Rhythm, a colt who lives in an old abandoned Stable must venture out into the wasteland.
Rhythm has got a few things going for him. His cutie mark is of a powerhoof, a weapon that's ability to mess ponies up is almost unparalleled. Bullets have an incredibly tough time even making him flinch, let alone actually getting through his skin. The old abandoned stable is a relativity safe place to live. But best of all he's got all kinds of sweet moves and one liners he gets from his rather odd dreams.
Now that doesn't mean he's livin' the good life though.
One day Rhythm noticed that his food dispenser has stopped functioning, or rather stopped dispensing food. He had long since consumed all the rest of the food in the cafeteria and it seemed like he had no other choice but to travel into the Equestrian Wastes. Usually he only left to head down to a passing trader, but they only came once a week. This time he had to truly venture out. He had to brave the wastelands and find food and maybe even a new home.
Before we get this big whopping adventure started it would probably help if you know what I looked like. Well I have a bright orange coat. Not exactly the most subtle natural color for the wastes, but it’s the only one I got and I don’t like scissors, so I’m not gonna cut it. My mane is a dark black. I got a lot of Nightmare Night jokes when I was younger and when I actually had other fillies and colts as friends. But I usually scared them off. I was never the most normal kid in my tiny village. See, I always had strange dreams at night and that always made me a little strange. My mother said that her mother used to have odd dreams as well. She talked about how we got it from one of our pre-war ancestors. A pony who always was an oddball in her time who was obsessed with the things the dreams showed her. I can’t say I’m that much different. I see so many strange things I can’t help it. Sometimes I see the same thing multiple times. It really stays burned into my brain, you know? Other times I see or hear things so amazing I just have to say them in real life. One creature with a blond mane and black sunglasses says things that are incredibly vulgar, but obviously intimidating and cool.
Anyway, I live in an old stable I found when I was just a colt. My village was attacked by slavers. They were accompanied by griffon mercenaries. An angry looking unicorn with blood covered armor stormed into the house at night and took my mom and pop. Now I was always a very strong kid, I could pull more than most kids and I could do it for much longer. My mom, who was an ex stable dweller, said it had something to do with taking points away from charisma for strength and endurance or something like that. Never made much sense to me. It sounded a little like some of the dreams I had, but I never really thought about it much. But I suppose it came in handy when being attacked by those slavers. The unicorn tried putting me in chains, but I broke them in the struggle. Then he pulled a gun. I had only ever seen a gun when the village sheriff needed to put down some rowdy drugged up pony who wandered in. Well that slaver pointed the gun right at my head and fired. I was sure I was dead. I felt a burning pain right between my eyes before I hit the ground. I could hear my mother screaming my name as The unicorn yanked them out of our house. My father just sort of cried as he looked at me. That was the last thing I remembered as I closed my eyes.
I came to a while later. It was hot all around me and took me a second before I noticed the house was on fire. I bolted out the door to see my entire village engulfed in flames. I was so crushed I just stood there. In the middle of my town as it burned. I couldn't stay for long though as some nasty radigators had crawled up from the swamp. I guess the fire and all the smell of blood attracted them. Looks like I wasn't the only one who put up a struggle, but I didn't even have time to see who it was. I couldn't even identify the bodies before I had to run. It was clear the damn things were starving too. They were practically killing each other over those bodies. It was pretty obvious I was next. A few of them eyed me as I took off. Those damn things were quick; they chased after me for what felt like miles. I tried yelling for help but I knew no one was coming. So I kept on running until I hit a cave at the top of a hill. I dashed in as fast I could but they still followed me. The beasts were persistent. I decided to run deeper into the cave. Whatever was in there had to be better than being eaten by radigators. It was dark but I could make out the letters on the stable door.
I remember this next part clear as day. I stopped as I looked back to see the gators who were closing in on me. This was the first time I got a good look at them. They couldn’t have been very old and they weren’t the largest of the group, but it was obvious they meant business. I looked at the vault door and moved to the right to get inside. It was strange how much metal there was, but I had no time to think about that. I darted up the small staircase to the terminal on the left to see if I could shut the door. It had long since been smashed to bits. The radigators began to slide through the door; I was practically hyperventilating, they started to the stairs. I looked around, If I tried to get inside the vault they would pounce on me. I stepped back, crashing into the broken lockers knocking them over. The loud ruckus got them to step back. That’s when I found it, I had never really been good at anything. I always wondered when I would get my cutie mark. I never thought it would be like this.
It landed right in front of me. It must have been on top of one of the lockers. But it was here in front of me now. The powerhoof. I don’t know how but I knew exactly what it was. I scrambled to pick it up and slide my hoof inside. As soon as I did the air cushions expanded to fit around my small hoof. The second I had it all the way on one of the radigators pounced at me. Without a second thought I swung that hunk of metal right in that monster’s face. Clean decapitated it. The blood splattered all over me. I didn't need a pipbuck or a doctor to tell me that I was soaking up the radiation from it. I was in shock but I couldn’t stop, the next one jumped at me. He suffered the same fate as the first. Now my blood was boiling, and unbelievable rage seeped into me. There were two more in front of me. They had obviously learned from the first two jumping to their deaths on my hoof. So this time I charged them. I shouted the first thing that popped into my mind. One of the things the blond creature in my dreams said.
“Eat shit and die!” I reared back, dropping the powerhoof on the radigator's head. It splattered everywhere. The last one took a step back from me. It knew it had taken on more than it could handle. I turned and stepped closer, sneering at it.
“I’m not gonna fight you. I’m gonna kick your ass.” I said, recalling another line from my dream. I quickly hopped forward and swung my hoof to the side, hitting the damned monster on the side of the head. It spun like crazy and it probably would have been quite an amusing sight if I wasn’t so infuriated. It slammed against the stable door. I panted and wheezed. Between the running and the four radigators I had just went a round with I could collapse right there. But then I saw a blinding light from behind me. I felt an incredible power surging through me. My cutie mark was appearing. I looked at my flank. It looked just like the powerhoof I was wearing except cleaner. It was obvious mine had seen a bit of action already. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to be so happy that I had finally got my cutie mark. But I couldn’t muster a smile or anything. I just panted as my legs gave out and I lied on the cold metal floor of the stable. I looked at the radigator I had sent into a spin. It was still barely alive, it crawled to me, but I knew it wasn't gonna make it. Now I smiled. For some reason I smiled. The dying animal in front of me actually got me to smile.
“You’re beautiful when you’re dyin’...” I recited weakly. Another line from my dreams. Dreams I was about to visit again as my eyes closed just in time to see the gator’s demise. When I got up, I would have to start a new life in the vault on my own.
When I awoke I walked around a bit to find none other than a real pipbuck. It was a little big for me, but it reminded me of my mother’s. I slipped it on and again, the cushions of it expanded as well to fit my upper hoof. I looked at it as it blinked ‘analyzing’ over and over in the middle of the screen. I supposed it was scanning me or something. All I knew was my mother loved hers, so it had to be good for something. It finished ‘analyzing’ and it showed my current state of health. Strange things appeared in my vision that told me what direction I was facing and it even knew my only item on my person was my new powerhoof. This thing was pretty neat.
Other than my first encounter with my pipbuck, I filled most of the days there with bland tasks. Mostly punching at the air, practicing with my powerhoof and imitating some of the moves I saw in my dreams. I chose the largest room for my bedroom just so I could practice moves without damaging my new home. But one of the best things had to be the cafeteria. It was filled with so much food. This place had obviously been untouched by raiders and bandits, or else this all would have been snagged a long time ago. I had no reason to leave. No reason to go back to my scorched village. No one was there. So I stood in the old stable. Just me my powerhoof and my dreams. Little did I know that this would be the most boring part of my life.
Chapter one- Starved Into Adventure "Im so hungry I could eat a... nevermind”
“I love them...” I said as I weakly pounded my hooves on food dispenser; my head pressed against the cold rusted metal. I wanted so bad to simply smash my way inside. To gut the dispenser and see if it was lying to me, to see if it was keeping the food to itself. But doing that would have been a fantastic waste of my energy, which I was already in short supply of. I must be delirious. I was actually so hungry that I was proclaiming my love for Blue Dandelion potato chips. A food that I quite frankly despised and had avoided taking on just about every occasion. It had been so long since I last ate I was pretty much running on fumes. I tried to deny the truth for a long time. Telling myself that I would just eat the next day. But as the days passed and my stomach grew emptier it was obvious. I needed to go buy, or maybe even find some food.
I trotted over to the safe next to my bed. My powerhoof clanking loudly against the dirty stable floor. The rusty grey walls that smelled dank and uninviting had become quite common in my daily life. “Eight, eight, two, two, four, six, four, six, two, one, enter...” I mumbled to myself as I punched in my code. Opening my safe I picked up my bag of caps. Putting it in my satchel added it to my inventory so I didn't have to count them. Three hundred caps on the dot, according to the white numbers on my Pipbuck. Perhaps all the annoying bandits that tried to invade were good for something after all. They supplied me with more than a few caps and the traveling merchants usually bought their shotguns, pistols and various melee weapons off me and gave me one or two caps for them.
It was only while preparing to leave did I actually realize how little I owned. It was really just my powerhoof, my pipbuck, a few medical supplies and my caps. I sold just about everything that wasn't medicine, and I only had two health potions and some magical bandages. I found a bunch bobby pins in the Stable, and I heard some unicorns could pick locks, but I didn't have a horn. I couldn’t hold them in my hooves, especially not with this big powerhoof on, so I left them where they were. So really, these were the only things I owned.
I trotted down the hallway. It was loud and actually a bit unsettling to be honest. It felt like I had to leave the stable before I really noticed how empty it was. It was cold and grey and old and rather uninviting. But it was my house. It was where I lived. I didn’t really wanna leave, but I couldn’t stay and starve. So I gave one more look around before I left. I looked at the old consoles that had been broken for years. I looked at the extra rusted grey walls in the flooded back end of the stable. I had always meant to get a rebreather one day and explore it. But most of all I looked at the cafeteria. When I had first arrived it was stocked with more food than I had ever seen in my life. Sure most of it was old and ruined, but a lot of it was still in tact. It had been the best part of the awful day I had first come here.
I looked at the blood on the walls from past bouts with nasty scavenging bandits. They always underestimated what I could do and they always paid the price for shooting first. I sighed and shook my head as I walked up to the huge steel door of the stable. It was large and imposing and there was a big sixty four on it. I even remembered the first time I had ran through it as a colt running from the gators about two years ago. I slipped through the opened crack. The fact that the door was only opened a little bit, only enough for one pony at a time, had come to my advantage in many situations. Bandits were usually stupid and continued to slip in one by one as I killed them, despite the fact that they MUST have heard the pained cries of their comrades, or at least their blood splattering everywhere. I probably would have opened the door further if the console hadn't been long destroyed and the door wasn't too heavy, even for me and my powerhoof.
As I walked further to the exit I could hear the sound of the sand beating against the opening of the cave that connected the wastes to the Stable. Must have been a sandstorm outside. Just my luck I suppose. I stepped out into the light. I tried adjusting my ears to deny the sand from entrance, but to little avail. It beat against my coat and blew my mane about irritatingly. I should probably take one of the goggles and bandanas off the bandit bodies at the bottom of the hill. It’s where I tossed them after they died. If their bodies were more than just red mush that is. I just swept them into the water logged back of the stable with an old broom if that happened. I skidded down the hill, my powerhoof digging noticeably deeper into the sand than my other hooves.
I looked at the bodies of the slain bandits. Some son of a bitch had already looted all their clothes. Looks like I would be squinting for a while. Luckily the wind blew at my back, and made walking on an empty stomach much easier. I gave my pipbuck’s map a quick look. It had a few markers on it. I had never explored any of them and none of them sounded like they would have food. It seemed like it was mostly radio towers. Not to mention my old village too. It was right there. I have to admit, a part of me wanted to go back and look, but it would just bring back bad memories.
I pressed forward a while longer. The sandstorm was picking up, the wind getting much nastier as it threw the sand into my flank even harder. It's like the wastes were pushing me forward. Like they wanted me to keep going forward. Again I checked my pipbuck, it was telling me there was something ahead. An old shack that was literally just marked as 'old shack' on my map. How creative. Soon it came into view, it was broken down and sorta rusty with a smashed window, but it looked like it could protect me from the sand for a while and it might even have something to eat inside. I picked up to a gallop as I got to the door. I lifted my hoof to knock, like my mom taught me to do, but realizing I was knocking with the hoof that had a weapon capable of decapitation, I decided to switch to my other one. The second I put my hoof down and switched to my hoof with the pipbuck on it, the door cracked open. I had about a second to see what was clearly the barrel of a shotgun pointed at my face. 'BLAM' whoever was there fired instantly. My face sprayed with scolding hot buckshot as I tumbled onto my back. "Fucking ass!" I screamed, my hooves pressed to my face. The door closed immediately after that.
They had no idea what they were in for. "Now I'm really pissed off..." this was another line from my dreams, but it summed up how I felt pretty well. I reeled my powerhoof back and slammed it into the door. It went flying off it's hinges, probably killing whoever had just shot me. I jumped inside and what I saw was shocking. The shack was bigger than I originally thought, mostly longer as I only saw it from the front. But what was there was something like six raider ponies. They were standing around a bound pony. Maybe a pegasus from the feathers, but one of them was standing in the way, so it was hard to see. All I know was I could see that the captive was bent over and one of the raiders was getting ready to mount them. Then I felt it. I felt the rage boil my blood.
They all drew their weapons startlingly quickly. I sneered at them, grinding my hoof in the dirty, sand cover floor beneath me.
"Hey asshole! Get the fuck outta here before we turn you into the next coating of paint!" I wasn't quite sure what he meant about that until I gave a quick look around. It seemed like the walls of the old shack were painted with blood. Bodies of gored ponies lied in corners. Decapitated heads and rotting carcasses littered about and collected heavily in the corners of the shack.
"Appreciating the decor?" a one eyed earth pony with a deep brown coat and darker brown hair laughed as he looked at me observe. I slowly walked over to them as they readied their weapons.
"Don't let him get close! Look at his hoof!" one unicorn with a mask said as he fired off a shot from his pistol. It hit me square in the face, but the bullet bounced into the air, spinning a bit before it hit the ground. It stung like a bastard, but it was nothing serious; all it did was jerk my head back. I activated my S.A.T.S. spell, I usually didn't really need it but I think these assholes deserved it. They began saying something, but my S.A.T.S kicked in. They slowed to a crawl and I charged them.
"Clothesline!" I yelled as I made it to the closest unicorn who shot me, a phrase I had heard in my dream. Getting up on my hind legs and whipping my foreleg across his neck I hit him. Off with his head. It went flying across the room, slamming into the back of the shack, joining a pile of bodies he had back there. Still they moved in slow motion. I had enough power in my S.A.T.S left to kill one more. "Tiger uppercut!" I growled out, continuing to let the memories of my dreams fuel my words. My hoof came up to one of their faces, hitting him in the jaw and flipping him over, probably snapping his neck in the process. Now the creature in the dream had done a back flip during this move, but I was nowhere near as athletic as that, so I simply uppercut him. As my spell wore off the other ponies tried to recover from the shock of me closing in so quickly and killing two of their comrades. The brown haired one who was beginning to mount the captive when I first walked in was holding a shotgun. He fired it directly at me with two shots. My stable armor absorbed most of the shots as it pushed me back a bit. I grit my teeth. That one hurt more than I thought it would, and it was clear he had a higher quality gun than the ones that had shot me before. I coughed and stumbled a bit, shaking my head and trying to regain my composure. The other three had hopped behind a table in the back while the one who had just shot me fumbled to reload his weapon. In that second I rushed him, hopping over the captive and reeling back my powerhoof at the same time. I brought my hoof down on his left shoulder. I clearly shattered all the bones in that leg as his whole body slammed into the ground, probably smashing a few ribs at the same time. But that didn't mater, he got hit so hard his brain must have turned into mulch in his skull.
A few second of silence went by as I panted, I could hear the captive squirming in their bonds behind me. I couldn't check if they were alright right now, those other three were... surrendering? They had come out from behind the table and were clearly shaking. The three looked unarmed and none of them were unicorns, so I was sure they wouldn't pull anything sneaky like dropping a heavy object on my head with levitation.
"H-Hey! J-Just let us go! You're strong alright! W-way stronger than any of us! I just don't wanna die! Please!" one stammered out. The other two cowering behind him. I felt my rage fade a bit. There was no way I could kill such sniveling wimps. They looked like they would soil themselves if I got any closer.
"Don't fucking move." I commanded, pointing my powerhoof at them. I kept my eyes glued to the three in case they tried anything. I moved back over the captive and as I looked down I noticed something strange. She, as I noticed from the more feminine sounds she made while struggling, didn't have hooves, she had claws. It hit me soon after. I had just rescued a griffon.
Her claws, paws and beak were bound. Her wings were also taped to her body. She had still been struggling while I looked at her, trying her hardest to free herself.
"Easy." I said, looking back at the three ponies who were cowering still. "Hey. Pass me that knife." I shouted at one who quickly scrambled to the knife I motion towards and kicked it over to me before going back to hiding behind his friend. I picked the knife up in my mouth. Leaning down I cut the griffon's claws free. She quickly spread her arms and slashed at the tape binding her legs, then her wings and finally her beak. She didn't even give me a look before turned to the three cowering ponies, wings spread as she stood on her hind legs. I stepped forward to look at her. She had a face of pure hatred on and I figured it wasn't dissimilar to my own battle face. She was ready to tear out their hearts.
"Hey, you alright?" I said to her. She didn't respond. With the loud screech of a hawk she charged the three ponies. With one swipe of her claw she killed two of them, slashing them across the throats. She then grabbed the other one by her neck and sent her claw clean through the pony's chest. She yanked her blood soaked claw out and dropped the pony to the floor. I trotted a bit closer to her. "I was thinking about letting them live, but whatever..." she turned to me with a look that was only a little less intense than the one she gave the three raiders just now.
"You shut your mouth, Nightmare night." she growled at me. I felt a small amount of anger build up in me. Not only from her general rudeness, but from the fact that I had a little bit of a flashback of being called that when I was a colt. I also wondered how a griffon even knew about pre-war pony holidays.
"My name's not Nightmare night. It's Rhythm. What's yours?" I said in an attempt to keep the conversation friendly and violence free. She relaxed, but sneered a bit, whipping her claws of blood and getting down on all fours. She retraced her wings as well. She felt much less intimidating like this. As she stepped into the light shining through one of the cracked windows I could examine her features a bit better. She looked incredibly pristine for someone so evidently violent. Her feathers were flattened down and she looked almost well groomed. Her eyes had no visible markings around them, where as most griffons did and her eyes themselves were a shimmering baby blue. The tips of the feathers on her head were a faded yellow. She was composed of incredibly soft colors. Kinda hard to imagine that I just watched her kill three ponies with her claws.
"Name's Zoie." She said looking into my eyes. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, but I kept on my guard. The wastes had some wild people and it was clear this girl could give me a hell of a fight.
"Nice to meet you Zoie..." I said as friendly as I could. I held out my hoof so we could shake. Now her expression changed.
"What are you doing? Wait, do you wanna shake?" She said as if I just presented her with the most outrageous idea. But surely enough she raised her claw and softly shook my hoof. "Who the heck are you anyway?"
"I'm just a wander looking for food as of right now." I said truthfully. Zoie gave me a dubious look before eyeing my powerhoof, pipbuck and stable armor.
"You a stable pony?" she said, staring a bit at my powerhoof. I shook my head.
"Not exactly. I got this stuff from an abandoned one I used to live in." I said walking over to the bodies of some of the raiders. "You gonna help me snag their stuff?" I said as I picked up the nasty sawed off shotgun that almost made me pass out. Speaking of passing out. As I was going through the raider's things, my vision blurred. It wasn't until now that everything really started to pile up. The starvation, the multiple gunshot wounds, the horrid smell of the bodies around me. My knees got weak and I stumbled about a bit before turning to Zoie, who was staring at me in confusion. I fumbled on my feet as it got harder to see.
"Hey. What's the matter with you?" I heard her muffled voice say as I reached out to hold onto her, trying to keep my balance to no avail. I felt her arms wrap around me as I lost consciousness. The last thing I heard was her deep sigh.
Guess not everypony in the wastes wants to murder me.
My head was throbbing. My stomach was empty. But the smell in the air was much better. I groggily opened my eyes, rubbing them with my hoof. An action I immediately regretted as I rubbed cold hard steel against my left eye. My powerhoof. One of these days I was gonna take my own head clean off with this thing. I was lying on my back before I sat up and felt the cushions under me, it was surprisingly soft and comfortable, but for once in my life I sure hoped the fluids in the bed were mine. I even had a grimy, blood stained blanket thrown over me. As I looked around I noticed I was still in the shack. It was dusk and somepony had been cleaned up a bit. It seemed someone had removed all the bodies and various gore that plagued the shack, orr did their best at least, there was no amount of cleaner that could make this place homely. Looking to my left I saw a fire, with the griffon I had just met standing over it, she was obviously cooking something in there that's aroma fought with the previous smells. The second I shifted a bit, making the rusty bed frame squeak, she looked over at me with an eyebrow raised.
"Well well. Looks like Nightmare Night lives on." she said turning back to whatever she was cooking. I frowned a bit.
"My name's not Nightmare night." I huffed. It took me a second to recall the griffon's name. "Zoie, right?" I said tossing my blanket off me and hanging my hind legs over the edge of the bed.
"Guess those bullets to the head don't affect your memory." she said with a smirk as she looked in the pot. "Yea, so I know you just woke up and stuff, but that's my first question. How is it that I saw you get shot at the door and your face is not only still on, but still pretty to boot?" I couldn't help but blush at that comment. Not used to compliments that weren't from my parents. But the truth was that I had no idea. It's just always how I was.
"Well I'm not sure. But I the only thing I could guess was something my mom told me about taking points out of charisma for strength and endurance." She gave me an understandably confused face at this. She just shook her head and moved on.
"Uhh, right. So what about that powerhoof you got there? You sure can knock some heads with the thing." She said picking up a dirty fork and stirring around the food in the pot. It actually smelled pretty good. But a boiled horseshoe would have smelled tasty to me at this point.
"Yea I should be good with it. It's on my flank." I said getting up from the bed, wobbling a bit at first but quickly gaining my balance. "W-what are you cookin' there?" I said walking closer, trying to peer into the pot. The griffon smirked again.
"Just a few rats caught cleaning this dump out. You've been out for over a day by the way." I didn't know what to be shocked about first. The fact that she was eating rat, the fact that I wanted some or that I had been asleep for an entire day. I decided to start with the rats.
"So, rat? What does it taste like?" I had never eaten meat before but I know I would have knocked over Luna herself to get to that food right now. Zoie gave me a look accompanied by a small smirk.
"Never had it before?" She said holding the pot up to me. It looked pretty edible and it smelled surprisingly good. "Here take some." she said holding the pot a little lower. I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Take some? What, should I put my face in the burning hot pot, or pick it up with my hoof?" I raised my hoof to eye level. "I can't grab anything with this. I mean, look at this. What is this even!? It's not like I can b-" I was cut off by her roughly shoving a piece in my mouth. I gave her a bit of a glare as I chewed it, my cheeks flushing. I had only even seen my mother and father feed each other and they were usually making weird faces at each other and always told me to go out and play for a little while after. I assumed they were doing it.
"I didn't think smartasses survived very long in the wastes. But I guess you and your beat down hoof there even the odds." she scowled and went into the drawer by the bed I was just in. She got a plate and dumped the cooked rats onto it.
"Yea well, I have a couple of questions now. Like, who are you? Well, not like your name but like... you know, what are you doing here and stuff." I said awkwardly. It only now dawned on me that this is the only other living thing I've had a real conversation with in years already. I never was good at talking to others to begin with and going that long while only ever saying one or two things to a passing trader probably didn't help. Zoie just sort of gave me a suspicious look.
"Well I'm a griffon, so I'm a hired gun like pretty much all griffons. But I prefer the term assassin over mercenary." she said as she tossed some of the rat in her mouth. "It sounds more dangerous, make people not mess with you if they know who you are."
"Alright so I saw you just jack those ponies up, so you obviously know how to fight. So how did you get captured?" I said as I went over to the plate of food, eating another piece. She gave a quick sigh.
"I said I was an assassin, never said I was good at it. I'm pretty bad at sneaking around. This was actually my first job by myself." she gave a bit of a grimace and continued eating. "I was hired by some nearby villagers to kill the unicorn with the mask and his crew. Looks like I owe you for saving me instead though." she said looking over at me.
"Mmm... nah, you don't owe me." At least I didn't think she did. "Why would you owe me? I didn't lend you caps or something. All I did was help you out. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" I tilted my head. "It's what my mom always taught me. If I see another in need who I can help, I should." Zoie gave me yet another confused look before starting to laugh.
"Do you really think that's how it works Nightmare Night?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Rhythm! Not Nightmare Night. But it's how it's supposed to work. It's how my mother always was. If they don't think they should help somepony if they need it, well all I can say is their mama just didn't raise them right." I took another bite of rat. Zoie just gave me a look that seemed like I was making her think. Don't really know what there was to think about.
"What about all those ponies you killed then? Knocking their heads off and breaking their bones seems like it's not helping them very much." I shook my head.
"Anypony who was planning on hurting another, let alone doing that to another, doesn't deserve my help. They deserve this." I held up my powerhoof. "Now my daddy taught me that one. I should break the one's who hurt." Zoie looked at my weapon and laughed again.
"That's good. I like that Nightmare Night. I like you too." What did she just say? She likes me? My cheeks flushed red again. I don't think anyone has ever said that they liked me before. "How about we travel together?" as soon as I opened my mouth my pipbuck started going off.
"Hey. My pipbuck's doin' a thing." I held it up to look at it. It was displaying a message that said 'Accept Zoie as a companion?'. This was new, I never had it say anything like this before. I looked over at Zoie who was looking at my pipbuck too. I switched the dial and selected 'yes' and it gave me a screen showing her over all health and even what she was carrying. According to it she had eighteen caps, a cheap mediocre pistol, a combat knife and a shotgun called 'S.y.L.R'. "S.y.L.R?" I said out loud.
"Your pipbuck knows what I'm holding? That's kinda weird. Well, that's my shotty. See you Later Radigator. It'll turn those bastards into mince meat. Ever run into one?" I chuckled this time.
"Once or twice. Hey, we should get walking to that village and probly pick up the money from the villagers for these guys, right? I mean, I'm not going anywhere specific, and we're partners or whatever now, right?" I questioned. This was the first time I had anything like this, like, with another living creature. I was really just going off what my pop taught me as a kid.
"Sure. Your stuff is in the drawer over there. Just grab it and we can go be on our way." I did what she said, trotting over and getting the bandages and potions as well as my caps, which were all still there. "Let's get outta here bud." Bud? Like friend? It had been a long time since I had a friend. It was a really weird feeling. I liked it. I went up to her and opened the door to the shack to let her out. The storm had cleared and it looked like it was pretty decent weather. We began to walk as I spoke.
"So where we going?" I asked.
"New Dodge city." she said. I got a little nervous. That was right by where my old village was. Hopefully this adventure didn't have detours.