Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Chem Raid, Part 3

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"Some of the side effects of the chems out there made my chitan

itch as Star explained it to me. Some were simple, such as the shakes, or lack of energy. Others chems causing schizophrenia, and other mental instability. There was even one chem which rotted the skin and effectively ghoulified the pony who used it.

When I asked why would a pony use such poison, she simply told me that sometimes ponies just want a way out of the wasteland, and they didn’t care how they did it." ~ Azure Dice

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I stumbled as I arrived at our destination, except this time I was ready for the sudden stop. Still, my stomach churned a little. It took a short moment for me to regain my balance.

The unicorn that stood as our beacon for the teleportation spell was a rough-looking stallion. He was thin yet muscular and covered in scrap metal armor painted in shades of light brown and gray which blended him in a bit to his surroundings.

He motioned with his head over where Victoria was. As he did so, I trotted off to her.

The ledge she stood at overlooked Old Appaloosa. The place was mostly stripped bare long ago by scavengers. The materials had been used for New Appaloosa’s expansion. What was there now was some poorly constructed shack, in which I could see a pony standing on top.

The unicorn stallion trotted over, passing Victoria a brass spyglass.

“Most o' the raiders stay underground an' be less active durin' the day. If there be a jolly time to attack, now be that there time.” He informed us.

“Could any of them make good converts? This one looks rather mangy.” Victoria noted as she looked through the spyglass.

The stallion shook his head. “From what i’ve spied, all the ones 'ere be 'eavy chem addicts, commodore. I believe that there their nocturnal nature be what keeps them under the radar. I’ve spied the New Appaloosa deputies pass through twice now, an' the raiders managed to 'ide from them successfully both times. I also believe that there they block the underground from the inside, so even if the lookout gets caught, the deputies still can’t get under to find them.”

Victoria passed me the spyglass. Looking through it, I could see the raider far more clearly. The ragged pony was covered in bald spots and regularly twitched. From the amount of bottles and inhalers around him, he seemed to live off a regular supply of booze and dash. Still, his armor looked relatively good despite it being made from scrap, covered in spikes, and painted black with a crude symbol of a red circle on it.

“What's with the circle?” I asked.

“It’s the Blood Moon Clan,” Puppet said as she joined us. “From what we could investigate, they were a minor raider clan that once worked for the slaver lord Red Eye who weekend targets for him. After Red Eye fell and the destruction of most of the major raider clans in the area, they absorbed most of the stragglers to bolster their numbers.”

I passed the spyglass to Puppet Strings. “So why have I not heard of them if they have been around for so long?”

Puppet lazily looked through the spyglass. “Simple; they don’t openly advertise themselves. We only know their name because of the few smart raider converts we managed to gain. They have a policy of staying as unknown as possible. They make sure that, if they are discovered, they are only seen as normal raiders. It’s why their called midnight raiders, and not an actual raider clan.”

She folded the spyglass before passing it back to the stallion. “It’s an effective strategy to avoid getting hunted down by the larger factions out here, but they also attract the kind of ponies not suited to be converted. Their voracious appetite for chem leaves them too unstable.”

I raised an eyebrow at Puppet. “If they are unstable, then how do they stay under the radar so well? Fuck me, they even caught me off guard.”

“From what we know, their chem abuse has left them extremely paranoid and their eyes light-sensitive. Simply, they unintentionally exist in a blindspot for most ponies who would hunt them down.” Puppet explained.

“A damn shame. Ponies who are good at staying out of the spotlit would have been useful,” Victoria commented.

“So how are we getting in then?” I asked.

There was a long pause. Victoria tilted her head a little before wondering aloud, “I was thinking we just torcher the lookout until they tell us how to open up the door to the underground. If that doesn't work, well, we have all day.”

Puppet nodded. “That is a sound strategy, Lady Victoria.”

“I don’t know,” I said as I looked back at the shack. “If I were in their position, I think I wouldn’t leave a pony who can get in and out as the lookout. You did say they were paranoid, right?”

I felt a hoof on my shoulder as Victoria leaned in, giving me an inquisitive look.

“If you have an idea, I love to hear it. This is your hunt, after all,” she reminded me.

I thought about it for a moment. Ideas of sneaking around came to my mind, or looking for some back entrance. But I didn’t have all day. Then one idea came to mind, one that was sure to get us inside and surprise the raiders in there.

“Could we just use explosives? I doubt they are expecting some pony to just blow a hole into the sewers,” I explained my idea to them.

“Well, that is a savage idea.” Victoria then pondered it for another moment. “Yes, that might actually work, and be fun too. If I had to guess, they already have some system to warn them when somepony tries to get in, so why not just make it as loud as possible?”

She turned to Puppet with a big smile on her face. “Go fetch the breaching charges.”

With a bow, Puppet trotted over the unicorn stallion. His horn lit up with a green overflow. After a moment, Puppet zipped away with a pop.

Following that, we waited for several minutes. Watching my pipbuck only made time seem to go slower.

When Puppet returned, Spring Box came with her. The trapper looked very happy.

“Fuckin' love yarr, lasses, fer lettin' me finally use this here babies!” Spring said as a large satchel hung off her side.

Victoria gave a soft chuckle as she looked over at me. “Alight, Star, you go kill the lookout. After you do that, Spring Box will join you at one of the entrances.”

I nodded. I again looked over at the lone shack while waiting for the pony there to look somewhere else.

I sighed. “Ya know what? I fucking suck a being all quiet and shit. This won’t do us any good.”

I made my way down a small path along the cliffside, not caring about how visible I was or how much noise I made. It was nearly the middle of the day, so there was no way I’d get close without being seen at all, and at this point, trying to sneak would be far more suspicious.

I learned, long ago, that sometimes being visible made it a lot easier to get close to some ponies. It makes a pony think that you may not be smart enough to be up to anything, or at least up to anything yet.

As I got close, the lookout saw me coming, I waved at him and yelled. “Hey, I’m a bit lost. Where the fuck am I!”

The raider looked annoyed. “Not where ya should be, bitch. Get lost.”

I wanted to use my evil eye to stun him, but the fucker had welding goggles on, so I just trotted closer and hoped he didn’t start shooting right away.

*Blam*

Fuck that plan!

The bullet went wide, missing me by a lot. The fucker was holding a very crude-looking pipe rifle. It’s barrel was slightly bent, and the shitty gun was shaking in his hooves.

“FUCK! I MISSED! YOU STAY STILL, BITCH, AND LET ME RELOAD.,” the raider yelled at me.

I rolled my eyes, knowing this idiot couldn't hit a brahmin even if he was at point-blank range.

I trotted closer.

*Blam*

He missed again. It was as though he refused to even acknowledge the idea of aiming, not that it would help much with that crooked rifle.

“OH FUCK YOU!” He shouted again.

As he tried to safely load a third round, I pulled out my rust gun and aimed. When he finally pointed his gun back down at me, I unloaded my small magazine. The ammo blared loudly, peppering the flimsy shack and tearing into the raider.

My own accuracy was not to much better, but I had two advantages. One was that my gun was not a piece of garbage. Two, unloading 15 shots was more than enough to guarantee a few hits.

I could hear him gurgle for air as his blood dripped from the shack.

Not long after, Spring Box trotted down with Victoria and Puppet not far behind.

“Fuck, I spy now why the Cap'n just wants to kill these 'ethans. That there been just a pathetic display o' weakness,” she said while eyeing the area.

I followed as she entered the shack. The inside looked like a mole rat nest. Pulling back a moldy carpet, Spring spied a pony hole cover with enough scratches around the concrete to tell us that it was opened and closed quite often.

Attempting to open it myself using one of the rusty pipes in the shack, the cover didn’t budge at all.

“Like a bulkhead door, me guess. Jolly thin' Puppet went an' got me.” Spring Box said as she placed the satchel on the cover.

After that, she attached some wires onto it and slowly began backing out.

Following, we trotted a fair distance away to where Victoria and Puppet were standing next to a large boulder.

It was big enough for the four of us to hide behind.

I then watched as Spring Box pulled out a small box with a lever. It slowly flashed with a red light. Attaching the wires to the box, she pulled back the lever then hoofed it to me. “Think o' it as a ye be welcome 'ome gift.”

“How can I resist a good explosive?” I asked as I took the box. I took a deep breath then pulled down on the lever.

There was a short pause of nothing, then a loud boom. Smoking pieces of the shack flew past us. After that a cloud of dust entered the air.

Waiting for it to all settle down, we then peeked from behind the rock.

The shack was gone. There was just a smoldering burnt junk in its place.

“That was fucking awsome!” I cheered before trotting out.

At the center of the blast, the pony hole cover was gone. From the hole, I could hear a siren going off.

Loading my drum magazine into the rust gun, I peered over the edge of the hole, but I did not see anything passed the light from the sun.

“Talk about one fucking loud wakeup call,” Spring Box declared as she trotted over while pulling out two bombs from her bag.

She pulled the pin on them and dropped them into the hole. Backing up a bit, I heard two very loud bangs and saw two flashes from the hole.

Screams came from the hole, followed by rapid gunfire.

As soon as the shooting stopped, Spring Box nudged me. “Best jump in before they can see again.”

Not wasting any more time, I got my hoof around the fortunately intact ladder and slid down.

Inside were four raiders struggling to reload their automatic pipe guns. I also saw a fifth raider who was dead on the ground, riddled with holes.

Drawing my rust gun, I opened fire. The gun rapidly unloads into the raiders, sending blood and gore all over.

When they were all dead, I yelled up. “Got the guards!”

Victoria and Puppet descended with the elegance of ponies of their status. Victoria was like a rogue from the old stories, and Puppet like a lady from the holy city Avalon.

Looking around, the sewer was large enough for the three of us to comfortably stand in, though too cramped to us to effectively move or fight in together.

Taking the lead, I turned on my pippuck and trotted down the tunnel. I turned a corner to see several sewer tunnels stretching off into the darkness with two branching paths. A few radroaches scurried along the walls, hiding from the light as I attempted to spot any pony trying to peek around the corner.

Victoria chuckled as she stepped ahead. “I take the right, Puppet will take the left. Star, you can take the middle line.”

I nodded as I again trotted ahead.

I trot slowly in order to be ready to knock down any attacker that may jump from the shadows. I found my heart pounding with excitement. It was like when I was in the Dragon Ants nest, yet more. Unlike running away from monsters, I was going to them. I was hunting them. It felt good.

A loud grinding buzz echoed through the tunnel followed by a blood-curdling scream. Victoria had clearly claimed a kill.

Further in, there was a blast door to my right. With my gun at the ready, I pressed the button to open it. The door hissed and squealed loudly as it retracted into the wall. Within it, I saw a pony holding a long barrel pipe gun with a box magazine under it.

I jumped to the side just as small-caliber ammunition blasted passed me. One bullet hit my leg.

It was a minor wound, so I didn’t pay it much mind. I also got myself ready to fire back.

Jumping back out and holding down on the hoof size trigger, we exchanged lead. A few more grazed me as I unloaded into the raider. We were using the same tactic of spray and pray, but like before, my gun was better. My gun clicked, announcing the magazine was empty, which left me in silence other than the ringing in my ears.

The raider laid dead on the floor in a pool of her own blood, perforated with holes.

Changing out the drum magazine for the thirty round stick, I moved on.

I finally came to the end of the tunnel which was blocked by an iron gate. To my left was a hole where the wall had crumbled. Feeling that there is no harm in going further in, I stepped passed the threshold.

*Snap*

A raider rushed out at me. I fired as the fucker collided into me.

Beating him back with the butt of my gun, I realized that it was a rotting corpse attached to a rope.

A sharp pain erupted from my side. I looked over to see a raider holding a long rebar pole, its pointy end in my barrel. She cackled as she twisted the spear, causing me to lose my hoof hold on my gun.

“Keep the bitch there. I want to have some fun with her first,” a raider stallion spoke as he trotted into view. The fucker dressed in spikey black leather, including a black spiky cockpeace for fuck sakes.

I didn’t feel like messing around, much less letting this asshole rape me. Drawing my sword, I slashed at the rebab spear, cutting it in two.

The raider mare stumbled back in surprise right before I dashed at her, my blade making contact with her neck, cleaving it right off.

“Ahh, a fighter. I so love it when they struggle!” the raider stallion said with a chuckle as he pulled out a large concrete club.

I just rolled my eyes as I charged.

He swung, but it was slow and easy to read, thus allowing me to get in close and strike at his legs with my sword. It all happens in a flash.

The stallion seemed to be in too much of a shock to scream or whimper when he fell over. I had managed to sever all four of his hooves from his legs.

We made eye contact. His eyes were yellow, bloodshot, and looking at me with pinprick rage. Likely he was too hyped up on chems to even feel pain. When he attempted to bite me, it was clear he was also too stupid to know he was dead.

I stabbed my sword into his head, letting it stay there for a moment. I pulled the other end of the rebar spear out of me which caused a small spit of blood to splatter onto the ground.

“Fuck, that hurts!” I complained

I had been in my fair share of fights, so this kind of pain was nothing, but I still hated getting stabbed. It reminded me of when I was a foal and howI was executed by captain Blackpowder Blast for the crime of following Victoria. Stabbed and kicked overboard, if Prism had not plucked me out of the water and patched me up, I would never have lived to have Bridget.

Finally pulling my sword out of the raider, I cleaned the blood off before I returned it to its scabbard then grabbed my rust gun, slinging it onto my back.

Checking, I noticed that I only had ten bullets left. Javelina was right. More bullets was better for me.

Finding my way onto the other side of the iron gate, the noise of fighting ahead caught my ear, so I galloped forward.

In a room full of glowing mushrooms, I saw the raiders fighting… another raider? Stranger still was one of the raiders was missing their eyes. Two daggers were sticking into them instead, but they still trotted to the other riders while being shot at. The blind raider lunged at one of the other riders, holding them down as it bit onto the other raider’s leg.

With a green glow of magic, the daggers from the attacking raider flew out of its eyes. One stuck into the grappled raider’s neck, and the other slashed a second raider.

Puppet strings stepped into view. Her horn was glowing green with a purple mist coming off it.

The second raider was struck by a third dagger as it flew from Puppet and hit them in the throat.

“Ya fucking bitch!” a big and loud mare of a raider shouted as she pulled a rocket launcher from within a box.

*Blam!*

The sound of a gun defended me as the raider’s head exploded into a confetti of brain matter.

Looking around, I saw Victora standing not far from me, her 50cal pistol in her mouth.

It took a minute, but my hearing did return. The three of us stood in the small field of mushrooms.

Though shocking, I was not all that surprised to see that the mushrooms, the raiders were growing them out of the corpses of ponies. The room itself filled with half-rotten corpses and skeletons.

“I think that’s all of them,” I said, still rubbing my ears. “Fuck, that’s a loud gun.”

Victoria was also rubbing her ears as she replied. “Well, it’s not meant to be used in such confined places.”

I looked over at Puppet who was cleaning one of her daggers. Next to her was the clearly dead raider, dragging one of the other corpses out of the way.

“The fuck is with that corps?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow,

She put her daggers away and flashed me a small, yet creepy smile. “Just a little necromancy I learned from some harpies.”

“Nifty,” I said, trying not to sound nervous about her being able to make corpses dance for her.

“Enough questions. Don’t you have something you wanted to do around here?” Puppet asked before her horn flashed with green light. The walking corps collapsed a moment later.

I nodded as I trotted off to look around.

Not much was in the mushroom room, which made sense with how thick the smell of rot was in here. I did think about keeping the rocket launcher, but decided against it. The thing was just too big to hide, and the last thing anypony wanted was for me to trot around with explosives again.

I found their prisoner room. The poor mutilated pony in the cage likely had died at least a day or so ago and was left there to rot.

Opening one door had me quickly close it as the smell of piss and shit rushed out. Once the door was closed, I spent a minute dry heaving, making me want to go back to the mushroom room again to get some fresh air.

Another room was where they clearly did most of their drugs, as well as other stress-relieving activities. Several pony body parts were all over the place, and lines of blood splattered across the walls and ceiling. If it weren't for the two severed heads in here, I would have guessed Victoria killed far more than that.

I finally found what I was looking for, the place where the Blood Moon Raiders kept their loot. The room was mostly plain with several lockers on the floor and other junk on some tables.

The lockers were simple to open as I just had to stab the padlocks to get inside. What I found was several old rusty guns and plenty of salvage that the raiders likely got from ponies they killed. One locker also had plenty of old preserved food.

One locker caught my eye. It was crudely painted red with the letter 24 inside a red circle. It is clearly a mark of their clan, but why the 24?

Inside was a whole lot of jars with ground down glowing mushrooms inside. They likely meant for whoever makes their chems. Something else was in the locker at the far end. It was some peace of clothing that was bulky.

What I pulled out was what looked like old tattered stable barding, but it had thick padding around it along with the raider modification of spikes. The word “Security” was boldly printed on the chest, and on both shoulders imprinted in yellow on the blue suit was the number 24 with a red circle painted around them.

The security barding had seen better days considering that the color faded and part of it looked like it was falling apart at the seams. Still, from what I know, raiders normally don’t wear stable barding, and this one was decorated and armored. Also, why was the number 24 painted on the locker and that same number on the stable barding? Likely there was a connection.

It was not much of a clue, but maybe if I asked the two not-stable ponies, they may know something about this 24. I knew Harp was a smart mare.

Folding up the barding in a way so all the spikes poked inward, I shoved it into my saddlebag and trotted out to find Victoria.

“Did you find any clues?” Victoria asked as I met her at the exit out of the sewer. She had the rocket launcher strapped to her back and several rockets poking out of a bag she had taken.

“Not sure, but I found something that might be a clue. I just need to ask a pony that might know,” I answered.

She smiled a toothy grin. “Good, good. Anything is better than nothing. I’m going to send some of the crew back here later while the sun is still out. The ponies here may not be shit, but they did have a lot of shit for making chems. Figure we sell ‘em to make some extra caps.”

I smiled back at her. “I better get a cut, then.”

We both laughed, then exited this grimy place and back into the light.

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Returning to the hideout, things were far quieter than before. The unicorn who received us was oddly stiff.

Looking at the other three mares, they seemed to know what was going on, as they looked absolutely annoyed.

“Uhh, what’s going on?” I asked.

Victoria raised a hoof to quiet me. “Remember what I told you about remembering your faith and shit? Start doing that now. Also, do your best to not say a fucking thing unless absolutely necessary. Now follow me.”

Staying behind Victoria, Puppet, and Spring, we trotted into the drinking hall.

There all the pirates were standing up straight, all except for one on the floor. His back was covered in lashes. Further back, the one holding a whip was a pure white pegasus mare with a golden mane and tail tied up in a tight bun. She wore a pure white robe that had gold trim as well as a tall white hat with gold trim. Also on the hat was the symbol of the Holy Fleet; Thorn Roseland’s cutie mark in between Celestia and Luna.

Next to her was a younger pegasus mare who was ivory white with an almost white platinum blonde mane and tail that was long and practically sparkled. She wore a white suit with gold embroidery along the edges and a red frilly undershirt. The nobility looking mare was busy looking at herself in the mirror.

Victoria stepped over the lashed pony and up to the mare with the whip. “Bishop Purity Spiral, so good to see you again, and you brought your… son Utopia Reflection with you.”

I did a double-take. The young mare next to the Bishop was not a mare, but a stallion. A bit unfair that he looked better than me. Personally I liked my stallions to be rougher around the edges. The more scars, the better. He was just too pretty.

Purity Spiral pulled back her whip, coiling it up in her hooves. On the end of the whip were several small chains with metal spikes on the end.

“Victoria Rosary, my darling. There is my favorite hero of the fleet. I do hope you're doing the prophets good work.” Purity Spiral spoke with a clear and elegant voice, much like Harp Melody, yet colder than the young mare.

“Lucky you say that, bishop. Just now we cleared out a den of worthless heathens. It’s always good to get out there and do proper work,” Victoria said cheerfully.

The pegasus eyes scanned over us, looking unimpressed until her eyes fell on me.

“You! You’re new here. What's your name?” she probed while pointing at me.

I looked to Puppet who just gave me a slight head nod.

“My name Lady Bishop, It’s Star Charter.” I answered.

Purity Spiral’s eyes widened a little and a grin formed on her face.

“So, Victoria, you finally found that twice whore born foal that you let the demon snatch away. That’s one sin I can start forgiving you for. Yes, indeed,” she said in a smug tone.

I was feeling a bit confused. I had made an impression on the Blackwater when Victoria had used me to capture Prism, but why was the bishop interested in me?

She fluttered her wings, flying over and landing next to me. I got a glimpse of her cutie mark. It was a gold lily surrounded by spiraling water. With her wing, she used the butt of her whip to start probing me. “Strong body, healthy mane and tail, no visible abnormalities.”

The mare then asked, “Miss Star, are you a virgin?”

I had to hold back from kicking the bishop as she probed under my tail.

“No, no. I have a daughter, Lady Bishop,” I said nervously.

She frowned. “A shame, though knowing you’re not sterile is still good. Do you have any diseases or addictions that may affect any future foals, Star?”

I glared at Purity, but then I caught a counter glare from Victoria which sent me the message to not be stupid.

“No. None of those, Lady Bishop. I haven't been with another stallion, or had much in the way of chems since my daughter was born.” I again answered.

She checked my teeth and eyes. Her eyes were a brilliant green, much like Victorias.

Actually, I could feel it; the power of the evil eye from her.

Purity again fluttered up, returning to where she was before, only this time she looked to be contemplating. “I don’t know. She certainly can pass off for a member of the Wayfinder family with how she resembles Dead Reckoning, and that cutie mark does give off the feeling of a navigator.”

She looked to her son. “Utopia, what do you think? Will she do?”

The mare-looking pegasus stallion briefly looked up from his mirror to eye me, but only for a brief moment.

“Maybe,” was all Utopia Reflection said before returning to gazing at himself.

Purity Spiral frowned. “You’re right. Having a twice whore born mare may not be the wisest of choices to bear me a grandchild. I will need to think upon this.”

“Victoria, I will be retiring for the day. Do keep my son entertained,” Purity commanded before trotting off.

Victoria and the others breathed a sigh of relief once Bishop Purity had left the room. After that, everypony began talking in hushed voices.

I trotted up to Victoria who shoved a hoof in my face before I could say anything. “I know what you're going to ask, so stay calm. The last thing I need is Purity possibly hearing you blaspheme the prophets name.”

She took a deep breath before explaining. “You may or may not be the bastard daughter of the bastard son of a minor noble family, in which Purity wants her grandchildren to be a part of. If I had known about that before you flew away, it would have saved me a lot of trouble and lashings.”

I looked past Victoria and at Utopia Reflection. The stallion was engrossed in his self-grooming, ignoring everypony. “Are you saying that the bishop wants me to fuck her prim and proper mare-like son?”

She nodded, and I face hoofed.

The fact that I might be minor nobility in the Holy Fleet sounded awesome, but I had a feeling that, if anything, I would only be used as a breeding mare of questionable heritage. Also known as some rich pony’s personal whore.

“Ya, no thanks. Even if I was up for having another foal, he is just too… clean. Completely not my type. I’m actually more up for banging Spring Box right now than him. The whole fight had me in the mood, though the bishop ruined that.”

Spring Box chuckled. “Yarr, blowin' that there 'ole open got me a bit wet, too. I got a few toys in me cabin we can play with if ye want.”

This time Victoria cocked an eyebrow. “You're adapting back with us far too quickly.”

I shrugged. “Maybe it’s just good for me to let loose. To go out and cause some trouble. Still, I probably should be heading home soon before some pony starts asking questions.”

Victoria nodded. “Well, when you head back, you can use the bathing chamber in the penthouse to get rid of some of the blood and stink on you. But before that, stick around for a bit. You are back with your true family, Star. You should get to know them again.”

I thought about it for a moment. It didn’t seem all that bad of an idea. Everything here, it just felt… right.

_______________________________________________________

-Reputation-

-Corps Brigade-

The captain likes Star, and they know she can handle herself in a fight. The new recruits are unsure, but the original members remember the filly that helped them rise to power. Star is one of them, always has been.

-Reputation-

-Illuminated Oceanic Authority-

The word of the prodigal daughter of the wayfinder family having returned has slowly reached the fleets. Although Star is but a drop in the bucket, some ponies may not like the waves that are being made.