Fallout Equestria: Salvation

Fallout Equestria: Salvation

Chapter Three: Unfriendly Allies

"This ain't what I signed up for!"

    I had that feeling, you know the one, where you feel like whatever you are fixing to go do is going to go terribly wrong. It ends up possibly killing you, and leaving you in a ditch somewhere in the wasteland to rot. I wasn’t sure what to think about the civil war going on in Ciderside, hay, I’ve never even visited Ciderside before. Must be one of the newer cities that popped up after a Stable opened up. Mourning didn’t give me any information on what I was supposed to do, other than ‘solve it’. At least she paid me five hundred caps upfront, and if I did fix this, she would work with the Council to reward me with anything I want.

    I was in 7th Unit’s home room on the second floor of South Station packing up my new supplies I bought from Lemon and traded with a few other mercenaries around the common room. It was mainly food and medical supplies, also a pair of spiked horseshoes, which I equipped on both my forehooves. I stuffed my saddlebags with a week’s worth of food and water, to prepare for the disaster or distraction that was sure to come. It was like the world wanted to prevent me from trying to get anything done properly.

Creeeaaaaakkk

    Well, an ominous door opening, a sure sign that somepony is behind you. I turned to see Captain Frost staring at me from the doorway, and she did not look happy. I started to secure all my armor and gear on me as she walked in, and shut the door behind her.

    “Oh, Silent.....” she fluttered her eyelashes, walking toward me in a seductive manner. I’m a pretty normal stallion, as straight as my javelins, so this both intrigued and scared the living hell out of me.

    “I heard you were out buying stuff... a lot of stuff. You going somewhere?” My back hit the wall across from the door, wait, when did I start backing up? Captain Frost was right in front of me, within very personal range.

    “Ye-yeah, I bought some medicine and food, since I used all of mine over the last few days.” I could feel myself sweating, what was there for me to be hide? I was just going to go out to the city. It’s just the way she was talking, it made me nervous.

    “I’m not doing anything suspicious!” I blurted out. Wow, I thought I was good under pressure.

    “No, you are not... but the amount of the supplies you bought is!” She grabbed one of the ends of my scarf, and yanked it off of me. She jumped back a couple steps with it in her mouth. I got away from the wall, standing as tall as I could manage, which was barely half a head over Frost.

    “Wait! Captain, give me back my scarf.” I stamped down my left hoof to punctuate, ending up with a very soft thump. She dropped it into her hoof.

    “Where are you going? I did not hear anything about a job, especially not so soon. We are a unit, Step, we don’t do solo missions.”

    “I’m no-” Captain levitated my scarf up in the air, and twirled it around a bit.

    “Tell me! Tell me, or your scarf gets it!” she spun it around it circles faster. What was she going to do to it? Honestly, I was afraid to find out.

    “Alright, alright, just... set it down. Please?” I looked straight into Captain’s blue eyes, and she slowly let it down, my scarf ending up neatly folded on the floor next to her. She just looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

    “I’m going off to Ciderside City, doing a favor for a friend. Really, that’s all, it’s a couple days away so I packed for both trips in one go while I had the caps.”

    “Ciderside is not a safe place to be right now. Do you do know the current situation in that city?” I shrugged, other than some sort of dispute that I didn’t think was worth being called a civil war. “The city is tearing itself apart over its morals. I am not positive over the specifics, but the leaders of the city have formed a group, and any pony not with them is their enemy.”

    “Wow, uh,” I wasn't sure how to respond to that. What would make a city of civilized ponies split so far apart that they would kill each other?

    “Are you still going to go, even if it is a battlefield?” She narrowed her eyes at me. Wow, that was not the way I expected that to go.

    “Well, let us hope that it’s not as bad as you heard.” I walked past Captain, and stopped in the doorway. “ I’m heading off now for a week or so, will you tell Wire for me?” She frowned at me.

    “Yes, I will. We got paid enough to take a couple days off, but if we are gone when you come back, do not blame us, we have to work to eat.” She laughed.

    “Don’t you mean if I come back?” She walked over and punched me in the shoulder, same spot Mourning hit me the day before. Is it on purpose, or do all mares hit that same area on reflex?

    “No, I meant when.” She deadpanned.

    “No promises, seriously.” I held out my left hoof toward Frost. She smirked, and gave me a hoof bump. I walked off toward the stairs, and called out behind me, “Don’t go getting fat on your vacation!”

    “Yeah right, tell that to the rookie!” I heard her yell back, and a soft chuckle that didn’t follow after me. I went down the stairs, and weaved my way through the first floor to leave home. I stepped outside, greeted by the light of morning and the never ending view of grey above. I trotted up to the tin doors in the train car perimeter, two uniform mercenaries on guard.

    “7th Unit, Corporal Silent Step, going out for an estimated week.” The left guard, a light blue unicorn, stepped up.

    “Alone, without your unit?” I nodded, “Alright.”

    They lifted away the tin doors, and let me through, shutting them behind me after I got all the way out. I liked most of the main guards, simple to talk to. I guessed they didn’t want to know why I was leaving alone, or they didn’t care enough, but it made things a lot less stressful. Endless brown and grey, we meet again. I checked my direction, making sure I was heading west of home, and started off. At times like this I really wished I had a portable radio or one of those fancy PipBucks, just for its radio function. I sighed, time to see how many rocks I could count before not caring. One, two, three...

* * *

    Wow, it had been so long since I had traveled by myself, I forgot about the mind-numbing boredom. I camped last night in some old wreckage of... well I wasn’t sure what it was, but it helped fight the cold. A few radroaches and bloatsprites on my path that were easily taken care of, they didn’t last against my hoofs. I wasn’t far from Ciderside City, but I wished I had some music to drown out the wind. It wo-.. wait, what’s that?

    Through the brown haze was a pony shaped figure, and it was pulling a medium sized box. Finally, something other than this blasted dirt desert! I walked toward the pony carefully, and I did not make any sudden movement on the way. Approaching fast could be mistaken as hostile, and that was a good way to get shot. Never fully trust anypony you randomly meet, but if you aren’t a raider or slaver, at least give them the benefit of the doubt. I noticed that the pony saw me, and stopped moving.

    As I got closer, she called out to me. “Greetings! How are you this fine day?” I got close enough so the haze wasn’t a bother. She was a red mare, with a shortly trimmed green mane. I heard a click next to my head, a shotgun floating to my left side. Oh, she was a unicorn too.

    “It’s been a good day, how are ya?” I looked behind her to see a small faded red wagon with various goods. “Merchant, or a threat?” The double-barrel shotgun floated back to her side, the tension seemed to lift.

    “Scavenger, but I barter most of it off to ponies. Wait, does that make me a merchant? Haha, not sorry about the gun, you cannot be too careful.” Ah yes, talking to another creature who actually responds, and doesn’t even want to kill me. She eyed my clothing and armor, “Oh, you are one of those ponies that dresses like that. I see quite a few of you ponies out and about, not sure what you ponies do though.”

    “Haha, we are mercenaries, usually I wouldn’t be alone. I’m heading to Ciderside, any news about that place?” Her slight smile disappeared quick.

    “Yeah, I have some news about it.”

    “Great...” I waited a couple seconds for a response, but none came. I sighed, “alright, how much?”

    “Fifteen caps, because I’m generous.” I picked out fifteen caps and let her levitate them into her bags. “Look, I just came from Ciderside, and it’s hell. I would not recommend going there, not until whatever their problem is has gone.”

    Damn, this wasn’t what I wanted to hear. That news kind of killed my mood, but now I knew to be careful. Well, even more careful than I would’ve normally been.

    “Thanks, but I’m still going, though I’m not happy to hear it’s gonna be worse than I thought. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a radio of any kind, would you?”

    She levitated this small box radio, small enough anyway to comfortably sit in one of my saddlebags. “Forty-two caps, no less.” We traded item for caps, and I turned it on. Sweet, sweet classical music came out of the speakers.

    “Hay, you have no idea how much sweeter this makes me day, even after that news.”

    She smirked at my comment, “I can imagine, got my own I play when I know it’s safe to. Nice meeting you, merc’.” She walked off, pulling her little wagon behind her; it looked like the handle was tethered to her tail. I trotted, almost skipping, in the direction of Ciderside. I don’t care if any threat hears me, I dared anything to fight me with my music playing.

* * *

    The next few hours on my trip were amazing. I listened to various songs that were played by DJ-Pon3, and his occasional news on how to survive in the Equestrian Wasteland, along with a report or two of random heroic behaviour or feats. I heard my unit get a mention, although not specifically, in clearing out that ghoul infestation from Charity’s Gift Supply. There was a trade route that passes by there in between a few small settlements, and with the path clear business was safer than a long detour. I guess it was nice to know that my unit and I weren’t the only ones who benefited from it.

    The brown haze lifted as I got into sight on Ciderside City, and it was no small town. It was a small metropolis, buildings only a couple stories high littered the area for a couple miles. What it didn’t have in height, it had it the sheer number of units. The city’s buildings were an assortment of colors, all dulled and eroded by years in the world. I trotted up to the nearest street, as there were no walls or barricades separating the wasteland from the city.

    I arrived at my first dirt street; the city was probably too large to buy any sort of pavement for all the roads. I slowly walked further inwards, the silence was very disturbing. I came expecting constant battles and gunfire, possibly a few explosions. I looked to the dead stone walls and shattered windows for any sign of life. My radio softly playing a sad orchestral melody, the atmosphere shifting to something more akin to a funeral. Shadows flickered along the edges of my vision that made me slightly paranoid.

    Quiet notes of gunfire echoed among the ruins from further ahead, I picked up my pace to a light run toward the source. Two streets down and through an alleyway I found the conflict. A group of four ponies were fighting it out with... raiders? What the hay were raiders doing here?

    I stopped at the end of the alleyway, and ducked behind a dumpster bin in the shadows. I peeked over to watch the battle, not sure if I wanted to go risk myself. Seven raiders were on my side of the street, taking cover behind various pieces of wreckage and rubble from the demolished building behind them. Four of the raiders had firearms, all an assortment of pistols in poor condition, the other three all had combat knives. They were trading fire with the ponies across the street, who were hiding out in a single story building, a half destroyed sign that read ‘-tterc-p’s Dres-es’.

    The small group of ponies all had assault or hunting rifles, also in poor condition. They must have been in a lot of battles to wear down their equipment so badly. I noticed that the ponies were wearing almost nothing, not even armored clothing. I wondered if they found being exposed comfortable; even raiders had the sense to get some armor, even if it was crude.

    One of raiders with a pistol, a purple unicorn, signaled the ones with knives to move in as the other three with pistols opened fire. They dashed across the street, attempting to close the distance and get inside to slaughter the group. A yellow stallion popped out of one of the windows with an assault rifle, taking fire from the raiders. He let out continuous fire on the charging raiders, killing all three of them. I noticed the purple unicorn, probably the leader, fire a couple shots off, the bullets rupturing through the poor stallions eyes. He fell over behind the window in what I imagined a fountain of blood.

    I heard a loud change of tune on my radio as the singer of the song changed to a louder, rock and roll style. The pistol raider nearest to me turned his head as his allies stopped firing to duck behind cover, and let somepony turn his head inside out with a flurry of bullets, it took more than one to break his skull. The other three raiders looked at each other, and the leader unicorn took out a grenade. She levitated it over her head, peeked over her slab of stone she was taking cover behind, pulled the stem and tossed it at the what once was a tailor shop. A green field took hold of the grenade mid-air, and flung it back over between two of the raiders.

    The explosion ripped them apart, along with their filthy cobbled armor, their bloody body parts coating the area away from the blast site. The last raider pony, the purple unicorn leader, looked like she was in a rage. She popped out of her cover, and ran at the building while firing at the holed up ponies. A burst from multiple rifles brought her down with a thud, her hide full of bleeding holes.

    The small band of ponies walked out of the stone building slowly, having lost one of their four in the assault. Two mares and a stallion were left, all of them with minor wounds. They started looting the raider bodies that filled up the street, I was surprised they lived through that. I held a moment of silence in respect for the yellow stallion who gave up his life, on purpose or not, to protect his comrades.

    I wondered if stalking around in the shadows would be suspicious, and possibly considered hostile. I stepped out of the alleyway, and started walking over to the survivors. One of the mares caught sight of me, and raised her hunting rifle with her magic. A bullet struck me in the chest, failing to penetrate my leather barding, but still hurt like hell. I staggered backwards, and another bullet hit me in the chest, but still didn’t pierce. Goddesses, wearing good armor had saved my life yet again.

    “Die you raider scum!” the dark green mare yelled out, preparing to shoot me yet again. I wasn’t prepared for a fight, and still wasn’t sure I wanted one.

    “I...I..” I coughed hard, my chest hurting from being shot. “I’m not a raider.”

    “Then die you slaver scum!” The mare magically pulled the small handle on her bolt-action rifle, loading in another cartridge. I mentally sighed, not pleased with my life being in this pony’s hooves.

    “I’m not a friggin’ slaver.” I regained my balance, and shifted on my forehooves to get a better feel for the spiked horseshoes. Always wearing them made balancing on rough terrain a little annoying, but they were hoofy in situations like this.

    “You have to be one or the other, since you aren’t with us.” She nodded back to the stallion and mare who were still looting the raider bodies, confident in their companion. I walked slowly up to her, ready to kill if this couldn’t be talked through.

    “I’m not a raider, a slaver, or with y’all. I just got here, and you just killed me, twice.” The mare gave me a questioning look, glanced at her allies, and turned back to me.

    “What? You are standing right there, alive and not bleeding to death. I don’t think that counts as killing you even once.” Wow, this mare was stupid or just didn’t care. I got within striking distance of her, feeling a lot safer now that I could prevent her shooting me with a punch to the face.

    “You shot me. In the chest. Twice.” I stared stared with a straight face.

    “So? You’re fault for not dodging.” She made it sound like it was the simplest thing in the world.

    “What, how does that even make sense? I wasn’t planning to attack you.”

    “And that makes it my fault my bullets hit you?” She brushed some dust off her dark green coat and yellow mane.

    “YES! You friggin’ shot me, it’s all your fault.” I stamped a spiked hoof down for emphasis.

    “You shouldn’t have been on the raider side of the street. Besides, you’re not exactly dead.”

    “Wha...” I facehoofed, I needed to work of my conversation skills. “Look, I just arrived to town and got shot by some ponies. Ponies, might I add, who I am talking to. You owe me for not retaliating.”

    “I figure you owe me for not shooting you a third time, so we are even.” I didn’t think I could win this, it just wasn’t in me. I sighed out loud this time. “That was a nasty sigh, problem?”

    “Who are you ponies, and why are there raiders in the city?” She set her hunting rifle down with her magic onto a pair of hooks on a brown leather harness she wore. I guessed the hostilities were finally out of the way, though I had still felt a need to hit something.

    “Who are you, and why are you in our city?” I was just going to do this the easy way, and answer her questions first, not like being here was supposed to be a secret.

    “I’m Silent Step, a mercenary here to help whatever the hay is going on in Ciderside. Your turn.”

    “Name is Sour Bean, auburn mare back there is Sunrise, turquoise stallion is Pond. We are part of the group of the sane ponies from Ciderside. Now, how are you going to help us out?”

    “I still don’t even know what’s going on, so I’ll help anyway I can.” Hopefully anything would mean combat, I wasn’t much good at anything else.

    “Alright, whatever, we don’t have anything to pay to with, but I can lead you to our base.””

    “I got paid before I came out here, so no problem there.” And it was a favor from Mourning, that was a huge factor.

    “Oh, okay.” She turned back to talk to her group, “Guys, we are leaving, looting time it over.”

    While she was looking away, I inspected my newfound ally. Sour Bean had a dark green coat with a short spiky yellow mane, wearing green saddlebags and a leather harness to set her rifle and newly acquired 10mm pistol from the raiders. I would guess she was a few years older than me, and was quite pretty. I kept that thought to myself, and locked it away in a corner of my mind. Sunrise and Pond finished up their stuff, and we set out to somewhere, Bean leading the way.

    A sweet violin solo streamed from my box radio in my saddlebags, I almost forgot I still had that thing on. I let the music flow through my ears, filling the would-be silence of the traveling party. We moved through various streets and out the backdoors of a few buildings before reaching a small staircase leading down into a basement door. I felt they made the path complicated to remember just for me. Basements and sewers were always a bad deal, no matter how safe you thought they were. I looked to Bean, and she smiled at me. Her smiling was among the top ten creepiest things I have seen. Everypony besides me walked down the staircase, and then through the door. This screamed to be a trap, but I followed anyway. They had already shot me, and still led me to their base. I opened the rusty metal door, and walked in.

Footnote: Level Up (4)

Skill Note: Sneak: 75

New Perk: Work Horse: You have the stamina of three normal ponies, Traveling long distances with all your gear has built up your constitution. Sprinting for extended periods of time barely wind you, and you can carrying weight increases by 50 lbs.

((A/N: Thanks goes out to Kkat for creating the Fallout Equestria world, and to the many other sidefics of FoE for making me love the universe. Any and all feedback is much wanted and welcome))