Fallout Equestria: A Horse With No Name

I awoke a few hours later to the sound of my cart door opening and closing. I instinctively reached for the ‘big iron’ strapped to my thigh. I looked up to address my guest before I pulled the rest of the massive six shooter out of it’s holster. To my relief the unexpected visitor was a familiar young dragon.

“What is it Chain?” I managed to say in between yawns. “Anything wrong?” The gaunt wyrm shook her head ’no’ and proceeded to pull a letter out from under the belt strapped around her waist.

“Its from Titan. Something about the sales your supposed to make over the next few days.” she said through a mouth full of fractured teeth.

“Alright, bring it over here and find a pen for yourself. When I’m done reading this your gonna have to write a reply and send it for me.” I grabbed the letter from her scaly claws and set it down on my mattress to read.

Trouble Clef,

I missed you before you left, and I had something I needed to tell you about the Hoofbeat auction. I sent out a few letters to some personal friends of mine a few weeks ago. I told them about our presence at the auction and that we would have a wide selection of products for them to choose from. Their names are Jackpot, Crack Shot, and Powder Charge. Look for them at the saloon in the middle of town this upcoming Wednesday. You should be able to sell a lot of our current stock to them, if not all. Try using some of your clever bartering tricks on them. The more caps we make, the better. Be sure to send me a reply so that I know this message got through to you.

Sincerely,

Chrome Titan.

“Hmph, not bad. Titan really helped us out this time around. Better not let this opportunity go to waste. Thanks, Chain, for bringing me this. Would you please send Titan a response letting him know that we got his message?”

“Sure thing boss.” she replied, giving me a feigned salute. “I’ll get on it right away.” I turned to lay back down on my bed before Chain addressed me again. “Oh, and Knocker wanted to see you. He’s up at the very front of the train running maintenance on the boiler.”

“Perfect.” I sighed. “I gotta go deal with his bullshit again?” Chain shrugged both her shoulders, as if to say ‘tough luck,’ before shifting her attention to the message she was writing in reply to Titan’s.

I shuffled over to the wash pan set up in the corner of my box car. I took a hoofful of the dirty water that swished around inside and splashed it on my face. The muggy liquid helped wake me up a bit and managed to get the sleep out of my eyes. I took a look at myself in the cracked mirror that hung on the wall to make sure I looked intimidating enough for Knocker to take me seriously. A stallion with a dirty white coat, glaring magenta eyes, a short blonde mane, and some untidy whiskers stared back at me. It was the same stallion I saw every time I looked in a mirror, and the same one everypony else saw when they looked at me. If it was daunting enough for rival slavers, then it was good enough for Knocker.

_____

A few minutes later I was nearing the head end of the train. Having flown my way up to it, I glided towards the window that opened up to the boiler room, and quickly squeezed myself through. After setting down on my hooves I trotted a few steps to the back end of the cart where Knocker was shoveling coal and other flammable items into the steam engine.

“You wanted to see me!” I shouted over the noise of the train. Knocker jumped at my sudden appearance, dropping his shovel to the ground with a loud ‘CLANG.’

“Geezus, don’t sneak up on me like that!” he yelled back. After a second he calmed down, picked up his shovel, and started scooping up combustible debris and shoving it into the massive furnace. He continued to do this for a long time before talking to me again.

“Look, Trouble, I’m sorry that I got out of line back there. I know I shouldn’t be acting like that, but I’ve been really stressed out lately. You know I’ve got a wife and kid to take care off, and with the threat of NCR vigilantes rallying against us I have kinda been on edge.” He stopped shoveling and turned to directly face me. “I don’t want to get on Titan’s bad side. I’ve seen what he’s done to others who were disloyal, and I don’t want to count myself amongst those who were subject to that kind of torture. I’m asking you as a long time college to not mention to Titan what I did earlier, and pretend like it never happened.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I hollered. “I know everypony is stressed right now. We already have NCR mercs dogging us, we don’t need to be worrying about turning on each other. Things have been rough as of recent so we need to look out for one another.” I chose my next words carefully. I wanted to get my point across, but if I didn’t do it the right way I could end up sending the wrong message. “To be honest with you, Knocker, I’ve never really liked you. But I’m willing to look past my disdain for your personality if it means we both make it out ahead. So I’ll keep quite about your outburst earlier if you promise to work with me to overcome this hard time. What do you say?”

“I accept your offer!” exclaimed Knocker as he extended a hoof for me to shake. “This means a lot Trouble, I’m glad that you understa-

‘Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!’

Knocker was cut off as several laser beams punctured holes into the side of the box car. I ducked my head down and looked for a place to hide. Thinking quickly I crawled over to the boiler, swung open the door to the furnace, and slouched down behind it. Thankfully, the thick steel door was strong enough to stop the beams of heat from disintegrating me. Knocker joined me behind my makeshift shield a second later. He looked pale, and was breathing heavily. Giving him a quick one-over, I noticed several lasers had grazed the front of his left foreleg. It looked like it hurt a lot, but it wasn’t anything a few healing potions couldn’t fix.

“We’re sitting ducks inside here! We need to get to a better spot where we can figure out who the fuck is shooting at us. You gonna be ok making a run for the box car behind us?” I asked my stone faced companion.

“Yeah. I’m good.” he said through clenched teeth. “We make a break for it one three?” I nodded in agreement as I pulled out my antique single-action revolver. Droplets of sweat ran down my face from a mix of anxiety and the increasing heat in the car. The cacophony of laser fire hadn’t ceased since it first started, and I prayed that whoever was firing at us wouldn’t have the dumb luck of hitting us as we exited our cover.

“Three…. Two….. One!”

We dove out from behind the furnace and towards the door that led to the outside of the train. Laser bolts missed us by mere inches as we sprinted like mad to make it to a safer position. Knocker reached the exit first and threw all of his weight into the door, dislodging the it from its hinges and knocking it to the ground. In turn, I glided over him and used my momentum to break through the wooden entrance to the preceding train car. And just like that, we had managed to reach our destination. None the worse for wear.

The inside of the car was a gory mess. The remains of three slavers painted the walls a grizzly shade of red. Since lasers caused disintegration, and not dismemberment, I deduced that our attackers also packed a heavy set of ballistic weapons to accompany their magical ordinance. My theory was proven correct as a torrent of machine guns opened fire into the box car. Thankfully, there was a lot more cover to use in this cart since it had served as our recreation room for long trips.

I dove to hide behind an overturned metal table, while Knocker slid behind the protection of a broken Sparkle-Cola machine. The wave of ballistics continued to puncture through the side of the wooden train car for a few more seconds before stopping. Once I was certain that the guns wouldn’t start shooting again I crawled up to the side of the car and peaked through a fresh bullet hole. I hoped to get a glimpse of our attackers, but I couldn’t see anything through the clouds of sand kicked up by the train.

“See anything?” shouted Knocker from behind his barrier.

“Not yet!” I replied. “All I see is sand. No! Wait a minute! I think I see something!”

Sure enough, the silhouette of a Pegasus flying next to the train floated into my vision. I strained my eyes to pick out specific features on the mysterious equine. If I could just get a better look at their armor I could figure out what faction they belonged to. I hoped that it was just a gang of raiders that had gotten their hands on some heavy duty weapons, but I wouldn’t be so fortunate.

My heart sank as the features on the Pegasus became identifiable. It was a young mare, probably just entering adulthood, with a cream colored coat and a blue and red streaked mane. She had two automatic rifles attached to a battle saddle tightly secured around her back. Beneath her bulky battle tack I could make out a torn and faded Stable Tec jumpsuit with a few pieces of sports gear strapped over her shoulders and chest.

Despite all these hints as to who she was and why she was attacking us, it was the insignia painted on the side of her shoulder pauldron that gave away who she was. It was a crude drawing of a unicorn surrounded by a circle of Pegasus wings, the symbol of the NCR.

“Shit, Knocker, we’ve got heavily armed NCR soldiers attacking us.” I shouted.

“Fuck! What are we going to do?” I thought for a moment before responding.

“As I see it, we have two options. We can either jump the train and escape to the nearest settlement, or find whoever is left and try to fight off the soldiers.”

“The first option is out of the question.” retorted Knocker. “If we do manage to make it back to our base, Titan will kill us for loosing an entire shipment as well as our only means of transportation.”

“Good point.”

“I say we go with your later suggestion. If we succeed, we’re rewarded with our lives and the knowledge that there is one less NCR squad tracking us. If we fail, well the worst that could happen is that we end up dead.”

“I wont fight you on that.” I replied. “If that’s the plan, then I suggest we get to the rear of the train. If the NCR is here to free the slaves, then they’ll be trying to break them out from there. What we’ll do is get to one of the empty cars, open up the side door, and fire on them from there. Sound like a plan?

“Seems a bit risky,” Knocker warned. “but I cant think of a better plan right now so I’ll just roll with it.”

________________

A few minutes later, we had maneuvered our way towards the caboose end of the train. Unfortunately, we were the last two slavers alive. Even Chain had fallen victim to the NCR vigilantes, being reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash.  Once we reached our specified destination we began to scan the area around us for any sign of the attackers. Peeking out a broken glass window, I spied the bulk of the group running along side us.

Cantering next to the train were a dozen or so ponies equipped with power armor and various heavy weapons. From the way some were pushing forward, I assumed that they were trying to make their way towards the head of the train so they could stop it. If they managed to slow the train to a halt, there would be no way for Knocker and myself to get it started again. The two of us might be able to drive the soldiers off while they where on the outside, but if they worked their way into the train there would be no way in all of Equestria that we could survive the bombardment of bullets and lasers inside the cramped box cars.

“If you have armor piercing ammo, it would be best to use it now!” I shouted to Knocker as I loaded six incendiary rounds into my own revolver. He produced a hoofful of bullets from the pocket on his vest.

“All I have is hollow points.”

“Then save them for when that Pegasus I saw earlier comes to get us. She was lightly armored so those bullets will tear her to shreds.

I turned my attention back to the ponies that ran bellow us.  I took a deep breath as I wrapped my left hoof around the release latch to the side door, picking out a single target amongst the group outside. As soon as I threw the door open, I would shoot at the pony who was at the head of the posse. With a resolute grunt, I yanked the side door open and fired my revolver at my intended target

“BANG!”

My ears rang like church bells as the gun discharged. The forty-five seventy round traveled through the air at the speed of light and connected with my target’s metallic protection. I had missed my intended objective by a bit and hit the pony’s chest piece instead of his helmet. The round bounced off the soldiers thick plating, leaving behind a mean scorch mark. I hadn’t managed to kill him, but the impact had knocked him off of his hooves and sent him tumbling to the ground.

That was one less NCR merc to deal with for the time being, but now the remaining infantry had taken notice to me and were preparing to return fire. I ducked behind the wall of the train car just in time to avoid a burst of heavy machine gun rounds. Once the bullets had stopped flying, I risked a glance around the edge of my cover and saw that the pony who had shot at me had fallen behind a ways. The cause most likely being how difficult it was to run and shoot a battle saddle at the same time.

I returned my focus to the closer members of the attacking group. Having abandoned any attempt to shoot me, the group had increased it’s speed and was closing the gap between themselves and the front of the train.

“Shoot at them.” I ordered Knocker. “Try and get them to scatter!” As Knocker opened fire with his pistol, I fired my own gun blindly three more times. Most of our shots missed, and the few that did hit their mark either ricocheted off the soldier’s armor, or simply caused them to stumble and fall over.

The distance between my enemies was growing, so I was forced to sprint ahead through several cars to get a clear shot. I dashed from the end of one cart to another, gliding over the gaps in between them . Knocker trailed close behind, still firing his weapon at our assailants through shattered windows and splintered walls.

We managed to get ahead of them and reach the front of the train first. It was upsetting that their was so little cover and not a lot of room in the car, but just being there would make it harder for the NCR soldiers to board. Knocker and I took a moment to reload our weapons, and find decent enough firing positions. I flew up to the roof of the train so that I could gain a significant height advantage over the ponies on the ground, and a get clear shot at any pegasae that came our way. Knocker, on the other hoof, stayed bellow. He preferred to use the metal casing surrounding the train’s controls as cover.

Before I could take a shot at the approaching ground forces, I was taken off guard by two explosions to the right of me. The napalm from the propelled grenades entered my flesh, and sent waves of pain tearing through my body. The force of the detonation propelled me back a bit, but not enough to send me over the side of the train. Fortunately for me,  I didn’t catch much shrapnel, so the damage was minimal. It just hurt like a bitch.

After regaining my footing, I turned my attention to the group of newcomers who I assumed had thrown the explosives at me. It was three pegasae. Two of them circled above me; one was the mare I had spotted earlier, the other was an older stallion equipped with a set of magic rifles. The third pony stood on the train car behind mine. She wore the same crude armor as her companions, except she had a set of grenade rifles strapped to her battle saddle instead of automatic ones.

She released a second volley of grenades in my direction before I could even raise my gun. I managed to take to the air at the last moment, just barley escaping dismemberment. Unfortunately, her two companions where there to meet me in mid-air combat. The older stallion made a move to knock me out of the sky, but I managed to dodge the attack with some effort. Where the old charger had failed, the mare succeeded. Her aim was surprisingly accurate for somepony who was flying and shooting at the same time. A few of her shots whizzed past me as I increased my altitude, but two punctured my left wing and sent me crashing head first onto the top of the train.

My vision swam as I desperately fought my way to my hooves. I saw the older stallion coming in for a landing next to me, and the mare with the grenade rifles nonchalantly strolling over to my wobbling form. I feared for the worst, thinking that this could be the end. With the last of my strength I finally got myself onto my hooves and made a break for Knocker’s position. If I could just reach him, then we could take on the three pegasae together, and beat them!

It took me a second to realize how foolish that notion was. I was in no shape to fight right now, and there was no way Knocker could take on the three pegasae and the closing ground troopers alone. Besides that, the demolition Pegasus could easily toss a grenade into the control box and turn the two of us into red paste.

Just then, two more grenades whistled past me. For a moment, I thanked Celestia for the horrid aim of my pursuer. That was until I realized where the two missed shots were headed towards. The first one landed inside the control box. The second flew completely over the train, and was lost beneath the speeding locomotion.

They went off simultaneously. I heard somepony scream in agony as a red mist spewed out from the control box’s windows. Their shrieks of pain were drowned out half a second later as the explosion from the second mortar sent the several box cars flying off the tracks. I was helpless with my wounded wing, and I soon found myself tumbling head over heals through the air as the entire train was derailed. Time slowed in the last few seconds before I hit the ground, giving me just enough measure to realize what was happening.

“I’m going to die.”

“I’m going to die.”

“I’m going to-

And that’s when I hit the ground.

___________

When I awoke a while later, the sun was already setting in the west. Must’ve been unconscious for two or three hours at the least. I tried to stand, but was too dehydrated to make it to my hooves. I lay on the ground a few minutes more before trying to lift myself up again. I was able to push myself up, but found that my back legs were stuck beneath a pile of debris. Thankfully they weren’t crushed, but it would take a lot of effort to get them free.

I struggled with the rubble for a minute, slowly slipping my way out from beneath it. That was until I heard the sound of approaching hooves. From what I could tell there was more than one pony coming my way. Chances were it was NCR searching the wreckage for any remaining slavers. I laid my head down and played dead. With my blood soaked body and tattered wing, I would make a very convincing cadaver.

Sure enough, four armored NCR soldiers walked into my line of sight from the right. They stopped right in front of my prone form, and I feared they would see past my disguise!

“There! I see one!” shouted one of the soldiers. “Beneath that pile of debris!” I squeezed my eyes shut as the soldiers approached me, holding my breath in anticipation for the coming end. A few seconds passed, yet nothing happened. I opened one eye out of curiosity and saw the soldiers approaching a different pile of wreckage. They rummaged through it for a minute before pulling the bloody remains of a pony out from underneath.

“What did you find?” asked a feminine voice above me. The demolition Pegasus from earlier swooped down and landed behind the other soldiers as they lay the broken pony on the ground.

“Slaver, ma’am, and he’s still alive. He’s bleeding out, though, so we’ll have to give him medical treatment before questioning him.” the mare shook her head at this.

“We’ve got enough wounded of our own to take care of. Wake him up and give him some water, we’ll interrogate him here and now.” They soldiers quickly worked to obey the Pegasus, who I deduced was their leader. Two of them sat the unconscious stallion upright, while a third produced a water bottle from his saddle bag and splashed its contents on their captive’s face.

The soldier continued to douse the slaver until he started to wake up. Once he was aware enough, they opened his mouth and poured the last of the water from the bottle down his throat. He choked on the first mouthful, but greedily sucked down the rest of it. Once the bottle had been emptied, the three soldiers released their prisoner and let him sit up by himself. They then parted away from the slaver and let the Pegasus mare approach him.

“Do you know who we are?” she asked coolly.

“Yes.” he choked in reply.

“Do you know why we are here?”

“You want the… *Cough*… slaves, right?”

“They’re not slaves anymore, mister….”

“Knocker, my name is Knocker.”

“Shit” I whispered to myself.

“A pleasure to meet you.” mocked the Pegasus. “My name is Copper, Copper Wire.” She extended a hoof for him to shake, but Knocker just glared at her. After an awkward moment of silence, Copper retracted her hoof and returned it to the ground.

“Stop fucking around.” growled Knocker. “Just tell me what you want with me.” Copper looked a little disappointed that her captive was so unwilling to play along with her. With a sigh, she kicked the battle saddle attached to her back to chamber a round into her grenade rifles.

“Fine, I’ll be blunt with you. If you tell me where your home base is and where you were headed, then I’ll make this as painless as possible. If you refuse to tell me what I want, I will break you. Then you’ll know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of all the pain you‘ve dished out.”

I could see the strain on Knocker’s face. All his chips where on the table, and the cards had been dealt. In his hooves he held the dead man’s hand, a combination of cards notorious for spelling out doom for their holder. There was no way out of this predicament. It was just a matter of time before Knocker finally cracked under the pressure and revealed the location of our settlement.

“We were heading to Hoofbeat.” He murmured. “There’s going to be a slave auction there starting tomorrow.”

“And what about your base of operations?”

“Follow the train tracks heading north. When they split, keep to the left and head into the canyon. You’ll see my home on the other side.”

Knocker chocked back a sob once he had finished. I, myself, let out a disappointed sigh. I figured he would have resisted a little bit before finally caving, but he had instead taken the easy way out. I guess he figured that he was a dead stallion anyways, living on limited time. Perhaps it was for the best if he just quit while he still had something to loose, and that was a moment of peace to ask for forgiveness before being blown to smithereens.

“You see, that wasn’t so hard!” exclaimed Copper. “I’m glad you were so compliant.” Knocker continued to glare at her. He had no more words to speak, he just wanted everything to end. With a wave of her hoof, Copper motioned for her armored companions to move away from Knocker before readying her weapon. The cocky grin disappeared from her face as she took aim, replacing it with a stern frown. She just stood there for a minute, staring down the sights of her weapon, not moving a muscle.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Chocked Knocker as Copper continued to zero in on him. “Just fucking get on with it. That is, of course, unless your afraid you’ll mi-”

His last words were cut off by the sudden discharge of two grenades from the NCR mare’s battle saddle. They flew through the air, and connected with Knocker’s broken body. They detonated on impact, tearing him to shreds in an instant. Once the dust had settled, all that remained of my associate was a bloody scorch mark.

“Celestia save you, ya’ filthy bastard.” Copper turned to her comrades and motioned for them to listen to her. “I want you to organize our soldiers into three squads. One will head to Hoofbeat to shut down the slave trafficking going on there. The second will follow the tracks back to these slaver’s hideout and clear it out. The last group will escort the surviving slaves we freed here back to NCR territory. Got it?”

“Yes Ma’am!” They all replied in unison. I relaxed my muscles as they departed to complete their tasks. It was likely that I was the last remaining slaver from my group, so I would have to get out of this predicament all on my own. For now, that meant resting a bit and waiting for the NCR to clear out. Once they left, I would have all the time in the world to free myself from the wreckage. I laid there and just breathed for a while, focusing on nothing but the pattern of my heart beat.

“One, two.”

“One, two”

“One, two”

And before I knew it, I had fallen into a restless sleep.