Chapter 1
Pain and suffering, I know how these feel. But at this point, so close to death, I can't help but feel its all pointless once you get down to it. Ponies will still fight for the same scraps of the old world, the same scraps of food, the same bottlecaps, the same land, because war, war never changes.
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I lay here, slowly bleeding out. The music coming from the radio at the end of the hall seems to be getting farther and farther away. Then the red maned brown coated unicorn menace trots over like killing means nothing to him, stepping over his friend's dead body. "you know Neon, you never did tell me your real full name" he tells me.
After a minute I cough up some of the blood slowly drowning my lungs and tell him while stuttering "go die in the ditch you were born in, Gunderson"
"Well then Neon" he lifts his gun with his dark red magic "I think that this conversation is over" he says as he takes his aim at the base of my horn. I stare at him as his magic pulls the trigger magically.
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In a old dusty living room sits a young colt and his father. The young colt has no cutie mark but has light cyan fur, and a grey mane and tail. The stallion sitting beside him is not too different in color, but has darker colors than the boy and has a small revolver cutie mark "daddy, why does mommy hate me so much?" the young colt asks his dad.
"She doesn't hate you Neon, she just... dislikes you." the colts dad says with a pause.
"Why does she beat me?" the young Neon asks. His father looks at him, and says nothing.
Just then the mare in question comes in and sits down in her favorite chair. The mother of the colt has a brownish-grey coat with a red mane and tail.As the young colt stares at her, shaking from terror, she calls out to him "don't stare at me like that." The colt looks away immediately as the father sits sadly in silence. The young colt knows whats about to happen as the mare gets up, angry all of the sudden. The young colt bolts out of the room as the mare shouts in anger "YOU GET BACK HERE".
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"Damnit it was a dud" the stallion says as I sigh in relief but soon realize the pain coming from the almost fatal gunshot wound in my chest. "This one won't be..." He takes aim with his magic again as a giant boom shakes the building. His aim falters and he shoots the ceiling. "The fuck was that!?" Just then someone new that I've never seen before runs in screaming. The unicorn mare has a purple trimmed red mane with a similar tail and a dark brown coat.
Gunderson takes one look at her, then a glance at me. As he glances at me the mare notices me on the floor and then looks even more angry when she looks back at Gunderson. Then he makes a mad dash for the window and jumps out. The mare gives chase as I start to black out from blood loss. As my eyes start to blur, I tell myself that mare could save me, but considering the harshness of the wastes, this is probably the end.
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I wake up with a splitting headache and immediately feel pain coming from the gunshot wound from earlier. "Woah calm down there, you'll hurt yourself." I don't recognize the voice and I look at the source of it. The mare that chased Gunderson stares back at me. Here I can see her in a better light, her cutie mark is two faces, one laughing, one very angry. I look around the room and find i'm somewhere else than the saloon I was in before, laying on a old worn out mattress, with a bandage wrapped around my gunshot wound. I try to thank her but all that comes out is a dry cough as i realize i'm very thirsty. Immediately after the cough she says "oh yeah, your probably very thirsty!" As I nod she levitates a glass of water to my mouth and I gladly drink it down.
After i'm done drinking, I thank her by saying "thank you."
"Your welcome, I always try to help people." she says.
I think about what she just said for a moment and I speak a response "Thats... uncommon in the wasteland."
She frowns a little and tells me "yeah... thats what they all say..."
I suddenly remember why I have a throbbing pain in my chest and ask suddenly "where is Gunderson?" I look around again making sure hes not hiding in a corner somewhere near me.
She looks surprised at my sudden outburst and responds "you mean the brown unicorn?" I nod in agreement and then she says "I chased him around a corner and he disappeared. Then I remembered you were laying on the floor in that saloon and came back to save you." Damn it, he got away, I frown at this and lay back down.
"Might as well just leave me here, Gundersons going to kill me anyway." When I say this, she looses her smile, its true though Gunderson will kill me even though she saved my life.
"Your going to give up just like that?"
Yeah i'm going to give up just like that "yeah pretty much" I say. She doesn't seem happy about this and leaves the room.
After four or five hours she comes back into the room, her face splattered with blood, she looks like she just killed 15 raiders with how she looks now and after a moment, I notice her levitating something with her magic. For a minute I just try to see what it is shes holding, when I notice its a gun, and it looks awfully familiar...
"Gundersons dead." she says bluntly, like it meant nothing to her, does she understand what she just said?
"You killed Gunderson?"
She responds blankly with a "yup"
"And thats his gun?" I ask because it can't possibly be.
She responds again with another monotone"yup"
I stare at her for a moment thinking about how I have been trying to kill Gunderson for years and yet she just walks off for 5 hours and returns with a bloodied face and Gunderson's gun? I don't think its possible. "I don't believe you." I say to her. After I say that she walks out of the door again.
I'm really starting to get tired of this, why did she just leave again? as the hour goes by I think about if she was telling the actual truth or not when she comes back to the door dragging something. When what she is dragging gets into the light I can see that its... what? how is that possible? shes dragging the dead mutilated body of Gunderson, half of his face is missing, his legs are broken in multiple places, and his neck is at an angle! Its disgusting.
I physically turn away from the sight as she says "this enough proof for you?"
I barf a little in my mouth when I say "yeah please... put a sheet over him?".
as she puts the sheet over him she talks "What grandpa? never seen a dead body before?"
"yeah of course i've seen a dead body... but not like that." wait... did she just call me old? "and forty five is not old by the way"
She chuckles when I say that and responds with "well you look sixty". Do I even know her name? "hey, I don't even know your name, what is it?"
She takes a deep breath and says "Sky, just call me Sky" and I thought I was the only one who doesn't use their real name...
"Neon, just Neon." I say back to her. after a few minutes of silence and her staring at me I realize I don't know what to do now... "so uh, what now?"
Author's Note
First story on FIM fiction, I hope you guys like it, and constructive criticism is always helpful. Just giving me a pat on the back and saying I tried won't help. I hope i don't use commas too often. Anyway if you liked and thought it was THE MOST PERFECT THING IN THE WORLD which I doubt, be sure to thumbs up and favorite and all of that good stuff.
ummm closing.... gotta start something I will say at the end of every one.... oh okay how about...
Yeah I'll procrastinate later....
Chapter 2
25 hours earlier
The night air is smoggy and polluted as I stare down at the road into New Appleloosa, not like that is going to change anytime soon. I magically remove the small revolver out from my holster in my duster. I tip down the hat i'm wearing and say to nopony around "I've got a bullet with your name on it Gunderson."
Gunderson, the pony that has been causing me trouble ever since I was eighteen, 27 years ago. If things went differently on that day, we could have been good friends. I messed that up by accidentally killing his dog with some old machinery I'd got running, but that is beside the point. Ever since then, we have caused each other too much trouble for tomorrow to end with both of us alive.
After an hour of walking along the beaten trail to New Appleloosa, tripping on a single crack along the way and swearing out some random bug on the ground for it for no particular reason, I was finally at the front entrance. The pony back at the saloon in the last place I was at said he would be coming through here.
Of course, the plan of action was to go to the saloon first. Gunderson made a habit of drinking everywhere he went, and making a scene of it too.
The saloon is a series of railcars that have been pushed together and haphazardly sewn together, the only thing that makes it look like a saloon is the burnt out sign hanging from the roof that says "SALOON".
When I walk in through the rusty door, I get a few stares from random ponies around the room but soon I tilt my hat down and they all go back to what they were doing.
The bartender is a old stallion with a gray mane and tail with a light brown coat. I trot up to him and ask for a drink "I'll take some whisky."
The old stallion doesn't say anything but nods in response. When he brings me a drink I take a swig of it. I never really drink much, but I think this is a special occasion.
After a few minutes of taking light sips of the whisky, I stop drinking and ask the bartender a question,"Have you seen a brown coated unicorn with a red mane?"
The bartender stares at me for a short moment and tells me "you mean the stallion that came in here and caused a ruckus 3 hours ago?"
The stallion sitting next to me stares at me when I ask the bartender "you catch his name?"
"Gunny son or something like that." He says with resentment.
"Yeah thats most likely him" I say quietly. Well, that is proof hes been here. Now I gotta find out where he went.
"You lookin for Gunderson?" says the stallion sitting beside me drukenly.
I don't know who this stallion is, but he looks like he is a town drunk or something. "You know where he is?" I ask with anticipation.
"P-perhaps I do" he says with a drunken stutter, "but it'll-" he coughs for a bit and continues talking, "it'll cost ya" he finally says.
Well, they say always go to the ones everyone ignores for information. "What is it going to cost?" i ask patiently.
"A... a drink" he says after taking the last sip of his drink.
The bartender was listening and is already pouring a drink while I get the caps out. "Fine I suppose" I say in response to his proposal.
After he finishes his drink he turns back to me, slightly drunker than he was before of course. "House o-on the hill a mile east of town. He was talking with somepony else he-here and left with h-him. be careful those th- thug... those the-" he pauses for a moment "ah hell, just be careful" he says after getting agitated about not being able to speak properly.
"Yeah thanks for the information" I say with gratitude. "I'll leave you to it." I say as I leave.
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After stocking up on supplies from the market place and selling off what I didn't need along with consistent bartering, I finally walk out of the town heading for the house on the hill.
When I get to the base of the hill night has fallen and it starts to get colder. As I climb I try to form a plan on how i'm going to end this.
I'm catching him by surprise, but that wont mean much because his aim will compensate. He has a friend so I don't know how i'm going to deal with him, if he is still here. It doesn't look like i'll survive this but i'm damn well going to try.
At the door I ready my aim, and kick down the door with a resounding crack that echoes through the house and the first thing I see is his friend. Without thinking I take a shot at his general direction and hit him luckily with a fatal shot in no where else than his head.
After I realize that was the worst course of action I could take because there is no cover in the long hallway I ran into, Gunderson round the corner after hearing the gunshot and the front door breaking. If I could get back outside in time before he shoots and take cover I might be able to pull this off, but all hope of that plan working shatters as he quick draws his gun faster than I could ever do, and shoots me in the chest.
The shot knocks me off of my feet and onto the ground as the life giving blood inside of me starts to ooze from the chest wound. Not only did the shot do that but it also made me loose grip of my gun with my magic and it slides down the hall to Gunderson's hooves.
"Well look who it is, no other pony than Neon!" he says with fake enthusiasm. "Come to kill me I presume?"
I look at him with my best stink eye and don't respond.
"You're plan failed. I suppose its time for you to be killed instead perhaps?"
I don't bother even trying to respond as he trots over his dead friend and stops a few hooves in front of me.
"You know Neon, you never did tell me your real full name" he says with a 'any last words' kind of tone.
Blood is slowly starting to fill my lungs at this point when I respond with a coughing fit and what will probably be my last words, "go die in the ditch you were born in, Gunderson."
"Well then Neon" he he says disappointed as he lifts his gun with his dark red magic "I think that this conversation is over." I give him my best stink eyes as he aims for the base of my horn.
Author's Note
Well I did it! I finally did it. I lost the motivation on that one night and started procrastinating and then regretting not finishing the second chapter and falling into a cycle of regrets in my life, Also throw in a existential crisis and you've got a recipe for procrastination. I got the inspiration that I had those few nights when I wrote the first chapter back and wrote the second chapter! I'll stop regretting and ranting on and start writing now. Also I changed a few words in the first chapter to make this one work, nothing to worry about though.
I'll stop procrastinating now, and start procrastinating later!
