Fallout Equestria: Don't Fear The Reaper

Fallout Equestria: Don’t Fear The Reaper

By: The Zealot

Chapter 7

No, I never did find out where or who that sword came from, it’s followed me in my travels for some time, randomly helping me out in times of need. Sometimes I wonder if it’s one of the old world gods helping me out, or a pony trying to be nice. Whoever, or whatever they are, they’re fast, I know that. You’re right, maybe I’ll go out sometime and see if I can find anything relating to that sword, might entertain me for a while before I decide to settle down again. Anyway, back to the story.

As I woke up the next day I once again lamented the fact that the sun and sky where perpetually covered in these dirty grey things I was loathe to call clouds. I got to my hooves and for the second time shook my coat about me, causing a cloud of dust and sand to fly into the air. I moved out of the cloud and walked out of the alley, turning to my left I walked to the front entrance of the saloon, using my magic I gently turned the knob and pushed the door open. I found it was cooler inside the saloon then out, which was interesting considering the lack of any sort of fan. I walked into the bar area and looked behind the counter to see a peach colored mare with a dark brown mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a bottle of vodka crossed over a beer bottle, I suppose it made sense considering where she worked.

“Well now, you must be that stable pony that the Sheriff told me about, nice to finally meet you.” She said with an upbeat tone and a smile, cleaning glasses with a questionably clean rag while she talked.

“Nice to meet you too, so you’re Amber Light? Sunny told me I should talk with you before I left town or anything.” I said, sitting down on one of the stools in front of the bar, more relaxing than standing, anyway.

“Well that’s nice of you, it’s true, I always like to have at least one talk with any new pony in town, see what they’re like and all, and I must say that I’ve heard some good things about you.” She said with a grin as she put aside the glass she had finished cleaning and replaced it with another.

“What do you mean you’ve heard some good things? I haven’t done anything around here, other than have Sunny teach me about surviving out here.” I said with a slight frown, I hadn’t done anything particularly good, I was polite, yes, but that wasn’t anything overmuch.

“So saving that mare out by the wells from those geckos isn’t doing something good? Maybe not to you, but out here, a lotta ponies would just turn their heads and let her get eaten, it’s pretty rare that somepony, let alone someone new in town, would help another pony out.” She said with a sad smile as she explained the mentality of the wastes.

“But, that’s, that’s horrible… Isn’t it just normal to help somepony in need?” I said, slightly distressed that ponies would let other ponies die. Even when they could easily do something to help, it was unheard of in the stable to have a mentality like that.

“Sadly, no, it isn’t. Out here, it’s everypony for themselves, others’ll either leave you alone, or try to kill you and take what you have. It’s a cruel reality we live in, and you’ll have to get used to it. Anyway, good deeds deserve a reward so here, these should keep for a few weeks.” She said, placing two containers of food? Yes, food, on the counter. That was good, I was almost out of the apples I had retrieved from those boxes along the road to the stable.

“And, a little piece of advice, wherever you go, there will be ponies trying to kill you. It doesn’t matter if they have a good reason or not, they will. You either need to fend them off yourself, or travel with somepony who can. You’ll also have to start looting those you kill, take ammo, caps, food, and any medical supplies. Depending on where you are, you might even find codes to terminals or keys to doors. It may seems gruesome the first time, but it is necessary that you take what you can.” She said with a grim frown, it seemed that even if necessary she still didn’t like that looting aspect either, I couldn’t believe I would ever have to do something like that; then I thought back to those ponies who invaded my stable, others like them would probably attack me, probably from nothing else than plain insanity.

“Wait a second, what do you mean ‘caps?’ like, bottle caps or something? Why would I need those?” I asked, confusion apparent on my face, I had wondered why there were stores of bottle caps in the containers I looted, but it had never occurred to me that they would have a purpose.

“Well you see, since we don’t really have a way of making old world currency, most of the machines are broken down, and even then they’re all out east, so everypony just sorta took up bottle caps as a currency. It works pretty well, there’s a finite amount of them, and they’re easy to carry around. There are some groups that have their own money, the NCR uses paper bills, and the Legion uses old Zebra coins, remade using stuff out in the wastes. You can use that stuff, sure, but bottle caps are recognized everywhere and anypony’ll accept them as payment.” She said, a kind of light coming to her eyes as she got away from the gruesome topic of looting, and onto the topic of currencies. In any other place, she could have been a teacher.

“Well that’s certainly… Interesting, thanks, I guess it’s kinda important that I know how to buy stuff. Anyway, thanks for the food and the tips, I have to go find the sheriff and ask him if he knows where I should go, goodbye I guess.” I said, giving her a smile and a wave as I turned and walked out into the desert town, I went north from the center of town, heading for the Sheriff’s office which was up on a hill.

As I walked out of the saloon and towards the sheriff’s office I was surprised to see a number of ponies who gave me smiles and waves,  I returned them as best I could, but I’m sure I missed somepony. It saddened me a bit to see that even here such common generosity like helping somepony out wasn’t a big thing. I pushed those thoughts out of my head, reminding myself that I had bigger things to worry about and more important things to do; like tracking down that bastard that killed everypony I knew.

As I entered the sheriff’s office I found that it was really just a one roomed building holding a desk with two chairs near the back along with a few lockers and trunks along the walls, there was what looked like a small waiting area near the entrance and a few pre war posters on the walls, other than that it was rather empty, as I finished looking I around I noticed the sheriff sitting behind the desk, apparently waiting for me to go over. With a few short strides I had reached the desk and sat down in one of the chairs, they were surprisingly comfortable. I looked up at the sheriff just as he was starting to speak.

“So, I assume that Sunny gave you you’re training? If not then you’re damn good at adapting, I heard how you saved that settler out by the wells, nice job.” He said, with a smile and a tip of his hat towards me. “Now then, what can I do for you on this fine day?” He said, motioning with his hoof for me to speak.

“Well, you remember how I got here, I’m sure, and I was just wondering if you happened to know anything about this Coin Toss fellow, where I could find him perhaps.” I said, narrowing my eyes as I spoke his name, unbridled rage still came up anytime I thought of that guy, walking out of my stable completely clean, leading a force of blood covered ponies.

“Indeed I do remember, I have heard that they stay up near New Pegasus, but to get to your stable they would have had to come through Dice, I suggest going up there and asking around, see if anypony know where they went on the way back. Dice is a couple days travel south, south-east from here, you may find some roving traders, but more than likely the only ponies you’ll find are one trying to kill you and eat you. Even if you don’t come across any raiders, the radiation has fucked up the wildlife, you’ll find huge scorpions, ants, and as I’m sure you know, geckos. Other than that advice, I’ve got nothing else that could help you, all that’s left is to wish you good luck on your journey.” He said, furrowing his brow and bringing out a map, pointing to a marker that said ‘Dice’ on it, looked to be about twenty miles from where Goodsprings was marked at, making the sheriff’s claim of it taking days a very true assessment. As I studied the map I noticed that in the corner of my vision an indicator came up saying ‘Location Discovered: Dice’, and one that said ‘Location Discovered: New Pegasus’, I assumed that the second one was the marker placed far north-east to Goosdprings, considering it said ‘New Pegasus’, I would visit there soon enough, I was sure.

“Well, this is helpful, alright Sheriff, thanks for the hospitality from you and everypony else, and thanks for the warnings on what’s out there, I honestly hadn’t expected to get any leads, but now I have somewhere to go. Hopefully the ponies out in Dice’ll be as generous and kind as all of you have, it’s all I can hope for. I promise you, once I avenge my family and friends, I’ll come back and repay my debt to you, thanks, again, for all you’ve done.” I said, there was really nothing else I could do to offer my thanks, but I would keep well on my promise.

“You are most definitely welcome, and don’t worry about any debts, wouldn’t be right to let a pony fresh out of the stable die ‘cause she didn’t know about the wastes, just make sure you don’t lose yourself out there, and make that bastard pay for what he did. You might not know it, but there's a whole bunch'a ponies that have a score to settle with him, you'll be doing everypony a favor.” He said, I replied with a smile and a nod as I rose from my seat and walked out the door, the ‘sun’ was still bright, and there's no time like the present.

As I reached the edge of town on the road leading to dice I looked back, with one final smile I left the town of Goodsprings, goal in mind and with new skills in my repertoire, I would make that stallion pay, for the lives of all those he had killed.

Hoofnote: Level Up (Level 5): Speech increased to 35, Barter increased to  26. Perk Gained: Desert Adaptation: The days you’ve spent out in the Marejave desert have made you tougher, stronger, + 1 Endurance