Fallout Equestria: Desperado’s V4 (Molly Manticore Mega Mall.)

Fallout: Equestria

Desperado's V4: Molly Manticore Mega Mall.

Ch 1, Bad Luck, Good Luck.

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"Hello?… Hello?... you there?"

I was concerned as I looked at the old cheap phone, some ten or more years old, from early in the war. I thought nopony used them anymore, other than the veterans who feel the Ministries are bugging everything. "Y… ya, I'm here. What's up?" I asked.

"Oh good, I was a bit worried there." The stallion on the other side chuckled nervously, which made me worried. "I'm from management and checking in on our night staff. Here at Molly Manticore Pizzeria, we take security seriously. So who am I talking to?"

"Slowtrot," I answered.

"Okay, Lowmop, we need to check a few things with you again; it seems your file got mixed up in our system." I wanted to correct him about my name, but I also wanted to get paid. "Right, first off, any spouse or dependents?"

I rubbed my fading black eye, glad I wouldn't need to discuss it again. "No, none."

The stallion on the other line mumbled a bit before speaking up. "Okay, and have you ever been accused of or suspected of sedition?"

"Never," I said with practiced certainty. It was a dumb question, as who would ever admit to that? But I suspected that many of these jobs did talk to each other, so they likely already knew the answer to that question.

"Right, right, no good and respectful pony would ever speak ill of our glorious Equestria," he said with the same practiced certainty I had. "Now, one more question. What does Molly Manticore Pizzeria mean to you?"

Oh, I was not too fond of these questions. Too optimistic, and they know you're full of it, but not enough positivity, and you're on the shortlist for unemployment. "To me…" thinking on the spot wasn't my best skill, and truthfully, I never liked Molly Manticore as a colt. The pizza was okay, and the animatronics gave me the creeps. There was also the incident that got it shut down.

Wait? Why did they ever bring this place back after that?

"Hello, hello?" The voice called out again.

"Sorry, I thought I heard something." I lied.

"Yeah, that happens; this particular store is quite old," they said. It was something I knew all too well, as this place was the original Pizzeria. "So, about our question?"

"Right, Molly Manticore Pizzeria is a place that makes foals happy, and that's all that matters," I told him.

There was a long moment of silence on the other end before he spoke up. "That will do. One more thing. Is everything up there, nice and calm, nothing unusual?"

"Other than Molly moving around alone, it's all quiet over here," I told him.

"Right, she does do that," he said, sounding worried. "Well, you know how those old robots can be, always glitchy and such. And it's good for her gears since they lock up if they don't move for too long. It keeps her ready for the day, you know. Don't mess with her; Molly has poor pony recognition in the dark and might… try to remove you from the property."

Easy enough, I had no desire to go near Molly, and if I didn't need the bits for a new apartment, I'd have never worked here.

The power flickered, and the line cut. Sighing, I put the phone down and tapped at the security terminal, checking on the pizzeria. I may not have liked Molly as a colt, but she did have her fans, with foal-made decorations lining the walls everywhere and several group photos of birthday parties and celebrity guests.

Unfortunately, this place had seen better days, with most of the wallpaper and other parts of the building architecture being pre-war, with add-ons from both early war and current. It gave the place a chopped-up feeling, as each era had a different feeling. The animatronics, too, were the same, With Molly being from before the war and looking seriously dated, like they tried making her look like a real Manticore and then threw on an apron. Then, her two best friends, Jackalope and Phoenix robots, whom I couldn't care to remember their names, looked far more whimsical and toy-like but far more creepy, too. Lastly was Terra the Timberwolf, a much more advanced robot that could sing and play instruments.

Unlike the others, Terra didn't give me the creeps and was popular even among the adults; some even suspected that Sweetie Belle had some involvement in her development due to similarities in how they sing. I even asked around why Terra was even at this old place when Molly Manticore had newer places and even that big ass mall they were building. As far as anypony knew, they were testing her out here, and she'd be moved in a month or two once all the bugs were removed.

Switching through the security feed, the two toy-like robots and Molly were on stage. Terra was in her room, recharging in her pod, making me wish the other robots would do the same. Actually, why didn't they need to recharge like Terra?

The arcade was a mess, looking like some foal had gotten sick at some point and left a stain. The kitchen was surprisingly clean, but a mister helper was running it. Each month, I heard more ponies complaining about robots taking their jobs, and I knew it had become a severe problem with the farms, but they were already having trouble finding ponies to work for them, with so many helping in the war effort.

The hallways were clear, and the maintenance room looked fine—except for me in there with a pistol in my mouth. The other hallway was… I turned back to the maintenance room and saw that it was empty.

"What is wrong with me?" I sighed. Ya, I was upset with what Poppy did, but not enough to be suicidal over it. Anyway, it wasn't like I didn't see this coming; my sister had told me the relationship was in the garbage a year ago, but I didn't listen. But how Poppy ended our relationship hurt a lot.

Switching back to the stage to get my mind off this, I realized Molly was missing.

"Fuuuu… dangit!" I cursed as I switched through the cameras, not finding the old robot. I then froze, hearing a tapping at the security window. Turning my attention to it, I flipped the light switch. There, a metal face pressed on the window was Molly. Her mouth was open just wide enough that I could see its endoskeleton robot inside.

"Hi," she said, tapping a few more times. "What's your name?"

I gulped, looking into her mechanical eyes. Something about it made me feel small and helpless. "M… Molly, please return to your stage."

She let out a laugh. "Slowtrot, that's a wonderful name!" she said before walking off.

"Fuck!" I breathed out in shock. Did she remember me from years ago? No Celestia way could she be the same robot, not after what happened to Wheatgrass?

I shook my head, trying to forget that disaster of a birthday party. And how close I was to having my head get cracked as he had… wait, why was I afraid of my head being…

I could hear a painful wailing in my head, like I was remembering something I didn't want to remember.

The phone rang again, causing me to jump and fall out of my chair. Pulling myself up, I clicked the speaker for the phone. But this time, it was a mare on the other side. "Oh good, you're still there! Lowmop, was it? We need you to do something." Strangely, a chirping sound was on the other side as she spoke. "It seems there was an issue with the power in your place, and you need to switch out a fuse. You do know where the circuit breaker is?"

I nodded, then realized she couldn't see me. "Y… yes, they showed me where it was yesterday and everything I might need to do."

"Good, then can you go check it? The sooner, the better," she said, sounding a bit panicked. “I'll stay on the line."

"I'm on it," I said with a sigh.

Deciding not to use the door Molly had just been next to, I went through the employee area, remembering that most of the maintenance was on this side. With lockers and arcade machines that are not in use, along with storage for other stuff. Also, I was told that Molly doesn't usually come back here, so I felt safer this way.

Turning on my company-issued Molly Manticore flashlight, I trotted through the back end of the old pizzeria. There was a table filled with old foal crafts, the kind they can't put up on the walls due to them showing Molly in a negative light. One had her killing Zebras, which I had found funny at first, but now that I was alone with her, not so much. There was also a collection of masks to be sold, most of Molly and her many "friends" who were other animatronics used at the other pizzerias. But there are no masks of Terra, as they all sold out this morning.

Peeking from the employee lounge, the coast was clear, thankfully. So, a quick trot to the janitor's room, and I was at the circuit breaker. I saw several switches on the wrong side and two burnt-out fuses there. I had no clue what had caused the power surge. After all, I wasn't an Arcano-tec technician, and nothing had gone out on my end.

"Right, I need an F-4 and a… F-10?" I told myself as I removed the burnt-out fuses and quickly found the F-4 fuses but none of the far bigger F-10s. Actually, what needs a fuse as big as my hoof anyway? "Where is the F-10 fuse?"

The Fuse was then passed to me. "Thanks!" I said as I installed it, then froze.

Turning, I saw Terra looming over me. In the dark, she was an imposing bipedal wolf made of fake wood.

I screamed, she screamed, we both screamed at each other.

Once I ran out of air and had to catch my breath, I realized I wasn't dead. "By Celestia, don't do that!" I huffed.

The robot looked at me for a moment, then scratched the back of her head as though nervous and embarrassed. "Sorry, just trying to help." Her mechanical voice was far less eerie than Molly's, putting me more at ease.

"Well, thanks again, but why are you up? Shouldn't you be in your charging pod?" I asked Terra as I flipped the circuit breaker's switches back.

Terra blinked a few times, the robot's eyes shining a bit of light on me. "Charging pod's power is out."

One of the fuses was likely for her pod. "Well, it should be back on now."

She blinked a few more times. "I see, thank you."

With a sigh, I stepped out of the janitor's closet. "Well, sweet dreams… wait, can you dream."

I was then grabbed by the collar of my jacket and lifted off the ground like I wasn't a fully grown stallion with some extra pounds around my stomach. Pulled face to face with Molly, I froze in terror as my nightmares came to life. She had me in her claws and slowly opened her mouth wider and wider, so wide I could see the endoskeleton head looking back at me. "Hello again, Slowtrot, let's have fun!" it spoke, sounding familiar and not like Molly but that of a colt. Not that it mattered; as soon I'll be dead.

"DO NOT!" Terra yelled as she grabbed onto Molly's jaw and ripped it off, causing Molly to let me go as she let out an unnaturally horrifying scream. Then, holding Molly by her metal mane, Terra shoved her into the closet and closed the heavy metal door. "Defective piece of junk," Terra growled before turning to me. "Civilian protection mode deactivated; please return to a safe location while company security is called."

Picking myself up, my legs quivered from the shock. "Th.. thanks again."

Terra nodded. "I'm just following my programming, " she said before turning and heading back to her room.

Looking down at Molly's jaw, it would be best if I did the same and quit this job. No amount of money is worth nearly getting eaten by a robot.

Trotting back to the security booth, I locked the doors tightly. "Hay, I flipped the switch and everything," I told the mare on the phone, but she didn't respond. Maybe she needed to check on something, as the phone was still connected. I did her some wet pounding sound, it getting closer with each pound. "You there?" I asked and heard one last loud pond that came with a wet slap and the sound of something snapping before the line went dead.

As the phone beeped, I hung it up, feeling confused and way too stressed to deal with company bullshit. Sitting back, I flipped through the cameras again, ensuring everything was okay. Molly was still stuck in the janitor's closet, thank Celestia. Terra had returned to her pod. But the other two animatronics were, though, where they should be, now looking at the camera. Flipping it again, now to the maintenance, I saw a mare standing there, looking at my corpse.

She was a pail pink mare with a pearl white mane that seemed to glow gold as rose red streaks danced through it. A golden straw sunhat decorated with roses hid her eyes, yet I could feel her looking at me, not just my corpse. Then she smiled, showing off perfectly pearl-white teeth, "A shame about the breakup, but you two didn't feel right. Trust me, it's for the best." Her voice beautifully spoke into my mind, filling me with absolute dread. Then she vanished, and I was looking at an empty room, struggling to remember why I was looking at it so intently.

"I... I think this job was a mistake." I told myself, reaching for the phone to call the home office. I needed to report about Molly and officially quit. This job is just not worth it.

A wet sensation dripped onto my outstretched leg, and I looked down to see blood staining my uniform. Touching my face, I found that my nose was bleeding profusely, as though broken. I could only muster a mild curiosity as my head began to feel light, and the world spun.

Then, darkness.

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2XX years later

-Slowtrot-

Special

Strength: 6

Perception: 4

Endurance: 9

Charisma: 4

Intelligence: 4

Agility: 4

Luck: 9

Skills

Medicine- 75

Repair- 55

Survival- 50

Melee Weapons- 30

Small Gun- 36

-Trait: Good Natured - Slowtrot grew up when war and violence were still a foreign

concept. He held to those ideals, even if they failed in the end. He gains a boost to non-combat skills, but all combat skills are lowered.

-Odd Trait: Wild Wasteland - it might be that Slowtrot is out of place and time, but the world seems different to him. Odder and wilder. He might be crazy, or is Equestria going mad? All the same, something needs to be corrected.

-Unique Trait: Forgot how to Door - Slowtrot does not retain information like other ponies, but he tries his best, for better or worse. -1 to skill points when advancing in level, but for the first hour, gains +1 to luck whenever entering a new area, and has a % ten chance to succeed on skill check he is too low to complete.

Learned Skill: Scrap Craft—The workers of the wartime industry had many ways to make the most of what they had at hoof, and having lived among them, Slowtrot had learned how to make tools from old scrap.

-Learned Perk: Classic Education - Slowtrot gains two more skill points every time you advance in level.

-Learned Skill: Smash like Yak - An object can be easily broken into bits without applying much force by simply striking at the right point. Slowtrot now does an additional 5% critical chance and a 10% chance to cripple limbs when using melee weapons.

Perk - Healer - Slowtrot may not be a professionally trained doctor or nurse or all that gentle with his hooves, but he has been taught the proper way to administer first aid, which is more than most know how to do in the wasteland. Slowtrot has a higher success rate when performing medical-based skills and will heal for more.

Perk - Toughness- Slowtrot has been knocked around by the wasteland quite a bit. Shot, too. Be it thicker skin or simply learning to live with it, his ability to keep standing when the hits start coming has improved.

Perk - Wasteland Medic- It takes confidence to patch a broken pony together with nothing but random scraps around you and even more luck for them to survive. Healing is 10% more effective, with a 25% chance of doubling the healing effect.

-Gear-

Rockhoof Pattern Trench Shovel: A simple short-handle shovel used in the trenches by the Equestria army. Its handle is wrapped with a coarse canvas. The black paint covers the metal, and the blade is sharpened to a fine edge. It also gives off the faint scent of earth, gunpowder, and blood.

Boomstick: The trench gun was Equestria's counter to the Zebra close-range fighters. It allowed a pony to quickly slamfire five shells in a wide cone. The Zebras eventually phased out much of their close-quarters troops because of it. This gun has passed through many hooves in the Stormland. It never failed to fire even once and was always hoofed over to those who needed it, never retiring.

The Burnt Rifle: A service rifle made by the Gunrunners and taken into a Dragon Ants nest by Slowtrot. It somehow managed to survive being hit by one of the exploding ants, thus burning the rifle with its napalm-like fluids. Even after being cleaned and modified, the gun still gives off the smell of sulfur. More oddly, those hit by the weapon sometimes explode.

-Vehicle-

Smuggler: A custom-built light strike vehicle made for long-range transportation. It is equipped with the Aeternus, a light Gatling magical energy weapon. This makes the Smuggler a highly mobile weapons platform.

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I slowed the Smuggler to a stop as I looked at the now ancient yet well-maintained billboard. It had seen better days, with a hole here and there and a lot of rust, but it looked rather good for something over two hundred years old.

"Molly Manticore Mega Mall, bring your family for mega fun." Star read out loud. "Are those… robots? Is it advertising?"

"It's the main attraction," I said as I looked at the massive billboard. On one side, it showed a newer version of Molly, well new for me, along with a random assortment of other animatronics behind her; the other side had Terra Timberwolf with two other robots playing in a band. The background had a crammed example of the different attractions, and in the corner was another sign advertising "Sparkle-Cola Adventure!" A theme park inside the mall.

"You okay, Slowtrot," Harp asked.

I let out a sigh. "Ya, just recalling some bad memories, that's all." Looking up at the friendly-looking Molly, all I could see was the old model trying to eat me like in my nightmares as a colt, and later as an adult; both times, I couldn't do anything to save myself. Frankly, from what I had been told about Molly Manticore out in the wasteland, I wasn't shocked that they were all death traps, and most pizzerias had been burnt down or megaspelled into dust.

"Right, you were around when they weren't insane nightmarish places of death. What was it like back during the war?" Star Charter asked from the gunner nest.

Looking at my companions through the rearview mirror, I was initially puzzled at why the Desperados added more mirrors, but now, without a single blindspot, it made some sense. "Can't say all that much. The two times I went, Molly was malfunctioning. The first time was terrible, and the original pizzeria shut down for years because of it, almost permanently, too. The second time… fortunately, nobody got hurt."

"Wow, bad luck, I guess," Star said before sitting back, Caval taking the opportunity to climb onto her lap, yipping happily.

Lair popped her head out from the passenger seat next to Harp, that knowing smirk on her face. "Or good luck, depending on what happened." I didn't know what to make of the Bicorn; she was Harp and Star's friend, but we hardly talked.

I shrugged. "Probably both, but that's how my life is." looking at my pipbuck reminded me how likely I would have died in Balefire if not for winning that defective and cursed Pipbuck. The damned thing had even followed me through time, now in possession of that crab pony.

Azure was in the cart hooked up behind us, along with Fizzy, Pewter, and the other two Ghost Nightstalkers, Fiel and Reina. Live Axle was following us on the Lone Wanderer, and further back was the rest of the Desperados. Our destination, Haven Valley, was the closest thing the Desperados had to a city, or so they told me.

"So, are you sure we must go to the mall? Can't we ignore it?" I asked Lair. Her uncle, Pewter, had requested that we help them stop something in the mega mall, and I felt going there wasn't just a bad idea but downright stupid.

Lair sighed. "If the gods say we must, then we must. There is no, just ignoring it." She said, spouting her religious beliefs at me. "And look on the bright side, if it's as untouched as the Desperados say it is, there's a whole lot of loot for the taking."

True, but that wasn't the only thing still there. "Sounds more like bait to me. If we can smuggle a megaspell in there and blow it up, I'll be happy with that."

Our radios cracked, and the voice of the old stallion Pewter chuckled through it. "I wholeheartedly agree. Such things are best just destroyed and forgotten. But things like this wasteland would have long ceased to exist if it were so simple to do. In my experience, you must cut out the heart of evil before burning the body, like with vampires, or risk them returning more dangerous and maddened than before."

I was still trying to understand that vampires did exist, and one was imprisoned under Platinum Hill. Along with necromancers, zombies, and gods were real too! Then again, I was manipulated by a nightmare, tossed into a dimensional bubble, and spat out over two hundred years into the future. Also, I could see ghosts and get flung around in time…

Life didn't make sense anymore.

At this point, my upcoming shotgun wedding to a biker mare was the most normal thing happening to me.

With a sigh, I focused my eyes on the surprisingly well-maintained road. The dry grassy fields in front of me made me almost forget that we were technically still in the wasteland, though a part that has quickly recovered since the radiation had been cleaned away.

A white speck then drifted in front of me, and with a cold breeze, several more appeared, landing on my nose and quickly melting. It was snow and the first time I'd ever seen it. Applewood was a warm place that never snowed, and since I never left it before, I had never had the chance to see snow naturally.

Live drove up next to me, her motorcycle's engine idling loudly. "Looks like winter has started, and right before the war, too."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "We can't fight in the mountains while it's cold as balls and hooves deep in snow. But if we're lucky, whoever is over there will freeze theirs off before the fighting begins."

I glanced at her, still unsure what our relationship even was. Her sister and I had a connection, but Dead Axle was petrified until we could reverse death itself. Their mother was now focused on me and Living getting married, whether we wanted to or not. Live was a cute mare under her biker persona, and she certainly could do better than me. Frankly, I couldn't help but feel like a burden to such a mare.

"Ya, we can only hope," I told her as I put the Smuggler back in to drive, ready to move on.

"Say Slowtrot?" Live Shouted over the revving of her engine. "If my mom wasn't forcing us together, would you still… you know, be okay with… us?"

It was a question that hit me in the heart. "I… don't know." That was all I could say.

She looked away from me, her face obscured by the sunlight. "At least you're not lying to me." Live then revved her engine and drove on ahead.

"It's okay, Slowtrot; you both just need more time," Harp told me.

Looking at Harp from the mirror and seeing her scared face and cyber eyes was just another symbol of how insane and cruel this world was. Yet, my biggest worry was if I should be getting married to a cute mare or not. The thought alone was pathetic when every pony I had ever known was dead, the world I knew was dead, and the friends I had made here were suffering, yet I was alive and well.

Pushing the thoughts down, I drove the Smuggler on. Things weren't going to get any better by staying still. By Celestia, we already learned that the hard way.

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