Fallout Equestria: Steel Chicken Edition

After a second of thought, Snowflake peeked in the door on the right, seeing a bedroom. “No, not the bathroom.” She moved to the next door. “Still no.” Okay, the last door. “Ah, here we go.” She entered the bathroom and took a bath, I guess. After she was done, she left the bathroom, her uniform carried on her back because it needed cleaning too.

Even with the brief look she got at the first bedroom she stumbled it was obvious who the owner's idol was. A large Daring Do poster, faded with age but still in surprisingly good condition, was hung framed on the wall above a makeshift bed.

Later on while Snowflake was bathing in the glorified giant bucket they called a bathtub she'd hear the unmistakable sound of somepony in power armour walking right up to the front door and knocking. Judging by the more joyous tone of voice adopted by both Mayflower and Dusty this second visitor wasn't a stranger like Snowflake.

The pegasus would be able to just hear talking downstairs until she left the bathroom. As she walked out back into the hallway the voices became actually understandable once again. She'd immediately be able to pick out Mayflower's voice as the mare spoke, now the joy Snowflake had faintly heard earlier was replaced by worry and some obvious tone of anger.
"Well that doesn't sound safe at all! How could they be sending you off alone!? It's damn ridiculous! The last idiot they send on their merry way disappears and they decide 'oh yeah, let's just send someone else to the same place alone' . Yeah, great idea asses! What next? Demolitions 101: how to defuse a mine by jumping on it!?"

Snowflake paused as she heard the power armored pony come in. For a second, she thought it was somepony from the Enclave who tracked her down, but remembered as far as they were concerned, she was dead. Also the armor was far too noisy to belong to a pegasus. While Enclave armor was by no means light, it was designed to keep pegasi fully mobile while also offering as much protection and firepower as possible. The armor this new pony was wearing was probably meant for only the latter two things. Her school teacher didn’t mention much about the other races of Equestria, but she remembered seeing posters of earth ponies in power armor around the wasteland. This was probably one of them.

Snowflake neared the door to the room where the others were and considered waiting for the conversation to end, but at the same time she needed to clean her uniform and armor. She knocked on the door lightly, signifying her arrival, before opening the door. “Hey, um, am I interrupting anything?”

Snowflake would find all eyes locked on her when she opened the door. Mayflower blushed as she was caught mid rant and Dusty gave her the same awkward look he had earlier. The third pony in the room, however, fixed her with a look of curiosity more than anything as he looked at Snowflake, then the rather smelly power armour in the room, then at Snowflake again.

He had a clay coloured coat, a yellow mane, and a small crescent shaped scar on his cheek that only seemed to become more obvious as he smiled at her. Judging by the bulky steel coloured power armour (sans a helmet, of course, that was sitting on the arm of Dusty's chair) and the distinctive mark on his flanks it'd take a special kind of ignorance to not know this was a Steel Ranger. A Steel Ranger smiling intently with a flamethrower battle saddle on his side... bit of a mixed message to say the least.

A couple of seconds went by before Mayflower broke the silence. "Oh, would you look at the time! I need to go to the kitchen and... peel... c-corn! Yeah, let's go with that." She blurted out before quickly leaving the room. Another moment would go by before Dusty said, "A-actually she might need help with that. Corn is... dangerous?" He'd barely finished stammering that laughable excuse when he practically galloped in the direction of the kitchen, slamming the door behind him. The Ranger just smiled widely and occasionally had to suppress a laugh as it all happened.

Now it was just Snowflake and the smiling Steel Ranger. Now she'd had a few moments in the same room with him his coat and mane seemed to be the same colours Dusty's would have been before it became greyed with age... and he just looked a lot like him in general. His eyes were green... like Mayflower's, come to think of it. Before more evidence for the easy to solve mystery that was his relation to the couple could be gathered he extended an armoured hoof in greeting. "Nice to meet you. You are?"

Yup, this pony was definitely like the ones on the posters. Snowflake’s eyes went up and down, practically scanning the stallion’s armor. It was much bulkier than her own, and she bet it was at least twice as heavy. The flamethrower made her jealous that she couldn’t get her hooves on an energy rifle before her “discharge.” When she noticed he had his hoof out, she gave it a more solid bump with her own. “Hi, I’m Snowflake. I like your armor.”

There was a solid metal clang as Snowflake hoof bumped the Ranger. "Well thanks. I'm Gallivanter. I'm sure you already know my... well, just looking at me you can probably guess who the dynamic duo of awkward are to me." He said, his smile widening a little.

She nodded. “Yeah, your folks are nicest ponies I’ve met so far. As in, they’re some of the few that haven’t tried shooting me yet. So not a very high bar to reach.” She paused a moment, looking at his armor again. “Are ponies usually so hostile to power armor, or is it just because I’m a pegasus?”

"Well, most of the Wasteland's like that outside of town's and such. Ponies out here are liable to shoot at things for looking vaguely hostile and, well... power armour doesn't exactly scream 'come give me a hug' now does it?" He shrugged before continuing, "Can't really blame a lot them for that when you consider how many crazies are running around out there with them. I can understand why you'd shoot first and ask questions later when a lot of your company out there is probably loving the thought of sticking your severed head on a spike while simultaneously screwing your neck stump."

Snowflake nodded, making a disgusted face. “Ech, I’m never going to get used to that. The issue I’ve learned is that I’m pretty much damned if I do, damned if I don’t. I can’t take the armor off because I have nowhere to put it and it leaves me vulnerable. And I can’t leave it on because ponies’ll shoot me.” She sighed. “How do you manage it?”

Gallivanter shrugged again. "Well aside from being a Steel Ranger I can't suggest much. Most ponies that aren't batshit insane avoid me and I avoid them. It's a pretty good situation to be in for the most part."

Snowflake tossed her uniform off to join the power armor in the corner. “So what’s a Steel Ranger anyway? What’s it like being one?”

Gallivanter looked at her quizzically. "You mean you don't know already? I'd have thought you might have seen some pre-war billboard or something that might have given you an idea what we were like back then, at least. The organisation is more or less what's left of the military now, mostly dedicated to cataloging and researching advanced technology," He gestured at Snowflake's armour, "and while we're on the subject, I know plenty of scribes that'd have a field day with something like that. Pretty cutting edge stuff right there. As for what it's like, I joined up because I figured they were my best chance to see the world... or at least most of Manehattan. I sure haven't been proven wrong on that front in the seven years since I made that choice. Scratches my adventure itch most days of the week."

Snowflake nodded. “I saw a few posters, but it didn’t really explain much. Besides, they’re almost 200 years old anyway. Old news.” She picked up the helmet and set it next to Galli’s. “Yeah, our armors are pretty different. But if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to keep it. As much as I detest where this armor came from, it has saved my life a few times. Well, that and my pistol.” She lifted her leg, showing the modified energy pistol strapped to it.

"Heh, well I'm not the type to just take someone's stuff because some scribe would happen to want to poke at it for a while and then store it away in a crate or something. I mean, there are Rangers like that but I prefer the kind of tech that's just lying around and, for one reason or another, not really anyone's anymore." He said as he went to lean on Dusty's chair only to stop as it immediately groaned under the weight. "Anyway, I think we should ditch the small talk and see if the amazing corn couple haven't died from embarrassment if that's okay with you."

Snowflake’s ears twitched and she nodded. “Yeah, and maybe see if the food is done. That is why I’m here, after all. We can talk more later. I am very curious about what life is like down here for other ponies.” She left the room to hall and called out to the couple, wherever they were. “Hey, everything good?” It would've been very awkward to find out they were listening in through the wall.

It turned out that no, they weren't listening through the wall. Gallivanter followed her out into hall, trotting past Snowflake and heading straight for the kitchen just as Mayflower was about to poke he head out of the door, causing the, to almost bump into each other. "Oh, hey Galli. Did Snowflake just say something?" She said, looking past him at Snowflake.
"Yeah. We were just going to ask how things were going in the kitchen." Replied Gallivanter, stepping back from the door.
"Things are going just fine. We won't be long. Why don't you get out of that armour while you wait?"
"Alright, mom. Just don't be long." Said Gallivanter with a nod. Instead of replying Mayflower just smiled and went back into the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

With that over Gallivanter turned headed back into the living room to start taking off his power armour. Seeing that they were so different their owners to mix up parts he just put it with Snowflake's armour as he got it off.

Snowflake went back into the living room to wait, and watched as Galli took off his armor. She had a few more questions to ask, but settled for asking one. “How do you maintain your armor?”

"Heh, the challenge is getting it dinged up in the first place. These old suits are so damn tough they mostly look after themselves. Not many things around that can do more than scratch it or crack a lens. If something were to happen I'd just head back to the nearest Steel Ranger stronghold and get the scribes to fix it. If for whatever reason I couldn't do that I'd have to try and jury rig something to keep it working until, again, I could get somewhere where there are scribes to try and fix it... or anypony with those kinds of skills, really." He answered as he took off the last of the armour. He was wearing a set of faded pre-war army fatigues with a patch that matched the Steel Rangers insignia one of the sleeves. There was a patch on the other sleeve that seemed to be some novelty Daring Do thing. Clearly a personal touch rather than something standard.

Snowflake nodded as she thought about his answer. “Ah, because my armor requires a bit more maintenance. It’s tough, but it’s not that durable. So I would keep a few tools around to keep my armor in good condition, but I lost them the other day. Knocked them off my cloud while I slept.” She then caught sight of the patch on his arm, and remembered her peek into that first room upstairs. “You’re a Daring Do fan?”

Blushing a little, Galli raised a hoof and gently rubbed the patch. "Oh, you noticed that, huh? Errrr yeah I am, why?"

“I didn’t know ponies down here still read Daring Do. I haven’t found a single intact book so far. Shame, I had the whole series back home.” Snowy explained.

His face lit up at that. "Really!? All of them!? I've been trying to find all of them for fifteen years and I've only found books three through ten! Well, only the second chapter of the eighth but I'll find the rest of it someday! I mean a lot of ponies around can barely read at all anymore so they don't appreciate how hard it is to find one a raider hasn't used to fuel a dumpster fire." At this point he almost looked giddy. At last someone who at least to share his... well, maybe for Snowflake it wasn't so much an obsession but at least she seemed to like the books too!

Snowflake looked shocked. “What, seriously? Now I gotta help you find the rest. Quality starts to drop off after the 12th, but you need to read all the way up until then, at least. If push comes to shove, I will rob myself to get you those books.” Average pegasus home security sucked anyway. Clouds and all that.

Galli didn't say anything, he clearly considered it a couple of times and got as far as opening his mouth once but all that came out was an almost girly squeeing noise. At that moment Mayflower returned, floating a rusty old set of folding chairs and a table through the door behind. She barely even glanced in Galli's direction as she set them on the floor. "Did something Daring Do related come up, Galli?" She rolled her eyes as he just grinned in her direction, "That's gonna pass as a "yes" I guess." Dusty came in soon after with a tray of bowls in his mouth and he also just rolled his eyes in reaction yo his son's excitement. Clearly something they'd both seen a thousand times before.

Snowy chuckled nervously. “Hehe, yeah. I might’ve let slip I owned the whole series. Now I gotta help him find the rest of the books so he can read them all. Or else he might hound me until I do.” Plus he knows now to look up. She noticed them bringing in the stuff and shuffled her hooves. She thought about asking if they wanted assistance, but settled for standing by and letting them set up the table on their own.