Fallout Equestria: Honest Heartstrings

Chapter two- the Sneakless Assassin

Guess not everypony in the wastes wants to murder me.

My head was throbbing. My stomach was empty. But the smell in the air was much better. I groggily opened my eyes, rubbing them with my hoof. An action I immediately regretted as I rubbed cold hard steel against my left eye. My powerhoof. One of these days I was gonna take my own head clean off with this thing. I was lying on my back before I sat up and felt the cushions under me, it was surprisingly soft and comfortable, but for once in my life I sure hoped the fluids in the bed were mine. I even had a grimy, blood stained blanket thrown over me. As I looked around I noticed I was still in the shack. It was dusk and somepony had been cleaned up a bit. It seemed someone had removed all the bodies and various gore that plagued the shack, orr did their best at least, there was no amount of cleaner that could make this place homely. Looking to my left I saw a fire, with the griffon I had just met standing over it, she was obviously cooking something in there that's aroma fought with the previous smells. The second I shifted a bit, making the rusty bed frame squeak, she looked over at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Well well. Looks like Nightmare Night lives on." she said turning back to whatever she was cooking. I frowned a bit.

"My name's not Nightmare night." I huffed. It took me a second to recall the griffon's name. "Zoie, right?" I said tossing my blanket off me and hanging my hind legs over the edge of the bed.

"Guess those bullets to the head don't affect your memory." she said with a smirk as she looked in the pot. "Yea, so I know you just woke up and stuff, but that's my first question. How is it that I saw you get shot at the door and your face is not only still on, but still pretty to boot?" I couldn't help but blush at that comment. Not used to compliments that weren't from my parents. But the truth was that I had no idea. It's just always how I was.

"Well I'm not sure. But I the only thing I could guess was something my mom told me about taking points out of charisma for strength and endurance." She gave me an understandably confused face at this. She just shook her head and moved on.

"Uhh, right. So what about that powerhoof you got there? You sure can knock some heads with the thing." She said picking up a dirty fork and stirring around the food in the pot. It actually smelled pretty good. But a boiled horseshoe would have smelled tasty to me at this point.

"Yea I should be good with it. It's on my flank." I said getting up from the bed, wobbling a bit at first but quickly gaining my balance. "W-what are you cookin' there?" I said walking closer, trying to peer into the pot. The griffon smirked again.

"Just a few rats caught cleaning this dump out. You've been out for over a day by the way." I didn't know what to be shocked about first. The fact that she was eating rat, the fact that I wanted some or that I had been asleep for an entire day. I decided to start with the rats.

"So, rat? What does it taste like?" I had never eaten meat before but I know I would have knocked over Luna herself to get to that food right now. Zoie gave me a look accompanied by a small smirk.

"Never had it before?" She said holding the pot up to me. It looked pretty edible and it smelled surprisingly good. "Here take some." she said holding the pot a little lower. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Take some? What, should I put my face in the burning hot pot, or pick it up with my hoof?" I raised my hoof to eye level. "I can't grab anything with this. I mean, look at this. What is this even!? It's not like I can b-" I was cut off by her roughly shoving a piece in my mouth. I gave her a bit of a glare as I chewed it, my cheeks flushing. I had only even seen my mother and father feed each other and they were usually making weird faces at each other and always told me to go out and play for a little while after. I assumed they were doing it.

"I didn't think smartasses survived very long in the wastes. But I guess you and your beat down hoof there even the odds." she scowled and went into the drawer by the bed I was just in. She got a plate and dumped the cooked rats onto it.

"Yea well, I have a couple of questions now. Like, who are you? Well, not like your name but like... you know, what are you doing here and stuff." I said awkwardly. It only now dawned on me that this is the only other living thing I've had a real conversation with in years already. I never was good at talking to others to begin with and going that long while only ever saying one or two things to a passing trader probably didn't help. Zoie just sort of gave me a suspicious look.

"Well I'm a griffon, so I'm a hired gun like pretty much all griffons. But I prefer the term assassin over mercenary." she said as she tossed some of the rat in her mouth. "It sounds more dangerous, make people not mess with you if they know who you are."

"Alright so I saw you just jack those ponies up, so you obviously know how to fight. So how did you get captured?" I said as I went over to the plate of food, eating another piece. She gave a quick sigh.

"I said I was an assassin, never said I was good at it. I'm pretty bad at sneaking around. This was actually my first job by myself." she gave a bit of a grimace and continued eating. "I was hired by some nearby villagers to kill the unicorn with the mask and his crew. Looks like I owe you for saving me instead though." she said looking over at me.

"Mmm... nah, you don't owe me." At least I didn't think she did. "Why would you owe me? I didn't lend you caps or something. All I did was help you out. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" I tilted my head. "It's what my mom always taught me. If I see another in need who I can help, I should." Zoie gave me yet another confused look before starting to laugh.

"Do you really think that's how it works Nightmare Night?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Rhythm! Not Nightmare Night. But it's how it's supposed to work. It's how my mother always was. If they don't think they should help somepony if they need it, well all I can say is their mama just didn't raise them right." I took another bite of rat. Zoie just gave me a look that seemed like I was making her think. Don't really know what there was to think about.

"What about all those ponies you killed then? Knocking their heads off and breaking their bones seems like it's not helping them very much." I shook my head.

"Anypony who was planning on hurting another, let alone doing that to another, doesn't deserve my help. They deserve this." I held up my powerhoof. "Now my daddy taught me that one. I should break the one's who hurt." Zoie looked at my weapon and laughed again.

"That's good. I like that Nightmare Night. I like you too." What did she just say? She likes me? My cheeks flushed red again. I don't think anyone has ever said that they liked me before. "How about we travel together?" as soon as I opened my mouth my pipbuck started going off.

"Hey. My pipbuck's doin' a thing." I held it up to look at it. It was displaying a message that said 'Accept Zoie as a companion?'. This was new, I never had it say anything like this before. I looked over at Zoie who was looking at my pipbuck too. I switched the dial and selected 'yes' and it gave me a screen showing her over all health and even what she was carrying. According to it she had eighteen caps, a cheap mediocre pistol, a combat knife and a shotgun called 'S.y.L.R'. "S.y.L.R?" I said out loud.

"Your pipbuck knows what I'm holding? That's kinda weird. Well, that's my shotty. See you Later Radigator. It'll turn those bastards into mince meat. Ever run into one?" I chuckled this time.

"Once or twice. Hey, we should get walking to that village and probly pick up the money from the villagers for these guys, right? I mean, I'm not going anywhere specific, and we're partners or whatever now, right?" I questioned. This was the first time I had anything like this, like, with another living creature. I was really just going off what my pop taught me as a kid.

"Sure. Your stuff is in the drawer over there. Just grab it and we can go be on our way." I did what she said, trotting over and getting the bandages and potions as well as my caps, which were all still there. "Let's get outta here bud." Bud? Like friend? It had been a long time since I had a friend. It was a really weird feeling. I liked it. I went up to her and opened the door to the shack to let her out. The storm had cleared and it looked like it was pretty decent weather. We began to walk as I spoke.

"So where we going?" I asked.

"New Dodge city." she said. I got a little nervous. That was right by where my old village was. Hopefully this adventure didn't have detours.