Jade awoke to the smell of acid and blood. Remembering what the acid was she quickly moved to the door to get out of it. The filly still couldn’t understand what had happened. Sentential Sky was gone, and she was alone. She started to tear up before shaking her head, looking at the cellar door. With the decision to either stay on the now blood and puke covered stairs, go further into the cellar which most likely smelled of said blood and puke, or go outside into the fresh air and a world that most likely more dangerous than she remembered, she decided to leave. She knew it would be futile to stay - those ponies, or whatever they were, would be coming back, and she didn’t want them finding her.

Jade opened the door to the grey, brown world around her with some unease, knowing that she could be hurt by some passerby for no other reason than some… caps, of all things. It seemed so wrong. Only several hours ago she wouldn’t had to worry about something like this, or at least have her parent protecting her. But she knew she couldn’t just be alone, she needed somepony to look over her. She wasn’t strong or tough, she couldn’t talk her way out of the situation and Sentential Sky had shown her, by example, that there are ponies not willing to listen at all. She was smart, though, and, she hoped, it could help her in a long run. She really didn’t like her chances if something found her and she was alone, though she guessed she might be able to defend herself if it came down to it, but that meant she needed a weapon and she would need to… kill. Kill… or be killed.

She looked around and noticed, for the first time, that she recognized the territory. It was a neighborhood not far from her home, Onyx St. She lived just north of here, and, if she headed that way, maybe she could find her Mommy’s pistol. Her Mommy had kept it hidden, but Jade knew that her Mommy had one somewhere around the house. One time she had heard her Daddy talk to Mommy about it. She didn’t know what the discussion was about, but she knew she heard about a pistol. It seemed that trying to snatch some cookies from a jar wasn’t THAT bad of idea after all...

It took her about hour to get back home seeing as they passed it along the way. Her home was more or less intact, except for missing wall on the left side where the chariot once was. Windows were gone. The bright green paint had faded to an almost white with blood red rust coating most of the walls along with dried blood. Jade didn’t want to know how it got here. The roof was still intact and the doors were still there, though, with a missing wall, it was a bit pointless

The filly walked into the home from an age long passed and was saddened by the state of it. The carpet, which had been soft and comforting, now was hard and crusty in here and there, while moldy and wet in the others. Pictures of her parents were faded and gone, bleached by the passage of time. The kitchen was destroyed by something that Jade could only guess. Most of the interior walls were fine, though, except a fallen off panel or a wallpaper peeling away. All in all Jade was proud to say that her home held up well on the inside. She searched through the house in hopes of finding a pistol, but what she found… was an old friend.

“Mr. Wiggles!” She exclaimed while running to the robot, who, for some reason, was on the floor of her parent’s room instead of floating around in the air. One eye stock lifted up to look at her with a cracked lens and widened in, what Jade guessed, was surprise.

“Miss Jade! My core burns and my processors flare with energy, it’s you, it’s really you!” he said while looking around. “And where are your parents? I do hope they didn’t leave you alone. The world has gotten much, much more dangerous for a filly your age.”

“Mr. Wiggles, my Mommy and Daddy….there…they went to sleep and didn’t wake up again.” Jade said solemnly as she looked the robot over, noticing that his other eyes were gone along with his limbs. “What happened to you, Mr. Wiggles?”

“Oh, I’m sure they will wake up soon. Your father can fix me up then and I can make dinner for all of you, and we will be exchanging stories about the last 200 years or so.” Mr. Wiggles said. He turned his eye to the window as if expecting her Mommy and Daddy to walk by worried.

“Mr. Wiggles….they’re not…” Jade began before crying for her lost parents. Mr. Wiggles placed his eyestalk near her head and started nuzzling her, like her Mommy would have if she were there.

“Oh, Miss Jade, I can only imagine what you must be going through right now.” Mr. Wiggles said sadly as he continued to use its only eye to nuzzle her cheek.

“I think I’ll be fine... now that you’re here with me, Mr. Wiggles.” Jade said with some happiness brushing her sadness away.

“I’m sorry, Miss Jade, but I can’t move. My levitation rune run out of power, and I know you can’t charge it.” Mr. Wiggles said sadly. “I’m not much of use to you and, if you stay here, you’re likely to get eaten by a predator and I can’t allow that. It would best to just leave me. It would be the safest option.”

“I’ll fix you, I know how.” Jade said brightly.

“I’m afraid there are not many parts to do that. Unless of course you go to the factory, but that is too far away, far too dangerous for you to go. And my spare parts… weight quite a lot.” Mr. Wiggles said in a way that Jade knew he meant it. The robot had gotten pretty good at showing her when he was serious. “There is that old XK3-77 Mk3, though, that the Pipers had gotten. Those robotic guard dogs were made by the same company that made me, my memory and motherboards should be compatible with its systems, or if its own are still intact I can transfer myself to a holotape and you can plug me in. Then I can protect you just like your parents would have wanted.”

Jade knew what Mr. Wiggles was talking about. It was the dog that Lily Leaf had bragged about her father getting, then Jade had looked it up with her Daddy’s help. It was some sort of robot guard dog, like Mr. Wiggles said. Unlike the cyber dogs, one similar to brain bots, it didn’t use an animal brain, which meant it could last longer without much needed maintenance. But it wasn’t as smart and was more prone to hacking then its biological cousins. They also had many setbacks until the XK3-74 model hit the shelves.

“The Pipers would have lived just two houses down the street, though I think I heard those ruffians that go by the name Shadow kids, or something like that. You should be careful” Mr. Wiggles said. “Your Mother’s rifle should be in the closet, but I’m unsure if you’ll be able to pick it up.”

Jade walked over to the closet, moving around the collapsed bed. When she opened the door she saw a long boxy like gun that looked like a gun she had read the book about that her parents had taken from her. They had said it wasn’t for little fillies to read.

“Mr. Wiggles, why did Mommy have a Magnetic Coil Rifle?” Jade asked.

“She was part of some law enforcement division as a sniper I believe. It’s a powerful rifle scoped for long range. Are you able to pick it up? I don’t really approve of letting you use it, but it’s our only option until I’m transferred into a new body or get repaired somehow. You need to defend yourself.” Mr. Wiggles said with some unease in his voice.

Jade looked at the Magnetic Coil Rifle with intent as she tried to lift it, but she couldn’t. It was just too heavy for her. She couldn’t use the weapon with how heavy it was. The rifle would be impossible to aim on top of it as the little filly had never held a gun before and she was sure this was on a different level than a pistol.

“Is there something lighter I may be able to use?” Jade asked, giving up on the Gauss Rifle.

“Well there is that bat your father was going to give you for your birthday. It should be under the bed, I believe. Sir was going to encourage you to play baseball. You know… get some fresh air.” Mr. Wiggles said while Jade looked for the bat finding a long box which she dragged out with her hooves. Opening it she found cedar wooden bat. She used her mouth to lift it out and walked over to Mr. Wiggles. “Good show, Miss Jade! I’m sure your father would have been proud to see you holding that.”

Jade nodded, dipping a little due to the bat in her mouth. She walked out of the room, down the hall and out the missing wall of the house. The neighborhood wasn’t too destroyed besides the house at the end of the street, but other than that was just decent, or maybe even livable. The filly really wasn’t a good judge on what made a home livable, but she guessed it was having wall and roof above you, to have shelter from the elements.

She looked down the street and saw a big metal object lying in the yard of a home. There were a lot of skeletons not too far from it. Jade walked to the object and noticed that the thing still had a head but was missing most of it legs. Things that looked like gun placements were empty and most of the metal plates that would cover it was gone, along with fake fur. It was the size of a small cart, which was about five feet long, one foot wide, and four feet high.

The head of the, well, Jade, guessed it was the XK3-77 Mk 3, looked like an oval dome with rows of magically shaped and treated teeth. The lower jaw looked similar and Jade didn’t see anything representing the eye. The body looked similar to a Timber Wolf, but Jade could see the rotators, servos and plating were removed from under the fake fur. Its tail was long and had a blade that could retract. In all it looked like it was missing a power cell, three of its legs and, most importantly, weapons.

“So this thing might be a dead end if I can’t find replacements. I wonder if those other foals Mr. Wiggles heard took the parts.” Jade said looking around and noticing the city in the distance. “There should be a shop out here. Maybe not all of those parts were looted? I could use a cart to move them... however long that would take.”

She started her walk to the city noticing a water tower nearby announcing it as Shorn Wall. It was the main sentiment in immediate area. She hadn’t really visited the city that much, but she knew there was supposed to be a repair shop for robots someplace inside the city limits. She really needed to repair either the Xk3-77 Mk3 or Mr. Wiggles.

There wasn’t much on the road to the city, except for trees and grass, and for the most part, it was quiet. She didn’t see any wildlife, and she hoped not to. If ponies were so violent what could all the animals and birds do?. She really didn’t want to think about what a Prowler was, let alone find one of those.

The outskirts the city were a bunch of crumbling building of brick and mortar, but she could still see some still standing further in. There were signs but none for the shop she needed to find. She would be lucky if the shop hadn’t been completely looted and she could find something to repair either of the robots with the spare parts. Anything could be used, though she would have preferred the original parts.

The filly noticed that there were bangs ringing off in the distance. Dread began to fill the young pony as she walked around the corner of a building and see a bunch of colts and fillies being attacked by some adults. The little filly started the back peddle until she felt that she bumped into something.

“Well-well-well, what do we had here. One of you little fillies ended up outside your little fort.” A stallion said as he picked her up with his magic. “What should we do with her?”

“The little pests have been a big thorn in our side, why not just gut her.” A mare came by, holding a knife in her mouth.

“Please, no.” was the all filly could say as relieved herself for the first time since waking up.

“AWW shit! She just pissed herself.” the Stallion said moving her away from her.

“Must be the runt of these fuckers, and I still can’t believe they went and hold up in that old robots shop. What was that thing they sent out?” The mare said moving to stab the filly.

Then the stallion’s head exploded and he dropped Jade just as the mare swung, just barely missing, cutting some hairs on fillys head. The mare looked at the stallion as Jade started to run away, not really looking where till she heard a door slammed shut behind her. Panting, she looked around and noticed she was on the inside of the wall the other colts and fillies had build. She also noticed she had lost her bat.

“You okay?” a filly said walking up to her. Said filly was a unicorn. Bright yellow with blue, and a book for a Cutie Mark. “You have got to be the youngest Stable Dweller I’ve ever seen, though you’re also the only one I’ve ever seen. Anyway I’m Paper Bind, leader of the Children of the Moon. We don’t have much time, so let’s go with the short version, okay?”

“Uh… sure?”

Paper Bind turned to the wall. “We’ve been having these bastards hounding us since they raided our old settlement and have been picking us off one by one. We had a lot more ponies with us before; all the adults are either dead or, well, left. What’s left of our little organization is all the colts and fillies that felt helping people and each other was still the right thing to do. And when we set up shop here those bastards came back to try and finish us off. Are you keeping up?”

“Um…”

“We help ponies, mainly colts and fillies who have lost their family to the wasteland, raider, radiation, sickness, or just some pony with a grudge. And it looks like you’re one of them. Unfortunately we need to get the raiders out of here, either by shooting them, or just plan scaring them off. Are you good with the gun? I’m asking this because we’re short of shooters and need some help to finish off those guys. Are you in?”

The yellow filly finished while Jade just stared at her. This filly was asking her to kill. She was terrified and this filly was asking her still kill a pony. Possibly even more than one and NOT in self-defence.

Jade did the only thing she could in this situation and collapsed. The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was

“Oh, come ON! You just went on and dumped her into that shit! Good job breaking her, LEADER!”

To be continued