Fallout: Equestria - Broken Worlds

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.