Fallout: Equestria, Project Horizons

Chapter 8: Long Roads

Horizons
By Somber
Chapter 8: Long Roads
"Are you sayin' my mouth is makin' promises my legs can't keep?"
The word spread like wildfire. Did you hear about the bounty? What bounty? The bounty. The bounty of the year. The bounty of the century. Fifty thousand caps dead. A hundred thousand alive. A hundred thousand caps, imagine it! All for the head and PipBuck of some stable dweller? A stable dweller? Yeah, Security. Security? The mare DJ Pon3 talks about? Yeah, she's somewhere around Megamart. Are you going after her? Are you?
The answer had been yes. As I watched through P-21's binoculars I saw them drawn by the promise of easy money. That very morning a camp formed outside the main gates; only a half dozen. By noon it was twenty. By sundown, fifty. Most of them had pathetic weapons, rusty rifles and barely mended work implements. But that was changing. The professionals were starting to arrive. Professionals who were asking questions. What did Security look like? What weapons did she carry? What foods did she like to eat? Who were her friends?
By morning the next day, Megamart found itself inundated with 'customers'. Keystone made sure every one of them paid the toll, and even restricted weapons in case Gun wasn't enough deterrent. Each of the 'shoppers' kept an eye out for the mare with the black and red mane. Had a single one of them laid eyes on me I think they'd have torn me to pieces and hauled me to Deus in a bucket.
Still, for all the watchful eyes, nopony seemed too interested in the four wastelanders and their brahmin. Dressed in rags and cloaks, reeking of brahmin droppings, their packs rattled with salvage from all across Hoofington as they slowly crept north. Reaching the overpass, a gang of ten stopped them. "We're looking for Security."
"Oh, Security escaped last night. Didn't you hear? She was an Enclave agent. Cut her wings off ta fool us all," the old buck leading the caravan of wastelanders cackled.
"Horseapples," spat another caravanner, a gray mare with crossed knives for her cutie mark. "She's still in there. Security's from Tenpony. Got enough money ta buy the Finders. They're finally making their move on the Hoof!"
"She's travelling with a pegasus and an earth pony," the crème buck gang leader said as he glowered at the caravanners.
"Ain't no turkeys here," the old buck cackled again as the gang searched the packs. He was obviously telling the truth; clearly none of the travelling ponies could be hiding wings beneath their dusty robes and cloaks.
The leader of the ten looked at his fellows. "Yeah, well, we think Security might try and sneak out."
"Shit. Ya caught me," the left head of the brahmin muttered.
The other head gasped, "You're Security? You fucker. What'd you do with Hank?"
A few of the bounty hunters snorted at the two jabbering heads. The leader looked at the remaining buck and mare. "You. Get over here," he demanded briskly of the mare. "Get over here and get those rags off."
"Don't you lay a hoof on my girl!" The olive green buck glared, his eyes drilling into the leader. His wild black mane rose in a mad tangled ridge from brow to tail. A trio of varmint rifles fixed on him, making him bristle but step back.
The purple mare gave a coy giggle. "Oh, don't worry hun; I'm sure they'll be gentle." She wiggled out of the robe, revealing a petite body dressed in frilly, if slightly worn, lingerie that covered both flanks and back legs. Quite a cute mare, if you overlooked the male bits between his haunches. He fluttered his lashes at the leader. "Happy?"
The ten immediately lost interest and returned to looking at Megamart, scrambling as they realized three more caravans were leaving for three other directions. The caravan continued north, laughing and sharing jokes. A few miles beyond the overpass the two ponies following them turned back.
I never thought I'd be glad to see Pony Joe's again. As our 'caravan' walked around the back of the donut shop I glanced behind us once again before cackling with glee. "'Ya caught me'... you nearly made me laugh," I said fondly to Hank and Tony.
"I do standup," the brahmin's left head said with a chuckle.
Bottlecap smiled fondly as she reached back, licked over the crossed blades, and then carefully peeled off the cutie mark decal, spitting it into the garbage. "Are you sure you won't keep the disguise a little longer?" Bonesaw didn't really have much to remove from himself, as all his disguise entailed was his robes, so he helped me pull off the wiry black hair that'd been stuck to me with wax.
"Folks need to start spotting Security somewhere other than at Megamart. If they think we're still hiding there, sooner or later they'll try and storm the place or burn you out. If I know DJ Pon3, soon as I plug a raider he'll be all over it." Plug a raider... 'cause killing them was a joke. I really was that callous.
"You're lucky you've got such a puny horn. Never woulda been able to cover it otherwise," Bonesaw said as he magically yanked the clump of hair-coated wax off my brow.
I frowned, feeling a little hurt. "My horn isn't puny."
"It's barely bigger than a foal's!" he cackled.
I feigned an injured yet dignified expression. "It's not puny."
P-21 removed all his wastelander garments, frowning as he glanced at me with a small, almost amused smile. "Bonesaw, does the size of a unicorn's horn have any indication of their magical prowess? Because, Blackjack, I have to admit that I've never seen you do magic before," P-21 teased. The wrinkled old buck rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"My horn isn't puny! I just wasn't taught any magic. That's all," I said defensively. "I was supposed to learn spells once I took over for Mom." Okay, that was a lie, but it was the best excuse I could manage.
The truth was that I couldn't really do magic. Oh, I could levitate guns and swing batons as well as any unicorn, but my telekinesis was hardly all that impressive. In medical they concluded that my magic hadn't fully developed yet. I still had bad dreams of spending hours with Marmalade trying to summon magic hoofcuffs or cast a stunning spell. Trying to get interrogation spells to work had been an absolute nightmare, particularly when my mom decided that it might help if she demonstrated them by using them on me. Having your mother dig through your porn stash was bad enough, but having her dig through the memories of how many times you put yourself on the breeding queue? And having her critique your performance and offer suggestions?
P-21 was looking at me in concern. "Blackjack? You okay?"
"Yeah. Just... yeah..." Oh Goddesses, was I really becoming that much of a basket case? "I didn't freak out, did I?"
"Well..." He gave me a definite smirk... oh yes, he was really smirking! That was a Blackjack kind of smirk, instead of a sullen, P-21 smirk. "It seemed like you were turning pretty interesting colors under that paint job."
"Ugh... leave the mental patient alone," I countered, but I was glad I wasn't thinking about Mom recommending I raise my hips--Goddesses, I was thinking it again! Groaning, I fished around for any other topic I could think of. "Hey, Bottlecap. Are ponies like Deus common in the Wasteland?"
She took out a bottle of mildly radioactive water--no way you'd waste filtered stuff for washing--and starting scrubbing the gray paint off her hide. "There's always been Reapers around Hoofington, but most aren't as strong as Deus. When you become a Reaper they do something to you, make you stronger and tougher. But the oldest Reapers like Big Daddy and Deus have potent internal healing talismans and the like; the only ponies that come close to challenging their firepower are the Steel Rangers."
"Oh, why is that?" I asked as I peeled off my cutie mark decal and started scrubbing off my olive paint. For some reason wearing it made me... twitchy. I liked seeing my ace and queen of spades. Then I glanced over at P-21's male symbol and twenty-one dots before he covered them up with his saddlebags. What would his cutie mark have been? A book? A candle? A stubborn jackass?
"Steel Rangers have the Ironmare naval station. The HMS Celestia's tied up there. If they get the guns working on that ship, they'll be able to lob shells across half of Hoofington. They've got numbers and ammo and they're stocking up on every missile they can get their hooves on." Bottlecap looked to the east, but highlands to the north and east of us blocked our view. "Most Steel Rangers just worry about stockpiling weapons and technology from the past. I'm pretty sure 'Star Paladin' Steel Rain plans on something bigger. Fortunately, the Reapers love to pick fights from the west and the Enclave has them bottled up from the south, leaving them mostly stuck in Ironmare."
"You think they're going to try and take over Hoofington?" P-21 asked.
Bottlecap chewed her lip. "Elder Crunchy Carrots... never. But Elder Crunchy is growing increasingly old and feeble, and I think Steel Rain would just love to show Equestria what the Rangers can actually do. Unfortunately, the Enclave's of similar feelings. If they go to war, a whole third of Hoofington might be lost."
I frowned as I scanned the skies. "Speaking of the Enclave, where is Morning Glory? She left before us. She should be here." I glanced behind me at the door to the donut shop. "No. She wouldn't have actually gone inside..."
I walked to the back door and carefully opened it, expecting a wash of pure nausea. Instead, all I smelled was hot air. DJ Pon3 played calmly from within. Inch by inch I opened it and peeked inside the kitchen of horror, only to find... "It's clean." Well... clean in a figurative sense. The industrial mixer had been removed. The ovens and food preparation surfaces were so clean they sparkled. The bodies were all missing. Somepony had come by in the last day or two and scrubbed away every sign of atrocity.
Okay, this was one of the more creepy experiences I'd had in the last week. Not as bad as a few places, but still. I walked inside and found Glory reading a magazine in one of the booths, the radio in the corner filling the dining area with soothing music. A Sparkle-Cola sat on the tabletop beside her. If she hadn't been wearing that Enclave uniform and battle saddle, I would have thought she was a ghost, a pegasus filly from two centuries ago sitting here and waiting for her date to arrive. "Hey, Blackjack."
"Hey. I don't suppose you've been holding back a shocking talent at housecleaning, have you?" I said as I sat in the booth opposite her.
"Um, nope. You mean it wasn't like this before?" She gestured with a hoof. The duffel bag with my shotgun and reinforced barding rested next to her. She also had P-21's things in a sack.
I gave her a skeptical look. "This was a raider nest. You saw how they lived. This place should have bodies for decoration and guts for streamers." Fuck, did I really say that? I took a deep breath, feeling my head start pounding. "Somepony cleaned this place up."
"Well, it wasn't me. I've been waiting all morning," she said with a little smile, gesturing at some empty bottles of cola next to her. "There's running water in the sinks, but I think it might be radioactive. You should have P-21 check in the ladies' room. There's a locked first aid kit in there." She sighed, propping her hooves under her chin as she looked back down at her Scientific Equestria. "Though why anypony would lock up emergency medical supplies is beyond me."
"It does seem counterproductive," I agreed, then went out to tell the others they could come inside. P-21 went right to that locked first aid kit. The bathrooms were much more effective at removing the rest of the paint, even though Glory was right about the radiation. My eyes started to itch and my vision turned distinctly more amberish: minor magical radiation poisoning for sure. No patch and purge special this time.
I left the bathroom decidedly cleaner, went to the duffel, and sucked down a pack of RadAway, enjoying the tangy orange flavor. They could have bottled this stuff! Then I put on my new and improved... and heavier... armor. It certainly felt much more substantial. There was also a reinforced helmet made in the same blue and gold motif. I could feel the metal plates sewn inside. Hopefully it would prevent more 'Blackjack got blown up within an inch of her life' mom--
Somepony had sewn the Crusader patch on the left flank of my barding, right below the word 'Security'. It might have been dingy, but seeing the little gold filly pawing defiantly at the air made me smile and choke up at the same time. Somehow I'd pay back the Crusaders as well. The faction everypony forgot about deserved help the most.
Stepping out, I saw Morning Glory talking with both Bottlecap and Bonesaw. I hung back, pretending to be interested in Glory's scavenged magazines. "Once the slides are prepared, please see they get to Dr. Morningstar at the RDSP with my notes. I'm sure he'll be interested in more. Let him know I'm travelling with Blackjack."
"You could just take them yourself," Bottlecap pointed out. "It's hazardous, but Keeper's caravan goes by the Skyport every two weeks."
Glory looked over at me with a small smile. "Well. As terrifying as it's been, I think I'll stay with Blackjack. She's saved my life and she's trying to do the right thing. Maybe I can find more samples, too." D'aww, watch me blush.
"Well, glad to have you with us," I said, and I meant it. She was a little... literal, but she'd seen a lot of the same horrors I had and hadn't fallen apart nearly as badly as I did. And she could fly. Her Enclaveness was certainly concerning, but I was convinced her heart was in the right place.
Once everything was squared away, the three of us headed west towards Weather Monitoring Four, the broadcast tower a handy landmark. Now that I had shed the disguise, I felt a definite twitching between my shoulder blades. I also felt... good. Maybe it was just the day of downtime not killing anypony or Glory's vote of confidence or just the fact that I'd run into Deus and come out alive.
"So did your brains tell you anything?" I asked her, half teasing. I figured anypony after my head would show up as red on my EFS, but the only hostiles in these woods were bobbing bloatsprites.
"Yes. The raider sample had numerous lesions in the frontal lobe..." She caught my 'I'm not a smart pony, remember?' look and coughed. "The fronts of their brains were full of little holes. It looked almost like a sponge." See? Translate smart into stupid and I had no problem following along. "The front of the brain is where most of your impulse control and long-term decision-making happen."
"You'd probably see the same thing with Blackjack's brain," P-21 said, grinning at me. I did all I could to not say a word, feeling my heart throbbing in my ears. "So what do you think causes it?" he continued, not noticing my discomfort. "There's lots of ponies that live in the Wasteland who manage to stay sane." Sure, they might kill us anyway for a mountain of caps, but that was sane.
"Some bacteria or virus, I think. The decay is progressive; likely it takes months or years for full psychological breakdown to occur. Given that raiders are so aggressive and cannibalistic, they might spread it through eating infected ponies," she replied. "The Enclave reports that there's something down here that turns all ponies into raiders, but we've come across plenty that aren't. The slaver brain was perfectly healthy. No lesions at all." She looked positively ecstatic. "More samples are needed, of course, but the Enclave can get that. If I'm right, once they lock down the source, they can work on a treatment. Imagine a Wasteland with no more raiders!"
"That just leaves radiation, ghouls, bandits, killer robots, slavers..." P-21 listed. I gave him a little shove. Taking raiders out of the equation would go a long way towards making Hoofington a safer place to live. He was right, but if she was right and the Enclave could come up with a cure, I'd sure be happy. Then they could just do something about those clouds...
While I wasn't exactly thrilled about resting at the weather station, I knew there was food we'd left behind, and unless the robots rebuilt themselves we should be safe. By the time we reached the station, the rain had started to pick up and turn the ground into mud soup. We slipped back into the reinforced structure and I carefully and respectfully cleared out a room for us to use; I might not have been up to burying dozens of skeletons, but I didn't have to toss their bones around like garbage, either. I levitated some mattresses over and we got settled in for the night.
...Have I mentioned I hate being bored?
I had one little curiosity sitting in my bag. Slowly I pulled out the glassy memory orb I'd received from the broken gazebo beside the lake. Lying on my mattress, I batted it back and forth between my hooves. Bonesaw had explained how they worked: a trip down somepony else's experiences. See what they saw and feel what they felt. I assumed the first orb had been Miss Glitterhooves's memory: Garnet, recalling an actual meeting with Fluttershy, Cheerilee, and Redheart. Granted, this time I probably wouldn't wake up with my intestines... okay. Not thinking about that now.
"I think I'm going to take a peek inside," I said as I looked at the orb.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" P-21 asked with obvious skepticism.
"It's one of my ideas. Of course it isn't good," I said as I lifted it in my hoof. "As soon as I go into this thing we'll be stormed by bounty hunters, ghouls, and Deus. But I'm bored and I'm curious, so I'll need you two to protect me from Deus raping me with his cannon."
Glory frowned, rubbing her chin with a wingtip. "I really don't think it'd fit. That bore has to be a hundred and twenty two millimeters and that's almost the width of a mare giving birth so figuring in the thickness of the barrel..." She finally caught my look. "Oh. Blackjack humor. Sorry." She smiled sheepishly. "Yes, we will protect you from a hypothetical Deus and his hypothetical cannon."
"Next you should teach her about innuendo," P-21 observed dryly. Then he looked at me in concern, "I'm not sure exactly how that thing works, but be careful if you can."
"Heh... it's probably a nightmare phantasmagoria of blood and death, the way my luck's been." I touched the tip of my horn to the glowing orb and made the magic connection. The world faded to black...
oooOOOooo
Stars. They'd been a five letter word and a black page covered in white speckles in a history book I'd been too bored to really read. Now a million points of light filled the heavens above me. That was nothing compared to the moon: luminous and white like a polished bottle cap. Ugh, had I just used junk money to describe the moon? I had no poetry in my soul.
The lake before me looked as if it were a piece of the night sky: no scummy gray water, swampy weeds, or radigators fouling its flat peacefulness. The air was filled with the sweet smell of clean water and delicate fragrances I could only imagine were flowers. The unicorn mare I occupied fit so well I felt as if I myself were standing there. I wanted to taste that water and explore those sweet scents. Sadly, I could not, as she stood underneath a gazebo roof that hadn't yet been crushed by falling sky wagons.
I heard hoofsteps on the bridge to the shore and I felt her lips curl. "You're going back again, aren't you?"
"Ayep," a deep, mournful voice said softly. I felt him brush up against her flank, felt her body lean against his, her eyes closing as she took in his rich smell and felt his strong body beside hers.
"Isn't fifteen years of your life enough, Macintosh?" she asked softly, stroking her cheek against his neck.
"They need me," came his slow reply. "The Princess will be there. I think this might finally be over."
"Over..." She opened her eyes to look up at his powerful jaw and those soft yet so wonderfully strong eyes gazing down at her. "Will it ever really be over for you, Macintosh?"
He smiled and lowered his head to nuzzle me with shocking tenderness for so powerful a stallion. "Now that I've got you, I reckon so." Oh how I adored this... she adored... oh Goddesses, it was getting hard to tell where she ended and I began. "I gotta do this. For my sis. For all my friends I've lost. For the Princess. Heck, for you. Gold says the zebras respect me. If I'm there... maybe they'll be more likely to go for a ceasefire."
I felt her lean against him. "Then I guess you have to do it," she whispered. A soft sigh, and then she asked in a much firmer tone, "Have you told your sister about me?"
He jerked and gulped, "Well... um... she's busy... and... ah..."
"Big Macintosh! We've been together for a year and you still haven't told her?" I kicked his leg with a forehoof, but felt myself smiling. He was far too strong for my hoof to hurt him.
"I'm sorry. I just hoped that if we were together long enough that she'd figger it out." He gave a sheepish smile. "I'll tell you what, Miss Maripony. When we're done at Shattered Hoof I'll hand over my resignation then and there..."
"And?" I felt myself arch a brow.
"And I'll tell my sister and everyone who this wonderful pony is..." he added as he lowered his head to my own.
"And?" I asked softly. He looked apprehensive for only a moment before he sighed.
"And... I'll tell 'em we got to start planning for a wedding."
I melted against him once again, kissing him and feeling him hold me. Finally, like trying to tear out my own heart, our lips parted. "Well... all right then," I whispered, tears running down my cheek. There were the sounds of a sky carriage approaching and landing by the house on the hillside beside the lake. "I've waited this long. I can wait a little bit more."
"I love you, Maripony," he whispered in my ear.
"I love you, Macintosh," I replied. We stood together like that for a moment or two longer, and then parted. I hadn't realized how cool the night was till I stood there alone beneath the stars. I listened to his fading footsteps across the bridge, glancing back to see him looking at me. Then he boarded the sky carriage.
Then my eyes closed and I felt my lips move; a whisper so soft that I could only make it out from the shapes of my lips.
You're going to be a father.
oooOOOooo
I came out of the memory at once, staring at the softly glowing curve beneath my horn. Love. It was like stars. I'd never seen it before, not like that. Not love so obvious it made my chest hurt. Glory and P-21 looked at me in concern. "You... are you all right, Blackjack?" P-21 asked.
Was I? I had no idea. Could I do anything without having my brain or emotions wrenched in an entirely new direction? I sat up, trying to sort my emotions into the correct holes. "Who was Macintosh?" I asked, looking at both of them.
"Did you sleep through all your classes?" P-21 asked with a still concerned frown. "Big Macintosh was the hero of the Equestrian Army. He never became an officer, but he was pivotal right up to his death at the Shattered Hoof assassination attempt."
Assassination? Suddenly I remembered old Hoss's journal entries at the flooded field farmhouse. "He died saving Princess Celestia," I said as I looked back at the innocuous orb. "Did he have anyone?" They looked at me in confusion. "Did he have anyone? A family? A kid?" I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat. "Somepony named Mari? Maripony maybe?"
"His younger sisters were Applejack and Apple Bloom... but other than that, no. I don't think so," Glory said as she shook her head.
Shit. Now I knew how to feel. Was there some sadistic being out there beyond the stars serving up a buffet of misery and regret for me to wallow through? No... I couldn't let myself start thinking that way. There was no way out of that hole.
"I'm sorry. I guess it was bad," Glory said softly in concern.
"No..." I said quietly. He'd died and left her alone with a child, completely forgotten by everypony. "It wasn't bad. It was wonderful." And that made it so very much worse. I closed my eyes as I walked out of the room to step outside and let the rain wash some of the sorrow away.