Fallout Equestria: Old Equestria Blues

Chapter 4: Dreams and Dark Reflections

Within seconds a loud horrible explosion shook the dark cloudy skies like somepony smashed a mallet into a gong with all of their might. It was soon followed by another and another before the entire skyline was obscured with oppressive rainclouds. Without warning rain fell to the ground, instantly extinguishing all of the sun’s accumulated heat. Needless to say, I was soaked in moments. A quick glance behind me showed that the little colt who was following behind me was just as wet and if not soggier than I was thanks in part to his longer mane.

I sighed and shook my head. While rain in the desert was relatively rare, when it rained in the Mustang Desert, it poured. All the same it always made me wish having an umbrella. Still I pressed onward in my journey to reach Dodge City. According to the PipBuck, I assumed I was making good time. I had about a day and a half left. My supplies were low, especially since I had an unwelcome tag along I felt obligated to take care of. I had spaced out what food I could and gave the most to him since he was young, as well as the purified water, leaving me with the dirty water I had picked from the raiders that had killed his mother.

Why was he even following me? It was something I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around. I had saved his life, sure, but I was also a complete stranger that had threatened to feed him to an imaginary monster I recalled being told about from my mother. Admittedly, I hadn’t been very nice to the colt since he started following me and yet still he persisted. I was distracted from my thoughts by the sound of him suddenly sneezing. I glanced back at him again and saw that he had fallen a bit behind, as well as see his teeth chattering from the cold rain. With another sigh, I slowed down to the point the Kid was walking beside me, letting my body do it’s best to shield him from the torrent of falling water.

I could tell he was looking up at me now with those big green innocent eyes of his now as a result, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of looking back at him again for a third time. Not that he’d be able to say anything about that anyway, since I quickly learned that he literally couldn’t say anything other than that irritating howling whinny of his. A smirk crossed my my mind as I contemplated what his cutie mark would be once he discovered what his special talent was. It probably would be a broken record or something like that.

I thought about my own cutie mark shortly after I had considered what his would be. A crescent moon with three tiny music note like shooting stars trailing underneath it, all of which was in front of a dark cloud that covered a good portion of my flank. I still couldn’t exactly remember everything about it, but I did remember that there was a sad memory attached to it that involved my brother. I was sure I had been playing the very guitar that had been given to me by my father, the one that was secured to my saddlebag now. Though the more I thought about that, the more my head began to hurt. Something about that memory didn’t feel right, but I didn’t want to think about it anymore since it seemed to be giving me a headache. The rain wasn’t going to be helping me recall my past anyway.

The Kid gave another sneeze and continued to chatter his teeth from the cold rain. I was feeling a bit cold myself and as much as I didn’t want to stop again, it looked like we had no choice since getting sick wouldn’t do either of us any good. I stopped and checked the map on the PipBuck for anything nearby, blinking my eyes in frustration as the screen had become extremely blurry thanks to the rain. I turned the knobs and adjusted the dials, zooming both in and out, shaking my hoof and leg a bit,but found it didn’t do much good either way. My eyes must’ve been too tired and the device had told me once it rebooted that it was liable to malfunction. Most machines did nowadays anyway. The only exception was this time was that if this one stopped working all together, I was sure I would die moments later since it was connected to my nervous system somehow.

“Ooowaaaaaaaaoooo!”

My attention immediately shifted from my PipBuck to the Kid who had slipped past my notice and was a few feet ahead of me, pointing with his hoof someplace I couldn’t quite make out. I quickly made my way to him and squinted my eyes at where he was pointing, trying to see what he saw. A few moments later I finally managed to catch sight of a small ramshackle building all by itself, though it was hard to make out all the details since the rain had become heavier. I looked down at the little colt and gave a small smile.

“Alright Kid, let’s go check it out. Maybe they’ll have some warm food and a few beds to wait out the storm with.” I said and began to make my way toward the building.

A few minutes later and both of us had made it to the front door. Up close the place looked rather sturdy and much larger than I first assumed. I gave a quick but heavy knock on the door making sure I’d be heard over any sudden booms of thunder in the sky. Nothing occurred after a minute, so I tried again, this time harder. Again we were left standing by ourselves in the rain. I looked down at the colt and shrugged my shoulders. “I guess no one lives here anymore Kid, let’s make ourselves at home.” I said, reaching for the doorknob when suddenly the entire door swung wide open.

Standing before us was a purple female earth pony. She had a frizzy golden mane that seemed to cling all the way down her neck. Her eyes were an intense red and she was wearing what appeared be an extremely worn out leather barding armor. A quick glance to her flank revealed what appeared to be a simple pot of honey with a small buzzing bug of some kind around it. Almost upon seeing the two of us, her eyes dilated to pin points and she gave an extremely disjointed smile. I was just about to speak when she spoke over me.

“Ohhh my gawd! I can’t believe it’s you! How the hell have you been Songbird?” she cried out, sounding too enthusiastic for my taste. Her attention suddenly shifted to the colt and she squealed with a most terrifying glee. “And you brought your son with you this time I see! Oh Creamsickle, your daddy has told me so much about you over the phone. You look so handsome and tasty I bet all the little fillies are gonna want a piece of you when you grow up huh?” she said and reached over to give his face a rub, causing the colt to immediately jump back in fright and hide himself behind me, which in turn brought the attention back to me.

“Well Songbird what can I do you for?” she asked and tilted her head a bit sideways, almost as though she was trying to get a good look at the colt behind me.

This mare was missing a few horseshoes, that was for sure and she was probably addicted to some sort of chem, probably Dash, which was pretty bad, but not all that dangerous. I coughed to clear my throat a bit and tried my best to smile pleasantly, despite the fact that this mare was creeping me out in everyway and finally spoke.

“Oh Hi, Ummm, I was hoping you’d let us stay in your place while it rained,” I said, a sudden bolt of lightning striking the ground nearby, causing all three of us to flinch in fear, as if to remind her that it was indeed raining.

Her eyes suddenly widened back out and she nodded her head furiously, “Oh what am I thinking! Honeypot you are such a derpy pony sometimes.” she responding, sounding like she was speaking more to herself than us. “Of course of course, what kind of pony would I be if I didn’t shelter my neighbors from the storm. Come in, Come in!” she replied, turning around and trotting into her home rather happily.

I turned to look at the colt who was shivering even more now. Whether or not it was because of the weather or this mare I couldn’t tell, but I’m didn’t blame him either way. Both were extremely unpleasant to deal with. I nodded to him and then made my own way inside, closing the door behind the colt after he shyly crossed over the threshold.

It was warm and cozy inside the home. There was a small fireplace that illuminated the den and gave off a relaxing heat. However everything else was just a plain mess. There were blankets and various clothes scattered all over the place, a torn apart sofa in the corner and all sorts of various toys scattered to and fro. The mare, whom I assumed had called herself Honeypot, had walked into one of the two rooms in the back for some reason or another, so I focused my attention to the colt, a sudden idea popping in my head.

“Say Kid...I know she’s a little burnt out on goof balls, but look at all these nice things she has. She could be your new mommy,” I said with the best smile I could muster, hoping the colt would take the bait and agree with me. It had the exact opposite effect I was hoping for. He looked at me with his mouth agape in horror, as though I had just told him I was gonna feed him to a monster, and then immediately began to cringe and whimper, almost as if he was about to start crying.

It didn’t get any further than that though, since Honeypot came back holding a dirty smudged up silver tray with three broken ceramic cups on it in her mouth. She made her way to the center of the room, humming some sort of crazy tune and set the tray. Inside each of the three cups was a brown watery drink that I assumed was tea. Afterwards she brought looked over both of us and gave that same disjointed smile from before. “I’m afraid I don’t have any food, fortunately though all my boys are out looking for some and should be coming home soon but I’ve got plenty of tea to share in the meantime so feel free to drink up.”

Admittedly, I was thirsty and my bottle of dirty water was less appealing than whatever tea she had concocted. She may have drugged it to, but if she really was addicted to Dash like I thought she might be, it wasn’t something you could slip into a drink, and besides being extremely energetic and full of energy, I couldn’t remember Dash making anypony violent. I nodded to the colt and then lifted one of the cups with my magic and slowly, carefully took a sip. It tasted like dirt in water...with maybe some sort of chocolate in it or something. So it was pretty much just some sweet flavored dirty water. I waited for a few seconds to see if my paranoia was justified and then shrugged when I didn’t immediately collapse.

Seeing me drink Honeypot’s tea, the colt moved up and began to drink from his broken cup as carefully as possible. Seeing this, the mare squealed in delight again and pranced in place as though she had won the lottery or something. She was certainly...enthusiastic, maybe she wasn’t an addict after all, just an extremely lonely pony who had lost some of her sanity along the way. Thinking on it more, the colt would probably make for some great company seeing as she talked a lot and he didn’t talk at all. A perfect balance. Though Maybe she wasn’t lonely and just addled in the head. She had mentioned she had boys. Children of her own then perhaps. Which made it unlikely she would take on another.

I smiled and watched as gave the Kid all sorts of compliments. Saying how soft and tender he looked, and how she was jealous that he wasn’t old enough for her. I sipped from the sweet mucky water and relaxed even further. The sound of the rain hitting the building was kinda soothing now that I wasn’t outside in that weather. I chuckled a bit as I saw the colt recoil from getting a big sloppy kiss on the cheek, Honeypot giggling and saying he was just so adorable she could just eat him up. The little guy was kind of cute, especially since he wasn’t whining at me now. a few more minutes flew by and I finished the drink setting the cup back down on the try before I stood up and stretched my legs.

“Well, I don’t mean to be pushy miss Honeypot, but do you have a bed I can take a nap on?” I asked, feeling myself yawn a bit. She looked me up and down a bit as though she didn’t recognize me for a minute and then nodded happily.

“Oh yes yes. There are quite a few beds in the back they all belong to my boys, but they won’t mind you just taking a nap Songbird. They’ve always looked up to you anyway Songbird, you are almost a surrogate father to them after all,” she said and pointed somewhere absentmindedly to the back as she continued to tease and play with the unhappy colt.

I nodded and ignored her crazy babbling, instead opting to head into the back myself, trying to stifle another yawn. As I made my way back I looked around for any sign of anything funny once more, just in case she was an absolute loon. No signs of crazy blood spots or sharp dangerous weapons anywhere that I could see. I turned around once more catching a small bit of her one sided conversation with the Kid.

“Oh my boys are going to be soo happy to see you Creamsickle, they haven’t had anyone to play with in a long time. It’s soo good that you and your daddy came by to visit...”

I shook my head and sighed. I couldn’t leave the little guy here despite what I had been hoping for. I didn’t want to outright say it, but she was obviously delusional. She thought we were some other ponies entirely. Something really horrible must’ve happened to her in the past, and she was likely just reliving what moments her mind would let her. I turned back and headed onward, stopping at a pair of doors. One of the left and one on the right. I didn’t remember seeing which room she had come out from with the drinks, so either one of them could’ve been a bedroom for all I knew. Since she was busy and seeing as how I really didn’t want to interact with her anymore that I wanted to, I shrugged my shoulders and headed to the door on the right.

The door shut softly behind me as I looked in downright horror what I was seeing. I hadn’t stepped into the bedroom. Instead, I had stumbled into Honeypot’s kitchen. It was a gruesome scene laid out before me. In the far back there was what I assumed to be a small pile of dead rotting pony carcases. They didn’t look all that old, but most of their flesh had been stripped from their bodies, which I assume was what had prevented me from smelling them earlier. Along the walls there looked to be jars of pickled eyeballs and hooves, some of them thankfully were empty. Across from the jars was a set of rusty blood soaked tools; Cleavers, hoofsaws, and various mallets. I felt myself began to hyperventilate with a mixture of revulsion and anger as I willed myself to further examine what was before me.

I kept trying to tell myself to keep calm as I did. This mare was obviously too brain damaged to have realized I had walked into the wrong room and I didn’t need for her to learn I had discovered her crime just yet. I stopped as I finally came to the refrigerator which was in the back next to the pile of dead ponies. I knew what was inside. I didn’t want to confirm it, but I knew what it was going to be. Holding my breath I opened the door and slammed it shut a second later. Almost regretting that action instantly as it made a loud noise. For the next few seconds I waited anxiously for her to rush in screaming like a rabid pony. To my surprise it was still relatively peaceful. I guess she was still too busy...with the Colt! I withdrew my sword as fast as I could from my saddle bag, finding my fears confirmed when all of a sudden I heard the Kid let out his trademark noise, only to suddenly be quieted in mid whine.

I gritted my teeth and charged out of the room back into the tiny den, just in time to see her drag the colt outside back into the storm. With no time to lose I followed after her, my sword wrapped firmly with my simple levitation spell.

“Helllo Darlings! Guess what your mommy has been up to today!” I heard her yell to a group of ponies that were running in our direction. “Mister Songbird and his son came over for a visit again! Isn’t that nice of them? Looks like we get to have them over for dinner, again!” she cackled madly to the group, keeping a firm grip over the Kid’s mouth with one of her hooves and lifting him up as if to show them her latest trophy.

I don’t think she had noticed me following her though, since her back was completely turned to me. Which meant for her I at least had the element of surprise. I made my way to her as fast as I possibly could, glad that the rain was masking my steps. I raised my sword up high and brought it down between her skull as hard as I could, stopping once I heard the satisfying crunching noise of the metal blade splitting her skull apart. Instantly she let go of the Kid and collapsed with a wet plop against the now extremely muddy ground.

There was no time to rest however, as the moment she fell down, the group of ponies who were galloping our way suddenly let out a chorus of blood thirsty inaudible angry screams. I threw a look at the Kid and tossed my head back, in the direction to Dodge City. “Let’s get the buck out of here little guy. I have a feeling we aren’t welcome here anymore,” I said, trying to be heard over the pouring rain. The little guy nodded with an almost visible sigh of relief, despite the fact part of him had some of Honeypot’s blood splashed along his back. I didn’t blame him in the least.

Both of us turned and ran like our lives depended on it. We hauled our butts as far and fast as we could against the muddy rocky ground. Behind us the large group of ponies still followed after us, howling and screaming out for not only vengeance but what I assume was an unnatural hunger. These were Honeypot’s “children”, a large group of cannibalistic raider ponies and I certainly didn’t think I could take them all on, protect the colt, and expect both of us to survive.

We ran for as far as our tired hooves could take us. Sadly the little guy grew tired than I did and began to slow down. A quick look behind us revealed that the, well, pack of ponies, was gaining on us faster than we could out run them. I looked around our surroundings for anything we could use to our advantage and spat a curse underneath my breathed when nothing revealed itself. Time was running out fast. I needed to do something but I didn’t know the area at all. “Damn it!” I screamed and came to a sudden halt, sliding a little bit and near slipping on my ass as a result.

The Kid came to a stop and looked at me in panic and confusion, not sure of what I was doing. I didn’t really either, but it was the only thing I could think of doing. I pulled up my PipBuck and switched the map back on, praying under my breath that either Luna or Celestia were listening. It was still blurry as hell but I could read it better than last time. In our current flight from the savage ponies, we had deviated off course again and were heading back south into some of the more mountainous region of the Mustang Desert.I looked up and saw that they were gaining even faster, as if they somehow had sensed my hesitation. I zoomed in and scanned the closest nearby mountain area for anything, a isolated pocket that I could maybe fight them off one by one? Nothing. A bridge over a canyon to lure them to their collective doom? Na-da.

I bit my bottom lip, hearing the little colt cry out in fear as the monsters drew closer to us. I couldn’t find anything! I spun the knob in frustration and strengthened the levitation spell on my sword. That was when I suddenly saw an unmarked location on the map that was at the foot of a small nearby mountain. Which meant it had to be a mine or something.

I cried out in triumph and then looked back up, seeing as the carnivorous ponies were now a hundred yards and closing. Inhaling as deep as I could I yelled to the colt and took off running, “Follow me Kid, I found a way to escape!”

We arrived there at the entrance to an extremely old and dirty looking mining complex. The wooden beams that were supporting the entrance to the cave looked they had been rotted through by termites or some other wasteland nasty. The rain still continued to pour and the pack of ponies were still hot on our hooves. We didn’t have much time. Quickly, we headed to the open door that lead into the cave system, when I suddenly stopped between the doorway when another wicked idea came over me.

“Okay Kid, we can’t keep running away from these guys and they don’t seem to be getting tired from chasing after us anyway. We made it here, wherever here is, and now we got to stop them from following us. What I need you to do...” I began to say looking around until I found what I was searching for. It was a big heavy support beam that was attached from the ground directly to the mining entrance. “is buck this support beam as hard as you can, so that it crashes into the doorway and collapses the entrance.” I finished and then with all of my might that I could afford, swung my blade deep into the beam, splintering it a good bit at its base.

“The wood isn’t as strong as it used to be, I think this place is really old, but it will still probably take you a few kicks before it breaks. While you are doing that, I’m gonna do my best to fight them off so you can crush them with a bunch of wood and stone. Got it Kid?”

He nodded and made his way to the support beam, whining a little with anxiety, but otherwise prepared himself. Satisfied with that, I yanked my blade out from the wood, feeling it suddenly groan a bit and then turned around facing the oncoming storm outside with grim determination.

I got a few minutes to catch my breath and relax but soon the pack was here. Following a particularly loud burst of thunder and lightning they suddenly appeared before the mine entrance a good twenty feet away. There was an excessively large amount of them, it looked like there could be seven or ten of them. It was really hard for me to tell between their pawing over each other and the constant heavy raining. It made me wish I really had some more bullets for my pistol.

I closed my eyes and took in another deep breath, trying to calm myself for what was about to happen. It had to be timed perfectly. I kept my eyes closed and listened to hear the raider ponies coming. It was hard thanks to the rain, but once I was sure they were as close as I was comfortable I opened my eyes widely and brought my sword to bear in front of me. Just in time, seeing as they were a good five feet away. Pretty much liked I had hoped, they were extremely dumb. In their frenzied charged they had all converged on the entrance, three of them suddenly jamming themselves into the doorframe as one just barely managed to slip through, while the others tried to force their way past.

He had a crude spear of some sort gripped between his teeth and he tried his best to swing at me, but I quickly ducked underneath it and brought my sword across his chest with a vicious slash. . He collapsed with a angry growl and I began to do my best to slash and cut up the ponies in the doorway. When another one went down, it caused another two to climb above their “siblings” and get stuck higher up in the doorway. I quickly turned my head around and yelled as loud as I could at the colt. “Now, buck it now!”

With as much power as he had in his body he reared back his hind legs and slammed them full force into the old weakened support beam. It splintered even more from where I cut it and shuddered under its own weight, but refused to budge. I cried out in pain suddenly when one of the raider ponies managed to reach far enough and smack the back of my head with a baseball bat gripped firmly in her teeth. I turned back around and snorted angrily, bringing my sword up, I brought it back down and cut across her eyes, causing her to rear back and get further stuck between her comrades.

I focused on the doorway to make sure they stayed where they were and the Kid grunted and threw another hard buck into the beam, causing it to crack loudly over all of their howling and yelling. He cried out for my attention, letting me know that the pillar was coming down hard and fast. Thinking on my hooves I turned around and jumped out of the way just in time for that old rotten beam to come crashing down on the entranceway. Single minded and blood thirsty to the very last, the pack of raider ponies screamed out in anger as the support beam ripped from the weak ceiling supports that had been holding it back and smashed into the doorway on top of them, crushing them all into a very messy pile of blood and guts.

Suddenly all the rocks in the ceiling that had been once held in place came crashing down all around us. I hadn’t thought beyond when that beam would come crashing down and killing the raider ponies, destroying the other support beams around the entrance in the process. With what little time I had to spare I bolted further into the mine, screaming above the sound of the cave in at the colt ahead of me to run as fast as his short legs could carry him. My heart pounded faster and faster as I ran just seconds ahead of the collapse seeing all sorts of rocks chaotically smashing into the ground all around us. I focused my attention back onto the kid and saw the colt had managed to make his way into what looked to be a storage room. I let out a sigh of relief and relaxed a bit, glad to know he had made it to safety. I was nearly there myself when all of a suddenly a large stone crashed down in front of me, causing me to dodge awkwardly out of the way as the force from the boulder knocked me to the side. I grunted as my body began to slow down from the pain. All I need was just a few more seconds and I would be there myself. I had managed placed my hoof on the old metal door when suddenly a burst of intense pain exploded in the back of my skull and I collapsed onto the ground instantly. Somehow, I still managed to hear the little guy give a panicked scream before the darkness I was growing so acquainted with swallowed me into oblivion once again.

=~~0~~=

I heard his voice. He was speaking to me. No, He was speaking about me.

“I know it must be hard, trying to understand just what is going on right now...” his voice trailed off, sounding completely cold and sterile. Soon silence consumed any noise only for it for it to be replaced by another. This time it was a gentle melody, the soothing sound of a loving mare close by.

I slowly opened my eyes to see my older brother looking at me angrily, as though I had done something wrong. It was hard to see him though, everything was fuzzy and my eyes hurt really bad. It was like I couldn’t really focus on anything, as though my eyes were severely dilated. There was something more about this whole thing though. My mind shifted somewhere else before I could really figure out what was going on. There another pony in the room beside me, she was soft and bigger than both me and my brother. For some reason or another she cuddled close and seemed to be providing me with a warm gentle comfort. I tried to get a better look but couldn’t make out anything more than mare with the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen.

The voice from before spoke up again, but it wasn’t anywhere near where my brother was standing. It was someone else. His words were like garbled radio static this time, yet for some reason I could still understand what he was saying, even if it was like some sort of nightmarish noise.

“I know it’s hard to understand...but for a colt his age, this isn’t a NormAL occurrence. I don’t even know if I can find him what he needs. There are just simply too many vAriAblEs. It would just be easier for everypony if you simply just let me OpERate on the boy. If I don’t do it as soon as possible, he is just going to go blind as he gets older or maybe even worse if there is something more to it. It’s a DeFeCT that needs to be corrected and I have the ability to do so.”

My left foreleg began to itch painfully. I looked down at it and saw there was nothing there but a strange fuzzy blurriness. I turned back to look at the mysterious mare with the beautiful sapphire eyes, instinctually nuzzling against her, feeling my heart flutter a bit when she returned the affection I strangely craved.

“Don’t pretend to care. You haven’t shown any interest in either Silver or Blue in years...too busy wrapped up in that office of yours with all of your ‘important’ projects... and now when he needs your help, you want to fix him like he’s some sort of machine instead of just getting him what he needs?! We’re living creatures damn it! We are not your test subjects!”

She slammed her hoof down onto the ground and I recoiled in fear, a shock of electricity running through me causing me to scream in fear and agony. It had come from my left foreleg again. I didn’t get long to look at it when I saw movement coming from my brother’s direction.

“Don’t yell at him like that! You don’t know how hard he works! You're too busy with...him anyway! You are just as bad! ” he screamed, stomping on the ground as if to make his point before he spread his wings wide and flew out of the room. This was becoming too much for me to handle. I broke down and began to cry. I was in pain, everyone was yelling and fighting, and it was somehow all my fault...

“Oh dear Celestia, He’s crying again...Look... I’m going to find Silver Tongue and see if he has the same...CONdiTION as Blue does. Don’t worry though, I won’t pRetENd that I care about him either, if that’s how you think I feel...”

I couldn’t stop sobbing, I felt like my body was on fire, the back of my head was hurting like that one time when Silver had hit it with a baseball bat accidentally. Suddenly a warm comfort pressed up against me and nuzzled me gently and softly. The mare’s voice humming softly and delicately as her words wrapped themselves up around me and soothed my pain...

“Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to lay your sleepy head,
Hush now, quiet now,
It's time to go to bed...”

=~~0~~=

I gasped aloud in pain as electricity suddenly surged throughout my entire body. I panted heavily and groaned as my head throbbed from intense pain. Everything felt fuzzy. Like my head was in some sort of fog. I could tell I was in a poorly lit room with stone all around me even though my eyesight was blurry. In a moment everything came back to me in a sudden rush of memories. I had collapsed the entrance to the mine in order to escape from a pack of cannibalistic raider ponies. I gritted my teeth as the electricity slowed down and I managed to locate the source of the pain. It was originating from the PipBuck that was attached to my left foreleg. For some reason it was active. More so than normal than I cared to see. All sorts of numbers and letters were flashing by, which gave me cause to panic when it suddenly slowed down and booted back up to the familiar interface screen that I had grown accustomed to. This time I noticed something was different though. The entire machine looked cleaner than normal and there was even more information available on the screen. The device was now able to somehow tell if I was starving or was suffering from dehydration. Just what had happened to me while I was unconscious? In fact why was I even alive, again. Did I just get another chance?

I moved a hoof to rub at the part of my mane at the back of my head and felt mostly loosely applied bandages. Well, that explained a little bit. Remembering the PipBuck kept information on my vital signs I switched the screen over to my personal information and tried to see if I could find a long about what happened. Apparently, I had suffered from some sort of major concussion and a little bit of temporary brain damage. First a bullet and now what I presumed to have been a large rock... I was either extremely lucky or my head was made of steel or something. I looked over the screen a little longer and saw there was something different about me too.

I already knew this thing was permanently grafted into my flesh and connected to my nerves or whatever in order to keep me among the living, but it was now saying that my nervous system was directly connected into the S.T.A.T.S. spell function through an ‘unofficial’ modification. Somepony had been messing with the PipBuck while I had been out of it!

Never before had I felt my anger boil through me as I scanned the storage room for the culprit who would dare to play with my life so absent mindedly. That when I caught sight of the colt not to far away. He was passed out and covered in all sorts of dirt and grime. All around him were a bunch of scattered tools as well. A small hammer, an assortment of screwdrivers, as well as a few paper clips and wonder glue. It had been him!

For whatever reason or another, I could’ve sworn he began to look like someone else at that point. Someone familiar to me. Hadn’t his coat once been a creamy white with couple of chocolate spots here and there instead it was turning into a kind of pale bluish-green color and his mane was looking darker and longer than normal too. Everything was getting so blurry and I was so mad for some reason. What had given him the idea that he could play with my life like that?! After all, I had saved his life not once but twice! Still not quite sure what I was doing, I quickly looked around the room for my things and thankfully found the saddlebag and guitar in a corner. A quick survey of my belongings showed that I had one broken syringe and another empty one, which meant it probably been used very recently...it also meant that I only had two more doses of the Med-X left. After that all I had left were the two empty bottles. My guitar was a little dirty and dinged up, but seemed to be in great condition still.

The empty pistol was still in the saddlebag as well, but the sword...it was bent and contorted at an extremely weird angle, which made it useless as a weapon.I don’t know why but I still wrapped my levitation spell around the blade and managed to break off a usable edge from the tip. I was partially I amazed I could even have done that, but I guess it had been a piece of shit weapon after all...

With the tip of the broken blade I stood over the strange looking little orphan, barely managing to contain my rage. I had saved his life and he had nearly killed me! For what? Curiosity? Had I just been a plaything to him? A machine for him to experiment on and walk away?!

“hMMM, I WoNdeR...dOEs He lOOk LiKE SOmEpoNY YoU kNoW? I gueSS No gOoD DeEds Go UNpunIsHeD...”

I was panting and snorting in rage while I awkwardly stood there. Part of me didn’t even know what I was really going to do. Thankfully I just barely managed to catch a glimpse of myself in the reflection of the dirty broken blade as I held it aloft. My smudged reflection looked like...a nightmare. My coat looked to be even darker than normal. As though it had shifted from a navy blue to an almost black color. My eyes almost looked as though they were glowing a poisonous acidic green. It didn’t help that the bandages were wrapped haphazardly in such a weird way around my forehead that my eyes looked like they were being pulled back, as though whoever had done it didn’t really know what they had been doing.

What had I been thinking? Where had that anger suddenly come from? I remembered that I had been dreaming about something, I think I had even heard a voice just a few minutes ago. Thoroughly disgusted with myself I threw the blade away to the side as hard as I could and walked back to my saddle bags and focused on resecured my things. After that I layed down and tried to focus on calming down even further. Taking slow and deep breaths trying to focus on what had just happened. Somehow, while I had been out of it, the little guy had managed to save my life. I had never before been so scared and angry in my life...I hadn’t realized it till now. Did this mean I wasn’t really a second chances kind of pony, but rather a scared little colt lashing out in any random direction at the slightest provocation. What kind of pony was I really? I couldn’t really remember past being shot in the head last week, and even then I still didn’t really know who I had once been.

I must’ve lost track of time because before I could realize it, the colt had gotten up and was standing quietly in front of me. He didn’t look strange to me at all this time. He looked just as he first did when I had first encountered him. His coat wasn’t a different color and neither was his mane. Had I been hallucinating? His brown eyes were looking at me curiously, but there was no trace of fear. Just innocent curiosity. The shame of my behavior burned even deeper into my soul and I forced myself to look away from him.

“Ooowaaooo,”

It wasn’t a cry of fear or shock or anything really, just a soft noise now. Though as far as I could tell it was all he ever said anyway. Did it mean he was mute? Had he ever learned how to speak? I drew my attention back to him and nodded a bit. He wasn’t safe to be alone by himself, but now I knew he probably wasn’t safe to be around me either. I had gone off the deep end there, even if it had been just for a moment. It had been too much for me. Maybe...just maybe... that was what Tequila Sunrise had seen in me right before I had killed Lance. I quickly shook my head, not wanting to dwell on this anymore.

“So, last I remember, you had just managed to get in here and then I think I got caught in the collapse. Did you save my life kid?” I asked, hoping maybe conversation would ease my guilty conscience.

He nodded and smiled, and looked over to the doorway, I looked and didn’t see anything right away but I eventually managed to catch what looked like drag marks in the dirt as well as a few loose rocks.

“Well, you are certainly stronger than you look, that’s for sure. I assume then you also tried to take care of any injuries I got huh?”

He nodded and smiled proudly, a faint giggle managing to escape his mouth.

I smirked and finally decided to take the bandages off and tossed them aside, certain whatever healing properties they had were long gone by now. “Well you didn’t do a bad job, Not very good, but I’m obviously alive. So A for effort anyway,” I remarked. “How did you know what to do?”

He frowned a little bit and then pointed at the PipBuck and then turned and pointed to a small footlocker in the back of the room by another door I had been too angry to notice. It was too dark to look that far back without squinting but a minute later I saw the remains of an extremely old model PipBuck that had been taken apart and an old looking book that appeared to be open. It didn’t take long for me to put two and two together after that.

“Wait wait, are you saying you fixed my PipBuck by using old parts from that one?”

He nodded up and down rapidly as I continued to speak.

“That means you had to have fixed mine, in order to figure out how to correctly apply the bandages and stuff,”

Once more he nodded and gave a weak smile, almost as though he was nervous about something.

It wasn’t hard to figure out now that I had the context that he had been afraid to even touch my PipBuck.

“Well you did a good job. I mean, a really good job. Somehow you managed to make it even better somehow...” I said, thinking back to the warning about how it had been modified again. I saw him give a shy nervous smile.

“Well, I’m glad you did it, cause that means you saved my life twice, since I can’t live without this hunk of metal attached to my leg. If it was broken I was probably dying. So thanks again. I guess I owe you one,”

“Oowaaaooo!” he cried out happily, giggling and trotting in place this time. He seemed like some sort of wild pony with how he behaved and spoke, but he was obviously intelligent since he could clearly read. Especially if he had somehow managed to repair my PipBuck and modify it. Even still the shame at my first reaction of waking up hung in the back of my mind like a tormenting specter.

“I can’t help but notice Kid that you haven’t really said anything, now or since you started to follow me. Can you say anything? Do you have a name I can call you?”

He stared at me blankly for a moment and finally looked away. As though he was ashamed about something. Afraid perhaps? I couldn’t tell. Given how I was feeling right now. I understood at least a little bit so I didn’t want to press the question any further.

“Well if you can’t talk, you can’t talk. Simple as that. So I’m just going to keep calling you Kid or whatever till I can find you a nice safe home. You should probably know my name though, since I can’t seem to get rid of you and If you ever decide to speak or whatever, you can get my attention that way rather than whatever it is you do now. So call me Blue or Blue Rhapsody,” I said, finding myself barely managing to smile as he nodded and replied with his own soft smile.

After that one sided exchange, I stood myself up and did my best to dust myself off. Even though it was just me and the colt trapped in an old mining complex, I still remembered that for some reason or another appearances always mattered.

“How about we try and find our way out? I don’t really feel like starving to death or dying of thirst here, and I need to find a new weapon anyway, so let’s go exploring big guy and see if we can’t find out way out,” I said and walked my way to the new door, turning it open and heading further into the complex with the little colt silently following behind me.

For the most part, it looked to be in good condition, though judging by the condition of the wood that kept it from (mostly) collapsing in on itself, it was also very very old. I would’ve guessed it had once been a pre-war mine. Curious, I looked over my PipBuck and switched it over to the map view. Predictably it had automatically been labeled at some point. I had just been too busy dying and losing my mind to have noticed it. Horseshoe Mining Complex. Given the age of the place I assumed this was where they got most of their material for making the weapons and armor that were developed for the war.

Slowly the two of us made our way further deeper into the mine, following an old railway that contained a few empty mine carts. I made sure to turn the lamp function of the PipBuck on so we wouldn’t stumble down a pit or bump into anything painful. There was nothing in this place except for the Kid and myself. It was eerily quiet, the sound of our hoof beats echoing all around us. Had this place been deserted before the war? Or had everything died due to magic radiation? There was no clear sign of either happening.

We continued to travel further into the mine, keeping to the railway so we wouldn’t get lost. I had no idea of knowing for sure, but part of me hoped that eventually we’d find an exit at the end and not just more stone. After what I assumed was about an hours worth of walking we made our way to the very end of the shaft, having ignored all other deviating paths from the railway, and there before us was nothing but a door. Holding my breath I slowly pushed the door open, keeping my eyes closed as I made my way inside. All that was there to greet me was disappointment when I finally opened them again.

It was a simple ten by ten room. There was a few workbenches in the very back complete with quite a few shelving units above them that were cluttered with an assortment of scrap metal and other mining supplies. In another corner there was what looked to be an old surprisingly still functional terminal that was providing a bit of extra light in the room. Beside the terminal there appeared to be some sort of large metal safe. There were also a few empty minecarts in here that I figured were supposed to be just in case one of the others had broken. It was a dead end. Sure we could’ve tried any of the various tunnels that split apart from the main shaft, but I considered that extremely risky and I didn’t want to put the Kid in any more danger than I already had since I had gotten us trapped in here.

As if mocking me there was in fact a pony skeleton just simply laying in the room, as if it were telling me I had doomed us all through my reckless behavior. I inhaled and fell back on my haunches with a loud thud and sighed frustratingly at my luck. As if on cue, the Kid stepped into the room moments later. I assumed he figured it was safe since I hadn’t suggested otherwise and gasped almost immediately at the sight of the remains of the pony in the room. Shrugging I turned to him and sighed again.

“Looks like it’s the end of the road big guy. I was hoping maybe we could find our way out of here through another exit, but I guess I was wrong.” I explained, closing my eyes and doing my best to not lose my cool. It didn’t take long, after a minute or two of silence I began to hear the colt sniffle. Part of me didn’t care, I felt just as bad if not worse, but something else inside of me didn’t want to let him down like that. Maybe it cause I didn’t want to listen to a little kid crying as I died or maybe it was because I wasn’t ready to give up yet. So before he could get any worse I shook my head and stood back up as quickly as possible.

“Naa, don’t do that kid. It won’t solve anything. It may be a dead end, but I said I’d get us out of here and I meant it. So Lets see if maybe this terminal has any information, like maybe a map or something.”

He nodded and wiped his eyes and stood up after me as I made my way to the machine. “See if you can’t find anything on those workbenches that could be useful, who knows, maybe we can just clear the entrance out with dynamite or something if there is any,” I said and looked over the screen.

It had the same style screen as my PipBuck except it was bigger and brighter and it was built just as solidly too given the condition it was in. There was even the Stable-Tec logo on the bottom of the monitor. I guess they really built this kind of stuff to last huh? Just made it worse in my opinion though. I didn’t like machine. They were prone to messing up often were you couldn’t fix them, and yet were just sturdy enough to be damn near unbreakable when it counted. There was also something...creepy about them. I almost wish I had switched task with the colt, since he apparently could figure out machines better than I could. I guess it didn’t matter though because once I activated the terminal I found that it was nearly as intuitive as the device I was connected to was.

I remember having heard that these things were notorious for being locked with all sorts of obscure and random passwords, thankfully though this was not one of them. I looked through what prompts there were and discovered there were two categories to chose from. One of which appeared to be a series of maintenance and repair logs and the other which appeared to be a personal journal of sorts. The maintenance logs might have held some key information, like a map or something, but admittedly, I was more interested in the journals and what personal secrets they held. I found there were a total of five entries and feeling curious I selected the first one and then made my way down the list.

There was a lot of time spaced out between them, as though the writer either didn’t write a lot or didn’t get enough spare time, or maybe even a combination. Each entry seemed to be about two or three months apart and were dated well over two centuries ago. Definitely the personal journal of a pre-war pony. The first two logs detailed the life of somepony whose job was fixing and repairing the mine carts and tools that the others used. The first entry detailed how he wished the company he worked for had more reliable tech like the terminal he was using. Given the amount he complained and begrudgingly did his work he seemed to do it anyway. Since his only motivation appeared to be how his only son was living with his twin sister in Cloudsdale and this was the only way for an old earth pony like himself to make enough money to support him. The second entry was smaller but the old pony commented in it that while they had been building out this storage second room they had accidentally dug too far underground apparently and hit into a natural lake. He described the lake as having a bluish silvery glow to it, like Luna’s beautiful mane or his wife’s silken coat of fur. There was something else about it though, he couldn’t figure it out, but his co-workers wanted to close the shaft and start anew elsewhere.

The other two logs contained more grumpiness but also a sense of intense pride. The pony who was writing the journal described in the third entry about how his son was enlisting into the Grand Pegasus Enclave. Partly because he wanted to do his father proud by protecting Equestria during the war but also so that maybe he could see if he could someday meet his idol, the mare of the ministry of awesome herself, Rainbow Dash. He was even more happy that before they closed the end of the mine up, he had managed to find a huge chunk of ore that apparently had given the lake its color. It strange ore seemed to be as hard as steel yet as malleable as gold. So he had secretly decided to turn it into a graduation gift for his son instead of reporting it to the boss for study. The fourth entry took a more somber tone as the author described how he was afraid he’d lose his son and never get to see him again. He didn’t like the idea of his son dying in battle while he himself was already getting to be too old to work. It apparently gave him nightmares.

I had to stop reading. There was a heavy and dull pain in my chest. I knew how the final log was going to end. I just knew it. Yet, even despite how I knew what was going to happen, it hurt anyway. Something about this journal resonated deep within myself. I couldn’t say I felt a connection to the author, but still I guess he words stilled a feeling inside me I didn’t know how to describe. Not wanting to dwell on it any longer, lest I drive myself crazy, I turned my attention over to the colt for a moment to see what he was up to.

He had gathered a bunch of things from the shelves and seemed to be doing his best to try and make something, anything really, work. He had found an old metal lunchbox, some abraxo cleaner, and a small bottle of what looked to be turpentine I guessed. He was pouring, mixing, shaking, poking and all sorts of things. He almost looked happy. I knew I had to continue reading the terminal for any information that could be useful, so with a deep breath I switched my attention back to the words on the screen and opened the final log.

There’s no point in living anymore. Cloudsdale was destroyed. My sister is most certainly dead. It hurts to know that I’ll never see her again, but that’s not why I’m writing this. My son...my only son, the last little reminder I had of her is gone. He never got to graduate from the Academy. His bright life snuffed out like a candle in the breeze. I...He...there was nothing that could’ve been done. The mega spell had hit without warning and no pony had been ready for it. I lost another part of myself that day. I don’t know how much longer I can bear to live now that both my wife and son have passed on.

Earlier today the Ministry of Awesome Mare herself came by. She looked to be in an extreme hurry but she sought me out specifically and gave me something. A little toy statuette of herself. When she first presented it me, I screamed at her for mocking me and the loss of my son who had once worshiped her. She didn’t stay after I had exploded. She apologized and said she had work to do simply leaving it at that as she flew away to kill some other pony’s child in this horrible war.

After that, the boss closed the mine. No pony knew how much longer we were going to last and they didn’t want to spend their last moments here deep underground. I made sure I was the last one here. No pony is going to come looking for me anyway. I’m too old and they know I have nothing left to live for now. I don’t even know why I’m really bothering to write this anyway. I guess just in case somepony comes back, they can see my last will and testament.

If someone survives this Celestia-forsaken war, the code to the safe next to this terminal is Legacy. What you will find is a custom made suit of leather barding, I was going to give it to my son when he graduated from the Academy, the Rainbow Dash toy I had received from the Ministry Mare herself, five empty doses of Med-X, I will have taken them long after I have finished writing this out, all the money I have saved up working here which amounts to five hundred worthless bits, and the sword I had made for my son to go with his barding.

If somepony has read all of this and all of Equestria has been destroyed like Cloudsdale like I think it has, please just take these things. My son won’t get the chance to use them and I’d rather they at least get used by somepony who needs them since I’m not going to. It’s probably too dangerous to go alone...

“Ooooowaaaaoooooo!”

My attention was suddenly drawn away from the terminal as I damn near instantly turned to locate the sound of the Kid yelling. I found him to be behind me as far away from the workbenches as possible, I was about to ask him what was wrong when he shook his head and pointed at the workbenches, as if to answer my question for me.

Somehow he had managed to locate two more old rusty lunch boxes and set them beside the other one he had been playing with before. The notable difference however was that all three of them were now extremely duct taped shut and were jiggling and shaking violently. I blinked for a moment and then looked back to the colt who was still shaking his head in fear before he suddenly turned and ran out of the room as fast as his legs could carry him. I blinked again and began to hear a faint burning noise and then I bolted out of the room in a blind panic.

The damn Kid had somehow made homemade explosives!

Within seconds there was a huge blast that shook the entire mining complex as rock was blown out from the room.

Both he and I stood outside of the room in the main shaft of the complex panting and waiting to see if they whole place would come crashing down on us. After a good three minutes I took the lead and headed back into the storage and maintenance room. The stone wall that had once had the workbenches against it was just...gone and the air in the room had a strange coppery scent to it. Where the work benches once been was now a huge hole that led even further into the mountain. I heard the kid step into the room coughing a little bit and then giggled at his handiwork. I had to admit...He had pretty much solved our problem.

I looked at him and gave him an approving wink and smiled. “Not bad Kid, but I think you should give me more of a heads up before you do something like that again,”

A quick survey around the room showed that the terminal was completely fried now, having partially exploded itself. The safe however was still in near mint condition. Built to last for sure. The old remains of the pony who had been laying the room however were mostly ash now. Feeling a few tears begin to well up in my eyes I shook my head and wiped them away before the colt could see. I needed to be in control if I was going to get him to a safe home.

“Well, looks like we have a way out that we got to explore, but before we split, let’s open the safe and take the stuff inside with us. I know I could certainly use it.” The Kid nodded and moved to the giant hole in the wall and peered inside as I made my way to the safe and using the pass code Legacy, opened it up. Sure enough, everything that had been in the log was here. A finely tailored suit of black leather barding with silver stitching. It was obviously made for a pegasus but that didn’t stop me from putting it on and doing my best to adjust it. It was a little tight all things considered, but it would be more protection than I had previously.

Carefully I withdrew the sword from the safe. I was surprised to find it didn’t weigh much at all. There was no scabbard for it, instead it was wrapped lovingly in a fine blue blanket. I pulled the sword and admired the craftsmanship. It wasn’t a perfect blade by any means, obviously made by an amateur, but never the less it was made with loving hooves, meant as a gift for a cherished loved one. I smiled and looked it over a moment longer, seeing the colt eye the blade as well with awe before I finally wrapped it back up in the blanket and secured it in my saddlebag along with a small lock box filled with what I assumed were the five hundred Bits. Last but certainly not least, in the very back of the safe was the small statuette of a sky blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane. She looked extremely confident and proud. At the base of the toy there read the words “Be Awesome”.

I felt my whole body shiver strangely as I held the toy in front of myself with my magic. It felt like there was a gentle spring breeze flowing through me. A soft tingling sensation washed over me seconds later. I closed my eyes to try and focus and was suddenly greeted by visions of this mare, Rainbow Dash, doing all sorts of amazing tricks and maneuvers. There it was. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life, She had flown so fast through the sky, she had sent a shock wave of rainbow color cascading through the sky. I could hear the words on the base of the statuette as though she was speaking to me right now.

“Be Awesome.”

Having no idea what had come over me, I shook my head to try and calm down since I was apparently panting pretty heavily. It was almost as though I had personally experienced everything I had just seen. With a nice deep calm breath I packed the small toy away into my saddlebag and made sure everything was secure. The Colt was safe and secure, if only curious about what had just happened to me. My guitar was still in good, playable condition, and now I had a weapon that I could use again. With everything all settled I led the way forward, keeping the lamp on my PipBuck on as we headed even deeper into the mountain.

=====

I pressed a hoof against my face and chuckled a little bit as we both stood completely soaked to the bone on the other side of what was a nice moderately sized underground lake. After a good thirty minutes of exploring the natural cave system of the mountain we had come across the lake that had been described in the storage room terminal. Almost immediately I had checked it for any signs of magical radiation with my PipBuck, and once it showed there was no trace of it, we both set about to drinking as much water as we possibly could. We had both been extremely thirsty apparently since I our little encounter with Honey Pot and her cannibalistic ‘family’. So we took another break to make sure we had slaked our thirst and filled up my empty bottle full of the clean water. The lake itself was just as silvery blue as it had been described, but I assumed it had something to do with the rocks all around it, since once it was in the bottles it looked as normal as water did.

Once we were rested up the only problem was trying to find a way across. Since the lake was practically a dead end from where we had been, the only way to continue was to explore for a way out was to cross. The water looked calm, and a quick glance at my PipBuck showed there was nothing hostile in it thanks to the E.F.S.. So we both jumped in and did our best to swim across. It had started to go fine as we had made it halfway there but right as we hit the center suddenly the kid was completely submerged underwater. At first I had thought he had taken a dive to swim a little faster, but when he didn’t resurface I began to panic. Acting on instinct I inhaled deeply and dove under the water myself, doing my best to look for the kid.

It took a few sweeps but I manage to catch sight of the little guy wildly fighting what looked to be a small whirlpool that was feeding even deeper underground. Apparently it had managed to catch his small frame and was just strong enough to barely hold him in place. As fast I could, which wasn’t very fast at all, thank to how much stuff was with me, I swam over to him and pulled him up and away from the whirlpool. Once we broke the surface He started coughing and sputtering but was otherwise okay. However I could tell he was exhausted after that ordeal. Doing the best I could I carried him to the other side of the shore and pulled ourselves out.

Panting from overexertion I suddenly blinked at the realization that I could’ve used my magic to make the whole damn swim easier for the both of us. That was when I gave myself a facehoof and chuckled at my stupidity. A few moments later I shook myself dry and looked on ahead, It was hard to make out the details, but I could’ve sworn I was seeing a small beam of golden light in the very back. I felt a new rush of excitement surge through me and I pointed it out to the Kid. Almost immediately we both took off running, galloping as hard as we could. I was right, there was a soft pale golden light at the end. It was coming from above and was shining directly into the cave up ahead. If those miners had bothered to explore just a bit further they could’ve saved themselves the effort of sealing the wall back up and just built an exit!

We reached the rock wall and both cheered and laughed as we looked directly up and saw a nice sized hole that we could both fit through. Warm sunlight was drifting through it and bathing us both. I know we had only been in the cave for little less than a day, but any exit was better than being trapped and dying of hunger. It looked like it was going to be a difficult climb, but having learned my lesson from the lake, I used my telekinesis to lift the Kid up high enough so he could climb out on his own and then used it on myself so I could make sure I had secured footing. It took me a bit longer since I weighed more, but I eventually managed to pull myself up and out from the mine, panting and smiling as I basked in the sun’s glow.

We took another ten minute break before I checked the map on my PipBuck. According to the screen, My entire trip through the mine and the mountains had actually saved me a bit of time. Dodge City appeared to be a good three hours walk from here.The only tricky part would be climbing down around the mountain so we could reach the road. I motioned to the Kid that we were leaving and we made our way over to the edge so we get a nice good look at the horizon from a rocky overlook.

It was beautiful. The sun was nearly done completely rising and it was a golden orange that bathed the entire region. The highway that ran through the Mustang Desert snaked its way throughout the land and the many dead trees that littered the ground were like little sticks of burning incense. Dodge City was in view too. It looked to be a completely industrious kind of place, all sorts of black smoke was rising into the air and there were all sorts of colors each a variety of red, black, and grey. This scene was breathtaking...Wait a minute. What the fuck had I just said? By squinting my eyes I could see what I thought I was seeing was completely wrong. Dodge City wasn’t industrious looking at all!

By Celestia’s glorious golden ass, Dodge City was in complete fucking ruin!

Level Up.
New Perk: Little Leaguer (1) - While using a mouth-held or levitated melee weapon, you gain a +5 to your melee weapons skill.
Quest Perk: Wired Reflexes - You gain +10% hit chance when using S.T.A.T.S.