Fallout: Equestria - Old Grudges

Opening the mess hall door, my ears were met with something odd. Silence. Seeing as I’d normally only gone in with Bluejay and the others for breakfast and dinner, I was used to the small kitchen being cramped and full of life. A loud gurgling in my gut convinced me that it didn’t matter, and that I should get something to eat to go with that cider warming me up.

Trotting through the door, I used my magic to push it closed a little too hard on accident. Shutting with a clang, I was also rewarded with a soft squeak from inside the kitchen. It almost scared me with it’s presence, but looking over, I found Infrasound sitting in the corner of the dining table with her nose pressed into a book. The pink pegasus eyed at me uneasily from over the top of it, seemingly on edge.

“Hi.” I waved to her in an attempt to be friendly. The whole time we’d been traveling so far, I don’t think I’d heard her say anything at all really. She seemed like a very shy mare, and kept to herself mostly. So much so in fact that I couldn’t even really form a basis on her personality. Still, Vanilla did want me to get to know everypony on board…

“I’m sorry…” She squeaked quietly, shifting off of her seat at the table. “I was just reading… I’ll let you eat in peace.”

“No no!” I waved at her in dismissal. “You won’t bother me, I promise.” I gave her my best nervous smile as I quickly trotted over to the large refrigerator bolted to the wall. Opening up the door, I looked inside the chilled interior to see what they had available. Saddly, there wasn’t anything freshly prepared other than a quarter pot of chili that had been made last night. There were some sickly looking carrots towards the bottom, but I’d much rather not have something so light. Wrapping my magic around the pot of chili, I levitated it out onto the nearby countertop.

“So…” I asked, eyeing over to Infrasound as I levitated a bowl over from the cupboard. “Reading anything good?” Just by asking anything at all, she seemed to cringe and sink further into her book. After a few awkward moments, I got the feeling I wasn’t going to get an answer. Fine, you want to do this the hard way? I accept the challenge. “You know, I’ve read quite a few books in my free time, but none as bad as that Shadow Spade novel in my cabin.”

She looked up to me with startled eyes. “That isn’t true at all!” She snapped harshly. Hah, got ya. “Sure the prose might not be as good as Daring Doo here, but the intricacies of the mystery are second to nopony else that I’ve read!” She went wide eyed as she realized what she’d just done. “I mean… I’m sorry.” Slumping into her seat, she wore a bright blush.

“No, it’s fine.” I laughed as I scooped out some chili into my bowel. “I just couldn’t stand it. Just not my thing I guess.” Looking back over to the table, I lifted my bowl and floated it over there. “Which Daring Doo book is that? I do enjoy that series.”

“Uhm…” She perked up at that, folding the book over and reading the cover. “Daring Doo and the Crystal Caper.”

“Oh, I liked that one.” Trotting over, I took my seat at the table kitty-corner to her. To my surprise, she scooted herself over to my end.

“Oh really?” She smiled and put the book down. “It’s been one of my favorites so far.” Funny enough, her shyness had gone out the window and was nowhere to be found. Shit, why did I have to phrase it like that a thousand feet above the ground? “Astrolabe suggested I borrow them from Shifting. Honestly I was surprised when she agreed.”

“Oh, why’s that?” I asked, levitating a spoon over from the basket of them on the counter. Okay, time to see if day old chili was the right choice. “Is she normally protective of her things… or…?” Scooping up a blob of chili into my muzzle, the juicy flavor of baked beans and rad boar meat hit me hard. Goddesses, if only I could eat this well back home without going broke…

“No…” Infrasound sighed, letting part of her lavender and pink striped mane fall over half her face. “I shouldn’t say anything…”

“What, is she that bad?” I asked, busily chewing on a muzzlefull of chili.

“No, it’s just…” She started to say, but was cut off when the door to the connected recreational room swung open.

“Somepony talking about me?” Shifting Winds panted heavily as she dripped with sweat. From the fuzzy sweat bands she wore around her hooves and forehead, I could only guess she’d been using the treadmill in there. Looking at me, her ear twitched subtly and she shifted around her own wings uneasily. “Look, I always know when ponies are talking about me, so just spit it out.”

“She was just saying how you lent her your book.” I spoke up. Geeze, she’s a bit pushier than I’d seen her these last few days. I get that being around strangers can be annoying, but just lighten up, lady.

“Good.” She snorted before turning around, glaring at me as she did. “Because I hate when ponies talk shit behind my back.” With a kick of her rear hoof, she shut the door with a slam.

“She’s a ton of fun.” I rolled my eyes before looking back to Infrasound.

“She’s not too bad.” Infrasound giggles. “She’s nice once you get to know her, like most of the crew here.”

“Does that include you?” I smirked. Normally I wouldn’t be so forward, but I had the feeling it was the only way I’d get her to speak up at all.

“I guess.” She nodded softly, brushing her mane away from her deep purple eyes. “I just don’t care to converse much. I find it perfectly pleasant by myself most days. Though…” she drifted off for a moment, hanging on that phrase like it was desperately trying to lose her. I’d seen the look she wore many nights at home. She was thinking of somepony.

“Who is it?” I sighed, leaning in with a smile. It was a shot in the dark, but I was going to take it. “Is it one of the crew?” The blush that flushed brightly across her cheeks as she sank down in her seat told me that I’d guessed right. “A stallion?” I nodded, twisting my muzzle up in thought. “Or a mare?” Looking over to her for an answer, I found her curling into the biggest whimpering ball of embarrassment I’d ever seen. “Woah there, I didn’t mean to put so much pressure on you to answer. You don’t have to…”

“Astrolabe!” She forced all of that social pressure out in one big shout. Immediately, she went wide eyed and covered her muzzle with her hooves. “I didn’t mean…” Whimpering, I could tell that she hadn’t meant to go off so loudly. “Please don’t tell anypony…” Nearly crying, she looked at me pleadingly.

The door to the rec room swung open hard. “What the hell is going on in...?” Shifting started, but a horrendous metal bang cut her off, reverberating through the whole ship.

Then, everything went sideways…

“Shit!” Shifting shouted. “Hold on!”

Before I’d even got a chance to do so, I was thrown from the table. I slid across the floor and slammed painfully against the wall next to Shifting. She’d had the forethought to hold herself in the doorway as we most assuredly were plummeting to our deaths. Why oh why did I have to go on this stupid trip!?

“Correcting for axial list. All hooves, we are under attack.” PAI’s voice chimed over the ship intercoms before a klaxon sounded. True to her word, after just a moment, the ship began to right itself again. “Three pegasi raiders are inbound on us. It also seems that we have a harpoon tethering us to the ground from the starboard side.”

Flopping over as we righted back towards a normal orientation, Shifting Winds stepped up beside me and helped me to my hooves.

“You and Infrasound get on the defensive guns.” She snapped, pointing to a sealed hatch at the rear of the room. I’d been wondering what was behind it, but I didn’t want to find out like this! I opened my muzzle to object, but found her muzzle stuffed in it. “No time to argue! I need to get to the bridge, but you two need to hold them off!”

Not quite sure what to do, all I did was nod sharply before Shifting bolted to the stairwell door. Looking over to Infrasound, she was still shaking off the disorientation from the sudden attack.

“Fuck, why me?” I muttered under my breath. I know I might not be the best shot in the wastes, but if it’d keep us from crashing to the dirt, I was willing to do whatever it took. “Come on, we need to get on the guns like she said.” Trotting toward the door, she jumped over the table toward me and stopped me cold.

“Wait, we can’t do this!” She shivered as she spoke. “Let’s just get one of the others to do it!” She smiled nervously at me. “We don’t have to fight!”

“You heard her!” I grunted as I used my magic to unseal the door. “There’s no time!” Swinging to door open, I found a T shaped hallway in front of me. Trotting inside, I turned and looked back at Infrasound. “Come on, only we can do this.”

She seemed to take a moment to nod and stiffen up. “Okay, we can do this.” She didn’t exactly sound confident, but as long as I didn’t go at this alone, I was good with whatever help I could get. Following me in, she shut the door behind us.

Turning left around the corner, I immediately regretted my decision to ignore her suggestion. At the end of the hallway was a glass sphere that was just slightly bigger than I was hanging off a small track on the ceiling. Past the small metal hatch on the side of the glass bubble, a very uncomfortable looking curved seat rode up the backside of it. Two hanging hoofholds extended from the roof on articulating rods, and a pair of pedals and displays sat just past the edge of the seat. I began to worry about just how to run this thing when I saw PAI’s pink form flicker into existence one the displays. Trotting up, I looked down at her expectantly.

“Hi!” Pai waved at me. “I know the gun pod looks confusing, but just lean your back into the chair, put your rear hooves on the pedals and grab the hanging fire controls!” She smiled and pointed as she spoke. “easy peasy!”

“Whatever you say.” I grumbled as I clambered into the pod. The track mountings that it hung off of squeaked as the pod rocked with my added weight and movement. It shot a spike of fear up my spine before I lined myself up with the seat and flopped back into it. As soon as I did, the electronics inside the pod hummed to life, and the metal side hatch slid shut forcefully.

“Thank you for helping to defend us. Please keep your head and limbs inside the ride at all times.” PAI smiled and turned herself around. “Your targeting display is here.” She pointed to a small screen that flickered to life above her. A three dimentional plane was displayed, as well as a red dot which I assumed was us in the center. Three yellow flashing arrows maneuvered around it at high speed. “Use the hoof actuator pedals to orient yourself and the guns. Please, do so now.”

Doing as she asked, I placed my rear hooves on the pedals and pressed my left down. The pod began to spin to the right. Pulling back on my hoof, it began to spin left. My right hoof alternatively changed the pods orientation in regards to elevation. However, my forehoof controls and the fetlock triggers were locked in place and seemingly did nothing. As I got used to them, another loud rending sound emanated from the rear of the ship. Thankfully this time however, we didn’t flip sideways.

“Here’s the hydraulic pressure gauges, weapon power readouts and cooling information. As well as your emergency shutdown button.” She shifted her hoof to a pair of flickering lights and various gauges on the right of the display. Honestly none of them made any sense to me, so I tried not to worry about what they might mean. “And on the left,” She pointed to the slatted plate bolted on the other side of her. “is your comms unit. Just speak normally and both Infrasound and the bridge should be able to hear you. Patching you in as we speak.”

“Hello?” I spoke up, seeing if Infrasound hadn’t yet died of panic.

“Yes?” She squeaked. “I’m… I’m ready to go.” She hesitantly called back.

“Now, there are some things you two should know.” PAI called my attention back to her. “Do not under any circumstances…” She was cut off as the ship was rocked with a blast. Fire burst through the metal side of the ship surrounding the pod, and one of the panels was torn away, revealing the large openness of the sky outside. “Nevermind, no time, gotta go! You kids have fun out there!” She smiled and waved before flickering away. As she did, the metal side of the ship around the pod began to retract, and the pod itself shuttered and rode along it’s track.

My heart was beating faster and faster as the suspended pod crossed out into the exterior of the ship. As it did, my forehoof controls unlocked, and I pulled them down close. As I did, a flash of movement to my side caught my eye. Looking over as I moved my forehooves, a pair of large magical energy weapons strapped on motorized turrets moved with them. Suddenly the control set up made sense, and seemed somewhat useable. That is, until I rotated myself downward.

The sight of the ground so far below nearly stopped my heart cold. I was a half a second from getting up out of my seat and throwing open the door, but I froze when I realized that the extended gun pod was now outside of the ship altogether.

“Hello?” Shifting Wind’s annoying voice called over the intercom. “Are you two done playing around out there?”

“Yes.” I closed my eyes and focused on her voice. “I mean, I’m good.” Yes, just… pretend that you’re not dangling in a glass ball a thousand feet in the air. “Just, tell me what to do.”

“Well, first of all, defending us would be nice.” Shifting’s annoyed voice suddenly wasn’t helping to focus on, and I used my rear hoof to elevate the pod as High as it could go. “Secondly, being tethered is leaving us out in the open and unable to maneuver. Find that damn harpoon and shoot it off us before the next shot they put in knocks out the reactor!”

Opening my eyes, I looked around. Oh, why did it have to be up to me? Why did I have to hate hights? Why did I have to fucking even wake up today!? About halfway up toward the front of the ship, a rusty pipe stuck out, almost masked by a thin stream of smoke shooting out from where it’d hit. It was incredibly out of place among the smooth lower hull, along with the rusty, taught cable that shot down towards the ground from it.

Working the controls, I maneuvered the pod around to face the front of the ship. In working the forehoof controls, I lined up the guns and squeezed the triggers. The dual energy weapons flashed and sliced through the old raider metal without any issue at all.

“Alright, the harpoon is gone.” I called out, sighing and allowing myself to relax a little. Almost as soon as I had, another loud slam accompanied a rusty piece of rebar lodging itself into the ship right next to my bubble. “Shit!” I cursed, furiously working the controls as I looked over to the targeting screen. A small yellow arrow fluttered off to the right of the ship, and I looked over through the glass in that direction.

A particularly vile yellow coated raider mare flapped as she held some sort of cannon in her hooves. She wore a ratty cloth quiver absolutely stuffed with sharpened rebar in it, and she was furiously working to stuff another rod into the barrel of her weapon. Maneuvering the guns to aim at her, I wanted to knock her out of the sky before she managed to actually hit the pod with a rod.

“I… uhm…” Infra’s whisper soft voice came through the intercom. “I need help!” She whined. “I don’t know what to do!”

“Just… shoot them!” Shifting Wind angrily growled over the intercom in response. “Hold on.” Just as I lined up my pod to fire, the whole of the Dauntless shifted course. Firing too slow, the bright red beams from my guns sizzled through the air just above the raider. She got wise to not staying still and zipped up higher into the air.

“Damnit!” I snapped. “I can’t hit them if you’re moving all over the place!”

“No no no no!” Infrasound whined in panic. From my pod, I saw a bright flash line the bottom of the hull towards her pod, and a two flaming halves of a raider tumbled on fire toward the ground. “I… I got one I think!” She whined.

“Good, now quit bragging and shoot the other two down already!” Shifting Winds snorted before she grunted. When she did, we listed to one side and turned sharply. The loud report of a cannon far below came just before a large rusty needle and cable shooting through the air just missing us. “You have thirty seconds of stability before they reload and I move again. So just please shoot them.”

“On it.” I grumbled, working the pedals to turn the pod. Glancing down to the targeting computer, the closest arrow on it was right next to the ship, which was odd.

Just out of the corner of my eye I saw movement, and a soft knock came from the glass next to me. It made me jump so bad I slammed the both the pedals and controls down. The sudden movement threw off the aim of the point blank raider, and the thump of the rebar cannon shot the bar straight across the front of the pod and jammed it partway through the glass on the other side. The console sparked and died as the rebar rod embedded itself inside, shorting out all the control systems. The electric hum of the hydraulics and power systems disappeared, and the whipping wind whistled through the hole in the glass bubble.

“Don’t you just look so tasty?” The raider mare hissed through the opening before she scrambled around to the other side of the pod. She smiled at me with her gummy grin and jaundice tainted eyes before slinging her cannon and pulling out what looked to be an old industrial grinder. “I’mma open you like a can of cram, boy!” Cackling madly, the incredibly jagged blade whirred to life and she brought it down on the metal door of the pod.

“Just leave us alone!” I screamed at her, not sure she cared to hear me over the shearing of metal. “You don’t have to do this!”

“I do!” She laughed as she pulled off the grinder again just enough to tell me she had no intention of letting up. “Can’t you see I’m so hungry!?”

Even over the grinding, I could hear a loud scream as the other raider fell out of the sky. I couldn’t see it, but I was glad that at the very least Infrasound managed to do something useful in the fight. The raider on my pod stopped grinding as she looked back, giving nothing more than a growl over her fallen comrade.

Bright red lines of magical energy streaked downward from the other side of the ship. One after another, they raked the ground until a bright explosion lit up the hills below us. The resulting boom shook the ship itself, and the raider mare on my pod lost her hoofing. As she slid off, the strap for her odd rebar cannon caught on the rebar she’d shot through the pod, wrenching her against the side of it. Scrambling to keep her hoofhold and unhook herself, she had to choose between holding on, or her saw.

She made the wrong choice, and let the saw go. I’d heard jokes that Pegasi could be simple minded and stupid sometimes, but this was far and above anything I’ve ever seen. And I even know Eighth Note!

Straining, I grabbed it in my magic and flipped it around. She only had a moment to realize her mistake before I thrust the saw into her side straight under one of her wings. She let out a gurgling scream and threw herself from the pod, leaving her cannon behind to hang off the rebar. Tumbling down through the air, I watched as she screamed all the way down until she became nothing but a permanent smear on the wasteland hills below.

With a sigh, I let go of the saw as well and slumped back in the gunpod seat. Seriously, after today, I will never ever board another airship in my life. Closing my eyes, I felt as my racing heart finally began to slow, and the sweat beading down my head dripped down past my chin. Fuck this entire trip.

With a jarring shake, the whine of motors met my ears and the gunpod started to move again. I nearly panicked again until I realized that it was riding along it’s track back into the protected side of the ship. What met me inside when the pod locked back into it’s original position however, was Infrasound. Looking incredibly out of place on her muzzle was a smile wider than even PAI ever wore. As I climbed out of the deathtrap of a gunpod, I cringed as she lunged forward and wrapped her hooves around me in a tight hug.

“We… we did it!” She giggled, pulling off of me to brush her lengthy bangs back. “I almost froze up back there, but I just thought ‘what would daring doo, do? And it worked!” Okay… after seeing her the last week as the quiet one, seeing her this bubbling and excited was odd to say the least. “Oh I’m so proud of us!” Again, she hugged me tightly. As she did, I reached around and gave her a firm, if confused pat on the back. Looking past her down the hallway, I noticed Bluejay’s giddy face barely containing her amusement. Yeah, laugh it up while you can.

We’ve still got a long way to go.

“To Sawyer and Infrasound, for saving our asses back there!” Shifting Winds was in a more relaxed mood now that dinner was served. Still didn’t make it less awkward that she’d crammed herself between Infrasound and I to eat, nor the fact that she’d already had four beers before sitting down, and was already working on her fifth. Infrasound however, had gone back to being the quiet, shy mare from before. She looked twice as uncomfortable right now as anypony else, and that’s saying something.

“They were just raiders.” Astrolabe grumbled from across the table before looking up with a shocked and shameful expression at Infrasound. “I mean, not that it’s not still something to be proud of. You did good today.” He offered her a nervous smile to her, which made her bashfully avoid his gaze from behind her mane. From here however, I could see the blush she wore.

“I am glad that no pony was injured in the attacks.” Vanilla spoke up from the head of the table. I knew why she joined us all in the kitchen for dinner, but I didn’t know why she sat at the table with us and ate. She never did this at home, at least, not that I could recall. Though, I will say that even though it’s been weird spending so much time around her, I’ve enjoyed her company.

Thinking that, my brain immediately jumped back onto what Gauge had mentioned about her. Forcing those uncomfortably odd thoughts out of my mind, I looked over to see Bluejay levitating a half dozen plates of steak over to the table, and setting them down for the crew.

“Yes, we can all be thankful that the only casualty was Sawyer’s pod.” She looked over at me with a smirk that read ‘I’m just giving you a hard time’. True to her expression, she quickly looked to change the topic. Levitating over everypony else’s plates, she looked over to the other end of the table. “So Captain, does that sort of attack happen often?”

Swinging my gaze over, I found Wingnut staring intently at the table with his hooves crossed over his barrel. Reaching up and tipping his cowpony hat up, he gave off an uneasy sigh.

“Y’all need ta understand that Ah ain’t never seen somethin like what happened taday before. Not in the years Ah’ve been flyin this gal. Tha guns were only fer clearin’ landin’ zones of raiders, not sky fightin’!” Seeming to shake it off, he looked up and everypony and relaxed. “But, Ah’m sure we ain’t never gonna see it again now. Not after tha shootin we did taday!”

The door to the “I believe this speaks otherwise, Captain.” Gauge barged in with Mrs. Cap at her side. The two of them hoisted the cannon that the mare had used to attack me onto the table, knocking . It was far from any weapon I’d ever seen a raider use out west. Not just because of it’s design, but that it didn’t look old.

“What’s so important about it?” Skeleton Key chimed up, quite unhappy that the large gun had basically squished her dinner. “Raiders take their guns from those they kill. It could have come from anywhere.”

“Not just anywhere.” Mrs. Cap grunted, using her magic to flip the cannon upside down. Along the bottom was an embossed symbol. If I were to remember it correctly from earlier, it’s the same symbol on the note that was found on Swift’s body. A sun symbol with wing bars. “Look familiar? They didn’t ‘take’ these weapons, they were given to them.”

“Well, ain’t that somethin.” The captain’s tone had just taken a decidedly more serious turn. “Looks like Y’all have got yourself some enemies.” Slamming his hoof on the table, he made almost everypony here jump. “Now, Ah’m not one ta pry, but when y’all booked this trip, y’all ain’t said nothin’ ‘bout ponies tryin’ ta kill me an’ mah own. And Ah think it’s about time y’all came clean with everythin’ we should be expectin’ ta run into.”

And just like that, it hit me. My life was turning into all those mystery stories that Infrasound and I had read over the years. We had one hell of a mystery on our hooves, and just like the stories, we all needed to work together to figure out just how all the pieces fit in place. Maybe whoever behind this never intended it to be a mystery, but I couldn't help but think of them as our antagonist, our 'Professor Mareiarty'. All old school villains in my head aside, something inside possessed me to speak about the revelation that sat on the table before us.

"And so the plot thickens..."

--Chapter End--

“Detective Rarity is on the case, and we are going to get to the bottom of this faster than my costume change.”

Quests Finished: Friend Ship (Part 1)

Quests Started: none

Levels Earned: 4->5

Perks Earned: Versatile Caster -

Your talent for magic is greater than most. You gain +1 to your Versatility for purposes of calculating the effects of your spells. This does not affect the number of spells you learn when choosing new spells via perks. This Perk may be taken up to five times with the following restrictions: the second rank of the perk becomes available at level 8, the third at level 12, the fourth at level 16 and the fifth at level 20.