Fallout: Equestria - Pushing Daisies

Fallout: Equestria - Pushing Daisies

Chapter 9: Pilgrimage

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

For the nights spent in Tenpony, Masque and I had to share a small room. That was not a problem, at all, whatsoever. For our neighbors' sake, we did our best to be quiet. We were certainly in high spirits when we departed.

We had held onto our weapons, but prices at the tower were too high to buy more ammo. We did get some basic barding. Hopefully we wouldn’t have much trouble reaching Trotson. A couple of Talons volunteered to escort us out of Manehattan, which we appreciated. After that, we were on our own.

*****

The trip was thankfully quiet aside from the occasional mutant animal, or short stops in small settlements. All standard fare for the wasteland. In one such stop, Masque nearly pulled his rifle on an injured pegasus mare. I stopped him when I saw she wasn't armed. In fact, she was selling her Enclave gear in exchange for medical care.

Masque wasn’t sure she deserved help. For all we knew, she was one of the foal-killers who attacked Friendship City. I pointed out we wouldn’t know anything if we didn’t talk to her. He didn’t want to. I felt like giving her a chance.

A hoof and an introduction were offered to the gurney-bound pegasus. “My name’s Daisy Pusher.”

She apprehensively took it, staring at the machine gun strapped to my side. “Chancer Dice.” Not exactly a name that inspires trust. Then again, plenty could be said about my name.

She was a pretty mare, though I had to imagine what her gold, white, and black mane would look like if it weren’t cut short. Her coat was pale green, and her cutie mark was a pair of snake eyes dice on top of a joker playing card, next to a trio of golden bits. There was one thing about her that made my skin crawl. Heterochromia, one eye red, one eye blue, matching the dice on her flank. Exactly like Helix. Combined with her coat color…

That last place Helix Splice had been was Cloudsdale. If she had a relationship with a pegasus, she never mentioned it. The odds of meeting a direct descendant of hers, randomly in the wasteland, was astronomical, but the last few weeks taught me that anything was possible.

“Your eyes…” I started. “Does that run in your family?”

She seemed taken aback by the odd question. “Uh, yeah, why?”

I shook my head. No need to go down that rabbit hole. She’d think I was insane if I tried to explain it to her. “No reason, just curious.”

Masque finally spoke up. “Were you involved with Cauterize?”

Fear entered Chancer’s eyes. “I… technically, yes. I was on the crew of the Raptor Cirrus. It got taken down by that cyber dragon over Fillydelphia.”

We both scowled at her. She shrank away from us.

“I was just a mechanic!” She pleaded. “I barely got out of that battle alive and didn’t hurt anyone! I didn’t even have a weapon!”

My expression softened. Masque’s didn’t. “You were still part of it. Do you have any idea how many innocent people you fuckers murdered? Hundreds.”

“I was just a mechanic…” She whimpered. “This was the last year of my tour. I didn’t enlist expecting to invade the surface. I just wanted full citizenship. I wouldn’t have if I knew.”

“Masque…” I put a hoof on his chest. “How close were you to joining the Talons in Fillydelphia?”

The anger in his eyes vanished, replaced by guilt. “Oh…”

Glass houses, Masque. Glass houses.

I changed the subject. “Once you’re healed, do you plan to stay here?”

Chancer seemed unsure. “This place seems okay. It’s nothing like the propaganda told us. Though I doubt there’s much work…”

“Come with us, then.” They both looked shocked at my suggestion. “I’m making a stop at Trotson for personal matters, then we’re settling down at Dodge. It’s a growing town, so I’m sure you’ll find something. It’s pretty out of the way, close to the Badlands, so I doubt anypony there has immediate issues with pegasi.”

She tilted her head in thought. “Dodge doesn’t ring any bells, so I doubt it was a target. Little towns were pretty much ignored.” She frowned. “Unless we were told they were raider camps.”

At this point, I knew about New Appleloosa, and had already sent several prayers to the Princesses that Moonlight was okay. I swerved the conversation away from going down that path again. “Well, when you’re feeling better, meet us at the bar.”

*****

Masque was expectedly not pleased with my new choice of traveling companion. I promptly reminded him how far a little compassion towards a stranger can go. That holding onto hate wasn’t going to help Equestria heal any faster. He fell silent.

Either way, she wasn’t trusted with a gun, not that we could afford one for her. Though, with supervision, we let her do some maintenance work on ours. She definitely was a mechanic. They looked like they just rolled out of the factory when she was done with them.

The griffon steadily became more and more agitated as Chancer glided above us. She grew increasingly confused as to why Masque wasn’t flying. Before she could voice her question, I gave her a look that told her to keep it to herself. When she landed, and took a better look at his wings, she figured it out on her own.

To pass the time, I asked about her family.

“Can’t say I was ever very close to them.” Her eyes became sad. “My parents were aboard the Victorious, the Thunderhead that was destroyed by that balefire bomb. The last time I saw them was years ago.”

The incident that started all this. I wasn’t sure if the Enclave was even a target, or just had really unlucky timing.

Again, I didn’t want to go down this path, but my curiosity was eating at me. “Does the name Helix Splice mean anything to you?”

Chancer rounded on me. “Where did… Yeah, I’m her great-great-great-whatever granddaughter. She was a scientist before the bombs. How do you know about her?”

“...Have you ever heard of Project Phoenix?”

*****

At the end of my story, Chancer was left stunned. It was the first time Masque had heard all of it, too, but it mostly just saddened him.

“I can’t believe… She just murdered you? For an experiment?” Chancer was horrified by her ancestor’s deeds.

“She murdered Daisy Pusher. I’m not her. I’m just a copy.” I noticed Masque’s glare. “You know what I mean.”

“That’s why you’re going to Trotson?” She questioned. “To visit her grave and pay respects?”

I nodded, and glanced at my bottle of ashes. “That, and to lay a friend to rest.”

With that, Trotson’s skyline appeared on the horizon. We’re almost there.

*****

There used to be two very dangerous things in this city. Steel Rangers, and Assault-Mare combat robots. Something wiped out both a couple years ago. Rumors as to what ranged from an entire battalion of Talons, to a lone, cybernetic, half-dragon-half-hellhound with machine guns for arms. Whatever it was, the last Daisy to come here said it was long gone.

All that was left were easily avoidable pockets of raiders and low-tier mutant animals. We didn’t even have to go too far into the city to reach the cemetery. The small, quaint little cemetery with less than twenty graves in it, tucked behind a chapel.

Daisy wasn’t hard to find. I almost laughed when I saw that, against all odds, hers was the only grave with a patch of daisies sprouting from it. Cutie mark magic is wild.

My companions stayed silent as I knelt down and picked one of the little white flowers, and tucked it into the bottle. “You’re not forgotten. None of you are.”

At the foot of the grave, I dug a hole about three feet deep and just wide enough for the makeshift urn. Returning the soil from whence it came, I patted it down and stepped back.

Chancer stepped forward next. “I’m sorry,” is all she uttered. Masque opted to simply bow respectfully.

The task was done. Time to go home.

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