Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Alright, I thought, trying to stay conscious. Flare stood next to me, firing his 9mm pistol at the approaching raiders. They returned fire, sending various caliber bullets into the broken carriage we hid behind. Just keep calm and breath. I tore my eyes away from the battle, looked down at the bullet holes peppering my hide and groaned. Well, can't help it now. I shakily levitated my hunting rifle up and peered around the carriage.
---Thirty Minutes Ago---
Flare and I trotted past the faded road sign, the symbols having been replaced long ago with a hastily scrawled "FUCK YOU". We both knew it was raider territory, and yet we continued our journey unfazed. At the next vandilized sign, Flare looked at me nervously, his confidence waning.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" He asked. "They'll have better weapons and more supplies than us, not to mention that it's the two of use versus all of them." He looked around nervously before continuing. "We could always turn around and find a nice town with ponies who won't shoot us!"
I turned to stare at him. "These ponies came into your town, murdered everypony, nearly killed you, and you want to just let them go?" I said, my voice slowly rising. "What if they do that to somepony else? What if they attack another town? Kill more ponies? Who knows who they could hurt! Colts! Fillies! Foals!" I practically shouted. With every accusing word, Flare backed further away.
Once I was able to compose myself, I looked apologetically into his hurt eyes. "I'm sorry, Flare. I didn't mean to yell at you. I just don't want anypony to die because I couldn't stop their killer," I forced a smile which the red buck eventually managed to return. Flare seemed slightly more eager to press onward (most likely because of my outburst) and I frowned as he turned to keep trotting. Great. We have a colt who is either brash and arrogant or afraid of his own shadow and a possibly bipolar filly with no memory. We make an amazing team.
Still deep in thought, I didn't notice that Flare was far ahead of me. I galloped after him, catching up and looking at his expression. He looked occupied with his thoughts, as I was a few moments ago. I decided to try and break the awkward silence.
"So, Flare," I said casually. "Where exactly are we? Like, as specific as you can get." He snapped out of his tangent and looked back at me.
"Well," he began. "Right now we're in Equestria. It was ruled by two princesses: Celestia, who raised the sun, and Luna, who controlled the moon. About two hundred years ago, there was a war between us and the zebra. The short version is, neither side had the resources that they needed, and eventually something terrible happened. The princesses fell, and everything blew up, to put it lightly. But, to be even more specific, we're in the Badlands, on the opposite side of Canterlot from the rest of Equestria.
"Basically, this place is mostly dirt and dust, with scattered towns and raider settlements here and there. It's barely inside the Equestrian Borders. The ponies of the old world tried building roads and towns, but mysterious dissapearances stopped them. Eventually, they just abandoned the idea of trying to settle and moved back closer to Canterlot and the rest of Equestria. The Badlands actually has quite a long history and quite a few myths, which probably helped contributed to that.
"According to my father, before the war there were these things called "Changelings". They could actually take the shape of other ponies to imitate them so they can feed off of the love of the ponies around them. Anyway, a few, including their queen, Chrysalis, were forced into the Badlands after a plan to invade went wrong. According to Dad, their queen remained in the Badlands for some time, and a few Changelings remained even after she returned. We always thought that there must have been some reason for that to happen, and I believe that there was some sort of base where the Changelings were observing Equestria, waiting to strike."
As we neared a partially destroyed carriage we were jolted out of the conversation by a hail of bullets. Flare dove behind the wagon and pulled his pistol out with his mouth. As I ran over to join him, I felt a dull impact in my hind legs and flank, which quickly turned into a searing pain. It took me a moment to realize I had been shot with a small caliber gun.
Alright, I thought, trying to stay conscious...
---The Present---
I lined up the rifle's iron sights with the area above a rock the raiders were using for cover, when one of them decided to peer over it, aiming a submachine gun. I shakily rested the front sight over his head.
With a telekinetic pull of the trigger, the rifle expelled a .308 round with deadly accuracy. The bullet made contact with the raider milliseconds later, blasting the back of his head and skull into small fragments. His corpse fell to the ground with a loud thump, and another raider, levitating an assault rifle, noticed.
"Sniper!" The raider called out, and our enemies began mistakenly scanning the landscape behind us. Flare took this opportunity to line up a few more kills, downing two raiders and knocking another one to the ground. I lined up the sights again and finished off the downed raider, alerting his compatriots. The raiders noticed their mistake and began firing at me instead. I pulled my head back behind the carriage and exhaled, realizing that I had been holding my breath. I pulled the rifle's bolt gently up and back, ejecting the spent round from the rifle, then slid the bolt back into place, leaning slightly so I could look around the carriage.
The raiders, realizing that they couldn't beat us in a firefight, pulled out various close range weapons and charged towards us. Flare began calmly firing into the few raiders that remained while I pulled out the combat knife he had found. Three raiders managed to survive Flare's shots. One unicorn advanced menacingly towards me while the other two, an earth pony and another unicorn, ganged up on Flare. Focusing on my raider, who was now raising a switchblade, I backed up, pointing my knife at him. I finally got my first up-close look at these ponies. The raider wore a mangled piece of metal that I could only assume was some kind of barding. Blood caked his coat, which was thinning in many places. He chuckled and smiled insanely at me.
"Heh, a mare! I think I'll have some fun before I kill you." His smile widened. "Maybe after I kill you, too!" The comment stunned me. He took this opportunity and lashed out at me with the switchblade, the wounds in my leg and flank causing me to stumble as he swung. Cackling maniacally, he brought the switchblade down hard, and I barely managed to block it with my own knife. I looked over at Flare as two gunshots rang out and one of the raiders on him fell bleeding to the ground. Shifting my attention gave the raider another opening, and this time he plunged the switchblade into my side. Crying out in pain, my magic failed and I dropped my knife, scrambling to back away from him. The raider laughed again, trotting slowly over to me as his horn lit up.
Waves of pain washed over me as the switchblade in my side began twisting. I didn't hear the gunshots that signaled the death of Flare's remaining raider, nor did I notice him aim at my assailant. With a single shot, the raider dropped lifelessly and the pressure on the switchblade stopped. I groaned in pain as Flare galloped over to me, pulling out a pair of tweezers and one of our healing potions.
He carefully manipulated the tweezers in his mouth, removing the bullet in my leg after a few tries. He looked me over for any other bullet wounds, and he eventually noticed the bullet lodged in my flank, just below my cutie mark. Stammering, he looked over to me. After a reassuring look from me, he blushed slightly and began searching for the lead lodged in my haunches.
After a few seconds, I coughed and looked back at him. His face appeared to turn even redder (If that was even possible) and he finally removed the bullet. He passed me the healing potion, which I downed in a few seconds. As the potion took effect, I stood up, the pain in my side, leg, and flank slowly fading as the wounds closed up. I looked back at my cutie mark, which I hadn't noticed until now, because it was... a line? "My cutie mark is a LINE?" I shouted, causing Flare to jump. A thick red line graced my flank. When I had first woken up, I had assumed it was just a cut that would heal with time. I sighed at my luck. I had what was possibly the worst cutie mark in the entire wasteland. I should have expected that.
Remembering the events that had just transpired, Flare and I stood there awkwardly, a faint blush still evident on his face. A few moments later, I spoke up.
"Thanks. For, you know, saving me. I actually thought I was gonna die for a few seconds there." Flare smiled, the blush fading, but the nervous expression from before returning. He coughed before replying.
"It was nothing. You would have done the same for me." He looked up in thought, then smiled at me. "In fact, you already did, remember? Back in town, you saved my life." I smiled back at him, before not-so-distant gunshots tore us away from the moment.
"Well, let's make sure I don't have to save it again." I turned to him and smiled again, trotting over to where I had dropped my power armor. "Run!"
After a few minutes of running, we came upon a plain wooden door in the face of a small cliff. The gunfire still pursued us, and we had maybe two minutes at the most before we were dead. I looked at the plain door, and whispered to Flare. "We can hide in here." With a nod from him, we slowly pushed the door inward and trotted inside. My eyes strained, trying to find a familiar shape in the void that was the cavern. After our eyes adjusted, we stepped into the cave, shutting the door behind us.
Flare looked around and pushed a large rock in front of the door, making it nearly impossible to open from the outside. He smiled and we turned to journey deeper into the cave. One of my hooves caught on a large rock and I stumbled, the rock rolling before stopping a few feet away. I began to walk deeper into the tunnel, but stopped and turned. Why would a rock that big be that light? My horn lit up as the rock rose up to eye level, and I stared into the two holes that once help somepony's eyes. I dropped the skull in shock, looking down at my hooves. Several other skeletons littered the floor, remnants of ponies who had crawled into this cave and never crawled out.
I closed my eyes, my breathing forced, as I stepped over the remains. Flare noticed and helped guide me forward. A few feet away, I heard the sound of a body hitting metal and a pained "Oof!". I sighed. "You walked into a wall, didn't you?" I asked Flare.
There were a few moments of silence before I heard a tentative "No?" I sighed again as Flare continued. "It wasn't a wall. It's more of a... door." I opened my eyes and gasped at the sight before me.
A giant metal gear sat embedded in the wall of the cave. A large 63 was painted onto the middle, and a small control panel sat rooted in the ground on the side. I looked over at Flare, waiting for an explanation. He looked at the door, with a slight look of... Fear?
"I didn't know that they had actually put any of these this far out..." He muttered, shaking his head. He turned to me and began explaining. "These are called Stables. They were built by Stable-Tech before the war in case it escalated to the point where, well, this happened," He said, motioning all around with a hoof. "They were meant to work for hundreds of years to protect anypony living inside, but not all of them opened back up. Some were safe havens, closing and protecting ponies from the outside, while others were death traps, sealing them inside. I didn't think that Stable-Tech had actually built any this far away from Equestria, but apparently they did." He looked back at me, frowning. "If there's anypony still alive in their, they may need help. Or they might kill us." He raised an eyebrow. "Shall we go investigate?"
I thought for a moment before replying. "I think we should. Even if nopony is still alive, we might find supplies." I smiled at him. "But don't worry. If you don't want to go inside, we can just go meet the raiders outside." I laughed at his annoyed expression and flipped the lever on the control panel. With a loud siren, the door began receding, the loud screech of metal grating against metal tearing into my eardrums. The sound eventually stopped, and the door slid to the side with a mechanical whine.
Dropping my power armor behind a rock and stepping into the Stable entrance, Flare and I examined our surroundings. The walls appeared to be in a fair condition, the rivets and panels devoid of rust and grime. A set of controls similar to the one outside sat inside the Stable. A few boxes of industrial cleaner sat on a set of shelves nearby. Flare growled before sighing. "That's what I was afraid of," he muttered. "If the Stable's in this good a condition, then there are ponies still alive down here." He looked around cautiously. "And we're trespassing."
I noticed a sign labeled "Living Quarters" above a stairwell in a nearby hallway. Motioning to Flare, I trotted quickly down the staircase, looking for anypony still alive. I peered into every room, looking for any clue as to what happened. Each room was well kept, with a drawer, bed, and footlocker. Deciding to be nosy, I peered into them, finding they were all empty. Finding nopony alive, Flare and I made our way toward another staircase with a sign, this one labeled "Overmare's Office". We followed the arrow conveniently pointing toward our destination. After going down another flight of stairs, we reached a forked path. Two mechanical doors sat at either end. We trotted over to the one labeled "Overmare's Office".. Hitting the switch, we walked into the office, Flare now drawing his pistol.
This room was similarly empty. A terminal sat behind a circular desk, surrounded by various devices doing Celestia-knows-what. I powered the terminal on, and an error message appeared: TERMINAL LOCKED. CONTACT OVERMARE. Without the means to access any files, I gave up and left the room while Flare stayed behind to try to find a key to access the terminal.
I noticed a third sign labeled "Armory" further down the hallway and felt my face break into a smile at the thought of more firepower. Stepping into the aforementioned room, I gasped as I saw the various weapons and weapon attachments. What shocked me the most, though, was the suit of power armor sitting on a shelf in the far side of the room. Grinning like a foal in a candy shop, I hopped over to the armor and began dragging it upstairs to the entrance of the Stable. Unable to get it up the stairs, I laid it in front of the staircase up to the Living Quarters and galloped outside to get my power armor. As I dragged my own armor back to the new set, a noise from the Overmare's Office caught my attention. I pulled out my combat knife and stepped into the office.
The sight in the office caused made me blink and rub my eyes in confusion.
Two Flares sat in the room, each pointing a pistol at the other.
Footnote: Level up!
Perks Gained:
Protagonist:
Adamantium Skeleton - Damage taken by limbs reduced by 50%.
Flare:
Rapid Reload - All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster.
[A/N: The one time I actually get a chapter out without that long of a wait, Google Docs destroys it and I have to write the whole thing over. Sorry about that. Also, the chapters are getting slightly longer every time, which I just noticed.]