Fallout Equestria: A Horse With No Name

by Trouble Clef

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Slice of Life, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 14811

After his train is destroyed by NCR vigilantes, a slaver and his captive must traverse a scorching desert in the hopes of discovering a fabled fresh water source. Set to the lyrics from the song 'A Horse With No Name.'

War, war always changes….

Some would beg to differ, but their reasoning's wouldn't extend beyond ignorance to the obvious.

War always changes. Who is fighting, where they are fighting, why they are fighting, and how they fight warps drastically with each passing day. But war, war changes far more then that.
It gets inside you, and touches you on a deep and personal level. It doesn't matter who you were before. How good or bad you were. No matter your psyche, fortitude, or karma, war will change you.
The slaver, Trouble Clef, is about to learn this the hard way as he is attacked and left to die in the desert. His only chance of survival lays in the hooves of a young slave who refuses to reveal anything about her past, including her name.

set to the lyrics from the hit song "A Horse With No Name," this story explores a criminals alternate view on wasteland society. Witness him as everything he has grown to accept is put into perspective, causing him to question his very way of life and reexamine his conscience.

entry for the '600 member contest'

I own nothing

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-10 02:01:01 UTC

Introduction

War, war never….

Well, I needn’t say anymore. Those individuals who you view as ’heroes’ must’ve repeated that phrase to you more times then you can remember. Let me warn you now, you aren’t going to hear any of that from me.

Most ponies out here like to spin tales of how good they are. How they stood up to tyranny, fought for the freedom of all, and saved the Equestrian Wasteland. Unfortunately for you, yet very fortunate for me, most of these stories are false.

But before I say anymore and befuddle you any further, I should probably explain the context of all this.

Long ago, back when Celestia and Luna ruled Equestria, there was this massive war. A lot of folks nowadays have no idea why it started because a lot of the facts concerning the conflict have been lost to history. You may find a data loge here or a well read scholar there, but most of the fine details are shrouded in mystery. You can’t really blame anypony for it though. Folks were so focused on just surviving from day to day that they simply didn’t have the time to remember how they got into their current situation, and in most cases it was better to forget.

Anyway, this conflict started off with some small skirmishes along the Equestrian border, but soon it turned into an all out war. Each country was aiming to outdo the other. Military force increased rapidly, government authority knew no bounds, and propaganda littered every building, billboard and telephone pole. Soon enough the whole world was thrown into chaos.

In the end, everypony ended up killing everypony else. Powerful bombs fueled by magic were launched in every direction, balefire rained from the sky, and a horrible taint was released unto the world. Fortunately, amidst all this chaos some ponies managed to survive by hiding in massive bomb shelters called ‘Stables.’ They were able to live peaceful lives underground while the world above burned away. When the time was right they would rise like phoenixes from the ashes of the scorched earth and start anew.

This did eventually happen. Many ‘Stables’ opened up a few years after the war had ended, and the inhabitants spread out to try and settle this new Equestria. No longer was it the peaceful country they had spent their childhoods in, nor was it the industrial war machine it had warped into during their adulthood. No, they would spend their twilight years living amongst the dead skeleton of their once beloved homeland, the Equestrian Wasteland.

How I came to live amongst the wastes is a mystery. My ancestors may have come from a ‘Stable’, or they could’ve managed to survive the megaspell holocaust outside of a shelter and persevere through the worst of it.

Whoever they were or whatever they did to survive doesn’t matter now. I am who I am, and I am somepony who choose a different path from those other individuals I mentioned earlier. Instead of building myself up to be some kind of hero, I accepted who I was and what I chose to do to survive.

I was a slaver, and I was proud of it.

I traveled the wastes, making and trading slaves wherever I could. Me and my gang got paid well by our leader, Chrome Titan, who also helped us build our own fort that soon turned into a small settlement. We were talked about throughout the wastes, and anypony who’d  heard about us made sure to stay well out of our way.

In the end, our infamy was our own undoing.

Word of our sin had fallen upon the ears of the righteous, and a small crusade erupted in an attempt to bring us all to justice.

The way we lived,

the way we fought,

and the way we died

was changed by war.

Because war… war always changes.

On The First Part Of The Journey 1

The slave pens bustled with the sounds of confusion, chaos, and cracking whips. I watched from a distance as my co-workers screamed at our products to get into a single-file line. Most of them complied and rushed to organize themselves as quickly as they could, but there were still a few that remained defiant. Despite the fact that they had already been ripped from their homes, fitted with explosive collars, and branded with drudge* marks they continued to fight. It was almost as if they thought they could free themselves, that they could escape if they just didn’t give up. Their spirits were strong and hadn’t been broken yet, but that would be remedied soon enough. By the way they so vigorously resisted, I figured my intervention was necessary. I flapped my wings and descended from my observation perch upon a low hanging cloud.

“Quit fucking around!” shouted one of my colleagues, Head Knocker. “Use the cattle prods if you have to, just get them organized and on the train!”

“Titan told us not to use those.” replied a thin green fellow named Lucky. “He says he wants the shipments strong enough to walk this time, and the prods cause too much numbing.”

“Titan doesn’t need to know that we used the cattle prods. That crimson fucker isn’t even going with us this time.  Besides, our clients in Hoofbeat aren’t that picky.”

“Boss says not to use cattle prods,” I serenely cut in. “So we wont use them, Knocker.” He angrily snorted in my direction before making a snide reply.

“Well if it isn’t Trouble Clef. I see you found some free time to harass us in between fondling colts and taking the boss up your ass.”

“Funny.” I blatantly replied. “But I wouldn’t go around challenging Titan’s authority if I were you. Business has been slow for the past few years. We’re loosing both customers and potential slaves to the New Canterlot Republic faster than the speed of light, so don’t think for a second that Titan wouldn’t slap a slave collar around your neck to turn a few caps. Plus, it would be one less mouth to feed. Cutting you out of the picture would add enough caps to our funds to purchase some ammo, and you know how important ammunition is to us right now.”

Knocker opened his mouth to reply, but shut it a second later without uttering a sound. Everything I had said was true and he knew it. With how badly things had been going lately, it was better to be safe than sorry, and being safe sometimes meant shutting your fucking mouth and doing whatever you were told.

Let me take a moment to explain why things were so bad for me and my associates.

About five years back there was this unicorn named ‘Littlepip’ that lived inside a ‘Stable’ that didn’t open when all the other ones did. She managed to escape one day in search of her friend who had broken out as well. Her quest was innocent at first, but her simple mission to bring her lost companion home turned into a bloody conflict that painted the Wasteland red for two months. This little mare went from place to place slaughtering bandits, raiders, and slavers alike. I don’t have the slightest idea what her problem was. Sure, killing raiders and thugs was a good thing. It increased safety along trade routes and decreased the chances of attacks at slave auctions.

But killing slavers?

The common misconception throughout the Wasteland is that slavers are just like any other thug you’d encounter while traveling. That isn’t true in the slightest. Don’t get me wrong, we were bad ponies, but to group us into the same categories as lowly pickpockets and sadistic murderers jacked up on chems was wrong. Slavers are honest business ponies trying to make a living in this world by trading living skin for caps. Did we spill blood, did we ruin lives, did we do other horrible things? Yes, but who out here can say that they haven’t done anything of that sort? We did what we had to do to survive, to support ourselves and the others we chose to associate ourselves with. In most cases, that includes companions, friends, spouses, and children. Knocker himself had a wife and son to take care of, and I wasn’t one to judge the stallion on his choice in occupation.

Anyway, this little mare’s crusade abruptly ended one day. She had managed to fight in, and survive, a massive encounter with two armies that had risen up to challenge her. I’m not sure about all the details, unfortunately I wasn’t there. All I know is that after killing a whole slew of ponies she up and disappeared, vanished into thin air. Whatever she did, caused a whole lot of trouble for me and anypony else who shared my profession.

Not only did she kill hundreds of slavers throughout the waste, but she also managed to set up a new society that protected individuals from such a practice. It was named the ‘New Canterlot Republic,’ or NCR for short. This new government was a symbol that the world was changing, healing, returning to the way it was two hundred years ago before the bombs fell. It was good for some, but bad for others. Others meaning me.

The NCR offered guidance, education, and security. Ponies from everywhere flocked to the NCR in hopes of starting a new life, free from the cruelty of the Wasteland. With so many folks entering the protection of this new administration, my business had been slowed to a crawl. Buyers, sellers, and products in general were harder to come by. All of them had abandoned their old way of life in exchange for the comfort and community that the NCR offered. The only reason anypony stayed away from this new establishment was if they were outlaws. The NCR was no place for uncivilized ponies, so anyone who didn’t live up to their standards or obey their laws was not allowed to join. I had no love for the NCR, but I respected what they were trying to do. They wanted to make the world a better place, and I admired that. Even if it meant my purse was a little lighter and I had to tighten my belt a few knots more to keep the feeling of hunger away.

I don’t know if it was the work of NCR, Littlepip, or Celestia herself but even after all of this change, the world continued to transform before my very eyes. Even after that young unicorn disappeared, her legacy continued to work wonders in both how ponies lived, and how the world lived.

The thick clouds that had formed in the sky after the war  had managed to block out the sun’s light for over two centuries, but by some miracle they had begun to dissipate. The golden beams of light that radiated from Celestia’s Star sparked something inside the citizens of the waste, and that spark turned into a great flame that spread like wildfire. Bands of ‘heroes’ rose up to cleanse the waste of it’s vice, to bring civilization back to the scorched earth. They were just like Littlepip, clever, brave, and relentless in their quest to rid the world of horrible folks such as myself.

They posed a threat to my establishment, my friends, and my very way of life. The danger was as real to me as it was to Knocker, Lucky, and any other slaver who worked alongside me, including Titan. They had put us all on edge as of recent due to their increasing numbers and zeal. Slowly, they had begun to spread out across the land, killing off the scum of the earth and claiming more territory for the NCR. They were one of the few aspects of the New Canterlot Republic that I despised. Especially because they were vigilantes and didn’t directly work for the NCR’s government.

Now, here we were. Weak, scared, and fearing the possibility of death upon waking every morning to the sound of gunfire outside our settlement. Life had taken a turn for the worse, and the only thing that kept us going was the promise of a hoof full of caps and a mouthful of gruel that Titan offered us every day for our work. Life wasn’t as good as it used to be, but we just had to adapt and move forward. Just like those ponies so may years ago who had to find a way to survive in this unforgiving world we now inhabit today.

But anyway, I best get back to the story…

I took one last look at Knocker to make sure he wouldn’t say anything else before turning my attention towards Lucky.

“Don’t use the cattle prods.” I said loud enough for everypony in the pen to hear, including the slaves. “If any of them continue to resist, you have my permission to shoot them.”

Sure enough, my strategy worked and the remaining slaves who refused to comply instantly settled down and slowly took their place amongst the rest of our products. I shot knocker a mischievous smile before turning my back on him and heading for my private passenger car.

“Ya’ see Knocker, you don’t need to be so brutal with these fine folks. Sometimes it is better to be vocal than physical. You’d do well to remember that.”

As I reached the steel door that opened to my cart, I turned around to take one last look at the slaves before they were herded into the train cars specifically fitted for them. They were all lined up in a single, neat line ranging from tallest to shortest. A stallion made of skin and bone stood at the front, his shackles coated in blood from too much chafing and resistance. At the other end slouched a young filly who looked so frail, I was afraid she might actually faint dead away on the spot.

“No wonder the boss wants us to be careful with this shipment, they’re all a horrible bunch! Well, except for that one brown mare whose…

…whose standing out of line, staring down the barrel of Lucky’s forty-four magnum revolver!”

That wasn’t a sight I expected to see! I assumed that my words had been enough to persuade everypony to comply, apparently I was mistaken. This brown mare stood as tall and proud as the Canterlot Mountains themselves. Her eyes were narrowed and seemed to stare deep into Lucky’s soul. Despite the threat of death she remained defiant, as if the end of everything she knew didn’t scare her in the slightest. To put it lightly, I was amused.

“You deaf, girl?” shouted knocker as her trotted up to the mare, raising his own pistol to her head. “You best get in line before one of us buries your skull fragments in a thousand different places!” The mare didn’t respond. All she did was turn her head, and glare at Knocker with eyes as sharp as cosmic knives. There was no fear in them, all I saw was a fire that burned with a passion unlike any other.

“We’re not warning you again, slave. Get back in line or we’ll splatter your brains to the wind.” Lucky’s threat was made even more conniving as he pulled the hammer back on his revolver. The mare took one last menacing look at Lucky before finally stepping down and moving to get in line with the others.

I was a little disappointed. It would’ve been interesting to see how things would’ve went down if the mare had continued her standoff with the two toughest gunslingers in my gang. Maybe she would’ve made a move for one of their guns, or even tried to take them on with her bare hooves.

“She’ll probably give us some trouble as we’re unloading her later.” I murmured to myself as I entered my private train car and laid down on my makeshift bed. “Well, all that trouble will be worth it once we auction her off. Strong mare like her will fetch me quite a pretty penny.”

I closed my eyes after hearing the sound of the slave car doors slamming shut. Music to my ears! Slowly, the train started to move forward and lull me to sleep with its gentle rocking motion. As I drifted off I thought back to my last words with Knocker. Maybe it was not my place to threaten the poor guy with slavery, even if he had been out of line. He was probably on edge and didn’t mean any harm by what he said.

I hoped that was the case and that it wouldn’t happen again. If he did end up disobeying Titan, he could end up with over ninety-nine problems, and only one way to solving them. That one solution would be putting a bullet in his own head and sparing himself and his family all the misery Titan would bestow upon them……

… you know, maybe we weren’t so different from raiders after all…..

….

….

…. I couldn’t think on that anymore, I needed some sleep. It was gonna be a busy day at Hoofbeat, and I’d need all the strength I could get if I wanted to sell as many slaves as I could.

On The First Part Of The Jorney 2

I awoke a few hours later to the sound of my cart door opening and closing. I instinctively reached for the ‘big iron’ strapped to my thigh. I looked up to address my guest before I pulled the rest of the massive six shooter out of it’s holster. To my relief the unexpected visitor was a familiar young dragon.

“What is it Chain?” I managed to say in between yawns. “Anything wrong?” The gaunt wyrm shook her head ’no’ and proceeded to pull a letter out from under the belt strapped around her waist.

“Its from Titan. Something about the sales your supposed to make over the next few days.” she said through a mouth full of fractured teeth.

“Alright, bring it over here and find a pen for yourself. When I’m done reading this your gonna have to write a reply and send it for me.” I grabbed the letter from her scaly claws and set it down on my mattress to read.

Trouble Clef,

I missed you before you left, and I had something I needed to tell you about the Hoofbeat auction. I sent out a few letters to some personal friends of mine a few weeks ago. I told them about our presence at the auction and that we would have a wide selection of products for them to choose from. Their names are Jackpot, Crack Shot, and Powder Charge. Look for them at the saloon in the middle of town this upcoming Wednesday. You should be able to sell a lot of our current stock to them, if not all. Try using some of your clever bartering tricks on them. The more caps we make, the better. Be sure to send me a reply so that I know this message got through to you.

Sincerely,

Chrome Titan.

“Hmph, not bad. Titan really helped us out this time around. Better not let this opportunity go to waste. Thanks, Chain, for bringing me this. Would you please send Titan a response letting him know that we got his message?”

“Sure thing boss.” she replied, giving me a feigned salute. “I’ll get on it right away.” I turned to lay back down on my bed before Chain addressed me again. “Oh, and Knocker wanted to see you. He’s up at the very front of the train running maintenance on the boiler.”

“Perfect.” I sighed. “I gotta go deal with his bullshit again?” Chain shrugged both her shoulders, as if to say ‘tough luck,’ before shifting her attention to the message she was writing in reply to Titan’s.

I shuffled over to the wash pan set up in the corner of my box car. I took a hoofful of the dirty water that swished around inside and splashed it on my face. The muggy liquid helped wake me up a bit and managed to get the sleep out of my eyes. I took a look at myself in the cracked mirror that hung on the wall to make sure I looked intimidating enough for Knocker to take me seriously. A stallion with a dirty white coat, glaring magenta eyes, a short blonde mane, and some untidy whiskers stared back at me. It was the same stallion I saw every time I looked in a mirror, and the same one everypony else saw when they looked at me. If it was daunting enough for rival slavers, then it was good enough for Knocker.

_____

A few minutes later I was nearing the head end of the train. Having flown my way up to it, I glided towards the window that opened up to the boiler room, and quickly squeezed myself through. After setting down on my hooves I trotted a few steps to the back end of the cart where Knocker was shoveling coal and other flammable items into the steam engine.

“You wanted to see me!” I shouted over the noise of the train. Knocker jumped at my sudden appearance, dropping his shovel to the ground with a loud ‘CLANG.’

“Geezus, don’t sneak up on me like that!” he yelled back. After a second he calmed down, picked up his shovel, and started scooping up combustible debris and shoving it into the massive furnace. He continued to do this for a long time before talking to me again.

“Look, Trouble, I’m sorry that I got out of line back there. I know I shouldn’t be acting like that, but I’ve been really stressed out lately. You know I’ve got a wife and kid to take care off, and with the threat of NCR vigilantes rallying against us I have kinda been on edge.” He stopped shoveling and turned to directly face me. “I don’t want to get on Titan’s bad side. I’ve seen what he’s done to others who were disloyal, and I don’t want to count myself amongst those who were subject to that kind of torture. I’m asking you as a long time college to not mention to Titan what I did earlier, and pretend like it never happened.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I hollered. “I know everypony is stressed right now. We already have NCR mercs dogging us, we don’t need to be worrying about turning on each other. Things have been rough as of recent so we need to look out for one another.” I chose my next words carefully. I wanted to get my point across, but if I didn’t do it the right way I could end up sending the wrong message. “To be honest with you, Knocker, I’ve never really liked you. But I’m willing to look past my disdain for your personality if it means we both make it out ahead. So I’ll keep quite about your outburst earlier if you promise to work with me to overcome this hard time. What do you say?”

“I accept your offer!” exclaimed Knocker as he extended a hoof for me to shake. “This means a lot Trouble, I’m glad that you understa-

‘Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!’

Knocker was cut off as several laser beams punctured holes into the side of the box car. I ducked my head down and looked for a place to hide. Thinking quickly I crawled over to the boiler, swung open the door to the furnace, and slouched down behind it. Thankfully, the thick steel door was strong enough to stop the beams of heat from disintegrating me. Knocker joined me behind my makeshift shield a second later. He looked pale, and was breathing heavily. Giving him a quick one-over, I noticed several lasers had grazed the front of his left foreleg. It looked like it hurt a lot, but it wasn’t anything a few healing potions couldn’t fix.

“We’re sitting ducks inside here! We need to get to a better spot where we can figure out who the fuck is shooting at us. You gonna be ok making a run for the box car behind us?” I asked my stone faced companion.

“Yeah. I’m good.” he said through clenched teeth. “We make a break for it one three?” I nodded in agreement as I pulled out my antique single-action revolver. Droplets of sweat ran down my face from a mix of anxiety and the increasing heat in the car. The cacophony of laser fire hadn’t ceased since it first started, and I prayed that whoever was firing at us wouldn’t have the dumb luck of hitting us as we exited our cover.

“Three…. Two….. One!”

We dove out from behind the furnace and towards the door that led to the outside of the train. Laser bolts missed us by mere inches as we sprinted like mad to make it to a safer position. Knocker reached the exit first and threw all of his weight into the door, dislodging the it from its hinges and knocking it to the ground. In turn, I glided over him and used my momentum to break through the wooden entrance to the preceding train car. And just like that, we had managed to reach our destination. None the worse for wear.

The inside of the car was a gory mess. The remains of three slavers painted the walls a grizzly shade of red. Since lasers caused disintegration, and not dismemberment, I deduced that our attackers also packed a heavy set of ballistic weapons to accompany their magical ordinance. My theory was proven correct as a torrent of machine guns opened fire into the box car. Thankfully, there was a lot more cover to use in this cart since it had served as our recreation room for long trips.

I dove to hide behind an overturned metal table, while Knocker slid behind the protection of a broken Sparkle-Cola machine. The wave of ballistics continued to puncture through the side of the wooden train car for a few more seconds before stopping. Once I was certain that the guns wouldn’t start shooting again I crawled up to the side of the car and peaked through a fresh bullet hole. I hoped to get a glimpse of our attackers, but I couldn’t see anything through the clouds of sand kicked up by the train.

“See anything?” shouted Knocker from behind his barrier.

“Not yet!” I replied. “All I see is sand. No! Wait a minute! I think I see something!”

Sure enough, the silhouette of a Pegasus flying next to the train floated into my vision. I strained my eyes to pick out specific features on the mysterious equine. If I could just get a better look at their armor I could figure out what faction they belonged to. I hoped that it was just a gang of raiders that had gotten their hands on some heavy duty weapons, but I wouldn’t be so fortunate.

My heart sank as the features on the Pegasus became identifiable. It was a young mare, probably just entering adulthood, with a cream colored coat and a blue and red streaked mane. She had two automatic rifles attached to a battle saddle tightly secured around her back. Beneath her bulky battle tack I could make out a torn and faded Stable Tec jumpsuit with a few pieces of sports gear strapped over her shoulders and chest.

Despite all these hints as to who she was and why she was attacking us, it was the insignia painted on the side of her shoulder pauldron that gave away who she was. It was a crude drawing of a unicorn surrounded by a circle of Pegasus wings, the symbol of the NCR.

“Shit, Knocker, we’ve got heavily armed NCR soldiers attacking us.” I shouted.

“Fuck! What are we going to do?” I thought for a moment before responding.

“As I see it, we have two options. We can either jump the train and escape to the nearest settlement, or find whoever is left and try to fight off the soldiers.”

“The first option is out of the question.” retorted Knocker. “If we do manage to make it back to our base, Titan will kill us for loosing an entire shipment as well as our only means of transportation.”

“Good point.”

“I say we go with your later suggestion. If we succeed, we’re rewarded with our lives and the knowledge that there is one less NCR squad tracking us. If we fail, well the worst that could happen is that we end up dead.”

“I wont fight you on that.” I replied. “If that’s the plan, then I suggest we get to the rear of the train. If the NCR is here to free the slaves, then they’ll be trying to break them out from there. What we’ll do is get to one of the empty cars, open up the side door, and fire on them from there. Sound like a plan?

“Seems a bit risky,” Knocker warned. “but I cant think of a better plan right now so I’ll just roll with it.”

________________

A few minutes later, we had maneuvered our way towards the caboose end of the train. Unfortunately, we were the last two slavers alive. Even Chain had fallen victim to the NCR vigilantes, being reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash.  Once we reached our specified destination we began to scan the area around us for any sign of the attackers. Peeking out a broken glass window, I spied the bulk of the group running along side us.

Cantering next to the train were a dozen or so ponies equipped with power armor and various heavy weapons. From the way some were pushing forward, I assumed that they were trying to make their way towards the head of the train so they could stop it. If they managed to slow the train to a halt, there would be no way for Knocker and myself to get it started again. The two of us might be able to drive the soldiers off while they where on the outside, but if they worked their way into the train there would be no way in all of Equestria that we could survive the bombardment of bullets and lasers inside the cramped box cars.

“If you have armor piercing ammo, it would be best to use it now!” I shouted to Knocker as I loaded six incendiary rounds into my own revolver. He produced a hoofful of bullets from the pocket on his vest.

“All I have is hollow points.”

“Then save them for when that Pegasus I saw earlier comes to get us. She was lightly armored so those bullets will tear her to shreds.

I turned my attention back to the ponies that ran bellow us.  I took a deep breath as I wrapped my left hoof around the release latch to the side door, picking out a single target amongst the group outside. As soon as I threw the door open, I would shoot at the pony who was at the head of the posse. With a resolute grunt, I yanked the side door open and fired my revolver at my intended target

“BANG!”

My ears rang like church bells as the gun discharged. The forty-five seventy round traveled through the air at the speed of light and connected with my target’s metallic protection. I had missed my intended objective by a bit and hit the pony’s chest piece instead of his helmet. The round bounced off the soldiers thick plating, leaving behind a mean scorch mark. I hadn’t managed to kill him, but the impact had knocked him off of his hooves and sent him tumbling to the ground.

That was one less NCR merc to deal with for the time being, but now the remaining infantry had taken notice to me and were preparing to return fire. I ducked behind the wall of the train car just in time to avoid a burst of heavy machine gun rounds. Once the bullets had stopped flying, I risked a glance around the edge of my cover and saw that the pony who had shot at me had fallen behind a ways. The cause most likely being how difficult it was to run and shoot a battle saddle at the same time.

I returned my focus to the closer members of the attacking group. Having abandoned any attempt to shoot me, the group had increased it’s speed and was closing the gap between themselves and the front of the train.

“Shoot at them.” I ordered Knocker. “Try and get them to scatter!” As Knocker opened fire with his pistol, I fired my own gun blindly three more times. Most of our shots missed, and the few that did hit their mark either ricocheted off the soldier’s armor, or simply caused them to stumble and fall over.

The distance between my enemies was growing, so I was forced to sprint ahead through several cars to get a clear shot. I dashed from the end of one cart to another, gliding over the gaps in between them . Knocker trailed close behind, still firing his weapon at our assailants through shattered windows and splintered walls.

We managed to get ahead of them and reach the front of the train first. It was upsetting that their was so little cover and not a lot of room in the car, but just being there would make it harder for the NCR soldiers to board. Knocker and I took a moment to reload our weapons, and find decent enough firing positions. I flew up to the roof of the train so that I could gain a significant height advantage over the ponies on the ground, and a get clear shot at any pegasae that came our way. Knocker, on the other hoof, stayed bellow. He preferred to use the metal casing surrounding the train’s controls as cover.

Before I could take a shot at the approaching ground forces, I was taken off guard by two explosions to the right of me. The napalm from the propelled grenades entered my flesh, and sent waves of pain tearing through my body. The force of the detonation propelled me back a bit, but not enough to send me over the side of the train. Fortunately for me,  I didn’t catch much shrapnel, so the damage was minimal. It just hurt like a bitch.

After regaining my footing, I turned my attention to the group of newcomers who I assumed had thrown the explosives at me. It was three pegasae. Two of them circled above me; one was the mare I had spotted earlier, the other was an older stallion equipped with a set of magic rifles. The third pony stood on the train car behind mine. She wore the same crude armor as her companions, except she had a set of grenade rifles strapped to her battle saddle instead of automatic ones.

She released a second volley of grenades in my direction before I could even raise my gun. I managed to take to the air at the last moment, just barley escaping dismemberment. Unfortunately, her two companions where there to meet me in mid-air combat. The older stallion made a move to knock me out of the sky, but I managed to dodge the attack with some effort. Where the old charger had failed, the mare succeeded. Her aim was surprisingly accurate for somepony who was flying and shooting at the same time. A few of her shots whizzed past me as I increased my altitude, but two punctured my left wing and sent me crashing head first onto the top of the train.

My vision swam as I desperately fought my way to my hooves. I saw the older stallion coming in for a landing next to me, and the mare with the grenade rifles nonchalantly strolling over to my wobbling form. I feared for the worst, thinking that this could be the end. With the last of my strength I finally got myself onto my hooves and made a break for Knocker’s position. If I could just reach him, then we could take on the three pegasae together, and beat them!

It took me a second to realize how foolish that notion was. I was in no shape to fight right now, and there was no way Knocker could take on the three pegasae and the closing ground troopers alone. Besides that, the demolition Pegasus could easily toss a grenade into the control box and turn the two of us into red paste.

Just then, two more grenades whistled past me. For a moment, I thanked Celestia for the horrid aim of my pursuer. That was until I realized where the two missed shots were headed towards. The first one landed inside the control box. The second flew completely over the train, and was lost beneath the speeding locomotion.

They went off simultaneously. I heard somepony scream in agony as a red mist spewed out from the control box’s windows. Their shrieks of pain were drowned out half a second later as the explosion from the second mortar sent the several box cars flying off the tracks. I was helpless with my wounded wing, and I soon found myself tumbling head over heals through the air as the entire train was derailed. Time slowed in the last few seconds before I hit the ground, giving me just enough measure to realize what was happening.

“I’m going to die.”

“I’m going to die.”

“I’m going to-

And that’s when I hit the ground.

___________

When I awoke a while later, the sun was already setting in the west. Must’ve been unconscious for two or three hours at the least. I tried to stand, but was too dehydrated to make it to my hooves. I lay on the ground a few minutes more before trying to lift myself up again. I was able to push myself up, but found that my back legs were stuck beneath a pile of debris. Thankfully they weren’t crushed, but it would take a lot of effort to get them free.

I struggled with the rubble for a minute, slowly slipping my way out from beneath it. That was until I heard the sound of approaching hooves. From what I could tell there was more than one pony coming my way. Chances were it was NCR searching the wreckage for any remaining slavers. I laid my head down and played dead. With my blood soaked body and tattered wing, I would make a very convincing cadaver.

Sure enough, four armored NCR soldiers walked into my line of sight from the right. They stopped right in front of my prone form, and I feared they would see past my disguise!

“There! I see one!” shouted one of the soldiers. “Beneath that pile of debris!” I squeezed my eyes shut as the soldiers approached me, holding my breath in anticipation for the coming end. A few seconds passed, yet nothing happened. I opened one eye out of curiosity and saw the soldiers approaching a different pile of wreckage. They rummaged through it for a minute before pulling the bloody remains of a pony out from underneath.

“What did you find?” asked a feminine voice above me. The demolition Pegasus from earlier swooped down and landed behind the other soldiers as they lay the broken pony on the ground.

“Slaver, ma’am, and he’s still alive. He’s bleeding out, though, so we’ll have to give him medical treatment before questioning him.” the mare shook her head at this.

“We’ve got enough wounded of our own to take care of. Wake him up and give him some water, we’ll interrogate him here and now.” They soldiers quickly worked to obey the Pegasus, who I deduced was their leader. Two of them sat the unconscious stallion upright, while a third produced a water bottle from his saddle bag and splashed its contents on their captive’s face.

The soldier continued to douse the slaver until he started to wake up. Once he was aware enough, they opened his mouth and poured the last of the water from the bottle down his throat. He choked on the first mouthful, but greedily sucked down the rest of it. Once the bottle had been emptied, the three soldiers released their prisoner and let him sit up by himself. They then parted away from the slaver and let the Pegasus mare approach him.

“Do you know who we are?” she asked coolly.

“Yes.” he choked in reply.

“Do you know why we are here?”

“You want the… *Cough*… slaves, right?”

“They’re not slaves anymore, mister….”

“Knocker, my name is Knocker.”

“Shit” I whispered to myself.

“A pleasure to meet you.” mocked the Pegasus. “My name is Copper, Copper Wire.” She extended a hoof for him to shake, but Knocker just glared at her. After an awkward moment of silence, Copper retracted her hoof and returned it to the ground.

“Stop fucking around.” growled Knocker. “Just tell me what you want with me.” Copper looked a little disappointed that her captive was so unwilling to play along with her. With a sigh, she kicked the battle saddle attached to her back to chamber a round into her grenade rifles.

“Fine, I’ll be blunt with you. If you tell me where your home base is and where you were headed, then I’ll make this as painless as possible. If you refuse to tell me what I want, I will break you. Then you’ll know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of all the pain you‘ve dished out.”

I could see the strain on Knocker’s face. All his chips where on the table, and the cards had been dealt. In his hooves he held the dead man’s hand, a combination of cards notorious for spelling out doom for their holder. There was no way out of this predicament. It was just a matter of time before Knocker finally cracked under the pressure and revealed the location of our settlement.

“We were heading to Hoofbeat.” He murmured. “There’s going to be a slave auction there starting tomorrow.”

“And what about your base of operations?”

“Follow the train tracks heading north. When they split, keep to the left and head into the canyon. You’ll see my home on the other side.”

Knocker chocked back a sob once he had finished. I, myself, let out a disappointed sigh. I figured he would have resisted a little bit before finally caving, but he had instead taken the easy way out. I guess he figured that he was a dead stallion anyways, living on limited time. Perhaps it was for the best if he just quit while he still had something to loose, and that was a moment of peace to ask for forgiveness before being blown to smithereens.

“You see, that wasn’t so hard!” exclaimed Copper. “I’m glad you were so compliant.” Knocker continued to glare at her. He had no more words to speak, he just wanted everything to end. With a wave of her hoof, Copper motioned for her armored companions to move away from Knocker before readying her weapon. The cocky grin disappeared from her face as she took aim, replacing it with a stern frown. She just stood there for a minute, staring down the sights of her weapon, not moving a muscle.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Chocked Knocker as Copper continued to zero in on him. “Just fucking get on with it. That is, of course, unless your afraid you’ll mi-”

His last words were cut off by the sudden discharge of two grenades from the NCR mare’s battle saddle. They flew through the air, and connected with Knocker’s broken body. They detonated on impact, tearing him to shreds in an instant. Once the dust had settled, all that remained of my associate was a bloody scorch mark.

“Celestia save you, ya’ filthy bastard.” Copper turned to her comrades and motioned for them to listen to her. “I want you to organize our soldiers into three squads. One will head to Hoofbeat to shut down the slave trafficking going on there. The second will follow the tracks back to these slaver’s hideout and clear it out. The last group will escort the surviving slaves we freed here back to NCR territory. Got it?”

“Yes Ma’am!” They all replied in unison. I relaxed my muscles as they departed to complete their tasks. It was likely that I was the last remaining slaver from my group, so I would have to get out of this predicament all on my own. For now, that meant resting a bit and waiting for the NCR to clear out. Once they left, I would have all the time in the world to free myself from the wreckage. I laid there and just breathed for a while, focusing on nothing but the pattern of my heart beat.

“One, two.”

“One, two”

“One, two”

And before I knew it, I had fallen into a restless sleep.

The First Thing I Met 1

I put all my strength into pushing myself out from under the mound of debris that pinned me to the ground. The frigid desert night helped keep me cool while I worked. It was a welcome relief to the powerful sun that had beaten down on my back for several hours while I waited for the NCR to leave. Once they had set off on their quest to free the remaining slaves at Hoofbeat and my home, I was left to my devices to escape.

Again, I pushed my hooves against the rubble. My legs slid out a little further so that my thighs were almost completely out. I pushed even harder, but a sudden stab of pain in my left leg caused me to stop. The ache was unbearable, sending fresh waves of agony through my nerves system. Examining the source of the hurt, I found that a stray nail had embedded itself into the side of my thigh. It had dug deep and carved a hideous gash along the length of my leg.

“Fuck.” I whimpered through clenched teeth. “This is going to hurt a lot.” I scooted as far as I could to the right, slowly moving my body off of the jagged nail. The pain was immense, but I didn’t stop. The majority of the nail was out of my thigh once I had shifted as far as I could, just the tip remained. If I were to try and push myself out again the point would slide through my torn muscles. It would possibly cause more damage, and definitely a lot more pain.

“Better get it done and over with. The sooner I do it, the sooner it’ll be over.” I steeled myself for the coming agony, tightening my jaw and slowly breathing in and out through my nose. “One, two….. Three!”

I pushed against the rubble with all my might. Both my legs slid out inch by inch, but it that wasn’t fast enough. I screamed as the tip of the nail slid around inside my already horrendous wound. I could feel it scraping against my strands of muscles,  and tearing through untouched flesh. I didn’t even fight the tears as they came, I just let them role freely down my face as I screamed.

The pain lasted for what felt like an eternity, but it finally came to an end. With one last push I freed myself from my agonizing prison. To my relief, the nail left my wound and I was finally freed from the pain it had wrought me. I laid there for some time, simply basking in the ecstasy that washed over me as all the pains throughout my body subsided.

Much to my chagrin, my misery wasn’t over yet. The pain was greatly lessened in my thigh, but it still hurt. If I didn’t work quickly I could bleed to death, or get an infection. My options where limited, however. My leg was too sore to move so I couldn’t go searching for medical supplies, and even if it wasn’t I was at my breaking point. Pushing myself free of the rubble had taken a lot out of me, and I was now thirstier than a stallion at a salt bar. I would have to make due with what I currently had on me, and that just so happened to be a knife, a few bullets, a pack of cigarettes, and a sheet of matches.

“Fuck me…” I sighed. “Why does it have to be this way?” I knew what I had to do if I wanted to survive, and it wasn’t appealing in the slightest. It was bound to hurt even worse than the nail. Slowly, I grabbed a bullet from my ammo bandolier and placed it on the ground. Next, I took hold of the knife in my teeth and began to whittle away at the tip of the cartridge. Once I had separated the ballistic from the shell, I dropped the knife and exchanged it for the bullet casing filled with gunpowder. With some effort, I managed to crane my neck back and pour the powder into the open wound. It stung a bit, but I found solace in the knowledge that my misery was about to end.

A cold sweat broke out across my brow as I grabbed a match between my teeth and lit it. My breath caught in my throat as I leaned the flame closer to the wound. It hovered there for a second before I inched it a little closer.

“Just don’t think about it, it wont hurt if I don’t think about it!” I moved the match closer and closer, until it was just barley touching my skin. “Going to stick it in on three, ok? C’mon, you can do this. Alright; one, two,….

….

….

Three!”

I stuck the match into my wound and ignited the gunpowder. The flame flashed for a brief second before vanishing, leaving behind a sealed and sterilized, yet incredibly painful, scar along my left thigh. The anguish brought about by the crude sealing of the wound reduced me to a screaming pile of tears, but after what felt like hours of wailing, I was finally able to stand. Albeit, very shakily, but I could stand!

“Celestia knows I’m no medic.” I grunted to myself as I took a wobbly step forward. The soreness of my left hind leg was awful. Fortunately, I had three others to support my weight. I took a few more practice steps forward before convincing myself that I was well enough to walk. As long as I was slow, and kept weight off my injury I could get where I needed to be.

Now that I was free to move around, my first order of business was finding some water. I was dead thirsty, and felt like I was about to pass out from dehydration. I decided my best bet for finding something to drink was to search the wreckage of my personal train car. I had kept a small cooler next to my bed containing some bottles of water and a few food cans. Determining that that was my best option, I gradually limped towards the place I assumed my cart had crashed.

As I walked, I passed the spot Knocker had left on the earth upon his death. The cracked dirt was stained black from soot and blood. Chunks of his seared flesh and clothing littered the area, painting a gruesomely abstract image upon the ground. It saddened me to think that this was all that was left of my acquaintance. Everything that he had accomplished was undone with the pull of a trigger, and now all that remained to attest to his existence was this blemish upon the earth. If anything, it would serve as a warning to those who happened across it. A message practically shouted by the NCR in everything that they did.

‘Join us, or die!”

The First Thing I Met 2

Water had never tasted so good!

An immense feeling of pleasure flooded my senses as I gulped down an entire bottle of water. I knew that I shouldn’t have downed the whole thing since my supply was so low, but I couldn’t stop myself. I almost grabbed a second one, but stopped before I did. I didn’t know how long the journey ahead of me would be, so I had to use my last seven bottles sparingly. I pulled my hoof away from my cooler, choosing to take my mind off of my lust for another drink by focusing on what my next task was.

Since I had found a few bottles in my private train car, getting a hold of some water was no longer a problem. I figured that my next course of action should be searching for a place to get help from.

“Going back to my base is out of the question, damned NCR is headed there now. Same thing applies to Hoofbeat, so neither of those places are an option.” I pondered the idea as to where I could go for quite some time. There weren’t a lot of  inhabited settlements in the area, so my options were limited. Eventually, I managed to pull a single location from my memory. It was a little place called ‘Kirkwood,’ not to far to the north from where I was. I guessed it was about a days journey from my current location on hoof.

I decided that I should set out for Kirkwood immediately. There wasn’t much left for me to do there, at the train wreck, so it was for the best that I not waste anymore time. After stretching my legs and back I limped over to the remains of my bed and took hold of the rough piece of cloth I had previously used as a blanket. With a few folds and a couple of cuts with my knife inserted at key points I had made a makeshift poncho. The journey would be long, so I needed something to protect my skin from the sun in the daytime, and keep me warm when night fell.

After finding my revolver, some ammo, and a set of saddle bags to carry my water in I was ready to go. I set out north, using the stars as my guide since I was without a compass. I strolled alongside the train tracks for a while, absent mindedly gazing at the remainder of the locomotion that littered the aged rails. I didn’t notice anything interesting amongst the rubble until I came upon the cars where we had kept the slaves. The first two had remained standing upright, while the last one had disconnected from the train entirely and rolled onto it’s side.

I didn’t pay them any mind at first, but something inside the overturned car made a noise that got my attention. I glanced back at it, a little surprised at the sudden sound that had erupted from within. It sounded like somepony was whimpering, but I wasn’t entirely sure that’s what it was. Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to investigate.

I cautiously placed one hoof in front of the other as I stepped inside the dimly lit boxcar. I squinted my eyes in an attempt to see better, but to no avail. Remembering I still had a few matches left after sealing my wound, I grabbed one from my saddle bag and struck it against the wall closest to me. The light it produced was weak, but it allowed me to see a yard or so ahead. I continued to venture deeper into the car, quicker this time due to the limited amount of time my light would stay alive. As I neared the back, a horrid stench assaulted my senses. It was a mix of blood, decaying meat, and various other bodily fluids.

I had to cover my mouth to prevent myself from vomiting, accidentally knocking the match from my teeth in the process. I scrambled in the darkness to light another one. I continued onwards once I had, cautious of what I would discover when I reached the rear of the car. After what felt like a long time of stumbling around in the dark, I finally found what had piqued my inquisitiveness. The bodies of a dozen dead slaves lay in a mushy heap of rotting flesh, drying blood, and loose organs. The heat from the sun outside had turned the boxcar into an oven during the day, spoiling the carcasses within. Amongst the dead was the gaunt filly and stallion I had seen back at base. The young one’s forelegs were obviously broken, and her neck lay on an obscure angle. The stallion was crushed beneath several wooden beams that used to be attached to the ceiling, but had fallen loose during the crash.

“Fucking NCR.” I growled through gritted teeth. I don’t know why I was so disgusted at what I saw, they were just slaves after all. I guess I was angry at how much of a waste it all was. Those self proclaimed ‘heroes’ from the NCR had attacked my train head on in an attempt to free these ponies. In addition to killing several of my comrades in the process, they had also indirectly slaughtered twenty of the equines they were trying to rescue in the first place. Their actions were reckless and stupid. If the NCR wanted to win the hearts of everypony in the Wasteland, then they would have to tighten their grip on these vigilantes that were running a muck.

I was about to turn around and leave when a familiar noise assaulted my ears. It was the whimper I had heard earlier, but this time it was much weaker. Again, I dropped my match and had to trifle through my saddle bags in the dark while searching for a replacement. Once I had found and struck my last match, I turned to address the source of the sobbing. There, pinned beneath the same wooden beam that had crushed the bony stallion, was the brown mare from back at my home. She stuck out amongst the other ponies in the boxcar mostly because she wasn’t completely caked in blood, and she was still moving! Her head lolling from side to side as she fought to regain consciousness.

I got down closer to her so I could see her features more vividly. Her face was dirty from both dust, and splotches of ichors. Besides the mess, she had a fairly ‘clean’ face, meaning that it was free from any prevalent scars or blemishes. I managed to get a glimpse of her eyes as she slowly opened them to reveal a pair of vibrant magenta irises. I stared at her for a while, just watching to see if she would come to.

Eventually, she managed to pull herself together. Slowly opening her eyes all the way so that she could take in her surroundings. At first she looked confused, but her expression warped into concern as she began to remember what had happened. Memories of the boxcar, the attack, and the crash all came flooding back to her. She began to panic, and tried to stand herself up, only to find that something was keeping her pinned to the ground. The look on her face distorted again as she came to the conclusion that she was, indeed, stuck inside the train car full of rotting dead ponies. It looked as if she was about to vomit, but somehow she managed to swallow the sensation before she got sick.

“Oh no.” she whispered to herself. “What have I gotten myself into this time?” Her hooves slid up towards her face to wipe away the small tear droplets that had formed in the corners of her eyes. She stopped, though, as her left hoof happened to brush over mine in the dark. That is when she took notice of me. Her gaze lifted from the floor and moved to meet my own. I don’t know if she knew it was me, the one who owned her, or if she mistook me for a stranger. It was awfully dark inside the boxcar, after all, and our only source of light was the dying match that hung out from my teeth.

“Please, help me!”

We stared into each others eyes for a minute. She was wondering what I would do, and my mind was considering the same. However, It didn’t take long for me to decide. I dropped the match from my mouth, turned around, and made to leave the train car.

“Wait!” she shouted behind me. “Where are you going? Your not just going to leave me here, are you?” I ignored her cries for help. I only had enough water for myself to make the journey to Kirkwood, and I saw no way of freeing her from the beam that pinned her to the ground. “Please, don’t let me die!” I didn’t look back as I continued on my way towards the outside. She was just a slave, not like it really mattered to me if she lived or died. “I’m Begging you, please!”

I admit, something deep down inside was telling me to go back and help her. But, for the sake of my own survival, I buried that feeling beneath a wave of selfishness and an unconquerable will to live. And with that, I left the car full of dead ponies behind me. My curiosity now sated, I was ready to continue on my journey

The First Thing I Met 3

“What do you want?” I shouted at the sprite bot that had been following me for nearly twelve hours. I was surprised by its presence due to the fact that sprite bots where such a rare sight in the wastes, especially in the desert. They used to be a common occurrence when the slaver, Red Eye, had held power in Fillydelphia. But after his untimely death at the hooves of Littlepip, they had greatly reduced in number.

Fizz....Fizz...POP!

It looked like the bot’s communicating device was broken, probably from lack of maintenance. Even if the thing could commune with me, I still wouldn’t be able to understand it. Learning the language of pre-war robots was very difficult, and usually only accomplished by the most intelligent of ponies. I never had the time to be taught the computerized dialect, and the one translation dictionary I had found was traded to some scavenger a few years back.

Fizz…Crack….Fizz…

“Listen, I wish I could help you out. I’m just not skilled in the likes of science and mechanics. Do you understand me?” The thing stayed silent for a moment before bobbing its frame up and down. “Does that mean yes?”

FIZZ!

“Piss!” I screamed. I was dead tired after walking for an entire day without any breaks, and the sprite bot only served to get on my nerves. I spun around on my heels and continued on my way towards Kirkwood. Once I reached my destination, I would find somepony to take the blasted automaton off my hooves.

I continued to plod through the desert for a few hours more. The robot followed close behind, spewing white noise from its damaged speakers the entire time. Oddly enough, as I drew closer to Kirkwood the sprite bot’s buzzing seemed to increase. It became louder and had fewer breaks in between. The sudden change in action unsettled me a bit, it couldn’t just be coincidence that the machine was acting more sporadic as I grew closer to the settlement. As a precaution, I drew my gun and cocked the hammer back.

I cautiously proceeded forward over a few more sand dunes until I came upon a gentle slope. At the bottom of the sandy hill lay the settlement of Kirkwood. It was an awfully small collection of half buried buildings and tents that were reminiscent of an old fashioned ghost town. The sprite bot’s fizzing abruptly stopped as it gazed upon the lonesome colony. Perhaps it had not known about Kirkwood, and its rambunctious buzzing would have sounded like inquiring beeps and pops if it had a properly functioning communicator.

“Well little guy, lets hope we can find somepony down there to fix you up.”

Disappointment! Disappointment, and a pinch of fear circled around inside my head.

I had found Kirkwood to be empty. The damaged buildings had been picked clean of anything useful and the tents hadn’t been in use for what looked like a very long time. Something had obviously happened since the last time I had visited, and that’s what had scared me. The fact that everypony there just disappeared without a trace had ‘suspicious‘ written all over it. You’d think that perhaps somepony would have passed through Titan’s territory in the past two years and told him about the exodus of an entire settlement.

My imagination ran wild with countless travesties that could have befallen the inhabitants of Kirkwood. Raider attack? Alicorns? A rival slaver gang? With all the crazy stuff that had happened in the past ten years, anything was possible. All I knew was that whatever happened hadn’t been good.

After nearly three days of traveling to and from Kirkwood, I had arrived back at the train wreck. It was the only point of reference that I had to go off of, and the only other location I could trek to with what resources I had left. I planned to scavenge the debris more thoroughly, gather whatever materials I could find, and set out east. I didn’t really know what I would find once I got out there. The only thing guiding my step was desperation, as I only had the power of prayer to save me now.

“Pretty sure I can get my hooves on a few more bottles of water.” I relayed to the sprite bot that had continued to follow me. “You wouldn’t happen to have a, what’s it called again? Oh! A scavenge protocol, would you?”

Fizzle….fizzle…click….

“ Mmhm, that’s what I thought.” I knew it was a little odd to chat with a piece of machinery, especially one that couldn’t talk back. However, it brought me comfort to convey my plans to something other than my own psyche. I did find myself to be a particularly interesting fellow to converse with, but talking with anypony for too long a time can become quite maddening. “Well, it makes me sad to think that Kirkwood is dead. From what I heard, the well they had dug in the center of town produced water clear as crystals. Regrettably, when we found it there was nothing but dried mud at the bottom.”

Again, the sprite with no ‘buzz’ responded to me with a few zips, fizzles, and pops.

“So this was pretty much a wasted trip. I didn’t find any place or anypony to help me, and I drank two of my water bottles on the way there. Next time, ill need somepony to remind me that knocking back one bottle a day is an easy way to end up dead.”

________________________________________________________________________

After Two Days, After Three Days..

I stood on a small island in the center of a large misty lake. Green grass grew beneath my hooves, and light clouds shielded me from the sun’s unrelenting rays of heat.

“I never did like the sun.” I thought to myself. “Always thought it was too hot.”

As much as I wanted this place to be real, I knew it wasn’t. Despite the fact that living grass, clean lakes, and cool days where a thing of the past, I had had this dream before. I hadn’t visited this dream scape in many years, so I was bound to return eventually.

As expected, the fantasy proceeded as it usually did. I felt the air around me grow humid and eventually turn an uncomfortably hot temperature. The clouds in the sky evaporated and the suns potency increased. The searing heat radiated throughout my fantasy realm, killing the luscious vegetation and eating up the lake. As the water level decreased I saw the tips of several hooves rise to the surface. There were eight pairs in all, each shining a pearly white. It wasn’t until the water lowered a few inches more that I noticed that they weren’t naturally white. They were bones, polished to a shine by the constant exposure to the lake’s water.

The lake’s level decreased even further exposing barren forelegs, empty skulls, and rib cages. Once the water had completely dried up, I could see the skeletons completely. Their empty eye sockets gazing up to the sky above, hooves reaching out to grab something that wasn’t there. I followed the corpses’ gaze to the heavens that hung above us. I squinted my eyes to see past the unrelenting light of the sun, nearly blinding myself in the process.

It took me a second to lock onto what the dead saw. It was the silhouettes of two large alicorns. Their eyes were outlined in white, gazing down at the dying foliage and empty lake. I could see the pity in their eyes, as if the destruction of such a lovely place personally effected them. Their intense look shifted from the dead land to the air that hung over them. Their pallid eyes targeting something they hadn’t noticed before.

I traced their line of sight to a tiny black spec high in the sky. It was hard to see at first, but the longer I stared, the more vivid it became. It wasn’t until I began to make out it’s specific features that I realized the unidentified object was falling to earth. I just stood there and stared as it drew closer and closer to the ground.

Time slowed to a crawl as the plummeting object reached eye level, and I was able to see it for what it was. It was revealed to be the mare from the boxcar. The same pony I had left pinned beneath a fallen beam, wallowing in the blood of a dozen dead slaves. Her eyes opened and met mine, sending an unfamiliar chill down my spine. Having had this dream several times before, I knew that something was different.

Time began to speed up, returning to it’s normal way of passing. As it did, the lake instantly refilled itself, creating a cushion of liquid for the falling mare. She hit the surface of the pond with a loud splash, and sank to the bottom. She remained submerged for a while, much longer than any other pony had stayed bellow.

The mare resurfaced a moment later, screaming in agony as the fluid around her began to eat away at her skin. She thrashed and flailed about, looking for an escape from the acidic pond that was slowly dissolving her.

“Help me!” She screamed through melting lips. The mare shot out her hoof and grabbed hold of the little island I stood on. Before I could react, she reached her second hoof forward and grabbed hold of my foreleg. “Please, just pull me up!”

I felt real pain as the acid from her body splashed onto mine. It burnt like shrapnel from a grenade, except it burrowed twice as deep. I tried to kick her off me, but she wasn’t able to let go. Her flesh had melted and mixed with mine, and no amount of pulling was going to get her off. I made a desperate move to grab the knife strapped to my waist, but ended up tripping over my own legs. I fell head first into the acidic pond and sank to the very bottom.

I expected pain, but found none. The water reacted differently to me. Biting me with it’s natural chill instead of the melting pain I had expected. Cautiously, I opened my eyes. It turned out that I could see perfectly fine beneath the water. I dare to proclaim that my sight had improved! I could make out every little detail beneath the waves. It was almost as if I was seeing things through a brand new pair of eyes.

Before I could investigate further, I felt something embrace me from behind. Turning to see what it was, I was surprised to see that it was the mare. Her body had been restored completely, skin and all. She wore a happy grin, and her eyes beamed with happiness.

“Thank you.” she whispered in my ear.

“For what?”

“Thank you.” she repeated. I made to ask her again what she was thanking me for, but she had vanished. I scoured the surrounding area for her, but found no trace. I resurfaced from the water a moment later, greedily sucking in a fresh mouthful of air.

“Hello?” I shouted. “Are you there?”

“Thank you.” I heard somepony whisper off to my right, or was it my left?

“Thank you.” whispered another voice. I didn’t realize until later that it wasn’t a series of voices from different locations that I was hearing, but a single voice echoing from every direction.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you.”

The dream ended there, and I was sent back to my harsh reality. Apparently I had made it back to the train wreck and taken refuge in one of the boxcars. I must’ve been very tired since I didn’t even remember falling asleep.

“What a dream.” I thought aloud. “It doesn’t usually work out that way.” As I said before, I’d had the dream in the past. Thing is, the fantasy had gone wrong this time around. Minor details changed depending on what I had done to trigger the dream, specifically, who I had recently killed. Though, nothing this drastic had ever happened before.

I was always standing on an island surrounded by water and healthy plants, something that resembled me. Everything always died, and the lake drained every time to reveal the skeletons of the dead. The eight corpses resembling the eight ponies I had killed in my lifetime. Then the skies opened up to reveal the silhouettes of the two alicorns who would sadly gaze upon the dead land, the dying me. I assumed that they were the two princesses who ruled Equestria before the war, weeping over the loss of a beloved subject. After that, a pony would fall from the sky and land in a lake filled with burning acid. The pony being whoever I had just killed, the lake resembling me committing the volatile act of murder. They would then dissolve into nothing more than skin and bone, permanently sinking to the bottom of the lake. Their skeletons would remain there, forever reaching out for something to pull them out of the burning lake.

As I had told you before, the dream had gone differently this time around. Instead of drowning in a volatile pond like all the others, the mare had resurfaced and fought her way to shore. I was then dragged into the water, but somehow managed to survive. Instead of dying, I was healed. Finally, the mare found me, embraced me, and thanked me for something I couldn’t remember doing. I had no idea what any of it meant, and thinking deeply on it only served to befuddle me even more.

“Ok, start from the beginning. She didn’t just die like everypony else, maybe that’s because I didn’t actually ‘kill’ her. I just left her in the boxcar, and she may have died as a result of that.” I was getting somewhere with all this. I had figured the first part out, now I just needed to work off of that. “I need some fresh air.”

Walking always helped to clear my head. When I was alone and only had my thoughts to accompany me was when I was most efficient.

“Perhaps her struggle to get out of the lake resembled her clinging to life and slowly dying. Seems like the logical reason since I didn’t kill her directly. Or maybe it had something to do with her begging me to help. She was grasping at straws in an attempt to save herself.”

I went on like this for some time until a haphazard notion crossed my mind. Building off of what I had said earlier about the mare clinging to life. What if she was still fighting for survival, what if she was still alive? I don’t think that’s what my dream was trying to tell me, I’m not a psychic after all. Regardless, it still gave me the inclination to go back to where I had left her and check.

I trotted to the overturned slave car at the rear of the train. With caution, I leaned my head inside the dark cart to see if I could hear anything that would tell me whether the mare was dead or alive. Try as I might, I couldn’t hear a peep.

“This doesn’t bode well for my prediction.” I thought aloud. Since I had no source of light, I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to feel around inside the pitch black interior of the boxcar. The absence of sound didn’t work in my favor, as I was now forced to stumble around in the dark. With some caution in my step, I stalked forward into the shadowy caboose. I managed to avoid tripping over any loose wreckage as I proceeded to the back, and I was also lucky enough to steer clear from any shattered glass that would’ve rewarded me with more unwanted wounds.

When I reached the rear of the train car, I had some trouble finding the spot where I had last seen the brown mare. Feeling around with my hooves yielded a few splinters, but I eventually found what I was looking for. I didn’t know it was her at first, but after I checked her pulse and saw that she was still breathing I knew I had found the equine I was looking for.

Her breathing was shallow, and the heartbeat I had felt was a weak one. Gently, I nudged her head. When that did nothing to wake her, I tried again. This time, with a little more force. The sharp clip from my hoof jolted the mare awake. She tried to stand to confront me, but abandoned the task once she remembered that she was trapped beneath a pile of rubble.

“Hey!” she shouted. “Who was that?”

“It’s me.” I replied. I couldn’t see the expression on her face, but I assumed it was one of disappointment.

“I remember your voice. You’re that stallion from that slaving post, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. And I assume you are the mare I saw earlier, the one who refused to get in line?”

“Yeah that was me.” She answered. “Are you the same one who left me trapped here a few days ago? I thought it was you when I saw your face in the light, but I couldn’t be sure.”

“You’re right, that was also me. I left you here because I didn’t have enough water to share, its nothing personal.”

“Of course it wasn’t. It’s not like you’d care what would happen to a random slave.” she snidely retorted.

“I agree with you to a certain extent, but there must be some reason I came back here.”

“If there is a reason, I hope it is to help me out of here. Unless you just want to point and laugh while I die from dehydration.” I noticed a hint of confidence in her voice, as if this little conversation was shifting in her favor.

“You talk as if you are in a position to barter. Why is that, what do you have to offer me in exchange for your life?”

“There’s an oasis not far from here. It has a fresh water, living trees, and some hidden supply caches full of weapons and munitions. From there you have a fairly straight path to nearly any and all NCR settlements. Just help me out from under here, and I show you the way.”

“That’s quite a generous offer, but I could just as easily torture the information out of you and put a bullet in your head once I’m done. I only came back here on the hunch that I hadn’t finished you off properly.”

“First off, I’ve been conditioned to deal with physical interrogation. I dare you to try and beat the information out of me, I’m curious to see how hard you can throw a punch. Secondly, I know that there’s more than one reason why you came back here. For now, lets just focus on the biggest one. That being your original plan of survival didn’t quite work out the way you had planned, and in an act of desperation you came back here.”

This mare was quite a surprise to me. She managed to put on a ‘tough-guy’ act, despite going several days without food or water, and start negotiating for her freedom. To be honest, the deal she was trying to sell seemed fair. In exchange for her life, she would lead me to a fresh water source within traveling distance from here and several NCR settlements. It almost seemed too good to be true….

“How can I be sure your telling me the truth? What if this is just some ploy to get me killed, how can I be sure that this ‘oasis’ even exists? You could just as easily lead me into the middle of nowhere and leave me to die!”

“You have my word.” She responded. “And lets not forget that my life is tied to yours. Leading you out into the desert would mean my death as well as yours. If I was so hell bent on getting you killed, I would have just given you a set of false directions and let you shoot me here. I want to live just as bad as you!” I considered what she had just said for a few moments. Everything seemed to add up correctly. She was willing to perform this act to ensure the survival of us both, not just one or the other.

“Fine.” I spat. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” I moved over to her said and stuck both my fore hooves beneath the wooden beam that pinned her to the floor. “I’m going to try and lift this off of you on the count of four. If your as tough as you say you are, than I’m going to need you to help me. Try using your back to shrug it off.”

“Alright; one, two, three, four!” with all the strength I could muster, I lifted the collapsed beam. The mare did her part and pushed herself up using all four of her legs. The timber slowly moved off the ground, making just enough space for her to slide out from underneath it. Once she was free I released my grip on the heavy plank and let it fall to the ground.

“Thanks a lot.” she sighed in relief. “It feels good to be free again.”

“Lets set out immediately, I don’t have a lot of supplies so we shouldn’t waste any more time here than we need to.” She shook her head in agreement and made to leave the boxcar before suddenly stopping.

“What supplies do you have?” she asked, putting a lot of emphasis on ‘do.’ “I’m really thirsty, and could really go for some water right now.”

“I have five bottles of water, that’s it. We can ration it accordingly depending on how long the journey will take.” I stated plainly.

“If I had to guess, I’d say we have a six or seven day trip ahead of us, but that’s if we take regular breaks. We will definitely get there a lot faster if we rest only when necessary.”

“Ok, then I thinks it fair if we each drink half a bottle a day. It’ll be tough, but we should manage.”

“Really?” asked the mare, as if my answer was a big surprise to her. “You’d give me, a slave, an equal share?”

“I’m not stupid. You’re my guide to reaching this oasis, I cant have you keeling over and dying on me.” I saw the silhouette of her head cocked on an confused angle, as if the prospect of me being slightly concerned for her well being was a complete shock.

“Well, I wont fight you. If it means more water for me, than I’m happy.”

“Ok, then follow me. We’re going to head to the front of the train to get the water bottles, and then set out towards this oasis. I don’t want any funny business from you, remember that you still have an explosive collar fastened around your neck. If you try anything stupid, I wont hesitate to set it off.”

“Hmph! I was just starting to like you, but then you had to go and bring that up. Like I said before, you don’t have to worry about me pulling any stunts. Besides, we are in this together.”

“Alright, I just wanted to make that cle-” A sudden thought popped into my head. Something wasn’t quite right about all this.

“What?” asked the mare.

“How do you know how far we are from this ‘oasis?’” I asked, reaching for the revolver at my side. She hadn't been outside at all, so she couldn't possibly know where we exactly were. If it turned out she had just duped me, i wouldn't hesitate to kill her. if there was one thing i hated, it was being deceived. I stopped, however, as I saw a bright toothy grin spread across her face.

“To be honest, I’m simply making an estimated guess. One based solely off of that.” she pointed her hoof towards the entrance to the caboose. There, outlined in the doorway, was the sprite bot that had followed me back here. “It is MY sprite bot, after all.”

It didn’t take us long to reach the front of the train and gather what little supplies I had. Once they remaining water bottles were evenly distributed and placed in saddle bags, we set out westwards. The rising sun warmed my back, as the last breath of the evening cooled my sun burnt face. It felt nice, and helped to clear my head of all the troubles that had befallen me as of late.

“So, how did somepony like you get a hold of a sprite bot?” I asked.

“That’s a secret I’ll keep to myself, if you don’t mind.” replied the mare. “I’m really not supposed to tell anypony. If I did, I’d get in a lot of trouble.” I wanted to push the matter further, but decided to let it go. I was in no position to act superior to her. Even if she still was my slave, we were both on the same level for now.

“Well, how about your name? Can you at least give me that?"

"Not a chance." she replied smugly.

"Why not?"

"There are two reasons why. The first one being that names are pretty, but useless. Only serving to give us labels we never had the liberty of choosing. The other reason being that names can be incredibly dangerous. Say for example a bounty hunter has taken a new contract to hire a murderer. right off the bat they have the ponies name, and they can use that information to track that individual all the way to kingdom come. On another note, names can act as a gateway into somepony's psyche. If a raider is stalking a victim in a tunnel, or through the streets of a decrepit city they can shout the name of their prey. It makes the conflict more personal, and can even turn terrifying for the one being pursued. I hope you can see why i dont want to tell you."

What she had just said made an awful lot of sense. It must've been a subject she had considered for a very long time. I was content to accept her answer for the time being, but sooner or later i would get a name out of her. But for now, i would be spending the next few days traveling through the desert with a horse with no name.