Fallout: Equestria - The Storm

Fallout: Equestria - The Storm

Chapter 14: Family Matters

***** ***** *****

Purser and Slash got to work furling the sails and dropping anchor as we reached a riverbank nearest to Junction Town. The seadog would stay on the Gull, while the rest of us flew the rest of the way. An NCR patrol met us halfway and spoke to Gritt.

“At your nearest convenience, President Grimfeathers wants to speak to you. She’s got a job for you.” The trooper glanced at all of us. “For your whole group, actually.”

“Sounds important.” Gritt pondered. “Is the big guy there yet?”

They shook their head. “You should have plenty of time to talk to Gawd before he arrives.”

*****

The capital of the New Canterlot Republic was a bustling, thriving community built from a railway junction, giving it its name. There were an even greater variety of creatures here, and more of them, than the Hub. I became a bit uncomfortable as I saw alicorns trotting and flying about, since my initial claim to fame on DJ’s radio was helping kill one. Hopefully they didn’t hold anything against me for hunting a crazed brahmin-murderer. Thankfully, they found Knight far more interesting than me, marveling at their metal doppelganger. My companion shared a regal bow with each she met.

JT’s town center consisted of a collection of railway cars converted into buildings. One in particular was decorated as a sort of memorial. Littlepip’s first home in the wasteland. I gave the nearest SPP tower a solemn, respectful glance, and quietly apologized for my intrusion earlier that month.

A thought crossed my mind. Fluttershy lives here, doesn’t she? She was actually in Canterlot when the bombs fell. Ditzy’s mate, Lionheart, was there too. If there was any chance either of them saw Skystar… That could wait. From what I read, both were difficult to speak to for different reasons. I didn’t want to risk upsetting the former with painful memories, and the latter would cause hearing damage.

“Daddy!” The excited, high pitched squeal, followed by the sight of a tiny green blur snapped me out of my thoughts. A wide smile appeared on Gritt’s face as he opened his arms wide, just before the blur slammed into him, knocking him over.

Both laughed and nuzzled each other. “Jade! I missed you too, sweety.” Gritt hugged his daughter tightly. Jade’s coat was mostly green, contrasted by a white belly and black accents. Her eyes were green-aqua.

“You got hurt.” The fledgling rubbed her father’s new scar, looking worried.

“I’m fine, sweetheart.” He gave her another tight hug, then got up and carried her on his back. “Besides, it’s my job to worry about you. Not the other way around. You keeping up with school?”

Jade pouted. “Yeah. Momma won’t let me skip class.”

Gritt chuckled. “She better not. Why are you trying to skip class?”

“Surprise picks on me…” The fledgling pouted harder.

“She does? Well, don’t let it get you. She’s the only alicorn in that school, so it must be hard for her to make friends.” Gritt tapped his chin. “Your momma still makes those cheddar biscuits you really like?” Jade nodded and chirped happily. “Bring some for Surprise next time you go to class. I’m sure she’ll get along with you better.”

Griffons did not have a reputation for fatherhood. Gritt didn’t know his dad. Most griffons don’t. Mating was generally a one-and-done exchange. But he did say he wanted to be an exception.

*****

Gawdyna’s office was quaint, functional and organized. The professional suit she wore looked somewhat odd on the mature former-mercenary. Like Gritt, she only had one eye, though it was her left eye that was damaged rather than her right. Judging by the long scar stretching down the left side of her face and across her beak, it had been sliced out rather than burned in my friend’s case.

She was all-business as she looked up at us from her paperwork. “Let’s get straight to it. I know you’ve got another pending appointment.” She cleared her throat and looked at Gritt. “I need you to spy on Whiteclaw. I’m convinced he’s up to more than just using old warlords to round up and transport prisoners for cheap.”

“Spying isn't really my forte, Gawd.” Gritt looked apprehensive. “My skill set doesn’t really fit.”

“You’ve got a shapeshifter and a robot that can turn invisible in your party.” Gawdyna was certainly well-informed. “I’m sure you’ll manage.”

“I might need a little more to go on. Unless you expect me to just follow him around… You know I won’t go near Filly.” Gritt’s expression hardened.

“I’m not asking you to. My suspicions have to do with him getting Red Eye’s factories up and running so fast.” Yeah, that would certainly raise eyebrows. “I thought it would have taken far longer. I’m not concerned with how he gets the labor, that appears to all be on the up-and-up. Safe conditions, reasonable hours, good pay… Even the prison labor from Arbu is legit. What worries me is materials. Whiteclaw says he imports everything he can’t get locally from mines his family owns out west.”

“And you think the mines are shady?” I asked.

“I’ve had scouts track some of the slavers we’ve been having issues with.” Gawd narrowed her eye. “Guess what direction they come and go from.”

“You want us to see if it's more than coincidence,” Slash perceived. Gawd nodded.

“I’d handle it, but I’m pretty sure the prissy bastard knows I’m on to him.” The President rubbed her brow. “I bet he knows the operation is close to getting found out, and he’s trying to move to Manehattan so whoever takes his place in Filly gets the blame.”

Gritt pondered. “I wonder if that has anything to do with him throwing out Crimson. Cutting ties, covering tracks.”

Gawd’s face flinched for a split-second at the name. “Wouldn’t shock me.”

My feathered companion looked at me. “Well, we need to go that way at some point. You said Reinier was on that list of yours, yeah?” I nodded, not realizing the spot was way out west. “Then we’ll see what we can find out around Seaddle.”

Gawdyna smiled. “Good. That settles-” She was interrupted by the sound of massive wings beating the sky, then the low rumble of a fully grown dragon landing nearby. “Ah. There’s your next appointment.”

*****

I’d met plenty of young dragons, captives brought to Aris, but I’d never seen a full sized one before. Spike was… enormous. At least the size of the Gilded Gull. I suddenly doubted our navy’s capacity to fight these. No wonder our conquest’s progress was slow. The purple dragon regarded me with a suspicious gaze, so he was likely up to date on current events. His expression towards Slash, however, was odd. It was as if he couldn’t tell if he recognized her or not.

Slash’s expression, conversely, was easy to identify. Contempt. “Nice to finally meet you, thief.”

Spike cringed with realization. “Oh…”

The small dragon had a fire in her eyes that seemed to legitimately intimidate the creature a hundred times her size. “Where. The fuck. Is it.”

Spike rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. “You know, those were Ember’s exact words when she busted down Canterlot Castle’s front door…”

“Oh yeah, grandma told me all about it. Heartbreaker. Traitor.” Her gaze narrowed into dragon-slaying blades. “Grandfather.”

The larger dragon broke, his good eye quivering (So many eye injuries.) “Twilight ordered me to take the Dragon Staff. I couldn’t just say no to her.”

“But then you kept it even after the world blew up!” There was more than anger behind Slash’s words. “Why didn’t you bring it back?”

“I couldn’t fly all the way to the Dragon Lands, I had to keep watch over Gardens.” Everyone here knew how important that was.

“And after it was activated?” Slash crossed her arms. “What was stopping you then?”

“The Enclave took it!” Spike paused and composed himself. “At the Battle of Dragon Mountain.”

Slash’s eyes went wide, jaw dropping. That was the worst news she could have possibly heard.

Spike continued. “I don’t think they know what it is. They’d be using it if they did. Instead, they took it west.”

Gritt spoke up. “Oh, great, another reason to head that way.” He thought for a moment. “Well, no wonder you never took it back. Gustave Le Grand would have blown you away.”

“Who’s that?” I asked, putting a wing around Slash, trying to calm her.

Spike answered. “Not who, what. Well, it was named after a famous griffon chef… Anyway, it’s a massive artillery piece the Enclave built on top of Reinier, after they took Stable 14 and turned it into a base.”

Which means we can’t take the Gull all the way there. We’d be safe taking it to Seaddle, but approaching the nearby mountain wasn’t an option.

*****

Slash and Spike were left to try and reconcile with each other. She’d been taught to hate Spike, but deep down she desperately wanted to connect with the family she never met. As did he. He asked about his and Ember’s child, a son Ember named Glaive. A son he never met. Who he’d never get to meet.

When Slash told him that Glaive, and her uncle, Garble, were both killed by the Enclave shortly before she came to Equestria, Spike was inconsolably heartbroken. Seeing such a powerful creature so shaken with grief overwhelmed me. I started towards him, to try and help him, but an older yellow pegasus with a pink mane beat me to him. Fluttershy hugged Spike’s snout tight, wiping his eye with her wing. I couldn’t imagine how this loss must have hit Ember. With everything she’d likely been through the last two centuries, her mental state was probably deteriorating fast.

My empathic outburst was distracted by the Ministry Mare of Peace. The creator of Megaspells. I definitely won’t bring that up if I talk to her. That or Everfree, Killing Joke, the War in general, or… There were a lot of things that could trigger her. Maybe I just shouldn’t speak to her at all.

Instead, I hugged Slash as tight as I could. This was the first I’d heard about her father and uncle. She was sobbing just as much as Spike. I took her towards the market. A hot meal might cheer her up.

*****

The aromas of the market did a lot to calm us both. It wasn’t long before I caught the scent of the cheddar biscuits Gritt had mentioned to his daughter. The pair were sitting down at a food stall as a female griffon about Gritt’s age brought them plates of food. She looked like Jade, except her coat and feathers were dark blue rather than green.

“Thanks, Gwen.”

“Thanks, momma!”

Gwen wore a stained apron over a jumpsuit as she toiled around her ovens and stoves, giving her mate and daughter a smile before rushing to her next customers. “What’ll you two have? I’ve got greens and whatnot, but you look like ze rat and biscuits type.” Judging by her accent, I suspected that Ponish wasn’t her first language.

“That sounds… good.” I gave Slash a glance, and she simply shrugged.

The blue griffon took twenty caps from us and got cooking. The rodents of unusual size she roasted and seasoned for us were far tastier than I expected, and the biscuits were heavenly. She sold us a pair of ice cold beers to finish our meal, which Slash and I enjoyed.

Gritt gave Jade a fatherly glare when the fledgling asked for one as well. Gwen laughed and exchanged a brief conversation with her daughter in Old Griffish that ended in giggles. Our friend glanced between them with a raised brow.

“Did you teach her Griffish so you could have secret conversations right in front of me?” Gwen gave Gritt a devilish smile, and he looked down at Jade and gave a fake pout. “Your mother is so mean to me.”

*****

I thought about what Gritt said about Stern. How she left him with no one. He won’t do that to his daughter. He knows he lives a violent life that could end any day, so he surrounds Jade with a whole community who cares about her. In the meantime he cherishes every moment with her he can get, so if something happens she has plenty of good memories.

Finishing my pint, I set it down and turned to Slash. “Is your mother alright?”

The dragon nodded. “Smolder’s tough. She took it hard, but she won’t let grief destroy her. When I left, she was focused on keeping Ember from falling apart.” Her face dropped. “She lost her mate and her brother. And I…” Her eyes welled up again and I held her. “I blamed Ember. I told her it was her fault. She lost her son and I had the fucking audacity to tell her it was her fault.” She rubbed her chest. “I deserved to lose my name.”

Realization washed over me. “You didn’t leave the Dragon Lands on your own. You were banished.” My friend could only nod before she fell into my chest, sobbing. The Dragon Staff was her only way home.

*****

Slash and I returned to the Gull late that night. She didn’t want to stay in Junction Town. I understood.

To our amusement, Purser was found cowering below deck. Spike apparently flew directly over the ship, terrifying her. We forgot to tell her we were here to talk to a giant dragon. She was also oddly quiet when we told her we were heading to Seaddle.

After a few stops, anyway.

First off, I wanted to go to Fillydelphia. For the shard there, of course, but also to see what I can find about Whiteclaw. Secondly, I wanted to hit Ponyville and Everfree on the way to Reinier. If we had to tangle with the Enclave, I wanted this Pearl as strong as possible. Canterlot was unfortunately too far out of the way, on a different river system, but I planned to hit it on the way back.

Some part of me was afraid of what I’d find in the old, shattered ruins of Equestria’s capital. More than likely, Skystar and Tempest were both killed by the Pink Cloud. I’d find their skeletons fused into stone catacombs by the necromantic magic. But if either of them ghoulified… I really should speak to Lionheart. After I find proper hearing protection. Maybe I’d also meet…

“Slash?” She looked up at me from the bed. I was hovering over the desk, making notes in my PipBuck. “I just thought you should know, your great-grandmother is still alive.”

She rubbed her eyes. “You mean, Spike’s mother?”

I smiled. “Just another tidbit from the Book of Littlepip. The dragon who lived in Canterlot ghoulified from the Pink Cloud, then got turned into a mouse twelve years ago.”

“...I feel like you’re making that up.”

*****

The little white mouse stared up at Slash with tiny pink eyes. The dragon stared back, still in utter disbelief of what I had told her. A magically air-tight hamster ball separated them, keeping Slash, and the rest of town, safe from Mouse’s deadly necromantic breath.

“I CANNOT KNOW FOR CERTAIN, BUT THE CATACOMBS WITHIN CANTERLOT’S MOUNTAIN MAY STILL BE INTACT.” Lionheart’s booming response to my question made Slash leap her full height into the air. I had preemptively put cotton in my ears and covered them with my claws for good measure.

“Thank you! I appreciate you telling me what you know!” I couldn’t tell if I was yelling or not. The former Luna’s Guard pony, whose ceremonial armor was fused into his gaunt, furless hide, gave a regal bow and returned home. The hamster ball rolled after him.

It took me a few moments to calm my racing heart. I knew the difference between sapient ghouls and feral zombies, but my trauma didn’t. Looking at Lionheart’s and Ditzy’s kind, smiling faces, all I could see was the rotting creature trying to bite my leg off. Could I ever face my King again without having a panic attack?

*****

Gritt invited me to talk to Gwen about Seaddle. She was apparently a migrant from there, same as Whiteclaw.

“Ze Enclave there are not like ze ones who attacked here. Different ponies. Ze live on ze surface, within Seaddle, amongst my kind.” Gwen explained that, before the war, Seaddle had the largest population of griffons outside Griffonstone. It’s why Stable 14, a stable dedicated exclusively to griffons, was built there.

“There’s generally a lot of hostility between eastern and western griffons.” Gritt spoke between sips of Cola. “East coast griffs descend mostly from Griffonstone mercenary families. Some even claim direct heritage to Gilda herself. West coast griffs are the families who wanted to stay out of the war. Cultural types, not fighters.”

“Griffons from ze east like to call us pompous, pony-loving sissies.”

“And griffons from the west call us uncultured, illiterate barbarians.”

Gwen furrowed her brow in worried thought. “They also hate zebras. As far as Seaddle is concerned, ze war never ended. Frequent attacks from Caesar's Remnants only reinforce this.”

“How does the Whiteclaw family tie into it? I understand they own mines in the area.” There must be a connection between this and the slavers’ interest in striped captives.

“Ze Whiteclaw family is… strange. Pierre Whiteclaw is their patriarch, and they run ze mines and much of Seaddle from Star Pin Tower, a high-class casino resort and restaurant.” Gwen looked upset. “There are disturbing rumors about them, but I should not gossip.”

That’s fine. I’m sure I’ll learn more from Sabre.

*****

Gritt was pleased he was not part of my plan to spy on Fillydelphia’s elected representative. Slash was less pleased that I wasn’t bringing her. Knight and I would handle it, using her invisibility and my shapeshifting to get into Sabre’s office. I might even try to charm him for information directly.

Besides, the area around Filly wasn’t the safest. Purser alone might not be enough to keep the Gilded Gull secure. A sniper and a fire-breather would help deter ne'er do wells.

Once we were all in agreement, we set sail.

***** ***** *****

Footnote:
No Level Up.