Fallout Equestria : The Stablefilly and The Beast

~~Daisy~~

"I'm so sore!"

They had been walking since sunrise, and Daisy was sick of walking after three straight days of it. They hadn't stopped for anything today, and she felt like she couldn't move another muscle. Quilliam looked at her with annoyance.

"And you will be until we make it to Barkley. We're almost there. Stop complaining and tolerate it for the rest of the day."

Daisy groaned. They passed a pre-war rest stop for travelers, but she kept her mouth shut. The building was covered in graffiti of things she felt were absolutely unspeakable. Quilliam snickered at her reaction to it, but they continued in silence.

"We can't rest for a few minutes?"

"No."

"Why no-"

"Daisy? Give up."

She sighed, and she sat down.

"I can't keep going. I can't. Have you ever walked this distance in this amount of time before?"

"Yes."

"How!?"

"It's easy. Now get your fat ass up and keep moving. For a doctor you aren't in very good shape."

Daisy laid down and looked up at Quilliam with annoyance.

"I can't!"

His face hardened.

"Come on."

Quilliam lifted her with magic and continued walking. The remains of ruined buildings passed sluggishly by as the blood ran to Daisy's head.

"Please let me down."

He didn't even bother to look at her.

"No. I told you the deadline."

She felt like she was going to be sick. Her face turned a slight shade of green.

"I'll keep walking! Just let me down."

He dropped her and still continued walking without even looking. She galloped to catch up.

"That was rude."

Quilliam nodded casually.

"I know. Now hurry up."

She tried her best to keep up, despite the burning pain in her legs. She spotted a large building on the horizon.

"Hey! A library! Let's rest there!"

"For the love of...Fine. I didn't think taking you as an apprentice would be such a bad idea."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they arrived Daisy noticed that most of the books were tarnished and ruined. There was a main desk in the center of the room with a computer on it. Multiple shelves had fallen and even more books were scattered randomly. There were very few unscathed books, but there were a few dozen that were readable. She grabbed the first intact book she saw and sat down to read it.

"Zebran Mythology...This sounds interesting."

She flipped through a few pages. She landed on a page titled 'Theories On The Origin of the God of Madness'. The illustration looked a lot like Quilliam. Exactly like Quilliam.

"Hey Quilliam...This Zebran God of Madness looks a lot like you."

Quilliam had been searching for any loot. He emerged from a nearby room.

"It is me."

Daisy looked at him in disbelief.

"You were a Zebran God!?"

He nodded and went back into the room. She saw a few books fly past the doorway before he came out with a carton of cigarettes, a few caps balanced on top of said carton, and a box of bullets.

"Yup."

She continued to gape at him in disbelief as he approached.

"How could anypony worship you!?"

Quilliam simply snorted. His magic faltered when he laughed and he dropped what he was carrying, which then resulted in a glower.

"They were primitive, and thusly stupid."

He approached the monitor that was standing on the main table, and groaned when he saw it was completely smashed. Daisy looked up from her book. When she did, however, she only saw him walking through a doorway at the top of a staircase.

"Uh, hey! Where are you going!?"

He yelled from wherever he was.

"Looting! You can stay there and read about what those tribal fools believed if you want, but I want to see if I can make a profit off of your break."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Quilliam~

I can't believe she insisted on this damn break. I just hope I can find something worth it in here.

He trotted up many staircases, passing ruined bookshelves and collapsed ceilings. As he neared the third floor, a mine exploded in front of him. He narrowly managed to balance himself and avoid falling down the stairs.

"That's a good sign."

Quilliam carefully stepped past the rubble and trotted through the door. The room had no other doorways. The walls were covered in filing cabinets, and there was a single desk in the center of the room. He went behind it, ignored the smashed computer, and noticed a large vault under the desk.

He drew a few bobby pins, a screwdriver, and crouched down to fiddle with the lock. He fiddled with the lock and ended up breaking his first two pins. On the third, however, the vault clicked open and the loot was revealed.

Inside lay a stockpile of ammunition, a frag grenade, and a pack of cigarettes.

"All that ammo, but no gun?"

He looked around the room to find the missing firearm when he heard a ruckus downstairs. Quilliam pocketed the loot, then quickly galloped down to the entrance and found a group of earth pony slavers loading an unconscious Daisy into a chariot. He drew his revolver and quickly fired at one of Daisy's kidnappers. The bullet barely missed. It grazed the stallion's ear and flew directly into the eye of Fluttershy on a Ministry of Kindness poster. That alerted them to his presence, and he had to take cover to avoid becoming swiss cheese. One of them galloped up the stairs and clubbed the gun from his surprised talons.  He slowly raised his forelegs and they cuffed them. They dragged him down the stairs and threw him into the chariot as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Daisy~~

Ugh...what happened? I remember reading that book and then....Ugh...my head...

She tried to raise her hooves to her head, but forgot about the pain completely when she realized she was cuffed on both her hindlegs and forelegs. Her eyes widened and she frantically looked around. There were multiple slaves surrounding her. Some were unconscious and some were looking at the floor in depression, not even noticing the world around them. She looked desperately for Quilliam, and found him sitting casually in a humanoid position. He was smoking a cigarette and seemed to be unaware that he had been kidnapped. When he reached for his cigarette, she realized that he wasn't cuffed.

"QUILLIAM!"

His head jolted around to her with an urgent look on his face. There was a large cut going diagonally down his left eye.

"Shut it! I've killed the guard back here and broken free of my bonds, but if you keep screaming they'll come back to check!"

She looked to the floor and only saw a red stain. She began to connect the dots from the scar to the stain.

"I-is that him?"

She pointed to the floor where the stain was.

"Well, last time I checked slavers didn't decorate their transportation with strawberry jam," Quilliam replied condescendingly.

Daisy glared at him, the noticed the rank stench.

"Ugh! What did you do to him!?"

Quilliam chuckled lightly and smirked at her.

"Oh, nothing much. Just some chaos magic. The weight of 100 tons crushed him from all sides. You could put his remains on toast."

The thought of putting that gory paste on toast and somepony eating it almost made her sick. The carriage suddenly jolted to a stop, and Quilliam's cigarette flew from his claws. Daisy looked afraid and stared out the opening in the back. She had nowhere to run. There were mountains, but there was no way she could evade their bullets. She was unarmed, so she couldn't fight back. She then noticed Quilliam had a shotgun. Her fear was quickly replaced with relief, and she exhaled the breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

Quilliam drew the shotgun he had stolen from the late guard and went to the opening. In an instant there were armed slavers pointing their guns at him. All but one were ponies. One of them was a minotaur. This was no ordinary minotaur, however. His arms from the elbow down were cybernetic humanoid arms, complete with fingers. He also had one mechanical eye. Where he had flesh, it was dark grey. His hair was styled into a mohawk and was coal black.

Quilliam's aim dropped when he saw him, and threw away his gun. Daisy looked at him with urgency, but then realized both the minotaur and Quilliam looked like they had just run into an old friend.

"Quilliam?" The minotaur's voice was extremely deep, and he signaled for his men to drop their aim.

"Ciao, Strong Arm. Long time no see. I thought we agreed to meet at the designated point and pool our caps together to start a large band of mercs?"

Strong Arm looked as confused as Daisy was.

"No, we went our separate ways."

"So you became a slaver?"

"Do you know how many caps a good slave sells for!?"

"You were a slave once. This is probably one of the most improbable things I've seen in the Wasteland."

Daisy and the Strong Arm's 'friends' watched the exchange in confused silence. The his face contorted with rage, and his fingertips opened to release small flames.

"I WAS NOT A SLAVE!"

His voice boomed at an unreal volume. Daisy flinched, but Quilliam actually reeled backwards. She realized that Strong Arm must have known him for an extremely long time to pick up that extremely loud noises hurt his ear terribly. When he recovered he faced Cybrex calmly. His voice too was different. Discord's voice was mixed in with it. It was calm, but she could hear condensed rage beneath it. She noticed Quilliam's eyes had turned white.

"Right. You let them cut your arms off, and you being forced to work was just an illusion? Admit it, Strong Arm. You would have been screwed without my help."

Strong Arm's fingers snapped shut and he glowered at Quilliam.

"Yeah. I was a slave. No, I didn't give in to them. So no, it doesn't count. I'm going to let you free, but only if you stop being such a bitch."

Quilliam smirked. "I have a friend with me. Can she go free, too?"

"Would that be the sexy mare that's been watching this whole conversation?"

"She's a mare, to be sure, but 'sexy'? I'd hardly describe her as sexy."

"Sure."

He signaled for one of his men to unlock her, but Quilliam raised his claw.

"Wait. Let's leave her to escape herself."

Strong Arm raised an eyebrow at him. "Uh, okay."

The stallion withdrew, and Quilliam tossed Daisy a few bobby pins and a screwdriver.

"Knock yourself out, kid."

Quilliam, Strong Arm, and the slavers walked away. Daisy stared where they had been a few moment ago.

"Veeeery funny, guys. Come on. Let me out."

There was no response.

"Hello!?"

--

I'm sorry for the chapter being so late. Power outages came first, then other distractions I couldn't avoid, and some distractions I could have. This won't become the norm, I assure you.