Fallout: equestria, hard steel

"you either pay up, or I'll string you by your neck"

He called himself Fire Ball, after the whiskey. He had painted his armor blood red, and had a skull painted on his flank, or the armor on his flank at least. I recoiled when I awoke, screaming bloody murder, to which he only chuckled and waited for me to calm down. When I finally did I noticed that I wasn't shackled to a bed frame or to a wall, and that my wounds had been tended too.

My pipbuck told me we were still in the junkyard so evidently; I was supposed to either steel it from this behemoth or negotiate for it. This also meant I had to be inside the cabin at the center of the junk yard. It's walls were a lot cleaner on the inside than on the outside, at least as clean as a balefire fallout gets.

It was all one room, with a mattress on the floor by a dirty window, a workstation in the corner and an old trunk at the foot of the mattress. For a pony who the locals didn't care to mention he seemed to be a pretty permanent resident.

"Who are you?" I demanded, it felt a little wrong, but given that not even 3 days ago I had been attacked by ponies in that very same armor, all be it with a very different paint job, it also felt justified. Not only that but the red armor with painted skulls gave me the impression I shouldn't trust this pony.

"Fire Ball? I coulda swore I told ya that already..." He answered, so not the brightest pony, but I could work with dumb.

"No I mean who like what do you do? why do you have that armor?" At least I hadn't been shot.

"Ah I see, I'm not anypony special, I protect Up'ore, or used to any-who, before the raider attacks got more consistent, there ain't much left of that poor town or the ponies in it." He said in a regretful tone, he clearly wanted to help that town more, but I could imagen how one pony, even with that much armor would have a hard time fighting off hordes of raiders.

"You mean that's why there are so few ponies in Up'ore?" I guessed it would be easier for one raider to extort six or seven ponies armed or not, if he had the threat of all out war behind him, with made me think about how I may have had already doomed the small settlement. "Can we help them?"

And the answer he gave broke my heart, "unfortunately nah, even if the two of us tried to defend the place, or luna forbid go into the den of vipers we'd be eaten alive, figuratively and literally". I hated that answer so much, not only because I did actually want to help but because it mirrored my own situation near perfect. They were helpless against a large group that wanted them dead.

I looked at my pipbuck, I couldn't fight, I didn't know how, but learning to cook was something I had had no idea how to do when I started, and I got my cutie mark for it. So what better way to learn to fight then to do trial by fire?

I had underestimated the size of the Viper Den; it was at least 30 ponies strong. But I had already returned to Up'ore to tell them about my plan to liberate them, even after Fire Ball and the shop keep, who's name I now knew as Golden stew, had told me it was death trap. Now I wished I had paid more attention to their warning as it might just get me killed.

The whole of the Viper Den was surrounded by a crudely made fence built of scraps of wood, and in some parts just dirt, and on top of it were pony skulls. I nearly turned around that minute, but I had told them what I would do, and I would do it.

There didn't seem to be anypony guarding their massive gate, which was made from what looked to be the roof's of two sky carts. Clearly it hadn't had the intended effect of a bullet proof door they were no doubt going for as it was pock marked with bullet holes.

Going through the front gate felt like a sure-fire way to get shot and killed as fast as possible, so I opted to try digging through one of the dirt sections of their fence. Digging my way through I had to push several bones that I hoped were just Mole rat or bird bones.

When I came through the other side I was met with a strong smell of manure and bile. I was right behind their outhouse and there was nice big pile of excrement behind it. So if I had any doubts about them being raiders they were extinguished by the little bones poking out of the pile.

I decided to ignore that and head around the outhouse. I now had a good view of inside the camp. It was mostly dirty shredded tents with a few wooden scrap buildings here and there and huge hoof dug pit in the middle, not a very deep pit from the looks of it, but a wide one for sure.

This was were all the raiders were gathered, watching and cheering at the two foals they had cornered in the center pit. This was a fighting ring. That was it, I would fight these raiders even if it killed me, which it almost certainly would. I crept forward, pistol raised in my grey magic, when I heard something explode off in the distance. Then I saw their gate fall in and Fire Ball step through, he had followed me, and I wasn't sure if he was going to be happy about it. But none the less it distracted the raiders, and as they all left to go deal with Fire Ball I rushed to the foals.

One was a rust orange colt with a mud brown mane and tail, he was smeared with blood, both his and I assumed his opponent's. He war a tattered grey shirt covered in blood stains and some boots with no bottom on his rear hooves.

The second foal was a yellow filly, with a green mane matted in blood. She looked like she had at some point tried to chew through a binding of some sort and took part of her goof with her, or maybe the raiders where slowly cannibalizing her.

I took them both to my little escape hole and under the fence. "Head that way". I pointed vaguely in the direction of Up'ore. "there will be a town. The ponies there should keep you safe". I said.

They nodded and headed the way I had come. Now I just had to make sure Fire Ball didn't die on my behalf. As I rushed over I could see his armor was already worse for wear, having taken a few high caliber bullets before the raiders ran out and had to use their smaller arms. "hey! over here! look at me!" I shouted on whim.

I hadn't actually thought through what exactly it was I planned to do, I just knew it involved killing as many of these raiders as possible. They were down to about 10 raiders fortunately, unfortunately, I lost to four Mole rats.

I ducked behind one of the poorly made buildings, the smell of a fire and something roasting inside led me to believe it must have been their kitchen, oh how I would have loved to go inside. I probably would later anyway though, I needed the food, even if it was what raiders ate.

A raider followed me behind the building, I queued up SATS and locked a Shot on his chest and head, the first of which tore through his chest like butter, the second missing his eye by two inches and instead hitting him in the forehead. As his body hit the ground, splattering the dry dirt with blood, another raider came up around the one I had just downed.

With SATS still charging I just fired wildly at her, having a bullet tear into her leg and one through her flank, the 5th shot after that hit her in the face and downed her. Her bar however did not go out meaning she was still alive. I had to worry about that later though as another raider was looking for me, through the cacophony that was Fire Ball, none of the raiders could hear my puny 10mm shots.

I made my way behind the buildings over to what seemed to be the only premade building among all of them, a cart stop called Red Pegasus, cart stop. It was a small building with a spot to fix damaged carts as well as a small eating area for guests and flyers. I suppose it was supposed to a spot long haul flyers could stop and rest.

Now it held the skeletons of anypony unfortunate enough to be outside when the bale fire hit, as well as fresh corpses of traveling ponies and what I could only describe as some kind of cannon. It looked broken and unusable, as well as missing parts.

The raiders hadn't found me quite yet so I decided to put it in my bag. My pipbuck labeled it as a bale fire egg launcher.

Well that sounded destructive.

I would have to store it somewhere no pony would find out for now, then when I had ether the parts and the knowledge to fix it or someplace I could call home, I could come back and get it, not that I'd ever have a reason to use it.

There were two red bars coming near the station, I levitated up my 10mm only to realize I was fresh out of ammunition. I chose to levitate up the launcher, and using SATS was able to throw it at the raider, of course it didn't kill them and further damaged the weapon, but it staggered them enough for me to duck into the garage section and behind the collapsed bus cart.

They rounded on my side of the cart and I apple bucked the first one in her ugly grey face, splitting her face, not killing her but convincing her I was not worth it. The other however did not get the message. He charged at me with a rusty knife clenched in his jaw, slashing wildly. I levitated the knife out his grasp and watched as I drove it in to his skull.

I vomited on the spot at the sight of his brain matter and blood leaking across the floor. Killing ponies was something I would never get used to, no matter what I had to do to get my stable back.

And with that there were no more red bars, I rushed outside to see if Fire Ball was ok, only to find a crumpled suit of armor.

Foot note: Level up!

New Perk: Avid learner, You now gain two perks per level instead of one

Level 4