The Wasteland is a unforgiving place, you would think that the creatures and Mother Nature would be the most dangerous thing...but its not...its the ponies that will be your downfall....
In the now desolate Stable 70, it used to house like what any other Stable would...survivors taking shelter from the dangerous and toxic Wasteland, that is until somepony decided to change that. Berg Electron, resident of Room 20 is among the affected as he's forced out of the safe haven and into the unpredictable plains of death, the only way to survive is to fight and fight and never stop fighting for what you believe in...
Chapter 1: A Spark Of Hate “All it takes is one pony to stand up, and the herd shall follow…”
BANG!
I bang my head on the bottom of the top bunk as my PipBuck rang its alarm to wake me up, just not used to these fiddly things yet…it’s 7:30 in the morning; I wake up to the thumping of hooves on the cold metal floor of the Stable, its another protest. All this started with one pony, Bright Firefly…or at least what she calls herself, she had her 20th “birthday” last month, now she thinks that we citizens have been knawing off the lower end of the stick, and that there’s some sort of luxury that we’re not getting. Apparently she hasn’t realized that we’re in these Stables for the purpose of surviving, not taking a vacation.
She even got her small army of goons to back her up in her claims, even after numerous complaints from residents about being disturbed due to their constant marching around the hallways, she continues to grasp at that unreachable ledge rather than climbing the ladder and realizing the truth. Oh well…something that we all just have to live with until she gets an epiphany or something.
I got out of bed and looked in the mirror, a bit of grime and dust but nothing out of the ordinary from the dark blue hair and my blue coat, so I grabbed my black glasses, my work uniform and put them on. I got my job last week or so, to be honest…not too happy with the results…I got stuck with working and guarding the water talisman that pumped the water from the lake to our West and turning it into clean, drinkable water. Definitely not the worst job ever, but its one on the bottom of the barrel along with PipBuck Technician, just because ponies don’t use their PipBucks a lot. And I have yet to figure out how to use mine.
I trot over to the Maintenance section as I tried to avoid being pulled into one of Bright’s hourly protest’s, they are hellish to say the least. I pushed open the door and grabbed the magazine from the table, I sat down in a chair and flipped through the magazine, nothing…absolute trash on all pages, great…now what do I do?
Hours passed by like a pony trying to pull a train, very slow. I slowly drifted off to sleep when entering the 2nd hour of my 3-hour shift. I started to slip into the barrier of reality and dreamland, I could tell as I could hear the wall clock tick away while I walked through a field of wheat. Wait…is that? Fire? And smoke? What the hell is going on?
Chapter 2: A Watery Grave “Who gives up is the one that drowns first…”
It feels wet…why? Am I in the showers? Impossible…I opened my eyes to only feel my hooves sunk in a small layer of water, how’d that happen? I immediately stumbled out of my chair and looked out into the hallway, it was also flooded outside. Judging by how the water stayed level, It could only mean that the whole Stable was also in the same state.
Then the static came through the speakers, meaning that the Overmare was going to make an announcement, probably about how one of the pipes sprung a gigantic leak. But it wasn’t, she announced that somepony blew a hole in the West side hallway, which meant that…the water from the lake was flowing in, I could hear it…it was like the sound of water flowing but was pumped through high volume speakers. The Overmare followed up her speech. “Everypony please gather your belongings and calmly make your way to the auditorium. I repeat, make your way to the auditorium.” Great. Plus my room was literally the furthest away from where I was.
I gave a slightly peeved sigh and started making my way to my room, the sound never changed so I remained calm, I mean…how bad could it be?
I opened my door and dusted off my saddlebags, I packed all that was compulsory to bring in case of an emergency in the Stable. Apples, water and canteen and the most important thing, the knife that my dad gave to me when I was young, he even etched my initials onto the handle, so I stuffed it in the bags as well and stepped out my door when…
KA-CRASH!
A large mound of debris fell to my right, successfully blocking my way. Oh well, I just had to go around so I turned left and trotted along the hallway that also led to the auditorium. Huh? The door was shut so I tried to open it, locked. From the other side, somepony already locked it.
Then the sounds started getting louder and were closing in on me, the sounds of metal snapping and water taking its place. My calm demeanor was shattered like glass, I was terrified and petrified, I couldn’t move. I told myself to move, I couldn’t.
After a good minute or two standing there like I was asking to be killed, I finally found myself able to move again, but with each tremor and creak I felt numb again. So I used whatever adrenaline I had and made a mad dash through the half flooded hallway and took the turns that weren’t blocked until I came to a screeching halt.
I was at the Stable door, I took a gulp and looked behind me, there was nowhere else I could go because all other ways were either blocked or locked. Sparks started flying as the water met the electricity, I didn’t have much time until the voltage was high enough to roast me so I ran for the control panel and quickly scanned it. Wasn’t complicated but my heart sank when I saw it needed a code, and only the Overmare knows the code to the door. I decided to flip the lever anyway, what a surprise…nothing happened.
I sat on a small stack of crates to avoid the slow rising water and electricity I slowly accepted that this was where I die.
After a few minutes, a stallions voice broke the sounds of water gushing in and debris falling. He had a light grey coat and dark black hair he burst into the place and levitated a hammer, with a courage-filled voice he spoke to me. “C’mon! Lets get outta here!” I got off the crate and splashed into the water, which was now up to my chest area.
“What are you gonna do?!” I had asked, which was stupid considering I was the one sitting around waiting to die.
“I have the code to the door, lets go!” With that he walked, or swam over to the console and punched in the code, I couldn’t see what it was but that wasn’t really what was going through my mind at that point.
With a hiss and mechanical noises, the mechanical arm lowered down and attached itself to the door as it slowly moved it to the side. But just when it opened a quarter way…
Krack-THOOM!!
A noise so loud that it left my ears ringing like someone had shot a gun next to my ears, it was what I later found out was thunder. With that bolt of Lightning, the Stables energy supply cut off, the lights turned off and the Stable door stopped moving it had turned a dark and fluorescent blue in the area, what’s worse was that it was raining outside and water started pouring in and out of the opening. The water level started rising faster ever than before, it wasn’t our lucky day as we found out that this Stable was built in a small cave in the mountain, so the cave was already flooded due to the storm. In another minute we were already floating off the Stables metal floors.
The stallion quickly swam against the currents that were coming in through the door and grabbed hold of the Stable door and quickly pushed himself out and laid against the wall outside. “Well hurry up!! You don’t want to drown!” With his words of obvious wisdom, I snapped myself out of the ringing trance I was still in and started swimming to the best of my knowledge but it felt…weird to not be able to touch the ground. I flailed my hoofs around to try and move, it sorta worked but it was definitely not doing well, so I grabbed the railing and pulled myself against the strong currents of water. Water splashed against my face and got into my mouth, I shrugged it off and leapt for the Stable door and hoped to grab it.
Chapter 3: A Town That Used To Be…. “What is this place and what happened here?”
What an unfortunate series of events…and to think I would die as dull and not remembered by anypony as I had lived my life, I could’ve changed something but I didn’t, it was always “I can do it later.” Boy do I regret my decisions now.
As time slowed to a snails pace as I watched my imminent doom approached and water hit my face and blinded my glasses, I couldn’t tell what was happening as everything kinda turned off in my body, I couldn’t feel my legs and hooves as my PipBuck started ringing like crazy probably about how I was about to die, thanks PipBuck…I hadn’t noticed.
I don’t know how long I was in the dark, but as I choke and puked up all the water that had entered me as all I could feel was more water falling on my face, once I opened my eyes I was just staring up into a deep abyss which made me question was I falling or flying? My glasses were just soaked in water as raindrops trickled down on my face. I tilted my head to the left as I saw the same grey pony was next to me laying on the dirt…”dirt?” Last time I checked, I should be on the cold and wet metallic floors of the Stable and not in the Gardens of it, but it explained the rain.
I sat up as he noticed me. “Your finally awake! Lets move! We’ll catch a cold!”
“W...What? Where are we?” I whimpered.
“We’re on the other side of the door now…get your things, we need to find shelter.” He said that sentence with such a jolly tone that it sent chills down my spine.
I got back upright as my legs felt as weak as the day I broke one of them while walking down a flight of stairs. I grabbed my bags and made a quick inventory in my head of everything I had, there was no way going back to the safety of the Stable now…I had zero to none survival training except that one book I read that only briefly covered the basics of survival, but they were about surviving in the jungle and more urban environments, where I was…it looked more like a desert to me, a desert which was raining very heavily that it could probably fill a river, the other pony took point as I followed behind, taking in everything around me through the thick rain.
“Um…if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your name?” I asked, because if we were going to stick together, I needed to know his name.
“Its Jack, Jack Molten…and yours?” As he continued trotting along the dirt path that was entering something that looked like a town but all the buildings were destroyed and what remained was rubble and debris.
“Berg, Berg Electron…nice to meet you.” I wanted to thank him for saving my life, but it kinda slipped my mind through all that had happened.
As we entered the town, I saw a sign that was half in the ground. “Ponyv…” I was disappointed that it was rubbed off by time but my PipBuck alerted me so I checked what was going on. It displayed on the data page that we were in some town called Ponyville, from the PipBucks readings it seemed like this town was rather large and had multiple Districts to it.
“We should split up, look for any buildings that can be used for shelter and any supplies that we can use.” He barked at me rather urgently which caught me by surprise.
“Um…okay! I’ll tell you if I find anything.” I was very against the idea of splitting up because we were in a place that was totally unknown to me, I would’ve said something but he caught me by surprise and I was still tired and dazed by the water and the rain.
So as he trotted off to the left side of the town, the only choices were the road that led to the right or the road that cut straight to the town’s center according to my PipBuck, so I took the middle path as I walked down the road, observing the structures as I went closer and closer to the center of town, I had noticed that the buildings that were more to the inside of town were less broken and retained somewhat of their original stature. The center of town seemed to be some sort of shopping district as there were many stands and carts strewn around, there must’ve been some stuff left around so I walked over and started searching.
From the carts and some boxes that I managed to open with ease mostly because they were pretty broken anyways so a little force with my hooves simply cracked them open, I got two healing potions, a Rad-Away, a box with a few magical bandages left in it and a small leather pouch that had bits in it. I put everything in my saddlebags as I fiddled around with my PipBuck to sort the things out. Once I had looted everything, I decided to move along a road to see where it led, my PipBuck showed up that it was called Sugarcube Corner.
From the weirdly faded yet bright outside of the building, I walked up to it and tried the door…locked, like almost every other building, I took a look in through the wet and cracked window and peeked in, I could see a counter and some sort of vending machine that emanated a faint glow to it, it looked special and important to say the least so I had to find out what it was.
I went around the building to see if there was any other entrance in, and there was! There was a back door that had the knob removed by force somehow so I went in, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I realized that this was some sort of bakery, the glass case was empty and the glass smashed as well…why would ponies do this? What happened out here that turned everything like this?
I was drawed towards the faint, warm glow of the vending machine as the red faded sign above it said “Sparkle-Cola.” There was some writing below it but it was nothing more than smudges at this point, from the look of the machine, it seemed like there was still cola inside it, it looked like it took bits in a coin slot so I got the pouch and put in 4 of them as I pushed the only button that was still lit up.
CHUNK!
With a rather loud “thud” 2 bottles fell into the receiving drawer at the bottom of the machine as I stuck my hoof inside and grabbed them out, they were in glass bottles and had a reddish-purple color to them, I put one in my bag for Jack and propped the other one on the edge of the counter as I popped the cap off and it tumbled into the air, I caught the cap mid-drop as it seemed to have writing on the underside of it but it was too dark to see so I held onto it until I was out, feeling quite parched…I took a gulp of the drink, it tasted like some sort of tangy grape soda with gas, the gas had dissipated quite greatly but you could still taste traces of it faintly.
Before I had stepped out the door, I noticed something in a drawer that was refracting light through the window, I slowly walked over to it and opened the drawer, to my surprise…there was a six-shooter gun inside with a piece of paper next to it. The paper was quite worn out but still readable, it was a diagram and explanation on how to use a gun with…your mouth? It apparently said that the gun was manufactured specifically for using it with your mouth and tongue, you hold the handle in your mouth and use your tongue to pull the trigger…weird…
I opened the barrel to see if there were any cartridges inside, there were 5 bullets inside…I tried to put the gun in my mouth like the picture depicted, to say the least it was very awkward to use, but after 5 minutes of testing I finally got it in a comfortable position where my tongue could touch the trigger, I had never used a gun before and I never thought I would, but this seems like a good thing to have in this place…
As I finished off the drink, I kept the bottle because it could have been of use in some way or another, I trotted out the door and back into the rain…in the distance of about where Jack went, I could see a faint light that glowed a orange ember, did he start a fire? Or did he find a torch? Lighting a torch in this weather? Of course that’s logical, stupid me…
The constant curiosity of what he had found bugged me to a point where I had to check up on him, plus I wanted to tell him what I had found so I started to make my way towards the light.
There was just one more corner before I would walk out into the street where the light was emanating from, if I had took one more step without knowing what was on the other side of that corner, my hoof would’ve been taken off cleanly…but this happened
“MMM-MMPHH!!” A muffled scream hit my ears as I screeched to a halt on the corner.
“Oh shut up you worthless piece of crap…you look so worthless that I’d doubt we’d even get a good price for you from the slavers!” It was another ponies voice, it sounded very rough and gravelly, I slowly peeked around the corner to see what was going on. Three ponies were in a house that had the front part of it torn off, Jack was bent over with his hoofs tied behind his back and his mouth was gagged with a cloth next to a fire, Jack took notice of my eye around the corner as he gave me a silent “no” nod.
“What are you doing? Don’t go waggling your head around you got me?!” As the dark brown colored pony gave Jack a strong right hook with his gloved hoof, Jack landed right next to the fire and almost getting his face seared off by the blaze.
I was caught in a state of confusion, I didn’t know what to do…the first thought that came to my mind was to talk them to let Jack go and this was all just a mistake, as I took my first step out of the corner…my leg landed in a puddle as the sound alerted the ponies to my presence.
“Uhhh…guys? Could you let…”
“BLOODY HELL! WHO’S HE?!”
BANG!!!
A buckshot round fired from the unicorns shotgun came flying at me as it hit my leg and arm, I doubled over in pain as I hopped back behind the wall as I let out a quiet scream of pain and anger, and many other emotions actually.
I could hear the ponies running towards me from the sound of the puddles, I started panicking and tried to find the revolver from my saddlebag amidst my pain, which was pretty useless with my injured hoof, and soon…the unicorn pony had his shotgun pointed down at me and in my face, the water was steaming off the barrel as I could see the shell inside…I was screwed at that point.