Chapter 1 (15 years later):
I walk into the bar and ask the bartender for a bottle of Flim Flam gin. Yes, I know it's strong stuff, but I don't mind. I've had it plenty a time before with no issues.
The pub is a fairly large place, the walls and roof are (at least visibly) made of hardwood. The floor is carpeted in a nice shade of scarlet. The actual drinking area of the pub is mostly quiet and empty, apart from a few conversations between the three (out of about fifteen) occupied tables. The noises are coming more from the poker machines in the room off to the left, as is the colourful light show, of which I am very unappreciative of, due to the excessive amount of light I was exposed to during our weapons testing today.
The barrister hoofed me the bottle and I gave him his 5 bottle caps. He returned to slouching on the bar and hoping for another customer. I took a large gulp of the drink and began planning for tomorrow. I would go and... umm… yeah. I'd yeah, I thought, not being able to establish a straight line of thought.
Having nothing better to do and since my brain isn't working, I decided to ask out a hot and pretty mare who just walked in. I’d never be brave enough to ask a mare out usually… Eh, maybe something to do with the gin. The mare is Scarlet Moonlight, I just realised. Oh well.
“Hi Scarlet!” I called to her.
“Oh… Ummm… Hi.” She responded, seeming taken aback by my sudden entrance.
“Just wondering, would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow?”
“Err… No, you remember, right?” She raised an eyebrow, looking at me, “My barn doors don't swing that way.” I had completely forgotten that detail.
“Oh, yeah… Umm… Ok… Bye then.”
“Bye…”
I left the remainder of my drink and walked down to my room, jumped on the bed sadly and fell asleep.
*** *** ***
I awake with a start, loud alarms are blaring through the Stable and small red lights are flashing.
“Huh… W-what's going on…?” I ask myself. Wait, why the hell am I asking myself that?
“Evacuate! We’re under attack!” The Overmare's voice blasted from the speakers, repeating every half minute now, probably automated. Ironic though.
I hurriedly got out of bed, hovered on my saddlebags and walked out my door.
The left corridor is the one I need to go down but it's blocked off at the end by rubble. I had to go to the right, towards the armoury and hospital, although it's a detour.
I started galloping to the right. I know which directions to go, I just hope it's not too late and the other corridors haven't collapsed.
While I galloped, I looked left and right for doors that were still closed. It seemed that I was one of the last to wake, or at least to get out of my room. There is only one closed door left.
I stopped galloping and walked up to the door. I connected my GlimpseBuck into the door lock and began hacking. It wasn't too hard, after about a half a minute, the password is “Lollipops”. I chuckled at that. Strange password…
I pushed the door open and immediately wished I hadn’t. The roof of the room had collapsed, crushing the pony attempting to make it to the door. She was in a hurry, taking nothing but didn't quite make it. Her chest had exploded from the weight and there is blood and organs all over the floor. I closed the door and held back the urge to throw up.
I went back to galloping down the hallway again, before stopping a few metres later and throwing up on the floor, after my efforts to stop it. “Ugh…”
Once I am done emptying my stomach, I continued galloping whilst thinking "Should I stop at the armoury…? There might be something useful there. Probably something useful at the hospital too."
I am snapped out of my thoughts when the wall just behind me exploded. A large, metal-clad soldier-looking pony stepped out of the rubble. Two missile launchers came out from either side of his armour. Eeep!
“We are the Steel Rangers. Surrender or die.” His voice is deep and booming, quite scary actually.
I decided that surrender would probably not be particularly helpful anyway. I had heard as such in conversations between Wastelanders and other ponies in my Stable. So I turned tail and fled. The Steel Ranger fired two missiles directly at me. I quickly turned and bolted into the room next to me, the missiles very narrowly missing me and the explosion singing my tail.
I am in the school, I realised. The chairs were on all the tables, today being the last day of their school week, Friday. The whiteboard at the front of the class had been cleaned off and the projector is also off. There wasn’t likely any weapons I could use to hurt that thing, or any good place to hide in here.
I definitely needed to get to the armoury. Provided nopony else had thought of the same thing. Which I'm sure at least a few would've.
I darted through the other door to the classroom, the Steel Ranger just entering from the first door behind me. He fired another two missiles, this time singing my flank. I yelped in pain.
I kept galloping and turning corners, trying to lose the ranger. He must have an E.F.S. I quickly turned on my own and saw that there were, luckily, no hostiles on my way to the armoury. Actually, there were three friendlies in there. Though that means I may not be able to get my hooves on a weapon. I'm sure I can negotiate, if it comes to that.
I entered into the armoury and the three ponies there all aimed their weapons at me and I held up my hooves quickly. “Friendly, friendly, friendly!” I yelled, very afraid.
They lowered their weapons, thankfully. “Oh, h-hi Blaze…”
“Hi Forest. Look, greeting later, I've got a Steel Ranger on my tail!” I told them, getting out of the way of the door.
One of them eeeped. "Thanks for filling me with confidence in your fighting prowess and in your own confidence." Forest took cover behind the door, “Everyone, get ready. Blaze, take a gun.” he directed.
The other two also took cover and I quickly looked for anything. I took a small .9mm pistol and armour piercing rounds. The other ponies had a 50cal sniper, a submachine gun and some sort of plasma looking pistol thing that seemed like it had come out of a game on my GlimpseBuck.
Forest is a brown coated earth pony stallion, with a deep green mane. He is carrying the sniper, the pony carrying the submachine gun is a unicorn stallion and has a lime green coat, a brown-red mane, green eyes and a cutie mark of. The pony with the plasma pistol is a unicorn mare with a purple coat, yellow eyes and a shock of yellow mane. Her cutie mark is a light bulb.
I watched the Steel Ranger on my GlimpseBuck and scanned him via the basic interface. “He's got two missile launchers and stacks of ammo for it. We aren't going to be able to win waiting for him to run out. His armour is…” My GlimpseBuck took a second to measure the thickness. “12mm.” That's thick, isn't it…? I gulped.
As if echoing my own thoughts, Forest said “That's t-thick…” and whimpered.
The Steel Ranger rounded the corner and now stood at the end of the hall, the armoury on the opposite side. His missile launchers were ready, but luckily Forest managed to get him in the head with a 50cal bullet before he managed to fire off a missile. The Steel Ranger collapsed, a pool of blood forming around his head.
After I had recovered from the shock and noise of the Steel Rangers’ death, I asked the group, “So, what’s your plan?” I certainly hoped it wasn't to sit here. The Rangers have won this battle.
“We only just a-arrived here. Most of the w-weapons are already taken b-by other ponies. We’re planning to e-escape the Stable now.”
“Ok then, I'm sticking with you. I can get us around the hostiles and I guess, safety in numbers. Though I'm picking up a few more weapons before we move on. And some medical supplies.”
“Sure, but I t-think you'll be out of luck with w-weaponry. All the stronger t-things were taken by the f-first ponies…”
“Better than nothing.” I started walking around the armoury. Forest is right. All the plasma weaponry is gone and well, we never had magical weapons. Only conventional firearms available here. Still, I took a silenced 50cal sniper rifle and kept the pistol. I took 3 magazines for each and enough rounds to fill all the magazines. I strapped the sniper rifle on my back and placed the pistol in a holster.
“Ok, I'm ready to move. You?”
“Y-yes…”
“This way then.” I walked out the door, the three of them following me. Using my GlimpseBuck, I managed to steer clear of any Rangers and made it to the hospital in one piece.
I walked in the room, that is really more of a… medical bay than a full on hospital. It’s all white and polished, with tiled flooring. There is a surgical table in the centre of the room with sharp implements like scalpels on a shiny metal bench next to it. On three sides of the room, attached along the roof are storage cupboards. There are also drawers and a sink around the same sides of the room. Beneath the cupboards and above the drawers on the right side of the room is a large glass window overlooking the Stable lobby and showing the way out. Unfortunately, there are three Steel Rangers guarding said exit.
I ignored them for now and opened up the full interface scanner on my GlimpseBuck. I felt a short jab of pain under my GlimpseBuck as the visual interface needle dug into my hoof. “Ouch.”
There is a choice of needle or goggles when you buy a GlimpseBuck, I went with the needle. Although it hurts very slightly, it doesn't hurt your eyes and it isn't bulky. Most of the Wastelanders choose the needle option for the bulky reason and so it would be harder to be stolen.
My vision temporarily fogged up, then cleared, revealing a world of orange, red and green. I really needed to remember to change the default distance on this thing. I changed the distance to 50m, my vision fogged again then cleared, supplies now highlighted in an orangey glow through the cupboards and drawers. The three Steel Rangers came up highlighted in red and the three friendlies showed up in green.
I took a medium restoration potion, a few small restoration potions, a couple of healing bandages and a splint. Just incase, can't be too careful.
The other three ponies had taken a few things for themselves too, I could see.
“Ok, now, I've got all I need. I assume you three do to?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, we can't make it out of the stable with the three Steel Rangers down there, we either take them out or distract them. Pick your target, once I shoot you two pick the other two off, ok."
“O-ok.” They walked up to the window side of the room and crouched behind the drawers, weapons aimed at one of the Steel Rangers.
I quickly glanced at each of them, their weapon, armour and health information showing up on the HUD of the GlimpseBuck.
I took the sniper rifle from my back and lined it up against the strongest Steel Ranger, the one equipped with a set of missile launchers.
“Ready?”
“A-as I'll ever be…”
I took the shot, penetrating the armour and killing the first Steel Ranger. He dropped to the ground and blood gushed from the hole in his head and stared to pool around him, forest was too frightened to shoot the other one.
The two left Steel Rangers immediately saw their comrade fall and took a battle stance, using their E.F.S. to spot us up here. The battle saddle on the first one roared to life, a green glow emanating from it. The second ones’ machine gun battle saddle began shooting a lot sooner than his friends, completely smashing the glass and tearing holes into the cupboard.
The plasma pistol pony quickly bobbed up and shot at the plasma Steel Ranger, dissolving a part of his armour and burning his flank, where it hit. The Ranger managed to stand steady and his weapons began firing, dissolving the cupboard we were using as cover.
We all quickly backed up, but not quickly enough. The pony with the submachine gun is hit with a plasma bolt to the chest and collapsed in agony. I quickly floated him further back and applied magical bandages to the wound. The plasma pistol pony looked quite afraid and a little sad.
Forest, with his sniper, moved forward and let off a shot. It completely missed, chipping away some of the floor in the lobby. He backed up again, into cover.
I decided to try for another shot and so levitated out my pistol, changing the ammo clip to an armour penetrating ammo clip. I moved forward, out of cover and shot, managing to hit the plasma Steel Ranger in the chest. He collapsed, bleeding heavily but I could see the armour is already trying to patch up the damage. I moved back into cover before I could get another shot off, afraid I’d get hit by the machine gunner.
The plasma pony and Forest both moved up again and took shots. The plasma pistol pony’s shot hit the plasma Steel Ranger again, now dissolving a large part of his chest. Ribs and a few organs closer to the ground survived the shot but still no way he is getting out of it. Forests’ shot managed to hit the machine gunner in the leg, who almost fell over, then righted herself and continued shooting.
She got off a lucky bullet and hit Forest in the head, killing him. His body fell onto the ground backwards, blood spraying from the hole just above his right eye.
The plasma pony quickly backed away, looking quite afraid now.
I moved up again and took a shot at the last Steel Ranger. It managed to hit her in the neck, killing her instantly.
I looked around and saw the plasma Steel Ranger. And promptly threw up into the lobby below. I really hope I'm not going to be seeing this stuff often…
I turned around to face the plasma pony and the other wounded submachine pony. “What do we do with Forest? And with… what's your name?” I ask, looking at the submachine pony.
“I'm Bright Spark. And he's Lime Sarsaparilla. And as far as Forest… I dunno… as far as Lime, healing bandages, I guess.” Answered the plasma pony. I almost giggled at Lime’s name. I would've done, had the situation not been so dire.
“Do healing bandages heal plasma burns?”
“I dunno…” I sighed.
“Well, we're not leaving him here. Come on.” I deactivated the full interface on my GlimpseBuck, feeling the needle retract and the simple band-aid being applied. My vision faltered once more, then returned, back to normal. I didn't like the blue tinge that the full interface gave everything. Nor did I need to know where everything is all the time. And it is a little bit uncomfortable.
“Ok…” said Bright Spark, sounding quite unsure of our plan to keep Lime alive.
I floated the three of us out the broken window, taking the direct route to the exit and avoiding looking at the gory corpse of the plasma Steel Ranger. The lobby is very large and has a glass roof, letting in the little light that all the dust coating it and the cloud cover can allow. Just up ahead is the entrance and/or exit. The X-Ray and metal detector had collapsed and the two robots that would usually monitor them were almost completely obliterated. Just past that is the shattered revolving door that led ponies into the Stable.
I walked up and out of the Stable door, Lime in a magical grip and Spark walking behind.
*** *** ***
The wide expanse of the Wasteland stretched out in every direction, the view only impeded by the Stable behind me and Canterlot in front. I circled round, looking every direction. The Wasteland. Is. Massive.
It also didn't smell great.
I had never imagined it to be this big, because of the confines of the Stable. Everything is small in there. Even the lobby is only about 250m squared.
I spent about a minute taking in the sight of it all. Spark is doing the same, looking quite dumbfounded.
My trance is snapped when my GlimpseBuck bleeped at me. A message popped up, from Scarlet, “Hi Blaze. I just made it out of the Stable about 5 minutes ago. Where are you?”
Just thinking it would be a good idea, I flipped to my friends list and checked for greyed out names. Most of the names were as such, unfortunately. Killed by the Steel Rangers. Damn.
I reopened the messenger on my GlimpseBuck and responded to Scarlet, “Hi Scarlet. I've just escaped now, I'm at the entrance. I'll come to you. I've got one wounded and another following behind.”
I activated the full interface on my GlimpseBuck again, tapping on each of the green dots being too tedious. The needle inserted into my hoof, my vision blurred and then returned. I set the radius to 1km and my vision blurred and cleared again.
I turned on the tagging feature and names appeared above all the ponies within the 1km radius. I soon spotted Scarlet’s name and began walking. “Come on Spark, this way.”
“I'd prefer my full name, please.” She mentioned, beginning to walk behind me now.
I sighed. “Ok, sure, Bright Spark…”
“Thank you.”
Taking the time I had, I quickly opened my GlimpseBuck settings and changed the default distance to 1km. If the whole Wasteland is like this, I wouldn't need to worry about my vision becoming too filled with items. Though I don’t think it is all like this. The Cloudsdale ruins near and Canterlot in the distance should be a lot less sparsely filled.
I plugged in my earbloom and turned on DJ Pon3’s broadcast. No matter how short a walk, it is still nice to listen to her good music. Her actual broadcast, I suspected I would be listening to a lot more, now that I guess i'm a WasteLander. One of Sweetie Belle’s songs is on.
“How can I fix this? How many times must I try? Please, this time, let me get it right!”
I switched off the radio, since I didn't like this song. I instead opened up the music app and scrolled through the songs I had. Hmmm… songs… Lonely Colt.
I played the song until we soon reached Scarlet, then I stopped it and pulled out my earbloom.
“Hi Scarlet.”
“Hello. So, introduce me to these two please?”
“This one,” I said, motioning to Lime Sarsaparilla, “Is Lime Sarsaparilla. And t-”
“I'm Bright Spark.” Interrupted Bright Spark. I sighed.
“Hello Spark.”
“Bright Spark, please.”
“Hello, Bright Spark.”
“Hello Scarlet.”
“So, Lime is the wounded one, right? A plasma weapon?”
“Yes. Good… guess?”
“Heh, no, an assumption. It looks like one. Anyway, you've applied a healing bandage. Looking him over, he'll be ok with this. Should recover soon enough.”
“Ok, that's good. So, what's the plan?” I asked everypony.
“Well, Lime and I were going off towards Manehatten.”
“I'll just follow you, Blaze. Don't have any better plans.”
“Ok, well i'm planning for Manehatten too. So we stick together, at least for now.”
“Agreed.” Said both Bright Spark and Scarlet simultaneously.
“Well, first let’s get everything sorted out. Supplies and that. What do we have? I've got a 50cal silenced sniper rifle and a 9mm pistol. Enough ammo for a while for both of them. I've also got a medium restoration potion, a few small restoration potions, a few healing bandages and a splint.”
“No food?” Scarlet looked slightly worried at my priorities list.
“Whoops.”
“Mmhmm. Well, I've got us some food, a 9mm rifle, a few small and medium restoration potions and a tent.”
“And Lime and I have the submachine gun, plasma pistol, some food, a few healing bandages, a couple of small restoration potions and another tent.”
“Ok good, all we need then.”
Scarlet coughed worriedly, as if to get our attention. “Any issues there Scarlet?”
“Just that we… we don't have any drinks.”
“Oh.” I hatched up a virtually flawless plan in a few seconds though. “Who's up to go back home?”
Scarlet sighed and Bright Spark gulped.
*** *** ***
The three of us walked back into the Stable, guns at the ready. We had left Lime Sarsaparilla in the care of a few other ponies that escaped. Bright Spark seemed to know and trust them. I had also activated the full interface on my GlimpseBuck, so we could avoid the Steel Rangers and get straight to the canteen. I also checked that there were actually drinks left over, luckily there are a few purified water bottles and sparkle cola cans.
I walked back into the lobby and levitated the three of us up into the hospital/medbay. What wasn't taken previously has been now, hopefully by other Stable residents, rather than the Steel Rangers.
I carefully navigated us through the corridors towards the canteen.
There were only eight Steel Rangers still in the complex, who seemed to be guarding it. The others had left, luckily not worrying about the other survivors within a few km of the Stable. The eight were stationed with three that had just moved to the entrance again, three at the armoury and the other two roaming the halls. It's so useful that these modern GlimpseBucks can be set to block off tracking from others. I'm sure we would've gotten into a fight without it.
We soon reached the canteen and spread out the supplies. We each got an equal amount of the water bottles and sparkle cola cans.
We moved back to the medical bay and took cover, no issues on the way there.
I whispered to the others, “Ok, I'll take the one on the left, Scarlet, you get the middle and you take the one on the right, Bright Spark.”
“Ok.” They both replied simultaneously again. This is beginning to creep me out a little. Oh well.
I lined up my sniper to the Rangers’ head. Moonlight switched out her rounds to armour piercing and lined up her rifle with the head of her Ranger. Bright Spark lined up her plasma pistol with her Rangers’ head.
“3… 2… 1.” I took the shot, as did Scarlet and Bright Spark.
Scarlet and I’s Rangers both fell, dead, a steady flow of blood coming from both their wounds. Bright Sparks’ Rangers’ armour on his head dissolved, but he is still mostly fine. He cried out in pain and spun around to face us.
All three of us ducked behind our cover and he took a battle stance as missile launchers extended from both sides of his armour. “Shoot him again, Bright Spark!” I called out, hoping the Ranger wouldn't be able to launch a missile at us quickly enough.
Bright Spark quickly popped up from out of cover and burned his head to a crisp, but not quite fast enough. The Ranger let off two missiles just as he fell and they went wild.
They flew around the room for a few seconds, before crashing into the roof and exploding. The glass smashed and the roof supports crumbled. I grabbed the three of us in a levitation bubble and floated us out of the roof and onto solid ground quickly.
“It won't be long until the other Rangers come out after that!” Yelled Bright Spark. I have no idea how she got her name.
The five red Steel Ranger outlines were quickly coming towards the lobby. “We've got to block it up. Ummm… do we have some type of bomb? To collapse the roof completely?” And at that second, the rest of the roof crumbled in with a loud crash. “No worries…”
*** *** ***
After we regained our bearings and met back up with Lime, who is now able to walk, we did one final check before we began on our trip to Manehatten. “So, we've got everything this time, right?” I asked the group.
“Food, check. Drinks, check. Medical supplies, check. Weapons, check.” Responded Bright Spark, flipping through all our things.
“Off we go, then!” Scarlet is strangely enthusiastic, to the point of making me feel slightly scared for her mental health.
We all slung on our saddlebags and started walking toward the pre-war Manehatten railway, planning to follow it to Manehatten. It'd be a very long trip, going across half of Equestria, probably about two weeks, but at least we'd be able to get a few of things done in Manehatten. In Tenpony tower, to be precise. I'd heard of it through the Wastelanders passing through the Stable.
*** *** ***
It only took us about 15 minutes to make it to the railway. It is very much in disrepair, weeds growing up between the sleepers, sections of track missing or buried and the leftover track has rust on it.
From here I could assume that the track took us through Canterlot Mountain and a few smaller towns. I heard that Canterlot itself is very dangerous; I'm just hoping that the same isn't true for the tunnel that I think is dug into Canterlot Mountain.
I decided to check how dangerous it is with my GlimpseBuck. I opened it up and went to the map and zoomed in on the tunnel. There were already several red dots, labelled as Canterlot Ghouls, then a warning flashed up when I told it to scan the tunnel for Pink Cloud.
GlimpseBuck:
Scan Report for Canterlot Tunnel:
WARNING:
-High Pink Cloud saturation (950,000 parts per million)
Well. No chance of using that tunnel. “Hey, everypony. We can't follow the track through the tunnel. It's full of Pink Cloud.” I got a befuddled look from Bright Spark. “The meld-things-with-other-things gas. We’ll walk around the North side of the mountain instead, ok?”
Everypony nodded in agreement. At least they didn't need any convincing.
*** *** ***
BLAM!
A bullet narrowly missed Lime’s head, shooting through his mane. “It's a trap!” Bright Spark called out. She really has a knack for pointing out the obvious. I felt like facehoofing, but unfortunately, there is no time.
The four of us ducked behind a fallen train carriage, trying to figure out where the bullet came from. I activated the full interface and four red dots appeared. “Four of them. One in the carriage, right in front of Lime. Sniper in the bush, over there.” I motioned towards the bush that concealed the sniper, on the other side of the railway. “Other two are behind the other carriage, over there.” Motioning to the carriage that had fallen to the other side of the track. They had us surrounded before. Had they been better at planning ambushes and aiming, all four of us would be dead. Eeep.
We all took out our weaponry, except for me. I concentrated and harnessed the mare in the carriage in a magical grip, then floated her up, taking away her gun, an easy shot for the other three. She is terrified; she is crying, screaming and flailing to get out of my grip. I felt sorry for her and let her go, but as she fell into the carriage again, a plasma bolt hit her in the chest, killing her after several seconds of her screaming in agony.
I pulled out my pistol now and jumped into the carriage quickly, pushing the melted mares’ body away. Scarlet advanced and jumped into the carriage too, next to me. The other two were shooting from around the sides of the carriage.
I activated SATS and bobbed from cover, taking a shot at the sniper. Not that it would be likely he would get much damage into us from such close range. My bullet hit home and lodged itself in his head. He fell down, dead, blood flowing from the wound next to his left eye. I quickly ducked back down into my cover.
I heard a yelp as Lime got struck with a bullet in his shoulder. I magically floated him back into cover, since he couldn't move himself back. The wound didn't look too bad, luckily, though Bright Spark rushed to his side.
I heard something clink against the floor and looked to my left. There is a strange looking silver apple. Scarlet is also looking at the device inquisitively. I remember hearing something about silver apples from some Wastelanders I talked to a few days back. Ummm…
My thoughts were interrupted when a virtual PipBuck message appeared over it.
“Grenade – Timer: 5 seconds.” Oh, a grenade. Is that all? I really needed to get my GlimpseBuck to perform slightly faster in situations like this, though. I'm sure there's some setting to change so that it dedicates more power to combat related things.
I quickly took the grenade in my magical grip and threw it back at the two raiders behind the carriage and it promptly exploded. I saw a few chunks of them splatter around the back end of the carriage. I gingerly floated the chunks out of view, behind the carriage.
Scarlet jumped out to behind the carriage again and looked at Lime’s wound. He seems to be rather unlucky today.
“Ok, I'm going to have to take out the bullet. This may hurt.” Scarlet told Lime as comfortingly as she could. Bright Spark hugged Lime.
“Mm-mmhmm…” is all Lime could utter.
Scarlets’ horn glowed blue and the bullet floated out of the wound. Lime grunted in pain and tensed up as it did so.
Scarlet discarded the bullet, then applied a medical bandage to Lime’s wound. “It should be useable again soon. It'll heal completely in about one or two days. Oh, by the way, the plasma wound should be healed completely within five days.” Damn, this means I'll have to be floating him for a little longer. Also that plasma weaponry is of a significantly higher magnitude than normal bullets. I guess I should expect that.
I decided to keep up my full interface, at least for now, to help avoid future ambushes. I then took Lime in my levitation field and floated him up behind us. “Well, let's continue walking. I'm keeping up my interface to avoid another ambush, by the way.”
“Good idea. Now, this way!” Piped Scarlet. Bright Spark nodded in agreement and started moving.
“Wait.” I looked up and behind me, realising it is Lime who is speaking. “We should loot them. Get more ammo and supplies.”
“Oh yeah, ok.” I replied, not feeling morally right about this but knowing that it could be very important later on. Scarlet and Bright Spark nodded again, also looking not quite happy with this.
I moved over to the sniper pony and placed Lime down next to him too. Scarlet and Bright Spark went to loot the mare in the carriage. I reluctantly pulled off his saddlebags and searched through them, taking a few 50cal rounds and a bottle of what looked like clean water. The GlimpseBuck scanned it and confirmed it is clean.
I didn’t worry about checking the two exploded raiders, since I didn't want to see their chunks of flesh again and because my GlimpseBuck indicated there is nothing back there to loot anyway.
Scarlet and Bright Spark jumped out of the carriage and walked over to Lime and I. I noticed that Scarlet now had a bobby pin in her hair, which made her look slightly more attractive, for some reason.
Bright Spark informed me of what they had collected, “A fair few 9mm rounds and another 9mm pistol.” Scarlet whispered something to Bright Spark, probably about the bobby pin, because the next thing Bright Spark said is “Oh yeah. And this bobby pin.” She pointed at the bobby pin in Scarlets’ hair.
Bright Spark moved to Lime and placed the pistol into a holster in his Stable barding, then kissed him on the forehead. Something tells me they're in a relationship. Just hope it doesn't get in the way of anything important. When I came back to the real world, I realised that Lime and Bright Spark were kissing passionately and Bright Spark had climbed on top of Lime and is rubbing against him. I blushed and looked away, as Scarlet is doing. Definitely in a relationship.
Once they were done, I took Lime back into my magical grip. “Ok, ponies, let's get going.” I told the others.
Scarlet again reacted a little too excited. “Yay!”
*** *** ***
“Ok everypony, about time to get to sleep.” I told the group, knowing from stories that it'd be dangerous to be walking around after it got dark. “Let's get a little away from the track first.” Knowing, from the same stories, that it would also be a good idea to sleep at least a kilometre off the road. “A kilometre should do.”
We walked about a kilometre away from the track and set up camp. In the day, we had managed to cover slightly under a third of the way to Canterlot.
We sat down in a circle after setting up all the tents and took off our saddlebags. I used a light spell and created a makeshift campfire that would be harder to see from afar than a regular one.
Scarlet took a few cans of tomato out of her bags and hoofed one out to each of us. Everypony thanked her and she hoofed a can opener around. We all opened our cans of tomato and began to eat.
“So, sleeping arrangements?” I asked, since we would need to sort it out soon. “Who’s sleeping with who? We’ve only got the two tents.”
Bright Spark immediately responded “I’m with Lime.” and Lime looked quite happy with that arrangement and nodded.
“That leaves us together, Scarlet.” I mentioned to her.
“I’m fine with that.” she responded.
“Ok, that's good.”
*** *** ***
“Good morning, sleepyhead!” Scarlet called happily as I roused from my slumber.
“Uhhh… Morning…”
“It's 11AM already.” She had a big smile on her face, despite that.
“Oh, damn it. Why didn't you wake me earlier?”
“I tried, you just wouldn't wake.”
“You three had breakfast?”
“Yep, just waiting for you to.”
“Well, I'll try not to delay us any longer.”
Scarlet and I put on our saddlebags and walked out of the tent.
An opened but uneaten can of mixed oats floated in front of me, wrapped in a blue coloured levitation field. I took the can, “Thank you, Scarlet.”
“You're welcome.” She responded as I sat in our circle. I noticed that Lime and Bright Sparks’ tent is already packed away.
I ate through the oats and popped the empty can magically back into Scarlets’ saddlebags.
Scarlet and I stood up. “So, you can figure out how to pack up the tent?” I asked her. After yesterday, when she had inadvertently collapsed the tent, I didn't want to take any chances.
“Yes, thank you.” She said in a slightly annoyed tone. For some reason, she seemed to take offence in my referencing of that moment.
She started packing up the tent and I helped where she messed up a few bits.
We placed the folded tent into Scarlets’ saddlebags and everypony stood up and put on their own saddlebags. “Off we go!” Still scarily enthusiastic. Wherever Scarlet gets her enthusiasm from, I have no idea.
*** *** ***
We had been walking for about a quarter of the day, when we reached a small prewar town. My GlimpseBuck referred to it as "".
Most of the buildings had been made of wood and collapsed. The majority of them have only one or two walls. I still had my full interface open and it showed a fair amount of ammo in a small concrete building near the end of the main road. Probably an armoury.
The other buildings were sparsely filled with 200 year old cakes, sparkle cola and irradiated, dirty water.
"Are we going to worry about all the buildings? Most of them just have food and irradiated drink. The one down the end there, though, is an armoury." I mentioned to the group.
We had a vote and the result is just to explore the armoury. We walked down the foreboding, downtrodden main street. My GlimpseBuck didn't register anything, so I felt completely safe. As to the rest of the group, well, Bright Spark is shaking and huddled against Lime, who had regained the skill of walking overnight.
We walked in through the door of the armoury, even though we could've just as easily walked through the hole in the wall next to it.
The armoury still has three walls, the missing one being the side of which the door is on. The room is still dark, despite the missing wall. Luckily, the GlimpseBuck fixed that. Though the others probably couldn't see. I cast a light spell, which illuminated the room.
One thing GlimpseBucks should have is a scanner for corpses.
The vile smell of rotting bodies floats through the air. There are bodies splayed around the room. Many of them have been dismembered or disembowelled. This time round, I managed to fight back the urge to throw up successfully. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing…
It looks as if it was a knife fight, judging from the bloodied knives that lay next to most of the corpses or dug into them. At least I don’t need to worry about all raiders having guns, I’ll be able to kill those ones off easily. Wait, did I just think that?! That’s scary…
I disregarded my recent thoughts and went to taking the ammo. All the guns were taken a long time ago.
The four of us managed to scavenge a fair bit of ammo. Enough, at least, to make it through three days. And we’ll be stocking up every time we defeat a raider party.
