Fallout Equestria: On Rust Red Shores

The cold water felt nice on our hooves, the salt stung in all the little cut’s on our exposed skin. It was strange to associate this little pain with feeling good, but we brushed it off to the radiation we were soaking up. The unstable magic slowly flowed into us, once again filling us with its strength. As the sun slowly crept up high into the sky, we couldn’t help but feel that it was both a curse, and a blessing that the sun had returned. It bathed us in its warmth, but that warmth would soon become an oppressive heat.

“You ready, Prism?” Star stood at the edge of the shore, understanding that it was dangerous to jump into the water. Luckily for us, she was a quick learner, and took our warnings about the radiation to heart. Though it was sad to see the waterborne earth pony unable to show off the swimming skills she would commonly boast about to us.

Concentrating, the magic flowed through us, and we felt ourselves vanish from sight. Trotting over to Star Charter, she watched our hoof steps, as we got closer. Releasing the spell, we looked down at the filly. “We should be able to stay hidden long enough to finish this job. Let’s go.” Lowering our wing, Star climbed onto our back. We had our reservations about taking her with us, but we didn’t trust the skull hunters. Especially after Grease Fire promised to look after her personally.

“Aye, aye.” Star saluted. “Take out their captain, and force the crew to surrender. Just like in the stories of Captain Pickled Beard.” She remarked as she got herself comfortably seated on our back, anchoring herself on our saddlebags.

“No making a scene, we are not here for a fight.” Flaring out our wings, we cast our invisibility spell over the two of us, and lifted ourselves to the air. With taking in as much of the magical radiation we did, we felt much more confident in flying now, our wings no longer hurting as much after a little bit of healing. It also helped that we only had a small distance to fly.

Bold Harbor had fairly intimidating walls surrounding it. It was mostly brick and scrap like the walls of Reka, but it has a secondary outer wall made from broken road vehicles, boats, and several sky carts. The ground around the outer wall was also covered in spikes; pointed wooden poles poking out of shallow trenches, and giant metal caltrops with rusty shape edges scattered around. Most of it was It all gave Bold Harbor an intimidating front, answering why the raiders lived there, and had not moved in to take the ponies inside themselves. We found it amusing that now their own defenses, meant to keep other ponies out, were now used against them.

Flying over the walls, the settlement still revealed little about itself. Tall poles holding up long, surprisingly intact cloth mesh over the top of the settlement blocked most of our view from the air. What we could see, were the two guard towers, which held three ponies each who seemed to be hiding within them. From what we could see, the ponies within the guard towers were armed with varmint rifles, and would only ever peek over the edge now and again, their rifles ready to shoot at the first sign of trouble. They looked healthy enough, not quite starving as we’d been told. One of the guards was even sipping on a bottle of water.

Descending, we had to squeeze through the cloth mesh and down into the raider settlement, but managed to do so without much effort. Under the cover, this settlement was warm and humid, but not quite hot. We could actually say that it felt pleasant, if not for the smell of rot that permeated this place. Surprisingly, the raider settlement reminded us of the pirate city Blackwater. It was made up of quite a few collections of close knit, large groups of shipping containers stacked three high, each with balconies supported by them. Decorating many of the small homes were clusters of skulls hung up by rope. The decorations were all over, making it impossible to look in any direction and not see skulls dangling from a rope. Many were made up of the skulls of different small animals, and only a scattered few of them had pony skulls.

It didn’t take long to find the rest of the ponies in here, though surprisingly, they were mostly earth ponies. Many of them were thin, and most of them had collars around their neck. Some of the collars were simple and make of black iron, but others had polished steel ones with a few gems inset into them. Another pony looked like they had a studded leather color on. They were all slowly shuffling around the compound, gathering up random junk they could find and placing it into their saddlebags. Most of them looked like they had been working nonstop, with dirt caked hooves and dark bags under their eyes. But strangely enough, even though they worked like they were, they didn’t seem like they were being forced to collect things. We didn’t see any of them being punished, nopony supervising them, and rarely did they even have any scars on them that you’d typically find on a slave.

We did find one pony all by himself, away from the sight of the others wandering around. Dirty and miserable looking, he didn’t have a collar on, so we assumed that this was a free pony. Heading toward the outsider, we weren’t sure of where our target was, and feeling like we had no other choice, we had to ask for directions.

Revealing ourselves, we pointed our wing at him. “You, pony. Take us to your leader.”

“Mu… mu…” The pony got up on all fours, looking horrified. “MONSTER!” Galloping away, the pony ran straight into the side of a building, falling down into the mud and twitching in pain.

Star snorted. “You’re not good at this at all, are you Prism?” We frowned at her in response, and she gave us a big toothy grin. “I got this.” Before we could protest, the filly jumped off out back, and splashed mud all around as she dropped onto the ground. Star then trotted off around some of the containers, and we went invisible to follower her. She stopped just around the corner, standing in front of two slave ponies carrying some junk. “Yo!” She announced herself loudly to the mare and stallion.

The two ponies froze on the spot, only to look down and relax. The Stallion was first to respond. “Don’t be so loud, you know that every pony is on edge right now.”

“Oh, I forgot.” Star responded. “I need to talk with the boss, can you remind me where she is.”

The mare sighed and looked annoyed. “How can you forget? Winterberry took over the big building south from here.” She pointed past us before looking back down to Star again. “Wait… I don’t recognize you.” But before she could say any more, Star had already spun around and run off around another corner. We did our best to follow her without revealing ourselves, placing our hooves on the random pieces of concrete and scrap that littered the muddy ground.

Further into the heart of the raider settlement, more ponies could be seen moving junk around. It was a strange sight to see, as some had collars on, a clear sign that they were slaves, but they were walking side by side non collared ponies, taking with them peacefully. Though not all looked as content to do so, and there were a few ponies chained to a pillar, their yellow eyes glared at ponies passing by, some snapping at them with sharpened teeth, or yelling profanities at the other ponies. The chained up ponies were cut up and scarred, but in a way that gave them a bit of a scaley look to them, like it was intentional. We could only assume that they were raiders, possibly skull hunters, so we made a mental knot to keep Star away from them.

Speaking of the filly, she had found what looked like the biggest building in the settlement, or we hoped, as it looked more like a wall made of shipping containers, that went all the way up to the top of the settlement. Painted along the wall was profanity, drawings of dicks, and a dead pony who looked like it had been there for weeks. Up above it looked like crudely cut out windows were made were we could see a few ponies inside.

Closer, two ponies stood guard with collars around their neck, and seeming to be blocking a small line formed outside the building. The ponies in the line had no collar on them, most looked to be quite thin, and more than a few seemed a little bit upset.

“Let us in you two blithering fools!” A stallion in the line shouted at the guards. “Winterberry can’t just hoard all the supplies to herself, we barely even have enough to survive another day out here!”

One of the guards snickered. “If you wanted me to do anything you asked, then you should never have sold my contract to her.”

“That bitch would only accept my slave contract for the supplies,” The stallion fumed, and stomped the ground. “I had nothing else to give!”

With a sigh, the slave stallion pushed his former owner away. “Sorry, but unless you have something to trade, mistress Winterberry will not have an audience with you.”

The stallion stomped the ground in anger a little more before giving up and trotting off. Another non-collared stallion stepped up, along with with a very young foal wrapped up in his saddle bag. “I... I found a stash of chems and bullets. I don’t need anything for myself, just for my son. Is this enough?” The slave guard looked at him, and nodded. With his approval, the stallion and child trotted past them and inside.

Seeing enough, we needed to get inside. The two guard slaves were in the way, though far enough apart to let a normal pony through, we were larger than that. So we opted for a distraction, picking up some random can reaby, we threw it against the wall nearby, making a loud clang.

One of the guards turn his head to the noise. “Hey! Just because you're stressed does not mean that you can make it worse for every pony else.” The pony trotted over to the can, picking it up. “Also this is useful scrap, if you have time to find and throw this, you have time to find more and sell it.”

We used this opportunity to slip passed the two guards without brushing up against them. Though our hoof steps did leave a small muddy trail, they were easily lost among the other hoofsteps of other ponies.

We walked into what appeared to be an arena, with a raised stage in the middle, and a dry clearing sounding it. Along the walls were long balconies sticking out of the shipping containers used as walls, the containers housing the stairs, and even seats. For raiders, the skull hunters had made an impressive structure out of shipping containers, and could possible hold well over a hundred ponies.

Looking among the ponies in the room, it was not hard to find who was likely their leader. Sitting in a large balcony, in a throne-like chair, was a finely dressed earth pony mare. She sat with two collared stallions at her side, one a unicorn, and the other a pegasus. The Pegasus fanned her with his wings, and the Unicorn held a bottle of wine in his magical grip, pouring a little for the mare every time she took a sip. Winterberry, as we guessed this was, had an icy blue coat and a pale green mane. Over her healthy looking body, she wore a fancy sequin covered red dress. Her drowsy looking eyes were the same color as her mane, giving her an overall striking, but faded look.

The stallion with the foal from outside slowly trotted up onto the stage and looked at0 Winterberry, his foal still snug in his saddle bag. “Miss Winterberry, I’m just a lowly merchant, only ever struggled to get by. I have found some bullets and cems to trade.” he pulled out a box, and placed it in the ground. Another pony walked up on the stage and opened the box, showing Winterberry what looked like two small boxes of ammo, and six canisters of dash.

Winterberry looked over and yawned, motioning at the pony showing the goods. The pony threw one of the boxes of ammo to the mare, and her Unicorn cought it in his magic. She looked it over, opening it and nodded. “Two full boxes of .38, that gives us an extra hundred rounds for our sharp shooters. Yeas that’s worthy of a day's worth of rations per box. As for the dash, the cems may become necessary if the worst would happen, we can spare another days rations if you like, of would you like some caps for them?”

The stallion shook his head. “Thank you, we will take the rations, but I also want you to take my son in exchange for the dash. I can survive on my own as I always have, but I don’t think I can help him. You on the other hoof, you have the resources to keep him healthy, and my family are known for being honest hard workers, so I know he will be able to work his way out of his contract easily when he’s grown up in a few years.”

Winterberry sighed. “Another one? Fine, my nurse-maid can take on one more foal. But be sure of this. Because after my father returns with the cavalry to bust us out of here, it will cost you triple the amount to buy your son back.”

The stallion nodded. “I know, but I’d rather buy him back in the future, then buy him a grave stone.”

A cleaner looking mare than most here slowly trotted over to the stallion, taking the young foal carefully out of the stallion’s bags. The foal began to cry loudly, but the mare was quick to comfort him. The stallion on the other hoof turned from his child, and trotted away with tears in his eyes.

“Hay, miss!” Star Charter foolishly announced herself. “We got ta talk with you!”

Winterberry looked over at Star, the mare raising an eyebrow at the filly. “Now I know I don’t recognize you as one of mine. Are you with one of the caravans that’s been stranded with us?”

“Nope, just passing through.” Star Charter announced happily. “Are you the boss here?”

She looked down at the filly, with a concerned gaze. “Why yes, yes I am.” Winterberry announced proudly. “Well until my father returns, and dispersed these dreadful raiders. But what do you mean by passing through?”

“Good.” Little Star Charter smiled. “Cuss we got to off you no… HAY!” before she could do anything, Star Charter was lifted into the air by her tail. The Unicorn slave mare next to Winterberry wrapped her up in her magic.

With a quick swipe of her hoof, Winterberry took the pillow Star had hanging out of her saddlebag. “Where did you get this?” Looking it over carefully, the mare scowled in disbelief.

“It’s mine, I found it!” She whined and flailed at the magic holding her.

“You ‘found’ this.” Winterberry glared at the filly before looking over the pillow again. “You could only have found this from my room, meaning you stole it.” Fluffing the pillow, she put it behind her on the throne-like chair. “Now tell me, and tell me quickly. Who are you, where did you came from, how did you got in, and more importantly, if my father sent you?” She waved at her Pegasus slave, and he produced an iron collar. “Now if you can’t answer my questions, I have other ways to extract what I want to know from your head. Funny enough, it’s the same method used to break a savage pony into an obedient slave.” She smiled from ear to ear. “And I’m good at it, you could say it’s my hobby, but don’t worry, I’ll be real gentle breaking the savage out of you.”

With a sigh and a telekinetic push, we both knocked the collar from her hooves and wrenched Star Charter from the unicorn’s grasp. Star cried for a moment, and while we didn’t like to hear her in pain, if we were gentle, she would not learn from her mistakes. The sudden rush of action left us feeling a bit drained, and so we dropped our invisibility as we placed star charter on our back.

“We are sorry for the interruption, the filly is still learning her manners.” We spoke as we stood tall in front of the shocked looking ponies around us.

The mare’s mouth hung open for a few seconds, only for her to physically close it with her hoof and regain her composure. “I… I see. Sorry for my… unintentional indiscretion.” Winterberry straightened herself up. “You’re much earlier than expected. I trust that you’re here because father sent you?”

“Your father is the one named Elderberry, right?” We had a feeling that the elder pony in the mayor's office might be Elderberry, though we never checked.

Winterberry smiled. “Oh yes, so what did daddy say. Is he coming to rescue us soon?”

We shook our head. “Sorry, but we believe we have bad news. Your father, we don’t think he did not survive the raider attack. We fould an older pony dead in his office, though we didn’t check”

Her face went from that of a smooth talking, happy mare, to the wrinkly scowl of a pony who’s fury knows no bounds. “You lie!” She screamed at us.

“We don’t think any pony survived, other than your group.” Looking around the room, the other ponies here had closed in, most looking on in bewilderment. “Grease Fire does not seem to think so. When we talked with him, he seemed confident that no help was coming, and that they could easily do business with the slaver caravan coming in.”

The wine glass flew from her hoof as she threw it down, smashing into the ground in a splash of glass bits and wasted red wine. “Grease Fire! GREASE FIRE!? Father had him killed years ago! There’s no way that fucker is still alive.” Winterberry began to shake, holding herself. “He’s dead, he has to be.”

“A pony by that name is alive, and he wants us to kill you to force every pony else to surrender.” Though some of the ponies looked ready to fight at that, unlike the armed and armored raiders outside the walls, we felt we could properly defend ourselves.

A long sigh came from Winterberry, then a laugh. It was not like a funny laugh, but a more mocking laugh. “You think that we would fold, even if I were to die? Fat chance. I’m the only thing keeping them from running out there and fighting the skull hunters themselves. If we were going to die, we’d go out taking them with us. That’s how it’s always been, how it will always be.”

We were taken aback, her words filled with stinging malice. Still, we had to ask. “How so, and why? Wouldn’t it be better to survive, then to die here.”

She chuckled, a hint of madness in her tone. “If it were some other group of ponies, yes. But those savages? Never. We will never give them a victory. We would rather all die and take them with us when we did.” She gripped the bottle of wine from her slave’s telekinetic grip, brought it to her muzzle, and drank straight from the bottle. Gasping, she wiped the dribbles of wine from her deranged smile. “No pony here is willing to be taken alive, trust me on that.”

We had to take a step back, surprised by the fire in her eyes. “Then is there a way to resolve this peacefully?”

“Nope.” She said simply. “But if you can get us into the big ship there, we can set up a trap for the raiders. That way we can thin their numbers in safety before we spring on them all at once and wipe them out for good.”

“We, as in... we?” We shook our head in confusion. “You want us to help you? Why?”

She smiled. “You’re not one of them, right? So why help raiders when you can help us more civilized ponies? We can offer so much more than they ever could. Let me guess, they’ll pay you a hundred caps, right? Well, we can offer a thousand. Sounds a whole lot better, doesn’t it?”

We felt a little ashamed, but not enough to care what raiders though of us. “We require food and water. Some caps would be nice, but we just need enough to get to the next town. If you can promise that, we will consider your offer.”

Winterberry seemed to salivate at the mouth. “Good. We just need access to the interior of the beached cargo ship and the area surrounding it. Their we will be in a more easily defended position, and have access to the boats, which will give us the option to flee on the water if thing go badly. The problem is that some ponies have taken over the ship, and refuse to let us even get close. I don’t care how you do it, but we need them gone.”

“And who are these ponies?” It seemed strange that some other ponies had taken it over first. We just hoped it was some peaceful group that just misunderstood the situation, or had sought refuge when the siege here started.”

“Who are they?” She laughed and swung her hoof in a dramatic motion toward the pegasus slave next to her. “The fucking Enclave, that’s who.”

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Footnote:

New Faction:

Merchants of Reka – These savvy merchants deal in anything that they can make a cap off of. From shiny rocks to slaves, quality is their guarantee, so it is rare that they will sell you anything faulty, including even you yourself.