//------------------------------// // A Few Odd Hours // Story: Fallout: Equestria - The Oddity // by Masquerade313 //------------------------------// "The dog days are over. The dog days are done. Can you hear the horses? 'Cause here they come..." Something didn't feel right. I had woken up in a standing position... But there was something soft against my back. Was I lying down? I was on my hindlegs, I knew that. I reached up to scratch my mane, but my hoof bumped against something solid. I started to panic. I couldn't see past some... Something. Fog started to fill my vision. My breathing started to grow shorter and faster, and I looked down to check medical readings on my Pipbuck. It was gone! I had no time to think of anything else before the door slid open. The sneering green face of a grotesquely large pony greeted me. He wrenched me out of the pod and threw me to the ground. A voice from a different part of the room spoke. "He... Taint?" "No. We need... Green stuff." I looked around, and, for a moment, thought that one was talking to a mirror, as both had the sickly green flesh and permanent sneer. But I noticed that one had on what seemed to be randomly pieced together leather, and the other had on pieces of metal and a sharp metal helmet. That one moved, pinned me down, and shouted to the other. "Hurry, stupid!" I could do nothing; the pony had an iron grip on my forehooves, and my rear hooves flailed uselessly against it, as did my head. "HELP!" "Heh... You stupid too." I certainly felt stupid! I had just taken my assignment, without thinking through anything! Some damn experiment that was totally out of my control. I didn’t even get a say in it! Did I? I didn’t know! I didn’t check. And now... I had lived in the Stable, I had worked in the Stable, and I would die in the Stable. And I would die in the Stable, without even a— Chance! He was here too! I could see his pod, but it was still closed. My small flame of hope winked out. And I would die in the Stable. The second green pony returned with a flask in his mouth, filled with what was undeniably 'green stuff'. It looked like poison. I struggled harder as the one who had me pinned grabbed hold of my jaw and pulled  it down, keeping it there as my legs thrashed. I tried to speak. "Hanse!" The one holding me down chortled. "See? He stupid too." It did nothing to stop number two from hastily walking towards me and tilting the flask downward. A drop hit my tongue; the rest of the green stuff started floating in place. The flask hit the floor and shattered. "He can't! Earth pony!" "Hanse!" I shouted again. Chance's pod hissed and fog started to pour out. One green pony laughed hysterically and launched himself at the pod, only to be met with a bolt of anesthesia. The rest of the green stuff fell onto the floor and started to bubble. That... That was inside me! I really started to panic. I was hyperventilating. I was coughing. I was crying. There was another thud and Chance ran up to me. "Odd Job, listen. Calm down." I stopped coughing. Thank Celestia he was okay. "Are you okay?" I stopped crying. "No, I'm not!" I pointed to the puddle of green that had partially disintegrated the floor. "They got some of that down my throat!" He looked at the melted glass and tile on the floor. I could tell that he was hiding his panic. "How much?" "A drop. But, Chance! It's eating through the floor! He muttered something. "We have to go! They're starting to move again!" I didn't even pause to check if they were, but I ran for the door. "Odd, wait!" "Are you crazy?! There's no time to wait!" I started to run off again, but he grabbed me with his magic. "Odd, calm down! Look what's in there!" I stopped hyperventilating. All around me - on the walls, the floor, and the ceiling - there was green, glowing sludge. I ran back to the room Chance was in. The green ponies were stirring more noticeably. "What are we going to do with them?" "I'll think of something," he replied. "Go search for something that can help us." "Like what?" "Anything!" I turned and headed for the nearest cabinet. There were a few folded up bardings, so I threw one on. The pockets and pouches would help with anything else I'd find. Then I went through every desk drawer I could see. Some had bits, which I took. There was a bobby pin in one. The rest had clipboards or bottle caps or toy cars, and some gun clips, but no guns. I was torn between upset and glad that I didn't find a gun anywhere. I emptied out a toolbox and a medical supply box with some water inside before trying to open a door. It was locked. I sat down and got to work, nearly nervously breaking my pin before getting the door to relent. Inside, on a rack, there were two yellow suits with masks on them. There were two bottles of something called Rad-X and a few pouches of something called Rad-Away that I took as well. I draped the two suits over my back and went to pick the safe. That lock was easier than the door's, and inside were more bits, bullets, and a rather hefty Canterlot Journal of Medicine. I ran back to Chance. The floor was covered in blood. The saw that Chance held was covered in blood. His face was covered in blood. It was... There was... He looked at me and seemed surprised. "You found rad-suits? Perfect! And Rad-X! And Rad-Away!" He came to collect some of what I had, and I backed away. He licked away some blood that had been running down his muzzle and looked at me confusedly. "Chance! You killed them!" "Yeahuh,” he said flatly. He took a radsuit from me and began to put it on. “It was them or us, Odd. I hope you don't mind that I chose us." Even with that green stuff probably burning holes through me, I couldn't be sure if I minded or not, but I just... I couldn't say anything. I emptied my barding's pockets and slipped on the radsuit. It was uncomfortable, but I wasn't dead. Yet. I kept the tools, and Chance kept the bits. I also gave him the Canterlot Journal of Medicine. We each had a bottle of Rad-X and water, and two Rad-Aways. Chance popped the cap off of his Rad-X. "Take two." I did, and then we slipped the hoods over our heads and zipped the suits shut. We walked out and headed away from the glowing green sludge. "We're headed for the stairs leading to the Atrium," I told him. "Wouldn't more of them be in there?" "Shit, you're right," he stopped dead in his tracks and turned in a circle nervously. I would've followed his example, but I knew Stable Seventy-Five "Wait here," I walked as quietly as possible up the steps and peeked my head around the corner. One green pony was walking away from me and turned to go somewhere else. Wasting no time, I went to an air duct grate that was level with the floor. I threw my hood off, pulled out a screwdriver, and managed to take off each screw before I heard the pony coming back. Chance's eyes went wide as he saw me come back down the stairs. "What are you doing?!" I gulped down a bit of orangey Rad-Away before answering. "I'm getting us out of here. We'll be going through an air duct. Follow me as soon as I go." I swiveled my ears towards the upstairs hallway. That pony was walking back with large, lumbering steps. It seemed like forever before I heard him turn back. I slipped my hood on again and went for the grate, setting it down as gently and quietly as I could before crawling in. Chance followed, levitating his bloody saw in front of him. Chance's magic cast a glow that was just enough for me to see by, although, I was debating over whether or not I wanted to see. The metal was covered in rust spots that looked like mold. It was riddled with holes, which didn’t make sense, seeing as these vents were built into solid concrete. To top it all off, every dust mote that flew by glowed green. It was making me think that every green thing was out to get us. We were coming up to a turn when I heard a shout. "Who moved grate?!" "Not me!" "There are ponies, get them!" "Hurry!" Chance hissed. I turned right and saw another grate, one which was connected to the PipBuck technician center. I made a fair amount of noise undoing my hood and getting to a screwdriver, but I couldn't see any green ponies. The last screw came undone and the grate fell to the floor with a clang. "Back up! Back up!" Chance had before I even spoke, and I followed him. We waited for a few seconds before I zipped up my hood and crawled forward. A metal sphere came flying into the duct. I swatted it back out of the grate. There was a loud bang as something splattered into the duct, followed by what sounded like rain. We sat in shock for another few seconds before I crawled forward again. The ceiling was raining blood, the majority of the walls were covered in blood, and pieces of leather and green pony were scattered across the room. I retched, but nothing came out. ... Did I just kill a pony? No, no, I didn't! That thing might have looked like a pony, but I'd be damned if it actually was! Real dead ponies were like what I saw after opening one of the cabinets. No... No, I... "Chance!" I backed away from the rotted corpse and felt something squish beneath my hooves. Don't look down, don't look down... Blood spattered from above onto my suit. "Could you check if he has anything on him?" He looked at me like I was crazy. "Anything specific?" "Keys," I headed for the portion of the room without blood in it. "Bobby pins, water—" "A PipBuck?" There was a thump and he started to walk towards me. I opened a desk drawer and found more bottle caps and gun clips, but nothing useful. "Ugh! How do you take one of these off?!" "One of what--" He was cutting the rotted hoof away from the PipBuck with his blood covered bonesaw, licking away at his blood covered muzzle while looking frustratedly out from behind his blood covered face plate. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" I bellowed. "What?" "You're walking around cutting ponies apart like it's—" "My job?" "Chance!" I swatted the PipBuck out of his magical grip. "Doesn't any of this bother you? Even a little bit?" He didn't answer me. "It's not right!" "It's not wrong." "That doesn't matter! It's. Not. Right!" Nothing. I looked around again and saw what was once Monkey Wrench’s desk, which wasn’t spattered with blood. The lock yielded to me and inside was the supply cabinet key. Inside of the supply cabinet was a terminal uplink cable and a key that would unlock the PipBuck. With a click, the remaining rotten hoof inside fell to the floor and nearly liquified. "Now we have to get out of here," Chance looked at me. There was no trace of fear, no trace of anything. He seemed completely fine. That served only to unnerve me further. I turned out of the room and headed for the Overmare's Office. From there, it was a straight shot through Security to the Stable door. We encountered nothing else on our way there, which had allowed my mind to wander. I didn't want to talk about it; the blood, the death, the decay, I really didn't want to talk about it, so my mind did the work instead. I'd seen blood before. Ponies got scraped, ponies got cut, but ponies I knew never bled to death or had their blood paint almost an entire room. Ponies I knew cleaned blood away and spat it out, donated it to give life and treated it like the plague at any other time. Chance's being a doctor was no excuse, but that thought was shoved in the very back of my mind. I'd seen death before. Ponies die. They die of old age or heart conditions, not limb-tearing explosions or slit necks. What would happen to those green ponies? They would just sit there and rot, wouldn't they? Just like the stallion... That was what I hadn't seen before — decay. I'd seen age and rust, but they were not the same. Age was graceful, rust was removable, decay was... No, is permanent. It is not graceful, it is not removable... It's horrible. I stopped before the large door labeled as the Overmare's Office. I couldn't hear anything moving inside, but Chance went through first, his saw levitated in front of him just in case. He yelled and I ran in, coming face to face with an abnormally large unicorn. The horn was as long as my leg and murderously sharp. The eyes glowed an ungodly bright green. A dark green pattern swirled around on its black coat and wings-- Wings? It was an alicorn. It regarded me coolly before folding away its wings and taking a place next to the Security door. A green bubble magicked into life around it. I turned to Chance. "That thing was going to attack me." "Thing? That thing is an alicorn, and it deserves your respect." "You can't be serious..." "But you remember Celestia and Luna, right? They were alicorns too. They all have to be related somehow..." I approached the alicorn once more. Its eyes glowed brighter as it looked at me. For a few seconds, we stood there, staring at each other. It then narrowed its eyes and looked like it was about to speak, but it gently shook its head and went to open the door instead. I walked out into Security; Chance and the alicorn followed. From nooks in the high-vaulted ceiling, two more alicorns flew in to flank us. The rest of Security’s vast living area was thronged with several more green ponies, who all seemed very upset to see us. Chance began to panic. A few started charging towards us, brandishing sharp bits of metal and guns and bigger guns mounted on the sides of saddles. A bubble of green magic came to life around us. Some green ponies stopped immediately and got trampled. Some didn't stop, but were flung backwards as they collided with the magic. They were impaled or shot as each one flung or fired in fear. Each pony that got hit attacked anypony in range, and soon enough, Security was host to a riotous, writhing mass of green and grey and red. Each alicorn stomped synchronously, and the still living green ponies screamed in pain in response. A green pony wearing a Security mask rose above the rest. "No! He no taint!" The alicorn behind us turned to him, and his face scrunched up even more. "No! Other one!" It turned to look at Chance, then me, then back to the green pony. "Still no fair! He my pony! Leave him!" He hefted up a large metal tube. I could swear a grin crossed over the alicorn's muzzle. The green pony shot the contents of the metal tube at us. The other ponies ducked, Chance ducked, but I just watched whatever it was fly through the air and reach the magic bubble. It exploded. Some ponies were torn apart, and others taken out by the flying limbs. Inside of the bubble, we were okay. The rioter started throwing a fit, and the other ponies scurried away. Some of them collided into the shield and begged to be let in. I could see why; the rioter was stomping another pony to death in the middle of the crowd. We pushed our way through the chaos. The Stable door hissed and slid open before us, just as quietly as last time. Several skeletons were lying in front of us. Others were hung on shackles or inside of cages. Sacks of gore filled netting were strewn about. One normal pony was hogtied, gagged, and being carried into the Stable by two green ponies. She looked at me in a mixture of surprise, sadness, and anger. I remember thinking of how these green things were like ponies. I remember that one of them tried to change me. I remember how it all came together. "No..." I said, as they marched onwards. The alicorns did the same and filed one by one ahead of us up the stairs. Chance and I were levitated up behind them. The Stable door slid shut behind her. I kicked, I struggled, I screamed. "No! No! Let me go! Let me help her! I--!" He will take longer than we expected. He is resilient. She will call him if he is needed. "No! Let me go!" The alicorns kept moving. I saw my town — destroyed, fallen, dead — all around me. Too many memories... "NO!" They set Chance and I down. My mind went blank. It was becoming numb. Odd Job! The future needs... Odd Job! Hope... "Odd Job!" You'll do... Everything... "Odd!" Chance slapped me. I opened my eyes. "We have to go! Now!" I shook myself awake and followed Chance as he ran. "Where are they?" "Behind us!" Two green ponies, lead by the one in the riot mask, were gaining up on us. That one held something sharp and made of metal, another was firing a pistol, and the third was throwing more of those explosive, metal spheres. "We'll never lose them with these suits on!" "We can't take off the suits, Odd! They'll get to us if we try!" There was an explosion far to my right. "They'll get to us anyway!" "It's over!" The one with the metal thing shouted and jumped on top of me. My breath escaped me and my chest hurt. I was glad that my face was in the ground, so I couldn't see when— When Chance cut its jugular and it bled all over my radsuit. "Take the weapon!" The green pony slumped off of me as it finally died. I unzipped my hood and took the metal weapon in my jaws. I saw the pistol-holding one reloading. The other threw another ball at me. I swung as hard as I could, heard the ping as I connected, and heard a gurgled 'help' after the ball exploded right in front of the pony's muzzle. Chance had... Permanently prevented the last pony from being able to reload. I turned away as he scavenged them. All I could see was brown. Everything I saw was dead. Those Wastes reeked of death. What happened? There was no doubt that this was Equestria, that I just ran from my town. The houses might have been destroyed and everything was dead, but I grew up here. So... What happened? Where was the sun? Why were there so many clouds? Why were all of the trees and bushes dead? Why did everything look so terrible? "What is this place?" Chance asked. "It's a Wasteland..." We walked silently to... Somewhere else. We didn't care where, as long as it wasn't towards the Stable — towards the town. Chance would stop me once or twice and he would run off to search something. Once, he found a pistol, but it looked strange. Rather than being slick and sleek, it was boxy and... Just odd, really. Regardless, I pocketed it. Another time, he found some gun clips. I said they were dead weight without a gun. He said we were dead weight without a gun, and when we found one, dead weight without ammunition. This time, he found a few dead ponies. I could tell by the sounds that were made as he took from them (and a shout of 'Cooperate, you dead son of a bitch!'). Death... Deadly... Dead, dead, dead... He came back with two saddlebags that looked rather full. "Let's see what we've got here," he said, plopping a bag in front of me. In his, Chance found some scraps of metal, Med-X, something labled 'Psycho', a copy of Guns and Bullets, and some guns, but no bullets. Even what he picked up before wasn't the right ammunition. Then again, how he thought gun clips would fit into a revolving pistol was beyond me. In my (I guess it was mine now...) bag, there were some pencils, a few leafs of what could be considered paper, a pale, shiny sphere that didn't look explosive, a compass, and a map. I unfolded it and spread it out on a nearby rock. The first thing I noticed was the cog shape near the top It was marked with a 75 and a caption that read 'DANGER!: Imp nest!'. To the south was a dark box labled 'Safehouse — remember to reinforce and lock'. Even further south was 'Appleloosa' - (the rest was blotted out). Directly east of Stable 75 was a group of cities: Canterlot, Zebratown, and Glyphmark. Glyphmark was the only one that didn’t come with a warning of ‘Pink Contamination’. Chance chuckled. "One hell of a Safehouse, huh? I think we should head there first. I don’t think it’s going to be of use to them anymore." "If there's a risk that it's not locked and reinforced., I don't want to stay there for too long." I tapped a hoof on square that represented Canterlot. “What do you think the ‘Pink Contamination’ is?” “Whatever it is, I’d prefer heading somewhere that doesn’t have an ominous caption on it. That’s just asking for trouble.” “‘Remember to lock and reinforce’ isn’t ominous enough for you?” “Which way is south?” he asked, annoyed. I took out the compass and waited a minute for it to settle. It turned out that we were already headed south. He magicked everything into the saddlebags and handed me mine. "Lead the way." I wanted to say that the hour-long journey was full of enlightenment and adventure, but it wasn't. I was scared of everything that moved. I forgot to check the compass and realized that we had been heading west for a long time. I didn’t realize it until Chance had stopped dead in his tracks and pointed out something on the cliffs ahead of us. The promontory where Canterlot should have been was just a big pink cloud, almost like the entire city was enveloped in a wad of cotton candy. The warning on the map combined with my comparison sent shivers down my spine. I turned and headed south once more. I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually, we ended up at some rusty metal shack. The walls were not reinforced and the door was not locked. I it open. Aside from some large roaches scuttling away, there was nothing alive, or formerly alive, inside. The holes in the ceiling allowed in enough light to see by. There was a refrigerator, a sink, two beds, a workbench, two desks, and two terminals. Chance stripped off his bags and suit and headed for the bed, which I could understand. I was tired too, but I instead headed for the glowing terminal. It was in working condition, but that didn't explain why it looked so old. It was the exact kind of terminal used in the Stable, but it looked terrible. Something else, there was a compartment with an antenna coming out of it screwed into the back. Odd... I turned it around and unscrewed the compartment. Inside was a ball of something that looked like white clay connected to some wires in the back of the terminal. What the hell? I knew some stupid ponies, but none that were smart enough to know how to take something apart, nearly ruin it, and put it back together. I set the compartment on the floor, wiped the clay off the wires, and put them back together. The terminal didn't ask me for a password, but it did tell me that there weren't any files. I rummaged through my bags and got the PipBuck and the uplink cable. The PipBuck flared to life as it rebooted with help from the terminal. With that done, I emptied out our saddlebags and the pockets on our radsuits. Chance apparently had two of the same make of guns in his bag — scoped revolving pistols. Surprisingly, gun maintenance was standard for me. Even with only ten guns in the Stable, I needed to ensure that they were always in working condition. I went into some sort of trance, pulling apart the older looking pistol and keeping only the good parts, leaving some rusty old screws and empty bullet casings for whoever wanted them. The gun went to Chance's bag, the spare parts to mine. I also put the magazine and book, drugs, some dirty water (it was the only water in the fridge) and packaged foods from the fridge and cabinets, our bits, the extra gun clips, explosive spheres, and his folded up radsuit  into his bags. In mine were our tools, the boxy pistol, some food and water, my radsuit, the map, and the odd, shiny sphere. The PipBuck beeped, which meant it was done. I put it on, and a few things happened. First, it mentioned my name. Second, it kindly informed me that my radiation level was only at three rads, and that I was injury free. Third, it listed everything that was in my saddlebags. Lastly, it pinged and a map showed up, with locations mapped out and Appleloosa marked as my destination. I checked the inventory under 'Misc.'. Bobby pins, hammer, scrap metal, screwdriver, wrench... And a memory orb? It only could have been that pale, shiny sphere. How could it hold memories? I didn't see anything in there— A glowing green screen appeared in my vision. >Welcome to the Eyes Forward Sparkle, Stable-Tec's hostility detection algorithm! >Hostiles will be highlighted in red; non-hostiles in green. >One non-hostile detected >WARNING! Three hostiles detected! "Fuck!" I went rigid at the sound of a new voice. It was coming from outside. I turned quickly, seeing a green bar denoting Chance and three slowly moving red bars adorning the wall. "Do ya think somethin' killed 'em?" "No, ya idjit! They're asleep!" A third voice spoke. "Then why're we yellin'?!" I ran over to Chance and woke him up. "There are ponies outside!" I hissed. He shook his head to wake himself. "How many?" "Three." He rushed to his saddlebag and took out one of the explosive spheres. "When they open the door, I'll throw this. Then you shut it." I nodded and took position by the hinged side of the door. Chance crouched down behind a bed. No sooner did the door creak open. Light flooded the spot where Chance was hiding, but all I could see was one of his green eyes. "Nopony's here!" There was a ping and Chance's magic threw the sphere out the door. I put all of my weight on keeping it shut. "Grenade!" I was flung backwards as the sph— grenade exploded. The door nearly came off its hinges, Chance was almost, and the wall was, impaled with loose junk and scrap metal, but we were fine. There was a moaning from outside. I pushed past the door and came upon a terrible sight. There were two bloody bodies blown completely apart, and one partially dismembered and with half a face missing. He was wearing some sort of armor with pieces of metal haphazardly attached. There were cut off hooves hanging from different places, and they weren't his. Chance walked up to the dying buck. "What were you doing, coming to attack us?" "Livin'..." he coughed up some blood. "I was doin' a damn good job 'till I met you fuckers." He coughed again. "Please... Kill me..." "What. Were. You. Doing?" "Slavin', I guess... Papa pays well," he coughed again, turning brown dirt red. "Can ya kill me now?" "I'm not familiar with anyone named Papa. Where can I find him?" "Fer fuck's sake," he breathed in. It sounded like a gurgle. "Aa... Aa... Puhl." His eyes clouded over. I looked between the dead buck and Chance several times. "You... Why didn't you kill him?" Chance levitated up a bloody rifle and calmly inspected it. "I just can't win with you, can I?" "What?" He dipped the gun in a puddle of filthy water before wiping it off with a tattered piece of (relatively) clean cloth from the ponies he'd killed. "Back in the Stable, you were mortified when I killed those monsters. Here, you're upset that I didn't kill a pony?" "This is different! It would have been mercy!" "No, Odd! It wouldn't have been!" He pointed at the dead buck with the muzzle of the rifle. "He was going to turn us into slaves!" "But if you were dying, would you—" "Odd, if I ever become that fucked up, I'd deserve a slow death." He silently turned back to scavenging the dead ponies. Did ponies who traded slaves really deserve to die? Could a slow death by bleeding out really be their only fate? They were ponies, but they treated other ponies like livestock... And Appleloosa was home to their leader. We were heading there soon enough. I voiced my concern as we headed out. Chance's reply? "As long as we don't mess around with anypony, we should be fine." "So you want to walk into a town that deals with slaves? Just after three ponies tried to make us slaves?" "No, Odd, I don't want to. I don't like the fact that they deal with slaves, but we need to know what happened," he gestured to the sick and brown around us. "We need food, we need water, we need guns and bullets, and we need shelter." "We'll need money for all of that." "We have bits," he shrugged. We kept walking. Some things just didn't make sense to me. It was silent now, and I could think them through. I just helped Chance murder three ponies. I just asked Chance to kill one of them out of mercy. It didn't make any sense. I didn't make any sense. If I had been in Chance's position, what would I have done? Would I really have killed that buck? Would I really haven't killed the Imps? I just sat back and watched Chance take whatever they had and pocket it. I didn't do anything. I was struck dumb. What happened to me? Why didn't I do anything? What— My PipBuck beeped and displayed some text. >DJ Pon-3 Radio signal acquired; tuning in. "... Cloudy with a chance of gunfire and bloody dismemberment! Tune in later for our five day forecast! Now, for Colt Porter, who's here to remind you all of the laws of the Wasteland." A trumpet started blaring from the PipBuck's speaker. I bent over to turn it down. There was a loud boom and a cloud of dirt shot out of the ground next to me. "Get down!" we said simultaneously. We threw ourselves down behind a large rock as two more shots rang out. After a moment of silence, I dared to move. As soon as I had moved far enough to see past the boulder -- where there was only the rotten remains of an old chapel -- another bullet slammed into it and ricocheted off into the dirt. “You fucking ponies never let me get my way!” The voice sounded strange... Exotic seemed fitting. It was deep and had a cadence to it that not many voices had. It also sounded slightly slurred, as if the speaker was drunk. “Kick me out of Oasis, you may, but now you’ll forever rue the day!” Two more shots rang out, boring themselves into the dirt behind us. “Come on out and play, my friends! By my hoof or the Waste’s, you’ll still meet your ends!” “Who the hell is shooting at us?” hissed Chance. “How should I know?” Well, whomever it was, they seemed like quite the shot. Assuming he was drunk, and disregarding the fact that he hadn’t hit us yet, his shooting was still very accurate. In fact, as I thought about this, he sent three more bullets our way. They each shot up a plume of dust within two feet of each other. Maybe, if he kept wasting his bullets on us, we could just wait it out. “I can wait as long as you! I’ve nothing better to do!” There were no more shots. The dust had settled down. The only thing still making noise was my PipBuck, which was still softly playing the song on the radio. “Good authors too, who once knew better words, now only use four-letter words writing prose. Anything goes!” “Shit, Odd, what are we going to do?” “Uh... Uhm...” Think! Thinkthinkthink! “He’s been aiming for my side of the rock, hasn’t he?” Chance nodded. I moved to the other side of the rock and looked around. There were several other rocks, not quite as large as this one, but large enough, scattered about. I pointed them out to him. “If he’s still aiming for my side, maybe we’ll be able to get over to one of those rocks before he can shoot us.” “Are you crazy?” “No,” I said. “I’m desperate.” His ears flicked backwards in response. I could tell he didn’t like where I was going with this. “If we don’t do something, he’ll just wait us out and this Wasteland will kill us instead.” He bowed his head and sighed. “You’re right. … I’m ready when you are.” I trotted in front of him, with my muscles tense, ready to sprint to the next rock. My heart was beating quickly, betraying the unbelievable sense of calm that I was feeling. I took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. … … … “Go!” I rushed forward and dived behind cover, kicking up a plume of dust. Chance skidded to a stop beside me. We were both panting hard. “How many times are we going to do this?” he coughed. “As many times as it takes to get to safety,” I answered. To be honest, I had expected the shooter to... Well... Shoot more. I briefly hoped that he had fallen asleep or something, and I dared poke my head out from cover only to find my beliefs as shattered as the newly shot rock. “We’re fucked,” I could hear Chance whispering. “We are so fucked.” “No,” I could see a plan coming together. “No, we’re not.” I extended my hoof out to Chance. “Give me your rifle and the pistol.” “You’re not going to try and shoot him from here, are you?” “No,” I said. Once more, his ears went back. Though he eventually relented, I knew he knew what I was thinking, and that he didn’t like it. “Just be careful, Odd,” he pleaded. “Of course.” I placed the pistol in my my saddlebag just on top of the tool bag. The flap was left unstrapped for easy access. I also worked the rifle around until I could get it to stay in my mouth. I couldn’t see anything, but that didn’t matter as long as I was running towards the chapel. “Just wait a few seconds for me to give the signal.” He nodded. I jumped out from behind the rock and ran forward, using my tongue to pull the rifle’s trigger. It was damn loud, but not loud enough to stop me from continuing-- I wasn’t moving. A green screen appeared in my vision. >Welcome to the Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell (S.A.T.S.)! Please select your target and the amount of shots you wish to fire. Everything was still. I tried looking around, but instead of me turning my neck or moving my eyes, my vision somehow zoomed in on a sort of striped pony. Above him was the word ‘Drifter’, and scattered around his body were boxes full of percentages. I tried looking around again, but just ended up highlighting his right forehoof in a more pronounced green. This didn’t make any sense! How could I see that pony from so far away? Why couldn’t I move? Why was everything green? All I wanted to do was shoot the gun and keep running-- >Shot queued: Right Foreleg >2 More shots available What? I didn’t want to shoot him in the leg! I didn’t want to shoot him, period! >Shot unqueued >Terminating S.A.T.S. program Then everything went to hell. … For me at least. The striped pony continued taking potshots at me as I blindly ran forward while periodically firing the rifle. I shouted out a garbled “Run!”, and hopefully Chance started running towards the chapel also. Some short while later in my frenzied panicking, the rifle clicked on an empty chamber. I threw it in my saddlebag and withdrew the scoped pistol. I already felt slightly more comfortable, as I could actually see what I was doing and still have the gun held comfortably in my mouth. The comfort was short lived as I realized that the gunpony was getting closer and closer to hitting me with every shot. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chance taking cover behind a sign that read “Harmony Church”. I dived behind cover next to him. “Odd, you’re insane!” Three more shots bored their way through the sign, thankfully thudding into the dirt. “Give me the gun!” He wrenched the pistol out of my jaw and ran a short distance to the entrance of the church. Yeah, I’m crazy. Then again, I charged after him. Maybe he was right. Behind a shout of surprise and three loud shots of the gunpony’s gun, I heard a slightly quieter six shots from Chance’s pistol. When I got in the room, the striped pony jumped off a rotted balcony and started running at Chance, who was staggering for some reason. I rushed forward and tackled the pony to the ground. I didn’t expect in the least that he’d roll over so smoothly and throw me against the room. Before I could right myself, he was on top of me. He reared, and I rolled away, expecting him to bring his hooves down at me. Instead, I looked up and saw him running back towards Chance. I charged at him once more with my head lowered. I connected, and we went down in a tumble of flying hooves. I swung blindly with my right leg and felt my hoof contact something. Immediately after, I swung with my left hoof, and there was a loud crack and a sharp yelp. He turned around and thrust his rear hooves in my face, sending me sprawling against the floor. “You ponies are such a blight.” He was walking towards me now. “Now I’ll end this stupid fight!” He lunged at me. I saw something flit between me and him. I felt a weak thud, a slight struggle against me, and something wet and warm. I freaked out and started running around the room, trying in vain to shake the pony’s blood off of me. Sweet Celestia, it was still warm. And it felt like it was getting hotter-- hot enough to burn through my skin. And it was everywhere! “Odd! Get your ass over here and help me up!” I approached Chance, who was still on the ground. He was floating his damned bloody saw towards himself. He staggered while getting up, revealing a hole through his hoof. I pulled him up and put his hoof on my shoulder. There was a tearing sound. I dared to look. What greeted me was Chance’s magic pulling a piece of cloth extremely tight around his leg above the wound. “Go get what you can from him and come on,” he said, keeping his weight off of the injured hoof. “I don’t want this on me for too long.” My eyes flashed over to the pony’s rifle. Nearby were a few loose bullets for it. Past that was the empty scoped pistol. I gathered all three up as quickly as I could. I didn’t even care that the rifle didn’t fit in either of our saddlebags. I was just thinking about how glad I was to be leaving this place -- Harmony Church. Harmony my ass. The rest of our journey went off without a hitch, which was good, considering all of the ammo for our weapons -- or the ones we knew that worked -- was either gone or loose in our saddlebags. That, and Chance had a tourniquet on. His hoof was starting to turn blue. My PipBuck beeped and announced that we’d arrived in Appleloosa. We weren’t in the city yet, though. All that you could see was a gap in a long wall of sheet metal and barbed wire. In the gap were two rough-looking guards. The leaner one was aiming a gun at us as we approached. The heavier one approached us. “Turn around,” he said. “Appleloosa isn’t a hospital. Only ponies on Slaver business get in, and I get to decide what’s Slaver business.” “Are you fucking kidding me?!” shouted Chance. “I’m going to lose my hoof if there isn’t anypony in here that can help me!” “That’s not my problem!” he shouted back. “Now get the fuck out or Twitch back there’ll shoot!” In what wasn’t one of my brighter ideas, I moved towards the pony. However, it seemed he was now between us and Twitch, effectively cancelling his threat. “Don’t mind him. He’s a little bitchy from getting shot.” Both of their eyes widened. Chance would probably have hit me, were it not for me supporting his injured hoof. The pony looked amused. I guessed that was a good start. “We don’t want any trouble, okay? We’ll do whatever we need to get in.” I heard Twitch spit out his gun and start mocking me. “You hear that, Kvetch? We don’t want any trouble! We just want to get in!” He guffawed. “We’ll do anything to get inside!” Kvetch laughed as well. “Yeah, I heard! If only I had a cap for every time I’ve heard that!” His laughter quickly died out, only to be replaced by a glint in his eye. “Say, that’s not a bad idea... Pay me for everypony who’s said that to me, and I’ll let you in.” “How much will that be?” He shrugged. “Five hundred caps, just about.” Chance whispered in my ear. “Do you have any idea what a cap is?” “No,” I whispered back. “Maybe that’s what they call bits?” He pulled off as best a shrug he could before delving into his saddlebags. He pulled out a little tied-off sack of bits. Right now, I didn’t care where they came from. I was just glad they were there. “Is this enough?” I asked him. He took the bag from Chance and untied it. His eyebrow arched up. “Bits?” He took one out and bit into it, which easily bent the metal. He spat it back into the bag. “Well, I’ll be. They’re real gold. Too bad that isn’t worth shit anymore.” He threw the bag over his shoulder, spreading its contents all across the ground. “What?! You just said those were real gold!” “Didn’t you hear me, blank flank? Gold isn’t worth shit any more! Did you two just crawl out of a Stable or something?” I fought between punching him in the face for the comment and being frightened that he could judge us (correctly) so easily. In the end, all I ended up doing was going rigid. A grin spread over Kvetch’s face. “Oh, that’s rich! And here I thought you took that PipBuck off of some other sucker. How the hell did you end up here if Two’s in lockdown?” “We’re not from Stable Two...” I answered. “We’re from Seventy-Five.” It was dead silent. He cocked his head and looked at me like I was crazy. “Ghosts, then?” “... No.” He looked over his shoulder at his companion. “Twitch, does this make any sense to you?” “Nope.” Kvetch put a hoof to his head. “You know what? Just go, okay? Let the guards inside kill you and just leave me alone.” His face lit up for a second and he looked behind us. “Blade! It’s about time you got back here! How’d it go?” I turned around to see a seedy-looking grey unicorn stallion approaching us. Following him were two ponies: one white mare and one blue colt, both wearing things around their necks. They walked with their heads down, looking... defeated. The stallion chuckled. “Oh, it was great! And eh, between you and me, this one’s got one hell of a plot, if you catch my drift.” Kvetch smiled wide. “I’ll see about that. Come here and we’ll get you paid for these two.” “Get a move on, runt!” Blade turned around and kicked the colt forward. He whimpered and began to cry. The mare rounded on him. “You can’t do that to my son!” “Oh, shut up, bitch. There are no rules in the Wasteland. I can do whatever I want.” “No!” She screamed. “No you can’t! You can’t treat him like that!” She reared up and struck out with a hoof, hitting Blade across the cheek. She then went further, but choked herself on Blade’s magic, which he had placed around her throat. He walked forward and shoved her to the ground. “She’s a screamer, too.” He leaned over and got close to her ear. “I’m not losing money because I have to kill you, bitch. Now shut up and go save the colt you care so much about before he gets killed.” Her defeated look had worsened, despite my belief of that being impossible. She walked stiffly over to her son and nudged him forward. They moved off together, both looking utterly miserable. I followed behind them. I couldn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. I had just watched them be abused, and I did nothing! I didn’t stop Kvetch, I didn’t stop Blade, I didn’t help either one of them; I just sat there and watched! What the fuck was wrong with me? “I’m getting out of here!” I looked up and noticed a buck, who was also wearing one of those things around his neck, charging towards us. No one seemed particularly interested in him. Then there was a popping sound. His head flew through the air and landed before me. Kvetch shouted from behind me. “Damnit, Forty! I swear, if you let that happen again, you’ll be the one in a fucking collar!” A pony leaning against a car further inside shouted back. “Go fuck yourself, Kvetch! You care more, you should do more to stop ‘em from runnin’!” Kvetch growled and blew past us, knocking aside the mare and colt, and continuing on to Forty. They tumbled to the ground and were soon involved in a hoof-fight. The colt looked to the dead buck’s body and back to me before starting to cry. His mother tried to console him, but began crying as well. Chance kicked the buck’s head -- which I had, to my horror, somehow forgotten about -- away from my hooves. “Welcome to Appleloosa...” Side Note: Level Up New Perk: ... Can never be saved: The Wasteland is tearing you apart, but you shrug it aside and keep on living. +10% to Damage Resistance