Chapter 1 "Its attracting flies...."
The decaying buildings rose into the sky like the rib bones of a long dead pony. The slate grey sky didn't do much to lighten the appearance or mood much either, long ago it was said pegasi controled the weather, but as it sat now only weather in the airspace over the strongholds bared any resemblance to what it use to be like. Ammo truged along through the broken city guided by the hum and lights of the Neo Manehattan stronghold that sat in the heart of the boneyard. Half the size of the original city Neo Manehattan boasted the highest stronghold population of any other. With its twenty story tall and 5 mile thick walls it was a beacon to any reminant hunter or trader for miles. Any trader or hunter in the north did business in Neo, that was simply how it was. Ammo's ears perked up as he heard a noise from somewhere to his right. His horn glowed as his Springfillie Tesla rifle slid from it's sheathe on his back between the scavenger bags. A months worth of wages was in those bags and Ammo was not about to be robbed of it. Not easily at any rate. "Hello?" He called out to the echoing streets. Besides the odd creak from the stripped and rusting autocarriages crammed into the streets nothing else came to his attention as he continued to move cautiously down the grimy side walk along busted out store fronts and skeletons some more fresh than others. "Hmmm, oh well" he sighed "Must be nerves." Nonetheless his rifle hummed as he powered it up. Something in his mind told him he was in danger and out in the boneyards instinct is everything. He ducked just as a clap like lighting issued from a building a few yards away and a sniper round burrowed into a brick wall where his head had been a few moments ago, he ducked behind a rusty auto carriage as he scoped where the shot had come from. The apartment building a few yards to his left from the third floor window on the far right. Just as he started to site it in he heard a few laughs and shouts as four more ponies came out of the building. They all had guns,and they all looked ready to use them. "Bandits, Fuck, Why can't it just be any easy run? Why why why." He complained to no pony in particular as the four bandits rushed his position. His magic held the rifle as he pulled the long combat knife out of the sheathe on his right shoulder.
"Here piggy piggy! Come on! We only want your stuff! And to bleed you! Hahaha!" Laughed one of the bandits leading the charge with a sawed off shotgun held in the piss yellow aura of his magic. Ammo couldn't respond with the knife in his mouth but he took no time answering with his rifle. Shooting through the opening that used to hold windows his Tesla rifle sent a bullet of energy right at the advancing group. Sawed off managed to duck it but the bandit behind him wasn't so lucky. His rusty revolver clattered to the ground as his head exploded in a firework of skull and brain. "Fan out and surround him! He can't shoot us all at once!" Sawed off yelled at his fellows as they returned fire making Ammo duck down as buck shot and pistol rounds peppered his position. One moved to the far left as the other moved far right and sawed off took the middle as they fanned out on the street using carriage carcasses as cover.
"Shit." Ammo cursed they were at least not parasprites, but they weren't smart enough. The pony on the left was getting closer as the pony on the right was as well. He took a deep breathe through his nostrils as he aimed the rifle at the pony on the left and fired. He missed, with a curse he reaimed and fired again as the pony rose from cover to return fire. This time the round found its mark and the pony fell back with a cry of pain and a new hole in his chest. Ammo turned just in time to duck as more returning fire forced him to take cover. He was going to have to move they'd be on him any second now and he didn't like his odds. As he rose to move another clap issued from the apartment window casing another round to burrow into the concrete. The sniper! Shit shit shit! He backed up into his original place. The hoof steps were getting closer. His teeth tightened around the knife handle as he tensed for battle the pony on the right emerged with victory burning in his eyes as the handgun in his mouth rose to fire. Ammo braced as he heard a click and the pony's eyes widened as he realised his grave mistake "Lucky me." Ammo grinned as he fired his rifle twice sending the pony's head and chest into the air in a splurt of blood and bone.
"Not lucky enough my boy. Not lucky enough." His blood froze as he felt twin barrels on the back of his head. " any last words me boy?" The sawed off pony asked. His breath smelled like rotting meat and cigars as he whispered in Ammo's ear.
"Fuck you." Ammo spat as the pony chuckled and the twin hammers clicked back.
" Not very poetic but we aren't in the arts business are we. We are in the life and death business." He said with a flare as Ammo closed his eyes tightly and sent up a prayer to Luna. Suddenly a thunder clap came from down the road and he felt the shotgun jerk as the pony's body fell on him spraying him with blood.
"Thought you might need some help when you didn't arrive on time, and it looks like I was right as usual." Came a clear sing song voice in the air above him as a fire red Pegasus mare with a long blue mane hovered, holding a long pink sniper rifle with the words "surprise!" Written in large white letters on the side, with a pink pony with a pink mane and three balloons as a cutie mark saying them in a speech bubble. Ammo always forgot the name of the pony but he never forgot the rifle.
"Hell fire!" Ammo suddenly realised she was in the open "There's a-"
" Sniper right? Apartment, third floor, far right?" Hell fire cut him off with a sigh already hovering side to side and up and down to make herself a difficult target as she sighted in the area. She stopped for a moment and fired. Surprise party kicked like a mule as the large round sped through the air. She nodded satisfied. "You can move now. He ain't getting up with no head." She hovered down until she was next to him. "Got any smokes? I haven't had one in like five whole minutes." Ammo grinned as his magic rifled through his bag and produced a pack of ponymalls.
"You earned em, no charge." He grinned as she put the cigarette in her mouth and he lit it for her.
"Good, wasn't going to pay for them any way." She grinned as she inhaled and put the pack in her saddle bag as she sheathed surprise party. "I kinda rushed out to help you and forgot my mask? Smog storms due in a few." She exhaled a mix of grey and blue smoke as they started the rest of the way into Neo.
"Yeah sure." Ammo nodded and levitated out a mask for her that matched the one he wore around his neck. The enchanted filters kept out most of the smog but wading through one was never a good idea even in a full hazmat suit. He felt the wind blow behind him no doubt the very wind that was pushing the smog their way. They quickened their pace as they rounded the last bombed out street corner. "Ah Neo Manehattan, if it earns money it happens here!" Ammo said with a dramatic flourish as they approached the massive front gates with two guards in celestial guard armor, white from top to bottom and rimmed with sparkling gold, their face sheilds where like twin mirriors reflecting the grime and destruction in the city around them Ammo shivered, despite all the finery those suits had enough protective enchantment to stop four artillery rounds. Ammo turned to Hell. "Oh I forgot to ask Hell, what brings you to the fine city?" He said with grin as Hell fire returned it and patted her saddle bag.
"Had a contract on a minor bandit leader that was selling stims out of the old warehouse off South Celestia avenue. So I paid him a visit." Ammo nodded and suddenly noticed the small cloud of flies around the bag's lid. Hell fire was his friend and had been for a long time, but it was surprising how often he forgot she was a killer of the stone cold variety.
"Halt!" Came a cold filtered voice from one of the guards as their Tesla weapons rose into firing position on the mounts on their backs. Those guns ment business. "State your business."
"Traders of a sort." Hell fire said back jovially. As she spat out the stub of a cigarette and got out another looking at Ammo as he lit it for her.
"What's in the bag?" The other guard asked nodding at her saddle bag
"My proof of job completion!" She said back brightly as she exhaled more smoke in a big cloud.
"It's attracting flies." The guard said back confused for a moment.
"Well my employer didn't demand it fresh." Hell fire chuckled.
" oh...right." The guard nodded as the realisation of what was probably in there struck him. Assainations weren't illegal out side the walls, but that didn't make them any less frowned upon. "Facial records show no criminal records inside the walls. You may enter. Enjoy your stay in Neo Manehattan." The guards said in unisun as the stood to either side as the gates slid open, and the friends walked through into the city.
"Buy me a drink eh? I know a good dive, lots of our kind frequent it so you know, no weird looks." Hell fire grinned
"Yeah let me drop this stuff off first, this is rush order shit, top Neo." Ammo said as he looked at the cramped city. It never ceased to take his breath away. The inhabitants had decided to build up rather than out so most of the bombed out buildings had been reinforced with scrapped steel and now formed tetering towers like building block towers built by a fillie.
"Yeah OK, see you there in a few, my contractor is the owner so I'll be at the private bar." Hell fire said "its called the "Buzzsaw Bar" off of 18th in industrial." Then she flew off no doubt to take her employer the "proof of job completion." Ammo sighed as he watched her fly off through the steam and smoke of the city, and focused his full attention on navigating the city to get to the tram station.
"Market district, market district." He muttered as he passed a few salesponies hawking anything from bullets, and rusty guns and knives, to potions and concoctions that made you "immune to the smog!" Ammo rolled his eyes as he kept walking through the winding paths to the tram station. "Celestial Nobel Transport Station!" The sign above the marble building proclaimed in flickering holo letters. Ammo took it in. A crumbling facade of its former glory was the easiest way to describe it the cracks and chunks of of the marble and the faded brass that out lined the steel doors. Ammo walked up the steps as the hustlenof the crowd around him threatened to throw him to the ground. He gained his bearings as the rickety tram rolled in. The sleek steel front ended abruptly as it slid into the station revealing the added cars that the inhabitants had cobbled to get her from other trams they had found in the boneyard. Neo only had one team but it was a big one. Ammo boarded and took a seat on the steel benches that lined the walls they were nasty but in the boneyards he'd seen worse. Blowing a pony's head off really put a sticky seat into prospective when it came to grossness. His scavenger bag's clinked and rattled as the contents shifted as he sat. Some of the passengers eyed the bags. Reminant scavenger bag's contents rarely disappointed when it came to Neos if you could steal them, but the glow around Ammo's Tesla rifle seemed to discourage any notions as the tram pulled out of the station.
"Next stop Neo market district. Please keeps all hooves inside the tram while in motion and keep violent behavior to a minimum. Any acts deemed inappropriate will be handled by guard deployment at our next stop. Thank-you and enjoy the ride." Came a canned voice over the old speakers in the tram. Ammo sat back and let the minutes roll by until the tram made a stop. "We have now arrived in the market district. All patrons please exit now as the doors open." Ammo rose as the doors opened and walked through unhindered. His Tesla rifle and the fact he was covered in blood made sure the civilians gave him a wide berth. The market district was a cluster of restroed stores that took up about 3 blocks close to the middle of the city. If you needed the good stuff you came here. Rare weapons, stims (out the back door of course.), parts, ammo and energy canisters. And those where just the gun and parts shops, fresh food from the Filliedelphia stronghold, purifiers, and masks. Basically if it was expensive and really helpful. They sold it here. Ammo passed the shop keepers and security droids and ponies that sat in the store fronts, waiting for the unlucky pony to try and escape with stolen wares only to feel a slug enter their back. Ammo stopped outside the last shop in the first row "Headshots! Guns, Ammo, Knives, and Parts!" Under that the slogan "If it doesn't kill them the first time, Its not a Headshot!" The holo letters flickered slightly as an animated pony blew off a bandits head with a large rifle repeatedly under the sign. Ammo grinned slightly as he walked into the shop. The security bot waved at him as he walked in.
"Ah, m-m-master Ammo! Here ahead of schedule as usual! I shall inform Master supah cool dude at once! I believe he is in his shop working." He said in a badly recorded voice. Ammo winced but pretended not to notice, he might get offended. The cybernetic companion had been huge before the war and afterwards they were even more in demand. Free labor never went out of style it seemed. Ammo had helped the owner build this secyrity bot, cybernetic brain and personality, right down to the armor plating and twin shotguns mounted to his sides. They could think, feel, and look like a normal pony at least they thought they could, in reality they had as much free will as a photo copier that could talk, but still.. Ammo was pushed from his thoughts as the store owner came down from his shop.
"There he is, there's my part magnet!" The owner was a stocky, green unicorn with a spiky crop of bright white mane,and an arc welder cutie mark.
"Hey Arc, what's up??" Ammo grinned at his long time buissenss associate and who he considered friend.
"Not much, not much," he grinned at Ammo's bulging scavenger bag's. "Just finished getting your payment together." He levitated out a large bag that ruffled and clinked like only bills and coins could.
"Fair enough." Ammo accepted the bag and set his on the table as Arc danced around it in giddy delight.
"Did you get the lithium booster?" Arc asked with baited breath, his magic half way opening the bag.
"Right where you said I would." Said Ammo as he grinned at his employers happiness. This was his favorite kind of customer. The kind that really loved what he got them. With a barely contained squeel of happiness Arc threw open the bag to reveal a lithium booster and attachment rig.
"An attachment rig?" He questioned Ammo with awe on his face.
"You didn't ask, but I assumed you'd want one." Ammo grinned indulgently as Arc examined the parts.
"Excellent condition, simply excellent. Job well done and payment well deserved." He paused before going behind the counter and coming back up with a small container of bright pink liquid that seemed to brighten the room. "Some lithuium for your rifle as payment for the attachment rig." He paused before adding "and because it would seem you got into a fight assuming that blood is not yours, in which case this will keep that rifle firing for at least another week." Ammo thanked him as he exited the shop. The thick cool air of the city hit his lungs like he was breathing bricks as he navigated his way back to the tram station. It was a quick tram ride to industrial where he was meeting Hell fire, but the company on the tram was a little less chatty and bright as the last crowd he'd ridden with on the way to the market district. These ponies worked in the water and food recycling plants that were housed in the industrial district, and weren't paid very well for it. Slums and poverty were how most of the district lived. They worked at the plants because they were qualified to do little else. Ammo's aura tightened on his rifle. These ponies had nothing to lose. He almost breathed a sigh of relief as the tram doors dinged open and he was able to step out of the tram and escape the looks of sadness and desperateness. The district wasn't much better as he walked down the streets. Bars and strip clubs littered the area like the trash in the streets. The cheap and broken hollo signs advertised for anything from stims to boos. Anything that made a pony forget about tomorrow, and with working in the plants being as hard and dangerous as it was Ammo couldn't blame them. A stim head stumbled out into the street still dragging an empty I.V bag by a tube and a needle still stuck in his foreleg as Ammo walked down 18th looking for the bar Hell fire was waiting for him in.
"The sky is on fire.." He mumbled "No work tomorrow for sure, but what will the boss say.." He slammed into Ammo and hung on to him. His breath smelled like rotten food and chemicals. Ammo wrinkled his nose and tried to push him off, but he clung to him. "Luna don't go please! Our dead brothers and sisters need you, Luna!" His bloodshot eyes streamed tears as Ammo finally shoved him off and he went on his way sobbing and screaming curses at the sky and trailing the empty I.V.
"Finally," Ammo let out an exhausted breath as he came to the door of the Buzzsaw Bar. The sun was starting to go down as he entered. Was the day ending already? Ammo let out another breath. They seemed to only move faster. He levitated out a cigerette and lit it as he walked into the bar.
