Fallout Equestria: Syndication

Chapter 3:

Frozen Wastes

It had been a couple of hours since we had left Coffee’s trading post, and my hooves were, for lack of a better phrase, fucking killing me! And don’t get me started on how my back was feeling at that moment.

We had stopped a couple times to rest for a bit, and to indulge ourselves in some of our provisions. Though, the cold air was starting to take its toll on us both. The dusters had helped immensely, but it was starting to seep in.

Just as I was starting loose the feeling in my hooves, a tall tower soon became visible over the horizon. And, luckily, it was in the same direction as the custom marker I had set. I got Mango’s attention before indicating at the tower that, as we were getting closer, was taking on the form of a radio tower.

“There’s our destination! The building at the base of the tower.”

Looking forward and seeing that, Mango looked back at me and nodded. Clearly, the trip was also taking a toll on her, though she was trying her best to not show it. My best friend was always like that, especially back during her training for the Stable security force.

After another fifteen minutes of trotting, we soon reached the building, and my PipBuck once again beeped with a location.

Location Discovered: D.N.R Tower 158

Once again, I rolled my eyes. At this rate, what was the point of trying to figure out how it worked. I would probably just drive myself batty! But at least this proved that I was right.

Trotting up to the door, I reached out with my magic and enveloped the handle in its aura and turned down… only for the handle to not even budge an inch. The damned thing was locked.

“Well, fuck. Damned door is locked, and I don’t exactly know how to-“ Was all I got out before Mango pushed me gently to the side, reared up, and proceeded to thrust her back legs at the door in a hard buck. The door didn’t stand a chance as it swung inwards, and luckily stayed on its hinges.

I just blinked at the display, as a smirking Mango just swung her foreleg towards the now open door, allowing me to enter first. After rolling my eyes, I went to head inside. “Showoff.”

“Yeah, I am.” Was all that came from Mango as she followed me inside and closed the door behind her.

Inside the moderately sized room, a couple of old and rather decaying chairs sat around a table, while the far wall was covered in all the electronics and monitors that the station needed to function. The flashing lights indicated that it was still in an operational state.

The other thing we noticed was a cot in the opposite corner, atop which laid out the skeletal remains of a mare.

We both jolted to a stop at the sight. Empty bottles littered the floor around the skeleton. There was no telling just how old it was, but given the door was still locked, that would usually only mean one thing. I shivered at the thought before quickly making my way over towards the still functioning terminal, whose sickly green glow was still washing over the room even two centuries after the end of Equestria.

Luckily for myself, the terminal was still logged into. Given, I am much more comfortable with hacking into terminals than I am picking a lock. I sat down in front of it (and getting to sit down was joyous on my hooves) and got to work as I heard Mango get to work looking around the rest of the place.

Among the many corrupted files, I did find some functions that would be of help to myself, but I also found many text and audio files that seemed to be from the mare who had worked here. A glimpse into the past, two hundred years into the past.

I glanced back over at the skeleton, a sorrowful frown on my muzzle. I let out a sigh before turning back and selecting the first audio file to play. Once I did, a ghost from the past echoed through the room for the first time in centuries.

“Well Call Letter, this is what you fucking get for sleeping around in Denmare. Demoted all the way down to a stupid broadcast station out in the middle of Celestia fucking forsaken nowhere! *sigh* Mom was right, of course she was fucking right… Was on the fast tack to the top of D.N.R, and now I’ve lost it all. First loosing Dad to that fucking war, now my career. Just wish it would end already. Thank Celestia this place has plenty of booze.”

With a click, the audio message came to an end.

“Wow, just wow.” That coming from Mango who was levitating one of the many bottles up to read the label, though it was so smudged that she couldn’t. “Filly just drank herself to death in the end.”

I just slowly shook my head as I closed out the files before going to connect my PipBuck to the terminal. Once said device had acknowledged the connection, I went about attempting to retrace the transmission back through the network, only to come into a problem.

Network Issue: Unable to Determine Source, Station to far from main network

“Well, that’s just fucking great.” I let out a groan before planting my head down on the table.

Mango had come over and read what was on the screen, letting out an annoyed groan of her own. “Well, that doesn’t help.”

“No shit sherlock.” I went to lift my head up and rub my temples. There had to be another way of doing this. Looking back at the terminal screen, I backed out and went searching again. That was when I found the last recording. I went ahead and played it.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! I just lost connection with home base! The sky is closing up outside, what is going on?! *boooooooooom* What was that?!”

There was the sound of crying in the background before Call’s voice returned.

“It’s over. It’s all over… Equestria is gone… I… I can’t take this anymore… My mane is falling out… I’m.. I’m so tired…. Fuck this, I’m gonna drink………”

With that, the recording picked up more crying followed by the sounds of choking, before just silence. I reached up to clear a tear from my eye as the recording finally came to an end. “Poor thing…”

“Yeah, couldn’t imagine what happened that day.” Mango gently shook her head before looking over at the skeleton. “We should burry her. I found a shovel in the closest.”

I just simply nodded as I unhooked my PipBuck from the terminal. This had been a complete waste of time, but at least we could finally give the poor filly who had died here a final resting place. Walking over to the cot, I wrapped the bones gently in a levitation field and headed for the door.

*****

An hour later, Mango stuck the shovel into the ground next to the newly disturbed soil where we had buried the remains of Call Letter. It had been done in silence, there really wasn’t anything to say in the moment.

Once we were done, we headed back inside to collect the things that Mango had discovered which, quite honestly, was virtually nothing. A couple of bottle caps and some still good healing potions and bandages, but that was about it. Once those had found a home in Mango’s saddlebags, we exited the door and closed it once again before heading back down to the road. A quick check of the time showed it to be coming up on midafternoon.

I flipped back to the map and looked, trying to find somewhere we could get too before it got too dark out again. That’s when I found one of the map markers that Coffee had placed for us, figuring it would be helpful to us.

“Okay, I think one of Coffee’s markers should be a good place for us to bed down for the night. Does look like it’s a couple of hours out still.” Which is when I showed my map to Mango who, after taking a look, gave a nod in response.

I wasn’t looking forward to more walking, but it had to be done. Just hope we get there before night. I put the map away and went back to the radio, catching in on a Sapphire Shores rocker as we proceeded back down the road.

*****

The hours seemed to just drag on by as we trotted, keeping a vigilant eye on both the horizon and the E.F.S, but nothing ever popped up. We trudged along to the map marker, as the sun started descending in the sky. Just as we crested the hill above our destination, the world was growing darker by the second. Soon enough, it would be as dark as it was the previous night when we had found the trading post.

Down below, we could see the battered remains of a road side convenience store. There were lights coming from within, so that gave us hope as we quickly made our way down the slop towards it. The flashing light from a still functioning Sparkle Cola machine could be seen on the side of the building. That would be something for later as, once we reached the door, I magicked it open and got inside.

Though, not being on the same level of warmth as the trading post the previous night, it was still better than it was outside.

The inside definitely looked like it was already set up as a camp, but my E.F.S didn’t bring up any other bars aside from Mango, indicating we were the only ones. The lights I had seen coming from within were coming from old lanterns, but weren’t doing a good job at lighting the rest of the interior. Turning on my PipBuck’s lamp unveiled a spot where a small fire could be set.

“I’m on it.” Seeing that, Mango shucked her saddlebags off to the side before finding a way to get a fire going. While she was doing that, I set my own saddlebag down next to hers and stretched a little. My hooves were killing me and, according, to Coffee, there was still at least three more days of this.

“Joy. Hope we get to Denmare before my hooves fall off.”

Soon enough, Mango had a small fire going, which had the duel effect of giving more light and a small bit of warmth. The extra light showed off that the still somewhat intact building was still being used for something, which was when my PipBuck finally decided to catch up with us in giving a name.

Location Discovered: Coltorado Trading Company Pitstop #58

“Coltorado Trading Company Pitstop #58? Huh, guess that explains everything sitting here?”

“Yeah, it does.” Mango, after she was done lighting the fire, was digging through her saddlebags to see what we could eat that night. I sat down across from her, holding my hooves out towards the fire in an attempt to warm them up. I couldn’t help but let out another sigh as it started taking its affect.

“Well, take your pick. Canned peaches or canned corn.” Mango held the two different cans up, allowing me to take first choice. After thinking it over, I took the canned peaches in my levitation field and floated them over, leaving the corn for Mango.

Once popping the can open, I dove in. Peaches were definitely some of my favorites. Mango wasn’t far behind in diving into her corn. While I kept the can levitating in my magic, I pulled my PipBuck up to scan through my inventory. From what I could gather, and if we could keep up the pace we needed, we should hopefully have enough to make it to Denmare, and hopefully the first true settlement there. Only time would tell there.

Coffee had been the only pony we had met outside the Stable up till this point, though I highly doubted that would change, given what both she had told us about, and what was written in the book under the ‘Raiders’ section.

Opting for a bit more, I pulled the book out of my saddlebag and levitated it in front of me, picking up where I had left off previously. Doing some reading was going to help pass the time. Mango, for her part, was looking over her newly acquired hunting rifle. She hadn’t had a chance to use it that day. Which, in my opinion, was probably a good thing.

Flipping through the book, the author definitely knew a thing or two about the goings on around this apparent part of the wasteland. Just how this mare knew about it all still boggled me though. Though, what did worry me the most was the previously mentioned section about raiders, specifically a gang called The Syndicate.

According to Ditzy, it was the largest group in this part of the wasteland, and had virtually came out of nowhere just over twenty years ago, and there still isn’t a lot known about them.

It was then that I started to wonder if this was why my mother had sent a distress message, but still didn’t quite understand why she would ask for me. She didn’t even KNOW me! This was just completely insane! I highly doubt I would get an answer till I actually found her.

I just let out a long sigh as I flipped the book closed and set it back inside my saddlebag, soon finishing off the rest of the peaches in the can before opting to just tossing it in the corner, having it land on top of a pile of similar kinds of empty cans, so it was totally okay to do!

“You good there?” Mango looked over at me after hearing my sigh, dropping the rifle back down onto her own bags. She had finished off her corn, and proceeded to add her can to the same pile.

I looked back over at my lifelong best friend and just gave a slow nod. “I… I really don’t know Mango. It just now hit me that I honestly have no clue in all of Equestria why my mother would have sent a distress call to me when she doesn’t even fucking know me.”

I then looked down and gazed into the fire. The crackling flames bouncing and flickering in the darkness of the night. I just shook my head.

“Well, I wish I had an answer for you Mystic, but no matter what happens, I’ll be right here with you.”

Hearing that did get me smiling. Having her with me definitely gave me hope for the future.

*****

We had packed up our stuff the following morning after we had each took turns keeping watch overnight. It was better to be safe than sorry, after all.

Before we headed off, I discovered the Sparkle Cola machine had previously been opened, and did actually have a couple of bottles left. While lukewarm, it was still great to have something other than slightly irradiated water.

After popping the tops, both bottle caps made their way into my pouch, which my PipBuck instantly counted towards our new total.

Taking a quick swig from it, we proceeded back along the road to the west. It wasn’t long before I went to turn the radio on, and once again catching a song that we had heard many times before, but was still good to hear again.

Once the song came to an end, the dulcet tones of the radio DJ returned. “GOOOOOOOOOOOOD MOOOOOOOOOORNING WASTELAND!! DJ Denmare back at with the morning roundup!” Following that was some pretty mediocre sound effects, but I digress.

His tone did take on a rather serious tone. “Now, unlike yesterday, I do have some unfortunate news to deliver. One of my trusted sources to the south have informed me of some increased slaver activity centered around Castle Rock, so if you’re heading that way, you’d be best to enlist the help of the local Steel Ranger’s to get you through safely. Thank Celestia those guys aren’t like the pompous asshats up north.”

I simply blinked at that. Ditzy’s book did talk about that group called the ‘Steel Rangers’ and how she described just how different they were down here compared to the ones up by Manehatten and Fillydelphia.

“With that, be safe out there My Little Ponies, and keep on riding and striving to be the best you can be! Here’s some upbeat tones from the OG DJ Pon-3!”

With that, an upbeat tune started off as the DJ finished, and it instantly had Mango bobbing her head along. I did have to admit, it was pretty catchy.

As we walked along, and for the first time since encountering Coffee the previous day, a blue bar popped up on my E.F.S, which instantly got my attention. Though, looking in the direction revealed… A flying metal ball. A sprite bot, according to the book.

Mango also seemed to be confused by the sight of the ball, which was playing its own music (quite heavy on the tuba, I might add) which suddenly cut out with a pop as the sprite bot turned and floated towards us.

Mango instantly had her rifle levitated up and aimed at it in the blink of an eye. She was just about to magically pull the trigger and send a bullet right at it.

“Whoa! Easy there! I come in peace!”

… Did that thing just talk?

“Uh… what are you?” Was quite literally all I could muster as the ball floated back a bit before Mango lowered the gun.

“A friend.” We both gave it a deadpanned stare. “Seriously, I don’t mean you both any harm.” I still didn’t buy it, but at least it hadn’t attacked us yet. “Just call me Watcher.”

“Watcher?” The sprite bot bobbed up and down, so I took that as it was nodding. “So, what exactly are you doing?”

“That’s a long and complicated story. Let’s just say I look for those wanting to do good. I provide advice. You both seem to have a bit already covered though. What are your names?”

“I’m Mango Sunrise, and this is Mystic Sapphire.” Of course Mango was the one to respond to that.

The sprite bot was silent for a moment, almost leading me to believe we had lost the mysterious being, before the voice returned.

“Do you both want to do good?” Mango and I looked at each other before giving a nod. “Then I need your help.”

I was still very skeptical about what their true intentions were, but I figured we may as well go along with it. “Go on.”

“Further up the road is a raider camp that have been tormenting caravans going between Denmare and the Wild Plains. I want you both to take them out.”

Okay, it was official, mister floating robot ball was completely insane. There was no way in the name of Luna we were going to- “We’ll do it.” Aaaaaaand of course Mango spoke for us both. I proceeded to facehoof.

“Great!” It bobbed a few more seconds before a ping alerted me to my PipBuck. “I’ve sent you both the coordinates. Stay safe!” And before I could ask it any more questions, a popping sound brought the heavy tuba music back, and the sprite bot proceeded to float away.

I then just glared at my companion, who just smirked back before going to take lead and headed off.

I swear, that filly was going to get us killed at some point.

*****

“Mango, I’m going to kill you.”

We were standing on top of a hill overlooking the encampment, and I had no fucking clue how we were going to take care of this. Though, the amount of ponies we were seeing was not what was freaking me out the most.

Bodies.

Decapitated, mutilated bodies of numerous ponies were nailed to the walls, impaled on spikes along with the decaying remains of heads. Bodily entrails strung up like macabre party decorations. The mere sight sent a shiver through my spine.

“So, what do you think? Sneak in and take them out quietly, or do the fun way and go in guns blazing?”

“What I think is that you’re a fucking idiot. But I really don’t want to die, and I’m stuck on this crazy train, so let’s take the silent approach.”

“You’re no fun, but I also see where you are coming from.” Mango shrugged as we proceeded to carefully make our way down the hill. The closer we got, the more my E.F.S filled with red.

I gulped as we somehow made it to a back door without being spotted. Unlike the door the previous day, this one was open. It swung open, and we were both assaulted by the most revolting smell ever. I nearly threw up right there and then, but I swallowed it back as we slowly made our way inside, closing the door just before an emaciated, dirty brown mare whose mane was done up in blood red spikes looked over towards it.

We had luckily gotten out of sight behind a countertop before she could spot us, though it was too close for comfort. After a moment, the mare turned and headed off again. I was still trying to figure out how we were going to go about this, when Mango peaked her head up and came face to face with a decapitated head, and let out a way too loud squeak.

“What the fuck was that?” A stallion’s voice echoed from the other room as I had quickly clamped my hooves down around Mango’s muzzle to shut her up. Hoofsteps trotting on the rotting wood floor indicated we had another visitor. We could hear someone sniffing at the air.

“Weeeeeeeell, something smells a little too... different. Perhaps we have some… fresh meat crawling into our laps~”

I did not, in any way whatsoever, like how he said that. The hoofsteps were getting closer, and they were joined by the cocking of what sounded like a shotgun. I shivered more as Mango shoved my hooves away and rolled out in front of the stallion, completely catching them off guard.

“What the fuck?!” Was all they got off as Mango took aim with her rifle and fired. From that range, there was absolutely no missing. The gunshot echoed through the ramshackled building as the wall directly behind the stallion was soon painted in blood and brain matter. The body soon toppled over and laid in a crumpled heap.

Unfortunately for us both, the echoing of her gunshot had alerted the whole place, and a thundering of hooves were coming right for us. Mango rolled over to the other side of the door just as the mare from before came into view. Seeing no way out other than blasting, I hopped up and used yet another feature on my PipBuck that I hadn’t had any need for before.

I activated S.A.T.S, or Stable-Tech Assisted Targeting Spell, and the world around me came to a stop. The interface popped up, highlighting each of the mares’ body parts and my chances of hitting that part. Luckily, it gave me a 95% chance of hitting her head. Queuing up the spell to aim there, I felt S.A.T.S slip away, and my laser rifle firing.

The mare was hit right between the eyes, and in an instant, her body glowed a soft pink before vaporizing right in front of our eyes, ending up as a glowing pile of ash on the floor.

I blinked… I blinked again. Not only had I killed a pony, but there was literally nothing left of her! I didn’t have much more time to process it though as more gunshots headed our way.

We had been lucky to catch the first two raiders off guard, but we were now in for a harder fight.

I soon joined Mango on the other side of the door as more bullets flew through the air, most missing us. Some impacted against the door frame, splintering off good chunks of wood. Our pathetic defense wasn’t going to last long.

“Fucking wish we had some grenades or something!” I called out over the roar of the bulletstorm. Mango then blinked as she reached back to her saddlebag, and levitated out two metal apples.

I blinked at the sight, before deciding to question it later when we weren’t facing eminent death. Mango didn’t give an answer either, instead just pulling the steams and lopping them through the door.

“Fucking shit! Run!” Before anything else could be said, an explosion ripped through the building and completely silenced the other room. In an instant, my E.F.S was cleared of all red bars.

I slowly looked out from around the door and looked into the room, and discovered the extent. The force of the explosion absolutely obliterated any raiders. Blood had been splattered all over the wall, ceiling and floor. Intestines and liquefied matter covered everything else.

Finally, my stomach decided to eject its contents, having my breakfast joining the rest of the bloody mess. I really hated the wasteland.

*****

We had left the now vacant raider encampment an hour prior after Mango did the bulk of the scavenging. I had ran outside to finish evicting my stomach contents. After washing out my mouth of the foul taste, we had gone over what Mango had found. A good number of bottle caps, guns that had seen much better days and weren’t even worth the trouble of bringing, and a book titled ‘Today’s Locksmith’ . That I definitely took.

It was once again getting to the point were the cold was starting to get to us, and it was definitely getting old by this point, but we had to trudge along. It was a little further along before we heard the same tuba music echoing before we saw another sprite bot floating along.

Before Mango could react, I bolted over towards it. “Hey, Watcher!” The bot hadn’t reacted. “Watcher!”

The music popped before it turned to face me. “Hey Mystic! Great job with those raiders back there. Trust me, you both certainty helped out a bunch of ponies by doing that.”

“Yeah, sure. I’m still not happy about getting sent in to nearly get killed, but you’re welcome. You wouldn’t happen to know of anywhere we could warm up, do you?”

“Well, unfortunately, nothing like the trading stop you were at last night, but there are some still somewhat intact buildings up ahead. That’s the best you’re gonna get.”

“Wait how did you-“ And before I could finish that sentence, the sprite bot popped, and the music was back as it floated off once again. “… Damn it.”

“How did he know where we were last night?”

“I have no fucking clue Mango, and I honestly don’t want to know.” I just shook my head and, to get my mind off of it, I opted to turn the radio back on, just in time for the DJ to hope back on.

“GOOOOOOOOOD AFTERNOON WASTELANDERS! This is DJ Denmare, spinning disks and telling the news, and boy do I have something for you all today! Y’all remember that nasty, nasty raider camp parked right beside the highway just outside of Lemon?”

No. Fucking. Way.

“Well! Reports are coming in that a couple of Stable Dwellers were seen entering the camp, shots were fired, explosions were had. Long story short, they took out the raiders, opening up the trading route one again!”

Mango and I looked at each other, jaws hanging open, as the report finished.

“So thank ya kindly ladies! Keep up the good work! This next song's for you!” The music started playing, but all I could do was fall back onto my haunches and put my head in my hooves.

Fuck me, hard, with Luna’s horn.

*****

Footnote: Level Up!

Character Level: 2

875 EXP to next level

One Point added to Intelligence: Now 9

Author's Note

Would you look at that, a 2nd chapter wrote and uploaded in as many days?! I'm on fire!

Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!