Fallout Equestria: Steel Chicken Edition

For many ponies living outside the ruins of Equestria's pre-war cities life is spent on small farms or in scattered settlements in the countryside. Much like their ancestors before the war some one hundred and seventy years ago sans raiders, mutant animals, radiation, and the threat of a bad harvest leading to starvation... okay, maybe not so much like before the war, then.

For a certain small farmstead sitting just outside the outskirts of Manehattan this is just as much the case as it would be anywhere else. With its small fields of wilting crops (then again that wouldn't exactly be abnormal under the cloud cover) surrounding an big old house that looked mostly to be made from rusty corrugated iron and random bits of wood haphazardly nailed together. Near the main road edge of the fields was rotten wooden sign that had "Deepspring Farm" painted on in a fading shade of red.

The few rays of sunlight that can make it through the clouds were changing colour from its typical yellow into a warm looking orange colour. That could only mean one thing.... it's going to get dark soon...

Above the farm, a cloud that was far lower than the rest of the big cloud blanket puttered along lazily. Though it didn’t look like it from below, there was a sole occupant of the cloud. A pegasus laid on the cloud, pretty much treating it as a mobile shelter. It’s not like Wastelanders ever looked up anyway. The pegasus was clad in jet black power armor, though there were a few white highlights painted on, most notably over any symbols of her former allegiance to the Grand Pegasus Enclave after they left her for dead on the surface. Her helmet rested next to her on the cloud though. It was uncomfortable to have on all the time. Strapped to her leg was a magical energy pistol, which looked like it had been modified.

As the cloud drifted over the farm, the pegasus peeked her head out to look down at it. Idly, she wondered if they were friendly. If they were, wearing her armor might provoke them. If they weren’t, she’d need the armor for protection. She groaned to herself. “Why is this place so complicated?”

As the Pegasus peeked over the cloud she'd be able to see something obscured by the crops moving in the direction of the farmhouse, causing quite a lot of noise as they did it. A few seconds later the movement and the loud rustling it was causing would briefly stop, leaving the field in field in silence. Just before the one causing all the noise continued on their way the Pegasus would just barely hear a sigh before a mare's voice said, "Hmph, no one here. Must just be my imagination." And then she kept moving towards the house just as noisily as she was before, proving that yes, wastelanders really don't bother looking up all that much.

The pegasus’ ears twitched as the noisy mare came and went. Whoever she was, she obviously had no sense of subtlety. What, was she covered in frying pans to scare away birds? Well… she was a bird, and she wasn’t scared. She didn’t get a good look at the surface dweller, and curiosity threatened to bring her down to investigate. So she did what she usually did when faced with conundrums like this, she slammed her face into the cloud until the dumb thoughts went away. At least it was soft.

While the pegasus was busy trying to make the "dumb thoughts" go away the rustling turned into the sounds of hooves hitting wood followed by a door slamming shut as the unknown mare went into the farmhouse. A brief but loud verbal exchange could be heard for a moment after that but it quietened back down quickly. Unfortunately even the loud start couldn't be made out beyond the fact that ponies were talking in the house.

As she finished faceclouding, she noticed the coast was clear. She took a deep breath and sighed. She didn’t have to go down. She could stay right where she was. Of course, her growling stomach might have a few objections to that. “Fiiiiiiiiiine, you win.” She stood up and stretched her wings. She’d just go down, knock on the door, politely ask if they can spare some food, and leave. If they said yes, great. If they said no, she’d try and barter, but if they still said no, oh well. If they shot her, she’d try and not shoot back right away.

She picked up her helmet with the very prehensile tail covering for her armor and flew off the cloud, landing gently on the ground. Taking a look back up at her cloud, she pointed a hoof at her face, then at the cloud, as if to say “I’m watching you” and turned toward the house. The pegasus slowly, nervously made her way to the front door and, after another deep breath, knocked three times.

Now she was closer the Pegasus would be able to tell that the other pony involved with the conversation in the house was a stallion. When she knocked the voices became hushed and it was still impossible to tell what was actually being said from outside. After a few moments of dead silence the door slowly opened and a rather old looking unicorn poked her head out, her horn glowing a dark blue colour that also enveloped the crude looking home made revolver that floated above her.

"You here to start trouble?" She asked, looking the armoured figure before her up and down as she cocked the revolver. For someone that was presumably just a random farmer she was taking the sight of somepony in full power armour pretty well.

And for somepony in full power armor, she looked pretty nervous. “O-oh, hi ma’am. I was just wondering if… I could get some food? I don’t have anything to pay you, but maybe I could work for something?”

She glanced at the revolver in the mare’s magic. Her wings twitched as her instincts told her to just leave and hunt a radsquirrel or something, but she stayed, hopeful that she could work something out.

The unicorn gave the pegasus a puzzled look when she heard the pegasus' question and only looked more confused when she saw her wings twitch, almost as if she hadn't taken notice of them until now. She glanced up at the revolver and then at the pegasus. Obviously she wasn't entirely sure how to react to that and eventually just settled for saying, "Are you serious?"

The pegasus bowed her head. “Please? I’ve been wandering on my own for a long time. I’ve tried going to settlements, but they won’t let me in. It’s just been me and that cloud of mine for weeks.” She pleaded, gesturing with her tail to the low-hanging cloud. “Just one night? I’ll do anything you want me to do, then be out of your mane.”

Looking up at the cloud, the unicorn opened her mouth to say something before just sighing and shaking her head. Once again she looked up at the revolver and then the pegasus and a tense moment of silence went by as she weighed up her options. There was a quiet clicking noise as she decocked the revolver and floated it into a leather holster on her side. "Well I guess one night can't hurt. Just don't try to cause trouble while you're in here." She said, opening the door wider now to let the pegasus in.

The pegasus smiled brightly. “Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate this.” She stepped inside and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s been a long while since I’ve been under a roof.” She took a brief look around before turning back to the unicorn. “So I offered to help out. You want me to do anything?”

She shrugs and closes the door. "Not really much to do right now unless someone turns up and starts getting trigger happy. Just wait here a moment and don't go up the stairs in that armour. I don't need you falling through them or something." With that she went through another door to her left and left the pegasus alone once again.

The pegasus had found herself standing in a hallway now she was inside. To her left was the door the unicorn went through and she'd be able to hear a conversation on the other side. To her right was another closed door and there was a set of stairs leading up. The farmhouse's outside appearance had not been deceiving as the whole place seemed to be cobbled together from whatever could be found. Judging by the pretty rotten looking wood the stairs were made from it wasn't surprising the unicorn didn't want her going up in that armour.

She nodded and took a seat by the wall. Her ear angled a bit towards the door, the pegasus idly wonder what they were talking about. She took the helmet from her tail and held it in front of her. “I think that went well.” She looked towards the other door curious as to what else the house had, but she didn’t want to upset the owner.

The pony the unicorn was talking too was clearly a stallion judging by the sound of his voice. It was also pretty clear he wasn't exactly enthused about the new arrival.
"You don't even know who she is, Mayflower! How do we know she won't do something in the middle of the of the night!?" He yelled.
"Trust me, if you'd seen her it would be obvious that if she wanted to try something there wouldn't be much we could do about. Day or night." The unicorn, or "Mayflower" as she seemed to be called, rebutted. "Besides, we're not usually ones to throw honest folk to the wolves when it's getting dark. What's the harm in it now?"
"Normally we have room for them. Can't exactly just let someone else use Galli's room when he's supposed to be coming back soon." The stallion said.
"I'm sure sleeping on the floor or something'll do her. The world's not gonna end a second time because we didn't have three beds. Though it might if she tried to, say, go up the damned stairs!" Said Mayflower, deliberately putting emphasis on that last part just in case the pegasus was trying to go up the stairs while she wasn't looking.
The stallion sighed. "Well, I guess you're right... as usual... you'd think after nearly thirty years I'd win at least one argument."
"I'm sure you will someday, dear. Just not today... or last week... or the week before tha--"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I was there for all of them."

Lucky for the pegasus, she wasn’t trying to climb the stairs. In fact, she scooted further away from the stairs after hearing that. After a moment, she set down the helmet next to her and knocked on the door lightly, then opened it up. “Hey there, I’d just thought I’d introduce myself. I’m Snowflake, nice to meet you.” She gave a friendly wave to the couple.

As Snowflake walked in and introduced herself the stallion, revealed now to be an earth pony, leant back a little in the ramshackle chair he was sat in as his eyes widened with surprise. Mayflower just rolled her eyes before turning to face Snowflake. "Well Snowflake, I'm Mayflower and the dumb hunk in the chair is my husband, Dusty." She says, extending a hoof in her direction.

Snowflake happily gave Mayflower’s hoof a gentle shake. “Thanks for letting me stay for the night. It’s nice to see not everypony down here is a jerkwad. Or insane.” She added with a shudder, remembering her first encounter with raiders. “And don’t worry, I won’t go up the stairs.”

Mayflower smiled a little, "Well that's good to know. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go check things in the kitchen." She said before walking past Snowflake and through the door on the other side of the hallway, leaving her alone with Dusty who just stared at her awkwardly for a few moments before saying. "Well, errr... hello."

"Hi." Snowflake sat on the floor, her armored bum making a soft thud. The socially starved mare didn’t really know what to do next. She was finally in a place with ponies that didn’t want to kill her, and yet it strangely made her uncomfortable. A few awkwardly silent moments passed before she spoke up. “So… How are you?”

Dusty shifted a little in his seat. "Uuuuh, I'm fine I suppose." He looked in the direction of the kitchen as he spoke, hoping for some excuse to avoid an awkward conversation, unfortunately for him none came. "So... where'd you come from to get here, exactly?"

Snowflake straightened up at the question. “Oh, um, you mean where I’ve been coming from or where I came from originally? Because I’ve been coming from the west. I’ve just been flying east, looking for a place to settle down. As for where I’m from originally, I’m from the Grand Pegasus Enclave. They live up above the clouds, and tend to like pretending the world below doesn’t exist.”

"Oh, okay then..." He trailed off, thinking of something else to say, "So... why ea--" Dusty's cut off by the sound of the door opening as Mayflower returned from the kitchen.
"Well, things are going well as far as food's concerned." She turned to face Snowflake before continuing, "Why don't you take that armour off and head upstairs to freshen up or something? You may find our bathtub's more or less just a big bucket but... well, it's probably going to make you smell better than you must right now in there."

Snowflake took a deep breath as she thought about it. “Alright. I probably need to clean the armor too. I’ve been in this for a few days straight.” She removed the armor, which took a couple minutes. Under the armor, the couple could see she was wearing an Enclave uniform, which is thin enough to wear comfortably under the power armor. They could also see her cutie mark, a snowing cloud.

Snowflake took a sniff of the inside of her armor and cringed. “Definitely needs cleaning. I’ll get on that at some point.” She took the pistol from her armor and went upstairs, much lighter now that she was out of her armor.

Even out of the heavy power armour Snowflake's weight caused the rotted stairs to creak and groan under her as she went up. The last step seemed to make a short but nonetheless worrying cracking noise as she reached the top.

Snowflake now found herself at an intersection in another hallway. She could see two doors down the hall to her left and another immediately to her right. Meanwhile back downstairs she could hear Dusty and Mayflower chatting away about something, the name "Galli" coming up a couple more times in the conversation already. Snowflake could probably just yell down and ask which door led to the bathroom... or take the one in three odds and guess.