10 Years Ago

After the day I lost my left eye, I thought back to my dad's ramblings. The fact that I didn't understand a word he was saying gave me an idea. I would constantly hear him talking with other ponies upstairs and decided to try matching the sounds they made with the words in the books I attempted to read. Eventually, I was able to figure out words like "and", "it", and "the". There were other words they would say often that I was able to figure out, like "kill", "rape", and "enslave". Had I known what those words meant, they would have raised some red flags.

All of that wasn't enough to fully teach me, of course. But I soon found something that would do the trick. Eventually, I found a box in the closet filled with audio tapes as well as a stack of textbooks. I didn't know what the tapes were, how they worked, and had no method of listening to them. Not until I found the Pip-Buck, that is.

Dad usually left it sitting in a drawer in the kitchen. I'm not sure whether he stole it or not, but it helped me in the long run, that's for sure. Something about the device intrigued me when I found it. The screen was red, and there were a few different buttons and dials that I didn't understand. Written on it was "Pip-Buck 3000". I only figured out that you could wear it on your hoof because I remembered seeing dad wear it before.

Thanks to the usual trial and error, I eventually thought to try placing the audio tapes in a slot I accidentally opened while examining the peculiar device. By some miracle, those tapes were recorded preschool lessons from back before the megaspells were cast. I would later find out that apparently, the house we lived in used to belong to a school teacher before the war, which was extremely convenient for me. I was able to learn a lot more from the tapes, listening to them and following along with the textbooks. I kept the volume turned down late at night so dad wouldn't wake up.

It took a while, but I eventually learned how to read and talk, albeit only a little bit.

Eventually, two years had passed since my eye was branded. It was then the day arrived when I made an extremely stupid decision that may have saved my life.

I had wondered if there were any other books in the house. I enjoyed learning how to read, and wanted to find out more. This lead to me coming to a realization; What if there were more books in my dad's room? I wouldn't be able to explore his room during the day. I would have no way of knowing whether or not he'd left the house, and some days he would stay home all day.

So I decided to sneak in at night.

While he was sleeping.

In the same exact room.

Lightning flashed outside, followed by a crack of thunder. Rain poured down from the sky, pattering against the windows. It was rare for it to rain in the San Palomino, much less pour. I'd seen it occasionally, so I was aware rain existed. I was lucky that it hadn't been a thunderstorm the first time I saw rain, or else I'd have grown a fear of it.

This was the first time I had gone up to the second floor. I opened the door to his room only a crack and peeked inside. He was, thankfully, sound asleep, and snoring pretty loudly. I surveyed the room, trying to find out where he could be hiding any form of text. the only places they could be were the wardrobe, a trunk in the far corner of the room, and his dresser. Considering the dresser was right next to his bed, I decided to save it for last, not daring to wake the beast.

I quietly slipped inside and searched the wardrobe first, which held nothing. Next up was the trunk. Inside I found some weird cloak, a few bottlecaps, some uncooked meat, and the branding iron. I stared at the branding iron for a few seconds, thinking back to that day, before gaining the strength to look away. None of the other items meant anything to me, so I ignored them and closed the trunk.

I silently gulped as I turned to look at the dresser, sitting right next to the Stallion of the House. I was going to have to be very quiet. If he saw that I was no longer in the basement, I couldn't imagine what he would do. I slowly inched towards the dresser as I began to sweat. I held my breath once I reached the dresser, seeing that it had three drawers. I opened the top drawer as quietly as I could and looked inside.

There was a weirdly shaped metal object inside. I honestly had no clue what it was. it was shaped like an "L", but there was more to it than that. I didn't want to waste time looking at it, though, so I shut the drawer and moved on to the middle one.

Inside this drawer was something I did recognize, though its design was different. It looked like an object I found in the kitchen that was metal, sharp, and had a handle on the bottom. I remember almost cutting myself on the one in the kitchen while exploring one night. The one in the drawer seemed to have a different handle and jagged teeth carved into it. Once again not seeing any literature, I moved on to the final drawer.

Finally, after having searching the whole room, the final drawer contained something I could use. It wasn't a book, but it looked like a bunch of audio tapes. I assumed these ones belonged to dad. It hadn't been what I was looking for, but I didn't care. It was something, and I was just happy that this wasn't all for nothing. I grabbed one and almost slammed the drawer shut out of excitement before stopping myself and closing it quietly. A loud crack of thunder echoed from outside. I looked over at my dad, praying that hadn't woken him up.

He stirred a bit, but soon resumed his normal snoring. It took every fiber of my being not to sigh in relief. I quietly made my way out of the room, slowly closing the door behind me.

I went downstairs, grabbed the Pip-Buck, entered the living room, climbed onto the old couch, and examined the tape. The words "Broken Hope's Journal #32" were scribbled on it. I didn't know what those words meant, but I placed it into the Pip-buck and played it anyway.

What played was not one of the educational recordings I'd been listening to. It wasn't an audio recording at all. Instead, some text appeared on the screen. It seemed I had found something to read after all.

Journal Entry #32
9 months of waiting just for the final result to be failure. I didn't bother remembering her name, but that one mare I had Stain bring me finally popped a baby out. To think It's been so long since I showed her a good time. Obviously, she'd been crying her eyes out and begging to go home ever since, but that's to be expected. Still, the noise was pretty annoying, so I slit her throat as soon as the baby was out. I couldn't tell you how happy I was after so long to finally get that baby! At least I was, until I found out it was a colt.

9 months! 9 months we've been waiting for a girl and all we get is disappointment!? FUCK! We can't achieve are goal with a male! Now we've gotta wait at least 15 more years! Then after that, we gotta find a new young virgin all over again! Those aren't exactly common in the San Palomino! Especially since this is where New Pegasus is! Nothing but dirty hookers and bachelors here! This is gonna be so boring!!! Blood is gonna be pissed too, but nowhere near as pissed as I am right now! Anyways, I'll just chuck the kid into the ocean and be done with it.

Actually, scratch that. I've got a better idea. I think I'll keep the kid as a play thing for when I'm bored. It should make waiting more interesting.

I didn't really understand any of it at the time, and I still don't understand some of it now. I would understand the meaning and implications of one part when I got older, though. My dad raped my mother, kept her prisoner for 9 months, and as soon as she had me, he killed her. He considered killing me as well, but decided he could have some fun with me. As if he wasn't bad enough already.

There were still many questions though. Why did he have to wait 15 years? Why does it have to be a young virgin? Why did the baby have to be female? Who the hell is Blood? These questions would remain a mystery to me for several years.

My blood ran cold when I heard the sound of somepony coming downstairs, and it didn't take a genius to guess who it was. I leapt behind the couch and hid from view. My dad passed through the living room and headed into the kitchen, probably grabbing a late night snack. After a bit, he came back and stopped in the doorway, staring at something. I followed his gaze and my heart dropped when I saw what he was looking at.

I forgot to close the basement door.

He knew I had escaped.

"Well shit, kid! Looks like you finally grew a pair! And here I was thinking you didn't have it in you!" He called out to me as he stalked around, searching for me. He had a creepy smile on his face. This was a game to him. I knew I wouldn't be able to hide behind the couch forever. I just had to wait until I got a chance.

It was then I noticed a red dot in my vision. I'd realized whenever I put on the Pip-Buck, a bunch of things would pop up in front of me. There were two bars, one labeled "HP" and the other labeled "AP". Below the HP bar was a line that had the letters N,S,W, or E on it depending on what direction you face. It was on that line I saw the red dot. It seemed to be following my dad, but I didn't know what it meant.

"Gotta say, I'm proud of ya, kid! You finally stood up for yourself! Unfortunately, it isn't gonna do you any good." He continued, making his way back into the kitchen. He opened the drawer he normally kept the Pip-Buck in and froze when he saw it was empty. He checked a couple other drawers before he realized something and a smile crept back onto his face. He burst out into uncontrollable laughter.

"Ha ha HA! Ho-lee-shit! Kid, you are either secretly clever or getting by on dumb luck, and I love it! I actually have to try now! Ha! Thanks for making this fun!" He yelled out. He came back into the living room and went straight for the stairs, heading up to his room. I took the chance to move behind an armchair that was closer to the stairs but kept me more out of sight.

Dad came back down, levitating the sharp, metal thing with jagged teeth.

"Don't worry, kid, I didn't leave you alone. Just had to grab my knife!" He said casually before resuming his search. I watched as he crept over to the couch and peeked behind it, a little disappointed when he found nothing. I waited until his back was turned before sneaking into the kitchen and crawled into one of the cupboards to hide. I looked around the inside of the cupboard and found a frying pan, which I held in my mouth, ready to swing. I shut the cupboard door and was greeted with darkness.

I wasn't able to tell where he was from inside the cupboard, I couldn't even hear him. All I could hear was the roaring of the thunder from outside. My hooves were shaking and sweat rolled down my forehead as I waited for something, anything to happen.

...

"BOO!!!"

Dad threw the cupboard door open and I screamed, swinging the frying pan into his face and knocking him back. I booked it, trying to get as much distance as I could while running on pure adrenaline. I was stopped in my tracks, however, when a sharp pain surged through my hind leg and I let out a painful scream. Tears began to form and I turned to see dad's knife sticking out of my leg, blood leaking from the wound. Although he was still stunned on the floor, he had managed to throw the knife straight into my hind leg.

I pulled the knife out with my magic, screaming in agony as I did so. Tears ran down my face, but I pushed through the pain and limped over to the stairs. I didn't know where I was planning to go. I just knew I had to find something better than a frying pan to defend myself.

"Damn! Heh, I'm certainly gonna feel that one tomorrow! I think you left a nasty bruise!" I could hear him recovering downstairs. I wasn't sure if he saw me go upstairs, but I wasn't going to wait and find out. I looked around and realized that in my blind panic, I had run into dad's room. I immediately began searching for a weapon. I thought about the branding iron, but knew it wouldn't be good enough to stop him. I then recalled the weirdly shaped metal thing in the top drawer of the dresser and ran to it. If there was a chance I could use that against him, I'd take it.

I held it with my magic and got a better look at it, feeling just how heavy it was. I noticed it had a couple of small levers on it, as well as a small hole on one end of the object. while looking at it from what I believed was the side, I pulled one of the levers.

*BANG!*

The sound was loud enough to make my ears ring. I ended up dropping the object and pressing my hooves against my ears. I looked to see that after I triggered the object, it had broken one of the windows in the room. I took note that the hole in the object had been pointed in the direction of the window when I pulled the lever. The ringing quickly cleared from my hearing and I could hear dad's voice again.

"-reful not to shoot yourself! I wouldn't want you to die without getting the chance to kill you myself!" His voice came from right outside, and I could hear his hoofsteps approaching the door. I scrambled under the bed, pulling the metal object with me. The door slammed open and I watched him enter the room. I could only see his hooves, but I could tell he had a grin plastered on his face. He took his time looking around the room. He seemed to be searching halfheartedly before slowly turning towards the bed. Then I noticed the trail of blood I left behind from the wound in my leg.

He knew where I was the whole time.

He just wanted to mess with me.

He inched towards the bed and I readied the object. He stopped at the bed and just stood there for a few seconds before crouching down.

"Peek-a-boo!"

*BANG!*

His body lay on the floor, motionless.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to think. I didn't even know if he was truly dead.

Only one thought raced through my mind.

Run.

With the Pip-Buck still on my hoof, I grabbed the metal object with my magic and did just that. I ran downstairs and out the front door, out into the pouring rain. I was letting fear drive me. I had no idea what direction I ran and for how long I was running. I just kept going, hoping he wasn't after me.

After a while, I ran out of breath and had to stop. I was completely out of energy. I flopped onto the ground and looked down at the wound in my hind leg. A lot of blood had poured out of it now, and my vision was starting to get blurry. I laid on the ground, too tired to get up. I just wanted to sleep. My one good eyelid began to feel heavy.

I could barely see a radhog crawling towards me. I wanted to run, to scream, to do something, but I was too exhausted to do anything. Before it reached me, I heard a loud bang, similar to the one the metal object made, and the radhog's head exploded. A blurry silhouette came into view and kneeled down next to me. The stranger pressed the back of their hoof against my head as I struggled to keep my eye open.

"Shit, you're burnin' up. Don't you worry, I'll getcha somewhere safe." That was the last thing I heard before I finally passed out.

Present Day

"EUREKA!!"

*CLANG!*

Astral's ecstatic yelling from the other room woke me from my slumber, causing me to hit my head on the top bunk once again. I lay back down and sigh. For some reason, my mind thought back to what Calamity had said to me yesterday.

"These folk ain't the same as slavers!"

I knew he was right. That's why I didn't want to listen to him. I just didn't want to be wrong. I thought that if the ponies of New Appleloosa were truly better than slavers, they would stand up to them rather than trade with them. That's just what I kept telling myself, though. They don't trade with slavers out of greed or selfishness. They only trade with them because they don't have any other choice. They weren't like me and Calamity. They couldn't defend themselves from slavers like we could. In fact, the protection they got from the slavers was one of the only things keeping the town from being raided.

Was it immoral? Yes. But they weren't strong enough to do the right thing. Railright was just looking after his town. He wasn't asked to protect the entire wasteland. They were just as helpless as the ponies I claimed they were hurting by helping the slavers.

And here I was, taking dumps on their doorstep on a regular basis.

Nice job, me. You still managed to hold on to the title of "Biggest Asshole".

I stared up at the ceiling, and by that I mean the bunk only 10 inches away from my face. I couldn't keep doing this. I couldn't keep starting a new life, screwing everything up, then running away and doing it all over again. I needed to find a place, settle down, and forget everything. New Appleloosa could be that place if I just learn to grow up and stop being such a douche.

I climbed out of bed, now dead set on cleaning up my act. My heart dropped, however, when I realized I would have to start with apologizing.

I wasn't great when it came to people, or socializing in general for that matter. Sure, there were exceptions like Astral, Ditzy, and Calamity, but I've known them for a while now. I honestly had no clue how I was going to put my thoughts into words when I talked to Railright. Where would I start? Would he even be willing to listen?

My thoughts were halted when I heard more noises coming from Astral's lab. It came back to me that the reason I woke up was because he had been yelling about something. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to put my apology on hold while I figured out what Astral was up to now. I entered the lab to find him working on something, as usual.

"... And... there!" Astral was hunched over a table, tinkering with that sphere he showed me yesterday. He quickly noticed my appearance.

"Ah, Bunny! Good to see you again! Take a look! I've just about finished it!" He wrapped a wing around me and pulled me towards the device. It looked the same as it did yesterday, except now there were a couple of pilot lights and a small satellite dish sticking out of it.

"What did you call this thing again? The A.M.W.D? What does it do?"

"Well, that's a secret, of course!"

"... Can you at least tell me what it stands for?"

"That would give away what it does!"

"..."

I couldn't help but chuckle. Astral's inventions ranged from mind-blowingly advanced to simply mundane, yet he always had the same amount of enthusiasm no matter what. One time, he was super invested in a project, claiming it was going to be big. It ended up being a radio that doubled as a coffee machine. It was impressive, but not exactly revolutionary. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything to make coffee, so it was pretty much just an oversized radio. Still, he was really proud of it, and I felt proud of him for it too.

For all I knew, this latest project could just be a really complex toaster.

"... Wait, you said you 'just about finished it'. Is it not done?" I ask.

"Unfortunately, no. There is one piece that I'm missing." He pointed to a small slot on the side of the machine. "What I need is an incredibly valuable, military-grade computer chip with an advanced AI targeting system that will help guide the satellite." He explained, and I understood... most of what he said. I didn't know what an "AI" was.

"'Now Astral,' I here you asking, 'How could something so small be as amazing as that?' Well, I'm glad you asked, Bunny! This great computer chip happens to be none other than... The McGuffin!" He finished dramatically. I waited for him to start laughing and tell me he was joking. There was no way somepony decided to name a high tech computer chip something as ridiculous as The McGuffin.

He didn't laugh.

I stared at him in disbelief.

"... Wait... You're serious? Somepony actually gave it a name like that!?" I asked, barely able to contain my laughter.

"It's true! Trust me, The McGuffin is something to marvel at! So much data packed into such a small thing! Isn't it amazing!?"

"I'll *snrk* take your word for it." I chuckled.

"Oh, you don't have to! You can see it for yourself! I actually need you to collect it for me. I'm afraid it's located a bit of a distance from here. I'm not sure exactly where, unfortunately. All I know is that it's somewhere in the San Palomino Desert."

Any laughter I felt inside me died away as soon as I heard that name.

The San Palomino Desert.

Why'd it have to be there of all places?

"Astral... are you absolutely sure it's there?" I asked, praying that he made a mistake.

"I'm... afraid it is." He said, his tone much more serious, which was abnormal for him.

"Now I know you hoped to never have to go back there, but..." He sighed before continuing. "This creation could help all of Equestria. While I am keeping the A.W.M.D's function a secret, I wouldn't be asking you to do this if it wasn't important."

I was deep in thought. I wanted nothing more than to avoid that place. But if what Astral said was true...

"Trust me, Bunny. This is my biggest project yet. I promise you it will be worth it."

... Fuck it.

All I'd have to do is find the chip and leave. Nothing else. Like Astral said, whatever this is could help people. He could just be saying that so I'd go without fuss, but I've known him long enough to trust that he wouldn't.

How hard could it be?

"... ok. I'll do it." I finally gave my answer. He placed a hoof on my shoulder.

"Thank you. You won't regret this, I promise." He reassured me.

Coming up with a way to apologize to Railright took a bit, but I eventually came up with something. A few hours later, I was strolling into New Appleloosa carrying a large sack on my back. Since I was going to be gone for a bit, I figured I should just get it out of the way. It wasn't long before I ran into Calamity again.

"What's that ya got there?" He pointed to the sack.

"It's for Railright." I stated simply. He raised an eyebrow.

"Look, I thought about it, and I decided to take your advice." I explained. I couldn't blame him for being skeptical, though. The local delinquent and troublemaker comes into town carrying a mystery sack and wants to see the town's leader? That's raising some red flags. Thankfully he smirked, believing me.

"Follow me, ah'll take ya to 'im." He said, taking the lead. Eventually we ended up at the train they would use to deliver stuff to the slavers in Old Appleloosa. I saw Railright talking with a pony wearing a conductor's hat. The two of them noticed us approaching and grew tense when they saw me.

"Afternoon, Bunny. What's in the sack?" Railright asked with caution, probably expecting me to open the bag and release a bunch of bloatsprites on the town. If he was, he was only partially right.

"Peace offering." I said, then opened the sack to reveal a bunch of meat. I'd spent the past few hours hunting whatever I could find and came up with a good haul. There was bloatsprite meat in there somewhere, but I didn't know which was which. I just kept shoving whatever meat I gathered into the sack.

"You can use this however you want." I gave him the sack, both him and the conductor staring at it with wide eyes. They must've been shocked that I of all ponies was willing to just hoof over so much food for free. I was just as shocked as them, to be honest.

"... I'm gonna go now." I said, turning to leave and glad that this was over before Calamity stopped me.

"Ya call that an apology?" He chuckled. I sighed and turned around. I needed to do this.

"I did some thinking and... I guess I'll stop being such a dick to everypony. If you'd be willing to forgive me, that is." I saw Calamity give me a look from beside me. I know that was half-assed, but it was the best apology I could come up with.

"... What brought about this sudden change o' heart?" Railright asked, the tension beginning to leave him, but not completely.

"Calamity talked to me about it, so I figured I should take his advice." I explained.

"... Well, it might be a while 'fore ponies start tryin' t' welcome you, but if you're serious 'bout this... I'm willing t' give ya a second chance, so long as ya behave." Railright said.

"You won't have to worry about me for a while, at least. I'll be headed for the San Palomino soon. Astral needs me to find something for him there." I reassured him.

"The San Palomino?" I nodded and Railright seemed to think about something. "The caravans are headed up that way tomorrow. They could use an extra guard, if your willin'. I'd say it's a good first step into earnin' back some trust." He suggested.

"That... would be pretty helpful, actually. Thanks." We gave each other one final nod and parted ways. That went better than I expected.

"See? That wasn't so hard." Calamity smiled at me. I rolled my eyes as he flew away to take care of his own business. I left the town and headed straight home. Looks like I wouldn't be traveling alone now.

All that was left was to pack.

I double checked everything I had put into my saddlebags. My 10mm pistol, hunting rifle, cleaver, molotovs, canteen, a few healing potions, Rad-away, some food, a couple books, and 73 bottlecaps. I'd used most of my money at Absolutely Everything, so now I was gonna need to find some work when I got to the desert. I was also going to need better weapons... and to find some armor. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was really underequipped for this.

My eye drifted to the wall safe again. I didn't even want to look at it, but I couldn't deny it would be incredibly useful. With a bit of hesitation, I opened the wall safe and grimaced as I looked at the Pip-Buck inside. I levitated it out, placed it on my left hoof, and turned it on, the screen glowing red. The device began booting up as my E.F.S (Eyes Forward Sparkle) popped up in front of me, showing my health, stamina, and compass.

I flipped through the many tabs, refamiliarizing myself with the device's functions. It kept track of my current status, organized my inventory, had a map of my current location, and detected some familiar radio signals. DJ Pon3's station was one of them, and the other played the music you usually here coming from the sprite bots. No one ever listens to the latter.

The one tab that stuck out to me, however, was one labeled "Quests". This was a function that seemed to be unique to my Pip-Buck. I remember it would keep track of whatever job, favor, chore, or other tasks I was doing. If the task was something small, it was listed under "Miscellaneous". For quests that were much bigger, longer, and more important, the Pip-Buck came up with a name for them. It would always be a snappy title or song name that related to the quest. A good example would be the quest it said I was currently in the middle of.

The Great and Powerful Plot Device
- Find clues to track down The McGuffin

I never knew how it managed to create the quests without me manually adding it in, yet it still did. There was also the fact that while wearing it, I could carry more stuff than my saddlebags could hold, though it did still have a certain weight limit. The Pip-Buck just seemed to defy reality. If it was a spell that they used, I'd never heard of any kind that was capable of doing something like this. I realized trying to figure out how Stable-Tec built it would just drive you insane, so I learned to just accept it for what it is.

For most quests, it would put a marker on my compass to tell me where I needed to go, so I would blindly follow wherever it pointed, do what I needed to do, then follow the next marker. Sometimes though, what I had to do was pretty vague and it wouldn't tell me where to go. In these cases, I would have to search and figure out the next step myself. The quest I currently had did not have a marker, which was annoying. The San Palomino was a pretty big place. Who knows how long it would take for me to find a single clue?

I sighed as I turned off the device. Just staring at it made me think of that night. Still, I knew I was going to need it, whether I wanted it or not. I looked back into the safe, one more item still inside it. A text log with the words "Broken Hope's Journal #32" written on it. I closed the wall safe, ignoring it. I'd read it enough times to have the contents memorized.

With nothing better to do until tomorrow, I grabbed a book from my saddlebag, crawled into bed, and read until I fell asleep.

Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to enjoy this trip?

Author's Note

Another chapter done! Sorry it's taking a bit to get the story going and get into some action. Bunny is finally on his way to the real setting of the story. Things should get a lot more interesting from here on. It also seems like there was more going on with Bunny's dad than he realized. What was he talking about in his journal entry? Who were the ponies Bunny would hear him talking to? All questions that will be answered eventually.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you have questions, feel free to ask. Thanks for reading!