Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Chapter 1: New Beginnings
By: ThunderWing
"Sometimes our only hope, Can lead to our inevitable demise... Or not, that always works too!"
I woke up feeling woozy. I still couldn't see out of my eye. I lifted a hoof and touched the bandages over my empty socket. But, It wasn't empty.. there was something hard behind it, loosely held by the bandage. I started pushing the bandage up. Jus' a little farther... The doctor walked in suddenly and I nearly had a heart attack, I fell back onto the bed with a creak of the wood support. "Oh, your awake! Wonderful!" The doc said as he walked towards the side of my bed, a small teen mare trailing him. She must be his apprentice. I don't know how they do it in other stables, but here, as soon as we are 10 years old we can get an apprenticeship. from there on we can hop through a number of jobs till we get our cutiemark, which usually appears within a year of searching. For those foals gifted enough to get their cutiemark before the age of 10, well they usually are treated as prodigies. Separated and given special treatment. As it was, I was one of those prodigies. I got my cutiemark when I tried to sweet-talk my way out of trouble with my mother. I mean COME ON it was only one drink of her cider! But nope, I got in trouble and I got the cutiemark of a microphone. Public Speaking.
I hated it. Just because I am good at talking everyone expected me to be elected next in line for Overmare, or in my case, Overstallion. I didn't like my cutiemark, I like science, I want to help ponies. Not just lead and let others work on it for me. It might be possible to do both.. While I was deep in thought I realized the Doctor and his assistant were looking at me funny. "Oh uh.. sorry" I scratched the back of my head and gave a small shrug, "I wasn't listening to well, can you repeat?" His apprentice giggled. I felt a little embarrassed, she was a cute mare to be honest, and I made myself look bad. "Well, I noticed that you were trying to remove your bandage. I would not recommend that, because the bandages are holding your new implants into your eye until the microbots can build the Blood Stream Roots. So, wait a week to take the bandages off, ok?" The doc said as the mare, who I now realized was a unicorn, was floating out paper and scribbling down notes.
"Yeah, I think I can wait a week. Seems a little long, but I'll deal with it" I said. "That's all then, you can head back to your room, if you want" He said. I nodded and got out of the bed, my legs slightly wobbled from the, now wearing off, anesthetic. I told the doc thanks then walked out into the medical wings' main hall. I headed for the Central lobby. The Lobby was one of the most visited parts of 101. It was a large circular room with halls going out in 8 directions. There was one lobby per level and there were 19 levels. Med wing happens to be on level 6. which is also the level I lived on. At least I wouldn't have to go up or down the main stairwell. I trotted over through the widely populated lobby, getting a few "Get well soon"'s and even a couple hugs. I almost missed Sugar Cream as I walked by, startled by her new mane style. She was talking to one of the side vendors. Side vendors were ponies who sold their of hoof-crafted decor, fee of any major business. I looked back towards Sugar; me and here are both prodigies, we went to the same school classes together and she is my best friend since we were foals. "Hello Sugar!" I said as I happily trotted up to her. She turned around, quite startled, "Hello Carbon! You scared me there. don't sneak up on me" She tried to remain serious except the look broke down and we both snickered. "Oh, yes I wanted to ask. How is your eye doing? It looks like they've got it all covered up" She said as she grabbed my face and inspected my bandages. She was rather obnoxious for her age. We were both 18. But i didn't mind, I just felt a little weird having her inspect me. She let go, " Can we take off the bandages? whats It look like under them?" I thought for a moment, the doctor had said I got an implant of sorts, but I was the only pony who had an eye implant in the whole stable, so I did not know what to compare to. "No, I can't take off the bandages for another week. But I do know that it is some kind of eye implant" I said. She looked at me and smiled, "well ok, I really must get going, I have a filly's cutecinera to plan! yay" And with a hug and a nod she bounced off, on a trip to collect party supplies. We all had jobs, Almost always based on out cutiemark. Sugar Creams' was a bunch of streamers and a confetti popper. She basically ran every party in the stable. I worked in the science labs down on level 8. There we discovered new innovations and such. Mostly for the cybernetics industry. I paused then I took a look around to find the right hallway, when I found it I started trotting down to my room.
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The week proved to be as antsy as I initially thought it would be. I was just itching to remove my bandage. I was trotting quite enthusiastically to the med bay. As I walked in i was greeted by the doctors' apprentice. " Hello, You must be looking for the doctor. He will be here shortly, just clearing up a few issues with another patient. Why not take a seat?" She said cheerfully. "I didn't quite catch your name," I said while walking towards the sitting area. "Oh, my name is Pink Heart. But you can call me Pink!" She giggled a bit. "Ok, Pink, nice to meet you. My name is Carbon Steel. But you can call me Carbon," I said with emphasis, "So, How did a pretty mare like you find a life in the med bay? I mean, I'm sure you could work at a store and get a few extra bits out of whoev-"
"PINK! Quick come help me!" The Doctor shouted. Pink rushed into one of the rooms. I could see through the door a bit. I looked through the crack to see one of the security ponies I'd scouted with. He was being held to the bed, frothing and shaking terribly. "I don't know what happened! I was checking out his body for any bites or anything. I know it is a week late but I was to busy with patients and I figured it wouldn't matter. Shows just what I know! He was bit my some tick-like parasite. When I removed it he started shaking and frothing!" The doctor looked very panicked. Then Pink tried to remain somewhat calm and said, "We need to get him to isolation, Fast. We cant risk the whole population of the stable getting infected with... with whatever this is!"
They Promptly rushed his bed into the Isolation room where he was sealed in a glass chamber to be worked on by the med-bots. Then they came out and instructed me to follow them. I did so and was promptly sealed in another glass chamber directly across from the Security Bucks' cell. I was literally freaking out. I hated being trapped, unable to move. "Sorry, you will have to remain quarantined until we know what is killing him" The doc pointed at the twitching buck. "Wait! Don't leave me here!" I started to shout, scared of being in the same room as the sick pony, even if we were separated by glass. But the doctor just said, "we must, I'm sorry. The med bot will remove your bandages." And with that he walked out the door. Well shit.
I looked op and a hatch opened in the ceiling, the med-bot floated down, I could see its levitation Gem on the bottom. It began to snip the bandages off my face and I reached up to touch the cold rough metal covering where my eye used to be. I slowly walked up to the mirror and saw it, my new eye. The med bot promptly plugged it into a magic spark cord and it powered up. I could see everything almost as clearly as before. It was almost like having my Pipbucks' Eyes Forward Sparkle on all the time. The eye could gauge distance and functioned as a focused targeting system. I was pretty amazed. It looked... well, different. As much as I liked being able to see. It wasn't the same as a real eye. Nevertheless I took a look around the room trying to ignore my implant. There was abed in the corner, a sink and toilet. and a little desk. Cramped, but livable.
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Days passed and the bucks' condition got worse and worse. The med bot kept taking blood samples from both of us. I heard the disease was spreading. The doctors must not have gotten him quick enough. Ponies were dying. I don't know why they kept me in isolation though. It didn't make sense. I heard my mother had been among the dead. The buck across from me was dead a day later. His skin had completely melted off his body. It was horrifying. And! My own MOTHER had died that way. As I was thinking, the doctor walked in, dressed in a quarantine suit. "You are released Carbon. I am sorry we kept you in here while your mother died. You have to understand, we kept you in here because you seem to resist infection. We know you are immune, but we couldn't devise a cure. I'm sorrry..." I nodded quietly and understandingly as he opened the door. I turned to him. "When is the next scouting mission. I was thinking a lot in isolation and I decided it might be the only chance to save the rest of the stable." The doctor looked at me in confusion, "wait, haven't you listened to the stable broadcasts on your pipbuck? The Overmare announced that all scout missions to the surface will be canceled permanently."
"What??" I asked. "Why?!" The doctor nodded towards the buck, barely twitching anymore. "I am going to talk to her," I ran out and headed towards the Overmare's office. When I reached the office I took a quick look around. The overmares' office was a large room with a desk as the centerpeice. there were bookshelves lining the wall with books on the history of the world and the stable. All the leaders of Stable 101 were responsible for keeping a record of all the happenings of the stable. As it is well known, our government system is different then old equestria. We elect our leaders, and plenty o ponies like this idea. Each Overstallion or Overmare will run the office for a 10 year term and are given an executive ability to control the stable. There had been a grand total of 23 Overmare's and Overstallion's, though, with the way this disease is going, it looks like there will be no more terms. Then I looked at her, the Overmare was there at her desk filing papers in a gas mask of sorts. "Overmare, we need to send out another mission to the surface, it's our best chance to save the stable!" She looked at me calmly. Does she not understand how important this is?! "We cannot make it through this. All out ponies will die. It was a good run, but everything has to end."
"A GOOD RUN?! are you crazy?" I slammed my hooves on her desk. "We have to leave the stable, spread out. Make it hard for the disease to transmit. OR we could even go out to look for a cure!" I slammed my hoof down again hard. "We must do something!" She looked at me with a level head and pressed a the intercom button, "Security to Overmares' office." The security immediately trotted in and put their hooves on my shoulders. "Please escort Mr. Steel from my office. Detain him in his room until further notice." I shrugged them off me and growled at the Overmare, but i cant do anything about it with the guards on my flanks. I slowly and grudgingly turned around and walked to the door.
The guards flanked me towards my room, following closely. I looked at them out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the right one had a small bump on his ankle. It must've been an injury in the recent years. I wondered just how much force it would take to knock him down. I looked at the other guard, he was looking at a mare that just passed by. I made the decision and kicked the leg out from under the guard on my right. The other guard was alerted and I turned assuming a crouched stance. I engaged my Pipbucks' S.A.T.S and brought a hoof down on the back of his neck while the world moved in slow motion. He collapsed beneath me. I made sure they both were still alive before I ran off towards the lobby. I burst into the lobby and two of the guards patrolling the room saw me. I ran past at full speed, climbing the central stairwell as fast as my hooves could carry me. I reached the main entrance and tried to remember what the guard punched in and started pressing numbers on the keypad. To my surprise the machines whirred and the giant claw lowered from the roof. I turned to the open door to hear shouts of guards coming up the stairs. I ran and locked the door and pushed a crate in front of it. Steam poured from the door as the gear shape was pulled from place. I heard the slamming of hooves on the door as the guards tried to break in to stop me from leaving. I stood on the edge of freedom then took one last look at home. I thought about all the ponies dying, their bodies melting and I whispered, "I'll be back for you. I promise." Then I ran.
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I trotted through the darkening woods. My stomach growled with every step. I looked down at my body, "Can you be a little quieter. You will alert those wolf things." I trotted on and my stomach disobeyed. It kept getting louder and louder till I decided to eat some of the tree leaves. It didn't matter if they were irradiated(though I found out they were clean later. After an hour or two of pure worry) It spared me from a much worse death of being killed by whatever lurks in these woods.
I looked up at the grey cloud covered sky. Nearly dusk. How far did I go? Will the guards chase me? No. The Overmare wouldn't let them risk any more disease carriers. At least I wouldn't have to worry about that. Wait, where am I going again? I tried to remember the old maps from school, and started heading in the direction of Ponyville. Maybe there are survivors, who knows? I suppose I will find out soon enough. I noticed I was going up an incline. Hmm, Maybe I could see Ponyville from the top. I started trotting up, then I saw it, the most beautiful tree I'd ever seen. A faded yellow bark with willow leaves of pink. It gently swayed in the breeze, A great monument in the dark trees of the surrounding forest. I slowly took a few steps forward as the wind made a blood curdling moan. The sound was like a thousand mourning ponies. "What are you?" A squirrel scurried out in front of me into the blue ivy on the ground. It was instantly turned into a pile of flayed meat. I backed away as the moan pierced the air again. The dead meat slowly slipping under the layer of ivy.
I ran as far around it as I could. Trying to keep away from all things blue. I felt safer with knowledge. I always had. Working in the science wing did that to you. But I had no possible knowledge of what was soon to come next. I was not prepared in the slightest. As I ran, I finally broke through the tree cover and there it was, in the distance, a glimmer of hope for me in the dark world. Ponyville...
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk added: Weakness Targeting: Level 1: You can now look at your enemies and spot weakness from the outside of their body.
Chapter 2: Think
By: ThunderWing
“Do you really ever use your brain? Or is it that you are too blind to see the world ahead of you?”
I walked out into the open field that lay before me. The grass was in decay and the small shacks were rotting. The closer I got to Ponyville, the thicker the destruction got. I looked around a bit, scouting for life, only to be greeted by a pony skull resting on a sharpened post. It still reeked of blood and death, and I almost lost my lunch, but I didn’t eat lunch so I just gagged. The whole town seemed to smell this way in the breeze. The air seemed to be coming from a tree at the northern area of town. My Pipbuck Identified it as ‘Twilight Sparkle’s Library’.
I started towards the tree just as I heard a high pitched scream coming from my destination. It was a pony’s voice, or so I believed; I didn’t know any pony could scream that loud. I ran towards the tree full speed, my eye using EFS to pick out all the red dots and one blue dot behind the walls. I may not be in security, but I knew what that meant. Trouble. I threw open the door only to be greeted by small arms fire. I quickly pulled the door shut. I picked up the decayed remains of a window shutter and lifted it in my teeth, figuring it would work as a weapon if I needed one. The shutter immediately started splintering and I heard the sound of insane laughter ahead of me. I looked at the nearest red dot and charged. I tackled him with all my body weight and dropped the shutter, pulling him over me as a pony shield. Much to my surprise, they still shot him. Not only that, but he was laughing.
“Why are you laughing??!” I yelled and he just responded with a hysterical giggle as he fell limp. I took his gun and returned fire. My S.A.T.S. locked on to a pony on the same floor as me. I shot him one, two, three times in the head and he went down like a rock. There was still fire coming from somewhere but I couldn’t see where. Then I saw a bullet streak down from above. I looked at the grinning face of my assailant and took one shot at his skinny neck and his head fell limp off his body. I looked around for more but didn’t see any.
I heard a slight noise of metal rolling and looked down at the metal apple between my legs. I lifted it in my hooves just in time to hear a quiet ticking and I threw it as hard as I could. It made it a grand total of about 5 hoof-lengths before it exploded, sending me flying against the wall. I looked towards the door it had come from. 3 red dots, one blue. There was a loud giggling coming from the room and munching noises. I shoved the door open to find the apple-thrower right in front of me. She looked up in excitement as I unloaded 2 SATS-guided rounds into her face, turning her snout and one eye into a bloody pulp. I looked on into the room to see racks of scalpels and butchering equipment lining the walls. There was a neon blue unicorn mare with a red mane strapped to a table. she had tears on her face and looked on the verge of passing out. But one thing stood out. Her leg was missing. Apparently cut off, I assumed, since the butcher’s knife was resting on the table near her.
I looked farther to see two ponies sitting at a table, ripping the leg apart with their teeth. I watched in horror. Then I burned with anger.
“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO A POOR MARE?! YOU MONSTERS!!” I screamed and lined up SATS and pulled the trigger.
*Click*
What?
*Click, click, click.*
The two ponies squealed in delight. “He’s out of ammo, hehehaha, we must be invincible, Buttercup,” the stallion said. Then the mare responded, “Celestia must’ve given us powers, wee-oooo.” She giggled some more. As if eating a defenseless mare wasn’t bad enough, they disgraced the goddess Celestia herself!
“ENOUGH!” I roared and charged the buck. I wrapped my body around his and pulled his neck to the side, snapping it with my brute force. The mare could not be dealt with the same way, though, due to her spiked armor. I sized her up and charged her, despite the spikes. I grabbed her throat and threw her to the ground, pushing down harder and harder as she began to choke to death. She finally fell limp and I spat in her face. Then my attention turned to the mare. She was breathing shallowly and shuddered every few breaths.
I looked into her eyes and held her hoof. “Hang on, pull through. I’m going to bring you back to my home. We can fix ya right up, ok?” She simply shook her head. “I am not even going to make it away from this damned tree alive. How can you expect me to make it to a stable?”
“What? How did you know?” I was confused. She coughed a bit and nodded towards my Pipbuck. “Stable ponies don’t know nothing. It’s the way you fight. different than me or anypony else. You fight with the guide of magic.” I assumed she referred to my SATS. “But, since you…” she was cut off by coughing,”As I was saying, since you are unaware of the horror of the surface, go get my saddlebag. It’s by the entrance. It should have a Guide to the wasteland, some food and some ammo….” she paused, “ Do better than me. Beat the wasteland. Survive…” Her breathing slowed to a stop and the life fell from her eyes. By this time, I was tearing up. I’d never seen anypony die so horribly before. Sure I’d seen flesh eating diseases. But this was worse, so much worse.
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I had searched the tree for ammo and food. I found a couple pre-war cans of beans, but I left the treehouse to eat them. The library was just too disgusting to eat in. I hate to say it, but the surface was not what I expected. Back in our stable we would have fixed her leg up right away. She would’ve gone on to maybe even have a family, but the wasteland denied her that. I hadn’t even known her name. How could this world have become so evil?
I stopped by a place called Sugarcube Corner to eat. It was at least half decent and didn’t reek of death. I opened my can and started to read “The Wasteland Survival Guide: Full Guide To All of Equestria. By: Ditzy Doo.” I made it about a quarter of the way through by the time I finished eating. I had always been a fast reader. It came in handy because I learned the importance of caps. I found a stash in the back. I counted about a hundred caps. A jackpot to the wandering stable pony. I slipped them into a bag and labeled it 100 with a sharpie. Then slipped it into the mare’s saddle bag that I took. She wouldn’t need it anymore.
I also found a healing potion in the back. I knew what it was because we had plenty in the stable’s clinic. I trotted out quietly, gun in mouth. The world ahead of me, the stable behind me. But that doesn’t mean I can’t think about it, right?
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I could head in any direction I pleased, but I decided to go north east. Towards Manehattan. At least I hoped that was where I was heading, as I attempted to remember the maps we learned about in school. The day was dreary, and all I could think about was how easily the med bay in Stable 101 could have saved the mare’s life and likely her leg had we been closer, or I faster. I kept thinking about it, why would this happen to a poor helpless pony like her? Who were those monstrous ponies who were eating her? Above all, why was I fine with the fact that I just shot and killed 5 ponies? Sure, they may be evil, but killing them isn't justice. It’s murder. Less than a day ago, I was innocent. Now… I’m not so sure anymore.
A tree had collapsed in the road, so I turned around and started heading back south to find a way around it. I saw a few buildings ahead, a barn, and an old home. The roof on the barn sagged low and looked as if it would collapse if you so much as breathed on it. But in the steeple there was a faint green glow. I looked around to make sure nopony was watching, then quietly darted inside.
I looked around with caution and managed to snag a few caps(Thanks Wasteland Survival Guide!). I headed upstairs towards where the glow had been coming from. I saw an old Terminal. Like the ones in the offices back in 101, but, as I said.. older. Mold had grown on the sides of the machine, but it still worked well enough I could get it to turn on. I looked at it and searched through the files. I found two. One was a description of how Stable’s operated. It was typed up on this very terminal. Signed by a few ponies. I squinted to see the names written on the screen.
Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo.
The names rung a bell, but I couldn’t quite put a hoof on it. Then I remembered, The 3 mares in charge of Stable-Tec. Towards the end of the war it was largely operated by Scootaloo, though. I also saw another file, a looping message that was relayed through this terminal. A poor old buck making a desperate cry for help as his colt died in a tunnel somewhere. I looked at the timestamp. 100 years too late.
I walked downstairs and into the barn, looking for salvage or more ammunition for my pistol. I found an ammo crate and started to unlock it with a knife and a few bobby pins I had picked up on my way out of the house. I had learned to pick locks before I went onto the surface the first time. They taught us the skill in case it could be put to use on a scouting mission. Haha, thank you for that.
I opened it, and it contained a few rifle rounds, several pistol rounds, and some explosive rifle rounds. I dumped it all in my saddle bag,looked around, then made a quick sweep outside. I found an old apple cellar. I trotted down and found a small cave. Curious, I went deeper. That’s when I saw the sealed door. A massive gear with a yellow ‘2’ painted on it, illuminated by a flickering lamp hanging from the ceiling. Another Stable….
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I pounded on the door for a few minutes, but there was no response, nor was the door opened. I assumed that meant the stable was either empty, or permanently sealed. I assumed the latter because the stable’s generators ran the lamp outside.
I turned my attention to the pony skeletons, and wondered what their last moments were like? Clawing for breath in the radiation and heat choked tunnel? I saw some had luggage and after some further investigation, Stable Passes! These ponies were blocked entry even though they had tickets?! Why would they do that? Maybe they missed some ponies during the panic. I continued looking through bags until I made my way all the way around the room. I was about to leave when I saw it. There, Leaning against the wall of the cave, as if waiting for somepony to leave and collect it. If that was the case, then that pony never returned or perhaps couldn’t return. I inspected it more closely and noticed the symbol on the side was that of the Ministry of Wartime Tech. It had a simple enough lock, and once it was open I began to sift through the contents. A picture of a red earth pony buck with a orange mane. A gun, and a vial of deep red mist. I looked at that vial, entranced by it. Almost like it was drawing me in, I tossed it in my saddle bags and left the gun and picture, in case that pony ever returned.
I left the cave of Stable 2 and headed back on my track down the road. I saw no way north. I didn’t want to leave the road because I could get lost so I decided to just head southeast.
The trees beside the road were thinning out and there was about a mile stretch of road before the next tree. I picked up speed while trying to conserve energy. I had maybe a can of beans left and a few packaged rolls, but that wouldn’t last long. Not when I’m walking everywhere.
While I was thinking to myself I noticed night was falling. I decided to wait in the treeline till nightfall and use my cyber-eye to see in the dark. As the sky darkened I saw a fire light up in the woods. I don’t know how good I am at sneaking, but I was curious. so I stepped closer as quietly as possible, I saw him, A rust colored pegasus wearing a black cowpony hat. But what I noticed most of all, he was eating a fresh loaf of bread.
You should kill him and take that food. He won’t need it when he is dead. I was startled. I hadn’t thought that! Had I? If I did, I didn’t act on it. Nor did I have to.
“Ah know y’all are out there. Ah might be a dashite but ah ain’t an idiot,” He said as he looked in my general direction. I looked back, not wanting to move, but my legs took me into his campsite. He broke his bread and offered me half. I looked at him, surprised, but took it.
“Thank you,” I said, “My name is Carbon. What’s yours? What’s a dashite? And where are the other pegasi?” I saw the look on his face. He was probably surprised by all my questions.
“Whoa, hold on there now. Mah name is Calamity, the other questions will take a bit o’ time to answer.” I sat and watched him expectantly.
He sighed, disappointed at having to tell me. “Hmm, where to begin? Ah suppose ah could begin with the Enclave and answer both yer questions. Back long ago before the bombs fell and the world died, the pegasi would fight in the Equestrian army as elite skilled aerial combatants. We would dive and soar, decimatin’ all the zebras we came across. ‘Till that dreadful day. The first city hit by a megaspell was Cloudsdale, the hometown of most of the pegasi. Now, ah know y’all can see why that’d be a morale killer. and the missiles kept comin’. The zebras were lookin’ to kill the world and die trying. Our leader, Rainbow Dash tried to rally us to help the dying ponies, but we pulled her back and sealed the sky off, hence the clouds,” he looked up, then returned his gaze towards me. “Well, that didn’t sit right with Rainbow, so she flew off, abandoning us. The Enclave was formed out of the pegasi army and became the government above the clouds. The Enclave evolved into a dictatorship and wouldn’t let us ponies come down to help y’all on the surface. Some of us left, wanting to do better. We are the dashites. Forever branded a criminal for turning tail and leaving, just like Rainbow Dash all those years ago. They brand us when we leave as punishment.” He pointed to the fresh brand of a cloud and lightning on his flank. I could see where the metal melted skin.
“Wow, you must be brave to leave for your ideals. I left my stable because I wanted to save ponies. My Stable is slowly dying from disease. I had to run away in search of a cure,” I said in response. He just looked at me and smiled.
“You are one of the ponies I came down here to save. The wasteland doesn’t break all of us,” He smiled. “Your little pistol won’t do much out here. You might be needin’ somethin’ bigger. Luckily, ah got 3 rifles. Ah needed 2 to make a battle saddle but you might need the third.” He handed me a long, sleek, jet black military rifle. “It used to be enclave, but ah... liberated.. it on my way out. I made a few modifications so it can fire the wasteland’s most abundant source o’ ammo. Bullets!” He smiled and gave me a refillable cartridge of bullets and another empty cartridge.
“Why are you being so kind to me?” I asked. “You just met me.”
He looked at me, “ You looked like ya needed help, and ah gave it to you. I’ll be leaving here soon, gotta move on and look for other ways to help.”
“Oh, before I forget to tell you, caps are money. Bottle caps. I almost thought bits were money.” I said, to give him fair warning. I liked this Calamity guy, he is doing the right thing. He nodded and finished what was left of the bread then took off into the night. I wondered if I’d ever see him again. Perhaps.
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I made it to the other side of the tree line with relative ease and started trotting east. My direction turned south and I started moving towards the coast. The little voice in my head earlier had sounded almost like it came from my saddlebag, so I’d been checking it periodically to monitor its contents. Though I did add a few items along the road: a spark battery, a levitation talisman I’d gotten off of an old skywagon, several bags of caps(why were they so plentiful?), and a circuit board. I was proud of that haul, since it was all electronics and arcane science stuff. I knew how to build machines and was proud of it. I tested my rifle out on a few of those sprite-bots from before the war and it worked quite well. It even had a silencing talisman in it! I wondered if Calamity knew what he gave me.
I walked on, determined to reach the hills far ahead of me. For the time being, I had shoved the stable into the back of my mind, I wanted to focus right now. Of course my goal was to find someplace that had a cure, but I needed a populated area to find anything, and it can’t be populated with raiders(Or so the survival guide calls the crazy ponies).
I spotted a small town up ahead, on a sign it read, ‘Welcome to Hope: Cheeriest town in the Wasteland.’ Somehow I doubted that based on the walls made of sharpened wood posts and the guards patrolling the wall. I walked into town, spotted what I assumed to be the mayor’s house and walked in that direction. I needed to find out where I should go for medical assistance with the cure. I was surprised to see vendors selling wares and munitions. They all had a smile on their face as ponies walked about the open air market. One of them, a pretty unicorn mare, was waving her hoof at me and calling me over to check out her various orbs and crown thingies. She advertised, ‘Orbs and recollectors to take away the surgical pains! Only 5 caps a piece!’ I trotted up to her.
“What’s a recollector?” I asked calmly, surveying her various labeled orbs. “A recollector is a magical item that lets earth ponies and pegasi record and watch memory orbs,” she pointed a hoof at the glowing orbs on the table. “These.. memory orbs. What purpose do they serve? why might I need one?” She looked at me in confusion then spotted my Pipbuck, she instantly brightened up, “well, my stable friend, a memory orb can be used for many things! The eggheads down south of here use them to learn about the past, before the war. Though most ponies use them to be temporarily put in a comatose state for surgery. I couldn’t see you needing it because you have nopony to travel with. Its a shame, ponies should have a friend out there, somepony to boost them up when they feel weak. Oh, my name is Heart Sparkle by the way.” She smiled brightly at me. “Ah, I’m Carbon Steel,” I said with a dramatic bow, “Pleased to meet you m’lady.” She giggled, “C’mon sir Prance-a-lot. Want to buy something?” I flushed, “Oh, yes, Of course. I’ll take one recollector, and any blank orbs you have. I’m going on a quest, you never know when you might need to record something.” I said as she laid the items on the table. “A quest you say… That’ll be 35 caps… any open slots on the roster?” She asked as I forked over the money. “Yep, there’s always an open slot for somepony who wants to help the wasteland!” “Good, meet me at the inn on the south side of town, I’ll have my things ready.” Heart trotted off, her remaining stock in tow, she stopped by another vendor. “ You can have all of this for 150 caps. I’m leaving this place for good.” The other vendor was very grateful and took the deal, giving her the caps immediately and taking all the orbs and recollectors for himself.
I headed to the south point of town and stopped at the inn, Edge of Order. If this was the edge of order, I hated to see what was beyond this point. Come to think of it, I’d not seen any order at all till I reached Hope. I sat on a bench outside the inn and waited on Heart Sparkle. It’d been an hour before I finally saw her trotting this way, she had a steel sword across her back and floated a machine gun beside her. “Howdy!” she said with glee. “Where ya planning on takin me?” I thought for a moment then asked, “who are those ponies who are studying the past. I want to find them, I need to ask them a few things.” She looked at me like I was crazy again, “The Collegiate? They are based in Hoofington! That place is a hell-hole. We can’t go there!” I looked at her, I got worried. What if they were the only ponies who could help? What would we be able to do for the stable? “Are there any other nearby places that are knowledgeable of medicine?” She shook her head, no. “The only other place I can think of is Tenpony Tower, but that is miles north of here. It’d take 3 days travel to reach Manehattan, and another day to safely navigate the city. Do you really need whatever you are after?” I nodded nervously, “Yes, It is very important.” She sighed, “Then, I suppose… if this is the only option, we could go to Hoofington. But, it is the most dangerous place around here, we will have to be extremely careful. If I wasn’t certain that that filly, Ursury, was planning to attack Hope for slaves… well, you’d be on your own.” I had read about slavers. They sounded bad, very bad. But, a little voice inside my head told me their methods were justified by the work they do.
I stood up and nodded towards the gate. We walked out of the town, a large range of hills lied ahead covered by more ominous looking clouds than the ones over our head at the moment. And just like that, we were diving headfirst into one of the most dangerous places in Equestria. We had no way of telling what was ahead except for the occasional thing Heart had heard. We were in the dark on this city. Though we did grasp that the city was apparently evil and was out to kill everypony. As we walked on, I swear I could hear a voice, “C’mon, almost there. Time to embark on your destiny…”
