Button was excited.
No, not like that. Button was about to burst from excitement. Hearth's Warming was right around the corner. That meant presents. And he knew what he was whining about for the last few weeks. For what did he finish this semester without a single D.
Barely keeping a cool head, he went to the living room where a couple of boxes tied up tight by satin ribbons were already waiting under the adorned fir-tree blinking with colored bulbs. Even better, his mother decided to spend this evening with an old friend of hers and allowed him to unwrap the thing without her. So on this holiday eve he was home all by himself. What a better time to give his new possession a go... well into the morning, if needed?
He giggled as he chomped on a ribbon with his teeth and untied the shiny bow. A few more seconds...
He saw the thing that he was waiting for so long. A gift set sealed in its branded package adorned with a Stable-Tec logo. With scuffing at the edges and damp stains diligently painted on the blackened plastic. With a cautionary rim of stripes in yellow and black not even remotely associated with festivities, with warnings mentioning levels of secrecy and an age restriction in the corner – merely a year above his age.
So cool.
All of his senses seemingly heightened yet he felt as if he was in the fog. He decided not to rip the packing with his teeth so he used Mom's scissors to cut away the side, opened the box and revealed it.
Something was wrong, amiss, even though he could not put his hoof on it. On the carpet in front of the fir-tree sat a plastic cartridge reminiscent of those he had found in his parents' box which Mom once passed to him.
It was at this time when he noticed some details that inexplicably avoided his attention before. That not all of the scuffing on the package was painted. That the font used in the logo faded beyond expected, the lighting in it almost discolored.. That the box art looks dull and blurred. And the main thing that was there, or, more accurately, the thing that was absent. There was no digit near the name.
He bluntly stared at the archaic game cartridge, probably just as old as his first console back in elementary school. Ultimately his throat produced a cry of despair, a cry that conveyed all the pain and injustice of this cruel world.
"MOOOOOOM!"
Button Mash, a pupil of middle school, sat in the kitchen and cheerlessly picked at the holiday salad. The evening was hopelessly ruined.
His head repeated the same question over and over. How. How could her mother do that to him.
She knew the game he wanted. She knew perfectly well where she could buy one. And, obviously, she couldn't mess the title up. He asked for her, the newest one, glistening with rivets and bulbs, promising powerful weapons, dangerous enemies and breathtaking adventures. Glittering with the metal of cars forever stuck on the highway, roaring with the sounds of battle, dirty robbers running away as soon as they spotted him, a Lone Traveler on a quest to save this doomed world. He dreamed of the new legend that littered the covers of shiny gaming magazines, not of this museum exhibit.
Button swallowed hard, moved the plate away and scrambled down from his stool. He didn't want the food. Shuffling his legs, he reached his room, dropped on the carpet and produced an old dusty box from under his bed.
It had been a long time since he took out his old passion which his mother once passed to him. A new shiny black Ponystation proudly blinked its light on the shelf under the TV. He shifted it aside and put a weathered console on its place, connected the cables, plugged the controller in. He could forget how it all worked but his hooves that touched rugged plastic for many days (and, more often than Cream Heart suspected, nights) remembered it all.
He had zero plans for this evening, and mom wasn't going to be back any time soon. He had absolutely nothing to do. Why not try it?
The TV rustled, waking up from the standby mode. With a crunch Button plugged the cartridge in place and pressed Start.
At first the screen was black. Button even assumed that the small piece of plastic that housed the game was broken. A thought in his head grumbled that it would be a fitting end to this disappointing evening. But then the narrator's voice, tired, detached and monotone, slid through the white noise, and the screen lit up with a white-and-black picture comprised of big squares. In it, one could recognize three ponies sitting in front of strange boxes with lights and switches, in a room that resembled a classroom.
"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria there came an era when the ideals of friendship gave way to greed, selfishness, paranoia and a jealous reaping of dwindling space and natural resources..."
Grainy monochrome pictures slowly switched one after another. Some of them showed a huge city like one of those Sweetie Belle told him about. Others looked like posters from the concerts which Ponyville held from time to time. Some pony names flashed on top of them, names he has never heard about.
He shuddered. No intro with an entertaining clash, not even some epic music. How old was this game, exactly?
"But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue for..."
Button yawned, halfheartedly listening to the lengthy introduction. Ultimately it probably was a bad idea. Maybe he should go get some sleep? Squeeze his eyes shut, wrap into the blanket, severing himself from the world...
Yeah, it was that bad if it even occurred to him that he should sleep through Hearth's Warming Eve. He harrumphed bitterly.
And missed the moment where the world around him grew dark.
***
"Celestia's buttocks!"
There was a bang. No, not like that. There was a BANG. Button widened his eyes in surprise and immediately regretted it because they were immediately sprinkled with dust. His body stung with a thousand needles. Did the TV just explode? He screamed and tried to jump up just as something big and bulky fell on top of him. Not just fell but crushed him, pressing badly to the ground with sharp edges and juts.
"Wha-? Who? Who's there?"
Blinking, the colt tried to scream again and choked on sand. He appeared to be lying on his belly, nose down into the meager vegetation. Next moment he was flailing his hooves, trying to wrench himself away from under the weight that pinned him down... when all of a sudden it was gone.
"Hey. Hey! Don't shoot!"
"The Goddess says, may the prosperity be open to anyone."
"Wha-?"
The weight on top of Button shifted, slid to the side and the colt understood that it was another pony or, more accurately, a mare. His eyes teared up from the dusty dredge that was slowly settling down but he managed to sort out the mane.
"We're not going to shoot ya, stranger."
"Then how about putting your guns down?"
"One can't be too cautious. Watch thy neighbour."
"That's not the Goddesses," the mare quietly grumbled. "They never said anything like this. You alright, boy? Where did you fall from?"
Button finally grasped that nothing stopped him from getting up. He did just that, carefully clearing his mouth of the lumps of earth. Fine stone dust stuck to his tongue.
"Are you from around here?"
"No," he finally managed in a hoarse voice, still blinking. "Where am I? What is this place?"
He realized all of a sudden that he was no longer home in his small but cozy room. A gloomy gray sky covered in clouds hung above his head, and everything around him was in brown and gray, so he had a hard time grasping the picture.
"I can't see a thing," he complained, trying fruitlessly to get a hold of himself.
The mare in front of him hesitated. She seemed to be alone. At least he didn't see those she had been speaking to yet.
"Do you have any water source here? This colt could use help," she said at last. Then added peevishly, "Just show me where I can safely step."
Just like many other foals, Button wasn't a big fan of washing. Still, even he had to admit that walking and talking with earthen dust in the eyes and mouth was extremely inconvenient. So, fighting back tears, he allowed to take him by the hoof. They walked for a time before there was a splash and a bucketful of water poured onto his head. Cold water.
"Wh-ho-?" he chattered his teeth, huddling up and looking around all at once. Slowly the offender entered his vision, the one who offered him this sudden refreshing shower: a shortish slim mare with a mop of beautiful brown hair. "Mom?!"
The mare's eyes widened. She dropped on her rump.
"Me? I'm not-" she quickly glanced left and right, and he just now noticed two more ponies dressed in worn clothes and sporting guns, who were hanging around nearby, looking their way every now and then. "What Luna fu-... Luna-created Moon did you fall from, kid? All right, okay. Let's settle this. I'm your mom. Deal?"
Button quickly realized his mistake. His eyes, slowly getting accustomed, saw her dark coat, her horn and heavy saddlebags she was wearing.
"You're not my mom," he declared with loud certainty. "Where are we?"
No, really. Where? He looked wildly around him, searching for something familiar, anything familiar – and finding nothing. All around him were heaps, and it took him some time to realize that it were dwellings, haphazardly constructed from anything at hand: from metal sheets and wagon carcasses to wooden planks and fragments of roof tiling. From appearance alone they seemed to be a lot less comfortable than the fort he usually built under the dining table from stools, blankets and cushions.
He was suddenly struck by panic. He could not recognize a thing around. He was going to scream again but the unicorn, seeing this, put the bucket down and hastily put a hoof in his mouth.
"Quiet. I don't know anyone here, and I really don't want any trouble for us," she slowly uttered as if explaining something complex to a greenhoof, looking him straight in the eyes. "I won't hurt you. Do you understand me?"
Incapable to speak out loud, he nodded and mumbled in affirmatively.
"Let's... let's play a game," she suddenly proposed. "I'm going to be your mom, okay? We are traveling together. Do you get me?"
Play a game? He suddenly remembered he was going to play a game. Then something happened... Struggling to understand to no avail, what exactly did happen, he nodded again.
The mare removed her hoof and he was able to move his tongue around at last. He was totally going to scream but then looked again at the bearded stallions with rifles (he was positive now that these were rifles) and thought better of it. At the very least the mare appeared to be friendly.
He noticed that he couldn't stop shaking.
"You must be cold," the unicorn groaned. Then turned to those watching them. "Listen, where can one have a snack around here? I was going to replenish my stock when I stumbled upon one of your mines. What's your name, boy?"
A place "to have a snack" turned out to be a (mostly) intact house, a nice change from the shacks constructed from scraps. Button, wrapped in a dirty piece of cloth with only his head and muzzle free, stared around him, looking at the huge blinking machine jingling some kind of melody, at the sallow posters on the walls. Everything around him, even the bench she sat on, looked old: the walls were darkened, paint on the ceiling peeling off.
The mare at the same time was studying him or, more accurately, the thing on his head. He realized that he probably still had his usual cap on.
"So tell me," offered she, "where did you come from like that?"
"I don't even know where I happened to ‘come to’," he grumbled, discontented.
"Are you going to order anything?" a new pony grabbed his companion's attention; a mare with wavy mane and in a worn but tidy apron. But not for long. After his neighbor described everything she needed, her head turned back to him.
"Do you know anything? Anything at all? About the Wasteland, about the safe behavior? Did you even read the guide?"
"The Wasteland?" Button frowned. "I just wanted to play a shooter game! I wanted to be a hero!"
The unicorn who earlier introduced herself as "LittlePip" facehoofed.
"Listen..." she screwed up her eyes, trying to find proper words. "You need to be careful. Equestrian Wasteland is not a joke. Lots of dangers wait for you at every corner out here. Always take a look around you before you act."
"Hey!" Button angrily waved his hooves, barely avoiding the waitress who was putting some tins on the table. "I am not a kid."
"Whatever you say, not-a-kid," the unicorn sighed, giving up. "If you feel yourself so grown-up, you should know what responsibility is. Eat."
"Evening service is going to begin," the waitress intervened. "Hurry up if you will, we're closing."
Button stared at the opened tin can standing in front of him.
"What's that?" he asked at last. Writing on the discolored label was unreadable but the stench from it was... He wrinkled his noise, feeling his insides swirling.
"Food," LittlePip informed. She finished talking to the pony who brought them this "dish" and was now plying her spoon.
Button sniffed at the tin again, shivered and moved it aside.
"I won't eat that."
"When did you have a bite last, exactly?"
He was going to try and plausibly lie but his grumbling stomach gave him away. True, he barely touched his salad back at home. But this brown... mash didn't even remotely resemble anything edible.
"Oh, by Celestia's loins!" the unicorn abruptly stopped herself. Frowned sternly. "How did I get into this... Eat your veggies. Here in the Wasteland you never know when is the next time you are going to eat."
"LittlePip, you're just like my Mom," Button moaned.
"I am your mom, remember?" the unicorn looked around and added. "Listen, if you finish your food, I'm going to give you something special."
The first gulp was probably the hardest. Button frowned, winced, screwed his eyes, but the content of his tin slowly dwindled until, at long last, the bottom showed up.
"Here," he said, licking his muzzle which was now decorated with a round print of a can.
"See?" LittlePip shoved the rest of the unpacked cans into her bag. "Wasn't so hard after all. What?"
Button kept staring at her. That's weird. That always worked on his mother.
"You promised me ‘something special’," he finally reminded.
Shining enveloped her horn, and a bottle with tin cap floated out from her saddlebag. The label, amazingly colorful in comparison to the dark cloak of his companion and bleak interior of the diner, was adorned with a proud ornate inscription. "Sparkle-Cola."
"I keep my word. Don't throw the cap away," she warned. Seeing Button's questioning look, she added, "It's like you really fell from the Moon. I need to buy some bullets later."
***
"Where are we going?"
Button moved his head again. LittlePip wasn't joking when she said about going shopping. She traded a fair number of caps from "Sparkle-Cola" for clothing in suitable size from a stallion merchant. The collar was made from some shaggy material and stung a lot. Actually, the clothing in general was cumbersome and didn't look impressive, as if it was sewn together from different shreds by some fillies during a household lesson. His new companion, however, having examined his new outlook, was satisfied.
"I need to replenish my stock of bullets," she reminded, looking around.
The settlement was quickly becoming deserted. Ponies from all sides gathered to a wooden building which Button after some effort recognized as a school.
"We've already visited the shop," he argued grumpily.
"It had no weapons on sale," she frowned as if remembering something. "Which is strange, to think of it. Stay close."
She slipped into the crowd heading for school. Button paused at first, then looked at the strange ponies surrounding him... and hurried after her.
"Brothers and Sisters in faith, I welcome you! Glad to see you again at the regular evening service. Father Brocade will join us soon."
The couple of ponies followed the example of others and sat on one of the benches standing in a big class in place of desks. Then they focused their attention on the space in front of the blackboard. There, on a podium made of planks, if front of a lone lectern in center, was a pony dressed in a long-flapped dress resembling a suit but with thick patches on his shoulders. He wore a radiant friendly smile, had a tidy beard and mustaches, he could even possibly be considered exquisite if not for the worn lapels of his coat and a big patch on the sleeve.
"And now let's welcome our guests today, a traveler from a faraway land and her foal," his hoof rose, pointing at them, and the entire hall answered his words by stomping hooves in greeting. LittlePip shifted uncomfortably, looking around. To be honest, Button didn't feel all that great either. "Perhaps the rumors of the healing word of our Reverend were what brought them into Prosperity."
"'Perhaps', Johnnycake?" somepony softly echoed from behind him.
The speaker turned around and the couple sighed in unison, suddenly relieved. Turned out, being a center of attention in such a crowd wasn't very enjoyable.
"I meant no disrespect, Reverend," he bowed his head before a withered wrinkled elder pony in an austere yet tidy and sharp-looking suit. There was even a handkerchief peeking out from the pocket on his chest. It looked so funnily out of place that Button couldn't stiff a laugh. And was immediately elbowed by his neighbor.
"Don't do anything stupid," she whispered. "We are strangers here. We don't know their practices. Play it cool."
"I know, Johnny," said the elder jovially. "Still, don't underestimate the power of the Word. The Word of Celestia brings salvation and plenty. There is nothing odd in a new stranger wanting to heed the Word and step on the path of the Goddess."
He walked to the front, stopping near the lectern that Johnnycake occupied. The hall grew quiet, listening attentively.
"Today we have newcomers in our midst, so I shall address the sources of our Faith. Many of you have heard this many times and remember it by heart," he gave a patronizing nod to his aide, "but one should never discount this gospel."
His voice suddenly strengthened, filling the hall, reflecting from the walls. He narrowed his eyes, stretching his right hoof forward.
"Celestia's Word is the godly seed present in every pony heart. Each carries a part of the Goddess inside. The Goddess, in her infinite kindness, allows us, every one of us!" he rounded the hall with his hoof, seemingly looking into every pair of eyes, "to become a worthy and successful pony. Even in a dark and hard time like this," he added in a calm and somewhat playful tone, the audience responding with lonely laughs.
"Even in a dark and hard time like this we should not lose our faith!" he proclaimed triumphantly, slowly stamping, as if counting and weighting, every word. "Despair is a wrongdoing in the face of the Goddess. She watches over us from above, seeing our every step, and gives to each his own. As everypony has it in him to prosper.
How much prosper, you ask? Witness Celestia herself," he raised his hoof to the blackboard, pointing at the small darkened photo in a frame, where one could still unerringly recognize the regal ruler of Equestria. "Our Goddess Celestia is an alicorn, a pinnacle of might and splendour. Witness her white coat, her magnificent mane, her slender features. Remember the boundlessness of her wisdom, her virtue and strength. Remember the bountifulness of her feasts, the greatness of her cakes, the airiness of her whipped cream. Remember the legends we have about how merciful and compassionate she was towards her children. Aye, children! For we are all children before Celestia, we were all "her little ponies" before the Day of Smoke and Fire.
Heed the Word of Celestia, may it be engraved in your souls just as she is engraved in this old image. Nurture her seed inside of you. And the seed shalt grow, and the harvest thou shalt reap, and may her Grace shine upon thee."
"That's my favorite part," an unshaven stallion in unkempt clothes who sat near Button gleefully said. His neighbor immediately hushed him into silence.
"The Word of Celestia was law once," father Brocade turned to the auditory once more. "It is by Celestia's Word ponies lived in the land of friendship and magic they had built themselves. They were healthy and happy, and never felt want. They ate in plenty, slept to their heart's content, and Celestia's Grace gave them any boon they ever needed.
Where did we take a false step? How did we lose what we once had? We have forgotten the Word," Brocade dropped every word of his as a droplet into a bucket. "We have lost Faith. Ponies abandoned the teachings of Celestia. Instead of sowing the Good Seed, the ponies turned away from the Goddess. I want you to remember: The Great War wiped the land clean of the cities of old and their inhabitants not because of some zebra megaspells, no. Oh, no-no. We were the ones who sowed the seeds of our own destruction. On that, you can believe me. I was there."
LittlePip suddenly widened her eyes and doubled her attention.
"Each of us has a choice of what to sow. The Word of Celestia does miracles just as She did. Sow the good seed in your heart, grow it with your faith, and you will reap a hundredfold, and may the Grace of Celestia not avoid you, may you be healthy and prosperous. But should you sow the bad seed, watch out. Every ill thought moves you farther away from her Grace. I hope all of you remember that our town bears the name of 'Prosperity'?" he suddenly frivolously summed up, smiling.
At this time, following the example made by their pastor, everypony smiled.
"The Goddess watches over us and protects us. How often did you want to give up, to raise your hooves up and abandon all of it. How often?" Button adjusted his unpacked bottle of "Sparkle-Cola" that he held in front of him and frowned, remembering the events of this evening. "I know that expression on your faces. I felt it too, remember what I said earlier? I was there. I saw the accursed zebra fire pouring down on our land. I, too, wanted to abandon it. I, too, saw no reason to go on. But I didn't give up. Praise Celestia, I didn't give up, and she saved me. And if this feeling is familiar to you, I did not let you give up either. I was the one who stopped you. I was the one to scratched with doubts at your soul from the inside. I know that you are bigger than you think you are. You are stronger than you think you are. How do I know this, you're asking me? Because you are here in this hall today, and we are having this conversation. Those who despaired, who gave up on nurturing their seed, left halfway through. The simple truth that you are here today is a testament to my words. You have no idea how lucky you are because you never saw what happened to those who lost, to those who had forgotten the Word. I did. So trust me when I say to you this: all the best is yet ahead. You endured, you preserved your faith, and now the good stuff happens."
The hall exploded with cheering and shouting, and Button, caught in the moment, shouted and stomped along with everypony else. Soon, though, the rumble of encouragement started to settle down, and several ponies in improvised armor carrying a mishmash of rifles and pistols approached the podium the old preacher and his aide were standing on.
"Wha-?" Button asked, turning to LittlePip.
"I've said, somepony here should have access to weapons," she whispered. "They got all these guns from somewhere after all. Seems like the whole town is here."
The listeners around them rose up, and they followed suit. But nopony seemed to leave just yet. The unicorn stretched her neck, supposedly trying to identify a weapons merchant in the audience. She probably didn't succeed, though. She could not boast good height for that.
"And now it's time to draw this evening to an end," Johnnycake's voice said.
Everypony around them moved, and the crowd began to disperse. Button's companion watched in confusion at what followed next. Soon the number of remaining ponies reduced to a point where he, too, could see it. One after one ponies walked through the line of armed guards and laid some items in front of the pastor – from small bottle caps to ears of corn to pieces of iron Button could not recognize. Some of them addressed father Brocade in a few short phrases, begging expressions on their muzzles. The preacher invariably put his hoof on the forehead of each one, exclaiming something similar to "Be gone in Celestia's name!" or "Be strong in Celestia's name!". Afterwards the pony in question, brightened up (and lightened on an item or two that he had brought), joyfully headed to the exit.
Suddenly recollecting, LittlePip turned her head, looking around, but she was too late. A significant part of the ponies were already gone. Apparently, including the one she was looking for. She snorted in aggravation, adjusted her saddlebags and turned to leave.
"Young lady? Am I right?"
Button froze and turned around, mimicking his companion.
"Celestia rewarded you with a great boon, granting you health and a son like this. It is time to thank her. Time to plant another seed. Follow the Word, and may her Grace be with you."
The pastor mellowly looked at them, his head slightly inclined. Stallions with rifles towered on both sides of him.
"I prefer to express my gratitude in person," LittlePip frowned. She measured the guard at the left, then at the right, paying special attention to their guns. "...but if you insist..."
She moved her hoof under the cloak and took out a bottle cap, something Button had been already familiar with. Father Brocade inspected her, her cloak and her bags with tenacity one did not expect from a stallion of his age, then slowly nodded, hesitant. Johnnycake swept the cap from her hoof and immediately added to the pile of donations.
"What about you, youngling?" he turned to Button. "What kind of seed can you sow?"
"I have nothing," Button replied, quite confused. Then started, looking at his bottle of "Sparkle-Cola".
"How is it nothing?" pastor frowned slightly, gathering the wrinkles on his face in a cracked web, and reproachfully shook his head. "My dear youngling, making false pretenses isn't nice. Especially in front of a servant of Celestia."
"It's a present," he managed.
"Leave him out of it, reverend," LittlePip casually intervened but there was something else in her voice. Something unpleasant.
"Foals should be taught obedience and following Celestia's Word from the youngest age," Brocade frowned. "Who knows what they can grow into otherwise?"
"I said, leave him alone," LittlePip straightened in all her not-that-impressive stature, flapping her cloak. "Let's go, Button."
"Is it the Stable suit I see?"
Button felt the unicorn gathering herself. He didn't know how he happened to find himself behind her. Peeking out from behind her croup he saw how the guards of father Brocade scatter around the hall, surrounding them in a semi-circle.
Johnnycake gave the pastor a questioning look. Apparently he haven't get it yet.
"Stable dwellers are generously rewarded with Her favour. Is one cap really the only thing you can offer, young one?"
At this point they eyes of his assistant gave an oily glitter. He gathered himself and tripped to the back door.
"Let's have a talk," the weathered preacher offered. "I've told you about our home, why don't you tell me about yours?"
"I think I'll refuse," LittlePip shook her head.
"Have you forgotten Celestia's virtue already? I was discussing her merely minutes ago. She was never the stingy one, not about her wisdom nor about her gifts."
The guards stepped closer.
The colt and his companion darted out of the school door like a cork from a bottle.
"Keep pace!" LittlePip pressed on and Button followed with all his strength, clenching his precious bottle in his teeth. He could hardly see the road in gathering darkness but LittlePip evidently did because soon enough the lights appeared in front of them.
"Oh Celestia buck me sideways!" she blurted, catching her breath and grinding to a sudden stop. The colt barely avoided stumbling into her. "Where did they get a machine gun?"
This delay had cost them several precious seconds. Ponies slowly gathered to the street they were standing on, and they didn't look happy. While the unicorn stared around, trying to formulate an escape plan, Button looked forward and saw what he had missed earlier. The town perimeter was surrounded by a wall constructed from fragments of carriages, bricks, roof segments and other trash. There was a scaffold above the gates which they probably used to get inside, and on that scaffold there was an emplacement holding a big double-barreled gun. It was now looking its muzzles their way.
"Think, LittlePip, think," his companion muttered. The crowd was gathering around them, and some ponies in it were unpleasantly grumpy.
"Citizens of Prosperity!"
Reverend's loud voice broke the darkness, and a couple of spotlights above the wall immediately caught them in the crosshair, blinding them.
"Turns out there is a couple of bad seeds among us. We offered them shelter, we offered them food and a place to sleep, yet they refused to listen to the Word. Refused to sow the seed as we do."
"Now that's a blatant lie," the unicorn exasperatedly grumbled through clenched teeth, trying in vain to find the source of the voice. Button heard the murmurs, then rather felt than saw that LittlePip pulled something, probably a weapon, from her saddlebag.
"Stay back!" she yelled, pointing her gun left and right. His eyes were painfully slow to adapt to the blinding light yet he managed to understand that the local ponies surrounded them and were now narrowing the circle. "Stay behind me, boy!"
"Happy thoughts everyone, remember?" somepony said. "Happy thoughts! Heed Celestia's Word and she won't leave ya!"
Residents of Prosperity didn't seem to listen to her very well.
Button backed up. He had no idea what to do. But backing up, it seemed, was definitely a bad idea. Something rolled under his leg, he stumbled and flew to the ground, sprawling himself at the last moment to preserve his present. The bottle of "Sparkle-Cola" that he was still holding in his mouth, made a soft landing and clinked loudly on something.
Clinked?
Button understood that he squeezed his eyes shut in fear, and unsqueezed them. He plopped down in the middle of the street on a hatch of some kind. He suddenly had a thought.
"LittlePip!" he called out, leaving his bottle that was now in relative safety. "There's some kind of a hole in here! LittlePi-ip!"
Dark pony figures walked closer, practically impending over him.
"MOMMY!"
He had no time to understand what happened next. The ponyhole cover he was lying on suddenly swung around, and he felt himself falling into darkness. The last thing he saw was a bottle of "Sparkle-Cola", glittering in the spotlights.
***
Button woke up from the splashes of water and regular crackling near his ear. The crackling was dull, sharp and unpleasant. He was rocking as if swimming on the waves, and it sounded like waves below him, but he wasn't wet in the slightest. Yet the stench...
He opened his eyes and saw a low and damp vault of bricks right above him.
"Where are we?" he asked, wrinkling his muzzle from the smell, not addressing anyone in particular.
"Underground," the bricks answered in LittlePip's voice. "You're awake at last."
A sudden bump nearly threw him away and he realized that he was hanging across the withers of the unicorn who carried him on her back. The source of the crackling was one of her forelegs, near a place where his head was hanging a minute ago. The same leg was now the source of greenish light illuminating their path in this... pipe? Catacomb?
"Don't get down just yet," she warned him. "I'll try and find a dry place first."
"What is this crackling for?"
"Magic radiation," the shining of LittlePip's magic wrapped around him and carefully pulled down from her back. Noticing his confusion, she pensively rolled her eyes and explained. "It is... like a poison. Or like something very hot."
"I know what a poison is," Button frowned.
"You can't see radiation," LittlePip adjusted the bags on hed back and continued walking. He hooves quietly swashed. "But you can measure it. My PipBuck has a counter inside, it starts cracking when there are sources of radiation nearby."
She thoughtfully inspected the walls of the tunnel they were walking in. The tunnel was low and narrow and his lower part truly resembled a concrete pipe while the upper part was a brick vault. Many bricks in the laying crumbled away, and sometimes they stumbled upon piles of debris and soil. Luckily both of them were compact enough to squeeze their way in and continue.
"I don't know where it comes from. The water, I guess. Try not to step into puddles. We shouldn't stay here for long."
"Is PipBuck that thing on your foreleg?"
"Yeah," LittlePip nodded, illuminating the way. "It's a handy tool! There's a Geiger counter, a map, a lamp... it can even work as a radio!"
Button stole some glances on the "PipBuck". Most of all it probably resembled a big metal bracelet with a screen and some buttons on it.
"Does it have any games?" he suddenly blurted.
"Isn't there enough on your plate already?" LittlePip countered. Then momentarily seemed embarrassed. "They say there are some but I'm yet to find one."
They continued walking for some time, the regular clicks from PipBuck their only accompaniment. At last Button broke the silence.
"How did we get here?"
"You found that hatch just in time. I made a leap for it as soon as I heard," she stopped, then added uncomfortably. "Very timely. There were too many of them."
"Did you have a weapon? Why didn't you shoot?"
LittlePip stopped and turned to face him.
"I want you to remember, Button," she said in a stern voice, "not all problems can be solved with a gun. Sometimes it creates new problems instead of fixing them. I have a friend who absolutely abhors weapons of any kind."
She sighed, gathering her thoughts.
"It doesn't mean you shouldn't protect yourself, boy. But you always have a choice. And that choice shapes what happens next, everything has its consequences."
Button fell silent, digesting that. The thought was a new one. He never played anything like this before. Yet... it sounded like something from the real life.
"Maybe I should have given that 'father' my bottle?" he asked, unsure. "If only I wasn't that greedy..."
"That 'father' was a rare bas... bad pony," LittlePip started angrily, then quickly got a hold on herself. "You can't always know what to do best. But in that case, it was pretty easy. Trust me."
"How do you know?"
LittlePip fell silent again, as if recollecting. Button didn't see her muzzle, she was walking in front of him, but he felt that his question was somehow dangerous.
"He said interesting things," he added.
"Maybe," LittlePip agreed. "Still, it was a lie. Some ponies are liars."
"Are you?" Button suddenly asked. The unicorn abruptly stopped and he barely avoided hitting her croup with his muzzle. He had no idea what pushed him to say that, and now he felt incredibly awkward. Looking from the back, he couldn't see the horn or the color of her coat very well, and she still resembled his mother.
"Think, boy," she said after a moment of silence and trotted on. "If his preaching is right, then all those who don't have a home or food can blame nopony but themselves. They merely 'didn't have enough faith'. But sometimes you are just unlucky. I know some ponies who are... very, very unlucky. That doesn't mean they were bad. They tried to make this world a better place. Equestrian Wasteland has lots of stories like this."
"By the way," never stopping, she opened her bag with her magic, and a familiar vessel floated out of it. "Your prize. Here."
After the bottle of "Sparkle-Cola" was once again in his care, supplied with a belt around the neck ("You can help me carry things," LittlePip said with a wink), they continued on their way. Soon, however, the unicorn stopped again and pulled her gun from the bag.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Remember me telling you about a PipBuck?" she asked quietly, carrying her weapon in her magic. In the soft green light from the lamp Button saw that the pistol had a big drum with bullets, a curved light-hued handle and a huge... To think of it, the pistol itself wasn't that big. The scope was. "It is able to tell when there are enemies nearby. It seems there is somepony ahead of us."
"Are you going to shoot?" Button widened his eyes.
"If I need to," the unicorn frowned, listening to the clicking of the counter speeding up. "Stay alert."
Soon the light from their lamp dissipated somewhere before them, and she slowed down. Button could see from behind her that the pipe was widening, and there is something big and shapeless on the ground. His companion finally stopped, carefully looking around. Button himself, too, felt his heart beating faster, catching up with the rhythm of PipBuck which was now clicking incessantly.
"I don't understand," LittlePip muttered, stepping forward and raising her source of light higher.
A grate fell from above, knocking her down. She lost her grip on the revolver. Following the grate fell... fell...
A monster jumped down on them.
He was huge and he was shining with a sickly green light not unlike that of a PipBuck lamp. He had large teeth and empty eyes. And he stared right through Button.
Button screamed as he had never screamed before, backed down, then darted to the dark hole in front of him. His entire body was shaking, his legs gave way, blood thumped like a radiation counter in his ears, but on and on he ran through the endless pipe, splashing puddles, stumbling along, nearly falling and running again. Green shining circles floated before his eyes. The dinner he ate not so long ago rose to his throat and he finally ceased screaming, fighting nausea. Stumbled again on something and tumbled down to the mud below.
"I'm not here."
"I was never ever here."
A sudden shot boomed nearby, then another one. And another.
He opened his eye. He was surrounded by darkness. But there was a loud bang somewhere close, and he was suddenly grasped, flooded by all-consuming shame which crushed his horror, clenching him in its claws instead. He was out of breath but pushed himself up. His knees barely held him, bending.
"Play it cool, Button."
First step was the hardest. It was followed by a second one. Then third. He broke into a gallop, never seeing where he was running to, feeling himself stumbling again, being thrown from side to side. But the pipe was not an easy place to fall down. Too narrow. Soon he saw the familiar green light glimmering ahead and slowed down.
There was a shapeless pile on the ground, another one further away. They were not the source of the light. The monster to his side was. The clicking came from there as well.
He felt sick again, his head breaking from pain but he narrowed his eyes and saw that the monster was in the shape of a pony. If remotely. It had no foreleg already but it continued to struggle, trying to get at the unicorn. She was pinned down under its weight but quick enough to put a foreleg wearing PipBuck in front of her, and this shiny horror was now dreadfully chattering its teeth on the metallic casing. LittlePip's eyes were wide open, her coat looking almost bright in this sickly green light.
Button never knew what has gotten into him. He clenched his teeth on the belt which carried his precious bottle, lunged forward and swung as hard as he could.
***
They were walking in silence.
The counter gave a rare click, as if hesitant to interfere. Button didn't feel nauseous any more, even though there was a nasty orange aftertaste in his mouth. LittlePip told him to drink that to drive away the radiation.
He shuffled his legs, hanging his head low. There was a lump stuck in his throat, the bottle jogged at his shoulder with every step. By some indescribable miracle it remained intact even as the monster's head splashed to shiny bits from the hit.
"I'm so sorry," he forced out eventually.
LittlePip didn't answer, kept quietly walking in front of him, illuminating the way.
"Really."
She turned around. He felt her gaze on him, then she bent forward and grabbed him with her legs. He didn't understand at first he was being hugged but when he did he twitched, writhed, trying to escape her grasp.
"Let me go!"
"No can do," LittlePip whispered as she squeezed him even harder.
She rocked for some time, holding him in her legs. Then, eventually, her embrace loosened.
"Thank you, boy."
"For what?" Button sobbed. "I abandoned you. I ABANDONED YOU!"
LittlePip took his head in her hooves and looked into his eyes.
"Button, sweetie, anypony can make a mistake. I made mistakes before, lots of them. Responsibility is not in blaming and punishing yourself. Real responsibility is in fixing your mistakes. Don't blame yourself. Be better."
"And what if... what if I fail?"
"Then you try again. You are not all-powerful. I am not all-powerful as well," she smiled a bitter smile. "But somewhy you did return. Did you think you could defeat that monster?"
Button shook his head, unsure.
"Still, you returned. Why?"
Button rubbed his eye with the sleeve of his clothing, smearing the mud, and proposed uncertainly.
"I wanted to help?"
The unicorn hugged him again with one leg and pulled about his ear with another.
"Your heart is in the right place. This is all that matters."
Autosaving
Please do not shut off your console and do not unplug your memory card when you see this symbol.
Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: School League (level 1) - +5 to Melee Weapons skill per rank.
Author's Note
Once again, let's play a game. How many references and/or quotes can you spot?
I'm not sure if I pictured LilPip close enough as it's been a long time since I read FoE. Had to refresh my memory a bit for that. I'm mostly satisfied with how she turned out towards the end though.
She appears to be self-aware around kids. Who knew?
Sparkle-Cola bottles may or may not have been produced by Stable-Tec.
