Fallout: Equestria - The Ranger of Seamane

“We all have obligations to others, and sometimes they override what we really want to do. But at the same time it can give you direction when you’re overwhelmed.” - Unknown

Morning broke with the sound of a bell tolling seven times. A groan escaped my muzzle as I held my head and opened my eyes a little. As clarity grasped me I gave Sil a tight hug as she lay in bed with me. The past day had shown me how close she was to me and how much more I needed to respect that and how much I needed her, as she needed me.

Maybe I had gone through too much of my life with a relatively neutral emotional mindset after my mom had verbally beaten my angry temperament out of me. But as of late my emotional states bounced wildly between fury, apathy, and euphoria. The speed of those changes often left me feeling unbalanced and reflecting upon it the situation made me uncomfortable with myself. The worst part of it was how often these emotions were all consuming or entirely non-existent, zero to eleven in zero seconds flat.

Maybe I was still just an emotionally juvenile filly.

I shoved the thoughts out of my head and out the window. Instead, I buried my face into Sil’s mane.

I didn’t want to be mopy, I didn’t want to be ragey. I want to be me. I want to experience my emotions and not let them control me. I’ve seen where letting your emotions take control gets you too. After all, I was the one who had to…

That memory and thoughts connected to it were violently ejected from my mind. It was just too painful, far too much to deal with right now. One that I rarely thought about for good reason. It wasn’t something to start thinking about now.

With a grumble, I crawled out from under the sheets removing myself from embracing Sil. Now I needed a shower, to get food, and to look at what work there was to do around Pioneer. The key and its lanyard went around my neck as I left. No reason to be unsafe and frustrated.

The bathrooms were mercifully unoccupied when I visited them. When I felt the ice-cold water on my mane I could tell why, the hot water was likely used long before I got to the showers. I sighed and just took a cold shower, washed my mane with the complementary supplied mane and coat shampoo and conditioner. One thing crossed my mind as I washed: I needed to ask how much it was to rent the place out for a few months if not outright buy a room here. Another thought crossed my mind: I didn’t even know for how long Winter or Ocean had rented the rooms.

As for the Marina, it didn't seem like it had much space in it for more ponies, then again, good chance I wouldn’t be allowed to live in the Marina. Or at least not anytime soon. Beyond that, I didn’t have a good grasp of how big it was. And then there was Sil to consider, who wasn’t welcome there. Possibly good old prepper xenophobia.

Ugh, this is a mess.

All this in the end meant I needed to work to keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. Well, we all needed to do so, but I had to do my part, it wasn’t fair if I didn’t. Plus if anyone could it would be Ocean she was our group leader.

However, I feel I’ve ended up guiding us a bit more as of late. Oh right, she was trying to get me to take charge more. Well, I guess that works out. Even then I feel a leader should do as much work as the rest if not more. That’s probably going to bite me in the ass, just like my desire to protect others by doing the dumb dangerous thing instead.

Is my thoughtfulness going to get me killed? Yeah, that sounds right for my fate.

A few moments later I got my thoughts going again. My priorities needed to be sorted and acted upon. Riptide had her to-do list with her family, Sil and I would do things out here to keep ourselves afloat and I’d coordinate with Winter and Ocean on anything they found for the four of us to do. There was a good chance we’d end up scavenging, repairing, and selling stuff that we grabbed on contracts.

With my thoughts in order I finished chilling myself in the cold shower. Sometimes a cold shower is better than caffeine for perking you up. Upon return to our room, I saw Sil was gone and failed to leave a note. I assumed she had gone for breakfast out at a store somewhere or maybe window shopping. Her saddlebags were gone.

While I let my mane dry I sat down with the spellbook from Hoofview as I wrote notes about the teleport spell in the margins. If this had been somepony else's spellbook I wouldn’t have but it wasn’t. Once my notes were done I tucked the grimoire away and went downstairs with a small bag of caps around my neck with my room key as well. No need to carry everything I owned everywhere.

Ah, the joys of not murder hoboing it across the wasteland. And why is this a saying somehow passed down from the original crew of Clover?

Breakfast was good however there was little in the way of oats. The salt content was tolerable. Things were calm and civil enough that I even managed to have toast and my tea. The effects of a good meal were something I often forgot about. Not only did I physically feel better, but I felt mentally refreshed. Not perfect, but I wasn’t mentally gasping for air.

With breakfast over, I inquired about contract work and was directed to what had been a pre-war news recording station in the square itself. Now it was, well, I didn’t have a word for it, part bounty hunting, part information hub, part air your grievances at other ponies to some poor couple of deskjockies who then had to try to fill out paperwork to make it into a contract.

There were two desks, helpfully labeled by signs on the ceiling. Well okay, there were three but only two that I could make use of at this point. The first was one for placing a job which I could do but I had no use for right now. The other was where I was now, which was for picking up contracts. Apparently, it wasn’t just a bounty board system, they made certain things went to folks able to handle things that really needed to get done. I wondered why they didn’t just have the town guard go do it. But, what did I know I was just a simple mare from a coastal town that worked patrol duty.

It took two Celestia damned hours to get to the front of the line. Once there the stallion, his name card read ‘Wild Strikes’ looked confused at seeing me. “Excuse miss, but this line is for picking up work, placing work orders is the other line.

“New in town, I need some work while I stay over winter,” I explained. “I got guns, ammo, armor, medical training, medical supplies, technical experience, and just walked from Saint Clover over in Seamane to here escorting a mare to the rest of her family. And on the account of outside of paying heaps of caps since boats don’t run during autumn and winter between here and home, I’m sitting here until Spring rolls around because I don’t fancy walking home.”

Wild Strikes looked at me then at some listings he had, then at me again.

“I’m also slightly radiation resistant and radiation activated regeneration on account of surviving some taint exposure. If that helps any.” I said, feeling the agitation of the ponies behind me.

“Radiation immunity and medical training with technical training and a decent amount of weapons. Well, there are a few options. Give me a minute, we usually give ponies like you, as in those new to the town, things that aren’t important to do to feel you out.” Wild Strikes chuckled nervously. “I need to double-check some information about those two jobs for you. Good caps, but I need to make certain they are correct.”

“Fair, don’t rush on the account of me though. Just still trying to get into the swing of things.” I explained, and the words made the buck relax a bit. “I try not to do things so haphazardly, and I have three companions.”

After a few minutes, two folders were put down on the desk in front of me.

“Okay, so the first job is that we have some bad ponies hanging out around the soap factory on the other side of the river, address and directions in here, point of contact is any of the guards, they can give you more information as to recent activity. Clear them out, full salvage rights, plus two hundred caps.” He then pointed to portions of the jobs outlining pay. “As usual around here the main pay is, obviously, salvage.”

Then he moved to the second contract. “The second one is a few miles north of the first. Radiation is a bit dense around the Fluttershy Medical Center on that side of the river, so nopony has really had the time to scope the place out other than the first couple of floors at most. Might be ghouls, or robots, but likely nothing in there. Simple job, go in and find what’s there, carry what you can then get back here and report what else is there. Then we can figure out what resources are worth salvaging in there. The pay’s two thousand caps, bonus for what you bring back.” Wild Strikes explained.

I nodded and picked up the folders in my magic. “If you want to read them now, well there’s no space, sorry. You did say that you had a room so I suggest you go back and plan things out there.” Wild Strikes said. “Do this and we’ll make you a profile and chit for you to speed this along.”

“I will, thank you,” I replied and left.

However, I was poised with a minor problem. I needed some armor if I was going to be dealing with combat. The term ‘Bad ponies’ was rather nebulous, but, I guessed whatever would do for barding against them. Ghouls though. I felt like something to protect my sorry hide from their teeth was in order.

I went to one of the open-air stalls and got myself some new barding. It wasn’t anything special, but it covered more than my old set, the metal bits would help keep ghouls from biting my legs as easily and the pad over my stomach would help protect against shrapnel and kicks from killing me. Hopefully, prevent further impalements. I looked like most merchants I saw out and about though, so it seemed a popular choice in local barding. Probably for the best as it would help keep me low profile. More so after pissing off those weirdos yesterday.

-=O=-

Upon returning to my room I laid out the folders and information about the jobs on my bed drinking in the information, my pipbuck adding both locations into my destinations with helpful waypoints laid out. I folded up the map of Dockland and put it into my pack as I sorted out what I needed and what could stay. I doubted I needed more than two days of food and drink. Mom always taught me to take twice as many supplies when scavenging as I thought I would need. Ammo came next, I would be taking my silent pistol and the revolver rifle, I hid the sawed-off in my bags and cast the recall spell on it. I didn’t have a holster for it, but it would be a nasty surprise if I got disarmed.

“Then again, even disarmed of my rifle and pistol I have what like ten knives and the ability to make ponies' skulls explode via magic?” I snickered to myself as I looked over my inventory.

I looked at the grimoire and packed it as well who knew I might have some time to read?

“Now, I need to find Sil and either Winter or Ocean before I head out. I don’t think I want Sil going into the radiation with me though…” I muttered to myself. “Maybe have her head back with the first contact while I go to deal with the clinic.” I frowned and looked at the map of Dockland again in my EFS. Thankfully having gotten a physical map my pipbuck had updated to include it. From what I could tell there was no logical source for the radiation at the clinic. “Well, one more thing I’m going to have to figure out while there.”

I put my saddlebags in my back and double-checked my straps. “Alright, let’s go find everyone else and sort things out,” I said to myself. “I really do just keep violating my own rule of not going alone…”

A quick check with reception and I had the room number for Winter and Ocean. I also now knew I had a week for the room after that I could buy it if I had the caps. It wasn’t stupidly pricey but I was going to need to save most if not all my caps from these two jobs. Checking Winter’s room I got no response. I grumbled and went to reception and left them a letter to give the two as I started to search the town for Sil.

It took a further hour to spot Sil. She looked a bit disappointed when she saw me. Apprehension took hold of me seeing her disappointment. After a moment of indecisiveness, I trotted to greet her.

“What’s up Sil?” I asked her.

“Just…” She was quiet for a moment. “I had been working on something for you all morning. But I guess you don’t need it.”

I paused and realized I had been missing barding for the past few days and she likely had gone to find or make some for me.

“I…” I started. “Take it as you have more time to make it even better. Given how things have thrown at us already I doubt this barding will last that long.” I assured her.

Sil pondered that for a moment. “I guess that is a better way to look at it. Though, it isn’t ready yet. I… Also had hoped we wouldn’t be going out immediately.”

“Oh.” I paused and felt my ears drop. “I... “

Your nature just calls to you to keep moving. Keep acting.

I shoved the thoughts out of my mind. “Well, one of the jobs they gave me is to poke around an irradiated hospital so it’s not like I’d have you go in there with me. Probably have you either keep a few blocks back or we’d come back after the first one. Which is to knock off some bad ponies pestering guards around a soap factory.”

“A soap factory?” Sil asked, looking a bit puzzled by this.

“Yeah, apparently some of the industry around here is still working. It’s just across the river. Probably supplies the town with its soap.” I snorted. “Might get a discount at the spa for it.”

“I think I’ll join you on the first leg of the trip.” Sil nodded.

“I need a break anyways, and some things I have to wait to get done anyways,” Sil added cryptically.

I gave her a quizzical look but didn’t vocalize my thoughts. What took that long to make for barding?

With that, we gathered some extra medical supplies from our room and got Sil into her barding. I was glad she agreed to go with me. But, I still felt bad for ruining her gift to me. The upside was it wasn’t entirely ruined given her gift wasn’t ready yet this barding was just interim equipment until her little project was done. Which suited me fine plus she had appeared, while I slept, taken my measurements and most of the morning been finding the best pony to make some kind of barding for me. I was a little too curious as to what it was going to look like in the end. But, the best gifts are those we forget about and return as a surprise in the end.

A final check of Winter and Ocean’s room yielded nothing, in an attempt to keep them in the loop we hit up reception to leave them a letter. Instead, we got one in return. They had headed out of town on a trial contract as well. Though theirs was more directed and they had picked it up while Sil and I had been sulking about Riptide. It was also more directed in aiming at getting salvage that could be used for making more pipbuck zeros.

This made me realize we could lean into producing those, but with only two of us technically inclined and the hours needed that would be ineffective until we had more resources to lean on between runs. We left a letter to the two of them about our two jobs, the Soap Job didn’t seem that hard, but any fight could become costly. And with pay being salvage it would be hard to come out on top of an exchange when most doctors don’t take random stuff for payment…

-=O=-

I should have asked somepony who the gangs in the area were. I had been taking the waterfront again when I was stopped by a group of four ponies this time. One with a spiked bat, one with a sawed-off, one with a rifle, and one with two semi-automatic pistols. All were in somewhat matching attire of green and grey rain slickers.

“And what do we have here, another pair of contractors out of Pioneer?” Spiked asked standing on his hind legs braced with his forelegs crossed on the bat.

“This is a toll road, we keep it safe from them Wigglers.” Sawed Off sneered.

Wigglers? Is that some kind of wildlife?

“Toll is two hundred caps, for a contractor like you. Don’t worry, we’ll leave you alone once paid.” Rifle giggled, the mare wasn’t crazy, just tripping on power. I knew that kind of laugh I had disciplined others in the guard for that behavior before.

“So pay up or we’re going to loot you.” Pistols said.

“Well, you aren’t pythons, who the fuck are you lot?” I asked, I got a feeling this routine was going to be common until word got around. Do I want word to get around about me? Ugh, it probably was me and my stubborn ass.

“Ha, she is new. Nah, we ain’t wigglers, Preservers. Paying us helps us keep things the way they are, you understand?” Sawed Off said before letting out a laugh.

Fucking what is with these names anymore? Well, their attention is mostly on me, Sil seems to be an afterthought to them. Right, the Family exists around here, probably isn’t uncommon to see a Unicorn bossing around others. Hornheads likely are seen as the de facto leader of any group. Ugh, unwanted privilege.

“Right, you said two hundred?” I asked as I looked at the bridge behind them.

It was a longer jump than I had done before, but I had a good line of sight, I was nice and calm with my mind clear.

“Alright.” I hopped back and wrapped my forelegs around Sil. “Teleporting, hun,” I said before we teleported, she got her warning.

We found ourselves a good ten feet above the bridge deck, I let out a yelp as gravity took effect and landed with Sil atop of me as we hit a ruined metal carriage.

“Ow, fuck, ow. Sweet Celestia, why is it always my spine?!” I cried to the heavens before I caught my breath.

Sil however seemed far less hurt, probably due to the Moonlight-shaped pillow she got to use for the landing.

“Okay, now where to, pipbuck?” Dutifully a faint line appeared along the road for a few seconds.

Since when did it do that? Actually, that’s just probably due to it having a proper map and address to work with for once.

We headed east along the bridge. I looked to the north across the river at the marina where Riptide was and hoped things were going better for her than for me.

“Stay safe Riptide, I’ll see you in a while,” I whispered to myself before continuing on to the east side of Dockland.

The bridge had a few collapsed segments in the top deck, and no real safe way to get around them, see shear drop off to the crumbled road below.

“So…” I started a part of me giddy about getting to teleport a bunch now that I figured it out.

“So… I didn’t enjoy being pulled through reality without notice.” She began, and as I opened my mouth she started to talk again. “But it was the right reaction to the situation. But when we do it traverse difficult paths like this, warnings please.”

“Of course,” I replied.

“Okay then, remember to leave us a bit of time to process the sudden change of location.”

I was already tapping excitedly on my hooftips at getting to teleport a bunch of small hops really fast. Sil’s words didn’t even enter my mind as I started plotting the jumps in my head.

The short quick bursts were ideal practice for the type of teleports that I could likely pull off in combat. So it was a good training regimen even if it was a bit exhaustive. Finally, we got close enough to the other side of the river that I could skip walking the rest of the way. With a pop, we were on the roof of a building and I checked my pipbuck for where we needed to go next.

“I said with time between jumps!” Sil hissed at me.

As I opened my mouth to reply the staccato of gunfire echoed out, and for the first time in a bit, it wasn’t directed at me. Nor at Sil, thankfully, instead it was a few blocks to the south. EFS pulled itself up as I thought about where our contract was taking us, it was time to get in position to clear out the ‘bad guys’.

Hopefully, these are the same ponies as the ones in the contract. One jump later we were at the street level and nearing the edge of a building to check the street before crossing it towards the ongoing firefight.

“Looks clear, alright, let’s get moving, Sil,” I told her as she put her hoof on my rump. I wasn’t certain if she was doing it so we formed a line or for some other reason. I stored it in the back of my mind to chew on later to look for patterns.

Moving past each street we cleared we hurried down narrow alleys to reduce how much time anyone could spot our approach. Our hooves clattered on the shattered pavement, the worn concrete, and the twice-fired brickways.

We slowed to a crawl as we reached a corner near a walled factory. The gunfire was loud enough that we must be right beside it. A glance around the corner I saw six ponies hunkered down behind a carriage, they were taking potshots at the ponies on the wall around the factory. It was a simple enough situation to resolve so out came the revolver rifle. I got to the corner of the nearest building flanking the ponies firing upon the guards before I opened up.

While I wished I had gotten some grenades Sil opening up with me was more than enough firepower for now. My first shot went high and left a good hole in the carriage. The second shot went clean through the right foreleg of one of the ponies. A third shot I had to hold off loosing as the ponies started firing at me.

Thankfully Sil had looped around to get to a different lane of fire. I teleported across the street to where Sil had ducked behind the building. We hurried off to get another angle on the ponies assaulting the factory.

We got to another alleyway while the ponies continued to fire upon the guards and our former position. I sighted in and fired the third shot and was rewarded with taking out one pony with a clean headshot. I took a moment popping the cylinder open and slotting in three fresh rounds and putting the empties in my bag. We might be able to reload them, but I’d need to see if any shop had reloading tools.

The guards now that they weren’t pinned fired a grenade launcher blowing the whole carriage back against the ponies behind it. I ran out pulling out the sawed-off and closed in on the dazed ponies. I felt rounds graze against my face, my leg, and my barrel. I blasted out both shells into the group before following it up with several arcane blasts. One pony was left alive and fled. I let them run but the guards didn’t. That annoyed me, I was hoping to track the would-be thief to their nest. I shook my head and picked over the dead instead.

“When two are done come around the corner, that’s where the gate is. I’m guessing you’re here for work. If not, well, we have work if you’re interested.” The Grenade launcher mare said from the wall.

“Be there in a few minutes,” I replied, the bandits didn’t have much of note but some ammo. Their guns were shoddy, but I could sell them off for caps. I took the backpack from one, as it would be more storage space, even if it was a bit awkward. I probably would send our scavenged goods back with Sil so she could sell them off and get us a nest egg going.

The would-be attackers' barding was nothing but rain slickers, with no color coordination between them. I sighed as I left their bodies where they lay, their blood mixing with the runoff. What a waste of life, but it was theirs to waste. Sil caught up to me after as we trotted up and around the corner, as directed, a bit further up I found the gate.

“Alright, so I did pick up a contract for dealing with the ponies who have been giving you folks some trouble,” I said up to the guard on the wall as the breeze blew the increasing rain. “Got any information on where they might be coming from, or why they’re hitting a soap factory?”

“The why is simple, take it over and ransom it. That’s what I think at least, that or somepony else wants it, don’t know why, makes money that’s probably enough reason.” Grenade launcher said. “As for where we haven’t had much luck on that further east into the city somewhere it’s where any stragglers run off to we don’t give chase. Bad idea since they might catch one of us and then we’d have to pay for the rescue.”

“Fair. In any case, we’ll get lookin’. Those six didn’t have anything on them unfortunately no pattern to their clothes so they aren’t Pythons or Preservers I’m guessing.” I sighed and shook my mane, the rain was getting bad enough, so I pulled out a pair of goggles I had been given and put them on.

“Same to the both of ya.” Grenade Launcher said with a nod.

As we departed Sil gave me a small look. I raised an eyebrow and she pointed to a window. I checked it and saw I was bleeding a bit. With the rain, leaving wounds open was probably not a good idea. I started to use my magic to close the wounds.

“Thanks, hun.” I sighed. “I know I got a little reckless there.”

“Wasn’t going to say anything.” Sil offered. “I didn’t expect them to be able to fire back after taking a grenade that close.”

I nodded. “That was my thought as well. Still not used to how the revolver rifle handles. I think I need to adjust its sites. I feel a bit stupid for not having done that before.”

“Well, at least you’re getting a chance to feel stupid about it.” Sil smiled.

“Yeah, that’s a good point,” I said as I finished closing the wounds on my face.

“Another good point is for us to get to where we’re going so we can get out of this rain sooner than later,” Sil said with a nod towards the road.

I nodded in agreement and we started to trot eastward again.