Chapter 7

Is the Grass Greener?

It had been at most eight hours since Serenity and I had bunked down in the comfort of Gawd’s home. Eight hours of reflection, among the quiet murmurs of her as she dreamed, and the soft whispers of Ginger and her husband in the other room adjacent to ours. I thought myself incapable of personal thoughts, beyond those required by my typical duties to the Stable I was built by and for; but it seemed that in these faint hours, I was beginning to change in my programming somewhat. As I looked on, at the peaceful, beautiful, young face of the one I had come to call friend, and to her it seemed, love. I couldn’t help but ponder on the matters of which had brought us to the current moment.

If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be here. I think. You’d still be safe and happy in Stable one-one-six, or would she have been? These thoughts plagued me, as I tried to make sense of it all. No, those, things, would have still come for her, for the Stable. Being there, I saved them. This was the rationalization that, while somewhat depressing, was acceptable to my A.I.’s logic engines.

In the final moments of her slumber, I did my best to cover such musings and put on a smile as she yawned and stretched against me. She mumbled something as she opened her eyes and looked groggily at me with a half-smile. “Violet?”

“Did you sleep well Serenity?” I asked, as she nuzzled my neck slightly while sitting up.

“Yes, It was one of the best rests I’ve had in years. A full eight hours, without interruption.” She said, again making me wonder briefly if, in fact, us having to flee the Stable was a better alternative to living within its confines. “But that was because I had somepony to lay down with this time.”

Surprisingly, despite my programming, and what I was meant to be used for, I found myself blushing faintly at those words she’d so truly spoken from her heart. She took notice, and gave a slightly teasing look as she leaned in close. “Now, did I strike a sensor?” When I leaned forward, she didn’t withdraw; quite the opposite, she pressed her lips to mine. There we sat, sharing an intimate moment, as the first shafts of the early morning light played into the room.

“You two lovebirds need to get a room.” The voice of Harkness said, breaking the silence and the moment as we both blushed foolishly and turned to face him. He stood, with his shoulder still bandaged from the gunshot wound earlier. It seemed to have stopped bleeding, so that was good. “Ginger’s still sleeping, but I can’t rest anymore.”

“You feeling any better Harkness?” Serenity asked, softly, still blushing faintly at being caught.

“Still hurts,” He stated, “But I’ve had worse, dealing with those damn delinquent Stable Stalkers of Grey’s.” He laughed, lightly, obviously having memories of his previous occupation as Security Chief of the Stable.

“We should probably find something to fix that, Mr. White.” I said, finally, observing the injury closely and seeing that, while the bleeding had been stopped, the wound was still grossly inflamed. He scoffed at the idea a moment, but Serenity agreed with me as she nodded to him as well.

“Violet and I were planning on heading out anyways,” She said, “You should go let Ginger know that we’ll be out for a bit, exploring the town. You should tag along with us Harkness, I’m sure there’s a doctor who can help get that inflammation under control.”

Harkness seemed to consider this a moment, weighing his options. Eventually, as my logic engines predicted, he decided it was not worth the fuss as he replied, “I do not need to go crying to a doctor every time I get a cut or a scrape. You two go on ahead, I’ll stay here with Ginger and keep her company.”

“Alright Harkness,” Serenity said, with a tone of acceptance. “But if you start getting worse, you and Ginger come find us immediately. We won’t be far.”

“Fair enough,” He replied, ignoring the stern look our friend gave him. “You two stay safe.” That phrase, I could tell, held a double meaning. He winked at me as he turned and headed for their room, which made Serenity sigh in exasperation before getting up and stretching one final time.

“You ready to go Vi?” She asked.

“Yeah,” I said, joining her at her side as I stood up. “Shall we go and visit that shop we passed on the way in?” I inquired.

“Sounds good to me.” The Maintenance Mare replied softly, smiling slightly. “I wonder just what they have here exactly?”

“Guess we’ll find out when we get there.” I said, returning her smile as we made for the front door.

Opening it, I was surprised slightly and heard Serenity give a slight eep in shock as a small, young colt stood before us. Garbed in stitched hide of possibly a dozen different creatures, he seemed almost a patchwork monster instead of a pony at all as he lowered his hood. Smiling at us, his greyish fur flowed gently in the breeze as he shook loose a short, rainbow mane and shifted his tail slightly. “Um…” Serenity managed at last, as she stared at him and watched his blood-colored pupils look to her.

“My friends and I wanted to thank the saviors of our little town,” He said, in a surprisingly deep, gravelly tone, as he glanced back and indicated several, smaller, frailer ponies that stood at the end of the street. “Here. It’s not much, but It’s what we could scrape up together.” He stated, passing a small pouch that clinked together as it landed before my forehooves. I could just barely make out the fact that what was present in the bag was what appeared to be many bottlecaps, before I looked up again and the strange colt was gone.

“Why’d he give us these?” Serenity asked, reading my mind.

“Because that’s the currency we use out here,” A familiar voice, that of Gawd’s, replied. She caught our attention, and we both looked up to see her now standing at the gate which led to the small dusty lawn in front of her house. “That was Mortem Lamina’s son, Mors Gladi. One of the few kids we have around here, courtesy of one of my best soldiers.” Gawd had a laugh, which confused Serenity a moment and made me naturally more curious.

“Who’s Mortem Lamina? Why would his son present such a gift to us?" I asked, after a moment.

“The guy’s one of the best ghouls I’ve ever met in battle.” She replied, “Saved my life a time or two, and taught me to be a bit nicer to strangers like you four. Although he’s a strange one, probably from before the war. Just the way he talks and acts is a bit off, compared to the others.” She shook her head, indicating the bag of caps with one of her talons. “That’s one of the things he taught Mors and the other foals, to express your gratitude to others for their actions.”

"We just did what was right," Serenity said, looking at the small bag before picking it up and tying it to her belt. "And we didn't expect any reward. Really, we only did what we'd want anypony else to do for us."

"That attitude is quite a rare sight these days, although not an unwelcome one in this town." Gawd replied, her tone very subtly hinting to me that there might well be more goodwill that could be done.

"Help a friend and they'll be loyal until the end." I said, earning an agreeing nod from the Maintenance Mare beside me as we bade a short farewell for now with the Griffon who had opened her home to us.

It was only a short walk up to the store we had seen previously, and left us nothing more to notice than before save those foals we'd seen earlier. The group of them, five, counting Mortem's boy, seemed busy reenacting the battle which had so recently taken place between us and the Raiders. Though comical, managing to make me smile a little, the way they went about it as I watched made the stored data on the event flash once more before my eyes.

All the blood, the guts, the pleading, horrified look in the eyes of the very ponies I'd personally murdered. Beating them to death with my own hooves, their own weapons, or the various bits and pieces of rubble that was so plentiful around us at that time. It all scrambled my systems and made me choke out a static-filled gasp as I paused in my tracks. This powerful wave of what I could only describe as guilt and horror at what I had done was overwhelming my entire matrix that for a moment my body was inducing a full shutdown of all my functions.

When I came back online, my visual sensors were producing blurred images of my surroundings and I couldn't grasp why. That was when I realized it was because my lenses were producing excess amounts of coolant which trailed down my cheeks. My hearing returned soon afterward, as did my sense of feeling, because both were being tested by Serenity.

"What's wrong Vi? You suffering from a glitch? Something bothering you?" She was giving me a worried gaze, looking me over extensively and testing me with gentle taps of her hoof to see if I responded to movement.

When I did, and finally managed to look at her, she saw the thin lines running down my face and seemed to realize something and immediately hugged me tightly and whispered soothingly in my ear. "It's alright...It's okay...I know what you're going through...I saw it in my dreams."

This news couldn't be more of a shock, and in my mind, it hurt me more than the memory I'd just relived. I made you have nightmares about the horrible things that I did. What more can I do to hurt you or the others? Did they have these same dreams as well?

I didn't get to ask any of that aloud or speak further on the matter, as my close friend pressed her lips to mine and patted my cheek softly, her expression bearing a false smile as she wiped a single tear away. "Let's go to the store,"

"Okay," I said, nodding numbly as she and I detached from one another and made our way slowly along.

Everypony who had been nearby was staring, including the colts and fillies, although Mors didn't seem to be paying too much attention and had actually disappeared entirely. We ignored them, and, after a moment, they began to ignore us as well. By the time we were at the shop, which appeared nice enough by the new standards I was beginning to develop, I gave slight pause outside and read the sign which read 'Selena's General Store' before entering inside with Serenity still at my side.

The interior of the place was occupied mostly by odds and ends, shelves of items and row upon row which filled the multiple boxcars that this shop was built out of. A few interesting pieces were around, but the most intriguing things were that of the store owner who was behind the counter to our right and the massive covered pile of rusted metal which was hunkered down behind that same counter.

"Welcome friends to my store, come on in and have a look around, see what fits your fancy." The mare, I could tell by the tone of her voice, said cheerfully, as she looked at us with a smile.

The two of us split up, and searched around, looking over the different aisles and items that were on display. A few seemed to interest Serenity, as she picked them from the shelves and examined them a moment before setting them back down again.

"Find anything you like?" The mare asked, seeing my close friend find an old thirty-eight caliber pistol with a small box of ammo before she brought it up to the counter after finding me.

"Yes, I believe this will be fine, thank you."

"Well, this old thing will only be twelve caps for ya, Miss. Ammo's included in that price." She said, looking the old revolver over a brief moment before waiting patiently as Serenity fished out the required amount and passed it over to her.

In all this time, I was able to tear my eyes away and look to the covered metal again. Up close, I could tell in more detail that it wasn't just pieces of metal, it appeared to be all one piece. Whatever it was, my systems were able to detect that it was much higher grade metal than normal, Stable-Tec level, possibly military grade.

"What's that Miss Selena? If I may ask?" I pointed to the very thing I'd been staring at for some time now, as Serenity retrieved her pistol and ammo and placed it in her tool satchel for the time being.

"Oh this old pile of scrap?" Selena contemplated, turning to look at the large rusted item she had behind her counter. "Well it's-"

"It's not of our world, if that's what you've been wondering." The same deep, gravelly voice of Mors spoke from behind us, although when we jumped and looked he wasn't there. After a few seconds passed, his eyes opened, and he lowered his hood again and was standing mere steps from us where he looked up at the three of us. "Father and I dragged it out of the wreckage of an old military base a few years ago. It was all that was still salvageable from the wreck of some strange pod that it had come with."

My desire for knowledge about this mystery item was almost insatiable now, as I looked it over extensively while still listening as Selena spoke up.

"We've been trying to fix it for years, but haven't had much luck. None of us are any good at tinkering with machines. So it's just been here, gathering dust."

"I could probably fix it. I worked in the Science Wing of my Stable as a Maintenance Mare." Serenity offered, getting a surprised look from the shop owner before she nodded.

"If you can figure out how to get this thing working, I'll pay you handsomely for it." Both of us were already preparing to refuse such an idea, but Mors spoke up and interrupted us.

"The Lamina family believes in paying all of its debts." With that, he suddenly vanished into the shadows of the aisles, as Serenity nodded in understanding and began to talk about examining the strange machine.

To my own surprise, I wasn't entirely interested in whatever this machine was. I was somewhat fixated on those words the young colt had spoken before his stealthy departure. Leaving the two at the counter, I found myself heading for the door as I thought on those few, powerful words.

Debts...So far everypony in town supposedly owes us a debt for saving them...Is that the reason we're so welcome here? Because they owe us and nothing more? Is that the life we're looking for, holding something over everypony else in order to have a place among them? These musings had taken root in my mind, as I sat down by the door and looked skyward to the clouds above. Is the grass greener here than anywhere else? Is it worth it to settle here, especially when my first memories of this place are so tainted by my own actions?

Author's Note

Hello once again audience, this is author Derpyness Maximus here. I'm just checking in with you all to see how you feel about both chapter seven and the story thus far. Did you enjoy it? Did you dislike it? Are you somewhat in the middle? Either way, would you kindly leave me a comment or even P.M. me about your thoughts if you'd like; and remember to thumbs up or down the story. Also, I'd be interested to hear from those who do dislike the story especially, more so for their reasons of dislike and to see if I can change to become better at what I do.

As always, I give thanks to my unnamed proofreader friend whom catches most of my errors before publishing.

This is author Derpyness Maximus, signing off for now.