Author's Note

Found a new editor and made it better in the process

Chapter 2: Meeting the locals (Edit by ItIsASillyLittleGame)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

two hours and thirty minutes later…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20 minutes later, somewhere else

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

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

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

***

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

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

***

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile somewhere else

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

outside the Everfree

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

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

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