Fallout Equestria: Failure

Fallout Equestria: Failure-Chapter 3: Into the Swing

“You’re doomed”

It was early in the morning when our captors came to wake us.

“Who’s ready to get to work?” a mustard colored earth pony said with a sadistic grin. If I didn’t have a bomb on my neck I’d.. well, something involving a shotgun and his face getting torn into thirty or so pieces.

Lily, Hollow and I all got to our hooves as quickly as we could. As the cage swung open, we were greeted by four guards and one more well dressed stallion. I could only assume that he was the overseer.

“Glad t' see there's still some ponies willin t' work hard.” he said with a drawl. “My name is Grave, and I'll be assigning yer tasks. As well as dealing punishment to those who disobey orders. Given the fact that y'all get right to your hooves, I doubt that'll be a problem. Today y'all'l be headed out t' route 45. There's a settlement out there what owes us supplies. Shouldn't get violent, but in case it does, y'all get to lead the charge. Get some food and some guns, then meet your supervisor. She'll be waitin' at the armory.”

What was considered food here was bad at best. Mystery meat and moldy bread. Though I'd be willing to bet we got the leftovers, if that.

“So now we're extortionists?” Hollow Point asked rhetorically.

“If that's what we have to do to survive, then yes. Would you rather be dead?” I countered. Lily was silent, shoveling the sloppy meat into her mouth. I guessed that she just didn't want to think about what we had to do.

“But we might be making it so others can't. For all we know, the ponies we're stealing from need those supplies to make it through today. Self preservation can't be all we think about here Silver. We need to think about what we're doing, how it's going to affect others.”

I pulled him in close and whispered, “Well maybe if they see these collars we can convince them to help us. Maybe, just maybe they'll have someone that can get these things off.”

That shut him up right quick. I guess the idea of death wasn't too pleasant. And cruel as it might be, extorting others for supplies and living sounded a lot better than just being dead with our heads blown off. I ate the slop in front of me in silence after that, just trying to not think about it.

After we were done, we went over to the armory. There, waiting for us, was a blood red mare covered in what looked like sheet metal, underneath that, there was a layer of leather that was only partially exposed. “You my new crew?” she asked, I nodded. “Good, my name is Havoc. I like shit that goes bang, and I like ponies that'll follow my orders. Lets hope you only do one of those things. And I'd prefer the latter.” it was a clear attempt to be intimidating. “If you do a good enough job, I might even be your friend around here.” that was a prospect I hadn't considered, and still didn't want to. The idea of slavers and raiders liking me just made me nauseous. But hopefully we wouldn't be around for long. “Pick something intimidating. Gun, sword, knife, explosives, whatever looks badass and you know how to use.” the armory itself wasn't heavily guarded, a single earth pony stallion sat there sleeping. Though I suppose the actual employees of Red Eye were paid well enough not to steal, and the slaves were strapped with explosive collars that deterred the idea of stealing from any station.

Hollow Point managed to find his particular pistol in the pile of weapons, though how in the hell he managed to is beyond me. It's minimally worn frame shone in the sun as he opened the cylinder to load it. Lily found a particularly menacing mace made from an old bat and a skull with nails driven through it. That was fucking intimidating. I, on the other hoof knew that I was shit when it came to close range without a gun. I felt blessed to find a chopped down rifle, big enough to be scary, but small enough to be used with magic. A semi auto 5.56 caliber rifle with no stock and a short barrel. There was a faded image of fire chasing a pegasus of the same color. Engraved in the pistol grip was “Solaris Ignis” weird to see something in zebra language with a pegasus on it. But hey, no complaints from me.

“Now for armor. To what might be your surprise, we do want you alive. So you'll be getting some leather barding, nothing that'll save you from an anti-material rifle, but enough to stop some common shit round. Especially if it's all homemade powder behind it. In all reality, this settlement hasn't given us any trouble, so you probably won't even need it.” she passed us all old leather jackets with some hoofball guards sewn into them and an insignia on the back of a red eye. “That patch shows them you're working for us.” I got into the barding and goddesses was it uncomfortable.

Once we reached the settlement, aptly named Dung Heap, we saw an entire heard of brahmin. The two headed cow mutants stood docilely and grazed on the little bits of brown grass left in the pen. There were a few ponies wandering the streets, but no walls or defenses outside of some spools of razor wire on the road in. A couple of guards were posted on the road.

“The boss is wondering where the shipment of supplies is. You got an answer?” Havoc yelled

“Yes ma'am, we're a bit short on powder, and the mayor figured a couple days wouldn't be an issue for a full shipment.” the buck said shakily.

“She thought wrong. Now, where is she? Clearly she needs to remember not to think for herself when it comes to our shipments.” Havoc turned to us, “Start getting everything together. I shouldn't be too long.” and with that, she and the guard left.

Lily turned to me and quietly said “Looks like today isn't our day, but for shits and giggles, let's take a look around for somepony who might be able to help us out.” I nodded quickly.

“Good idea, let's start over with that buck, he's clearly interested in one of us.” over to my left was a green buck, he didn't look very old, but definitely done growing.

“Hey buddy, c'mere.” I said in my most sincere tone of voice.

He bolted. Of course he did, we were three raiders that had come to collect a tribute. We weren't his friends, and unless he'd seen our collars, he had no idea that we were even doing this just to survive. It wasn't long before we came across a blacksmith's shop.

“How ya doin friend?” Hollow Point gave friendliness a shot, “I've got a bit of an itch on my neck, think you can help me out of it?” he said, pointing at the collar with his hoof.

“No can do pal, them slavers find out I helped you escape and they'll come for me an' mine. No hard feelins though. And if you saw what they did to the last guy, you wouldn't want to help you either.”

“Shit, what'd they do to the last guy?” he asked. I tried not to smack him. I really didn't care to hear.

“She personally took him out and hung him by the balls, then whipped him to death with an old chain. That was one bloody fucking mess, and I'd prefer to not be the next one.”

“I can understand that. If they ask, we were trying to get parts off of you.” I said, trying not to imagine what that poor buck went through. A few minutes later Havoc trotted out of what I assumed to be the town hall with whom I had to assume was the mayor. She, with the mayor came up to us.

“What do y’all know about hellhounds?”

End of Chapter 3