To Mooscow!
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So, first few hours out in the wasteland, and here are some things I've learned; snow is very cold, tundra is very hard, the music is absolutely fan-bucking-tastic, and everypony shoots first and asks questions later. Or, actually, they just keep shooting... and shooting... and shooting some more. Celestia damn, do they like shooting...
Alright, so, caught in a firefight with three rounds left in the clip, can't go up, can't run forwards, and pinned down by bullets and what I can only guess is what Mr. Skritters pretty much looked like after the radiation turned his entire everything into glowing goop flying overhead. I popped up out of cover to take a gander at the situation, and was greeted with a rifle shot giving my cheek a nice new scrape. Guess they aren't the best of shots either, but... OW, bullet shockwave ringing in my ear. Moving my tongue forwards and getting ahold of the trigger, a quick tug sent a bullet flying right at that half-naked bastard's... huh. So that's what a .45 can do to a skull. Never thought the brain would be so grey, and... spongy. Oh hi lunch, haven't seen you in a few hours, still as tasty as- nope, nope, that is definitely acid. Oh sweet princess of the night, not on the pistol...
I took pause to place the hay fries and apple fritter that were so kindly made back in the Stable neatly upon the side of the road behind the makeshift barricade, thankfully without a very nice and VERY powerful pistol in the way, spitting out the last remaining bits and getting primed to fire again. Two rounds left, six... five, five guys wanting to use my tails as fancy dresswear. Christ, whichever one of those bastards who's firing the green goop gun must be either blind or an insanely bad shot, the freaky buck who got hit just exploded in a goddamned pulse of goop! Guess his friends had noticed that too, and either planned to honorarily discharge the poor blind sap with a few ounces of lead in the brain or were just surprised in seeing somepony melt like an ice cube on the reactor heat sink, either way, hey, free shots! A moment to aim... and kaboom. Yay, more grey matter! Oh, who could that be, it's breakfast! Now isn't that a nice surprise, Lunch just stopped by a few minutes ago, here, let me get the door for you. Ah, nice to see a familiar reddish-brown mush meeting another familiar reddish-brown mush once more. I might even get to see stomach today at this rate!
Oh, Celestia help me...
Right, down to three... or, wait, two? Was the green goop gun guy hiding now? Wouldn't blame him if he was that ba- that was a rifle shot, I should get down. Oooh, apple skin never did agree with me, especially now when he has his friend hydrochloric stomach acid along with him just inches from my face. This was going to be a long journey... buck up, come on you two-tailed moron, get the gun back in and start shooting again. Just go for the neck, there isn't any sponge brain there, and this gun seems to do a great job of delivering not fun times for everypony at the pointier end. Lining up the shot, good, very good, now just squeeze, more, more, and BAM! Ow, that was a tooth I'm probably not going to be getting back anytime soon... at least there wasn't any grey matter that time, just a nice decapitated earth pony head leaking blood on the smouldering pile of ash that was their body a moment ago. Wait, what?
I peeked over the barricade a bit further, looking at the rather large pile of very disturbing scantily clad mares and bucks and piles of ash laying in the middle of the street. Sweet Celestia, what the hell did it take to be surviving out here? A sudden bolt of green glowing goop singing my mane and cheek told me, probably keeping your head down. Then again, since whoever had the goop gun apparently wasn't coming charging at me wanting to use me in the way an old spooky story featuring a certain pink mare of the ministries did to all the little fillies and colts who didn't love exactly every single thing that Equestria was - sweet Luna, now THAT was some freaky-flank propaganda - maybe they could use whatever hopefully non-spongy nor outside-their-skull brains to listen to some pleas.
"Hey! You, with the goop gun! Think you could maybe -not- fire at the unfortunate young pegasus who trotted in way over his head over here? Pretty sure he'd appreciate it!" Just able to flick the small release button for the clip, I looked down at the one bullet left inside of it and grimaced slightly, as if hearing chatter at the front door again. Nope, sorry stomach, I think you should head back home before things get ugly... well, uglier. Guh, kind of really wished I could have my radio turned on right now...
"Goop? It's called plasma, idiot with the magnum!" Well, wasn't that one just a ray of sunshine... and he was still firing! I cowered back behind the small concrete divider, looking to the side as one of the balls of plasma dissolved the puddle that was formerly the content of my stomach into the ground further. Sliding further along behind the small barricade, I popped up for a moment to check where it was coming from - well, that was certainly a weird wagon. Wait a minute, wasn't that one of those old steam-run clankers? Huh, now that's a... exactly where he's firing from! Well, at least it's localized fire now... and that might just be what I needed.
"It's a... ah... well, I think it's a Luger... whatever! Just hold your buckin' fire!" With one generous leap, and a sudden realization that holy hell was this duster not designed for pegasi, I cleared over the barricade and made a clumsily arcing beeline for the motorized wagon, Gamma's pistol held in my mouth with the one shot left. Two plasma balls arced wide around me, diving in for the attack with great fervor, until noticing something peculiar about the unicorn buck levitating what I guess was his plasma gun - that was a Stable jumpsuit he was wearing. I blinked in surprise, still processing up to the moment that gravity won the battle between it and my wings, sending us both crashing and rolling around in the freezing-cold snow. "Oomfh..."
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I was momentarily blinded by the sudden change in light level, my eyes watering and being stung by the icy wind that blew outside the cavern's exit. I put a hoof up to shield my eyes as I levitated my glasses off of my face, and wiped my tears off of the insides of the lenses. My eyes eventually adjusted to the bright, blinding light and I was able to stare off the side of the mountain, watching as wind blew bits of snow down into the valley below me. I leaned over the side and bit and gazed downwards before quickly stepping back. Okay, note to self, don’t look down. Alright, there had to be a path somewhere to lead up here, right? Glancing about the icy, frozen wasteland just outside, I soon spotted what looked like an extremely faded road running along the side of the mountain. I began to slowly trot down, sticking as far from the edge as I could - oh, why did Stables have to be built into mountains?
After listening to a few distant pops, I drew my plasma pistol, glancing back and forth for any signs of danger. Supposedly those megaspell-things they dropped centuries ago wouldn’t have wiped out everything, rumors had been spread around of some creatures being able to survive the bombardment. I shuddered, half from fear, and half from how bitingly cold it was. My tail curled up tight as I regretted not having taken the time to find a coat. The wind whistled as it blew through the valley, flurries of snow being tossed into the air. I squinted, trying to tell if there was anything on the opposite side of the valley, but nothing came into view. I looked up, finally noticing just how dim the whole area was. Why in Equestria were there so many clouds? I thought pegasi controlled them, if they’re all gone, what’s making them? I shook my head, quietly wondering if it was an unintended side effect of the spells they dropped.
Trotting down a switchback, I noticed a faded, bent sign stuck into the snow. 'Emerald Ridge, Pop; 4,820' it read in peeling paint, an equally ruined arrow pointing towards the opposite end of the valley. I glanced back up the mountain, the wooden door of Stable 76 now barely in view. I paused, my stomach clenching up, mind thinking back. Cross… I’m so sorry… I sniffed a bit, praying he was okay. I should’ve just stayed… but who knows what the overmare would’ve done. I tried to push the thoughts to the back of my mind as I reached the bottom of the mountain and began to trudge through the snow in the valley.
As I walked through the windy crevace, I heard a small buzzing in the distance. I raised my pistol up again, slowing my trot. A dark shape appeared around the corner of the road, still buzzing loudly. It soon came into view, and prompted me to give a cry of fear and revulsion. The thing was at least the size of my head, with grotesquely swollen limbs that seemed to grasp at the air. I fired off several shots of plasma, one managing to strike it and send it falling to the ground with a painful squeak. I gave it a wide berth, its legs still twitching a little, despite being seared by the hot plasma. Oh, good Celestia, that’s disgusting. I rushed down the road, reloading my pistol as it curved around a small hill.
In the distance I spotted a small collection of houses, my eyes going wide at the sight. I thought everything was supposed to have been flattened by the war, just craters and death for miles around... guess the school played up those facts a bit much. I stowed my pistol as I followed the road around the side of the small town of Emerald Ridge, still glancing about for signs of any more of those disgusting fly-things. I turned off the road as it approached the town, heading down one of the streets. My stomach growled a bit as I roamed through, myself taking pause to hold a hoof against it. Ok, leaving without food was another dumb decision… maybe there’s some sort of grocery store or something nearby. Oh, I could go for a Sunrise Sarsaparilla...
I turned the corner, spotting a few figures in the distance, thankfully ones that looked much more equine in appearance than that thing earlier. Before I could rush up to them, though, I heard a gunshot, one of them falling to the ground. I dove behind some rubble, my heart suddenly in my throat - oh for Celestia's sake, please don't let me die here. I heard the ponies return fire as the aggressor dove behind a small wall beside a brick building. I peered over the rubble, only to witness one of the pony’s heads become a cloud of red mist as another bullet flew through it. I shrieked as my glasses were suddenly coated in blood, which drew the attention of the group of ponies focused on the one behind the house.
Bullets flew through the air around me as I was forced to remove my glasses, everything turning into a mess of blurs. I fired sporadically, most of my plasma shots coming nowhere near the group of ponies, but occasionally one hit its mark and seared the ponies skin. One shot manage to strike one in the eye, and he wailed as he melted into a pile of cool plasma. I couldn’t hear anymore gunshots in my direction, but I continued to fire out of sheer terror. A voice suddenly came over through the wind - well, at least it's somepony talking rather than shooting. "Hey! You, with the goop gun! Think you could maybe -not- fire at the unfortunate young pegasus who trotted in way over his head over here? Pretty sure he'd appreciate it!”
Haha, stop firing at the pony that started the fight? Not likely! I reloaded my pistol, shooting a few more shots in the vague direction I heard the voice come from. “You drop your gun and I’ll stop firing!” I shouted back. I stopped shooting, though, waiting for a response - Celestia above, please don’t let him sneak up on me blind like this. There was a little scuffling before the pony responded.
“I’m not exactly in the mood to go out into the open unarmed, thank you very much.” He shouted back. Well, I guess we’re at an impasse, aren’t we? Just great. Nothing happened for a few moments, during which I made a feeble attempt to wipe my glasses clean, though all it did was smear the blood. I suddenly heard the beating of wings as I glanced back to the house, seeing a yellow blur shoot into the sky. Oh, shit, I can’t hit a pegasus with eyes like this. I fired as best as I could at the blur, but each shot missed by several feet. However, as the blur came closer, I noticed he wasn’t firing on me. What the heck…? I attempted to dive out of the way as the golden pegasus crashed into me, sending us both tumbling through the snow.
-----
"...So, you're like a half-robot pony or something? Or is it a half-pony robot?" I snickered lightly, trotting beside the plasma-happy unicorn who called himself Minty Candy. We seemed to hit it off rather well, for having been shooting haphazardly at each other just an hour or so ago - he apparently was on the run from his home Stable, for what he described as a disagreement between himself and his Overmare. Sheesh, myself and Mayflower never completely saw eye-to-eye, but that never made me an outright criminal of Stable 34...
"Ha-ha, very funny you half-bird. I thought all pegasi were outright traitors... not as made of pure evil as Zebras, but still an enemy of Equestria. Shouldn't you have been born up above those things?" He waved a hoof to the sky, the rolling overcast making it hard to tell if the sun was up or not. I made a point to keep my gaze as low as I could looking up, or at the very least not let Minty notice the light shaking in my legs. A pegasi afraid of heights, what a laughing stock... in my defense, the highest drop in 34 was just from the top of the atrium, only two stories up. Goddesses, the sky was scary.
"Shouldn't your horn -not- be made of metal? The hell kind of freaky stuff went on down in your Stable?" With a roll of the eyes, I let off another loose chuckle as the freezing snow crunched underhoof. Passing by the sign on the main road leading away from the small town, it appeared that we were headed out of Emerald Ridge and were en route to a place called Mooscow. Wasn't expecting to find much; stories and reports that were transmitted out on that fateful day that were recorded in the Stable maneframe said that the entirety of Equestria was consumed in balefire and radiation, every major city center struck by hundreds of bombs and missiles from Zebra lands, nothing could have survived the initial onslaught. Didn't really state who pushed the buttons first - I suppose it was for the best. Then again, Emerald Ridge really didn't seem as touched by bombs so much as just deteriorated by about two centuries from natural forces. There weren't any stark negatives burned into the facades of buildings, most of the skeletons and bodies around were just laying in the street, flat out, some curled in balls, all most certainly dead. Wasn't there a secondary phenomenon from Balefire blasts that could be the cause? Radioactive fallout, I think it's called...
"What? Everypony had some sort of implant down there, unicorns got magic enhanced by power cells and spark batteries, and Earth Ponies had special skeleton servos that made them stronger. Just mandatory things, I thought every Stable did that. Besides, it does have it's own little perks~" The unicorn looked at myself smugly for a moment, before I suddenly felt my tails tugging upwards, slowly but surely, at my hind end. I skidded along the snow as my rear hooves left the ground, soon followed by my front ones as the coy bastard kept me aloft with his magic. We exchanged looks, his a wide grin behind his frosting-over glasses, and mine being of the type one might give a young colt caught with a hoof in the cookie jar. He kept me lifted, trotting along and levitating me over the shoulder of the motorway as I crossed my hooves over my chest, glaring at him.
"Put. Me. Down." He seemed to contemplate this for a moment, a cool breeze tossing wisps of snow into both of our manes, still casually trotting along. I had to admit, things were starting to get a bit blurry from this new change in perspective - let alone the fact that clouds were the new ground, which was dizzying enough as is. Minty rolled his eyes, humming softly as we continued onwards, the icy frost on the ground catching in my shaggy mane and making it damp. I could almost feel the heat radiating off of my head as he passed me over a rather large snow bank... a place he finally decided on being soft enough to let me drop into. Did I mention how cold snow is? And how hard the permafrost is? Well, apparently it's also very, VERY sharp, too, a fact that my forehead deemed hell-bent to prove to me. With a bit of flailing around, my head finally worked itself free of the snowbank, a hoof moving to rub at the nice gash that was leaving a trail of crimson straight down my face. Minty looked back in surprise, trotting up to greet myself.
"Ah, I swear I thought it was just another snow... bank..." He trailed off, looking down into the small chasm with the crimson bottom that once housed my head. Sipping on a small healing potion, I turned to look with him, watching him begin to dig it out moreso. In confusion, and curiosity overtaking, I peered down into widening crater from the rim, the potion choking me as the first bits of what my thick head hit revealed themselves; sweet Celestia, that was a long horn... a -very- long horn... a very deep-blue, long horn... we both stood in shock as the cold, dead face of the unfortunate and very strange unicorn revealed itself, speechless as to what to say. It was almost the spitting image of Princess Luna buried in that snowbank, frozen completely solid, eyes bulging outwards from the fluids having long since solidified well after rigor mortis set in, assuming she didn't just freeze solid before she passed. Minty kept digging with his magic, revealing more of her body; no clothes, no protection from the elements, not even a pair of socks on. No wonder whoever this was just up and died on this deserted roadside. I stuck a hoof out in front of Minty as he revealed more of the body, an out of place yet quite befuddling piece of evidence jutting from the snow. Reaching into the ditch, my teeth clamped around the deep-blue feather, us both greatly taken aback from this new development. I didn't know about Minty, but I was pretty set to want to hightail it the buck out of there - this could be the resting site of the last princess of all of Equestria, for Lun- uh, for crying out loud! We both remained frozen however, our gaze slowly turning back to the body of the alicorn that rested in the snow. I spit the feather into my saddlebags, more out of just having the memento to recall from than anything else. There was only one way to be sure if this mare really was the former princess of the night, and all of Equestria.
"Dig out her Cutie Mark." Minty nodded once, his white magic aura glistening off of the snow as he pulled it out in large clumps. The wind was the only sound around us both as the last chunk began to slide out, flaked with fur from the side of the mare's hind end, revealing... nothing. This frozen body in the wastes, with the same mane, coat, wings and horn of Princess Luna, didn't have a Cutie Mark. She was a blank flank. A blank flank alicorn, hah, well, now I've seen everything! I chortled, coughing a bit as I started stepping back from the snowy pit, beginning to laugh rather feverishly at the realization... or it could've been the blood loss... trotting and wobbling around clumsily on weak legs. Minty was no doubt watching my hysterics, a question that was firmly answered with a right hoof smack across the face.
"Are all pegasi as weird as you? Sheesh... maybe we should just let this one pass. Shared hallucination or something, maybe? Yeah. Let's try to keep each other sane." Getting back onto my hooves, I watched as Minty shifted the snow back over the unmarked alicorn, once again letting the frigid wasteland reclaim her body, the grating wind already starting to smooth over the replaced snow. We stood there and watched the clumps erode smooth, before turning back onto the road and continuing onwards with the journey. The frigid wasteland wind whipping in our ears and blasting ice and snow in our faces, it seemed all the more quiet as the frosty burial mound of the alicorn was slowly yet surely left behind. This wild, strange, arctic wasteland certainly isn't what it appears on the surface, at all...
-----
“So... what’s your story, exactly?” I said, trying to find something to take our minds off of what just happened, whatever that was. Twintails shrugged, rubbing the excess blood off of his wound.
“Not that exciting really. Gamma, my... boss, of sorts said there was a piece of technology that wound up breaking, part of our reactor's cooling system... a Neutron-Dampening Radiothermic Coil, I think it was called.” We continued to crunch through the snow, passing more worn signs. There was even one with some choice words regarding this thing called the 'Grand Pegasus Enclave'. Lovely.
I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow. “A Neutron-Dampening... what?” I shook my head, trying to think. “I’ve never heard of that before, and I knew every bit of tech that was in the Stable. Trust me, this thing wouldn’t be nearly as powerful if it wasn’t for some... ‘borrowed’ spare parts from the maintenance sections.” I tapped my horn, smirking a little.
“Well, a lot of machinery in the reactors were meant to be kept on a need to know basis, we didn’t need any ponies such as yourself breaking in and making some kind of uranium gun. Dunno if every Stable had a reactor like Bruce, though...” Twintails chuckled. I shivered, cursing my lack of foresight yet again. I always thought nuclear winter was just a theory... I sighed, my ears flopping down as I followed.
“Ah, cheer up. We’re almost at Mooscow, maybe we can spend the night there.” I looked up, seeing another collection of buildings. It looked much bigger than Emerald Ridge had been, though from the looks of it, it was hit a lot harder during the war. The road wended its way towards the town, another broken old road sign dandling from its pole directing us towards it. As we approached, it was easier to see most of the town was surrounded by metal sheets crudely bolted together into a sort of barricade. There were a few buildings outside the walls, though it looked as if much less effort had been put into rebuilding them than the ones beyond it.
We trotted up to a huge set of oak doors embedded in the gate, attempting to open it. I was looking up at some of the larger buildings when Twintails suddenly shouted. “Watch out!” Suddenly, I found myself on the ground, lights popping into my view and a heavy wooden board on top of my body. He’d pulled the ENTIRE door off of it's rusty hinges, which, of course, managed to land right onto me. He helped lift the aged piece of wood off, letting myself wriggle free from beneath it. “Shoot, sorry.” I caught him smirking, but he fished out the remainder of the health potion he’d used for his gash, tossing it to me.
As I took a swig, something jumped through the door; a very angry something, with two guns aimed at us. “Hold it right there, gate-crashers. I'm going to have to see some caravan ID before I’m letting you into this place.” The speaker was a Gryphon who wore nothing, no doubt shielded enough by the cold by her feathers... which were stained with irregular splashes of red. Dried red. She clicked her beak a little, which was, of course, also bloody.
“We’re not merchants.” Twintails said, looking up at the Gryphon. She narrowed her eyes slightly, tensing her muscles. She leapt into the air, settling herself onto the metal barricade, glaring down at us.
“Then I suggest you two get lost. We’re having a problem with raiders at the moment, so Proper’s under lockdown. No new residents.” I scraped idly at the ground with a hoof, gnawing at my lower lip as she continued her staredown, working up the will to speak.
“Are you sure there’s no way we can get in, even just passing through?” I asked tentatively.
She flicked her tail a little, thinking. “Hmm... I guess you two don’t look the raider type, not to mention you're both clean... chemically and physically. Mostly, anyways.” My eyes widened a little, a touch surprised at her response. “Don’t look so surprised, my beak's particularly sensitive to chems. Wouldn't have a job here if it wasn't... Anyway, how about you leave your weapons with me, and I’ll let you go in, simple as that.”
I nodded fishing out my plasma pistol and presenting it to the gryphon. Twintails grumbled a little, reluctantly sliding his pistol out of his saddlebags and laying it in it's hardwood case. “Just make sure that thing’s still there when we come back out." The Gryphon took the box and pistol, placing them in a safe behind the wall, shutting it and closing it tight.
“Alright, you can go in. Welcome to Mooscow, make no trouble.” She said with a light growl, stepping aside.
“Thanks.” I said, feeling the lump on my head growing smaller. I tossed the empty bottle back to Twintails, heading through the empty frame. The remnants of Mooscow were notably more destroyed than Emerald Ridge, yet at the same time, it still stood as a bastion of civilization that managed to go on upon the surface. We trotted down the street, looking around at the dilapidated buildings, a few other ponies milling about, all minding their business, and dressed thickly. Looking at them, the wind seemed to bite at my uncovered flanks harder, sending a shiver down my spine - this Stable shirt was NOT designed for winter. We turned, another pony stepping up beside us both, dressed in a thick vest and a distinctly aged hat. He simply walked along with us before finally striking up a conversation.
“You folks new in town? Lookin' for supplies, I bet... c'mon, I'll lead ya both t' Razorwing's.” He said, a grin upon his face, his voice a little gravely from age. Myself and Twintails shared a glance before shrugging, still alongside the old colt.
“It couldn’t hurt, I guess.” I replied, shrugging lightly.
“C'mon, jus' a short trot away, haha!” He chuckled, stepping ahead of us a little, leading us down the street. “Sure you met Bloodbeak on the way in. Girl can be a little inhospitable, but she’s only doing it to keep the place safe. Had some raiders stealing from caravans coming through town, so our trading's been lacking lately... Could always ask Razorwing about it, sure he’d be happy to find somepony to bring in extra goods.”
We soon came to a large, well rebuilt building. It had a big glass window with some holes in the front, displaying some old world clothing. “Oi, Razor, there’s some new colts in town!” The stallion said as he entered. Another gryphon was standing behind the counter, adorned in a small, old sweater vest over his black fur. He stepped around the counter, revealing shiny metal blades running along the leading edge of his wings.
“Haven’t gotten a lot of new faces lately... what can I get for you?” He asked, his eyes lighting up at the potential for some new business. I glanced around at the shop's wares before a realization smacked me like a, a boat or something.
“Uh...” Twintails said, rummaging through his saddlebags with a wing, letting loose a nervous chuckle. It finally became apparent to us that neither of us had bothered to come out with any form of money... can't blame us, wasn't expecting there to be any places where stuff could actually be sold in a radioactive wasteland! Thankfully, the gryphon behind the counter finally noticed my Stable jumpsuit, a little smirk coming across his face as his expression changed.
“Oh, are you guys just out of the Stable?” He asked. We nodded, and he smiled knowingly. “Ah, don’t worry if you don’t have any caps on you... if you’d like to earn some, though, I do have a small task that needs doing.” He leaned against the counter, ruffling his wings a little as he grinned wider.
“W-We’re interested.” I said without hesitation, a chill breeze blowing through. At this rate, I was sure I was going to end up a mare if I spent another hour in just this damn denim jacket. Razorwing chuckled.
“Hold on there speedy… I haven’t even told you what I need yet. Well, as I’m sure my sister, Bloodbeak... or more likely Old Colt Johnson,” He tilted his head towards the stallion who’d come in with us, snickering lightly, “told you, we’ve been having a little problem with raiders lately. They keep driving off caravans, so my inventory has been running a bit sparser than usual.” He let off a sigh, prodding at a few empty bottles that lined the counter. Sparkle-Cola, really? Uck...
“Well, how can we help?” I asked, smiling widely, glancing over at Twintails as he fiddled with his pip-buck.
“Well, from what I’ve heard, they're holed up in an abandoned RobronCo factory up the highway. I’d like you to go there and see if you could get them cleared out, by whatever means. Don’t care if you convince them or blast them into next Tuesday, I just need them gone. It’s worth 500 caps to me, and the town. Anything you salvage there is free for the taking as well, just can't have it anymore when those goddess-damned bastards are killing off every caravan that comes up from the I-135...”
I looked over at Twintails, my grin widening considerably. He looked at me in a mix of confusion and worry, taking a slight step to the side. “What?”
“Do you have any idea what kind of stuff they could have there? Wires, servos, capacitors, lasers, sensors...” I started to rattle off, my mind going wild with ideas. “Heck, I could build myself a whole new body with the stuff there! I’m in!” I spun around, looking at Razorwing enthusiastically, himself returning a glare like I'd just gone off the deep end.
Twintails was a little hesitant, still thinking back to the greenish-brown puddle melted in the road. “Well, there’s probably worse places to go. Do you have any kind of ammunition we could use? We’re running a little low.”
Razorwing nodded, smiling. “What kind d'ya need?”
“Well, any .45 Auto you've got, for one. And energy cells.” Razorwing winced a little at the second one, already ducking under the counter and pulling up a few boxes of ammunition.
“Sorry, all I can spare is a few boxes of surplus .45 rounds. Like I said, business has been rough, haven't been getting things for energy weapons since the storm season started, and the raiders just made everything worse off than usual. I’m sure if you can conserve your shots for when you’re at the factory, you’ll find plenty there... even if it also involves getting some scrap metal as well, heh.” He smirked, pushing the four boxes of surplus ammunition over to us. Twintails lifted each of them up with a wing, dropping them in his saddlebags. Pegasi are weird...
“I try to not fire if I can help it. As for this guy, though...” I snickered softly, as Twintails rolled his eyes.
“I have a singed mane that’d beg to differ.” I rolled my eyes as well, Razorwing giving a light chuckle while Twintails kept rummaging in his saddlebags. He pulled out a few small bags of Rad-X and tossed them on the counter in return, Razorwing looking them over idly before sliding them up on the shelf.
"Yeah, this ought to cover costs until you get back. Don't go getting too shot up now, y'hear? Want to keep those clothes from getting too bloodied up, heh..." He grinned slyly, us both turning around as Old Colt Johnson stepped up to us.
“It’s getting pretty late, and the weather’s never good here at night. If you two need somewhere to stay, I wouldn’t mind letting you share my shack. It’s been awhile since I’ve had company, eheh..." He gave a grin, myself looking over at my pegasus friend, seeing him shrug idly. Not like we could afford to stay anywhere else, anyways...
"Sounds good to me. Thanks for the hospitality, really." I replied, smiling at him as we all stepped out into the Mooscow square. Streetlamps and shop fronts all were illuminated by arcane generators, casting strange shadows as the flaky snow from above fell down to the street, blown about in wisps from the wind. I tucked my tail between my haunches, trying to stave off losing a 'limb' that I'd really rather like to keep, as we soon arrived at the base of a rather massive brass bell, it's surface adorned with great moldings of the two princesses from before the war, and their respective cutie marks. The old colt uncovered a small wooden door at the base, flipping it open and crawling inside, followed close behind by myself and Twintails.
"Welp, ought to nod off for the night, I reckon. All's bed, just drop down anywhere, make yourselves at home... oh, and uh, I'm kind of a cuddler..." He chuckled weakly, moving aside some dirtied blankets and sheets into a second pile. What kind of pony needs his whole floor to be a bed, anyways? Then again... oh, those blankets look -so- warm... it wasn't too long before I found myself belly-first on a pile of musty old pillows, wrapped in a heavy blanket, still in my Stable clothes. Every now and again a thick clump of snow would fall onto the massive bell, causing the whole room to ring softly with resonance, slowly lulling us all to sleep. A pony could get used to life like this, I suppose...
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Alright, this was a fun little chapter, I liked Minty and Twintail's back and forth during their walk to Mooscow.