Wasteland Equestria

Out from the shadows a four legged creature stumbled out of an abandoned house and out into the burning October sun. Stumbling in the sand, it tripped over one of its hooves and fell into the scorching sediment. The creature grumbled beneath its breath, presumably something vile. It quickly pushed itself back onto its feet and glanced back towards the the house. A loud roar startled the being into a hasty run back toward the direction of the setting sun. Uttering curses with each huff of breath, it let off a loud yelp when a banging crash echoed out into the wastes.

A large ugly monster had thrown itself through one of the few remaining walls of the house. It was a beast that used to resemble what may have been a bear. Its disgusting pink skin was blotched with patches of brown and black fur. Its small eyes were pink and puffy, teeth angled, claws sharp as knives. The bear-like creature stood on its hind legs, head snapping from left to right as it looked for the small clothed creature that had stumbled into its home.

Its head turned once more towards the sun, a small black silhouette at the bottom of the dune caught its eye. The monster snarled as both of its eyes narrowed in on its target. Releasing one more roar, it dropped onto all fours and bolted towards the smaller intruder.

The lesser creature glanced over its shoulder and released a girlish shriek and sped up its pace. Its hooves stomped down into the sand, kicking up gusts of dust behind it. Stealing another glance over its shoulder, the creature accidentally lost its step and stumbled over its forehooves. Crying out the four hoofed being flew heels over head down the sandy dune before rolling down to the base. Its back made contact first with the sand below. A rock, having been buried beneath, jabbed it in the back and caused it to yelp in pain.

The bear monster snarled with delight at the sight of the injured creature and proceeded to push itself further down the hill. The smaller being whimpered with fear as the larger predator closed in on it, reaching down with its paws. The terrified creature desperately searched the pockets of its tattered clothing for a weapon, but it was hopeless. The desert bear was only a few yards away from making the poor thing its lunch. The bear’s prey raised its forehooves to its face, shielding itself from the gory mess the bear was going to make.

But the bloody mess never came... at least not in the way the little creature thought it would.

“Hey!” The nervous shout from an unknown mare reached the lesser creature’s damaged ears. The bear monster dug its paws into the sand and slid to a stop just feet from the cowering creature. It looked over towards the distant mountains in the east. Silhouetted by the mountain backdrop was the shape of a tall, slim creature similar to the one cowering before the bear’s sharpened paws.

The bear grit its teeth and snarled as it turned away from its cowering prey so that it faced its new foe. The creature below the bear pulled its hooves away from its hazel eyes and watched in awe as the pink skinned behemoth moved towards the mare on the right.

As the bear slowly made its way towards its new foe, the silhouetted mare took on a shaky stance; her legs wobbled like jello, tail stiff, she stared the desert bear right in the eyes. The colossus of a beast licked its chops and gave her a smile that revealed its gnarly fangs. Scraping a paw against the sand, the beast charged the mare.

The ragged, cowering creature sat up straight when it saw that the silhouetted mare wasn’t moving out of the way of the charging bear. “Get out of the way!” The creature cried, its voice feminine if not slightly butch. Suddenly, a bright, but brief, flash of light blinded the ragged creature and the bear howled in pain. The beast stumbled back, its vision filled with colors and stars, a burning pain from what use to be its mandible surged into its brain. Warm, red liquid gushed out of the new hole beneath its maxilla, its tongue dangled helplessly due to there being nothing to lay on. The bear threw itself up onto its hind legs and tossed its head back, flinging blood onto the yellow sand, causing it to turn black. Its cry of pain was nothing but a choking, gurgling howl, as it fell onto the sand kicking its legs madly, trying to push itself away from the horrifying mare.

The hazel eyed creature watched in utter fear as the mare stepped towards the whimpering desert bear. Stopping just above the bear, the mare’s features were presented in the evening light: her coat was as white as the northern snow, her mane was cut short and as blue as the afternoon sky, but what stood out the most though were her eyes, which were a beautiful ocean green. She looked to be wearing some form of black, coat tight jumpsuit. The suit stopped before her hindlegs and its sleeves stopped just before her hooves in some kind of grey band. The suit’s color was also the same color of light grey, and on her back was an insignia that represented three overlapping ovals that pointed out in separate directions.

The jawless bear gazed up at the white mare, its eyes twinkling with fresh tears of pain. The behemoth gurgled a whine and tried to crawl away, the mare above it grimaced and shook her head. She muttered something under her breath before her horn gave off a bright flash of white light, a loud wet squish met her ears when the bear’s head suddenly exploded, covering the surrounding area with blood and brains. Levitating just inches from her body the mare had stopped most of the blood, brains, and bone from hitting her white fur. The light that surrounded her horn disappeared, causing the remains of the beast to splatter on the sand below her.

The mare’s cheeks were green, she looked as if she was going to throw up. Taking her eyes away from the deceased bear, she looked towards the hazel eyed creature. The ragged bystander squeaked with fear and quickly shot to its hooves. “Please don’t kill me!” she begged.

The white mare tilted her head. “Why would I kill you after I just saved you?”

The hazel eyed creature tilted her head. “What do you... what?!” She straightened herself out.

“I just saved you from that...” The mare glanced down at the decapitated beast, her stomach churned and she forced herself to look back at the ragged pony at the bottom of the dune. “I don’t even know what this is...”

The ragged pony gasped and shook her head. “It’s a desert bear—lady are you okay?”

The white mare opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the butch filly, “Y’know what, don’t answer that...” she paused for a moment. “Thank you.”

The white pony smiled and began to trot towards the ragged pony. “You’re welcome!”

“Whoa now!” The ragged pony jumped back and pulled the sleeve of her ragged coat up her right foreleg, revealing a mounted crossbow that was poorly taped to her leg. “Don’t you go moving anymore!”

The white mare’s eyes fell on the dirited mare’s weapon. Her eyes widened. “What the—I just saved you!”

“I’m not stupid, believe me, when I ain’t lookin’ yer gonna use that freaky zebra shit on me!” She raised her hoof and pulled the string back with her teeth.

The horned mare stepped back. “What in the––I’m not going to hurt you, please you have to understand...” her ears fell back. “You’re the first pony I’ve seen in what felt like a week.”

The ragged mare lowered her leg and crossbow, though her eyes were still narrowed on the horned pony. Her lower lip started to quiver and she broke eye contact after a few hard seconds. “Alright, fine, you convinced me...” she took a deep breath. “If ya’ll don’t mind me askin’, who are you?”

The mare’s ears perked up and her eyes lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree. “Oh my name?” She clears her throat and holds a hoof out towards the ragged pony. “My name is A.L.-173.”

“A.L.-17—what?”

A.L.-173 stepped back, an offended look crossed her face. “What? That’s my name, got a problem with it?”

The hazel eyed pony shook her head. “N-no... I just never heard one like that before. Uh...” She began to cough into her hoof, she then shook her head and pulled the cloth off her snout, revealing her pretty, sharp face. Her coat color was a nice red-ish brown, visibly worn down from years spent within the wasteland. “The name’s Sandy Dusk.”  She stuck out her own hoof.

A.L.-173  took a few steps towards Sandy and pressed her hoof against the mare’s. “Nice to meet you, Sandy.”

“A pleasure to meet you too, A.L.-13–ya’know what?” Sandy shook her head and stepped back from the mare, she raised her crossbow hoof to her chin. “How about I just call you... hmm...” Sandy thought back to a list of names that started with the letter A, but oddly enough none seemed to really fit this bizarre mare in front of her.

A.L.-173 tilted her head. “You want to call me something else?”

Well back then Sandy’s mom mentioned that she wanted to name her Aerial once because she hoped that Sandy would grow up to be an excellent flier like her older sibling. “That’s it!” Sandy stomped her hoof in the sand. “How about Aerial Light?”

“Aerial? But I can’t fly.”

Sandy nearly face hooved. “That’s not the point, it’s a name I can easily remember.”

Aerial tapped her chin with a hoof. She nodded her head. “O-okay, I-I like that. Aerial, it’s a lot faster then A.L.-173.”

Sandy nodded her head. “Well thank you, Aerial, now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go finish my job.” Sandy turned and began to climb back up the dune towards the abandoned house.

“Before you go!” Aerial called out.

Sandy stopped and looked back at the mare. “What is it?” she almost snarled.

“I need help with something,” Aerial said.

“Don’t we all?”

“Please, listen to me, this is very important.” Aerial pleaded, her voice sounded very desperate.

Sandy rolled her eyes. “What do you need, hun?”

“My stable... Our water extractor had been sabotaged and we’ve run out of parts to fix it,” Aerial explained. Her voice was quiet and she sounded very nervous. By the way her eyes shifted to the sand, Sandy could tell whatever was happening was bothering her greatly.

Sandy blinked and shook her head. “I’m sorry, what? What do you mean ‘table?’ or ‘water extractonater’?”

Aerial bit her lower lip and raised an eyebrow. “Wait... no... it’s a ‘Stable’. You know, the underground shelters built during the Arcane War?” Sandy shook her head. “Our ‘water extractor’ was sabotaged, it’s the machine that brings us our water from deep within the planet.”

Sandy tilted her head. “A machine that gives you water?” The scavenger snorted a laugh. “You’re kidding right? If there was ever such a thing y’know how much nicer the wasteland would be?”

“Well don’t you have wells?”

“Hardly, most of our water comes from the great lakes up near Green Land. So if you’re ever thirsty, that’s where you want to go.” As if on cue Sandy reached back with her head and snatched her satchel, she pulled out a canteen and awkwardly tried to open it with her mouth.

“Oh, let me help you with that,” Aerial said. Her horn lit up and the canteen levitated away from Sandy. The red mare yelped and fell back onto her haunches, her eyes locked onto the canteen as it magically opened itself up. Aerial passed the canteen back over to the mare. “Here you go.”

Sandy hesitantly took the canteen out of the air, her eyes never leaving the horned pony. She took a few sips of her water and capped it. “H-h-how di-did you do that?”

Aerial looked at the mare as if she was stupid. “Magic, silly. I’m a unicorn.” She pointed to her horn with a hoof.

“Uni-what?”

“Unicorn, you know the three races? Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies?” Aerial started to walk up the hill towards the abandoned house, the sun had finally dipped behind the mountains, causing large black shadows to cast themselves over the valley.

“We better get inside,” Sandy said, her voice wavering slightly. “I hope you brought something warm to wear.” She climbed onto her hooves and started to follow Aerial towards the abandoned house.

“What do you mean?”

“Just follow me!” Sandy bolted past the unicorn and galloped up the side of the dune. Aerial glanced around confused, checking to see if anypony was trailing them.

“What’s going on?” She asked nervously as she trotted behind the scavenger.

“The dark season is upon us.” Sandy finally answered when the two of them reached the abandoned home. At first glance, it looked to be an old farm house. However, a large portion of it was buried in sand and the wood looked dry and decayed. “And from what I’m hearin’...” Sandy shook her head. “I have a feelin’ you have no clue on what that means.”

“Nope... what’s wrong with the night?”

Sandy led Aerial along the side of the house towards an old cellar that was buried partially by sand. “A lot of things are wrong with the night. C’mon...” Sandy grumbled as she tried to unbury the cellar.

Aerial lit her horn and hoisted nearly all of the sand off of the cellar door. “Did that help?”

Sandy pursed her lips and watched as the sand was dumped off to the side. “Ye-yeah... th-thanks!” She shook her head and quickly pulled an old key out of her bag which she used to open the cellar door, she then took a lantern out of her bag. Flicking a switch with her tongue, the gas powered device came to life and she led the two of them down inside. “Don’t forget to close the door, lock it too.” Aerial turned around and pulled the door closed before twisting the lock.

“Now I’ll ask this again...” Sandy placed the lantern on an old decayed dresser on the far end of the room. Aerial came down the steps and looked the cellar over, it was old and stuffy. The walls were covered in mildew and the air was warm and stale. Sand dirtied the floor and on one wall was what looked like a makeshift map. In one corner was a pile of bags, in the center was a table with dirty plates and a bag full of corn. “Do you have anything warm to wear?”

“N-no... they told me that I would have enough time before the sun sets to find the pistons.” Aerial said her voice wavering a little. “Are we going to die?”

Sandy looked at Aerial. “Well not me...” She fell silent for a moment, the look on Aerial’s face told her she probably shouldn't leave it at that. “Well... as long as you don’t go outside you should be fine. Not until you get something warm, then you’ll be good.”

“How long is the night?” Aerial shivered, the temperature was already dropping.

Sandy opened a drawer and grabbed a bowl and what looked like a bottle of water. “Four thousand, three hundred and eighty hours...” She poured the water into the bowl and set it on the table, she then unslung her saddle bag. She reached in with her hooves and pulled out a few sticks and rocks, she created a circle with the rocks and piled the sticks in the middle.

Without warning Aerial’s horn flickered and the sticks suddenly caught fire. Sandy shrieked and kicked herself away from the fire. “Sweet, Stone, what was that?!”

“I-I w-was helping you l-light the fire.” She gulped. “Sorry for scaring you...”

Sandy sat up on her haunches. “Okay... I’m going to set some ground rules... No zebra shit, okay?”

“Zebra?”

“Yeah... none of that dark stuff.” Sandy pushed herself up and retrieved her bowl of water along with the corn.

Aerial quickly did the math, her eyes widened. “So the night is six months long?” Aerial's stomach rumbled when she saw Sandy scrape it off the stalk into the bowl.

“What do you mean, is it really six months? It’s always been that way.” Sandy glanced back at the mare and then the bowl, deciding if she should share. She did have enough supplies to get her through the season even with two mares, though that wouldn’t have been the case if she hadn’t found that old crown in the castle. Then again, if she didn’t share and kept the food for herself, she’d be set for the whole day. “Buck it...” she mumbled and grabbed a second stalk of corn, she started to add it to the bowl. “Okay... here’s the case: For helping me with that desert bear, I’ll let you stay for seventy two hours.”

“So three days?”

Sandy spun around. “Are you crazy?! NO! I’d kill you if that was the case.” She shook her head. “Seventy two hours, no more no less.”

Aerial leapt back when Sandy shouted at her. She gulped, time on the surface is a lot different then when she was in the stable. “Ah... okay...”

“I have a spare blanket in the closet over there, use it to sleep on the floor.” Sandy gently pulled the bowl out of the fire with some tongs. “You can have one spoonful,” She said.

Aerial glanced towards the closet, there she saw another bowl. She levitated it over to the table where she spooned some boiled corn soup into her bowl. She walked over to Sandy and sat down next to her, there she started to eat her food slowly by using her magic to cool it.

“Gah, buck!” Aerial looked over to see Sandy shaking her head with her tongue hanging out. A large red spot on the tip of it showed her that the mare had burned herself by eating her food too quickly.

Aerial smiled and wrapped the mares bowl with her magic. “What the hay are you do—?”

“Take mine, it’s cool.” Aerial said and placed her old bowl in front of Sandy.

Sandy blinked. “Why?”

“Hmm?” Aerial hummed  as she cooled her new bowl. “You burned your mouth that’s wh––”

Sandy shook her head. “Why are you so nice?” She looked at Aerial.

“What do you mean?” Aerial shoveled some corn into her mouth.

“I never met a pony like you before... you saved me, and didn’t even ask for a reward, you unburied my home, and now you’re trading me food.”

Aerial shrugged. “Just how I was raised.”

“Is that what your... kind is like?”

Aerial looked at Sandy, she placed her bowl on the ground. “Earlier when I mentioned I was a unicorn, you looked confused. Have you never seen one before?”

“I have no idea what a unicorn is, dear... but you also look like a regular pony too.”

“That’s because I am a pony,” Aerial said.

Sandy scooped the last of her corn down her gullet and gulped. She looked at Aerial with a frown. “No pony can do the tricks I’ve seen you do... only creatures I know that can do anything remotely like that are them damned Zebras and Changelings. How about I ask you this, what was that name you gave me earlier?”

“A.L.-173?”

“Yeah, what in Tartarus was that? Are all you ‘unicorns’ named like that?”

Aerial tapped her chin and levitated her corn backup. “Well not really, my best friend is P.T.-112, and my ex-coltfriend was called N.M.-12. He was the Overmare’s son.”

Sandy rolled her eyes. “So yer all numbered... dunno if that’s messed up or efficient. Maybe both.” She sat her bowl down and stood up. “Whelp, I have to get to bed... er... actually.” Sandy pulled out some rope and turned back toward Aerial. “I think I’m going to have to restrain you.”

“HUH?!” Aerial shot up.

“Believe me, hun, I don’t know if I fully trust you yet... especially if I’m going to bed.”

Aerial shook her head. “Believe me if I was going to kill you, I would have done it when you were stunned after that bear attacked you.” She took a deep breath then added, “And even if you tied me up, I could just magic them off.” Aerial flattened her ears and looked up at the mare with wide eyes.

Sandy bit her lip and blew hot air out her nose. “Alright fine!” She dropped the rope. “But if I notice anything gone, you’re out of here!” She walked over to an old cot in the corner, shrugging all of her gear off her back she climbed onto the cot and curled up.

Aerial took a deep breath and looked at the fireplace. Such a bizarre mare this Sandy.