Golden Token had been a big fan of Petunia’s Pizza Palisade when he was younger. Back before the bombs had torn him and his sister from their parents, Petunia Possum was like a third guardian. A third parental figure in his life. But the bombs had come and taken all three of the parents he loved.
Of course, his sister didn’t see it that way. She cried, and cried, and cried. Making him take care of her, even though he was only a few years older. Just because he had a cutie mark and she was a blank flank didn’t mean that she needed him all the time, did it? It certainly seemed that way as he took her from settlement to settlement in his beet red wagon.
Of course she wasn’t grateful to him, no. That would be too much to expect from her. All she did was cry for food. Or cry for their parents. Or cry for her Celestia damn toys that they had forgotten at home. Did it ever matter what Golden wanted? No.
That’s why Golden was so ready to dump her on those kind ponies. Why he was willing to leave at their insistence that they could only take one more mouth in. Why he… Why he was now alone. It was because she was annoying, that’s all.
When Golden got to the next settlement, he was a bit pitiful. Dragging his little red wagon along with his few things. None of them worth anything, just bits of trash he’d found and made into toys for his sister. He’d pawn them off if he could, but he probably couldn’t get even a few bits off anypony.
As he walked around the settlement, people tried to intimidate him. But something about him just… wouldn’t respond. He couldn’t seem to care about them at all, they were just set dressing, yelling at him and treating him like shit. Even breaking his sister's toys, and trying to break his wagon didn’t do anything. Just made him curl up in a corner and cry.
Everyone ignored him. Late into the night, as he slept. Until he woke up at midnight, tied to his wagon. When he woke up he saw something in the distance, something lit up. It was the prettiest thing that he’d seen in months. So pretty that he left the settlement and walked into the town proper.
Raiders were around, monsters, creatures. All of them ready to pounce, until they saw where he was going. Everything instinctively knew to avoid that place: Petunia’s Pizza Palisade. It’s brick exterior, made to look like fortifications, or perhaps to be fortifications. It would probably have been a popular mark. If it weren't for that energy that surrounded the place.
When he finally walked up to the door, he undid his wagon and left it on the step. He walked up to the doors, watching them magically move away from him, giving him that blissful feeling of cool air inside the pizzeria. Inside, sound blared, breaking the soundless night. All the arcades bleeped, blooped, and made lots of noise, all alone but for the colt.
It seemed almost too good to be real, but Golden could smell pizza. He walked right to the back of the place, and he saw her. Petunia Possum, the pony-like animatronic, standing behind the counter. A single pizza placed in front just for him, just exactly the way he liked it. Along with a fountain soda, and another cup filled with little golden coins with Petunia’s face on them. Golden took everything and walked to a nice corner booth, all by himself.
This was the first time he had enjoyed eating in so long. It had felt like years since he’d last eaten anything like this, and it’d been more than a week since he’d eaten anything but damp bread. It was wonderful. Golden was absolutely happy as the corn-meal dusted crus went over his gums and down his gullet; eating a good fourth of the pizza quickly and happily.
When he walked into the play area with his tokens and drink, he was happy to see that everything was clean. Everything was free of the grime, dirt, and bloodstains of the outside world. Every mark that these last few months had happened were gone. In fact it seemed cleaner than ever.
After winning some games, and losing quite a few others, Golden walked back to his food. It was no longer where he left it, but he did see it back where he’d gotten his food before. It’d been made to look whole. Petunia had warmed it up for him! He was so happy.
Golden took the pizza into the tubes, finding a small corner, and fell asleep after eating a large amount of food. In the night he was startled awake. There was a noise in the tubes. There were scratching noises, something was moving around. Soon he felt himself grabbed by a pristine claw, and dragged out into the open. It was Petunia.
“I have the perfect place for you, my love.” She said.
It was only a few years after the war ended. Bit Chaser smiled as he walked up to the weird place. The townsponies had warned him that this, well, Pizza place was haunted. It didn’t matter to him. There would be electronics for him to study there. As he walked in the door he could smell pizza waiting on the counter, and hear the animatronic behind that counter humming. Out of the corner of his eye he could see another animatronic, this one something like a yellowish hamster, waddling around in front of the tubes.
Bit Chaser had found what seemed like heaven in the Wastes. A place with games and food, with comfort. Where a foal can be a foal, FOREVER...
