Fallout: Equestria - Talent Pending

Chapter 4
Traveling

We were well into the Crystal Mountains by lunchtime. We'd only stopped a few times since leaving the city, twice to hide from the small teams of ponies sent to find us, but once we could no longer see the city, we were safe, as Val assured us that the patrols wouldn't come this far into the mountains. If I could use one word to describe the Crystal Mountains, I don't think I'd be able to pick between cold and steep. The icy plains which held the Crystal Empire stretched far below us, and the Crystal Mountains stretched high above us, the tops hidden in the thick cloud cover.

Another word to describe the mountains could be monotonous. Everything was the same, steep and cold, coloured with varying shades of white, grey, black, and a slight hint of brown here and there. All jagged rocks and big boulders and a few stunted trees every now and then. We were travelling along a rarely used track which was meant to lead all the way to the other side of the mountains, and according to Val, we would reach the other side in 3 or 4 days depending on what we might encounter. I really didn't like the sound of that. Everypony walked, Lemon Squeeze, the pegasus mare, being too weak to fly much.

Walking near the back of the group, I noticed that Val was keeping the blue blank flank filly, who I now knew was named Diamond Swirl, close behind him. Curious, I slowed down to walk next to Harmony to ask her about it.

"Oh, he needs to make sure she stay's safe, since she's the reason we were in the Crystal Empire." She replied, somehow walking effortlessly backwards as she studied the path behind us with binocular goggle things to ensure we weren't being followed. Turning back around she said "Looks all clear back there."

"But why were you after Diamond?" I asked.

"Because her dad called on us to rescue her from the slavers, we'll be getting a lot of bottlecaps for her safe return. That's our job, we get hired to save ponies, or take out raiders or bandits or slavers, and we help and save as many other ponies as we can along the way, so we freed the other slaves as a bonus." She grinned. "I doubt Diamond will ever wander off The Estate again."

"The Estate?"

Harmony nodded. "Yup, it used to be some luxury resort, but is now the home of Lord Verdite and Lady Crystal Note,their twin sons Obsidian and Aventurine, and their daughter Diamond Swirl. This is the fourth time they've hired us now. We happily work for them because they don't keep slaves, they hire ponies to clean and cook for them and to guard The Estate. They also care for the marketplace just outside their walls. Aside from Tall Tale, it's one of the safest places around Vanhoover."

"And... What's Tall Tale?" I asked

"Tall Tale is where me and Val live when we aren't on a job, his dad and little brother and sister live there too." She smiled at me. "Violet is just the most adorable little filly you've ever met."

I nodded. "Okay then."

It was then that it started snowing. More whiteness, only now everywhere, obscuring things, like a really really sharp rock that really really hurt when I stood on it. “Ow!” I stumbled, nearly falling on top of Twitch. He looked up at me, then bounded ahead, not wanting me to trample him.

“What is it?” Harmony said in alarm from behind me.

“I stood on a sharp rock,” I replied, cradling my sore hoof.

“Oh, is that all?” The blue mare with the brown mane ahead of me snickered. Her cutie mark was some dead animal, but I couldn't tell just what it was.

“Hey, it really hurt!” I said.

“Why don’t you fly above us? Then you don’t have to worry about stones” Harmony suggested.

“But I’ll lose you in the snow,” I complained, “Plus I’m not used to flying a lot.”

The mare ahead snorted a laugh, “excuses excuses.”

“Midnight, if you lose us in the snow you can just use your EFS to find us” Harmony told me, moving up next to me.

“EFS?” That didn't sound familiar to me, I tried to think of what it could stand for, Enquire Friend System? Enemy Finding System? Every Fool Sings? Elephant Friend Summoner? That would be cool, being able to summon an elephant at will.

“A pony with a PipBuck who doesn't know what EFS is? Ha!” That mare was quickly getting on my nerves. “I bet she doesn't even know what SATS is!”

“Err… SATS?” What in the hay could that mean? Single Ant Takes Salt? Signal Anonymous Target System? Sit Around The Sea? Salespony Advertising Tiara Sale?

The mare burst out laughing. I could barely make out her brown tail in front of me.

“Shut it Pebble!” Harmony snapped at her, and thankfully she stopped laughing. “SATS is Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, it’s a function on your PipBuck, as is EFS, which is short for Eye’s Forward Sparkle. SATS helps you target things in a fight, and EFS lets you see bars of where people or turrets or robots are and wether their friendly or hostile, don’t ask me how it knows, it just does. Friendly bars are yellow, red bars are hostile.”

“Okay… How do I activate EFS then?” I looked down at my PipBuck. I’d only ever used it to listen to the radio, record music and some conversations, use the lamp feature and look at the map of the Stable. Harmony stopped me then grabbed my leg, starting to fiddle with the Pipbuck, and using some little tools from her saddlebags.

“Huh, your Pipbucks a bit different to mine, a little less bulky, a bit smoother, that tiny little crystal heart on the front is so cute! Oh cool, it has a broadcaster!” I nearly fell as she pulled my leg closer.

“Umm, during the war whilst Stable 35 was being built, Princess Cadance commission special PipBucks to be made for our Stable. The little crystal heart is carved from one of only two shards recovered when the Crystal Heart was destroyed. This PipBuck belonged to Princess Skyla, Cadance’s youngest daughter, and it was given to me when I finished school.” I didn’t know why Grandma had given it to me, she’d always cherished it.

“Well, I’ll have to examine it properly later. SATS and EFS were never turned on so that’s probably why you didn’t know about them, you’ll see them in the functions menu. Bring up EFS and hover over us.” Harmony trotted to catch up with the group as I did what she said, suddenly seeing about a dozen bright purple bars blink into existence in my vision. This was weird. I reached out a hoof, feeling as though I could touch the bars, but of course, I couldn’t.

Springing into the air, I flew back to the group and hovered next to Harmony. “I thought you said friendly bars were yellow.”

“Yeah, I did. Why? What colour are you seeing?”

“A bright purple, it’s a nice colour,” I replied.

“Hmm, it’s probably cause our PipBucks are different,” She smiled as we reached the top of the incline. For a while the path was relatively flat, and then we went down into a small valley. As we climbed out of the other side of the valley, the snow was getting heavier now, and the wind was picking up, it was starting to turn into a snowstorm. Val took us into a cave to wait it out.

“One thing you never want to do is get lost in a snowstorm on a mountain, it’s usually a sure-fire way to die.” He said to me as I entered the cave. There was an old fire pit dug out in the middle of the cave full of ashes and an old bone, and an old pile of slowly rotting blankets at the back of the cave, the remnants of some ponies camp. "We'll rest here while we wait for the snow to stop. Hopefully it won't last too long, I want to be at Hot Springs by tomorrow night at the latest."

"Hot Springs?" I asked, petting Twitch's head.

"It was a holiday ski village before the war, the biggest attraction being the hot springs, which were said to have healing qualities. Now it's a safe place to stop when traveling into the mountains. Old Spade and his daughter Cookie live there, they do repairs on the place, keep it liveable." He smiled at me, "Also, I think most of the ponies that we saved could do with a good bath."

Hearing this, Pebble glared at him and trotted to the back of the cave with a huff.

It was about three hours later when we could start moving again, and this time I hovered above the ground to avoid any pesky stones out to hurt my hooves. It was about two hours after leaving the cave when the sky began to darken, and another hour after that when we were walking in near darkness. That's when Val called a halt for the night taking us into another cave to spend the night. I curled up against the cave wall, with Twitch curled up next to me like a big fluffy pillow. He didn't seem to mind when I wrapped my hooves around him as if he was a teddy bear, and was soon fast asleep in my embrace. As I began to drift off, I found myself watching Val as he took first watch at the entrance of the cave, and found myself wondering what it would be like to be curled up with him, rather than Twitch, but I quickly shook the thought from my head. I believe I saw him look at me just before I drifted off, but that might have been my imagination. Luckily, I didn't have any dreams that night as I slept, or if I did, I didn't remember what the dreams were.

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We were woken a couple hours before dawn by the sound of a gunshot and a very loud roar. Bleary eyed, I stumbled to the mouth of the cave just in time to see Mossy Slate, the green and grey stallion, struck down by a huge mountain lion the size of a grizzly bear and almost as white as the lightly falling snow. Suddenly wide awake, I quickly backed into the cave, tripping over Pebble who was trying to leave the cave to see what was going on. She shouted something at me as she shoved me off her, but it was muffled by the sound of Mossy crying out loudly in pain, followed by the sound of another gunshot and another roar of pain.

That's when Val galloped past us out of the cave, three different guns floating around him, held by his magical grasp. Then we heard another roar that stopped abruptly as all three guns fired, and just like that, it was all over. Peaking out the cave, I could see that the mountain lion was dead, and Val was standing over the now silent Mossy in the blood soaked snow. Approaching, I saw that his body had been slashed to ribbons by the lions claws. Eyes wide, I backed away again, feeling nauseous.

"We have to bury him somehow..." Val said, sounding sad. He turned and saw me standing there, and the others at the cave mouth. "Collect stones, all of you, Pebble, take care of the lion, since I guess that's what your talent is."

"It is. I've never skinned or eaten a lion before, I guess there's a first for everything."

Did she say eat? Oh Celestia, I think she did say eat. And why weren't they all shocked or upset that somepony had just died? Instead, they all just looked a little bit sad, as if it wasn't such a big deal. Now I felt doubly sick. Pebble trotted into the cave as the others moved away in pairs to start searching for rocks, Diamond staying in the cave. Pebble was soon back with a long dagger and approached the lion, Twitch joining her, looking for a meal. It was like I was stuck in a trance, unable to move as she slid the wickedly sharp dagger under the lions skin, blood dripping slowly out from the cut, but I then jumped with a yelp as somepony nudged my shoulder. Turning, I found that it was Val, a sympathetic look on his face.

"Hey, come help me find some rocks," he said, then started walking away. I quickly followed, grateful for the opportunity to put as much distance between myself and that grisly scene as possible. We walked for a few minutes before Val stopped, "I don't mean to sound harsh, but you need to learn to toughen up."

"I... I... How?" I asked, still in shock.

"Well for one, you need to accept that death is a regular occurrence here in the Wasteland. At any moment you, or your friends, could be dead, killed by an animal, like that lion, or a raider, or old technology even. Ponies are here one moment, and gone the next, and if you are dumbstruck every time you see a pony die, you are most likely going to be the next one to die. Also, sooner or later you will have to kill somepony, that is a non-negotiable of living in the Wasteland."

Shuddering at the thought of killing somepony, I nodded. "Umm... Okay..."

"And another thing, you are going to have to eat meat. I know that since you are a Stable pony, your diet has been strictly vegetarian until now, but to live in the Wasteland, you will have to eat whatever you can get, and that includes meat, that's just something you'll have to get over, preferably at breakfast when we eat the lion. Understand?" He looked at me, waiting for a response.

I slowly nodded again.

"Good. Now, lets go collect some stones, I hate it when I'm forced to leave ponies unburied, so I do my best to bury all those I can."

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We were on the move again by sunrise, climbing up another mountain. We had buried Mossy Slate under a big pile of rocks and snow, and had then eaten roasted chunks of lion meat for breakfast. It hadn't tasted nearly as bad as I had thought it would, but it still tasted strange, and the texture just felt wrong in my mouth, but it wasn't the worst thing I'd ever eaten, no, that title was held by the muffins my sister had attempted to bake in grandma's kitchen as a little filly. Somehow, they had been burnt completely black on the outside and were completely raw on the inside. Also, she had used bad eggs without knowing, as well as moldy blueberries, and I think that the milk had probably gone off too, based off of the way it had smelt. I'd still eaten one, just to make her happy, then paid for it with a week and a half in the sick bay with really bad food poisoning.

Pebbles carried the folded up lion pelt on her back, apparently a good white pelt like that could fetch some good caps at market. I flew once more, Val sending me ahead at times to scout out the safest path for the group to travel by, but by lunchtime I was walking again, my wings not used to so much flying. For lunch we ate more lion meat. It was a thankfully uneventful trip, with no one really talking, everypony subdued. The sky was beginning to darken as we entered the small mountain valley which contained Hot Springs. I looked around curiously as we headed towards it. The biggest building by far was the huge Hot Springs Resort, which was halfway up the opposite side of the valley. Scattered around the resort were a couple dozen little crumbling cabins, and below on the valley floor were a dozen or so shops and houses which made up the village. All were in disrepair, though the resort looked to be in pretty good condition, apart from the collapsed west wing.

I could also see the massive chairlift going all the way up to the top of a small mountain. Most of it was still standing, though the chairlift chairs were barely visible, scattered in the snow. Once, long ago, fillies and colts would have sledded or skied down into the valley with their parents , and built snow ponies down on the valley floor. I sighed, imagining the fun my sister and I would have had if we'd lived before the war and our parents had brought us here.

Wiping a stray tear from my eye, I realised that we had already walked almost all the way to the resort. That's when I noticed the light brown earth pony mare with a dark brown, purple streaked mane watching us from the big wrap around balcony, a big gun on her back. Looking at my EFS, I saw that her bar was purple, hopefully meaning she wasn't going to shoot us. A big black and white husky stood next to her, tail wagging as he watched us. Coming to the entrance of the resort we were greeted by two more huskies, a brown and white one and a grey and white one, and an old grey earth pony buck with a shovel cutie mark and the same mane colour as the mare, who I assumed was his daughter.

"Hi Spade." Val said to the old buck.

"Well hi Val, Harmony, long time no see. I see you've got quite a lot of others with you this time, usually you only get one or two. Well, welcome to you all, Cookie will get some rooms ready for everypony, you're just in time for dinner. Come in, come in." Smiling, Spade ushered us all in, eyeing Twitch for a moment, but letting him come in, the huskies sniffing him curiously. Spade then led us into a large hall filled with couches and a couple of pool tables at one end, and dining tables at the other, with fires crackling in the big fireplaces at either end of the hall.

Another husky, a fully white one, slept in front of the fire by the couches. I sat down as Val and Harmony left to talk to Spade. The room was warm and had a homey feel, despite the size, though the walls had some pretty bad water damage and the couches smelled of mold and mildew. There were two other ponies in the room as well as a griffon. Of the ponies, there was an elderly, but tough looking teal coated, grey maned unicorn mare in a big fur coat which obscured her cutie mark. She eyed us suspiciously as we entered, taking a sip of red wine from a chipped wine glass held in blue magic.

The other pony was a big pale yellow pegasus stallion with a green streaked aqua mane and a cross made from red daggers for a cutie mark. He was standing by the pool table, waiting for the griffon to take her turn. The griffon had black edged white feathers on her head and neck, while her body was light grey, and dark grey wings. I saw the two of them glance at us before going back to their game. The white husky awoke and came over to sniffed curiously at Twitch, who only blinked in response before bounding up onto the couch next to me. I rubbed him between the ears, then smiled slightly as the husky jumped up to sit on my other side, begging for a pat, which I gave it.

A short while after, the mare from the balcony, who must be Cookie, came into the room with a large steaming pot balanced on her back. "Dinners ready you lot, carrot stew, come on." I stood and followed her to the other end of the hall, as did all the others.

Cookie served us bowls of a thin carrot stew, thankfully without any meat, and we all sat at the dining tables to eat, Val, Harmony and Spade soon joining us. Over dinner conversations, I learned that the pegasus stallion was named Dagger Wound, and he was Cookie's coltfriend. From what I heard, he was just as good at healing wounds as he was at causing them. I also learned that Trina the griffon and Holly Bright, the elderly mare, were traveling companions on their way to a small settlement near the Crystal City, and that there was a large increase in the activity of the ice wolves on the other side of the mountain range.

After dinner, Cookie showed us to our rooms. I shared a room with Diamond and Harmony, and I got to sleep in a slightly lumpy bed that smelled of mildew, and that's all that registered before I fell asleep.