Another day in the Equestrian Wasteland. Another day on which the sky was covered in clouds, another day on which my life would be threatened by radiation, taint, raiders, and whatever predatory lifeform the world would decide to throw at me today.
Another fucked-up day in this fucked-up world.
To be honest, I hadn't expected the best when I had left my former home in my Stable a few weeks ago. They had never officially told us about the wasteland out here, but rumors had suggested chaos, murderous ponies, mines, traps, radiation, and so many more horrible, horrible things. In short, I had been told that leaving the Stable meant a certain, slow, and painful death.
And yet, I was still alive.
And ironically, I was willing to bet that my chances to survive had increased drastically after I had left the safety of my stable, even with all the threats waiting for me out here.
I was born an earth pony. My parents were unicorns, my grandparents were unicorns. Everypony in the whole Stable, safe for me, were unicorns. As far as ponies were concerned, I was the world's only earth pony.
This had, in the 17 years of my lifetime, never been a big problem. Surely, I had gotten a few odd looks from other ponies, and even hadn't been safe from bullying in my early years, but that aside, being 'different' from the others had never really bothered me. I didn't know why the entire stable population had consisted of unicorns, but I had never really cared either. I was who I was, and had never cared in the slightest what others were thinking of me.
That is, until the overmare in our stable had suffered the tragic fate of all ponies with absolute power. I didn't know if she had read too many old novels, had been bitten by a mutated radroach, or just gone plain and simply insane, but at some point, she had changed.
She had started talking about the superiority of unicorns against pegasi and earth ponies – and simply wouldn't stop. She had started giving speeches about horned ponies being the 'master race'; that they would prevail over the 'mudcrawlers' and 'birdbrains', and so on.
I had never cared too much about these things in the first place - I did, in a way, see myself as a unicorn without a horn, after all. But as her mindset had started to spread throughout the stable, and I had begun to notice discrimination not only from random strangers in the stable, but also from ponies I knew; ponies I had called my friends, I had known that things might get uncomfortable shortly.
And at the latest when a mob of angry ponies who had decided that it was time to take action against 'subponies' like me had hunted me through the stable, I had known that it was time to do what needed to be done and had escaped from my former home. The stable's main door had -thank Celestia- been easy to access, and I had managed to slip away before they had caught me. And to my very luck, none of them had been daring enough to follow me out into the open, deciding to leave the wasteland the pleasure of killing me instead.
And here I was. All alone, in a strange land, armed only with a small pistol that somepony from the angry mob had -for some reason- decided to throw at my head. The bulge I could still feel today was well worth the security of knowing that I had something to defend myself with in case of emergency.
Nevertheless, I was quick in finding out that the life as a wastelander was in no way comparable to that of a stable dweller – food and water were scarce, medication even moreso, and everything, literally everyone and everything wanted to rob you, rape you, kill you, or eat you – not necessarily in that order. The fact that I was still alive must have been a gift from Celestia herself, anyway.
Besides, I had nowhere to go; no one to turn to. I was all alone, straying through the wasteland with no aim, and no purpose in my life. Every day my highest aim was to survive to watch the sun rise behind the cloud cover the next day, and at some point I had come to the sad realization that I wasn't truly living anymore: I was existing, surviving at best, but not living.
I wasn't proud of it, but especially during the first days, I had seriously regretted leaving the stable in the first place. I was sure that death was certain either way. If said death was more pleasant when caused by an angry mob or by one of the wasteland's many deathly creatures I didn't know, but at least the mob would kill me right away and not rape me, enslave me, torture me, or lay its eggs in me to use my body as a host for its parasitic offspring.
Yes, a few days after leaving the stable, my life had reached a new low, and for a few days I even contemplated using one of the few bullets I had had left from my life in the stable to give myself a quick, mostly painless, and at least somewhat honorable death, while I had at least a bit of my dignity left.
However, all these negative thoughts, all the sorrow, the anger and the frustration had vanished in an instant as I had, for the first time after leaving my Stable, accessed the radio-function of my pipbuck. As it had turned out, the Equestrian wasteland had, despite being a post-apocalyptic hell hole, a working radio station. And what had happened in the second I had tuned into the station could only be described as magic.
For in this second, a new glimmer of hope had sparked in my head; a hope that, somehow, everything would be good again. That there was more to this so-called wasteland than crazed raiders, deathly creatures, ruins, radiation and death.
The stallion I had heard speaking in this second had changed my view of this world: he had shown me that there still were ponies out there. Good ponies! Ponies that cared about each other; ponies that were willing to help each other, just because they were ponies! Ponies that didn't care about the others' race, looks, or background, but just saw the pony in the other, and did everything to restore the glory of the old times, before Equestria had fallen into war.
From that day on, I had listened to this station every day, every minute of my life. Music was playing most of the time; old, pre-war music, I suppose, but every now and then the music would be interrupted and I would hear the voice again. That voice that guided me like a light in the darkness, and gave me the power to get up again every morning and endure another day in this unforgiving world.
For several days I had tried to figure out where this pony was transmitting from. I wanted to find him; to see him in person, fall onto my knees and thank him for everything he had done for me in the short amount of time I had been out of the stable. He had saved me from falling even deeper, had dragged me out of the hole I had been in, heck, he had saved me from committing suicide, so I owed that stallion my whole life!
And one day, finally, he had revealed where I could find him. And from that day on, my life had a purpose again. An aim. An objective I was going to reach, no matter what the cost.
I would travel to Fillydelphia, and join the ranks of the only pony that could save the wasteland: our master and savior, The Great Red Eye.
I could feel my lips curl into a thin smile as I thought of him.
Yes, the wasteland had thrown a lot of crap at me, but compared to Red Eye … I was in no position to complain. He had been through so much, had suffered, had sacrificed himself in so many ways, and yet, he still carried on. He was dead set on fighting for the ponies, making the wasteland a better place by all means possible, and as such was an inspiration; a beacon of hope to thousands, if not millions of ponies.
And soon enough, I would be one of them.
Again, I could feel the smile on my face as I looked up to the horizon, seeing the huge, impressive silhouette of Fillydelphia in the distance. It looked just like the few non-hostile ponies I had seen on my way here had described it – massive, solid concrete buildings, a huge wall to keep the threats of the wasteland outside, strange-looking hot-air balloons guarding the airspace, and various columns of thick black smoke – all signs of Red Eye's continuous and never-ending efforts to create a better future for all of us.
I felt a shiver of excitement run through my body, knowing that every step I took would bring me closer to this glorious, bright future.
I could already see it in front of me. A community, full of respectful, peaceful and friendly ponies, living together in the safety of Red Eye's walls, working together to re-build, to create, and to make sure that the horrors of the wasteland would eventually be forgotten for good.
From what Red Eye had said on the radio, I was sure I would perfectly fit into this utopian society – according to him, everypony was welcome to join him, so long as they were ready and willing to contribute their part for the greater good.
And I sure as heck wouldn't need an invitation for that. I wasn't out of the stable for too long, but even in that short time, I had seen what horrible, horrible things ponies were capable of. I had seen the depths of what ponies could become, of what monsters they could turn into, but at the same time, I had no doubt that we were capable of living together in harmony – just like in pre-war times. I had read a lot of books about that subject back in the stable, and had -at least during my young years- seen that ponies could live together in harmony and without hurting each other in the stable.
And now that I knew that there was somepony who shared my philosophy, even in these dark times; even in this horrible wasteland, I would do anything in my power to help their cause and make our mutual dream a reality.
And I was proud of it. Soon enough, I would live in the sanctuary of peace known as Fillydelphia, and would proudly say that I was working not under, not for, but with Red Eye.
Because only together could we bring Equestria back to its old glory.
It was only a few hours later that I was getting closer to one of the big main gates connecting Red Eye's utopia to the rest of the wasteland. The big, high brick wall looked intimidating, and the heavily armed guards on either side did a great job at adding to this effect.
Good, I thought to myself – the more firepower to keep the wasteland's atrocities out, the better.
Stopping for a moment, clearing my throat and running a hoof through my mane, I gave my stable suit a lookover: it had suffered a lot from the time we had spent out in the wasteland together, was dirty and had various holes and tears in it, but I was sure the friendly residents of Fillydelphia would help somepony in need out, and wouldn't judge me based on how terrible I looked.
Bringing one of the brightest, happiest, and friendliest smiles I could muster onto my face, I got back under way again, walking towards the big entrance gates; towards my future as a part of the pieceful, sociable community of Fillydelphia.
I closed my eyes, enjoying the moment.
Yes, I was walking towards a better future, not only for me, but for all of Equestria.
And I was certain that soon enough, my life would be good again - civilized, organized, and peaceful.
And I owed it all to our ... to my personal savior: Red Eye and his allies.
Because with their help, we would set things straight again - not only in my life, but in all of Equestria.
And eventually, we would bring Equestria back to its old glory, and create a better future.
For me, and for everypony else in this stricken land.
