Fallout Equestria: Don't Fear The Reaper

Fallout Equestria: Don’t Fear The Reaper

By: The Zealot

Chapter 10

Yes that was my first attempt at cooking, yes I got better, no I was not the one that started the fire in the mess hall! Come on, give me more credit than that. What? The Explosion last week? No, nothing to do with that. Look, explosives and I don’t really mix, there’s a reason I don’t mess about with mines and rockets. We can talk about this later, for now, back to the story.

I was growing tired, I will admit that walking endlessly was not my smartest idea, only the sound of the radio kept me in the waking world. So it was that I managed to fall from the road and into a ditch. I awoke from my forced slumber apparent hours later, feeling rejuvenated it took me a few moments to notice the ache in my bones born from the way I had slept. Climbing up the ditch and back onto the road I shook the dirt and sand from my mane and face and continued to walk, switching the radio back on as I did. Curiously I was not met with music, I pondered for a moment what that could mean before the voice of a stallion came from the speaker, it was not music however.

“This is Radio New Pegasus, and I’m your host, Mr. New Pegasus. And in case you’re wondering if you've come to the right place, you have. It’s just about time to get you some news. Troubling word from Dice, as merchants report a large presence of armed and unsavoury figures patrolling the town. Residents are nowhere to be found. That’s the news. This is Mr. New Pegasus, filling in for… Mr. New Pegasus. In New Pegasus, we know the pain that numbers can bring us. Well so does Silver Lining, whose got Heartaches by the Number.”

At the point that music began to play I switched off my radio, thinking of the report on Dice, something must have happened relating to these ‘Unsavoury Figures’, perhaps relating to the group of ponies who had come through the town. It wasn’t long after that, actually, that I found myself looking ahead at the walled in town I assumed to be Dice, the only entrance was a bridge that looked about ready to crumble, getting to the bridge would take one up a hill and through a group of buildings and tents marked with a strange animal symbol, it was the head of a unicorn in yellow turned to the side, however wings of blue were also present around the head, this was emblazoned over a crimson star. Strange indeed, whoever these ponies were, hopefully they would allow passage into Dice. As I neared the slope that lead to the apparent outpost a pony wearing grey-tan cloth and leather, Sunny had told me that was a commonly used material out in the wastes, armor. On the front of it was the same symbol as on the flags and tents her, for I found it was a mare, face was covered by a length of cloth and a wide brimmed hat combined with goggles.

“Hey, where the hell do you think you’re going? Dice is off limits, what with the gang that’s taken over. NCR isn't letting anypony in, best if you just turn around.” She said, it was then that I noticed the saddle she was wearing, a saddle with a rifle attached to it, the model of the rifle I had never seen, but I did know of these so called ‘battle saddles’ they were used by Earth Pony and Pegasi forces during the war, as a means to carry larger weapons into battle.

“What’s this about a gang, what’s going on in Dice? Did something happen?” I asked, concerned that my only lead might have been taken from me due to some random gangers. Truly that would have put a stop to my plans of vengeance, it would also be the start of a long period of wandering around and trying to find out where the tartarus that stallion went off to.

“Yeah, group of convicts who escaped from the NCRCF got together, they've been making life a living hell for the NCR in this area, anyone in Dice is either dead or in hiding, we've been diverting travelers from here.” She replied, her eyes darkening a bit at the mention of their escape from this ‘NCRCF’, I wasn't particularly happy about being told to turn back and not try to get into Dice, it didn't matter to me, I was getting in, one way or another.

“Look, I’m sure I can take care of myself. Anyway, if they’re just escaped convicts, why haven’t you lot taken them out yet?” I said, adding a bit of venom to my voice when I said I could take care of myself. I was, in fact, curious as to why an obviously well equipped military couldn't take out a group of probably poorly equipped and organized group of gangers.

“You know what, fine, you can go in. Just don’t say you weren't warned. As for why we haven’t cleaned it up, well, honestly we would. Thing is, we don’t have jurisdiction in Dice, I don’t know the particulars of it, seems a bit idiotic to me, but I’m just a grunt.” She said, apparently it was more a ‘suggestion’ to stay out, and they didn't really care much about letting you in. I suppose it’s too much to ask for your soldiers to actually care about their job, especially one that seems so boring as keeping guard of a city.

With an appreciative nod of my head I walked past the poor mare who had to keep watch over the road, walking to the bridge I had seen from the road below I gave another nod to a stallion who seemed barely awake, he didn't seem to notice so I didn't say anything. As I was about to walk across the bridge I stopped myself, looking down I saw some tannish-grey discs with bright orange lights in the center, landmines! I carefully stepped around them, doing a sort of dance to get around the mines positioned around the bridge without setting any of them off, I knew they were mines but that doesn't mean I knew how to disarm them.

As I entered the town I saw hostile life signs pop up on my EFS, taking to the shadows I slowed my trot to a barely audible slow walk, making myself as small as possible. As I neared the corner of a building I heard voices, peeking out I saw what looked like two stallions and a mare, all wearing blue and black barding, on the ground was a dead mare…. missing her head. I was about to step around and kill the gangers but I stopped myself as I heard one of them speak. Still looking around the corner I saw the stallion in the center step closer to the corpse.

“Well it looks like she,” he said, pausing for a moment as he dug a set of dirty sunglasses out of a pocket on his barding, “lost her head.” he finished, a moment after that the mare yelled a very drawn out ‘yeah’ which must have lasted at least five seconds. I took that time to just stare in shock, not at the dead pony, I had resigned myself to the fact that this was to be a common occurrence in the Wasteland, no I was in shock just because of how inconceivably bad that joke was.

I pulled myself together as the mare was wrapping up her shout, planning it out in my head I decided I would back up a ways and try to use my rifle to pick them off, switching to my 10mm pistol if they got close enough to warrant its use. After the planning stage was done I put the operation into action, backing up to the end of the street I unslung my rifle and took aim, firing off a round I managed to hit the stallion closest to me in the chest, not the target I was going for, but it would work. The gunfire had, of course, alerted the other two to my presence, charging the bolt I fired once more at the stallion I had hit, the round slamming into his head, killing him. Pulling back the bolt again I kept firing at the other two ponies until they were dead, three rounds and a new magazine later, and the gangers were dead. I was quite happy with my performance, no wasted ammunition, and it was all wrapped up rather quickly. Slinging my rifle back to it’s former position I walked over to the slain ponies. Using my magic to check through their pockets I found myself with around forty bottle caps in total, twelve rounds of 5.56mm ammunition, as well as a full clip of five from a rifle one of them was carrying, following that came two magazines of 10mm ammo, lastly I recovered six stick of dynamite from the assorted corpses, I didn’t trust myself to use it, but I’m sure I could ask somepony in town.

Placing my loot into the corresponding pockets on my coat, I turned to look at the door that the gangers were standing outside, looking up I saw the sign above it declare the building the ‘Sapphire & Ruby Casino’, the outside didn’t look like much, but neither did a lot of the wastes. This building would either be home to more convicts, or be the place that the citizens of Dice were hiding out in, I was hoping it would be the latter. Taking a breath of surprisingly clean wasteland air, I unholstered my 10mm pistol and pushed open the door.

Quest Update: Find somepony in Dice who knows where Coin Toss and his gang came from.

Hoofnote: Level Up (Level 6): Survival increased to 40. Sneak increased to 52. Perk Gained: Light Hooves: Being a fairly agile pony has it’s advantages, landmines take a few extra seconds to start their countdown, and you move almost silently whilst sneaking.