Fallout Equestria: Devil's Luck

by Chokfi

Chapter 2: Rolling Bones

Chapter 2: Rolling bones
"When I first came to do shows in Vegas, I followed the usual entertainer's syndrome - I played craps and lost."

As I passed out of town, on my way to the old ruins, I moved to the side of the road. All I could see there was a ripped open refrigerator, with a skeleton inside. "What kind of idiot crawls inside of a refrigerator to die?" I asked myself, poking a hoof at the dumb pony's remains. At that point I did see something interesting however, a hat. A brown fedora that, although it was slightly weathered, seemed to have survived whatever had killed this poor unfortunate soul.

Somewhat irreverent to the pony's current condition, I yanked the fedora out of the fridge and placed it on my own head. I would have to repair it soon enough, but it was certainly closer to my style than any other hat I'd ever gotten. Placing it on my head, getting the sun out of my eyes, certainly helped me see the town I was approaching. It wasn't very far from timber, but they had stayed away from the old town when they built the new.

Old Timber was a T cross section, with several buildings closer to the entrance, and one large one across from it. The Large building looked to be a former hotel, one that was so run down in comparison to the other buildings that I knew immediately that it would be the home of the ghouls. However, my train of thought was cut off by the apearance of a red light on my EFS.

Taking out my trusty revolver, I slowly approached, trying to sneak a bit to get the element of surprise. And there he was, the raider fool who had decided to patrol the streets of his new town. Without a word, or even a bit of forethought, I took out my gun, centered the iron-sights on the pony, and pulled the trigger. For whatever reason I seemed to cause the pony's head to explode into a bunch of small meaty bits.The loud cracking sound certainly alerted everyone around me, I was sure, and the obviousness of this pony's death would do the rest.

However, that turned out to not be the case, as for some reason the pony who was only FIVE FEET AWAY appeared to have not noticed my shot. This was... Frankly disconcerting, as I wasn't exactly using a stealthy weapon here, but I took my luck and ran with it anyways. My first shot grazed his shoulder, getting his attention. And my second dug into his chest as he started to run my way. My third and fourth weren't very useful either, but my fifth landed in the middle of his chest with a satisfying thwack and his EFS light extinguished, to my delight.

Carefully I stood up and scanned the area around me, but no other hostiles appeared to be close enough for me to do anything about, which was pretty damn useful as my gun, it seemed, was no longer full of ammunition, and which took me a good four or five seconds to reload, getting everything out and pumping things in. Admittedly, it had to be alot easier with magic than to try to do the same without.

As I explored the small group of standing pre-war buildings, I made sure to keep my eye on my EFS. However, looking at it, I couldn't see anyone else close enough for it to detect. The only thing to do was to explore some areas. The smallest building that I could see was a small former-store front with a dead pony outside. Searching the corpse, I found a courier pass, along with a letter that I stashed within my saddle bags.

Moving into the building, I heard a single pony routing through the stuff in the back, so I snuck up to him and tapped his shoulder, startling the piss out of the oblivious raider. Using levitation to move the gun, I placed it on the back of his head, and fired when he turned to look at me. I dis-regarded his extremely worn equipment to go back to the front room, which appeared to have been the former owner's work station.

Sitting upon the table was a robot, something that I remembered from when I was much younger, and something that I wished that I could manipulate. The large machine was nearly two feet tall, and appeared to be a sphere.

Sighing, I examined it, but my low skills in anything related to science or mechanics made me completely unable to even discern if it was broken or didn't have a source of power. So I left the sprite-bot alone and walked away. But on the shelf something caught my eye, the glowing white form of a sparkle cola quartz.

With a gasp and a jump I scooped the thing up in my magic and pressed the lukewarm glass to my cheek. If there was one thing that I loved more than booze, it was a good bottle of quartz. But they were rare, and whenever I did find them they were worth hundreds of caps. I couldn't believe my luck that I had found one just lying in this place.

Actually, I could believe my luck, and I smiled softly at the thought as I placed it carefully in my bag. More than any other object here, that one drink was worth the 'quest' and all of the hassle I was having in this damnable town.

---

After another hour of shooting and looting I had gotten a good amount of things and I had found almost everything I possibly could. I had killed another three ponies, who were staked out in high places where they seemed to be almost inhibited by the odd structure they sat on. They tried to shoot down at me, but I prevailed by taking a huff of steady and lucking out on a few long shots from my revolver.

I looted their corpses and piled the weapons and things in the center of town, scrounging parts for my revolver but little else to pile onto the already weakened frame. Instead I kept myself light, filling up on drugs and other light things that would fill my wallet. Finally I started to explore the few remaining buildings. Grabbing everything and tossing it out the window into the pile in the center of town. At which point there were exactly two things in my way.

Right in the front of the largest building in town there was a locked door. And just across from it, under a desk, there was a locked safe. Celestia knew what was in either, but I wasn't completely equipped to get them out of the way. So I began to study a locksmith's magazine I had found, coincidentally, only 40 feet away on one of my slain foes.

With the tips and tricks in that magazine, I was able to crack open the safe, and quickly get the door open as well. Success. Behind the door was a vault, a room that appeared to have been used by the traders as their most valuable weapons hold. The thing held several weapons and other things, none of which particularly interested me except for their value, along with drugs and alcohol which seemed much more appealing.

The safe, however, was filled with a good pile of bottle caps along with something that I wasn't really sure of. Something that I thought must be a hallucination. The most gorgeous gun in the west. The carved ivory handle beat the hell out of the steer-horn one that adorned my usual gun. The long barell matching my own, though the complexity of the intricate work cought my eye as well.

The gun's name was stamped on it's side, in scrawling and ornate handwriting, Fortune. On it's handle, inlaid in what appeared to be some sort of black gemstone, was a spades symbol. The most recognizable notation of luck, and my favorite card in any deck. I didn't care about anything else, and nearly through my regular gun at a wall as I slipped Fortune into my belt. It almost seemed to glow in my magic, as if the painted and engraved scrawling patterns on it's side were filled with my magic's power.

Without another look at the town, I scooped up the most valuable weapons, repairing them as best I could with my minimal skill and the other spare parts, and walked back to town. Fortune hung at my hip perfectly, and beautifuly, and it stood impressive as I marched into town with a grin on my lips.

"Welcome back!" The sheriff said with a smile, and I smiled back with a wink. "Good to be back. I brought my loot with me, but I would recommend going there and getting everything else before even more raiders come and get it." With that, I marched into the little store in town and sold everything I could, spending all my money on ammo for Fortune.

Level Up!

Skill milestone: Lock pick 65