Green Sun: Anthology

Welcome to the Green Zone

Amber Blossom trotted along a busy street lined with stalls and their owners peddling various goods. Everything from the mundane fruits to contraband, wartime gear and weapons were available at the Dodge Bazaar, though today she was looking for something specific. Despite the wide range of knicks, knacks, and everything in between for sale, the one thing she was looking for seemed to still be in limited supply.

For nearly two hours the off-yellow mare searched and searched and searched, but it wasn’t until the green orb in the sky began to crest the walls of the nearby Dodge Junction Blue Zone that she finally stumbled across the stall she had been looking for.

“How much for the sonic grooming kit, Gizmo?” she asked the somewhat pudgy diamond dog running the stall.

“30 bits, or a fair trade.” he told her, pulling the aforementioned box off the shelf and placing it on the counter between them. “I do still kinda owe you for getting me that crate of batteries last year.”

“Aw it was nothing, sugar. I have to help my favorite diamond dog, y’know?” Amber replied with a smile that made the sun glint pleasantly off the tiberium shards that lined her lower jaw.

Gizmo smirked back at her and idly scratched similar shards that sprouted from his shoulder before pointing at her in a mockingly accusatory manner.

“I also happen to be the only diamond dog you know.”

“Doesn’t change a thing. How about 20 bits and this solar charge pack?” Amber asked, only to get widened eyes from the merchant standing before her.

“Hell I’d give it to you for the solar pack alone, but don’t you need it? I thought your...”

“Not at all, the grid in my neighborhood finally got full solar proofing a couple days ago, so I need a way to maintain my ‘jewelry’ more than I need something to keep my appliances running.” Amber told him. “So, pack for the kit?”

“Deal.” Gizmo said, pushing the kit towards her and eagerly accepting the solar charge pack into his hands once her magical aura released it, “I don’t know whether to sell this or keep it for personal use. Guess I owe you another one, don’t I?”

“Hey, this was a fair trade, don’t fret, got it?” the unicorn told him, getting a genuine smile in return as he nodded and slowly began to pack up his stall for the day.

With her new prized possession finally sitting nicely in her saddlebags, Amber Blossom began the short trek to the apartment complex she called home. Pre-war streets and sidewalks were still mostly maintained despite being outside of the Blue Zone, not that she could confirm what it was like in one having never set foot in a modern Blue Zone in her life. She had been infected before the war and spent the entirety of the fighting locked up in some ZOCOM containment facility with other mutants. It wasn’t until Celestia was dead that she was able to live what amounted to a normal life for tib-infested ponies.

That “normal” life was spent in the Canterlot-Dodge Junction Green Zone, the largest of its kind. Unlike Blue Zones, the Green Zones had no true walls, but were merely stretches of land between the Blue Zones that were fully protected, patrolled, and maintained by GDI, though that last one was debatable depending on the month. The war had only been over a year and recovery was slow. Not that Amber could complain, Green Zones were far better than the harsh, unforgiving lives that ponies and other misplaced races had to eke out in the yellow zones, and an apartment was a far cry from a shanty town.

Blossom sighed as she continued to trot along the sidewalk towards her home, the breeze felt nice and while non-mutants needed either protective gear or good sunblock to be exposed to unfiltered sunlight, to mutants the rays of the sun were still a warm, welcoming, and even invigorating embrace. By the time she made it to her door, the sun had finally slipped behind the horizon and the moon was now making its way through the night sky. Magic enveloped the key to her apartment and she was welcomed into her home by a flier for some support group or activist organization that had been slipped under her door by somepony or other mixed in with her mail.

Her aura grabbed the pile of papers and envelopes and she began rifling through them, with most of the pile ending up in her trash can as she impatiently found her way to her bathroom and started running a bath. The water was the familiar off-blue color that showed her that the filters and decontaminants were working as needed to keep her infestation from infecting the rest of the town’s water supply, and she eased herself into the water with a happy groan. After a few moments of soaking, she used her magic to unbox the grooming kit she had gotten and after giving the instructions a quick once-over, let out an elated squeak as she managed to painlessly shave down one of her tiberium shards so it wouldn’t poke her in the neck every time she looked down.

Small victories in the Green Zones were still victories all the same, and for a pony who had formerly been stuck in a prison in all but name, Amber Blossom considered her life out here between the Zones absolutely charmed in comparison as she hummed her way through her bath and soon after, into a good night’s rest.