Fallout Equestria: On Rust Red Shores

The short trot back was quiet, the ponies in the area stayed out of our way, more concentrated on shifting through the garbage, looking for bullets. Mhambi was visibly angry, but how she would stop to take a breather every now and then seem to reflect more of an anger over the loss of control, then over some pony. Cloud Bouncer on the other hoof looked more calm, but little actions like subtle little stops seem to telegraph his anger towards some pony.

The elevator to the top part of the ship was still waiting for us when we returned, the two guards standing in their same positions. “You know; she could have been lying.” We attempted to calm Cloud Bouncer. “trying to rattle you and all.”

The Pegasus wiped his hooves on the dirty wooded pier, getting most of the sticky mud off his hooves. “My dear, I’ve been in politics much of my life. Organizing ponies, rallying them to gather, and telling soft lies to keep them calm. Lying in part of the job, and if a pony does not know how to see a lie when it’s being told, they have no business in politics.” Shaking a hoof, Cloud Bouncer seemed to give up on trying to get them completely clean.

“So, she wasn’t lying?” We had to ask.

“Irrelevant.” He blurted out. “She knew enough about what she needed to say in order to derail the deal. At best, she has far more information then she should have about us. Worse, direct communication with the Enclave before the town fell. Either way, I need to ask Air Burst.”

“So now you need to talk with Air Burst to…” We had to pause for a moment to think, “compare information?”

Could Bouncer sighed. “No, I need to reorganize my strategy with Air Burst. It’s clear that I should have brought a few soldiers with me. I came on a bit too nice, too civil for who we’re dealing with.” Flaring his wings, slowly he took flight, rising above the rest of us. “I’ll go on ahead, the rest of you wait at the elevator for me.”

With a deep sigh, we followed, our wings catching the air better than his, but not being much faster overall. “Were coming too, we still have a deal to complete.” And Star was still in their care.

Up and over the two of us landed onto the deck. There were a few more enclave soldiers then there were before. Six of them had lined up in front of Air Burst, and two more next to the captain himself. Seeing us, one of the soldiers next to their captain, got his attention, and pointed to us. Air Burst, seeing us, evidently trotted over with the most displeased look on his face.

“I’ve ignored this foolishness so far because the trouble came to us. But actually going down there, meeting with those... savages? You are going beyond your authority, Mayor Could Bouncer.”

Could Bouncer huff. “Yes, yes, I know what you’re going to say. I’ve read that rule book front and back five times now.” When Air Burst got close to the mayor, Cloud reach out and jabbed him in the chest with his hoof. “But when I went down to negotiate for medicine for our kin, I get blindsided with the new that you have been down there to sell my citizens to those savages.” Placing his own hoof back on his chest, and taking a deep breath, Cloud Bouncer continued. “But that can be discussed later. First off, we need to secure the medicine, and distribute it to the sick.”

The look on Air Bursts face did not change much, he looking at the mayor with a look of disdain. “So you want to send my soldiers, our only defence, down there to secure what? A pony pox cure? Right, we can do that. And once the rest of my soldiers are good and heathy, were going up north. We’ve already received word that other Enclave remnants are regrouping up there.”

Could Bouncer sighed, looking a bit relieved at that. “That’s good to hear, once every pony is cleared for moving, were going to need to secure the rest of the food and water supplies. I don’t want to leave any of them behind. Sorry for relying on you so much.”

Air Burst chuckled. “I’m afraid you misunderstood me. I’m only talking about my troops, not your worthless degenerates.”

“What!?” Cloud Bouncer took a step back, nearly turning white.

The captain rolled his eyes. “Artists, confectioners cooks, experimental musicians, even Goddess forbid the comedians. You ever wondered why your whole town was filled with them?” Air Burst Face hoofed. “Good in bed, but dumb as a cloud brick. Your town is where we send our unwanted. Let them all be fools together so they can stay out of the way of our true society. The quarantine was there just as much to make sure they didn’t spread the pox, as much as to make sure none of them left. By Luna, even some of the soldiers sent to assist the quarantine were the losers that were going to get kicked out. Command didn’t even give them a vaccine for the pox in hops they’d get sick and die. Luckily, I can say that almost half of them already have, and good riddance to that.”

Cloud Bouncer took a step forward, now with a look of disgust on his face. “How, how dare…” He seemed to have trouble finding his words.

“Why even follow such directions?” We interjected.

Air Burst’s head tilted to us, as though he had forgotten we were there. “Because orders are orders.” The then pulled out a nearly empty bottle of Wild Pegasus Whisky “And I get a bonus for keeping the job quiet, and away from prying eyes.”

Mayor Could Bouncer slapped the bottle out of Air Busts hold. “This ends now, we are getting that medicine, and…”

*ZAP*

Could Bouncer looked down, his chest was glowing, a glow that spread to the rest of his body, and then ash. Mayor Could Bouncer had become a pile of ash.

We took a step back, unsure what to do, think, or even say, other than “Why.”

The solder that had done it, saluted to Air Burst. “Traitor disposed of Sr.”

“Good Job, at ease.” Air Burst answered back. Looking up from the ash pile to me, he sighed. “Shame, he had a nice tight ass. But he should never had gone down and talked with the savages. Then we could have kept playing this little game we had and maybe he would have lived. In servitute to some other pony, sure, but it matters not now.” We could feel our blood boil as the captain eyed us. “Now I wouldn’t do anything rash. Even if you can turn invisible, my soldiers are well trained, and will drop you in seconds. So do us all a favor and stay put for now.”

One of the Pegasus flew over, and attached a ring onto our horn. “Why did you do it?” We were confused, and angry. “He was one of you.”

Air Burst simply chuckled to himself. “No, he was a career politician, and among the few that never served the enclave. Spineless cowards, all of them.” Pushing some of the ash aside, he pulled out a pendent from it, and pocketed it. “But enough talking, not like I have much to say to an assassin. Your trial, it will begin at sunset, your sentence, it will be death. What does command call the maneuver, oh yes, the Roseland Trot.” He waved at us, and four of the pegasus pointed their guns at us. “Take her to the other prisoners, they can all have a group hug before they all die together.”

We… alone, we were taken below deck, past the sick, past there room were Star was kept, and down into where the ship was the darkest. The door to the room opened with a loud, jarring screech that could wake the dead. And yet, we trotted inside, knowing that if we resisted, we would die. With the same screech, the door closed behind us, followed by the heavy clunk of what must have been the door’s lock. The room was pitch black, and we could not see anything, not even our own hoof in front of our face.

“Oh good.” A gravelly voice spoke up from the darkness. It had to be a stallions due to how deep it was, but we knew not where it came from other than the dark. “Just once, here I thought they were going to send another group. Though it’s not like we can feed ya, not unless you’re willing to eat the first one to kick it.”

“Damnit Rust Bucket, don’t go talking about shit like that. You’re making me sick and hungry all over again.” This voice was more raspy than the first one, but most definitely a mare. “Now get a light on them, we need to know who we’re stuck with.”

A small glow appeared, illuminating the face of a unicorn. As it became brighter, two unicorns became visible in it, the both of them looking a lot like some of the skull hunters we had seen before. They had leather armor on, reinforced with metal plates, and the skull of a brahman on their heads. The two were also quite dirty, and had a few scars on them, but other than that, they didn’t look all that threatening. Though, that was possibly due to them not having weapons on them.

The male, whom I assume was Rust Bucket spoke up. “Now this is odd. It’s a lovely mare, tall, with a horn and wings.” He scratched his chin, “Want to fuck? Ain’t got much else to do down here.”

The mare beside him slapped him on the back of his head. “Already!? And here I thought you said you love me...”

The stallion glared at the mare. “I said I loved fucking you, and only because we got locked down here. You definitely would not make it as a whore.”

Another pony stepped out into the light. “Prism, is that you? Oh thank goodness.” It was Axle Wrench. “It’s good to see a friendly face. These Enclave have been almost as inhospitable as that crazy ghoul from before. At least they stuck us with the doctor.”

“Wait, the doctor is here?” we asked.

Another pony trotted in, another stallion. And from what I could tell, was all white. His coat, mane, and tail, were all a very pale white, with the only stand out color on him being his striking red eyes. He was very handsome in his white doctor’s coat, even the few blood stains on it.

“Never liked the enclave, or the sun for that matter.” The doctor spoke, his voice deep and soothing. “but I wish they would have let me keep my tools. Ghoul alone is fascinating, but a pregnant one? it’s a crime that I cannot properly record this.”

““Sorry, but we’re at a bit of a disadvantage. Can we get some names?” We sighed. “I’m Prism Paint.”

The raider mare steeped forwarded. “The doc, I think his name is Winter Frost.” The doctor nodded, and the raider continued. “The lug nut with me is Rust Bucket, and I’m Tetanus. The two of us are the prison guards, and this is the guards room. Fucking pegasi didn’t know the difference between a prison, and the guards room, so we ended up locked in here.”

“Sorry to hear that.” We responded. “So if this is the guards room, what about the prison?”

Tetanus chuckled. “We had one of the merchants there. He was a fun ride, dick bigger then this asshole,” She said, pointing to Rust Bucket who rolled his eyes, “though he cried too much. So we let him go to see what the feather fucks would do. Moron got vaped, so we locked down here. Well they thought that this the actual prison, and locked us in here.”

Rust bucket stomped on the ground. “Up until today, we had been having a good old time in here. Never got fucked so much before they left the two of us alone. Then they had to go and throw the ghouls in here.” The raider mare face hoofed, and then slapped him upside the head again.

“Miss Tetanus.” Winter Frost called. “Might I advise a pregnancy test after this all blows over?” To that suggestion, Tetanus face hoofed with an audible slap.

The Door screeched again, and Rust Bucket killed the light. We took a few steps forward and watched for who it was. From what we could see, it was Mhambi and Micro Fusion stepped in. When the doors closed right behind them, it Mhambi in the flank, making her squeak in surprise.

Rust Bucket cast his light spell once more, and the we stood there looking at our two worried friends. “We are so glad your okay.” We spoke up.

“Miss Prism, do you know what is going on?” Mhambi asked. “Is Cloud Bouncer with you?”

We shook our head “Cloud Bouncer... is gone.”

Mhambi’s jaw dropped. After a moment, she took a deep breath, regaining her composer. “Why do the good stallions always die first?” Shaking her head, she huffed and looked us in the eyes. “It’s clear that working things out peacefully is not going to happen. I’m no fighter, but you have some strength, maybe you can help do what needs to be done?”

We sighed. “Yes, we are an alicorn, but we are no fighter. When mother left us, we lost the will to fight. I’m sorry, but we're not the pony you need.”

The hopeful zebra looked around the room, getting head shakes from everyone we could see. Letting her hooves spread out from under her, she flopped to the ground. “Then that’s it then. The wasteland wins again, and the innocent must suffer.”

*Clang*

The sound of metal hitting metal echoed loudly within the room, and Rust Bucket shined his light over to where the sound came from. A vent covering had fallen from the upper section of the wall, and out from it, the rump of a small sea blue foal began to stick out. Falling from the vent and hitting the ground with a roll, Star Charter quickly stood up. Her long curly sea green mane was a complete mess, but we could not have been happier to see her. The small filly sat up as tall as she could, brushing her mane out of her face.

“I can fight!” She had the biggest smile, like killing ponies was something she should be proud of. Still, the others upon hearing this seemed to gleen some hope from her zelos words. “Not like I haven’t killed a pony or three before. So what are we waiting for?”

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Footnote:

New Quest - The lies that bind us.