Fallout: Equestria - Broken Worlds

Chapters

Chapter 1: Balefire
Chapter 2: Waking up
Chapter 3: Gem City
Chapter 4: Clockwork

Chapter 1: Balefire

Screams of pain and chaos surrounded me. Some ponies were dashing off to find their allocated stables. Others had just given up. They sat crying with their families as their death approached nearer. In the chaos of ponies, it was hard to make out each pony. It was just a blur of pastel colours. I was about to give up myself. Just curl up on the cold green grass and accept my fate. But I had to try first.

“Tracer!” I called out for my Pegasus friend. I’ve known Tracer all my life. We’ve been friends since pre-school. She gets on my nerve at most the times, but the thought of losing her- my best friend- my only friend. Was too much. I was always left out in class. Last one to be picked on the flying team, last one to be picked for anything. It there wasn't a seat at the lunch table, I would sit on my own, but Tracer would be there to confort me.

I fly up and over the ground. My eyes scan each pony praying to Celestia and Luna I could spot here. Then, as if all the other noises of screams and shouting went dead. I heard her call my name.

“Slipstream? Slipstream! Where are you!?” A voice called.

My mother has always said I had good hearing. I could make out the voice exactly. It was hers. I flew down to where I heard it come from and searched, calling out her name. Ponies screamed in my ear and rushed past me.

After a while of searching for her, but not finding anything. Dread filled my heart. I had to get to the stable, there’s wasn't much time left. I almost thought of giving up and heading to the stable, thinking maybe she had already headed there. But then an orange hoof touched my shoulder and turned me round. I had never felt so relieved to see her standing in front of me. But there was not time for hugs of reunion, we had to get going.

After a long fly over to Stable 111, we made it. We were safe. Or so we thought. There was a long queue of about fifty ponies waiting for entry. Each pony was saying something like.

“I’m on the damn list! Let me in!”

“We’re going to die. We’re gonna fuckin’ die out here!”

I knew I was on the list. I was so paranoid about the war and not getting in the stable, I had checked with Stable-Tec about ten times to make sure I was on the list. So I approached the pony wearing the Stable-Tec uniform with confidence.

“Yer not on the list.” He humphed.

To say I over reacted was an understatement. To say a through a little tantrum was a big understatement, and I may or may not have hit the pony. But after a little talk and a few re-checks of the list he found mine and Tracer’s name.

“Sorry about all that.” I said as I walked through the gate. The stallion only growled.

As I walked in I heard shouts from behind me.

“Why the fuck do they get to go in?!”

“Let us in! We deserve it more!”

Those ponies did deserve it. Just because I helped out with the war effort I got a reserved spot. But every pony has helped out. None of these ponies deserve to die.

I trotted up a small hill to where the stable door was situated. Or should I say, stable lift?

It wasn’t like the stables I had seen before. Those ones where on the side of a mountain. This one was in the floor. We were escorted by Stable-Tec ponies to the stable door. As we placed ourselves on it Tracer’s eyes went wide. She and many other ponies on the lift were staring out at something.

“What?” I asked as I too turned round to see what they were all looking at.

A mega spell. A fucking balefire bomb. It was glowing a slickly evil green as it fell to earth. As it hit the ground it exploded with an ear shattering boom. I could only just make out the Stable-Tec ponies screaming;

“Lower them down! Now!"

As an alarm sounded, the door began to lower into the floor. As we Slowly acceded, all I could see was a green smoky mist from where the bomb fell. When the lift was halfway down. A door at the very stop of the lift shut. Trapping us in complete darkness.

I could only make out the silhouettes of ponies. A large stallion next to me started shaking and I think he may have also been crying.

“T-that was a fuckin’ mega spell! The Zebras…They’ve fuckin gone too far. The world is over!” He cried. Then he added on. “Those ponies out there, waiting to get in. They’re dead.”

The realisation of that hit me hard. All those desperate ponies out there would be dead by now, or worse. Suffering a long and draw out death as their flesh was eaten by radiation.

“Now, now.” A Stable-Tec pony said. “You’re safe. That’s what matters.”

That was bull shit. Every pony deserved to be safe. It didn’t matter if we were safe when there are thousands- no, millions of ponies out there who weren’t. It almost felt like Stable-Tec didn’t care.

The rest of the journey down was in silence. No pony wanted to talk. Not now. The lift stopped at the bottom and the doors opened. We we’re greeted by a White mare with a peach main. Her name was Pearl and apparently she was our Overmare. She showed us where to go to get our Stable Barding. A mare was handing them out at the top of the stairs.

I got changed into the Stable uniform. It had the number 111 printed all over it. The barding was a deep blue colour with a yellow strip around the edges. Since it was blue, it almost blended into my blue coat. A mare who was with us asked when we were going to get our Pip-Bucks. I was a little disappointed when he said they were only for Stable-Tec staff.

We were told to follow a Purple buck to where we were staying. I’m guessing they were going to assign us rooms. Hopefully with beds. I was desperately tired.

“If you will just follow me we will take you to the decontamination chambers.” The purple buck said.

“The what?” Tracer said as she raised her eyebrow.

The buck went onto explain how we would have been exposed to high levels of radiation when the mega spell went off, and he wanted make sure we were rad free when we went into the stable.

I entered into the pod. It was a tight squeeze. Luckily I wasn’t claustrophobic, so I didn’t mind. The purple buck closed the door. He smiled.

“This will only take a moment!” He said as he pushed various buttons on the control panel.

After a few moments of button pushing something was sprayed into my pod. Then I felt very sleep…. very, very sleepy, and cold. This wasn’t right. Maybe it was just the drug they used or something. I don’t know. My brain was too tired to think. I struggled to keep my eyes open. To fight the tiredness. After a long battle of keeping my eyes open, I gave up and closed them. Little did I know that they would not open for many, many years.

Chapter 2: Waking up

Chapter 2.

Waking up.

Slowly, feeling returned to my body. My eyes peeled open slowly. Once I had opened them fully I was forced to close them again as they had not adjusted to the light. As more feeling returned to my body, I noticed I was cold. Very cold. I opened my eyes to see I was somewhere…Where was I? I looked around from inside the pod thingy I was in. I saw the walls were printed with the Stable-Tec logo. Then all the memories flooded back.

I listed through everything that happened. The Zebra’s set of the balefire bombs, I was put into the Stable, then into this pod to be cleaned from any radiation, then I woke up. Odd, they said I was going to be in hear for a few minutes, but I felt much longer. Maybe I just lost track of time.

I couldn’t hear anything, then my hearing slowly returned as an alarm sounded, getting louder and louder until my hearing was normal. I move my hoof to open the door but found that frost was covering it.

“The fuck?” I said. Or tried to say. My mouth and face and everything was frost covered.

I gritted my teeth and moved my hoof. I pushed against the pod door and it easily gave way.

I fell flat on my face out of the pod. I didn’t care though. It was warmer out here. After a few minutes of just staring at the Stable floor I stopped shivering and felt much better. I slowly rose to my hooves then looked around. Some of the other pods around me were opened. I counted five out of the twelve there opened. The rest were still sealed shut. Then I think finally my brain started working again. (Although I don’t think it ever was.) I noticed the ice and water on the floor. I then went up to a closed pod and saw the pony inside. They were a white stallion with a cyan main. They too were frost covered. Wait…frost…ice…Oh fuck. Stable-Tec hadn’t cleaned us of radiation. They had frozen us.

It was all too much. Too many questions I wanted answers for. But all those could wait until I faced the Stable-Tec bastards. I continued to stare at the buck, question flooding my mind. Then a blinking red light on the control panel caught my attention. I read the pony’s health conditions and other stuff like that, complicated stuff my dumb little brain couldn’t understand. But there was one thing I could understand. But I wish I couldn’t

‘Subject 208: Name: Winter Breeze: Status: Deceased.’

Stable-Tec had killed him. A quick glance at the other pods showed Stable-Tec had killed most of the ponies. Though some were lucky. They still showed alive. I was lucky too.

I looked at the pod next to Winter Breeze’s. The name immediately got my attention.

‘Subject 207: Name: Cloud Tracer: Status: N/A’

Tracer. I had completely forgotten. (At the rate I was forgetting this, I was surprised I still remember to breath and blink.) Her pod was open. She was gone. But she was alive.

I left the room containing all the pods in search of a Stable-Tec worker I could first punch in the face, then ask questions. After a short while of searching I found a Stable-Tec worker. Well, I found their skeleton. They were dead. They had been for a while. All that was left was the skeleton and the dirty clothes. Fantastic. More question. How had they died? When did they die! How long was I frozen for? I shook my head. Throwing away all the questions because I knew they weren’t going to get answered anytime soon.

After a while of getting lost in the Stable. Which was actually very small compare to others I had seen. I eventually found the entrance…And many dead bodies. I noticed one dead body had a Pip-Buck on. I then looked down at my hoof. I was never given one. To be honest that was something I was looking forward too. So I went down and pulled the Pip-Buck off, taking the hoof with me. I screamed, reached, then threw up in a corner. That was horrible. Luckily when I dropped the hoof the Pip-Buck fell off. So I just pick it up, and locked it onto my hoof.

After a short while of hitting the Pip-Buck, the Screen gave a static burst then flicked back on and displayed my information. I’m not sure how, but It had my name displayed on the screen. ‘Slipstream’ with information about my health and other information. How it did this beat me. I didn’t care though. I nerved cared about all the technical shit. I just cared about what something did.

I looked at the control panel by the Stable-Lift. I pushed buttons at random, but every time I got the message. ‘Error: Incorrect password.’ I sighed, swore, then sat down on a foot locker.

I fiddled around with my Pip-Buck then I heard hooves approaching. I panicked. I didn’t know what this pony would be like. How would they react? I went to find a place to hide but then I saw the pony fall to the ground in tears. It was a purple stallion with a white and grey main.

“S-shit. F-fuck. What the fuck is g-going on.” He said as she shivered on the ground.

He still had frost covering him. So I assumed he just left his pod. He hadn’t noticed me yet, so I slowly approached him.

“Um hi?” I said to him.

He jumped up, eyes wide, and stared at me. The slowly started to relax.

“H-hi who are you?” He asked.

“Slipstream.” I said as I reached out a hoof to help him up and to greet him.

“Purple Snow.” He replied back to me. “You from them pods too?” Now he slowly started to shiver less.

I nodded. “Yeah, just got out today. I’m taking you did as well?” I ask and he nodded.

He found a foot locker to sit on then sighed. “Why would Stable-Tec do that? Why would they lie?” He asked. I saw more tears form in his eyes.

I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” I sighed and found myself a locker to sit on.

We sat in awkward silence for a while. Then I spoke out.

“So, what do we do now.” I said as I continued to fiddle with my Pip-Buck.

“We?” He asked. “Ah…sorry. I guess it’s better we stick together. Uh so…” He trailed off. “Why can’t we just stay here?” He suggested.

I shook my head. “There is no food, no water. We’d be dead in a few days here.”

He sighed and rubbed his temples with his hooves. “Fuckin’ just great. Them dammed freeze pods don’t work no more.” He trailed off again then looked to the stable door. “Guess there’s only one choice right?” He then looked back to me.

I gravely nodded. Then fear returned back into his eyes. “But- but – but what about radiation and shit! We don’t know if it’s cleared out yet! We don’t know how long we’ve been frozen for!” He yelled as he jumped up and started to pace back and forth.

I pointed to the skeletons of ponies. “We’ve been here long enough for their bodies to decompose.” I said and his eyes locked on me. then at the bodies, then at the stable door.

“Guess we have no choice. Fuck.”

******

After a while of trying to find the code for the control panel. I found it on a file on my Pip-buck. The code was ‘395248’ I entered it and it gave me a green light of approval.

My hoof hovered over the red button. I looked over at Purple Snow. He just gave me a nod. I took a breath in, then slammed my hoof down. Then a loud alarm sounded which was accompanied by a flashing light. A catwalk that joined the rest of the Stable with the door, started to move. I jumped on, then waved my hoof for Purple to follow. I stumbled on my hooves as the catwalk moved. When it suddenly stopped I fell flat on my face. I groaned.

“I’ve only been out of the pod for what? An hour. And I’ve already fallen on my face twice. Probably more.” I said as Purple Snow moved around to help me up.

I noticed at the bottom the gates were now open. I, being a Pegasus just flew over the railing down to the gate. Purple, being an earthpony rolled his eyes and trotted down the stairs. When he too reached the bottom we both stepped on the lift. After a while of nothing happening. I looked around for a bottom for something. Then I saw a lever on the side of the gate. I pulled it, and another alarm sounded but the lift went up.

We didn’t speak to each other on the way up. But as the lift slowly got closer and closer I felt my heart race. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t want to see what happened. I closed my eyes and put my wings around my face. I then took a small look around and noticed Purple was doing the same. (Well, he didn’t have wings. He just closed his eyes.) I shook myself. I had to do this. I had to face it. The lift came to a stop. I didn’t look. Nor did Purple.

“Well…I’m not feeling my flesh being eaten alive by radiation…So that’s good.” I said as I slowly brought down my wings, then slowly opened one eye, then the other then…

“Holy fuck.” I said as I stared out.

It wasn’t what I expected I guess you could say. But it was all ruined. All the houses. Everything was ruined. It looked like your typical wasteland from an apocalypse movie or comic. I looked up. There was no sun. Well there was, but it was struggling to break through the thick dirty white cloud layer. I looked all around me taking everything in. Then I noticed another pony sitting behind a small broken cart. He held binoculars to his eyes. When I noticed him. He noticed me. He brought the binoculars down and swiftly trotted away.

“The fuck?” I said. “There are ponies out here?!” I expected it to be deserted. Honestly, I expected it to be nothing. I thought everything would be gone. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that buildings where still here.

I looked round again and saw Purple still had his eyes sealed shut. I put a hoof on him and he jumped.

“It’s fine.” I said as I moved his hoof away from his eyes. “It’s just…Everything is broken down. But It’s not as bad as you will think.” With that he slowly opened his eyes and gaped.

“Wow.” He gasped. “I don’t know if I should be happy or sad with this?”

“Why happy?” I asked. “The fucking world has ended!” I trailed off. “I guess it hasn’t really ended.” I mumbled to myself.

“It’s almost like what it was before. Take away the fallen trees and shit. Fix up those builds and boom! It’s home.” Purple said staring down at the small town below.

I guess he was right. It could be home again. We just had to make it home. We walked down the small hill towards the town, my home. I’m guessing it was also Purple’s home. We reached the entrance to the town. The sign that once welcomed ponies into Sunflower hills had rusted and fallen over. Before I could say anything Purple suddenly dashed off. I called for him but I got no response. Maybe he didn’t want to be with me? I didn’t really care though, I had my own things to do.

After a while of searching the broken and collapsed houses. I saw mine. The number ‘22’ now was just ‘2’ and rusted, but I could tell it was mine. I walked in and gasped. Everything was gone. Only bits of junk were left as well as an awful smell. Instead of the nice cream wallpaper that used to line the walls, there was blood, shit and other horrible things. I couldn’t take it. I backed out and tripped over the side walk and landed flat on my ass. I didn’t care. The physical pain was nothing compare to the emotional one. My home. The place I could always come to and feel safe, was gone. Not just gone, it was befouled. I just sat there for a little while until I heard hooves walk up behind me.

“You okay?” Purple Snow said as he joined me. He then looked into my house and winced. “Heck…I thought my home was bad. Jeez…” He sighed.

“What happened?” I asked. He only shrugged.

“Dunno. But everything in my house in gone. Stolen. That means there are ponies out here.” He said glaring around us.

I explained how I saw a pony spying us on the hill.

“Maybe that fucking dick did this, and he was checking to make sure we weren’t out yet so he could keep stealing our shit!” He growled.

It was probably true. I didn’t want it to be. So far the world hasn’t made a great first impression on me. From everything being destroyed. Now ponies had turned evil. In the time of the war every pony looked out for each other, because they had too. Ponies couldn’t afford having more enemies and trouble in their lives.

I didn’t notice until Purple yawned loudly that I was so tired. I nudged Purple’s shoulder.

“It’s getting dark. We should…” I yawned. “We should get some rest.”

Purple shook his head. “Oh no, no! I’m not going in these fucked up houses! There is shit and blood everywhere!” He yelped.

I sighed. “I think we need to get used to it. I fear everywhere will be like that.”

He sighed and got up. “Let’s at least find a nicer place to sleep.”

After a while of searching through the houses, I found out that many homes where worse off than mine. I felt bad going through these pony’s house, but Purple just told be these ponies would be long dead by now. Yeah…. That didn’t make me feel any better about it.

We eventually found a nice enough house to rest in. We got settled down on the floors. I was not going to sleep on those beds. They were stained with blood, shit and Celestia knows what. The floor was much more appealing. We made a plan that tomorrow we would search the area for food and anything that would be useful.

Purple Snow fell asleep much faster than I ever could. I always struggled sleeping, because my mind was always racing, thinking of what I would do tomorrow. Now my mind was filled with other thoughts, how was I going to survive. Or more like, how long am I going to survive?

I didn’t realise I had drifted off until I was woken up by the sound of a pot falling down. I jumped up. I looked around. I relaxed when I realised it was probably just Purple taking a leak or something. Then that relaxed feeling was chewed up and spat out as I saw Purple fast asleep under a table.

Hoof steps slowly approached. I panicked and searched around the small room for anything I could defend myself with. I went with the leg of a broken table. It would do much against a gun or anything, but it was something. I poked my head out of the room. Nothing. I dashed across to the other room. Nothing again. I then slowly walked in the corridor towards the living room. Something. A pony. Mare? They had dirty orange fur, at least I think that’s orange. They had strange armour on that was stained with blood. Their dark blue main and tail was tangled with blood. This didn’t look like a friendly pony. They were looking around the room. Then they were looking at me.

“Get. The. Fuck. Out.” I said shaking. Probably should not offend the big pony with the big gun.

She frowned at me and spoke in a clam and strangely familiar voice. “I should be saying the same thing to you.”

It sounded like, and looked like…Tracer. It couldn’t be. This pony was bigger than me. Tracer was always smaller than me. And there is more than one orange and blue Pegasus in the world, but not one with the same cutie mark. I slowly look down at her flank. There it was. The lightning bolt cutie mark. It was her. It was her!

“What are you? Are you checking me out or something?” She said as she covered her flank with her tail and blushed.

“Tracer.” I smiled. “It’s you!” I said with tears of joy welling up in me.

“Yeah, it’s me…do I know you?” She froze. She stared at me, unmoving. Only her eyes moved. They scanned up and down, then trailed down to my flank. “It can’t be.”

I nodded and smiled.

“Slipstream? But-But you were in the pod! I thought you were dead!” She said as she ran up to me.

Before I could say another word, her orange hooves wrapped around my dark blue coat. Her tears fell into my dark rainbow coloured main.

“I missed you so much.” She cried, then broke the hug. “Eighteen years. It’s been eighteen years since I left my pod.”

There was no way it’s only been eighteen years since the end of the war. Unless…

“When you did wake up, how long had the war been over for?” I asked.

She looked down at the floor. The back up at me. Fresh tears in her eyes.

“Night…Trac.” I said as I closed my eyes and she chuckled. “Two hundred years.” She cried.

I didn’t know what to say. I could only break down and cry. I sat on a bench and Tracer came to comfort me.

“Hey, at least you look good for a two hundred and eighteen-year-old mare.” She laughed and I laughed with her.

“I checked you know. Every couple of days I would go down to that vault to see if you had woken up yet. Never had any luck.” She sighed, then looked up at me. “But now I do.” She smiled with tears filling her eyes.

We sat on the bench together then Purple Snow walked into the room, rubbing his eyes.

“Wha-What’s going on?” He then noticed Tracer. “Y-You know this pony?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we were friends before the war. We went into the freezing pods together.”

He nodded, then yawned. He pointed back to the room. “I’m going to go back to sleep.” He then went back into the room.

I looked over at Tracer and saw she had dark rings under her eyes.

“We should go too.” I said and she nodded.

As the room Purple was sleeping in was small, Tracer and I chose the room opposite. I curled up on the floor again, but to my surprise Tracer didn’t seem to mind sleeping in the bed. She saw me staring wide eyed at her.

“You get used to it.” She said as she closed her eyes. “Night Slip’”

“Slip?” I asked.

“Yeah! My little nickname for you! You know Slip…Short for Slipstream.” She smiled. I rolled my eyes.

Footnote: 5% To next level.

Chapter 3: Gem City

Once again, I’m denied any rest. Another loud sound wakes me up, again. But this one was different. The second I heard it chills went down my spine. A scream. Not a loud scream- a muffled one. I look to the bed where Tracer was still fast asleep. She was always like this when we had sleepovers. She would be the first to fall asleep, and the last to wake up, and nothing could wake her. I heard the muffled scream again. Now I was scared. I slowly walk over to Tracer’s bed. I nudge her slightly. When she doesn’t move, I give her a full forced punch. She jumps up, mouth open to shout, but I swiftly move my hoof around her mouth.

“Shh.” I whisper. “There is someone in the house. I keep hearing screaming.” I said.

“Maybe it’s just Purple Snow having a bad dream?” Tracer suggested.

But that theory was chucked out the window as we heard.

“I swear to Celestia if you don’t stop screaming I will fucking cut your tongue off!” Said a pony. Who wasn’t Purple Snow.

Tracer and I both exchanged looks.

“Now, unless Purple Snow is really good at voice acting, I would say there was another pony with us.” I said.

I was quickly proven right, as we saw Purple Snow getting dragged by a mare. No…Stallion? The voice belonged to a mare, but the face belongs to a stallion. I couldn’t make out if they were a unicorn or an earth pony or a Pegasus. They wore a hood that covered their body.

“Help!” Purple Snow called out in a muffled cry.

“Shut it!” Said the hooded pony. They kicked Purple in his side, he cried in pain.

“We have to do something!” Tracer whispered.

In the heat of the moment, I panicked. I picked up the table leg that for some reason I brought back with me. I flew out of the small gap in the wall- raised the leg up and brought it down on the pony’s head. I split in two and one piece ended up coming back to hit me in my face. Shocked, I slipped over.

“Fool!” Laughed the hooded pony.

I went to get up, but next thing I knew I had a hoof coming towards my face. Then nothing. Blackness. But I hadn’t passed out. I could still hear. But I couldn’t move.

“Get away from them you bastard!” Cried Tracer.

Then I really wanted to move. I tried to scream and kick and do anything, but I couldn’t. I was helpless.

“I said, get away fr-“ BANG!

She was dead. They shot her. No. No! I tried so hard to move, to get up to scream, but I still couldn’t.

“Dismay, we have to go!” Yelled a new voice. Stallion.

“You!” I’m guessing Dismay said that. “Take her, I’ll take him, leave this one, I doubt she’ll be moving again, or waking up.” Dismay laughed.

Then I heard a pony step over me, pick up Tracer’s body, then two pairs of hooves left. Then silence.

******

I waited there on the floor unmoving, well of course, I couldn’t move, but I didn’t try to, I was still in shock. But after what felt like years, my eyes opened again. It felt like when I first woke up from the stable. But this time was different. I didn’t know what was happening back then, but now I know perfectly well what was going on. I was alone. I hated being alone, I never worked well be myself. I was always a team pony. But now I had no choice, I was alone.

After a little while longer all feeling came back and I was able to stand up. I looked to where Tracer was shot. There was only a small pool of blood. Which may be a good thing, maybe Dismay didn’t kill her. But I didn’t want to think about it.

I got up and went outside. It had just turned dawn. Well, from what I could tell behind the dirty white cloud layer. I went outside and just walked. Whenever I was sad, stressed, lonely. I would walk. I walked for a while, just down old abandoned fields. It wasn’t like what it was back before the war. The grass was lushes and green and felt good under your hooves. Now the grass was dead and brown and only prickled your hooves when your walked on it. The field was long and a painful walk. There was no life on the field. No flowers, no cows, just me.

Once I crossed the field, I came to a small stream. The sight of water made me realise I was actually really parched. I bent down for a sip, then immediately spat it out. I shook my head.

“What were you expecting Slipstream. It’s a Celestia-damned stream. It’s not going to be water from a five-star hotel. Buck up and deal with it.” I told myself. Damn, only a few hours on my own and I was already talking to myself.

I bent back down and prepared myself for the awful taste. I took many big gulps of the awful water. After just one I heard. Click, click, click. After a few more the clicking got faster. I got back up and looked around for the source. After a while of testing by drinking more water, I found that my Pip-boy had a radiation meter and the water was actually radiated. But luckily It was only low levels of radiation, nothing that can do me much harm.

I picked up even more radiation as I crossed the river. Again, nothing that can hurt me, but I need to watch what I do, If I start picking up more radiation, then that may cause problems. I continued to walk aimlessly until it was dark. Days in Trottingham were cold but bearable, but nights were worse, much worse. I wrapped my wings around myself to try and shield myself from the icy winds, but it doesn’t work. I made a plan to try and find a shelter to sleep in for the night that was plan A. Plan B was, it I can’t find away where, try and make a fire and settle down there. How I would make a fire I had no idea. But luckily I wouldn’t have to. After just a short walk I managed to come upon a small dingy old building. It looked like it may collapse on me at any second. But it was away from the cold so I didn’t care.

The first step I took into the building gave a loud creak, then the second caused the floor beneath me to break. I cursed Celestia, but also thanked her that there wasn’t a floor below that level. I freed myself from the hole and looked around the building. It appeared to be an old store. My guess was it used to be a grocery shop as there were cans of old food lying around.

I went up to a few shelves and collected what I could. I then searched the other rooms and found a bed. I really wanted to sit down, I had been walking for Celestia knows how long. But I couldn’t, I could smell the urine from where I was standing. I took the next best (or worse.) option and sat down in an old chair. Luckily it was stable and didn’t break under my weight.

I dropped the loot I had scavenged from the store, none of it appealed to me. Most of it was two-hundred-year old food. I would never dare eat food that was one day out-of-date, now I had to eat two-hundred-years out-of-date food. Goodie. I picked up one of the cans. ‘Cram’

“Fuck me.” I sighed.

I would never go near this stuff before. Now I had to eat a two-hundred-year old one. Whoopee!

It didn’t go down easy. Actually, it didn’t go down at all. I took a few bites-tried to swallow, then went and vomited up my guts. Luckily, or maybe not so luckily, I had another can. This one actually went down this time, and stayed there, for about five minutes, then I vomited what was left in my gut.

I trough the can to the wall and shouted. “How am I going to survive here if I can’t even eat the bloody food!” I cried. I slipped of the chair and curdled up in a little ball on the floor, and cried.

******

I woke feeling like shit. I felt ill, I was cold, I was having the time of my life! I badly wanted to crawl back into the freezer pod and just freeze myself again. But I couldn’t.

I forced myself to my legs with a pain filed groan. I got up, then immediately went to sit down in the chair. I leant back and sighed. I then looked at the other items I had got. I picked up something that looked like a box of mints. The mints were called. ‘Party-time mint-als’ They were made by a company called Zeb-Tec and their slogan was. ‘Refresh your mind and breath.’ Celestia knows what refresh your mind means. I needed something to get the awful taste of cram and vomit out of my mouth. So I was thankful for a box of mints. I open the tin and was slightly disappointed to only see three were left. I shrugged and tipped the whole tin in my mouth.

I did another quick sweep of the store before I left. I found more tins of cram and a few boxes of Sugar Apple Bombs. It took me no time to open the box of Sugar Apple’s. As I ate them waves of memories flooded back to me. Memories from before the war. My mother would give these to me as a treat for doing good work in school, or being well behaved.

I walked on for a little longer, then I realised I didn’t know where I was going. I had no aim, no nothing. I stood there for a while trying to think of what I could do. The only thing that came to mind was going to find Purple Snow and Tracer. Maybe I should have done that from the start. But I was shocked and upset then, my mind wasn’t working properly. Speaking of my mind, I realised I had a thumping headache. But I tried to ignore it, just said it was because of that food I ate yesterday.

I made it my task to find Purple Snow and Tracer. The only problem was, I had no idea where to start. If only I had been able to see where Dismay and his / her friend went off to. I closed my eyes and went back to the moment. I remember hearing hooves trot off. I try and remember what direction. Maybe it was just my mind trying to give me some hope to grasp one, but I think I remember hearing them go of in the direction I’ve gone. But that still doesn’t help me. They could have gone off in a different direction by now. I don’t know how long I was passed out for, they could be miles ahead of me. But I’ve got to try. I have to do something; I’m hoping they would do the same. Well, I hope Tracer would, not sure about Purple Snow.

I walked in the same direction for hours, maybe even days? I don’t know. Time seems to come to a standstill when all you’re doing is walking. I keep walking until my headache got worse, much worse. I needed to find a place to sit down and rest for a few minutes, or hours, days. Maybe I could find a place and just stay there and never move. No. I had to help Purple Snow and Tracer. I couldn’t give up, even though I really wanted to.

I come up to a building called. ‘Trottingham’s Postal Service.’ Very creative name, I thought to myself. The name seemed familiar, like I had said it before. But I shake out the thought, I then groan in pain. Really should not shake my head so hard. I go to knock on the door, but realise there is no reason for that. No-pony will be in there; I hope.

I enter in. It’s dark, but I can just about see from the daylight leaking in from varies holes in the walls and roof. There were desks in the centre of the room. Five of them. Each had a glass panel behind them, or had. They were mostly smashed up now. The place and the name felt so familiar, I knew this place, I must know it!

I walk up to one of the glass panels. Somehow this one had stayed in tacked. So had the desk. In fact, both the glass and desk looked brand new. The glass looked smooth, there was not a scratch on it at all. I go to stretch out my hoof to touch it. My hoof goes straight through the glass. I back pedal and recoil my hoof in shock.

“What?” I whisper. I look around the place. The fuck?

Everything had changed. It all looked new. It looked like it did before the war, before all this shit. There were other ponies there now. I got up to one and tried to call out to them. I got no response. They didn’t seem real, they seemed ghost-like all most. I look round again. There was no fallen debris on the floor. The roof was damage free, no holes. So was the whole building. This can’t be happening.

“This isn’t real! I’m dreaming! I’m dead!” I cry out.

I go to run through the desks. If none of this is real, then I could just walk right through the desks, right? I go to walk through. I get halfway then my hoof gets caught on something. Then for a split second everything goes back to normal. I see and old rock that my hoof was stuck by. I kick it free, then the image returns again, I’m back in the pre-war building. Now I was getting scared and I started to freak out. I run past the desks, screaming and shouting. Of course the ponies, the ghost? The whatever’s! Don’t notice me. I run into another room, through a closed door. Then it hits me. I did know this place. This was the place my mum and dad worked at. My mum was there. Her scarlet coat and her purple main seemed to glow. I felt tears build up in my eyes.

“Mum!” I call out. I know she wasn’t real, or was she? I didn’t know! But I took the risk, I never got to say good-bye to her. I needed her.

I run up to wrap my hooves around her, but all that happens in I fall through her and land on the ground and black out. When I wake up, I see that I was lying on a pony skeleton.

******

It was hers. It had to be. I lay there, curled up next to the skeleton of my mum. I let small tears drop onto the bones. I was sitting next to a dead pony, in fact, I was sitting next to many dead ponies. But I didn’t care. Maybe Tracer was right, you get used to it. I looked over to the bed and shivered. No, still don’t think I could sleep in that. I stoke the head of the skeleton and whisper.

“I love you.” More tears streamed out of me. “I’m sorry I never got to say good bye.”

I tried to think what just happened. Why was I seeing everything from before the war? I shrugged. It was probably just a hallucination from eating that cram.

I looked around the room and the sight of a green Stable-Tec terminal caught my eye. I stood up and brushed the dust of me and walked over to it. To my surprise the thing actually still worked! And luckily it didn’t need a password. When I worked for the Ministry of Awesome for a short time, I never trusted Rainbow Dash, I felt she was up to something. So I would try and find her terminals but they would all ways be password protected and I could never hack it.

I looked through the terminal. Most of the entries were about shipping special items to the Ministries. Most were just about special documents being sent. But there was one that sparked my attention.

Dear Apple Jack,

I’ve been working in with a few ponies from Stable-Tec and a few of your ponies to create this, and boy do I think you’ll like this!

We’ve created a new line of guns. Right now, we only have two prototypes. But with your permission we can go into mass production of these! I think they could really help. Now of course my team is only made up of ten or so ponies, with your help we could make something much better! Let me give you a brief description of each gun.

Cloud’s Fire: This is a moderation of a .44 pistol. What the whole idea of the line of guns, is that, we want ponies to have the ability to have something like Eyes Forward Sparkle and S.A.T.S, for ponies on the battle ground or ponies just defending themselves. But of course, ponies fighting can’t have big clunky pip-bucks on them, so we’ve made guns that have this technology! We’ve also modified the EFS ever so slightly. When enemies are close by it will beep in different speeds and pitches depending on how far away they are.

Are second weapon we’ve modified is just a missile launcher. Nothing special to say about it, it contains the same technology as the pistol. But we’ve also created something else which I also think could go into mass production. We’ve made special ammo for these weapons. Currently we only have .44 bullets. We tried making missiles…but, there was a problem and it just didn’t work…Anyway, the type of bullets we have so far are:

Explosive: They explode upon contact.

Poisonous: Different types, some just knock ponies out, others poison them to death.

Tracking: Plants a tracker in the pony so you can see where they are at any time.

That’s all. Please take this into consideration, they are not expensive to make and they can really help the war effort. Thanks for your time. I’m sending the prototypes over to you, hopefully they arrive without any problems.

From Cloud Dust.

That name. My dad. I knew he was working on a project. But I never knew it was this. I heard they did accept his project, and they were going to work on them, but then the balefire bombs put an end to that.

I look through the other entries, more documents being sent, more boring stuff. Then the last entry catches my eye. It was titled ‘good-bye’ I opened it.

‘To Cloud Dust and Slipstream. I hope someday you can see this.’

No. I backed away from the terminal, tears reappearing in my eyes. I can’t read this, but I have to. I wanted a proper goodbye from her. So I went back and read on.

‘As I sit here writing I know my end is near. I can see the pink cloud slowly entering the building. It’s only a matter of hours before it reaches me. I don’t know if you’ll ever see this, or if you’re even alive. I’m praying to Luna and Celestia that you’ve both made it to your stables safely. If not, then I’ll see you soon. The pink cloud is coming into here now. I better hurry up. I wanted to say goodbye. I never got to say it to you two. I love you both so very much and it pains me I have to write my goodbye and it pains me even more that you’ll probably never see this. I just want you both to know I love you so much and I always will. Just know, one day we will see each other again.

Love you and goodbye

Rose Burst.

I could barely see the letter from the tears in my eyes. I walk away from the terminal, tears pouring down my face. I fall down to the skeleton and weep into it.

“I love you too. Goodbye mum.” I say as I kissed the skeletons forehead.

I stood up and whipped the tears from my eyes. I don’t think I had any tears left in me. I still felt sad, I still felt like crying, but nothing came. Which was good. Because know I could see.

I stepped out of the room, then immediately went to hide in it again. I saw a group of three ponies, and they did not look friendly. I slowly looked round.

“I see ‘em go in ‘ere!” A stallion with a dark red coat and a grey main. All he had for a weapon was a sharp stick.

“You sure? You know what you’re like, you said you saw rainbow dash a few days ago!” Said a cyan stallion who was wearing an armoured ripped coat.

Ripped Coat pony looked around the place then sighed and turned to a pink mare. “Daisy! You search the place me and Blood will stay here in case they come back.

Daisy saluted and said. “Will do! Mister Zappity sir!”

Zappity was the only one who looked decent of the group. Daisy and Blood had blood and shit and other crap all down them. Also, Blood. Who the fuck names their child that!? Daisy goes upstairs and Zappity and Blood start looking round the ground floor. Shit. It wouldn’t be long until they come into here. I might be able to fight Blood’s stupid stick, but I diffidently couldn’t do anything to stop Zappity’s shotgun.

I hid under a table for the longest time, trying to keeping my breathing slow, which was very hard considering my heart was racing out of my chest. Everything was silent. I almost thought they had left, but the sound of a loud gunshot disproved that. I screamed. But luckily the sound of another gunshot cover it up. Almost.

“What was that?” Zappity asked. I don’t think he was talking about the gun shot. “Ugh it doesn’t matter, Blood! C’mon Daisy needs are help!” I heard them gallop up the stairs, then silence.

This was my chance. I could run out now. I looked round the door. Nothing. I took one step out, then other, then other, then I ran for my fucking life. I was almost to the door, then another gunshot went out, and next thing I knew I was on the floor and all I could see was blackness.

“I got one! Ityzap, F-F-Fuck, Zappy, Zappity!” Stuttered Blood. “I got one! You proud of me?”

I was going to die. I’d been shot. I felt a sharp and hot stabbing pain in my left fore-hoof. Maybe if I’d had just got shot their I would be fine. Well, not fine. But I might live. I tried to stand up. Big mistake. I yelped in pain as I tried to stand on my shot hoof. I couldn’t stand up, so I had to drag myself out.

I was so close to the exit. I could feel the cold breeze that was leaking out of the gaps in the doors. I just needed to go a little more…and!

“Gotcha!”

Fuck.

Zappity walked around to stand in front of me. He smirked. “Going somewhere?”

This was it. This was how I was going to die.

“I-I-I wa- I please!” I begged. Zappity only laughed.

“Oh, how I love it when new ponies come into the wasteland. By your stable barding I’d say you were from a stable?” He laughed again. “It’s so easy to kill you little weaklings!”

I saw he didn’t have his gun. But he didn’t need it. He raised his blue hoof to my face and- then there was another gunshot. This one, however wasn’t aimed at me. Unless the pony behind the gun had terrible aim, I’d say they were going for Zappity. The pony shot again, Zappity just barley dodged it. He was useless without a weapon and he knew it. He snarled, kicked me in the side, then ran out.

I lay on my side, groaning in pain. I heard hoofs come down the stairs. I prayed and begged to every goddess that they were nice.

“Caps! Over here!” Said a mare.

I heard two sets of hooves approach me. I slowly looked up. There were two ponies by, one stallion with a purple coat and a blue main, the other was a mare with a beautiful grey coat and yellow and blue main. The mare bent down to me.

“You alright?” She asked. She brought her hoof down to me. I held it and forced myself up. I once again tried to stand on my shot hoof but pain took over and I fell over again.

“Been better.” I said with a sigh.

She looked down at my hoof and smiled. “We can fix that! Caps?”

The purple stallion looked to the grey mare. “Yeah?” He asked.

“Got any healing positions left over?”

“Got plenty.” He said with a smile as he reached into his saddle bags to grab the potion. “Here yah go!” He said as he threw it over to the mare.

The mare caught the potion with her hoofs. It was a clear glass bottle with a purple liquid inside. The mare used her teeth to remove the cap from the top.

“Here.” She said passing the bottle to me. “Drink this, it will help you.”

I had no idea who these ponies were, or what I was going to be drinking. But I was in a hell of a lot of pain, so I didn’t give a flying feather. I ignored the whole ‘stranger danger’ alarm going off in my head, and drunk the potion. For the first few seconds I felt nothing, nothing changed. Then I felt a tingly in my ribs and hoof then after a few seconds I felt hardly any pain.

“Woah.” I said. I looked down to my hoof. The dried blood was still there but the whole had closed up. I got up and tried to walk. I felt no pain. I didn’t fall over. Whatever they gave me was a fucking miracle worker.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Just a standard healing potion.” Caps was the one to talk this time. “It’s truly amazing what it can do.” He smiled and I nodded.

We stood there in an awkward silence for a while. I scratched the back of my main. The grey mare was the one to break the silence.

“So, what’s your name?” She asked.

“Slipstream.” I said. “And you?” I asked looking to her.

“I’m Misty Night!” She said with a smile, then she looked to the stallion. “And this is Caps, as you probably know.” She said.

Then after that there was another awkward silence. Then this time I broke it.

“So um…Are you two…You know” I was about to go on but Misty knew what I was going on about. She burst out in laughter.

“Oh, no, no, no! We’re just friends trying to make the Wasteland a better place, like the Stable Dweller does or Security!” She smiled.

I stared blankly at her. “Who?”

She laughed. “What? You haven’t heard of them? Have you been living in a Stable or som-“She stopped when she noticed my Stable barding. “Oh.” She gave me a puzzled look. I took in a large breath.

“Well, two hundred years ago the Zebras set off the balefire bombs which destroyed Equestria, I was alive back then and I went to a stable 111 which was meant to keep us safe from the bombs. We were meant to live there and just live are lives and die, but that’s not what happened. We were put into these strange freezing pods and frozen for over two hundred years. My friend I was with woke up eighteen years before me and I only woke up yesterday. A stallion called Purple Snow woke up at the same time as me. We went out together to explore the world then we found my friend, we were then attacked and they were kidnapped by a pony called Dismay, I’m now trying to find them.” I then took the biggest breath and nearly passed out. “Yeah, that basically everything that’s happened so far.” I said panting. They started and me, a mix of shock and confusion on their faces. But then Misty’s shock and confused look turned to awe.

“You. Were. Alive. Before the war?” She froze. “That’s awesome!” She yelled. “What was it like?” She asked as she moved closer to me.

“Well, before the actual war started, life was great. Nothing like this, ponies didn’t attack ponies out of nowhere! It was just life, we lived our lives without many problems. But then the war started and ruined all that. The war was just, well. Shit. Life had changed so much and not for the better, ponies hardly had time to have fun or even smile. It wasn’t great. But not as bad as this.” I said pointing to upwards. “Not as bad as the Wasteland as you call it.”

“That’s…Wow.” Caps said. “Amazing.” He then narrowed his eyes. “You said you were looking for your friends? They were taken by a pony called Dismay?” He asked. I nodded.

“Hmm, Dismay.” Misty said. “It sounds familiar.” She said. Caps nodded.

“Yeah…Oh! I know!” He said with a smile. “Clockwork has mentioned it before. I can’t remember when.” Caps said to Misty and I.

“Clockwork?” I asked. “Who’s that?"

“He’s the synth detective of Gem City.” Caps said.

“Synth? Gem City?” I put my hooves to my head. “Ahh! To many new things, I can’t take it.”

“It’s fine. We’ll explain, we’ve got time.” Misty smiled. “So I’ll start with Gem City since that’s easier to explain. Gem City is one of the main cities in Trottingham. It’s, well that’s it. It’s a city.” She smiled, but then her expression changed to be more serious. “Now, Synths. They are a little more complicated…”

Misty told me that Synths were made by this thing called The Institute. They made different types of Synths. Some look like ponies and others look like robots. The Institute it’s self is hidden. Apparently no one has ever found it. Then she said I should go to see Clockwork if I wanted to know more.

“So where is Gem City?” I asked.

“We’ll were heading there now; you can tag on with us if you want? And if it’s okay with Misty.” Caps said and looked to Misty. Misty smiled “Yeah! That’s absolutely fine with me!” She smiled.

Caps looked at me. “You need some armour and a weapon.”

He was right. I didn’t want to go back out there unprotected, but there was nothing here.

“I’ll be right back!” She said then dashed up the stairs. Leaving me and Misty alone.

“So” I said, scratching my main. “How long have you and Caps been a team?”

“For a few years now. We were brought up in a raider camp but we didn’t want to be a raider so we escaped and made it out goal to try and make the Wasteland better.” She said. I was just about to ask what a raider was but she already knew. She laughed and rolled her eyes. “A raider is a pony who’s just lost it. They only care about killing others. They are not nice ponies. All of them deserve to rot in Tartarus.”

“Damn, that’s a bit harsh don’t you think?” I asked.

“Not if you’ve seen what they’ve done.” She sighed. “They are capable of awful things.”

I was about to ask another question but Caps came down the stairs again, levitating a few items. He came up to us and laid the items on the floor. He passed me a 10mm pistol.

“Not the best weapon ever, to be honest, it’s pretty crap. We’ll get you something better when we can.” Caps said as he went through the other items. He brought up some of the shit and blood stained armour that Daisy was wearing. He didn’t expect me to get in that, right?

“Just for now, to protect yourself.” Caps said as he passed the dirty armour to me.

“I’d rather get shot, again.” I said, almost gaging at the foul smell.

“Fine, fine.” Caps said. He looked upstairs again. “One second.” He ran up again.

I didn’t say anything to Misty this time. I just watched were Caps was. After a short while he came back down. He was carrying some more armour. He placed it down in front of me.

“This can go on top of your stable barding. Please put it one. It will keep you safe. It’s clean, I promise.” Caps said.

“Fine.” I said. I really didn’t want to get shot again. That really did fucking hurt a lot.

I slip the armour pieces on. They felt odd, but Caps said I would get used to it. I see caps pick up a pouch of something. He empties it out and many bottle caps fall onto the floor. He uses his hoof to make three equal piles of it.

“There.” He says as he pushes the bottle caps to me. “Twenty-five caps each.”

I raise an eye brow. “There’s not twenty-five of you?”

“What? Oh.” He then bursts out in laughter and Misty joined him.

“Heh. Caps are what we use as currency here in the Wasteland.” Misty explains.

“Oh.” I say as I scoop my share up and put it in my pocket.

“We should get you a saddle bad. I’m sure someone will sell one in Gem City.” Misty says. “So we ready?” She asks. Caps and I nod. “Then let’s head out!”

******

It was a long walk to Gen City. My legs were jelly and I felt like passing out. I swear I almost cried when they said we were only half way there.

We kept walking for a little longer then Caps put his hoof out to stop Misty and I.

“Shh.” He said. He narrowed his eyes and started outwards. “Raiders” He said after a while of looking out.

“How did he know that?” I asked Misty.

“He uses a spell, it’s a bit like your EFS on your pip-buck.” She said pointing down to my hoof.

EFS? I then remember back to the letter my father had wrote. Eyes forward Sparkle. I life my hoof up to be level with my eyes. Huh. I forgot it even had that. I flip the button on it a couple of time, changing the screen, then a map came up with a little bar at the bottom. There were two green dots which I guessed was Misty and Caps and three red, which I guessed were the raiders. The only problem was I couldn’t tell how far away they were. I guess I needed that beeping motion tracker my dad was putting in the guns.

Caps came back over to us.

“There’s only three of them. We can take them. Misty, you fly up and get visuals.” Caps said.

Misty saluted.” Sir, yes, sir!” She said as you flew off.

Then there was silence as we waited for Misty to return. After a short while she came flying back.

“Right. So they are spread out like I triangle.” Misty used here hoof to draw a triangle in the dirt. Then she drew three pony like figures on each point. She drew a line to the pony at the bottom right point and wrote my name.

“Slipstream, you take him. He looked like and easy target. From what I saw he was armed with only a bat. And if things get crappy, Caps will be close by.”

She then gave Caps his target, then herself. Damn I respect these ponies. They are so organised. If I was on my own I would have just marched up to them and hoped for the best.

Misty checked to see if we were okay with the plan. When we all nodded she saluted and so did Caps, then I did too. Then we were off.

Misty went flew off to her target, Caps walked off, then I felt over to mine. I flew up high so I could get a good look at him. It was true, all he had was a bat with a nail stuck into it. I still would have to keep my distance. That thing could kill me given the chance.

I landed down a broken old tree. The pony was looking out, like he was waiting for something. I wondered if they were, or if they were guarding something, or if they were even a group. I lifted up my pistol, then lowered it. Maybe I should have said this to Misty and Caps. But I have no fucking idea how to shoot a gun. I was never taught since I wasn’t a fighter back in the war time. I had seen ponies fire a gun. It didn’t seem to hard. Just take a breath in. I wrapped my wing feather around the trigger. Aim. Then, fire! The gun went off and the bullet hit the pony, but it didn’t kill him.

He looked round for where it had come from, then he noticed me and gave a sick smile.

“Fuck!” I yelled as I ran.

I fired blindly behind me. I still heard hooves behind me so I don’t think it hit him. I fried again, then again, then, click. I kept trying to fire but all I got was. Click, click, click. I was out of ammo.

“Shitting fuck piss!” I swore as I ran more. I remember what Misty said, she said I was close to Caps if things got crappy. I think this classes as crappy.

I swerved round and ran back towards were caps would be. I could try re-loading the gun, I had some spare ammo, but I had no idea how. I help the gun with my wings- wait. I was such a stupid pony. I laughed and I unfolded with other wing and took off. I flew around the pony, mocking him. This gave me some time to figure out how the fuck I re-load a gun.

After a while of fiddling with the gun and many dropped bullets, I was able to re-load the reaming three bullets. I flew down lower to the stallion. I could see him properly now. He had a dirty orange coat his a grey dirty main. He was an earthpony so he was running with the bat in his mouth. I brought up the gun an aimed. Then my vision went green. I could see the stallion with all his limbs highlighted, they came with a percentage next to them. I somehow selected his head. I had a feeling this was S.A.T.S. I had no idea was it stood for. I was told, but I forgot. Being frozen for two hundred years take a toll on the poor brain. I selected his head then fired. My vision returned to normal, then the bullet when straight through the pony’s head. Then the stallion fell to the floor, dead.

I went down to his body. Then realisation hit me hard. In the heat of the moment I had forgot what I was doing. I had killed a pony. I was a murderer. So were Caps and Misty but so were these ponies. Dear Celestia I hope Misty was right about these ponies deserving to rot in Tartarus. I looked round his body. It was still warm. It sent shivers down my spine, this was a dead pony, but they so easily could be sleeping. Well, take away the bullet hole in his head then, yeah. He didn’t have much on his, but he had a bag of caps. I took the bag and the caps. He also had a saddle bag on him. It had a few drops of blood on it, but I could just wash that off. I take the caps out of my pocket and put them in the bag, then I put the caps bag in my saddle bag then head off to meet Misty and Caps.

I flew round a few times not having much luck finding them. Maybe they had left me? Maybe they didn’t want me in their group? I didn’t want to be alone again. Just the thought brought tears to my eyes. What was the chance I would find any other nice ponies in the Tartarus forsaken place! I do a few more laps round then decide to give up. They were gone. But as I flew down I was chock out of the sky by a speeding grey Pegasus. Hope filled my heart again…as well as pain. I franticly flap my wings as I roll twit down to the floor. I brace my body for impact, but just as I expect the pain of hitting the ground, I was greeted with the feel of soft hooves on my instead. I look up and see Misty carrying me in her hooves. She chuckles.

“Heh. Sorry about that.” She smiled.

She flies me over to where Caps was. I hope she realises I can fly. But I didn’t mind, this was actually quite nice. When we reach Caps who was waiting for us. She lowers me down, and I jump off.

“Thanks.” I say, and she smiled.

We exchange loot we find. We share the caps we found between us. I did feel a bit reluctant to hand mine over. But I appreciated they even gave me any, I was just a tag a long for them. It made me sad to think I would have to leave them at some point. I was liking being a part of their group, and it seems they were liking me. Maybe after I find Tracer and Purple Snow we could all join their group. They probably wouldn’t like having such a big group, but it would be worth a try!

We walk again. I had to go to flying as my hooves were hurting so much. Flying at the speed of walking was hard work, but it was better than walking on my dead hooves.

After many more hours of fucking walking we started seeing more buildings. We gave me hope they we might be close. Then I saw the singed. It pointed right and said. ‘Gem City this way.’ It had a picture of a red gem. We followed more signed and then we were there. There was a large gate blocking the outside from Gem City. We approached closer and we saw that there was a mare talking into the speakers. She was a crimson unicorn with a long messy black main. But she still looked nice.

“What do you mean you can’t open the gate?” She hissed. We stood behind her and waited for her to move away from the intercom. She seemed to be having an argument with the pony on the other end. We might be waiting a while.

“S-Sorry Scribbler, but I got orders from Mayor Donut Dough, not to let you in. Sorry, but I’m just doing my job.”

Donut Dough? Fuck me. I tried really hard to hold back my laughter. Maybe ‘blood’ wasn’t the strangest name in the Wasteland after all.

The mare, who I guessed was called Scribbler, growled.

“Just doing your job? So doing your job means keeping Gem City safe from big ‘ol scary reporters like me?” She smirked. “Oh look out Gem City! It’s the big scary Scribbler! Boo!”

I impatiently started tapping my hooves on the ground, looking around me. I then looked up. I see that the gate to Gem City is tall, but there’s nothing stopping a pegasus from flying over. Misty noticed me looking at the gate, them shakes her head. “A pegasus tried that once, they were shot and killed as soon as they got over.” She whispers. My smile drops and my eyes go wide. “Gem City it’s a bad place, they just want to protect it as much as possible.”

“I’m sorry Scribbler. Mayor Donut is really upset about that report you wrote about him. He says it’s all lies and made up facts. The whole city is in a tizzy about it.” The pony on the com says.

Scribbler stomps her hoof to the ground. “Argh! I live here Dandy Days! You let me in right now!” She yells. Then the com falls silent and she lets out a large sigh.

She turns round and noticed me before she sees Caps or Misty. She leans in close to me.

“Hey, you want to get into Gem City, right?” She whispered.

“Uh, yeah, sure.” I say. I was pretty sure Caps and Misty lived here so I could probably get in anyway.

Scribbler clears her throat. “Oh what’s that? You say you’re a trader? Oh! And you have enough supplies to keep the General store stock for a whole month? Huh.” She smiled or was it a smirk.

Great. This little bitch is now going to get me banned from Gem City for not having these said supplies.

“So Dandy? You gonna let us in? Or are you going to let these precious supplies go to waste?” Scribbler said back into the com.

“Geez. Fine, I’ll let you it. But Mayor Donut isn’t going to be happy.” Dandy said.

The green gate made out of old scrap metal slowly lifted up.

“Heh. Worked like a charm.” Scribbler smiled. She then looked me over and noticed my Stable barding. “You’re from a stable?” She asked raising an eye brow. I nod. “Wow.” She smiled. “My very own Stable Dweller! I can’t miss this opportunity! You have to come to my office later for an interview.” Scribbler said. But before I can say anything, she’s trotting of into Gem City.

I look back to Misty and Caps. “Who was that?” I ask.

“Scribbler Write. Nice mare once you get to know her. The Mayor isn’t happy with her because she wrote a fake report about him. I’m not too sure what it’s about. Donut had every copy burned.” Misty explained. “Come on then. Let’s go.” She said as the three of us walk in.

I see the pony who I guessed was Dandy Days sitting at a desk with a speaker next to him. He looked disappointed as I walked in with no supplies. I felt bad. I would have to apologise to him before I left.

A suited, rather large pony stood by the entrance to Gem City. He growled as Scribbler reached him.

“What did I say about coming back her, Scribbler?” He snapped. Scribbler shrugged.

“Hey, just because I wrote a report about you, doesn’t give you the right to kick me out.” Scribbler said as she tried to get past the large pony, who I guess was Mayor Donut.

Mayor has a light cream coat with a dark greasy main. His eyes narrowed.

“That report was nothing but lies!”

I looked over to Misty and Caps, they were forced on the fight that was unfolding. I shake Misty and point to the entrance. She nods and we head to live. But just as I was about to sneak past Donut he turned round to greet me.

“Ah, a new comer I see? Well, welcome to Gem City!” He said with a proud smile.

“Yeah, defiantly got a warm welcome from you.” I said with a roll of my eyes. The looks Misty and Caps gave me indicated I should not push me luck.

“Oh, sorry miss…?” He trailed off.

“Slipstream.” I replied.

“Well, you look like Gem City marital!” He smiled.

I looked down at myself. I did?

“Hopefully we can interest you in a place to stay? We just had one of our finest living spaces open up! Maybe we could interest you?” He asked with a slight smile.

Of course. The mayor of a big city only cares about money. I mentally rolled my eyes.

“Maybe.” I replied with a fake smile.

Scribbler interrupted us with an annoyed cough.

“So, you gonna let me in or not?” She sighed, tapping her red hoof on the floor impatiently.

Donut let out a large sigh and rubbed his eyes.

“Fine. Whatever, but you get one more chance! That’s it!” He snarled. Scribbler smiled and walked past him. Donut then turned to me. “Well, if you ever need anything come find me in my office.” He said as he walked out.

I noticed Scribbler stayed behind. She looked fascinated by my stable barding. She put a hoof to her chin. “Is that? Did you?” She trailed off, shaking her head.

“If you’re asking if I came from a stable, then, yes.” I smiled. Her mouth dropped.

“I have my own personal Stable Dweller!” She smiled with excitement. “I have to grab you for an interview about your time at the stable. Come by my office later.” She said. Before I could get another word in, she was gone.

“Well.” Misty said as she joined next to me. “Welcome to Gem City!” She said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice

We walked through the gate and I gaped in awe at the sight. It was a city, but it was made out of sheets of metal and scrape. It amazed me that ponies had made this! I walked down into the main shopping area of the city. I wasn’t sure ‘city’ was the right word for it. It wasn’t that big. Maybe more of a town.

“What do you want to do first?” Misty asked. “You want to go to Clockwork or Scribbler first?”

I shrugged. “I guess Scribbler. Might as well get that out of the way.” I said.

“Alright. We’ll leave you to that.” Caps said. He pointed to a sign that said. ‘Clockwork’s detective agency.’ “We’ll meet you back there.” Caps said. I nodded, then they were off.

I looked around then realised I didn’t know where Scribbler’s office was. I walked up to a pony who was wearing baseball gear as armour. I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned round and raised an eye brow.

“Um…Which way to Scribbler’s office?” I asked with a nervous smile. The stallion snarled in return.

“You don’t wanna do any business with that snitch.” The pony replied with a huff. He then pointed his hoof out to a small building done up the way the rest of the city was. The sign above read ‘Gem City’s Newpaper.’ “But she’ll be in there if you really want to see her.” Then he turned back round and walk off.

There was no door to the building, I looked inside, it looked like her home so I didn’t want to intrude without permission. I tapped my hoof on the side of the metal sheet and said. “Hello? Scribbler? I’m here for that interview.” I stood there for a while, waiting for a response.

Then I heard hoofs trot down the stairs. An excited looking Scribbler was at the bottom. She had a large smile plastered on her face.

“Brilliant! Let’s get right to it! Come in.” She waved a hoof for me to enter.

I walked in and looked around. It wasn’t bad. It was quite cosy actually.

“Here. Sit.” Scribbler said as she tapped a hoof next to where she was sitting.

We sat at a small, broken old table. I didn’t dare lean on it, out of fear I may break it. Scribbler laid some paper on the table and got her pen out.

“Ready?” She asked.

“Fire away.”

I saw the paper already had the questions written on it. I tried to look over but couldn’t make any out.

“So, you’re from a stable. What was your time like whilst you where there? And how’d you get out? I heard that no-pony is allowed in or out of Stables.” Scribbler asked with a raised eyebrow.

I shrugged. “Well, my time in the Stable was actually quite short…or very long, depends.” I say, her confused look increased. “When my friend and I arrived we were frozen; my friend woke up eighteen years ago, I woke up just a few days ago.” I say with a smile. Scribbler’s mouth hung open.

“Woah, Woah.” She said shaking her hoof and head. “Are you saying you’re from before the war?” She asked with wide eyes.

I nod. “Behold thee! For I come from the past!” I chuckled. Scribbler’s shock expression only grew.

“Woah. Not only do I have my own Stable Dweller, but I have my own pre-war relic!” She smiled with delight. She flicked over the paper and went onto the next question.

“You’ve seen Trottingham, you’ve seen Gem City. How does all that compare to your old life?” She asked.

“It’s different. That’s for sure.” I nod my head. Then narrow my eyes as a new thought came to be. “But it gives me hope. Seeing ponies out here surviving and trying to rebuild the world. You’d think in times like these ponies would give up and not bother, but they carry on.” I smiled. It was true. The world may have gone to shit. It may be filled witch murderous psycho ponies. But it was filled with more hope. Scribbler gave a sweet smile back to me.

“That’s some inspiring words there, Blue. I’m diffidently quoting that.” She smiled.

I raised my eyebrow.

“Blue? And where are you quoting this?” I asked. She chuckled.

“Well, Blue. My little nickname for you, since I don’t know your name.” She smiled.

“Why Blue?”

“Because of your Stable barding and your coat, you’re blue!” She laughed. I chuckled and rolled my eyes.

“Well, my name’s Slipstream.” I said.

“I prefer, Blue. And I’ll be quoting this interview for my newspaper. The ‘Publick Occurrences.’” She said. I nodded in reply. She once again flicked over the paper.

“Now, what brings you to Gem City?” She asked looking up from her paper.

“I was told that a pony called Clockwork could help me. You see, my friends, Purple Snow and Tracer were kidnapped by a pony called Dismay.” As I said his name, Scribbler’s ears perked.

“Dismay…” She repeated. “You saw a synthicorn and lived!?” Scribbler gasped.

“That fuck’s a synthico..synat…What you said!” I frowned.

“A Synthicorn..well, that’s an unofficial name for them. They’re alicorns…but there are alicorn synths.” She explained. “They are the most powerful synths the Institute had made to date! And Dismay is just one of many.”

This was the second time I was hearing of this Institute, and I still didn’t understand what is was or what they do.

“What is the Institute?” I asked, hoping for some answers. Scribbler looked up, then shock her head.

“Yeah, that’s the thing.” She sighed. “No-one knows.”

Just fucking great.

“All we know is they’ve sent their Synths into the streets of Trottingham, possible more places! We don’t know why though. I guess maybe the just want to rule the Wasteland.” She sighed again. “Talk to Clockwork, he should be able to help you. It’s not the first time the Institute has kidnapped a pony.”

I went to stand up.

“Wait!” Scribbler called out. “One last thing.” She got a new scrap of paper. “Can you give some inspiring words to Gem City. To people who’ve lost loved ones, but are too scared to venture out and find them.” She smiled.

I wasn’t the pony you would want to come for, for words of advice. I would always be the one seeking them. But I thought deep down, I thought of something that someone would say to me

“Never lose hope. Keep trying. Keep on going knowing that all your hard work will be worth it because you’ll see them again…or at least know the truth.” I said with a caring smile.

It didn’t sound like myself when it come out. That wasn’t something I would say. I looked up at Scribbler, she had a small smile on her face.

“Great words of wisdom to end on, Blue.” She smiled.

For a split second, I thought she was being sarcastic, but she wasn’t, she was being truthful. She wrote it down on her paper and smiled.

“Thanks. And hey, I want to find out more about synths, so I was wondering, if you are going to find your friends…and chance I could tag along?” She scratched the back of her main and gave a nervous smile.

I was guessing Misty and Caps would leave me know that I was at Gem City. It would be nice to have someone by my side.

“Sure. You can tag along.” I smiled to her. She smiled back.

“Thanks, Blue.”

“One condition. You stop calling me that.” I said. She chuckled.

“No dice, Blue.” She laughed.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled as I walked out.

******

As I walked out, I was greeted with a large mob of ponies screaming and crying various things. I tried to peak around the ponies to see what was going on, but it was too not effect. Luckily for my though, I was small. I could easily slide through these ponies. So I did. I made my way through the crowd, getting the occasional crude comment.

Once I reached the front, I saw an orange buck was crying on the floor. His purple main was matted and fell in front of his face. He shook as tears fell down his face. A much larger and more muscular buck stood above him. He was a deep red unicorn with dark grey main. He snarled at the pony. The orange buck just whimpered.

“P-Please! Don’t shoot! We’re family for goddess’s sake!” The orange buck cried. The red pony didn’t move or flinch or change expression in anyway, he just narrowed his eyes.

“You’re not my brother. You’re a synth.” He said coldly.

The orange pony just cried. How could a pony just attack his own brother? An armoured pony, the same one who I asked directions to Scribbler’s office, stepped through.

“Put the gun down, Crimson. We don’t want any trouble here.” The armoured pony said, slowly taking steps closer to Crimson.

Crimson didn’t look away. His snarl grew larger as his magic slowly wrapped around the trigger. But before Crimson could shoot, the armoured pony fried at Crimson, and in a split second, Crimson’s head exploded.

The blood landed right by my hooves. I gasped and took a step back, bumping into the ponies behind me. Chunks of blood and flesh landed around Crimson’s dead, limp body. The sight was horrific, but his brother looked more scared and shocked then I did. Even more tears streamed down the orange buck’s face. His face was pale and his eyes were wide.

“C-Crimson?” He whispered, then broke down into a fit of tears.

“Alright every pony, move along. I’ll take care of this.” The armoured stallion said.

Everypony, except for me, moved away. The armoured stallion came to move me along, but before he could speak, I spoke out.

“If this Institute really that big of a problem that a pony would turn a gun on his own brother?” I asked. The stallion gravely nodded.

“Unfortunately so. They are capable of scary things; they can make synths that look identical to another pony. Because of that I’ve seen parents attack kids, kids attack parents. It’s terrible. The Institute needs to be found and stopped.” The stallion said with a stomp of his hoof.

“It needs to be found?” I asked, tilting my head.

“No-one knows where it is! They seem to have no base! Which makes it pretty hard to stop them.” He said with a sigh. “Any way, you should go. I need to deal with this.” He turned back to the crying stallion, and I walked off.

I followed the sign to Clockwork’s office. It was located in a back allay of Gem City. I walked through the narrow alley and slipped into his office.

Misty and Caps were already there talking to the pony, who I don’t this was Clockwork. All three ponies wore worried faces.

“Slipstream. Glad you’re here. We need your help with something, kinda like…A mission!” Misty said with a nervous smile.

Oh, a mission, that sure sounded like fun. I’m sure I won’t get shot again, or worse, die.

“You see…” Misty clapped her hooves together nervously. “Clockworks been kidnapped.” She finally said.

Fantastic. The pony who was meant to help me find my kidnapped friends, has been kidnapped himself. Great.

“But!” She added on quickly. “We know where he is.” She smiled. “He’s been taken by a group of raider and locked in Stable 114. They say we have to pay 5,000 caps to get him back alive.” She sighed. “But if we all go together, we can take them down and get Clockwork back for free!” She smiled nervously. “So, will you come? We really could use your help.”

I sighed. As much as I really didn’t want to go on a mission and risk getting shot or killed, I needed to find my friends, and this pony was the only one who could help.

I sighed, rubbed my hooves against my temples. “Fine. Where is this Stable 114?”

Footnote: Level up!

New perk added: Pinpointer - You have a higher chance of getting critical hits with S.A.T.S.

Chapter 4: Clockwork

Chapter 4.

Misty, Caps and I walked down the dusty dirt road. I was told that Stable 114 was just a few miles south of Gem City, it would take a few hours to get there. Only after a few minutes I regretted ever coming out here. My hooves where already aching and I wasn’t even half way there. I always hated walking, I would normally fly to places, but I hated flying slow, and with Misty and Caps with me, I have no choice but to walk, or to slowly fly above them.

We walked for a little while longer, I realised I was walking ahead of Misty and Caps, so I stopped and turned round to let them catch up. But as I turned round, I noticed Misty staring at me flank. She noticed me and blushed.

“Uh…I was just wondering how you got your cutie mark.” She said nervously as her and Caps came to join by my side.

I looked down at my cutie mark. It was a white cloud with golden wings coming off from the side. It seemed like such a long time ago that I got it. I guess it was. 200 years ago…

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. My cutie mark was something I was never happy about. “I just flew through some clouds one day, I liked it, then boom, cutie mark.” It didn’t seem like I had a talent at flying, or flying though clouds. It was just something I enjoyed doing, I loved the feeling of going through them.

“Oh, cool.” Misty said. She looked down at hers. It was a crescent moon with a light grey mist covering it. The mist was just barley viable against Misty’s grey coat. “I was the last to get my cutie mark in my class. I wanted it so badly that I tried everything. I think I may have rushed my cutie mark; I don’t think it’s right for me. I got it from flying through mist at night, I was able to see through the mist, whereas my class was blind as a bat. I guess my special talent is good eyesight?” She shrugged. “Anyway, I changed my name to go with my cutie mark because I didn’t like my name before.”

“What was it before?” I said before I could think. It was probably rude of me to ask, but I wanted to know.

“Flutter Wing.” She said laughing slightly. “Yeah, you can see why I changed it.”

I then looked over to caps and saw his cutie mark was…A bottle cap.

“Does everyone base their names of their cutie mark?” I asked.

Caps chuckled. “Not everyone, but lots do. Yeah, got my cutie mark when some ass hat was trying to rip my mum off. I told him to lower the price by 30% and he said yes. That’s how I got my cutie mark. Guess I’m good at haggling.” He smiled.

Misty had good eyesight, Caps was good at haggling. I was…good at flying through clouds. If I could go back and change my cutie mark, I would.

“Well, that was a nice chat.” Caps said. “But we need to get back on track if we want to get to Stable 114 by sunset.” And with that, we were off again.

No one spoke much the entire journey. The occasional comment or joke came up, but that was it. I looked on my pip-bucks map. It said we were almost there, in fact, it said where were there now.

I looked around. Nothing. No stable, no mountain where a stable could be, no nothing.

“Well, the map says it should be here.” I said still searching for anything that could be a stable.

“Maybe the maps wrong?” Suggested Misty.

I hope it wasn’t. Because that would mean we just walked for miles for nothing.

“Or maybe…” Caps trailed off and pointed to a small cave entrance. “It’s underground.”

***

The entrance to the cave was small. We barley just squeezed into it. It was dark. But luckily, I found out that my pip-buck worked as a lamp as well. Stable-Tec may be bastards who froze me in stasis pods, but right now I was really thanking them for making the pip-bucks.

We once again walked in silence. The cave was narrow so we had to walk in single file. I looked at my map again. It still showed us to be above the Stable.

“Maybe we’re going the wrong way?” I asked.

“We might as well look down here.” Caps said. “We never kno-wow!” He yelled as he skidded to a stop over a large drop. He wobbled and Misty bit the back of his main and pulled him back.

“Thanks.” He chuckled.

The drop-off we large enough for all of us to stand on the edge. We all gathered round it and looked down.

“Can’t see the bottom.” Misty said as she stared down at the drop.

“I’ll fly down and check it out.” I offered. When neither of them objected, I took off.

I slowly descended the cave. I was about to give up and fly back, but the something caught my eyes. A train. I flew down and landed on a stone platform. It was an old, broken down train station.

I shouted out for Misty and Caps to come down. Misty came down, holding the terrified Caps in her hooves. Misty and Caps examined the area. Caps got onto the train and I followed.

“You think it still works?” He asked. I shook my head.

“It’s horse-powered. It requires coal and ponies to pull it.” I said as I pointed to the harness on the front of the train. Caps sighed.

“Gonna search it for loot.” He said and turned to go deeper into the train.

I jumped out and checked my map. It said I was just a little ways of Stable 114, so it could be anywhere. Well, I’m pretty sure it will be hard to miss a Stable.

I fly from platform to platform in search of the Stable. I was ready to give up and say we’re looking in the wrong place, but then Misty called my name. I went over to her. She was in an area I must have missed. I walked in, keeping my hoof in front of me to provide light. I called out to her, but then I spotted her in front of the big Stable 114 door.

“Found it!” She smiled.

I was about to call out for Caps, but he was already walking this way.

“Good job, Misty.” He said. “But how are we going to get in?”

Misty shrugged. I stepped up to the door and went over to the control panel. Misty sighed.

“We’re never going to guess the password!”

I looked at the buttons. I sighed and slammed my hoof onto the control panel. To mine, Misty and Caps’ surprise, an alarm sounded as the large Stable door rolled open.

“Well. That was easy.” Misty smiled as she and Caps walked in.

I followed, checking behind me in case someone heard the loud alarm. This was a proper Stable. Well. It was. I highly doubted any pony inhabited it anymore, for it had been ransacked. Paper’s littered the floors, cabinets were looted and knocked over. I wonder what happened to it.

The light of a glowing green terminal caught my attention. I jumped into and old broken chair and tapped my hooves on the keyboard. Luckily, it wasn’t locked. There were three files on it. Two were just reports about the Stable, nothing interesting. But the other…I clicked onto the file that was called. ‘I can hear ponies.’

I’ve been listening to the Stable door. I can hear ponies talking, ponies walking, ponies firing guns. It scared me. I don’t want anypony to come here and take our home. I’ve tried talking to the Overmare, she doesn’t believe me. I said we should go out and investigate, but all that got me was a slap to the face. She said we we’re never to open the Stable door. I kinda want the ponies to invade us, just so I can prove the Overmare wrong.

Lily Hearts

I guess that would answer my question. The ponies must have invaded the Stable and killed and looted everypony. I hadn’t spotted any dead bodies…yet.

I got up and walk out into a hallway and caught up with Misty and Caps. This Stable was huge! It was already twice the size of mine.

“Where do we go?” I asked. “This place is huge!”

But as if to answer my question, a speaker above burst to life with the voice of a stallion.

“You want your precious Clockwork, back? Come and get him in the Overmare’s office. You better have the caps, or you and Clockwork die!” There was a burst of laughter then silence.

“Well, to the Overmare’s office we go.” Caps said but I put out a hoof to stop him.

“We don’t know how many of them there are, we don’t know what kind of guns they have!” I said, but Caps just smiled.

“Please. They’re raiders, they aren’t exactly the smartest ponies, we can easily take them on.” Caps said with a smile as he started off walking again.

I sighed and mumbled. “If you say so.”

***

We got lost quite a few times. The Stable was very big, and had many twists and turns. But eventually we found the hallway leading to the Overmare’s office. We followed it, going in a single file line. The hallway ended and opened up into a large room. There was some kind of generator placed right in the middle, and above that was a room with a large window. Looking into It, I could make out a stallion tied up.

We walked around and reached the room. There was a set of stairs which would lead right into the office. At the top of the stairs there was a door, which luckily had a window. Misty went up to see into the room. She looked around and counted something with her hoof, then came back down.

“Right, so there’s five of them. From what I can see, they don’t look very well armoured, and they don’t have very good guns. I say we go in and go crazy, just don’t shoot the pony tied up.” Misty said with a nod.

I thought these ponies were organised. But now they’re just saying go crazy. But I wasn’t arguing, ‘going crazy’ was my way to play.

We walked to the top of the stairs. Caps stood one side, I stood the other and Misty was in the middle. She mouthed the words, 3, 2, 1. When she said one, she kicked down the door and all chaos broke lose.

She flew in screaming and firing her assault rifle. Caps and I exchanged worried looks then followed in after her. I tried to stay back and hit unexpected targets with my shitty 10mm pistol. One pony was backing away, trying to find a place to hide. Before I could think, I fried. The bullet landed right in his head. His body went limp. It was bad before when I killed that other raider, but that pony was attacking me. I had to kill him. But this pony. This pony wasn’t fighting; he didn’t want to be here. And I killed him.

I was snapped out of my daze as a bullet came flying my way. It missed, luckily. I found the pony who had fired the bullet, I aimed up my gun, but then lowered it. I couldn’t. He was about to shoot again, and I was going to let him. I deserved it. I had already killed two ponies in one day! He brought the gun up, wrapped his magic around the trigger, he was about to pull it, but Misty’s bullet stopped him.

“There. That’s the last of them.” Caps said.

I couldn’t take my eyes of the pony in the corner. The pony I murdered. I felt cold tears tickle down my face. Misty looked to me and came rushing over.

“Slipstream, are you alright?” She asked, placing a hoof on my shoulder.

I shook my head. “No. I killed a pony. I killed pony who didn’t deserve to die.” I sighed. “I’m turning into a monster.”

Misty frowned. “Slipstream. These ponies are raiders, they rob, murder and rape innocent ponies! You shouldn’t feel bad about killing them.”

Although that fact did make me feel better, I still couldn’t shake the fact I had killed two ponies in one day. Doing something like that back before the war, would get you locked up for life! Or worse, they’d have you killed.

“Ehm, little help maybe?” Clockwork said, struggling against his restraints.

I walked over to the chair he was tied up to. I tried to undo the knot with my mouth and wings but had no luck. Caps walked over and easily undid the knots with his magic. He smirked.

“Unicorns are the master race.” He chuckled.

Clockwork got up and brushed the rope of him. He looked at me, and I took a step back. His grey fur. (If you could call it fur.) was torn and ripped in places, revealing wires and gears underneath. He wore a dirty old trench coat, which covered most of his body. Any mane he had was hidden under a brown, ripped fedora. His yellow glowing eyes locked onto me.

“Thanks for coming out to save me.” He said. “I was starting to think no pony was coming.” He smiled.

He must have recognised Misty and Caps because he seemed to ignore them as he held out a robotic claw for me to shake. I slowly reach out my hoof to shake his claw. He smiles.

“Clockwork. The synth detective.” He says proudly.

“Slipstream. The two-hundred-year old pony.” I replied.

He raised an eyebrow. “Two-hundred-years old?” He asked.

I sighed. “Long story.”

***

I explained everything to Clockwork. It took a while to explain, but after I did, he stood there shocked.

“You’re from before the war?” He asked. “That’s truly amazing. Never thought that cryostasis even worked!” He smiled. “What was it like?” He asked.

“Look, I’m sorry to break up your little interview Clockwork, but we really need to get going. This place gives me the creeps.” Caps said as he shivered.

“Ah, of course. I want to get back to Gem City as soon as possible too.” Clockwork said. “We can talk along the way.”

“Right then, let’s go.” Caps said as we all left the Overmare’s office.

We did one more search of a few rooms, to pick up any loot. I found a looked room. I also saw about five or so bobby pins scattered on the floor. I was taught the basics of lock picking by Tracer. So curiosity got the better of me, and I set down in front of the lock, picked up a bobby pin with my mouth and started picking the lock.

After a while of swearing and breaking bobby pins, I came down to my last pin. I moved extra carefully with this one, taking my time. I sighed with relief as I heard the click of the lock opening. I pushed the door open and stepped in.

It was a small room. A storage closet. Well, that was disappointing. I looked through the shelves, picking up anything useful like food, ammo, combat shotgun. Oh, combat shotgun. I pick it up, it felt good. It was a well-made gun. Wasn’t too heavy and wasn’t too light. As I held it, my pip-buck flashed. Apparently the gun was called ‘The Overmare’s Guardian.’ I guess this used to belong to the Overmare. Well, she wouldn’t be needing it now. So I slipped it, along with the ammo, caps and food I had collected, into my saddle bags.

We re-grouped by the Stable door. When I arrived, Misty and Clockwork where there, sitting on the floor talking. I sat down and joined them. We waiting a while for Caps. Misty was about to go and search for him, but then he came running in, panting.

“S-Sorry. Got lost.” He said panting.

Once Caps had gotten his breath back, we were out. We made our way through the train station, but Caps insisted he searched through it one last time. While he searched, we went on ahead. We reached the drop-off and waited for Caps’ return. After a short while, he came trotting over.

“Anything?” Clockwork asked.

Caps sighed. “Nope.”

“Waste of time.” Misty sighed.

“I’ll take Caps up, Slipstream, if you could take Clockwork?” Misty asked.

I nodded. I waited for Misty to safely fly Caps up. After she gave the all-clear I wrapped my hooves around Clockwork's chest. I grunted and I heaved him up. Should have expected the big metal pony to weigh a fucking ton.

After I got him up, I fell to the floor and rested while I caught my breath.

“Heh. Sorry, can’t help weighing a ton, tried going on a diet. Didn’t seem to work.” He smiled. I laughed and smiled up to him.

Once we were already, we got in a single file line and walked down the narrow tunnel towards the cave entrance. I stayed to the back, behind Clockwork. My hooves moved on in front of the other.

I was so focused on staring out ahead of me. I didn’t notice the tree root coming out from the ground. My hoof tripped on it. As I fell I reached out my hooves and pulled Clockwork down with me, Clockwork knocked Caps over, who then knocked Misty over…It was quite spectacular really. I got up and gave an awkward smile.

“Heh…Sorry.”

I bent down to help Clockwork up. He put out his metal claw, except all the fingers were pointing in the wrong direction. I flinched.

“Oh sweet Celestia, I’m so sorry.” I gasped. I just broke his fucking hoof…claw?

He laughed and shook his head. “It’s fine, happens all the time.” He bent down and pulled a screwdriver out of his trench coat.

As Misty and Caps got themselves up, Clockwork, worked on fixing his hoof. He carefully placed the screwdriver in each place until each finger was back in position.

“See. No harm done.” He smiled.

We continued to walk out. I stayed far back from the group this time, and kept my eyes to the ground.

As we reached the exit, we all got out and spread out. Clockwork sighed.

“Ah, good to see the…” He trailed off. “Good to see the clouds again anyway.”

I looked up. It was overcast here as well. Come to think of it. Everywhere was! It wasn’t like a normal cloud overcast, there was no breaks it in at all. Caps must have noticed me staring strangely at the cloud layer.

“The Grand Pegasus Enclave, built it.” He said. “The pegasus live up there with the luxury of the sun beating down on them, while we suffer miserably down here.” He growled. “Pieces of shit, all of them.”

Misty coughed and ruffled her wings. “Not every pegasus is in the Enclave.” She corrected him.

I continued to look up. The cloud layer didn’t seem that thick. A pegasus could easily fly through it. Especially a pegasus who’s special talent was flying through the damned things.

“Has any other pegasus tried to break through it?” I asked. Caps bitterly chuckled.

“Yeah. Many have in fact. But they were shot on sight.” He narrowed his eyes. “They don’t care about us. They don’t care about the Wasteland. All they care about is them.” He said sourly.

“Right.” I said, trying to break Caps from his rant about the Enclave. “We should get going, it’ll be dark soon.”

Clockwork looked up. “Doubt we’ll make it back before nightfall. We should find a place and set up camp.” He said.

As much as I really didn’t want to just sleep in the middle of nowhere, where ponies kill at please. I really didn’t want to argue either. And apparently neither did Caps or Misty. So we set out to find a place to set up camp.

***

We found a decent enough place under a large, withered old tree. The over-grown roots provided a place to rest our heads. It wasn’t a bed and there wasn’t a pillow…or blankets, but it would do for the night.

It got to be about midnight, and I still couldn’t fall asleep. I was too parodied about sleeping in the open, and since no one else had fallen asleep either, it seems everyone else was as well. It didn’t take a genius to work out the problem. I stood up, and went to stand on the other side of the tree.

“I’ll take first watch.” I said. No one argued.

“Just come wake me up when you want your watch to be over.” Misty yawned as all three of them closed their eyes.

I stared at Clockwork. Did he even need sleep? And how does he sleep? Does he just shut down or something? I shook my head. I would ask him some other time. I looked outwards and sighed. Why did I offer to take first watch? I was fucking shattered. I yawned…then closed my eyes. I then snapped back up and forced them open. I repeated this process about five times. But on the fifth time, I didn’t open my eyes again.

***

“There! I see them!” Growled a very similar voice. “Go!”

One day, maybe not today, or tomorrow, or in the next year, but one day I will get some fucking sleep.

I opened my eyes, then when I saw Zappity and three other ponies climbing a hill to our tree, I panicked. No. Panic is an understatement, more like, I had a panic attack and scream and cried for the others to get up, is more like it.

Misty, Caps and Clockwork all brought out their weapons. Clockwork bent down and fired. His gun was some sort of energy laser beam. Didn’t look like it would do much damage. But when one of the pony's exploded in one hit, and turned into ash, I took back the statement.

I brought out ‘The Overmare’s Guardian’ Misty eyed up my gun.

“Where’d you get that?” She asked as she too brought up her gun.

“In Stable 114. It was in a looked room.” I replied as I too eyed it up. Then I think we were both think the same thing.

“Do you know how to use it?”

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any time for me to answer. A shot rang out and just barely missed Misty and I’s head. Misty growled and aimed her gun.

“Just pull the trigger and hope for the best.” She said. She pulled up her gun and amid.

The two remaining ponies were using their magic for shields as they charged up the mountain. But there was no sign of Zappity. While Misty, Caps and Clockwork, where doing their best to get through their shields. I refrained from using my gun, which I didn’t even know how it worked. Plus, I couldn’t stand killing another pony today. So I went to look for Zappity.

I walked round the large tree. Nothing. I walked back. Nothing. I then turned round and-

“Surprise!” Zappity yelled as his armoured hoof flew right in my face.

I fell over from the force. He smirked.

“Well, well. We meet again.” He smiled.

I looked round to see if I could grab the attention of someone, but I was hidden behind the tree. I didn’t want to risk calling out, Zappity would shoot me in a blink of an eye. He continued to smirk and he placed a hoof on me, to keep me from moving.

“You know; I’ve been chasing your friends for a while now. They’re fuckers, both of them.” His smirk changed into an evil hate filled snarl. “My wife was just stealing some supplies to feed our daughter. Honestly! In this day and age stealing is the least bad thing that happens. Anyway, these little pricks over-reacted and killed her! Now I have to be a raider just to get supplies for feed my daughter.” His snarl went away and was replaced with sadness. “I don’t want this, but I have to.” Then that evil smirk returned. “And revenge is really sweet.”

Why was I getting pulled into this shit? I wasn’t the one who kill his wife. I didn’t want to think about Misty and Caps killing an innocent pony. She probably wasn’t, stealing is against the law anyway! Is there even a law in this time?

He pulled out his shotgun, smirking the whole time. He lined it up to my throat. His smirk grew more evil, it travelled to his eyes and all his features. It made me sick that ponies get a kick out of doing this.

He went to pull the trigger, but instead of his mouth grabbing it a blue mist got a hold of it instead. The blue mist yanked the gun out of Zappity’s hooves and turned it to face himself. The mist slowly wrapped around the trigger, and it took no time for Zappity to dash away.

The gun still levitated in the air, while Zappity ran down the mountain, then out of sight. The blue mist disappeared and then the gun fell. There was silence all around, so I guessed the others had finished their fight with the shield ponies.

“Hello?” I called out.

I looked around. There was nothing. I looked round the tree, Misty, Caps and Clockwork where there, looting the two dead bodies. I then looked up. There was a white unicorn mare with a stunning blue main, perching on a branch above me.

“Hi.” She says in a high pitched voice.

I look at her, then raise an eyebrow and point to the gun.

“That was you?” I asked. She nodded slightly. “Cool.” I smiled. “Thanks.” I then added.

“No problem.” The mare smiled.

From looking at her, she didn’t seem much older that a filly. She was small and skinny, but she had stunning deep blue eyes and sky blue main.

“Tootsie.” She smiled, then added. “That’s my name.” With that she jumped down from the high branch. I went out to catch her, thinking she would break a bone from that height. But her magic wrapped around her and she floated to the floor.

“Wow.” I stood there in awe. “You’re very talented with magic.” I said.

She smiled. “I know.” She walked closer to me. “What’s your name?” She said as she circled around me.

I saw Misty, Caps and Clockwork head my way, then they spotted the mare and froze.

“Slipstream.” I smiled down to her. I looked back up at the tree. “What where you doing up there?” I asked.

“looking for a way to Gem City.” She said, still walking around me.

I smiled. “You want to go to Gem City?” I asked. She froze.

“Yes. I’ve been searching for such a long time now. I’ve travelled all over Trottingham!” I saw small tears form in her beautiful eyes. “My mother and sister were heading over to Gem City, but a group of raider split us up.” She frowned, I went to comfort her but she snapped. “I know they are alive! They were strong! They wouldn’t die. So I want to go to Gem City to see them again.” She said then continued to walk around me, then she spotted the others.

Her magic searched for Zappity’s gun, but before she could grab it, Clockwork put a hoof on her.

“It’s okay. We’re not going to hurt you.” He smiled and Tootsie relaxed.

“You want to go to Gem City?” Misty asked with a smile. Tootsie nodded. “We’ll were heading there now. Tag along with us, it’s not far.”

Tootsie’s eyes lit up. “Really?” She asked with wide eyes.

Misty nodded with a smile. Tootsie ran into Misty, and wrapped her hooves around her. “Thank you! Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!” She cried.

I smiled. Seeing little fillies like this, with hope still in them, gave my hope as well.

The sun was just coming up, so there wasn’t much point in going back to sleep.

“We should head of now.” I said. The others agreed and we started down the hill.

***

We walked for a couple of hours. It was just a few hours until noon. I looked down at my pip-buck’s map. It was we were just about half way there.

Tootsie was jumping circles around us, chanting:

“Are we there yet?” Every few bounces.

She was a lovely filly. Don’t get me wrong, but right now I wanted to blow my fucking brains out.

“Almost.” I kept saying. Each time I said it, more annoyance was filled in my voice.

She kept asking it, then I snapped.

“You say that one more time and we won’t go to Gem City!” I yelled, I then saw the sadness on her face. “Sorry.” I added. “But please be quiet.” I begged almost. Tootsie nodded and smiled.

She continued to bounce around us, then she started whispering.

“Are we nearly there yet?”

I growled and sighed. Misty beside me laughed.

“Heh, foals hey?” She chuckled.

Misty looked my age. Old enough to have foals, so I had to ask;

“Ever had any yourself?”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Never had a partner.” She sighed.

“Do you ever plan to?” I asked. I was always very noise with questions…it got on ponies’ nerves most the time…Might explain why I never had many friends.

Misty shook her head. “No…I can’t really…” she mumbled, then her eyes darted up. “By that I mean, I can’t bring myself to bring a foal into this shit hole.” She added. “Ever thought about yourself?”

“Like you, I’ve never had a partner, so the idea never really came up?” I sighed. The problem with liking other mares is you have to take risks. I was never a massive risk taker. You would have to risk a good friendship. I’ve done that countless times, asked a friend out, they get grossed out and I never see them again. So after that happened many times, I would just keep to myself.

“Would you?” Misty added on a little later. “Bring a foal into this world, that is.”

“Depends. If I had a safe life living somewhere like Gem City, then maybe. But If I was a raider living a shit life then no.”

Misty nodded thoughtfully. I looked back and realised that we were walking far ahead of the group. I put a hoof out to stop Misty, and let them catch-up. As we were waiting, I brought my pip-buck up to check out the map.

I saw a line at the bottom of the screen, something I had never noticed before. There were five red dots moving along it. Misty noticed it and her eyes went wide.

“Caps! Hostiles!” She yelled.

Almost immediately, Caps’ horn flared up. His eyes darted, left to right.

“I can’t see anything!” He said, his voice full of panic.

Misty grabbed her gun out and flew up.

“Slipstream!” She waved a hoof for me to follow her up.

Once I reached her altitude, she grabbed my hoof and scanned my pip-buck.

“I don’t get it! It says there are right here.”

I looked below me. As I looked down, fear filled my heart. Something was tunnelling under the earth.

“Uhm...Misty?” I said, but she was glued to my pip-buck.

Five tunnels surrounded Tootsie, Caps and Clockwork. The tunnels stopped.

“Misty?” I shook her. Nothing.

“MISTY!” I shouted. Then all chaos exploded below.

The tunnels exploded as some dog-like monsters emerged from them. I gaped. They were fucking huge, and they had guns! They stood on their hind legs and aimed their guns towards the group. These weren’t dogs, they were mutants.

“Hellhounds.” Misty said with terror in her voice. “Get your gun ready.” She ordered me. “And get ready. These bastards put up quite the fight.” She said as she brought her assault rifle up.

I grabbed my shotgun. I brought it up, then frowned. Even though I had very little knowledge of guns, I still knew I wouldn’t hit shit from up here with a shotgun. Misty looked at me and nodded.

“Got down a bit lower. I got your back.”

And with that, I slowly descended ever so slightly. The hellhounds, as Misty calls them hadn’t started shooting yet. They seemed to be talking to Caps and the rest.

I decided it would be best If I was on the ground. So I silently landed, and took cover behind a dead bush. I still couldn’t make out what they were saying, but I didn’t need to. The fight was already starting.

Clockwork was running off with Tootsie and Caps was dashing off in another direction, just narrowly avoiding the hellhound’s gunshots. Once Clockwork had put Tootsie in a safe place, he jumped out to join the fight. His laser gun was picking off Hellhounds one by one. Only after a few shots, two were already down.

The hellhound who I guess was the leader or alpha, commanded two to go after Clockwork, and he went after Cap’s himself. The alpha seemed to have a stronger weapon, so I went for him first. I focused on the hellhound, then my vision turned green as I opened S.A.T.S.

I targeted two shots on his torso since that was a 90% hit chance. I pulled the trigger and my vision returned to normal. The shots fired out after each other. They hit him but seemed to do hardly any damage against his armour.

He turned and I ducked behind the bush. I then peaked out and saw he had turned his attention back to Caps. So I tried again. I tried to open S.A.T.S but nothing happened. I sighed. I would have to do this on my own then.

I put the scope to my eye, I targeted his head. On the side he had a large unarmoured area where his ears where. I aimed for that. I lined up the shot. I took a breath in and held it to steady myself. I got it just right, then I fired as many shots as I could. I managed to get 4 more shots in, then the gun just clicked. But luckily I would need more. The alpha’s limp body had already fallen to the floor.

I ran up to join Caps, I was half way when a shot rang out. Caps shouted but it was too late. The bullet already found its way to my chest.

I gasped with pain and fell to the floor and skidded over to Caps. He grabbed my hooves and pulled me behind a tall rock. The pain was bad. The pain was really bad, but I was still alive so it hadn’t stuck anything major. Caps rummaged through his bags and pulled out a healing potion. He put the bottled to my mouth and tipped my head up.

I sat back and let the potion work its magic. I peeked over the rock. The two hellhounds still remained, they got closer and closer to Clockwork and Tootsie.

“I’m going to help them.” Caps said as he leaped over the rock.

It didn’t take a second for the hellhound to notice and fire a shot towards him. He fell and didn’t move.

I tried to stand up. I was very unsteady on my hooves, but I could move. I ran out to Caps, praying the hellhound wouldn’t notice. I grabbed him by both his hooves and dragged him towards the rock cover. Just as I got him safe, two shots were fired towards me. The first mist completely, but the other got the side of my hoof. I yelped, but the pain wasn’t as bad as the other shots. You know your life isn’t great when you’re comparing pain with different gunshots.

I reached down into Cap’s bags. There was one healing potion left. I sighed, and opened the bottle and poured it down Caps’ throat.

I chucked the bottle away and looked over the rock. One hellhound was down, but the other was still closing in.

I had to help them, it wouldn’t be long before the hellhound reached Clockwork and Tootsie. So I gritted my teeth and walked around the rock.

I could just about put a little weight on my hoof, but not much. So I limped over to them. Thankfully, the hellhound was more interested in Clockwork, Misty and Tootsie, so he didn’t look my way.

The hellhound took turns firing at Clockwork, then at Misty above. As I got closer I saw that he had mechanical claws, that were sharp, very sharp. He was swinging one arm to a gap where Tootsie was curled up. I could see the fear and the tears on her eyes from where I was.

I brought up my gun, I aimed to fire, I pulled the trigger. Click. Click.

Fuck!

The Hellhound had a shield attached to one arm, he kept blocking all the hits. I needed to distract him so Misty or Clockwork could get a hit in.

I ran round so I was just a few meters behind him. I picked up rocks with my mouth and chucked them towards the beast. He snapped round and begang to charge at me.

Okay. My plan worked, I distracted him. But I didn’t expect for him to come at me. Shit.

I galloped away and screamed for Misty or Clockwork to kill it. They got many shots in, the hellhound stopped and turned to face them again. I looked to where Tootsie was hiding. She was gone.

I searched round for her. Then my heart froze as she was galloping straight for me. The hellhound was facing the opposite direction, so I was praying to Celestia he didn’t turn round.

“Slipstream, help!” She cried, loudly.

No.

The hellhound turned, and it took him no time to scoop Tootsie up with his mechanical claw and crushed her.

No!

Hot tears burned my eyes and pure rage took over. I charged at the beast with nothing. It went to attack, but before his claw could come down, Misty and Clockwork landed the final shots on him, and he finally fell to the floor, dropping Tootsie’s mangled body with him.

I went up to the dead hellhound’s body. Tootsie’s body was stuck in the beast’s claws. My eyes were blurry with tears so I couldn’t see a thing. Clockwork ran round to join me and Misty flew down.

“Oh no.” She gasped as she noticed Tootsie’s body.

I fell down to my knees and strocked her main. Then she moved, and a little bit of hope filled my heart, but it was soon destroyed and she coughed up blood.

“I can see them…” She whispered, using her last breaths. “My family…My dad, my sister, but mother isn’t here.” Her high pitched voice was barely audible. “I was so close to seeing her again.” A tear dripped down her eyes. “But I can see the rest of my family now.” She smiled.

I bent down to her and smiled with her. “I’ll bet they’ll be happy to see you.” She nodded.

She smiled. “Heh. Do you think there’s a Gem City where I’m going?” But her question would never get an answer as he chest stopped heaving.

My smiled disappeared and I broke down into a fit of tears. It was all too much. Everything that had happened in the past few days had finally hit me hard. I felt Misty place a wing around me, I looked to her, she had tears in her eyes too. She placed her wing and hooves around me and sat by my side, Clockwork joined too. He didn’t appear to be crying, because I don’t think he could, but he still wore a sad expression. We sat in silent grieving for a short while, then I couldn’t cry any more. I still felt sad, but the tears didn’t come. So I got up.

“We should bury her.” I said. They both nodded, so we got to work on making a grave for her.

As we were digging out a hole, Caps walked up to join us and helped up with the preparations. As we placed her broken body in the grave, we said a blessing to Celestia for her, then poured the dirt back in. As we were doing this, I couldn’t help feel like this was my fault. She died running after me, we would have never even meet if I had been more careful with Zappity hoof! But I shook my head. I couldn’t be thinking things like this now.

Once the grave was finished, we said one final blessing to Celestia and then continued on our journey to Gem City.

Footnote: Level up!

New perk added: Sluaghterer - You do 5% more damage to any non-pony target.