Fallout Equestria : The Stablefilly and The Beast

~~Quilliam~~

They finally reached Barkley, their goal for the past week. It seemed to be calm on the surface. There were ponies, dogs, and zebras all wandering casually, although their expressions looked slightly uneasy. Among the sparse crowd, however, were griffons wearing arclight masks with a star scratched into the top right corner. The civilians all seemed to avoid them, and Quilliam could practically feel the oppression. He looked at the gang members with a mixture of interest, awe, and worry. He was expecting just a large number of pushovers. These guys were armed to the teeth. Some had desert eagles, others had fully automatic shotguns, and one even had a grenade launcher. They were going to be tough to overthrow. He looked at Daisy, and she looked scared.

"Are you sure we can take these guys on?"

"Nope," Quilliam responded, shaking his head, "but it can't hurt to try, can it?"

Daisy looked at him seriously.

"Yes. Yes it can. It can hurt a lot."

"That's the spirit! You go look for Amira. She's a mechanic, so listen for wrenches, sparks, and complaints of faulty laser rifles. I'll head off and look for Strong Arm. If you can't find her, ask around for a horned wolf. If you're cornered by any gangsters, kick 'em in the balls and shoot them in the head with this."

He handed her a silenced .22 pistol.

"That thing is as loud as a kitten falling on a pillow."

Daisy took it, then turned to Quilliam as he was trotting away.

"Wait, horned wolf?"

Quilliam continued walking away, without turning back.

"Yup. A wolf with a unicorn horn. Now get going."

Daisy stood there, looking at him in disbelief as he left her there.  He barely heard her last sentence.

"He's kidding me..."

Quilliam passed ponies who looked at him in fear, dogs that looked relieved, dogs that hid from him, and gangsters that looked at him critically through the shattered visors in their masks, trying to see if he would be a threat. He saw Strong Arm's carriage, but there was nopony manning it.

"He must have brought the slaves to the trading center for sale," Quilliam thought aloud.

He entered the bar and looked for Strong Arm. Strong Arm was an alcoholic, so finding him here wouldn't be a tough guess.

So are you coming in here for booze and a whore, or Strong Arm?

Oh damn it...Again with the voices.

Don't hate us so much, Quilliam. We're just your ancestors. We draconequui get a good kick out of pestering descendants.

Did you miss us?

Not really, no. I was relieved you two nuisances were out of my head for those few months.

Don't talk to your father that way, Quilliam. Go to your room.

Would you kindly shut up, Discord? I'm trying to look for somepony here.

Hey, don't just verbally berate Discord! Give your ol' grandpa Havoc some attention, too.

Fuck you, too, Havoc.

He decided to ignore the nagging voices and continue the search as they continued to talk to him and each other.

~~Daisy~~

Daisy looked on in complete disbelief and confusion as Quilliam trotted into town. The words she had just heard failed to compute with her.

"A wolf...with a horn. A wolf with a horn? What?"

She continued babbling for a few moments until she finally decided to just forget trying to think about it and instead went off to look for this freak of nature. Daisy trotted blindly into town, too afraid to ask any of the locals for the location of Quilliam's old...friend. She didn't want to apply in term to this strange creature that would imply it is an intelligent being.

A wolf with a horn?! That's crazy!

Daisy passed by many different shops, but never really looked inside. She was far too lost in her thoughts to even think about searching at the moment. She shook her head to clear her thoughts...

...right before a large ball of plasma flew by her snout.

"Gah!"

Daisy fell backwards onto her flank in a desperate attempt to stop herself from getting her brain melted inside of her skull. She watched the burning green orb fly into a nearby wall and melt away a small portion of it. She snapped her head in the other direction to see her attacker and saw a creature run out of a large building with a sign saying "ENERGY WEAPON SALESMAN/MECHANIC" in terrible, scrawled letters hanging on the door. Daisy was too shocked to pay attention, but she was helped up and escorted inside by...a horned wolf. She had found Amira by pure coincidence. The wolf looked at her apologetically and broke her from her thoughts.

"I'm so sorry about that," Amira said with genuine empathy. "Are you hurt? Did it hit you? I'll pay for the doctor bill."

Daisy couldn't help but look at her like she was some kind of freak. Quilliam's description hadn't been inaccurate. This...thing...was acting like ponies shouldn't be surprised at her existence. Daisy didn't notice at first, but the creature was looking at her with annoyance and confusion.

"You okay? You look like I just slapped you."

"Well, I'm not used to seeing horned wolves."

Daisy tried to not sound hateful, but she certainly sounded bigoted. The freak walked behind her casually and Daisy was terrified by what came back around. She was looking at a mirror image of herself. Daisy's eyes turned to the size of saucers as she collapsed backwards a second time in dealing with this...thing. Now things had gotten ten times worse. She wasn't just dealing with deformed wolf, she was dealing with a changeling.

What kind of group did Quilliam run!? He employed these...monsters! A slaver, a changeling, and he's a draconequus! Maybe I should just bail out of this and try and go home, despite the hostility. Maybe things have calmed down...

Her thoughts were interrupted by one of the masked gang ponies coming in, glaring through the visor. It stomped forwards and drew a laser rifle. Daisy felt her fight or flight instinct about to take course before she realized it was gesturing towards it to the changeling. The voice that arose from the mask was muffled, but clear enough to make out.

"Why did you make this gun only function with overcharge cells!?"

"It can't work with normal cells. You said that you wanted the gun to turn people to a few grains of dust in a single shot, so I optimized it for OC. I'm sorry, but that's the only way it will work. Keep a sidearm for normal cells if you have to, but this beauty will only work with overcharge."

"You obviously have no clue what you're doing."

"Says the moron who thinks I can make a normal energy cell turn a pony to dust in a single shot."

Daisy just watched the encounter, not sure if she should butt in or not. She had no knowledge of how to work energy weapons, but she didn't like the customer's attitude. Five minutes and two hoarse throats later, he stormed out of the building with a plasma pistol.

The changeling turned to Daisy.

"So what were you saying?"

"Er...Quilliam's back in town. He's trying to get the company together again. He told me to seek you out."

Amira looked shocked.

"You're kidding. There's no way he's trying to get us back together. He betrayed us to go and join the raiders!"

"...What's a Raider?"

Amira stared at the ignorant mare for a bit before falling over in laughter. Daisy was offended by this, but she understood that half of this lingo was new to her.

"I knew you looked a bit too clean," Amira said when she got up. "Well, a raider is basically what it says on the tin. They rape, kill, burn, and rob whoever they want. Quilliam decided that we weren't being hired as much as he would like, so he attempted to turn us over to those bastards."

"Oh. So those guys he was killing before were Raiders. Okay. I think I have a good idea of who they are."

"So he turned his back on yet ANOTHER group of his comrades? He's not very trustworthy, and you expect me to go join up with him again? I have a great income here. Not to mention I am kept alive by these gangsters in more ways than one. We changelings adapted to living off of lust, what with love in such short supplies these days. They keep me fed on lust and they don't harm me as long as I keep letting them have their way with me. What can you do to convince me to join with that guy again?"

Daisy fumbled over her words, not expecting this sort of hostility.

"I-I...er...Well..."

"We're done here. Until you can bring me a good reason to join him again, I'll go nowhere near that bastard. Now buy something or get out."

And with that, Daisy was out the door.