Chaos Rules in the Wasteland

Twilight stopped running at last. The mutants had not pursued them, so she sat down, her lungs heaving heavily. John sat down next to her.

"We're safe?" John asked.

"As far- as I can tell," said Twilight.

They sat like that for a little while. When Twilight had sufficiently caught her breath, she said, "John?"

"What is it?"

"The mutant with the giant weapon. He killed his- no not his friends, his... the other mutants with it by accident. I don't think he even cared."

John raised an eyebrow at her. "Really? I was a little too busy running for my life to notice."

"Oh. Well, um, I must admit that I couldn't stop myself from looking back."

"You know that no matter what, you'd still want to get as far away from them as possible. You shouldn't do anything like that to slow you down."

"I know, I know! But, I just couldn't help it."

"Well, we're alive, so it's fine."

"But... What is wrong with those things?" asked Twilight in despair. "The raider killed the other raider out of greed, but this was just completely illogical!"

"Why are you treating those things like people?" asked John incredulously. "They're monstrosities, abominations, and clearly incredibly stupid. I bet it didn't even notice what it did."

"I would agree with you, but regardless of how unintelligent they might be, they are clearly sentient, sapient.

"What? I don't even know what that means."

"As evil as they are, they were smart enough to communicate, at least on a basic level, and they are clearly traveling as a group for a purpose. Probably to kill everything they see, but still a purpose."

"And that is what makes a decent being, is it?"

"No, not at all. You misunderstand me. It's what makes a sentient and sapient creature which could be capable of emotion and redeeming itself."

John crossed his arms and slowly said, "No matter what you say, I can't see those things in the same light as you or me. Explain more."

Twilight let out a sigh. "Suppose you have an animal in front of a mirror. If it is in the nature of that animal to try to establish dominance, it will try to attack it's reflection. If the animal is skittish, it will probably run away from the reflection. But if it looks into the mirror and realizes that this is me, then it is aware of itself. Sentient. Now, if a sentient creature ever thinks about how it is aware of itself or otherwise consciously acknowledges it's self awareness, that is sapience."

John waited, thinking. Soon he said, "I'm not certain that the mutants actually qualify for either of those categories, but I guess I can't actually put it to the test. But what about the fact that the mutants apparently don't even care about other mutants?"

"That does trouble me. But, crude though it is, I do think they barely qualify. What they lack is the next step: acknowledgement of other's self awareness."

"I don't understand."

Twilight quickly let out a large sigh. "I guess it doesn't matter. We've already kill raiders, and with good reason. I really hope we can just avoid those things entirely in the future though. But, John?"

"Yeah?"

"That mutant killing his own got me thinking. I want to make a special promise with you, one that would bind me to that promise in a special way."

"Magically?"

"No. It binds me in honor of my friendship to you. And in honor of the pony who invented the Pinky Promise in the first place."

"It's okay Twilight, you really don't have to."

Twilight just gave John a look. Then she started speaking.

"I promise to you that, no matter what happens to me or to you, I will never try to harm you, and furthermore I promise to protect you with my own life for as long as I am with you. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." She ended with a hoof jabbed into one of her closed eyelids.

John hesitated only a moment before saying, "What the hell was that?"

"It's the pinky promise. I know that you've never heard it before and it doesn't mean anything to you, but I would never break a Pinkie Promise. We're friends."

"Oh. Well, thank you," John replied awkwardly. "And I suppose I promise the same to you?"

"Will you Pinkie Promise?" asked Twilight, tapping John's chest with a hoof.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better. Um, how did it go again?"

"Repeat after me, and do what I do," instructed Twilight, smiling. "Cross my heart,"

"Cross my heart," repeated John uneasily.

"Hope to fly,"

"Hope to... fly?"

Twilight nodded and said "Stick a cupcake in my eye."

"Stick a..."

"Cupcake."

"Right, a... cupcake in my eye." John looked at his hand for a moment, then shrugged and slapped it onto his eye, palm open.

"Yay!" exclaimed Twilight. "Thank you so much!"

"Twilight, what is a cupcake?"

"Oh, it's the sweetest tasting snack ever! My friend Pinkie used to make hundreds. She..."

After trailing off, Twilight let out a sigh. "I really miss her."

Eager to get Twilight's mind away from things that would depress her, John said, "Come on, the hub isn't very far away. It's actually only about a one day journey."

By the next morning, Twilight and John were standing at the entrance to The Hub. There were a lot of people around the entrance, and upon inquiry, they learned almost everybody was traveling with "caravans", which apparently were back halves of old trucks that were loaded with things to trade and pulled by a brahmin.

Unlike the previous cities, nobody greeted them on their way in.

They immediately noticed that some people were in fact walking around with weapons at the ready. This understandably made them uneasy.

"If these people are walking around with their guns out," said John as he pulled the sledgehammer out, "then I will too."

"I think I'll just keep my shotgun on my back for now," said Twilight. "So, where are we headed?"

Rather than answer her directly, John turned to a stranger on the street. "Hey you!" he shouted. The stranger looked to John, unintimidated. "Who's in charge in this city?"

"Nobody is in charge. The police keep the order, and you can talk to the chief at their station if you're in trouble, but this city is free from the tyranny of a mayor or the like."

"Oh," said John surprised. "Then where is the best place to find information?"

"Depends. If you're trying to get dirt on someone, I can't help you, If however, by information you mean about the city or something, you could try the library down there," said the man, pointing.

"Library?" Twilight burst out. "What are we waiting for then, John! Let's go!"

John shrugged at the other man, who looked extremely surprised, before turning to follow Twilight.

It did not take long to find the library. The instant Twilight saw the words "Library" posted on a building in the direction that the man had pointed, Twilight looked at John with a goofy grin and tried to hurry to the door, only to find that John was holding her back.

"Um, no offense Twilight, but perhaps I had better go first. You never know how people will react to you, you know, especially if you are alone."

"Oh. Well, alright, good thinking," said Twilight, losing a bit of her enthusiasm.

As soon as John walked through the door, a woman's voice greeted him.

"Hi, welcome to the library. I don't think I've seen you around before. What might you be looking for in the way of knowledge?"

John saw a blond haired woman in a slightly dirty business suit sitting at a desk behind a terminal. She was smiling at him.

Twilight came through the door and said, "Did you hear that? She called us seeks of knowledge! Now this is a library!"

The woman stared at Twilight for a moment, but after a moment shook her head and turned to John and said, "May I help you?"

John let out a long sigh. His left hand let go of the sledgehammer and he let it fall to his side, with the head of it resting on the ground. He leaned onto it. It was a posture that he was quickly becoming accustomed to any time he was standing and not moving. "I don't suppose you could possibly know anything about where I can find a water chip?"

The librarian raised her eyebrows in surprise. She gave a small smile. "As a matter of fact, I might."

"Really?" exclaimed John unbelievingly. "Well don't keep me waiting, where?"

"Well, in my studies I've come across references to such things. Actually, I have in my possession a holodisk that contains a certain amount of information that you might find useful."

John and Twilight watched silently as the librarian opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out the holodisk. "Seven hundred and fifty caps, and it's yours."

"Hold on a second," said Twilight suddenly. "That thing looks beat up. I don't think its worth that much."

"Hmm," said the librarian, looking at the holodisk. "I guess you're right. When the books get worn out I don't sell them for as much, so I suppose I should extent that policy to the holodisk. Five hundred, no less."

"Hold on," said Twilight, confused. "You sell books here? Doesn't that make this place more a book store?"

"I wouldn't say so," said the librarian. "We have all kinds of research documents and the like for sale as well, plus we also buy your old books. Not for nearly as much as I would sell them for, but I have to make a profit."

"Oh, really?" asked Twilight, once again excited. "I've been rereading a few books to pass the time in the wasteland, but it drives John crazy."

"Yeah," said John in a slightly annoyed tone. "And if you keep ahold of every book you find, you're not going to have room for anything else!"

"I know, it's just a shame I won't be able to bring them back home with me. So you'll buy my books?"

"Let me finish the other deal first," said the librarian. She turned to John. "So, five hundred caps, are you taking it or leaving it?"

"Yes, of course it's a deal," said John quickly.

"Caps up front," said the librarian.

"I'm going to browse the selection here," Twilight announced, but nobody said anything in reply. She turned to the library shelves.

John handed five of the sack cloth bags that contained one hundred caps each to the librarian and she gave him the holotape.

"Thank you," said the librarian. "I do hope that the information is of some use to you."

John grunted at her vaguely. He was already examining his pip-boy, trying to figure out how to get it to read the tape. After a moment he figured out the trick to it and the machine beeped, a new file appearing in the data section. John eagerly opened the file and began to read it.

"Vault locations v.34.129 Revision C Western USA," he read quietly. "Vault 12, 13, and 15... and that's it... That just leaves 12. Which is located in... Bakersfield."

"Hey, miss?" he said to the librarian.

"How may I assist?"

"Can you give me the location of Bakersfield?"

"Bakersfield?" repeated the woman, confused. "I suppose since I already sold you the holotape I had better dig up what I can for free. Give me a moment." She began typing at her console.

Eventually, she said, "Ah. According to my records, Bakersfield was the pre-war name of the city of Necropolis. I've never been there myself, but I know that the city is filled with ghouls, and a great many of them have become mindless zombies, unlike our dear old Harold."

"Who is Harold?" asked Twilight, who was paying attention even with her eyes scanning bookshelves.

"And what is ghoul?" John added.

"Never heard of 'em huh?" replied the librarian. "I suppose that's not uncommon. Many folks haven't. Ghouls used to be people, but they have suffered from radiation poisoning so strong, it destroys their skin and hair, if it doesn't kill them, and they often lose their minds. If you see a feral ghoul, it would be best to put it out of it's misery. Just don't attack every one of them that you see, not all of them are insane."

"But this Harold, you say that he lives here? Is he from Necropolis?" asked John.

"Hmm, I wouldn't know. I think maybe he might not be, considering his story about how he used to be a human who hunted mutants."

"Mutants?" asked John, surprised. "You mean the giant green things?"

"That's more or less how Harold describes them," said the librarian, confused. "They don't come around here though."

"I think they might be closer than you think," said John warily.

"Is that right?" asked the librarian, unsure what to make of this. "Well, if they show their faces around here, the police chief will beat them back to wherever they came from."

John didn't know what to say to this, but suddenly Twilight plopped two books onto the librarians desk. "John," she said, "would it be too much to get these two?"

John sighed. He didn't know why Twilight's reading habits irritated him so much, but he realized it would bother him more if he refused her. He suspected that he wasn't actually as bothered by it as he told himself he was. He move the top book out of the way so that he could read both covers. One was titled "Dean's Electronics". The other was simply called "First Aid".

"How much?" he asked the Librarian.

"It would be five hundred caps, but your friend said that she has some old books to sell me. Let's see them."

Twilight drew the three books from her bag and set them on the desk. The librarian opened each, examining them carefully.

"These are in remarkably good condition," she said. "Throw in just fifty caps and you can have those two books."

Twilight looked to John, who sighed again.

"Better than another five hundred, certainly."

John counted out the caps for the librarian. After they were paid for, Twilight took her books, a grin spread across her entire face.

"Twilight, lets go have a chat with this Harold person. I would like to see if he knows anything about Necropolis before we head over there. Plus, I'd like to hear what he knows about the mutants."

"Right, sounds good, but where do we find him?"

John turned back to the librarian. "Where can we find Harold?"

"Step outside, I'll show you."

They all stepped out into the street and the Librarian spoke in a loud voice to overcome the noise of the people talking all around them. "Harold is east of here, only about two blocks down, in an abandoned building on the right side of the street. He's not treated very well around here, so he has taken to begging. You might have to give him a small tip before he'll tell you anything. Just look for the man so ugly that you can't miss him."

"Thank... you," said John uneasily.

"Not a problem," the Librarian said. "Good luck finding that water chip." She disappeared into the library.

"Whoa!" exclaimed John.

"Yep," said Twilight, more composed than her companion. "That must be Harold."

"Don't think that just because you can't see my ears anymore that I can't hear you." said the hideously disfigured man. One of his eyes was apparently covered completely over with sickly bloated flesh. He didn't appear to have lips anymore, and the teeth that he still had were exposed far more than either John or Twilight was comfortable with. The areas where the man still had skin left looked a sickly green-yellow. Possibly the most disturbing, Harold actually had a rib bone completely exposed, with the flesh behind it closed up. "Ahem, I mean, think you could spare a few caps for a poor mutant down on his luck?"

"You're a mutant?" asked John in alarm.

"Technically, ghouls are mutated, so that does make him a mutant." Twilight said.

"Ghoul?" asked Harold in surprise. "I don't think so, I don't have the voice for it, and I've still got some of my skin. I'm just monstrously disfigured. Don't get me wrong, they're all mutants. Doesn't matter what they call themselves. So maybe I am like them. One thing I do know. I was a man... Once."

"We've met some of the men outside," said Twilight. "And you are more man than any of them." Harold looked at her in surprise, but quickly hung his head.

John had tried to figure out how many caps to give to the ghoul without offending him. He had settled on twenty five, but he was still slightly worried that it would not be enough.

"Here is twenty five caps," John said to Harold, giving them to him. "Good luck to you."

The man looked down at the caps in his hands for a moment before slowly looking back to John. "Oh, thank ya, friend. Very kind. You know, if I could clear all of the gunk out of there, you might just find a tear in old Harold's eye. And, if you'll forgive me for saying so, but in all of my long years, I've never met anyone like your friend here, but she's awful nice too."

"My name is Twilight Sparkle," said the pony conversationally.

"Harold. Although most people around here don't bother to remember it.

"So..." said John awkwardly. "What exactly... happened to you?"

"Well, after the great war, my vault was one of the first to open." Harold drew a long breath. "Long time."

"Really?" asked John. "Where was your vault?"

"You know, I'm not real sure anymore," said Harold. West, I think. Oh, wait- east? Ooh, I'm just not sure any more."

"Was it in a place called Necropolis?" asked John urgently. Harold made no response. "Bakersfield? Vault 12?"

Harold continued to give no answer.

"If it was Vault 12, that would be in the east, according to my information."

"I'm terribly sorry, I just... don't remember now. It was such a long time ago."

"I see," said John, disappointed. "So what did you do after you left the vault?"

"Well, I was a trader," said Harold matter-of-factly. "Did pretty good making a circuit between all of the survivors. Lost a lot of good people though." His voice had trailed off into depression.

"How?" asked John.

"Gangers got'em. Scavengers attacking the caravans. And mutants, son of a dog, if they weren't springing up like rabbits with a mission. Had to have an army of guards with, just to do a deal."

"Mutants," said John eagerly. "The giant green people? Where were the mutants coming from?"

"Not just them. Seen critters out there that would turn your stomach inside-out. But they were coming from everywhere! Hell, seemed like you couldn't fart without hitting one. But mostly in the northwest..."

"Did you try to do anything about them?"

"We mounted an expedition. God, Richard. Richard Grey. Led a small group of us up there."

"Richard Grey?" asked John curiously.

Richard Grey was a doctor. Little older than me, and friend was he smart. He found the source.

"Of the mutants, I presume."

"Yes. Some sort of old military base. We lost a lotta folks getting in there."

"How did you know this base was the cause?" Asked Twilight, who had been listening silently up until now.

"Because it was like someone went bargain shopping at mutantland! Geez! Cheaper by the dozens! Can't figure any other reason except that being the factory."

"And what did you find inside the base?" Twilight urged.

"We got pretty far inside. Wasn't a lot of us left by then. Grey, me and couple of others. One of them robots got Francine. Mark was wounded, sent him back to the surface. Then it was just me and Grey."

Harold seemed to be waiting for somebody to say something, so Twilight said, "Go on."

"We made it to some sort of central core, like a plant of some sort. That's when it happened.

"What happened?" asked Twilight, completely aware that she had fallen into the trap of suspense.

"A robot crane crashed into us. Last I saw of Grey, he was flying through the air in-into some sort of acid bath. I was in bad shape and...well I passed out."

"You passed out in a base stuffed full of those mutants?" asked John incredulously. "How did you survive?"

"Didn't," said Harold with a strange grin. "Got killed!" He burst into a fit of laughter combined with horrible coughing. Twilight and John were too shocked to say anything. "God, I love that joke!" said Harold, his laughing fit over.

"Well anyway," continued the mutant, "I have no idea how I got out of that base. Woke up in the wasteland, barely hanging on. Got lucky and some traders I knew found me days later. Good thing, since I was already changing. They brought me here, and here I've been since."

"Wait, why did you mutate like that?" asked Twilight.

Harold gave her an eerie stare with his single eye. "All's I know, is it was something inside that base."

"So you think that the base was irradiated?" asked Twilight.

"How the hell should I know? Grey would've known if anybody could." Harold let out a sigh. "Anyway, that's how the deal went down."

Unable to think of anything else to say, Twilight nodded to John, who said, "Thank you for letting us hear your story."

"Well, thanks for letting me tell it."

"I just have one last question." said John.

"And what would that be?"

"We've already run into a whole group of mutants from that military base. Lucky for us, we escaped, but considering how you got into the heart of their base, I was wondering if you had any advise on how to deal with them?"

Harold looked John in the eye again, making him uneasy. Then he said in a slow, stern tone, "Run. The hell. Away."

"Oh, right then," said John sarcastically. "I guess we didn't do anything wrong then. Come on, you said that you actually killed dozens!"

"We were hooked up with the best weapons that could be had in those days," said Harold irritably. "That aint the case no more. These days, those "Brotherhood of Steel" hoard all the good stuff. Nobody else has the firepower to do anything about those monsters, and they aren't interested in starting that fight."

Harold sighed. "Sorry, friend. I just really don't like those Brotherhood. They have a base set up about a week straight north east from town, and I highly suggest that you steer clear of that area. They only look out for their own."

"I'll keep that in mind," said John, nodding. "Goodbye Harold."

"Goodbye my friend."

John turned to Twilight and said "Well, time is wasting. We had better get going to Necropolis before somebody asks us to kill another crime lord or something."