//------------------------------// // Welcome to Fillystone // Story: Ain't No Rest // by Konseiga //------------------------------// Fillystone. My stomach did a back flip as I looked out the window to see the weather-worn neon lit sign proclaiming “Fillystone: A Place of New Beginnings!” Around the base of the sign was what looked like an old gas station. I suppressed a shudder. Did they really still use petroleum-based machinery? No…it looked like the station had long since rusted over from disuse. I sighed in relief. Petroleum was volatile, even in the best of situations. The pegasus pony snorted. “This place is a dump.” I almost nodded in agreement. The only thing I could see from my little window was the old station and a big, rustic gate. Other than that, it was a large, expansive wasteland. “Ah, I can see why you would say that, my young friend,” the driver grinned and put the bus into park. “But the actually town of Fillystone is behind that impressive gate you see there, to keep…ah…undesirables out of the good town. You understand, right?” The pegasus rolled her eyes, mumbling something that vaguely sounded like, “You’re not my friend, greasy.” Rhodan chuckled. The driver stretched and jovially inquired, “Alright, who’s getting off the bus?” Rhodan quietly zipped up his duffel bag, slung it over his back, and plodded forward. “I will be. Thanks for the lift,” he said quietly, nodding at the bus driver. “My pleasure, good man! My pleasure. Throw in a good word for me with the Crimson Hooves, eh?” the driver smiled and nudged Rhodan on the shoulder. Rhodan just scowled and hopped off the bus. “Yeah, I guess I’m getting off this bus, too!” the pegasus pony stretched her wings and bounded down the stairs, landing with a dusty plop on the ground. Turning back to the driver, she yelled, “Yo holmes, smell ya later!” The driver facehoofed, but I could see a grin spreading underneath. “Anyone else?” The big grey earth pony glanced around, and then slowly walked forward, the steel of his horseshoes clanking on the floor with every step he took, his flanks rippling with huge muscles. I gingerly tucked my hooves underneath myself, for fear of them getting crushed by the massive earth pony. He didn’t say a word as he passed the driver. He just nodded and slowly climbed down the steps. The bus shifted upwards as the massive weight finally left the axles. And then I was alone. The driver looked at me expectantly. “Will you be getting off as well, little lady?” I grimaced at his tone. “There won’t be another stop for a while, you know. We’ll be headed to the next interplanetary station after Fillystone. So if you were looking to leave the planet, that would be a good place to do it. Although…” he looked at me with knowing eyes, “if you WERE looking to leave Discord, I don’t think I would have picked you up at the last station, would I have?” I felt my stomach churn, my meager lunch of packaged carrots threatening to resurface. “So, are you going to dare the wastes, to risk life and limb and seek your fortune? To claim fame that should be yours?” the drivers voice rose up to a crescendo as he listed all these things, then dropped back down as he barely whispered, “or are you going to get cold feet at the last second?” As if his words sparked something, I could instantly feel soft feathers wrap around my body, and a warm presence against my flank. Strength… I stood up tall, throwing my bag across my back. “I think I’ll get off here. Thanks for the ride.” The driver smiled approvingly, and then laughed in his usual tone. “No problem at all! And don’t worry about saying goodbye. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again soon enough.” I nodded, making my way to the front of the bus. The driver glanced around and whispered, “also, watch your back. Now get off my bus!” And, with that parting exclamation, he turned around and literally bucked me off the bus. A thousand ways to torture him flashed through my mind before I landed unceremoniously in a dusty heap. Spitting out the dirt, I whirled around, about to tell the driver off, but the bus had since roared to life again, and was now booking it’s way out of the little station like there was no tomorrow. Was he INSANE? I glared at the pegasus pony, who had been snickering at me the entire time. “What’s so funny?” Dust flew off of my mane as I spoke. That made the pegasus lose it. She collapsed in her own dusty heap, shaking with laughter. “You…white…brown dirt…hahahHAHAHA!!!” Glaring, I shook my mane, an inordinate amount of dirt flying off and coating a nearby Rhodan, who shot me a dirty look and started shaking himself. The grey earth pony nearby just rolled his eyes. “See ya next time!” a little mechanical voice cheerily called out after the bus. I looked around, trying to identify the source, and my eyes settled on a little purple robot, fashioned in the shape of what looked like a full grown lizard on two legs. Green metal spikes lined its back all the way from its head to its tail as it motored around on wheels underneath its feet. “Hello!” it said, wheeling up to the four of us. “I am 5P1K3 model designation 130T. You can call me by my locally designated name, Spike-Bot! Before we begin, please accept these ECHO communication devices and Heads-Up display, provided free of charge by the Dahl corporation!” the lizard-robot-thing opened its mouth and, one by one, eyepiece devices were expelled into the open hands of the robot. I saw Rhodan’s eyebrows shoot up, an appreciative look in his eyes. “Provided by Dahl, huh? What do they have to do on Discord?” “Dahl owned the mining operation here on Discord! They were resolute in providing an ECHO device to every single person that came through here!” His words sent an inadvertant chill down my spine. “Owned? What happened to the operation?” “After hideous reports of death and dismemberment from unknown causes, combined with increased skag and local bandit attacks, Dahl decided it was in their best interest to shut down the operation and withdraw its assets!” the robot cheerily replied. Rhodan nodded sagely, the big grey earth pony shrugged (I made it a priority to learn all of their names after this was over so I could stop referring to them as such), and the pegasus pony and I just exchanged barely worried glances. What were we getting in to? I levitated the offered device up to my eye, settling it over my left and wedging the audio bud into my ear firmly. Despite the eyepiece only being over one eye, I could clearly see the boot up cycle commence, as if I was looking through glasses instead of just an eyepiece. I voiced this observation to the robot. “The blend of magic and technology in these devices allows you to always be notified of the current conditions of almost everything concerning you!” the robot replied. “A device similar to glasses was among the first of designs, but it became cumbersome to look down the sights of a mining laser, so an eyepiece was developed instead!” I shot a glance at the pegasus to see a smug look on her face. She was undoubtedly glad to have free reign to look down the sights of her sniper rifle. Looking at the three, I noticed that they were all having a bit of trouble fastening their eyepiece on the way I did. Rhodan was struggling fruitlessly to fasten it on with his hooves, the other earth pony just held it in his teeth, looking helpless, and the pegasus was just looking at it. I could imagine the gears slowly turning in her mind. Smiling, I trotted over to Rhodan first. “Would you like some help?” He glanced up at me, smiling, “If you wouldn’t mind.” A soft, blue light enveloped the ECHO device in Rhodan’s hooves as I levitated it up to his eye, taking care not to poke him or cause him discomfort. I nestled the bud into his ear and, adjusting the eyepiece until a satisfied look came over his face, I stepped back. He smiled. “Thank you.” “Don’t mention it,” I replied, trotting over to the big earth pony. I opened my mouth to offer my assistance when a beige blur flashed in front of me. Rubbing my eyes, I saw the pegasus pony standing right in front of me, ECHO communicator in her mouth as she glared in my direction. “Mm firf!” I shot an apologetic look at the big earth pony. He rolled his eyes and shrugged. I levitated the device out of the pegasus’s mouth and fastened it to her eye (I noted with mild interest that she had discarded her dark goggles, and her eyes were a sharp pink color) and ear in the same fashion that I did with Rhodan. A satisfied smile appeared over the pegasus’s mouth as the display kicked to life. “Thanks!” she said, offering a hoof out. I looked at it in confusion. Did she actually want me to shake her hoof? An irritated look flashed across her eyes. “I’m Ricochet,” she said, hoof falling back to the ground, “and I’m the best sniper pony in the system!” “That’s a big title to claim,” Rhodan said, plodding over. “How do you know you’re the best shot?” “Because of my cutie mark, obviously,” Ricochet replied in a scathing voice. “You don’t see many ponies with something like this, do you?” She waved her flank in front of Rhodan’s face. His nose wrinkled, but I could tell that he was impressed. I wandered around to look, and saw that Ricochet had a crosshair mark of pure gold stamped into her flank. I opened my mouth to ask exactly how she got that, but I was interrupted by an ahem. I glanced over and smiled sheepishly. I totally forgot that I had left the big earth pony with his communicator in his mouth. I levitated the device up to his eye and fastened it in the manner I did the other two, and saw him nod. “Since we’re doing introductions,” the deep, gravelly voice emanated, “I’m Cinder.” “Cinder?” Ricochet scoffed. “As in the thing left over by a fire?” “No,” Cinder shot back, “as in the block you’ll think was dropped on your head if I accidentally step on you.” I rolled my eyes. Was I in a group filled with sarcastic asses? “Please, everypony! Follow me!” the little robot piped up again, turning around and wheeling away toward the large gate. I glanced around at the others. Shrugging, I plodded off after the Spike-Bot, tail whipping back and forth to keep the dust off. My ears flicked around to the other pair of hooves I picked up following me. I glanced to my right and noticed Rhodan had fallen into step to my right. I smiled and nodded. As I looked toward the front, I studied what my HUD was telling me. In the lower right hand bar, I had my vital signs and overall health. HEART RATE: 36 BPM BREATHING: REGULAR DISEASES: NONE OVERALL HEALTH RATING: EXCELLENT Well, that was good news, at least. I was in perfect health for whatever monstrosities were awaiting me out there. In the bottom left corner was my ammo display. I noted that it didn’t have a category, and I knew that all the different types of guns used different types of ammo. So I assumed that the ammo display was solely for the gun I currently held. I marveled at the science that went into making this, and the skillful magic that recognized the type of gun I had to display something like that. There was also a compass of sorts that was at the top of my vision. It displayed cardinal direction, and identified four blue dots. Three of the dots had names above them. “Rhodan”, “Ricochet”, “Cinder”. Huh. Did the ECHO device pick up on brainwaves? I don’t know how else it could recognize names… Shrugging off the mystery, I resumed my observation. Other than the meters indicated, nothing else seemed to be additional. I shrugged mentally. What was I expecting, an auto-targeting spell? Nickering softly at my foalish expectations, I trotted over to the tall, thin tower that the Spike-Bot had stopped in front of. “Well,” Rhodan said as the two of us stopped in front of the tower. I looked around. Where did the other two go? Then I spotted Cinder casually trotting towards us. “What in the hay does this thing do?” a familiar annoying voice chimed in from right above me. I jumped. “Holy alicorn orgies!” (Did that oath really just come out of my mouth?) I yelled, “Ricochet, how long have you been up there? I never got my reply. My flavorful curse had sent her into another one of those laughing fits. “Uggh…” I grimaced for what seemed like the millionth time as I glanced at Rhodan. He looked like he was fighting back a grin. “You too?” I shot him an accusing look. He just shrugged helplessly.” Cinder trotted up, clearing his throat. “What did I miss?” “Nothing except little miss lightning swearing like a sailpony,” Ricochet commented, wiping tears away from her eyes. “Anyway, let’s get this show on the road. I’m dead bored.” I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the Spike-Bot. “If I could have your attentions, please come forward and press your hooves, talons, or other various limbs to this pad so we can register your identity!” the Spike-Bot said in his ever cheerful tone. “Register us? What for?” I asked. “Registering is a relatively quick and painless process, and it will allow you to interact with the various merchant outlets across Discord! It also has the convenient feature of sending a condolence letter and flowers to any family you specify if you meet with a horrific end!” Blinking at the last few words, I shrugged and put my hoof to the pad. An instant, lancing pain shot through my hoof. It felt like needles were being drilled into my bone. My nerves all screamed in unison, until my brain decided enough was enough and shut off everything. I collapsed into a pile. “Ow,” I said weakly. Rhodan looked at me with a hint of worry, Cinder whinnied slightly, and Ricochet rounded on the Spike-Bot. “Relatively painless?!” “Of course!” the Spike-Bot said with his usual unwavering cheeriness. “As a non-organic being, the discomfort I feel in my circuits is marginal! Relatively painless! And it is not part of my programming to understand or empathize with how you organic beings feel!” “Of all the…” Ricochet threw her hooves in the air, wings flapping furiously. “However, there is good news!” the Spike-Bot continued. “Now that one of you is registered with the Mass Commercial Network, or MCN for short, you all have the privilege of trading and bartering with any of the fine establishments across Discord!” “F-fabulous,” I manage to force out. Of course I would be the only one to go through that. “Well, I already planned on sticking with the lady here,” Rhodan’s voice cut through the pain in my head like a thin veil of fabric. “So if you two are going to go your own separate ways,” he gestured to the pad, “be my guest and get registered.” “Uh…yeah! I planned on sticking with you guys, too!” Ricochet smiled brightly. “After all, you need my skill with the gun!” I wanted to take the part of me that agreed with her and quash it into oblivion. The part was, unfortunately, very large… Cinder sighed. “I guess I’m in, too. But I don’t trust any of you,” he added, glaring at us. Rhodan glared back. “Don’t worry, the feeling is mutual.” “H-hey, guys…” I stammered weakly, “You mind helping m-me up? ~*~*~*~*~*~ After we all agreed that I would be the only one getting registered, (they agreed, I could only weakly nod. Celestia be damned, what did they use to register me?) we continued toward the rustic gate. “I’m FINE,” I insisted for the seventh time, trying to get my wobbly hooves underneath me. “I just need to get moving again.” Rhodan just nickered at me. “If you say so. I won’t be there to catch you if you fall again, though.” I shot him a look and inhaled deeply. I would stand on my own this time. I was NOT a weak pony. Or, at least, I was not a pony who lacked foalish pride. We had arrived at the entrance gate, one fall and one embarrassing dust-off later. “Have no fear of the gate, everypony!” the Spike-Bot said. “I’m exactly 92.5% percent sure I can get it to open! Also, don’t try to levitate yourself or fly over the gate, unless you want to get shot out of the air and slowly burn to death by the town’s incineration cannons!” Incineration cannons? I had never heard of such a thing. Still, they sounded lethal. “Aaaaaannd….open!!!” The Spike-Bot furiously hit a bunch of buttons on a knee-high keypad, causing the gate to give a horrendous screech as it slowly opened. VRRRRRRRRRRR…… The Spike-Bot froze. My ears twitched toward the distant rumbling sound that was reverberating from somewhere beyond the mound of rocks that formed a natural wall against the gate. Glancing around, I saw that my unlikely companions had done the same, curiosity sparking in their eyes. VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…… Wow, it was sure getting close. You really aren’t a clever pony, are you? Argh, not now, annoying voice. I’m trying to pay attention… VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOM!!!! Four vehicles I had never seen before went flying over the wall like a giant ramp, and then landed on the other side of the yet-unopened gate that was still protesting with a rusty loudness to opening. Menacing looking guns were mounted on the tops of each of them, and one of them had opened fire upon a nearby fuel container. Wait, so they DID use petroleum? The resounding explosion as the container combusted answered that question for me quickly. I could hear maniacal laughing as the vehicles drove off, some of the passengers jumping out and landing on the ground, pulling out pistols, shotguns and SMG’s, holding them in their mouths and still managing to look ferocious. “Lock and load, gentleponies,” Rhodan sounded grim as he shoved a clip into his assault rifle lying on the ground. “These guys don’t look friendly.” Ricochet grinned, pulling out a strange-looking hook thing with a leather hoofband on it and attached it to her right hoof. Rhodan picked up his assault rifle in his mouth and aimed it experimentally. Cinder did the same. I looked at them all in wonder. How they managed to pull a trigger without magic was beyond me, but they did it. Somehow. Levitating my gun in front of me, I was struck by a few worried thoughts. The first thought was that I hadn’t really used magic in a long time, so any sort of aggressive spells were out of the question. I’d have to really, really practice hard in order to get something like that up and running in such a short time. The second is I wasn’t a really talented marksman. I was going to end up spraying a lot of bullets everywhere if I wasn’t careful. And, judging from the little number in the lower right hand corner of my HUD (30/70), I wouldn’t be able to shoot for very long before I ran completely dry. The last though I had was that, due to my weakened physical state, I wouldn’t be able to use my talent without fading into nothing. All of those thoughts vanished as a single bullet whizzed through my mane, a few electric blue hairs falling to the ground. I looked up to see an earth pony grinning at me wildly, an insane fire in his eyes, and a ruddy red repeater pistol firm in his jaw. He was dressed in bloody patches of leather armor, multiple bullet holes riddling the various patches. Judging from his physical fitness, I found it safe to guess that he had killed several other ponies and patched their armors together. Then his head exploded. It was like a train wreck. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. A fountain of red liquid was spurting out of the hole in his neck, exactly where his head used to be, as the ponies hooves wobbled, then the entire body collapsed, crimson blood pooling up around him. I looked at the sight, too intrigued to look away and too horrified to vomit. I had never seen a pony meet such a violent end before. And, in a brief moment of weakness, I wished to never see it again. “Get your head out of the clouds, Genesis!” Ricochet, pulling back the bolt of her sniper yelled at me through a haze of gunfire that had opened up between the two sides. “Believe it or not, we COULD use an extra gun!” I nodded, knees wobbling slightly. These are ponies that will shoot at you soon as look at you, the little annoying voice reminded me. You can’t afford to show mercy right now. Steeling my resolve, I aimed down the sights of my SMG at the nearest earth pony dressed in raider garb. My mind, dull as it was, registered that my ECHO device was classifying my enemy as nothing more than a “Raider”. The holographic name hovered right above my targets head. Oh, I get it. De-pony-ize them, make them objects. Easier to kill, right? “Shut UP!” I grunted, squeezing a few bursts of fire out of my SMG. The smug look on the raiders face froze as he fell, five bullet holes dripping blood from his chest. I felt cold all over. Now I had killed a pony. A roar resounded through the area. I looked and saw Cinder literally buck a pony high enough into the air that the previously unnoticed incendiary cannons tore through him. He was dead before he hit the ground, his flaming body filling the air with a wretched stink. It was at this point my body decided it was an appropriate time to vomit. As I emptied the contents of my stomach to the ground, a shadow fell over me. Reflexively, I swung my SMG up to face the offending pony, only to find Rhodan covering me with his body, firing accurate bursts into the raiders, felling three of them with carefully aimed shots. I glanced up to see Ricochet perched on a house (or was it a shack? It was so ramshackle that I couldn’t begin to classify it any other way). Every shot she took was another dead bandit. And finally, Cinder was tearing through their ranks, shotgun blazing. Every shot of his boomstick ended in a wonderfully gory dead raider. Wonderfully? I thought the notion of this whole thing made you sick. As true as that was, Cinder was a glorious sight. Bandits he couldn’t shoot he just bucked into the air and let the turrets take care of them. The few that didn’t get bucked into the air were stomped against the ground, breaking limb, shattering ribs, and (in the case of one very unlucky pony), collapsing his skull against Cinder’s powerful, steel-reinforced hooves. The entire thing was over in about a minute. I got to my unsteady feet, leaning against Rhodan for support. Cinder was busy scraping the brains off of his hooves, his nose wrinkled in disgust (the sight of which made me vomit profusely), and Ricochet had already slung her sniper rifle onto her back and glided down to stand with us. “For a newbie, you weren’t too bad of a shot,” Rhodan said amicably. “Yeah, when you weren’t puking your guts up,” Ricochet snorted. “Still, you did alright.” “Just make sure you toughen up as we go,” Cinder had calmly trotted over. “You’re as green as my eyes.” Which, to his credit, were pretty damn green. Everyone laughed at that, at my expense. I felt my face get hot as I blushed. Guess it was no secret I wasn’t combat-proficient. I merely shrugged, physically weakened by the days events. (Which all happened inside of an hour.) Then my legs decided, once again, that standing was overrated. I collapsed into a dusty heap for the second time today, and, as the world slowly faded to black, I felt myself lifted carefully and draped over somepony’s back, and I heard the gravelly tones of Cinder say, “Poor girl.” Footnote: Level Up! Action Skill Unlocked: Phase Trot Due to the mysterious happening in your past, you can now officially use your Phase Trot! This allows you to slip through the rift in dimensions, granting you the ability to move at incredible speeds while time is slowed to a crawl. You will also appear invisible to enemies, and, upon entering and exiting Phase Trot, you will cause a small electrical explosion that has a chance to electrocute enemy ponies around you or drain their shields. Due to the physical exertion required, however, you can only maintain this for 15 seconds.