#42

by TruckStop

Chapter Four

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42

Chapter Four

"Life's a journey, shame about the destination."

Equestrian Wasteland
Manehattan, Equestria
21 Years after the battle of Hoofington

The Wasteland. The brutal result of a war that should never have happened. Over 200 years ago the war with Zebra kind ended in balefire. The result was Equestria being burnt in an apocalyptic fire. As if Celestia herself had kissed the lands with the sun. Leaving magical radiation poisoning the land. Ponykind was able to survive the last day of the war by hiding in underground bunkers called Stables.
200 years after that fateful day the long thought over war with the Zebras reared it's head again as a fanatically group of Zebra purists decided to start the shit all over again led by the Zebra Legate. It took all of Equestria's heros to band together in the western most city called Hoofington to wage that final battle. The Light bringer used the Single Pony Project to wield the powers of nature in the last war, her friends fought on the front line while Blackjack and her crew, except me, went to the moon to stop a pre-equestria project Horizons from launching and destroying the world from the Moon. Only they kinda failed successfully. Instead of stopping the projectile Tom from Project Horizons from launching Blackjack changed it's impact point and used the city of Hoofingtons energy shield projectors to plunge the mile long chunk of moonstone into the heart of an evil thing called the Eater of Souls which was was made of starmetal. The reaction powered up the hidden shield systems under the Hoof and contained most of the energy from the blast and used it to dissipate the uncontrolled reaction harmlessly letting it burn itself out. All of Blackjack's friends died, except me, Scotch Tape, and Rampage. Rampage got trapped in the moon for 500 years until Momma and Littlepip rescued her.
Momma, Blackjack, became an immortal pony due to a cloned blank body her soul was attached to. She got to live as an immortal unicorn until her Perk "Kissed by Discord: Do you really want to know?" Kicked in. The result was that the blank clone body of Blackjacks started to change into a Draconequus rapidly. Though at the time she didn't know that. She thought it was breaking down and she was going to die. As a result of this she discovered new powers in the early stages of her transformation and enlisted my help to go back in time to stop the war from happening. Once she succeeded and she thought it was her final moments the Discord of the past told her the truth about herself and what was happening. We also found out that not only was Blackjack my adopted mother, but also my biological mother. Her genetic samples were used with Discord's blood to create the blank bodies used by Project Chimera.
Wow. That is a lot of time fuckery in the end there. Not really needed for you to know that at this point but exposition in detail can be nice, yes?

So, the dilapidated fire hydrant in the wasteland popped up and became an archway that admitted us into the wasteland. We looked around our surroundings and saw the efforts of hundreds of ponies to clean up the wasteland city of Manehattan with DJ Pon3 leading the efforts via the EBS Hub atop of Tenpony Tower. Our destination according to my Pipbuck.
“Looks like they have spruced up the place a little.” Phoenix said observing the somewhat cleaned streets of Manehattan.
“It appears so.” Byte said observing.
“Focus stallions.” I said transforming into my pony form and started to walk toward the walled gates of Tenpony Tower. As we approached the automated turrets on the wall tracked toward us. I kept a wary eye on them as we rounded the corner to the front gate.
“Halt, what is your business here?” Asked a gray coated stallion standing behind a fortification outside the gate.
“We’re here to see the DJ.” I stated.
He looked us over and gave a hard look at Byte.
“I can let you in, but your bot… Will have to stay out here for the time being.” He said looking at Byte.
Byte looked at the pony and said, “You can let me in. I'm sentient, not a toaster.”
My memory triggered. Kaleb, a tall human male wearing a black tee shirt and blue jeans turning to Flutterstay and calling him a Toaster.
I shook my head to clear the memory.
“Be that as it may, Robot, you are most definitely a combat machine of some kind.” He looked over Byte with a gaze fixed on his large claws and sharp metal fangs.
“How about this, Byte waits down here while we go and deal with the DJ and do whatever we need to here?” Phoenix reasoned.
I looked at Byte and the robot gave a shrug. “I can find something to entertain myself down here for a while.”
“Are you sure?” I asked him with concern.
The cat-like head nodded. “Sure I can move some stones around or examine some foliage or some shit.” His robotic voice replied, but I sensed the unhappiness from him.
“Okay… We will be back as quickly as we can. Try not to get into trouble out here.” I said.
“I’ll try to be on my best behavior.” The bot droned out and began looking around for something to keep his attention.
“Let’s go, Phoenix.” I started to trot toward the gate as it parted open for us.

***

Boo and Phoenix enter the lobby of the former hotel now turned settlement. The shops beyond the security desk were just opening for the day. Ponies and other creatures were walking about. Most were wearing fancy clothes and looking snooty. Phoenix looked at me, “You ever get the feeling you're underdressed when you come in here?” I looked at a pair of ponies who were giving me a disapproving look as they rounded the corner from the grand staircase. “Most of these ponies have lived their whole lives insulated from the Wasteland. They wouldn’t know the danger if it bit their faces off.” I replied making my way to the stairs to the elevator banks. We walked up the stairs and my Pipbuck beeped.

“Finally!” I say as I bring up the device.

QUEST UPDATED

“We have to swap out the water talisman for a new one. We need the jewel from it.” I told Phoenix. He looked at me. “So how are we going to get that? Are we going to steal it?” He raised an eyebrow. I cringed as that caught the attention of two security ponies who made their way toward us. I shook my head, “No, we will just ask the Twilight Society for help. I’m sure they will be willing to work with us.” I said with a laugh. This didn’t seem to deter the Security Ponies so I wiggled my nose and the both of us popped out of the elevator lobby and appeared in the vestible.

“Phoenix, next time you have a question about stealing stuff. Make sure that there are no security ponies nearby.” I am a bit annoyed. He blinked disorientated at first then looked around, “Oh, hah, my bad Boo.”

I shook my head and yelled, “Yo, Homage you home?” My voice seemed to echo around the lobby and then a door was heard opening as the older DJ appeared out of a door. Her blue hair had a touch of gray at the base as she looked down at us from the upper floor. “Oh, hey Boo, Phoenix.” She made her way down the stairs and stopped in front of us. “What are you two doing here?” She asked.

“We need a favor.” Phoenix started.

“A big one.” I nodded.

“That being?” She raised an eyebrow.

I went on about the quest we were on and she also had no idea I was married. Whatever happened to Flutterstay seemed to have affected the memories of other ponies, including Lu… I mean, Phoenix. I gotta stop getting the two confused seriously.

“So, you got a water talisman to swap it with already?” Homage asked.

I looked at Phoenix and he looked back at me. “Uh…” He said and I smiled. “Fear not, I have one gently used water talisman certified to be free from defects by the Draconequus money back guarantee!” I wiggled my nose and one popped out in the air above me and floated there. The gem gave off a cool glow.

“Well that looks in order.” Homage said, looking at the gemstone closely floating in the air. “Well come with me and we can get it changed out. The primary water talisman is on the roof next to the rainwater collection system.” She said starting to trot back up the stairs. “On the roof? I figured it would be in the basement.” I said following her.

“It used to be until the ghoul incident so the back up water processing system up on the roof became the primary system. The old primary system got damaged by a group of talon company griffons who cleared out more feral ghouls who took up shop down there a few years ago.” She explained as she opened the door to the studio and led us through the equipment-filled room to a set of stairs leading up to a sign that read “Roof Access.”

“Sounds like you need a certain Toaster Repair Filly to come and service the system. Among others.” I said with a lewd grin. Homage took this in stride. “I already asked if she can’t do anything about the water system. The other task, well I will be visiting her in a few days for a little us time.” She said with a wink as she opened the door to the roof. The cool morning sun shone down upon the roof as a flight of strange mutated birds were startled by the sudden opening of the door, they took flight off the edge of the building and as I turned my attention back to Homage I noticed a pair of red eyes looking at me from the corner of the roof.

There was a lot of different kinds of equipment including the massive antenna array of the Equestrian Broadcast System. On the far side of the roof sat a massive water tower and what looked like pumping machinery going into another stone stairway entrance on the other side of the roof. “This used to be another access way down to the main lobby but the stairs collapsed about a hundred years ago, so I had the bright idea to use it as a rainwater collection and distribution system. It happens to be on the same side of the water mains pipe up to all the floors so it was a good place to seal off and turn into a secure storage for the water talisman.” Homage said pulling out a bobby pin and a screwdriver. “Now for a little breaking and entering.” She smirked as she went to insert the bobby pin in the lock and I just wiggled my nose making the whole thing unlatch and drop to the ground with the door springing inwards.

She looked at it in shock for a second then looked back at me and Phoenix. “What?” I asked with a smile as she closed her mouth and shrugged putting the bobby pin and screwdriver back in her hair. I walked on into the room which went down a flight of stairs pipes on either side of me making it a tight fit. I saw several valves and a tank with the water talisman glowing gently in the center of the clear housing for the tank.

“Close these valves and open the one at the bottom right side of the tank to drain it.” Homage said as she started turning a valve with her magic. Between the three of us we had the valves closed and the water drained low enough to get at the water talisman. I shifted form and gently grabbed the water talisman off of its sustainment bracket, twisting it counter clockwise and then twisted the new one clockwise. The new talisman glowed brightly. We reopened the valves and the water system flowed freely again.

“So not to be like a downer or anything.” Homage said as she closed the door behind us and I made the lock reappear. “What makes that particular Talisman special? Why couldn’t you use the one that you had with you?” She asked as she turned back toward me as my Pipbuck dinged.

QUEST UPDATED

I raised my Pipbuck. “Cause this thing told me to?” I said with a smile. She looked at the screen. “Oh, yeah. I could never wrap my head around these quest log things. Like how does it know? Ya, know?” She asked, smirking. Just then we heard the clops of something climbing over the edge of the roof and we looked to see Byte pulling himself up the sides of the building.

I looked at him, my mouth agape and he looked back at me, “What?” His monotone robotic voice replied. “I got lonely.”

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