Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Fallout Equestria: Desperados

Haute Bohème, Part 3

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“Harp Melody told me about the brewing war between the now false Republic and the peacekeeper Orthrus.

When the old powers of the Republic fell, many of the survivors fled to the Orthrus controlled territory of Pineapple Island. The Republic demanded the runaway leaders to be returned, and Orthrus told them no. Since then, the relations between the two factions had been bad, and only growing worse.

A cold war was what Harp called it, where both sides invested in covert soldiers and spies. The Republic had plenty of normal ponies who secretly believed in the Republic's messages. They also used heavily modified cyborgs to hide among the ponies and attempted assassinations. Orthrus, on the other hoof, had access to the witch moth changelings who covertly kept them informed, but also used their highly trained special forces called Specters, who were armed with the best tech ever created. ” ~ Azure Dice

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Dead Axle and I followed Moody to his merchant stall, where the rough-looking mare, that was his wife, sat. She clearly was no merchant herself as she glared at any potential customer then giving her a pleasant smile.

The mare, Keep, got up with a huff and trotted over to us. “Are ya done? I need to get out of this damn sun.”

“Go take a break darling,” Moody insisted to his wife, nuzzling her.

As Keep trotted off into their covered wagon, Dead whistled sharply and chuckled. “Ain't she one of them White Scorpion Clan ponies? How'd you managed to tie one of them down? They ain’t known for settling down and such.”

Moody bashfully scratched his head. “Luck I guess. We eloped when we were younger, and just somehow managed to stay together.”

I looked at Dead Axle, eyebrow raised. “So you know about them?”

She shrugged. “I bit. Their clan worked with Redeye back when, so there were plenty of clashes between our clans at the time. Also, they’re well known for living in between two radiation hot spots, making it suicidal to attack their home.”

Trotting over to his seat, Moody stacked out before getting comfortable. “Since the radiation has cleared up, the Luna Glass Cannon Bridge has become a relatively nice place. Her clan has been making good headway in expanding their home now that they have the room to grow. Still, feral ghouls and radscorpions are still all over the damn place.”

I sighed, remembering the problems of my own home. “The Marewaii Islands could really use those Elements of Harmony. It would be nice if ponies could live on the surface again.”

“That aside,” I then said, moving on from reminiscing, “What did you say to Heavy hoof to make him so… scared?”

Moody smiled wide, like the cat that ate the canary. “Oh, just reminded him why he is even able to stay in business.”

He pulled out a cap and balanced it on his hoof. “You're a smart lass, so what do you think is the most important quality a merchant must have to succeed in business?”

His question caught me a bit off guard, as I did not follow him to get quizzed. Still, I owed him for getting me out of jail and getting my stuff back.

Dead chuckled before giving her own answer. “A slick tongue. Ya merchants always talk big and friendly.”

It was hard to tell if Dead was smart or dumb. She wasn’t wrong, but being able to talk fast was more a tool than a quality.

Clearing my throat, I gave my own answer. “What a merchant needs to succeed is honor. A good honorable merchant is able to sell their wares wherever and to whoever. No pony wants to buy from a dishonored merchant.”

Moody scratched his chin. “Close. So close. Well, not Dead, slick tongues is just a skill we develop. But honor, that’s close. Unfortunately, honor is something you can buy, and though useful, can be used against you.”

He flipped his cap up, and let it fall into his coin pouch.

“The important quality a merchant must have to succeed is trust. Without trust, ponies will look to do business with other merchants before doing business with one they don’t trust.” From an inside best pocket, he pulled out a stack of greenish-gray rectangle papers.

I had seen them before, but never paid much attention to them. They were NCR bills, a new kind of currency the NCR was trying to establish. The one-cap bills he held had the image of a two-headed bear on one side, and a pipbuck on the other.

As far as I knew, no pony in town liked using the NCR bills, as each bill was basically worth a bit less than an actual cap despite it meant to be worth one cap a bill.

“Bills and caps require trust in their value to, well, have value. Same for a merchant.” Moody pointed at the general store. “Right now, the trust between Heavy and the rest of us merchants is on shaky ground.”

Dead Axle stomped on the ground once, thus getting our attention.

“I see, y’all are getting all pissed with the town and that store is an easy target,” she said before pounding her hooves together. “Let me guess; ya plan on starving the store by making sure buses go around them. One of my elders told me about that, where they made sure the traveling merchants avoided the more asshole settlements by upping the traveling tax until those settlements learned to have respect.”

Moody sighed, then said in a deadpan tone. “I’ve heard about how you Desperado's love to control the trade routes.

“But she is not far off,” Moody admitted before pointing at his own stall, and several of its wares. “Being a traveling merchant is a huge risk. You never know what disaster is waiting for you. But life is flexible, and as long as you have some product to sell, then you have a business.”

I nodded. “But having an actual shop is different. You can’t just pack up and go to where the business is.”

“Correct, Miss Harp,” Moody agreed cheerfully. “Places like that general store require not just business to come to it, but they need other ponies to bring them the merchandise to sell.”

He picked up several glass bottles with a purple like cola inside as he went on to explain, “Merchants with stores need to buy products in bulk to lower the cost, thus allowing them to make a profit when selling. We traveling merchants know this, and stock up on more generic products we can get at an even lower cost, then travel to stores like this to unload the product. Sometimes they even make requests, in which we traveling merchants pass along until one of us can fulfill the request.”

Putting the cola bottle down, Moody grinned once again. “Now what would happen if we traveling merchants started selling all our products at the same price we sell to the general store?”

“Ponies would stop buying from the store,” I answered.

“Again, correct,” Moody said as he dropped his smile and sighed. “That, and poor Heavy would have to lower his prices.”

That all made sense. Heavy Hoof may have the support of the town, probably some under the table help from the Mayor as well. But I doubt the wasteland has anything close to a proper infrastructure, so he must primarily rely on the traveling merchants to get restocked. With the train, he could do business with ponies from the NCR, but that would piss off Espresso.

Slowtrot did mention that he got some of his junk from Blueskies. Relying on them would likely not end well for him.

All roads lead to the traveling merchants. Worse for Heavy was that they were almost all here for the festival. It would be one thing for one merchant to get pissed off at this town, but there were at least twenty merchant stalls along the main road, and a lot more scattered around town. There were also merchants still just passing through, and with them came mercenaries and scavengers.

I doubt it would be hard for the traveling merchants to set up some other pony to become rich off the trade flowing through here. It would also be easy for them to spread rumors about the store, maybe something about him selling faulty products, or in my case, blatant false accusations of theft.

Looking at Moody, the slick stallion, he very much looked the type that would take me for every cap that I owned, and I would not be able to call a foul. Also he looked like he doesn't do this for free.

Checking my bag, I noted that I was lucky my caps were still in there. I pulled them out and displayed them on my hoof.

I put on my best smile, knowing that Moody wanted me to buy something from him. “Alright, I get it. With how things are right now, trust is running quite thin. But still, why reach out your neck this far? I doubt, when the mayor learns of this, he will be friendly with you.”

He picked up one of the surprise boxes and put it in front of me along with the cola bottle. “The drink was in your first box so it’s already yours.” Next, he pulled out a ration box and placed it next to the surprise box. “As for why, think of it as the principle of it all. There are plenty of bad merchants out there, even though I've taken part in a bad deal and had bad deals happen to me. That’s just life. But, for the most part, we try to keep things fair, if a bit tilted in our favor. We do have to make our caps after all.”

I passed him the payment for the two items I didn’t want to buy, but it was only fair that did.

Moody continued. “The problem is that we witnessed it happen, and even if Heavy didn’t take part in the incident, his wife had, and she put the stolen product back on the shelf as though nopony was watching her. Worse, it was done through the local law, meaning there was little chance a complaint would be heard.”

Quickly counting the caps, Moody then nodded and put them inside a small chest. “Now a lot of us were already sick of Miss Karat. The mare fancied herself a haggler, but all she would do is make unreasonable demands and stomp her hoof. So, when word got out about the incident, it was like wildfire because I directed you to them. Of course, my name was also mentioned as part of it. Long story short, I fingered I nip this in the flank before it got out of hoof, starting with a chat with Heavy Hoof. He was already nervous before I trotted in, so it was not hard to say a few words to tip his emotions over the edge. I had planned for him to calmly tell the sheriff about this, but when Karat ran out screaming with a smoke bomb in her mane, well . . . I wouldn't be a successful merchant if I can’t think on my hooves.”

His wife, Keep, poked her head out from their wagon as she announced, “If that bitch was my wife, I’d have given her a black eye long ago to get her under control.” She looked down at Moody with a small smile that didn’t look friendly at all.

Moody smiled nervously back at her. “Now honey, that attitude is what made us leave that other town ahead of schedule. Remember?”

She rolled her eyes, then addressed us. “Ya know my clan has an old saying: Better to get slapped around by family then get a bullet from a stranger. Frankly, I know a few of the ponies here already had a plan to kill the bitch before leaving town.”

Moody face hoofed, clearly not wanting that out in the open.

Dead Axle, on the other hoof, seemed to think it was just fine as she said. “Oh, we have a saying like that with my clan. Though Mom just hogties Dad whenever he is having one of his moments. She also drags him outside of camp to calm him down.”

Keep chuckled. “I do that too whenever my hubby here gets all worked up.”

Moody loudly cleared his throat. “Enough about private matters. Let’s just leave it at that. We merchants needed to send a message. Notably, the right message. Word is clearly going to get around about this whole mess. Maybe even get the mayor to finally give everypony a date to when the festival happens.”

I gave Moody a polite bow. “Still, thank you for your help. I just wish I didn’t get myself into that mess in the first place. I’ve just been a bit stressed, and lost my cool.”

“Happens to the best of us,” Moody said cheerfully before leaning in and whispering, “Actually, a lot of the merchants are glad ya did it, so I’ll give you a tip if you're ever heading out with some caravans.” He leaned back with a smile on his face. “There's a place called Platnum Hills far to the northwest. It’s prewar and protected by old magic. An old merchant family set up a camp there. It’s become the treasured rest stop for us traveling merchants for a long time now. If there's any safe place where you can find anything and everything, it’s Platnum Hills.”

Keep added, “Just watch out for a group called the Old Guard. They have a stick up their ass about keeping the ancient buildings clean and undamaged.”

Moody nodded. “Well the native's rules are easy to follow, so don’t worry too much about them. Anyways, just ask any caravan if they're heading there and not taking any short cuts. Unless you can outfight or outrun any of the monsters out there, then shortcuts are unused for a good reason.”

“Again, thanks,” I said before trying to pack my newly purchased things. The rations were too big, so I just balanced it on my back for now.

Trotting off, I was glad to be returning to the Gunrunners. Today was already getting to be too much, and the idea of staying inside and making a talisman was sounding peaceful. Actually, I was starting to think that maybe I should just stay there until I was ready to go. It would help keep what happened today and last night from happening again.

“So, whatcha going to do with that toaster?” Dead checked as she trotted alongside me.

“Turn it into a talisman copying devi....” I said before realizing Dead Axle was still with me… and that I just let out valuable information.

Shit...

Her eyes went wide. “Fucking really?! What kind can ya copy? Are ya making those...” she stopped and gave me a mischievous grin. “If it ain't something ya can say out loud, maybe we should stop by the clinic. It’s all private there.”

“How is the free clinic private?” I asked her.

“Well, for one, the normal assholes don’t come in there, and second, it's so loud outside that it’s damn hard to eavesdrop on a pony inside. Also, I doubt ponies think ya go there to talk about secret stuff,” she explained.

I… I could see her logic. At least I have an excuse to go there. It had been some time, but maybe Cloudy was still there.

“But why would I tell you anything about it?” I asked.

“Business,” she answered simply. “We do use motor wagons.”

She had a point, so with a shrug, I gave Dead a nod. Together, we trotted over to the free clinic.

There were a lot of things I was not expecting to see inside the free clinic. Among them was what I could call a princess tea party, though far more cruder, and without any princesses, a duchess, or even a baronesses. What was at the makeshift table was three fillies and two grown mares in old dresses.

“How's your tea. Lady Bridget?” Live axle asked in a terrible attempt at sounding high class.

Bridget smiled as she sipped on a crud looking teacup. “Most wonderful, Lady Axle”

At least Bridget could fill the accent, even if it was a bit off.

Cloudy saw us and gave a nervous smile. She motioned with her head for us to join them.

I sighed, seeing why not.

The other two fillies were Light Step and Pepperbox. Both looked cute in their little dresses.

Bridget saw me and gave a toothy smile. “Lady Harp, care to join us?”

I curtseyed as I found a seat at the table. “Most lovely. Your invitation does warm my heart, Lady Bridget. If it is not too much to ask, pray tell what tea is being served? It has been a spell since I last had warm tea,” I said in the most elegant tone possible.

Bridget, Light, and Pepperbox all gasped. “You sound like a real princess!”

Taking a deep breath, they regained their composure, and Briget gave me an answer. “Were serving mutefruit and broc flower tea. Jali said it is healthy for us, as well as tasting good.”

She poured me a teacup. Taking a sip, I found it… mehh. It had a slight fruity flavor that masked the more medicinal taste. Though not up to my standards, it was tolerable enough to drink.

Still, tea was tea. I should ask Jali if she has any proper tea to share.

“This is wonderful. You should make me some more later,” I told the young filly.

My eyes shifted to the gangger mare Live Axle, who now was looking nervous. “Lady Live, how has your day been going? Mine has just been dreadful.”

She sipped on her tea for a moment. “I have been here. Looking after the young fillies with Cloudy.”

“Aheam, Lady Live!” Bridget spoke up.

Live Axle straightened up, putting on her best attempt to look elegant as she tried and failed to talk with elegance. “I mean, I have been relaxing with the young ladies, joined by Lady Cloudy.”

“And they have been such wonderful hosts,” Cloudy chimed in, doing far better at acting elegant. “While the madams are out, they have been showing us their hospitality.”

Cloudy sipped on her tea before eyeing Dead Axle, who was standing behind her sister. “Lady Live here has been a joy. I’ve never known a pony from such an honorable warrior family to have interests so outside the battlefield.”

Live Axle put her teacup down, again smiling nervously. “Well ya know.. Well as you would know, a Lady like me can not be on the battlefield all the time, and I do love my teddies. My sister, on the other hoof, always manages to damage them, so I learned how to fix them. I’ve even made a few teddies of my own. It’s so much fun!”

Live nervousness faded. I could see a warm, genuine smile on her face. “I want to make them for whenever I have my own foal so that we can hug them together.”

Despite her roughness, the gangger mare actually looked cute for a moment.

That moment was ruined by Dead Axle placing her hooves on her sister's waist and chuckled. “Maybe ya should lay off the snake cakes for a bit then sis.”

Live Axle froze in place for a moment before slowly turning to look at her sister. “H… how long?”

With a wide mischievous grin, Dead Axle said in a rough attempt at elegance. “How's your tea, Lady Bridget?” Dead Axle asked which was followed by a laugh.

Staring daggers at her sister, Live quickly regained her composure and took a sip of her tea. “If any pony should eat less snack cakes, I think it would be you, dear sister.”

She returned her attention to the tea party. “By Celestia, you know my sister has a secret snack hoard. We all pretend we don’t know to save her from the embarrassment.”

Dead Axle’s face went a bit red. “Oh, so you're the one who took one of my sweets sis.”

I saw where this was going. Since I didn’t want a fight in front of the foals, I spoke up. “No need for raised voices here. Better we relax and have a pleasant chat. Let’s talk business later.”

Dead sighed and calmed down, taking an open spot at the table. “Alright. So how’s the therapy session going, sis?”

Live Axle slimed a little. “Elder Jali wants me to return here again. She says that she may have an idea how to help me.”

Looking about, Dead asked. “So where's the stallion?”

Now Live Axle looked a little annoyed. “That bit…. His sister came in to have a chat with him, so they left a while ago.”

His sister? They must mean the abomination Quicktrot Fragment. I didn’t like the sounds of that at all, not when she could have been the one to send the raiders after us. There were too many questions and not enough time left in the day.

Feeling out with my magic, I noticed a faint trace of something off. Two things. One was a very faint sense of twisted wrongness, and the traces of Slowtrot’s almost elusive magic.

Now the question of what I should do. It was not like Quicktrot would do anything publicly. Maybe she was going to try and convince him to leave again, so he was likely safe. But I did have some questions myself. I wanted to know if she knew anything about what’s happening on the Islands. There was also Cantercross and the Mirage ponies there. The more I knew, the better.

No, I can’t let her know my plans...

Still, maybe she knows more about the raiders.

I finished my tea, so as to be respectful, and got up. “Sorry, but I got to go. We can talk later, Lady Dead, but I must do something first.”

Dead Axle yawned. “If you must. I will be around if my sister is.”

Trotting over to Cloudy, we both hugged and nuzzled each other.

“Are you coming to my place later? We do have the day off?” Cloudy reminded me as she looked at me with surly eyes.

I didn’t have to think about it, not like I skipped another night with her. “Looking forward to it.”

Trotting off, I still didn’t know what to think about Dead Axle. Was she smart or was she dumb? Was she simply using me for entertainment to get out of jail, or was she actually being a… friend?

I’ll figure that all out another time. Right now I had an abomination to ask a few questions.

I just hope Slowtrot is doing alright.

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-Reputation-

-New Appaloosa Uptowners-

Nopony knows why Harp was simply set free, but they do suspect that some self-entitled mare may have gone overboard. Though their opinion on Harp has not changed, they at least will discredit anything Karat says about her from now on.