Fallout: Equestria: Art of The Trade

Chapter two

Wasted Glares

~| Storm |~

Coral Note and I trotted through the wastelands quietly. I didn’t mind it, it gave me time to think about what had happened at the stable. Who was Berry curse? How had he get out of the stable and why did it hesitate. sooner or later my thoughts strayed to the land around me, I noticed that there was almost nothing around us. It shouldn’t have shocked me, but add I had Strangely imagined it to have a blue sky, green grass and beautiful clear waters, but this… this was empty. There was almost nothing, no trees, no grass, no wind… it scares me in a way to think about what had happened to the land to make it like this… It was so empty… I shook away the dark thoughts and sighed.‘Coral Note was awfully cheerful as we trotted along. It was strange compared to when I had first met her. ‘She had a gun to my head for fucks sakes!’ I didn’t want to say anything, knowing that Coral Note apparently had ‘another personality’ known as meanie-pants. I wanted to ask her about it. How did she get her other personality, how is she able to travel with it in her head… “you grow used of it after awhile.” My head snapped around to look at Coral Note, she had a strange smile oh her face. A mix between pain and happiness. I frowned. “What? How did you-“ she interrupted me quickly. “Know what you were thinking?” She grew into a fit of giggles, shaking out her coat. “That’s a secret I can’t tell.” She managed to gasp between giggles.

Later she had calmed down, but still had a bright smile on her face. We were now following a rocky trail, I tried to ignore a broken down building as we passed. maybe there were stuff we could use. “I wouldn’t try, that building could fall down at any moment.” That’s when I noticed it was almost nightfall. “Shouldn’t we at least find shelter?” Coral Note let out a low hum and I stared at her confused, at that moment of course I just had to trip over what, at first I thought was a root, but the rational side of me obviously had to have a say. ‘‘there’s no trees here you idiot’ so naturally I told Coral Note to wait as I stared at the ‘root’, to my horror it a bone, a whole fucking skeleton to be exact. It was half covered in dirt. Except there was one part that stuck up, a yellowish colour came to it, of course it was just waiting for me to trip over it. “Oh ya.. I should have told you about that,” Coral Note muttered, suddenly appearing by my side, “Oh ya. That would have been brilliant” I mumbled, turning away, I made sure to kick a little more dirt over it and I held back a giggle as Coral Note done the same. “C-can we fly? I don’t want to uhh…” trailing off I turned and nodded back to the skeleton. “I-I don’t think that’s a good idea… with my uh… other personality and everything.” Coral Note trailed off to a whisper and I only just managed to catch the last parts. “What’s the worst that can happen?” I opened my wings as she turned away.

Well it turned out the worst that could happen was a very angry Coral Note and a very dizzy Storm Flare. Coral Note had knocked both of us to the ground almost as soon as we started flying. It turned out Flying triggered a personality change! ``how was I supposed to know that.’ I thought, letting out a groan as Coral Notes other side stood above me with an annoyed glare. “So your telling me! That that other self said you can come along.” She huffed, staring down at me with now a disbelieving expression. “If I’m not mistaken I already repeated that about three times now.” And that’s what got me another whack on the head. ‘Thank you for that Coral Note,’ I thought. Rolling my eyes. “I think I’ve been hit on the head far to many times now Coral. Now if you would please get off me, that would be great.” Coral Note once again (might I add for the tenth time now) gave me a disbelieving and annoyed glare, “Look… I don’t know your name, but I don’t think you should come with me. Your better off alone! besides. I don’t trust, nor like you.” Coral Note drawled ‘ouch’ I felt a flash of annoyance at Coral Notes words. “Well I don’t think it’s a good idea to just go trotting back into the welcoming arms of the ghoul. It’s not like it’s going to murder me. We’ll have a very lovely tea part-“ and there’s the other whack to the head. “Fine! Just shut up already. You may have saved our lives in a way? but if you even show a sign of betraying me....” she trailed off and turned away. I felt amused at that as I held back a cheeky grin. Coral Notelooked around, she narrowed her eyes and turned away as I stood up and shook out my coat, she started to trot in the same direction as before. “Well get a move on lazy lump! I want to get back before tomorrow!” Instantly I trotted to follow her and once again there was silence.

Finally I worked up the nerve to talk to Coral Note. “Are we there yet?” Coral Note groaned and her ears twitched. “No. It’s like I’m dealing with a child!” Coral Note was definitely not happy with me. Once again, my thoughts strayed to our surroundings. As I stared up at the sky I saw a flash of a pony. Is disappeared almost instantly, but I was sure I seen it.

All to suddenly darkness faded into my vision and I had a moment of panic when I could no longer hear hear Coral Notes steps. “C-Coral Note?” My ears pricked when I couldn’t hear anything, suddenly I was able to see the outlines of trees and ponies in the darkness. The stars faded in along with sound. the moon shone bright, giving everything a silver glow. I stared shocked as ponies laughed and danced around me, the smell of a burning fire and marshmallows fresh in the air as young and old sat by the fires, foals ran around laughing and adults talked in small groups. The open field was beautiful, lit with lanterns and campfires. Tents scattered all around. The grass was lush and soft under my hooves as I trotted around, it was as if I wasn’t in control of my own actions. “Storm Flare! I’m over here. Come on!” I turned to meet the face of a beautiful black mare, she had grey eyes and purple main, I would have believed she was beautiful if she wasn’t scowling at me like I was their child and I was going to school on the first day without a shower. “Get your butt over here and stop stalling, we have a mission to complete.” I couldn’t remember this mares name, and yet she seemed to know me. I felt a smirk cross over my face as I walked towards her. “Save your rant for another day, let’s go.”

I tripped over my own hooves as a sudden light flooded into my vision and a very annoyed voice spoke. “As I was saying before you decided that you wanted to collapse dramatically to the ground! there’s a place we can rest for a bit. We’ll get there by noon tomorrow, unless you want to hurry up and get your butt off the ground.” I looked around, confusion flooding through my thoughts. “But… wasn’t I just? How did-“ I cut myself off and shook my head rapidly. “Fine, lets go.” I stood up and Coral Note rolled her eyes.

The trip was quite and interesting, Coral Note was quite And I had a feeling half way that we were being watched. She let me have a drink of water from her canteen and it was then that I noticed I was hungry. I didn’t want to say anything because it looked like she would just get mad at me… again.

By now I was able to see Canterlot in the distance. Honestly… I was expecting more than dusty and nearly torn down buildings. As we approached canterlot I seen that it was empty and there were no other ponies there, but why did I hear voices? And then, right on cue Coral Note spoke “We live in a bar… me and my partner Ruby Lilly. It would be best if you let me do the talking. she can be… difficult when it comes to new ponies.” Coral Notes voice shocked me out of my haze, my vision cleared and the voices stopped. “Y-ya… okay… sounds good.” Taking a deep breath I looked around, the buildings seemed to be mostly broken and unstable, but yet still safe. The roads were cracked and almost non existent, besides from the large chunks randomly in the middle. There was dust in the air, making it feel weird to breath and it was oddly quiet, as if this place was supposed to be loud. I pricked my ears as the sound of laughter filled the town, voices and music added in and the smell of freshly baked goods filled my senses. “Hey! Storm. I heard that they have the best cakes in canterlot. Can we can we please stop by?” A young childish voice came from her right and she looked down. “No. We need to hurry.” I didn’t recognize her own voice as she spoke. It was cold and somewhat threatening, I stared down at the filly as she cowered away. I turned away and sped up.

“Will you stop spacing out when I try to talk to you?” The voice of Coral Note snapped Me back to the present, just in time for me to avoid tripping over a rock. “I’m thinking. Will you stop trying to talk to me when I’m thinking.” There was a pause before whack. And there’s another whack to the head. “Will you stop that! Next thing you know I’ll be getting a concussion from all this whack a Storm game!” I gave a huff as Coral Note rolled her eyes and continued. “I’ll stop... when you stop being an idiot.”

Coral Note was now leading me into a bar. She looked around and sighed. “Ruby Lilly!” She called, trotting in. “Yes?” A dark grey mare came in around a corner. “Who’s this? Someone looking for a trade I’m guessing.” I held my tongue as Coral Note started to speak. “I found her at stable 16. She claims to have woken up there not remembering anything, no name, not a single mem-“ I interrupted her. “Ya we get it Coral Note. I’m Storm Flare and I can’t remember anything. Oh joy to me.” I went over to Coral Note and Ruby Lilly. “You went to stable 16! I strictly told you not to go there.” Ruby Lilly snapped, looking between the two of us with the same disbelieving and annoyed look I have received from Coral Note how many times on the way here. “Yes…” she trailed off and looked away, “Fine… take her somewhere she can stay, we’ll talk about this in the morning.” I had just noticed it was sundown again. The surroundings getting darker around us.

“Welcome to Canterlot.”