Fallout Equestria: Finding Hope

Chapter 3: Fallen Star

“I saw a shooting star yesterday. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Are you insane kid! You can’t go after Gut Rot, Midnight! He’s the most protected slaver in this side of Alpony! Not to mention you about died just coming here!” I can feel how angrily confused Turnpike is. But she can’t stop me at this point.
“If I want to go kill a slave leader, then I’m going to go kill a slave leader. Now, can you pass me those saddlebags please.” I say as I point a hoof at a pair of saddlebags. She doesn’t break her stare from me.

“Kid, I’ll admit it, you did a pretty good job with these raiders. But, Gut Rot’s personal stronghold has triple the amount of guards and triple the amount of firepower. Now how do you expect to get through that? All you have is a rigged together pistol and a shoddy sniper rifle!” Alright that’s true but I haven’t even searched the rest of the town for more supplies like I wanted to.

I look back over at her, ”Well I’m gonna check the rest of the town and bodies for more ammo and whatever weapons. Probably need a couple healing potions too while I’m at it. Maybe a bite to eat. Now can you please hoof me those saddlebags?”

“ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME KID,” Her face is rapidly turning an angry bright red. “I’m trying to help you here and you're making it kinda hard to do that!”

“Yea I’m listening, but I’ve set my mind to stopping Gut Rot. Then I’ll see you over at Haytham.” I reach over and grab the saddlebags myself.

“You don’t even know where he is! How the hell are you gonna kill him if you can’t find him!?” I continue packing my stuff into the saddlebags. These things can hold way more than I thought they could.

“Well, I thought you would at least tell me where it is,” I start looking around the room for more supplies. I’ll need some potions, ammo, and probably some kind of armor. Of course I could always go and grab some off of the dead raiders outside. But why would I want to wear anything so rigged together? Not to mention none of it seems that strong anyways, this pistol shot right through theirs.

“HEY KID,” Turnpike yells and waves her hoof in front of my face. “Are you even listening to me?”

I must have spaced out there for a second, “Sorry, what did you say? Also do you know where Cook Cook’s shack is? He probably has some pretty good stuff stashed away in there.”

She just sighs, “Well kid, since you’re clearly not listening to me, or going to for that matter, Cook Cook’s shack is just two shacks over. It’s the one with the giant grill in the front. Now promise me something Midnight,” A grim look appears on her face, “You’re a good kid, and you’ve proved that. Just please, be careful if you actually manage to get to Gut Rot. I know Cook Cook’s shack probably has the location of Gut Rot’s stronghold, but I don’t have the heart to send you to your own death. So be careful kid.”

I didn’t know what to say. One moment she’s mad at me, and the next she’s all serious. “Of course I can promise that. I wouldn’t go to Gut Rot’s just to get myself killed! If I were to die there, then it would be my own fault. Not yours. And I have no plans on dying anytime soon.”

She gets a slight smirk on her face, “You better not. The wasteland can use more ponies like you.” She holds out her hoof, “I better see you back at Haytham kid.”

I grab her hoof in mine and shake it, “See you there Turnpike.”

…

Turnpike gathered all of the others who were captured and started making her way back to Haythem. A couple of them tried to offer me some food and water they scavenged around the town but I couldn’t take it. Most of them are just skin and bones as it is.

The last thing I would ever expect from this place is the condition of Cook Cook’s shack, well the inside anyway. The outside is covered in blood and random profanity. Not to mention the gigantic grill in the front to cook who knows what. But the inside is the real miracle. It’s weirdly clean. Everything is placed neatly onto shelves, the bed is clean, and everything seems like it was dusted just a couple hours ago. Does Cook Cook actually live here or is it somepony who isn’t a murderer?

In the corner I notice is a terminal, I sit down in front of it and turn it on. In the whole terminal there are only two files. One labeled slaves and the other secret recipe. I click on the slaves entry.

This is just my records of the slaves coming into town from the old water park. Gut Rot is making me keep track after I forgot how many fucking slaves came in last time. Why the hell am I supposed to remember who they are if we are just going to be selling them anyways.

Below that is a long list of ponies and descriptions of each. Even has the description of Turnpike near the bottom. I exit that log and move down to the other. A recipe for some kind of stew.

Meat of any kind (preferably pony)
Four Potatoes
Six Carrots
Jalapeño peppers
Mutfruit
Sparkle-Cola (2x)

If you're reading this and you’re not me, then fuck off.

Not a secret anymore. I download the files onto my PipBuck and shut down the terminal. Maybe if I have time I could make the recipe. It doesn’t seem that bad other than the option of eating pony. I stand up and look around the shack. The only other notable thing is the fridge. Who knows what goodies Cook Cook has stored away in there. I begin walking over when I trip over something and slam face first into the bottom of the fridge. An extremely loud bang goes off above me and small pieces of metal rain down around me. I look up at the very top of the fridge to see a smoking black hole.

Holy shit, that could have been my head! Cook Cook really did care about his food. I open up the fridge to see that it’s also neatly organized. Strange meats in clear jars, vegetables and fruits that I’ve never even seen before, and a bunch of pre-war canned food and some soda bottles labeled Sparkle-Cola. I grab one of the Sparkle-Cola bottles and pop the cap off. (With much difficulty I may add) It pops off with a very satisfying fizz. I take a sip of it, letting the taste of it settle in my mouth. Realizing how good it is I take a greedy gulp of the carroty gold liquid. “I have no idea who decided to make carrot flavored soda, but I love you.” I say to the bottle in my hooves. I drink the remains of the bottle and toss it to the side. I grab the few remaining Sparkle-Colas and tuck them in my saddlebags. Also I grabbed a couple cans of something called “Cram”. I’m not sure what it is but food is food.

I slowly open the top freezer section from below, trying not to trigger any other traps. And… nothing. I look up to see a rifle shattered to pieces. The mouth bit locked in with duct tape and wooden toy blocks. Behind it is a small safe. I pull out the broken rifle and toss the pieces to the side. I reach in and the safe is luckily unlocked. Cook Cook must have thought that whoever could get into the fridge would get their brains blown out before they opened it. In the safe is a note, a strange glass ball, and a bag of bottle caps. I grab everything out and put it on the floor in front of me. Why would Cook Cook hide a ball and a bag of bottle caps? There has to be at least a couple hundred here. I grab the note. It’s written in very poor hoofwriting.

Great fucking job. You killed me. And you survived my trap. That means you’ve survived me twice. I guess you can have whatever I put in here. It’s not like I’m going to fucking stop you. And if I just died for some other reason and you get this note then I guess you can still take everything. But that’s not the point of any of this. If you managed to kill me then I want you to do something. Since obviously you're capable of killing a badass like me then I want you to take out that son of a bitch Gut Rot. He shorted me out on caps several times over the year I’ve worked for him. And he put me in this run down, so called “Town” and thought that was okay. And don’t worry, there’s a reward in it for you. Gut Rot keeps his key around his neck. That key unlocks everything he owns. The slave cages, every single door in his compound, but the most important thing is his stash. There are all the weapons, chems, armor and food you can dream of. But he’s the only one allowed in there so that could all be rumors. Anyways asshole. Go kill Gut Rot and his stockpile is all yours. I’ll just be happy to see that bitch dead.

I guess not everypony is a fan of their boss. I pick up the bag of caps. Is this what ponies use for currency now? Cook Cook mentioned something about getting shorted caps. I put them in my saddlebags. I’ll have to ask Turnpike when I get to Haytham. Now about Gut Rot’s treasure. If I could get this I could have a serious advantage against anything or anypony else in the wasteland.

I pick up the glass ball in my hooves. It’s a perfectly smooth sphere of glass. I put it up to my eye to try and see if there’s anything inside. It doesn't seem to be anything but an old antique. I shrug and put it along with the assortment of other crap I’ve picked up. After giving the room another once over I walk over to Cook Cook’s sink. Which is just a large bowl stained red with blood. Leaning on the wall above it is a broken off piece of a mirror. When I look into it I instantly notice my mane and how long it actually is. While sitting down it goes almost to my cutie mark. I reach back and pull out my knife. I’ve never actually given myself a haircut before, especially with a knife. I grab my mane in my hooves and start cutting it with the knife in my mouth. And because the knife is so dull I pretty much saw my way through it.

Giant clumps of white cover the floor in front of my hooves. I sit there staring at myself for a moment. Blood is already beginning to stain my clothes, dirt covering my face along with small cuts and burns scattered on the rest of my body. I’ve only been out here a day and I’m a completely different pony. I sigh to myself. Hopefully it’s for the best.

…

After walking for about a half hour north I find myself only about another half hour away from Gut Rot’s stronghold. The only thing that’s kept me entertained is the occasional giant cockroach or mutated animal to practice my aim with. I had just taken down a small hairless giant rat of some kind when to the west of me I heard somepony yell something and multiple gunshots fire off behind a small hill. I quickly fly over the hill to see a group of at least six ponies getting attacked by zombie ponies similar to Fleetfoot. But this time it’s a whole herd of them.

“Hold on, I'm coming to help,” I yell and start flying straight at them. I draw my combat knife and land directly on top of one. I quickly stab the knife into the ponies temple and twist. The zombie pony makes a low growl and falls to the ground.

“Watch your right!” I hear a mare say behind me. I quickly jump backwards and draw my pistol. Two of the zombies trip over the one I just killed. I quickly fire off a whole clip into the two. Both stay on the ground in a bleeding pile. I run over and retrieve my knife. A unicorn and an earth pony finish off the remaining two behind me.

The unicorn and earth pony both trot up to me. The unicorn mare pats my shoulder and begins to thank me, “I don’t know who you are, but you just saved us some caps.” How did I save them caps? I look around at the other ponies. Each one is wearing a pair of shackles. One of them is lying perfectly still with a chunk missing from her side and her entrails are strewn out on the ground. Behind me a light purple unicorn with snow white hair similar to mine has some kind of ring around her horn. I believe she is the one who alerted me to the duo of zombies.

“Are you guys slavers?” I raise an eyebrow and ask.

“Yes ma’am. We’re Gut Rot’s men,” Oh boy here we go, ”We were delivering these when this herd o’ ghouls came out’a nowhere.”

The other slaver starts talking, ”Thanks to you we only had one casualty. Is there anything we can do for ya? It’s the least we could do.”

“There is one thing you could do actually,” I glance back at the purple mare. She has a worried look on her face. I give her a little nod of assurance, but her look doesn’t change.

“Well we’d be happy ta help ya. What is it?”

I quickly draw my gun, ”You can release each one of these ponies. And if you resist then you're both taking hot lead in your skulls.” The heavily accented one drops to the ground. The other tries to draw his gun.

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted her! It was too good to be true!” I quickly fire off three shots into his chest. They easily pierce through his thin, makeshift armor. He falls to the ground with a hard thump. My right side is in a sudden pain. I look over to see a makeshift knife spear sticking out of me. The unicorn slaver levitates the spear out of me and presses it against my neck, it begins to cut into me.

“Now listen here missy. You're goin ta come back to Gut Rot’s with me after we drop off these slaves ta Cook Cook.” I let out a low laugh. “What are ya laughing at?”

“I killed everypony in that whole fucking town. Dropped the whole church on top of Cook Cook without a problem.” Where the spear had stabbed into me I could barely feel any pain. Almost like I was on pain medication.

“How the hell did ya kill Cook Co..” The purple mare slams into him, cutting him off and knocking him to the ground. She grabs the spear in her mouth and stabs it into his throat.

She drops the spear and gives me a crazy look and points to where the spear stabbed into me, “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“Uhh not really, nothing a healing potion couldn’t fix. Are you okay?” She gives me a crazy look, “ What?”
“You just got stabbed in the ribs with a spear and you're asking me if I’m okay.” I give her a nod. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re insane.” She holds out her chained hoof, “I’m Stardust, and you?”
“Midnight Note.” I walk over and search the slaver’s bodies for a key.
“Did you really kill Cook Cook? All on your own?” The key to the shackles isn’t on the unicorn’s body. But he did have some ammo for my pistol.
“Yea, I did. It wasn’t that hard actually. Just had to drop grenades on him. Then his church fell to the ground on top of him.” I walk over and search the other slaver. This one has to have a key.
“That’s impressive, especially for a Stable pony.” What is that supposed to mean? Everypony I’ve met so far that hasn’t tried to kill me has called me a Stable pony. “But you’re not a Stable pony though. You have a Dashite symbol on your flank. So, which one are you exactly?” I finally found the key on the slaver.
“Here, let me unlock your shackles.” She sits down and holds out her front hooves. I insert the key and turn it. The shackles clank to the ground. I go to say something but she stops me with a hoof. She tilts her horn down to my face to show me the strange ring. I insert the key and turn it. It gives a soft click and falls next to the shackles.
“Thanks. I can’t stand not being able to use my magic. Now what were you saying?” She levitates the ring in front of her and examines it.
“What’s a Dashite? You’re the first pony to mention anything about the strange scar.” I had nearly forgotten I was missing one one of my cutie marks. Stardust levitates the key from me and begins to unlock the rest of the slave’s shackles.
Stardust gives me a weird look, “You’re a pegasus who doesn’t know what the Dashites are, but you have their brand on your flank?” I nod my head to her question, “So if you don’t know how you got that symbol branded into you then what’s the story behind the Stable clothes and pipbuck?”
“Well, you’re probably not gonna believe this but I just woke up yesterday in Stable 8 and I know literally nothing about who I am. All I had was a note written by somepony named Buckshot and the help of a robot named Watcher.”
“You don’t know anything about who you are? Nothing about the wasteland? Anything about Alpony or any other city in Equestria?” I shake my head to all of these, ”Do you know anything at all about yourself?”
I shake my head and sigh, “All I know is my name really.”
Stardust finishes unchaining the slavers. Most of them are too weak to talk but can at least walk on their own.
I notice that Stardust isn’t like any of these slaves. She isn’t starving and she definitely has enough strength to fight. I couldn’t help but ask, “You look a lot healthier than the others here. I’m guessing you’re one of the newer slaves?”
Stardust nods, “Yea. I was looking for books at the Alpony Library when they came and got me. I managed to hide my stuff from them though, but I’ll have to head back and get it.”
The slaves had all began to gather around us. A smaller mare walks up to me, “Do you have anywhere safe to go...?” The words barely make it out of her mouth.

I reach into my saddlebags and give her a bottle of water and a can of cram. “Here, take this first.” I check my PipBuck’s map to make sure it’s the right way and point the group towards Haythem. “Tell a mare named Turnpike I sent you and she should help you. It’s not far so you should be safe.” I look over at Stardust, “If you want to you can go with them. I have somewhere else to be.”

Stardust raises an eyebrow, “Oh, and where do you think you’re going?”
“Uhhh... I’m going to go kill Gut Rot. Cook Cook’s terminal told me he was this way.” Her eyes go wide. “What?”
“You’re doing what! You really are insane aren’t you?” Great, another pony thinking I’m insane.
“You know, that’s what Turnpike said but she never changed my mind.” I give her a smirk and loot the rest of the slaver’s weapons.
“Well I’m coming with you then.” She begins to search through the raiders for something.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m go-” She interrupts me.
“Nonsense Midnight, I’m coming with you to keep you from getting killed. You’ll need all the help you can get. His stronghold is full of raiders and you wouldn’t last a second alone.” She levitates up a pistol and checks the clip. “Let’s go kill Gut Rot.”

…

So Stardust was my first real friend out here in the Equestria Wasteland. For the whole walk we talked about a little bit of everything. I told her about my life in the simulation and what it was like not having to live in a wasteland. She thought it was hilarious that Aera rejected me every time I tried to ask her out. Mostly for the fact I got rejected by something that wasn’t even real. She also shared some of her time in the wasteland. Apparently she left a farm she was born on to go search Alpony for old pre-war books and various other things she can learn about the past from. She’s been wandering alone ever since. Now, we both have each other. And let me tell you something, I’m glad I met her.
“Wait, you weren’t even sure if you were a mare or not in the real world? I couldn’t imagine that. Having one of those just, hanging there,” I see her shudder.
“It would ruin the whole thing of me being a lesbian. I’d just be the straightest lesbian in the whole wasteland.” I snicker to myself.
“Well you’re actually one of the few pegasi in the wasteland actually. Most live above the cloud cover.” I look up at the sky. Grey clouds seem to go on for miles with small beams of sunlight breaking through at random intervals. I realized that I’ve never actually looked up this whole time. “Why did you stop?” Stardust says. I look down to see her a few steps ahead of me. I couldn’t help but look at her cutie mark. Three blue shooting stars. “Midnight Note! Are you staring at my flank?”
“N-n-no…Y-es. But I was looking at your cutie mark. Not your…” I cover my face with my wings.
“It’s fine Midnight. You’re into mares, and I can’t change that.” She gives a little shrug. Alright, that's not what I was expecting. “Let’s change the subject from my flank though.” I give her a nod. ”So how long have you been into mares? Or I guess when did you figure out you prefer them over stallions in the simulation.”
To be honest I’ve never really thought about it before. Just ever since I was little I’ve just been more attached to mares. Or in the simulation I was anyways,” My eyes go wide, ”What if I was straight here in the wasteland.” I quickly hit my head with a hoof to get those thoughts out. I nearly gag when I realized I may have done stuff with Buckshot.
“Well if I were to guess, your personality wasn’t fully erased. You probably were still into mares here in the wasteland, but we can’t be sure just yet. Remind me when I get my stuff back and I may know a spell that could get your memory back.” There's spells that can do that? Add another point to unicorns.
“I’ll be sure to remind you, it would be amazing to get some answers.” If Stardust could get my memory back then I would owe her everything. But what if I didn’t like being the old me? I could’ve been the evilest pony in the wasteland. Just running around killing innocent ponies for fun. Who knows what I was before Stable 8. That’s going into the things I don’t want to think about along with me and Buckshot being a thing.

“So what's our plan with Gut Rot? Are we just charging in guns blazing or are we going to try to sneak in?” I’m glad she changed the subject. All these thoughts about who I was are going to drive me crazy.
“We should scope out the place from a distance then decide on a plan. If we can easily get to the slave cages without being caught then we should sneak. But since I kinda want Gut Rot dead, we’re probably going to end up in a giant firefight.” Hopefully we’ll make it out alive. Or at least Stardust. I would feel terrible if she got hurt, or even killed, because of me.
“I’m fine with whatever you choose. I’m making you the honorary leader.” Leader? I’ve never led anything in my life! “I’ve been in Gut Rot’s though and the slaves are in a heavily guarded area. And to open the cages we’ll need the key he keeps around his neck. And that involves a lot more than sneaking in and getting the slaves out.”
“Okay then. Well I have this sniper rifle. One of us could stay back while the other goes in. But I feel like sticking together would be a better plan.” Ugh, why couldn’t Stardust be the one to make up a plan.
“Well all I have is this pistol I got off of those slavers. If I had my rifle this would be a different situation. But we can make do with what we got. What do you have for ammo?” Oh gosh I don’t even know.
I pull up my PipBuck’s inventory spell, ”About two clips in my pistol, and twelve rounds for my rifle. And my knife, but that won’t help against a group of them.” Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight fillies.
“Here,” She levitates up a rock and begins drawing in the dirt, “There's three buildings in total above ground. Gut Rot’s is of course the biggest one. Snipers are positioned in the water slide tower here.” Snipers on the water slides. Sounds fun. “And this whole area in the center is the old pool. Gut Rot put a cage over the top of the thing to keep slaves in. Kind of an ingenious idea if you ask me. There’s a locked trap door there. But once again we will need Gut Rot’s key. Otherwise the only other way into the slave pit is to go down a waterslide. But I doubt none of the slaves could jump eight feet high and climb up a whole water slide.” Okay that helps a lot.
“How many slavers do you think there are in total?” I ask.
Stardust raises her hoof to her chin, “Probably around thirty. And if they’ve got in a new shipment then there’s at least forty.” Well fuck me.
“Okay that’s a lot more than I was expecting.” I stare at the map for a second until I get hit by an idea. I pull out Cook Cook’s note left in the safe. “Cook Cook says that Gut Rot kept a supply room full of weapons and food. If we can get in there, we could set up some kind of defense.”
“That's a good idea, but once again we need that key.” I keep forgetting about this stupid key. I notice her eyes go wide, “Wait... what if we just walk in?”
“Stardust, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than me.” Please say she’s going somewhere with this. Walking in would instantly be a death sentence,
“No, we walk in as slavers.” She must see the confusion in my face, “We go back and take the slaver’s armor we killed back there, then we wear it into the water park and act like we’re supposed to be there.” That’s… actually an amazing idea.

…

The water park was just as Stardust described it. Three buildings. Two around the same size and a bigger one which would be Gut Rot’s. On one edge is the giant water slide tower. Which is at least two stories high. Blue, yellow, and red slides curve down into the caged slave pool below. And that’s not talking about their glorious decorating. Just like Cook Cook’s town there is random mutilation scattered everywhere you look. Pony heads on spikes decorating the entrance, split open pony carcasses hanging from chains attached to the lights, and finally the random blood splattering the walls and ground. And to think this was once a place of joy for little fillies and colts.

“How do they wear this stuff? Makeshift armor is not a good idea. I’d rather get shot.” Seriously. A metal piece keeps poking at my nethers no matter how I walk.

“Well you’ll be glad we aren’t getting shot at by the snipers yet, we’d already be missing our heads if we walked this close without it.” I think I feel worse for Stardust. Her beautifully long white mane is tucked up into her helmet. Only a little bit is sticking out. We decided to do nothing with my mane, but we did cover up my wings. They would be able to recognise me as a stranger if we didn’t. Hopefully they still won’t.

We both walk up to the main entrance. Two unicorn guards stand watch wearing almost the same exact armor. One of the guards approaches us. “What do you two think you two are doing here? We’re on high alert after what happened to Cook Cook.” How the hell do they already know about that? It was only a couple of hours ago right?

Stardust walks in front of me. “We heard about what happened to Cook Cook. It’s a real shame. He was one of our best.” I’m glad she’s doing the talking. The guard seems to be buying it. “We came from out west after we heard the news. Is there any way we can help out?”

“Well you’d have to talk to Gut Rot about that.” He points a hoof at the bigger building, “He should be there now. Just don’t interrupt him if he’s talking to anypony.” The guard walks over and opens the gate. The other doesn’t even glance over at us.

Walking into the actual waterpark gave me chills. Being around this many different psychotic ponies, who want to put your corpse up on display for enjoyment, is not the nicest thing. “This place is making me uncomfortable,” Stardust whispers next to me.

“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” I whisper back.

We start to walk across a catwalk stretching across the slave pool. A rotten stench pierces my nose instantly. I glance down over the railing to see dozens of thin, sickly ponies, even foals and colts. Most are lying down on rotten hay mattresses and scrapped beds. In one of the corners I’m pretty sure is the dead, rotting body of a mare.

We keep walking across the bridge until we reach the main building. Another, more heavily armed than before, guard walks up to us. “We were told to come talk to Gut Rot about ways we can help around here,” Stardust says casually.

“Who the hell told you that you two could be in here?” He says in a surprisingly deep voice, “Nopony is supposed to be allowed in here.”

“We were told to come see Gut Rot. Just following orders here guy,” I say to him. He just gives me a dirty look.

Stardust sighs and leviates my bag of bottle caps out of my saddlebags. The bag floats neatly into the armor of the guard. “Maybe now you’ll let us in?” The guard grunts and gestures for the door.

We walk in to instantly hear somepony yelling, “So you’re telling me a pegasus, fresh from a fucking Stable, came into Cook Cook’s town and killed all of you! Including Cook Cook, one of my best men! And how the hell did she end up burning down and collapsing the whole church! And another thing. How in the fucking shit did you survive it and nopony else out of that whole group did!”

I lean over to Stardust, “Is it just me or does Gut Rot sound a little… young?”

“He does. I’ve only ever heard his voice though. He never leaves this building enough for most of the slaves to get a glimpse of.” Wait. She doesn’t even know what Gut Rot looks like?

“W-w-well sir. We’ve never fought a pegasus before. B-because, you know, they are so r-rare and she kinda came out of nowhere and she was so fast an…” That voice sounds really familiar…
“I don’t fucking care how fast she was, or how rare pegasi are. SHE. WAS. ONE. PONY. You know what. Get out of my damn sight. I’ve had enough of you and this mother fucking pegasus!” The doors in front of us slam open to reveal the stallion that pushed me off of the church railing. His coat is now covered in burns.
He pauses when he sees us, “Do I know you from somewhere?”
“Nope. You definitely don’t know me in the slightest. Now get on out of here, I got business with the boss” He just stares at me for a second before running out the door. “Alright, we gotta watch out for him. I think he knows who I am.” I whisper over to Stardust.
“Yea I see you two out there. What the fuck do you want.” Stardust walks in first. I trail right behind her.
“Hello, we are…” I see a tiny figure sitting on a throne made of old water toys. Then the realization hits me. Gut Rot’s a colt. A small grey and black earth pony colt wearing a tiny paper crown. “W-we are here to see if you guys need an...” I shake my head in disbelief.
“Sorry about her, she's new to this. We came because we heard about what happened to Cook Cook. We want to help in any way we can.” Oh am I glad Stardust took over.
“You two seem like you can handle yourselves.” He hops up to his hooves and walks over to Stardust, “And you’re kinda cute. I could use another cock sleeve around here.” Oh how I wanted to shoot him in his head right then and there… until I remembered he is a colt. I can’t kill a colt! That’s just too fucked up! “No… That won’t do… you two are going to be our new cooks!” What! I can’t cook anything! “Mares are perfect for cooking! So that must mean you two must be great cooks!” Celestia please give me a single reason not to kill this stupid fucking kid.
“Can do boss. Where’s the kitchen at?” Stardust says without breaking a sweat. I don’t know how she’s keeping her cool right now. I had no problem talking to every other murderer here.
“Glad you’re up for it. It’s the smaller building to the left of the water slides. Just head on in and tell Porkchop I sent you.” We both nod simultaneously and begin walking out but Gut Rot stops us. “What’s your names before I forget?”
Stardust goes to say something but I interrupt her, “I’m Littlepip and she’s Blackjack.” I hear Stardust let out a small sigh of relief.
“Well it’s nice to have you both here Blackjack and Littlepip.” I’m glad he bought that. “I expect great things from that kitchen!” He says as we walk out.
“Really? Littlepip and Blackjack? Where did you get those names from?” Stardust gives me a confused look.
“Watcher said them when I first got out of Stable 8. Apparently they got out of Stables at the same time I did. But they’re far from here so they shouldn’t mind us using their names.” I wonder how they are doing also. Probably a lot better than me.
We begin walking towards the kitchen, “So, Littlepip, do you even know how to cook.” She made sure to add a little bit of sass to Littlepip when she said that. I’m not a fan.
“Literally no idea. But I do have a recipe of Cook Cook’s I could make if they have the stuff.” If it’s a kitchen they should hopefully have the ingredients. “So what are we going to do about Gut Rot? I wasn’t expecting him to be a colt... I don’t know if I can kill a colt Stardust.”

She lets out a sigh, “I’m not sure. But we’re going to have to do something about him. Letting somepony like that live, even if they’re a foal, in Equestria is just a crime against everything sane.” As we walk most of the slavers stare at us. A couple whistle and shout out some very not safe for work slurs about what they would do to us both. “Any idea where the only survivor of Cook Cook’s gang is? Or even how he survived, because from what you described he shouldn’t even be able to stand.”

“Luck is the only thing I can think of. I bet the church is still on fire right now actually.” He’s lucky I didn’t see him escape. “I really have no idea honestly, but hopefully he won’t recognise me.”

The raider kitchen is exactly like Cook Cook’s shack, completely not what I expected. Everything is decently clean. The dishes are clean and not falling apart. The stove actually works and so does the fridge. It was apparently some sort of food stand before the war that called itself the Seaponies’ Seafood. Judging by the two hundred year old menus no actual fish was sold, or ate, here. Mostly just ice cream and various other frozen treats and drinks.

Porkchop wasn’t even here when we walked in, not a single pony was. So we did the only thing we could do. We made some soup. I read off the recipe for Cook Cook’s fiend stew off of my PipBuck while Stardust gathered the ingredients out of the fridge. And to both of our surprises all the ingredients were there. (Don’t worry. We found meat that wasn't a pony.) Even some extra Sparkle-Cola, which me and Stardust drank of course.

“How much longer till it’s done,” I ask Stardust while she stirs the pot with her magic. Telekinesis is overpowered.

“I’d say a couple minutes. Here, try some.” She levitates over a spoonful into my mouth. It’s the warmest, most carroty goodness that I’ve ever had. I don’t know how Cook Cook makes Sparkle-Cola work in a stew, but damn he lives up to his name.

“You need to try that. Holy Luna, that's amazing!” I begin to glance around the room. I need to find a jar or some kind of container. I want to keep some for later.

“Okay you weren’t wrong. I expected it to be weirdly carbonated.” I finally find an empty pickle jar in the fridge. I hold the jar in my hooves in front of Stardust. “Are you really taking some?” I just nod. “What are you going to do with that?”

“I’m going to eat it later. Duh.” She lets out a giggle. And begins to pour some with her magic.

“Well be careful with it. You don’t want it breaking in your bags.” I wrap it in my Stable clothes just in case. “Ready to serve some hungry raiders?”

“It’ll be a lie if I say yes.” I walk over to a set of sliding metal windows and lift it above my head with a hoof. “Soup is on, motherfuckers!” I yell as loud as I can out into the courtyard.

Almost all at once slavers come and sit at the benches in front of the kitchen. I even noticed Gut Rot came out of his building. On one of the benches sits the pony from Cook Cook’s camp. Stardust levitates a giant stack of bowls over along with a bunch of rusty spoons. “Everypony come line up and get some grub!” She yells next to me. In a rush everypony runs up, pushing, shoving and cutting in the line. I begin to count how many heads are in line and I lose count around twenty five. Stardust just calmly passes them their bowls filled with the stew. I still don’t know how she does it.

Burned pony is next to get served, “Damn that smells good. Hope it tastes as good as it smells.” He happily takes his bowl back to his seat.

“I’m impressed by you two. I haven’t seen these assholes this happy since Cook Cook was the old cook here!” I’m glad everypony is buying into the whole ‘we are raider’s thing. “I think I’ll keep you two around for more than my own personal fuck slaves. Stop by later and I’ll give you two your first days pay,” He gives us a little wink and walks off.

“I hate him so fucking much Stardust.” I whisper over to her.

“Well you can kill him here soon. We just have to blend in for a little while longer.” I let out a groan and look out into the crowd of hungry slavers. Each of them is as happy as can be, except one. The burned pony (damn I really need to learn his name) is just staring at his bowl in awe for some reason. He slowly looks up and stares straight into my eyes. Oh no. He looks down at his bowl then back at me again. He points a hoof at me and mouths the word “You”.

“Alright everypony thanks for enjoying the food. Bye bye.” I quickly slam the metal window shut.

Stardust looks over at me in shock, “What the hell was that all about?”

“Stardust we need to leave right now! Burned survivor pony knows it’s me!” I push on Stardust’s flank towards the back door. “He recognized the soup! He knows it’s me!” Stardust levitates open the door. “Let’s go to Gut Rot’s before everypony turns on us.” I look behind us and notice a single red tick in a sea of blue on my E.F.S.

We get into Gut Rot’s without a problem. Everypony is too busy enjoying the stew. We open the doors to Gut Rot’s throne room. Instead of donning his paper crown he has the stew bowl on his head, it nearly covers his eyes. He’s making weird fake gunshot sounding noises with his mouth and aiming with his spoon. I sigh, even though he’s a slave lord he’s still a colt.

He looks up from his imaginary gun fight. “Oh hey you two, didn’t expect to see you here this fast. Nice job with the stew by the way!” He tosses the bowl to the side and puts on his crown. “I’m guessing you came for your pay.” He walks over to a small cabinet and pulls out a key. “Here, you earned the right to call yourself official members of my home.”Stardust levitates the key from him. “Your room is in the other smaller building opposite of the kitchen. I made sure to give you two a room to yourselves so you won’t be bothered by the others.” Okay that’s the nicest thing he’s done so far.

“Thank’s Gut Rot. If you need us we’ll be over there sleeping. Sleeping, yes. Sleeping,” I really need to let Stardust do the talking.

Gut Rot raises his eyebrow then laughs. “If you two need some help ‘sleeping’, I could send over one of the stallion slaves in the pool. Consider it a bonus.” Alright back to completely hating him.

I go to say something but Stardust stops me, “Thanks boss but we don’t need help ‘sleeping’.” She grabs my tail with her telekinesis and pulls me out of the room. “We really need to make you less panicky when you talk. It’s gonna get us killed sooner or later.”

“You know, I’ve never really had this kind of problem before. I think it’s the fact that he’s a colt is what’s really messes with me. And that’s messing with the fact I don’t want to get caught and probably get us shot. If I were to get you killed I would feel terrible. It’s all my fault you’re here anyways,” We walk into the smaller building.

Almost instantly as the door closes behind us, Stardust grabs my face in her hooves and looks me right in my eyes, “You don’t need to worry about me Midnight. I’ve been in the wasteland literally thousands of times longer than you have. I should be the one worrying about you.” It’s at that moment I realized how pretty her eyes are. They’re a light purple that matches her coat perfectly. She gives me a soft smile, “We’ll both be fine as long as we stick together, alright?”

“Alright. Stick together and we can get through anything.” I say and she lets go of my head, “Let's go get some rest. Or at least hide out from that pony for a while.”

We walk past the main room of the small building which is filled with lockers and old dirty mattresses. A couple of the raiders are passed out with empty alcohol bottles and what appears to be various different kinds of needles next to them. Not to mention the room is giving off a weird smell that I can’t be sure what it’s from.

Stardust unlocks our room with the key. A small plaque is on the door that reads ‘Pool Administration’. The room appears to be a smaller office, or used to be one. From the doorway I can see multiple rotted posters advertising their pool. In the corner is a large bed in a decent condition. A window is letting in little of the sunset outside, other than that there’s no light. Across from there is a desk with a smashed terminal. Stardust walks in first ahead of me. I take a step in and everything around me gets enveloped in a bright white light. Something in my head begins pounding against my skull and I drop to the ground in pain.

“Midnight! What’s happening to you!” Stardust runs over to my side.

“I… don’t… k-k-know,” I barely say through my teeth.

Then, out of nowhere, the pain stops. Stardust starts to help me to my hooves. “Hey sweetie, how was the pool?”

“Stardust... now isn’t the time for jokes,” I barely utter under my breath.

“Midnight… I never said anything,” I look up to see the room is completely different. The desk with the smashed terminal is now in the center. Sitting on it is a different modeled terminal than the smashed one. Stacks of papers are lining the rest of the desk. The posters on the wall are different also. No tears or damage and don’t even have the same pictures as the current ones. Shockingly two, surprisingly clean, other ponies are sitting in the same room. A stallion behind the desk typing at the terminal, and a unicorn mare sitting in front of the desk. She’s looking right at me.

“Sweetie, you’re soaking wet.” She reaches into a bag next to her and pulls out a towel. Out of nowhere a filly runs clear through me and up to the unicorn mare. I let out a scream and jump to the side.

“Midnight what the hell is wrong with you?” Stardust yells next to me. I give her a confused look.

“Do you not see any of this?! There are three ponies sitting right in front of us!” She just stares at me blankly. “Ugh, gimme a second to figure out what the hell this is.”

I look back over at the new ponies in the room. They don’t seem to be acknowledging me at all. What the hell is going on?

“There, you’re all dry now.” She levitates the towel back into her bag and pulls out a small purple stuffed owl. The filly lets out a little squeal and grabs it in her hooves.

“Mr.Hoots! Ahhh.” The small filly yells, giving him a bear hug and runs out of the room.

The unicorn’s eyes go wide and then she relaxes with a small smile. Behind her the stallion starts talking, “Now that that interruption is over, we can continue our business. Mrs.Simulacra, you owe us five thousand bits for the parts you wanted. We happily agreed to sell them to you because of our latest renovations, yet you haven’t paid a single bit of it.”

“It’s Dr.Simulacra, not mrs. I’m not married you… I told you I would pay you back when I get the bits from my experiment. I just need a little bit more time to finish it and get it to the M.o.A.S. Then once they accept it, which I know they will, I will pay you back the amount of bits you requested. Just give me time, please.” I can hear the panic in her voice.
The stallion’s expression doesn’t change, “What is this project you’re making Dr.Simulacra. If it’s this great of a thing you would think you would already have the full support of the Ministry Mares.” My eyes go wide when I realize I recognise that name. The mare’s skeleton from Stable 8, somehow she’s standing right in front of me.
“I must apologize, I can’t reveal that information. My research is to hopefully help with the war effort. With all of this going on about Luna taking the throne, they should be glad to have anypony helping them.” The stallion keeps his blank demeanor on his face.
“I’ll tell you what. You have two weeks to finish this ‘project’ then after that we will call the proper authorities and have you arrested for theft.” Dr.Simulacra’s eyes go wide and she gives him a quick nod.
“You won’t regret this sir. I assure you I’ll get you the money.” From behind her runs in her daughter. Holding a now soaked Mr.Hoots.
“Mommy! Mr.Hoots jumped off the diving board!” Dr.Simulacra turns around and says something but words don’t come out. The room slowly fades back into the dirty old room it was before. The ponies fading away into another world. Another time.
“Midnight! What is going on with you!?” I look over to see Stardust staring very worryingly at me. “Finally! I’ve been yelling at you for five minutes now!” She shakes her head and points at me. “Your nose is bleeding.”
I put my hoof up to my nose and draw it back to check. I wipe my hoof on the floor and look back up to Stardust, “So you’re telling me you saw none of that?”
“There was nothing there Midnight! You were staring at the wall the whole time!” She closes the door and locks it with her magic. “What happened?”
“There were three ponies in this room. A stallion, a mare, and a filly. The room was also arranged completely different. And most of it clean. I think it was before the war. Apparently the mare owed the stallion some money for some project she was building, but she couldn’t afford it.” This has to sound insane. “The mare was named Dr.Simulacra,” I hold up my PipBuck, “This is her PipBuck Stardust!”
“How was that hers if she didn't exist! Midnight you’re making no sense,” I need some way to prove this.
“Her skeleton was in Stable 8 and I found this PipBuck on her. She was wearing a name tag that said Dr.Simulacra.” I can’t think of any other way to explain it, “I can understand if you don’t believe me. But I saw it happen in front of me.”
She lets out a sigh, “I can’t explain what you saw Midnight, but I’ll trust you. I think we should take a look at those memory pod things you were trapped in. Maybe I can figure out something if I take a look at their tech”

“Thank you Stardust...”
“Just promise me that if this happens again that you’ll tell me exactly what goes on in them, okay?” She begins to strip herself of the raider armor. I do the same. “You’re a strange pony Midnight.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that any of this is happening to me.” I throw my hooves in the air above my head, “So far my first day out of the simulation has been one giant mess after the other. Not to mention I haven’t really thought about how I’ve killed multiple ponies like it was nothing. I just glanced it off because they’re murderers. And I casually planned to come here and kill Gut Rot on my own. I probably would have died if I never met you.”
“You’ve only done what you need to do to survive and help others. I try to go day by day without killing anypony, but you only kill if you have reason.” She looks over at me, “And you are doing it to save ponies. So you have a good reason for it. You’re a good pony Midnight. And I think you’re going to do great things… You’ve had a long day, get some rest.” She climbs onto the bed and begins to get comfortable. Arranging the old pillows and blankets around to her liking. I notice her divide the pillows on half of the same side of the bed.
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
She looks up and gives me a confused look, “Making our bed. Have you ever seen somepony make a bed before?” I feel my face start to heat up. She wants me to sleep with her? In the same bed? “Midnight your coat may be black but I can still tell you're blushing by the way you're staring.”
“Uh...I’ve never slept in the same bed as anypony else before.” My voice comes out quiet and even more embarrassed.
“You don’t know that Midnight. You know nothing of your life before the simulation so anything's possible.” I guess she’s right… I could have had a marefriend or coltfriend here in the real world. Stardust finishes fluffing the pillow up with her magic and pats the empty side of the bed with a hoof. “I don’t bite, and you’ve had a long day. Come get some rest.” I climb into the bed under the old blanket, careful to not mess up the work she put into making the bed. Stardust does the same. She rolls over and looks into my eyes. “See, this isn’t so bad.”
“It’s nice actually, knowing that I’m not alone.” Sleeping in Fleetfoot’s house wasn’t the easiest thing to do. This must be why Watcher said to find some friends. Being out here alone, knowing every day, that no matter where you go or what you do, there won’t be anyone there for you to keep you company, to watch your back, or to help you get up when you fall.
Thank you Stardust.

…

“Midnight! Wake up. I hear somepony outside.” I feel somepony pushing on my side with their hooves.
I groan and yell, “Five more minutes dad!” The pushing continues.
“Dad? Midnight it’s Stardust,” I open my eyes to see Stardust above me, “There’s somepony moving outside the door. Get your gun.” I look over and check my E.F.S only to see a single red dot outside of the room.
“It has to be the burned pony. There’s a red tick outside the room.” I whisper over to Stardust. I quietly hop off the bed onto the ground and grab my knife. “On my mark, open the door.” Stardust gives me a little nod.
I stand in front of the door. The red mark doesn’t move on my E.F.S. “Three… Two… One… NOW!” The handle glows a light purple and swings open. The burn pony stands on the other side. I quickly tackle him to the ground and hold the knife to his throat.
“I knew it was you! Somepony help, Cook Cook’s killer is here!” I push the knife a little harder against his throat, he just laughs, “Do it! I don’t have any reason to live anyways! You already did that yourself asshole!”
You’re not a murderer Midnight. No need to kill him. But this is what I have to do to survive, to keep my new and only friend safe. In one fluid motion I slit his throat. His blood splatters to the left of me onto the ground, a low gurgling sound comes from his mouth and his body goes limp.
“We need to go, now!” I run over and grab my saddlebags, quickly taking the time to put on the raider armor. I’ll need any armor I can get for a fight like this. All over my E.F.S red dots are blipping up out of nowhere. I look over at Stardust. She’s just staring at me in awe. “What?”
“It’s nothing.” She shakes her head and slips on her saddlebags. “Let’s get going.”
In the doorway appears the head of a raider. Stardust quickly draws her pistol with her magic and shoots him in the head. She levitates his weapon into my saddlebags. Unicorns are overpowered.
I glance down the hallway and spot at least five more raiders sprinting towards us. I duck my head back in. “That’s a lot of them! Get ready!” I yell back to Stardust.
“I have something better than fighting,” I look back to her sliding the window open, “We run out and over to Gut Rot’s.”
I quickly slam the door and lock it. “That’s a better idea than fighting them all.” I quickly help Stardust out then jump out myself. We go right, around the small building. The whole camp seems to be on high alert. The snipers have their sights trained on the small building along with a couple spotlights. I look over at Stardust, “What now?”
She points a hoof at Gut Rot’s, “We run as fast as we can over there and hope we don’t get shot.” I must have given her a ‘what the hell kind of plan is that look’. “What?”
“Alright how about this. I’ll fly up and distract the snipers while you run across. They shouldn't be able to hit me if I keep moving.” She gives me the same look. “Hey, that's my look first of all. And second, mine doesn’t involve us both being wide open targets for the snipers.”
“Yeah you’re right, it only makes you the main target,” She says sarcastically. I just give her a little smile. “Why are you looking at me like that.”
I spread my wings and take off into the air, “Precisely my plan Stardust!” Almost instantly shots whizz by my head. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I look down to see Stardust sprinting across the camp towards Gut Rot’s. “As long as she’s safe I’m fine.” I say under my breath to myself. After dodging at least a whole clips worth of sniper rounds I notice less shots coming my way. I look over at the water slide tower to see two of the snipers aiming in Stardust’s direction. I quickly changed course for the tower. The two undistracted snipers yell something. The two trained on Stardust quickly look over to see me flying straight at him. With all the force I can manage I slam into one of them, throwing him in the way of the other two. In one motion I pull out my pistol and aim it at one of the standing snipers. I go to fire off a couple rounds and my whole magazine falls out of my gun.

“Magic, motherfucker,” The sniper on the ground yells and levitates up the clip above him. Luna damn it! Add that to the list of unicorn pros. I throw my pistol as fast as I can at the one lying on the ground. It hits him square in his snout with a loud clunk. “Fucking cunt! Shoot her already!” I look over to see the two taking aim at me. I take a quick glance over to see where Stardust is. From where I am I can’t tell.

“Okay, well I’ll see you guys in a little bit, I… uhh, thanks for having me.” As fast as I can move, I dive head first down one of the water slides. You know, if there was actual water (and if I wasn’t getting shot at constantly) this may have been decently fun. I end up landing in the slave pool underneath the cage. A slave quickly runs over and helps me up.

“What the hell are you doing? You’re going to get yourself killed,” She says to me.

“Most likely, but first I’m going to help you guys out of here.” Now how do I get out?

“Now you’re trapped down here yourself you idiot. Gah, dumbass ponies.” I ignore her and look up above me. There’s gotta be a way out of here.

I hear multiple gunshots ring out above me. Then I hear the familiar voice of Stardust. She pokes her head over the edge of the pool, “Midnight! I think I know how I can get you out of there. I’ve never tried it before so hopefully it’ll work!” She closes her eyes and her horn starts glowing. In a bright purple flash she disappears and reappears right in front of me!

“Holy shit Stardust! You know how to teleport!” She lets out a long breath.

“That kind of drained me, but I think I can do another.” The slave who helped me up just stares at us. “Come close to me. I don’t want this to mess up.” I walk over and wrap my wing around her side. Her horn begins glowing again and in a flash we are gone.

I’ve never teleported before, hell I’ve never even actually seen a unicorn until I left the simulation. But teleporting feels extremely weird and I don’t think I ever want to do it again.

We appear just on the edge of the pool. Stardust collapses to the ground. “Stardust! Are you okay!?” She lets out a small groan and her eyes close shut.

“You like that!” I hear behind us. I quickly turn around to see a group of slavers begin to run at us. I quickly duck down in front of Stardust. The loud shot of the sniper rifle rings out all around me. A small amount of pain appears in my flank. I hobble to my hooves and barely lift Stardust up onto my back. More gunshots ring out behind us, and the amount of pain in my flank rises. But I keep moving until I get us to Gut Rot’s building.

The door slams behind me and I collapse onto the ground. My body is beginning to not like getting shot. I reach in my bag and grab out a couple of healing potions. I chug down one of them and give the other to Stardust. She took two hits from the snipers, right in her side. I feel my wounds slowly close up. Stardust’s begin heal quickly also. I barely stand up to my hooves and lock the doors behind us, making sure to push a table in front of it. I take another glance around for someplace safe to put Stardust. I’m going to finish this once and for all but I need to get her to safety. Just down the hallway I find a closet full of old deflated floaties. I gently lay down Stardust in the closet and close it.

I let out a long breath and pull out one of the random guns I’ve accumulated. Making sure to check the clip. Enough rounds to kill a couple ponies. That’s good enough for me. I start walking towards Gut Rot’s throne room. Mentally preparing myself to kill him.

I walk in and he’s the only one in the room, sitting on his makeshift throne. “So you kill Cook Cook and now you’re here to kill me huh? Well may as well get it over with. I figured you’d be here sooner or later.” He gets up and starts walking towards me. “You know that I never wanted to be a slaver,” A really solemn look appears on his face, “I was born into it, what else was I going to do.”
“That’s your reason why I shouldn’t kill you, ‘I was born into it’. Kid, you didn’t have to do any of this. With this amount of power you could have been helping these ponies, not raping, kidnapping, starving, and selling them to others like material possessions. No, you don’t give a horse's ass about any of this. Nice try Gut Rot, but I’m not believing any of your twisted lies.” I could see him give me a tiny smile.
He casually holds up his hooves in a shrug and says, “Welp, I tried. But I mean, can you blame me. I control this part of Alpony all to myself. So why wouldn’t I lie to keep MY power safe!” He begins to go into a giant laughing fit. Rolling in circles on the ground. “You’re just a useless welp out there struggling to survive. In the meantime I’m here living like a king.”
“Sorry Gut Rot, but I’m getting real tired of you, and I’m getting tired of getting shot at.” I take aim at the rolling colt. He stops upside down and gives me a worried look. The kinda look that says ‘She’s actually going to do it’. “Hope you enjoyed your time as a king Gut Rot. Because today I’m ending your reign.”

A single gunshot echoed all through the room.

_____________________________________________________________________
Footnote: Level up! Sanity:95%

Comprehension- +1 skill point when you read magazines!