Fallout: Equestria- The Road Home

Chapter Two: When It Rains, It Pours

“I don’t want to set the world on fire, I just want to start a flame in your heart”

I began to remove the bandages that were covering my face while my brain proceeded to do back flips inside my skull. The head wound I was recovering from was causing my head to pound viciously. I’d stopped back at the bar in New Appleloosa where I shared a drink with a cute young mare. We exchanged stories and just had a good time drinkin’ Wild Pegasus whiskey and getting away from the wasteland; if only for a couple hours. She gave me a pack of mint-als and said they’d help with the hangover in the morning. I slide the pack out of my saddlebag and popped one out hoping they would help with the pounding in my head and I felt the effects almost immediately. I felt like I was on top of the world. I felt like I could go to any shop in the wastes and have them pay me for their wares. With this new burst in energy I decided it was time to break camp and see what these rangers wanted. I packed up my bedroll, food, and other supplies that I’d taken out the night before and started to make my way down the ridge.

I reached the bottom and saw just how much carnage had ensued while I was out. All around me were mutilated carcasses and severed limbs strewn out across the battlefield. Those rocket launchers weren’t a joke and the raiders learned that the hard way. I scavenged what I could from the bodies that were still intact. My labor bore some 9mm ammo, two health potions, some Dash and an old prewar M.R.E.. Most of the weapons I found were completely useless, which was typical of raiders. I wasn’t sure if they just didn’t care about the condition of their weapons or they were too stupid to realize that they needed maintenance to function properly. It looked like they were getting jacked up on Stampede to try and outgun the rangers with their inferior weaponry.

I stepped inside the main building that was previously the base for the raider camp. I had taken two steps in the door and was greeted by a .38 special being pressed against my temple. The mare holding the pistol let out a sigh of relief and lowered the pistol.

“Sorry about the whole ‘gun to the head’ thing. You never know who gonna walk through the door and try to kill the whole squad.” The mare before me had full power armor on but no helmet. Her coat was a bright baby blue with a short chopped golden mane. “The civilian has arrived!” She shouted to her boss who was back deeper in the building.

“Well stop messin’ around and send him in,” he shouted back.

I walked in to find a buck in power armor with his helmet removed. His coat was brown with a dusty darker brown mane. He steadily puffed on a large cigar and the smell it gave of was very pungent. He stared at me with a pair of aviator sunglasses that shined brightly and showed my reflection. He sat behind an old desk that had an assortment of pre-war junk that obviously wasn’t his.

“Well if it isn’t the buck of the hour. Come on in and have a seat. I’ve been itchin’ to talk to you about the battle yesterday. I’m Captain Star Bright of Applejack’s Rangers. What’s your name, son?

“Crack Shot Sir,” I responded.

“Crack Shot eh? Well the name fits. That was some mighty fine shootin’ you did out there. Your cover fire most likely won the battle out there. That heavy machine gun had us pinned down with no way out without accepting heavy casualties. I’d sit here and thank ya all day but I’ve got a couple questions for ya.”

“Shoot”

“Why did ya help us out? I’ve never seen ya around and I know folk don’t just go around fightin’ other ponies’ battles for em.”

“Well I was listening to the radio last night and heard from this Pon-3 guy that y’all were the good guys and as far as I’m concerned anyone that’s takin’ down raiders is good with me,” I replied.

“Well we’re mighty thankful for the support. It’s not often that somepony will lend a helpin’ hoof. We were really gettin’ shit on out there.” He proceeded to pull out a bottle of scotch from the ragged desk he sat behind. ”Scotch?” he asked.

“Sure I’ll have one,” I replied.

I reached in my bag and got out a pack of Mareboro Menthols and lit one up. For the next two hours we drank good scotch and shot the shit. The buck explained the squad’s presence in the area and informed me of some of the natural dangers in the region. They had been hearing numerous reports of raiders traveling to the nearby towns and causing a lot of trouble. I enjoyed being able to relax and not constantly looking over my shoulder.

“As much as I’d love to sit here and get drunk all day, we have some business to deal with,” the buck said grimly. “My terminal technician was able to hack the numerous terminals in this building. It appears as though the leader of their group was keeping a log of the operations out of this base. This camps main function was to find and eliminate all couriers that were passing through the area. As of yesterday they had found 5 couriers in the region. Apparently they had not found what they were looking for on the five they had found and had orders to remain in the area. Their boss was looking for a package that was real important. 20,000 caps important.”

“Well I guess I’m pretty lucky that y’all came through and took care of them. I wouldn’t have had a chance if I’d run into them myself,” I said back.

“Well you’re not out of the woods yet. The terminals show that there are two more checkpoints on the way to Ponyville. If you don’t mind me asking what exactly are you delivering,” he asked.

“Couriers Honor. I’m not allowed to open the package to see. It’s a little rule that the courier companies enforce very harshly. The company put a protection spell on the package that will kill anyone that opens the package except for the sender and receiver. The only way I can open the package is if the recipient is dead.”

“Well whatever it is their boss wants it. Wants it real bad.”

“Yep that’s the life of a courier, delivering shit that you have no idea what it is and having ponies hunt you down to take it from you. It’s not an easy job but somepony’s got to do it.”

“Isn’t that the truth, but hey what are ya gonna do. Life wouldn’t be as funny without dodging a couple bullets here and there. But there was another issue I wanted to discuss with you. As you saw yesterday, we took heavy casualties in the battle. We lost a lot of good ponies and our fighting force has been hit hard. We’re heading in the same direction as you and were wondering if you wanted to tag along. I don’t have the authority to make you a member of the Applejack's Rangers but I can put in a good word with the elder for you. We could really use a buck with your skill sets. You’re a good shot and can operate alone to provide support to larger groups. As always we know cash is king. We can offer you 500 caps and something real nice for that rifle of yours. So what do ya say, ya in or out?” the captain proposed.

“I’m in, when do we move out.”

“We’re gonna load up and move out in two hours. You can go take a look at the terminals if ya want or get some rest; we won’t head out without ya. As I promised here’s that part I promised for your payment.” He pulled out a small box from his desk and tossed it to me. I looked in inside to find a custom bolt for my hunting rifle. The design was a dark grey that complemented the brown of the rifles finish. The piece was fluted to make the bolt slide through into the chamber smoother and reduce the likelihood of it jamming.

*** *** ***

I wandered off to another room a lit up a Mareboro and got to work on my rifle. Thank Celestia for my training otherwise I’d have no idea what I was doing and come to think of it would probably already be dead. I replaced the bolt, put the rifle back together and slipped it back over my shoulder. The room I had occupied had a terminal sitting on a desk similar to the one in the captain’s room. I sat down at the terminal and decide to take a peek. I found the logs the captain spoke of. There was 4 files, Dark Matters log day 1-4. I opened the first log and began to read.

Day1:

Boss sent us out to set up camp and wait for some fucking courier to make a delivery through the area. We might have better luck if he didn’t give me a group full of fucking retards to catch this buck. I’d much rather be getting drunk and fucking those whores over in Flank.

Day2:

One of the search parties came back with two couriers today. They recovered some packages from the bodies but when we opened them they were full of junk. Some fucking bobby pins, a box of detergent, and a toy dinosaur. Wonder why someone would pay them to deliver a bunch of junk.

Day3:

MORE FUCKING JUNK. They retrieved 3 more couriers and once again they had a bunch of random shit in their packages. This must be some kind of game that the courier company is playing. They were brought back alive so we decided to have a little fun with them. We gang-raped one and made the other two watch. When the whole camp was through we sawed the mares head off real nice and slow. By that time the other two were begging to die. We took the second one and shot it up with some ultra-dash and cut all his limbs off. He survived about 30 seconds afterwords and suffered every second of it. The last buck got of the easiest. We covered him in gas and told him to start runnin’. He got about 30 feet when he got hit with my flare gun. Man I love seein’ somepony light up like a Christmas tree. Wonder where that phrase comes from and on top of that what the fuck is a Christmas tree? Ahh who cares its unimportant.

Day4:

Haven’t heard a word from the search team Alpha today. Everything has been real quiet. Bravo team came back with word that a group of rangers was heading our way. Better get ready for their arrival. I got something planned that will ensure our victory. But those rangers are tough, better make sure the machine gun is loaded and ready to go. Can’t take any chances.

*** *** ***

I rummaged through the old building trying to find some useful salvage. One room near the back of the building had about 25 containers in it so I decided to head in there first. To my dismay the majority of the boxes were empty. My diligence paid off when I opened a grey footlocker near the back of the room. What a score! I found a 9mm pistol that has in decent condition and 40 rounds to go with it. The locker also contained two healing potions and a sweet combat knife. I gathered the new found loot and returned to the Captain’s room for the team briefing before we moved out.

I walked in to see the three remaining rangers seated in front of the captain. He had a map of the area posted on the wall that had a lot of different trails and rally points noted on it. These guys really knew their way around so it was good I decided to tag along. I took a seat beside the baby blue mare and gave my full attention to the captain.

“Good, you’re here. Now let’s get started.” He said. “Let me introduce the squad. This here crazy son-of-a-bitch is Rigby. He’s our squad’s demolitions expert and one hell of a cook. You’ve already met Golden, our team navigator. Little word of advice, don’t get on her bad side. And last but not least we have our team medic, SSgt Briggs.”

Both of the bucks he introduced were wearing full power armor so it was impossible to tell what they actually looked like. I'm sure I’ll find out soon enough.

“Alright so here’s the plan. Me, Rigby, and Briggs are going to start heading north from our current position. We’ll have about 5 hours til the sun goes down and will have to set up camp. Crack Shot, you’re with Golden on this one. Your jobs are to follow us up by about a 100 yards and keep in radio contact with us at all times.” I looked to my left to Golden and she gave me a faint little smile. She might be feeling a little guilty for putting a gun to her future partner’s head.

“If there are more camps like this one as the terminal states, we need to know about them before we walk right into another trap. We will regroup a rally point alpha and plan the next leg of our course from there. You two need to stay hidden if possible and if shit hits the fan you need to be close enough to do something about it. Any questions?”

“No sir,” the group of three replied back.

“Well lets saddle up and move on out.”

*** *** ***

Our group moved outside and started out towards Ponyville. The landscape was harsh and barren, not leaving many places to stay hidden. Golden and I moved in unison stalking the main group and trying to keep a low profile. We stuck to the ridge line and kept an eye on the sky. After about thirty minutes of walking, I started getting the feeling that we were being watched. Golden radioed Alpha squad and told them to hold up. With Golden acting as my spotter we scanned the surrounding area and checked the overlying mountains. Everything appeared to be calm but I couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes burning through my backside. After clearing the area we gave Alpha the all clear and we proceeded on our way. The next hour was rather monotonous. We arrived at rally point alpha with the rest of the squad to discuss our next move. In the distance were small puffs of smoke drifting over the ridge. Captain sent me and my partner up the ridge to get a better look at the situation. To our surprise the source was coming from a small group of raiders around a campfire. Looked to be six of them if they didn’t have someone else hidden from view. Beside them were heavy metal cages but I couldn’t see what was in them. I asked Golden to see what was in those cages as her binoculars had a high magnification setting. While looking down at the campsite she suddenly gasped.

“What’s up, what do you see.” I said.

She looked at me with a face that was less fear or surprise but more of disgust. She didn’t say a word and just handed the binoculars to me. I peered through them and the sight I beheld produced a gasp similar to hers. They were cooking a slab of meat on a spit over the fire. The cages beside them were filled with fillies and colts, two of each. Beside that were two small skeletons that had been stripped of their flesh very recently. We both looked at each other and no words were said. We both knew what was going on. They were eating them.

“Come in Alpha Squad.” She whispered.

“Alpha Squad here, what do ya got?”

“Alpha we’ve got a group of six raiders on the other side of the ridge. They’ve got innocents sir. Two colts, two fillies. Advise immediate termination of all hostiles.”

“Roger that, see any hole in their defenses?”

“Yes sir, keep heading north along the treeline. After half a klick. hook a right into the ditch. Looks like they’ve been shootin’ up so you should be able to get real close without alerting them.”

“Roger that, we’re oscar mike to the ditch. Hold your fire til we get into position. ”

We waited patiently on the ridge while Alpha team moved into position. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The raiders sat by the glowing fire enjoying their grotesque feast. I lit up a Mareboro and kept a steady aim on the group feeling sicker the more I watched. I’d seen some fucked up shit in my two weeks out but this redefined fucked.

“Man these little ones is good eatin’. Nice and tender.” One raider said to another.

“Yea I just wish there was more to go around. They barely fill you up,” He responded.

“Well why don’t you go get one for us to split. We’ll find more out there tomorrow.”

The buck stumbled to his feet and started to make his way over to the cages. This is about to get ugly. He picked up an iron pipe on his way to the cages and proceeded to bang it on the metal bars.

“Here pony pony pony.” He smiled the most fucked, psycho smile in history. “Ain’t nobody gonna hurt you, we just wanna play.” The buck opened the first cage and grabbed one of the fillies by the neck and dragged her back towards the fire.

“Alpha alpha, come in!” Golden shouted into the radio.

“Alpha here, whats up?” The captain chirped back.

“They’re about to kill another filly. We need to take the shot NOW!”

“Negative Bravo, we’re not in position yet.”

“God damnit I’m not going to watch that filly die. That will not happen.”

“Alpha will be in position in 15 seconds. Try to hold off but if I comes to that take the shot.”

“Alright Crack Shot, game time. You need to make this shot count. We won’t get it again.” Golden relayed to me.

“Let’s do this. I’ll take the one with the filly and you take the mare with the grenade rifle.”

“Got it,” she replied.

Golden reached into her bag and pulled out a semi-auto assault rifle with a really nice scope. All the parts were black on black and came with a folding bipod and collapsible stock. Man that was a sexy death machine. I’ll have to run by Ditzy’s and see if she has one.

I gripped my hunting rifle and positioned my crosshair right on that wretched bucks face. I was gonna thoroughly enjoy this. As I watched the buck produced a large kitchen knife. A single bead of sweat ran down my face. He lifted the knife above his head and brought it down fast. He got about halfway down when my hunting rifles barrel flashed and my round was on its way. It soared, cutting through the hot air and made impact directly on his lower jaw. The force of the impact ripped his lower jaw clean off. Immediately the barrel beside me went hot. Golden let 5 rounds out of her rifle and I watch as four of them torn through her mark. The rest of the band looked around trying to locate their assassins but I think those hard drugs were making that a little difficult. As their leader dropped, the filly he was holding fell to the ground and hit it running. Another buck chased after her screaming obscenities. I adjusted my scope in front of him and when he entered the scope I slowly squeezed the trigger. The round struck him right under the kneecap and took him to the ground. He pulled a syringe from his pocket and stabbed himself with it in the thigh. He let out a devilish scream and struggled to get to his feet. Not today bitch. I fired my third shot and watched as it smacked him right in the middle of the head. Combat drugs or not, its kinda hard to keep fighting when your brains shoot out of your skull like party streamers.

Out of the ditch I see Alpha squad arrive and start blanketing the camp with automatic fire. The rescued filly had returned to the cages and was freeing her friends. The remaining three raiders retaliated against Alpha by chucking grenades towards their position. They were forced to leave the ditch and find new cover. Alpha team made a b-line for a small utility box and took cover. I watched as a mare pulled out two glowy green grenades and pulled the pins. Before she could get rid of them Golden’s rifle rounds tore into her torso and legs. She drops to the ground by her buddies. The two remaining bucks saw the grenades and made a half ass attempt to dive out of the way but it was way too late. The grenades shook the ground and made a loud ’wwwrrrhhh’ sound. They produced a beautiful green explosion and the only thing left of the two was a little bit of ash and bones.

“Alpha team, this is Bravo. Everything looks good down there. Ready to move in.”

“Roger that Bravo. Come on down. We’re gonna make camp a klick west of here”

“Roger”

We slowly made our way down the ridge to meet up with alpha team. By the time we reached the campsite Rigby was looting the bodies of the fallen raiders. All together we found 4 healing potions, some 9mm ammo, and a couple shotgun shells. The fillies and colts we freed were nowhere to be found. Must have headed back to their own community. I’d heard there was a band of young’ens that had made their own little gang to keep themselves safe. I think he said they called them The Crusaders. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting them but I’m sure I’ll bump into them sooner or later.

The air was full of the aroma of fresh gunpowder and a weird chemical smell. I assumed that it must have been due to the glowy explosives. The smell was quite familiar. I remembered it from the science lessons that Lockout had taught me back in the stable. Most of his lessons went straight over my head but chemistry was a field I could really sink my teeth into.

The ranger squad rallied around the campfire and were exchanging high hoofs and messin’ around. The Captain pulled out his map and started plotting our next course. He scribbled down a note on the sidebar about the camp we ran into and pulled out some fancy navigation tools. It seemed kinda redundant to use a paper map when I had a pip-buck.

“Why don’t we just chart the course on my PipBuck,” I asked.

“Well that would be a good idea but pip-buck don’t think tactically about the routes they chose. You put a marker on that thing and it finds you the quickest route there. Most of the time quickest is also the most dangerous. You wouldn’t want to go walkin’ through manticore country to shave an hour off your trip, would you? ” He replied slowly puffing on his cigar.

“Yea since you put it that way, no. This might sound stupid but what’s a manticore?”

“They’re some bad mother fuckers. They’re some vicious creatures from before the war. They have the body of a lion with a scorpion’s tail. And on top of that the fuckers have wings and a real bad attitude problem. You see a group of them your best bet is to turn around and go another way. Unless your packin’ some serious heat if you know what I mean. ” He replied.

“Well in that case I’m gonna stay the fuck away from them. Is there any way to mark those places on my map,” I asked.

“Yea sure let me see it.” I held my PipBuck out over the map while the captain pressed a couple buttons on the main screen. A scanning animation ran represented by the pip buck looking around with a magnifying glass. These little animations always entertained me while I waited for it to process things. The pip buck icon disappeared and it alerted me to four new markers on my map. Two of them were for manticores and the other two were for hydras and feral ghouls. “I plotted our new course on your map too in case we get separated so you’ll know where to meet back up with us. On that note let’s start heading on out. ”

We sat out on our small trip to where we were gonna sleep for the night. Pretty uneventful trip. Saw a couple over sized geckos but they weren’t any match to our group. I pulled out my 9mm pistol and was about to fire when Golden grabbed the barrel of my pistol.

“Don’t shoot them, you’ll ruin the hide. Use your knife or a big stick or something.” She cautioned.

I had never seen such a graceful dance of death than the one Golden proceeded to do. She charged head on into the pack of four and pulled out her combat knife. She used a backhand slash on the first ones neck spewing blood all around. Immediately she spun around and slammed the knife deep into the lower torso of another one and ripped upwards instantly killing it. The third and fourth geckos came at her in unison. With her magic she pulled out five small blades and flung them towards the left gecko. The blades sunk deep into its hide and only poked out by about an inch. The last and largest of the geckos was in full sprint towards her. About 5 feet before impact Golden spun around and gave this gecko the hardest buck to the face I’d ever seen. The gecko was tossed to the ground and was stunned but not out. Golden jumped on top of the gecko and stabbed it multiple times in the neck and chest. Finally the beast stopped squirming and she sat up and let out a sigh of relief. That was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“See, piece of cake,” she muttered with an exhausted look on her face. Her face and mane were covered in blood. She slowly trotted over to the third gecko and retrieved her knives. “Aright guys, come load these bad boys up. We’re eatin’ like kings tonight! ”

The rest of us loaded a gecko on to our backs and started back up on our way. We reached our destination after about ten minutes. We all dropped our bags and started setting up camp. Briggs started constructing a makeshift shelter for if it started to rain. Rigby got the fire going and we all gathered round for a little relaxation before bed.

“Hey Crack, you wanna learn something?” Golden inquired.

“Sure, why not?”

“Ight bring your knife over here. I’m gonna show you how to skin a gecko. First you gotta make a cut down here. Then you cut upwards to right here. Then we get a real good grip and start striping it off. It’s real important to take your time and do it right cause nopony’s gonna buy a shitty pelt. Now we just stretch it out with these sticks and let it dry. Simple as apple pie.”

I followed her instructions and harvested the pelt of my gecko. Made a couple little mistakes but nobody would really notice them. Might cost me a few caps but you gotta start somewhere right?

“Now that we’ve skinned em now comes the fun part. This meat right here is really good. With this breed all the meat is fair game but some of the other breeds aren’t so nutritious. There’s poison sacks you need to watch for and if you hit them you completely ruined the rest of the meat. ”

“Ight guys, let’s get cooking!” The Captain shouted.

We roasted the gecko steaks we had prepared over the open fire. I felt a strong sense of pride between this group, they were out there helping ponies when most are worried about only themselves. We played around and cracked jokes for a couple hours and had a great time.

“So Golden, where did you learn to fight like that. They might have just been geckos but the way you dispatched them was nothing short of amazing.” I asked.

“Well growing up in the wastes is hard and bullets don’t just fall out of the sky. My family comes from a long line of premium sword smiths. The old techniques for crafting those perfect blades have been lost but the art of swordplay has endured. My father taught me everything I know and passed down some well-kept secrets. Hell, play your cards right and I might show ya a thing or two. ” She said in a playful tone.

“That sounds good. I’m gonna keep you to that.” I shot back returning her playfulness.

On that note everypony decided it was time to get some rest so we headed over to the shelter. I pulled out the makeshift mat I had and laid myself down. I was a little nervous about hitting the hay because of the outcome this morning but the pure exhaustion of the day soon took over, slowing my thoughts and freeing my mind.

Level up: Survival (35)
Perk added: Trigger Discipline- You tamed that itchy horn of yours and your shooting shows it. Your shots are slower but your accuracy benefits greatly.