Same Shit, Different Wasteland

Strange Coincidence

Thomas had found the number of stares he got as Moonbeam led him through the Library distracting. Sure, he could understand why, to them he was unique and exotic, something that had to be seen to be believed. He just didn’t find it very comfortable. He couldn’t remember how many turns he had made as he followed the mare, so he knew that he would need help getting out from wherever she was leading him.

“And this is where I live,” she said, leading him through a door marked ‘Private Reading Room 75’. “Mayor Script decided that because I brought you here, you have to live with me.” There was no enthusiasm in her words, making it clear to Thomas that she was upset with the arrangements.

Her room was spartan, only a mattress and a few books lying on top of the moldy carpet. In one of the corners was a small pile of ammunition and gun parts, and a tattered map had been hung on one wall, covered in scribbles and notes. “Any chance of a mattress or something?”

“We’ll have to grab one from storage later,” the mare replied. Her horn glowed and her armour began to undo itself. It fell to the ground, revealing a symbol on each flank. It looked like a small bag, filled to the point of bursting. “Need to go back out tomorrow,” she muttered.

‘Hm,” Thomas hummed, looking at the strange marks. “Never seen tattoos like that before.”

“Tattoos?” Moonbeam asked. She followed his gaze and understood. “Oh. No, that’s my cutie mark.”

“What?” Thomas asked, trying not to laugh. He was really grateful that he still had his helmet on, it was easily the most feminine thing he had ever heard.

“Right, you’re an alien, you wouldn’t know. Basically, it shows what I am best at.”

The man’s head tilted quizzically. “So, you’re a pack beast?”

Moonbeam rolled her eyes. “No, I’m the best scavenger the Library has. No point finding supplies if you can’t bring them all back, right?”

Thomas nodded, agreeing with her logic. “So that’s what you were doing, scavenging?”

“One of our scouts found an old food store. The entrance had been blocked off before, but something moved the rubble. Probably an alicorn,” she added with a shrug. “Anyway, they sent me to pick up enough supplies so we don’t starve in two weeks.”

Thomas couldn’t help but let out a low whistle. “That is a big responsibility.”

“What we don’t eat, we trade for fresh food. Well, fresher,” she clarified. “That and meds. Always need RadAway and healing potions.” Moonbeam frowned. “Hope there’s a first aid kit in there, I think Sawbones said we were running out of bandages too.”

“Yeah, those are always - wait. RadAway?” Thomas reached into his duster and pulled out the day-glo orange packet. “You mean this?”

“What the hell is that?” the pony asked. “That’s not RadAway. RadAway has a straw, not a needle.”

“Wait, you drink RadAway here?” the man asked, his confusion growing. “You don’t pump it into your body?”

“What, no! It’s not like Hydra or Rage! You’re crazy.”

Thomas just stowed the RadAway in his duster. “Huh. Drinkable RadAway. That’s what crazy here,” he muttered.

Moonbeam rolled her eyes. “Are you just gonna stand there?” she asked. “If you don’t want to sleep on the floor, you’re carrying the mattress.”

Thomas undid his helmet and pulled off the rebreather. “Fine. Might pick up a few books too. Maybe a map.”

“Yeah, sure. Just don’t break anything. Head Librarian Spectacle hates it when a book gets torn.”

“What’s the worst he could do?” Thomas asked with a smile as the mare led him away.

“Well, she could break your legs and throw you out the window. And that’s if you get food on the book,” the pony explained. “You don’t want to know what she’ll do if you set one on fire,” she warned.

“That’s... a bit excessive.” Thomas looked at the mare weirdly.

“Actually, seeing as it could be the last surviving copy in Equestria, it really isn’t.” Moonbeam shrugged. “I don’t exactly agree with it, but I don’t get a say in anything. I just collect the groceries.”

Thomas didn’t respond, happy to follow silently and and look around. The Library was definitely in good shape. There wasn’t any rubbish on the floors, the lights above were brighter than half of the ones in buildings he had gone into before his encounter with Benny, and the interior doors had even been repaired. It was a little hard for him to believe that this was a settlement in the middle of a ruined city.

His eyes roamed to one of the bookshelves they passed. All the titles were in perfect English, though he’d happily wager his helmet that it was called Equestrian here. Some of the titles were a little odd, such as ‘Advanced Magical Theory’ and ‘Applied Weather’, while others were a lot more mundane, like ‘Radio Repair for Beginners’ and ‘Radiation and You’. Many other titles adorned the shelves, but he ignored them as they approached their destination.

Sitting at a desk, glaring at a smaller pony that Thomas assumed was a child, was a female unicorn. Her coat was the colour of dust, her mane and tail a strange shade of purple that reminded him of dusk. What stood out to him was that not only was her mane done up in a bun, there were two short lengths of rebar going through it.

“Miss Spectacle?” Moonbeam asked as they approached. The child made a run for it the moment Spectacle looked up.

“That’s ‘Head Librarian’ to you, Moonbeam,” she replied sharply. “What are you looking for?”

“My... friend here is after a map, among other things.”

Head Librarian Spectacle looked at Thomas, eyes going wide. Then she smiled. “Moonbeam, could you tell me what something right out of the fiction section is doing standing in front of me?”

“Wait, what?”

“Fiction section?” Thomas asked, sounding unamused.

“Oh yes.” Spectacle got out from behind the desk revealing that, aside from a tattered blue dress she wore, her lower left foreleg was missing, somewhere between the knee and hoof. In its place was a table leg that had been cut down and reinforced with scrap metal. “You should find this interesting.”

As they followed her, Thomas leaned down a little. “How’d she lose the leg?” he hissed.

“Raiders, twenty years ago,” Spectacle replied. “I can hear every word you say,” she added. Thomas decided to keep his mouth shut.

A few minutes later, having gone through a few doors, they were in another room with bookshelves. The walls had once been painted in bright colours, the faded images of happy ponies prancing about still visible. On one of the walls was an old poster with the image of a unicorn, her colours long since lost to time, with a number of books levitating behind her. The words ‘Reading is Magic’ were barely legible.

“Wait here,” the head librarian instructed them. She was back within thirty seconds, a number of books floating behind her. “This is the one,” she said, a specific one moving towards Thomas.

He grabbed it and squinted as he tried to read the worn words. “‘The Menagerie of Mythical Monsters’?” he asked. “This can’t be good.”

As he flipped through the book, Moonbeam turned to Spectacle. “Okay. So what are those other books?” Then she saw one of the spines. “Oh fuck. Not that. Really?”

“What, don’t you like your namesake?” Spectacle asked, sounding genuinely hurt. “Besides, it’s fitting.”

Moonbeam grabbed one of the books. “It’s a fucking miracle, is what it is. I mean, what are the odds?”

“Odds on what?” Thomas asked, rejoining the conversation. “And what the hell is this about ritual sacrifice?” he added, pointing at the open page. “Maybe tribals, but every community I’ve been to doesn’t do that kind of thing. And cannibalism being a good thing?”

“Well, I always thought that would be wrong. I’d have been more concerned if it was accurate. Besides, that’s one interpretation.”

“And what is with this picture?” he asked, flipping the book around. The creature pictured could be called a human in the same sense that any four-legged creature could be labelled a pony. All the main features were there, but the details were completely wrong. The eyes were too far apart, the ears were monstrously huge, the mouth looked full of sharp fangs and the arms were so long the knuckles dragged along the ground, despite the ‘human’ standing completely upright. It was like looking at a cruel mockery of a man.

The head librarian sighed as she grabbed the book. “Like I said, an interpretation. One of several. The one in these books, for example - ”

“Oh Goddess,” Moonbeam muttered into her hoof.

“ - is a much kinder take.” One of the books behind Spectacle floated out as she glared at the younger pony.

Thomas reached for the book, but his hand paused inches from the cover. Smiling, he turned to Moonbeam. “Is that you on the cover?” he asked, snorting in laughter.

The book was titled ‘The Moonbeam Chronicles: Volume One’, and there was definitely a pony on the cover that had Moonbeam’s midnight-blue coat and powdery blue mane and tail. The only difference was that the Moonbeam on the book lacked a horn.

“Fuck off!” the unicorn snapped, snatching the book out of the air. “I got enough of that crap growing up. Don’t know why my parents decided to name me after that series...”

“Watch your mouth,” Spectacle reprimanded. “We don’t want foals picking up that kind of language.”

“Too fucking late!” a young voice cried out from the other side of the room.

Spectacle stormed off towards the source of the voice. “When I get my hooves on you you’ll wish you had never been born!” she screeched.

The panicked cry of “Oh shit!” was accompanied by a pair of smaller ponies running out the door at the far end of the room, Spectacle on their tails.

“Get back here!” The older mare disappeared with the rest of the books floating behind her.

Moonbeam let out a weary sigh. “We get in trouble when we hit somepony with a book...”

Thomas decided it would be best to ignore that little spectacle and opened the book. A few pages in, there was an illustration. There was the pony from the cover, and she was approaching something. It definitely had the same shape as a human, and even the face had all the features done in the right way. It was even clothed, albeit in something more fitting for a tribal. The only thing that was wrong was the brown coat of fur it had.

“That’s... huh.”

“The universe is fucking with me,” Moonbeam stated.

“So you were named after a character that met an alien, and you just happened to meet an alien?” Thomas asked, turning to the mare in confusion.

“Go fuck yourself.”

“I know odds, this... this shouldn’t be possible.” Thomas slowly closed the book. “What the hell is going on?”

Thomas reclined against one of the walls of Private Reading Room 75, flipping through a surprisingly intact tourist’s guide to Manehattan. The only really vital thing was the fold-out map, but the rest of the book was surprisingly informative, giving the man an insight what the ruined city had once been like. From that, he had been able to take a few guesses as to where else a possible settlement was. So far, he had chosen the Statue of Friendship, just off Manehattan’s coast, and the city’s Ministry of Arcane Sciences’ hub as the most likely candidates.

It hadn’t been enough to take his mind away from the incredible series of extremely improbable circumstances that concerned his arrival. The word ‘miracle’ was a much more fitting word, that was for sure. The Transportalponder sending him to an alien world? One where they spoke and wrote perfect English? And the first native he met was one that happened to be named after a fictional character that travelled with an alien?

It certainly wasn’t the first time strange things had happened to him, but every one of those had in some way been Thomas’s fault, the result of sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. The Sierra Madre, Zion, Big Mountain, each of those was because he had done something stupid. The Divide, well, that was different. He pushed those thoughts away, the less he dwelled on that the better.

The point was, this was beyond everything that had ever happened to him before, and that made him nervous. Why was he in Equestria? Had something been responsible, or was it just the most unbelievable series of flukes to ever happen? Given how temperamental half of the Big Empty’s technology was, both were equally valid possibilities. And if he had been brought here, why? Was he expected to get rid of every raider gang in the ruined city and help found a new nation, with the Library as its capital? He snorted at that, finding the idea of being another Chosen One ludicrous.

He wasn’t given any more time to dwell on the issue because Moonbeam happened to come back. “Stupid fucing council.”

“Hmm?” Thomas grunted.

“They won’t let me take anypony else to help! How the fuck am I meant to get the supplies if I run into any more raiders!?” The mare angrily flopped down onto her bed and sighed. “There’s no way I’ll get those supplies now.”

“Why can’t they send someone else?” Thomas asked, closing his guide and looking at the despondent pony.

“They’re either needed to help protect the Library, or scavenging themselves. And Pickup is in the infirmary injured too...”

“You have an infirmary?”

“We have an entire section dedicated to medical practices, surgeries and spells, of course we have an infirmary,” Moonbeam replied with a roll of her eyes. “All the beds and stuff were scavenged, but it’s probably one of the better ones in this city.”

Thomas nodded absently. “Back to the matter at hand, how about I come?”

“What?”

“You said you don’t want to go alone. You know I’ll keep you alive.”

Moonbeam glared at the man. “Only because you need me in your debt,” she stated bitterly.

“Not exactly.” He shrugged. “By getting food for this entire settlement, I’ll have the entire place needing to repay me.” Thomas sighed as he reached into a pocket within his duster.

The pony’s mouth hung open at she digested his statement. “Y-you - !”

“That’s not it,” he muttered, pulling out a bullet casing. “Where is it?”

“You want to hold everypony here hostage for what you want?” Moonbeam asked in disgust. “How can you be so heartless?”

“You think I enjoy doing this, being this much of a bastard?” Thomas snarled in response. “I have a city to get back to, one that needs a stable hand. People there need me.” Thomas turned to Moonbeam as he pulled his hand out. The mare flinched away instinctively. “I need this fixed if I ever want to get back home,” he said, carefully holding the Transportalponder out for her to see. “Do you know if anyone here has the skills to fix this?”

The unicorn leaned in cautiously, as though the man would decide to lash out and strangle her. When that didn’t happen, she looked at the strange device. “You said you needed something fixed earlier. What... does it do?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure.“ Thomas replied. “It teleports me, from one place to another.”

“Then... how did you end up in Manehattan?”

“That;s not important,” Thomas replied, ignoring the mare’s question, stowing the broken Tranportalponder back into its pocket. “If no-one here can fix this for me, then I’ll simply use them to find someone who can. All that matters to me is getting home. Now, give me your gun,” he commanded. “I’m not helping you until I can be sure you won’t get killed because of that piece of junk.”

Author's Note

I am well aware of the potential shitstorm of introducing humans as some sort of myth/made-up creature. But aren't the ponies we know and love the same thing?