"Hee, hee, hehehehehehehe! Nightmare night, what a fright. Gotta find somepony sweet to bite!" The sound of the insane raider's continued chant was enough to drive you crazy unless you were so used to it over the years that it became so much white noise. A different chant for every season, or as close as one can get with the weather all messed up. "Nightmare Moon is coming soon, and her belly will have plenty of room!"
"Cookie, shut up! You know how hard it is to find good meat when you rant like this. You end up scaring everything away faster than a dragon flying around."
"Don't call me Cook-cookie, Violet. I'll cook-cook you good next time you do!" A small puff of crimson flame emitted from around the crazed stallion's forehoof as he kicked the ground, followed by a growl and rapid stomping to put out the tiny blaze before it could spread to something else nearby. "Or maybe I'll just choke you with my sausage." A twisted grin formed on the stallion's face at the thought, one which quickly turned into a grimace of pain as a series of relatively harmless shocks started to course through him as I began to release a localized electrical field.
"Fine, have it your way 'Cook-cook.' Just remember that if you ever try to force me to do that to you I'll cut your balls off and feed them to you while Sparky and Zapps find out just how many jolts you can take before screaming like a little filly." There was no malice in my voice, just a hint of frustration. "Now shut up or we'll never find anything without it putting up a fight."
"But I like it when they put up a fight, gives me a reason to cook-cook them a little while they're alive other than just to hear them scream. Oh, look! One of those Image outlets!" the russet stallion pointed off to the left with a forehoof where one abandoned building stood out from the rest with its flickering neon sign.
The 'M' was shattered, leaving the sign to read only 'I AGE' in bright purple letters. Places like these, mostly intact and with functional arcane power supplies after two centuries, were usually a good place to snag something to eat. If you were lucky, some of it would even be in that old time-lock wrapping that kept things fresh for centuries. As Cook-cook and I approached, I noticed that this IMAGE store was in much better shape than most, almost as if somepony had been maintaining it. I could even read the words above the door for once since every letter was still there.
Image: Fashion is but one facet.
I grinned over at Cook-cook and carefully pushed the door open so we could walk in. As soon as the door closed behind us it locked while beams of every color began projecting from the walls. Cook-cook immediately turned and bucked at the door blocking our way inside, leaving a pair of superficial scorchmarks on it for his trouble.
"Two superponies detected. Running database scan. Error, central database not found, defaulting to local storage. Please state your civillian or super name, Fire Stallion, followed by, Electric Mare." The voice was delicate and cultured in its pronunciation, with an old accent that was impossible to place.
Cook-cook took time to realise the voice meant him when it said 'fire stallion,' and it required a nudge from me to jar him into speaking. "Ummm, Cook-cook."
"Violet Bolt" I grinned, wondering what other surprises were in here. A functioning IMAGE store, not just intact. "Now let us in."
"Recognizing Cook-Cook and Violet Bolt, data stored for transmission to IMAGE main database in Canterlot next cycle. Welcome to IMAGE, where Improving Metapony Aesthetics and Generating Enthusiasm is just the start! Please wait for our staff to assist you."
The door cracked open in front of us with a soft chime, one accompanied by the distinct sound of a shell being chambered into a shotgun. Cookie looked at me with a grin and I nodded before putting on my best frightened look. I moved shead of him and cautiously opened the door. "H-hello? I know I heard a gun in here. I-I'm just looking for a safe place to rest. I don't want to hurt anypony."
A relieved sigh and a few voices could be heard chatting suddenly, followed by the lights coming on with a loud click and three friendly faces looking at me. Unicorns, probably unpowered. "Good t'know 'taint just raiders and radhogs 'round here after all. Name's Buckshot, these're my little sisters Onyx and Smoke." The two fillies nodded in turn as their names were said. Fillies, Cookie was going to like that. "What's yer name, miss?"
"Violet Bolt." I smiled sweetly before coming in completely, even managing a giggle before stomping both of my forelegs down against the floor and sending out a cascade of purple sparks while Cookie opened the door wider so that he could come through. "Sorry to say, but we are just raiders. A bit smarter than most, but you're fucked just as much. Literally in the case of your little sisters." The older colt couldn't respond, making me grin as my assumption of him not actually having power beyond telekinesis and maybe a spell or two panned out. my paralyzing blast worked perfectly, shocking him and the fillies into minor convulsions and making him drop his gun.
Cook-cook walked over to the smaller male and almost tenderly pressed a hoof to his ribcage before beginning to apply some heat. "I'm gonna cook-cook him up, Violet. You want any part of him rare, or should I just make it well-done?" His sheath was swelling, making me grimace a bit as I moved the twitching fillies away before surrounding both of them in cages of electric energy. It was either them or me, and I wanted a night off. If I was lucky, these fillies might even last two nights apiece before Cookie got bored and decided to burn them to a crisp after one last fuck.
"Not in the mood for stallion tonight. I'm going to explore a bit deeper inside, see if there's some supplies for armor or something. Don't kill the girls too fast, one of them might be convinced to give me a good licking if it means the other gets screwed instead. That means no oral tonight, Tough Cookie. A dislocated jaw is a mouth that can't lick me, and that means you get nothing from me for a week unless you perform instead."
"I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT AGAIN! You know your cunt makes my tongue go numb, it's gonna be the same for them."
"Shut up and be grateful I used your full name instead of the short one. Bake the trusting fool and have some fun with a filly while I explore the place." I smile as I move into the back room, spotting a stockpile of preserved food and fresh fruit in recycled time-seals in one corner of the room and a bunch of fur dyes in another. "Hmmm, food and a way to change how I look? I wonder how I'd look with some teal streaks in my fur...maybe some barbed wire and armor..." I began humming a jaunty little tune while searching through the dyes, only starting to laugh as the initial paralysis wore off and I heard the colt begin screaming in pain from being slowly cooked alive, and his sisters screaming in fear.
Life is good, sometimes.
