Fallout Equestria: Endless Horizon

Chapter 18: Solo Act

Eden.

The metalworking town had a rich history for a wasteland settlement, and not the usual sad, bloody kind either. When the bombs fell, the locals fled to the incomplete F&F bunker to take refuge. The town of metal workers, engineers and carpenter ponies worked round the clock to get the bunker operational! Dozens died of radiation sickness and dehydration, all to ensure the door closed tight before the worst of the radiation came.

200 years later their descendants were just as capable, using the tools and skills passed down through the years to carve out a town around their hardy bunker, protected by the mountains peaks on three sides! The ore and stone they mined and smelted made them an instant hit on the caravan scene until a coastal settlement called Bliss became their sole trading partner.

So much unrestricted access to metal, stone, and even a modest reserve of coal was an amazing find! I could hardly imagine the technology and architecture the city created! It was the first wasteland settlement I even heard of that wasn’t built from the burnt-out husk of prewar Equestria!

We were not in Eden.

It was closed to visitors. Whatever splendour, architecture, and culture their post-wasteland society created was tucked behind a colossal wall of cold steel, welded and riveted with a level of skill beyond anything I expected to find made after the war. Everything within must have been perfectly designed, and completely up to code!

Instead of the underappreciated art of proper construction and engineering, we were inside a warehouse used by the shady Flim Flam brothers during the local shelter's construction. Shipping containers were stacked inside to form homes, walkways, bridges, and even businesses. They were the mining quarters, where the refugees and the poorest of the working class survived while the people of Eden lived in peace and luxury. Multiple levels reached toward the rafters, connected by walkways, ladders, stairs, and a single ancient lift which made me shutter as we passed it.

It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t well planned, or well executed. It didn’t use the most high-quality materials or advanced techniques. Lights dimmed and flickered. Pipes groaned and shuttered. Neither the massive building nor the smaller shipping container-turned-buildings were well insulated.

It was amazing. Every inch of space, every scrap of steel was used to its fullest extent. The kind of efficiency and thought only possible after a lifetime of making the best of what little the wasteland would give. There was a time I didn’t understand that. It's easy to be high and mighty after a life of relative peace and stability, and hard to connect with those who had so much less. My time in the wasteland helped me see the beauty of their persistence and creativity, even if I’d never truly understand their hardships.

Apparently, drinking helped.

“So the ground was quaking, right? Everypony was on their hooves, glancing at each other, glancing at the support beams. Just waiting to see if we were about to be crushed by thousands of pounds of dirt and rock. Ponies prayed to Celestia as streams of dirt poured from above like water. Just as we think it's all over, three dozen mutant honey badgers tunnel in from above! Wasn't an earthquake, was a damned migration! The ugly fucks were confused as all hell, running around biting folks, scurrying down random tunnels to get lost. Took days to clear ‘em all out. Damn, if we didn’t eat good that week though!”

Laughter filled the open-air bar I found myself in as the story came to a close. It wasn’t fancy by any means, but it had tables and cushions made from old scrap and served a modest selection of whatever swill and moonshine the ponies could scrounge up. The owner lived in the shipping crate the canvas awning connected to, covering most of the seating area. It was colder being in the warehouse than in the proper metal homes the ponies lived in, but it didn’t bother me with my thicker coat.

The menu hung above the bar, though most of it was crossed out, and it was all priced out for something called “Scrip.” The bartender had to convert her prices into normal wasteland currency for me. The scrip was worth a third of what caps were, but even with my extra buying power, the drinks were shockingly expensive.

The drunk ponies were more than happy to take my caps as they regaled me with stories, though the story had nothing to do with what I actually asked. “That sounds incredible! But um, it didn’t answer my question. Does anyone around here know their way around the mountain, or maybe have a map?”

The buck I was speaking with, a burly pegasus with the pale cutie mark of a cloud with lighting streaking out of it downed his third glass of moonshine and laughed. “Oh shit, maps? Hell yeah! I met a mapmaking pega once upon a time. Helluva mare! Smart, sexy, and the things she could do with those wings-”

“Ok, that’s enough!” I squawked as I stood, my cheeks glowing bright crimson. “Um, t-thank you for the stories. But I’m gonna go… over there! Enjoy your drinks!” Another bout of laughter followed as the pony continued his story, somehow keeping the dozen other patrons enthralled with his drunken ramblings.

Among the laughing stallions was Feather Free, pounding back a bottle of questionable alcohol a few tables over. He came along under the guise of helping to collect information and was instantly distracted by a handsome draft horse with a shaggy orange mane and cyan coat.

As far as me and the others could tell, Free didn’t have a consistent type. He was happy to seduce and sex with any well-groomed stallion.

While my companion showed off his new prosthetic to his latest partner I staggered my way to a stole at the bar with a sigh. My information gathering was getting me nowhere fast, and I was running out of ideas. “Sherlock Hooves lied to me. Saloons are a terrible place to find information. Their feathers are too tilted to think straight.” I sighed, rubbing my aching head. The alcohol the miners brewed was bitter and strong. It finished testing the limits of my tastebuds and was now testing the limits of my liver. My liver was losing. “What are these ponies made of…”

The bartender, a thin yellow mare with sunken eyes chuckled and set a glass of water in front of me. “Here, drink this. We got a water talisman, so it's cheap.” I took a long drink as the yellow mare behind the counter turned around with a smirk, turning a dial on her radio. “Shit filly, think the DJ is talking about ya!”

Me? On the radio? AGAIN!? I grimaced and leaned forward to listen. What was so interesting about my life that some pony I never met felt the need to broadcast it for all to hear? I’m just a nobody who likes to get lost in her work to avoid confronting her personal demons. I’m not special and I’m certainly not newsworthy!

“The details are unclear, but thanks to some deal The Captain and her first mate Scarlet Keeper made with Prime, Vision's mysterious leader, the massive settlement of Vision is no longer using their prisoners for slave labour. In fact, they even released some of those poor ponies for their help and good behaviour!”

“What does that have to do with Skyward, you’re asking? Well, not everypony in Vision is comfortable hiring convicted raiders, slavers, or who the hell knows what to work and live with their friends and neighbours. On the other hoof, the raiders turned farmers to the north were more than happy to give the released ponies a second chance working the land, just like The Captain gave them. The freed ponies needed to make an honest living, and the pegasi needed more hooves to work the lands. It’s a win-win for all! Especially once harvest season comes around. This is the kinda shit that we can do when we work together and forgive each other, my little ponies. Remember that!”

“In related news, things continue to heat up in the Vanhoover Mountains. Eden continues to suffer as the Iron Steeds assault trade caravans, and shell trade routes to cause avalanches and landslides to block off access to the town's mines, the sole source of their income. Weirdly enough, the raiders haven’t actually killed anypony! No idea what’s going on with that.

“When asked if they would request assistance from the allied city of Bliss or Trottingham's own governing faction known as The Visionaries, representative Simulant Emery responded, “We don’t need help to kill some two-bit raiders! We have them outgunned, outclassed, and outnumbered!”

“Strong words Miss Emery, but you’ve been getting your flank kicked for five weeks. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help! Hell, I’ve heard a certain kindhearted do-gooder is in the area who might be willing to lend a hoof if you ask nicely! If something isn’t done soon, you might run out of wine and avocados to snack on!”

“That’s all the news I got for you tonight, so I’ll leave you in the caring hooves of Velvet Remedy’s latest hit, Burdens and Butterflies.”

The bartender rolled her eyes at the broadcast and scoffed, making me raise an
eyebrow. “Not a fan of The DJ?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “Nah, I love me some DJ Pon3. It’s Emery who’s full of it. Peek this.” She motioned to a corkboard behind her, covered in posters and notices.

Happy hour, 5pm to 6pm. 95 scrip or 45 caps a shot

“Um… She’s too cheap to buy discounted drinks?”

She stared at me for a moment before nickering in annoyance. “...No, obviously not. Under that.”

“Ah… right…”

Wanted.

Map of Iron Steed compounds minefield, information on their defences, maps of the tunnels they use to move around the mountain undetected. See Simulant Emery for more information.

Reward: 14,000 caps.

“Stars above… That is so many caps.” Or at least it sounded like it. It would buy a lot of shots, at least. “So… she claims not to need help, but is looking to hire someone else to do the work her security team should be doing?”

“You got it. Glad to see you do got brains behind those pretty eyes. Ponies here think she was trying to get us to do the work for her, but all it did was piss us all off. We got ponies broke, half-starved out here, while she hoards a fortune above our muzzles. Think she’s hoping we’ll get desperate enough out here, that we’ll do the city folks work for ‘em. Fuck that, I say. We don’t bite our friend's heads off for caps like those snobs. Out here we got each other's backs!”

It made a lot of sense, but there was still one question that no one knew the answer to. Why? The Iron Steeds weren’t normal raiders. They didn’t kill the ponies they attacked, they just stole supplies and blocked roads. What was the point?

I sighed and glanced around the improvised bar. 14,000 caps. It would do a lot of good for the down-on-their-luck community. The information would put a stop to the raiders keeping the miners from working, and the money could be used to get them all back on their hooves.

My friends and I would never be able to sneak in and get their maps. But on my own… as long as I was fast enough, I’d have no problems at all!

“What if I could do something to help?”

🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦

It was my first time running off on my own since I met Scarlet, just weeks before. My friends saved my hide more times than I cared to count, in some of the strangest situations. And yet, I didn’t even inform them about my plan to infiltrate the strange prewar mansion turned raider compound. I let Free know my plan before I left, and what to do if I wasn’t back by dawn. Thank the great spirits the retired soldier didn’t fight me on the decision.

Scarlet and Midnight Skies were kept in the dark.

I told myself I had enough experience to handle it alone. That it would be easier to sneak around on my own, and if I told them they would never agree to me going off on my own. That it was an easy mission, so long as I moved quickly and quietly. Even that it was my chance to show how much I learned since coming to the Equestrian wasteland!

The real reason I didn’t tell them or ask for help was because I simply didn’t want to be around them. After what happened at Cheese Sandwich’s factory, there was an uncomfortable tension between my two friends. They didn’t banter like they did before, and they only spoke to one in a “professional” kind of way, about things like where to stay the night, what to do next, or calling out possible dangers in the wastes. It was uncomfortable to be around, so I was kind of… avoiding them.

But it was fine! I had a foolproof plan, rivalling my own brilliance! I stole it from “The Adventures of Shadow Spade: The Shrouds Call.” Still… the book described how Spade would “slip into the shadows,” but I’m not exactly the most sneaky hippogriff in the nest. I had some experience hiding from my parents when they were on the verge of killing each other, but the skills didn’t seem to translate.

Luna’s moon was taking a well-deserved nap behind a bed of dense snow clouds, so at least I wasn’t visible against the night sky. I glided into the compound as quietly as I could, constantly reminding myself not to flap in case someone overheard the noise.

I sat down next to what from above I thought was a smaller house in the massive, luxurious backyard, but what seemed to be… a pool house? Apparently, when a pony was rich enough, they honoured their pool with its own home. I love swimming as much as the next hippogriff, (we can turn into seaponies, after all!) but that's excessive.

I took cover behind some bushes to see if anyone noticed my arrival, but the yard remained empty, and the markers on my EFS compass remained still. A short and chilly flight, and I was already further than Eden’s guards had ever made it.

I had to stifle a giggle as I raised my PipBuck, brimming with excitement. It wasn’t the PipBuck itself that had me beaming, but the device slotted into its peripheral slot, against my foreleg. A work of Arcano-tec nearly as advanced as my leg-mounted computer, gifted to me from the amusement factory’s CEO himself.

With an excited flutter of wings, I activated the stealth-buck and vanished from view.

One hour. After that, the device would fail. I’d be visible. I did not trust myself to sneak around unnoticed without it, so I had to move fast. Figure out where they’d keep important paperwork, (Do raiders normally keep paperwork? They don’t seem that organized.) steal it, and get out without alerting anyone. Easy peasy Aella Breezy.

I slipped into the mansion through one of its many backdoors to find the space pleasantly quiet. I was in a long hallway spanning the back of the house. Electric lights modelled like candles lined the walls to cast a dull, warm light through the space. The deep-coloured woods and brasswork of the furniture gave the home a warm vintage feel, even with the peeling wallpaper and odd bullet hole here or there. It was hard to imagine anyone but royalty living in such extravagance. Speaking of Royalty, there was even a portrait of the Night Princess herself! Her eyes seemed to follow me as I went about my sneaky mission. It was unclear if the late ruler watched in judgement or protection.

I wondered if the raiders appreciated the beauty of their living quarters. Maybe they didn’t notice, distracted by the functioning heat and lights that made it livable in the harsh mountain environment.

Crrreeak

I nearly chirped in surprise as the sound of ungreased hinges hissed in my ears from ahead, momentarily forgetting I was invisible. The silhouette of a pony trotted out of a nearby room and, despite my best efforts to ward them away by sheer force of will, started down the hallway towards me. It was strange how I couldn’t make out a single detail of the pony even in the dim light. Their dark colours did their absolute best to melt into the darkness around them, sometimes making it seem like they were made of shadows.

It was a terrifying thought, one that the ponies' gentle hoofsteps managed to keep at bay. Barely. Only when they closed the distance could I see that it was in fact a real pony. The dark colours of his coat made it hard to make out any of the smaller details, but he was certainly a (smaller than average) pony shape, with reflective thoughtful eyes. I held my breath as he passed without incident.

He hadn’t noticed me. In just a few seconds I’d be in the clear, and back on my way. I spoke too soon.

The hoofsteps stopped.

I felt queasy. Every feather was ruffled. Every inch of hide shivered. I glanced over my shoulder to see him. He stopped just a few meters behind me. Did I make a mistake? Did the uncomfortably stealthy pony sense me by some other means I hadn’t accounted for? What was-

“A-choo!” The pony nickered and rubbed his snout, before continuing on his way.

I relaxed with a relieved sigh. He wasn’t on to me. He just had a sneeze! My cover was safe! My plan was actually working! I managed to hold in an excited wing flutter, settling for a happy flank wiggle.

“Spirits bless you!” I chimed happily.

Heck.

The pony froze. I froze. Everything froze. We just stood there. Slit eyes of purple stared into my soul. My invisible orbs held his gaze as every stupid mistake I ever made replayed in my mind.

Yup. This was the dumbest one.

The staring contest went on for a second at most, but it felt like ages. The pony moved first, unfurling his leathery wings as he took a combat stance with a hiss. “Who are you? Reveal yourself!”

I stumbled back, bumping into a stable and knocking over a beautiful vase depicting the second fall of Nightmare Moon. I winced as it shattered against the floor, eternally changed by my clumsy nature. “S-sorry…” I apologized to the ruined art piece under my breath.

The pony’s fuzzy ear twitched as I spoke. He tucked his wings to his side as he stepped closer. A familiar, fluffy, grey-coated thestral with an equally amused and annoyed expression emerged from the darkness.

“...You are the luckiest creature in Equestria. Literally, anyone else would have killed you.”

My anxiety boiled off in an instant. He was the very last creature I expected to see in a raider base, but I couldn’t be happier to see him. “Stellis!”

🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦

Loud, high-energy workout music drowned out the sound of the clicking projector next to me. I watched the screen with a confused expression. Lasers and colour lights flashed through a cloud of smoke as the music rose in intensity. As the music reached its crescendo, a minotaur emerged from the smoke. The grey-blue creature stood dauntingly tall on two legs, posing and flexing as he moved about the stage.

“How does this explain-”

“Just watch.” I huffed as Stellis cut me off.

It was nice to see the first bat pony I ever met again, even in such an unlikely place. The buck was one of Prime’s Witnesses, which was a fancy title for the leader of Vision’s friends whom he trusted to get stuff done. Stellis was the Visionaries’ head of public relations! He also didn’t judge me for the minor and completely understandable panic attack I had when we took the elevator up to Prime’s office, which was sweet.

I was just as confused to find him there as he was to find me. He brought me to a small sitting room to explain what he was doing with the Iron Steeds, and somehow a 200-year-old film was an important part of it.

Giving Scarlet's longtime friend the benefit of the doubt, I turned my attention back to the projector screen.

“Hello, viewers! My name is Iron Will, proud sponsor of the 143 Iron Steeds! Are you tired of corporations stepping on your hooves, and treating you like dirt? Well I, Iron Will, (in compliance with a court order from the crown,) am happy to tell you about unions!”

“No one no matter how strong can stand against an army alone, and that’s why unions pwn! Together, in a union, even the weakest little ponies can fight against someone as strong as me, for their right to be: fairly paid, fairly treated, and fairly safe at work! That brings us to the first rule: If they try to bust, TURN THEM INTO DUST! It’s illegal for a company to stop you from unionizing, so do not let them!” The video carried on, but I was too lost in thought to give it any more of my attention.

Did the Iron Steeds really start out as a prewar union? If some of the miners found the tape and learned about workers' rights, it could easily embolden them to start standing up for themselves and organizing. And a company, or in this case a town, that had complete control over the region, would be capable of putting an end to the attempts to unionize by any means they wished. Even murder.

The Iron Steeds hadn’t killed anyone. They didn’t torture others for their own enjoyment. They didn’t hold the ponies they knocked unconscious for ransom. They weren’t involved in anything that could be considered “raider activity.” They were just ponies, miners and refugees engaged in a class dispute. One Eden was intent on covering up and putting to an end, by any means necessary.

It made my plans to help the miners a lot more complicated.

“We were tipped off that something weird was going on when Scarlet reported Iron Steed activity in Visions border. They’ve never come that far south, so I was sent to look into it. I think they wanted our attention and must have failed to get a proper meeting with anyone important in Vision. So… they acted against us to get it. I’ve been trying to negotiate a peace between the two groups, but Eden just wants to do away with the Iron Steeds. I can’t offer them protection under the Visionaries, since they aren’t a real town, and if we brought troops to help in a casual sense, it could start a war. so… we’re stuck.”

Right… The Ironsteeds were at the water plant when I got radiation poisoning. With how traumatized I was, cells dying as I was slowly cooked by radiation, a lot of the memory from around that time was pretty fuzzy. I lacked the courage to probe my friends for all of the little details. The face of the buck who shot me however was permanently etched into my mind. The fact that someone here would have known him made me queasy, so I tried not to think about that.

“So… what if it was a town? There’s water and power. I heard they have access to old caves and mine shafts. If it was a town, they could sell their ore to Vision, Bliss, or even to settlements on the mainland. Maybe the other miners would move here, too. You could build some outbuildings using the shipping crates in the warehouse or the poolhouse if things in here get too full. If they joined the Visionary’s, Bliss and Eden couldn’t move against them without starting a war, right?”

“I… Fuck. I don’t know if it’s that simple, Aella. Only a couple dozen ponies are living here, and we can’t be sure the other miners would be willing to move here to form a new town. It’d be a lot of work.”

“For their rights, their independence, I think they would do that work! Wouldn’t you?”

“I…” The buck sighed and rose from his chair. “I’d need help. A truce of armistice, trade agreements, their requirements as a Visionary settlement, a signed contract that states their a member for both Eden and Bliss, someone to mail them… I-ugh, Listen Aella. It’s a great idea in theory. But there’s a lot of politics here. Bliss would be pissed if we had a settlement so close to Eden, especially if it’s taken control of the metal supply. Not to mention we’d need to get the Iron Steeds leader to agree.”

“If I could speak to their leader, I’m sure I could get them to agree! Then Scarlet can help out with the paperwork and contracts. Making deals is her special talent!” I smiled brightly, trying hard to disarm the tension clinging to the thestrals muscles.

“Well… It’s the only real idea I’ve had that could work. I guess we gotta do it. Now I know you aren’t really particular about payment, which is good because I certainly can’t match the price Eden was offering for our maps. Still, Scarlet would roast me alive if I let you work for nothing. Um… What is it you after up here, anyway? Kinda out of the way.”

I gasped and rested my talons on either of the buck's shoulders, practically vibrating with excitement. “There is something you can do! We’re up here looking for Astral Visions mansion. The cure my people need might be in a lab in his basement.”

“Astral…” Stellis chuckled, then outright laughed as he pushed my talons off of him. “Aella. This place belonged to the AV Pharma pony. You’ve found it.”

🐦🐦🐦🐦🐦

“What were you thinking!? Thinking is supposed to be the thing you’re good at! How can someone so brilliant do something so impossibly stupid!? If someone else had seen you, or if they didn’t turn out to be good ponies, you would be dead! And blessing an enemy for sneezing? Seriously? You honestly thought you were ready to go at it alone?”

We were gathered in the foyer of the mansion, where Scarlet seemed moments away from clipping my wings to keep me out of trouble. I asked Stellis to find my friends and bring them back before dawn, and while I was growing to regret the decision, the verbal feather plucking wasn’t unearned. While I sat on an impossibly comfy upholstered couch (that my dumb rump did not deserve at that moment) wearing a look of dejection behind my flight goggles, Free and Sky watched with pitying looks from the sidelines.

“No one can survive on their own Aella, and no one expects you to be able to! Families, factions, cities, entire nations! Creatures have always worked alongside their friends. There’s no shame in needing help from others, but it is impossibly dumb not to ask for help when you need it! You have nothing to-”

“You need to let The Captain Speak.” Scarlet glared daggers at Sky as he interrupted her tirade. Even knowing the full fury behind the mare's thoughts, the alicorn was unphased.

“Shut up, Sky. She needs to understand how reckless and irresponsible of her this was! So far she has been shot, irritated, lame, gassed, lit on fire, and chewed on by ghouls, and that was all when someone was there to help her! What am I supposed to do if… What are we supposed to do if she dies? We just move on, go back to our lives? I’m not ready to go back to running caravans, and I don’t wanna open a shop in some shitty wasteland town.”

“Maybe if instead of having a conversation like a normal pony, instead of lecturing her and thinking about yourself you might actually understand what’s going on. For a pony whose special talent is supposed to be striking deals, you’re complete shit at talking things out.” Sky raised his voice as he stepped closer to the unicorn, reminding everyone how much taller he was than the rest of us.

“I’m making this about me? You’re clearly pissed at me for not talking about what happened at the factory yet. Could you shelf our personal shit for five fucking minutes so we can try and address Aella risking her neck?”

“Just shut up!” All heads turned to me as I leaped from the couch, talons clenched into fists. None of my friends were used to hearing me raise my voice at anyone, let alone them, but I was at my limit. I wasn’t a fledgling anymore, cowering under my bed as my parents squawked and brayed at each other. I found my voice, and it needed to be heard.

“I’ve had enough of both of you! Since we left the factory, you’ve either been at each other's throats, making passive-aggressive comments about one another, or willing the air with enough tension a seapony could swim in it! You honestly think I came here alone for my pride? I was avoiding you two! You two are friends… You’re letting the stress and confusion of yesterday get between you. We are in the building where the cure for my people, a literal panacea, and you two are bickering like foals!” The shock on their face was strangely satisfying but did nothing to quell my anger. “I have work to do… Just. Scarlet Keeper, Stellis has some paperwork for you two to work on. Midnight Skies, I want you to talk to the miners in the warehouse and see what they think of independence. See if they’ll move here. Free, you and I are gonna meet Stellis in the basement. There’s a sealed-off lab down there, and if the cure is anywhere, it’s there.”

Sky and Scarlet spoke over each other as they rushed to disagree.

“Aella, I don’t think that-”

“Captain, I should go wit-”

“No! I don’t want to be around either of you right now. Not until you work your shit out. Free and Stellis will be with me; they’re both more than capable fighters. We’ll be fine. Meanwhile, I want you two doing what you can to help these ponies. Their leader wants a word with you both, and then I want you to get started. This is important to me.”

“Alright… I’m sorry.” Scarlet couldn’t meet my gaze

“I’ll get it done, Captain,” Sky assured me with a nod. “And I’m sorry about all this. It shouldn’t have taken me so long to consider how you felt. I got too caught up with our drama.”

“Thank you. I still care about you both, I just… cannot be around this. I’m not moderating it, I’m not getting between it. I don’t have the energy. Everything I’ve worked for is so close… For better or worse, my journey, everything I’ve been through, led up to today. I can’t afford to be distracted right now. Everyone get to work.”

Footnotes:
Welcome to level 16!

Perk added: Friend of Luna: Your eyes adapt more quickly to lowlight conditions! Maybe next time you won't be caught so easily...

Author's Note

That took way too long... I havn't been feeling quite myself lately, and it's made it hard to find my motivation. I'm really sorry about that.