Game of Circumstances

Chapter One: a crappy day

I swear that there are some days on witch I would stay in bed if I could, or if I had a bed. This day wasn’t an exception.

I woke up.

It was… well, I didn’t know, because the sky was an empty black layer above me since I was born. Yeah, I’d never seen the fuckin’ sun! It was just black as always. It was kind of depressing, you know? At the top of my nineteen years on this blasted, grey Earth, I’ve known only that. Some pre-apocalypse books spoke of a beautiful blue sky, but I could only imagine it. Yeah, I could read. It’s one of the things my parents taught me before being killed by some druggy bastard on the road to the Canterlot’s ruins. I could barely read only, but it prevented me of coming insane or killing myself. That was like: ‘rather than blowing your head with your gun, blow it with acknowledge!’ What? That wasn’t funny? Aggh… People today… don’t know what a good joke is. But I’m deriving…

Yeah, so, I had just woken up. I had slept in some School ruins for two days, and it was time to move. I mean, I didn’t want to wake up with somepony happily swimming in my entrails, no? I looked quickly at my watch. Some old thing too, took on my father’s arm with few things I could get before running away. Ten hour in the ‘morning’. I don’t really know if I can call that morning, but…

I redid quickly my long blond mane and got up. My back ached a bit. Normal when you sleep on the ground in a school’s ruins, would you say. I don’t know if I can call that ruins. I mean, there was still a roof! I quickly ate some magically grown apples, the last ones still growing in the Ash Desert. Have you even eaten one of them? Yeah, sure you have, that’s the only food that you can find here in the wastes that is a fruit. So, you’re with me when I say that it taste awful, like somepony injected bleach or something like that in it. So, still, I checked my bag: my 44, my knife, some bullets and some of these blasted apples, nothing more, nothing less. Bah… I was used to live like that.

I closed my bag and put it on my back. I didn’t know where I was going to go, but I really hoped I could find some secured ruins of maybe a town! A town with real beds, supplies, others things to eat than apples…

I exited the classroom and walked quietly toward the front doors of the building. And then I heard it. Screams and gunshots coming from behind the doors. Shit. I took quickly my 44 in my bag and checked that it was loaded. Six bullets. Perfect. I reached quickly the left side of the doors and, sticking my back against the wall, pushed one of them slightly, allowing me to see what was going on.

Pillagers attacking defenseless ponies. Three, visibly. What do I do? Running away by the back doors, or putting up a fight? The odds were against me, but…. Oh, and fuck the odds, let’s go kill some pillagers. Yeah, you can say that. I didn’t care what could happen to me. After? Yeah, I found me stupid for doing that after, but it’s not the matter now. I punched hard the door and shot right on the nearest of these bastard. Three shoots. Two of them went missing in our national beautiful landscape, and the third bullet went right in the head. Boom! His head exploded in a big spread of blood, skull and brain melted. Sweet Celestia, it was disgusting. Just after, I learned that standing still in a gunfight was a fuckin’ bad idea.  And that a bullet in the left foreleg hurt more than a little. I jumped behind the wall, but I knew that these bastards would be in there in less than a minute. I grab my revolver again, and stopped moving, breathing, all. Big technique I’ve learned while scavenging, focusing on the hoof steps is a good way to prevent being captured or surprised.

I barely respired. Three, two, one… The pillager passed the door. He was wearing light leather armor with some steel plates covering the chest, the forelegs and the neck, and was carrying what seemed to be a baseball bat. He saw me, but had barely the time to move as my right hoof met with his jaw with a disgusting crack. Blood stained my fur, and this bastard fell on the ground, letting accidentally his bat falling away from us. I punched him on the face again, but he reacted, passed under me and kicked me with both his hind legs right in the chest. I let my air escape from my lungs as I was send against the nearest wall. I felt my ribs crack. Oh Celestia it was the most painful thing that happened to me. I tried to take a breath, but he was quickly on me and punched me in the face. I felt blood in my mouth for the first time of my life. I tried to move, but he kept punching me. I can still see his horrible, scarred face, his sadistic grin as he punched me, that strange look in his eyes.

For the first time of my life, I was near to the dead. But I was too young, I knew that. At least too young for dying without a last bravery, so I make it. I kicked him right where it really hurt, and he got off of me with a scream of pain and rage. ‘’ That’s all you got, bastard?’’ I shouted at him, splitting blood on the ground. He’d surely break my muzzle. ‘’ Oh, come on, my granny was more dangerous than you!’’. It was stupid, because I’ve never known my granny, but he couldn’t know.

I think that here that he lost all sense of reason. He charged me. I dodged at the last second, rolling on the left side, and took his bat, that was still on the ground. He charged again, still blinded by his anger. I dodged again, and this time, I hit him right in the face with the bat. Blood stained the bat and his grey coat. His nostrils bled. I hit a second time, this time right on the neck. The bat broke instantly, so did his neck protection. I swore and launched the destroyed bat away, ready to finish him in a hooves-to-hooves fight. But he stopped, tottered, and fell on his left side. I approached the now lifeless corpse. Suddenly I saw. When his neck protection’s broken, a part of the steel plate’s stabbed him right in the neck. Blood was going out of the ugly injury. Yeah, like a fountain. It was really disgusting.

And then, something fell next to me and exploded. Fuckin’ third pillager, I’d completely forgot him and he had a frag grenade! I was cursed. I went right in the wall for the second time, but it was much more painful this time. Have you ever be touched by a grenade explosion when you don’t wear armor? No? I hope you’ll never have to. I couldn’t move, all my limbs hurt, and blood dripped out of me from everywhere. I think it’s a miracle that I survived to this. I heard hoof steps. I turned my head, burning my last energies to see dead coming in front of me. It was the pillager. He was carrying a strange gun. My eyes blurred. He aimed at my head. I closed my eyes, there was a big noise and all became black.

__________

‘’ Hey, sleepy head, will you wake up someday?’’

That’s what I heard when I woke up. It seemed to be distant, deafened. But I recognized a stallion’s voice, resembling to my father’s. ‘’ Hey!’’ He said again. ‘’ Will you move, or must I get you off of this bed?’’ That’s when I found out that I was in a REAL bed. It was so comfy I could just stay in it and slept forever. But he had another plan. I suddenly felt a needle entering my left tight.

‘’ AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!’’ I yelled, bolting out of the bed. Strangely, my voice was way high-pitched than my normal voice, but I thought it was because I yelled. I faced the stallion. He was a grey unicorn with a short black mane and looked at me deadpan from behind his glasses. He was also wearing an ex-white blouse and his cutie mark was a red cross, surely the city’s doctor.

‘’ Are you finished, miss?’’ He said, raising an eyebrow. And there, I knew something was up that wasn’t usually. My brain finished understanding what he’s just said, and I made the only thing possible. I checked.

‘’ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! But… but… when? How?’’

‘’ Stay calm!’’ He shouted. I kept screaming with my new high-pitched voice. He was covering his ears, I think, and after, he took something and stuck it in my left thigh again. I think it was a tranquilizer, because I remember that I felt really cool after. I wasn’t screaming anymore, but I wasn’t sleepy. ‘’ Better now?’’ He asked.

‘’ Yeah, thanks…” I answered.’’ Just…’’

‘’ Yeah?’’

‘’ You know how this happened? I mean, I wasn’t a mare the last time I was woken up.’’ I said.

‘’ Nope, sorry, miss.’’ He answered. ‘’but if you excuse me, you’re fully healed and I am plenty of patients needing a bed. Oh, and, welcome in New Hope! I’m Doctor Sirius, the healer of the town.’’ He leaned a hoof. I shook it. He seemed friendly.

‘’ Well, thank for healing me, Doc.’’ I said. ‘’ I’m Callixus.’’

‘’ I think I can call you Cal?’’ He said with a little smile.

‘’ I guess it is okay.’’ I answered. He took a paper and noted something on it with a pencil he’d just took in his blouse.

‘’ Well, if I was you, I’ll go to the town’s saloon, the ‘Wanderer’s paradise’. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of people there, like the town’s sheriff. He surely has something for you to make some bits.’’ I looked at him quizzically. I think I would have been much happier if the answer never came. ‘’ After all, you owe me one-thousand and thirteen bits.’’ So I made the only thing possible.

I passed out.

Fuckin’ crappy day.