Chapter 1: Ice
I quietly sipped a glass of vodka and listened to the soft music flowing throughout the bar, briefly looking at the white mare singing on a small wooden stage on one side of the room. I supposed she would be considered quite pretty, and her beautiful voice would make her quite desirable, but felt nothing. I never felt much more than emptiness. Emotions were a vague concept to me, something that other ponies felt and spoke of. Concepts like pain, hunger, pleasure I could understand. But true emotions eluded me.
The mare finished her song, holding on to a last, high, note before letting the sound fade. She smiled and gave a curtsy as the other ponies in the bar, all intently watching her performance, clapped their hooves together in applause.
I kept sipping his vodka in silence, the glass almost empty now, staring at the vacant seat across from me.
"Excuse me sir," a cheerful young waitress, quite pink, began as she stepped into my field of vision. I could just make out the cutey mark on her flank, a wide, toothy, smile, "would you like me to refill your drink?"
Void didn't say anything, didn't move except to take another sip, draining the glass.
"Cheer! What are you doing?" the bartender's voice hissed from across the room, "don't you know who that is?"
The pink pony turned towards the bartender and gave a confused "huh?"
"That's Void! The Void! Leave him be before you bother him."
The pink mare turned back to me as her eyes slowly grew wider in fear, focusing on my scar covered left foreleg. "I'msosorryI'msosorryI'msosorry," she repeated quietly as she backed away from Void.
I ignored the panicking mare and continued to sit in the silence now permeating the bar. A few chairs scraped on the floor as the ponies near me suddenly chose to find another table to sit at. I waited another minute for the place to settle back down before pushing the empty glass to the corner of my table. Immediately a lime green field of energy surrounded it, carrying the glass through the air.
"Uh, yes sir! Right away mister Void," the bartender stammered.
A minute later the glass floated back to my table, full. I picked it up and began sipping at it.
"Please excuse me good sir, but did I hear that pony correctly when he said you were the Void?" a strangely accented voice directly behind me clipped.
I nodded my head slightly before taking another sip of my vodka, letting the alcohol relax my body.
"Good, good!" a middle aged unicorn continued as he slid into the seat opposite me, "You see, I have a business offer for someone with your abilities."
I glanced without interest at the pony sitting across from me. He had a pale yellow coat and a brown mane with streaks of grey in it. On his flank was a cutey mark of an old fashioned typewriter, the kind that was long obsolete before the war. I nodded for the pony to continue.
"Yes, as I was saying I have a job for you. Now I understand that your line of work usually involves killing somepony, but I was led to believe that you could do other things as well. For the right price of course."
"Correct," I said quietly. It was the first time I had spoken in days.
The unicorn looked completely unfazed as he continued talking. "Wonderful! Ah, I just realized I have yet to introduce myself, how rude of me! My name is Antiquarian, a pleasure to make your acquaintance." At that Antiquarian made a small bow before continuing. "You are here at Tenpony quite often, correct? Maybe you have seen my shop, Antiquarian's Antiquities."
I shook my head. I never paid much attention to the stores in Tenpony Tower. Fancy clothing, overpriced food, and useless trinkets held no interest for me, I came to Tenpony for the liquor and comfortable beds.
"Oh. Well that is a shame, you should really drop by sometime. I have some of the most magnificent artifacts from before the war. I'm sorry, I seem to be getting off topic." Antiquarian cleared his throat and continued. "You know what memory orbs are, do you not?"
I nodded, familiar with the memory storage devices.
"And are you familiar with black opals and recollectors as well?"
I hesitated, thinking through what I remembered of them, then nodded.
"Good! But did you know that just before the war the Ministry of Arcane Sciences had been experimenting with a form of black opal, called red opals, that allowed you to feel the emotions of the memory as well? They were even supposed to be used at Equestrian Army recruitment centers; get all the young ponies feeling like dying for their country and all that."
"I...I did not know that," I answered warily, wondering what this pony was getting at.
"Exactly!" Antiquarian continued with a smile, "If it was common knowledge those Steel Ranger fellows would have found all of them years ago. As it just so happens I have found a partial list of locations some of these opals went. If you were to find one for me I would be willing to pay quite the large sum!"
"How much?" I asked, always intrigued when it came to money. I understood money.
"Five hundred caps now, two thousand upon delivery of the opal."
My eyes widened slightly in surprise. That was a large amount of money, especially for what was essentially a salvage job. I only thought for a minute before agreeing to the terms.
"Splendid! In that case here is the advance payment," Antiquarian smiled as he floated a heavy bag to me with his magic and set it down with a jangle, "And this is the map for you to use." He floated a rolled up piece of paper from his saddlebags and smoothed it out on the table, "Can't very well find something if you don't know where to look, eh?"
I nodded absentmindedly, studying the map in front of him. It showed a large section of Manehattan from before the megaspells and balefire reduced the city to ruins. Three buildings had a red circle drawn around them.
Antiquarian motioned to circles one after another, "The first spot is a Ministry of Peace building, the second is an army recruitment center, and the third is a Ministry of Arcane Sciences experimental technology facility. If I may, I suggest you start with the Ministry of Peace as it is closest to Tenpony Tower."
I nodded, having already decided on that plan of action. I recognized the area around the building as a place I had passed by before on one of my contracts.
"Well, in any case here is the map," Antiquarian continued, pushing the map over to me with his hoof. "Now, I am so very pleased we had this talk, but I really must be getting back to my shop. Can't be letting down my customers now can I?" With that the pale yellow unicorn got up from the table and left the bar.
A few minutes later I stood up as well, stopping to drop a mouthful of caps in front of the bartender before I left.
"Uh, thanks and come again!" the bartender called after me.
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"Fifteen standard fifty caliber rounds, five each fifty caliber high explosive and incendiary rounds, and one hundred ten millimeter pistol rounds," the armored security unicorn listed as he floated the ammunition from a metal locker behind him and set them in front of me. "Thank you for your, um, cooperation mister Void."
I ignored the unicorn, loading my weapons and tucking the rest of the ammo away in my saddlebags. I turned to leave, but an authoritative voice behind me caught my attention "Mister Void, I have a job for you."
I turned, seeing the Tenpony security chief, Darkstar, in front of the gates to Tenpony Tower. I could just make out the chief's son, Grimstar, peeking out from behind his father.
"A band of raiders has been scaring off caravans along the Luna Line," Darkstar continued, speaking of the twin monorails that served as the only way to reach Tenpony Tower, "I'll give you two hundred caps if you take care of them."
I nodded in agreement before turning to leave. Killing raiders was easy money. I stopped only briefly to put on my skull mask before heading away from Tenpony.
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The raiders weren't even trying to hide their presence. A makeshift bridge connected the Luna Line to one of the ruined buildings alongside its length. Corpses were nailed to walls and obscene graffiti covered every available surface.
I stopped six hundred feet away from the building and pulled out my rifle, bracing it against a chunk of concrete jutting from the Luna Line's surface. Looking through the weapon's scope I quickly spotted a raider lookout, ineptly concealing herself in one of the building's windows. I settled the weapon's crosshairs on her head and began slowing my breathing to a crawl. I focused on the raider mare, readying my shot.
The mare had splotches of dried blood on her coat and was wearing the rusty patchwork armor characteristic of raiders. A rifle was propped up against the window frame next to her, and the glow of a cigarette hung from her mouth.
I gently squeezed the trigger.
The mare's headless body was thrown back into the building as my rifle roared. Immediately shouts and curses rose up from the building as the other raiders were stirred into action. I pushed the rifle's stirrup, chambering another round as the spent casing pinged off the monorail's concrete support structure next to me.
Two raiders galloped onto the ramshackle bridge, searching for the source of the attack. I paced the rifle's crosshairs onto the first raider's chest and fired.
The pony was almost ripped in half as the high caliber round punched through his body. He seemed to lose all rigidity as he crumpled into a lifeless, bloody heap. The mare next to him shouted with gleeful bloodlust and took off towards my position as fast as her legs could carry her.
She made about two hundred feet before I readjusted my aim and reduced her neck to a few bloody tendons. I chambered another round and waited as her body skidded off the monorail. No raiders appeared, although I could still hear angry voices from inside the building. Apparently the remaining raiders were not as stupid as the two bloody corpses. I slung my rifle onto my back and drew my silenced pistol from its holster.
Slowly I began moving towards the building, staying low and trying to keep the monorail's scant cover between myself and the raiders. I easily made it to the bridge without any raiders making an appearance. Quietly I crept across, slipping into the gloom of the building's interior. I appeared to be in a hallway. Doorways, most missing their doors, lined the length of the area. I paused, listening intently. I heard a whisper from the room to my right and crept up to the empty doorway.
I darted into the room, immediately noticing the trio of raiders peeking from behind an overturned bed. Within seconds all three were dead, only one having managed to get a shot off. Blood dripped from where it had grazed my cheek. I ears perked up as I heard a hoofstep behind me. I spun and fired, dropping the raider that had been attempting to sneak up on me. I paused again, trying to hear any signs of activity.
From somewhere below me I heard the whimpering cries of a pony, fear and pain lacing the noise equally. I headed back into the hallway, looking for a stairwell. In a little over a minute I was crouched outside the room the whimpering was issuing from, having run into no other raiders along the way. I casually strode through the doorway and put a bullet through the eye of a raider using a chained up mare as a shield before he could react. I turned to leave, confident all the raiders were disposed of.
"Please..." the mare pleaded, "please help me..."
I turned and looked at the mare. Her coat was dirty and unkempt from her captivity and short lengths of chain locked her legs to the floor. Dried blood and semen matted the inside of her thighs. "Please..." she choked out, tears in her eyes.
"Why" I asked, seeing no reason helping this mare would benefit me. She obviously didn't have money, and I wasn't in the mood for sex. I couldn't see anything she could give me that I wanted.
The mare's eyes went wide at the callousness in my voice. Her tearful pleas followed me as I left the building, ignoring her.
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I crossed the makeshift bridge, no longer able to hear the sobbing of the captive mare, and sat down. I pulled out my knife and set it against my left foreleg. I drew it across my flesh, cutting myself six times. Droplets of blood followed me as I made my way towards my first objective, the Ministry of Peace building.
I had a job to do.
Footnote-Max Level