Chapter 2; Back to Normal
Dawn.
I saw it for the first time that morning. The sun in all of its glory rose over the mountains and cast its light into the cave. Had I been in a better mood, it would have had my breath taken away.
The night had been long; I stood vigil through the night watching over the mare that slept fretfully under my wing. Gear Shift had woken up, shaking, several times through the night. In all honesty the little “rest” she got did her little good. Shift’s mane was frayed and she had bags under her eyes.
“We should get movin’,” I muttered. Shift just grunted in response. We pulled ourselves to our hooves and slung our bags over our backs. After Shift took a moment to try and make herself look presentable, we got back on the road. Both of us were ready to leave that goddess-forsaken cave.
After about an hour’s walk, I saw a marker appear on the compass of my Pipbuck. As I recall, Mom said that the Pipbuck would mark locations provided that I got close enough. About time we found a town, I thought.
Putting one hoof in front of the other, we trudged down the mountain path. At this point it was a relatively easy downhill walk. After about another half-hour of walking, Shift and I finally broke free of the mountain range that guarded our hometown.
Looking out onto the plains of Equestria for the first time, I could only think about how flat it was. It was almost completely barren of all signs of life save for a collection of decrepit buildings rising in the distance. The marker on my compass lined up with the buildings, so I pointed myself in their direction and started to walk.
“What is that place?” Shift asked from behind me.
“Not sure yet. Ah figure it’s a tradin’ town though, the merchants always talked about a town just below the mountains. Ah think they called it Old Stalliongrad.”
“It just looks like some rubble to me,” she mumbled under her breath, “if it is this ‘Old Staliongrad’ place, then why are we going there?”
“Well, fer one we could try to find a decent place to sleep tonight. Maybe find some work. Mom told us to go and live, and that’s what we’re gonna’ do.” I was still wondering what was in the factory to make the enclave would even want Bayhoof, however; rest was a high priority. “Later on Ah’m gonna find out what I can on the enclave, they can’t just be in Bayhoof.”
“What kind of work do you mean? True, you’re a fishercolt, and there’s not exactly a lake here to fish.” Well, she did have a point there.
“Might try mah hoof at scavenging. Who knows, might even look into some work as a caravan guard.” See Gear Shift? I’m not just a one trick pony, I can do other things than fish.
“Guard-work? True isn’t that a bit dangerous? I always heard stories about caravans getting attacked in the wastes.” There was concern in her voice, I heard those stories too, but from my years on the lake, I was familiar danger.
“Maybe, but it prolly pays good. And we need the caps, Ah only have 200 on me and we can only stretch it so far.” I could feel her eyes drilling into the back of my head. When I turned to look at her, she locked me with a stern gaze as if I were a foal who broke a window.
“True Hook. Safety is more important than caps. I realize we need the money, but I don’t want you in any more danger than you have to be. You’re all I have and I am NOT losing you. Scavenging I might be fine with, but guard-work is out of the question.” She brandished a small wrench in her telekinetic grip. “Do I make myself clear?” I had only seen her this serious a few times before, and I learned after the first time that it would be wise to listen…I had a lump on the side of my head for weeks after going against what she said.
I swallowed hard before answering. “Yes’m.”
For the first time since yesterday morning, she cocked her head and gave me a smile. “Good, now let’s go meet the nice traders,” she said in a sing-song voice. Shift loved it when she got her way.
We walked into the ruins, and my Pipbuck flashed a notification confirming what I thought earlier; we were now in the ruins of Old Staliongrad. The buildings were grey, each one as dull as the last. The only thing that varied from building to building was the size. As we walked further into the ruins, we saw signs saying “Old Staliongrad Trading Post” with an arrow pointing in the direction we should go. After following the signs for a while we arrived at our destination.
The trading town was surrounded by a wall made of large debris. There was a gate being guarded by three stallions. There was one on a makeshift catwalk over the gate with a scoped rifle; the other two were on either side of the gates with combat shotguns.
“State your business!” the one with the rifle called to us.
“Just came down from the mountains! We’re lookin’ for a place to rest an’ get some work!” I would have been a lot more comfortable if I didn’t see him aiming at me.
One of the guards with a shotgun piped up, “Ten caps a head tah get inside! If ya ‘aint got it then keep movin’!” Well aren’t you friendly.
“We have the caps, there’s no need to be rude sir!” I made a note to talk to Gear Shift about the wasteland’s etiquette, or the lack of it. I guessed the traders never told her that the ponies in the wastes were much more hostile than the ponies of Bayhoof Falls. With caps in hoof though, the guards let us inside without any trouble.
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The first thing on our to-do list was to find a place to stay. Shift and I walked by several decrepit buildings that were being used for free lodging, but we refused to stay there as we had a few caps in our pockets. We walked by more common houses before finding a place that peaked our interests.
The three story building towered above all of the shacks around it. The battered sign beside the door read “The Sunrise Inn and Saloon.” We opened the wooden door and casually walked in. The main room on this floor was open with several tables scattered about. It was still fairly early in the morning so there were not many ponies to be found. We walked over to the long bar that dominated one side of the room.
“What’ll it be?” asked an orange earth pony. While he spoke he cleaned a shot glass with an old rag. He wore a tattered barkeeper’s outfit that was in poor shape.
“How much to rent a room for the night?” asked Shift.
“Five caps a night. That just includes the room. Any food or services are extra.” That seemed reasonable, so we hoofed over some caps to the barkeep and picked up our key. “Yall will be in room four.” The stallion continued to work on his shot glass as we made our way up to our room.
The room was on the second floor of the inn. Shift levitated the key up to the door in the pink glow of her magic and opened the door. Honestly the room wasn’t a bad one; there just wasn’t much to it. In the middle of the room was a princess sized bed. The whole affair was in one large room, save for the bathroom off to the side. A small cubby in the corner served as a kitchen and dining room.
“Oh sweet Celestia, a bathtub!” Gear Shift clopped her hooves together with excitement. In a flash, her barding was off and she was drawing a bath for herself. “Once I get cleaned up we can go to the market and get supplies.” She walked up to me and gave my mane a sniff. She immediately drew back with a hoof over her nose. “Scratch that. After you wash that awful stench off we can go.”
I gave my mane a sniff out of curiosity. “It’s not that bad…” I mumbled. My barding and battle saddle were gripped by Shift’s magic and she pulled them off.
“Trust me, it is.” She gave me a serious look. “In the tub. Now.”
“Nope, not happenin’. You know I hate baths.”
“True Hook, sweetie,” she said in a cheery voice, “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
“I’m not getting in that tub, Shift,” I stated firmly.
“The hard way it is then.” She smiled as her horn flared up again. I noticed the door of our room was still open and made a run for it. Shift cut me off though, slamming the door in my face with her telekinesis. She grabbed my back hooves with her magic and dragged me towards the bath.
She lifted me over the tub of soapy water and plunged me straight in. Getting wet never bothered me, I just didn’t like baths. I surfaced and spit out a mouthful of water. “All of my hate Gear Shift. All of it.”
She gave me a sweet smile. “I win,” she chirped, “now be a dear and wash up.”
“Once, is winning one little fight so much to ask for?” I mumbled under my breath and sunk up to my eyes in the bubbles.
“Maybe not, but it’s never going to happen.” She kept that triumphant smile plastered on her face.
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We found the market at the center of town. There were stands of all kinds that sold almost everything imaginable. Mostly there were merchants selling food and water. There were several stands stocked with guns and ammo, and several that sold armor and barding. There were also shops with random odds and ends that we ignored; today, we were just here for food.
We picked one of the food stands at random and started looking through its stock. “What’cha lookin for?” the owner asked us.
“Oh we’re just looking to pick up some supplies, we’ve been traveling for days and you’re stock just seemed delicious.” Shift was always better than me when it came to bartering. Where venders would try to sell me food and supplies for ridiculous prices, Shift would be able to get amazing deals by just batting her eyes at them.
The young buck blushed slightly and stumbled over his words. “O-oh it’s nothing, j-just some pre-war food I came by in the ruins.”
“You could have fooled me, I was under the impression that you had gotten it fresh from the line.” She kept her eyes locked on his, smiling the entire time, I could tell this buck was about to lose a lot of caps. She levitated several boxes of food off of the table. “How much for these?”
“T-that’ll be thirty caps,” he stammered. Shift pouted out her lips and gave him a pleading look with her eyes.
“That certainly is high, wouldn’t you be willing to go a little lower?” Andddd here it comes, I thought to myself.
“Well…I don’t normally do this, but I might be able to cut you a deal. How does twenty-five sound?” Her lip pouted out a little more. I saw the buck losing resolve. “Twenty?” She somehow managed to make her lip pout a bit farther before the buck gave in. “Fifteen. And that’s the best I can do.” Shift’s expression lightened up immediately at that.
“Deal.” She said happily.
Several other merchants got the same treatment as the first, practically giving us their supplies. We picked up a few meds and healing potions from the town’s clinic along with some ammo and more food from various venders. Shift being the charmer she is, only spent 55 caps for everything.
After we finished getting our supplies, I dropped by a billboard in the middle of town where all of the job listings were posted. I found a job for Shift working on the town’s water talismans. For myself, I found a job with an old colt and his son scavenging on the outskirts of the ruins. We could both start working in the morning.
At the end of the day we went back to our room at the inn and had a dinner of Sugar Apple Bombs and water; nothing substantial, but it was nice to have something in my stomach. After dinner, we lied down on our bed to try and get some well-deserved rest. We were laying there for a while before Gear Shift spoke up.
“This is so much better than that cave,” she shuddered at the memory of the night before.
“Try not to think about it, we don’t ever have to go back there.” I nuzzled the top of her head. “Try to get some sleep, Babe.” She closed her eyes and within minutes was quietly snoring. As soon as I was satisfied that she was asleep, I closed my eyes. After not resting for the past two days, I was gone in seconds.
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The next morning was a brief return to “normal.” Gear Shift and I woke up and ate breakfast, we got ready for our day of work, and she sent me off to work with a kiss on the cheek and a “be safe.” Both of us knew that we had just lost our home two days before, but it was nice to pretend it was normal, if only for a little while.
I went to start my day of work with my new boss, Golden Dust. He was an aging unicorn stallion with a bright yellow coat. His grey mane still clung to a few strands of brown hair. His grey eyes were kind, and told me that he was a stallion I could trust. His son, Silver Dust, looked exactly like him except for his silvery coat. They both wore barding that covered their cutie marks and most of their bodies.
“Now do ya have an idea what’cha goin’ to be doin’ today?” Golden Dust asked me. Well I thought it was obvious, the listing was as scavenger-work so we must be picking through the ruins.
“Scavengin’?” Of course if it was only scavenging, that would be simple.
“Well yer’ part-right. WE’RE gonna be scavengin’ and YER gonna be watchin’ our asses for raiders.” Fantastic. And here I thought that it would be a nice peaceful job.
“So Ah’m basically a guard.” Please say there’s more to it than that, I thought, Shift will kill me.
“Eeyup. Ah’ll be payin’ ya 35 caps a day. Anythin’ ya pick up on the job yer free to keep or sell. So long as ya watch our asses and not the ground the whole time.” That technically qualified as being a scavenger, I would just have to word it carefully when Shift asked me about my day at work. If I didn’t…I really didn’t want to think about the consequences.
The rest of the day passed without anything particularly bad happening. I found a few caps and some shotgun shells, it wouldn’t be of much use to me but I could always have Shift sell them later. I found out from Golden Dust that the raider problem in Old Stalliongrad was on the rise in recent weeks. I had never seen raiders before, but I knew what they were from stories the traders told back in Bayhoof. By the end of the day, Golden and Silver Dust were loaded up with all sorts of scrap and other useful items; all of which they would sell in their shop. I was told that I would also be expected to help watch over the shop as well.
That night I went back to the inn and was greeted by Gear Shift. Her day was apparently much more interesting than mine.
“So when I got there, I looked at the condition of the water talismans, none of them were working past 40% of their original capability. Whoever had been ‘maintaining’ them had no idea what they were doing. So I got to work on them and boosted their water production to 60%. They gave me a pay raise on the spot!” She wore a grin on her face as she told me about her day.
“Well that’s great! How much are ya makin’ now?”
“40 caps a day, and they told me that if I work as hard as I did today than I’ll probably get another raise soon.” Hot damn, I thought, my baby is bringing home the caps.
I told her about my day and what Golden Dust expected of me. She cocked an eyebrow when I mentioned having to guard him and his son, but it turned out that as long as I wasn’t a caravan guard, then I was fine.
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The next two days were pretty uneventful. Shift and I worked, and we built up a respectable amount of caps. On the third day, though, things got messy.
I was watching Golden Dust and his son like usual until a bullet ripped through my ear. Two things registered in my head; first of all, sweet Celestia that hurt, second, we were under attack. I pushed the searing pain from my mind, snapping into action.
“Get to cover!” I shouted. I heard more shots and rounds pinged off the concrete around us. We dove for the rubble and tried to figure out where we were being shot from. I peeked out around cover and spotted them.
There were five ponies shooting at us all of them wore tattered barding that barely clung to their bodies; all of them had dilated pupils and wielded guns that looked like they were about to fall apart. Most of them were using pistols, but a unicorn that was charging at us wielded a rusty old combat shotgun.
Golden Dust opened up with an SMG and mowed the unicorn down. He clipped one in the main group that was farther back, causing them to scatter. I pulled out my revolver and clicked up the bit on my battle saddle.
“They’ll prolly try tah use the ruins as cover tah get in close,” Golden Dust called to me. “True, get in the air and keep them off of us!”
I didn’t need to be told twice. Pumping my wings a few times I shot off like an arrow. I found one trying to sneak up behind Golden and Silver and went to work. The last thing the raider saw was my shadow as I dove on him at full speed. My Pipbuck clad hoof impacted the back of his neck and snapped it, killing him immediately.
It was not as if I hadn’t killed things before; I’ve killed rad roaches, mutated fish, sea serpents, and as of the other day, ghouls. But this was different, this was the first time I had killed another pony. I didn’t regret it, these raiders shot first, and if we didn’t kill them, they would kill us or the next scavengers who came along. The only thing I regretted was that I killed him without even thinking about it. I didn’t think about him as a pony and honestly it scared me a bit.
I realized that Golden and Silver Dust needed my help and that I didn’t have time to think into this. The raiders attacked us first; we had every right to defend ourselves. This wasn’t like Bayhoof; these were raiders, not the enclave, and I could actually do something this time. I refused to stand by while ponies I knew died. If somepony attacked me or my friends, they forfeited any claim to this world.
I took back to the air, knowing there were three more somewhere in the rubble. I spotted another getting lit up by Golden and Silver, the latter of the two had produced an SMG of his own. Figuring that they had that one covered, I tried to find the other raiders.
After a few seconds of scanning, I saw them trying to circle around my preoccupied allies. Flying over them, I slipped into S.A.T.S. Time slowed to a crawl as I queued up a shot with my harpoon on the larger of the two. I watched in slow motion as the targeting spell did its work.
My harpoon launched from my battle saddle and crawled towards its target. In the last few feet it sped up as I slipped out of the targeting spell’s magic. The harpoon hit home and lanced the raider through his back. I hit the retract button on my bit and went into another dive. The winch towed me into a faster dive than I would be been able to achieve on my own and guided me to my target. I brought all four hooves down on his back, severing his spine.
The other raider looked on in shock as his buddy was killed. I drew my pistol and turned to him, putting three shots into him. His barding did him little good as the high power rounds impacted. He dropped to the ground with three new holes in his chest.
After my third kill, the gunfire stopped. I walked back to the pair to find them picking through a raider’s pockets. “Well Ah’ was wonderin’ when ya’d get back here.” He levitated a pouch out of one of his pockets and gave it to me. “Consider that hazard pay. There’s 150 caps there. Count ‘em if ya want. Use it tah patch up that ear and get a lil’ somethin’ extra.”
“Thank ya kindly,” I grinned at him, “maybe Ah should get shot up more often.”
“Ah wouldn’t make it a habit,” the old stallion smiled. “Ah think we’re done here today, no need to stick our necks out any farther.” With that, we started the walk back to town.
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“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EAR?!” Apparently Gear Shift got off early too.
“Ah got shot?” I offered weakly. I had hoped to avoid an argument, but somehow it slipped my mind to clean the blood off of my head before I got home. “If it helps any, I got a load of caps to get patched up.”
“Of course that doesn’t help! I told you I didn’t want you getting hurt!” If my ear wasn’t aching enough to begin with Shift’s yelling didn’t help.
“Babe, please calm down. Ah know that you wanted me to be safe, but it can’t be helped. We’re in the wastes now, not Bayhoof. Ah’m bound to get shot at eventually. At least Ah’m okay, it could’ve been a lot wor-” Shift cut me off by hitting me over the head with a wrench.
“I know that it can’t be avoided, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be upset when my husband gets shot!” She sighed and put her wrench down, and then she reached into her bags, getting out some newly acquired rubbing alcohol and bandages. “What am I going to do with you?”
I winced as she cleaned the hole in my ear. “Not hit me again?” I joked.
“Oh, shut up.” She kissed the new lump on my head and wrapped my ear with healing bandages. By the time she was done, the stinging from the alcohol had gone away, and I felt the magic from the bandages start to do its work. “Now let’s go lay down.” I followed her to bed and climbed up next to her. She pulled my head with her magic to rest against her withers and started to stroke my mane with her hoof.
“So am Ah still in trouble?” I asked her.
She stopped moving for a moment before speaking. “Yes.” She looked at me with harsh eyes. “Don’t scare me like that again. I know you’re going to get hurt eventually, but at least TRY to clean yourself up before you come home next time.” Her expression softened and she gave me a small smile. “Idiot.”
I smiled back at her and closed my eyes. I rested my head against her. “Love ya, Shift.”
“Love you too, True.”
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The next day was uneventful. Gear Shift and I went off to work and came back to the inn at the end of the day. After the previous day’s events, I decided that it would be good for Shift and I to relax. After some convincing, I got her to agree to drinks at the bar downstairs.
“I’ll agree to this on one condition. As long as you don’t drink until you are unable to walk, I’m in.” It was actually surprising that she agreed to it at all, Shift almost never drinks.
“’Course. Ah just think that we could use somethin’ to help us relax. It’s been a week since Bayhoof and we’ve done nothin’ since thin but walk, work, and fight. Ah think we’ve earned it.”
“Don’t remind me…I keep having nightmares about that cave…” She shuddered. “A drink would probably do me some good.”
I grabbed a bag of caps and then wrapped a wing around Shift. “Well then what’re we waitin’ fer?”
We walked downstairs and into the bar and found two open stools. The bar was full of merchants and traders who had returned from their trade routes. We waved the barkeep over and ordered our drinks. I was content to a bottle of Wild Pegasus, but Shift ordered some fruity drink with a name that I couldn’t pronounce.
I held my bottle up to her for a toast. “Here’s to gettin’ back on our hooves.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” She wrapped her glass was wrapped in her pink magic and brought it to lightly tap against my bottle.
We sat there for a while just talking to each other and occasionally striking up a conversation with the traders that were at the bar around us. Most of it was just mindless small talk, but it was nice to get to know some ponies out in the wastes. Shift did more talking than I did, one of the traders asked what she did for work and she told him about her first day with the water talismans.
“So yer the mare that they were talkin’ about.” Apparently ponies were spreading the word about my favorite mechanic. “The bucks up at the plant said ya were a pretty one but they didn’t do ya justice.”
“Why, thank you.” She gave him a bright smile; it made me happy to see her enjoying herself like this.
“Uhhh, True Hook, was it?” the merchant asked me.
I took a long pull off of my bottle and looked back at him “Eeyup?”
“Yer a lucky buck to’ve found this lady. If ya don’t treat ‘er right somepony will try tah steal ‘er out from under ya.” I gave a slight laugh.
“Don’t Ah know it, Ah thank mah lucky stars that she puts up with me.” We all shared in a laugh. The trader went back to talking with Shift. I sat there listening to them go on about some old pre-war tech, but then I heard something that made my ears perk up.
“Just got back from a run to Bayhoof, that place was locked up tighter than a stable.” It was a trader at one of the tables behind us. I don’t usually eavesdrop but I wanted to know what it was like back home. Without turning around, I listened in on their conversation. “The enclave took the place over and won’t let nopony in to trade. Won’t be long before there’s fish shortages. Water too.”
“The hell does the enclave want there?” asked a second trader.
“Not sure, they wouldn’t say much. Turned my caravan away as soon as they saw us. They said somethin’ about leavin’ once they got into the old factory up there.” I felt myself breathing quicker. “I heard one in some fancy armor talkin’ about comin’ down here to find some sort of substation. Whatever is in that place, it must be good if the enclave took over Bayhoof for it. I think I know the place that they were talking about but it’s got a lot of sentries and whatnot guardin’ it.”
Something clicked on in my mind; if I could find that station that the trader was talking about, I might be able to get some answers about why the enclave was in Bayhoof. I turned around and walked up to the bucks that were still talking and butted in on their conversation.
“You said that there was a place the enclave wants. Where is it?” I probably could’ve asked better, but I had downed a half a bottle of Wild Pegasus, and I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly.
“What’s it to you?” asked the buck on the left.
“Look, Ah’m from Bayhoof. Ah want to know why the enclave is up there, and that substation place might be mah best shot at findin’ answers.”
“Scavenger’s secret. That place hasn’t been picked over since the war. That info will cost you.” My patients were wearing thin; I have never liked being jerked around by ponies like these. But for the sake of not wanting to cause a scene, I played along.
“Fine, how ‘bout Ah buy yall four bottles of whiskey and yall tell me where it’s at?” I really hoped this would work, bartering wasn’t my strong suit.
“Six bottles.” I could’ve probable done better, but again; bartering, I’m terrible at it. I agreed to the trade and the buck programed the location into my Pipbuck. “Don’t know what good it’ll do ya, there are turrets and sentries all over the place.”
“Ah’ll figure out somethin’.” I hoofed over the caps to the barkeep and got the traders their drinks. I walked back over to where Shift was sitting, and she gave me a curious look.
“What was all that about?” She cocked an eyebrow at me.
“Well, Ah just came across some info that might get us answers fer Bayhoof.” She kept her eyebrow raised at me.
“Go on…” I could tell she was just as interested as I was.
“Well, Ah hate to say this but it’s gonna take a lot of walkin’.” I told her my plans and she shook her head, I thought she was going to shoot down my ideas, but then she surprised me.
She gave me a heavy sigh and said the last thing I would have expected her to; “I’ll pack our things.”
Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Iron Hoof; +5 Points of Unarmed Damage
(Author's Notes: First off, thanks again to Kkat for the amazing story, and to Somber for an amazing branch off. This is my first fic so i realize there's going to be some problems, but i welcome any comments, I want to finish this story and to make it as good as i can so i need feedback. thanks to my buddy Spell Check for making this at least passable. sorry it took so long, between college and work writing can be hard.)