Fallout Equestria: Desperados V2 (of Blood and Dirt)

Desperado’s V2, Chapter 22

To the Future and Beyond.

_________________________________________________

As I slowly returned to the waking world, I immediately regretted that last drink. My head pounded, my gut felt like there was a hole in it, and I seriously needed some water. Checking my bed, I let out a sigh of relief to find myself the only one in it, and that my privates didn't have a sticky feeling to it. Last thing I needed was to get pregnant again because I got blacked out drunk.

So both satisfied that I didn't do anything completely stupid, and hating myself for being stupid enough to drink that much, I forced myself out of bed. Not even caring about who I stepped on, I made my way out and to the back, where an outhouse waited for me.

Once everything that wanted out of me had been thankfully evicted, and with a more clear head, I returned inside to change my clothes.

Inside I saw a now half awake Slowtrot, hoof print on his face, with Live Axle next to him. They weren't cuddling, but Live Axle was clearly clinging onto him tightly. My guess was that she was holding onto her sister in her dreams, and poor Slowtrot ended up as a stand in.

"Say, can I get some pain killers?" I asked quietly, my hangover slowly getting worse

He sighed and nodded.

Trotting to his saddlebags, I took five of the pills and all of the water in his canteen.

It will be awhile before I feel normal again, but I didn't feel like going back to sleep, so I made my way back to the bar, maybe to get more water and a snack. Seeing the other guess room and remembering that Harp was in there, I took a peek.

Taking a moment for my brain to understand what I was looking at, I saw a messy looking Harp spooning inside Pyrope 's embrace. I didn't need to even imagine what had transpired since from my position, I could see everything.

So I backed away and carefully shut the door.

Making my way to the bar, I found Rook, Percussion Cap, Keep, and Fort all already here. The four were quiet as they played a game of cards, three of them already drinking.

"You three can seriously drink if you're already at it." I told the three mares as I took a seat next to the colt.

"Been drinking since I was a filly." Rook said as she folded her hoof of cards. "All the water is tainted back home, and not enough materials to distill it, but we have more booze then you could ever want."

"Lots of inedible plants we make into the worst drink in your life." Keep added, also folding.

PC chuckle as she showed her hoof, all low number cards, and one jack, causing the two mercenaries to groan in annoyance as PC took the pot of caps. "Don't your clan make scorpion vodka, that shit is quite good."

"It relies on natural evaporation, and some shitty filtering, so it takes forever to make. The scorpion just masks how shitty it tastes." Rook said as she tossed in a cap.

"Actually, now that the sun is out, and we have access to charcoal filters, it isn't as a pain in the ass to make anymore." Keep said with a sneer as she added to the pot. "You'd know that if you didn't abandon the clan."

"What did I say?" PC said sternly, and Keep looked away, annoyed but didn't say anymore. "Thought so." She smugly said as she added another dap to the pot.

I didn't have any caps, so I passed, choosing to pour myself a pitcher of water, with a bit of whiskey mixed in. "Nothing but grog where I was born, which is odd since we lived on the sea, but salt water isn't all that drinkable."

Fort shuffled the cards then dealt them out to the three mares. "The two rivers that surround the clan are still unsafe to drink. Non-magical pollution being the problem."

"That's a common problem in the wasteland. Last I heard, Sweet Apples Acres is still quarantined by the NCR due to how poisoned the land is." I added.

"Sounds like the perfect place for the Waste Ponies to move in." Rook said with a chuckle. "They got goats beat in the ability to eat anything and live. Seen it myself. It's why I don't let em cook for me, they can't tell between what food and what poison."

That was good to remember. Turning my attention to PC, I then remembered the job left unfinished. "Oh about those nails."

"Harp already reassure me you'll get it done once your business her is don." Percussion Cap said as she peek at her cards with a stone cold expression on her face, "Other then that, several more canisters of guns will be joining you back to my farm."

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "Several more?"

"E'yep, not many, just a few good rifles, and a bunch of pistols." PC said with a smile. "Though the main stash was demolished, the mine still holds several smaller stashes of guns and other goods. Turns out that this mine was going to be their main fallout shelter long ago, meaning that their a lot of untouched survivor equipment down their."

"Were taking some back as well." Keep said, tossing a few caps into the pot. "My husband is also negotiating to buy some more. Those guns may be archaic even in their own time, but they'll still kill a raider. So plenty of ponies will pay top cap for em. Even in the NCR."

"Ya, and the Desperado’s would love to get our hooves on them." Live Axle said as she trotted over, a groggy Slowtrot behind her. "I was thinking of letting Elder Big Papa know about this stash. The locals said they're interested in making a deal if possible. Say, where's Harp?"

I tried to hold back a grin as I said. "Harp's currently doing… a thing."

Live Axle raised an eyebrow at me and shrugged. "Anyways, once she's ready, we should look over what the locals were able to recover."

"Agree, but until then, can you spot me a few caps?" I asked as I pointed at the poker game.

_________________________________________________

I lost all the caps Live gave me, but laughed my flank off when Slowtrot won them all back, and practically took everypony's money. Sheer dumb luck, but luck was luck.

Well eventually a very clean and proper Harp came out, a slight gape in her step that made me chuckle. She took a moment to look at me, then slowly at Pyrope who followed her out to realize I knew she had slept with him. Choosing to not mentioning her first time with a stallion, we wrapped up our game and trotted over to the entrance of the mine, where quite a few of the recovered stash was now on display.

"So you think the mayor will give us a discount if you don't take the pill?" I whispered to Harp.

She squinted at me, whispering back. "I already took it last night, no way I'm letting myself get pregnant."

I shrugged. "Oh well, though I bet you would have had a weirdly cute baby."

"Focus, Star." My friend grumbled.

Returning my attention back to the guns, and by were there a lot of them. The metal barrels did well to keep them in good condition, same for the ammunition, both letting off the smell of gun oil. All were early Great War arms though, so few in the way of full auto fire. Strangely, there were also a lot of IF-9's, a combat shotgun famously known for jamming all the time. That aside, the most common barrels had GM1's inside, or Grover's as the Gunrunners called them. They were the first rifle made for ponies in the great war. Though clip fed, they did fire .308, and were made to griffin standards, so at least they make reliable hunting rifles.

So we took two GM1 Grover's, and several boxes of ammo.

There was also a box full of GM19A1's, along with two stick magazines each. The Griffinstone typewriters looked plane compared to my Outlaw, and were chambered in .45, so no ammo compatibility sadly. Harp insisted that we take two for the smuggler, as more firepower is never a bad idea. Live Axle thought the same thing for her Lone Wanderer. We had also recover a crate of .45 ammo, so plenty of it when't around.

Fortunately, one of the barrels we recovered had GM18's in them, the GAR even having Celestia's emblem etched onto the rifle. There was an argument over them, since they clearly were high end rifles. Harp managed to convince Almandine to let us have one, as we needed a replacement for the Aeternus until we get new beam talismans, along with a few more boxes of ammo. Live then forced us to trade with the one she had grabbed, wanting to give the Celestia GAR to Elder Big Papa.

We also got a .45 GMPC pistol and combat knife for each of us as backup. Five in total. And Azure got to keep the weird Lever action he picked up, which the mad thing was loaded in .308, and used an internal fixed magazine.

Harp managed to also negotiate two box's of 25 grenades, which was enough to do good damage to anything. More explosives was never a bad thing.

Lastly, and more importantly, was a box of six purple gemstones, perfectly cut and polished. Pyrope personally gave it to Harp, who then kissed him on the cheek.

"You know, you can stay if you want." Pyrope said with a wink and a smile.

"I could, but you know that do nothing but bring everypony here trouble." Harp said softly. "And I'm not so cruel as to do something like that." Trotting away and to the smuggler, she turned to say one last thing. "But who knows when our paths might cross again."

Pyrope tipped his hat at her. "I certainly hope that may happen."

With our spoils, we quickly got to loading up the smuggler, putting some of the guns into storage compartments, and hooking the GAR up onto the gunner nest. The fact we made sure to get ten magazines for the GAR did bother me, as they weren't all that big, and so didn't hold much ammo in them. Reloading while on the move was going to be a real fucking pain.

"So… you're really not gay?" I asked my friend as I doubled checked the GAR's harness.

Harp frowned at me as she returned to the smuggler and took her seat. "I've told you before, my family forbade me from having relationships with stallions, not that I was only interested in mares. Anyways, he has that rugged charm, along with that smooth face."

"Right, I get it, he is a bit of a pretty colt under all that dust and grit… so how was it?" I then asked her.

She hid her face behind the gem box, embarrassed as the memories were obviously running through her head. "I… I don't rightly know. But it was… fun. Weird, but fun."

I chuckled in amusement. "Oh ya it is. Maybe we should go see if Platinum Hill has a brothel, have fun with a professional."

"No damn way!" She protested.

"Suit yourself." I said as I looked over and at the box. "Anyways, are those beam talismans, if you got em, why did we get the GAR?"

She opened the box, and I saw the brilliant Amethyst gemstones again, in them my reflection seemed to go on forever.

"Their blank talismans, for industrial use." She explained.

"That doesn't sound all that great. Will they work in the Aeternus?" I Asked.

Harp smiled. "Actually they're better than military grade talismans. These treasures can handle higher magical output, maybe more then a forth as much as the old talismans we had. It'll take more time to imprint the spell in them, but once I'm done we won't have to worry about another burnout like last time."

I whistled in amazement. "Nice, then that means we can do another one of those super shots then?"

"I really hope not. That infested mare shared the shit out of me." Harp admitted as she closed the box. "But if it happens again, then ya, we should be able to do it without any problems."

A clunk came from behind the smuggler as I turned to the trailer being loaded up with several metal canisters which held guns for indefinitely storage. Some of it was PC's, but a bunch was actually ours. Along with opening up the mine to them, they also made this as a reward for dealing with the raiders, and checking everypony's health. So we were getting four canisters of M1 Grover's, that held ten each, and two of the .45 GMPC' which held 20 each. Along with a full crate of ammo of both .308 and .45.

The Desperado's were going to love this, and so long as we didn't break the seal, the guns were good as new.

Still, something did bother me a little. "How many of those Grovers do they got down there anyways, I mean, to just give us more of em and all?"

Slowtrot, having finished pushing a container, let out a huff before angering my question. "It was the premier rifle for like… ten years I think. The first half of the war, and was discontinued even before the IF-64 was put into service. From what I remember, Equestria had a massive stockpile made of them, and after the military stopped using them, they were among the cheapest rifles on the market. So it's not surprising that anypony needed a lot of good rifles on the cheap, they'd stockpile Grovers."

"What about the IF-9's" I then asked, since it was the second most common gun in the mine.

He shrugged. "Probably because you couldn't give it away, it's a junk automatic shotgun that jams and misfires all the time. Or what I have been told." He then patted his own shotgun. "I still don't know why they didn't just keep using the trench gun. But then again, the old world did blow itself up, the damned fools."

A bit ironic I thought, as he was one of those fools from the old world.

The Smuggler rocked as PC up onto the gunner nest, a GAR strapped to her side, and a few more pistols on her belt. "Hay Star, before you go, I got something to ask ya?" She said quietly, and I nodded back at her. "Think of it as a sixth sense of mine, but there's more to your whole kelpie thing, and you getting past that barrier. Has it anything to do with my farm, such as something wanting it untouched? It was mighty convenient that you made it to Harp before the rest of us."

I leaned back and smiled. "Maybe if ya give me one of your guns, I'll tell ya more." She glared at me, so I decided to give up on that so as not to anger the ornery mare. "Alright, ya, your instincts aren't wrong, but I'm unable to say much of anything about it, like literally. But I do remember a very important pony telling me that a very important seed had been planted in Equestria. Something related to the origins of pony magic, and without it, ponies are doomed to fade away. Why, you know something about it?"

A long sigh came from Percussion Cap. "Maybe. It's something my grandmother left me, something magical that needs protecting. But I'm not the pony to to fully embrace that responsibility like she did. Still, It's good to know that there are others out there helping protect such things. And if you and your friends ever roll back around, maybe I'll show you it."

"Maybe on our way back we'll take ya up on that offer." I told her right before the engine of the Smuggler roared to life. "Oh, what are ya going to do with Lean Year? Leven out in the middle of the wasteland with only a can of oil?"

Currently Lean Year was bounded and gagged in our trailer.

"Unfortunately no. It's going to be too much of a headache to kill him. Have to turn him over to the NCR, and let the damned buricats deal with him. Annoying, but it will hit Golden Harvest much harder than to just killed him." She said before she jumped off, and the next thing I knew, Caval was tossed up and onto my lap. "You almost forgot the pup." PC said with a laugh.

I stroked the nightstalker, who then gave me a lick. "Thanks, and you better not go getting yourself killed before we see each other again."

I gave her a wave as I looked around. Pyrope and Harp were having one last talk, Live Axle was on her Lone Wanderer, the motorcycle was now strapped down with its new guns. Moody and his family were still negotiating with the locals as Rook and Fort packed up their things to join them. The Union bandit themselves were now far busier, sorting through not just the gun containers, but gemstones they recently recovered.

My pipbuck radio then crackled to life, and Slowtrot then said through it, "next stop, Green Lake Farm, then to Platinum Hill."

The smuggler rolled forward, kicking up a little bit of dust as we drove out through the front gate. It would have been nice to stick around, get to know the ponies here better, but I knew we couldn't. We already learned what happened when we stuck around a place for too long, and there was someplace we needed to be. Victoria was still out there, and other evils, along with bounty hunters who would soon come onto our trail. We needed to move on, or risk never moving again.

Desperado’s V2 End

_________________________________________________

Epilogue

Green Lake Farm would persist and grow as it had before. With the water reservoir under them, and plenty of guns to protect themselves, even the oncoming drought didn't damp their spirits. The farm would become a popular resting point for travelers, trading for fresh food and water while surrounded by so much green. So relaxing, that ponies upon leaving Green Lake Farm would seem brighter, both in color and in spirit.

. . .

The mining town of Amethyst Sands would quickly grow as the rest of the Union bandit clan would return and settle down to mine and sell gemstones. Between the guns and gems, they would quickly grow wealthy, becoming a proper town sprouting out of the wasteland itself. In time other waste ponies, who had lost their homes, would be drawn to Amethyst Sands, joining them and creating the largest population of waste ponies in Equestria.

. . .

The ruins of Tato Town would be quarantined and left to rot, the danger of the parasitic Cruel Joke taken very seriously by the town of Amethyst Sands and the wasteland as a whole. But now and then a pony would sneak in to grab the Cruel Jole flowers hidden inside, either hoping to get a quick high, or sell them for caps. Neither mattered, as they either failed to return, or were shot upon leaving the quarantine zone. But even in such a horrid place, life would flourish, as to the annoyance of Green Lakes, Tato town would become home to a large colony of jackalopes.

. . .

Driven out of the valley, Golden Harvest Farmers Union would be dealt a large blow, and forced to pay for the death occurred due to their negalance. Lean Year would vanish from the public eye, having become the scapegoat to everything that had transpired. Not learning their lesson, Golden Harvest would simply appoint another member of their family to replace Lean Year, an equally corrupt and narcissistic pony. But the damage was done, and despite their efforts, the NCR would allow all their contracts with the GHFU to expire, and new less flexible contracts to be written.

. . .

Rook would in time return to her ancestral home, only to see it changed. The once toxic wasteland that had been her home was replaced by fields of green grass. The two intersecting rivers that only brought death, now delivered new life. And once there were only rad-scorpions… There were still only rad-scorpions, but the big insects seemed to be happier. But seeing all this, filled Rook with a spark of hope, that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't that the wasteland needed to die, but just that Equestria needed time to recover.

. . .

Fort would ultimately not follow the hoofprints of his ancestors, seeing the pain and suffering the mercenary life had brought his mother, and other members of his clan. Instead, he would rejoin the Followers of the Apocalypse as an adult, and take on the study of biology and zoology. His main goal being the repairing of the damage that over 200 years of taint and radiation damage the wasteland had caused, along with the study of stable mutations in that of his clan and the waste ponies.

. . .

Pyrope would stay in Amethyst Sands, helping his clan extract wealth from the ground itself, and protecting the town from outsiders with bad intentions. When his mother stepped down from being mayor to be a full time preacher, the town voted him as their new mayor, whether he wanted to be one or not. Though he would never be considered their best leader in the town's history, he would successfully lead his clan for over a hundred years as they watched the dead and dry wasteland slowly turn green and come back to life.

_________________________________________________

Over a week later.

As I stepped out of the sky wagon I was sure the sun was even hotter out here than back in New Appaloosa, making me glad for how insulated my ranger armor was. Still, if it got any hotter, I say bring on the baelfire winter. "Are you sure we need to come all the way out here captain, this is a job for troopers, not rangers like us?" He asked his unicorn superior.

"Fuck ya I need to come out here!" Ranger captain Wiretap said in an almost giddy tone through her helmet. "Do you know who runs this farm, Six Gun Red runs this fucking farm. No damn way am I missing the opportunity to meet Six Gun Red! Now stop your bitching Skipper, we got a prisoner to pick up."

This was why I hated working with pony rangers, they were always far more energetic than the older griffins. But the unicorn out ranked me, so I had to just suck it in and do my job.

"Fuck ya!" Squeaked my daughter, causing me to slam my claw into my face. My brother was already pissed with me, and if Bridget came back to the compound cursing like a talon, he was liable to beat me with the butt of his revolver.

"Captain, please mind your language." I said, pointing down at the pony-griff filly.

The unicorn groaned at me through her helmet. "Why are you even bringing her out here, this ain't no bring your daughter to work trip!"

"Gunrunners are expected to teach their children everything… and Bridget needed to get out of town for a bit." I looked down at my daughter, all dressed up in a yellow frilly dress, smiling as though she hadn't gotten into a massive fight with some older colts, and won. It seems that they called her mother names, and she went ballistic. The colt's parents were pissed, and Longslide felt it was safer for her to be away from town until things cooled down. "Anyways, I have a lot of catching up to do."

The captain shrugged. "Whatever, not like we're getting into a fight, so I'll hold my tongue. But seriously, I joined the rangers to get away from all the foals, but you griffin seems to love popping them out with us ponies. Your uncle is already on his second kid too."

"Please stop, I don't want to hear about that." I bemoaned. Uncle Horus had shown up in New Appaloosa soon after word of my return got out, all to chew me out on behalf of my father. Seeing him with two foals of his own, and a third on the way was rather disheartening, and awkward, as his wife already had triplets she was looking after.

"Right right." Captain Wiretap said, and I knew she was smirking at me from under her helmet since she had arrived with them as government issued protection for them.

Coming from the farm, our objective was unceremoniously being dragged to us by a rope. Lean Year just being alive was the most we could ask for, since the Harvester family was important in keeping the NCR fead, though they were likely going to have a fit over this. Not to say it wasn't deserved with how dirty that family was. As he was dragged closer, I could tell that Lean had a broken leg, his oversized suit jacket was in tatters, and both his mane and tail were completely shaved.

Tossing him at our hooves, Miss Percussion Cap huffed at us. "Here's your peace of-" her eyes fell onto Bridget, and her eyes wided. "Okay, what's Bridget doing with you bas… fools?"

There was an awkward silence for a long moment, it was then broken by Bridget clicking onto my jacket with her talon. "I… I got into a fight at school, and Uncle said I should go with my… dad."

PC's eye went wide. "Wait, Skipper!" I nodded and she rolled her eyes and groaned, visibly annoyed. "Son, you got the worst timing, you know that. And joining those fools of the NCR, how disappointing."

"You're not the first to tell me that… and what do ya mean about bad timing?" I then asked.

She looked down at Bridget and sighed. "Little over a week ago, Star passed through, and got herself involved in the mess here."

"Mommy!" Bridget shouted in excitement.

PC nodded. "Ya, helped stop a real villain too."

Bridget clutched my jacket tighter. "C… can we stay? I want to hear about mommy."

Even I was surprised, and wanted to know more about what happened, but we were under strict orders to come right back.

"Oh yes we're sticking around!" the captain said in barely contained glee.

"Wait, but what about our orders?" I protested.

Wiretap then kicked Lean Year, causing the stallion to let out a huff of pain. "We can come up with an excuse later, no way I'm missing an opportunity to hear a story from Six Gun Red. Anyways, I doubt the Harvesters will do jack if we take some extra time, my mother still has a lot of influence in the NCR after all."

Right, I forgot about that. "You do know that using senator Grizzly Deal's name as a way to break protocol is only going to make her mad."

"Still worth it." She responded as though there was nothing wrong with this.

Looking over at Percussion, the older mare seemed rather… uneasy.

"Sorry about the captain, she's a fan of yours." I explained.

"Oh, that's fine." PC said nervously. "It's just that hearing the name Grizzly Deal brings back bad memories."

I had a really strong feeling that I didn't want to know the story behind that. "I'll go secure the prisoner, and join you all in a bit."

Both Bridget and Wiretap cheered in excitement as an annoyed Percussion Cap capitulated and guided them to her house.

As I dragged Lean Year over to the sky wagon, I noticed a strange putrid stench coming from him. "Grate, she let you get an infection, this is going to bite us in the flank."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry." Lean Year said in an eerily calm, yet strangely feminine voice. "You're going to have bigger problems to worry about."

"I know, I know." I said as I placed him into the sky wagon, one of his forelegs giving a metal clunk as it hit the wagon's side. "So is my life."

Lean Year looked at me with two black eyes, and a glazed stair that had a strange green hue to it. "Say, you want to know a secret, I'll tell you one of you tell me one."

"Sorry, part of my job is to keep my beak shut." I said to the delirious stallion as I went to secure his hooves. Then I had to pause as I discovered he had a pipbuck on. "Seriously, you know if this is a stable 2 pipbuck, you're going to be in some serious shit, right?"

Lean Year smiled, showing off his rotting teeth as he lifted his pipbuck. "Oh, I know. But they're so damn useful." Putting his hoof back down, the rat-like stallion chuckled. "But, I'm not worried about the consequences, not since the reward will be grand."

"Fucking rich ponies." I huffed as I finished tying him to the wagon. "Well just sit tight for now, and dream whatever fucked up thing is in your head."

As I turned to leave, Lean Year spoke up again, with an early clear voice. "Skipper was it? That daughter of yours, she really had her mothers mane, doesn't she. Best keep an eye on her if she's any more like that monstrous bitch!"

I turned back around and grabbed the stallion by the throat, only to find him passed out. Letting him go, a feeling of dread washed over me, as though I was being watched by something malevolent.

Trotting out I slammed the wagon's door shut, hoping that's all it was, just a bad feeling.

_________________________________________________