Fallout Equestria: The Kingdom of Ice

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Stable 57
Chapter 2 - A Brand New World
Chapter 3 - Grim Reality
Chapter 4 - New to Town
Chapter 5 - City Lights

Chapter 1 - Stable 57

Author's Note

Link to Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nn-u7BnAQZ0ug46I4erL3t3GSPk3FzJWNgPnr8lFEi0/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter 1 - Stable 57

Every Decision has consequences

If I had to describe life in the stable in one word, it would be boring. Once you get your cutie mark and become old enough to work everything starts to blur together, days turn to weeks and weeks to months; most of the time I didn't even know what day it was. Conversations with friends even got stale. Doing the same thing over and over again, even if you like it, gets old after a while. My only occasional bits of fun were when my friend in security snuck me into the range and let me shoot off a few rounds of her gun. I didn't really hit anything, but I didn't try to. While I found actually shooting the gun fun, the idea of actually causing damage to things didn't sit well with me.

I worked as a computer technician so I didn't get much work, the computers around there were built to last and were probably as old as the stable. Most of my job was helping other ponies use the computers and on the off chance that they did stop working I got to have a little fun working on them. Most of my time however was spent reading comic books and messing around on my own personal computer. In fact, that's how I got my cutie mark; I built my own personal computer out of crap I found in the stable, and suddenly an image of a computer appeared on my flank, sealing my fate to work on computers for the rest of eternity. This of course wouldn't be so bad if the computers ever broke, which like I said was rare, and on top of that there was about 30 other computer technicians, so even getting assigned to a job required you being the closest pony to the problem, or being the first computer pony somepony ran into, which happened to be me at the time .

“Silver Light.” Some pony called my name, this couldn't be good, especially when I was walking to my room, and not in the maintenance hall. Due to my job, I was usually referred to as computer mare, or more commonly, nerd or something similar. There were two ponies that called me by my name, my friend Soft Heart, who worked in security, or my mom.You see my mom was not a creative pony and named me based purely based on my silvery blue coat. However this pony who called my name was neither my mom or Soft Heart.

“Silver Light, I need your help with something.” The purple pony with the pink mane continued in her stern but bored voice. She was the Overmare’s assistant and wound up doing most of the Overmare’s work mainly because said Overmare wasn't too bright. She hated her job, and I didn't blame her; she was originally supposed to be the Overmare.

“What’s the matter? Is the Overmare’s computer broken again? she didn't spill coffee on it again did she?” I asked In annoyance. while I always felt special when I would go into that office, since it belonged to the Overmare and all, it was never for a good reason. The new Overmare had been in charge for about a year at the time and during that year I had to fix her computer 3 times. The first time I was asked to go in there she didn't know how to turn the screen on, not paying attention to the big “on” button there. The second time she somehow managed to unplug the computer, that's still a mystery how she did that one. The last time she spilled coffee on it. That’s not counting the several times I was called about a technical problem like what commands did what and what certain terms meant, sad thing was most of those Violet Dawn could have solved but the Overmare didn't trust her because she wasn't the official computer pony. It was honestly a miracle that the place didn't break down ever, seemingly none of these ponies knew anything about computers past the basics, and never seemed to try to learn more about them. I’m surprised this place is still running since it was up to just a handful of ponies to manage the 600 public terminals, everyponies own personal terminal and the mainframe, not to mention all the wires everywhere that broke and wore down.

“I wish it was that stupid. Oh no it’s far worse, just wait till you see” She said with a heavy sigh. Violet Dawn hated her job, Her exams showed she was highly qualified for the Overmare position and everypony expected her to become the Overmare, heck even her cutie mark was a cog wheel with the stables number 57 on it. She got it when the Overmare was sick and through the circumstances she was the one there to the run the stable for a week, it made up for her being the last one in her class to get one. In Stable 57, the overmare is chosen every 25 years by the current Overmare and her staff with the Overmare having the final stay, however the previous Overmare made sure that her own daughter got to be Overmare next because she felt bad that her daughter was made fun of for being the stupid one. That one move had single handedly ruined the old Overmares reputation. I guess everypony has that one fatal flaw.

<***>

I was put in front of the Overmare’s computer. I always felt privileged to even be in that office, even if the reason I was there was stupid. While she was stupid, Daisy Chain had one good quality about her, she was the most organized pony I knew in that stable. Everything in her office had a place and was neatly organized. It was hands down the cleanest room in the entire stable. Her cutie mark even represented organization, being a picture of a stack of neatly folded papers and 3 pencils in a pencil cup.

I sat down in front of her computer looking for the most obvious thing wrong and working my way to more complex issues. I could find nothing wrong with it, her computer was completely fine, which to me was stunning.

“So um...what seems to be the problem? Your computer is working just fine.” I told her frankly. Violet Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes, letting me know that the bombshell was coming.

“No no,” She responded “You see I found this old file and I want it deleted.” I had to physically stop my hoof from smacking my face. This was stupid even for her.

“You….don’t know how to delete files…?”

“Well no, I never needed to until now. But if you would go ahead and do that, I would be very happy.” I sighed, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, the pony who runs the entire stable didn’t know a simple two button press to delete files. I was pretty sure I went over the simple basic functions of a computer with her several times.

“Alright...so um, what’s the file?” As I turned to face her, I saw Violet Dawn out of the corner of my eye quite literally banging her head against the wall, noticing a very slight indentation in said wall, she probably did that a lot.

“Oh it’s nothing important. It’s just really old and I’d like it removed.” I couldn’t tell if she was lying about its importance or she really didn’t know what she had. I looked back at the computer and at the file. It was dated at about 15 years ago. The files name was [Dismissal of Blue Berry]. I stopped. that was my dad’s name; my dad who had disappeared around that time 15 years ago when I was 6 years old. This was the chance I had been waiting for; a chance to finally learn about my dad.

I remember liking him. I was extremely sad when he disappeared and every time I ever asked about him, my mom or the older ponies would get uncomfortable and change the subject. The best answer I ever got was that he died, no explanation, no how or why, just “he died”. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I plugged my pipbuck into her computer.

“What are you doing?” She asked in response. I was honestly surprised that she caught that, as I dont normally plug my pipbuck into her computer, but I still sighed.

“I’m going to upload some instructions on the basics of computer use should you need to delete or do something else again.” While I did have such a file ready to move over, my main goal was to move over this old file to my own pipbuck to read later. After the deed had been done I unplugged my pipbuck and turned to her. “Alright, you’re all set.” I said, backing away from the computer. “Thank you so much. You may leave now.” Daisy said to me, trying to sound official, but came off as somepony badly attempting to sound official. As I got up to leave I saw Violet Dawn mouth to me “Kill me.”

<***>

I had to stop myself from flat out running to my room. What was on this file? What would I learn about my dad? Was it good or bad? So many questions ran through my head at the time I almost missed the door to my living quarters. I sat on the couch and activated my pipbuck. Now I was no pipbuck technician, I was much more handy with a standard computer, but I at least knew its basic functions and how to properly use it. I pulled up the file and started reading:

[Dismissal of Blue Berry]
Blue Berry, husband to Cherry Blossom and father to Silver Light, has for unknown reasons decided to leave Stable 57. He stole the access code from the Overmare’s computer and left. Security was unable to stop him due to earth ponies being unable to combat unicorn magic {Note to self: Start hiring unicorns on security detail}. Blue Berry rendered the security guards unconscious by telekinetically throwing them against a wall then made his escape. From this point on, Blue Berry will be listed as dead, and all future records will show him as such. Cherry Blossom will be listed as widowed. It is dangerous to list Blue Berry as “left” as it may inspire others to do the same. It may seem obvious, but we cannot allow other ponies to leave the stable at any cost.

This seemed like something important , I was surprised that it didn't get deleted way sooner...also what? It’s possible to even leave? And why did he leave? I had so many questions and no way to answer them. I had one resounding thought...Find him...But that got me thinking more. But that’s impossible, there’s no way I could find him, he’s got a 15 year head start on me, plus I’d be leaving everything I know behind. All these thoughts were swimming in my head. I now knew why all the older ponies are unwilling to talk about him, it must of been a sudden event for him to just up and leave. This was a lot to take in, I needed to talk to my mom about this, but I knew she would just try to change the subject and suggest I forget about the file, luckily I had plans with Soft Heart the next day, she could help me out, maybe I thought, I could even convince her to come with me, of course even if I decided to, but I was still very hesitant about it, I thought was stupid for thinking about it, so I just decided to take a nap, I’d think about it later.

<***>

“You’re out of your Luna damned mind!” Soft Heart exclaimed as I explained to her my findings. “You’re crazy, completely crazy this is stupid, and your stupid for thinking that thats a real plan!”

I rolled my eyes “This could be my one chance to actually find out something about my dad! I remember liking him when I was a filly, then one day he just leaves no goodbye no nothing, then I’m told to just forget about him because he just died, no reason bam dead, but now...” I telekinetically grabbed Soft Hearts gun and fired at the target down range, hitting nothing of course, but then again I wasn’t really trying “...Maybe I can actually find something out. I can go out and find him!”

Soft Heart groaned “You really need to work on your aim, if I’m going to keep sneaking you down here, you better actually get good at shooting things, any way, theres probably a reason your dad left, like….what if he killed some pony? Or like he stole something important? He could be a criminal!”

I shook my head “Come on, thats ridiculous, and you know it!” Soft Heart grabbed her gun back with her own telekinesis

“And don’t you even think about asking me to go with you! Now look...I know this is like important to you but you have to think about the consequences, nopony knows whats out there, even if there is anything out there!” she put her hoof on my shoulder “I just think you should really think about this, you may be smart, but you have like no common sense at all.” I sighed and smiled at her. “Now” she took a step back sighing as she looked down, trying to contemplate it all herself. She was a good friend, I knew her since even before school. She would always be there for me and defended me when others would pick on me. It would always make me laugh a bit to watch the little pink and blue unicorn filly take on an win against the bigger hoofball champion. I even helped her get her cutie mark when she defended me when the entire hoofball team decided it would be fun to relentlessly tease me one day, of course her telling them to stop caused them to try to beat her up for “ruining their fun” they of course won that fight, if barely, being a 6 on one engagement, but most of them were hurt pretty bad and decided to leave me alone after that. Once they left, a big picture of a shield appeared on Soft Hearts flank.

“Let’s take your mind off of this for a bit, have a little fun, but after this, you really need to talk to your mom about this ok? look if you wanna talk about it later meet me in my room alright? Now lets see if I can actually teach you about these things you keep sneaking down here to shoot” she floated up the gun in front of me “Now, what is this?”

I blinked “Its...a gun…” She face hoofed

“Yes...what kind of gun is it?”

I looked at it carefully “A...uh...small gun.” Soft Heart gave me a deadpan look

“It’s a mouth gun or a pistol...do you know how much ammo it holds?”

“What?”

“Bullets…” She sighed, I thought for a moment

“A lot.”

She face hoofed “15 rounds, or bullets per magazine, do you even know what that is and do you know how to reload it?”

I thought for a moment “Umm...nope!” Soft Heart put the gun down and sat, putting her face in her hooves “Oh Celestia why?...Silver...how long have I been sneaking you down here?”

“About 4 months” I quickly responded

“4 months...and you know next to nothing about guns other than how to shoot and which end the bullet goes out…”

I nervously laughed “Well...um, yeah….” She looked up at me

“You should probably get going before the chief comes down and sees you” I looked at the exit

“Yeah, probably...I guess I’ll see ya then” I proceeded to leave before I got in any real trouble. Truth was I knew the answer to most of those questions, but I found it funny to act stupid around her and then see her reactions to it.

<***>

I couldn’t sleep, It was the middle of the night, or at least what the clock had deemed night time. I just couldn’t sleep with so much that had happened. Before I went to my room to attempt sleep, I had went over to the control panel for the large cog shaped door and examined it, I could hack in to it with no trouble at all, very old technology. I sat in my bed wide awake thinking about it, I went over many questions in my head.

Was I really that dedicated to this? Was I willing to leave everything behind just to find my dad who could be a criminal for all I know, where would I even start, heck its been so long how do I even know he still exists? What’s outside the doors? Is it a black empty void like some say? An irradiated waste with nothing but death and decay for miles? Even if there is a surface can anything even live there? It must be toxic and poisonous! I couldn’t leave well enough alone could I? I had to open that file instead of just deleting it. But now I’ve done it, I’ve opened a large can of worms and now here I am actually considering leaving everything behind to go chase this fantasy!

But then I thought about something else. What did I have here? A boring life with one friend and my mom...Ive been doing the same thing day in, day out for the past 5 years ever since I got my job. All in all, I’m bored with life and I’ve always wanted more since I could remember...

I sighed out loud, all that thinking was starting to stress me out, I was always indecisive, but I knew what I had to do, before I did anything at all, I needed to talk to my mom about this, and this time I planned to make her tell me about him, I need to know if hes even worth going after. My mom had always been honest with me, well except about dad, but she’d help me settle this.

<***>

She stared at me, a sad grim look on her face, I repeated “I know that my dad left the stable.”

“Can’t we talk abo-”

“No mom, we need to talk about this, I found an old file on the Overmare’s computer about how dad left the stable, I know that when he did, every pony was told to forget about him and act like he died but I know it isn't true, but I’ve been conflicted about what to do about it, part of me like….wants to go out and find him”

She looked me in the eye immediately “Your father...was a very good pony...I think I know why he left...he-he hated it here...he was always bored with everything, he talked about leaving...but I didn’t think he’d go through with it...” She said sadly, tears welling in her eyes “The night before he left...he told me that I was everything to him...but he didn’t return from the bakery that day...the Overmare told us that he did indeed leave, but we were told to just act like he died.” She started sobbing “And now you’re telling me that you’re about to run out there after him? Please don’t do this to me!”

I looked down, she was right, I was all she had left as far as family goes. But then I had an idea “I’ll bring him back!” The pinkish red pony with the deep purple mane looked up at me, “wh-what?”

I reiterated “If I find him, I will bring him back here, and if I fail...I will come back and never set foot outside the stable again.” I had to push this angle, I didn’t know how long my confidence in this idea would last.

“Y-you’re serious aren’t you?”

I nodded my head “You know when I promise something I always keep it” I was very good at that, I was known as a dependable pony if nothing else.

My mom looked down, deep in thought, tears still rolling down her face until she spoke “fine” she sniffed “But...you promised to come back...with or without him...you will come back right? You’re not leaving forever?”

I smiled and shook my head “I couldn’t leave forever, I couldnt hurt you like that” I hugged her hard, we sat there hugging for a long time, before I made preparations I still had one more stop to visit.

<***>

“You’re still an idiot, this plan is still stupid” Soft Heart said to me. We were sitting on her couch, some sandwiches sat on the table. I came to her room soon after I left my mothers, I was lucky that her colt friend wasn’t there or this conversation would have started out way differently, sadly though even if that did happen it wouldn’t have been the first time I interrupted them.

“Yeah maybe...but I said I would come back” I said looking at her, she tried to jokingly call me stupid to try to liven the mood, but I could tell that she was saddened by this “look...I’ll be gone...2 months tops, I go around see if I can find him and if I can’t, I come back”

She chuckled, still looking sad “You know its not going to be that easy, you don’t even know what’s out there, no pony does! I bet 10 bits you’ll walk out there, what ever that may be, and pussy out and come screaming back here in the first week, 50 bits if its the first day!” she nudged me hard, I chuckled. She never did like talking about sad things and would try to liven up the conversation however she could, “hey” she said in sad serious tone.

I looked up at her, she put on a sad smile “I don’t care if you’re out there for 2 months or 2 minutes before you come back...I’m gonna miss you...like a lot. It’s gonna be lonely in the range watching you intentionally miss a target and feign ignorance about my weapon,” She smirked, I chuckled “Yeah I’m on to you, but seriously...I’m gonna miss you.” She leaned over and gave me a big hug “And if you run into trouble,” She continued. “You show ‘em that Stable 57 doesnt mess around, I wont be there to fight your battles. You gotta buck up and show ‘em who's boss! 57 represent!” She nudged me hard and we laughed “Now come on, let’s finish our meals and I’ll help you pack.” We got up.

“One more thing.” she added.

“Yeah?”

“No matter how hard or tough it is out there, keep us in mind” she pointed at the number 57 embroidered on my stable jumpsuit. “Wear that 5-7 with pride, let it remind you of me and your mother, never take it off” I smiled and hugged her. “Now come on, lets get you ready.”

<***>

I always was plagued with indecision. I had thought I made up my mind, the next day Soft Heart and I had packed up some food and my few possessions, mainly comic books and my favorite books. Now here I was right in front of the control panel for the door and I was having second thoughts, my heart was in my throat, I was frozen in fear. If I stayed there too long I would eventually get caught, but going on forward would mean leaving everything behind, but then again I asked myself. Was I really truly leaving? I mean I was going out and then I was coming back right? That was the plan and I had to stick to it! I took a deep breath, it was now or never!

”screw it...no regrets!” I said aloud to myself and I connected my pipbuck to the control panel and got to work. Just as I thought, hacking this computer was very easy and in no time I had the password. I took another deep breath and I pushed the button to open the door. Immediately alarms all over the room starting blaring as the door creaked to life and began to open, spinning and then moving to the side to reveal darkness. I slowly stepped towards the darkness until it enveloped me.The door then started to close and as it was closing I heard security ponies rush into the room, but it was too late for them and I was beyond their reach. I wondered to myself if Soft Heart was one of them. That was it, I made my choice...regret sets in fast.

Chapter 2 - A Brand New World

Nothing is as it seems

I told Soft Heart that I wanted to open the door and leave by myself because it would be easier for me to leave, despite her insistence that she walk me to the door. I felt like an idiot. Why did I do this? What am I doing? I swallowed hard trying to calm myself down. I was surrounded by darkness, I couldn't even see my hoof in front of my face. I fumbled with my pipbuck, trying to find the light on it so I could see where I was. The longer I was in the darkness the more frantic and panicked I became until finally I hit the right button and my pipbuck glowed like a lamp letting me see my surroundings. I could see that I was in a cave, there was a tunnel ahead of me. Now that I had calmed down a bit because of the light I started paying attention to my other senses. For starters it was oddly quiet without the ambient noise of the stables power supply or the lights. Another thing, rocks, I’d never stepped on anything other than carpet or metal slabs so the feel of rock was an odd one. I was still scared as hell, but I started walking down the rocky tunnel. I could feel myself breathing, I was breathing hard. After a few minutes, which felt like an eternity, I came across another door, although this one wasn't a huge stable door, it was a smaller metal door. I rotated the handle and opened it.

Light! The suns light was so bright I nearly fell back down the tunnel. It was the first time I had seen the sun before. I sat there stunned for a bit when the suns light vanished behind a cloud. Now that I could see again I saw that the entire sky was filled with clouds, the sun must of been at the right angle between a gap in the clouds to get me like that. I knew what the sun and clouds were through old books, but I never thought I’d actually see them one day. Before looking at anything else I stepped out of the rock tunnel and into the outside world.

Cold! In the stable there were no real concepts of hot and cold, the stable was always at room temperature, the only time you’d feel any difference is in a bath or a shower, or if you were an engineer working around the generators, which I've heard can get pretty hot. But this was constantly chilly. I shivered as I looked around. My stable 57 jumpsuit helped with the cold a little bit, but I’d be in trouble if it got any colder. Around me was a wide plane of rolling hills, covered in greenish brown grass with bits of snow on them. Snow was another thing I read about but never thought I’d see. I stepped out onto the grass which made a small crunch noise, a mixture of noises of dry grass and bits of snow being stepped on.

I took a good look around, the nothingness went on forever. There’s nothing here. I thought to myself. My ears perked up when I spotted something way in the distance. I couldn't tell what is was but it was my only real landmark. I looked at my pipbuck and noticed that it started drawing a map of my surroundings, as if they were already programmed into it. A name appeared to the cliff behind me where I had exited the stable. “Galloping Gorge” it read. Well, wherever Galloping Gorge is, that's where I am. I jokingly thought to myself, trying to do anything to keep my mind off the cold. I looked up and saw the thing in the distance again, it seemed far away, I figured I should start walking before I froze over.

Breathing cold dry air for the first time was harsh on my muzzle. The air was cold inside my nose and it kind of hurt, it didn't help that the cold air was causing me to be short of breath more often, or maybe I was just out of shape, could be either or, probably both. After 30 minutes of walking towards the object, I could make out its shape. It appeared to be a skinny shack. “A structure?..Building? Wait...if there's a building...that means there are ponies out here! everything isn't dead!” I exclaimed out loud, I was genuinely happy, it meant the rumors of the outside world being completely devoid of life were not true. I was so happy I actually started jumping up and down cheering a bit.

I stopped when I noticed something move along the grass. I bent over to check what it was. It was some sort of spider, I was not unfamiliar with spiders, we shared the stable with them, but this one was not a kind of spider found in the stable. Luckily for me, one of the books I had brought with me was a large hardcover book called “The Wildlife of Equestria” It was an old pre war book that documented all the known species of animal that lived in Equestria, it even included pictures which was my favorite part when I was a filly. I flipped through the pages until I found a picture of the spider in front of me. It was a wolf spider. I was happy, I was actually having fun. I felt like some pre war scientist working in the field studying nature. I read before about ponies whose jobs used to be going out in the wild and studying it, I always thought it would be cool to do it, and then there I was actually doing it. I was living the dream.

“Ha!” I said aloud “The outside world isn't so scary” I had a big smile on my face. The only thing I didn't like about the outside so far was how cold it was, if it was warmer it would of been perfect. “If only Soft Heart could see me now” I chuckled to myself “She would be so jealous of me” I imagined her running around in the open field. Why were ponies so afraid of the outside? The outside was cool! really cold, but it could be worse. I thought to myself as I trotted along towards the small shack, it wasn't too far away now, maybe about another 20 minutes. I had the Equestrian wildlife book floating beside me, stopping every now whenever I saw new little critter. Most of the creatures I ran into were small insects, all the while hoping to run into a larger animal.

Due to all my stops, it took an extra 30 minutes to get to the shack. I noticed it was getting darker and colder. I started to shiver, fun time was over for today, I needed to find some place warm. Looking around I noticed a larger building nearby, it looked like a cottage of sorts, it was very old, containing several holes in the walls and roof, the door had been removed, the windows were also broken. Overall it looked rather scary. I shivered again from a gust of wind, I put my book back into my saddle bag and approached the cottage. I stepped on the first step.

*CREAK*

I quickly took my hoof off the step, This thing is falling apart! I thought to myself. Another cold gust of wind caused me to shiver hard reminding me that I was low on options. I slowly walked up the stairs onto the porch “Don’t break, don’t break, don’t break” I was shaking, out of cold and fear. I slowly started walking inside the cottage, each step making more loud creaking as I went along. The inside actually looked worse than the outside. The floor was rotted and full of holes, the furniture was ratty and probably full of all sorts of mold from years of exposure. I looked around trying to find some part of the house that looked even remotely safe, but all I saw was rot. I noticed a staircase but I dared not to test it. Slowly walking through the old rooms I saw something that peaked my interest, a computer terminal. My face lit up. Finally! I thought. Something I can use! I made my way over to it, making sure to step lightly as not to break the floor. I still didn't feel completely safe in the cottage, but it at least protected me from the wind. I still felt cold, and I could tell it was getting colder. I finally got to the terminal and activated it, to my amazement, it still worked. I was very happy, I didn't know what I would find, but I was curious. I checked the recent files, the last file was dated at 200 years ago. It looked like an email, though I did not know if it ever sent. I decided to read it:

[Leaving the ranch]
Well, we've decided, we are going to leave the ranch and head to the stable. This war is getting way out of hand and I don’t know what else we can do. I've been trying to hold it off for as long as I can but, I just have a feeling things are going get a whole lot worse. I’m going to miss it here, this ranch has been in my family for generations. Hopefully, maybe one day, when this war ends and the stables are reopened, if not me, then somepony in my bloodline down the line will come here and fix this place up to how it used to be, back in the good ol’ days. Where our only problems were if a friend could come over or not, or if your favorite store was closed. Well I’m rambling, tell Sweet Tart I said hi, and you two be safe you hear?
-Cabbage Patch

I felt sad, this was someponies home once. I turned around and looked around once more thinking of this place as an old neglected home. I felt bad for Cabbage Patch, I wondered if Stable 57 was his final resting place. I admittedly didn't know much history, I knew that a war had happened, but not much beyond that. My train of thought was rudely interrupted by a cold wind wisping through one of the holes in the wall, reminding me that it was very cold in here, it was also very dark. I turned my pipbucks light on and began searching the cottage for anything I could use as a blanket. I found the remains of an old bedroom. The bed frame was still there, I didn't know how intact it was, there was a ratty mattress and a torn up blanket, both had undergone heavy exposure. I didn't have many options and I was cold and tired. I levitated the blanket of the mattress and got on the bed, the bed frame creaked loudly and the mattress had no firmness, it might as well have been a large thick blanket. Once i was on the bed I tried to stretch out and get comfortable when suddenly the bed frame broke under me and I crashed to the floor, which in turn broke and crashed into the foundation, fortunately for me it wasn't that deep of a hole, during the fall I screamed and let go of the blanket and it softly fell on me. So far this was going well. I curled up into a ball under the blanket and in the middle of the mattress, shivering, even with the added layers it was still cold. I closed my eyes shivering and shaking trying to get some sleep.

The next morning I awoke still curled up under the blanket and in the mattress. While I did eventually fall asleep, it wasn't a restful one. I was still slightly tired, however I was not as cold, it was of course still cold, but it had warmed up. I got up and climbed out of the hole I fell in. I needed a game plan, wandering aimlessly was not going to find my father. I needed an objective, somewhere to go. I got an idea and headed back to the computer terminal. I checked where the message Cabbage Patch wrote was sent to. I discovered that the message was sent to a city called Stalliongrad. “That's as good as place as any” I said to myself. I now had a destination. Now I just had to hope that insects and bugs weren't the only things alive out here.

On my way out I passed a mirror, I looked at my self and chuckled “wow I’m a mess” my mane had started to become matted and so was my fur, I then looked at the big number 57 on my jumpsuit that Soft Heart had been so proud of. Stable 57 had an interesting arrangement in where it was connected to a sister stable, Stable 56, 2 full sized stables connected to one another via a few hallways, this caused there to be friendly competition between the 2 stables over everything. Soft Heart hated every single member of the Stable 57 hoofball team, and probably got into a fight with each of them at least once during school, but during game day in a stable vs stable match, she was rooting for the 57 team the whole way. I was never really into the sports competitions, but I always accompanied her to them. Soft Heart was very prideful of her stable, and that probably part of the reason she didn't want me to remove my Stable 57 jumpsuit.

I caught myself smiling in the mirror, its funny how you look back on things after you've left them. I then chuckled. It hasn't even been a full day and I’m already thinking nostalgically about my Stable. I shook my head at the thought and continued on to back outside the house. Before I left for Stalliongrad I wanted to search the rest of the ranch first, according to my pipbuck, there were still a few more buildings I had yet to search, maybe I could find supplies or maybe some warm clothing, which I needed the most.

My pipbucks map listed 5 main buildings, the cottage, a tool shed, a cow pin, a windmill, and a chicken coop. I was just in the cottage, but I didn't check upstairs, mainly because I was afraid of breaking the floor and causing the whole house to collapse. I decided to start with the windmill which was the building west of the cottage. As I approached the building I tried to think of what this place might have looked like 200 years ago, children running around the open field, adult ponies doing yard work. It made me rather sad to think they had to leave here, I imagined that it must of looked really nice back then.

I came up to the windmill. It was also in a state of heavy disrepair molded and cracked stone foundation, along with most of the wood parts rotted, the blades of the windmill were all gone save one, I saw their wreckage piled up in front of the door. The door however was not completely blocked off, although I would need to drag one of the blades out of the way to fit through the door. I enveloped one of the blades and pulled with all my might. The blade barely moved, and I was tired. My telekinesis wasn't that strong, then again it wasn't something I practiced a whole lot. I was then aware that I hadn't eaten in a long time. I took out one of the apples I had with me while I thought of a way to get rid of those blades. As I chewed through the apple I began to look at the stuff around me, wooden debris from any manner of things, old and decrepit tools strewn about, the wooden handles mostly rotted, however the metal was still intact. Rocks of various sizes, and the remains of a fence around the perimeter of the ranch. I started thinking, I’ll need to make those blades smaller if i’m going to remove them, I’m not strong enough to move them on my own. I got an idea, I finished the rest of my apple and got off the log I was sitting on.

I picked up an old shovel with my magic and broke the handle off, i next grabbed a sharp pointy looking rock, then focusing on the side of the shovel i performed a spell I normally used to weld circuits, a thin laser of heat shot from my horn and started heating up the edge of the shovel. The strain of using 3 spells at once was starting to tire me so I had to work fast, not knowing if what I was about to do would even work. When the edge of the shovel head started to glow red I struck it with the sharp part of the rock, and to my amazement and joy there was now an indention in the metal, I struck it a few more times to further improve the notch, I then set all of my tools down and rested a few minutes.

I was not used to using this much magic at one time, something I felt like I would have to get better at. After a few minute rest I made another notch. I repeated the process until the entire length of the shovel head was serrated, I now had a saw. I was proud of myself, an hour and half of hard work and I had a crudely made saw, and, according to my pipbuck, it early afternoon and it had started to warm up, I guessed that I must of came out of the stable around late evening, figuring the cold hours were between 6pm and 10am. With my newly formed saw I got to work. I was lucky enough that the wood was rotted enough that my saw could get through it without too much trouble, though it still took me a while to cut the entire blade into segments small enough that I was able to move, with some effort. My hard work had paid off and I was now able to enter the windmill.

Inside the windmill there was rubble strewn about, however the rubble didn't seem like it was in a random pattern from wood just falling off the structure, it seemed organized. On closer inspection, I noticed that several metal and stone objects were arranged in a small circle with burnt wooden sticks were placed in the middle. Somepony must of lived here. I thought to myself. It seemed odd that a pony would choose here to live, but then I began thinking. Whoever was here must of lived here before the blades on the windmill fell down. I bet that circle of stone and metal was used to store a fire. I looked around to see if I could find anything useful.

Near the fire pit I saw a large box, it had a busted padlock on it, but the lock was still engaged, I walked over and inspected it. The dial was jammed so there was no way to open it normally. I found a decent sized rock next to it, I guessed that it was the rock used to break the lock. I decided against bashing the lock with the rock, seeing how well that worked. However I really wanted to know what was inside that chest. I had an idea and readied myself to do a spell. My plan was to use the same heat spell I used to craft my makeshift saw, I had noted how much energy it took to heat the metal up as much as I needed to, I then picked up the rock. Since I was only using telekinesis to pick up and hold one object, I could focus more on my beam of heat. I directed my horn at the lock and started heating up the metal loop that held the chest closed. Once the metal was glowing red I started striking it with the rock. It took about 30 minutes but I had broken through one end, I was then able to swivel the lock around and take it off. Inside the chest were some items that I felt like I would need. First the most important thing I felt at the time, a heavy coat, while I was not a fan of the red plaid design, but it would do for now. The other items were a few cans of food that looked very old, and a sack of bottle caps. I took all the items since I figured they might come in handy and I left the windmill.

I next headed for the cow pin next. The fence of the pin was rotted to the point it was barely there. There was a structure at the back of the pin that was barn shaped so I decided to check it out. When I got inside the first thing I noticed was the huge hole in the ceiling as if something crashed through it. Whatever it was was gone by the time I got there, leaving only a pile of wreckage underneath the hole. By the looks of it, it had happened a long time ago. Most of the stalls were empty, save two that had rubble in them. I walked over to where the hole was and looked up at the cloud covered sky. I wonder if there's anything past that… I saw the sun, if only for a moment when I exited the stable, so theres got to be something beyond those clouds. I thought to myself as I stared up at the sky. After about a minute, I decided to check the back of the building to see if there were any more useful supplies.

There wasn't much as far as supplies went, just really old tools, a shovel, rake, and a garden hoe. Each one was hanging on some kind of rack, however the last slot was empty. I looked around to see if I could find a tool big enough to fill that slot. I then remembered that I had just broke a tool about that size to create my saw, so I thought nothing of it. I found another chest, but this one had an internal lock. I thought about using my laser to cut around the lock and remove the lock entirely, but I didn't want to set the wood on fire and ruin whatever was inside. I also considered smashing it since again, it was wood, but I was afraid I might break whatever was inside. I sat in front of the chest contemplating on what to do about it. If I really wanted what was in there I could try finding a key, but there's a very small likelihood that it even exists at this point. I thought to myself, I even thought about attempting to pick the lock, but I had nothing to pick the lock with, and on top of that I didn't even know how to pick locks, lock picking was more of Soft Hearts thing, apparently according to her it’s a useful skill in her line of work, I wouldn't know, computers were more my thing.

I decided to leave the chest for now, only coming back to it if by chance I found the key to it. I walked out of the barn and headed over to the chicken coop. Along the way I found a few more bugs that I hadn't seen before, so I added about 20 minutes to my short trip looking up the new insects. I was starting to notice that the most common insect I was running into the book called a House Fly, I found it a little interesting how often I was running into one. At the chicken coop, I found a small little pin and the coop itself, which wasn't as big as I thought it would be, it looked barely big enough for a single pony to fit in and turn around, which made sense, seeing how it was made for chickens and not ponies.

I walked around the small chicken pin, looking for something interesting, but not really finding anything of note. I decided that before I checked out the tool shed, I wanted to brave the cottage once again and try looking around the upstairs rooms. I walked back over to the cottage, again getting nervous about it. I once again stepped on the front step and once again it creaked loudly, making me more nervous. I entered the cottage slowly making my way to the staircase. I put my hoof on it and it creaked. I took a gulp and slowly made my way up stairs, pausing every time the stairs made a noise. When I got to the top of the stairs I took a sigh of relief, but I then realized that I would still have to be careful so the floor didn't fall out from under me. I slowly investigated the rooms which appeared to be full sized bedrooms, a heavy layer of dust coated just about everything. I again started to imagine the place how it must of looked 200 years ago before everything went bad. I slipped out another apple and started to eat it as I continued my search of the second floor. Most of the items I found were personal items, things that might have held value back in the past, but were now useless. Looking in the closets I found a few more coats, but the one I was currently wearing was thicker so I decided to keep it and leave the other ones.

I did however find some trousers to cover up the rear side of my body, as the coat only covered my front, the collar of my stable jumpsuit peered over the coat still allowing the number 57 to be seen, so I had another reason why I didn't need to change coats. I was now fully covered from the elements, except my head and hooves but I felt all bundled up, movement was a bit harder and more restrictive, I assumed it was just a price to pay for warmth. I decided to remove my coat and the trousers and store them in my saddle bags until I actually needed them. i stretched a bit then slowly made my way back down stairs.

Once outside again, I took note of the time and made my way to the tool shed. I noticed an odd odor and an increase in house flies when I got near the building, but I didn't pay it much attention. I walked inside and was greeted with an interesting find. Right there, hanging on the wall was an old rusty saw. I chuckled out loud a bit upon realizing that if I had just gone there first, I wouldn't have had to spend so much time crafting my own saw out of a shovel. I considered replacing my saw with this actual one, but upon closer inspection, the saw on the wall was in bad shape and rusted bad, my current shovel saw would be a better keep in the long run.

I continued looking around, looking at all the various tools and what not. Some of them looked like they could be useful so I decided to take some. I took a screwdriver and a hammer and stashed them in my saddle bags. This was turning out to be a little fun, not nearly as fun as documenting little critters and reading about them of course. I then came across a medium sized box laying on one of the tables, it was locked of course. I looked around looking for something useful to get it open, not wanting to completely destroy what was inside. I found a crowbar hanging on the wall. I knew how to use one, as I've seen maintenance ponies use them to pry open titles to do electrical work. I jammed one end of the crowbar in the lid of the box and broke the box open. I then also stored the crowbar. Now I was starting to actually feel like a maintenance pony. I giggled at the thought and opened the box up.

Inside was what I could identify as a gun, although it was not one I was used to seeing. It had a revolving chamber instead of a magazine. I carefully lifted it with my telekinesis and inspected it. It seemed to be in decent shape all things considered. I took some time to go over it to see how it worked and in no time I was able to pop open the cylinder. I got a little fearful, it was fully loaded, six bullets each labeled “.38 special”. I closed it back up. I figured it would be a good thing to keep with me, I didn't plan on shooting anything, but if there are ponies out here, I could use this as a deterrent. Thinking that since most ponies in the stable had a healthy fear of anything that shoots bullets, aside from Soft Heart and the other security ponies, that anypony out here would also fear them.

I put the gun in my saddle bag and sat down on a bench, I smirked. Hey, it’s not so bad out here. A little lonely sure, and cold most of the time. But nothing too serious. I decided to mess around on my pipbuck. I never really bothered with it before seeing how I didn't needed any of the advanced stuff, but I figured now was a good time to learn. Wait...every pipbuck has S.A.T.S. ? I thought the hoof ball players were the only ones who had it. I thought to myself as I looked through the various options. One of them caught my eye. “E.F.S…” I read out loud. I turned it on and suddenly a little compass showed up on the pipbucks screen, and about 50 ft away from me was a red dot.

Chapter 3 - Grim Reality

Everything Changes

Horrifying. The sight that was in front of me was truly horrifying. In front of me was what used to be a pony. Its head was split open down the middle down to the top of the lower jaw. The pony was sitting slouched against the wall, with blood and brains, with bits of bones were splattered everywhere, to the point i couldn't tell what color fur the pony originally had. The two halves of the head hung on each side, leaving the head in sort of a “V” shaped. Flies were swarming around the body and walking all over the corpse, which helped explained why there were so many flies, and it also explained the smell around the tool shed.

I found this corpse right outside the toolshed. I walked outside of the tool shed to follow the red dot that was showing on my pipbucks E.F.S. However when turned the corner around the building I found it. I stopped in my tracks when I saw it, my jaw dropped in horror at the sight of it. I couldn’t look away, I started at it for what felt like an eternity before the combination of the gruesome sight and horrid smell got to me and my stomach lurched, I then began to vomit up my lunch, and even after I kept looking at the ground, coughing and hacking when in the corner of my eye I noticed the red dot on E.F.S. start to move.

I turned around as I raised my head so I wouldn’t see the corpse again, however what I saw next was more horrifying. Out from behind a rotted shed about 20ft away from me came a unicorn, his fur was matted and disgusting, covered in dirt, grime, and dried blood. He walked slowly towards me, a wild look in his eye and a crooked evil grin. An orange glow surrounded his horn and next to him and floating beside him was a bloodied ax covered in his magic aura. His mane and tail were also a complete mess. I instinctively took a step back out of fear.

“Hi there darlin’” he spoke with a deep voice and a tone that made it sound that he was getting off to the idea of killing me violently.

I grabbed the gun I had with my magic and quickly pulled it out of my saddle bags and pointed it at him, I was trembling with fear. The gun shaking so much I could hear its parts rattle.

“D-d-don’t m-move! I-I-I have a gun!” I said to him, keeping my gun pointed at him, I was obviously terrified. He laughed a dry wheezing sounding laugh.

“Oh, the widdle stabul pony iz gunna huhrrt me” He mocked and continued laughing. “It’s too bad you saw me...I’ve been watching you since you trotted outta that cottage.” I took another step back, he continued. “It gave me time ta think ‘bout how im gonna chop you up, but it looks like I won’t be able to express my creativity” He laughed again and started quickly trotting towards me while he continued laughing. I closed my eyes and turned my head focusing on the trigger of the gun.

*BANG*

I heard a thud and shortly after an unsettling gurgling. I opened my eyes and slowly looked back where the gun was pointing, smoke pouring out of the barrel. In front of me lay the unicorn slumped on the ground, his jaw was moving around trying to say something, a hole in his neck, blood pouring out of the wound and pooling around it on the ground. His eyes slowly rolling in the back of his head and life slowly drained from him. The gurgling continued as he tried to speak, the ax he was holding at dropped and the blade stuck in the ground. I couldn’t look away from the ghastly sight, watching the life drain from him. It took three minutes for him to bleed out and die. My eyes were glued on him the entire time. I took a step back, after a few minutes after he died, I was starting to get control of myself. Words began forming in me and escaped my mouth “I...k-killed somepony…”

I looked down a little, looking at the large pool of blood around the bullet hole in his neck. Every part of me was shaking, my mind began racing. I killed somepony! Im a murderer! That word, murderer, had entered my head and wouldn’t leave. I was now a murderer in my own eyes. I looked at the two corpses near me and had to get away. I ran back inside the tool shed and sat on a bench inside, I dropped my gun and cried.

I don’t know how long I cried, but it must of been for at least an hour. I could not believe that I had done such a horrible thing. Everytime I closed my eyes, all I could see was the images of the ponies dead body burned into my mind. I couldn’t take it, I wanted to go back home. I wanted to go back to my room and curl up up in my bed. I wanted Soft Heart to talk to me. I wanted my mom to hug me. But no one was there but me, alone, my only company were two corpses outside, one of them I had made.

With tears streaming down my face and at my weakest point, an impulse kicked in. I picked up my gun with my magic and pushed the barrel against my head. I couldn’t take it, I was cold and miserable, alone, and I had branded myself a murderer. I felt like I couldn’t go on after what had happened, I could never get over it, I couldn’t go home after what I had done. Everypony in the stable would look down upon me if I returned, forever branded a criminal. My mind was racing. What was I even thinking? Why did I even think to go out here? Im such a terrible pony! I shot him without even trying a peaceful solution! I was traumatized, I’d never shot anything with the intent to destroy it, even in the range with Soft Heart, I intentionally missed targets just so I would have to see my bullets destroy a paper target, but now I had killed a pony and watched him die. I pushed the gun harder against my head but after a few minutes of crying, I dropped the gun and cried harder. I owed Soft Heart 10 bits.

<***>

I don’t know how long I cried, but several hours had past before I was ready to leave the tool shed. I slowly got off the bench then using my magic, grabbed the gun off the ground and looked at it, such a small tool, yet it killed so easily, I wasn’t even looking at the pony when I shot him. The feeling was both empowering and frightening. As much as I was afraid of it, I could not ignore its potential uses, I hoped that in the future I could simply use it as a tool of intimidation and never again have to resort to such violence. I placed it back in my saddle bag and exited the shed. It was about mid afternoon, the pony I had killed was still there, his corpse had started bloating, the pool of blood around him had dried and made a dark red puddle around him, and flies had started to gather. The smell was horrible. It made me sick to look at it, it sickened me that I had caused that. I gagged and closed my eyes and walked away from the grizzly scene.

I simply wandered away aimlessly from the cottage. I was emotionally drained and had no direction I was just walking, I wanted to get away from the scene of death. After several minutes of mindless wandering, I looked at my pipbuck and accessed it’s map. I was reminded of my original goal, find the city of Stalliongrad and after a bit of searching on my pipbucks map I found it, far to the east of where I was, but that didn’t matter, all that mattered was that I now had a direction and a purpose again. I took a deep breath, pushing the recent events in the back of my mind, I couldn’t let a single terrible thing stop me. I turned in the direction I needed to go and started walking.

<***>

After about an hour of walking I hear loud almost explosion type noises. I assumed they were gunshots, but they were not like any gunshot I had heard before. I slowly crept up the hill in front of me where the sounds were coming from, drawing out my revolver and keeping it beside me. As I got to the top of the hill, I saw a red unicorn with a yellow mane and tail. He was wearing large sunglasses and a huge grin on his face, around him were 3 corpses, these ponies were dirty and mangy and looked much like the one I killed earlier. I was of course mortified by the scene in front of me. I looked on terrified as blood, bone and brains covered the hilltop. This gun caused much more serious injuries than the one I had, although it didn’t look like it was made by ponies or for ponies. It was longer in size and under the barrel was a wooden block that moved back and forth making a “CHUCK-CHECK” noise. He was twirling the gun around in the air as if he took pleasure in the slaughter of others. It was then I noticed that his cutie mark was also a gun. I quickly hid behind the slope of the hill again, hoping that this psychopath didn’t notice me. “Hey there! It’s safe to come out!” Realizing he noticed me I jumped up and pulled out my gun and faced him, my gun was wobbling in fear “D-don’t shoot! I-I-I have a gun!” I kept my focus on him, trying not to look down at the ground at the carnage around me. To my surprise and relief he backed up. “Woah now, lets not get carried away. I don’t mean you any harm little lady.” My guard lowered. “You-you’re not going to shoot me?” He chuckled. “Now why would I shoot you and ruin your flowing teal mane, lovely silver blue coat, and those stunning yellow eyes, not to mention that cute little rear you sport.” I was suddenly self conscious about my everything.

I cast aside his comments. “B-but you slaughtered those other ponies!” He looked around.
“Well..they were raiders...drugged up psychopaths who murder and steal, and rape and all that stuff…” He said, although slightly confused. I couldn’t understand why he was confused, he was clearly a murderer as well. “What makes you different?” I challenged him “You murdered those ponies without a thought, you’re the psychopath here!” He chuckled. “Hey now, I’m not the crazy one, I’m doing all the ponies living in this area a favor by putting these rats down, besides they attacked me first!”

I ran in my head all the things I could possibly say to respond to this guy, who I thought was insane, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was “What?”

Again he laughed. “How long have you been out of the stable?” He asked as levitated his gun into what I guessed was a holster, but not like the ones the security ponies used. He clearly didn’t fear me even though I still had my revolver out. “A-about a day or so.” He shook his head “Tsk, tsk, tsk, You’ve got a lot to learn my friend!” he then grabbed my gun with his magic and ripped it out of my control then pointed right at my head

“Bang!”

I shrieked and then he opened up the gun and emptied out the ammo and removed the cylinder and tossed both parts of the gun. “That’s all it takes. You’re lucky I’m a good guy, if I was any other pony, I would have robbed you for your stuff and left you for dead.” I was still breathing hard and in shock. Was it really this easy? I thought to myself, looking at the two halfs of the guns laying in two piles of blood. I lowered my guard, and my magic was weaker. It was scary.

“How? Like was my stable the only good one?” It was the only thing that made sense to ask. However, he just started laughing “Why are you laughing?”

“Oh girl, I was born out here, a lot of those stables opened up long ago, there’s a lot of ponies out here, My dad was born out here and my Grandpa was born out here!” This blew my mind. “Wait...What?”

He shook his head, grabbing my gun and levitated it up and fixed it, then lifted the bullets up and reloaded it. “I heard you stable-dwellers were naive, but wow!” Once he had put the gun back together, he put it into my saddle bag. “So what’s your name stable girl?”

“Its uh...Silver Light, who are you?” He then reared up and struck a pose as if he was dying of wait, waiting for me to ask. “Buck Blazes! Professional badass of the wasteland!” I refused to believe that was his real name.

“I see…” I was still nervous, and very unsure about this guy, but he wasn’t actively trying to kill me, so I thought I was safe for now, although I still had my weapon floating beside me. “So” he started. “What brings you out of the stable? All of you stable-dwellers have some reason for leaving.”

I sighed, but for the moment I had forgotten that on the ground were 3 dead bodies, one of which was missing half of their head, but I wasn’t looking at the ground. “Well, I um, went in search of my father. He um went missing about 15 years ago, and I found a computer file that said he left the stable, so I went out in search for him” He nodded. “Since you’re pretty, I’ll help you out, I’ll bring you to Mo-Tel, follow me.” He started walking off, and I followed behind, but I made a mistake of looking at the ground, and more horrifying images were burned into my mind.

<***>

“So hold on, you seriously thought that outside of the stable was an empty void?” He chuckled, we had been walking for a few hours now. “Well, that’s all we knew” While we were traveling together and talking, I was still very apprehensive. I still didn’t trust this guy, for all I know he was going to kill me on the spot for no reason.

“So um, what kind of gun is that?” I said, motioning to the gun in his holster. “Oh this?” He pulled it out and floated it around. “This is a griffon shotgun! My grandpa was the original Buck Blazes, technically, I’m Buck Blazes the Third! But anyway, my grandpa went up against a fearsome griffon Talon mercenary! They fought for hours, but in the end, my grandpa won that fight, taking his shotgun as a trophy, thus cementing himself as the original Buck Blazes!” He was very eccentric about himself and his family line, although I was still on the fence about his sanity, It was getting dark and I was getting tired from walking. It was also getting cold. I got out my plaid coat and put it on. But I noticed that Buck didn’t seem affected by the cold, but on closer inspection, I saw his fur was longer than most ponies I’ve seen. “We need to find shelter, it will get cold soon”.

Soon? It was cold now! I thought to myself. I looked around. “Where are we going to stay?” I asked. Buck looked around and spotted a nearby building. “There, that old supply station by the road.” We set off towards the building, but I was curious. “What exactly is a power station?”

“Its a building ponies used to use to charge the batteries of their motorized carriages and automobiles, most have a little store, it's good to hide out in and use for shelter. But we will have to be very weary of bandits and raiders.”

I couldn’t believe this. “Why are ponies killing each other out here?” He chuckled at my question “Honestly, I don’t know! It’s just a fact of life! Ponies kill ponies! Whether it’s for food, caps, drugs, whatever.” He said it so matter of factly I again questioned his mental sanity.

<***>

We arrived at the power station. It wasn’t a big building, actually it was pretty small, the main building itself was actually a general store. Outside the building was an odd looking structure, it was cylinder in shape, rather large and about as tall as the building it was next to. “Hey what is this thing?”

He shrugged “I’m not completely sure, I think it’s what old ponies used to charge spark batteries.” He said nonchalantly, I decided not to ask more questions, although I had many, I didn’t want to annoy him, he might have had a friendly demeanor, but he also murdered three ponies and didn’t even bat an eye. I noticed that it had gotten much darker, and the cold really hit, while he entered the store, I pulled out the trousers and put them on, and entered the store. Inside the store it was dark and I couldn’t see Buck. I turned on my pipbuck’s lamp, EFS showed Buck as a green dot, but I couldn’t see any red dots, so I walked inside.

Most of the shelves were barren, probably picked clean long ago. I was beginning to piece together that ponies have been out here for a while, and anypony out here was some form of bad, be it a thief or a murderer. I was still afraid of Buck, the fact the he slaughtered three ponies like it was nothing and didn’t think anything of it still bothered me a lot, however I followed his lead simply out of fear.

I saw Buck rummaging through the back office behind the counter, bathed in the green glow of my pipbuck. He floated out an old rotted desk from the back and smashed it against the wall breaking it into pieces. “What are you doing?” I asked aloud as he made a seemingly random act of violence. “I’m breaking this desk up to make into firewood, I’d like a campfire to keep us warm while we sleep.” He said while putting on a coat. He put the wood in a pile and took a metal box and put it on the floor, then put the wood in the box. I looked on as he took out a match and tried striking it, several times. “Come on...just....” I took the initiative and walked up to the box and used my heat beam on the wood pile and quickly lit the wood inside the box. He looked at the fire and was surprised and amused. “Hey, thanks.” I figured I should get on his good side so he’s less inclined to shoot me. I simply shrugged to show my acknowledgement.

“Ok, so heres the plan, we are going to take turns sleeping, one of us keeps an eye out, the other one sleeps, I haven’t been able to catch some sleep for a day or so, so I’ll sleep first, just stay up and keep watch, wake me in a few hours, or if you see anything.” And with that he laid down and instantly went to sleep. I sat by the fire for a few minutes and then took a sigh, when a terrible thought just occured to me, I had forgotten any sort of method to carry water with! I began to silently panic, I hadn’t drank anything since I left the stable, and now I was thirsty and had no water to drink.

I silently scoured the store, trying not to wake Buck, however, I was freaking out a bit, and it didn’t help that my movement was slightly hindered by the thick clothing. The shelves were mostly barren, not containing anything useful to my current predicament. I had always had problems with being forgetful, but never had it bit me in the ass like this. Then I saw something useful looking, a vending machine in the back, the back light had faded but from the light of the fire and from my pipbuck I could read “Sparkle Cola” while soda wasn’t hydrating, but I knew I could at least use the bottle to hold water until I found a better container.
I approached the machine and used my magic to try to open the door, but again my magic wasn’t very strong. I tried to focus on the internal lock, but I wasn’t very skilled with lock mechanisms. I got frustrated with my failed attempts, but I was determined. I pulled out my crowbar and shoved the end into the door hinge and with all my might, pushed against it with my body until i heard a loud clunk as the door swung open. I fell over and my crowbar felt and hit the floor with a loud “CLANK” sound. I stood up and put my crowbar away and looked at my work. Inside was exactly what I was looking for.

While it wasn’t fully stocked, it did however contain quite a few bottles of sparkle cola. I took 3. They were still a little cold, although that was mainly due to the environment outside. I noticed I was hungry and realized I hadn’t eaten anything all day so I took an apple out of my bag and ate it, the apple could hydrate me for the time being until I found some water.

I sat back down by the fire and looked at one of the sodas. I thought about drinking it, but I had to wonder, was it safe to drink 200 year old soda? The logical thing to do would be to dump it and just use the bottle, but I didn’t for some reason, a big part of me was curious. What did 200 year old soda taste like? I shook it to see if was even still a liquid, I didn’t know if the soda had turned to sludge after a while, or at least a couple of decades, but no! It was still a liquid. A big part of me wanted to drink it, just to say I did it and brag to Soft Heart. No pony in my stable could ever say that they drank 200 year old soda. It was a stupid motivation, I know, but it wasn’t the worst thing I did that day. I took the cap off and the bottle hissed a little to my surprise, I took a drink. It was flat, still a bit of carrot though, but still a little underwhelming. “Thats it?” I said quietly aloud, I didn’t know what I was expecting, although apparently I wasn’t expecting it to be just flat. I joked with myself. “Eh, seven out of ten; it was ok” I finished the soda and put the empty bottle in my saddle bag. I would have to clean it out before I used it for storing water, which meant finding water first, but this wasn't a desert, so finding water shouldn’t be too hard of a task. I decided to just sit by the fire for the time being and take out one of my comic books.

<***>

My pipbuck told me that a few hours had past since Buck went to sleep. I was still cold, but my clothes and the fire definitely helpped. I looked down at my hooves. I need boots… I thought to myself. my cold gear was still very much incomplete. I felt like some kind of head protection would be necessary, and a scarf, I really wanted a scarf. Most of those kind of clothing weren’t available in the stable, everypony just wore the jumpsuit, different types of clothing only existed in old books. Heck the fact that I was wearing different clothing was a little exciting. I’ll admit I found fashion a little interesting, I always did want to look pretty, but when you’re a computer nerd, most ponies won’t give you the time or day to shine bright so to speak.

I was starting to get tired, but I didn’t want to wake up Buck just yet, part of me still feared him. Actually a large part of me still feared him. I stood up and put my comic away and walked over to the register counter. Looking around I saw that there was a working computer in the back office. Naturally I walked in to go check it out, I sat in front of it and began to work my magic.

The password was “Horse”, strange but whatever.

I was actually a little disappointed, there was nothing of real note here just a bunch of receipts from 200 year old transactions. There was one entry that was a little interesting, It was an email from the manager of this location to I assumed his boss, it read:

[Why am I still here?]
I wish to know why I am still being called to work. Since those stables have been built and the war has escalated so much, we have gotten zero customers in 2 weeks! And everytime I see either an automobile or an automated carriage(which isn’t often), they go right by and in a hurry too! The rest of my friends and family are in a stable waiting for me. If I do not hear back from you within 48 hours I am resigning and heading to a stable.
-White Arrow, Manager of location #343

I shrugged, hoping that White Arrow made it to a stable. I walked back into the main room. I stared at Buck, gathering my courage for a bit, I stepped forward and started nudging him “Hey uh, Buck?”

“Hmm uh...what?” He groaned, getting himself up “Oh right…” he stretched a bit “Get some sleep, I’ll watch till morning.”

I nodded and curled up near the fire. The ground was hard and uncomfortable, and I was still nervous about falling asleep near this guy. Once I took off my saddle bags and used them as a pillow however, I felt myself drift off to sleep.

Chapter 4 - New to Town

Learning the basics

I was walking through the dry grassy plains until I came upon a small ranch, it had a few buildings around it including a little shed, a decently sized house in the center and a large windmill. My eyes light up as I found signs of civilization and ran towards it. I excitedly looked around and although the place looked very old and decrepit, I was still excited. I didn't enter any of the buildings because I wanted to look at the whole ranch first before I investigated the inside. I walked over to the shed and then my wonder turned to horror as I saw the body of a pony slumped against the wall with its head split open! I recoiled and turned around and saw another body. It looked ugly and mangled, staring up and me with lifeless eyes, and a single hole in its neck. I gagged as this was a horrible sight, but that was only the beginning!

The body then rose to its feet and slowly lumbered towards me. I turned around to flee but then the slumped body behind me began to speak. It simply said “Murderer” and began chanting. I started walking backwards away from both of them. This time the other body that was walking towards me began chanting, “Murderer...Murderer...Murderer” Over and over. I was terrified! Dead bodies are not supposed to move or talk! I thought to myself as I looked around and saw three more bodies, looking very similar to the other moving body. They too were shambling towards me but their injuries were worse as they were missing large chunks of their heads. But even they were chanting, “Murderer...Murderer...Murderer…” I checked my saddle bags for a weapon, but they were empty. I then heard a loud cheering behind me, it was the same chant, but this time is was being screamed by thousands of voices “Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!”

I spun around and saw that I was in the Inter-Stable Stadium, where normally the annual hoofball championship was played between Stable 56 and 57, however this time it was just me in the center of the field, and all the seats were packed. I spun around and looked around at the large crowd all chanting “MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER!” I panicked.

“NO! I didn't mean to! It was an accident!” I screamed, but to no avail. But the chant began to change from “Murderer!” to “Murder her!” My eyes widened as hundreds of thousands of ponies began chanting, “MURDER HER! MURDER HER! MURDER HER!” I then heard the loud and distinctive sound of a 10mm pistol being cocked and ready.

*CHICK-CHINK*

The sound was deafening and overpowered the sounds of the crowd. I turned around and found myself staring right down the barrel of Soft Heart’s 10mm pistol. “Wha-what are you doing?” I asked, my voice choked with fear and sadness.

Soft Heart looked away and closed her eyes, her face covered with anguish, a mixture of guilt, sadness, anger, and betrayal. “I don’t wanna do this gal. But I got no choice.” I saw a tear roll down her face. Her voice was the only thing I heard, the roar of the crowd became muted and blurry, reduced to background noise.

“Soft Heart! Please don’t do this! I’m not a murderer! I didn't mean to kill that pony!”

“Please stop...don’t make this harder for me…” she said shutting her eyes harder, tears rolling down her face. She then whispered “I’m sorry.” The last thing I heard was the gunshot.

<***>

I shot up wide awake, the gunshot still ringing in my ear. I looked around and realized I was still in the convenience store. I instantly took a sigh of relief. Just a dream. I thought to myself, although I was still slightly panicked.

I noticed that it was light outside, the daylight flooding into the store. The fire had burnt out, but I noticed that Buck was nowhere to be seen. I stood up and grabbed my saddle bags, placing them back on my back. All the while I looked around for Buck, seeing if he was around but after a few seconds of looking, I could not find him so I walked out of the store. To my surprise, Buck was standing outside eating some fruit I assumed he had in his bags.

“Oh hey you’re up, let’s get heading to Mo-Tel! it shouldn't be too much farther now, maybe an hours walk?” He said, he didn’t seem tired and seemed all too eager to get going. I checked my pipbucks clock, it was 6:23am. Life in the stable taught me that no pony was supposed to have that much energy at six in the morning. It certainly didn't help that I had woken up from a nightmare, all the death I had witnessed had affected me more than I thought.

“Hey, you alright there?” He asked, I guess I wasn't being as subtle as I thought I was. I shrugged, “Y-yeah I’m fine...just tired is all.” I said, it wasn't a total lie as I was kinda tired, however the events of the nightmare still weighed heavily on my mind.

“Alright then, let’s keep moving, just follow the road here.” He said as he started walking. “Oh and just a heads up, I will take the lead, bandits like to patrol the roads. Which, sadly enough is the safer option, all sorts of wild animals run around the wilderness, and at least bandits will make a lot of noise when they attack, instead of sneaking up on you.” I nodded and followed his lead.

<***>

We had been walking for some time, Mo-Tel was visible in the distance, although still kinda far away. I had spent the entire time thinking about my nightmare. I wanted to get it out of my head, but the image of Soft Hearts face was burned into my mind. Iit was the only thing I remembered about it in such high detail.

I tried to hide the fact that all the death I had seen was bothering me, but it must not of worked since Buck looked over and spoke to me. “Hey, word of advice. Your gun, it isn't a deterrent on it’s own. Yesterday, I was able to disarm you so easily because I could tell that you weren't going to shoot me, you don’t have it in you. You got to look like you mean it when you point a gun at somepony, otherwise it won’t have any affect.” I sighed. He was right, in fact, since I already shot some pony I was even more hesitant to shoot again. The thought of taking away another life scared me.

“That's something you're gonna have to get used to doing if you're gonna be out here.” He continued.

I sighed again, thinking his words over as we kept walking.

<***>

We arrived at Mo-Tel. It wasn't much of a town like I thought it would be, really it was an “L” shaped building with a chain link fence around it, it was two stories high and had several doors lining the walls on both floors, next to the building was a smaller 2 room office sized building. Above the main building was a large sign that read “MOTEL” however it seemed that the sign was broken as between the O and the T, there was long electrical spark that resembled a dash mark, the spark flickered occasionally. In the courtyard, there were a few structures made out of scrap and junk. A few ponies were wandering around, some were sitting down on makeshift chairs and others were talking to each other.

Buck walked up to the fence gate. “Hey, Iron Sight! It’s Buck! Open up!” From the office came a yellow unicorn mare with a blue mane and tail, the mane was cut short, but her tail was long. Her eyes were also blue, but what caught my was her cutiemark. It was a gun with all its parts exposed and blown out like a diagram. The top part of her face from the muzzle up was blackened from what I could tell grease, she also had grease stains all over her, along with black marks that looked like powder. She walked over to the gate and looked at Buck and then me. I nervously smiled and waved

The mare sneered “Who’s your friend there Buck?”

“Well, this little lady is a stable mare I found wandering around couple miles away, figured I’d at least take her to town”

The mare chuckled “So, you finally found somepony to satisfy your stable mare fetish? I hope you got to fill your hero complex and saved this damsel from distress!”

Buck rolled his eyes “Yeah yeah, just open the gate.” The pony chuckled to herself and opened up the gate, Buck walked in and towards a group of earth ponies in the center of the court yard and started talking to them, leaving me with the pony with a gun diagram on her flank. “So, um...who are you?” I nervously asked, still not too sure about my situation, but at least these ponies didn’t seem too crazy or psychopathic.

“I’m Iron Sight, the best damn gunsmith in the wasteland.” She said confidently, however it seemed I spoke too soon. I was now talking to a pony who crafted the weapons that other ponies use to slaughter each other. “Ponies far and wide seek me out for my services, but I don’t come cheap!” She continued. “And I’m part time sheriff and mayor of Mo-Tel, home of many skilled workers and traders.” She seemed very proud of herself. “So what’s your name stable mare?”

“I’m uh...Silver Light” I responded.

“Silver Light huh…” She repeated, looking at my jumpsuit “From stable 57? Interesting...So what are you good at? I heard all stable ponies are basically useless with the exception of their special talent.”

“I’m a computer pony...I fix and build computers.” I answered, I saw her eyes light up.

“A technician eh? A fresh out of the stable mare who is also a computer tech?” She whistled. “You’d fetch a high price if a slaver got a hold of you, ponies out here love stable mares, especially ones right out of the stable, they’re fresh and clean and usually helpless. Technicians are also valuable, lot of old tech out here, having a slave who was an expert at old tech is quite handy.” She chuckled. “You better consider yourself lucky that Buck has a weird hero complex and decided to take you here instead of doing something smart and selling you for a high price!”

“Wait, not only do ponies slaughter each other out here, but they also own slaves?!?” I was shocked and horrified. Iron Sight however laughed “Welcome to the real world girl! Besides, you are quite the commodity, if he wasn't the way he is, I’d offer to buy you from him, I use a computer a lot and you look like you’d be good at keeping my bed warm.” She smirked. I gulped. She then laughed and walked away.

Shortly after, Buck walked back to me. “Don’t mind Iron Sight, she's a good pony, she just likes messing with ponies.” I took a sigh of relief. “So ponies don’t actually take slaves and I’m not prime slave material?”

Buck shook his head “Oh no, that’s all true, you would fetch a very high price on the slave market.”

I was scared, I couldn't believe that this was true. “So let me ask you something.” He continued “Were you heading anywhere when I found you?”

“I was trying to find Stalliongrad.” He nodded “Well before you go there, it’s quite a ways away, so I’d stock up on supplies if I were you. Talk to the ponies around town, see if you can save up some caps to buy some ammo from Iron Sight for that gun of yours.”

“Caps?” I asked, a little confused. He sighed. “Out here, we use bottle caps as currency. Just how things are out here. But listen, I gotta take care of things, some raiders are causing trouble down south,” His magic readjusted his sunglasses “I gotta take out the trash.” With that he started walking away and outside the fence, and kept going, his weapon floating beside him.

<***>

It was some time later that I found my myself sitting at one of the tables outside, counting the caps I had. I was told by Iron Sight that I could stay with her while I was here and for the ammo I needed would be two hundred caps for a decent amount and have extra left over for supplies. I sighed, I had thirty one caps in my bags. I took a bite out of one of my apples while I examined one of the caps. It was just an old bottle cap, it amazed me that these were considered currency. I finished up my apple and put the cap away. Before I did anything, I needed to get something important out of the way, water. I still hadn't had a single drop of straight up water since I left, relying on the apples to keep me hydrated, but they wouldn't last. I approached a red earth pony with a green mane and tail, his cutie mark was fire.

“Excuse me, hello?” He looked over at me. “Yeah, what do you want?”

“Where would I get water?” I asked a little nervously, he looked at me then looked up, appearing to be in thought. “Well, Stalliongrad is right next to a river, that’s a good source, it’s where we get our water.” He said pointing to a big tank inside the fenced compound. “We take it to the river every now and then for easy convenient water.” He looked at my stable jumpsuit “Tell you what, I’ll give you some extra tips, water from the river is the safest place to drink from. Still water you can drink, but you should boil the water first, you never know what could be living in there. Oh, and snow is good, just melt it.”

“Thanks, um, what is your name?” I asked.

“They call me Matches, I am a blacksmith, I work with metal products and sell metal products. Like armor, or knives, or anything metal really.”

“Cool...um thanks!” I walked away, I wasn't expecting to get some good information. I walked over to the tank, it was barrel shaped, with a metal slide on the bottom. I pulled the slide back and water poured out. I quickly pulled out the empty soda bottle and filled it up before closing the slide again. I took a drink of the water, but almost spit it back out. It tasted awful, nothing compared to the water from the stable. Again I regretted taking a container of water with me.

“Hey! Silver bitch! Come here!” Iron Sight called out to me. “It’s Silver Light.” I said walking over to her.

“Yeah, yeah, anyway, wanna make some caps?”

I nodded.

“You can help me out here.” She floated up a few long weapons and put them on the table she was sitting at. “These are assault rifles, now I have some bigger projects I need to take care of. What I need you to do, are simple repairs, anypony can do it. These rifles have damaged barrels and they need to be replaced.” She floated up a couple of gun barrels and put them next to the assault rifles. “I had ol’ Matches fashion me some new ones, so what I need you to do is to take out the old barrel and put it in a pile, then put the new barrel in. Take the old barrels to Matches and if he can, he will repair them and the ones he can’t he will then recycle.” She put a few more rifles on the table, totaling to five. “Here I’ll show you how it’s done” she said picking up one of the rifles. “These are standard Equestrian military assault rifles, disassembly is easy enough, but for we need, all you need to do is focus on the barrel and twist it to the left until it comes out...Then take this new barrel,” She said preforming the action. “And screw it in...and bam!” She laid the rifle down away from the others “There you go, do the rest and I’ll pay you fifty caps. Tell me when you are done and I might have some more work for you.” She walked away to her office. I looked at the rifles. This is my life now? Fixing tools of death for currency? I thought to myself as I got to work, taking out old barrels and putting in the new ones. Once I picked up the last rifle, I saw an earth pony took a stick and stuck it in Matches’ furnace and went around lighting fires in several barrels that were inside the courtyard. I put on my coat as it was getting cold and finished up my job.

I took the old barrels and gave them to Matches before heading to Iron Sights office. Iron Sight was sitting at a computer, looking frustrated. “Uh hey...I finished fixing the rifles.” She looked over at me. “Oh? Tell you what. Fifty more caps if you fix my damn computer. Things been on the fritz and I use it to record my transactions. I like keeping a record of things. You’re a techie mind taking a look at it?”

I nodded. “Sure.” I sat down at her computer and looked it over. The screen was frozen. I opened it up to look at the insides and was shocked at what I found. The insides were caked with dust and dirt. Just as I figured, 200 years with little use hasn't been good for the machine. I took my pipbuck and hooked it up to the CPU to browse through it. I ran a defrag program and turned on the monitor after it finished doing its thing. “There, that seemed to clear it up. At some point you should clean it out if you are going to use it regularly, all that dust and dirt could potentially cause a fire if you use this thing too much. “

Iron Sight nodded “Thanks, here” she floated me over a little sack full of caps “One hundred caps for your services.” She sat at her computer and typed a few things into it. “I’m going to turn in, when you are tired come into my room, I put a blanket on the floor.” She turned around and walked into another room and shut the door.

I checked my pipbuck, it was about nine o’clock. After I put on my trousers I walked out looked around, looking to see if anypony else was awake and needing work. Several barrels had flames in them lighting up most of Mo-Tel.

“Hey stable mare!” A voice called out to me, I looked up and saw a dark blue earth pony, he was wearing a medium jacket and a red beret. “Heard you need some caps!”

I nodded “Yeah, got some work?” The pony chuckled. “It turns out I do, got twenty caps for you if you help me out.” I headed up the stairs of the main building to the second floor. “What do you need me to do?” He started walking off. “Follow me to the roof.”

On the roof he showed me a long weapon attached to a swivel “That’s my sniper rifle! Here’s what I want you to do, man my post while I take a nap, I didn't get much sleep last night so just look out for any suspicious ponies and shoot any that look like they want to threaten our settlement.” I gasped.

“Now hold on a minute! I-I can’t shoot anypony! I’m not a murderer!” I retaliated.

He sighed “I didn't realize you were that fresh out of the stable. Look shooting ponies is something you’re gonna have to get used to eventually out here, so might as well start now right?” He pat me on the back. “You’ll be fine! Tell you what, because I’m such nice guy, I’ll make it thirty caps! I’ll be back in a few hours!” And walked away. I sighed and looked through the scope.

<***>

Four hours. Four hours spent staring at nothing. Four hours on the roof in the cold. Four hours wasted, and for what? Thirty caps? I understood why he wanted to pass this job off to somepony else. I was cold, my hooves and head were the coldest. I needed to find boots and something for my head. I shivered. I heard hoofsteps behind me. Turning around I saw the dark blue pony.

“Hey there! Thanks for taking my shift! Here is your caps.” He gave me thirty caps and sat behind the rifle. I headed downstairs and into the office building. I slowly opened the door to Iron Sight’s room. Inside it looked much like a workshop. By the wall was a large work bench, on the bench was what I could identify as a sniper rifle, however it was much, much bigger. There were 3 bullets standing next to the gun that also were very big. Much bigger than the bullets that my revolver used. On the wall in front of the workbench was a corkboard, on the board were several nails and hanging on those nails were several different types of tools and cleaning tools. Other tools were resting on the bench itself around the rifle. Around the walls were boxes and crates full of guns, in one corner there was a barrel full of various types of rifles. All around the floor were gun parts just strewn about. The room was lit by a single lamp above the bench, however it was pretty bright emitting a powerful white light across the room. Overall it was a mess. On the opposite wall of the workbench was Iron Sight’s bed, which wasn’t really a bed per-say, it was more of a single pony cot. I looked down next to her cot was indeed a blanket on the floor, although it was covered in grease and gun powder. I decided to take my coat and trousers off as it was surprisingly warm in her room. I walked slowly and carefully to avoid knocking into gun parts on the floor so not to make much noise. I laid down on the blanket and quickly went to sleep.

<***>

I woke up to the sound of metal clinking. I slowly opened my eyes to see Iron Sight standing on her hind legs hunched over the workbench working with her hooves on something, several gun parts were floating around her, her magical aura glowing around the parts. The large gun was leaning up against the wall beside her.

I stretched, one of my legs bumping a gun part, making a noise. “Ah you’re up! good! Help me out would you? I need the top receiver of an equestrian assault rifle. I dropped it and I need to focus on these tiny parts.”

I stood up and yawned “I don’t really know what that is..” Iron Sight sighed. “Ugh, just um, look at some of the assault rifles in that barrel, like just look where the magazine and trigger are. The top part of that.” I looked around looking for a part that looked like what she was talking about. Seeing the part in question, I floated it up and showed it to her. “This?”

“Yes! Thank you.” she said and went back to working. I left the room and checked the time, It was about nine o'clock. I still needed about forty caps before I had the suggested amount of caps to buy ammo and supplies. I walked outside and sat at a table, eating an apple for breakfast. One left. I looked around, looking at the ponies coming out of their rooms. I spotted a dark red earth pony with a black mane and tail, he was wearing overalls so I couldn't see his cuite mark. I called out to him “Hey! You in the overalls! Come over here!” I was little nervous speaking out. I wasn't used to talking loudly to other ponies, most ponies came to me for conversation, rarely the other way around, but I needed the caps. The pony walked up to me, looking me over. “Hey there stable mare, what can I do for you?”

“I need about forty caps, any idea how I can get that?” I asked, I was still a tad nervous, but I don’t think he noticed as he put a hoof on his chin “Hmmm...about an hours walk that way.” He said pointing outside the courtyard, “A special type of flower my dad needs to sell as apart of his specialty items, he mostly sells them to pretentious asshole rich ponies, but hey! It brings in the caps! But yeah, pick some of those flowers and I’ll pay you the forty caps. Deal?” I nodded and agreed. “Deal.” I went on my way.

<***>

I had been walking for about an hour when I saw the flowers in question. They were tall plants with many purple flowers. I walked over to them and started picking the flowers. After I had picked most of the flowers I heard an ominous growling noise behind me. I froze and looked down at my pipbucks E.F.S. Three red dots were behind me. I slowly turned around and saw three wolf like creatures. They were made out of tall grass and wooden logs and sticks, seemingly held together by magical energy. I was unfamiliar with this type of animal, but it was clear that they weren't friendly. I took a step back slipping my revolver out. “N-now now...j-just calm down…” I didn't want to shoot, I didn't want to kill an animal and on top of that, I didn't know if my bullets would even damage the creatures. I raised my revolver in the air and fired a shot, hoping the noise would scare them off. It worked...partially... two of them ran off, but the one in front just flinched then barked at me. I pointed my gun at it swiftly backing away. It lunged at me and I fired, my bullet stopped it in mid lunge and it fell to the ground, bits of stick and wood blowing apart and flung in the air. But that wasn't over, it simply got up, a hole in its wooden jaw. I did the only thing that made sense and ran back towards Mo-Tel. But it started chasing me and was keeping up with me, even though I was running at top speed, barking viciously at me.

After about twenty minutes of running I was starting to tire, and the wolf was still following me and getting close, I turned back to look at it when I heard loud booming noise.

*CRACK-COW*

And in that instant the creature exploded, bits of grass and wood flew everywhere and the magical energy dissipated. I stopped in my tracks, catching my breath. I was confused. I kept moving, but kept looking back at where the creature had once been. It was nothing more than a pile of grass and wood bits.

<***>

When I got back to Mo-Tel, Iron Sight was waiting for me at the gate. Her large sniper rifle was floating beside her. Looking at it in a better light, her sniper rifle resembled a really large tube with a trigger on the bottom and a scope on top. “You're welcome by the way!”

“What?” I asked a little confused. She laughed. “I saved you from that timber wolf, with my custom homemade anti machine rifle!...Or anti material rifle. Same thing, just personal preference.”

I walked up to her “So you made that?” I asked. She proudly nodded. “Yep! I call it...The Fuck You! “ She said examining her weapon. “Because it's the perfect response to any question or situation, just fuck you! and BOOM!” She laughed and walked back into her office, her weapon in tow. I just shook my head and continued on. I spotted the red unicorn with overalls and walked up to him and put the flowers on the table “There...you could of warned me about the wolves!” I was a little upset that he didn't bother to even mention the deadly animals that lived in the area.

He nervously laughed. “Oh yeah...timberwolves huh? I uh...kinda forgot about those...but yeah thanks! here you go.” He gave me the forty caps and took the flowers into a room on the first floor. I turned around and counted my caps, I had about two hundred, so I went to Iron Sight.

<***>

After I was done with her, I had about one hundred and fifty two caps left and bought thirty bullets for my revolver. Now I needed supplies. I saw an older pony out in the courtyard, he was brown with a yellow mane and tail, though it was clear he wouldn't have much of his mane left soon. He was packing large saddle bags. I walked up to him and asked “Excuse me sir. Do you have any food available for purchase?” He looked up at me and grinned “I do indeed! I happen to have several packaged foods.” My face lit up and I bought a few packaged pies. I looked at one of the pies. “These look good! You made these?” He nodded. “Yep, a pony long time ago showed me this recipe and I've been selling them on the side since.” I thought for a second and on a hunch I asked. “This pony...his name didn't happen to be Blue Berry was it?”

He thought for a second. “Come to think of it, yeah, yeah his name was Blue Berry! How did you know?” My eyes lit up at this and I gasped “Well, that is my father! I left the stable looking for him!”

The old pony laughed “Well little lady I’d say you got a real late start! It’s been a LONG time since I even heard about him! He stayed here at Mo-Tel for a few months long time ago, I was running this town at the time and offered him a place to stay. He payed me in pies, he made the best damn pie I've ever had! Even I can’t replicate his pies even though he showed me how to do it!” He chuckled.

“Can you tell me where to go? So I can track him down better?” I asked. I was excited. I certainly did not expect to actually find some information about my father, especially so early in my search.

“Yeah...yeah I remember he set off for Stalliongrad, can’t remember why though, I figure you’re planning on heading out there huh?” I nodded excitedly in response. “Thought so. Well, I should give you some information on the world. While large gangs don’t rule the land like they used to. A lot of crazy religious cults have sprung up and taken their place. I don’t know much about all of them, but I’ll give you a run down of the major ones. First off there's the Agents of Discord. A crazy but harmless lot, they just run around causing mischief and being a general nuisance. They hope to bring back Discord the god of chaos by running around causing constant mischief. Second there's the Order of Tirek, these are the ones you want to look out for. Very aggressive and dangerous, and rumors are they sacrifice ponies to their dark lord. From what I heard they are searching for the gate of Tartarus so they can free Tirek. Or so that's the legend that somewhere out there are the gates of Tartarus and an ancient evil is locked away in there. But these crazies want to free them! Anyway, then there's the third group, kind of a combination of a gang and a religious cult, they call themselves the NLR or New Lunar Republic, they tend to stay underground and don’t do much, often operating at night. They tend to keep to themselves, but I wouldn't trust them. Shady characters. Just keep your wits about you out there.”

I thanked him and stopped by Iron Sights office and told her I was on my way, she came out her office to see me out. “If you ever you have any gun problems or questions you come back you hear? And if you meet a gunsmith in Stalliongrad named Greased Bolt tell him that I told him to go fuck himself!” I recoiled a bit. “Wh-why?”

“That punk thinks he's the best gunsmith in the wastes, and its bullshit! I’m the best! No contest and that fuck thinks that just because he can build a three barreled machine gun that he's the best? Oh no! Fuck him!”

I chuckled at her request. I was starting to get used to casual profanity. I waved her good-by and headed off.

Chapter 5 - City Lights

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