//------------------------------// // Ch.3 Boom like That // Story: Fallout Equestria: Out of Time // by Silverwolfdemon //------------------------------// Jade awoke to the sound of gunfire. She had such a pleasant dream about her family at the park, well, until it ended with a huge explosion. Not a dream she would like to have. As she got her wits about her she noticed empty shelves and smell of oil and dry grease. There was a flicker of light somewhere behind her and the buzzing of said light being drowned out by the blast from a rifle. There was also the faint sounds of ponies talking, but she couldn’t tell what they were saying from where she was. The last thing she became aware of was that she was lying on bedroll that smell slightly of urine covered roses. Not a smell you want to wake up to, though it was marginally better than puke and blood. And at least she found the store she was looking for. Now came the hard part... Getting up Jade looked around and noticed Paper Bind in the doorway looking to a wall made of thick wood and sheet metal. She seem worried as her eyes moved towards a heavy gate. She turned to Jade and surprise spread across her face. “Hey, kid, you've woke up, huh?” Paper Bind asked, looking around at anything but Jade. “Sorry! I am really, really sorry! I was kind of in the heat of a moment, so... sorry, yeah, didn’t mean to dump all that on you.” “Um... it's okay... I guess?” Jade said accepting the filly apology. “Well... you know, forget about my question for now, will you? And, since you're stuck for a while with us, you know, the whole Raider business trying to kill us and you, by association, you may as well get our names. Sounds good?” It was definitely a better option than going out and kill some ponies at the moment, so she agreed. “Sure!” Jade said while nodding her head enthusiastically. “Good.” Paper smiled. “So... first things first, let's go the balcony, there is someone you need to say thank you to.” Paper Bind led her up a ladder to a second story balcony where a striped filly zebra about 14 years of age were sitting with a black and white mane that stood straight up. She was scanning the streets through the scope of her sniper rifle. It wasn't much, but it was rather well-maintained. Noticing newcomer she turned, smiled, putting her gun away, then came to Jade and nuzzled her. “Hi. My name is Shelest. I also go by the name Farsight around by those in our little group. I hope you're okay. Those raiders didn't hurt you?” The Zebra said with a sincere smile. “No, no, I'm fine! Thank you. I'm Jade, by the way.” The young filly was.... a little bit shocked of such open show of friendliness, that girl was nopony she knew, and still... some blush crept onto Jade’s cheeks. “Well, at least she didn't...” Paper Bind snickered. Shelest stepped closer and planted a soft kiss on Jade lips. Unicorn, stunned by the sudden affection, backpedaled for several steps before falling on her rump. Paper sighed. “Yes, that… Love, how many times have I said you that it is NOT how ponies greet each other?” Paper Bind said with what could barely be considered a scowl and more of a loving look. Jade finally took note of Paper Binds age. It seems she was only a year younger than Shelest. “My love is only unto thee.” The sniper said. “And I'm not a pony, am I? Forgive me, Jade, was it? Forgive me, but I could not stop myself. It is... a second nature. Mind, though, I'm not doing it to everyone, only to a few I like. Epic didn't get a kiss, did he?” “I HEARD THAT!” A male voice came over from inside the building. “Well, yeah...” Paper Bind said before she coughed into her hoof. “Short story, Shelest is our farsight, as in sniper, scout... and a... visionary of sorts. She... well, she sees things from time to time, and it helps a lot if we can decipher them. Now onto the next one!” Shelest returned to her watch while a pair of fillies got into the fort again. There, sitting among several guns, was a unicorn colt of about 10 years. He was the color of a blue fire with golden mane, stained with dust, oil, and soot. He had a desperado hat on as well as duster with several shells and bullets slotted in a pair of belts, and his arsenal looked like he found it in those cool films about Appleoosian settlers. “That grumpy cat over here is Epic Fail, our middle range gunner and repair pony.” “Just Epic... and, HEY, it's not FAIL, It's CONFIRMED CRITICAL!” It was the very same loud voice Jade heard before she collapsed. “Anyway, sup, girl? If you need your gun or weapon fixed I'm your colt. And, yes, I AM the ONLY colt here. Sucks to be me, right?” “I'm not sure.” Jade smiled. “Isn't that... could it be... nice?” “In a way.” Epic shrugged. “Aaanyway, if you want to talk about grumpiness of cats...” “Did someone call Grumpy?” a VERY chipper voice called down from several floor up above the three foals. “Oh, shit, here we go... wait for it.” Colt snickered. “She's always something when she’s on the stuff.” A loud “thump” could be heard from the ladder going to the ruined third floor, and another, and another, and... “Am I here? No, no, no, no, no, no, YES!” In a second, Jade saw a grey donkey filly of maybe 15 years smiling from ear to ear, moving at the speed of wind. The donkey jumped all around the place, but even then Jade could notice her red flower patterned bandanna, mane styled in dreadlocks and a vest with a lots of various badges. “Ohh, you're the new filly! It's cool! It's rad! It's AWESOME! Anyway, my name is Grumpy, nice to meet ya! If you have something to trade, then I'm all yours! Honest, deals, promise! I will even give you a discount!” Jade blinked as donkey shot that info with the speed of machine gun and simply nodded and then asked, unsure of what she heard. “Wait. Grumpy?” Jade asked unsure how a filly that happy could be called Grumpy. “Yeah,” Epic sighed. “She's a Dash addict. You'll see when she's gonna be off the meds.” “I still have several doses!” Grumpy chirped. “Enough for one glorious last stand! Well, if you need me or my wares I'm gonna be up here, smelling the fresh new air! Ta-ta!” While the donkey jumped away Jade tried to shrug off a feeling that she were in asylum. Paper Bind patted her on the head, smiled reassuringly and, solemnly, pointed her hoof at a several other ponies. There was an earth filly maybe sixteen years old with an earth foal barely able to stand tending to a wounded teenage mare with a syringe as a cutie mark and a pony sleeping in a chair. “See that duo? It's Dim Lantern, our... civilian, of sorts, a perfect example of unlucky pony that got into bad situation. That little foal? Her daughter, sad story, won't go into details. The downed unicorn is our medic, The Cure. She caught a bullet and, well, we're kinda down on healing potions. We've bandaged her and could only hope for the best. The last one...” “With the Scripture in one hoof and gun in the other I bring light of Goddess Luna into the forsaken Wasteland. Beware the raider, the slaver, the mutant, for our Goddess sees it all and retribution is coming. I am the Night Light, paladin in the service of Her Grace.” She was an earth pony, but a strange one. Her colors were a little bit off, purple-ish, blue-ish, and spikes of strikingly white mane adorned her head along with ears that seemed furrier than the others. She was peeking an eye at the pair while leaning in the chair with her bulletproof vest on and a holster with the gun could be seen as well as “HSPD” stripe on it. The pony smiled, bared her fangs and looked at Jade with her vertical-silted pupils. Unicorn shuddered. “How, what, uh...” “My mother was a thestral, batpony, while my father was of a more humble lineage.” Night Light shrugged. “I get that look a lot. You could consider me both a paladin as in fighter and a spiritual leader somewhat. In a world filled with misery and uncertainty, it is a great comfort to know, that in the end, there is a light in the darkness. I will not ask if you join my cause, it would be too cruel, but I will give you a brief. We, lunites, believe in purification and retribution. We believe that, if we don't work hard and clean the mess our ancestors left us for our penance Nightmare Moon would rise once again and the world will end.” Night Light yawned and smiled bitterly. “Sorry, I am a night person, need to catch my sleep. Until the eve is upon us, my friends.” Paper Bind looked at Jade with a crooked smile and faked a laugh. “Well... that's all. Now, what we're going to do next?” Jade could only think of one thing: she could only think of what to do to help Mr. Wiggles, which would be hard with the raiders in front of the store. Then there was that task of getting the parts out of here for either of robots. If she was going to help Mr. Wiggles then she had to get rid of the raiders, and to do that she would have to help these ponies. The filly sighed before walking over to Epic. “I’m not too good a magic, can barely lift a block of wood, but do you have any weapons I can use.” “Well I do have this old thing, but it’s most likely to blow up in your face than anything else.” Epic said taking out a rusty pistol. “What are you planning on doing?” Paper Bind asked. “I have a friend that needs help, and right now those Raiders are in my way. I need to get some parts to repair the damage done to him out of this store. Before you ask, my friend, Mr. Wiggles, is a robot and I need parts to repair or another robot to transfer him into.” Jade said looking at the pistol. “How many are out there?” “You’ll have to talk to Shelest about that.” Paper Bind said before looking to the balcony. “She’ll know more about that.” “Thanks.” Jade took some ammo, that gun and nodded to Paper Bind. The weapon was heavier than she would have liked, but it was her best option for self defense. “Are there any robots that might still be functional here? I might be able to get it to attack those raiders.” “Downstairs, but we won’t be able to send anyone down there with you. I was taking a risk sticking down to wake over you till you woke up and even still going out to the gate.” Paper Bind explained. “I can ask Shelest to cover you, but most of the time you’ll be on your own if you think of going down there.” Jade walked over and opened balcony door before walking onto the landing. “Hey, Shelest, how many raiders are out in the street?” “About fifteen in the street, four in the buildings, and six on the roofs, been doing all I can to keep them off of us. I could get the ones on the roof tops if the guys in the street weren’t taking so many pot shots at me. Why?” Shelest said. “Most robots have an Arcane Reactor or a Cell. Arcane Cells are usually used for magical weapons like a magic pistol or rifle, but Arcane Reactors full of magical energy, enough to power several buildings or one robot for decades, as seen with some that may be in this…” Jade said looking for a word to express the world around her. “Wasteland?” Shelest suggested. “Yes, that…an Arcane Cell or magical gems as so many call them, hold a small amount of energy only good for a grenade. An Arcane Reactor could be a good explosion, enough to demolish a building if there’s enough energy in it. Depends on building, of course, but...” “Why is that important?” Shelest ask not following Jade’s thinking. The foal smiled. “If I can make some robots to start fighting the raiders with compromised reactors, said robots could take care of the raiders in the street. I’d program them to move away from the shop so that we won’t be hit.” Jade explained. “Are you sure?” asked Paper Bind. “Sixty, forty,” Jade said with straight face. “And how would you know how to work with them robots?” Epic asked. “I studied them before I went into the Stable. I learn faster than most ponies.” Jade explained walking to the ladder. “And as you said I’ll need cover while I reprogram them.” “How long would you need?” Paper Bind asked. “Depending on the software, and condition of the hardware…I’ll try my best, but it might take a while. Where are they down stairs?” Jade said while starting to climb the ladder. “They’re in the back room, there about three of the smaller ones, and two big one.” Paper Bind explained. “Alright, I’ll try to be quick.” Jade said as she climbed down. Halfway down the ladder Jade started hearing Shelest firing at the raiders, and she took it has sign to move a bit faster. Looking around the bottom floor Jade she noticed for the first time that the building was split into two. The main shop and a workshop connected together by a hallway. The door in the main shop had fallen off, but the one to the workshop was still secure. From what she could see from a nearby window there were some robots still in the workshop but because of the barred windows they were hard to get to. The filly walked over to the hallway noticing a terminal near the door. “Well I guess that explains why the others didn’t try to get to the robots before the raiders showed up.” Jade said wondering if the colts and fillies had been planning on selling the parts. She walked over the terminal and started hacking thanking her parents for leaving out the computer programming manual when she was five. She was also thankful for the fact she was such a fast learner. It took her a few minutes to hack terminal and open the door. Moving into the room Jade noticed a couple of Protecta-a-ponies and Sentry-bots. They were all offline, but Jade noticed they were mostly in good condition, a Protecta-a-pony was missing both arms and a Sentry-bot was missing the back covering. There were also several other models that wouldn’t be much use to her. Nothing that would prevent her from doing what she was going to do to them. It would still mean those two were going out first as she couldn’t risk them going off to close to the shop. “Okay where is the….there.” Jade said walking over the computer at the edge of the room. “Now let’s see, I need to set up a timer, while issuing the meltdown of the cores. Hopefully this will only take a minute or so to figure out.” It took the young a filly a few minutes to gain access to mainframe connected to the robots then another five to write up the right commands. The robots connected to the mainframe began to move out through the hallway and out the main shop, shouting out exclamation of equestrian law as they went. Jade followed holding the pistol she had taken from Epic in her magic, still finding it hard to hold, moved to open the gate, allowing the bots to go through. The Raiders noticed the gate and started rushing it when bots began to fire on them. The raiders for the most part seemed little deterred by the new threat, but focused on the bots nonetheless while Jade moved back to the storefront and took cover. In little more than five minutes the raiders had forgotten the store in order to deal with the more immediate threat. Then the explosion brightened the sky, deafening the filly along with the muzzle of Shelest’s rifle flashing in the slightly dimmed sky as she took out the raiders on the roof tops. It was over soon as the fiery death that could melt metal died with smoke and dust filling the air beyond the gate. Jade breath a sigh of relief before covering her mouth to stop the bile that rose from her stomach as mind began to realize just what she had done. Death was one thing to see and have almost happen to you, but to commit the act itself onto another... She may not have done it with her hooves or a conventional weapon, but she had programmed those bots, made them overload. She had killed ponies, ponies who may have had families or not, but ponies nonetheless and in the past she would have never done it. “By Celestia, why.” Jade asked herself for the first time since she even thought of her plan. She hadn’t really thought of the raiders as ponies, just targets that needed to disappear till it was over, she made them less than pony just to… just so she could help Mr. Wiggles and those colts and fillies upstairs. They were why she had done it, so all of them could survive together. But that’s what those ponies were doing as well. Yes, they killed, yes they hurt and stole, and yes did even more horrible things that she didn’t know about but they were still just surviving. Just like that group that had killed Sentential Sky. Raiders just took from others to survive, taking others hard work and lives if need arise. “YOU FUCKING BITCH!” a stallion yelled, shocking the young filly from her thoughts as the stallion rushed her wielding a jagged piece of metal as a knife. Jade was slow in aiming her pistol as the stallion came within striking distance. But before he could strike a bang rang out and he dropped dead over the young filly the piece of metal nicking her ear. Jade panicked, pushed the stallion away and looked to the ladder seeing Epic there with one of his rifles. And almost like she used a teleport, Paper Bind appeared next to her, helping her up. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, Jade, that was SO AWESOME!” The older filly said almost vibrating in place, almost singing the last part. Epic harrumphed from his place on the ladder while still keeping an eye out. “The robot, the explosion, you….you saved us, you don’t even know how much you just saved us.” “I would think her help was TWENTY. FUCKING. METERS. CRATER.” Epic said watching the gate. “And I think she knows it. Now, ladies, if you’re going to make out, how about doing it upstairs and in safety.” “Perv.” Paper Bind said with a bemused smile and blew a raspberry at the colt. “You just dream of watching me and Shelest, I’m sure of it, and you can just keep on dreaming. But he is right, that was one hell of a punch and Shelest says that roofs are clear. Yet the dust hasn’t settled, and we need to make sure the area is secure, that it over for now. Jade, I stand by my word… You’re a goddesssend.” “You should not mention a Goddess in idle talk.” Epic scowled. “I wasn’t talking about your goddess of moonshine, okay?” “It’s MOONLIGHT, Paper, and get the hell out of a possibly dangerous area for FUCKS’S SAKE!” “Okay, sorry. He’s right, why don’t we go upstairs.” Paper Bind said as she moved to the ladder following Epic up. Jade followed them up still trying to keep her bile down. Once she was standing in the main hall of the second floor Paper Bind grew more serious. “Jade, as a leader of Children of the Moon, I say thank you. We couldn’t do it without you, without your skill. I won’t stretch the truth in saying we owe you a big favor. You saved our hides, that for sure, and we pay our debts.” Jade didn’t know what to think about the offer of a favor, she had never had anypony owe her a favor before. She didn’t really seem like she had done anything important. She just help them like Twilight, or Fluttershy, or Pinkie Pie had done for her when the world was… She wasn’t some hero like they were. She hadn’t save the world or anything, she just did what she thought was right. What she had to do the help Mr. Wiggles. “You pleased the Goddess of the Moon today. Even the greatest journey begin with just a single step, and you, I believe have the eyes of those greater then than us watching over. But for now rest, eat, we will share some supplies, and think of what favor you wish to ask of us, decisions like this are not to be rushed. Tonight we shall hold a celebration held in blessed darkness, and you, Jade, will be the guest of honor.” Night Light said with hooded eyes. “You don’t need to scare her off Night. And what’s with all “this eye’s of those greater” crap. I believe the Goddess of Moon lived, and follow the teachings, but they never said anything about ‘journeys’ or ‘eye’s’.” Epic said with a disapproving scowl. “There were those just as powerful as The Moon, lest you forget. The Queen of Lies, the Gluten of Arcane, the Lord of Madness, the Eternal Lover, the Guiding Sun,the Vibrant Heart, the Balance Tree, the Darkness of Chains and the Great Mother. Each had their strengths and weaknesses, or at least that what my mother said.” Dim Lantern explained. “And while it is said that the Sun and Moon have died, it doesn’t mean that they all have. the Lord was in Canterlot with the Moon and The Sun so he’s probably gone like them, the Queen is said to be hiding, the Lover is said to be in the wind and snow, the Gluten in a prison of wickedness, the Mother has been missing for longer than recorded memory.” “Those are just fairy tales! If there were more gods than the Sun and Moon then why have they not helped us? It makes no sense that a god called The Lover or Mother would stand by while we suffer, or one called the Lord of Madness would just sit in a stone prison when madness happens every day. The Gods are either dead, or have abandoned us.” Cure exclaimed bitterly. “Cure, please be still, your wounds have not healed and you need your strength.” “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” the smile of Night Light's was calm and hard. “Let me give you an explanation as my faith, our faith sees it. You too, Epic. Let’s start with a simpler things. There are two types of knowledge, common one and the arcane, shown only to those who proved themselves time and time again. You’ve been given only things you should know now. Arcane knowledge could be hard to swallow, but, believe me when I say so, I will tell you when the time is right. Do not stray from the path, Epic, and you will have your due.” “S-sorry…” Epic looked and sound ashamed of himself, it seems. “I didn’t mean to.” “I know you enough, know your nature, the core of your soul. I know that you’re passionate and, sometimes, you speak things without thinking. That could become your undoing one day, but for now… I forgive you. Heed me, Cure, for I will not repeat twice. Gods are above the common ponyfolk, even the destruction of physical body would not kill them, merely hinder. Thus, they would not act directly by any reason you could think of. But here’s the thing. Gods influence our lives through their teachings. Even mere word could shatter or save the life, isn’t that a miracle? When your shot strike true or you save the pony from certain death how can you be so sure that this is not been the help from above? Gods are powerful, yes, but we cannot expect them to do all the work. We must earn what we have, Cure. We must strive to do better, and, in due time, we will receive our reward. As for the last question. Mother, you say… think about that. We are mere foals before her, we need to learn. The Last Day, the Cleansing as some called it, was the test. We need to learn from mistakes of our ancestors and we must not allow our anger control us. There will be a time when the Wasteland as you know it will be no more. It won’t be today, it won’t be tomorrow, but, one day, I believe, things are gonna be as they rightfully should.” Cure kept silence for several long minutes and, finally, laid down, not sure of how to answer. “I will think about it. I didn’t… I didn’t see it that way. We will talk later. Thanks, Night Light.” Cure said before cringing. “And filly, it would be best to rest even if you had just typed on a computer. By the looks of this your art well and could us a good night’s rest.” “I’ll do that.” Jade said uneasy by some of what was said by the lunites. “Hey don’t mind them or their religion, it's just a something that goes on around here.” Paper Bind said with an uneasy smile. “It doesn’t really bother me.” Jade said. She really didn’t mind it, but she wondered why The Cure had mentioned that Celestia and Luna as dead. They couldn’t really be died, they were gods what could kill them. Moving to a room with this in mind she found a clean spot of floor and laid down. It didn’t take long for her to drift off.