Outer Worlds: Equestria

Outer Worlds: Equestria

Chapter 11: Some Roots go Deep

I figured out a few things after my meeting with the Ministry Mare. I hadn’t expected to speak with a pony that had likely been dead for several centuries. I certainly didn’t expect my conservation with her to only last for a few seconds in the real world. What had felt like a long and deep conservation had only seemed like a minor moment of sleep. Gilda, Buttersworth, and Smog hadn't even noticed that I had drifted off to sleep yet. If they did then it was likely that they might have thought that it was the trauma finally catching up with me.

We still had a tour to provide, but the idea of resting first had certainly been accepted by all. From what Dreamweaver had told us we had time before we had to take the tour out, and I had encouraged everyone to get some sleep. The beds themselves were exactly what one might think. The burnt rubber smell was more of the quick manufacturing of these beds and buildings, but regardless it was nice to have somewhere other than the ship to rest at. It wasn’t that I worried about the ship. I doubted that Sweet Kisses would actually spy on us if any of us decided to relieve a little tension.

Which was something else that was still bothering me. My heat was certainly more under control now, but there was no denying that I was still in season. My roll in the hay with Smog had relieved much of the driving need, but it didn’t stop all of it. There was more than once I considered sneaking into either his or Buttersworth bed, and letting either one of them have their way with me. Hell, I was almost tempted to get into bed with Gilda. But unlike before it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t control it. Working, keeping my mind busy, thinking about something else, were keeping me from acting on my desires. I laid my head back on the bed, and within seconds I was out again. Sweet darkness took me, and while I had almost expected to see the Ministry Mare again it ended up being something different.

My dreams of late had been darker, more violent, and certainly filled with the kinds of horror that I wondered if anypony, well anycreature, else had to deal with. I didn’t want to think that I was the only pony in the colonies that had nightmares. The Lightbringer preserve us I knew that nightmares weren’t exclusively my territory. Still, I didn’t like facing them. Instead this dream wasn’t a horrific nightmare. It began with me bitting a pillow, my rump in the air, and the familiar feeling of my marehood being split by a welcomed intruder.

That intruder felt amazing, although he was huge. I felt his speed increase, and I grunted in time with each and every thrust. I could feel his testicles tumping against my teats, the way his forelegs were wrapped around my haunches, and the feel of his teeth on my neck. I grunted as I felt every single thrust, and then I froze as I heard the voice I didn’t realize I missed so much.

“Yer mah pretty mare, ain’t cha?”

The sound of Baldwin’s voice shook me to my core, and I looked ahead of me to see Baldwin behind me. He was just as beautiful, as strikingly handsome as I remembered when I first met him. His soft yellow coat was so light that it practically glowed, his red mane was the same as I remembered it, and his emerald eyes shined like jewels. He was for all rights and purposes one of the most beautiful stallions I’d ever seen. The fact that he was so large, that his size made it incredibly easy for him to straddle a normal mare like myself with absolutely no problem.

I closed my eyes again, lost in the feeling of being bred by the stallion I considered my friend, the stallion that wouldn’t do this, and I accepted that this was a fun sex dream and nothing else. I couldn’t lie and say that it wasn’t something that I didn’t want. I did, oh by the Lightbringer it was something I wanted so badly. I wanted Baldwin to mount me and rut me so hard it felt like I was a virgin again. I wanted to trot funny afterwards, I wanted to carry his foals, and I wanted to be with him, but he didn’t want to be with me.

Maybe it was because he was just a good and kind colt, and I could accept that happily because it still gave me a chance. He didn’t seem interested in colts, so either he was a somepony that had manners and was exceptionally considerate of others, or it was that he didn’t want to be with me. That thought bothered me far more than I wanted to admit. It bothered me because it meant that while he saw me as a friend he didn’t see me worth having as a sexual partner.

The dream began to break away, and soon I found myself waking up. I smacked my lips, and the phantom feeling of being bred lingered as I got up. I looked around the small house for a moment and found a bottle of something purple on a table. I checked, and blinked as I read it for a moment.

“Razzleberry’s Famous Purpleberry soda?” I asked feeling half asleep, “Eh, why not.”

I used my magic and popped the bottle cap from the bottle, laid it on the table, and soon I took a deep drink. The soda was overly sweet, and it tasted of elderberries. It wasn’t bad at all, but certainly I could see a filly trying to feed it to her hamster or gerbil. It wouldn’t end well at all, but it didn’t stop the fact that she was certain there would be a few that would try. I took another drink, and I was sure by the taste that too much of this would rot teeth straight out of somepony’s head.

I finished the bottle of soda, looked around, and found a small tin. I studied it for a moment and opened it. I hadn’t been sure what to expect, but the taste wasn’t terrible. It was certainly off, a little salty, but it did taste like fish of a sort. I looked to find a small package of Auntie Frosted Cakes ever soft/everlast bread. I opened it, took two slices of the bread out, and then put the odd fish on them. Having made a sandwich she ate it in the stillness of the building before looking around.

I expected to see everypony else asleep, but instead I saw Smog looking at me from a top bunk. His eyes were following me, almost as if he was a predator looking at prey. Of course I had to remind myself that he was in fact a predator. Sure, part of him was pony, but he was half dragon. That meant that he could, and most likely would, eat bigger animals.

“Any of the Neptuna left?” he asked sounding more alert and awake than I would have expected, “Because I could go for some.”

I floated a can up to him, watched as he opened his mouth, bit down on the top, and then ripped it open before spitting out the top of the can and slurping down the meat inside. He crawled off of the top bunk he’d been on and looked at me.

“So, we’re going to take this tour out, make sure they make it back, and collect our weapons, gear, and go find this hidden lab you’re looking for,” he said nonchalantly, “and I’m fine with that, but I want to find my friends.”

I remembered him talking some about his crew, and specifically I could recall the way he talked, it seemed like there was somepony he was interested in having a relationship with. I wouldn’t begrudge him having his eyes set on somepony else. What we had, the short bit between us, was more or less just him helping me with my heat. It wasn’t anything more than that, and I understood that completely.

“I know, and we will,” I said confidently, “But if you have anyway of knowing where they went, it will be a huge help.”

He nodded, “We’ll need to go back to Taffyta anyway, and I’m sure that we can pick up their trail from there.”

I nodded. The first thing we had to do though was get through this tour guide job and collect. I glanced over at Gilda and Buttersworth. Both of them were sleeping, and I didn’t have the heart to bother either of them. I knew that for Gilda it likely was a novelty to be able to get much needed rest without it being required time off of work. I could only imagine that the same was for Buttersworth as well.

It struck me as odd that they were forced to work like they had back in Standing Water. Gilda had confessed that she didn’t know what to do with the extra time she had on the Non-Responsible. She had said that she was used to working twelve hours days, and then having twelve hours off for rest, feeding, and other things. Having a twelve hour shift didn’t seem terrible, but never having a day off in order to recuperate seemed malicious on the side of the company. It was chewing up an employee and then spitting them back out because there would be someone else to take their place eventually.

No, I was content to let them sleep. I wanted them to enjoy the rest that they both deserved, and instead I looked ahead at what was likely to come. We would be going to lead this tour, and that was fine. Once that was done we would bring the tourists back, collect our pay, and then we would make our way toward Taffyta. That was something I both looked forward to and wanted to avoid as much as possible. From my understanding Taffyta itself was partially intact, the walls would need repair, if I was to claim it, and of course from what Smog had told me there were marauders there to clear out.

Marauders were something that didn’t bother me that much at this point. They weren’t ponies in the strictest of sense, or they weren’t ponies in the strictest of sense to me, and I felt that dealing with them was better than leaving them alone for anyone to notice and have to deal with. I heard Smog with the now empty can of Neptuna. He crinkled it up, like a piece of paper, and then tossed it toward a small waste basket that was sitting by the counter.

I wasn’t sure if we wanted to be the only ones leading this group. I felt better having everyone with us. Gilda and Buttersworth had really stepped up when I needed them to. Sure, Gilda couldn’t hit the broad side of a ship with a scope, but she did her best to help. She was a hell of a mechanica, an excellent engineer, and I knew that her work on the Non-Responsible was crucial. She honestly kept the ship going. There was little doubt in my mind that it was her abilities, not mine, that were the reason why the Non-Responsible worked so well.

But it was more than that. I felt like they were friends, and I wanted to keep my friends close. I felt that it made good sense to keep them close. I heard the sound of someone stirring, and I looked to see Gilda slowly blinking her eyes owlishly for a moment before she finally got up, flexed her back, stretched her wings, and then moved around a bit.

“Wow,” she said, sounding more energetic than she had in a long while, “Ain’t slept like that ever. I feel like a brand new gryphon. I think that I could strip the entire cooker for the Standing Water cannery and not make any mistakes!”

I grinned at her, “Good to hear,” I said surprised and relieved at how a little rest seemed to really help her. But then I had to consider the situation that she was coming from. “We all need to take time to get the rest our bodies need.”

I hated Standing Water and Dirty Bit a little more. It wasn’t so much the settlement as it was Dirty Bit himself. He’d set it up so that the workers didn’t have enough time for rest, feeding themselves, and anything else they needed to do. Sure, they had twelve hour days, but Gilda had said that most workers had at least one part time job along with their main job, and that part time was six hours. That meant that they four hours off to rest before they had to go back to work.

It was insane, the entire thing was an exercise in insanity, and no one questioned it. It bothered me that so many of them were conditioned to believe that it was the norm, that sleeping for eight full hours was extravagant and luxurious in the extreme, and that the only way they could ever have that would be either to win a lottery or work until they were finally promoted to a position of power.

I watched as Buttersworth got up, gave him a smile, and together we walked out and toward Gunt’s Emporium. True to his word Gunt had the tourists ready, several of them had the look of higher society individuals, and I noticed that more than a couple of them looked more like they belonged walking down the streets looking into shops instead of heading out into the wilderness. Gunt also surprised me by presenting a few high caliber rifles to us. I looked at him and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Yer be needin’ something ta help, so, I provide loaners.”

I gave a nod, “Thanks Gunt,” I said with a smile and then looked at the map he laid out before me, “Map too?”

He nodded, and I took it. The map covered the areas that were deemed not as dangerous for a tour, and studied it, copied it to my Eye Dentity Scanner, and then let Smog copy it to his Pipbuck. I then walked to the front of the group, eyeing all of them, which there were eight all together. I had expected there to be more, but it could be that the others went on ahead without a guide, their problem not mine, or they decided to forgo the tour and maybe decided to take in a good rut. All the more power to them.

“Morning! I’m Captain Slim Chance, and I will be your tour guide today. We’re going to see some of the flora and fauna that exists on Majesty, and I am giving the warning now that this will be dangerous. If you don’t like danger, please stay behind, but know there are no refunds.”

Gunt nodded and moved about on his business. There didn’t seem to be any arguments to the contrary, so I led the group from the Emporium to the gates. Once there we stepped out and moved toward the first trek. It was a mountain trail that headed up to Draconequus Keep. The road outside of Fallen didn’t have any signs of marauders, and so we moved through. The edge of the trail looked normal, and I wondered if the danger would be minimal.

Fifteen minutes into the tour and I realized that this was going to be the hardest bits I’d ever earned. I would have done better bending over, lifting my tail, and telling everypony that putting it in my ass for a bit a piece would have been less work and I would likely have regretted it less. Mutated Dragons were the first problem, luckily it wasn’t many, and it seemed that they were far enough away from the others not to be an issue. Sniping them we dealt with them and moved on.

Ten minutes later it was marauders, but not one or two, instead it was no less than thirty. We managed to keep the tourists from getting hurt, but I felt a bullet graze me, a knife blurred past me and stuck into a rock, and all of this seemed to be happening far faster than it had any right to. Twenty minutes of fighting marauders, of killing every last one of them, and we were on our way again. Every lookout position, every new bend in the trail, and there was another set of creatures, more marauders, and occasionally a perilous looking bridge thrown in for aesthetics as well. I found myself wishing ever so slightly, that the tour would end, we would be back, and collect our pay.

Finally we reached the summit which housed what looked like a giant building that had various satellite dishes stationed on it and around it. Behind the building was a cave, and I checked the map and notes that I’d copied into my Eye Dentity Scanner.

“Ladies and Gentlestallions,” I said with some flourish, “This magnificent structure is Draconequus Summit’s Radio relay tower, and behind it is Discord’s Maw. The Cave is known to be one of the deepest in all of Majesty.”

There were a few glances, and finally one of the tourists walked up to it, “Quick, get my picture!”

“I really wouldn’t stand there.”

She glared at me, “Well I’m not some low life scrub that pretends to be a spaceship captain and actually is just some trick pony pulling tour guide duty.”

I clenched my teeth so hard I almost felt one of them break. That bitch was calling me a trick pony. She was calling me a walking fuck toy, and I wanted to walk over there, shove my hoof up her ass, and go on about my day. I calmed myself down some, realizing that she was a pony like my mother, and decided to handle her in a similar fashion.

“Ma’am,” I said as eveningly as possible even though I really wanted to fuck her up, “Despite what you may think of me, that cave doesn’t look safe, and you’re not dressed for exploring. Instead you look like you’re dressed in preparation of a day of shopping. So maybe stay away from the cave before you fall in?”

“Thank you for the compliment,” she said snootily, “But again, I’m not taking advice from a trick pony, no matter how mannerly, and I want to stand near the caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” she screamed as she fell in.

I sighed, “Okay, Smog, Buttersworth, can you watch the group?”

Smog looked at me, “Why are you leaving me here?”

I looked at them both, “Because I’m not sure if I’m going to need a flyer, and honestly you’ve got a Pipbuck on you. You’d do better helping to watch the others while Gilda and I try to save the silly pony that talked like she’s never stunk a day in her life.”

He nodded, and with that we made our way inside of the cave. Just inside there was a cliff, and the idea of bringing Gilda along was a good one. I used a featherweight spell, and Gilda lowered me down until we reached the bottom. I saw a place where somepony landed, and marks showing that she’d stumbled off. At least she was alive. I could hope that we would be fortunate enough that she’d survive all of the way back to Fallen.

We followed the tracks and I heard somepony gagging. I neared the sound and saw the mare in question. Her expensive clothes had been ripped away, her haunches were lifted into the air, and there were two marauders using her as a fuck toy while a third seemed to be fine with using her mouth. I took aim, shot the first, then the second and third. She dropped, their now lifeless tools of torture and reproduction slipping from her. She laid there in a fetal position, crying, and I felt horrible for her. I felt guilty that I had almost wished for something to happen to her. She’d barely been in here for maybe ten minutes, at the most, and in that time she was found by marauders and then used as a stress relief option.

“You’re okay now.”

She whimpered, “I...I wanna go home now, can I go home please?”

I nodded, but heard something from the way we came. Seeing no choice but to move forward I lifted her in my magic, placed her on my back, and used the featherweight spell on her as we moved further into the cave. There were split offs, turns, dens, but finally we found what looked like a long cavern that came out near a building. I moved toward it realizing that unlike most of the buildings on this planet it wasn’t something that was prefabricated. This was a building made from the materials around. Bits of junk had been crafted into walls, I could see old ship hauls, rubber bricks, sheets of metal, and all of it formed this small building. We neared it, and I noticed that it had a sign on it.

“Junkique, home of the best deals on this planet, or any other.”

I smiled, opened the door, and looked inside to see shelves brimming over with snacks, soda, terminals, weapons, clothes, and other odds and ends. I saw the mare working in the back and took a moment to study her. She was white, her mane a red and black, and I just happened to see a compact looking horn which tipped me off that she was a unicorn. There was an old Stable-Tec Security barding hanging near her, another that was Stable-Tec utility barding, and she was wearing what looked like some ancient police riot gear.

“Welcome to Junkique, We accept bottle caps, not bits.”

I stood there looking at her, “Bottle caps?” I asked, “Who uses bottle caps for money?”

She looked toward me, her red eyes studying me, and slowly the stories hit me. It couldn’t be her because she was buried in Chapel. I had seen the grave, I knew the story, and she was dead, long dead. But she matched what my grandmother had said.

“Go Fish?”

She growled, “Not my name!” she moved toward me and then she stopped. Her eyes widened, “You…” She really studied me, “You got mom’s cheeks, and P21’s eyes.”

She sat back on her haunches, studied me for a bit, and then I felt magic wrap around me, and the mare on my back, and we were brought in for a hug. The mare on my back cried out in surprise, and she released us. At that she looked at me, “Well, say hi to your great, great, I’m not sure how many greats, grandmare.”

My eyes widened as I looked at her, somehow Security, the mare that tried to clean up the hoof, was on Majesty.

She smiled at us, and then motioned for us to follow her. I began to, until I felt something. It was almost as if something was drawing me toward it, and I saw what looked like the skull of a mutated dragon. I opened it, and saw a small pink figurine in there. It had a pony that looked so alive that I was sure she would come to life and begin dancing around like a mad mare for a few moments. I lifted the figurine up and saw the writing under it, “Awareness, it was Under E!”

Taking it, I placed it with the figure of Rainbow Dash, and I followed my living family member further into her store.

You’ve unlocked Celestial Mare: Your overall good Karma has gained the notice of those around you. Merchants will offer discounts, Special Dialogue options are available to special NPCs, and now some NPCs will come to your defence