Act 1 - Part 3 : Misdirection
Fallout Equestria: Souls
Act 1 - Part 3 : Misdirection
Waste Land Survival Lesson 14:
“Don’t greet an unknown with violence.”
That’s it, I give up!
If I still had a face, it would be blue from how much talking I’ve been doing. Although ‘talking’ isn’t really the right term, since I have no mouth either, more ‘thinking at really hard’.
I’ve tried everything I could think of to communicate with Rock. I’ve tried repeating words, thinking in funny voices, rhyming, catchy expressions, sage words of wisdom, reciting lists, amusing anecdotes, even threw the odd words of Zebra that I’ve picked up. I’ve also tried all those at different times, such as when Flower is asleep, or awake, while talking, while silent, lost in thought, thoughtlessly lost (look at your map!), all alone, with Hoof, and even when… umm, indisposed.
And the end result of nearly thirty-six hours of constant directed thought?
“But Second, she would have made a great pet!”
Nothing!
I thought I made a breakthrough yesterday while Hoof was giving Flower a basic weapon safety guide. The yellow pony stood a moment wide eyed after I thought something particularly loud, but it turned out to be just a long pause before a large sneeze. At least after getting some pointers on how to handle various guns and explosives Rock isn’t as likely to accidental kill or blow up anypony else.
The sheer variety of guns that Hoof had in his saddle bags, none of which Flower particularly cared for, at least gave credence to his claim that he was a traveling merchant. Nopony would carry around such an arsenal for personal use. Most ponies just had a few trusted weapons and then load up on ammo. He still doesn’t look much the part though, four days out and he remains way too clean… He doesn’t even get ‘hat mane’ when he takes his cap off!
“First.” Hoof said raising a front hoof. “I’m pretty sure it was male, considering position we found him in. Second.” He lifted his other fore-hoof. “He would have made a terrible pet, since he was a wild animal. Third.” Looking at his two raised hooves he just shrugged. “I thought you hated rats.”
“It clearly wasn’t really a rat. That’s just some dumb name that somepony came up with due to the size or something. They could have called them Sand Puppies or something.” Flower said while switching markers and then added sulkily before returning to drawing in the notepad. “I was going to call her Mole-estia…”
Clearly none of my words of wisdom had sunk in. They were both too preoccupied with the aftermath of the weird scene they had witnessed.
About half an hour ago the two of them heard a very peculiar mix of noises while walking. The rhythmic clanging of metal, rough animal huffing and grunting, and the sound of an upbeat musical march. Following the weird noises, they found a very determined mole rat in the middle of a passionate tryst… with a sprite-bot.
The reactions of the two travelers were rather telling of their personalities. Hoof galloped to rescue the spherical robot from the unwanted affections of the mole rat, magically tossing the critter aside. Rock on the other hoof snatched up the large rodent and cooed about how cute it was while it frantically tried to squirm away. Second held the molested bot in his magical glow, at first I thought he was just keeping it from floating away for some reason, but after a few seconds in the glow the music stopped and the sprite-bot ceased trying to float away. He then announced that they were going to take a short break while he did some repairs and modifications.
Eventually the mole rat managed to escape Flower’s cuddling, having gotten a platonic taste of its own medicine, and disappeared down a hole in the earth. All the while, Hoof kept the magical glow on the floating robot while wearing a look of intense concentration.
I guess his special talent relates somehow to arcano-tech, letting him fix and adjust parts of the bot with just magic. That could fit with his story of being a merchant. The repair, modification, and resale of prewar tech can be a very lucrative position if you have the right clientele. I could never get into that market since I could barely turn on a terminal, much less fix one.
Hoof being a high end tech merchant would at least explain his Tenpony coiffure, just doesn’t explain why he’s in the middle of the eastern desert. Salvage maybe? Unlikely, since he didn’t take anything from the slowly flooding shelter other than Rock’s jury-rigged soup talisman. On the other hoof, I might have also passed on tech in a place built with no floor drainage and faucets that broke when you tried to turn them off too fast.
“The crazy rodent managed to make a dent in the dura-steel plating, and not with his claws!” Hoof exclaimed as he turned around the bot to look at the other side.
“A steady drip can break the strongest stone.” Rock quipped between markers.
Ah ha! I am getting through to… wait, I don’t think I ever said that. Great! This brings up a whole new problem. I’ve thought so many things at the yellow pony that I can’t even remember all that I said. So even if Flower repeats something that I’ve said, I might not even know it was from me or if it’s some random bit of wisdom from Flower’s own head.
Hoof just looked impressed by the unexpected pithy comment before shrugging and returning to his work.
“So where are we heading anyways?” Flower asked from a mouth full of marker.
Talking while holding something in your mouth is a skill that I think unicorns rarely appreciate. Sure, they laugh from some earth pony tries to talk and it comes out muffled, but I doubt they even notice when somepony pulls it off flawlessly. Foalson would tease that I had horn envy when I brought it up, but that’s not true at all!
“We’re heading for Camelton, the big city not far from here. We need to find more healing items, and fresh water.” Then he added with a glare “Since somepony used up all my stock.” When he noticed that he was glaring at Flower’s duster covered backside, he quickly refocused on the sprite bot. “Or if we can’t find any, we’ll need to look for things we can sell for caps.”
“Caps?” Flower asked puzzled. “Well I guess I could use a hat in this heat, but I’d rather one different than yours.” Then quickly added. “No offense.”
Hoof chuckled to himself as he worked. “No, I mean bottle caps.”
“Why would we want those?”
Please don’t tell her. It’s practically a rite of passage that a merchant tells somepony new to Equestria about caps only after they clean out any the new comer may have on them. Lesson 23 and all that.
“It’s the currency that we use here in Equestria.”
If I could face hoof still I would.
“I know it might sound weird, but that’s what near everypony uses now. I have no idea how it got that way, but there you have it.”
Oh, I know how it started, or at least a story I’ve heard that made the most sense.
Years before I started off as a traveling merchant, there was word of a big old pony shaped robot that would roll out of the Hoofington area. These days that alone would send up alarm bells in most ponies, but back then not much was known about that death trap. This thing was said to be like a giant four legged vending machine, but instead of giving out just Sparkle Cola or Sarsaparilla, it gave out just about anything for a few bits. You name it, guns, healing potions, cybernetic parts, canned apples, even soda. Where and it showed up each year was a closely guarded secret, shared among a group of ponies that made a fortune selling off the things they got from the robot for a handful of bits. These super merchants practically set the value of all things in Equestria for over a decade.
The problem was that bits were getting harder and harder to come by. Prewar ponies hoarded them in inaccessible vaults, the larger denominations were melted down for their silver and gold content, or even just made unusable by rusting from exposure to the wasteland. It soon got to a point where the bits were rarer than the items the super merchants were selling, so they needed to find a way to keep making profits.
Then one year, when the robot showed up again one of the merchants tried putting in various other round pieces of metal to try and trick it into thinking they were bits. To all their surprise, they found that the thing couldn’t tell the difference between a bottle cap and a bit. After discovering this, all of the super merchants started buying up all the bottle caps they could. Caps were worthless at the time and literally everywhere in the millions (and unlike bits, never seem to rust away). Quickly word spread that the super merchants were buying caps, although nopony knew why, so every lesser merchant across Equestria started collecting caps too.
Ponies would trade a pile of caps to a merchant for a can of apples. The merchant would take the sacks of caps he collected and trade it with the super merchants for a crate of canned apples. The super merchant would feed the barrels of caps they collected into the robot and get cart loads of canned apples crates. Everypony thought they were making out like thieves, getting something for worthless caps. It got to the point that everypony knew that every trader took in caps, regardless of what else they sold, and quickly a system of how many caps something is worth in a fair trade was set up among traders. Not many ponies at the time realized that the “worthless caps” was now the standard currency.
As for the super merchants, they just upped and disappeared. Some say they killed each other in a bitter rivalry, others say that they all retired to Tenpony after collecting more money than they could ever spend. Personally, I believe that they got greedy and followed the robot back into Hoofington to find out where its stock came from, and just like everypony that goes into the Hoof, they never returned.
“Hey Second. Would an insect be a better pet than a molerat?” Flower asked.
Fine. Just ignore my gripping tale of the history of the bottle cap as money. Just because you can’t hear me doesn’t…
“Well it sure would be easier to take care of, and smell better.” Second said with a grin, not looking away from the sprite-bot. He really should look away from it… like right now!
“Don’t worry, Sparky doesn’t smell.” Rock replied happily. How can you be so relaxed right now with…
“What?” Hoof said, FINALLY looking over at Rock. “Who’s Spark…”
He then saw the giant fire ant standing in front of the white Maned pony. The one that I didn’t even notice come into my circle of perception because I was droning on to myself about caps. If my killer gets killed by an ant due to my negligence, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my death!
“She’s way cooler and smarter than Mole-estia, and I know for sure that she’s a girl since male ants have wings.” Flower continued to draw happily while the giant ant skittered around. “Just don’t ask how I know that, it’s one of those things where I can’t remember the stuff. Just like how I somehow know that ants live in large colonies with many different kinds on ants, like various workers, warriors and the queen. Each group is physically different in some way to each other, but they never hurt or do bad things to each other for being different. Also, when ants are born they…”
Rock kept going on about ants while the giant fire breathing ant sniffed (or whatever it does with its antenna) around the yellow pony curiously. Although it was still giant for a normal ant, it appeared to be smaller than most of the giant ants you find in the wasteland. Most giant ants are nearly the size of an adult pony, but this one was not much bigger than a foal. Perhaps it’s a lost child ant, whatever a child ant is called (sounds like Rock would know).
Though, regardless of its size, it looks like Hoof wasn’t taking any chances. “That thing is very dangerous Rock. Back away from it slowly.” He floated out with his magic a large knife from is saddle bags and was slowly floating it towards the large insect.
That was a really bad idea Hoof. The thing is currently not aggressive, but stabbing it will quickly change that. Mutant insects are notoriously hard to kill by stabbing since they don’t bleed. So, unless you are skilled enough to lop off its head in the first strike, you’ll just end up with an enraged fire breathing creature flaming you both until you do enough damage to kill it. And just try holding a levitation spell while on fire…
Flower just snorted derisively. “Well of course it’s dangerous, it’s an ant, but we’re in no threat. She’s a blue box on my Sparkle thingy. Besides, she’s all alone, so she’s either a scout or lost. If she’s a scout then she will soon go back to the colony and tell the others that there are some nummy ponies here, but we would be long gone before she comes back with reinforcements. That is, unless we can take her with us? Can we, Please?”
“Stop talking and move back.” Hoof hissed in a low voice, moving the blade closer around the ant. He was clearly terrified, and while I commend his bravery in the face of his fears, this was still a VERY bad idea!
“No need to whisper, ants don’t have ears.” Rock stopped drawing to talk over a shoulder at Hoof with the same tone of voice a teacher talking to a slow student would use. “They ‘hear’ vibrations in the ground with their knees, and your heavy breathing is already loud enough for her. Just calm down. If she is lost, then she may be just as frightened as you are. As long as we don’t come across like a threat, she won’t attack two larger animals all on her own.”
Flower’s eyes then spotted the blue-gray glow around Second’s horn. “Oh, since you’re doing that magic thing, can you float out a can of apples for Sparky?”
“What?” Hoof asked incredulously, a bead of sweat dripping down the side of his face. His eyes then widened slightly, like he just had an idea. If it’s anything like his ‘stab the fire breathing ant’ idea, it won’t end well. “No, get it yourself. It’s your ant.”
Flower frowned at this, but then what must have been the realization that Hoof said ‘your ant’ lit up the stable pony’s face. “Wait right there Sparky, I’ll get you some yummies.” Flower said in almost baby talk and trotted over to the bags.
Hoof took this moment to be very stupid.
The large knife magically dove down into the ant’s midsection, pinning it to the hard ground. The insect started to let out a horrible shriek, but suddenly went silent as a massive jet of flame shot out in the direction of Rock, who Hoof mistakenly figured was out of range.
Damn it! Didn’t I tell you this would happen!
Flower screamed in terror as the old duster ignited.
In an instant Rock was airborne, surrounded in Hoof’s magic glow as the unicorn frantically tried to separate the flaming duster from its flailing owner. With his full concentration focused on saving his companion from burning, he must have momentarily forgotten about the irate impaled insect which now targeted him.
The ant’s second fiery blast didn’t fully reach Second, but the sudden intense heat and light must have shocked him enough that his magic around Rock disappeared. I told you that you can’t do telekinesis while on fire!!
Quickly getting back on all fours, Flower managed to tear off the burning remains of the duster and stomped it out with a hoof, making sure to be well clear of the pinned fire ant.
Hoof had also staggered out of the range of the insect and was levitating out a healing potion from his saddle. The hair on his front legs were partly burnt off and painful looking blisters were already forming. He barely drank more than a sip of the healing elixir when Flower ran over and snatched it out of his magic grip with a hoof.
Hoof suddenly looked abashed. “I’m sorry Rock, I should have checked if you needed it first. Where are you most…” The unicorn’s words died in his mouth as he watched Flower, now only wearing a snug Stable 86 jump suit, trot around the back of the frantic ant and pour the remaining healing potion on it.
Wow. Words fail me too.
At least the sudden healing either calmed or surprised the ant enough to stop breathing fire everywhere. Yet Flower kind of forgot to take the knife out first…
Realizing this a moment later, Rock grabbed a mouthful of knife handle and quickly jerked it upwards. This action removed the knife from the ground, but it was still firmly embedded in the ant.
Finally free from being nailed in place, the miniature giant red fire ant wriggled free of Rock’s grasp. It then quickly, and rather silently, scurried off into the desert. It seemed oblivious that it still had a large knife sticking out of it, and the knife didn’t seem to be doing it any harm being there, a side effect of the healing potion I guess.
“What in the wild wasteland did you do that for!?”
Sounds like Hoof is finally over his shock.
“That was our last healing potion! … and my expensive new knife!” He yelled while marching over to the yellow pony.
“She needed it more than we did.” Rock answered defiantly, looking right into his eyes.
“WHAT?!” Hoof bellowed. “How can you say that two ponies are less of a priority than some mutant freak insect that…” He was suddenly cut off by a hoof slapping his face
“She wasn’t a freak!” Rock screamed, suddenly on the verge of tears.
That outburst drained the fight from Hoof faster than the slap did. Attacking the ant may have been very stupid, but at least he has enough sense to realize that for Rock this was about more than just an ant.
He took a deep breath, took a step back, and composed himself. “I’m sorry. All I meant to say was, how long do you think an ant can survive in the wasteland with a knife sticking out of it?”
“Well…” Flower started with a sniffle, clearly relieved by the change of subject. “Their growth is increased 100 times, so perhaps their life span is too.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Second said rolling his eyes, then looked back to Flower. “With that knife stuck in it like…” his words trailed off as his eyes went wide.
Considering that the yellow pony was now only dressed in a jumpsuit, I wonder if Hoof just noticed Rock’s little secret...
Second’s hoof shot forwards and pointed at a bulge between Flower’s legs, clearly defined against the snug jumpsuit. “H…how… what… but that’s…” he sputtered. “A member!?” he finally spit out in disbelief.
“What?” The stable pony answered back confused.
The unicorn’s horn glowed, and then the corresponding glow shone faintly under the area of the jumpsuit surrounding the offending protuberance.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Rock protested, trying to cross one leg over the other.
Then with a sudden magical tug upwards, Hoof pulled up from between Flower’s front legs and out of the neck of the jumpsuit an odd looking medallion attached by a long chain.
“How are you a member of the Four Hooves group?” Second asked in disbelief while staring intently at the piece of jewelry.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees…
The pendant looked like four small interlocking old fashion horseshoes. Two were made of a pinkish metal and the other two were white metal. Each had colored gemstones where the nails would traditionally go. Kind of disturbing to think that ponies had to nail their shoes to their hooves long ago, whoever invented the boot must have made a fortune!
“Not just any member.” Hoof said, his eyes going wider. “This is a founding member’s medallion!”
“I had it on me when I lost my memory, I don’t remember where I got that necklace.” Flower said in an anxious tone. “What is it?”
“It’s a medallion of the Four Hooves group. It was a volunteer run prewar organization. I guess the best way to describe them would be like the Ministry Of Morale if they actually did what the title implied. It was founded by four friends, from four major pony cities, and representing the four types of ponies earth pony, pegasus, alicorn, and unicorn.”
While Second held up the pendant and rambled excitedly about a group that I’ve never even heard of, Flower backed out of the necklace and trotted over to the remains of the duster. Holding up the large coat with a hoof, it was clear to see that it was now more burnt holes than covering garment. The odd red gun tumbled from a burnt out pocket unscathed, nice to know my murder weapon was still intact…
No, I shouldn’t think like that. It was an accident, Rock didn’t know I was there and still doesn’t even know about causing my demise. Focusing on bitter thoughts will likely turn me into one of those nasty vengeful spirits you hear about in ghost stories.
“… and baseball games.” Oh, Second was still going on about that group. “In short, they had a hoof in most day to day elements of pony life that didn’t involve the war. The driving philosophy behind the group was ‘many hooves make light work’, and that brings us back to your medallion.”
By now Flower had brought the red pistol and what was left of the duster over to Second’s saddle bags, which were resting near the hovering spritebot, and placed them into a side pocket. Slipping them on, the slender yellow pony managed with a bit of struggling to lift the bags just as Second looked away from the pendant.
“Umm, those are my bags, I can carry them."
“Your legs got burnt. I’ll carry it for a while.” Flower said with a small grunt of discomfort and walked over to the stallion. “You were saying something about many hooves?”
“Oh, right.” Second said preparing to go back into his impromptu history lesson, and then he smiled as his eyes lit up. “Yes, exactly! Well, the general volunteers of the group all wore silver pins or pendants of the Four Hooves emblem while the higher up organizers and supervisors had them made out of gold. Only the four founding members had medallions of the logo made from colored metal and embedded with gemstones, just like the one you have. Although it’s a bit of a mystery how you came to have one…”
I’ve come across a couple of those silver brooches in my travels but I never knew that they were associated with a prewar group. Live and learn, or just learn in my case I guess…
After thinking a moment, Hoof continued. “You see, the three known founders died either during the war and were buried with their medallion, or when the mega-spells hit and they had it on them at the time. There’s no record of who the alicorn founding member was, but it was presumably one of the princesses and they both died in Canterlot. Although, there is the theory that the alicorn member was just symbolic and some regular pony held the position. This resolves the contradictions that arise from it being Luna or Celestia, but conflicts with some other sources…”
He seems to know just as much about these 100 year dead ponies as Flower does about ants. They may not look or act like it, but I guess both of them are eggheads in their own ways. I’ve always been a ‘learn by experience’ type of pony myself, there’s too much to learn about the current world to be spending time in a book about the old one.
Second was lost in thought again before snapping out of it and looked to Flower with a smile. “Sorry, I was getting off topic. So, everything clear now?”
Rock returned the smile and happily said “Not a thing!”
“Well that’s good to… huh?” The stallion did a double take. I didn’t think anypony actually did that. “What do you mean? What part didn’t make sense?”
“Well, most all of it.” Flower shrugged. “You mentioned something about a war, about minsters, a cloud’s tail, and a bunch more things that I’ve never heard of or forgotten. Only thing that I think I recognized was baseball, that’s some kind of game played with diamonds or something like that?”
Second looked dumbfounded for a moment then face-hoofed. “I’m sorry Rock, I forgot about your memory loss. First off, the word was ministries not minsters and Cloudsdale not a cloud’s tail, you’re right enough though about baseball I guess. As for the war, I’ll have to back up about 150 years to explain the whole mess, but first…”
He trotted back over to the sprite bot and grabbed it in his magical glow. In a moment the robot’s wings stopped fluttering and folded themselves against the metal body as it briefly dropped out of the air, now only supported by Hoof’s telekinesis. The self-proclaimed merchant with a freakish knowledge of prewar history floated the bot over to Rock and stuffed it into one of the saddlebags, eliciting a wince from the pony.
“Are you ok?” Second asked concerned. “You never did say if you got burnt.”
“I’m fine, Sparky just got my duster.” Flower forced a smile. “Umm, theses bags are just a bit heavy.”
“I appreciate you helping to share the load, but if they’re too much I could carry them. My legs were mostly healed from the sip of potion that I did get.”
“No no, I can manage it.” Flower said hastily, then pointing a hoof towards the tall buildings in the distance. “So, we’re heading that way?”
“Yup, and I’ll get you up to speed about Equestrian history on our way. It all started off with coal…” Second began with an optimistic tone.
Well, at least this will be better than walking in silence.
~~~***~~~
Oh how I miss the silence!
Aside for brief pit-stop where Hoof had some business to attend to behind a rock, thankfully out of my circle of perception, the past several hours was one long history lesson.
He just kept going on and on! Most of it was common knowledge to any educated wastelander, things like the cause of the war, Luna taking over with the ministries, the assassination attempt, and the day the mega spells hit. Yet he also kept going off on tangents with pointless extra trivia, like how one of Pinkie’s sisters had a big mining operation in the mounts out west. How does he know all this stuff, and who cares? The only thing that seemed to be lacking from his overly comprehensive lesson was any mention of the O.I.A.
“So, this place didn’t look like this originally?” Flower said looking up at the tall weather-beaten skyscrapers of Camelton.
“No, hundred years ago this was a lively major city, the area around was all green plains, and the sky was a cloudless blue most of the time. Hopefully we can find some prewar photos so you could see how beautiful Equestria use to be.” Hoof then added in an oddly frustrated tone. “Would be easier if you could view memory orbs…”
“What’s that?” Flower asked.
“Oh, just a thing that lets unicorns see the recorded memories of other ponies.” Second said hastily with a wave of his hoof. “Mostly prewar stuff, but since you’re not a unicorn it would be useless to you.” There was a clear tint of annoyance in his voice. Was it because of the limitations of memory orbs, or that Flower wasn't a unicorn?
“No. I mean what’s that?” Flower pointed a hoof towards a massive brown and black blurry shape just past the point where things look clear to me.
Then the huge shape moved and let out a low growl.
Hoof’s eyes went wide and he whispered urgently “Hide!”
They both darted for cover behind a large slab of building that was lying in the street. This brought them close enough that I could make out that the creature was facing away and luckily didn’t notice either of them yet.
“That’s a bear!” Second whispered, a hint of panic in his voice as they peered over the edge of the debris.
“That name seems to fit, but I get the feeling that it should be smaller.” Flower said casually, like a nine meter long bear was just a curiosity and no cause for alarm.
“They are normally much smaller. This one is freakishly huge! They are normally around three or… Wait.” Second cut himself off and stared out towards the massive bear. “I think it’s after somepony! I saw something blue move briefly in the shadows.”
“So bears eat ponies?”
“Yes. At least, sometimes when they are hungry enough, most times they avoid them. The ghoulified yao guai don’t need to eat, but this isn’t one of those.” Hoof then paused, a look of resolve forming on his face. “We need to help them.”
“Given the size, I don’t think the bear would need any help eating a pony.” Flower said with a shrug.
The stallion face-hoofed. “I mean help the pony.”
“Why?” Rock asked matter-of-factly.
Second just stared at the white maned pony for a moment like he was just slapped in the face. “What do you mean ‘Why?’?!” he whispered exasperatedly.
“You said that bears eat ponies when they are really hungry, so if that bear can’t eat that pony it may starve.” Flower explained calmly. “So it’s one life for another. Why should we endanger the bear’s life to protect the pony’s? Shouldn’t life be equal?”
Second dragged a hoof across his face in disbelief of what Rock was saying. I was finding it hard to believe it myself, I wasn’t sure if it was naïveté or disturbingly pragmatic. “Ponies help each other!” He said in a frustrated tone. “So we need to help that pony. That makes it three pony lives at stake over one bear’s. Good of the many and all that.”
“You sure ponies help each other?” Flower asked skeptically. “That doesn’t feel correct to me.”
“Yes!” Hoof hissed, and then let out a defeated sigh. “Actually, no. Most ponies these days don’t help each other, they only look after themselves and would just as likely kill another pony for no reason…” The dark olive stallion then lifted a hoof and his voice was filled with determination. “But we need to do better than that or else this world will still be a wasteland a century from now! You need to set an example of how a pony should be!”
Rock sat down behind the chunk of office building, clearly mulling over Second’s words. He sure had a point about ponies needing to work together. All the settlements that I networked together through trade survived much better than the ones that insisted on ‘going it alone’. Though, Hoof could tone down the melodrama a bit…
“We need a way to draw that giant bear away from where that pony is hiding…” Second muttered peering back over the rubble at the massive beast. “Have any ideas Rock?”
The yellow pony was still lost in though and didn’t even look up.
“Rock?” Hoof asked again, looking back at his contemplative companion.
“Rock!” The unicorn yelled as quietly as he probably dared.
“What? Oh, sorry.” Flower said suddenly coming to attention and looking about, then picked up a large stone with a hoof “Here’s one!”
Before Second realized what Flower was doing, or me for that matter, the thin stable dweller hurled the stone at the over-sized bear.
It connected with a resounding thud were the blurry shape of its head was. Rather impressive throw…
The beast whirled around with an earth shaking roar and looked in the direction the projectile came in.
“Ok, we drew its attention away.” Rock said standing in clear view behind the rubble. “Now what?”
“RUN!” Second screamed as the bear spotted its yellow and white assailant and began to charge!
-----
This fan-fic is just part of a larger story...
-Hear another side of the larger narrative with Fallout Equestria: Sounds
-See the bigger picture, take a look at Fallout Equestria: Sights.
-Follow the progress of all three tales at the Sights Sounds Souls Tumblr (and ask Colt questions).
-Track all the parts in one place at the Project Hub!
Author note:
Third part! I think I just heard someone scream in frustration at this chapter.. :D Things are really starting to move now, and major action and surprises are just around the corner! Speical thanks to WirePony for coming up with the molerat/sprite-bot idea, and a friendly hobo for the use of his ant! ^_^
Huge thanks to all my editors!
My Souls editors Nyerguds and Hidden_Fortune, without whom this fic would be 20% lamer.
My Sights editor Julep, who keeps all the pictures nice and derp free!
My Sounds editor No One, whose constant encouragement is what got this insanity off the ground to begin with (and for making FoE: Heroes the best Fallout Equestria side fic ever)!
And super thanks to Kkat for making this wild wasteland we all play in!
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Also seriously? How could Second not know about that tradition?
Right. Analysis. A variation on the Animal Friend perk that works on insects? Second was obviously an idiot for not just leaving it alone when it wasn't attacking. I'm almost surprised he isn't a Stable Dweller himself. It also appears that, while snug, the jumpsuit is not snug enough to make whatever mutation she has readily visible without prolonged inspection. It's pretty obvious between this one and last one that while she hasn't retained memories, she has retained emotions about certain subjects. I seriously hope that what was implied in the previous chapter, and what we all suspect, is not true.
Also, I never did thank you for clearing up that bit of confusion regarding the Pip-buck and journals.
Has Second's mark been revealed? I don't remember...
1269714"Member..."
Hey, I had that joke stuck in my head for the past 5 months,so I feel bad enough as it is.
"How could Second not know about that tradition?"
What tradition?
"A variation on the Animal Friend perk that works on insects?"
Or it could be an unusually friendly ant. Although Zest is no Queen Daisy...
"she has retained emotions about certain subjects."
I'm following along the side effects of memory modification that were established in Project Horizons, although a little different due to story related complications.
"I seriously hope that what was implied in the previous chapter, and what we all suspect, is not true."
What is implied may not be what you suspect, but then it might be exactly what you suspect, it all depends n what you suspect I suspect.
"Has Second's mark been revealed? I don't remember..."
Nope, It dosen't come up until Souls 1-5 (it's been covered by his trader outfit so far). It's not really much of a story issue though...
1275435
"What tradition?"
Of separating the new guy from ALL TEH CAPS
"Zest"
I thought we were keeping the names separate between fics...
"convoluted"
But I didn't. I only knew that you'd know that I knew. Don't you think? [/moviereference]
“What in the wild wasteland did you do that for!?”
Hahaa... sneaky reference to the infamous trait.
(and yay Knife Ant reference!)
Woah, looks like I missed a few errors when prereading this. Time for Round Two, I guess.
(I better go reread part 4 before you publish it, to see if missed more there)
> in front of the white manned pony
"Maned".
> Flower backed out of necklace
Seems like a word is missing between "of" and "necklace"
> the limitations of memory orb
orbs
Oh, and in the editors part...
> whose constant encouragement is what got this insanitary off the ground to begin with
...insanitary? I do hope you mean "insanity"
1275984 "Of separating the new guy from ALL TEH CAPS"
Well given Clutch's real background, it's not all that surprising...
"I thought we were keeping the names separate between fics..."
With all the names and aliases I have in this story (most not even published yet), I tend to stick with the character's "real" name to avoid confusing myself
1280978
"...insanitary? I do hope you mean "insanity" "
Well it's a dirty job but some one has to do it...
Thanks for the corrections, all fixed.
1282779
Actually, that was about the part No One did
1284202
If no one did it, why assign blame?
1289442 Irrelevant. The blame was on the one who wrote the accreditation, and that's still Moth
(The blame WOULD be on me as prereader, if not for the fact he never included that part in the drafts)
I love how this chapter led right into Sounds. This was a pretty good chapter, I found it fun. So you must be doing something right! Good job so far, can't wait to read more! Keep up the fantastic work!