Fallout: Equestria - Failure

Chapter 4- The New Guy

"Your past doesn't define you, it just gives you the starting point of who you're going to be.""

Once again, I was drugged. But this time, I woke up inside what appeared to be a basement that was filled with ponies. And I had my PipBuck back. I took a look around the place only to see that it was well lit, well defended, and full of pre-war tech. From behind me, a buck spoke up. “Well Silver, welcome to your first day in the away team.” I turned around to see a teal earth pony. But unlike most ponies, his mane was completely shaved, leaving a strip of pink down his neck. His tail however was cropped and blonde. “Names Jade. And I’ll be your handler while you’re here. Any questions?” Yeah, I could think of a few.

“Who do I need to know here?” I asked simply. To which he was at least a little surprised.

“Nothing about my mane, weird. Bowhead! You owe me ten caps!” he shouted to a grizzled grey stallion who, upon standing up from his desk, was fucking massive.

“Good to see you’re up recruit. Too bad you cost me caps on your first day.” he said with the most bass heavy voice I’d ever heard. I immediately made a mental note to not piss him off any more than I already had.

“Yes sir! Stingray said I’d be working under your orders, I’m sorry to have cost you money!” that was, apparently, the stupidest thing I could have said because his whole response was glaring down at me before saying “You owe me twerp.” and making his way back to his desk. He scared me more than anypony I’d ever met. And my dad was a slaver who literally enslaved and whipped ponies for a living.

“Before you ask, yes, he is usually that scary. Don’t worry though, as long as you’re not a slaver or a raider, he won’t hurt ya.” and of course, I was a slaver. Not anymore, but I still took part in it.

“And uh, what if, hypothetically, I was a reformed slaver?” I asked in the totally most non suspicious way possible. Jade just looked at me for a couple seconds before laughing.

“You shitting me? Slavers don’t reform!” he eventually stopped laughing, “You show me a slaver that’s reformed and I’ll show you our jail cell. For the time being though, we should get you set up. Over there is our quartermaster, Blue Bit. But we just call him Bit.” Okay, not the response I expected, but it told me that Stingray must not have told them too much about me. Which definitely helped out my case, but-

“Jade, there’s something I need to own up to. But I’ve gotta know that you’ll keep it to yourself.” I whispered.

“Uuuh, sure Silver, what’s up?” he replied, tilting his head a little.

“I worked for slavers. And not in the ‘I was a slave’ sense, as in, my father ran a slaver camp. Which by extension makes me a slaver.” he nodded in response and got really close to my face.

“Didja take anypony captive?” I shook my head, “Didja own any slaves yourself?” again, “Didja ever punish somepony for not following your orders?”

“No.”

“Then here’s a secret for ya. You’re no slaver. But that doesn’t mean you get off with no complaints. Bowhead was worried that your whole joining up with us was a ruse to expose us to your dad, and that’s the only reason I’m your handler. For that matter, it’s the only reason you’ve got one. Fact that you owned up to it, and in a lot faster than others means that I’m a lot less suspicious of ya than when ya woke up.” So they did know, and that was a test. A test that I passed, or at least I was convinced that I passed. So good news.

“Okay, then let’s go load up and get to work.” I said.

“Hell yeah buddy. Bit’s right over there, you go ask him for rookie rations and I’ll go give Bowhead an update.” he pointed at a second room to my left where I saw a white unicorn buck with a long blue mane.

As I got closer, I saw that the room was actually pretty big, it even housed a range on the right side. The buck was asleep on some ammo boxes behind a security grate, and between the range and him was a locked gate. I cleared my throat.

“I wasn’t fuckin sleeping!” he burst out in alarm. “Oh, new kid. Where’s Jade?”

“My name’s Silver, and he’s giving Bowhead the report that I passed my test.” I replied, trying not to sound to proud of myself.

“Test? What’d they test you on?” Oh shit, so they didn’t tell everypony.

“Honesty I guess, but he also told me to ask for the ‘rookie rations’?” I said with the last part in air quotes. “You’re Bit right?”

“That’s Blue Bit to you new kid. My great grandady didn’t suffer through Blue Blood’s bullshit for his whole life to make our family mean less. Though I admit, I changed my name when I got out here. Don’t make my family mean any less to me.” okay, a little too much info, but I also had to wait for Jade.

“Why’d you change your name?” I asked. Probably gonna be a long story, but I had time.

“Well, a long time ago, there was this insufferable bastard named Blue Blood. Treated mares like shit, his kids like shit, shitloads of affairs, and he was a jealous asshole on top of it all. I was originally named after him. But I never really understood why since I’m only related to him because my great great, however many greats grandma was one of his many affairs. But after the war, she went by his family name, hoping to get in good with other ponies. The fact that she was royalty helped for awhile. Till royalty that wasn’t Celestia or Luna didn’t matter anymore. Then she got in good with a sailor for whatever was left of the Equestrian Navy and settled on The Island. I figured my organizational skills would be useful out here, so I decided to join up with the quartermaster position. Then one day one of our patrols found a letter that was sent towards the end of the war from Ministry of Image head mare Rarity, the MOI was the propoganda machine of pre-war Equestria in case ya didn’t know” I did, but I guess they didn’t really need to teach history on The Island. “to Blue Blood. Turns out he’d been hitting on her for a long time. And she wasn’t having it because he was, and always had been an insufferable bastard to her and her friends. She went into more detail than I feel comfortable.”

“Fair enough. So you changed it because the buck you’re named after was a bastard?” just sorta had to make sure, since I kinda zoned out for a bit there.

“That’s the long and short of it. Anyway, you probably want your gear. You want something with some range or something for getting up close and personal?” Not that it was much of a debate, but for all I knew this was just another test. Range would mean I’m smart, close quarters would probably mean I’m brave or some shit. Yeah, I’d rather be smart than brave any day.

“I’d like something with some range to it please.” he went into the back of the makeshift armory. Actually, makeshift wasn’t really something that could apply here, it was definitely well built. When he came back, I saw him carrying a big bore revolver with a short scope on it.

“Not a hell of a lot of range because the barrel’s so short, but, it’s something. .45-70 rounds’ll kick a little, but you’re a unicorn so I think you can handle it.” Honestly, that was bigger than anything I’d ever shot.

“Yeah, that should be fine. It’s a little bigger than what I’m used to, but what’s the worst that could happen right?” I replied jokingly.

“Went for the hunting revolver eh Silver?” I heard Jade say behind me. “Good call on the smart option. But I’m hoping you won’t need it, come on, we’re headed topside.” he motioned towards the exit.

“Not even gonna stay and say hi Jade?” Blue Bit said with mock disappointment.

“No time today. We’ve got a meeting to make.”

“Well, hope you make it back safe Silver, here’s some ammo and the standard leather barding.” he pulled out a box of shells for the revolver and a suit of, well, I was hard pressed to call it armor, but if we were just going to a meeting then armor might not even be necessary.

“Thanks Blue Bit, I’ll make sure to get everything back to you safe and sound.” I said, quickly putting the suit on.

“Well, the gun’s all yours. But any spare ammo could be put to use here, pick up what you can and I’ll give you a cap per round. Except that .22 shit. No use for it here. And try to save your brass.” so they had reloading equipment here. Good to know.

“Will do, see you around!” I yelled behind me. Jade was on a set of stairs ahead of me. I galloped over to him, “So what’s the job?”

“We’re meeting with a local gang. They’ve got some meds that we need, we’ve got a surplus of explosives. Our job is to negotiate a trade.”

“A gang? Like raiders or slavers?” I asked, I didn’t think they’d even consider negotiating with slavers, much less those crazy ass raiders.

“Nah, I guess calling them a gang isn’t technically right. They’re more like a town guard for one of the settlements in Baltimare. They call themselves The Starspawns, they’re based out of The Hollow. Good folks as long as you don’t threaten the ponies they protect. Sorta like bears and their cubs.”

“Fair enough, you’re not gonna drug me and drag me to the meet are you?” I could have sworn I’d heard that name somewhere before. Weird.

“Nah, the meets close enough to here that you wouldn’t wake up in time anyway. So you’re just gonna have to hoof it this time.” I couldn’t really complain about that though. If I took too much more of whatever it was that they gave me, I’d probably get addicted.

“What is that stuff anyway? Could be useful if we got the drop on somepony hostile.” it was probably better to be direct anyway.

“Well, it’s a more natural version of a pre-war shark tranquilizer, we call it Twist. Imagine it as sort of like a double dose of med-x, but with the only ingredients being plants on the island.” Made sense I guess. Med-x made me feel tired the couple times I needed it, double dosing on it would probably knock me out. Also good to know they could manufacture it.

Suddenly, Jade got low to the ground. I copied his movement and readied my revolver. “What is it?” I whispered.

“Looks like a couple of raiders up ahead.” he stood up, “Thunder!” he yelled. The raiders, however just laughed in the glee of finding victims. He drew his rifle, a rifle I hadn’t actually seen on him before, and fired a burst at the raiders. I stood and magically pulled the trigger of my revolver. Only to realize I hadn’t loaded it yet. And of course, this was a single action revolver with a loading gate. As quickly as I could, I loaded in five rounds, but by then, Jade had taken out the other raider.

“Guess you’re lucky I was here. Why hadn’t you loaded your weapon?”

“Rookie mistake?” I replied.

“Don’t let it happen again. ESPECIALLY when I’m not around to save your sorry butt.” duly noted.

“Yes sir, it won’t happen again.”

“Alright, you’re loaded now?” I nodded my head. “Then let’s get a move on. We’re not too far out now.

It was about another half hour of walking, checking corners, and occasionally hitting the ground, but we finally made it to the meeting place. Rather than what I’d been expecting, we were meeting in a mostly intact warehouse. Surprisingly enough, we arrived first.

Rather than sitting in silence, I turned my radio on. However, since nopony had messed with my radio settings, it was still tuned to the Northpass tactical radio.

“Red one, in position. How copy Blue one?” I recognized the voice. Hollow Point.

“Blue one in position, targets just arrived, waiting for secondary targets.” the second one, Gunpowder said. I got close to Jade and whispered

“We’ve got company, slavers from Northpass. I know them, I can probably talk one of them down. What should we do?”

“Keep a cool head, don’t do anything to give it away. Wait until they say something about where they are.” he said calmly. Almost deadpan really.

“Blue one, I have eyes on the secondary targets, coming up the road now. Fire on your mark.”

“Red one, remember, they don’t survive.”

“And you remember to leave one of yours alive.” What were they planning?

“They’re leaving one of us alive.” I told Jade. “Any idea why?”

“Yeah, they’re gonna leave you alive to make us look guilty of betraying the Starspawns. They’ll declare war on us. When they kill me, go here.” he uploaded some coordinates to my PipBuck.

“Wait a second Red One, does one of the Hapu look familiar to you?” shit, of course Gunpowder would recognize me. Barely fucking spoke to him at Northpass, but he knows me.

“Holy shit, that’s Silver! Steel told us he got killed by a Satyr patrol. We wiped out half their camp for that!” It was getting a lot harder to not show them I could hear them.

“Wait, if that’s Silver, he’d have our frequencies.”

“Shit, we don’t have a contingency for this. Heads or tails?”

“Heads.” I heard a bit flip

“Well Silver, if you can hear me, then sorry buddy.” a gunshot rang out, then everything went black.