Fallout Equestria: Angels Feather

“The angel represents divine perfection; even the smallest feather is imbued with beauty and benevolence.”

I don’t know how many of you have died before, but it sucks...  A dark emptiness everywhere, inability to move anything, and time seems to stretch forever...

And then I woke up.  Not something I expected in my death was waking up on an uncomfortable bed in the middle of a musty smelling room...  I grumbled and sat up, my head killing me.  As I stood, I stumbled, catching myself against a far wall.

I could hear two voices in the next room.  One Male, one Female.

“So... Why are you giving me Fifty-Thousand Caps?”  The Mare asked.  A unicorn with a pale beige coat and unkempt grey mane.  She levitated a cup of something from the table shakily and took a drink as she looked toward the other pony.

“I need her...  I’ve heard ponies speak highly of her.  A griffin Merc with her skills will be a valuable asset.”  The Colt said.  Light Brown coat with Straw-Yellow hair.

“But You’re paying me Fifty-Thousand for something I was going to do anyway...”  The mare muttered quietly.

“I’m aware... I just want to make sure you have the funding to keep her alive, should anything arise.”  The colt said with a definitive nod.

“Now...  Why me... Specifically?”  I asked as I stumbled into the room.  The colt caught me and led me to a chair to sit.  I nodded a quick thank you.

“Like I told Bee here, Ponies speak highly of you.  And you are a Talon Mercenary.  You are the only one I can trust to get this job done.”  He grinned, reaching out a hoof.  “I’m Silver Tongue, by the way.  My friend here is Barbed Heart, but everyone calls her Bee.” I took his hoof and shook it, then did the same with Bee.

“So... What kind of Job and what kind of Pay?”  I asked, taking a bottle of water that Bee had passed to me and taking a long drink off of it.

“Straight to the point... I like it.”  He chuckled.  “Well.  Red Mane has been causing quite a ruckus in New Pegas.  I want them dealt with.  But beyond that, the primary job I need done...”  He stopped, let out a sigh, and looked at me with sad eyes.  “They took my daughter, Gilded Rose.”

Bees eyes widened, but she remained quiet as the two of us spoke.  “So... Swoop in, get your Filly back, and force the Red Mane to leave?”  Silver Tongue nodded.  “How much will it pay?”

“One Million Caps.”  Bee coughed up the water she had been drinking.  I raised an eyebrow at him.  “My Filly means the world to me.  One Million Caps is NOTHING comapred to her safety.”

My first instinct would usually entail weaseling more out of the deal with a line like that.  I decided, however, his deal seemed sufficient.  I could Retire on one Million Caps...  “Deal.  I can start immediately... Just point me in the right direction.”

SIlver nodded, but Bee hopped up.  “No.  I can’t let her leave!  She was killed A WEEK AGO.  She was dead until yesterday...”  She muttered, looking at me.  “And I just reattached the wing today...”  I folded my wings out and realized they were both, infact, attached.  A pink scar on my left wing showed that it had been recently healed.

“Griffins are sturdy.  I’ll be fine.”  I said with a wide grin.  Bee gave me a look that caused me to recoil a bit.

“You’ll just be back again tomorrow, and I’d have to patch you up again.”  She said with a stern voice.

“I’m getting a Million Caps for this job.  I can pay you for your services next time.”  She looked at me with tired eyes.

“Just... go.  Save little Rosie, and make sure you don’t hurt yourself too much?”

I nodded, looking toward Silver. “I’m going to need a new gun.  Mind if I get a small advance on that payment?”

He chuckled, walking out with me.

******

I felt like a happy little fledgeling again as I examined the shotgun I bought.  A riot shotgun.  I laughed at the hilarity of deciding it was a good weapon after being blasted apart by one.  I put it into the holster on my side, and put the varying ammos away in my bag.  Regular, Flachette, Explosive, and EMP.  Each ready to do some damage to Red Mane.

I looked back at Silver Tongue, who nodded at me.  I grinned.  “Well.  I should get to it, eh?”

He nodded, looking to the north.  “Their encampment is up that way.  Larger office building in the center, and four small buildings around the premises.”

“I figure I can fly up to the top of the office building and work my way down...”  I mulled it over for a moment.  “How much resistance should I expect?”

“From what I understand, they’re a band at least thirty strong.  Not a lot considering the size of their facility, but you should still be careful.”

“Always...  I’ll be back here by nightfall, hopefully.”  I chuckled, stretching my wings for a moment before flying up a few feet, looking back down toward Silver.  “I’ll do all I can to bring your daughter back.”  He nodded hopefully as I flew to the north.

It was a twenty minute flight before I spotted the office building.  I landed on a roof not too far from the compound and watched for a moment.  One pony patrolling the roof.  I can handle that...   Several in the yard below.  If I’m quick, I can avoid them.  I waited for the patrolling pony up top to have his back to me and I flew forward as quickly as I could, landing behind him softly.  I covered his mouth with my talon, muffling the surprised yelp as I dug my talon into his neck.

When he stopped thrashing, I set him down and entered the doorway with the stairs into the building.  Slowly creeping down the stairs, I saw two more ponies walking the hall.  I pulled my shotgun and raised it, ready to take the shot.

“Hey, Did you hear?  We got a new shipment of slaves.”  I waited as I listened to them talk.  “Down in the Cafeteria.  Four little colts, three fillies, two Stallions and one Mare.  The mare isn’t going to fetch much, she’s not right in the head...  She doesn’t even have a Cutie Mark...”  the one muttered with a sigh.  I felt the conversation was over, and took a shot with the shotgun, moving and firing at the second.  They both dropped, and I dropped into a nearby room and listened.  No hoofsteps... Good.

I made my way through this floor, making sure there was no one else on this level.  I carefully made my way through the other levels, making sure the slavers wouldn’t follow me down as I saved everypony.  As I made it to the lower level I looked over and saw the Cafeteria straight across the hall from the stairway.  Cages lined the wall filled with ponies in bad condition.  I made my way in and shot the slaver in the room, looking at the cages of scared ponies.  “Don’t worry, I’m here to help.”  I said, hoping to calm them down.

One mare sat in the corner with a collar chained to the wall.  She was a unicorn, but she wasn’t pulling the collar off.  She looked at me with blank eyes.  “Do you understand me?  Do you want to get out of here?”

“Don’t waste your breath, she’s stupid.”  The voice ruffled my feathers as I turned, staring at the Earth Pony that had shot me up in Pegas.  “I killed you once... Why do I have to do this again?”

“Griffins are sturdier than you think, you son of a bitch.”  I snarled as I lunged forward, taking a shotgun blast to the chest.  I brought my gun up and unloaded three rapid shots into his side and dropped the clip, loading in a new one.  He slowly stood and looked up at my shotgun at his forehead.

“No... Don’t kill me, Please.  I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Heh... Sparing you wouldn’t be worth my time...”  I pulled the trigger.  Three more ponies flooded in behind me.  I swung around, but the gun was shot out of my hand.

I saw as the ponies walked forward at me slowly.  I grabbed the shotgun that the earth pony had dropped and fired at the trio.  One shot was in it.  “Damnit!”  I threw the gun at the next one, pegging him in the forehead.  Not a lot of damage, but it opened him up to allow me to tear into his neck with my claws.  The last pony kicked me in the ribs and knocked me aside.

He stood over me, his gun lowered at my head.  I heard a pop from the corner of the room as the mare teleported out of the leash, reappeared next to me and blew the ponies head off with my shotgun.  She levitated it down to me and grinned.  “So.  Do you have an escape plan?”

“Wait, you can speak?”

She chuckled. “Of course.  Needed to get in here, and what better way than to play dumb...  We can’t leave them here, but we can’t put them in harms way...”

I looked over to the cages.  Two Pegasi were locked away.  “Can you two fly?”  They nodded slowly.  “Can you carry anypony?”  They thought for a moment and nodded again.

“Not for long, but we can help.”  One answered.

“There’s  ten of us... Counting her.”  The other replied

“I can carry three of the Foals myself.  You two can each carry one.”  I looked at the Mare.   “How far can you teleport?”

She thought for a moment and sighed.  “Depends on how many ponies I take with me.  I could get the other two fillies a few hundred yards...  Why?”

“I’ve got an Idea.”

Ten minutes later, all of the cages were open, and the foals were shaking in fear.  “Don’t worry, little ones.  Griffins are part Eagle, part Lion, and all Awesome.  I’ll get you all out of here.”

That didn’t seem to help a lot.  I sighed, leading the group up to the next floor, and directly into a barricade set up by three of the remaining Red Manes.  As they opened fire, I winced, but there was a bubble of magic around us as the Blank Flanks horn glowed.  “Huh... Useful.”

“It gets better.  You can shoot through it, they cant.”  She grinned.  Each shot that hit her shield caused her to shudder a bit.  She couldn’t hold it forever.

I raised my shotgun and took three shots, two of the ponies fell.  The other ducked behind the barricade.  I sprinted forward and leapt over him as he came up, leveling his weapon at the shield.  I blasted him in the back and caused him to fall over.

“Well then, Shall we?”  I chuckled as I led everypony up to the roof.

“See that building over there?”  I pointed toward the nearby building I used as a lookout.  Everypony nodded.  “That’s where we’re heading.  It’s far enough away they wont be able to shoot at us, and we can make our way to the ground floor and walk south.  Theres a town there, and I have a couple ponies waiting for me.

They nodded and I picked up three of the fillies, two in my arms, one on my back.  The Pegasi loaded a couple onto their backs, and BlankFlank teleported with the other two.  The three of us remaining flew forward quickly and carefully.  As we landed, I set the two in my arms down carefully as the third jumped from my back, glaring toward the building angrily.  I looked back and noticed a small device in her hooves.  Where the hell had she gotten that?

I noticed she was noticeably larger than the other foals, and had a cutie mark.  A wrench and screwdriver laying across a gear.  “I’m sick of that place.”  She muttered, looking back to the others with a grin.  “Time for some fireworks.”  She pressed a button on the device and a second later a large explosion blew out the side of the building, causing it to topple over slowly.  “Huh... Bigger than I expected...”  She muttered, turning around to the surprised looks she was getting from Everypony.

“I was able to sneak bits and pieces together from my cell to build a makeshift bomb... They never found it.”  She shrugged.  “It’s what I do.”

I shook my head and chuckled.  “Well, Lets head back to Wellspring, shall we?”

It was an hour long walk to get back, pretty uneventful.  The pony with the affinity for explosives, who’s name I found was Bronze Gear, was currently asleep on my back.  The others told me stories of how she was used quite a bit for the slavers to get a quick fix in the sack.

I shook my head and looked at the sleeping filly.  “That’s rough...”  I muttered.  She was exhausted today as they were getting the most out of her before selling her off.

I entered Bees house after a light knock, seeing her sitting on the couch in the next room, talking with Silver.  “I’m home, and I brought Company...”  I muttered, bringing Everypony in as Bee scrambled to check over them all to make sure they were in good health.  I stopped her from checking the filly on my back and shook my head.  “She’s fine...  Just tired.  I don’t want to wake her.”  Bee nodded and levitated her gently over to the couch to get some rest.

Silver Tongue looked distraught.  “She’s... Not here...”  He muttered, looking to the Mare with wide eyes.  “What... Where Is she?”  He asked her.

“I don’t know,Silver...  She wasn’t there when I got there.”

“What were you doing there anyway?”

“I heard what happened and made my way in to find her...  But she’s been sold off already.  I couldn’t figure out to where yet, but it seems somewhere out East...”

“So, we find her.”  I said, interrupting their conversation.

“Easier said than done... There’s a lot of slave operations out East... It would take years to find her, and that’s assuming she stays in one camp.”  Silver said.  Looking toward the Mare.  “Penumbra...  Do you have any way you can find her?”

The mare stepped forward and nuzzled his cheek.  “I will do everything in my Goddess given power to find her.  You mark my words on that, Silver.”  She kissed his cheek real quick and nodded to me.  “Thanks.  I was looking for a way to get all of the slaves out, and you happened to show up...”  She shrugged, looking toward the door.  “I can’t waste any time... I have some Contacts up north I can talk to...”  She muttered as she made her way out the door.

I looked to Silver, who sat down worriedly.  “So, you know the BlankFlank?”  I asked, he shot me a glare.  “Sorry... Penumbra, was it?”

“Yes... I know her.  She’s Gilded Roses mother.”  I nodded and sighed.  “And she’s not a blank flank.  Not really.” I raised an eyebrow, expecting the rest of the story.  “Twenty years ago... When the Goddess still caused havoc around Canterlot and the outlying areas...  Unity was a big thing.”

“Yeah, I remember.  A glorified slave operation?”

“Not quite.  The disembodied conglomeration of four unicorns was giving ponies the ‘key to a better future.’  In that, they were turning them into Alicorns.  Penumbra and her mother were brought forward, and offered Unity.  Unlike most Alicorns, they were actually given a choice in the matter.

Penumbra declined, but her mother wanted Unity for both of them and forced her into it...  The Goddess reversed it as best as she could, but there were remnants.  She’s got an advanced magical aptitude, and shes sturdier than the normal unicorn.  But she’s still missing her cutie mark, and still heard the whispers of the goddess like other alicorns...  She says she still hears them, but I don’t know...”

“Huh... That’s interesting...”  I muttered, looking toward the ponies who sat around on the other side of the room talking amongst themselves.  “Theres a lot of foals... What are we going to do with them all?”  I asked quietly.

Silver shrugged.  “It’s not my job to know.  I’m just looking for my daughter.”

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.  “They need Somewhere to go, though.”

“Theres plenty of places out there.  Let them find their own way.”

“Look at them.  Even with Bees healing, they’re not that strong.  They’ll be recaptured or killed in a few days...”  He shrugged again.  I stood and leveled a glare at him.  “Then how about this.  I take thirty thousand caps from what you’re paying me, and I help fix up the hovels on the edge of town.  That way, they at least have somewhere to live.”

Silver looked at me with narrowed eyes.  “So, you’re asking for an advance on your payment?”  I nodded.  “To help these ponies?”  I nodded again.  He looked over at Bee who was currently feeding the group.  “I guess I can arrange that.  If you don’t find my daughter, though... you’re paying back every cap yourself.”

“I still plan on finding her.”  I said sternly.  He nodded and plans were worked out with the ponies.  The foals were mostly orphaned.  One colt had family in Shanty.  Bee talked with a few townsfolk who agreed to care for the orphaned foals, and the hovel was fixed up rather quickly for the Pegasi.  Not a lot, but it was enough, and they could always fix it up further.  The thirty grand was divided between the families that took the orphans to make sure they wouldn’t starve.

Feeling relatively good about myself, I grinned, and felt a hoof tapping my side.  I turned and saw Gear next to me.  I completely forgot about her in my plans...  “Hey, Gear.  How are you feeling?”

“Less tired.  Where is everypony?”  She asked, looking around the town with me.

“Safe.  I’m taking the colt in there-”  She interrupted me.

“Frosty.”

“I’m taking FROSTY to his family in Shanty...” I paused, looking at the Filly.  “How about you... Do you have family to go back to?”

She looked like she was thinking for a moment.  “I... Don’t know, honestly.  My family moved a lot.  I don’t know where they are, or if they’re alive anymore.”  She looked at me with a sad smile.  “If you don’t mind... I want to help you find the Filly for him.”  I looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.  “I woke up when I was moved to the couch and I listened to your conversation, until I got bored and fell asleep again.”

“Why would you want to join me?  It’s going to be dangerous.”

She shrugged.  “I figure, while we’re searching for her, I may find sign of my parents...  Besides, you may need a good explosion here and there!”  She said with a chuckle.  “Though, I’m pretty good with any electronic or mechanical system, so I could keep your weapons in top condition, and hack just about any terminal.”

“Well...  That could come in handy...  Until we find your parents, I guess I could use some conversation.”  I reached out a talon, and shook her hoof, and we made plans to head out first thing in the morning.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Rapid Reload -- Your talons give you an edge over most ponies.  This edge is represented in a 25% Bonus to your reload speed!