Welcome once again to the world of fallout equestria; In this story we follow a stallion who has lost himself and must now struggle to reclaim his own memories, save a dying people and overcome a lesson long since drilled into his head. All the while, playing a vital role for the future.
“It’s the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration. Everypony has to stay up or they’ll miss the Princess raise the sun.”
The first thing I noticed was that everything hurt. I opened my eyes, the world shakily coming into focus, to behold a smoldering crater dug deep in a wide area in front of me. I moved to get up on my hooves, dropping a strange metal tube from my mouth as I struggled under some strange weight. I looked back to see myself covered in twisted metal, spikes, and something wet and red. No wonder I couldn’t move.
I spent, what felt like, an hour struggling to free myself of that metal cage. Using all four legs to work the straps loose, I finally got the mess off of me with a sigh of relief, my body feeling as though it was humming from the sensations running through me. The metal I had discarded seemed of some importance but I couldn’t quite place why. Just to be safe, I stashed the tube and the countless metal plates between a couple of large boulders that were lying next to where I had awoken.
It wasn’t long before the aching began to go away and I felt ready to go. But go where? I instinctively looked down at my foreleg for an answer… Nothing but my charred coat and my black hoof. Oddly enough, I felt like that was wrong, but who was I to decide what was right and wrong. I finally settled with picking a random direction and moving. One distant gray mountain was as good as any other I supposed.
After walking for what seemed like forever, I stopped and looked toward the sky. What little light came through the clouds was beginning to fade away and I hadn’t even seen a single sign of life… This place sucked. Amidst my daze of suckiness I stumbled over something big, my face slamming into the ground with a loud thud. “Oooo… ow..” I looked back to see what had brought the wrath of gravity upon my pounding head. “Oh stars! A pony!” She was dressed in really heavy black cloth covering a blue layer that had a prominent 72 printed on it in yellow. I scrambled to my hooves and lifted her head up. “HEY! Hey, wake up, miss! Are you okay?” I gave her a little shake, her bright red mane falling from her face and covering her little horn. What a place to take a nap? “Oh horseshoes, I bet she’s hurt. That’s why she isn’t waking up,” I said, mostly to myself.
With the mare hefted over my back, I continued on with a renewed vigor. “Don’t worry, miss. I’m going to find you a doctor.” As I continued on I noticed one of her legs had a small object clasped over it. The thingy on her foreleg was clicking rather annoyingly and couldn’t help thinking of what I had done when I woke up. “Hey miss? Is this thing a map?” I tapped it with a hoof, not really expecting an answer. My tapping was quickly rewarded with a click and a black square glowing with little green lines and dots displaying what looked like a plot of land. “Oh it is!” I quickly swung my head about, spotting a hulking lump of twisted metal with yellow and brown boxes scattered about.
In a hurry I raced over to the scrap heap and set Miss down in a rather restful position, letting her hoof stick out so that I could see the small magic map she had. I must have fiddled with the dials for a good amount of time trying to figure out where we were but I kept getting pictures of a pony with ‘x’ eyes, sticking her tongue out, and several different screens with lists I didn’t understand. I slumped to the ground, pushing the device away. “Ugh… I wish you could wake up and show me how this thing works.” My stomach rumbled as I began to fiddle with it again, growling in defiance of my pursuits. That gave me an idea. “Oh! Maybe the smell of food will wake you up!” I glanced around at the dead grass and dust that seemed to stretch on endlessly. “Um…” My attention was suddenly drawn to the boxes scattered about us. “OH! I know. Here I’ll smash these open. Maybe they have food in them. Okay, Miss?” I smiled at my sleeping, possibly hurt, companion. No answer. Well, I had better get smashing. All the boxes, save for the yellow ones, cracked open really easily. They all had wrapped up little cakes with something sweet covering them. I liked those things a lot, and I think Miss did too… even though she didn’t really eat any. But she didn’t spit it out either.
I later figured out that those yellow boxes could be opened by flipping a tiny switch on it. They all contained little cloth rolls, glowing purple drinks and orange drinks. They weren’t the tastiest but my throat wasn’t so dry anymore. I even got Miss to drink some of the orange stuff by rubbing her neck. Her map thing stopped clicking after that. I supposed that thing told her how thirsty she was. At least I’d know for later. Some extra drinks stuffed into her bags ensured we would have some for later.
“Alright Miss… please wake up now. We need to get somewhere so you can see a doctor.” Getting no response, even after some prodding, I decided to go back to fiddling with the device. “Lets see here… pony… list... list… OH!” I turned the dial all the way and pressed the button closest to her hoof a couple times and was rewarded with the little map display again. “Okay, okay… this arrow is us right?” I glanced over to Miss… Nope, still asleep. I could almost imagine her agreeing though. I mean even when she was asleep, she knew how it worked right? “Right.” I scrolled the image a bit and noticed a little dotted line pointing to a square not too far from here. “Were you going here?” I asked with an excited smile, pointing to the tiny map thing. “Hey Miss, I think it’s a town… and towns have doctors! C’mon, let’s go.” I dropped her hoof and hefted her up onto my back again, making sure to keep her forehoof forward so I could glance at the map. All that stuff she was wearing really made her heavy.
It was really dark when we were finally able to see the little town off in the distance, and by then I was pretty worn out. “Haha… we did it, Miss.” I smiled up to her, her lovely redmane falling forward in praise of my efforts. “We found the town.” I set her down gently against the charred remains of a tree, feeling my own exhaustion taking hold. “Now we can get you a doctor and you can finally wake up.” I sat down hard, feeling the sting in my eyes that said I should be sleeping. “Tomorrow, we’ll walk in and make you feel all better. And we can have more little cakes and orange drinks… you know, the ones you like so much?” I laid my head down over my own crossed hooves. “It’s going to be nice...” With a yawn, I drifted almost immediately off to sleep.
- .... .- - + -- --- .-. -. .. -. --.
“Gooooooood morning my little ponies! This is your one and only DJ-Pon3 and I’m here for YOU! This just in from the settler town of Hoofprint: It seems like the raider problems have all been removed! Trade is once again open with the little town of Brahmin herders. And who do we have to thank for the awesome display of power that washed the area clean of those pesky raider ponies? That’s right, folks. None other than that mastering mare from stable 72, let’s all put our hooves together for the Lightbearer! Next time that badass mare walks into town, make sure to give her a hug, or better yet, some bullets! That’s it for now, fillies and gentlecolts. I leave you now with the sultry sounds of Sapphire Shores.” The enthusiastic stallion’s voice cut to another: a beautiful female voice singing like an angel over the little map thingy.
I rose to my hooves, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I glanced over at Miss. Not a peep. She must be sleeping really hard. My mind turned to the mission once more. I needed to get Miss to a doctor. I gave her a nudge, kind of hoping that she would wake up. “C’mon Miss, we’re going to the town. It’s just over there.” Still sleeping. I slung her over my back, making sure she was as comfortable as I could make her before trotting off towards the distant town.
It was a rather pleasant trip. The light made almost everything visible. I could see little ponies off in the distance moving out of the large gate in front of the town. They were moving along a dirt road, leading a few larger animals with a bunch of stuff on their backs. Miss did me a world of company, too. She was quiet but I could tell she also thought the trip was nice by the way her head gently rocked against my neck as we walked on. I think she liked me. I wasn’t about to play easy to get though so I marched on stoically and proudly towards the gate. I bet I looked like a real hero, well at least until the guard pony shut the gate on me.
“Hey, fuck off! I’ll shoot, you little shit!” He was wearing some of that cloth Miss was wearing and carrying a long metal tube with a smaller one attached to the top in his magical grasp. He pointed the tube at me with a mean look in his eyes.
“But I just need to get Miss to a doctor! I think she’s hurt…” I glanced back at her as the guard pony made a quick gagging sound, lurching forward slightly. The poor guy looked sick. “Maybe you should see a doctor too, you don’t look so good.”
The guard pony waved the gun angrily. “Shut up, you sick bastard!” He put his eye behind the smaller tube and looked down at me. “I said I’ll shoo-...-it! Shit shit shit! It’s the Lightbearer!!”
“What? Let her in!” shouted a female voice from out of sight.
The guard pony shouted back down to the voice. “No, no. The… the raider has her on his back like some kind of trophy.”
A moment later another pony, tan with yellow mane and a star hat, peeked over the edge. “Luna’s monthly moments! Open the gates. I want a full guard team down there. Nocty, you’re up!” She pushed the guardspony’s metal tube away. “Don’t make any sudden movements, freak! Set the stable mare down in front of the gates and step back.”
I tilted my head to one side, letting my ear flop along with it. “Why? Are you going to take her to the doctor? I told your friend I think she’s hurt.” I was answered with a sad, confused frown as she turned to walk back out of sight. Man, these ponies were weird, but who was I to decide what was normal and what wasn’t. I did as they asked, gently placing Miss in a comfy position before stepping back a bit and sitting on my rump. Only after I had done this did the gates roll off to the side to allow a, different, well built mare in fancy looking cloth stride forward, flanked by several guardsponies carrying more tubes. The well pressed material matched her night blue coat which seemed to shimmer even in the wan light.
She tossed her soft blue mane off to one side of her horn as she gave me a hard look. I gave her an honest smile, which made her pause and return a look of shocked confusion. “What are you doing here, stripe?” Her voice was hard and carried weight, causing me to stammer.
With a quick glance, I looked behind me to make sure she wasn’t talking to somepony behind me. I poked a hoof to my chest, my second ear flopping down as well. “Me?” Why was she calling me Stripe? That wasn’t my name… wait, was it? Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t totally sure what my name was. I knew Miss was named Miss. I named her Miss since she was too busy being asleep to answer. She simply gave me a flat look, studying me, as she nodded slowly. Oh right! Miss was still hurt. “I just want Miss to see a doctor. I think she’s hurt and she’s been sleeping a lot.”
The cloth clad mare took a hesitant step forward, levitating Miss into the air with an emerald green glow. “You’re…. clueless aren’t you?” She gave me the most sympathetic look I can recall to date; which is to say she gave me the only one I’ve ever seen. She turned towards the gate, keeping her eyes on me.
“Wait!” I took a step forward, rising to my hooves, and was promptly greeted by a loud bang and a plume of dust rising from the ground. “AAH!” I jumped what felt like ten feet into the air. “Wait, wait, stop!” I slumped down, covering my head with my hooves. “I need somewhere to sleep…” After a few moments without another bang going off, I peeked up to see the unicorn leaning down to inspect me. When did she get so close? “.. maybe some food?”
“Wow… you are clueless. Maybe we can help you and your… Miss was it?” She helped me up before turning to wave to the gate guard. “Hold your fire! I‘m bringing him in!”
The guard leaned forward, I couldn’t tell what kind of face he was making but he didn’t sound happy. “You’re crazy, Nocturne!” He waved the metal tube at me some more.
This seemed to irritate the mare he was calling Nocturne. “I said let him in! Shoot and I’ll let Star raid your bedroom!”
“What!? You can’t do that! She’ll leave those stupid notes in there and sneak in at night!” He complained, waving the metal tube madly in the air.
The mare with the star hat popped back up on the wall with a wide grin on her face. I was guessing she was Star. “Are you serious!?” she grinned maniacally at Nocturne before jumping up to grab the tube from the guard with futility. “C’mon Turnpenny. Shoot him! Here, I’ll help.”
“Oh, hell no!” He levitated the tube over his back and pushed her away with a free hoof. “Take a hint, feather brain.”
Nocturne turned back to me with a sympathetic smile. “Welcome to Hoofprint. Don’t expect to make many friends. Ze-... Ponies like you aren’t normally welcome.” And with that she lead me through the gate, keeping Miss hovering in front of her.
“Oh... okay.” I answered, making a mental note of it. “Not many friends, right.” I made sure to trot closely behind her so that the other ponies would know I was with her. While I tried my best to scan the foremost buildings behind the gate, my sight was immediately drawn to her dark, toned flank. It was captivating, just watching the tail sway back and forth made me feel oddly warm inside.
I would have enjoyed it a bit longer had she not turned on me with a smile, a blush, then hoof pressed gently against my muzzle. “Ahem. I’m glad you’re onboard but you might want to simmer down, stud.” Her eyes drifted down and then snapping back up to mine a couple times. In my confusion I looked below myself, seeing my fiddly bits… nothing new. When I returned her looks with a raised eyebrow she simply sighed and waved her hoof dismissively. “Regardless, wait here for a moment.” Sensing my concern for my companion, she added. “I’ll get ‘Miss’ to a doctor right away.”
With that she trotted over to a small group of rather grumpy looking ponies with fancy hats, Star included among them. While Nocturne had left me to my own devices, I noticed that a large portion of the town, about 20 ponies or so, had gathered in the streets to stare at me. Even from here I could sense a mixture of anger, confusion, and shock amongst the crowd. I didn’t understand why they were all looking at me like that though. I was just like any other pony… wasn’t I?
“FINE! But he’s YOUR responsibility!” A pony from the little circle that had formed around Nocturne shouted. She was wearing a tall hat with a big metal star on it, her tart pink coat was accented by a flowing yellow mane marked with random cuts that seemed to form a semblance of fashion. She turned and stomped off, two other ponies keeping pace at her side. With that, most of the crowd turned back to what I assumed were their regular duties.
Nocturne, calm as could be, practically strolled back towards me. I immediately noticed Miss was no longer with her. When did she take Miss to the doctor? Come to think of it, I don’t even recall seeing Miss after she met with the circle of ‘Fancy Hats’. Before I could ask, of course, she answered with, “Your ‘friend’ has been taken to the local physician. We’ll take good care of her.” This prompted an audible release of breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. I sagged a little bit, smiling warmly, now that my primary concern was being taken care of. “Now, while we wait for her to, ahem, ‘wake up,’ I’ve arranged a place for you to stay and work. But first, we need to get you cleaned up.” She smiled in a manner that had me feeling more concerned for myself than I was for Miss not too long ago.
Of course by ‘cleaned up’ she meant dumping a bucket of cold water on me and taking a wire brush to my mane and coat. I sulked as two mares scrubbed me down like an animal. They might as well have thought I was one too by the way they talked. “SIT!”, “STOP FIDGETING!”, “HEAD DOWN”. They kept shouting commands at me and sneering at what I imagined to be those large black marks that raked my whole body in little lines that contrasted with my neat white coat. At least the dust, soot, and red stuff was removed.
Somewhere near the back of town sat Nocturne’s office, a surprisingly well built structure made from welded sheets of scrap metal. Most of the other buildings in town were also built with scrap metal but not quite as well as Nocturne’s. The ponies that had taken the time to scrub me down shoved me in, taking a quick moment to pull my mane back to make me presentable.
The night blue unicorn looked me over with some scrutiny before sighing and shaking her head in slight disappointment. I could understand why. Sitting alone in the room with her, I didn’t have much to hide the still clearly visible lines that simply wouldn’t get cleaned off. Her office was decorated with stacks of really old papers, glowing spheres, metal circles on ribbons, and images inside wooden frames from wall to wall. “This won’t do at all. When you get dirty, you really get dirty.” Her horn ignited into an emerald light that nearly blinded me before subsiding just as suddenly as it had flared up. “There, a white stallion without all the dirtiness.” She grinned, a knowing grin that had me feeling reassured that she was in complete control of the situation.
To my surprise the spell she had cast had removed the dirty, black lines from my body. I gawked back up at her in astonishment. “Wow! How did you do that?” I examined myself thoroughly. I was indeed a white stallion with a few spiraling lines that formed various stars and moons on my flank.
“Magic,” she said primly, recomposing herself behind her desk. The polished redwood desk was well decorated with the same sorts of things found elsewhere in her office, with a particular golden orb resting in a small open jewelry chest. “Now, I need to fill out some forms here, for record keeping of course.” She levitated out some papers from a drawer and stacked them on the desk. “Let me start by introducing myself.” She began, using a hoof to pull a single lock of hair from her eye, which otherwise would have been completely covered. “I am High Agent Nocturne Eclipse of Her Royal Majesty Princess Luna’s Eclipse Guard. You may call me Nocturne or Ma’am. And you are?” She motioned towards me briefly before setting her forehooves firmly on the desk.
I stuttered, Not exactly sure how to answer to an introduction like that. “I’m uh… My name.” Wait, what was it again. “Wait. I know this one.” I thumped my head a bit, earning some concerned looks from Nocturne. “Uhm… I think it starts with an ‘S’? Like Scotch or Shujaa. No that’s not right. ‘L’?”
Nocturne interrupted me with a waving hoof. “How about we just make a name for you until you remember? How does…” She leaned to the side to look at my flank before continuing. “Adstrum Sound? Adstrum Light.” She looked at me sounding rather pleased with the name. “I would have staid Star Light, but we already have one Star and I can barely handle ‘her’.”
I offered a light chuckled at that remark, remembering the star-hatted mare that had answered to that name earlier. “Yeah, that name sounds good. Adstrum.” I rolled the name on my tongue a bit to get a good taste before adding. “Okay I’m Adstrum Light. It’s nice to meet you High agen…” Just then My memory failed me. What had she called herself again? “mmmmMa’am.” She smiled sympathetically at me and nodded, bringing her papers back up.
“Right, as long as you’re here you’re going to have to work. The other ponies won’t tolerate you if you’re not working.” I nodded in understanding as Nocturne continued, absently rubbing my foreleg. It felt so clean now, not that it felt dirty before. “As it so happens, we have an opening in the rock farm since one of our tenders decided to experience a bit of Dash while scrounging for viable stones out near hellhound territory.” She momentarily relaxed her shoulders in a sorrowful sigh before snapping back to her composed demeanor. “I trust you won’t be making the same mistake?” She asked this with a tone that suggested she knew a bit more than she was saying.
She made me nervous, maintaining an overpowering gaze that left me silent and wanting to simply agree with everything she said. “I uh. I don’t even know what Dash is. But I promise I won’t touch it.” I crossed my hoof over my heart to show I was serious, before planting it in front of my eye. I wasn’t certain where the familiar motion came from but it seemed perfectly appropriate. Regardless of my use of strange motions, the action seemed to satisfy the unicorn as she sat back, slightly relaxed.
Nocturne took a quill from an ornate golden inkpot and scribbled over the stack of papers with a deftness I couldn’t begin to compete with. “Okay then, you will see me once a week so we can make sure you’re fitting in. Your immediate boss will be Pebble Pusher, he will tell you what to do and when to do it.” She plopped the stack of papers on her desk, levitating a single sheet over to me. “Here’s your work licence. Present it to him after he finishes laying his profane language at your hooves. He really isn’t a nice pony when you get to know him.” She stifled a snicker before continuing. “He’ll be the overweight pony lounging by the ‘pool’ next to the farm house”
I took the paper in my mouth, pulling myself back up off the floor. “MMkmm Mmmrmm mm Mmm.” I spat the paper into my hoof and continued. “Thank you. Can I go see Miss first? I’ll bet she misses me.”
She winced at that question but conceded with a nod. “I’ll take you to Doc Nice. She’s taking care of ‘Miss’” Standing with a tired grace, she made her way around her desk. “I suppose this trip is better taken sooner than later.”
I didn’t quite know what she meant by that but I felt as though I shouldn’t ask. the weight of the tone in which she spoke gnawed at the back of my mind as though telling me something was wrong. Even as we passed through the streets the grim looks of the ponies we passed, at least the ones that didn’t duck into hiding, caused me to suspect that not all was well. So as we walked up to the Infirmary, which looked like the only intact building in this secluded town, I couldn’t help but stare up at that big red cross hanging over the doors and worry. Maybe Miss was more hurt than I thought. Was it my fault? The guilt tied up into a knot in my stomach, making me feel sick. I hesitated at the door but Nocturne ushered me in with a wave of her hoof, holding open what I imagined had once been glass doors. Inside I was greeted by the sterile stench of disinfectant. “Benzalkonium Chloride, soluble in ethanol, a mixture of alkylbenzyl dimethylamonium chlorides, used as an antiseptic, spermicide, sanitizer and disinfectants. Increased activity duration when in contact with bacteria, fungi, and viruses.” I prattled off in a flash of memory springing from some long forgotten lesson.
As the doors clapped shut I became aware of the baffled looks on Nocturne’s and the nurse at the front desk’s faces. “What?” Nocturne breathed.
I began to answer when the nurse, a charcoal coated earth pony with a bobbing pink mane and a white nurses hat, stood up and nodded with an intelligent smile. “That’s correct! You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get the materials for it.” She quickly trotted out and leaned up against me, the particularly enticing aroma of fresh flowers filling my nostrils. “Who knew intelligence could be found in such a hunk.” She practically purred. No wait, I’m pretty sure she literally purred. “Nocty, who’s this stud-muffin you brought me?” I don’t think I had ever blushed so hard in my life, I must have been inventing shades of red.
“Bab, that’s” She poked her head in the direction of the doors. “You know, from the gate?” While she was speaking I could feel a hoof sliding underneath my stomach, causing certain things to feel bigger and my head to feel a tad fuzzy, but as she completed her sentence the hoof stopped.
The Nurse, Bab as I understood, leapt back from me in a shock that left me concerned. “W-what? Him? But he, the, and you were.. Him?!?!” Nocturne answered the frantic question with a calm nod, clearly anticipating this reaction. “B-but… Where’s his…?” Bab motioned to my whole body as I sat in confusion. “You know!”
“I ‘cleaned’ him. Do you understand me Bab? I ‘cleaned’ this poor lost ‘pony’. He was ‘dirty’ and now he’s ‘clean’ of the ‘spots’ that covered his body.” Nocturne explained to the nurse, who had her hooves against her head, staring at me like she could levitate me with her thoughts. If she had been a unicorn I might have believed it. Nocturne straightened her strange cloth covering and spoke with much the same tone as she had back in her office. “Now, Miss Bab Touch. Please show us to Gadgette’s room. I believe your sister is still examining her.” Who was Gadgette? I wanted to see Miss. Maybe it was one of Nocturne’s friends. I decided to keep quiet until we met the doctor, certain I would get to see miss either way.
Nurse Bab slumped in a sigh before pulling herself back together and heading for a couple of swinging doors in the back. “You and your weird agent pony stuff. It’s creepy. You know that, don’t you Nocty?” Pushed the doors open and motioned us inside. “My sis is this way.” As we made our way into the poorly lit hallway I overheard Bab muttering to herself. “clean, more like brainwashed psycho-pupppet. pffffft” After we were through she trotted up front, making no effort whatsoever to hide her final comment on the subject. “Still cute though.” I couldn’t help but flush again, hoping nopony noticed.
I’m not too sure what I expected. Her body was neatly laid out on the operating table, her armor tossed carelessly in the corner of the room. It was Miss,or rather Gadgette. Doc Nice was a warm pink unicorn with a charcoal mane, bobbing in similar fashion with her sister, who wore her worries clearly behind her thin glasses. “Adstrum, is it?” She asked as she approached from behind the table that held Gadgette. Her voice carried with it the pain of having something you don’t quite want to say. Nocturne had let me go inside by myself, waiting outside with Bab, so I stood just in front of the door as I stared at the body of Gadgette. “This pony, she was your friend?”
I nodded, feeling dread at her use of words. “Yes she ‘is’ my friend. I carried her here. we bumped into each other and-” I began, trying to explain our circumstance as friends, before Doc Nice placed a gentle hoof over my lips. She looked into my eyes with a smile barring such sympathy that I could have cried right then, not knowing why she was looking at me like that.
“shhhh” She calmed me, allowing me to relax a little enough to drop my rear to the floor. “She meant a lot to you on your way back here didn’t she?” I opened my mouth to answer but she quickly placed her hoof over my lips again. “A nod will do.” I complied, allowing her to speak. “Well then, I have good news and bad news for you. Which would you like first?” She sat down in front of me, her voice pouring out like soft silk as she asked me these questions. Her sheer presence made you feel as though she cared. Something about her presence nagged at the back of my mind, As though trying to remember something long since forgotten.
I weighed my options for a moment, deciding I’d like to end my first meeting with this nice pony on a good note. “I um… The bad news.”
Doc Nice nodded, floating over the clipboard that had been attached to the end of the table that carried Gadgette. “You’re friend, ‘Miss’ or more commonly known as Gadgette Spring by her friends and family, died of radiation poisoning several days before your arrival here…” She said some other things about something called rad away but I wasn’t listening. My eyes locked in on Miss Gadgette, a stare I believe could have done a statue proud. I felt dumb and deaf as the realization began to knock on the forefront of my brain. All that time and work I had spent carrying her and caring for her had simply been an illusion. She had never actually been my friend, she had been a corpse. I suddenly felt more alone than I realized I could. I didn’t know I could feel so alone until just now, and it hurt like a spike thrust through the heart.
“Adstrum. Adstrum!” I refocused onto Doctor Nice as she called to me. My mouth had suddenly become dry and I didn’t want to speak. She reached out as I came to, wrapping her forelegs around me. “Now now. It’s alright. It’s alright, Doctor Nice is here for you.” I let my chin rest over her shoulder as water began to run from my eyes. I didn’t know what I was doing, but it felt better than this hurt driving into my chest. It gave me a feeling other than that loneliness and I just let it all out, my breathing becoming hard as my body forced my jaws to clench together.
What force could have let this happen? What world had I woken up to that allowed for something so terrible to happen and let somepony carry that weight when he just wanted to help. Why was this wasteland I had been thrust into so cruel!? “I’m so, so sorry” I sobbed out into her warm pink coat, drenching it in tears.
I stayed that way with the nice doctor for sometime, finally starting to calm down after she had started rubbing my back as she hugged me. “It’s okay Adstrum. The Wasteland makes fools of us all” she reassured me, as though reading my mind. A part of me wondered if that was a thing unicorns could do, but the rest of me just wanted to cry out the pain. She must have been feeling the same way because as she continued I could feel wet warmth of tears crawling down my back. “Gadgette knew that best of all.” Her voice telling of how Much she actually cared. I suppose it was my turn to comfort her.
I hadn’t realized Doc Nice had lost anything until just now. How many other ponies had cared for Gadgette? Would they all feel as hurt as we did just then? To be honest it kind of hurt my head thinking about it and I settled on focusing on the crying doctor. Together we sat for a while longer, contemplating a lost friend and a self fed lie.
.-.. .- - . .-.
Before leaving the infirmary Nocturne took her own time in the operating room alone. When she had come out she was carrying Gadgette’s little map thing that I had used to get here. She told me that she would have wanted me to have it and strapped it onto my fore-leg. The map was surprisingly comfortable but it caused me to see a bunch of shapes and lines wherever I looked. So I sat in the main lobby trying to not get dizzy.
“It’s called a pipbuck.” Nocturne explained, lifting the device attached to my leg as I sat on a cushiony couch in the lobby. “Invented by Stable tech to make for easy living.” She pressed through the buttons and turned the dials to show me a status screen, and inventory setting, and a data management screen. In the data management screen I could apparently flip between notes, radio, recordings, and the map. Most of which Nocturne had to explain to me what they were. She continued to be astounded by how much I didn’t know. “Yours has a security override protocol installed from stable 72. Thats why you can see all the funny lines and dots. Thats your E.F.S. or Eyes Forward Sparkle. You should see a bar representing your general health at the bottom left along with a compass. The little dots on your compass are other living creatures. The green dots are friendly creatures and the red ones are hostile. To your right you can see your weapons and ammo display. This will show how much ammo you have in a gun and in your pack, should you have either.”
I sat, slightly stupefied, and fiddled with the buttons and dials as i tried to take it all in. It was actually kind of simple to use now that she had shown me. I was starting to wonder why I had so much trouble with it before. “OOookay.. I think I got this… but uhm, Whats a gun?” I looked up to her, letting my ears flop down in minor confusion.
The usually composed unicorn slammed her own hoof into her face and groaned. “Are you serious? You were shot at, what, twice today and you don’t know what a gun is?” she straightened up and just gawked at me as she spoke. “It’s like, one of the first things anypony is taught in the wasteland! How could you have forgotten something so basic!?” She sat hard taking a few breathes accompanied by on hoof moving in and out with each breath.
“Oh! You mean those metal tube things!” I put the pieces together in my head, a gun was the same thing that pony on the wall had been using. I guessed that ammo was what allowed it to make those small plumes in the dirt like his had. Come to think about it… “I think I had one when I woke up the otherday. I stashed it between some rocks.”
Nocturne sighed again, standing up as she turned for the doors. “Well it’s probably best you just leave it there. There are plenty more around and going back would expose you to enough radiation to kill you, just like gadgette.” She said, placing a hoof on the door. “C’mon. We need to go see Pebble Pusher before he decides to turn in.” Her attitude was a sudden change but one I felt I shouldn’t question. I took to my hooves, shaking the one now clamped with a pip-buck to make it a tad more comfortable, and began to follow behind her.
Outside, a small crowd of curious ponies had formed to watch us leave. I could see a few curious fillies and colts duked underneath the older ponies’ legs to get a view of us. Before I could say a thing, Nocturne turned back inside calling for Nurse Bab. Having no experience with crowds, I just smiled and waved. With any luck they would all do the same or at least stop staring at me like I was some sort of mutated blob.
Suddenly my vision lit up with red dots all over the place. Now what was it that Nocturne said about red dots? It didn’t take me long to remember as one of those red dots launched themselves at me with a small ‘gun’ levitating to his side. The stone gray unicorn slammed me onto my back, glaring death into my eyes as he pressed the cool metal of the gun to my head. “I’m going to fucking kill you! Just like you killed her!” He shouted through bared teeth as I curled up under him, fighting an instinct I didn’t understand. “I loved her you piece of shit!” A couple of ponies in the crowd shouted encouragement as they stomped their hooves. These ponies seemed so nice earlier, what happened? I didn’t want to die. “And now I’m going to paint the ground with your brains, you goddess damned stripe!” A second small gun floated out of the heavily pocketed barding he wore, then a third, a fourth, a fifth, and then a sixth all clicking as they pointed to my face.
It was all over for me, I just knew it. This buck was going to get some sort of sick revenge on me and I was going to be dead. A reflexive part of my brain, which would soon be on the ground behind me, noted that even if I could push him off now his guns would still empty my skull of it’s precious contents. Just as I brought my hooves up to my face I saw a lighting quick blur of black and pink preceded by an yipping shout. “EIYAHYAHYAHYAHYAHYAAAAH!!” THUMP! The gun slinging unicorn was knocked to the side and a good four feet from where I lay, half curled in a ball. Nurse Bab had him pinned against the ground, with a hoof raised precariously above his horn. “Move and I snap it back off!”
“What the hell Bab! I was gunna kill that worthless piece of trash!” He protested. He seemed to take her threat seriously though, as he lay still as a stone. His plethora of guns, lost from his magical grip, clattered down around me.
Then, as I rolled back onto all fours, Nocturne’s voice boomed out from infirmary doorway. The effect of her voice almost hurt my ears. “STAND DOWN SAINT.” Everypony froze, save for Bab and myself. I could see a tinge of fear in their eyes when she spoke. Clearly she had a great deal of influence with these ponies. Her voice dropped down to normal as she continued. “We’ve all be hurt Saint, we’ve all done terrible things. But even you aren’t a murderer” She came to stand at my side, not letting the unicorn I took as ‘Saint’ get a word in edgewise. “The ‘pony’ you see before you is a product of Gadgette’s sacrifice.” Just then she received quite a few confused looks from the crowd, but at the same time most of the red dots on my compass turned blue again.
I could see Saint mouthing the word ‘what’. Nocturne continued stepping only slightly in front of me. “Gadgette believed in second chances and I believe we should honor her death by giving just one more pony a second chance, like she did for most of you!” With that the rest of the red dots,save for one, turned blue. The crowd actually began to break up as disgruntled ponies started to walk back to whatever it was they had been doing before all this mess.
Saint shoved Bab Touch off as he clambered back to his hooves. “What the fuck Notcurne!? You can’t be serious? You know just as well as I do that killing that, THING…” He shoved an accusing hoof in my direction. Wait what did I do? I just carried her here thinking she was still alive. Actually that thought just made me a bit sad again.”... Would have been Gadette’s idea of justice!”
“You know what!?” Nocturne stomped forward, standing a clear head over Saint. To be honest I didn’t realize how tall she was compared to other ponies until now. I suppose it was because we were about the same height. She bristled with irritation. “Yes. She would have killed him where he stood, She would have put a grenade in his mouth and pulled the pin, She would have walked away from his splattered corpse with that quirky grin of hers. But guess what Saint? You’re not her! He’s unarmed and we both know you won’t kill an unarmed pony! So like I said. You. Are not. A. Muderer!” Saint was practically shrinking under Nocturne’s anger. “Besides, it hurts me too to see him walking.” Nocturne turned away, glancing daringly towards me. “I’ve had my nights with her too you know. Bab, take Adstrum to Pusher. Saint and I need to talk.”
“Wait what?” Bab trotted forward as I began to protest. “What did I do? I didn’t actually hurt anypony. I’m sorry!” I shouted back as the surprisingly strong nurse pushed me down the road. My heart sank like a stone, they didn’t even look back at me when I apologized.
Bab pushed me out of earshot then bit on my ear, tugging me forward. “Alright hotshot. You reeeaaally don’t want to be making enemies right now. So just tag along and keep your head down.” She said after releasing my ear. I began to protest but she shut me up with a hoof to my mouth. “No no. when Nocty gives a command you follow it. got it?” I just nodded silently. “Alright” she sighed, looking visibly relieved at my compliance. “So tell me about yourself… Adsy?” She tasted that name and shook her head. “I’ll come up with something. Anyway, what’s your story?”
That was an odd question. I mean there really wasn’t much to tell. I only woke up the other day. “Well. First thing I can remember, I woke up on the edge of a large crater. I started walking, picked up Mi- Gadgette and found my way here. Not much to say really. But what’s that unicorn with all the guns’s problem?” I still felt bad even though I hadn’t been the one to hurt her.
“Woah, you don’t even remember your family? Your childhood?” She asked, decidedly ignoring my last question. “C’mon you can tell me. I wanna know what drove you to being a r-.. being here, stuck in this dingy town with us.” She bounced a little with anticipation. I guess she really wanted to know. But what was I going to tell her? As far as I knew I didn’t have one. Wait, what did I know?
I dropped my rump hard in the dust, trying to think about how much I actually knew about myself. “W-.” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
“Are you serious!?” Bab stop mid tracks as she turned to watch me sit. “You actually don’t know?” A whole new look of sympathy crossed her face as she sat across from me.
I actually couldn’t think of anything before waking up, but I suppose I came from somewhere right? “I… I don’t think I had one. I only remember the past couple of days.” “Oh goddesses.” Bab held her hooves over her mouth, eyes wide as she took the sight of me in. “No wonder Nocturne is giving you such an easy pass. But, you do seem sweet like this. “ She pulled herself back off the ground and started back towards Nocturne’s office and the little rock farm. “Maybe Nocty is right about all this? Whatever made you what you were, it’s gone now.” She breathed quietly as she turned away. I didn’t have a problem hearing her though, she was louder than what she must have believed. “C’mon Adstrum, let’s get you to Pebble.”
I picked up my hooves and followed along after, what she had whispered weighing on my mind. Whatever I was? Had I been something else before now? “Bab?” I asked as I looked up to see her swaying tail and delicious flank. She clearly kept herself well groomed and well toned, her tail looked silky. Her charcoal-coat was much cleaner than the other ponies I had seen today and glistened like polished black metal. The way she swayed her hips was mesmerizing, back and forth and back and forth. I was feeling a tad light headed from the trance that movement had put me in.
“yeah sweetie?” Bab turned her head to answer me, her mane bobbing just out of her face. Wait, what was I thinking about? Something about flanks? No wait! Something being easy? Ugh, my brain has the stupid. “Uh…” She suddenly flushed, giving me an embarrassed smile. She pointed a hoof below me. “Wanna keep your soldier in line there Hotshot? I know I was feeling you up earlier but I think we’re trying to be professional right now.” She let out a restrained giggle as I looked down.
“Oh! oh wait.” I hopped after her on three hooves, using one to push down my fiddly bits. “I’m sorry. I was gonna ask something else I swear!” She just giggled at me and shook her head. How did this even happen? Weren’t we talking about something serious? Damn it all. It would probably be best if I just shut up and followed her. After all, it wasn’t too far of a walk to the farmhouse from here.
The house Pebble owned appeared to be a two-story hut with three more separate single room huts attached to the side, all made of mismatched sheets of scrap metal. The little farm was pressed against the back of the large scrapwall that surrounded all of hoofprint. Bab Stopped us in front of the metal sheet that made Pebble Pusher’s door. “Alright sweetie, I’m not going in there again, ever. From here you’re on your own. Good luck Hot sh-”
Bab was cut off by the sound of an opening panel and the bellowing laughter of somepony who clearly thought well of themselves. “Woah ho HO! Lookie who we have here. Come on in baby! I got your medicine right here if ya know what I mean. hahaha.” The head of a denim-blue pony with a caterpillar for a mustache popped out of the hatch. His notably blading mane looked greasy and unkempt.
“Fuck you Pebble!” Bab shouted up to him as she started to walk away.
The overweight pony flipped his hooves out of the open panel. “Oh! No wait baby! Come back!” He ducked back into his home and started thundering about, I assume to get down stairs. “Hey Adstrum?” Bab stopped momentarily to ask me. ”Come into town to visit will you sweetie?” I gave her a smile and a nod. I’d visit her any day. She was one of the nicest ponies I’ve met so far. She returned my smile and I was rewarded with getting to see that amazing plot gently sway away back into town.
“Cmon baby I’ve got drinks an-” Pebble said as he plowed through his door, stopping mid sentence as he saw me. “Aw great now she’s gone.”
The first thing I noticed about Pebble Pusher was the smell, something familiar. Whatever was making the smell was heavy on his breath and all over his ratty wife-beater shirt. Then in a sudden spark of memory, a ensation I was recently familiarized with at the infirmiry, came to. This time I could feel the need to prattle off the information associated with the chemic- “Wild-Pegasus, An alcoholic beverage created from roughly 60% rye, 23% corn, 12% barley, and 5% sugar. Distilled for a minimum of 2 years with sugars being added during the bottling process so as to not sour the product. Practical uses include- hrmphmrmrmpmphmpr.” I slapped my hooves over my mouth before I could continue. Oh stars, what was wrong with me? The look Pebble was giving me had defeat written all over it. I suppose I’m not what he was hoping for and my little outburst had set that in stone.
Pebble Pusher sat back on his haunches and pressed his hooves to his hips. “Aw great, another one of you freaks? Thanks a lot Nocturne, you crazy brod.” What the hell? I wasn’t a freak… was I? Now that I thought about it, most of the ponies didn’t like me and almost all of them talked about me like I was a plague. Maybe they just didn’t like outsiders? Either way I couldn’t fight the sinking feeling in my chest at that statement. “Oh no no no. Don’t give me your sad looks. Eh! What’s your name, I said don’t look at me like that.” He was certainly an angry pony.
“I’m sorry” I glanced down so I wouldn’t be giving him ‘my sad looks’ or whatever. “My name’s Adstrum.”
He straightened up, his hooves never leaving his sides, looking much more pleased. “Yeah whateva. So what are yah good at? I bet it’s gettin chicks, if who walked you over has anything to do with it. hehehehe! If yah know what I mean. eh? eh?” He waggled his eyebrows at me with a goofy grin. What was with this pony? Wasn’t he just mad at me? Maybe it had something to do with ‘chicks’.
“uhmm.” was all I managed to put out. I wasn’t really sure what I was good at, aside from making ponies mad and being the hero for a dead mare. Well I did carry her and all her things an awful long way. “I can, carry stuff?” I itched my foreleg where my new pipbuck met my coat.
Pebble Glanced over at my flank, the second time somepony did that to me, and gave me a puzzled look. “Looks zebra to me. But if you say so.” What the hell is a zebra? “Anyways. I’ll make this short, I wanna go back to my por- ahem- portfolio… checking. ‘Cause I’m an important business pony and thats what I do, heheh.” He laughed nervously as he trotted me in front of the three attached huts. “Right, well you’ll be living next to these dunderheads while yah work for me.” I read along as he listed the names, having noticed their names spraypainted above each corresponding door. “Yah got Pry Lock on the left here, he’s smart, a real brainiac. On the right is Beet God. I’m not too sure what his problem is, but he’s damn good at finding beets. Ahaha. Finally we got your new home in the center here. Used to belong to Blaster Steak, a real dumbass. He thought he was their leader or something like that. used to pick on Beet god a lot. Good riddance, the guy was always on somthin’ and a pain in my ass.” As, what appeared to be an after thought, he peered past me a shouted out. “No offence!”
Before I could even open my mouth to ask why he shouted that, I heard a decrepit voice shout weakly back. “None taken.” What the hell was that. When I looked back all I could see was the main road of the town and two side roads that lead to some other part of the small town. There wasn’t even anypony outside.
“Yeah well anyway, get to it. I’m going back inside. Don’t bother me unless yah bring another mare along.” And with that he made his way over to the door of his much larger hut and locked himself in. The hut of the late Blaster Steak didn’t look like much, but I guess it was mine now.
Opening the door, I was greeted with the smell of- “Chariserol, Dash, a psilocybin used to enhance one’s charismatic” I smacked myself. “No. nope. Going to not do that now. No more of that.” Inside I could see a pile of used red inhalers piled in a corner along with a few needle packs that had been taped together. Chariserol, so thats what dash was. There was a rather impressive chemistry set laid out on three tables that took up an entire wall of the hut. No wonder this guy died he must have been on everything he could figure out how to make. Underneath of the table was a plethora of ingredients that would need to be either boiled, ground, or chemically treated before they would be of any use. How I knew that I’m wasn't quite sure.
I sat down on the musty mattress that made my new bed, taking a good look at the rest of the room. There were several small lockers next to the door and strange posters of a bright pink pony with a candy cane mane lining the walls. Actually I noticed a small statue of this pony placed snugly between a ring of vials next to the chemistry set, she looked much younger in the statuette. Each of the vials had an unlit candle stuffed into it. Creepy enough, it looked like a little shrine. The statue had the mare jumping for joy, with an inscription that didn’t even come close to matching the image. Awareness! It was under E!. You’d think somepony would just write down the mare’s name or at least something related to what the figurine was doing. ‘Come on and smile?’ ‘Be happy be healthy?’ I dunno, something to do with happy. I’ll be honest, it kind of irritated me for it to be so out of place with the imagery.
I turned to look at the dingy mattress and frowned, today’s events starting to weigh on me. I brushed off the stray chem needles, using the blanket as a makeshift broom, and plopped down on the bed. It smelled like mold and disinfectant had a lovechild and left it in an leg pit factory.
‘So this is my place now’ I thought looking into the ill-kempt room. Something about it seemed familiar and brought back what Bab had said earlier. Maybe I was some other pony. was I a bad pony? I must have been if everypony didn’t like me. But who exactly had I been?
Lost in my contemplations, I began to feel the pulls of sleep weigh down my eyes. Before I was taken completely my mind had one more thought to put on me; would i be a bad pony in my dreams?
-.. . . .--. + .. -. + ... .-.. . . .--.
I could see the stars, the moon and it’s loving light. Who could hate such beautiful creatures? “Pemandu!!!! Pemandu!” Shrieked a familiar voice from behind me. I turned around to see the gates to Hoofprint grind open in their usual manner as a pony sized pillar of fire weaved towards me carving what could only be described as death in the ground behind it. “Pemandu! Stay with me!” I steadied Miss on my back as I stepped backwards, Nocturne's flaming corpse collapsing at my hooves. But that wasn’t what worried me. I was worried about Bab in the town. That unicorn, Saint, had all his guns pointed towards her.
I couldn’t let him kill her, she was important. I didn’t know how but she was the most important thing right now. I galloped forward, feeling Miss on my back as a weight I had to carry with me, to save Bab from the increasingly hellish sight of Saint and his guns. Time seemed to slow down and space began to bend as the distance grew into an ever extending road, a goal I could never reach. Like fire, Saint’s guns lit up the, what had suddenly become, night in a roar of smoke and light. I had been too late but Bab still stood, watching me with those ever caring eyes. A terrifyingly familiar sensation burrowed through my chest like broken glass tangled in barbed wire.
Six rounds burned into my chest, shaped perfectly like a heart. “I’m sorry Miss.” I said to the unconscious mare on my back as a fell to my knees. “I can’t carry you anymore.” I died there feeling myself slip into the coldness that was my inevitable fate, alone.
.. -. - . .-. .-. ..- .--. - . -..
“Adstrum!” shouted a deep, thoughtful, voice from the other side of my hut’s walls. “Hey new guy, we have work to do.”
A much younger voice cut in, making his nasally tone obvious to my now aching ears. “Yeah c’mon! I’m makin mud pies, and we’s gunna eat ‘em up and have some tea.” He somehow managed to fit a slight lisp at the end of each word. Wait, mud pies? That sounded absolutely disgusting, yet oddly wishful. If you could use dirt and water to make actual food, you’d never go hungry as long as you could find water. My mind began to put together a few methods in which it would be safe, if not particularly sustaining, in which you could eat mud. The first idea was simple, all one would have to do is boil the mixture and put it through a strainer and a cloth to remove hazardous chunks and clumps of unusable soil. simply drinking the remainder would give your body all of the minerals in the soil and quench your thirst at the same time. the next was fairly complex and allowed one to actua- wait. Why was I even thinking about this? How did I even know this stuff would work. Eating dirt was disgusting no matter how you put it. “HEY MAN. If you’re not gunna come out here and eat your pie I’m gunna eat it myself.”
“I wouldn’t trust those pies man.” Chimed the deeper voice. “Beet has no idea what he’s doing. Sometimes I wonder if he’s even equine.” So that was it then, the younger voice belonged to Beet God. I imagined him as somewhat scrawny, possibly wearing a hat.
Regardless of my imaginings, they were right. I was supposed to start working today. Earn a living in this town. “Yeah, I’ll be right out.” Easier said than done. All of my muscles ached as I tried to pull myself from the stone like mattress. It felt like how I imagined Saint did after being bucked by Bab’s flying kick, except all over. Apparently the past two days had caught up with me. Now that I think about it, I had done quite a bit since waking up. Nothing particularly heroic, but a lot.
I made my way to the door, releasing a yawn that would do… wait, where was I going with this train of thought? Something about old habits came to mind. How could I have old habits if my memory only spanned two days? Ugh , nevermind don’t think about that now Adstrum.
A quick hoof over my cheek sent my odd thoughts to the stars before opening the door. The two ponies waiting for me were a relatively sturdy, if thin, unicorn stallion and a young earth pony colt. The stallion had his custard yellow mane braided in multiple strands that hung loosely against his relatively clean red coat, I immediately assumed this to be Pry Lock, and was fixing me with an uninterested glare. The colt, I assumed was Beet God, was a muddy red with a short black mane and held an empty pie tin in his hooves as he looked up to me. “What?! Fool, I told you I was gunna eat it.” Huh, no hat.
“Umm. Thanks?” Was all I had for him. No wait that wasn’t the correct answer. What do you even say to something like that? I’m not going to eat mud. Bleh!
Pry Lock pushed the colt to the side and derailed my thoughts as he cleared his throat. “Ahem. Any way. The rocks don’t actually need to be tumbled until tomorrow and we still need that salvage Blaster left behind.”
Pick up and deliver, easy enough. “Oh, so we’re just gunna go pick up his things and come back?”
“Oh hell nah! That shit’s in Hellhound territory now. No, you’re taking the little ones out to scavenge from the NSCDC building. And by taking them, I mean being their pack mule.”
The what? Okay I’m no storyteller but I’m sure NSCDC didn’t spell anything even remotely close to a word. “I’m sorry, but where are we going?”
“The North Sparkle Cola Distribution Center. It’s relatively safe, since all the raiders are dead and the Hellhounds have no interest in the place, mostly.” Pry gave Beet God a push forward. “ Take the baker with you.”
“Fine” I grumbled. My back was just a tad sore, that bed didn’t help any. “But why do I have to be the pack mule?”
Pry leaned to the side eyeing my side. Ugh what the hell is everyone so interested in back there? I gave a peek myself. Nothing but the symbol on my rump, a series of tribal lines forming a four pointed star with a spiral in the center. “Well, the boss says you can lift. But honestly I can’t make manes or tail of your cutie mark. Not that I care anyway. I’m gunna be too busy testing rock samples.”
“Hold on. My cutie what?” I was answered with a hoof to my rump and a witty comment about being strong and stupid. I’m pretty sure nothing would stop Beet God’s laughing short of wonderglue. I took the moment to glance at my new work mates’ cutiemarks. Pry lock’s was rather obvious, a small safe with the front being pried off. Beet God’s was… well, a beat. So, what did mine mean?
“Well with your stupidity aside,” Pry Lock’s voice cut through my thoughts as he pushed Beet God off his still cackling backside and towards me. “You two go meet Cherry and Sweets at the Clinic. I’m gunna go do… science I guess.” With that he turned on his hind hooves and levitated a small stone from the field, heading for his hut. Cherry and Sweets, hmm sounded delicious?
Beet God bumped his head into my chest, apparently he had stopped laughing, and tried to push me along with all his tiny little strength. It was actually kind of adorable to watch, if a tad pathetic. I towered over most ponies I’ve met so far, let alone this little colt. “C’mon stupid I wanna see Sandy Sweets.” I just bit down on his mane and swung him up onto my back, turning towards the town. “I want candy, bubblegum and taffy. Skip to the the sweet shop with my sweetheart Sandy. Got my bits saved up so I’m her sugar daddy. I’m her Bloom Crownin and she’s my Peppermint Dandy, I want candy!...” Oh stars, this was going to be a long trip. My ears wilted down at the sound of his terrible, rhythmic rhyming. I wasn’t sure why but I was sure I could out rhyme him any day.
Looking up to the big red plus sign on the infirmary, I couldn’t help but feel a little warmth fill my chest… no wait, thats not my chest. When we arrived we found that we had come unexpectedly early. The two fillies hadn’t arrived yet. So now it was a matter of waiting… and waiting… and waiting. Oh the great skies I can’t stand the waiting. how long had it been? According to the little clock that was on my pip-puck we were sitting on five minutes. Nope! too long. I cast my gaze toward the clinic’s doors. She had said to come visit her today, right? Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind seeing her again. She had been so nice before. I mean, Doc Nice was… nice, we cried together. Bab though, she made me feel good without all the crying. I figured it wouldn’t hurt.
I glanced at Beet, who had began scraping wet clumps of dirt together. I’d rather not know. “Hey Beet, I’m going to go-”
“yeah yeah, don’t bother me stupid. I’m on a roll.” He interrupted me with a wave of his tiny hoof, not glancing away from his project. What he was on a roll about was anypony’s guess. Well I suppose its not my place to judge.
Pushing through the rusty double doors, I could see Bab scribbling away with a pen in her mouth. Without looking up, she waved a hoof toward the sofa at the side. ”Wait right there, the doctor will be with you in a moment. She’s getting some equipment ready.”
“O-oh. Okay, I wasn’t here to see her though.” I oh so cleverly quipped, giving her the sweetest smile I could muster.
She perked her ears up, immediately followed by eyes, filled with mild surprise. “Adstrum! How’s it going hot shot?” Obviously flustered, she shifted in her seat to get a better look at me. “That’s right, I did tell you to stop by didn’t I?” She tossed her head from side to side before continuing, looking for something I guess. “I um… Damn… One sec. Kay hun?” With that she flung herslf off her chair, which wheeled to the other side of the room, cantering through the doors to the back. “HEY SIS!! HE’S HERE!”
I sat hard on the floor, watching the door. Behind it I could hear the voices of Bab and Nice talking argumentatively. Was it something I did? I didn’t even want to talk to Doc Nice. Maybe she didn’t hear me? Yeah that’s gotta be it. I’m being waaaay to quiet. As soon as she comes back out I’m gonna speak much louder for her. I’m gonna-
The doors opened.
“Bab, I just wanted to speak with you. I do not need a doctor!” I’m pretty sure my voice just echoed down the hall. On top of that I was fairly certain I had been much too loud that time, judging by the look of shock painted on both the sister’s faces.They looked like they had just seen a ghost, staring at me as though seeing some sort of monster rising from my skin. I had to check myself to make sure that wasn’t the case, nope no monsters. A sick stallion poked his head out of a doorway to see the commotion.
A couple seconds passed, the air feeling oddly still. “I uh, Thought she didn’t hear me.” I scuffed a hoof on the ground, feeling blood rush into my face. Wait… yup, definitely my face.
Bab was the first one to speak up. “Woah.” A visible shaking ran up her spine as she brushed her bobbing pink mane to one side.
Doc Nice just adjust her glasses, reasserting her composure. “Ah, yes. Nothing serious. For a moment I thought you were ra- angry with my sister.” Even through her composure I could see she had been shaken as well. I-I wasn’t that loud… was I? I hadn’t noticed. Bab bobbed her head up and down, still staring at me with wide eyes. I think I felt a little sick now. Before anything else could be said Nice motioned me forward. “I’m sure my sister heard you M-Adstrum. I have simply asked her to tell me if you stopped in. I need to have a quick chat with you.” She motioned me forward as she took towards the room Gadgette had been placed in.
I followed, briefly glancing to the mare I actually wanted to talk to as she gaped at me.
The first thing I noticed was Gadgette’s Body, it had been covered with a thin blue sheet. A pang of guilt and a pain lashed through my heart. It still hurt to think I had lost her, before even knowing who she was. Doc Nice’s horn flash, shutting the door tight behind us and snapping me out of my memory. “Adstrum, I know you don’t know much about her. But she meant a lot to us.” Doc nice hadn’t even turned to look back at me. She was staring at Gadgette’s things, now sorted, in the corner of the room. Her tone was a lot harder, serious and showing her experience in the wasteland. She must have been through a lot.
“yeah I-”
“NO.” She glanced back to me, clearly fighting a tear. “You don’t.” She looked to the assorted armor, saddle bags, and supplies. “She brought most of us together. This town formed on her good will towards other ponies. If it weren’t for her Bab and I would still be shoveling drugged bums out of our clinic in Van Hoover with barely enough caps to scrape by.” Even from behind I could see her smile from the nostalgia. “But she? She came along and saved us from ourselves. She told me something, something she told everypony. “ She lifted an oversized wrench, that looked to be modded with anything that could kill, from The saddle bags. “‘She’s a maintenance pony. Maintenance Ponies fix things.’ She fixed everything, from ponies to pre-war tech, taking the old and broken and making them new.”
She turned to me, levitating the armor and saddle bags behind her. She began fitting the items over me as she continued. “You may not know how, you may never know how, but she did the same for you. You’re a new pony, something she created in one last great effort to help fix everything. And as much as I believe she was wrong this time, she has never created something that didn’t work. So I’m putting my faith in the creation that she poured her life into.” She offered a little smile, fastening the side buckles to the armor.
The armor fit oddly well, as though it had been made for me specifically. There was no way this could have fit Gadgette’s tiny frame. The Barding was the same as her own, heavy black cloth with that bright blue underneath. The primary difference was a huge number 72 painted on either side of the black barding, accented by reinforced plating. Up the front of the barding I could see it had a label in bright yellow letters, ‘Maintenance Security’. Even though it fit snuggly it didn’t feel all that tough, still nice though. “I-I don’t know what to say.” This was a tad much, and I wasn’t sure I quite understood it all either. She created me? Was I her son, or some type of machine? It hurt my head to think about.
Of course, I didn’t get to think much else of it as she put her hoof to my mouth and frowned. “Don’t say anything, I don’t know if I could bare it right now.” She let the heavy wrench set up against the wall as she moved over to fiddle with Gadgette’s blankets. “Now, please leave. I have a funeral to prepare for.” Her tone snapped to a much more business like tone, not even daring to glance over my way. I could only assume it was Gadgette’s funeral, and from what Doc Nice just said, she deserved one.
From the way she was talking I knew she knew what I had done to make everypony mad at me from yesterday. I so wanted to ask her, maybe avoid something like that happening again. If I knew, maybe I could fix it or apologize appropriately. Then I looked at the pained expression on her face, she really was hurting. Was this my fault too? “I-... alright.” I said, not having the heart to push the issue.
Before I closed the door behind me Doc Nice chimed in with one last thing to say. “Oh and Adstrum? I wouldn’t show up if I were you.” Just then, as the door clicked shut, I think my heart sunk down to my hooves. I may not have known her while she was alive but she was still a pony I considered close to me! She lead me here after all, to Nocturne and Ba-
“Bab?” She was staring up at me with ridiculously wide eyes. Her lip was quivering and her ears drooped down under her mane, which had been pushed to the side. What was going on? I think my heart rose up a tiny bit just to float backward and then flop about everywhere. I must have waited a good fifteen seconds before actually asking. “Um… what?” Another fifteen seconds passed and I started to panic a bit. I don't know what she wants. "What!?, what do you want? Stop the starring please."
The earth pony just shot back up onto all fours and perked up into a devious grin. "Nothing-" she promptly spun on the spot to face the doors to the lobby, her soft tail swinging up into my fast. It smelled nice. "-I was just, checking something. You needed to talk to me?" She started off towards her desk, keeping that flank swinging in a timely rhythm.
At just that moment I caught sight of her 'cutiemark'. I can't believe I didn't notice it before, though I had been awfully distracted last time. Her cutie mark was a snaking whip with a pink lotus blooming from the handle at the top. I wondered how she got that. Perhaps it has something to do with-
“Eyes up here hotshot.” Bab interrupted, my train of thought completely lost. She turned to face me before plopping down onto the soft gray couch that served as waiting room seating. “Oh, sorry.” I blushed, placing myself on the floor in front of her. “I-I did want to talk to you but… I don’t know right now.”
“Was it my sis?”
I simply nodded, a hoof over my heart. The unexpected rejection hurt, even with how new I was here. But I suppose, “Who am I to judge her?” I rubbed the reinforced cloth on my chest, ‘72’. “She did give me these things. So I guess I’m not mad, though I’m not sure what I did to make her mad.” I looked up and into her eyes. “D-do you think it has something to do with what I was before?” she perked up a little at that, I could see worry in her eyes. “I mean, what you said yesterday. You said whatever made me what I was was gone now.”
"You, heard that... I-I think yes." She shifted nervously, clearly not wanting to touch the subject. "I think nocturne was hoping you wouldn't ask that just yet." She gave me her best smile, under the circumstances, before continuing. "Tell you what sweetie, I'll talk to Nocty about it. Maybe she can talk to you about it or work something out so you can find out on your own terms."
"But these are my own terms! Why would my own life be a secret from me?" A let a hoof lightly stomp down, I was serious. " I think I have the right to know myself." To be honest, it was starting to get frustrating, having every pony know me except myself.
Bab stuttered, hesitating before putting her hooves on my shoulders. "A-and you do! But..." She glanced off to the side before reasserting herself and staring me eye-to-eye. "But if you find out everything all at once it might put you into shock."
My ears perked up. I didn't know what shock was but she made it sound bad. "Shock?"
"Yeah, and if you find out slowly it won't hurt so bad. Or uh, not at all if you decide to just become a new pony, here with Nocty, my sis. And I." Her smile seemed a little strained, but I didn't know anything about shock.
I decided to drop the subject, briefly rubbing my mane. With a sigh I submitted for now. " alright. Well, at least talk to Nocturne please. I don't care if it hurts, it's still a part of me and its hurting everypony else. I need to know so I can make up for it." Bab lost her smile as I finished those words.
She lifted my chin so I would look her in the eyes as she whispered, almost to herself. "My sister said you were Gadgette's last creation. I didn't see it until just now." Before I could ask what she meant, she leaped off the couch and trotted for her desk. "Adster, I'm gonna head over there right now." She lifted a set of saddlebags from behind her desk and began shuffling through some papers before finding a clipboard and a rolled up form. "Before I go." She trotted over and shoved the form in my mouth. "You left your work form in here yesterday. I doubt Pebble will pay you a single cap till you give it to him."
Oh stars! I was supposed to hoof that to him yesterday. I thumped my. "Thnf Bmbf" I said in gratitude of both her eagerness to help me and for returning my work form.
She took a canter out the door waving her hoof back to me. "Don't mention it Hun!"
Wow, maybe I could make some friends in this town. Though to be honest, she was already nice to begin with. Maybe if I just kept telling them I want to make up for whatever I did the other towns ponies would be nice too. If anything I had to try.
We were friends right? I was a tad fuzzy on the subject. Oh shoot I should have asked her! I dropped the work from into my- er, Gadgette's saddle bags and rushed for the door. As soon as I could feel the outside air I shouted for her in the hopes she would hear me. "Bab, wait!"
Too late she was long. Gone.
"ooooOOOoo" Came the voices of two little fillies in unison. One was a cherry red unicorn with a green oil rag cover her mane, which was tied up into a short cut ponytail at the back. The other was a peach colored earthpony with a puffy candy-blue mane. They grinned up at me with big fluttery eyes and kissy faces. "Adstrum and Bab Touch sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love then comes marriage then comes the foal in a baby carriage!" They sang to me in unison before bursting into giggles. Beet God was just making gagging motions behind them.
I couldn't help but blush, I didn't actually know what the little song was talking about, but I could still spell so I got the jist of it. "Alright you little boogers," I got a playful 'eeeeww' out of them both and a chuckle from Beet. I got the feeling I liked foals, they were cute and innocent. "Okay now who's who?"
The peach colored filly was the first to respond hopping up and down. "I'm Sandy Candy! Beet told us all about you while you we're in there smooching the nurse." She proceeded to make smooching sounds.
"And I'm," the cherry red filly kept forward, striking a pose that showed off her flank an cutie mark. "Bam! Cherry Bombs."
Candy groaned, rolling her eyes. "She got it the other day when she threw homemade cherry bombs at a radroach and won't stop talking about it."
Cherry stuck her tongue out at Candy and had the gesture returned. "Is that what it is?" I said point to the two pink circles with connected stems at the top on her flank.
She gave me a happy little nod before levitating a few out of her little saddle bags to show me. "See? I made them myself!" Sandy just groaned again.
"We'll I think it's cool. You can tell me all about it on our way to the scavenging place." I said, gently booping her nose to reveal a bright and happy smile, before starting on my way to the main gate. It was massive and easily visible from here.
Cherry bounced along beside me with the brightest grin you'd ever see while Beet God climbed back up onto my back, patting the spot next to him for sandy to join. "Really!? You wanna hear? Honest?" Cherry seemed happy, so I just smiled and nodded.
"We're gonna need a story along the way, and yours sounds exciting!" I encouraged the filly. We were approaching the gate and I could see three familiar ponies waiting for us. Nocturne, that buck that attacked me, and Star, who was waving us down.
As we came closer Nocturne stepped forward, standing as primly as ever. I suppose I admired that quality about her, she seemed to keep herself together rather well. She seemed respectable and in control at all times. Saint, on the other hoof, and glaring daggers at me as he scowled from Nocturne's side. Star was smiling, though clearly with strained nerves. "Adstrum, we came to see you and the little ones off on your first job." Nocturne stated, keeping Saint's grumbling tuned out. "Star will give you your quota and Saint will arm you." She motioned to Star and the hatted mare stepped forward.
Clearing her throat and adjusting her hat, the earth pony began read from a list she pulled from a satchel that hung at her side. "Ahem, now I want you fillies and colt to be careful when you're getting these things. Let uhmm... Adstrum here lift the heavy things." She sounded less than pleased trying to say my name. Well she shouldn't worry, I planned on keeping these kids safer than... Safer than something that was really safe. "Okay, the town is running low on scrap metal for repairs, spare electronics and wires. We have a request for the bottles that were kept there, empty or full. And should you find any medicine or sterilizing chemicals in sealed containers, the infirmary could always use more. As per the usual any caps you find are yours."
"Oh! I'm really good with wires! I'll get you the good ones!" Piped cherry, rearing to go.
Nocturne smiled, patting the filly's head. It had an odd calming effect that settled her down; I'd have to remember that. "I'm sure you will Cherry Bombs." She turned to me and pointed a hoof to my new pipbuck. "Did you pipbuck get all that Adstrum?"
Before I could answer, or even look at the thing, Saint barked out at us. "Gadgette's pipbuck!" If hatred was money, his glare would be gold.
I could see Nocturne consider answering him before looking to me. "I umm." I lifted 'Gadgette's' pipbuck and switched to the 'objectives' tab and to my surprise saw the whole list set out in glowing letters. My EFS even popped up an arrow on my compass that pointed toward where, I assumed, the objective was. "Yes, her pipbuck got everything."
Nocturne smiled, at my choice of words I assumed, and motioned to a slightly mollified Saint. "You shouldn't find anything more dangerous than a radroach, so no big guns." An audible whine came from my back, I couldn't tell if it was Sandy or Beet, as Saint produced a small sack. From the sack he levitated some of those small guns out and passed them to little ponies. Then with a sudden motion he he put his face right next to mine. "Nothing for you. I trust you don't have any problems with stomping on helpless insects now would you?"
"To keep these children safe, I'd stomp on insects with flamethrowers." I couldn't help myself, I had locked eyes with him and stood my ground on the subject. Nothing would harm these three. I heard Cherry ask if insects could really shoot fire but didn't really pay attention.
Saint poked his hoof into my my lightly armored chest."If a single hair on their manes are out of place when they get back ill shoot you myself. Understood?"
"Crystal." I didn't actually know what a crystal was, but it sounded right here. That seemed to satisfy him for now, but did nothing to quell his still obvious anger.
Before anypony else had a chance to talk I felt too little hooves up against my leg. "Can we go now? I wanna tell you my storyyy" whined Cherry.
"Yeah! And I wanna ignore her and kiss Beet God all the way there."stated Sandy. A resounding 'eww' came From Beet, accompanied by some minor shuffling.
Nocturne and Star actually let out a short giggle while Saint backed off, slinging his sack of guns over his back. With a wave to the guards pony from Star, the huge scrap gates groaned off to the side to allow our exit.
Both Nocturne and Star wished us a safe trip while Saint just glared in our direction. We were off into the wastes and on our way to the NSCDC. –————-———————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Footnote: Max level
Quest Perk Added: Lesson Zero - Somewhere along the way you've forgotten everything you've learned. All your stats have been reset, your perks lost, and you go back to level 1.
Footnote: level 1
Perk added: Strong back - your time in the wasteland has toughened you up. You can now carry that extra 50 points of weight.
- Author's note: Thanks for reading and starting on this adventure with me. I don't have much to say, so ill keep it short. I hope this story will entertain as much as it will inspire those who read it, much as the original fallout equestria has for me. Stick around, this one is gunna take awhile.
Many thanks to kkat for the original work and to FIReNVY for taking the time to edit this mess.
The walk to the NSCDC was relatively uneventful up to this point, aside from Cherry's cutiemark story. I quickly discover that the wasteland was packed full of nothing, nothing from one side of the Galloping Plains to the gorge on the other side. The only thing to keep the eyes trained on was those all too familiar distant gray mountains. Sandy Candy, seemingly the most knowledgeable of the three foals in my company, had told me that the Galloping Plains had long since been called The Blood Swath due to the number of dangers that used to roam freely. Though, Gadgette made sure most of those dangers no longer existed.
We had made it about halfway before Beet God started complaining. "This is SO boooooriiiiiing!" He flopped against the back of my neck as I kept an easy pace. "Hey Stupid, be a playa and turn up the tunes" he waved a tiny hoof down at my pipbuck.
Oh that's right, this thing had a radio! I took to remembering that energetic stallion's voice from before I had entered Hoofprint. He had a charismatic tone to his voice. Sure enough, after flipping through the dials and buttons the sweet sound of a young mare's voice came from my foreleg.
"-quiet now it's time to lay your sleepy head. Hush now quiet now it's time to gooo to beeeed!" The song came to a conclusion. We came in at the very end, oh well. "Gotta hand it to my girl Sweetie Belle, she can belt a soothing tune. Before we move on my little ponies I've got some news for you. I wish, oh I wish, this were on better terms. The latest news from up north, the great Hero of Hoofprint, our dearest Maintenance Mare has finally repaired her last toaster. It seems her body was carried in by some unknown friend so that her last rights could be read. To you, lone stranger, I salute. That's all for now wasteland, this is DJ PON-3 bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts." The radio cut to a much higher pitched mare than before, but I tuned her out as I stared forward in disbelief. How did he know that? Plus he mentioned me on the radio, was I famous now?
"Hey Adstrum! That's you he was talking about wasn't it!?" Cherry beamed up at me. She had kept a decent pace with me throughout the whole trip. "I saw you come in! You were all covered in soot and blood and you had her with you!"
I nodded, a tad shocked. "Y-yeah. Yeah that was me. But how did he know all of that?"
"Some say, he watches everypony from the spritebots floating about the wasteland. Always watching, always listening, woooOooo" Sandy claimed as she wiggled her hooves in front of my eyes, she must have climbed over Beet, who just groaned, to be now sitting on my head.
"What!? No! That's just stupid!" Protested Cherry as she pointed a mean look above my head.
Sandy retaliated with a simple but effective argument. "No you're stupid"
"Nuh-uh"
"Yeah-huh"
"Nuh-uh"
"Yeah-huh"
"Nuh-uh"
"Yeah-huh"
"Nuh-uh"
"Yeah-huuuuh"
"Nuh-uuuuuh!"
Nope, foals were cute but not enough for this. "Woahkay!" I silenced the two. " nopony is stupid. Lets just listen to the radio until we get there." I got a synchronized 'fine' out of the fillies.
Beet God flung his hooves up. "Finally! Thanks Stupid." What!?
"I'm not stupid!" I protested, finally put up with his name calling. I had ignored it up until now, I was trying to make a point and he was undermining me!
The rest of the trip was spent listening to the various songs the DJ played and a few of his wasteland survival tips. Apparently bottle caps were valuable and I should save them up for bullets, food, and water. Who decided bottle caps were valuable? That pony must have been insane.
Cherry was bouncing in excitement as we approached the small series of buildings that made up the NSCDC, she had been the first to spot it. "I'm gunna find so much stuff!! And- dear Celestia's fiery clit!" what the actual fuck? Who taught this filly to swear!? Of course the other foals followed suit with their own colorful remarks as they looked upon the building’s entrance.
The first thing ‘I’ noticed was the hooks. Those terrible hooks that had been driven through some unfortunate ponies’ chests and hung from on high. Smaller hooks were left in their, peeled back, skin as a full display of what was underneath for all to see. there were two at the door, with small guns nailed to their jaws as though they were ‘guards’. This had been raider territory and what they had been doing was an act of grotesque freedom. Yet with this brutal display, something I knew in my heart as evil, the first thing that went through my mind was that they could have done more with the spikes they had forming a barrier around the door.
I nudged little Cherry toward the doors. “C’mon lets just get what we need and go.” I hoped, but severely doubted, that it would be less gruesome inside.
It wasn't.
Entering the reception room, it was plain to see that these raiders had held some sort of sick celebration before leaving behind mutilated ponies and party banners tied to the walls with entrails.
As a group, amongst gagging fillies, we quickly made our way down a hallway to the right where there was much less carnage. To be more accurate, there was no carnage anywhere. This hallway was completely clean save for a few holes that sunk into the ground below. Somepony must have been using explosives.
Cherry must have thought the same thing as she ran up to inspect the hole. Beet and Sandy clambered off my back, readying their weapons and tiny saddlebags. "Hmm, doesn't look like a mine. Judging by scratch marks, I'd say they were digging." She gave a quick look around. "There's an awful lot of them, what do you think they were looking for?"
"Oh! I bet it was some kinda raider treasure!" Beet spoke up, running to the hole. "What do you think it is? A million caps? Gems?"
Sandy trotted up and gave the colt a playful shove. "You're stupid. Why would raiders want caps? It's obviously some sort of mega weapon that The Hydra hid before Gadgette blew him up!"
"Oh yeah, cause a raider would hide his biggest weapon" cherry rolled her eyes. It was incredible to see, we had just walked through the most gruesome thing I could have imagined and these foals were carrying on like it wasn't there to begin with.
Regardless, I had to keep us on track with the mission. I was the adult after all. "Well if there is a raider treasure I doubt we'll find it here." I motioned to the dug up holes. "Maybe we can find it while we're scavenging."
The idea of actually doing a treasure hunt seemed to get them all excited for their work. "Oh! I'm gunna find it first! C'mon beet!" Sandy began to charge off down the hall before falling flat on her face as Cherry bit hard on her tail.
"Now wait just a gol'darned minute!" Cherry huffed turning to face me. "This is still raider territory even if they're gone right?"
I nodded. "I suppose so, yeah."
"Well what if there are survivors? Ponies that didn't go with The Hydra." That was the third time I had heard that name. I doubted they meant those five headed beasts at this point. "So Adstrum?"
I glanced behind me, following the filly's bright smile. Maybe there was another Adstrum behind me, no? Well okay. "So? So what?" How was I supposed to know if there were left over raiders?
"Sooooo, you have a PipBuck, duh." She rolled her eyes before pointing at my, forehoof. OH! Of course I had that. That was a thing I had. I really hadn’t been paying attention to the display thingy. What had Nocturne called it? An Eyes Forever Searcher? Yeah, that made sense. I scanned around keeping my focus on the little bars on my compass. There were the three blue ones for the foals and, dear violently penetrating star shards, there were rapidly moving red bars everywhere! 20? 30? “W-what? What’s wrong? H-how many are there?”
“I-I, there’s so many, moving all over the place” One bar in particular caught my attention, it was moving faster than the others and was pointed toward the hallway around the corner from us. “Gah! There’s one coming from over there! Everypony get behind me!” I pulled the frightened foals behind me and crouched down, ready to charge whatever dared to put these foals in danger. I knew in my heart nothing was worse than hurting a child or failing to protect them.
“D-d-don’t worry, we can fight them all. R-right adstrum?” Asked Sandy who was hugging onto Beet as he tried to load his pistol, which seemed to have jammed.
The red bar came closer and closer, in just a few moments the raider would turn the corner and I would have to barrel down the hallway to ram him into the wall. After that we could make a hasty retreat back to Hoofprint and get Somepony with ‘guns’ to clear this place out for us. Maybe Saint, he had lots of guns. “Don’t worry Sandy, We’re going to be just fine.” I whispered, feeling my heart beat faster as the idea of battle began to tickle the back of my mind.
Then I heard it, the insane laugh of the raider. It was a few feet from the corner and I could hear that ravenous clicking raiders called laughing. Wait, clicking? Just then a large husked creature sprouting two large entenne scuttled around the corner. It stopped and clicked at us before it exploded into a million tiny pieces. “HA!” Came cherry, bouncing forward with unbridled glee. “Cherry Bombs one, Radroach a big ZEEEEERROOOOOOO!” She called out, making whooping noises. Wait, when had she placed a bomb there, I hadn’t seen her move at all.
Beet groaned, letting his pistol fall to the ground in annoyance. “Radroaches!? Of course there’s a lot of them, They’re bugs!” He pushed his way out from behind me, after scooping his gun back up. “C’mon Sandy lets go find a treasure. This guy is stupid” The little filly quite happily followed behind him, chatting about what the ‘treasure’ might be.
“W-wha?” I stared at the two, in confusion, as they turned the corner. “But-” How was I supposed to know what it was? This stupid Eyes Forward Searcher only showed me red and blue. I wish it could tell you how dangerous the red bar was.
Cherry bounded back to me with a big ol’ grin. “It’s alright Adstrum, I was scared of Radroaches at first too.” She began pulling me along by my hoof. “But then I learned that they squish real good!” Were these kids crazy? It COULD have been a raider. Any of these bars could be a raider. “Oh and Don’t worry about Beet and Sandy, Beet’s pretty good with guns. He used to be a crusader you know.” A Crusader? Before I could ask she caught my, probably, obviously confused look. “Oh right, you’re stupid.” Hey! “Crusaders are foals like us that brave the wastes and survive on their own. They’re such badflanks that even the raiders wouldn’t mess with them.” The filly lead me down another surprisingly clean hallway filled with more of those sunken holes and past doors that she would peek into as we passed them.
Knowing this, I felt a ‘little’ bit better about them wandering off on their own. Periodically I could hear the sounds of a gun and then a couple red bars went out on my E.F.S.. “Oh, okay. But, what if there ‘are’ still raiders. There’s still a lot of red bars around here.”
Cherry shook her head, before peeking into another door and grinning. “I doubt it. Raiders like Radroaches about as much as anypony. If one was just wandering the halls…” Her horn lit up as she concentrated briefly. I heard a snap and the door swung open to reveal a supply closet filled with drugs and medicine, similar to the ones I found in Blaster’s old hut. Somepony had written “The Stash” in what I pretended to be red paint. “... I doubt the other red bars are going to be anything but radroaches. They’re probably the reason the halls are so clean, eating up dead pony bits.” She began selecting medicine and floating them over to my saddle bags.
I looked up and saw the trap Cherry had disarmed. A net of apple shaped pieces of metal hung above the door. They were probably meant to hit the head of whoever entered and knock them out. “So uh, You’ve done this kind of thing before?” Cherry pried open a metal crate and rifled through it, periodically floating random items she thought were useful out and into my bags.
“Oh! Well, not for Hoofprint. I’m an orphan you know. Gadgette rescued me when I was just a foal and brought me to Hoofprint. My parents were killed by raiders, Hyrda’s ponies, and Gadgette found me in their little shack.” Oh sky’s mercy! The more I heard about this Hydra the more I wanted to put a hoof through his head. “Anyway,” Cherry had moved through three boxes and moved onto to carefully floating down the metal apples, which she put into her own saddle bags. “Naturally, no pony wanted to take care of a little filly in the wasteland, not even within the protection of Hoofprint. The Orphan matron didn’t really care if we were gone for too long just so long as she got her Moondust money, So I snuck out all the time to scavenge from any place nearby. I can’t count how many times I almost got blown up by traps like these.”
For a reason I couldn't explain, I felt I never should have woken up at all. This Wasteland, it just wasn’t fair. Why should a filly be forced to live like that, forced to face danger so regularly? No foal should be without some pony to care for them.
Cherry lead me back out into the hall and began searching again. We crossed paths with a few more radroaches, which were either blown up or stomped down, along the way but continued unhinder otherwise. “I, I don’t think that’s right Cherry. You should have somepony watching after you. Somepony to-”
“Hey!” She interrupted me, turning to face me with stern eyes, as we reached a door that read ‘Fact y flo ’ “I don’t need any pony looking after me. I think I’ve proved that enough.” Honestly I was shocked, I didn’t think such a small pony could pack in so much command. She turned back for the door, opening it ever so slightly to peek inside. “Besides, the only Big Pony I ever trusted was Gadgette.” She opened the door all the way and stepped through.
Behind the door was the most massive construction I had ever seen. There were large cylinders lining the walls that reach all the way to the ceiling, surrounded by catwalks that for some reason didn’t have safety rails. There were conveyer belts running everywhere, through large spool fed machines and down to stacks of crates that remained smashed next to large metal doors. All along the belts were empty bottles. I suppose the raiders decided it would be funny to put all the bottles back after drinking them. “SWEET!” Cherry bubbled back into cheeriness. “We got to the bottles before stupid Beet and Sandy!” She canted forward, onto the factory floor and glanced at the machine. “Oh and primo wires. Doesn’t look like any of those dumb raiders thought about opening these babies up.” Staring in awe, Cherry didn’t notice one of those dug in holes and fell face first into the shallow divot. “oof”
I felt bad for her, really I did, but as I walked my way over to her upturned rump I couldn’t quite stifle my laughter. “Hey, need a hoof?” For all that talk a minute ago she was doing a fine job watching out for herself.
She just shot out a hoof at me. “Just, don’t.” Came her muffled voice before slowly lifting herself back onto all fours. She had dust and concrete pieces all over her face and oilrag. “Speak of this to nopony.” She fixed me with pint-sized eyes of death… The Death Filly.
I used a hoof to hide my smile and stifle more laughter. “Of course not.” During that moment I noticed a red bar swing madly from our right to our front. I couldn’t see anything though.
“What’s wrong?!” The filly asked, levitating one of her metal apples into the air.
I cast my eyes warily about, listening for the clicking of more radroaches. Nothing. Before I could answer Cherry, the red bar suddenly swung quickly to my left and became impossible to locate amongst the radroach bars in the other parts of the building. “I… Nothing. Must be a, a mistake with my Eyes Forever Searcher.” I turned back to Cherry to receive a look describing her sheer misfortune of being stuck with me.
“Your what?” She asked dully.
“My Eyes Forever Searcher? E.F.S., My PipBuck shows me-” I began before being interrupted by another outthrust hoof.
Cherry sighed. “I know what an E.F.S. is. But it’s not that.” She explained. I gave her my best ‘confused but not stupid’ look. How would she know? she didn’t have a PipBuck. “E.F.S. Stands for Eyes Forward Sparkle. Gadgette told me that.”
“Oh! But that doesn’t make sense, Why sparkle? It’s not particularly shiny.” I held up the PipBuck to look it over. Nope, dull… like a rock.
Cherry rolled her eyes and cast her magical glow to an access panel on one of the machines. “Duh, Magic.” She gave two snorts and got to work. She hopped into the machine, which fit her whole body, and began picking and choosing wires to pull. “Go gather bottles or something… Stupid”
Ugh! Why does everypony call me stupid?! I was learning, I was. I grumbled, walking passed her and made a point of stomping my hoof in front of her access panel. “I’m Not Stupid!” I went on my merry way and collected bottles, intelligently. I made sure not to grab cracked ones. I even found a few caps.
The business of collecting the bottles went by rather slowly as I scooped bottle after bottle into my saddle bags. Honestly, I was extremely surprised they hadn’t filled up yet. I must have collected a hundred of them, yet every time I looked into the bags they always looked like I could fit a couple extra. Cherry had moved to the last machine, always carrying more wires draped across her back as she left each of the other machines.
I had just about finished up grabbing the empty bottles before I noticed ‘IT’. It was just sitting there, out of reach and glowing it’s powerful red. A sparkle cola bottle that still had some stuff in it! I wanted it, a deep reaching memory made my mouth water. Something I couldn’t quite recall told me I loved that particular sparkle cola. It was up at the top of a conveyor belt that led to one of those big cylinders. I looked to the machine Cherry was wriggling her way into. She would be a few minutes in there, I had enough time. I began carefully climbing the conveyor belt, which was at a surprisingly steep angle, being careful to keep good hoof placement.
Getting up there wasn’t so bad until I got to the second story of the building, then everything below me seemed to wobble. Nope! Earth ponies belong on the ground! I was about to abandon my quest for sweet sparkle cola until I looked down the way I had come. I looked back toward the bottle. It was just above a catwalk, maybe there were stairs. I had to stay optimistic! I began my climb once again, it was only a few feet away anyway. I carefully made my way up, one hoof at a time until I was right next to the catwalk. I could read the bottle from here, Sparkle Cola Rad real radish flavor. Thats it! My memory of this flavor came flooding back to me. Oh buck, that bite,that zing, I needed it!
I began reaching for it, I was close enough that my hind hoof could still touch the catwalk, but the bottle was just barely out of hoof’s reach. Just a little higher, just a tiny eensy bit more aaaand- “What they hay are you doing Adstrum!” Cherry shouted. No! I stumbled slightly, causing my hoof to bat the precious bottle down the belt and toward the floor. I felt the tears well up in my eyes.
“Cherry! Catch it!!!” I watched her look on in puzzlement as the glowing red bottle clanged off the top of a machine and made for the floor faster than she could react. It was going to shatter! No!!!
CLINK!
It bounced up over and into Cherry’s saddle bags. What!? How does that even happen!? “Uhm.. got it?” She stared at her saddlebag in amazement.
Before I could answer I saw that fast moving bar again, but this time I could see it. From this vantage point I could see the subtle change in the concrete. What ever it was it was digging and… directly under Cherry! “Cherry run!” I had to get down! I quickly scanned for stairs, nothing, I would have to go down the belt. Suddenly the ground beneath Cherry began to fall away as she tried to scamper away, wailing in sudden fear. In a beastial roar something huge, fuzzy and white leaped from the ground in a pounce toward the fleeing filly. There was no way I could reach her in time and I knew it. Time seemed to crawl to a halt as I focused on the huge creature, and from here I could see my chances of success. From here I could never strike this creature.
I had to think of something, do something. I refused to let any harm come to a foal. I… I had to.
oooOOOooo
I was somewhere else, somewhere bright. I was small and I hurt badly. But I sat still and watched because I was commanded to by… by who?
I was staring at a huge boulder, a pile of rubble and a male pony… my father? I couldn’t tell, everything was silhouetted. “Now son, pay attention this time.” It was my father! I did come from somewhere! “This is an ancient technique” The stallion stepped up to the boulder and lifted himself up onto his hind legs, his front hooves held out like praying mantis claws. “When you strike, you must be strong.” He flexed his fore hooves before leaping briefly into the air. “And strike where it is weak!” He landed on his hind legs and turned his body, thrusting his hooves into the boulder, causing it to explode into a billion little pieces. Two hooves down, two hooves forward with the force of the entire body. Yeah I understood it, I just didn’t want to practice anymore. I wasn’t strong enough for the Mountain Shaper Technique.
I shielded myself from the falling debris as my father fell back down onto all fours and motioned for me to stand. “It is your turn.” I knew what was coming, I didn’t like it, but I did it anyway. I stood on my wobbling legs and made my way forward. “But to know any move’s power you must feel it within you.”
My dad leapt, making the Mountain Shaper movements. I lifted my hooves to defend myself, angled like I had been taught.
oooOOOooo
I was suddenly looking back at the frozen moment in time. My chances increased, I could do this easily. All I had to do was…
I sprang from the catwalk, precision being my tool at this point, aiming for the space between the beast and Cherry. I swung my forehooves and head to rotate my body, which followed suit perfectly. For a moment I felt the bliss of a perfect free fall before crashing into the concrete on my hind legs, letting the rest of my body partially fold forward. From here I was facing the beast and could see it’s face and razor sharp claws, made for digging. I could see it’s chest and stomach as it remained helplessly in mid air. There was my target, the sternum, the place where it’s ribs met. In one fluid motion I began the thrust, feeling each of my muscles rippling with the energy they contained.
Two hooves planted to the ground, two forward, moving the whole body as a single weapon. The tips of my hooves crashed into the chest of the creature as my body fully extended to meet the beast. I was the force of the heavens and this mountain would bow to my power! The beast’s chest crumpled like a tin can and it was flung in the opposite direction it had once been traveling. The fuzzy monster fell across the nearest conveyor belt and simply twitched.
“WWWWWOOOOAAAH!” came an astounded voice from behind me as I released a held breath and slowly fell back to all fours. Oh yeah, I was strong enough now, father.
Cherry galloped up to my side, breathing heavily. “You killed a hellhound WITH YOUR BARE HOOVES!! A HELLHOUND!” She pranced around in little circles, squeeing her little head off.
“I-I what?” I looked over at the broken creature only a few feet away from me, It’s chest caved in grotesquely.
“A Hellhound!” She said, pointing her little hoof at the creature. “How did you even do-” She stopped, putting pieces together in her head. “The holes, the clean halls.” She quickly galloped towards the entrance to the ‘facty flo’. “C’mon Adstrum, Beet and Sandy are in trouble!”
I quickly leapt forward to half-gallop at her side. “What, are there more of those things?!” I asked, in a panic. If there were, Saint was going to have my head when we got back. I quickly searched my E.F.S. for their little blue bars. It was so hard to see them past the wall of red that the cockroaches made, suddenly one of them winked out with a muffled pop from down the hall. There! I scooped Cherry up onto my back and began taking every turn that would take me closer to that point.
Cherry bounced, only holding on by hugging onto the armor around my neck. “They travel in packs! I doubt one would keep free food to himself!” She pointed off down one hall that was still dirty and covered in bits of red. “There! Up the stairs!” I turned on a bit, heading for the stairs. Along the way I swore I heard the crunch of a radroach under my hooves but wasn’t sure until I heard the ‘eewww’ from Cherry. Dang those things were easy to miss when you’re running.
I got to the second floor and turned back towards the direction I had seen the red bar blip out. From here it looked like I was surrounded, but I could easily make out two little blue bars among them this time. “Found them!” I raced down the halls, trampling a few radroach corpses and another living one along the way. It was easy to follow them now that I had a trail of bugs to follow. The top floor was a mess though, there were still signs of raider activity everywhere and it stunk.
The hall quickly turned into a wide shallow stepped staircase with framed images that had crude images painted over them along the walls. I didn’t stop to appreciate the ‘art’, there were foals in danger. Two turns and a hundred steps later, I could have sworn I had ran the entire length of the NSCDC before finally arriving in front of two oversized metal doors that had been pushed open enough for a foal to fit through. Painted in blood over the doors was the depiction of a single hydra head with it’s mouth opened wide. I pulled the door opened enough to get myself and Cherry through, peaking into the bloody, but lavish, room ahead of me. To a great deal of relief to myself I could see Beet and Sandy sifting through a pile of junk at the other end. They were okay! Phew….
On the other hoof, this room looked like there had used to be walls all over and was now some sort of throne room, complete with a throne made of various guns and pony skeletons. Scattered across the room were beds of pillows and both Mare and Stallion corpses tied up into compromising positions next to them. Each one looked like they had died in a different manner, bleeding, flaying, beating, and one even had a hoof sized hole in his head. It was hideously disgusting. I wanted to puke, but the positions they were in… I could see their smooth coats in my head, imagine the panting the-
A sudden tightness under my barding alerted me to my own mind’s wanderings as I cursed under my breath. Now was the exact opposite of the right time for that! I was disgusted in myself. “yeah...This is fucked up.” Cherry said as she flopped on my back, her little muscles tightening as some insecurity took hold in her mind. I could hear the fear from the images that were probably playing out in the filly’s head. “No pony deserves this.”
YEAH! That’s totally why I was swearing. “Uhm, yeah I.” I sighed, removing the grotesque perversion from my mind. “This, this makes me want to kill the Hydra even more.” I stated, assuming this was his work, as the whole room looked like a makeshift throne room for a raider king. Judging by the Hydra head painted in ink on a red banner over the throne, This had to be HIS throne room.
“Hey! This is OUR room!” Shouted Beet God from across the room. Suddenly the urgency of why we had come here in the first place blared back into my skull. The Hellhounds! We needed to leave now! “Ge-”
“Hellhounds!” I shouted in a voice that carried creepishly well in the large room. That single word caused the filly and colt to freeze up in their tracks, with wide eyed fear. “We need to leave, now!”
The two foals didn’t skip a beat, scooping up a random assortment of items to fill their saddlebags and made a full gallop back to Cherry and me. My eyes caught the movement on my E.F.S. a rapidly moving bar that stopped just before the galloping foals. I had to move, react, strike! I pushed the floor behind me out of the way as I burst into full motion towards the bar. I needed to locate the Hellhound before it could burst out of the ground, I needed to see that slight motion in the floor that signaled it’s presence. My eyes darted all over, as I saw everything in slow motion again.
It was hopeless, the floor seemed solid all the way around the foals. I was certain I would end up seeing tiny pony bits flying about soon, sliced up by those digging claws. I was going to have to return to Hoofprint with two less foals and I was going to end up with six bullets in my head. I would deserve each of them too. But just then, I noticed a saving grace, a crack formed just before the two foals, a single fragment of concrete floor lifting into the air. YES! I could save them! I felt the rush in my body increase as I leapt into the air, only inches above the ground, and cocked my front hoof back. My hindles carried forward, putting me perpendicular with the blooming hole in the ground and by this point the fuzzy head of another Hellhound.
The sound of hoof hitting diamond hard skull is an interesting one. It sounds somewhere crossed between a ‘gun’shot and something hollow being crushed. My hoof had come down on the hellhound’s head like a ton of bricks, pushing it back into the hole it had tried to pop out of and down to the floor below us with a heavy thump. Sandy screamed as everything returned to it’s normal pace. I wasted no time in dashing forward, having landed facing the doors, and scooping up the two foals. I tossed them on my back and made starfall’s speed out the door and down the long stairway. I could hear a pained howl ring through the building, followed by three more. There were four of them!? Saint was going to have my head!!
I hadn’t even gotten to the bottom of the steps before I saw one of those beasts growling angrily at me, blood leaking down it’s face from an injury that had been inflicted to it’s head. Oh wait! That was the one I hit a few seconds ago. The hellhound howled briefly before charging directly for us. I heard another squeal of terror as two tiny hooves clasped over my face, trying to hold on for dear life. “I can’t see!! I can’t see!!” I’m sure I was swerving something fierce as I stumbled to the right then hard to the left, slamming into something warm and soft that quickly steadied me. I heard another thump as something heavy hit the wall behind me. “What was-”
I was cut off by Beet’s voice who was shouting over the filly’s squeal of terror. “Just run!!” My head was jerked to the side, causing the rest of my body to follow until it was straight again. At this point I couldn’t help but yell myself. I was gunna die, these foals were gunna die, I couldn’t see and now I was being driven like a pony powered wagon.
I heard the crumble and crack of wood and concrete just before being jerked to the right, left, then right again. I heard some snarling, barking and some crude version of Equestrian being spoken. “Git Dem PONIES!!!”
“Stairs! Jump!” Shouted Beet, sounding in much more control than I was at the moment. I immediately complied, assuming and dearly hoping he meant stairs going down as I lept forward, readying myself to land on an uneven surface. Lo and behold I landed several feet down and on a flat surface, where my head was immediately jerked to the side. And then several more times as the snarling beast continued to catch up to us and shout things about chewing our bones and eating the pony meat. I could have sworn I heard something making a zappy sound that deep down I knew I didn’t like. “HEAD DOWN!” Shouted Beet as I was jerked once more to the left. I did so and was rewarded with a heavy thump to my head and the feeling of hot dry air against my coat. From there we simply screamed for awhile as I ran straight forward, feeling happy that there was dirt under my hooves but terrified that there were Hellhounds chasing after us.
It took a good twenty minutes and Beet God yelling that it was safe now for everypony to calm down. I felt something unclench from around my neck that I hadn’t realized had been there and the tiny hooves over my eyes were removed. I breathed heavily along with the three foals, looking back to them with relief. Cherry had been hugging my neck while Sandy actually flopped down over my head. Beet Was slouched over my rump looking more exhausted than anything. I could see the NSCDC off in the distance as a tiny speck on the horizon. Beet God breathed out a light laugh, “Wow you’re fast for a stupid pony.”
“I’m not stupid.” I countered between breaths. “Dear spirits that was terrifying. Are those things common!?” I asked. To my surprise it was the shellshocked Cherry Bombs that answered instead of Beet.
“Only to the east. That’s all their territory.” She spoke mono-toned, like a- Oh what was that thing? It’s on the tip of my tongue. A ribbit? Bah, she sounded like that.
Sandy chimed in through what were clearly tears. “Can we just go? I wanna go home, to my bed and my friends. I want Mr. Smarty Pants” She hugged my mane, pulling the hairs almost painfully. I swallowed my panic, nodding.
“y-yeah, let’s get back to Hoofprint.” I reassured her, Beet chiming in with a ‘before anything else happens’.
.... --- ..- .-. ... + .-.. .- - . .-.
The walk home was filled with quiet sobs and shudders of fear. I imagined that was the first time seeing Hellounds for all of us, save for maybe Beet God. Either way, no-pony talked on the way home. And no pony had words for what we found when we finally got there.
I had seen the sickly green fires of the crater where I woke up only a few short days ago, but for some reason this red flame hurt my chest so much more, Perhaps it was because it was enveloping the first place I had attempted to call home.
The whole of Hoofprint was under the glow of a raging flame, small silhouettes diving through the air, spreading fire and gunshots throughout the town. I felt my body tense up as I looked upon the scene, the foals sliding off my back to cry and scream at the town. All of their words and sobs died away in my ears, becoming nothing more than muffled sounds in the distance, as I felt someone very familiar pull himself to the forefront of my mind and the anger that poured from his heart for those flying creatures that were hurting the ponies in hoofprint. They hated me, shunned me, but ultimately housed me and gave me a job I had only just begun. For now they were all I had, and the few ponies that were nice to me were the closest things to friends I could think of right now. I was going to kill something.
My hoof scraped the dirt, digging up rocks and soil. My heart pounded and my chest hurt badly. I kicked the ground and barreled for the town, keeping my eyes on those flying bastards that were killing my only chance at being a normal pony.
It only took me moments to get close enough to see the ponies that were galloping out of the gates, completely consumed by fire, screaming for their lives, and only moments more to pass through the gates themselves into the blistering inferno that was Hoofprint. From here I could see the conflict much better, there were guards protecting small pockets that hadn’t been caught on fire, shooting guns into the air. Above the guards were large winged creatures with claws like the hellhounds. They were carrying metal canisters on their backs and shooting fire from hoses that they held in their claws. They were crudely dressed in scraps that I assumed formed armor and cackled maniacally as they roasted ponies alive.
I could only see red as I charged towards one of the flying creatures, shouting something incoherent. Whatever I said worked as the now pissed off creature swooped down towards me, spewing flames before I was even close. I felt the fire pass over me, felt my skin boil and peel, the muscles beneath yelling to be covered back up as I lunged head first at the beaked bastard that threatened the only home I had.
oooOOOooo
“Ariel opponents are difficult” Came the voice of my father over the screeching of Bloodwings. “But just like any of your enemies, even they will bow to you.” We were sitting amongst the ruins of a city as a swarm of bloodwings swirled above us and into the sky. I remembered why we were here. A foal had ran off and got lost in these ruins. My father couldn’t wait to make a lesson of it as he did with everything. His silhouetted form pointed out towards a cowering colt covered in soot in the middle of the road. “I’ve already taught you how to reach the clouds, now it’s time to learn first hoof. ‘HIS’ life is in ‘YOUR’ hooves.”
I knew he wasn’t lying, last time he did this I lost my pet because ‘I’ didn’t rescue it. I wasn’t about to lose this challenge. This time I had learned. I charged just as one of the massive bloodwings swooped down to assault the colt. I reacted as I had been taught. I leapt up-
oooOOOooo
-and landed on the creature’s back, feeling it’s feathers and fur coat. I quickly pinched my fetlocks over the base of the creature’s muscular wings and pushed against it’s spine with my hindlegs. I was rewarded the pop of bone coming loose and the ripping sound of flesh as the creature wailed out a pain that was more than just physical. I felt powerful as the creature crashed and slid into the dirt, it’s wings flopping to the ground behind us. I slammed a hoof down into the back of it’s skull to stop it from screeching, roaring into the sky. “I’ll KILL YOU ALL!!”
I stared up at the next attacker, hooking a hoof around the tube to the fire weapon below me and aiming it upwards. It felt so natural to pull the lever that released the fire, sending the creature into a roll as it crashed head first into a still intact building. From here I could see my forelegs again, I wasn’t on fire anymore and those black dirt lines were back again. I didn’t care that I wasn’t on fire anymore, only able to truly see the red of the blood I was about to spill as I charged for a stack of crates that I could use to leap onto a building’s roof.
My hooves soon pounded against a tin metal roof as I leapt from roof to roof to get from one creature to the next, ripping off their wings and back onto the roof time and time again. There were still so many and still such rage to empty out. Before I could leap out to the next winged beast something impacted against my side, sending me falling into the husk of a burning building. I crashed through charred metal and wood, various items clanking around me as I lay in a heap. Everything hurt, and something in my chest felt loose. Something small burned quite avidly next to me as I stared into the sky as the warm yellow of the fire filled the air around me.
I couldn’t stop now, the town was still under attack and it was the only thing I had to cling on to right now. I gritted my teeth and heaved myself from the small pile of rubble, a layer of ash and dust falling from my now charred barding. Oddly enough the bright yellow 72 was still largely intact. I stumbled forward, determined to get back into the fight even through the dizziness that filled my skull. I wobbled to and fro, bumping into burnt pillars and door frames until I was back out onto the street. Somehow I had ended up across the street from the orphanage. The semi intact sign stated that it was “Tiny Hoofprint’s Orphanage”. I put two hooves to my head to still my eyes and scanned the air. There was no sign of what hit me, whoever it was must have thought I died crashing into that building.
Suddenly, a sharp pain in my chest caused me to lurch forward, gritting my teeth.Something had just popped back into place, and it really didn’t feel natural. Before I could dwell more on the subject I heard a shrill cry from just ahead. I lifted my head to see the three foals coming out of the orphanage, carrying saddle bags filled with toys and blankets. I guessed, they had gone in to save their possessions. Sandy was just barely dragging out an older looking mare in glasses who wore a goofy grin as she pawed up at the sky. How could that mare be laughing at a time like this? Beet God and Cherry were pointing their meager pistols up into air, firing a tad too carelessly. I traced their line of fire to another beast and what appeared to be a flying pony? Regardless, I wouldn’t let them harm the foals. I barreled forward, Skidding to a halt in front of the foals and bucking a nearby barrel up into the air at the two flying enemies. The beaked creature seemed better armored than the ones I had faced before and wielded what looked like a giant blade. That blade sliced through the barrel as the creature squawked out something I imagined to be laughter.
The beast landed on the ground some feet away from me, the foals’ gunfire ceasing behind me. The creature hoisted it’s blade up onto one shoulder as it lifted itself onto its hind legs- his hind legs. His voice was low and growled promises of pain as he spoke. Giving his partner time to land behind him. Yup, it was a flying pony, a mare in fact. “HAHA! Damn you’re a tough son of a bitch. But you owe me a life for what you did to my brothers and sisters.” He began to take steps toward me at a casual stroll. “You see, our boss says this is our town now, and you come in tearing off WINGS! AND RUINING ALL OUR FUN!” He shrieked out at me, lowering his blade to point at me. “So…” He continued, composing himself, once more with the blade at his shoulder. “I’m going to slice you up now, and let those wingless brothers of mine have fun with the hole in your backside. Then we can have a big bonfire and zebra stew.” He narrowed his eyes, pulling his paw back to gain better footing.
I just stood my ground, growling hatred at this fucked up reminder of what I had just seen at the NSCDC. This creature was a raider, just like that Hydra fucker. And just like that Hydra fucker, he deserved to die.
We charged each other at the same time, both yelling hate into the air, feeling rage in our hearts. He met my charge with an obvious low sweep with the blade. It was easy enough to leap into the air and land a buck to his face, sending him spiraling to the side. Of course he used that spin to his advantage, using it’s momentum to swing his blade into the air and into my path toward the ground. I wasn’t going to survive if it landed squarely and I knew it. In a flash of instinct a hoof went out to press against it’s flat side sending it’s slice under me. But no sooner had I landed did he bring it back to slice at my head. I ducked under it, feeling the blade clip off some of my mane, and kicked against the ground to launch myself toward the towering creature’s head.
I thrusted a fore hoof to the side to give me enough spin to bring my hind hoof to bare in a fierce kick that breezed by my opponent’s head as he deftly dodged. My moment was then suddenly halted as a piercing pain lanced through my chest. My eyes bulged and I saw blood spray from my mouth. To my great dismay, everything began moving in reverse as I was flung to the far side of the street, hitting a wall and falling to my side. From here, in the dust I could see the trail of blood leading from the feathered raider’s talons all the way to the barding around my gut. The fucker laughed again, heaving his massive blade up to his shoulder. His flying pony partner simply watched with an agonizingly pleased grin. “Hahaha! too bad we can’t play more, you’re a slippery little ground pounder aren’t you?” He closed in on me and lifted his blade.
I tried to move, I really did, but I couldn’t seem to find the strength. The only thing I could manage was to pull myself to the side with my front hooves, dragging the whole lower half of my body through the dirt. I wanted to get away, I didn’t want to die. I wasn’t ready, but the thwip of the blade and the searing pain that occupied the area where my hind legs had once been said otherwise. I yelled, I screamed, I roared as I looked back at the two bloody stumps that bled my life water into pools connecting to two soot covered hind hooves. I swore I could still feel them, still try to move them.
The creature that had removed my hind legs laughed, saying something that I couldn’t hear as everything slowed down to a crawl again. I looked over to the foals, They hadn’t run away and were instead trying to call out to me. I could see Cherry’s little hoof reaching out, the rest of her body not daring to get closer to the fight. She was crying. My heart broke at the sight of those tears, my chest sank and for a moment the pain in my stubs went numb. I looked back to the armored beast striding to my side. A whole new anger welled up inside me, as I imagined every way this creature could die, every way I could make him suffer. That’s when ‘he’ woke up.
Some part of me awoke as my heart broke. He had always been there, I had simply forgotten how to reach out to him. Now, here in a moment where I couldn’t fight on, he reached out and took the reins… This creature in front of me was dead in my eyes. I hated him!
Suddenly all of the pain I felt died and the world was only so much red. My forehooves moved on their own accord and lifted me up, pushing me away from a death dealing blow, in an arcing jump over the combatant’s head. Even as I flew through the air I could see the look of surprise and fear spread across his face as his sword dug into dirt. My hooves took hold of feathers and skin and jerked that bastard’s head backwards so I could see the light in his eyes fade.
Gravity quickly took hold and we began falling to the side. I hopped off of the beast’s back and landed in time to disarm his falling corpse, taking the blade for my own and resting it on my back. My PipBuck labeled it as a Bumper Blade and gave me a bunch of other numbers I didn’t pay attention too. What had my attention was the hysterically laughing mare only feet away from me. “HAHAHA!! No shit! I knew you were tough, but a fuckin bale-fire bomb!? HAHAhheehehe. FUCK YOU! I mean… Damn! You’re one tough fucker!” She yelled with a wide smile on her face as I took up a position in front of the foals, digging my hind hooves into the ground.
She was, what I could tell, at one point a bright yellow mare whose coat was now covered in burns, dirt, and various colored paints. She was sporting two guns with bright red gems where the bullets were supposed to come out all attached to some sort of saddle with ‘Lola Montez’ written on it’s side. Her raspy voice irritated me to all hell, it was ugly and course.
She made small prancing motions before dropping into a battle position and smiling. “Heh heh heh… And I see you took me up on my suggestion!” She made some crude thrusts with her rump. “Unf! unf! unf! FUCK THOSE LITTLE FILLIES!! AAAAHHHAAahhaahaha!”
“You keep your bucking hooves off of them!” I commanded, hearing that booming voice belt from my throat. “They are MINE to protect!”
She just sat back and lifted her hooves. “Woah hey! Calm your stripes! They’re all yours. But I’m still coming for your territory now that your buddies are all dead. haha!” She whistled into the sky as she began to flap her wings and lift off. The flying creatures began peeling away from their assault, dropping a few ponies from the air for a good laugh. “It’s all yours until I come back with some bigger guns. Haha! See ya Hydra!” And with that, she kicked the air and took off towards the south.
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding and looked back to the frightened foals. “Hydra? What did she mean by that. He’s dead…” I asked as they stared back at me, frozen in fear. “Oh by the stars! Are you three okay?”
Cherry tried to mutter something as she pointed to my rear but before she could say anything Sandy belted out a scream that could shatter bones as she was pulled back by Beet. Beet was lifting his pistol at me, glaring in some sort of deep hatred. What did I do? I just saved their lives, why are they looking at me like that? I traced Cherry Bombs’ pointing hoof to my rear and my hind legs and then just behind them a pair of severed legs that matched them only a few feet behind me.
Wait… I just regrew my hind legs!? How does a pony regrow their hind legs like a hydra!?
Just then it struck me, and my questioning stare became that of a fear of my own. I couldn’t be the Hydra, I was just some pony not a raider warlord. I only just woke up, near a Balefire Crater… No! I didn’t even know how to fight! I, just killed a dozen of those beasts. I couldn’t be him I was a Pony I didn’t have… I took a look at my body… stripes. There they were, striped hind legs.
I took a step away from the foals, shaking my head. “No… no no no. I-I hate the Hydra. I would never do the things he did I...” My head began to hurt as I tried to wrap my head around the possibility. “I can’t… I’m NOT!” MY voice boomed as I turned and charged through the burning flames of the town. “I’M NOT THE HYDRA!! I’M NOT!” And as I ran tirelessly, closing my eyes to avoid eye contact with the surviving ponies of Hoofprint, I heard them shout back for a murderer to get out of town. For me to get out of town. That I was the reason they had been attacked…
To never trust a stripe.
I found myself at the tree, on the hill overlooking hoofprint. I found myself sulking on the very spot I had come to rest at with Gadgette’s body before heading into hoofprint for the first time. I was contemplating the evidence pointing to an inarguable fact. I could only think of the things I must have done to others. Worst of all, I could only imagine what I had done to Gadgette and her friends. I knew why Saint was mad at me and right now I couldn’t blame him.
Right now I wanted to let him follow through on his promise. I wanted him to kill me. I wanted it all to stop before everything came back. That’s it! I just had to not remember! I got off my rump and galloped about 40 feet away. Turning to face the lone tree on the hill, I breathed heavily in preparation. “I’m sorry everypony, but adstrum is only okay if the Hydra stays dead!” I began charging at the tree with all my speed, shouting out in frustration and anger.
I closed my eyes and aimed the crown of my skull at a jagged stump where a low hanging branch used to be. After only a few moments, my entire body went limp. I felt a burning pain running from my head all the way down to my rear hooves.
The first thing that went out was my hearing. I looked over towards the burning town, spitting up blood. If I didn’t want to be the Hydra again… I would have to die before I could remember.
Next to go was my lungs. The air stopped filling my lungs. It didn’t really matter as i didn’t feel the need to breathe anymore. I hope Nopony will find me here. Maybe if I don’t move the tree will stay lodged in my head and The Hydra will stay dead this time. I thought this to myself as I saw survivors leaving the town.. Good for them.
I could no longer feel the pain in my body, everything refused to move. My eyes remained locked on the distant town of Hoofprint. This is the last thing I would see, my own failure. My entire existence summed up in a burning haze. Destruction, slaughter of the innocent. Saint, walking forward with his guns raised above his head.
As my sight faded, I saw my angel of death. My mercy. Saint, “The Six-Shooter”.
Quest Perk Added: Mountain Shaper Technique - You have master the ancient technique used by the Achu Tribe to break through stone and fortifications. This Unarmed attack can be used once per day and deals 10 times your strength modifier in damage.
Quest Perk Added: Wind Walking Technique - You gain an additional 5 ft to your jump height and gain advantage on all Agility checks when climbing or jumping. You may now melee aerial targets that are 5 ft above your maximum jump height.
Footnote: Level up!
Footnote: Level 4
Perk Added: Hind Leg Stance - You have learned to fight on your hind legs like a zebra. Athletic checks are easier and you can jump and additional 5 feet up while in this stance. You must take a quick action to go into or out of this stance.
Perk Added: Steel Hooves - You deal 5 extra damage while using unarmed attacks, including rocks and improvised weapons.
--
Author’s Note: I would like to peel away the stigma behind using Amnesia as a story device. This can be a wonderful tool and I hope I really showed it here with Adstrum slowly remembering things about himself and using Colloquialisms from Zebra culture without thinking as his memory returns. I am also hoping this hit home near the end where our hero noticed the vast difference between who he had become and who he actually was.
With any luck I can tie this whole thing together.
Many thanks to kkat for the original work and Sombre for inspiration from Project Horizons.
“Well yeah, but he was dead only a few minutes ago.”
Beep…
Beep…
“That’s fine. As long as he is alive now. I am going to go back and help put out the fires.”
Beep…
Beep…
“Wait!... Why do you care so much!? I feel sick wasting medicine on him.”
Beep…
Beep…
“Believe it or not he saved dozens of ponies today. We owe him that. Besides Gadgette made him this way. She’s never made something that didn’t work.”
Beep...
Beep…
Beep…
I woke up to the smell of burnt wood and the sounds of construction. Pony hooves on the flats of nails pounding against my skull. I rolled to the side, falling off a mattress and slamming against the floor. “Uuuuuuuuuggghh.” I pushed my face into the scrap metal floor and put my hooves over my ears. “Go away…” I groaned. I didn’t want this noise. I wanted to go back to the endless black of sleep. I didn’t want to think about what I would have to face if I woke up. I didn’t want to exist.
A door being forced open broke my line of self deprecating thoughts, just as they began. “Oh, you’re awake!” It was the voice of Cherry. “Sorry for being scared, Adstrum. Miss Eclipse says that it’s just something that you can do.” She hesitated. “You know… Regrow your legs.” I mumbled for her to leave, as she set something down next to me. “Everypony is calling you the Hyrda because of it… Well that and because you’re actually a zebra. Miss Eclipse was hiding your stripes. I don’t believe them though. You’re too nice.”
Oh stars that hurt me. I felt a heavy pain in my heart at her words. The secret was out. Worst yet, I still didn’t know exactly what I had done. Still, the evidence was there. That raider even called me by name. “You should believe the other ponies. I am The Hydra.” There was nothing else to say as I turned to look at her now terrified face. She looked as though she were speaking with Discord himself.
I flopped my face back down on the dirty floor where it belonged. “O-oh… Well… Miss Eclipse says to just stay in here a while… I’ll let her know you’re up” With that Cherry ran out the door as fast as her little hooves would carry her. I didn’t blame her. The images of what I saw at the NSCDC floated through my head like a sickening slide show. That was my life until now.
Only one thing kept me from attempting to stave my head in with the nearest blunt object, A memory that seeped into focus as I wallowed in my mistakes. The rest of my day was spent on the floor remembering that one instance in particular. An event that I was becoming fixated on.
It was a mare pointing a strange looking gun at me. She was above me, looking down as though I were the worst thing in the world to exist. She wasn’t angry though, she wept for me. The only words I could make out were, ‘I promise…’. The memory was so blurry I couldn’t even tell what the mare looked like. But I remembered her voice. It was coarse and tired, but filled with care and sympathy. It was as though the weight of the world crashed about every word she spoke. She was tired of living too.
Whatever it was that kept me locked on that memory was soon pushed out of my mind by the door being forced open again, this time with much more force than before. “Sweet Celestia! Get up off the floor Adstrum” Came Nocturne’s voice in a clipped manner.
“No. I deserve the floor.”
I felt a hoof prod the back of my head. “Are you crying?!”
Turning up to look at her, my vision blurry with tears, I firmly stated. “No…” I sucked in air through my teeth and slapped my face against the floor to hide my shame.
“Okay fine. I guess I can’t really force you to sit up.” The sound of creaking springs told me she was sitting on the mattress now. “Just listen, can you do that?” I nodded my head the best I could. “Good. So, the secret is out. Everypony knows who you are. Cherry Tells me that you also know who you are. Is that correct?” She took my mumbled response as a yes and simply continued. “I’m not going to apologize for what I did to you, hiding who you are from yourself. It was for the right reasons and for your own safety.” Why did she care about my safety? I was a murderer! “Before I decide what we’re going to do with you now that ‘reforming’ you isn’t an option I have a question for you.”
Compelled, I looked up to her from my cozy spot on the soot covered metal floor. I noticed that she was armed with a pistol. “What?”
“Why did you try to kill yourself? That doesn’t sound like the Hydra I knew.” She asked, emphasizing the word ‘knew’.
I sniffled, smearing soot on my face as I wiped my nose. “It was me. I realized I was the monster”
Nocturne looked at me, puzzled. “I am sorry. Please say that again. My Zebra is rusty.”
Had I just spoken zebra? Strange words fell from my lips. I was speaking Zebra. “In semita Iter in tenebris.” I had to consciously switch to speaking Equestrian. “I tried to kill myself because of who I was. I didn’t want to remember incase I started killing again. I don’t want to hurt anypony.”
“I see…” She began as though taking a mental note. “... Do you know why those raiders came here?” She asked, gently prodding my shoulder. She leaned in, scrutinizing my face as I worked up the courage to answer.
“They came…” I said, feeling my throat begin to dry. “Because of me.” My Gaze drifted down to the floor as I thought about it. “They killed all those ponies because I was here.”
My answer was rewarded with a hoof upside my head. “No! They came because they thought you were dead! They left because of you! And they’re coming back!” She put both hooves on my shoulders and yelled into my face with an anger that was seeded in hatred. “Do you actually care about the lives of ponies?! Do you want them to die because you want to take the easy way out!? Because then you would be killing them! Everypony here would die at your hooves while you lie limp at a goddess damned tree!”
The weight she was putting on my shoulders increased as she raised her volume to a full shout. “You want to kill us all Hydra!? You want to Kill me!?” Just then the door was forced open and six guns barked out hatred matching what was in Nocturne’s eyes. I felt the burning holes opened up in my side and pierced into my heart as I fell limply back to the floor. The shock from what Nocturne had said prevented me from acknowledging the bullet wounds immediately. Instead, I stared at the small metal plate that Cherry had brought me earlier. It was a single Fancy Buck Cake and the bottle of Sparkle Cola Rad from the factory. “Nocturne! Are you alright? Did he hurt you!?” Came the voice of Saint from the doorway. He made a short gallop up the bed, putting a hoof on an exhausted Nocturne’s side.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I just… This is hard for me.” She had to bite her lip as she looked down at me. “I just let my anger get to me. He’ll be up again in a few minutes I’m sure.” For the first time since meeting her I saw her look weak, bracing Saint as she made for the door. “I just need a break. I’ll come back tomorrow.” She had seemed so strong before now, so youthful. Now she walked as though she were elderly or sick.
Had I done that to her? I still had no idea what I had done to these ponies. I think that is what hurt the most, not knowing.
One thing was for certain, Nocturne had been right. The pain from the bullets had stopped a few short moments after Nocturne and Saint had left and the bleeding shortly after that. I could feel my insides twisting about like tendrils pulling on the bullets. In a sharp pain and a gasp of breath the bullets were pushed out of my skin as my heart began to beat once again. In the heat of the moment I hadn’t realized it has stopped.
The bullets clattered to the floor as my body lifted itself back off the floor. My mind numb with the implications of what had just happened, I turned my attention back to the food that was brought to me earlier. Before I could begin eating, the world began to drift into memory.
oooOOOooo
My father again, looking pleased with himself. There was more detail this time. He had the early signs of aging spread across a scarred and age beaten face. He had lost an eye a long time ago and replaced it with a sculpted eye made from Sky Metal. He set down the pistol, that was in his mouth, by the brewing pot I had just drank deeply from. “This is it. Those shots were lethal. Everything I put you through was leading to this my son. If my sacrifices were for anything…” He paused, seemingly uncertain. “Just pray to your ancestors boy.”
I was gasping for life. I had been beaten and battered, molded into a killing machine. Taught to lead through the force of my own hooves, all to be betrayed on the day I received my Glyphmark. They day I was to be considered a true Zebra.
As My vision slowly faded away, he smiled. “Good...”
oooOOOooo
I suddenly felt the anger well up in my chest again. The killing heat of the Hyrda boiling up. Could it be true? I began whispering Chemical recipes to myself. Trying to recall the smell coming from the pot. I came to a conclusion quickly “Cidariphine… A chemical composition combining the healing properties of a potion and the mutagenic properties of Flux… Hydra.”
The next few days passed by slowly. Nocturne never came back to visit. Neither did any of the ponies I had come to know, as enemies or friends. My only visitor was the occasional guard, which was just a trader or scavenger with a gun, that brought me food and a drink. It was never much. I am not sure why the thought of escaping never crossed my mind. Maybe it was what Nocturne had said the first day, maybe it was guilt, or maybe I was just enjoying the idea that in this small shack I could pretend that everything was going to be fine. I hoped that time could reverse and I could go back to simply being the weirdo in town.
I wasn’t haunted by any more memories during that time. Everything died down too a slow droll as the construction going on outside got quieter and less frequent with each passing day. I wished this shack had a window so I could at least watch.
It had been a full week, I think, before I heard a knock on the door that wasn’t followed by some random pony shouting ‘meal’. A few moments later the knock came again. “Come in?” I assumed they were actually waiting for a response this time. To my mild surprise the door was then opened after some effort. The door to my little shack had never been repaired from the fire.
Shockingly enough the pony the came through the doors was Saint. For the first time since meeting him, he wasn’t sneering at me in anger. Instead, he was smiling at me as he entered, setting the barding i was wearing earlier on the ground. It seemed to have been modified somehow. “Howdy, Hydra. How are you today?” His small talk and the use of that name made me uneasy. He shifted the weight of his gun bandoliers about and tipped up his hat to reveal his face, lit by a cigar. He had been growing a stubble beard since I last saw him and his eyes seemed to be worn and tired. He probably hadn’t gotten much sleep lately.
“Bored.” Was my honest answer. I didn’t risk saying much else incase he wanted to shoot me some more. At this point I understood it wouldn’t kill me but, damn it still hurt.
“Aww, well I’m about to fix that.” He levitated the gear over to me and motioned for me to put it on. I had trouble getting the pip-buck through the sleeve but was otherwise able to put the gear on.the modification that was made to the barding was easily distinguishable at this distance. Some pony had added an armored metal ring around the neck hole. I had to click the ring closed to get the barding to fit correctly. Once it was closed I heard a few extra clicks and a small red light turned on. “The entire town agreed to let you stay under ooone condition. You gotta wear that thing around your neck. That there is a Bomb Collar. Same kind the slavers use. We had a bunch that we confiscated so we made Gadgette’s barding into a kind of controller to keep you in line. Make the ponies feel safe. Better yet? They gave the button to me.” With that he levitated out a small switch with a dial. “One press of this button and, boom! No more head. Sure you’ll grow it back in a few days. But by then we’ll have another one ready to go and you back in chains. So if I catch even the slightest whiff of bad behavior…” He wiggled the switch.
“I get it.” I said, cutting off the short silence. “I’m your slave now.” I scowled, figuring he would probably click the button just for kicks.
“Slave is a harsh word.” Saint began, unholstering one of his guns and putting the detonator in its place. He began waving his gun around as a badge of authority. “Consider this, repaying your debt to society.” Before continuing, Saint stepped back to the door and levitated something covered in cloth from outside. “We are aware of your affinity for hoof to hoof combat and your tendency to use larger guns. So we are arming you with one of the weapons the griffons were using.” He set the object down in front of me with a heavy clunk. “Don’t get us wrong, it has no ammunition in it. You will be given ammunition whenever we send you somewhere dangerous.”
I lifted the cloth from the weapon. Underneath was a scrap metal frame designed to fit over a griffon’s body. Attached to the frame was the many times repaired frame for a pre-war flamer. The large red canister containing the fuel had been removed. The entire frame and weapon still had the raider ‘modifications’ attached with a prominent ‘Fuck Off!’ painted in white on the rusting frame.
“And you can stop being bored now Hydra. We’ve got a job for you to do. Your first payment to the ponies you’ve hurt. Put that on and come with me.” Saint finished, turning for the door. He still had his gun out and kept it pointing at me. I didn’t blame him for not trusting me, given the situation, but the notion was still upsetting.
I pulled the coth to the flamer and battle saddle off and hefted it up onto my back with a word. I had no memory of being good with this type of weapon but, with my lack of knowledge regarding my own abilities, I decided to trust him. I was surprised to find the battle saddle fit me well and that putting it on was a relatively easy task. There was a small switch you could nudge with your foreleg to flip the firing bit into place. I did have to adjust the firing bit, which was placed low so that a griffon could use those grabby things it has, but otherwise it fit perfectly.
After a moment of fiddling with the battle saddle, I followed after the waiting unicorn. I followed more from fear of his willingness to cause me pain than my own willingness to leave. Here I could pretend I couldn’t hurt ponies and that there was no world outside the shack. Outside, I was forced to acknowledge the pain I caused those around me. Could Nocturne have been right? Did the destruction of this town stop because of me? Or was it caused because I was here in the first place? How do you shoulder blame like that?
Saint lead me outside and through a small alleyway. After exiting into the main road that lead through the center of town I was able to see what the ponies of hoofprint had been up to. Instead of spending time to rebuild the homes that had been lost, they had put most of their time and energy into fortifying the scrap wall that surrounded the whole town. Small towers with armored roofs had been added to defend from aerial assault. As a result, the few homes that were still standing had been repaired with as little material as possible, ranging from old street signs to flats of cardboard with rocks holding them in place.
Most of the ponies were still hard at work, moving supplies and preparing for another attack from the raiders. A few had gathered around the center of town along with the ponies in fancy hats. I noticed that two of the tall hat ponies were different. A pang of guilt shot through my chest as I concluded that the originals had died in the attack. There were five all together. There was Nocturne and Star, then there was the grumpy one from earlier with the Tart pink coat and yellow mane. The first of the new faces was a stone gray Stallion that didn’t seem to care much for what was happening. He was wearing what I could now recognize as a construction forepony’s hat and an armored tool saddle. The last pony and the other new face was a scrawny sand colored unicorn mare with glasses too big for her snout, she was trying her best to keep her short cut seafoam green mane out of her face.
Saint stopped just before the five fancy hats and motioned for me to step forward. The Tart Pink pony began before I was even finished stepping forward. “Great, you’re here. Listen up! I only say things once. I am Sour.” She definitely sounded like it. “I am the Mayor of Hoofprint, the town where we leave our mark. This is Nocturne Eclipse, Social Relations and head of community projects.” Nocturne, with whom I was already familiar, nodded her head with the composure I had become familiar with. “This is Star Tumbler, formal criminal and head of Security and defense.”
“Howdy!” Barked the pegasus. She tipped her star pointed hat up with one wing and gave me a surprisingly cheery smile. Hadn’t I caused her a lot of trouble?
“To my left is Cold Stone, head of construction and labors.” The stone gray stallion barely moved; Instead he just made eye contact with me with a blank stare. Terrifyingly empty eye contact. I was snapped out of it when Sour mentioned the next pony. “Lastly we have Tally. She’s in charge of markets, supplies, and Caravans.” Tally blew some mane out of her face and stammered out a hello. She was holding a clipboard in her foreleg and writing things down with a pen held in her magical grasp. “You, Hydra, A.K.A. , Adstrum, will be working directly for us in order to pay off your debt to the ponies of Hoofprint. In Certain cases you may be handed over to the authority of our trade neighbors in order to fulfill your obligations and as such will obey the designated representative during that time. We have assigned Saint here to be your keeper, judge, and if need be executioner until such time that our council has determined that your debts are paid.”
Sour pulled out a flimsy piece of paper with a drawing of the mare from yesterday. I still couldn’t recall her name, even though she seemed to know me well. “This is The Phoenix. One of the 4 great Raider warlords of our time. She is currently in control of the western mountains. If you kill her in her camp nearby, you will gain the respect of this council. This will also go some way to paint you in a new light for the ponies here in hoof print. Don’t expect them to like you. They barely tolerate you to begin with.”
I nodded, understanding the gravity of what I was being told to do. She wanted me to march into The Phoenix’s camp by myself and take her and her remaining raiders down single hooved to prevent a second attack on Hoofprint. It didn’t matter if I died or was taken hostage. Judging by the completion of the towers and additional defenses, they were using me to reduce her active resources or at least disway her from attacking again immediately. “ I take it you’ll be sending me in by myself.”
Sour rolled her eyes. “I wish, you’re hardly worth it. No, you’ll have Saint with you to make sure you don’t defect. He’s a valuable resource so don’t get him killed. You will also have Turnpenny, one of the wall guards. He will be carrying supplies and gear. Turnpenny will meet you at the gates.” With that the Mayor simply turned and walked away. She seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere else.
“We’ve taken great care to make sure that you are supplied correctly, Prisoner.” Piped up Tally as she stepped forward to be seen. “The camp is two days by hoof, only a few hours by wing. We suspect she did this on purpose to minimize the risk of attacking us. You will have three days of food and water. 2 Fuel canisters for your flame thrower and two tents. We advise not starting a fire at night.”
“Three days of food? Aren’t we going to need four days?” I was probing to see if my suspicions were correct. If they were expecting me to go down I wouldn’t need to eat on the way back for sure. I would likely be out for a while as I healed. That would give me 1 meal and then when I go down, Saint and Turnpenny get what I didn’t eat. I would show them! I was going to eat all of it at once. That way they have to starve too!
Tally prodded her clipboard pointing at some detail. “I-I thought it was pretty generous. With all the food that was taken or burned from the attack, I had to scrape just to get this.” Tally’s ears flopped down and she adjusted her glasses as she looked back up. I hadn’t thought about that. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that the raiders had actually raided their supplies.
Before I could say anything, Saint began pushing me towards the gate. “Don’t you worry about it Tally. He’s just a raider. All he wants is more.”
“What? No, that’s not what I meant!” I said over my back as I was lead towards the gate. Saint quickly shut me up with a dark glare and the threat of the detonator that he was now levitating in a taunting manner. What in The Ancestors’ forgotten names is this guy’s problem? Is he trying to make sure I don’t make any friends? I was starting to think he wanted more ponies to hate me too. I guess he and the majority of the wasteland wasn’t enough!
Either way it was too late, I had caused more damage. Tally didn’t even seem to hear me as she walked away, looking quite dejected. Somehow I hurt her feelings in a bigger way than I had thought. I didn’t even know her and I felt guilty. I resolved to make it up to her somehow. Maybe I could get the supplies back from the raiders?
With that last thought Text floated across my vision through the E.F.S..
‘FIRE SAFETY’
Kill “The Phoenix”
[Optional] Secure stolen supplies for Hoofprint.
To say I was confused would be to say the least. The weird text left me distracted enough for saint to push me halfway to the gate. After that I decided to ignore the text and that it would be best to start walking and not to give Saint such a hard time for now… that would come later.
Arriving at the gate I was able to see the guards-pony Turnpenny struggling with a Long-haul saddle bag, which had larger than usual bags and a large container strapped on top for additional storage. The saddle he wore left no room for weapons to be stowed on his less than average frame. We were close enough that I was finally able to make out details of this ill-tempered pony. First, he was quite young, probably in his late teens or early twenties. He had a dirty green coat and a military cut grey mane. His cutiemark was of a single upturned cap laying on top of a shiny golden bit.
“Oh Saint, good you’re here. Can you carry my rifle for me? For the life of me I can’t get it slung in here. Tally loaded me up with so much extra crap that I can’t fit it in.” He said as he noticed us walking towards him. “Why does she have me carrying this dumbass thing?”
Saint levitated, Turnpenny’s rifle up off of the ground, slinging it into a pocket inside of his jacket. “Because it would hinder our combat capability. And as much as I hate to admit it, the Hydra is leaps and bound over you. So having him carry everything would be a serious detriment.” I wasn’t enjoying him calling me Hydra. That’s not who I wanted to be.
“Well what about you? I’m about as good with a rifle as you are with a pistol?” He asked, sounding a little offended.
Saint walked past him as the gates began to lift. “Oh me? No no no. I just didn’t want to carry stuff.” He got this smug look on his face as he magically shifted his bandoliers. These two were obviously close.
“WHAT!?! That’s all it took?” Turnpenny began following behind, with me taking up the rear. “All you had to do was say you didn’t want to carry anything? I’m calling shenanigans! There is some serious favoritism going on here.”
Traveling with adult ponies was a lot different than traveling with the foals. For one, conversation only came up when it was important, second they were very quiet even when talking. The older ponies seem to have an innate paranoia about their surrounds when they’re outside of the wall. I suppose I could understand given the nature of the creature I encountered back at the NSCDC. I feel like killing a Hellhound would be a feat for most ponies.
We had travelled west, the opposite direction of the NSCDC, for about half a day before needing to stop to eat. My PipBuck said it was 3pm but, the heavy overcast that was ever present in the wasteland failed to show it. It seemed to be the same dim gray out as it always was. Saint pulled a pack off of Turnpenny and set it down by a cluster of dead trees we had stopped by. “Okay, everypony, we’re stopping for food and water.” He said, opening up the saddlebag with his magic and pulling out three water bottles with a milky brown substance in it. He levitate one over to me while Turnpenny took the time to pull off his Long-haul Saddlebags. “Drink up.”
Wait! This was the water? I pulled off the lid and sniffed it. It smelled like mud. I had to speak up, this wasn’t healthy “This can’t be right. Is this what everypony has been reduced to back in town?” I didn’t recall them giving me dirty water while locked up in the shack.
Saint shook his head. “I’m surprised that as a raider you even care about drinking dirty water. No, the towns ponies are still drinking from our freshwater supplies. This is what is left of our rations.”
I wasn’t going to stand for this, or his attitude. “Now hold on. Maybe I was the Hydra at one point, but I’m not now. That being said, give me your water bottles.” I had an idea. Really it seemed to come from no where but it was a very familiar concept.
Turnpenny looked shocked and became defensive immediately. “What? No, I don’t care if it’s dirty water, you’re not getting mine.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, Saint?” I didn’t want to bother arguing with anypony. I was more concerned with the results of what I had planned than with who participated. Saint just shook his head and gave me a suspicious glare. I could only imagine he was getting ready to pull out that detonator. “Fine. Just me then.” I sighed and pulled out two tin cups from the saddle bags that had been set off to the side, along with one of the orange pouches I could now Identify as rad away.
Immediately, Saint relaxed and shook his head. “That’s gonna to taste nasty.”
I couldn’t help but smirk as I scooped up some rocks and dried grass. “It’s going to taste fine.” I poured the mucky, irradiated water into a tin cup and began plopping rock after rock into my bottle. Then I started putting in the dead grass. After that I poured in some of the rad-away, not much just enough for the stones and grass to be coated in it. I put the cap on and gave it a good shake before moving on. After that it was just a matter of finding fine cloth and something to cut with. I tied on the cloth and opened up the back of the bottle. I showed off my invention to the other two before pouring the murky water into the upturned bottle and letting the water filter down into the empty tin cup. “Clean water!” I announced after pouring the dirty water into the back of the bottle. After a few seconds, crystal clear and radiation free water poured into the empty Tin cup.
Turnpenny looked astounded. “Wait, you could have done that this whole time?!” I simply nodded. “ You could have done that and you didn’t tell us? I already drank my nasty water!” He threw his empty water bottle at me, making harmless grumbling noises.
I smiled, barely able to contain my smugness. “I offered.” I happily drank my clean water.
Saint spoke up, keeping a slightly frustrated tone. “We still have no reason to trust you, Hyrda. You can hardly blame us for not hoofing over our only water supply.” He finished up his own dirty water and stuffed the bottle back into the saddle bags. “Besides, you wasted a bottle.”
No one felt like talking after that. We ate the meager food we were given and got back on the road. The whole trip, we moved as close as possible to ancient wrecks or the ruins of an old town in an attempt to hide from the rare scout flying above us. It really made me think, how the stars are we supposed to fight all of those flying enemies? Of course, every time I thought about it I recalled what I had done in town, consumed by rage and ripping off wings like they were paper. Of course that made me think of that memory that had returned to me. I wanted to meet my little brother… was he still alive?
I was never able to be lost in my thoughts for long though, as Saint and Turnpenny would prod me to keep moving as soon as the danger had passed.
We spent the night holed up in a pre-war restaurant, choosing to feed off of some preserved pastries we found in a box. They were small doughy balls that were coated like those doughnut things you might find on the rare occasion. The label on the package was faded but read “Fizz Bites! Energy you can bite!” There was a picture of a purple unicorn in a lab coat popping one into her mouth.
These things were awesome! We had energy to spare! I had to stash some of these for later. I think we put like 10 little packages into the Long-haul Saddle bags and then I stashed three big packages in my own bags. We actively began swapping watch shifts every 15 minutes primarily out of boredom.
Day break couldn’t come quick enough. As soon as light began filtering through the thick cloud layer we decided it had been long enough, we were all rested enough to finish the job. I was so hyped up on the Fizz Bites I had forgotten that I never actually rested. It didn’t matter though, it was time to move on! Besides, the others had probably rested plenty.
After some short, and admittedly sporadic, deliberation we decided running would be the best method to travel the rest of the way.
It wasn’t much time after, that we came across our goal. A circle of tents and metal spikes complete with the usual raider decorations of dead bodies and pony skulls to ward off passing travelers and scavengers. “That’s it…” I said in almost a whisper.
“Yeah, quickly, in here.” Saint began, waving us into the cover of a large stone that jutted out from the hills that made up this section of the world. “It looks strangely fortified for a raider camp. I guess that comes with the territory of a raider warlord.”
I shook my head as I crawled in after him, my large frame making it a very tight fit. “No I meant that’s why we did it. The spikes and bodies.” I saw the strange look in my keeper’s eyes. He was trying to figure out what was going through my head. “It started as a way to get ponies to leave us alone. It was supposed to just scare ponies away. Call it, a threat to the world. ‘Just leave us alone’.” I wriggled a hoof free and pointed at the camp. “These aren’t set up for that. It’s all wrong.”
Turnpenny looked about to barf. “No one wants to hear your critique of raider art, Hydra. That’s disgusting.”
My Ears flopped down, I wasn’t getting through to these boneheads. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. When I was at the Sparkle Cola place I saw what the Hydra had put up and remember thinking that more could have been done with the spikes. Maybe that’s raider talk but what’s going on over there looks nothing like it. Look at how the bodies are placed on the spikes.” I heard Turnpenny’s stomach turn. “Raider’s take a certain pride in their work because they master the art of scaring ponies away. These were made with absolutely no care for the practice. One body per spike and no mutilation.”
Saint put his hoof over my mouth. “Okay, we get it, these raiders are low on skill with dead body art. What does that have to do with anything? Just spit it out, neither of us want to look at that mess.”
“My point… is that they don’t care about being raiders. I don’t think they want to be raiders.” I stated, tieing my assesment together. It all made sense, these guys weren’t true raiders otherwise they would be more enthusiastic about keeping ponies away and would thus take more pride in their raider art. They only cared just enough to keep up the appearance of caring, I assumed to keep someone in charge happy.
“What?!” Asked Turnpenny in a breath.
Saint shoved me slightly. “No, you’re mental. Raiders are all mental!”
I pushed my way out of the hiding spot. I groaned in frustration. “Give me a chance I can handle this. It’s just like Dimethyl Carbonyl on Cyanoacrylates.” I looked back for approval from the pony holding my kill-switch only to see bafflement across their faces.
“Was that Zebra?” Asked Saint. “I mean, dye-metal carble-whatever.”
“Die-meth-ill Carb-o-nill and no it’s not Zebra.” I sighed, trying to simplify my strange knowledge of chemicals. “Uuuhhh, Acetone on an epoxy resin?” No dice, they were still confused. What did these chemicals make? “Oh! Oh… Paint thinner and super glue?”
“Oh! Oh oh oh oh….. No I don’t get it. How is this like removing glue?” Turnpenny looked to Saint for answers, who just shrugged. These two were useless outside of a gunfight. It figures, the guy who controls the button that makes my head explode is a thick brick of a buck just like Turnpenny. Maybe I was a Raider, maybe this is why…
I shook my head and turned towards the camp. “It’s not about removing the glue. It’s about applying a solvent to solute. Just… Just trust me. I know you don’t have any reason to, but you have that button. Just use it if I’m wrong, okay?” I looked to Saint, praying to the ancestors that he would go along. I could tell he was seriously considering it.
Saint shifted, in the now spacious hide away under the rocks, and pulled out the detonator. “Look, you’ve behaved up till now and I haven’t even need to threaten you. But you listen here, if I get even the slightest thought in my brain that you’re going to betray us…” He left the sentence hanging, choosing to wiggle the detonator instead.
I nodded, feeling my body tense at the threat. I had survived the tree branch to my head, I could regrow my legs but… Would I really survive the bomb collar? They thought so, but how could I be sure? If this worked out I wouldn’t need to know.
I adjusted the hoof-me-down barding I was using and readied the battle-saddle, making sure every switch was ready for use. Turnpenny pulled out the two fuel Canisters Tally had promised me and fitted them into my saddle, ready to be used at a moments notice. “Good luck.” Turnpenny, dashed under the rocks as soon as the canisters were secured. Good thing he did, It was only a few minutes after I had started toward the camp that an aerial scout spotted me and began to dive.
The scout was out for blood, if I wanted this to go correctly I would have to rely on my instincts… sickeningly, raider instincts. Stars I’ve got mixed emotions about all of this. I Puffed out my chest, braced my hind legs and stared directly up at the diving Gryphon. I called upon the first thing to pop into my head and commanded. “PARLEY!”
Flames, that were licking the barrel of the Gryphon’s flamer quickly died down. In a loud clanging of metal on metal, the Gryphon slammed into the ground in front of me. She looked directly into my eyes from behind a helmet of crudely bent metal, searching for weakness. From here, I could see something that I wasn’t able to during the attack. The armor the scout was wearing was designed and made to fit to a pattern, with random useless bits thrown on to make it look like Raider Patch-work. Everything a raider should be wearing was useful. This was just slapped on junk over well crafted armor. I was right! These gryphons were not raiders, but were trying to keep up the appearance of being so. “What did you say?!” She sounded angry, possibly murderous. If nothing else, she had the voice of a raider.
“I said. Parley!” I wanted to add more but couldn’t bring myself to speak further. Although slightly smaller than myself, this gryphon was imposing and carried with her all of air of carnivore. It was everything I could do to stop myself from shaking. Everything was easier when fighting. I didn’t hesitate or shake back in hoofprint. Why was this different?
There was a moment of silence between us. I could hear the dust in the air swirling about. The Gryphon whipped her helmet off, revealing a Hawk like face with blood colored paint spackled on the feathers around her beak and a single singed feather bobbing down to rest ever so slightly in front of her left eye. “What the hell are you doing Pem!? Your cool, your dead, you’re alive, you’re PROTECTING ponies?!” She motioned wildly in the direction of Hoofprint. “Now…. NOW! You’re here just.. Ugh” She sat back on her hind legs with a talon in her face.
I couldn’t help it, I staggered back. I quickly glanced over at the rocks for support from the others. I chastised myself and quickly turned back to the gryphon before she could take her talon away from her face.
The stressed out Gryphon dragged her palm over her face before looking back to me. Listen, you can’t be doing this. And what the star blasted hells are you wearing? Where’s your… you know?” She made a vague gesture around her head. “Don’t you need that thing?”
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” It left my mouth before I could think about it. I decided to roll with it, I can’t back down now. I had her talking to me instead of shooting. Good steps!
The Gryphon looked shocked, hurt even. She quickly returned to her normal demeanor, cocking her head to one side and twirling her loose feather in one talon “Oh shit, you’re on Moon Dust aren’t you? I thought you hated that stuff.” She perked up in realization. “No! That’s why you were in the pony town! After that bitch blew up your family you went to town to hit up a new drug dealer!” She opened up her arms and looked at me. “Do you need a hug, Pemandu?”
There was a moment of awkward silence as I studied this ‘vicious’ raider, looking for some reason to say no. Do raiders hug? I mean she wasn’t a raider really… I had figured that out… I think.
She began waddling on her hind legs towards me. “Come on, shit face. Give Auntie Hilde some sugar.” Before I could think clearly, this already bizarre, interaction went straight into a hug. My head resting on some coiled wires that had been stapled to her metal armor as she gently stroked my mane. “It’s okay to cry my little space cadet. I won’t tell the others.”
I stuttered, still stunned by what was happening. I was expecting to be a prisoner not a teddy bear. “I, uh… I don’t need to cry?” I didn’t, really I didn’t.
“Oh, oh oh. There there now. Family is the most important thing to you. You can’t hide behind that brave face forever.” Her raspy voice hit something in the back of my mind and I felt a pit in my stomach, and a knot in my throat.
oooOOOooo
My bare hoof slapped wetly over his, the rain causing the blood to run from my wounds down to his foreleg. He was looking up at me, dangling over the side of the collapsing floor. “You came? For me?” He asked, fear and hope in his eyes.
Sure he had hurt everyone, stolen from the stash, tried to make it on his own but he had held us all together at the worst of times. He was close, like a brother, and actually cared about what you said, even ‘Crazy’ Crab Cakes. “You idiot.” I pulled him up threw him to the safe side of the building; heavy Caged armor, minigun, and all. The rain beat down around us as I looked at Buck who had gotten too big for his horseshoes. “Family is the most important thing in this world. I’ll be damned if you’re not my brother. How could I not drop everything to stop you from getting yourself killed?” He hung his head, looking up at me from the one eye he had left. “Come home Shrapnel. We miss you.”
oooOOOooo
Suddenly it all hurt again. How had I forgotten Shrapnel? Was he dead? I found my face buried into Hilde’s shoulder. What was this? Were these more memories? Oh stars why did it hurt? Somehow I felt this stallion was lost to me now, my own adopted brother. I had adopted him, and he was gone.
Hilde patted my back as my chest heaved and tears ran from my eyes. “Hey, that’s my big guy. No one can take losing that much all at once. I don’t care how tough you are.” She was right, I could feel the loss of so many welling up inside of me… The only one I could remember was Shrapnel. It was a deep hurt, a pain with no real aim or source. It was like I was weeping for having been cursed to live on while your whole world is ripped away. I felt lost, alone, betrayed, and longing all at the same time. All of this and with only one of those lost having returned to my memory.
For a while, all I could do was cry for the lost I didn’t know, and grieve for the love I didn’t know I once had. All the while being comforted by a stranger who knew me more than I knew myself. Eventually I calmed down and was able to regain my composure. After pulling away from Hilde, I was able to look at her without shaking. A certain fondness having been remembered without any real memories to attach them to. “Thanks.” I said, my throat hoarse. “I guess I needed that.” With my mind still reeling from the memories of Shrapnel and the repercussions of what had just happened I was barely able to keep from telling her I couldn’t remember who she was. I didn’t want to remember being the Hydra. Part of me was still in denial that I had done any of what the Hydra did.
Hilde fluffed her wings, a purely griffon mannerism, and placed a talon on my shoulder. “Hey don’t mention it. The way I see it I owe you much more than a good cry. Listen, we’re going to get the bitch that did it okay? Promise. Speaking of, we could use your help right now…”
I decided to ignore her promise for now. “Wait, my help? Weren’t you just about to kill me?”
“Oh absolutely! But you got in that parely like I was hoping you would. Way to wait until the last minute the buddy.” She turned for the gate and began walking. It took me a minute to get myself moving but I trotted along after her. “After you killed Caldus back in town, our contract has been in dispute. The Phoenix has been breaking her own back to try and get us to stick around. As the leader of our particular flock, Caldus’ contract is what was holding us here. She’s been speaking with his successor to convince him to uphold the contract. Now I say speaking, but it’s more like a tantrum.”
I nodded to show I was listening as she spoke. “Okay… yeah I guess that makes sense. A question for you though?” Hilde looked back to me nodding. “Who was Caldus again? I’m sure I killed a few gryphons back there.”
Hilde looked offended for all of a s second before laughing at me. “The moon dust still wearing off? Caldus is the guy you took the sword from. The big guy who’s neck you snapped. And don’t worry, most of the guys you mutilated were Caldus’ boys. They were really into the whole raider thing… No offense to you, that’s not what most of us like.”
There was a moment where I was considering being offended but decided to let it go. “That’s fine. I can see your situation. I was able to tell you didn’t like being raiders from the spikes out front.”
Hilde laughed loudly. “Was it that obvious? We tried our best, honest.”
Admittedly I laughed back, though it was mostly out of nervousness for what I was walking into. “So what did you need my help with? I still don’t see how I am able to help here?”
“Oh that’s an easy one. I want you to kill The Phoenix.” She said in absolute confidence.
I froze on the spot, dumbstruck. “What!?”
Hilde petrified at my question, quickly animating in a nervous fashion a she turned back to me. “Look, hey. Sorry I know you just called a parley. Raider pride and the rules and stuff but. If you kill her you assume ownership of her end of the contract. Then you can let us go! Caldus’s successor wants to go clean. A full on mercenary company! C’mon please?!” She was practically whining at this point.
It was too perfect, it was the perfect opportunity to prove Saint wrong. Of course, this particular gryphon was actually happy to see me… unlike everyone back in hoofprint. Maybe I can find a way to just leave with them? I had to admit, being loved by a gryphon I didn’t know was better than being hated by a whole town and being their slave. Besides, she actually knew me as more than the Hydra. “Okay fine, but you’ve gotta do something for me.”
“Anything for you, Pemandu! You name it.” She responded, not wasting a second.
Pemandu? Wait she called me that earlier. Was that my real name? That was a Zebra word, what did it stand for again? “I can’t make it look like I did it on purpose. Also, you need to take me with you.” She looked confused, but nodded. “I have a plan.”
After Explaining my plan in short, we made our way into the camp. Apparently, under the rules of Parley I was to approach the leader of the camp unarmed. The meeting would be held in view of the whole camp. If she broke the rule of Parley her next in line would have full right to kill her and take her place as Warlord. While meeting, neither of us would be allowed to harm the other.
We walked into the center of the camp, Hilde acting as a guard with a captive. Most of the camp was rather abandoned, every-creature gathering around the spectacle in front of the largest tent. Once we were close enough for members of the crowd to notice, a path was cleared for us to enter into the wide circle of gryphons and the occasional pony raider. There in the center of the circle stood a many-times-repaired pony table with a document unrolled on it, weighed down with stones.
On one side was a very young female gryphon, who had obviously not grown into her armor yet. Her head barely popped out of the chest piece she was wearing. She had a twitchy claw poised overtop of a finely tuned combat shotgun. On the other side stood The Phoenix, Looking at me with a mix of awe and contempt.
This is time I was able to get a good look at The Phoenix. She wasn’t wearing any armor but kept her battle saddle on. Her coat was at one point a cheery bright yellow but had long been tainted by the ravages of the wasteland. She had various patches of burnt skin, scarring from blade wounds, tribal markings running from her right ear down to her neck, and various paints that appeared to denote some form of high rank. Her right ear was missing, almost entirely, but the other one had survived the wasteland with nothing more than a few holes from near misses. When she spoke, using a calm tone unlike before, she sounded raspy and tired.
“Hydra? What the fuck are you doing here? I literally just swore eternal vengeance on you and claimed your land. Shouldn’t you be... “ She waved her hoof around in thought. “I dunno, raising some kind of army?”
I swallowed, preparing myself to weave together a web of lies so complicated that discord himself would be unable to unweave them. “I… surrender.” I stated puffing out my chest. I started sweating just a bit.
The Phoenix gave my a look of confused skepticism. “What?” Ha! I had nailed it I am a master at lying!
“I surrender. As a show of good faith, I’m going to reveal the location of two ponies who are planning an attack on your camp.” I spoke with a little more confidence, knowing that she had totally bought the whole surrender thing.
“Two of them…?” She asked, one eyebrow raised. I nodded in agreement. “Against my whole camp?” I nodded again, letting her know I was serious. “TWO, ponies against a small army of 27 Gryphons 15 of my personal pony guard, AND me, the raider warlord?” I nodded again, this time feeling a little doubt hearing the ridiculous odds I had just presented.
I let my ears flop down a little bit before I spoke up. “They are very confident that they will win? I mean, they originally sent me in here thinking I was going to fight for them and take out most of you if not all of you.” No wait, that was the truth… shit… roll with it? “Then I was like, ‘pfft like I wouldn’t just side back with more raiders’ Hahaha. You know? I mean I could become like your um..” I waved my hoof around trying to think of a word. “Your uh-”
The Phoenix smiled, some idea popping into her head, before interrupting. “-My Lieutenant! Oh hell yes… that’s a good idea. Together we could raise Tartarus.” She trotted up to me, swaying her head back and forth as she spoke in sing-song. “Oh what a wonderful couple we could be!” She stopped in front of me. I could smell the ash and soot that coated her mane so clearly that my nostrils burned. On her breath was a heavy dose of Chariserol. She was hopped up on Dash? I had to fight to keep myself from spouting that nonsense I say whenever I identify a chemical. “Okay. My Dear. Sweet. Hydra.” She sing-songed, lifting my chin up with a confident smile. “You point out those fuckers on the map and while my scouts go and get them… we can get more, acquainted.” She lifted up my leg for me to access my pip buck.
It only took me a moment to pull up the map, now that I knew how to, and for her to send off Hilde and a few other gryphons. I thought out a prayer that she could convince them of the plan. None of this would work if Saint was dead. Of course, While I had been focussed on that I had failed to realize what she had meant by ‘acquainted’. I was quickly pulled into the large tent and pointed towards a makeshift bed. I felt a certain tightness in my armor, then a sick feeling in my gut. The Phoenix hopped up onto her bed after dropping her weapons and then taking a quick hit of Dash.
“Uh, Phoenix… I.” I began.
She threw the Dash inhaler off to the side and put herself into a seductive pose. “Fuck that phoenix shit. Call me Flash Fire. She jingled some dog tags that hung around her neck. Our warlord babies are going to need to know their mommy’s name right?” She let out a honking sound that I assumed was a chuckle. Her lungs had clearly been destroyed by the frequent inhalation of smoke. I didn’t think the Dash was helping.
I hesitated, taking my time to unfasten the little access flat in the underside of my armor, where you could still see the blue suit the armor was layered over top of. “Right, Flash Fire. Do you really think that-”
“Fuck thinking. Put your Cock in me at shoot me full of vicious successors! That’s an order lieutenant!” She turned over and lifted her rump in the air. Oh shit, she was presenting!
Little adstrum was so excited that he didn’t need me to unbutton the whole thing. The whole rest of me was feeling closer to vomiting. All I could think about was the comment she had made back in Hoofprint about her encounters with foals. The only thing that drove me to get over top of her was the knowledge that it would be over rather soon.
Of course, even with the knowledge that Flash Fire was going to be dead soon, my disgust with what I was doing grew with each thrust. With each moan of pleasure I prayed for Saint to do what I knew he wanted to do. What I knew he would do with even the slightest excuse.
The bomb collar hidden in my armor beeped. I stopped thrusting, bending down to wrap my fore-legs around her midsection. I buried my face into her disgusting black mane, smelling for the last time her particular blend of soot and ash. “I’m gunna…” I wanted to say ‘kill you you sick fuck’ but I didn’t get the chance.
Flash Fire arched her back, shouting in ecstacy. “Yes! Fill me up! I want you-” And then there was silence. At least from my perspective. I’m sure it was loud. I’m sure it was a mess.
The bomb collar detonated and the last memory I had before blacking out was of Hilde saying my name.
“Pemandu…” That was a Zebra word. What did it mean again?
Quest Perk Added: Loyal Shadow - You’ve gained a friend in the wasteland who has sworn to watch your back. You have a 10% chance of your mysterious friend appearing to help you in times of need.
Footnote: Level up!
Footnote: Level 5
Perk Added: Coltsanova - You gain additional damage against female targets. “You go for the Mares”
[Optional] Secure stolen supplies for Hoofprint. [compete]
Return to Tally
Those words floated in my vision as I felt my eyes swell back into their sockets. The fun part about blowing your own head up is that when you get it back, your brain comes first, so you feel everything else come back in excruciatingly painful detail. I’ve been feeling the most fucked up sensations of bone regrowing and new teeth pushing back into place over the past few hours. Not to mention the burning-stinging sensation of my skin crawling back over my skull and muscles. Imagine every part of your face head and lower neck, all moving around and fighting to get back into their correct places all at once. Or better yet, thousands of little slugs and beetles crawling around under your skin as your actual skin moves around of its own volition agitating the beetles so that they are always biting you. That’ll get you close.
UGH! Note to self, use head explosions as a last resort.
As my sight returned, I looked past my semi-skeletal snout to see the ground meandering past me. Great I was moving? Was I too heavy for the gryphons to fly? I was awfully close to the ground. Sadly I was unable to look around as the nerves connecting my head to my neck hadn’t finished growing back. I couldn’t even feel the rest of my body. I was certain my body was still there though, my front hooves were dangling limply in front of me. Being useless for the time being, I just spent my time wondering where we were going, and wishing to all that was good that I would soon be able to blink. Itchy Itchy eyes.
It was only about an hour or so later (I was able to tell thanks to the clock on my E.F.S.) that i began hearing a strained ringing followed shortly by an ear splitting pop that sent pain ricocheting through my skull. And then, oh the gift of sound.
“-Believe it. He play you like a fiddle but… I’ll be made glue if he didn’t save the whole town by doing it.” Came Turnpenny’s voice as he mused over what had happened. Oh shit, why did these guys have my body? That damned Hilde, when I get my hooves on her. She promised!
Saint made a grunting noise before speaking. “No. We played ourselves like fiddles.” His voice was closer, so I assumed he was the one carrying me.
Turnpenny snorted. “You can’t turn that phrase that way. It just doesn’t have the impact you were hoping for.” “Shut up, would ya? He was betting that we still hated him so that he could save our hides.” Saint sighed through his nostrils. “Can’t believe I couldn’t see what Gadgette saw in him until I blew his damned head off. A little loss too late I guess.”
Turnpenny laughed. It wasn’t a happy laugh, but a laugh that shrugged off a deep kind of pain. “You sound just like her you know? She always said that when she couldn’t save somepony.”
“Yeah.” There was a long pause before Saint spoke again. “Do-do you know why?”
“No, for all the time We spent together I didn’t know her all that well. I just drove the wagon, and sat in market places.” Turnpenny sounded regretful, maybe even mournful.
Saint cleared his throat, sounding like he was fighting back tears. “She believed that the only reason ponies killed each other is because they lost something dear to them.” He sniffled for a good few minutes. “She believed that loss was the only true evil out there. That everyone was good on the inside.”
I saw saddlebag come into view and a single foreleg break stride to wrap over Saint’s neck. “You couldn’t have known Saint. None of us believed that like she did. What pony in their right mind would assume that a Raider Warlord would also be kind at heart? You just did what you thought was right.” There was some more sniffling from saint and then short bursts of sobbing.
Was this for real? Saint was crying over trying to kill me? ME? I thought he hated my guts. To be honest though, what he said sounded very familiar. I couldn’t put my hoof on where I had heard it before though.
At this point I began feeling static-like stinging began to crawl from my neck down to me reaer hooves. After a few more minutes I felt my chest pound once, then twice, leading into a slow crawl as my body returned to life, pushing partially coagulated blood through my veins. This too was very painful as I went through several heart attacks before all of my blood was replaced. My ragged lungs began filling with oxygen, forcing me to cough up debris that had entered my lungs after my head was removed.
Chunks of flesh, solidified blood, and soot-covered pony hair flew out of me as I hacked. “Oh shit! He’s back! Om dear Bits and Bottle Caps his head is back too!” Turnpenny sounded absolutely shocked. What was he expecting, that I would just come back headless?
“Right, Lets get him on his hooves.” Saint said as he lowered himself down so I could touch the ground.
With my hooves firmly planted on soil, my body was eager to throw the rest of me on the ground as though it had forgotten the sensation of touching dirt. I curled up, coughing up my newly revitalized lungs. “Oh stars.” I growled, needing water so badly that I sounded like a chain-smoking ghoul that had just woken up. I resolved to not speak until I had water and the coughing was over. Each syllable was like a rusted knife be dragged down my throat.
To my honest surprise I found a tin cup being pressed to my lips and cool water trying to find its way into my mouth. I drank heavily from the cup, which admittedly made my coughing worse at first. However, I was soon able to bring myself to coughing lightly every minute or so. Looking around, I found the cup was being levitated by Saint. There were two empty water bottles laying on the ground next to the small filter I had invented the other day.
By the time I was able to sit up right, the only thing I could bring myself to say was; “Why?” Why were they caring for me? They hated me just a few hours ago.
Saint smiled slightly and pointed to Turnpenny. I look to the Wall-Guard to see that he had hitched a wagon full of supplies to his Long-haul Saddle Bags. Not only was the wagon filled with more supplies than was taken, but his saddle bags had been filled to bursting. “I should apologize, Adstrum.” Saint began. Wait, he isn't calling me Hydra? “I forgot something a good friend once told me and gave into my losses. I still hate you, but I won’t let that cloud my judgment anymore.” He pulled one hoof through his bone white mane, slicking it back. “I forgot to see past your loss like she did for me, and I’m sure she did for you.” He turned away tossing me the detonator for the collar I once had. “I’m sure you can walk, hold on to that for me will you?”
Turnpenny smiled, glancing to Saint before looking back to me. “That Gryphon told us everything. She left you a letter.” He pointed to my saddle bags which were still firmly attached to my barding. “Don’t let Saint fool you. That stunt you did made him feel differently about you. He values ponies, er… and Zebras that are willing to stick their own necks out to help innocent ponies. So yeah… Thanks for sacrificing yourself like that.” He hurried himself to catch up to Saint who had already made some distance.
I had a strange numb feeling go through my body as I thought about that. Some of the pieces weren’t fitting. I didn’t do that to help them… did I? I thought I was trying to escape. I pulled out the letter from my pack and turned it over. It was inside of an envelope, with the doodle of a happy gryphon on the front. I looked down at the detonator on the ground and then back the way we had come. I could leave right now. I could run, and they would never catch me.
I looked back to the pair of ponies walking away. Maybe I didn’t need to? I looked back down at the letter for a moment, before picking up the detonator and trotting quickly to catch up as well. I don’t know why but, I felt like I had just been standing on a precipice of an endless pit and was pulled to safety. I had the strangest sensation that it was with a harness and winch. To be honest, I actually had no idea what a winch was. I chose not to think about it.
The rest of the walk was uneventful, though we took more rest stops than on the way out. A pleasant change was that we got to talk. It wasn’t much more than talking about how far we had to go still and what we could eat during our next meal, but it was talking. Real talking, like they listened to what I said and then replied with an opinion! It reminded me of talking with the foals when we went to the NSCDC. Less bickering.
Is this what having friends was like? Were they my friends? I suppose I still had to sort that out. I often times found myself drifting off during conversation to think about Shrapnel. He was something more than a friend. I kept wondering if I had talked to him like I did with these two ponies right now. Would these ponies end up being as close to me as he was?
So many questions and all of them made my head hurt. Made my heart hurt. There was a lot of pain in my chest, and it wasn’t from the harsh realities of resurrection. Whatever it was, I wanted it to stop. Maybe I could find a solution back in hoofprint.
We arrived back in town a day and a half later at the dull light of dusk. A very happy pegasus waived to us with a hat in her hoof from over the wall. “Yeehaw! Open the gate!!” She shouted before leaping over the wall and gliding down to tackle Turnpenny into an ‘intimate’ hug, much to Turnpenny’s displeasure. He kept trying to avoid randomly placed kisses as he shouted something about ‘why him?’.
Sure enough, just after Saint magically pried Star Tumbler from our companion, the large scrap metal gates began to groan as they swung open. There, waiting for us she did when I first arrived to town was Nocturne Eclipse, looking as proud as ever in her neatly pressed Dark Blue suit. She greeted us as we approached. “I suppose I should thank you all for a job well done. Welcome home Saint, Turnpenny.” She nodded to each of them in turn, seeming to forget I was there at all. She turned around and began leading us into town with our haul.
A large group of ponies rushed out to meet us once we entered and the gates began to close. I made sure to step out of the way after I noticed that they were only crowding the side of the cart that I wasn’t on. After I moved a safe distance away, the braver and more desperate ponies began unloading the supplies under the direction of Tally. She wasn’t loud but seemed to be directing the horde of ponies simply by pointing and speaking softly. A whole train of ponies had the supplies properly sorted and began distributing them within mere minutes.
I noticed that they were praising Saint and Turnpenny and trying their best to ignore me. Even with Turnpenny, pointing out what I had done, I only got a sheepish smile from one or two ponies at best. I had wanted to escape, true. But I did help with the honest intention of giving the supplies to the town. It was honestly disappointing that they didn’t seem to care about my part in this at all. I suppose that, in this town of ponies I would always be alone… For what the Hydra did. The worst part, was that I didn’t know if I would become him again.
“Good job!”
I was broken out of my thoughts by a mare’s voice from the alleyway behind me. It was slightly nasally, but full of heart. I couldn’t stop a smile from forming, happy that someone had actually bothered to acknowledge my work. I turned around to see who it was. “Thanks! I really do want to help. I promise I won’t- hello?” There was no pony behind me. Were they too scared to be seen? I guess I could understand that. At least I had made somepony happy. I turned back to watch the supplies get sorted out, this time with a smile on my face.
‘FIRE SAFETY’ [COMPLETE]
Kill “The Phoenix” [complete]
[Optional] Secure stolen supplies for Hoofprint. [compete]
Return to Tally [Complete]
The last of the supplies was divvied out just as this Text floated in front of my vision. Was this going to happen every time I did a job for someone? I don’t think it showed up while I was at the NSCDC.
As the jumbling mass of ponies under Tally’s command trotted away with the last of the supplies, Nocturne approached with a little filly trailing behind her. “Proud of ourselves are we?” She asked. My smile died down a bit, feeling the weight of her judgemental tone. She paused and quickly adjusted her demeanor. “Sorry Adstrum, I didn’t mean to devalue your pride in helping. I was attempting banter.”
The little filly popped out from between Nocturne’s forelegs. It was Cherry Bombs! And she looked much better than she did when I had crushed her hopes for me in the shack. “She’s really bad at jokes!” She shouted, trying to cut Nocturn off. It worked, but only momentarily.
Nocturne gently nudged Cherry Bombs off to the side. “Right, as I was meaning to say; Thank you for your service in helping with this situation.”
I looked around, she was definitely doing this over here in the alleyway so no one would hear. “Yes, ah. I appreciate your um… appreciation? What the stars was that at the gates? Why did you ignore me like that?”
To her credit, Nocturne looked embarrassed and even shameful at me having mentioned that. “I’m sorry Adstrum, you must understand. I can’t openly treat you as an equal until the rest of Hoofprint see you as somepony they can count on.” She reached out and place a hoof over my shoulder. “I’ll be able to greet you at the gate in time.”
My stomach felt sick, like a rock was rolling about. “Damn… Well, I guess it makes sense. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not going to say I like the idea of putting my life on the line for ponies that hate me.” It was my turn to look shameful. “But I don’t mind making everypony happy. I like that they will be able to survive now.”
“See!? I told you!” Cherry Bombs piped up again.
Nocturne Put her Hoof to the filly’s lips. “Hush now. You can talk after the grown-ups are done.”
Cherry scrunched up her nose and sat down, crossing her forelegs. “Fiiiiiiiine.” She huffed but kept silent.
“We’ve received a request for help from a small settlement that borders The Blood Swath. It serves as a waysta-”
I cut off Nocturne lightning quick. “I’m sorry, the what?! What the stars is the Blood Swath?” That sounded a little bit ominous! You know, just a LITTLE BIT!!!!!
Nocturne waved her hoof dismissively. “Oh don’t worry, you won’t actually be going into the Blood Swath. The town borders it and the southern path leading towards Canterlot and Neighlong.”
“Okay great, yeah. Cool. That still doesn’t answer my question. What is it?” I asked, shoving as much sarcasm into my words as possible.
Nocturne took a sharp breath and sighed. “I’m surprised the memory of that place hasn’t come back to you, honestly. Avoiding it is a daily way of life for everyone up north… Well, not the Hydra’s raider band of course. They cut through it all the time. The Blood Swath is the limit at which we were able push the wild life back. It’s several hundred miles of land cutting us off from the Frozen North. It’s filled with Hellhounds, Necrotic dragons, yaoguai, roving bands of malfunctioning robots, and the occasional Wargle. Basically, the Blood Swath is where the deadliest creatures in the wasteland live. Try to avoid it if you can.”
My mane was standing more at end than usual. Sure I could survive my head blowing up, okay no problem. But being eaten was something else. Wouldn’t I get digested? And what can robots do? I didn’t want to know! “You can bet your bippy I’m not going in there. I may have some kind of semi immortality thing going on but… I’m not willing to get eaten.” I had a vision being tied down and my limbs being torn off one at a time by hellhounds who wanted a never ending food supply.
Nocturne actually chuckled a bit at my horror. “Don’t worry, it doesn’t seem too urgent. It’s probably some timber wolves or a few feral ghouls.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Why don’t either of those sound pleasant either?”
This time Nocturne laughed aloud. “Don’t worry you’ll be fine. Go see Star Tumbler for more details. I’ll have Saint and Turnpenny go over your last assignment with me while you’re away.” Before leaving ear shot she stopped and looked back to me with a smile. “By the way, I’m enjoying your personality now that it’s coming back.” With that she turned and corner and out of sight.
I just sat there for a moment not sure about what she had meant. Did I not have a personality when I first showed up?” I looked down to Cherry Bombs. She had perked up and was looking up at me from all-fours.
“Yeah, no. You were Cata-matronic! Catatantic? Cata-um. Never mind it was a big word that Babs used!” She seemed very excited and eager to say something. “Can I say my thing now!?”
I looked around briefly, noting the severe lack of supervision over this filly. “Uh-um. Okay? You don’t need my permission. Go ahead.” Why the heck was she asking me? I wasn’t her keeper.
Cherry Bombs Yanked my foreleg, grabbing at my Pip-Buck. She hastily started fiddling with the dials as she spoke. “You’re famouserer now! I was telling Nocturne that that you really were good. Even if you were The Hydra, Gadgette fixed you! You’re just like her!” She dialed in to my radio and turned up the volume so that we could both hear.
A Surly Stallion’s voice came over the radio, the same voice that had mentioned me bringing Gadgette’s body back to hoofprint. “-Would you believe it folks? Those Gryphons sure know how to party. Now it’s time for your favorite Gem in the Wastes, Sapphire Shores.” A very jazzy song began to play over the radio that perfectly contradicted the general depression you feel in the wasteland.
Cherry Bombs frowned, sitting back on her haunches with a thump. “We gotta wait for the song.” She said as a matter of fact. “I hate songs, I wanna hear the news and commercials! Come on Pon-3!” She shook the device on my fore-leg like a toy.
I laughed a little bit, enjoying the up-beat toon and this mare’s raspy voice. “Shaking it isn’t going to make the song play any faster.” I was reasonably sure of that. “How about we head over to Star Tumbler while we wait for the news to come back on?”
The little filly huffed. She dropped my fore-leg and stood back up on all fours. “Okay fine. But stop whatever you’re doing when DJ Pon-3 comes back on. He’s been talking about you all day!”
“Sure sure.” We started walking towards the Safety and Security office, which was located down the main strip next to Nocturne’s office. Before the attack there was a big metal star above the door that read sheriff. All that was left now was metal frame work for the star and an outline where the years of wasteland dust hadn’t been able to build up on the wall quite yet. Somepony had hung up a trash can lid with the word ‘Sheriff’ Painted in bright yellow. The dinky sign was hung up in the center of the framework for the star.
It took us all of 10 minutes to walk to the sheriff’s office. In that time we stopped twice to listen to the DJ broadcast news about the wasteland. The first time it was just some news about ponies in the South organizing scavenger parties to attack the Pheonix’s old hideout and about a commotion happening with the ganglords in Philidelphia. Something about Mint being very bad. The second broadcast was weather and helpful tips. Both of which were obviously more of a joke than actual weather reports or tips.
As we pushed the door open on the Sheriff’s office the radio was putting out a much sadder song by a mare named Sweetie Belle. ‘Hush Now Quiet Now’ She sounded about as sad as the rest of the wasteland looked. “Howdy!” Shouted a contrastingly upbeat voice. Star tumbler leaped over her desk and hovered in the air. I thought Pegasus flight looked odd. They didn’t flap their wings very hard or fast but could flap about quite easily. What kind of magic did Pegasi use to fly? “I’m glad you’re here stripes. The faster we get that settlement safe the sooner supplies can be brought in from Neighlong.” She turned back towards her desk and then right back around to me to put a hoof on my muzzle. “Boop. Come on”
Confused, I walked up to the desk as Star Tumbler floated back over and plopped down into a squeaky office chair. Cherry Bombs stared intently at my foreleg ignoring all other distractions. I figured I would have to deal with this for awhile. “So Hoofprint already has supplies on the way?” I asked, turning my attention to the Mare at the desk.
“You bet! We’re a very important trading town and Neighlong can’t afford to lose us as partners. We are the only full sized town between Neighlong and the west coast cities on the other side of the Snowy Peaks. There is some unique scrap out that way that’s good for energy weapons and magic supplements like potions gem-packs” She shuffled some papers before continuing. “Needless to say, way stations like Dustoff are important to trade caravans since they generally carry extra food and ammunition to sell to the Caravaners. So! You’ll be heading to the little town of Dustoff to strut your stuff and show we’re tough.” She hoofed over a small Sack the made a hollow clinking sound. “Here is some caps for food while you’re there. I also requested that bumper blade you took from that tall Gryphon raider.” She motioned to the wall where the large sword was leaning up against the wall. Somepony has spray painted the Number 72 on it in the same fashion and color that it was written on my armor and the blue Jumpsuit underneath.
I trotted over and hefted the big blade up in my mouth to feel the weight. It was heavy! Had I really swung this thing in battle back then? It seemed cumbersome, but familiar. I swung it over my shoulder to rest on my back, supported by my saddle bags. “I’m guessing this thing is something I get to keep? Judging by the big ‘72’ written on it.” I asked, looking back to Star.
Star Tumbler nodded. “Yup, consider it a token of faith from the town council. We didn’t want you having any sort of ranged weapon long term. So while you were away we reinforced that blade and fixed it up. That way you can fight if needed but we will still have controlling range on you. Speaking of! I hear you need a new bomb collar! We have them here in our confiscated goods locker.” She flapped her way out from behind her desk and started down a hallway that lead deeper into the building. Oh great another slave collar. “They’re just right here.” She stopped after only a few steps, which wasn’t hard since the building was rather small, and began fiddle with a lock connected to a solid metal door. “This is where I keep ALL the contraband. High-explosives, banned chems, slaving goods, basashi-” There was a loud clunk and the door began to open up. “Ah! There it is! Fun fact, I only have this job cause I’m the only one who can open the locks. Lost the Keys years ago!” She quickly produced a neck-sized metal ring and a small electronic key that wrapped around her hoof. I was motioned me over.
I sighed as I reluctantly complied, beginning to regret my decision to not run away earlier. “Do I really need to? I didn’t run away or anything.”
“Well, Yes. It’s the terms of your service to Hoofprint.” Star Pressed the key to my neck and released the expended bomb collar. She was quite quick with placing the new one on and setting the detonation frequency. “No offense, But I feel safer with you wearing it. Who knows, maybe the towns ponies will come to a different decision after they listen to the reports from Saint and Turnpenny. But until then, You’re collared. Of course this time you won’t have saint with you so if you run off I have to chase you down.”
I stepped back, surprised. “I’m not being supervised?!”
Star Tumbler shook her head. “Nope. Saint, said you wouldn’t need it and Nocturne trusts him in an unhealthy way. My opinion.” Star relocked the safe and fluttered down the hallway and back to her desk. She picked up a paper and began reading from it. “You’ll be meeting up with the deputy at Dustoff. Says his name is Winks. Winks will give you the specifics since, and I quote, ‘none dis is fer what none of ya’s is being believ’n without seeinin it wit yer own eyes’. He ends the comment with a spit.” She showed me the letter which had the words ‘he spits’ written on it. “So yeah, meet up with him, do what he says and pick up the proof of completion once your done. Bring the proof of completion back here and you’re done. Simple!”
‘DUST UP IN DUSTOFF’
Meet with Winks
The mission was given a clever name and appeared in front of my face. I wonder who decided this was a neat spell to put in pipbucks. It was more irritating than anything. “Okay, Should I meet with Tally for supplies or…?” I waved my hoof in a conversational manner before having it yanked down by a leaping filly.
“No wait everypony shut up for a second!” Cherry Bombs was fiddling with my Pip-Buck Raising the volume so everypony could hear again. I had turned it down earlier so I could speak with Star. “Oh this is it this is it! Listen!”
Needless to say, that smooth voiced Stallion came back over the radio. “Fillies and Gentlecolts! It’s you’re Marvelous master of Ceremonies, DJ Pon-3. And I’m here to bring you the NEWS!! As some of you may remember, sad times recently came across our beloved equestria with the news of the death of our favorite Maintenance Mare. However it seems like things are looking up. Somepony out there, no wait! Some ZEBRA out there is upholding her legacy. Wearing what looks like the very same armor The Maintenance Mare wore. This lone zebra sweet talked his way into the camp of the raider warlord known as The Phoenix and took her out in her own tent in what I can only assume was brutal hoof to hoof combat! I only say this cause he went in with, get this, NO WEAPONS! We lost track of him for a little while there but he was seen recently entering into Hoofprint along with a wagon load of rescued resources! For those of you who encourage the killing of psychopathic murderers, I suggest keeping an eye out for a large zebra with a big ol 72 painted on their barding and a blue stable-tech jumpsuit! If and when you see him, give him your thanks, or better yet, some ammo. For those of you living in the south, the roads will be a tad safer without that flying flaming menace. Two warlords still remain in the wasteland with the Hydra and Phoenix Resting in Pieces. Will the legacy of the Maintenance Mare continue to grow? And who is this mysterious Zebra 72? More News as it breaks. For now I leave you in the gentle hooves of Songbird Serenade.” An upbeat song with soul-searching undertones began to play over the radio as Cherry turned the volume back down.
My hoof was released but I was left staring at the little device in disbelief. How did he know all of that? I could understand him knowing that I walked up to the gate in Hoofprint with Gadgette’s body, there was probably a pony here with a radio to fill him in, but how on Equu did he know what had happened at the camp!? I mean he obviously got some things confused but he was pretty damned accurate! What was really confusing was how fast he had gotten his news. Nocturne hasn’t even been filled in yet and she’s literally right here.
“It’s true right!?” Cherry bombs said, breaking me out of my stupor. “You beat her up with your bare hooves!?” She started making karate moves. “I bet you were like… HYAA! Huah! Ya! And then, and then you said something super cool like. ‘Nice to, beat you’ and then laughed like the comic ponies!”
I placed hoof on my brand new bomb collar and looked over to Star Tumblr worriedly. I was searching for help, I didn’t want to pop this little fillies fantasy, but the truth was much darker than that. Star just shrugged. “Yeah. It was um... “ I glanced back over to her and gave her my best confident smile. “It was something like that. He got some stuff wrong, but nothing too important.”
Cherry Bombs Just beamed up at me, prancing in place briefly. “I KNEW it! I knew you were good! See, you’re not the Hydra! Maybe you have his body, but you’re a WHOOOOOLE different pony!” She paused briefly, looking at my coat before making eye contact again. “Oops. I mean. A Whole different ZEBRA!”
How could she be so sure? She may have been right but I had no idea who the Hydra really was. Right now I only had brief glimpses into The Hyrda’s life. I would have to think more about that later. For now I just didn’t want to kill Cherry’s good mood. I settled on smiling at her and nodding. “Maybe. I know I want to help at least.” I gently patted her head and finally let my hoof fall back to the ground.
Star Tumbler spoke up. “You know Cherry, that’s an awful big statement, considerin he’s still wearing that bomb collar.”
The little filly looked sternly up to Star Tumbler. “Well I’m standing by it! I’m a grown pony and I can make my own decisions about who I trust! I got my cutie mark and everything! See?” She showed off the image of two pink cherry-bombs tied together like cherries.
Star Tumbler couldn’t help but chuckle. “Sure sure. The town’s biggest trouble maker is a good judge of character? I’ll believe it when I see it.” She motioned to the door. “You two scamper off now. Tally has your rations Adstrum. Have an even’n.” She returned to her desk and started on the pile of paperwork she had put away earlier.
Guessing there wasn’t much else to discuss here at the time, I shrugged and started for the door. “C’mon Cherry, we should let her get to her work.” I made my way out onto the street and down the main road towards the gate. I started looking around for hints of where Tally’s office was. “So you’re the big trouble maker around here? Honestly I thought it would Beet God. He seems like trouble.”
I heard a sigh behind me before Cherry moved to a trot to catch up to me. “Yeah I’m in trouble the most. Beet’s a mean pony but he mostly sticks to himself. Really I’m just in trouble all the time cause I’m tryin to help! I’m just bad it. I break a lot of stuff.” She looked disappointed in herself but not sad.
oooOOOooo
“Hey, Can I tell you something? It’s been on my mind.” It was that mare, always talking. We’ve only been stuck down here for two days and she wouldn’t shut up.
I shook my head, trying to focus on digging through the collapsed mine shaft. “No.” I didn’t want to deal with more of her emotions nonsense. I just wanted to get home and take a few hits. Some Jet, Min-tals, a little Buck. I could imagine the drift into that high right now.
She continued anyway. “Well I actually break a lot of stuff. Way more than I fix things.” I just groaned in response to hearing her nasally voice. She started using the weird machine she made out of the mining tools. I was able to take a step back as she pushed the cart and the spinning wheel of pick-axes to the rubble. To my surprise her ridiculous creation was actually working, chewing away surely but slowly at the rubble. “I got kicked out of my home because of it… And to be honest, I think I’m breaking my new friends.”
I showed my appreciation for her new invention by offering advice, not that she deserved it after everything she’d done to me and my family. “Hmph. Do they still like you?” She nodded. “Then they’re family. Just stop trying to ‘fix’ them. Ponies don’t need fixing. You just need to love them like family.” She looked a little confused, so I offered an explanation. “That stallion you were with on your way in here. I heard your conversation before you attacked. He doesn’t want more friends, he’s happy just knowing you. Let him be happy.” I sat down, digging through what supplies I actually had on me. It was mostly the stuff Razor Back had on her before she died. “To be fair though, I’m going to kill you as soon as we’re free.”
The mare laughed a little. “To think, I’m getting friendship advice from a Raider King. Ministry Mare Twilight would have LOOOOVED you. You know, I think you’re actually a good and Kind Zebra. You just forgot how to be you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I change my mind. I’m going to torture you when we get out of here… THEN kill you.”
oooOOOooo
“Adstrum?” Came Cherry’s voice from the void of my own mind.
I shook my head and blinked my vision back into clarity. “Huh? What?” I looked around to get my bearings. We hard barely moved. “What happened?” I looked down at the concerned looking Filly.
Cherry shrugged. “I have no idea. You just froze up like a rad-stag and stared off at the clouds.” She started speaking in a whisper. “Did you really need to fart? I won’t tell anypony. Promise.”
“What? No! I… I think I remembered something.” I started dwelling on the memory. Was that Gadgette? She seemed very nice. But, the memory was more of a sore spot. Something bad had happened before we had gotten stuck in there… I just couldn’t remember what. “I don’t… I don’t think it’s important right now. Do you know where Tally works?”
My tiny companion seemed a tad concerned but nodded. “Yeah, follow me.”
We made it to the supplies office without anymore rogue memories crowding my thoughts. To be honest I was glad for the distraction of Cherry talking about all of the things she’s done in town. It kept my thoughts from the more troubling emotions that was brought back with the most recent flashback. I wondered if I was going to have to deal with this often.
Tally provided me with several days worth of supplies, fresh food and clean water, since I was able to bring back everything that had been lost. I made sure to thank her and apologize for how I had behaved earlier. She seemed to be much happier for the apology and actually cried in relief. Her emotions seemed to vary widely in comparison to everypony else. I was going to have to keep that in mind whenever I dealt with her.
After collecting my supplies I went over to the gate and let the guards know I was heading out. I turned to Cherry as the gate began grinding open. “Alright, hey stay out of trouble while I’m gone okay? And uh… It’s okay to break things. Just make sure you’re breaking the right stuff.” I hoped that was sage like advice. I did get a bright smile and a wave from her, so that made me happy. I turned off toward the road and started walking. I was able to pick the correct road because the pip-buck provided a helpful little arrow on my compass the pointed towards my destination.
I had to admit, the titles for my jobs was lame but the little waypoints was very helpful. I had to admit, walking around by myself felt pretty nice. Though, the urge to run away was overwhelming even after only a few minutes of leaving Hoofprint’s walls. I mean, I could still see the walls and I was trying to figure out how far I’d get before the bomb collar exploded and if I would regenerate my head again before Star Tumbler flew out to me and picked me up. It didn’t help that my thoughts turned back to how the towns ponies treated me. I was a Zebra no pony liked, walking alone, to do something no pony would appreciate. I was the literal definition of an outcast. A Pariah.
Yeah, I liked that word. It felt good to say it aloud. “Pariah.” I said to no pony in particular. That’s what I would call myself from now on. The Pariah… No that’s dumb. Pariah 72! No that was bad also.
I’m pretty sure I spent the next 3 or 4 hours just trying to come up with some new title to give myself that matched how I felt. Something better than Hydra, which had a sour taste to it. At this point the light filtering in through the clouds was growing dim, I noticed a small dot in the distance pacing back and forth. The dot looked troubled so I decided to investigate. It was on my way, so why not? I picked up my pace and made toward the dot at a light trot.
It wasn’t long until the dot noticed me and started waving to get my attention. It was a Stallion trader, he was standing around what looked like a wrecked up camp and a very dead brahmin. The Brahmin looked completely mutilated as though a savage beast had decided it needed a tasty snack. “Oi! Oi, you there! I could use a hoof if you’d like some caps stranger!”
I smiled a bit, I could always use caps. It would be nice to buy my own stuff. I waved back to him. “Sure thing stranger! I’ll be right there!” I picked up my trot to show a level of urgency and willingness to help. When I got there I was able to see the trader more clearly. He didn’t look all that memorable but he kept a bandolier of shotgun shells strapper to him and a very fancy double barreled shotgun slung at his side. He didn’t have a battle saddle so I assumed he was a unicorn, though I couldn’t see his horn. He was wearing a very wide brimmed hat, decorated with shiny pieces of scrap that I assume indicated status of some sort.
The campsite was an absolute wreck, having been shredded by claws and shotgun pellets alike. “Oh stars, what happened here?” I said allowed as I approached the trader.
The trader groaned a bit, embarrassed by his situation. “Ugh, Some wild beast attacked us last night. Caught us by surprise it did. I thought we were well clear of the Blood Swath.”
Before the conversation went any further, there was a yawn from what remained of the tent. “Daddy? Who’s that?” A sleepy filly, no older than maybe 5 or 6 stepped out rubbing her eyes.
“Oh it’s just a stranger who said he’d help Shelly, Why don’t you start packing up your stuff. Okay?” The trader turned to me before continuing. “Oh how about these manners of mine. Name’s Gun, Gun Powder. That’s my daughter, Shell Powder. And you are?” He extended a hoof out to me with an uneasy smile, sizing me up. I’m guessing it wasn’t as easy to trust me as he made it seem.
I met his hoof with my own, making a light clicking sound. “Ponies call me Adstrum. I’m sort of a Pariah.”
Gun Powder seemed slightly more at ease since I didn’t outright attack him. “Oh well nice to meet ya, Adstrum.” He glanced back to his daughter before leaning in to whisper to me. “Hey now lad, please don’t take offense here but, please don’t talk with my daughter there. I’m more or less okay with zebras bein zebras, but I’m tryin to protect her as much I can, y’know.” He gave me an honest look of concern.
How in the ancestors many tales could I not be offended? Then again it seemed to be a common theme; The ponies back in Hoofprint were calling me Stripe not to long ago. I decided to look past it for now, he was trying to be ‘nice’ at least. “Sure, friend. No offense taken.” I lied as I set about looking around the camp. “So what needs to be carried and where are you heading?”
Gun Powder started pointing things out we began picking up up the poor Two headed beast of burden no longer could. It was mostly suitcases of supplies and some lock boxes filled with more expensive items. He had to strap them to me with the bloodied ropes that once tied the items to the brahmin. “Poor Bob and Rob got killed in the night on our way to Hoofprint. We were gonna sell food supplies there since there was a raider attack recently. Bout most of our stock is gone now. So… I guess we’re just gonna have to head back to Dustoff and see what they’ll buy it for there.” I nodded in understanding as I loaded another suitcase onto my growing pile of things to carry. All the extra weight was heavy, but it was nothing compared to the large blade on my back. “I’m sorry to hear about your brahmin friend. It work out for me though, I’m on my way to help out in Dustoff anyway. Seems like they’re having a pest problem. I’m guessing they’ll be happy for the food.”
That statement seemed to brighten up the trader’s day. Gun cracked a genuine smile a chuckle softly. “Well, at least there’s that, ey? I’ll be callin you my good luck charm for that, lad.” He pointed over to the tent after magically tieing on the last of the supplies. So he was a unicorn! “Shelly, roll up that tent!”
“But daddy it’s all broken!” She complained.
Gun Powder got a bit testy. “Now don’t be askin questions of your father. We’ll sell the scraps for a new one. Now get it rolled up.” With that, the conversations were done. We started out as soon as the tent was packed away into Shelly’s own little pack.
For the most part the trip was silent, Gun Powder wanting to keep conversation with ‘The Zebra’ down to a minimum. Thought there was a moment where he asked me a question that seemed to be burning him up inside. “So uh… Adstrum, was it?” I nodded as I turned my attention his way. “Tell me about yourself will you? How is it there, that you got that armor? I didn’t know they let Zebras into stables… Again, no offense to you lad. Pre-war times were much different you know.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes, clearly not that different. “Oh this? This was the armor of a mare called Gadgette Springs. She uh… She kind of left it behind and the town of Hoofprint gave it to me. Same with this Pip-Buck. I carried her back to town after she died. I guess it’s their way of thanking me.”
I have to admit, it was kind of pleasing to see this stallion’s jaw hit the ground so fast. He looked completely embarrassed. “You’re THAT stranger? I-I-I’ve heard of you! Oi, goddesses bless me heart. I never expected you to be a Zebra! Yup, heard about you a week and some ago. Course I avn’t seen a radio in days. How is Hoofprint? What happened to poor ol’ Gadgette? I mean, I never met her but I listened to her exploits bout every day. Now Lad, I tell you she was a true hero.”
As much as I knew I should agree with him about that, something in the back of my mind kept tell me he was wrong. I wanted so bad to tell him she wasn’t a hero, she was barely a friend. I settled for just shaking my head in a non-committal way. I was at odds with my own thoughts and couldn’t bring myself to speak on the issue. I kept seeing the things she had done and the lives she had changed. By all definition she was a hero, yet in spite of that knowledge I kept hearing a tiny voice in the back of my head crying about how that’s not what she was.
“Ya don’t think so?” Asked Gun Powder, confused. “Why not? She built a whole town, saved ponies, killed raiders, even slain the ol’ dragon lord ghoul. She connected the east and west coasts. Why, if it weren’t for her I doubt I’d be alive right now. This trade route fed me family.”
Suddenly I was being asked about things I didn’t know. My mind began racing as I tried to think up a suitable response. What do ponys say when they disagree but also agree? Should I tell him about my memory loss? No he would figure out who I was. What about saying I wasn’t sure why? He would just ask how I couldn’t be sure. I started looking around for a change of subject but saw nothing but grey skies and barren hills. “Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh” Wait, did that come out of my mouth? Is that all I had to say? Dumb.
Gun Powder waived his hoof dismissively. “Pffft. Ya don’t even know why you disagree. Never mind it. I just hope ye can live up to that armor you’re wearin.” I noticed his accent get thicker as his emotions flared up. He was genuinely upset that I disagreed with him. To be fair though, I was upset that I disagreed with him also. Something in the back of my head told me that I was just going to have to deal with it.
We made camp that night right along the road next to a pre-war bus stop that passing traders had turned into instant lodging for those traveling the road. It had rails extending from it that made two box-like tents if you placed canvas overtop of them and had a well pump nearby for water. Gun Powder told me he would take watch for the night, stating that while he ‘trusted’ me enough that he would be negligent as a father to let anyone else do it. While insulted, I was more or less fine with it since it meant I would get to sleep.
Though I got some use out of my bedroll and a pillow that was leant to me, I didn’t sleep much that night. Gun Powder woke me up around midnight due to some noises he heard. I grabbed my bumper blade and started patrolling for the noise. It wasn’t long before I heard it also. It was a deep growl, like a predator stalking prey. I could only assume it was the same creature that had attacked them the night before.
It happened suddenly. The creature lept from its hiding spot, a patch of shadowy rocks just outside of the light in the camp. A great hairy beast with claws like daggers lept out to attack Gun Powder. I felt my blood pumping and everything slowed down to a crawl just like it had back in the Bottling Plant. And just like back then I saw the great beast caught in mid flight. An albino hellhound attacking with murderous intent. This time everything was a little more clear and I had some time to think. The creature’s whole body was selecting in an outline and given a percentage to hit. MY Pip-Buck was auto targeting the creature for me and showing that I had a 100% chance to hit, even at some distance. Damn that as some kind of magic.
I decided to follow through on the attack and felt my energy physically drain from me as I crossed the distance between me and the creature in a flash. With blade in mouth I swung automatically, trusting my instincts to guide my strike. I felt the impact as the blade depressed into the armored skin of the hellhound. An audible crack went through the air as the world went back to normal speed and the hellhound was launched back into the shadows with a shattered foreleg. For a brief moment there was silence, broken by a few thuds, and then the whimpers of hurt creature scampering away. “Tafe taft! Ann Dohn comf bapp!” I shouted through the blade’s handle.
I looked over to Gun Powder who had fallen back onto his rump. “Wh-what? Lad you’re… Way too strong.” he stated with a half smile, looking to me with a wide scared eyes.
I rolled my eyes, putting my Bumper Blade back onto my back. “You’re welcome. I’m going back to bed.” I yawned, trying to play it off as something I did all the time. In truth my heart was still racing. I fought off one of those monsters twice now! Those things were utterly terrifying! I doubted I would actually sleep afterwards.
Gun Powder called back out to me. “Oi lad… You’re pretty great, y’know. Thanks.”
I tried my best to ignore him, trying to be cool, and went into my tent. I don’t know what possessed me to act like that but, it felt nice. I got to secretly be proud of myself and also make ponies think I was aloof or something.
After gloating to myself about how cool I must have looked and cleaning the blood off of my bumper blade, I layed down to sleep again. It never came though. I pretty much just layed down with my ears perked up listening for anything more than the sound of Gun Powder’s hoof steps. The daytime came slowly, paranoia keeping me from letting my guard down.
When the sunlight began filtering through the ever present cloud layer we all packed up camp and made way again. Gun Powder began falling asleep as we walked, I assumed from the stress and having not slept at all. I remembered the Fizz-Bites I had in my pack and gave him a few. He perked up quickly and seemed to be able to trot for the whole day without rest. Damn those things were powerful! I would have to remember those if I ever find myself in a similar jam.
The Fizz Bites seemed to last all day, finally beginning to wear out just around nightfall. Gun Powder suggested that I take watch tonight, I assume having saved his life provided him with the ability to trust me. I kept watch through the night, but nothing interesting happened. I must admit though, it was nice to have somepony trust me for once. I mean truly trust me, on my own merits. It was a warm fluttery feeling that made me want to stand tall. I really liked it.
We finally arrived at Dustoff. It was a sad looking little down that consisted of about 4 shacks and a ramshackle barn, complete with fence. There was also a small pre-war ticket booth, that was far too out of place to have been here originally, next to a table with some books on it. According to Gun Powder only 3 ponies actually live here, everypony else is a passing trader or wanderer.
I carried the Powders’ goods and luggage over to the Ticket Booth and was unloaded by a well dressed stallion who didn’t speak much. He was a crawny blue stallion with the physique one can only achieve through inbreeding of some sort. He had one tooth that was far too large for his jaw and he was lacking eyebrows, which was a tad unnerving. Despite his inability to win a beauty pageant, he was remarkably well dressed. Instinctually looking towards his flank, I saw that his cutie mark was a needle and thread. He clearly had a talent that suited him. He was wearing possible the cleanest, most well pressed clothing I had ever seen, at least that I could remember.
“You ‘ave yerself a good trip mister Zeebray?” The Stallion asked, unloading the last of the extra baggage from my back.
I nodded, feeling the urge to correct his pronunciation. “Zebra, and yes I did. Thank you for asking. I’m here to speak with umm…” The name of the person I was supposed to meet slipped my mind. “ Ahem. I’m from Hoofprint. I was sent to solve your pest problems?”
“Oh! Celeschyas’ sun songs. Please fergive me mister. Ah don’ reckin’t you were with them there ponies right that way.” Pointed to the Powders who were only a few feet to the side. “Iffin I’d known I’d woun’t a’ve tried tah be all pretty like. Want me ta take these here inside?”
I shook my head, most of what he was saying sinking in slowly. “Oh um. No these boxes and stuff belong to the powders. I just helped them out a bit. Just uh, Take me to your leader I guess? Thanks for the offer though umm...”
The Stallion clopped one hoof off of his head. “Oh JEEZ s’cuse me right good sir.” He picked up my hoof, which was massive in comparison to his own, and tried his best to shake it. “Please lemme intraduce maself. I’m Thin Line, son an’ brother to Winks an’ Just son ta Mama Mingles. Ah, handle the visiteers to ol’ Dustoff here. Launderyin’, Medicine, Carryin’, Fetchinin. Ah do most everythin’. Cookin’ and handlin the youngins is mah sister. All that there money stuff is Pops, and Mama Helps lonely folks feel better. Welcome tah Dustoff!”
I Blinked, I think. It took me a moment to refocus of the excited Thin Line as I digested everything he told me. “So you’re the… You do most of the chores and the daycare stuff, Your sister does the booking, Winks likes honey and Mama is very lonely?” I asked, hoping I had picked up everything correctly.
Thin line got this worried look on his face before continuing. “No… no not quite. Ah, handle the visiteers to ol’ Dustoff here. Launderyin’, Medicine, Carryin’, Fetchinin. Ah do most everythin’. Cookin’ and handlin the youngins is mah sister. All that there money stuff is Pops, and Mama Helps lonely folks feel better.” He took a moment to pause. “Got it that time?”
“Absolutely.” I had no idea what he was saying.
Thin Line swung his hoof. “Hoowee! We’re sure are glad yer here mister. I’ll take ya over ta Pops. What’s yer name anyhow?”
I began following Thin Line as he began trekking through the few buildings that were here. The Powders seemed to be left to their own devices. I didn’t see anypony in the ticket booth to take care of them. “Oh, they call me Adstrum. Though the Radio is calling me Zebra 72.”
Thin Line nodded energetically. “Oh yeah? Probably on account of that there 72 on yer chest an’ that yer all striped up. Warnin to ya. This is probably bout as far yer gunna get with ponies not carin much about yah bein what them smart ponies’d call ponyficiously challenged.”
I knew he meant well but I couldn’t help but feel insulted. “Pony-what?”
“Any way we’re here.” He opened up the barn’s door to reveal a surprisingly well built home made from scrap wood and metals. We entered into a ‘room’ with a metal stove, table, and a pile of stocked goods. Sitting at the table was a raggedy looking stallion who was slumped over on the table cradling a bottle of whiskey that he had procured from the shelf on the wall that was lined with similar bottles. The midnight purple earth pony had only one eye, a bit of dried glass in his mouth and a surprisingly well kept straw hat. “PAAHH!!” Thin line shouted so loud that the hungover stallion probably lept 10 feet straight up in the air. “That exterminator ‘s here!” He said a little quieter before making his exit.
The pony I assumed was Winks began mumbling incoherently as he struggled to get a grasp on his surroundings. His one good eye finally found me after a few seconds of darting around. He crawled out of his seat, knocking over his whiskey bottle, and walked over to me. The alcoholic beverage began dripping on to the floor as he began trying to talk. “Gld yer heer hvn sm problmn gunna beet m bign RATS!” He extended his hoof out, which I met with my own. “C’mere thsn th’way.” He mumbled, clearly on the verge of falling back asleep.
I was able to figure out he wanted me to follow him since he waved his hoof for me to follow but didn’t understand a single other word. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t quite hear you.” He mumbled something that resembled the previous sounds he made. “Can you please speak up? I’m not hearing you at all Winks.”
Winks had lead me through his short home and opened up the door to the fenced in part of the field at this point. He cleared his throat as he revealed his issue “AH SAY’D! Ahm’ Glad yer here! Havin’ some dere biggun rat problims!” What was in front of me was a wholey greusome sight. Winks’ family kept a deal of pigs that I guessed was used to feed the meat eating geusts, but about 6 of them were nothing more that gorey piles on the ground. There were only a hoof-full of these creatures left to sustain Dustoff.
I stepped out of the barn and into the pig stye, looking about in disbelief. “Oh my stars. Winks, I don’t think it’s rats…” I was noticing some very familiar clawing marks on the walls and fence. Winks waddled up to me trying to see the same things I was looking at. “What’chu mean Zeber?”
“Adstrum, I corrected him.” I pointed out some of the best examples of the clawing. “I saw this type of clawing recently. A Hellhound attacked the Powders on their way to hoofprint. Then again on the way back here.”
Winks blinked in shock, giving the appearance of him winking at me rapidly. So that’s where he got his name. “Hellunds!? Ah consarnit!” He kicked the dirt in anger. “Dern thin’ shulda thrown em in some dynamite when i’d been seenin that creature runnin intah that ther cave!”
Now I didn’t catch most of what he said but I had clearly heard enough. “Wait you’ve seen it in a cave? I’m willing to bet that’s where it lives! I can head over there now and take care of it for you.”
Shockingly enough, Winks laughed at my proposal, an odd half cough half laugh that was mixed into some more words I couldn’t understand. It ended in a high pitched wheeze as he hit the floor.
“What?! I can fight a hellhound. I’ve already done it twice now.” This was answered with more laughter from the inbred pony. I rolled my eyes. “Just point me at the damned cave.” I practically had to growl at this idiot to get him to take me seriously. He pointed vaguely in a direction and my PipBuck tagged it. Apparently a vague direction was all it needed.
‘DUST UP IN DUSTOFF’
Meet with Winks [Complete]
Deal with Hellhound
My PipBuck updated me with my current objective and I began following the marker that showed up on my E.F.S. . There wasn’t any roads so I just lept the little fence and started north towards the blip. Heading north, seemed a bad idea to me for some reason but I couldn’t remember why. I shrugged off my concerns and marched toward the problem. Whatever it was I would have remembered it if it were ‘that’ bad right?
The short trot to the cave only took a few minutes but it was well hidden amongst the many small hills this area had. It would have taken hours to find this place if my E.F.S. hadn’t simply pointed it out for me. The entrance to the cave was relatively clean, but scuff marks and drag lines were proof of recent use. There weren’t many marks so there was probably only two or three in there tops.
I began to slowly creep into the cave. The cave itself twisted and turned, ideal for shelter from the wind. The passage was surprisingly narrow for somewhere I would imagine a Hellhound wanting to live. I had to struggle to keep my Large blade from scraping against the walls.
After making the first bend, avoiding making sound by a narrow margin, I was able to hear sounds coming from deep inside the cave. From here the light could not reach and the cave walls expanded greatly, making every sound echo like crazy. Luckily the Hellhound was moaning and groaning so loud that whatever sounds I did make was drowned out. I could only guess that this was the same one I had hurt the night before. Was it licking its wounds?
For the first couple of seconds the cave was pitch black but my eyes began to adjust rapidly, tinting the world in black and white. It was still difficult to make out every shape and detail but I was able to see everything within 10 feet or so. This night-vision allowed me to navigate the tunnel fairly well. I wondered if this was a natural trait or some other strange thing that The Hydra can do.
It wasn’t long before I began to see a warm glow in the distance. A wide crevice, with what smelled like toxic waste flowing into it, was emitting the orange glow of fire. This must be it.
I crept forward, lowering to the ground to try and erase my presence more. My Pip-Buck began displaying [HIDDEN] at the top of my vision. Huh, this thing is very useful. As I approached the crevice I began sticking my head out to peak around the corner discreetly. I wanted a good count of how many targets there were before I ambushed them.
What I saw was strange. There was only one hellound. She laying up against the cave wall pushing a thick flexible rod in and out of her lower- oh shit! Just then I began feeling a certain tightness in my lower regions. What the hell is this? Monsters masturbate?! And why did I find this arousing? I was just about fed up with this habit of mine, getting horny over every little sexual thing.
I shook my head, I had to do my job. Get in, kill her, go home. I pulled away from the opening, trying to gather my thoughts. But wasn’t it rude to interrupt someone doing this kind of thing? I mean, everyone deserves to squeeze out a little bit of joy from this harsh world right? Yeah, that’s definitely right.
I resolved to let her finish and sat down, still trying to stay as quiet as possible. Of course this put me into a new dilemma. After a few minutes, that tightness still hadn’t gone away and I kept finding my hoof wondering near the hatch in my armor. Come to think about it, I hadn’t… I mean not for real… not that I remembered. I had been too busy thinking about the horrible future I was about to be a part of.
The buttons holding everything in place uncliped rather quietly and the cool air let me know I was free. I bit my lower lip as I listened in on the hellhound. This was crazy, she was a murder machine and only 15 feet away. If I made a noise that was just slightly too loud she would chop off my head and eat me until there was nothing left in seconds. Of course, none of this ‘logic’ nonsense mattered to my loins. It seemed that the danger of it all and thinking about it just made things worse. I had to relieve this and my hoof was more than happy to oblige.
After a minute or two, I became desperate to finish before the creature in the other room. I could finish faster if I could watch right? That’s what got this started to begin with. It was a calculated risk. I peeked through the crevice, moving faster as I caught sight of the new position the hellhound had moved into. But, stars am I bad at math. All in a heartbeat I heard the clattering of stone and began to free-fall forward.
I clenched my teeth, expecting to slam headfirst into the ground, but was surprised to remain suspended in the air. In possibly the loudest screeching sound imaginable, my Bumper blade became wedged in a narrow section of the crevice. “Oh FUCK!” I shouted out of instinct, my stallionhood dangling down and vulnerable.
The moaning stopped, as claws began to scratch against the stone. I looked up to see the hellhound rising to her hind legs, processing that there was an intruder in her home. I began to panic, knowing I had been caught, and tried to wiggle myself and my sword free. I had to start the attack right now. I began pushing against the ground, trying to force the sword upward to where the gap was slightly wider.
Frequent glances up at the hellhound revealed that it had fully digested the idea that I was intruding and began to walk slowly towards it’s helpless prey. I was going to die for real this time. I don’t think there is a coming back from being eaten! I could hear it panting heavily as it got closer and closer.
The stone above me finally began to give way. Loud scraping sounds were followed by tiny stones crumbling around me. Before I could get any further with freeing my weapon I heard a large claw slap down above me, holding the Bumper Blade in place. I looked up in a panic, coming face to face with the lower end of the hellhound. I could smell her, she wasn’t done. My little guy decided death was as appropriate a time as any to get rock hard again. Damn it, at least let me die with a little dignity.
Her hind legs backed away as she lowered her head to be face to face with me. She was still panting, with a tired look in her eyes that spoke of an weary intelligent creature. Her jowls smacked together a couple times, revealing lengthy canines that were razor sharp, before returning to the same heavy panting as before.
Just then she opened her jaws, ready to take the first bite! I closed my eyes, accepting my fate of being dog food. “Ponies, too?” Came a deep gruff female voice.
I felt a tugging at my bomb collar. I dared a glance up and saw that she wasn’t trying to remove my head from my neck. Instead she was just standing there, panting. “Pony hates too?” She said through panting breaths. “Uhhh, yes?”
Questperk added: Zebra Augmented - You have been augmented by zebra magic and potions at some point. You gain a +1 to you STR and END, gain +10 DT, and darkvision up to 10 ft. While in no-light conditions your eyes emit a faint glow that is visible by other up to 10ft away. You will now age very slowly.
Footnote: Level Up!
Footnote: Level 6
Perk Added: Dash N’ Slash - You may now move up to your full movement and then make a melee or unarmed attacked as a standard action without using your movement action, similar to a charge. You may also perform any melee or unarmed skill based action instead of an attack.
“Is it so hard to believe that even a Changeling can Change?” ~Spike
*Click*
“There” Growled the Hellhound as she pulled off my Bomb Collar. The cool air hitting my neck felt good, it had only been a couple days since it got put back on but that was enough. “Zebra free from dumb ponies.” Before I could thank her she crumpled up the collar and chucked it with short lived roar. There was a loud crack and the ball of steel and electronics was left embedded within the cave wall. “Zebra free, to stay with Dog.” She grabbed the handle on my bumper blade and shoved me down to the ground before dragging me out into her little makeshift home. After dragging my legs across the stone floor she lifted me up into the air and set me down as gently as possible. “Hated stays with Hated. Ponies dumb, old pack dumb, Precious dumb.” She waved her claw behind her in a dismissive manner as sh meandered back to where she had been sitting before. She picked up the toy she had been using, which I could see now was an oversized novelty toy from prewar equestria, they just didn’t make them like that nowadays.
She looked at her ‘toy’ then back to me. She gave the strangest look, like a dog having found their new favorite chew toy. Maybe that description was a tad too literal. She set the giant rubber pong bits off to one side and opened up her legs, inviting me in as she leaned back. She obviously saw that nothing had changed for me down there and I was still aching to relieve myself. I hesitated but started walking towards her.
This was so confusing, wasn’t I supposed to kill this creature? I had brief flashbacks to a similar encounter with Flash Fire, The Phoenix. I snapped out of it quickly, no this was different. She had set me free. My eyes darted over to the collar embedded into the wall. Also she could speak! Maybe I could just solve this by talking to her?
At this point I was close enough to smell her, her everything. It wasn’t like the smell of a pony who had been living in the wasteland, typically pretty bad but only just enough to be ignored. She smelled like her fluffy fur had been cleaned, kind of like she had briefly walked through a cloud of perfume. The most powerful smell though, I could only describe as… ready.
Going in felt similar to The Phoenix except for one thing, there was a totally different emotion behind it. This creature was just as deadly, if not more, and I was sent to kill her as well. For some reason, I didn’t hate the idea though. I wanted this and as everything around my Stallion bits began to get soaked in her mess I found I was wanting it more. I liked this, unlike my encounter with the mare. Was I… Was I into monsters?
Those growling moans began to come back out of her, soon joined by my own as we spent the whole night go into and out of various positions that could only have been possible because of our difference in species. I don’t recall being picked up and used like that before, but I liked it.
oooOOOooo
I slammed my hooves into the cage shouting at the stallion within. “WHY WON’T YOU BREAK!?” I chucked a bottle at him which shattered on impact, sprinklike glass shards into his open wounds. “I’ve broken your bones! I’ve cut your flesh! I’ve burned you, beat you, starved you! What the fuck is wrong with you!” I beat relentlessly on the cage in rage, bending the bars under my incredible strength.
“You can’t break him like that…” It was the other initiate that had joined this gang at the same time I did. His name was Shrapnel. Of course he had been a raider in another gang before this one so he knew a lot more than me. “Just look at him.” Shrapnel pointed a hoof at the damaged unicorn in the cage. “He wants you to hurt him.” He hoofed over a small package to me. “Use this. If you want to hurt somepony, you got to make sure it’s something they don’t want. Doesn’t matter how nice it feels, if it’s forced on them it will hurt more than any knife or hammer.”
I unfolded the little leather package to reveal a small music box and a teddy bear. The expression on the prisoner’s face told me everything I needed to know. Whatever he had done, he wanted to hurt but not like this. I began winding up the little music box and finally got a reaction out of him. He rose to his broken legs, holding on to the cage bars, shouting for me to stop. “No! Anything but that! I didn’t do it! I didn’t DO IT!!!”
Disgusting.
oooOOOooo
I awoke suddenly, jerking but not moving far. As I started to catch my breath, dwelling on the returning memory, I took stock of my surroundings. I was being held. No, I was being cuddled by the hellhound from last night. She was still fast asleep. Did we really? I sniffed the air. Yes we did.
I was able to wiggle my fore legs but wasn’t able to do much else. My armor and weapons had been shucked off and set to the far side of the cave where a trashcan was containing a slowly dying fire. The Pip-buck was still attached to my hoof though. It was showing me a picture of a happy pony and notified me that I was well rested. Thanks I guess? I switched it over to my current objectives.
‘DUST UP IN DUSTOFF’
Meet with Winks [Complete]
Deal with Hellhound
Nope, Still need to ‘deal’ with the hellhound. I looked up slightly, pushing my head into the fur of her neck as I looked up to her face. She actually looked rather peaceful. Ugh! I didn’t want to kill her. Of course Star Tumbler’s words were burning in my ears. ‘...You’re collared. Of course this time you won’t have saint with you so if you run off I have to chase you down.’ I had to do it right? They’d track me down anyway and slap another collar on me.
I hugged onto the large forelegs that were holding me to this warm fluffy killing machine. She made me feel some sort of safety. It was enough for me to close my eyes and smile a bit. I was certain she wasn’t planning on killing me now, especially after what happened last night. All the fear I’d had of being eaten had melted away in a tangle of heated bodies and late night moans.
I found myself rolling over and snuggling back into her fluff, drifting back to sleep in this wonderfully comfortable ultra deadly beast of a creature.
A few hours later I was roused by the sound of metal scraping metal and the smell of wonderfully rich seasonings. I blinked my eyes open and lifted myself off of the cave floor. “Oh good, Zebra is awake. Come eat with Boots.”
I shook my head a little bit, processing that information. “I’m sorry what? I don’t eat boots.” I looked over to see that the hellhound had removed the trash can from the fire pit and placed a large pot overtop of grill made from steel rods. The large cast iron pot seemed large enough to comfortably fit two ponies in it. She was stirring was smelled like a vegetable soup of some sort.
“HAHAHAHA!” Laughed the hellhound, as she patted a blanket on the ground. “Silly zebra acting like dumb pony. Come sit. Boots feed you.” She set down a bowl and poured me some soup from a makeshift ladle.I was pretty sure the ladle was just a regular sized pot attached to a hockey stick.
One could only assume that the hellound was named Boots. I gave out a half hearted laugh, hoping not to insult my host. “Haha, you got me Boots. I’m just acting like a dumb pony.” I sat down and lifted the bowl to my muzzle for a good sniff of the soup. It smelled better up close! It had a soupy green broth with an oily looking substance mixed in. It shimmered with every color imaginable. Outside of that the soup seemed to be made out of some mutated carrots, razer grains, and a medley of roots and mushrooms I couldn’t Identify. “Hey Boots? Did I tell you my name last night? I’m having a hard time remembering?”
Boots looked down at me, filling a much larger bowl for herself. “No, Boots didn’t ask. Having too much fun.” She let out a sound that I could only describe as ‘snork’ and smiled at me. She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Only Zebra Boots has met.”
My soup was calling to me, I sipped from the broth before speaking again. The heated mixture went down quickly and smoothly at first but changed drastically after I began feeling a strange tingle in my mouth and throat. I tasted it just before the tingling, she had poisoned the soup!?
Chemical compounds began rushing through my head as I began to choke, my body trying to make sure no more of this substance entered my body. It took a few agonizing moments of choking but it clicked after I remembered the oily substance. Black liquid with all the colors of the rainbow… There was only one chemical that fit that description and caused a tingling sensation on contact. It only had one name, Flux. A powerful mutagen used in prewar technologies. It was so powerful it could horribly mutate a pony or zebra within seconds into a massive tumor struggling to live with your insides laying on the ground as your new limbs. It was considered a kindness to kill the exposed on sight rather than let them continue living… and I just swallowed it.
I looked up to Boots in horror, she had betrayed me! How could I have ever trusted a monster like this? All because I what, had a little bit of fun with her last night? What was I thinking?! I closed my eyes as she raised her massive claw up to make the killing blow. I couldn’t stand the shame of looking her in the eye, didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing the fear in my eyes before I was forever killed and mutated into some strange new meat for her to devour.
Her paw landed squarely between my shoulders, causing my entire body to shudder and wretch. I let out a hoarse cough as my throat opened back up. Something wet and rough was ejected from my mouth and landed in an inky mess on the cave floor in front of me. I watched it, enthralled as it bubbled and swelled in size, slowly becoming recognizable. Before me was the freshly half created remains of a dying bloat sprite!
The sound of Boots’ laughter echoed through the cave again. “Fly in Zebra’s soup. Unlucky! She motioned for me to eat some more, as she began slurping her own soup down. I would have complied if I wasn’t in such disbelief.
The mutating bloatsprite was proof that there was Flux in the soup, so why wasn’t I dying? I stared into the soup bowl, looking at the chromatic liquid mingling with the rest of the food. It shouldn’t be possible, but it was. I held a hoof over the liquid, wondering what would happen. Maybe I had gotten lucky and the fly had absorbed all of the flux and what I was about to do was stupid.
Boots wouldn’t have tried to save me if she meant to kill me… maybe it’s safe. A pang of guilt went through my chest. I had been so quick to judge her, just like the ponies had judged me. She was just trying to feed me. Maybe she had found a way to make it safe? Diluted Flux?
I dipped my hoof into the soup, just to see. If I was wrong in trusting Boots I would only have a small mutation… right? The tingling began almost instantly, causing me to withdraw my hoof quickly. To my delight and amazement The tingling stopped immediately and my hoof appeared to be fine. No extra clefts or tiny eyeballs. It was safe!
“Zebra? There’s no more flies. Flies not always in soup.” Boots commented, some concern showing through her deep growling voice.
I couldn’t help but smile at how innocent a hellhound could sound. She genuinely had no idea what had scared me. “It’s not that Boots.” I scooped the bowl back up, assured that it wouldn’t kill me. “I’ve just never had Flux before.” With that I let the wonderfully flavorful, if weirdly tingly, soup pour down my throat. It was very filling, and the Flux tasted like everything wonderful and awful all at the same time. It was strangely intriguing and I wanted more of it.
Boots set her bowl down with a metallic clunk. “Never? Zebra smells like Dogs.” She said, giving me a confused look. I wasn’t exactly sure how to take that, considering that phrase means something kind of bad to ponies.
The soup was finished off rather quickly and I set my bowl off to the side, patting my full belly. I let out a burp before answering her. “Nope never. What do you mean I smell like dogs? Shouldn’t I smell like a Zebra? Or maybe ponies since I’ve been living with them?”
My new hellhound friend just waved her paw in the air dismissively at my questions. “Eh. Zebra too dumb to understand smells, just like pony. Don’t worry, Boots not hold it against Zebra.”
“Ah, um. Thanks. You can call me… “ I hesitated a moment. I had three names that I knew of at the moment. Did I want her to call me by the name Nocturne gave me? My raider name, no definitely not that one. Or maybe I wanted her to call me by the same name that Hilde had called me? “You can call me Pemandu. That’s my name.” With that I saw my first ever Hellhound smile and possibly the cutest thing in all the wasteland, her big fluffy tail flopping back and forth.
You haven’t lived until you seen a happy hellhound. They are like big deadly puppies! Buck the mission! I can’t kill this sweetheart! “Hey Boots, do you know why I was down here to begin with?” I asked her after sitting about with my new friend for awhile, she was warm and cuddly.
Boots shook her head before letting out a bored yawn that exposed all of her razor like teeth. “No. Boots can guess since Pem-du wearing collar though.” She reached out and grabbed a large stick, she used to stoke the fire, and made a stabbing motion with it. “Ponies don’t like Dogs.” She stoked the cooking fire some to keep what remained of her strange soup warm.
“Yeah, that about sums it up. They were getting frustrated with you attacking their livestock.” I watched the fire, laying my head on one of her fore-legs.
A very confused Boots put her face in front of mine. “Boots not hunting pony things. More food to dig up than hunt. Plus keeps Boots safe.” She pointed to the soup pot to illustrate her point. Come to think of it, she only had vegetables and fruits in there and there was not meat or gore anywhere in the cave. “Boots has no pack to hunt with. Hunting pony things is dumb.” She had a point.
Reluctantly, I pulled myself up and out of the hellhound cuddle. “Wait really? So you didn’t attack me and a caravaner two nights ago?” I looked into her eyes for any signs of deception. Boots just shook her head, looking even more confused than before. Of course, it all made sense to me now though. She should have seen me as just an enemy if it was her that I had hit with my bumper blade. Plus their fur coats were a different color if I remembered correctly. The one that had attacked us was an albino, pure white with red eyes. Boots, now that I was paying attention, was a dark grey with white underbelly and a small patch of white around her eyes which were a gem-like blue. Boots looked like a grey domestic husky bread for winter conditions, which made sense this far north. “You know, that’s right. Now that I think about it, the Dog that attacked me last night an albino.”
With that statement Boots looked panicked. “Albino? White fur?! Red eyes?” I nodded in response to her question. “Oh no! Precious finds Boots!” She hurried onto her hind legs and started stomping about her cave, gathering up odds and ends. “Pem-Du in danger with Boots. Has Boots smell.” She pointed to her nose to illustrate the point. “Dogs good at smelling. Precious kills Pem-Du if found. Come with Boots, we run.”
I almost answered yes, remembering having regretted not running last time I had the chance. And this time I had a whole hellhound to backup my decision! But that Nasally mare’s voice came back. ‘Creatures will get hurt if you run away.’ it said to me. Was that my conscience? Why was it a mare? I sighed, shaking my head reluctantly. “I’m sorry Boots. I can’t run. I have to go fight Precious.”
Boots looked back at me like I was absolutely bonkers. “Whaat? Boots likes new friend Pem-Du. Don’t go die! Why can’t run!?” Bless the stars, she seemed genuinely concerned about my safety.
“Boots, she’s going around hurting creatures that want nothing to do with her and they’re scared. On top of that…” I paused to make sure that I wasn’t about to lie. “She’s scaring Boots. I think that’s enough reason to for me to fight.”
For a moment, Boots just looked at me with a thoughtful expression. “Pem-Du… is dumb Zebra. Boots biggest, overruling dumbness.” She grabbed my gear and threw it into a large satchel which contained the rest of her meager things. Before I could protest the cooped me up in one paw and threw me over her shoulder along with her satchel. She also grabbed what looked like a heavily modified pirate-ship gun from behind a large stone and made for the cave entrance. She bashed through the small entrance in a swingle swing of her one free claw and simply began running in the dark. “Pem-Du listen. Precious is Alpha dog of Boots’ old pack. Means she’s biggest of all dogs. Precious eat Zebra like breakfast!” She turned the corner so that we could see the faint light from the cave entrance.
I was bouncing up and down on her shoulder, unable to really grip anything due to the motion. “Boots, I’m stronger than I look. I’ve already fought her off once. What did she do to make you so scared anyway?” She ducked real quick to get past an over hang, which slammed the pirate-ship gun into my snout. “Oof!”
“No, Zebra thinking dumb. Precious hunt pony things alone because is strong dog. Precious hunt Boots with whole Pack!” She cleared the cave and stepped out into the filtered daylight, sniffing the air carefully. After choosing a direction she began running again. “Precious kick Boots from pack. Say that Boots stealing from whole pack! But not true.Boots takes nothing from pack. Boots is told to run away from pack territory. Boots stays at edge of territory. Worried for pack. Precious finds out, now wants to kill Boots for breaking promise to leave.” She shrugged now beginning to pant lightly as she jogged at a steady pace. “Short story for Pem-Du. Story is much larger.”
So she was framed? I could relate to her predicament, except I actually did the things ponies hated me for. Sure I don’t remember it, but I’m fairly certain of who I was with the memories returning. I couldn’t blame her for running now, she was technically a criminal to her pack. But I still couldn’t let them continue hunting along the roads and hurting innocent ponies and creatures. “Okay okay, So we can’t fight them all I get that but I still need to stop them from hurting innocent lives. Plus I’m sure you care about the rest of the pack. Am I right?”
Boots nodded. “Don’t say Boots talks to Pack. That only work for ponies.”
I laughed a little. “Yeah I’ll bet. No I had something else in mind. I need chemicals. Do you know where I can find some?”
Boots made a sharp turn towards the north and began to pick up her pace. “Boots knows one place. Boots finds flux there. Need to hurry.”
We ran north for a solid hour, I was honestly surprised by her endurance. We eventually came within sight of a small shack set up alongside a large pool of what appeared to be flux. The pool was resting below an overhang that had a rusted sewage pipe sticking out of it. The pipe seemed to originate from the west back in the direction hoof print. The Shack didn’t appear to be built of the same materials used before the war. Instead this shack was more akin to the pony homes I’d seen in Dustoff and Hoofprint, a combination of scraped together wood and sheet metals. Even the door was just a repurposed plastic outhouse door.
I wasn’t actually set down until Boots had busted into the building at breakneck speed and barricaded the door with a few heavy metal crates. She collapsed up against the wall and weakly motioned to the rest of the shack. It was obvious she needed to catch her breath. A quick look around revealed a stockpile of chemicals and mint-al tins that bordered on the absurd. There was also a chemistry station that sent something in the back of my head buzzing with excitement. My body seemed to begin moving on it’s own, taking stock. It was second nature to go through every vial and spout out a large complicated name and general purpose before moving on to the next one. There were enough chemical compounds here to fill a dream laboratory and then some.
The thing that made me stop auto-cataloging was a strange machine that I noticed out of the corner of my eye. It looked like some kind of pre-war soda fountain with a blender and a few extra bits and bobs attached to it. Somepony had labeled it the ‘Chraft-em 2000’ It was connected to a working terminal and another machine that looked like you could deposit chemicals in it. I moved over to the terminal, anxious to learn about this cool new thing. “Boots, how much time do we have?”
A quick glance back at Boots and I could see her shaking her head. She was still out of breath and trying to rest up incase she needed to run again. I bit my lip and looked back to the chemistry table. I would have to whip something up to keep us safe before satisfying my curiosity.
Okay weird brain stuff, let’s do this! With how I reacted to the chemicals earlier this should be a breeze. I stepped over to the table and looked over the available components. “Okay, chemistry time… I need something to hide our scent.” I stared intently at the beakers and vials. “CHEMICALS ACTIVATE!” A few tense seconds passed as I felt the buzzing in my brain but my body continued to do nothing. “Okay maybe not that… Brain, combine-this-stuff-together GO!” I began waving my hooves around to coax out motion from my body.
A few more seconds passed.
“What is Pem-Du doing?” Asked Boots, who seemed to have caught her breath for the most part but was still panting lightly. “Boots is trusting Pem-Du. Please do things to help.”
I looked down at my hooves, which were waving about uselessly in front of me. “Yes… I’m uh. Just warming up?” My new hellhound friend didn’t seem immediately convinced. I resolved to try harder. “Okay. I’m starting….. NOW!” I flung my hooves forward a little bit to get them going.
“Pem-Du doesn’t know chemistry.” Boots sounded more exhausted than ever before.
“No no no. I know chemistry. I labeled all those chemicals earlier remember? It’s just. It all seemed to work automatically. I don’t know what’s wrong!” Everything felt like it was in it’s right place but how to actually combine everything simply wasn’t coming to mind.
Suddenly there was a piercing howl in the distance, shortly followed by several more. In a panic, Boots grabbed me from behind and shook me. “ZEBRA HURRY!”
I was thrown into a panic, bending myself over the stockpile of chemicals. “Okay okay! Maybe it’ll work if I start picking things up!” I grabbed the first chemical I could and read the label. ‘Cognazine Substrate A’ I put the jar aside and kept looking through the shelves and crates. ‘Isosterodioxypyrovalerone’ It had a picture of an angry rabbit on it. ‘Cidaraphine + prophenhol failed compound’ A big red X was on the label. ‘Iocus-fatalis’ there was a picture of a blue flower on it. Finally I picked up and inky black jar with rainbow colored magic fluttering about erratically inside. ‘Flux Waste sample specimen-T32 purity 32%’ It looked different from the flux outside. This one glowed faintly with the colors dancing about inside. I glanced back over to the chemicals I had already pulled out and then over to Boots and something clicked. It was like instructions for this one particular thing was beaten into my head with a particularly sturdy stick. “Boots! I need your spit!”
Boots had made herself busy, readying her cannon-like weapon, which I could now see had ‘Plasma-Zooka’ spray painted onto it. “What?” She was about as confused I was at having asked for her spit.
“No questions, just spitting.” I pulled out a vial and collected a loogie she spat out. I ignored whatever else she had to say about the situation and turned back to the table. Finally everything began to work. I started lighting the bunsen, making measurements mixing fluids. Everything about this one mixture made perfect sense!
I began mumbling to myself as I worked. As the thunderous sound of clawed death machines in full sprint became louder and louder so too did my mumbling. Eventually it grew into coherent words and finally a chant as Boots began to growl and the rising whine of magical energy could be heard coming from her Plasma-Zooka. “A joke on you, a joke on me. Chaos changes what I’ll be.”
The sound of tearing plastic was shortly followed by a loud THUMP and the clapping of displaced air as the Plasma-Zooka Discharged into an unsuspecting hellhound. Once again the world began to move at a crawl, my S.A.T.S. activating at the last second. “A JOKE ON ME, A JOKE ON YOU! CHAOS CHANGES WHAT YOU’LL DO!” I grabbed the bubbling glowing mixture right off of the bunsen burner and chucked it at the doorway. From my perspective, it appeared as though I had thrown liquid starlight. The mixture pulled out a cerulean blue light from the flux and put it into a state of high energy. It shined like blue star submerged in dark waters, dancing watery patterns across the walls.
In less than moments, the magical liquid burst up against the door frame. The brilliant blue substance quickly congealed and then stretched out in all directions searching for lifesigns within its reach. Sticky blue tendrils of light latched on to the hellhounds, Boots, and me. A sharp pain indicated that it began digging into the bodies and afflicting all of us with a fundamental change.
With a fundamental joke.
The world sped back up, my S.A.T.S. system stating that I had drained all of my available ‘AP’. Even with time returning to it’s normal speed everyone was at a halt, the air still as the sticky blue substance held everyone in place with a net of tendrils that were piercing every creature to their heart. It was only seconds later that the changes began to occur.
The first was a black and white hellhound who was at the door. Their body misshaped into boxes and tubes, antennae, lights and switches. Every inch turning to metal as the joke became real. We all understood the joke, because we were all connected. ‘If only he were loved like the machines his pack collected.’ well now he was.
Next was another dog whose skin became a collection of gems, then another who simple roasted alive.
Boots was looking over to me in abject horror. I had killed all of us, and she was forced to watch the whole pack that she had grown up with die before her.
The last hellhound to go was the Albino that had attacked me only a few nights before, Precious. She growled and barked and howled and roared as she became weak, shriveling up and become so old that she couldn’t stand.
Next it was our turn, Boots knew it and she could only whimper. I just smiled at her to show that everything would be alright.
My Hellhound companion began to writhe seemingly with pain as the Killing Joke Bomb searched for her joke. Finding nothing, the tendril connecting to her fell limp and flopped onto the ground releasing her from the spell. Having donated my own spit to the mixture as well, I was released from the effects just after boots.
As soon as the blue goop let go I was released from the spell and could see the truth. In front of Boots and me were a pile of perfectly healthy hellhounds curled up on the ground with my joke bomb gently wrapping around them, keeping them within their illusion of terrible changes.
“Boots is...Confused.” My fluffy companion said through what sounded like shock.
I couldn’t help but beam with pride. “I call it Iocus-Cognazine. I used Flux to bind Killing Joke and Mint-als together then mixed our spit with Isosterodioxy- er Stampede to give the magical effects of the Killing Joke plant the impression that we were already under the effects of it’s spell causing it to release us from the collective illusion. When you mix Killing Joke and Mint-als you get a very powerful hallucinogen that will force your body to react as though it was actually undergoing the perceived effect BUT when mixed properly with flux this hallucinogenic substance gains an ameboid like body and feeds off of the pain caused by the illusion forcing it to keep the victims alive. Due to the weak bond the life-span of this ameboid is very short, only persisting for a few hours or so, at which point the subjects will awaken relatively unharmed.” I stopped for a breath and also to absorb the fact that I had just said all of it. Even I didn’t fully understand what I had just said but I had a general grasp. I was more excited that I was right, I did know something about chemistry!
Shaking her head, Boots strolled over to me looking exhausted. “Zebra talks a lot. Are dogs safe?” She motioned to them weakly.
I nodded. “Yeah, they should be. They should also be knocked out long enough for me to come up with a solution to them finding either of us. I certainly can’t go home with pack of dogs trying to kill me.” I trotted over to the terminal and started to boot it up. It was just a little red on button so all I really had to do was wait.
“Home? Pem-Du is going with Boots.” She sounded concerned. “Right?” It hadn’t occurred to me until just now, I must be the first creature to treat her like a friend for a while.
On top of the fact that Boots actually liked me, she could easily fight off little ol’ Star Tumbler. I didn’t want to go back. Then again, I didn’t want to hurt anypony anymore. I wanted to remove myself from being The Hydra as much as possible. “Sorry Boots I… I need to go back. They may treat me like a slave but-” I struggled to find the words for a moment, until that raspy mare’s voice came crawling back in to fill in the blanks. “They’re only bad right now because they lost something close to them.”
There was a moment of silence as Boots turned her gaze to the hellhounds piled at the door. “Still Pem-Du’s pack.” she said wistfully. I imagined she was thinking of her own recent actions, running away but staying close because she still cared.
“Yeah, something like that.” I said, turning my attention to the terminal and letting that somber note hang in the air.
ROBRONCO
Welcome to RobRonco Industries (™) TermLink Clearance: Blah Blah Blah Nopony is reading this like ever.
Flux Conversion and Stabilization Research Center Research Log 1 Prof. Atom Bombs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It’s taken me 10 years to work up the caps for this little shack and to hire all of the mercs and scavs to go find me all of these beautiful vials, chemicals, and bio samples! It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of!
Of course I owe it all to the stallion who agreed to help me out! He’s a engineer from Stable 72. He had originally left the stable to find somepony else who had left the stable to find Band Filters but never returned. Apparently they came up with a different solution and they wanted her to come home. But anyway he’s here now with me. Spanner is a wonderful lab assistant and had the technical know how to set up my testing equipment!
Fantastic!
Even better news, he has agreed to stay with me until my research is complete. He’s so useful and nice! Cute to boot!
Any way! This is a log to document my research thus far. The flux waste from the Sparkle Cola plant a couple of miles away empties out here. Those raider keep using it to produce new sparkle colas which produces more flux waste. They have no idea the pile of caps they’re sitting on. The Flux produced from this plant has an incredibly high purity for waste. According to my studies this is due to the fact that near the end of the war Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle was searching for a way to reduce the impact the war was having on the local environment. This plant was a test facility for a new machine that would purify the waste and leave a much small impact.
Of course the machine failed in its purpose but now provides me with new opportunity! This Flux, being as pure as it is, still retains the malleability that its original form had allowing me to alter its magical properties! At least in theory.
Success means a cure for mutations! A Flux-Serum one might say.
Flux Conversion and Stabilization Research Center Research Log 2 Prof. Atom Bombs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Failure after failure! It’s so frustrating. No matter how I mix and blend this darn substance it never produces the intended effect. The nature of Flux is chaotic to the extreme! How pre-war ponies handled this stuff is beyond me. Still I should continue trying.
I spoke with Spanner about an idea I had. A machine that would make the whole process go much faster. Basically it would operate on a few adjustable variables to automatically mix substances together. I gave him a recipe for Mint-als to use as he tests out his various prototypes. With any luck I will be able to blow through failures so fast that I will eventually find compounds that work!
On a good note, I have succeeded in one area surprisingly well. Stable Ponies are really weird, Spanner said I was beautiful even though I wore glasses and can’t hold a gun to save my life. He makes me feel so warm and happy!
Spanner and I have been getting very close. I expect copulation soon! It’ll be my first time so I’m super excited but also very nervous. Apparently, Stable ponies do it a lot out of sheer boredom. Could you imagine?!
Oh jeez this is becoming less of a research log and more of a diary. How unprofessional of me.
Flux Conversion and Stabilization Research Center Research Log 4 Prof. Atom Bombs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The mixing machine ‘Chraft-Em 2000’ has been completed! The name is short for Chemical Crafter with 2000 automatically adjusted variables. The name was my idea. I am now able to process chems and experimental substances in seconds! This has sped up my research by over 60x my normal rate!
I’ve deleted Log 3 due to personal reasons. I got a little too personal that time. The research found there in has been moved to a holotape labeled ‘Known Flux Mixtures’. This way I can update it and carry it with me as needed. Still no cure for mutations, but what I have can be used to solve many problems plaguing the average wastelander.
We plan to make forays to local towns to try and sell of of these minor alchemical creations. There is a relatively new town call Hoofprint that is popping up around some pre war ruins. They have a whole intact medical center!
It would be most beneficial to maintain friendly relations with this new town so that we can have access to the medical center. When our new bundle of joy is born, I want it to be with the assistance of pre-war medical tech. We don’t know if it’s a Colt or Filly yet, but we’re going to love them no matter what!
Oh that’s right! Official note! I’m pregnant! Spanner is going to be one happy daddy. He keeps coming up with names and ideas for a new home for us once the foal is born. I admit… I’m rather excited myself!
Logging off….
I checked the mixing machine Settings. I felt like I could use it, but I would definitely need the recipes on that holotape to do anything interesting with the flux. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I settled for picking up chemicals I could identify automatically and setting them near the machine until something came to mind as a solution to Boot’s pack hunting her down. I figured if I could stop the hunt they would go back to their territory and leave the good ponies alone.
It took almost an hour to figure it out, and I required more samples from Boots and myself. I threw them into the machine along with a few other chems like Buck and Dash. I used a little more Killing joke and blended it together all while spouting another chant that came from somewhere in my memory. “You are me, I am You. We will be, something New. Our bodies remain, there are no tricks. We stay the same, but twisted Helix.”
After a few seconds of churning the machine blurpped and rang a bell. A chunky purple liquid poured out of the soda fountain part and into a few prepared vials that the machine decided were the proper dosage. I looked at it feeling kind of sick. Whatever it was that I made bubbled inside the little vials. “Ugh… Boots, I think it’s done.”
Boots plodded up next to me, still somber from the idea that I wanted to go back to the ponies. “This will save Boots and Pem-Du from Pack?” I nodded, but before I could explain what is was she picked up a vial and just ate it, glass and all.
“Uhh.. Boots, I don’t think you were supposed to eat the vial, just drink what was inside.” I was a mix between amused and concerned. I found the fact that she could just do that without thinking to be hilarious.
She Just shrugged at me. “Tastes fine to Boots.”
The simplicity of her statement broke the tension, destroying the mood our recent conversation had put me in. I honestly don’t remember having having laughed this hard before. It took me some minutes and a few times of being called ‘dumb zebra’ to calm down enough to drink my own vial.
The liquid itself wasn’t too bad to the taste, something like stale grass, what was making it hard to swallow was the texture. It was like swallowing a small family of slugs!
Honestly, I felt sick almost instantly. Boots laughed, throwing me over her shoulder again. “Come on Pem-Du. Best leave before Pack wakes up.” I just nodded, trying my best to hold my stomach in.
Whatever I did was bound to work, I was sure of it. I just didn’t know why I was so sure. I wanted my memories to come back to me faster. This forced over time shit was getting old real fast. While we waited for the effects to kick in it would be best to make tracks though.
After about 30 minutes I began feeling lightheaded and was happy to be carried about. Though I began to grow concerned when Boots started swaying as she walked. “He-eh Boooooots… Are youuuu. Okaayeh?” I mumbled out, every word coming out in what felt like slow motion.
Boots’ ears flickered and she blinked wildly. “Dummmnn Zeberrrrr…. Uhh. Booss iss fine. Bootses bigges.” I felt the whole world turn upside down as she stumbled a little and then fell onto her face.
I panicked, but was helpless to do anything. I was pinned beneath of her and my muscles were way more relaxed than I wanted them to be. “Oh NO! Buse! I killt Buse! I’m Die too! NOOOO!” Suddenly the whole world went dark.
In the darkness I saw a bright light beckoning me up into the sky. It was so friendly and warm. I reached out my fore hooves trying to reach that warm friendly light. I felt myself lifting up, floating towards my new friend. I wanted to hug it! “Adstrum!” It called out from way up in the sky. “Adstrum! How did you get here?” It asked, it’s voice so close, even though it was so far away.
“We needed to throw them off so I drank something I mixed together. My friend and I died trying to save the ponies!” I told the friendly star in the sky.
The warmness died a little bit, giving way to slightly cooler air. “Died? The hellhound is your friend?”
Well obviously Boots was my friend. Was this the afterlife or not? Shouldn’t spirits already know this stuff? “Yes. She helped me stop the hellhound attacks. Isn’t she coming with me to the after-life oh wise spirit?” I was getting closer, the light growing bright with each passing second.
The star light seemed insulted? “Spirit!? Buck, open yer dang eyes! Or I’ll drop you”
With just that small amount of coaxing, the light flared and my eyes shot open to reveal the ground several hundred feet below me. “AAAAHH!!” I shouted in sheer terror, I was not prepared to come back to life just to fall a few hundred feet to my possible death. Can I flatten to death? Does that count with the whole coming back to life thing I do?
“Woah there! Calm down partner!” Came the voice, which I now recognized as Star Tumbler. She began descending, but not nearly fast enough for my liking. After slipping a little I realized I could fall if I moved too much and decided on holding as tightly as possible to the flustered pegasus. “Haha, look at that. The mighty Hydra is scared of a little altitude.” She landed as softly as possible. Due to my size, I was laying on the ground before she could fully touch down. “You can open yer eyes now.”
I hadn’t realized I closed them again, but peeked around to make sure I wasn’t dying again. Everything seemed safe, everything except the dual shotgun wielding pegasus standing over top of me. “Heh. Please don’t tell anypony?”
The authority mare just nodded towards her flank where a bomb collar hung from a small hook attached to her battle saddle. “I won’t tell nopony so long as you come along quite like.”
Whatever relief I had felt about being alive drained out of me like water down a drain. I knew this would be the only way to not have the ponies hunting me down for the rest of my life. And something told me that I really didn’t want to revive my old raider life, even though I couldn’t remember all of it. Resigned to my fate, I just nodded. Happy with this result, Star tumbler got off of to allow me to stand.
As the cowgirl pegasus fitted the new collar back onto my armor and around my neck, I watched Boots shift about in her sleep. No doubt she thought she was dead too. “Don’t hurt Boots, okay?”
“Boots?” Star clicked something into place and stepped back. “You named the hellhound?” She snorted out a chuckle. I had to admit, Star’s laugh was kind of cute.
I tugged on the collar a bit to make it was secured and went over to Boots’ sleeping form. “No, Dogs have names. She told me her name when I met her.”
Star plopped down on the ground, stretching out her wings one at a time. “Right, and ‘she’s’ your friend? If I remember correctly. While y’all was out of your mind there, you said you two were trying to save the ponies? What were you doing out here?”
I checked my Pip-Buck, hoping the star would give me a break on this one.
‘DUST UP IN DUSTOFF’
Meet with Winks [Complete]
Deal with Hellhound [Complete]
(Optional) Save Boots [Complete]
(Optional) Don’t kill anyone [Complete]
Return to Winks
(Optional) Travel with Boots
A visible sigh of relief left me as I showed the updated mission status to the Authority Pegasus. “This thing automatically updates whenever I complete tasks. It says, Deal with Hellhound [Complete]. That means I did what I was supposed to. We just finished.”
My Pip-Buck was lifted closer to Star Tumbler’s with the assistance of one of her wings. “Ah’m Familiar. This used to be Gadette’s after all. Did a lot of traveling with her. She swore by this damned thing. Hmm.” She inspected the text and glanced at the scene in front of her. “So Boots, huh? And you didn’t kill anyone… not even the Hellhounds?” She looked down at me with a great deal of confusion.
There wasn’t any way I could think to answer in short so I just shook my head, giving her my best honesty eyes. Luckily I didn’t need to say much more. She just shrugged and released my hoof. “So, you believe me?” I was surprised at how easy it had been. This mare kept giving me mixed signals. Does she trust me or not? In town she sounded like she couldn’t be bothered to trust me to breathe on my own. Now she was trusting me that this creature she knew only as a monster was friendly and that I was just completing my job?!?
Star took a few steps back and sat back down to watch me. “Yeah I reckon so. Traveling with Gadgette taught me some valuable lessons and one of them was to just ‘roll with the wasteland or it’ll roll over you.’ This seems like one of those weird-o moments she kept coming across. Like the time she got stuck in those mines with you.” My ears perked up, I think I remembered that earlier. “Somehow or other she walked out with you at her side smiling like those Pinkie posters you see everywhere. She had the craziest contraption digging for her and then she just let you walk away, even though we had you surrounded. This? This would have just been a tuesday for her.” She smiled, laughing a little to herself. “That Filly was crazy, but just the right kind y’know?”
She seemed to expect an answer, but honestly I didn’t have the answer. I also felt warmth in my cheeks and a smile spread across my face. I was blushing, feeling embarrassed. Maybe it was because she had compared me to some pony that everypony seemed to love? I wasn’t sure.
I turned to wake up Boots, also to hide my blushing. Boots woke up with only a few nudges and some verbal coaxing. She seemed nervous about Star Tumbler at first but all I had to do was ask her to trust me that she wouldn’t be hurt and she agreed to come with us. She mentioned something about her new pack sticking together? There was only two of us and we had only just met the other day but it felt right to be considered family by this fluffy dog. Together we headed for Winks’ home, albeit with me as the safety buffer between Boots and Star Tumbler. Regardless of her claims, I thought Star was still scared of Boots.
The little collection of shacks known as Dustoff started to come into view and so did Winks. “Ah’ Saaayed, keel em dern’ hell-ind! Here yer brigin it back ‘ere lahk sum sert of-”
Winks was cut off by Star Tumbler, who clearly didn’t have time for the short incestual pony. “Go on and shut it winks!” Star began to take the lead and approached Winks in a casual hover. “This here ain’t your hellhound. This here is Boots. Now go sign the darned thing so I can take the prisoner home and slack off again.” wait, did she understand that crazy pony?
“What!?” Winks shook like he was about to explode. “NT G’N LET DERN HLLNDS NERIN MA HOME!!!” Okay he definitely said the word ‘home’ I was sure of that.
Star, unshaken by the smaller than average pony’s rage, started prodding his chest. “Well you’re going to and you’re going to like it! You asked for aide and we provided!” Winks continued shouting with Star over the semantics of the deal and what had happened. Slowly more and more of Star’s southern drawl came out and soon I couldn’t understand either of them.
Boots seemed to be about as confused at what was being said as I was. Her ears were flopped down and she had this expression as though she were listening to nails on a chalkboard. I honestly couldn’t blame her. “Hey Boots, are you sure about coming with me? There is some stuff about me that you don’t know, and nopony is going to like you. You’ll be like me, a pariah.”
The fluffy monster considered me for a moment before answering. “Pem-Du, Understand. Boots not going anywhere. Zebra and Boots smells the same. Different from Boots’ old pack, different from pony, different from Zebra. Boots doesn’t know all of Pem-Du. Pem-Du doesn’t know all of Boots.” She shrugged. “That is how Packs are.” She seemed to think that was a sufficient explanation and gave me a pat on the head, followed by a toothy grin.
I smiled back at my new ‘pack-mate’ and turned back to the shouting match between Star and Winks. I had to take a moment to figure out what Boots meant by all of that. Sadly, I was ripped from my thoughts long before I could fully decipher her meaning. “Adstrum! Get over here and buck this idiot right in the face!”
Was I being called on like hired muscle? “What?” I started trotting forward to hear better incase I had misheard. “You want me to buck him? Are you sure? I’m not exactly sure if he would survive.”
Star glanced at Winks, who looked about ready to pop as it was, and rolled her eyes. “Fine, just use one leg or somethin. Just buck the bastard. That’s an order.”
To be honest, I wasn’t very fond of Winks to begin with due to how he laughed me earlier. Being 100% allowed to kick him was an exciting prospect. I faced away from the conversation and cocked one rear leg forward. Just as Winks was getting ready to go back onto his indecipherable tirade, I felt the muscles in my leg flex and jolt like a gun. My hoof impacted his skull like a sledgehammer to a melon, something in his face cracking under the sudden pressure. I looked back just in time to see the short inbred pony lift off the ground, face first, and fly over the fence and into a trough filled with slop.
A sudden silence and tension filled the air for a brief moment, everyone waiting to see if Winks had actually died or not. The silence wasn’t long lived however, broken by Star’s pitched laughter. “Holy shit!” She gasped, wheezing mid laugh. “That was awesome!” Star dropped onto her back, kicking her hind legs into the air.
As satisfying as it was, I didn’t find it all that funny. I trotted over to see if the bastard was alive, peaking over the fence for any sign of breathing. I let out a sigh I didn’t know I was holding when I noticed his chesst moving up and down. “Sorry Winks, I had to.” There was no response. He clearly needed medical help.
I started looking around instinctually, the chemical knowledge from earlier still milling about in my brain. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for but started pulling up small mushrooms and plants as I went along until I was satisfied. Using a bucket I had found nearby I started mashing the ingredients into a simple paste. At this point Star had gotten a hold of her laughter and began to observe out of interest. Boots was picking her nose.
Another rhyme from long ago found its way to my lips. This time it was different though, as I spoke I felt the energy of the plants flow in and out of my hoof and an ancient set of eyes watching over me. It was a new sensation, but familiar enough that it didn’t bother me immediately. “A strange brew for healing wrought, must be drunk for all or for not”. In a moment of electric sensations the paste liquified into a sparkly green fluid. The process left me suddenly drained. It was as though I had poured a portion of my own life into the potion. I hoofed the bucket over to Star. “Here, Have him drink this. It’ll fix whatever I did to him.”
Star picked up the bucket and lifted back into the air to carry it. “Ya’ll can make potions?” She took a sniff. “UGH! Bleck! Well, maybe not a potion. Still!” She made her way over to the knocked out earthpony and began dribbling some of the potion into his mouth.
It took a few seconds but Winks shot up and fell out of the trough, shouting about the pain going on in his head. At least I think that’s what he was shouting about. Clearly the potion I made worked, just not enough to heal him all the way. I had to remember that one. The unused ingredients quickly found their way into my pack. My Pip-Buck notified me that I had added ‘Zebra Ingredients’ of varying rarity to my pack.
After having royally embarrassed Winks, he begrudgingly complied and hoofed over a signed piece of paper stating that the job was done. On our way out, we were stopped by Thin Line who was occupying the ticket booth. “Oh hey Mister Zebray! Hold on dere’ will ya?”
“Zebra.” I corrected. “And what’s up Thin Line?” This is the one pony from this town I was able to stand, even though I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying.
The well dressed buck scrambled to hop out of his cluttered booth, kicking a bucket that got caught on his hoof back in through the door with a crash. “Them there Pouders sayed you don’ gone an left wichout yer- Oh Sweet spicy friters! Run! It’s dem hellonds behindya!” He began scrambling for the collection of shacks at the first sign of my new companion and friend.
I chased after him. “No thin Line wait!” I was able to catch up to him rather easily, having more powerful legs than he did but I’ll be damned if he was hard as hell to keep a hold of. He wiggled out of my grasp about 3 times before I could calm him down and explain the situation. He ended up giving me a cloth pouch filled with caps before shying away from Boots as quickly as possible. Due to recent events I had totally forgotten that Gun Powder had intended to pay me for helping him out. He had given me 25 caps! Combined with the caps I had been given to pay for food, which I just now remembered I had never went to purchase, I now had a total of 40 caps. what I could get for that!? It seemed like an awful lot. I made a mental note to try out shopping when I got back to Hoofprint.
“Wow, 25 whole caps! So Mr. Entrepreneur, what do you plan on doing with all of that money? Pretty smart of you to pick up extra work while you were out.” Asked Star, who was still keeping her distance from Boots and by extension me. She decided flying above the road as we walked would be the safest option for her.
I was beaming, I had been dangling the pouch in my mouth the whole way just to hear it jingle. I found the sound oddly pleasing and felt that this money I had earned on my own was proof of my own value. This money was something the town couldn’t say they gave me. I didn’t owe it to anyone, pony or otherwise. “I’m going to go buy some food for me and Boots!”
“Ponies have meat?” Boots asked, sounding more curious than surprised that ponies might have some meat to eat.
Star answered for me, chiming in since she actually knew what Hoofprint had for sale. “Yeah got a bit on the hook. Some traders passin through have Gryphons and such with em. Since we’re a trading town and all, we gotta accommodate ‘em. S’all preserved though since visitors like that are rare.” She gave the matter a some before continuing. “Yall are gonna need to start working up caps. Meat ain’t cheap and Hoofprint won’t be willing to feed a hellhound for free. Only reason we’re feeding Adstrum is cause he’s a prisoner.”
Boots’ ears flopped down in confusion, I had seen this twice already and thought I had a good idea of what it meant. “Dogs can Hunt for food if need to. Who is Adisterum?”
Oh shit! I hadn’t told her that ponies called me by a different name. “Adstrum is the name of your friend.” Answered Star with a confused look on her face.
I was about to speak up but Boots started acting a tad strange and spoke over me. “OH! Boots didn’t ask Zebra name. Just called Zebra, Zebra.” She looked over towards me and gave me a very quick wink. I was a little confused but decided to go with the flow.
Winking back to her to let her know I understood what she was doing, I finally chimed in. “Yeah, there wasn’t much time for pleasantries. I um, only got Boots’ name because she told me.” I gave Star an innocent smile.
The Authority Pegasus gave me a weird look and nodded. “Sure okay, why didn’t ya introduce yourself at that time? Were you explodin?” She made a gesture to my neckline. Honestly I felt my skin crawl at the idea of my head having to reform. I didn’t want to go through that ever again.
I hesitated, there was nothing I could think of that could stop someone from quickly answering back with their own name. “Uuuuuhh.”
Luckily Boots was there to save the day. She clearly had a better idea of communication than I did. “Boots and Adstrum running from Boots’ old pack at time. Not really much time for talk.” She shrugged, looking wholey honest and relaxed. Dang she was way better than me at talking. I remembered back to trying to convince The Phoenix that I was on her side. With the benefit of hindsight, I was now sure that I was only successful because she was super high on dash at the time. Things could have gone much differently back then.
We got a shrug out of Star. “Okay, makes sense I guess.” Sweet, she bought it. I was going to have to figure out why Boots lied like that for me. There was no way she could have known that I didn’t want them knowing about my other name is there? I only wanted my real friends to know of Pemandu. Of course, I still needed to figure out who Pemandu was myself. Hilde knew more about him than I did. I didn’t really want to see her though. Come to think of it, I still hadn’t read her letter. I resolved to do that tonight if I wasn’t taking watch.
Before we continued to talk about things that may get me in trouble, I decided to change the subject. “Hey Star, earlier you mentioned that you traveled with Gadgette. Are you one of the ponies she helped out?” I got a nod out of her, she seemed interested in this line of questioning so I continued. “Somepony mentioned that most of the ponies in Hoofprint are ponies that she saved, how did you two meet? I want to learn more about her since… Well, since whatever I am now is because of her.”
Star took a sharp breath in and let it out a few seconds later. “Well, when it comes to that mare I could tell ya stories for days.” She tapped her forehooves together nervously before continuing. “But as for when we met? Well that’s a whole thing. Ya’ll really wanna know?” Boots and I both nodded. “I’ll try to keep it short for ya. Before it all and everything that happened, my Pa, Ma, sister and me used to live out west, along the coast on the other side of the Unicorn Range Mountains. I was the only pegasus in the family so I did most of the runnin around. :Long story short, my wings got me in a whole heaping mess of trouble when I flew my way into helpin out Ol’ Ursa, the Warlord that rules them parts. Taught me to lock pick and threatened my family if I didn’t bring ‘im stuff he couldn’t get to. Said it was ‘for the cause’ and what not.” Star had to land on the ground, too focused on the memory to fly backwards and talk. “He had me chasin after pieces of somthin he called the Necralight. Some pre-war techno junk. He was payin real nice too. I was able to put food and water on the family table every night all by myself. Course, any good thing with raiders goes bad eventually. Specially with Big Ursa. I failed to get a particular piece for him and…” She sat down, bringing our travelling to a stop, and sighed. “One failed attempt and he set his bucks on my family. He told me if I failed the next one it’d be me next. Gadgette found me in one of them fancy M.A.S. buildings out in the dead center of Van Hoover. She helped me get the piece I needed and steal back the Necralight pieces so that Ursa couldn’t have ‘em. A lot happened, real quick like, about that time. We cleared the Railway that leads through the Unicorn Range. There was so many explosions!” She mad explosion motions with her hooves to illustrate each explosion going off, making sound effects as she went. “Then one really big one as we rode a fixed up push cart as fast as we could go! PSSSHHHH!!!!” He made one really big explosion motion. “Just like that all the ghouls and rubble and wrecked up train bits flew on out, opening up the path between here an there for good.” With the harsher memories over, she began flying up into the air again. “Been hanging around her ever since, helped her start up Hoofprint.”
“Oh wow, you two were close. Did you ever do anything with the Necralight pieces?” I asked, mostly to keep her talking.
She shook her head. “Yeah, Gadgette and I were close enough to call sisters. We were drinkin buddies you know. As for the techno thingies, I don’t think so. I ain’t seen em since we knocked over the Galloping Hills Mine. Gadgette said she figured out something to do with it but I don’t think she ever finished whatever project she was workin on.”
The Galloping Hills Mine? It sounded familiar but I didn’t recall hearing the name before. I made a mental note to myself to check it out if I had a chance. This Necralight thing seemed important and that little voice in the back of my head agreed. My PipBuck updated.
Quest Perk Added: Trained by a Medicine Mare - Somewhere along the line you spent several years learning from a medicine mare. You can now learn Zebra recipes and rituals. You may also take the Hind Leg Stance perk for free.
Footnote: Level Up!
Footnote: Level 7
Recipe Learned: Minor Healing Potion (Zebra) - Using natural ingredients you can sacrifice a small portion of your health to provide healing for minor ailments and wounds. Larger Quantities will require additional health. “A strange brew for healing wrought, must be drunk for all or for not”
Recipe Learned: Grimace Grenade (Iocus-Cognazine) - Using chems, Flux, and Killing Joke you can craft an explosive substance that traps enemies in a delusion for 1d4 hours. Grimace Grenades expire after 1 day from creation. “A joke on you, a joke on me. Chaos changes what I’ll be. A joke on me, a joke on you. Chaos changes what you’ll do”
Recipe Learned: Binding Brew - Utilizing Killing Joke and DNA samples you can craft a brew that magically alters the genetic makeup of the imbiber to resemble another. This effect does not wear off and causes birth defects in offspring if pregnancy occurs within 1 month of imbibing. “You are me, I am You. We will be, something New. Our bodies remain, there are no tricks. We stay the same, but twisted Helix.”
