Flickering Sun (Fallout Equestria rp) (3 spots open)

Malachite lifted her head, seeing a familiar pony approach them. "He's down in the lower deck." She said, just as the unicorn stallion in question rose from the hatch. "Nevermind, there he is."

Hickory looked towards Malachite briefly in confusion before spotting the pony she was speaking to. "Hey there... I assume you've come for that favor I owe ya." He said casually. "The boss isn't here yet, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I went through with it now."

Oh great, the crew is growing by the minute. Now a mare that smells like smoke and blood has arrived, and apparently knows this crew. And called him Drippy... It's an accurate name, but still. That's impolite.

After not getting an answer from these people, yet again, Wild Card grunted and hoped that they can take a breather sooner rather than later.

He took a minute to tune out and look at the landscape. The sight of wreckage, fallout, and wasteland was appealing. Mostly because all he has to compare it to was the war zone behind him. While he was zoning out, he noticed that he was spaced out a little longer than a stallion should normally be.

Wild stood there for, what felt like, hours on end, just staring blankly across the water. It's as if he was mesmerized by the decrepit skyline. He just stood there, mouth agape, eyes trained on seemingly nothing.

[♫-108.8 FM: Noveau Equestria Classical Station] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9XezXqEG94

"Manehatten is going to blow up. I need to leave as soon as possible," she said, "Without drawing attention of the Avarice family and its allies. If they were trying to kill me before, they're definitely going to want to kill me now." She paused. "Considering that you just blew up a bunch of their folks, it might be wise for you to leave discreetly as well."

Red eyes looked out towards the water. "The road to Fillydelphia is beset by a Mutant Parasprite swarm, something I can't deal with myself. North is nothing but wasteland. If there's anypony who can help me traverse the waters of the east coast of Equestria, it's going to be you. Or at least you'd know somepony."

Hickory nodded and looked back at the skylines across the waters. "You're in luck, my friend, we are headed to Baltimare to pick up a weapons cache left for us by one of our close connections." He said. "And our boss will meet us there."

Wild Card, after much time, snapped out of his trance like state. He heard nothing of what was said between the ship captain and the mare who just arrived. In fairness it probably wasn't that important. Just more talk about guns or something is what he guessed.

Taking some liberties, Wild took a crate and loaded it with some of the "leftovers" he got from the Mirelurk spying on him earlier. They probably have their own food, but what damage could a little extra do?

"What are we doing now?" Wild asked.

"Baltimare," she said softly, then shook her thoughts away with a few turns of her head, "That is acceptable."

She looked over at Drippy, loading a crate with the remains of a creature. Carnivore. She looked away, concealing the feeling of disgust she felt in the depths of her stomach. She, who had killed so many without a single twinge of conscience, still had the pre-balefire mentality of diet. She had been living on grass weave-patches, and water. Not the most luxurious of diets, but still a lot healthier for her than eating corpses.

Her mind did not linger on food, though, as her thoughts turned to whoever was behind 'Manehatten Burning', the mysterious series of letters that prompted a not insignificant number of professional murderers to gather in the city and try to kill off a series of mob bosses.

And to add more to the chaos, another set of killers to go after the first set to silence them.

As one of the first set, she was rather unhappy with the existence of this second set. But the Psychopathic Murderbitch had tasted blood in the exchange, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Especially since she knew where to go to kill the idiot who dared send amateurs after her.

Baltimore wasn't that place. But it was a good starting point.

"Have you heard much news from the other major cities?"

"The other cities are dead silent as far as I know, I've heard not even ghouls have dared to venture into Canterlot." Hickory said, picking up a shotgun with his magic. "Canterlot has some major infestation, but nobody will even go near the place to find out what it is."

"Well, wherever the hell we're going, might as well get started." Wild said, with hints of impatience in his voice.

He wasn't quite sure why he was annoyed at this point. At first it was being held hostage by this "Merry Gang of Misfits," who looked like they'd sooner eat a stallion than assist it. Then it seemed like the crew members were coming on and off. He had no idea when he last saw that battered mare or the tech guy. At this point, it seemed that he was agitated that they weren't doing a lot.

"If you're gonna present yourself to be psychotic adventures, at least get the trip started sooner rather than later." Wild thought.

With that, he boarded the ship, threw the rifle to the floor, and sat down. He thought about questioning all this chatter about "Infestations," "Letters," and "Fires," but with these people, it's probably best to leave it be. One of two things could happen if he asked: It would drive him further into insanity, or it would get him roped even further into the mess he got dragged into kicking and screaming.

"Is that so?" she said, eyes narrowed, as she watched Drippy board the boat. A merry gang of misfits indeed. "Are we all set to go, then?"

She had no reason to delay, and many reasons to make haste. It was with this is mind that she, too boarded the vessel, taking note of her surroundings and of the inhabitants. She had seldom been on water before, much preferring steady land, and was anticipating the worst, taking note of the possible escape plans and improvised weapons she could use.

If anyone was to strike up conversation it would not be she. Satisfied with her examinations, she pulled out a pocket radio and turned it on.

[♫-76.1 FM: Harmony Radio] - https://youtu.be/9qhchE6rEZE

Hickory flicked his ears and went down into the helm of the boat, revving up the engines and heading out to sea.

Malachite sat back and whistled a little tune while reloading her sniper rifle. "it's gonna take a couple hours to reach Baltimare from here, so y'all best find something to occupy yourselves with.

Wild Card made himself comfy in the one place that was actually safe right now. A little unpleasant and unusual, never being on an actual ship before.

With nothing to occupy his time, he turned his attention briefly to the new mare. He noticed that she had a radio with her. Not sure where she found that. It's been a pain in the ass just to find a snack, let alone technology. Eh, no big deal.

"So what brings you here, mare that I don't know even slightly?"

She tuned the radio station to the only other that she listened to. 76.1 had a mostly reliable news broadcast, but the songs were very hit and miss. For music, she preferred 108.8.

[♫-108.8 FM: Noveau Equestria Classical Station] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n3T849_R_U

"The desire to increase the distance between myself and those that would desire to kill me," she stated, "What drew you here, Drippy? I thought I knew all of Hickory's crew."

"He's not in the the crew, not officially anyways." Hickory said. "We picked him up in Manehattan."

Malachite rolled her eyes. "More like we forced him to join us, or else we'd kill him."

Wild Card rolled his eyes. While those two were being honest, they really didn't respect the situation enough with appropriate detail.

"Yeah, that's the short version of it. I'm gonna tell you the long one, uh..." He looked at her possessions to find out a name for her. The knife she had said Psychopathic Murderbitch. Let's go with that. "Ms. Murderbitch."

"I was grabbing lunch in the water we're driving on. Mirelurk's really good, I suggest you try it. Unless you hate seafood, then you'd probably want fresh Radscorpion dung. Anyway, I heard shouting and gunfire and monitored these maniacs repelling a bunch of slavers. I got a little too close, and they said 'Join or Die.' Pretty obvious what I chose."

Her eyes narrowed when Drippy talked about his food preferences, thankful for the fact she had packed enough of her own supplies not to rely on the meals of these carnivores. It would not be polite, however, to bring this up in civil conversation, so she remained silent on the matter.

"So you were essentially press-ganged into their service," she said, "Well, at least it's better than being killed and looted."

She shook her head and steered the conversation to other matters. "So, any of you know what Baltimare is like?"

Malachite lifted her head and gave a somewhat gleeful smirk. "Baltimare is infested with feral ghouls, no pony, griffon, dragon or whatever has lived there for centuries." She said. "Just ghouls and intense radiation."

Wild Card desperately tried to search his memory to find if he remembered anything about Baltimare. He had nothing. He could barely remember a lot of things.

"Nope, can't say I know much about the place. Except it's infested with ghouls. Heard that from a certain someone. No idea who."

(Apologies for such a small post, not getting many creative juices).

She closed her eyes and remained in deep thought as Malachite and Drippy described the ghoul infested city. "An auspicious place to leave a weapons cache," she said, remaining in her rest state.

Then, a thought caused a small frown to appear on her face. "Though, I did hear that the city has been slowly sinking into the ocean. And that some highly potent chemicals have emerged from there as a result." She opened her eyes, frown remaining in place. "So, the question I suppose is, how does fresh shipments of UltraDash, PTMs, Cloudpack and Hawkeye come from a half-submerged, ghoul infested city?"

She got her pistol and started cleaning it. "It's something to consider, certainly."

"That sounds about right, I'd give this city another year or two before it's completely submerged." Malachite said. "But for now we have to find that shipment and not get mauled by ghouls."

Wild Card shifted and fidgeted around in his seat waiting for the ship to get to Baltimare, where they can be ripped to shreds as a family. He dozed off again, wondering what life was like before everything was irradiated. Or even if there was a life before this that was better.

While fantasizing about the "Old World," he went into another trance. Only this time, everything seemed to go white. He saw nothing but bright light. All he could do was stare, stuck in paralysis from Celestia knows what.

[♫-108.8 FM: Noveau Equestria Classical Station]

-obituary for Octavia Melody, pre-war Classical musician.



I have never met the musician, but it is her record and sheet music collection that is the greatest single source of music for this station. A renowned cellist, she upheld her craft even as the tyrannical Pinkie Pie and her Ministry of Morale sought to suppress classical music in favour of more 'popular music'. She spearheaded the Underground Musical Movement, for the creation and preservation of music that did not fit Pinkie's agenda. In the end she, like so many others, perished when the megaspells hit.

Without Octavia, there would be no 108.8 FM.

I have never met the musician, but through her actions, both musically and politically, I'd like to think we might have been friends.

The piece you are listening to now is one of her final compositions. It is unknown whether she ever had the chance to play it live to an audience herself.