Fallout Equestria: Rebirth

Chapter 2: The Snake and The Oaf

Stepping out into a ruined building's basement, I sighed looking up at the cloud covered midnight sky. I had not thought this through, I should have at least waited until morning when the dark wasn't so blinding. Looking back at the door I had came through I imagined myself slinking back inside with my tail between my legs for a nap.

Nope! Not happening.

Stepping through the rubble carefully I kept my eyes and ears peeled.

Man, I really hated the dark.

Reaching the blown out front wall of the building I stepped up to some makeshift stairs and out into the open. Looking around, I shivered at the eerie quiet of what I now realized to be the desert. From what little I could see, I realized the area around me was empty of life, both plant and pony.

Yep, definitely should turn back, right now!

No, you scaredy filly, if you have to sleep do so but...You Are NOT Going Back Inside!

Shaking the fear from my bones I looked around a moment, it was so dark I could barely see my hoof in front of my face. Lifting up my pip-buck I tried to make the dim glow of the screen illuminate the area in front of me. Son of a bitch, if only this thing had a lamp. Grumbling mentally, I squinted and managed to make out a small structure almost directly ahead.

Trotting over to it, I searched its parameter until I was able to find a door. It was a small ramshackled one room hut that swayed precariously in the breeze but, damn it, it was a place to bed down for the night.

Really Dawn? You're going to just plop down right outside of the stable in some rundown shack just to spite yourself for going out so rashly? I argued with myself. It's literally ten feet away from the stable.

Damn straight!

I shut the door gently, any harder and I feared it would fall, and laid down, trying to shut out the sounds of the desert night. Needless to say, It took a hell of a long time to get to sleep.

The morning came rather abruptly, waking me from a strange dream. Immediately the details fled from my mind causing me to rub my eyes, not only from the sleep but to also try and remember. My ears perked hearing nearby voices. Craning my neck I looked through a few holes at the bottom of the shack where the metal had been eaten away by time and rust.

The two stallions walking between me and the demolished school house where the stable lay beneath, wore simple leather barding. From where I lay I could see that one carried a rather large shotgun while the other stuck to a small pistol holstered to his shoulder for easy access.

"Damn, they really pissed someone off huh?" Some pony said, right outside of the shack I had made a bedroom for one night.

"Looks like it. Well good, these ponies needed to be put down." The other one said as I craned my head to look out of a hole in the shack. "Stable 40's a bad place Boomstick."

"Well it was." Boomstick said, shifting his a shotgun from one shoulder to the other, chuckling.

"True, thank the Goddesses. At least they're still some decent ponies out there, willing to risk it ya know." The nameless one said.

"Long as it aint us right Whix?" Boomstick said with a laugh, "Can we get to looting now? Huh? Can we?"

"Sure Boom. Let's go."

With that, the two strange ponies walked down into the decaying basement of the school house and into the stable.

I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and pulled myself cautiously to my hooves. What the hell were they doing---

My breath caught in my throat as my eyes landed on something laying at the bottom of shack nearest the door. It was red and hairy, a hoof stuck to one end of it. I turned my nose away from the disembodied leg and almost threw up, realizing that I had been sleeping near it the whole night. I hadn't seen it due to the lack of light. Looking outside I noticed that the leg had an owner, she however, had never made it to the shack.

Some part of me joked that the leg had beaten the mare to the shack. I punched that part of me as hard as I could.

Looking at the dead mare I pressed my hoof against my mouth to keep from dry heaving. She was dressed in strange barding that looked like it was made from tires and rebar, a pistol lay on the ground nearest her mouth.

Poor thing, it hadn't helped her at all.

Stepping carefully over the disembodied hoof, I looked back towards the stable and this time, I did throw up. The dead mare behind me wasn't the only one. Several ponies lay dead around the entrance of the stable, each sporting a grotesque wound that reminded me of the ponies on the inside of the stable. I couldn't believe that two ponies had been standing in the middle of all of that and were carrrying on a conversation like nothing was amiss.

Lowering my head I turned and immediately began running.

"Nope, ain't dealing with it." I said spitting the bile from my mouth.

What kind of world was I thrown into? Who could have killed this many ponies, and for what? What was the reason? Stamping hard at the ground as I ran I didn't slow until the fire in my chest made it difficult to breath. How long had I run? Half an hour? At top speed? I was suddenly impressed, I was incredibly fit, and sent up a prayer of thanks to the Goddess that I apparently believed in.

However I was slightly concerned in some back corner of my mind as I realized that the fire in my chest hadn't gone, sure it had lessened but with the strenuous activity it had flared back up with a vengeance. Stopping for a few moments I waited for my heartbeat to slow before continuing forward, once the pain died down a little.

I found myself on a cracked and barren road leading towards a mountain range sitting impressively on the southern horizon.

"One day D, we're going to head that way and never come back." The kind one had said smiling at me,

"Yeah right! We're going to be stuck here forever, got too much to do." I remembered saying looking towards the same mountain.

Alright! Now we're getting somewhere, I thought, guess a good restless night's sleep was all I needed to kickstart my brain. Okay, now what does he look like?

My brain suddenly slammed to a halt and, instead of giving me an answer, pulled a blank and refused to give up any more information.

"WHAT!" I cried smacking my horn painfully against an old rusted roadsign. "COLT-OF-A-GODDESSED-DAMNED-MOTHER-SUCKLING-FILLY-FONDLER!"

After a few more cracks at the sign the overwhelming headache forced me to stop. I sat down and leaned against it. Reaching in my saddlebags I pulled out a bottle of water and an apple. Maybe I just needed breakfast.

Sitting and eating I remembered the Pip-Buck's note from the night before and started skimming again as I swallowed a third of the water bottle, trying to rid my taste-buds of the old taste of vomit.

"So this thing can tell me if a pony wants to hurt me huh?" I wondered aloud. "Excellent!"

If there were ponies out there that could do what I had seen since I woke up, I'd like to know them sooner rather than later.

Bringing up my Eyes Forward Sparkle, after a few moments of fumbling with the technologically advanced bracelet, my vision suddenly glowed with a simple compass. Turning, I noticed that the compass turned with me, always keeping me aware of what direction I was facing.

"Neat."

A small bar sat at the bottom of my vision but after it didn't do anything for a full minute I got bored and went back to checking for hostiles. Eating the last of my apple I slowly turned until something made me stop. A small yellow bar sat westward, moving back and forth slightly. Raising an eyebrow, I smiled and drank the rest of my water. Come to think of it, I could hear faint music from that direction.

"Who knows maybe somepony's having a party." I snorted doubting it severely.

The yellow bar belonged to a small strange robot that buzzed around in circles loudly playing the same strange song.

Too much tuba, I decided.

"Excuse me?" I said, having met and talked to two robots the night before I felt that there may be a chance that this one could be just as helpful.

The robot just continued bobbing up and down, not seeming to notice me until a red bar blinked into existence on my E.F.S. The robot seemed to have noticed as well, it's loud tuba filled song cutting short in a fanfare of trumpets. Looking for the hostile using my E.F.S as guidance, I saw only one place the angry entity could be, It was to the north, behind a rather large stone. Red did not mean friendly, and I didn't need the note in my pipbuck to tell me that. Red was bad, very bad.

Quickly I searched in my saddlebags and grabbed my 9mm. It looked familiar enough, the mouth bit shaped to fit in an earth ponies mouth. This struck me as incredibly stupid and hard to aim, I mean, I understood that Earth ponies and pegasi couldn't levitate the weapon to aim, hell at this point I couldn't either. Having no training in using my magic that I could recall, thanks brain, I had as much of a chance of picking up this pistol with my magic as a traincar. Grabbing the pistol in my mouth, I turned to stare at the rock that both the robot and I assumed hid the innocuous red blips. After a long few seconds a small reptilian head peeked out from one side, looking up at the two of us quizzically.

It was kinda cute, I mused.

Lowering my pistol a moment I blinked and then had to do a double take.

Where the lizards head had been, now there were two. Checking my E.F.S I noticed that another bar had appeared almost overlapping the first. Shifting my body slightly I noticed a third red bar and looking up, confirmed that my pip buck wasn't lying. Now a third head had appeared.

"Gecko's." A voice said from somewhere nearby, answering my unspoken 'what?!'. "Nasty things, don't let them bite you. They're poisonous."

I checked myself, did that come from my brain or?

No, I decided it definitely came from outside my skull which meant I had someone trying to help me. Maybe I wouldn't die on my first real day alive.

Suddenly one of the three let out a clicking sound and the trio jumped three of the rock rushing me and the robot. My tongue hitting the trigger rapidly, I let out three shots and backpedaled away from the approaching reptiles, each about the size of half a pony, and cringed as each shot missed.

"Help!" I squeaked through my grip on the gun, bumping into the flying robot as I fired another two shots.

"Use S.A.T.S!" The voice from earlier ordered.

I realized that it was the robot that was talking and If I hadn't been afraid of the large lizards coming to kill me I would have thought this was pretty cool.

Three robots in a row. Go me!

"HUH?" I grunted firing another 3 shots, one of which punched a hole through the closest one's leg, causing it to stumble, however it did have three more so I was still screwed.

"Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting Spell! Don't you know how to use that thing?" The robot said sounding strangely frightened, though it's voice stayed monotonous.

"Kinda!" I said dropping my gun into my hoof, bringing my pipbuck up to look at the button's on the side.

Wasn't there a button labeled 'S.A.T.S?

I squealed as the nearest gecko, the one I had shot, lept at me. It burned away in a brilliant flash of light as the robot fired a laser into the things neck. Ash floated quickly to the ground making the other two lizards stop to rethink their targets. Sure, the pony was tasty but the metal thing hurt, I could almost hear the thoughts bouncing around in their underdeveloped brains.

Careful who you're calling underdeveloped brain, I thought, you haven't worked right for as long as I can remember.

Glancing down I would have face-hoofed under better circumstances seeing the small lever on the top of the pip-buck labeled S.A.T.S.

Just then another of the gecko's jumped forward, this time aiming at the robot at my side. Flicking the lever I felt magic suddenly course through my body. It was a very familiar feeling but something told me that it was quite a bit more powerful than anything I had ever done, even when I knew magic. Time slowed as the gecko neared the friendly robot, and looking down I realized, slightly upset, that the pistol was still in my hooves.

Well damn it, I could waste the spell putting in back in my mouth or I could just bash the damn thing with it. Simplicity won out over intelligence almost immediately.

Bringing down the pistol with both hooves I cracked the thing over its head sending it into the dirt. Noticing that time was still slowed I smiled and whacked the thing another three times.

Really this was great, I could just slow time down whenever I wanted and beat the shit out of whatever was trying to kill me.

Turning to look at the other gecko which had decided that suddenly the pony was a threat, I smiled as I readied my pistol, I was doing more damage using it as a bludgeon anyway.

I'm going to beat you flat, I thought readying myself for another three swings.

That's when the bar at the bottom of my E.F.S that had previously done nothing, emptied itself and the world decided it was a good time to start moving again. Jerked from the slowed perception of time, I watched as the gecko bowled into me, knocking the pistol from my grip and pushing me to the dirt. Immediately the creature started clawing at me with its feet while it's teeth tried to go for my throat.

In a panic I shoved my non-pipbucked leg down the creatures throat as wounds popped up over my stomach due to the creatures claws. It's eyes suddenly widened as it stopped breathing and couldn't close its mouth, my foreleg sunk down to my elbow in its gullet. It shook it's head wildly, and I felt several teeth scrape against my coat.

Great, now I was going to die of poison and that'd be the end of me, spec-fucking-tacular.

Another bright beam of light struck the creatures side twice and the thing went limp.
Pushing it off of me, I shivered as I pulled my hoof out of the dead thing's mouth. Pulling myself to my feet I looked down at my stomach and grimaced. It had gotten me pretty good with its claws. Also my hoof was now swelling slightly. My pipbuck switch screens automatically making me look down at it in surprise. A medical screen popped up alerting me to minor blood poisoning, scrapes, and bruises.

Wincing I realized that it wasn't a good idea to walk on my poisoned leg and held it away from the ground turning to the robot.

"You alright?" I asked, feeling the poison coursing up my leg.

"I'm....fine." The robot said after a short pause, "You however are not."

Looking down at my hoof, I nodded.

"Why didn't you focus on the one coming for you?" The robot asked.

"Eh. Couldn't let them destroy you, every since I woke up the only halfway decent things I've seen have been robots." I said, not wanting to admit that I thought I could just play in time limbo for as long as I wanted, "Maybe I'm biased."

"Well...thank you." The metal bug said.

I had the distinct feeling he wanted to say more.

"If you go back the way you came, I noticed two merchants heading to Stable 40, they may have an antidote for you." He said after an awkward moment, or five.

"Yeah, I saw them, they were talking about looting my stable." I admitted looking down at my hoof that had swollen to twice its original size.

"Your stable?" The robot asked, and for a moment I could almost hear surprise hidden behind the emotionless speak.

"Yeah, I woke up there yesterday." I said, suddenly remembering a very important detail. "Oh! You wouldn't have happened to have seen two ponies come by here, one blue one gray would you? They're my friends, at least I think they are."

"....No...I just got here a few hours ago." The robot said, "Look I'm running out of time but if you want to find your friends I suggest going north. There's a town called Primrose there. It's the nearest one, they may know something."

Looking up slightly puzzled I echoed the name, 'Primrose'.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean you're running out of time here?" I asked, looking up at the bobbing bug.

"One more piece of advice r-" His voice cut short a moment as if he were trying to keep from saying a particularly rude word, "pony. I wouldn't tell anyone you're from Stable 40."

Then abruptly, the music from before started blasting from the robot as it turned to bob away, suddenly unaware of my presence. Looking after the robot I felt a headache coming on. What the hell was his problem?

Turning north, I glanced to my pip-buck and noticed a small square several miles north on the map, labeled 'Primrose'. I also noticed that Stable 40 now showed up between me and it. Looking down at my leg I shook my head.

"Well I'm not getting that far on this thing." I told myself, trying to move my leg only to find it incredibly stiff and painful.

Looking towards my stable I picked up my pistol, tossed it in my saddlebags and started limping towards it, my tail in between my legs.

At least I had to go that way to get to Primrose right? That had to count for something.

"Pathetic." I mumbled, noticing that the bar on the bottom of my E.F.S was slowly refilling, "Well at least I learned something today."

After what seemed like an eternity of limping, I returned to the ruined building that sat above my stable. Peeking out from around the side of the building I held my breath and glanced at my E.F.S compass. I saw a single yellow blip and let out a sigh of relief. Another sigh of relief soon followed as I realized that there were no longer the dead bodies littering the pavement like trash. The relief soon replaced itself with yet another uncomfortable feeling.

Where the hell did they go?

Limping out from around the building I turned my attention to the stallion standing at a makeshift kiosk now blocking the tunnel to the giant gear shaped door, Whix was what the other had called him this morning right. As soon as he noticed me a giant smile grew across his face.

"Hello little lady!" He boomed raising his hooves in welcome, "And welcome to my humble shop."

For a moment his smile flickered as he looked down at my swollen hoof, but then the show pony got even louder and more friendly.

"Step on over, take your time, I got everything you could need," he said with a pause, "and don't you worry about that hoof there ma'am, I got something to fix what ails you!"

For some reason I didn't like this pony, he made me think of a buzzard, waiting to pick up scraps from the dead.

Which, I realized, that's exactly what he was doing.

"Ma'am?" He said uneasily.

I realized that I had been glaring. Wiping the animosity from my face, I put on a fake smile and continued limping towards the kiosk.

"Hello." I said, stopping in front of the small wooden structure and looking at the different items that hung on pegs here and there.

"You seem to have had a run in with one nasty gecko." He said back in salespony mode.

"Three actually." I replied, smiling slightly. "Got bit but they're worse off."

"My my my little lady, if what you say is true then you sure can handle yourself." The one named Whix boomed an impressed look on his face.

"Had some help." I said with a shrug, before lifting my swollen hoof. "You said you had something to help me."

"Why yes I do little lady, yes I do. However an antidote like that doesn't come cheap, oh no it doesn't." The salespony chirped. "Everything has a price and my antidotes are the best around so..."

He trailed off and waved his hoof as if telling me to pay up, without him even giving me an amount.

"And just how much would it cost?" I asked slightly aggravated by this pushy pony.

"I'd say, you're looking really bad, 75 caps bad." He answered all pretense of kindness gone from his voice. "You also look new around here, probably from the New Canterlot Republic I'd reckon, so I'd say for a refugee that's more than a fair price.

I barely registered the second part of what he had said. Caps? What the hell did he mean?

"Look at this haul D!" He said dumping a load of bottlecaps on the table in my room. "Just a couple more and we're fucking out of here!"

A thrill ran through me for a moment, brought on by the happiness of that memory. I found myself smiling like an idiot, that was until the salespony coughed and brought me back to reality.

"You alright ma'am?" The merchant asked, I noticed that he'd shifted his head to his right side, easier access to his gun I noticed.

"I don't have any." I said, now even more aggravated with the merchant for snapping out of the memory before I could try to get anything more from it.

The rest of the wind went out of the pony's sails and now he just looked at me uninterested and slightly aggravated.

"Well, then I can't help you now can I?" He drawled looking away from me and down the road, as if trying to find another customer.

Just then the other stallion, Boomstick, I think, stepped out from the tunnel rubbing his rump and limping.

"Damn it Whix, the security there is just to damn good. Those robot's are--" The stallion stopped when he saw me and straightened up. "Who's she?"

"Nopony." Whix said, "She was just about to be limping away."

Boomstick just looked at him dumbly.

"No caps." The merchant explained, and a look of understanding flashing across the other's face.

"Alright ma'am. Nothing more to see here, get going alright." Boomstick said stepping up beside the kiosk.

Glaring at the two, I entertained the thought of smacking them across their hard heads a moment but realized they probably wouldn't take too kindly to that and that shotgun beat hoof any day.

"Fine fuck you to, graverobbers!" I snapped turning to leave.

"Yeah yeah lady, good luck surviving out there with that leg of yours." Whix shot back before laughing.

A split second later the laughter cut out followed by,

"Hey lady!"

"What the fuck do you want now you dumb bag of gecko shit!" I yelled deciding to use the new bit of information about this world to create a new insult, I was moderately happy with it.

First he wouldn't help me, then he threatened me with his brute of a brother, and now he was taking up more of my time calling me back. It was going to take forever to get to Primrose on this leg, if I even made it there at all.

"Now ma'am, there's no reason to be so upset." The salespony was back again, his voice oozing with kindness and generosity. "I decided to help you."

"And it only took you 3 seconds later to have a change of heart? You must be the most reasonable pony in this desert." I said sarcastically, shooting him a dirty look before turning away.

"No, no, no!" He said running up to my left side, his brother stepping up to my other.
This was very uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry about my previous behavior, you see we've had some bad luck around these parts before and were just being careful." Whix said good-naturedly.

Either this pony was full of shit or had more mental issues than I did. Stopping I noticed slightly amused that it took Boomstick another two steps to realize that Whix and I had stopped. He was a bit slow wasn't he?

"Yeah," Boomstick said once he realized that we had stopped. "There used to be raiders here, we had to give them all of our apples."

His voice was slow and had just as high a concentration of stupid as Whix's did false kindness but he wasn't lying, I could tell that much.

"Too true brother of mine." The salespony said, and I could suddenly see the resemblance.

They had the same green streaked mane and eyes.

"Well what the hell do you want?" I snapped still aggravated, "Other than to give me an antidote out of the kindness of your little pony heart?"

Something about this was all too familiar and I couldn't put my hoof on it. I waited for the other hammer to fall.

"Why I just now noticed you have a Pip-Buck don't you?" He asked.

I just looked at him like he was an idiot.

"And it's slightly cloudy today." I said dryly.

I watched as Boomstick looked up at the perpetually cloudy sky like it was the first time he had noticed it.

"Hey brother, she's right!" He said with a smile, "Why do you think that is?"

"Shut it Boomstick." Whix snapped before turning his fake smile towards me, "well we seem to have a problem with our stable here."

"Your stable?"

"Why yes, we've been here all of our lives right Boom?" He said looking at the slow one.

"Yep." He lied picking up his brother's cue.

Alright, these ponies took me for a fool, I'd play along.

"You see we were just minding our own business when our security system had a bit of an accident." The salespony said shaking his head. "It seemed like an alarm was rung and the security became hostile. It slaughtered our entire stable and we barely escaped with our lives."

Now I knew for a fact that these ponies were full of shit. Well, at least Whix was, Boomstick was just playing along for his brother.

"But then the Goddesses sent you to us." Whix said, "How silly of me for not noticing."

"Really?" I said giving the smoother talker an incredulous look. "And just how can I be of use to you?"

"Why, with your pip-buck of course. With that, you can simply waltz into that vault and shut down the security system." Whix said with a point at my foreleg.

"Well well well then," I said smiling wide. "Look who needs somepony's help, too bad my leg's busted up or I'd be of some use, oh well."

Stepping forward I tossed my mane and tried to look as above it all as I could.

"Lucky for you I have the best antidotes this side of the Cloudsdale river." The merchant said.

Damn it, he had me beat.

Turning around I glared at the salespony.

"Alright fine, but I get the antidote first," I said deciding that if this pony wanted my help that he'd pay through the nose for it. "And when I get back you'll have a nice even stack of 100 caps for me as well."

"You'll get the antidote before," The salespony agreed, "however instead of the caps I'll not have Boomstick blow your leg off and hand me your Pip-Buck so I can do this myself."
Boomstick just grinned at me stupidly.

I stepped back in shock. I knew this pony was a vulture but I couldn't believe that he'd outright threaten my life like that.

"Offer's going once." Whix said, and I saw in his eyes he knew he had me back into a corner. "Offer's going twice."

"Alright, alright asshole. You got yourself a deal." I growled looking down at my leg, I'd really like to keep it attached.

"Excellent, knew that you'd be smart." The stallion said, and suddenly I didn't see him as a bird at all, now I only saw him as a snake. "After you my lady."

Limping back to the kiosk I waited for Whix to get the antidote. He pulled the small brown bag off of a hook hanging on the small wooden structure and turned towards me. Pulling out a knife he advanced and instinctively I took a step back and bumped into Boomstick, who just waved at me.

"Won't hurt but for a second." The merchant said slashing out at me.

I let out a scream as pain seared up my leg from where he'd cut me.

"What the fuck!?" I said, the wound oozing a sickly yellow liquid. "I thought you weren't going to cut my leg off?!"

"Gotta get the antidote in somehow," He said with a grin, something told me he cut just a little deeper than necessary.

He sprinkled a grey powder from the sack into the cut and then sliced the bag in two. Tying the bag into a strip he then wrapped the strip around my leg and pulled tight, knotting it.

"Give that five minutes and that leg will be good as new." Whix said now gesturing towards the vault. "After you."

"No way!" I argued, "My legs getting better first."

The next five minutes were the longest five minutes that had ever existed. Eventually I looked down and, begrudgingly smiled when I noticed that my leg was back to it's original size. Looking up at the grinning merchant I felt the smile fall from my face, replacing itself with a frown.

"See, we aren't bad ponies." He said, gesturing back to the tunnel again. "After you. I insist."

With Boomstick at my back I felt a strange inclination to oblige.

Shooting him another dirty look as I stepped passed, I pushed my way back into the dark tunnel and let out a sigh of relief once the door shut behind me.

I was going to get back at Whix if it was the last thing I did.

Walking past the giant gear I froze when a robot I didn't know greeted me at the door with a minigun to the face. Where the hell did this guy come from?

"Identification please." It said, it's red eyes locked on me.

Lifting my Pip-Buck I held my breath and waited.

"Validating Credentials....Accepted Security Mare 221 Dawn." It said wheeling out of the way to let me pass.

Stepping cautiously around the large metal robot with a mini-gun for a foreleg I took off running. Get to security! Turning a corner I almost plowed into a familiar metal face.

"Charlie!" I said with a smile.

"Back again so soon?" He asked, "Ms. Dawn, will you be staying?"

"Sorry Charlie, I can't." I said shaking my head, "I need to go to the security wing though, I have to open this place up for bozo outside."

"I do hope you aren't speaking of the one named Boomstick." Charlie said, "He destroyed two of our turrets at the entrance way."

"He's not a bad pony," I said with a sigh, "He's just an idiot. His brother on the other hoof..."

My voice trailed off as I got an idea.

"Charlie, would you like some payback?" I asked.

A few moments later I walked to the front door of the tunnel and pulled it opened. Whix looked up from a game of cards he was playing with Boomstick and smiled.

"Is the job done ma'am?" He asked, his tone insinuating something bad if it wasn't.

"Yeah, the job's done!" I snapped, "Can I go now?"

"Actually I've been thinking and, to be honest," He said Boomstick taking his shotgun in his teeth. "I can't, in good conscious, let you walk away with such a valuable item on your hoof."

"You double crossing snake!" I snapped taking a step back.

"Sorry filly, I gotta take care of my brother and that Pip-Buck will have us set up nice and easy." Whix said as my rump pressed against the door. "So hand it over and then you can be on your way."

"Sorry ma'am," Boomstick said, and I could see the regret in his eyes, "Just do what Whix says so I don't have to hurt you."

It was like he was begging me all of a sudden. My stomach twisted uncomfortably with mixed emotions. I felt bad for the oaf but his brother needed to have some sense beat into him, however I was now backed into a corner and was in no position to give said beating.

I stood in an empty room, a drug addled psycho in front of me, a combat knife in his jaw. There was nowhere to run and even less places to hide. I didn't even have a weapon, but I wasn't scared. My mind and body were on high alert, a certain electricity ran through me making everything clear. He lunged forward. Jumping backwards, I noticed he was biting the knife so hard his rotting teeth were cracking.

Dropping low I jumped to the side as he reached me and bucked him hard in the face, his teeth shattered and the blade sailed across the room. The buck however barely registered as he shook off the blow and came at me again.

Must be the drugs, I thought stepping to the side and catching him by the neck. With a crunch he fell in a heap and that when I heard the door slide open and another pony stepped in. I wasn't getting out until no pony stepped through that door.

"There's a problem with that." I said trying to think of a way out. "It's stuck."

"What? Really?" The merchant said with a unamused smile, "You think I'm going to believe that?"

"I think that you're smart enough to come here and see for your self you fucking moron." I growled holding out my Pip-Buck.

Taking a step over, Whix turned my hoof over to examine the strap. I watched his eyes go wide as I wrapped my other hoof around his neck and pulled him in front of me, in between me and the shotgun wielding buffoon. Tightening my grip I whispered in his ear.

"Now, you're going to tell Boomstick over there to drop his gun and kick it towards me or I'm going to snap your fucking neck."

I heard Whix wheeze and pull at my foreleg. Loosening my grip slightly he managed to relay the orders to Boomstick. Bucking the shotgun behind me I stepped forward pushing Whix along with me.

"See, here's the thing," I began, keeping my eyes on Boomstick as I walked us out from behind the kiosk. "I don't like ponies who steal, or kill, or hurt innocent ponies and you've done one of those things and are trying to do the other two."

Boomstick glared at me as I continued backing away from the Stable. He cared about his brother, I could see that in the hatred for me in his eyes.

"You've taken your brother who is a good pony and you make him do your dirty work." I growled feeling the rage in my chest cause the fire there to twinge painfully. "Now this is what you're going to do, you're going to tell your brother to stay right where he is and I'm going to walk away with you. You'll wake up in a few minutes and be right as rain except for the headache, and I'll be gone. Do you understand?"

The begrudging nod I got from my personal shield didn't fill me with confidence but it was something. Loosening my grip slightly I looked back to Boomstick who had stepped up onto the steps.

"Boomstick...stop." Whix whined, "Don't follow. I'll be back."

The look on the oaf's eyes made me wonder if what I was doing was right. He cared for this bad pony, deeply. I could see the uncertainty in the stallions eyes. He was scared. He was scared I was going to take someone he loved away from him. My stomach twisted uncomfortably.

A few moments later I was heading north along the road, towards Primrose a few caps in my saddlebags and a new pistol in Whix's holster that now sat on my shoulder. Sure I felt bad for Boomstick and wasn't sure that I was doing the right thing but I wasn't going to let Whix wake up and shoot me in the back. It didn't matter that he didn't wake up until I had already disappeared down the road. However it did matter that he now sported a new scar across his foreleg identical to the one he'd given me.

LVL UP: Grappler- Provided that your strength stat is higher than your opponents you have the ability to choke hold, and use their body as a shield effectively.

This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.
You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat on Equestria Daily
http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/04/story-fallout-equestria.html