Fallout Equestria: Tarts and Tribulations

[Dalinale]

Well this was a fine pickle. With the cacophony going on, Doc wondered how no one just two rooms over hadn't heard this yet. He turned back to the sea of tiny fuzzy ponies. They demanded names and attention, so Doc figured he ought to sate that appetite.

"Alright, everyone calm down. Y'all want names, so, give me a moment to come up with something. Hmm, okay, everyone form up two lines here on this side." He moved Brighteyes up to his shoulder. Doc pulled out paper and a pencil. He started a cheat-sheet with cutie names and their description/type. "Pay attention cause I don't want to have to repeat names here."

He picked up one and gave it a little hug. "I'll name you Chip." He put the cutie down on the other side and picked up the next one. With a hug he said, "Your name is Dale." He wrote down the names so he wouldn't repeat any. Giving out 50 of them wasn't too hard when he had a system in place. He named a bunch of them after friends he grew up with in Manehatten because their colors reminded him of old friends. One got the name Jackie, after its fur coat being a shade that reminded him of Applejack. He continued to hand out 50 names with 50 hugs.

Brighteyes seemed estatic at being lifted up on Doc's shoulder; while the creature lacked the dextarity to grab on Doc and hold on with it's stumpy hooves, it was able to lay on it's stomach while it's hooves were hanging mostly useless.

Each of the cuties repeated it's name when Doc gave it one; some of the adults were clearly crying in joy, while some of the smaller ones required some butchered repetition from their parents in order for the name to stick, although when it did they reacted by standing up on their hind legs and wiggling around in a sort of dancing motion. Each hug Doc gave out resulted in a 'Luv new daddah.' and a childlike giggle, and by the time he was done he was surrounded by tiny faces looking up at him in adoration. What he was getting right now was probably close to what the alicorn's got when they wandered out in front of their subjects, or something close to it.

Heh,no wonder Viridia loves you so much. Moonshadow said, teasing.

Fan Knife sniffled.

Anyways, I don't like killing ponies if I don't have to. Plus I thought he'd be useful in fighting the robots. Not that he was, but he did at least give me a bunch of explosives to blow up a generator.

"Family member," Stellar confirms. "But he's been slightly useful and doesn't seem hostile. I'm beginning to think that every faction in this city has members we won't like, and if we write off all of them based on those then we're going to be desperately short of allies. Thanatos doesn't seem like a bad Olive."

"If he's here to blow this place up, that's great. But that means they have enough interest in this place that they opted to send one of their own family members instead of more mercenaries. If he's the friendliest Olive on the planet, then he's just a competent tool of a brutal merchant clan. I don't eat anymore, but you guys apparently have as good a reason to not like them as my sister does, probably better. Are you planning to kill him?"

"Although... He was a little unimpressed by the idea that you came along and might have been collecting biotech data for your sister. Please try not to murder each other."

Fan Knife seemed unconcerned by the accusation.

"If my sister wanted biotech from here, she'd get it from you after you're done here. A antidote, a blood sample, a live rat in the food stores; there's nothing in here that you aren't here to get already. If he's here to exploit this place, then we're already here to destroy it; if there's nothing here of value, then nothing will be lost when it's entirely destroyed. If I want to take anything from here, though, I'm going to."

"Stellar's a big fan of monopolization, murder through destitution and for political gain, as long as it's done with nice words." Viridia snarked.

Fan Knife looked at Viridia with apparent confusion for a few moments, but then she just shrugged.

"Honestly, that's a Equestrian tradition, so I can't really comment." she replied, "They're also a big criminal syndicate based on blood ties and money-grubbing, which is a little more familiar to me. Let's say every single one dropped dead because a deadly virus broke out in their compound. Have you seen anything that could replace them before thousands of ponies starved? You could shoot Last Stop's parliament and no one would care, or kill every single water merchant and claim the Stable for yourself and rule like a king, or kill off the Guild wizards and do whatever you want after that, but the Olive's don't have that many ponies against them because they sell food for cheap and they're not exploitative; there's no hard evidence that they trade in slaves, and the workers they have can afford to feed themselves off their own labor. In a city with as many ponies as this one, that's a deal you can't find anywhere else."

Fan Knife was quite for a few moments, and then a few moments more.

"So, you know anyone who hates them enough and has money?" she commented, suddenly smiling.