//------------------------------// // Unicorns // Story: Fallout: Equestria- Chasing Stars // by not_me //------------------------------// Unicorns. “Unicorns? They are just horned ponies, who can control their magic by will. It all seems freaky to me. Peguseses and Earth ponies have magic, but it is innate, a part of our very being. It just seems unnatural to be able to take one’s own vital energy and wield it however. I mean I know you are, like, mostly bound to your special talent, but I have no idea how magic works or where it comes from. I am pretty sure no pony does. Why did you ask Chase? You are a unicorn. So you’re more of an expert on unicorns than me.” “I know. I just I haven't met all that many. I only knew maybe four or so in my whole life and they all weren’t true magic users. Lucky only knew telekinesis.” “Well that’s like the only spell most unicorns know. Maybe they’ll know one other spell dealing with their talent. Although I met one pony that could use like nine spells before; her talent was putting on magic shows. She ended up becoming a raider pony though, no one pays to see shows in the wasteland. Who’s Lucky,” she asked as she rotated some questionable meat on a stick above the fire. “She’s, I mean was, another unicorn I was traveling with. Well the reason I was asking was to see if you knew a remedy for magical burnout.” “Nope, sorry.” At that she pulled off a piece of meat and handed it to me. “Here take it.” “What is it?” “Dog meat.” “This isn’t meat from your dog, is it?” “That’s a stupid question. Waste not want not,” she replied as she tore some more of the meat off for herself. I shrugged and ate it anyways. We had arrived at the tank in the cemetery an hour ago. After Sky pried open the tank hatch we dropped off our packs and made a fire next to it. We sat and ate some more of the meat. I had taken off my jacket and hat and was now using them to lie on, while Sky was on her haunches back against the tank. I caught her stretching her head to the side looking at me. “What?” “Is your cutie mark the moon? I’ve only seen the moon twice, but it didn’t look like that. It was big and round.” “Oh, it’s a crescent moon. Its when the sun only lights up one side of the moon.” I turned my head to look at my mark. “There are five stars and falling star too. See” I said pointing at my flank. “What’s it mean? I mean, what’s your special talent?” That was a good question. When I only received it a few days ago. I thought for sure it meant I had some kind of destiny, but now I wasn’t sure. Maybe it represented an affinity for the night. My coat was black and my mark made me look like the night sky. Then it hit me. “I think it’s for questing. I am looking for something. All my life I never strayed to far from the Bison lands. Now I seem to be making up for lost time.” “What are you looking for?” “A networked computer, which will tell me where I can find another computer, which can tell me where I can find a file.” “Any idea where this file is located.” “No clue.” “Is it important?” “Kind of, its all needed to activate some machine. I don’t quite understand it all, but I suppose it’ll be worth it in the end.” “Ok, I admit it. I’m jealous.” “What? Why!?” “Most ponies just live day to day here in the wasteland. There is no real living. Its just survival. Find resource, use them till they are gone, move on. Rinse, recycle, repeat. I never wanted to be a scavenger. I just travel cause I have nothing else to do. This isn’t even what my talent is.” “What is your talent?” “You’re going to laugh.” “So.” “You’re supposed to promise me you won’t.” “I can’t promise that. Besides you brought it up so now I have to know.” At that she stood up unzipped her body armor and slipped it off. She turned so I could get I a good look at her cutie mark. It was a black circle (a record actually, but I didn’t know what that was back then) with two black wings on top of a musical note. She pulled her armor back on. “My special talent is dancing. I’m a dancer. I once was part of a traveling show. No pony ever paid us. They would go on about how graceful and beautiful I was, but never spare a damn thing. Eventually the troop had enough and attacked a caravan. They said they did it because they had no other choice. They were starving. That didn’t sit well with me so I left. Since then I have been scavenging. I tell other ponies I am an adventurer, but whom am I kidding. I collect and peddle junk.” At that she got up and grabbed some more her dead dog and kept on eating. Did I ever tell you I hated the wasteland? Cause I do. “You know I hated this dumb bitch,” she said as she ate on. “I kept her around cause she seemed to notice any threat before I ever could. She wasn’t even my pet. She just followed me one day. She ate some bloat fly I killed and seemed to think I gave it to her. She would try to lick my face, but I would always remember the last thing she ate.” I took another bite thinking about what she said. “You know if you think about it you kind of are eating insect meat by proxy.” Sky stopped chewing mid-bite. I was afraid I might have grossed her out, but than she shrugged her wings and swallowed. She begun to chuckle before giving in to full on laughter. “You’re just trying to gross me out so you can have more,” she said between laughs. “It almost worked too.” I just smiled. She regained her composer after a while and turned to me saying, “that’s it I have come to a decision.” “About what?” “Me and you are going to form our own company. I’ll assist you in finding this file and return we split any profits gained in this venture down the middle. In return you help me collect and carry any salvage and I get any and all 5 and 10 millimeter bullets.” “Well what do I get?” “The company of a lovely mare, and first dibs on any explosives since you seem to refuse to use any other weapon. Also...” Then she said something really fast. “What was that last part?” “Shoot! I hoped you would just agree.” I raised my eyebrows at her. “Okay I said ‘also I get your pipbuck in case you die.’ Plus you can take my two broncos if I do,” she added gesturing towards the tank. I think she meant her mini-guns she had stored inside. I stuck out my hoof and she bro hoofed me back. “Deal, sucker.” At that she bounced up and down like a filly. “I’m going to get a pipbuck. I’m going to get a pipbuck,” she sang. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” “What its not my fault your too stupid to use guns.” I was going to reply when I saw out of the corner of my eyes some floating green lights. I stood up and turned towards them but didn’t see anything. “Sky, you see that.” “See what?” she replied. I turned back towards her. “Those lights,” I said gesturing towards where I had seen them previously. She gasped. I made to look behind me, but sky grabbed my face and turned it towards her. “You’re eyes! Chase what’s wrong with your eyes? They’re pitch black.” Right then I saw a floating green glowing cloud float through our camp and over our fire. My pipbuck vibrated for a second as I turned my head away from her. “You had to see that this time. It went right through our camp.” She stepped back from me with a look of real worry on her face. “Come on, we have to check it out,” called to her as the glowing cloud slowly billowed away. “Star Chaser you are creeping me out.” “Come on,” I said trotting away from the fire. “It’s getting away.” “I think I am going to stay here. Near the fire. And the tank. You know, where it’s safe, and not a creepy dark graveyard.” “Suite yourself.” At that I galloped off. I could here Soaring Skies calling for me to comeback, but the glowing green cloud was getting away. I ran over a nearby hill and criss-croosed between the graves keeping the glowing green cloud in sight. The colors of the world had inverted again. The sky was white and the earth black. The cloud sparkled like a thousand particle of fine emerald dust. It would swoop and swayed, double backing on itself. It was like the devil got in me and compelled me to follow it to the ends of the wasteland. Luckily I didn’t need to go that far. The mass seemed to stop and hover over a tree. As I approached, the cloud consolidated and begun to take on the rough shape of a pony. There were no defining features except for its eyes, which were composed of two points of pure light. I walked up to it maintaining eye contact the whole way. As I stopped before it, it hovered in silence. The individual particles still swarmed, but the shape did not change. “What are you?” “A pony. At least I was at one time.” It started to circle me focusing the lights of its eyes on me as it circled me counter clockwise. “I wanted to meet you for a while now. Ever since I learned you had the gift of sight.” It stopped circling me and gave a quick bow. “I am your grandfather.” My jaw dropped. “You’re lying. He’s dead. Everypony in my family is dead.” “Aye, that is true. Though there are ways around it.” I begun circling me again, this time clockwise. “There are many mysteries in the world. Things unexplainable even by magic. The fact is when I learned you had the sight I needed to meet you. It had to be now, here in this place dedicated to the dead. Here the distance between the worlds are not as vast. I needed to tell you just how disappointed I was in you.” “What the hell are you talking about,” I responded in anger jabbing my hoof at it only for the form to burst into a cloud and reform behind me. “I see you making the same damn mistakes everpony makes.” I turned around just in time for him to poke me hard in the chest. “You see, they are tricking you. They are making you think in terms of good and evil. Like you have to be one or the other. It’s all lies. There is a third choice. One that is neither, neutral. Other ponies will make you think you should use your strength to help the weak, but its horseshit!” “Is that all you came to say,” I asked. “No, just one of many things. Ask me anything and I’ll answer you.” “Is it true you killed all those ponies, that you went insane alone in Stable 77 and killed your way through the wasteland?” “Oh, that! Yep all true, every word. For one hundred and forty years I had my way with the world. My time in the stable opened my eyes to the truth.” “Which is?” “That everypony is equal.” I had to admit that was not the answer I was expecting. “I saw through the bullshit. The whole cause of the war was cause the ruling class of zebras and ponies could not admit they were fallible. The alicorns were just the fourth race of pony, and the zebra weren’t lesser, just different. Don’t fall for the lies son, everypony has magic. Unicorns wield it with their horns, while pegasi control the air around them. Even Earth ponies use magic to commune with the Earth. It comes from will, not cutie marks. Dammit, boy you are going around doing stupid shit cause some mark appeared on your butt.” He was right. I had a sister and a whole herd waiting for me. I could just get up and leave. I owed nothing to the human. I already got one pony killed on this quest, not including all the ponies I killed. Yet here I am trying to get another bystander involved. “I thought cutie marks represented your special talent.” “Nah, cutiemarks don’t mean nothing. They just help you focus your magic. Truth is you can get as much power working against your mark as with it. And, don’t you go thinking you belong back with the bison, either. That was your papa’s dream, and he got himself and your momma killed doing it too. If you want to solve the mystery of this thing, do it cause you want to, not because you need to. Heaven’s know I had plenty of fun here in my day.” I gulped because I knew I was about to ask the big question. “Why did you do it?” “It was my way of helping the world, and having fun. With in each pony is the potential to become a god or a demon, but I wanted to show the world the power of a pony by himself. Fuck, make sure they knew the strength of a pony with out shit to lose. You know, set a standard. Of course I had help from my friend too.” “Friend?!” “My buddy the pip-pony. Together we killed he King of Stable 77 and fought heaven and Earth.” Oh, my goddess, he was still insane in death. “After I lost him I found it no longer as fun cracking skulls, breaking backs, or tearing limbs. In those last ten years I was just going through the motions.” Ok, really crazy.” “In fact it was him who figured out how to beat aging.” “How?” “A spoonful of taint, everyday. Take to little and you get a nasty case of cancer, take too much you end up a giant wiggle worm. However, just enough and little things like radiation and time start meaning less to ya.” “How did you die?” “Liver failure.” He started to lose his shape as his voice trialed off. “Fuck, I don’t have much time left. One more thing boy, a gift from me to you.” “What?” “Magic!” At that his form broke up into a spectral cloud flowing over my face and into my horn. I felt warmth spreading through my head as my eyes were filled with white light. All my pain melted away. Than it stopped. The world was back to normal and I was alone by a tree. I made to walk away, but heard a voice, weak and small. “Make me proud boy.” I smiled and made to walk away when I heard it again. “One more thing, a warning. Beware Pinkie Pie, she is always watching and now that she is free from life its true, too.” I waited five minutes after that in case I could hear something, but only the wind made a sound. I walked back towards the tank, testing my horn to see if I could summon a flash spell. A white light formed from the end of my horn lighting my way. I made my way into the camp only to be greeted by a scared sky pointing a semi-automatic pistol at me. “Whose there,” she yelped. “Just me,” I replied extinguishing my horn. I saw her relax her muscles and stash her gun. “Chase, what the hell was that? You’re eyes were all funky and you were seeing things that weren’t there.” “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “You’re not crazy are you?” “Gee, I hope not.” We were off the next morning before the sun rose. Nothing bothered us through the night. Like yesterday morning, we didn’t walk in a straight-line. It was again a morning filled with chasing animals and checking random junk only this time my head wasn’t hurting. A part of me just seemed to accept the craziness of the whole ordeal. A week ago my life was scouting missions with my sister, today I lived in a world filled with alicorns, humans, and ghosts. Even if last night was just me losing touch with sanity, one thing was correct. I needed to be living my life for myself. I dare say I was letting myself have some fun for once. A little before noon we approached a large gated compound. The surrounding land was filled with large swaths of tilled land with sickly green and yellow sprouts as far as the eye could see with sparse farm house dotting the landscape. I had never seen such a sight before. About a mile out four ponies galloped towards us, two in heavy black armor and two wearing light barding. The ponies in armor beat the others to us. I braced myself for a fight, mostly out of habit. “Halt, state your business with Broccoli.” Sky swooped down and floated above us upside down. “Trade!” she said. “You don’t look like traders.” ‘We aren’t,” I replied. Before the armored ponies could ask another question the two light armored ponies caught up to us. “Let them in boys. Soaring Skies is a regular with us here, though we don’t know the feller,” said a one of the other ponies. Sky righted herself and land next to me. She hugged me with a wing. “This here is my business partner. You can trust him. The dummy doesn’t even know how to use a gun.” I pushed her wing off of me. “I do too. I just don’t like using them though.” She rolled her eyes at me. “Yeah, I believe you.” The armored security ponies apparently were convinced we belonged here and wandered off. One of the others escorted us to the gate, a small yellow buck. “Those guys are new, what happened to the last group of guards,” asked Sky. “They all moved on already. Most ponies here are just looking for a quick cap before going off to the next place.” “So you hire out mercenaries to guard your town?” He looked towards me. “Yeah, mercs make up half our towns security. Most ponies living here are needed working the fields so we have to hire out.” We reached the main gate. The buck waved at the armored ponies manning the gate. “Should be fine the rest of the way by yourselves. Make sure to buy some broccoli while you’re here. Enjoy your stay.” With that he was off. As we reached the gate it slowly opened up for us. Sky got restless and just flew over the top. When the gate finally opened enough I found her already talking to another guard pony selling our extra ammo. I stood a bit away from her and let her do her thing when I noticed a strange mare walking up with a wood crate on her back. The mare was a skinny paint with a mostly white coat with brown and tan spots and a brown mane cut short. She had on a ratty old tan duster, and a pair of red horned rim glassed. Everypony seemed to avert their glaze as she dropped the crate on the ground. She stood up on it and cleared her throat. “Can I have everponies attention,” she called out. No pony seemed to give her any. “Excuse me, I have an announcement. All hired guards are required to listen or else they don’t get paid, according to the sheriff’s orders.” Everypony fell silent except for Sky and the old stallion she was selling ammo to. All the mercs gathered around her, giving her a death glare. I moved closer to hear better. “Thank you all for working on securing our town. However, Broccoli is in need of more than just guards. We need ponies to work the fields. We can’t offer much, but what we can offer you is an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. Work the fields and we will find a family to put you up. Work for a month and we can offer you a room in the bunkhouse. Work a year and become a citizen with your own home to call your own. There is a better way of life and it can start for you today. Also, sign up now and you can have an extra weeks ration of broccoli at this weeks end. Thank you.” “Get bent you old hag,” screamed one merc. “Hey, I’m not a hag, or old,” replied the paint mare. “And we ain’t no farmers ‘ither,” replied another merc. She let out a humph and climbed off her crate. “See you all tomorrow,” she called out as the crowd dispersed. She slowly bit the crate and put it back on her back when it got knocked off by Sky who pulled her in for a an unwanted hug. “Morning, Morning. Its ok if no pony signs up to be a farmer. There is always next time.” The timid paint was trying to claw her way out of the hug but the pegasus would not give. Eventually she resigned to her fate and patted Sky’s arm. “Nice to see you too Soaring.” At that Sky let her go and shook her head in disappointment. “You know I don’t like to be called that.” “Well tough, its what I like calling you,” she replied sticking her tongue out. They both chuckled. I approached them both. “Well I thought it was a nice speech personally.” The skinny mares eye’s lit up. I swear there were sparkles and everything. “Really! Do you want to become a farmer?” I suddenly backed away, but before I could protest Sky placed herself between the mare and me. “No, he’s my unicorn. Were forming our own company and I can’t have him run off to play in the dirt. Besides when he dies I get his pipbuck.” “I am not planning on dying any time soon.” “I can wait. It’s a very nice pipbuck, after all.” I looked down at my leg to find the paint mare an inch away from my pipbuck. “Oohh, its golden.” I took a step away from her. She walked a step closer, muzzle still inches away. “I can see why you want this. It’s a refurbished model E.” I took another step away, she took another step closer. “Its so new I can see my reflection in it still!” Sky flew next to me. “Chase, meet Morning Mist. Morning, meet Star Chaser.” I stuck my hoof up, while Morning mist took a step back and looked at my hoof. Then up at my face, then back at my hoof. She slowly stuck out hers hoof and tapped mine. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Star.” I had never been called that before. “Same here, Ms. Mist.” She beamed back at me. Before we could say anything else Sky flew between both of us and started ushering us towards town. “Broccoli is really awesome. It is the grows all of its own food…” “Actually we import a lot of our food using broccoli as trade for…” “…When I first got here I ate nothing but broccoli for two weeks straight. I ate so much that my…” “…also we specialize in doing repair work for other ponies since this used to be a military…” “… and the doctor said that it was all completely normal and I shouldn’t ‘just’ eat broccoli. Oh look a junk salespony, maybe he wants some stuff for trade.” At that Sky flew of leaving me alone with Morning Mist. “…but then everypony just kept calling us that. So it became our towns name.” Morning looked around and noticed Sky had already left, while I had no clue what either Mare had just said. “Oh, Soaring already left.” She turned back to me. “Are you sure you don’t want to be a farmer?” I face hoofed. After selling all our excess crap we ate a late lunch consisting of broccoli soup, served with broccoli salad and deep-fried broccoli for desert. It all actually tasted extremely good, and was a mark improvement over cooked mutt. I could see why Sky would just eat it for two weeks straight. Sky and Morning had just kept talking to each other the whole time while I felt weird sitting with them. Was this how regular pony life was like? Just hanging out at a café between work. It just felt, weird. There was no gunfire, death, or scouting. Just two old friends catching up, talking over broccoli tea. “Is that true?” I had missed something. Both of them were staring at me, waiting an answer. I slowly chewed my food and swallowed. “Sorry, what?” “Where you raised by bison?” “Yeah, out west.” “See told you, he was. That’s why he has a feather in his hat and everything.” “Actually the feather came with the hat. I think it’s a griffon feather.” “So why are you out here than?” “I am looking for a computer. One with access to the old network.” “He’s looking for a file, for a machine.” “Really what does the machine do,” asked Morning. “It’s some old prewar machine. A fail safe of a sorts,” I lied. “Oohh. That sounds cool. So what does it do, like clean water or restart the weather.” “I don’t know. I am doing for a friend. It was kind of a last request.” At that I took a big bite of food so I wouldn’t have to answer any more questions. Last thing I needed was to tell these two was that I was trying to find some time machine for an alien from another dimension. Celestia, I sounded crazy. “Wow, you’re lives sound so amazing. I wish sometime I could go on adventures, but I am needed here.” “What do you do here Morning Mist,” I asked. It was then I noticed Sky frantically waving her hooves in the air behind Morning trying to prevent me from asking that question. “No much actually. I help in the field when I can. I fix machines. I have a good mechanical sense. But my talent is understanding water.” At that she seemed to get excited, too excited. She lifted the back of her jacket and pointed at her cutie mark. It was three droplets of water flowing in a circle around each other. “I love studying the water cycle, water transport, water talismans, soil water, water radiation, plant water uptake, evapotranspiration, and plumbing. I routinely check the soil water, amend our irrigation water tanks, and alter the towns water usage. It really should be a full time position. Though it’s a one-pony job, and the elder scientist has already started training two more ponies. One of which is specializing in soils so they are already starting to split up my duties. That’s why the sheriff thought it would be great if I started trying to recruit more farmers, so I could have more stuff to do.” “So why don’t you leave. You know take that expertise and apply it in some other town.” “But they need me. If I were not here, who would check the daily water consumption?” Probably anypony with some free time. “Any ways when I was a filly they took us into the field…” I’ll spare you the details. The main jest was she saw the irrigation system and put it on herself to redesign the whole thing, from scratch. Oh and she did all the modifications with out the permission from anypony else in town while she was still only twelve. Mistakes were made, bad ones. “And that’s how I got my cutie mark. See, it’s really cool.” It really wasn’t. I looked over to find Sky asleep. Morning Mist noticed the sleeping pegasus. “Oh the poor thing must be tired from all her adventuring.” She grabbed Sky by her main and threw her on to her back. She made it two steps away from the table before falling flat. “She is really heavy, with these guns and all.” Long story short I ended up carrying the sleeping Sky all the way to Mornings house, or shack rather. I placed her on an old love seat. Morning threw a blanket over her. “She always stays with me when she is in town. She worked as a town guard for two months, and I put her up. We have been friends since.” Morning walked over to a table and gestured for me to sit. Reluctantly I joined her. “I really don’t like it when she leaves. I get so scared I’ll never see her again.” “She’s a strong pony. She can take care of herself.” “Oh, I know.” She looked around her place then down at her hooves. Her ‘house’ was made of rusted old sheet metal wielded together. There was a table constructed out of old two by fours, a scavenged couch, a bed, and a rusty old workbench covered with papers and a hunting rifle. “Sky usually comes back alone. The last few times she had a dog with her, though.” “The dog got killed a few days ago.” I spared her the details about us eating it for dinner. “That’s to bad. But, what I was getting at was that I really have no place for you to stay. I can ask around and see if I could come up with someplace for you to stay. The bunkhouse is reserved for farm hands only.” “Are there no inns.” “Well there is a room or two at the saloon. Its usually filled with the guards though. Most of them camp outside, though, but I don’t think you want to stay there.” “Oh, why not?” She leaned in close to me like she was going to tell me a secret. “Its filled with drunk ponies,” she whispered. I laughed at her; she smiled. “Well it goes with the territory. Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” I put my hat back on and waved at her as I left. I wandered around town for a while. It was an old military base. All of the old building had been preserved and a series of shanty towns sprung up between every building. I realized a good portion of the ‘wall’ was made up of the houses of the ponies that formed this town. I found myself a small bench and took in the place. Little fillies ran back and forth while guards regularly walked around the confines of the little town reminding everypony of the wasteland that lay beyond. It was an oasis of civilization amidst the chaos of the Equestria. As the sun started to make its descent for the day I made my way over to the bar, apparently named ‘Salon.’ Evidently no pony bothered correcting the sign. The bar was empty save for a passed out stallion. I made a seat at the bar, when out of the back came the ugliest ghoul I ever laid my eyes on. “What the fuck happened to your face,” I asked. Part of his muzzle appeared to be melted off. “Ah, well fuck you too,” he replied. I just gawked at him. “You buying anything or just came to take up space?” I shut my jaw. “Yeah, I was wondering if you had any rooms available?” “Just one kid, yours for fifty caps.” “Deal.” I slid him some caps. “Up the stars last room on the left.” He threw the key at me and walked away. I went upstairs and found the tiny room, just big enough for a bed and a dresser. I dropped off my bags and went back down to the bar. “Oh you’re back already. What you want buck?” “What you got?” “Same thing as every other bar. Beer, whiskey, vodka, and scotch, all past their expiration date.” Kind of like the bar pony. “A beer and two shots of whiskey.” He rolled his eyes. “A beer and bottle of whiskey. Here’s a shot glass give it back when your done or I am charging it to your room.” I was going to say I only wanted a shot but before I could even say anything. “We only sell stuff by the bottles kid. Fifteen caps.” I paid the ugly stallion, or at least I thought it was a stallion. “Enjoy alchy.” He walked off. I poured myself a shot and slammed it. “Psssss.” I turned to find the sleeping stallion at the bar awake and peeking out from his hat. “Huh?” “You’re suppose to leave him some extra caps.” “Why, I paid him what he asked for. If he wanted more he should charge more.” “It’s called a tip you dumb ass,” hissed the drunk old stallion. “You leave ten to twenty percent, or one cap per item. Its courteous.” I threw down two more caps on the bar and took my drinks up and levitated them to a dark table in the corner. I always preferred the dark. I think as a scout I was trained to observe and not be seen. Darkness always made me feel more secure. I sipped on my beer and took a shot every once in a while. Over time more ponies filtered in. After an hour I was half done with whiskey, and long done with my beer. I ordered another one and lit myself a cigarette. Sky was angry I took out a pack from the carton. Apparently cigarettes are as good as currency too. She said it made no sense to burn money, but I wasn’t burning money. I was smoking it. I noticed two unicorn guards come in. They were looking over their soldiers and talking in whispers. They ordered their drinks and sat down next to me. They seemed suspicious. It was obvious they wanted nopony to hear their conversation. So of course I leaned in to listen. “I finally got it off of him. All we gots to do is just go in and grab it.” “But won’t they suspect us. You were the last one in the office and I am supposed to be doing patrol tonight.” “That is why we high tail it out of here after tonight. It don’t matter if they know we did it. We will be hooked back up with the Wild Herd in two days and they won’t be able to do shit about it.” “Ok, we go after this round.” After they finished up their drinks they got up to leave. I waited ten seconds before following them. Outside darkness had settled giving me ample cover. The two idiots didn’t even look back to see if they were being tailed. They made their way to a non-descript door on the side of the old base and unlocked it with a key. I snuck up to the door and nudged it open. It was the armory. The two where helping themselves to every gun and piece of ammo they could fit into their saddlebags. I slowly backed out the door and sat down waiting for them. Sure enough they trotted out without a care in the world right past me. I cleared my throat. The both looked at me. “What the hell do you want,” asked the leader of the two. “Put the shit back and leave. I won’t even tell them it was you. Just go and leave these good folks alone.” One looked scared, but the leader of the two stepped foreword. “Or what?” “Or I’ll beat the living shit out of you two and turn you to in. I doubt this town looks too kindly on thieves.” “Well we don’t look to kindly on snitches either.” He levitated out a shotgun and fired at. I jumped to the side and teleported away. The other unicorn had enough time to levitate two hand guns and turn around firing just at where I had reappeared hitting me in the shoulder. They must have fought teleporters before. I let out a flash and entered VATS. Time slowed down enough that I could make out the grimaces on their faces. I used the extra time to form my magic bullets. I gathered the air around me and infused it a single point with a flash spell firing off two small magic bolts at shotguns face. I watched both of them impact into his skull splattering blood across his face. Time returned to normal and guns lets out two more shots. I teleported again. Guns quickly turned around and let out a shot not noticing I had teleported ten feet to his left. I encased myself in a field of levitation and sprinted and hurled myself as quickly as I could towards him. He swung his guns around too late as I tackled him. We wrestled around on the ground as I managed to place my hoof under his jaw. I unleashed a torrent of magic through my hooves propelling my horseshoes five inches in a second breaking his jaw and knocking him unconscious. Then, I got shot in the back. Shotgun had used the ensuing time to sneak behind me and get a clean shot. My jacket and barding prevented most of the buck from getting through, but damn did it hurt. I rolled on my back to find him levitating it over my face. I managed to wrap my own telekinetic field around it to jerk the barrel out of my face, but the other guard pony quickly pulled it out of my field and lined up another shot. However, I had enough time to get back on my hooves. He had me dead to rights when a single shot rang out. It wasn’t a shotgun, but a rifle. We both turned and noticed a bevy of hired mercs and townies together training their rifles on both of us. In front was a single earth pony mare wearing light armor with a battle saddle holding a smoking rifle and an annoyed expression on her face. She turned to a merc standing next to her. “What is going on here?” “We found these three fighting when we got here, mam.” She pointed her gun at the shotgun-wielding unicorn. “You, explain yourself.” “This fucker attacked us,” he lied. She pointed her gun at me. “What do you have to say about this?” “He’s stealing from you. He has half your armory in his bag, check it.” She pointed her gun back at the unicorn. “Empty the bag, nice and slow.” He turned pointing the shotgun at her. “Fuck you, bitch.” She was quicker and he was dead. Straight shot to the forehead, nice and clean. She walked up to his dead carcass and kicked his bag spilling out ammo onto the ground. She walked over to the unconscious unicorn and did the same test with similar results. “Take this one into custody,” she ordered the other guards. She walked up to me. “Ok, what the hay is going on?” “I overheard these two talking about doing something so I followed them. I confronted them as they left the armory and they opened fire. You know the rest.” She quickly scanned me and stopped for a moment in thought. “We owe you a debt of gratitude it seems. Go to the doc and have him give you the once over. Tell him it’s on the house. When he’s done with you have him come over to the jail. Come tomorrow I went you out of town, you here. We don’t like troublemakers. Now git.” She gestured towards a medial hut and walked away. I hobbled over and to find the doctor already peaking outside to see what the commotion was about. In fact half the town was peaking out doors and windows watching me. I didn’t even have to explain anything to the doctor, he just ushered me in to his office and on to a table. I was treated for two gun shot wounds, a strained hernia, magic exhaustion, medium radiation poisoning, and exhaustion; otherwise I was all healthy. I was also given the usual doctorly advice: don’t go into radiated buildings, try to avoid getting shot at, cigarette smoke gives you cancer, don’t eat mystery meat, and try stretching before running for your life. As I walked out, the doctor followed me locking the building up behind him and making his way towards his next patient. I made to walk off only to hear a small squeak. Sitting by the door was Morning Mist. “Are you okay?” “Yep, clean bill o’health. What are you doing here?” “Well when we heard, we hurried over here to see if you were okay.” I looked around. “Where’s Sky.” “Well when Soaring heard you where going to be forced out of town she rushed off to argue with the sheriff. I tried telling her when Mayor Boiled Broccoli gets an idea in her head, she doesn’t change it.” “Your sheriff is your mayor too and her name is Boiled Broccoli?” “Yes and yes.” I ambled towards the bar, Morning followed. Her head hung low in silent contemplation. “You seem sad, what’s wrong?” She looked up at me and then back at her hooves. “If you have to leave tomorrow Soaring Sky will leave tomorrow.” “You truly care for her don’t you?” “She is my best friend. My only friend actually.” “Do you actually like living here? I mean you seem down about this whole place.” She looked up at me. She tried speaking, but every time she started she would stop. Her head dropped back down and she took in a deep breath. “Actually, I hate it here. No pony gives me the respect I deserve. I literally read every book that they have here. My job is redundant. I’ve done everything I could ever hope to accomplish. The only thing left for me to do is get shacked up and have some foals, but I am not ready to be a mother. I’m not sure if I ever will.” She looked back up at me with a fire in her eyes. “Also, I hate broccoli. The food, the town, the mayor; I hate all of them. I’m just a coward though. I am too scared to face the world. I don’t know what to do.” “You should come with us!!!” We both turned in surprise as Soaring Sky did a triple loop and landed next to us. “Come on it will be so fun. We’ll all go and see the sights: Dead Canterlot, Manehatten, Friendship City, Tenpony Tower, everything. I’ve been telling you to come with me and now is your chance.” Sky put her hoof to her chin in thought. “Your last chance actually.” “What did you do Sky,” I asked. “Oh, not much. I kinda sorta maybe punched the mayor in the face and got myself kicked out of town, too.” Morning gasped. “Oh my Celestia. Why did you do that?” “Cause she was being a mean old bitch.” Morning just snickered. “When isn’t she?” She shook her head trying to calm herself down. “So Morning Mist, What will it be: adventuring across Equestria, or eating broccoli in Broccoli while working for Boiled Broccoli?” At that we both looked at the skinny paint. She seemed deep in thought. “Fuck Broccoli! Come tomorrow I am joining you two.” Sky let out a cheer and flew in to hug Morning, but Morning stuck out her hoof stopping the happy pegasus. I just smiled. Footnote: Level up! Level 7 New Perk: Blessed by Luna: You’re a night pony! +2 intelligence and +2 perception during night.