Chapter 2- The Wasteland, Now New and Improved!
If you had the option, just the option, to change the world… how would you? For the longest time I thought it would’ve been to just have the wasteland live in harmony. A perfect world, one for me and Minty to just be happy in. Since I was a colt I couldn’t understand – why are ponies so cruel? Why couldn’t we all just get along? The simple answer is the wasteland doesn’t give you those options, not the kind options. And even when the world changed, the day that green valleys and blue skies were once more, the rotten core of the wasteland remained. A fresh new coat on an old pony doesn’t change who they are. Nothing’s changed. Nothing will change.
So what now? Minty is gone. My home is gone. What’s left? Hope… in a way. When the wasteland has stripped everything from you… you are left with the steam engine of motivation. Hope. I don’t know where Minty is, but I can hope I get to see her again. The one mare who understood me, who was there for me when even my own parents disowned me. I hope for harmony. The wasteland isn’t kind with ponies who have hope however.
As it stands, hope has gotten me everything… now that everything is all gone. I have been battered and beaten. Yet something resides in me. I have had enough, tired of the wastelands rules. The scars as a lone colt in the world have now grown into me. I am who the wasteland formed. Now I want to form the wasteland. Make it know my rules.
A pulsing beat throbbed from where the bullet had stricken. I really do feel like I’m going to throw up. Where am I? Without opening my eyes, I felt for something around me. I am on a bed. Okay, that’s weird. Could’ve been worse, a lot worse. Sliding my right hoof along the edge I felt the thread of the beds lining. The only thing I could hear was the pounding that resided in my head. Alright, I am in a room, I am still injured, and am not dead. I slowly opened my eyes, as rays of sharp and bright colors attacked me upon opening them. I tried to focus on the ceiling and for a few seconds I could make something out - a sort of lamp. It shone directly at me, giving me the light the sun hadn’t given me in years.
I turn my body out of the lamps light to my right, barely able to see and take in my surroundings with the blur of my vision. For a second I try to focus on what’s ahead of me, and what I see horrifies me. Rows upon rows of knives and sharp instruments, in a panic I look all around me, seeing stains of blood everywhere on the instruments and white mattress I was laying on. On the side of the bed there was a desk filled with surgical and sharp instruments, and there in the middle lay a stray bullet. Around it the whole desk lay soaked in blood and bits of flesh. I look down to my wounded leg and I couldn’t help but scream inside my head. A metallic brace was positioned and wrapped around the leg where the bullet used to be. Now that I think about it… I can’t feel anything under the metallic brace! A small, green tinted screen was attached to my arm.
My leg is gone! How could that be, out of all the years I’ve been in the wasteland, and all it took was one bullet in the leg? Wait… more importantly, who would waste time and money to help me? I mean, sure, for all I know I am the dinner in a cannibals plate, but why would they attach a metallic brace around my leg? Clearing my vision, but mostly wiping the tears of pain, I take a quick glance at my surroundings. Definitely not anywhere I have ever seen before.
The walls weren’t made of scrap like most buildings in District B-5, they were pure metal. The floor had white square tiles, blood trails led to the bed were I was now resting. The only other thing in the room besides the bed and the metallic stand where the instruments lay was a glowing terminal with papers scattered about it on another separate wooden desk. Next to it was the door, it had no windows and was by comparison badly rusted.
My stomach growled. Time to get up. Luckily, it didn’t seem like I was strapped to anything on the bed. My next best guess is that the terminal over there can open the door. I am definitely not ready to try out my new leg though. Uh… just thinking about it gives me shivers. Its weird just not… feeling anything there. My wings dug from under me, stretching them out to my sides, I extend them as far as I can. I’d rather not walk, not with this… leg. Flapping my wings back and forth I took to the top of the ceiling as I flew by towards the desk. Not really what I would call flying but it’ll do. With the green terminal taunting me I set myself on to the rotted leather chair. Reaching out with my fore hooves I push aside all the papers on the desk and pull the terminal up towards me.
Alright let’s see what my expert computer hacking skills can do! Well. Modest skills. Thankfully this one doesn’t seem so hard. Famous last words. I never had the best experience with terminals. Every time I got near one it was almost guaranteed something would go wrong. Which is why Minty never let me near her terminal…. Minty…. Got it! Now, what do we have here?
Initializing…
3 logs recorded in Doctor Light’s terminal
Last logged in to terminal: 2 days ago
REMINDER: All Ravites Work Terminals are reset on a weekly basis for security reasons
Ravites, working for a more secure Equestria
New orders to the research team_
Continue as planned
Test subjects
Door Open
______________________________________________________________________
New orders to the research team, what kind of orders? And there’s a research team? Since when? Whatever. First door, then research.
With my still very fleshy and not at all robotic leg I scroll through the text options until I reach the door function. The machine let out a little screech before it then seemed to settle down again and I then heard the swift click of the doors unlocking. The terminal seemed to be resseting itself back to its regular startup as letters filled the screen forming the log entries. See Minty, not so bad with technology am I? I take no time to then click on the first entry.
New orders to the research team
Word has been spreading around the cafeteria, we are getting a new boss. This would come as a shocker, but Raviot hasn’t been himself lately. Scouts have been warning him of an encroaching military group and yet he still hasn’t ordered anything to be done. I think the old man is just waiting to kill us all with him. But I’ve got important research to do here, research that I’d risk my life for.
Speaking of which. The research wing has been put under an unusually strenuous amount of work, even more so strange that Raviot himself told us about a new project to work on. That’s going to be putting a heavy amount of stress on the ponies I have working here, and the new project is rather a challenge. I told him if we were going to complete this, we were going to need a lot more resources. Though I haven’t seen him since yesterday so I’ll just have to work with what we have. And so I have chosen today to make the announcement to my team. Starting this biogenetics thing is going to be hard, but the payoff could be what we need to regain control of the wasteland. Infusing metallic limbs into subjects will provide plenty of benefits to our soldiers. That being said… I hope there’s something to drink tonight, or else we are going to have a real problem.
Continue as planned
The change in leadership has stopped nothing. We are to continue the project and act as swiftly and discreetly as possible. It seems that Ms. Achroite wants this project done faster than even Raviot did. She even postponed our other works for this. Hopefully we can still manage to get those radiated plants a look after we are done with this.
Test subjects
The Riot we had with the announcement was a lot bloodier than anticipated. But it did give us test subjects. Even still, not many survived the operation. Considering the only test candidates we want are pegasi the damage is even worse.
Out of the surviving few that went through the operation we were able to successfully install the robotic fore-hoof into one of the subjects. From what we see, the surgical insertion went smoothly with minimal hiccups. The patient should see an increase in reflex rates, durability, and strength. In order for this to have been possible we went to the computers division here and were lucky enough to haggle a pip-buck out of them. This will also provide the user access to S.A.T.S. Replacement parts for other limbs are on the way, but we have run out of supplies and most of it is ruined from failed attempts with other subjects.
Orders are to keep P-4A on sedatives until we can assure we have an abundant supply of everything we need. Test subjects P-2 through P-9 have been deemed too weak to survive any further experiments and have therefore been eliminated. I insisted P-1 was still viable, but if I’m honest, it's only because I don’t like seeing fillies being murdered. We are working for the betterment of Equestria, killing a filly won’t solve that.
Wow… that’s a lot to take in. Let’s see… fancy new ass kicking leg, alright. A pegasus breed of super soldiers, alright. Dead test subjects. Cool. Just when you thought the wasteland had all too many horrors up its sleeve.
Leaving out a large sigh I move out of the terminal, while still avoiding using my left hoof, I start to back away and look out the door. The walls on the outside were as clean as the one’s inside the room and the hall seemed to go on for what could’ve been forever. Looking ahead I could see a door that just read P-1. Looking around making sure no one was in sight, I took off the ground staying as silent as possible and opened the door. Inside lay a little filly on a bed. Unlike the room I woke up in, this one looked like it was more of a living space than a surgery room. The walls were actually painted, there was a bookshelf with a few not so worn out books, a fridge at the far back of one corner, next to the bed lay a table with a lamp. The bed was pushed back to the far end of the room up against the wall, the sheets were a bright clean white. The filly on the sheets was asleep. Her mane was something… It had a strange glow to it. It flowed as if it was being carried in the wind.
A miracle in the wasteland I’d say. I can almost sense her warmth from over here… what do I do now? I can’t leave her here… can I? She seems just fine. Suddenly I remembered P-1. She’s a test subject, like me. Whether, or not I wanted to, my mouth was ready to wake her up and I spoke in a gentle whisper “Hey, wake up!” I cover my muzzle up as if I had just said the words to open up the gates to Tartarus. The filly then slowly opens her eyes which look just like the haze of the night sky, cocking her head up at me.
“Huh… who are you?” She said while still having in a sleepy gaze in her eyes. “What are you doing here?!” She quickly then yelled once she realized I was actually there with her.
“Shh… calm down. Im here…” I say trying to comfort her. I’m not terribly good with children.
“I know you’re here, that’s sort of the problem!” She spoke with a certain authority, and even though it seemed like she was attempting to hide behind her sheets, her voice had a punch behind it making her sound older than how she looked. This isn’t working, I gotta start over.
“Okay… Okay, look. I'm here to help you...help you escape.” I whispered as I inched myself just a little closer to her. “Please just listen for a second!” The sound of footsteps then echoed in the hallway. Someone most have heard of the commotion! Now may not be the time to panic, but my brain says otherwise. “Ah um… okay look, this place is no good, one where they do things to ponies.” I almost stumble on my words as I try to get them all out before the hoof steps come any closer. “I saw your name on a list… they are going to run tests on you, so just please… trust me!” The echoes of hoofsteps in the hallway suddenly stop. Everything is dead silent.
I take a leap and glide all the way under her bed. She doesn’t say a word. I can only hope that she doesn’t rat me out now. Hopefully she can follow through on that at least. The guards then enter the room and I hold my breath as they walk over to the bed. The clanking of each step indicates they are wearing some sort of heavy armor. Probably some heavy weaponry too. Now I really don’t want to be caught.
“Is everything alright, Miss Ever Winter?” The raspy speaking security guard asked. Sure sign he was a ghoul. I hear more metallic thumping around the room. The thumping taking a direct course towards me. My heart races as I could almost hear the ghoul’s breath from where I’m hiding.
“Everything is… fine. I was just having a nightmare is all.” I breathed a sigh of relief at those words, but the ghoul beside me did that for me and I wasn’t about to risk being caught. The ghoul security, now moving back, suddenly seemed to lose interest in the room.
“If you need anything call us Miss” They say in their routine tone. Not even letting Ever Winter respond, they slam the door shut and leave us in silence.
Seconds pass, almost feels like minutes go by when she finally breaks the silence, “I can’t go with you.” She blankly states. I peered out from underneath her bed to try and get a better look. Once I made sure the coast was clear I moved out from under the bed. She then continued with a mild sigh, “I know… they want me for something, but these doctors have taken care of me. Why should I just consider what a complete stranger has to say?” She’s referring to me. “Especially one that hides under my bed.” Definitely me. I don’t know what to say. But I have to say something, I can’t let her stay here. They will kill her, right? The filly didn’t seem to care that I was lost in thought when she barked back at me saying, “Give me one good reason not to call on my guards right now.”
Author's Note
Why not start with the first chapter? Why does this chapter look incomplete?
This was a FanFic I worked on for a few months back in 2016. I stumbled across it and thought it wasn't half bad, what was written that is. I only had the first 2 chapters written, with the 1st chapter needing heavy renovations due to changes in the overall story being made at the time of writing. This "Chapter" is more akin to a preview, and depending on reception I might actually work to restore the first chapter and finish up this second one with a heavy consideration on the continuation of this project. Either way, I find this a good way to archive my work in any case.
To answer why this chapter looks incomplete, its because it is. The second chapter had a few more pages to it that spanned the entirety of the facility in which Hail Storm and Winter find themselves in. However, the rest of the chapter needs a little bit of polishing due to my 2016 brain not being a grammatical or narrative genius.
I hope to in the least wrap the rest of this chapter in an update and then I might also post chapter 1 once that has been cleaned up.
Thank you all for listening!- EG
