Fallout Equestria: Future Visions

Fallout Equestria: Future Visions

By: DJ Bron3

Editor: Dr. Hoofs

Chapter 3: Friends

“Because your friends are always there for you”

Shock. I was in shock. In shock from leaving the stable, in shock from killing somepony, and now in shock from the fact that Homage had just asked me to kill more ponies. Sure, they were insane, foaming, murderous raiders, but they were still ponies. I had only killed a pony once, and it had been in self defense. I didn’t know If I had it in me to willingly walk into a raider camp and kill ponies. I wasn’t going to be a murderer. But I didn’t want to disappoint Homage, so I sighed and asked, “Where are these raiders?” Then she got serious. “The raiders I’m asking you to take out are north of here. I think your pip-buck already has it on it’s map.” I checked, and sure enough, there was a new image on the map marked “Raider camp” It actually wasn’t that far.

That brought up a new problem. In 27, I had seen the horrors of the wasteland. Then outside, I had encountered raiders who had shot without warning. I had a feeling that my stable barding that Candy and I had from 27 wasn’t going to protect us as much as we had hoped. We needed better armor. “Homage, when we came here, there were shops set up. Is there one that sells armor? Preferably better than my current stable barding?” She seemed enlightened by the change of topic, nodding with a cute smirk on her face. Don’t stop smiling.

After Homage directed me to the right booth, I found out that what Candy had told me earlier was right. The ponies were using bottle caps as currency. Everywhere I looked, ponies were shifting bottle caps on either side of the booth. One pony gave a vendor two bottle caps, and took what looked like a glass of sparkle-cola sitting there.

The pony in front of me dumped a sack of caps onto the booth, and in return, got what looked like some leather armor. “Hi, do you have something that offers more protection than stable barding?” The pony grabbed something from underneath the booth and set it on top. “A thousand caps for combat armor.” A THOUSAND?! I didn’t even have a single cap, much less a thousand. “That’s a little expensive.” A little was an understatement. The pony shrugged. “Hey, that’s the sale price, and with the discount that Homage told me to give you. You can also sell your items and get caps in return.” I didn’t have anything I wanted to sell, so I walked off after saying, “I’ll come back later.”

I met up with Candy, who seemed to be doing better than I was at buying and selling, because her saddle bags were bulging. She took one look at my nearly empty bags and gave a look that read, “Aww, not as good as me at bartering?” “Haha, yeah I know, I know.” I knew I wasn’t very good at it, but she didn’t have to rub it in my face.

Candy had always been good at persuading others. Once, when we we in the stable’s kindergarten, she got a toy from another pony by repeatedly saying, “Please please please” until he couldn’t take it anymore and lost when he crumbled and said in frustration, “Here just take it!”

So naturally, she would be able to haggle with ponies for a cheaper price, even with a currency she had never used before. “How did you get so much stuff? We didn’t have anything to sell or trade.” Her look got even more smug. “Before we left the stable, I grabbed every piece of scrap metal and other junk I could find that was lying around, just in case the was civilization above ground that had a new currency.” That smug mare had planned this!

“Well I hope you bought more healing potions, because we’re leaving.” Her smug look remained as she asked, “Where are we going?” I got the feeling that she would like it as much as I did. I sighed. “We need to kill some raiders in order for me to get some answers out of Homage.” Her mouth fell open. “Before you say anything, I know it’s dangerous. You don’t have to come with me. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.” Then she smirked. “Don’t tell me you thought I was going to even consider letting you go alone.” I smiled. “There’s the Candy I know. Super Stubborn.” Then we both laughed. Don’t ever change Candy.

When we left Tenpony, the guard at the door had kept his word. All of our ammo was returned when we left. The raider camp was just east of Tenpony. Almost near the water. There were hills between it and Tenpony, so we could see how far away we were. It turned out to be farther from Tenpony than I originally thought, so it took us longer to reach. On our way there, Candy started asking me questions.

“So, did you see DJ Pon3?” I forget that Candy didn’t know about Homage’s secret, and I didn’t want to tell her until Homage said it was alright. “No, but I did have an interesting talk with his assistant.” I shouldn’t have said that.

Now she was digging deeper. “Homage? What did you two talk about?” I didn’t want to say much, but I also didn’t like to lie to my friend. “Not much, we talked about how I was from a stable, and about what happened before the megaspells.”

Now she was digging ever deeper. “What did happen before the megaspells?” Honestly, I didn’t know. I shrugged. “She didn’t say much, until I mentioned six ponies I read about, and she said they were called the ‘Ministry Mares’. After that, she asked me to kill these raiders if I wanted to know more.” Candy finally seemed to turn down the drill, if not turn it off. “Did she say you had to do this?” I shook my head. “I chose it. I want to find out what happened. That’s why we’re up here in the first place remember?”

“Hey don’t look at me, you wanted to leave the stable, remember?” she asked with a smug smile. “And you insisted on coming with me, remember?” I responded matter-of-factly. “Touché” I was getting pretty good at arguing.

When we reached the top of the last hill, we saw the camp. It was pretty small, about the size of the last raider camp we came across. Candy asked me in a whisper, “So, how do we handle this? Sneak around the back, or run in guns blazing?” I rolled my eyes. Sometimes she could be so dumb. “There’s two of us, and-” I checked my E.F.S. for the first time. Instantly, I saw three red markers and one green marker in my vision. I guessed the red ones were hostiles, and the green one was Candy. “-Three of them. So, we should be able to take them head on.”

That was a mistake. That meant they had us outnumbered three to two. They could probably get more shots in on us than we could on them, even if we took them by surprise. “Follow me.” I said to Candy without turning me head as I brought out my sawed-off shotgun. I had twenty three shots left, including the ones in the barrels, that made twenty five. “How many shots do you have left?” I asked, again without looking. “Five clips, each with Twelve shots. That makes sixty shots.” How did she do the math so fast?

We hid behind some rubble, and waited for the nearest raider to get close. Hopefully, a sneak attack from behind would end him in one shot. “Shhh, here he comes.” I whispered to Candy, who nodded. With the perfect timing, and the element of surprise, I fired once at the back of the raider’s head. Only once. The good news was that it was enough to kill the raider in one shot. The bad news was that we had just revealed our location. The second raider grabbed a shovel that was sharpened to form a blade. Candy and I fired at the raider, two shots from my gun and eight shots from her gun, and the second raider fell, merely about ten feet away from us.

Now that we were in the open, it gave the sniper a chance to fire at me. Candy noticed the raider lining up to take the shot. “DJ! Watch out!” I heard her yell and she pushed me out of the way just in time to have it pierce her right hind leg! She yelled in pain, that meant she was alive! I had just enough time before the sniper reloaded to get her behind the pile of rubble. “Wait here, I’ll take care of the sniper.” I ordered her.

She nodded, tears in her eyes. As if she was going somewhere with a hole in her hind leg. I shook my head. No time for jokes DJ! Your friend was just shot! I moved from cover to cover as I closed the space between me and the raider. I was close enough to hear the raider say with an insane giggle, “Come out, come out wherever you are” This was my chance. “RIGHT HERE” I yelled as I brought my shotgun to the raider’s head. “Shit” the raider said and I pulled the trigger. Her head exploded into bloody bits. The last red light on my E.F.S. disappeared.

I ran back to Candy. “Candy! Stay with me, you've lost blood, but you’ll survive!” She winced as I put a piece of cloth I had torn from one of the raider’s armor and wrapped it around her wound. “This should stop the bleeding enough for us to get back to Tenpony.” She nodded as I pulled her shakenly on all fours.

The way back to Tenpony took even longer than the way to the raider camp, due to Candy’s limping, and me supporting her. Then she started becoming herself again when she started asking questions. Again. “Where and when did you learn to do that DJ?” I didn’t want her to talk, she had lost blood from the wound and was breathing abnormally, but I answered her question. “Stable 27’s library. It had a book on basic medicine and treatment.” Candy’s eyed widened in surprise. “And you read it?” Why was she surprised? “What? I ran out of other books to read.” She laughed a little. At least the loss of blood hadn’t resulted in a loss of humor.

When we got back to Tenpony, I yelled to the guard. “Open the door! My friend’s hurt! She needs a doctor!” I don't even know if Tenpony Tower had a doctor. But no time to lose hope. “I need your ammo first, sorry rules are rules.” SERIOUSLY?! “But my friend is hurt! She needs a doctor now!” The guard didn’t seem sympathetic. “Is she dying?” Well, no, she wasn’t dying, but she was my best friend and she was bleeding from a hole in her leg! “I don’t have time for this! Here take it!” I ejected Candy’s and my ammo into the slot and the guard finally opened the door.

“Where’s the doctor in this place?” I asked the guard at the entrance. “Down the hall on the left.” We hobbled down the hall and entered the Tenpony Tower clinic. “Hello? Is somepony here? My friend needs help.” My call was answered by the soft hoofsteps of a pony. “Yes? What’s the matter?” a voice asked calmly. There stood a light bluish-gray pegasus pony with a slightly darker hair color, a sleeved blue and white doctor’s coat, a stethoscope around his neck and small, and rectangular glasses on his nose in front of his blue eyes.

“Can you help? My friend was shot in the leg. She lost blood.” I laid Candy on the floor and he studied my friend’s leg. “Of course I can help. After all, I am a doctor. I treat bullet wounds all the time.” He opened a small cabinet that hung on the wall and pulled out a glass container that held a purple liquid. “Here, drink this.” He said calmly. She grabbed the glass in her magic and swirled it around, as if questioning if it was safe.

“Is it supposed to be purple?” Oh goddesses, she was going to make this difficult wasn’t she? “If it’s purple, then it means it’ll work.” Her response confirmed that she was going to make this difficult. “What is it?” I facehoofed while the doctor answered. “It’s a healing potion. It should heal that hole in your leg and make it good as new.” She finally drank it, and I saw that the doctor was right. The hole in Candy’s leg was sealing up! In a matter of seconds, it was fully closed. “Woah, that powerful stuff.” The doctor chuckled at my comment.

“Actually, healing potions aren’t really that rare or special. Find a medicine cabinet anywhere in the wasteland, there’s a good chance you’ll find at least one healing potion, along with, possibly some negative drugs.” I blinked, then stared at the doctor. “What do you mean, negative drugs?” He seemed to also look surprised, as if he didn’t expect me to hear that. “You know, things like dash and hydra. How do you not know about drugs? Have you been living under a rock your whole life?” That was the second time somepony asked that, and I didn’t expect it to be the last time either.

“Well, we did come from a stable, so yes?” His eyes widened to impressive sizes. “What? Stable ponies? This is amazing! Please, you have to tell me about life in the stable! How big was it? Did you have a doctor? How many rooms were there? How many ponies were there? Please you have to tell me anything and everything!”

His sudden change in personality caused me to stagger. “First of all, who are you?” He regained his composure and polite smile. “Dr. Wonderhoof, at your service.” I gave him our names while Candy stood up, staring at her leg where her wound was a minute ago.

“We’re from Stable 27. It was centered around music.” Then he wrote something down on his notebook, probably notes about the life of a pony who lived in a stable his whole life. I didn’t think I had the patience for this, but I thought I didn’t have the time either. My best friend had just regenerated a hole in her leg, and I had just remembered to report to Homage on the raider camp. That gave me an idea.

“Oh hey, I just remembered! I have to tell Homage about what we just did to the raiders. I’d love to stay and tell you more about the stable. I’ll definitely come back to tell you more” Eventually. I mentally added. “Candy, are you feeling well enough to come with me this time? Or would you rather stay here and talk to our new friend about life in Stable 27?” I said the second part with a smirk that, I hoped said, “What are you gonna do about it?”.

“Well, I do have all four of my legs, and none of them have a hole in them anymore. So yes, I will be coming with you. I would also really like to meet this Homage you told me about.” Our medical friend seemed disappointed, but understanding. “Well, I hope you come back soon so you can both tell me about stable life, and try not to get shot at too often. Nothing bugs me more than having to heal the same pony over and over again. Not that I mind.” Candy and I simultaneously grinned and nodded, and I led her up to the studio.

The only difference in the studio from when I had seen it earlier was that the door was closed, and Homage was standing in front of it. “By coming back in one piece, I assume you dealt with the raiders?” I nodded. Then I gestered to Candy. “Homage, this is Candy. Candy, this is Homage.” Both ponies smiled, which meant that they were getting along, at least for the moment.

The friendly moment didn’t last long, because Candy instantly turned on Homage. “What were you thinking, asking us to kill ponies who also had guns, and could get us killed?! I got shot in the leg because of you!” Homage’s smile turned to a concerned frown as she struggled to explain herself. “I...I...I’m sorry. I d-d-didn’t mean anything b-b-bad to happen!” Goddesses, Candy was really scary when she got mad. “Well because of you, I had to go the doctor for something other than my regular shots!” O.K. I had to stop this RIGHT NOW! I moved myself in between Candy and Homage and I yelled, “Candy! That’s enough!”

She had the decency to stop yelling at poor, defenseless Homage enough for me to calm her down. “Yes Homage asked me to take out the raiders in that camp. But remember that I agreed to. You even insisted on coming.” She countered with, “You allowed me to come with.” Damn, she was persistent. “You would have come with either way.” I was sure I had the argument in the bag, because her expression became blank. “But you’re right.” Then she blinked and stared at me. “ Right about what? ” Her baffled expression was almost worth it. “ I let you come with. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have gotten shot.”

Was it just me, or was she starting to look apologetic? “No, you’re right. I wanted to come with. Homage asked you to kill those raiders. She never said anything about me.” She was really good at arguing, even when it was about who did wrong. “I didn’t think she meant for me to go on my own, now did she? ” I looked at Homage, who blinked in surprise, then shook her head. “But I guess both of us were to blame weren’t we?” Her smile returned in addition to her agreement. “Yeah, but you were the slightest bit more responsible.” Good old stubborn Candy. I smiled. She smiled. Everything was alright. For now. “I love it when a plan comes together.” Then I turned to Homage.

Time for answers. “Sorry about that Homage. Please go on.” Her worried expression became more subtle as she nodded. “It’s alright. I should have known that you would have wanted to bring you friend with. I really didn’t expect anything bad to happen.” I hadn’t thought that Homage had actually thought of me going alone. I actually was going to bring Candy with anyway. It was my fault that Candy got shot. I wasn’t about to start that argument again, but it would still be on my mind for a while.

“Actually, at first I didn’t want to bring her with, but after some persuading on Candy’s end, she convinced me to let her come with.” I probably didn’t have to tell her though, because she had probably figured out most of it from my argument with Candy.

“Well, it’s a long story. Do you have the time to listen?” Right now, I had all the time in world. I nodded excitedly. “Are you sure you don’t have anything else to do?” Something else to do? Was she trying to make me reconsider this? What could I possibly have to do at a moment like this. I shook my head. “Alright. It all started when Princess Celestia sent her student, Twilight Sparkle to Ponyville...”

More shock. It took Homage a few hours to explain everything, mostly due to the fact that I kept interrupting her to ask questions. Eventually, I stopped interrupting her because it was taking too long for her to finish. That, and I didn’t want to upset her. She seemed nice, and kinda cute, but you never know.

“And then the war started, and the zebras fired megaspells on Equestria. Many ponies died. Some survived, those who were in stables, or became ghouls.” What? This I had to know about. “Ghouls?” I asked in confusion. “Ghouls, or zombies, as the ponies in the tower call them, are ponies who have been exposed to an ungodly amount of radiation, and haven’t had the good fortune to die.” That made me curious, but it also made me shiver. Ponies that didn’t die upon mass exposure to radiation?

“What happens to them?” I feared the answer. I didn’t want to know, but at the same time, I did want to know. It was like a tug of war in my head, with two tiny versions of myself pulling on a piece of imaginary rope. The pony in my head who wanted to know was winning.

“Their skin rots and they become feral, savage beasts intent on eating living flesh.” Okay, not what I wanted to hear. The pony in my head who didn’t want to know was gaining ground in the tug of war. “So if I encounter a pony sized living lump of flesh, bad news right?” Then she surprised me. “Well, in most cases, yes. But some ponies have been able to become ghoulified with their sanity intact.” Ghoulified? Was that even a word? “So how do I tell if it’s- Oh wait, dumb question.” I blushed while realizing I was starting to look dumb. That made her smile.

“Thank you for all the information Homage. I really appreciate it.” She smiled again. It was almost as cute as Candy’s smile. Almost. “You’re welcome. And if you see any more raiders, you seem to know how to handle them.” That made me look at Candy. Her flesh had been healed, but I still had the image of the bleeding hole in her leg fresh in my head. I had the feeling I wasn’t going to sleep very well that night. I wanted to tell her no, but her smile was so friendly, I could only say, “Sure” That seemed to be good enough for her.

I had an idea in my head. A crazy idea, but it was an idea. “Candy?” She turned her head sideways, and seemed to know I had something in my head. “DJ? What is it?” I knew she wouldn’t like it, but I had to tell her the truth. “Candy, I want to go back to that raider camp.” She suddenly stared at me like I had just sprouted a third wing. “What?! Are you crazy?! The last time we went there, I got shot in the leg!” I should have known she was going to make this difficult.

“Yes, but I killed the last of the raiders. The only thing left to do there is to find out if there is anything worth salvaging.” Then I added with a smirk, “Of course, you don’t have to come with me if you’re too scared.” Her face and tone became defensive. “What? No! Are you seriously thinking that I’m afraid?” Yes. Yes I was. I made a decision that it was going to be my trump card when arguing with Candy from now on. “Look, are you coming or not?” I wanted her to say no, but I knew her pride wouldn’t let her. She didn’t seem to rethink her decision. “Yes, I’m coming with you.” She then added quickly, “And I’m not scared!” I responded with a roll of my eyes.

Another thing I had on my mind was the doctor who healed Candy’s leg. Dr. Wonderhoof seemed like a nice pony, he had expertise in medicine, and I owed him. “Candy?” I asked. “Yes?” she replied. “Remember the doctor who healed your leg?” She gave me a funny look. “Dr. Wonderhoof? Yeah I remember him. Why?” I really didn’t want to endanger the life of another pony, but he could prove useful with his knowledge. After all, knowledge is power, as my mother always said. I wonder how she would have felt about my recent actions.

“I think we should pay him a visit.”

“Dr. Wonderhoof?” I called in the clinic of Tenpony. It was the same as when we had seen it earlier. There was an examination table near the back of the room and medical tools on a tray next to it. “Yeah? Is that you DJ? I recognise your voice.” I looked around, but i couldn’t see where he was. “Yeah, it’s me. I got something I’d like to tell you.” Suddenly, Wonderhoof came charging out of the back of the clinic, a grin on his face. “Is it about your life in the stable?! You said you’d come back and tell me more!”

I chuckled a little. “Yes I did. But that’s not why I’m here. Well, not the only reason. Candy would love to tell you about the stable” I turned my head to her. She had a look on her face that read, “I’ll get you for that”. I turned back to Wonderhoof. He looked so excited. “Well then, what is it?”

Candy and I told him about how the two of us were going back to the camp for scavenging. “-and you can come with us if you’d like. Who knows, we might tell you more about stable life.” His dumb grin returned at that last statement. “Are you kidding me?! I would love to come with you! Finding out everything I can about a stable pony’s life has always been my life’s goal. That and becoming a doctor and helping ponies. I can leave this place in the control of the other doctor, Helpinghoof.”

That made me grin. We could use all the help we could get. I would still protect him and Candy. But he could help us with our injuries, should we get more. And I was certain that we would get hurt a lot more. If only I knew.

Once again, the entire time we were walking to the raider camp, Candy insisted on making things difficult, as she kept talking about what we might find at the camp. “Maybe there’s more 10mm pistols. What about shotguns? Maybe there’s a new gun we haven’t seen yet? What do you think DJ? Wonderhoof?” Huh. I had no idea Candy would be so interested in guns.

“I don’t know. I was a little busy saving your flank to pay attention to what kind of guns they had. Or did you forget about that already?” I tried not to let her see that I was annoyed, but she was expecting it, so I wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction. Wonderhoof seemed to be amused by my annoyance.

As we reached the camp, I wanted to get away as soon as possible. The reeking stench of dissected corpses filled the air as the bodies of the raiders and their victims slowly rotted around us. “Let’s just find what we can and get out of here.” I said to Candy and Wonderhoof. They both nodded and we began our search.

Halfway through our scavenging, we heard a muffled voice shout out, “Hey! Is someone there?! Help!” There was nopony else here, so who was that? When we were fighting the raiders, I hadn’t heard anypony cry for help. Maybe it was because the sound of gunfire has drowned out his voice. “Hello? Who’s there? Where are you?” I called back.

If somepony was crying for help, then I was going to do everything I could to help them. If I was in trouble, I would want somepony to help me. “I want to help! Where are you?!” Then I noticed that there were three green bars on my EFS instead of two. I looked at Candy. She was one of them, and Wonderhoof was the other. But in the corner of the camp, I saw the third bar. “Over here! Under the rubble!” Sure enough, there was a big pile of rubble exactly where the second green bar was. “Candy! Wonderhoof! Help me move the rubble!” I yelled to my unicorn friend and my pegasus acquaintance as I ran toward the pile.

My hooves weren’t as useful as Candy’s magic, and Wonderhoof seemed to help as much as I did. Unicorns had their magic and pegasi had flight. What did earth ponies have? Super strength? It was a possibility. Mos of the strongest ponies in the stable had been earth ponies.

Eventually we freed the pony from his prison of rocks. No. This wasn’t a pony. He was about the same size as us but there were differences between him and a normal pony. He had a blue hide, blue eyes, a curved horn, a strangely transparent tail, wings that were inside a red shell, and what looked like three diamonds on his neck. He looked like a crossover of a pony and an insect. He also looked very glad to see us.

“Oh thank you! Thank you! You have no idea how long I’ve been trapped under there! And to be honest, neither do I.” He seemed friendly enough, his bar was green on my EFS and he was definitely very thankful. I could have been a ploy, and if it was, it was very convincing. “You’re welcome. I hope you don't mind me asking you a few questions.” He seemed like the talkative type, so maybe I could get some information from him.

“Sure, anything. I have all the time in the world. I’m just so glad that somepony finally rescued my from those fiends.” Raiders, actually. But I kept silent. “You don’t look like a normal pony. What are you and where are you from?” I hoped I didn’t just insult him. He kept his smile, which was a good sign.

“I am what is known as a changeling. As of now, we live in the Crystal Empire.” Okay. I had read about the changelings when their queen tried to replace Princess Cadence. That plan was foiled by Twilight and her friends.

The pictures in the book showed the changelings as more bug-like creatures who all looked the same. They were all black and had holes in their legs. I wasn’t really sure this guy was really a changeling. I was about to question him when he answered my unasked question. “If you’ve heard of us from before the war, the changelings share love instead of feeding on it now. The wasteland isn’t full of love, but the Crystal Empire was pretty much spared. Only a few bombs were directed at the Crystal Empire. I guess it wasn’t a high priority target for the zebras.”

The Crystal Empire I had read about when the evil tyrant, King Sombra was defeated by Twilight and her friends, and the crystal heart was restored. I hadn’t read about anything that happened during the war in the Crystal Empire, and Homage hadn’t even mentioned the Crystal Empire when she was telling me about what happened.

“What happened in the Crystal Empire during the war?” He shrugged. “Nopony really knows. Except maybe Princess Cadence and Flurry Heart maybe.” That was the lead I needed. If Princess Cadence didn’t know, then nopony did. But who was Flurry Heart? I’d find out eventually. This changeling seemed to know quite a bit about the Crystal Empire. Maybe he would help us. “Can you lead us to the Crystal Empire?”

He nodded. “But before I do, who are you two? I’m pretty sure you would want to know my name if I saved your life.” I would and did want to know. If I was trapped under rubble, I would want to know the names of my saviors. “I’m DJ, and this is Candy and Wonderhoof.” I gestured to my mare and stallion companions respectively. He held his hoof to his chest. “My name is Cobalt.”

Candy and Cobalt. Funny, the simple fact that their names had the same first letter was enough to make the dirty part of my mind start thinking. I made sure to lock away those thoughts and throw away the key. Same as with my…..other…..thoughts on Homage. I doubted Candy would be interested in this changeling, and I doubted he liked her, even if she was a little cute.

“Thank you. I hope you three have the patience.” Patience? For what? “The Crystal Empire is a very long way north. Up in the Crystal Mountains.” I checked my pip-buck’s map. In the very north of the map, a marker had appeared marking ‘Crystal Empire’.

We were in the southwest corner of the wasteland. Celestia knew how long it would take us to reach there on hoof. We were northeast of Tenpony Tower, and southwest of Tenpony, there was a gear symbol that marked “Stable 27”. I turned off the map before I got homesick.

“How do you expect to take us there? It’s all the way in the north!” His face turned smug. “Don’t tell me you’re going to chicken out already.” What?! I was no chicken! I left my safe, peaceful home for a life out in the dangerous wasteland didn’t I? True, I was a little afraid at first, but I got over my fears. I wasn’t afraid anymore. “I am not afraid. Wonderhoof’s not afraid. Candy’s not afraid. Are you guys?” They both shook their heads. “There. See?”

He chuckled. “Relax. I’m just joking with you. I didn’t expect you to be afraid, as nobody in their right mind would just attack raiders out of nowhere if they were afraid.” I had a feeling he was joking, but I just had to be sure. “Well, how long will it take?” He held his hoof to his chin. “Hmm, well, it took me about five days to get here, but that was...how long ago? I also ran into several irradiated creatures that slowed me down. I also had to go around Ponyville and the Canterlot Ruins. It might take us at least a week to get there if we don’t stop moving, go in a straight line, oh, and don’t die along the way.”

His humor didn’t amuse me. I didn’t think death was funny. “Yeah, my doctor said that dying is very bad for my health.” I said with sarcasm and a smile, which made him, Candy and Wonderhoof laugh. I guess it was funny, at least when you weren’t serious.

“Why did you have to go around? Couldn’t you just go straight through?” He shook his head, as if I had said something dumb. “Do you not know? Have you been living underground your whole life? The Ponyville Ruins are filled to the brim with raiders, and the Canterlot Ruins are inhabitable, that, and it’s in the mountains anyway.” Great. And yes, we had been living underground our whole lives.

“You didn’t know somepony cleared out the raiders?” I hoped they weren’t radioactive, mutated, invincible, super raiders. That probably wasn’t it. “Well we can, but I prefer not to die right after you saved me.” Way to be optimistic Cobalt. Then he looked stunned. “Wait, did you say somepony cleared out the raiders?” I decided to respond with sarcasm. “Hey, we dealt with our fair share of raiders since coming out from Stable 27, but somepony beat us to the Ponyville ruins before we could clear out the raiders there ourselves.”

Candy then turned her head to me, an annoyed look on her face. “We killed a total of six, DJ.” I looked at her with my own annoyed face. “Well, yeah. But isn’t that a fair share?” She shook her head. “And if you remember, I killed one of the three raiders in the ruins outside our stable.” I shook my head. “And then you got yourself shot in the leg and I had to kill the other two raiders here.” I said ‘here’ with a stomp of my hoof. She raised her hoof to argue, but then opened her mouth, then closed it, and lowered her hoof. “I win.” She rolled her eyes at my victory of the argument. I really was getting good at this.

We were interrupted by a soft, “Ahem” from Cobalt. The three of us turned our heads to face him. He had an admiring smile on his face. “If you two are done arguing, I suggest we get a move on?” The two of us blushed. I had only seen Candy blush a few times before, and every time I had, I blushed as well. Candy was just so cute when she blushed.

Back in the stable, when we were in preschool, Candy was a little shy around other ponies. She would sometimes curl up in a ball in the corner of the room while other fillies and colts would talk and play with whatever was around. Then one day, when I saw Candy sitting in the corner, I decided to go over and talk to her. Ever since then, the two of us have been best friends, and she had been open minded and friendly to everypony.

I then heard a patient, “Well?” from Wonderhoof, snapping me back to the present. “Shall we?” I smiled again. I nodded. We started the long walk to the Crystal Empire.

Footnote: Level up

New Perk: Friendship Power- The more friends the merrier! For every friend you have in your party, you gain a +5% damage increase.