A wise pony once said that anything can be beautiful when viewed from a distance, a statement that certainly applied to the Equestrian Wasteland. When one peered down upon it from the clouds, it almost seemed to be a great work of art. Streaks of black curving across a tan canvas, decorated with the occasional spots of color. From the sky, one could even call it peaceful.
Of course, the serenity was broken once one actually came close to the surface itself. What once appeared to be a fine canvas was revealed to be hard, dessicated earth. The strokes of black paint were crumbling roads, the splotches of color the shattered wrecks of vehicles and buildings, left to rot after the fires of the Great War. The work of art fell apart upon closer examination; the nature of the component pieces removing any beauty that could be found in it.
In a way, the landscape reflected those that made their home within it. When it shattered and broke on the Final Day, the ponies of Equestria did as well. Harmony was replaced by Chaos. Kindness with Malice, Generosity with Greed. As the weight of the apocalypse wore down upon ponykind, their treasured values of old began to disappear. Raiders and their ilk rose up, waging a war of terror against those not strong enough to resist them...
Of course, some ponies clung to civilization, though they were an uncommon sight outside of the settlements scattered across the untamed wastes. The occasional caravan was generally the only time you’d see them traveling through the open wasteland, though sometimes you’d see a few travelers. Of course, there were also the ponies in the Stables and the pegasi above the cloud cover. Both held their occupants in isolation against the terrors of the waste, aside from the occasional expeditions to the surface.
For Downdraft, that sense of isolation seemed to continue, even outside of the sky cities. Her steady wingbeats kept her suspended above the rotting visage of Equestria, the light shell of her power armor guarding her body against the cold beneath the cloud cover, her light blue wings being the only exposed part of her body. Even the air she breathed was filtered through a respirator, a necessary precaution given the dangers of the ever present magical radiation.
Survey flights like this had been an exciting prospect at first, she’d been raised on stories of the surface before the war, after all! They’d been taught of the glory of the Princesses, the strength of Equestria, and the loyal dedication of the pegasi of Cloudsdale. Of course, the days of Harmony were long gone, thanks to the Great War. The supposedly immortal Princesses had died like any other pony. Equestria had burned away under the bombardment of balefire bombs. Cloudsdale had been destroyed, their loyalty being rewarded with near complete eradication. The excitement that once awaited below the clouds being drained away as she viewed the Wasteland with her own eyes.
Given her patrol zone, she’d be lucky to even see any ponies, if they could still be called that at least. She’d never actually gotten close to a wastelander, though she’d had the opportunity to view them from a distance on the occasion. The sheer barbarity of what she saw disgusted her, though she couldn’t help but sympathize with the seemingly normal ponies on the surface. She couldn’t help but wonder what it was like down there, but she doubted she’d ever know. It was a miracle that any of them had survived, really. She’d been shocked by the fact that any of them were alive at all when she first came below the cloud cover, though that wore off quickly.
Her musings were interrupted by the crackle of her radio, her ears perking up as soon as she heard the distinctive sound.
“Sergeant, uh, I think I’ve got something to the north?”
She spared a moment to glance to the right, looking over at her new partner, Summer Breeze. Her usual partner, Livewire, was on temporary leave after he injured his wing in a hoofball match, Summer taking his place for the time being. He’d been quiet for most of their flight, taking in the sight of the surface. She couldn’t blame him, really, she’d done the same thing on her first trip below the clouds.
She slowed her flight, cocking her head as she looked at him. “Care to be a bit more specific than that?” He hovered alongside her, his unsure voice distorted by the helmet’s microphone. “I’m hearing some pretty heavy gunfire…”
She cut him off with a sigh, “That’s not too unusual down here, really. Crazy bastards on the ground can’t go five minutes without popping one off.”
“But this is different! It’s sustained firing,” he replied defensively.
She paused for a moment, listening to the sounds around her. While the wind drowned out most of the noise from the surface, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the occasional gunshot. To her chagrin, she realized that Summer was right. The usual background noise of the Wasteland was supplemented with a near constant staccato of gunshots. While it wasn’t unusual, it would probably be good to expose Summer to what exactly they were dealing with down here.
“Good catch, wingpony. We’ll head up that way, check it out.”
Summer answered in the affirmative, clearly nervous, though some cautious curiosity was visible in his overall demeanor. Having decided on a course of action, the two began to continue their flight, gliding towards the sound of gunfire as they did.
“What do you think we’ll find down there?”
“Eh, raiders, most likely. Bunch of crazy groundpounders. You’ll see what I mean, trust me.”
The rest of the flight went on in silence, the two gliding along the winds as they approached the area the gunshots were coming from. The sharp pops came pretty regularly, occasionally picking up in tempo as the conflict below raged on. Downdraft began to slow, Summer following her lead, both flapping their wings to hover in place as they gazed down at the skirmish beneath them.
Downdraft watched with interest, noting the two distinct groups on the ground. Directly beneath them were two shabby-looking wagons, pieced together from scrap and other scavenged materials. Huddled behind those wagons was a rather motley group of ponies. Three appeared to be armed with ballistic weapons, though she didn’t recognize the type. Another lay writhing in the mud, tended to by a light blue unicorn. Off to the side of the wagon, she saw what looked like two bodies, lying still on the ground. Within the wagons themselves, two smaller ponies had taken cover. She took a deep breath, clearing her mind as she turned her attention towards the opposite group. .
As she examined the other group, her lip curled in disgust. They sat atop one of the hills, a disparate group of mangy-looking ponies. While some were clad in what could be charitably called armour, most of them were only covered by their filthy coats. They possessed a wide variety of weapons, the only real commonality between them being a lack of quality. Even without the shouted threats and obscenities, she could have guessed these were raiders.
She tilted her head towards Summer sardonically, allowing a bitter smirk to play across her face as she spoke, “You see why we need to keep the cloud cover, wingpony? It keeps… things like them out.”
Her eyes widened in alarm as she saw the state of the rookie, a pang of guilt running through her as she looked him over. He had frozen up, gazing down at the scene below, his breaths coming out in rapid gasps as he hovered in place. She moved a bit closer, patting his side with a hoof, trying to offer some reassurance. He reached for his mask, standard regulations rushing to the forefront of her mind.
Nopony was supposed to remove their rebreathers in the Wasteland unless specifically given permission to do so. Looking at his shaking form, she couldn’t bring herself to reprimand him, instead slowly reaching up to remove her own. She paused for a moment, allowing the wind to run over her face, tasting the tangy air below the clouds for the first time. Finding it unpleasant, she turned her attention back towards her companion, gazing into his wide green eyes and reaching out to place a comforting hoof on his shoulder. It was difficult to keep her voice gentle as she had to speak over the wind, but she did her best.
“Wingpony… Summer, I need you to calm down. Focus on me, okay?”
He gazed into her eyes intently, clinging to her hoof like it was a liferaft as his breathing slowly came back under control, the panic subsiding over the next thirty seconds or so. He glanced down for a moment, his breathing hitching as he saw a glimpse of another form lying in the mud. His gaze only lingered for a moment before Downdraft gently pulled his face back towards hers. He tried to speak, unable to do anything but stammer for a moment before finally forcing out coherent words. “We could help them.”
Downdraft glanced down once more, surveying the fight as she did. It looked like another one of the merchants had fallen, though they’d taken a good chunk of the raiders out with them. She studied the battlefield for a moment longer, turning her attention back to the rookie. She shrugged as she spoke, doing her best to to keep him focused on her, a wistful note creeping into her voice as she leaned closer. “We could help them, yes. But we won’t.”
His shaking stopped for a moment as his breathing slowed, his eyes clouded with confusion.
“But why not? Isn’t it our job to save ponies?”
She hesitated for a moment, wanting to agree. She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before speaking, “It’s our job to save Enclave ponies. Not wasteland ones. There’s an important distinction there. Those ponies down there? They aren’t our kind of pony. They’re… different. It’s our job to protect our ponies up there, not these ones down here. If we can’t save everypony, we save the ones that matter to us the most.”
He stared at her for several seconds before slowly separating from her, giving a shaky nod. She cocked her head for a moment before speaking once more, “We should get our rebreathers back on… We can move on if you prefer. We don’t have to stay and watch.”
“I can handle it, sergeant.”
She eyed him cautiously for a moment before offering a short nod, the two of them ensuring their faces were covered once more before turning their attention back to the ongoing fight on the ground.
The merchants had seemingly turned the tide, though yet another body lay in the mud. The gunfire had abated for the most part, though the few remaining raiders continued firing down on the merchants. She noticed that Summer had focused his attention on the unicorn, most likely due to her magic. She’d been shocked the first time she’d encountered it in practice, having never seen anything like it outside of her storybooks. She couldn’t really blame him if he was as well.
For the next two and a half minutes, they watched the fight in silence, Summer letting out a sigh as the last raider fell. Downdraft turned her head to him questioningly, but he just shook his head. She shrugged, peering down at the site of the skirmish, turning towards Summer for a moment before speaking, “I’m guessing you don’t want to get a closer look?”
He shook his head wearily, not meeting her eyes. She shrugged in response, beginning to descend, trying to get a closer view of the battlefield. The blue unicorn was frantically trying to save one of her companions, though given the amount of blood that had already been spilled, Downdraft doubted that she’d be successful. She felt a pang of guilt as she gazed down at the desperate mare, pulling her gaze away after a few seconds. The other survivors of the caravan seemed a rather ragtag bunch, their clothing and equipment varying wildly. She spared a glance towards the hill the raiders had been perched upon, allowing a sense of grim satisfaction to manifest inside of her as she saw several corpses scattered along the ridge.
She did one last glance over the ponies on the ground, preparing to rejoin Summer, when a flash of movement drew her attention back towards the blue unicorn. The unicorn had paused in her ministrations, staring at an object in the mud, before scrambling to retrieve it with her magic. Even covered in mud, the pegasus could recognize it. An Enclave healing potion, stored in a silvery thermos. Her gaze shot up towards Summer, who was shakily closing his pack as he stared down at the unicorn.
She took a moment to glance down towards the mare, watching her empty the thermos into the wounded pony’s mouth. The reprimand on her lips froze as she watched the unicorn help the wounded pony to his hooves before glancing up at Summer.
Downdraft closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She counted to ten, her teeth grinding as she intently looked away from Summer as he fumbled through an attempt to close his bag once more. As she finally finished counting, she turned towards Summer once more, a few flaps of her wings bringing her up to his level. “This should be enough for today, wingpony. Time to head back to home base.”
He gave a shaky nod, moving into position beside her as they soared through the sky, their black armour serving to camouflage them against the dark grey of the cloud cover. They arrived back without incident, though she could tell that Summer was nervous throughout the flight, occasionally glancing over to her, his head snapping forwards once more whenever she responded.
They soon ascended through the cloud cover, finally setting down in their home city of Tempestus once more. The small landing area they found themselves at was sparsely populated, only a few soldiers being out and about. Both removed their masks, taking a deep breath of the fresh air above the cloud cover. Downdraft smirked at Summer, searching for her canteen in her pack as she spoke.
“You did well out there, for a rookie at least.”
“I… thank you, sergeant.”
Taking a swig of the water in her canteen, she leaned in close, whispering to him as she spoke, “I’d be a bit more careful with my equipment in the future if I were you. It’s a real shame that healing potion slipped out of your pouch. Might want to see about having it checked.”
Summer’s face had gone pale by the time she’d finished, his legs shaking as he stared at her in panic. She laughed, taking another gulp of water as she sauntered away. She figured she might as well get a bit of enjoyment out of him now, given that she’d be spending the next few hours filling out paperwork due to his lost potion.
