The sun shines onto the clear water surrounding Barneo. No clouds are in sight, just like everyday. Boats are scattered about on the water, carrying ponies in diving gear, ready to collect some seaweed.
On the island itself sits a booming town. Ponies talk, colts play, and fillies dream. Dreams of the mainland, of cutie marks, and of being able to meet their favorite celebrities like Sweetie Belle. The colts play a fun game of Rangers and Traitors.
All except for one unicorn filly, who sits with a copy of ‘Raven’s Guide to Necromancy and Other Rare Magics’. She was lucky nopony else had checked the book out, as this was exceptionally rare, especially on the island. She tries to summon up her mana, but it just won’t listen to her. She sighs, and flips around the book to try another spell. She skips past Solar Magic, not wanting to even think about the magic of the leader of the traitors.
Everything is normal, today is just a regular Tuesday. All the abnormal is still within the realm of the mundane.
Mayor Stormy Skies sits in his office, playing some Trotrus on his terminal. He loses, and decides to play Manesweeper instead. But, whenever he closes the program, he notices something off on his screen. A reflection of the monitor behind him, usually all red, now had a line of green text.
He swivels around to look at the oddity, only to see something not seen for near two centuries.
The Ministry of Voice, Ministry of Production, Ministry of Air, Ministry of Healing, and the Ministry of Death all remain unchanged. They still relay the message to ‘wait for further instuction’. But next to the Ministry of Joy are two words that will change the island’s history.
‘All Clear’.
———
Clear Skies stares at the message with disbelief. He turns to Stormy, “Alright, you’ve gone too far this time. I know you like to piss mom and dad off, but this is too far!”
Stormy holds up his hooves, “I did not mess with it! I was playing Trotrus when this came in! Come on, I swore on Luna’s name that I wouldn’t mess with that Celestia-damned system! Why would I break my oath?!”
Clear looks at him, “Swear to me right now. Swear to me on the Prince’s name!”
Stormy nods, “On Raven’s name, Sombra’s name, Louis’s name, I did not mess with the computer.”
Clear sees the honesty in his eyes, and walks up to wall, banging his hoof on it, “Damn it. You know what this means.”
Stormy shakes his head, “We do not have-“
He is cut off as Clear turns back to him, “Yes we do! We will not be deaf to Raven’s orders this time. He entrusted our family with this. He gave us his trust! Of the hundreds of thousands of ponies that were more important, he trusted us! So we do have to do it!”
Stormy sighs, “I know, I know. It’s just, dear Luna, what about Cleary?”
Clear shakes his head, “She... she’ll come with us. The orders were clear, and she falls under them. Ally will have to come to.”
Stormy gets up, “I’ll tell everypony. You go and get them.”
———
Clear walks into his home, his daughter still trying to summon her magic. He smiles as his wife comes and greets him.
He hugs All Star closely, and she smiles, “What’s this all about? You usually aren’t home this early.” She leans back, “Did Stormy do something again?”
Clear shakes his head, “No, no, he didn’t do anything. All he’s doing now is calling a Gathering.”
Star smiles, “Then how about we go there?”
Clear smiles, “Well, we have something a lot more important to do.”
She looks at him, “What could be more important than a Gathering?”
He trots to the table, “Grab your compass, and pack a bag.”
She gasps, “Really?! No, surely your’re joking. You sure Stormy didn’t mess with it?”
He shakes his head, “It’s the real deal. All that training, it’s going to pay off.”
She laughs joyously, “Well, I’ll start right away!”
His daughter, All Clear, raises her head, “What’s going on? Why’s mommy so excited?”
Clear smiles at his six year old filly, “The mainland gave us the signal we’ve been waiting for. It’s time to meet Luna and Raven and all the other Ministers!”
All Clear smiles, “Really?!” She jumps up, drinking down the rest of her milk, and closing her book, “I’ll help mommy then!”
———
A week has passed with the same message staying.
Clear Skies stands at the wheel of the E.M.S Life Line with his crew rushing on the deck below. He takes one last at Barneo, and smiles as he sees Stormy and the rest of the town waving them off. The entire island is sure to celebrate, and will be awaiting the return of the ship in two years.
So Clear and his family set off on their six month journey to the mainland. Morale is high, and ponies feel right at home.
———
All Clear reads over her text once more, and summons her magic with all her force. She sighs, annoyed both at the failure of magic, and the difficulty of reading ever since they entered the cloud cover.
All Star smiles, “Be patient. The greatest magicians were all late bloomers. Remember that Starswirl flunked out of Magic Kindergarten? And yet he was strong enough to face Sombra. Just try again.”
She tries again, only to fail. She sighs, “It’s all because of this stupid cloud. Aren’t there supposed to be Pe- Pe- winged ponies to take care of it?”
Star shakes her head, “Pegasi, Cleary. No, the Pegasi can’t work on the cover. They are all too busy making sure the effects of the Great War don’t reach us. I’m sure you’ll meet a Pegasus whenever we land. Come on, you might just want some fresh air.”
The two walk out of the ship, and onto the deck. They climb some stairs, and lounge around Clear. All Clear looks at her dad, “Daddy, when will we get to the mainland?”
He smiles, “Soon. Very soon, in fact. Look forward.”
She does. She squints, and sees something in the distance, “Is that land?!”
Clear laughs, “Cleary, say hello to Equestria. The land of our ancestors, and the homeland of ponies. The last of us to step hoof on it was your great-grandfather Grey Skies. He lived in a small town, where Raven lived most of his life.”
She thinks for a second, “Ponyville?”
He nods, “That’s right. Ponyville.”
She looks up at him, “Will we be able to visit there?”
He shrugs, “That all depends on what Luna says.” He then looks down at her, and smiles, “Don’t worry, though, she’s a nice Princess. If she doesn’t, I’m sure Raven will.”
Star smiles, “Maybe you could ask Raven to meet Sweetie Belle. I’m sure the other fillies will be jealous of the special filly who met Sweetie Belle. And a special filly you are. Not every pony gets to meet one Princess, much less two.”
Clear smiles, “Well, Sweetie technically never became a Princess.”
Star looks over to him, “Oh, hush. We all know that she said ‘yes’ right before the end of the Great War. She may not have officially married Raven, but they were basically married.” She looks back at All, “Don’t listen to your dad, Sweetie Belle is a Princess.”
Clear shrugs, “I was just mentioning.” He then squints, “It seems like Luna is excited to meet us. There’s a little greeting party on the shore.”
Star stands up, “Come on, Cleary, let your dad dock in peace. We need to pack.”
He smiles, “You have ten minutes. Full speed ahead!”
———
All stands, with her bag barely packed. Her mom moves in, and helps her pack. She smiles, “Dad will go out to greet them. Here, open the window, we can hear from in here.”
They open the window, and look outside. Clear Skies comes down a rope alone. He stumbles on the still sand, but regains his balance quickly. He trots towards the other ponies.
The other ponies don’t look like how All Clear thought they would. Instead of clean coats and fancy dresses, this group are filthy and all wrapped in ugly armors. They also have a bunch of different stuff wrapped around their body.
Clear doesn’t stop, concluding that the group were probably soldiers. He walks up to them, and speaks loud enough for Star and All to hear, “I am Clear Skies from the island of Barneo. Nice to meet you.”
The leader of the group draws one of the objects from his side, “Nice to meet you to.” He cocks the gun, “Welcome to Tartarus.” He pulls the trigger of his shotgun, blasting Clear’s head into bits. He turns to face the rest of the group, “Kill all onboard, take everything you can.”
The group of five quickly climb up the rope, and bangs start to sound out from the deck.
All Clear stares outside, “Mommy? What happened to daddy?”
Star slams the window shut, and drags Clear to the floor. She hugs her deeply, “Shh, don’t look at it. Please, don’t look at it.”
Clear looks up at her mom, “They aren’t good ponies, are they mommy?”
Star stands up, and looks around the room. She grabs the deadliest looking thing there, “No, Ally, they aren’t. And they aren’t getting to you.”
The banging keeps getting closer and closer, until it sounds like it came from right outside their room. Their door bursts open, and a pony walks in with his pistol grapsed within his hoof. Star brings down the metal coat hanger on the stallion’s head, and knocks him unconscious.
She hears more hoofsteps, and looks up to see the barrel of a shotgun. The trigger is pulled, and another bang sounds out. Star falls on top of the ponies body, and blood pours from her head onto the other pony.
The boss of the ponies smirks, and shoots the head of his own pony as well, “He was a cunt anyway.”
At the second loud bang, All Clear makes a small whimpering noise that attracts the attention of the boss.
He smiles upon sight of her, “Well, hello there.”
The shotgun’s bang fills the air, and the unfortunate stallion in front of it drops. The unicorn mare behind the gun shoves a few more shells into it. Her coat, once the color of the ocean, now looks like Wasteland water. Her hoof collides with the gun, the metal bouncing off of it. She sighs, and tries again, still not used to reloading with the damned metal.
She gets down, and starts to loot the body of the trader. After pulling out all of his caps, she brushes her hair out of her eyes. The dirty green hair complies, and allows her light red eyes to see. After that, she decides to holster her shotgun on top of her leather armor.
She is interrupted from stealing the trader’s gun by a thud behind her. She twirls around, only to see a huge stallion smiling at her. His ashen coat and grey hair mixed with his green eyes make him seem just as unsettling as he acts. He nods, “Got a suprise for ya.”
She smiles back, “A suprise from Necro? Musta pissed something off.”
He throws a body in front of her. A stallion, but the top half of him is cut off. He laughs, “Always thought you’d want a topless stallion for your twenty first!”
She laughs, and looks back at Necro, “How long have you waited to use this?”
He smiles, “Since the last time we visited Merchant.”
She nods, “I like that, good one right there. What’d the poor cunt do to ya?”
He kicks the corpse, “Fucker threw a fire bottle at me.”
She clicks, and nods, “Right, yeah, can understand why you did this to the poor cunt.” She picks up her bag of loot, “You and Canni gonna have a party with him?”
He grins, “You bet. She always likes it more when they’re two stallions.”
She shakes her head, “Remind me to never go into you’s guys house.”
He shrugs, “Ah, come on, Cleary, you never know if you don’t try.”
She starts to walk back to their base, “Exactly, I don’t wanna know.”
He follows after her, carrying his own bag of loot, and the body, “We just make full use of the body.”
She shakes her head, “I’ve smelled around ya building, I know how fuckin disgusting that shit smells. I’ll just stick with Boss.”
He smiles, “I think you’ll make a great replament for him.”
She shrugs, “If I don’t die first.”
He laughs, “You die first?! Cleary, you are the Boss’s superior in every way. His smarts, his ruthlessness, his physicality, all are below yours. He punch something, he’s gonna have a hurtin’ hoof. You’s don’t exactly have that problem on twenty five percent of your hooves. I might want that upgrade myself. Any idea what happened to Vlad?”
She smiles, “Shot off two of his legs and left him to die. Cunt didn’t even try to make the operation painless.”
He nods, “Shoulda expected some along those lines. To think you got this far. We could barely even get you to shoot someone charging us at the beginning!”
She nods, “Yeah, I was a foal and a cunt, what’d ya expect? Mind was clouded by some sorta mercy that got in my way. Mighta been from the time before your guys found me.”
He smiles, and bumps her shoulder, “But look at ya now! You just sacked an entire caravan with only one helper!”
She smiles, and bumps Necro back, “Yeah, yeah, don’t downplay yourself. If you and Canni wanted, you could kill Boss and I easily.”
He shakes his head, “You doubt yourself too much. Your skills with the boomstick are far greater than mine with slashy. I charge at you, then you can pull the trigger and I’m gone. Come on, you got all the protection back there, I only got this one cunt.”
She continues moving forward, “Yeah, well, Wasteland causes excellence.”
He smiles, “Think about it. You’re this skilled at only twenty one and no magic? Once you unlock that bloody magic and gain a few more years of experience, you’ll be unstoppable. Raven himself would shudder in his boots!”
She smiles, “Well, now that he’s back, I could test that. If he ain’t already dead from that whole fight up at New Crystal.”
He laughs, “We can check. Boss’ll listen to us. Imagine how much loot must be there! We could be rich for the rest of our lives!”
She laughs with him, “Ah, but then life’d be too easy. Gotta stay poor, make it a challenge.”
All Clear looks in the distance at the encampment in the distance. She smiles, and prepares to present the Boss with her loot. Fifteen years, and Boss has yet to ever be disappointed.
———
Boss smiles as he looks over the new pistol from the caravan, “Look’s like NCR quality. Military.” He slides in a bullet, and fires off a shot, “Very good. High quality. Just like you.”
Clear smiles at the Boss’s compliment, “Thanks, Boss. Now, I think Canni is making special dinner tonight. I’d better go get a drink before Necro drinks all of it.”
Boss nods, “Right, you are turning twenty one today, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I told Canni to make the best dish she can. One that doesn’t involve pony.” He smiles, “But, that’s not the special part of today. Cleary, I want you to come to my room tonight. I have a suprise for you.”
She smiles, “Let me guess. Something like the ‘suprises’ Canni and Necro give out?”
He nods, “But a lot more alive, and a lot more fun. I’ve know you’ve waited fifteen years to experience it, and I do not plan to disappoint.”
She nods, “I’ll make sure to be there, then. Come on now, Bossy, let’s celebrate over a glass of whiskey.”
———
Clear lays upon Boss’s bed, spread out and lounging. He’s probably out there helping Canni to clean up the dishes. But, Clear is smart, and knew that he wanted her back here, preparing.
After a while’s wait, Boss finally walks in the door. He closes it behind him, and starts to shed his armor. He even takes off his pistol, and places it right next to Clear’s shotgun, the same one he owned before.
He pours two classes of wine, and hands one to Clear, “To our prosperity.”
They both drink, and she smiles, “You know, I had an idea. What if we were to move into Raven’s new nation?” She holds up her hooves, “I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. We could be the Capony of the new age! You, me, Canni and Necro; riding around, robbing banks, killing police, and paying off the judges. We’d be legends for our criminals of the future to look up to.”
He smiles, “That doesn’t sound like too bad of an idea. We can talk it over more in the morning. For now, we have a show to put on.”
He is interrupted by three bangs on the door.
He gets up, and grabs the shotgun. He prepares to fire, and flings the door open.
A series of bangs come out, but they aren’t from his weapon. Small bullets pierce through him. He gasps, and his instincts cause him to lift his shotgun. He is stopped by a louder bang, and a new hole in his head.
A tall stallion strides into the room, revolver pointing all around. He wears a long, brown duster on top of his already brown coat. He has short black hair, and bright green eyes. His eyes eventually meet Clear’s, and he holsters his revolver, “Mare on the bed, naked, not hard to imagine what was going on here.” He smiles kindly, and takes off his sheriff’s hat, “Do not worry, you are now free.”
A pegasus filly flies in above him, grey and with a cutie mark of a lot of arrows. She carries a well polished assault rifle, “Wait, question first. There any other raiders in this camp?”
Clear nods in fear, and decides to play along with their beliefs, “There’s two others! They’re the cunts who dragged me here.” She gets up, and puts on her armor. She grabs her shotgun, “Allow me to take care of them.”
The two follow after her, believing her act. She walks up to the other building, and fires her shotgun in the air as she approaches.
She opens the door, and charges in, leaving the two outside. Inside, Canni and Necro are climbing through their escape tunnel. Necro looks up, and spots Clear, “Cleary, come on!”
She shakes her head, “Go, now! I’ll trick them!”
Canni pokes her head up from the tunnel, her smiles still containing bits of flesh, “Where will we meet?”
She thinks quickly, “Merchant’s warehouse up near New Crystal! Go, I’ll meet you there as quick as possible!”
The two fully get down the tunnel, and Clear walks outside.
She makes her face contort into one of rage, “They got away before I even got in.” She sighs, “Name’s Clear, who are you two?”
The stallion smiles, and flicks his hat back on, “I’m Courier, and this is Bedlam.”
