Fallout Equestria: Desperados V2 (of Blood and Dirt)

Desperado’s V2, Chapter 02

Green Lake Farm (Part 2)

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Being able to sleep in a proper bed was nice, with it being firm yet fluffy, but it lacked the warmth of home. Being by myself in the bed only reminded me that I was alone again, that Prism was gone and Bridget had to be left behind. All I wanted to do was curled up with them again, but I knew it wasn't ever going to happen.

This was my life now, alone in bed, or with a stranger, but not with my family.

At some point I passed out, and dreams came. Just a bit of nonsense that I quickly forgot. Where I was awoken by some Goddess awful crowing, which sounded more like a death growl than anything else. Getting up, I opened the window to see what the fuck was dyeing out there!

Some kind of bird then jumped onto the windowsill, it a mess of disheveled brown and orange feathers, with a red crest on its head and another under its beak. It looked at me with one cancer riddled eye, and as I looked back at it with disgust, it then screamed at me. It was so loud that my ears started to ring, causing me to stumble back and Cavall whimpered as he ran to hide under the bed.

My door then flung open, and Percussion Cap in a wheelchair rolled in, armed with a shotgun. "That's it Harold, your tonight's dinner!"

The bird jumped out, just barely dogging PC as she fired at it, the blast knocking her over. She then pushed herself back up and rushed to the window, her chair squeaking as she rolled and let out another shot outside before pulling back. "Celestia damn that fucking rooster!" PC cursed.

Caltrop trotted in, yawning. "Honey, I thought you said you'd stop trying to kill Harold."

"I'll stop when he's dead!" She snarled back.

Now fully awake and rather confused, I cleared my throat. "Excuse me, but I need to get myself ready for the day, and I rather not have an audience."

Caltrop chuckled as he collected his wife. "Come now honey, let's get your legs back on." He then turned to me and pointed at a dresser. "We got some spare clothes and makeup you can use in the dresser. I don't really use it much anymore, so it's not a big deal if some other pony takes some."

Once the door closed, I shrugged and trotted to the dresser, checking the contents. Then I sighed. Underwear, fishnet clothes, a few leather straps, and the kind of makeup the brothel mares would fight over. As well as a few classy dresses.

Me thinks Caltrop might have actually been a prostitute at some point, or at least an escort that dressed up as a mare. It wasn't common, but I had seen it a few times.

The makeup was in rather good condition, and the colors would work well for me, so I took it out to use it. As for the outfits, I didn't feel like taking any, though some of them would have been rather nice as a pole dancing outfit.

So putting my stable colored leotard on, and Desperado vest, I got to work brushing my mane and applying the makeup. It had been a long time since I got to do this, and as I applied the foundation, a small sense of normalcy returned. But it only made me miss my friends at the Ruffled Feathers, and I worried for them. Rusty would be fine, though with a second foal on the way, could she properly care for them? And Brass, dear Brass. If I'm not around then who's going to make sure she doesn't drink herself to death. Maybe Copper, but no colt should be the caretaker for their own mother.

And Cloudy… Cloudy will be fine, she's a strong and smart mare. Though breaking up with Harp was a bit harsh, she knew what she was doing. Sometimes we must just let things go.

Looking at my reflection through a small mirror, I finally looked more like me again… the me from New Appaloosa, who worked as an exotic dancer. The me who had been living with my mother and daughter.

Well not quite. I ran my hoof through my mane, finding strands clumping together like slightly curly ribbons. My mane had always been a bit curly like this, but not to this extent. Probably because I haven't given it a proper wash in forever, and the grease in my mane was making it look like kelp.

With a sigh, I put the mirror down and left the room.

Having returned to the dining room, Harp saw me and gasped. "Star, you look gorgeous again!"

"Oh come on, I'm always gorgeous." I said as I flipped my mane.

A few of the workers in the room looked at me, their jaws stuck open.

"So what's the schedule for today?" I asked.

Harp's robo drone, Order, then floated over and looked at me with its bug-like eyes. "Yes miss Star, while we wait for Live Axle to arrive, we can relax, or help out. Slowtrot has already gone off to help gather apples before breakfast. Lady Harp is going to charge the spark batteries here. As for you, Lady Harp suggests you get some more rest"

I rolled my eyes, annoyed by the suggestion. "I'm fine, so don't treat me like some little filly. I can go out and help patrol the area. And if I get lucky! I might get to kill an asshole."

"Alright, but do try and not mess up your makeup, you do look real pretty and I hate to see it ruined." Harp said, clearly not wanting to fight me on this.

The sound of hooves trotted in from outside and we saw Slowtrot and Dusty come in with two baskets full of what were actual apples on either side of them. "Oh, hay Star, you're up just in time for breakfast. I even got some apples, actually genuine apples." He knocked one apple out of the basket and into his hoof. "Been a really long time since I had a fresh apple."

"Oh, you shouldn't." Dusty warned Slowtrot, but he took a big bite and froze for a few seconds before swallowing with a look of mild disgust on his face. "Those apples are for making cider, not eating." Dusty explained.

"E'yep." PC said as she trotted in, pushing a cart filled with food. "Still don't fucking get it myself. We grew em all from seeds from our original trees. But they all came out different and hardly any are good for eating. We asked around, but nopony really knows why apple trees are like that."

"I… think. And my memory is a bit hazy on the subject, but aren't you supposed to graft apple trees, not grow them from seeds." Slowtrot said before taking a bite out of an apple Dust gave him, the stallion looking more pleased with it.

PC raised an eyebrow. "The fucks grafting?"

Slowtrot scratched his goatee, thinking quite hard. "Like I said, my memory is hazy. But, I think, it's when you take a branch of an apple tree you like and plant it… no, you attach it to the stump of a sapling. Then whatever kind of apple that tree grows will be the same from the branch you used."

A long sigh came from PC as she began to set the table. "Truthfully, I'm willing to try anything to get those apples to grow right. But why the fuck are they all different?"

Order flew in slowly, dropping off a large plate of carrots. "Appletree's have a unique trait that lets them produce many different seeds for different apple trees. Thus keeping them genetically divers, but impossible to grow what you want from seeds. So all apple orchards practice grafting so to produce the same tree every time."

"Thank you, Order." Harp said as her drone flew over to a seat next to her.

"And thank you, we got a few more saplings coming in, so I'll give that a try." PC told us as she started hoofing out food.

On the menu was bacon, eggs, carrots and cornbread. The bread brought back bad memories of the prison, and how I nearly lost both Slowtrot and Harp. The NCR claims itself to be the bastion of love, tolerance, and the ideals of friendship, but it's still made up of wastelanders who twist those ideals. So many ponies and other creatures out for themselves. It would be a miracle if NCR survives as a civilization for the next twenty years.

Then again, if Calamity is the same pony from the lightbringer's book, then Maybe it was a smart move on Gwadina's part to step down and announce him as her successor. Though I heard on the radio that he was dragged into the position kicking and screaming.

"You okay Star?" Dusty asked, "You're just, well looking at your food."

Snapping out of my thoughts and memory, I took a bite out of the cornbread, finding it soft and sweet. "Sorry, they served cornbread in the prison too, but it wasn't nearly as good as this."

"Of course not, the corn the NCR uses comes from Golden Harvest." Caltrop said as he trotted in, leading a parade of children. "Their crops are wasteland corn, good for growing anywhere, but nutritionally poor and rather bland compared to our Equestria Golden corn. That and they don't properly fertilize their fields and over use the land until not even the corn can grow right from it."

"E'yep and that's why a lot of their farms fail." PC added. "They put ponies in them, tell em to grow, grow, grow, and never give back. First thing I learned when I first saw this Golden corn is that you have to give back if you want a healthy harvest."

"Give back as in, what?" I asked.

"Fertilizer." Slowtrot said. "Mainly it's food waste and animal manure. Other than dairy, fertilizer was the cow's main products sold to Equestria. A bit weird that they sold their own poop to us, but if it works, then it works. Oh, by the way, do you practice crop rotation?" He then asked PC.

She nodded. "Fortunately a friend of mine found an intact book on crop farming for me. Saved me from killing my soil. So ya, I now change what field grows after every harvest, though it's still mainly corn. But enough yapping, my throat is getting dry, and my stomach hungers for bacon."

Digging in, though the pork was the best, bacon was heavenly, and if I could I'd eat it all and leave none for anypony else. But I couldn't be selfish, so I held back as the rest of the workers showed up, and the food quickly dwindled.

With food in our bellies, we all set off to help out as we waited for Live Axle to arrive.

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The patrol was simple, with Dusty and I checking for anything out of order in one field before moving onto the next. There was so much life here it astounded me. From families of barn cats hunting rodents of normal size. A colony of some kind of electric bees busy flying around flowering crops. I even saw a rabbit with antlers chewing on an ear of corn, which ran off before Dusty could shoot it. I found it hard to believe I was still in the wasteland.

A few times Dust had to fly around to find me as I kept getting lost in the corn. Mainly because I had to chase after Cavall, who kept chasing after the cats. The poor snake pup eventually learned his lesson when a rather large and fat cat knocked him around a little.

Turns out some cats can find you even if you're invisible.

Eventually we ended up at a watchtower on the edge of the farm. Climbing to the top, I got a good view of the farm itself. High enough to see almost all of it, this land really looked like a green lake, even having a few beaches along the edge. It was a contrast to the unending brown of the wasteland, in which little to no life seemed to live.

Strangely, there was actually a bunker behind PC's home, all gray concrete and sticking out like a sore hoof among the green.

"Hay dust, is that some sort of military bunker behind the main house?" I asked.

"Hmmmm…. I think it's a Ministry bunker. PC doesn't talk about it much, but I think she keeps a family heirloom in there." Dust answered.

I nodded. "Right, then it's none of my business. Say, another question. You must have heard about that drought coming, how's a place like this going to survive?"

"Oh, we're not worried about that." Dust said with a smile. The younger pegasus beamed with pride as she then explained. "Don't tell nopony, but this farm is built on top of an ancient lake bed, and there's actually a massive reservoir underneath. Supposably the water here has always been clean, and it just took PC braking ground to use it."

"That's actually kind of awesome." I said as I continued to survey the land. "Last question, how'd a pegasus like you even get here?"

Dust looked rather nervous before letting out a sigh and telling me. "Not much of your business, but to put it simply, it was to run away from home or let the leadership brand me a dashite and exile me anyways. So the same old story ya hear all over."

"Right, some of those Enclave warlords still do that shit. Well at least it's not like with the fleets. They just put you on hooks and let ya hange for all to see." I said, remembering seeing the dead and dying swaying in the wind as the Blackwater rocked on the water.

A look of disgust crossed Dust's face. "That's… so barbaric!

"And branding then exiling isn't?" I said back to her.

The pegasus shrugged, "ya, both are pretty bad."

After a few hours had passed, a small dust cloud could be seen in the distance, and through my spyglass, I could see a Sparkle-Cola themed Loan Wander motorcycle, and it was pulling a fair sized wagon.

"Looks like the pony we were waiting for has arrived." I said as I began to climb down.

Dusty flew off to let everypony know as I climbed down, Cavall rejoined as I trotted off.

Surrounded by tall corn stalks again, it felt a bit eerie to me. Never in my life had I been around so much green, and everything from the air, to the dirt under my hooves just felt odd to me. I would say it felt wrong, but I felt the same way about being on land when I first arrived in Equestria. Maybe this is what old Equestria felt like, before the war, a place of life, where ponies could love and tolerate each other.

Such a place was not where I belonged.

Cavall brushed against my leg, wagging his tail, making a rhythmic ratal. Giving the almost pure white nightstalker a scratch on its head, he let out a little yap at me, painting happily.

The little pup helped me feel at ease, dispelling the off feeling I was having. Maybe new environments were just like that, and always felt off at first. Before Prism saved me, I spent all my life on the open ocean, surrounded by religious fanatics and death. So having the ground not move under my hooves was unnatural to me. Then maybe it's the same for being around so much green since nearly the other half of my life was in the dry and mostly dead land around New Appaloosa.

Taking a deep breath, and taking in the moist fresh air that smelled of… shit? Ya, that's shit I smell. Wet decomposing shit.

"Ehhh, I guess you get used to it after a while." I said to Cavall, and made my way back to PC's house.

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Having taken my time, Live Axle was just rolling in as I joined the others. Her motorcycle pulled Moody Peddlers wagon, and even before they came to a stop, his kids were already jumping out and running to greet the farm kids.

"Oy, you better not get into another fight with em! I ain't patching you up like last time!" Keep, their mother yelled from the back of the wagon, next to her was her cybernetic nightstalker. The black armored mare had a mane that looked like fire, and if some pony told me that her ancestor was the basis for the Desperado’s patch, I'd believe it.

PC let out a chuckle as she trotted over to the wagon. "I say let em fight, build character. Anyways, when did a White Scorpion merc ever not want a fight."

Jumping out herself, Keep almost towered over PC as she looked down at the gunslinging farm mare with annoyance. "Ain't my fault my husband's stock ain't thinning out my blood. Those fuckers are running biohazards."

PC let out a long sigh. "Ya, I get that. I see more of my grandmother in my daughters every day."

Trotting over, I raised an eyebrow. "Is there something wrong with your kids?"

Keep chuckling. "Not at all, my clan is just on the mutant side of breeding, with most of us born with poison in our blood. You can say they're just a bit like your daughter, taking a bit too much from their mother."

I nodded in understanding. "Truthfully, I wouldn't be surprised if my Bridget got the evil eye like myself. Actually I hope not, with how I can't be there for her."

"Right, that crab pony mentioned that when he was asking me about my clan's mutation. It's some mind control braminshit right?" Keep asked me.

"Maybe something close to that. I know I can project pain and fear into a pony by eye contact. But the power is still a mystery to me even after living eleven years with it." I said as I gave Cavall a pet on the head. "Only recently I found out I could send positive emotions, but the magic doesn't seem to like that at all. I thought I was going to go blind when I did that with alpha Nightstalker. Actually, I fear it will turn me into some cannibalistic monster one day if I'm not careful, and worse, end up hurting those I care about."

I then looked at PC, a bit curious. "What about you, what is different about your family?"

PC rolled her eyes. "Oh that's a fucking long story, or more like two long storys actually. Let's just say my grandmother had six mothers, no father, and could only be killed by using a fucked up magic bullet… oh, and sometimes she'd burst in blue fire that made her look like an alicorn."

That… sounded nuts. "Well, I'd say I've never heard such brahmin shit before, but Slowtrot literally falls through time now and then, so I'll believe it."

We all looked over at the purple stallion who then waved back at us.

"I wonder…" PC said, but then shook her head. "Naw, best not mess with time."

"Well family weirdness aside, is it fine if we stick around for a few days? I got business with a bitch in Amethyst Sands." Keep then asked.

Letting out an annoyed huff, PC begrudgingly said. "Ya, I figured as much. If you help keep the farm secured, then that will be more than enough. Having a born and raised killer helping out will make sure Golden Harvest don't try and start shit Again. But do try and not start a shootout again, I know you hate your mother, but the folks living in Amethyst Sands don't need to get caught up in your family squabbling."

"Then maybe those fools should get a new sheriff." Keep grumbling back.

"Ya ya, my mother and I don't get along much either, but we at least try to be civil about it." PC growled back.

"I get it, I'll keep my guns holstered this time. Anyways, She'll probably be too drunk to even recognize me. Now I should keep an eye on my little brats before they pull one of their pranks." Keep said before trotting off.

"She's as pleasant as ever." I commented.

"Merc clanners are all like that." PC said with a shrug. "Anyways, we should join the others, I have something to ask of you all."

If that came from any other pony, I'd have said no on the spot. Most ponies out in the wasteland tend to want others to solve their own problems, never leaving their hole in the ground, but PC looked the type to just do things herself.

Trotting to the others, Slowtrot and Live Axle were awkwardly apart from each other, which I didn't blame them. With Live's mother forcing them into an engagement, and Live likely pregnant, the two didn't seem to know what to do with each other. But seeing them like this made it very clear that Live's sister, Dead Axle, had been the linchpin to any relationship between them. But with her near death and petrification, the two klutzes were bumbling around the idea of a relationship.

But seeing that Live was wearing Slowtrot's stable jacket over her pink dress, it was clear she was at least into him. Which only made it more tragic that Slowtrot seemed to have been more into Dead Axle.

What a fucking mess.

"First off, good to see you again Moody, even if you're a greedy bastard." PC said to the traveling merchant.

Moody chuckled back at PC. "Well you got to be a greedy bastard to make a profit in this business. Just like you have to be a royal bitch to run a farm like this."

The two glared at each other for a long moment, as though ready to start a fight. Then, with a huff and a grumble, PC then asked. "Alright! So do you have the parts I asked about?"

The merchant nodded. "Yes, and enough for two turrets with robot level targeting spell matrix. but before you get to haggling, I know you got the caps for full price, with how you crashed the corn market and all."

A cruel giggle escaped PC's lips. "Ya, and I bet that hit Golden Harvest where it hurt the most."

"Really now, that's why you pulled that fucking stunt PC!" Moody said in annoyance. "You do know they primarily sell their crops to the NCR itself. It's why they are able to stay in business even though they're shit at growing anything."

"Ya, ya, bitch and moan, but you know that it's going to reach the NCR eventually. And when they start asking why they're paying five times more for an inferior product, things aren't going to go well for Golden Harvest." PC said calmly and coldly.

"Maybe so, but next time let some of us know when you're releasing all of your stock of crops. We can at least spread out the sales better." Moody said in a defeated tone. "With that said, I do hope you understand that I won't be buying your crops this time around."

"Alright, I get it. Next time I do something like that, I'll let some of you merchants in on it. As for the turrets, we can talk about that later. I actually have business with these Desperado’s here." PC said as she waved Moody off.

"Ya, I'll get the parts uploaded while you do that." Moody then trotted to the back of his wagon, where one of PC's farm hooves were waiting.

Harp looked at Percussion Cap suspiciously and asked. "I do hope you're talking about delivering something to someplace safe?"

A chuckle came from PC, "oh I ain't asking you to kill nopony when I can do that myself. Naw, I just need somepony to drop off a shipment of crops and pick up a few boxes of nails. With how we got to keep an eye out for Golden Harvest's thugs, and how I don't put it past them to try and kill my workers, I want to keep my ponies close ya see. I'd ask Moody to do it, but he'll take my two remaining legs for the job."

"Naw, I'd just take the metal ones. Cybernetics sell for a shit ton, even those junky looking ones." Moody said with a smile.

With a huff, PC continued. "So ya, just a simple delivery there and back, no rush. I'm just betting nopony is going to try anything to a fast motter wagon with a big fucking gun on top."

Harp nodded, clearly considering the deal. "And what do we get out of it?"

A smile crept on PC's muzzle. "Well I haven't charged ya for the rooms and food have I?"

Harp, Slowtrot and I sighed simultaneously.

PC then laughed loudly, as though it was the funniest joke in the world. "Oh I'm just jerking your chain. So no worry. Actually we have some food preserves we'll give ya for helping us out. Had my kids making em, and while I was out they made far more than I had instructed. So you do this for me, and you get a box of preserved food to eat whenever."

"When you say preserved, you don't mean old world preserved right?" Harp asked.

"No fucking way we can make that stuff, no." PC said as she shook her head. "This stuff can only last a little over a year, two at best considering who made it. But trust me, they're all safe to eat."

Harp motions with her head for Slowtrot and I to talk more privately, so we trotted over to the smuggler as PC waited for us to come back.

"I don't know about this, I say no. I get a distinct feeling we might get drawn into their problems if we stick around." Harp said.

"It's fine with me. I mean what's the worst that could happen. We drop off food and pick up some nails. It's not like we're the ones building a gazebo." Slowtrot said.

One against and one for, leaving me to break the tie.

It wasn't like we were desperately low on food rations, and with how fast the Smuggler was, it wasn't as big of a deal. Though Harp was right, this valley was going through some brahman shit, and the longer we stay, the more we will get drawn into it. That's what happened in New Appaloosa, not leaving town when we should have. Hardballer and Prism might be alive if we didn't stick around like we did.

But this isn't New Appaloosa, and we are not renting a room here. Just a quick drop off, pick up, and return here before fucking off again.

"Truthfully, I don't see the harm. It should take less than a day and all." I told Harp.

She took a moment to take a deep breath, slowly breathing the air out as she said. "You're right, and having some extra food on hoof is always a good thing. But if things start turning into some long chain of events, we're just leaving."

Both Slowtrot and I shrugged.

Returning to PC, Harp spoke for us. "Alright Percussion Cap, we'll do it for you, but once the crate of food is in our hooves, we're out of here. It's nothing to do with you or this place, but we rather not stick around longer than we would like."

"Fair enough." PC said, understanding in her voice. "Even if Ashy Oakes was the one in the wrong, she still had a lot of ponies who'd kill for her. Bounty or not, they will come for you three. And as a former bounty hunter myself, the kind of pony who will come for you will not be the kind that cares about honor, or fairness. It's either a paycheck, or setting a score."

"So says executioner red, the bounty hunter that never takes them in alive." Moody said with a chuckle. "You know that's why it was so easy for Redeye to smear your name right, and make everypony think you just went raider when you killed Baron Flint."

"Really? I thought it takes more than going a bit crazy to be called, going raider." I said with a raised eyebrow. From what I know, most ponies get the raider label when they go off the deep end, and get into the whole chem abuse and sex with anything shit. PC on the other hoof looks like she doesn't do chems, and by all her children, only fucks to breed.

With an annoyed sigh and a roll of her eyes, PC told us. "Well when your mother gets foalnapped by raiders and that's how you were conceived, some ponies suspect being a raider is in your blood."

Harp let out a gasp. "Oh, sorry for bringing that up."

PC let out a bitter chuckle. "Don't be, it's actually more common out in the wasteland then it should be. There were a few places so bad with raiders that only the mares went out to do basic tasks, where they got assaulted as the stallion stayed in the settlement."

"Wait, why?" Harp asked with a shocked tone.

I decided to answer. "Because they would kill the stallions, but only rape the mares. Several of the mares working at the Ruffled Feathers grew up in places like that. I think Rusty's clan did such things too before they got wiped out."

PC nodded as she ran her hoof through her mane. "It's awful but true. And it's the only thing I hate about my mane."

"Wait, does that mean you're the last Blood Mane?" Live Axle asked, getting a glare from PC. "S… sorry. Just thought ya mane looked familiar. My ma got a tapestry made from their manes from back when grampa help drive out the Blood Manes from our territory. All of em were depicted as green earth ponies with blood red manes. Last anypony heard from them was that some old hero wiped them out after they raided her home."

"Ya, that would be my grandmother, may Celestia rest her soul." PC said somberly. "Anyways, back to business. I'll have my farm hooves load up your trailer, and you can be on your way."

"Thanks, and again, sorry for bringing that up." Harp apologized.

PC huffed back. "Save your sorry for when you actually do something wrong. I ain't lived this long to be dragged down and controlled by the past, or by events I wasn't even alive to have a say in. All I want is my peaceful life on this farm, and with my family. And may Celestia have mercy on anypony who tries and disrupts this life I made here."

That put a smile on my muzzle. "Ay, that I understand too well, so may the goddesses have your back."

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