Prologue

New Pegasus wasn’t much more than a pile of rubble and some raiders before the first Ten arrived. They brought themselves, their families, and enough guns to fit an army. It took ten months for them to clear out the raiders and rubble enough that Las Pegasus looked something halfway decent. They’d wanted a home, but when they found the casinos mostly intact they hatched a plan. Why live when you can live well?

Around 150 years after the first bomb dropped New Pegasus was open. For the first time in who knew how long the San Palomino had lights, music, and flowing caps. Nine of the families took a casino each on the main strip, the tenth had one a little away, and eventually even the nine forgot about him.

At first New Pegasus was little more than a strip with a wall of old caravans surrounding it. But ponies came by the hundreds, some looking for their fates, some a job, and some just wanted to escape the harsh wasteland for a few hours. As more and more ponies showed up, and even more lost all the caps they’d ever had, a ghetto started to erect itself around the wall of New Pegasus, enfolding itself around the Tenth casino, finally bringing it into the city. The poor, downtrodden ponies named the place they called home The Gutters. That’s where all the drunks and chem-addicts found themselves.

As New Pegasus flourished, outside eyes began to watch the caps with great interest. A paramilitary force called the N.E.R (New Equestrian Republic) came to town and offered their services. The casinos tried to tell them no, but when the NER brought their guns in, the casino owners realized they weren’t in a position to fight with all their customers around. It was bad business.

A strong black market formed in the older sewers and tunnels of New Pegasus, and in the ministry district, which no pony really trusted anymore. The market was run by a mysterious pony named The Kid, and he knew everything in New Pegasus. He ferreted guns, chems, mares, stallions, anything a pony with caps could ask for.

Now while many came for jobs, some ponies came because of their job. Such is the story of Short Change. Short was a tan stallion, black hair, and a stature not that impressive to many. Not quick with a gun but the fastest talker this side of Canterlot. He was offered a fine sum of caps to run a Brahmin up to New Pegasus, and this is his story.

Chapter I: That Old Dusty Road

It was raining hard, for the first time this month, at least that’s what I’d heard Great pools of water were forming on the cracked, dry earth. I looked back at my caravan merc, Rimfire. She could be a real peach when you get to know her and luckily I’d had over a week to get to know her. Rimfire caught me looking at her and shot me a glare of some sort. My brahmin joined her in the venture. It looked like it was time to get into some sort of cover, the New Pegasus wasteland could flood in an instant with rain like this, not that it wasn’t already flooding. There was an outcropping of rocks to our west. It didn’t take a genius to know that there’d be a cave or two.

“I think we should head for those, get some ground and some cover,” I said to Rimfire. She nodded and we turned off the road and took off towards the rocks..

We’d been following the railroads most of the way to New Pegasus, but even they couldn’t make it the whole way. Nearly two days after we’d left New Appleloosa we’d had to ditch the tracks and walk four days to get where we were now. And we still had another day or so to go. I’d started this caravan in New Appleloosa, a nice town if I must say so. Not too many raiders there, most of the Slavers stayed in Old Appleloosa and didn’t bother us much. I had met Rimfire as I was leaving town and I asked her if she’d accompany me to New Pegasus. She asked me if I had 200 caps. Of course I used a little of my sauve skills to get her to come with me on the hopes that I’d have 200 caps by the end of the journey. The rest is history.

I’d never expected to meet a pony like Rimfire in Appleloosa. She had been hardened by the wasteland like anyone else, but on the inside I could tell that she was genuinely good. She had lightest blue hair I’d seen in all my travels. I hadn’t been able to see the color of her coat, she’d never taken off her armor, but she had nice eyes that matched her hair.

The rocks weren’t all that steady under our hooves due to the incredible rain making them slick. After a couple minutes of fumbling in the approaching darkness we found a small cave in one of the walls. The rain didn’t get in, so we did. I used a little bit of magic to pull some wood from the brahmin’s pack. It was only a little damp so I got it lit pretty fast when added some of the dry grass that had been growing in the corners..

Rimfire leaned up against one of the walls and began to clean her battle rifle. I was pretty sure she’d said something about it being an assault rifle one of her great, great relatives used in the wars before the megaspells hit. But I was pretty sure she had gotten it in Appleloosa. As the fire’s glow began to reveal the entire cavern I noticed a lump of cloth near the back.

“There’s something over there,” I said to Rimfire, indicating the pile of cloth.

“You can take care of this one. I’ve got you covered from her,” She said, not looking up from the gun. She was driving a cloth through the detached barrel.

“Some guard,” I called back as I approached the mysterious lump. Carefully I grabbed the .32 revolver I used for self defence in a telekinetic grip from my pack and floated it over. I gently tapped the cloth with the end of the barrel. It didn’t move. The gun tapped it again. Nothing.

“Well that’s a bust. Let’s see what it is.” I trotted over to the rags and kicked them away. The rattle of bones echoed through the cavern. A few ragged ends came scattering from the bundle. “Oh dear.” I had never been particularly skilled in the medical or science fields, but I knew a skeleton when I saw one. This skull had a bullet hole in it.

“That’s a damn shame,” I said..

“Why?” asked Rimfire. She put away her rifle. “It’s not something I have to waste good ammo on. Besides, it probably wasn’t a painful way to go. Fast, you know.” I gave her a look of disgust.

“It’s a shame, you see, that a pony had to die like this.”

“It’s a harsh part of life, Short, ponies die, and in the wastes, they’re gonna die fast,” Rimfire said.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times at her. “Call me Change, or Short Change, just not Short, please. I’m not all that short, actually.”

Rimfire rolled her eyes. “You’re near the shortest stallion I ever met.”

I chose to ignore her for the time being. Scattered through the bone fragments were a few objects of note. A couple of low caliber rounds, I could put them with the rest of my ammo. A healing potion that looked relatively fresh I put in my bag as well, but what got me the most curious was a small leather bound journal. I picked it up and leafed through. There were perhaps two hundred pages filled with written logs. I carried it with me back to the fire.

“I found this on the body,” I told Rimfire. “You want to read through it with me?” Rimfire had gotten her bedroll out and was laying on it by the time I asked her. She turned over away from the fire and me. “Then I’ll read it myself.”

Already this seemed like a stunning read, but I hadn’t gotten where was did by judging books by their covers.

I looked up from the journal slowly. “Rimfire?” I asked. I wasn’t new on the wastes, but my geography wasn’t strong, and neither was my hopes of fighting whatever killed that pony. She grumbled. I called out louder.

Finally she rolled over and gave me an angry glare. “This better be pretty damn important, Short,” she mumbled.

“Are we on the Galloping Stretch?” I asked.

She raised an eyebrow in near disbelief. She took a deep breath before she answered. “Is that joke? Are you fucking with me? Didn’t I tell you already?”

“This is serious, Rimfire.”

“Oh help me, Celestia. No, we are not on the Galloping Stretch. That’s north of New Pegasus, we are East of the the city.” She rolled over to face the wall.

“Good night,” I said.

“Fuck.”

I gave a little, crooked smile and turned back to the journal. That was the end of the first page. The next page began...

Put Cork in the ground today. His little filly was there, name was...Sunlight, or something. I wish I’d gotten to know her a little more, but that’s the way things are. I told a local NER rep about Cork. She said she’d take care of it. Bullshit. Only things the NER did were take money and put medals on each other saying ‘job well done’. No other caravan will take the Galloping Stretch now. I’ve offered triple pay for whomever does it. I’ll see if that brings up the courage, otherwise, I’ll bring liquor.

One of those goons from the Kid’s gang showed up today, said The Kid had had something special in Cork’s package, and that they needed to know where it was. I told them the truth, that I didn’t know. That didn’t sit well with them. They said they’d be back and I’d better know where it was by then.

I shut the journal and stuffed it in my saddlebag. With a minor flick of magic I unfurled my sleeping bag and crawled in. Rimfire never used one, but I swore by it. How else could someone sleep if not comfortable? I gave the dying fire one last glance before I shut my eyes to the world.

“Looks like he’s got some good stuff ‘ere,” A gruff voice said. It sounded particularly rougher and more male than Rimfire. I opened my eyes. Two dirty ponies stood in my cave. One a unicorn, the other an earth pony. The unicorn lazily floated a gun pointing in my direction. The two were picking through the bags my pack animal had. I looked around the cave, my stalwart companion was nowhere to be seen.

‘Looks like I’m on my own,’ I thought to myself. Carefully I felt around for my .32 with my magic.

The earth pony turned to me. “Sleeping beauty’s awake,” he said.

The unicorn stopped routing through my bags and turned to me as well. “Well what ‘ave we got ‘ere in our cave?”

“Just a drifter, heading into New Pegasus. Who’re you?”

The unicorn jerked it’s gun. “We’re the ones asking questions, and if you don’t show a little respect, and a lot of caps, we're going to blow your ‘ead off!”

“Fair, fair,” I conceded. I felt the grip of my revolver with my magic. It was my luck that they didn’t notice that horn was glowing soI twisted the barrel slowly to the unicorn. Thankfully they couldn’t see that either, and I was pretty sure my aim was right. The earth pony didn’t look to be armed, perhaps she had a knife hidden. I pulled back the hammer with a little telekinesis. “Alright, kids, I’m just going to ask you to put back all the stuff you may have stolen and you can just walk away.”

“Do you think that’s goin’ to ‘appen?” the unicorn asked. He gave a little chuckle. “It’s not likely, really.” He turned to his companion. “What do you think of-” He was cut off by a loud, quick bang. My shot tore tore through his throat, spreading blood across the back of the cave. His friend was slow to react. I wrenched my .32 from the bag and held it in the air and pointed it at the mare. Her eyes watched his body slump to the floor.

“I’m giving you this, just go,” I told her. She eyed the gun on the floor. I caught her glance. “Don’t be a fool!”

“You killed him,” she whispered. Her gaze didn’t leave the unattended gun.

“He was going to shoot me!”

The raider mare leapt at the gun. I put a round through her shoulder and she fell back near the cave entrance. Her blood was pooling beneath her.

“You-you...didn’t...” she muttered. She looked at the gun again. I jabbed my revolver in the air for effect.

“Don’t,” I said. I picked up the gun off the floor and pulled out the cylinder. It was empty. “What?” I asked myself.

“We didn’t think you’d fight back,” she said slowly. Blood was still pouring from her wounds. I could see even from where I was that she hadn’t been well off before I shot her. Hey body looked like it had scars and festering wounds covering most of it.

“But why risk it? You didn’t even have ammo!”

“No other way to eat out here,” she said, her voice growing weaker.

“No, wait, let me get you a healing potion or something,” I said quickly. I ran to my bag and started to rustle through it.

“I don’t want it,” she mumbled. Her eyes were lazy and unfocused. I wondered how bad she truly had been to be this bad off. “I won’t live without... him.”

“No, you don’t have to die for him!” I yelled.

Her response was a little over a quiet, bloody whisper. “He was my brother.” The mare on the floor let out a final, wet, cough. The sound of hooves clopping against the rocks in front of the cave. Rimfire ran in with her gun held high in a magical aura.

“I heard gunshots! You didn’t die did you?” she asked. Her eyes glanced over the dead bodies. “Oh, well that’s something.” With the utmost air of casual she began to rifle through the deceased ponies pockets. I gave a casual glance at their gun.

“I don’t’ think you’ll find anything on them. They tried to hold me up with an unloaded gun,” I told her. She gave me a smirk.

“You then realized what a terrible attempt it was and shot them, right? That’s what I’d have done. Them or us.” I wasn’t a huge fan of Rimfire’s motto, but it did have a certain appeal when ponies were trying to kill you.

“What? No. I thought they were going to shoot me so I shot first. It was only when she died that I checked the gun.”

Rimfire backed away from the bodies and slung her gun around her back. “Well that’s that then. I guess we should move on. We’ve got a good day’s walk to New Pegasus.”

I couldn’t agree with her more. It was high past time to head out this cave. We spent the next few minutes packing up everything; rolling the bed rolls, jamming the odds and ends back into packs and satchels. In the end, I was left kneeling in front of the skeleton of Crescent.

“Should we do something?” I asked.

Rim huffed, “We can’t do everything for every pony we come across.”

I stood up. “I suppose you’re right,” I told her. I hadn’t even thought of doing anything for the ponies I’d just killed. The brahmin followed me as we left the little cave. The sun was low in the sky. It was going to be a scorcher. We hadn’t been in the San Palomino for more than a day or two, it started halfway down this long highway we were walking on. Already the heat was getting to me. It couldn’t have been anything less than 94ºF since we’d started walking on this stretch to New Pegasus. The all too familiar sounds of hooves hitting concrete met us as we got back to the road.

“How many more miles do you reckon we got?” I asked Rimfire.

“Shouldn’t you know? I’m going to assume you’ve been here before.” She groaned as I shook my head. “What even brings you here? What made you want to come? Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about you. You certainly didn’t seem like the caravan type when I first met you, hell, you still don’t.”

“Yeah, the caravan thing was really last minute. I came to Appleloosa to make a quick cap. Most of my days were spent drifting from settlement to settlement, hoping to not get killed. I’d heard from a fellow on my travels that certain goods can be sold elsewhere for a lot of caps, and he was looking for a smooth talker to lead on to New Pegasus. So when I got to Appleloosa, I picked up the brahmin he supplied me and headed out of town, that’s where I met you.”

Rimfire rolled her eyes. “Where do you even come from? No one I’ve ever met acts like you do.”

“Excellent question,” I told her. “You see, I was raised in Stable 9. Now, before you go asking where my PipBuck is, relax, the stable was abandoned when my parents moved into it and all the cool toys were gone. Though I did have access to an entire stable’s library growing up. I read all the great classics. Those books taught me one important thing, act upon others as you’d have them act upon you.” She seemed incredibly interested in my tale, well, a little bit.

I look at her. “I’ve told you my story, now let’s hear about Rimfire.”

“Short, you don’t want to hear about my life. Not all of us grew up in a cushy stable.”

I chuckled. “I know that, but I want to know more about you.”

Rimfire closed her eyes briefly and thought for a second. “I’m just a merc looking for some quick caps. My childhood was shitty, I’ve got no idea where my parents are, and most ponies are assholes. That’s really all you need to know.”

“Well, you came from around here right? Aren’t there some ponies you want to see again?”

Rimfire failed at hiding a laugh, “Celestia, no! Too many ponies here want my head.”

My eyes opened wide and I stopped in my tracks. “What?!”

She took a few more steps and stopped. She looked back at me. “What?” she asked.

I trotted next to her. “Ponies want you dead? And you came back!”

She began to walk onwards, “yes, some ponies want me dead. Anyways, I needed the caps.”

I began to walk as well. “Who could want you dead? Rival mercs?”

This time she only gave a little smirk. “No, Short, I’m not really big enough to gain any ill from the gangs or casinos. The NER chased me out of town once, that was fun.”

I stopped walking. “Rimfire, what is the NER?”

She looked back at me. “For real you don’t know? The NER is the New Equestrian Republic. They work, uh, with the casinos to keep the peace around New Pegasus. You see, when ponies began coming back to the city, it was chaos. Rival gangs were killing and stealing from everyone. Then the NER rolled in and shot most of them up. Only the gangs that decided to play nice got to live. They opened a few casinos and everyone was happy. NER gets a cut of the revenue, and the casinos, well, they don’t really get much out of it. All of this is speculation on my end, of course. Never really got told the full story, but then again I never asked.”

“Shouldn’t you have done some research, Short? Seems a little bull-headed.” She was right, but I’d had my reasons at the time for leaving Appleloosa.

I thought more about what she’d said and looked around. We’d been able to cover a great amount of distance since the morning. The road ran through a small gorge; rough-hewn rocks on either side as if there’d been some kind of a mining operation at some point. The walls looked as though someone had tried to blast them away with dynamite. A hundred or so yards ahead of us was a small wooden shack. Rimfire was giving the shack the same look I was. We were definitely going to investigate.

As we got closer, I made the brahmin stay back. It gave a note of displeasure which I promptly ignored. Rimfire held her rifle up as we got closer to the shack. Empty crates marked with ‘EXPL’ littered the area. I kept my revolver in its holster and I strode up to the door. Nervously I tapped a hoof on the door. There was a call from indoor.

“I told y’all NER I’m not payin’!” yelled the voice from indoors. Rimfire flicked her safety off.

“We’re not with the NER,” I called back, hoping not to get blown up.

The door flew open. An old stallion stood there. He was a dirty brown and had a thick white beard and wore shabby clothes. “I’m Rusty, and finally there’s somepony who can give me a hoof,” the old stallion said said. Rimfire had hastily lowered her rifle, but she still looked wary.

“What do you need help with?” I asked tentatively. He chuckled a little and fell into a fit of coughing.

As the cough subsided he spoke up, “I need y’all to get the NER off my back. I just want to live in peace but not a week goes by without them asking for some caps because of ‘taxes’ as they call it, more like robbery. I never did nothing to them neither.”

I gave a quick glance to Rimfire, she was shaking her head. I didn’t think it sounded that bad. “Where can we find them?” I asked Rusty.

“That’s the spirit! You can find them just down the road at the end of the gorge. Thank you kindly, stranger.” Rusty slammed the door shut. I took a few steps back to Rimfire.

“Why,” she said more than asked.

“Why not? This should be piece of cake,” I told her.

“Nothing with the Republic is ever easy,” she groaned. I waved her off and grabbed the brahmin.

The three of us continued along the road until finally it seemed to rise out of the gorge. At the top of the brief climb were a few sky carriages in a circle. Uniformed ponies stood about, most of them armed modestly. As we got even closer, 3 of them trotted up to us. All of them wore a tan colored barding with a thicker chest piece. The earth ponies had battle saddles while the unicorns floated assault rifles. The soldier in front had three bars shaped into an arrow head on his shoulder, the other two had nothing.

“Halt,” commanded the one in front as he got near to us, “this is NER territory. State your business.”

“We’re on our way to New Pegasus,” Rimfire spoke up.

“We also have a message from the old stallion down the road,” I added.

Flanking the stallion was two ponies, and earth pony and a unicorn, the unicorn readied his gun warily.

The pony in front looked me in the eye. “Oh,” he asked, “what sort of message?”

I swallowed quickly. “He said he’s not going to pay your taxes no matter what,” I told him.

He squinted his eyes and frowned. “Is that so?” His right foreleg scuffed against the sandy gravel. I noticed that there was holster with a small pistol inside of it. It had some sort of mechanism attached to both he and the gun itself. Around me the entire outpost has taken an interest in us. All eyes were on Rimfire and I.

“Yes,” I told him firmly.

His face held for a moment, then he grinned and chuckled. “Boy, you don’t know anything about that old Codger, do you? We’ve been trying to take his dynamite away from him for weeks, he’s damn near taken down the whole gorge.” He took a step closer and held out a hoof. I tapped it lightly. Rimfire did the same. “I’m sergeant Piston, and this is outpost Delta. What brings you here? I’m assuming it was just for that old coot.” The ponies behind him lowered their guns. The rest of the outpost seemed to resume duty.

“I’m Short Change,” I told him, “and this is my companion Rimfire.”

“I’m actually his mercenary,” she said.

“Quite,” I agreed. “We’re just on our way to New Pegasus. See I’m leading a small caravan to the place.”

“Huh,” he said, “we don’t usually get caravaners down these parts, not anymore at least.” Piston waved the two soldiers away. He walked back towards a closed carriage and motioned for us to follow.

While we were walking I asked, “Why is this outpost even here?”

“Good question, this is a ‘crucial’ point to hold from bandits. So we got placed here to keep an eye out and fight the bandits or raiders should they ever decide to attack New Pegasus. Doubtful they ever would though.” We reached the carriage and he opened the back door. He lead us inside. The interior was mostly cleared out. A small generator powered a terminal and lamp overhead. There were two chairs flanking the desk which sat under the terminal. Piston sat behind the desk. I offered Rimfire the chair. She glared at me, but took it anyways. I leaned on the chair’s back. It creaked a little under my added weight.

“Do bandits frequently attack New Pegasus?” I asked him. Both he and Rimfire smirked.

“Of course not. Most of the ponies in their are soldiers, the rest are casino workers, and you’d be hard pressed to find one without a decent weapon supporting them. That and the Kid would know in a second.”

“The Kid?” I asked. I remembered the name from the journal.

“The Kid runs a gang on the underground. The last gang, they say. I’m not supposed to say it’s real but we all know it is. They run the black market under New Pegasus.”

“If you know there’s a black market, why can’t you shut it down?” I asked.

“Because sometimes it’s lucrative for the NER to have it there,” Rimfire answered.

“Exactly, Miss Rimfire,” Piston said. “The market brings some ponies in, and the casinos keep them there. The NER gets a cut of the profits the casinos make.”

The conversation lulled at that point. My thoughts drifted. “When was the last time a stallion came through here?” I asked. “He was probably on his own.”

Piston looked up from his terminal, “I’m afraid we don’t really keep logs of who passes through here, except if they look particularly dangerous.”

“Oh,” I said dejected. “Well I guess that’s all we need thanks for the information.” Rimfire got up to go.

“Wait,” Piston said abruptly. Rimfire sat back down. “I didn’t bring you into my office for an afternoon chat. I need your help.”

“You’ve got at least 10 soldiers here, can’t one of them do it?” I asked.

“No, they can’t. Orders state that we need to be a full force at all times. If I sent just two out I’d be subject to a court martial,” Piston responded. He reached below his desk and pulled out a scroll of paper. He unrolled it on the desk. It was a map of the immediate area. There were two roughly drawn circles. One at the end of a gorge, where we were, and one some distance to the north among a range of hills. The outpost appeared to be on a crossroads. Piston continued, “There seems to be a large activity of fire ants in this ‘valley’. Likely it was the old coot’s damn dynamite that riled them up. I need you to go in there and clear ‘em out.”

“What’s in it for us?” Rimfire and I asked in unison. We looked at each other briefly.

Piston made quick use of his terminal. “I can get you access into New Pegasus, no tolls, no taxes.” I had forgotten about the taxes. The stallion who gave me the brahmin had been a little scarce with details. He only told me where to bring it.

Rimfire squinted an eye. “How can you promise that?” she asked.

“There’s a patrol coming from another outpost. They will rest up here and proceed to our main base in New Pegasus, right on the Strip. Of course, as it’s coming tomorrow, we can give you food, water, and a place to sleep.”

“What do you think?” I asked, turning to Rimfire.

“You’re the boss,” she said.

“Yes but I appreciate your input.”

She rolled her eyes. “Free food, free travel, safe place to sleep. Sounds like a real good time to me.”

I didn’t have to think long at all after that. “We’ll do it.”

Quest Accepted: Could You Find It In Your Heart?

End of chapter 1: Level Up!

Guns: 25/ Speech: 50

Perk Earned: Ladykiller. Gain unique dialogue option with members of the opposite sex and do 10% more damage to them in combat.