Fallout Equestria: Hopeless and Hollow
Glasses clink and ponies laugh as they enjoy a brief moment of happiness. It, of course, was an attempt to forget that we live in a goddess forsaken wasteland. I, myself, indulged in a fine cup of gutrot. The stuff isn't so bad that it physically hurts, but the aftertaste left a lot to be desired.
A pegasus in a tattered enclave uniform took a seat next to me wrapped in several dirty bandages and covered in mud. “Hey barkeep, give me something. I don’t care what, just as long as It gets me smashed,” he said with an all too familiar strained voice.
“Raiders?” I asked before throwing the rest of my gutrot down my throat, finishing the cup.
He slowly looked over at me with a twitch in his right eye. He let out a long sigh before letting his head fall to the table. “Almost every fucking day. It’s like They’re born from the ground itself! How can there be so many fucking raiders?! How do you ponies live like this?!”
The Bartender passed a cup of gutrot to the stallion and another to me. I had paid in advance. Taking the cup, I slammed it back, burning its way down, “Like that fly pony.” Wiping my mouth, I looked at the stallion with a playful smile. “We just accept that it’s never going to end, otherwise you will drive yourself mad then you go raider yourself.”
The stallion looked up at me, a bit shocked and confused. “That’s insane! There's no way thinking that things can get better will turn you raider.”
I tipped my cup over as the alcohol finally started to affect me properly, “Well, there are many different kinds of raiders out there, such as raider tribes too dumb to survive without preying on other ponies. There are ponies who are in such a desperate situation that they'd die if they didn't go raider, or even the odd ganger group that’s gone rogue. But all of them can, if a bit crudely, be reasoned with, or at least scared off. The real mad raiders, as you have likely seen, are the ones who charge in without a care for their own lives. If they win, they will rape you, kill you, then rape your corpse before eating you! Those raiders are born from the broken minds of those who thought they could escape the wasteland itself. With so many ponies trying to find an escape, there will never be an end to them. Even if you happen to kill them all, They will return in time.”
“Bullshit!” the stallion huffed before taking a swig of his gutrot, almost spitting it back up soon after. “Shit this shit is… shit,” he took another swig, this time finding it slightly easier to handle. “What are you, some sort of raider expert?”
The bartender placed another cup of gutrot in front of me, taking the used one.
“No,” I answered. “I’ve just been in the wasteland long enough to see that shit happen over and over. Sometimes it’s a friend who’s chem abuse didn’t just turn her into a raider, but their foal too. There was even a wannabe hero who went crazy when none of the good they did mattered. Lucky they were more of a thinker than a fighter. The worst time was when I watched a whole town go raider. The place was an oasis of peace outside the wasteland which later burned itself down for the dumbest reason ever.”
He laughed, “A whole town? You gotta be shitting me… wait, you're serious, aren't you?”
I smiled again. “You want to hear about it? I’m in a bit of a storytelling mood right now.” The stallion slowly nodded. I took a swig of my gutrot. “Right, well it happened several years ago, not long after I quit my job in Redeye’s army. That’s a different story, but let’s say, after that bullshit, I needed to get as far away from the wasteland as possible. Fortunately, there happened to be this nice town up in some mountains that had recently become independent from Redeye. They were too far away from Fillydelphia, and even harder to get to, for Redeye to waste resources on. That place was a town called Hope Hollow.”
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Fallout Equestria: Hopeless and Hollow
By Dice Warwick
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After many days of travel through the uninhabited wasteland, mountains, and then a forest, our group finally made it to our destination.
“Here we are, Missy. Welcome to our peaceful paradise away from the wasteland, Hope Hollow.” The old stallion raised a hoof up at the town entrance. What stood was the remains of an archway, broken and colors faded, but there was enough to recognize what I could guess was a rainbow.
Only seen rainbows in old wartime posters, so I could only guess.
Off to the side were several ponies working on a large sign that had the words "Hope Hollow" painted on it.
“It’s mighty lucky ya found me. We're still trying to fix up this old ruin, and having a skilled hunter is going to put a real hop in our step, and meat in our belly,” he said to me as the others trotted ahead of us.
“Ya, it’s… a pleasure.” I pulled out my flask and drank the last bit of luna shine I had on me.
The old stallion just sighed and trotted forward into the town. I followed. I had barely talked on the long trip here since I was not interested in getting friendly with anypony, but since I was the only pony with any skills outside labor, he had tried to at least talk with me. Not that I wanted to be rude to the old and friendly stallion, but I just couldn't bring myself to even pretend to be friendly.
Truthfully, I just wanted to be alone, and this job offered exactly that opportunity.
The old stallion pointed at an old building in the middle of town. “So, for your time here, we do have a communal room at the visitor center.”
“No thanks,” I said as my eyes scanned the town, falling on the ruins of a windmill outside of town next to a cliff. "That windmill," I spoke up as I pointed over to the ruin. It was in a good position to keep an eye out for trouble. There was no overgrowth for something to hide in, and far enough away from all the ponies that I can actually be left alone. “Is that place available?”
He scratched his head for a moment. “I think so… though I heard it was near the bottom of the list of the building to repair, as it’s so far out of town. Wouldn't you rather have a roof over your head?”
I shook my heavy saddlebag. “I have a tent, and I can easily fortify a place like that.”
He sighed and nodded. “Alright, I’ll go talk to the mayor. Just wait there… miss?”
Right. I never gave him my name.
“Rook,” I answered. With that, he trotted off.
While staying in the town center, I trotted about so I could look around a bit. Hope Hollows was not much different from any larger settlements I had seen. They were sturdy, if ancient buildings, as well as possessing a few shops, though they seemed more like decoration with how little stuff they seem to have in stock. What was most interesting was all the tato plants all over the town. As disgusting to eat they were, it was a good sign of this town’s stability. Just one tato being good enough to be considered a meal.
Reaching out to check one of the plants, I found it a little larger than average bright red tato. It actually looked like it would taste good, but I knew better. Under that red skin was overly bitter tan flesh.
Still, if worst comes to worst, this town had food, making me wonder why they needed a hunter to begin with.
“Another new pony. Please tell me that old fool finally found another farmer,” the voice of another old stallion caught me off guard. He somehow got behind me without my notice.
“No, I’m here as a hunter,” I responded as I turned to look at the pony. He was even older than the last one with a long white beard, a hat made of dried grass, and covered in mud. “Why do you need a farmer? It looks like you're doing more than well with all the tato’s.”
He rolled his eyes. “Another one! Listen here, missy, I’m currently the only pony who knows how to tend to a damaged plant properly. All the iggits here are eather too dumb to learn how, or too self-important to want to learn. Now please tell me you have at least a little knowledge on how to farm crops?”
I shook my head. “From the Luna Glass Canyon Bridge, the land there is too tainted to grow any plants, so all there is to eat are scorpions and rad-roaches.”
The farmer chewed on a piece of grass for a moment and sighed. “Ah, I remember now. One of them, rowdy mercenary clanners Redeye used to take over Fillydelphia. The something scorpions?”
“White Scorpions, and I rather not talk about Filly,” I answered, now feeling like I need another drink.
“Well, at least you look like you can take care of yourself. You got some good legs on ya.” He spat out his piece of grass. “I could use some help clearing out some land. An old friend of mine from Filly sent me a bunch of corn seeds, and I aim to grow them.”
I shrugged. “Whatever, if you got the caps. Just to warn you, my skill set is in killing shit, not manual labor.”
He chuckled, “My friend is the same. Never thought she’d become a farmer. Just come by when you're available. My farms passed the dead apricot trees.”
Looking over where he was pointing I saw a burnt out house with gnarled dead trees that had long ago grown through it. Passed that, I saw a small shack surrounded by tato plants.
I nodded, and he trotted off.
I looked around a bit more. I did not see anything of interest other than a few ponies trying to fix up a roof. They had little success outside hurting themselves.
“Miss Rook!” a mare called out to me. I turned to see a slightly older pegasus mare in an old business suit. “I’m the Mayor, and on behalf of Hope Hollow, thank you for coming to our little paradise away from the wasteland.”
She was far too chipper for my liking, but I didn’t plan on talking with her all that much, so I could tolerate it.
“For your request to take up residence in the old windmill is, I’ve decided to allow it, but if ever change your mind and decide to move closer to town, then just come see me. I’ll set you up with any new rooms available.” She offered.
“Thanks for the offer, but I doubt I will be changing my mind,” I told her candidly.
She shrugged and shook her head. “Wastlanders.” Her response confused me for a moment until I saw that her cutie-mark had been burnt off, replaced by the symbol of a dashight, meaning she was an exile from the clouds. “Well, just remember that you're here to do a job and not just squat and eat our food. We got enough ponies trying to do that as it is.”
“Now you don't need to deliver the meat every day. We’re not slave drivers like Redeye, but when you can, bring it to the cook’s house.” She pointed at one of the run-down shops. “The place is run by a pony who knows how to cook and preserve food, and is in charge of its distribution.”
“And my payment for my work?” I asked. I did not expect much, but I am not interested in working for free.
She put on a big smile, “Don’t worry! We have more than enough caps to pay you, and pay you well too. Though it’s still small, Hope Hollow is on the track of being the biggest, and currently the only, logging business in Equestria.”
“Currently, Redeye is paying a premium for wood, and we seek to capitalize on that. Unfortunately, the main problem is with how far away we are from everypony, and that there's no train tracks between us and Filly. So, until the merchants are willing to come up to us regularly, getting supplies of food and water is difficult at the best of times, but that’s why you’re here. Help keep the loggers fed, and I will make damn sure you get paid.” The Mayor clarified.
“Alright, then I’ll go and get settled in, but before I go, is there a place I can get some booze here?” I asked, hoping for some good news.
The Mayor rolled her eyes. “You're looking for the boutique. It’s been set up aa the town’s watering hole. The current stock is limited, but it should have what you want.”
With that, I trotted off.
The bar was a bar. I got in before the town’s ponies stopped by. I got myself a bottle of distilled booze. Feeling better after a few swigs of whatever crap they were selling, I made my way up to the windmill just as the sun was setting. A cold wind had started to blow in. Setting up my camp inside the ruins, along with a few basic defenses, I settled in for a solitary life.
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A few days passed fairly quickly as I got used to the area. I got my campsite properly secured then went out into the woods to both make guiding posts and to set up traps for wildlife. I had been half-expecting for something to come after me, as most creatures tended to attack on sight in the wasteland, but I found them far more skittish around here, so I hadn’t been able to get much in the way of meat.
My current solitary existence did have me feeling better, so I decided to get more proactive with the hunting. since the traps had not snagged anything big enough to feed more than one pony. With a better understanding of the forest and how to get back to town, I had gone deeper into the woods, rifle at the ready.
Fortune had smiled on me. I managed to locate several turkeys. One of them being bigger and spat fire, so I shot it dead first.
With something to show for my work, I set back to town. The trip took much of the day, so by the time I had gotten to the cook, the sun was already starting to set.
In the cook's place was a less than happy looking mare with several knives and other cooking implements on her belt. She sighed in relief, "Poultry? Ya, that will get the loggers to stop their bitching. Just leave ‘em on the counter, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
The cook gave me a small but fair sum of caps before trotted over to the windows. She closed the ragged blinds of her shop. Looking about, the place was full of tato’s and a few other plants I had seen in the forest. She didn’t come off as some medical mare, so it had to be some edible plants.
“What’s the going rate for the wild plants?” I asked, seeing an opportunity to make a few extra caps.
The cook cracked a smile as she answered, “For the mushrooms and root vegetables, I can give you several caps for a basket full, though you might want to take some to the farmer first. He's been trying to cultivate some of that shit in town as everypony is getting sick of just tato’s every day.”
Nodding, I made a mental note before leaving. I made my way to the bar.
The caps I had earned were good for a few stiff drinks, of which I indulged before I was to set back to the windmill. Some of the loggers were inside, rowdy as ponies were. One of the young stallions attempted to bother me, but a swift glare sent him back to his friends. It had killed the mood for me, and I left.
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More days passed as I got into a routine of checking my traps in the morning, tying up any critter that I had caught, gathering any herbs, roots, and mushrooms I came across. If I had a good enough hull, I’d head down to town to sell them, otherwise I stay in the woods to hunt.
In town, I’d stop by the farmer’s place to help with whatever he needed labor for. I’d use the caps he gave me at the bar.
It was hard living, but peaceful. It was nothing like the chaos of Fillydelphia. No ghouls coming out of the sewers, no blote sprites shooting larva at you, no slaves looking for an opportunity to attack, or Slavers looking for a new toy.
Though, out here, if I got myself badly hurt, it was unlikely anypony would know what had happened to me for days.
Then again, back in Fillydelphia, the ponies would likely just finish me off and take my gear, so no real difference.
“That don’t look too good” the farmer spoke up, checking his tato plant.
Tossing some bramble to the side, I trotted over to see what he was going on about. The plant itself looked healthy enough. In fact, nothing about the tato itself was off. The only thing different was a bug on the plant, eating a leaf. “You might need to explain?” I asked.
He pulled a leaf that the bug was on and brought it closer to me. “Caterpillars, ya don’t see too many of them in the wasteland, but they always show up if you're near any woods. Damn pests love tato leaves. They can wreak havoc on the crop while they're here.”
“Good thing we got plenty of tato’s,” I said as I pushed the bug away from me.
The farmer nodded, tossing the bug away. “Eyp, caterpillar season isn't too long. As long as ya have enough tato plants, it’s not too difficult to recover, though a big town like this will need to tighten our belts till the caterpillars pass, just so we don’t burn through our food stock too fast before the next harvest can take place.”
I knew that tato’s grew year-round and fairly regularly, so the rationing of food would only last a month, two at worst.
“So wasteland portions for now, then,” I reasoned.
He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lighter, offering me one before placing a stick in his mouth. “That’s correct miss, though we should have enough for the ponies here to have a bit more than that. Now if you would finish clearing that bramble, and I’ll get your pay.”
Taking a long drag, the smoke entered my lungs. I felt a bit more relaxed.
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Another small haul, but fortunately this time I managed to capture several live pheasants, of which the cook was happy to take off my hooves to butcher later. She also took the herbs, roots, and mushrooms I had delivered. She cut them up then threw them in a large tato stew that the town fed to the loggers. I had tried it before. The extra ingredients did help make the stew taste better, but the tato still made it taste like shit.
“For the fifth time, stop picking the tato’s!” I heard the mayor chastise one of the worker ponies as I trotted out. “Once the pests have moved on, then we can return to the usual meal, but until then, we need to ration our food.”
The worker rolled his eyes and trotted off before the mayor noticed me and sighed.
“When there's a lot of mouths to feed, there's going to be ponies who eat more than the others,” the mayor mentioned out loud. “What was the saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same?”
I just shrugged. “Back with my clan, if you are hungry and there is no food to go around, then you just go out and get some.” I looked over at the dirty and skinny stallion before he rounded a corner. “Though I don’t trust them to not accidentally shoot if they tried to go hunting.”
The mayor chuckled. “Tell me about it. You ground tredders have strange habit of surviving while not knowing what the fuck you’re doing. Just last week, I found out that one of the loggers had been working with an open wound for the last few days. It had something to do with playing with an axe. I don’t even know how he’s still alive, but he is.” She then gave another, and longer, sigh. “The whole food rationing thing has them a bit on edge. Strange how they barely got even one meal a day before coming here. You’d think they would just accept eating a little less for a month or two and get back to work.”
I nodded. “Ponies get used to having more and don’t like it when they go back to having less. Back in Filly, I’ve seen a few of the slaves kill each other to just keep their extra half a bowl of slop. Had to even break up slave riots once. It all started because a few of them got extra slop, and the other slaves wanted them to share. The fucking slavers let the fight happen, taking bets on who would win, so us mercenaries had to be called down from the wall to deal with it.”
“Makes me miss the enclave sometimes.” The mayor stretched out her wings. One of them bent in an odd direction. “Up there, everything was rationed. If anypony tried to take more for themselves, there was a whole military that would come down on them.” She paused for a moment before sighing a third time. “Now that I remember, the food up there was just as bad, though more tasteless and mushy, rather than bitter and crunchy.”
We parted ways. I got a few more drinks before heading to the windmill. The bar had more ponies in it. They got drunk off the shit booze this place made.
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Finally, I caught something big, though I wasted most of my ammo to put it down. Oddly, it was a radiator who had big claws, scaly hide, and a shit ton of sharp teeth. If it had not gotten tangled in my traps, it would have found itself in a nasty fight. As I dragged it back to my camp, I could only make a mental note to add some extra traps around the windmill in case this monster had family nearby.
After cutting the fucker up for better transportation, I placed the parts onto a sled then dragged it to town along with a few small critters I got, with whatever I had managed to gather. Passing through on the way to the cook’s place, I saw that most of the tato plants were now bare of its “fruit” and many of the leaves had been chewed on by the caterpillars.
"They keep saying it's all fine, but look at the tato's. Don't they die without the leaves?" a townie spoke among a small gossiping crowd.
"I always thought tato plants were supposed to be brown and small. I never saw a green one before coming up here, so I don't know," another towny said openly.
"Maybe it's just the tato's themselves. They get smaller without the leaves. Probably a good idea to grab a few before the mayor hoards them all, just like her kind, with how they hoard the sky back in the wasteland," a third pony said in a low tone.
Pushing on, I trotted to the cook’s place.
“Oy, ya better not be asking about getting more tato’s. This stock's for the loggers!” I was greeted by the cook levitating a cleaver in my face. She took a moment to recognize me before putting the large blade away. “Oh, sorry about that Rook.” I pulled in my hull, and her eyes widened. “Oh thank you! This should get those assholes to shut up.”
Dragging it over to the counter, I began untying the ropes that held the body in place. “It’s really that bad?” I asked as I looked around. The shelves were absolutely packed with tato’s. It was probably more than enough for the town to get by.
The cook rolled her eyes. “The bitching and moaning doesn't end. What’s more, it’s infuriating that their rations have not decreased by all that much. It turns out the farmer is a miracle worker. We actually have far more tato’s than we originally thought. The problem is that they think that the tato plants are going to die. What food we got is all we’re ever going to have or something.”
I cocked an eyebrow at that last part. “Didn’t the farmer tell them that, once the bugs pass, the plants should recover? Also, did they forget I’m around?”
“Bitch, the mayor’s been telling every pony that every day, along with the new crops the farmer’s been growing,” the cook groaned as she trotted over to the dead radagator. “Been a long time since I had radiator meat. Back home, everypony is all talk about being hunters of these fuckers, but we rarely did eat any of their meat.” Her tone sounding bitter as she finished the sentence, her eyes shifting away from mine for a moment.
“Anyways, we can use it’s hide for leather and throw the marrow into the stew.” The cook added, looking back at me with a bright and friendly smile now on her face. It was a bit creepy.
She then jumped over the counter and threw three times as much caps over to me.
“If I didn’t have to get to work on this monster, I’d bend you over the counter right now and give you a special bonus,” she said with a wink.
I avoided eye contact. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed by her advances, but that I was not interested in striking up a relationship with anypony right now.
Well, at least if it was with her, I would not have to worry about having my seventh foal while in this town.
It also had been a long time too, and she was not bad looking.
“Maybe come visit my camp tonight,” I offered, “and bring some booze, then maybe we can see what happens from there.”
This time she looked away, her cheeks now red.
I left the cook’s place and made my way to the general store to stock up on bullets. I could more than handle myself without a gun if I actually had to fight anything. Brass hooves solve a lot of problems, but the skittish critters I was hunting required long-range solutions if they didn't get stuck in a trap first.
Actually, the whole big lizard getting tangled was pure luck. If I was more religious, I would say it was a gift from the dream walking goddess Luna.
The store was filled with junk nicknacks as usual, with anything actually worth something behind the counter. He had a few small guns, ammo, tools, and a bunch of clothes and accessories, but oddly his normally well stock of old-world food was gone.
"Look, as you can see, I'm sold out of all my canned food. If I had more, I would be selling them to you," the store owner told two ponies at his counter, "When the next merchant comes to town, trust me, I'll be getting restocked alright.”
The two ponies finally turned from the counter, trotting passed me. "If he's out of food, then what are we going to do when the tato's run out?" The first pony said, sounding worried.
"There's still time. We can just wait for that traveling merchant he mentioned and buy what food we can before anypony else does," the second pony said quietly, giving me the side-eye before the two left the store.
I trotted up to the counter. The store's owner went from stern-faced to being more relaxed as he sighed in relief. "Good! It's somepony who can get her own damn food."
"Seems like everyone is having a bad time with the rationing, but at least you're making caps," I told him as I put a bag of caps and a bag of bullet casings on the counter, then pointed up at the ammo. "On that, I'll take the .38 rounds you got there."
He nodded and levitated two cartons of the cheap ammo down to me. Taking a look at the bullet casing first, he then counted the caps, taking more than half before pulling out another carton of .38 from under the counter. "That's two cartons of surplus .38, and one carton of the hoof loaded .38 as thanks for bringing in the casings.
“Now, would you be interested in taking the .45 cambered hunting rifle?" he offered.
I shook my head. "If I spent the rest of my caps on that, I'd not have any for my booze."
He chuckled. "Sad to hear that, though you should act quick. I heard that ponies are buying up anything you can eat or drink, booze included."
"Fucking seriously" I huffed. "There can't be that many ponies getting all bent out of shape over the rationing?"
"There isn't actually,” the store owner said while shaking his head. "It seems that the few ponies who had been doing well to save their caps are spooked. They used their savings to buy up as much food and drink as they could. What was left was bought up by the usual ponies, and any pony after had nothing to spend their caps on."
Rolling my eyes, I put the ammo into my saddlebag. "Reminds me of mercs who hoard ammo because they’re worried about not having enough. Always pisses everypony off when we start coming up short because of them. It's why I trained to use my hooves. If I run out of ammo, then I'll just break their face with a good kick."
He gave me a nervous smile as I hoof struck the air. "Charming,” he said as calmly as he could muster. “Well, if you're done shopping, I'm going to get these casings ready to be reloaded."
With my business done, I let him be. I left the shop and made my way to the bar. Fortunately, the bar still had a stock of booze, though the bar itself was busier than the last time I was there. I really didn't want to be around a mob of drunken ponies. Buying a bottle for myself, I left the bar, making my way back to my camp.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning my rifle, loading the magazines, and sorting my supplies.
"You still awake?" the voice of the cook came from outside.
Trotting over to look, she was standing outside the windmill, holding a bottle of lunashine with her magic.
"Decided to bring my personal stash," she said with a smile.
I thought about it for a moment, a bit surprised that she actually came. It was at sunset, meaning it would be dangerous for her to return to town now.
"Alright. Come in, but stay on the path, or you might step on a trap." I informed her.
She sighed then trotted along the path and into my tent inside the windmill. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked around. "This is far more cozy then I thought it was going to be. From what everypony's been saying about you, I was expecting that you were sleeping on a stone slab, exposed to the open air."
I trotted over to an old table I had recovered. The table was warped due to the rot and mold I had carved off it.
"Only when I'm drunk and lost outside." I said jokingly.
"Holy shit! So that's where all that fur went!" She trotted over to my bed and stroked a blanket made from the furs I had gotten from the forest critters. "It’s so soft! I think I would fall asleep as soon as my head touched it."
The cook pulled away, trotting over to me in a more pronounced sway in her hips. "I can see why you want to live out here now. Not even the fixed up houses are this cozy."
She placed two small glasses onto the table and poured the clear liquid into them. The strong smell of alcohol filled my nose. It’s likely strong enough to peel off 200-year-old paint.
We sipped on our lunashin. It burned its way down my throat. The vapor burnt its way back up. I truly missed having good shit like this.
We then spent the night drinking, talking, and sharing my bed. It all was a bit of a blur, but I hadn't felt that good in a long time.
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A few more days passed, and the cook continued to pay me a visit, though she didn't spend the night again. It was clear she liked my place far more than her own.
My own routine hasn't changed all that much. I hunted in the morning and brought what I found in the afternoon, though I found myself dragging my hooves a lot less.
"Alright, that should be it. Let's take them to the compost," The farmer called out as I threw a dead tato plant into an old rusty wheelbarrow. The bugs had done a number of a few of the tato's. He had hired me to collect the dead plants. "If my friend is right, we should be able to turn all this waste into fertilizer and have stronger crops next year."
"Good, because I rather not do this again with all the ponies staring at us." It seemed that the townies didn't have anything better to do than stand around and whisper among each other.
"Agreed, but maybe this will convince them to finally come to me and learn a thing or two about growing crops." The farmer then spit out a glob of tobacco before putting in some more chew into his muzzle. "Or better yet, an actual farmer should come in to join us. If ya can't tell, I'm getting too old to keep this up."
"And I'm working on that, ya old goat" The mayor spoke up from behind us. She was flanked by two ponies armed with pistols. "I've already sent out a few ponies to specifically look for any available farmers. All we can do is cross our feathers for now."
I eyed the two armed ponies carefully. They clearly just the two biggest logger ponies from the townsfolk. To me, nothing about them said trained killers. They were just big and strong.
"So what's with the armed guards?" I asked.
The mayor looked at the two, and waved them off. "Right, you two get to the cook's place." She then looked back at us. "Unfortunately it seems that some ponies have been stealing the tato's whenever the cook’s out. I can't just lock her in there till we can stop rationing, so I'm having the food stock under armed guard. Unfortunately, until we can find the stolen tato's, the rations will have to be reduced to make sure they last until the next harvest."
"Well, make sure to bring the thief to me so that I can shoot tem myself!" The farmer blurted out angrily.
"If you need a proper guard, I'm literally overqualified for it." I offered, feeling a bit worried about the cook.
She just shook her head. "No, and no. You both should just focus on your current jobs. By Celestia, Rook, if you can find another big lizard like last time, that would go a long way to getting everypony to calm down about the food."
"Fair enough, though the radiator might have been a fluke. I’ve never seen one so far away from a sewer before. Though I do have some good news. I did find some radboar tracks. If I can locate them, I should be able to take out at least two before they scatter." This seemed to get the mayor to relax, if only a little.
The farmer, on the other hoof, sighed. "I can't do much until the caterpillars pass. They'd kill any sapling before it could grow up. The most I can do is prepare to replant. I’m already working on this compost idea, so just get everypony to calm the fuck down for now."
This didn't help the mayor's mood to improve.
We parted ways. The farmer paid me for my help. After that, I stopped by the bar to spend the caps on whatever they still had to sell.
_______________________________________________________
Things continued as they had for the next few days, I did not go back to town since I had spent more time then I liked tracking the radboars. The fuckers were a lot more elusive than the ones down in the wasteland, likely because of all the trees keeping them hidden. Though, fortunately, I had been able to figure out what they ate. It was roots, barries, and mushrooms. Basically, it was all the stuff I was already gathering. If I could not get to them, maybe I could bring them to me, but to do that I needed a few new tools.
Hope Hollows had gotten a lot more gloomy since the last time I had come down here. The cook told me that tensions had gotten tighter after rations were made thinner, but seeing it was still somewhat of a shock. Where there was once smiling faces, there were now ponies looking at each other with slanted eyes, and they trotted with a more guarded gate. Overall it reminded me of being back in Fillydelphia, eccept without an army of guards making sure no pony did anything too stupid.
Making my way to the general store, I found the store owner sitting at his doorstep, puffing on his cigarette, a small pile of burnt cigarette butts next to him.
"Please don't tell me you're closed?" I asked, getting his attention.
He took a long drag of the cigarette, letting out a large cloud of smoke from his mouth. "Depends. I’m out of most of my stock."
I cocked an eyebrow at that. "The cook told me that a traveling merchant came through the other day. Didn't you restock?"
He chuckled. "He did, but barely had anything to trade before getting into town. The fucking asshat loggers bought everything off him that had any valuable before he got into town. That merchant had the biggest smile on his face. He likely upped charged every one of those idiots. Basically only came into the town to say hi. Asshole."
I was no merchant, but I had spent far too much time working as a bodyguard for them to understand why this was bad. Haggling was a skill not to underestimate, and to those who had no skill in it, a merchant could sell a pony the dirt under their hooves. What those loggers bought, the store owner could have likely gotten for less than half of what they paid for, then sold back to the loggers for still less than what they paid for.
Then again, the store owner could still have ripped off the loggers, but at least most of the caps would have stayed in town.
"Well, do you at least have a shovel and some barbed wire?" I asked. I saw a small twinkle in his eyes. Letting me go inside first, I found that the shop was even more bare than before. All that was left was mainly scrap and a few other odds and ends.
"Looks like your business was doing well, at least," I observed.
"Not well enough," he grumbled as he trotted behind the counter. "Ponies acting like this helps no pony, so me and the misses are going on a vacation to Tenpony Tower for a few months. I sold most of my shit to the traveling merchant to insure I have the caps to last.”
“Now lets see. Right. Here we are." He pulled up a crude scrap metal shovel and a slightly rusty barbed wire. "Originally brought the wire thinking we might still have to deal with raiders. It ended up being a waste of caps here." His eyes then looked at me inquisitively.
I dropped my bag of caps on the table as I explained, "Setting a trap for some radboars. Don't know how many there are out there, but even one should help."
The shop owner counted the caps and pulled out a carton of .38 ammo from under the counter. "I'll throw in my last batch of hoof loaded ammo in exchange for the rest of your caps."
"Throw in a good knife and it's a deal," I negotiated with him, knowing that he was trying to upcharge me while using the ammo to make it look like he was cutting me a deal.
He huffed, then pulled out a combat knife from his own jacket. "Well, best of luck to you. I'll be back in a few months."
I took my new supplies. I kept the barbed wire in a crate which I dragged behind me so not to hurt myself. After that, I decided to stop by the cook's place.
"They keep saying there's plenty of food, but they just reduced how much stew we can get today. It's just like what the others are saying. The mayor is trying to hide that we're running out of tato's and doesn't want to tell us so that we keep working." A pony grumbled to another.
The other pony huffed. "Ya. We didn't come here to be treated like a slave, fucking cloud-kicker."
I didn't care to say anything. First off, it was not my job, and second, once the bullshit with the bugs passes, they will change their tune.
Making my way to the cook's place, the two armed logger ponies stood in my way.
"Two caps!" one of them demanded, surprising me a little, as I knew what this was as soon as the words left his mouth
Looking at the pony in the eyes, he kept up his tough act, so I pulled out my knife, using its polished finish as a mirror to look at myself.
"So let me get this straight; the mayor put you in charge of guarding the food stockpile, and you’re using it to shake down ponies for caps, including me, a vetrin of Redeye's takeover of Fillydelphia?" I menaced with a calm tone.
Since the large pony quickly got out of my way, I trotted inside without saying another word..
I found the cook preparing another pot of tato stew, which the smell left a lot to be desired. Turning to see me, she left the pot and trotted over to give me a hug.
"Please tell me you have good news!” she begged me. “Despite the guards, some pony is still stealing the tato's, which is forcing me to thin out the stew."
"Maybe…" I said a bit nervously, not wanting to get her hopes up just yet. "I'm setting up a big trap for a group of radboard near the windmill. If it goes as planned, I should have a bunch of bacon for you to carve up."
The cook planted a kiss on my cheek. "That sounds like an excellent idea, and it’s exactly what this town needs to cheer everypony up."
"One problem." I added, pulling her in for a proper kiss. "Radboars tend to go bad fast, so I might need help with harvesting them."
She smiled. "That's a good idea. I'll see if the mayor will give me some time off for that."
I broke away from her embrace. "Thanks, it will be good to have somepony to help me out."
With that, I left, taking one last detor before heading back to my home.
Standing in front of a hole in the ground, leaves and broken stems everywhere, was an annoyed farmer.
"Please don't tell me that ponies are stealing the tato plants now," I said half jokingly.
He threw his hat to the ground and huffed. "Damn igits are fucking taking the heathy plants now!"
Trotting over, I looked around his farm and saw that there were quite a few holes in the ground. Hoof tracks were all over in the dry dirt.
"Did… did this just happen recently?" I asked in a stunned voice.
"Ya. Been keeping a close eye on the plants to make sure nopony dose nothing stupid as well as studin the catapilets. I noticed, earlier today, that the little fuckers were slowing down, meaning they would soon stop eating the tato plants, so I went to tell the mayor the good news, but came back to see this shit! They don't know what the fuck they’re doing, and its only going to make it harder to replenish our food stock."
"By Luna," I said in annoyance. "I was going to ask if you could help me set up a large radbore trap."
"But not when I got tato plant thieves about" he finished.
There was not much left to say. I had until nightfall to set up the trap, and I wanted to start sooner than later.
_______________________________________________________
The day burnt away quickly as I used the barb wire and thick sticks to build a drop cage. I had seen the same technique used by slave catchers with minor success, but when testing it on radboars, this tactic was able to catch a whole sounder of radboars without too much trouble.
Unfortunately, my materials were not the most sturdy, so I had to get creative. I placed wooden posts around where the cage which will fall to add stability as well as some loose barb wire to get the boar tangled up in case it breaks through the main line. Overall it was rickety, but it should hold together well enough to keep a group of boars in. All I had to do was leave the now rotting rad hoag food at the base of the supporting pole the cage sat on and get the pull line ready at the windmill.
Overall I was pretty proud of myself. I would have celebrated with a bottle of booze if I didn't need to stay focused. I pulled in the line till it tightened ever so slightly. I made sure there was enough slack to keep the trap from triggering prematurely, but also not so slack that I can't trigger it with a good pull. I was getting pretty proud of my trapping skills, though I did miss kicking the critters till they died.
"Rook!" The voice of the cook called out from below. Looking down, I saw that she was sporting a bandage over one eye and had brought a fully packed saddlebags. Both were not good signs.
Tying the rope to a peg, I quickly made my way down, meeting her inside my tent.
"What happened? Are you alright?" I asked genuinely concerned.
She dropped her saddlebag on the floor and gave me a hug. "I'm fine,” she reassured me. “There was just a fight over the dinner stew. Some pony threw a rock. The mayor managed to calm everypony down and treat my injury. This is the whole healing potion on bandages trick, so I should be better after some sleep."
My blood boiled just a bit after hearing that. "If you're fine, then that's all that matters, but if they try to start anything here, I'll be sure to send them limping home!”
“Anywho, what's with the bag?" I then asked.
The cook blushed. "Well, I don't feel all that safe in town right now, not with everypony so wound up, so is it alright if I stay here until things blow over?"
I wasn't really looking to have a live-in marefriend, even if she did make me feel better, but then again, I rather not see her get hurt again.
"Alright, but just until things get back to normal." I said, giving in to her,
"Thank you!" she shouted excitedly, giving me a long affectionate kiss.
When she finally let me go, I backed up. "Alright. Get yourself settled in. I need to keep an eye on the drop cage for when the radboars show up."
"You're not going to stay up all night, in the dark, are you?" she asked with a concerned tone.
"Luckily there's little cloud coverage and a full Luna tonight, so I'll be able to see the boars from the windmill." I informed her before returning to my purchase above my tent, overlooking the drop cage.
After a while, the cook joined me with a bottle of beer, of which I refused.
"You know,” she began, “I never saw the night sky before coming here. Then again, that's the same for everypony. Well, everpony but the mayor."
"I've seen them one time, back when working for Redeye. There's this ancient castle slap in the middle of the Everfree Forest, and a stable near it. I had to help escort this crazy cyber pony through the forest to get him to it. Had to spend the night in that castle. It was fascinating, but far from as tranquil as it is here."
She sipped on her booze and snuggled up next to me, helping me stay warm as I watched the trap. Hours would pass, and with the moon high in the sky, they did finally show up. Two, no three large adults, and twelve or more adolescent and younger radboars. The hogs slowly made their way to the trap, not once showing any sign of being weary of it. They just loomed around in the distance, keeping an eye out for predators. Not long after, the hole sounder was under the trap. I got up, rope in my fenlock, and pulled hard.
There was a snap, and thud. The radbores charged in different directions. They slammed into the barbed wire, causing them to squeal in pain. The cage held! Now I had more than enough hogs to feed the town.
"Fuck ya!" I cheered, pumping a hoof in the air in celebration.
"What's going on?" The cook asked, having been asleep up until now. "By Celestia, you did it!" She hugged me tightly. "With that meat, we should be able to go back to normal rations and get the ponies to stop worrying."
In her hold, I watched the radboars move about as they looked for a way to escape, but the barbed wire had done its job. They avoided touching it.
"I think we can wait till morning to slaughter the boars. They’re not going anywhere," I reasoned.
A big smile formed on her face. "Better yet, we can keep the little ones, and raise them until they're bigger, like with brahmin."
With high spirits, we celebrated over the rest of our booze. We also had some fun in my bed before getting some sleep. It was going to be a busy day, but at least the worst was finally over.
_______________________________________________________
The cook and I rose at first light in the morning and got to work. With the hogs trapped, shooting the adults was far from a challenge. I put a bullet to the backs of their heads. As for the rest, they were too young to be any trouble. After dragging the dead hogs out without letting the others escape, we then drained their blood and got to gutting. We threw the inedible bits over the cliff. The cook decided to butcher one to show the town, and throw the other two into the cold box for later. Hungry ourselves, I had pulled out a mashift stove and cooked two pieces of meat for us as we worked.
By the time the hog was done being butchered and packaged, we had eaten. After that, we were ready to head to town. Double checking the cage, the young hogs still had nowhere to go, so I felt safe in leaving them there.
With the dead hogs and meat on the sled behind us, we got to the town only to see a crowd forming at the cook's place. I know we had burned through a fair bit of the morning, but not enough for it to be a problem. It’s not like you can't eat a tato uncooked.
In front of the building was the mayor, clearly nervously trying to get the ponies to settle down.
“Now everypony,” the mayor called in a reassuring tone, “making demands is not going to fix the situation, only make it worse. Now please, go home, or back to work.”
“That’s all you have to say, to just go away?!” I mare yelled. “My family's own food stock is running low, and this is the only place to get any, and now you’re saying I can't take extra in case you lose even more?”
“Ya, there's no other place to get any food than here, and you're barely giving out enough for us to get by,” another mare angrily added.
“I’ve seen it, all those dead tato plants. That’s all there is going to be. Just give us the stock so we can make it out of the Celestia forsaken place! If you hord it all, we're all going to eventually starve!” an overly dramatic stallion further added.
I had enough of this. I fired my rifle into the air, getting their attention, then I called in a demanding tone, “Calm the fuck down!” This caused everypony to take a few steps back in fear. “There's more than enough food for everypony, and more coming in. I got three dead hogs here, and more up by the windmill, so just settle down you winy fucks.”
The crowd of ponies parted as we made our way to the mayor, of whom looked like she had not been sleeping well.
“Thank Celestia! You're a lifesaver, you know that?” The Mayor said while she opened the door. We dragged the meat inside. What greeted me was not the bountiful amount of tato, but a meager amount that could only feed the town for a week at best.
With a click, the Mayor closed the door behind her, then slumped down. “Idiots, all of them,” she muttered in frustration.
The cook whipped around, looking panicked. “How? Why?”
A painted chuckle came from the pegasus mare, “The fucking guards is what happend! They sold the tato’s to the townsfolk and ran off before morning. They emptied out most of our stock before the farmer brought it to my attention. Now there's ponies with more tato’s than they need, and others who have nearly none at all. I don’t have the authority to go and find the tato’s, and even less authority to take them back.”
“Fucking serously!” the cook groaned in frustration before taking a deep breath to calm down. “At least we have the hogs, and with the remaining tato’s, I can make this last a few weeks. The food will be a bit thin, but bacon is bacon. If there's anything I can make last, it’s a cut of meat.”
“I could go look for the missing tato’s” I spoke up, catching their attention.
The mayor seemed to ponder the suggestion for a moment, and then shook her head. “From what I know about you wastelanders, you get violent if pushed, and with you as our only source of food, I can't risk you getting shot by some thief.”
“Probably should have hired me as the town's security, but no use crying over smashed radscorpion eggs." I shook my head, knowing that no pony could have imagined this being how this town hits it’s hard times. “I’m going to check on the farmer.”
The mayor got up and trotted over the slead, giving me room to leave. “Tell the old coot thanks. If he had not gotten to me, we might not have any tato’s left in here at all.”
Outside the cook’s place, there were still ponies mulling around. They looked a bit lost.
“Are you sure there's enough food in there?” a mare stopped me. “The mayor is not going to just hord it to herself, is she? I mean, you know how pegasus are, right?”
I huffed at her. “Miss, there has never been a food shortage. It’s your dumb asses that’s causing this problem, so just stop panicking and do as your told. Everything will be fine if you do just that!”
She shrunk back as I chastised her, and then left.
The farmer did not look like he had been doing all that well either, possibly worse than the mayor.
“Ya, I’m fine,” he said then coughed a few times. “Just need to rest, but those igits are not letting me with their plant thefts.” Another bout of coughing came as he trotted over to a tato plant and pointed at it. “Look, we got new crops already on their way.”
Looking at the plant, I could see a few small green bulbs forming, meaning that, soon, this bullshit would be over.
But my eyes drifted to a hole next to the plant. In it, there was the broken roots of what was once a tato plant, making me feel uneasy.
“You sure you don’t need me to stay on guard tonight?” I asked.
He laughed, then choughed. “Ya got your own shit to take care of. Didn’t I see the cook stay up at your place last night?” he said lewdly while wiggling his eyebrows. “Once everypony knows that the crops are fine and tato’s are growing, they will stop being so stupid.”
I decided to stick around and let the old stallion get some proper rest. I even did his daily chores and told anypony who got too close to the tato plants to fuck off. It wasn’t hard work to prepare everything for the new batch of tato’s. It was mostly just repetitive hard labor, but knowing that the worst of it was soon over put my mind at ease.
_______________________________________________________
The smell of bacon, roasted sliced tato’s and mushrooms were oddly a good combination. Though the food portion was small, I found myself quite satisfied. I still wanted more, but with everything needing to be rationed, I held myself back.
Anyways, I’ve gone days without food before. With the wasteland being as it is, so it was nice to just have something not nearly 200 years old and mildly radioactive.
The cook sat next to me. After having finally served the last pony, she slowly chewed on her bacon.
“You know, back home, all we had to eat were scorpions. We even made booze out of the fuckers, somehow,” I explained.
She laughed, then said, “Sounds nice. Back where I’m from, near the ruins of Mainhattan, there’s next to nothing to eat. So, we always had to put on a big smile for any stranger that passed through in the hopes they had anything to give.”
“Doesn't sound like a place a pony would learn to butcher and cook.” I said jokingly.
“It shouldn't be,” she said, looking away.
I cocked an eyebrow, but before I could ask her what she meant by that, a pony came stumbling into view, covered in bloody cuts.
“Help! The others, they're hurt.” He yelled right before his eyes locked onto me, then pointed his hoof at me. “It’s all your fault! Why did you…”
He shut up when I quickly stood up on all fours, slurping the last bit of my bacon. The look in his eyes, a mix of fear and guilt, like a foal who just figured out how badly they fucked up.
“I’ve been here nearly all day, and I aint fucked up no pony yet” I insisted sternly.
I trotted closer to get a better look at the cuts. None of it looked like it was done by a beast or from a weapon. It actually looked like the kind of injuries a pony would get when scrapping across a defensive structure… like barbed wire...
“We… we… we were just trying to make sure…” I shut him up with a swift hoofstrike to the jaw.
“No excuses, cunt! If this was the wasteland, I string ya up as the thief ya are!” I hissed at him in anger.
The mayor came running over, looking disheveled. “Oh please don’t tell me it’s another fight!” she wailed.
I stomped on the ground, causing the stallion to curl up into a ball. “No, but this fucker tried to steal from my camp. From the sounds of it, there are others up there.” I groaned in frustration. “Now I got to go check and see if the hogs are still there, and that nopony got themselves killed on ma traps.”
“WHAT!” the mayor yelled in shock. “Oh, no no! I’m coming with you!”
“I’m going too.” the cook added.
That was fine with me. I was not planning to kill them… yet. It was also a good idea to have witnesses present if any of them are dead so that no pony could accuse me of murder.
Making our way to the windmill, the sun was starting to get a bit low in the sky. The shadows stretched far like many grabbing claws.
In front of my camp, I could see them. Two ponies were on the ground. One of them was a crying mare who had one leg completely tangled in barbed wire. Another was a stallion with a spike in his neck. He was clearly dead. I also noticed that the hogs were gone, so there goes the idea of raising the little fucks.
“I got a tool for cutting wire in ma camp, so wait here,” I told the mayor and the cook.
Trotting passed the dead stallion, I could see that he must have been trying to find an alternate way into my camp, as thieves do. In the process, he triggered one of my traps, getting a wooden spike in his neck.
Entering my camp, I quickly grabbed a pair of rusty bolt cutters I had in a pile of tools then trotted outside with it.
The mayor was already comforting the thieving mare. That was fine by me, but she was going to need to make an example of that pony, or I will use the barbed wire to string her up myself!
“Sss… Sorry!” she yelled as I got close. “We thought if… if we could get one of the hogs, then we…” she mumbled the last words.
With a snip of my bolt cutters, she was free from the fence, but still tangled.
“Then what?” I asked in annoyance. “Keep it in a house and feed it your shit?”
I clipped a piece of the barbed wire, along with a bit of her skin, causing her to cry out in pain.
“I’m not even going to ask how you thought you could raise such a critter.” No matter where I whent, these kinds of idiots ruin everything.
I clipped another piece of the barbed wire and her flesh.
“But how in that rotting brain of yours did you not think nopony would find out?” So fucking self important, that they never think.
Another clip, another cry of pain.
“Fuck, were rationing food, and ya go out to steel.” All they care about is what they want right now, and it’s ponies like me who have to deal with the consequences.
One last clip. After that, she now had a heavily bleeding leg that was free from the barbed wire.
“And look, the fucking hogs are gone, you little shit! That was everypony's food!” I came here to get way from this shit.
The Mayor got between me and the now bawling mare. “That’s enough, Rook. We need to get her to town and patch her up. From there we can figure out what to do next.”
_______________________________________________________
We didn’t have my sled, so the cook had to carry the mare back to town. She was quivering in pain and fear all the way.
Just outside of town, we found the farmer sitting on the side of the road with a bloody nose. I quickly trotted over to help him up, but he barely had the strength to even stand under his own power.
“Please don’t tell me they raided the tato farm?” I asked, hoping for a no.
Leaning on me, the farmer spat on the ground, “Not yet. The little shit ya left behind started yelling about how the food is all gone, and how it’s the mayor's fault for it. I went to shut his trap, but it was already too late. Some of the ponies got stirred up. They got to saying we gotta leave before everypony starved. It was only one pony who rushed into the cook's place at first, but as soon as they saw that pony trot out with tato’s and pork, the rest rushed in after. I tried to get ‘em to stop.” The farmer rubbed his nose. “But I’m far too old to deal with rowdy youngins.” He sat back down as he started coughing again. “Go on ahead. These old bones just need to rest.”
I turned to the others, but found that the mayor had already run off ahead into town, so I made chase.
At the center of town were a group of ponies with large packing saddlebags, while others stood by and watched in confusion.
“What are you doing?” the mayor yelled.
The ponies getting ready to leave looked at her in disdain. A mare with a sizable stuffed pack trotted in front of the group in order to say, “What does it look like! We’re leaving. Face it, this poor excuse of a town is dead.”
The mayor took a deep breath, clearly trying to stay calm. “Everything is fine. We just need to work together and trust each other. If we do, everything will be fine. Panicking like this does no pony any good.”
“Trust each other!” the mare gave a short laugh. “Like fuck we would ever trust a shifty cloud kicker like you! Not when your kind stole away the skys from us.” She then spat in the mayor's face.
I could see it on the mayor's face. The last bit of restraint finally breaking. Her seething anger boiled up.
“Shifty! A thief! You mud pony’s think you have the right to say that to me when you stupid fucks have been steeling the food supplys for weeks now!” she yelled loudly enough for everypony to hear. “You’re nothing but a selfish cunt! And now you want to cut and run with all the stolen food, leaving everypony here to starve!”
As the mayor yelled, the packed mare shrunk back little by little, but managed to regain some confidence. Sadly, that confidence came in the form of punching the mayor. The mayor stumbled back a few steps, rubbing her cheek, but it only fed her anger. She was filled with rage. The mayor dashed at the mare, tackling her. The two fell over. The large saddleback ripped open, spilling tato’s over the ground. One rolled over to me. The bright red fruit now with dirt on it.
Before I could pick up the tato, a pony jumped in and snached it, sliding on the ground for a few hoofsteps. Soon more ponies began rushing in to grab the tato’s. They started fighting among each other over them. Some of the packed ponies thought now was a good time to go, but found themselves blocked by some of the other towns' ponies, who charged in to grab the saddled bags. It spilled even more tato’s to the ground.
“The fuck is going on?” the cook gasped as she trotted up next to me.
“Nothing good,” was all I could say as I watched everypony go mad.
The mayor managed to get herself out of the rumble, dragging her hooves as she made her way to us. A trail of blood following behind her. I quickly galloped to her, knocking an idiot pony out of my way. Upon arrival, I gave her a look over.
"I'm fine,” she insisted. “Just get me to my office. I have a few bandages and a healing potion left."
A slight wheeze came from her as she spoke, something I knew was the sign of a punctured lung.
"The fuck you are" I said to her as I lifted her onto my back and took her to her place. The cook followed behind me.
Fortunately, her place was close by. I kicked the doors open as I made my way to her office.
"What?!" A stallion cried out in shock. Not just any stallion, but one of the thieves. Next to him, on the mayor's desk, was an empty healing potion.
"I.. I was just getting first aid for my friend!" the thief stammered.
Trotting up to him, I gave the pony my best death glare. "There better be another healing potion, or I'm going to make you wish you were dead!"
He nodded, then passed me a banged up yellow M.o.P. medic box. Ass soon as I took it, he galloped off. Putting the mayor down, her breathing becoming more shallow as blood was entering her lung. I opened the box.
"Is she going to be alright?" The cook asked. I answered by throwing the medic box across the room. Dirty rags and empty bottles flew out. The cook glared at me as she grabbed a few of the raggs then applied pressure on the mayor's stab wound.
"We can't just do nothing," the cook inisted.
I placed a hoof on the rags to apply pressure, but that just caused the mayor to cough up blood and look at us with fear in her eyes.
"Are there any other healing potions in town?" I asked her desperately.
The mayor shook her head. "The loggers hurt themselves plenty," she wheezed. "We used most of the potions we got on making healing bandages for them. What was there was for emergencies."
"I could knock down a few doors and see if any of the townsfolk got any." I suggested.
She shook her head again. "Too dangerous, now more than ever. They are expecting trouble at this point," She said, wheezing every word.
I realized that she was right. The urban fighting was bad enough during the takeover of Fillydelphia, but that was as part of an army. Here, I was on my own, and the sun was going down.
"I… I feel cold," The mayor wheezed. The cook and I grabbed her hoof.
I don't know how long we held her, but by the time she passed away, it was after night time. The moon was now high up.
We didn't want to stick around here till morning as things would likely get ugly again as soon as day broke, so we left for my camp. Fortunately, everypony had retreated to their homes, some watching from their windows. Several ponies laid dead in the street from the fighting earlier with crushed tato's surrounding them. On exiting the town, we found the farmer, still sitting in the spot we left him, fast asleep. I carefully put him on my back and took him with us.
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The morning came, and we barely spoke as I cleared up the mess that was outside my camp. I dug a shallow grave for the dead thief. I had some food hidden away for us to eat, mostly some dried meats, herbs, and mushrooms, which was better than nothing.
The farmer was clearly sick and not getting any better, and learning of the mayor's death had not helped. The cook was trying to put on a brave face, a big eerie smile, as though practiced for most of her life and never enjoyed.
We talked about going back to town, but I chose to go scout it by myself first to see if things had settled down.
It turns out it hadn't. Though with my binoculars, I could see most of the town. It was like a switch had been flipped. Everypony seemed to be armed with logging tools or crude weapons. They had formed into different groups that actively kept others away. It looked like leaders of these groups also had the best weapons. It was mainly guns, but one has a slightly oversized axe.
I returned to my camp to tell them the bad news, that it may be a few days for things to settle down.
As an extra precaution, I spent the day setting up new traps, keeping an eye out in case some pony had a bad idea.
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"Hay Hunter!" A pony yelled.
I peeked out from my sniper's perch I had set up the day before. It had only been three days since the mayor died, and things only grew uglier in town as they fought over their food hoards. Some even started to drift closer to my camp.
The pony was a somewhat tall stallion who had used planks of wood and rope to make himself a crude set of armor. Behind him was a small group of ponies, all with crude weapons and armor made from planks of wood. "We know you got food, so don't be greedy and keep it to yourself. We can share, as sharing is caring!"
I didn't respond. I just watched him get mad.
"Come out here, you lapdog of the mayor. We know she had to be hiding the food here. No way you're just a hunter. She hired you to protect all that food and caps she was stealing from us! There's no other place she could have hidden it."
I sighed, now understanding that they must have never trusted the mayor, or at least had a thin and fragile form of trust in her. There was no negotiating with them. Even if I did, and they found no hidden food, they would just think I hid it in the woods. The madness wouldn't end, not on their terms.
*Bang*
The stallion was polite enough to stand still, giving me the time to line up a shot through his shity helmet. He fell over pouring out a fountain of blood from his face which scared off the other ponies back to town.
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Another day passed, and the farmer only got worse. He was completely bed ridden and barely able to eat what little food we had, but the cook did her best to keep him comfortable.
When not checking my traps for critters to take back, I watched the town from my perch, seeing it continue to fall apart.
I chose not to relay the worst of what I saw to the other two, but the town was quickly devolving into a raider den. I was used to seeing raiders move into abandoned places, but never actively seen good honest ponies turn raider in such a fashion. What had sealed my thoughts on this was when they started hanging bodies to mark territories. Among them was the mayor, making me regret not bringing her body with us. There were a few other live ponies strung up, likely warnings, and I got a glimpse as a few others tied down like slaves.
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I was fortunately able to catch a turkey when I went out hunting. The cook had also joined me to gather roots and mushrooms. With it just being the three of us, there was more than enough food to go around, but unfortunately the farmer was unable to keep anything down, and had grown considerably weak.
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The farmer died in the night as he slept, a death so few of use can get in this age. It hit the cook hard, like she had lost her grandfather. I decided to dig him a proper grave, letting his body properly return to the ground, as any good earth pony should.
The town itself still had shown no sign of calming down. It seemed that the small groups were beginning to absorb each other. Their crude banners would rise, and fall, replaced by other groups. As it was, there were four distinct groups, but one of them already looked like it was about to fall.
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A few more days passed, and the cook had taken on some of the lookout duties, telling me to get some rest. Even with the townies fighting each other, they still tried to harass us now and then, so I was a bit worried. Though, after a day of watching, I think the cook finally understood how bad things had gotten.
A breeze woke me up in the night. I found myself alone in bed. Having a bad feeling, I lit a small oil lamp I had fixed up, fueled by animal fat. She was not inside the camp.
Trotting out, it was quite dark outside. The moon gave only a little bit of light, but still enough to see somewhat well. Looking around, I finally found the cook, who was looking over the cliff.
"Probably not the best time for deep thought," I told her half joking.
She sighed. "Things are not going to get better, are they?"
"No, it's not." I told her bluntly. "Might be best to start planning to return to the wasteland once we got enough food and water to make the trip."
A pained chuckle came from her. "Return to the wasteland . . . it's more like we're being dragged back to it." I could see the glint of tears forming in her eyes. "I don't want that! I don't want to go back!"
I took a step forward. "I get it. I don't want to go back either, but eventually we will have to leave here."
"We could just stay. You hunt, I cook. As long as the others down there stay away," she pleaded.
I decided that the darkness was not the best place to have this conversation. "We can do that, but I would need to set up more traps. They’re eventually going to come in force once their food actually runs out."
She nodded. "Ya, that's true, just like in the wasteland." She choked on her words, tears falling from her face. "We never left, did we? We just deluded ourselves in thinking we got away. Just because it's green and the clouds are gone, didn't mean we actually left the wasteland. Now look! Everypony is turning raider."
I took another step. "That does mean things still can't get better. Now come over here. The bed's cold without you."
"Rook, why did you leave the wasteland?" she asked with a serious look in her eye.
I froze, trying to push back bad memories, but it was useless. I hadn't had any booze in days, and even working was not dulling my thoughts, so I took a deep breath then admitted, "I… I abbanond my foal, and came here. Left him with Redeye. Not my first unintended foal, but it was the first forced onto me. The criminal was allowed to trot free. Fucking slavers! If Redeye didn't protect them, I'd string them up, every one of them!" My anger over it all boiled up as well as the shame. "My clan, we don't put the sins of the parent onto the child. Goddess Luna loved and protected foals, and so do we, but I just abandoned him, and tried to forget him."
The cook smiled, wiping the tears from her face. "I see. No wonder you chose to live up here, but at least you can still fix it." She took a step back, closer to the edge. "You’re a better pony than I could have ever wished for. Better than I deserve. The things I've done, there's no fixing it." She pulled back her skirt, revealing a cutie mark of a clever and a cut of meat, along with a strange branding on it. "If I go back to the wasteland, there's a chance I'll kill again."
I sighed. "If you're worried about blood on your hooves, I got plenty myself. Killing is a part of life."
She shook her head. "No, not like that. I'm sorry, Rook. I just can't. I'm so sorry."
A gust of wind blew, sending dust flying, forcing me to close my eyes. When I opened them, the cook was gone, leaving me standing on the cliff all alone.
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Days would pass. I fell into a routine, throwing myself into my chores. I checked the traps for food and raiders, gathering other things to eat, and watched the town for any changes. It became my existence inside the broken windmill.
The town would continue to fight each other for days after, fighting until there were only two raider banners left. Both banners had become more depraved with every passing day. I knew that, once there was only one banner left, they would come for me.
I doubled down on the traps, putting them inside my camp until the whole bottom floor was nothing but a death trap itself. I hunted, dried my food, and stitched together a solid saddlebag from the furs I collected.
Then it happened, only one banner was left, so I packed up my camp and waited.
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The wait lasted longer than I liked, but they came. The distinctness of how far the ponies fell into raiderdom was unmistakable. Armor made from whatever junk they could find, crude but nasty looking weapons, and twitchy movement that only meant that they must have been making and using some sort of chem, which likely had damaged their minds. A few decorated themselves with bones of other ponies.
There were twenty three of them, likely everypony who was still alive. Checking my ammo, I found that I only had five hoof loaded bullets left. The old rifle itself was in desperate need of repair, so I didn't fret over only having five shots. The raiders were going to get in close anyways, and that's what I was counting on.
Taking aim, my sights fell onto the leader… it was the fucking thief, and next to him was his marefriend. The leg that I had to free was now missing. This put a smile on my face as I lined up a shot.
*bang*
The fucking thief stumbled back, a bullet hitting his neck, sending blood flying out.
*bang*
His mare friend got a bullet to the back of her head as she tried to help the thief. The rest of the raiders charged, determination and madness in their eyes.
*bang, bang, bang, click*
Three more raiders went down. I dropped my rifle and pulled out my brass hooves. I got ready for a fight.
As they charged, the raiders in the front would fall victim to my traps. A few powered through the weaker traps, but ultimately dieing to the next. The other raiders behind them used their dead as a stepping stone to get to my camp, minimizing their losses.
Unfortunately for them, the inside of the windmill was no less dangerous. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dry brush, hiding traps. Sitting from my perch, I watched as a spiked branch slammed into a raiders face, taking some of their faces with it. The raiders quickly learned. They used their dying comrades to trigger more traps by throwing them into the room. There were more raiders than the traps could handle, but I was ready for this.
As the last of the raiders piled in and got closer to my perch, I took the cooks clever and cut a nearby rope. It let loose a log trap that crushed a raider near the front exit and blocked it. After that, I grabbed my animal fat lamp. The raiders froze at the sight of the strong flame. The wheels in their brains finally turned.
"This never needed to happen!" I shouted. "There was enough fucking food, and even when rationing, there was more than what we eat in the fucking wastland, you dip shit cock chockers!" Their eyes widened as I tossed the lamp.
I hit my target. A patch of brush coated in fat and other flammable materials. The fire quickly took hold and spread among all the brush with the raiders having no time to respond, much less accept their fate.
Grabbing another rope, I used it to make my escape, repelling to safety.
Trotting to a safe distance, I turned to take a look at my work. I felt it was fitting to see the windmill become a flaming tower, much like my cutie mark.
A part of the wall burst open. A large burnt stallion rushed out, followed by a mare on fire, who then collapsed. The stallion charged at me, forcing me to douge. He had size and bulk on me. His eyes were filled with a cold bloodlust, the fevered look of a killer. I would have been a bit more worried if I didn't know about who they were a month ago. Yes, he had the will and strength to fight me. My intimidation was not going to work on him like on others, but there was a major difference between him and I.
The stallion slammed down his front hooves at me, trying to get a crushing blow, but failed horribly. All I needed was to take a step back to get out of his strike zone. After that, I quickly jabbed forward at his fetlocks with my brass hoovesl.
*Crack*
The stallion screamed out in pain as I fractured his legs. He fell over as he was unable to stay up on all four.
The difference between us was in skill and experience, both I had far more than this raider.
Now on the ground with those injuries, the raider was likely going to die a slow and painful death if he didn't get any help. He should have just let the fire take him. His death would have been kinder.
I left him there, impotently screaming profanity at me.
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Recovering my saddlebag I had hid in the woods, I made my way to town, leaving the burning wreckage of the windmill behind.
The town looked like any other ruin you could find in the wasteland with some dead bodies to add to the bleakness. The bar was a mess, having become a chem dead for whatever they were huffing, and evidence of the unwilling ponies lay rotting in a corner. I didn't find any booze, so I moved on.
The cook's place was empty of everything, and the farmer's field had most of the tato's uprooted. The plants were scattered and dead.
Checking the houses, each had a different horror ranging from suicides to tortuous executions. The town had truly become a goddess forsaken place that had chewed everypony up. In one house I found the gnawed remains of one of the boars I had killed. Near it were a few dead ponies with no trauma on them, but covered in their own sick. Even I knew to never eat radhog raw. It a one way ticket to die from diarrhea.
I finally got some luck by finding the raider stash. Although it was mostly rotting tato's, there were several canned foods and a few unopened bottles of booze. Not much, but with the supplies I already had, it was enough for me to get back to the wasteland. The booze would help me stay sane.
Not wanting to burn anymore daylight, I made my way to the entrance to the town. There was a sign now hanging above it. It had been erected sometime after I arrived. Trotting under it, and out of town, I turned to take one last look at Hope Hollows, seeing the defaced sign, it now read "Welcome to Hopeless Hollows". The head of the mayor was impaled on a spike in front of it.
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Fallout Equestria: Hopeless and Hollow
By Dice Warwick
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I down another cup of grog, freeling considerably tipsy at this point.
"So ya, that's how ta town turned raider, all because some fucknuts could not just calm down." I explained to the pegasus.
The disheveled enclave guard just let his head hit the bars counter. "Then there's never going to be an end to it," he wailed in misery.
Trying to comfort the stallion, I patted him on his back. "There there. The raiders tend to come and go. Just enjoy the peace when it comes, but never let your guard down. Tat's when the wasteland gets you, and trust me, the wasteland will come for you. It comes for us all."
"Oy, ya drunk, the caravans moving out, so get back to work!" A pissy mare shouted at me.
I got up from my stool... well fell out of it. Getting back up, I dusted off my tattered overcoat and put on my worn out wide brim hat. "Right. It's been fun, but I gotta get going. Raiders ain't going to shoot themselves, and I got caps to earn."
The stallion just waved me off, and I trotted to the saloon doors.
"Hey!" The stallion called out. "Did you ever go back and get your foal?"
I sighed, "I decided I would once I stopped drinking… I haven't been much in the way of sober for years now." With that I stepped out into the oppressive sunlight and dry heat of the badlands.
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End.
