Fallout Equestria: On Rust Red Shores

With Mhambi and Micro Fusion not able to fly, we had to go down with them into the lower part of Bold Harbor on hoof. Fortunately, the ship already had an elevator system set up to take us down to the pier. One of the enclave soldiers lowered the drawbridge for us, and once down, we were on our way.

“Gross, what is this stuff?” Cloud Bouncer spoke up, waving some mud off his hoof.

Mhambi shook her head. “It is called mud, and it is simply wet dirt.”

After giving his leg a few shakes, it seemed that the mayor finally gave up trying to get rid of the rest of the sticky mud from his hoof. “Don’t know how anypony could live with walking around in such filth. Once everything settles down, the first thing I’ll do is have some proper roads built.” he stopped for a moment scratching his chin. “I don’t think clouds will cut it.”

“It’s not that bad.” Micro Fusion chimed in. “But if that’s something you’re interested in doing, there’s a group called the Street Sign Gang up north. Reka had a deal with them, paid them in caps and trained slaves. In return, the gang would maintain the road to the north, as well as supply them with fresh slaves.”

Cloud Bouncer shook his head. “Slavery? That’s just... savage!”

Micro Fusion shrugged. “It’s not that bad. Free food and water, and the opportunity to work yourself to freedom? Funny enough, many of the merchants in Reka were slaves. Overall, not a bad deal.”

“That is until a tyrant takes over.” Mhambi spoke up. “Then the happy indentured labor turns into death marches, and the prospect of hard labor until you die from exhaustion.” The mutated stable pony rolled his feminine eyes as Mhambi glared at him. “You think not? I have seen this happen. All the way in the east, where a city that was built on the backs of dying slaves. And why? All in the name of ‘progress’.” The zebra huffed. “All it takes is one pony to consolidate enough power, and then get the idea in their head that they are the next Luna. Then, any atrocity is justifiable for the sake of their own idea of ‘progress’.”

Cloud Bouncer cleared his throat. “Well, as an elected official, the whole idea of slavery is abhorrent to me, no matter what kind it is. And as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, I’m certain that my citizens would agree with me on that.”

Micro Fusion just shrugged, and Mhambi nodded her head. We just kept our focus on what was ahead of us, as the four of us were entering an area where the Merchants of Reka had gathered. The Earth ponies looked as downtrodden as they had before, but were still on the move. Gathering the junk into piles as other ponies sorted them.

The sorted junk had been placed in boxes of different sizes. One box held a bunch of degraded and rust coated guns made from splintering wood and rusty pipes. Another box next to it held magazines and bullets that more than likely went to the rusty guns. Other boxes held nails, screws, various scraps, old tools, and one even had toys in it. One of the ponies sorting the junk looked up at us, her mouth agape.

“Oh sorry, we didn’t mean to stare.” We spoke to her and tried to be as polite as possible, not wanting to make a scene.

Micro Fusion stepped in with a smile on his face. “I think it’s more about what you are, and not about what you were doing.” He turned to the mare and clasped her hooves with his. “Don’t worry darling, she’s here to help. As am I. If things go well, we should soon be aboard that big ship safely. If that happens, maybe you and I can meet up later, get to know each other.” Despite the mare he was speaking to having a blue coat, the mare’s face turned bright red with embarrassment.

Looking around, the mare had not been the only pony staring at us. However, it seemed that Micro Fusion’s flirting had convinced the other ponies to get back to doing what they had been doing before. The mare herself seemed to hold onto her flush state, and simply bumbled around with the junk as we got back to the task at hoof.

Moving on, we made our way to where Winterberry was. “Was that necessary? And how old was that mare, because to me, she looked fourteen or so.” Mhambi snapped at Micro Fusion. “You do not plan on sleeping with somepony so young, do you?”

“Up to her.” Micro Fusion replied with a shrug.

“That is deplorable.” The zebra responded.

“That’s life.” Micro Fusion countered. “And what are you going to do? Take her place.”

“I would not sink so low.” Mhambi huffed. “But, I would counsel the mare in picking better stallions to court.”

A chuckle came from behind them, Cloud Bouncer catching their attention. “You two should just kiss already, break that tension.” The two gave him a look of disgust, and proceeded to trot faster. The mayor looked over at us, and smiled. “That’s how I met my ex-husband. We were fighting one day, then suddenly, we were locked in a passionate embrace.” He gave a deep sigh. “I miss that fool sometimes. How about you, Miss Prism? Anypony you’ve got a place for in your heart?”

We just shook our head. “We... we didn’t have a special somepony. A few lovers, but none that stayed.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Cloud Bouncer said softly. “But a pretty mare like yourself, I don’t doubt you’ll find somepony for you. Just give it time.”

“We don’t…” It was a charming thought, but we just didn’t feel like entertaining it. “Thanks for the thought.”

The four of us were stopped by the two slave guards we had snuck around when we were here before. They looked a bit baffled at us before one of them pointed to us in particular. “You, alicorn. Mistress Winterberry has been waiting for you.” We nodded, and walked forward. But then they closed in as we passed, blocking the other three. “Just you.”

“They come with us, or we have nothing to say.” The two guards didn’t move, and we didn’t feel like playing nice. “Be that way.” Lifting one up with our magic, the earth pony flailed his legs as the other backed off. “Let it be known that you two are nothing more than decoration, and have no power to stop us.” The other three with us just trotted under the suspended guard, paying him no mind as they went inside. With them passed, we placed the guard back where he stood, the ground beneath him a little wetter then when we arrived.

Inside, we met the glare of Winterberry. One of her personal slaves filed at her hoof, and the other fanned her from the other side of her throne. “Somehow, I’m guessing that you didn’t get the feather brains to leave the ship?” We nodded as we walked onto the stage in the center of the room. It was relatively clean now. Free from the dirt and blood that had coated it before, though the still dirty nearby cage still gave away what it was used for.

“We found the task to be far more difficult than expected, so we chose a different option.” We looked over at Cloud Bouncer, and he nodded back. “We have brought the mayor of the Pegasus group, mister cloud bouncer. We hope to negotiate a deal, something that could benefit both groups.”

Winterberry shifted from her position, lifting the other hoof to be taken care of. “I see. The deal is simple, promise three fourths of your population into my services, and you might have my cooperation.”

“Wh… what!?” Cloud Bouncer stammered. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have the authority to draft my citizens into service. I could have it put to a vote, but that would take time and probably wouldn’t go over well with them.”

She covered her mouth with a hoof as she giggled. “Vote? Oh no, no. They are your ponies right? ‘Citizens’ you call them. Oh the lies ponies will tell themselves. Simply bring me their contracts, and sign their ownership over to me. Then we can begin negotiations.”

“Contracts?” Cloud Bouncer had a look of confusion on his face. “Wha… what are you saying?”

Winterberry’s face turned to one of annoyance. “You’re that dense, or…?” See rolled her eyes. “Daddy warned me about this. As soon as the skies cleared and the Enclave were on the warpath, he warned me alright.” Lightly pushing the unicorn slave away from her, she sat up and looked at us. Up and down, between all of us, meticulously sizing us up. “I think I know what’s going on. None of you do look the part.” She then pointed at Micro Fusion. “Except for you, dopey halfacorn. Can’t be from stable one hundred, looked too misshapen for their like.”

Micro Fusion sighed. “A recent facelift that I didn’t ask for. Not sure you know me, but I’m Micro Fusion. I delivered the shipment of medical supplies some days ago.”

She tapped her chin and nodded. “Yes, I do remember you. The old flirty one, right? You look remarkably younger, and more feminine than you used to.”

He shrugged. “Good genes.”

“Excuse me?” Cloud bouncer stepped forward. “But what was that part you mentioned about the Enclave? How do they factor into this?”

“Right, about that.” Winterberry motion for her Pegasus slave to come closer, and pulled his head onto her lap. She cooed as she softly stroked his mane. “This fine specimen? His grandfather was an Enclave lieutenant, first class if I do remember correctly. Don’t know why he was kicked out and branded, but they shot off his wings for good measure, and then sold him into my father’s care. I think they just wanted to see him suffer as a slave. The stallion bore a few foals, none of which were pegasi. Then one of those little bastards had this prized stud here.” She continued to stroke his mane like he was some sort of pet. “But he was not the only one. Every now and then we would get a visitor in the night, and we’d get a box of some of our finest trade goods out on the roof. In the morning a Pegasus or two would be left in its place, bound and gagged.”

“Impossible.” Cloud Bouncer grinded his hoof on the ground. “The enclave would never do such a deplorable thing! They would never lie to their…”

Winterberry’s face contorted into a wicked grin. “Never lie…? Like how they told you all that the surface was unlivable?” She pushed the pegasus slave off of her lap, and he quickly returned to fanning her. “I know that lie, every dashite that is sent to us speaks about it. I even remember that dapper enclave soldier joking about it. A bit old, but definitely my type. Probably because of my earth pony heritage, but the green on green is one of the more attractive colors a pony can have.” She eyed Cloud Bouncer as he got progressively more upset, his hoof now slowly grinding a hole. “I think his favorite joke to tell was… oh what was it? Oh, I remember now. It was simply: the mayor.”

Cloud bouncer stormed onto the ground, and turned around. But before he could leave we grabbed him with our magic. “Calm, we can talk to Air Burst about this later. But first you have more important things to do, like make a deal that protects both parties.” He shot us a dirty look, but quickly calmed down and sat back with us.

Clearing our thoughts, we spoke up. “History aside, we still have a deal to make. Basically, if you hoof over any of the pony pox medicine you have, the ship will be open to you.”

“But first.” Mhambi spoke up loudly “You must abandon the slave trade, and free all slaves from their contracts.” The room became an echo of murmurs, as the slave ponies shuffled about.

Winterberry giggled softly to herself. “I’ll have to say nay. If I free these ponies, then they are no longer my responsibility. If they’re not my responsibility, then I don’t have to feed, or shelter them. Without food or shelter, they’re as good as dead out in the wasteland. How like a zebra to want to see us ponies wither and die out in the wasteland that your ancestors created. I’d be a fool to not suspect you of working with the Skull Hunters, your kind has always been treacherous and deceiving like that.” The crowd’s murmuring became louder, and we could see many of them nodding her heads.

Mhambi was now grinding her teeth. “Fine. If you’re so bent on not listening to reason, and wiping up everypony with bigotry, then I’ll leave you with this. Red Eye is dead! That’s right, your big buyer, who sent a caravan your way for the slave labor? He died, meaning that the normal caravans you serve have likely changed their plans. They will likely see you as nothing more than a stepping stone when they come back to take over. Hell, maybe it’ll be you in the shackles when they do, so get ready to choke on tons of griffin dick when they come. I heard they just love breaking down the proudest and most stubborn among them.”

Both Mhambi, and Cloud Bouncer stormed out of the building, leaving us and Micro fusion standing there. Winterberry simply laughed on her throne, leaning back to the position she was in before. This time the unicorn slave pulled out a fancy brush, and began to brush her fur. The unicorn taking great care, as he slowly brushed along her leg.

“Miss Winterberry, was that truly necessary?” Micro Fusion spoke up. “They were offering what you wanted, right?”

She yawned “Yes, that is true. But to have some drifter zebra and a puppet politician try to talk to me like we're on the same level? Dear Micro, I have my pride to think about, and my role as a leader to uphold. I can’t have the others think of me as lesser like they are, there would be chaos in the streets.” She mimicked a pony in panic. “Frankly, the only ponies worth anything are the ones in position to actually do something.” She smiled. “Like dear Prism here actually bringing the puppet mayor down here to speak to me. Not what I asked for, but it does open up a new opportunity.”

“What do you mean?” We were feeling a bit upset over what she had done, but we had already resolved ourselves to seeing this situation through.

The mare stretched out, and her unicorn slave proceeded to brush her from her belly down, he was leaning over her in an almost erotic way. “Still open for requests? Good. From how that Pegasus reacted, it should be safe to assume Air Burst is still alive. If we could have a private talk with him, I’m sure we could work out a solution to our dilemma.

“As long as we can resolve this peacefully, then I’ll consider it.” With that, we turned around and left with Micro Fusion at our side.

Once we were outside, Micro Fusion gave out a long sigh. “And I thought Baneberry was a queen bitch. Well, at least Winterberry is using those contraceptives my stable sells to her. Can’t imagine how bad things would be if there were more ponies like her running about in there.”

“Baneberry?” we asked.

“Winterberry’s older sister.” Was his answer. “Demanding and violent, She ran off and became the main squeeze to the Street Sign Gangs leader. Somehow made them more violent than they were before. Glad my stable is a ways south of here; it’d be a shit show dealing with them every day.”

Our curiosity was now itching at us. “The Road Sign Gang, you mentioned them before. Who are they?”

He scratched his chin. “Can’t go into details, as I’ve only seen them in Reka, but they are an ex-raider band. It’s rare, but some raider bands do go civil. I think it happens when the band becomes so large, and their territory is so big, that the only spots left to raid have big walls and plenty of guns. They still raid and all that, but within their territory they are forced to trade with the larger settlements to survive. Well Reka and a few other settlements up north figured that if they just paid the raiders protection when traveling the roads, things would just go smoother. After a few years, they became the Street Sign Gang, even started using construction equipment to repair the roads. Of which they used as an excuse to charge the merchants a higher tax to use said roads. Still a mean bunch to run into, but if you pay up, they’ll make sure you don’t get messed with.”

We eventually caught up with Cloud Bouncer, and Mhambi. Both looking less than pleased. “Winterberry said that she would like to talk with Air Burst, then she would consider making a deal.”

“Not before I have a few words with him.” Cloud Bouncer said as he stomped on the ground in frustration and splashed mud about.

Micro Fusion gave us a concerned look, and we nodded back. “Then back to the ship it is.”

______________________________________

Footnote:

New Quest: A Pony Chooses, A Slave Obeys.