Fallout Equestria: Ballad of a Rogue Ranger

Chapter thirty-one: Promises

So, my guess work was still spotty. That hour or two turned into the following day, and even stepping into the suit felt like a chore in of itself. Never the less, there was work to be done, and this was probably the sharpest uniform I had for such an occasion.

Warning: Combat stimulants depleted!

Any other day I would have been worried, but today was not one of those. I just shook my head, knowing full well I brought that upon myself. All I could do was hope Deacons’ little modifications did the trick, and kept me on this side of the dirt. Which was far more than I could say for those around me.

The town had been busy while I rested, and out along the lonely stretch leading towards the mines that patch of land was getting occupied far faster than for my liking. What once was a few markers placed about, now had turned into rows upon rows of holes waiting to be filled.

‘Don’t look…’ I tried to remind myself while I walked along side them, but had I mentioned I was stubborn? It didn’t take long to do a fast count of the new occupants, and if we were going off of the wars’ standards. Less than forty losses were nothing, but to a town like this that meant the loss of a friend, neighbor, or even family member.

I failed to keep that number out of my head, so I had to settle on the fact that if it hadn’t been for Luster and Deacon those numbers would have likely doubled. Neither of them were here either, likely sleeping off the work they’d put in over the last few days. Even if they weren’t, there wasn’t much they’d be able to do for a pony ready to be laid to rest.

It wasn’t a ceremony, not even a speech for those they’d lost… every member here had somepony else nearby to them to finish the job, and start shoveling. I watched some say a few words before putting shovel to dirt, and some not even look at the pony. Maybe that was easier in the end. I was just glad some of them were finally getting the chance to be put down. One glance off to the side let me see Ashburn doing her part, as her friend met the first scoop of soil.

And another glance let me take in that helmet I put down here not too long ago. The afterlife or any of that jargon I never really discussed with others, not the kind of thing you bring up at work, or the dinner table. Though if there was some grim reaper pony ready to take them away somewhere, Tungsten was going to have a lot of company in the end.

As would Winter.

There wasn’t much procedure to be done like back in the old days. No embalming, no prep-work, no viewing after makeup. Ponies died all the time out here, so there didn’t seem like much of an effort to memorialize it… only to those that knew them took the time. Winters’ body laid in front of me, and for the longest time I just stared at her.

I’d seen her like this plenty of times in the past. Usually, it was after a late dinner at either of our houses. Lilac would have pulled a blanket up over her on the couch if it was chilly out, and if it was at my place, I’d already have her over my shoulder bringing her home. I don’t know if it was a trick of the eye, I turned my gaze away before I could find out, but that smile seemingly never left her face… and it gave me a split second of hope. Waiting to hear something, hoping it was still a dream. I’d hear a cough; she’d laugh and say something along the lines of ‘I got you so good!’

“No…” my eyes clenched back, and I had come face to face with reality yet again.

She was gone, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to change that. I felt a push to one of my shoulders, and there beside me was Alimite. The mare had worked herself ragged patching up what she could with her horn, enough to make me at least look presentable, and she looked more drained than anything. Doing that work was probably the only reason she didn’t snap at me again, but now it was coming back with a vengeance.

A crack overhead almost made me jump out of my suit, as my eyes started scanning for another volley of shells to come in. Until I paused, and just took note of the sky. Those clouds were grayer than before, and it wasn’t long after that observation that the first droplet hit my visor… how fitting.

It felt like I hadn’t seen rain in so long, and while I listened to the slow tick of the rad meter going off. Something inside me couldn’t care less, we weren’t finished out here. Tumble must have felt the same way, and while quite a few of those towns’ folk finished up and went back to someplace dry. Both mares stuck nearby, just as the odd one out of the bunch did.

Riff had probably helped dig most of these holes, though the dog took the opportunity to wipe away some of that grime with the help of the storm. After she finished up, the hound found her place alongside the grave.

I let out a sigh, knowing what had to come next, and with a little help from my horn the aura enveloped around the still mare. It wasn’t the first time I had to lift a pony, though this weighed the heaviest out of all of them. With every ounce I put into the spell, I could feel it draining out a little more from my system. Then I saw it, another aura latch on along mine. Alimite might have been tired, but she wasn’t down for the count, and her horn glowed all the same as mine.

As gently as we could, her body was lowered in, and for a moment there away from the dirt. That rain washed some of the grime away like it had Riff, leaving the mare with the white coat that gave her namesake. It was almost bitter sweet, knowing this was probably the cleanest she’d been in a while, under these circumstances.

I was getting tired of funerals… and this was only my second one, “I didn’t get out much, growing up,” poor way to start this, even I was trying to find the words, but after a look from those present. Somewhere they started to bubble up inside, “even less so when I started working at the M.W.T… and it was thanks to a broken window that I got to meet both Lilac, and Winter here.”

That garnished a hollowed-out chuckle from the kin beside me, I wonder how many times Winter had told her daughter that story? “After meeting, they’d become the closest thing I had to family in that town, and having to say goodbye once was hard enough,” keep it together there, “and now I’m doing it again…”

Winter wasn’t the only one who had to say goodbye on that day. I knew what was going to happen to Lilac in the end, what I didn’t know was what would happen to the stable. How long we’d be under ice, or even if it lasted that long… already know how that turned out.

It was the little things that mattered now after all, hoping for the sun to come out tomorrow was too tall an order. What I could hope for was tomorrow to just come in general, and I had somepony to thank for that. “It was thanks to you though, that I got a chance at anything out here,” their eyes might have been on me, but mine stayed on the mare below as she rested in the base. I’d like to think that somewhere she was listening, “A chance to live once more,” I passed a look on to the town, “a chance to meet new friends,” steadily my eyes finally trailed over each of those present, “and a chance to say hello again.”

Once again, the visor found its place looking over the mare. If I had taught her anything else during the war, she probably wouldn’t have been able to save my ass in the end. Winter might not have been able to survive out here to begin with either, but it was thanks to those lessons taught centuries before. That she was able to have that chance, just like Lilac had hoped.

A chance she took the fullest advantage of, “Goodbye, Winter Blossom…”

Okay, I needed to stop before my helmet drowned me… I could feel the few tears starting to bud up along my eyes, either that or I just hadn’t blinked since I’d been out here. In any case, I wasn’t the only one with something that needed to be said.

Alimite hadn’t said much all day to begin with, even while we were transporting all our losses out here. Although, that left her plenty of time then to think of just the right words, “You keep some strange company, mom,” hmm… I wonder who she’s talking about, “that said, also some of the better company here in the wastes…” she might have tried to hide it, but I saw that glance she passed my way. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, and for the whole town, I’ll try my damndest to keep it in one piece.”

A fitting heir to the throne of Ms. Fix It if there ever was one, “and don’t worry… I’ll keep an eye on him as well,” alright I had to give her that one. I tended to get into trouble out here, and you could never have too many watching your back.

Another crack from above broke the ambiance around us, and with it another torrent of rain fell. What once was simple droplets now were nearly water balloons landing every other second. That ticking in my meter spiked, and if it was doing that much for me. I couldn’t imagine was it was then for those exposed.

“You all should get back inside,” each of them looked back to me, and while even Alimite wanted to protest. She barely had the energy to stand after the day she had, “I can take care of her… don’t worry.”

Together both mares trotted on back to town, with Tumble helping Alimite lean on her all the way to the safety of the shop. That left me doing what I could with the shovel nearby too slowly scrap the dirt back in the hole. What's done was done, even with every scoop driving that point home a little more, it still hurt and probably would for years to come… assuming I lived that long.

Through the rain I saw another, and the figure of Riff stood by my side doing much the same as me. The dirt in her paws wasn’t being tossed around like she as digging out a burrow, no she was handling this with all the care I could have hoped.

Storm or not, I still saw that shadow of a smile on her muzzle. “Pony need not do by himself…” she shrugged and gave me a nod, “What friends for.”

“…Thank you, Riff.”

***

Well then… apparently taking several grenades to the chest didn’t do as much damage to that armor as I thought. Deacon had been working on it since I got back from… you know already, and by the looks of things it appeared somewhat salvageable. At least it was to the gryphon.

I wanted to give my two cents on what plating should go where, but I made pony armor, not gryphon. Besides, he knew all too well how to use those grenade slots along its chest. He wouldn’t have to be carting around his munitions in a bag anymore.

As he did that, the rest of us went on about our next course of action. We already knew what had to be done, the real question was how to go about it. Charging in had been tried once, and I was the still living result of that.

“They were heading in the same direction still when we carted you off,” Tumble answered my unasked question, I hadn’t seen where they went after everything went black. I was a bit too busy looking at my friends to notice, “So it’d be a start to set out after em from there.”

“Wandering in the wasteland though doesn’t lead to much else except trouble,” Alimite tagged on through a yawn. She really needed to be in bed, but this was something she at least wanted a small part in, “they could have gone any other direction after we were gone.”

Ahh yes, any direction back to whatever camp they might have been working out of. All while they waited and got ready for another attack, not something I think this place would survive again. Before they only broke off because of the loss of their heavy support, next time they’d have Lock by their side. Some part of me doubted she’d let any leave, not without a hole in their skull, or mine.

All I knew from our discussion was they headed west, and between the mountains and the North Luna Ocean there was A LOT of ground to cover. From office buildings, to hospitals, and even schools like we’d run into them before in.

Far too much ground to just throw a dart and go searching in…

I wasn’t a cartographer, I just built things that made bad creatures go away really fast. Plus, while I might have a map right in my vision, I didn’t know the lay of the land well after almost two centuries. That decision was best left to those who had walked the wastes, and not spent their time on ice. The most I did was draw out a crude map across our table of the surrounding land from the Pip-Buck.

So, while they had their girl talk, I just watched the gryphon fiddle with his own project. Stocks’ armor was shaping up quite well for him, might not be as heavy as the sibling made it, but with all the pouches the pony had used to try and turn me into a pulp. It’d serve our medic just as well.

He even managed to pull off something else from the corpse. The 40mm Stock had been using wasn’t all that special, no magic talisman like Mercy. Though since he’d lost the missile launcher, standard 40mm would do just fine… assuming he pulled any of those cryo ones off his belt, and could get it working after the hit it took.

Thump… for a second there I flinched waiting to feel the cold embrace from another of its payload, until I saw the mare with her head on the table instead. Tumble had probably had an easier life doing her own wandering before joining in my little adventure. All this talk of taking on an entire faction was doing a number on her, and it was getting obvious.

There wasn’t much else for her to do besides rub her temples, “Wild, next time you piss off a group of ponies, can you try and make it a little quicker to mop up?” she tried to laugh, but it only came out as a cough.

I couldn’t blame her, all of us were worn-out after the last few days, and going from a funeral to strategy… or attempted strategy, was wearing on us. We were still soaked from the rain storm outside, and that alone left none of us were in the mood for this kinda thought. The only one who even seemed remotely awake was the gryphon. Though he had something to keep him busy, physically at least.

“Yeah… I’ll try to,” I passed her a weak smile.

With a yawn escaping her, Alimite was the first to get up and make her way towards the stairs. She looked about as beat as her fellow mare, “I need to get some sleep, there’s a lot of repairs to be done, and it all starts tomorrow.” Now that her mom was gone, the torch passed to her kin in the field of helping keep this place above water. A tall order to say the least, yet past the bags in her eyes she managed a smile mirroring mine, “try not to stay up too late… or come up with anything too reckless?”

Reckless was out of my system… I think? No, I needed a head on my shoulders, and my blood stream clean for the next events. I could do that much, for both her, and her moms’ sake. A simple nod was enough to satisfy her, and that left just the four of us to come up with the next move. Three if you didn’t count the one behind us in his own little world.

“Ha-ha! We’re in business!” Deacon yelled suited up in his new armor, and clamped the chamber on the launcher shut without a hitch. Though his enthusiasm wasn’t shared with nearly as many as he thought, and it didn’t take him long to read the room, “…sorry.”

The only one who even got a chuckle out of that was Riff to my side, but besides that the hellhound remained largely quiet during our little chat. She’d been in those tunnels most of her life, so I doubted she knew the ins and outs of gunner locations.

Tumble poked her head up long enough to pull a chair over to her, and all it took was a flick of her tail to beckon the gryphon over. I could hear the wood strain under the extra weight from the plates, but if he could fly with a makeshift Balefire bomb, then I’d like to believe he could take it.

With the launcher over his shoulder, Deacon gave the map a once over, “If you want my advice, then our best bet is still to find a gunner and kick the crap out of em for some answers.” His shrug pretty much summarized what I already figured, though any chat I’d had with a gunner in recent times largely left more holes in me.

“Think we could ask the DJ?” I mean, they did have eyes and ears everywhere it seemed. Even Watcher had those Sprite Bots, they’d be somepony to give a ring to… assuming I could reach him again.

“Good luck with that…” Tumble sighed, something that all of them save Riff shared, “unless you got a broadcaster able to reach all the way to Manehatten.” Right, totally forgot they were on the other side of the country.

Even if I did, a broadcast like that would probably let half the area know of this little slice of the wastes. I know the Rangers would be listening in for that information, especially if it had my nickname in- ahh Riff? My train of thought derailed as I watched the hound take an uncanny interest in our gryphon, I mean… more so than usual.

And I thought Turkey got him to squirm, apparently having a hellhounds’ nose running over him did much the same. Deacon went ridged as I saw his feathers start to fluff. Tumble on the other hoof, just got a shot of caffeine in her system from watching it.

“Riff…” she gritted her teeth. Please don’t make a fight of this, I was in no position to hold a hellhound down, “now is probably the worst time to flirt…”

“Oh, mare calm down,” Riff brushed her off, and that deflated her just a tad below lunge across table levels, “dog getting idea…” yes that’s what she’s worried about, “not that idea!” still she didn’t stop sniffing Deacon, and from here I could see his neck feathers starting to stand on end. With one paw she plucked the 40mm from his grasp, and took a long whiff off its frame. Normally that smirk of hers was downright creepy, likely on purpose, this time though it actually looked genuine. “Dog not that different from ponies’ best friend you know…” Well, besides the whole irradiated body capable of tearing through metal and flesh alike, but I was starting to grasp what she meant.

Far faster than the mare was.