Author's Note

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Chapter 6: Endless Walking

Rose woke up to find the Stable ponies gone, she stood up and looked around, her heart sinking as she realized she was alone. Rose looked around the makeshift campsite to find someone had left a couple cans of food and bottles of water for her. She Put them into her saddlebag before starting down the old road, her Pipbuck’s compass thingy saying ‘S’, she also noticed three white bars, in her stable the ponies that liked her were always white, her parents were usually red.

As she drew near she noticed a couple wasteland ponies, and a two headed… thing. A mare in armored robes jumped up and pointed something with two metal tubes at her.

“Dammit girl that’s a good way to get shot, and scare off ponies wantin to buy shit, put it away.” The stallion yelled at the mare, who put the thing away.

“Hello little mare, did you want something?” The stallion said after turning from the mare to Rose.

“Uhh sure? Who are you and what was that thing she pointed at me?” Rose asked.

“Oh right, stable pony. It’s a shotgun, it’s for killin things. Me an her are merchants, we can sell ya a pistol for a few caps. Oh right y’all don’t know about the currency out here.” The stallion said, part of it to himself.

“Caps? Is that what you call Bits out here?” Rose asked, confused.

“No girl, bottlecaps, Bits are still used though, they’re around five caps a Bit, but most ponies will just give you three.” The stallion replied before going to the two headed thing.

“What is that thing?” Rose asked as she went to the stallion.

“Brahmin, usually one of the heads can talk, mine doesn’t usually.” The stallion replied.

“Is all the stuff on it’s back stuff you sell?” Rose asked, looking at the pile of boxes tied to the brahmin’s back.

“Yea, it’s mostly guns, I'll give you a nine and some ammo for fifteen Bits.” The stallion said as he opened a box on the side of the brahmin.

Rose fished out her bits and counted them out, she learned how to count working in the farms. The stallion set a pistol, like the ones the security ponies sometimes had, that and a big silver one. Alongside it were two boxes.

“Know how to use it?” The stallion asked after taking her caps

“Nope!” Rose said, looking down at the gun.

“I’ll teach ya for free, be hard on me knowin I made ya pay to learn how to not die out here.” The stallion said before going beside Rose.

He picks up the gun then opens one of the boxes, inside was a bunch of sticks with rounded tips, he grabbed a few then made a box fall out of the bottom of the gun. He then pout the sticks he grabbed into the box before re-inserting the box into the gun.

He put it by her face. “Open your mouth.” He said to her.

She did what he said and he put a horseshoe shaped thing into her mouth.

“Bite it, keep your tongue off the circle part in the center.” He told her before leading her towards some of the trees.

Rose dropped it onto the ground after he stopped. “It hurts my teeth.”

“How? It’s made to fit everypony’s mouth.” he said, confused.

“I kinda got fangs from the stable.” She said nervously.

“Hmm, I can change the grip on it for another Bit.” He said as he turned back to the campsite and the brahmin.

“Wait, can’t I just do this?” She felt power flow into her horn, then an aura formed around the part that was in her mouth.

“Oh you’re a hornhead. Then keep your magic off the disk in the center or it’ll go off. Also your horn is really small” The stallion said before turning back to face the trees.

“Well I’m only seventeen, what now?” Rose asked.

“Wow you are small then, anyway, since you’re a hornhead this’ll be easier for you, float the gun in front of the head, keep the barrel pointed away from us.” The stallion said to her.

Rose did as he said, she noticed three green bars, one at the end of the gun, further from the two in the rear so she tried to line them up.

“Good, where those three sights are is where the bullet will go, squeeze hard on the handle, then push the disk forward for it to fire.” The stallion said, now leaning over her shoulder.

Rose did what he said and it exploded, the side of the tree she was pointing at exploded in splinters. Her ears started to ring, causing her to drop the gun.

“You’ll get used to it, bigger guns are worse. You should buy some food and water if you’re walking for a while.” He said before walking back to the brahmin.

Rose followed him, the gun floating by her side, pointed towards the air.

“Press the safety on so you don't shoot your ass when you put it away.” The stallion said as he got to the brahmin. “Also grab those boxes of rounds so you don't forget them.”

“Where is that at?” Rose asked, looking over the gun.

“It’s a little box near where the handle attaches to the rest of the gun.” He said before opening another box on the brahmin, who was now eating the brownish yellow grass.

She clicked it then tossed it and the boxes of ammo into her saddlebag, after closing it. The stallion brought out some bottles of water and boxes of food, and some cans like she found before in the wagons.

“I’ll give you ten things of food and five bottles of water for the rest of your Bits.” He said, looking back at her.

“Sure, here.” She said before giving him the Bits.

***

Walking down the road again after talking to the traders, she now had an icon in her Pipbuck map, they told her about New Pegasus and how it would be mostly safe there.

She then noticed an outline of a rocket on her compass thingy. She looked up from it to see a building, it was attached to the road and had a large overhang. Below the overhang is an old rusty wagon, a tube coming from it and going into a large, red metal box. She went to the wagon and opened the rear box, finding just some junk. She slammed it shut.

“Well fuck you to then” She yelled at it before storming into the building.

The shelves were mostly empty, with a few things like plates. Going to a counter she found a thing with a keyboard like the terminals like in the shithole stable.

She just started pressing the button to see what happened, after a while it made a noise and the drawer popped open.

“Hey Bits!” Rose yelled before tossing them all into her bag. She looked back down to her compass thingy and saw a couple red bars.

She pulled her gun out and did what the trader did, she put some rounds into the box till it was full then put it into the gun then pulled on the top of it.

She then heard a giant bug scuttling around, just like the stable.

“I still have to deal with you?” She said to herself as she climbed over the counter to look for it.

She found two of them in a corner, one part way up the wall and the other trying to climb up a shelf to get a can of chips that someone left behind. Rose sent a bullet through one of the bugs, the other fell off the wall and ran at Rose.

“Fuck fuck, get away from meeee!” She screamed and started to run as the bug chased her.

She tripped and the bug bit her leg. She kicked at it but it clung to her leg. She shot it, then felt searing hot pain shoot through her hoof. She screamed and thrashed, the bug’s body flew off her leg, goo from the bug clung to her leg, she looked at her leg to see crimson.

She pulled the goo off her leg with magic then tried to stand, her leg giving out from under her, more pain shooting through her leg, causing her to scream again.

She looked for a bathroom, the ones in her stable had a medicine box on their wall. She saw a sign that looked like the stable ones so she crawled to it.

***

While fixing her leg in the bathroom she discovered the bullet went completely through her leg. She wrapped it up like she saw a medical pony do once in her stable.

She left the building and continued down the road, now with a limp. She pulled a box of ‘Cheesy Poofs’ from her bag and pulled it open. The puffs tasted good, but had a horrible aftertaste.

“Better than nothing I guess, hmm I should stop talking to myself.” Rose said as she finished off the box and tossed it.

She noticed a dirt pathway that went off the main road, which had now gotten smaller, from four paths to two. A sign was near the road, she had no clue what the hell it said.

She shrugged and followed it, it took her through a section of forest, eventually leading to a clearing where she could see buildings, another sign said something similar to the first one. She noticed a pony watching her from a building with a tall tower, inside a large metal thing hung from the ceiling, she noticed a rifle leaning on the large metal thing.

She waved up at the pony, who waved a wing at her and flew off the tower to her. She sat down and waited for him,

He landed in front of her, getting a better look at him she noted he was old, his black coat was starting to grey, it was most noticeable on his chin, which was very fluffy, and greyer than the rest of him. His mane was a light grey, streaks of white ran through it, when he went beside her, probably to walk with her, she noticed his cutie mark was a grey lightning bolt and clouds, surrounded by a circle.

“Heya there little mare, what brings ya out here?” He asked her, his voice was gravely, but it sounded nice.

“Wanted to see where the path went, what’s this place?” She asked and stood up.

“Appletree, don’t get many visitors, prefer it actually. Means less chance of raiders.” He started to walk back into town as he spoke. Rose started to follow him.

“What's a raider?” Rose said as she looked up to him, he towered over her.

“You don't know what a raider is? Actually you have a stable suit. Well a raider is a bad pony who will kill or kidnap you to steal your stuff, if they do kidnap you they’ll likely do stuff to ya that shouldn't be forced on no one. They’ll likely sell ya too.” He said, looking down at her.

“Oh.. well uh.. Something else uh, what's your cutie mark? Never seen one like it.” Rose asked him to get off the topic.

“It’s not a cutie mark, and i’d rather not talk about it, my name’s Lightning by the way, what’s yours?” Lightning asked Rose.

“Rose Charm, what’s with the clouds? The picture books in the stable always had clear blue skies, and the grey clouds mean rain, but it hasn't rained since I left the stable.” Rose said to him.

“The Enclave made the clouds, they ain’t normal clouds like your books.” Lightning replied.

“What’s an Enclave?” Rose asked, tilting her head.

“Group of pegasi that live above the clouds, and no I'm not one of them.” He replied, an edge to his voice.

They got to the large white building he was on top of. He pointed to a blue house near where they came into the town at.

“That’s our only store, it's run by Candy, the building I was on is the Church of Celestia, no one worships there so a few ponies live inside. Rest of the buildings are homes, a few are abandoned, but not all are and most ponies will shoot you if you go in without knocking first.” Lightning said before looking back to Rose.

“Alright, I'm going to stop by Candy’s then walk around town.” Rose replied.

“I’ll be in the tower if you need me.” Lighting said before opening his wings and flying back up to the tower.

Going into the store it looked like the inside of the building with the bugs, except with wood floors instead of tile.

“Welcome little filly, need something?” An elderly mare behind a counter said to Rose, who assumed she was Candy.

“Just looking around to see what you’ve got.” Rose said while looking at all the shelves, it was mostly food and junk she didn’t care about.

“Nothing good at the moment, but that ghoul mare should be around to make a delivery soon.” Candy said while coming around the counter to talk to Rose. “Met a ghoul yet? Doubt you met a sane one yet if you’re fresh from the stable.”

“Never met one, and what do you mean by ‘sane’?” Rose asked, looking up at her.

“A ghoul is a pony that was blessed by radiation around two hundred years ago, and because of it they don’t age, most of them have gone crazy and will attack you no matter what you do.” Candy said, looking down at Rose, who’s head just met her chest.

“So I should just avoid them all so I don't have to worry about if they’re bad or not.” Rose replied.

“Now I didn’t say that, bunch of the ones you’ll meet are nice.” Candy replied, an edge to her voice.

Rose’s ears flicked back. “Right, sorry, imma leave and find Lightning.”

***

After climbing up the stairs of the church to find Lightning, Rose looked over the small village, the tower looked over all the rooftops. Most had some damage, one had actually collapsed. Hearing a thud behind her she looked back, Lightning looked down at Rose.

“Need something? Or just come up to hangout?” He asked her.

“Wanted to see what it was like up here, and talk to you some more. Maybe learn some more about out here.” Rose replied.

“Ain’t much to see other than houses and trees.” Lighting replied.

“It’s still so much better than the metal walls and floor of my stable.” Rose replied, sitting down to look out at the irradiated trees.

“Yea this probably looks like paradise compared to that, although all the trees over here look dead, the Everfree out East is actually alive.” Lighting replied, taking a seat next to her. “I’m actually from above the clouds.”

Rose looked up at the solid layer of cloud. “How? It looks like a ceiling, like the stable’s.” Rose asked, confused.

“We can go through, and stand on the clouds, earth pony or a unicorn like you would just fall through it, although you horn heads can use magic to walk on it like us.” He replied.

“Do you go back up there sometimes?” Rose asked, looking back to him.

He looked down at her. “Can’t because of this.” He taps his cutie mark. “Means im not allowed back up there or they’ll shoot me.” He replied

“kinda like me and the stable, if I go back Security would shoot me.” Rose replied, a sadness in her voice.

“Well maybe one day you’ll be able to go back, maybe I could go with you.” Lighting replied.