We woke the next morning in a rather... hilarious situation. Last night in our crying, we must have tired ourselves out and we had collapsed into each other, propping one another up like the sides of a teepee. I had no complaints about cuddling with this mare that I so adored, but one question lingered: How the hell did we manage to stay upright? Eh, probably we were too exhausted to shift around in our sleep, moping about our past is hard work.
As much as I didn't want to, I had to get up. It was morning, and we were in unfriendly territory. I shifted around, taking Lilly in my magic and gently laying her down on the ground as I staggered to my hooves. Oh goddesses, the floor had numbed my hindquarters. I needed to get some circulation going, so I silently trotted about. I checked my Pip Buck, behind me was a dot for Lilly, two dots in the other room for Rusty and Wendy, okay, what's this new dot? Downstairs, there was a green dot that occasionally flickered red. Lovely, First thing in the morning is to stab a sleeping pony in the throat.
I pushed my thoughts aside and drew the gryphon blade from my leg pocket in my stable jumpsuit. At this point, it was either he/she/it or us. I remembered the cheesy rhyme that my parents told me. Red, it's dead. Personally, I thought it was pointless to have a high tech targeting system and E.F.S. on an oversized wristwatch in a place where almost everyone was peaceful, but it had repeatedly proved its usefulness out here.
My clumsy hoofsteps caused the stairs to creak as I descended to the ground floor, but thankfully my target seemed to be a deep sleeper. Downstairs, my E.F.S. indicated the flashing red and green dot was directly around the corner. I steeled myself and declared, "Five." I popped around the corner, bringing my knife down full force at my target. In the slow motion of the S.A.T.S. targeting I got the chance to identify my target... Fuck me.
Abort! Abort! I screamed in my head, and just in time, veered the knife to avoid shiskebabing a blue colt with a dirty brown mane and A leather flight cap, despite his being an earth pony. His clothes consisted of pieced together rubbish, much like the two I had killed before. I cancelled the strike in S.A.T.S and my knife swung aside, nailing itself into the floor, making the colt jolt awake and jump back.
"FUCK ARE YOU CRAZY FRENZIED BITCH!?" he incomprehensibly shouted at me in his panic. Damn, this kid knew some language for his age. He looked as if he had just gotten his cutie mark. "Explain what you're doing in my house!" His house?
"Your... house?" I asked, prying the knife out of the ground.
"Oh what? you just barge in here and expect me to answer your questions, even after you tried to kill me? I don't think so asshole." He produced a grenade out from under where he sat on the floor and pulled the pin, still clamping the spoon to the side of the grenade in his mouth.
"Woah woah woah... slow down there friend." I say backing away from him and bumping into the wall. "I thought you were a.. a..." I point to the body in the corner.
"A raider?" he asked sliding the pin back into the grenade with his tongue. Wow, he was practiced. "Yeah, I am a raider, what's it to you?
"You're a raider? But you're just a colt." I say looking at the small blue foal with a cutie mark of a barrel with three X's marked across it. "Where are your parents? He motioned to the corpses in the corner of the room that I had killed earlier.
Shit. "I um.. I ah..." I said softly looking away, stiffening up for fear that he was going to pull the pin again.
"Ah, don’t sweat it, they were bastards anyway." I think I felt a little bit of myself die inside. How anyone could be so insensitive about that. All I know is that if we switched places, I would be strangling him right about now, but that had already happened, and that is exactly what I had intended to do to the Overmare.
"Does that matter?" he asked beginning to sound annoyed.
"Why aren't you trying to kill me?"
"Why, is it strange to you? Cause if you want I can put a bullet through your brain right now, or use you as paint." He flipped the grenade over in his hoof. I shuddered a bit, wondering what it would feel like to be torn asunder by explosives. "Well... I'm waiting."
"Ah, no thanks, I don’t feel like dying today." I say rubbing my arm awkwardly.
He walked towards the stairs muttering something along the lines of, 'Stupid bitch' I followed him upstairs to find him facehoofing at the discovery of my friends. "I count four assholes living in my house. You should leave." He said pulling another grenade out from a metal box.
"Ah! don’t kill them! Nonononono!" I said as he pulled the pin and tossed it into the middle of the room. Fuck! I dove for cover inside a closet, waiting for the explosion which came, its proximity making my ears ring. I fearfully stepped back out, but instead of having been splattered with the paste of my friends, they were just as clean as before, and a dazed and confused Lilly was stumbling around, yelling profanities as she ran into a bookshelf that brought a case full of empty bottles down on top of her, shattering and showering her in broken glass. In the other room, we heard a similar cacophony until Wendy stumbled out into the room. Meanwhile, on the floor, rolling around in psychotic joy was the colt, holding his sides and gasping for air as his face went from blue to purple.
As much of a dick move that had been, I had to admit, it was pretty funny. I felt myself losing control over my laughter as I trotted over to Lilly, helping her out from under the bookshelf, glaring daggers at me. I shuddered a bit, I didn't like that look, or all of the ill intent behind it. She stood, brushing my hoof off her shoulder, "Not cool Gears." She trotted over to help my brother up, shouldering him to his feet with a smile. He smiled back awkwardly and trotted in, trailed by a groggy Rusty. "So, who's the colt? Lost his mama?"
He was clearly unamused, "Ever say that again and I'll turn you into glue myself."
"Damn, kid." She said flattening her wars looking on at him in shock.
"He's a raider." I explain, "This is his house, we came in and killed his parents. And hes been... relatively hospitable."
"Yeah, until now. Get out, or I will do exactly as I said." He produced a grenade again. Goddesses, where did he keep all these grenades?
"Woah woah woah.. hold on, we at least need to plan ahead if we’re going to fight our way through here."
At this the colt perked up an eyebrow, "You're planning on attacking the town, well, I might as well tag along." Wait, what did he just say?
"What? Why? Aren't the other raiders your friends?" I asked, also receiving confused nods from my comrades.
"Yeah, well, the way I figure it, they have better loot than anything I could pick off of any of you." Ouch. Damn, I’m glad I never got to meet his parents face to face, because of what I've seen of it, this kid is the living embodiment of the wastes. Cruel, dark, abusive, and oppertunistic. I hope he didn't have any siblings.
"You mean you would just stab them in the backs?" Lilly asks in shock.
"Of course, why do you seem so surprised? I'm a raider." Well, another member of our group, but all of us had been stabbed in the back before as opposed to him, who was planning the stabbing. He shot up red flags all over, but strength was in numbers. Even if he was a colt, he still seemed incredibly violent. Maybe even a touch psychotic.
My Pip Buck flashed an alert, telling me a few things. Follower added: Boomer. Boomer has given you the 'pack-a-punch' perk. New quest added: Fight the Power! First objective, exterminate all raiders in the Ponyville ruins. The fact it used the term "exterminate" didn't help the uneasiness caused by the co.. er.. Boomer.
I looked at the colt who had pulled on a set of saddlebags and had begun shoveling grenades into them. How somepony his size was able to carry all of those grenades, I would never know. Lilly began working the bolt of her big ass rifle and checking the actions. "Can you even fire that thing?" Boomer snorted.
"Probably not." Lilly admitted, lifting the gun that may have well been twice her wingspan. Boomer held out his hoof, asking for the gun. "What? Seriously? If I can't fire it, I know you can't."
"It was my mother's rifle and yes, I have shot it before." He's gone from hating his parents to being wistful about their possessions, what is wrong with this kid? Lilly reluctantly offered him the rifle, and he took it, almost four times his size, turned it over and began stripping it apart. Lilly watched in despair as the only gun that hadn't been pointed at her was disemboweled by the colt, who after some tinkering, began putting it back together.
As the gun was pieced back together, Lilly's face began to relax. Maybe he wasn't breaking it, nope, he held out the rifle that Lilly promptly swept back protectively. In front of Lilly's hooves Boomer dumped a pile of brass shards. "These were in the receiver, a few more shots and you would be paint."
"Umm, thanks."Lilly stammered eyeing the shards of brass that could potentially been deadly. Boomer nodded.
"So when are we going to fuck their shit up?" He asked digging through a nearby cabinet.
I spoke up, "Well, let us wake up first, and then.. I guess we'll attack. What are we up against?"
"Ponies with guns. Wake up cause I'm short on sleep and someone's gotta pay." He emerged from the cabinet with a grenade launcher and a tiny battle saddle, pieced together with various rubbish, much like their armor. I looked over at the corpses of his parents. Huh, they were wearing armor, but I wouldn't stoop so low as to strip them for my armor. The wastes may be cruel, but decency still exists. Boomer is a... I'm not sure. Being a raider, I believed he was fairly good, he hadn't killed us. But he seemed like the kind of pony who would stab us in the back as soon as the right conditions arose
An hour and a split fifth of vodka later, we were ready to go to battle. I hovered my new rifle up, making sure it was loaded. "Ready?" I asked.
"As I'll ever be." Wendy said nodding, using the same tone we had when we left the stable. That worried me a bit, this wasn't our home, we had only camped here one night, it was dark, bloody, dirty, and for whatever reason, my brother was going to miss it. The only thing I would miss about it would be the safety it provided, which would be understandable. The wastes were a dangerous place filled with hazards, raiders, and colts who wanted to turn you into mincemeat with precision explosives.
Disregarding any worries we had, we stealthily made our way through the ruins of the small town, occasionally picking off raiders that either saw us or got too close. We had to have killed at least five by now, which doesn't help my confidence for the upcoming battle. Skirting around the edge of town, we made our way to a large tattered barn, bordered by fields full of withered trees. The bright, but worn red paint along the top of the barn gave way to darker, red smears of blood along the bottom level, the smears turning into splatters around openings in the old wooden structure. The ground around the building was stained a light shade of red. Various bodies were strewn all over, in various stages of dismemberment.
"I'll go on in." Boomer said loading his grenade launchers on his battle saddle. He swiped my bottle of vodka from my pack and chugged its contents. He threw the bottle to the ground shattering it before taking off as fast as his little legs could carry him, screaming his battle cry, "LIGHT THE FUSES, BITCHES!" He dashed by a window, firing one launcher at a time, lunging to compensate for the recoil. As he fired one, he reloaded the other as he circled around the barn, screaming and laughing maniacally while firing into the barn. As scared of the raiders (including boomer) as I was, I kneeled by my comrades with our weapons trained on the door, Wendy stood beside the entrance with a bottle full of diesel fuel and his lighter, and when the dazed and confused raiders inevitably stumbled out, already blood splattered and gore strewn, they were drenched in liquid hellfire before being silenced by the firing line set up by Lilly, myself, and the recovering Rusty.
Since we had the element of surprise, It was an absolute bloodbath. The charred bodies of the raiders joined the others strewn about the fields, but were still being pushed around by the force of Boomer's grenades. Even though all of the raiders were dead, he kept firing. And firing. And firing, until the click of his launchers brought an end to his vicious mutilation of the surrounding landscape. He laughed heartily and triumphantly as he kneeled over top of one of the raiders trying to crawl away. He pleaded for answers on why he had done this, but received none as Boomer began to carve him up with what looked like an old rusty letter opener. That answered my question of why raiders splattered their camps with gore, they were all obviously psychopaths. Boomer cept carving at him, even though he had long since lost the last spark of life in his eyes, and began to carve out his organs before throwing them all over like some sick confetti.
The four of us were all too mortified to do anything as we watched him gore what was left of the raiders cadaver. It was just as bad, if not worse than Rusty's episode. Rusty simply had crushed the slaver to death, Boomer had completely disassembled him and was rubbing the ichor all over him. I took a cautious step forward, when he didn't turn on me, I continued walking until I reached his side and kneeled down, he looked up at me from his kill, the fires of battle starting to wane from his eyes, I halfway expected him to break down and cry like Rusty had done. Instead he took in a deep breath and let it out smiling and going, that was great, I needed that. He wiped a piece of the raiders liver off of his face and stood up, trotting around and shaking the blood off of his hooves. I felt my insides burn right before I violently retched up the 200 year old cereal that I had eaten earlier.
"Fuck, you're so weak." Boomer snarked trotting back to the main group who all parted to keep a safe distance from him.
Once I had finished vomiting, I trotted back to the group as well and just rasped, "Boomer... that's not okay. Why do you do that?
He shrugged, "Just cause. Do I need a reason?" The level of threat in his voice told me I should hold off on the questions, lest I become his next victim. I shuddered at the thought of being killed like that. "Next stops Ironshod farms, right?" We all nodded and he took off in a northeastern direction.
We followed behind Boomer. I whispered to Rusty, "This kid almost makes you look sane." He glared at me, clearly not amused and brought his hoof around in a mighty slap upside the head. I saw stars, even though the cloud cover hid them from me.
I rubbed the side of my face, "Ow dude! That hurt, I was JOKING!" I said scratchily. Rusty glared at me spitefully, but as the mark welled up across my face, the glare softened.
"Uhm. Yeah, sorry, I just over-reacted. Sorry." He stammered shyly looking away.
"Its okay, really, I shouldn't have opened my mouth."
"No, really, I need to learn not to be so sensitive to my past." He said shaking his head and putting a hoof on my shoulder.
"You two! Stop your little lover's quarrel, we've, got ground to cover." Boomer snarked from up front.
"Stop talking at me like that!" I say defensively "There's nothing between us." I looked over at Rusty, whose feathers were ruffled as he was blushing heavily. At least I thought there was nothing between us, right? Besides, I have my sights set on Lilly. I looked upwards, scanning the sky for any trace of that mint green mane in contrast to the white clouds. I eventually found her directly above us at an impossible height that seemed impossible for someone used to living in a hole.
Beside Rusty, my brother was flapping his wings, attempting to gain altitude. Whenever he got any further than a foot off of the ground, he would falter, and tumble down onto the dusty earth. But that didn't stop him from trying again. Another thing about my brother, he's stubbornly persistent. I cringed each time he fell and staggered back up, every time with another cut. "You, basic rule of the wastes, don't waste your energy." Boomer said flatly, motioning to my brother beginning to bleed from one of his wings. I understand Boomer was trying to look out for us, which was ironic, but He didn't have to be such a dick about it. I cant tell if I love or hate him, at this point, I don't even know If I can trust him. H=Even though he was a kid, he still seemed like the kind of guy who would slit my throat as I sleep to make a quick bit..er..cap. My point is, I'm sleeping with one eye open. It's one thing to trust a psycho you've lived with your whole life, but another to trust one that you just met. Oh well... lets see where this takes us.
We all walked up the road heading northwest. Lilly flew high above, scanning ahead for danger. She must have had eyes of a gryphon, because even at her altitude, she returned the wave I sent to her. Also, the enormous rifle she carried didn't seem to restrict her movement as she flew. On the ground, Boomer was perched atop my back standing up, all he needed was a saddle and this would be almost cute despite the fact he was spattered with the blood of that one guy he just mutilated. He stood atop me pointing ahead almost like a little commander, I take that back, it was adorable!
Behind me side by side, trailed Rusty and Wendy. Wendy was limping from his repeated falls and Rusty was starting to tire out from all the walking. Up ahead in the distance, I could see the edge of the infamous Everfree Forest. For whatever reason, it looked untouched by the bombs that had destroyed literally everything else and turned Equestria into the hellhole that it had become. The way the leaves blew made me uneasy. There was no wind. We all stared at the trees in eerie silence.
"No stoppin' now. Keep walking!" Boomer barked, tapping me on the head.
"If you aren't enjoying the ride, they why don't you walk?" I asked, my irritability beginning to get the better of me.
"Make me." He asked with a smug grin.
"Thought you would never ask." I returned with a grin. He frowned, but before he could protest, he was bucked and sent sprawling across the ground a few feet away.
The dethroned colt coughed and hacked as the little dustcloud around him cleared. He looked over at me from where he laid on the ground, he hacked again "B..Bitch." I grabbed my stomach and keeled over laughing as he struggled to find his footing and wobbled his bay back up to his hooves. The rest of the party joined in the laughing, save Lilly who was still patrolling the skies. Eventually, Boomer gave and started laughing as well. For the first time he gave a genuinely amused smile. Who said there was no fun in the wasteland. I kneeled down for him and he clambered up onto my back again and we continued down the cracked tarmac to our destination.
* * *
The building was much larger than I had expected. It spanned farther than I could sprint in one go, and it was at least five stories tall. Given that half of it is a factory, that comes as no surprise. Even the front door was intimidating. Heavy steel on hinges, locked together with an enormous, almost cartoonish padlock. Scattered along the ground in front of the door were hundreds of broken lockpicks which marked the failures of earlier attempts to gain access to the factory. The heavy door was scarred and marred by various attempts to bludgeon the door down.
"Alright gearhead, get to work." Boomer urged as he pushed me toward the door, insane expectation and excitement in his eyes imagining the loot within.
"Calm down, I'm working, I'm working." From my bag, I levitated out a box of bobby pins. The lock didn't look too complex, I just needed to *SNAP*... Dammit. I pulled the bobby pin out and saw that It had been broken right in the middle. It wasn't a natural snap, It was clean cut right through the pin. Great, the lock was enchanted. Nothing I hadn't been able to handle before when I picked the lock to the basement in the stable. I levitated out the next pin and as I slipped it into the keyhole, a strong gust of wind knocked me off balance, causing me to lurch forward and snap the pin.
I grumbled, turning back to see Lilly landing, totally oblivious to the fact that she had totally ruined my concentration. What she said next only reinforced that belief. "Hey there Gears! Have you picked the door yet." That was my second to last pin, every fiber of my being pulled me so slap her upside the head and unleash the past day's stress in the form of a probably unintelligible rant, but years of being alone had taught me self control, so I pushed my anger away and sighed, turning around and drawing my last pin. Realization washed over her, "Oh, shit, I'm sorry for that Gears."
I sighed, "Its okay, I'll get it this time." I slip the pin into the keyhole and return to my state of nirvana as I picked the lock. The first pin gave, then the second, then the third, fourth, fifth, now I have to get the last one. As I pushed the last pin into place, I felt the bobby pin begin to bend, I stopped cold and began to turn the lock, hoping that my last bobby pin wouldn't break. To my credit, it didn't and the lock turned, unlatching the padlock with a sound of snapping metal. A smile spread across my face. "The key to everything is patience and concentration." I remove the slightly bent bobby pin, and because it was the last one, threaded it into my mane. "Now, let's get this open."
Everyone moved up to the door except an astounded Lilly who stared at the padlock in disbelief. "H-H-H HOW!? The Enclave's best locksmiths couldn't even pick that."
I smiled, "I had a lot of free time on my hands back home." I had picked a lot of locks in there, but I rarely stole anything. Any kind of thievery was punishable by death, along with various other minor crimes.
The doors loomed above us, then we realized that picking the lock was only half the battle. This door had to be at least three inches thick. Each one of them must weigh about a ton, but all we need open is one. Well, this is not a job for a lanky mare, that's for sure. As my brother alone tried in vain to wedge open the door with brute strength, it became clear to me that this called for some ingenuity. I surveyed the landscape and found a rock that I believed would function as a pulley. Out of my bag, I levitated a coil of rope and tied it to the door handle with a triple knot, reinforcing the knot so it wouldn't break. I took the other end of the rope and brought it around the rock. "Well strongman, you're up." I hand my brother the rope.
"What? Me?" He asked. "How will this help?"
"Trust me, it will." I reply.
"Need help?" Rusty asked, grabbing the rope. I doubted he had the strength to open the door, after all, he had probably lost about a pint of blood on account of being shot in the neck, but I wouldn't deny him the chance to help. Wendy stepped up, also taking the rope in his teeth. Boomer even joined in, heaving along with the two much older and stronger stallions. I walked up to the groaning door and watched as applied physics began to open it on its old, unrusted hinges.
I stood before the open blackness of the factory. "Let's do this." I take a step into the factory. I silently watched as red dots traced across the floor slowly. They all headed towards me. I flinched as they traced up my legs but relaxed as I realized they weren't harmful. They traced up and came to a stop on my forehead, a bit strange, but... wait...
We all frantically dove for cover as the turrets rounded on us, ready to cut down the intruders.
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Footnote: Level Up
Perk Added: Enclave Master Locksmith - You've bested the top lockpicks in the Enclave. Any enchanted locks are 75% easier to pick, and with enough time, any lock in the wasteland is pick-able.
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I'd like to thank KKat for writing the original Fo:E for writing an unbelievably great story, and Somber, for writing Project Horizons, the story that pushed me over the edge and forced me to try my hand in writing.