Cyberpony 20XX : Nomads Land

The sun began to set over the horizon as the sky glowed a fiery orange hue. Miles of land covered by barren wastelands and useless scrap metal. Once the sun would fade away in the distance a deathly chill would creep across the sands. Desert life is quite the bitch, either in the day or night.

A group of four ponies tiredly surveyed the desolate land in search of anything useful. Be it a few out-of-date microchips, or even a janky old Cyberware that somepony got tired of repairing. Anything that could be used or worth a few bits was gathered by the family. That was the code of the land and The Nomad way.

Nomads were groups of ponies that littered the massive outskirts of most large cities. Ponies who grew tired of class wars, violence, and the grip of The Corpos strangling the main HUBs. These outcasts left into the deserts or deserted areas in search of more simplicity. Over time combining efforts and resources over multiple clans became what was known as Families.

They sure as Tartarus weren't bound by blood, but these smaller families grew to love each other. Larger families seemed to fight more often and forget the main reason they chose this life in the first place. Greed and power would do that to a pony, corrupt their views and morals just for a few bits. Midnight City didn't create evil, it just gave it a place to relax its hooves.

"Find anythang!?" Mudslide pulled her filthy brown snout out of a pile of trash, the earth pony a dark brown except for white spots that covered her body like a cow.

"Does it look like I did!?" Downpour a light blue pegasus spoke annoyed, as he sat atop a nearby abandoned satellite dish that had been stripped bare.

An elegant white earth pony mare stepped out of a rusted old shed, her translucent blue eyes gazing compassionately toward her friends. "Five more minutes and let's call it!" Glitter Dawn clapped her hooves together as the leader of these ragtag ponies.

"The Dare Mare Family has seen better days." The only unicorn of the group Violet Night huffed in defeat, her lavender coat covered in mud and other gunk.

"Not a mare!" Downpour snorted aloud.

"I didn't tell you to join a girl's club, asshole!" Violet pushed the trash bin she was searching to her side with a clank.

"Please do not fight children. '' Glitter rolled her eyes towards the ponies with pursed lips, her hoof lifted a yellow Bit-Chip.

Bit-Chips made the world move and ponies listen. It replaced normal bits way in the day, as the gold mines began to dry up. They were small usb looking chips that contained a set amount of currency.

Yellow- 100 Bits.

Blue- 500 Bits.

Red- 1,000 Bits.

Purple- 10,000 Bits.

Black- 100,000 Bits.

You just slap these into vendors and they'd get scanned and deducted, as you are left usually with something useless. Once emptied any vendor with a dead chip would recycle it automatically, a poor attempt at recycling no doubt. Besides nopony wanted these little fuckers drowning the world in a wave of metallic uselessness.

"Yella!? Whoo, we are eatin' tonight!" Mudslide trotted excitedly out of a new pile of trash she found herself in.

"That shed had bucking Bips in it!?" Downpour flew down flabbergasted.

"No of course not! I found scrap earlier and sold it off." Glitter giggled as she tossed to chip towards the pegasus who caught it.

"Then why are we out here!?" He grumbled.

Glitter shook her head softly as her hoof rubbed her temple. "Because this might feed us a few nights, but we need to be ready after this." She sternly reminded the pegasus who simply slinked away.

"Lemme feel da yella!" Mudslide began to prod at his hooves trying to snatch away the chip curiously.

Violet knew better that none of the scrap around here was worth much let alone a yellow. Her dark blue eyes scanned over their leader carefully in silence. "Your necklace is gone." She found the missing element and spoke in a whisper.

"Hmm, just a material object." Glitter giggled and followed after her family down the beaten sand-covered roads.

Violet left behind with her thoughts for a moment, these raids were becoming less fruitful lately. Midnight City no longer dumped their junk out in the desert, they grew wise and began to create recycling plants to reuse what once died. Corpos wasn't one to ever share the wealth, even with junk they had to be greedy.

If this continued any longer, her family would have to disband or join up with another clan. Gone were the simplistic days of forging off the land, now every day was a fight for survival. The desert was no longer the coldest thing on this planet, the hearts of ponies had taken that spot.

A hoofful of Bips didn't stretch far at all nowadays. The four sat around a blazing fire that raged within an old metallic barrel, flames a singular defense from the icy night. Kibble was the only thing on the menu sadly, dry salted pellets that surely didn't taste like food but filled a hole. All four sat in silence as the wind blew around them in an eerie howl.

Mudslide downed her Kibble munching loudly as her nostrils flared out. A blonde mane cascaded over her brown eyes sarcastically. "Downa, don't ya' have fancy optics?" She questioned the lone stallion to her right.

"They're just cosmetic, not worth going blind over." He flashed a crimson gaze to the mare, he just knew she was going to ask him to sell his damn eyes.

"Shat, my muzzle implant stopped workin' weeks ago. I can't smell meh own asshole!" Mudslide lifted hooves to her muzzle and twisted it, with a loud click it loosened and detached from her face entirely.

A gaping hole was left where her snout once was, chrome underneath dirty and faded as wires seemed to spark. The mare gently began to clean the sand out of her Cyberware, Downpour tossing the last few Kibbles into his mouth with an annoyed crunch.

"I know this sucks, and that times are tough. But we're not going to be selling off ourselves like common whores." Glitter stood up from her seat in the sand, her body was untainted by Cyberware or enhancements of any kind.

"Not that you could." Violet lifted her hoof upward to reveal an interface plug on her wrist caked in sand and gunk.

"That thing is useless, nothing around here to plug into or hack." Downpour snorted as he plopped back onto the sand with a thud.

"Tomorrow will be better…" Glitter continued to try and lift her family's spirits.

"It won't, this land is way past dead." Violet shot a gaze towards their leader sharply.

Glitter pursed her lips in a dissatisfied huff."What would you have us do?" She quipped as the unicorn gained a more determined look across her face.

"The city, we have to move closer towards it," Violet spoke with a deadly serious tone.

"Idnight pity!?" Mudslide mumbled incoherently.

"Grrr, we're not heading back towards the city! The closer you get to that shit hole, the worse things tend to get!!" Glitter lifted her hoof towards her temple sighing.

"Fine, then let's just get fucking assimilated by The Harper Family or any other group that can break us down! " Violet lifted from her spot and slammed her hoof hard into the ground.

"I won't let that happen!" Glitter screamed in return as her voice seemed to crack.

"Then what's our plan!?" Violet pressed her muzzle against the grain and demanded an answer.

"I don't know. '' Glitter slumped down in utter defeat at the moment as the group fell silent.

Violet stood up as she began to limp weakly in the darkness of the night."Then rust out here with the rest of the scrap." She murmured half-heartedly and vanished out of view.

She was done letting herself struggle through day after day, she needed to act before it would be too late. If Glitter didn't want to step up and defend the family, then she would take up that burden. All she needed was one fucking job.

And all would be fine.