Set in a post apocalyptic AU, this story follows the adventures of a young buck named Silver Lining and his quest to be a better stallion
Assassination, war, and a whole lot of cloak and dagger covert missions, all in and around Baltimare after the Great War. Set in the same universe as Fallout Equestria. A young buck named Silver Lining gets caught up in a conflict he never even knew existed.
Author's note: I'm more than open to constructive criticism, so feel free to leave any and all comments. All I ask is that you don't start any arguments there, and if you do, then take them to your private messages. I'll leave all comments as they are unless that one rule is broken.
Be warned in advance that if this gets enough publicity, there may be spoilers in the comments.
Most ponies start a story with some witty, bullshit opening line. I always thought it was just some way for them to sound smart. I'm not claiming to be smart, educated maybe, but not smarter than anypony else in the wasteland. Actually, the only reason I ever was educated was because I was the son of a slaver. I can't even say was, I'm still his son, even if he's dead now. Sorry, guess that's something of a spoiler. Don't worry, that's pretty early on anyway.
Point being, everything that made me the buck I am today came on the backs of countless slaves and their suffering. And if you ask me, it was wasted on me. It shoulda gone to my brother, or any one of those slaves that was tortured, or hell, just any other pony. Somepony who could have been redeemed. But me? With all the evil shit I've been party to, and all the evil shit done to help me, I know I'm beyond redemption and always will be. I can try all I want to be a better pony, to help others, to try to destroy what made me who I am. But no matter what, the innocent blood will always be on my hooves. Sure, not only on my hooves. But just because I'm not alone doesn't mean that it's any better.
To properly start my story, there's a few background details you should know about me. I'm Silver Lining, son of Chrome Lining and Lily. Chrome Lining is my father, he's a hard ass slaver through and through. My mother, Lily, was his personal slave and eventually, wife. She was a classic bleeding heart, not that it's a bad thing to be. But when I was still a foal, she ran off with my older brother Lead Lining after learning how to pick the lock on the explosive collars worn by all slaves.
I grew up in a slave settlement known as Northpass, named such because it's the one settlement in the northernmost part of the Baltimare region that acts as a sort of passage through the mountains to Manehatten. It lets us have control over a good bit of the trading into Baltimare and the surrounding area. Smart move for the founder, or it would be if seafaring ponies weren't still a thing. Still, those are few and far between, and they charge their own, much higher premiums for safe travel to the ports. That being said, we were basically stuck in a canyon doing fuckall to keep the area safe. We had slaves, sold a ton to Red Eye up north, and used the rest to mine for metals and gems. Some of that metal could be sold as is to traders, namely gold, silver, and copper. The rest went to arming us and arming our roaming slavers. Guns, swords, bludgeons, and any weapon we could make, which netted us a healthy profit and afforded us the ability to actually hire teachers, doctors and other skilled labor. Ponies tend to work better for pay than just at the threat of violence. Little more carrot, little less stick, that sort of shit. Obviously when the carrot didn't work, they got the stick (or in this case, whip).
But me? I was some dipshit blank flank. Sure, I knew weapons, trading, and slaving, but that was it. And even though I knew weapons, I was still shit using most of em. Sure, I could strip and clean any gun you handed me and sharpen any blade, but making me use any of em would probably end bad for me.
And at the time, I had a bit of a skewed view on slavery. I genuinely believed we'd be doing them a favor. To me, food and shelter for work seemed like an even trade. Some ponies would still agree with that sentiment, and others would call anyone who thought it an irredeemable bastard. Ponies like me, as I sit now, would believe the latter. But back then, you'd hear me calling any slaves trying to escape "a bunch of ingrates who should be shot"
I'm sure you're tired of hearing about me though. But suck it up, this whole goddess damned story is about me and I plan to tell it right. So sit the fuck down, pull up a few Sparkle Colas or beers or whatever the fuck you plan on drinking, grab some snacks and get ready for a wild mother fucking ride.
Chapter 1 - The Beginning. "Thank you, Diamond Tiara, that was... nice. I'm not sure that you understand the definition of 'tragic hero' but you certainly are... passionate."
"Silver! Wake up!" my dad yelled at me before tossing me off of my bed. I hit the ground on my right side, my purple mane falling limply over my face. My father, Chrome Lining, in all his glory. A white coat riddled with scars and burns from years in the wastes. I stood up as fast as I could.
"Yes sir!" I replied with practiced vigor, saluting him properly.
"It's your first day of work, and as such I'm giving you your issued gear. One set of barding, and one.30 caliber rifle complete with twenty rounds of ammunition. You'll find them both in your wardrobe along with a present from a dead slave." He looked me over, as though to inspect my physical condition. "Get to it boy!" he barked. And I rushed to my wardrobe. Sure enough, the gear was all there, and on top of my leather barding was a pip-buck.
Side note: a pip buck is a forehoof mounted computing machine with several useful features for organization and combat. With its automatic sorting spell I'd know exactly what I had on me, and it would display an item's value in caps. Not to mention the combat portion, also known as S.A.T.S, or Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, which should be self-explanatory, and The E.F.S. or Eyes Forward Sparkle, which acted as a means of direction as well as a target acquisition system. When I turned on the device, a stream of data went across my vision until a light blue buck gave me a smiley face to indicate the setup was finished.
Once that was all set, I put on my leather barding. It was a tight fit, but I had no doubt it would serve me well against any vermin or melee attacks. It probably wouldn't stand up too well to gunfire or magical energy weapons, but those were few and far between out here. The rifle looked brand new out of the assembly line, probably because it was. The blued steel had a slight sheen to it and the springs were still tight. That could be a good or bad thing in practice. However, being a unicorn, it would be much easier for me than an earth pony. The clip (and yes, I do mean clip) fit into the slot tightly. I pushed ten of my twenty rounds down into the magazine (see, I know what I'm talking about) and let the bolt assembly fly home. As it did, I could smell the faintest hint of lubrication oil, something I'd become all too familiar with.
I left for the main room of our home, which doubled as a kitchen, to receive my inspection from my father. "So, did I put everything on right?" I asked, in truth, I knew my barding was okay, and the rifle was flawless, but I still needed his approval to leave.
"Let me look you over." He pulled on the various straps that held the padding in place, checked my rifle over, and pulled the bolt back partway to make sure I had a round primed. "Only one thing wrong, and it's one of the most important. You left your gun's safety on." he let his hard face fall for a moment. "Overall, not bad for your first day on the job." his fatherly face flew from his face, and his leader's face resumed in its place. "Now, today your duty is simple. All you are doing is sitting in the southwest tower and watching a satyr camp that was raised a week ago. Hollow Point will be your supervisor for today, and he will be explaining what your job entails." he said.
"Yes, sir! Where am I supposed to meet him?"
"He will be at the market in four minutes. Now that you've got that fancy Pip Buck, how about you use it to get there as fast as you can?" his words were almost phrased like he was trying to play a game. Of course, I knew this was no game. If anything, this was half order and half test. I had to either make it to the marketplace in time or be left behind and punished for not attending my post.
"Thank you sir, and I'll be sure to make it with time to spare!" I yelled, racing out the door and into the Northpass streets.
The air outside smelled of charcoal burning, gunpowder, blood, and lead. A familiar smell in a settlement designed to manufacture weapons on the backs of slaves. The smoke was coming from the forge sitting on the top of the western hill, below it was the slave quarters, and to the east of those was the marketplace. All along the streets, there were shacks and homes made in an infinitely better quality than the slave quarters. Sure, it was aways, but no more than a six-minute trot from my house. I, of course, was in a full gallop, so I would probably make it in three.
Would, if I hadn't tripped over somepony who'd passed out drunk the night before. A dark green unicorn buck with a blonde mane. He groggily woke up, shook his head and started to yell at me, until he saw who he was going to be yelling at. "I'm sorry sir, please don't report me to your father." I was used to this sort of treatment, but now I was bleeding from the muzzle.
"It's alright. I should have been watching where I was running." I stood up and extended a hoof. Only to be slammed to the ground and drug into an alley. The scoundrel pressed a knife to my throat and in a hushed voice.
"I know you don't know me, but you have to trust me. If you call for help, I'll have no choice but to slit your well-groomed throat." What an excellent way to inspire trust, and on such a perfect day.
"Fine. What do you want? Money? Guns? My barding?" I replied in the same hushed tone.
"I want you to come to meet our mom. You've only got three options brother. Come and lead me out the gates, have me knock you out and drag you with me through the sewers, or get your throat opened." And with that, I had so many questions.
"Only if you can answer my questions first. Deal?" I put on the most shit-eating grin anypony had ever put on.
"One question, yes, your mother, Lily is still alive."
"And I didn't even get to ask. My question was going to be, how do I know you're telling the truth?" to be fair, that was a close second. But I felt that mine was slightly more pressing. The buck passed me a scrap of paper with a picture attached. The image was of my mother and a young colt who looked quite a bit like the buck standing in front of me. The mare having aged a fair bit since the one my father kept in his room, but it was definitely one of her. The note read "Silver Lining,
I doubt very much that you'd remember me, but I am your mother. If you'd like to learn more about the effects of slavery, and how we can end it, go with your brother Lead, and he'll lead you to me.
Love,
Mom"
In all reality, it proved nothing more than that he had a picture of my mom and that he knew her at one point. I pondered the possibilities. On one hoof, he could be a buck who'd made some lucky guesses, on the other, he might really know where my mom was, and if that was the case, then he'd be my only lead to finding her. Now I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I would either be held hostage or find my mother.
Goddesses damn me, I had to know. "Fine, You're coming with me through the gate. Just keep a low profile, and say nothing to anypony. Got it Lead?" I kept the shit-eating grin going to keep up appearances. Inside, I was fucking terrified.
"Sure thing, but that won't be a problem for me." he pulled a cloak from under some rubble and trash and threw it over himself. When he pulled the hood over his head, he vanished entirely.
"I don't know what the hell that is but keep it up till we're out of range," I said, and to anypony else, it would have looked like I was talking to myself.
I calmly strode through NorthPass, now paranoid because of the knife-wielding, invisible pony following me and what could happen if he was caught and telling the truth. Anypony not privy to what was going on would assume he was an assassin here to kill me for some faction and to deliver a severe blow to morale.
'Focus Silver' I thought. If this was going to work, then I needed a clear head. Or at least not an overtly cloudy one. All I needed to do was not be seen by Hollow Point or my father. Two ponies out of a few hundred. Should be easy right?
But of course, nothing could ever be easy.
"BOY!" my father yelled from across the marketplace. And with one word, I could feel my butthole clench tighter than a radgator jaw. I faked a grimace and under my breath said "Not a goddess damn move."
"Yes sir! I know I'm late, there's a dead slave a couple of streets over that I tripped over!" I pointed to my muzzle.
As he got closer, through clenched jaws, he growled: "Get moving, NOW!" I booked it at full gallop to the main gate.
Once we were out of view of the gates and towers, Lead took off his hood and became visible again.
"So, that went well. You ready to learn the truth?" Lead reached into the pocket of his cloak and grabbed a syringe full of a clear liquid and removed the cap. "Sorry, but you're gonna need this, it's just the protocol with new members." After which he jammed it into my neck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End of Chapter 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ S:5 P:5 E:5 C:7 I:5 A:5 L:8 Traits: Trigger discipline- You learned how to shoot as a young buck, with semi-automatic weapons you shoot 20% slower, but with 20% better accuracy Heavy hooved: Your melee and unarmed attacks do more damage, but less on criticals
Chapter 2- Familial Troubles "Why of all the... This is your sister Applejack, remember? The loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies?"
After waking up from Celestia knows what drug that was, I found myself blindfolded and bound by ropes. If I had to guess, I'd say that wherever I was, I was close to the sea. I could hear the waves lapping against the shoreline, smell the salt in the air, and feel the sand on my underside. I cleared my throat, hoping somepony was close enough to notice. Unfortunately for whoever decided to tie me up, I was a unicorn, and unicorns had magic.
After undoing the blindfold and the ropes around my hooves, I started looking around. To my surprise, I found myself just outside of a village on an island that looked like it had been entirely untouched by the war.I could not, however, find any of my supplies, including my PipBuck. I guessed they'd been taken in case I turned out hostile, or because they planned to kill me. In the village, I could see the dancing light from a fire. However, given the lack of screaming, I had to assume it was a campfire or bonfire. Rather than blindly trotting in, I got as low to the ground as I could and snuck my way in. I didn't want to come off as hostile, but at the same time, how was I supposed to know whether this was my mom's village or just some random one I was put into?
As I got closer to the middle of town, I could hear singing and celebrations going on. I could also faintly hear hoofsteps coming in my direction. While looking around for some sort of cover, I saw an open window to somepony's hut and jumped in.
Unfortunately, the hut was occupied. However, the mare inside didn't scream or even say anything. The mare inside just sort of looked at me for a bit.
"Uh, hi. I'm Silver, nice to meet you." I said, reaching out a hoof.
The light green mare blinked a couple of times, "Um, nice to meet you too. My name's Algae Bloom. Any reason you're sneaking through ponies' homes?" She said, apparently confused.
"I'm sorta new in town. Not sure if everypony is friendly or not. " though this encounter made me feel more at ease about that. "I'm looking for somepony named Lily, do you know where I could find her?"
"Oh her? Yeah, she's at the Medical building, it gets a little busier than usual during the Festival of the Fish" festival of what?
"Festival of what?"
"The fish! It's our primary food source, and since this is the time of year when they migrate back to the island, it only fits that we celebrate their return!" I still wasn't sure what a fish was, but I had to guess it was some kind of meat. While I'm not opposed to eating meat, I don't think I could handle it as my go-to for food.
"Right, well, is there any chance you could show me around?" I asked.
"Well, my foal is sick in bed right now. But it's super close by. Actually, if you take a left out of my front door, as opposed to the window, it'll be a straight shot. And don't worry, we're all friendly here!" And there goes my paranoia alarm again. In my experience, anypony who needs to clarify that they're friendly usually isn't. But, if mom really lived here, I couldn't see any reason they'd be unfriendly. Algae opened her door and I sauntered out.
Of course, once she closed it again, I went back to sneaking. Before realizing I had E.F.S. And that showed me whether or not anypony was outwardly hostile. Not exactly sure if it meant they were friendly, but it'd sure as shit tell me if they had murderous intent.
Being much closer now, I could more clearly hear the singing and musical accompaniment.
Not a bad tune honestly, but I had to focus on finding my mother. Or my brother Lead Lining, who I could see about two meters away and directly in front of me. Because of course he was, it was a little harder to tell it was him on account of the armor he was wearing now. It was all metal plates woven together like dragon scales. It looked like it was shimmering in the light of the bonfire, which was fucking massive up close. He was on the outer rim of the party. But as I approached him, he lit up more in the facial area. Seeing me alive was enough to make him happy.
"Hey bro, good to see you up and about." he said before giving me the most uncomfortable hug I'd ever gotten. "I bet you're looking for mom." Not like that was the whole reason I'd come here. Wait, could I even call it that if I was knocked out and dragged here?
"Yeah, where is she? I'm dying to meet her finally."
"She's over at the medical building, bet you didn't guess our mom's a doctor." Well, he wasn't wrong, but I didn't really guess anything about her. I was still sort of paranoid about the whole situation. He lead the way to the medical tent, which was surprisingly the most substantial structure that I could see as I followed a little ways behind. Just in case.
All around us, ponies were dancing and singing and celebrating. I had to guess that any harvest festival would be that way, given that in the old world, the most prominent holidays were based around changing seasons. And since this was the season for fish around here, and that was their number one food source, it just sort of made sense that they'd all be celebrating. The whole thing still creeped me out a little. I guess it was just the fact I'd never seen so many ponies happy before.
Back at Northpass, everything was always business first. The only celebrations I'd ever seen were limited to the bar, and that wasn't so much a celebration as just ponies getting drunk and not passing out. I guess it was more or less a personal issue that I continually struggled with. But honestly, the idea that this was a place free from the effects of the war left a good feeling with me. I couldn't accurately describe it, but I felt like things could be okay. If there was no war, that meant that there was enough to go around, and if there was enough to go around, then that meant there'd be no fighting. I mean, how fucking awesome would that be? Because without struggle, it would mean that we could reestablish legitimate government and-
Wait, was I already getting worked up about being a part of this? They hadn't even said I could. I was just assuming that I could be a part of this, albeit strange, but beautiful society. I assumed that I could insert myself in a culture I had no right to be a part of.
It was then that I realized I hadn't been paying attention to Lead at all. "Sorry, what were you saying?" I asked, now feeling like a dumbass.
"Oh, actually I hadn't said anything. Why? Were you zoning out there?" he chuckled. "It's all good little bro. I know this has gotta be overwhelming." I wouldn't exactly call it that, but it was, just... amazing. No, in truth, overwhelming worked, but in the best possible sense of the word. Then I turned to face forward, and there she was. My mother. Now a greyed mare, helping hurt, sick and elderly ponies keep on their hooves. She looked just like I had imagined the stories of Mage Meadowbrook. My heart skipped a beat, my father the slaver, my mother the healer. How in the hell did this happen?
I slowly trotted up to her, now feeling quite a bit more at ease. This was definitely my mother, now freed from any life threatening bondage. She was happy to be helping these ponies, even if it was a hard job, both physically and emotionally, she was happy to do it. She was busy though, mixing herbs and clearly hoofmade potions together and feeding them to the sick and hurting ponies here, not that there were many, just that she was doing it quickly so she could check on everypony else. From the looks of it, she was the only healer here. Or at least the only one willing to work through this festival thing.
"Ma! You've got a visitor!" my older brother yelled. She turned to look at me, her eyes meeting mine.
"Silver? Is that really you?" she had a bit of an accent that I couldn't place, but that I'd heard before from tribal slaves. I nodded my head dumbly, unable to actually say anything.
She hurried over to me and threw her hooves around my neck, not in a violent choking way, but in a hug. Granted, most ponies would probably expect their own mother to hug them, but being raised as a slaver, I couldn't say I had expected it. I threw one hoof over her in return, trying to return the gesture while maintaining my balance.
I wasn't sure I could call this home, but it was a damn good start.
"I must admit the city noise took some getting used to. Where I'm from, nights are so quiet you seldom hear a peep until the roosters wake you."
After some quick introductions, or re-introductions really, Mom had to get back to work. Lead offered to let me sleep in his home until I was on my hooves here. I wasn't exactly tired, but I took him up on his offer.
"I gotta ask Lead, and don't let me sound ungrateful, where is my equipment? It's kind of all I've got in the world. Other than you two now." he looked at me and grimaced.
"The uh, mayor asked me to lock it in the town hall. You gotta understand that it's nothing personal, but she also knew you're from a slaver camp and that made her uneasy. I told her you came here voluntarily, buuuut that didn't help matters any. I'm sure she'll wanna talk to you first thing in the morning." He rubbed a hoof on the back of his head, "I'm willing to trust ya, but some of the other ponies aren't, least of all with a gun and armor."
"That's fair, other than Mom and you, I can't exactly say I trust them. And it's more or less for the same reason, you know how Dad is. He raised me to be paranoid just like him. Thank Luna most of those lessons didn't stick. But the paranoia sure did." I looked down, "The ponies I've met here have been nothing but kind, and all I can do is distrust them. What the fuck?" I shook my head.
"Hey, that's okay, It's a whole new place, filled with ponies you've never met, and you were brainwashed by Dad. I wouldn't tell anypony else that last part, but the other two are understandable to anypony here." Lead sounded empathetic, not pitying, but like he genuinely understood what I was feeling at that moment. I felt something in my chest, like a tightness had been made loose. I felt understood, loved, and cared about. I hadn't conciously been in this village for a whole day, and I already felt love from a brother I'd just met.
While that made me happy, I also felt more paranoid because of it. I tried to push that last part out of my head. "Hey Lead, let's get some sleep."
"Yeah bro, that's a good idea." he said with a half smile.
At first light I was up, Lead was still asleep, and the party outside was completely finished. I hadn't been drugged or killed in my sleep, so I trotted outside. On the outer wall there was a note posted.
Silver Lining,
Please have Lead show you to my office before midday, I assure you that this is simply an interview so that we can get to know you better. I've given your mother the same letter, so stop by the med center when you head out.
Sincerely,
Mayor Stingray
Yeah, I knew this was coming, and I knew exactly what it meant. They wanted to see whether I'd be a threat or a benefit to them. Not that I didn't understand it, I knew full well what I was to them. I actually respected the fact that the mayor had phrased it as kindly as she had. And she was sending me with backup so I'd feel more secure. And not just backup, my family.
It felt sort of wrong to call them family though. Lily abandoned me with a power mad slaver, and I'd just met Lead yesterday. While they both seemed decent, they weren't my family in any sense besides the biological link. But, they both embraced me as family immediately. Hell, Lead let me stay in his home. So it felt wrong to not at least call him family. Great, one of those situations.
I shook my head again, 'Just don't think about it Silver.' I thought. I looked around the village. I saw some smoke out in the distance, and from it I could smell something cooking. Since I skipped out on eating the night before, I decided to try it out. I made my way over to the palm hut where the smoke was coming from. Outside of the hut there was a beautiful unicorn mare, her dark brown coat and blonde mane stunned me immediately. That was, until she turned around and saw me. She was a bit shocked to see me.
"Hello, sorry, I'm not used to seeing anypony out this early. Did you come out for the hangi?" she asked, excited, but also clearly out of breath.
"I gotta be honest, I don't know what that is, but if that's what I'm smelling then yeah. How much are they?" I asked
"Oh, we operate on a barter system here, but you wouldn't know that would you?" she giggled a little, "You must be that new Silver guy Lily asked to be allowed here. Tell ya what, you do a little something for me and I'll give you a couple."
"Well that depends on what you're asking for miss-"
"Koko, and it's nothing hard, I just need a little help with pest control. As long as you agree to do it when you've got your stuff back, they're on the house and I'll even toss one in for your mom, she patched up my uncle little while ago and didn't ask for anything in return, so this is the least I can do." A pretty name to match the pretty face.
"What sort of pest are we talking here?" I asked.
"Well, they're really just big lizards, we call them ngararas" I didn't think I could pronounce that if I tried.
"Big lizards? You can count on me Ms. Koko. Soon as I get my gear back, they're good as gone." I said with a wink.
On my way back, I stopped by the medical building, Mom was already up and helping patients. Though noticeably less then last night. Once I saw she'd stopped for a rest I called over to her "Hey Mom, I got you a little something from Koko. She said she wanted to pay you back for helping her uncle."
"Oh Silver! I didn't expect to see you so soon! I got the letter from Mayor Stingray, are you headed over there now?" she asked.
"Nah, I smelled her cooking and made a deal to get a few for us and Lead.” I replied.
“What kind of deal?” she asked, clearly concerned. Her clear concern worried me.
“Uhhh, I’m taking care of some big lizards, nag-raras?” I got kinda close to the right pronunciation I think. She, however was clearly more concerned than she had been before. “What? They’re just big lizards”
“Yeah, big acid spitting lizards. Did she leave that out?” the scrunched up expression on my face had definitely betrayed me. “I swear I’m gonna kill that girl, get Lead to lend you his armor for the day, all of the guards’ armor is resistant to acid.” explains why they wear that gaudy looking shit.
“Well I’ve at least got the time to grab my gear, assuming the mayor allows it. But be honest with me here. What’s the likelihood that I’ll be able to stay?” I asked, taking on a much less friendly tone. Not a mean one mind you, just more serious.
“I give it a 50-50 chance. But that’s only because Stingray is a hard-ass when it comes to slavers.” Not necessarily good news, but again, totally understandable. “If your brother, Koko and I all vouch for you, then it goes up to 70-30. Still not a guarantee, but with all of us vouching for you and you offering to do some work for the town, then it’s pretty damn close. But, don’t suggest anything that’d put you in a place of power. If I were you, I’d suggest offering your services here with me, along with hunting outside of town.” Well, if that was what it’d take then I’d do it. Learning medicine couldn’t be that hard, and going back to Northpass would nearly be a death sentence for abandoning my post. The wasteland as a whole would basically be a death sentence if I was going alone.
“Hunting and medical work huh? That doesn’t sound too bad. What’s the worst wildlife you’ve got here anyway?” I was ready for it to be something like flaming wolves or mutant Star spawns.
“Probably the acid lizards. They’ve gotten four of us in the last month, but they’re also a good source of protein here, so try to save as much of the meat as you can when you do that job for Koko.”
Okay, so she had me hunting down the most deadly species that existed here. Liking her less and less now.
But, on the bright side, now that the sun was getting up higher, and I realized it was late enough in the day that Lead might be awake. “Hey, you think it’s late enough to go to my interview?” I asked. Rather than looking at a clock or something like that, she went outside and just looked up at the skies. Skies that, unlike those in the wasteland, were almost perfectly clear. It was odd to see the sun whenever I looked up, and even more odd to see them use it as a way to measure time. That of course meant that it was clear enough on a regular basis to not only know that it was day, but to actually see the sun. Weird.
“Yeah, by the time you get your brother out of bed and get to the mayor’s home it’ll probably be about the earliest she could expect you.” Of course, based on that, they were also clearly a pretty lax society. Of course, I’d only been here a day, so these were all baseless assumptions and I was really making these assumptions purely out of my ass.
“Alright mom,” I leaned in and gave her a hug, “I’ll see you at the mayor’s, wish me luck!” When I pulled back, I could see tears starting to form. I wasn’t sure if it was from fear, or happiness that I was already regularly referring to her as ‘mom’. Either way, I really didn’t know what to do or say, so I went back to Lead’s place.
Only to find him still asleep, and not just lightly sleeping, but a full on dead sleep. “Great, one of a tiny group of ponies that stands between me and being sent back to that radioactive hellscape, and he’s asleep.” I tried nudging him gently to no avail. Then softly calling his name, also, to no avail. Finally, I gave up and just yelled, “YO LEAD!” which did the job.
“We under attack?” he groggily, yet also somehow alertly asked.
“Nah, we just have to get to Mayor Stingray’s in time for my interview.” he pulled up a bit of his barding to reveal a PipBuck. Kinda like my own, but definitely more customized. Probably a hand-me-down from some old buck in the village.
“What time’s your meeting?” he asked, now more groggily than alert.
“Well, the letter I got just said ‘before mid day’ I’m guessing that means it’s open to interpretation?” he gave me a look and said,
“Silver, it’s eight in the morning. Gimme a couple hours more to-”
“Mom’s on her way now.” I cut him off, to which he grimaced a little before shaking his head.
“Alright, guess we’re headed there now. You better hope she’s up.” he slid out of bed like a foal who didn’t want to go to classes. Not that I couldn’t understand, he was up late and wanted more sleep.
“Oh, and I grabbed you some breakfast if you’ll do me a favor later on. Mom said you’d probably be okay with it.” he half glared, half squinted at me. “I just need to borrow your armor when you’re off duty to take care of some pests. No big deal right?”
His glare continued, “You get a drop of blood on it, and I’ll make you clean it every night for a month. AND my weapon!”
“Deal. Here’s a hangi from Koko.” he lit up a little
“You said you got these from Koko? How’s she looking today?” I was taken aback slightly if this was the response he had to just her name.
“Yeah, she’s looking fine, just calm down a little before I make my case.”
Clearly he had a crush on her or some sort of feelings for her. “She’s not your marefriend is she?”
“I wish, I’ve been trying to get on that flank for months now. She mention me at all?”
“Just asked if I was the buck you and Mom got brought here. Which you were. More than Mom in fact.” I said, taking note of just how obvious he was about his crush with me.
“If you like her so much, why not just go for it?” I thought back to Northpass, there weren’t any fillies I had feelings for there. I guess that was good, all things considered.
“It doesn’t work like that here bro, mares ask the bucks out. It just makes em look bad if they’re asked by a buck here. Like they couldn’t work up the nerve on their own.” Weird, but okay.
I turned around, “I’ll be outside whenever you’re ready. But I’d rather not worry Mom so try to hurry up.” Of course, as soon as I was outside, so was Lead. “Lead the way dear brother.”
It wasn’t long before we’d reached Mayor Stingray’s office, though I had to admit, it was less regal than I’d expected. To put it simply, it looked like a captain’s quarters from an old ship and nothing else. It was literally just an office with a small bedroom in it. Mom and Koko were outside already.
“You ready Silver?” my mom asked. It was slight, but I could have sworn I’d heard some concern in her voice.
I nodded and said with the little bit of confidence I could “As I’ll ever be. Everyone know what they’re gonna say?” I looked at the three ponies around me as they all gave me some sign of agreement and understanding. “Good.” I said, then knocked on the door. Softly, in case she was still sleeping or just waking up. Of course, that was pointless because she swung the door inward almost immediately after I finished.
“Silver! Good to finally meet Lily’s long lost colt!” to say I was shocked would be the understatement of the century.
“Uh, Mayor Stingray?” I asked.
“Oh, no honey, I’m the mayor’s assistant, Coral. The Mayor is at her desk waiting for you.” I peeked over her shoulder to see a stern looking mare with a tan coat and silver hair looking at me with the most angry glare I’d ever seen. And my dad was a slaver.
“Come, sit Mr. Silver. We have much to discuss. Alone.” Well, there goes my backup. I was telekinetically dragged into the room as the door was shut behind me. A simple chair sat in front of her desk. Since she told me to sit, I did. “Now, for the record, I already know of your past to an extent from when your mother arrived here. You’re from a slaver tribe located in a town called Northpass. You’re the son of the stallion who runs everything out of there. You’ve been sheltered from the worst of slavery, all while reaping all of the benefits of it. I can’t say I have much reason to keep you around here.” In the few seconds she’d been speaking, I’d gone from shocked to sweating bullets on the verge of shitting myself. “If you can give me a single good deed you’ve ever done, then I’ll consider a program for you. If you can’t, or what you consider good isn’t enough for me, then I’ll have you on the next boat back to Baltimare.” Okay, now I was actually worried that I was going to shit myself and be thrown out of here on general principal.
“I offered to help Koko with her pest problem in exchange for some food. She’s got ngararas harming her crops and I had nothing to trade with her. Even if that isn’t good enough, then please, at least allow me to keep my promise and help her?” the door flung back open, and Stingray addressed my mother directly.
“He’ll be in the Hapu for six months. If he survives and proves himself, he’ll be allowed back with full honors.” then she turned back to me, “The Hapu is our away team of warriors, they fight any and all threats to our island on the mainland. You prove yourself to Chieftain Bowhead and you’ll be provided with a life here, a home, and a month’s worth of free supplies, as well as whatever you bring back from the wastes for trade. Do you agree to my terms?” Six months in the wastes, but with backup, fighting what threatens my new life. There was only one thing I could say in response.
“Sign me up.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level up: +15 to Barter
"Your past doesn't define you, it just gives you the starting point of who you're going to be.""
Once again, I was drugged. But this time, I woke up inside what appeared to be a basement that was filled with ponies. And I had my PipBuck back. I took a look around the place only to see that it was well lit, well defended, and full of pre-war tech. From behind me, a buck spoke up. “Well Silver, welcome to your first day in the away team.” I turned around to see a teal earth pony. But unlike most ponies, his mane was completely shaved, leaving a strip of pink down his neck. His tail however was cropped and blonde. “Names Jade. And I’ll be your handler while you’re here. Any questions?” Yeah, I could think of a few.
“Who do I need to know here?” I asked simply. To which he was at least a little surprised.
“Nothing about my mane, weird. Bowhead! You owe me ten caps!” he shouted to a grizzled grey stallion who, upon standing up from his desk, was fucking massive.
“Good to see you’re up recruit. Too bad you cost me caps on your first day.” he said with the most bass heavy voice I’d ever heard. I immediately made a mental note to not piss him off any more than I already had.
“Yes sir! Stingray said I’d be working under your orders, I’m sorry to have cost you money!” that was, apparently, the stupidest thing I could have said because his whole response was glaring down at me before saying “You owe me twerp.” and making his way back to his desk. He scared me more than anypony I’d ever met. And my dad was a slaver who literally enslaved and whipped ponies for a living.
“Before you ask, yes, he is usually that scary. Don’t worry though, as long as you’re not a slaver or a raider, he won’t hurt ya.” and of course, I was a slaver. Not anymore, but I still took part in it.
“And uh, what if, hypothetically, I was a reformed slaver?” I asked in the totally most non suspicious way possible. Jade just looked at me for a couple seconds before laughing.
“You shitting me? Slavers don’t reform!” he eventually stopped laughing, “You show me a slaver that’s reformed and I’ll show you our jail cell. For the time being though, we should get you set up. Over there is our quartermaster, Blue Bit. But we just call him Bit.” Okay, not the response I expected, but it told me that Stingray must not have told them too much about me. Which definitely helped out my case, but-
“Jade, there’s something I need to own up to. But I’ve gotta know that you’ll keep it to yourself.” I whispered.
“Uuuh, sure Silver, what’s up?” he replied, tilting his head a little.
“I worked for slavers. And not in the ‘I was a slave’ sense, as in, my father ran a slaver camp. Which by extension makes me a slaver.” he nodded in response and got really close to my face.
“Didja take anypony captive?” I shook my head, “Didja own any slaves yourself?” again, “Didja ever punish somepony for not following your orders?”
“No.”
“Then here’s a secret for ya. You’re no slaver. But that doesn’t mean you get off with no complaints. Bowhead was worried that your whole joining up with us was a ruse to expose us to your dad, and that’s the only reason I’m your handler. For that matter, it’s the only reason you’ve got one. Fact that you owned up to it, and in a lot faster than others means that I’m a lot less suspicious of ya than when ya woke up.” So they did know, and that was a test. A test that I passed, or at least I was convinced that I passed. So good news.
“Okay, then let’s go load up and get to work.” I said.
“Hell yeah buddy. Bit’s right over there, you go ask him for rookie rations and I’ll go give Bowhead an update.” he pointed at a second room to my left where I saw a white unicorn buck with a long blue mane.
As I got closer, I saw that the room was actually pretty big, it even housed a range on the right side. The buck was asleep on some ammo boxes behind a security grate, and between the range and him was a locked gate. I cleared my throat.
“I wasn’t fuckin sleeping!” he burst out in alarm. “Oh, new kid. Where’s Jade?”
“My name’s Silver, and he’s giving Bowhead the report that I passed my test.” I replied, trying not to sound to proud of myself.
“Test? What’d they test you on?” Oh shit, so they didn’t tell everypony.
“Honesty I guess, but he also told me to ask for the ‘rookie rations’?” I said with the last part in air quotes. “You’re Bit right?”
“That’s Blue Bit to you new kid. My great grandady didn’t suffer through Blue Blood’s bullshit for his whole life to make our family mean less. Though I admit, I changed my name when I got out here. Don’t make my family mean any less to me.” okay, a little too much info, but I also had to wait for Jade.
“Why’d you change your name?” I asked. Probably gonna be a long story, but I had time.
“Well, a long time ago, there was this insufferable bastard named Blue Blood. Treated mares like shit, his kids like shit, shitloads of affairs, and he was a jealous asshole on top of it all. I was originally named after him. But I never really understood why since I’m only related to him because my great great, however many greats grandma was one of his many affairs. But after the war, she went by his family name, hoping to get in good with other ponies. The fact that she was royalty helped for awhile. Till royalty that wasn’t Celestia or Luna didn’t matter anymore. Then she got in good with a sailor for whatever was left of the Equestrian Navy and settled on The Island. I figured my organizational skills would be useful out here, so I decided to join up with the quartermaster position. Then one day one of our patrols found a letter that was sent towards the end of the war from Ministry of Image head mare Rarity, the MOI was the propoganda machine of pre-war Equestria in case ya didn’t know” I did, but I guess they didn’t really need to teach history on The Island. “to Blue Blood. Turns out he’d been hitting on her for a long time. And she wasn’t having it because he was, and always had been an insufferable bastard to her and her friends. She went into more detail than I feel comfortable.”
“Fair enough. So you changed it because the buck you’re named after was a bastard?” just sorta had to make sure, since I kinda zoned out for a bit there.
“That’s the long and short of it. Anyway, you probably want your gear. You want something with some range or something for getting up close and personal?” Not that it was much of a debate, but for all I knew this was just another test. Range would mean I’m smart, close quarters would probably mean I’m brave or some shit. Yeah, I’d rather be smart than brave any day.
“I’d like something with some range to it please.” he went into the back of the makeshift armory. Actually, makeshift wasn’t really something that could apply here, it was definitely well built. When he came back, I saw him carrying a big bore revolver with a short scope on it.
“Not a hell of a lot of range because the barrel’s so short, but, it’s something. .45-70 rounds’ll kick a little, but you’re a unicorn so I think you can handle it.” Honestly, that was bigger than anything I’d ever shot.
“Yeah, that should be fine. It’s a little bigger than what I’m used to, but what’s the worst that could happen right?” I replied jokingly.
“Went for the hunting revolver eh Silver?” I heard Jade say behind me. “Good call on the smart option. But I’m hoping you won’t need it, come on, we’re headed topside.” he motioned towards the exit.
“Not even gonna stay and say hi Jade?” Blue Bit said with mock disappointment.
“No time today. We’ve got a meeting to make.”
“Well, hope you make it back safe Silver, here’s some ammo and the standard leather barding.” he pulled out a box of shells for the revolver and a suit of, well, I was hard pressed to call it armor, but if we were just going to a meeting then armor might not even be necessary.
“Thanks Blue Bit, I’ll make sure to get everything back to you safe and sound.” I said, quickly putting the suit on.
“Well, the gun’s all yours. But any spare ammo could be put to use here, pick up what you can and I’ll give you a cap per round. Except that .22 shit. No use for it here. And try to save your brass.” so they had reloading equipment here. Good to know.
“Will do, see you around!” I yelled behind me. Jade was on a set of stairs ahead of me. I galloped over to him, “So what’s the job?”
“We’re meeting with a local gang. They’ve got some meds that we need, we’ve got a surplus of explosives. Our job is to negotiate a trade.”
“A gang? Like raiders or slavers?” I asked, I didn’t think they’d even consider negotiating with slavers, much less those crazy ass raiders.
“Nah, I guess calling them a gang isn’t technically right. They’re more like a town guard for one of the settlements in Baltimare. They call themselves The Starspawns, they’re based out of The Hollow. Good folks as long as you don’t threaten the ponies they protect. Sorta like bears and their cubs.”
“Fair enough, you’re not gonna drug me and drag me to the meet are you?” I could have sworn I’d heard that name somewhere before. Weird.
“Nah, the meets close enough to here that you wouldn’t wake up in time anyway. So you’re just gonna have to hoof it this time.” I couldn’t really complain about that though. If I took too much more of whatever it was that they gave me, I’d probably get addicted.
“What is that stuff anyway? Could be useful if we got the drop on somepony hostile.” it was probably better to be direct anyway.
“Well, it’s a more natural version of a pre-war shark tranquilizer, we call it Twist. Imagine it as sort of like a double dose of med-x, but with the only ingredients being plants on the island.” Made sense I guess. Med-x made me feel tired the couple times I needed it, double dosing on it would probably knock me out. Also good to know they could manufacture it.
Suddenly, Jade got low to the ground. I copied his movement and readied my revolver. “What is it?” I whispered.
“Looks like a couple of raiders up ahead.” he stood up, “Thunder!” he yelled. The raiders, however just laughed in the glee of finding victims. He drew his rifle, a rifle I hadn’t actually seen on him before, and fired a burst at the raiders. I stood and magically pulled the trigger of my revolver. Only to realize I hadn’t loaded it yet. And of course, this was a single action revolver with a loading gate. As quickly as I could, I loaded in five rounds, but by then, Jade had taken out the other raider.
“Guess you’re lucky I was here. Why hadn’t you loaded your weapon?”
“Rookie mistake?” I replied.
“Don’t let it happen again. ESPECIALLY when I’m not around to save your sorry butt.” duly noted.
“Yes sir, it won’t happen again.”
“Alright, you’re loaded now?” I nodded my head. “Then let’s get a move on. We’re not too far out now.
It was about another half hour of walking, checking corners, and occasionally hitting the ground, but we finally made it to the meeting place. Rather than what I’d been expecting, we were meeting in a mostly intact warehouse. Surprisingly enough, we arrived first.
Rather than sitting in silence, I turned my radio on. However, since nopony had messed with my radio settings, it was still tuned to the Northpass tactical radio.
“Red one, in position. How copy Blue one?” I recognized the voice. Hollow Point.
“Blue one in position, targets just arrived, waiting for secondary targets.” the second one, Gunpowder said. I got close to Jade and whispered
“We’ve got company, slavers from Northpass. I know them, I can probably talk one of them down. What should we do?”
“Keep a cool head, don’t do anything to give it away. Wait until they say something about where they are.” he said calmly. Almost deadpan really.
“Blue one, I have eyes on the secondary targets, coming up the road now. Fire on your mark.”
“Red one, remember, they don’t survive.”
“And you remember to leave one of yours alive.” What were they planning?
“They’re leaving one of us alive.” I told Jade. “Any idea why?”
“Yeah, they’re gonna leave you alive to make us look guilty of betraying the Starspawns. They’ll declare war on us. When they kill me, go here.” he uploaded some coordinates to my PipBuck.
“Wait a second Red One, does one of the Hapu look familiar to you?” shit, of course Gunpowder would recognize me. Barely fucking spoke to him at Northpass, but he knows me.
“Holy shit, that’s Silver! Steel told us he got killed by a Satyr patrol. We wiped out half their camp for that!” It was getting a lot harder to not show them I could hear them.
“Wait, if that’s Silver, he’d have our frequencies.”
“Shit, we don’t have a contingency for this. Heads or tails?”
“Heads.” I heard a bit flip
“Well Silver, if you can hear me, then sorry buddy.” a gunshot rang out, then everything went black.
Chapter 5- Take Me Home "You have traveled very far, and suffered a great deal"
Fallout Equestria: Failure
Chapter 5- From Darkness
“I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for maybe five more feet?”
Everything was black, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible. No seeing my life flash before my eyes, no seeing Celestia and Luna escort me to the afterlife, nothing. That was the case until I saw my hooves starting to form, then my body.
“Aw shit, I’m dead aren’t I?” I asked the endless void. At least, that’s what it was until things started coming into view. Before long, I could make out my old room in Northpass. Only, I was also there, and so were Lead and my mom. But all of us were younger.
I was still an infant in a makeshift crib, Lead was barely old enough to call a colt, and Mom, she was in her prime, at least age wise, one look at her and I could see just how emaciated she was.
“Mom, why can’t we take Silver with us?” Lead asked.
“He’s too young, he won’t survive long outside of these walls. I hate it too honey, but I won’t let him die.” She went over to the table towards the front of the house and placed an envelope down. I tried to move, but it was like some invisible force was stopping me. “I promise honey, some day we’ll be back for him, but for now we have to leave him. Your father is going to be home soon, and if he sees this we’ll both be in trouble.” Lead nodded in response and followed after her.
Time seemed to pass by quickly after that until I heard the door slam open. “Lily, Lead, where are you two?” He looked at the table and saw the envelope and opened it. Fortunately he read it aloud,
“Dear Chrome, these last years in Northpass have been nothing but hell for me, only made worse by our sham marriage. I assume you didn’t know I was literate, but clearly, I am. When I was taken by your roving slavers, you had no clue who I was. I realize now, that it was to my benefit. Because not only am I a healer, I’m a warrior as well. Now, I have only one purpose in life, and that is to take you down. You and your whole slaving operation. It certainly won’t be today, or tomorrow, or even next week or year, but some day, I will be back to finish the job. I’ve taken Lead with me, and left Silver there.” He rushed over to my crib and continued to read aloud. “for you to take care of. You’d better hope that you can indoctrinate him well enough, because when I start, I’m coming for him first. Soon after, I will make sure that he is what ends you and your tyrannical reign of terror. Enjoy the days you have left. Because they are numbered. With all possible contempt, Lily.” he threw the letter in what remained of a fire and rushed outside. With that, everything faded to black.
“Do you see, Silver?” a mare’s voice said from behind me. “Your purpose was conceived for you when you were just a foal. And I am here to make sure you fulfill your purpose.” the voice moved all around me.
“So I’m supposed to kill my dad? And then what? Run it myself?” I responded.
“That part isn’t defined. You don’t have to, you could give the settlement to your mother, to Jade, or even just one of the slaves. If I were you, I’d ask your mother and go from there.” Suddenly, an alicorn appeared before me. But not just any alicorn, the Princess of the moon and dreams, Princess Luna. I immediately bowed down. She just chuckled lightly.
“Rise Silver, I’m not a princess anymore. Now I’m just a mare doing her job. And to answer your earlier question, you aren’t dead. You won’t die for quite a bit longer. You passed out because of blood loss and started dreaming. I’m taking this opportunity to make sure you know what you have to do next.”
“I don’t know if it’ll be next.” I replied, “But I promise, that someday it will be done.”
“Silver, the longer you wait, the more ponies get hurt, die, and while it may not be your fault, you will need to answer for it.” she said, not threateningly, but more with concern.
“Then I’ll answer for it when it’s time. But I know that the few warriors we have, we’ll stand no chance. I’ll tell them that we need to do this, maybe they’ll know what to do with that information.” It was then that the princess of the night, the leader of Equestria prior to the war, smiled at me.
“That is most certainly for the best. I wish you luck Silver. And, when all is said and done, my sympathies are with you.”
The world flooded back into my vision, I was outside, my back on a cart. I struggled to my hooves. In front of me, I saw two big stallions. Not as big as Bowhead, but bigger than the average buck. Not anypony I knew thankfully. That was, until I saw Jade staring off into the distance.
“Hey, Jade, where are we?” I asked, trying to sit up slightly before a pain in my spine struck me so hard I had to lie back down.
“Holy shit you’re alive. The Starspawn diplomats are taking us back to The Hollow. They’ve offered to give you medical treatment in exchange for whatever caps I had on me and then work out a payment plan with Bowhead. Just consider yourself lucky that you’re going to prove useful.” Jade responded.
“Try telling me that when you’re in this much pain. What even happened?” I asked. Though given the circumstances, I could at least guess I’d been shot and that isn't to say I didn't know what had happened, but I had to be sure that's what actually happened.
“Assassins got the drop on the meeting and took a shot at you, considering the fact you’re not dead or bleeding out, I’m inclined to call you lucky, and the fact that the Starspawn are masters of all things cybernetics in these parts, you’ll probably walk again.”
Wait, walk again? “Wait, what do you mean I’ll walk again?”
“That bullet got lodged in your spine. From the sound and the hole, I’m guessing it was a 5mm round rather than a 7 or 12 millimeter.” I remember that seemed odd at the time, Northpass wasn’t in the habit of making 5mm caliber weapons, most of the blueprints we found showed they had tolerances that were far too tight for the wasteland, making them prone to jamming, and the smaller cartridges did less damage to a body while wasting more ammunition.
“Jade, are there any groups around here that commonly use 5mm rifles? Or better yet exclusively use them?”
“The Steel Rangers use them in miniguns, but they barely ever leave their bunker, and the only settlement with an abundance of that size round is Postville, we’re meeting with one of their delegates in a couple of weeks once things have settled down with the Hollow.” he caught my look and immediately saw what I was thinking. “So, you think this was an attempt to fuck up a possible relationship with Postville?”
“What’s their main source of income and how close are they to Northpass?” I asked.
“Well, they’re mostly a trade town, ponies come in, trade, pay a small fee for the security and leave. Not many residents, but they’re all loaded enough to buy every mercenary in the wastes. Come to think of it though, they’re pretty close to Northpass. Not on any sort of border, but if they’re looking to expand, that’s a good place to start. Especially because they aren’t too well liked in the area, then again, neither are we or any other settlement. The Hollow and The Island uniting is the first real alliance we’ve seen in years. In the end, we’re all hoping to have a provisional government set up, just so we can all work towards bettering the city and making the land more secure.”
“Without that though, are most ponies just wandering around and keeping to themselves?”
“Yeah, there’s a few gangs, some raiders, but most ponies around here are loners. Easy targets for raiders, slave-” he saw where I was going again.
“Well, there’s their motive, and I’ve gotta say, if I didn’t have that radio signal, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. Wait for me to get fixed up, then let’s talk some more about this.
After about twenty minutes or so, I heard the wagon come to a stop and the sound of a large gate opening. I assumed that meant we were at The Hollow, but there were apparently two other gates to go through. All of the gates were actually made of old train cars. Big, sliding, steel train car doors. Combine that with my current state, and calling me intimidated would be an understatement. At each gate, there were five guard ponies, all armed to the teeth, one quite literally because of an augmentation to his natural teeth that replaced them with what looked like scalpel blades.
While this place was called “The Hollow”, it was anything but. It was packed with fighters, traders, children, and every kind of food imaginable. Sure, there was rubble around, but overall, it looked like a pre war town. Just, super militarized, which given that pre war Equestria was in a war, meant it still looked like pre war Equestria.
Believe me, as little sense as it makes now, it made even less sense in my head in the moment.
“Where’s the Doc?” one of the wagon pullers asked somepony.
“Sawbones? She’s over at the captain’s place. He’s still in recovery from that shrapnel he took last week.” the mare he asked responded.
“Very well, here’s 20 caps, run a message over to her, just tell her she has a patient for that new spinal implant she was delivered and we need her as soon as possible.” I heard the sound of caps being exchanged and retreating hooves. “Once this is all over, he’s going to need to make a report with our chief of security.” the other guard said to Jade.
“Yeah, I’m guessing I’ll be making one too?” Jade responded.
“Yup, but his is a little more important given the details you’ve already given us.”
“Fair enough, while this procedure is going on though, is there a place we can discuss the terms of our treaty?”
“The mayor should be able to meet with you in the morning. Until then, I’ll provide you with lodging, and Sawbones will provide him with a place to stay, so long as Bowhead actually pays up.”
“We both know that won’t be an issue. After all, he’s the one who proposed this alliance.” We got to what appeared to be the doctor’s office and the unicorn guard gently placed me on the table, stomach down.
“Listen kid, I’m gonna do you a favor here, just don’t get used to this stuff. Addiction’s a bitch.” I wasn’t sure what exactly he did, but suddenly I was free of the lingering, albeit minor, pain and on the verge of falling asleep.
Level Up: New Perk: Hardened Bones- you just had your spine replaced with a sturdier, but slightly bulkier model. Any damage taken to your back is reduced by 30%,
Chapter Perk- Blessed by Luna: You now know you have a purpose in life, or at least you think you do. +1 to Luck and no longer affected by depression.
“It’s just a little something we put together, considering we’ll probably be seeing a lot of each other over the next few weeks.”
When I finally woke up, I could feel my neck needed a cracking. So I sat up and gave it a crack. Then I realized that I could sit up, and that it was past midnight. But in all reality, I could also tell that something was off. My hooves were all replaced with metal claws, and as badass looking as they were, in all reality, they were also not really my own hooves. And they were chained down to the table. In the pan next to the table was a small bullet that was an off color. Way too bright to just be lead or copper. And my heart was slow and steady through all of this, emotionally, I knew I was scared out of my wits. But my body couldn't seem to get the message. "Hello? Doctor Sawbones?" I called out. After a few seconds, the door opened and the unicorn that I had assumed was the assistant strolled in.
"Well look who's awake. I'm assuming you've got questions, so let's start with those." She replied with a pleasant tone. To be completely honest, it was a pain in the ass to figure out where to start.
"Well, there's quite a few that I've got, so let's start with the most obvious. Why am I chained up like this?" I asked in the least accusatory tone I could manage.
"To be honest, when some patients first wake up, they're extremely hostile. That was for our protection, especially considering the new claws you've got." I had to admit, if that was true then it was totally fair.
"Well, since I'm not being hostile, can I be unchained? Please?" I asked with a grin that was so shit eating that ...well, I can't think of something that eats shit to compare it to. But it was definitely a shit eating grin.
"Well, you're not seeming hostile, so I suppose you can be. After all, it's not like you'll know how to use those legs just yet anyway. Though I suppose I should tell you that those claws are retractable. All you've got to do to retract them is relax the areas around them, and to bring them out, tense up. Which in retrospect makes no sense to somepony who had hooves their whole life, but that's what the sand dogs tell us." she said, returning my shit eating grin in a more snide way. "Once you start walking, you should be able to feel them similar to your old hooves. Then it may be easier to understand." she said while undoing the chains.
"Well, here's hoping I guess. But why does my heart feel so... smooth?" I wasn't quite sure how to describe the sensation it gave me, but for now that was probably the best descriptor for it.
"That's because that had to be replaced, along with your tongue in order to power the limbs. I know it isn't ideal, but everypony who had similar operations to yours got used to it in time." Well, I had to call it far from ideal, but at least I wasn't going to be a legless waste of space and resources, and I could still do magic, even if that was limited magic. Once the last chain was undone, I shifted my weight so I could roll onto my hooves and the floor. "The trick with walking on those is to not think about walking. Unless you're around landmines, then just think about where you're walking."
"Wait, I'm just supposed to not think about it, while also learning how to do whatever these limbs can do?"
"Difficult concept, I know, but one that'll do you well to acknowledge. It's quite simple to master once you've begun to learn. For now, don't worry about the claws and just walk like you would with your hooves." Needless to say, I was nervous as fuck, but reached out with my new hooves just like I would with my old ones. I did it much more slowly than I’d have liked, but moving them wasn’t too difficult. Once they touched the ground I could tell that the doctor wasn’t bullshitting me about being able to feel with them either.
“Huh, not bad, and you were right about being able to feel with them too. Can’t tell how that’s supposed to help me tell about what’s tense and what isn’t, but thank you.”
“Well, with earth ponies depending so much on their sense of touch, it’s more important to us than you might think. Even we unicorns need to deal with the sense of touch more than we like to admit. So it’s vital that you have it despite having these cybernetic limbs. Otherwise you’d constantly fall into potholes and the like. As far as tension in the limbs, you’ll learn that when you learn how to move the claws. Right now, since you’re just waking up after a surgery that came from you being shot, you’re understandably tense. Try this.” she held out an amethyst in her magic. “Don’t worry, the tongue replacement will allow you to eat gems as well as metal, and you’ll need to in order to keep them powered and your limbs repaired in combat. I’d stay away from low quality metals if at all possible as that will lead to your limbs and spine being composed of weaker metals. Steel, titanium, starmetal, and stronger metals should be prioritized. Weaker metals are okay if used in an emergency, but tin, iron and aluminum should be avoided as regular meals. Precious metals are something that should be avoided altogether, so no eating bits unless it’s immediately followed by titanium or hardened steel.” she said, now completely out of breath. Needless to say, I was completely in shock. Not only did I go to sleep near death and thinking I was either going to die or never be able to walk again, but when I woke up alive, I did it with legs that could feel things and repair themselves, but with functions that were totally foreign to me. Don’t get me wrong, they were awesome, just the fact that I’d be able to use them was awesome, but they weren’t even designed for ponies to use. Somepony just decided it would be a good idea to modify them slightly to be the right height for ponies and call it good enough,and on top of that, now I had to worry about powering my heart that couldn’t simulate emotional responses. I took a deep breath.
“Okay doc, I gotta ask, you got any tips for tension with these claws? They’re sort of freaking me out. I can’t imagine anypony else is gonna like em.” She looked at me, confused for a minute.
“You haven’t noticed the feeling on the padding?” The fuck did she mean by padding?
“Not really no. Is that the middle area of the hoof?” I just sort of took a shot in the dark.
“Yeah, try leaning back on it a little then go back to standing normally.” A lucky shot. I rocked back on my new hooves and then went forward again, to which the claws retracted into them. At least the front ones did. “Don’t worry about the back claws, those ones don’t retract.” Now she tells me.
“All good, these are a standard model right? So everypony else knows they’re non-retractable?” she just twisted her face into the most forced smile I’d ever seen.
“They’re not exactly standard, only a few ponies have ever gotten them because we didn’t have the supply of the forehooves to give you. So we gave you the back hooves that were meant to be back hooves. On the bright side, they’re all combat models, so extra durable.” Just fucking great.
“But nopony’s gonna see these and shoot me right?” I asked, now more concerned than I had been mere moments ago.
“Nah, the ponies here get that some ponies have to deal with nonstandard cybernetics. Some of the griffins might look at you funny, but that’ll be the worst of it.” Now I could relax a little. “Oh, and don’t worry about the manticore, he’s friendly as long as you keep your guns down.”
The fucking what?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End of Chapter 6 Quest Perk- Starmetal Skeleton- You've just received cybernetic upgrades, +15 to DR
Okay, so Doc Sawbones wasn't bullshitting about the manticore. As it turns out, it was tamed by a local trader and it guarded his caravan whenever he left town. Not exactly something anypony would expect, or for that matter, any being with even moderate intelligence. For me, it was just sort of scary at first, then came the realization that it was a calm, friendly monster. Even knowing that it was calm, if you weren't trying to hurt somepony, it still scared me at first. That was just until I heard its' name, Kitty. It sounded like the most satirical possible name you could give to a literal monster.
The trader's name was Watts, and as it turned out, he sold primarily magical energy weapons. But not just your standard, beat up, and well used laser guns. No, these weapons were in immaculate shape, like they'd just come off of an assembly line. He sold them at a minimalist price to any pony, griffin, or sand dog that needed them. Apparently just over the price he got them at, so still at enough of a profit to continue business, but not so high that one rifle would pay off his rent in town and feed his manticore. I had to admit, his business strategy was a good one.
"So, I see you're already used to the new limbs, good. Now, how are you planning to pay for these?" Sawbones asked from behind me, making me jump a little.
"Oh, I thought they were already paid for. I'm sort of low on caps right now, so what's the damage?" I replied with a grimace.
"Four thousand caps, what can you pay right now?" I felt around for my bags, only to realize they were still on the counter in the medical office.
"Right now? Nothing, my bags are still in your office. When we get back there, probably less than that." If I recalled correctly, I had about fifty caps. One of few times I wished my dad was around, the rich bastard probably would have paid extra for a whip installed though. "So, is there any work you need done? Maybe some supplies gotten? A caravan that needs guarding? Maybe a monster killed?" I asked.
"Well, there's a job board at the bar, but if anypony is paying that much for a single job, you'll want some help with it." So, two options for me. One, do one job that'll probably get me killed, or two, do a shitload of jobs that'll take a long time. Of course, either way would probably do quite a bit for my reputation around here. "Let's just head over there now, and since you'll need something to fight with, we'll probably need to increase that debt to pay your real debt off." Fucking. Great.
The bar was pretty well beaten by the balefire blasts, not enough to take it down, but there was a sizable hole in the front wall. Not a door mind you, but that didn't stop anypony from coming in through that hole. In front of the bar's actual entrance was a small board with a bunch of posters nailed up to it. Some were wanted posters, some were "help wanted" posters, and others were advertisements for merchants and mercenaries. In all honesty, mercenary work wouldn't be too bad if it didn't separate me from my brother and mother indefinitely or just end up killing me. The highest paying jobs were bounties, paying between 500 and 1000 caps each. Unfortunately, most of them were bringing the bounty in alive. However, one in particular caught my eye. It was somepony I knew all too well. My dad. Fifty thousand caps to bring him in alive, twenty thousand dead. Either way was enough to pay off my medical bill and whatever weapon I could want in town and still have some left over for whatever I could want. As tempting as it was, I also knew it would be a suicide mission. So rather than that, I looked for a "wanted dead or alive" poster that would end up being less dangerous. There was one for a mare who had stolen some ammo, 200 caps for her in either condition. The illustration they used made her look like either a junkie or somepony who couldn't afford food. Either way, caps were caps.
"Hey Doc, what do you know about this mare?" I asked Sawbones.
"Nettle Kiss? Well, she's a drifter, you bring her back alive, you could probably get the bounty from ten different towns. On her own, she's not much of a threat, and she's generally on her own. Was only in town for a week or so, slept on the street and mostly just kept to herself. Probably a good first job." and that was all I needed to hear.
"Alright, now for some weapons, not really into the whole laser gun thing, I like to know I'm shooting something. There any merchants around here that sell normal guns?" I asked.
"Well, Bullet sells em, just don't comment on his skin." Not really something anypony normally comments on.
But when we got to Bullet's shop, I could see why she said that. But before I can really get into this any further, I gotta tell you what a ghoul is. A ghoul is somepony that was irradiated so badly when the balefire bombs dropped that they froze in time. All their coat is burned off usually and they cease to age or heal normally. Needless to say, it looks pretty nasty if you're not used to ghouls. In addition to the cosmic comedy that is a ghoul's life, they also get to sound like they've smoked a carton of cigarettes a day since the bombs dropped. Raspy as hell and almost like they were never ponies to begin with. Needless to say, I could have done with a more specific warning, but this time I kept my cool. Not because of the warning, but because of a specific weapon he had in a small display case on the counter. A huge .45-70 revolver with near perfect bluing. I sprinted up to the counter and simply asked, "How much?" while pointing at it. Bullet just grunted ambiguously.
"Come on, how much?" I asked, the pitch of my voice raised slightly below that of a filly.
"The pistol? A hundred caps." he said with his dreadfully raspy voice. That took up half of what I'd be making if I found this Nettle mare.
"Does that include a box of ammo?" I asked, this time back in my regular voice.
Bullet just looked over the counter, "Son, you buy that gun and I'll throw in three boxes." Perfect, if I could get him to work out a deal with me. Sawbones came up from behind me.
"Got a better deal if he's tracking down Nettle for you? You know, the one who stole that shotgun off you." And with that, the ghoul's eyes lit up as much as they could.
"You track her down and I'll give it to you free, ammo still costs caps though. Five caps per box." That much told me that this was either a lot of ammo or some seriously specialty ammo.
"He needs a gun to track her down, and he owes me more than he could owe you for ammo." Sawbones said teasing the old ghoul a bit.
"Fine, he doesn't come through you owe me Bones. Don't think I forgot the last time you did this." Bullet replied. It took about ten minutes of them arguing, but I ended up walking out with a near mint revolver and a couple boxes of ammo. 24 rounds in each box. I could feel it with my magic, the cylinder opened so smoothly, the hammer was nice and crisp, the sights looked perfectly aligned and it was just beautiful. I could spend days gushing about it, and being that all I ever held in Northpass were homemade rifles and other guns that were just beat to shit, I would have if I didn't have a job to do.
First off, I asked around town for any sighting of Nettle, and as it turned out, that bounty was only posted a couple of days before. A caravan that was just coming into town said she was heading North to Manehattan. With her lead on me, I'd need to travel quick and without interruption, but not long after leaving town, there was a swarm of radroaches. Not more than I could squash with my new hooves, but it still took up time. Every little thing on the road took time from me, and while you might not have tried going after a fugitive on hoof with a monster lead, I have, and let me tell you, it's an absolute pain in the ass.
That being said, after about 12 hours of running, gunning, and stomping on roaches, I finally caught up to a mare that fit her description (courtesy of Bullet). She was about as tired as I was, but I did all I could to be sure that it didn't show. All that really involved was pulling a bit of fabric over my muzzle. "Howdy stranger!" I yelled in a fake country accent, "Mind travelin' with me? My companions got a little shot up tryna save emselves from slavers." Nettle was an average sized unicorn mare with a dark purple coat, which in this lack of light, made her fairly hard to see. She was also now glaring at me.
"And how'd you escape em?" she returned.
"Easy, let the rest of em take out the ones they could, then finish off the slavers that were left. Unfortunately, that sort of strategy only works once, and it killed some good friends o' mine." she was definitely starting to get jumpy, either at the thought that I may have been a slaver, or that I was just somepony looking to mug her.
"I'm not one to fall for bullshit like that, who are you and what are you doing here?" shit.
"Fair enough," I replied, dropping the accent, "My name is Silver Lining, I'm coming from the Hollow, I was sent here to get you back there, and I'd really prefer to do that with you still alive. So if you'd just come with me-"
"They tell you why that contract is really out on me?"
"You stole some shotgun from Bullet."
"So they gave you a load of crap too huh? I didn't steal that gun, I took what was rightfully mine, that gun was my dad's. When he died of old age, some jackass stole it from our camp and sold it to Bullet. He deals in a lot of stolen shit." And now, I was put in a shitty position.
"Well maybe if you explained the situation to him, he'd let it go. That's possible right?" Nettle just shook her head at that.
"You think I didn't try that already? I could have just killed him and taken whatever I wanted. Instead, I decided to sneak in and take just that. But I've got a better offer for you, 500 caps, right here and now, along with whatever they were paying you to bring me back, all you have to do is break me out of jail after so I can plug that rotten bastard." 800 caps is a lot better than 300.
"If I do, will you join up with me and my group? I had to ditch some of em, and I'm sure they'd be happy to have more."
"Well, that all depends, how do they feel about slavery?"
"They fucking hate it, as do I."
"Good, how do they feel about Northpass?" Once again, shit.
"They've got a hard-on about them in particular, me, well, that's sorta complicated."
"You a runaway slave too?"
"No, I'm the son of their leader. My dad, is Chrome Lining, and he's my kill."
Chapter 8- Reunion "You can't pick up chicks in a tank"
As we were walking back to the Hollow, Nettle and I learned a shitload about each other. I already sorta figured she'd escaped Northpass as a slave, which was impressive in it's own right, but so had her father, Thorns. As far as that sort of thing went, it sounded impossible to me, until I recalled hearing about that, no names used there, but then again, names were rarely used with slaves. It was a really sick demoralization tactic my dad used. It generally worked too, but the few times it didn't, we had slaves either try to or actually escape after memorizing how the guards moved and all the shit they'd need to for the purpose of getting out alive. Which is exactly what Nettle did with her dad. They escaped and her father actually died of old age and as a good parent. I, thankfully, didn't know much of what happened to the slaves other than beatings and whippings, and despite how harsh and indifferent it makes me sound, thankfully she didn't want to go into it. She was a lot tougher than Bullet or anypony else had given her credit for, and clearly a lot smarter. I mean, she sounded like a common thief, but just knowing she was a slave, and my father's slave at that, meant the world to me. If I could help her, then it would mean that my road to improvement was under way.
She was somewhat sketchy to me though, even if her story was entirely true, it was still theft. A justified theft, and it just got more and more confusing as to what the right thing to do was. But, the pay was there, and I needed that, and if she decided to tag along, then it just made us stronger. After all, two is always better than one, and if she broke out of Northpass, she could probably break in too. Not to say I couldn't get in on my own, but then I'd need to get out unseen when the guards already knew I was there. If I put it bluntly, I couldn't break in undetected on my own, I'd just end up being completely fucked. If she were to assist me in breaking in, then I'd stand a pretty good chance of taking him down. Not amazing odds by any means, but better than going in by myself. Though in all reality, I didn't actually know that she was the brains behind breaking out beyond her word. Though in all likelihood, anything she knew at the time would be pointless now just due to timing. The whole idea was just racing through my mind the entire time we were setting up camp and after we set it up, the thoughts were even more prominent.
"Silver?" Nettle asked when she noticed me staring off into nothing.
"Sorry, just thinking about things." I replied
"It's okay, what's on your mind?"
"Well, a few things. First, there's you. Are you okay? I know there was a lot you didn't say about your time as a slave, probably with good reason, but I need to know you're not going to have some sort of flashback and shoot me in the back."
"Silver, you aren't your dad, and I can separate fact from fiction. There's things I left out, and that's mostly due to the fact that I don't want to think about them. Maybe we should just get these questions out of the way now, save us time later on." I nodded in reply.
"I got my first one out of the way, now it's your turn I guess." I braced myself, knowing that it would likely be about my time living in Northpass.
"Did you ever do any of the slaving?" That was put bluntly for sure, but a good question if she was an escaped slave.
"No, but I was complacent in it. I knew it was going on and I never tried to stop it before now. I'd sometimes try to bring it up in conversation with my dad, but he always talked about it like it was his life's greatest accomplishment. I should have done something at least."
"Well, like I said before Silver, you aren't your dad, and really, I don't think knowing that it happened and not stopping it is complacency. You tried to do something, even if you failed it at the most basic level. I'll give you at least partial credit as long as that's honest." Nettle looked back to me in an almost questioning manner.
"It is, swear on my grave. Well, future grave I guess." Just that seemed to put her a little more at ease.
"That'd be your turn, just preferably not about what happened." for a moment, I could see her tense up.
"Are you addicted to any drugs? No offence, just want to know if you are." I actually meant no offence by it, but if she was going to travel with me at all I needed to know I could rely on her in any circumstance. She pulled out a metal container, not unlike mint-als, but rather than a smiling zebra on the front that was common to mint-als, this was completely blank and had a different opening method. She pressed a button on the side and the tin swung open.
"Just cigarettes, withdrawal just sorta makes me act bitchy for a while. Now, are you?" she asked, offering me one. I took it in my magic and rather than asking for a light, I used the one nonstandard spell I had in my extremely limited collection and used it to light it.
"Truth be told, I smoke sometimes. Not frequent enough to risk addiction, but that's just me. But right now I could definitely use one." I took a drag and exhaled. "You prefer mares or stallions?" partially asked because of curiosity, and partially because she was an attractive mare.
"Don't really have a preference. Was that a sorry try at hitting on me?" She took a quick look at me and came back with, "Well, no need to answer, that beet red face did it for ya. Guess since ya technically answered, that means it's your go."
"That was dirty, and can ya really blame-"
"Nah, I suppose I can't, but I didn't think you'd find a wanted mare attractive, physically or otherwise."
"You got enough time left to meet my mom?"
"Let's just see how this goes and maybe I'll have an answer then. So which is it? Physical, or uh, otherwise?" Should have known that was coming, but I honestly didn't.
"What? No both option? You're strong in more than one way, you've got some serious guts, and on top of that, you're probably the most beautiful mare I've met in my life. All things considered, pretty much all around attractive." Then, from behind me came a very much male voice
"Aww, ain't that sweet?" followed by the racking of a Northpass hoofmade rifle. A sound I was all too familiar with, though the voice wasn't anypony I knew. "Silver, good to see you with an escapee. That doubles my pay from yer daddy." I turned around to see a big,red, earth pony buck, with the exact rifle I expected on a battle saddle. However, I knew these rifles very well, likely better than somepony who just bought one. Especially considering he didn't have his dust cover closed, leaving all of his internals open both to the dust and to me.
"Well, it would, if you could take both of us. But I'm not going anywhere." Even basic telekinesis was something most earth ponies couldn't see coming, and in that few seconds, his carrier spring and bolt were on the ground. "Or even one of us. But I think this might get my point across pretty damn well." I said, cocking the hammer of my revolver back. "Nettle, you might wanna look away."
"What? You're just gonna kill him?" she asked, just to have me look back at her and fire.
"Yeah. Yeah I am. He was taking part in the slave trade. Directly. They've got no right to live." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level up: Level 5 New Perk: Nerves of steel- When confronted by force, you manage to keep your cool.
Chapter 9- Cold "Maybe put away the good glasses."
In truth, I expected Nettle to be pissed, but for one reason or another, she wasn't. She just wiped the blood spatter off of her face and said, "We should move camp, any others in the area probably heard that, and if there aren't any, creatures might have." she responded, completely devoid of any emotion. Positive or even negative emotion would have been preferable, but there wasn't much I could do about it then. So, rather than dwell on it, I took the slaver's rifle, ammunition and magazines. It wasn't ideal to carry a rifle made by slaves and for slavers, but it would extend my range by a fair bit, so, better to deal with it than not have it as a backup option, especially if I was going to keep doing bounty hunting jobs. Though if they found out what Nettle and I were planning, it likely wouldn't be for the Hollow. And in all reality, even if they didn't I likely couldn't work for them again. At least not without having Nettle wait far from town the entire time I was in it.
At the same time as reconsidering my deal with Nettle, I also realized that I needed her at least as much as she needed me. Mutually beneficial alliance for working towards the same goal. The only options I had now were to say 'fuck it, let the chips fall where they may for the Hollow.' or to actually turn her in, collect my reward and completely screw her over. Neither option was particularly good, or even honest, but one of them did help me towards my end goal.
"Hey Nettle, got another cigarette?" I asked.
"Well, more than one more, but only if you find me another pack or carton of em later on." she replied, once again offering me the open tin. I took one and just like before, lit it with my magic. The taste was awful, acrid, and definitely stale, but it helped me to confirm my decision to help her with myself. As little sense as that might make, it was something that I felt a need for. To make sure that I could justify this to both myself and my comrades, comrades that had, for the time being, abandoned me. Though if I was to be honest with myself, more than just for the time being, and if I was really being honest with myself, abandoned wasn't the right word to use.. perhaps neither was comrade. In truth, they were forced to help me by my mother. Nettle wasn't much different in that regard, but rather than being forced by another to help me or I her, we made a deal based on our word alone. In all reality, up to that point, she was the closest I'd ever had to a friend.
That's some depressing shit right there, but the world is often depressing. And sure, part of that deal was based on money and freedom, but if I was for freedom of slaves, I couldn't rightly be against freedom for someone doing what was realistically right.That was her dad's shotgun, and by all rights belonged to her. She stole it back from some fuckstick that stole it from her. A thief wasn't likely to survive in the wastes, so if the true story were to come out then maybe he'd be exiled and she'd be freed anyway. But the way we were planning on got her the revenge she wanted, and hastened the process of him dying while also making sure that he couldn't steal from anyone else. But, that was just me justifying being an accessory to murder. I didn't feel right about the deal I made with Bullet or Nettle, but I also knew that I had to pick one of them to side with. We kept walking down the road, all the pavement torn up and broken until we hit a small patch of yellow grass. "Meal and a place to rest comfortably, wanna make camp here?" I asked.
"Might as well, can't say there's any other place to realistically camp." she replied apathetically. I looked around for anything that might make the rest actually restful, only to find nothing. So I laid in the dirt and pulled out the rifle. Disassembly on these was fairly simple for a unicorn. There was a spring that held a cover over the bolt and once that cover was off and the rod that held the spring was removed, everything was open other than the barrel. To be fair, these were pretty shoddy rifles, but they were also one of the only ones made post war. So to say it was expected is a bit of an understatement. I just gave it a look over and checked the magazine. Magazine was full and the rifle was at least in working order. It could do with a bit of oil in the barrel to clean out the residual powder that hadn’t burnt, but that could be dealt with in town or later on down the road. The bolt handle was also chipped, but being that I operated it with magic made it all much easier and not much of an issue at all. The magazine was actually the only part of the rifle in poor condition, I had to assume that this particular rifle was taken off of another slaver. Or at least that the magazine had. It still worked, but sometime soon I would need to replace the spring in it or risk jams. Having only one magazine also didn't help things, but I had to imagine these were fairly common rifles around here.
"You get comfort outta cleaning guns?" Nettle asked me.
"Not really, but this is sort of an exception. It's letting me think of our current situation in regards to arms and armor. We've got two guns that can't be beat in close quarters, but one that is falling apart where it counts for our medium to long range encounters. To be quite blunt, we're going to need more of these rifles and magazines." Admittedly, the rifle wasn't in bad shape at all, as previously stated, but I really needed those magazines.
"Fair enough, I see these used pretty frequently, so they shouldn't be in short supply, but armor is one thing we both sorely lack." she pointed out.
"Yeah, we can't exactly go about in power armor or slaver gear, so I gotta ask, you have any idea where we can find some half decent armor around here? Maybe an abandoned Stable?" Even if there was armor in there, it would be far from good, but I had seen ponies wearing Stable-Tec security barding in the past. It wasn't great, but it might get us safety from small caliber pistols.
"If we hit it after we're done at the Hollow then I know about one Stable that's still lived in and trading with wastelanders. They've generally got some pretty good shit there." she replied
"Which one?" I asked.
"Stable 187. They claim it's one of the control Stables, no side mission, no weird malfunctions, just a place for ponies to live in and out of until the radiation cleared up."
"Side mission?" I asked, furrowing my brow.
"Yeah, see, all of Stable-Tec wanted to try to improve shit, so they put in all sorts of weird doodads and things to either go wrong or challenge societal norms. This one was just normal, opened awhile ago and ponies just wanted to trade out of it."
"Oh, well shit, where is it?" I tried to appear unalarmed by the news that the ponies in charge of keeping Equestrians safe after the war would do something that might jeopardize that. I mean, theoretically, it was just for the overall betterment of society, but still. Actually, come to think of it, what were the "side missions" they had? Did they have one where it was like all the richest of Equestria living in conditions that were lower than the poorest? That'd be a good one, not one that would actually help anypony, but still. I'd get a good laugh out of hearing how they turned out.
"About two miles west of the Hollow. Decent folk there too." she replied with borderline enthusiasm.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level up: Level 6 New Perk: Mr. Clean- due to cleaning your weapons regularly, they will almost never jam or malfunction.
Chapter 10- Monument ""I...I am a monument to all of your sins."
It wasn't a hard choice to avoid the Hollow just a little longer and check out this Stable. Of course, in the back of my head I was questioning if that was the right move or not, I barely knew this mare and I was following her after being sent to bring her back for stealing from a shop. But at the same time, with the context she gave me, which for all I knew was all fake, she really didn't do anything wrong. Nettle seemed nice enough, albeit not right when we first met, but even then she wasn't mean, just fighting for her survival and trying to stay alive and free. She was also clearly stronger than I was, at the minimum in the heart department. She had the guts to leave Northpass knowing she could and would have been killed if she and her dad were caught. I couldn't do that even knowing that nothing would happen to me if I did. Or at least thinking that, I was shot at by the first ponies from Northpass to find me alive outside.
That train of thought was interrupted by a gunshot at my hooves. An all too familiar crack of a Northpass rifle. Thankfully, due in part to being made by underfed and not always the brightest slave labor, they were inaccurate at times. I'm guessing this one wasn't quality tested because I had time to jump into a long exploded wagon on the road and pull my revolver.
"Oi Silver, the lads said you were dead!" I knew the voice too well.
"Not yet Auto, but I'm sure my dad was pissed at Hollow for that fuck up!" I yelled back. Auto Seer was a true bastard, both literally as most of us were out in the wastes, and in the sense that he enjoyed some fucked up shit. Like shoving a gaff hook through a pony's throat and then slamming him into the ground for not being fast enough. Something I saw as a young buck. Not a good pony, in any sense.
"Aye, he was a bit upset, but last I knew he wasn't hanging by his own entrails. I think yer dah was saving that fer you." two more shots rang out, neither were close to me or Nettle who was hiding in the wagon next to me.
"So where are the others? I know his lackeys never go out alone. And faking an ambush by a lone buck is a good way to catch some dimwit off guard." I fired a round off into the bush and heard a mare yell in pain. "Well there's one, though I can't place the yell. Care to introduce yourself miss? Maybe I can help out if you break off the slavery bandwagon." she just responded with a few, very poorly placed shots.
"Well lad, seems your balls dropped since we last spoke, care to tell me the name of the beauty you're wanderin with?" His accent made him almost sound sophisticated, until he'd been drinking at all. In truth, he was no more than a brute with some broken pieces of power armor strapped to his leather barding. Of course, he didn't wear a helmet either, guess all that muscle left him with minimal brains.
"More that they'd already dropped, but grew exponentially since I left. As far as I'm concerned, if she wants you to have her name then she can tell you." Nettle just looked over at me with a moderate glare.
"Just put the other bitch out of her misery and find the other one Silver!" she yelled over to me.
"Fine, be a lot easier if I could actually see her." I fired another round blindly into the bush and the screaming stopped.
"Ah fuck Silver, ya killed Slip!" Auto yelled at me.
"Slipknot? The executioner? What the fuck is she doing looking for me?" I questioned.
"Well shit lad, since ya left, few others got the idea of doin' it 'emselves. T' be honest, I was thinkin' it, still sorta am. But we won't be taken in by anyone out 'ere." then an idea struck me.
"Throw your weapons out and I'll personally take you in, backup and knives too though." there was a dead silence for a solid minute, no shots fired, no talking, no radio chatter, no nothing. Then the clanging of metal hitting asphalt from ahead of us and a shot fired from the right. This shot wasn't fired at Nettle or I, but it did give the location of the other slaver away and gave Nettle the opportunity to take a few shots in their direction. To be honest, while it may have been slightly out of effective range of the buckshot, it was more effective than shooting blindly with a single projectile. And given that I heard a scream, I had to assume the other one was immobilized at the minimum. Of course, that could have been Auto had it not been from the direct right of Nettle. It gave me a general location to shoot in at least.
I raised the revolver but was halted by Nettle, "Hold up with that, I've got a few things for him." she said, pulling a grenade from an ammo container that was apparently in the wagon next to her. Something I had completely missed. She pulled the pin with her teeth and tossed it in the general area I was about to shoot in. After the loud explosion sound from the grenade, there was no sound other than a slight groaning ahead of us near a pile of weapons. We walked in the direction of that groaning and found Auto Seer with a wound in his gut.
"So lad, ya actually meant ye'd take me with ya. How 'bout the lass? Nettle right?" he asked, apparently recognizing her this close.
"I'm not exactly in favor, but I'm not about to kill you without knowing why you want to leave Northpass." she said, holding the shotgun on Auto, who proceeded to pull a bottle of rum from his saddlebags.
"Aye, I can understan' that lass. I'm willin' t' recognize that I'm a right bastard, an' I know ya know I am, same with Silver. Ye've got no reason t' trust me, Silver has reason to hate me even bein' alive."
"I'm not going to hate you for existing Auto, the shit you did maybe, but not just for existing."
"An' why not lad? Ye see, I'm nothin more than a reminder of all the shit you were a part of an' benefitin from." he took a long pull off the bottle and grunted after putting it back down. "Travelin' wit me is just remembering the fucked shite you saw an did fuck all about."
"You're not wrong there Auto, I did see a lot of evil actions and did nothing to stop it, and I'll need to live the rest of my life knowing that. But you see, I, well in this case we, can do better. We can earn our right to live. So long as you tell us the actual reason you want out." he always tried to throw off anyone asking him a question he didn't want to answer.
"I want out because I know what I was doing was wrong, and now I see you managed to get out and be accepted by somepony who isn't as fucked as we were. It's nothin but an inspiration t' me." He damn near finished the bottle at that point in two pulls then passed what was left to me with his magic. "Drink wit me Silver, I 'aven't got long." I wasn't sure if I should offer him a healing potion now or not, I did only have three. I took the bottle from him.
"To fixing this world by fixing ourselves." I said before taking a pull myself. The liquor was both sweet and hard. I passed Auto a healing potion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level up: Level 7 New Perk:Lessons in Pain- Companion Perk- So long as Auto is in your party you will gain a boosted 10% XP with all kills and knockouts.
