> The Unfortunate Scavenger
>  by zsewqthewolf
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue (grammar fix)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the days of man, we had fought over everything to survive, but after a battle with Mother Nature, we had made and had always come out of the winning end.

After years of fighting with nature, we had become more than a mindless animal. We had become more than a sapient species that had done everything to survive. We had become aware of our cleverness and became more than we were.

War is an everlasting factor in life; an ant colony fights other ants for a resource like food and things to keep life going for its workers and its own population to survive. But unlike them, we fought,  rebuilt, and learned to become better and smarter to survive in an ever changing world, making tools to fight the wildlife and even our own kind.

Minutes turn into hours, hours into years, and years into centuries. After so many centuries, in the years of the 20th century, mankind now has the power to end the world as they known it.

But lucky for them, they backed up from blowing up Earth, but the power of the feared weapon was not let go of the coming years and they slowly, one by one, were being disabled, but some things never change as they just prolong the inevitable.
In 2000 to 2020's was a time of looking for newer and renewable energy, but the quest had never reached their goal. And in 2024, the oil resources were depleting.

Oil rich countries, like Iraq and many others from the Middle East, had lost almost all of their oil due to their oil rigs catching fire and burning out of hand along with the supplies of oil with it.

It was then in 2028, the spark of war, as the UN had a meeting to negotiate, but things didn't turn well and the UN conference turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding and bickering among each other, what lit the first spark to an inevitable war.
The flames were small at first but turned into a roaring fire in 2029. WWIII started off when North Korea attacked South Korea, Europe Union fighting with the new Middle-Eastern Alliance for its remaining oil, so beginning a war that would be the cleaning of everything on the face of Earth.

The remaining countries tried to fix this by finding new power sources to make more energy while others began to research for new weapons in case they got involved in the war.

After 2031, scientists in weapon research in the USA had developed an all new nuke-like weapon. But unlike the ones that can obliterate entire cities, this one will not leave behind the horrendous fallout and radiation, Unfortunately, it came too late to change the outcome of the war. 

June 27 1:05 pm of 2032 was the time that the great war ended in a fiery hell...

People from all over the world ran to safety and hid away wherever they could, hoping that the bomb's effects would not kill them: a strange gas that melted the lungs if an individual inhaled it. The survival from the horrendous event thought that this would be the end of humanity. But this was only the beginning of a new age in the world. The flames of the great war finally died, leaving behind only ashes and cities in ruins, but this allowed a new society to rise up from it to begin a new era.

New nations and tribal societies rebuilt what was left of the world and changed it. As time went on, people rebuilt from the old and created a new age. But some things never change. Ten years after the bombs fell, people were at war once more for ideology, power, and survival, creating a new age called The Wasteland Age. During this period, mankind had gone back to the Dark Age mixed with the old Wild West, having now made the world a place ruled under the law of "Survival Of The Fittest," where things like fighting to stay alive and carrying a gun turned out to be as common as death.

But there was a group of people that still held kindness in their hearts during those dark times located at the California Wasteland up in the mountains, inside bunkers built before the Great War even started, naming themselves "The Preppers".

The Preppers were a faction group that had skills from the old world and had their minds set up to help anyone in need and protect anybody they saw, rebuilding the world that was almost forgotten.

Most of their members had picked up jobs in the Wasteland to help people as they could, and that's how we meet our protagonist in the Plains Wasteland.
> Chapter 1: Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	 I wake up with my motherfucking alarm clock ringing like a bitch. I groan loudly and glance at the clock: 9:24 A.M.

"Goddamnit! I really hibernated this time!" I say to myself while the alarm's awkward music still echoed through my trailer.
I sleep lightly most of the time, but this time it was some deep slumber. Really. I rarely get those in this world. I loved it when I was still in the bunker. That place was perfect to pass the time next to a fire, target practice with my buddies, inspect scavenged guns for fun or playing some incredibly functional video games from the old world, with some  new ones made in the bunker.

That alarm clock kept ringing as if it was ordering me to get up and continue my trip.
I turn to the other side of the bed, my laziness keeping me from getting up, but, I wanted some more sleep before getting ready for the day. So I did what I've always wanted to do when this thing wouldn't shut up: I slipped my right hand under the pillow I was sleeping on. As I did so, I got hold of my trusty pistol. I pull it out from underneath from my pillow and lay down on my back, trying to guess where that fucking alarm clock were. I pull the slide to make sure the gun was loaded, and with a quick movement from my finger, I pull the trigger of the handgun, a loud bang nearly deafening me, my right ear being able to hear only an infernal high pitched ring. When my ear got back to normal, I could only see the brutalized remains of the alarm clock. Satisfied, I leave my pistol on the ground.
I slowly open my eyes and look at the cracked ceiling of my so called home. It was the trailer in which I lived in since my superiors authorized me to do some work in this wasteland. It wasn't the best, but it really protected me from that ground-cracking sun.

I got up the bed that was laying on the floor: it was nothing more than one of those cheap sleeping bags, really. I walk inside my trailer's interior, seeing the same thing I've always seen in this trailer. The living area had a small oven that I used to cook some food, even though I still question myself on how this thing still work. I turn myself to somewhat of a work area, which contained a small desk with thousands of papers and mags for my pistol. I  looking at the fourth window, seeing the back of the car that keeps this big fucker moving. As enter turn in the small bathroom, I take a look at myself like always. I was in my black boxers, who were a little dirty. I look up, seeing the still drowsy expression. clear on my face. My dark black hair was even more messed than it already was.

I then leave the bathroom after peeing, and glance at the back of the trailer, seeing that I still had 5 gallons of water, more than I expected. If I remember right, my job is to map out a safe route to the Lone Star Wasteland. Safe my ass, cuz just last week I was attacked by those damned desert bandits, and boy, they really gave me a fight. My trailer still had the scars of the battle, even I had some. I small one over my left eye, and some on my arms. I then grab a cup and turn the small handle located at the gallon, which had a tip under it.

I then turn it off when the cup was full of water, and leave it over my sink it on the side as I grab my toothbrush and put some water on it and do what I always did. Brushing my teeth, I begin to think of what to do on my trip and how to get to Lone Star without running into more bandits, raiders and hunters. Sure, the bandits are easy to handle but the raiders are in their own league and the hunters are hard as fuck to deal with. Sure, you can talk your way out with one of them, but when they're in groups, they would rather kill you then talk to ya.

I stop brushing and spitted to clean the last of the toothpaste from my mouth. I look to the area that I liked to call a shower, where a big bucket of water sitted on it, alongside the soap and a lemon & chamomile Pre-war shampoo bar. Thinking about it, I NEEDED a shower from last night. It was hot as hell, but I was getting used to it, after all I’m like, what, two days from making it to the wasteland I was going to.
Ya that’s right I was going to map a route from the New Kansa to the Lone Star Republic, the objective of this being making trading easier for the caravans so they could trade weapons and other vital supplies.

I take off my boxers and throw them aside as I take somewhat of a bath. This will be my last bath for two or three days, anyway, so why not?

As I got in, I sat down on a chair that is hooked in the wall, and began to clean myself, washing all the sweat and dirt I got from last night from sleeping on the sleeping bag.

Stepping out of the so-called shower, I grabbed the towel that was hanging on a small rusty rack on the side of the sink and dry myself off. After doing so, I picked up my black boxer and put them back on and left the towel back where it was.

Now I just wanted to eat something, simple but hunger-killing, to get ready for the long day ahead. I take few steps to the makeshift kitchen of this trailer. I open the only cabinet, in hope of finding something good to eat.. Sure, most of them were from killing those assholes but, hey, they got what was coming to them for attacking a Prepper.

“Let’s see what am feeling in the mood for this morning...“ I say out loud to no one but myself. I take a look at the great collection of canned goods, spotting some many pork n beans. My stomach does a backflip the second I thought of eating them. No, I've had way too much of those lately and I am losing my appetite to eat more of them, and my favorite red robin seasoning is running low like twenty-five percent is left so, no, I will have to go on with the beans until I get more or make more of that. I look for anything else and find some beef and some canned sloppy joe sauce. 

shrug and just grab those two and put them on the table. I wanted something cold to drink. I open up my mini refrigerator I scavenge in my the first week on the wasteland, having it hooked it up to a  pre-war car battery.

I look close inside the refrigerator not just for looking for drinks, because I was enjoying the cold air that came out of the it. So damn cool. Sure, I can turn on the small fan that I have, but that thing simply eats energy like hell. I mean, one battery box fully charged would only keep it running for like, what, six hours.

I then shift my attention back to the refrigerator's interior, seeing a two liter soda and a three liter full of Kool Aid. I accidentally mixed Kool Aid with some alcohol during a desperate need of getting drunk. As I grabbed a can-opener, I was wondering what people from Lone Star do in that place. I heard from those guys that hired me saying that they're hard workers, stuff like that. But then, one of them said that they were called 'old school red necks'. I don’t know what that is so I guess I will have to wait to find out.

After cooking my meal I sit on the sofa that had a radio and cd player on the right side and on it's left was high-end laptop I had with me when I was living in the bunkers. Well, even though it's high end, it's systems fried, so I'm looking for parts to fix it. I guess that the reason for it's system fry was because I've put a shitload of video games on there. A quick thought of masturbating passed through my head, but then I remembered that they have good women there, so saving a good load was a great idea.

Before even eating, I turned to the cd radio player and hit the 'on' button, a song echoing inside my trailer. It's  'Ain't No Rest For the Wicked' by Cage The Elephant. This song is truly about what this world is now. 
I turn back to my meal. I was eating on the sofa for two reasons: One: there a huge ass bag of stuff from that fight, that I still I never looked at the loot I found from those assholes I killed. Two: i didn’t want to eat on my blanket until I cleaned it off with about 10 gallons of water, because I fucked a hooker there and made a hella of a mess. I didn’t want to eat where I fucked someone's mind out of her head. Sure, I fucked women on the sofa but at least I've left a blanket so i have to just clean up, but that would take days to clean, right?

It’s a good thing I've put on a condom. Who knows what the heck she had under there.  I then relax while eating my lunch while listening to the music. After I swallowed the last bean from the can, I stood up and walked to my bedroom and grabbed the bag that was on the table and carried it with me to the bedroom.
I leave the bag on the work table, and begin to check it's content.

I open the bag and pull out all the weapons I looted from the bandits I killed.  I take them out one by one. Now, lets see what we have here.

I pick up the first weapon, examining it closely. It was a SMG. A shitty ass one, too. No wonder why that guy was having a tough time trying to hit me with all it. The gun’s barrel was completely damaged. If I had any doubt that this thing wasn’t shitty, it just got vanished from my mind as the trigger simply fell from it’s place. Well, lets hope that those things can be worth some Lone Star bills.

Next weapon was also a SMG. And it was worser than the last one I examined. Hell, it looked like it was held by duct tape… and it was with nuts and bolts. It had a mag attached to it, probably letting it ready for any occasion. Maybe it’ll help me get some of Lone Star’s currency, too

Ok, now moving on. Lets see the pistols. Most of them are nothing more than the most common ones. Most of them were 9mm but two used 40. S&W and one was a 45. ACP. The last one in the group was an improvised pistol that used 32. ACP rounds in a 19 round magazine. With all those guns, I bet that I can make some money to buy more things to my trailer in order to make it more home-like.

Now for the big guys. Hehe. Ummm... a shotgun that is 12ga. Too bad that it’s the only shotgun. I like them so much. Moving on to the assault rifles and carbines...  two of them one look like shit, their parts being tied together with duct tape. The ones who appeared to be on good condition were a good ol’ AK-47, an AR series, and a beaten up M4A1.

They had some makeshift rifles too, but they were completely falling apart.The last one was a sniper rifle. And, a crude one if you ask me. The scope was nothing more than a beer bottle tied up with duct tape. It looked like a hunting rifle with poor makeshift repairs, to be honest. I think I’ll sell it and save up some money to buy a decent sniper rifle.

But moving on to the ammo, I have to say there’s not a lot of it, maybe that’s because they used all of  it at the firefight.
After all that examining, I can say that I can make some money to buy more gas and food, and maybe a good hooker, alongside with some beer at the bar or some junk food.

I put all the gear in a metal box located under the table I worked on. I always do this: I make drawings of the guns I can take, and put them in a cotton-like bag. After that, I put them in there and side the sketches I mad, so I can have some knowledge on the guns that I find. I did that with video games and other eletronic stuff that I found out there, but those weren’t that important.

After that now it was time for me to get ready for work, meaning putting my gear on. I then go inside the small area that I called my bedroom. It had a small bedside cabinet where I stored my clothing.

I then grab my gear: a black T-shirt under a midnight blue hoodie, some black cargo pants, military-like boots. My headgear was simply the hoodie to protect me from this skin-burining sun, a bandana to cover my mouth and nose and snowboarding goggles to keep anonymity. The bandana was dark blue with the Prepper’s logo, a baseball bat crossed with a rifle with a skull just under it,, alerting anyone of my Prepper affiliation. I then take the vest that I always wear to carry ammo and other things. After that, I put on the army backpack call All-Purpose Lightweight Individual Carrying Equipment, or ALICE. Mine was the larger model of it. I put it on and grab my three guns I carried: a double barreled shotgun, my trusty AK like weapon, and my last one, my handgun. It was an old world one pre-war pistol, the Taurus PT92 9mm, alongside my now fixed switchblade .

The last thing i put on was my dog tag with my name and all that stuff they put on it.
I then left my trailer, fully equipped and geared up. The Sun’s heat greeted me brutally, and after taking a look around, I could already feel sweat drips dripping on my face.

I walk to my pickup truck that used to have 5 seats, but I removed so I could put more stuff in there like gas and supplies. I near the driver’s seat door, wiping some sand from the window. I open the door to the driver’s seat. I quickly leave my shotgun on the other seat. I then insert its keys, and hit the radio/cd player and put on some music for the ride.
I then turn the volume to the max, and then, I was ready for a long ride, filled with music of old rock n’ roll, ‘Highway Star’ by Deep Purple to be more exact.

Now, I payed attention to the road because this will be a long drive.


A few hours later…


I see that it was already sunset. My ass was getting flatter every second that passed. Maybe, I’ll stumble upon a town.


Two hours later…


The sun is now down and night had taken over. I can’t see a thing in the desert because the car’s headlight’s broke during a crash, so I guess It’s time to go to sleep. “What a boring ass day. I would love to hunt, but I’m in a dead desert. Shit…”

I stop the car and grab all my gear and stuff. I open the door of the car and walk back to my trailer. ‘’Man, I really need something to do after those trips. Something really fun“ I say out loud to myself...  Yeah, I really need a pet to talk to, like, a rooster would do great.

I open the door to my trailer. I was getting sleepy, very sleepy. I then remove my gear, leaving it over my desk.
I walk to my sleeping area and lay down on it. My eyes then slowly close, and I relaxed, waiting for a good night’s sleep.  Before I could fall into heavy slumber, a loud thunder deafened me for seconds. My eyes shot open and sit up fast to look out the window. The sky was red…. “Holy motherfucking shit... “ I say to myself. I then stood up and stared out through the window and my blood just got cold.

It was red rain, no one no knows why but it’s very, very rare. When it happens, it could kill any fool dumb enough to stand during it. The liquid that falls from the sky acts like a skin-burning acid, leaving only the poor fella’s bones behind. I then open the trailer’s door, ready to leap for my car’s driver seat door. I take some seconds to calculate the length of the jump. Taking a long breath and swallowing the lump in my throat, I launch myself into the air…
As if God hated me, something just scored a direct hit on me. I lose the momentum and fall on my back on the desert’s sand. My body felt weak, and as the acid drips touched my body, I just closed my eyes, knowing that I couldn’t get out of this one. Then, everything went white


###


The small town of ponyville was getting ready for the night. Some ponies were still closing their shop’s doors, while others headed to their respective homes, or just gazed at the star-filled night sky. Indeed. It was a beautiful night in Ponyville.

Twilight Sparkle quietly read a book on her desk, her legs tiring from being on that position. She, however, ignored the tiredness and concentrated again on her impressively thick book. She was prepared for another sleepless night. 

Suddenly, the candle-lit room was lighted up by a bright red light. The lavender alicorn jumped from the quick earthshake, who put the princess on high alert. She swiftly went upstairs, and watched over Ponyville. Within seconds, the bright red light that woke every single soul in Ponyville and it’s surroundings painted the skies with a deep crimson red, earning gasps and shrieks of panic.

Twilight watched wordlessly the now red night sky. She then looked down at the streets of Ponyville: ponies screamed and runned around, eventually locking their doors. This killed Twilight’s plan of calming everypony. She remained speechless until a blur of cyan was spotted flying around.

The blur turned out to be Rainbow Dash, who breathed heavily, sweat drips coming down from her face.

“Twilight! Did you see that?!?” She asked her friend, who still analyzed the situation with shock and awe.

“Yes, Rainbow! It was some kind of a red lightning!” She then pondered at the image of the menacing lightning descending from the clouds. The duo looked behind to see Spike carrying a letter.

“Hey Twilight, you’ve got to read what Celestia has said in her letter,“ Spike said from behind, catching both Twilight’s and Rainbow’s attention. He opened the letter to read to Twilight, but before he could deliver his speech, three other ponies ran up to the tree house. Spike quickly went downstairs, and after opening the door, he greeted them: 

“Oh, hello Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. So, I guess that you girls are here because of the red lightning?” They all nodded swiftly at his question on the oblivious.

“You bet! I came here to find out what the hay was that, and why the sky is red “ She said at the baby dragon with a thick southern accent.

"Y-E-A-H!!!! It completely ruined my chocolate souffle I was making for my nighttime snack!" The pink party pony nearly yelled, and after putting both hooves inside Applejack's hat, she showed the group a destroyed souffle, earning gasps from her friends.

“Pinkie how in the world ya…never mind“ The orange farm pony interrupted herself when she realized that she was asking the unanswerable.

“I must say that this is just dreadful. And to make it worse, I was cruelly woken up from my angelical and beautiful sleep.“ Rarity completed, taking an overly dramatic pose.

“Now is not the time to to talk about’ sleep, Rares.“ Applejack assumed a serious expression, making her white-coated friend lose her dramatic composure. The trio then rushed upstairs, followed by a letter carrying Spike.

They reached Twilight’s balcony in no time, seeing that the lavender princess examined the wine-tinted sky with interest. Noticing their presence, Twilight turned to see her friends: 

“Okay, everypony. Let’s hear what Celestia sent me..” Twilight then gazed at her dragon assistant, allowing him to read the letter.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

As of now you must have got knowledge of the loud thunder and that the skies have turned red. I want you and the others go into the Everfree to investigate. It shouldn’t be difficult to find the exact place where the lightning had hit, mainly because now a trail of smoke is rising from it.

Also, be very careful as you go into the forest, and send me a reply as soon as you find anything worth a point out..

Yours truly,

Princess Celestia

“Ok, everypony! Let’s get to the lightning’s crash site, pronto… Wait, where’s Fluttersh?!” Twilight said to everyone around her, now looking for one of her friends. The others did the same and Rainbow said out loud: 

“Oh, dang. She must be under her bed hiding from what happened early.” The rainbow-maned pegasus then sighed annoyed.

“Let’s go to Fluttershy cottage and bring her along. We met need help dealing with the animals in the Everfree.” Twilight then rushed with her friends after Spike mounted on her back, leaving a trail of dust behind them. 

After a few minutes of walk, the group reached Fluttershy's cottage. Rainbow Dash knocked on the door of the cottage 

“Hey Fluttershy, it’s ok to come out. now we need your help. Don’t worry about the red sky anymore. It’s gone now when we got here.” True to her words, the skies above them were losing it’s dark crimson.

The shy pegasus finally opened her door, only exposing half of her face. 

“W-what do you need my help for?” She say hiding her face in her mane. Twilight then neared her: 

“We need to go into the Everfree to find out what’s going on in there.”

“B-b-but why we have to go now? Can’t we go in the daytime, where it’s safer to go in at least?” 

“Fluttershy, my dear. There may be lot’s of wounded animals in there. Why wouldn’t you help them?” Rarity tried to persuade her friend with the best of her abilities.

“Ok, ok, I’ll go then, if you really need me. O-only if you don’t mind… of course.” Fluttershy then left the cottage in which she lived in. After that, the Elements Of Harmony began their sprint into the Everfree Forest...
> Chapter 2: Meeting the locals (Edit by ItIsASillyLittleGame)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A griffin lay on the wooden floor, covered in blankets. She was in pain from hitting her head on the bottom a the shelf that she had over her bed.. 

“Why did I build that bookshelf over my bed? I should’ve have known to put it on the side!” she said to herself, getting back onto her paws and talons.

While rubbing the front of her head, she gave a low sigh as she picked up the blankets and made her bed.

She walked around her makeshift home as she looked for a candle to light. She was about to open the window when she stopped herself and thought out loud, “Why am I opening a window, even though by now it's night?” She turned around to an area filled with cooking supplies. walked to her icebox and opened the top of it, looking inside.
Since griffins were well known for their night vision, she was able to ascertain - even with it being this dark - whether there was any ice left.. 

“Looks like I’ll need to buy more ice, soon” she noted, before closing the lid.

The cooler had contained one last piece of meat. “Looks like I have to go hunting tonight, after all,” she said, carrying the cooler over towards the fireplace.  An iron grill sat atop the hearth, upon which sat a steel cooking pot.   Taking the last morsel of meat from the icebox, she cut it into smaller pieces with her claws and placed the chunks into the pot.  Drawing some potatoes and carrots from bags sitting next to the fireplace, she cut those and added them as well. Using a cotton ball and a flint-steel, she managed to get a fire going under the grill.  She added some seasoning into the pot for additional flavour, allow the mixture to cook for almost an hour.  Once ready, she took a fork and ate her meal directly from the steel pot from off the grill.

Having finished her meal and leaving the pot back in the fireplace,  she walked into another room of the house which was filled with gear, maps and more. “Let’s see what I need for this hunting trip,” she said to herself. She picked up her saddlebags that were hanging by the side of the door and walked to the left towards what looked like a workbench that had a one claw crossbow sitting on it. She picked it up and looked at it to see what it needed to get it back into working order. The crossbow was very old and worn down from years of use. The hemp string was looking like it was about to break and the steel limbs that held the string looked to be on their way out as well.  The wooden stock was cracked here and there and the iron trigger was rusty.

“I really need to buy a new one, but am low on bits - big time… I guess I can replace the string on it and make it last a little longer,” she said,  as she opened a wooden tool box. She found some spare wire which she used to replace the badly worn section on the crossbow. After putting her map away, she walked to the side of the table and grabbed one broadhead arrow and two crudely made arrows.

With all of that done, she loaded an arrow into the crossbow, opened the window in the room and flew off to the Everfree woods to hunt for food.


###


‘Ah God, my head fucking hurts … and why is the ground so soft now?’ I was thinking to myself, opening my eyes to see … ‘Trees?’ I sit upright, as slowly as I can to ease the headache I’ve gotten from that whatever that was.  Looking left-to-right, I can see trees, plants, and other things I am sure are not in the wasteland I was traveling through. “Where the hell am I?” I say out loud to no one. The only wasteland areas I know of that even have trees are in the Californian Wasteland, the Dakota Wastes and the Midwest Wastelands. Heck, even the Canadian Wasteland have them all over -  well, that and their capital was only hit by a nuke once.

I get back up as my headache passes and look at the gear I have on me at the moment.  I open pockets and feel for anything I have on me. ‘Let’s see - a lighter, some beef jerky and a switchblade with my key to the car. Not a lot, but hey it’s something.’

I take the grabbing the lighter I have and light it to help me look for my car and trailer I have with me. As I do a three-sixty, I see it right there, not too far from where I'm standing. Walking towards it with my lighter I can see now that I can’t get into it the way I’ve always done.

The door is blocked by a tree.  I can drive to get out of the way, but there's another tree in front of it and at the back of it as well.  The vehicle is quite firmly boxed in. ‘Just great, how am I going to get in to get my stuff now?’ I’m thinking to myself at that moment, as a recollection hits me like a bag of lead.
‘Of course, I forgot about the ceiling of the trailer having a door to it!’ Slapping myself in my forehead, I go back of the trailer and climb up the ladder, clawing on top of the roof in order to find the door.

‘Great, now all I have to do now is to open this door and... you have got to be kidding me!” I yell to myself for being so stupid. It's obvious that it's locked, smartass! My usual bad luck strikes again. Looking a little more closely at the door, I can see how I'm going to get in now. The door hinges are fixed on the outside - I can  just unscrew them and get inside that way.  Once I have my stuff, I’ll be ready for a long ass walk to find a city or anything really out here.

I jump down to look for something to unscrew the hinges with. After a few minutes of looking for anything that can act like a screwdriver with my lighter on hand, I could see something spinning in the dark.  It’s my multitool laying there. “Finally, something good happening!” I shout out loud. I was about to go and pick it up when something else grabs it and runs to a hole under a big tree. “Just my luck…” Inside of me, I just slap myself in the head.

I walk to the tree to look in the hole, and sure enough, it’s a fox in there holding my multitool in its mouth. “Okay, little guy i'm just going to get this back and…” I yell out in pain,  as the damn fucker  bites my my hand as I was getting close to my tool. “Motherfucker and fuck me sideways that fucking hurts!” I’m yelling, holding my hand in pain. I’m really glad I wore gloves but it still fucking hurts. Like that time I was dating that Blood Stone girl.

‘He’s lucky I don’t have my guns with me, or I’d have shot him, dressed him up and cooked him for a meal already.’ I put my hands into my pockets and I felt something. I pull whatever it is out and discover it’s the old beef jerky I never ate. I started to have a  crazy idea. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this…”

I get to my knees and hold out the jerky for this fox. “Hey little guy, I got something for ya, if you come out I'll give it you.” I try my best to say it in as sweet tone as possible, but inside of me I’m wishing I had a weapon to kill this thing and the job done. I have no time for this whatsoever, really.

The fox is coming, smelling the beef jerky I have in my hand. ‘That’s right, come out of that hole and get what you want so I can get what I want.’ As the fox starts to come out of the hole and take the beef jerky, I use my other hand to get my tool.

After I grab my tool, the the fox attacks me! “AH GET OFF ME, YOU FUCKING RAT ASS BITER!!” It’s biting me all over. I keep on hitting it until I finally got a good hold on it, . Tearing into it somewhere randomly,  it took off with me yelling after it, “You're fucking lucky I don’t have my gun!”. Sighing, I just walk back to the trailer and climb on top of it to get that door open at last.

After unscrewing the door hinges and pulling hard as I can to get the thing open, the next thing I know the door pops open and falls off the roof of the trailer, landing on the ground. I look up at the trees and say “this is not my day at all.”

Getting back up and getting on the roof, I jump into the trailer to get packing for what I think is going to be a long ass walk to see if I can locate anybody that may have the right tools to cut my car and trailer free so I can finally get out of here.

Walking about I, grab the backpack and one duffle bag to take with me. I open the backpack and all the other packets it has. First, I pack the clothes i’ll be needing. Next I packed in some medical items and combat and noncombat chems, then make sure I have food and water. I include some tools  and - last but not least - ammo for the guns i’ll be taking with me, alongside other weapons.

I check the weapons I’ll be taking with me. I’d made a list on a notepad and looking at every weapon I have on me at this time, I decided I should also make one for the other equipment I’m bringing along with me.

Weapons:
one 9mm pistol (pre-war model Taurus pt92 9mm : 1-30 round mag with 3-17 round mags )
one AK-type weapon (Wasteland model which fires 5.56 ammo, made out of an old shovel and the buttstockis out of the handle of one too : 4-30 round mags )
one sawed-off shotgun (side by side barrel. Ammo type 12ga )
one pistol crossbow ( pre-war model with an 80 lb draw weight )
one switchblade ( pre-war model )
Ammo:
9mm: thirty round mag and two of the seventeen rounds are loaded with FMJs, with the last mag loaded with  HP rounds. But in the backpack i’ll be carrying three back up mags -  one hundred and twenty rounds of FMJs and thirty HP and ten P+. In one of the pockets I have on my pants, I have ten rounds of FMJ, whilst in the duffle bag I’m carrying one hundred and fifty more rounds FMJ along with three more mags.
5.56: three mags-FMJ 1 mag-P+ in backpack i’ll carry about over forty rounds with two more mags and one hundred twenty five rounds in the duffle bag on me side alongside ten rounds in my pockets, In duffle two hundred and three mags.
12 ga shotgun shells: fifty-six rounds in the bandoleer. Thirty rounds of 00 buckshot, ten #4 backshot with twenty-seven pellets and sixteen of bird shot shells for hunting small game. In the duffle bag I have fifty rounds of of 00 buckshot and twenty of bird shot.
Arrows: I only have five of the pre-war model type and ten of my homemade version.
Food and Meds:
In backpack:
Six cans of beans
Three cans of meat
Two cans of mix fruits
Eight bottles of water
One small basic first aid kit
One small bottle of painkillers
Two health packs
One Hyder
Three four-inch weed joints
In duffle bag:
one advanced first aid kit
ten cans of beans
three cans of tomato sardines (I really don’t like them but food is food)
one gallon of water
Gear:
One gas mask (re-war model C50 with outsert to stop small caliber rounds )
four-two filter inside backpack and two inside the duffle bag
one-basic lock-picking kit
one-flashlight
four-AA batteries
one-multi tool
one- Box of matches ( about  fifty matcheads)
one- lighter
one- big roll of duct tape
one- sleeping roll
one man tent


I look over the list I can say am ready to get moving now. With my Prepper PDA, I was ready as ever, but I stop to lock up the loot i’ve got here and place stuff for people who stumble past to take.  It looks like not much is here worth taking, to the untrained eye.

I lock up most of the guns and ammo, but i make sure to leave some out. I place about three guns in this trailer and a BB gun on the ground, making sure it’s loaded with random ammo laying around. I leave behind five cans of sardines and a can of beans - I’ll make sure that anyone who tried to loot the damn trailer will suffer.

Hiding the video games and the computers that still work, I take the bag of computer parts laying around making sure this place look like it’s full of junk. I climb up to the roof of the opening of the trailer and jump down with all my stuff. Looking around me I can see one area look that appears to have fewer trees in my way, so I decided to go that direction, hoping to find a way out of here.


###



two hours and thirty minutes later…


“Okay, this is just plain old stupid. When is this goddamn forrest going to clear up!” I was  yelling to no one but myself. I’ve been walking for what must be around three hours and yet there's no end to this. I know i’ve been walking in a  straight line and not around in a circle. ‘If I don’t find something that leads me out of here, I’m going to kick someone in the goddamn nuts.’

I kept walking for a few more minutes. Now I’m starting to hear something, and if I’m not wrong, it sounds like water.  It is rumbling, like a river of some kind. Following the sound, I discover my suspicions are right. I run towards it like a madman, and then stop myself before doing something stupid. ‘Always see if the water is safe or not,’ I’m thinking to myself.

I pull out my PDA and pull a wire out to put in the water to see if it’s even safe to drink at all. There are times that water can seem to be potable, but more often it isn’t.

After a few seconds, the PDA is announcing that this particular water source  is safe to drink. “Wow, most of the time I find a small river like this, it’d be deadly to think about drinking it” I’m saying out loud. I pause for a moment. ‘I really need someone to hang out with, or at least a pet to talk to’ I’m thinking to myself.

I drink as much I can and then follow the river.  After following it for a while, I come to a waterfall. ‘Just great, now I have to find a way down.’ I’m looking down to see that it's a big drop. After looking for a rock that has the correct feel and the right weight for a height test, I throw the rock over the falls and count until I can hear it hit the water below.

‘One, two, three, four, five, six-’ I hear the rock hitting the water, indicating it’s about sixty  feet drop. This will kill me, even if I landed on my feet in the water. I have no way to really tell how deep the water at the bottom is, and if I get knocked out or break my legs I’ll certainly drown.

I take another quick look around and decide to descend along the left of the falls, because it looks like I can get off this cliff by walking down that way.  It may take some additional time, sure, but safer is better in times like these.


###



20 minutes later, somewhere else


Gilda was walking in the forest, crossbow at claw, looking for more game to kill. She looked in the bag she had on her to see what she’d been able to get.  About three squirrels and a rabbit. She walked on, keeping an open eye to see any game she could kill or any plants she could use to eat or make simple medications out of

After walking for ten minutes she comes to a clearing, but as she looked straight ahead she froze in place, surprised at what she saw right there. Some kind of bipedal thing was there, wearing cloth all over itself, holding something in its hands - hands like hands of a minotaur.

She heard the strange creature say “What the-” than she fires her crossbow at it out of fear, but it ducked and dodged, the arrow striking a tree.

***

‘What the hell!?’ I’m thinking to myself. Dodging the arrow, I draw my pistol and aim at whatever it is firing the arrows at me. I pull the trigger to hear what I didn’t want to hear - “Click” what?!

That thing attacks me, clawing me and somehow it has managed to get one of its claws to move my goggles out of the way and cut my face. “Motherfucker!” I’m screaming, and it’s already hurting like hell. As it keeps clawing at me, I try my best to get it off of me and we are fighting towards the edge of the cliff. I am unable to stop us struggling in time, as we roll over the edge of the embankment.

***

Gilda felt herself rolling down after fighting, then felt pain as the slide broke one of her left wings. She was still rolling and hitting rocks, breaking her right arm, then after a few more seconds she hit the ground on her back. Crying out in pain as her leg became impaled on a broken tree branch.

She was in a lot of pain. Using her good arm to hold her leg where she could see the small branch in her left leg, she was holding back cries, when she could hear something that made her blood run cold. Looking up from her leg, she could see a wolf. Now she was crying, thinking that  this was the end for her.

***

I stand back up from the fall. It was a good thing I can still recall my training about falling and how to slow down and to land safely. Certainly this isn’t my first time falling off a cliff, anyway.

“Note to self - make sure you load the gun next time.” After saying that I hear growling and crying. Turning my head to the sounds, I see the thing that attacked me and what looks like a wolf. A really big one at that.

I look for my pistol or my duffle bag, then out of nowhere I hear a voice. “Please, don’t eat me…” and it come from the winged lion thing. my eyes open wide and I’m looking at the wolf - i can see the look of  hunger. I look left and right,  finding my pistol and cocking the slide on it.

The wolf jumps at the other creature, but I then rush, aiming the gun at the wolf’s head, firing.  I manage the kill the wolf, in the few seconds it took for all this action to occur. I hear more growls than before. Looking into the woods I can see way more than just that one big wolf coming my way.

I run to the fallen winged lion and shoot all of the in coming wolves from the woods, targeting from left to right. If only i have my rifle with me this would end a lot sooner because these wolves take about three or four body shots to kill them.
After all that I turn to the lion-bird and say “What the flying fuck is your problem!” I’m still pissed at what has happened really,y and to be honest with myself I think I’d kill her myself now, if my gun was still loaded. But for now I just feel like shit, and to make things worse I’ve wasted bullets on something I would not had to have killed if this thing hadn’t  attacked me in the first place.

“P-Please don’t hurt me, I’m sorry for what I did.”  It sounds female,  or at least it does from the voice. Looking her over and observing her  face it’s more human-like if anything. I let out a sigh and holster my gun. I know she’s done it out of fear because, hell,  I would do the same thing if she hadn’t acted first.

After all, when did you ever see a lion -bird thing, anyway? “Okay, but you’re hurt, I can see that. Don’t move - I’m going to patch you up the best I can”. She didn’t try anything while I removed my backpack and got out the first aid kit, opening it to try and find something to stop the bleeding.

“What’s your name?” I ask her, hoping to keep her calm. Somehow it works and she says to me “Gilda”. Now I know her name - good. “Look, I’m going to put this on you to clean the wound and stop the bleeding,” I tell her, taking out the bandage and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol with a bottle of water.

By the look on her face, she know what it is - good, that means it won’t kill her if I use it on her then. “Look, bite down on this if you think it’s going to hurt,” I instructor her, picking up a stick on the ground. She takes it from me and bites down on it.

I pour the water onto the wounds she has, then the rubbing alcohol. She is in pain from what I can tell, and after cleaning the wound sites I wrap them in bandages. “Look, don’t move, okay? I need to find my duffle bag to fix up your arms,legs and wings.” I can tell she’s just holding on, but she nodded to me to show that she could understand.

I walk over to where I landed and look in the trees and along the ground, yet cannot see the bag. ‘Damn, where is it?’ Then i look up to see it hanging on a small tree. “Just fucking great…” Seems that I have to waste more time climbing up this rock.’

Then it hits me. why not shoot the tree to get it down? I unholster my gun and point it where the tree seems most likely to break, pulling the trigger. “BANG!” It goes off and hits where I wanted, now it was broken off the tree.

“Finally something going righ-” I start to say, as it falls on top of my face, knocking me onto my ass. ‘Ok. Worst. Day. Ever. Of. My. Life’ I’m thinking to myself like always. I get back up and collect the duffel bag, walking back to Gilda.

She’s still awake when I get back to her, that’s good - she didn’t die. I kneel down to her and set the bag right next to me, opening it to get to the advanced kit. I open it up to bring out a few splints and a suturing kit.

I put on the splint on her first.  Then I realize that the next procedure might be the one that’ll kill her - but if works, it’ll  save her life. I have to remove that branch. if I leave it there, the wound will get infected and she will lose her leg. But if I do move it, she could go into shock and die right here.

I know that really I have no choice but to remove it. For all I know, there could be no help for miles. Letting out a long ass sigh, I give her that look. “I’m going to remove this branch, but this will hurt a lot. If I don’t, you could die from a secondary infection or blood loss.”

She looks at me and then her eyes went wide as my hands grab the end of the branch. “No no no no!” she says, but I just block her out and  yank the branch as fast as I can.

She gives out the biggest scream I have ever heard in my life As the scream dies out, I realize she must have passed out from the pain - because I make sure she is still alive and she still seems to have life signs. I start cleaning her wound and stitch her up, before applying another bandage.

I see the bags she has on her, so I open them and take a look inside. There is a map and a few arrows. I take a look at the map and looking it up and down, I’m not sure if going crazy because i have no idea what part of the US wasteland I am in - assuming this map is of this area

I look at an ‘X’ on the map and it reads ‘Everfree Forest’. Taking a guess that’s where we are and looking down on the map, it shows a town named ‘Hoofington’. I’m guessing that’s where I need to go for medical help for her. I put the map back in her bag and sling the duffle bag on my side.

I cut the nearby tree branches so I can use them to make a sled of some kind to carry Gilda on to that city, to get help for her. After cutting all the branches and using duct tape from my backpack, it’s as ready as it’s ever going to be.

Picking up the unconscious  being, I lay her on the makeshift sled and use a makeshift rope made of duct tape to secure her, as we walk off to go to that city.


Meanwhile somewhere else


Twilight and her friends are walking in the Everfree, hoping to find whatever it was that Celestia told them to find. But Rainbow Dash was getting bored now from finding nothing following a two hour search. “Oh, come on, I bet there’s nothing here at all, most likely it was lightning that hit the ground and burnt whatever it hit” Rainbow Dash was saying out loud.

“Well, Celestia wants us to look for that thing, whatever it is,” Twilight says back to Dash. 

Spike was rolling his eyes when he notices something. “Hey guys,” Spike says out loud as he stops walking.

“Hey, this is the Everfree. Nothing good ever happens here so for all we know it was nothing,” Rainbow Dash says back to Twilight. 

“Guys?” Spike says again, looking at the rest of the group as they just keep walking.

“Well, that red sky was unlike anything that’s ever happened - “

“GUYS!” Spike yells, cutting Twilight off. Every eye was on him now. “I think we may just have found what we’re looking for” he says, pointing with his claw at what looks like some kind of  wagon constructed out of metal.

Twilight and her friends walk up to it and are looking at it in wonder. “Hey sugarcube, there might be something inside but this tree is in the way” Applejack says to Twilight.

“Hang on AJ, I got a spell for this,” Twilight says to Applejack. She closes her eyes and then casts a spell on the tree, converting it to the size of an apple.

Spike is the first one to open the door, saying “There’s stuff in here, guys.” As the rest come into the thing, they look and true to his word there seems to be stuff lying around all over the place in this thing.

Pinkie Pie jumps to what looks like a mini refrigerator to her. Opening it she notices a punch and opens it with her mouth, drinking the contents. She spits it out and says loudly “Someone’s spiked the punch, for sure.”

“Hey, Twilight, what is this stuff anyway?” Rainbow Dash asks, picking up what looks like a green board of some kind and wires on it. 

“I’m not too sure, myself,” Twilight says. 

Spike picks up what looks like a crossbow but without the string He pulls the trigger and it makes a sound somewhat like a  “Ping”. Without warning, Rainbow Dash jumps in the air holding her plot and yelling “OUCH!!!”, landing back down on her face.

“Something just hit me!” Rainbow says, looking back at Spike who is holding a tube-like thing in his claws. 

“My bad, Rainbow, I’m really sorry - I didn't know this thing could shoot whatever that was,” Spike says, dropping the weapon right there on the floor.

Twilight looks at Rainbow plot to see it bleeding a bit, and uses her magic to pull out what looks like a tiny steel ball.  She uses a healing spell for Rainbow.

“Whoever lived here or was here sure knew good clothes, it may not be in my taste but whoever made them knew what they doing, for sure,” Rarity says to her friends.

“Spike we need to get this back to Ponyville to see what we can find here. We also need to get a letter to Luna and Celestia” Twilight says to Spike.

Spike nods and gets out a paper and pencil to get writing. “Dear Celestia and Luna” Twilight says.



outside the Everfree


I have to say I’m grateful to be out of there without bumping into any more shit.  Whatever I run into next, I’m still  glad I’m out of the woods - now I can see the city up ahead.


As I walk onto a path now I can see the big city with all the lights on. “Wow, they have their power back up and up and running. They must have a hydrogen fuel cell under that city to keep it powered up like that.”

As I get closer and closer to the city, I hear someone calling out and saying “Hey stop right there, what are you?” I look at where these questions are coming from and right in front of me are two ponies in gold armor. ‘Okay -  now I've seen everything.’
“Say, what are you?” it asks me. I don’t have time for this. “Hey, Gilda’s here, and she’s been hurt pretty badly. I need to see medical care right away,” I’m saying to them as then I feel something hit me in the back of my head. I was out like a light.

> Chapter 3: Jail (Edit by ItIsASillyLittleGame)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jail



Out of the frying pan and into the fire then kicked into a tub of ice water…


Man, it feels like someone hit me with a metal baseball bat. I was coming to after being knocked out by a horse? No, they're too small to be a horse - they’re most likely ponies.

I was about to rub the back of my head when I realized I couldn't move my arms or my hands. I looked behind me while I was laying down on the ground and when I looked at my hands, they were in handcuffs.

I  look around and it seems that I am in some kind of stone room.  In front of me is a window, but it’s blocked off with steel bars. I roll over to see more steel bars.

‘Great.  I’m in a jail, just my fucking luck...’ I was thinking to myself. I then tried to sit up, and at least at that I was successful.

‘Now then what have I got to work with to get out of here if I can that is...’ I looked around the room to see what could be useful but so far there was nothing but that window and the wall of steel bars blocking my way out of here.

I need to get my hands free, to see if breaking the window or removing the steel bars are possibilities - or maybe I can dig my way out. I can’t use anything I had with me when they knocked me out, since they must have taken all of my kit, so I wouldn’t be able to try anything funny when they're not looking.

I look around my cell for anything that may help me,  but I can find nothing useful.  I was about to give up, just as  I looked carefully at the corner of the door of the room. There was a paper clip from my lock picking kit! I start to smile as I moved myself closer by shifting my weight and shuffling myself closer to the paper clip. I need to get free of those damn handcuffs.

I start to pick at the handcuffs to try to get them off. By the look of them they seem more or less like the versions made in the wild west times. Unlike the ones I’ve seen where they fit anyone, these are of the one-size-fits-all variety, but my hands are a bit too big to just pull them off me. So picking at the lock itself is the next best thing.

After some time picking with the paperclip I hear a clicking sound, then I feel  the cuffs were now loosening up. I move my hands to see the damage and rubbed my sore wrists.

A little while after getting the cuffs off, I’m standing up and getting to work on the jail door lock, to get out of here and maybe look for my stuff. I commencing picked the door lock, but it was harder than the handcuffs - that's to be expected.

I’m working on the door for a few moments and bending the paperclip a few times, almost unlocking it. Out of nowhere there’s a bright light in front of me - it blinds me for a few seconds. I blink a few times to see a pony with a horn on it. ‘A unicorn?’ I’m thinking to myself.

The unicorn looks at me and could see what I was up to. “Hey, you beast, what do you think you’re doing, huh?! Trying to break out, is that it then?! Hoof over that metal thing you have there, and there be no problems for you!” it yells at me.


+++


I did what he said and i give him the paper clip. I can see that his horn is glowing too, and right next to his horn is what looks like a food tray, levitating in the air with nothing to hold it up there but that glow!

‘Okay, I’m no longer in the wasteland anymore…’ I’m thinking to myself. 

“Here’s your bucking meal,” he says to me. I’m sure I’m not going to like this guy, not one bit.  He puts down the food tray and kicks it with his hoof, sliding it under the small opening of the cell door.

I can see that the tray has a big baked potato with a side of lettuce, and tomato with a small piece of bread.  On the side is a glass of water.  This is probably the most healthy thing I’ve had to eat since I went out of the bunker and off to help the wasteland.

The most healthy thing for me would have been the canned vegetables from the pre-war days, or to eat those mushrooms from the farmers from the random settlements I’ve bumped into.  Only very rarely have I had the chance to eat real fresh vegetables grown in hydroponic farms or greenhouse frames from more advanced factions. The pony walks away from me and I start to eat the meal I’ve been given.

As I was eating the bread with the lettuce and the tomato on top,  I start to think about where in the flying goat fucking hell of cotton balls I am, anyway. What was that bird thing?

I finish that part of my meal and I move on to the baked potato and start to eat it. May I say it’s great - as I’m eating the potato I think back on things more and more until it hits in the head like a dildo made out of bricks.  It was a griffin from those pre-war video games, from the old times when I’d always play in the bunker. I’d read about them in those books that I’d rarely read, and I’d also seen them in movies. Why hadn’t I  figured this out sooner? I have no idea, but now I know one hundred percent for sure this is not my world at all - there were never any real griffins where I came from, and yet I meet one in the woods here. Okay, I need to look into this - if I could just get the hell out of here.

I finish my main meal and drink the ice cold water they gave to me in one go. After that, I just look out the window and think some more about that griffin. What was her name again? …. Ah,  Gilda, that’s it!

I hope that she’s okay and all, with it having taken so long getting real help.  She was kind of fucked up pretty badly from that fall anyhow. I wonder where she is now, anyway?


***



Meanwhile at the Manehattan hospital


Gilda lay in the hospital bed with her arm, leg and wing in a cast, whilst she was still unconscious. She was connected to medical equipment to monitor her health. As the monitors beep away, a pony opens the side door of the room and walks to a clipboard on a hook at the foot of her bed.

As the black and pink mare looked at Gilda, she started to wake up. The pony ran out to the hall way to get a doctor on hoof.

As the mare left and Gilda regained consciousness, she said “Where in the flying feathers am I?” She looks around her and felt some pain in her arm and wing alongside her leg all at once, and she then had a flashback of what had happened a few hours ago. Then she said, “Well that explains why i'm in a hospital…” She lay there,  thinking it over a bit more. “Ah fuck me sideways, I lost my crossbow! That thing cost me about one hundred and fifty bits!” she exclaimed, using her good arm to face claw herself. “Where the buck am I going to get that money now? I only how about thirty back home…”

She slumps in the bed saying “Well there goes my town money for the next three months..”  The doctors came into the room and were asking her how she was doing, to which she replies “Do I look okay to you?” 

The doctor says “Well, no,” and was starting to work with his magic to speed up the healing process.

Gilda was thinking to herself “I wonder where he is right now?”


***


Meanwhile with the mane six hiding to Ponyville

The mane six were pulling the steel wagon along that they had recently found in the Everfree, with the help of Twilight’s magic making the steel wagon lighter than it was.

They were pulling the wagon along after Spike sent the lander to Luna and Celestia. As the mane six were hauling the wagon, they found out that  Spike was sitting inside it on a sofa, eating a can of sardines with a can of baked beans. It seems that he had figured out what the metal things contained from looking at the artwork on the cans.

Fluttershy tells Twilight that a dragon must eat a little meat here and there. Twilight isn’t happy about it but she found herself unable to say no - Fluttershy was sharing with her all the facts as to why Spike must eat some meat, to prevent him getting one of several diseases that dragons could get, if they lived primarily on vegetables and such.

After about an hour, they were arriving into town as the townsfolk looked on the weird looking metal wagon. Twilight and her friends had to tell them that everything is fine, it's late and that they should get some sleep.

As they made it to Twilight’s home, they unhooked themselves from the makeshift harness that Applejack had supplied. Spike walks out of the trailer that hooks up to the wagon, opening the last can of sardines.

Rainbow Dash looks at Spike eating the fish from the canned goods and says “I don’t know how could you eat that, Spike. I only know one pony that could eat that fish with a straight face”

Spike replies “Well I like it, and I’m going to keep eating it. Anyway, I need it - Fluttershy said so.”

Twilight waits until Spike finishes his sentence before responding. “Well, if anything you girls need to come back tomorrow. Maybe I can learn something about this weird thing and find what it really is. In the meantime,  get some rest -  we are going to need it .”

After that, everypony says their goodnights to each other, while Twilight stands up a bit longer to look at the weird metal wagon. She carried out a little research on the thing, before going to the restroom, taking a shower and going to bed.


***



Meanwhile at the Celestia bedroom


Celestia was drinking her tea and thinking of what the recent events might mean. Luna was there with her, drinking some tea of her own. 

“I wonder what this may mean for our future,” Luna says out loud to her sister.

“We don’t know, my dear sister, but we must be open for this until Twilight reports of her findings. We must wait and see - until then, Luna, we must get some sleep.”

Luna nods to her and walks out of the bedroom as Celestia gets into bed. “I wonder what new things will happen because of this?” Celestia asks herself. After that, she falls asleep.
>  Chapter 4: New Day (Edit by ItIsASillyLittleGame)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


New Day



Life can be boring to some but if you try…. a lot, it can be great.


After sleeping on the cold hard stone floor, I wake up with the sunlight on my face coming from the jail window. Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I then start stretching my back,  hearing a popping sound which relieves the tension in my spine.

After that, I just sit on the floor, leaning back on the wall and looking out of the window. From the angle of the sun, it looks like it's late morning. Now that I'm here, I might as well do a mental checklist of the things I’d brought with me to use.

“Let’s see here - I'm sure that I just used up all the rounds in the magazine fighting those damn wolves that tried to rip me a new one and failed ... oh yeah, now I remember. I forgot to see what I had left in those medkits I had with me, but no use crying over spilled milk.”

Standing up and walking in my cell for a bit, I was feeling bored with nothing to do in there but wait until I was set free. “Man, why they didn’t give me back my PDA? At least it has some video games from the pre-war days and some that been made from the Librarian faction, or even some music or something else to listen to.  Anything has to be better than doing nothing,” I say to myself with no one in mind.

I just keep on walking for a few more minutes until I got bored of that and just got back to sitting on the ground.

I stay there for about an hour or so until two of the ponies walk up to my cell. I see one of them holding my food tray in a blue aura, and another one holding up with a notepad with a somewhat similar blue aura as well... They seem to have thoughtfully also provided and a quill in an ink bottle.

The unicorn with the food tray put it on the floor and pushed it inside my cell through the open on the bottom of the door. He was done, walking away and leaving me with the other pony alone.

“Now, can you please tell me your name and what you are?” The black-furred unicorn asks me. I would tell him but inside I was still a bit pissed about being put in jail like this for no reason other than being different to whatever other creatures live here. So am going to make this hard for him by doing one thing. “ຊື່ຂອງຂ້າພະ​ເຈົ້າ​ເປັນ Ikaika Ving ແລະ​ພະ​ມະ​ນຸດ” I say, which in Laos translates to ‘my name is Ikaika Ving and am a human’. I say it in the Laos that my dad had taught me when I was in the bunker, living out my days before I become a prepper soldier/scavenger.

The pony looks at me in a funny way and says “Okay, your name is Ikaika, I take it? But can you run by me again?”

Now it was time to have some fun with this pony - or was it a colt? If he wants anything from me he has to use his head.
“ຂ້າ​ພະ​ເຈົ້າ​ເປັນ​ມະ​ນຸດ​ຖ້າ​ຫາກ​ວ່າ​ສິ່ງ​ທີ່​ສະ​ເຫນີ​ຂໍ​ຂອງ​ທ່ານ​?” I ask again in Laos, translating to ‘I am a human if that what you're asking?’ 

He just bows his head and begins shaking it. “Look, I'm sorry for what one of my stallions did to you. That was not right of him to act that way, but keep in mind we have never seen your kind before, so can you please work with me here,” he says to me.

I think it over and see a way to get my stuff back from them. “I can work with you if I can have some of my belongings back, okay? Then maybe we can talk,” I say to him.

He looks at me and I can tell he is thinking at a rate of a mile a second in his head. “Okay, fine, but only if you can talk to me in Equestrian and answer the questions I have for you. Can that be agreed on?” he asked me.

I think it over for a few seconds and decide. “It’s a deal, then. I will be waiting for my stuff.”

The pony then says “Great, then. By the way, is there anything you want when I come back?” 

I then look at him and say “ບາງ​ທີ​ນອນ​ຂ້າ​ພະ​ເຈົ້າ​ຫມາຍ​ຄວາມ​ວ່າ​ມາ​ກ່ຽວ​ກັບ​ການ​ກໍ່​?”, meaning ‘Maybe you can get me a bed? I mean come on, really?’ I just say it just to get my point through to him loud and clear.

He then gives me a look that says ‘Right - stuff first, then talks’. He then walks away with me alone again with the food. I move the food tray closer to me, seeing what I was having this time.

This time it was a slice of bread with a sunny side up egg on top of it. Next to it was a glass of what looks like apple juice. Okay, I have to say it - whoever is running this jail knows what they’re  doing or they’re just trying to make up for what that guy did to me. Whatever the case, I was glad am not eating something that is moldy or toxic..

***
The pony that had been watching me was wearing gold armor with a star seated in the front, showing he was indeed a royal guard. He was walking down the hall, down the stairs to the second floor and then to the first floor.

When he got to the first floor, he turns left to face the long hallway with many cells lining it to the left and right. He sees one of his guard members that is the chef of the jail, serving food to the inmates of the jail.

The guard looks up at him after doping off the last of the food tray. “So, how did it go with the thing, Speed Light?” he asks him.

Speed Light rubs the side of his head and says “Well, it was not easy, but I think I got his name down. The guards that brought him in say he can speak our language, and he can - but when I ask him about something, he then speaks a language I’ve never even heard of before,” he said, shaking his head a bit. “So, I made a deal with him, Fire Wing. The deal is I give back some of his things and then I can talk to him about why he is here and more.”

Fire Wing looked at him in surprise. “You sure about this? I mean for all we know he could use the things he has to get loose?” 

Speed Light then says “Look, I don’t want to make a repeat of the griffin war that happened four hundred years ago, okay? Plus we have to know everything about him first before we run head onto a spiked brick wall.”

Fire Wing thinks this over and then nods. “Oh right then, but let’s just hope you're doing the right thing here,” he says to him. 

Speed Light then responds, “don’t worry about it. I’ll​ make sure he won’t get any of the stuff he can use to get loose. Also, do you know where Iron Lancer is? I may need his help, plus we have to take what we of on hoof with the inventory.”

Fire Wing thinks again for a few seconds then nods his head once more. “His he was in the mess hall, but I think it has gone back to his office,” Speed Light nods back and left Fire Wing to return to his duties.

Speed Light walks to the guard area where ponies are brought in for questioning and processing for their time. He walks past the processing area to the office hall, then down to the door with Iron Lancer’s name on it. Opening the door, he could see him hard at work.

His helmet was off, showing his true fur color that the magic armor magic hides. He was a unicorn, like Speed Light, but with dark red fur and a green mane. Iron Lancer looks at up from his paperwork to see Speed Light at the door in his office.

“Hey, Speed, need anything right now?” he asks him. 

“Yes, I need your help picking out the stuff that the thing brought with him the other night,” he says, flatly. 

Iron looks at him and says “are you sure that’s a good idea, sir?” 

Speed Light then says “Look, it's the only way we can get him to talk. Besides, he kinda has the right to be mad at us because of the way Sky Walker hit him in the back of his head last night.  Then, of course, putting him in jail like an animal. The least we can do is make it easier on us and him in the long run, okay?”

Iron lets out a sigh and nods. “Fine, let's get going then. Where did you put his things, anyway?” he asks as he raises one of his eyebrows. 

“They’re in my office. Come on, we don’t have all day,” he ordered, as he turns around and marches out the door with  Iron following right behind.

Both walk to the end of the hallway to the door that is labelled ’Captain Speed Light’. Speed opens the door and holds it open for Iron, letting him in and then closes the door. They both take seat on the chairs at either end of a table in the middle of the room

“Okay, Speed, where are the things …. did he tell you his name, at least?” ask Iron. 

“Yes - I believe it's Ikaika, or that’s what I think it is. But anyway, let's get to work shall we?” says Speed.

“Yes - let's.” Iron says back.

>  Chapter 5: New Things (Edit by ItIsASillyLittleGame)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


New Day: Part Two

Science knows no country because knowledge belongs to humanity and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence
-Louis Pasteur


Twilight was waking up in her bed as the early morning sun rose Rubbing her eyes, she remembered what happened last night with the wagon that they found. She got up from the bed as fast as possible and trotted over to wake up Spike, still asleep in his basket.

“Spike! Wake up - it's time to get to work on what we found in the Everfree,” she called, as she uses her snout to nudge the sleeping dragon. 

“Can we do it later?” Spike moans, without leaving his basket. 

“No, Spike, we have to find out about the stuff in the weird wagon and then report on our findings to princess Celestia,” Twilight says.

“Fine, fine, fine. Just let me go use the restroom and make us breakfast,” he says to her. “Hey, is everyone else coming here?” Spike asks Twilight. 

“Maybe, Spike, but they may be too busy for today,” Twilight says to Spike, as he gets up from the basket and walks to the restroom.

“Okay, Twilight, but you start., I’ll be down with you in a few,” Spike says as he opens the door to the restroom. 

“Ok see you in a few, then,” Twilight says, walking away as Spike closes the door.

Twilight walks down the stairs and passes the living room. She walks down more stairs, walks passed the library area and opens the door to see the trailer and the pickup truck. She picks the trailer first wondering what was in there.

As she walks in after opening the door, she can finally have a good look inside, taking in the full detail this time. As she looks, she sees the sofa with a blanket over it. It was worn out from the many times of use or by the process of time. She looks to the right seeing the back end of the truck  and then looks to the right seeing the restroom and the sleeping area. From the look of it, she is guessing this is the oven.

She then decides to go to the sleeping area. As she walks in, she then sees the table and on top of it are papers and more of the weird looking boards with wires on them. Every one of them having its own color, most of them green but some were black, purple, red, and so on.

She has no idea why these wires have different colors, or what they are used for. All she knows is that she has to collect them for research, maybe then she can find out why.

With her magic, she uses it to move all the boards she can see and she puts them in a small pile near the door. With that out of the way, it was the time she kept looking all over the trailer. As she looks down, she sees the weapon that fires the small metal ball that was fired at Rainbow’s flank the other night.

She carries the weird looking weapon in her magic. As she does so, she spins it around, looking at it from all angles and wondering if she can remember any details about it from any of the books she read before.

‘It has a trigger like a griffin or a minotaur crossbow, but why does it have no bow at the end?’ She thinks to herself. As she spins it around a bit more, she looks at the trigger, remembering what happened the last time it got away from her.  She pulls the trigger.

Nothing happens. “Hmm,” she hums to herself and wonders why it didn’t do anything. Then after looking a bit more, she saw what was under the trigger. It was a metal rod of some kind - she moved it with her magic and as she did, she only moved it a little. As she did so, she moved it with a little more force with her magic.

The thing acted like a lever of some kind. She pulls on it more with her magic, all the way until a clicking sound comes from it. She wonders what that did. She put the lever back in place and guessing she can do whatever Spike did, she depressed the trigger A ping sound comes from it and it fired a tiny steel ball at the wall.

After finding out how it worked, she decides to analyze this weapon further so she puts it next to the pile of wires and boards. After that, she collected the paper on the table, wondering what was on them.

With that analysis completed, she then uses her magic to open all the doors of the cupboards and all of the drawers, looking in all of them and taking everything out of them, putting them in a pile in front of her so she can sort them out.

As she looked, she saw three weird looking ‘L’ shaped metal sticks with triggers similar to the one from the weird weapon. One looks like it was painted in black and has a few scratches on it showing it was made of metal. The next one was also black but was made with a material had she never seen before. It was light, but it felt hard like steel and iron.The last one was not like the others - it was in an L shape, but it looks like it has a wheel in the middle of it.

After looking at it a bit more, she saw a name that appeared to have been etched into it,’‘Smith & Wesson’, with some cryptic writing that stated ‘model 67-1 da .38 Special cal.’ 

She was thinking now of what it was she was finding. Is it the name of the person that owns this thing?  No, it’s most likely the maker of it, she thinks to herself...

She remembers the other weird ‘L’ shape. She uses her magic to carry them to her face and look at them, when and saw something else -, a name and others. The black metal one had ’Cobra FS380’ etched into it, and the other one had ‘Hi-Point C9’.

‘So, those things have a name of their own on each one.  Maybe someone that makes them, or a company?’ she thinks to herself, putting them back into their pile. She continues her search, looking at a round metal black object that was unknown to her. It was a can of beans - she looks all around it to find nothing special until she shakes the thing. She hears something moving inside.

She made a mental note to open it up later, and so put the can next to the papers and such she intended to look at later. What was left was a bunch of pieces of brass and copper and some that were some kind of black metal she was unfamiliar with.  She looks at all of them and at the bottom, the things have markings - numbers and lettering. She has no idea what they’re function is, but she keeps them for later.

She then goes to the back, seeing what looks like a big glass of water. It turns out it was the type of container used to put water in at the office and hospital. The three of them appeared to be empty, but one was half full and the other full of water.

She picks up all the cloth she could find. After that, she was about to leave until she stepped on that that tiny steel ball she’d left there, almost falling down. If it would have been the sofa to stop her fall, but the sofa broke when she landed on it.

After she got up, she saw the sofa and noticed that inside it were three metal crates. And a big cotton bag, whose contents she could not make out Using her magic, she took the old sofa apart to get to the crates.

The crates were locked, but thanks to her magic she opened them to find more of the weird looking ‘L’ shaped things and still more of the weapons. All of them were different to each other.   Only two appeared to look the same.

‘Why would someone want to hide this?’ she thinks to herself. ‘why leave some of them out, why not hide them all?’she thinks again. She closes the create and carries all the things with her, wondering what is in those other crates.

As she left the trailer with all the things she’d found, she went back inside the library as Spike came walking downstairs. Spike looks at Twilight and asks “Hey, Twilight, what do you want for breakfast?”

Twilight looks up and says “Anything you feel like cooking today, Spike. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Spike nods to Twilight and leaves to go to the kitchen to get ready for the day. Twilight opens the door to her basement, which also doubled as her lab. She travels down the stairs, leaving all of the things near the table, as she returns back upstairs to examine that thing that was hooked to the trailer.

As she walked back outside, she looks at the thing, wondering what it was used for.  She walked to the back of it to use her magic to open it to see what was inside. There were more crates full of metal objects.

Unknown to her, these were spare parts for the truck. As she looked on, she could see one big metal weird block, and three smaller ones next to it. She took everything she could find around and inside the truck, and took those to her lab. As she did so, she could smell the food being prepared by Spike, and she knows that she had a long day ahead for sure.


Manehattan Hospital


Gilda was sitting on the opposite side to the unicorn that had a blue mane and a red coat. hH say to her “Okay, Gilda, you just need to sign here and here than you can be free to go. Now be careful on that leg. Whoever did that job knows what he was doing and fixed it up very well. With the help of the spell we used on you, you should be able to work just fine but keep it in mind to take it easy for the next few days and come back or go to other hospitals for a checkup here and there. Other than that, you should be good to go.”

Gilda then asks “Can I fly too than?” with a little worry in her voice.

“Don’t worry about it, your wing was only dislocated, you should take it easy or it will become dislocated again,” he says to her. Gilda was glad she can still fly. It was easier to go around to fly than walking.

A few minutes after signing the papers and paying the doctor, she walks out of the front door to see the busy city hard at work. She was hungry now, and saw a griffin food stand selling all kind of food but mostly selling the veggie burgers for the ponies and hamburgers for the griffins.
She walks up to the griffin and pays for a cheeseburger and a milkshake in a cardboard cup. She sits down at a near by table and eats her meal of the day. She then thinks of that being for a bit.

‘Maybe I can go see him? After all, if he did want to be kill he would have left me for the wolfs,’ she reasons, as she takes a bite of her burger. ‘Besides - I kinda owe him one at least’, she admitted to herself. After that, she just kept on eating her meal and she left her mess, but as soon she left some pony was cleaning up for her and doing his job.

As she flew up, she continued thinking. “Who knows? Maybe he can show me his weird looking arquebus or musket,” she says at loud to herself. Seeing the jail, she dives in to see the thing that both saved her and yet tried to end her.