Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale

Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale, Chapter Five

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The ruined remains of the old world had become a lot more prevalent the further west we trotted. Buildings, billboards, and more roads made from what Tripwire told me was called concrete. Some of these roads were high above the ground, if they had not crumbled down yet. There were also signs of attempted settlements all over, and all empty except for the odd squatter, who paid us no mind.

Avoiding the more aggressive wildlife had also become harder, with the ruins giving them more hiding places and nesting spots. It was mostly just large bugs, bigger than back home and twicers as mean. It at least gave me an excuse to use my new gun, helping me get rid of a bug here and there before they became a problem.

Going near any body of water was also a bad idea, with colonies of hostile giant shrimp hiding in the mud. Furthermore, the threat of radiation was ever present, sometimes being easy to spot. Other times, it was nearly impossible to see, and only known due to some good pony having left a warning sign. Tragically, sometimes the warning sign was a dead body covered in dried boilies.

Fortunately our destination was only half a day's trot away. Unfortunately, we had to cross a bridge that was being blocked by a large group of ponies.

Looking at the crude wall, the ponies here had hung a mannequin by the neck. Disturbingly, the mannequin was painted blue, with a wide smile and a long railway spike through its head.

Tripwire sighed in frustration. "Had to be the Brain Nails."

"The, what now?" I asked.

He pointed at the mannequin. "That's one of their… totems. A fair sized raider gang, not as crazy as some of the others, but still just as vicious. Worse yet, they're mostly organized."

Cocking an eyebrow, I then asked, "mostly… organized?"

"I mean they don't go out raiding in random groups, in random directions. Most of the time at least. They mostly pull shit like this, blocking off roads and intimidating ponies into giving them shit." Tripwire explained before groaning. "Lately they got a new boss who is… peculiar… and is good at extortion. You'll understand when we see him."

He then pointed at a sign on the wall that depicts several crude symbols. One symbol was clearly a bunch of caps, another looked like the stuff Ma and Pa kept in the medical box back home, and a third was simply a drawing of a dick.

"Fortunately we got caps, so we don't have to consider the other form of payment. Though getting through will still be annoying." Tripwire said with a frustrated tone.

"I'm guessing one payment is chems, but what does the other mean?" I asked, hoping it was not something that actually involved a dick.

Sighing, Tripwire explained. "To put it in the most tastefully way possible, they accept prostitution as payment. If you need to get through and have nothing to trade, you can let them have their way with you. Something I'd never recommend, as raiders aren't known to be fair or gentle."

A cold shiver ran down my spine as I quickly understood what he was getting at. At least we had caps, so it was not a huge worry.

But I still had mixed feelings about this. On one hoof I was relieved that my first run in with raiders was not them screaming and shooting guns. On the other hoof, I did want to fight the raiders to rid Equestria of this menace, but Tripwire didn't seem interested in that idea.

"Would it be better if we just, you know, get rid of them. We do have guns?" I asked.

He motions his head to the side, where I then looked over at a nearby overhead road, it having a structure built on top. A glint of light hit my eyes as I looked up, a sigh of glass being moved around.

"Like I said, the raiders that are still around are mostly the smarter ones. Well, smart for raiders I mean." Tripwire further explained. "If we start shit, there is at least one sniper ready to brain us. And trust me when I say this, not all raiders are wasteful quick shots, and not all their guns are garbage pipe rifles."

I nodded, trusting that Tripwire knew what he was talking about. "So, do we go around?"

He shook his head. "That will add a day to our travel, unless you want to go swimming in an irradiated river infested with murk-lurkers."

This time I shook my head.

"Good, now just follow me and say nothing. Though the Brain Nails can be reasoned with, they are still raiders. They need little reason to get violent." Tripwire told me.

"Oh so fucking true!" Spoke a mare with a somewhat deep sounding voice. Throttling from behind the wall was the most intimidating pony I had seen in my life. The gray blue mare was covered in scars, had a scrap metal peg leg in the back, and an eyepatch that covered what looked like a burn on her face. Her mane and tail were black and bright yellow, both in spikes. She had armor made of leather, and rusty metal, that was covered in spikes.

She looked at Tripwire, seemingly unimpressed, then looked at me and smiled. "Oh, now you're a cute and healthy cunt. Why don't you drop this faggot and join me."

The raider then reached out to touch my face, and I slapped it away. "I'm no Celestia damned raider!"

She rolled her eyes at me. "Sure, say that now, but trust me, if the wasteland doesn't kill you, it will make a raider out of you." She then eyed Tripwire and smiled. "I'll give you less than a month before this male abandons you." Her eyes then fell back at me, and a cold chill ran down my spine as I could feel her madness. "Though he doesn't look the rape kind. More likely to watch it happen. Then crawl back to me, and join me to get your revenge."

I stumbled back a little, not knowing what I should do with this mad mare.

Fortunately Tripwire stepped in, which clearly pissed off the raider as he interrupted. "Though I would like to make an argument over your assumptions of me, Bandsaw, I also loth to be around the likes of you any more than necessary. If you would move aside, we would like to cross."

Bandsaw huffed at us, then smiled. "Alright, if you're going to be a bitch about it, Tripwire, then follow me." She then looked at me again. "So what's your name?"

"L… Lottery." I stupidly told her.

The raider laughed as she trotted onto the bridge. "Sounds like a fucking bandits name. Bet one of your parents were one of those too good for spikes faggots."

I felt it would be smart to not say any more as Tripwire and I followed her.

The other raiders were much like how the radio described them: dirty with a lot of spikes. But all the stallions wore something close to a uniform, consisting of blue short shorts and tightly fitting crop top jackets under the spiked armor plates. The few mares here were more like Bandsaw, though not quite as intimidating as she was, and seem to have better gear then the stallion.

At the center of the bridge were several raiders standing guard in front of what looked like a motor wagon on top of a bigger motor wagon with a sofa on top of that. As we came closer, one of the raiders on the motor wagon bent over to the sofa, clearly talking to a pony on it, our view of them blocked by the back of that sofa.

We then heard the clapping of hooves, and the guards backed up, grabbing some poles attached to the motor wagon, and began rotating it. Next thing I knew, I heard what sounded like the most overly feminine attempt of a voice a stallion could do, yet fail at. "Tripwire! Darling! So happy to see you again, have you finally changed your mind and come to understand my love?"

Sitting, well lounging on a sun bleached sofa was a teal blue Pegasus stallion, dressed in what looked like a toga, and adorned with a heavy amount of tarnished jewelry and even heavier amount of makeup. His dark turquoise blue mane was surprisingly well cared for and had tight featherily curls. Flanking him were two of the most ripped stallions I had ever seen in my life, both having a collar and chain which the Pegasus held.

"With all do respect, Low Pressure, I'm not gay, not even a bit bi. I also find you so insufferable that I wished the enclave never fell and you stayed up there in the clouds." Tripwire said flatly.

Low Pressure pouted. "Oh, you're so mean... I do like that about you." He then made a little growl as he playfully swiped his hoof in a claw like motion before shifting to a more serious look on his face. "But you know the rules. If you want to pass, pay the toll. It's caps, chems, or your ass. And the last time we met, you were light on caps and had no chems to speak of." He formed a wide smile on his face that creeped me out.

Tripwire tossed out a tin of caps to Bandsaw, the thing rattling in her hooves. "Here's your caps, now let us pass."

Bandsaw opened the tin and sighed. "Looks like there's enough for two ponies... this time. I guess you're not getting your stallion again, boss."

Low Pressure sighed in disappointment, still eyeing Tripwire. "You know back when the Enclave was, well, not fucked, I had stallions lining up to date me. Also had a good job and got to shower regularly. I was seen as a real catch by all the handsome stallions, a pony none could resist. Something you mud tredders would never understand, such a travesty."

"A travesty indeed." Tripwire said before motioning for me to follow him. Trotting around Low Pressure's setup, I could see that some attempt had been made to make his space look nicer. But to me it felt more ominous and hollow, then clean and impressive.

As I passed the raider stallions, I got a closer look at them. If I was crazy enough to have any interest in them, it would have crashed and burned right there. Under the armor and tightly fitting suits. They were sickly looking, covered in lesions and scars, with many of them having yellowed eyes and yellow pointed teeth. Their smell was also indescribably horrendous, making what I must have smelled like the other day as something pleasant.

One whistled at me as I passed, saying. "A shame, would have loved making ya scream as fucked ya raw."

Another sneered, his eyes twitching a little as he talked to another raider, "No chems again, fuck, how long has it been."

Others just looked at me with predatory eyes, some licking their lips. It all made me glad I was with Tripwire, as I had a feeling that they would be less interested in caps, and more interested in keeping me around. The thought of it sent a cold shiver down my spine.

A sharp whilst caught my attention, and I saw Bandsaw standing over Low Pressure, waving at me. "Lottery! If you ever want to let fucking loose and be truly free, I'll be there, waiting." She then blew me a kiss and dipped down out of sight.

It sent another cold shiver down my spine, and I turned to ignore the foreboding feeling she gave me.

As we got to the other side of the bridge, I saw another one of the mannequins, this one a lot more detailed and real-life like. Passing it by, the swarm of flies clued me into that it was not in fact a mannequin, but a real pony. A railway spike was driven into the poor pony's skull, its muzzle forced into a wide grin, and a sign forcibly tied to its hooves.

A bit of my breakfast came up, forcing me to swallow it back down. "What does…. D… does it say?" I stammered out.

"Pay up and live, or fight and die." Tripwire said flatly. "Looks like this fool chose to fight, and from the injuries, the raiders had their way with him before doing this."

I dared not ask or look, what I already saw and knew was bad enough.

Then Tripwire said something that I didn't quite understand. "This is why I hate raiders, always wasting valuable pony resources."

"Ya, raiders are the worst." I said in agreement, wondering what pony resources were. He was clearly talking about that unfortunate pony, so why did he phrase it like that?

Shaking off the odd feeling and being glad that I didn't fight those raiders, I refocused on helping Tripwire get to his destination with as few stops as possible.

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With high noon starting to pass and the shadows stretching again, we arrived at the trade hub Tripwire had told me about. I actually saw it long before we even got close, as at the center of the town was a huge monster standing tall. The monster bore a resemblance to a yao guai, but was fatter, and had a star on its head.

"Here we are, Ursa's Rest!" Tripwire exclaimed as we trotted down the main road to the town. "It's the biggest little trade hub between Fillydelphia and Friendship city. As you can see, it's hard to miss for miles around."

"I can see." I said as I looked up at the gigantic bear, then asked. "How did they even make that?"

"It's actually part of a building, you'll see once we get closer. But if my memory is correct, the outer layer is made from the same materials as the roads, with a steel mesh inside." He explained as we trotted to the front gates.

Unlike Chrysalis Motters, or my own home, this place didn't have much in the way of walls. They did have wire fencing, but nothing sturdier than that. There were also several guard towers with a few ponies overlooking the land. The gate was similarly under guarded, as the one pony that did stand guard looked uninterested in stopping anypony passing by.

"Hey, why is this place so unprotected?" I had to ask.

Tripwire smirked. "It's far from unprotected. Several communities around here use this place as neutral ground for business. So they make sure not to cause trouble, and pay a tax that goes to housing a Talon branch for security. Not even raiders are dumb enough to piss of so many talons.

I could only trust Tripwire at his word, so I chose to believe that this place was safe, despite how not safe it looked.

It was a mix of old world buildings that were held up by scrap wood, and buildings made from scrap itself. Some looked ready to fall over at any time, only held together by a neighboring scrap building leaning on them. There were a few merchant stalls selling all sorts of stuff, and a pen for what had to be brahmin. The furless two headed cows were covered in cancerous growth and just stood around, either staring off at nothing, or grazing on moldy oats. Mostly it was both at the same time.

The amount of ponies here was crazy to me, far more than Chrysalis Motter's had, making me a bit nervous. There were so many ponies that I had to watch out where I trotted, or risk bumping into somepony. It made me feel small and lost just having them all around me.

Among the ponies were ones covered in weapons and armor, those in stylish outfits, some in rags that looked lost, and a few trotted around with big signs on them. Everypony seemed to be going somewhere, or doing something. There were even several couples, ponies who were practically hanging off each other, oblivious to the world around them.

As we got to the center of town, the massive Ursa had only gotten bigger, making me feel even smaller. But Tripwire was right, a building stuck out from the back and the front of the bear had a grand entrance under its legs. A mare stood in front of the entrance, waving at ponies to get their attention, all while dressed in some sort of bear outfit.

The outfit consisted of a tight dark purple, almost black crop top hoodie, with pink and purple highlights, along with white stars decorating the outfit. Four socks that went thigh-high over her legs and had what looked like slippers over the hoof in the shape of paws. Over her flank was short shorts that seemed barely fit her, with what looked like lingerie under it.

It was equal parts cute and provocative, as the outfit drew my eyes to her legs and flank, but when I did look at her face, it was hard to not see the teddy bear ears on her hoodie, which was super cute. Though I knew I would never wear anything like that, it was just to… much.

"Welcome to the Ursa's Den!" The mare said with a cheery voice and a big smile as we trotted over. "We have everything you could want, so come on in and have some fun!"

"Well that was friendly" I said as we trotted past the mare and inside the building.

Then I stopped, utterly stunned at what I saw.

The inside was a cascade of colors and sounds as ponies trotted all over the place. The dark wall had a heavy use of purple and pink accents, along with stars decorating everything. Many of the ponies were at the tables playing card games or in front of a contraption pulling levers causing three panels to rotate inside. Another area had ponies sitting at tables drinking and eating, all while the ponies in the skimpy bear suits trotted everywhere with plates of said food and drinks.

"Don't let yourself get too distracted." Tripwire told before trotting over to where ponies ate and drank.

Taking a table in the corner, one of the costume ponies came over, offering us what he had. Tripwire slid several caps and the pony gave us a plate of food and a full drink glass each, then trotted away. Looking at the stallion as he left, I saw that the suit was just as tight on him as the mares were. I could see the outline of what had to be his groin.

"You're staring again." Tripwire said before sipping on his drink and scrunching up his muzzle. "Right, this is the cheap shit."

Feeling embarrassed again, I turned my attention to what was in front of me, I was unsure of what it was. The food was a brown wedge that had a crunchy outer layer, and a soft inner layer. If it was not for all the salt, it would have been considerably bland. As for the drink, it had the unmistakable smell of alcohol, but not as strong as the luna shine I had before. Tasting it, I found it rather unappealing, but far easier to drink.

"What is this?" I ask.

Tripwire took a bite of a wedge first before answering. "Deep fried tato wedges and watered down distilled booze. Not the best, but rather cheap to make. Likely unhealthy to eat, but if you're low on caps, it's what they got." He then sipped the drink, washing down the tato wedge. "They have better stuff, but it costs a lot more. If it's available, I suggest mutefrute wine. It's likely from one of the old plantations before Executioner Red burnt it down. A shame really, that plantation owner was a good friend of mine."

I raised an eyebrow "Who's Executioner Red?"

A frustrated sigh came from Tripwire. "It's a long story, but she was one of Redeyes more vicious bounty hunters. I mean the bastard chose to never bring an escaped slave back alive, just killed them and scalped their cutie-marks. Well one day she went crazy and rampage through the wasteland, killed a lot of hard working ponies before vanishing. Rumor was that she was half raider to begin with, so it was bound to happen one day."

"That's horrible!" I said, shocked by the story. "I do hope somepony has brought her to justice."

Tripwire shrugged. "No clue, and I would rather not go looking for her. Others have tried, none were ever seen from again."

Taking a gulp of the drink, finding it a bit fascinating. "I guess I can understand that, you'd need somepony like the Stable Dweller to take on a villain like that."

Going in for another wedge, I found that it, and my drink were gone, having already eaten it all. They weren't all that good, but they were not that bad either.

Tripwire then pulled out a tin, and pushed it to me. "Here's your pay for helping me get back here. I have to say, you're really good at getting around all the wildlife. More than likely I'd have run out of ammo before getting back here, not to mention being unable to recover my family's contracts. The money as well"

The image of Tripwire together with that oddly feminine raider stallion crossed my mind. It was both disgusting to imagine, but also intriguing nonetheless.

"Oh, I'm sure you would have been fine." I told him. "I mean, you live out here."

Slowly, Tripwire said, "that is true." Then took a sip of his drink before adding. "But I'm not built for traversing the wild wasteland. I'm more of a leader and a thinker, I can even cast a few spells. But that doesn't stop a bullet, or prevent a mole rat from grabbing me from under the ground. The trip up there alone had been a fight of endurance, but coming back here was almost pleasant, and rather quick."

He then waved for one of the workers to come back over. "Trust me, you have already proven yourself worth the caps. So at least let me buy you a proper drink." When a bear suit mare had trotted over, Tripwire pulled out several more caps. "Can you bring something more fitting for a young mare like her, something from the top shelf."

"Are… are you sure?" I stammered out.

Tripwire smiled. "Yes, we are not going to be leaving until tomorrow, so enjoy yourself. Have a few drinks, buy some new clothes, and play a few games. You deserve it."

When the mare returned, she placed a rather nice looking glass with a purple like liquid inside that smelled of booze and something sweet. Tasting it, my tongue tingled wildly from how sweet it was, causing me to let out a slight moan from the flavor of it. "This… this is really good! Like, super good!"

"It better be." A mare spoke up. Looking over I saw the most gorgeous pony in my life, almost as if she came out of the old fashion magazines. She was a dark, almost black, ashy gray mare with long bright platinum pink mane and tail that had a slight waviness and curls at the end. On her was a red dress that shimmered in the light and left one leg and hip exposed. Strangely, her mane nearly covered half her face, and when she moved, for a brief moment I could see an eyepatch with a scar under it.

"Good to see you again." Tripwire said as he made room for her to sit down. "Miss Lottery, this is a close friend of mine, Onyx Heart, Miss Onyx, this is our new scout, Lottery."

Onyx looked at me as though sizing me up. "I'm assuming that the last mare didn't make it?" She asked.

"Got done in by geckos unfortunately." He answered.

She then got closer to Tripwire, practically hugging him. "Told you she wasn't good enough, too sure of herself. Now you owe me a drink. So, about the documents you recovered."

I don't know why, but I didn't like this mare getting so close to Tripwire. It just made me a bit… angry?

Tripwire levetated several sheets of paper and Onyx snached them, excitement in her eye.

"Oh yes, when you sent that message over, I could hardly believe it. But after all these years, all our suffering, we can finally start rebuilding." She eyed Tripwire with a gaze of hunger, licking her lips. "How soon should I get started?"

"Not until after we recover my family's heirloom. That artifact is the key for us seeing everything returned to us in our own lifetime." Tripwire explained, pushing her back a little. "Even then, there's still the issue of gear. It's even more pointless if we don't have the tools to keep any asshole from just taking from us again."

Onyx sighed. "Right, but that little stash you father hid is going to be as much of a pain in the ass to get to as everything else out there." She then looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Unless you think this mare can do it?"

I sipped on my wonderful drink, listening as Tripwire explained. "She's good at what she does, far better then any of us if we head out there. She is also very trustworthy, the kind of pony I like best."

I felt some heat rise to my face in embarrassment at his complement. Or was it the alcohol?

Giving me a sneer-like smile, Onyx then added. "I can see that she is quite… simple."

She then sighed. "Well if we're going to talk more about this, let's do it in private. Just you and me. I also need some time to look over the documents, see if I can locate where that stash is."

Again the anger-like feeling came up.

Tripwire then nodded. "Right, never know who is spying in on us. Lottery, I'll have a motel room rented outside, just look for the smaller Ursa, and ask the owner where my room is, she will know you're coming."

"Ahh… okay." I said, now feeling nervous.

They then left as I finished off my drink, now feeling very much alone. Not knowing what to do, I waved one of the employees over to me, the stallion with tight fitting shorts.

Nervously, I asked. "Say… I'm kind of new here, c… can you show me around?"

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