The cool tangy taste of my orange juice was a refreshing contrast to the swelter of the noontime sun. Eating lunch at Seaside Inn wasn't a bad decision. However, having the meal on the roof top patio certainly didn't spare us from the heat.
Sorbet was across from me, sipping a glass of ice water. She was looking very intently at her PipBuck fiddling with the dials and knobs on it. Éclair was next to her, reading an issue of Captain Equestria that she had 'liberated' from a box in Sugar Rush's shack. Sugar Rush herself was downstairs.
"Well the good news is, of the three locations we got from the films, one of the labs is close." Sorbet pushed a map to the center of the table. It detailed the eight islands of the Summer Sunset territory. A red circle around one of the smaller islands stood out from the other landmasses.
"That line usually precedes bad news."
"I did a little leg work while you were sleeping off your midnight movie marathon," she continued. "Target Island is apparently a no go zone around here. Back in the day, the navy used it for target practice, hence the name. There are a whole lot of unexploded shells liable to go off. Not to mention the place is apparently toxic. Anyone who went there didn't come back looking pretty, or at all."
"Right, so if we go there, we'll be blown up or grow an extra head. I'm going to venture a guess and say that's not stopping us,"
"You bet your ass." She smirked at me.
"I don't have an ass," I said, smirking back.
"I- what?"
"Forget I said anything." I waved my hoof dismissively. "So what's the plan?"
"Right, sorry. We need to take at least some precautions. Chem-suits and metal detectors would be ideal," Sorbet suggested. "Though, plenty of Rad-away and a decent magnet would suffice if we can't manage that."
"I doubt they have anything in my size."
"I was thinking the same thing."
"I think I can work something out," I said. "You should focus on getting you three prepped."
"Three?" she raised an eyebrow at me.
"Yeah. You, Éclair and Sugar Rush."
"I never said she was going with us," she said, incredulously.
"I thought she joined us."
"What she did was offer us the use of her utilities and pay for our food as penance for trying to KILL us."
"You're still sore about that?"
"Yes, Riptide, I am sore about that. I tend to be sore about any time somepony endangers our lives. Besides, her story sounds fishy."
"Hey now, I resemble that remark."
"You're not really offended by that are you?"
"Guilty. Just trying to lighten the mood."
"It's not really working. Look, just break it down. A mare goes to an abandoned town, a town she is being paid to remove threats from no less. She goes to the bank, opens the vault and randomly cuts out the back wall to discover the hidden lab. Not to mention she has yet to collect her payment. Doesn't that raise any red flags with you?" she leaned in a little bit closer.
"Yes, when you say it like that, it does. However, you're going off of incomplete information. She did open the vault and she did cut through the wall to get to the lab. Why was the vault door closed when we got there? There weren't any obvious controls to open the vault from inside the vault. Perhaps the vault door closed on her and she figured cutting the door itself wasn't viable."
YOU ARE READING
Fallout Equestria: Dark Shores
FanfictionWhen balefire and death rained from the skies, many took sanctuary in the giant underground shelters known as Stables. However, those who could not make it to one of the many Stables set sail for the Summer Sunset Islands. They hoped that the touris...
