“40 caps.”
“For a snow globe?! Twenty nine.”
“35 and thats as low as im going!”
“Fine.” the lone wanderer said with a hint of triumph in his voice. He quickly handed over a old washcloth that he fashioned into a bag with a bit of twine to to merchant. The merchant quickly untied the thin string and emptied the bag.
“Seriously? Who just walks around with a exact 35 bottle caps in their bag...” the merchant muttered while staring the old whisky and sarsaparilla caps that tumbled out of the bag.
“Those who plan ahead.” the wanderer offered concealing his surprise at the exact change. He loved the air of mystery responses like that formed, or in short he loved feeling like a bad-
“Well be on your way.” the merchant sneered cutting of the wanderers thought.
IF YA AIN'T BUYING THEN YA AIN'T STAYING was one of his favorite sayings. Normally he would then follow up by whipping out his shotgun and forcing the buyer out of his shop and into the wasteland. His smirk changed to a expression of contemplation as he thought about how many shots he’d fired at customers just to get them to leave.
The wanderer swiped the snow globe of the old, wooden countertop. In truth he had no idea why he bought the snow globe, he just felt a strange need to collect them ever since he found one in the fountain of prim. He quickly shoved the globe in its respective place: somewhere. He was a slob and he knew it, his backpack was so full of crap that it weighed more than his armor did. “time to dump” he muttered.
“There ain’t no bathroom in this place SO SCRAM” the merchant said, a annoyed edge to his voice. The wanderer took this as his one warning before he had to repair his armor again, AND BURY A BODY. He sighed, sometimes this work was just too much. He hated his job, after all he was the guy who was called upon when a group of bandits or a deathclaw attacked a village and to make matters worse he never had reinforcements if you don't count the time the NCR hired him to wipe out some ghouls.
“I hate my job... i hate my job... I HATE MY JOB” he muttered darkly with increasing volume.
“You and me both buddy.” said the merchant with a heavy shotgun in his hands. “However I wanna nap and you're the only thing standing in my way. so leave, or i'll blow your brains out.”
The wanderer offered no response as he pivoted on one foot towards the door. As he walked his backpack seemed to get heavier and heavier. “Why do I have to loot EVERYTHING?!?” he growled as he stumbled out the door.
After the wanderer put a few miles between himself and the psychopaths shop he began to boot up his pipboy* to look over his inventory and most likely discard the 9 sets or NCR armor he ‘found’. His visor flashed a blinding blue light, and as his vision returned he swore he could see WELCOME WINDOWS 7
please wait...
Hello best friend! A cold metallic voice rang from his helmet.
“Cut the chatter and show me my inventory” the wanderer demanded.
You got it, best friend!
Your current inventory is...
3 Raw rat meat
4 stimpacks
7 Rad-away
1 Dog brain
1 N.C.R assault rifle
2 mod. shotguns
47 shotgun shells
3 Assault rifle clips
5 Cans of baked beans
2 bottles of dirty water
27,098,937 bills of pre-war money
...
The machine rambled on unaware of the wanderers twitching eye and slowly clenching fist. “Just how much does the pre-war money weigh?” the wanderer inquired cutting off his A.I. He had already guessed the answer to be heavier than all the guns, ammo and armor he already had COMBINED. The machine paused, calculating the exact weight of the 27 million dollars he was carrying.
Exactly 345.7865 pounds best friend!
“And how many caps do you think i could sell it for?” he snapped. Another pause.
Around 2.72321 caps, depending on the vend0r. by the way why do you have a dog brain in your... left shoe.
“Someone wanted it to save their dogs life, so i found a old lady who had around 4 dogs; paid her and all I know is I heard a bang and weird sucking noises and voila a perfect dog brain”. His suit paused trying to compute what it just heard but couldn't manage to speak more than:
wha... how... why... ಠ_ಠ
“now dump the pre-war crap”
Whyyyy? His suit whined.
The wanderer transfixed the visor of his suit with a hard glare in hopes that the mechanized voice could decipher it. “Because it all became obsolete the second the bombs fell”.
But look it has funny pictures on it... in god we trust, i wonder what that means.
“I.DON'T.CARE.” the wanderer deadpanned, obviously fed up with the entire exchange. ‘Best friend’ huh if she... he... IT was my best friend they'd dump the worthless paper and let me walk again. He fumed, glad that the A.I wasn't able to read his thoughts, YET.
I'll only drop the pretty paper if you eat the dog brain.
“What!?!” the wanderer screeched outraged. “You are my suit so you will do whatever I tell you to” he hollered to the suit.
But look, it has a picture of a old guy with a monocle, a monocle. His suit reasoned, but the wanderer was having none of it. “Just drop the worthless paper... or I'll never repair you again...” the wanderer said with a frightening calmness to his voice.
No.
“Activate self destruct”.
No.
The wanderer quickly unstrapped a grenade from his vest, pulled the pin and threw it on the ground next to his feet. He knew the blast would only throw him back and dent his armor in several places but he was willing to take that chance to get the mechanized voice in his head to leave him alone.
Fine, fine fine. I'll dump the pre-war money
“Too late” the wanderer smirked, he just wanted to get the voice under control; in truth he could stop the grenade whenever he wanted, all it took was a tap on his pipboy.
NO... NO NO NONONONO! the voice shouted before it was abruptly cut off by a large...
BOOM
The wanderer was rocketed off his feet and sent flying several yards before he crashed into a stone statue of sorts. The statue had the body of what appeared to be a griffon with a lion's paw on its left hand. Its head represented that of a goats with a horn next to an... antler? It was stuck in a singing position on a heavy stone column engraved with the words:
The wanderer simply stood up, brushed himself off and set to work admiring the statue. Several cracks ran their way down the face of the statute to the base. Intrigued the wanderer stepped closer and placed his hand on the art. It abruptly started to glow, startling the wanderer and sending him back with a jump and several cusses.
Booting up...
inventory: online
Radar: online
Satellite: online
A.I program: online
health: 100/100 perfect condition
Retiring to A.I program...
“How? I blew myself up! The A.I should've been down until i repaired it?!”
hia best friend!
Don't worry, i forgive you for blowing me up!
“Go... away...”
But look i'm being good now! I’ll even get rid of the pretty moneys.
Then in a sound that very closely represents taking a dump, huge piles of green paper started flying out of his suit and blinding him.
“Just, GO” the wanderer said with more force to his voice than necessary. He didn't realize however that the statue was glowing with every word of the exchange until a ear splitting crack ruptured the argument.
“Well now, thanks and all that but I have chaos to wreak” said a disembodied voice. “However I guess I should reward you somehow...” Both the wanderer and his A.I program were on their guard. The A.I trying to detect the person/creature but coming up with no results, and the wanderer sneaking his hand towards his pistol, ready to fight at the moment's notice.
I can't detect him best friend. his A.I whispered, obviously concerned for the wanderers life. Its like he doesn't exist...
“AHHH I GOT IT!” the voice exclaimed. “I hope your ready for a ride...”
And with that the wanderer blacked out.
When the wanderer woke the first thing he noticed was the distinct lack of the wasteland. He quickly sat up but immediately regretted it. His head throbbed painfully forcing him back to the ground.
I wouldn't do that just yet best friend. Your vitals are stable but you'll have a headache for a while...
“You're not helping.” the wanderer replied gruffly. He took a moment to observe his surroundings. A blue sky... grass... trees... did that thing send me to the oasis? Clenching his teeth the wanderer stood up leaving a heavily pressed grass anangle. The grounds soft? Thats not normal. All of the sudden he heard a branch crack to his left followed by the crushing of dead leaves in a pattern to quick to be footsteps. He suddenly became aware of the chirping of birds, clean wind and the damnable noise of several bugs clicking and hissing. A forest? how did I get here? Am I even in the wasteland anymore?! The wanderer began to panic. Sweating heavily he broke into action.
He reached for his pistol, his eyes focused in the direction of the noise. A dead tree blocked his ability to see the source. Steps soon came from the other direction almost running at the wanderer. The wanderer swung around to meet his new foe.
Hang on best friend, i'll check the satellites to verify what type of a enemy it is!
The wanderer wasted no time in replying but instead charged towards where he heard the second set of steps. He burst through a large clump of bushes only to see. A tiny tan horse with a bow in its red mane?! Oh god, i'm just as crazy as half the other people in the wasteland. The horse snapped its head in the direction of the wanderer and stared at him with giant eyes before running off whinnying and clicking.
TO BE CONTINUED
Applebloom was having a bad day. First she and the other crusaders failed once again at getting their zip lining cutie marks (she secretly blamed scootloo for making them try AGAIN) ending up in a several hour scolding from Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Then when they went to school and diamond tiara and silver spoon jumped them and started firing insults at ‘Mach pinkie’, making them late for school; resulting in an another lecture and a three day grounding. Now she was in the everfree with the rest of the crusaders. They only wanted to get their cutie mark in tracking so of course they snuck out and ran for the woods. Then the bear sent them running: sweetie for the nearest bush, for scoots a tree that she barely managed to climb and then Applebloom simply running.
Now she was lost, the only thoughts going through her mind being those of all the dangers that the everfree housed. Manticore, cockatrice, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, manticore, cockatrice, Ursa Minor, Ursa Major. She shivered with every thought. She was silent as not to invoke the wrath of, well everything. Nothing seemed safe, even the tree that looked kind of like a penis scared the living daylights out of her.
Her heart fell into her stomach when a nearby rustle caught her attention. It could be scoots, sweetie or a monster. Always being one to look on the positive side she started galloping towards the sound, hope overpowering the fear. The noise stopped as if it heard her. It then confirmed her fears when the heavy and inconstant sound of footsteps came towards her. She started to hyperventilate and began praying to Celestia that it was just a squirrel, as she lost all hope it could be one of her friends. Her eyes turned slowly around the landscape. Where was it? She wondered as she scanned her surroundings.
Suddenly she heard a rustle and whipped her head towards the source. There in the center of a now trampled bush was a HUGE bipedal creature pointing some sort of black L at her. It looked just as surprised as she was; it even reached a large ‘hoof’ up to its head and smacked it as if to make sure it wasn’t crazy.
This motion pushed Applebloom over the edge and she began running in the vague direction of ponyville while screaming the name of her sister. “Applejack! Applejack please, HELP!” she yelped no longer aware of anything besides the giant, now far behind her. She started to run faster despite the screams of protest from her legs. Light started to shine through the canopy urging Applebloom to run even faster.
Is that the edge of the forest? Oh sweet Celestia it’s too good to be true! Applebloom’s mind raced with the stress of both supporting her legs and imposable joy. She soon collapsed under the combined effort of emotions and pain. She let out a few weak cries for help between gasps before everything around her went black.
To be continued
Should the wanderer find Applebloom and take her to safety or will he simply abandon her and look for food, civilization and a way home?
Sorry it’s so short I only had a few hours to crank this out.
For Science! (short chapter)
He had no time to react before the horse-thingy ran crying away. Can horses cry? Was that a horse? No it couldn’t be, after all horses are bigger right? He had only seen heavily mutated horses, quite a bit like the brahmin save for the fact that they were more… violent.
"Technically the species is pony or Equus Caballus.The species is generally non-violent, they were believed to be extinct after the war."
“That was… surprisingly helpful of you.” The wanderer said with genuine astonishment in his voice. “So to recap what you said, I found a pre-war creature in a forest that shouldn’t exist?”
YEP, and its running right now. I would suggest following it and *ahem* Dissecting *ahem* it.
“Now why would I do that?”
"For science!"
“That’s what you said when we first saw a feral ghoul, and I quote: You should see how long their teeth are, for science!”
"Well regardless it’s running now!"
*Authors note*
I’m sorry it took so long I’ve been very busy with school, minecraft and friends. Now that its fall I can start typing more chapters, so let me know one thing, longer or shorter chapters?
“For the sake of my sanity, I’m just going to pretend that never happened.” The wanderer gasped, hopping on one foot and clutching the other. The Plexiglas screen of his visor started to fuzz out to static, temporarily blinding him until a semi-transparent minimap showed up. He studied the map trying to make sense of using only the areas he explored as the rest was blacked out.
“Download: 297mb of 297mb,
Launching…
Verifying logs…
Verifying creature DNA…
Launching: complete.”
A bell chimed inside his suit and two red dots appeared on his minimap. One of the dots was making a beeline through the forest, moving at speeds the wanderer found impressive. The other dot however was moving in short, random bursts in a large circle. This generally meant some form of panic, he had learned this in Glasgow (located in Kentucky) when a man he was sent to save was found running from a deathclaw. The man had run to mammoth cave and led the predator on a wild goose chase. He had sprinted from tunnel to tunnel taking cover in between, however like all good things, it had just postponed death.
The wanderer shivered as the scene entered his mind. He had to prevent that from happening again. He began to limp off in the direction of the little red blip. He made it five feet before his eyes shot open with realization as he slapped himself in the visor. He lifted his foot to waist level and shook off his boot. He stuck his hand into it and pulled an incredibly long needle. Without so much as a grimace he jammed it into his thigh and instantaneously the medicine began to build upon his bone and push it together, repairing his knee.
As soon as the syringe was empty the wanderer threw it into a nearby bush. He began to test his bone by first placing on the ground and transferring weight onto it, the bone held. Due to not caring in the slightest about his physical condition he determined that this is a good enough test and began to run. First slowly, then more quickly towards the red dot. The wanderer broke into a clearing, sweat drenching his cloths. He scanned the area looking for the ‘pony’.
Three wolves surrounded a tree in the center of the clearing. In the tree was none other than the butter colored pony with the giant red bow. He began to dissect the situation.
“I think their just… barking mad!” Added the A.I. trying to bring humor to the grim scene in front of them. The wanderer paid no attention and instead reached for his laser pistol. The wanderer unclipped it from his belt and began to fire. His first shot hit a wolf in the shoulder crippling it. The second shot into the alpha of the pack, the plasma started a fire in the alphas chest and it quickly spread to the rest of the body. The alpha, unfazed by the fire leapt at the wanderer.
As the wolf was in midair the wanderer pushed his palm forwards to meet the muzzle of the dog. When the dog made contact with the wanderers palm he knew something was off, the dog was so light and the body itself was weak. The latter proved as he grabbed the dog’s nose and pushed it into the ground before stomping on the charred head of the wolf. The head cracked and sent embers into his visor; instinctually he backed away from the sparks. As he shuffled backwards he tripped and wavered. While he struggled to regain balance the last wolf hurled itself forwards; jaws open wide to catch its prey.
The jaws of the wolf came down on the wanderer’s shoulder cutting through the fabric that the armor was graphed onto. The wanderer cried out in pain and fell onto his back. The wolf shook its head like a dog with a chew toy ripping the wanderer’s flesh and breaking his bone. In a surge of strength the wanderer clenched his fist and smashed it into the face of the dog. In one sick crack it was over, three corpses testified the wanderer’s success.
“What the hell were those things?” The wanderer gasped through a cloud of pain.
“No clue, you should check the corpses and get some samples.”
“Shure but first things first, do I have any bandages?”
“Yes and some ‘happy shots’ for afterwards!” The A.I. program proclaimed, with reference to morphine.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
After the painful and unpleasant duty of bandaging and numbing wounds the wanderer looked to the tree. The pony, much to his dismay was staring wide eyed and shaking.
“Great, just great! Now I have to babysit the stupid thing because it didn't have the common sense to run!” The wanderer ranted on driven by morphine and bottled up stress. After calming the wanderer simply walked up to the tree and kicked it. The whole tree shook and the pony slid off her perch. With a thump she landed on the ground, when her eyes opened all she saw was the wanderer standing over her.
The wanderer reached up and slid his helmet off. He scowled at the pony lying at his feet before grabbing it and hoisting it over his shoulder. The pony tried to scurry away but the attempt ended up futile kicking the air and the wanderer. With the pony over his shoulder he began to look for a safe place to put her down, after all he didn’t want here getting eaten by wolves’ right? He chuckled and began to walk.
*Authors note*
Sorry it’s not 1,000 words but it seemed like a fitting place to stop. So now that apple bloom is rescued who do you think we’re going to run into next? Thanks to omega-ze-wargod for being the only one to respond in the time frame. If you have any suggestions please comment, and keep in mind that I commonly ask for story direction and I’d love to hear your opinion.
