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Texas Wasteland - City of Steel - Apple Bloom's Perspective - Tomorrow
After admiring the ruin of the mega-metropolis, the girls and I had to get some shut eye. We had been walking for what felt like hours and hours... wait, I... yeah it was hours actually. That and coupled with the heat and barely getting any rest, we were plum tuckered out. Dusty was kind enough to let us use a room he converted into a sleeping quarters for travelers and people Dusty deemed safe enough to allow within his walls.
We fell into that category because we were with Lee, I wonder what would have happened if we weren't with him? I didn't want to know.
I had woken up the next day from one of the sun's bright rays shining through the cloud cover for a brief second before disappearing, it burned but, I took that as my cue to wake up. Scootaloo and Sweetie were lying next to me, huddled up on either side of me. Scootaloo had draped one of her tiny wings across my back, and Sweetie had her head buried between my side and her foreleg. Both of them were snoozing softly, Scootaloo's wings twitching occasionally or Sweetie letting out a squeak.
I carefully moved so I wouldn't wake both of them, I moved Scoots' wing off of my back and nuzzled Sweetie out of the way until I was standing up. I tiphoofed my way over Sweetie and onto the floor, and sighed once I was out of the bed. We had to sleep on this old dirty mattress that was sitting on the floor, there weren't any actual clean bed anywhere. That was a crying shame.
Looking around the room, I took notice of most of the rubble lying around. Pieces of concrete had fallen from the ceiling and hit the floor, empty bottles were sitting around in half crushed piles or sitting in corners filled with Celestia knows what. Some other mattresses were sitting around, vacant and covered in odd stains like the one I slept in. Some old posters were pasted onto the walls, some of them depicting a weird human in red, white and blue clothing being helped up by... something in big metal looking armor.
I didn't know what that thing was, but it looked scary.
Sighing to myself, I started towards the door of the room, and exited it. My friends could use the sleep, I was an early riser - sometimes - and I should see if I can get something done. What could I do? I wasn't exactly sure myself what could be done. Maybe I could read that book Lee bought for me, I wonder where he is? That book that I found might come in handy, I wasn't a big reader, but I liked a nice book to read whenever I'm bored.
Walking into the hall, I trotted my way towards what Dusty and Lee referred to as, The View. The View being that area where me and the girls were treated to the view of a torn and ruined city, it was a massive city, and I didn't know anything about it. Only that it was big, and smoky, and the sun rarely ever shone through the clouds. The City of Steel was also a city of darkness it seemed, from all of the cloud cover. I wondered if the people in the city have ever seen light?
Up ahead, I could make out the faint voices of Dusty and Lee. "Have you remembered anything yet?" Dusty asked, remember what?
"... no." Was Lee's reply.
What are those two talking about? Curiosity taking hold of me, I snuck up to the edge of the hall and peered around the corner.
Standing by The View, I saw both humans side by side, Dusty with his staff and Lee with his coat off and hanging on a chair nearby. The shirt he was wearing under the armor pieces was snug and tight against his upper body. "Are you sure? The visions... haven't come back?" Dusty questioned, a faint wind blowing by and causing the Shaman's tattered short strings to move.
Lee shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah I'm sure... I haven't had anymore dreams or visions for months now..." He turned to face Dusty. "What does that mean?" The man asked the other.
Dreams? Visions? I shook my head, what were they talking about? What dreams was Lee having? And Visions?
Dusty turned his head ever so slightly, saying, "its rude to eavesdrop, Apple Bloom."
My eyes went wide as I stepped out slowly. "H-How did you know Ah was there?" I asked him, I was pretty quiet.
"The spirits told me of your presence," Was all he said before giving a slight nod to Lee and walking away. "I am needed elsewhere, I shall return shortly." He said, disappearing down a hall and leaving me and Lee alone.
I looked up at Lee, who turned back to me with a smile. "Have a good nap?" He wondered, sitting down on a piece of rubble and reaching into one of his pouches for something.
I still can't believe I was caught, Spirits? Were they real? Maybe, who knew? I returned Lee's smile with one of my own. "Ah did, sorta. Kinda hard to have a nice nap when you're sleeping on a dirty old mattress with springs poking ya." I remarked, my flank still hurt from last night and the tussling I had to put up with trying to get into a comfortable situation.
It was hard to do.
"Well, getting a good sleep out here is tough, you have to take what you get sometimes." He sighed, taking out a small box and opening it. He pulled out a small white tube before putting it in his mouth, and pulling out a match he struck it against the side of his boot before holding it up to the white tube and lighting it. A cigarette? "Not everyone can have a nice clean bed, or a decent place to sleep, ya know."
I nodded slowly, thinking about what Dusty and Lee were talking earlier. "Um... Ah'm sorry for being a snoop, but... where were you two talking about?" I asked him as he inhaled deeply, and exhaled, puffing out smoke. "Dreams?"
Lee frowned slightly, and I thought I had made him mad. But he just sighed heavily, eyes drifting elsewhere. "That's... not something I want to talk about," He told me quietly, shaking his head before a smile appeared. "Eh, maybe someday I'll tell ya, but for now... not saying anything." He looked me in the eyes, and I swore I saw something flash across them. "We aren't exactly friends," he stuck out his tongue, "I ain't sharing my life story with a kid."
"Hmmph, Ah was just wonderin'." I told him, biting my cheek and looking towards his backpack. "Do... do you still have that book?" I wanted something to do, so I might as well read that book.
The human nodded and reached over for his pack, and pulling it over he unzipped it before reaching inside. "Honestly, I didn't expect you to want something like this," He told me as he pulled the book out of the bag and handed it to me. "Cute little kid like you wanting a book about weaponry," A tsk sounded as I took the book from him. "Seems odd."
Now that I think about it, I guess it was a... little odd. But... "If ah know more about this world's weapons," I started, putting the book down and looking at the cover of it. "Then... maybe Ah... Ah can..." I frowned thoughtfully, what could I do exactly? "Ah can tell what's dangerous and what's not!" I chirped, smiling as I looked back up at Lee. "Ah don't know a whole lot about your world's guns and stuff, so maybe this book can help me figure that out." I picked up my book in my mouth and trotted away with it, now to see what all was in this thing.
I left Lee by The View and made my way back to the room where Sweetie and Scoots were sleeping, I could read in there. Long as I was quiet, that is. The way back to the room was short, and I found myself inside the room whee both of my friends slept, Scoots had scooted closer to Sweetie and had her wing over Sweets' back and her head laying over her neck, both still sleeping soundly.
A smile appeared on my face as I walked over to one of those lanterns that were sitting around, I sat down next to it, placing my book on the floor in front of me and reaching over to turn on the light. Read this book, I was a bit excited to be honest. I didn't know why either, I guess it was the bookworm in me. Reading about weapons though... I didn't know how to feel about that. Equestria didn't have any weapons like what was on the front of this book, most of these were looked like they were from some kind of sci-fi movie.
Opening the book, I came to the front page, which had weathered words and faded images of weapons on it. "Guns Weapons and More Guns, the Big Book of Weapons and the go to guide for every weapon used by the good ol US of A and the Communist party." I read aloud to myself...
What's a communist?
Sweetie'd probably know. I mused with a grin, she was such a dictionary, and always used big words that me and Scoots could barely understand. I bet she gets it from Twilight or something, or she reads a dictionary before going to bed. A giggle escaped me at the thought of Sweetie doing just that, reading a big ol dictionary before nap time. Clearing my throat softly, I kept reading through the page. It was mostly just an introduction to the book and who wrote it. "Written by, Gerald R. Winchester the third." I read, hmm...
I flipped the page over, coming to a section about small arms. I hummed as I looked over the weapons, I saw pictures of the guns, along with their specifications, I saw small firearms called Handguns and some others called Revolvers, one of them looked like the one Lee carried. There... there were a lot of small arms, a lot of them, from what the information boxes told me, used several different kinds of ammunition.
357 SIG, 9MM Luger, 22 LR, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, 44-40 Winchester. My eyes widened as I kept reading the terms of the ammunition, they used all of those?! I shook my head, that was crazy! As I kept reading, I saw more and more types, different calibers, each bullet had a different length and size, some had different strengths over other cartridges, and others were more efficient to use over some.
And this was just the small arms section...
This is unbelievable. I told myself, all of these different kinds of small arms, how many big arms were there? I flipped the page past the small guns section until I reached the bigger weapons, I saw ones called Rifles, Assault Rifles, Combat Rifles, Shotguns, and even some that were called Sniper Rifles. Lots of Rifles, I noted as I saw the many different types, and at the end of the rifles/shotguns section, I saw all of the different ammo types once more.
"Apple Bloom?" I heard from the mattress, Sweetie Belle.
Looking up from the book, I saw Sweetie looking up at me with a sleepy gaze on her face. She smacked her lips as Scootaloo's eyes started to open. "Oh, morning Sweets, Scoots." I waved to them, Sweetie gave me a weak nod as Scootaloo closed her eyes and curled up like a cat would. "Sleep good?"
Sweetie made a grunting noise and yawned wide, pearly white teeth showing before she gave me another nod. "This mattress hurt my legs." She said, rubbing the aforementioned appendage. "They feel sore."
"Feels alright to me." Scootaloo mumbled from under her foreleg where she tucked her face in.
Sweetie pfft'd, "That's cause you're weird Scootaloo." She retorted as the pegasus shuffled where she laid, saying no more. Turning back to me, the unicorn asked, "When did you wake up?"
"Just a little bit before you did." I answered, going back to my book. "Ah've been reading this here book," I tapped the pages, which showed a really big gun called a minigun, from the looks of it, and the information on it, the gun was a big gun that could only be used by really strong types, or used in something called a Vertibird... whatever that was. "Its got some interestin' stuff in it."
"Yeah, stuff that kills ponies." Sweetie remarked, shaking her head. "I still don't understand why you would want to read something like that." Before I could tell her why, she cut me off. "I know you said its because you want to know what's dangerous and what's not... but..." She frowned. "It just doesn't feel right."
I sighed, looking back at the book. This entire thing was filled with extremely dangerous firearms, something Equestria couldn't hold a candle to. I vaguely remember something about flintlocks being used by the griffons. I didn't know the fine details about them, but I did know they were something far more dangerous then the swords, spears and arrows Equestria used in its military. If Equestria had something like what was in this book... "Look, Ah get that, its... not right of me ta read something that got all these..." I waved vaguely to the pages. "But..." I didn't know what to say to her... I honestly didn't have a single thing I could say besides, "Ah don't know."
I don't think she liked my answer, but didn't say anything further, only getting up and trotting over to the door before leaving me with Scootaloo, who was slowly getting up.
"Scootaloo..."
She looked over at me, a curious expression on her face. "Yeah, AB?"
I cast my eyes down, "... what do think about this?" Pointing to the book, I gestured to the many many guns on the pages, flipping through them and showing them to her. "Sweetie doesn't like this, Ah'm not so sure about it myself..." I directed my eyes back to her as she flapped her wings and walked over to me. "But what do you think?"
She made a noise in the back of her throat, feathers rustling as her wings moved. She looked down at the book, sitting down as her eyes examined the firearms in detail. "Well..." she brought her hoof up and started to rub her chin. "I don't read as much as you or Sweets does, unless its about the Wonderbolts or, like, Rainbow Dash." She stuck out her tongue with a smile. "But... it looks pretty cool, I guess." She traced her hoof on the page, specifically the one with Energy Based guns, what made those so different from regular ones? "What's that one?"
She pointed to something called a Gauss Rifle, and I saw a hint of interest in her eyes. I looked down at the page myself, reading the description. "The Gauss rifle, also called a "coil gun," is a device used to propel a ferromagnetic projectile by accelerating it through a process of magnet induction. The Gauss rifle and Gauss gun are named after German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who formulated mathematical descriptions of the magnetic effect demonstrated by magnetic accelerators." I read aloud. "Used by the United States Armed Forces, and some Chinese forces, it is possibly one of the most powerful energy rifles built."
"Whoa..." Scootaloo awed, "I have no idea what you just said."
"Me neither," I replied.
A sigh, then I heard hoofsteps. "It means it's a type of projectile accelerator consisting of a bunch of coils and stuff used like electromagnets, and that it accelerates a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity." I heard Sweetie say beside me.
I gave her a look, Scootaloo did to, both of us confused... I was, anyway.
"Wha?" Scootaloo asked.
Another sigh. "It means it shoots a piece of conductive metal using magnetic forces to launch it really fast."
Scootaloo scrunched up her face. "Ooooh... cool!"
"So..." I started... "Its... like a crossbow?"
Sweetie shook her head. "It tells you what it does on the page," She pointed to the description, and the following numbers and mathematics.
"Oh, that's what those are..." I examined the numbers, I was somewhat good at math. "Hey Sweets,"
"Hmm?"
"What's that word mean?"
A sigh, "which one?"
And so, Sweetie and Scoots joined me in reading the book, Sweetie, because she knew a lot of big fancy words that I couldn't make any sense of, and Scootaloo, because she was both interested, and she was actually pretty good at math and was able to work with both Me and Sweetie in figuring out how these energy weapons worked.
The three of us conversing on firearms and weapons, along with how they work and what have ya, was not how I was expecting to spend my day...
I didn't mind it either.
