Tales by Balefirelight (a Fallout: Equestria Group Collab)

A Gap in the Clouds

by TundraStanza

Stratus and Cirrus took on the day by day events together.  Blending in with the dirty clouds was the easy for them.  Flying made ground mines and scorpions a lot less intimidating.  For the stray bandit that was also a Pegasus, they could easily turn a stick-up into a suicide.  The two of them were practically sisters.

One thing that stood out, however, was their choice of accessories.  While Cirrus had a wide-brimmed hat, Stratus had taken the time to string together a necklace made of bottle caps.  She liked the unique star pattern on them and she considered it a good luck charm in the face of so many ways the land wanted to kill her.

Cirrus motioned toward a lit campfire. “Let’s go check that out.”

Stratus nodded and smiled. “Sure. It was starting to get boring up here.”

After a couple of fly-bys and grenades, the only ‘life’ left in the makeshift campsite was the fire.  The Pegasi took one last sweep around before landing.  Stratus started digging through the pockets of one of the bodies for loot.  A gun clicked.  She jerked her head up to see what enemy they had missed.  But, there was no pony left at this camp.  Was there?

“Hand over the caps.”

Stratus couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  She was kind of hoping that her companion wasn’t in it solely for their own gain.  She sighed at the realization that such a dream was impossible.  She took care not to touch her gun as she untied her money pouch.  She tossed her entire bottle caps savings over to the pony threatening her.

Cirrus snorted before breaking out into a huge guffaw.

“No, stupid. Not your pocket change,” she ridiculed, “I mean those caps.”

Stratus looked confused as she tried to connect the dots.  Her eyes widened.  Her hoof involuntarily reached up to her necklace.  She narrowed her eyes and bent down.  This was her own little craft, something that was hers long before the other Pegasus came into her life.  Who did she think she was to demand such a thing?

Right as Cirrus let loose her first bullet, she found herself on the receiving end of a Power Hoof.  Stratus's higher agility was the biggest gap between these two Clouds.  Of course, Cirrus didn’t live long enough to learn that lesson.