Fallout Equestria: Ballad of a Rogue Ranger

Chapter nine: On the trail

Let’s see… trading posts? Check. Bar? Check. Quote unquote hotel? Check. Yep, this was a town by the looks of it. Judging by the few glares that I got and ponies trying to stay out of my way, it looked as if it was one like any other. Hey, at least it cleared the path for myself and the mare.

They could see I was a colt on a mission, and before I had a run in with the local constable wanting to kick me out. I’d rather get something to go off of first, and I knew just the place to start. Although that didn’t stop another from trying to chat along our little walk.

“You didn’t have a choice really…” oh we’re going over this again?

“That might be true, but I didn’t have to straight up merc that last one like I did,” the same answer I’d been giving my travel companion for the last hour or so I repeated.

“They did likely catch up to us somehow,” Tumble got closer to the armor, as a few of those that stared at us stuck their noses up. Hmm was it at me, or the company the mare kept? “And if I had to guess it was from the one that ran off back in Drybank.”

Already made that assumption, though I don’t think ran would be the best word… but that still didn’t mean it sat right in my stomach. “Maybe, maybe not, never the less they didn’t have to die like they did… and for what? A busted suit of armor?” all while we went back and forth, I sighted just the place I was looking for. If there was a place everypony stopped in this wasteland… it was the one with a drink.

After opening the doors, we got much the same response we did back in the last place. Silence, stares, and then every creature promptly getting back to their drinks. I guess that was the flow of things. This time around, I didn’t throw down a small fortune on some words, as me and the mare approached the counter.

“Are ya going to be any trouble there, ranger?” the older gryphon asked from the opposite side of the counter, as one talon stuck below the edge… I sure hope he was carrying something more than a shotgun behind there.

Instead of saying anything, I decided to give Tumbles advice a go, and just pointed to the name plate on my chest. For a few moments the gryphon stared at it, then back up at the visor, and I almost saw the click of realization in the back of his head.

“Oh! you’re that ranger,” well that was sure a change of attitude…

‘Word really does travel fast, don’t it?’ I myself wondered there, “ya’ll already got that broadcast?”

“Well duh… it’s a radio signal, kinda travels faster than hooves… or wings for that matter,” he flexed out his own appendages. “Anyways, what can I get cha?”

The mare beside me dropped down a few caps from her stool and with all the greed I could see in her eyes almost started drooling on the counter. “You got any Saddleoff Vodka, or perhaps two?” Happy hour never ended did it?

With one talon raised, the gryphon disappeared for a few, leaving me and Tumble to ourselves. As well as a few more moments to ponder her words, “I suppose I’ll have to get used to it, won’t I?” a ginger nod greeted me from my companion, as she picked up the shot glass set in front of her, and pushed the other towards me. Visor popped open and I held the small glass with my horn, clinking it against hers, “I take that as a yes.”

“It’ll get easier… I just don’t know why it’s so hard for you?” at least with the visor up she could see the look of confusion I was giving her, “I mean raider, gunner, ranger… all of em will kill you if they got the right reason.”

“Because back during the war there weren’t any raiders or gunners,” and with that proclamation we just traded expressions, “the other two are thugs, plain and simple… the rangers however were heroes back in my day,” a small smile passed by my face for a moment, “Some younger ponies even saw them as superheroes.”

Together me and her took the shot, and slammed the glasses back down on the counter. It took a moment or two for the burning to clear my throat as it did hers, “they ain’t the heroes you once knew… now they’re just really well armed thugs.”

Just the way the world works, I guess. Oh, how the mighty have fallen… almost poetic. Regardless, the next round was on her as a few more caps dropped on to the counter for the bartender. Just as fast our glasses were once again topped off, and we did another cheers. What we were drinking to right now, don’t know. I do know that right now, this third one set in front of me was the last.

With that out of the way, I waved the gryphon off from refilling it, “Well clearly you ain’t in here to drink,” yeah that was a no brainer, “so what is it you might be looking for?”

“Information,” the gryphon raised his eye to me at that, “I’m looking for somepony… stable earth pony, mare, violet eyes, minty mane and tail… aptly named after her coat, Winter?”

The gryphon once again paused, and with a talon to the edge of his beak thought there, or at least I think he was thinking… scratch that… I hope he was thinking on what I just told him, not how many caps he might be able to squeeze out of me for that info. “Actually… I might know,” the caps just started to flutter in his eyes, “there’s a small farming family here in town, keep a couple crops just outside the limits… one of their colts done business with stable ponies that had reached the area over time.”

I got all that for free! “That’s great!” okay, just a little less excitement before he does start charging, “You know the name of this colt?”

“I don’t, sorry… though it likely wouldn’t do ya any good,” and here comes the punch line… “a few of them got taken by slavers not but a week ago, took em down to one of the mines they’re held up in.”

Great… another group of ponies I’d have to get on the wrong side of the gun with. What are the chances of this colt making it away from the slavers? Given their namesake they were probably good at keeping ponies from scampering off… duh, why the hell would I even ask myself that kinda question? Still, it’s a start at the very least.

With a sincere nod of thanks, I started to turn my way towards the door, “Which way to those farmers?”

“What? You’re thinking of tangling with those slavers?”

Really? The bartender almost sounded surprised, even Tumble started to cock her head at the idea. “If I want answers, there’s really not much of a choice…”

“Big guns or not, you don’t just walk in to a place like that and expect to get out in one piece,” now the mare was starting to make sense, as she hoped from the stool and up to me, “mines are usually pretty well guarded, and slavers tend to have a decent amount of weaponry of their own… ponies are worth something after all.”

“So? What might you suggest?”

“You could get a guide…” the two of us popped our heads up and looked over to one end of the bar, actually only a few stools down from us. There sat a dark toned gryphon male, clad in his own combat armor with an IF-64 assault rifle draped across his black and grey coat. The knife handle looked worn down a lot over the years… I might deal with guns, but I know how tools get worn. Thought the sheath draped against a satchel that looked laden even as he sat, “Couldn’t help but hear your dilemma there chief, walking in to a place of the unknown can get you killed mighty quickly…” his avian eye was starting to trail over the suit, and a shiver matched it in my nerves.

“Yeah… I figured as much,” something screamed scam artist about this guy.

“Well, it just so happens I’d been around those mines a time or two,” hell even the walk of the guy gave me the creeps, as he sauntered up to me and Tumble. Both his wings draped over our shoulders, and with a tug of the limbs he looked between myself and the mare. “I could bring you there, show ya around, say hello to the hosts, find that colt and help get ya out… for the right price.”

“Or you could just shoot us in the back right now and be done with it,” The mare sneered at him as she blew off his wing. Good to know I wasn’t the only one feeling it, “seriously? I’ve heard addicts who had a better scamming voice than that.”

Tumble looked about ready to pounce. However, even with a mare probably itching to pull the gun from its holster. The gryphon stared her down all the same way I’d seen knights do to a dragon in stories of old.

Across the bar counter, the gryphon ruptured in a roar of laugher enough to silence most of the bar itself, forcing both me and Tumble to look at the one who just served us. “Who him?” the bartender piped up finally after catching his breath, “He’s about as harmless as a spent casing…” with another glass in talon the gryphon filled it for his fellow, as the one in question swiped it up and held it towards the keeper. “he’s a merc, that’s all there is too it, but he’s got his loyalties to caps… and if you pay the right price, he’ll be loyal to you.”

“Much obliged,” the gryphon under scrutiny raised his glass, one gulp later and the drink disappeared down his gizzard.

Okay so here was a mercenary, offering to guide myself and Tumble to a mine where a possible lead was, for some unknown number of caps, and with little to no reason to keep his word… sure, why not…

“And why should we believe-?” Tumble asked the obvious.

With one talon raised, the gryphon cut her off. Never letting her gaze past his claw, “because if I don’t keep you alive, then I don’t get paid… do I need more motivation?”

Money made the world go around, and that was a pretty good argument on his part, “How much?” I could feel Tumble just staring at me in shock. Hell, I had armor and I could feel it digging in to me.

“Hundred caps, no more, no less.”

For a moment I stood there, sure that might be a lot, then again how much was having another shooter in your group worth? “Tomorrow morning, out front of this place,” his brow raised as I held a hoof out, “half then, half when we get back?”

“You got yourself a deal,” A grab of my hoof later and he shook, smiling past those violet eyes, “Names Deacon.”

“Rogue Ranger,” I turned to a very annoyed looking mare, “and this is Tumble.”

“Tiss a pleasure,” even with that introduction, the mare still looked about as sour as month old milk. Yet that didn’t stop the guy from tilting his beak to her, “let me go get prepped, and I’ll see ya tomorrow,” with a nod the gryphon headed out from the bar.

Which left myself and the mare on our own once more and with a chore list to do… step one, sell the goods we got. Step two, get a room to sleep in for the night and for me to work. Step three… find out what the hell the name of this colt was.

***

Okay so we were doing things a little out of order it seemed. As we walked towards the outside of the town, we kept an eye out for the little farming area set up. It didn’t take long to pick out against the dead of the wastes, and judging by the crop yield, growing in this land was to be more difficult than I thought.

“You really trust him?” Tumble asked as we got closer to the farm… or at least I think this counted as a farm.

“Gryphons were much like that back in my time, greedy and only working for the bits,” okay time for a history lesson it looked like, I wonder how many books on the past were still even readable now? “Plus, many were hired by the zebras to fight in the war, so for him to be following the same route, it didn’t surprise me that much.”

“Hmm I know that there’s still groups of them out here that work together for bounties and different jobs, just weird to see one on his own,” whatever it was that seemed to be going through her head, the mare didn’t let on, “And what if he does try to cut and run tomorrow?”

“Then you get to find out the range of your gauss rifle…” okay that drew a sadistic smile from her!

And that by the looks of it that was a gun barrel sticking out of the makeshift shack, “Stop right there!” a voice yelled out to us as we reached the edge of their ‘crops’, “Whatcha business round here?”

Okay they looked still blue on my screen… let’s hope that didn’t change if they started shooting. Though with still some distance between us I turned up the mic on the suit, “Just looking for somepony!” the speakers bellowed, much to the dismay of Tumble as she drilled her hooves in her ears. Little less volume there, “don’t mean any harm, we’d heard you had a colt who worked often with stable ponies… we were hoping to talk to him, but it turned out he was taken.”

I really didn’t want to have the burden of burning down a whole shack of who knows how many on the back of my mind. Though that gun barrel kept pointed at us, and from here I couldn’t much tell if there were any chatting inside or not. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long before that door opened, and out stepped a mare.

Her wicker hat across the brow might have saved some of her mane from the scruff of the day, but what color her hairs were before I’d never know under all the dirt. “Yeah… slavers took Mason, he was the one that mostly talked with em,” apparently tobacco still grew in this place, as she took a hearty spit from the wad in her lip, “Why? What could he do for ya? There ain’t a thing he could offer-”

“Not a ranger,” I really did need to make a recording of that just for others.

The cocking of her head however still didn’t buy it, until her eyes looked as if they dwindled down to the nameplate, “Well I’ll be… never thought to see ya around these parts.”

‘And I never thought I’d be in a world like this one,’ the thought passed by me a few times now, never the less with a gentle hoof myself and the mare shook, and I grew ever thankful that barrel was lowered on their part. The three of us started walking towards their shack, and I soon had a hoof poking me in the side.

“Told ya that name would come in handy,” Tumble started to snicker. Okay, so Rogue Ranger did have a nice ring to it… and if it helped avoid some conflicts, then I’d be all for it.

“Yeah, yeah I hear ya,” she couldn’t see it but my eyes were rolling back to the mare from the farm, “As I had said though, I’m looking for somepony from my stable, and I heard…Mason was it? dealt with them often.”

As we walked, she nodded, “Mason Jack, yes, yes,” she held open the door for the two of us as we walked in past her and inside. At the gun was a colt, no older than Winter when we first met, and that double barrel he had looked heavier than he. With a quick wave of her hoof, the colt scampered off with the barrel dragging on the floor, leaving us to talk, “They nabbed him up as he was heading out back here from trading in town…” it didn’t take a sensor to hear the worry in her voice, and the quiver in her tongue.

Though really? In that short distance he got picked up by slavers? “I’m sorry to hear that,” I bowed my head a tad at her, there wasn’t much else I could say… but there was something I could do, “We’d already made a contact to show us to the mine, if he’s still there, we’ll bring him back.”

Not sure if it was literal dirt in her eye, or if it was emotion. Either way, the tear ducts of that mare started to pool at the prospect, “you mean that?” she looked back and forth to myself and Tumble. This might have been the first real helping hoof she’d gotten in a long while.

“Well I’m following him, so yes, we do,” the mare with me nodded.

“Thank you…” her lips started to shake for a moment, and with a clench whatever she was feeling eased itself out. “Just, thank you,” Those eyes of the mare lead out the broken window towards the crops, or what they had still, “it’s been harder without him here, he’s the talker when it comes to making deals… so most of our selling in general was done by his tongue.”

I don’t know what you’d even really have to sell from a place like this. Even if it was just the three of them here, including Mason, what I saw growing outside didn’t amount to much in the end. Plus, if you count the other beds that I was seeing, there’s no way they’d make enough food for the lot of em.

“Why don’t they seem to be growing that well?” I followed her eyes towards the various crops. Corn, tomatoes, potato stems, melons… all of which looked half the size I was familiar with. I can get having poor soil, but this was past that.

“You don’t know, do ya?” the mare raised that question to me, and all I could do was look from her to Tumble.

“Enclave, sorry forgot to teach him that much…” the mare to myside facehooved, clearly this was something that should have been taught in Wasteland 101, “After Cloudsdale was lost to a Balefire strike, the Pegisy closed off the sky.”

What?! How do you just close off a portion of the country like that? “Yeah, you’re going to have to explain just a tiny bit more than that…”

I guess my turn for a history lesson, “they kicked their cloud production in to overdrive and blanketed the vast majority of the skies with em, hard for the zebras to hit what they can’t see after all,” fair move there, but still… even to this day? “That cloud cover you’ve been seeing ain’t natural, they’re still going at it. See the surface as toxic and what not.”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t even really considered the sky… I kinda just thought it was always stormy. Now that I thought of it though, there hadn’t even been a partly sunny day since I left, “Well… that explains that,” I muttered under my breath before turning towards the pair, “So how do ponies even survive down here then? I mean if you can barely grow a damn thing.”

“Stubbornness,” Tumble answered, proudly I might add, “after all we always can supplement with critters.”

“Cleverness as well,” our host added, “some places aren’t totally covered, and just have better enough soil that they can more or less make up for the little sun they might get.”

I had yet to run across one of those places, maybe in time I would and I’d actually be able to see the ‘finer’ things this wasteland had to offer… you know, besides radiation. After that little explaination, myself and Tumble had got what we came for. The mare, Patch Work as she finally introduced herself, said she’d scrounge up something for our trouble should we get Mason Jack free.

Honestly, I could care less about the reward, I just wanted another lead… and somewhere in my chest it felt right to get they guy back to his family. Call that my old-world values coming to light again. With myself and my companion now headed back to town, we sought to complete the rest of our to-do list. After all, tomorrow would be a rather hectic day…

***

“Ten caps each…” Tumble grumbled from her mattress, as we both worked on our own projects for the night, “how do you charge ten caps for a single 2mm round?”

There was a lot I had to learn about economics in the wasteland, was that expensive? Apparently so, but then again, the round could take the head off of most ponies even in armor. Never the less, we still managed to walk away with a good haul after selling off some of the ranger parts. The fuel tank was topped, my 5mm belt was locked, and I was just as happy as can be while tinkering with the suits matrix to get it set up for what I had in store.

Next thing on the shopping list… something to replace my Stable suit, seriously this thing was more shot full of holes than the armor half the time. Plus, that hit from Mister incinerator really did a number on the fabrics. Awe well… I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Even through her protest, the mare worked on the same weapon that brought her those frustrations. A scope laid beside her, as she modified the rails above to accept it, giving her just what she needed to reach out a touch a target… why couldn’t I be that accurate with anything that wasn’t full auto or capable of separating a pony from their soul?

“There… that outa do it,” she sounded proud of herself as it clamped in place as a smile graced her, it wasn’t every day I suppose out here that you got to take a breather and just work on your own equipment. Even improve it as well- “What's that look for…?”

Oh! That’s awkward, “sorry about that,” I shook myself from the memory, “just lost in the past is all.”

“… Somethin’ with Winter, I suppose?” Well she’s a mind reader now.

Certainly wasn’t wrong with that assumption, “yeah… one of the older ones, that look you had just reminded me…”

“Alrighty, let’s get this over with…” Winter groaned as she stood on my porch.

This was going to be a quick day… “Eager are ya?” I snickered at her, while grabbing the small tool bag I had prepared and had her follow me out front to where she left her mark. There the old frame was still in its place, “Follow my lead.”

Picking up a small prybar, Winter watched from over my shoulder as I took my own and started removing the molding. Mirroring myself, the filly started on the opposite side as we worked in tandem. It was a simple enough project, and if desired this could all be done in the course of an hour… or I could find ways to make it last several, that all depended though on how she acted.

This was supposed to be a punishment after all.

One by one the nails were pulled, and as if by clockwork the first panel fell to the ground. My eyes just turned towards the filly as she got hers off before me… “What? You said follow your lead,” the bar found itself across her shoulder like a bat, “I’m good at breaking stuff.”

“Yes, yes… and that’s why you’re here now,” that made her cringe a bit. Did I enjoy making a sucker punch at a young pony? Not entirely, but it was nice to knock her ego down, “Let’s see how well you are at fixing things though.”

Steadily each of the panels fell, Winter worked on the lower nails to the sides as I got the ones out of reach from her. After that was said and done with, a grasp of my horn later yielded me the whole frame being pulled free.

Together the two of us went back inside and to the workshop, bringing the old window frame to the center bench. There the filly hopped up on to the surface as I pulled out the shattered pieces of glass, had to get the area prepped after all.

“This place is a mess,” she said while nearly stepping in a cutting fluid spill.

“And I still know where everything is, so doesn’t matter to me,” I shrugged my shoulders to her and left it at that with a chuckle.

“Yeah… I tried that excuse with Lilac, but for some reason I still gotta clean my room…” if we could find a way to harness power from sass, Equestria would have been saved with this one filly, “So, what is it you do?” she pipped up, and under her hooves I saw a few of the designs from work scattered about.

“I make things… big things,” it was a small pleasure of mine to be able to say I was helping in the war effort, the biggest pleasure though was just being able to work with my hooves and horn, “Most of which usually end in something exploding.”

“Like weapons?”

“Eh… both things for attack, and defense,” carefully the filly peered through the various schematics, “you’d be amazed what you can make, if you put a some thought in to it.”

That line got something turning in the back of her mind, even from my place across from her, those young eyes I wouldn’t say lit up… though there was a flicker of imagination at the prospect of creation and destruction being married together in the same equation… to some that probably would be a red flag to see in a filly. To others, it was a sense of wonder that many young minds clung to, I should know… I got the same look when I was her age.

Heck it’s what got me in to this line of work.

“What's this one?” her hooves held up the diagram.

Pulling glass free was best done with a horn, and if she was asking… “that’s a variation of a missile launcher, one designed for the power armor frames you might have heard about.”

“I have,” ahh there’s that familiar eye roll, “they’re all any of the colts in school talk about… they wanna go be superheroes in em and win the war.”

Really? So that’s how the kids saw these things, certainly is fitting, “well this launcher would do the trick,” were these M.W.T. schematics and somewhat classified? Yes, though if Winter was a spy working for the Zebras, then I’d eat my horn. I pointed to the tip of the missile itself, “these warheads are designed to go through heavier armors, like some of the weapons the Zebras had been using… though they needed to be on something a little sturdier than your average pony.”

“Like a suit of armor,” she put together before I spelled it out.

“Exactly… plus they can fire more than one at a time before having to reload,” it was a wonder of tech for the country we lived in. So many new possibilities with just a suit of armor, “give a pony enough ordinance, and there aren’t many that would dare stand in their way.”

For a minute there she continued to look though the various designs that were out on my bench. Perfectly fine by me, if it kept her intrigued than who was I to complain. Myself however, continued on the actual reason we were here. As time ticked by the groove that the pane went in was cleared, and there with a smaller hammer the nails holding the cover frame together were pulled clear.

“What do those ones do?” she looked over the nails the size of needles.

“These ones hold the outer frame of wood to the whole frame,” I showed her the edges and the groves that were cut in to it, “there they help sandwich the glass between them, and hold it in place.” One of the most basic designs imaginable, and one that hadn’t been changed in whoever knows how long. Easy to make, easy to repair, what's not to love?

“Can I try and give it a go…?” to my surprise, the filly spoke up and pulled the hammer from my own grasp, already starting on the next set of nails, “just tell me what to do.”

This was a change, “alright… well first…”

We stayed like that for the rest of the time there in the shop. Every step in the simple repair process Winter did herself, just with the helping guidance of yours truly. I don’t know what it was that got to her, maybe it was actually being trusted in doing something, perhaps it was getting to create with her own hooves, a part of it might be working out any little frustration she held in so close. Either way, the clock ticked by without either of us paying it any heed.

Part of me was surprised Lilac hadn’t come over to check up on her, then again, she was right across the street so she must have doubted Winter was going anywhere. That left us talking back and forth over my work, something that brought intrigue in the filly to no end.

“Wait… did you make the rangers armor!?” that was probably the most girlish squeal I’d heard in my life.

“Helped innovate,” I corrected her, and watched carefully as she moved the glass cutter and scored the section, manipulating the larger piece around with covered hooves. Princesses forbid I send her home with a gash, “I didn’t build it from the ground up, but I did help make it better.”

After the last score was made, a few taps later greeted us with a nicely sized section to work with. Holding it up in my aura, I brought it over to the open section that was cleaned out of the frame, and after my partner had placed a bead of caulk down, the pane soon found its own home once again. As the same cover frame was put back over to hold it in place.

“And… set,” there with the final bead made along the pane’s edges, and an empty tube of caulk in her hooves, Winter placed it back down on the counter and stood tall. Together, we looked at the end product for the days work. An easy enough task, yet one that I could see brought the first genuine smile to her face. “Nice going there, Winter,” really, it was a good job on her part. Past all the sarcasm and sass, she actually was an attentive filly.

“Ahh… thank you,” she started to kick the top of the bench with her hoof. A white coat was a horrible color to try and hide a blush, but she was wearing one no doubt, “and, I’m sorry… about the window.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal,” I brushed it off, but it was still nice to hear, “These things happen, just gotta learn to pick up the pieces… in some cases more literally.” I would have to clean this shop up. Especially with glass shards now lying around, “That said the sealant needs to sit for about a day, so it’ll have to be installed later.”

That looked like a jab to her smile, and just like that me and the filly found ourselves walking through the house towards the front door, “… could I… help whenever you do?”

As if by reflex I felt my ears perk at her question, “Of course, you’re more than welcome,” who was I to deny that to her?

“… I… did have some fun,” that probably tasted like vinegar on her tongue, though as bad as it tasted, there didn’t seem to be any façade in her words. “I never really got to do anything like this, and at school they’re always so worried about kids getting hurt, most of the shop classes are gone.”

That there’s a crime if there ever was one, seriously how do you expect ponies to learn skills like basic repair without the classes to teach them? What had the education system come to… well, there was at least one thing that could be done. The sky by this time was long since turned to night, and as we crossed the street to her place, I could see the few lights that remained lit in the windows.

Lilac must have been waiting on her, because as we stepped up on the porch the door creaked open, “Well now, you both are done later than I expected.”

“We got caught up, I apologize for that one,” a simple enough explaination, hopefully she hadn’t needed her back earlier.

“And whenever it’s done drying, I’m gonna go back over to help,” Winter proclaimed with tempered glee.

If it hadn’t been for the hearty nature of flying for most of her life, Lilac might have just had a stroke, “If that’s alright with you,” I followed up with, getting no sense of disagreement from the mare, “That said, Winter here was a good help… and I’d like to say she even learned a thing or two.”

Her vigorous nodding told me that answer.

“And… if there are any other projects that I might be working on around my place, or even if you find yourself needing an extra hoof of mine,” Lilac cocked her head to me as I went on, “She’d be more than welcome to help if she’d be willing, with your permission of course.”

I wasn’t sure, but that looked to be a tear welling up in the mares’ eye. Lilac looked to myself, and back to the filly, who was acting as a stark contrast to the same young mare I’d seen not too long ago right here at this doorway. “Oh, I think I’d be alright with that,” her eyes went back to the filly, “so long as she doesn’t go making projects…”

Much to Winters’ dismay that same blush returned to her once again, at this point she might as well be named Rose. Though the chuckle shared between myself and the mare soon dissipated as we all shared our goodnights, and went about the rest of the evening to ourselves.

“Well, that was mighty sweet of ya,” even under some of the grime caking my eyes from working on the suit, I could still see the gushy smirk across Tumbles’ lips.

“Hey she seemed to enjoy herself, after getting used to it, giving your hooves something to do does wonders for a pony,” it didn’t take much to teach what tools were for what, or how to measure, get angles and what not. All you needed was a little time, and one willing to learn, “plus over time whenever there was a little repair work needed around the house, or even a project of her own, Winter found herself over at my shop.”

3…2…1… and click, that was music to my ears. With the suits original matrix removed and the port cleared, the one that Tumble had found from that safe was slid in to place. To the untrained eye, it looked as if a quick and easy swap. Though to one who had dealt with this kind of tinkering before, it could be a massive headache if done wrong.

Ports had to be cleaned from the previous matrix to remove any trace of the old spell, preventing any cross mixing of spells and what not. Even the new matrix had to be prepped to fit in the new suit, reflecting the cuts on the stone of the old one so the transition between them would be seamless.

Most importantly, the repair talisman needed to be functioning.

Right next to the new matrix, as well as other ports for additional matrixes and talismans, one of the talismans I’d pulled from the rangers found its new home. These thankfully were more forgiving than most others. They all worked the same no matter the equipment it was placed in. Just like that, as it set in place, I saw the new prompt pop up on my Pip-Buck.

New Matrix identified…

Run spell program? Y [] N []

Oh… so much yes! With a perhaps overzealous hoof I mashed ‘Y’ and with the hopper full of scrap from scavenging before, both myself and Tumble found the lightshow of plates glowing and reshaping to be as mesmerizing as a firework display. Who knows whatever a passerby was thinking?

“Ahh… should I be worried?” Tumble started to scoot away from the suit on the mattress.

“Oh hardly… I did say you’d know when I had use of that matrix from the safe…”

Edges changed, shapes twisted as the suit went to work, and even the horn covering I originally made on the fly seemed to remain during this metamorphosis. Fusing better into the mane armor as if it was a part of the design from the get go. It was a beautiful sight, and one that could bring a tear to any engineers’ eye. That was the miracle of when technology and magic mixed with one another…

The end product was even more gorgeous than the pair on their own.

With a dimming of the enchantment finishing up. The suit itself looked like nothing I’d seen the other rangers in up till now, if I had hoped to blend in with another ranger at some point in the future, that tactic was lost now. Heavier plates dotted along the entire frame, giving more protection towards the most vulnerable parts of the user. Even the curvature of the frame was different than the previous, as it molded into the new pattern. Would I be slower now? oh for sure, but if that meant I could soak up more fire than it was well worth it.

“So that’s what that thing was,” she said with a poke to the chest piece, “It upgraded your suit?”

“Exactly… this was something we were working on during the war still, it just never made it out to full production,” true it could have saved countless soldiers, but the big wigs always were concerned in some way, shape, or form about saving money. Not many of them were produced, and even fewer versions like them got in to the hooves of those in uniform, “the original suits were cheaper to make, and most of the ones that got to actual soldiers were for those of higher ranks…”

“Figures, someponies always gotta be saving a cap when they could,” as disgusting as that sounded, that was the nature of war.

“And they found many ways to save those caps back in the day…” cutting budgets for research, testing, and development… it might have saved the country if those soldiers were given what they needed to fight with. Though that would have been a long shot, no matter your armor, it doesn’t protect all that well against a Balefire blast. “I had to get the repair talisman working before it could be upgraded, once it was, and the new matrix was installed… it was just a matter of letting it go to work.”

Still, it’d probably take a little longer for it to repair itself now that it had a more complex design, and more mass to make up for. One thing stayed true to the old version, that same nameplate sat right where it had always been. Hopefully, it’d act as an even larger deterrent for most other creatures we run in-

“Hmm… those rangers had a score to settle before, but with you taking em for scrap,” oh I didn’t like where she was going with this, “wait till they see ya now.”

Yes, thank you Tumble… for reminding me… “I’ll worry about that later,” yes much later, hopefully when I was about to keel over at the end of my life span later, though I didn’t see that coming true. My task was done for the night, while as I curled up on my own mattress, I took one last look at the suit. Admiring just how far it’d come, “For now, let’s just focus on slavers.”

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: “Power Armor MK. II”- Thanks to the installation of a new schematic, your Power Armor has increased its resistances by 50 across the board (Damage, Energy, Magical Radiation). Though at the cost of 10% of your overall maneuverability, and repair speed.

New Perk: “Mhmmm… junk…”- Do you know the way to a Rangers heart? Its regeneration! Armor Repair is back online, just keep that hopper full.