Fallout Equestria: Tales from Stable 83

“You are seriously a dumbass. I understan we need the caps so we can afford ammo an whatever else we need, but trottin into a den of twenty yotes? You’re lucky we’ve got the supplies to get botha ya fixed up.” Orchid was definitely upset, it might be best to just keep my mouth shut for a little while longer. Lest I inspire her ire and get hit for it.

“Speaking of him, why isn’t he awake yet? I know it’s still pretty early, but if we want him to survive out here with us he needs to wake up early.” And suddenly I wasn’t glad he was back. “With his help we can get a lot of small shit done today. You two can start working on the potions and I can start tanning these hides I brought back.”

I felt a twinge of hunger in my stomach, they hadn’t force fed me. At least one of them had made sure I drank something, dehydration hadn’t set in yet. No time like the present to let them know I’m awake I suppose, since this isn’t just a fever dream. “I’m awake. Probably pretty hard to tell since I’m still bound to this bed and still have my eyes covered by this bandage. I’d be more than happy to help you out, just need you to release me first.” We’ll see how this goes. I may not be in that much trouble, guess worse comes to worse I can find that gun and shoot them.

Orchid exasperatedly sighed at Smoky before trotting over. She first undid the leather bindings and did a quick look over where I had been shot. “You’re healin well, but still try an take it easy today. I’m gonna take that bandage off now, just be warned it might take yer eyes some time to readjust after being blind for three days.” I tilted my head forward enough for her to grab the bandage and start unwinding it. After she was done, she took a few steps back and waited.

I slowly opened up my eyes and was unsurprisingly immediately uncomfortable with how bright the world was. It took a few minutes of shielding my eyes with one of my forelegs before I could finally see properly without my eyes stinging. “My eyes still work, that’s good. Hopefully that means no permanent damage. Thanks for the help.”

Orchid gave a small smile. “Of course, we help who we can when we can.” I knew I had heard the flap of wings when she saved me. Now that I could finally see her, I finally got to realize she was a lot prettier than I had first imagined. Her coat was a soft tangerine and her mane, although a little messy, was two tone of peach and rouge. Eyes of a deep sapphire blue that betrayed a kind nature behind the ragged and dangerous outward look. She wore a suit of plain leather armor that looked like it had been hoof-stitched and repaired several times. At her side was a holstered low caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Then there was Smoky, he was big. Nearly twice my size and he looked a whole lot meaner. A coat that reminded me of freshly watered dirt, that muddy brown color that looked like a pile of shit. His mane was a solid orange brown, not too much darker than rusty iron. Even though his eyes looked sunken and almost soulless, the green irises looked like they might have a sliver of happiness hidden somewhere deep inside. He also wore a suit of plain leather armor, though his was much patchier. “Now you can help us to repay that kindness.” Or maybe he was a soulless lich sent to haunt me for eternity.

The shelter around us wasn’t luxurious by any means. The ceiling was peppered with holes that let in natural light. The floors were bare dirt and what little furniture I could see looked unstable and ready to fall apart. On the wall next to the doorway hung a small medical box, hard to recognize it with the faded paint and holes in it. In the opposite wall was a door leading to a darkened room. Their shelter was just a ramshackle building that was barely holding together.

I gave him a small nod ignoring the fact that Orchid was glaring daggers at him. “Of course, where can I start? I don’t know much about tanning hides or fixing guns, but if you want me to work on potions I can mix up a few.” I rolled out of bed onto the dirt floor below. This time my legs gave out on me. I crumpled to the floor pretty hard, luckily I landed just right to not take a bite out of the rock sticking out of the ground. “If I can stand properly that is.” Smooth Crimson, defuse with humor to not look stupid

Smoky offered one of his hooves to me and I was really glad it was to help me up, because that hoof was close to the size of my head. I took the hoof and he pulled me up. “Well, I kinda expected that to happen the first time you rolled out of bed after that kinda trauma. Just take it easy and you’ll be fine.”

I pray to Celestia I can figure this stallion out. Is he rude or kind? I just can’t tell.

I shakily let go of his hoof and rested my weight fully on my own legs. It wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, but I knew I’d be able to walk. If only just. “Yeah, I’ll take it slow, at least physically.” I lit my horn up and telekinetically dragged my lab coat over to me. After sliding it on I pulled the notepad from my pocket and hobbled over to the hot plate sitting on a table in the corner. “Now I think I heard you two talking about having Orchid work with me on potions.” Getting rid of Smoky fast would be a blessing, even if it hurt like a bitch to move.

Orchid nodded and waved a hoof at Smoky to get him to go elsewhere. She walked over to the table as Smoky walked outside grabbing a box next to the door on his way out. “Yes, the plan was ta have ya teach me some of those recipes ya know as part a ya repaying us fer saving your life. While I can figure out what plants and other chemicals go into some of ‘em, ya didn’t exactly leave a good method to produce them.”

I flipped through the notepad to the first recipe and looked it over. A pretty basic healing potion, nothing too potent. Definitely enough to feel out where I stood with these two. “Yeah, this one here is written in my shorthoof. If you’ve got some paper around, I’ll write out the specifics for you while we work. If not, I’ll just go as slow as I can and explain the process as I go.”

Orchid set a piece of paper and a pen down on the table next to my notepad. “Both. While I trust learnin by seein it done, havin the details written down is nice just in case.” She produced a couple of plants and some basic tools from her saddlebags and waited for me to start.

“Alright, the first step is to purify some water as best as we can. Start by running the water through a filter made of sand, charcoal, and small rocks placed in that order. Following this, take the filtered water, place it in a beaker and bring it to a boil.” I was writing the steps down as I talked and worked, making sure to give Orchid a glance every now and then to make sure she was following. She seemed to be, so I continued, “Using a few pieces of glassware or plastic in a pinch we can collect the water vapor as it leaves the beaker. Now we have a batch of distilled water, this is the bare minimum work to put in for making water safe to use in this recipe.” If I’m making it at least. I could use dirty water I suppose… no, has to be clean.

Orchid nodded and chuckled lightly. “I know how ta purify water. Ya didn’t have ta explain that ta me, you know. I do appreciate the advice though.” That chuckle was adorable, maybe she wasn’t so bad. She set up the hot plate and beakers to start the purification process. “What next?”

“Next, we take a few sprigs of ginseng, a cactus flower, and a few aloe leaves and we grind them into a paste. This paste will serve as the base for the potion. Once we have this paste and the purified water, we mix the two thoroughly together and then put the combination back into a beaker and bring it back to boil.” I had to flip the piece of paper over to get the entire process on this one piece of paper. Must not have paper processing around, these are mere scraps compared to what I’m used to. “Once the mixture comes to a boil, we occasionally lift the beaker to swirl the mix around. This process continues for roughly ten minutes before the potion should start to take on the proper red coloration. At which point, we pour the contents into two separate bottles and let the mixture cool. Then the potions are ready for use.”

Orchid was following along with the instruction as I gave them, it was pretty clear she had a talent for this work. She set the paste down long enough to transfer the now purified water over to a new beaker and started mixing the paste and water together. “That’s pretty easy all things considered. What else ya got in that magic little book of yers? Maybe something to deal with animal venoms?”

I levitated it and the pen up, so she had more workspace before flipping through the pad to the next open page. “Not written down here. Just some notes from the time I spent in my pod at work. A lot of it is just experimental data and thoughts about ways to improve the brewing process or potential new weapon designs to run by Steel when he wakes up. Though usually he’s thought of everything I have long before I present the idea.” I sure do miss him, if he was here with me right now I could walk free. Smoky may be big, but he’s got nothing on Steel.

“Anything ya can easily make out here? Or are ya limited to potions and other basics?” Orchid waited for a few moments before adding “Iffn ya don’t mind me asking that is.” Ok, she’s nice at the very least. Or that could be a ploy to get me to spill more information…

I wrote down some notes in silence for a minute before setting my pen down. “Unless you’ve got a workshop full of tools on hoof, I can’t produce anything big or complex. I do have a potential armor design that I’ve had brewing for a while, but it requires a lot of leather, metal and adhesive.” The underlying principle would be ok to do for now… but maybe they can be trusted with the actual design.

“Ya did say ya were an armorer by trade, so that don’t surprise me much. How much leather do ya need? We’ve got a few larger hides plus the ones that Smoky is working on tanning out there, and these old leathers we’ve got on. Would that be enuff ta make yer armor?” She asked before picking up the flask to swirl the mixture, which was starting to take on a light red color, potions would be ready soon enough.

Just give them the basics for now Crimson. “Enough for one of you probably. I’d have to get my hooves on the hides and a couple of measurements before I could say for certain. I’d say for nearly certain I could make a design that would fit you properly. I have serious doubts about making it for Smoky, he’s quite a bit bigger than the pony I designed the suit for.” The design was towards the back of my notepad, not a full scale design drawing, just enough of a sketch to act as a guideline for armoring a stallion of my size.

Orchid motioned me to keep track of the hotplate before trotting off into the other darkened room of this ruined building. I could hear her tossing stuff to the side as she searched through what sounded like a trunk. After a few minutes she trotted back in and set several tanned hides and some bottles of wonderglue onto the bed I had been sleeping in. “Once this batch a potions is done, I can take over at the hotplate. I’d like ya ta start work on making that suit of yers. Use yer own measurements for it, we’ll call it a forward payment for ya helping us out. You’ll need armor out here just in case something tries to attack ya again.” She was quiet for a moment before adding “we don’t have the supplies ta keep saving ya from gunshots.”

Well, that’s more than I was expecting out of complete strangers. Then again, they did save my life when they could have just as easily left me to die out there. Maybe they can be trusted… I guess I don’t have a much better option. “Sure, I guess. As long as you think you can part with the resources I’ll need to make the suit. Won’t be able to finish it today unfortunately. With most of the hides and leather I need already here, I should be able to get something light to wear before nightfall.”

“That’ll have to do for now then” Smoky trotted through the door with a worried expression on his face. “Looks like we’ll need to be moving on tomorrow. Just saw a group of raiders eyeing this place up from a good mile away. They’ll no doubt be back in the morning to take this place over. I only saw five of them, but who knows how many more they’ll come back with. I’ll pack what I can into my bags. Only take what we need, can’t be slowed down by unnecessary weight.” That level of worry made me nervous, if this big bastard was scared… Fuck...

Based on the way both Orchid and Smoky began moving around the building and stuffing things into their saddlebags, I had to assume that meant we were probably dead if we didn’t get out of here. Normally I would have questioned what they were talking about, but for once in my life I had the good sense to just focus on my work instead. I already had my own measurements on my notepad so that would speed up the process of making myself a suit of armor, hopefully enough to get it done and get a good night’s rest.

The design of my armor was simplistic when compared to any modern body armor, but unless I could get my hooves on a proper lab or proper tools this was going to have to do. The design drew from the old days of Appleloosan gunslingers and those cheesy action western movies they use to run. A base layer of leather foraged from the animals they slayed along the way plus a duster to add in a little extra body protection. Later I’d add in some metal plates over the most important areas and that’d do without getting ballistic plates. That would be the base of my armor and all I could likely get done today with how often I kept dropping the fucking needle and thread.

While I worked, I watched the two ponies who had saved me frantically run about gathering up what probably amounted to the entirety of their possessions. It was almost like watching somepony who was moving to a new city pack their house since they’ve got to be out the door by the end of the day and procrastinated packing to the last minute. The sight would have been a tad bit amusing to me if the implications of failing to pack everything wasn’t a slow agonizing death. They made quick work of gathering everything they owned, maybe an hour or so, and now came the hard part. Now they had to decide what was worth keeping and what they could live without taking.

Smoky was practical when it came to sorting through their belongings, tossing aside anything that didn’t seem to have any immediate value. Medical supplies, ammunition, weapons, food that was probably still edible. Almost what you’d expect a soldier to pack first, the essentials for war. The way he packed though was inefficient and sloppy, his saddlebags could probably hold twice as much if he just took a second to sit and think about how to pack. Though I didn’t dare to say anything just yet.

Orchid was much more organized in the way she packed, placing the heaviest objects closer to her body, and making sure everything fit together in a compact manner. She packed less of the essentials into her bags, but she did leave a small pile of medical supplies and spare mags out just to her right. The hotplate and glassware we had used for potion making made its way into the saddlebags, all of it wrapped in leather scraps to keep it from breaking. Smart. She either read that somewhere, or she’s had to do this a few too many times in her life.

We all sat in silence as we worked, and the hours went on. The sun was just setting by the time I had finished the base of my suit, I even had enough time to fashion a basic built in holster so I could draw my gun in a hurry if push came to shove. There wasn’t enough leather gifted to me to fashion any form of helmet or tail covering. It would, at the very least, give some resistance to bullets hitting me anywhere but the head or tail.

The last little bit of the pile on the floor was a few hides and some miscellaneous items including a camera, some chunks of scrap metal, and a few small piles of circuit boards and wires.

Orchid stood up tossing her saddlebags onto her back. “I’ll take first watch. Smoky, you an Crimson here get some rest. Ya know the deal, four hours of rest and then we’ll switch.” She trotted to the door and gave me a nod. “Crimson make sure you’re ready ta travel in the morning. An if you think you’re up to it, try and carry as much as ya can from that pile. Might come in handy later and we’ll need everything we can carry ta survive out there.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond before she had trotted out the door. “Copy that, I guess. I’ll figure something out.” I sat down by the edge of the pile and started fashioning one of the hides into a rudimentary saddlebag. It wouldn’t hold nearly as much as a proper one would, but it would do for now. “Where are we going tomorrow, Smoky? Or is it just anywhere but here?” Maybe I could glean more about where we were, just in case I needed to make a break for it.

He trotted over to a spot in the corner of the room and laid down. “Ideally, we’d make enough ground to make it to one of the caravan routes or we could try and settle into that train station if nopony else is there. Beyond that I don’t know, somewhere we won’t be shot at.” He laid his head down on the ground and sighed. “Hoped we had outrun ‘em this time. But you can never truly be safe out here, one wrong step and it’s all over.” Said with a level of melancholy that I had heard only once in my life, just before that stallion shot himself.

That wasn’t a comforting message, but I guess that’s just life now. “That’s not comforting at all. Has the world really gone that badly to shit? From what I’ve heard the world is a whole lot different than what I remember it being.”

Smoky let out a small chuckle and picked his head up. “I’m guessing out here must be a fuckton worse than where you trotted out of. If you don’t mind me asking, what was life like before all this? Orchid and I found a couple of books a while back that seemed like they were pre-war. Life sounded simpler, less worry about being killed every day.”

“Well, you got that last part right, mostly. Other than the threat of war, life was pretty peaceful for most of us. Everypony I knew only had a few complaints, hours were long and the pay didn’t seem like enough” I sighed. “But we were making our way.” I finished up the first side of my impromptu saddlebags and then started packing the remaining materials, heavy stuff close to my body just like Orchid had done. “There was some worry about being killed, but the criminals were few and far between, and most of us packed around some kind of weapon for self-defense. I never had to shoot anypony, but there was a time or two I did draw my gun to deter a stallion with a knife.” He was on one of those new drugs if I remember right, got loose from the testing area.

“Working life never changes then, hours are still too long and the pay just ain’t enough.” He hesitated before asking “Any family? I know that’s probably a sore subject right now.”

I had to stop and think for a few seconds, because he was right, that is a sore subject. “Yeah, it is. I had a wife, and was expecting a filly. Beyond that not really, mom died a few years back. My father and I were estranged, and I hadn’t heard much from my sister. You?”

Smoky was clearly pretty uncomfortable with that answer, probably regretting asking. “Shit… That’s rough, sorry… As far as I know it’s just me and Orchid left in our family. Never really got to know our mom and dad, and we’ve been on the move every day that we can remember. Traveling with caravans from town to town and doing odd jobs to earn caps. Once we thought we were old enough we ran off on our own to do whatever we wanted. Looking back, that was a bad idea. We’ve barely scraped by, but caravan work was too strict for us. Not to mention all the friends we lost.”

“You’ve made it this far, it seems you two are doing well enough on your own. Then again, I’ve only had a few days of time to make that judgment. Time will tell I suppose. For now, I think I’m going to try and get some rest. Still not feeling like my normal self and sounds like we’ve got a long day tomorrow.” I gathered my stuff and trotted out of view of the main door before laying down and resting my head on my new bags. The pain was still ever present as I slowed my breathing, but I could deal with it for now.

Smoky looked over at me just before closing his eyes. “Good idea.” It wasn’t long before he had drifted off to sleep, though it didn’t seem like a very deep sleep.