“Let’s go on an adventure!”
I looked up from my quite hearty breakfast to Homage quizzically. “Uh, come again?”
“Let me put it like this,” she said, leaning forward. “It isn’t exactly a secret that you and I are… friends.”
Yea you got that one right..
“And I think it makes sense as a public figure, and for myself, to get a taste of how you operate. I hear stories of course, but I think it’s about time I see it for myself.”
“I… guess that’s fair.” I said
“So I want to, just for today, follow you around the outskirts of Tenpony as if it was a normal day for you. I get to write and publish a report, and we both get some time together.”
While I would take being in here over being out there any day, we really didn’t have anything planned for today did we? Days off are quite rare. I sat and thought about it. Do I really want her to be out there? Hell no… but it’s not like we’re going to throw ourselves in too much danger right? Right?
“I’m… not so sure” I said. “I mean I know we’re close to safety but… we’re not exactly in it are we?”
“Correct.” She said. “However, I do have a little something set up for this.”
Set up? Wait so that means..
“Wait if you have something set up for me then doesn't that mean you-“
“Knew you were going to say yes?” She interrupted.
Shit. She knows how to get what she wants huh?
“Well I haven’t said yes yet.” I said with a more serious tone. “What exactly have you set up?”
“Nearby there’s a spot that caught my eye one time. There’s enough going on to where it’ll be interesting to snoop around, but not anything dangerous. You’ll see what I mean.”
Fair. But if she wanted an accurate report, wouldn’t she want it to be authentic? But in reality, do either of us really want that? No, not really. She thought ahead and did quite a lot to get the most realistic version of me she could get without interference from outside forces and that was still safe. Clever girl.
“…alright, but I expect you to go out there in something other than some journalist getup.”
She chuckled. “Of course. I’ve got a few little weapons and stuff to keep myself out of trouble.”
Good, good.
“Well.. I guess I know what we’re doing today huh?”
“Indeed” she said. “We can finish up here and head out soon.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I said. “I’ll just tell Calamity and Velvet that-” what… was I going to say?
“Hm?” Homage looked at me, expecting an ending to that sentence. I looked at her, an idea appearing in my head.
“When you were young, how did you get away with doing stuff even if you had to tell your parents?”
I, cautiously, walked into Calamity and Velvet's suite. I gave them the fastest synopsis of the day's activities and, as many foals did, tried to walk away before they could ask any questions. But, despite my efforts, the questions came at me faster than I could avoid them.
“A report on what you do?” Calamity said. “Doesn't she like… already talk about that on the radio?”
“Yea but this is in person! It’s different! We’ll be back soon okay? I’ll see you la-”
“Nooo you don’t!” Velvet said. “I need to make sure you’re prepared for the worst. What are you bringing? Just cause it’s different circumstances doesn't mean it can’t become dangerous.”
Wow, little Miss Chaperone is going through the field trip checklist huh?
“Well I was just going to bring my weapons, normal tools...” She gave me a stern look. “And medical supplies to support both of us in case something happens…”
“Good.” Velvet said.
“OK mom,” I said mockingly. “I’ll have fun on my field trip.”
“Don’t get too distracted by your company!” Velvet said teasing. I blushed slightly.
“…be safe.” Is all Calamity said, with the face I imagine a dad makes when their kid goes off to a concert. As I left I swore I heard Calamity say something along the lines of “I feel like a dad.”
With Little Macintosh, my tools, and probably a bit more medical supplies than either of us would really need, we were ready. With a different companion than normal to my side, I stepped out of Tenpony tower. Homage, to my surprise, just followed me out without anything to take notes on. Or was I taking this whole journalist thing a little too much to heart?
“So Miss Wasteland Heroine.” She said, “Where to?”
I blushed a bit at the comment. Expected. I thought nothing of note that I wanted to go look at, so…
“Where's that little thing you set up?”
“About a twenty minute walk.” She said, “Gives me time to see how you act.”
“You know how you say that I feel like we’re in a nature documentary.”
Homage responded by getting in a mock stealth stance. “Here we see the wild LittlePip. Famous for her heroic actions, planning, and unique curses.”
I giggled at her, happy that she ended her list there. We were still in earshot of the guards after all. And eyeshot. Nothing too personal… though they’ve already seen whatever that was.
“Let’s get going, maybe we will run into something you can actually document that you don’t already know.”
A smirk appeared on Homage's face as we started walking. She pulled a notepad and pen from her saddlebags. So she DID bring one. She began to prance around me
“Oh Miss Littlepip! I’m your biggest fan! I hope you can answer some questions!”
Oh please have mercy.
“No photos please!” I said going along with the joke, increasing my pace. “I have some very important business to attend to.”
“Aaawww!” She said, “Not even for your faaavorite media pony?” She leaned in closer to me. “Normally its a lot easier to get noises out of you~”
I froze. Oh you little...
“W-well I uhh..” I stammered going red. “I-I believe those are statements I will not be sharing with the public.”
“Too bad I did already.”
I just started laughing at that. She can play character parts really well, I’ll give her that. I can only imagine what we would look like to any passerbys. The last place you’d expect to see a couple on a stroll is… here. Hell, do you even see healthy relationships out here? How does one go on a date out here anyways?
“Actual question though.” Homage asked a few minutes later.
“Hm?” I looked at her.
“What is your group's strategy while traveling? What are your advantages and disadvantages?”
Ah, here we go.
“Well, air travel is for sure one of our biggest helps.” I said. “Sure, we would still be doing what we *are* doing without it, but it would take so much longer with walking, and who knows what kind of encounters with all the distance we cover let alone time. I mean sure we still get into a lot of danger, but at least we’re somewhat used it is. I’m not that new to this at this point. I'm not walking out of a stable and getting shot by a group of strangers anymore. After that, you learn how things work.”
“So you think road safety is a big step towards a better future for Equestria?”
I… huh, she is really putting thought into this huh?
“I’d say so. Thankfully around here things aren’t so bad, but I know travel between towns and outposts is.. Sketchy to say the least. Pegasus based travel is near impossible for most, but I can imagine air based travel will add a layer of safety.”
Homage used her magic to write down something.
“If I'm going to take a bullet, I want to take it at the place that is actually dangerous, not the road there.”
“I see.” She said.
It was interesting to see her concentrating face. DJPon3 was a persona she had nailed down, but this was a bit more out of her element.
After a few pointers of directions, she asked something I wasn’t ready for. I think not expecting things had become a theme of today.
“When we get there, do you mind if we do some shooting practice?”
“Um… sure.” I said a bit taken aback. Honestly I’ve never considered practice on its own. I learn everything at the moment. Trust me, there’s been a lot of those recently. But probably not for her.
“How long has it been since you’ve actually used a weapon?” I asked.
“Too long and not long enough.” She responded. “I was a pretty standard shot, but its important that I stay up to that standard.”
She was right, sadly. If she ever needs to take action, certainly better safe than sorry.
“Is there a good place near where we’re going?”
“I think we can make something out of it.” She said.
Wasn’t like someone was gonna be mad about a few new bullet holes
After a few short minutes, we arrived at the fenced off.. something. There was a sign out front however, but it became quickly aware it was put there by a certain member of my party.
“Some place fun… gee!” I looked to Homage. “I wonder who put this sign here.”
She giggled. “Oh just adding some pizazz. Seems every place you go into may as well have an inviting sign, thought I may as well take the liberty of doing so.”
Riiight… well besides that, it was locked up. Bingo, time to show off a bit.
“If you want a story, I think you’ll want to pick up on my lock picking skills.”
“Oh will I?” She said. “Lemme see.”
I got out my Bobby pin and screwdriver. I concentrated a little more than normal. A certain other pony in my presence made it suddenly feel like I had to give a show. So much for boasting about my skills. I bit lightly on my tongue. All I needed was to wait for the next click and-
*glomp*
(Picture occurs here! https://derpibooru.org/images/2684488)
I felt a certain familiar weight suddenly land on my back. I went red instantly.
“W-w-what are you doing!?” I asked shocked and flustered.
“You make the cutest face when you concentrate, you know that?” She said softly, her words carrying so much sincerity that I almost was going to agree with her. Of course, my embarrassment was stronger than that.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Oh please.” She said gleefully. “Even if it wasn’t, you certainly look cute now, miss flustered.”
I wanted to bury myself. Maybe we can just get in here by digging under instead?
I loosened up and laughed. “Ya know if you keep messing with me we won’t ever actually get in right?”
“Alright alright.” She said. “I’ll let you work.”
I got back to it and with the pressure gone we were in quick. In reality I could’ve just shot the lock, but hey, gotta look good for the.. presses… wait.
“Remind me again why you always make me look so good on the radio? Besides to embarrass me of course.”
She thought for a second, making sure she worded it right.
“Cause then people have something to look forward to. You’re aren’t fiction Littlepip. Everything I say, while worded a bit boastfully, is true. People need to hear some good news here and there. You’re the good news.” She started looking elsewhere. “I’ve already sort of told you all this but it’s important you know what your name means. Now I know in the world of radio it’s important to balance my stories. The news while necessary to a broadcast isn’t always that interesting, and I try and stay consistent with the past broadcast schedules. People don’t like change. In fact, while in my research of our broadcasts history I-“
*glomp*
It was my turn for a surprise hug attack.
“You’re cute when you’re nerding out.”
“Gah!” She chuckled. “Okay okay! Don’t make me buck you off!” I slid off her back.
“Paybacks a bitch huh?” I said, giving her a cocky grin. She rolled her eyes.
Laid in front of me was something I thought would be more suited for Calamity. I wasn’t much of a scavenger in reality, but if this was set up for me then I’ll act natural. OK, what we got? Utility shed, bunch of metal and materials, and what looked like a small stand. That would probably be my first bet. I walked towards the stand. Some kind of sales desk? The small access door on the side opened with ease. Inside lay an old cash register (Which would in theory be a good score, but useless with our method of currency) bunch of boxes, punch cards? and… bingo, a terminal. In… this place? What the hell was this thing doing here? It hit me that despite this place holding some kind of purpose, I had yet to see any actual signs that indicated what it was. Well OK, besides the “Some Place Fun” sign out front but that was clearly a recent edition. Maybe this held the secret? Then it hit me. The punch cards, the terminal, the lack of anything else really here yet..
“Hey” I said to Homage. “Is this some kind of construction site?”
“Bingo!” she said. It all fell into place. With so many buildings destroyed it was hard to tell what was new and old. The land around this fenced off area must have been a new development, and this was the office and punch in area for employees. But why was the shed so small?
“Sooo” Homage said, watching me take note of the surroundings. “Isn’t this the part where you hack the terminal?”
Oh, right.
“Well hey, taking some time for critical thinking.”
It wasn’t that hard in reality, the password was “BETTERFUTURE” I’m assuming based off the new projects they were working on. On top of all the options was in big text “Ministry of Awesome Event and Storage Center.” Inside the logs were honestly kind of boring. A whole pile of orders, progress goals, employee records, but they all seemed.. short. Like there should be more of them than there are. All ready for the future but little done. But finally some voice recordings. I pulled out my Earbloom, realizing an issue. There’s only one of these, and there’s two of us. Homage saw the issue.
“What if you turn it up high and it’s like a mini speaker?”
I tested the theory. Tinny and a bit quiet, but with both of us real close to the Earbloom and each other we started the audio.
“This is Suresight, giving an audible Progress report. Uh… all is well? Gah, well all is well in here, but the entire city's bureaucracy is up my ass about noise, closures, and deadlines. Look, I understand being ambitious with leaving time for error, but this is ridiculous. God forbid supply lines, in a war of all times, are a bit funky. Ya want your damn ministry building built honey? Sorry but we can’t go any faster. Hell, they gave us exactly what we asked for in terms of labor, but when you mess up your own schedule how the hell is it our fault.”
It went quiet as someone walked in.
“And just like that, some land ordinance bastard is here to “overlook our plans.” Excuse me if Rainbow Dash wants to be an egotistical hoare about her own ministry, but she wants a flashy building and were gonna build it….. Ground structure is done. Waiting on steel on the… oh yea! The fucking trains! And what do those run on? Coal! Where's all the coal? That’s right! God damn you'd expect someone to think this through! I’m done with this recording, GodSpeed you fucks.”
“Well,” Homage said. “Someone isn’t happy.
It returned to the Home Screen after the message. Event and Storage center.. Why?
“Yea… lot of rough stuff going on with the construction of..” I thought. “I guess this was gonna be a.. big building with lots of inside space?”
It’s all I can imagine. Storage is nothing but space, events need space.
“What else is in the terminal?” Homage looked at the screen.
It all looked so… well, boring. Nothing really screamed ‘oh here’s the blueprints.’ It felt almost staged with how simple everything was on this terminal. But then, it didn’t have that difficult of a job, and if this was all set up so early on in the process there can only be so much.
“Let’s try another recording.” I said. I got a nod in response and picked an older one.
“This is Free Fall from the Ministry of Awesome leaving a message for.. whoever is here next. In short, we’re good to go for ground excavation. I know we put out a lot of plans and goals early on, we’re sorry. We got so caught up in planning we put supply as an afterthought. We.. we will make it up to you guys, we swear. Have a good day.”
We shrugged at each other and went to the third, and final, recording.
“This is Suresight again… heh, calling everyone who’s got a spot in the stables down. Guess I can’t do shit but leave a message for… whoever. See you around.”
That was… eerie. So simple but so…
“I didn’t like that.” Homage said.
“…me neither. But if you really want to know what it’s like going through these terminals well.. It's like this a lot. They’ve gotta end at some point. My habit of checking these things has a lot of sad endings, and you’ve gotta connect the story.
“Yea.” She said. “Just never gets any easier.”
I gave her a small hug. “Come on, let’s go find something ‘fun’ like you advertised.”
She giggled a little. “I guess we can do that.”
We stepped out and I looked around. There was one thing I realized then that I hadn’t before.
“Well if you want an accurate description, you would also need to include my friends.” I said. “Calamity would have all the small poking around done by now, And Velvet would do a bit of it too.”
“Oh so you guys divide and conquer a bit then?”
Do we? It just came to us so naturally at this point but…
“I guess we do?” But without them, it’s up to me.”
Too bad there wasn’t actually much here to look into. While terminals tended to always hold something of interest, sometimes the rest of the places we visited were just empty or of little use. I looked over to Homage.
“Well, I hate to say it, but this is normally when we would kind of just… carry on?”
“Huh.” Homage said in thought. “I guess that’s fair… in that case can we get that target practice in?”
Oh, right.
With the bits of scrap we found laying around, we set them up on a big steel beam sitting near one of the holes dug for the foundation that had smoothened out over time.
“So…” I looked to Homage. “How do you want to do this?”
“Well.” Homage said looking around. “We just try and be as accurate as we can from as far away as we can.”
Pff, easy. Just stand back to a somewhat impressive distance, go into S.A.T.S and… oh, right.
“Uh, this good?”
Homage stood next to me. “If you think it’s what you need. I’m good.”
I pulled out Little Macintosh, aiming at one of the cans we had found.
BLAM
Can down. What an achievement. Homage trotted over and levitated the can back to us.
“Where were you aiming for?”
“Uh, the can?
Homage gave me a look. “Ok where on the can?”
“Uh… the middle?” I said, but realizing my shot actually almost missed going over.
“Here, let me show you something.” She signaled for me to hand her Little Macintosh. It felt… wrong to give anyone my weapon, but it was for a good reason. She taught me some tips that were a bit more textbook but useful nonetheless. With her weapon being magical energy and not bullets, we got some time to practice with both kinds and discuss advantages and disadvantages of each. Including the importance of precision with magical energy since it’s “shot” is a bit wider than a bullet. She exemplified her precision by shooting a shot right through one of the holes in the metal fences. Impressive from this distance!
“Ya know, I wasn’t expecting to learn so much from you.”
“I’ve had some time to learn some stuff, trust me.” Homage said looking at me happily, with a look of pride.
(Other image occurs here! https://derpibooru.org/images/2705328 )
I give her a little smile back. “What are you looking at?”
“Just someone I love is all.” She said. “And someone who's actually willing to listen to some pointers.”
I blushed. “It’s hard taking lessons from people sometimes. Especially when I feel like I just eventually pick up on stuff alone nowadays.”
“There’s always something new to learn Littlepip. And always a story to share!”
She was right. Maybe people can learn from my stories on the radio. Sure they may be a bit overplayed, but there’s always some truth to them.
“Thank you for bringing me out here.” I said looking back at Homage. “It feels… nice.”
She gave me a kiss. “Of course love. Now, let’s head back, I’ve got an idea that you gave me.”
An idea?
“I wanna have another sit down with your friends, pick up on what they have to say about your travels.”
…oh. Well that’s not what I was thinking. Brain, gutter, out, now.
Everyone sat around Homages table. It felt good to see everyone so relaxed and cheery, and that wasn’t just because of the drinks.
“Your choices in date plans are interesting.” Xenith said to Homage. “Though, I guess the more traditional choices have already been exalted.”
“I’m just glad they came back in one piece.” Calamity said. “Or at least without running into any trouble.”
“Where did you go?” Steelhooves said.
“The ‘Ministry of Awesome Event and Storage Center!’ Well, the construction site of it at least.” Homage said.
“You went on a date… to a construction site.” Steelhooves went silent for a second. “Why?”
We explained our reasoning and Homages' little “study” on us.
“Fair.” Steelhooves said. “And why did you think pumping us full of drinks would make us think straight?”
“That was Calamity’s idea, thank you very much.” Velvet said. “And besides, we haven’t really even started, so we can still get this done civilly and with sober minds.”
An idea popped into my head. “Ooor..” I said slyly. “If Homage wants to know the real us, we would drink like nothings different!”
“We don’t even drink alcohol often!” Velvet fired back.
“Too bad!” Calamity said, pouring and downing a shot of… something that looked strong.
Most of us laughed as I looked at Homage. She seemed pleased with the results. This was who we were as people, not as heros. They say you should never meet your heroes because of who they really are, but thankfully we aren’t any. Besides that being my title on the radio. We’re just ponies trying to do the right thing, and having fun while we can. This is the behind the scenes cut I hope people hear. All layers of someone are important. The ups, downs, and the… casual?
Homage cuddled up to me, smiling. She then looked at everyone else.
“So, what do you all want to do now?”
“Uh… drink?” Calamity said.
“Yea no shit.” I said to Calamity. “Besides that.”
“I want to hear more about these two’s relationship, but that may take a bit of loosening up.” Xenith said. Despite being a rough and tough zebra, she sure can be laid back sometimes. Everyone else looked at her with a bit of shock and then laughed. I even heard it from Steelhooves.
At the moment, something in my head made time slow down. The moment of peace and happiness in all the chaos. I was able to enter that zone of happiness. I don’t need to watch my back, watch my friends, or anything. In the arms of someone who loves me, and surrounded by friends. I know that this is the Equestria that we can make real again for everyone. Do I miss the safety of the stable? Yes, but I couldn’t really live an exciting life there, or even a truly fulfilling one. But now, I feel truly alive, even if sometimes I wonder how long that’ll last. But enough sappy talk, it sounds like I’m about to be embarrassed by someone.
