Dealing with Slavers [CLOSED]

Starry stared at Shutter, her eyes wide in surprise as they trotted down the road. "Wow, and I thought I was generous! You really are an awesome pony, Shutter. Lucky ought to be ashamed." Starry turned to Lucky, and gave him a comical frown.

"Okay then! We'll give the dinosaur toys for free, on condition that Ditzy give them freely to all the little fillys and colts around here. Think about it, they'll be having big ol' dino-wars by the time we get back! Dinosaurs in the streets, on the roofs, in the houses, it'll be so much fun for everypony!"

Shutter once again blushed slightly at being called an 'awesome pony', weakly chuckling as he tried to hide his slight embarrasment from Starry. Nopony had ever described him as awesome before...Nosey, yes, puny, constantly, but never awesome!

"Well, in these big, scary wastes...I just figure it can't hurt to try and make friends, you know? And who knows? If we do good things for ponies, then maybe that goodwill might come back to save us one day?"

Shutter explained, giving a look around New Appleloosa at the many ponies going about their lives.

"...Wow...If this is what New Appleloosa is like, then I'm really curious to see the Old..."

Lucky rolled his eyes, and continued forward. "Whatever floats your boat, so long as I get my bullets and some booze. Hopefully I can score some better armour or something from the place too, I don't want to take any more kicks like I did from that raider."

"Well! It looks like we're here!" Starry declared, as the group arrives at Absolutely Everything. It was a reasonably short trot from the gate. "Shall we head inside? Who wants to be our salespony and do the bartering?"

Starry quickly unfastened her harness, and trotted over to the door. She pushed it open and went inside.

Sky followed Starry inside the shop hoping to get some ammo.

Absolutely Everything was a very cluttered store. There were shelves, desks, tables and chairs. Most of the store was covered in absolutely anything.

From another room near the back of the store trotted a ghoul pony with very peculiar eyes. She had a goofy smile on her face as she took a seat behind a counter, and waved to the group one at a time as they entered.

Techno walked into the store, all the separate guns floating around him, looking in not only working condition, but in a condition to handle a lot of combat. He levitated out each gun to their respective owners. "I told ya'll we'd get those guns fixed up like new." he stated with a grin. He then turned and gave a wave to the wall-eyed ghoul pegasus. "Heya, Ditzy!"

Now back with the group, he immediately went on the hunt for medical supplies, which he promptly found after a helpful point from Ditzy.

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Footnote: Level up - Lv.5

Lucky grabbed his gun from middair, did all the same checks from before, and then grinned.

"I'm glad I trusted you. This thing looks like it's in pristine condition."

He turned toward the peculiar ghoul pony at the counter, and continued.

"Now all I need's the shells for the damnable thing. Have anything of the sort?"

//FYI, because this story takes place 10 years prior to FoE, Ditzy Doo has yet to suffer the unfortunate circumstances which cost her her speech. I assume there will be no objection as to giving her the voice from the origional version of The Last Roundup.//

"Hi Techno! Hi Techno's friends!" she said, waving to them again quite enthusiastically, before addressing Lucky.

"Sure do!" Ditzy replied, pulling a box out from under the counter and placing it on the counter's surface. She spun it around and opened it to reveal a wide variety of shotgun shells filling the box. "Whaddaya have to trade?" she asked.

Shutter's eyes would have immediatly settled on the Ghoul Pony when he entered, catching a gasp in his throat, which he quickly disguised as being a simple breath. Shutter hadn't expected the owner of the story to be a Ghoul, that's for sure! Not that he had anything against ghouls, that is...

Oddly enough though, Shutter found he really didn't have anything to say for the moment, so he kept quiet, letting his group do the talking. There WAS something he was curious about, due to concerns about his now much larger pistol...but that could wait untill everyone had done their stuff first.

Lucky began looking through the box of ammunition, and began talking to the shopkeeper.

"Sadly, I ain't got much, just some scrap metal and a couple of them screwed up plants from the wastes. I've also got about eight pounds of salted radscorpion meat, only a day old. Interested?"

Lucky found the correct ammunition type, and then looked up to face Ditzy.

(I just realized I've skipped two levels without adding my stats or level up perks -_- I need to pay more attention to that)

Starry was content to stand in the corner this time. She happily returned Ditzy's hoof wave with a smile and a wave of her own, but there wasn't much she was interested in getting here. She wanted books, for certain, since this was the first settlement outside of Stableton she'd visited, but she would go book shopping when they came back on the return trip to Stableton. Starry had enough reading material to tide her over until then.

Starry pulled out the Sword Mares magazine from her saddlebag, which she had insisted on reading before they had entered the town. Rather than reading it, however, she would just open the magazine to a random page, show it to Shutter, and then silently imitate the seductive poses made by the mares on the pages. She couldn't help but laugh as she did so, it was good fun getting a reaction out of him.

Ditzy Doo put a hoof to her chin. Her eyes focused on Lucky while she contemplated the exchange. Rather, one eye focused on Lucky and she other gazed somewhere up at the ceiling.

After thinking for a moment, Ditzy reached in the box, and pulled out a dozen shells. She pushed them forward with her hoof, "Does this look fair?"

Lucky did a couple calculations in his head.

"Hmm... I don't know... maybe twenty shells? Fresh meat's worth a little more than the prewar stuff. Also, would you happen to have any armor available? This old suit's seen some days, y'know?"

He checked his cap stash, and counted out fifty seven caps. His thoughts had switched into full business mode, and he pondered his situation. 'Not very many, but maybe I can haggle for something better...'

Ditzy Doo peeked her head under the counter once again. When she emerged, she was wearing a combat helmet sideways, with the side-straps hanging down her face. In her mouth was another combat helmet, which she dropped on the counter.

"You should always wear a helmet!" she told Lucky, "You never know when you might hit your head!" She also dropped eight extra shells onto the counter. "How's about you take the helmet and the twenty shells, and two bottles of the courage over there, and I can take the meat, the metal, the pretty flowers an' the caps!" Ditzy pointed a hoof at the shelf across the store, on which stood a dozen bottles of whiskey. This must be the courage that Ditzy was referring to.

"Alright, sounds like a fair trade. Celestia knows I need me some more courage..."

Lucky slid his wares across the counter, and took Ditzy's merchandise in return. He put the shells into a pocket, the helmet on his head, and then trotted over to the table the booze was sitting on.

He took a look at the table, then back at Ditzy. 'I'll bet I could grab another bottle without her looking...', He thought to himself. 'Nopony would even suspect a thing, and I'd get a little extra for myse- no. I will NOT ruin my reputation over a bottle of whiskey. Especially after she was so nice to me...'

Lucky suddenly felt ashamed of himself, and took his whiskey without saying a word. He turned around, thanked the ghoul for her business, and walked outside.

(I'm heading to bed. I'll post tomorrow. If we get on the train, go ahead and god mod me.)

Ditzy smiled as she found a place in the store for the scrap metal, plants, and meat. After a minute of placing all of her new purchases, she settled down behind the counter. "Anything else I can do to help?" she asked, waiting for somepony else to make an offer.

Techno walked to the counter carrying four healing potions and three rolls of gauze, along with a bottle of Sparkle-Cola. He stopped on his way there to count his caps, showing he had a total of forty-one. Well, I also have that pack of cigars. Should at least pay for the soda. He placed the stuff on the counter. "Hey Ditzy. Think I could get these for thirty caps and a pack of cigars?"

Ditzy put a hoof on her chin. Forty-one caps was a bit short for four healing potions, but Ditzy knew Techno. She figured that he would put the potions to good use, helping the ponies of the wates.

"You're going to Old Appleloosa, right?" she asked, as she flew up to reach a yellow and pink striped box from a high shelf. She managed to knock over a pistol on the shelf with her wing, which fell to the floor facing the group. Had it been loaded, it might have fired.

"Oops! My bad," Ditzy said, as she set the box on the counter, "but I keep all of the weapons unloaded, so nopony gets shot again."

Techno nodded. "Yup. Stableton's establishing trade with 'em, and we're the group they sent to do so." he said as he nonchalantly watched the gun fall to the floor. He'd lived here long enough to know Ditzy wouldn't go about killing customers by accident. "And if you think I'm asking a bit much, I could make due with two potions, two rolls and the Sparkle-Cola." he said to the ghoul pony, knowing that kindness could only stretch so far.

Ditzy Doo smiled, and shook her head. "Take the four healing potions, you need them." Ditzy nudged the yellow and pink striped box toward Techno, "but could you take this box to some ponies in Old Appleloosa? They're stable ponies, like your friends." Ditzy had evidently considered the task to be fair compensation for the extra potions.

Ditzy looked over the caps and the pack of cigars. "Next time, bring me muffins!" she asked of Techno, with great enthusiasm.

Techno nodded with a smile. "You got it, Ditzy. One delivery and a return of muffins is something I can do." he stated as he levitated the stuff into his bags. "So has anything serious happened since I left?" he asked, curious about the recent news of New Appleoosa since he had left about two month ago.

"Psst! Techno!" Starry interrupted his conversation, whispering over to him, for no apparent reason, from the corner in which she was standing perfectly still. She was making a pose which on a more attractive mare might seem quite alluring, but for Starry, with her big dorky glasses, unkempt mane, and goofy smile, it just looked silly.

"Tick-tick!" she told him. "Oh! Don't forget to mention the dinosaurs!"

Techno gave a glance over to Starry, rolled his eyes, and went back to talking to Ditzy. "Sorry, we have to go soon, but there's one more thing I'd like to ask you about. Would you be willing to buy a dozen or so crates of toy dinosaurs?" he asked, turning to get a visual on one of the crates to levitate one out and show it to Ditzy. "They're in great condition, and I'm sure the fillies and colts will love 'em. At least more than the upper half of a teddy bear."

Ditzy Doo tilted her head, and stared quizically at the dinosaur. "Huh... that's funny, a trader was here two days ago trying to sell dinosaurs like that." It took several moments for the realization to strike, and when it did, Ditzy lowered her head to the ground in sadness. "He's dead, huh?"