Chapter 8

Another day, another job

There aren’t many things I dislike more than waking up with the feeling of somepony watching me. Okay, maybe there were quite a few things, but it was up there.

I cracked my eyes open, just enough to see a white unicorn staring at me with her red eyes. Can't say I was entirely surprised. I closed my eyes back and sighed, “You know it’s impolite to stare at other mares while they sleep?”

Judging by the loud ‘eep’ and following thud, I assumed that she jumped and hit the corner of the table. With another sigh, I fully opened my eyes. Well, I wasn’t that far off.

“I’m sorry… I…”

I motioned for her to stop, and rolled off the bed onto my hooves. “What do you want?”

“I, well… sorry it’s, well…”

“Calm. Down.” I fixed her with a stare. That seemed to work: Scarlett stopped and now was just awkwardly standing in the corner, trying not to look at me.

I pulled out a can of marinated bacon and wheat out of my saddlebags and opened it. Not the best combination, but in the wasteland you don’t get to complain. “Let’s start from the beginning. What were you doing in my room so early in the morning and more importantly, how did you get here?”

Her ears drooped as she offered me a nervous smile. “I, well,” she started blushing. “I was returning from that job you suggested me and thought I wanted to get some rest, but I was very tired and mixed up the doors and the key somehow fit. And then I realized that I wanted to talk with you, but you were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake you up. And then I thought what if you would notice that someone was here, then…”

“That’s enough.” She recoiled slightly, but quickly regained her composure. Sweet Celestia, for someone so shy, she sure loves talking a mile a minute. “Now,” I took another bite from the bacon. “Since you’re already here and I am awake, why won’t you tell me what you wanted to talk to me about?”

She seemed thoughtful for a moment, then looked at me with a surprising determination in her eyes. “I want to help you!” She took a small step back, her smile turning a little sheepish. “If you don’t mind, of course.”

I gave her a confused look. “Help me with what?”

“You know, guarding caravans. And other stuff too.”

I sat on the couch, covering my face with my hooves. I really should have seen that coming. “Sorry,” I started, trying to pick my words carefully. “I’m not looking for a partner right now.” Noticing her blush, I rushed to clarify. “Work-partner. That’s what I want.” Well, I couldn’t make it any more awkward even if I tried. “Look, I don’t even know when I’ll next be back on the road. As you’ve heard, caravans aren’t likely to show up here.”

“Well, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to have somepony to help you out?” She slightly cocked her head, ears perking up.

The worst part of it was that she wasn’t wrong. But committing to having a full-on teammate was a bit more responsibility than I was comfortable with. “Why do you want to help me, anyway?”

“Well…” Her blush returned again. “To be honest, I don’t really know what to do, I haven’t found the ponies I was seeking here and at this point, I doubt they exist at all.” Scarlett’s ears drooped, as she continued. “You seem like a nice pony, and you travel a lot, so maybe if I can tag along I can find my answers eventually.”

I frowned. “I still don’t know what you’re looking for.” I stood up and approached her. “I’m not going to travel with a pony I don’t know anything about.”

Her smile faded, as leaned on the wall, thinking. “How about I join you for a day. Then, if you want me to stay by your side at the end of it, we can talk about this and I’ll try to explain everything as much as I can. If not, I’ll just be on my way.”

I pursed my lips. It did not sound unreasonable, and so far, she hasn’t given me a reason not to trust her. But at the same time, Scarlett definitely had something to hide, something pretty serious. At least to her.

“Fine.” I sighed and looked out of the window. “Although I don’t have anything planned for today…” Well, actually. “…or maybe I do.” I snickered at the confused look at Scarlett’s face. “I got an invitation yesterday, seems pretty fishy. But with two of us, I would feel much safer to accept. You in?”

“Uhh, what kind of invitation?”

I grinned even wider, “That’s for us to find out.”

“I… well, I did say that I’ll help you.” I knew this expression all too well. This is the look of a pony who made an internal decision and plans to stick with it no matter what. Everything I knew, along with my intuition, was telling me that I should trust Scarlett. And at the same time, this feeling was the reason I really didn’t want to.

***

The book store was a small building, located at the edge of a marketplace. The street was unusually quiet for this time of day, due to the attack. But the occasional ponies, going back and forth, looking for supplies, were a sign that life was slowly coming back to normal.

“First of all, you need a gun, since you…” The words stopped in my mouth, when I saw Scarlett pulling a small and very dirty pistol out of her saddlebags. “Where did you get that?”

“I was allowed to take half of the weapons from the, uh, ‘cleaning’ job yesterday.” She offered a sheepish smile, and looked at the gun. “I also have some armor back in my apartment, but I thought locals wouldn’t be very happy seeing a pony wearing something like that, after what happened.”

“I can’t say if this pistol is more likely to kill your target, or yourself, but it should do for now. Do you at least have some ammo for it?” After she energetically nodded, I continued. “Good, have it ready, but try not to flash it without reason. We don’t want to seem too aggressive. When inside, be on alert, but don’t act unless you have to.” Seeing Scarlett’s ears perking up, as she attentively nodded to my instructions, made me feel like a teacher. “If things go well, we’ll just have a small chat and possibly find a way to make some money, which should make us one step closer to leaving this place. Any questions?”

“No, I’m ready.” She straightened up, her muscles becoming noticeably tense and her expression hardened. It seemed like I underestimated my new companion. While I am yet to determine her skills, this mare definitely wasn’t lacking in determination.

I silently nodded and opened the door. Inside, there was a small dusty room, with empty shelves and a broken mirror. In the far corner stood an ancient-looking earth pony, cleaning what seemed to be like the only shelf that had any books on it. “Hi.” I said calmly, slowly making my way across the room. “Do you know where I can get some snake oil around here?” The pony turned around, and silently nodded towards the back door.

“Maybe we should look at his books while we are here?” Scarlett whispered from behind. “It’s pretty rare to find a good book out here.”

“You can look at books as much as you want after we’re done with our business.” I deadpanned, walking through the door. In front of me was a wooden staircase leading to the basement. “Speaking of, I have no idea what’s waiting for us there, so be ready.” With that, I started down the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Eventually, I ended up in a shabby, but surprisingly tidy looking office. Even more surprising was the stallion in an official-looking suit behind the small table, writing something down in a thick notebook. By each side of him stood an armed pony, in pretty expensive combat armor. I recognized one of them as a mare from yesterday. The earth pony put down his pen and looked at us. “Ah, I’ve been informed you may come, miss…”

“Midnight.” I nodded, trying to keep my voice as even as I could. “I’ve been invited here.”

“I know, I don’t remember anything about the other one though.” His deep monotone voice reminded me of a time my father bought an old recording, thinking there was some cool pre-war show on it but it ended up being a recording from a court. I didn’t exactly know what a lawyer was, but I definitely knew that I hated it.

“She’s helping me, we come together with the Caravan.” I wasn’t that good with all that ‘speak just enough truth’ thing, but thankfully the answer seemed to satisfy him.

“I’ve heard as much.” He looked us over, and stood up. “I am Dry Ink, I work for the Stellar Collective, and we could use someone like you.”

I raised my eyebrow. “What are the Stellars doing so far South?”

He visibly cringed at my use of the shortened name, which caused his guards to share an amused look. “Same thing as everywhere else: giving drugs to ponies who need them.”

“Selling drugs you mean.” I deadpanned, shaking my head. “I’m surprised the guards haven't found out about you yet. Not the most discreet place exactly.”

He nodded, smiling. “Oh, they know. This…” Dry Ink motioned towards the bookstore part of the building, “is mostly to not disturb the locals. Ponies usually tend to be very upset, learning that there’s a drug cartel base in their city. We supply the local clinic and guards with chems and healing potions, and in return, they provide us with a small office for our base of operations.”

“You seem to have everything figured out, why do you need me?” I asked, slightly cocking my head.

“Because you aren’t from here.” Ink began pacing back and forth. “You see, one of our shipments was stolen, and we can’t really ask the guards to look into it or do it ourselves, without drawing the attention of the general public. You, however,” he stopped and pointed at me with his hoof, “are an unknown quantity. I’d like you to ask around and try to figure out who did that. Not for free, of course.”

I looked at Scarlett, the poor girl was noticeably nervous and confused. Noticing my glance, she turned to me and shrugged. I took a deep breath and turned back to Dry Ink. “So, let me get this straight. If we bring you your drugs…”

“Oh, no no no!” He quickly shook his head. “We only need the name of the responsible party. We’ll deal with them ourselves.”

That wasn’t too bad of a deal, and the town probably needs the meds more than ever. Assuming Ink tells the truth. “What’s in it for us?”

The earth pony returned to his table. “Money, of course. And the eternal gratitude of the injured guards you’ll save.” He offered a coy smile, before looking in his notebook. “I think three hundred caps is more than fair for a single name.”

I shook my head. “Make it four hundred. Looking into people who steal from drug cartels, isn’t exactly the safest thing to do.”

Glanced over me, as if evaluating. “Fine.” He eventually replied. “Four hundred it is, but this is a pressing matter and I expect some results in the next three days. Otherwise, we’ll have to look for other avenues to solve this issue.”

I nodded. “It’s a deal then, I’ll see what I can find out then I'll let you know. And I hope to see my money ready by then.”

“Of course, the details will be provided by our contact at the warehouses. His name is Shiv, I’ll let him know you’re coming. And now, if you excuse me.” Ink picked up his pen and started quickly writing something in his notebook.

I nodded and went upstairs, motioning Scarlett to follow me.

“Uhh… Midnight, what are we going to do now?” She asked once we exited the book store.

“First we need to go back to the hotel and fix that pistol of yours. And then we discuss our situation.”

***

“Why did you agree to work for them?” We were in the process of sorting through all the weapons that Scarlett salvaged from the battlefield, trying to find working spare parts for the ones that looked semi-decent. Well, I was. Scarlett sat on the couch and intently watched me disassemble all of this trash.

“As far as job opportunities go, Stellars are the best we can hope for right now.” I threw away another rusty rifle, setting aside its receiver. “They’re the only gang trying to do legitimate business. That’s not to say they aren’t a bunch of ruthless thugs and psychos. Sadly, a lot of doctors in this part of the wasteland depend on them, not that there’s many alternatives.”

“I see. Do you think we can find this pony?”

“Why not? We’ll see what Shiv has to say. I don’t think there’s a lot of ponies who know about Stellars being here, so there shouldn’t be too many suspects.” I stood up, giving Scarlett the result of my work. “Here, I managed to scrap something that resembles a pistol and submachine gun. They aren’t the greatest, but they won't break into pieces either.”

The white unicorn carefully took the weapons and looked over them. “Thank you so much! I promise to be careful with them.” She beamed at me.

“Now just find a proper holster for it and meet me at the entrance to the warehouse.” I started towards the door, then looked back at her. “I’ll go and scout the area.” I closed the door and quickly made my way to the warehouse district. This was going to be a long day.

Author's Note

THis chapter was a lot of fun to work on, and I hope will be just as fun to read. Can't wait to get to some things in the next one. Huge thank you to Dandy for helping to proofread this chapter. Make sure to check out their twitter, and all of the amazing art.