Fallout Equestria: Desperados V2 (of Blood and Dirt)

Desperado’s V2, Chapter 14

Schemes and Grudges (Part 1)

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As predicted, four fouls were hanging around a rather baffled looking Rook, the oldest being 12, and the youngest 5. Keep's oldest foal, a fifteen year old colt, was hanging with his 14 year old uncle, which felt a bit awkward just thinking about it.

"Hey Coin Shot, I hope you're not planning to give your grandma too much trouble." Moody asked his oldest.

Coin Shot, who had his fathers coat and mothers mane, just shrugged. "I ain't planning on getting into that mess with Ma and Grams. I learned my lesson the last time."

"We're actually going over potential market shifts in the future." Fort then said. "With the drought incoming, not just water is going to become in high demand, but protecting it too. Mercenary work is going to be big business for keeping trade routes safe."

Coin nodded. "See, he gets it, Pa. We should invest in guns too. Not just water. I can already see some settlements going raider over water alone. Bad times ahead I just know it."

Fort also nodded. "Or over the idea of not having enough water. Ma has seen it several times, where just a rumor has turned communities into a pack of raiders. Desperation can make monsters out of anypony, as mom says."

Moody scratched his chin and smiled. "Ya I've speculated about that with other merchants, and we're all thinking the same thing. Fortunately, if you know were to look, there's a surplus of water merchant gear all around, since the Gardens of Equestria crashed the clean water market. Maybe it's time I finally get ya set up with your own cart, you're almost an adult anyways. But before that I gotta make sure your youngers are not about to start a war."

I watched as Moody trotted over to his other children, and in the distance, I could see a less than happy Keep.

"Aren't they afraid of pissing off your mother?" I asked Coin.

The teenager shrugged. "Ma's got problems, but she'd never hurt us without a good reason. Though she's likely going to chew out their ears later."

"I say it's worth it, seeing Ma flustered, you're grandmother I mean… damn this is a pain in the ass. It's like being back in the clan." Fort huffed.

Coin rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it. You're not my only aunt or uncle that's younger than me. Then there's grandfather, now that's a mess."

I cocked an eyebrow, both curious, and dreading why his grandfather is a mess.

"Turns out, he's not Grandma's cousin, but uncle… a fucking pedo too. Glad Grams killed him, the fucker creeped me out like no other." He said with relief.

Something made me feel very concerned. "Don't tell me that he and your mother?"

Disgust formed on Coin's face and he shook his head. "N… no, not at all! Only good thing great grandma did, letting Ma and Pa run off together. Still, can't forgive the oldbitch for keeping him around. I think that's why Spire and Belfry joined up with a Talon company as soon as they could. Probably also why the Talons took them in too. Not the biggest secret amongst mercenary clans that the White Scorpions are on the messed up side of sane."

I let out a sigh. "Almost make me think my kin ain't as braminshit insane."

Coin raised an eyebrow. "Oh, what's their malfunction?"

I shrugged. "Been awhile, but I they are religious fanatics that believe killing nonbelievers is one way to save their souls. And the longer it takes to save the souls of all creatures in this world, the more soldiers that evil will claim to fight for them when the end times come. Though I have a feeling it's more an excuse to he a shitty pony then any kind of faith."

Both Fort and Coin cringed.

"Ya I know. Worse yet, they've recently been expanding into Equestria. I've told your father about them, so he can warn others about them." I explained.

"Star! Star!" The voice of Live Axle called out to me. The Desperado mare quickly trotting in her pink dress and Stable-Tec jacket, with her black vest proudly over the jacket. Skidding to a stop, she then gave Coin and Fort a wink. "I know these two are cute, but we may need your… talents, to resolve a situation.

Both Coin and I gagged at the situation, where Fort blushed, the cheeky colt.

"Right, right. Let's go." I said as I then followed Live away, and to the bar.

Inside was a croud of locals crowding around an annoyed looking Slowtrot.

"What do ya mean infected with a plant, ain't no way, ain't no how!" An older stallion in a rusted mining helmet argued. "I know it be a lie, using that contraption to, to milk us dry of our tabs!"

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Slowtrot then told him. "Like I said before, it's not a lie and I don't want your soda can tabs. This pipbuck can scan your health, and it saids you got cruel joke inside of you. I'm not trying to trick or treat you, just take the poison joke medication and it should kill the plant."

The stallion huffed. "Bet it's snake oil, snake oil and chems. Planning to get me all addicted and crap. That's how you outsiders do it, we ain't going to fall for it like the others, am I right!" The other locals then cheered in agreement with the belligerent stallion.

It didn't take an arcano-tech technician to understand what was going on, and I needed to resolve it quickly before a lynch mob forms.

"Arrr ya bloody fools!" I shouted, my Blackwater accent coming in thick. "He's here t' save yer lives, nah fuckin' ruin it. If y'all any smarts, then listen t' 'im 'n take the medicine."

"Oh, and what does the whore kn-" the belligerent began to say, but I cut him off with my evil eye.

Entrapped with my eye's magic, I pushed the feeling of pain and fear, using the still fresh memories of Tato Town and the cruel joke bamble. The feeling of the thorns digging into me, the fight with the infested Warm Front, and seeing the malformed victims of the sadistic plant.

Closing my eyes, he and several others fell back, a slight quiver of fear in their faces. Even I was a bit taken aback, as the evil eye was only sapse to affect one pony at a time. And I wasn't sure how much they saw or even felt, the power of my evil eye was a mystery wich was clear that I needed to solve.

But I knew it had done its job, so wiping the blood from my eyes, I then told them. "Alright, so unless you like the idea of thorned vines bursting from your bodies and magicly mutilating your friends and family, I suggest you listen to the stallion. If not, then go to the damn body pit and see for yourself, there's a good reason it had to be set on fire."

"And didn't you say you're the one who moved the corpses?" Slowtrot asked the belligerent stallion.

Slowly, the stallion then nodded, and all the other locals backed away from him.

Things quickly calmed down, and the locals got in line, letting Slowtrot scan them, and report in their heath. The belligerent stallion slumped in a corner, sipping on his poison joke cure.

"Thank, Star, I knew you could get a bunch of idiots to see reason." Live Axle said as she gave me a hug.

I knew she was more touchy feely then her sister, but this was a bit more then normal. "You okay, Live?"

The ganger frowned at me. "Star, my sister is petrified in a near death state, and my mother has become more overbearing in hopes I give her grandchildren." She then scratched her leg nervously. "And maybe… being around those foals at the farm has… you know.

No, I don't know.

But I got the picture. "Let me guess, you want Slowtrot to finish up quickly, and dubbed tap on getting yourself pregnant."

Live's face flushed bright red in embarrassment. "Sh-shhhh! Not so loud!"

I still didn't see what she saw in him, but at least Slowtrot wasn't the kind of stallion to abandon a pregnant mare. Unfortunately I was still unsure any of us would even survive our journey. But putting tomorrow's problem away for tomorrow, I then patted Live on the shoulder. "Hay, it's no big deal. Just make me a bridesmare for your shotgun wedding, okay."

Live Axle nodded slowly, the red of her face slowly fading. Looking over at the groom, Slowtrot visibly shivered, which made me chuckle. "Anyways, if things have settled down here, I think I'll get moving. Make sure that bandit isn't bothering Harp too much."

"Strange," Live said, tilting her head at me. "From what I've been told, you're not the kind to wedgie yourself into another pony's love life."

I let out a sigh. "I.. I don't know myself. I think it might be everything that's going on, and has loosen a few screws loose in my brain. It's something I would rather not go over right now."

"I can feel ya. Everypony's been on edge and short tempered." Live said as she patted me on the shoulder with more strength than necessary. "Thanks to that bitch sheriff, we all lost somepony we care about. So don't go thinking you're all alone now. Remember, were all famly, and as family, we look after each other."

I gave her a weak smile. "Thanks. Knowing you Desperados, there's probably a few ponies with similar stories as mine."

She shrugged. "Maybe, though none of us were born into a clan of zealous pirates." Then with a little chuckle, Live Axle trotted off to Slowtrot, giving the stink eye to a local mare who was lingering a bit too long around him.

Before leaving, I went and grabbed a bottle of whisky, paying for it at a nice discount, and trotted back into the warm dry air of the wasteland.

Taking a sip from the bottle, I couldn't help but pull out the Oracle's Eye and admire it. It along with the rest of my fathers navigation gear and journal, all having found its way to me. It was likely magic, actually it probably was, but what kind of magic could do that? And why? I needed to properly read Dead Reckoning's journal to find out. Now that I had the Oracle's eye, I can properly read everything Setting Sun covered up.

I then twirled a lock of my mane around my hoof, only to find it strangely… moist? Nothing crazy like dripping water, but in this heat it should be dried out like everything else. Yet it glistened.

Actually, for a while now I wasn't feeling… right. The light seemed brighter than it should, my mane and tail resembled wet kelp, and I had been drinking water more often. Maybe an after effect of the cruel joke? It was something I needed to see Slowtrot about, have hem check if something was wrong with me.

"Good to see a doll who keeps up their looks." The smarmy voice of Lean Year spoke up from behind me. "Though it must be difficult in this dry heat."

Letting go of my mane, I turned to see the rat-like stallion, who was still in a size too big suit. "Well, when you work as an exotic dancer for several years, you learn a thing or two."

"ahh, yes. The Ruffled Feathers. I do miss seeing Cloudy Sunsets dance. She was certainly a beauty to behold. Not to say you're not, doll, but shes a good cut above you. No offense." He said as though it was a compliment.

"None taken. Cloudy was the most popular mare for a reason." The wind shifted and I neatly gagged as the smell of body odor and thick cologne hit my nose. "As for that deal." I struggled to say.

"Ya, it's scrapped." Lean Said, eyeing Moody's cart. "Piss poor timing and all that shit. Got word about the White Scorpions elder cooking it, a real shame that is. My mom and her got along quite well, which says a lot, as most ponies don't stand a candle to my mom. But if mom wanted it done before the bitch crocked, she should have sent me more workers. I'm the heir and that shit, but she has me stuck in this backwater, trying to figure out how to get the locals to see things our way. A waste of time I say."

I smiled a little. "Good news on that, all the raiders are dead. Including the cruel joke, if you knew anything about that."

Lean clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Figures, I was hoping to make back some of the losses by harvesting those damned plants."

"Really now, have you seen what they do to a pony? Their blue thorned nightmares for Goddesses sake!" I chastised the stallion.

But he didn't seem bothered at all. "Listen hear doll, I got a business to run, and nothing, and I mean nothing, is worse than being poor. You may like playing heroic wastelander, but it's ponies like me who save lives. I make business, and business gives ponies a job. Jobs that help them by the food and water to survive. Even a pea brain doll like yourself can understand this. So don't moralize me when I do far more good for the wasteland than anypony else out here."

Oh I wanted to rearrange his face.

But then he groaned. "That said, I'm not out here for free. Some may like to mingle with the locals, but that's below me. No, I got some important jackass wanting to see ya personally."

That… was unexpected. "Who the fuck wants to see me, and how the fuck do they even know I'm out here?"

"Listen doll, I don't know, I don't care. But they gave me some good NCR bills to bring ya back over to my trailer. All they said was that it has something to do with that singing doll on the raidio, vicky something."

"Victoria!" I said in shock.

"Ya, that's the name. Well, they're at my trailer if ya want to see em." He then shrugged. "Or not, I alredy got paid."

I nodded and grinned with glee. "Ya, If whoever it is knows something, I want to know what they know."

Lean then huffed. "Gees, ya singer fans are a cut above crazy."

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Golden Harvest's campsite was just as run down as before, though somewhat more active with ponies moving things around. Maybe more ponies then last I saw, but then again I didn't see much last time.

"Finally leaving?" I asked Lean Year.

"A business partner of mine is taking over, so ya, I'm finally leaving this joint. Not much reason to stick around when there ain't no profit in it." He explained.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Business partner? What would they gain from being here?"

Lean groaned at me in annoyance. "Doll, it ain't my business to know their business. If they can turn a profit where I didn't, I'd rather keep em as partners and not stick my nose were it don't belong."

"Fair enough." I said, knowing that stallion's like him were only loose lipped when drunk.

Unfortunately, Lean Year's trailer was just as uncomfortable as before, with the smell of his pungent cologne just as strong. But on my side was a pony I didn't recognize, sitting in a way that shouted that she had better things to do then be here.

She was a gray unicorn in a black business suit that tightly fit her body, along with stockings on her lower legs and a choker. Her dark ashy mane covered one eye, and had bright red lipstick and eyeshadow gave her an alluring appearance. She was either a highly Sexule business mere, or a really professional prostitute, maybe both.

On one foreleg, and to my surprise, was a pipbuck, of which she tapped on before speaking. "You must me Star Charter, am I correct?" The mare said with a sultry voice, her one visible eye looking at me as though hungry.

"Y… ya, thats me." I stammered, felling a but caught off guard by such a mare.

She smiled, letter her gaze linger on me for a moment before speaking. "Good, I was worried I would be ignored for a moment their, or possibly tricked. I'm sure your busy at the moment, so lets get to the point."

"You mean Victoria, right?" I asked.

She nodded. "Hmmm, yes. The pirate mare. The spy."

I nodded, "So you know. Then why contact me?"

The mare shifted slightly, taking a more confident pose. "Because I believe you, and your friends will be useful in dealing with her. As you all have a vested interest in stopping whatever she has planned. Just as I do. Though unfortunately I'm in no position to be doing it myself. "

"Ya, I can understand that. But how do you know I'm even here, or well, my connection with Victoria?" I had to ask.

The mare chuckled. "Oh, that's not important. But what is important is that I need you, and your friends to do something first. A simple thing realy."

I wasn't liking this, it just felt too convenient, too… forced.

"Nothing is ever simple, miss?" I said, asking for her name.

"Oh but it is, and you can call me, Binary." Miss Binary said as she pulled out her hoof to me.

Shaking it, I looked at the hoof with suspicion, then noticed it, just bearly hidden under the suit and socks. Scars from cutting and infected needles injections, cracked hooves filled in by some kind of polish. Then I looked at her face, seeing the slight gauntness, and the dark bags under her eyes, hidden by thick makeup. Hidden under the makeup were cracked lips and scab marks.

And the smell, it was faint, nearly hidden behind the thick perfume, but it was there, the smell of rotting flesh.

I had it wrong, she wasn't professional anything, she was more like a back alley whore dressed up to look like a high end hooker. Yet her voice lacked that chem addicted stutter or instability. Her eyes were too sharp, not the eyes of a pony with their brain damaged by chem abuse. And her hoof… it was cold, far too cold.

Harp was right, it was time to go. Not now, but yesterday.

"Sorry, but were not interested, like at all." I told Binary.

But she latched onto my hoof with strength a thin mare like her shouldn't have. "Oh but I insist I miss Star Charter." She then pulled me in close, where I could smell the scent of death on her breath. "I mean, think of your daughter."

I then looked the bitch in the eyes, and growled out, "Wrong move!"

Using my evil eye again, but this time I pulled deeper from in myself. Pain and fear, hatred and dispare. I didn't know what this bitch wanted, but I wasn't going to let her just bring up my Bridget and get away with it.

"Well… shit." A ghostly mare said in the corner of my vision. She floated in mid air, wearing a lab coat that looked like it doubled as a straight jacket. Weirder yet, she looked like a unicorn mare version of Slowtrot. "I see that you also have those cursed eyes as well."

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Everything had become hazy, and it was like I was looking at a lot of things at once. Almost as though my vision was fragmented and thrown in every direction.

I looked up at my uncaring mother, and two mares overlayed. One being the prostitute Setting Sun, who tried and failed to raise her station through Dead Reckoning, a talented navigator working with Flintlock Hoof, a ruthless admiral. But I also saw Thorn Redrum, the current ruler of Despoina, who saw only a tool looking back at her.

Looking around, it was all just as fragmented, as the underwater city Despoina overlapped with the city ship Blackwater. Yet it warped and fragmented even more, as Despoina was both a beautiful palace paithed in marble and lined with gold, yet also a dark, rusty, waterlogged place ready to fall apart.

"So this is the failure?" Thorn asked a pony in a white muzzle mask and two bone white horns.

The bicorn nodded. "Unfortunately the programming failed, or more likely her mind rejected it, a possible mutation."

Thorn didn't look impressed, putting more interest in her golden cybernetic hoof than in me. Her image shifts between a beautiful, almost Goddesses like mare, then becoming Setting Sun, and then a mare who resembled Victoria exactly, but older. "And I should care, why?"

"Well, she shows a heightened intelligence, not the degraded mimicry of the other little sisters. Maybe you can take this one in, as you've been looking for a pony that can work in your stead. What better pony than yourself?" The bicorn suggests

Disgust formed on Thorns face, showing off how deep her wrinkles got. "You dare say this mutant, this failed bicorn is me! I regret the day I used my own genetics to make them, and a day does not go by that I wish I could fix it." Thorn then snarled. "Dispose of this failure, and make sure to drain her blood before incinerating it. Can't let this mutation tainting any of the others."

I watched as she left, leaving me with the bicorn, strapped to a table. No not me, but who? And why did I have their memories?

"Sorry little one, it seems that your mother is in a foul mood today. Well, she's always in a foal mood." The bicorn then pulled a device with many jars and needles, which looked quite dirty. "But that's not my problem."

I screamed as one needle was jammed into me as the bicorn watched, his eyes seeming glowing in the dark. My blood drained, filling one of the jars. "Good, let's get all the ambrosia out of you. It's a shame we must destroy it, all the wonderful things I could do with that pure ambrosia. Still don't know why she doesn't take it herself, and regrow that lost leg. Or make herself young again. By the cold below, she could make herself a god, yet she cares more about that machine."

There were a few thuds, and then a now annoyed bicorn turned around. "You, you get out of here! You're not even supposed to be in this section of the labs!"

I screamed again, "DADDY!"

There was then a whirring sound, and then the sound of meat being grinded. The bicorn was then ripped in two and tossed like garbage, revealing a stallion in degraded heavy diving gear, yet it was golden shining armor, or was it a CChosen's paladins power armor?

He pulled me free, and I pulled the needle out of me. Grabbing the jar filled with my blood, I opened it and drank the conte. My eyes then focused on the dieing stallion, who was desperately pulling in his organs.

"Angels should be asleep!" My voice squeaked as I jumped over and bit his neck, draining him of the ambrosia in his blood.

The alarms then when off, and I looked over at the armored stallion with a drill. "Daddy, let's go, bad ponies are here."

He let out a deep bellowing grunt and let me on his back before stomping his way out. Passing by a window, I saw my blood covered reflection. No, not me, it was Victoria, small and looked just like Thorn.

…

My mind was no longer hazy, and I could think again. "wh… what the fuck?" I thought out.

"That I'd like to know." The not-Slowtrot said to me. She floated in pitch black darkness, the edges of her overly long mane and tail ending in fragmenting pieces. "I could only guess your evil eye and my… well, me, does not mix. Somehow dug up memories in the magic. Healing Herbs does remember Fluttersy telling something like that. A why they shouldn't mix different kinds of magic, as they have strange effects. On that, your evil eye is very similar to that of Fluttershy's own eye magic. Maybe I should keep you for experimentation?"

I struggle to move, but found that I had no body to move with. "What, what's going on, who are you?"

The not-Slowtrot laughed. "Oh, right, I guess this is our first time meeting." She floated to me, a wide unnatural smile on her face. "Name's Quicktrot Fragment, I'm sure you heard of me.

That… was not good.

"Oh good, you understand. Well, since I'm here, let's pick your brain. Since I can't do it through your pipbuck, this may be my only opportunity." Her grin wided, stretching past her own ears.

The darkness cracked, and fell away, revealing many things. I could see them, my memories. The day Bridget was born, when I got my cutie-mark after Prism took me away from the Blackwater, and how I stared down a black dragon… wait, that's not right.

"Okay… the fuck is this?" Quicktrot said as she looked at the memory.

Not just that, but others. All hazy, and clearly not of my own.

"My… name?" I heard my voice ask, though far younger. Looking at the memory, I was looking at myself as I held the Oracle's Eye… no, this was my fathers memory, but how.

"yes you're name. And if you become anything like me, this name will fit you perfectly." Dead Reckoning spoke with a deep and charming voice as he hugged the little me. "Your name will be Star Charter. May you always look up and find your way."

A claw burst from the memory of the dragon, shattering my fathers memory and causing Quicktrot to scream as she held a hoof over her eye, black smoke billowing from it. Then another memory formed, this time from behind Quicktrot and from the dragon's point of view. It looked down at a mare, blood covering half her face after getting slashed by the dragon, yet still glaring at it with fearless determination.

Her face, it was like my face, her mane just like mine, but she was all green, yet I could see myself in her, as her.

"Why do I remember it, whose memories is it? whose soul is that old!" Quicktrot screamed before she just went dead quiet.

her hoof dropped, revealing that half her face had fragmented, pased the fragments we pure darkness with one golden eye at its center. The golden eye looked at me with pure malice. "A… First… Born!" Quicktrot spoke coldly, slowly, and with a voice that radiated pure evil and hate.

Then the claw of the black dragon gripped the side of the memory, letting another grasp onto the other side, forcing it to open further. Sticking its head through, the black dragon towered over Quicktrot and looked down at me with its golden eyes.

I somehow found my legs, yet couldn't run. Only looked at the monster as it reached out for me. So I gritted my teeth, ready for the inevitable.

"No, not yet!" A voice called out. And from behind me a black armored mare ran out, two revolvers held high in blue flames, and no head to be found. "The dead must remain dead, so begon memory, begone you mear fragmented of what was!" Her voice came from nowhere, like a ghost. She then fired her revolvers, spraying the dragon with blue fire, and causing it to fall back into the memory.

The headless pony then pointed its gun at Quicktrot. "And you, wrath, wake up and remember nothing!" With another shot, Quicktrot's head burst into fragments, and the golden eye was destroyed. The fragmented darkness of memories then all shattered, leaving me in pure white. It was strange, I was alone again, and it felt cold, yet something about it was… warm.

And a song, I could remember a song I never heard before, yet I couldn't yet sing it. As though it was a spell not just yet ready to be cast.

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Both Binary and I winced as we broke eye contact, and I drew my pistol and fired it into the mare. Blood splattered, but she didn't even flinch.

Binary rolled her eyes, more annoyed than hurt. "Well, this body was already rotting before I took it. So no loss here."

Her horn then glowed, and I got up to get the fuck out, but only to have a rag rapped around my muzzle.

"Just keep breathing it in, it will make things all the easier." She said as I struggled against her magic.

Quicktrot then appeared in my vision, more a green digital charter than a pony. "What ever the fuck that was, it dosn't change the plan. Though, now I need to be more bruteforce about it. But at least your power of friendship will get me what I want!" She then laughed as her form warped and my vision faded.

All I could think as my mind slipped, was how I again fucked up.

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