Wasteland Equestria

Aerial Light, formerly known as A.L.-173, woke up a shivering mess in an environment she wasn’t use to. Her head shot up from the dusty blanket it rested on. Her eyes wide, she glanced around the dark room. Behind her, on top of a dresser, was a single, dim lamp which cast a low glow on the room. She opened her mouth to say something, but before anything came out, it all came rushing back to her. The painful walk through the desert wasteland, her painfully killing the wild bear, and Sandy Dusk. The mare that invited her to say for three days––well, “Seventy-two hours” is how she put it.

Aerial bit her lip, speaking of time, how long had she been asleep. From where she lain, she could not see Sandy in her cot The lamp seemed to be running low on fuel, and outside all she could hear is the howling of the wind. She took a deep breath and slowly pushed herself up onto her hooves and quietly walked over to the cot. Sure enough, the mare wasn’t in it.

“Where did she go?” Aerial turned away from the cot and looked over at the dresser with the dying lamp. Resting on top just beside the fading light source were a collection of dusty, burned, books. From what the unicorn could make out it seemed as if most of them had made it through whatever hell they had experienced. Curious, she lit her horn and gently pulled one of the books off the dresser and levitated it towards her. Half way down, she opened the book and levitated it in front of her face as she turned away from the dresser, allowing the light from behind her to strike its surface.

“Since the iteration of magic and technology, ponykind’s advancement in science increased far more in these recent three years than it has in the past six-thousand.” The first line in the book read. Aerial pursed her lips and closed the book so that she could look at the cover. On it were three ponies silhouetted by what looked to be a shadow of a cog wheel that had a shining purple star behind it. The colors on the book were faded and bits an pieces were peeling off. Looking up at the cover, Aerial raised an eyebrow at the title. “Genesis: When Magic and Machine Meet” below that “Written by Twilight Sparkle... Published by Colt-Tech.”

“Interesting.” Aerial glanced up at the cellar entrance before turning around and sliding the book back where it belonged. “Maybe I can ask Sandy if I can bo—”

KRAKA-BOOM!

The cellar door swung open, allowing for the freezing air to blow in due to the screaming wind. “GAH! Dammit!” Sandy hollered from above.

Aerial’s heart was racing, her hooves were bolted to the ground though her legs jiggled as if she was going to fall any moment. She had never heard such a noise like that—

KRAKA-BOOM!

The unicorn shrieked and dropped onto her belly, her hooves covered her ears. “I could use a some of that zebra shit you got!” Sandy screamed over the howling wind.

Aerial pulled her hooves away from her ears and looked up to see the clothed, red mare glaring down at her from the cellar’s staircase. “Would ya stop cowering, it’s just thunder! Now help me get this door closed before the wind tears it off!” The mare pulled what looked to be goggles over her eyes and ran back up the stairs.

Aerial gulped and stood back up, her legs shaking more than ever. “S-so that’s what th-thunder sounds l-like...” She gulped, “The books always made it not sound so bad.” She trotted over to the stairs but jolted back the second she placed one hoof in the path to the entrance. The gusting wind made the air colder than ice, so it seemed. Aerial felt that if she stood there any longer then a few second she’d surely freeze to death.

“C’mon, it’s splintering!” Sandy lunged at the flapping door and latched onto it with her hooves, freezing sand pelted her goggles and clothes. Even now she could feel the microscopic sediment slice through her clothing. A nasty crack from the door alerted her that it was only moments away from the ripping off and flying out in the wasteland. Letting go of it, the mare stumbled around in the sand as she tried to fight the wind from blowing her over. Biting her lip, she moved around to the direction the door was blowing in; she could hardly see anything. The sun had finally settled behind the mountains and there was almost little to no light aside from a streak of lighting every now again.

KRAKA-BOOM!

Streak of lighting could be seen striking the earth in the distance and Thunder roared. It was rather disappointing, Sandy thought, here she was fighting to save her door, which was the one thing that kept her from freezing at night. The mare would have rather wished she was fighting off a flood of freezing rain instead of this bullshit.

“Aerial, where are you?!”

“I’m ri-ri-ri-ght he-here!” The unicorn shivered out as she reached the top of the staircase, her horn flared to life and a white aura wrapped itself around the door. “Quickly, get inside!” She bit her lip, the action nearly drawing blood.

Sandy blinked and ran back around before stumbling past the mare and running down into the cellar. The skin beneath Aerial’s coat felt as if it was blistering. Sure enough, she had a feeling somewhere was going to be frostbitten. Before she could lose feeling in any part of her body the mare swung her head back and yanked the cellar closed in one go.

“Don’t forget to lock it!” Sandy called up.

Aerial grit her teeth and did as she was told. Locking the cellar, she clumsily stumbled down the stairwell before stopping in the middle of the room. Over by the dresser and table on her right side, Aerial saw Sandy desperately trying to light a fire. Not wanting to wait on her, Aerial’s horn flashed briefly and the pit ignited just like it did hours ago. Just like before, Sandy shrieked and kicked herself away from the pit. “For, Stone’s sake, please warn me before doing that!”

Aerial shrugged. “Sorry, I’m just as cold as you are.” The mare moved over to Sandy and pushed a few chairs out of the way before plopping down alongside the fire. She cooed happily as the warm flames burned away the chillness on her skin. Moments later she turned her head around to look at Sandy, who had gotten up and moved over to her cot. “So, what were you doing out there?”

Sandy stood just beside her cot and bent over. With her teeth, she grabbed onto a knot on the side of her clothing and pulled it loose. Suddenly, every single piece of clothing fell off of her body and formed a pile beneath her. Aerial raised an eyebrow at the mare’s body. Despite the muck and grime that covered her coat, her overall physique was beautifully constructed. Every corner of her body was nicely curved and slim. Despite living in such a harsh environment, her overall weight seemed to be healthy and well toned. Not only that, on either side of her body was a set of well groomed wings.

Aerial blinked. “So you’re a pegasus?”

Sandy nodded, “Sure am...” She extended both of her wings out and sighed with relief when both of the base joints cracked. “Oh that feels good,” the mare sighed, she then rolled her neck and rewarded herself with a few satisfying pops.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Aerial said.

Sandy looked over and cocked an eyebrow. “What question?”

Aerial gave a low, irritated sigh. “What were you doing outside? I thought you said it’d be too cold.”

The red pegasus bit her lower lip and sat back on her cot. “I made a mistake...”

Aerial frowned, mistakes were never good, that was something she had to learn quickly after leaving the stable. “What happened?”

Sandy sighed. “I allowed you to come in here that’s what,” she said a little coldly.

Aerial recoiled back. “Whoa, what did I do?!”

“It’s not what you did, it’s what’s going to happen. While you were asleep I checked my stockpile thinking you might’ve took something.” Aerial’s frown deepened. “Well I noticed something troubling, we have plenty of food but our—my water situation isn’t great.”

Aerial sighed, this wasn’t the first time she heard this story. “Great, it just seems that everyone’s running out of water.”

Sandy chuckled nervously. “Believe it or not, that usually tends to happen a lot more during the night season than the day.”

“So I take it I won’t be able to stay for the three da–I mean seventy two hours?”

The pegasus quickly shook her head. “No, you can stay... there’s no way I could throw you out there now.” Her eyes wandered towards the crackling flame. “Right now we just need to think of some kind of action...”

“So why were you outside?” Aerial asked for a third time.

Sandy rolled her eyes. “I thought I could make it to Traders Keep.”

Aerial left her place by the fire and moved over to Sandy. “Is that some kind of town?”

The mare frowned and stared Aerial in the eyes. “You really have no idea where you are, do you?”

Aerial shrugged. “All I know is that we’re in the basement of some old farmhouse in the middle of a desert wasteland. I was born and raised in an underground shelter that was built during the war, this is the first time I’ve ever been to the surface.”

Sandy continued to look Aerial in the eye. For what felt like a minute, the two seemed to be having some form of silent staring contest. Finally Sandy shattered the silence with a shit eating grin and laughter. “Wh-what a-are you talking about?”

Aerial leaned back. “What do you mean?”

Sandy rolled onto her bed giggling, she sat up and looked at the white unicorn. “That’s like the third time you mentioned some, ‘Great War’, what war?”

“The war that sold the world!” Aerial exclaimed. “Were you ever taught this in school?” That seemed to set Sandy off again and she wailed with laughter. Aerial rolled her eyes and turned away from the pegasus. “Alright, change the subject, let's go back to the situation at hoof,” she faced Sandy again. “We’re gonna be running out of water soon, how far is Traders Keep?”

Sandy hiccuped and felt silent, she sat up and looked at Aerial. “Wai—what?”

“How far is the settlement?” She asked.

Sandy got onto her hooves and shook her head. “Whoa now, if I send you out there you’re gonna freeze to death with a few minutes.”

Aerial bit her lip. “Don’t worry... I was trained in some basic shield spells.” She had no idea if they truly worked for what she was about to say, “I won’t be able change the temperature of the shield but I would be able to hold off the chilling wind.”

“Wait a second.” The pegasus’s eyes widened. “You're tellin’ me you can create shelter just by a stomp of a hoof?”

The unicorn giggled at Sandy’s reaction, for some reason seeing a pony so amazed by her basic abilities felt oddly lifting. “It’s not really a shelter but more or less a shield. Like what you’d use to block an arrow?”

“Okay, I get it now... so you can just zap a barrier out of thin air...” Sandy leaned forward. “You’re still going to need something warm to wear.”

Aerial glanced about, seeing if she could spot anything to throw on. “Well... I already have my jumpsuit.” She motioned to the black, coat tight suit she was wearing. “It provides some protection.”

Sandy gave her a look of disbelief. “It doesn’t even cover your flank, dear.” She took a deep breath and picked up the poor excuse of clothing she had on earlier off the floor. “Chy deez un...” She said with a mouth full of cloth, she spat them out on the floor in front of her. “You and I seem to be about the same size, so they should fit just fine.”

Aerial levitated the ragged clothes off the floor and raised an eyebrow at them. The cloth was brown and tan, she even noticed a few red spots that look almost like blood. Aerial didn't want to ask if it was Sandy’s or not. “Y’know, I wish I could pick things up without putting them in my mouth...” Sandy went over to the fireplace, sat down, sprawled her hind legs out, and propped herself up with her forelegs. “You won’t believe how long it’s been since I washed those clothes.”

Aerial gazed at the clothes with utter disgust. Shaking her head, she knew it’d be best to just not think about it and put them on. It took a bit to figure out how to put them on. Aerial decided to wear the new scavenger gear over her stable suit, however, unlike her stable jumpsuit, the worn wear Sandy gave her covered every inch of her body. It was also weighted. Whatever the material was made of weighed at least a pound or two more then her jumpsuit, and that's saying a lot because the jumpsuit practically has no weight. It smelled too; like a mare who hasn’t bathed in weeks. It was horrid.

Though the clothing did have its perks. For instance, it actually looked cool. Aerial was able to steal a glance off a nearby glass bottle and couldn’t help but smile. She reminded herself of those old images of the ponies in the ancient country of... what was it called? Saddle Arabia, yeah, that was it! She reminded herself of a stallion in one of the pictures she’d seen. Funny though that she reminded herself of a stallion when looking herself over. The picture, if she could recall correctly, was of two stallions dressed in similar, yet cleaner, rags. Their faces and bodies were wrapped, almost like a mum—

“You done checking yourself out?” Aerial almost leapt out of her clothes, her head shot towards Sandy who still had her hind legs sprawled out in front of the fire, though her head was looking back at her. “Like, I know you look adorable in my clothes, but seriously, we have an issue.” She pulled her legs back in close and rolled onto her knees, she then pushed herself onto her hooves.

“I understand that,” Aerial said, “just trying to get used to the new clothes is all.”

“Well you can do that while we’re walking to Traders Keep,” Sandy poked Aerial with a wing and picked the blanket she had used earlier and swung it over her shoulders.

“What do you mean ‘we’re’, I thought I was the only one going?” Aerial watched as Sandy awkwardly tied a knot with her teeth at the base of her neck.

“Well, I already gave you my clothes, so I dunno if I can trust you fully with them. Not only that, I still haven’t told you the directions to Traders Keep yet.” Sandy looked at her with soft eyes. “Don’t want you getting lost now, do we? Oh yeah, can’t forget about the water, either. We’re gonna need a lot. So we’re gonna need these.” Sandy scooped up a brown bag full of unknown items.

“What are those?” Aerial watched as Sandy dropped the bag of items into her saddle bag, which she then slid off the ground and dropped on her back.

“Well, we won’t be getting the water for free.” Sandy stretched her back. “So I’m bringing some scrap. C’mon let's get going.”

“Aren’t you worried about the cold?”

Sandy rolled her eyes. “Damn you never stop with the questions, do you? Anyways, with your shield thingy you say you can do, I shouldn’t need a coat. Besides, I’m a pegasus. I’m naturally used to the cold.” Sandy stopped by the cellar door, the wind outside had died greatly, but there were still a few gusts. She started to unlock the door.

“Shouldn’t we eat something?”

Sandy buzzed her lips out of irritation. “No. It should only take a couple hours, that is if we don’t run into trouble.”

“Oh okay...” Aerial’s stomach grumbled.

Sandy smiled when she heard the lock come undone. “Alright, get that shield ready!” She pushed the door open and was immediately blasted by northern like wind, however, the feeling was quickly sated by Aerial’s faint, white shield. “Whoa!” Sandy beamed. “You really do have a shield!”

“Huh...” Aerial smiled too. “I didn’t actually think it could block air.”

The two of them stepped out onto the sand, Sandy smiled happily as she turned and closed the cellar. Locking it, she looked at Aerial. “You truly are interesting.” Before Aerial could ask her what she meant by that, the pegasus motioned with her head to follow her. “Traders Keep is just a few dozen dunes thataway.”

:[-]:

The walk to Traders Keep was rather uninteresting. When walking in the wasteland there wasn’t really much to look at, especially during the dark season. Usually during the night ponies had the sky to look at and appreciate, traders normally used the stars to guide them. Others used them for pure entertainment so that they could tell stories. However, on nights such as the one Sandy and Aerial were experiencing, every inch of it was covered in clouds.

With Sandy’s irritation growing with every question Aerial asked, the unicorn learned that it’d be best if she just closed her mouth and kept on walking. No need to piss off her guide now. Yet being the hypocrite she was, Sandy looked over her shoulder and asked: “So any cute colts or mares where you from?”

Aerial’s head pulled back a bit at the question. “Eh, well... yeah.” She nodded. “Yeah there was a hoof full... why mares though?”

Sandy shrugged. “I’ve had my way with both sides here and there, even a gryphon once, too.” The pegasus grinned as they clambered over another dune and began to descend into it. In the distance, Aerial could see lights bouncing off the top of the next hill. They must be very close now.

“Uh... okay...” Aerial blushed a bit. “Why are you telling me this?”

Sandy looked back at Aerial with a disappointed face. “Still at the age in which you’re embarrassed to talk about sex?”

“I’m only twenty!” Aerial exclaimed. “I’ve only had two colt friends, I don’t have anything to talk about.”

Sandy lets off a boisterous laugh. “No need to get your mane tangled, dear... just thought we could learn about each other, that’s all.”

Aerial giggled. “Sorry, just wasn’t expecting that topic to come flying out of nowhere... well, if you want to get to know each other.” Aerial thought for a moment. “How old are you?”

“Oh jumping the gun now are we?” Sandy’s smile widened to the point her nasty, yellow teeth were showing. “I’m twenty-one.” Aerial nodded but Sandy continued on, “So you mentioned there were some pretty colts and mares. Anyone in particular you were fond of?”

Aerial giggled a bit and shifted her hooves while they started their trek up what she thought was the final hill. “Well there was one colt, yes... his name was H.K.-47.” Aerial smiled as the mental image of such gorgeous stallion came to mine. Though for a stallion, H.K. was very feminine in appearance, but his personality was one of a full blooded stallion, and for some reason her heart would race every time she saw him... though this part she kept secret from everypony if word got out that she actually would have fantasies about him and her. She’d probably die.

“Huh...” Sandy curled her lips. “That’s a very attractive nam—”

BLAM!

Both ponies jolted and their eyes widened at the sight of red sizzling flare zip upwards into the sky before exploding into a bright, shining beacon. “What in the world?!” Sandy gasped and her pupils shrunk, her eyes darted back down to Aerial who seemed oblivious as to what the flare meant. “Come on we have to leave now!”

“What do you mean we ha—” A bright flash of light followed by an explosion and screams echoed back into the mare’s ears. Sounds of panicked ponies and crying children came spilling over the hill like a tsunami washing up on shore. Shortly after more explosions filled the scene along with the sound of shouting stallions and mares.

“We can come back here in a few hours,” Sandy’s voice was filled with panic, her eyes were shifting quickly from left to right. “But right now isn’t the best time!”

Aerial wasn’t listening to Sandy, as of now all she could hear was the sounds of screaming ponies and what appeared to be a conflict of some sort. She had to get to the bottom of whatever was happening. She looked at Sandy. “I’m going up there to see what’s happening.”

Sandy’s eyes narrowed her eyebrows curved downwards. “Like Tartarus you are!”

“I just need to see what’s going on, Sandy, trust me.”

“I ain’t lettin’ you go in there with my clothes, though!” The mare was obviously scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Aerial rolled her eyes, with a flash of her horn the clothes, save for her stable suit, disappeared and reappeared on the pegasus’ back. “Put those on and head back to the cellar if you can. I have a decent memory, so don’t worry about me forgetting.”

“Heck no! I ain’t lettin’ you get yourself killed!”

“Why do you care, we just met?!”

Sandy’s ears shifted downwards and she bit her lip. Why did she care? Then again... this bizarre mare did save her, was that why she cared so much? She gulped. “Because ya saved my life, that’s why.”

Aerial bit her lip. That seemed like a believable point, but...

Suddenly a faint whistle could be heard from above, looking upwards a dim sparkle caught Aerial’s eyes. Her heart hitched in her throat and she concentrated all her magic into the shield—

KA-BOOM!

Both of them could hardly hear a thing, a faint ringing sound plagued both of their minds. Any second now it felt as if blood was going to start dripping from their ears. Ever so slowly, both of their hearing began to come back. This time, the battle on the other side of the hill seemed to increase with intensity.

Aerial’s shield was gone and she could feel the freezing draft drifting aimlessly over her coat. Luckily the majority of the wind storm had died, but the temperature still felt way below zero. She was on the ground, back in the sand, eyes gazing at the sky. The clouds looked to have drifted away, and up above she could see a beautiful green and blue nebula. “Aerial! Oh, Stone, Aerial are you okay?!”

The unicorn sat upwards. “Ye-yeah... I-I’m fine...”

“Mother of Stone, Aerial, you just stopped a mortar from killing us!”

Her head was wracked with a migraine, despite regaining her hearing, she still found it hard to concentrate on things. “Ye-yeah I guess I did...”

“C’mon, fuck the raiders, or whoever they are... we need to go now...”

Aerial couldn’t argue anymore, that single blast drained her of everything. She simply nodded her head. “Ye-yeah... I think that’s best...”