Author's Note
This is a crossover between Mad Max and mlp.
Feel free to send feedback!
Ch 1; A Long Road Ahead.
The Wasteland, a scorching hot desert that crushes your soul. A place where ponies snap against the weight of the wastes. a weight that builds over time that can even snap the nicest pony. From bandits to the east, to old shipwrecks in the west. This used to be a wonderful place full of friendship....so I have been told.
Until Balefire bombs scorched the whole planet leaving only a dry desert in its wake. Only scattered groups of ponies managed to survive. Nowadays Equestria is a long empty desert wasteland with ponies like me, scavenging scrap metal to add new modifications to their cars to take on the wasteland and those who inhabit it. Or maybe you come across the very few who only scavenge for more valuable items. Like gasoline, guns and ammo, food, water, and most importantly cap’s.
It’s all for survival and out here it's survival of the fittest….
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A warm wind blew across the landscape, kicking up sand as it went.
A single pony out in the wasteland all alone with just sand for miles and no settlements in sight.
“Come on! Work you piece of shit!”
I turn the key furiously in the keyhole to start it up. The buggy only sputtered, then died shortly after. She’s broken down out in the middle of nowhere an easy target for bandits.
I slammed my hoof on the dashboard frustrated.
Looks like I’ll have to push…
I hopped out of the buggy feeling the hot sand under my hooves. The blistering sun shining down on the only pony for miles, just pushing his broken down buggy through the desert.
On and on I pushed leaving tire tracks in the sand as I went.
Sweat drenched my face, dripping off my mane and bandana from the blistering sun’s ray’s. I muttered some colorful words up to the goddesses and quickly wiped it away continuing to push the metal machine forward. It seemed like there were no buildings in sight except until something caught my eyes underneath my goggle’s.
An old garage
Pushing faster with all my strength I could. It came closer and closer into view an old brown garage, The brown paint fading from the scorching heat. The metal door was opened inviting me inside. With one last push with my aching hoofs and strained muscles.
the buggy rolls inside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the shade inside of a gloomy looking garage. It looked like somepony lived here with tools strewn all over along with parts of cars from old tires in the corner to rusty brown engine blocks accompanied by Scraps of metal lay to rest scattered around, which I happily picked up and placed in a saddlebag steady filling with metal scrap.
Thump, Thump, clink!
What was that…? I looked up, about to pick up more sheet metal until startled from the noise. Wildly backing up to the safety of the buggy reaching for the holster where a double barreled shotgun rested. Scanning around with my eyes, which were still adjusting to the darkness.
“How convenient for a bandit to trot in here nonchalantly…”
A deep voice rumbled through the darkness. I could've sworn I heard another machine startup whirring softly slowly getting louder.
BLAM! BLAM!
Quick drawing my double barreled and fired two bursts in the strangers direction. But the voice was heard on the other side of where I once heard it.
“Heheh...cute…”
The pony spoke mockingly in a deep voice.
Two more shells levitated out of my pack enveloped in a soft white hue. I stuffed the shells in and closed the gun rather quickly as it loudly snapped shut in my haste.
A loud whirring assaulted my ears feeling the tip of it chipped off. I ducked, falling to the floor as I aimed the shotgun up at my attacker. A large pony stood where I once did. Wearing little armor on his body. His underbelly exposed. The whirring noise was a saw blade connected to a robotic looking hoof.
Most noticeably the pony wore a welding mask over his face and part of his yellow muzzle, and he thought I was the bandit….
Snapping out of my thoughts the whirling blade landed closely to my head. Spark’s flying as the blade cut through the floor burning my hoofs. My attacker raised the blade again, this time coming down towards my face!
Using my shotgun to deflect the blade by holding out in between my face and the blade.
More spark’s flew as loud a screeching noise filled the room as my shotgun was sawed in half.
Once the screeching stopped, the larger pony knocked the shotgun away with a swipe of his hoof.
I panicked.
Scrambling to my hoofs to try to fight back I got in a ready stance and thrusted my hoof forward....
The pain was indescribable, it was like punching a brick wall! I could hear a crunch as a cry escaped my lips holding my hoof in pain.
The taller pony didn't seem to flinch as he struck my cheek sending me hurling back and slamming into the side of my buggy.
The taller pony approached.
Grabbing a rusty pipe in his hoof letting it grind against the wall with a metal
tink tink tink
every time it hit something.
My back pressed up against the side of the buggy flailing my hoofs,
“Wait!”
The mysterious pony stopped…tilting his head to one side, the black visor staring straight into my soul. He watched as I reached into my leather jacket and pulled out...
A bottle cap.
This bottlecap is special to me, I hated to get rid of my lucky bottlecap to this Goliath.
I held it out for the pony to see. A bright blue star was imprinted on the bottom of it. The pony swiped the bottle cap from my hoof, holding it up to the dimming light from the outside.
“T-that’s a very rare bottle cap that I can give you. If, you help me repair my vehicle.”
The pony looked at the cap then down at me seemingly thinking about his options.
Finally he nods, pocketing the cap in his armor.
“So, What seems to be the problem with your hunk of junk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things seemed to turn out better than I thought. The pony let me stay in his garage, and offered me a Sparkle-cola and bandages for my hoof as an added bonus then began fixing up my wasteland buggy.
I’m not gonna lie it was awkward. Me the pony that barged into this ponies home, attacked him, just offers him a rare bottle cap and is now watching him work on your vehicle that got you here in the first place.
Not the most craziest day out here in the wastes….
The vehicle was raised off the floor using a rusty old jack. The mechanic pony laid underneath it his hoof saw blade doing its work. A radio blasted old wasteland tunes, tunes from an old radio station in the background.
I leaned up against the wall, ice cold Sparkle-Cola in hoof.
“Hey, I never asked what’s your name?” I had to yell over the loud saxophone playing from the radio.
He didn’t hear me, I crouch underneath to get at the same level as him.
“Wrench?”
Was his only response.
I roll my eyes using my magic to slide a wrench over to him.
The mechanic pony caught it with his opposite hoof and started working.
“What’s your name?”
“Why do you want to know? Is it because we’re now ‘friends’ so we have to share names?”
The mechanic asked in a joking tone, continuing his work.
He’s probably smirking under that mask of his.
“I did want to ask you though; What the hell did you do? You trying to be like the road warrior? The whole engine is fried and riddled with bullet holes!”
He was right, what did I do. It’s my fault cockily fighting off bandit’s when I was the one intruding. As a shortcut to my destination.
“Well, it’s a long complicated story that’s also quite funny…”
I stated, smiling the most convincing smile I could.
The mechanic raised an eyebrow at that statement.
“I….drove through bandit territory near the highway. Off I-85, as a shortcut to my destination, I’m just a merchant trying to get to the greatest city in the wasteland!
Las Pegasus.”
I said the cities name with emithy. Is really is the greatest city, where it’s said you can both earn and lose your caps from the large casino built there.
It’s my type of heaven.
But surely that gave the mechanic just met more ammunition to make fun of me.
“Las Pegasus?!?!”
He quickly burst out into a fit of laughter.
“A kid like you aren’t going to survive five minutes!”
“I’ll show you! Soon after your done with my buggy I’m heading there now! It’s a four day drive from here, not to mention the dangerous terrain on the way..”
I shot back, whispering the last part hoping he wouldn’t hear.
“Well...your out of luck there.”
He rolled out from underneath the vehicle and stood up, covered head to hoof in oil.
“Your buggy is a piece of junk that's falling apart at the seams. The engine is fried the axle is cracked, and the tires are almost deflated. Your going to be here for awhile.”
That’s what did it, I sat on my haunches and sigh.
“Is there something we can do?”
He tapped his metal hoof to his chin ruffling up his chin hair, then sighed defeatedly.
”There’s The Junkyard it’s near here. It’s just down the road, a pitstop off the highway. Maybe that’ll work. We’ll head there tomorrow to gather part’s.”
“T-tomorrow? Yeah, that works. Sounds like a deal.”
I tried smiling at him again, which only made the mechanic shake his head then roll back under the vehicle. I finished my Sparkle-cola, keeping the bottle cap and throwing the bottle out into the sandy desert.
Curiously poking around the garage some more on the metal workbench lay a pre-war postcard. A postcard that was badly faded out due to age.
I barely could make out the picture;
It showed another mechanic pony wearing a blue jacket with a tool belt, smiling proudly next to a really classy sports car. If only those cars were salvageable.
At least if somepony ever found one. I took the postcard for safekeeping.
After all the excitement from today all I wanted to do was relax, The mechanic pony luckily had a spare old mattress. He let me rest in the garage, and that’s what I did.
I rested my head down on the mattress not bothering taking off my goggles and bandana, setting them on the nearby workbench, even with how noisy it was inside the garage I fell asleep..
It’s going to be a long road ahead...
Author's Note
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Chapter 2: The Junkyard
“Kid….”
“Five more minutes…”
I groaned, too caught up in my dream world. Dreaming about when I actually arrive to Las Pegasus. The bright lights, the motherload of caps just waiting to be earned by that lucky somepony, and, the mare’s. The pretty mare’s just waiting for a ‘fun time’ and with all the caps I earn they’ll be fighting over me…
“Kid, wake up…”
Everypony cheering my name, the richest pony out in the wasteland.
Maybe I could even buy my own penthouse!
“Kid! Wake the hell up!”
A sharp whirring sound cuts through my dream world, reflexes kicking in as I return to the real world. I awoke to the sight of the mechanic, holding that wretched saw blade close to my face.
I breathed a long sigh, not even noticing I was holding a nearby wrench with my magic. Which shortly after I sent clattering to the floor beside me.
I lifted my goggles onto my forehead and rubbed my eyes profusely.
“Have a nice nap?”
He commented, guessing he’s smiling amused at my current state.
I sit up before standing on all four hooves. The garage was much more tidy now from yesterday with the mechanic slotting in a new sharp metal saw blade into his robotic hoof.
“Fuck off….”
I grumbled lowering my goggles back over my eyes. He was already packed for the trip. Carrying some food, water an important asset out in the desert in a saddlebag slung over his side.
“Do you have a firearm other than the sawblade on your hoof?”
I asked curiously, pointing to his metal hoof with a sharp metal saw blade attached to it.
“I only use this baby, always have, always will.”
Was his response his mouth curved to more of a annoyed look.
Most likely from all the questions.
I checked my own sawed off shotgun, having only seven shells left in my jacket pocket. It was time to set out shortly after getting ready, trotting out the front of the garage. It was difficult just leaving my vehicle abandoned.
But he reassured me, saying that nopony ever attempted to break in.
Yet
I breathed the fresh (or as fresh as it gets) wasteland air. Behind me the garage door clanked shut. The mechanic pony trots beside where I stood onlooking the old highway.
“Let’s go.”
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The asphalt scorched our hooves as we walked across the destroyed highway. It’s seen better days with the bridge mostly collapsed due to how old and rusted it was. As we walked an old rectangular green sign hung from metal beams above us. The words painted over with white reading;
“The Junkyard” along with some other crude words.
After a quick glance at my temporary companion who seemed to just ignore the sign of crude words and continued on, I had to almost had to gallop to catch up when I realized I was falling behind.
On and on, across the highway It was quiet, nothing except for the silent clip clop of our hooves and the howling of the wind.
“When we get to the Junkyard what exactly are we looking for?”
I asked, looking up at him. He just groaned his annoyment growing each question.
“For the engine we need some small cylinders at least four of them. Along with some scrap metal and some screws.”
He explained, not even looking back.
“Ok...seems easy, just some cylinders, scrap metal and screws.”
Looking on the bright side that it wasn’t too major that we needed, I even made a mental checklist.
“Yeah...easy. If you call fighting off rats is fun to you kid.”
I stopped, going over his words in my head.
‘Great, more fighting. Why can’t we travel without getting into a fight..’
I thought, continuing to walk behind the mechanic pony.
Until I immediately bumped into his flank. I looked around his flank and up at a brown metal gate nestled next to sun baked rocks.
Old carcasses of cars lay in the sand just ready to be picked apart some with there hoods already open.
He pushed open the gate, making a high pitched squeak.
Behind the gate stored mountain’s of metal and more cars, it was like two colts in a candy store at that point.
I swiftly ran in staring in awe at the large bundles of twisted metal. It was a gold mine I might be able to make some caps off of all this.
The mechanic pony was looking over an old automobile soon after walking in. While I stuffed more metal into a saddlebag. I explored a bit afterwards, besides all the cars there were another junk scattered around old signs, a badly rusted robot head.
‘Okay, this is going to be fun’
The almost silent sound of rats skittering about caught my attention.
One actually staring me straight in the face.
“We don’t have all day, so get to work kid”
The saw-blade hoofed mechanic part reminded, and part ordered me. I soon got to work, opening the hoods of broken down cars and looking for compatible cylinders.
The skittling and scampering sounds of the rats that are slowly getting louder, like something disturbed them. It’s almost like the rats are….running away? Like something or somepony disturbed them.
I shook my head ridding the thoughts from my mind and got back to work. The engine I was staring at had no functional cylinders.
I sighed, slamming the hood close then moved on to a rusted truck that was missing its two back wheels. Checking under the hood revealed two cylinders just sitting there the others have been scavenged already.
My horn glowed white as the cylinders levitated out of the engine and into my leather saddlebag.
More skittering sounded behind me, I turned around just in time to see several rats scamper underneath the car across the one I just searched.
“Hey do you think something’s off?”
I called over to my ‘companion’.
He looked up from sawing off the engine from inside another car.
“What you mean? All the rats beginning to scare you?” He chuckled.
“No, it’s something else; it’s like we’re being watched….”
“Stop it kid, you’re just paranoid it’s just rats that live here now. Unless your afraid of tiny rodents.”
“I’m not!” I whined, stomping a hoof on the sandy ground.
“Seems like it.” He stated, resuming work on cutting out the engine. The loud whirring starting up.
“Maybe your the paranoid one…the pony that lives inside a dark, damp garage all his life!” I shouted, not even realizing my voice increasing in volume.
That did it. The mechanic’s saw abruptly stopped before he stood up. He was silent looking down at the floor.
“Kid….stop it. I’m warning you.” His voice was low, dangerous like he’s ready to strike.
“Just admit it! Your the crazy one, isolated in that garage for goddess knows how many years!” I continued, right now I was setting off every mine in the minefield.
He turned the black visor of the mask stared at me. I could see my own upset expression in the visor.
“Kid, I said stop it!”
Now he was shouting. Trotting over and towering over me. I looked up at him while he looked down at me.
“Or what?! Your going to give up on our deal and kill me? Then dump my body in a pit somewhere? Or sell my body to cannibals?”
I was somehow really confident when talking, but my hooves were shaking.
His ear flicked, trotting closer as I backed away. I don’t want to know what he was thinking or what his expression was right now. Before I knew what happened I felt his hooves grab my jacket, lift me up, and slam my back into the rocky wall...hard. The wind was knocked out of me from the impact.
The mechanic stared at me face to face.
“Listen to me kid and listen good. I never wanted to help you, I never wanted to help anypony. I just wanted to live my miserable life in a old garage and die peacefully. But no, you had to come along and ask for help. I regret it but you know why I helped you?”
He asked in the middle of his rant in which my response was to shake my head no.
He opened his mouth to answer my question….
“Yes ‘Flesh Grinder’ Kill him!”
Another voice echoed through The Junkyard. We both turned our heads towards the voice to see a dark orange looking pony. He looked about the same height as me. A helmet on top of his head has metal plates sticking out of it like feathers.
He stood on the roof of a flatbed truck.
He was joined by other ponies dressed in metal armor covered in spikes. Wielding makeshift spears, axes and many other sharp weapons.
The mechanic pony dropped me to the ground and turned to face the group of ponies.
“Well...I never thought I’d see you again Rust. Long time no see.”
He trots closer to where “Rust” stood.
“Well ‘Flesh Grinder’ you have quite the number of caps on your head.”
He smiled a sinister smile, adjusting his gloves with metal shards protruding out of it.
I’m guessing that ‘Flesh Grinder’ was either his real name or just a nickname the group gave him. But when I heard about the bounty on his head I immediately perked up to hear more.
“A bounty? How much?”
I spoke up, making the mechanic immediately turn his head in my direction.
“It’s nothing! Don’t listen to him, we’re leaving anyways.”
He turned and started to walk off. I grabbed my saddlebag and followed him.
Behind us we heard stomping on the metal roof almost sounding like a drum.
Before I realized;
It was a signal.
Before I could mention it the mechanic had already stopped at a wall of ponies.
We were cornered, the group closing in to trap us in. I already knew this wasn’t going to end well….
“Tonight we celebrate our new arrivals!” He yelled
Tomorrow, we’re going to be richer than we ever where..”
The supposed leader muttered the last part as the rest of his group led their new arrivals to their camp…
