My Little Wastelander

**

Acid, day two in Canterlot

Acid Rain woke from a fitful sleep, but even at that it had been the best in weeks. Slightly startling was that she woke to the comfort of a bed. She stretched as she tried to remember what had happened the previous night, it wasn't pleasant, she ached all over. Not to mention she was probably in somepony else's bed right now.

Looking around to get a feel for her surroundings - she lay in what appeared to be a spacious backroom. Ignoring her stressed muscles she sat upright in the bed. A bottle of water had been left on a nightstand beside her, she swiftly grabbed it in her hooves and downed the liquid inside within seconds. Unsatisfied, she stood up off the bed and began her journey into the next room. Which had books. Many, many, books. Asides from that there were several strange machines sitting dormant on tables, while clocks and old-world photos covered the walls unoccupied by shelving. She trotted towards a large desk, mainly stacked with several papers, to the side sat an upright frame. The photo inside shown two stallions side by side. One was a brown Pegasus, the other looked like a slightly younger version of the dark blue unicorn she'd ran from.

The dark blue unicorn I'd ran from...

"Mornin', you're up early!" A voice came, causing her to shriek.

A now equally-startled unicorn stallion looked back at her. "My bad, didn't think I'd startle you." He continued.

As he began to approach her Acid instinctively stepped back. The stallion gave her a look amused concern.

"You shouldn't be scared of me, I think."

"No, I'm not afraid of anything." She said quietly.

"You looked afraid when you ran away."

"It was that or end up at the gallows... Or in jail, whatever it is you do here."

"I'm no expert in these things, well, yeah, I kinda am - but if I was going to hang you or throw you in jail I wouldn't have saved your life, made your wings un-fucked up, let you sleep in my bed while I utilized this amazing floor, and left clean water for you when you woke up." He finished with a smirk on his face.

Acid scuffed her hoof on the ground.

"Think of it as me paying you back for all the bandits, also I can almost see your ribcage clearly, I'm taking you to get some breakfast."

Acid didn't try to argue, her stomach groaned in agony at the very mention of food. Together they quietly exited the building and made their way down the cracked streets, on the trip her companion made no attempt at conversation and the silence between the two was getting to her.

"So last night... Or whenever that was... How did you know my name?" Acid asked the unicorn.

"I had a talk with one of those bandits before you performed rifle surgery on him, dropped your name."

"Oh." She muttered. Suddenly something occurred to her. "Wait, didn't I shoot you when I first saw you?""

He laughed. "No. Not quite, bullet hit a few meters away. You're really not that great of a shot."

Acid stared at him. "So you haven't looked at my ass?! My talent is precision, I think you just got lucky." She said in a matter-of-factly tone, jabbing him her wing.

He gave into his curiosity and looked at her cutie mark. "Crosshairs can mean a lot of things, like being an easy target."

"Nah! I earned this thing popping mutants over stretches of several hoofball fields." She boasted.

They rounded a corner and the air suddenly smelled of food, Acid's jaw went limp and she began to drool. Infront of them lay what was apparently the best post-apocalyptic diner Equestria had. Outside sat several tables for ponies to sit and eat, while in the middle of it all was a large open shack, inside held several ponies cooking meals for several of the hungry stallions and mares of Canterlot. Several of which noticed Rust as he came about.

"Sheriff!" One called out.

"He's Not-A-Sheriff, remember?" Another, chuckling.

The two carried on while several other ponies made their own shout-outs or some just raising their drinks to the stallion. Finally, Rust found a deserted table and guided his companion over to it.

"So, 'sheriff'?" The mare started. "Do you have an actual name?"

"Yeah, Rusty Fortune, but please, call me Rust." He replied.

"What's with the whole... Not a sheriff thing?"

Several readers who noticed the authors name begin to cringe in distaste and silently criticize what appears to be a self-insertion, and in the distant past, Pinkie Pie feels a disturbance in the force.

"Killed a large division of bandits with my friend, so I guess they started thinking we should be something of enforcers, I told them I didn't want to be somepony to keep everything under control, I was an engineer, for bucks sake. A day later I sit at one of these tables and people are calling me Non-Sheriff, or NotASheriff... Whatever it is."

"Neat." Acid said, trying to ignore the hunger pains. "Wait, if it was a bandit division, wouldn't there be more?"

Rust sighed. "Yeah, sadly. They're everywhere but these seem to be organized, it's hell on all the guys walking the battlements."

Acid's hunger pains spiked up once more as the the waiter came for their orders.

"Rust. Miss." He addressed them. "What'll you have?" The waiter was a light blue unicorn with short black and yellow mane. His eyes darted from Rust, then to Acid, concern crossing his face as her condition became apparent.

"Is it really that bad?" She asked, receiving a nod in reply.

Twenty minutes later Acid Rain was staring in disbelief at the biggest platter the cooks had ever readied. The warning for her to eat slowly was lost.

Rust

Rust looked around, the area was void of a certain grey earth pony who usually patrolled the area at this time of day. Acid looked up from stuffing her face and noticed him scanning.

"Something wrong?" She mumbled from a mouthful of food.

How ladylike. He chuckled mentally.

"Just looking for something." Rust responded.

"Some... Pony?" She pressed. Rust focused on her. "That scowl that was your face, the way you're studying points of entry. Makes you look like you expect a potentially annoying earth pony to round the corner."

"Boy is she right!" A charismatic voice joined the conversation. "Oh, and the fact that he's behind you."

Rust refrained from barking at the earth pony as he ruffled Rust's mane. His frown grew as the stallion walked around him and planted his rump at the side of their table.

This was Burnt Cobalt, the non-deputy, Rust's closest friend, as annoying as he could be, he was still damned fun and good to be around.

"So," He started. "Who's the bonemeal?"

Rust could tell that any good impression he'd already given Acid Rain had just vanished, the mare glared daggers at him, then turned to Rust. Speaking with a fierce venom. "You really shouldn't over feed your puppets, this one's gotten fat."

Rust's choked on his hayburger and Cobalt began grinning from ear to ear.

"Rust, you've found a mare with some bite, good for you." He joked, jabbing the stallion with his hoof while looking at Acid appreciatively.

Red appeared slightly on Acid's face and she stood up to revive her threatening posture. "I'll show you some bite when I use my teeth to rip off your-"

"Acid, Cobalt." Rust demanded. "I'm here for food, and goddesses help me if you manage to give me a headache or make a scene before I finish I will send your asses packing to the moon."

He realized Cobalt was about to start again, and Rust quickly shot him down. "Cobalt, this is Acid. Acid, Cobalt."

Cobalt smirked and held out his hoof. "Pleased to meet'cha."

Acid eyes shifted from his hoof to his face. "Charmed." She mumbled, finally shaking it.

Well that was easy, one would think the meeting between the two would end in violence. Hell, these two were going to be besties. Conversations lulled to an end as two ponies ate, the third pulling up a chair and taking a quiet watch. Shortly thereafter Acid stood up and coughed to get the others' attention.

"I'm going to go stretch my wings." She said quickly. A mere nod from Rust and she was off. Noticing Cobalt gaving him a look of disbelief, he turned to the stallion.

"Rust," Cobalt whispered. "Shouldn't you watch her? How do you know she'll come back?"

The unicorn chuckled to himself and pointed his hoof to the mare in question. "Just watch."

Acid carried herself out onto the street and spread her wings, stretching herself, she got into position and prepared to lift off, she gave her wings a strong flap and became airborne. She remained in the the air for a good five seconds and gained velocity before falling face first onto the cobble road. Cobalt instantaneously burst into laughter. Rust stood up, and walked to the mare, who was sitting shamefully in her crash position; nose in the ground, flank in the air.

"Acid, you hurt?" Rust said quietly, nudging her shoulder.

"Only psychologically." She mumbled.

Rust grabbed the mares right wing in his hoof and examined it, there was hardly any muscle on her bone, she might be feeling better, but she wasn't. It'd still be a while before she could really fly again. It explained why she didn't take off during their first encounter. Amazing that she managed to run, or even walk.

"I think i'm about ready to hit the hay again, still exhausted." She yawned making a disgustingly cute noise as she did. She got up and looked at Rust expectantly.

"... And you're expecting to sleep in my bed, again." Rust deadpanned.

"Yes."

The two stared at eachother in silence, neither blinked, neither looked away. But finally Rust looked away from her gaze.

"Fine." He mumbled.

Rust walked back to their table and got Cobalt's attention. "I'm taking Acid back to the library."

Cobalt only grinned and nodded. The unicorn turned and walked away. Surprise surprise, Cobalt didn't have any witty goodbye.

"By the way, wrap it before you tap it." Cobalt mused.

Without turning Rust spat a profanity and Cobalt and proceeded towards Acid, who didn't hear the comment. Did he walk into that one? Maybe. It was pretty damn funny though. Rust nodded to the mare and they took off towards the library. He glanced at her as they walked, if Cobalt actually thought he had the hots for this mare, he'd never hear the end of it.

Acid looked at him from examining one of her wings, she gave him a funny look but didn't say anything.

"What?" Rust said, returning the look.

"Didn't you say you preened my feathers earlier?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?" He started throwing the idea around in his head, yeah, he figured it would the polite thing to do, why was she asking about it now?

"No reason!" She said quickly.

Rust shrugged it off, they arrived back at the library, he was just unlocking the door as he heard somepony approaching them at a gallop. He turned around and recognized one of the earth ponies that patrolled one of the battlements surrounding the town, he stopped to catch his breath, the pony was in disarray, so Rust couldn't help but assume the worst.

"Rust," The earth pony gasped. "Bandits, we're going to need help, they're hitting the front gate."

"Bastards wont give it a rest." He grumbled. He turned to Acid. "I need you to go back and get Cobalt, tell him to grab his shotty and get to the main gate." The mare nodded and moved off.

He gestured for the earth pony guard to give him a moment. Rust slipped inside the library, in this life, you had to be prepared for just about any problem concerning a pony with malicious intentions, yanking a few floorboards out with his magic, he retrieved his answer for most of them. The hole was about a yard and a half long, and a hoof wide. It was enough to hold the anti-material rifle inside with room to spare for a few magazines, he quickly pulled it out and strapped it over his back. Returning outside, the guard gave him the look that implied overkill.

"C'mon, I want these bandit fucks off my lawn."

**