Caravan Co. of the West (CLOSED)

Feather Dancer turned to Rodney, who's face bore no expression as it passed over the griffon in silent judgement. She turned back to the griffon. "You don't look like much, but I guess we'll see what you can do. Lucky for you a spot just opened up, apparently. Just be sure to remember whatever happens to you is on you. Dusty doesn't mind not having to pay a contract not one bit. Don't fall behind because you'll be left, and if you're left you'll probably die. And if you're lost or dead you're not guarding the caravan and you will not be paid... Questions?"

Swift looked around at the caravan before her. She saw several of the ponies going inside the building while others were scattered around. She knew that she wouldn't be much help until her shoulder was a bit better and walking would be a nightmare. So she climbed into the same wagon as Midnight Sky and smiled at him. "Hello there."

Amnesia caught herself staring at Feather's rear as she turned around. Sure, she was older than her, but that doesn't mean she can't check it out.... right? She quickly turned away before anypony could notice, and went back to securing her things. The pegasus took off her black hoodie and tied it around her waist, stretching the sleeves around her side and securing her new shovel in a tight knot. She had an old, faded and blood splattered shirt underneath, and a red scarf with numerous black designs on it, the sides ending in tassles.

"Alright I'm all ready to go." She nodded her head to the sound of Mix's music.

Tiberius was quietly waiting for the others to be ready... Such lollygagging with a captive was not worth the help garnered, if one could judge by the amount of noise he made before he was free. But that wasn't really much of a deciding factor, he simply didn't want to care about what any of these others did with their time on this job, he was going to do the job and be on his way once they were going.

This could be a rather frustrating journey.

Octane shook his head as he walked outside the building, "Only one, where we heading?" As he looked at the rest of the group he nodded at them and set up next to one of the wagons. Looking around the town he almost smiled when he saw the numerous amounts of dead raiders on the ground. This group was going to be fun, he could tell already.

Whitefeather simply rolled her eyes, rather liking the sound of Dusty more and more, the though of this griffin lost in the wastes, but seeing as his luck, he would be picked up by the drugged up Raiders whom though they were slavers again. The though of his loud beak being tired shut entertained the griffiness as she smiled to herself. "Now that our distraction is out of the way maybe we can get a move on, wasting this much time has made me quite restless" She remained by Rodney side, still fearing of hiding raiders and still fond of the idea of having the cover of a heavy gunner, not to mention he didn't mince words instead letting his actions speak for himself, a beloved trait hardly found in he wastes anymore.

As the Caravan waited for the group to get back, Midnight Sky would float out a book and begin to read from it. The book was a rare book about science, something he grabbed from his last home. His gaze would remain on the book until they had left or until someone would speak to him.

Ol' Dusty looked around at the clouds above, then back down at the rocks below. Then around to the ponies lollygaging about in the street! "We're goin'!" he called to his guards inside. "Get yer keesters out here or yer bein' left behind!" he hollered to the front of the shop.
((also, just thought of this. for ol dusty's voice, think master roshi, but more gravely because ghoul))

"Eeyah!" he shouted, whipping the reigns again. The Brahim started to pull the wagon and the caravan started to move.

Inside, Feather and Rodney looked back out the window and noticed the caravan moving. "Shit, let's go before the old buzzard leaves us behind," Feather ordered. She turned and started for the door, and Rodney followed after. When outside, Rodney poked the new griffon in the side with the barrels of his mini gun.

"You stay in front of me," he demanded.

As Midnight Sky felt the Caravan start to move he would put his book up and begin to walk out of the caravan and walk along side of it, his injury feeling better. As he walked along he would look up at Dusty," how long till we get there," as he continued to walk alongside the Caravan. So far he wasn't to concerned about the Raiders coming back...Well he thought about it for a bit and laughed seeing as raiders are not smart at all.

Mix smiles at Amnesia as they begin to walk. He knows she was staring at Feather Dancer's flanks but he didn't want to make her feel bad, plus who can blame her? Mix found himself staring at the same flanks on the way out of New Appleoosa.

Mixtape waits for Amnesia to catch up to her "So Ammie, can I call you that?" Mix kinda felt uncomfortable calling Amnesia that, "So .... Whats your story?"

Amnesia shrugged. "Meh... you can call me whatever."

Spoiler:

"My... story? ..... To tell you the truth.... I don't even know." She put her head down. "I can only tell you, what, two, three months of my life? It's all I remember...."
A long period of silence fell between them before she spoke up again.

"I woke up one day, my left wing, shot, and fractured, my head felt like it exploded. The first thing I saw was a light. A bright one, right in my face. These two stallions, big ones, were just standing there, eyeing me. One of them started asking me questions, like, who I was, and what I was doing in their 'territory.' .....and all I could say was 'I don't know,' or 'I don't remember.' Turns out, I woke up in a slaver town. They had special interest in me, me being a pegasus when pegasi are supposed to be rare and shit... Put me right to work. .....ugh...." Amnesia paused with a shudder. "Those fuckers in there did horrible things.... to mares specifically.... I kept my mouth shut, and did what I was told, and I managed to scrape by.... I made a couple of friends there, including this stallion, older than me, named Jack Knife. After a couple months of planning, we all managed to get out, except him..... Except Jack. He stayed behind to cover it up, to make sure the rest of us got out smooth. Huh... I owe him alot for that.... He taught me everything I know about the wasteland. Feels like it was a forever ago.... It's only been a few weeks. He taught me to fight, and he saved my flank from a couple'a conflicts. Not all of them though...." She looked down at her bloodstained shirt. "As you can see..."

"I'd love to tell you more.... but that's all I remember... That, this weird brand I've got on my flanks, and this picture I got, of me and some other dude from.... waaay back, I'm just a little filly in it.... Everytime I look at it, or I try to remember... my head just... hurts." She paused for a long while, crying silently. Breaking the quiet again, she wiped her face of tears and held her head.

"It's just.... horrible. Waking up in a place you don't know, surrounded by ponies you don't know.... And worst of all... you don't even know yourself... Where you're from, who yo-."
Realizing she was still at work, she stopped and tried to stay focused.

"Sorry.... What about you?"

Mix gets teary eyed "Oh my .... Amn, thats .... aweful!" Mix wipes his face and hugs Amnesia "I had a pretty painful past too..." He lets go of Amn and they continue walking.

"I was born somewhere out in the wastes, I don't know where but all i know is my parents brought me to New Appleoosa when I was a little foal. My parents were my favorite people in the world and they disappeared in an hour."

Mix Sighs "We took a trip out into the wastes five or so years back. Then the raiders came.... My father hid me and my parents were hauled away. I followed them but i shouldnt have. If youve ever seen a raider's hideout you'd know what im talking about." Mix's eyes water again "I rather not go into detail, but it was the first time i had to kill somepony. I was only 12 and i had to bury my parents."

Mixtape sniffled and continued "I left new appleoosa and worked with a traveling caravan, after a couple years I settled in New Pegasus with some saved up caps. Well New Pegasus cleaned me dry of all my caps and I traveled to Friendship city and became a guard. I dont know why I left Friendship city but I guess the wasteland was calling me again..."

Octane shrugged as he fell into step in front of the massive pony. "Whatever keeps me breathing chief..." looking around the group he smiled looking at how rag tag it was. Soon as he could he'd find himself a way to a town he could live at so things like this would stop happening to him. The amount of times he had been in spots like that were just insanely high. Shaking his head he thought to himself "I need to stop being so brazen when I blow things up..."

snuffing the cigar, Jackpot hopped off the wagon and began walking alongside. Now that there was a job to do and they were in potential danger again, he pushed aside his humorous nature. Serious once more, he matched the pace of the wagons, scanning for enemies with every sense at his disposal.

[searching for enemies, PER 4]

Dusty was working the reigns to the brahim once more as the wagons jumbled over rocks and debris from the town when Midnight presented his question. "Gah! Shat up!" the senile ghoul spat very rudely. Half Stitch wandered nearby. He wasn't at all surprised by Dusty's behavior; in fact, he considered Midnight kind of lucky that was all he got. He briskly trotted up beside Midnight and leaned down to whisper to him.

"He hates that question, try not to talk to him he's just grumpy," Half whispered. "We have a few miles bit of a way left to go, we'll most likely have to stop and set up a camp at some point."

Dusty didn't hear Half's whispers. However, he did hear the two ponies yapping about their problems. "How many ponies here seen their whole world go up in mushroom clouds? Anypony?" he asked, turning some and looking amongst the group behind him, his dried out tendons making very evident leathery sounds with the movement. "I didn't think so," he snapped, then turned back forward.

Feather grimaced some. She knew the old ghoul was cranky and rude but that was just mean. "I've seen all my friends and coworkers killed... Not the entire world, but my whole world. Some griffons attacked our troop while we were smuggling weapons into the GK. I had to quit that job after that... It was too much to think about."

Half Stitch frowned a bit, his ears tilting back. She never talked about that unless she really felt she needed to. "I lost my job, my friends, and my credibility as a doctor for something that wasn't my fault... There was a terrible illness going around, some kind of virus, I think... But the scientists claimed to had found a cure to it. They gave the cure to a few doctors and myself, and we gave it to the sick ponies... Turned out it may as well have been poison... The ponies would've died a lot less painfully... The doctors got away clean, blamed us for administering it wrongly... Such bullshit."

He then looked up at the group. "Um- but don't worry! A few cut and bruises and bullet woulds are easy to patch up. Not issuing any mystery cures to anypony," he added, trying to save himself from looking untrustworthy to the group.

"I for one can vouch for Half's medical skills. I've been working with the stallion for years. He's a great doctor," Feather said, hoping to help Half's situation. She was proud he could admit that to the group. Issuing false hope without knowing its effects which killed over fifty sick ponies was not something one could get over so easily.

Feather glanced back at Rodney. The large stallion was looking down some, not showing it well but enough for somepony to see he clearly had something upsetting on his mind. Didn't look like he was ready to talk about it yet.

Swift perked up her ears at all the sound around her and riased a paw at the comment of the bomb "I have seen my family being tore apart by ghouls." She sat up in the wagon and looked at Half Stitch "Your a great doc, just look at my shoulder and at Sublime there." She looked at Dusty again and frowned "I had to kill my own mother to save what little family I have left, and now they all hate me for it." She let the comment hang in the air before curling back up on the cart.

Jackpot looked back over his shoulder at the group. "Death... Death gets boring after long enough. Its something you learn to live with. Or die with, in my case." He gave a little chuckle at his own humor. "You live long enough and eventually you'll stop caring. Dying is nothing new to me, I already did it once. Plus, the amount I've killed... Death looses its thrill and mystery once you've been exposed to it enough. In the end, we're all nothing more than worm food. There's nothing special about that. Doesn't matter who you are or why you died, your still dead. There isn't anything more to it."

Amnesia froze for a few seconds after feeling the warmth of Mixtape's hug. It felt... good, it uncovered something within her, but she wasn't sure what it was yet.

After hearing Mix's backround, Amnesia gave him a hug of her own, a slightly awkward one, her being a severely inexperienced hugger. She pulled back quickly and scratched her mane. "Uh.... sorry."

Midnight would let out a small growl but as half-stitch came over and said something to him he would calm down a little. The ghoul pissed him off to no bounds, but when you've been dead for so long you become an asshole. He would nod to half," thanks thats all i needed to hear," until the grumpy ghoul asked a question that made Mid's eyes go blank for a moment. Everyone would tell their sob stories as he scoffed lightly," try seeing your parents killed in front of you, then kicked out of your own home, being blamed for their deaths," as he looked at Half Stitch, but it wasn't aimed toward him. Mid would go back to being silent saying nothing to anyone for the time being.

Mix smiles back at Amn after the hug "Dont worry, Hugs are a way of saying I know what youve been through and I feel your pain." Mix then hears the annoying voice of Dusty. After hearing his rudeful statement, he motions his hoof under his chin and flicks his hoof forward towards dusty, as a way of saying fuck you, we're talking.

Mix then focuses his attention back to Amn "What a jerk! I know he's been through alot but damn...." He sighs and thinks about the innocent slaughter of his parents and finds himself staring at Feather Dancer's flanks. He shakes his head and looks back at Amnesia "So, what do you do? Like what kind of jobs you do around the wastes?"

Amnesia glared at Midnight for a second, but figured he wasn't worth it.
She only let out a slight whisper. "Ungrateful dick...."

Giving Mix a sly smirk, she cocked her head and set her eyes to where he was looking. "That's a nice set right there, don't you think?"

"Oh me? I'm uhhh... looking for that dude in the picture. If he knew me back then he must've known SOMETHING about me. Other than that, I'm just a drifter, I'll do any job that gives me a square a day." She thought twice, with a chuckle. "Well, mostly anything. This is my first real job. I hope I can pull in some caps from it. What do you do?"

Oh dear, everypony seemed to be up for lamenting over past failures and tragedies, well this was just going to make the trip so much more fun. "What's happened has happened, stop getting your tails in a twist over past incidents as if you could do something about it now. This is what we call hindsight, we all know how much of a harsh thing it is and we can't change that. Not as if we would do something different, it's how the stars have written our fates." Tiberius piped up, aiming to make it loud enough for most of the group to hear him.

"It's like that griffon before, he was undoubtedly doomed to failure and death, but I believe his lack of tact caused his death sooner than the stars wished, not that they would complain." He gave a grim chuckle after he finished, still walking at an even pace whilst he'd been basically taunting all the others who were displaying such sorrow over past events.

Dusty laughed suddenly hearing Tiberius' joke, cackling like an old, perverted man would. He hadn't seen Mix's gesture at all, as he had already turned back forward and was leading the caravan over a small, wooden bridge out of the town. The water below moved surprisingly quick, whisking away all the dead and decaying, radioactive muck and silt the rain waters had gathered from the town and the hills and the plains all around.

The wheels of the wagon creaked as they bound up over the edge of the wooden bridge, then pitter-pattered as they crossed. Dusty's wagon made a bit of a crunch sound as it returned to the dirty path and continued to lead the group along briskly. Feather and Half proceeded across, along with another brahim.

Suddenly, as the next brahim was crossing, Mix and Amnesia next to it, the water below split and rushed away. Two large, powerful jaws blasted the wood of the bridge apart and snapped the brahim up in their teeth. It was the biggest, ugliest, most mutated looking radigator anypony had seen!

"Help me!" both the brahim heads cried before being drawn back down into the water. The lack of bridge below caused Mix to fall over the side, but if he were quick he would be able to catch onto the edge or the railing.

Swift Claws fell straight into the water, and was being drawn away by the current. Without a second of hesitation, Feather Dancer took to the air and flew around, spotting the pink diamond dog in the water below. She hovered down to her, and held a hoof out. "Take my hoof!" she called over the sound of the rushing water. She wouldn't be strong enough to pull her straight out, but she would be able to at least help pull her to the side while she swam.

"What in tarnation was that?! Somepony yappin' again?!" Dusty hollered.

"Radigator! Big one!" Half informed, pulling out his SMG. "Took one of the brahim!" Dusty spat in disgust. "Everypony get off the bridge and back up, wait for him to come back up before shooting," he ordered, watching for movement in the water.

"Agh! Mix!!"
Amnesia's conversation with Mix was interrupted by a splash, a crash, and a crunch, followed by a scream of help from the brahmin she had just been walking beside moments earlier. The pegasus was caught off guard, and frantically shot her hooves out to grab Mix's before he fell, flapping her wings to stay balanced.

[Attempting to catch Mix, AGI 7.]

Mid would look over his shoulder and sneer at the Tiberius," i see why ponies treat zebra's like brahim shit," chuckling as he made it across the bridge. He did not really care for the words of the zebra but if he wanted to start something, Midnight Sky knew how to play it smart. After crossing the bridge, he would stop and turn around looking at the others cross, well that was until he saw one of the brahim get snatched by the hugest radigator he had ever seen. Pulling out his shotgun he would load it up and smile," looks like its hunting season," as he cocked it and waited