Pain.
That’s all I felt as two powerful hooves smashed into me with the force of a moving truck that sent me airborne. That flight was incredibly short lived as I crashed into a wall, and then landed in a pathetic heap onto a cold metal floor. Darkness threatened to overtake me, and I was tempted to accept its embrace.
'Hey, this is a big party! So open those eyes and get back into it silly!' A small, pink bouncing voice spoke in the back of my mind.
Not even questioning how a voice could be ‘pink’, I forced my eyes open. I was rewarded with a world that that was blurry and distorted, and I couldn't help but wonder if this is what being underwater was like. Yet, a targeting icon appeared clearly in my center vision, and as I looked up, it followed suit. My vision landed on a large black armored demon straight out of hell itself. Green glowing eyes looked down at me with cold detachment as each sound of its hooves echoed through my ears like thunder. As it approached, the target icon locked on and the creatures body suddenly became highlighted, and underneath the target icon was the name ‘Enclave Experiment 02’
As I stared helplessly at the horror before me, I could feel myself drifting away...
“Amber, wake up.” A voice spoke from the darkness, shattering my dreamscape.
In response, I curled up in my sleeping bag and tried to repair my dream world. I was utterly intent on hiding from the evil voice that wanted to steal me from my safe and warm haven.
“Amber, I know you're awake,” the voice said again, this time more sternly, “Get up, or I use my claws.”
I let out a feeble groan and reached out a hoof for my glasses. When I couldn’t find them, I grumbled and stuck my head out of my sleeping bag. Immediately a target symbol appeared in the center of my vision, and wherever I looked, the target followed along. Soon an item was highlighted in my vision, and while I could barely make it out, the words ‘Ambers Glasses’ conveniently appeared and were clear as day to read.
Putting my glasses on, the world came into focus. It was a sorry world, given that most of it was rusted metal, broken seats, and missing windows. It took me a moment to remember that I was in a ruined skybus that we had chosen to camp in. Standing in the door of the skybus was the perpetrator who disturbed my slumber. My target icon landed on a dark grey gryphon with a nasty scar running from his beak to between his eyes, and his body gained a small highlight with a name tag showing him as ‘Gildann’. If I wasn’t so used to him, I might have screamed in shock, fumbled for my weapons, and tried to shoot him.
When I saw that it was still dark outside, I was tempted to do so anyway.
I glanced at my PipBuck for verification and let out an inaudible grumble. “Gil. It’s not even bloody eight in the morning.”
“We have company, bar girl.” He stated calmly.
I narrowed my eyes knowing that he was making fun of my heavy accent that starkly contrasted his Equestrian, “I am not a ‘bar girl’ who likes drinking or getting into hoof cuffs.” I sunk into my sleeping bag and pouted, “Stop bringin’ up me accent.”
He just chuckled, “Well, learn not to be so sensitive about it.”
I yawned in response, “So, my Eyes Forward Sparkle doesn’t show any nearby hostiles and you have your gun slung over your shoulder, so you are not expecting trouble. Why am I awake?”
“Got a visitor actually.” He stared me for a moment, and I stared right back without moving. He cocked his head before understanding passed over his face. Eyes rolling, he exiting the skybus, he snorted, “Really? Don’t know why you care what I see.” He began as I forced myself out of my still very comfortable sleeping bag, “Not like I’m into ponies, and more than a few don’t wear anything.”
I let out a small shiver as I stepped into a nippy morning, “Well, a mare like meself has to have some standards in this wasteland. Otherwise I’d be no better than a raider.” Finding my stable suit, I stared at the yellow emblem with the number ‘86’ for a long moment before I began to dress myself, “So who’s visitin’?”
“More like a what.” I raised an eyebrow as I turned to him, though he was still looking away, “Wanted to talk to you in particular.”
“That’s odd…” I began as I turned my PipBuck light on and dug into my saddle bag, “It’s not like I’m well known or anythin’…”
“No kidding.” He replied snidely.
I ignored the statement as I found what I was looking for. Setting a small mirror on an old seat and gave myself a quick look over. My short, dull red mane was a little disheveled, and though my stable suit covered most of my body, black grease still clung to my face. While it seemed like a futile gesture, I pulled a (not yet dirty) cloth from my saddlebag and and wiped it away, revealing an equally dull brown coat under the grime.
I really wanted a bath, but such luxuries were all but unknown in the wasteland. Still, it didn’t hurt to look somewhat presentable.
Rolling up my sleeping bag and putting the other items away, I double checked to make sure my laser pistol and my personal favorite spear shovel were in their holsters. Satisfied, I slung them over my shoulder and jumped out of the skybus. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the low light, and I could make out the main screen of the outdoor movie theater that we had camped in.
“So, where's the guest?” I asked.
Gil gestured to a run-down dinner that was connected to the theaters projector tower. Moving around rusted cars and carefully avoiding stepping on any skeletons, we walked up to the booth where snacks and tickets could be bought in a time long past. Inside, a small circular robot floated in place. With four mechanical looking bug wings, two large antennas on the top of its head with a smaller one on the bottom, and a small laser weapon near the front, it looked like somepony took a grill from a car and meshed it with a big insect to make some weird cyborg bug thing.
I couldn’t help but grin as I rubbed my hooves together, “Ooooh, a sprite bot! Been wanting one of these floating toys for awhile now!” I dug into my saddle bag and pulled out a monkey wrench and a screwdriver.
“Please refrain from dismantling this sprite bot. At the moment it's not yours to use.” A voice spoke over the bots speakers.
I stood motionless for a moment before putting my tools back and turning to the gryphon. “It just talked right? These annoying buggers that I can never seem to get to before something kills it, always playing that stupid polka music on endless repeat… just talked?”
Gil nodded in silence, which caused me to sigh. “Guess the lack of music should have been a clue, shouldn’t it?” He nodded again and I threw my tools into my saddle bag in annoyance, “For Celestia's sake, I’m never gonna get me hooves on one.”
It was the gryphons turn to give me an odd look, “Well if the conversation isn’t important, you could just take it.”
It was really too early in the morning for this, it really was, “Gil… there are several things wrong with that idea.” I didn’t bother actually going over them, instead I shook my head and turned to the robot, “So, what can I help you with?”
“You’re offering help, and you actually sound sincere.” Though the voice was monotone, I could pick up a certain level of surprise in the tone, “That's-”
“Ooh, a new friend?” Another voice spoke up.
The sprite bot and I turned our attention to a unicorn stallion coming down the stairs that lead to the projector room. His coat and mane color were exactly like mine, with even his eyes being the same color. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was a mare earth pony, and he was a stallion unicorn, we would look like mirror images of each other. Of course I was able to see all of this because he wasn’t wearing anything.
“Bones! Your cloths!” I hissed at him.
He looked down and nodded. “Ah right, thank you Fixer Pony.”
His horn began to glow a green color, and I shook my head violently, “No, we have guests!” I said, frantically gesturing at the sprite bot.
He looked at the robot and then back to my frantic expression and nodded, “I see, I’ll just be a moment.”
He trotted back up the stairs, and all I could do was offer a not-suspicious-at-all smile and nervous chuckle at the robot, “So, you were sayin-”
“Robot!” A new voice spoke behind me, “Those make good explosions! Though, that one looks too small for anything decent.”
‘Oh Celestia help me.’ I thought as I facehoofed. “Good mornin’ Crackerjack.”
I turned to look at the final member of the group. The earth pony had just worked himself out of a junk pile and had a slasher-like grin as he looked at the robot, his grenade launcher unslung and pointed at it. If that wasn’t bad enough given how close I was to his target, the orange stallion had an assortment of other explosives and grenades on his leather jacket, more than enough to leave a crater in anything he set his mind to.
“Can I blow it up?” He asked in a tone that wouldn’t have been unusual if somepony was asking if they could have a cookie.
“No, its friendly.” I began, “You’ll find somethin’ decent to blow up though, I promise.”
Somepony might have actually put themselves between their ‘comrade’ and a ‘friendly’ to emphasize their point, but I stood where I was. In fact, I readied to jump away at a moment's notice. Even Gil had taken a few steps back
He sighed and put the grenade launcher away, “Fine.” He said with an incredibly bored tone, “So, what’s with the floating target?”
“I too would like to know! New friends are the first step to a better tomorrow.” Bones said as he came down the stairs. This time he was wearing a full lab coat, with glasses that also looked exactly like mine. I walked up to the take-out window, brushed aside the debris, and put my head on it. I was already getting worn out, and the sun hadn’t even fully risen.
“Mornins’ are evil.” I said aloud before turning my attention to the sprite bot, “Sorry, you’ve been right patient with us, what’d you want to talk to us about?”
The sprite bot turned to face me. “You have experience with Stable Tech security systems correct?”
My ears perked up and I slowly lifted my head from its resting place. “I do, but who's askin’?” I tried and failed miserably to hide my suspicious tone.
“You can call me Watcher, and it’s nothing as sinister as you might be imagining.” As Watcher identified himself, the highlight over him went from ‘sprite bot’ to ‘Watcher’. I never could figure out how or why the PipBuck system could do that.
Watcher faced away from us and looked out into the dark, “To the east of here, there is a long abandoned stable that has something of interest to me.” He turned back to the group, “I was hoping to ask all of you to go there and retrive it.”
“What’s the item you seek Mysterious Eyebot?” Bones asked.
“A data file.” He began, ignoring the nickname suddenly given to him, “The contents have a military grade encryption, but the file itself can be transferred. I want you to retrieve the file and bring it to me.”
“What's the file?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me, “Why’s it so important?”
Watcher was silent for a long moment before answering. “Due to safety concerns, I would like to keep that private.”
“Well that's going to cost extra.” Gil took a step forward, “We aren't going to do this for free.”
I opened my mouth to protest, and was met by a glare from the gryphon. I hated it when he had a valid point, “He’s right. We will need some compensation-”
“Six thousand bottle caps per creature if you succeed should be more than adequate I think.” Watcher said calmly.
A wave of surprise went through the group, and I was no exception. My brain tried to comprehend that amount of caps, and for a moment I couldn’t even find the words to speak. Most jobs we had been taking were usually in the mere hundreds of caps, which included clearing out the movie theater of ghouls that we had camped in. But this...
“That’s plenty of caps for explosions, but I smell a catch.” Crackerjack said, and all I could do was nod in agreement.
“I need a stable dweller to open the door, and stables are known to be dangerous.” He said.
“Which is why you sought us out in particular.” I began as I looked at my PipBuck, “Because I can more easily access the system with this.”
“Correct.” He turned to face me. “I also have it on good authority that you can be trusted to handle something like this.”
I closed my eyes for a moment as I began to consider everything that I heard. I was curious on who his ‘good authority’ was, but I wagered that I wouldn’t get an answer. I also thought about the fact of how suspicious it seemed that a sprite bot had just come out of nowhere to offer a job to us. I wanted to refuse outright, since it seemed sketchy. Such a payoff would definitely be a big help to us, but it sounded like a huge risk.
Yet, I couldn’t deny that something felt really familiar about this whole thing. Nothing that I myself had gone through personally, but something that teased at the edges of my memory that I had seen. Moreover, though I couldn’t explain why, I felt that Watcher could be trusted. But it was not my decision alone.
I opened my eyes and looked at the others, “Thoughts?”
“That many caps? We’d be crazy to say no.” Gil said.
Crackerjack nodded. “Sounds like a good place to blow things up and buy more explosions.”
Bones shook his head, “It's still hard to grasp this concept that bottle caps get you things. But if such a gain can help with my search for the yellow and pink one, then we should accep t.”
“Yellow and pink one?” Watcher asked as he turned to the unicorn.
“Don’t worry about it.” I waved a hoof in front of it to get its attention. “More importantly Watcher, looks like you have a deal.”
The sprite bot moved as though nodding, “Excellent. I’m sending you the location of the stable, name of the file, as well as where to meet once you succeed. I wish you the best of luck.”
After a moment of static, annoying music started to play and the floating cylinder began to hover off. For the briefest of moments I considered tackling the thing to see if I could reprogram it, but I decided against it. Instead, I looked at my PipBuck which now showed the location of Stable 66, as well as the name of the file in question.
The sound of a sudden explosion made me dive for cover and pull out my laser pistol. I looked around and saw the destroyed remains of the sprite bot rolling to the side.
I glared at the smiling earth pony, “Crackerjack, why in the name of Celestia did you do that?!”
“It wasn’t important anymore.” He said innocently with a smile akin to a child's.
Bones looked at the earth pony with a horrified look. “You just blew up a new friend! That’s a bad thing.”
He waved his hoof. “Nah. He was just controlling it from afar, so he can always get another one to talk to us.” Crackerjack then patted his grenade launcher. “Besides, that music was annoying.”
“So… no friend was lost.” He clapped his hooves together with a smile, “That is a good thing! After all, the teachings of the pink and yellow one dictate…”
As Bones went on, the gryphon looked at me expectantly. “Well, might as well loot it for parts.”
I let out a small sigh as I got out my tools.
“This is going to be a long day…”
~~~~~~~~~Hoofnote~~~~~~~~~
*Starting Perks - Four Eyes - You can see well with your glasses, but without them you are near blind.
*Wild Wasteland Trait - Be prepared, you will encounter no end of weirdness that no one else notices or understands...