> Fallout Equestria: Chasing Eternity
>  by Polarrac
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Post-Birth 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1: Post-Birth  

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I was born into darkness. I couldn’t see. Yet I could think freely. I had all of my other senses. I felt cold. I tasted iron. I could hear…things. 

I was waking up.

There was a piercing, discordant whirring reaching my ears. I wanted to know what was making that terrible noise. I forced myself to open my eyes, but they wouldn’t budge. 

Open up, lazy eyelids. Open up you no good flaps of ski--

I shrieked. 

The most inequine scream escaped my mouth. Something was picking at my insides; a long mechanical arm was buried into my stomach! 

Get it out! Get it out! Get it out! 

My mind raced to think what was happening to me. 

I kicked and flailed, trying to free myself from the grasp of the mechanical monstrosity. A multitude of metal pieces were protruding from a circular platform on the ground, as well as from one on the ceiling.While I was being held up by the arms above me, my insides were being picked at from the limbs, below.. 

I managed to shake one off my right foreleg, feeling the pressure around my limb alleviate. Using my newly freed foreleg, I smacked a metal pincer that was hooked around my left leg...which was...gray? That’s when I noticed a strange bulky piece of metal around my right leg. Not stopping my seemingly futile effort to liberate myself, I looked at the device around my leg. 

“Pipbuck 3000,” came a strident, automated voice. 

Was that what this thing was? That’s what it said on it. I decided to give it a test of durability by smacking it on the pincer latched onto my other foreleg.I reared my head to take a look, and it didn’t even seem to make a dent. Hard stuff. I kept smacking the apparatus restraining me. After half of a minute, I was rewarded with the floor. 

My stomach felt like it had split open. Probably because it already was. The thing rapidly withdrew its invasive arms, and played a computerized warning about  ‘damaged equipment’. I fell to the circular platform which was now closed. There was a loud clang as I hit the metal, hard. Well, at least I could move around now. 

A searing pain reminded me that there had been a metal arm that was recently picking at my insides. Despite my uneasiness, I forced myself to look down. There was a thin, long slit in my stomach, dripping with blood. Something grey began to slip out of thin opening. I immediately held back a gulp of vile liquid that threatened to escape from my mouth, and swallowed it. I was pretty sure that thing was my intestine. I felt sick to the core, and really felt that I should keep my organs inside of me. I had to find help, but there seemed to be none, here.

I galloped up to a wall. Seeing no sign of escape or medical help, I started moving along its metal surface in hopes of finding a door or similar. After about a minute of searching, I found nothing. I took a proper look at the room I was in. 

Utterly gray and dull. The room itself at least. The equipment in it was a little more interesting. 

Trotting up to a boxy, glass monitor, I found my reflection. A computer terminal... that’s what it was. Where I got the name, I have no idea. But I was more interested in my own reflection. 

It was dark, so I moved my head in for a closer look. My right eye was an unnatural red. It was uniform--glowing red, with metal around it. I closed my left eye, which still seemed biological in the reflection. As the vision in my left eye became dark, the red tinge in my vision became more apparent. I have a robot eye! 

“This is getting too s--” 

I stopped. There was that voice again, raspy and metallic. Where was it coming from? It had said exactly what I said, at the same time… I brought a hoof to my throat. It felt hard, strangely inorganic. 

A door somewhere slid open, filling the room with an echoing clang. I heard hooves striking against the metal floor, getting consistently louder. Ponies were getting closer to me, and I was out in the open. Maybe they were friendly. 

“Why are we always called to repair duty?” the voice of a mare said. “They’ve got a ton of pegasi ready to dive bomb and pulverize the Wasteland, but barely enough technicians to cover everything, and I always get repairs. Why can’t I go down to the labs a--”

The mare and her friend stopped as soon as they saw me. I shifted my weight awkwardly on my hooves. Her pink eyes bored into my nervous, squirming form.

“Uh...h--”

Both pegasi whipped out strange, metal, boxy looking things, and pointed them at me. I took a step forward, wondering what they were. The answer came quickly. 

When the barrage of red lasers blasted out from the things in their hooves, and I simply stood there, wondering why I was getting a light show. The ponies fired in all directions erratically, seemingly out of bewilderment. I was snapped out of my stupor when one laser hit me on the shoulder, singeing my skin. Ouch.

I dove behind several crates that were near me, trying to find refuge from the pretty lasers of death. Why were they trying to hurt me? I haven’t done a single thing to those ponies! 

“Look!” I shouted at the laser happy ponies. “I’m sorry I broke your machine, but you don’t need to kill me over it!” Not hearing any drop in the energy barrage, I shouted again, “I said I was sorry! Don’t you ponies understand!? No need to kill me over it!”

The pegasi weren’t letting up. I ran my hoof through my mane, trying to think of a plan. Reeling back a little, I felt my hoof smack against something hard. 

At that point, various thoughts crossed my mind.

I have a horn? I’m a unicorn?! But, why didn’t I know sooner? Seriously, how could I have not noticed? How can you be a unicorn, but not notice it? Thinking back, I had no thoughts relating to it… or anything about me be honest. What other things don’t I know? I’m a unicorn, and I didn’t know... but it means I can do magic! This is going to be so great, I can--

A red light whizzed right past me, scorching a few hairs on my face..

I felt an intense heat as another laser beam streaked a few inches past my ear. I looked forward and found a large hole in the metal crate I was using as cover. The metal surrounding the hole was melted, and still slightly warm. The metal was starting to weaken. Eventually, the lasers would punch right through! I had to think fast. 

I could use my magic to hit these pegasi with something heavy! I edged closer to the edge of the metal box, stopping as I heard the one of them speak. 

"You think it's dead?" 

IT!? I'm a pony! Damn that stupid foal...

"No idea, the lasers could have hit her. They went through the crate." And a mare, apparently. 

Hold on, I'm a mare?  How could I have not known this? What in Celestia's name is wrong with me!?

I immediately rubbed my muzzle. Round, unlike the angular muzzle of stallions. Just to be sure, I spread my hind legs a little and looked towards them. Ayep, definitely a mare. 

"Hold on," the mare suggested. "Let's each take a side of the crate." 

What, did they think I couldn't speak or understand them? I had already spoken to them, before. But it had been during an ear-splitting volley of red death. I wasn't about to complain, either. 

I listened for the sound of hooves striking the floor. Even though it was muffled as though the pegasi were trying to sneak around the crate, the tale-tell sound of the metal floor gave them away. I waited at the corner of the crate, letting the hooves strike closer and closer to where I was. 

Suddenly, I twisted around the corner and threw myself at the surprised looking buck. His yellow eyes widened in surprise as I brought a foreleg down on his head. Reeling back in pain, he dropped the laser weapon from his mouth with a yelp and brought his hooves over his head. He obviously didn't expect me to attack. I finished my assault with a kick right between the pegasus' eyes. He slumped onto the ground and stopped moving.

I spun around and received a burning laser beam to my chest. I let out a small gasp, quickly brought a hoof over the singed fur.

Seeing what I had done to her companion, the mare moved back. She pulled out a radio and quickly stuttered into it.

"R-requesting backup," she stammered, "E-R3 of Project Archaian is out of stasis!" 

Hold on, 'E-R3'? Was that me? I couldn’t remember who I was. If the red mare had more to say, she didn't get the chance. I charged into her, sending the radio flying.

"What was it that you called me?" I asked, standing over her. The mare gave me a bewildered look. I couldn't blame her.. I poked her chest to stop her shock. "Answer me!"

"I -I don't know anything," the mare stuttered, "I just read the name next to the door!" 

I caught the red pony glancing at her radio. I had to get out of here now; there would be some type of security here any moment. I kicked the mare in the head. 

That's all it took, Techy slumped to the floor. 

I looked down at the bludgeon. My left leg was still a dull gray. I tapped it with my other foreleg. The left limb was pretty tough, and--

What in the hay was I doing? Remember, guards approaching! I quickly searched the mare for anything useful. She only had the beam pistol and some other strange objects. The stallion, however, had an interesting glass container. Floating lazily inside of the container was what seemed like a purple, glimmering liquid. It was labeled “MEDICINE (take when hurt)”. 

Was he some kind of newbie that needed help knowing what would take his ouchies away? Either way, it still helped me, as my stomach was kind to remind me. I put a hoof to the cut across my midsection, which was in searing pain by this point. I bit the cork off the glass container and downed the liquid. 

A wonderful sensation filled me, and then concentrated to my stomach. I could no longer feel the pain, and it was bliss. I looked down at the injury. It was still raw, and seeing it made me realize that it still stung a little, but it looked a lot better than it was a few minutes ago. Now, to get out of there. 

I grabbed the laser pistols and carried them in my mouth. There was barely any room for my tongue. I ran to the area from where the two pegasi had first entered from. There a neat, rectangular hole in the wall greeted me I galloped through the doorway.

By now, I wanted to know what was going on. What was this place? While I galloped, I turned my head to follow a series of metal arches that formally lined the ceiling. Beneath my hooves was what seemed to be a floor made out of a long, metal grate. There was a short space underneath, large enough for a pony to fit in with the occasional crate to pass by. Along with the clinks of my hooves striking the metal, there was a strident humming noise; low but consistent.

I rounded a corner, looking for somewhere to hide. Every single door looked exactly the same. 

These ponies obviously considered me dangerous, and I have no idea why. But I remembered the scalding of the energy weapon when it had hit me. 

I finally came across something I recognized-- the restrooms. Painted onto a small, blue sign on one of the two doors was the telltale silhouette of a mare. I reached for the knob, only to find there wasn’t one. How was I supposed to open this? I bucked at the door, but didn’t even manage a dent. Frantically running my hooves around the edges of the door frame, I hit some sort of button or panel. With a quiet whirring, the metal door slid up and let me inside. As soon as I trotted through the arc, it automatically closed after me. I wondered why the door just didn’t automatically open both ways.

The bathroom was pristine; there was not a streak of dirt anywhere. Whoever these ponies were, they hired some very efficient janitors. My hooves struck the white tiles loudly as I moved towards the mirror. I nearly screamed at my reflection. 

A horrible apparation matched my gaze into the mirror. It looked like pony, but it was...unnatural. Partly. One of the ears were metal, as well as the eye below it. The eye, it glowed a bright, cryptic red, and stared back at me. That thing on the wall… it was me. I had metal in my face! B-but,I was a pony! Flesh and blood, not some mechanical knock-off! 

I panicked, but did my best to suppress a shriek. Frantically giving myself an inspection, I paced back and forth, doing my best to get rid of the rush of the adrenaline before it sent me galloping outside the restroom. I didn’t know what to think. Am I a pony, or a machine? Being a machine would answer a lot of questions. 

My voice sounded like paper clips that had been put in an electric pencil sharpener. 

Pointing my nose towards the ceiling, I looked at my neck. There was a rectangular piece of metal there, held in place with four bolts. I raised my foreleg and scrutinized it in the mirror, sighing when I realized it was made of the same metal on my face. But why was I sentient? Why did I also have flesh? Why could I think? None of this made sense! 

What was I? 

That mare and stallion I encountered were normal. Completely made of flesh. That’s what what everyone else was. A pony, one color coat, same color eyes, and a different picture on their flanks, a cutie mark.

I wasn’t a pony. 

I looked at my flank, suddenly curious. There was nothing. My flanks were both a smooth and shiny metal. There was nothing on them. Nothing but a scratch. I had no cutie mark, no special talent, no identity. I was nopony. I had to be some kind of experiment, a pile of scrap metal who escaped the lab. That would explain why I had different colored legs.

My one orange eye stared back at me from the mirror. The pupil was contracting, close to reaching the size of pinpricks.

I didn't want to return to that lab, even if I was an experiment. I couldn't just accept the imprisonment. I touched my chest, remembering the scorching sensation of being hit by the beams. No doubt these ponies would treat me badly. No, I won't let them take me. I wanted to see the sun outside. I wanted to run. I wanted to be free.

I pounded the metal sink and got a satisfying crack in return. No, my life would not be decided by eggheads in white coats. 

Suddenly, the entrance to the bathroom slid open. I quickly stepped away from the mirror before whoever entered turned the corner and saw me. Why would anypony come here? I mean this is just… the bathroom. Damn it, you stupid pony. Couldn't I have chosen a more public place to hide?

I scrambled into a stall as quietly as I could. Hopefully the pony wouldn't hear me. I stood on the toilet seat in an effort to not be seen. Please Celestia, let the mare do her business and leave. 

THe pony came closer, and I held my breath when the trotting stopped short. I saw a red hooves underneath the stall door. Wait, she isn't coming to this stall, is she? I had to be the unluckiest mare in the world. 

There was a tap on the stall door. Celestia damned perverted ponies! Can't a pony have some privacy?

"Occupied!" I yelped out from the top of the toilet. Or at least, I tried to yelp. My voice only seemed to have a cold, automated, and slightly staticy. I hoped that speaking quickly would stop the red pony from noticing, but judging from the lack of apology, or any response at all, I had the feeling they noticed. Time to wing it. 

I swung the door open as fast as I could, trying to catch them by surprise. I couldn't have done it better. 

The pegasus' hindlegs were crossed, and there was a look of complete shock on her face. Driving a forehoof between her yellow eyes, I noticed that this pony was half dressed in a black uniform. Peeing Perv slumped to the white tiled floor. How many ponies did I have to knockout? 

I circled around the mare, examining the black piece she was wearing. It was clearly designed for pegasi; there were cloth flaps made for wings to be fit in. Peeing Perv must have begun to undress as she was entering the bathroom. There was a mask discarded on the floor near the stall I was hiding in. She probably dropped it when I responded. With the helmet, the black set concealed the entire body. If I could conceal my horn, then I could pass off as a pegasus. I quickly stripped the unconscious pony out of the black piece. Nice, it even had an awesome looking scorpion like tail. I put the suit on the floor. 

What was that smell? 

I looked back at Peeing Perv. Ugh, of course she had peed on herself. Looking at the piece, there was a large moist spot on the suit. Great, how was I supposed to wear this now?

~~~

I shooed away the third pony to ask me if I was okay. 

This wasn't the greatest idea. Stiffly, I walked over to a corner and sat down. This helmet was giving me a headache. I had to force it on, as my horn wouldn't let it fit properly. My horn was being pressed into my skull as the helmet strap was pulling up on my chin. I brought my hindlegs together as the chill of air conditioning reached me. 

The helmet wasn't half as bad as the suit; I had to wash and scrub the piss off in the bathroom sink. Then, afraid that the red mare would regain consciousness, I put the black suit on and left the bathroom. But, not before I barricaded the red mare into a stall using lots of brooms from a nearby supply closet. If by any chance she still had to pee, Peeing Perv would have no need to rush.

Now, I have a soaking wet piece of cloth tight against my nethers. At least the helmet dimmed the glow of my robot eye and camouflaged my voice. There were little microphones inside of it, since the helmet would usually muffle out the pony’s voice. Apparently, whatever company made these was a tightwad and would only spend money for staticy, low-quality microphones. Thankfully,  It managed to muffle the static in my own voice. 

I stood up. Trying to keep my hindlegs shut, I made my way over to a door that was marked ‘Research’. The techy mare had mentioned something about ‘Project Archaian’; If there were answers, they had to be in that room. Hopefully, I would only have to deal with pacifist scientists. 

I took a breath and walked through the door. Immediately, I bumped into another armored pegasus who seemed to be leading a small group of pegasi. I blinked, staring back at the lead pony who had begun to bore his eyes into me.  After several tense moments, he turned around. 

“I think she’s the one were looking for!” he shouted at the others. “She is red on my EFS!”

Dear Princess Celestia, why are you so cruel to me?

I did the only thing I could. I bent my knees and threw myself at the group, knowing it was a stupid idea. However, I easily barreled through them, sending them to the ground in a chorus of groans and grunts of pain. What? I can’t be that heavy!

I grabbed one of their weapons that lay on the floor before turning around and running away. I couldn’t get into a fight with that many ponies! I couldn’t even find enough grip on this firearm! 

I have to find a way out of this building. But where am I supposed go now? First, I had to ditch the ponies after me. 

A spray of red lasers flung past me, reminding me to dodge the oncoming projectile. I wish I can get my damn weapon to shoot. How are the others’ guns shooting? Did they have some kind of telepathic trigger command? 

As I came to a corner, I twisted around. Bad idea. The metal grating on the ground caught the tip of my hoof. I was thrown into the air, managing to clear a couple of meters a lot faster than I normally would have. Thankfully, it gave me time to pick myself up and throw one of the boxy looking pistols at the ponies pursuing me. It flew over their heads, never touching any of the guards.

So I had bad aim. I found out more about myself every minute. 

Okay, new objective: Get off this ship. I didn’t want to find any answers, it seemed to be hazardous to my health. I just wanted to get out. 

But how was I supposed to ditch these guys? Their orders of “Freeze!” and “Give yourself in!” attracted more guards, joining in on the pursuit. What had started out as six ponies was now fifteen ponies, all after my metal hide. I thought the original six were just mad because I jumped on top of them, but it seems they all had a bone to pick with me. 

I suddenly felt an uneasy rubbing in my stomach, and I heard a rip from the same place. Celestia, fuck my life.  I couldn’t look down now, but I knew the barely healed slit in my stomach was starting to split. I ignored it, and kept going. 

I turned another corner. This place was like a maze! I didn’t seem to be anywhere. There were, however, some stacked crates nearby. I bucked at them, causing the metal boxes to fall over and block the path, spilling a variety of the contents onto the floor. I took a look at them while hooves banged on the other side, accompanied by angry shouts. These ponies really wanted to apprehend me.

I looked at the spilled contents. There was a small, metal apple sitting on top of a black suits. 

I picked it up and looked at it closely. It was black and had a metal outline of a leaf, which was colored yellow. 

Could I really take the lives of fifteen ponies? No, there was no need to kill them. I stared at the apple-shaped grenade. They were behind the crates, they couldn’t get at me, they couldn’t hurt me from there. 

A sharp pain pierced my shoulder, eliciting me to jerk my head upwards. pEering over the crates was one of the guard ponies, struggling to climb over. Why couldn’t they be more incompetent? I chucked my laser pistol at his head, only for it to hit the box next to him. It fell off of the pile, knocking down the guard but opening the path for the others.

I quickly bit into the pin of the grenade between my hooves, pulling it out. I shut my eyes, brought back my foreleg, and threw it over the pile of crates. There were shouts from the ponies, followed by a shuffling of hooves. Then, the grenade detonated. 

However, It wasn’t the exploding type. A white, blinding flash accompanied by a deafening crack pierced the air. A stun grenade. 

There was a ringing in my ears, but I knew that the ponies were all unconscious. It definitely would have left me sleeping if it weren’t for the crates.

Remembering my injury, I looked down. The cut had split open again, but still wasn’t as bad as when I first woke up. Blood dripped from the wound onto the floor. I wondered if there were some healing potions on the ponies on the other side of the metal crates. They shouldn’t need them, they were only unconscious.  

I put my hooves on top of one of the smashed boxes, and heaved. I weigh tons! Now I understand the pain of the ponies I had jumped on. When I made it to the top of the smashed crate, I could then reach the top of an uncrippled crate, and soon made it to the other side. 

There was still one pony stirring, She was probably the farthest away from the flashbang when it went off. A quick kick to the head let her join her comrades in sweet sleep. 

It turned out several of the guards had healing potions on them. I made away like a bandit, with five more healing potions in a saddlebag I had also looted. Along with them was a rifle looking laser thingy, and a pistol. A regular pistol, with bullets and all, not some retarded triggerless box. It was small, but at least I know how to fire it. As for the laser rifle, I’ll probably figure it out later. 

I pulled out a healing potion and drained it. Letting out a sigh of relief, I looked down as a warm feeling spread through out my body, and stopped the pain in my stomach. It managed to heal the wound completely this time. 

The climb back to the other side was harder than the climb getting here. When I hit the floor, I turned around to look for any useful supplies that may have been dropped by the smashed crates. There was another flashbang lying close to the crate, as well as what appeared to be light barding. 

I grabbed the items and broke into a full gallop, hoping that I finally lost the guards behind me. 

~~~

This barding was great! 

I smashed into the pony who was ineffectively unloading his beam pistol clip into me. The black-clad pegasus crumpled against the wall. Poor pegasus, freaked out as soon as he saw me. I regretted doing that to him, but he had shot at me first. Because of what happened with the previous group of guards, everypony shot first, and asked questions later.

I had put the black suit the saddlebags, but discarded the helmet that I had gotten from Peeing Perv, so he saw my glowing red eye. I took his beam pistol and threw it into my saddlebag. I may not be able to shoot them, but they sure made good throwing weights. I threw a lot better without that stupid helmet pressing down on my horn. 

I also had a nice bat, which I got when I sent another pony stumbling into a pipe. But above all, the best weapon I had was the ‘Pipbuck’. It never seemed to wear down. It just smashed and smashed and smashed...faces. Ugh, I didn’t want to think about it. 

So I swung the pipe into the throat of a surprised guard who had turned the corner. It was too late to keep a low profile. Besides, now I know where I was supposed to go. I had run into somepony earlier, and managed to scare the life out of her. She told me where to go if I wanted to get out How to get out of whatever I was in. I’m busting out of here! I’ll be free! Free to feel the sun on my fur! Fr-

Oh, Luna-damned uptight yesponies! 

I had just crossed an intersection when I saw a pony at a turret, getting ready to shoot me to pieces. Perhaps I should have kept a lower profile. I turned around and ran away, but suddenly ponies stepped out from the corners. One of them had a rocket launcher. I came to a stop.

“Stand down!” one of the ponies shouted. 

Oh, so they knew I can speak. Progress!

But I doubted there was a way to settle the situation diplomatically. I looked past the turret pony. It was only several meters away from my destination. The command room. There I could open the exit, which was not too far from there. I had a pony tell me that. Unfortunately, he might not be able to walk for a while, but it had to be done. 

I needed to get past the turret, but there seemed to be no way to do so. There were three ponies and a turret behind me. A pony with a cannon and two with rifles were ahead of me. I had to think. I had to find a way past them. 

The answer came to me. I threw a flashbang grenade, the last one, directly at the turret pony. She shot it in midair, only several meters away from here. It still detonated, and had the expected effect. I had already covered my eyes with the black suit. Everypony was deaf, but I was the only one who wasn’t blinded. The three ponies who blocked me off were still conscious. There was still one conscious pony near the turrets, and he began to fire wildly. One shot from the pistol brought him down. I didn’t aim at anything vital, or at least, I hope I didn’t hit anything vital. 

The cannon pony had shot at where I was, immediately after the flash. I was no longer there.  It would have been a loud explosion. But my ears were still ringing. The heat however, was scalding, I would have been badly burned if the force of the explosion hadn’t threw me into one of the ponies in time. I knocked him out with the Pipbuck. The two remaining ponies were now firing wildly, reacting to the explosion. Apparently Mad Bomber also carried a laser pistol. 

I smashed my metal leg into the head of the last pony with a laser rifle. I took out Mad Bomber by bringing his own rocket launcher over his head. 

Finally, there was some form of peace. There was still a strong ringing in my ears, but it would die eventually. For now, however, I turned my attention to the unconscious bodies that spotted the metal floor. I began to open saddlebags, and stick my nose in. 

It turned out only the turret pony carried anything of use. There was only another clip of pistol rounds. I would have to make use of it as best as I could, and hopefully, I wouldn’t be forced to aim for vital areas. I really wished there were some healing potions though. I drunk another one since the I had found the barding, leaving me with only three left. I drank sipped some more down to heal the bullet wounds. 

It became apparent that the potions wouldn’t heal the metal sections of my body, I was going to have to find some way to fix that...Is that what I really was? I thought I was going to need a coatmechanic as well as a doctor. I didn’t want to think about it.  

Also, I was going to need new barding eventually. I looked down at the scorch marks on the breastplate and shoulder guards. Definitely too many burns on this thing. 

At the very least, I finally had a clear path to the control room. It would be my ticket out off this thing. I trotted towards the ‘wall’ marked “Bridge”. I hit the sign. Bridge? As in for ships? I didn’t know I was overseas. 

The section of wall I was in front of opened up, giving me no more time to think. I stepped into the a small corridor, only about 3 meters long. I moved through the corridor as though afraid there was something horrible at the end of it. 

“I trust that the rogue pony had been dealt with, Dusk?” A stallion’s voice filled the small passageway. I quickly trotted to the end of it. When I made it to the corner, I found myself looking at a pegasus dressed in a long, beige trench coat.  He looked back of me, and only gave the slightest hint of surprise. 

“It is rather unfortunate, having lost Comrade Dusk Horizon...”

The stallion jumped back, and brought out a silver handgun from his trench coat. A magnum, which would definitely have no problem blowing out my brains. I threw myself back into the corridor as the gun fired. The crack of the weapon filled the passageway, and painfully made its way into my ears. I heard the screams of several ponies, supposedly ponies who were controlling the ship.

“Remain at your stations!” the stallion shouted at the startled ponies. 

I rounded the corner, and and pulled back the trigger on the pistol with my tongue. The bullet only reached the stallion's clothing. He jumped out of the way as soon as he saw me. With the magnum in his mouth, the green pegasus aimed at me again.  Throwing myself to the floor, I heard another crack as the bullet flew right above me. I got back to my hooves, and ran out of the way just as the stallion re-aimed and unloaded a third bullet.

"I fancy your dodging." the stallion moved his grip on the gun to the edge of his mouth. "The name's Skycrack. I don't imagine you know your name, if you have one." I didn't know if he was mocking me, or if he really didn't know.

I glanced at the team of navigator ponies at the computer terminals. They were all staring at our little dispute. I wondered if they were all waiting for my reaction.

"What am I?" I spit the pistol to the ground. "Why am I here?" I thought Skycrack would at least answer my questions before starting to fire again.

The stallion gave a hollow chuckle. "You are but a lab rat and your purpose is to be experimented on." Skycrack leaned in closer and patted my head. "Now how about you act like a good little mouse and head back to the lab?"

H-He touched me! The princess forsaken egoist bastard touched me! In a fit of fury, I jumped back and used my magic to levitate the pistol back to me. Or at least I tried.

The pistol shot straight up, smacking Skycrack in the chin. The magnum went off again, and left a bullet embedded in the ceiling. I was hit with a burst of pain, centered on my horn. I stumbled over to a rail in front of some computers and gripped onto the rail, holding my head as waves of painful throbbing passed through it. I barely noticed the next magnum bullet demolish some computer equipment near me. 

Skycrack walked up to me, and put the magnum to my head. In my pain, I knew I wouldn’t be able dodge that shot. I couldn’t even shut my eyes out of fear.  Any moment, the trigger would be pulled, and my short time of sentience would be ended.

“Hey, Skycrack, be careful where you shoot! You’ll send the entire ship crashing down!”

CRACK!

The bullet didn’t reach the other side of my head, it didn’t even enter. I looked up and saw the fallen shape of one of the navigator ponies. I didn’t understand, why would he kill one of his own allies? 

I looked back towards Skycrack, and immediately regretted it. The gun was pointed at my forehead once again. The wielder was breathing heavily, and there was a look of pure fury in his eyes. I shrank back from the stallion. 

“I try- I tried to hold back. You’ve gone and killed my ponies.”You burst into this room and shot at me.” If I remember correctly, it was him who tried to end me with a magnum first. “I held back and held a nice conversation with you. You repay me by smacking me around with a pistol!”

He stared down at me, eyes filled with a variety of emotions. He was shaking, the barrel of the magnum was unsteady. “AND YOU’VE GONE AN KILLED DUSK!” he cried out as he finally steadied his magnum.

There was a click as the trigger was pulled. Nothing happened. I was confused, I was completely expecting a bullet to clean my head. Then I understood. 

The magnum revolver had six shots to the clip, and Skycrack just spent his last one on the navigator pony. 

“FUCK!”

Unfortunately, the gun pony realized it before I did. Skycrack swung a hoof at me, which connected with my head. Pain smashed across my head, forcing me to hit my head on the floor. I scrambled up to my hooves, but not before the assailant landed a kick to my stomach. I stumbled onto my hooves, and galloped out of the way. 

I managed to put some distance between me and Skycrack. I just hoped he didn’t have another gun on him, the magnum nearly finished me multiple times. But now that he had no ammunition left, I was at the advantage. I stood still and waited for Sky to charge at me. He didn’t. Instead, he only looked at me, and regained his composure. The fury that was etched in his face went away.

“This will end now. You’re going to pay.” Skycrack breathed out. He picked up the magnum, and reloaded it. 

Celestia damn that pony to Tartarus. He had extra ammunition, why didn’t I anticipate that? But I could still do something, Skycrack was a pegasus, and reloading a gun with actual individual bullets must take some time. It gave me time to come up with another plan. I was about to be brilliant!

I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out one of the boxy laser pistols. I knew those would come in handy! I brought back my foreleg as far as it let me, and chucked the scrap metal in my hoof as hard as I could. The pistol landed right between the reloading stallion's eyes.

The magnum went off, the bullet causing cries of fear as it hit more navigational equipment. Skycrack brought a hoof over his forehead, and dropped the gun as he he gasped in pain. Blood trickled out from under his hoof and ran down over his face. The edge of the pistol must have hit him. I raced over to Skycrack and reared up over him. My hooves slammed down on the metal floor.

The pegasus had moved from under me, and kicked at my face. I reeled back after the hoof barely connected with my chin. Spinning around, I brought my hindlegs up, and bucked. The kick connected with nothing but air, and I stumbled backwards. I dropped to my knees as Skycrack swiped at the air above me. I threw myself into him, and sent the both of us onto the ground. The stallion's head was whipped forward by our momentum, and then hit the floor with a bang as loud as thunder. Skycrack was unconscious the moment his head hit the floor, tears frozen in his eyes.  

That was the end to that. Now I needed to ask the ponies here how to get out of that ship. I turned to the ponies in question. They were all in panic.

"Get the secondary engine working again!" shouted a yellow pegasus mare. It turned out the fight was messier than I had thought. There was quite a significant amount of smashed computer equipment. The ship was going to stall in the middle of the ocean. I hoped they had some rowboats.

"We can't get her steady!" a pony cried out, as the entire complex lurched to one side. Books, maps, and tools slid off the shelves and clattered on the floor. A few computers fell off their normal resting places, and  smashed on the floor. Even I stumbled and hit the side of the room. The entire place was going to hell. The mare who seemed to be in charge realized this and hit a button on the wall. Ear splitting alarms began to screech. I covered one ear with a hoof, the other was too busy trying to pick up Skycrack's magnum. The bossmare then galloped over to an intercom, and spoke into it.

"Attention all Encalve. The vessel is now beyond our control and will go down. This is not a drill. Evacuate through the main entrance." the mare looked over at me and froze. Without taking her eyes of me, bossmare spoke into the intercom again. 

"Be informed that there is a rogue equine project on the ship. Do not let her escape at any cost. Release all escape pods at once. Sick or hurt pegasi, find another pony to hold onto."

...that Luna-cursed herb sniffing bitch! I had to get off of the ship before it sank! This place was not kind to me. 

Everypony but Bossmare had left the room. She glanced at me, and ran over to a set of controls. Sweeping up the magnum with my mouth, I charged towards the yellow pegasus, and pounced.

Managing to bring her down, I quickly scanned the control console.

'Remote Escape Vessel Release' I turned towards the struggling Bossmare. She looked fearfully into my cybereye, helplessly pinned down. 

“Where are the escape pods?” I asked her through clenched teeth, fighting to keep my fury down. This mare had deliberately went out of her way, and at the expensive of sick ponies, in order to keep me from leaving. Why couldn’t they all just let me go? 

“I-I’m not telling you!” the mare retaliated. I smacked a hoof across my own skull in frustration. Normally I would just knock her out and search for the escape pods, unconcerned about their release. But because the ship was going down, I wasn’t going to leave her unconscious. 

There was only one solution. I bit down on Bossmare’s red curly tail, and began to gallop in a random direction. I made sure of one thing, I galloped hard and without grace, and let Bossmare’s face smack down on the floor. 

“Will-Ow! You-OUCH! QUIT THAT?” the yellow pegasus shouted at me, unable to stop her face from bouncing with every hole in the metal grated floor. I gave an extra boost of speed to the gallop.

"STOP-OOF!"

"Not until you tell me where an escape pod is, Bossmare." I growled back at her. Now she looked surprised instead of annoyed. 

"Boss-GAH! Mare?!" she shrieked through her pain. "What are you -OW! Talking about? OOF! My name is-"

"Officer Silentfire!" a stallion's voice cut through the hall. Of course, another cut off. But the good news was that to the left, there was a row of large metal spheres, each labeled escape pod.

I didn't think about it twice. I ditched everypony behind and galloped full speed. I was getting out of the ship, and into the open land where nopony would use me as a guinea pig. I could lead my own life!

I got to the escape pod and slammed the green button on a console next to it. The hatch opened and and I threw myself in. A familiar pain hit my shoulders, and made me hiss.

The ponies I had ditched were running at me, with laser weapons in their jaws, and wings spread out.

I slammed the hatch close, before pursuing ponies could shoot me again. The laser barrage assaulted the escape pod, and ear splitting sirens began to go off. I desperately looked for around and found a large red button labeled 'Release'.

When I brought my hoof down on the button, a audio message played. 

"Now releasing emergency escape vessel from two thousand feet above the surface," A cool female voice announced.

"Wait, WHAT?" I thought I was on a ship!

Internal gears somewhere clicked, and the escape pod began its two thousand foot plummet towards the ground. The metal interior of the flying vessel was ripped away from above. Nopony heard the hopeless scream from inside the metal sphere as the pod disappeared into the swirling gray clouds.

***TRANSMISSION VIA PIPBUCK 3000***
Level Up

New Perk: (Un)Naturally Armed - Out of ammo? You’ve got hooves of steel, use them.

+5 points damage of ‘Unarmed’ Damage

> Expectations (Rough)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: Expectations

“The world isn’t tailored to your liking, pony. Out here, pain and misery roam the lands freely.” 

I was given no clue on what to expect once I landed on the surface. So I thought of what seemed most natural. No, I didn’t forget I was made of metal. I hoped that the ponies I had met were just angry or something, and not a reflection of everypony on the planet.  I was expecting friendly ponies. I thought I would see the sun. I expected to see grass and trees, any form of vegetation, really.

What I didn’t expect was a 2,000 foot free fall to the ground. Having just learned that I escaped from a hostile airship into a metal death trap, I was screaming my lungs out. The entire thing was spinning in the air! If I wasn’t so scared for my life, then I would have been sick then and there. The salvage I had taken from the ship was now flying around in all directions. There didn’t seem to be a way to get out of that situation. I screamed and kicked at the sides of the pod until a cool feminine voice started to speak. 

“Hull damage detected. Eighteen percent of the arcane cushioning system has been disabled.”

So it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. Still, when I looked outside and saw the clouds rushing past, I began to shriek my head off again, but this time cursing the names of the ponies who were chasing me just then. They had damaged the pod knowing that it would disable the landing system. Those m-

The bottom of the pod rushed up to my face as my body was compressed into an unnatural position. My breath was punched out of my lungs. Everything lurched forward, the laser pistols in the air smacked down hard, and smashed. Broken glass filled the air as my health potions hit the floor and recoiled. The purple liquid went everywhere. Overall, I felt as though I had just been bucked by the force of a thousand ponies.

All the shards in the air fell back down and stayed there. I looked over at the tiny circular window. Amazingly, it was only cracked. Even with part of the cushioning disabled, the pod had amazing protection. 

I gathered what was left of my things, and put them in my saddlebag. Unfortunately all of the healing potions had smashed; I was covered head to hoof in cuts and bruises.

With a swift buck at the opening, the door jarred, then fell off the hinges with screech. I slapped my hooves over my ears as the metal piece hit the ground with a painfully loud crash, and squeezed my eyes as dust was thrown up in all directions. It was definitely time to leave the death trap. I grabbed my saddlebags and crawled out, just then learning how injuries really were. It was like crawling out from a barrel sent over a waterfall.

After hacking out offending dust that made it’s way over to my lungs, I collapsed onto the ground and writhed in pain. I might have been there for a while, trying to get the world to stop spinning and my stomach under control. I flopped over to my back and cast my gaze upward to the sky. There was no sun, just an infinite covering of swirling gray clouds. Well, that was depressing. 

Forcing myself up to my hooves, I climbed out of the small crater the pod made. I really did hit the ground hard.  There seemed to be no grass either, which saddened me, because I could have really used a bite. It is the world I was created in, it was the world I was I had to live in...

I had half a mind to flag down the next airship and get on. It seemed that anything was more impressive than this forsaken dust bowl. I had no doubt in my mind that life here was going to be a pain in my metal plot.

"HACK!" 

I jumped, then turned to the source of the noise.  A lone earth pony laid sprawled out on his stomach. He had blood all over his deformed limbs, there were spots where bone extruded from the skin, the white contrasting from the glistening red. The clothes he wore was ripped in a multitude of places, as well as soaked in his blood. The expiring pony turned his head towards me.

"What t-the *cough* fuck are you?" he croaked out, then let his fractured skull drop to the dust. The pony didn't move after that.

It had to be the impact of the escape pod, there was no other reason possible. The earth pony must have been near the spot I landed, and killed by the pod. The cost of my freedom was the life of an uninvolved pony. I had killed somepony.

I dropped down to my knees and shivered. What was this place, so eager to claim lives? This barren land couldn't be the freedom I was seeking. I didn't mean to kill him. I didn't want to rip his life away. A single stream of tears fell from my one real eye. 

"Why didn't you DODGE?" I shrieked at the dead pony. I slammed my hooves into the dirt and let out a howl. 

"What am I s-supposed to do? I didn't want to kill h-him. I-It was an accident..." I bawled as foalish excuses poured out. 

It was perhaps ten minutes before I decided to move again. My stomach decided that it had been distracted by the mourning long enough. Using my organic leg, I dried my tears on it's fur, then looked around. There was not a single blade of grass in my field of vision, let alone any flowers. Every tree I saw was dead, blackened, and fruitless. There wasn't a single bite there. 

My gaze fell upon a pair of saddlebags. They must belong to the pony rotting not even ten feet away. I crawled towards it nervously, as though afraid I was going to offend the pony and make his spirit haunt me. I lifted the cover of the bag gingerly. The howling of phantoms failed to reach my ears, so I looked inside. 

There was quite a variety of items in the bag. First was an ammo clip that did not fit my pistol. That meant the earth pony was expecting to be attacked...I quickened my search. There was a bundle of bandages tied together. I put them in my own bags, I might need them later. There was also a large bag filled with metal caps. It was a weird object to have, perhaps he collected bottle caps. I placed them next to the crushed pony as a sort of tribute. 

Finally I came across a box labeled 'Sugar Wheat Cereal'. The pictures on the box were faded, but any worries over age disappeared when my stomach growled. I opened the package and looked inside. The cereal seemed to be edible, so I dug in. That's how I spent the next fifteen minutes, eating old cereal and sniffling at the dead body next to me.

When I finished the box, I decided I was thirsty. I found a small bottle of water in the bag and drank from it. 

That's how I was reminded of the device strapped to my leg. The Pipbuck started making a strange ticking sound which caught my attention. Taking a closer look at it, I found that a few of it’s many meters had begun to change. The one that was moving the most was a small colorful dial. The needle was in the green zone, but was now slowly making its way to yellow. I had no idea what the dial was supposed to represent. But I messed with the device a little to see what I could find.

As soon as I pressed the button marked 'Stats' a green message box popped up on the green Pipbuck Screen. That wasn't a great design, frankly. The blandness of the green text on a green background could use better contrast.

'Synchronize with PjtIrpny_sub049?'

There were two options, 'Accept' and 'Decline'. There was no clue given as to what the Pipbuck wanted to synchronize with. Acting on impulse, I selected 'Accept'.

Immediately, multiple loading bars appeared in my vision before vanishing just as quickly. A tiny logo now appeared the corner of my vision. It was the same one that marked the edge of the pipbuck. Taking another look at it, I found a new tab in the Stats menu, ‘Pony’. When I selected I saw a list of weird options, such as ‘Release Waste’. Rubbing my eyes with my hooves, I brought my head in closer to the screen. 

A bullet whizzed right above my head, and struck the bag of bottle caps that I left next to the dead earth pony. The bag burst and all of the caps flew into the air, knocking into each other with metal clinks before falling back to the ground. 

My head snapped around in the opposite direction. It was quite distance away, but I somehow  managed to see it clearly. There was a large ruined building, at least ten stories high, several hundred yards away. It was the only thing in my within my vision that wasn’t a rock or a dead tree. As a bullet managed to ping off the shoulder plate I still had on, I came to realization that there was a sniper in the building. 

I grabbed the dead pony’s bags and threw myself at the death trap that had brought me here. When I hit the ground several feet away from the pod, adrenaline began to course my body as I realized just in how much danger I was in. I don’t think my body was ready. Scrambling up onto my hooves, I ran behind the escape pod as another bullet pinged off of more metal.  

Believing I was safe behind the large piece of metal between me and the sniper, I looked into the dead pony’s belongings again. The last thing in there wasn’t going to to help me, it was only a small silver audiotape. There was a port on the pipbuck which seemed to be able to fit the audiotape. So I rammed it in, and didn’t hit play it. I preferred to get away from the sniper who nearly placed a one hit kill bullet through my head first. 

I pulled out one or the laser pistols from the airship and brought it out into the range of the sniper. It was immediately ripped out of my hooves and smashed into pieces a bullet. There was no way I was going to survive a mad dash over to the dead pony’s body. As unappealing as the idea was, I would have been able to use him as a body shield for the bullets. But it wouldn’t work without the body.

As a precaution, I climbed into the metal pod. Slumping down on my seat, I looked around for anything that would be able to shield my head. Nothing but a few blankets and a smashed healing potion in a compartment. Sighing, I looked at the audiotape attached to the pipbuck. Well, there was nothing better to do, so I played the tape.

There was a crack as the recording started, then a filly’s voice began to speak, hushed and nervous.

“...shh,they’re close....(muffled hoofsteps). I think they’re gone. Keep quiet Flippy, let me record this. Dad, there are strange ponies in the house. I think they are slavers, I overheard them talking about fetching a high price at some city. I didn’t know what to do, so I hid myself and Flippy in the basement. He’s been bawling his eyes out since. I think they know we’re home, they have been searching for the last ten minutes. Please Dad, if they do take us, promise me we’ll see you again (sobbing). Dad...I’m sorry about last week. (a loud crash) Forgive me, daddy. I love you.”

At that point, my heart broke. I grabbed the father’s saddle bags, and tore through it, looking for anything that might tell me more. The main pockets were already empty, but I found a map in a side pocket. 

It was an extremely old piece of parchment, yellow and frayed, marked up with a pencil. The top was labeled ‘Land of Equestria’. So this miserable plot of dirt was called Equestria.There were various arrows and crossed out cities, and only area that was circled multiple times. A name was written under it, ‘The Society’. The number one thousand was written besides it, but I had no idea what it meant. 

Finally, it hit me. I killed their father. He was on the way to find his children,and I squished him like an insect. I couldn’t believe I could screw up so badly just by escaping. They would never see their father again, because of me. I had to go find them, I knew it was a silly thing to think, but I felt obligated to free those foals. 

I might have left a dent in the escape pod just then. I smashed my robot hoof into the side of the escape pod, and put the other forehoof over my face. I didn’t understand how I could get myself into such a situation when I arrived not even an hour ago. 

Putting my hooves over my temples, I racked my brains for a way to get past the sniper pony. The pony couldn’t have been a good sniper, because it took the simple, slow, forward  movement of my head in order for the bullet to miss. But this didn't matter because there was nothing to hide behind besides the escape pod. The sniper would eventually get me. 

I hit my head on the back of chair. There was no way out of this unless I wanted to push a one ton metal sphere over to the dead pony. It was hopeless. I looked out the small, cracked, plastic window of the escape pod; trying to find some feeling of peace in the instant mess that had become my existence. There was nothing out there except the darkening wasteland, if there was a sun somewhere behind the infinite cloud cover, I would imagine that it would have been setting. 

I could nearly let adrenaline flow through my veins when I realized that I even in the darkness, the glow of my robot eye would give me away. But then I remembered the ‘Release Waste’ option. I switched back to the ‘Pony’ menu and scrolled through the options listed. I found what I needed, between ‘Ready Body’ and ‘Zoom’. As soon as I hit “Power Eye’, my vision dimmed out like a light bulb...which it probably was. 

All that was left was to wait until nightfall. 

I left the pod as soon as I figured it was dark enough for the sniper to lose visibility. After packing the blankets I found, I burst out of the opening of the escape pod. While galloping                                                                          through the barren wasteland, I took one more look at the dead pony. There was some sort of giant scorpion standing over him, so I galloped even faster. I didn’t want to know how much poison that thing could pump. As I galloped into the unknown, I swore I would find Flippy Bit and his sister.

~~~

I switched my eye back on, deciding that I was far enough from the sniper, and that I could barely see a hoof in front of me without it. Luckily, the Pipbuck had an automatically adjusting screen. I looked back, and saw that I no longer recognized the setting; instead of a dead tree, there were two, plus the large carcass of some unidentifiable creature. 

Surveying the land, I saw the outline of a new building this one only one story high. To say it was run down and vandalized would be an understatement. There were multiple holes in the concrete walls, metal twisted beyond its original state. Rubble surrounded the building at every side. Dried blood stained the wall, mostly formed in either vulgar words or explicit images. Trotting forward a little, a new horror came into view.

There were three medium sized dogs feasting on what appeared to be a rotting foal’s corpse. All of the appeared to be wild and aggressive, as though a few can tear a pony apart in the matter of minutes. I was already in motion, I couldn’t stop myself before my hoof struck the ground. It was just within the dog’s hearing range, the mutts turned to the source. 

As soon they saw me, they raise their hackles and growled viciously, showing their large, sharp, canine teeth.

“Nice doggies...I don’t want to hurt you...” I managed to croak out.

Apparently they weren’t fans of my scratchy autotuned voice. They began to bark at me, so I turned and ran. They took off after me, barking as though commanding me to stop. Everywhere I went, a chase scene was directed, starring me. 

I dug my muzzle into the saddlebags hitting my sides and pulled out the pistol in my teeth. I turned my head at the mutts following me and fired blindly. Except the gun didn’t fire. 

Celestia forsaken rusty piece of droppings clip capacity. 

Dogs are much better at running than robotic ponies. Never try to outrun dogs if you happen to be burdened with internal metal. 

One of them bit onto my tail, and held on, while another jumped onto me.  It sunk its  teeth into my side. At the same time, I felt the third dog bite into my leg. I gasped in pain as I fell to the ground, flailing my limbs every moment of the way down. The gun dropped from my muzzle to the dust. My breath was knocked out of me as I hit the floor. I turned onto my back as I kicked all four legs, trying to keep off the dogs. 

My kicks wouldn’t have kept the predators off forever. They kept scratching and biting at my hide. I would have been torn up pony meat if it weren’t for the bullet that buried itself into the one of dogs’ neck. Blood sprayed everywhere, onto the ground, onto my face and body. 

I kicked the now dead dog away in horror. There were two terrific bangs, and the rest of the attacking hounds dropped dead. There was blood was everywhere. It rushed down my muzzle and nose, onto my neck. It dripped off my hooves and from my mane. 

I looked up at my savior.

It was a unicorn mare. She looked down at me and grinned, showing two rows of either cracked, chipped, or missing teeth. Scars ran up and down her face, showing just how many knives she had taken up close. There was a shotgun in her magical grip. 

“I think we’ve got us a main course. There’s enough for everypony!” the mare cackled as she pointed the gun at me. 

I was too shocked by the fact that the mare had just called me food to do anything. The mare put the end of the gun to my temple, and began to force it against my skull. It would have taken only a millisecond then, to end my life. I squeezed my eyes shut as a gunshot the air. 

It didn’t come from the shotgun. 

I opened my eyes in time to see the mare fall down on top of me. Blood flowed from the back of her head, and onto my body. I freaked out and shoved the mare’s body of my own. I jumped to my hooves, ran over to my fallen pistol to pick it up. 

I looked around me. In less than three minutes, I had been painted in the blood of four creatures, one of them being another pony. Blood seemed to flow wherever I went. I came to my senses and picked up all the noise around me. 

Gunshots, yells and shrieks filled the air. Trotting closer, I peered through the holes in the ruined building. 

There were so many ponies with insane looks on their faces, wielding guns, knives or bats. Each one of them seemed to be coated in dried blood, manes and tails cut short. They were all running towards one area of the building. 

I moved to get a better view. There was only one pony fighting them all. A red earth pony was holding submachine gun in between his teeth, tongue straining against the trigger. Everypony else was being mowed down. I couldn’t believe the stallion was willing to take on all those ponies alone.

I thought he was done for once the bullets ran out. Instead, he pulled out a short sword. Swiftly dodging the attacks from the two remaining ponies, the red stallion ran his sword through the neck of one pony, and left it in there. He then pulled out another blade using a strap on his right hoof. Kicking away the hunting rifle of the final pony, the red stallion jumped on top of the mare and violently stabbed her, plunging his knife into her chest multiple times. 

At this point, I heard a snicker behind me, and spun around to find another pony rearing over me, holding a nail spiked bat over my head. A sword flashed into my view, coming from around t corner. It went into the hoof holding the bat. The stallion shrieked in pain as the deadly bat  spun away. Another sword entered the scene, this one aimed at the head of the stallion. He fell to the ground, dead before he hit it. 

The red stallion walked into view, pulled out both of his swords, and viewed me with contempt. 

“You should use this whiskey to disinfect those wounds, then wrap them up with anything clean you may have. Wasteland dogs are known to have infectious mouths.” the stallion said.

He tossed me a bottle of whiskey, which I caught. I immediately took his advice and tended to my injuries. The whiskey stung, but I endured the pain. I wrapped myself in the bandages I had taken from the pony back at the crash site. I looked back up.The stallion had left. 

I galloped around the corner, and ran until I caught up with the red stallion. He glanced at me for a second before stopping.

“Why are you following me?” he asked stoically. 

The red earth pony gave off an atmosphere of annoyance as he looked back at me. For some reason, I was intimidated. Aside from the fact that he had just taken on over twenty ponies with no more than a single firearm and a knife, there was something about the red pony that sent shivers down my spine. He had a pair of cold blue eyes that gave away no emotion. I wasn’t sure if I was making a smart decision by following him, but I had no other options. At least, any that involved me living.

“I’ll ask again,” the red pony said slowly, “Why are you following me?”

I jumped back as he turned around and took a step forward. Ripper here was obviously someone nopony should mess with. The command was clear, he wanted me to respond. I decided to answer him quickly, as he could most likely run five of his blades into me before I could pull out my pistol. He took another step, and I blurted out gibberish.

“Did you hit your head or something?” he asked.

I was thrown off by the bluntness, but I responded either way.

“Uh...thanks for saving me. I would have been on a dinner table if it wasn’t for you.” I spoke in my raspy voice.

“You’re welcome. If that is all , then you should get going.” he responded coolly. 

“Where they planning to eat me?”

The stallion looked at me as though I was mentally impaired.

“Yes,” he said, “You're in raider territory. They're cannibals.”

“Raiders?” I asked. The term was new to me. 

“You don’t know what raiders are?” the red stallion asked skeptically. ”Are you from one of those stables?”

“Stable? I don’t think so.” I responded. “I sort of...came from inside an airship. I crash landed here a few hours ago.”

The stallion was silent for a while. We walked through the barren wasteland, thankfully there wasn’t an enemy in sight. But I wasn’t sure if the red stallion was an enemy, he wasn’t nice, but he wasn’t after my throat either. But there was still something I didn't understand.

“How come you haven’t asked what I am? You know, glowing eye, and metal hide and all?” I asked.

“Listen,” he began. “It’s  obvious you have never spent a full day in the wasteland. I don’t know where you have been. Nor do I care. This place is hell on earth. There are things in this land that will kill you, then turn your bones into toothpicks, and your skull into an ornament. I can’t say that I have seen everything, but I have seen a lot. You don’t surprise me.”

“...You’re right, I don’t know anything about this place. In fact, I’m not even sure where I am from. I just woke up at a l-”

“That seems like a story for somepony else.” the stallion interrupted. “Now, I’ll be off.”

“No, wait!” I shouted after he had briskly trotted a few yards ahead. “I need help. I don’t think I can survive here on my own. I nearly got my head blasted away by a sniper.”

The red pony stopped. I wondered if I had offended him in someway. He reached over to his right side, and pulled out a firearm. A sniper rifle. With a swift movement, the barrel of the rifle focused on my head. 

I jumped back, and out of the aim. Bringing my pistol out, I prepared to shoot at the red pony. I couldn’t believe the sniper had followed me!

“Put that down, I didn’t shoot at you. This is the first time I wield this in over 12 hours,” the red pony said blankly, “Besides, I don’t remember shooting a robot pony.”

I stared at the pony in disbelief. I mean, really, who goes around pointing their weapons in pony’s faces for no reason whatsoever! I fumed at him.

“You should really be careful who you point your weapons at.” I managed to keep my annoyance somewhat contained. 

All the red pony did was snicker. He started walking again, so I trotted behind him. 

“Your aren’t going to last more than a week on your own, Winks,” he chided, “the wasteland is death incarnated into a country.”

I held my tongue at the jab at my one normal eye. I couldn’t risk angering this pony,. If everything he said was true, then I wouldn’t last very long alone. I was going to need to gain this pony’s trust, just to survive. If I was lucky, he would be able point my in the right direction, towards Flippy Bit and his sister.

“That’s true.” I breathed out. “That’s why I would like to keep you company, so that I don’t get torn to shreds.”

He didn’t say anything. Instead he kept walking, so I just kept following him.  I had no idea where he was headed to but I kept on his trail either way. We must have spent 15 minutes just walking through the barren wasteland in the darkness. I was growing restless, I knew he was taking me somewhere.

Finally he stopped and crouched down low behind a large rock.

“What are you-” 

“Shh.” the earth pony interrupted. “You want to keep the element of surprise with you.”  

He gestured a hoof forward. About 50 yards ahead lay what appeared to be a large metal  creates. Besides it was a glowing fire, surrounded by five ponies. They were all laughing wildly, their voices carrying throughout the empty wasteland fairly loudly. One of them was gesturing excitedly in front of the others. I looked over at the red pony. 

“Raiders?” I whispered.

“No.” he answered. “Take a look at their setup. Fire illuminating the surrounding area, and they’ve got their immediate surrounding secure, for the most part. These are most likely bandits.”

It was true, the fire allowed them to see for quite a distance compared to without a fire. But it also let them be seen as well. They had a variety of weapons and saddlebags that seemed stuffed. Their barding wasn't heavy looking, but light and agile, as though they always needed to be able to move quickly. 

"So," the red pony intruded into my concentration, "Do you want me to kill one or do you want to take them all on yourself?"

"What kind off a question is that?" I asked, unable to hide the disbelief in my voice. "Let's just sneak around them!" 

"You should always shelter at night if possible. We need that place and they hav-”

“ACHOO!” 

The sneeze escaped my mouth before I even realized what I had just done. It echoed throughout the Wasteland, not blocked by many obstacles. It probably reached the ears of creatures a mile away. Needless to say, I alerted the bandits of our presence. 

“Fuck!” the red pony turned to me. “Do you have any idea what you just did? You lost us the advantage and probably attracted some other things out there!”

I sniffed. 

“I’m sorry,” I pleaded, “I must have gotten sick somehow.”

I peered over the rock, and sure enough, five ponies were running at us. The red pony swiftly brought out his sniper rifle, put his eye through the scope, and shot a bullet. The head of one of the bandits exploded. The red pony brought himself back under rock, narrowly avoiding the lead spray of a shotgun. Some of the metal chipped off the rock, making it rain pebbles on us. 

“Hit him with another shot!” I shouted over the opening of gunfire. 

“They’re too close now!” the sniper pony hissed. “What the hell were you thinking, sneezing like that?” 

In my mind, I cursed the light black barding I was wearing. The crotch area had only dried out recently. I should have known that having my insides out in the open, and wearing the wet suit, would have lowered my defenses. I must have caught the disease from whoever cut me open in the first place. Lovely. There was one bright side to this all though. 

“I’M NOT A ROBOT!” I shouted into the air, as I whipped out my pistol and blasted bullets into the crowd of four bandits rushing at us. The red pony stared in complete horror. 

“I think you did hit your head,” he muttered as he aimed and tossed on of his short swords at   the bandits. It sailed harmlessly to the pony’s left.

“Thieves are a great deal smarter than raider’s. There’s your fucking protip number three,” he snarled at me. 

I kept unloading my magazine into the crowd, which had then stopped about 30 feet away, unloading their ammunition as well. The pistol clip had run out, I ducked under rock and took some time to reload. I saw the red pony stuffing his short swords into some sort of weaved basket. 

“Where do you keep this stuff?” I asked him.

He didn’t answer. Instead he threw himself back on his hooves, with the sword stuffed basket handle in his muzzle. He turned his head to one side, and quickly jerked it back towards the four remaining bandits. The swords flew out, a multitude of them flew through the air, like a locust plague of razor sharp death.The deadly barrage sliced into multiple areas of two ponies, and wounded a third. The two ponies dropped dead. The third staggered.

I popped back up above the rock, ready to shoot my pistol some more. But the wounded pony wasn’t done. He fired another three rounds at us, one of them hitting my shoulders. There was an explosion of pain as the bullet ripped through the armor, and embedded itself into my right shoulder. My tongue instantly jammed on the trigger, spraying bullets in random directions. I dropped the pistol and slammed my hoof over the hurt shoulder. Blood flowed from the wound and I slumped back down behind the rock, crying out in pain. 

I wasn’t a robot, I still got sick, I still feel pain. But what did that leave me with? More unanswered questions, like how I came to be half-mechanical. Celestia damn all the mortals in this hellhole. Being alive HURT.

I looked over towards the red pony, who took my pistol in his teeth, and unloaded it towards the bandits. Finally, the deafening gunfire ended, and the red pony stood up all the way, walking away.

Despite my pain, I forced myself to peer over the rock, hoping that he wasn’t leaving me alone and wounded. I saw him pulling his swords out of the bandits. Two of the ponies had them inside multiple places in their body. Through the chest, in their stomachs, through their he heads. I groaned as I forced myself to limp over to the read pony. 

“I’m, sorry.” I gasped at him. “I didn’t mean to sneeze and get us into this mess.”

I was expecting him to be upset. Angry that I had nearly gotten us killed. Instead, he only shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it, you managed to kill two. I think that proves you have some chance of surviving out here.” he said. 

Sniffing my nose, I turned towards the rock.

“I already have your pistol,” the red pony said, “take it.”

A thought hit me as I accepted my weapon. “If you killed two with your swords, and I killed the other two with my pistol, then what you were shooting at just now?”

“Oh,” he grinned. “I just like to shoot things.”

~~~

Luckily, the fire was still going when the red pony arrived at their camp. The bandits had left all their things back at their camp, probably with the intention to return. The saddlebags sat around the fire, waiting for their owners. That was rather unfortunate. 

I sniffed once more. My nose was starting to clog up. I had told myself the increasing sifflin was due to my cold.But the truth was I felt like crying. I had killed two more ponies. Intentionally this time. I may had shot the bullets seemingly at random, but that was just the aiming in agony. I was angry that one of them had decided to put a rifle bullet in my shoulder. So I killed two. 

I was trying to hide my concerns from the red pony, fearing that he wouldn't see me fit to teach the essentials of survival in the inferno that was my new home. But he had noticed, it was obvious. He just didn’t say anything. Instead, he counted the loot from the dead bandits  and their bags.

“Five pistol clips for you. A hunting rifle for each of us, with ammo of course. Take a shotgun each, ten shells each. Unfortunately the best model rifle broke. But here are a few hair pins...” and so on. He stored each item inside the giant metal box.

It turned out that the large metal crate was full of holes on one side. Small circular ones, then a huge irregular hole at one end. The entire thing was rusty, but there was plenty of space inside.
“It was probably some sort of prisoner transport, judging by the carriage in front.” the red pony explained and pointed at the large hole in the back. “They probably broke out at some point before wrecking the carriage and escaping. Either way, that’s about it for weapons, though there is a blanket, almost no food...”

The red pony went on and on in his monotone voice, sounding bored yet intrigued by the supplies that were found. He left me alone to my thoughts as he shifted through various materials. But not for long. 

"Seven hundred three caps total.” he announced. “These ponies were relatively successful thieves."

I was in the middle of replaying the death of the pony who was crushed by my landing, when I heard that. He had liked to collect bottlecaps, apparently. I thought it an odd habit then, but I guessed it was a widespread thing around here.

"What a small world," I told the earth pony, "There's this pony with the same hobby."

The red pony gave me a confused look. "Hobby?" He asked. "Who said anything about a hobby?" 

"I sort of...crushed a pony on my way here." I let out. "He liked to collect bottle caps as well." 

"Did you take these caps with you?" the crimson pony asked slowly. 

They had to have some sort of value, otherwise he wouldn't have it said it that way. It would have also made more sense as an explanation to why so many ponies carried it. So I tried to maintain some sense of respect.

"I was going to,"  I lied, "But then that sniper I told you about shot at me. He missed and hit the bag the caps were in, and I took cover."

"How many caps where in this bag?" the red pony asked.

"No idea, but a lot."

"If I led you back to that raider compound, can you lead me back to the caps?”

“But, the sniper!” I protested.

“I’ll take care of him.”

~~~

“Are you sure this is the place?” the counter sniper asked me.

“Yes,” I answered, looking up from the pipbuck on my foreleg as my cyber eye powered down. “There’s the the death trap that brought me here.”

The red stallion’s eyes moved away from his sniper’s scope and scanned the landscape until they settled on the large metal pod. He stared at it for a few seconds before whipping his head back around to peer through his scope. 

“Did you take all of the valuables inside?” he asked while still focusing on his vision. “I still see nothing.”

“It’s dark, I don’t think you’ll be able to see the sniper.” I suggested. 

“I’d still be able to see some sort of movement moving back and forth,” he countered, “and the sniper wouldn’t be able to hide anywhere else, because the only cover in the scope’s visible range is a dead tree. This place is practically empty.” 

“What?” I nearly shouted in surprise. “There was a large building where the sniper was perched!”

The stallion gave me a doubtful look. “Winks, there is nothing in there now. Just look for the bag of caps.”

I cantered forward a while, looking for the supposedly scattered bottlecaps. I stopped as I felt a twitch in my nose. I knew what was coming but it was already to late. I opened my mouth, unable to myself.

"Achoo!" my sneeze escaped my lips. 

It wasn't as loud as the first sneeze, but it was enough to attract something.

Two dark forms were hovering over a carcass, their wings making an erratic buzzing sound. The carcass was most likely the one of the pony I had landed on when I first made it to the wasteland, just several hours ago. As for me, my sneeze hand attracted the attention of the two blobs. My cyber eye was still off so it was hard to see just what the blobs were. However, the blobs seemed to be somewhat polite and kindly hovered closer, albeit  being carnivorous. They were really ugly creatures, dark green and cancerous looking.

Then one of them spit at me.

A familiar, painful, burning sensation hit my chest immediately, it felt as though I didn’t have any armor on at all. I gasped in pain and ran back towards my mentor. 

"Ripper! Ripper!" I called out.

The crimson pony stepped out of the escape pod, and dropped the sheets of metal he had striped from it. He had his contemptuous look on.

"Ripper?" he repeated in disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about? My name is Red Mist. See if you can guess why."

"You like to shoot things, now shoot those flying monstrosities behind me." I shouted.

"Don't tell me you can't handle a couple of bloatsprites." Red Mist said, putting a hoof over his face. 

I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out my hunting rifle. Loading the .32 caliber bullets, I swung the weapon around and fired at the two flying blobs behind me. The bullet missed and flew off into the distance. I dodged another bio-projectile from the blobs. I spit out the hunting rifle, and brought out my pistol. The pistol spit out bullets at a fast rate, and although some of them missed, plenty of them hit home. One blob went down. I sprinted forward and jumped at the last bloatsprite. I was hit with another acid spit thing, but at the same time, I brought my pipbuck and smashed it into the bloatsptrite’s head. It burst open and the bloatsprite fell to the ground. 

“Having fun?” Mist mocked.

I ignored the question. “How did you take the metal off the pod?” 

“I have some tools on me, always salvage what you can.” he responded. “Now go get that bag of caps.”

It was just that, a bag of caps. The bottlecaps were not all over the place, nor was the bag burst open. But I had remembered seeing the bag being split open and the caps flying all over the place as the sniper’s bullet had hit it. Then again, it appears the building the sniper was perched in disappeared, as well as the sniper. Logically, that meant the sniper’s bullet didn’t exist either. I found myself wondering if any of it actually happened in the first place. 

“Winks.” Red Mist distracted me from my thoughts. “Feel like bringing that bag of caps over?”



***TRANSMISSION VIA PIPBUCK 3000***
Level Up

New Perk: Sentry - Hold your ground and shoot!

-50% Spread while standing still

> Pitstop (Rough)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3: Pitstop


“There is hope, it is through your friends.”


I didn’t know why Red Mist had decided to help me, given how cold he was outside the raiders’ hideout. He may have thrown me into fight with five angry bandits, but I managed to survive, treat the bullet wound, and find a limited source of food. I just needed to figure out how I was going to find Flippy Bit. Taking a look around me, I found myself curled up inside two blankets, the new one from the escape pod, and the ratty looking one from the bandits. Shivering, I retreated into the blankets to keep warm. The cold was getting worse. 

“Are you awake?” came a voice from behind me, causing me to nearly jump into the air. 

I turned to find Red Mist watching me cooly, while using an old, oily rag to wipe his sniper rifle. He was sitting at the entrance of our shelter, what used to be a prisoner transport vehicle. Without letting the blankets fall off me, I walked over to my saddlebags and fidgeted with them, looking for the box of cereal that I had taken from the first pony I met in the wasteland. 

“I’ve found something interesting here yesterday, in the carriage where the guards probably were.” Red told me. “I only know a little about these things, since it takes a unicorn to use.”

I found the Sugar Wheat cereal box, and tipped the open end towards my open mouth. Sadly, nothing came out, and I crushed the cardboard box in between my hooves in my frustration. I walked over to Red, looking for the mysterious object. 

“What did you find?” I asked him, trying to keep my eye from closing again. The light from my robot eye was also unstable, changing brightness idly. 

Red brought out a small orb, very dark in color. “I don’t remember what it was called, but I know unicorns can use their magic to see into them.”

“You mean like a psychic?” I asked him skeptically.

“Like I said, I don’t know.”

I stared at the orb, wondering what to do. From what I remember, I wasn’t properly trained in magic. When I had tried to levitate a pistol on the airship, it ended shooting straight up into the jaw of Skycrack, who proceeded to try to fill me with bullets. I wouldn’t survive long if I got into a fight with Red; his swords could slice me to ribbons from this range. 

“Perhaps it’s wouldn’t be a good idea to for me to try to activate this thing.” I said cautiously. 

Red Mist only eyed for a moment before turning his head back to his sniper rifle. He gave the barrel a slow, deliberate wipe with the rag before looking back up at me. I swear I saw the smirk behind his stolid face. I could have died then and there, so I explained myself.

“My magic doesn’t seem to work well...I don’t have much control of it.” I explained. 

Red Mist just kept silent. I didn’t think it activating the orb was worth risking the intense pain I felt back at the airship. I walked outside metal container, looking towards the campfire site for any food that Red might have missed the first time. I doubted that he would have missed any survival supplies. 

I turned back around to find myself face to face with some sort of floating metal monstrosity. I yelped and jumped back, nailing a landing on my plot. Scrambling up to my hooves, I realized that I didn’t have any weapons on me, they were all in my saddlebags. 

“It’s just a sprite-bot. It won’t attack you unless you attack it.” Red told me, narrowing his eyes at the floating ball of metal before looking back at his sniper rifle.

“Where did you get the oil for that anyways?” I asked.

“I have a jug of it from a while back, when I used to gut ponies and let the oil drip along with the blood.”

“Yeesh, no need to be that graphic.” came a mechanical voice. It wasn’t mine.

I looked around, there was not a single sentient being besides Red and I anywhere within my range of vision. I looked back at the sprite-bot. 

“Yes, I was the one who said that. Hello.” The sprite-bot bobbed in the air a little. 

“Are you sentient?” I asked, walking around the floating metal bot, getting a better look at its features. 

“No.” The sprite-bot jerked in the air a little. “Well, yes b- This sprite-bot isn’t. I hacked it to speak to you.”

“Your controlling the sprite-bot from inside?” I asked. “I didn’t know ponies could be so small.”

The floating bot chuckled, it’s laughter sounding artificial and hollow. “No, no. I’m controlling it from elsewhere... I saw you looking for food inside that empty cereal box.” 

“You were spying on me?” I asked, “Why? Who are you?”

“Call me Watcher.” The sprite-bot said. “Think of me as a friend, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Then what are you here for?” I asked, eyeing the sprite-bot.

“To give a little advice. I think I can offer more than the raider over there.” Watcher said.

Red Mist brought his gaze up to Watcher. “Watch it metal ball. Or I’ll pop you like a balloon.”

“Please don’t.” Watcher turned back to me. “You're going to need some new weapons. More ammunition. Better barding. Most importantly, make some friends.”
        
“Friends?” I gave Watcher a confused look. “Red, we’re friends right?”

Red narrowed his eyes. “Fuck off.”

“The best.” I sighed. “What do I need friends for? Actually, can I even find friends in this forsaken dustbowl?”

“You’d be surprised,” Watcher responded. “However I suggest you scavenge a few places for some leftover stuff. I can tell you where.”

I got suspicious. “How do I know I can trust you? For all I know, it could be booby trapped and I could die as soon as I step through the door.”

Watcher audibly sighed, which was odd to hear from a metal floating robot. “If I had wanted to kill you, I would have done so already. You’d be nothing but pink ash.”

“You could still be leading me to my death.” I countered. “I mean Red Mist would have destroyed you as soon as you began to attack.”

“The place is an old supermarket; there will be food.”

As if on cue, my stomach rumbled just then. I was pretty hungry, probably from all the running I did the day before. Letting out an embarrassed chuckle, I turned my head away from my stomach and back towards Watcher.

“Hehe...I guess we’ll give the supermarket a shot,” I told Watcher.

~~~ 

I checked my Pipbuck, which was still strapped onto my foreleg. Apparently they could do more than just turn off my robot eye. The Pipbuck also had maps of the surrounding area under the data menu, and Watcher had sent me the location of the supermarket. Using the little compass included with the Pipbuck, Red Mist and I had made our way to the market
.
The supermarket looked like every other building I had seen in the wasteland. All of one of them, two if you count the one I had imagined. The supermarket seemed to be only barely standing, so worn that I could hear parts of the roof falling in as I walked closer to the large glass double doors. 

“Check your Pipbuck,” Red Mist told me, “and check how many raider’s are in there.”

“How do I do that?” I asked.

Red Mist put a hoof to his forehead. “Don’t you know anything about that thing?” he asked.

“No,” I admitted, “but if you do, why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“I thought you knew,” he responded, “What’s more, I don’t know everything about it, just a few things.”

“How?”

Red Mist ignored my question. He pulled out a hunting rifle and loaded it before making his way through the double doors. I pulled my pistol out of my own saddlebags, then made sure the bullet cartridge was full. Hearing guns beginning to fire, I galloped through the entrance, and activated the aiming spell in my Pipbuck. 

Another useful thing that Watcher had taught me about my Pipbuck. Using something called S.A.T.S. would help me aim and shoot at targets, letting me select which body part I wanted to hit. 

Using this knowledge, I aimed and fired at a raider running to me with a bat. The bullet entered through his eye, and made it to the back of his head before exiting. The raider slumped to the floor. 

The recoil of the hunting rifle hurt my mouth and neck, so I put the weapon back in my saddlebags and drew my pistol. Looking around, I took in the atmosphere of the rundown supermarket. While many shelves were still standing, there were plenty that had fallen over, leaning on other shelves. Pieces of the ceiling littered the floor. I found Red Mist taking cover behind one of the  fallen shelves. 

"ACHOO!" I greeted.

"What the fuck!?" Red shouted at me has a huge barrage of bullets began to hit the other side of the shelf.

“I’m sorry!” I shouted over the sound of heavy gunfire. 

“You idiot!” he snarled, “Your simple cold will get us both killed!”

We threw ourselves out of the way as the bullets finally blasted through the multiple shelves and began to whiz past us. As we galloped through the aisles, Red Mist drew a metal apple out from his saddlebags. 

“Where did you get that?” I yelled over the sound of the gun firing.

“Do you not recall the thieves we killed last night? Get your head out of the damn clouds!”

I honestly couldn’t remember Red mentioning any grenades. All I could do from then on was to race after Red and take cover just in time to hear the apple go off. Squeezing my eye shut, I felt blasts of hot air shooting around us at all sides. Debris rained down upon the two of us, showering us with old plaster and bits of wood.

Cautiously leaving the shelter of the store shelf, I stepped around the sections of ceiling that had fallen due to the explosion. The raider was now all over the room. His blood was splattered all over the room.

Suddenly, everything fell out of place. It was as though the world was torn away from me. I felt detached from the setting, as though it was surreal. I didn’t feel well at all, my entire vision tilted sideways and the floor rushed up to meet me. My flailing hoof slammed into the shelve as I desperately tried to hold something, but my arm wouldn’t respond to anything more. 

There was suddenly a large pressure on my head, then a sharp pain to my stomach. 

The feeling broke like glass. I was back at the store, sprawled out against the floor. Covered in sweat, short of breath, and in pain. Not a pleasant way to come to my senses, but at least I was out of the disorientation. 

“Get the fuck up!” Red yelled right into my ear, before proceeding to kick me in the stomach.

I scrambled up to my hooves, ignoring the pain. “What do you think you are doing?” I looked at the earth pony who was flipping out on me. He had pulled me out of the trance. 

“Keep searching for anything we might be able to use.” Red grumbled, obviously annoyed at my dizzy spell.
 
“What about over at storage? The raiders popped out from there, they might be hoarding something.” I pointed out. 

Without so much as a nod to acknowledge my suggestion, Red began to move towards the storage room. I looked around me once more. Again, the disorientation hit me, but I managed to stay on my hooves. The entire store was in ruin, the walls cracked and paint peeling. Everything was thrown around, everything on the floor. It couldn’t have been built this way, there would have been no poi-

“Let’s go, Winks. Stop dragging your hooves!”

---

I’m sure what I was expecting to find inside the storage area, but it definitely wasn’t ponies. 

As soon as Red and I stepped into the room, we were hit by the overwhelming smell of decay and death. Using a trick that I picked up from Watcher, I turned on my Pipbuck’s flashlight. A mountain of assorted decaying organs, limbs, and bloody strips of hide was piled into a corner. It shifted. 

“Is there some sort of monster that feasts on ponies in there?” I jumped back and brought out my pistol, keeping it aimed at the middle of the pile. 

A white muzzle popped out from underneath from all of the pony carnage. The rustling continued until the entire head of a blood stained pony appeared.

The white mare let out hoarse whisper. “Please...leave me alone. Don’t use me anymore…”

I rushed over to her side and began to dig the shaking pony out from all of the organic matter surrounding her. “Don’t worry.” I tried to reassure her. “We’ll get you out of here.”

“You’re digging on your own.” Red Mist alerted me.

The mare flopped down to the floor as soon as she was free. She was beaten heavily, her presumably white coat stained with blood and blackened with bruises. Every breath she took looked painfully difficult. Red Mist stared down at her. I sneezed.

“Excuse me.” I muttered.

“Shhh…” Red warned. “I can hear something moving towards us.”

He quickly stepped to the door, and put his ear against it. He closed his eyes and listened.

“Maybe … in the storage,” Red repeated what he heard, “...in there...gut them.”

He moved his ear away from the door, and whispered in my ear. “When I give the signal, open the door all the way, and get out of my sight.” 

I nodded and walked over to the metal door. When Red let his hoof fall, I threw the door open, letting the raiders enter and trip over themselves. Red Mist locked on to the confused trio, and fired his hunting rifle three times.

The raiders never picked themselves off the ground.

“Don’t go out yet. There is still at least one left.” Red warned, then pointed at the white mare we had rescued. “Stay hidden. Winks, come with me.”

Red heaved one of the raider’s bodies outside. The raider was sprayed with dozens of bullets before hitting the ground. Somepony had an itchy trigger hoof on a machine gun, and had the visual advantage. Things were not looking up for us.

“What do we do? If we run out there, we’ll be torn to shreds!” I waved my hooves around to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. 

“Are you daft?” Red hissed. “Remember where the bullets came from and that the door swings both ways.”

“So we’ll use it as cover?” I asked.

“No! The bullets would pierce through that like a hot knife through soft flesh. Just watch.”

Red bucked with the door hard, forcing it to swing out of the room. Bullets flew into the door, going straight through it uninterrupted. After a few seconds of deafening noise, the bullets stopped. THe machine gun clicked as it tried to fire an empty cartridge.

Red said nothing has he pulled out his hunting rifle and dashed outside. One bullet left the weapon and flew straight into the final raider’s skull. 

“Done.”

~~~

“Do you have a place to go?” I asked the mare we had rescued inside of the supermarket.

The mare coughed before nodding. “Neigh Vegas. It’s about an hour’s walk west from here.”

According to Watcher, the “Society” was a large plantation built inside of a prison’s perimeters about a century ago. The prison itself was deteriorating, so ponies had gathered scraps from other ruined buildings and put it together best they could. A small town was built around it, protected by the walls of the prison. It was about a two hour’s walk north from Neigh Vegas. 

“We’ll go with you.” I reassured the shaken and tired mare. “Right Red?”

“I don’t care as long as we head north at some point,” he replied, “I’ve got business to take care of.”

“Where do you need to go?” I asked.

“Does it matter to you?”

“Yes, I’m tagging along.”

“Then you’ll find out when we get there.”

Without another word, he started heading towards Neigh Vegas, leaving the bloodied mare and I behind.

As the mare had said, the city was an hours walk away. I could see the silhouette of the city looming over the barren and empty wastes. While the buildings rose high above any debris for miles around it, the entire city seemed to fit in with the setting perfectly. Neigh Vegas was surrounded by a high fence, rising at about twenty feet. The metal that composed it was scratched beyond a smooth surface. Every piece of it was dented in someway, having been thrown together from a hundred different sources. It was as though the fence itself could tell the story of the wasteland. 

As we neared closer to the city, I noticed that the pony we had saved from the raiders had stumbled. I didn’t know when she began to suffer. But now I saw her struggling to keep moving, every breath obviously painful. 

“Are you ok?” I asked without thinking. Of course she wasn’t, she had been beaten and used for Celestia knows how long.

“Yeah, I…” the mare breathed as though she had stones grinding her lungs.

Her coordination wavered a bit as she forced herself to keep going, before she finally dropped to the floor in exhaustion. She exhaled pathetically as her eyes began to close.

“No!” I rushed to her side. “Come on, stay with us!”

“Don’t worry, I’m just tired…” the mare coughed out. “I just need a nap…”

“Stay awake! Tell me, tell me your name!”

“A...A-” Her eyes closed. 

“Red, help me get her on my back!”

~~~

Angel Beats. It was too beautiful a name for such a beaten and broken spirit. Ms. Beats was the Neigh Vegas’ prized singer, one of the main attractions that brought the city revenue. But I doubted she would be helping reap in any cash in her current state. The prized singer was now in a infirmary, being treated for physical ailments and trauma. 

“I really do hope she recovers quickly,” I told Red, “She really has been through a lot.”

“All of the beatings and rape ended with an extra fifty caps in my pocket, so I am fine with it.” he replied. 

At that point, Red had to sidestep quickly to his left to avoid getting bashed on the head by my falling metal limb. I was immediately smacked back by the butt of his hunting rifle, flipped over, and pinned  onto the floor. The next thing I saw was Red holding a blade to my neck and looking me dead in the eye. I thrashed around trying to throw him off of me. He smacked his head into mine, causing me to howl in pain. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Red hissed at me, “Are you really so mentally deficient as to try to attack me?”

“What’s wrong with me?! What’s wrong with you, you callous bastard!” I shrieked at him, “I can’t believe you just justified rape through petty bottlecaps!”

“Listen, just calm your shit. These types of things happen all the time out there. We got her out of there, and returned her to safety.”

Taking in deep breaths, I calmed myself until I could no longer feel my heart beating. Red got off of me and helped me up. I looked down at the floor and frowned at it, feeling very odd about the subject. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” I said bitterly. “Lets move, we’ve got the local police watching us now.”

Red stared at me for a few moments with a stoic face before moving. 

We moved quickly throughout the city, trying to keep the unsettling eyes of the police off of us. Neigh Vegas was definitely worth wandering around. It’s high rise buildings couldn’t be found for miles around. The neon lights in the city were everywhere, from the sign on a bar all the way up to the top of the tallest buildings. 

The shops ranged from artillery to strip clubs. Despite my… being, I could see a dozen prostitutes gesturing to me from different locations. I looked nervously back at Red, who didn’t even take his eyes off the path. 

“Are ponies really this lewd?” I asked him. It surprised me that they were actually willing to do such a thing.

“Most won’t give a second thought to taking them to their bed.” he responded. “Go if you want.”

“Maybe later. Lets keep moving.”

“Damn, and here I thought I could get you out of my mane for a little while.”

Choosing to ignore the comment, I kept trotting along the path heading straight for the supply shops. There were a large variety of weapons, ranging from mint condition laser pistols to worn down assault rifles.

Standing at the counter was a large stallion, himself holding a sub-machine gun. He smiled at his potential customers and waved his hoof around ecstatically. 

“Welcome to Steelbuck Weaponry! Home to the largest variety of weapons in Neigh Vegas!” The stallion shook my hoof with glee. “What are you looking for?”

All I ever thought of using was my pistol, but I did still have a few laser pistols, a hunting rifle, and a small variety of ammo that didn’t fit. Also there was the barding I had on me. It worked great for laser pistols, but didn’t do anything for the multitude of bullets that would pierce right through it. 

So I traded in what I didn’t need. Red came up and unpacked his own wares. It was much larger than my own.

“Where did you get all of this stuff?” I asked him.

“Looting the raiders and the containers back  in the supermarket.” he answered, “It’s something everypony knows to do.”

I turned back to the store owner. “I need a solid piece of armor. What have you got?”

“Well if you want a full set, I have some tough leather armor for 300 caps.” He brought out a brown two piece set, along with a brown helmet. 

“I’ll take it.” I counted three hundred caps, and hoofed them over. 

“Thank you.” The shop owner looked over at Red. “And what about you? Do you want to replace that raider armor?”

“I’ll stick with it. Give me fifty .32 armor piercing rounds.” Red responded.

“Customized, eh? Well, since the one eyed one already bought a nice amount off of me, I’ll give you a discount. Two caps to the round, one hundred total.” 

Red took the rounds, counted them, and then paid. He turned around and walked away, with me trailing close behind. 

“Come back now, you hear?” the store owner shouted after us. 

“Lucky you got that discount,” I told Red. 

“I didn’t get a discount.” Red responded.

“But he said-”

“You got stiffed, I got normal price. I didn’t barter because bartering isn’t my thing. I usually just raid the store.”

About ten questions popped into my head. I asked the most obvious one.

“Raided? You mean just attack the store owner and steal the caps?”

“That’s what raiding means, yes.”

“Don’t raiders do that?”

“I am a raider.”

“What!?” I was shocked. “Weren’t you fighting raiders when you met me?”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

“But are you still going to kill innocent ponies to eat them and stuff?”

“I don’t plan on it.”

“ACHOO!” I sneezed, leaving 

Red decided it was time to stop talking and quickly walked towards a ‘restaurant’.
 
Remembering that I was still somewhat peckish even after devouring half a box of cereal, I quickly trotted after him. While our loot in the supermarket was considerable, as proven by my raider companion, it turned out that the raiders within the compound had taken to eating regular food as well as ponies. And after everything I had been through. Greedy motherfuckers. 

I kept up my aura of intense hatred for all things raider until I accidently bumped into Red’s tail. I gave a sheepish smile as he gave me a glare; I let go of the mindset. 

“So what is this place?” I asked. 

“Look for yourself. Find a table, I’m staying in the bar.” Red ordered me. 
        
Deciding it was best to let Red be, I did as I was told. I found an empty metal table, and plopped down on the ancient cushion. The surface of the table was scratched, dented, and dirty beyond sanitary eating conditions. 

However, before I could consider ordering anything, a bright red spot appeared on my table. I moved my head in closer in attempt of getting a better view, but it moved. It flew off the table, onto the floor, and kept moving. I stomped down on it with my hooves, but was disappointed when I didn’t catch it. I chased the red dot, curious to know where it was going.

I moved swiftly beneath tables and past ponies, zipping into an alleyway between two decrepit buildings. The red dot stopped. I looked up, searching for the source of the light. Floating a few feet above my head was a sprite bot.
        
“Never thought that would actually work,” Watcher commented in an amused voice, “I needed to get you away from the crowd. A sprite bot that isn’t playing music is suspicious within itself, let alone one in a city.”

“I didn’t know the wasteland could support the such a community.” I told Watcher, “Doesn’t that make them vulnerable?”

“Definitely. But ponies are social creatures and are much better off in groups than alone. Consider it a reason you need friends.”

“Well, if that’s all, I’m gonna go back to… eat.” Realization struck me. “Hey, you knew about the raiders, didn’t you?”

“Can’t say I didn’t.”

“Why would you lead us there? We nearly got killed!”

“But you saved this city’s prized singer. You saved a poor mare from being used for the rest of her undoubtedly short life, if she had stayed there. I doubt she’ll be able to sing for quite a while, or maybe stop altogether, but that’s still one more good pony walking the wastes.” 

“You sent me in there to save her?”

“That I did.”

“Why?”

The sprite-bot bobbed a little in the air, as though surprised at my question. “The wasteland is filled with scum who wouldn’t lift a hoof to have saved her. Its nice to see some good ponies around. Those who are true to their virtue.”

“Virtue? What do you mean ‘their virtue’?”

“This wasn’t always a wasteland, you know.” Watcher spun around, as though to look at the horizon. “Equestria used to be a prosperous land, filled with well-intentioned ponies who weren’t trying to kill each other. It was a country of peace and harmony, ruled by two princesses--”

“Celestia and Luna…” I interrupted. 

“Yes. The country was protected by a group of six friends, Equestria’s greatest heros. They had unbreakable bonds of friendship, which fueled their strength. Each one exemplified a single virtue more than the others. Laughter --”

“L-”

“Yes, laughter is a virtue,” Watcher spoke quickly. “Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity--”

“Magic…” I had no idea where the information had come from.

Watcher coughed. “Uh, yes. How did you know?”

“I don’t know. It just popped up.” I put a hoof to my forehead. My consciousness felt as though it was swimming in ink.  

“Those aren’t the only virtues, they were just a bit more important than most. If you find your virtue, then you won’t need anyone to tell you who you are, or what your place is.”
        
“You mean I have to find it myself?”

“Yes, ...um. What was it that you called yourself?”

I raised an eyebrow. “The only title I have is E-R3. But Red calls me ‘Winks’”. Why?” 

Watcher didn’t respond. The sprite-bot only bobbed up and down in the air, but remained speechless. Further questioning did nothing. 

I picked up a few small pieces of rubble in the alley. Taking a single stone in my hoof at a time, I tossed them one by one at the silent sprite-bot. “Hey Watcher. Watcher. Watcher.” The rocks bounced harmlessly off the sprite-bot with metallic clangs. The fifth rock was in mid-flight when the up-beat, polka music began to play again. As soon as the rock hit the machine, the music stopped. A small probe extended from the metal chassis. 

“Identify yourself.” A new voice spoke.

“Um, achoo?” I tried. 

Lasers began.

I took cover behind a large piece of building that had conveniently fallen a long time ago. Pulling out my hunting rifle, I fumbled with the clips as I loaded them in, so much that they all dropped to the floor. Desperately trying to pick them up, I noticed a blinking option on my Pipbuck. 
        
“Enter SATS?”

Why the hell not?

The world slowed down, moving at a tiny fraction of it’s original pace. The lasers flying through the air were now visually followable. Through my cyber eye, I could see figures rapidly settling down to stable values, all percentages. There were about a dozen little bubbles originating from various parts of the sprite-bots body. 

Watcher had told me about this. SATS stood for Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell, and was meant to help me quickly and accurately aim and fire at targets. The figures must be the probability of a successful hit. 

Switching for my pistol, I aimed for the laser pointers of the sprite-bot, planning to disarm it. The bullets flew into the air, much slower than they were supposed to. They entered the robot slowly, making a good show of the crippling metal and the breaking glass. 

Time resumed its normal pace as the entire spritebot exploded, sending searing metal in all directions. 

Shifting around the heap of now broken spritebot, I found nothing but a few odd looking batteries. supposedly the ammunition for the laser weapons inside of the floating bot. 

Carrying my new loot, I made my way back to the table where I was originally sitting. Red had already left, so I ordered the first thing on the menu, and ate alone when it arrived. 

It wasn’t until I had finished when I realized that Angel would have recovered her consciousness by now, according to the pony we left her with. I began to gallop away when I was stopped by the ground blowing up in front of me. I spun around and saw the source of the dancing dirt. The store owner was shaking his head at me while toying with the automatic shotgun in his hooves. I gave him a questioning glare.

“You forgot to pay.”

--- 

“Took you long enough.” 

Red looked over from his spot on the floor and then closed his eyes. 

“I ran into… a situation.” I offered, wiping to the sweat of my brow. 

“Hmm?”

My ears perked up as I traced the voice back to Angel.

She was still laying on her bed, head and eyes turned up towards the ceiling, but at least she was conscious now. I carefully walked over to Angel, making sure that not to bump into the bed she was laying on. Considering what she had gone through, it was nice to see that she was recovering. 

        “Are you feeling better, Ms. Beats?” I asked. 

        “Tons. Thank you for getting me out of that horrid place, I really do appreciate it,” she responded.

        “Not a problem Ms. Be-”

        “Angel, call me Angel. The gate security told you, huh?”
        “Well, it makes sense they would be happy to see their star entertainer.”

        “...Right…”

 Angel shuffled in her bed, pulling herself up to sitting position with some trouble. I started to move in order to help her settle, but she put up a hoof and continued.

“I have to get back up on my own hooves soon, I’m already scheduled for a show tonight.”

I stared in disbelief. “In your condition? They can’t do that!”

“No, it’s fine, I’ll manage. The show must go one, as they say.”

I looked at Angel worriedly. She ignored my empathy, and suddenly brightened up considerably. 

“I’d like to thank you both for saving me, so feel free to stay at my home if you need to.”

“We-” I looked at Red, “I wouldn’t want to impose.” Red probably wouldn’t have cared. 

        “It’s not a problem at all. It’s pretty big, given my salary, and I’m the only one there, it could use some filling up. Mind you, if you attempt to try or take anything, I have a group of guards ready around the clock. Perks of singing for the entertainment of the wastes.”

        “Bu-”

        “I say you take the offer, Winks.” Red spoke up. “It’s probably the safest place to stay for now.” 

        “Also, I would like to invite you two to my show tonight at 8. I can get you two in for free, I’m sure my boss will understand,” Angel said.

        “Winks, you go to it. I’m going to pick up the things back at the broken down carriage.” 

        “Alo-”

        “Yes, alone. Don’t come with, you’ll only slow me down and attract trouble with that cold of yours.” 
        “Hey, it’s not my fault,” I replied.

        Red picked himself up from the floor and headed for the exit. 

        “You’re leaving now?” I asked with disbelief. 

        “It’s a long ways from here, and i’ll have to be moving carefully,” Red replied. “I’m most likely going to have to move carefully, so I’m going to be back long after the show.”

        Without another word, he trotted past me and out the door. i wasn’t sure what to do at that point. I definitely couldn’t leave the city, my head would be rolling in a matter of minutes. Hell, it still could, judging by the incident with Watcher. I had nothing to do for the next few hours. 

        “Come here, Winks.” Angel requested.

        “My name isn’t Winks,” I told her. 

        “Then what is it?” she asked.

        Though I was expecting it, the question still hit me hard. “I don’t actually know,” I responded. 

        I explained my situation to Angel, who sat there patiently through the whole story. I explained how I woke amongst metal and data, and how I broke out. I left out the part about how I got the cold. Running through the airship and escaping, touching down, and the raider compound. What I left out was my overly complicated existential crisis. 

        “Just call me E-R3,” I finished up. “That’s what the first pony who appeared called me.”

        “Alright.” Angel looked down at the floor. “Now help me up, I have to go get ready for the show.”

        With some difficulty, Angel stood on her four hooves. After notifying the doctor that she was leaving, Angel made her way towards her home. It was within a few minutes of the infirmary, and very close to the Vegas Beats Theater.

        “I perform right over there.” Angel pointed down the street. 

        The Vegas Beats Theater towered over every other building in the city. Neon lettering was fixed to the top of the two connected buildings, its blinding bright lights beaming, as if to scream “VEGAS BEATS!” to the wastes. The buildings themselves were very noticeable. They did not follow the standard model of a rectangular base, but instead opted to form a sizable section of a cylinder, perhaps a third. Some of the curved glass panes on the buildings were broken, but mostly served to create a large, curved, orange mirror.  It was undoubtedly selling itself to the wastes, to any and all that took noticed.

        Keys jingled as Angel unsteadily unlocked her front door. Considering what I had seen on the way here, it was a reasonably large home. Even though an obvious effort was made to make the home look newer, the signs of age still bled through in the form of cracks in the wall, and the chipped tiles of the floor. 

        “Make yourself at home.” Angel gestured to a couch behind me as she left the living room.

        As I turned around, I smacked right into one of the largest stallions I have ever seen and promptly fell to the ground. Desperately attempting to bring stand back up, two hooves grabbed my sides, and hoisted me upwards. I flailed in a panic before I was placed on my hooves, upright on the ground. 

“Watch yourself, tin pony,” a guard said, before both of them left the house, closing the door behind them. 

I nervously backed away from the door and settled down on the floor. Some shifting around in my saddlebags yielded the map that I had taken off of Flippy Bit’s father. 

Laying the old map across the floor, I began to draw the path I had taken based on the relative locations of Neigh Vegas and the only lone standing supermarket in the area. Apparently “Lone Roads Supermarket” had a consumer target of travelers. It turned out that the “Society” ended up being several hours south of Vegas. 

The number “1000” was still over the scribbled name “The Society”, circled in charcoal. 

I had to look for Flippy Bit and his sister. Besides owing it to them for slaughtering their father, I also couldn’t stand the idea of the two of them being in...possession. Because of all of this, I decided I would get them out of the society. I just had to wait until tomorrow, when daybreak hit the wastes. 

~~~

        Red had decided to take his time last night, Angel had long finished her performance when he came through the door. The stallion was covered in saddlebags, somehow all perfectly balanced on his back. 


        Throughout the performance, all I could think about was Flippy Bit and his sister. I was too engulfed in guilt to enjoy the show. Surely the ones who had taken them away were slavers, but I couldn’t imagine them being called a “Society”. It most likely meant that they sold it to the place called the Society, for one thousand caps, as marked on the map. Red’s entrance snapped me out of my thoughts. 

“We’re going to save these foals.” I told him, holding up a map.

Red set down the bags and looked at the map in my hooves. 

“The Society won’t take kindly to losing their ‘possessions’. They’re going to want to make us pay.” Red alerted.

“Well, their father had left a huge bag of caps. He was going to spend buy them back. We can use those.” I suggested.

“He didn’t have enough firepower. The Society isn’t going to get a single one of these caps.”

“How are we going to get them out, then?”

“If they don’t listen, we fight.”

“Are you sure we will be able to take them? I mean, I’m not sure how big the society is, but they sound like a well funded bunch.”

“All they ever do is hide behind their guards, if we take them out, then we basically run the place.”

“Oh, is Red finally back?” Angel walked into the living room, face now clean of her performance make up. “What to you so long?”

“Turns out some slavers found the bags, took me a while to pick them off. They kept using the carriage as cover.” He replied. 

I looked at the bags Red had placed on the floor. I noticed then that they were much larger than the when we had left the behind to explore the supermarket. I wondered what else Red had picked up from the slavers.

“Well, you two should probably wait until tomorrow.” Angel suggested. “Rest up and wait for the skies to brighten so you can actually see.”

Red quietly agreed by walking over to the old sofa and laying down before closing his eyes. So it was decided that we would go to the Society the next day.