Fallout Equestria: Silver Nocturne

I’d stopped by home to check on Caltrop before I went to meet Wire for those drinks I’d offered. Funny, I never made it back out. When I walked through that door and saw him laying there for me, I knew I wouldn’t be leaving. Caltrop had waited for hours to keep up his end of the deal we’d made, and he’d delivered. He’d bought a bottle of bourbon and brought it back home for us to share. Last night was perfect. That is, what little I now remembered of it.

For the second day in a row, a pound on the door had woken me up. I didn’t know when I’d fallen asleep, but the smell of sex and booze still clung desperately to the early morning air. If it meant an end to the egregious, heavy knocks, then the walk to the door would be worth it. With my mind still in a haze, I somehow managed to have made it there without kicking over too many things. I wrapped my hoof around the handle and pulled it open slowly. Even through just a cracked door, the outside felt brighter than a thousand suns.

“Sorry to wake you, but I need you to come with me.” Doc Chips spoke with heavy words that I could just feel drag me down to earth. Just by the way she was standing, I could tell something else had gone wrong. She’d caught a thousand yard stare, and she wore it like she’d never let it go.

I nodded and shut the door. Dread built in my gut like a rotten meal’s reward. I looked over to Caltrop as he slept without a care to the mysteries unfolding around him. That was a sight I’d never wanted to forget, and soon, I wouldn’t have to. Just five days, then I could spend the rest of my nights around him. With Silver’s untimely death, Wire would be the next in line for head of the guard. So long as he could pick himself up from what happened, this town might have a few more years in it.

With the little coordination I could muster, I threw my clothes on. Somehow when I did, my gun gave it’s holster the slip and clattered across the floor like a chorus of hammers. I winced as the racket made Caltrop stir in his sleep. He mumbled for a moment before he turned over, still muzzle-deep in dreamland. The sight was a small miracle to me, and a smile grew across my own, normally grim muzzle.

I reached down for my gun. Between the long night and the abrupt wake up call, my hooves were about as accurate as a stallion pissin in the wind. Instead of my piece, I knocked my hoof on the near empty bourbon bottle that layed next to it. The last bit of golden liquid looked like a small slice of heaven to me. I took the bottle in my hoof and brought it to my lips. I bit down on the musty cork and pulled it out with as much thought to it as you’d give to letting a raider live. Within moments, the last of the booze was gone. A line of fire traced down my throat before it sank to the empty pit of my stomach.

As I looked for somewhere to put the bottle down, my eyes fell upon something else I needed. The wide brimmed, leather hat was literally a sight for sore eyes. It’s something I’d forgotten yesterday, but I’d since learned my lesson. Quickly, I swapped the hat for the bottle in my hooves. As always, it fit around my head as well as the day I’d first laid eyes on it. Finally ready to go, I turned for the door and headed out. With the taste fresh in my muzzle, my heart ached to drop in on Last Call for my wake up special.

The second I walked out, Doc Chips caught my attention. She sat against the shack next door wearing seven shades of regret. Like the harbinger of death, she was a cold reminder that even in this community we weren’t safe. She sat there nervously rubbing at her hoof, her eyes glued down the alleyway. Everything about her looked like the wastes had swallowed her whole. All of her that is, except her mane.

Her strawberry blond mane looked like an oasis in a sea of rust and decay. I could never quite figure out how she kept as clean as the day she’d been born. The sandbags under her eyes however were far from the oasis. They’d been more commonly on her than the drunks at the bar who couldn’t understand the meaning of ‘no’. I myself knew, since before Caltrop even I’d had a few passes at her. The difference between me and the others, was that I’d been a quick learner.

“You know, Doc.” I started to say as I walked over. “That metal you gave me turned out…” I let the words trail off as she put her hoof up with a frown. That grim look came back across her muzzle with the force of a wagon. It stopped me dead in my tracks.

“We’re going to the shacks down the alleyway.” She said as she got back to her hooves. “Jerry found him about an hour ago. I thought you’d want to see him first.”

“Who is it?” I asked. This wasn’t a long alley, and I knew who lived in this half of the block. Once again, that nagging feeling in my gut just hadn’t wanted to quit. The longer we walked, the more it felt like a bad itch that you just can’t scratch. That is, until we stopped right in front of Wire Spike’s door.

I knew what I’d find inside wouldn’t be pretty, but I hoofed open the door anyway. Not unlike my shack, Wire lived among a few unsorted piles of junk. In the corner was his bed, and an old refrigerator stood off alone in the far corner. A soft creek from beside me pulled my attention.

There he was.

A black rope that ran down from the roof was coiled around Wire’s discolored neck. His body hung limply in the air, his guard barding smelled rank with booze. His half lidded eyes looked down at me with enough regret to fill ten lifetimes. I stood there for a moment to take it in. A sight like this would haunt me for the rest of my days, so I might as well have taken a good, long look.

Wire was always a dick, sure. He’d been understandably distraught over the death of his best friend. The question I had to ask was, did that make him suicidal? Even though I’d missed him at the bar, I didn’t think that would have been enough to drive him to take the jump. Even so, he’d been packing heat. Why hadn’t he taken the easy way out and offed himself with a slug to the head?

“You should read the note.” Doc Chips said as she stood behind me. “Jerry didn’t want me to touch anything before you surveyed the place.” As she continued, I looked around for a moment. Next to the chair he’d stood on, was the white sheet of parchment that supposedly spelled out Wire’s last moments. “Between you and I, I’d like to get him down from there.” She sighed.

“Go ahead.” I said as I reached for the normally bland and unimportant paper. Funny how a ponies last word could change it into something heavier than a ton of bricks. “Do me a favor and give him a look over anyway.” The worse than usual mouth writing on the paper was a bit hard to read, but I thought I might’ve been able to make it out. “I just want to be sure.” After a few rough passes, I think I’d gotten the gist of the suicide note.

Dear fuckers,

Now that my only friend in the world is gone, I have no reason to go on living. You can burn in hell for all I care. I’m sorry momma, I wasn’t strong enough. I’ll see you and Silver soon.

It wasn’t nearly as dark as I’d expected, but I couldn’t blame the stallion because he kept a suicide note short. Still, something about this didn’t share its shoes with the rest of the case. I had another question that burned like a hot coal in my mind. Why was it that Jerry had showed up here in the first place? He’d never cared enough to even give you so much as a hello on the street. Why show up here?

The crash of Wire’s body as it fell startled me. I jumped right into one of his junk piles and scattered it across the floor like pieces of a puzzle. The fact that I’d jumped like a jackrabbit was testament to how bad this case had me. With two guards down, could somepony really have their chips down on me for next in line? Doc Chips stood in the doorway with a raised eyebrow and a stare that burned deep into my soul.

“Before this becomes another of your lectures,” I began abruptly. “Do you have any idea why Jerry would come to see Wire?” His bullshit had been piled too high for him to clear these past two days. Even if I had to get rough, that fat bastard was going to sing me the answers to my questions.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged and used her levitation to lift Wire’s body again. “Guard business? I heard you were leaving at the end of the week. With Silver dead, that would’ve made him the next head guard, wouldn’t it?” She eyed me curiously for a moment. Again, her eyes had been brought down on me in a look of divine judgement.

“I don’t think he would have come down here for that.” I simply stated. She turned her gaze away, and I could practically feel the sweat roll down my forehead. She was a mean mare and had more than just that look in her arsenal. I’d found out that night I’d made a pass on her, she also had one hell of a right hook. Even though we weren’t ever on the best of terms, I respected the way that she did things. Now, my eyes were fixed on Wire’s corpse as she pulled it to the door. “I’m going to have a talk with Jerry. Something’s going down in this town, and I’m going to figure out what it is.”

“Well, if that’s what you think’s going on.” She muttered and stepped into the Alley. “If you ask me, I’d say that it’s just a bad case of depression that made him do it. Feel free to swing by later to get what I find out about Wire if you’d like.”

“Will do, Doc.” I nodded and dropped the note to the floor. “Actually, can you do me a favor?” Carefully, I made sure not to knock anything else over as I made my way back outside. “Can you keep my hunch between us?” That request got an annoyed look to flush over her face. “I don’t want to cause a panic if I turn out to be wrong.”

“Sure, whatever.” She rolled her eyes and trotted back up the Alley.

Two guards dead in two days. One a deliberate murder, the other an apparent suicide. As much of an asshole as Wire used to be, coward wasn’t something that fit his bill. I was convinced that Wire’s death meant something more, and that Jerry Can had at least some of the answers to it.

I trotted past Lady Luscious’s brothel on my way through town. I had the odd thought about where Luscious had been all yesterday. She hadn’t made the rounds in the streets when I’d been on guard. She ran that joint like a clock, and no rounds were bad for business. As odd as her behavior had been, she still sat at the bottom rung of the investigation. A brass rung was interesting, but I’d rather look out for the gold one at the top.

The house that Jerry called the town center sat oppressively before me. The crumbling stone columns to the estate looked worse every time I’d seen them. Off-white flaking paint that barely clung to the estate was just as bad as presenting an organized town as Jerry himself was. The only thing that gave this place any semblance of respect, was the fact that a single white daisy had sprouted by the front steps. With no other plants for seemingly miles around, this was a small miracle to behold. Suddenly a shitty house didn’t make much of a difference to most ponies.

I wasn’t most ponies. I hadn’t shown up to discuss the miracle of life, and it was time to put the screws on Jerry. He knew something, I was at least convinced of that. If anypony had any use for running counterfeit caps through town, it was him. Anypony who spends that much of their time with Luscious’s mares would have to have dug themselves into a trench worth of debt.

As I approached the front door, the sound of hooves from the other side carried through the air. I stepped aside and waited for whoever it was to exit first. The door swung open, and a fairly well dressed mare sauntered out like she was royalty. Her light silver palette and teal mane were almost completely hidden behind a emerald gown and hat. Delicate puffs of smoke drifted from the ivory cigarette holder that stuck out from her muzzle.

“Ah, how are joo, Mr. Sunsoft?” She smiled and looked at me from behind her large round sunglasses. “It haz been too long, my friend.” Her expression was softer than even her name. She used that look like a weapon, but I knew what would happen if I slipped up. You get comfortable around her, and you’re her’s for good.

“Not long enough, High Pillow.” I could only grumble in return. While Dutch was the front of the Grifter gang, High Pillow was both his marefriend and really the mare in charge. The stories I’d heard of the ponies who crossed her would make a grown stallion cry. Drugs, slaves, and highway robbery, you name it and we’d been told to turn a blind eye to it. She was the worst kind of monster you could ever find in the wasteland. Sure, it was her gang that kept our town safe from the horrors of the wastes, but she was no friend of mine.

“It iz too bad dat joo feel dat vay.” She made a pouty face. “Ve could be ze best of friends if joo vere just villing to try.” She tisk-tisked and shook her head. “Ah, vell. If joo ever change jor mind…”

“Goodbye, High Pillow.” I finished for her. Two deaths in two days, and now two visits from the Grifters. The word of the day was already bad news, and the longer she’s around the worse off we’d all be for it. She simply smiled and trotted down from the porch like she was too good for this town. Who knows, maybe she was better than this dump. Still, as bad as this place was, she deserved nothing less than a dusty roadside grave.

Grilling her about Silver would have been a waste of my time. She’d never gab about the dirt she had, and I could scare up more from the highbinder upstairs anyhow. High Pillow could have her walk into the sunset today, but come tomorrow, her silver coated kisser wouldn’t save her.

I decided it was time to get down to business and turned around. I pushed the door to the manor in and let the force of it slam against the wall. Jerry had to know it was judgement day, and that I wouldn’t be satisfied with the simple trivialities that he’d no doubt try to distract me with. My slow and deliberate hoofsteps took the pace of an old clock, ticking away at the time Jerry had to prepare.

Each step up to the second floor sent a crack through the air. If he had anything to do with this, I wanted Jerry to be sweating buckets by the time I laid eyes on him. In a turn of events that surprised nopony, his office door was closed. Jerry was a tough son-of-a-bitch to get the truth out of, so I had to go all in. As I rounded the banister into the upper hallway, I whistled a tune that kept to my pace. With a swift kick, I made sure the hardwood door to Jerry’s office opened with another slam.

“Could you please not destroy my house?” Jerry sighed and reclined in his plush office chair. It took me all of a few seconds to realize that with him still seeming relaxed, everything had already gone sideways, and now I was somehow the mark in the room. “Good to see you, Sunsoft. Why don’t you have a seat?” His calm demeanor was an affront to his character. He motioned for me to take a seat, but I wasn’t that daft.

“What were you doing at Wire’s shack this morning?” I asked with as much blunt force as I could apply to my words. If there was still a chance I could jimmy anything useful out of him, I’d have to give it to him on the level. “As it stands, you’ve shown up at both deaths after they’ve happened. I want to know why.” Sure, he could claim coincidence, but that’s the one thing this dump of a town never seemed in short supply of.

“I was simply there to discuss his promotion. I’d come to collect the binding contract every head of the town’s guard signs. Or did you forget?” His words slithered through the air with the intent to poison the conversation. “Which is why I’m glad you stopped by.” The air took a dark turn, and I had the suspicion that it was me now under the gun. “With both suitable replacement candidates now… out of the running, I’m afraid you’re resignation has been denied.”

That lit a fire under me and I slammed my hooves down on his desk to stop myself from the beating he deserved.

“You don’t get to decide if I leave, Jerry.” It was hard to use my words when it would have been so much easier to convince him with my hooves. “Come the end of the week, I’ll be dusting out, even if you got down on your knees and begged for me to stay.”

“Ah, yes.” The fucking bastard kicked back and enjoyed his day as he strung me along like some palooka. “While there isn’t anything I could do about that, five days certainly is quite a bit of a wait. With all the accidents lately, who knows what could happen before your contract expires.”

His gaze was as sold as the dirt the town was built on. Jerry had never been the kind of lug I’d expected would’ve tried to have given me the two-step run around. This went deeper than just his hatred of me, I could see it plastered all over his rigid expression. He’d tipped his mitt with a threat like that, and now I’d nail him to the wall.

“You have no power over me, Jerry. I know you have something to do with the counterfeit caps that are running through this shithole.” I slammed my hooves down onto his desk. Like a twig underhoof, his expression cracked. If lady luck were on my side, he’d confess to this whole mess and come with me quietly. “What was it that was so worth it to you that you can justify the deaths of Silver and Wire?”

“By all means, Sunsoft. If you have evidence to back up these claims, go ahead and arrest me.” He snarled and got to his hooves. I could almost feel the heat of his anger as it radiated across his desk. “But if you try to arrest me without it, I’ll bring my town’s guard down on you faster than you can scream your coltfriend’s name.”

In a move that I’d probably regret, I gave his chin the good news and he went down hard. I shook my sore left hoof and relished in how good it felt to do that. Sure, I’d gone off the track, but it had been a long time coming.

“And on that note, you’d be wise to remember something before you ever do that again.” He whined and pulled himself up with the ease of a drunk. “Not everypony in town knows about or is supportive of your ‘alternative lifestyle’. It would be a shame if the few who weren’t were to find out.”

A rock and a hard place didn’t even have a chance against the jam I’d gotten caught up in. Even though he was lousy for double murder, and obviously deep into it with High Pillow, somehow I’d become the sap. The moment he’d brought Caltrop into it, my hooves were tied. He’d hit one nail on the head, and that is that I needed evidence. I took his remarks on the heel and decided to leave before either one of us did something we’d regret.

“Oh, and Sunsoft?” His voice was the bane of my willpower, and sapped more of it away with every syllable. “I hope you haven’t forgotten, but with Wire dead, you’ve inherited both his shift and the one for Silver he was scheduled to cover. Hope you don’t mind pulling a double.”

The daylight hours crawled by at the pace of a decaying corpse. It didn’t help that by noon the skies had all darkened. With as much warning as you’d get for a gunshot to the chest, a crack of thunder split the air. Then, the rains started. Like a bad hangover, they didn’t let up, only falling like they wanted to wash the world clean. Maybe it should, and just take this whole goddess forsaken town with it.

Eventually the sun dipped down below the horizon. The dark of night won out over the rain and flooded the town in darkness. With the early shift now over, Hollow Point gave her farewell and left the guard tower for home. Because I’d been scheduled tonight with Wire, I was up here for the remainder of my shift, alone. It was something that I hated, mostly because I tended to dwell too much on the past.

After Whisper had passed, I spent the better part of four years alone. It hadn’t taken long for me to acquire the taste of scotch then, only a few months. Until I learned to live with myself again, every moment I hadn’t been in this tower I’d spent over with Last Call. Those first few days were hard, but I got tough fast. Had to with all the brawls I’d get in. I’d never been much of a fighter before then either, but I was still young and stupid back then.

Only after that did I figure out that there were other ways for me to let off some steam. It had been the case of just another long night when I’d finally given in. The rounds Luscious’s mares would make always ended at the bar, and that night I’d gotten swept up in them like ash in the wind. I lost myself in the smell and feel of raw sex, and I never wanted to come back out. I’d kept it up for years, almost every night I’d spend my caps away on enough booze and sex to have bought this town by now.

However, those times are long gone. The time I spent with all those mares danced through my memories with a lucidity I felt guilty to have. As much as I’d missed those nights, they couldn’t compare to what I had now.

Visits to the brothel all came to a stop back when he’d walked into the bar. When I’d met Caltrop, he was a skid rogue out for an easy night of pickpocketing. A young stallion out to make a name for himself, standing in that doorway like fate had driven him to find me. I remembered that I dropped my drink when I saw him. He was the ghost of Whisper, and when I looked into his eyes, I knew that he was something special. I needed to see him, to remember what it felt like to look at my wife. It helped that I’d arrested him for theft and kept him overnight in the tower lockup.

“Evening Sunsoft.” Last Call grunted out as he climbed the steep stairs into the tower. I’d been ripped from the sweet clutches of nostalgia, greedily aching for more than I’d been given. Lucky for me, I could just swap one bad habit for another. “Haven’t seen you around lately, so I brought you the usual.” He hoofed a small bottle of whiskey out from his soaked saddlebags and tossed it across the room to me. I caught it in my forehooves, wondering what game he played at. “It’s on your tab.”

“Thanks.” I said with every bit as much suspicion as there was dark in the night. This was uncharacteristically nice of him, but then again, Caltrop had stolen me from the bar the last few days. Funny how in the last few months, I’d been Last Call’s only reliable source of caps. With Rusty’s attitude to turn everypony away, the traders in town don’t hang around more than a few hours anymore.

“I’ll be by after my shift.” I nodded in thanks to him. “I wouldn’t want you to go an find somepony else to fill my seat.” That, and the fact that he might’ve known something about what’s happened behind the scenes. He’d always kept his gums from flapping every other time I’d pry, but if there was a chance, I needed to take it.

“Yeah, like anypony’ll stay long enough for that to happen.” He rolled his eyes and brushed the comment off like a spot of dirt on his striped sweater. I could tell though that behind the annoyance in his voice was the real fear of having to close the bar. Who knows what’ll happen after I put this town behind me. Moreover, what do I care?

Jerry’s threat came to mind again. Somewhere inside, I knew I was going to have to do something I’d hate. This side of Jerry wasn’t one I’d seen before, and it chilled me to the bone. Caltrop would be safest if I’d just let him go on ahead to Manehatten. Five days would be enough to find something to bring Jerry down, and after that, I could quietly leave this place in the dust. Unfortunately, the hardest part of that plan would be to get Caltrop to agree to it. With heavy steps and deep in thought, Last Call turned and left me.

Once again, I was alone in the tower.

Without any thought to it, I grabbed the bottle in my fetlock. I stared a moment at the amber liquid inside and thought about saving it. While it would make the rest of my shift go by in a flash, I could share it with Caltrop. What I could remember of last night was amazing, and if I could get him to go, I would have to make it a night to remember.

With a sigh, I set the bottle back down. I’d spent years worth of nights alone, and a few more hours was a small feat I could overcome. The wind whistled through the sheetmetal around me with a somber tone, and the relentless taps of rain against the roof kept me company. I told myself that it would be enough, but that golden liquid did it’s best to tempt me.

Funny thing about addiction is that you don’t get to ignore it. I’d made it all of a half hour before I lost myself and gave in. Hadn’t even realized that I had until I was already on my second sip. Just like Caltrop’s offering, once you had a taste, there’s no way you’d ever stop yourself. I felt disgusting that I’d broken so easily, but lucky for me, the booze ushered those thoughts away.

In the span of another half hour, the bottle was empty, and I was cruising along through a foggy haze. Jerry’s words ran through my head over and over again, but they didn’t matter. For the first time all day, things had finally started to go my way. All I would need to do tomorrow is find the one puzzle piece to bring that palooka down for good.

In fact, as I leaned back in my chair, I started to laugh. This whole case had been a bad joke, and I was the sucker who just waited for the punchline. He wouldn’t make it easy, but that bastard would get what he deserved. I let that soak in as my shift continued, but I knew it would never have been enough to keep me focused.

At some point in the night between sobering up and taking the long walk down the roads of my past, the rain had moved on to somewhere else. Probably wasn’t worth the effort and saw that this town was done for anyhow. Pin Cushion soon arrived as my relief, and I headed out to make good on my promise to Last Call. It had felt like I’d been up there all night, and I needed a stiff drink to take my mind off everything.

Just like in the calm before the storm, I was on edge. I’d run out of good moments to reminisce about, and now all I had were the facts of the case. I had Jerry pegged as the culprit. Being town mayor, he had the perfect setup to get in easy and bump off anyone. He’d also been at both scenes after the fact, which made him par for the course. The more I thought about it, two things still seemed out of place. He didn’t have any motive, and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Wire wouldn’t have fought back.

A sharp pain shot through my head and made sure I knew that I was leaning too far towards sobriety. I shook it off and trudged through the muddied street. My salvation was in sight, and I could almost taste the sweet nectar on my needy lips.

Unfortunately, it was something I wouldn’t receive tonight.

Like a spectre, the hit came out of the night itself. They’d pasted me right in the head and I went down for the count. My head spun faster than a carriage wheel, and I felt the cold drip of blood ooze down across my muzzle. Hoofsteps danced all around me with the crack of a whip. For me, it seemed as if my number had finally come up.

“Hey!” Last Call shouted in what could have been the last moments of my consciousness. Everything went blacker than the lonely night for me. If this really was the end, I guess my only regret would be that I never got to say goodbye.