My Little Wastelander

Rusty Fortune

Rust slowly pulled his clothing and Kevlar. Doubling the time needed to pull every strap, button every button, and zip any zipper. How was he going to explain his where he was from to Minuette? Ponies in this time were so peaceful, sure most of them probably knew how to fight, but thing is; they didn't need to. He'd taken his time putting on his gear to give him some time to think of how he'd explain it to the mare, sure he could just tell her the bare, explicit truth, but that really wouldn't get him very far.

He'd finally ran out of things to check, his gear was in order, it had also been cleaned, apparently, and even his grey Stetson was there. He'd done a check to see what he had brought with him through the portal. In his pockets he had a total of eleven .44 rounds for his revolver, a spare clip for his hunting rifle, which he'd left in the warehouse, a compass, and a completely useless map. He found his beloved gas mask in his side bag along with his journal, enchanted to send to his friends the second his heart stopped or burn to a crisp should they be deceased.

"Well." Minuette huffed. "Looks like you just ran out of distractions, are you going to tell me what you are now?"

Huh. She's good. And what's that supposed to mean; 'what I am'?

"I could have sworn you'd figured it out by now, i'm a unicorn stallion by the name of Rusty Fortune." He retorted. Making sure his Stetson was balanced perfectly on his head.

"Haar haar. Let's start off with your home."

"Canterlot."

"You seem too much of a 'ruffian' for Canterlot."

He sighed and facehoofed. "Didn't you catch that part about me being from a war-torn future earlier?"

"No, I was dealing with the fact I almost ended your life."

Don't worry, at this point you would've probably been doing me a favor.

"Well." He started. "Risking a possible small paradox, in the future, Equestria has more-or-less been burned to a crisp. A lot of ponies knew it would happen so they went down in bunkers, but not enough to preserve culture I guess, so many died, and hardly anypony knew how to operate the tech at our disposal once we ascended, before that, animals mutated, ponies went crazy and murdered everypony in the same bunkers as them, gangs formed, and our princesses completely abandoned us."

Minuette was obviously shocked by the last part, she shook her head and asked another question. "Well how're you still here? Time magic lasts for a very short time, like, minutes, at the most."

"That's the thing, I didn't actually use magic, it was a machine, wasn't even made for time travel, but it malfunctioned during a firefight and I found myself here, rescued by a certain mare." He pointed sarcastically at her.

"Huh." She mumbled.

"You believe me?"

"I guess, I did see you tossed through some type of portal no pony has ever seen, and i'm pretty sure 'guns' haven't been invented yet."

"Be thankful for that." He mumbled.

"I am." She looked at the clock at the front desk. "I've got to get to a dental checkup, you should probably come along, i'll be able to introduce you to one of the elements."

Err... Elements? "Sure." He said slowly, making it obvious she had no idea what the buck she was talking about. Then once more, they headed off into the outside world, Rust chuckling again as he heard the birds.

**

Twilight Sparkle

Twilight stepped back from the bookshelves to examine her work, perfect, every book had been rearranged perfectly, now she had one more thing to check off of her "To Do" list. Using her magic she brought her list over to her, surprisingly she had complete all the tasks she'd written down for herself, and it was only midday. She was considering whether she should go get some fresh air when the sudden crash of a window announced the arrival of her multi-colored Pegasus friend.

"Rainbow Dash! I though I told you about using the door!" Twilight said, fuming.

"Sorry Twi but you need to drop your egghead stuff right now!" Dash exclaimed. "Minuette's in trouble, we need to go help her."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at the word 'egghead'. "Minuette... The dentist?"

"Yeah! Tell the girls there's some dangerous unicorn out there." And with that, she rushed out the door.

Twilight considered this for a moment, they had just returned from saving the Crystal Empire, and already there'd been signs of trouble, with any luck Rainbow Dash was overreacting. Twilight shook her head and decided to follow the Pegasus, she wanted to see this unicorn for herself.

"Never anytime to just sit down." She huffed.

**

Rusty Fortune

"So... You're a dentist then?" He tried, they hadn't spoken to eachother since they left the hospital, was she deep in thought? Or scared? What if she was just thinking of a way to get away long enough to alert some sort of authority?

"So... You're a killer then?" Was her grim reply.

Unbelievable. Bucking hardhead.

Rust stepped in front of Minuette, keeping her from going any further. "That's enough of that."

"I come from a dangerous time Minuette, yes, I... kill. But I kill to defend the ponies I care about, I watched over the entire ruin of Canterlot, tons of innocent ponies that just want to get through life, live normal and safe, like most of you already do. If I wasn't there to kill or preferably restrain dangerous ponies or whatever else, they wouldn't be able to do that."

Rust paused and looked away from the mare, his ear twitched towards the sound of wingbeats. He noticed that they were now in a more public place, something of a market area, so he'd have to speak quieter to not draw attention. He sighed and continued. "Listen, I am not a bad sta- The hell?!" He screamed, suddenly being sent flying across the street by the impact of a certain cyan Pegasus.

"Minuette, run!" Rainbow Dash barked.

"Uh... What?" A confused Minuette mumbled.

What in Tartarus am I being attacked for? I thought these ponies were sweet and innocent. Getting up he noticed his attacker was already about to charge him again, on reflex, he grabbed his revolver in his magic, but let it go.

"Nothing lethal." He silently promised. Then the mare finally launched herself at him. Rust rolled to the side of the pissed off rainbow's attack. While she circled around, Rust thought of a spell he could use to incapacitate her. He was pissed enough by the attack, what he really wanted to was send his attacker sailing to the ground at breakneck speeds, but he figured that'd cause more problems.

If I can get my hooves on her I can apply a good enough electrical shock to have her squirming on the ground for a few minutes. So it was decided, electricity would solve another of his problems.

Just as he was charging up his horn for the spell, a new voice brought Rust and the Pegasus to a halt. "Rainbow Dash, stop this!" Rust turned to see the voice coming from a lavender unicorn mare. She didn't seem to be hostile, but he didn't need a spell to feel the magical energy radiating off of her, and he kept his readied stance.

"Good afternoon," The mare said. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, sorry for the rude welcoming, you seem to have startled my friend Rainbow Dash here."

Rust nodded at the formal greeting. "I'm Rust." He stated simply.

"Twilight!" Rainbow yelled. "What are you doing, he's dangerous!"

"Rainbow we don't know until we've gotten the chance to actually interact."

"He could kill somepony at any-" She was interrupted by a dark red aurora flicking her nose, the same aurora originating from Rust's horn.

"I don't know what your problem is Dashie, but if you think I just go around killing random ponies, you're wrong." He scowled.

"I'll show you 'Dashie'." The Pegasus growled, charging at him yet again. Rust just grinned and readied his spell, the only time he'd actually got the chance to shock a pony was when he was trying to restart their heart, so he'd have to use less voltage than he was used to.

Just before impact, Rainbow Dash was grabbed by a magical aurora identical to the one originating from Twilight's horn, coming to a full stop. Again Rust was forced to let the electricity sink into the earth.

"Both of you need to cut it out," Twilight commanded. She turned to Rust. "Is there a reason my friend was so freaked out about you?" Rust just shrugged, he actually had no idea why Rainbow Dash attacked him.

"It's that metal thing under his jacket!" She cut in.

My revolver. She's been spying on me.

Twilight looked at Rust expectantly. Eventually he sighed and began pulling the gun of it's holster, he'd noticed Twilight seemed to be readying a shield spell. Being a bit of a firearm fanatic he loved talking about his gun, but he really wished it was under better circumstances.

"This is my .44 revolver, it fires a lead projectile at the speed of roughly four-hundred-sixty meters a second." Twilight's eyes widened, along with the comical drop of Rainbow's jaw.

Rust slowly restored the weapon to it's holster. "I'd really love to talk more but me and Minuette were on our way to an appointment." He hinted to his companion.

"Uh..." She mumbled. "Oh, yeah! That's right, we're going to be late." She took off towards her office.

"So uh, guess we'll talk later." Rust copped out. Leaving two mares behind.

**

"Well," Rainbow started. "Don't you see now? He didn't even try to hide what that thing does, he's dangerous."

"He seems friendly, but you're right. We should keep an eye on him. Also, i'm going to see if I can't find out more about him."

**

Finally away from those crazy mares.

"Hey Minuette, wait up." Rust huffed. He was eventually cantering beside the mare.

"I'm surprised you actually told them what that thing does." She started.

"Yeah... Figured I might as well, i'll probably be seeing them again soon, besides that Twilight one seemed like she had enough magic to blast my flank straight to the moon." He chuckled.

They slowed down as they finally reached their destination, Minuette held her hoof up to Rust to stop him from entering the building. "Listen," She started. "I was gruff with you back at the hospital, i'm sorry."

"Don't be, I get that you were panicking, and I was being a bit... insensitive? Also I know what kind of time i'm in, I doubt i'll ever need to use that thing again unless I find a way back to the future." He reassured her.

"Back to the future... Okay then. Shall we?" She said, motioning for the door.

"After you." The stallion replied, pulling the door open with his magic.

"Such a gentlecolt." She cooed.

On the other side of the door waited two Earth ponies, one was a filly with pale yellow coat and reddish hair, the other was a grown mare with an orange coat and blonde hair, she wore a brown Stetson instead of Rust's grey. The mare's green eyes turn to the newcomers as they walked in.

"Well howdy there Minuette!" She beamed. "You ready for 'yer checkup Applebloom?" She said, turning to the filly.

"Well, yeah, ah-ah guess so." The filly murmured, nervously scuffing her hooves against the floor.

"Don't worry there Applebloom." Minuette started cheerily. "You've got nothing to fear from checkups." With that, she started walking into the other room, Applebloom, obviously unsure about the dentist, trailing behind.

Huh, I try to take good care of my teeth but maybe I should consider an appointment, the city didn't have a dentist until very recently. He canceled any further dental health thoughts as he realized the grown earth pony had walked up to him.

"Hi there, never seen you 'round these parts so ya' must be new, 'ahm Applejack." She said warmly, holding her hoof out.

"I'm Rusty," Shaking her hoof. "I did actually just arrive here, nice to meet you."

"Ah see 'yer one for the hats too, huh?"

Rust tipped his hat with magic. "Never leave home without it."

"So where 'ya from originally now?"

"Canterlot, actually."

"That's mighty strange, you don't seem like one them noble types." She deadpanned.

"Yeah I've been getting that lately. Unlike those noble snobs, I actually work for a living."

This got a laugh out of Applejack and a pat on Rust's back. "Oh boy, you'll fit right in, here in Ponyville."

As she regained her composure, Rust took the initiative to look curiously examine his surroundings, what appeared to be half an hour later, Minuette returned from the back room with Applebloom smiling by her side.

"We're all done here Applejack, your little sister takes very good care of her teeth."

"Ahm glad t' hear it, thank you Minuette, I guess i'll see you 'round then Rusty?" She said, turning to the unicorn.

"Yeah, I imagine." And with that, the two sisters left, leaving just Minuette and Rust alone in the dentistry.

"Well then, looks like you've gotten at least one of the Elements of Harmony to like you." She chuckled.

Rust looked at her quizzically. "Those two from earlier, the Rainbow one and Twilight Sparkle, they were elements?"

"Yeah, sorry forgot to mention that, thanks for not hurting either of them by the way, they're both patients as well."

I've totally pissed off one element, and made the other suspicious, great.

"Hey don't freak out," She tried to reassure him, noticing the concern on his face. "They wont hassle you without a good reason, and it seems to me like you've got one on your side."

At that moment, Twilight Sparkle just happened to walk in to the office, a totally inconspicuous smile on her face.

"Buck." Rust murmured, scanning the building with magic for the best possible escape route.

"Hello Minuette, and... Rust, wasn't it?"

"Hi Twilight." Minuette responded softly.

"Yeah, you got it right." Rust mumbled.

"I figured i'd drop by and uhm... Apologize for what happened earlier with Rainbow Dash, not the best welcoming pony, she can be really cautious towards ponies she doesn't know." Twilight continued.

"Yeah. I noticed."

"Erm. Right, anyway..." Twilight levitated a list seemingly from thin air. "I was wanting to get to know you better."

"Sorry," Rust joked. "I'm not dating right now."

Before their eyes, Twilight's face was absorbed by red. "I... That's NOT what I meant." The mare exclaimed.

Minuette chuckled and cut in. "If you two don't mind, I have to close up."

"Okay, we can take this to the library."

"Uh... What?" Rust mumbled, just before being teleported into a completely unfamiliar place.

He'd been absorbed by a bright light, and when it subsided he found himself in what seemed like the interior of a giant hollow tree, it was almost dark, the only light coming from the open windows, but a there was the sound of a switch being flipped and immediately the entire room was illuminated. The walls around him had carved-in bookshelves. In the center sat a table made from a smaller tree's stump. Atop it lay a statue of a stallion.

"Welcome to the library!" Twilight beamed. "I just finished reshelving today!"

Rust slowly examined the rows of books surrounding him. "How often to you reshelve all these books?"

"About once a month, why?"

"No reason. Anyway, you had some questions?"

"Ah, yes!" Twilight brought out her checklist once more. "Let's start with your name and hometown."

He'd managed to get a good look at the checklist, this was going to take too long. "Rusty Fortune, Canterlot."

Twilight gave him a curious look, but continued. "Parents?"

"Deceased." He mumbled. "Never had the chance to know them, raised by a Pegasus."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Anyway I heard from the nurses you arrived through some sort of portal."

You already know too much.

"Yeah uh, the portal was unstable, there was a accident with my magic. There's probably a smoking crater where I came from but luckily I wasn't around anypony." He lied, partially.

"Happens a lot, good thing you weren't hurt, a lot of unicorns get hurt badly when their teleportation spells go wrong. So what about what happened at the hospital? You dove headfirst through a third story window." She eyed Rust suspiciously.

He just shrugged. "Morphine is one hell of a drug." After getting a scowling look from his interrogator he continued. "I was freaked out, actually, I looked for an escape route and I just jumped through, had no idea I was on the third floor, or WHY I was on the third floor."

"Ponyville hospital gets a lot of patients because it's one of the best." She explained. "That floor actually used to be an attic until they realized they should just get a storage building so they could care for more ponies."

At the end of her explaination there was the sound of a door opening, and both ponies turned to look at the entrance. In came a pink maned yellow Pegasus with the cutie mark of three butterflies.

"Uhm... Twilight I came to give you back those... Meep" She stopped and stared wide-eyed at the unfamiliar unicorn in the room. It looked like she was about to run out when Twilight spoke up.

"Oh hello Fluttershy! It's good to see you. If you could put them over there..." She pointed to her small podium to the side of the room. "That'd be great."

The timid Pegasus stood still, and whispered something unintelligible that Twilight, somehow, managed to hear. "You don't need to worry about him, he's new to Ponyville, his name is Rusty.

"Hi." He spoke softly, waving his hoof.

"Hi." The Pegasus responded quietly.

"This is Fluttershy, she takes care of a lot of the animals around here." Twilight intervened.

"So like a veterinarian, kind of?" Rust said cheerily, hoping not to scare another pony.

"Yeah... Uhm... Kind of." Fluttershy spoke. "I'm sorry Rusty, but can I talk to Twilight, alone?"

You sure live up to your name, don't you, Fluttershy?

"No worries, I should be heading off anyway." He reassured her, silently thanking her for giving him an excuse to leave.

"Oh okay, well i'll talk you later Rusty, okay?" Twilight called after the unicorn as he was walking out the door. It closed without his response.

Finally outside, he quickly examined the area, it was starting to get dark, the area look more like it was sort of a home district. He saw a familiar toothpaste themed unicorn nearby, and realized she had probably been waiting on him. Just as he was approaching her, a impossibly familiar DJ-sort of pony walked by him wearing purple shades.

"W'Sup Rusty." She greeted him as she passed. A look of sheer confusion and slight terror on his face.

The hell?

He shook his head and continued his path, Minuette noticed him as he approached and met him halfway.

"Hey there," She said warmly. "She tear you a new one?"

Rust chuckled. "Her asking all those questions, felt like my brain was going to shut off."

"What did you end up telling her?"

"I lied about maybe half of it, you know, the part about the teleportation, Equestria in flames, that stuff."

"Right, I figure you wont want me to tell anypony about your background huh?"

"Yeah, I'd prefer that."

"It's getting pretty dark, you even have a place to stay?" She questioned him.

"No, haven't any bits to rent a place, haven't even had time to look." He deadpanned.

"No biggie, I uh... Actually have a extra room."

"Seriously?" Rust's eyes widened, completely oblivious to the hesitation in her voice. "That'd be great."

Only a few minutes later they'd arrive at the two-story building Minuette announced was her home. The building was somewhat slim, but the second floor made up for that, the bottom floor having a kitchen and living room, leaving him to assume the bathroom and bedrooms were all upstairs.The two bottom having basic appliances, coffee table, small couch, along with books and clocks scattered within the room.

"You seem to be a bit obsessed with time, Minuette."

"Yeah, it's a something of a hobby, I guess." The mare murmured.

"Must be a pretty big hobby, given your cutie mark."

"I'm a bit curious why you've been looking at my flank." She said accusingly, then smiling.

"Sorry, can't help myself." Rust said jokingly. "So uh, seeing how i'm more-or-less your roommate for the night, you don't you mind if I get a shower do you?"

"Go for it. I don't care. I'm sure you'll be able to find towels and stuff on your own. So i'll probably be asleep by the time you get out. Goodnight Rust."

"Night."

Twilight Sparkle

In the dim light of a single candle there sat a lavender unicorn mare, Twilight Sparkle, personal protégé of Princess Celestia. Her magic allowing her to write a letter quickly and neatly.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I regret to inform you that a possible threat has entered Ponyville, he is a unicorn stallion by the name of Rusty Fortune, he holds a large amount of magic yet doesn't seem to know it, he was wearing what seemed to be light armor and carried a concealable weapon. While he didn't seem aggressive in any way, in fact the exact opposite, I can't help but have a concerned feeling. I anticipate your reply on the matter. Attached is a series of questions he was available to answer.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

She stepped back from the table she wrote the letter on, Rust had just arrived in Ponyville, if she sent this letter he'd only be less welcomed, but Twilight couldn't help the itching feeling of suspicion. She had to decide whether she was going to send this letter or not.

She folded it up and brought it upstairs. Sleep first, then she'd decide. She was more tired than usual and would rather not make the decision to either make or break a life when she couldn't think straight.