War, war never changes, but we do, through the roads we walk, the paths we take, and the beings of this magical world of wonder and horror that we meet, welcome to the new Equestria, welcome home.

Hello,my old silent friend. Or am I talking to myself again.
I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been this way since I lost my group to an abandoned Stable, and my normality.
I never got my cutie mark which is strange but what hell occurred in that place is what made me even weirder.
I don’t think you know me but I’m Blue Moon, a veteran ranger of the New Coltifornia Republic. I am now known as the crying ranger but let me explain before you completely criticize me. I was engaged with the most beautiful mare I had seen as well as the first after my mother. She was known as Shimmering Light. We loved each other and I was also friends with her older brother who was also in the NCR even though he was older than me.
I had become a veteran ranger before him, when I was 20. Were looking for Stable 116, a famed medical Stable that would’ve saved many had it have been true. It was an Enclave experiment Stable where ponies were tricked into being sliced up and severely fucked with. Here’s how it went down.
“Hahaha, no fucking way you ricochet a bullet and hit that colt in the balls,” I laughed after Shining Star, my friend and comrade, “Laugh all you want it happened,” he said. “I doubt it,” one of the privates said. Suddenly my pipbuck, that was tuned in to New Pegasus News Radio, began to play We Three by the Ink Ponies. I loved this song and it played as we trotted through the night to the Stable in these hills. I had begun to think of Star’s Anti Machine rifle skills before we saw a bunch of medical Mr. Handys charging over the ridge, at least 10, it was too late and they grabbed us under the forelegs after disarming the 4 of us and killing our lieutenant who tried to fight back and my pipbuck was scrambled.
I felt fear as I was pony handled and without my big iron. They also ripped our armor from us and had put magic inhibitors on our horns. We arrived at the dark Stable and were dragged down three flights of stairs, kicking and screaming. I finally kicked free but I was caught by another, which fired up it’s bone saw as it held me by the whooves. “No no please no,” I began to cry before it said, “Amputation confirmed, beginning operation.”
It sliced through and I screamed in the most agonisingly painful pain imaginable and it seemed to last for 3 centuries as it ripped through my left foreleg. It now hung by a thread of my black fur coated skin and gristle before snapping off, leaving me hanging by my right foreleg as I cried and passed out from the pain. I awoke after Celestia knows how long. My legs hurt and I couldn’t see or roll over off of my back. I went to rub my eyes with my right hoof but, nothing.
I began to hyperventilate as I remembered what happened and what happened when I passed out and screamed a blood curdling scream. I heard a mechanical wur and my pipbuck began to play Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by The Platters and I began to feel my hind legs spread in their bindings. “Oh no no no,” I screamed before I heard and felt the snapping of bones in my left leg followed by the right as I screamed. They were being bent the wrong way until they snapped then they were cut open and I felt more components and, I think joints, as well as some new muscle, or at least I think so. I didn't have time to figure out as my voice went hoarse and I passed out.
I awoke and felt, strange. Almost as if my body wasn’t mine and I was able to see and the room I was in had a big mirror that covered the ceiling. I also saw that the walls were padded and I couldn't see where the door was. I was no longer restrained and I figured that I was on some good painkillers as I stood, or at least attempted to but found my rear end was higher than my front and that I felt something strange on my fore hooves before remembering that they were supposed to be gone and looking down to find metal ones with my pipbuck built into them and what I had read about in a diary I had found and read about in it. The pony who wrote it called them ‘fingers’. I looked at my rear legs and saw that they were as straight as my forelegs had been and bent the same way.
I felt woozy suddenly before falling off of the gurney I was on and landed on the hard concrete floor. I stood up on my or what used to be my hind legs and found that I balanced nearly perfectly on them. I looked at my pipbuck and the display said, SYSTEM SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADED, before going to my status and notifying me that my perks had given me the ‘bionic biped’ perk as well as notes of how it worked. I turned on New Pegasus News Radio and DJ Olivia Fil was just finishing announcing her engagement to Holly Guitar before playing Together by the Ink Ponies as I began to study the note. I felt itchy on my foreleg and successfully scratched it away before assuming that my nerves, or new ones, were linked to them. I finished reading and attempted to ‘walk’ like in my notes and did so around the room before getting woozy and collapsing before puking and passing out.

I woke up and realized I had been bathed and that there was a place for an IV in my foreleg as I looked and saw it and found it was hooked to a blood pack. I then checked the date and found I'd been here for 3 weeks. I saw a locker and attempted to move it toward me with my magic and succeeded and moved it next to me. I opened it and found 5 small boxes of bobby pins as well as some armor that my pipbuck identified as elite riot gear unicorn. It was black, the duster, pants and shirt to go under the chestplate as well as the boots and custom gloves for my new ‘hooves’.
The helmet was black with blue lenses and blue paint streams that ran down almost like tear streams from the blue lenses. I put it on and the hole for my horn was tight enough to fit and keep the helmet and mask airtight other than the rebreather that had hoses for redirection to air tanks in case of possible rebreather failure or other reasons. It fit perfectly, and I read a note on the top shelf that said that the armor could regenerate itself when damaged, and that it rivaled the protection of steel ranger armor. I also felt stronger, magically, and read into it and finding that something called a magic enhancer was implanted in my skull. I also discovered that this facility was never a stable but it was a laboratory for the Enclave via the terminal in my cell that I hacked.
I looked in the mirror after removing my helmet and saw a bald spot on the side of my head that was nearly gone with stitches but other than that my black fur and mane were still intact. My forelegs were a metallic grey and almost looked to not belong. I dressed in the armor before tuning my pipbuck back into the radio, but I didn’t remember turning it off. “Hello Moohave Wasteland. How's every pony doin?”
The normally joyous DJ said clearly attempting to avoid crying for what sounded like the umpteenth time. “It’s now that hour, the news. Last night New Pegasus was infiltrated by ponies and griffins with silenced assault rifles who fought and left with.” The DJ began to cry before saying, “12 casualties and Holly Guitar. Any pony with information please come see me or report to the NCR.”
“There's also an update on our missing NCR Rangers and troopers who were sent to investigate a undisclosed facility, are now considered dead. I'm sorry for the sad news and my lack of composure so here's A new one from Canterlot. This is In The Still Of The Night by The Five Dragons.” She said nearly crying again. I curled up in my armor and fell asleep, dreaming about my first day as a veteran ranger.

“I heard a rumor that the Legion picked up something valuable and are holding out with whatever it is in an old abandoned mine but I hear that only kin of the moon know where it is somehow.” Lone Star said. “You know it isn't good to acknowledge every rumor you hear, right.” I asked as we ate our beans. “Yeah but there's just something odd about it. It almost seems as if it's true though with how I heard about it. There were some strange ponies talking about it, and were a bit too well dressed for Dead Mans Hand.”
Dead Mans Hand was a low budget casino not like on the strip but it was on the outskirts of NCR, Bomber, and Legion territory. “It may not be Legion then if that's the case. Especially at a casino of all places.” I said before taking a swig from my Sparkle Cola and finishing my beans. “Maybe they were slavers.” I said before lighting myself a cigarette.
“Yeah maybe.” Lone said as he lit himself one and stared at the stars over the city. “I can't believe it's 3 in the morning.” I said aloud. “Yep, it feels more like 9 at night.” He said.
“Fuck it I’m curious.” I said before jumping to my hooves, throwing my cigarette and putting on my helmet. “Cover for me.” I told him before galloping down the road west to the Long 15. “Your funeral kid.” The old stallion said as he smoked.
I made it past the Yao Guai den about a mile down the road before following the beginning of Long 15 before cutting North through the desert instinctively. I trotted before hearing music echoing from the cavern ahead. Still Drifting by some pony I don't remember. I snuck up with my big iron ready and floating in front of me. I heard muffled female screaming and laughing as well. I jumped in and saw 3 slavers, one balls deep in an alicorn mare with black fur and a pink mane and tail as well as a golden poppy as her cutie mark. She was blindfolded and gagged and chained to a pipe in the rocks and was forced to stand on her hind legs. The sight pissed me off and I shot the first, threw my knife at the second, and charged at the third before jump kicking his surprised face and slamming his head into the cave wall behind him. I got up and the mare cried and sobbed and I noticed a device that I knew was manufactured by Mr. Horse Industries before the war, a magic inhibitor. I used my magic and un tied the gagg and blindfold and began to attempt the chains but failing before going to remove the ring but as I gripped it with my magic I felt something press against my helmet and I heard a, CLICK. “Not so fast ranger.” The voice seethed “This is my property and I'm not gonna have one of you G.I. fuck nuggets touching what's mine.” “Oh well then let's see what happens.” I said before flicking it off and flinching. KAPOW the gun spat, but I was alive. I turned around and saw a pink shield and an aura of the same color wrapped around his throat. The alicorn had stopped crying and was sniffling as she choked him to death. There was a pool of blood coming from between her legs and I slipped on it and fell when I went to search the newly dead slaver for the keys before standing back up and continuing. She was shaking as I unlocked the chains and she dropped, but I caught her and set her flat gently. I leaned over her and she threw her arms around me in a tight hug before sobbing into my shoulder. She sobbed until she fell asleep, still holding on to me. I wanted to yell at Mr. Horse but I just stood there before lifting her in my magic and carrying her back toward the ranger station. I hated these people but I just had to deal with them. She had stayed by me, hiding behind me like a phole, for the following week before starting to give me space and beginning to go back to normal.

We had been friends for a year and I hadn't seen her for now 4 months, after I had promised that I would still be alive and that we'd hang out when she got back from Coltifornia to register as a citizen. Her name was Poppy Gold and I knew that if I didn't come back that she'd be mad at me. I had awoke after 3 hours and sat in the now dim lights thinking. I had thought of blasting my way out but I figured that this room was made to resist such an attempt. I heard explosions and mechanical voices before I heard a loud, CRASH, and turned to see what I swore was a wall, smashed open and an angry black and pink alicorn in a black dress. In her magic she held an anti machine rifle and she glared at me. “What the fuck dude?!” She exclaimed. “You said we’d meet at the Tops a week ago. You said you'd even make sure to stick with paperwork and desk work because of your luck with these things.” She yelled as she dragged me out of the bunker by my duster’s collar. “You owe me dinner asshole.” She yelled before shooting a sentinel bot, blowing it to shreds. “I was the only other person they had with everyone fighting the Legion, and I used all of my sick days.” I finally said as I was still being dragged. She stopped and held me face to face. Her pink eyes almost glowed with anger and I was surprised that the hibiscus flower in her hair hadn't caught fire. “I was trying to save my vacation days for when you came.” I said frantically, fearing she’d melt my face off. “I'm sorry.” I said just as quick. She closed her eyes and sighed before saying, “It's ok but don’t make promises you can't ke-” she stopped as she noticed my misshapen hind legs and fore hooves. “What did they do to you Moon?” She said in a near whisper. “Let me sum it up by saying the machines turned me into a monster.” I said. A tear, of what I believe was sympathy, leaked from her left eye before she brushed it away and asked, “Did it hurt?” “I don't think you want to know that.” I said. “Oh, so it did. I'm sorry.” She sniffed. “Don't be, you saved me and weren't responsible for it.” I said as she set me down. I stood on my hind legs and began to walk down the hall, next to her. I realized that I now stood about as tall, if not taller than my friend. We managed to leave the bunked as the sun set and as we had I found a riot shotgun and a dagger. We spotted a Legion outpost and Poppy took a position in an old snipers nest on the side of the mountain facing the outpost about five miles away. She reloaded the rifle she called, Harmony, and I looked at it with interest. It was a black gun with gold engravings and with a custom barrel and receiver for more range and damage as well as a night vision scope. “Well? You going or what?” She asked. “Alright.” I said before teleporting within 10 yards. I heard a groan from my left and turned to find a white pegasus with a flowing black mane and a card with the ace of spades as a cutie mark. She had a gut shot wound from a .357 round, is what the lenses on my helmet linked to my upgraded pipbuck said. Critical internal injury medical help required, it read before my compass on the digital lenses showed Legion soldiers nearby. I dropped down and began to search my duster and the bag I stole from the bunker and found pliers and a health potion as well as a bottle of whiskey, bandages, and painkillers. I flipped her on her back and her closed eyelids opened to reveal her red and bloodshot eyes. “Please. You need to get out of here.” She whimpered. “I’m Blue Moon, stay with me you're badly wounded.” I said as I took a syringe full of morphine and injected half of the dosage into her to avoid an overdose. I waited 2 minutes and tried to hold conversation with the dying mare. “What's your name?” I asked as I cleaned the dagger and pliers with the whiskey. “I’m, erg, I’m Spades, Winona Spades.” She said choking back a cry in pain as I poured whiskey on an unused handkerchief, I found in my pocket, and rubbed the wound with it to clean it. I then took the now clean needle nose pliers and began to try and pull out the bullet as I asked, “What do you do for a living?” “I-” she was cut off when she cried out and bit her hoof in pain. I got it in the grip of the pliers and pulled the slug out as she cried out, “I’m a- I’m a- ow. I’m a NCR trooper.” “Keep talking.” I said calmly. “I’m a p-private and I m-m-managed to es-escaped s-s-slavery, m-m-my p-p-platoon w-w-was whipped out.” She panted in pain before crying out the last 2 words and screaming as I yanked the slug out. She passed out and I took a sewing kit from my bag and cleaned the needle and string with the whiskey and began stitching up the wound. I slowly poured the healing potion down her throat and removed my duster. I heard something hit the rocky ground as I took my duster off and wrapped Winona in it. I picked up the black revolver that fell from my coat. I hadn't found it before and the grip was custom for me I thought. It had a note on it and the grip was made of a purple tinted black smooth wood and had a painting of the moon on the barrel with gold engravings flowing from it before changing to a dark purple over the legendary castle in prewar Canterlot. My pipbuck identified it as, The Moon’s Embrace, and the note read, My dearest great great great great great grandson, I wish I could’ve met you and Pinkie Pie tells me you’ll find this and I hope it can helps you in the new world. It will decimate your enemies within 3 shots at most and will do 3 times it’s daytime damage under my moon. Best of luck to you Blue Moon, Luna. The paper was yellow with age and I was confused. I looked in the bag I finally saw on the back of my duster and found 5 boxes of .45 govt. ammo for the enchanted revolver. I loaded 5 rounds into the quick reload cylinders and put them into my pockets and loaded the gun making 6 rounds. I then set off and holstered my gun in the empty holster on my belt. I was stopped at the entrance, as planned, by the outpost guards. I slammed them with a punch as demonstrated by the notes from the bunker. From there I drew my pistol at what felt like light speed, and quickly downed 5 unicorns by shooting and destroying their heads before shooting a thick wall and ricocheting the bullet, killing 3 more before I reloaded as I dove into cover. I heard 2 ponies drop before hearing the loud, POW, from Poppy’s anti machine rifle. I jumped out of cover and shot another 5 ponies before shooting a Legionary griffin and taking a bullet to the shoulder before taking cover and reloading behind the old mini mart at the center of the 10 tents. I heard some pony shout, “That motherfucker is still here! Find him!” I then heard a click behind my head before a low voice said, “Drop the gun.” I flipped around and slapped the gun with my foreleg, sending it flying before pistol whipping and shooting the Legionary hellhound in between the eyes. I then heard three shots echoe before hearing nothing. I went to the entrance door for the mini mart and saw through the broken glass of the double doors that the roof had collapsed. So I walked back to where I found and left the mare before stopping about halfway there before feeling dizzy and stopping. I quickly removed and tossed my helmet and puked before stumbling forward and seeing the slave cages as I fell and passed out. I awoke on a cot in a tent next to Winona, who was curled up in my coat. I saw Poppy walk into the tent before asking, “Are you ok?” “I overexerted myself.” I said. “At least I saved someone before that happened. It’s always teleportation spell.” I said as I looked over at Winona. “How is she.” I asked. “The medic we saved from those Legionaries say she's stable and would've died if you didn't help when you did. She's been missing for 3 years is what the NCR tells me and they didn't believe me when I told them that you're alive. I also scavenged and sold what I could to a traveling merchant.” Poppy said. “Nice. How much did you make?” I asked. “2000 caps.” Poppy said proudly before dumping 1,000 caps next to me. From the 5,000 caps I found in the bunker and gave her 2,500 before saying, “This is your cut from the bunker. Thanks again.” I said. I shoved the caps she gave me into my bag before asking, “How long was I out?” “2 days. About as long as she's been under.” Poppy said as she changed the bandages over my left hind leg and re cleaning the bullet wound. “Thanks.” I said when she finished. I then got up and got dressed in my armor again. I left my coat draped over Winona and walked out of the tent, limping in pain. I reloaded the used quick reload cylinders and my gun before turning on the radio and hearing In the Mood by Glenn Green before ending and playing April Showers by Sweetie Bell. I hadn’t put on my helmet and I pulled my cigarettes and lighter and lit and smoked a cigarette as I watched the sun rise.

Author's Note

I'm not a very good writer so thanks for your time.