Equestrian Scavengerby Odd_ShotChaptersFire and WhiskeyHaychiganThe SprawlFire and WhiskeyI snorted and slid out from underneath the bed to stand on my hooves. A PDA I’d found a week earlier had told me that the Mad Guffaws had hidden some loot in the storage sheds south of Camp Neighling, but the trash littering the room told me that the intel had long gone useless. I trotted out of the storage shed. taking a moment to pick up the crowbar I had used to break the shoddy lock on the door. I slung the tool over my back and took a long, deep breath. Pausing a little ways from the doorway, I gazed at the ruins of the town around me. My nose twitched as the scent of ash drifted by. Looking up, a plume of smoke alerted me to the direction of the fire; west, towards the Earth Pony Enclave. After making sure that I hadn’t left any of my gear behind, I left the modest town. I huffed in exasperation as I reached the hill’s crest. I walked over to the tarp shelter I had set up recently and laid down, pulling my binoculars from my neck up to my eyes with my hooves; I had long since stopped bothering to use magic for such a small thing. “There you are,” I muttered as my eyes met a familiar patch of forest, home to the Earth Ponies’ Enclave. My binoculars swiveled around as I surveyed the area around the dense forest, looking for any signs of life in the area. I gawked at the sight I was met with instead. The forest was burning. The northernmost part of the Everfree Forest, was burning. Fire, a true forest fire was taking place right in front of my eyes. My ideas of a small campfire spun suddenly escalated into the ramifications of a forest fire, the magnitude of which that nopony had seen in decades. The reading I had done after finding a couple of legible history books long ago had told me that pegasi were the only ones who would be able to douse a forest fire, and that was with the help of earth ponies and unicorns. It was too bad that the pegasi were not interested in rebuilding Equestria, all they wanted to do was keep all of their resources up in the sky, away from the apocalypse below. I shook my head and tore my eyes away from the billowing black pillar of smoke and stood. I had paid my debts to the Earth ponies long ago, but once you knew where the Earth Ponies lived, you would go out of your way to make sure they lived. After all, they taught me how to create tannin. Making sure to grab my gear from under the tarp, I galloped down the hill and into the fray. I’d once read from a book that fire was a beautiful, and terrifying thing. My body shivered as I stood before the fiery blaze engulfing the Enclave’s home. I heard nothing around me but the crackle of fire and the falling of trees. The forest somehow seemed scarier filled with sound than when it was filled with silent, stalking tribals. “Help!” “Damn it,” I muttered; I wasn’t in the mood for a rescue. I ducked into a nearby bush and began to sneak towards the still crying voice. watching the nearby trees carefully for any embers. The fire was nearby, but wasn’t close enough to warrant extreme caution. Despite that, I still watched the trees warily; I had been lured into a trap like this before, and would never let my guard down again. I continued onwards despite my hesitation and peeked into a clearing ahead. Lying on the ground almost right in front of me was a mare, and it was graphically apparent that she’d taken quite the fall. She had fallen from a drop behind her, presumably when she wasn’t paying attention in front of her, resulting in the mare tripping over a large log and plummeting right onto an Enclave trap. The noose for the trap was tightly clamped around her neck. Luckily, the mare seemed smart enough to stay put and try not to move. Those traps were built to tighten if one kept struggling; crazy Earth ponies and their technology for you. I took a quick peek around the trees around her, only to find them clear of any life. I took a slow, deep breath, and stepped out into the clearing. The unicorn mare had a nice white coat, and a long black mane that came down past her neck. She looked more like a city mare than a scavenger. As expected, the mare flinched back as I came towards her, but otherwise halted her screaming, thankfully saving my hearing for another time. Her ears flattened against her head as I anxiously took some steps, looking around me in a hardened suspicion. “Please… H-help…” I turned towards her and held up a hoof. “Quiet,” I hissed, shutting her up quickly. “I don’t know how long somepony can survive in an EPE trap, and I don’t think you want to find out.” She stayed silent. I took that as my queue to close the gap between the two of us. Thankfully, it seemed that a rookie tribespony had made this knot; it was loose enough to untie her. Sitting down, I began using my hooves to undo the noose as the mare sat there, hanging uncomfortably about an inch of the ground. “W-why don’t you use your magic?” Uneducated, huh? Maybe she wasn’t a city mare. “Because,” I began, accidentally pulling a little too hard on the rope, making her choke. “If I just used up all of my magic on little things that I could do physically, then I would be drained all the time. Haychigan has little magic in it to begin with.” Her eyes shimmered with a hint of curiosity for a moment, and she looked up at me, mouth slowly beginning to open. “No, not now. Questions later.” She took the hint and shut up, thankfully preventing me from hearing her barrage of questions. About a minute later, I had the knot undone. She went to stand up but yelped and fell harshly onto her opposite side, revealing a long gash beside her stomach on the side she had fallen on earlier. Blood was dripping out slowly, but the deep looking wound seemed bad. Bad enough that it might require a bandage and some tea. I cringed and looked between my bag and her. Your medical supplies are low, just leave her here and go, my mind growled at me. But she can’t even walk, what kind of pony would you be if you left her here to burn alive? Plus, you can always boil up some more clean bandages and tannin. As I continued to argue with myself mentally, I failed to notice the mare trying to use her magic. Before I had time to respond, she let out another cry of pain, clutching her head as she lay on the ground. “It hurts…“ She whimpered pitifully. Ah, buck it. Curse my good samaritan side, and curse this stupid mare for trying to use magic while she was clearly unable to focus. I levitated the now free mare out of the rocks and onto a nice patch of dead, brown grass. My head throbbed for a moment after I set her down. I groaned, rubbing the sore spot. “Don’t use magic, the pain is going to make it harder for you to focus, and I don’t need you to bleed out both literally and mentally.” She grunted in reply to my statement. I went to work, pulling out a good hoofful of clean rags. I lifted out a plastic bottle, looking for some tannin tea to use as an antibiotic, but there wasn’t any left. A loud groan escaped me. “You better be worth it,” I muttered pulling out my bottle of reserved Diamond Dog whiskey I had been saving for my return to Detrota Central. I sanitized a rag with a good pour of the whiskey, and applied it to the wound. She hissed in pain, but was able to stay still. “You got a name?” Her eyes were shut tight, giving me a chance to shamelessly look over at her cutie mark; a pink star with five other pink stars surrounding it. It looked so out of place on her otherwise pristine white coat. One could only wonder what this mare’s story was. “T-Twilight Sparkle,” she gave up after a moment of hesitation. I nodded and kept wrapping the bandages tightly around her side and the wound, careful not to hurt her as I went. So it was Twilight Sparkle, huh? Such a strange little name to be born into this world with. It reminded me of some of the names elder ponies in Detrota had; bright and cheerful. As I continued to work on her side, my sharp eyesight allowed me to spot quite a worrying thought not too far from us in the forest ahead. Slowly approaching us were flames, and with them the sound of the fire. Buck it, I thought to myself. I gave up on using my hooves and let go of her, finishing up the work quickly with my magic. She let out a quiet moan of pain. “We have to go, the fire’s coming.” Her shut eyes refused to open. Celestia dammit all, the mare was getting tired. “Twilight, we need to go.” Still, Twilight refused to stand up from the ground. She would owe me so much for this now. I pulled her up with my telekinesis and set her across my back, careful not to set her down on the fresh bandage and the end of the crowbar across my back. “Thank… Thank you,” she muttered out to me drowsily. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the way I had come. I pushed my way through the foliage, allowing both me and the mare to pass through without any more scratches. When I made it out of this forest with this stubborn mare, I wanted some answers, and maybe a little bit of payment. Make that a lot of payment. Whiskey isn’t cheap, after all. HaychiganTwilight awoke in a literal haze. Dust dominated the skies, no doubt from the fire she was once surrounded by. She was lying on something soft, I’d made sure of that. As she began to woozily recognize her surroundings as a quiet, safe place, I held out a bottle of water. “Drink,” I ordered. As the mare greedily chugged down the bottle of water, my mind yet again drifted to the amount of bits she owed me, ever increasing. I chuckled as she finished the water, hoofing back the now empty bottle. I went to stow the bottle away. She spoke up, a slight cough in her voice. “You,” she let out a cough and rubbed her neck, a faint red ring the only evidence of the trap she’d stepped into. “You said this was Haychigan?” I nodded, occupied by the status of my resources. A quick check of my supplies made me grimace. Food was rather low, and to my knowledge, most scavengable areas nearby were empty. “I’ve never heard of Haychigan... Are we far from Ponyville?” I raised a brow and stared at Twilight. “Ponyville? Never heard of it. It’s probably not close to the bombings.” She paled a little. “Bombings?” I shrugged, opening a soup can, only to find twigs. With a groan, I threw it back into the pile of gear on my sled. “That’s what I’ve always assumed. With how badly burned the surrounding plains north and west of Detrota Central area, it had to have been.” I brought a hoof to my chin. “Probably chemical if we mention how bad the Foggy Bog swamp is nowadays. Aha!” I lifted up a can of soup and shook it happily. “Food!” I looked between the can and Twilight. She caught the can with her hooves with a bit of surprise. “You need it more than me.” “Are you sure? I mean, we can share?” I shook my head. “I’ve got a slow metabolism, it’ll take a bit longer for me to get hungry.” She nodded, giving me a warm smile. “Thank you.” “Call me Fray.” I shot her a toothy grin, before I returned to my gear. “And you owe me,” I muttered as I inspected my crowbar. “Uh, heh, could you… show me how to open this?” City mare… Probably has always been using a can opener. I turned around and made my way over to the mare struggling with the can. Sighing, I sat down and took the can from her. “Like this, you pull back the tab,” the can popped open, showing the cold contents inside. “And there you go. Food.” I hoofed the can back to her. A grin was all I was given before Twilight dug down hungrily. When she finished, she handed me back the can; i’d rinse it out later to store some more tinder. My smile returned. “Nothing like a healthy appetite, right?” She blushed, her white cheeks going rosy. “Anyways, how about we head on back to Detrota and get you somewhere safe.” “That would be great,” she smiled. A breeze passed us, causing Twilight to shiver. “Cold?” She nodded. “Hold on, i’ll get you something.” I searched my sled, finding a black hoodie in good condition, almost just as good as the hoodie I myself wore. She caught my offering with open hooves. She shrugged the hoodie on. “That’ll keep you warm until we set up camp later.” “Thanks,” she murmured, snuggling into the clothing. I chuckled. “Well, all that’s left to do is take down the tarp and we can get moving.” As I began to remove the blue cover and sleeping bag from my makeshift campsite, I tossed a look over my shoulder. “Want to help?” “Oh!” She blushed, clearly embarrassed as she looked up from her hoodie. “Of course!” I glared at the descending sun, just beginning to dip below the horizon. We’d travelled further than I normally could. With Twilight helping carry some of the saddlebags, and me pulling the sled, I would garner that we were halfway to Detrota. I was surprised with how amiable Twilight was. When we had started walking, I was carrying and pulling all of my goods, but she had stepped in without a word and slid the saddlebags off my back and onto her own. The tool-laden bags seemed effortless for the city mare to carry, and I was already beginning to wonder if she truly was a city mare. I had even asked her, garnering a little more information on her history from her. “How can you carry all that?” I said, turning my face to her as we walked. “Huh?” “There are two separate toolboxes in each of those bags, and both of them are full of my mechanical materials.” “Oh, well they’re not as heavy as the saddlebags I used to carry.” I raised an eyebrow. “What did you carry then?” She smiled, nostalgia flooding her features. “Books.” “Books? Are you a scholar?” Normally the Blue Dogs were the ones who collected all of the old artifacts for learning. It was pretty rare nowadays to see a pony worrying about the past and not the present. “Yep, my studies were really extensive as a foal,” she sighed indignantly. “But now I have to deal with my… new duties.” I shrugged, not going any further. “Fair enough.” Eventually, though, we had to stop; we were both hungry and tired, and the forest nearby would provide us shelter and food for the night. I’d never had to rely on berries before, but the absence of food brought me to desperate measures. The soup that I had given Twilight had been meant for my own journey back to Detrota. With Twilight’s help however, her skill with botany (she gave thanks to her books) helped us identify a large bush of edible blueberries which were feasted upon. We found a good clearing to stay for the night, and placed down all of my belongings. I set up my tarp shelter to lay under, and gave Twilight my sleeping bag for her own protection. As we settled in for the long dark, the campfire crackling, I bid Twilight adieu. “Sleep tight, Fray.” When I awoke the next morning to the sound of crackling fire nearby, I was afraid that the white mare had taken my belongings and left me. What I found was something else entirely. “Twilight?” I asked, rubbing my eyes with a hoof. The red ring around her neck was gone, and she sat beside the campfire, heating up an unlabelled tin can. “Morning sleepyhead,” she grinned. “I found a pond nearby and I boiled some water to make us some breakfast. I groaned as I stood, popping a few joints in my hind legs. “Whatcha cookin’ then?” I questioned, walking over. She smiled up at me as I got close enough to peer into the can. “Roasted berries! I found that recipe in one of your saddlebags, so I thought I might repay your kindness with some cooking.” Her smile turned to a frown as she inspected the can. “Though, i’m not sure that this cooking is as good as when i’m using a stove.” “Food is food,” I shrugged as I sat down. “And not being able to use magic is awful,” she sighed, readjusting her grip on the forked stick holding the can up. She sat up, turning to face me. “Why is that anyway? I forgot to ask you yesterday.” “Well, i’ll tell you if you give me some of that cooking.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, receiving an eyeroll in response. “Let it cool first,” she said, setting the tin of roasted berries down to the side. “So!” She propped up and faced me with an even bigger grin than before. “Tell me all about it.” “Well, uh…” I scratched the scruff on my chin; I never was the best at explaining things. “Use too much magic and you’ll get a nasty migraine.” “But why?” “The bombs weren’t just chemical.” She looked horrified for a moment. “They were magical?” “That’s what we all speculate, it’s the best guess that we have.” I cough, reaching for a bottle of water. I drank, until I paused halfway through the bottle. “Did you hear that?” Twilight whispered. We both stayed silent for a moment, the dying fire the only sound for a time. The distant report of a gun caught my attention. I cocked my head, listening, but the gunfire refused to show itself again. Luckily, I had heard it loud enough to know where it came from. “Eat some of those berries, we’re going to need to move soon; the gunshot came from the hill we left yesterday.” “Gunshot?” She asks, slowly tasting the word. “What’s that?” Apparently the mare hadn’t heard of firearms before. “The sound of a rare weapon,” I say swiftly, picking up the hot can of roasted berries and shoving half of them down, despite the heat. I hoof it over to Twilight and immediately begin breaking up our camp, stomping out our fire with some dirt. So much for some relaxation after the rescue. “We’ll redo your bandage later,” I said as she shoved down some more of the scalding hot berries. She cringed, probably at her newly burnt tongue. “But right now, help me with this.” Within minutes, we were packed up and on the move again. As soon as I got Twilight to Detrota, I would come back to the Earth Pony Enclave and see what happened. For now though, I had to help this mare get to safety. We left, my sled behind me and my saddlebags on her sides. The SprawlThe two of us walked for hours, only stopping once the sound of gunfire had long since disappeared. Twilight prodded me with questions about my past the whole while, but I refused to make any statements, opting to walk in silence. After a while, she took on her own silence as well. Twilight showed some strange reactions to the various battlefield we passed; a smoldering crater of a grenade, a broken crowbar surrounded by bloodstains, and a crashed drone, clearly scavenged by some of the Detrota guards as the high tech weapon had been cut out via cutting torch. She looked confused as I explained what had happened in each area, apparently having no prior knowledge as to what any of the items we found discarded were used for. The one thing that threw me off about our journey to Detrota Central City was the lack of patrols. Twilight picked up on my concern as we approached the remains of a farmhouse. “What’s wrong, Fray?” I shook my head of my thoughts and began to scout out the area around the house. “There’s usually guards patrolling around here since we’re getting close to the city.” I halted, squinting at a broken window in the farmhouse. “Unless…” A door slammed from the house. I pulled Twilight down behind a log with me quickly. She hissed in pain as her side hit mine, hard. “What was that for?” Came her harsh whisper. I held up a hoof and slowly peered over the top of the log at the farmhouse. As expected, a group of three ponies came stumbling out. They were too far away to hear, but from their yells and movements, they were clearly drunk. There was nothing noteworthy about them; they wore hoodies of various colors and state and each had a duffle bag slung over their side. I waited until they had passed by a hill and out of sight before I stood and helped Twilight to her hooves. “Just some scavengers.” I sighed, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. “Sorry about that.” She huffed, making sure the bags were secure on her back before she continued walking towards the farmhouse. Bang! We both froze at the sound of the nearby gunfire. Bang bang! Twilight instinctively dove back for the log of her own will and I quickly followed, pressing my back against it. Screams of agony filled the area, making Twilight fold her ears against her head. Before we could say or do anything, another gunshot went off, ending the screams. Twilight shivered as the final shot rang in her ears. “W-what do we do?” I mulled over our options. A quick check of a bit purse in one of my bags gave me an idea. “Twilight, you’re going to be bait.” She stared at me wide eyed. “What?” Came her horrified whisper. My lips twitched back into a frown. The weapon did not follow the sound of a normal Detrota guard’s pistol, making the owner fair game. “You have a debt to pay, and that gun is going to be a good way to pay for it.” Twilight still looked terrified, but now carried a hint of anger in her voice. “I could die!” “Every day is another chance to die.” I sighed, running a hoof through my mane. “Listen Sparkle, I don’t know where you came from, but here in Haychigan, you do everything you can to survive, even if it means running the risk of death. I didn’t have the opportunity like those raised in the city to get a job and stay safe within the walls. I was born out here, and I know exactly what risks I take.” I took a breath. “And from the options we have, we wait them out and run the risk of not having any money to get food once we get to Detrota, or we fight.” My eyes locked onto her orbs as I stared. “So what’ll it be, Twilight Sparkle?” The white mare shrank under my gaze, looking at the ground. “Okay.” Twilight shivered as she stood in the middle of the grass. “H-hello? Is anypony hurt?” There was a silence. And then… “Oh ho ho! Is that a mare I hear?” Twilight’s eyes dilated as the large griffon stepped into view from behind the hill. He wiped away the blood along his beak with a paw and grinned. “A fine one too.” There was a pop as he stretched his neck. “Don’t you worry none,” he said chuckling as he approached. “I won’t bite. Much.” “Hey!” Twilight watched, frozen in fear as the griffon pulled a black piece of metal from a holster on one of his front legs in a flash, only to drop it as a loud bang erupted from behind him. Blood began spurting out of its side. The grin that had taken place among his features disappeared in an instant, replaced by an awful gurgling as blood filled the griffon’s lungs. His eyes were wide with terror as he swayed to the side. Thud. Twilight stared at the griffon as he breathed his last, blood spilling over the ground beneath him as it flooded out from the new hole in his side. His eyes which had been once bright and full of malicious intent, now sat lifeless in their sockets. Twilight felt an awful feeling rising from her stomach. “Yikes, sorry you had to see that.” There was a metallic click from behind the griffon. Twilight turned to stare at me. “Usually my aim ain’t so bad.” Twilight gagged, resisting the urge to vomit as she looked away from the scene. Twilight looked back after a time, looking a little more sick as I looted the griffon’s bag. “How can you be so nonchalant after…” “Killing someone?” I sighed, grabbing the griffon’s gun and moving to slip the dead bird’s holster off. “You just get used to the killing.” Twilight took a step back. “Y-you’ve killed before?” Well I should have thought that one through a bit more. “Only in self defence and for the innocent.” He grunted as the strap for the holster slipped out. “Those poor bastards he executed behind the hill were just a bunch of scavengers, Twilight. Ponies who wanted to just find and sell junk for their everyday meals. Sure, my motivation for killing is usually for profit, but when I kill, I at least have some morality.” “But everypony deserves a second chance,” came Twilight’s murmur. I snorted at that. “He was about to rape you. He’s probably done it before.” I stepped back from the body, looking directly at Twilight. “Everyone in this world is out to survive, and a lot of us have taken to less than peaceful means to do so. Practically all the griffon’s in Haychigan hunt ponies for food, the dogs go around killing anyone who won’t convert to their following, and even some ponies have taken to eating each other all because they couldn’t afford to buy some food that wasn’t pony meat.” Twilight was quiet for a time. I gladly took the silence as an opportunity to search through the griffon’s bag. “And some of us can’t find good entertainment, just like how he wanted to ‘play’ with his food before he ate.” Twilight looked sick again, but nodded. I looked up, my expression neutral. “Got it?” She gave a slow nod. “Good.” Looking back in the direction from which we had come, I frowned. “Now, we need to get moving again. I’m pretty sure Detrota is just a two hour trot from here.” With another weak nod, Twilight returned to the log and picked up the saddlebags. I waited quietly beside the farmhouse, watching the tattered Equestrian flag wave in the breeze. Once Twilight had rejoined me, we set off. The two hour tripped turned out to be far shorter than I expected. The lack of ponies had led me to believe that we were still pretty far from the city, but when we suddenly crashed into a guard checkpoint, Twilight more literally as she apologised profusely to the irate guard. I found that it had only taken thirty minutes by the time on my watch. “Come on, Sparkle, we need to get going.” With another ‘sorry’ to the guard, we climbed down the slope and into the Sprawl. The tent town, as the name suggests, was a sprawling sea of makeshift tarp shelters and ruined homes on the outskirts of Detrota. Every now and then, Twilight would look up and stare at the twelve-story wall of concrete that separated us from the inside of the actual city, just long enough to get it together and catch up to me in the crowd of ponies. “So,” I began conversationally. “You’re going to need a pass.” Confusion took over her face. “A pass?” I nodded. “Why do I need a pass?” “Well, you didn’t have a pass on you and you certainly wouldn’t be able to survive outside the city alone, and they can’t just let anyone into the city, else they’d have a bunch of ‘ruthless scavengers’ looting their city. They make you pay a bunch of bits for a pass, or go through a mountain of paperwork.” “Why can’t I just do the paperwork?” Before I could answer, we found ourselves standing before a worn looking two-story office. “Most can’t read or write. Now come on.” After ushering the white mare inside, I shut the glass door behind us. Inside was a row of gently flickering fluorescent lights, the rays bouncing around the tiled room. There was a pair of metallic sliding doors on the opposite side of the interior, flanked by two sunglass bearing guards. A small black orb jutted out from the ceiling in one corner of the room. “Shatter here?” I asked the guards as we approached. The grey earth pony on the left grunted. “Name?” I rolled my eyes. “Let him through,” came a voice from the crackling intercom. “We’ve always got room upstairs for Fray.” With a pleasant ding, the elevator doors slid open. I stepped inside, Twilight following shortly before the doors closed. “Who’s Shatter?” Twilight let out a little squeak as the elevator began moving. I rolled my eyes at her reaction. “That’d be the pony you heard on the intercom, as well as the pony responsible for getting you a pass into the city.” I licked my lips, eyes shooting to the camera sitting in the ceiling for a moment. “You’ve got a unique opportunity; he’s got a proposal for you to get a pass, and as far as I know, you’re the first pony that has the background he needs for the job.” Twilight’s ears perked up. “What background are you talking about?” “You said you were a scholar, right?” She nodded. “Well, he needs somepony like you.” “Wait, so nopony else has a background like mine?” Her eyes went wide. “How could that be?” “Simple: there’s a massive lack of education for outsiders and city-dwellers alike.” I smiled at her as the elevator let out another ding and the doors slid open to reveal a well-furnished office. “And if anything you’ve told me is true, we’ll both be getting rewarded soon.” Twilight followed after me, tripping a little on the elevator as she exited. She opened her mouth to speak. “What do you—” “Fray.” I grunted as Shatter spun about in his chair to face us. “Hello, Shatter.” He smiled from underneath his trilby, his eyes sparkling as they landed on Twilight. “And hello miss…?” “Twilight Sparkle.” He grinned, straightening up in the chair to set his hooves on his desk. “Folks call me Shatter,” he said with a widening grin. “I believe we can help each other.”
Fire and WhiskeyI snorted and slid out from underneath the bed to stand on my hooves. A PDA I’d found a week earlier had told me that the Mad Guffaws had hidden some loot in the storage sheds south of Camp Neighling, but the trash littering the room told me that the intel had long gone useless. I trotted out of the storage shed. taking a moment to pick up the crowbar I had used to break the shoddy lock on the door. I slung the tool over my back and took a long, deep breath. Pausing a little ways from the doorway, I gazed at the ruins of the town around me. My nose twitched as the scent of ash drifted by. Looking up, a plume of smoke alerted me to the direction of the fire; west, towards the Earth Pony Enclave. After making sure that I hadn’t left any of my gear behind, I left the modest town. I huffed in exasperation as I reached the hill’s crest. I walked over to the tarp shelter I had set up recently and laid down, pulling my binoculars from my neck up to my eyes with my hooves; I had long since stopped bothering to use magic for such a small thing. “There you are,” I muttered as my eyes met a familiar patch of forest, home to the Earth Ponies’ Enclave. My binoculars swiveled around as I surveyed the area around the dense forest, looking for any signs of life in the area. I gawked at the sight I was met with instead. The forest was burning. The northernmost part of the Everfree Forest, was burning. Fire, a true forest fire was taking place right in front of my eyes. My ideas of a small campfire spun suddenly escalated into the ramifications of a forest fire, the magnitude of which that nopony had seen in decades. The reading I had done after finding a couple of legible history books long ago had told me that pegasi were the only ones who would be able to douse a forest fire, and that was with the help of earth ponies and unicorns. It was too bad that the pegasi were not interested in rebuilding Equestria, all they wanted to do was keep all of their resources up in the sky, away from the apocalypse below. I shook my head and tore my eyes away from the billowing black pillar of smoke and stood. I had paid my debts to the Earth ponies long ago, but once you knew where the Earth Ponies lived, you would go out of your way to make sure they lived. After all, they taught me how to create tannin. Making sure to grab my gear from under the tarp, I galloped down the hill and into the fray. I’d once read from a book that fire was a beautiful, and terrifying thing. My body shivered as I stood before the fiery blaze engulfing the Enclave’s home. I heard nothing around me but the crackle of fire and the falling of trees. The forest somehow seemed scarier filled with sound than when it was filled with silent, stalking tribals. “Help!” “Damn it,” I muttered; I wasn’t in the mood for a rescue. I ducked into a nearby bush and began to sneak towards the still crying voice. watching the nearby trees carefully for any embers. The fire was nearby, but wasn’t close enough to warrant extreme caution. Despite that, I still watched the trees warily; I had been lured into a trap like this before, and would never let my guard down again. I continued onwards despite my hesitation and peeked into a clearing ahead. Lying on the ground almost right in front of me was a mare, and it was graphically apparent that she’d taken quite the fall. She had fallen from a drop behind her, presumably when she wasn’t paying attention in front of her, resulting in the mare tripping over a large log and plummeting right onto an Enclave trap. The noose for the trap was tightly clamped around her neck. Luckily, the mare seemed smart enough to stay put and try not to move. Those traps were built to tighten if one kept struggling; crazy Earth ponies and their technology for you. I took a quick peek around the trees around her, only to find them clear of any life. I took a slow, deep breath, and stepped out into the clearing. The unicorn mare had a nice white coat, and a long black mane that came down past her neck. She looked more like a city mare than a scavenger. As expected, the mare flinched back as I came towards her, but otherwise halted her screaming, thankfully saving my hearing for another time. Her ears flattened against her head as I anxiously took some steps, looking around me in a hardened suspicion. “Please… H-help…” I turned towards her and held up a hoof. “Quiet,” I hissed, shutting her up quickly. “I don’t know how long somepony can survive in an EPE trap, and I don’t think you want to find out.” She stayed silent. I took that as my queue to close the gap between the two of us. Thankfully, it seemed that a rookie tribespony had made this knot; it was loose enough to untie her. Sitting down, I began using my hooves to undo the noose as the mare sat there, hanging uncomfortably about an inch of the ground. “W-why don’t you use your magic?” Uneducated, huh? Maybe she wasn’t a city mare. “Because,” I began, accidentally pulling a little too hard on the rope, making her choke. “If I just used up all of my magic on little things that I could do physically, then I would be drained all the time. Haychigan has little magic in it to begin with.” Her eyes shimmered with a hint of curiosity for a moment, and she looked up at me, mouth slowly beginning to open. “No, not now. Questions later.” She took the hint and shut up, thankfully preventing me from hearing her barrage of questions. About a minute later, I had the knot undone. She went to stand up but yelped and fell harshly onto her opposite side, revealing a long gash beside her stomach on the side she had fallen on earlier. Blood was dripping out slowly, but the deep looking wound seemed bad. Bad enough that it might require a bandage and some tea. I cringed and looked between my bag and her. Your medical supplies are low, just leave her here and go, my mind growled at me. But she can’t even walk, what kind of pony would you be if you left her here to burn alive? Plus, you can always boil up some more clean bandages and tannin. As I continued to argue with myself mentally, I failed to notice the mare trying to use her magic. Before I had time to respond, she let out another cry of pain, clutching her head as she lay on the ground. “It hurts…“ She whimpered pitifully. Ah, buck it. Curse my good samaritan side, and curse this stupid mare for trying to use magic while she was clearly unable to focus. I levitated the now free mare out of the rocks and onto a nice patch of dead, brown grass. My head throbbed for a moment after I set her down. I groaned, rubbing the sore spot. “Don’t use magic, the pain is going to make it harder for you to focus, and I don’t need you to bleed out both literally and mentally.” She grunted in reply to my statement. I went to work, pulling out a good hoofful of clean rags. I lifted out a plastic bottle, looking for some tannin tea to use as an antibiotic, but there wasn’t any left. A loud groan escaped me. “You better be worth it,” I muttered pulling out my bottle of reserved Diamond Dog whiskey I had been saving for my return to Detrota Central. I sanitized a rag with a good pour of the whiskey, and applied it to the wound. She hissed in pain, but was able to stay still. “You got a name?” Her eyes were shut tight, giving me a chance to shamelessly look over at her cutie mark; a pink star with five other pink stars surrounding it. It looked so out of place on her otherwise pristine white coat. One could only wonder what this mare’s story was. “T-Twilight Sparkle,” she gave up after a moment of hesitation. I nodded and kept wrapping the bandages tightly around her side and the wound, careful not to hurt her as I went. So it was Twilight Sparkle, huh? Such a strange little name to be born into this world with. It reminded me of some of the names elder ponies in Detrota had; bright and cheerful. As I continued to work on her side, my sharp eyesight allowed me to spot quite a worrying thought not too far from us in the forest ahead. Slowly approaching us were flames, and with them the sound of the fire. Buck it, I thought to myself. I gave up on using my hooves and let go of her, finishing up the work quickly with my magic. She let out a quiet moan of pain. “We have to go, the fire’s coming.” Her shut eyes refused to open. Celestia dammit all, the mare was getting tired. “Twilight, we need to go.” Still, Twilight refused to stand up from the ground. She would owe me so much for this now. I pulled her up with my telekinesis and set her across my back, careful not to set her down on the fresh bandage and the end of the crowbar across my back. “Thank… Thank you,” she muttered out to me drowsily. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the way I had come. I pushed my way through the foliage, allowing both me and the mare to pass through without any more scratches. When I made it out of this forest with this stubborn mare, I wanted some answers, and maybe a little bit of payment. Make that a lot of payment. Whiskey isn’t cheap, after all.
HaychiganTwilight awoke in a literal haze. Dust dominated the skies, no doubt from the fire she was once surrounded by. She was lying on something soft, I’d made sure of that. As she began to woozily recognize her surroundings as a quiet, safe place, I held out a bottle of water. “Drink,” I ordered. As the mare greedily chugged down the bottle of water, my mind yet again drifted to the amount of bits she owed me, ever increasing. I chuckled as she finished the water, hoofing back the now empty bottle. I went to stow the bottle away. She spoke up, a slight cough in her voice. “You,” she let out a cough and rubbed her neck, a faint red ring the only evidence of the trap she’d stepped into. “You said this was Haychigan?” I nodded, occupied by the status of my resources. A quick check of my supplies made me grimace. Food was rather low, and to my knowledge, most scavengable areas nearby were empty. “I’ve never heard of Haychigan... Are we far from Ponyville?” I raised a brow and stared at Twilight. “Ponyville? Never heard of it. It’s probably not close to the bombings.” She paled a little. “Bombings?” I shrugged, opening a soup can, only to find twigs. With a groan, I threw it back into the pile of gear on my sled. “That’s what I’ve always assumed. With how badly burned the surrounding plains north and west of Detrota Central area, it had to have been.” I brought a hoof to my chin. “Probably chemical if we mention how bad the Foggy Bog swamp is nowadays. Aha!” I lifted up a can of soup and shook it happily. “Food!” I looked between the can and Twilight. She caught the can with her hooves with a bit of surprise. “You need it more than me.” “Are you sure? I mean, we can share?” I shook my head. “I’ve got a slow metabolism, it’ll take a bit longer for me to get hungry.” She nodded, giving me a warm smile. “Thank you.” “Call me Fray.” I shot her a toothy grin, before I returned to my gear. “And you owe me,” I muttered as I inspected my crowbar. “Uh, heh, could you… show me how to open this?” City mare… Probably has always been using a can opener. I turned around and made my way over to the mare struggling with the can. Sighing, I sat down and took the can from her. “Like this, you pull back the tab,” the can popped open, showing the cold contents inside. “And there you go. Food.” I hoofed the can back to her. A grin was all I was given before Twilight dug down hungrily. When she finished, she handed me back the can; i’d rinse it out later to store some more tinder. My smile returned. “Nothing like a healthy appetite, right?” She blushed, her white cheeks going rosy. “Anyways, how about we head on back to Detrota and get you somewhere safe.” “That would be great,” she smiled. A breeze passed us, causing Twilight to shiver. “Cold?” She nodded. “Hold on, i’ll get you something.” I searched my sled, finding a black hoodie in good condition, almost just as good as the hoodie I myself wore. She caught my offering with open hooves. She shrugged the hoodie on. “That’ll keep you warm until we set up camp later.” “Thanks,” she murmured, snuggling into the clothing. I chuckled. “Well, all that’s left to do is take down the tarp and we can get moving.” As I began to remove the blue cover and sleeping bag from my makeshift campsite, I tossed a look over my shoulder. “Want to help?” “Oh!” She blushed, clearly embarrassed as she looked up from her hoodie. “Of course!” I glared at the descending sun, just beginning to dip below the horizon. We’d travelled further than I normally could. With Twilight helping carry some of the saddlebags, and me pulling the sled, I would garner that we were halfway to Detrota. I was surprised with how amiable Twilight was. When we had started walking, I was carrying and pulling all of my goods, but she had stepped in without a word and slid the saddlebags off my back and onto her own. The tool-laden bags seemed effortless for the city mare to carry, and I was already beginning to wonder if she truly was a city mare. I had even asked her, garnering a little more information on her history from her. “How can you carry all that?” I said, turning my face to her as we walked. “Huh?” “There are two separate toolboxes in each of those bags, and both of them are full of my mechanical materials.” “Oh, well they’re not as heavy as the saddlebags I used to carry.” I raised an eyebrow. “What did you carry then?” She smiled, nostalgia flooding her features. “Books.” “Books? Are you a scholar?” Normally the Blue Dogs were the ones who collected all of the old artifacts for learning. It was pretty rare nowadays to see a pony worrying about the past and not the present. “Yep, my studies were really extensive as a foal,” she sighed indignantly. “But now I have to deal with my… new duties.” I shrugged, not going any further. “Fair enough.” Eventually, though, we had to stop; we were both hungry and tired, and the forest nearby would provide us shelter and food for the night. I’d never had to rely on berries before, but the absence of food brought me to desperate measures. The soup that I had given Twilight had been meant for my own journey back to Detrota. With Twilight’s help however, her skill with botany (she gave thanks to her books) helped us identify a large bush of edible blueberries which were feasted upon. We found a good clearing to stay for the night, and placed down all of my belongings. I set up my tarp shelter to lay under, and gave Twilight my sleeping bag for her own protection. As we settled in for the long dark, the campfire crackling, I bid Twilight adieu. “Sleep tight, Fray.” When I awoke the next morning to the sound of crackling fire nearby, I was afraid that the white mare had taken my belongings and left me. What I found was something else entirely. “Twilight?” I asked, rubbing my eyes with a hoof. The red ring around her neck was gone, and she sat beside the campfire, heating up an unlabelled tin can. “Morning sleepyhead,” she grinned. “I found a pond nearby and I boiled some water to make us some breakfast. I groaned as I stood, popping a few joints in my hind legs. “Whatcha cookin’ then?” I questioned, walking over. She smiled up at me as I got close enough to peer into the can. “Roasted berries! I found that recipe in one of your saddlebags, so I thought I might repay your kindness with some cooking.” Her smile turned to a frown as she inspected the can. “Though, i’m not sure that this cooking is as good as when i’m using a stove.” “Food is food,” I shrugged as I sat down. “And not being able to use magic is awful,” she sighed, readjusting her grip on the forked stick holding the can up. She sat up, turning to face me. “Why is that anyway? I forgot to ask you yesterday.” “Well, i’ll tell you if you give me some of that cooking.” I waggled my eyebrows at her, receiving an eyeroll in response. “Let it cool first,” she said, setting the tin of roasted berries down to the side. “So!” She propped up and faced me with an even bigger grin than before. “Tell me all about it.” “Well, uh…” I scratched the scruff on my chin; I never was the best at explaining things. “Use too much magic and you’ll get a nasty migraine.” “But why?” “The bombs weren’t just chemical.” She looked horrified for a moment. “They were magical?” “That’s what we all speculate, it’s the best guess that we have.” I cough, reaching for a bottle of water. I drank, until I paused halfway through the bottle. “Did you hear that?” Twilight whispered. We both stayed silent for a moment, the dying fire the only sound for a time. The distant report of a gun caught my attention. I cocked my head, listening, but the gunfire refused to show itself again. Luckily, I had heard it loud enough to know where it came from. “Eat some of those berries, we’re going to need to move soon; the gunshot came from the hill we left yesterday.” “Gunshot?” She asks, slowly tasting the word. “What’s that?” Apparently the mare hadn’t heard of firearms before. “The sound of a rare weapon,” I say swiftly, picking up the hot can of roasted berries and shoving half of them down, despite the heat. I hoof it over to Twilight and immediately begin breaking up our camp, stomping out our fire with some dirt. So much for some relaxation after the rescue. “We’ll redo your bandage later,” I said as she shoved down some more of the scalding hot berries. She cringed, probably at her newly burnt tongue. “But right now, help me with this.” Within minutes, we were packed up and on the move again. As soon as I got Twilight to Detrota, I would come back to the Earth Pony Enclave and see what happened. For now though, I had to help this mare get to safety. We left, my sled behind me and my saddlebags on her sides.
The SprawlThe two of us walked for hours, only stopping once the sound of gunfire had long since disappeared. Twilight prodded me with questions about my past the whole while, but I refused to make any statements, opting to walk in silence. After a while, she took on her own silence as well. Twilight showed some strange reactions to the various battlefield we passed; a smoldering crater of a grenade, a broken crowbar surrounded by bloodstains, and a crashed drone, clearly scavenged by some of the Detrota guards as the high tech weapon had been cut out via cutting torch. She looked confused as I explained what had happened in each area, apparently having no prior knowledge as to what any of the items we found discarded were used for. The one thing that threw me off about our journey to Detrota Central City was the lack of patrols. Twilight picked up on my concern as we approached the remains of a farmhouse. “What’s wrong, Fray?” I shook my head of my thoughts and began to scout out the area around the house. “There’s usually guards patrolling around here since we’re getting close to the city.” I halted, squinting at a broken window in the farmhouse. “Unless…” A door slammed from the house. I pulled Twilight down behind a log with me quickly. She hissed in pain as her side hit mine, hard. “What was that for?” Came her harsh whisper. I held up a hoof and slowly peered over the top of the log at the farmhouse. As expected, a group of three ponies came stumbling out. They were too far away to hear, but from their yells and movements, they were clearly drunk. There was nothing noteworthy about them; they wore hoodies of various colors and state and each had a duffle bag slung over their side. I waited until they had passed by a hill and out of sight before I stood and helped Twilight to her hooves. “Just some scavengers.” I sighed, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. “Sorry about that.” She huffed, making sure the bags were secure on her back before she continued walking towards the farmhouse. Bang! We both froze at the sound of the nearby gunfire. Bang bang! Twilight instinctively dove back for the log of her own will and I quickly followed, pressing my back against it. Screams of agony filled the area, making Twilight fold her ears against her head. Before we could say or do anything, another gunshot went off, ending the screams. Twilight shivered as the final shot rang in her ears. “W-what do we do?” I mulled over our options. A quick check of a bit purse in one of my bags gave me an idea. “Twilight, you’re going to be bait.” She stared at me wide eyed. “What?” Came her horrified whisper. My lips twitched back into a frown. The weapon did not follow the sound of a normal Detrota guard’s pistol, making the owner fair game. “You have a debt to pay, and that gun is going to be a good way to pay for it.” Twilight still looked terrified, but now carried a hint of anger in her voice. “I could die!” “Every day is another chance to die.” I sighed, running a hoof through my mane. “Listen Sparkle, I don’t know where you came from, but here in Haychigan, you do everything you can to survive, even if it means running the risk of death. I didn’t have the opportunity like those raised in the city to get a job and stay safe within the walls. I was born out here, and I know exactly what risks I take.” I took a breath. “And from the options we have, we wait them out and run the risk of not having any money to get food once we get to Detrota, or we fight.” My eyes locked onto her orbs as I stared. “So what’ll it be, Twilight Sparkle?” The white mare shrank under my gaze, looking at the ground. “Okay.” Twilight shivered as she stood in the middle of the grass. “H-hello? Is anypony hurt?” There was a silence. And then… “Oh ho ho! Is that a mare I hear?” Twilight’s eyes dilated as the large griffon stepped into view from behind the hill. He wiped away the blood along his beak with a paw and grinned. “A fine one too.” There was a pop as he stretched his neck. “Don’t you worry none,” he said chuckling as he approached. “I won’t bite. Much.” “Hey!” Twilight watched, frozen in fear as the griffon pulled a black piece of metal from a holster on one of his front legs in a flash, only to drop it as a loud bang erupted from behind him. Blood began spurting out of its side. The grin that had taken place among his features disappeared in an instant, replaced by an awful gurgling as blood filled the griffon’s lungs. His eyes were wide with terror as he swayed to the side. Thud. Twilight stared at the griffon as he breathed his last, blood spilling over the ground beneath him as it flooded out from the new hole in his side. His eyes which had been once bright and full of malicious intent, now sat lifeless in their sockets. Twilight felt an awful feeling rising from her stomach. “Yikes, sorry you had to see that.” There was a metallic click from behind the griffon. Twilight turned to stare at me. “Usually my aim ain’t so bad.” Twilight gagged, resisting the urge to vomit as she looked away from the scene. Twilight looked back after a time, looking a little more sick as I looted the griffon’s bag. “How can you be so nonchalant after…” “Killing someone?” I sighed, grabbing the griffon’s gun and moving to slip the dead bird’s holster off. “You just get used to the killing.” Twilight took a step back. “Y-you’ve killed before?” Well I should have thought that one through a bit more. “Only in self defence and for the innocent.” He grunted as the strap for the holster slipped out. “Those poor bastards he executed behind the hill were just a bunch of scavengers, Twilight. Ponies who wanted to just find and sell junk for their everyday meals. Sure, my motivation for killing is usually for profit, but when I kill, I at least have some morality.” “But everypony deserves a second chance,” came Twilight’s murmur. I snorted at that. “He was about to rape you. He’s probably done it before.” I stepped back from the body, looking directly at Twilight. “Everyone in this world is out to survive, and a lot of us have taken to less than peaceful means to do so. Practically all the griffon’s in Haychigan hunt ponies for food, the dogs go around killing anyone who won’t convert to their following, and even some ponies have taken to eating each other all because they couldn’t afford to buy some food that wasn’t pony meat.” Twilight was quiet for a time. I gladly took the silence as an opportunity to search through the griffon’s bag. “And some of us can’t find good entertainment, just like how he wanted to ‘play’ with his food before he ate.” Twilight looked sick again, but nodded. I looked up, my expression neutral. “Got it?” She gave a slow nod. “Good.” Looking back in the direction from which we had come, I frowned. “Now, we need to get moving again. I’m pretty sure Detrota is just a two hour trot from here.” With another weak nod, Twilight returned to the log and picked up the saddlebags. I waited quietly beside the farmhouse, watching the tattered Equestrian flag wave in the breeze. Once Twilight had rejoined me, we set off. The two hour tripped turned out to be far shorter than I expected. The lack of ponies had led me to believe that we were still pretty far from the city, but when we suddenly crashed into a guard checkpoint, Twilight more literally as she apologised profusely to the irate guard. I found that it had only taken thirty minutes by the time on my watch. “Come on, Sparkle, we need to get going.” With another ‘sorry’ to the guard, we climbed down the slope and into the Sprawl. The tent town, as the name suggests, was a sprawling sea of makeshift tarp shelters and ruined homes on the outskirts of Detrota. Every now and then, Twilight would look up and stare at the twelve-story wall of concrete that separated us from the inside of the actual city, just long enough to get it together and catch up to me in the crowd of ponies. “So,” I began conversationally. “You’re going to need a pass.” Confusion took over her face. “A pass?” I nodded. “Why do I need a pass?” “Well, you didn’t have a pass on you and you certainly wouldn’t be able to survive outside the city alone, and they can’t just let anyone into the city, else they’d have a bunch of ‘ruthless scavengers’ looting their city. They make you pay a bunch of bits for a pass, or go through a mountain of paperwork.” “Why can’t I just do the paperwork?” Before I could answer, we found ourselves standing before a worn looking two-story office. “Most can’t read or write. Now come on.” After ushering the white mare inside, I shut the glass door behind us. Inside was a row of gently flickering fluorescent lights, the rays bouncing around the tiled room. There was a pair of metallic sliding doors on the opposite side of the interior, flanked by two sunglass bearing guards. A small black orb jutted out from the ceiling in one corner of the room. “Shatter here?” I asked the guards as we approached. The grey earth pony on the left grunted. “Name?” I rolled my eyes. “Let him through,” came a voice from the crackling intercom. “We’ve always got room upstairs for Fray.” With a pleasant ding, the elevator doors slid open. I stepped inside, Twilight following shortly before the doors closed. “Who’s Shatter?” Twilight let out a little squeak as the elevator began moving. I rolled my eyes at her reaction. “That’d be the pony you heard on the intercom, as well as the pony responsible for getting you a pass into the city.” I licked my lips, eyes shooting to the camera sitting in the ceiling for a moment. “You’ve got a unique opportunity; he’s got a proposal for you to get a pass, and as far as I know, you’re the first pony that has the background he needs for the job.” Twilight’s ears perked up. “What background are you talking about?” “You said you were a scholar, right?” She nodded. “Well, he needs somepony like you.” “Wait, so nopony else has a background like mine?” Her eyes went wide. “How could that be?” “Simple: there’s a massive lack of education for outsiders and city-dwellers alike.” I smiled at her as the elevator let out another ding and the doors slid open to reveal a well-furnished office. “And if anything you’ve told me is true, we’ll both be getting rewarded soon.” Twilight followed after me, tripping a little on the elevator as she exited. She opened her mouth to speak. “What do you—” “Fray.” I grunted as Shatter spun about in his chair to face us. “Hello, Shatter.” He smiled from underneath his trilby, his eyes sparkling as they landed on Twilight. “And hello miss…?” “Twilight Sparkle.” He grinned, straightening up in the chair to set his hooves on his desk. “Folks call me Shatter,” he said with a widening grin. “I believe we can help each other.”
