Fallout: Equestria Destinies Alinged

(Broken Sword)

Darkness had fallen upon the city and I stayed outside for a long time before I heard a loud BANG of metal on metal from inside the house. I whipped around and ran inside, drawing my shotgun.

Inside I found Ratchet crying on the ground, her wings covering her face.

Her mother and father looked on in horror, a broken desk fan sat on the ground near them.

"Anypony mind telling me what the fuck happened here?" I asked around my shotgun, gripping it tight.

The Earthpony burst into tears and sobbing. "We told her the truth!"

"Hmm... Rach, uh, Sparks, or whatever. You 'Kay?" I asked, holstering my rifle.

"Th-they abandoned me!" She cried.

I sat down beside her and put a hoof on her shoulder. "Why did you leave her?" I sternly asked Ratchet's parents.

Her mother cried more and her father looked me dead in the eyes. "That was back when we were popular, we didn't have the time for a foal." He says carefully. "We gave her to my adopted brother, because his wife can't have kids, see?"

"So you pushed away your responsibility, and gave her up." I took a deep breath then said "Alright I think I get it in a way... At least how Rach here feels." I put a hoof around her. "My father did me the same Celestia-Damned way."

"We... We didn't know what else to do... We couldn't put off giving ponies justice for our own self interest." Mr.Heartstrings says sadly. "We loved her, I swear we did."

I was shaking with rage, but kept my composure. "At... Least... You're here now." I said through clenched teeth. "Rach, maybe we should leave for a bit... give you a break from everything you've been through today."

"Y-yeah..." Ratchet said without emotion.

"Come on then." I said to Ratchet before locking eyes again with the unicorn before leaving. "We'll be back when she works over all... this."

Mr.Heartstrings nodded, holding his crying wife in his hooves.

I stepped outside of the Agency with Rach, and looked for a quiet place so she could get her thoughts together.

Soon enough we found a quiet little area on the outskirts of town.

"Th-they gave me up..." Ratchet mumbled, holding her head in her hooves, haunches on the ground.

I hung my head low, sitting beside her. "At least you got to meet 'em. I didn't even get to know either of my parents before one flew the coup, and the other bit the bullet." I said in a monotone.

Ratchet nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, I didn't even consider that you might have gone through something worse... I will in the future."

I shook my head. "No love, ain't what I meant. You have a chance to meet them now." I leveled his eyes to hers. "You already got a taste of what the world is like, it ain't nice, but sometimes you just gotta take the good witheverything elsehere." punctuating the 'everything else' with a hoof presenting the town around them.

"Y-yeah, of course!" Ratchet looked inspired by my words of kindness. "If this world is nasty, let's make it better and take out some raiders!" She said, gesturing in the direction of Oasis.

I bursted out laughing "That's the spirit!" I paused for a minute then checked my bag for ammo, inside there are only two more clips of ammo for my rifle. "Hey, you ain't ever shot a gun before, right?"

"Only once, and I got a black eye cause I put my eye up to the scope." Ratchet admitted, embarrassed. "But, I know a lot about fixin' em!"

I gave a guffaw before saying " you know how to fix something you can't use?" I pulled out my rifle and took a look around for a fence or a platform.

I found a chain link fence round a nearby house, too ruined to possibly be inhabited.

"Alright, come with me. I'll show you how to use one proper." I walk towards the house then take the caps off the fence before putting a few torn open tin cans on the top.

Ratchet looked nervous. "Promise the recoil won't hurt?"She asked uneasily.

"Ain't nothin' but a basic 5.56mm, kicks like a fly." I winked at her. Then I cock the rifle, put a single bullet in it, release it, then pull it to my shoulder, guiding her step by step. "First off hold it tight, too soft and it'll hit ya in the face." Speaking through his bared teeth I say "then take aim." Broken looks down the sights at a tin can. "Fwir" Then shoots at the can.

Ratchet nodded and took the gun in her mouth, gripping it tight as she can. She put in to her shoulder, aimed, put her tongue around the trigger and fired. BLAM! A tin can was knocked from it's perch

"Nicely Done!" I patted her on her back. That's when I caught myself just gazing at her smile... "Damn you remind me of her..."

Ratchet grinned. "Thanks!" She thought for a minute. "I think..."

"Hey, umm, how old are you?" Ratchet asked, frowning.

"S-seventeen." I replied, taken aback.

"I'm sixteen as of a few weeks ago!" Ratchet said with a huge smile.

"You are not 16!" I exclaimed. "You've got to be 14 at the most!"

"And I thought you were 20." She shrugged. How was she being so casual? Had she been suspecting that I was younger Than I looked?

"Don't worry about it." I chuckled nervously "You think you can use it now?"

"Yes..." Ratchet suddenly looked down, her smile dissapeared.

"You can use it then, and give me back the switchblade." I knocked myself out of it. then took a quick breath. "Maybe I should explain... Don't want you to get the wrong idea..."

Ratchet looked away. "I dropped your switchblade back at my house..."

"Shit that's right..." I looked back into my pack, rummaging through what I have left, finding little but an old bag of jerky, and some 'magazines'.

"You're just a lot like Cherish, that's all, even act a lot like her too." I fidgeted a little from the emotional release, and turned away, hanging my head a bit low, a lone tear coming from my eye and drifting down my muzzle.

"Broken?" Ratchet asked. I realized that this is the first time she's ever called me by my name.

"Just, everything happened so fast, and that bastard killed her... " I broke down, then just sat, my wings blocking nearly everything out.

"Broken!" Ratchet exclaimed, rushing forward and moving my wings away before embracing me.

I froze up in her embrace, then cried into her shoulder.

"I'm here now. Forever and ever." Ratchet said to me softly, petting my back. That was a little awkward.

"I...Just..." Then I looked into her emerald eyes. "So am I..." I pulled her close to me in a firm embrace.

After awhile, Ratchet pushed away and poked my nose with her hoof. "Big brother!" She giggled.

I very nearly giggle back. "Better then nothing." then poked her on the nose. "Lil sis, ready to pay dear mom and pop another visit, and see if we can bum off them for a while?"

"Ugh, fine." Ratchet snorted. "I still don't know what to think of them."

I smiled slyly, Then gave her a peck on the cheek, at which she blushed, as we started towards the agency.

We went inside, looking for the parents who's names slipped my mind.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs.Heartstrings." Ratchet says flatly."You probably don't want to, but if you'd like you can call us mom and dad." Mr.Heartstrings said calmly, levitating a pen in amber colored magic. His wife appeared to be in an other room.

I took a look at Mr. Heartstrings and said "I take it you understand why she took it so hard..."

"I do, as well as I can anyways." He replied with a heavy sigh. "My brother, would know more, he was abandoned by his parents as well."

"Good to hear that you can." I then gave a little head nod to Ratchet. "Give 'em a chance." I turned back to Mr.Heartstrings. "Do you have a place we can stay?"

"Of course!" He said giddily. "Anything for my daughter and her companion.

"Don't call me your daughter." Ratchet said through gritted teeth.

Mr.Heartstrings flattened his ears and took a step back. "S-sorry..." He stuttered, looking down.

"One step at a time, you know?." I said to him in an attempt to be comforting.

"Of... Of course..." It was obvious he was still hurt from Ratchet's earlier outburst, and was being hurt by Ratchet's cold disposition now.

I dipped my head and looked at Mr.Heartstrings. "Where will we be staying?" I asked.

"Follow me." He replied, brightening up a bit. He lead us through a kitchen, which was the next room over, where Mrs.Heartstrings prepared dinner, and up a staircase. At the top of the staircase there were two rooms. "You two can share the spare room."

Inside were two beds, both well made and a window that looked out on the town. There were no curtains or blinds though.

"Thanks." I said, letting my exhaustion take me over as I flopped onto the bed.

Despite there being a second bed, Ratchet came up and huddled close to me.

"Rach, can you move to the other bed?" I asked tersley, reminded instantly of Cherish.

I heard a small sigh. "Yeah." She said sadly, getting up and going to the other bed. I felt a bit guilty but slowly, I fell asleep.

Footnote, level up! New perk: Bladed Heart, give a +10% bonus to all bladed weapons, including bayonetted guns.