Fallout Equestria: The Kingdom

Cast Iron blinks a few times. "This explains some zings. You vouldn't have told me zat bit about sniper teams unless you vere part of some military like zeh Enclave. Vat rank vere you?"

Painkiller's eyes narrow a little and he rises fully from his bed sitting on it to look Cast Iron right in the eye, "I was a Major in the Enclave Military." His wings are at a partial extension, not resting fully at his sides because of his agitated state.

Cast Iron breaks eye contact and looks around the room, trying to process what's he's discovering. "...Zen you are an exile if you aren't vith your kind. Vhy are you down here?" he asks calmly.

"Politics, honesty and humility." He answers. "That other pegasus from last night, Cherry, she's Enclave as well, the difference between the two of us? She's almost chosen to be down here, and her flanks aren't marred by this brand" Painkiller indicates to the dashite brand where his cutie mark should be.

He lowers his head in thought. "...I...don't know vat to zink of zis. In zeh Heer ve shoot Enclave on sight, I know nozing about zem ozer zan zat zey like shooting at us vith bright lights."

"Training Exercises and skirmishing to justify the military's existence." Painkiller replied. "Those bright lights are energy weapons, like that laser pistol I used at Fiddler's Hoof. Ponies who have this mark," he indicates again to the brand,"are not considered part of the Enclave. We're called dashites and when we are banished and marked by this we become shoot on sight targets of opportunity. Officially the upper levels of the Bureaucracy want nothing to do with us and see us as disloyal traitors to all Pegasus interests. Unofficially and according to the members of the military, we are just bonus targets for patrols. no pony cares what happens to a dashite. Most patrols will ignore us, but there are some who won't hesitate to shoot us on sight regardless of the conditions which we received our mark."

"Your homeland sounds harsh vithout reason." he said sternly, trying to hide the sadness in his voice. "Zeh idea of soldiers, brothers in arms betraying eachozer..." He doesn't bother finishing his sentence, instead deciding to go silent.

It's not the people or the soldiers that are the problem, its the Bureaucracy." Painkiller spits.

"Vell, your Bureaucracy sucks. I have some errands to run, I vill be seeing you later." Cast Iron gathers his stuff and leaves the room.

The radio in the Inn's lobby cuts away from a rather chipper tune and is replaced by a deep and charismatic voice.

Hello Wasteland, this is DJ Pon3. Sorry to cut off everyone's favorite pony of pop, but I'm afraid I've just received some bad news.

It seems that during the night, a small settlement in the Appleloosa area came under attack. Thankfully, a lone survivor managed to make it out of Freemane and was found by some traders. Little miracles and all that.

Now I know what you're all thinking. "Pon3, why would you tell us about this? Settlements get attacked all the time!" Well, that's where I've got some more news. According to our survivor, the town was attacked by a force completely made up of ghouls.

Now children, there's a reason I'm telling you this; so that you don't hear it through the rumor mill and start lynching every ghoul you come across. Just because one group of bad-eggs burned a town doesn't make them all bad. If that were true, shouldn't all of us non-ghoul types be blamed for what Raiders do?

Food for thought.

And now, let's get back to the music with the sweet, sweet melodies of Sweetie Belle. This is 'All That Glitters are Gems'.

Cast Iron stops as he hears the radio broadcast. "Vow, news travels fast in zese parts. Impressive for a people vith no apparent transportation." he says to no one in particular. He trots towards the door and makes his way to the General Store.

Mince, who had been eating one of his Cram for breakfast, pipes up upon hearing the broadcast. He blinks, and looks around the room for the others.

Crusher sits on the porch of the inn, idling.

Cast Iron trots past Crusher on his way to the General Store. "Guten morgen, mein freunds." he says politely.

Mincemeat steps out of the inn, looking around. He spots Crusher, "Hey! Robot thing! Where are the others?"

Crusher shrugs.

Shadow and Cherry walk out of the Inn and head to the gun store

"Mornin' y'all."she says as she walks past Mince and Crusher

Shadow remains silent and continues walking.

Cast Iron bows politely and salutes. "Ja, old habits die hard. " he says, smiling. "I vould like to sell zese." he says, floating out two cans of Cram and a bottle of water. "I von't be needing zem since zey take up valuable room."

"W-Wait! Cherry, Shadow!" He runs after them without waiting for Crusher to respond.

"I just heard on the Radio, Freemane just got razed by a group of ghouls!" He says, quickly, "It's probably the same ones who hit Fiddler's."

"I-- Aren't you curious? Vengeful? Angry? Anything?" He paces around them, "This has got to mean something - something big! Nothing this organized has shown up before - I mean, finding enough ghouls for an attack like that is hard enough!"

He turns to face them, "This is... This is fate! Fate that I heard it on the Radio! We have to tell the others and go investigate!"

"Hmmm...zat vorks. I never caught your name." he says with a smile. He floats the wares down onto the counter.