconds later a half dozen raiders rushed us with an assortment of melee weapons. Crash, River, and I took down five of them immediately, but one made it past us, arrowing in on Canter. I desperately attempted to reload my weapon as he closed in on my mare, her eyes wide with fear. Her pistol was in her mouth, she hadn’t fired yet and I wasn’t expecting her to.

Luna! Canter!

I began sprinting at the raider as time seemed to slow down. Canter’s eyes closed tight as the weapon in her mouth spat at her attacker. The ten millimeter round punched cleanly into the raider’s eye, dropping him immediately in a crumpled heap.

Canter opened her eyes and looked down at the raider she had killed. Her knees went weak and she collapsed to the floor. The pistol slowly fell from her mouth, clattering off the tiled floor. I reached her and gathered her in my forelegs, holding her to me. I could faintly hear her whispering to herself.

“I killed him…”

I stroked her mane and leaned close, “you didn’t have a choice, he was going to kill you.”

“It’s always hard the first time you take a life,” Crash stated, attempting to reassure the mare in my arms.

I winced, reminded of the monster I had been. I couldn’t remember the first pony I had killed but I doubted I had been upset over it. I couldn’t remember much of my past beyond five years. Mostly I just remembered killing a lot of ponies.

Canter nodded in response to Crash. “I…I know. I don’t feel bad about who I killed, I just feel bad that I did kill somepony.” She shook herself, “I’ll get over it.”

I gave her a quick peck on the forehead and smiled. “Alright, let’s find some supplies and get out of here.”

Moving deeper into the building we found a large number of food and drink in what was once a well-appointed kitchen. We packed it all away in our saddlebags and left Ponyville.

If all went well we would be in our new home in a week.