Fallout Equestria: On Rust Red Shores

It was high noon now, the sun seemingly glaring down on us, and not a cloud in the sky to shade us. Our destination took us to the other side of the ruins, passing by the dead town of Reka, and over a section of a mostly dead forest. Our wings were aching from the flying, but still we felt much better than we had in a long time.

The land was eerily quiet, like it was over the water, but here we expected something. The wasteland was not known to be a lively place, though it still had its share of noise makers that let you know something was out there. The howl of hounds, crickets at times, even the cawing of crows. But here, it felt like the land was hushed.

Our destination came into sight, the enclave supply crates of food having had fallen into the ruins of some kind of store, though any evidence of what it was once was call had long vanished. Landing on what little remained of the roof, it looking like a fair amount had been this way for a long time, and some of the damage was fresh. The supply crate was not hard to find, it being almost right in the center of the decaying building.

Gliding down, we felt a warm chill up our spine, and energy flowed through us. Not a lot, but enough to know this area was irradiated enough to kill a normal pony slowly, a week at best. Trotting over to one of the supply crates, it didn’t look all that different from the cargo containers back at Bold Harbor, just smoother, and possibly a lot lighter. On its side was the Logo for the enclave, a big “E” surrounded by two wings and stars, the same symbol we had seen on the military pony’s jackets. So we knew we had found the right case, but now the big problem, getting it back to Bold Harbor.

Cloud Bouncer had suggested we find a sky chariot to deliver the supplies, telling us that a few of them would have fallen around the area. Sadly, the Pegasus mayor could not point out where to look, only that one or two should be relatively nearby. But before we go off looking for chariots, first we needed to move the large crate out of the ruined store.

Reaching out with our magic, we nudged the large crate, but it proved to be considerably heavier than expected. We were never the best with our magic, our invisibility spell being a gift from mother, so it came naturally to us. But fortune did smile on us, and with this store irradiated in the way it was, it provided a small, but noticeable boost to our magical strength. Though we could not properly lift the large crate up, we were able to lighten and tilt it enough that we could drag it along the rubble.

It screeched loudly as the metal crate dug into the concrete floor, the noise making the fur along our spin quiver. But we managed to move the crate over and out of the entrance in little time at all, as the doors and front wall of the store had fallen over long ago. This gave us little to no obstacles in dragging the crate all the way outside. Stopping just past where the front door would have been, we felt like this was good enough. We just needed to find a working sky chariot and attach the crate to it.

The feeling of something on our flank suddenly pressed into us, causing us to freeze in place. A gravelly voice spoke up from behind.

“Such a smooth coat, I could just nibble on it.” The presser on or flank then moved down out leg. Regaining some movement, we looked back to see a ghoul. Much of his face was missing, leaving what was mostly just a skull with some muscles, two eyes, and a tongue that drooped out of it’s jaw a little. “Oh my, and what a cute face you have.”

We took a step away from the ghoul before turning around to properly face him. “Uh… Sir, that was highly inappropriate. We request that you apologize right this moment!” we stomped on the ground to punctuate our point.

The ghoul laughed wheezily, his face unable to show any emotion. “Not going to apologize to a thief. Now put my crate back.” He pointed to the supply crate. “Unless you have the caps to pay for it?”

We were taken aback by the disgusting looking ghoul. “We think not. This is the property of the enclave, and we have been asked to recover it. You cannot simply clame ownership of another’s property.”

The ghoul tilted his head. “When another’s property brakes my own property, then yes, yes I can.” He looked more like a chattering skull as he talked, making this conversation unnerving. “So, Smooth flank, cough up the caps. Or am I going to have to sell you myself?”

“What!?” We gasped. Though the ghoul’s eyes were a milky white, we could see the hint of madness in them. In Unity we spent very little time around ghouls, but we did have the memories of the others who had joined. Memories of thoughts who had dealt with many ghouls over the years. Though vague, we remember some of the signs of a ghoul going feral. Among them, were wild eyes and needless aggression. This ghoul seemed half feral, and probably would lose all his sanity if he ever sees his own face. “We would ask you to rethink what you're suggesting, you are out of your league here, or should we get you a mirror”

The ghoul laughed again. “If that’s how it’s going to be.” From his ragged clothes, He pulled out a little black box with a big red button, and an antenna on it. Holding it with one hoof, he pressed down on it with the other, somehow we could imagine him with a big grin on his face. From further in the shop, the sound of heavy thumps could be heard. “Well, then I’ll have to show you what happens to thieves.”

Tapping could be heard from the back of the shop, slowly getting louder and closer. Emerging from the shadows were three hairless dogs, along with five feral ghouls. All of them were is fairly poor shape, and all wore thick metal collars around their necks. The first to charge at us were the dogs, but the rubble on the ground slowed them down long enough for us to collect ourselves from the surprise. Pulling out Star’s rust gun, we aimed it at the closest of the dogs.

*Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Tat* *Click*

Only one bullet connected, hitting the dog in the front right leg, blasting it off. It sent the dog rolling on the ground screaming in pain as blood was being thrown everywhere by it. The next two dogs came jumping in at us, but with a flap of our wings, we were able to jump out of the way. Airborne, we were safely out of reach of the feral monsters. With a sigh, we had to put away the gun, with the last of the ammunition spent, picking them off from the air was not a possibility, but if we were to get the supply crate out of here, we would need to clear the area of the ghouls first.

WIthout warning, something wrapped around one of our wings and forced us to the ground. Looking at what had done this was a rope with a rock tied to either end. The crude weapon was now too tightly wrapped around our wing to quickly get it off, and the two dogs were right on us, giving us little time to ponder how to act. Pulling out the Blackwater Cutlass, we swung it as hard as we could. The blade cut cleanly through one of the dog’s head, spilling brain and blood when it fell to the floor. The other dog latched onto our back leg, it’s jaw like a vice grip.

The pain was intense as the dog jerked back and forth, grinding into us. Mustering as much willpower as we could, we plunged the sword into the hound, ending its life, but not the pain in our now bloodied leg. It was like the dog had set out leg on fire with its teeth, having shredded it enough that lines of blood pulsed down onto the dirt under us. But that was the least of our concern, as the five feral ghouls clambered over the rubble towards us. Their blank stares zeroed in on us, their murky unfocused eyes filled with mindless rage. We tried to turn invisible, but the pain in our leg made it hard to concentrate, and the spell flickered and failed at each attempt.

We could hear the deranged ghoul merchant laugh as the feral ghoul closed in on us, making us wish we had just killed him right after he touched our flank. Trying to not put pressure on our hurt leg, we instead readied ourselves for the first ghoul. The memory’s we had of fighting were not our own, and faded at best, but we were able to remember a bit about controlling group attacks.

As the first ghoul came at us, we used the cutlass to push the ghoul away, sending the jumping ghoul flying behind us and into the supply crate with a thud. The next two ghouls were right on us, so we pushed them as well, but with more force as we stepped to the side. The two ghouls tumbled over each other and onto the floor with a hissing snarl from each. We turned our attention to the final two, and this time we went on the attack.

With a thrust, the Blackwater cutlass plunged deeply into the ferals skull. Only a second later we realized the mistake we had just made in overextending ourselves, as the fifth ghoul jumped at us, and bit into our neck. Panicked, we extended our magic over the cutlass to also grab the whole ghoul we had just killed, and smashed it into the ghoul that was at our throat. We then proceeded to repeatedly smash the dead ghoul into the undead ghoul until we broke its grasp on us, and its face.

Looking back, the other three ghouls had now gotten back up, but we now didn’t feel like being careful, and used our magic to throw the deceased bitey feral at them. The force of the dead ghoul knocked them over, and managed to rip off a leg of the ghoul we were swinging. Swinging the dead ghoul we’d originally killed up and back, it dislodged from the sword, and fell behind us. With a downwards swing, the sharpened steel blade cut open one of the other ghoul’s skull. Finally, before they could recover, we cut down the other two who’d been pinned under the one we’d thrown, using the cutlass to crack their skulls as well.

The only one left was the skull face ghoul merchant. Who was now running off to the back to the store with tail between his legs. We contemplated with letting him go, but as he was going feral, would not be a smart choice to make. So we settled with putting him out of his misery, so that he may know peace, and so that he could not hurt anypony else in his madness.

Untangling our wing, we were startled by a scream. Taking the pressure off of our leg, we quickly took flight, and hovered above the ground before investigating. In the dark back end of the store, we found the ghoul merchant sprawled on the ground, with another ghoul standing over him.

The new ghoul held a wrench in his mouth, and bits of rotten blood and bone stuck to the rusty old tool. The ghoul was an earth pony stallion, with a light gray coat, and dull green mane. Behind the ghoul stallion was a earth pony ghoul mare, her coat a silver light pink, and deep redish brown mane. On the mare's back was a non-ghoul Pegasus mare, who was slumped, and not moving. The Pegasus was a light blue, with a silver mane, and wearing a torn up yellow dress.

The stallion looked up as us, and spat the wrench out. “Who the fuck are you?” His voice was not as gravely as the half-feral skull ghoul dead and twitching on the floor below him.

“Don’t be rude, Axle Wrench! ” The mare spoke up, her voice also showing only a small bit of strain to it. “She must be the one who freed us.”

The stallion sighed. “Fine, but we can’t stay to chit chat. If we don’t get this Pegasus to Reka soon, she’s going to die of radiation poisoning. Or worse, become like us.”

“If you’re talking about the Municipality of Reka, I’m sorry to tell you, but the town's dead. The Skull Hunters cleared it out.”

The stallion froze for a moment before he spat on the ground. “You better not be lying to us. My wife’s heart barely made it through this whole ordeal. I can’t have you scaring her to death over a joke.”

We shook our head. “No joke. We passed through the town just yesterday, and no pony alive could be found, only the dead bodies of some who lived there. But we do know where the survivors are, having taken shelter in Bold Harbor.” The mare gasped at the mention of the raider camp. “Oh no, they’re safely locked inside. The raiders there got locked out when the enclave came down, so now the survivors are stuck inside the settlement.”

“Let me guess, by stuck, you mean the Skull hunters are outside Bold Harbor.” We nodded at Axle Wrench. “We that does us no good, the skull hunters would kill us as soon as they see us.”

“And without treatment soon, this mare is going to die.” The ghoul mare said with a despairing tone to her scratchy voice.

We looked at the two ghouls, and smiled. “We are returning to Bold Harbor with supplies for the enclave, we just need to find a working sky chariot, and then we will be on our way. You are welcome to join us.”

“Really?” The mare trotted up to us, and though she was a ghoul, she remarkably still looked mostly intact. “Thank you so much. My names Crescent Wrench, and mister grumpy over there is my husband, Axle Wrench. The pony on my back, well, I don’t know her name, but we are sure as tartarus going to make sure she lives to tell us her name.”

The four of us left the store far enough to where we could no longer feel the radiation. That happened to be in a nearby building that would be safe enough to put the pegasus down for the moment. With the winged pony now off Crescent’s back, we now saw that the ghoul mare was... well at least looked to be pregnant.

“Excuse us, Crescent, but are you, well…” A lump formed in our throat, and we could not find the will to finish the question.

The ghoul mare looked up at us, her eyes filled with doubt and worry. “You’re going to ask if I’m pregnant, are you?” We could only nod. “Yes I was, or I am. We don’t know. I only found out about it before we got captured by that damn Reka ghoul. Was going to surprise Axle with it, but in the end he figured it out on his own after a few months. Now he’s got it in his mind that our foal is still alive, even after we turned.” She shook her head. “But that’s not possible to what I know. At least, I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”

We wrapped the mare in our wing. “I… we understand; we know the feeling of that loss all too well.”

We only stuck around for a few more minutes before leaving, knowing that the sooner we find a working sky chariot, the better chance the Pegasus had to live. Our neck and leg still hurt, but the former ambient radiation insured that the bleeding had long stopped, and the pain was dull enough to stand on it now. That was the advantage of fighting in an irritated area, we heal almost as fast as we can fight.

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Footnote:

Level up: Lv2

New perk:

Designated Hitter – As a foal, catching and throwing balls was not your thing, but hitting them with a big stick? You can do that like it’s second nature to you! + 5% damage with melee weapons, and +5% to critical his chance with melee weapons.