Chapter One: Boom
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Fallout: Equestria - Infamy

Chapter One: Boom

Fallout: Equestria - Infamy

Chapter One: Boom

By: TheEggroller

“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...”

“War. War never changes.” Who even said that? Somepony who was too old to know what they were saying and just rambling their words to anypony who walked by; making it sound very wise? It could’ve been some line from a bible that those crazy preachers carry around with them. Going around and spreading the ‘word’ to the wasteland. I never really did believe in any of it, or for that matter, thought much about it, but if you’re working in the bar long enough, you’ll start to hear drunken stories, and stories from wasteland adventurers. I’ve heard stories of ‘heroes’ and great big wasteland monsters. About the ponies that try to bring good to the wasteland. Stories that are way too epic and good to be true.

I don’t have a clue about what’s out there beyond my town’s walls, but I can bet you that it isn’t anything good. I’ve seen outsider ponies come into my bar, and they’re always broken. They go in and go out. Some come back for another round of drinks, and some die out in the wastes, and I’ve come to notice that the one’s that do return are never really the same. So maybe, given the thought of it, and enough time to think about it and see it, maybe war never does change; but ponies sure do.

--- --- ---

“Ugh, sick! Another pony just yakked all over my floor. Again.” I thought, frowning to myself. “I swear, if ponies are going to be drinking that much in my bar I should really start making them clean up after themselves. Or charge them extra.” The gray buck raised his head from the mess, and caught my glare; instantly, a look of guilt spread across his face. I kept the glare on him for a few more seconds, before giving him a nod of my head towards the restroom. As he trudged into the bathroom to wash his face, I quickly trotted to the back storage room, grabbing a mop and bucket to clean his lunch.

By the time that the buck had emerged out from the restroom, I was already back behind the counter cleaning dirty glasses. He approached me with the same guilty look, and other than looking guilty, he looked absolutely awful. There were heavy bags under his eyes, and his eyes themselves looked almost as red as wine. “I’m sorry.” he muttered, taking a seat on a bar stool as he swept his silver-white mane to the side. He looked to be no more than a few years older than myself.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied as I set a glass aside, and began cleaning out the next, “I’ve had to clean up a lot worse than what you just produced over there,” He flushed with embarrassment and I smirked at him. “How much have you had to drink?” I asked, and he began to blush a smidge bit more.

“Just one.” He answered while turning his eyes to look at an empty glass.

I couldn’t help but let a small chuckle escape. Flicking my mane to the side I asked, “Seriously? I can drink at least five times as you!” An amazing feat for me, considering I’m not really well known for holding down my liquor. Setting the last glass aside. I noticed him eyeing my cutie mark, or my flank, maybe both. Having a wineglass of sherry for my cutie mark might have been an indication that l sometimes drink heavily, but hey. I think it’s been scientifically proven that mares can’t hold as much alcohol as stallions. I think. A hint of a smile flickered upon his face before it disappeared again as quickly as it had come.

“I don’t usually drink, this was just... a special occasion,” he told me. I couldn’t believe it. A special occasion? In the wasteland? I don’t think I’ve ever hear about anything special out here. Was it possible that he found a place outside of the wastes. A place where there are ponies who aren’t struggling to survive each day? Ponies who weren’t dying by the hundreds to wasteland monsters and radiation? I highly doubted it, and why would he be drinking and looking all depressed if that had happened?

“What’s the specialness?” I casually asked him as he dropped his stare down to his hooves on the table.

The gray stallion took a moment to answer. Letting out a shaky breath, he answered, “My… my wife and kid are… are gone…” he stuttered. Oh, well then. Definitely not paradise for the wasteland. I gave him a small, sad frown, and reached forward to place a hoof on his own.

“I’m sorry.” He began to sniffle. That’s all I knew what to say, and I honestly meant it. I’ve used those two words in my life more times than I can remember. Plenty of broken ponies have come into my run-down bar to get drunk off their asses. It was always a mystery to me as to why, but after seeing so many of them. I knew why they did it: To escape from the horrors, the nightmares, and the reality of whatever is out there. I’ve never left this town, I grew up in it, and I expected to die in it. Death seems like such a common thing in the wasteland but should it to be accepted? Or Feared? Definitely feared, but it’s going to take a whole lot of fear to accept it.

A single tear dripped from his eye, and he quickly wiped it away. “Drinks are on the house.” I said patting his hoof and giving him a warm smile. I turned my back, grabbed a bottle in magic, and began to pour a shot glass full of Wild Pegasus, setting the bottle down next to him. He gave me a small smile, and downed the drink. These poor guys showed up in my bar almost every week, and I felt the least I could do for them is give them a free drink. I left him to his drink, and went to the back to store away the cleaning supplies.

The storage room door opened with an obnoxious creak. My bar may have been in a run-down building, but it was also my home. I lived right up the stairs in the back behind locked door in my very own room. The sheriff had helped me renovate the old building, and gave me to space to live and run a bar. It used to be a complete wreck, and invested with radroaches. It took at least two months over all just to make it habitable. Making it probably the hardest work I’ve ever had to do in my life, other than actually working the bar all day long. But I guess I couldn’t really complain when I had one of the easiest jobs in town. Besides, It’s nothing compared to being something big, like the sheriff.

Speaking of the Sheriff. Sheriff Spurs was definitely a motherly figure to me. She was the closest thing that I’ve ever had to a mother since I’ve never really gotten a chance to know my real parents. She told me that they had left me in her care as a young foal, and since then, they hadn’t ever come back. Odds are, they probably went off somewhere and died, or something related to death. Seeing as they never came back for me. So the Sheriff raised me on her own, and I guess that makes her my godmother. I turned my head to face a dusty, cracked, mirror set up on the wall and I saw myself staring back at me.

Spurs had always told me that I was a spitting image of my mother. Beige coat and mahogany mane, except her’s did not have an orange streak running through it. I looked all like my mother, except for my eyes. I’ve got my father’s orange eyes, and his personality along with it. The cutie marks run in the family too. All of which having to do with some sort of beverage, all of them begin alcoholic. I felt like I may have gotten my cutie mark at a bit of an early age, but what can I say? I happened to be a very mischievous filly back then.

I smirked in the mirror while adjusting my ponytail set up in my mane. “Still looking sexy, Sexy” I told my reflecti- wait, no. I frowned and leaned forward, bringing my face closer to the mirror, wiping a bit of leftover food off my horn. By the goddesses. Really, how long had that been there? How did it get there? Ugh, talk about embarrassing... and unsexy.

I left the back room closing the door behind me, and resumed taking my spot behind the counter. The buck from before had just rested his head down on the counter, staring off into endless space with half of the liquor already missing. Other various towns ponies and travellers chatted amongst themselves around the bar. A few were drinking and having a smoke over by the pool table, while others were gambling caps at poker. I turned to the gray buck, and was just about to ask him a question, when the door suddenly slammed open, and a hoof-full of loud, rowdy ponies trotted in, yelling profanities at each other that not even I could understand, or at the very least make sense of.

The first thing that I noticed was that they all seemed to be similarly dressed. Red bandanas and all wore the same barding, bearing the same mark, a scorpion. A more experienced wastelander right then would be thinking, ‘Oh no, this could be trouble,’ but I just so happen to not be one of those ponies. All I’ve known my whole life are the buildings and ponies in the town, so my only thoughts were ‘Oh no, more ponies I have to slave around for,’ yeah, it’s my job, and it is related to my cutie mark, but who says I have to like it?

The lead buck approached up the bar counter, while the others moved about and around the rest of the room. “What can I do ya for?” I asked him as he stood in front of me, with a smirk plastered on his face.

He looked me up and down, “I’d like to do you.” he said to me with a cocky smile. Wait. What? Did he just say he wants to do me? Ew! I’m a barmare, not a prostitute.

“Sorry, not interested, but I’m sure that Sunny would be more than willing to satisfy your needs... for the right price” I turned away to grab a bottle of iced whiskey, and I felt his eyes burning on to my flank. Normally I’d be flattered, but I don’t usually flirt with the outsiders, and I most certainly do not have sex with them! Who knows what sexual diseases they could be carrying?

I took a pull from the bottle, and felt the smooth sensation of whiskey flowing down into my stomach. I don’t usually permit myself to drink while on duty, but, what the hay? I can take a drinking break every once in a while! I set the bottle aside and turned back to ask the burly buck, “Anything else I can do-” and, instead of looking into his face, like I thought I should. My eyes met the barrel of a gun, a .32 revolver to be exact.

Yes, I know my guns. Spurs taught me all about them, and having one pointed in my face isn’t new to me. There’ve been plenty of ponies who’ve pulled out their guns drunkenly. Luckily no shots had ever been fired. I glowered at him levelly between the gun and his face, and he kept on that cocky little smirk. “Now,” he pulled the hammer back, “I wasn’t exactly askin’ ya.”

I snorted. Is this how he wows all the mares? I for one, am not impressed. You’re supposed seduce a mare by giving her lots of attention... and beer! Well, according to my standards at least. Mr. Upchuck buck blinked in alarm, and I gave him a reassuring smile as if to say ‘hey, don’t worry about it, I got this’ or, at least, I hope I gave him that look. I could have given him my ‘you and me, bed, now’ look, which wouldn’t really make sense in a situation like this one.

“Don’t you know that when a mare says no she means no?” I pouted, giving him my best set of puppy dog eyes.

“I don’t know a thing.” He simply answered, none of his facial features wavering in the slightest. Damn, this buck is a hard ass. Nopony can resist my puppy dog eyes! And I would have to agree with him not know anything. He might have that suave look, but I know stupid when I see it. I sighed, and took a swig from my whiskey bottle. I really couldn’t help but notice that all the other gangers that had entered the bar with the buck were armed, not heavily,low caliber pistols, but two had combat shotguns slung around their backs.

“Lookey here…” he faltered.

“Sherry.” I indicated.

“Sherry,” he said my name as if tasting it on his tongue. “I came to this here town looking for a prize, and I’ve found one, so come along nice and easy and let’s not have any trouble, shall we?” Oh, so now he’s trying to smooth talk me into submission. With a sigh I swirled the whiskey, the alcohol already making a slight buzz in my head. That buzz usually tells me I’m about to do something stupid... I think I’m about to do something stupid.

I looked him in the eyes, then with a powerful swing, I smashed the bottle across his head, shards of glass lodging themselves in his face. The revolver skittered across the floor as the buck let out a cry of pain. Yep, I did something stupid.

He snarled, “you’re gonna pay for that you bitch!” Just then, a bullet whizzed by my head, and a bottle behind me exploded, sending the glass shrapnel flying. The rest of the bar went into a frenzied panic. Ponies were pushing past each other to make it out the door, while the gangers drew their weapons and began firing wildly at me and anypony that got in their way. I ducked down and another bottle exploded, covering me in alcohol and shattered glass.

Sheesh, this guy just went from ‘let me make love to you’ to ‘I’m gonna blow your fucking brains out!’ such class, but not my kind of buck.

Other than that. Right now, my biggest concern was that none of the bystanders were to get injured in my bar. They could probably sue me!

I fished a key ring out of my pocket, and fumbled with the lock on a cabinet door as two more bottles shattered above me. Another spray of shots hit above me causing me to move away for a moment to avoid the shower of glass. The lock clicked and the cabinet opened, revealing an old, battered 9mm pistol. Not strong, but at least it’s a gun. I gripped it in my magic, an orange glow surrounding the gun.

The gunfire seemed to subside, and I peeked my head above the counter. Only to come face to face with an angry whiskey shard faced buck.

His eyes were red, and blood trickled down his fur, matting it down and shading it notably darker, and then I realized he was holding a chair above his head. I then found out how bad it hurts for your face to get smashed by one.

Dazed, I lost my hold on the pistol. The powerful buck lept behind the counter, and grabbed me in his hooves. Tossing me out from behind and into the open. I tumbled to the floor, knocking over a table and everything on it. The rest of the gangers cheered as I lay in pain, and the burly buck loomed over me.

“Yeah! Shove it up her ass, Blade!” one of them yelled from the crowds near the back.

The buck, whose name is ‘Blade’ I guess. Gave his cocky little grin to them, and bowed. He then turned to face me, positioning himself. “Time to pay up!” he sneered, while I got a good look of the package hanging between his back legs.

I gulped, preparing my anus for what was to come. Two bullets slammed into Blade’s armor, one hitting clean through and the other hitting against it just enough to make him stagger. I turned my head, to see the gray buck, holding the .32 revolver in his mouth. His eyes were hard and determined, nothing like they were from before. A ganger from behind him was seen bringing up his gun and lining up a shot. The buck turned to him, but before he even pulled the trigger, the gangers head blew up in a meaty explosion. I took the window of opportunity to slide out from under Blade, and with a drunkenly graceful motion rolled around the turned over table.

Another ganger hit the wooden floor of the bar, forehoof smacking a stool on the way down. All attention was turned to the door, and the sheriff walked in. She held a rifle in her hooves, and her sandy blonde mane blew in the wind as it swept through the door. Her tan hide glistening in sweat. The rifle went off again in her hooves, and the bullet was sent through the leg of a stunned ganger. Causing him to drop to the floor in agony.

With a hard glare she said, “out... now.” death seeped with each syllable. The gangers, still in shock, were frozen for a few more seconds, before retreating out the door behind her. Blade kept his unwavering position in the middle of the room.

“You’re going to regret ever messing with Scorpions!” he snarled, glaring Spurs down, however she kept her posture and her own stare steady.

“How about you shove that ego of yours up your ass and scram?” she remarked keeping the rifle level with his head. He looked around the room, to see that all of the bucks had left. Even the one that had been shot in the leg seemed to have stumbled out. Blade slowly made his way out, muttering something about mares and how they’re all just meat waiting to get slammed. The gray stallion dropped the .32 revolver on the ground, both of our eyes were on him.

He flushed, a bit, noticing that we were staring at him, “I guess I’ll be going now…” he also made his way to the door.

“Wait!” I called out to him. He turned back to look at me behind the overturned table. “I never caught your name.” I said to him.

He looked at me for a moment, processing my question. Then he gave me a small friendly smile, “the names Steel Sprocket” and with that, he passed by Spurs, giving her a nod and trotting out the door. Dang, I really wish I could have talked to him a little longer, he’s kinda cute. When he’s not puking on my floor, that is. Spurs slung her rifle along her back, and trotted over to my table barricade.

“You alright?” she asked me, with concern filling her eyes.

“Never better,” I told her as she began checking me for any injuries. She took my hoof and held it in her own, raising it to her face and inspecting it up close, obviously worried that I did get hurt and I just wasn’t telling her. She was just starting to examine my other hoof before I pulled it away. “I’m not hurt,” I said, “I can handle myself, y’know?” She was always worrying about me, because she knows that I’ve broken bones before when I’m doing simple things; Like late night drinking.

She let out a sigh. One of those sighs that I knew all too well. “I know, Sherry, but dammit, you could’ve been killed!” she exclaimed, anger in her eyes. “What got them folks all riled up?” she asked, looking ready to bash some skulls in.

“It’s my fault, really,” I said, “I shouldn’t break beer bottles on my customers’ faces,” I caught a shocked look on her face, “only when they try to make me have sex with them!” I grinned and she frowned.

“What am I going to do with you?” She asked, bringing her hooves to her head, and rubbing her temples.

“Get me a pinball machine?!”

“With you, not for you.” She stated.

“Well… if you got me a pinball machine, that might do something with me!”

Spurs face hoofed. An action I’ve seen used by her numerous times with me. What? I just really want a pinball machine, all that pre-war stuff is amazing! Spurs removed her stetson and wiped her brow, “maybe we could do that.” She mumbled in defeat.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, pumping my hoof into the air.

“But,” Aww, I hate buts. “I’m going to be tightening security.” What?

“How come?” I questioned as I picked bits of food off my fur.

“Spotter told me that the town is being watched.” The brown mare explained, turning the table back up. The bar was a complete mess. Bullet holes were littered across the walls, chairs were overturned, and pictures were smashed. The worst thing however, was that more than half of the alcohol was gone, shards of glass and liquor dripped off the shelves and onto the ground in a puddle of sadness.

I held back the tears from my spilled beer and asked, “Who’d want to watch Neighside?” Honestly, Neighside is not an interesting place. It’s just a local town where some ponies will decide to settle down in. All that was here before any of this was the town hall with a few shabby buildings here and there. Until some wasteland ponies decided to build a community all around it all to create Neighside. I’m sure there’s more history to it, but I hardly ever paid attention when learning about history. Other than that, just your normal town.

“I don’t have a clue, but I want you to watch your back, lock your doors at night,” and then she added, “and try not to get the town destroyed.” I haven’t been that close to destroying the town! Three town fires should not be held against me.

“Done, done, and done!” I nodded, and gave my most sincere smile. I could handle all of that, right? If remember, that is. One of my flaws is thatI don’t have the greatest memory. Or was it that I’m too indecisive? I forget.

“Good, and it’d be nice if you wore that PipBuck of yours, an E.F.S would be mighty helpful for you,” Spurs looked back at me, and saw the blank expression I wore. “Sherry, you do know where your PipBuck is, right?”

Silence.

“Do you even know what a PipBuck is?”

“Not a clue.” I answered, and she let out another sigh.

She gestured to her forehoof. “It’s large, silvery-grayish, goes around your hoof, has a screen, it’s like a miniature terminal.” Slowly, a light flicked on in my head.

“Oh! You mean that paper weight?” facehoof, “sometimes I use it as a coaster.” a groan.

“I thought you loved pre-war tech.” Spurs responded while she piled the dead bodies up next to the door. I went back to retrieve the mop and bucket again.

“Oh, I do! But that hunk of junk hasn’t been working at all.” I began mopping up blood and alcohol off the floor, floating meaty pony bits into a trash bag, a few drops of the red syrup started leaking out of a tiny tear. Disgusting. I was just glad that I wasn’t cleaning up somepony that I knew.

“Then get Wrench Work to fix it,” she told me, stripping the guns and ammo off the carcassas. She deposited the ammo into her pockets and slung the guns around her back to be stored into the town’s armory. “That buck knows all about PipBucks, he’s a bit obsessed if you ask me.” Spurs began to drag the bodies out the door.

“I’ll look into- hey, where are you going?” I asked, bringing the mop up off the floor.

“I’m going to get rid of these bodies.” She replied, trotting outside.

“Aren’t you going to help me clean up?!” I yelled out to her, running to the door, with the bucket of trace radiated water spilling behind me.

“Nope.” the door slammed shut.

I growled at the wooden door, and looked back at the pig pen I had once called a bar. Then I uttered those eight dangerous words. “ At least it can’t get any worse, right?” Then, as if on cue, my entire shelf of alcoholic beverages came spilling down with a floor rumbling crash.

Fuck me with a corkscrew.

--- --- ---

After three hours of cleaning, and two hours of restocking. I retired myself upstairs to my bathroom. I felt sticky and grimy. Sticky, because I ended up rolling in the pool of alcohol crying over spilt scotch and vodka. Grimy, because I had touched all of those meaty pony bits. Even though I didn’t physically touch them with my hooves, but my magic still felt dirty. Was it possible to wash your magic?

I turned to the sink and twisted the knob to test my experiment, but, how was I supposed to do it? I stared long and hard at the running water. Then I attempted to hold onto some of the water dripping from the faucet. The water droplets glowed orange for a second, before they dropped back down into the sink with a splash. I attempted a couple more times before I gave up. I’ve never been great with magic. Magic required concentration, and concentration is something that I did not possess.

I tapped my horn, and frowned at myself in the dirty mirror (yuck, that mirror needed cleaning too). I know unicorns that can perform a variety of spells. Such as healing magic, shield spells, I’ve even seen some kinky sex spells! And I admit that I’ve tried to learn those sex spells, any spells. The only piece of magic that I’m capable of even grasping is telekinesis. I just don’t have the concentration to learn anything beyond that. With a sigh I turned the knob once again to turn off the sink. I removed the band that was holding my ponytail in place, and my mane fell down to my back with a shake of my head.

I checked myself over, seeing that my beige coat was colored with a number of alcohol stains, right, taking a shower now. I slipped in and let the water rush over me. The water supply that Neighside possessed was clean. And when I say clean, I mean that it doesn’t hold the amount of radiation that almost all the other water in Equestria does.

I groaned and relaxed as the hot water began to loosen my bones. Apart from beer, sex, and pre-war technology. Showers have to be one of my most favorite things in the wasteland. Being in a shower really helps me concentrate. It’s also where I usually stop and think about what I’m doing in my life. Then those thoughts are shooed away once I’m out.

After a good soaking, I stepped out of the shower, and grabbed a towel to dry myself off. My mane became frazzled so I began to run a brush through it a few times, making a few yelps of pain as it went through some of the particularly rough tangles. I set the brush aside, looking at my neatly combed mane, and smiling at my reflection.

And now. The moment I’ve been waiting all day for... bed time! I rushed out of the bathroom, and belly flopped onto my bed. The springs bouncing me up and down a few times. I cuddled my face into the sheets and ran my hoof along the mattress. I took in a great whiff and smelled the smell of… me!

Great memories had happened on this bed, memories that I would never forget.

Just as I began to close my eyes, a silvery light caught my eye. I raised my head and turned it to look over at the wood desk, which held many papers and other knick-knacks I’ve been too lazy to find a home for. The PipBuck shined in the dull light coming through the window. Heaving myself out of bed, and trotting over, I glimpsed out the glass, only to see the dull gray cloud cover. Ponies have told me that there’s something above those clouds, something that surface ponies would never be able to see. The sun and the moon, they called it. I’ve only seen pictures of them in books, and I find it hard to imagine anything above that gray blanket.

I sat at the desk, and took the PipBuck in my hooves, lifting it up to my face. I examined it, squinting in the dim light. I tapped it a few times, pressed a few buttons, nothing. I guess it was dead, but Spurs told me that Wrench Work could fix it. I peered in on the inside, but it was much too dark for me to be able to see anything. I attempted to open it up, but it wouldn’t budge. Then I tried to slip my hoof in from the bottom, and that wouldn’t work either. Eventually, after ten minutes of pointless struggle I brought the PipBuck over to my bed and settled down cuddling it in my chest. I remember where I had gotten it from; who I had gotten it from.

A shadow of guilt washed over me. Shouldn’t this be my treasured possession? The one thing that they were able to leave with me, the only thing that I have of them. Through the sorrow and guilt, something else was nagging me at the back of my mind, attempting to show itself among all my other jumbled thoughts. I just couldn’t put my hoof on it. I did my best to push the thought away, and held the PipBuck to my chest. Drifting off into sleep.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“So, you’re not my real momma?” I asked Spurs. Wide eyed and on the verge of tears. She, herself, looked like she really did not want to have this conversation. How could this be true? I’ve lived with her all my life! Isn’t that what all colts and fillies do? Live with their parents? She just gave a slow, sad shake of her head. “Th-then, who is?” a drop of salty liquid dripped down my face, and I could feel more coming. Spurs had just finished explaining to me that she wasn’t my real mom, and that I had just been left in her care; my real parents never returning.

“I wouldn’t know how to explain that to you, kiddo,” she blew her sandy blonde mane out of her eyes, obviously trying to keep up her tough mare routine, but failing to do so. “I can tell you that your mother looks just like you, and you’re so much like your father.” Silence. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to think. All I did was stare up at her, with my big, orange eyes.

We were both sitting on the sofa in our little home. All containing just four rooms, one for me, one for Spurs, a bathroom, and everything else crammed into the biggest. It might not have been much, but I liked it. It was home.

Spurs had just called me from my room, and told me that we needed to talk. At first I thought I was in trouble for doing something I wasn’t supposed to do, but right now, I was wishing I was in trouble. Instead of... This.

I sat, and I thought. Not really sure on what to do. When realization finally came to me my lips began to tremble, before I broke out into sob. Spurs held me close as I sobbed into her chest. “W-why didn’t they wa-want me?!” I cried harder with each word and each second. “I’m- I’m just a stupid unicorn w-who can’t do m-magic or a-anything!” I felt her firm hooves grab me, and Spurs held me out in front of her and looked me in the eyes long and hard.

“Young filly, do not talk about yourself like that!” I sniffed and tearfully looked up at her. Her expression softened and she brought me back into her embrace as my sobbing was subsided. “Sherry, you’re the greatest little filly any parents could ask for,” she stroked my mane and I began to calm down even further, my sobbing turning into small sniffles. “Your mom and dad love you, and I know that for a fact. I don’t know why they didn’t come back, but I’m sure it was for a very good reason.” She rested her chin on my head, and I felt a few warm, wet tears drip down into my mane.

“You’re just like a daughter to me, Sherry, and you’re the best daughter I could have ever dreamed of. And if you’re like that to me, than gosh darnit! You must be a million times more to your real parents.” then she began to sob, and now it was my turn to comfort. She sobbed into my mane and I held her tighter, stroking her own as she began to calm down.

She lifted her head and I looked up, giving her a smile. “I am pretty great, aren’t I?” I asked, as she laughed, wiping away the last of her tears. We continued to sit there for a while longer, letting the new turn of events sink in. I think I may have always known Spurs wasn’t my real mother. I’d never seen her with any stallion before, and once when I asked her about a dad and she had quickly changed the subject. This was now just a confirmation of my suspicions. Even though I might have already known, it still hurt at the time.

“Mom?” I asked her.

“Hmm?”

“You’re the best momma a filly could ask for.”

--- --- ---

I opened my eyes, and felt the unpleasant feeling of cold steel against my throat. It felt strangely like a knife.

That’s when I remembered what had been bothering me so much! I didn’t lock my doors. I would have screamed, but I figured that would have gotten my throat slit. So, instead I lay completely still, letting my eyes adjust into the dark. Once I was able to make out a few shadows, I moved my eyes towards the window, it appeared to be the middle of the night. I was still cuddling the PipBuck. Cradling it between my chest and hooves. And slowly, the dark figure of a pony came into focus.

“Time to pay up, bitch” Blade whispered in my ear scornfully, almost being able to hear his grin. I wanted to scream, kick, punch, do anything I could, but I knew that would only lead to my demise. And now, I was about to be raped because of my idiocy in forgetting to lock a stupid door!

I felt the cool metal of the rusty knife as he slowly ran it down my neck, though, not with enough force to cause any pain. A gasp escaped from my lips as he sped up for a split-second, and I felt a few droplets of liquid on the spot where the knife had cut, and the knife further advanced along down my body. I shivered and held the PipBuck closer to my chest. By now, my eyes were fully adjusted.

It might have been luck, or maybe the goddesses were on my side. But Blade’s ego was bigger than my alcohol addiction. In fact, so big. That he didn’t take the necessary protection to protect his junk; too confident in himself that he had succeeded. Just as the knife was nearing my hind legs I let out a scream and gave him a good, hard, old fashioned kick in nuts. Blade dropped the knife. He gasped and plummeted to the floor in pain.

I took my chance. I clutched the PipBuck in my mouth, and made like mad towards the door, attempting to scream for help through the piece of metal in my mouth. Big mistake. I felt my tail as it was yanked back. I sprawled onto the floor, and my chin hit it, causing me to chomp down, hard.

Pain shot up from my flank as I felt the knife stab into my back. I tried to scream, but it was only a muffled wail. I tried to spit or cough out the PipBuck, but it was stuck in my mouth, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to breath. I attempted to use my magic but I couldn’t concentrate enough to use it with the amount of pain I was feeling.

He pinned my forelegs down, and growled at me “I’m going to tear you apart, starting with your ass!” I struggled, and attempted to kick, him but each back leg movement only brought more pain. I managed to get one measly kick on him, but little did I know that that was all I needed.

He slammed a hoof into my gut, knocking the wind out of me, sending along with it the PipBuck flying out of my mouth and nailing him in noggin. It must have hurt, because he fell back and landed on his butt. I laid there, wheezing on the ground. I still couldn’t scream, not until I got air back in my lungs. The PipBuck had landed back beside me. I weakly took it into my hooves and hugged it close.

Blade recovered before I did, and loomed over me again. I tried to get up, or crawl away, but air was just barely getting back into my lungs. All I did was try to make myself as small as possible by curling up into a ball, and once again, preparing my anus.

I heard distant shouts from outside. I hoped maybe that somepony had heard something and was on their way right now. I hid my face from Blade, clenching my eyes shut. I don’t know how long I was like that, a minute? Maybe three? But when I dared to open my eyes and look up, he wasn’t there. I scanned the room, no Blade. Bed, desk, closet, mirror.

I let out a breath of relief now that I could actually breathe again. I made it past getting raped, twice now. I’m pretty awesome if I did that, right? Yeah I am! My eyes began to sting, and my lip quivered a little. Oh sweet Luna no. Just please, please, whatever I do don’t- shit.

And I couldn’t help it, I began to cry.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve actually cried, cried with meaning. Sure, I would cry, sometimes when I get drunk. But I mean actually crying for a real reason. For being scared. I curled back into a ball, sobbing, and holding tight onto the PipBuck.

Hoofsteps could be heard trotting up the stairs, and a familiar voice called out, “Sherry?! Sherry, are you alright? Your door was open and-” Spurs emerged into the room with her pistol ready, and she saw me sobbing brokenly on the floor. Her look went from confused to bewildered when she saw the knife that was still lodged into my flank.

She wasted no time in rushing over to my side and holding me tight as I lifted my head and began to sob into her chest; just like I had so many years ago. It brought me back to the time when I was the little filly too shy to leave the house, too shy to play with any of the other colts and fillies. Spurs carefully removed the knife from my butt while I continued to cry a mess. “He didn’t… Touch you, did he?” she asked, with her attempt of steering a clear path around any sexual terms. I shook my head side to side, and she held me tighter. “Thank the goddesses.” she mumbled, stroking my mane.

I felt like I could have sat there for the rest of the night. Just sitting there with her. It’d been three years since I had decided to move out of Spurs’ house and live on my own. Of course, she was still just a trot away, but during that time we had started to grow distant. I spent most of my days in the bar, and she had spent hers out on patrol of the town. Our schedules never met at ends. Sure she’d come in when I was working from time to time to grab a quick bite or something to drink, but then she’d be out the door again, and I’d be busy with other customers. I never realized how much I really missed her company. Spurs lightly shook me as I almost fell asleep in her arms.

“We should go and get you patched up.” she told me softly. I looked into the aging mare’s eyes. She looked so tired, and something else. I just couldn’t quite put my hoof on it. I nodded, and she helped me onto my hooves and over to the clinic. The doctor had given me a healing potion that quickly sealed the stab wound. I’d never had a healing potion before; but, they’re amazing! I felt rejuvenated and alive!

As we left the clinic, I couldn’t help but notice that many of the towns ponies were awake, and in the middle of the night! Most of them were peeking out their windows, watching with fearful eyes. “Did I miss a party or something?” I asked Spurs as we made our way down to the Sheriff’s office.

“Some of those ganger varmints snuck into the town, don’t know why and how, though.” The Sheriff’s office was also a pre-war building. Just so happening to be a Sheriff’s office. It was a low structure, with a porch out front, above the building was a wooden sign that read ‘Sheriff’ with a golden star above it. We entered inside. A couple of jail cells were off to the right, one was occupied by a local town drunk, who turns himself in when he goes out drinking so he doesn’t get violent with anypony.

Then, I noticed that the other was also occupied. A small, skinny buck. He wore a red bandana and barding with a scorpion symbol. But yet he looked scared and lost. Almost to be barely my own age. He also looked out of place in the armor he was wearing. “Caught one of them when they made their escape.” she nodded towards the buck, who was staring right at us, then looking back down at his hooves shamefully. Spurs went to the back of the office, doing whatever it was a Sheriff did in the back of their office.

This left me standing in the middle of the office, where the drunk snored loudly from his cot, and the skinny red buck sat silently. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Alright, done with waiting! I trotted over to the jail cell where the buck sat, slamming my face and hooves against the bars, causing him to jump. “Hiya!” I said in my most cheery voice. I grinned widely as he flushed and turned away. He must have had to blush really hard for it to be visible on that red hide of his! “Don’t you want to talk?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No.”

“Why not?” I asked him, fluttering my eyes. He attempted to turn his back to me, but he wasn’t able to, now that I had him with my sexy stare!

“B-because.” He stammered, turning even darker shade of red.

“Pleaassee?” I drug out the word, swaying my flank a little and adding extra swish to my tail. The buck next door let out a loud snort in his sleep.

The buck’s eyes were wide and he fumbled for the right words. I tend to have that effect on a lot of ponies. “Why?” was all that he managed to get out. Now he was sweating.

“Because, you’re cute, and I’ve got a couple of questions,” I winked at him and he continued to sweat and blush nervously. Sheesh, you’d think this guy had never talked to a mare before. He didn’t say anything so I took that as an invitation to continue. “What are the Scorpions?” I asked.

“W-We’re the top mercs up here in New Winnie!” he boasted, although, he didn’t look quite too sure of himself.

“Really? I’ve never heard of you.” I told him with a frown, and that was the truth. I’ve talked to many outsiders, and never have I heard of some mercenaries called ‘The Scorpions.’

The buck looked almost baffled. “How haven’t you? I mean, Blade told me that we’re known throughout the whole wasteland! You must be really stupid if you’ve never heard of us!” the buck blushed and stammered, “and uh, you’re also pretty.” He finished as I cocked my brow.

I shrugged, “I guess I just don’t get around much, but why were you in town? Was it a job?”

“I-I can’t tell you that.” He said, going quiet and looking away away.

“Tell me.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“I told you, no!”

“Pretty pretty pretty please?”

“Nope.”

“Fine then,” I trotted over to the opposite wall, grabbing the keys with my mouth off of a hook. Trotting back over I inserted the key into the door and twisted it. There was a ‘click’ and I stepped inside the jail cell, closing the door behind me. I grinned wickedly and the red buck took a step back with a gulp. I leaped on him and wrestled him to the ground, “I’ll just have to force it out of you!” I laughed.

“Mommy!” he cried

Unbeknownst to me, Spurs had arrived back in the room and was watching me interrogate the prisoner. “Sherry?” I looked up with the bucks ear in my mouth, and him whimpering as I lay on top of him. “What in tarnation are you doin’?” I slobbered on his ear an extra bit before letting go. He quickly scampered to the far corner of the cell and curled into a ball.

“I was interrogating him.” I stood proudly, raising my chin up in the air.

“Oh, and what did you learn?” Spurs sat at her desk, leaning back into the chair and putting her legs up on it.

“That the Scorpions are mercenaries and that-... well, actually that’s about it.” I shrugged and sat down in the jail cell, by the squeaking noises the buck was making, I’m sure he wasn’t all too happy that I was making myself comfortable in his temporary home. Spurs nodded, and seemed to think for a moment.

“Why don’t you go home and get some rest, Sherry, and we’ll sort this all out tomorrow.” I stiffened a bit. Going back to the place where I was almost raped then stabbed wasn’t exactly appealing to me right now.

“Yeah, alright,” I stood up and walked out of the jail cell. The red buck visibly relaxed as I walked past Spurs, “see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Sherry.” I trotted outside to see that most of the town ponies were now back inside their homes. I gave a friendly nods to the ponies patrolling their homes, some ponies relaxed as I walked by. Everypony in town knows me. Maybe not all for the same reason, but I’m relatively on their good sides. I really didn’t feel like going home at the moment, so I spent my time wandering around the town.

I was passing by some of the empty vendor’s stands when I saw somepony. “Hey, Wrench Work!” I called out to the old pale gray buck. Wrench stopped and turned towards me, a pleasant smile of recognition appeared on his face.

“Hey there little missy, how are you this fine night?” Wrench talked in a tone of voice that made you think he was your grandfather, and that’s exactly how I thought of him. We both share the same love for anything pre-war. Mainly technology. Whenever somepony would bring some pre-war tech to Wrench I’d be the first pony to know. Then we’d spend hours fiddling with it and just having fun.

“I’m doing just fine!” I lied. I was still traumatized about earlier, but I’ve learned to mask those thoughts. “I was actually wondering if you could do me a favor. Spurs said that you know all about PipBucks?” Suddenly, his eyes lit up brighter than a drunk filly’s cheeks.

“I sure do! Ya got one?” The old buck leaned forward, grinning goofily.

I nodded, “yeah, and I was wondering if you could fix it up for me because it doesn’t seem to turn on.”

“I’m sure we can get that fixed up in a jiffy! Why don’t you go get it now and we’ll have it fixed in a few hours or less?” I could tell that Wrench really wanted to see this PipBuck.

“Alright.” I told him

“Right-o! Meet me at my workshop and let’s get started!” Wrench called back to me as he rushed off into the night.

--- --- ---

I quickly rushed home, grabbing the PipBuck I had left on my bed and leaving without a second glance. Entering into Wrench’s workshop, the first thing I noticed were the various robots that were now nothing more but statues. I saw sprite-bots hanging from the ceiling, and a Ponitron off to the side. At the far back wall was a Mr. Hoofy. Wrench had tried getting the Mr. Hoofy to work for a long time now. He told me that they could be programmed as robot servants, which is amazing! I thought of all the work I wouldn’t have to do if I had one of those working in my bar.

I passed by shelves of other various pre-war items that were proud to be displayed. The lesser items were in the back, and I know what was in the ‘storage’ closet. I may love that pre-war stuff, but Wrench Work was just a hoarder when it came to any of it. Wrench appeared from the back door. “Ah! Let’s get started!” He exclaimed, dragging me to the workbench. I hoofed him the PipBuck and he began to inspect it… okay, more-so he drooled over it, but hey, he’s the expert.

“Hmmm,” he said, finally coming to a conclusion. “It looks to be in perfectly good order, we just need to reboot the spell matrix,” He told me, opening a drawer and taking out some tools I had never seen before. A minute later and the PipBuck’s screen turned on with a white glow. Wrench let out an admirable sigh, “a PipBuck 3000, a bit basic, but reliable.” He motioned for me to step closer and hold my hoof up. “This is the kind of PipBuck that you’d get yourself in a stable.” he locked the PipBuck into place on my left forehoof.

“Where did you get this, anyway?” he asked.

“Oh, well, you see. My-” But whatever I was just about to say was interrupted by something appearing across my vision. “Agh!” I waved my hooves out in front of my frantically and slapped my face. There was a white bar in my vision and no matter what I did it wouldn’t go away. I rubbed my eyes and Wrench work chuckled.

“That there would be the Eyes Forward Sparkle, or the E.F.S. Whichever ya fancy.” I turned my head around, and noticed that where Wrench was standing there was a white blip as if to indicate where he is.

“Why would anypony need one of these?” I asked, shaking my head, and watching the white bar move along with it.

The elderly buck shrugged his shoulders, “it’s magic combined together with technology that was used in the war effort, and when ponies were evacuated into the stables, I guess they implanted PipBucks along with ‘em,” Wrench seemed lost in thought before returning his attention back to reality. “Let me show you what else it does.” And so we spent the next hour of me learning all about PipBucks and other pre-war technology. The PipBuck’s features included a radio, a geiger counter, and even an inventory sorting spell! It’s also, for some reason, able to display my health and any diseases or effects I might be under, and I guess I can’t take it off without the right tools. “My most favorite feature is the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell. Here lemme show ya!’” Wrench told me just before pressing a few buttons a few buttons.

The world slowed down around me. A white outline appeared around Wrench Work and a percent also appeared with it. What did this do? Targeting Spe- oh, oops. Time slowly sped up and I whammed Wrench Work in the face. He fell back on his butt. “Oh my goddesses! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” I frantically helped him back onto his hooves, and he laughed.

“Sheesh, little lady, you sure can pack a punch!” he cackled. “Heh heh! Ow.” He rubbed his snout.

“Will free drinks for a night make up for that?” I asked embarrassedly.

Wrench rubbed his chin with a hoof. “I figure an ice cold Sunrise Sarsparilla would make up for it.”

“Done.” I hoof bumped him to seal the deal. Wrench had to teach me how to back out of the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell (S.A.T.S for short) so that I wouldn’t end up punching another innocent pony in the muzzle again. Then we talked. Talked about life, how business was going, and pinball machines! Eventually, the buck yawned.

“It’s getting late, I’m heading off to the bed,” he told me, stretching. “See you in the mornin’” I waved goodbye and walked out the door and- it had only been an hour. It was still dark outside, and all of the lights were off. I guess everypony had settled down, and now I was left on my lonesome. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to admit that I was also tired. I slumped back to my home.

I entered the bar and locked the door behind me. I also went to double check that the back door was locked. Then I secured all the windows the best I could. I slowly made my way up the stairs, peeking into my room to make sure that no pony was there to rape my brains out. I let out a breath of relief seeing that I was alone. I would have gone to bed, but I needed something to take my mind off of things. I crept up to the bed and kneeled down, removing a loose floorboard. My horn glowed and my magic wrapped around the bottle of sherry, gingerly removing it from it’s resting spot.

Next, I grabbed a wine glass and sat on my bed, resting my back against the pillow. Tipping the bottle, I watched the red liquid settle into the glass. I swirled the glass with my magic and sat in my overly sized bed, enough for two. Sure, I’ve had sex before, but those were either one night stands or me being too drunk to remember any of it. What I wanted is a pony that I could cuddle with. Talk to. Have fun with. But I guess that beggars can’t be choosers. Every mare or stallion I’d been with just had sex with me and left the next morning and would leave the night behind.

I downed the glass and set it aside. Settling under the covers getting comfy. Or, well, I tried to get comfy; The PipBuck on my leg was making it difficult. I struggled to find a good position for five minutes until I gave up. I stared at the illuminated screen of the new burden upon my leg. Maybe I should get it taken off? Bringing the screen up to my face, I began to push buttons until I found something. It was a data file, labeled “Sherry”. I selected it and feminine voice emerged from the PipBuck.

“Hold on, Floss, I need to record this… Sherry, I don’t even know where to start… Youhave to know that I, and your father love you so very much. So much more than you could ever know, but this life, the life we have isn’t what we wanted for you. We live a life filled with horrors, madness, and death. A normal life is what we’ve always wanted, but it just can’t happen. We thought that life was terrible, so very bad with no happiness… and then we had you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to us, we want you to know that… and maybe someday, when you’re all grown up, we can see you again.” A very masculine voice stepped in, but it was smooth and full of character.

“When that day does come, there’s going to be a party, you hear? A party with lots of wine and beer! And just remember, kid. We’ll always be thinkin’ about’cha no matter what!”

There was a loud explosion, and the popping noise of gunfire, then the recording cut out. Brandy and Nixon. My mother and father. For my entire life, I had thought they left me because I wasn’t good enough. Maybe that I was just nothing to them, and I’d been a complete accident. That they’d left me and died. For all I knew, they could be dead, and I could also be holding onto false hope. And then, for the second time that night, I had cried with meaning behind it.

--- --- ---

I had woken up late that morning, the bar didn’t open until late afternoon, so I had some free time to myself. I considered my options, stay home with a nice Play Colt magazine, clean my room, or go and visit with Spurs. As much as the first option sounded appealing, I went with the third. I grabbed my mane band, and expertly tied it around my mane into a ponytail. I rummaged through my closet, debating if I’d wear anything or not. Deciding that my flank would look better without anything covering it, I went out naked.

Going out naked isn’t a bad thing, it’s considered the norm. Someponies will wear aprons for the right job. I’ve seen some fancy ponies in business suits. It’s just what the job calls for, I suppose. I stepped out into the gloomy day. Same gray sky. Same gray horizon. Same gray ponies. Just your normal day in Neighside. As I trotted along the various houses I received some friendly waves on the way. I took notice that the guards had been stepped up. More of them than usual were trotting around on the lookout.

I stepped in front of the sheriff’s office and opened the door. Inside was Spurs and the red Scorpion buck were sitting at a table, talking over a cup of coffee. When I entered the room both pairs of eyes turned towards me and the red buck visibly cringed in fear. “What’s up?” I asked casually, moving to take a seat beside him as he trembled.

Spurs spoke up, “this here is Tamale.”

I gave him my friendliest, warmest, most sun shiny smile. “Nice to meetcha, I’m Sherry!” and then I added, “don’t worry, I won’t bite you… again.” The look on Tamale’s face told me that he didn’t know whether to be relieved or distressed. Spurs moved to pour another cup of coffee, she set the steaming cup down in front of me. Picking it up with my magic I blew on it to cool it down. I’m not a huge fan of hot drinks. I prefer it cold; lukewarm at the least.

“Tamale told us where their encampment is at, and in return, we’re going to give him citizenship here in Neighside,” Spurs told me, taking a drink. “I’ve already sent the deputy down with a couple of the bucks to drive ‘em out.” And then that would mean I wouldn’t have Blade trying to rape me in the middle of the night anymore! I mentally hopped around in my mind at the thought of sleeping safely.

“Sounds good, and where will you be staying at?” I turned and asked Tamale.

“He’s going to be staying at the inn until we can get him proper housing.” Spurs answered, filling herself up another cup.

“If you ever need a drink, I’m the go to mare.” I told Tamale, and winked.

He flushed and stammered, “r-right.”

“How come you’re over here, Sherry?” Spurs asked me as she finished her second cup of coffee.

I shrugged, “thought I’d come over and visit,” I told her, “or is this a bad time?”

“Not at all,” the tan mare replied. “What’d you like to talk about?”

“Well, uh…” I fidgeted with my hooves. Crap, I really hadn’t thought what we’d talk about. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, and I’m terrible with planning! Then I asked bleakly, “how are things?”

“Good, crime has been low.” She answered, “and yourself?”

“Good, business hasn’t been booming, but good,” awkwardness settled in and we sat there in silence. The only noise that could be heard were the faint voices outside the the nervous breathing of Tamale. It occurred to me that I didn’t know how to have a conversation with Spurs. Were we really that distant? To the point where I couldn’t even have a nice, simple conversation with the mare who raised me? I wracked my brain for ideas, anything that I could say to her, ask her, compliment her?

Instead, all that came out was, “well… guess I’ll be going, then.” I sat up and made my way towards the door.

“See you.”

I opened the door with a metallic creak and a rusty squeal, then letting it fall shut behind me. Well, now maybe I should go home and rub one out? Get drunk off my ass? Hit on the waitresses at the diner? I trotted along the edge of the town, and came to the front entrance. I still wasn’t used to the E.F.S. I had been so distracted looking at it the bar, I hadn’t noticed the blip pop up on it. I hit something, hard, and crashed to the ground.

“Ow.” I moaned, as I stood up and rubbed my aching butt aching. My face met a steel chest. In fact, the whole pony was steel. I moved my gaze upward, to also see a steel head. A steel head that was looking right at me! Eep!

“Excuse me,” A masculine voice said with a chuckle. I would have shared the laugh with him of my idiocy, but the enormous gun built into the side of his armor caught my attention. A missile launcher, I’m sure is what it was. “Oh, you’re the barmare, aren’t you?” the voice asked.

I stared in amazement, even the tail was covered with steel! “Huh, what?” I blinked, “oh, yeah, I’m Sherry.” I told him, flushing as he chuckled again. For such an intimidating pony, he sure had the friendliest voice I’ve ever heard.

The steel bulk bowed before me, (so formal!) and rose to his hooves again. “Miss Sherry, it’s nice to meet your acquaintance, I am Star Paladin Steel Sprocket.” I once again, stared up at him in awe. Wow! A Star Paladin!

“What’s a Star Paladin?” I asked, flatly. Of course, it rung a bell somewhere in the back of my mind, I just wasn’t able to put my hoof on it. And also, how did Barf Buck get in that armor? He was muscular, but not muscular enough to be trotting around in a suit of armor like that!

Steel Sprocket whinnied, “surely you’ve heard of the Steel Rangers?” I shook my head. Wait. No… gears cranking…

“You’re a Steel Ranger?!” I jumped up in glee, dancing around Sprocket, “oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!” The Steel Rangers! I’d heard all about them! Heroes in steel, rushing out to preserve pre-war technology and save ponies! Being a Steel Ranger must be amazing. They get fame, glory, and they probably have a pinball machine!

I stopped my jumping to stand in front of the towering mass. “How come you’re in Neighside?” I asked him. This buck seemed to be a lot less deal depressed. Didn’t remind me at all of the pony who was puking all over my floor.

“I am currently awaiting orders from the elder.” He told me. I had no clue what an elder was either, so I nodded like I understood.

“And you’re feeling better?” Sprocket went silent, and for a few seconds I was worried that I’d upset him.

After a while he finally spoke, “yes, I am, thank you, for your concern,” his voice softened, “there are days for moping, but I can save those days for later,” I smiled, and under that helmet I could tell that we was smiling too. To lose a family is hard, but to try and ignore that, and continue on is harder. “Would you like to walk together?”

I nodded, and we made our way to the middle of the town. We gained a lot of looks, some of fear, some of anger, and some of admiration. Each step he took made a clang with the sandy ground. It was like he just radiated power. Two little fillies ran by, and stopped to stare in awe, only to be swept away by their mother with a worrying look and a hushed tone. “Is this how ponies always react around you?” I asked, looking up to my steel companion.

We trotted a few more steps before he answered, “most of the time, yes,” we turned a corner into the market. “There are ponies who would want to join the Steel Rangers, ponies who would want to annihilate us, and ponies who would cower in fear at our very presence.” A nearby vendor waved at us, holding out bits of junk and telling us the great price we would be getting out of it.

“Sounds dangerous.” I replied.

“It is.” We trotted in silence, listening to the jingle of caps, and the voices of ponies trading. The market was always this active at this time of day. That’s when most traders and caravaneers will make their way into the market and set up shop. I usually buy my drinks from the caravaneers, because each time they go out they’ve got all new assortments of drinks. I’d probably be out of business if it weren’t for them.

I also, would’ve liked to say it was a peaceful day, but it really wasn’t. Because just as we were heading towards the front entrance again. The deputy ran towards us, screaming, and covered in blood. A few more bucks followed in his wake in all the same condition. Sprocket and I moved to the side of the street to let them pass. As I looked to the front entrance again I noticed something different. Bars of red were now popping up in my vision. Followed along by the shouts and gunshots of a group of about ten Scorpion Mercenaries.

Steel Sprocket was the first to react. He poised his missile launcher, standing valiantly, before firing a missile at the large group. It impacted at their hooves, turning two of them in a meaty roast, while three others went flying. That left five others still running at us, and now in such a close range that Steel Sprocket wouldn’t be able to fire another missile without risk of blowing and structures up.

The first charged right at me, a knife in his mouth. “Use that PipBuck!” the steel pony shouted to me. Time slowed, and I queued up three hits. I bucked him in the stomach, chest, and head sending him back landing on the ground in a heap. Not enough to kill him, but enough to daze him. Now, you may ask, how can a mare like me hit so hard? Well, the answer is simple. I’ve had to slap a fine number of drunken stallions.

Steel Sprocket brought his hooves down on the buck’s chest, with a bone shattering snap. Another buck charged at the ranger and hopped on his back in an attempt to bring him down. Sprocket simply bucked him off, and sent him flying twenty feet away. Watching the flying pony had distracted me as I didn’t notice a very large pony come swinging at my with a sledge hammer. I caught sight of him and tried to move, but I was too slow. The sledge caught me in the side. I felt a rib crack, or possibly break, and I was flung into the side of a worn down, rusted house.

The burly buck loomed over me to bring the sledge down again, but his head was ground into paste by Sprocket as the ranger knocked him onto his side and brought his mighty hooves upon his face. The last three of the Scorpions were now looking very unsure of themselves. Sprocket turned to face them, making his missile launcher just a little more menacing. “I’ll give you to the count of ten.” they were out before he got to two.

I laid on the ground wanting to cry. Nothing had ever hurt me this bad… well, maybe excluding my first time, and a few oversized stallions, this came pretty close. Sprocket came closer to me as I lay whimpering on the ground. “Here, drink this.” he hooved me a healing potion from his bag and I drank it up greedily. I felt the magic liquid begin to heal up my bones, and make me feel all tingly inside. “What are those mercs doing?” the ranger asked in an angered tone, “they don’t normally act like this, unless they’re getting paid!”

“Maybe they are.” I said, while getting back onto my hooves. The steel pony seemed to consider it for a moment.

“That could be true,” he remarked, “I would like to speak to Sheriff Spurs about this whole predicament, because it looks like those mercs are staying for a while longer.” He began to clunk his way over to the sheriff’s office, and I followed by his side.

Huffing, a little bit to keep up with his powerful stride I asked him, “couldn’t you just… you know, go and blow ‘em up with that thing?” I asked him, pointing a hoof at his missile launcher.

He seemed to consider it for a moment, before answering, “I would not be able to, my orders from the elder was to wait here for reinforcements, and set off as soon as they arrived.” A disappointed frown spread across my facial features. Weren’t the Steel Rangers supposed to help ponies, like rush in and save the day? Just like in the comic book ‘Sword Mares’, oh, what I would give to meet a mare like her! The thought made me positively w- right, back on track to the Steel Rangers.

The Sheriff’s office came into view, and we made it the front door only drawing a few looks this time. Sprocket pushed the door open with his head, and stepped inside. I followed in behind. Tamale was still here. He looked up from the table. If the kid thought I was scary, seeing the Steel Ranger must have made kid pee himself. The color visually drained from his face as the ranger towered over him. “Hello, would you happen to know where the sheriff is?”

The only response he received was a choked, “eep.” Spurs poked her head out from the back room, and a pleasant smile seeped onto her face.

“Well, I’ll be... It’s been a good long while since I’ve seen one of you folk around!” she emerged, revealing the rest of her body and trotting over. “Sheriff Spurs, nice to meet ya!” she said, extending her hoof. The ranger before her took her hoof and kneeled.

“Star Paladin Steel Sprocket, it is an honor to meet your acquaintance,” He received a funny look from Spurs before he continued. “I have an understanding that your town is currently being threatened by the Scorpion mercs, correct?”

Spurs seemed a little hesitant to answer the question, “yeah, that’s right.”

Sprocket stood, and said, “I would suggest securing town parameters, then. More guards around the city border, have you ever thought of investing in a wall?” Spurs, stood for a few moments, blinking in confusion before she finally spoke up.

“We couldn’t do that. One of the only reasons that trade comes through here is because of the lack of security! And we ain’t never had a problem with that before!” She stared into his helmet, she didn’t look to be angry, but she looked to be upset. Trade was what really kept this town running. The caravans didn’t like to feel threatened while making deals, and that’s why we always have them moving through here. They’re actually how I decorated my bar with fancy schmancy stuff. It’s amazing what pre-war stuff you can find out in the wastes.

Sprocket considered her for a moment, standing silently before he finally said, “it would be for the best intentions, Sandy, you and I both know it.” Spurs let out an irritated sigh. Maybe it was because nopony ever used her first name. Hell, even I didn’t, and she’s practically my mother! And- hey, wait, I thought they just met? What? I’m so confused she never gave him her first name! Or did she? Was I even paying attention?

“I’ve got my deputy and some other colts out on a job to clear them out now,” she moved to her desk, and began to rub her temples, “if they don’t come back or-” then, right on cue (these right on cue things are happening a lot!) the door slammed open, and the deputy stepped through, tirelessly panting and out of breath. Now that I was able to get a good look at him. I saw that we was covered in dirt, blood, and… I had no idea what that was. Spurs shot to her hooves, “Chamber! What in the hell happened to you?”

The orange buck stepped through the door, and instantly collapsed to the ground in an exhausted heap. “Uh, didn’t you run by us about ten minutes ago?” I asked him, cocking my brow. “Why didn’t you come here right away?”

Chamber laid there slowly regaining his breath, and dragging himself to his hooves. “I…” he panted, “was running… around the town… thought they was still chasing me!” He received a series of disapproved looks from each of us. Even Tamale found the situation a little ironic as he snickered in the corner. “Two of the bucks… didn’t make it…” he finished, and collapsed into a chair.

“Shit.” Spurs fell back into her own chair, and dragged her hooves down her face. I knew why. She hates losing town members. In fact, she hates death over all. Which is ironic, considering the amount of ponies she’s had to kill. One time I had asked her about it, and she had just told me it came with the job. I can remember the countless times when she would come home depressed, because of the loss of a town member. Sometimes she’d even be sobbing her eyes out, and it would be my job to comfort her in those times. Taking care of her in those times had really matured me over those years.

“Where are the rest at now?” She asked.

“I’m sure that they’re down over at the doc’s getting rest. A lot of them took some injuries.” Chamber replied. Shuffling his front hooves.

The sheriff nodded, and said back to him, “you should go rest too, you’ve earned it for the effort.”

“Right.” The orange buck lifted himself from the seat with a grunt, and trotted to, and out the door. A silence swept over the room as Spurs rested her forelegs on the desk, and rested her head in her hooves. I really hated seeing her like this. Running a town had to be stressful, because of decisions like these.

“I’m here…” Sprocket suddenly said, “... yes, I’m on my way.” The steel pony made his way to the door. “I’ll have to be leaving you, now. My team is waiting just outside the city border.”

“See ya,” I waved at him as he left. Tamale relaxed a bit, now that one of his nightmares were out of the room. I trotted over to the front of Spur’s desk, and took a seat. Waiting for her to do… well, something. Instead, she sat there with her head in her hooves. “Spurs?”

“Hm?” She brought her head up from her hooves, looking at me. “Oh, sorry, Sherry, this is just,” she let out a heavy sigh, “this is just a lot to take in right now,” moving her head from her hooves she began to shuffle through some papers. “Now with all the work and papers for losing two residents…” she sighed again. “I’ve got a lot to do.”

“Alright, well, I’ll just be off on my way, then.” I told her, making my way to the door for the second time that day. I had a plan, a plan that couldn’t fail. If the deputy couldn’t get rid of the Scorpions, I know I can. It would just involve my amazing shooting skills and the PipBuck! This couldn’t go wrong!

“Bye, Sherry,” she said back to me, and then followed with, “oh, and take Tamale with you. He could use a tour around town.” She walked into the back room, leaving a wide-eyed Tamale and a very joyous me alone in the room.

“C’mon, Tamale! We’re going to be the best of friends!” I exclaimed as I pulled him out the door.

--- --- ---

Tamale had finally calmed down, after I dragged him around for around ten minutes. He walked willingly, but kept his space. “Told you I’m not so bad after you get to know me!” I said excitedly as we walked. He only nodded in agreement as if he were afraid I’d start biting him again if he said anything wrong. I checked the town clock and saw that it was about midday. More than enough time for my plan to work.

Before we started, though. I needed to grab a few items. So we went back to my bar to grab a few things. Grabbing my saddle bags I began to pack them with an assortment of items. Or, things I thought I’d need. Water, bandages, food, whiskey, scotch, vodka… alright, fine, just the scotch. Once my bags were packed we left the bar, and I locked the door behind me. “What do you need all the stuff for?” Tamale questioned.

“You’ll see,” I answered as the town’s armory came into view. There wasn’t much to look at, just a little worn down shack that was locked up tight. The only thing notable was the guard on duty. He held a very stern and serious expression. Piece of cake! “Wait here,” I told Tamale as I trotted over the guard. “Heeyy!” I said, coming up to him.

“Evenin’, Sherry.” He replied back with a gruff voice. I assumed my posture, half-lidded eyes, biting down onthe lower lip, extra swishyness with my tail, and more sway in my hips.

“I need a gun,” I said with a very sultry manner, “can you get me one?” I blinked, and the guard was beginning to turn the shade of Tamale’s coat.

“I-I dunno about that Sherry…” He began sweating profusely.

“Pleaseee?”

The lock clicked and the door opened. What did I tell ya? Piece of cake. The buck stepped in and followed through behind. There was an assortment of guns throughout the armory. Some resting on shelves, and some were hanging from racks. While others were locked behind the doors of some gun cabinets. I trotted around, looking for the one particular gun I needed. “Aha!” I spotted it hanging from a rack. Wrapping it in my magic it floated over to myself.

The sniper rifle was sleek, and slender. A little worn down, but still for good use. It felt heavier than most items I held in my magic, so I had to concentrate just a little extra more. I felt the wooden stock in my hooves, and then took the sling, swinging it around my back. “Just what do you plan on doing with a weapon like that?” The guard asked me.

“It’s a surprise!” I explained to him; grabbing a few boxes of ammunition. He delivered me an odd look as he escorted me out of the armory. Closing the door behind us and locking it. Tamale was still where I left him. Obediently waiting, just like a dog. He spotted the rifle on my back, and his eyes shot wide. “We’re going hunting!” I stated.

“W-what?!” The red buck balked at me as he shrank into himself.

“Yeah, so I hope you’re ready for a walk!”

“Why do I have to go with you?!” He complained as I strolled forward while he followed my hoofsteps.

I kept trotting ahead, making my way to the town’s front entrance. Tamale was right at my heels, trying to get the answer out of me as to why he had to come with me. Soon the gates came into view so I then answered to him, “because, I’m terrible with directions, you know where The Scorpions’ camp is at, and you really didn’t seem to have a problem following me all this way.” He stopped in his tracks, stared at me blankly, then erupted into a fit of grumbles about how ‘mares have hypnosis’.

We approached the gate to see a few guards standing there. I gave them a friendly wave as Tamale and I proceeded out receiving nods from them in return. We trotted for a while, checking behind my back every so often. The town was now a medium sized blob in the distance. I opened my mouth to say something, and then I realized something.

This is the furthest I’ve ever been out in the wasteland! I can only remember moving out about twenty yards from Neighside’s borders when I was just a little filly, but that was just to retrieve a ball that had been kicked too far when playing with the other colts and fillies. “Hello?” Tamale waved a hoof in front of my face.

I blinked, and closed my mouth that had been open the entire time. The first thing I noticed this far out of town; was how empty it was. There wasn’t anything attractive to look at. It was all just… Well, dead, and empty! And did I mention dead and empty? In Neighside you at least had the buildings to look at! Out here was just sand, and dust. Not that the San Palomino desert was even much before the war.

I gathered myself together, “alright, Tamale, lead the way!” he froze, and looked away to the side.

“Sherry, I don’t know if I can do this… I mean-” he caught my stern look and let out a little whimper. I rested my hoof on his shoulder in a comforting gesture, and he reeled back. Probably afraid I was going to bite him.

“Tamale,” I coaxed to him, “helping me with this is for the town’s safety and well being, you know? The town that you live in now?” He didn’t respond. “You’re apart of Neighside, now! Tamale, you can get a job, meet a mare, have a family! You don’t need to be a part of those stinky raiders that call themselves mercs!” He looked at me a bit, “you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Tamale gave a little nod. “Good, now come on, where’s that camp at?” He answered silently by trudging ahead of me, headed towards the hills.

I followed up beside him. We trotted along in silence for what seemed like forever. I sniffed at the air. Something smelled bad. Bad wasn’t even a good enough word to describe it. It could compete with the smell of the public restroom back at home! I wrinkled my nose in disgust, and turned my head to see Tamale’s own reaction, but he was unfazed, and kept trotting along. This couldn’t be a normal smell.

Eventually, we trotted out of range of the putrid smell to my relief, and then the silence continued… okay, too quiet for too long! “Is Blade the leader of The Scorpions?” I finally asked, breaking the silence.

It was a little while longer before Tamale answered me. “Yes, well, no actually,” we finally reached the hills, and we began to climb up them. “He gets his orders from somewhere else. The contracts we receive are given to Blade, and he makes sure we follow through with them.” I cleared my throat, and he looked back at me.

“Don’t you mean they?” I raised my brow and he shrank back a bit.

“Yeah, sorry,” We continued up the hill, and reached the top. “Stay low,” He told me, and I obeyed. At the bottom of the hill laid a camp. Fires were going, and bucks were wandering about. How come there were only bucks, and never mares? I opened my mouth to question my thoughts with Tamale, but was interrupted by his hoof being shoved in my mouth. “Shh.” A serious look was etched on his face, and I couldn’t help but to begin to worry a little.

Looking further past the camp was a river and a worn down dock. Even further past that I thought I could make out something else in the distance, but the sun’s glare was blocking the view. Alright, time to get to work. I unslung the sniper off my back and dropped down onto my belly. Bringing the rifle to bear I peered through the scope. The camp became magnified in a circle with crosshairs. This should be easy, right? I scoped through the camp, and spotted about seven mercs wandering about. There were also beat down trailers which I couldn’t see into. I hoped there weren’t a ton more hiding in those.

“Y-you’re gonna kill them?” Tamale flopped onto his own stomach next to me with a worried expression.

I chuckled, “I could never kill a pony, Tamale,” I aimed the scope at a tough looking buck who was munching on a fish.

“Then what’s the sniper for?” He asked with clear worry in his voice.

The buck finished the fish, and was moving on to a bottle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla. “To shoot them, of course!” I pulled the trigger with my magic. Traveling at breakneck speed, the bullet shot out of the gun. The bottle shattered in the surprise buck’s hoof. Shit. I was really hoping that wouldn’t hit him in the leg. A number of bucks all brought their weapons to bear, and began searching for the source of the shooting. “Gah!” I fired two more shots. Both of them missing.

“Why aren’t you hitting any of them?!” Tamale panicked.

“I’m just trying to scare them off!” At least, that was part of the truth. Oooh, this wasn’t going to be good. Shouts came from down below. Ponies were pointing up at the hill towards us, and began firing their guns in our direction, but we were too far away for them to get a good hit. Some began to rush up the hill, while others kept up their firing from down below.

Tamale fell back down the hill a bit as to not get shot. Three of the bucks were now half way up, and then it hit me. No, not a bullet, but it hit me that I had an advantage over them! With difficulty I slipped into S.A.T.S, and I thanked Celestia and Luna that the targeting spell would work with my gun. Time slowed down to snail speed, and I targeted the left foreleg of one of the bucks. Upon targeting, I noticed that there happened to be another bar in the corner that got lower with each target I selected. The spell released and time began to speed up again. With a bang, the gun shot out the bullet, and it pierced through the mercenary's leg, causing him to spill and tumble down the hill.

I turned the gun to face the next, but I was interrupted by a hard tug on my tail. Turning my head I expected to see Tamale ready to run for his life, but instead, I was lifted off my hooves and was left hanging upside down by my tail. The magic glow around the sniper flickered fell to the ground. When I regained sense of direction I found myself staring into the eyes of Blade. His face wore a manic grin that told me how much shit I was. Tamale was standing off to the side with his mouth agape.

Blade looked to Tamale, and for a second, I thought he was going to kill him then and there. Then he laughed “Good job, nephew!” Blade cackled grinning at Tamale. So Blade is Tamale’s uncle… Huh. I suddenly felt very awkward about wanting to kill Blade and feed his corpse to radroaches. The burly buck held my tail in his hoof, and brought me up higher so I was now directly face to face with him. “I’ve been wantin’ my way with this one.” He licked his lips and brought his face closer to mine so that we were now touching noses, “do you know what time it is, bitch?”

“For you to let go of my tail so I can go home?” I sheepishly asked.

My answer was a painful slap to the flank.

--- --- ---

They had me hogtied. In any other situation I would have found this kinky. A type of S and M that I never got to do much of. Luckily for me, they didn’t do anything to me yet. I’d been carelessly thrown into one of the ruined trailers. The only things occupying it were a few stained mattresses and blankets that littered the floor. I laid on one of the mattresses, which smelled of semen and other bodily fluids.

Voices could be heard from outside the trailer as I heard them discuss what they would do to me. Normally, I’d have been flattered, but these bucks had some of the craziest, weirdest fetishes I’ve ever heard of! I over heard one discussing about how he’d caress my hooves and lick them, another saying that he was going to lick my eyeballs, and one that said he was going to put a diaper on me. These guys should be recruiting mares into their group instead of dragging me into this.

The ropes that held me together were set further up on my legs closer to my body, because of my PipBuck that was lower onto my left foreleg. Which was causing me a lot more deal of struggle to get free of the ropes. A white bar in the sea of red on the E.F.S caught my attention.

As it made it’s way to the door. I expected it to be Blade, ready to make me ‘pay up’. Why wasn’t Blade red on the E.F.S? He is the bad pony, isn’t he? The door opened, and I turned to face my rapis- oh, did they send in Tamale to rape me first?

“Make it quick and painless,” I said, rolling onto my back to eye the ceiling. “And just so you know, it could take you hours before you get me off!” I lifted my head to look back at him to see a very hot blush placed on his face. My confiscated saddle bags dropped to the floor as he began stammer, but no intelligible words came out. “Oh! You’re saving me!” I squealed gleefully, and began to wiggle my way over to him.

He stopped me half way, and dug a knife out from his pocket. Taking it in his mouth and beginning to cut the bonds loose. I got to my hooves and gave him a big kiss. “I knew I could count on you!” I exclaimed as I hugged him.

“Agh! Sherry! What are you doing?!” He yelped as I began to kiss his face all over. He stumbled back to get away from me.

“My hero!”

“Just take your shit and get out of here!” He sputtered. I stopped my barrage of kisses and nodded. I rifled through the bag to make sure nothing had been taken, and to my surprise, everything was still there. Tamale assisted me in strapping my saddle bags back on.

“Where’s the sniper at?” I asked looking around.

Tamale stuffed the knife back into a pocket in his armor. He was still blushing from my thank you. “Blade took it somewhere,” He replied as he trotted over to the door of the trailer and peeked his head outside. The E.F.S told me that there were about five ponies somewhere behind the trailer, and I realized just how lucky we were that none of them had come to investigate the loud kissing noises coming from here. “Just leave it,” He redrew his head and trotted back over to me, “I’ll distract them, keep their attention away from you. You’re going to need to head east along the hills for about half a mile. You’ll come across a pathway leading up the hill, follow it and you should be able to find your way back to your home.”

Good plan! Great plan! But, wait. My ears dropped to the sides of my head and I frowned, “you’re not coming with me?”

“I’ll catch up with you later,” The red buck answered. “Now let’s hurry, before any of them decide to check on you,” He promptly shoved me out the door, and pointed straight ahead. “Thats east, now go!” He shoved my flanks and I began to run as fast as my legs would carry me. I spared a glimpse behind me to see Tamale pointing up at the hills in the opposite direction to direct a few of the ponies’ attention; gathered around a bon fire away from my escape route.

I turned my head and continued to gallop. I ran and ran, passing by another trailer containing one of the sleeping mercs. I passed the dock where a buck was too focused on fishing to notice me rush by. Another trailer which had- oh hello! Two bucks going at it. Hard. I would’ve loved to stay and watch, but I still had to run!

The camp eventually became a small dot behind me, and I slowed down to a steady trot. The sun was starting to set in the horizon, casting an orange glow along the ground.

I began to think of just how stupid I had been. If it hadn’t been for Tamale, I’d just be, and I quote from Blade, ‘meat for slamming’ right now. There were also a bunch of questions I had for Tamale. Was he even going to come back? Would he get in trouble for setting me free? The thought of Tamale getting hurt, or worse, because of my stupidity made my stomach feel queasy. Going through each scenario of Tamale getting hurt in my head I had almost missed the pathway he had told me about.

It was a steep path that meandered it’s up onto a ridge. Slowly, I began to trudge up the hill. Fighting against gravity to keep my hooves from slipping out from under me. That run had really taken a lot out of myself. I took careful steps climbing the hill, and soon I had pushed Tamale to the back of my mind, being confident in his return. Then I began to wonder. Did anypony in Neighside notice that I was missing? Probably. The bar was supposed to open about three hours ago.. Eh, it’d do some of them good without any alcohol for one night. Even I had my limits. But first things first. When I get back I’m going to apologize to Spurs for being an idiot, losing a sniper rifle, and almost getting raped… Again.

I had been so sure it would work, though! The plan was simple. Keep my distance, incapacitate a few bucks, then watch them run for their lives and scream like little fillies. It had been so perfect in my mind that I didn’t stop to think about all the ways that it could’ve gone wrong. Maybe it was time to lay off the stupid juice for a while. Clear up my mind.

I finally reached the top. Steadying myself and stepping onto a rocky ledge. Slowly, I trotted up towards the edge to see Neighside in the distance. Ah, finally. Home! A smile came on my face, and I took a step forward to descend on the downward path. Then suddenly, a loud rumble erupted in the air and shook the ground.

I had lifted my gaze just in time.

Just in time to see Neighside erupt in a fiery green explosion.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Black Equidae -- +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Author’s Note: This first Chapter has been worked on for a while. At least a month give or take a few weeks just to write it, and then a few more months of just editing. Of course, it wouldn’t have had to take me that long if I hadn’t gotten distracted so much. I’m pretty sure that this first chapter will go through another wash of editing later on.

I’m determined to produce more chapters. I can’t just let this go to waste after slaving away on it for so long. I’ve even had this in production in my mind for the longest time. Give a big thanks to my editors MeetSouder, EgoFawful, and Tesla. This chapter wouldn’t be worth reading without their help! I feel like my grammar and wording can be a bit horrific at times.

Also, I have no idea why the entire doc is moved to the left, leaving that open space to the right. I have no idea how to fix it.

Adding onto that, give a great, huge, amazing, gigantic thank you to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria and inspiring so many to make their own side stories. It may sound cheesy, but reading Fallout: Equestria had a great impact on my life. You can check out her story here!

Chapter Two: Aftermath
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Fallout: Equestria - Infamy

Chapter Two: Aftermath

Fallout: Equestria - Infamy

Chapter Two: Aftermath

By: TheEggroller

“I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!”

Gone.

Gone and empty. Gone, is what I saw, and empty is what I felt. It’d only been a day since my life just got even the slightest bit interesting, but within that day my home town was blown off the face of Equestria. How would that make a pony feel? Sad? Possibly… could they be mad, and confused? Heck, they might even be happy!

Me? I just felt empty. I no longer had a home. The ones I held close and called the ‘family that I’ve never had’ were just as gone.

A plume of smoke, dust, ash, and green fire erupted into the sky, leaving behind a fiery emerald light in it’s wake. I was only glad that the dust cloud kept around the town, so I wouldn’t have to see the gorey tragedy within… If there even was anything left in there. I felt my legs shake underneath me as I collapsed onto my stomach. My PipBuck began to make a click clicka click, and an audible blip told me that I was beginning to receive some radiation; I paid no attention to the now increasingly annoying blips.

With wide eyes and jaw hung open, I watched as the dust mostly cleared and the green inferno danced through the sky before me. My eyes could also see a silhouette through the dense smoke. I rubbed my eyes with my dirty hooves, and the smudge was gone. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. It was impossible to take in what I was seeing, had anyone survived? I wouldn’t even be able to go over and check for myself without potentially ending my life.

This is all a dream. All I would have to do is jump off this cliff and wake up, right? Somehow, amazingly, I doubted that was the case.

I bowed my head down so that I could cry, but no tears came. The emptiness inside me was a void that continued to suck away any emotions I tried to feel.

So, I didn’t feel anything.

I stood up and turned my back to the burning rubble filled dust cloud I once called home, and trotted away. I couldn’t even hear their screams.

--- --- ---

I’m not sure how long I walked for; I wasn’t even sure on where I was exactly heading. I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to sit and watch Neighside burn to ashes. My legs ached and felt numb, but I kept on going. I left the hills and small cliffs behind me, now walking in a barren part of the wastes. A few tumbleweeds bounced past me, swept away from a spare blowing wind. Shadows of trees and other dead plants fell over me as the cloud-covered sky overhead began to darken into a deep grey.

How could my life get so fucked up in one measly day? On a regular basis it would be wake up, work, drink… maybe have a little fun time with a cute mare or stallion, and then sleep.

And all this day had been was wake up, fight off invaders, learn that I’ve got terrible aim, get kidnapped and almost raped… again; I even watched my town blow up! The realization that I was almost raped three times within the span of two days settled in on my mind for a bit. It was slightly flattering, if not terrifying in a deeply disturbing way. Those thoughts were soon scattered away, though. At the sound of a distant wasteland creature howling into the night. Stopping in my tracks, I looked around in the gloom. I had no idea where I was, and there were no signs of life to be seen anywhere near me.

A wave of panic began to wash over me. Where was I supposed to go? What was I supposed to do? I turned a complete three-sixty in hopes that I would be able to find some sort of town, or shelter, even just another pony! I stood there as darkness began to settle in. I almost started to give up hope when I saw a faint flickering in the distance. I squinted my eyes towards the source and began to move forward. It appeared to be a series of lights. Just over some far away hilltops. A town maybe?

Heading into a full on sprint I raced towards the source. As I drew closer my hopes of a town had vanished. The flashes were too frequent and small to be coming from a house. The cracking and popping sounds of gunshots could be heard as I approached ever closer. A few overturned sky carriages laid scattered about. I hid behind one, hearing the growing increasingly annoying clicks of the radiation. I looked around, seeing a glowing red on the E.F.S. Among all the red, though. I saw a lone white bar. That bar seemed to be moving quite fast as I watched it soar along in my vision.

Daring myself to peek out from behind the carriage, I spotted five filthy ponies shooting up in the air. They were all dressed in tattered clothing that I assumed to be some sort of poorly made body armor as most of their flesh was visible and unprotected; that was all I was able to make out from the intense flashing of gunfire. Between the noise of the gunfire I could make out taunts that the ponies on the ground were shouting.

“I can’t wait to count out your caps!”

“Somebody call a doctor, we got a bleeder!”

“Rock on!”

Weirdos.

A stray bullet pinged off the broken, metal sky carriage I was behind which caused me to jump in alarm. One of the red bars disappeared off the E.F.S. Which I assumed meant that one of them had to be dead, or at least out of range. I held my breath as a few more bullets pinged off the ruined skywagon, and one by one, the red bars flickered out. Leaving the lone white bar standing all by itself.

I wanted to peek out and see who it was, but my legs wouldn’t budge; I was stuck as still as a rock. My ears picked up the sound of rummaging and some mutters along with it. Then I felt my heart stop as the rummaging died away, and I felt eyes piercing through the skywagon at me. Closing my eyes, I slowly whispered to myself, “please no please no please no…”

Slowly opening my eyes again, though. I slowly turned my head around. The white bar was out of sight. I let out a relieved breath and looked up.

Everyone a mile away could hear my scream from the sight of the beak and eyes of my ex-boyfriend as I thumped him upside the head.

--- --- ---

“Agh, holy Celestia, Sherry…” the black griffon groaned as he held a talon to his head, where he clutched it in pain. “Fantastic way of saying ‘hey! long time no see!’” he groaned again and gripped his head even tighter. A small red bump starting to form on the top of it.

“Sorry! Beak! You scared me!” I flushed as I rubbed the back of my neck with a sheepish look. “It’s your own fault for sneaking up on me!”

The griffon known as Beak Buckley chuckled to himself, “same old Sherry…” he got back up onto his paws and claws. I noticed that there was a slight bump on his head and I felt another stab of guilt. The black griffon stood tall, and I took in his muscular figure. On his head was a tuft of black feathers that were slicked back. From the rest on down there were midnight-colored feathers strung about on his features until you reached down to his body. Covering most of his chest and beyond was a greyish armor that complimented his colors well. Under that, though. His body was that of a lion’s, where his front legs ended in talons, and his back legs ended in paws. The most fascinating thing, though. Were his black feathered wings.

“Sherry?”

I snapped out of my trance and peeled my eyes off of his body, “huh?” I received a funny look from him in return and he opened his beak to speak again.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” He asked me, “Neighside is at least five miles west from here.” My heart sank and my limbs grew cold and my thoughts got jumbled. My eyes were drawn to the dead bodies of those ponies from earlier, what were they shooting at him for?

“I-I uh…” Shit. What am I supposed to tell him? ‘Yeah, I’m out here because I was a complete dumbass trying to kill mercenaries, and when I was headed back from almost getting raped the third time in two days, Neighside blew up!’

Something must have registered on my face to him, because he cocked a brow at me, and asked, “You alright, Sherry?”

“Ha, yeah! Just fine!” I plastered a fake smile on my face that was as wide as could be. Beak continued to give me a quizzical look as my eye twitched.

“Well, if you say so.” He said as he began to gather his things. “Why don’t I escort you back home?” Home? Oh shit.

“N-No! I’m uh, on a special delivery! Yeah!” I said as my smile widened. I received another quizzical look from Beak.

“For your bar?...” Shit. I’m a terrible liar. I knew I wasn’t about to get myself out of this hole I had just dug for myself so I decided to dig it even deeper.

“Yep! Somepony wanted a nice bottle of Wild Pegasus!” With a glow of my horn I opened my saddle bags to pull out my very own bottle of Wild Pegasus that I had planned on drinking later. “Er, it’s here somewhere…” I mentally reached for where I believed I had thrown it into my bag, but to no avail. With an annoyed huff I unstrapped my bags and looked inside to get a better look. “W-What the?! How could this happen, there’s no way!”

Beak instantly perked up, “huh? What is it?” He leaned in for a closer look as I held my bags up to him. He cocked a brow, “Uh, I don’t see anything wr-”

“It’s all organized and… stuff!” I exclaimed. The reason for my surprise is because I’m regularly a huge slob. I mean, have you seen my room?

Beak pointed to my left forehoof. “It’s probably because of that.” I looked down to it and lifted my hoof up.

“What about it?”

Facehoof, or, in this case, faceclaw. Why is everyone doing that with me so recently?

Beak sighed and reached out for it. He pressed a few buttons then brought it up to my face. On it there was a list of everything I had in my bags. Everything right down to my… uh… nevermind that. “Your PipBuck has an inventory management spell.” He told me with a flat look.

“Oh yeah, hehe. I tend to forget things.” I said as I rubbed the back of my neck.

“Yes, Sherry, I know.”

“You do?”

Facehoof, er, claw.

--- --- ---

So, Neighside is gone. I no longer have a place to call home. Neighside had been the only place I ever knew in the Equestrian Wasteland, and to watch it explode before my eyes from… whatever the hell had blown it numbed my mind. It numbed my mind to a point where I wasn’t even able to bring the situation up to Beak. Why can’t stupid words just come out of my mouth?

I clenched my eyes shut, and grit my teeth in frustration as I walked along next to my ex. Fuck it, I’m going to tell him.

“Are we there yet?” Right after I ask that super important question.

The irritation on Beak’s face was very apparent as he made no attempt to hide it. “For the hundredth and seventh time Sherry… no, we are not.”

“Oh, okay…” We walked in silence for a few more minutes before I spoke up again. “Hey, Beak?”

The griffon spoke through gritted teeth. “Dammit, Sherry… I swear…” A small part of me felt guilty for angering Beak with my constant bombardment of questions, but that guilt was soon pushed to the back of my mind as I finally decided to spill the beans.

“I-” I began, but was interrupted.

“There! There it is! Now will you stop asking?!” Beak pointed straight ahead of us as we made it to the top of the hill we were climbing. I stopped on the peak of the hill and peered down at the town where I saw a few ponies milling about. It wasn’t a big town. I saw a few buildings that looked like they would be stores, and a few more that littered around those buildings that looked like they used to be houses back before the war. When I turned to Beak to ask who lived there, I found that he was no longer beside me.

“Beak?” I asked, to thin air as I looked to the left, right, and behind me. Then I spotted him about twenty yards away from me up in the air, and headed straight for the town. “Beak!” I shouted at him as I raced down the hill after him, but the griffon didn’t seem to have any interest in slowing down. “Beak!”

He turned back to face me and stuck his tongue out in my direction and blew a raspberry. Then, with an nearly evil grin he said, “See ya there, I’m not listening to your annoying babbling anymore!” Beak turned and began to fly off towards the town again.

“Not fair!” I shouted at him.

“And so was the entire year I dated you!” He added.

… Damn.

--- --- ---

The door to the saloon slammed open, ringing the bell above it, and all eyes turned on me. The saloon was dark, not very well lit, except for sunlight barely creeping through the dirty windows and two or three light bulbs hung limply from the ceiling. The few ponies that occupied the inside of the bar kept their attention on me for a few more seconds, before losing interest and going back to their games of pool and drinking of alcohol.

It wasn’t hard to spot Beak, considering the lack of ponies in the room, and him being the only griffon present. He was sitting at the bar counter, and I marched right up to him, opening my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, and say a few mare-swears. I barely opened my mouth when Beak shoved a Sunrise Sarsaparilla in my face. He smirked, he knew he’d gotten himself out of trouble.

“Forgiven,” I muttered, swiftly taking the drink and gulping it down. “For now.” What can I say? Free drinks of any kind are a ticket out of trouble with me. I took a seat on the barstool next to Beak as I finished off the few last drops of the tasty drink. My PipBuck began to tick a bit, but I ignored it, dismissing it as something I wasn’t really interested in at the moment.

“Don’t you have something to deliver?” Beak asked me as I discarded the bottle, which I noted did not come with a cap. My stomach turned queasy at the question.

“Uh, yeah. I delivered it before I came here.” I lied to him. He accepted the answer with a nod, and lifted his claw to his beak to take a gulp of his own drink. A Sparkle-Cola. Beak licked his… beak. Huh. He doesn’t exactly have lips... So, yeah. Beak licked the excess beverage off his beak and set it down on the counter.

“So, do you plan on staying?” He asked me, as the mare I assumed to be the bar mare came over and collected the empty bottle of Sunrise Sarsaparilla. The earth pony mare eyed me for a moment, and then a pleasant, almost motherly smile crept up onto her face.

My attention was diverted from Beak as I looked at the mare and blinked. “Uh...” Was all that escaped out of my mouth. The mare’s coat was a light, faded yellow and her mane was a crisp brown that mixed together to make her quite attractive to look at. Even if she did look to be twenty to thirty years older than me.

“Oh, pardon me.” She said with a light laugh. “It’s not often that we get many visitors here in Pleasantry, and the few that we do get barely stay for more than a few hours.” Pleasantry, I remembered was the name of the town that Beak told me we were headed to, and being the terrible liar I am. I told him that this is exactly where I was delivering to. Something else that was to be noticed about this mare is that her voice was very soothing, soft even. It reminded me of when Spurs used to hold me and tell me everything was fine when I was a young filly and I had heard gunshots, and other wasteland monsters during the night.

Oh goddesses. Spurs. The thought of my most likely dead guardian drove my train of thought of thought off the tracks, causing me to choke up. “Hun, you alright?” The barmare asked me with a touch of concern in her voice.

“I-” My voice trembled badly and I choked up again, trying to play it off as a cough. “I’m fine.” I managed to choke out. The yellow mare eyed me with concern, then ducked down behind the counter, coming back up with a bottle of what looked like to be dirty water.

“On the house.” She told me as I took it with my magic and chugged half of it. My PipBuck began to make that obnoxious clicking noise again so I lifted my hoof and shook it around. As if that would do anything to help. “You got one of them fancy PipBucks too, eh?” I looked up towards her as she kept up that kind smile of hers. “I saw one other pony with one of them just last week, and get this, that pony was shot in the head, and lived!”

The first thought that came to my mind was who in the hay lives through a head shot? But, hearing it from this mare’s mouth made it hard to disbelieve. Though, I should consider that she is a barmare and she is used to hearing stories from drunks. “I’m Sherry.” I noted between drinks, realizing that I didn’t know this mare’s name yet. I extended my PipBuck hoof to her.

She bumped my hoof, “Moody.”

“Nice to meet you, Moody.” I replied with a smile. Beak seemed to be lost in his own thoughts as he stared up at the ceiling, resting his back legs on the counter, and spinning his now empty bottle of Sparkle-Cola on the tip of his talon.

“So,” Moody began, “are you going to be stayin’ here for a while?” She asked me. “Cuz, if you are, I’m sure that folks around the town would just love to meet ya!” I glanced at Beak again, who was still absent mindedly lost in his thoughts.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stay a while.” Because you’ve got nowhere else to go… Moody’s smile widened with happiness at my response. The doorbell rang, and a short mare, around my age or a bit younger, walked inside with a shaggy dog at her hooves.

The mare trotted up to the counter with a friendly smile and nodded at me. She wore what I recognized to be leather armor with a gun strapped to her back. Then I noticed that she wasn’t just a normal earth pony or unicorn, but a pegasus. Her light blue wings stuck out of slits from her armor, and her deep, crimson mane fell down to her neck while a few strands hung in front of her eyes. “Ah, Sherry, meet Sunshine Skies!” Moody said as she gestured between me and the pegasus.

Sunshine Skies smiled and nodded at me, raising her hoof in a wave. “Howdy!” I couldn’t help but notice how stunningly cute she was. The way she smiled at me and how her armor looked just a bit too tight near her rump- Beak poked my head, causing me to sway a bit. I looked at him, confused as he chuckled to himself. About to ask him what was so funny I realized that I had been staring at Sunshine with my mouth open, and obviously eyeing her butt.

She gave me a funny look as I blushed and shrunk a bit. Now isn’t the time for getting laid, Sherry. I cleared my throat and pushed the thought to the back of my head the best I could. It was a bit easier, because, to be honest, it bothered me. I’m usually the one making mares and stallions blush and coming onto them. And being on the opposite end made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Sherry?” Huh? What? I blinked and came to realize that a conversation was happening in front of me, and I was failing to pay attention. Moody and Sunshine giggled to each other as I felt my face growing hot again. “We were just askin’ you what you do for a livin’.” Sunshine told me.

“Oh, I worked a bar.” I replied.

“Worked? So what do you do now? Beak here told me that you was out on a delivery.” Moody responded looking confused. Then her face lit up. “Oh! So you’re a courier?” Wait. What?

In my confusion, my mind became a jumbled mess of things. So I responded, “Wha- Uh- Hm… sure?”

Moody smiled at me and Sunshine giggled at my response. “I’ve been lookin’ for a pony like you to deliver sumthin’ for me.” The bar mare ducked back behind the counter again, and this time came back up with a package and a letter. “My folks back in New Winnie haven’t heard wind of since I left ‘em five years ago.”

“You haven’t been able to get a pony to deliver a package for you for five years?” I questioned her. A sadness drew itself across her face as she nodded.

“I would just love to do it myself, but I just ain’t fit for the wild wasteland.” When she saw the concern on my face she added, “I’ll pay you real good. How does five hundred caps sound?” Whoa. I weighed the odds. Deliver a package to New Winnie and possibly die along the way, or make Moody wait another year for somepony else to do it. I bit my lower lip as I looked at the package and Moody, and then my eyes landed on Beak.

“Beak, why don’t you do it?” I asked him a bit harshly.

“I tried gettin’ him to do it multiple times, but he just won’t.” Moody told me with a shrug of her shoulders.

Beak opened his eyes for he had been dozing off, and saw the three of us mares staring at him. He sighed and sat up in his chair, “I’d love to, I really would, but I’ve told you, accepting work that’s not beneficial to the Beaks is outside of my contract.” The Beaks, I remembered to be the mercenary group that Beak’s father was the founder of. They were actual mercenaries, and not raiders like the Scorpions who liked to call themselves mercs. “I’m not allowed to even do favors such as yours, Moody.” He caught her mad pout, and he sighed again. “I’m sorry.”

From the way the two were talking to each other, I could tell that they had a history. I didn’t get to delve much into it, though as Moody turned back to me, after she stuck her tongue out at Beak. “So, you’d be willin’ to do it?”

“Uh…” I stammered.

At my hesitation, she quickly added, “I’ll pay ya half now, and half later, sound like a deal?”

“Sure?” Boy, I sure am a dumbass. Before I knew it, my saddle bags were now containing a newly obtained, brown, wrapped package, a letter, and two hundred and fifty more caps. I knew I was probably going to die out in the wastes if I tried delivering a package to New Whinnie.

In case you’re wondering what New Winnie is, after it being mentioned multiple times. New Winnie is a great big town that’s filled with almost every possible threat that can come from a pony. It was originally just called Winnie before the war, and even before then, the town was filled with crime and hate. Winnie, had luckily survived any direct bombing. Residents that did stay in Winnie had died from radiation poisoning, and the city was left a ghost town. That is, until the stables opened up.

I don’t know much about the history after the stables opened. I’ve heard too many stories to know which one is true. All I know is that New Winnie was taken control of by very bad ponies. Sure, it was a safe place to live on the outskirts of the town. Almost everypony of the San Palomino Wasteland knows that the heart of the city is where you want to steer clear from.

“Sherry?”

“Huh? What?” Dammit, I need to stop zoning out in my thoughts. I blinked, and came to again for the what seemed like the hundredth time. Sunshine Skies was sitting next to me now at the counter while Moody and Beak seemed to be discussing the best way to cook a radroach with the right kind of alcohol. “Sorry, can you say that?” I asked her.

“Woof!” I looked between our seats and saw Sunshine’s dog staring up at me with his tongue hanging out and wagging his tail. I rubbed a hoof behind his ears which he seemed to enjoy.

“I asked ya if you know how to handle yourself out there in the wastes.” She said to me with a look that told me she doubted my survival skills.

Myself, being myself, wanted to impress this mare. Even if I did have no idea about the first thing in survival. “Of course I do!” I answered to her with a grin. All thoughts were pushed aside as my new goal was to impress Sunshine, and possibly sleep with her. “Handle myself out in the wastes is my middle name!” Wait, what. That came out wrong…

“Really?” She asked me with a doubtful look on her face.

“You bet!”

“Well then,” A look began to form in her eyes, and her doubtful expression turned into something of almost… Evilness. “How about we go out for some shootin’?”

Fuck.

--- --- ---

Bang! Bang! Crack! Pop!

“I’m impressed,” Sunshine whispered into my ear, causing the fur on the back of my neck to stand up on end.

“Really?” I turned back to her with a grin and dreams of some sexy time.

Sunshine Skies nodded with a sultry smile and half lidded eyes. “I’m impressed… That you’ve managed to miss every bottle by a mile!” She gestured over to the fence twenty yards in front of us. Bullets from the rusty varmint rifle I was shooting were strewn about. Some dug into the sides of buildings, and others in the dirt. Quite frankly, it looked like some raiders came through and decided to shoot everything they saw. One old pony was dropped down, shaking on the ground huddled in a ball with his hooves over his head. Two feet away from him laid his hat with a brand new bullet hole in it. “You lied to me!”

The way Sunshine said that to me made me feel a bit guilty on the inside. “Well… I mean, I didn’t really lie to you, I just didn’t tell you the truth.” The look she gave me was worse than a spilled bottle of beer.

“You coulda gone out there an’ killed yerself!” She bursted out in my face.

I defended myself. “What am I supposed to do? She’s been waiting for a package to be delivered for years! I can’t just say no after she was so eager for me to do it!”

Sunshine fell back onto her rump and ran her hooves down her face, letting out a long sigh in the process. “Ugh, fine, you’ve made your point…” We sat together in silence, while we wracked our brains about what to do… Okay, fine. Sunshine thought of ideas while I sat and stared at her butt.

By Celestia, it was a gorgeous butt.

“I guess I’m just gonna have to teach ya basic survival skills.” My heart sank.

Teaching involves someone learning, and learning from teaching is like being back in school again. “Maybe you could just deliver?” I suggested sheepishly. From the look she gave me in return, I could tell it was a ‘no’.

“I woulda done it years ago if I could, Sherry, but Pleasantry needs me and my shootin’ skills if it ever comes under threat.” I guess that made sense. Almost all of the ponies I’ve seen here so far didn’t really seem to fall under a combat-ready category. “I’m assumin’ you already know about who to avoid when out there. Raiders, slavers, certain gangs, am I right?”

“Of course!” I replied happily.

“Well I’m tellin’ ya again, cuz you lied to me the last time I asked you sumthin’ like this.”

The bell rang.

Class had just begun.

--- --- ---

It had taken the rest of the day, and was going to take well into the next for Sunshine to teach me everything I needed to know if I were to travel the wastes. I didn’t like to admit it, but there was alot that I didn’t know. For a mare living in the wastes you’d think I’d be a bit more experienced, or just more knowledged than I actually am. But I’ve been living behind Neighside’s walls my whole life, and have been blind to what’s actually out there. We had worked on my shooting for most of the day, and there were only small improvements. Nothing amazing, though. I still hadn’t managed to hit a single bottle.

The first night in Pleasantry I had stayed in a bunkhouse with Beak that was free of charge. The bunkhouse was actually just an old pre-war home that had been converted for the use of a bunkhouse. That night mostly consisted of me listening to the rumbly snores of the griffon, and the thoughts of Neighside came creeping back into my mind like a boomerang that came back no matter how far I threw it.

The same thought also kept coming back to me, “Why the fuck have I not told anypony yet?” Why did I keep avoiding it? I had to tell someone, I had to find the fucker that blew up my home, my friends, Spurs… I had to put a fucking bullet right through their brain! But who? Who would blow up my home?

Thoughts and theories swam through my mind as I tried to put it together. After a hours of staring at the ceiling and listening to Beak snore my mind finally settled on the offender.

Blade.

It only made sense. He and his gang came into Neighside just a day before, and then they had that midnight attack. They could have planted a bomb inside and left. But how the hell did they manage to get a bomb that can make an explosion of that size into Neighside without it being noticed? Ugh, I hate buts. I rolled over onto my side with a huff and watched the wall. Bringing my PipBuck up to my face I saw that it was just past midnight; and I also learned I should cool it on the radiation. The marker was just about a quarter to the first rectangle. I explored around on it a bit, checking inventory and health. Then I came to the recording. The one my parents had left me.

Smiling, I hit play, and slowly drifted off into sleep with sound of my parents’ voices.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

“Ugh! This is dumb!” I complained, and threw the gun aside with my feeble magic. It had barely made itself two feet away from where I was standing. Spurs picked up the rifle with her mouth and leaned it against the sandbags we were standing behind. In front of the sandbags was a target with rings surroudning a smaller circle in the middle further out. All around the target were bullet holes that the rifle had made from all of my missed shots.

“Just try again.” Spurs urged me on with a nudge and a smile. The pre-teen in me made me roll my eyes and take on a sassier attitude so I wouldn’t have to keep doing target practice with her. “It’s important that you learn this, you know.” Of course it was, she told me this everyday. For the past two weeks Spurs and I spent five hours just trying to teach me how to shoot. I knew how to shoot a gun alright, but actually hitting a target was a whole other story.

With a huff I stomped my hooves on the ground. “Can we just pleeease stop?” I, of course, already knew what the answer would be, but it never hurt to try.

“No.”

“Why noooot?” I flopped my butt down on the ground and folded my forelegs with a grumpy pout.

“Cuz everypony has to learn, Sherry.” Spurs answered. That was the answer she always had, and it was starting to get old.

Luckily, this time I had a counter against that. “Well, not me!” I exclaimed, “I’m going to be a famous musician known all across the wasteland! And then I wouldn’t need to know how to shoot, because then I can hire bodyguards to do it for me!” I beamed enthusiastically, pumping my chest out, and looking up into the cloud layer that we called a sky. It was so perfect and simple in my mind, but a plan of mine is usually pooped on by Celestia and Luna themselves.

“And if ya don’t become a famous musician known all across the wasteland?”

I deflated and sat back down on my rump, and rubbed the back of my neck. “Well… uh…” Nothing. I fell onto my back on the dirt with another pouty look. That plan had been forming inside my brain for what seemed like forever! And to have it shatter so easily with a simple ‘what if’ was a real bummer.

“You’ve gotta be prepared for everythin’ Sherry.” I looked towards Spurs and saw that she had that comforting motherly smile of hers on. By now I mostly had a firm grasp on the fact that she really wasn’t my biological mother, but she still felt like a real mother to me. “Whaddya’ say I teach you a trick for helpin’ ya shoot better?” I reluctantly nodded and got back onto my hooves, resuming my position behind the barricade. Spurs hoofed me the rifle and I took it with my magic. “Now, what you gotta do is aim, inhale, and exhale, and when ya exhale is when ya shoot.”

The instructions were simple, but my mind was having trouble comprehending them. Inhale, shoot, exhale? No, that’s not it. Shoot, inhale, whiskey… no, that’s not it either. I had taken five shots, each getting even further away from the target. With a frustrated hiss I went to throw the gun on the ground again, but caught Spurs’ eye. Deciding that I’d give it one more try, I closed my eyes, and took aim. Even though I really didn’t want to, I did it for her. Inhale, keep it steady, aim for your target, exhale, and shoot.

Crack!

The bullet fired from the gun, it travelled across the shooting range and pierced the target from the third ring closest to the middle. Considering it was out of nine rings, it was a pretty good shot from me.

“Keep practicin’ and maybe one day you’ll be known for shootin’!” Spurs chimed happily behind me. Usually, I never found myself successful in anything, and when I finally was successful in something, well...

I cheered happily and gave Spurs a big hug. Then I quickly looked back and checked my rump, a little disappointed to see that I still didn’t have my cutie mark. Spurs took notice and ruffled my mane. “You’ll get it eventually, Sherry, everypony does.” I smiled and gave her another hug. “Love you, Sherry.”

“I love you too, mom.”

--- --- ---

Dull light creeping through the window met my eyes as I slowly fluttered them open. I laid still for a few moments, just listening to everything around me. Usually, by now in Neighside I’d be hearing the sounds of vendors opening their stands, and ponies going about on their days. Today was different, everything seemed to be almost silent to me. I’d usually have to force myself out of bed and get ready to open up the bar. I didn’t know how many times I’d have to realize that my home is gone, over and over again. It felt like there was a weight in my stomach, and it left me with a queasy feeling.

I rolled over to face the opposite direction, only to find myself muzzle to beak with Beak. “You were watching me sleep.” I stated flatly as I started to sit up in the creaky, old bed. He blushed and I noted his ruffled feathers, indicating he had probably woken up not long ago and didn’t take the time to make himself look neat. At least as neat as you can look these days.

“I was kinda... sorta… hoping to ask you something.” He mumbled, refusing to make eye contact with me as he rubbed the back of his head with a claw.

“Hmm?” I stretched, and let out a yawn as Beak stammered.

“I mean, it’s been a while since I ever… did… stuff, and, well…” Beak slowly died off as he saw me staring blankly at him.

“He usually isn’t ever this nervous…” I thought to myself. I had dated Beak for a year, and over the course of that year I had really gotten to know him. He almost always had that ‘I’m too cool for you’ kind of vibe that he carried around with him, and he always had an answer for any question asked to him. I guess that’s what had attracted me to him in the first place. I know, I know. You may have been asking for quite a while now, “A pony, and a griffon? Together?! What?!?!” It’s really not as weird as you think it is… okay, it may actually just a little different, but that’s what really spices things up!

The gears in my brain slowly began to crank as I woke up more, and became a bit more perceptive of what was around me. The way Beak was standing there so nervously, fidgeting, rustling his wings, keeping his eyes on the floor. Ah, it made sense now. “No.”

Beak looked baffled. “What? You didn’t even hear me ask!” I rolled my eyes at him.

“You were going to ask me if I wanted to have sex with you, and the answer is no.” I responded as I started getting up out of the bed. I stretched my legs and cracked my back once I was on all four of my hooves.

“C’mon, Sherry. It’s been almost three months since I’ve had another griffon,” he begged to me as I just raised my brow at him. “Or mare.” He added. I opened my mouth to tell him the answer again, but the way he was looking at me, I could tell he was desperate. “I mean, I can usually hold it in, it doesn’t bother me that much, but with you here…” That had caused me to blush myself. A small part of me was telling me to say no again, while another told me that I should feel bad for Beak and let him have what he wants. Then there was a third part of me that I didn’t even feel until now that was telling me to get a good, hard rutting. With a quick check of my PipBuck I saw that we had about two hours until Sunshine was to start teaching me again. That left an an hour and half for sex, and thirty minutes for breakfast.

“Fine.” I answered.

“Really?” He looked surprised and a great bit relieved. “I thought for sure you were going to say- GAH!” Beak never got to finish his sentence as I tackled him onto the bed for the rutting of a lifetime.

--- --- ---

Beak and I laid on the bed, panting in each other’s sweat and other bodily fluids. I rolled off the top of his chest and next to him on the bed. I had really made him work hard to pleasure me. I hadn’t really known it before, but I had really needed that sex. When I tried to think about Neighside no emotions really entered my mind. Sure a small twinge of guilt, but nothing that I couldn’t live with. I knew that eventually the emotions would hit again, but at the moment I could care less. I just had sex! If only I could get Sunshine in on it...

My stomach growled loudly, and I perked up, “Breakfast time!” I chimed cheerily. The bed creaked as I removed my body off from the top of it. I began to scour the floor, looking for my ponytail holder that had been tossed aside during our fun. “There you are!” An orange glow wrapped around the orange band that I used everyday and I floated it up to my face, giving it a shake or two to get the sand and dust off of it.

Beak recovered his breath while I went about, to clean myself up a bit. I noticed that there were a few stains in my fur, and I was probably able to be smelt from across the room. “They got showers around here?” I asked Beak as I wiped away some of the sticky substance off of my coat with a hoof, only to find it now located on my hoof.

He only chuckled as he lifted himself up from the bed and slicked back the feathers atop his head. “In a small town like this? Nah.” Beak shook his wings allowing a few newly loose feathers to come free and land on the floor. I guess we went a little rougher than I thought.

“Well then,” I said, as I made my way to the door with Beak at my tail, “hope I don’t smell too much like sex.” The door closed, like everything, with a whiny creak as we left the bunkhouse behind, and started up towards the saloon just up the road. We walked in silence, neither of us sure what to talk about.

“So… when you did that thing with your hooves-”

“Yeah, let’s not.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

We opened the doors to the saloon to see Moody standing behind the bar counter and Sunshine munching away on some sort of meat. Sunshine’s dog sat at her hooves by the bar stool, looking up and wagging it’s tail. She noticed this and dropped a chunk of meat into it’s mouth. The dog gulped it down and let out a happy bark! Moody noticed us enter and waved us over with a smile. Beak and I joined them at the counter. My stomach growled something awful as a sign that I hadn’t eaten in a while. Just as I was about to ask what Moody had to eat, two plates of meat and an assortment of other foods slid towards Beak and I.

“How much?” I asked as I began to dig caps out of my bags.

Moody laughed with a wiggle of her hoof, “Free of course, I can’t ask ya to pay for your food when you’re doin’ such a huge favor for me.”

“But... you paid me.” I answered back with confusion.

“Just think of it as a gift,” She smiled at me, “ya can’t take back a gift.”

Now I really knew that I was screwed. If I wanted to deliver this package alive, I’d really need to pay attention to what Sunshine had to teach me. “Better eat up.” The said mare told me. “We gotta lotta work for today.” Beak was devouring his own plate, and was already almost completely finished.

The orange glow of my magic surrounded a piece of meat and I lifted it to my mouth to take a bite. I never really was a huge fan of meat, but I ate it nonetheless because it was something to eat, and you can’t hope to live on two hundred year old boxes and cans of food forever. The meat tasted salty, I had no idea what I was eating, and I didn’t want to know either.

Halfway through with my breakfast I noticed that Sunshine was looking at me funny. “What?” Was what I meant to say, but my mouth was crammed full of food, and it ended coming out as “Whauf?”

“What’s that smell?” She asked me as she scrunched up her nose.

“Uh…” I blanked with my mouth open still full of food. Luckily I got to dodge that question as the doors to the saloon slammed open and the pony that I recognized from before whose head I had almost taken off rushed in.

“N-Neigh-” He wheezed and began to cough. We all exchanged glances to each other as we waited for the pony to regain his breath. “N-Neighside!” He finally managed to sputter.

Oh, not so lucky anymore…

Moody, Beak, and Sunshine all shared a confused look on their faces while I kept mine straight and faced to the ground. “What about Neighside?” Sunshine asked with concerned tone.

“It’s… It’s just gone!” The older buck exclaimed. “We left early this morning so we could make it to trade just when the crowd was startin’ to come in, and all we saw was a huge cloud o’ dust!” I could feel Beak’s eyes on me, what I didn’t know, though, is if he told Sunshine and Moody where I had come from.

“Yer positive?” Sunshine asked again for reassurance. She received a rapid nod in return and she muttered, “dammit…” Moody seemed to be taking the news slowly as she could only form the beginning of a sentence before stopping and beginning a new one.

Then Beak spoke up. “Dammit, Sherry! You should have said something!” He yelled angrily at me. He must’ve been able to tell that I knew what had happened, and had been hiding it from him. His anger subsided a bit, though, as I lifted my head with eyes filled to the brim with tears.

“I-I-” I looked around at everybody who each had a different expression on their face. None of anger, but more of confusion and sadness. I couldn’t do find myself to do anything but let my lip tremble and bury my face in my hooves as I began to bawl like a foal. You know how foals like to cry really loud? Well, this was probably a close competition to that. Every emotion that I had stored away was now being released out of it’s storage container and being hurled at me like a million bricks.

I felt a consoling hoof drape around my back and a pair that hugged my head and softly whispered ‘shhh’. This went on for a few minutes as the guys awkwardly stood by and the girls did the comforting. My sobs finally began to die down leaving only a minor case of hiccups for me at the end. It may have been a little embarrassing to break down in public like that, but it really felt good to let everything out. I now felt a huge relief, or stress, some feeling of some sort off of me that I didn’t even know I had until I had let it all out.

When I finally raised my head off the counter and my hooves I could tell that my eyes were probably puffy and red. I sniffed snottily and ran a hoof across my nose. Everyone was silent for a full minute, nopony quite sure on what to say. Understandable, everypony was probably thinking about what was going to happen now. Neighside had been an asset to this part of the San Palomino. A whole new trading town or station would need to be set up in order for any of the less travelled through small towns to survive, and who knows how long that would take?

Finally, with a sigh, and one last sniff. I opened my mouth with my voice (which was now just a little scratchy.) “I guess I’ve got some explaining to do.”

It’d taken a good part of an hour for me to tell of what had happened since that evening when my bar had a gunfight. I tried to add in as many details possible, but found myself choking up again whenever I mentioned Spurs or anyone else that had been in Neighside. It felt good to finally tell somepony about what had happened. Sunshine had eventually left to get a better look at the town and to try and find out what exactly had happened. The old pony who was the bearer of bad news had left as well to try and figure out what they’d be doing for trades now. Which left Beak, Moody, and myself.

“I really wish you would have told me sooner, Sherr.” Beak said to me with a softer tone of voice.

“I know, I’m sorry.” I replied dejectedly. “It was just too hard for me to bring up…” Beak gave an understanding nod and turned his head towards the window. I could tell that this was also probably hitting him hard. He had a lot of friends in Neighside that he liked to spend time with and probably had fond memories of. While I… well, I couldn’t say I really had any friends. There was Spurs, but I had grown apart from her. Sunny and I would occasionally get a room and have some fun in there, but it never got past that. It’s like I knew everyone, but at the same time, I didn’t.

Looking to Moody I saw that the yellowed mare was nearly on the verge of tears. When she caught my eye she quickly rubbed her eyes and took a shaky breath. “That’s horrible, what happened.” She took another more steady breath, stuttering halfway through it, and continued on. “The wasteland is always takin’ sumthin’ we love away from us, sometimes I feel like it’s better just not to care.” I nodded as her words hit me but didn’t really sink in, “but when you stop caring is when you’re no better than a raider.”

Moody’s words were slowly pushed into me with her last. They may have only been stuck halfway into me, but I had an understanding of what I really felt. Melancholy and sorrowful are two big words that I probably wouldn’t use to describe it due to my limited vocabulary, but something along those lines. “C’mon.” Beak said to me as he got out of his seat and headed for the door. I gave Moody a fleeting look as I headed for the door. She smiled at me, but her eyes held a sadness that made me want to break down in tears again and cry with her.

The only thing that had stopped me from doing that were the words that a steel pony had said to me before things got bad. “There are days for moping, but I can save those days for later.” Those words echoed throughout my mind. They didn’t really sound important, hell, they were probably some of the stupidest words I’d ever heard. But I couldn’t help but take them to heart. Sprocket had lost his family, and he was able to put it past himself for something that needed his attention. Which brought another thing to my own thoughts. Did Steel Sprocket know about the bomb?

It could have been something related to it, but it’s not everyday that you get a group of Steel Rangers, let alone just one in Neighside. My mind tried to work on how the Steel Rangers could be tied into the mess of things that were now my problems. The only thing I could think of was that they had planted the bomb, or whatever it was that blew up Neighside, but I didn’t believe any bit of it, even if I told myself they did.

There were so many flaws in my thoughts, maybe they didn’t even sneak a bomb in, but instead they launched one at the town, but I hadn’t even seen anything getting launched, and I had the best seat for the show of the would-be fireworks. This is the point where thinking began to hurt my brain so I tossed my thoughts aside and caught up to Beak who was heading down a road leading out of the town. “Where are we going?” I asked beside him.

The black griffon watched the sky as we began to progress further and further away from the town. “Sunshine was going to bring you to shoot geckos that have been ruining one of the pure water supplies.” He answered me.

“Geckos?” I asked, “I’ve never seen one before, what do they look like?”

“Imagine one of those tiny geckos from that pre-war animal book you have.” He said, when he saw the confusion on my face on why you’d need to shoot them instead of smoosh them he added, “and then imagine them to be about half your size, standing on two legs, and extremely fast and deadly.”

What. “Why would Sunshine take me out to try and kill something that could kill me!” I exclaimed, flabbergasted that Sunshine would take me to do something so dangerous.

Beak chuckled at my panicked expression, “anything can kill you in the wasteland, Sherry, and don’t worry about them.” He licked his lips, “they’re actually a pretty tasty meal.” Ew.

“I thought I told you to keep your meat eating to yourself.” I mumbled to him as I began to feel nauseous, my stomach unsettling at the thought.

Beak opened his beak to reply, but was interrupted by a shrill scream that made both of our ears ring. The first thing I noticed was a white bar pop up on my E.F.S that was soon followed by three more red bars. In the distance I saw a white mare with a bright azure mane emerge from behind a hill, screaming and running for her life as three (what I assumed to be) geckos followed closely, biting at her tail. “HEEEELP MEEEEEE!” She cried running straight towards us.

One of the geckos leapt up into the air and was about to land on the mare’s back, but it was stopped short by a bullet that exploded it’s head into meaty bits. Beak flapped his wing and sped up into the air and began firing shots from his pistol at the remaining geckos. I really should improve my aim. The white mare with the azure mane who was being chased by the geckos stopped in front of me and sank down to the dusty wasteland ground to catch her breath now that the geckos were distracted with Beak. I had a better look at her and I saw that she was a unicorn like me, except her horn was a lot shinier and looked more well kept than my own.

She also some sort of clothing, it was blue and lined with yellow around the collar and down the middle. I knew the clothing looked familiar but I couldn’t quite place my hoof on the reason why. The mare finally caught her breath enough to stand up straight and look at me. That’s when I noticed two numbers stitched into her collar, a seven with the same number right beside it. ‘77’. The gears in my brain began to whirl and tumble as I put it all together. This mare was wearing Stable-Tec barding! She was also probably straight out of one considering how clean she was able to keep herself.

I stood staring at her like an idiot as she obviously began to grow uncomfortable. Beak swooped over with the last two geckos dead. He covertly slipped some of the gecko meat into his bag.”Uh-” The mare began to say but I blurted out.

“You’re from a stable!” I exclaimed as I leaned forward so that we were now touching noses, “That’s. So. Cool!” I jumped up and down happily. She leaned back and lifted her hoof up a bit and that’s when I noticed her PipBuck. “And you have a PipBuck! Doubly awesome!”

Beak deadpanned. “Sherry, you have a PipBuck too.”

I stopped my jumping and turned my head down to see the piece of technology around my hoof. “Oh yeah.” I flushed with embarrassment with a small grin. “Heh.” The mare blinked at me with eyes that were a blue as bright as her mane. Her mane was also the bushiest mane I had ever seen before. It was a look that fit her well, and instantly took me to fantasizing about having her in my bed. Ugh, why can’t my thoughts ever just be about hugging or something...

The mare suddenly jumped with a panicked expression and she cried desperately, “I need your help!” I felt a floating sensation all around me as I was picked up off of my hooves in the mare’s blue colored magic. I noticed that she had an accent as well, not the usual drawl of a San Palomino pony, but something more high and sophisticated sounding. Then I felt myself moving as the mare floated me along with her in a mad rush from the direction she had come.

“Gah! Hey, wait!” I flailed my hooves beneath me as we began to move. Beak was the lucky one out of the two of us as he elected to glide beside us instead of being carried around by unicorn magic.

]“What is it that you need help with?” Beak asked with a confused look to the panicked mare. She seemed a little uneasy of looking Beak in the eyes and she kept her distance a bit as she was trotting as fast her hooves could carry her.

“Uh, can I get down no-” I started to say but was interrupted by the white mare.

“What are you?” She asked to Beak which caused him to raise his brow.

“You’ve never heard of a griffon before?” He asked with an offended look.

The mare now looked more nervous as she forced a smile but still refused eye contact. “W-Well, yes, I have.” She stammered, hesitant to say anything else. “But, uhh… don’t you eat ponies?” We moved along in silence for a few moments where I decided to cross my hooves and look grumpy while trying to enjoy the ride to wherever we were headed. Then Beak burst out laughing uncontrollably.

“Hahahahaha! Oh sweet Celestia it hurts!” Beak fell to the ground in a fit of giggles where he held his stomach and tried to look for breath. The mare flushed a bright red on her face, but began to practically dance on her hooves. She bit her lip and turned her head towards a clump of huge rocks and back at Beak in a hurried gesture. It looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t want to interrupt Beak having a moment. Said griffon wiped tears from his eyes as he gasped for breath, “n-never heard th-that HA one before!” With that he fell to the ground again in a fit of laughter.

“Ugh!” The mare shrieked and ran off towards the clump of rocks while still carrying me with her magic.

“Can I get down no- oof!” I landed on my stomach and nearly had the wind knocked out of me. The mare beside me was panting and nearly out of breath, and I guess I couldn’t blame her. To carry a mare around with magic is tiresome. I can barely carry around half my weight with my own. I looked back to Beak who was still busy laughing his feathers off then to the cluster of rocks she had brought us two. There were many of them that towered over us by about fifteen feet and created half of a ridge. “So, you wanted us to help you move these rocks? Cuz I don’t think they’re gonna move.”

She gave me a flat look and pointed to the side of the cluster. At first glance I didn’t see anything, but then I noticed a small, concealed cave. Upon further investigation I realized that it looked like the entrance to a mineshaft of some sort. When I turned back to the mare I saw that she was gone. “Huh?” I asked myself out loud. The sound of hurrying hoofsteps could be heard behind me and I turned back to the cave to see the stable pony hurry into it and out of sight. “Whoa! Wait up!” I called to her and scurried in behind.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the cave was how dark it happened to be. I could see a faint, red light at the end of the tunnel so I quickly started to make my way towards it.

Screeeee!

An unpony-like scream echoed down the tunnel walls and caused every ounce of hair on my body to stand up on end. I gulped and looked at my E.F.S and only saw the single white bar which was probably the mare ahead of me. No red was the only thing that kept me going. Ducking down low, keeping my head and body close to the ground to avoid detection if there was anything up ahead I began to slowly inch forward. The light at the end of the cave was getting nearer to me. The light was a dim one, not enough to light up anything but I few feet around it. So my panic slowly started to die down as I got even closer. The white bar was in front of me, but that stable pony was nowhere to be seen.

Still keeping my head low, I moved forward ever more closer and- ack! I felt the familiar sensation of my muzzle being pressed between two flanks as my nostrils were instantly filled with a sweet scent. “Eep!” The pony in front of me jumped away and into the dim red light, revealing it to be the stable mare. I didn’t know if she was blushing due to the fact that she was lit up red, but my cheeks were flaring into a deep maroon color. She must’ve been able to see me because she gave me a hard glare.

“S-Sorry,” I stammered, “didn’t see you…” She only kept her glare on me and remained silent which made me fear for my life, but she only sighed and turned towards a machiney looking thing that I hadn’t noticed before.

“Don’t know what made them think it was a good idea to close the damn door…” She muttered, talking to herself more than me. I saw as the mare pressed a few buttons and floodlights filled the entire tunnel. Illuminating everything inside. The thing that caught my eye, though. Was the friggin huge hunk of metal that was in the shape of a cog, and bore the number seventy-seven in the middle of it. A loud beeping filled the tunnel and the red light began to spin and flash as the door began to pull back. I gaped up in awe as the door slid to the side, and revealed a room of metal within.

“Calculus.”

I turned my head and gaping mouth to the white mare, “wha?”

“Calculus, it’s my name if you were wondering.” She stated and moved quickly inside, gesturing me to follow her. In all the confusion and panic I had completely forgotten that she may have had a name. I followed in behind her, and my nose was instantly hit with a strange scent I had never smelled before. Fresh. I thought. Clean.

I knew what we were in. This was a stable! One of the fine pieces of technology that had been created before the war! My eyes were drawn to every flashing light, anything that bore my reflection, or showed the tiniest bit of glint. I followed the mare down a confusing amount of hallways, there were a few points where she would have to start dragging me by my tail because I wanted to stop and look at something. “Okay!” She said frantically. “You seem to get distracted easily, so tell me your name.”

I turned my eyes away from a window which held a room full of green plant life that I hadn’t ever seen before. “Huh? Oh! It’s Sherry!” I replied and started trotting up beside her, ready to have a good conversation. Calculus used the all too familiar gesture of a facehoof.

“Right, well, Sherry. I need your help, and it’s of dire emergency.” She told me with her accent which I thought was becoming increasingly cute.

“Sure, what’s that?” I asked with a smile, “I’m great at doing everything-”

“I need you to help me find a medical cure for the deadly disease that have transformed ponies into dangerous creatures that have taken over my stable.”

Great at everything but that.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: The Sheriff’s Daughter -- +5 Small Guns, +5 Repair

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Author’s Note: Finally got this chapter out! It ended up being shorter than I intended, and it’s actually going to take a little longer than I had anticipated for me to get where I had wanted to be at the end of this chapter. Thankfully I had extra time to myself in school due to finishing tests early so I was able to complete this in that period!

Give a huge thanks to EgoFawful for editing this chapter and making it not complete crap! I haven’t been able to contact MeetSouder so I’m beginning to think that I may need another editor to work with.

Anyway, huge thanks to everyone who reads this fic and helps me towards my goal of becoming a popular FoE fic! I even found Infamy in the pile of new, updated Fallout: Equestria side fics which is amazing to me. Of course, none of this could have been done if Kkat hadn’t started the Fallout: Equestria community and the huge number of side fics!

EgoFawful: I think that whiskey is secretly talking to me, and the only way I can hear it is to ingest it into my tummy. At least that’s what I told the police after they found me driving, anyways.