19 - Restoration
There’s a few things you just know are possible, but don’t expect to see. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are, or where you might be one day. Everyone has a short list of things they believe can only exist in the realm of fantasy. As Speed and I crested the rise to look down on the Los Pegan camp, I had to scratch one of those things from my list.
Their camp was not actually a camp, it was in truth a parking spot. For a Celestia damned overland train!
The Pegans had taken a miraculously functional SU-76M Tank and hitched a series of other older vehicles to her (the tank’s spirit looked feminine and that only happens on purpose). The tank served as the engine, with an old bus, a pair of cargo trailers, an ambulance, and a luxury auto-wagon forming the train behind it. Each vehicle had been modified, replacing the old wheels with tracks, ensuring everything could be accessed from the sides, and perhaps most critically of all, joined together via a very solid looking series of train-car couplings.
I could think of hundreds of reasons why nopony had built these pre-war. Chief among which was if this thing got stuck, it would take all day to get it unstuck. Sure, you could make a train-like vehicle meant for moving across the open terrain without tracks, but why in the world would you?
The sheer amount of magic it must take to make that thing work anywhere close to… Why not just fix the pre-war rail lines?!
“Woah! Cool!” Speed squeed a half second after my jaw dropped in stunned disbelief.
I shook myself and looked over to her. “Cool?! How does that even work! I—”
“Who cares? We don’t have to maintain or drive it, and it’s awesome!” Speed said with a grin.
“You know what… That’s a good argument. I’ll go crazy trying to figure out how in the hell that thing is able to get around.”
Tearing my eyes off the stupidest idea in the entire wasteland, I looked over the rest of the camp. It looked normal enough. A big campfire set up for cooking. Sandbag walls everywhere. Soldiers on patrol. A large number of Pipite corpses ringing the camp…
“Oh, great, they were hit too,” I sighed as I nodded towards a pile of bodies a few Pegan rangers were making as they cleaned up their camp.
Speed tilted her head. “I know why I would think that is great, but why do you?”
“I was being sarcastic,” I said with a little laugh.
“I’ll never understand why a lie is considered humor,” Speed muttered to herself as she shook her head and lashed her tail angrily, sending a little spatter of half-dried blood everywhere.
Note to self: Get Speed a towel… Make that several towels. Also, soap.
“Um—” I said as I tried to find an answer for her.
In truth, neither did I. Ponies just did that.
Speed waved a hoof at me. “It’s okay, nopony ever has an answer. I don’t think you can explain everything, you know? Besides, what’s much more interesting is why all of the Pipites are laying dead where they are.”
I looked over the remains of the battle lines and frowned as I couldn’t see what she meant. The landtrain was in a semicircle shape, the Pegan camp was made with the inner curve of the train as a wall. The Pipite bodies were also in the curve… Wait a minute!
”I’m back what did I mi— The hay?” Imaginary Dad said as I looked over the camp. ”Is that a—”
Yes.I said to him as I turned back to Speed. “They are in the camp. They have ranged weapons, but still ran into the camp.”
“Mhm! That’s my style of combat,” Speed remarked as she sped up her trot towards the camp. “It doesn't work without either STATS or Bat Powers, and being fast enough to dodge bullets. It’s not really a good choice for trash mobs like these.”
“How do you dodge bullets anyway? I’ve seen you do it,” I said as I sped up to catch up with her.
The question had been on my mind recently. It’s not everyday you see a mare somersault over a plasma bolt.
“You cheat,” Speed giggled.
I raised an eyebrow. “Yes, except this is real life and not a simulator pod. So, as far as I know, aside from knowing an Archmage, there is nothing like a cheatmenu to be had.”
”I thought you didn’t know video games,” Dad remarked.
I don’t… How did I know that? I thought as I frowned sharply.
For some reason I felt extremely frustrated. More so than I normally would be if confused about knowing something I shouldn’t have, or at least, didn’t consciously know how I would remember it.
“I don't dodge the bullet,” Speed said, breaking my concentration. “I dodge the shot itself. There’s a difference. If I hear the bullet, it’s already past me. Most bullets are supersonic… I uh, I don’t know what’s in your wasteland bullets, but it’s not gunpowder. Maybe black powder? It’s way slower than I am used too, and there’s more smoke. I might actually be able to dodge wasteland bullets.
“That said, with proper bullets, I dodge the shot itself instead. It’s the only way to do it. I can hear a pony’s jaw start to close and squeeze the trigger, and also hear where their barrel is pointing. The squeeze is just enough time to react to, a few milliseconds. All I need to do is move out of the three degree cone of space at the end of their weapon’s barrel and they can’t hit me unless there’s a ballistic anomaly or their weapon has a homing enchantment.”
My ears perked up. “Hey! That’s cool. I wouldn’t have ever thought about that.”
Speed nodded sagely. “It’s not an obvious thing to think about. I only realized I could do it after my seven thousandth or so loop of the Battle of That One Hill With the Impossible to Pronounce Name. Anyways, the reason I find it interesting the corpses are where they are is it shows they are trying to fight well above their belt and have at least one very good trainer to teach them the basic ideas of the techniques… Though none of them can apply it.”
I nodded and looked over the battlefield again, this time with Speed’s tactical insight in mind. It did certainly seem like they had tried to get up close and personal… But didn’t have the ability to pull off staying safe and effective in their blitz.
Speed turned around to look at me, grinning ear to ear. “Is your robot hearing good enough for that? Or um, you use eyes mostly, like a regular zebra, right?”
I nodded. “Mhm. I don’t see well enough to have enough situational awareness to dodge like you, but I might be able to dodge—”
Speed cleared her throat. “Okay, so I was poking through your saddlebags for a towel to clean up like you asked me and—”
I held up a hoof. “How did you get into my bag?”
“It was open?” Speed said with a frown.
I facehooved. “Dang it… Okay, please ask me to get into my bag in the future.”
“I will! Sorry. I just assumed you wouldn’t mind me borrowing a towel since you asked me to clean myself up. Anyways, I found your memory orb of FIllydelphia and watched it—”
“When did you have time for that!” I asked, my jaw dropping. “It’s hours long! We’ve been walking this whole time!”
Speed blinked as a frown slowly overtook her muzzle. “I… W— Why would you view it in real time playback?”
I stopped walking, nearly dropping Wander. “What?”
”I second that, what!?”
Speed looked at me like I was an idiot. “You… Don’t know that while viewing a memory orb you have control over the memory? Like, you can pause, stop, move back or forward in time. I watched it on fast forward while—”
“You can do that?!” I sputtered. “Why did nopony ever tell me that!”
Speed groaned, her wings slumping. “I”m so sorry! I forgot you grew up now and not in the simulated past where everypony just kind of knew how those worked!”
“Wander viewed it in real time!” I protested. “I couldn’t have been common knowledge!”
“It was part of basic training,” Speed said sheepishly, tapping her hooves together. “So uh… Yeah… I took five minutes and watched that. I really like how good of a shot you are, but… You totally have the situational awareness! You were snap targeting way faster than I can comprehend!”
It was my turn to awkwardly smile and squirm a little. “I— I’m only like that with cannons. I was bound to my last body to fire cannons. It’s what I do.”
“Oh!” Speed said with a huge grin. “Hot!”
She managed to say this as we arrived at the edge of the Pegan camp. Which made me flag my tail... and a nearby Los Pegan trooper look up and snicker.
Speed flashed her a knowing, or perhaps unknown grin and continued towards the center of camp… Before stopping entirely as she passed by a Pipite corpse.
“Ooo! Look at that shotgun he has!” She sang as she trotted directly towards the disturbingly torsoless corpse.
If I hadn’t gotten a facefull of the body’s jumpsuit bulge, I wouldn’t have known it had ever been male. What on earth did that?!
I wanted it. It had to be a nice canon.
I turned to look at the weapon Speed had indicated and saw… A completely normal looking shotgun. The same exact double barreled open hammered design Speed was already using. Only a bit tarnished and dry rotted thanks to 200 years of wasteland exposure.
“Feel free to take that old pile of junk,” the soldier who’d teased Speed said. “We’ll just melt it for scrap if you don’t.”
Speed snatched up the shotgun with a look of horror on her face. “M— Melt it down?! B— But why?! This is a twelve gauge double-barreled Remneighton. S-Mart’s top of the line! Do either of you have a tig welder?”
The soldier frowned and pursed her lips, then nodded, much like I did as we both tried to figure out what she was talking about. The gun didn’t have any visible damage to the metal which would mean it would need welding…
“Welcome to our camp, ladies,” Silverlight called, drawing my attention away from Speed’s nonsense. “I am glad you have chosen to travel with us… Is your drugged companion any better?”
I opened my mouth to say she was just sleeping now, but Wander spoke for me.
“Floofadoof…” Wander mumbled, clearly still unconscious.
“I see!” Silverlight chuckled and shook his head before waving us towards the fire. “Come! Sit, eat and drink if you wish. I am remaining at camp to guard it, but we should soon be able to leave. Our scouts have located the remains of the Lunar Museum. Soon, we will have what we came here for.”
I tilted my head slightly. “I thought you came here for relics of any sort.”
“That we indeed did,” Silverlight said as he began to walk towards the camp’s fire. “However, we have a particular target for this particular mission we hope to be able to locate. It helps us make sure we do not dig in the same locations on each expedition, and of course sometimes there’s just the possibility of finding a particular thing we may need. Each of our digs has such a particular target, but we almost never find the thing itself,and settle for ‘anything we find of historic or practical value’.”
“Oh!” I said as I reached the campfire and gently set Wander down via sliding her off my back.
“Ow…” Wandr whimpered as she very gently stopped against the ground.
I eeped and turned around, nuzzling her neck apologetically. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to.”
“You know I don’t like being dropped at a b-sharp, Octy,” Wander murmured.
I bit my lip to hold in my laughter.
Speed approached the fire and then changed direction, heading for a large flat rock with purpose in her eyes.
Silverlight immediately held out a hoof. “Watch your step, Batmare. There’s liquid cloud beneath that rock. A sample container had a catastrophic malfunction.”
“Oh, sweet! Perfect!” Speed eed happily.
My ears lay back. “Speed! We already said no fuzing a gun to your hoof!”
“But I’m not!” She whined, sitting down carefully and setting her shotgun on the rock along with the one she just looted.
Speed reached into one of her saddle bags and pulled out a small roll-up tool kit and opened it with a flourish so it landed flat on the rock next to her shotgun. She took the damaged second shotgun and laid it on the rock as well, clearly intent on using this as a workbench.
Turning to her shotgun as she worked her pipbuck without looking Speed whispered, “Now, sweetie, I know you’re already perfectly awesome, but we’re going to take that even further!”
She clicked a button on her pipbuck and and electrical distorted guitar’s deep bass thrumm filled the air as Speed began to work.
”Oh! She probably wants to file down the mainspring on the spare gun to give her’s a lighter trigger pull without risking making her primary weapon unuseable. That was a very popular mod for that model of shotgun pre-war.”
It was?
”Yep! I did it to mine.”
Oh! Cool.
I turned my attention to Silverlight. “Why were you taking Cloud samples?”
“Worried we’re trying to recreate the weapon?” Silverlight asked with an understanding incline of his head.
I nodded. “You bet I am. That stuff kills spirits just as effectively as mortals. It’s not a weapon that should be used ever again.”
“I agree,” Silver said simply. “I wanted to see if we could observe the decay rate of the Cloud in a controlled environment. Once the cloud fully dissipates, as it must with its source now cut off, it will be much easier to excavate what remains of the city. We have an alchemical lab in Los Pegasus and it would be possible to get an estimate of when the ruins would be safe. Unfortunately, it proved too dangerous to transport the sample when it ate through the bottom of our sample container. Which, as it was a ceramite bottle, is terrifying enough where we will not be trying again.”
I wasn't sure if I trusted him on that… But, seeing as how he seemed nice so far I decided to trust Silver’s motives for now.
☢★★◯★★☢
Over the next half hour, Silver and I talked, as the sky darkened. A thunderstorm swiftly rolled in from the east, casting shadows across the valley as the dark clouds blotted out the pale moon’s light.
As we spoke, Speed worked hard on her weapon. Looping the damn song the entire time...
As we waited for the archeologists to return with whatever they were after, I got to talk with Silverlight about a lot of things. Mostly Lith and my journey. Speed, meanwhile, worked on her guns. Cleaning them, presumably. Ever so often she’d flag down a Pegan soldier and ask to borrow a tool. Usually she got it. To my surprise, she’d sometimes get up, find a soldier, and return the tools she borrowed.
Nowhere in camp was spared her cheezy 30s Epic Rock’s wrath.
Silverlight paid close attention to my story, commenting on many of the places I had been and offering tips for similar situations. For example, he and his ponies had attempted to clear Applewood of ghouls seven years ago as payment for the NCR’s assistance in locating one of Celestia’s spellbooks, which the Pegans had tracked to Manehattan… Somewhere.
Unfortunately, that hasn't panned out and they lost over fifty soldiers. They did learn something very very useful. While you can’t smell Ghouls, you’ll smell the lack of anything else. While feral Ghouls most famously eat meat, well… Ponies are omnivores. They eat everything.
Plants. Animals. Mold. Fungi. Anything living, ghouls devour ravenously.
If you ever found a place that smelled like nothing at all lived there, not even the rot and mold which had been ever present before the Gardens were fired… Well, run!
I also learned that the suicide bomber in Tenpony was absurd, even for the Pipites. While Silverlight didn't doubt they might resort to using such tactics, and could find plenty of volunteers if they asked for them, that didn’t sit right with what he knew of them.
Pipites are more into brutal crusading waves of infantry powered by righteous fury. There was a simple reason for that. The Pipites had been founded by a group of raiders who wanted to please the Weather Goddess so she wouldn't smite them for being ponies she disliked.
To be fair, given what Wander had told me about Pip’s general treatment of raiders so far, that seemed wise.
“... in short,” Silverlight said to begin wrapping up his tactical summary of the religion. “The raiders who formed the first Pipites passed on their tactics to the more sane ponies who converted. They are all about brutal efficiency. However, I do not believe any of the original raiders are left amongst their ranks.”
I shook my head slowly as thunder rumbled quietly in the distance. “Kind of crazy how they—”
Wander squirmed and moaned sitting up… With her eyes still shut. Clearly out of it.
Silver and I looked at her carefully, making she she wasn't about to lay back down in the nearby fire.
Wander stared straight ahead, eyes closed, then, after several long moments shouted, “Captain’s Log! Stardate… Uh… November! The Protector has arrived in orbit above that one planet with those aliens whose name I forgot but they totally make a buckload of porn, like, an unbelievable amount of the stuff. BUCK! Why can’t I remember their name? You know, the ones Lyra liked! End of Log.”
Then she flopped back down with a dull thud. “Ow… I said no b-sharps!”
This time, Silverlight couldn’t hold in his laugh. “It is quite rare I am happy to have no context for something. Thank you for that, Wandering Bard.”
I giggled and shook my head. “So… You know how she has a problem with being famous?”
Silverlight nodded. “That I do. Most of the Wasteland does.”
I blinked and flicked my tail. “Excuse me?”
Silverlight scoffed and waved a hoof at me. “Surely you don’t think that a ghoul could wander the world for two centuries without becoming a well known if somewhat mythic figure.”
I facehooved into both of my frogs and growled. “Oh, Celestia… There’s a standing agreement everypony has to just pretend they don’t know her, isn’t there? I’m the only pony who has no idea what her real name is, aren't I?”
Silverlight shook his head. “No! Her name is well and truly lost to time. Her dislike of fame and penitent demeanor is quite well known. Everypony aware of her pretends to have no idea there is in fact, a ghoul who wanders the world and plays the most beautiful pre-war music you've ever heard. Their grandmother likely whacked them over the head with a wooden spoon until they learned to treat her with kindness.”
I smiled and turned to look at Wander as she squirmed in her fitful sleep. Just in time for her to cautiously whisper in a tone reminiscent of an order, “Bonbon, do not boop that merry suicide bomber.”
Silverlight and I blinked at her for several long moments before sharing a quick laugh.
“Ah, my kingdom for Princess Luna's dream sight,” Silverlight lamented jokingly.
I raised an eyebrow. “You’re the Prince, aren't you?”
“International law prohibits any Los Pegan noble from answering any questions about their identity which can lead to any direct or indirect knowledge about their identity,” Silverlight parroted, clearly reciting a rule from memory.
I smirked. I knew I was right. “Sounds like the NCR has a few too many stupid laws.”
“Indeed they do,” Silverlight chuckled before nodding towards Wander. “What in the world was in that potion you gave her? I haven't seen a pony that inebriated in years.”
“I don’t know why she’s reacting like this,” I said with a sheepish smile. “It’s probably due to her being a ghoul. Normally she’d have a restful sleep after her brush with death.”
“I’ll never understand why such potions are used,” Silverlight sighed. “I suppose she insisted on learning what death would be like? It is quite unlikely she will ever experience it, given her immortal form.”
I shook my head. “No… Wander wanted to talk to a friend. I told her that’s not what this potion did. But it does let you see the Spirit Realm. She drank it anyways.”
“I see,” Silverlight said with another slow nod. “I’m tempted to ask for one myself, but I think I will pa—”
Speed suddenly stood up, her motion accompanied by a long slow, “Yessss!” and her pipbuck reaching the actual end of the epic rock tune she’d been playing constantly!
Naturally, that immediately drew all of my attention. “Speed? What are you—”
I turned just in time to watch Speed hold a single shotgun between her leg and barrel. The single gun had four barrels, and some slight melted lines could be seen where she’d welded the two shotguns together via pink cloud. I could tell she’d extended the hammers as well, using parts of each weapon to form a quad barreled shotgun. Which would fire all four barrels at once.
Before I could say so much as ‘um’, Speed reared up, drew her chainsaw, and sliced the majority of the barrel length off the end of her shotgun under a shower of long, trailing, angry looking white sparks. Like that was something a gem-powered lumber jack’s chainsaw was remotely capable of doing!
Silver and I stood staring at her, jaws agape for several seconds before she spun the weapon in her hoof and slid the now shorter shotgun into her back scabbard, looking very pleased with herself.
Wander spoke first. She thrust one hoof into the air and proclaimed, “Groovy!”
A quick glance confirmed Wander was still asleep.
“May I ask how you chainsawed through four hardened steel gunbarrels?” Silverlight begged, his hooded gaze fixed on Speed.
Speed frowned. “Is… Is this not supposed to cut metal?” She asked, looking over her shoulder at her chainsaw.
He shook his head. “No!” We said in unison.
“Oh… Well, in that case… I guess he knew he could do better?” Speed said with a shrug and a grin.
I looked back up at Speed and pointed to her bodged, but good looking, quad-barrel shotgun. “Is that safe?”
Speed triple blinked at me and tilted her head. “It’s a gun. They’re not meant to be safe.”
Silver cleared his throat. “I believe Miss Gears means to ask if that modification will result in the weapon’s user becoming… gravely wounded, to be frank.”
“What he said!” I agreed with a fervent nod.
Speed shook her head, then frowned and shrugged her wings. “I mean… It never did in the simulations and the cloud-weld should be better than the TIG weld I used on those because I suck at TIG. Let’s check!”
Before anypony could think to stop her, Speed whipped the weapon off her back, pointed it skywards, and pulled both triggers. A flash of fire a meter long blasted from the weapon’s quad-barrels. Its deafening roar was muted by a thunderclap which I believed to be the weapon’s own voice. At least until I realized the thunder had come from the lightning as it flashed around the Canterlot valley, seemingly heralding the weapon’s birth.
Then the thunder rumbled again, and I realized it had been the shotgun’s blast I’d heard after all. The thunder was a completely different pitch.
That… That couldn’t be good.
Speed smiled and hugged the unexploded shotgun to her chest. “You know… Right now, I don’t think I have a healthier respect for any object in the universe than this shotgun. I’ma call you Daisy.”
Of all the questions my mind could ask as rain began to pour down from the sky, the one I chose was, “Why Daisy?”
“She feels like a rabbit,” Speed said as she holstered her new weapon with the same reverence I’d used to put Feature into my battle saddle. “There you go, my little super shotty… We’ll play soon!”
Yes. Rabbit. That makes… sense?
Silverlight cleared his throat for attention. “If you want to add even more firepower to your weapon, I am certain one of the other Pipites—”
Speed shook her head. “Nah, more barrels would just be fetishistic… And like, other ponies are watching me!” she bit her lip and looked around the corpse pile. “But… If we can find one of those underslung grenade launchers…”
“So uh, what was that song you were listening to?” I asked curiously. I might as well know that much at least.
“The instrumental version of Ascension to Awesomeness,” Speed said with a grin. “Wander wrote it, Rainbow Dash played it. It’s track eighty seven of their Rock Opera and plays when Rainbow’s character in the story manages to fly up into space to save her friend. It was apparently used way way way after their band’s early days by the MoA to christen the biggest cannon ever! I didn’t get to see that or anything, it’s just like, a newspaper headline I found in a loot table once.”
In that moment I knew without a doubt that Speed and I could be true friends.
☢★★◯★★☢
The interior of the land train’s passenger car was something right out of the old-world. While it was definitely a bus, and had the large leather covered seats of any bus, it also had plush carpet underhoof, wood paneled walls with fold-down cup holders, decorative light wood, silver, and gold inlays formed elaborate patterns in the ceiling, and every so often a very cute mare which Speed, and I all ogled just a little, would push a cart down the aisle and offer us snacks.
While she was very, very, very pretty, I mostly ogled her because she had a very lovely hoofcannon holstered on her left flank. It isn’t every day you see a pegasus mare who appreciates the erotic appeal of wearing a .223 pistol round.
Speed and I talked about her gun in hushed, reverently aroused whispers.
Speed liked her flanks too. Which is fine. They were nice too! But that pistol tho!
A few hours after the rain began, the archeologists returned to camp, visibly excited as they ran to the cover of the land train. Speed, Wander, and I didn’t quite have a good enough view from the passenger car to get a good at what exactly they’d dug up.
I watched Silverlight leave the soldier's car to intercept the dig team. He moved with reverence, but also excitement as he approached the archeologists… Then hugged one of them tightly and laughed triumphantly in the rain.
Whatever it was, it seemed to have been very small, as Silverlight was able to take it with a single hoof. It was also silver, shiny… and definitely had a spirit of some kind in it. That pretty much meant it had to be a talisman. No telling what it could be. Canterlot Palace would have held all kinds of things like that in it.
For all I knew, the Prince was after Celestia’s cake button. A fabled talisman which, when booped, conjured whatever kind of cake you were thinking of. Such a wondrous item would be invaluable in the Heartlands.
”You know, now that you mention it, she probably had one of those.”
She’s alive, apparently. We could maybe ask one day.
”Please do.”
Wander moaned and sat up, drawing my attention away from the scene unfolding outside.
“Celestia… My head… Octy, I told you no more pegging when I’m drunk. I don’t like it when my everything hurts at—” Wander’s eyes shot open wide mid sentence and she covered her mouth with her hooves.
Speed giggled.
I blinked in confusion.
Wander glared at us both. “You heard nothing!”
Speed smiled at her, “I heard I should see if toy shops survived doomsday so you two can be happier.”
My confused blink turned into a baffled frown. “She’s a grown mare. Why would she want toys?”
Wander coughed into her hoof. “Hon? She means adult toys.”
“Oh! So like, collectable action figures and costumes?” I asked remembering a picture of a stallion’s posable Equestrian Infantry Forces action figures collection.
I felt something deep inside me headbutt a wall. Emotionally speaking.
“You said it, Gear’s soul,” Wander murmured quietly. “Ugh, when does this stupid thing wear off?”
My ears stood straight up in alarm. “Wait, you’re still seeing souls?!”
Wander looked around the train car, then nodded. “Yep,” Wander sighed. “Let me guess… This is that mystic’s new recipe not working as described?”
I nodded. “Yes! It should be long over and done wi—” My lips pursed together. “Wait a minute… If you can see my soul, and reacted to it, and I felt that when you did… Did… It.. I… uh… Did my soul just headbutt the wall?”
Wander nodded. “Mhm.”
I frowned and put a hoof to my chin. “Then… I have to know more subconsciously than I do consciously! Her memories are in here, somewhere.”
Wait… Was that place I’d picked up the tape in Suggarvale an adult toy store? Oh hey! I still had that cute outfit!
Wander looked at me oddly, winced, then nodded. “Yeah! If I am reading her signing right, the problem is your spirit half wants to be a zebra, and your zebra half wants to be a robot. Uh… Not a psychologist, but resolve that conflict and maybe you’ll remember everything?”
“Maybe,” I said with a curious smile. “Can you have her tell me what Speed meant?”
“I meant the kind of toys used to make sex more fun,” Speed said immediately. “Could have just asked me. No need to bother a cosmic echo of your conscious and subconscious mind…”
My ears perked. “They make stuff for that?” then, the more important question hit me. “Wait, it can be more fun?!”
Wander sighed and closed her eyes tightly. “Yes… But since we’re saddled with Speed for now, and her hearing is great, we don't have privacy so I can’t show you… So to get everypony’s mind off it, more of Pip’s story?”
I hesitated for a moment. I did know that romantic moments were meant to be private… But—
Meh, I’d bring up letting her join us later. I wanted to hear more of Pip’s story anyways. After all how the buck was Fluttershy alive!
☢★★◯★★☢
Wander was in full storytelling swing and the rest of us were half buried in off-duty guards who’d come to listen as the train slowly rolled across the muddy ground. I don't know how she managed to not bite her tongue out when we went over the worst of the bumps… Then again, her storytelling was so good I was only barely aware of the other ponies listening to her tell the story.
“ “Oh my,” Velvet whispered. To my surprise, she magically tugged one of the notices off the board, floating it closer for inspection. The notice had been between a posting of new safety regulations and a flier for two missing fillies whose smiling faces had stared into an atrium of corpses for centuries. The bottom part of the “N” was painted on the sheet Velvet had taken. ,” Wander said in Pip’s voice.
Pip’s voice, full of pain and distress. Pip’s voice as she sounded now.
Speed and I shared a worried look. We’d kept asking questions about when Pip cleared Sable 23. It was an appropriate question to ask. The Steel Rangers were using it now. It was an important location.
Maybe we shouldn’t have asked… I got the feeling that Wander’s stable had been number 23.
I cleared my throat. “Wander? You don’t have to tell us this par—”
“SHH!” Wander hissed, clamping her mouth shut for several long moments before gulping. “Okay… Right… S— So… I started from the bulletin board to her, wondering how by Luna’s Mane she could find anything more noteworthy than the giant plea for mercy written in a dying pony’s own bodily fluids.”
Speed gave me an extremely distressed look as she clearly couldn’t think of anything she could do either.
“V— Velvet Remedy turned the flyer s— so that Calamity and I could see,” Wander stammered, shuffling her hooves over one another. “T— third Month Survival... Party! Tonight in the Atrium! 10 o’clock to 16 o’clock…”
YEP! It was her Stable.
“Wander, hon, you really don’t have to—”
Wander shook her head violently. “S— S— Sta— Stable 29’s own V— Vi— V— V…”
Wander twisted in her seat and took a deep breath before punching herself hard in her left flank. “Vinyl Scratch hosting! Alcohol will be provided after twelve.”
Wander slumped in her seat and closed her eyes tight. Refusing to talk anymore. I scooted close to her and hugged her tight.
“She found nothing… In my old room,” Wander murmured quietly. “Just my old stuff. Every other room? Corpses. Bones. Blood stains. Mine? Nothing. Clean. Pristine. I could have gotten everypony out of there… But I didn’t. They’re all dead…”
Engage maximum hug!
“But…” Wander said, even more quietly. “Pip said I was dead. She thought I was in there, somewhere. The whole Wasteland, and anywhere else which has heard her story thinks I’m dead… That’s for the best.”
“The buck it is!” Speed said with an enraged stamp of her hoof.
My ears stood up in alarm. “Speed! No!”
Wander’s shoulders slumped. “Speed, I could have saved five hundred and seventy six ponies and I didn’t. I’m a monster.”
“No!” Speed insisted. “I’m a monster! I’m an unfeeling sociopath who loves violence, murder, combat, blood, and the noise my chainsaw makes on flesh… You know, the whole Crushing my enemies, driving them before me, and hearing the lamentations of the stallions thing!”
Speed climbed over the back of Wander’s seat and perched atop it so she could look Wander in the eyes upside down. “I only half understand emotions, because I only feel them around ponies like you, but even I can tell you’re like, dying-levels-of-pain over this,and you’re just wrong! You feel bad because you left them behind when you thought they would be fine. You feel bad because they were not fine. You feel bad. For ponies. You barely knew or didn’t know. That’s not a monster.”
Speed huffed angrily and slumped back down in her seat. “Know what a monster is? A monster wouldn’t even think about their stable ever again after killing each and every last one of them herself. Really. Not once. Unless somepony else brought it up. Then I would be like ‘Oh yeah, I did that. You’re welcome!’ You feel bad, so you’re a good pony… Be happy you can feel bad. It doesn't feel good to feel nothing when you know a pony should feel… anything.”
Wander rolled her eyes, pulled away from me, and stood up to look at Speed over the back of her seat. “It’s called a spectrum. Just because I’m not that kind of a monster doesn't make me any less of a monster. Only saving at least three times as many ponies would help balance the scale in my eyes, okay?”
I was about to see if Wander might be willing to count out having helped Sire’s Hollow against that total when a stallion cleared their throat from the seat in front of us.
Silverlight stood up straight, having been laying down on the bus seat in front of us, apparently, and rested his power armored forelegs atop the seat to look back at us. “Do excuse my unintentional eavesdropping… This seems to be the type of conversation one normally wouldn’t have while riding with a large group of new acquaintances on mass transportation.”
Wander’s already pale face grew even more pale. “I— I uh, Y— you heard nothing!”
“But I did,” Silverlight said firmly. “I heard that one of the most important people in my life is in great pain, and I wish to help her as she helped me.”
Wander frowned steeply. “Help? What? When? I haven't been to Los Pegasus since—”
“Since two months after Pip’s story was known to the world,” Silverlight said as he pushed his hood back.
He.
Was.
GORGEOUS!
I’d never seen a pony with a face I could only call statuesque before. He had gray-white fur which at once appeared to be silk and granite. He had an astonishingly lush, long, and flowing blond mane which shone like platinum and was as yellow as the flame of a candle. His eyes were the exact shade of blue you could see only in the most primordial of glaciers and held nothing but kindness.
Most interesting of all, he had no horn I could see… His amazingly voluminous mane could easily conceal one, though.
“This train is my sovereign territory. The NCR’s laws do not apply here,” Silverlight said calmly while the three of us stared at him mouth agape. “I am Prince Silverlight of Los Pegasus, and my city is in your debt, Wanderer.”
He leaned forwards slightly more to focus his gaze into Wander’s eyes. “When you passed through our city, it was still ruled over by the Corporations with their iron hooves. A mere fifty seven ponies in all of Los Pegasus were free, the rest of us were slaves. You stayed with us for two weeks, and in that time you recounted to us Pip’s story and inspired me to do what I could to make the world a better place.
“It is because of you, and nopony else, that I had the right idea, the right heart, and the right message at the right time and place to begin our revolution. Though it was my tongue and my first friend’s deeds that our city threw off its shackles, it was your storytelling which lit the fire that still burns in this heart.
“My city may not have the power to bring safety and prosperity to Equestria yet, but one day we will. Be it tomorrow, next year, next decade, or even after I am dead and gone and my great great grandfoal sits upon the throne, we shall restore hope, peace, and prosperity to the world.
“I would like to add that even if such a thing does not come to pass, Wander, your actions freed thousands of slaves. I believe the karmic balance with which you judge your soul should take that into account before you judge yourself.”
Wander stared back at him, her mouth moving as it to speak, but she simply couldn’t. I could feel her emotions ping-ponging back and forth, unable to settle on anything at all. The Prince had broken through to her very core.
Every word he spoke had been backed with more truth and heart than I head heard anyone ever put into anything. Passion! That was the word for it. The Prince spoke with enough love, passion, and care to move a mountain.
Celestia! No wonder ponies think he has the power to control minds.
Wander finally closed her mouth and let out a long weary sigh. “I see…” she said at last.
Wander closed her eyes for a moment and then looked up at the train car’s roof. “If that’s true—”
“It is as true as anything can be in this world, Wander,” Silverlight interrupted in a genuinely caring tone of voice.
“Then… I only have one sin to atone for left. Their souls asked me to go to Whinnyapolis… I know how to make it up to them. I know what I must do next,” Wander murmured to herself.
Speed and I looked on in awe, and Speed didn’t even know half as much as I did about Wanders neuroses.
Wander turned to me and gently hugged me to her side. “Hon… You can call me Vinyl. I love you. N— No one else gets to call me that. Just you.”
“I love you too,” I said as I hugged her back, still somewhat in shock.
I spared a look over to Silverlight as he smiled and put his hood back up. “You’ve very much welcome, Miss Gears. It was my pleasure.”
“But, how though?” Speed asked for me.
Thank you, Speed.
“After talking twelve CEOs who held absolute power over a district of Equestria’s last city into turning power over to me for the good of all, playing therapist for a tortured mare is a piece of Celestia’s Banana Cake,” he replied as he turned back around to lay on his seat again. “If you wouldn't mind continuing the story, I would very much love to hear the Wandering Bard perform it once again.”
Vinyl snuggled up closer to me. “No problem! Where was I? Right…”
Her horn glowed faintly as she adopted Pip’s voice once more. “Third Month Survival Party! Tonight in the Atrium! 10 o’clock to 16 o’clock. Stable 29’s own Vinyl Scratch hosting. Alcohol will be provided after twelve.
“Calamity whistled, tilting up his hat. “Vinyl Scratch. The original DJ Pon3 … least accordin’ t’ some. So, she survived the Manehattan balefire bomb after all.”
“I shot Calamity a look that suggested he needed to revisit his definition of “survived”. I really hated these Stables.”
Stable 1: A stealth-prison meant to trap the nobles who had perpetuated the war and caused the end of the world forever… Which had not sealed properly and resulted in everypony inside becoming Canterlot Ghouls.
Stable 24: A den of mutant animals which were so deadly it was almost comical.
Stable 23: Run by a machine only slightly less stupid than Equestria’s typical robots. It killed everypony slowly over time because the Water Talisman was slowly producing less and less over time due to damage instead of just, telling somepony it was broken.
Stable 101: Spawned the greatest monster the Heartlands had seen in two hundred years in the form of the Slaver King and would be God, Red Eye.
Note to self, avoid Stables… They really are all dens of death. Except Pip’s, apparently.
Secondary note to self, marefriend feels happier. Cuddle harder so it sticks!
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Hooray for aim-dodging!
Heh.
Heh.
Floofadoof.
Hm...how WOULD one go about trying to safely transport pink cloud? Harmony-blessed ceramite, perhaps?
Earth of course.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
squeak
boom
thud
Oh so THAT's why you posted a picture of someone (doomguy?) in power armor holding a rabbit.
Kek.
Heh heh heh./
This whole scene. Just...this whole scene. It's so awesome.
Somewhere, Derpy is squeeing and yelling "Cuddles for the cuddle pile" with no idea why.
It's short, but oh so sweet! And absolutely heartwarming to see Wander's friends helping her start to actually heal and move past the trauma of her past.
Plus, shotgun-pone gets the BEST BOOMSTICK!
Cheers for the wonderful chapter, no matter what its length.
A four-barreled shotgun. How can you even AIM that thing, Speed?
9617489 "Aiming is easy! All you have to remember is the basic equations relating to the weapon's firing cones, average them out, and use that point of the weapon as your center of aim. It's just like melee combat. You mentally map things out as an extension of your body... Also, it's pretty easy to just point at something with your snoot."
Had a funny feeling Wander was Vinyl for some time too. And this chapter confirmed!
Maybe the zebra you got your hide/soul from was a gamer? It's been a couple hundred years, and someone finally told you she likes you, so maybe you're just a bit more accepting and things are leaking over inside your head?
A true, true friend appreciates cannons properly.
Oh Gears. You've banged Wander several times, and you're still such a virgin.
Cuddles aren't very sticky tho. Might have to kick it up to a higher gear...
9617547
Not to mention shut your eyes and block your ears before pulling the trigger, right, bat pony?
Neat.
Back from where?
Good explanation for the bullet dodging.
No, she is not.
Hah, yeah that's a good point.
If he isn't I'll be very surprised.
Probably not?
That just makes it seem even less safe.
Interesting.
That's a dilemma.
No kidding.
Awesome.
9617371
The best way is to simply keep it in a TK bubble the entire time.
The fact that you don't know that Doomguy had a pet rabbit named Daisy is very saddening :c
Well uh... I mean, she could be making some kind of sounds >.> Words tho?
9617407 Yeah, it was about time :3 She's been cracking a lot recently and while Ghouls are stubborn, Celestia Tier niceness delivered point blank is pritty damn potent.
9617654 Really? Heh, you must not read a lot of my work. Or if you do, either you're not good at spotting references or I'm too good at blending them into my stories. (This is not the first time I've used a TTS reference.)
9617656
"There's not much else to do when you can't talk to others or walk than read, study magic, and play videogames," she signed while frowning. "It would be nice if I consciously remembered my life too, and I'm certain I can. Eventually."
She's not gonna forget she's on public transport again :P (I find it hilarious that Wander was so into telling the story to her mare that she forgot she was on a bus full of ponies when she said her name :P )
9617685 "Nah! I just decided to be friends with the pain and it dosn't bother me anymore."
"That dosn't work like that..."
"Um, yes it does?"
9617923
This is actually possible IRL if you can predict the shooter's trigger pull and are fairly close to them. Not too close though.
She was just so in to telling the story, and her marefriend asked nicely :P ANd in Wander's defense she did just have a realy bad trip.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
...she made the Desperado. She made the Desperado.
YES.
Speed is now bat waifu
Vinyl no, knowing Speed she'll think to stick her chainsaw to the end of a hoof
9618243
Hm. So, either there's two ancient, pre-war zebra mares who're mute and wheelchair-bound, or Gears really is Speed's sergeant's niece's soul. More kind-of-family get?
Details, I detectses them!
9618243
I didn't recognize it at first, but once I saw the name "daisy" I think I went "Ohhh yeaaaah, doomguy had a pet rabbit named daisy!"
Oh.
...
She is somehow yelling those words with no idea how she's able to yell them. She may experience minor frustration at not being able to continue speaking afterwards though.
Yes! someone finally broke through wanders emotional shields other than gears
Also, woo! Great chapter
9619008 I know right?
9619411
9619339
I'd imagine Gears would at the very least want to enter that simulation as well, just to see her dad again
I wonder if Speed would use one of those Stalliongrad Combat Automatic Shotgun with swappable magazines? I cant remember if they did a dual mag version so you could keep firing while swapping over.
That and replacing hunting slugs with HEAT rounds etc. or even STRIKE rounds.
Id say the big advantage of a tread train over a rail train, is that its very difficult to stop a tread train with a railway sleeper.
With Gears's luck... most definitely
Good plan
I could see that.
I wonder if you've ever heard of the chemicals dioxygen diflouride or chlorine triflouride? They too share some of the same fun properties. :D
Vinyl is having a very strange dream. Yet another reason not to get intoxicated in public, I suppose.
I'm fairly sure we all guessed this. Good to confirm!
Alright, I have to say that I was expecting something like that ridiculous shotgun she built. A pony that into weaponry (like apparently everyone else in the party) does not make NORMAL repairs to weapons. What did surprise me was this:
Are we sure she does not have cheat codes?!
Pfft! Snicker. I kinda wish I could hear that now. It had to be amazing... or amusing.
Priorities! :D
It also reminds me about the joke about the nerd and the girl on the bicycle.
You just met her! At least wait a week! :D
Then again, she thinks she knew Gears for longer...
"Yes," I said (Quotation marks can be optional since it's thought, though)
It couldn't
cannon
Fusing. Fuzing tends to involve detonators.
hers
mare, which Speed and I all ogled just a little, would push (comma relocation)
Sugarvale ... also that's the third new spelling I've seen 0.o
and would-be god (lowercase as well due to being a descriptor not a title)
9618454
Does this mean that she can't be invited to the herd? Or are spiritual familial relations fine for that? I can't recall the extended rules for this. :D
9650287
I don't think I gave Wander the gun not trait? XD
It's entirely possible she was a bit too close to another fragment of Discord... I mean, she grew up not too far from Canterlot >.>
Well when I wrote this bit the song on my playlist was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y73lmbEdbeI
I hope that's kinda fitting :3
Ah, I'm reminded of my first love- I mean one of my favorite shotguns. I named it The Torso Remover because... Well you can imagine why. It was amusing how the legs kept standing on their own for a few seconds.
9617371
Gee... Would you kindly spoil that very important piece of plot, it is right over the comment box when making a new comment, so pretty hard to miss
Rule number 1 in the wasteland, if someone are nice to you are they hiding something. It could be their grandmothers secret cookie recipy, or them being a mass murdering asshole, but they are sure hiding something for you! They are not smiling at you, but showing you their teeth!
Nitpicks
"and settle for ‘anything we find of historic or practical value’." You forgot a space in the start of this sentence
"Wandr whimpered as she very gently stopped against the ground." Someone ate part of her name
" making she she wasn't about to lay back down in the nearby fire." Missing a sure here
Yay
Oh. Well that explains that little gripe.