Chapter Two: Dirt

“'Cause we need that grub to live on.”

A beautiful sunny day.

I watched two ponies, a mare and a stallion as they pulled a covered cart. They waved at me and I waved back. I saw the stallion's cowpony hat. It had a belt with steel apple sign; the mare, a rug over her body. They both were smiling. They both were trotting away.

I knew where they were heading. I knew what would happen. I opened my mouth to scream but no sound came out. I tried to stand up but my hooves were glued to the ground. I was smiling and waving, my body was moving against my will.

I saw the couple turn their heads towards me as they talked about something. They both smiled at me and I was smiling back because nothing was wrong.

They disappeared into a fog and I could finally move my body - fear empowering my mind. I was smiling. I tried to force out tears but I chuckled instead. I galloped after them.

Everything is fine. Why are you running?

Nothing is fine. This is wrong.

“Why?” I asked as I galloped faster. Wind was blowing against me. I wasn't supposed to be here.

Everything is fine. Everything is as it supposed to be. Go back. Wait. Don't think about this nonsense. Stop running.

But I didn't stop - I ran faster. I was still smiling as I finally reached them all. They heard me coming and looked at me again. They were smiling. There were ponies behind them. Big ponies. They were smiling. I was smiling. Everything is fine.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to warn them. I was shouting on top of my lungs but they just kept smiling and looking at me. They were smiling. I was smiling. Everything is absolutely fine. Everything is as it supposed to be.

The faster I galloped, the farther they were. I wasn't supposed to be here. Everyone was smiling. The pony with a box with many tubes on his side was smiling. They were smiling. The big knife in stallion's mouth was smiling. I was smiling.

Everything was fine. Go back. The mare was smiling. The knife in her throat was smiling. Everyone was smiling. I wanted to cry. I was smiling.

Big ponies faded away. Stallion was smiling. Mare's head on the ground was smiling. I felt tears running down my cheek. I was smiling. Everything was as it supposed to be.

Stallion was trotting towards me; his muzzle was painted red. He probably ate too many berries. Everything was fine. I was smiling. Stallion was smiling. Glint was smiling. Bullet was smiling. The hole in stallion's head was smiling.

Everything was fine. Everything was as it supposed to be.

“Kill me. Please, I beg you. Please,” I said as I looked into the my reflection on the barrel of Glint. The reflection was smiling, I was not.

“Why?” the reflection asked, “Everything's fine.”

I wanted to scream ‘Nothing is fucking fine’, but no voice came out because I was smiling. Many corpses behind me were smiling. Big ponies were smiling. Bullets stuck in crimson coats were smiling.

Everything is fine. Everything is as it supposed to be.

*** *** ***

I woke up screaming and sweating, cold tears on my burning face. It was the middle of the night and I had no idea where I was. I touched my shoulder and felt a flaming dagger stabbing into it. I let out a gasp of pain. Everything around me was covered in a black curtain.

I heard hoofsteps. Somepony entered the room with lantern in their mouth as I was blinded by the fire trapped in a glass box. My body shook as a pony silhouette was getting closer and closer. I reached for Glint, but the golden revolver just wasn't there. The pony figure was right next to the bed I was lying on. I closed my eyes as I felt hooves reaching out for me. I thought this was the time.

But it wasn't.

Those hooves wrapped themselves around my neck and held me close - warmth was coming back to my body and I began to cry. My tears were falling down on their legs, but they didn't care, they just held me. No words had to be said.

Those hooves caressed my mane. I could smell the scent of a day.

“Shhh,” a mare's sweet voice whispered in my ear.

My head was getting heavy and I collapsed again, but I felt safe. No more bad dreams would come. Those hooves protected me from everything bad; I closed my eyes and night drifted away once more.

But I wasn't afraid.

*** *** ***

Light woke me up. I still felt hooves around me but nopony was in here. And where exactly was here?

The room was quite small. There was a one window, one bed, one small table and a door. I pushed the blanket off my body and tried to stand up. My head spinned around and my left leg felt like I stepped on glass, but I stayed up. I always covered my cutie mark with the cloth. A flying golden bullet black curly signs on it and wind curling around it. I hated my cutie mark.

I walked towards the doors and peeked outside the room - a small hall with three doors. I stepped outside and limped towards the door that I assumed was the exit. I opened the door and was greeted by a cold air.

It was a late morning. I couldn't see anypony anywhere and my things were nowhere to be found. I took a deep breath to wake myself up, trying to remember what exactly happened yesterday. I was fighting. I spared a mare. I was shot and then I passed out. Ugh, I have to be more careful.

I came back to the wooden house and searched it for my stuff. Nothing. This house was empty. No notes or anything.

“Anypony here?” I tried to ask. No answer.

I sighed and trotted outside again. I think it would be reasonable to find the mayor. What was his name? Oh right, Rising Leap. Closing the door behind me, I walked through the empty dirt paths.

I loved the sound of silence. Only thing I could hear was my heartbeat. I knew that everyone was probably sleeping, but at a time like this it seemed like this place was abandoned, desolate. My mind was coming back to the night. Who was that mare? Why did I wake up in a empty house?

I knocked. No answer. I slowly opened the door and peeked inside. No one. I noticed light coming out from the small room. I walked in and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” a familiar voice said.

I opened the door and trotted in. “Hello there, Hollow,” he sounded really tired.

“Good morning, Rising,” I said as I sat down on a chair.

He rubbed his eyes. “Hollow, you're not making my position in this town any easier. In one day you made more mess than anypony could in the whole year.”

“Hey, I'm sorry I scared Pap. I admit it was my fault, but that thing that happened in bar wasn't my doing. It was them or me.” I said quietly.

“I'm not blaming you,” he sighed, “I think you did right, but it's too much on my head now.”

“I'm going to help you,” I said with confidence.

“Not to menti-, say what?” his tired eyes brightened up a little, “you mean it?”

“I was thinking about what you said earlier and you were right. I want to make up for what I did.”

Ponies were starting to wake up. I heard hoofsteps and greeting outside. Rising rested his head on his hooves and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank Celestia...”

“But before that, where are my things?” I asked.

Rising pointed at a closet next to him and I trotted to it. The blue unicorn used his magic to open it. The shine of Glint illuminated dark parts of the room - I hated it when I was separated from it. In a few minutes holster with Glint was around me, my bandolier was wrapped around my left hoof, cloth around my body and cowpony hat on my head. I felt good, but something was missing.

In the lowest part of the closet was Bottle's saddle bags with Pip-Buck in it. Do I really deserve that kind of kindness? Do I really deserve a second chance? I know what I said to Rising few seconds ago, but I still had my doubts. I reached for dark brown saddle bags and strapped them on me. It felt... right? I felt complete, that's for sure.

“So, what can I do for you?” I asked as I pushed my hat up.

Rising levitated a paper and looked into it. I couldn't really read and it would be awkward if he levitated the paper to me.

“Our main problem right now is water,” he began, “our water talisman is cracked and slowly breaks. We need a new one.”

“And where exactly I could find one?” I asked. I had my second thoughts about this since water talisman is a really specific thing to find in a haystack of the Wasteland.

“We already found one, or at least our scouts say so. We sent some ponies to retrieve it, but they never came back. I'm not willing to send more of them there. I need security for town to be safe, y'know.”

“I’ll do it, just tell me where can I find it?”

He smiled. “I heard Bottle gave you a little present.”

The Pip-Buck? What does it has to do with anything? “Yeah... It's in my saddle bag”

Rising levitated it out with the key-thingy. Bottle must've put it in there while I wasn't looking. He examined it for a while and then looked at me.

“Could you please stretch your right hoof forward?”

“Oh no no no no no. You're not putting that weird thing on my hoof. I don't know how to use it. I've never even pushed a button on a terminal,” I said in a hurry. I didn't want to be fettered by anything, not even some kind of super-useful device.

“You will get use to it,” Rising said patiently, “you need this ‘weird device’ to help you so you can help us. It would be suicide without a Pip-Buck. Those woods are dangerous and unfathomable.”

Funny, a few hours ago I would accept that kind of risk as a deliverance from my life. “We need you alive. You can't help us dead.”

I sighed and lifted my right leg. Rising wrapped the Pip-Buck around it and locked it with that special key, then he put it back into my saddle bags. It felt... weird. I wasn't used to having something more than bandolier on my hooves. This thing was quite massive, but light.

“It seems it's out of energy,” I said lamely as I waved my Pip-Buck cuffed hoof in front of my face.

“You're its new owner, it has to do some calibrations before it can fully operate,” he pushed turned some buttons on the Pip-Buck and the screen came to live.

Calibration is ready. Proceed?

Y/N

“The calibration process takes a while, you don't have to do it right away, but the Pip-Buck won't work till the process is done.”

Having something on my hoof that doesn't belong there certainly felt weird. I switched the huge green bracelet off. “And how exactly do you know all of this?”

“Father of my father was a Pip-Buck Technician when he was young,” he responded and sat down behind the big brown desk.

“Fairynuff.”

I always thought that Stables are just fairy tale things. Things ponies made up to explain how this world was created. I've never seen one, but I've met some ponies who wore these devices. I'd like to visit a Stable. I mean if they really exist, just to see how ponies lived before the time. What did they talk about while Equestria was dying? What were they eating while everything burnt to ashes? What did they tell to their children about the World Before? What is a legend and what is the truth?

“Hollow?” Rising's echo woke me up from my thoughts.

“Yes?”

“Did you really have to kill them all?” he asked and looked right into my eyes.

Did I? I saw tiny flames dancing in his yellow eyes, but he didn't look angry. He looked worried. “No, I didn't have to kill them all, and that's why I didn't do it. Where is that mare?”

“Everypony say they were threatening you, so we locked her up. We don't know what to do with her, we have no laws or anything to solve this, we don't even know who these ponies were,” he replied, rubbing his eyes.

“Where can I find her?”

“On the edge of the town,” he sighed tiredly, “Miss Baton takes care of the jail. It's not really a jail because we never had any serious problems here, it's just a normal building without windows, locked.”

“Thank you.” I said as I stood up, “One more thing. I woke up in this house and...”

But he was already asleep. I trotted out of the building.

Ponies were waking up. I wonder how this city look like in sunlight. How would the whole Wasteland look like if skies weren't closed? And are there really ponies with wings above the grey curtain?

I checked the cloth around my body and trotted into small crowds on the dirt street. Everyone was watching me very warily. Bottle was right, news really do spread fast here.

I heard whispers about yesterday's events behind me. He killed five ponies. Is that really him? I heard he was a bounty hunter. Is he here for a bounty? Stay away from him, sweetie.

I didn't mind it at all. This is what I deserved. I didn't really think yesterday much.

*** *** ***

“What do you mean you forgot?!” A mare's voice echoed through the district.

I hesitated a bit before entering the jail building. It really wasn't big. The doors were already opened so I could see into the room. There were two mares, I recognised the grey security mare from before. She looked even more tired and furious than the last time we met. The other mare was a lot smaller. Her coat was white and dark blue mane was falling into her face. She didn't have any armour so I could see clearly her hoofcuffs cutie mark.

Was I really just checking out a mare who's on the edge of crying? I stepped inside and coughed. Both of the mares looked at me.

“What the hell you want?!” the amber-maned unicorn shouted at me.

“Excuse me, what happened?” I tried to ask politely through her screaming.

“What happened?! We lived peacefully till you came here. You arrive and suddenly Pap gets almost a heart attack, six bandits appear in our bar, you turn five of them into corpses and let one of them live from our supplies! Oh yeah, and Mistress Baton here forgets to lock her doors.”

I saw tears streaming down the other mare's cheek. “I know I locked them!” she said weakly.

“Oh yeah? Why they weren't locked then?”

“I don't know!” Baton screamed.

The big grey security mare leaned towards Baton and hissed. “One more fuck up and you're out of this building and this work, you got me?”

She just nodded weakly and as the security trotted past me, she broke down crying.

I walked to Baton. “Excuse me, Miss, but where can I find-”, she pointed towards the steel door and gave me keys. She didn't want to speak, she just cried.

I took the keys and pushed my hat deeper into my face. I didn't know what to say. The steel key slipped into the keyhole and I twisted it. There was a click and door opened. The mare I spared yesterday was sitting on the ground, facing the corner; her armour was missing so I could clearly see her cutie mark. It looked like a shining green diamond, or emerald? No idea, I've never seen anything like it, but I'm sure it was a gem. She didn't even raise her head as I closed the door behind me and sat on the ground.

“Came here to finish the job?” she asked quietly.

“I never meant to kill you.”

“You sure as hell enjoyed it,” it looked like she's speaking into the wall in front of her.

She turned her towards me a bit. “What do yo want?”

“Do you want to get out?” I said and I noticed her ears perked up.

“I'm really sorry for what happened, you gave me no chance. I knew you were there to kill me. You were stalking me for past few months. You don't have to explain anything. I'm just asking you,” I stood up and trotted next to her, “do you want to get out?”

“Why? I won't tell you anything.”

“I don't expect you would. I just need help. Actually, this town needs help,” I said simply.

She finally turned her whole face towards me and glared at me with pink light. “You know I can still fulfill my task and kill you, right?”

I stood up, pulled out Glint and put it in front of her, then I took a few steps back. “Then do it, I think it's a fair thing to do.”

I couldn't tell what her expression was. Shock mixed with fear? The magenta mare stood up as well and wrapped Glint with her magic. There was nothing else to do than to close eyes and wait. Was this the end of my suffering? I can't really tell, I wish it was. But it wasn't. She put Glint back into my holster and trotted beside me. She was quite bigger than me.

“Fine, I won't kill you in your sleep if you promise me the same. And don't expect me to stay with you for too long.”

I actually smiled to that.

“I'm going to need my barding and guns,” she didn't return the smile, but she didn't look angry either.

Author's Note

(I want to thank Lettuce for correcting my mistakes for every chapter. You're the best, Letty)