I woke up to the loud sound of laughter coming from outside the room. a Painful throbbing nested in my head. The awful, strong taste of liquor and vomit in my mouth nearly knocked me back to sleep.

My room was pitch black, not that it was something new here in the metro. Light sources were a valuable resource. I rolled on my side, pulling the blanket over my head and forcing my foggy mind to shut down and let me rest. I could deal with this hangover later.

‘Why do I have a hangover though?’ I thought, trying my best to remember what happened yesterday through the haze that my brain was lost in right now.

My thoughts were interrupted when I felt something pulling at the blanket behind me. “What the?” I groaned, turning my ears to its direction.

I could hear the soft breathing of a sleeping creature just under my bed. Actually, I wasn’t sure anymore if it was my bed. I wiggled my flank from side to side, searching for that stupid hole in my bed that always made me wake up with sore hips in the morning. There was none. The mattress was actually pretty even, I could feel little bumps here and there from the springs but other than that, it was even.

‘Not my room then…” I thought, trying to get out of the bed, almost doing a barrel roll as my front legs gave up on life when I put my weight on them. Why were my limbs so sore?

Not able to get back up and simply not caring at that point, I dragged myself toward the mysterious sleeping beauty beside me, trying to figure out whose bed I stole tonight. ‘Is it even night?’ I thought. The complete darkness of the metro completely messed up your sense of time. Most ponies, just like myself, carried a watch with them so they knew if their boss was making them work overtime, but I had no idea where I’ve put mine.

Reaching my target, I began poking it with my hooves to try and discover who, or what was it. Running my hooves over its head, I found a short mane alongside a horn. “Okay, so it can be Screwdriver or Lilian…” I mumbled, thinking about the only unicorns I knew down here that sported a short mane. Lilian was the cook of a really nice dinner at Station C, a favorite of mine, her cute light pink coat and warm smile coming to my mind as I remembered her. As for Screwdriver, he was the newest employee at Station C’s gunsmith, his purple eyes still cheerful and naive. He was really nice to have around, always bringing cheer and happiness to the ponies around him. (Also, he had quite a nice flank to look at.)

‘Whoever it is, I’ve hit the jackpot yesterday!’ I cheered, raising a triumphant hoof.

I tried poking the unicorn in the ribs to try and force a giggle or something out of them, all so I could know who got the best night of their lives. But the pony was still dead asleep, if I couldn’t hear their breathing and feel the warmth of their body, I would really think they were dead.

As I continued to poke the body with no success, I accidentally hit a particular tender spot between their hind legs, earning a soft moan.

‘Well, hello there Screw Driver.’ I giggled, leaving the stallion alone now that I knew who it was.

Now that my mind was a bit clearer, though still throbbing a little, I noticed a soft, reddish-yellow shimmer coming from outside beneath the door. At the same time, the smell of cooked beans hit my nostrils in full force, extracting an upset grumble out of my stomach.

‘Sweet Celestia, I’m hungry…’ I thought, caressing my poor stomach. ‘Well, let’s see if I can work my charm with whoever it is and get some food…’

Struggling to get up, I’ve finally managed to get my front legs to work and tried to raise my hind legs when I lost support again. ‘Oh, right…’ I thought with a bit of sorrow as I patted my left hind leg, or to be more precise, what was left of it.

The thing was, the metro was far from safe, there were poisonous gas leaks, radiation hotspots, the psychos at Station F and the tunnelers… A really big monster, something between a mole and a bear, twisted by radiation. They have giant claws that can dig through concrete with ease, hard skin that stops everything but high caliber bullets and big ass teeth! At least that’s how the old folks here at Station C describe them.

On one of my travels through the more isolated tunnels around the metro—The perfect place to look for scrap by the way!—I was attacked by one of these things. My only luck was a caravan passing by the rails in a hoof cart that managed to kill it, but not before it had bitten off my leg, tearing my cutie mark away with it! Where once was the picture of a steel wrench in front of a bronze gear, now rests only an ugly, jagged scar. Of course, I have still my other flank left, but this was the prized side I first looked to when my cutie mark appeared. )

Feeling around the room, I managed to find the leg prosthesis I made a while ago. Strapping it on, I slowly walked outside the room to see if I could get some breakfast.

Even before I could fully open the door, I heard a high pitched voice that I knew all too well greeting me, a smile creeping across my face. “Good morning Gear! How’re you doing?”

The voice belonged to my best friend, Tenebris. She was a thestral—Great, isn’t it? These are so rare!—She was brought here as a baby by one of our explorers when he went to the surface with that fancy hazmat suit, I was told that he brought her inside his suit so she wouldn’t die in that fucking radiation cloud that is still holding us trapped down here.

She met some hardships while growing up, being too small and also cute as fuck, but she adapted well in the darkness of the metro, she never had to carry lights around with her incredible night vision. And her ears, Sweet Celestia her ears! She had huge, fluffy adorable ears, twice the side of her head! All that with her navy blue mane and tail, light grey coat and stunning yellow eyes that could see right through your soul just like through the darkness of the tunnels.

“Hey, Tenny! I’m doing okay, considering the hangover.” I smiled at her while I sat next to her, eyeing her in the process. The tiny mare turned an adorable shade of red as she noticed that my glance stood way too long on her cutie mark, a pair of leathery blue wings embracing a dark grey heart.

“I just wish I could remember what I did to that poor stallion last night,” I continued, poking at her with an elbow.

“Oh, you did nothing,” she replied, checking her food.

“... What do you mean?” I asked, my ears forward and tail swishing back and forth. “I banged him so hard that he’s still passed out, right?”

Turning an even deeper shade of red, she explained, “N-no… You, me and Screwdriver went out in search of food supplies to bring back to Lilian, with no results.” She sighed heavily at the last part. “After that, you discovered that Screwdriver had never gotten drunk in his life, so you broke into his boss’ hidden stash of vodka and you both drank until he passed out.”

“B-but why are my hooves so sore then? Something must have happened!” I countered, almost hopefully.

“Well, Mister Spring Trap caught you with his vodka and forced you to sort out all of his new supplies at the armory, which took you about three hours. Then you came to Screwdriver’s shack and drank until you passed out too.”

My ears dropped back in frustration, ‘Damn it! You survived one more night Screwdriver…”

“Well,” Tenebris said, passing me a bowl of beans while she got up. “Ready for another day at the metro?” she asked with a warm smile.

That smile that made my day worth it.

“Let’s get this over with.” I smiled back weakly, my head reminding me of my hangover.

Character Sheet:

Name: Rusty Gear

Strength: 8
Perception: 4
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 7
Intelligence: 8
Agility: 2
Luck: 6

Tagged skills: Battle Saddles/ Repair/ Melee Weapons

Traits:
Heavy Duty Worker: The time you spent working with heavy machinery certainly paid off! But damn, do your back hurt! Your Strength is increased by 2, but you have 15 less Action Points.
Scrap Master: Years of working with scrap has taught you how to recycle almost anything! Your crafting recipes that use scrap metal require half the materials to make.

Author's Note

Hello, everybody!

Here comes a new wasteland adventure!

I hope you liked it!

Please let me know of anything you think I should improve in, so I can make better stories for your enjoyment!

bye!

-T.M.W.D.

Chapter edited by: EverfreePony