War, war never changes. In this post apocalyptic world, only the strong survive. The weak are crushed under hoof or dominated by the strong. The wasteland shows no mercy to those that don’t have the strength to survive. Those that think that they can ever find a simple or easy life are gravely mistaken.
- - - - -
Break Point yawned as she climbed down the stairs from her bedroom and scratched her stomach. She didn’t want to wake up this early, but the old pinsetter in lane 5 was causing problems again and she wanted to have it fixed before her shift at the cafe. She trotted up to a closet and opened it. In it were old parts, tools, and other miscellaneous things. Break grabbed the toolbox with her mouth and started towards the back area behind the pin deck.
Break lived in an old bowling alley. It survived well even after 150 years after the war when the megaspells ended the world. Break used an old storage room as her bedroom. It was a little small, but it was cozy and she had been using it since she was a foal and old enough to have her own room. Her father claimed this bowling alley as their home when they first moved to Primrose. It was a little empty after her parents passed away, but Break loved it here.
After twenty minutes Break gave up on trying to fix the pinsetter. It needed several new parts that Break didn’t have at the moment. She could get the parts. She knew a scavenger that could get them for her, but it would be expensive. Break sighed. It looked like lane 5 would be down for now. Only lanes 1, 4, 7, 8 still worked and Break was spending her free time and caps trying to fix the rest of the lanes up. She hoped the caps from her waitressing job and the alley’s customers would be able to pay for it.
She left the back area and waved at her cousin Green Mile. She was a green coated earth pony with an orange mane. Her cutie mark was a wooden ruler. She helped Break run the alley and watched over the till while Break was gone during business hours.
“Hey Breaky!” Green Mile greeted. “Having trouble with the number 5 pinsetter again?”
“Unfortunately.” Break confirmed with a sigh.
“That sucks.” Green Mile trotted behind the counter and laid her hooves on the counter.
“Hey, you let me handle the bargaining with Scavenger next time. I think I could talk him into giving you a good deal on any parts you need.”
“Are you sure it’s not just because you're sweet on him?” Break teased. She knew the two had started dating a month ago.
“Oh shut up.” Green Mile shot back, but she was smiling.
Break got a notebook from behind the counter and scribbled something on it with a pen using her mouth. “These are the parts I need.” She placed the notebook on the counter.
“Sure, I will make sure he gets it.” Green Mile said.”I think he should be in town on Friday.”
Break nodded. “That should be fine.” She waved at the two ponies that just entered the alley. “Welcome to Stars & Strikes.”
An hour later Break left for her waitressing job. She loved working at the alley, but the alley didn’t earn enough she needed to keep the place running. The machinery was very old and needed to be maintained and repaired often. So she took a waitressing job to help pay for it. She didn’t mind though as long as it kept ponies bowling.
Break sighed as she picked up a tray of various drinks for her table with her mouth. She was stuck serving those ponies from the Cosa Nostra’s gang again this time including his son Steel Dagger. He was, to put it bluntly, a complete spoiled brat and was allowed to do pretty much whatever he wanted. Nopony complained since the Cosas owned in town. They protected the town from raiders, slavers, and other wasteland nasties. Nopony dared defy them. Break had seen the consequences first hoof and they weren’t pretty. So she put on the best smile she could, adjusted her stained but most clean apron to something presentable, and trotted over to his table.
The Supreme Café was a smallish cafe that resided in a building that used to be a pool hall. The building was still in pretty good shape, and had some decent repairs done to it. Any holes in the brown but faded walls were patched over with wooden boards. The old and nonfunctional pool tables were replaced with normal ones that were salvaged from other buildings. Most of them didn’t match giving a haphazard look make worse by the even more mismatched chairs. A functional pool table could be found on the bottom right corner of the cafe and was popular with patrons. Cone like lights hung from the ceiling, though most of them were broken, but the room got by with the functional ones.
Break personally thought it had a nice atmosphere. Currently the cafe was about half full with various types of ponies. Some locals, some traders from out of town, some griffon mercenaries, and even a pegasus resided in the restaurant. The patrons were obviously trying their best to ignore the loud and rambunctious antics of the ponies she was about to serve. They were laughing, shouting, and seemed to be having a good time.
From the way Steel Dagger was swaying back and forth, she could tell he was drunk and his two buddies looked just as intoxicated. The pony in question had a gray coat with an orange mane that was in a ponytail. The pony on the right had a light blue coat with a purple mane and he had a tattoo of a snake around both of his front legs with each one biting its own tail. The one of the left had a jet black mane with a green grey coat. All were unicorns and were wearing barding. The Cosas employed all the unicorns it could find, something about them being the superior type of ponies in this wasteland of a world. As an earth pony, part of her resented that sentiment even if she wanted nothing to do with them. “Hey! More beer!” He yelled. Break squeaked and rushed to his table.
She carefully placed it on the table. She gave the ponies their orders and put the empty tray on her back. She turned to address her customers. “Is there anything else you require?” She asked as politely as she could.
“Yeah, a sweet piece of flank for tonight!” He bellowed and laughed. “Too bad we got an ugly one this time.” He laughed again and his buddy on the right joined him. The one that didn’t just sat there drinking his water and was just watching the situation.
Break’s eye twitched but she tried to keep her cool. “If that is all you require than I will be on my way.” She turned on her hooves and started to walk away.
“Hey! I ain’t done with you yet!” One of Dagger’s buddies yelled out. It was the one with the tattoos.
Break froze. She heard a gun cocked in her direction. Break felt a pit in her stomach. These guys could gun her down, do whatever they wanted to her, and nopony would or could do a thing. She slowly turned and addressed the pony levitating the gun at her with calmest voice she could manage. “Y-yes sir.”
Break was beckoned back by the goon with his gun. It was a pistol of some kind. “I and my friends here and I asked you a question!” He briefly pointed his gun at Dagger as he said friend before turning it back to her.
“We asked where we can find a sweet piece of flank tonight.” Dagger repeated.
“How should I know?” Break thought, but said out loud, “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t know.”
“Come here.” Dagger ordered. Break reluctantly obeyed. He grabbed her face with a hoof and turned it and right. “Yeah, as I thought far too ugly. Shame. Looks like we gonna have to look elsewhere boys.” He laughed again as he let go of her face.
Break’s eye twitched again. She knew that she wasn’t all that attractive. Her deep magenta coat and light cyan mane were fine, but her face was too long and she had a tall stringy body, but she certainly was not ugly. And her bowling pin cutie mark was quite cute in her opinion, even if nopony really bowled all that much anymore. As annoyed as she was, she decided not to press the issue. “For a good tip.” She reminded herself.
“If this is going to be the serving staff, why did you want to come here again?” The goon on the right asked.
“Hey, Midday recommended it. She says they have the best hayburgers in the wasteland.” Dagger defended. “Said nothing about the waitresses being butt ugly.”
“If that is all, may I be on my way?” She asked politely trying her best to ignore the last comment.
“Yeah, whatever.” Dagger waved a hoof dismissively and started chatting with his buddies.
Break started walk to the back of the restaurant eager to get away from these bothersome ponies.
“Maybe we should go to the casino in Forks.” Dagger pondered.
The one with the gun levitated it towards Dagger. “Heh, I like that answer. The Stones will start whining of course, but it doesn’t matter. You’re the big cheese around here and they ain’t got the strength or backbone to mess with us!” He laughed.
Break ignored this conversation and focused entirely on returning to the back area. She, unfortunately, failed to notice a rock on a ground and tripped over it. She fell right into the thug currently levitating a loaded weapon. There was an ear ringing sound and a spattering sound was heard. The entire restaurant went cold dead silent.
The one that had been holding the gun reacted first. “D-dagger! Dagger! Celestia no! No! No! No! No!” He rushed to his fallen friend and hugged him. He started crying. “Dagger!”
Break recovered herself and looked to where Dagger fell and quickly looked away. Part of his head was missing. Blood was everywhere and she felt the urge to vomit. Break’s eyes suddenly widened. She needed to get out of here right now. She needed to run, or she was dead. They were going to blame this on her. She was just a waitress and a nobody, so nopony would blink an eye at her death. She ran into the back as quickly as she could eager to get out the back door. She needed to get out of town, somewhere where Cosa Nostra couldn’t get her. She was panicking but something with a semblance of a plan was forming in her head until a sharp pain hit her head. She fell to the ground. It felt like something hit her hard on the back of the head. It took a moment, but she was able to compile herself and looked at her assailant. It was her boss Supreme Shimmer.
He was a balding middle aged unicorn with a grey coat and a blue mane with a fork cutie mark. “Get up.” He ordered. He was holding a rifle with his magic. The one he used to fight off unruly ponies and defend his restaurant.
“B-but.” Break protested.
“Move!” The middle aged pony ordered sharply. Break couldn’t believe this. She had been working for this pony for three years.
“Why?” She asked meekly as she got up and started following his orders to get moving.
Shimmer shrugged. “This is the wasteland. You’re an idiot if you think anypony is ever going to stick their neck out for you. I worked twenty years to build this restaurant; do you think I would let you ruin that? Now get moving!” Break lowered her head depressed and continued on the path to her doom.
The pony that killed Dagger was still crying over his friend’s corpse when they got back in the restaurant proper. The pony looked up when they entered the room. The other thug was still where Break last saw him. He glared with hate in his eyes when he saw her.
“Now justice can be done for the poor boy’s murder.” Shimmer said. He gestured with his gun, its range not once leaving Break’s head. She gulped. “We at Supreme Café are always friends of Cosa Nostra.”
The pony nodded and pointed his gun at Break. She flinched involuntarily. “Come with us and we won’t splatter your brains right here.” He grinned maliciously. “The boss will want to meet you.”
Break started to shake in fear. She was dead and nothing could be done to stop it. The other customers didn’t look happy about his, but did nothing. One younger pony motioned for his gun, but stopped, sat back down, and did nothing.
Break was gestured to leave and both thugs had guns trained on her. They walked through town and were given a huge berth by the inhabitants of Primrose.
Primrose was a small town that used to be a largish town and a vacation spot before the war. It was naturally in ruins after the megaspells, but the survivors of Stable 11 were able to make it habitable. Shacks were built over the ruins using whatever they could find. Any building that were still intact were also used. The whole town was surrounded by a giant wall built out of collected scraps of steel and iron. Four guard towers were on each of the corners of the barrier.
The town’s main value was the small but useable pieces of farmland used to grow various crops. Crops that were able to grow despite the oppressive cloud cover in the sky. A mare by the name of Spring Rain specialized in water purifying magic making it easier to grow edible crops and not rely on water talismans. This was one of the biggest reasons the Cosas had such a strong stranglehold on the town. They invested a lot of money and time into making it safe.
The three walked in silence. The one that shot Dagger gave Break a look that wasn’t encouraging while the other thug just glared.
“You try to run and I’ll break all your legs.” The second thug threatened. Break jumped. This was the first time she had ever heard him speak.
“I hope she does.” The other said while grinning. “Oh, I can’t wait till we get back to the base. We have a torture chamber made especially for ponies like you.”
He started going on and on about the various unpleasant things she was going to experience. Break, with nothing better to call them, decided to call him Thug A and the other one Thug B. The Thug B was watching her every movement. Break tuned out Thug A’s rambling and looking for any opportunity to escape. She didn’t seem to have much time left because she could see the Cosas’s home base at the end of the street. Break sighed in defeat.
“I don’t even know why the boss even has that iron maiden thing in his dungeon; it ain’t like he actually uses it.” Thug A chatted. “What do you think?” As he asked this he looked and pointed his gun at Thug B.
Having nothing else to lose, she rammed into Thug A praying to Celestia that Thug B wouldn’t shoot her on the spot. He didn’t and fell to the ground dead as Thug A’s gun accidently went off.
“What the b-“ Thug A was about to say, but Break interrupted him with a kick in the shin as hard as she could. He screamed in pain.
Break darted into an alley not bothering to look back at the carnage she caused. She hoped beyond hope she could find a place of safety before reinforcements arrived.
She could hear Thug A scream “Static no! I’ll get you for this…” and then he went off to half heard obscenities.
- - - - -
Robin walked through the corridor stomping his hooves in frustrating trying his best to get rid of the last vestiges of sleep. He was not happy one bit. He spent all last night hunting down and exterminating a group of raiders that were encroaching on Cosas’s territory. He was trying to catch up on some much needed sleep when he was abruptly woken up to deal with this stupid mess. Honestly, he could care less about Steel Dagger getting killed. He never liked the brat. He stopped in the hallway and composed himself. He was given a job, and he was going to complete it no how trivial it might be to hunt down and capture some waitress.
Robin had a reddish orange mane unicorn with a grey coat. His cutie mark was like his namesake, a robin chirping out a little note. He was one of the boss’s lieutenants. He joined nine years ago to help deal with raiders, rebellious townsfolk, or whatever horror came out of the wasteland.
He straightened himself as he walked into the boss’s office. Two guards opened the door for him. The office was a well furnished room with beautiful and intact rugs from Camellu, a worn but tough varnished deck, and various mishmash of paintings that the boss acquired over the years. Robin didn’t think they were very good, but he wasn’t much for art. He preferred music. The office used to be the office of a high school principal back before the war. Of all the buildings in town, the school suffered the least amount of damage and the Cosas were using it as their base.
The boss was crying. This unexpected action startled Robin. He had never seen the boss this emotional. The brat was a little turd, but family is family Robin supposed. The boss was a round middle aged unicorn with a blue mane and darker blue coat. He was wearing a well maintained suit that fit him well. It made him look dignified.
“Robin, good.” The boss’s voice suddenly rose in anger. “I want you to find this waitress and bring her back. Alive of course, she will learn first hoof what it means to take my son away from me. But, I don’t mind if you rough her up a bit, just get her back here in one piece.”
“Understood sir.” Robin said curtly.
“Good good. I know I can rely on you. Ray Shine will brief you on the current details.” The boss waved a hoof for him to be dismissed and Robin obeyed.
Robin walked into a room that used to be a cafeteria and there was Ray with several other armed ponies. Ray was a rather large Earth Pony with a yellow mane and a green coat. You could see his well defined muscles and they made his combat armor bulge. Ray was one of the boss’s best ponies in Robin’s opinion. Ray gave him a curt nod and gave his briefing. That was what Robin liked the most about Ray, all business.
“As far as he can tell, she’s still in the town. None of our snipers have seen her leave town. We suspect she’s hiding between 15th and 17th Ave.” The town was large and had many little places she could hide.
Robin nodded and suited up in his combat armor and took an automatic rifle with his magic with plenty of rounds. He took a knife just in case and took his favorite, most skilled weapon, a magical powered pistol. Three other armed ponies followed him as he walked out of the base. Sure it was overkill, but they wanted to make an impression on the townfolk.
“There you are!” A voice cried out. Robin sighed. It was the idiot that got the boss’s son killed. “I’m coming with you!”
Apparently the boss decided to give this dimwit another chance. He had been close to both the boss and his son. He would have just shot the moron. The idiot however didn’t seem to notice Robin’s obvious disdain for him.
“Heehaw! This whorse is going to get it now!” He proclaimed waving his pistol wildly. The other members of his group moved out of the way of his gun nervously, not wanted a repeat of what happened to their fellows. “Isn’t that right Robin.” He pointed his gun at Robin’s face. Robin just sighed and moved the gun out of his face with his magic and ignored him. He just wanted to get this stupid job done and go back to sleep.