A Pony In The Wasteland

by Ribe_FireRain

A Supply Run

After the peaceful town of Megaton witnessed the event of the early morning, there had been quite a lot of talk about the whole thing and the damage it had caused to many of the buildings in town. Out of all, The Brass Lantern seemed to have it the worst. Parts of the walls were torn from their bolted points, the door had been blown clean from its hinges, and worst of all, the whole inside, including the food stocks had been demolished to shreds. Even Rainbow noticed Leo, Jenny and Andy having a go at Lucas about the damage and what they were gonna do in the meantime while it got repaired. Rainbow couldn't help but feel most of the guilt for the sonic rainboom, but to do it again felt great, nonetheless. She seemed to be watching around town at all the disruptions it had made, but of course, being the fastest flier around in Equestria, she had gotten used to doing such stunts and acts like the sonic rainboom in much less time that it would take a beginner to perform it in. It also meant that she knew the damage it would cause once she broke the sound barrier.

Many of the residents eyed her, watching her as she looked at what she caused, and quite obvious to her sharp eyes, she could see that some of them had that hint of anger and sadness in their eyes. Quite frankly, that gaze of very slowly decaying anger in their eyes made her heart ache a little bit, yet she didn't show it through her own. It was then that Gustavo and Moira came up towards her, taking her attention.

''Rainbow, we need to talk about something.'' Gustavo said in a serious tone.

''What?''

''Seeing as that atomic blast thingy of yours demolished the whole town, you, me and Moira are being made to go on a supply run to repair the town while others go and get a few other things we need.''

''A supply run? Do they take long?'' Dash asked with a raised brow.

''Well, judging from the damage around town, which is everywhere, yes, it will. We will most likely be gone for like a week or a month getting supplies back to the town. I'm not happy about this one, and I'm pretty sure everyone else around town isn't either, but I gotta say. I ain't ever seen anything like that before, Rainbow! What the hell was it?''

''Its called a sonic rainboom. I'm the only one who's ever done such a thing.'' Rainbow stated proudly, flapping her wings.

''Yeah, well in future, do that away from town! Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you've stirred up around here? Lucas would sure as hell kick you from town if you do that again! He says if you wanna stay around town any longer, you gotta help me, Moira and some of the other locals get supplies to fix all the damages caused.''

Rainbow stared at the ground, a little hurt from the anger people now show towards her. ''There's no other way, is there?'' She said quietly, barely being audible. ''I've got no choice but to go with you?''

''That's right. The least you could do is help with the repairs and such.''

''So when were we meant to leave, then? Tomorrow? Today?''

''Right now.'' Gustavo said, a little annoyance and anger in his voice.

''Oh. Well, I'm gonna just go and get a few things before we go. I'm not too happy about this, though.''

''Neither of us are. Now, get packing. We've got a long trip ahead of us, and an even longer one if we don't get a move on.''

---

As soon as Rainbow was ready to go after packing her bags, she left with the others to go and search for supplies in buildings that surrounded the area, as well as salvage traders and merchants. The group included Rainbow, Moira, Gustavo, Billy Creel, Andy Stahl and Stockholm. Billy was someone that Rainbow knew around town for a short while before she lost the one she loved, and he did remind her a bit of Applejack. The reason being that he was always so honest with people and was willing to help someone, even if it was dangerous or very risky. He wore a woven jacket and had a black eye patch over his left eye. On his head, he wore a pale-colored knit-cap and next to his waist, he had a 44.Magnum revolver. Andy, on the other hand was more of the aggressive type, and Rainbow could tell just by one look at him. She had her fair share of knowing people with a bad attitude, one of them being her friend called Gilda. He had a leather jacket with a purple-red woven shirt underneath and his hair was that of a similar, purple color while his eyes were green. However, his weapon seemed to be a lot less more fitting to his style. He carried a large assault rifle, fitted with a silencer and a long range scope that looked like it was once a sniper rifles scope. The paint job on the gun was a jet black, slightly faded with few scratches covering the metal body of the weapon. Along the grip underneath the gun, a name that read Spirit of Vengeance was carved into it, colored in a chalky, white texture.

Stockholm, however didn't seem to blend in with the rest of the group. Nearly the whole time he was walking, he barely said a thing. Rainbow was sure she hadn't seen him before. He wore a worn-looking suit of green combat armor and around his head sat a bandana, torn in a few places, presumably from how old it was, and covering his eyes were an old pair of biking goggles, used to block out the harsh dust-storms and conditions of the wasteland. As for Moira and Gustavo, Moira wore her same clothing, but with small parts of armor attached to it around her elbows, knees, torso and back, as for a weapon, she used an assault rifle, same as Gustavo who wore his regular khaki security armor.

As for Rainbow, she had a suit of leather armor plated with metal for extra protection, nearly covering her full body. On her back she held a pair of saddlebags, one holding a few things of hers while the other contained nothing. On her back in a holster, the sword she was given to by Brady was being held in place, just next to a small pistol Rainbow knew was called a 10mm.

They had been walking for about a half hour, and at the rate they were going, they hadn't even gotten as far as super-duper mart yet. For some reason, when you were working in scavenging teams, you had to take your time to get your bearings in case threats would be able to get you without you seeing it first. Of course, this annoyed Rainbow, but there was nothing she could do about it. From what she could tell, they were only about two minutes away, and being her, she could just get there in 10 seconds flat.
Not too far from them, still visible was one of the other patrols heading towards the town that Rainbow knew as being called Grayditch. Their patrol looked just slightly bigger than theirs, consisting of at least seven or eight people, all looking tough and well equipped for their task. It looked as tho one had a minigun while another held some kind of hose-looking thingy Rainbow had never seen before.

Before Rainbow knew it, they had arrived at the Super-Duper Mart and were already heading inside, guns at the ready. When they all walked in, the first thing that hit them was the stench. It smelled of rotting flesh and decay, making all of them, but mostly Rainbow and Moira gag. Gustavo didn't really seem to react to it. In fact, he brushed it off like it was nothing new to him, which for all she knows could be just that. As they got further in, they saw that small cages hung from the roof of the building, skeletons of once living human remains left inside, their old blood covering and staining the cage where they were sat and the floor below them. All around, a few corpses of what the team could identify as Raiders were scatter across the room, bullet holes nearly covering each ones torso as they lay in their own blood, and by the look of the blood, it was partly coagulated and staining the floor like a coffee stain in a t-shirt, indicating that they have been there for at least a few years at most. Most of the shop now just served as a graveyard of the cruel and innocent, and above the shelves lay small board-walks and planks that Rainbow presumed were for Raiders to walk across and patrol the shop, looking for any intruders. The rest of the group walked cautiously around the shop in pairs, but Rainbow went alone. She didn't really need anyone to back her up, seeing as she could handle herself from what she learned throughout the years, and she knew this wasn't going to be much of a problem for her, anyway.

Rainbow went around the back of the shop, nearing a few counters that were matted with dry, stinking blood. That iron-like taste never seemed to leave her nostrils as she got closer to it. She walked through the door, taking a left to get behind the cashier desk, and on the way there, she found that there were quite a few burned bodies of what looked to be Raiders scattering the floor, and around them were empty bullet shells, small in caliber and probably belonged to a 10mm, by Rainbows guess. When she got behind the cashiers table, she saw that some small cupboards were open, curious, she went to have a look. Getting close enough, she reached a hoof in, feeling something hard and made out of metal. Pulling it out, she found that it was an ammunition crate. Opening it, she took out a few rounds for a 10mm pistol and about half a magazine of shotgun shells. Taking them out, she placed them in her empty saddlebag, closing the top of it with a quiet but audible snap. On top of the counter, she found a Raiders corpse leaning over the side, half her body hanging loosely over her side of the counter. Going near her, she saw something small and metal just below her opened hand. When she picked it up, she saw that it was shaped like a pineapple, a small pin going through the top of it, and on the side it read, ''Frag Grenade, Highly Explosive''. Carefully, she tucked it into her saddlebag, trying not to let the loose pin fall out, fearing she would detonate it.

Behind her, she noticed that a door was locked, and had some kind of weird-looking piece of machinery next to it, something she hadn't seen before. Going closer to the small thing, she could see that it read ''Home Terminal'' on the top of it. Looking at this so called Terminal, she couldn't figure out how to use it. Checking if the door was locked - find out that it was after turning the handle - she grunted quietly in frustration. She looked at the terminal again and clicked a button on the front of it, activating the screen commands. Most of it she couldn't understand. The majority of words laid across the screen seemed close to that of what sounded Gibberish. Not bothering with it, Rainbow aligned herself with the door and squatted down, flaring her back legs into the door, sending an echo around the shop, surely audible to the rest of the teammates. The door didn't budge. She kicked again, harder this time. Nothing. The door wouldn't budge. Annoyed by this, letting out a loud sigh through her nostrils, she took out the 10mm pistol and aimed at the lock on the door, firing it so the lock shattered, allowing her to push open the door with ease.

Inside the room were shelves that bared several different items and at the far right end of the room, several wooden boxes containing nuka cola could be seen, along with an unusual looking cola that glowed a bright bluey-white colour in the darkness that surrounded it. Just in front of the entry to the room sat another terminal, and next to that was some kind of weird-looking chamber that had an odd-looking humanoid inside of it. Rainbow went up to look through the glass, seeing that there was a small robot-like figure inside of it, not much bigger than her if she stood on her hind legs. She stared at it for a while, not even noticing that one of her teammates, Billy had come into the room and was standing next to her. Turning her head and seeing him, she jumped, her wings flaring out from the shock and her eyes shrinking.

''Whoa! Where did you come from?!'' Rainbow almost yelled, her heart still racing.

''Calm it down, Rainbow. What was the shooting I heard? Find anyone?''

''Um...no. I just needed to shoot the lock off on the door.''

''Oh. So I take it you dunno how to hack a terminal?'' Billy asked with a raised brow.

''What now? Hack?''

''Yeah. Comes in pretty handy if you know how to hack terminals. You never know, if one unlocks a safe, you might find something really good or valuable.''

''Right. I don't really think I'd want to know how to do it. I mean, I didn't even know what a terminal was until a minute or so ago. Where I'm from, we don't have any of this. Just magic.''

''Wait, what? No terminals? No things technical wise?'' Billy said, nearly sounding completely shocked.

''No, we don't. Magic is Equestria's main source of power.'' Rainbow explained.

''Hey, what you two up to?'' Moira asked from behind them, taking both of them by shock.

''Gah! Oh. Hey, Moira.'' Rainbow said, jumping on the spot to turn and meet Moira's gaze. ''Gosh, I really wish people would stop scaring me like that...'' She puffed, flicking her tail.

''Sorry about that, Rainbow. Did you two find anything yet?''

''No. Well...I did see nuka cola in the back, there.'' Rainbow pointed a hoof to the crates containing the nuka cola, Moira's eyes widening in enlightenment when she fixed her gaze upon the glowing nuka cola.

''Is that...'' She said quietly before going up to the crates and pulling out a bottle of the glowing cola. ''...nuka cola quantum?!'' Moira exclaimed, squeeing a little bit.

''Quantum? What's quantum?'' Rainbow asked, clearly confused as to what it was.

''Its one of the rarest drinks around nowadays! 200 years old, but tastes quite good! Ooh! Did I mention that they are also valuable and in limited edition?! I'm so taking them with me!'' Moira explained, picking up all the bottles one by one and putting them in her bags, leaving the originals. Billy watched as she left, planting a hand over his face and sighing deeply through his nostrils.

''Oh, great, I can tell that she's gonna do something stupid with those when she gets back to Megaton...''

Comments

[dukesofhazzardftw]

Lol

[Ribe_FireRain]

4494519 How is THAT funny? Was it the last part with the quantum?

[chrismonteith]

not bad

[dukesofhazzardftw]

4496003 mebe