• Published 6th Apr 2016
  • 2,272 Views, 32 Comments

Fallout Equestria: Black Cat - Rixizu



Break Point is a simple pony that just wants a simple and easy life. That is shattered when she accidentally causes the death of the son of a powerful crime lord. Now she must fight for survival.

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Chapter 27

“Oh, this is so perfect!” Starburst jumped back and forth on his hooves. “I knew you would come to save the day! Everypony said we were doomed with no chance of survival, but just like Celestia descending from the sky you came to save us all.”

“Yes, right.” Break’s voice had become tight. She didn’t like being compared to the Princess even a little.

Calling Card fought back laughter. “Is this the one you’ve been going on about? You expect this little thing to save us?” Many of the other ponies in the town broke out into laughter.

Break’s eye twitch. Sure, it did seem a little silly, but did they have to be so rude about it?

“What is going on?” Break asked trying to get the subject back on target.

“Who’s to say?” Calling Card replied. “Raiders are out there to kill us all. Not anything new in the Wastelands.”

“But something has to be a little different.” Break said. “Those raiders were crazy well-armed.”

And how the heck did a bunch of random raiders get motorcycles? Those aren’t cheap or easy to get your hooves on.

“Story of our lives hero.” Calling Card said putting derision on the word hero. "The raiders have been tough lately and hell-bent on killing every town in sight."

“They’ve wiped out two towns already. They’re going on a campaign of death all around the Cosas’s territory.” Starburst glared at Calling Card before returning his attention back to her. “Nopony knows why they are more well-funded than usual.”

“That’s not good.” Break recalled talk about raiders banding together, but never realized it had gotten this bad. Were the raiders starting a war with the Cosas?

“I’m surprised you haven’t already heard about this.” Starburst tilted his head. “It’s been all over the news.”

Break blushed. “I’ve been busy.” She’d been avoiding the radio, so she didn’t have to hear the Princess of the Wasteland gush about her and her supposed heroics. A bad idea in retrospect if big things like this had been happening under her muzzle.

“We need to prepare.” Break said. “Those guys will come back for sure. It would be for the best if we all evacuated to Zinnia.”

Calling Card stood straighter. “And abandon our homes? Look whoever you are. I don’t care if you are some hero. We’ve worked hard to create this town and we aren’t leaving it to some raiders.” The others in the town nodded in agreement.

“But what if they come back in greater force?” Despite her power, Break couldn’t protect everypony by herself. She had no illusions of that.

“We aren’t leaving our homes!” Calling Card replied getting into her face. “We sure as heck aren’t letting anypony from Zinnia fight for our cause.”

“But, I am not sure what else you can do. What if those guys come back with even worse?”

“We aren’t leaving!” Calling Card pointed his hoof so hard into Break it hurt. “This isn’t your business.”

"She's only here to help Calling Card," Starburst said.

“Right, this little filly.” Calling Card said with scorn. “In my experience, heroes do little more than die. You won’t be much different.”

“We’re all friends here.” Break held up a placating hoof. “I want what you want, for everypony to be safe.”

“Right, whatever you say.”

What’s with this guy? Still, Break couldn’t blame the guy for his distrust. She was a stranger, and it was clear he loved this place and would rather die than abandon it. If that’s how it was, then fine. She would work with that. She would come up with another plan.

Her best chance was to devise a way to make it difficult for someone to approach by a vehicle. That would work well. With a shovel and her ghost, making an obstacle for their enemy should be easy. Some pitfall in the ground should do the job nicely.

Break yawned. All this could wait for a few hours. She’d been on the road all day and all the excitement had worn to the point of exhaustion. Her body needed more attention right now. She wanted to get to work right way, but if she didn’t get some rest, she would be helpful to nopony.

"Is there someplace I can stay for the night?" She asked.

Calling Card rolled his eyes. “Very well. It will be a tight squeeze, but I have an extra room at my house you can use. My wife Tool Kit can look after you.”

“Thank you.”

“Come on in already.” Calling Card waved a hoof. “I’ll show you the way.”

Break mentally slapped herself for forgetting why she even came here in the first place. “Starburst?”

“Yes?” Starburst replied hanging on her every word.

“I need to talk to you, not right now though.” Break said sighing at his almost unbearable enthusiasm. “It can wait though, and my friend Scavenger will come up to town soon. Make sure he finds me.” The fact he wasn’t here already was a little odd, but she let him do is own thing. He’ll come to the town when he’s ready.

Starburst did a salute. “Right away!”

Break shook her head and followed Calling Card. She winced as she witnessed the carnage the raiders brought in the attack. Though not as bad as it might have been, the missile created a terrifying amount of destruction. Several houses were on fire and ponies worked hard to put them out. The townsponies used a line of buckets that lead the town well. There was nothing left of the house but smoldering cinders. It pained her heart to see these pony’s homes destroyed. Why were those raiders so callous with the lives of others? Did they not understand the pain they brought to others? It made Break sick to her stomach.

Without prompting, Break joined the line and help quell any of the fire she could. Sleep could wait. Before too long, all the fires were out and Break felt rewarded doing a job well done. The fires weren't as bad as she first predicted and only caused a little structural damage. The townsfolk patted her on the back and thanked her for her service. She saved them goodbye and rejoined Calling Card.

“I’m ready for that bed now.” Break rested herself on a nearby crate. “Those water buckets are heavy.”

“Why did you help us?” Calling Card asked. “It wasn’t your job to do anything. This isn’t your town.”

“It’s the wasteland.” Break replied confused by the question. “Shouldn’t ponies help each other out?”

Calling Card looked at her with a skeptical look. “Most travelers keep to themselves and fight for their own survival. They care little for others.”

Break made a face. Was she wrong to help ponies? “Just show me to a bed.”

Calling Card stared at her for another long moment before moving on to a small two-story house. It had a caved-in roof, and with a tarp used to replace it. It was a quaint little place and there wasn’t any doubt the owners loved this little house very much.

“Come in dear.” An old mare said as Break entered the house. From her voice alone, Break could tell that Calling Card’s wife was much older than him. Tool Kit wore her grey hair in a bun and had a rust covered coat. Tool Kit gave Break a warm smile after giving her a tight hug. It surprised Break how much more of a warm welcome she gave over her husband.

“I saw that you helped put out the fires.” Tool Kit said. “Very kind of you, my dear, thank you.”

Break rubbed the back of her neck embarrassed. “They needed help so why not?”

“Are you hungry?” Tool Kit asked. “I have some leftover potatoes if you want some.”

Calling Card coughed before Break could give her answer. “That won’t be necessary hun, she’s only here for a warm bed.”

"Nonsense, she's our guest don't be rude Call." Tool Kit glared at her husband. "Don't mind him, he's never liked strangers much. We're happy to have you."

“Thanks, my name is a Break Point.”

“Tool Kit. Where are you from? Do you have news? They say things have been hectic out west.” Tool Kit said while pulling leftover instant potatoes from the fridge. It only took her a minute to dig them out of the Tupperware container and put them onto a plate and she sat them in front of her guest. Break gave a nod of thanks and dug in. Not the greatest of meals, but she was hungry so they would have to do. It was more than generous.

“Yes, we hear to lot from the radio, but we would rather get it from a real source. “Calling Card crossed his legs.

“I’ll do my best.” Break didn’t have a clue where to start or what to say exactly and mulled over this as she finished her meal. She gave them the cliff notes version and told them about the destruction of the Yellow Star Slavers and the Stones leaving out her own part in it of course. She also told them about how much stronger the Cosas were becoming. Calling Card scowled at her story.

“The Cosas.” Calling Card broke into some colorful swear words. “It’s their fault we’re in this mess. They’re hunted raiders so fiercely that the raiders have become so desperate they’ve banded together just to survive. The scum hated each other before, and now they have a common enemy.”

“Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

Calling Card glared at her. “Worse, they’ve been gathering in large numbers and been terrorizing local towns. We haven’t heard a lick from Lily in weeks!”

Break’s eyes widened at that. “Could they be… gone?”

“No doubt they are.” Calling Card replied. “They’ll be back no doubt about it.”

Break’s mind raced as she thought of all the implications. Things out here were worse than she thought than anypony thought. If the raiders had an army, then it would be a disaster if they went into open warfare with the Cosas. She needed to warn Robin about this. Primrose and surrounding towns needed to prepare for trouble.

A loud yawn escaped Break’s mouth. All the excitement for the day made her exhausted even with the energy she got from the meal.

“The poor things about to pass out.” Tool Kit said pulling Break from her seat. “Here dear, follow me and we’ll get you into bed.”

“Night.” Calling Card said. He looked troubled no doubt worried about another group of raiders showing up at her doorstep.

Took Kit showed her to a small guest room with a single size bed. Break flopped onto the bed. What a day it had been. Still, she made Robin a somewhat reliable ally and planned to make the best of that. She listened to the sounds of a town getting ready for bed and the other sounds of the night, They always relaxed her for some reason. She planned to wake up early and make those defenses she thought of. Maybe the village had something she could use. In her last thought before blacking out, Break hoped Scavenger got to town safely.

---

Scavenger nodded in satisfaction as he saw Break through his binoculars enter a house and how warmly townspony’s wife greeted her. It was good to see Break integrating well with the ponies of the small village. It made him proud that Break went out of her way to help put out the fires. That mare had a heart like no other.

He wanted to join her and get some shuteye too, but he wanted to check something out first. He needed to search the bodies of the dead raiders for any clues. Sure, the fire didn’t leave much left of them, but Scavenger thought it wouldn’t hurt to look, anyway. Besides, there might be some bits of the motorcycles left to salvage.

It was always gruesome work to steal from dead bodies, but in the Wastelands, you did what you had to for survival. It didn't mean he liked to it though. The smell of burnt flesh made him gag, and he did his best to ignore it. The fireball left one large scorch mark on the earth. Break really did a number on these guys. It was too bad he stood too far away at the time to learn how exactly she did this. He would need to ask her about it later.

The take from his search was more than a little disappointing, however. They had no clues to indicate why they attack the village or who there were. The fire burned up anything useful and even their caps melted to uselessness. Their motorcycles too were too far gone to be any use for parts much to Scavenger's disappointment.

Oh well, worth a try.

Scavenger got ready to leave leaving the clean up to the townsfolk when a glint in the dirt caught his eye. He picked it up and rubbed the dirt off of it. Though black and scorched from the fireball, still readable. The badge had what appeared to be a cutie mark, a lion’s claw tearing into flesh. It wasn’t a cutie mark he recognized and guessed this pony must be their leader.

A thought struck him. He wasn’t all that tired and Zinnia was only about two hours away on hoof. There might be somepony there that knows something about this badge, and he wanted to get some local news. He would there and back before Break would even realize he took so long to arrive. Today was a crazy day for her. She needed the rest more than he did and it wasn’t like he could fight or anything. After consulting a map in his pack, he left for Zinnia.

---

Even from a distance, Zinnia still impressed Scavenger even after the hoof full of trips he had made to it. They made it from an old oil tanker that got accidentally teleported on land. Nopony knew exactly how that happened, but the best most guessed was that the zebras attacked it during the war and some skilled unicorn teleported the tanker to safety. Its protective shell became a town after Stable 54 discovered it while looking for usable shelter. They covered all the holes in the hull and turned it into a viable and prosperous town. Not only did it have a large protective wall around it, but it had only one entrance into the ship from the front. It had seen many battles over the years, but so far, no raiders or warbands had broken their way in.

The guards let him pass the gate of the outer wall without issue or protest and allowed him entry into Outer Zinnia. Outside the great bulk of the tanker were dozens of small shacks and house created from salvaged wood made by skilled and careful craftsponyship. Zinnia was the oldest town in the area and the most developed. Ponies used to only live in the ship, but an influx of settlers from other stables made the town expand houses to outside the ship as well.

Scavenger noticed as he walked through Outer Zinnia how nervous everypony was. No foals played outside, and the town was too quiet. As usual, his old friend stood at the counter of his story and Scavenger hoped he might shed some light on what was going on. He found Freezer Burn reading a book outside his hut and guessed business had been light of late. Burn put his book down as soon as Scavenger got close.

"Hello, friend." Freezer Burn said. "Welcome to Freezer Burn Emporium. Is that you Scavenger? Long time no see.”

“H-hello Burn.” Scavenger replied.

"Haven't seen you around these parts in a long time." Burn stood up and shook Scavenger's hoof. "Have you some parts you wish to pawn off? I'll give you a nice deal."

“N-not t-this time.” Scavenger felt a little strange not coming here with a sack of parts and spending the better part of a day haggling with Burn to get the best deal. It made him feel naked. He shook the thought from his head. It wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“Y-you have you e-ear to the ground, w-what’s been happening around here?” Scavenger asked.

Burn turned crestfallen. "Ah, so that's what you want to talk about. I'd been looking forward to a peaceful day of haggling with you to get my mind off my troubles." It always amazed Scavenger that Burn considered their haggling sessions peaceful considering it usually contained a lot of yelling and insults. Burn lived for that sort of thing though and business was everything to him.

“W-what’s been happening?”

“Everything! The world is ending!” Burn threw his hooves up into the air in a melodramatic fashion. "It's the raiders. They're trying to kill us all. They've been picking off towns one by one. Everypony in Zinnia is scared. There seems to be no end of these guys!"

Scavenger cursed. “How many are we talking about here?”

"At least a few hundred." Burn replied. "Most likely more. An eyewitness told me she saw about 80 raiders attacked Lily a week ago. It didn't stand a chance and you know how well defended that place was!"

Scavenger’s blood turned cold. He’d only been to the town a few times, but its defenses played back in this mind with almost perfect clarity. That place had at least a dozen Protectrons protecting it. The town was built into a cliff face giving it a lot of natural protection from attack. The raiders must have taken ridiculous losses, more than any sane commander would permit, but they took it in the end. If they destroyed Lily, there was no safety for anypony. If they cared so little about the lives of their troops, the Raiders’ numbers must be a frightening number for them to be so wasteful.

Even a hardened soldier would blush at the curses Scavenger threw out. Things were bad and far worse than he could have ever guessed. He needed to get back to Break right away and work out some sort of plan.

“H-have you e-ever seen anything l-like this b-before?” Scavenger pulled out the badge he found earlier and placed it on the counter. “I-I f-found it on a d-dead raider that t-tried to attack P-Petunia.”

“Aye, I’ve seen that cutie mark before.” Burn replied. “It belongs to a pony named Courage Heart. He’s a bit infamous around here. He used to work at a steel mill at the outskirts of town. Big fellow too and scared the dickens out of everypony. He drank heavily and got into many fights. Ended up getting fired at the mill after getting into a scuffle that got one of his workmates killed. Disappeared after that thought rumor had it he joined a bandit gang. He’s been working up in the world.”

“Anything else?” Scavenger asked.

Burn shook his head. “Know little else about him besides what other ponies saw about him. I’ve only seen him a few times and only from a distance. Though I do know strange things happened around him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I said he killed a pony in a fight, but nopony knows how he did it. The victim's heart exploded. Courage Heart was an earth pony, so he couldn't have used magic. Even though they couldn’t pin the crime on him, they used it as an excuse to get rid of him."

Strange things. Scavenger’s heart raced. Was it possible he has a power like Break’s?

“He's probably back for revenge. Dear Celestia, he’s terrifying us so it is all the sweeter when he surrounds us with his army with no way for anypony to come to the rescue.” Burn put his face into his hooves.

Scavenger put a comforting hoof on his shoulder. “W-we’ll beat t-this. I-I have a friend t-that can h-help.”

“I don’t see how.” Burn replied.

With only Break to fight them. No matter how Scavenger thought about, the more hopeless the situation became. Worse, his friend wouldn’t do the sensible thing and run for it instead. No, he couldn’t think that way. They would find a way to beat this or else it would spell the end of Zinnia and every surrounding town maybe even further than that.

---

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay the night?” Burn asked as they approached the edge of the town.

“Y-yeah, my f-friend is g-going to w-worry about me.” Scavenger replied. He really didn’t want Break to wake up with him not there. The last thing he wanted was for her go out looking for him.

"Go in safety, my friend." Burn put a hoof of Scavenger's shoulder.” Introduce me to this friend of yours sometime.”

Scavenger smiled and nodded. He yawned and Burn gave him a smirk. He had to admit he was getting pretty tired, but there was nothing to it. Lily wasn’t that far away.

“I’ll be…” A loud bell sounded through town.

“W-what is g-going on?” Scavenger yelled through the noise. Ponies packed up whatever they could. Many abandoned everything and running to the safety of the oil tanker.

“We need to get to safety!” Burn pushed Scavenger towards the ramp to the ship.

“B-but!” He tried to fight back, but he was a small stallion and the shopkeeper overpowered him without much difficulty.

In a few moments, they were inside the front entrance of the ship. The guard tried to keep everypony calm and ponies crammed inside. Many demanded to know what was going on. Burn pulled Scavenger aside to a side corridor.

“I hate emergencies.” Burn said.

“C-can we find out w-what’s going on?” Scavenger asked.

“Sure, let’s go up top, I know one of the watchponies.” Burn lead Scavenger through the ship. Ponies filled the hallways and even some griffins were there, but Burn knew what he was doing. They walked up several flights of stairs before finding a door that led to the deck of the ship.

“Loopy Loop!” Burn yelled to a pegasus with a telescope perched on a smokestack.

“Burn, hey!” Loopy flew down to meet them. “Who’s that with you?”

“This Scavenger an old friend of mine. Do you know what’s going on?” Burn asked.

Loopy grunted. “Trouble and lot of it.”

“W-what do you mean?” Scavenger asked.

“Look for yourself.” Loopy hoofed over the telescope and Scavenger took it.

Scavenger trotted over to one of the railings and surveyed the wasteland. He didn't see the fuss was about. Nothing was in front of him besides barren wasteland ravaged by war and destruction. No, in the distance there was something and he dropped the telescope in horror. An impossibly large army of raiders was on their way, but they weren't coming towards Zinnia. No, their destination was the town Break was staying in.