Fallout: Equestria, Project Horizons

Chapter 15: Flank

Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons
By Somber
Chapter 15: Flank
"That wasn't the doozy? How could that not be the doozy?!"
Once upon a time, when I was just a filly, my flank was blank, and then one day it wasn't anymore. Rivets had inherited a deck of cards from her mother, and we were playing blackjack, the only card game my feeble math skills could handle. Rivets, Daisy, Marmalade, Hatches, and I were sitting around a table in a storeroom, drinking synthetic apple juice and betting impossible sums with nuts, bolts, screws, and the occasional actual old bit. We were having a great time.
Then Hatches had to go pee. The door of the storeroom was like most: a pair of metal plates slid up and down by an electric motor connected to a button. She'd pressed that and started through. There had been a short, and the door had closed on her, the large, heavy slab falling from above and the smaller sheet being pushed up from below, with her body in the middle. A horrible snapping sound, then the mechanism had caught and the door opened again. Over in a second. We'd just watched, stunned, as she kept walking on shaking limbs. She'd reached the stairs before she crumpled and died two minutes later. We still just watched, too shocked to even move.
Did I mention that we only started calling her Hatches after she was crushed?
I couldn't even remember her real name. I wished I could remember her name, because I now knew exactly how she felt walking down that long metal tunnel. My heart continued its rapid staccato as every step made my organs feel as if they were sloshing around inside me. Only the Buck kept me walking; we'd run out of Steady, and I was forced to walk between Glory and the curious Reaper that had saved our lives.
"I need a Fixer. Why can't I have a Fixer again?" I asked as I slumped against Rampage's polished metal armor. The articulated plates shifted under my thrashed barding.
"Fixer is not a cure. Fixer is an even worse drug than most of what you've been swallowing while my back was turned." Glory was decidedly snippy and had retracted her previous statement about my intelligence. Instead of lecturing me about how I'd screwed up so badly, she had decided to try and fix the problem by educating me about it. "Fixer's a psychoactive like Dash and Mint-als. It doesn't do anything for your actual symptoms but make them ignorable. You have been trotting around with your heart rate at over a hundred beats a minute when you should have been lying down, trying to metabolize the chemicals and recover."
"Besides, you ate the last tablet an hour ago," Rampage added with an amused snicker. In the few hours we'd been travelling together, I'd learned little from the strange pony with shining armor, who was still smeared with darkening gore. Her hoofclaws tapped the asphalt with a persistent metallic beat as we walked. I had, though, been able to see that her armor wasn't part of her body or something, like Deus's; it was just really good metal armor, and the pony under its bulk seemed not much larger than me. I'd also noticed that the few bits of coat the armor left exposed bore strange bright red markings in a pattern that looked almost like zebra stripes.
She also ate Mint-als like clockwork, taking out the white tablets and popping them in her mouth one by one. But did Glory give her a fifteen-minute lecture on the properties and perils of Mint-als? Nooo. Instead, I learned more about pharmacology than I ever cared to.
Steady, I discovered, caused nerve damage if used too frequently. Med-X could cause the mind to experience phantom pains. Buck was damaging my joints and muscles and doing a number on my reproductive system. But the real monster, apparently, was Hydra.
"Only unicorns can perform magical healing, and there are few who can perform the service. As a result, pegasi and earth ponies found a way to regenerate injuries using a hormonal extract of certain glands from hydras, hence the name. The harvesting is difficult enough, but the real peril is that the chemical suppresses normal recovery long after it wears off. Your body's natural healing processes fail, and you die cell by cell." She looked scared. "One Hydra is bad enough, but two or three... you can drop dead on your hooves."
"And that's not counting taking a stroll through some nice quiet e-fields," interjected Rampage. "I've seen ponies liquefy from a combination of Hydra and a strong enough Enervation field. Kinda cool to watch, actually," she said brightly, grinning at the sick look Glory and I shared. "Oh, what? You think that's the worst way to die?"
"No." I muttered, "I've seen worse."
"Like what?" she asked with a mocking little smirk.
I really wasn't in the mood for Reaper taunting. I looked at her flatly. "I fed a pony through a rock crusher once." She blinked, looking speculative. "Tail first," I added, and was rewarded with a small look of shock on her face. Now her pink eyes looked skeptical. "It's true. It was the only way I could kill a pony monster named Gorgon."
Rampage stopped in her tracks, and I slid off her side and fell flat on my face. "You really killed Gorgon?"
"At Brimstone's Fall," I answered as I tried to get my hooves to support me. "He was trying to kill me. He'd taken over the mine and I had to take him out." Her wording hit me. "How did you..." I nervously started to ask.
Rampage gave me an even stare. "Gorgon is... was... I knew him." I felt dread creep up my spine. If she decided to attack and avenge him, what could I do to stop it? My only chance was three magic bullets to the face, and even then I wasn't sure I could pull it off. "And he was a friend," she added, and I almost switched to S.A.T.S. right then. But instead of looking angry or upset... I couldn't tell what that expression was. Was it happiness? "Lucky bastard."
She bit the neck of my barding and hauled me to my hooves. "You aren't mad?" I asked.
"Should I be?" she asked in return once I was standing.
Glory looked at her, as confused and wary as me. "He was your friend."
She sighed. "There are worse things you could have done to him."
"But... who was he? What was he?" Glory asked.
"My friend the monster," was all she answered, and after a look at the scowl that accompanied it I nudged Glory and shook my head. Rampage was not a safe pony to press right now. Not till we knew more about her. She certainly wasn't quite the psychopath I'd envisioned... but that didn't mean that she couldn't be a psychopath I hadn't envisioned.
We walked along together for a bit in welcome silence. We were entering a small valley where the Sunset Highway crossed over another road from Hoofington before heading off to the southwest towards Fillydelphia. We'd been hit by raiders twice. Fortunately, I simply sat my butt down, floated the carbine over my head, and played gun turret while Rampage eagerly dismembered them. The white and red pony's serrated armor tore our attackers in half, and each kick of her hoofblades shredded hide and armor alike. Watching her moves, I realized two things: I did not want to fight her, and I appreciated just how tough Reapers had to be.
Reapers... just like Deus.
"Have you ever heard of somepony named Sanguine?" I asked as we finished looting the second band of raiders. I wasn't finding any links to the Enclave on them, but paranoia was nibbling at my mane.
"Sure," Rampage replied. "He's a unicorn ghoul. Real nutcase too: drinks blood. Lots of business deals and a surprisingly snappy dresser. Used to be a doctor before the war, or so I heard." She looked down at me with a smirk. "And no, personally I don't do much business with him. He works out of Paradise, though; he's hoof in frigging hoof with Usury."
"Is there a way I can get in contact with him?"
"Why would you want to?"
I lifted my PipBuck. "He wants a file on this. He sent Deus to my stable, and I'm pretty sure he's why Deus is after me."
"Uh... no. Having a vagina and having shot at him with artillery is why Deus's after you. But yeah, he works a lot with Sanguine." She took a deep breath. "If you really want to hand the file over, he'd probably pay you and smooth things over with Deus and Usury. Maybe get you out of the Hoof. But if he wants that file, it's because somepony else wants it. Somepony with a lot of pull in the Hoof. I can only think of two or three with that kind of swing... four, if you throw in the Enclave," she added with a glance at Glory. "Big Daddy Reaper, Elder Crunchy Carrots, and King Awesome."
I couldn't have heard that right. "King... Awesome?" And here I thought calling myself Security was pretentious.
"He's the head of the Society," Rampage said and then snorted. "Hey, don't look at me. I didn't name him."
"And is he?" I asked with a wan grin. "Awesome, I mean?"
Rampage shrugged. "The Society is the biggest source of real food in the Hoof. King Awesome managed to get the plantations working, screwing over the Eggheads in the process. They charge a premium, but food is food." She glanced at me. "Of course, they use slaves to farm it."
Any affinity I had for Prince Splendid withered on the vine. "They what?" Rampage seemed amused by my anger.
"Sure. You don't expect aristocrats to get their hooves dirty, do you? Until Red Eye came along, they were the premier slaveholders in the Hoof... heck, maybe in all of Equestria." She frowned and rubbed her chin. "You know... I always wondered where Red Eye got the caps to pay for all those slaves he's been funneling into Fillydelphia. Hmm." She shrugged and looked at me again. "Anyway, the Society prefers to call them 'serfs' and 'servants', but it's one pony wearing an explosive collar and another pony with their hoof on the trigger. So it sounds like slaves to me."
Even feeling as lousy as I did and with everything churning in my brain, I somehow managed some fresh, smoldering anger. It was refreshing to have something wrong to focus against. I might not be able to do anything right now, but it was something to think about. I added it to my mental 'things to do' list somewhere underneath 'Survive' and above 'Save Equestria'.
We arrived. The town filling most of the valley had evidently once been a major suburb of Hoofington. Several five and six-story buildings hunched sullenly together in the center of the ruins like brooding mares. We passed by a sign that read 'Welcome to Flankfurt. Hope you like your stay.' That warm greeting was marred by less charming messages like 'DASH: 20% more fucked!', 'STELLA!', 'Fuck Caprice: 50 caps', 'Fried in ten seconds flat', and 'DIE ZEBRA DIE!' There was a balefire crater to the north, but most of Flank appeared burned rather than blasted. A morass of ponds and muck lingered in and around the roofless remains of the houses, but I didn't see one strand of swamp grass. Nothing grew in Flank.
Then I felt it. My heartbeat was becoming irregular and I staggered, my hooves falling out from under me. Blood was trickling down my nose and out of my ears. Tears much too thick to be simple salt water ran down my cheeks. I couldn't seem to breathe as I feel flat on my face.
"Blackjack? Blackjack! What's wrong?" Glory yelled as she turned me on my side.
"Enervation, probably. Flank is full of e-fields," Rampage said in mild irritation. "Guess the Hydra weakened her body enough that she's crashing."
"Do something!" Glory said as she looked up at the Reaper, "Please!"
Rampage rolled her eyes and gave a dismissive snort, grabbed me, and dragged me several feet back. My heartbeat steadied as I lay there. Now, more than ever, I suddenly realized just how fucked up I was. I could have died! I could have liquefied... I...
It finally happened: I was afraid of dying. Not of dying personally; that was sort of a 'well, it would suck if I did' kind of concern. No, it was thinking about not resolving things with P-21. It was wondering what would happen to Glory if I died. Thinking of that, for the first time ever, I realized I was scared shitless that I'd kick it and leave them to go on without me.
I am such a stupid pony that I had to bleed from my tear ducts before I could see that.
I don't know what Glory was doing; injecting me with the very chems that had deteriorated my body, I supposed. She gave me a healing potion that tasted like ass, but I couldn't even throw it up. "We have to get her to Flank's doctor now," Glory said desperately as she looked down the highway at the distant gates. It was at least a mile or two. Maybe more.
"Give her some Dash," Rampage said as she eyed the ruins around us.
"Oh, pop another Mint-al!" Glory snapped back.
"She's this close to dying anyway," Rampage said as she took out the tin and licked up one of the tablets, chewing. "If she can make the run, maybe Scalpel can get her in the auto-doc fast enough to do something. Otherwise, she's a corpse." She frowned. "And in case you missed it... we got scavengers coming."
I saw them creeping out of the burned-out ruins. Naked and emaciated or wearing the thinnest rags. Bloodshot and yellowed eyes. Slat-sided ponies, poor and desperate, crept slowly closer and closer. They all looked just as wrecked as I was, but there were a lot more of them than of me. "Give it to me," I wheezed.
"Oh dear Luna, I can't believe I'm doing this," Glory groaned and took out a red cartridge with a mouth tube attached. She put it to my lips. "Breathe in a deeply as you can..." she muttered as her hooves compressed the cartridge and I felt a hot, stinging gas fill my lungs.
Funny. I didn't notice much difference. What was the big deal? I stood up and shook myself off as I grinned at all the gaunt ponies starting to surround us. Heh. They were all staring at me, which made sense. I'm Security. The bad ass. The mare with the hundred thousand cap bounty! In one puff I'd gone from dying to amazing in ten seconds flat. Glory just looked at me like she was going to cry; why? I felt great! I was great! I think I just felt an orgasm, yeah!
"Hey, Blackjack, bet you can't beat me to the gate!" Rampage taunted as she started to run. Oh, miss Reaper thought she could beat me? Nothing could beat me! I could fly right now. And I was going to prove it as I started to run. I was so badass I was drooling! Yeah! Badass! As we ran I felt all sickly, but freaky freaky magical fields can't touch Blackjack!
Everypony at the gates of Flank was staring and stepping aside. You bet they would. 'Cause Blackjack was in town! Look out Flank, I'm bringing the gun and the fun and the funktastica! I didn't even know what that word meant, but I was bringing it, because I'm Blackjack! The Security Mare. Awwwww yeah!
"We're walking!" Rampage said as she walked ahead of me. Oh, miss armored pony thought she was going to win? No way! 'Cause I am Blackjack, made of awesome. Bleeding awesome! Yeah! I couldn't really pay much attention because my eyes weren't working. That's 'cause I got freaky freaky mutant eyes. 'Cause I'm cool... and stuff...
It was getting kinda hard to walk. Rampage bit me by the neck of my barding and dragged me the last few feet into a building that smelled of blood. And piss. And shit. And blood. Oh, that must be me. Because I smell awesome. Once inside, she dropped me to the floor.
"Mom!" Rampage roared. "Warm up the autodoc, now!" It looked like some sort of doctor's office, like medical back in 99. A long counter ran across the middle of the room and four armored guards were rising to their hooves.
"Rampage?" An older lavender unicorn poked her head into the foyer and looked at me through thick, black-framed glasses. She wore a profound expression of disappointment. Her white labcoat was smeared with numerous stains. "Not another one, Rampage. I can't keep treating every poor thing you bring in. Just give it some Dash and let it die in peace."
"It's Security, Mom," Rampage said. Everything began to tumble away. "And I think her heart's stopped..."