My Little Apocalyptic Wasteland

  “Well that’s what you think, don’t you hear the stories?” I asked “The stories of the overseer before this one letting ponies out of the vault, surely theirs somepony who went out there!”

  Rubbing his chin and thinking Flint gets that look in his eye. “Alright, well I did hear of this guy, who was the very last one to ever leave the vault, his name is Freefall.”

  “Perfect, well where is he?”

  “Not sure, last I heard of him he was living down in sector 2-B”

  “Well than lets go get him!”

Ah that’s another thing about the vault, sectors. The vault is divided into 6 sectors. Sector one is security, sector two is residential and education which is divided into areas A,B and C , three is recreational, four is the overseer’s office and living courters, five is the reactor and workshop level, but then there’s sector six. No pony knows what’s in sector six. You can’t get to it by the elevator because you have to have some sort of key to be able to activate the button for it. Some say that in it is a place where they experiment on ponies and do horrible things, some think that it’s a backup shelter for the overseer if the vault falls, and others simply think it’s used to stash supplies for the vault.

  Walking into the elevator I push the button for sector two. While on the way up I begin to worry. I wonder if this guy will even talk to us, and how will we even find him, area B is huge!

  I feel the familiar hoof of my friend as he tries to comfort me.

  “Ratchet I can see it in your eyes, don’t worry, so what if this guy doesn’t want to talk, it’s not like he’s gonna be able to get us out or anything!”

  “I know but it’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being able to leave this place”

  “Why do you even want to leave so bad anyway?”

  “Because it’s a chance to help those who really need it, look at us, were pampered beyond believe but if what the schools say is true than there are people dying out there as we speak!”

  Flint raises his voice at me. “But what the hell are two ponies gonna do about it, what you just want to run out there and get slaughtered, is that it?”

  That was one of the only times me and Flint had ever argued like that. “No but, I just want to at least try to do something…”

  “I underst-“

  EARRRR!!

  “Ahhh!” I’m thrown against the wall as the elevator carrying us comes to a screeching halt.

  POP POP!

  What the hell is that, gunshots?

  Looking over I see Flintlock on the ground with a large gash on his head. I can see the handlebars next to him with blood stained on them, marking the impact of my friends head.

  “Flint, Flint, come on wake up man, oh Celestia please let him be okay!”

  “Ahh, Ratch, guns, that was gunfire…”

  “I know buddy, look I’m gonna get you to the clinic, you’ll be just fine okay.”

  I press the button for sector three hoping this elevator can get us moving quickly. However of course a loud SCREECH signifies that this metal box won’t get us anywhere. Of course how silly of me to think that I could get just one break. Alright Ratchet just look around and think. How can we get the hell out of this death trap of an elevator? Ah-Ha the emergency shaft on the roof! Only thing is, how am I gonna get both me and Flint to the top of the shaft and to sector three?

  Opening the panel blocking the hole in the roof with my magic I levitate myself up on top of the roof and assess the situation. The elevator seems to have stopped between sector one and two. If I can find a way up to sector two we can take the stairs to the clinic. Well, this should be simple enough. Just levitate me and Flint up there that’s all. The start of the flight up is easy enough but the higher I am the harder it is to keep us from plummeting.

  “Whoa shit!” Damn it I knew I couldn’t strain my powers like that! Plummeting towards the ground is such an abnormal feeling. The feeling of despair yet hope that something will save you, and in my case, that feeling was correct. A large piece of metal is sticking out of the shaft. As I grip it with my front hooves I feel something tugging at the back ones. It’s Flint! “Flint just hang on, I’m going to get us out of this mess”

  I can feel myself slipping, as I desperately try to find something to get us out of here. “Flint we just have to climb our way up, listen I’m going to levitate you up first and then I’ll climb up!” I use what’s left of my power to throw Flint up to the second sector. All right Bolt Head (As the kids at school would call me to tease me) we just have to use our nonexistent upper body strength to get up there. Carefully I take my back hooves and plant them firmly on the surface behind me. After about ten minutes and some careful footing I manage to get up. Wiping the sweat from my brown coat and blue hair I pick up Flintlock onto my back and begin rushing up the stairs to sector three. As I get to the top of the stair well I hear two people talking with each other.

  “Hey Party-Cider what’s going on?”

  “I don’t know but I’m scared.”

  “Well don’t worry they’re rounding everyone into the cafeteria so let’s go!”

  And with that the two rush off.

  “All right then Flint c’mon let’s get moving!”

  I can still hear gunshots from the levels above and below us. I turn around to see how Flint is doing only to see that his head has been covered by a warm crimson liquid which is dripping onto my back. Finally we reach the clinic.

  “Doctor usangi; please help me Flint hit his head he’s bleeding, doctor, doctor please help!” There’s no response.

  Damn it all to hell, there’s no pony even here!

  “Ratchet, help…”

  “Don’t you worry I’m going to help you, you’re going to be just fine!’ My god how could it have come to this? Just hold it together Ratchet you can do this. I’m having a hard time holding back tears; it’s just so hard to see my friend in agony like this. As I search I can hear his groans of pain while I try to think through it. I can see a first aid box across the room, in it I find bandages and a red, glowing potion meant for healing in it. Perfect!

  “All right Flint this will fix you right up buddy!”

  Now I’ll admit that I have very little knowledge of medicine outside of the books I’ve read about it but I think that I can handle wrapping a bandage and having somepony drink a potion.

  I manage to wrap some bandages around Flint’s wounds and then shove the potion into his mouth and he thankfully has enough sense and energy to swallow.

  Flint shoots up off the table he was on. “Oh thank Celestia, Ratchet you saved me, thank you so much!” he says as he hugs me.

  However his gratitude is cut short. “Hey you two, come with us were getting out of here.” Yells a grey Pegasus with a gun in his mouth.

  “What do you mean getting out of here?” Flint asks

  “I mean that this is the revolution, were tired of the overseer keeping us locked in here!”

  Wait a minute I DID hear about this! People had been talking about forming a militia of sorts and leaving but I didn’t think anypony would have the nerve to actually do it!

  “So then that’s what’s going on?” I ask.

  “That’s right, now let’s go!” She says as she points to the doorway and runs out.

  “We’ll all right then let’s go!”

  Trotting out of the door with Flint in rear is the best thing ever. We have a chance now, a chance to leave. Finally in the 18 years I’ve been alive for I have my chance at freedom!

  Running down the halls I catch something in the corner of my eye. What is that?

  “Hey guys wait up, there’s something weird over here, I-I-I think it’s a body!”

  “Don’t you worry about that, he’s just some unfortunate soul who got in my way.”

  “Wait you’ve been killing ponies?”

  “It’s the only way; if they get in our way then it’s our only option!”

   “So your only option is killing, killing without remorse?”

  “Are you fucking shitting me, you think that I want to kill?”

   Now doing this just feels wrong. I want to leave but now that these ponies have killed, now we have to leave permanently. If these ponies return (and I guess now I’m included in this as well) than we’ll just get shot.

  Wait a minute, what’s that. Is that, hoofsteps, from above us? Oh Celestia.

  BOOM!

  Ahh damn it. There’s rubble covering me. I can’t move. There’s dust everywhere, I can’t see a thing!

  POP POP!

  “Ahhh!”

  Oh please let that not be Flint! Oh Celestia I think the rubble is crushing my ribs, I have to get this stuff off of me! Okay come on Ratchet you can do this just push. Come on just a little more! Okay I’m out! Now than, where’s Flint and what the fuck just happened!?

  I can hear a blurred voice. “Hey, hey Ratchet over here!” It’s Flintlock.

  I look behind me to see my red maned friend of which I can just barely hear over the constant gunfire. A bullet finds its way into my back left leg, forcing me into the ground. I can feel the blood rushing from my leg to the ground covering the chocolate colored coat of my leg. Flint and the rebel (what else am I to call the ponies who have guns and are trying to escape from the dictatorship that is Mr. stick up his ass the overseer?) rush over to me, picking me up and carry me down towards the stairs leading to sector two. I get placed down leaning on the wall near the stairs with bullets whizzing over our head with the rebel firing a pistol held in his mouth.

  “C’mon kid we have to get to the vault doors!” the rebel screams over the gunshots.

  “He’s gonna bleed out though!”

  “No he’s not it’s just a wound to the leg, we’ll get him patched up when we get back to sector one with the rest of us!”

  Flint reluctantly picks me up onto his back. I have to say if this is what death is like than it’s totally overrated. “Sweet blissful death!” they say. Well this is anything but sweet and blissful. In fact I would have to call this horribly painful and stressful. Then again maybe I’m not dying and death really is sweet and blissful.

  Another pony runs up from the stairs. “Soarin let’s go!”

  “Well than grab that unicorn and let’s go, be careful he’s been shot!”

  We begin running down the stairs and end up at the place I’ve always wanted to be at, the vault door.

  I hear the pony I now know as Soarin call something out. “We need a medic over here!” A red mare runs towards me, her white mane swishing in the hair. She knees down next to me revealing her cutie mark in the shape of a bandage.

  She reaches into the pack strapped to her side, pulling out a healing potion, tweezers and some bandages.

“Alright kid, I ain’t about to lie to you, this is going to hurt, so just hold on and it’ll be over soon.” Just then she plunges the tweezers into the wound of my leg, spurting blood onto her hoof.

  “Ahhhh!” I have no choice but to scream out as I feel the most intense pain I could ever even imagine.

  I starting to pass out. I don’t think I can stand this for another second.

  “C’mon kid just hang in there, only a little more!”

  I can feel the tweezers digging into my leg grip the bullet and quickly rip it out. Oh thank Celestia it’s over!

  “Alright kid it’s over, I’m just going to wrap you up and then give ya this here potion and you’ll be just fine!” She says with a smile as if to comfort me.

  She then wraps the bandages around my leg and hands me a potion. I gulp down the sweet red liquid and instantly feel rejuvenated.

  BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…

  “Their trying to get through the door!” A voice calls out ringing throughout the room.

  “Spitfire open the vault now, we can’t wait any longer!”

  “I got it!”

  EHHHHHH!

  The vault door begins to swing open… as does the door leading to the control room was all in.

  “Hit the deck!”

  Me and Flintlock drop to the floor as quick as possible while I see ponies in front of me unfortunate enough to get got in the crossfire covered with blood. The air in front of them turns into a red mist as it covers the floor turning the previously gray steel floors into crimson. I turn around to see the vault door is completely ajar.

  “Flint c’mon we have to go!” I say as I pull him up and begin galloping towards the door.

We make it out as I feel my hooves touch the dirt and for the first time not here a clank but instead a crunch as I leave a hoofprint for the first time. Behind us I can hear the door close again and I know that I may never hear it open again. Taking my first breaths on the outside world I immediately notice that the air is different, almost as if its poison.

  “Ratchet… we made it… we fucking made it…”

  “Yeah… yeah we did…”

  I get up out of the dirt and help up Flintlock. Looking around the both of us are in awe. Seeing the dead grass that at one point may have been green. The dead trees with blackened leaves and burnt wood. To the west, ruins that seem to be the remains of an old world town. It’s not pretty but it sure as hell is better than the vault.

  “Well Flint, where do we go now?” After all, with so much space where do you go first?

  “Well, those ruins over there look pretty promising.”

  “Alright then let’s go.”

  Walking through the Equestrian wasteland is overwhelming. Being able to truly see as far as the eye can see is unbelievable. It’s such a huge difference. Being able to see hills in the distance instead of looking a few feet only to be met by a cold steel wall.

  “Hey Ratchet it’s starting to get dark, we don’t know what’s out here so let’s stop.”

  “Alright”

  Looking around I relies that sleeping in the middle of nowhere is probably a bad idea but we don’t exactly have a home anywhere so what other options to we have?

  My first night of sleep in the wasteland.

  I wake up to hear something breathing close to me, very close to me.

  “Wake up little unicorn!”

  I kick up out of my deep sleep snapping my head up only to see some strange ponies with Flintlock in a headlock and a knife to his throat.

  “Flintlock don’t wor-“I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head forcing me to the ground. Looking up I’m finding it harder to keep awake and can only keep my eyes open for long enough to see my best and only friend in this world being dragged to the ancient Equestrian ruins.