War.
War never changes. It was only little over 200 years ago when it was never even thought of by Equestrians. It was only in works of fiction. They never knew one day they’d go to war. 1,000 years of peace and it only took a few years for Equestria’s only war to manifest and bring the end. It unfortunately was not the end. The megaspells were thought to bring the end of every thing but they only opened up the bloodiest chapter in Equestria’s once peaceful history.
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I had never really thought of it. What was my life like? I just lived day to day scavenging caps and supplies to live. Not live, just survive really. Few ponies lived nowadays. It ranged from many things. Weapon maintenance, food, ammo, armor, what ever I needed at the time.
I stared back at the young filly, trying to find the correct words. How to phrase it? Even in this horrid world the great Equestria had become were cruel actions took place ever minute, I still wanted to shield this little filly from it. What could I tell her? I kill ponies for caps.
“Well Mister? What’s your life like?” Her huge eyes stared right at me, piercing though me. She was young. Very young. She still looked years away from her cutie mark. She possibly just mastered speech. She was an earth pony with a white coat and a turquoise mane.
“I… um… find… er um… sell things I find in old ruins.” (Not a lie, I had scavenged a couple times for extra caps) “Also if somepony wants another to… go away they… can hire me,” I began to talk slower as I noticed it would have been best to leave the last part out.
“Make them go away?” she repeated, “to where?” She was staring at me again.
How do you tell a foal that you kill people in a way with out telling her you actually kill people? She had to find out how cruel the world is at one point or another, but I still couldn’t find it in myself to tell her. I’m not one to lie. I rarely ever lied and always tried to avoid it. Well I wasn’t technically lying. I was just telling the truth in a more appropriate way for a foal. Given all this I still couldn’t find it in me to reveal to a young foal the cruelty of what I did. Damn it!
“Yeah,” (I send them to the afterlife. That’s technically a place right?) Please let that be her last awkward question.
“Why would you do that? It doesn’t seem very nice”
DAMN IT! Why the hell did she have to be so curious! I looked back toward her and couldn’t stay angry. She was a pretty cute foal and it was natural for a foal to be curious. I remember when I was at her age. I miss being that naïve. I took a deep sigh and released my anger with it. I began to try to find a way to dodge this one when her mother, another earth pony, called out to her.
“Honey, can you please stop bothering the nice stallion.”
The filly replied with an, “Ok,” forgetting about our conversation and running over to her mother.
I wouldn’t have used nice to describe me for escorting them. I was just a gun for higher who was escorting them because they gave me some caps. Had they not had the caps I wouldn’t have escorted them.
I decided to help the Father of the family put up the pathetic excuses we had for tents. I always had two tents. One was riddled with holes and the other… had less. The one in worse condition was a back up. I didn’t use them often and always tried to reach a town to stay the night in. It wasn’t safe to sleep alone in the wasteland. I wouldn’t call it common or rare but there was always the chance a raider, slaver, or some wasteland asshole would kill or take you in the middle of the night. If I did use the one of the tents while alone I’d find a safe spot to sleep like a cave or abandoned building and carefully set traps if I had any.
The father was another earth pony. His mane was gray and his coat was a deep blue. He looked at me as I walked over to help.
“Mind if I help you?” I asked.
“No,” He stayed focused on the tent and didn’t make eye contact.
There was a silence between us. I thought to break it but it became apparent by his body language that he was in no mood to talk. I thought back too earlier today. I had found the family wondering the wastes being chased by raiders. It was a small raiding party of about three ponies. It was easy to dispose of them. The family told me those raiders were some of the many that wiped out there small settlement. I told them I could escort them for 30 caps, a cheep price but they didn’t appear to have much and their settlement was just wiped out by raiders. It was decided they’d give me 10 caps at the moment and 20 once I got them to safety.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think we got your name,” The blue stallion broke the silence. He appeared to be a little uncomfortable by trying to talk to me.
I had just finished setting up one tent, the one in worse condition, which I would most likely choose to sleep in out of courtesy. I looked up toward him. He appeared older then his wife but that may have just been because of the gray mane.
“My name’s Wanderer” It was a simple three salable word. I’d lived with it all my life. It described me well. I wandered around for work as a merc. I didn’t have any place I could stay at, no family, and no friends. Its odd who names often end up describing a pony when they were named before they found their special talent or job. It’s usually so common you don’t really think about it too often but when you do it makes you wonder.
“Well, I can’t say I respect you for killing people for a living,” (Couldn’t say I respected myself for it much either, but these were desperate times and I needed to make a living. It’s not like when I was a colt I aspired to be a merc.) “But, thank you for escorting my family.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m a merc. If you didn’t have the caps I wouldn’t have done it.”
“I’m not an idiot. Only thirty caps isn’t something a regular merc would charge to bring us across the wasteland.”
“It’s a short trip. The next town isn’t that far. We’ll be there by noon tomorrow.”
“A regular merc would have charged more or at least have tried to. I can tell you aren’t like most.”
“How do you know that?’ I stopped putting up the tent for a second to look at him.
He grabbed a part of the tent and began to talk with it in his mouth. “Well,” His voice was muffled from the tent being in his mouth. He sighed with it still in his mouth. “My family doesn’t know but,” He continued. He finally finished putting up the tent. He had done a pretty good job considering it appeared he had little if not any experience with putting up a tent. He opened his mouth again, now with out anything in his mouth. “I was a merc at one point too. I didn’t have much heart like you seem to. I was near heartless and I don’t like to remember it, but that part of my life is behind me now.” He looked to his wife who had their daughter sleeping, leaning against her. “I have a family now.’
...
I decided to get some fresh air. The old stallion’s words stayed in my mind. A family. I used to have one when I was a colt. I had never thought of making one of my own. I was still young. I didn’t need to worry about it and I didn’t even know if I could find a mare. The wasteland seemed to make it so it was impossible for somepony to actually be kind enough for me to actually settle down with. Maybe my standards were too high. Maybe I would find a nice mare one-day. It would be nice to have a family again. Ponies who cared for me. I’d been alone in the wastes for awhile. I began to think about my family and became sad as the memories of their deaths came back to me.
I had to get rid of the thought. I was on a job. I had a few mines and I decided to set them down near the mouth for extra protection. It was getting late. I had decided to take the first shift guarding our little camp. After midnight I’d wake up the father of the family and he’d stand guard until 4 or 5 in the morning. He’d wake me up and I’d guard until 7 then wake everypony up and we’d head out.
I looked up at the sky. The sun had already set and it was dark. I guessed the moon would have just begun to rise if the clouds had not heavily layered the sky. It had always been that way ever since I was a colt. Even before that. It was most likely around ten o’ clock by now. It was difficult to tell with the clouds always covering the sky. At night, guessing the time was usually based on how bright it is or was.
I turned back toward the mouth of the cave and headed back in. The family was asleep in the tent in better condition. There was a small fire I had started it using parts of a dead tree and a match. I sat next to the fire, made sure my battle saddle was fully loaded, aimed it toward the mouth of the cave, and waited.
...
“Ah!” My eyes shot open. I heard a small explosion from outside. It was most likely one of the mines. I sneaked around to the mouth of the cave, hugging the wall. Outside I could see three raiders. One of their buddies just got her leg injured by stepping on a mine.
“Well fuck. There’s mines all over the fucking place.” I heard a stallion say.
“That’s how we know there’s crap worth gettin’ It ain’t like there gonna be hard to get around. Just shoot ‘em and they explode,” A mare with a voice that sounded sinister replied
Damn it! Why the hell would raiders even bother to look in a cave? Then I realized, the fire! The light from it could probably be seen from outside. Damn! I knew I should have put it farther from the entrance. Oh well, it was just three raiders and one already hurt herself by stepping on the mine. With a surprise attack I could take them down easily.
I snuck toward the mouth of the cave and hid behind the wall of the cave that was near the entrance. I spun out from behind the wall of the cave into the open and bit down on the firing mechanism for my battle saddle. The mare with the sinister voice was down. A bullet bounced off my combat barding narrowly missing my neck. I shot the one who had the source of the bullet in a levitation field and the mare wounded from the mine fell.
I looked for the brown stallion and quickly found him running. A grin moved across my face as I though of how he was already fleeing but once I took notice of his battle saddle it become obvious he wasn’t fleeing.
BOOM!
I dodged back into cover as a rocket exploded in front of where I was standing and took the mines with it. Crap! There went pretty much all my mines. I waited. After a couple seconds a second rocket hit the inside of the cave near me. The cave shook and I probably should have been concerned about a cave in, but I was more focused on killing the raider.
Based on the time in between the first and second shot I guessed the rocket launcher could only hold one rocket at a time. I popped out of cover shot the raider twice in the head while the battle saddle reloaded. He fell with a thud.
The two mares laid in a puddle of blood near one another. My focus shifted from the battle and the adrenaline began to wear off. I noticed crying. Probably the young filly reaction to being awakened by the explosion. It must have been going on since the explosion but I was too absorbed in the battle to notice. I went back to the tents to find the father headed toward the mouth of the cave.
“What was that?” he asked
“An explosion,” I replies in a bit of a smartass tone.
“Where’d it come from?”
“Raiders. Small party of three. One had a rocket launch…. They’re all dead now.”
“Good. Those mines do the trick?”
I paused. “More or less.” Other then waking me up not much really, but I thought it’d be better to leave that part out. “It’s about seven, I’m guessing.” I continued, “Let’s pack up and start headin’ out.”
...
We finally arrived at Dead End at about late afternoon after a breakfast of canned corn. It was a small town. It was pretty much surrounded by mountains, the town had an old mining facility. It was once a mining town but now the old buildings and facilities are used as homes and storage. They made money by trading whatever scavenge they could from the old mines. By the looks of the town it was probably still in use the day the end of the world came.
The family gave me my 20 caps and we parted ways. I went to the local inn to go rent a room for the night. It was rundown like most things in the wastes. It looked like it was an inn before the war too. The windows were the same color murky color as pretty much all the others in the wastes and the wood that made up the building and front desk was rotting. Despite these facts, by wasteland standards the place was better then most.
The room I got was a basic one-pony room. I’d fall asleep early so I could set out early tomorrow. I got my battle saddle, my saddlebags, and my armor off. I laid on the bed. The mattress was the same as most in the wasteland. Hard. At least it wasn’t as dirty as most. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
...
Knock Knock
My eyes opened. “Wah?”
Knock Knock
Why was somepony knocking on my door in an inn? Maybe I slept in too late and they were kicking me out? I turned to look out the window in my room. Yup, definitely slept in to late. Crap.
Knock Knock
“I’m coming. Wait a second.”
I began getting my barding back on.
Knock Knock
“Wait a damn second!”
My armor was all back on and I opened the door. To my surprise there was a ghoul pegasus mare with a chalkboard that read Delivery! She had a big smile across her face. At her feet was a small cardboard box. It was in good condition, a rarity in the wasteland.
“Umm… Thanks?” I noticed her amber eyes were crossed. I tried not to focus on it so I didn’t appear rude. “ Are you sure you have the right pony? I just checked into this room last night. I doubt anyone who would send me a package would know I’m here already. Actually I doubt anyone send me a package.”
She looked confused for a second then looked to a clipboard and flipped to through the pages. She shook her head yes. She erased Delivery! with a Hoof and wrote: This is the correct place. Unless the sender got the wrong place this is yours. She erased the board again and wrote: Have a nice day! She gave me a smile and left.
Ok… How odd. I looked at the small box and saw To: Wanderer. How did it have my name on it? Well guess I should open it. After I was done opening the flaps on the box I saw a pipbuck along with a note. Put this on. I pulled the pipbuck out of the box but hesitated to put it on.
It’s hard to trust somepony you just meet in the wasteland so how was I to trust a stranger who just sent me a random pipbuck? Well pipbucks were good for traversing the wastes from what I’ve heard. They could monitor your condition provide maps of the area your in for a couple miles around and a local map. They could even give the user an E.F.S. and even more from what I’ve heard. I’d never actually seen one only heard stories from my father and a couple other wastelaners.
I was hesitant but I put it on. It’s not like I won’t be able to take it off… I hope. The screen came to life. “Interesting,” I mouthed. I moved my front leg, the left one where I had put the pipbuck, around to inspect the new addition to my foreleg.
I looked back to the cardboard box I had gotten the pipbuck from. Inside, under were the pipbuck had been was a small device. It was metallic and had some type of speaker. It was most likely some type of radio. I picked it up by my teeth and saw another note under it. I hope the pony that sent me this package knew there was more to a box then just vertical space.
The note read Wanderer, Please place the transmitter into the pipbuck. I would like to talk to you. What!? Who the hell was this pony? They cant just expect me to do what they say!
I stared at the pipbuck for a second thinking about what to do. Curiosity was stronger then my judgement, so I tried to attach it. It took a second for me to figure it out but the transmitter could be placed into a slot on the pipbuck.
I placed the transmitter in the slot. “Hello?” I asked.
There was static for a short time followed by a shorter silence then the voice a stallion came through the transmitter, “hello, Wanderer.”
“Who the hell are you and how’d you know were I was?” I asked in an angered tone.
“Well I have my sources to know were ponies are. As for who I am… you can call me Mr. X for the time being. There’s no need to get angry though. I’m just another employer. You are a merc correct?”
Mr. X? Really? That’s the best he could come up with? How corny.
“Yes…” I hesitated, “What’s the job?”
“Hmm. Right to business then. Well fine. The pipbuck I have sent you is important. I need you to meet some of my men in the old Ironshod firearms factory to the south. This is only the beginning of the job though. If you stick with this until the end I’m willing to offer 50,000 caps for the job.”
50,000 caps! Holy Celestia, how the hell could one pony get all that money? Wait… how could somepony get that much money? Concealing identity. Doesn’t seem good about this… but… 50,000 caps. Could going to an abandoned factory be that bad?
“Wait… Why give me the pipbuck, why not one of your own men?”
The radio crackled then static. Really!?
Well, might as well get ready to set out…
...
I got the supplies I could afford from some of the stores in Deadend and set off toward the factory. Apparently, my pipbuck had a marker on its map for the factory along with Deadend… and nothing else. I thought these things were supposed to be the best piece of technology out there. Well aside from the map function every thing else seemed to work fine.
The trip to the factory was pretty easy. It’s not like there was much out in the desert. Just some secluded mining towns near the mountains and the occasional factory… or well that’s what I heard. I actually hadn’t spent much time in the area. I had only been around for a little less then a month. I had grown up in a caravaner family going between the settlements of the wastes. I came here because it was quieter then what’s going on the rest of Equestria, with Redeye and the Enclave and all that.
The trip probably took somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half. The factory just looked like another wasteland ruin. It still looked like the roof and walls held up. I walked inside and looked around. In front of me were three dead bodies. Well I hope these weren’t the ponies that were supposed to help me.
Then the wall behind me exploded. I flipped over what I guessed was once a workbench and used it as cover and not a moment to soon. I heard the sound of a gattling gun start up and 5mm rounds hit the wall behind the workbench and me. The force of the rounds kept the bench nearly glued to my back. The gunfire stopped for a moment and right before I came out for my cover (a reaction based on instinct and not me using common sense to figure out the gattling gun could be started up again at any moment or the rocket fired at anytime) the bench exploded.
I was sent flying back and hit a wall (head first) as shrapnel went flying too (some into me). I was bleeding but the ringing in my ears and the threat of being blown to bits made me take my mind off it. My breathing wasn’t normal. I was taking slow, long breath (you know the ones you take before you die). I had trouble opening my eyes to see my attackers. My eyes just barley opened and all I could see were too figures that seemed bigger and bulkier than most ponies.
I was fighting conscious now. I wanted to close my eyes and fall into a sleep, but I knew doing so would most likely get me killed. The two other ponies approached me. My eyes were getting heavier. Then I couldn’t help it they shut.
Footnote: Level up!
Swift Learner (1) You learn things quicker than the average pony and gain +10% exp. For every time you earn exp.