Fallout Equestria and The Number Station

Chapter 10: A story to remember

Late at night. The mall's big lights had been shut down leaving only the dim bulbs to light Palomino. This was the time of night that Red Rope's more curious patrions came out to her place of business. The wagon dock area was now patrolled by caravan guards, each guarding their customer's possessions. As for Artemis and her gang, they sat in Hayseed's wagon. With no room to camp outside it would be a tight squeezed night for everyone. They all sat around the wagon including Obsidian Shine, although still bound.

Lady was feeding Obsidian a can of soup ever so kindly. She looked thankful for the food but worried about the judgement about to be passed on her. The area of her head Verity had hit her was now hidden by a bandanna with gauze on it. Once she finished the can Lady gently put the gag back in her mouth.

Artemis looked at Obsidian Shine then to the wagon entrance. Hans was supposed to be here by now. He did have a habit of being late and if he didn't get here soon they would be asleep and dinner was almost ready. Maybe Madame Rope had other plans- speak of the devil....

"Hi! Guys!" Hans let him self and waved to everyone.

"Hans. It took you long enough." Artemis smiled and punched his shoulder.

"Oh yeah sorry, I had this facesitting thing before I left." He said...then the air became a little awkward.

"Were you sitting or sat on?" Aroma asked awkwardly.

Hans leaned in close to the orange mare. "That's mystery isn't it." He purred mischievously. "Oh my, who's that?" Hans noticed Obsidian Shine in the corner.

"Err uh she's our prisoner. She surrendered in a shootout on our way here and we've been deciding what to do with her." Artemis explained rubbing her head. "We were actually going to do that before dinner."

"Kinky." Hans smirked.

Hans pulled out his pistol. The classic 1911 it had elaborate engravings, pearl grips and the words "With Love" engraved on the sides. It was his classic pistol. It was piece of Hans and a well crafted gun in general.

"We could just take her outside and shoot her?" He said with a charming cool. Verity nodded at his idea.

"I like the way you think. But she has used our resources being in detainment. Her death must be painful or she must compensate us for our loss." He proclaimed. "I say we put her on a cross and leave her. Or sell her into slavery to make our money back." Verity suggested.

Verity's idea wasn't well received from the looks of the ponies around the wagon.

"We could just let her go. Make her promise not to hurt anyone again." Aroma suggested shyly.

"She's a bandit, she only understands violence." Verity argued. Obsidian began shaking her head with a worried expression.

"I think we should let her testify." Hans said holstering With Love. Lady ungagged her and she coughed before speaking.

"Oh please not crucifixion! Kill me before that." She begged.

"Give us a good reason we shouldn't kill you." Artemis ordered her.

"She'll only lie. It's what the dissolute do. Her testimony has no weight." Verity declared folding his arms. Artemis only sighed.

"Ugh, everyone outside, let's think of an idea." Artemis said and hovered outside and the others in tow.

Now they huddled outside in a small circle. Preparing to quickly make a decision. Why was this so damn hard? Court should not be this complex!

"Maybe she could join us? Be a companion in our group?" Aroma suggested.

"Hmm." Artemis hummed disapproving. "If we let her go she could still try something...like Verity." Artemis added.

"Like me?" Verity asked raising an eyebrow indignantly.

"I know!" Hans said happily. "Okay now Madame Rope was...less than pleased with my departure. Maybe we could give the mare to her as a parting gift?"

Artemis had something in her gut about selling Obsidian Shine to a brothel. It felt wrong, forcing her into that was to alike to slavery. This was a losing battle, the longer it took to make a solution the less she cared about her fate, she can't believe she even considered Hans' idea.

"Ugh! Verity how quickly can you execute her? Wait, no. Damn." Artemis face palmed.

"Look slavery is a nasty word but think about it. She will live and it'll be like serving hard labor for her crimes, like prison." Verity said with that unexpected charisma. He sounded like he made this idea from facts and not his brutal Legion justice.

"But we might be selling a party member?" Aroma asked frowning. The others stared at her, bewildered by her wording.

There was a very long pause. Verity's idea was gaining majority. But they would be selling a pony into slavery! Albeit not an innocent pony, a bandit. But still it didn't settle with her stomach at all.

"It seems we're deadlocked. We'll think of a verdict another time." Artemis concurred. Expressions of relief, anger disapproval and disappointment crossed their faces.

"Court is adjourned darlings." Hans said and walked back inside the wagon.

~Later in the night. The gang sat in the wagon and Obsidian Shine lay in a corner with a bag over her head. Grandpa was about to tell a story.~

A lantern sat in the middle of the group as they huddled around to listen to Grandpa. He held his hooves together and spoke in low ominous tone.

"Now I have story for you guys. A story from before the war....." He trailed off.

"In the days before the end ponykind was desperately trying to find ways to defeat the zebras....But there was a secret project..." He took a slow deep breath. The darkness seemed to close in on them all. Grandpa's story was actually intriguing even Verity was interested and Aroma was deeply enraptured, barely on the edge of her seat.

"The ministries worked together on a project. A network called the Dead Hoof Retaliation Network. A network that was supposed to fire every warhead Equestria had if the leadership...Canterlot was attacked. Least to say it worked but there were glitches, it was imperfect. Many zebra lands sank beneath the boiling oceans once the Dead Hoof launched Equestria's arsenal. Imagine it, as Canterlot fell the DHRN activated, firing everything. The zebra's that fired on Canterlot started armageddon but the Dead Hoof finished it. A single radio station sent a signal to all the silos in seconds and overrode every safety protocol launching thousands of warheads...." He told his story masterfully. Now Artemis was enraptured.

"And in a couple hours the world was brought to a violent and fiery end....."

"But! That's just where the story begins. After the war something happened to the Dead Hoof it changed. Some say taint got to it, others say the ghosts of the dead corrupted it. I say, all those deaths, billions in under 120 minutes changed it, cursed forever as a haunted spectre, and with that the numbers station was born."

"N,n,number station?" Aroma asked weakly.

"Yes, it is a rare station that can tell the future. It tells the past, present and future. You need only find it and ask it."

"Has anyone ever found it?" Artemis asked. Grandpa shook his head.

"Me and my friend back in our youth tried to find it. He was obsessed with it. I think it beckoned to him. We traveled all over the waste trying to find it. I searched with him until my baby girl was born and I gave up. I expected my friend to be upset but by then all he cared about was finding the number station. He stopped sleeping, eating, bathing. It was the only thing he cared about. I never saw him again." Grandpa finished.

"Sometimes I wonder if he found it. But maybe there are somethings mortals just can't have." He added stoically.

There was a long pause. Grandpa sounded so right, so sure of himself. Was it true? It couldn't be true could it? The look in his eye and his expression....it spoke honestly. Like he and his friend spent their youths looking for this number station but he lost his friend to it and barely escaped himself. It's true there were things that you could never explain but this, this was a lot to believe.

"Is this real?" Aroma asked awaiting his reply. Grandpa simply nodded.

"Yes. It is." He said plainly. "We came pretty close, but me and my wife had Lady and I quit and decided to raise my family. He went on like I was never there, he was talking to himself by then....sometimes I wish I stopped him. You might not believe me but sometimes...those stories are true."

Grandpa yawned and went to his cot and bade everyone goodnight. But Artemis and her group just sat in silence. Could this be real? If such a thing existed, to know the future... Sleeping that night was difficult. Artemis's thoughts were jumbled and fuddled. Considering the cramped conditions, Verity laying next to her. She could feel his hot breath on occasion. But mostly, her brain was buzzing with thoughts of the number station.