Fallout: Equestria – Icarus

by MuseoSansPony

Chapter 2: Lucky Break

I set my empty glass down on the bar and sighed. The bartender had moved to sweeping the room as I spoke. I wasn’t sure he was still listening, so I waited for him to speak up and ask me to continue. While I waited, I glanced around the bar. It was a simply built structure of earth pony design, which was likely the reason it has survived the final day and for the century that followed.

Finally noticing the silence, the bartender looked up from his sweeping.

“Refill?” he asked, moving back towards the bar.

I sighed and nodded. He moved back around the bar to fix me a new drink. In a moment, he had poured me my third glass of wild pegasus. Then there was another clap of thunder – no it wasn’t thunder, it was my empty stomach growling. It was then that I realized I couldn’t recall the last time I ate.

The bartender let out a small chuckle and placed a chipped bowl in front of me. He then opened a box of sugar apple bombs and filled the bowl.

“On the house.” he stated fixing himself a bowl as well, “So, you and Looker got captured by this stallion and were brought back to Rolling Caps’ slaver camp. That was in Salt Lick City, right?”

I nodded as I hoofed some sugar apple bombs into my muzzle. I chewed them and took another sip of my drink. I grimaced – sugar apple bombs and wild pegasus did not mix.

Without a word, the bartender swapped my current drink for a bottle of sparkle cola. I drank it greedily to wash out the foul mix of flavors before getting back to my story.

*** *** ***

I tugged at the bomb collar that had been fastened to my neck. It was just tight enough to feel like it was choking me, but loose enough that I could still get enough air to breath. However not enough air to move faster than a slow trot.

“Stop fiddling with it.” Looker spoke under her breath, “You’ll set it off.”

At that I quit fussing with the collar and tried to ignore its grasp on my neck. To distract myself I looked at the slowly approaching skyscraper in the distance. Atop the building was a flickering neon sign. The entirety of the sign read “Canterlot Capital Savings Bank” though the only letters that were still lit spelled out “CapS.”

I then turned my attention to the odd battle saddle of the stallion that had captured us wore. I learned was named Toothpick, not that it really mattered. The device wasn’t actually a battle saddle. Though the top of the device that held the gun was a reinforced mount similar to a battle saddle, a series of multicolored wires ran from the gun to the saddle part. The saddle was more of an battery pack, but the sleek black casing hid any recognizable power source.

Lacking any weapons, and being stripped of my armor, I secretly envied Toothpick for his overpowered arcanotech.

Finally we approached the door of the skyscraper. The armored slavers at the door waved us in and we were lead past the service desk of the old bank and down tile steps to the basement. We entered a small room with two large vault doors. Toothpick went up to a terminal in the center of the room and taped on the keys until the vaults hissed open. Inside one was a collection of male slaves in tattered or no clothing, all wearing the same bomb collars. Inside the other was the same sight, but with mare slaves. With that, Looker and I were separated and lead to the vault full of our genders. Then the vaults were both closed and I was plunged into darkness.

As quickly as the darkness came it was erased by 10 or so unicorns casting a light spell.

“First time a slave?” a young, blue, unicorn colt with a blood red mane and lacking a cutie mark asked.

I just nodded, not wanting to socialize with any more mud dwellers. The last few I socialized with got me into my current predicament.

“Well then, count your blessings.” he sighed solemnly, “I was born into this.”

I wanted more than anything else to not hear this slave's sob story, but there was nothing else to do. So I sat next to him and tried my best to look sympathetic.

“My mom was in the other vault.” the colt went on, “I’ve been told she was sold a week ago.”

The colt wiped a tear from his eye with a dirty hoof and looked up at me. His right eye was green, but his left was golden.

“What?” I asked trying to hide my disdain.

“What is it like being free?” he asked innocently.

I sighed, “It is a great feeling. You can do what you want when you want.”

Was there a better answer? I thought to myself.

“There is no better feeling. It is a feeling I took for granted.” I finished solemnly.

We sat in silence for a while before the colt spoke up again, “Are you planning to be free again?”

I simply nodded slightly and laid down to sleep for the night. I flinched slightly as the colt snuggled up next to me, but I was exhausted and didn’t feel like protesting.

*** *** ***

I woke to the sound of the Vault door opening. I scanned the darkness and was surprised that the other slaves were not awake. I supposed that they were more accustomed to it than I was.

“Psst! Enclave jerk, you in here?” Looker whispered into the darkness.

Confused, I stood and moved into the soft light of the open door – wincing at the pain in my stiff and injured back. My movement and wince made the colt stir awake.

“Where you going, momma?” he asked groggily, causing me to cringe.

I didn’t know how to respond, I didn’t know this colt. I could just leave him, right?

The colt wiped the sleep from his eyes and blinked up at me, muttering, “Sorry.” He looked at the open door and asked, “We’re escaping?”

“Yes, hopefully it sticks this time.” an unknown stallion said from the other room, “I think my dad is getting suspicious.”

“Quiet, Stash.” Looker barked in a loud whisper, “You’ll be fine.”

“I would be if I helped just you, but you insisted on helping this pony you said fell from the sky.” Stash spat sardonically, “and it looks like Blip has taken a liking to him. Suppose we’ll be rescuing him too.”

I sighed and gave a reluctant nod to the a muddled yellow, unicorn with an orange mane and green eyes. That prompted an exuberant gasp from the small colt – Blip – from my side.

Great, I thought with a mental facehoof, A wingless pegasus, a petite mare, a colt, and an unknown stallion are going to escape a slaver’s den. It sounded like the setup to a bad joke. Wait, did Stash say his Father was getting suspicious?

“Stash, was it? Who is your father exactly?” I asked suspiciously as I exited the vault with Blip in tow.

Looker looked uncomfortable and muttered, “This is Cap Stash, son of Rolling Caps.” she paused as she let that fact sink in, “He helped me escape last time, and thankfully, he is willing to help this time too. Even with the two of you in tow.”

“What will stop your father from coming after us?” I inquired, “You mud dwelling slavers are ruthless. And what about the other slaves?”

Silently Cap Stash clicked the terminal to close the vault door. And then unlocked the bomb collar from around our necks.

“I resent my dad’s line of business.” He sighed, “I do what I can to disrupt his operations, but he is to never know it is me.”

“It is a bit too late for that.” the voice of Toothpick drifted in the room from the stairs, “I figured it was a coincidence that Looker escaped just after you requested her to accompany you to bed.”

He smirked as he bit down of the bit of his battle saddle – correction the battle saddle of my power armor that now has a rifle and a shotgun attached to it – the same that Looker and I had both used. I realized he had crudely ripped off the head and visor portion of the armor.

He opened fire. The buckshot of the shotgun sparked harmlessly off the terminal that opened the vaults as Looker, Cap Stash, and I ducked instinctively for cover. The rifle shot struck home in the head of Blip as he lacked the reflexes of the rest of us being born a slave. His lifeless form just slumped the the floor.

Somewhere deep down in my heart I felt a twinge of regret. I barely knew him. Why did his death matter? He is just another mud dweller. He meant nothing to me. He was a literal blip on the radar of my life.

Despite my rational thoughts, I felt angry. Angry that this colt I barely knew had never known freedom. Angry he was struck down so young. Angrier that I felt at any point in my life. I was angrier than I was at my own father for going dashite and starting this whole mess for me. In a fit of blind rage I charged at Toothpick.

Buckshot and rifle rounds ate into my hide. One even cut the filthy bandages wrapped around my torso and it fell to the floor as I ran. I slammed into the stallion at full force knocking him from his hooves and against the wall of the stairs. Stunned he dropped the firing bit from his mouth. I just wrapped my front hooves around his neck and twisted. I heard a sharp snap as his neck broke, but my anger didn’t subside and I kept on twisting. Flesh began to rip on the side of his neck as I twisted it almost completely around.

“Stop!” Looker said softly as she laid her hoof on my shoulder, “He’s dead. Justice has been given out.”

I felt the anger wane in my core, and I finally let the limp form of Toothpick fall. Released from my grasp he clattered down the remainder of steps and flopped to the floor. Breathing heavily, I trotted down to his body and retrieved the still heavily damaged power armor from his back. I removed the rifle and hoofed it back to Looker along with some ammo.

“Looks like your father knows you are a mole.” I stated pointing to Cap Stash, “Best course of action now is to wipe him out.”

“I...” Cap hesitated, “suppose you're right. My father runs his empire from the top floor of the Bank.”

I nodded, putting the crudely separated visor on my head and strapped on the back mounted portion of the armor. The overtaxed repair talisman helpfully found the time to reconnect the visor to the rest of it after a moment. As the HUD powered back up, I glanced around for my dad’s marker before I remembered it had gone out back at the farmhouse. I mentally noted that once Rolling Caps was dealt with, I’d need to head north to where the marker had last been.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Cap began once I’d finished fussing with the armor, “You know my name, but from what Looker told me, you never got on a first name basis. I for one can’t trust a pony I don’t know the name of. So, what’s your name?”

“Private Cumulonimbus. Serial Number 32-219-950.” I said, admiring how the battle saddle had been modified in such a short time to accommodate ballistic weapons rather than magic energy weapons.

“Well, Cumulo, after you.” He responded, motioning to the steps.

*** *** ***

A grenade exploded, causing the marble desk in the bank lobby to shatter into splinters of shiny rock. The slavers on this floor were more heavily armed than Toothpick had been. I figured the slave watching shift was changing when Cap had let me out. This left the bulk of the force sleeping on the lobby floor, and the 2 or 3 floors above that were connected by intact stairs.

“We need to get to the elevator! It’s the only way to access any floor beyond 3!” Cap shouted over another explosion, “And if you have any other weapons, I could help clear my father’s minions.”

I shot at the second floor causing a unicorn wielding a Singer submachine gun to fall off the balcony. The gun clattered to the floor and landed near Cap.

“How convenient.” He deadpanned taking the gun in his magic.

Without even looking up, he released three short bursts of fire at the balcony above. The bullets struck home in three different assailants.

Did he have a pipbuck, or is he just that lucky? I thought as I peaked out from my bullet riddled cover. As I did, I found the grenade slaver frantically searching for another grenade to lob at us.

Taking advantage of the mare’s search, I bit down on the bit and ignored the cigaret flavor left on it by Toothpick. The buckshot splattered her brians on the wall behind her and the elevator doors she had once guarded. With her death, the slavers on the first three floors were currently either dead or dying.

Almost immediately, Looker was out of cover and looting the dead. Cap and I stood up and joined her until there was a soft ding as the elevator arrived on the ground floor. Before I could react, the door opened and the roar of a minigun open fired on the lobby.

Instinctively I ducked back behind cover as a few stray bullets ate into my flank. Looker had been on the second floor and had luckily avoided the onslaught. However, Cap had not been so lucky. He’d been directly in front of the elevator when it opened. For some reason, I felt another twinge of sadness for another mud dweller I barely knew. But death happens, and I had to press forward. The fact still remained: Rolling Caps would not relent on finding us as long as he was still alive.

A moment later, the minigun fell on empty chambers, giving a ratcheting click as it spun down. The weapon was effective, but it was a major ammo guzzler. I poked my head out of cover and saw against all odds, Cap Stash still stood before the open elevator. Not a single shot had hit him. What had to have been over 100 shots had missed him at almost point blank range.

How in all of Equestria is that possible? I thought in awe.

“Hello, Wrexler.” Cap said evenly, as if he had not narrowly missed death in a the previous moment.

“Cap Stash, you fucking traitor.” the zebra wearing the saddle mounted minigun spat with malice, “You would throw away your father’s love for the sake of a few lowly slaves?”

“I don’t matter much to my father. He only cares for caps and power. As his son, I’m only his future successor, and he resents that.” Cap retorted.

At that, he picked up a shard of marble in his magic. He tossed it up and used the submachine gun as a bat. He spiked the shard at a high velocity directly at the zebra in the elevator. It struck him right between the eyes and he dropped to the floor unconscious; a small trickle of blood flowing down his muzzle.

Cap just levitated the unconscious form of the zebra into a broom closet, relieving him of his minigun. He stepped into the elevator and held a hoof out to stop the door from closing. Looker joined him a moment later. I just sighed and joined them as well. Cap moved his hoof and clicked the top floor with his magic as the door closed.

As the staticy elevator music began to play, I finally asked the question that was burning on my mind, “How did you survive the minigun fire?”

“I’m cursed with luck.” he said flatly, “Both good and bad. Truthfully, I had the exact same chance to die as I had to being untouched.”

I just stood there dumbfounded. I’d have said curses were just zebra superstition had I not just witnessed what I had occurred in the lobby.

“Damn killing joke.” he muttered.

At that we rode up the elevator in silence with the exception for the elevator music still trying to play from damaged speakers.

*** *** ***

After what felt like ages, the elevator slowed to a stop and the door opened. To everypony’s surprise, there were no guards firing when the doors opened. Hesitantly, I took a step forward.

“Was that his whole force in the lobby?” Looker asked, putting her hoof to her muzzle, “No, he is much more tactful than that.”

I glaced at the EFS of my HUD. The only marker on the screen was from the likely location of Rolling Caps. The small foyer was lined with red wallpaper tacked back to the wall by a few pieces of duct tape. The tile floor had a cracked mosaic that displayed the name of the bank, and the marker on my EFS was behind an ornate wooden door only a few footsteps away. Without any warning, a mark IV turret popped out of the ceiling in front of us and opened fire.

I ducked to the ground, letting the shots spark off my armor. Unfortunately for the second time in two days, my saddle mounted weapon was wrecked beyond capable use. Cap and Looker both pressed themselves to the sides of the elevator to avoid being shot. I glanced back and saw that some of the rounds had grazed their front legs before they could duck out of the way.

Without thinking, I toggled SATS and my vision was forced back at the hostile target as it was highlighted in amber. Coming to my senses, I looked at what weapon I had to cue up. With a mental facehoof, I realized it was the sharp scorpion-like tail of my armor. I had honestly forgotten it was there since I wasn’t really skilled with melee weapons. In the stopped time, the turret was highlighted in the same amber color as my HUD. I had a 67% chance of hitting any part of it from where I was crouched on the floor.

Good as it's gonna get. I thought and cued in two stabs, one to the rotating barrel, and another to the bullet feed.

Time resumed and without a thought, I was pushed to my hooves. Rounds sparked off the chest plate and I took a spell assisted step forward. I then leaped into the air, the tail of my armor swung over my head and struck the barrel of the turret getting caught in it, whipping me around the room and sending spikes of pain through my still healing back. Thankfully outside the spray of bullets. The second strike, that in hindsight was a better aimed one, was unable to resolve as the tail remained caught. Eventually the centrifugal force gave way as the tail was forcefully ripped from the back end of the armor, sending me into the side of the foyer with enough force to make a dent in the wall before bouncing off an landing back in the elevator. The severed tail sparked as the wires snapped. The wires acted similar to the effect of any spark weapon and shorted out the gun’s machinery, and with a fizzle, it went silent.

I coughed and sputtered, trying to regain the breath that I’d lost from being thrown about like a rag doll. Cap and Looker pulled their bodies away from the walls of the bullet riddled elevator. Suddenly the elevator gave a small lurch and dropped a few inches below the floor before coming to a grinding stop again. Looker let out a small yelp in surprise before we all quickly clambered out of the death box. The second we did the elevator dropped again and didn’t stop until it crashed to the lobby level. Together, we entered the door on the other side of the foyer.

Inside was a large, extravagant office that felt almost untouched by time. The walls were lined with a fancy floral print wallpaper that showed no signs of having to be pinned back up like in the foyer. A marble desk sat before a large window that looked out over the war torn city. Above the top of the window, a neon sign flickered, sending a reddish hue over the ceiling of the room. Standing before the plush red chair behind the desk, was an orange, unicorn stallion with a pale pink mane and green eyes. He wore a patched pre-war blue suit, and strapped to his back was the same overpowered arcane gun Toothpick had worn before.

“This is where you die.” Rolling Caps said coldly levitating the firing bit into his mouth.

BANG! A shot fired from Looker’s rifle and the bit dropped from his grasp as a red stain appeared on his suit. Rolling slumped slightly, but didn’t die. Laughing, he reached a hoof out to a button on the desk. Two more turrets popped out of the floor on either side of the desk. Cap and Looker ducked back into the foyer before the guns opened fired. I dove into the smug stallion, knocking him to the floor as the guns tore into the ornate wallpaper the lined the walls.

We wrestled on the floor; the shot to his side not slowing him down. Realizing that their targets were unreachable the turrets pivoted and began to pelt my back with bullets. Three lucky rounds finding their way through the still unfixed wing holes causing me to loosen the grip I had on him. Even in my power armor, he managed to flip me over him and smack me against the window, making several cracks spider out from where I hit.

My belly now exposed the turret’s shot began to eat into my flesh. More than a few missed and broke holes in the already cracked window. As my vision darkened I saw a glint of magic over the desk and one of the turrets sparked as my armor’s still sparking tail was used once more as a matrix disruptor. The other turret exploaded as a grenade, likly comendeered from the slavers in the lobby, belw it to scraps.

I grunted in pain as I got shakily to my hooves, a small pool of blood beneath me as I used the window for support. Rolling just smirked and got to his hooves as well. He went to take the firing bit in his magic again, but what he hadn’t noticed was in our tussle I had unclasped the strap that held the device to his back. As he rose, the device dropped to the floor. Ignoring my bleeding wounds, I dove for the gun. I pulled it close to me, tripping the slave boss as I turned his own weapon back on him. His smug look finally broke as he stared at the gun. I took the firing bit into my mouth without hesitation, I bit down.

There was a loud boom near the muzzle of the gun. The cracked window behind me shattered at the piercing sound. A pink and green beam lanced out, encompassing Rolling, the top of the marble desk and the roof beyond. Cap and Looker narrowly jumping to the side to not be caught in the laser as it flew by them. The top of Cap Stash’s mane being clipped off by the blast. The beam kept going until part of the bank’s sign was destroyed, and it didn’t stop until a five meter hole was cut in the cloud layer some ways off in the distance.

With a spark the device turned off and a series of red lights illuminated around the base. A screen on the back flickered to life and read “Charge: 1%.”

I glanced up at the now open roof. For a moment, the clear back void of night shone down on the wasteland. Then as quickly as it had been opened, the cloud layer fixed itself. I slumped slightly from the loss of blood. Looker leaped into medic mode and fed me a healing potion she had acquired from the slaver’s medical supplies. The many bullet holes began to knit themselves closed and as an added bonus the constant pain on my back from my missing wings let up slightly from the healing magic.

“So that was Cicada's Wrath?” Cap finally spoke up after a minute of silence, “Never seen if fired before. And no pony who has, has lived to tell the tale. Well, until now.”

“Toothpick fired it when he captured us, but it is still shocking such a gun exists.” Looker stated letting out a held breath, “So, how are we getting down?”

It was then that I remembered the elevator had made its final decent only a few minutes before. Cap just trotted over to the edge of the room where the large window had once been. To our shock, he hopped off. Instead of hearing a distant splat, we heard the sound of four hooves landing on metal.

“Good old dad, always had an escape route.” Cap called in a sing-song tone from the old window washer’s platform sitting just below the blown out window, still attached the remaining section of the roof.

Looker breathed out a sigh of relief before joining Cap on the platform. I jumped down too, just as Looker struck Cap on the back of the head for making us think he was jumped off the roof. When he recovered from her love tap, he hit a red button in the basket with his magic. Slowly, the platform descended along the side of the old bank.

*** *** ***

An hour later we had descended the building, where the platform had let us off on the third floor. From there, we had returned to the lobby and back to the underground vaults to release the remainder of the slaves. Cap then went about removing the slave collars, while Looker tended to any wounded.

With that, I made my exit. I could no longer afford to deal in the petty conflicts of filthy, mud dwelling, dirt herders. Rolling Caps was dead, so he wouldn’t try to track me down as I completed my mission.

I needed to head north. Hopefully I’d pick up the trial of my father if I headed towards the last direction I’d seen his pipbuck tag in. I had made it a short distance down the road when, from out of nowhere, there was an arcane burst of magic in front of me.

“Trying to make your exit without us, birdbrain?” Looker shouted as I blinked the after images from my vision.

“I have a mission to complete. It is against protocol to involve mud dwellers.” I said dispassionately.

“That might be true if you had wings.” Cap noted, “But when in the wasteland, do as the mud dwellers do and travel in groups.”

“Fine. We head north. My dad’s pipbuck tag was last seen in that direction.” I relented, realizing that the best way to reach my objective was probably to make that trip with other expendable ponies who knew the terrain.

“What’s he looking for?” Looker inquired.

“He took some research when he left.” I explained reluctantly, “Any Ministry hubs up north?”

“Salt Lick doesn’t have any ministry hubs.” Cap answered, putting a hoof to his chin, “though, there is an old government lab in the middle of the salt flat.”

“Then we go there.” I stated with finality as I began to trot along the road north.

*** *** ***

Footnotes:

Cumulonimbus: Level Up!

New Perk Added:

Dashite Morality – The ponies on the surface are beginning to get to you. You are starting to think of them as more than just mud dwellers. Your attacks are 20% more effective and ignore 5% of the target’s DR when protecting anypony or creature that calls the wasteland home.

New Equipment Acquired:

Cicada's Wrath – it may be small, but it packs a powerful punch. When power is depleted, it takes 1.5 days to recharge.

Looker: no status changes

Cap Stash – Level 7

S - 6
P - 7
E - 6
C - 6
I - 8
A - 7
L - X

Traits:

Raider Boss’ Son – You are the son of a powerful raider boss. As such your name strikes fear into the raiders in the area and they have a 15% chance to not attack when they see you.

Poison Joke’s Curse: Sliding Luck Stat – You have been cursed by Killing Joke. As such, you no longer have a luck stat, and it’s 5 base points have been disbursed into your other stats. From now on whenever you do anything, a cosmic D20 is rolled. The result of this roll is your luck stat for the intended action, even if it is over the max score of 10. Best of Luck! You’re gonna need it.

Quest Started:

Let the Caps Roll – √ Disband the slaver operation run by Rolling Caps
√ Kill Rolling Caps

Quest Completed:

Let The Caps Roll

Quests Updated:

Dashite Retention – Search the Salt Flats for your Father.
Track down your father and bring him to justice for his crimes.

Author's Note:

and you thought the bar scene would only be in the last chapter....I think it will be a thing at the beginning of every chapter.

Comments

[Equestria Girls Fan 94]

SO AWESOME!!!!!! ♥

[MuseoSansPony]

8219055

glad you like it.

[Equestria Girls Fan 94]

8220720
How could I not? It sounds interesting!

[AlmanacP]

This Fo:E book has been advertised on my Fo:E group on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/foebooks/

Feel free to join us on there. We encourage self-promotion, bragging and gushing about your own or other people's fics. Great place to hang out and make friends. :)

[MuseoSansPony]

8223526

Do you keep forgetting that I'm in that group? anyways, thank you for posting it, I once again forgot to post it there.