Chapter 2, Once upon a time in…

“Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria...”

“Wait, wait, wait...” the yellow-ish green filly interrupted the narrating mare. “Everypony already knows that story.”

“No, I don’t think they do. I am sure of it. Now, would you be so kind as to be quiet and let me tell my story, pretty please,” again the mare facehoofed as she realized she was trying to use the sad puppy eye technique against a blind person.

“You did it again, didn’t you?” the filly asked with a deadpan expression.

“Shut up, White-eyes,” one of the worked said. “Let the mare tell her story.”

“Yeah, shut up,” the rest of them joined in. “Carry on miss.”

“Thank you.” she cleared her throat before continuing with the story.

“So, as I was saying…”

Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, or at least the northern part of it, in what could possibly be considered the northernmost NCR settlement, the small town of Haliflanks, a small company was undergoing a recruitment drive.

“Blue Rail Caravans is now looking for skilled ponies for both scavenging of pre-war resources, hauling of pre-war resources, and the guarding of the ponies who are busy with the scavenging or hauling of pre-war resources. Large groups welcomed, experience is a plus, but not a must.

Safe work, good pay, easy hours, free meals, apply now!

See Blue Rail Caravans recruitment headquarters, Haliflanks, NCR.

Bring your own guns and ammo.

Management.”

These messages were all over bulletin boards, nailed to dead trees, and could be found plastered at seemingly random locations across multiple NCR towns all over the region, as well as on the sides of the roads, on pre-war billboards, on the sides of ruined carts and rusted vehicles, basically everywhere and anywhere somepony might come across one of them. Whoever made them invested a considerable amount of caps into advertising, so they clearly had the caps to keep their promise. That was at least what most ponies that came across the flyers thought.

On the day of the recruitement, the town of Haliflanks was flooded with people who wanted to join, or who came here to take advantage of them. Some believe that more than two hundred people arrived on that day alone.

You had your standard mercs, and professional scavengers, who left quickly after they arrived, unhappy with what would be their cut, and of course the pickpockets who only came there to make these unhappy people even more so. But, the vast majority of people who came, and actually stood in the long lines, patiently waiting to reach the ponies that were in charge of signing everypony up, were your average wastelanders. Ponies not affiliated with any group or company, with little to no training, no jobs, no prospects, no caps, and the few of them who were actually armed, had either you standard wasteland varmint rifle, or some sort of small caliber pistol or SMG, most of them in need of repair.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. But out of the dozens of ponies there, there were a few of them armed with actual decent weaponry, some shotguns, and even some exotic weapons like an actual sword, a crossbow, a laser pistol, or even a recharger battle saddle. And one could see even a few pieces of actual armor.

One by one the people moved in an orderly fashion toward the company ponies, a few basic questions were asked, like what’s your name? why do you want to join? do you know that you might be away for a couple of days? or do you accept these conditions, or this salary? All very standard stuff for a NCR business.

In charge of one of the lines, behind a desk and an ever growing pile of applications stood a greyish blue mare, with a black and white mane and tail, that for over an hour was forced to ask the exact same questions, and receive, for the most part the exact same answers, probably thinking to herself that she would kill for a little distraction. Sure there was the odd pony, like a pegasus dashite, or a white and pink feathery hippogryph, and a few unicorns, but most of the candidates that she had to signup were scrawny earth ponies with earthly colored manes, tails and coats, and even some unicorns that shared the same color scheme.

“Next pony, please,” the mare said after finishing signing up the dashite, who, apart from name, Optic, her dashite mark, and the fact that, to put it in her own words, she can shoot things really well, she was just as bland and uninteresting as the rest of them.

“Name?” she asked, not lifting her muzzle from the piece of paper sitting on her folding desk.

“Solance,” a somewhat masculine voice replied.

The mare lifted her gaze to eye the pony, but all she could see was a tuft of yellow hair and a purple horn at the other side of the table. She stood up, just to make sure that the boredom was not affecting her vision, or she was going insane, she was not.

As she saw in front of her stood a purple unicorn colt, a bit on the chubby side, with a golden mane and tail. To his sides two very big magical energy weapons were mounted on a heavily modified battle saddle, that if it was any larger it would be bigger than the colt. Backpack on his back, and a miner’s helmet tied to his neck, which was odd yet didn’t compare to his clothes - a pair of very tight boxers, with a very distinctive pattern more fitting for a gentlepony of the night, or a dancer in one of the more, “special” places in the NCR, and a pair of sunglasses.

“Are you sure you are in the right queue, kid?” the mare asked, not exactly knowing how to react to the pony in front of her.

“Pretty sure,” the colt replied, looking up at the mare. “Blue Rail Caravans recruitment right?”

“Right...” the mare trailed off before sitting down. “So… what’s with the getup?”

“Huh?” The question caught him a bit off guard.

“Oh, these… I was told that people would pay more attention to me if I wore them,” Solance said with an innocent enough smile on his face. “Do they work?” he asked looking at the mare, and then at the ponies behind him.

“Now I personally wasn’t there, and this has happened some time ago, but legend has it that that conversation made so many ponies uncomfortable that after Solance signed up, only one more person stood in line after him.”

“Everypony noped away at the speed of nope,” the filly, White-eyes said, barely contain her laughter. “Clever way of making sure you get the job, make sure no one else who is sane sticks around, cause the crazy ones get turned down by the ones in charge. Brilliant I say!, Brilliant!”

“Shut up!” everypony but the storyteller yelled out.

The filly just pouted, and did so.

“Now as I was saying...”

“Right… Um… I really don’t know what to say to that. Maybe?” the mare shook her head in an almost childish manner before carrying on. “Just put your mark here [2], and go over there.”

“Sure,” he said grabbing the pen with his telekinesis and writing his name on the sheet of paper before returning it and trotting in the direction the mare pointed him in.

“Next pony, please,” she could not help but follow the colt with her gaze, mostly out of curiosity and confusion than anything else.

“I guess that would be me...” a voice with a bit of an odd tone.

Turning toward the sound of the voice, the mare noticed a rather odd looking griffin walking towards her, no other pony anywhere in sight. The griffin, or hippogriff to be precise he had back legs were those of a pony, except for the feathery tail, had white feathers with bright pink tips,  and a baby blue coat covering its pony side, and I say its because it was really hard to tell if it was a he, or a she. While its mannerism, and colors may have made one believe she was a mare, its body structure and voice seemed male, though it was almost like it tried to make its voice a bit higher pitch to disguise the fact, so just to not make it awkward lets just call it a he.

“Bright Flush sweety,” the griffin said towards the mare, “former mercenary if you can believe it. So how about you just give that little clipboard over so I can fill it out. These things are a little bit more useful than your cute little mouth.”

While there was nothing particularly naughty in the words, there was something in the way they were said that caused most ponies to stop what they were doing and just look at the two. The mare turned a hot pink, mostly from the stares of everypony, while the griffin was just busy filling in the form, before passing it back to her.

“See... I told you, my claws make short work out of anything~”

The mare coughed nervously as she took the clipboard back, and made herself busy going over the information. A few snickers, sighs and whistles came from all around, making the pink mare even pinker, while the griffin only huffs and ruffled his feathers.

“Anyone of you lovelies know a place to stay?” he asked everypony.

Grabbing all her files and pretending to be in a hurry, the mare made her way towards the main building, but not before telling Bright Flush, as well as everypony else that they can use the company barracks for the night.

Inside the barracks there were about forty double military bunk beds, and roughly that many lockers and footlockers, but only a little over a dozen ponies and one hippogriff, with so many beds and so few people to sit in them, ponies could just sleep wherever they pleased. Everypony, and griffin, just chose a bed and made themselves comfortable, for many of them it probably had been days, maybe even months or years since they slept in an actual bed.

“Now again I wasn’t there, and the details are a bit sketchy, but there are some accounts of the existence of a jewel encrusted… toy…” the mare said with a blush, “present in the possession of one of the individuals, but it was never mentioned, or talked about ever again.”

The night was pretty uneventful, the ponies there got to know each other a bit, but rarely were more than a hoof-shake, claw-shake, or hoof-bump  and a name were exchanged, the ponies there knew each other in only the broadest definition of the word.

Morning came rather quickly, and unknown by those who slept, some ponies came in and woke up only particular individuals, gesturing to them to grab their gear, and not make a sound as to not wake everypony else up.

Somewhere around eight in the morning, the mare came in to wake up her group. Maybe she complained to her bosses, or just had the luck of the draw, but somehow she ended up with the most colorful group of individuals, or maybe she was the lowest on the company totempole and she just ended up with the weirdos, we may never know.

Inside the room were probably five of the strangest individuals the Wasteland would ever see. First you had a white unicorn with a red mane, that went by the name of Rapid Repair, he wore a mechanic outfit, as well as a hoodie that kept his face mostly hidden, and carried a crossbow on his back as well as a quiver with barely a dozen bolts, he was either the best shot in the world, or did not plan too far in the future. His cutie mark was a stretched out retractable ruler.

Secondly there was a unicorn mare, Black Tea, just like Rapid she was pure white, but her mane was black, just like her namesake. She wore a black pre-war businesspony outfit, that was rather well kept, despite being over 200 years old, and a matching fedora and sunglasses. All painstakingly chose to accentuate her already attractive physical characteristics. Her weapon of choice though did not make any sense, or maybe it did and no one could piece it together, but regardless the mare carried around with her a silenced .22 SMG, a rather heavy weapon, but small, subtle and with very little kick. A steaming cup was her cutie mark.

Optic, the dashite mare from before had a grey coat, and a dark blue mane and tail, sporting a duster on top of a military flak vest, and a pair sunglasses. Just like Black Tea, she was also rather attractive looking, the fact that she was a pegasus only adding to her charm. She carried a rather simple scoped varmint rifle  as her primary means of protection. Obviously any trace of her cutie mark was removed when she was branded, but according to her, it was a snipers crosshair, and she was, again according to her, one of the best damned snipers the Enclave had to offer, and when she left their entire sniper division cried.[3]

Bright Flush wore a tribal armor, and assorted helmet, that was clear for everyone that weren’t his to begin with, but has since made his own, and carried a particularly long .357 revolver, and a sword that somewhat matched his outfit. Surprisingly enough, despite being a griffin he had a cutie mark, and a complicated one at that. It could be best described as being a blend between the typical male and female symbol, with a heart instead of a circle, in rainbow colors, and with sparkles around it [4].

Then there was Solance, the blond colt that somehow scared away almost everypony from joining. Lantern helmet and sexy underwear, magical energy battle saddle, recharger rifles to be more specific, and no cutie mark on his flank whatsoever.

And lastly there was the mare that was supposed to be in charge of them. Gallant, as she introduced herself, wore what could be best described as typical mercenary attire, with a fade, worn out patch half-hazardly attached to it, a bandoleer across her chest filled with extra ammo for her heavily modded .32 rifle that she wore on her back. With a utility worker’s lantern helmet on her head, and a pair of binoculars tied around her neck, she looked by far the most competent and well equiped out of the lot.

“Good morning everypony,” Gallant said as they were getting out of bed. “And congratulations, you are now fully fledged members of Blue Rail Caravans, your official company designation is Team 4, I am Gallant Aegis and I have been chosen to lead you for the foreseeable future.” She was trying to act cheerful, but it sounded more like a well rehearsed speech, this was not the first time she was in charge of ponies.

“Since this is your first day at the job, it is my job to inform you about the more important and sensible particulars about the mission we are about to undertake together. But before I do that let me remind you that you all signed confidentiality agreements and copies have already been sent by night courier to the NCR central government for validation.”

Everypony looked a bit confused at the mare, but before they could voice their questions or concerns she continued.

“Now then, about the mission at hoof. Until recently the journey towards the city of Tailgrund, as well as the city itself was extremely dangerous because of the multitude of raider groups that inhabited the area, and used to call that city theirs. However we have it on good authority that they finally killed each other and the city, and all its valuable pre-war technology and knowledge are just right for the picking, and we at Blue Rail Caravans, are going to extreme lengths to have first pickings. According to our sources, we have about four to five days before the news spread to our competitors, and about two more until they can organise a massive expedition. Now, this is where you come in. We are… were, in need of ponies to do the scavenging, as well as protect themselves from any dangers that may show itself. Even if the raider menace is gone, there are other dangers in the wasteland. Alright then, we are the last group to depart, so lets try to hurry up, and show everypony else that group four is the best.”

Her little pep talk was meet with a general, meh, attitude, as everypony was just busy dressing up and making sure they did not forget anything.

“Great, now that everypony is ready, lets move out.”

The more she talked the clearer it became that she had some sort of an accent, but nopony could place it.

“Say,” Rapid asked after about an hour or two of walking. “Where exactly is this Taildrund place?”

“Oh, right. Getting from Haliflanks to Tailgrund is easy,” Gallant replied almost instantly. “You just have to follow this road, it shouldn’t take us more than a fulls day or so of light trot. There are a few places along the side of the road, some pre-war diners and rest stops, but they hold no interest to us, and have been picked clean a long time ago.”

“A whole day of walking?” Bright Flush asked, his voice showing traces of annoyance. “If I knew it was that far away I would have wore something lighter.”

The rest of the group shared his annoyance of the long journey they have to undertake.

Some minor chit chat happened between them, but the only thing worth mention would be Black Tea’s attempt of asking Gallant if they couldn’t be closer than friends, to which Gallant promptly replied with a clear nope. Let just say judging by her attitude, people rarely said no to Black Tea, especially when she asked if they could be more than friends.

“Apparently not everypony is up for fun and games this morning I guess,” Optic added with a snicker to the even more annoyed Black Tea. The group made good time as they were to keeping up with her huffing and puffing, as she tried to move as fast as her sexy flank would take her.

After a hastily eaten lunch, they resumed moving at the same speed, and made it to the rest stop with time to spare, where they spend the night. However from the location designated as their campsite, one could easily see the tips of the skyscrapers that Tailgrund was famous for, tallest among all of them stood Hoofway Tower, a testament to the strengths of pre-war engineering and technology, a monstrous, by comparison, building that stood well over 2500ft tall [5].

Their destination in sight, the group went to sleep happy that because they made good time, they would be getting some extra hours of sleep, things couldn’t be better.