Chapter One: Bad Dealings.
"One... Two... Three... Fou-"
"That'll be twelve caps lady."
"Five... Si- Wait...What? Twelve? Why twelve? I got the same thing off you last week and it was only six caps! The hell?"
"That there was last week, this here is this week. Y'all want the part? Y'all gonna have to pay twelve, else I'ma gonna find somepony else willin', and I ain't got a lotta these things left, so pony up and pay them twelve caps or piss off, cos I sure as hell ain't runnin' no damned charity!"
Bitch! Doubling the price of an arcane filter just like that? She's lucky I'm not like I used to be, lucky that I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, or something like that anyway, else I would have shot her and her stupid bodyguards dead and taken what I wanted! Not sit here talking prices!
"Seven caps. No way I'm paying twelve, especially since this arcane filter is in even worse shape than the last one you sold me, somehow, and even that blew up after only five days of use!"
She spat some foul slimy brown shit into what I assume is a spittoon of some description. With a resounding 'pling' that echoed around us, she blinked at me and continued.
"Shouldn't have been floggin' it in whatever y'all been usin' it for then, should ya? Coulda lasted nine days, easy."
"Listen, you haggard rank prick, these arcane filters are meant to be used in large-scale arcane testing facilities! A single unit would usually have to be able to process and filter on average, thirty-eight point five petta-watts of pure arcane energy! I used the last one you sold me to filter an energy rifle, one giga-watt, at most, and it still overheated and blew up in my face! Flogging it my flank! It nearly got me killed and I barely used the fucking thing!"
This mare was already starting to run thin on my patience. I'm sure she knew it too. It's not like I'm trying to hide my frustration and annoyance.
"I don't give a shit what they're supposed to be able to do, all I care bout is that I get me twelve caps for me item. Ya'll don't want it? Hit the dirt and piss off! I got other customers willin to buy me stuff for me prices, not try to school me in some stupid pre-war arcane mumbo jumbo crap that ain't mean squat to nopony no more!"
Something in me snagged at that. I hate being argued with.
"I'll have you know, you low life, scum sucking, shit stained, ass hole, that this 'pre-war arcane mumbo jumbo that ain't mean squat to nopony no more' is in fact, the best chance for us to rebuild our once half decent society! It means a fuckton more than 'squat' to me and a whole slew of other ponies who are actually trying to use it to reforge some semblance of safety in this pisswalsh craptown of a fucking wasteland for others! Including you!"
This was all total crap, I've pretty much been talking outa my ass this whole time. I don't even really like the arcane sciences, but this right here is me trying to put this merchant in her place, I actually don't know shit about arcane tech, and besides, it's trade after all that will save the wasteland, not more magic fuckery.
"Twenty four caps." She said simply as her horn lit up a pale blue and shoveled more tobacco into her mouth, chewing the contents in a disgusting display of rotten brown teeth and gums. "That there is now me new offer."
"What the actual fuck?!" I screeched as I stomped my hoof against the ground. The cracks in my white wall giving me a moment of pain as they split a little more with the heavy contact. "Twenty four?! Are you fucking insane? That's four times the original price! Are you trying to get shot?!"
"Y'all are threatenin' me? Ya'll can't do shit! I ain't doin' nothin' but runnin' me own business how I see it fit in me own shop! I set me own prices and I set me own rules ta follow! Ya'll just get to sit back and adhere to me own damn law! Me shop is me own! now be a good little rag and pay me the caps, or get the fuck outa me store."
My horn lit up with a fizzle, a crack from the tip to my forehead made any spells beyond levitation near impossible. The red glow corresponding with a twin aura orbiting around the hilt of my old rusted .44, lighting up the dark shop in a similar splash of light. I could kill this bitch and her entourage quickly and very easily, just a quick draw of my gun, bang-bang. Two to the head. I could even take the item and fuck off before her bodyguards could even figure out what was what. Hell, one quick draw, and bang, one to the head of the mare behind the merchant, bang, one to the head of the stallion on my left, bang-bang, two to the unarmored chest of the mare to my right and then bang, one shot between the terrified eyes of this cowering pompous fucking bitch in front of me....
I take a deep breath, stilling my gnashing teeth. I closed my eyes and let my spell aura fade. I'm not like that anymore... I'm not like that anymore... I am not like that anymore! I chant to myself, calming down as I do so. My new mantra keeps me from regressing into my old self. A self I don't want to be anymore.
The bodyguards had clearly noticed the spell around my gun because when I open my eyes, all I see are the inner barrels of various firearms. Each one cocked and ready to fire. With their weapons pointing at me, I silently thanked what ever goddess is listening for my mantra, else I would have been put down like the rabid animal I used to be as soon as my levitation spell pulled my gun beyond the holster.
"Fine..." I say as a low guttural growl escaped under my breath as I stooped to this bitches demands. "I'll pay the original twelve fucking caps. You've made your point." I close my eyes again and kick myself mentally for almost losing control, for almost getting myself killed and for actually giving up and letting her win.
"Oi, I said twenty-four. Twelve caps was earlier, this here is now double that on account of all that there trouble you been giving me, and all them hurtful words, not to mention that little light show y'all just put on" her own magic grasped and lifted the arcane filter between us, albeit a lot closer to herself than me. "The price is still twenty-four caps" she says as the object of my current desires spun around in circles as if she were showing it off like a prize to be won in a kind of like old pre-war television game show.
"Fuck off. I ain't even got that much. I've spent all my caps on other shit, like supplies and ammo, this was my last stop. I can't afford four times what I came here expecting!" Even after calming down with my mantra moments ago, my temper was already beginning to flare again. The bodyguards however hadn't even begun to lower their weapons, they were watching me like hawks, though the mare to my right was sweating bullets. She looked very twitchy. I deemed it best to keep an eye on her and her wonky gun, or I might end up full of a couple new holes to breathe from.
"Look! You won! Give me the fucking arcane filter for twelve and I'll leave your shop! Fuck it! Take all my caps! I got sixteen! You want it all?! Take it! Sell the me goddess fucking damn filter!" I scream through my teeth as I painfully slammed my hoof on the floor again. My magic flared up once more, bathing the room in my red hue.
The sting from the crack in my horn once again reminded me that magic is a difficult task, even levitation is a painful chore. Sometimes it's hard to even move it with any form of accuracy, much like a lack of magical depth perception.
"Here! You can even take the fucking pouch too! Have it! I need that filter and I'm not leaving this camp without it!" I reached down to get a grip on my cap pouch that hung on my hip so I could throw it at her face, my magic however accidentally found its perch on the grip of my weapon instead.
The feel of iron and wood in my magic surprised me for a moment, I was instead expecting a touch of leather instead. Searing pain immediately flooded my senses as a burning sensation I am all too familiar with embedded itself into my left shoulder.
I'd been shot.
The red glow in the shop grew quickly. Red was all I saw. The shelves of salvage and stock were red. The old brick machines in the corner, used for who knows what were red. The rotten walls and cracked leaking roof of this dingy little building were red. Just red It's all red.
Pure instinct is all that was there. I couldn't think! I didn't have time to think, I'd been shot! Enemies! I needed to kill them! Survival came first! I come first! I'll live! They won't! They'll die! I'll kill them first! I'll kill them all! Kill them! Kill them! Kill! Kill! Kill!
I drew my gun from it's holster faster than the bodyguards could pull the triggers on their weapons already pointed at me, ready to retaliate.
Jumping back and lowering myself to the floor, I moved my rusted .44 to my front and fired. The recoil sent my gun backward as the bullet flew and embedded itself into the head of the mare behind the merchant. Her eye splattered as the lead forced its way into her socket, showering her boss in bloody sinew!
Using my magic I nudged the gun to the left, twisting the recoil and using its own force to push it in the direction I needed. In a split second, the barrel was in the perfect place and I fired as it passed the stallion over, sending the second bullet through his horn, shattering it and forcing its way into his skull, housing itself in his soft brain with a squish and a spatter!
Once again, I nudged the recoil with my magic as the gun flew over my head in a one hundred and eighty degree spin. I fired two bullets into the chest of the scared and crying mare who had shot me. This must have been her first job. The first bullet forced through and shattered her sternum, finding its way into her body, the second easily passed through and stopped well and deep into her heart, dropping her to the floor with a lifeless thud.
Red. All I still saw was red! Red was on the merchant! Red was on the corpses! Red was all over the floor! Red was even on me! Red! Red! Blood! Kill! Kill! Kill!
A wet gurgle of a growl escaped my throat as I gnashed my teeth together violently! A small giggle found its way through the anger and hatred as I straightened up and leveled my weapon with the tear-stained merchants head. Her eyes focused on me in terror as she pushed the arcane filter toward me in a vain attempt to please and plead.
"Too little too late I'm afraid! Time to die! Die! DIE! THEMS THE PRICES I SET!"
I screamed as I pulled the trigger! The gun clicked and the merchant fell back..
There was red! Red on the floor! Red on the roof! Red on the bodies.. Red on me... But no red on the merchant... The growling in my throat grew as I slowly come to realise what had happened. I was out of bullets. The merchant had been spared simply because I had forgotten to reload after I bought more ammo earlier.
A pair of shaking tear filled eyes peered over the counter at me. Their natural deep blue color dulled to a grey with terror as they watched me.
I stared back, my own red eyes meeting the blue...
Blue...
I no longer saw the red.. The pain in my shoulder returned very quickly and powerfully as my body began to shiver. I severed eye contact with the merchant and looked around me. The walls were a cream color, the roof was a brown. The shelves were a rusty silver with an assortment of other random colours in junk. The only red in this room was me and the blood I had caused.
I looked back at the merchant as she continued to stare at me, her whimpers and sobs like knives to my ears. I'd heard this song before, many times in fact. It was one I had wished I could never hear again.
"P-please.. Please don't kill me! I-I'm sorry! Take the filter! take all me caps! take what ever ya'll want! just please let me live!" she pleaded. Another song I knew, another dance I had learned.
With a sigh, I looked about the shop, my vision swimming and my already weak magic fading. I holstered the gun and looked down at the merchant once more. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" I droned as I unlatched my coin pouch, threw it at her head and picked up the filter. "Twelve for this." I said, shaking what I hesitated to call my prize in front of her. "And four for those!" I pointed toward the wall behind her. Slowly she turned around, obviously wary of looking away from me. Hanging behind her were four strips of white gauze. Shakily looking back toward me, she nodded timidly like twitches in her neck.
"O-of-c-course! Please! take all you want! Please! K-keep your caps too! I beg of you!" she stammered.
I closed my eyes and shook my head, lighting my horn once more, I let its red glow rest on my gun. The merchant took this as a sign to fuck off and did just that. With a squeak and an almost cartoonish dust outline she was gone.
I let the glow fade again as I opened my eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time. Looking about, I spied what I needed, strolled toward the counter, grabbed a pair of scissors on a nearby shelf and hoisted myself up onto the bench with my good foreleg and gripped at the gauze on the wall.
"Ugh! They look white, but this shit is oooold as fuck! Man! These fucking things have already been used!" with yet another sigh, I set to work patching myself up. Using my near useless magic, I drew my gun and fumbled with my saddlebags, drawing seven bullets and placing six next to me as I opened the gun, emptied the casings and placed the seventh bullet in the receiver.
Closing the gun with a click, I checked it, making sure the single shot was the next used. "Fuck! Hate doing this shit on my own! Fuck! Fuck! Shit! FUCK!" I placed the gun next to me and growled as I took the scissors in my magic, shakily levitated them up to my shoulder and took a deep breath. "Fuck merchants!" I yelled as I drove the sharp point into my gunshot wound.
"FUAGH! FUCK ME!" Clenching my eyes shut tightly, I took rapid breaths. "Hng... Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" as steadily as I could, I fumbled with my magic to start handling the grips of the scissors, snipping about inside my shoulder to grab at the bullet. "This is bullshit! The fuck Anarchy? Why did you do that! You're supposed to be a better mare! FUCK AGH!" I paused for a moment, the crack in my horn burning at the extended use of magic and the blood spilling from my shoulder causing dizziness.
Taking a deep breath I slowly started rooting around in my shoulder again until I managed to grip the bullet. "Easy.. Eeeeasy... Don't wanna push that fucker any further in...." steadying myself even more, I slowly started to pull the scissors out. Eventually the bullet and the blade fell from my body and I panted. "Step one, remove the FUCKING BULLET!" I screamed at the small piece of bloody metal on the floor. "Step two, close the wound. Ugh"
My already tired magic reached out and gripped at my gun again, lifted it up and pointed it toward the ceiling. The .44 already felt as if it weighed as much as a fully grown stallion in my levitation. Pulling the trigger the gun fired with a bright flash and a loud bang, then fell to the floor, the recoil painfully shattering my magic grip and causing an aggonizing flair in my horn "Aaaghaa! Motherfucker!"
Without any time to waste, I looked for the gun on the floor and dropped off the table, as tired and woozy as I was, it was all I could do to fall onto it, making sure my wound rested on the scolding barrel. The heated metal seared my flesh and poorly cauterised my shoulder. "Aaaahahahaaafuuuck"
Panting, I lay there for minutes, the burning muzzle painfully cooling on my flesh as I took the time to gather my thoughts. "Step two, close the wound. Step three, bind it." with a grunt, I forced my shaky legs under me and pushed myself up to a standing state. The room span, my heart thundered in my chest and my eyelids fell. "Come on Anarchy! you can do this! Almost there! Patch this shit up, nap after! COME ON!"
With a little self pep-talk I managed to force myself onto the counter again, nearly falling off immediately after. "This is what happens when you try to go straight! No fucking Rage, no Dash, no Buck and no fucking Med-X! WHY THE FUCK DID I GIVE UP MED-X?!" Grumbling to myself and my stupidness, I started to dress my wound with hoof and teeth. Gagging on the taste of the bandages, I managed to get a somewhat tight bind on my shoulder. "Uugh... This fucking suucks"
I pushed myself off the counter and nearly bodychecked the floor. Managing to keep my legs under me, I stumbled into the wall and grunted as I slammed into it, keeping myself vertical. Step by step I walked toward the exit as the world continued to sway. Using the wall as an aid, I slowly made it to the door. "Home free mother fuckers..." I mumbled just before an unseen force tackled me to the ground.
Too dizzy to see clearly and too tired to hear correctly, all I managed to gather was a set of voices, the cold press of a gun muzzle that hadn't been used recently and a heavy weight straddling my back and forcing my head into the floor. What ever they're gonna do to me, I'm not gonna be here for it.. "Fuck all you fuckers! I'm Anarchy, bitch! I'll eat your fucking faces!" I slurred my lines as a black void swirled in my vision and turned even sounds to darkness. "I'll... I'll kill you... I'll kill... All... I'll..." and that was it... I blacked out.