Everypony has a special magical connection with her friends, maybe even before she’s met them.

Chapter 4: John Trotson

I moved along the tracks straight through the night. What warmth and heat I’d had from being in shelter soon gave way to freezing temperatures, and I wrapped my coat all the tighter around myself to try and retain what I could. I was amazed how cold it was out here… and I had thought the stable was cold…

Thinking of the stable, I felt glad that I wasn’t missing the ponies I’d left behind, for that would make this journey all the harder. Call it strange, but so far, I've found very little I could ever attach real sentiment to, be it a pony or an item. The closest I got was my attachment to the coat Myclop had given me, and that was more of a reminder not to make assumptions… about anything or anypony.

I did my best to ignore the freezing air and kept pumping my little hoofcart, checking the eyes-forward sparkle every few feet, just in case. However, I came across nothing whatsoever. Not even radiation blocked my path through the long forgotten lands. Eventually I could see that the sun was starting to come up again over the horizon… not that it wouldn’t be blocked by the clouds in a just a moment, but the idea that it might soon get warmer was very welcome.

It was by the light of the sunrise that I saw some that made my heart plummet in my chest. My journey was about to have a very sudden and unpleasant stop. A huge creature was blocking the tracks… and it had definitely seen me. I wasn’t sure exactly what to make of the creature. Its head and body were that of a lion, but it had the wings of a bat and tail of a scorpion.

I hit S.A.T.S. and my pipbuck helpfully labeled it as a manticore. I targeted it with four headshots and my pistol rang out.

Blam! Blam Blam! Blam!

To my dismay, the manticore’s health bar barely budged. I lamented my lack of knowledge with guns. It came towards me, tail poised to strike. I sneered at the creature and pulled out the zebra blade, biting down solidly on the handle. It stabbed out at me and I used my telekinesis, targeting the tail. Oh sure, to actually control the tail would’ve been beyond me, but simply nudging it so that the manticore missed and plunged the tail into the ground was a piece of cake.

Once I had it stunned, I swung at the midsections of it’s tail with all my might. It cut cleanly in half, sending the manticore screaming in pain.

Manticore tail crippled, said my pipbuck.

“Crippled is a very lose term,” I muttered, taking aim with the revolver again.

Blam! Blam!

This time, the manticore went down and stayed down. Just for good measure, I stomped on its neck. I didn’t need anything in the wasteland chasing me. As I got back on my little cart, my E.F.S. flashed up a large blotch of red on my left. I spun around revolver at the ready. I saw seven ponies, all dressed in blue battle barding, leering down at me.

“Well, well, well,” said the lead pony, aiming a rifle at me with an odd saddle. “Lookie here… I think we got us a stable pony.”

“Yeah,” said another. “You come all the way here from ponyville?”

It occurred to me that I didn’t know where I’d actually come from. I checked my pipbuck and saw it had marked a city as Trotsdale. The name meant nothing to me, and a quick scan through my brain-terminal confirmed that I hadn’t read it anywhere else.

“Nope,” I said simply, feeling very stupid.

“Here’s the deal little pony,” said a mare with them. “You’re in Chrysalis turf now, so cough up your caps and coin and we’ll let you live.”

I thanked my thought to save the caps I’d found earlier. Apparently, they were used as some form of currency or some other trade value. However, I didn’t trust these bullies as far as I could throw them, so I’d be on guard… just in case.

I carefully emptied the caps I had onto the ground, and backed away, holding the revolver cocked and ready. The lead pony quickly moved down and swooped up my caps, placing them in his saddlebags.

“Thank ya kindly,” he said, smirking. “Now get out of here, you idiot.”

That was a problem. See, in general, I have always believed the brain to work like a terminal. Some come with lots of space, some with lots of ram, and some with the bare minimum. My terminal had loads of space and was fast, but I couldn’t bog it down with useless information, or it would run too slow and I couldn’t think quickly.

In this way, I can always control my thoughts and keep them cold and logical when I need to. I have dubbed this style of thought my mind-terminal or terminal theory. However, I have a huge problem in this theory, and it’s this: In moments of stress, or when someone insults my intellect, I can no longer reason and do what makes sense. I lose control and snap.

So, my terminal went blank as this pony insulted me and I didn’t do what a reasonable pony would’ve done. I didn’t shut my mouth and walk away with my life. I looked right at him and raised the revolver.

Blam Blam!

He was dead before he hit the ground, the bullets going right through his skull.

“Fuck you!” I shouted, shooting him again. “You fucking moron!”

The others opened fire and I weaved through their shots, managing to get cover behind a rock without receiving injury. I reloaded the gun, triggered S.A.T.S. and emptied my clip into the sniper mare’s torso.

“You stupid bitch!” I yelled out. “Never stay still when you have no cover and the enemy knows where you are!”

Two more of them flanked me to the left. I swift kicked one in the face and shot the other in either of his lead hooves. The one I kicked got back up and shot me in my lead leg. Pain flooded through me as I gunned him down. Greedily drinking a health potion I did the math. There were still three left and S.A.T.S. wasn’t done charging yet. Right as I thought this, two more ponies came around the other side of my rock.

I was dead. There was no way around it. My revolver was empty, I had no S.A.T.S. and even if I could kick one to death the other would shoot me before I could stop him. I closed my eyes, cursing my poor judgement on my short trip through the wasteland.

Boom! Boom Boom!

I heard the rifle go off, but didn’t feel any pain. I waited to feel the blood spread across my coat and to go cold as I died, but I didn’t. Slowly, I opened my eyes. The two gang ponies in front of me were dead, several bullets torn through them. As I stared, dumbfounded, a shadow passed over me.

I turned to look at this new threat, and saw a small charcoal pegasus pony land in front of me. He had an orange mane with a burnt orange streak in it matching his tail, and his hooves were white. On his back he bore a saddle similar to the sniper ponies, holding twin rifles.

As he got closer, I could see that his wings weren’t like the wings I’d seen pegasus ponies having in my history books. Most of them had soft wings, curved smoothly. These were different. They weren’t massive but they were… sharper looking. In fact, the only time I’d seen wings like them was in Princess Celestia’s pictures.

He landed in front of me, smiling widely and taking off a set of aviator sunglasses.

“Hello there!” he said cheerily. “Get down!”

I did as he said without argument and he fired his rifles twice, killing the last of the gang ponies.

“Figure that’s got to be the last of them. You alright?”

I nodded, not mentioning the leg that had been shot.

“Who… who are you?” I finally asked.

The pegasus smiled, and stood with his chest puffed out regally.

“Captain John Trotson of the Pegasus Enclave, at your service! Or former captain I should say. Can’t say I’ve seen a stable pony before. I thought they were further east. Still, there’s a first time for everything.”

I hit S.A.T.S. to examine him. He clearly had professional training with guns and flying, so it likely came from some type of military training. I could see the strength and sturdiness that came with such ponies. He was very genuinely smiling at me, which meant he was either insane or happy to meet a complete stranger… or happy to kill the gang ponies.

Aside from that, I could see that he had very fine hooves, and used them often for repair work and medicine. So, some type of army medic… if armies still existed. His cutie mark was very odd. It looked as if someone had branded a cloud and lightning blot onto his flank. It looked just like the mark that the Ministry of Awesome had on her flank.

“So, the pegasus enclave is some sort of army then?” I asked. “I take you were dishonorably discharged?”

“How do you figure?” he asked, seeming quite pleased with my deductions.

“Well, you’re clearly a solider pony, which is apparent from your aim and the way you hold yourself. Your cutie mark isn’t natural and, as you so clearly pointed out, you are a former captain.”

“True. Well you’re right. Pegasus enclave is an old military power in the clouds that’s determined to let you ponies down here sort everything out before they do anything. So, when I decided to come and help you all out, they gave me this cute little bite mark.”

I could tell from his voice that this was normally a much bigger deal among the pegasus ponies. Either he’d accepted what had happened ages ago, or he was just completely insane. The latter was more likely considering how pleased he was to meet a complete stranger.

“I suppose I owe you a thank you, so thanks.”

“No need. I don’t like bullies, and those Chrysalis Legionaries are some of the worst I’ve met. They were one of the reasons I decided to come down… Once I knew what was going on anyway.”

“I am from out east,” I said. “So, I am a bit ignorant… but who are these Chrysalis Legionaries?”

“They’re a large band of slaver ponies. There’s rumors that they were once just a small tribe surrounded by other small tribes just like it, but they murdered and captured the others until they were large enough to become a true power.”

“I see,” I said, disturbed by this. “So they own this land, huh? How can you resist them without being hunted down?”

“Oh, no they don’t own everything, though they’d like to. The NCE holds them off pretty well. Can’t say I like those ponies enough to actually join them, but they’re a hell of a lot better than the Legion.”

“NCE?”

“Curious type, aren’t you? Yeah, the NCE stands for the New Crystal Empire. They’re the closest thing to an army you guys have down here. Like I say, they’re alright as far as military powers go. They want to return an order and system to the wasteland, but you can’t create a power that large without corruption seeping in. So, there’s too much back room dealing for my taste. I prefer to deal out a bit of old-fashioned justice with the twins here.”

He indicated the rifles in his odd saddle.

“The twins?”

“Yep!” he said proudly. “Cloudchaser and Flitter! My pride and joy, aside from these bad boys, of course.”

Now, he flapped his wings proudly. The two names he’d mentioned rang within my head. If memory served, and it usually did, Cloudchaser and Flitter were two of the ponies in Rainbow Dash’s elite shadow striker squad.

“Weren’t they part of the Ministry of Awesome?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m surprised you know that,” said John, seeming pleased with my knowledge. “My old flight trainer said his grandmother had flown with them in ponyville. They were a wonderful team, and eventually flew around with Rainbow Dash during the war!”

He was getting positively giddy when he mentioned Rainbow Dash.

“So I guess that’s how you got that mark then?”

“In a way. Any pony who comes down to the surface against orders gets called a Dashite and then branded with this thing, so we are identified. Not that I mind it much. After all, being branded after the best flier who ever lived isn’t so bad!”

“You admire her then?”

“Oh yeah! My trainer used to tell me stories about the sonic rainboom. I’ve been trying to pull it off ever since, but it’s a lot harder than it sounds.”

“Sonic rainboom?”

That was something that hadn’t been in my books. They had specifically left a lot of the actual war techniques out of the pegasus side of the war. It wasn't like many of the ponies in Stable 221 would've been able to understand them.

“It’s when you get flying so fast you cause a sonic boom and a rainbow all at once. Shatters the light spectrum or something.”

“That… That’s not real.”

“Is so!” he insisted.

I rolled my eyes. Granted, ponies had lost a lot of knowledge due to the megaspells, but I was pretty sure that light didn’t work like that.

“Well, I suppose these are rightfully yours,” I said popping the caps down in front of him, but the pegasus shook his head.

“Nope, I’d prefer to walk with you to Trottingham. It’s one of the friendliest small towns you’ll find for a few miles, so I figure you can help be an extra set of eyes until we get there. That’s worth more than a few caps.”

It dawned on me that he was doing me another favor, and that surprised me. This was a unique pony who was willing just to help others and ask nothing real in return.

“Sure,” I said. “I’d be delighted to accompany you.”

“Great, but first things first. Let me take a look at your leg, or you’ll get it infected.”