Author's Note

(AN: It's been a while, but here's the update. So, the updates will be coming about once a week, normally on Friday or Saturday for the time being. Thanks everyone that has been following and favored it!)

Chapter 8: Ain't Too Loney Yet

Outer Worlds Equestria

Chapter 8: Ain’t Too Lonely Yet

“♫The Ale to cure what ails you, Zero G Brew, your favorite flavor, to help you work ‘till you bleed because you’re only ennobled by labor,♫” a soft voice sung, “♫So you can purchase relief from your local retailer.♫”

Slowly I opened my eyes to see blackness. Complete and total blackness. I felt my breath quicken, I wanted to scream, but a slightly more authoritarian voice cut through the soft voice that was singing.

“Stop fidgeting otherwise the healing pod might mistake your mouth as a wound and you won’t be able to open it again, ever.”

Suddenly I decided that sitting still was perhaps the single greatest thing in the world. Yes ma’am, I was not going to fidget around and have my mouth removed. A few moments later there was a pinprick of light, and slowly it widened until it opened completely. When it did I fell forward. I went straight to the floor and kissed it. I heard a laugh, and then I saw a pony in a weird looking bunch of armor. She was a pegasus, that much I was sure of. Her coat was gray, at least it sure looked it from what I could see of her face. Her mane was a soft purple, and I could see a set of wings on her back.

“Well,” she said, “Looks like your friends got you here in time.”

She studied me for a moment, “Name’s Swift Rain,” she said, “and your friends bartered your healing.”

I gave her a smile, “Ummm, thanks for healing me up?”

She rolled her eyes, “You’re welcome,” she said, “Although I did it more for the few bottles of booze and some canned food.”

She moved the supplies that had been collected, something I’m guessing that Buttersworth, Gilda, or Smog had grabbed back at the landing pad, and she began putting them behind the counter. She then looked at me again, “Well, how does your leg fell?”

I moved it, “It feels okay,” I said, “A little tight, but that’s about it.”

She gave me a nod, “Most likely that’s the new muscle. The healing pod does a great job, but it usually removes a little muscle with the foreign object,” she said, “Most likely to keep everything from become contaminated, and then it replaces it with regrown muscle.”

I looked at my leg, “So, not all of this is originally me?”

She smiled, “Nope,” she said, “Part of that is dura-muscle, but don’t worry. That stuff was created way before this was a colony.”

I looked at my leg for a moment, “So, who was singing a moment ago?”

She shook her head, “That would have been your friend, and she sung about four hours ago. The healing pod recorded her voice, and played it back, on a continuous loop, for you,” she said, “Most likely you’re going to have that stupid jingle in your head for weeks.”

I nodded, “I can still hear it,” I said, “Thanks again, but where are we?”

The mare studied me a moment, “You’re welcome, and we’re in Doc Healing Heart’s Medical Emporium,” she said, “It’s been deserted for about as long as Taffyta. The Doc remained here for as long as he could before he finally attempted the trek toward Starlight Bay. Don’t think that he ever made it though.”

I looked at her, “Ummm, why?”

She shrugged, “I was the nurse practitioner here,” she said, “Basically a doctor without the extra pay and benefits. He had me leave about two days before he obviously did. I guess that he was trying to see if there was anyone else left to treat before he left.”

I looked at her, “So, you decided to reopen for him?”

She smiled, “Not exactly,” she said, “We came to get the healing pod. I’m part of a group that disagrees with being little more than slaves to the Board. We call ourselves the Proletariat Class. Our leader, Graham, said that the world came from back on Equestria. Something about a group that was fighting for equal rights for all citizens.”

I looked at her, “Kind of a long title, I mean sort of a long one.”

She nodded, “I just call us the Letariats,” she admitted, “It seems to roll off of the tongue better.”

She had a point. I noticed a small scar on her, just under her eye, and it seemed to go down her muzzle. She didn’t look away, or try to hide it. Instead she just looked at me with those soft gold eyes. There was a weariness in them, but at the same time I saw something else as well. She looked proud. She didn’t sound like the ponies from Stillwater either.

“Well, we’re glad to have done business with you,” she said, “But we need to get this back to our compound.”

“Where’s that located?” I asked, “Because we’re needing to trade for some weapons, and maybe we could do so there.”

She shook her head, “We have weapons, but most of them are needed,” she replied, “However, we will be passing Fallen along the way. I’m sure that Lady Fair Shake will have what you need, but I wouldn’t bet on it being cheap.”

She looked at me for a second, “Look, we’ll escort you that way, since we’re already heading toward it. Help us move the healing pod, and I’ll give you a few bits extra to trade with her.”

I nodded, and within thirty minutes the pod was disconnected, lifted, and I helped the moving by casting a feather weight spell on it. Before it would have likely taken Buttersworth and Smog to carry it. Now that was being done by a single Pegasus among Swift Rain’s group. I noticed that their group was about ten to our four. Of course Sweet Kisses was with us, but she was on the ship. In a way she was the ship. A small part of me wondered if she would ever be able to leave it.

Much like most of Equestria II I noticed the difference in the plants here. The grass was similar to the crystalized growth, but there were mushrooms that looked as if they were leaning toward us as we walked. I noticed that none of the others were getting close to them, so I decided to follow their example. Unfortunately I couldn’t contain that curious part of me that simply wanted to know.

“Are the mushrooms leaning toward us?”

“They are, and don’t touch them,” Swift Rain said, “We’ve already disconnected the healing pod, and honestly, I’m not sure if we could reassemble it in time.”

I looked at them with a bit more caution, “Okay, why don’t you want to touch them?”

An Earth Pony looked at me. He looked half starved, his coat was a dusky looking blue, and his mane looked to be black. I noticed that one eye was white, but the other was a soft green. He stared at me for a moment and then shook his head, “Because if we can’t heal you then we have to kill you,” he said, “And that would be a waste since we’ve just finished healing you.”

I looked at him, “Kill me?!” I exclaimed, “WHY?!”

He sighed, and then pointed toward some of the stranger looking mushrooms. I noticed that they had shapes, odd, almost pony like shapes. Some were similar to those dog like creatures, and a fewer seemed to be like those almost mutated dragons. I looked at them, how they looked to be not one mushroom, but instead a whole collection of them.

“Those mushrooms are activated by touch. Something touches them, and they spray out a bunch of spores. Those spores infect the one that touched them, and anyone unlucky enough to be by them. You’ve got maybe six minutes before it gets into your brain and turns you into nothing more than a walking monster,” he said, “That’s why we’re not getting closer to those things. If we do they’ll sense us and walk toward us.”

I stood there, and my eyes widened, “This is crazy!” I exclaimed, “This entire place is insane!”

He shrugged his shoulders, “It is what it is. The Mushrooms only seem to grow fairly close to sulfur pits,” he said, “There’s a bunch of them on Majesty, but not so many that we can’t get by. Most of the places here don’t have too many near them. Hell, Fallen has an actual river going through it.”

That actually sounded nice. A river would be something pleasant among all of this insanity. Then again it might be filled with fish that swim up inside of you and then explode. That would actually fit the kind of insanity that I’ve seen here so far. Still, it would be nice to see something that was at least somewhat normal. It wasn’t that I didn’t expect to see different things, and all of this was more than I expected, but I certainly didn’t expect to find things that would be able to eat me.

I shook my head. No, I had signed up for this because I wanted adventure. I wanted to make my own way, and I wanted a life that was forged by my own hooves. If I had wanted safe I could have married Tick Tock and been satisfied spitting out foals and attending balls and dances. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to be part of the aristocats life, and I certainly didn’t belong to it. I felt a need to go where the wind blew me.

Although the wind seemed to blow me into sleeping for ninety or so years, getting thawed out, and then turned loose on a colony that seemed to be conditioned to singing jingles and agreeing with whatever it was that the corporate overlords were selling. It blew my mind to know how that had happened. How had these ponies allowed themselves to fall prey to the way things were. Maybe it was because they thought that they were safe.

But was safety really worth all of this? It didn’t seem that way. Maybe I was wrong, but I had doubts on that. And from what I’ve seen they’d been conditioned to this for an exceptionally long time. It wasn’t a single event, and I had to believe that it was little by little that they gave up freedoms for whatever passed as security here. And Majesty didn’t seem that secure, but if Swift Rain and her ponies were the example of what I could expect to find here then it was likely that they took freedom over security.

It would certainly be something that I would do. I knew that there was no way that I could handle a life under the yolk the ponies on Equestria II were under. In some ways the things that the ponies there went through mirrored, or at least seemed to mirror, my own experiences with my mother. Although, compared to the fact that they all were little more than indentured servants I certainly had things a little better than they did. My mother wanted to use me as a way of maintaining her social status, but while she had attempted to control a great deal of my life she hadn’t attempted the kind of control that was present in the lives of those ponies.

I had freedoms, and after I left I had even more. I’d traded a possible secure and posh life for freedom and uncertainty. The two went hand in hand, there was no doubt about that, but I wasn’t completely uncertain either. I had a direction. I wanted to help Baldwin and the other colonists on the Luna Seven, and I wanted to see how much of this colony was already heading down the tubes. Standing Water wasn’t in terrible shape, not by a long shot, but then again neither had Day Dream’s camp. Both of them were heads and shoulders better than a place where the mushrooms attempted to kill you!

I shook my head at the thought. We’d walked for a while and I noticed that things were slowing down. Swift Rain stopped looked toward one of the ponies, and then moved toward where I was standing. She looked at me for a moment, and then she looked at the others.

“That spell you cast, how long will it last?”

I sat on my haunches, “While I’m nearby, for as long as my magic does, with it just cast on the pod and carried off, maybe an hour,” I said, “Why?”

She nodded, “Fallen is down that road,” she said pointing with a wing, “It’s about seven minutes and you’ll come to the wall and the gate. There’s two guards outside, normally, and they’ll let you in. Fallen exists for one reason only. It makes money. They don’t go in for that indentured servitude that the board does, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to buy and sell everything they can get their hooves on.”

I gave a nod, “Okay,” I said, “Thanks for the warning.”

She looked me over, “They also hire and are decent on paying. If you’re short on funds check with the local merchants. Several of them are likely to have jobs that they need done,” she said, “Good luck, and hopefully it works out for you.”

One of the Earth Ponies with Swift Rain began to walk forward. He chuckled, “♫Some ponies say that a Stallion is made out mud, but a poor pony is made of muscle and blood, muscle blood skin and bone. With a mind that’s weak and back that’s strong. You load sixteen tons and what do you get?♫” he sang as they began to walk off, “♫You get another day older and deeper in debt. Now Lightbringer don’t go callin’ me cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the damned Corporate store!♫”

His voice became more distant as they moved down the road toward wherever it was that they were going. I looked toward the direction that Swift Rain had pointed, and we began moving toward it. She had been right about there being two guards, and both of them were dressed in what looked black, gold, and red utility suits. Each of them were slightly bulky, and I realized that it was armor. It was certainly far better than what the Marauders had been wearing, but different than what I’d seen in Standing Water and outside of it.

The two ponies watched as we neared them, and then they came to attention.

“Welcome to Fallen,” the one on the right said, “We’re proud to be an independent owned settlement. Once inside remember that the rules are simple. Don’t start a fight you can’t finish, Everything costs bits, nothing is free, and mind your weapons and valuables at all times. If you are unable to abide by the first rule, do not enter. If you don’t have bits there may be job opportunities inside, and if you are worried about your valuables you may turn your sorry selves around and march on back to wherever it is you came from.”

I looked at them, “I’m not worried about anything we got,” I said, “As for funds, I suppose we could use a job or two. As for the fight, I won’t know until it happens.”

The pony looked at me and I realized that it was a mare. She was quite fetching, at least what was visible was fetching, and she gave me a smile.

“Good enough,” she said, “Welcome to Fallen.”

The gate opened and we stepped through. Whatever I had been expecting wasn’t this. I saw ponies of every age wandering the area. Most were dressed like the guards outside, but there were other ponies. Some were incredibly fancy, their clothes and mannerisms seemed to indicate breeding and social graces that was likely lost on some of the ponies here. Still, it was a community that actually seemed like a real community.

It seemed very close to what I had wanted to believe the colonies would become when I signed on with the Luna Seven. Day Dream’s Camp was close, but then most of those ponies had left the life behind that had been so hard on them. None of them exactly wanted to go back to Standing Water. I could understand their reasoning. The town itself was more of a large factory instead of a town. I wanted to call it a settlement, but honestly it was a town. Day Dream’s Camp was closer to a settlement than Standing Water was. But Fallen was different. It was what looked like an actual town. We moved closer to the buildings, and the first one caught my eye. Stepping inside I saw a mare that was sitting behind a counter. She was working on what looked like an antique terminal. I moved closer and I could see the slight sparks from it.

“Damned thing,” she grumbled, “If it wasn’t that there was potentially a gold mine of information in here I’d say fuck it in the ass and toss it.”

I watched her for a few more moments. Her mane was cherry red, her coat was a sort of cream color, and she had a pair of goggles on top of her head. She finally looked up after a moment and snorted.

“Welcome to Sling Bits,” she said, “Where we hope that you’ll sling your bits around. As you can see I’m currently hoof deep in this terminal’s ass, so what can I help you with?”

I gave her a smile and neared her, “Actually, I know quite a bit about antique robots and some about the terminals. Maybe I can be of help?”

She looked at me for a moment, “Two hundred bits if you can get access it,” she said, “It’s the screwiest operating system I’ve ever messed with. I think that the creator must have been getting licked or sucked by a really talented mare or stallion while it was being programmed.”

I nodded and walked toward it. The terminal looked like one of the ones that had been left over from before the war back in Hoofington. There were still several of them around, and for the most part they were still active. From what I could see she had replaced the screen, managed to get the terminal to return to life, and I could already see the problem. The terminal itself wasn’t communicating with the monitor correctly. She was getting part of the message, but the rest was coming up as random glyphs and the such.

I opened the back of it, looked around, and found the connection issue. She’d done a good job of repairing it, but she’d neglected to ensure that the monitor’s wire wasn’t touching anything else. Instead it was barely touching the wire that connected the basic spell matrix for the terminal itself. I corrected it, using a little bit of electric tape she had, and then powered it back on. The terminal seemed correct, and I went ahead and looked at the various passwords. None of them were exceptionally difficult, and I made a guess.

It seemed as if luck had decided to become friends with me because it opened.

“Well,” she said, “That’s two hundred bits spent.”

She slid a cartridge toward me, “So, what are you in Fallen for?” she asked, “Need a getaway, looking to start a career as a salvage expert, or looking for some of the best weapon deals this side of Majesty?”

I looked at her, “We need to upgrade our weapons,” I admitted, “I’d also like to get a few paying jobs while we’re here.”

She nodded, “Well, I don’t need anymore repair work done,” she said, “However, across the way is Gunt. He’s part of the Celestial Salvage Company family, but he’s a gryphon. I figure that’s not an issue since you’ve got a gryphoness with you, but you never know about ponies. Plus, between you and me, most ponies that don’t like other races other than Pony, they don’t last too long out here.”

I nodded, “Everycreature needs to get along to survive,” I said, “It makes sense.”

She smiled, “Sure does, but that’s not the only reason. Folks go disappearing outside of the gate. If they’re decent, we go looking for them. And most of the time we find them. It’s not always in one piece, but we usually find them,” she said, “If they talk bad about parts of the family that ain’t pony. Well, we take a little longer to look for them.”

The frankness she talked about it didn’t bother me. The fact that they considered gryphons and other beings part of their family was decent enough. We stepped out and headed in the direction she had pointed with her hoof. It was honestly across the way and inside was a huge gryphon. He was easily as big as some of the larger ponies I’d met. He looked at our group before leaning on the counter and spreading his claws apart.

“Welcome to Gunt’s Emporium,” he said, “Here we serve everything from a simple drink to hunting expeditions. Want danger, we can provide it, want to get higher than the three moons of Equestria two, I’ve got sixteen drugs that I guarantee will make you feel like you’re flying, and if you want some pleasant company I’ve got the contacts with some of the finest creatures to ever be born on this rock.”

He grinned at me, “So, tell me pretty mare, what’s your pleasure?”

I smiled, “My pleasure is finding a paying job,” I said, “One that doesn’t include being a mare of the night.”

He grinned, “Too bad,” he said, “A mare like you could make some serious bits taking it in the ass.”

He walked around and I fully took in his looks. His bird half looked to be part screech owl with silvery feathers and two large deep eyes. His cat half looked something similar to a lion. It was a soft tan, and at the end was a tuff of black fur that would have matched his mane if he had one. He leaned back, “Well, if you’re honestly up for about anything else I could use someone to go looking for my last hunting expedition.”

I looked at him, “Where did they go?” I asked, “Because part of what we’re needing paid for is to get our weapons upgraded, or purchase some better ones.”

He grinned, “Well, there’s a canyon just yonder,” he said pointing off toward the left, “Mostly it’s devoid of much, but there’s some mutated looking dragons over there. Most of them are accidents involving the original terraforming of the planet. Their not intelligent, but they don’t have to be. Most of them don’t breathe fire, but they can, and do, spit some nasty acid.”

I studied him, “Are they as tough as Smog?”

He looked at the dragony next to me, “Naw,” he said, “Their hides aren’t nearly as tough. A good shot with a decent hunting rifle will punch right through, but that’s also the problem. If you hit them in the wrong place all of that acid that’s building up inside of them just explodes.”

I looked at him for a moment, “Seriously?” I asked, “They just explode?”

He nodded, “Sure do,” he said, “And anyone within ten meters is going to get an acid bath. So, you’re going to have to snipe them.”

I shook my head. Sure, I could maybe use my Eye Dentity Scanner to snipe several of them, but it would mean letting the spell recharge, and it did take a few seconds. I saw him studying the dragony for a moment.

“You don’t have the fancy eye enhancement, do you?” he asked Smog, “I can tell. There is not a mention of connecting to your device.”

He dug around for a moment and brought out something that I was surprised to see.

“Here,” he said, “It is older than most everyone here, but it will serve. Device designed to work same as fancy eye enhancements, no surgery required, just need to put it onto your forleg.

Smog stepped forward and a moment later, with tools that also were older than most anycreature even before I got on the Luna Seven, he opened and put a Pipbuck on Smog’s foreleg. Smog stood there for a moment before the device began booting up. He looked surprised as it came to life.

“Old device,” Gunt said, “Strange mare traded it, ten years ago. She was a bit touched in the head, said she planned on seeing everything. Had two of these. One she wore, this one, she said was her old one.”

He nodded, “Thanks,” he said, “I’m sure it will come in useful, once I figure out how to work it.”

I nodded, and then I looked toward the door, “We’ll take the job,” I said, “Who are we looking for?”

He took out a log book, checked it, and then pointed to the last name, “Was a gryponess named Selvia Goldfeather,” he said, “She is the captain of a ship called Echo. Ship is docked here, she left with first mate, wanting to hunt for a specific mutated dragon. Apparently her client wanted the claws from one. If she is alive, bring her back, if not, bring her back anyway.”

I nodded, “You’ve got it.”

You have unlocked the “I’m Being Friendly” Perk. With this perk special dialogue is available with some merchants, and other notable individuals. This perk also allows you to gain fame easier with any faction that is aligned toward Outlaw Behavior.