Prolouge: The End
"The end of the world occurred much as we had predicted"
Canterlot. It was like every other city. It had nobles, common ponies and peasants alike. Me? I'm Clockwork, here on business. Ironclad industries wanted me to personally go here and show one of my newest inventions to the higher-ups. Looks like that isn't happening any time soon. At least those bombs hitting the shield above me don't seem to think so.
That's when I looked down. What greeted me were countless commoners, nobles and peasants alike, running from something. Something pink and probably dangerous. Not wanting to get crushed by the incoming wave of ponies, I ran too, the stable might not have closed yet.
Alas, it had. I looked at the huge metal door shaped like a gear and I, like the others behind me, just stared in shock. Snapping out of it, I galloped to the closest building. I shut the door as the pink swarmed over the it. Luckily, it seemed to be somewhat airtight. Unluckily, a window was open. I jumped through the pink mist that slowly seeped in and galloped upstairs. From that tiny amount of exposure, my PipBuck was screaming health alarms at me. I was the only one to think about going upstairs, though higher ground wasn't going to help me against gas. Jumping out of a window was the only way out and this building was quite high, even from just the second floor. I located an elevator and got into it pressing the button to go to the floor underneath of the roof. The elevator took me upwards into the skyscraper and when I stepped out there was not a single soul there. The elevator doors closed behind me and it went down. Unfortunately for me that meant the pink gas from the roof was now swarming in. This world really didn't want me to live, did it?
Not finding any way out except for a very long fall and a broken body, I simply trotted around like an idiot. Until I found the fire hose. Well, might as well try something. I activated the flow of the hose and it sprayed water all over the room. If I were any less lucky then I would have died right there. But as it turns out, the pink gas mixes extremely well with water. So now there was bright pink water covering the floor, the pool continuously getting bigger. The elevator returned up, blocking the flow of pink gas coming from the outside, saving my ass. I was so unbelievably lucky I wondered why my name wasn't Lucky 37. And then I saw that the person coming up the elevator was none other than a zebra with a deactivated stealth cloak, coughing violently. At closer inspection the stealth cloak seemed to be stuck to him. Something dawned on me. Stealth cloaks were illegal in cities. Who was this zebra?
Upon sighting me he immediately started galloping towards me with murder in his eyes and a machete in his mouth. I still had my suitcase with me. The weapon was a prototype, though a good one at that. I levitated the strange-looking energy weapon out of the briefcase and fired. The weapon was based on something that had been found inside of a meteor. The strange energy weapon had a stunning 100% chance to completely disintegrate the target. This prototype had an 82% chance to do so. The odds were against me however and his right eye was now burnt flesh. He staggered a bit as I triggered my PipBucks S.A.T.S. function and aced him in the face again, this time however, he was ash on the ground, only his saddlebags were left.
There was a note in the bags.
"The ponies have gone too far. They did so upon choosing Nightmare Moon as their leader. You must plant this bomb in the center of Canterlot and put an end to them all. It will release a pink gas that will hopefully kill everything, do not let it touch you. Kill eventual survivors and get out if you can."
Nobody informed them about Luna's recovery? Are you fucking kidding me?! Oh fuck we are stupid. The end of the world occurred from a fucking misunderstanding. Everyone I knew was killed by a misunderstanding... I got into the elevator and pushed the first-floor button. I was gonna face this cloud like a stallion. And I was gonna fucking die in it.
The doors opened and I calmly walked out. Although I could barely see anything through the mist I saw silhouettes of malformed sculptures. Everything inside of me protested at the environment and my PipBuck basically shouted "You will die!". I wandered around slowly doing so among hundreds - if not thousands of deformed corpses stuck in the ground. The creepy thing was that, in the dark pink haze, completely silent, was the first serene moment I'd had in years, apart from the constant pain. I wandered around the city for a while until suddenly I fell down some stairs and injured my hindleg. Now I was crawling. Suddenly my hoof touched water. Water... was this... the waterfall? I rolled into the stream, hoping to waste away and die slowly, like everyone else had. The last thing I saw was the brightly colored pink lake that had formed against the princesses shield. Slowly drowning, I faded away into deep unconsciousness.
Footnote:
Clockwork:
Special:
Strength: 5
Perception: 3
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 5
Intelligence: 8
Agility: 10
Luck: 5
Level up!
New perk: Years of Experience [Weapon Designer] - Your years of experience as a weapon designer has left you with incredible knowledge in the Repair and Guns skills.
New quest perk: Canterlot Ghoulism -- Your exposure to the pink cloud has made you into a Canterlot ghoul! You're very tough to take down and in fact, the only way of doing so is to vaporize or dismember you. Also, your PipBuck is permanently stuck to your leg, tough luck!
Chapter One: Waking up
"And hell followed with him"
Muffled screams echo in the streets. My hooves are stuck to the cobblestones. Above me is the luminescent shield. I am in Canterlot. Looking around, I see silhouettes of ponies running for their lives. A mare and her filly are slowly merging in what seems like the most agonizing process imaginable. They're not dead. Now I'm melting, my entire being turning to soup. The the fleshy construct turns it's head and whispers, "You should have done better, Clockwork. You could have."
My eyes flung open and I gasped for air. I drew panicked breaths and shakily looked around. My vision blurring, correcting itself, then blurring again. My eyes were wide open but I couldn't see anything. Beads of sweat were dropping down my brow and my head was bursting. I was hyperventilating. I closed my eyes and my breaths slowed. Deep breaths... calm down, calm down... I opened my eyes again as my breathing returned to normal and spectated everything around me. Everything was burnt. Charred and dead. Zebratown and Canterlot were above me making me feel very small. The shield was down, the bombs had stopped falling and the only thing that was left up there was the pink gas, enveloping Canterlot, leaving Zebratown without the gas but not the effects. I was crying but there were no tears. I had a hollow feeling in my chest. Nothing was going to be normal again. No more strolls in green parks. No more good food or drinks. But worst of all, no more ponies. I was all alone. Nothing was spared by the balefire. Nothing except for me.
I got up, disturbing ancient dust and cracking all of my limbs. I felt like a statue coming to life, like stone joints moving for the first time. I reconsidered how long I'd been out. I drowsily stumbled and fell into a sitting position again. I remembered my PipBuck and looked at the screen. Around it, the machine seemed to have merged with my hoof. My stomach turned and I threw up on the dirt in front of me. Wiping my face, I noticed that the vomit looked like the bright pink water I'd drowned in. I shivered and checked the date on my PipBuck.
My eyes widened. 200 years. I'd been unconscious for 200 fucking years. I felt sick. Like I was gonna throw up again. How did I even survive? Megaspell fallout, starvation, dehydration, age, falling down a mountain and breathing in way to much of that pink stuff. I survived all of that. I survived the end of the world and 200 years extra. If all of that didn't kill me, then... I might as well get up.
My body ached as I walked in the gloom. Away from the place I should have died. The thoughts going on in my head were too much. My friends and family were 200 years dead. The world had ended. Was I the only living thing left? There was a strange tint in the air and the lack of light notified me that night was here. Moonlight was seeping through gaps in the clouds, caressing the dead ground underneath my hooves. It was strangely beautiful. I observed my surroundings further. Silhouettes of dead trees and Canterlot with a pink aura around it behind me.
As I walked I spotted a skeleton next to a burnt briefcase with a gaping hole in it. The lock was ancient and cracked open easily. Inside was moldy foam, a damaged recording and a strange weapon.
"The XM-37 Chimera prototypes were originally designed easily be able to switch what bullet enchantment that is used at will.... ...glitch which makes it rather volatile.... ...prototype fires bullets with random elements, some which were not even implemented. You are to deliver it to the Ministry of Arcane Sciences hub in... Any further questions..." The recording was corrupted and several parts were replaced with static. The mares voice switched pitches from time to time and the quality was terrible. The documents that had been burnt so badly they were unreadable.
I levitated the weapon up to eye level and inspected it. It was a box with a magazine and a barrel. The box had several exposed mechanics sticking out of it and at first glance it looked like an energy weapon but the magazine was loaded with bullets. I pointed it towards the ground cautiously and fired. A flower appeared. Oh, how useful. I fired again. The shock wave released knocked me several meters away and caused the briefcase and skeleton to fly. I landed and slid across the ground for another meter before stopping. I opened my eyes with new energy, like the previous hours had been a bad dream that I drowsily stumbled through. All I needed was a slap. I shook my head, stood up, and levitated the gun next to me. I had bruises and lacerations from sliding over the ground and a pain in my chest. I coughed... blood... and brought my PipBuck in front of my face. The map function opened to a few location, many were renamed. Appleoosa had become Old Appleoosa and Canterlot had become the Canterlot ruins. In fact the only ones that were unchanged in name were Ponyville and Tenpony Tower. I decided to travel to Ponyville, wondering what was left of the old town.
**** **** ****
I set hoof into the ruins of Sweet Apple Acres. A day of walking had passed. The previously lush apple trees were now charred crooked horrors with dark apples surrounding them. My PipBuck clicked slowly and I spotted where Stable 2 was supposed to be located. A mare was walking over to a light In the distance. A mare... a living pony. Maybe the campfire was hers? I wasn't sure what to say, but from the look on her face she hadn't been here for that long either. I headed for the same light in the distance.
Closing in, I heard a stallions voice, "They're slavers, you idiot" I backed away. Four ponies stood up, pointing weapons at the mare. The bound stallion had an annoyed look on his face as they cuffed the mare. Slavers... that must mean ponies to sell them too. How many had survived? And why the fuck were these ponies trading lives? I crouched behind several trees, keeping my distance but moving often. They started walking and I tried to have them in sight which was easy, what wasn't easy was finding places to hide.
I hid behind a rock and saw a spritebot casually float past me, playing it's victorious music. I peeked over the rock to see the spritebot float up to one of them, making him jump and shoot the floating machine. Yeah, they seemed to do that quite often, without the shooting part though. They moved on. I half galloped, half jumped over to a broken sky carriage next to a river.
The disgusting, dirty river snaked across the earth and the slavers were nearing the bridge going over it. Luckily they stopped. I had a lookout over them in my hiding place and the bridge was covered in poles with heads on them. I'd seen worse, sorry to say, but I still cringed at the sight. I took a deep breath, avoiding the thought of exactly what I'd seen. I shivered, and not because of frigid temperatures.
Peeking out the window again, I watched as two of the slavers were walking up to two... other ponies. The difference between the slavers and those ponies were their blood-stained armor, yellowed eyes and crazed stares. They looked properly insane. The remaining slavers stood guard over the mare and the stallion. The grey mare sneakily floated out a bobby pin and a screwdriver and started working on her lock. An improvised lock picking set, nice. One of the slavers didn't seem to approve, though. This could be bad. I levitated the strange gun out and hoped I'd get lucky.
Bang!
There was a gunshot, I twitched and fired. Needless to say, the slavers head was covering the mare. Oops! I looked to the bridge to see a gun firing and more gore, the insane-looking ponies had opened fire. Blood and bits of flesh were covering the ground and the other slaver was shooting with his shotgun in return. The other pony had a better one, though. A semi-automatic one. The slavers were no more, the mare and the stallion were free and I had barely done anything. The other ponies were still there, and better armed and armored.
Again, I took aim and had the insane-looking mare in my sights. Nothing happened! Oh, great! A bullet made of air! I was tempted to throw the gun at them, might actually be more effective. I was about to run out there and melee their flanks when the mare bucked the combat shotgun out of the raiders magic. She then equipped herself with the sharpened shovel the slaver I'd shot had wielded. Her versus two of the raider ponies. I took aim again but thought of the bullet that had knocked me back before. The stallion jumped at one of the raiders, choking him with his chains and I watched like I was in a theater or something.
The mare, with skill (or S.A.T.S. as she had a PipBuck) slashed at the remaining raider with the shovel, causing her to kneel, drop her weapon and finally she smashed the raiders head with the shovel causing unconsciousness. I sighed in relief, looking around for dangers coming for me.
Bang!
I jumped at the sudden noise and looked back out. The unconscious mare had been executed by the stallion who had equipped himself with one of the slavers shotguns. His expression was ice cold, no remorse. He then began looting the bodies. My logical side told me that he did what he needed to do to survive. But he didn't need to... fuck that buck. The mare began looting one of the bodies too as I checked the magazine of my weapon. Eight bullets out of twelve, and I wasn't gonna get anything from those corpses. I looked back up to see a standoff of sorts, except the mare didn't have a weapon. Wait, didn't that make it robbery? I floated the Chimera out but before I could fire it, the mare levitated a combat shotgun out towards the stallion. A bead of sweat flowed past my eye. The mare smiled daringly and they lowered their weapons. I sighed in relief again and stood up properly. And then I walked away from the town.
Good luck little mare.
<-=======ooO Ooo=======->
"Well, Clockwork. We've considered you for the job and we're happy to welcome you to our company," a caramel mare told me. I was back in Ponyville, back when I got my job. I was told to come to the local park for a job offer. I was to work as a designer. Later I was promoted to lead designer by the same mare, the CEO of Ironclad.
"Heh, really? I thought I did terribly on that interview," I told her, a smile on my face.
"Well... you kinda did. The others did worse, let me tell you"
"I heard Receiver was the best, I hope to become as good," I told her, still smiling as violins played from a radio in the background.
"Well, I hope you're ready to start tomorrow. Our other designers need help creating something to take down the zebras advanced war machines"
"Hmm, some sort of anti-machine rifle,"
"Something like that," she smiled.
<-=======ooO Ooo=======->
A bullet hit me in the foreleg. I hesitated to return fire with this random fucking gun. I had intervened when I saw raiders attack a caravan, now it was a wasteland gunfight. Me, the caravan leader and his bodyguard were pinned down behind their dead brahmin. I got out of cover and fired the gun. A massive black vine with light blue spikes burst out of the ground at the point the bullet hit. To my relief it massacred the raiders. Crushing them repeatedly until they were no more than red mush on the vine. Then it just slid down into the ground again and the hole covered itself up.
"Well gee, thanks fer savin' us stranger, ah'm not sure if we could of handled those raiders," the merchant gleefully exclaimed, his bodyguard checking what supplies were damaged.
"!" I seemed to have lost my voice.
"But we'll be takin' yer caps, and that fancy gun ya have" he continued, his jolly tone turning dark.
Caps? Were those valuable or did this buck just have a strange fixation with them? I looked at the bodyguard and then back at the merchant, considering my chances. The bodyguard approached me and drew her knife, putting it to my throat as the merchant approached as well. I slowly unsheathed their revolvers with my magic, a dark gold glow appearing around the handles as I tried to be quiet. The barrels touched their necks and their eyes widened.
I backed off, coughed several times, then said with a hoarse voice, "Have you *cough* even seen a unicorn before?"
"Uh..." The merchant said, confused.
I frowned at him and slowly cocked the guns. "Please," the bodyguard whimpered, eyes closed. The merchant looked around then looked at the ground. These ponies really think I'm gonna kill them, don't they?
I brought the butts of the guns down on their heads. Hard. So hard that they weren't awake anymore. I felt sick for some reason. Really sick, in fact.
Throwing up was not very good. In fact it was one of my least favorite things to do. Especially when my vomit triggered memories from Canterlot that I didn't want to think about ever again. My vomit looked exactly like the water I'd drowned in, bright pink water but slightly thicker.
I approached their dead brahmin. It's belly had been completely torn apart and guts covered the ground. I took some bottlecaps and repaired their of their revolvers to pristine condition with anything I could find. Also ammo for both the revolver and my strange gun. I started walking again. Fuck, I was lonely. I need me some friends!
**** **** ****
The journey to Appleoosa was a long one. Night had fallen once more and a tight mist had settled over the area, I had my PipBucks map though so traversing it wasn't that difficult. I did however flinch at every step as a multitude of horrifying sounds produced by the wasteland played all at once. Roars and the buzz from some very big insect flying mixed with the triumphant tune played by the spritebots and the occasional firing of guns.
However after hours of careful walking the sun shun brightly in the horizon. Even through the clouds it was visible. I attempted to calm down by listening to the different radio-signals my PipBuck had picked up. Static, creepy mumbling in a strange voice, distorted crying and... oh finally! "...y-y-you ponies remember when I told you ‘bout those two ponies who crawled themselves out of Stable Two? -" What? "- Well, I've been gettin’ reports that one of those little ponies took out the raider nest in the heart of Ponyville, and saved several pony captives -- including the beloved author of The Wasteland Survival Guide, Ditzy Doo! -" Hang on, Ditzy Doo?! "- Hey kid, thanks! From all of us! And now the weather: cloudy everywhere, with a chance of rain, gunfire and bloody dismemberment..." I was stunned. Radio? What? Who...? I calmed down. Hang on, the mare I'd helped wore a Stable 2 barding. Did she... do all of that? Apparently she did. I could feel a smile appearing on my face. Good on you little mare.
My smile faltered as I Suddenly felt immensely useless. That mare'd apparently spent her entire life in a stable. First day out of it, boom! Took out an entire towns worth of ponies. Mad ones with weapons at that. Me? I'd spent almost my whole life working with weapons and the only thing I'd managed to do is getting tricked by bandits, like an idiot. Well that changes now! I'm gonna be twice as good as that mare! "Yeah, like that'll ever happen," my inner voice said. Fuck you too inner voice, watch me... Was I going insane? I really do need some friends.
**** **** ****
There it was, Appleoosa, or AAAHPULOOSA! as Braeburn said it. A real cowboy town before the war. The layout hadn't changed that much except for a few bridges connecting the buildings, there were cages with ponies in them surrounded by mines. Prisons maybe? There were guards on patrol after all. I could only hope. As I walked the road cutting Appleoosa in half for the first time in over 200 years I heard the most beautiful voice I could have ever imagined. It came from a saloon to my right and I quickly turned to open the doors.
Stepping inside I felt a warmth hit me, followed by the stench of booze in the air, and the sounds of banter and gambling. But I ignored all of that, I was looking at the mare on stage. Oh how beautiful she was, with that charcoal coat and white mane with the crimson and gold streaks. Seeing her on that stage made my heart switch to overdrive.
"And that was Velvet Remedy, give her a round of applause, everyone," a stallion said as the mare stepped backstage. Velvet Remedy... so that was her name. My stomach was now filled to the brim with butterflies and I had a strong urge to speak to her. I sat down at the bar and ordered some firewater. Actually come to think of it, I hadn't drunk anything since waking up. Nor eaten anything. Huh, that was a mystery. Anyways I got my whiskey and after drinking it I had a lingering warmth in my gut. I sat there, thinking about the days that'd passed. That was, until I saw her again.
"How much," I asked the bartender.
"138 caps," he said with his deep gravelly voice. Caps. Yes. I had those. I put the caps on the table and felt proud of myself. Levitating my bottle of whiskey next to me, I got up and walked up to her.
She looked at me with her sky blue eyes and raised an eyebrow which made my heart skip a beat.
"Uh..." I blushed. "Hello, I really liked your performance and... just wanted to give you this bottle of whiskey," I attempted to sound normal but alas my voice wobbled slightly at every word. I looked down at the ground, my face was redder than wine both from me being dunk and actually blushing.
"Oh, my first fan," she said, sounding amused. Her words were like the warm glow left by whiskey but ten times as powerful.
I chuckled softly, "Yeah, I guess you could say that". We stopped at her door.
"Come in, I'm writing a new song. I could use your verdict," she offered. I hadn't smiled this much since before the war.
I stepped into her humble abode. I wasn't expecting much but it was nice, albeit a bit rusty, as everything was in the wasteland. I placed the bottle on her table and sat down in her couch. I poured her a glass of whiskey and then filled mine. I took a sip.
Footnote: Level up!
New perk: Mare Killer -- +10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain ponies.
