Fallout Equestria: Wandering Woes

Chapter 111: Reunion
(Rogue)

As I walk up yet another small dry hill, I sigh and take a drink from my canteen. The walk from Vault 64 took much longer than Vision and I were expecting, around 5 days' travel, but New Appleloosa was just in front of us and we had a significant quantity of supplies and information in our packs so the trip was well worth it.

Vision walks up next to me as we look at the town we left over a week ago, seemed like quite a while, even though it wasn’t. “What’s our next step, Rogue? We have a lot of supplies now and the research of the Vault itself; not sure how useful the Vault stuff is, but it could get us some caps if we find the right person.”

I shrug softly and take another swig before answering. “We could trade our supplies if we need to, but I think we can use all of it, so I would be hesitant to get rid of any. Most of the knowledge on the vault I think I’ll give to Ma since it’s not super useful to us, she might give us some caps for it. More importantly, giving it to her will ensure it won’t fall into the hooves of anyone that would trouble us. After that, we should check out the contract boards, see if there’s anything up for us to find and head out to. We have about a week before the deadline for the group comes up, so we’ll spend that week getting information and getting set up; if they arrive before that point, then they’ll get time to rest, but regardless of their arrival time we’ll be leaving in 9 days on the dot. As usual, don't piss anyone off too much and we’ll meet up at Ma’s when that day arrives. Aside from that, you can do whatever you think is best.” He nods and stretches his wings lightly before taking to the air; his pack was much lighter than mine, so he’d be able to watch the surroundings better and get to higher ground in case something attacked us.

“9 days, got it. I’ll check out the bounty boards, see if there’s anything interesting in there, and I’ll also spend some time in Whiskey’s bar, see if any information spills out of their loose lips. I’ll see ya back here when I see ya; best of luck, Rogue.” He then takes off, flying directly for, and then through, the gates of the town. I sigh softly and shake my head with a small smile; his antics are strange, but he does make this journey more bearable at least. Well, time to get my plan in motion. I’ll offload all of this Vault 64 info to Ma first, lighten everything in case I need to make a quick retreat.

Stepping off the dusty dune, I start making my way to the town itself. Outside the town are several railroad tracks leading in various directions. The ground is dusty, the air is dry, and the sky is dark and gray from the massive cloud coverage above. Around the city was a ring of boxcars forming a wall of sorts, these boxcars were also inside of the town forming many of the houses and other buildings; the crane that moved these massive containers appears to still be operational, although currently it doesn’t seem to be in use. All in all, not the worst atmosphere, especially for down here. Although the constant lack of sunlight is not the greatest feeling, it does seem to make everything much more dreary, considering this is a radiation soaked tomb down here I’m not surprised by it, but it is still difficult.

I walk through the front gates of the town, two earth ponies are standing watch at the top of the gate; they seem particularly bored and like they haven’t done much in the last few hours. The town must be quiet in that case, which is good considering. Although based on their lax attitudes, as I pass them, it seems like this town doesn’t get a lot of combat in it in the first place. This could be a good base of operations for the time being, especially since we don’t have any real target just yet. After Ma, I should look to see if there’s any form of permanent lodging here. If we’re going to stay for prolonged periods of time, it would be best to have a place to stay.

Walking through the town is just as quiet as it was outside, most of the ponies here are either inside of their homes or inside of the bar itself. It doesn’t seem like this weather bodes well for anyone’s general state of mind... That could be useful for any targets in the future.

I approached what appears to be the general item store, it was closed when we first arrived in the town which makes sense considering its name: Ditzy Doo's Absolutely Everything. Given how close the two of them seemed, it makes sense that Ditzy and Ma would be in likely the same building. At the very least, Ditzy would know where Ma is and one of them could take this information off my hooves.

I shuffle the bags on my flank as I walk into the store, the weight digging into them as I look around. True to its name, it has a large variety of items, some more random than others such as a toilet brush sitting next to a container of shotgun shells. Looking forwards at the front desk, I see Ditzy’s skeletal form standing there patiently, the chalkboard against her chest barely moving. I walk up as I greet her. “Hello Miss Ditzy. Considering the name of your shop I was wondering if you would be interested in getting a lot of information gathered from Vault 64, a few days of travel away inside of the desert. Specifically, it is information regarding the creation of the vault, the genetic experiments they produced within the vault, as well as several different chems that can be made from various desert dwelling creatures’ venoms.” I drop the bag of items next to me and step to the side, she looks intrigued for a moment before hopping over the counter and proceeding to look through the bag, quickly but efficiently. After a couple of minutes, she raises her head and then grabs some chalk and starts writing on her board. “This is an incredible find, lots that can be created and these chems are things I’ve never even considered possible before… For all of this, I would give you a thousand caps.”

A thousand caps? That’s quite a hefty amount and far more than I was expecting. Still though, considering how much ammo we go through, how high-price sniper bullets can be, how expensive the house in town may come out to be, as well as any medical supplies that Melody may require. A thousand is small compared to that amount. “A thousand is nice, however considering our expenses a thousand caps might not be enough. I would need caps for housing, as well as ammo and other supplies. How about 1500 caps? That should be enough.”

She nods softly and wipes her board with her foreleg again to clear it. “I unfortunately do not have that many caps. However, if you are looking for a house, we have an empty one a couple buildings down, it’s a red train car. If you would like to use that, you are welcome to it, and I can supply you some healing salves and some chems as well alongside the 1000. That should satisfy your supply issue and your housing problem.” I raise my eyebrow at her as I read. She’s a strange one for certain, but she is very good at haggling. Not only did she bring the price down to her original number, which is likely smaller than what she has, but she also managed to find a solution to my main issue and can supply us with simple needs, which would certainly be less than the 500 cap difference. Very impressive. “1000 caps plus general supplies including basic food and a few medical necessities determined by Melody if she arrives, or myself, if she doesn’t, and the red train car as lodging. That sounds like a good deal to me. I will take you up on it.”

Ditzy grins before she hops over the counter again and rushes into the back room. I can hear a few things getting shuffled and a voice that I assume is Ma’s likely asking Ditzy what’s going on. After a few minutes, that assumption is confirmed, as Ma steps out with Ditzy who hands me a fairly hefty bag full of caps. She proceeds to start filling her own saddlebag with the various notebooks, journals, papers, and various ingredients and the like that I brought from Vault 64. Ma looks at the massive amount that Ditzy is filling her bags with and simply shrugs. “Should have figured it was some trading being done. Hello again, Mister Rogue, did you find everything you were looking for? The contracts board recently got updated so if you haven’t taken a look at that yet I would suggest you do so, assuming of course you’re still lookin’ for some payment options.” She grins as she shakes her head watching Ditzy fiddle with her bags, before returning her gaze to me.

“I’ll be looking at that in a few minutes, ma’am. I figured I would drop off this sizable collection before continuing on my way so it doesn’t weigh me down any. Where’s the board currently?” I reply back with my usual demeanor, Ma is nice enough but especially after seeing her deal with Tolson I would rather not say anything that might be taken a bad way. She has some kind of edge to some of her words, possibly some buried rage. It’s a wonder she and Tolson haven’t killed each other yet.

“Oh please, don’t call me ma’am… I ain’t old enough for that yet. Stick to Ma, everyone calls me it nowadays and it just feels better. The board itself is on the other side of the building when you exit the doors. If you follow me, I’ll take ya to it and answer any questions you have ‘bout the area.” She starts walking past me looking at everything with a broad smile. She walks with a slight twinge of her right hind leg, possibly an old injury. The muscle under her fur coat is hard to see from any distance but as she gets closer to me to pass, I can see how well defined it is. It’s like ropes under her skin running across sheets of metal; the sheer amount of power held within those muscles is absolutely insane, and yet she walks with the grace of a thief. I wonder how long it took her to learn how to move her body with that level of ease. I follow her as she leads me outside the doors and to the left, the other side of where I came in. As she said, there is a large board on there a bit away from the entrance holding all kinds of interesting missions. Most are bounties, some smaller folks worth 50 to a couple hundred caps. As well as a few higher bounties, the most dangerous seems to be someone with a 50 thousand bit bounty. Considering our group barely worked together enough to take down someone with a 10mm pistol, I doubt these would fare well for us; as such, I’ll simply ignore them for now.

There are also a couple of notable bounty hunters on here too, odd that they would be put on display but considering one of them has 60 confirmed bounties she has completed, it might be a scare tactic. That bounty hunter specifically does look a bit young in the photo, almost the size of a filly, but I assume it’s either an older picture or the photo simply didn’t take very well. In either case, unless one of us gets a bounty, which seems to be unlikely, they won’t matter either.

I turn my attention to the main missions, some are smaller scale, get someone bread, deliver a letter, drive out a few ghouls, etc. most of which seem like they could work for a starting mission but none appear to be worth it in terms of the compensation. Finally my eyes land on one that seems promising.

“Slavers have taken a group of civilians from Dodge City, they have either arrived or will be arriving in Old Appleloosa soon, and from there will likely be taken to Rottingham. Return the civilians to Dodge City with as few casualties as possible. Reward 2K caps, 200 less for each casualty, see Doctor Wheat Grass upon completion.”

Returning a bunch of slaves from a raider camp doesn’t seem that hard; effectively, it’s just slightly upscaled from what we just came back from doing a few days ago, no deaths would be difficult however considering the team. I take the contract down and show it to Ma. “Where might these towns be?”

Ma looks at the contract with a nod and a somewhat solemn look on her face. “Ah, this one. This was posted a couple days ago, after they had been captured… One of our scouts did the recon and Doctor Grass put out the reward numbers. It’s a fairly common routine we’ve seen, they take ponies from a nearby town, bring them to Old Appleloosa for various reasons, and then after a few weeks they get moved to Rottingham. After that, we never see any of them again. Dodge City is a day or two to the east of here. Old Appleloosa is the same to the south although the ground isn’t the most steady so if you’ll be going down there stay on the tracks. The ground underneath was reinforced in order to withstand the train so it’s some of the only parts that don’t have pitfalls scattered across the ground. Once you get about halfway there, you can either go the slightly longer but safer way, which is along the mountain tops; it’ll add about 2 more days to your journey. Or you can go along the tracks themselves… The only danger with that is pretty obvious with the train passing through there every now and again for trades. However, we haven’t gotten anything back from them for a while now, so there’s no telling when the train would pass through, and there isn’t anywhere for you to escape if it does.”

She takes a deep breath before shaking her head and handing back the contract to me. “Rottingham is a bit northwest of the Canterlot ruins, not much is up there and it’s a very long journey by hoof, so your best bet would be catching them in Old Appleloosa. I’m not entirely sure myself how they transport so many ponies such a distance, likely some form of magic, but once they set out on the road to Rottingham it’s unlikely you’ll be able to catch up. Considering this was posted a few days ago and they usually stay in Old Appleloosa for around 2-3 weeks, possibly to stock up on supplies, you probably have around 2 weeks before they leave at least. ”

I nod, rolling up the contract to put it into my bag. “You have my thanks, Ma. You sure do know a lot about this town, huh? Have you been here for a while?”

She looks me up and down for a moment before her cheerful grin returns to her face and she runs a hoof through her mane. “I’ve been here for most of my life actually; didn’t have a family to call my own, was orphaned before I could even walk or so I was told. I spent my days learning to survive, fighting, trading, shootin’. Ms. Ditzy took me in and showed me the ropes… said I had some sorta promise showin’ or something. Since then I decided I wanted to be like her, help folks the best I can, and did pretty well till Tolson showed up. Lots of hurdles he presented but ain’t nothin a mother can’t fix. I treat that boy like my own flesh and blood, I treat a lot of folks like that since him. He’s a good boy, just a bit rough around the edges till you get to know him, a heart of gold and a face to match.” She shakes her head and turns towards the doors to Ditzy’s shop. “Could you do me a favor and check up on him? The poor boy hasn’t had much company lately and while I appreciate his help, always have, he’s a loner at heart and I get worried bout him sometimes. He’s in the blue house on the other side of town. Well, I say ‘house’, but everything’s a train car ‘round here… Anyways, he’ll be in there.”

A loner at heart, huh? Sounds quite like Vision. I’m not sure how well I’d get along with him, he doesn’t seem to be the nicest person, although honestly neither was Vision back in the academy. He used to punch ponies if they said the wrong word and they kept a distance from him. He’s one of my closest friends and I can’t imagine what it would be like for him without someone like me to keep him in check. I wonder if Tolson is the same way.

“I’ll pay him a visit in a moment then. Thank you for all of your help, Ma, it has been quite informative.” She smiles at me before heading in through the doors. Such a sweet smile, you would never think she could break steel... What a dangerous combo. I nod to her and shuffle my pack before turning to look at the train cars on the other side of town, efficient to make housing out of them. If Tolson becomes close to the party, maybe we could use it as a secondary housing in case our first one here gets looted.

I started my walk to the blue train car that Ma had gestured to; it was the only blue one on that side of town, so it was pretty clear which one she had meant. The clop of my hooves against the ground was rather peaceful as they were dulled by the soft dirt under me and I idly wondered what Vision was up to in the bar; from the sounds of it, he hadn't started a bar fight yet which was good. Upon arriving at the door I shrugged my shoulders back and tapped my hoof against it, waiting for a response. After a few minutes, Tolson opens the door and stares at me…

Neither of us said anything for another couple of minutes.

Tolson rests against the door and says, “Are you going to say something Automatic Bisectomy, or are we just going to keep standing here?”

I take a few moments to stare at him, attempting to rack my brain for a response to such an… interesting statement. “Um… Ma told me to check up on ya, she said something about you being alone a lot and figured I could keep you company. It’s not my first choice, or my current interest, but I figured it could be an interesting time.” I shrug my gun against my shoulder, moving its weight to better rest on my haunches as I look past his shoulders to see if I can observe anything in his house. From what I can see, there is an edge of a terminal, but aside from that, it’s almost as barren as he is; the room seems to be slightly green but that may just be my eyes adjusting to the dark of the house.

He looks at me deadpan for a moment, the tension in the air seems palpable. “Uh huh. So, what was your first choice then?” His body language suggests that he seems to be exceedingly bored… that, or he just straight up doesn’t care. I can’t quite tell, which is impressive, but also vaguely worrying.

“I was planning on going over to a house that Ms. Ditzy suggested my group take lodging in, I have to wait for my companions to come back so scouting the area out, getting provisions and setting up camp is my first instinct. If they don’t come back from the hellhole that they went into, then Vision and I will simply go on the contract Ma gave us alone. Not the best idea to go on a dangerous mission with only the two of us, but we need the caps.” I shrug, staring at him, returning that same cold uncaring body language he is presenting.

“Which house?”

“The red one a couple buildings away from Ms. Ditzy’s shop.” I’m not entirely sure where he’s going with this line of questioning, and I’m starting to feel a bit awkward just standing here staring at him. I should end this conversation soon if it doesn’t go further, although he could be a helpful asset in the future like he was in Hope. “Do you know the building?”

He hasn’t moved at all since the start of the conversation and continues to hold that same rigid posture. “Good news, that building isn’t one that the owner blew their brains out in. Should be suitable. Provisions should be easily attainable through Whiskey’s, especially since Chicken Wings loves to start stuff and drink his worries away.”

I tilt my head for a second trying to figure out what he means, then I realize he’s talking about Vision. He seems to nickname everyone he encounters, except Ma and Ms. Ditzy. I wonder if it’s a habit from his past. “Well, that’s good to know at least. Once my crew gets back, should be in around a week or so, we’re going to be going on a contract that Ma gave us to save some civilians that are being transported to Old Appleloosa to be used as slaves. Would you be interested in coming along? Since Ma said I should check up on you since you're often alone I assume she meant to have you join us if you're interested.” While it’s not my first option to have him come along, he seemed to be quite competent in massacring large groups, so as long as he’s aware of who's on his team it should be fine.

Immediately after I asked this, I started to regret the question as he started to smile. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue; however, the way he smiled is what truly unnerved me, it’s also the same disturbing smile that he had back inside of Hope, directly before he commenced the slaughter. His mouth slowly pulls backwards into a smile, far wider than it should have been able to without splitting his lips. I not only could see his front row of teeth, but I could also see the back row almost glinting in the light. The oddest part, aside from the sheer joy seeming to radiate from this pony who previously was like a stone pillar, is that his teeth were absolutely flawless. Considering the general state of the world, flawless teeth are not a common sight, never mind half-decent teeth. Even my own teeth have nicks and some are jagged just from being on missions and eating the food we do.

“Well, if Ma’s mentioning me, that means I got a new job… Good, I’ve been getting bored.” The way he says this is probably the most unnerving part of this entire conversation, even past his teeth. He seems to be taking a strange amount of pleasure in the words as they flow from his lips. I honestly preferred when he was emotionless.

“Right... Uh, well, the group should be back within the week as I said. The scheduled time for us to leave will be in 9 days; with or without the rest of the party, that shall be when we depart. If you are inclined to join, be sure to be at the gates at that time. Also, the contract we are making specifies that the more civilians we bring back alive, the more pay we get. As such, while you can kill as many slavers as you deem necessary, keep the innocents out of your sights as best you can. I’m still not sure how well this group will handle a mission like this one, so I’ll be trying to keep an eye on things as best as I can.” I stand up a bit straighter and look back over my shoulder as prep work starts to flow through my head.

“See you at 0500 on the dot on the 9th day. I’ll make sure to bring… eh, 30 shells.” At this he simply turns around and walks back inside, leaving the door open as I turn my head back to him. I was intending to ask why 30 shells specifically, but figured he had some reason for it. I shrug and turn back towards the rest of the town and start making my way to the red house. Based on his statement it might be a regularity that people kill themselves here, I’m not particularly surprised but it does make me wonder about the general mentality and morality that this town holds. If the people’s morale is that low it could be a problem if this becomes a long term situation. Here’s hoping he’s simply exaggerating.

The nine days have finally passed, Melody, Junker, and Marrow got into town a couple of days ago, seeming rather tired but accomplished. I had let them rest for a bit before I decided to fill them in on everything we have up to date. We have quite a bit of caps that we’ll be spending primarily on ammo, food, and medicine if we can find any traders for it. We have a mission to head down south to Old Appaloosa to save people, and that Tolson would be joining us for the time being as per Ma’s request.

The party seems fairly alright with all of that was stated, Marrow being the first to pipe up out of the group. “Before we decide to head on our way it might be best if we find out the path we’ll be taking first. Do you have a map?” Thankfully Ma was nice enough to hand me one a few days ago, she was only willing to accept 5 caps for the map and wouldn’t let me push it, so I put it down on the table.

“Ma said that the path was rather difficult, the ground around the tracks is loose and has a lot of pitfalls, so we should stay on the tracks as much as possible. That being said,” I move my hoof to where the mountain area is down south. “She said around here is when we have a split off point. We can either go across the rails, which would be heavily dangerous as there is no ground surrounding that stretch of tracks, and we have no idea when the train will move through there. Or we can take the mountains, but it’d likely add another two or so days to our trip.”

Melody props herself up onto the table we’re all seated around, she being the only one that is too small to properly make herself seen, and states “Considering most of us can’t fly like you two I suggest the mountains. It’ll take longer, but it will be safer in the long run. I can heal many things, but a puddle of goo is not one of them.” The others seem to nod in agreement.

“Fair point, the mountains we shall take then. Considering it is cold up there and likely will be snowing I’ll be sure to pack up some torches and sleeping bags for all of us. It’s a dangerous trip for certain but we’ll at least be putting a name for ourselves out there which, for our party, might be necessary. It’ll at the very least make sure that when we encounter problems like slavers, they’ll have a possible reason to not shoot first.” I shoot a glance at Vision as I say this. As much as I believe that our group having a name for itself will be a good plan, I also know I have to keep both Vision and myself out of that name as much as possible. His family will certainly make things an issue if we became well known. Vision nods to me, seeming to read my thoughts.

Tolson speaks up for the first time since the full crew has gathered, looking at all of the ponies around the table. “I’ll be blunt, the mountains are cold and I’m not dragging frozen ponies off a mountain. So if you die, I'm gonna take your supplies, and divy them up to everyone else here. Y’all ain't allowed to die… So don’t. Ma told me to keep ponies safe, so you're going to be alive. I will drag your happy soul back into your broken bodies if I have to, if at all possible.”

The group gets a bit quiet for a moment, then I speak up again. “Rough paths are those that get traveled with caution. I’ll see to our preparations, we should all meet up at the front gate in about an hour. Get what you need to get done, done.” I start making my way to Ditzy’s store knowing that if anyone is going to back out, they’ll do so when I get to the gates.

After a while I stepped out of Ditzy’s store, it took her a bit to find everything as it was rather scattered around the store but eventually I ended up with around 12 torches, 7 sleeping bags, in case one gets damaged, several weeks of rations, and frankly some hope. I arrived at the gates to see the full party surprisingly there. Tolson, Junker, Melody, Marrow, and Vision chatting with one another as the day slowly passes, all looking up as I arrive and getting to their hooves. I nod at them and start making my way to the gates stepping onto the tracks that lead south, the rest behind me.

We aren’t the greatest group in the world, in fact I can probably name you 12 problems with our team right off the top of my head. But they’ve at least proven themselves somewhat competent, stubborn, and either stupid or determined. Down in this hellhole that’s really all you can ask for. I’ll put my faith in them for now, who knows what dangers face us ahead. I can only hope we’ll survive them.