TEST CHAPTER – If today was my last day? Yeah right, I’m gonna live to be a thousand.
"Fuck It! Pickles get a move on!" I shouted through the blistering rain, the unnatural heat frying my senses. I could barely see my own hooves through the steam rising from the ground. It wasn't much further till Red Light, but at this pace we be one more boiling body on the side of the road.
How'd I pick up such a slowpoke is beyond me. Pickles had been the local mechanic from the last town I passed and before I knew it he was following my every move. The only reason I hadn't turned him around was due to his actual usefulness. Surprising since he looked like he could barely pick up the wrenches that he had the talent for using.
Seeing a pony bash a griffons head in can change your point of view on them.
"Lucky! Where are you?"
"Right here ya dope!" Turning around, I saw nothing but the curtain of steam and water separating us. Damn. "Don't move! I'm gonna try to find ya!" Flicking a flashlight out of my saddlebag, the dim light barely made a dent in the storm. Hopefully it would reach Pickles.
Trudging back through the mud over my own hoof prints, I wasn't finding any signs of the mangy white stallion. C'mon Celestia, give me a bone here. I waved the light back and forth trying to signal my own location.
"Lucky!" Something was wrong. My mouth was filling up with the taste of copper. Like that time when I ran into -
"PICKLES! ROLL! ROLL OVER FOR YOUR LIFE!" The explosion kicked me onto my back, my spine screaming as something sharp hidden in the mud drove itself deep under my skin. The hot sludge of the rain soaked earth flooded around my quaking body. I tried to move but between the agonizing pain blazing up my back and the black starting to crowd the sides of my vision my mind shut down on that idea quickly.
"LUCKY! LUCKY I"M SCARED!" Shit on the moon, my ears were ringing badly. I wasn't going to leave the little guy out there on his own, however. Not if I could give him a fighting chance without me. I might not be a unicorn, but ol' Twisted Luck had magic up his sleeves.
The sharp tinny clack of metal on metal, wrench to helmet, cut the air. I had to work fast.
One of my bags had ripped open, spilling it's scrap and trash organs within reach. My legs were going numb. As I strained my neck to locate the object of my desire, a new angry flash of agony scraped my nerves raw. Shit on the moon and piss on the sun! Now that was a different feeling. Not one I wanted to greet openly again.
Bingo. My tail wrapped around the stealthbuck in a heartbeat, dragging the device close to my face. My chest was starting to sting, the feeling of a strangling garter constricting how much I could get with each breath. Something wet and vile was gargling in the back of my throat. I shook the raggedy trusty stetson off my head, placing the stealthbuck within the inside cup of the hat.
One shot. Praise the sun and moon, let this work. With a quick, surefire twist of my tail I shot the hat into the air like a clay pigeon. My tail recoiled backwards snatching the pistol dangling loosely from it's damaged halter.
I fought the trigger, mud and grime clogging up the gun at the point I needed it most. Please, I begged the wasteland, let me have this.
With the welcoming sweet sound of a rusted church bell, the trigger loosened giving me my one shot. The stetson burst into a flaming mass of long gone memories and dirty fabric. I could hear something cry out in the distance. The noise reminded me of hope. Of old marefriends and warn liquor on cold nights. Good pals who took their licks with pride til the very end.
Maybe Pickles saw the flash. Maybe he found the stealthbuck in time, saw another wonderful grey morning in bloom. Maybe it was the loss of blood and eerily dulling ache settling in my bones that was making my head all nostalgic, innocent, and naive.
Huh, so that's what a rainbow looks like.
Footnote: Level Maxed
New Perk: Rainbows & Sunshine – The chance of seeing colorful rainbows and old friends is dramatically increased