Fallout Equestria: The Line

“The Great And Powerful Trixie’s Guide For How To Be A Showmare!” the cheery feminine voice in my ear chirped. I glanced back to my door, confirming it was locked, then back to the screen on my pipbuck. Trixie, as always, wore her usual starry cloak and hat. I thought those looked kind of silly. “So, if you’ve bought this, that means you’re interested in being like me! Because you want to be a showmare, and I’m the best showmare. So, you should be like me.”

I cuddled up beneath my blankets, hopefully hiding the pipbuck screen’s light from being seen beyond the door. My hoof found the volume knob and I feathered it until I could just barely hear the words.

“So, I’ll start off with congratulating you on your purchase. You helped fund my-” I hit the knob to fast forward. “-irst lesson. Presentation!” As the cerulean mare spoke, she threw her hooves in the air, and the stage around her exploded in confetti and lights. “No matter what, a showmare never lets anypony else upstage her! All the world, my little ponies, is a really big stage. But you? You’re not a player. You’re the star. Act like it.”

I cradled the pipbuck to my chest, my earbuds chirping more comforting platitudes into my ear. I am the star. I am the star! I repeated the mantra in my head as I held the tiny tricky mare on my leg.

That night, I slept with my mind on fire with ideas. For the first time in my life I felt like I had a purpose. Like there was a goal for me to strive for. I woke up the next morning with my cutie mark, and a very confused mother parading me all around town. Of course, I’d never tell anyone I slept through getting my own cutie mark, so I lied and said I was practising magic until I passed out.

A large five pointed star flanked by seven more smaller ones behind it. It was said unicorns have the power of the stars, and they use that power to cast their magic.

That’s what I told everypony, of course, but I was lying. It meant I was going to be a star.

I Am The Great And Powerful Trixie!

...actually, that isn’t true. I’m not really her. Trixie is just my stage name. When I was a foal my mother would lock me in the house with nothing but a terminal and old recordings of her shows. I got pretty good at magic copying her! I looked up to her, too. I had a naturally blue coat that looked like hers. My mane was kind of similar too, but mine is a stark white instead of mixed colours. I’ve heard it called ‘snow white.’ .I always wanted to be like her, so I thought: what better way to honour her memory than to take her name as my stage name?

It makes me happy too. I know it’s…kind of silly, but I feel like when ponies call me Trixie, I’m doing my part to make sure we don’t forget a bit of history; however small that bit is. So, if it’s all the same to you, I’m not going to tell you my real name.

I grew up in a small town on The Line, the border region of Equestria. I’m a twenty year old mare, I’m…relatively healthy, I guess? I ran the saloon with my mom for a few years once I was old enough. Sometimes I did magic shows but we’re too small to have a real stage so we just moved some chairs around to give me a big open space to perform. I usually only have the same three ponies drop by to watch. It’s fine but…I want to see a city. I want to perform for a real crowd, on a real stage, with real magic! Right now I’m…well, I’m not very good. I have a lot to learn.

I’m getting off track-- ugh, let me start again. So, there I was, another day scrubbing down empty shot glasses…

The sign above the door read ‘The Mats’. I never asked mom what that meant, but we always just called it ‘The Saloon’. It was the only one in town after all. Radiator had, at some point, been a town with the world's largest radiator. It had all the fanciness and pomp you would expect of a town with that claim to fame. That is to say: none at all.

There were maybe 15 families living in disparate homes. Small old world houses. Maybe forty ponies all together. Barring the rare trader, these were the only ponies I’d ever known. We also had a well. That’s about it.

Then a few weeks ago an alicorn showed up. We were absolutely terrified of her. The only radio in town, in the saloon, told us all about The Goddess’s alicorns. They were all super powerful creatures. They could make shields and teleport and were genocidal maniacs! For years, about the most dangerous thing in town was Ms. Longhoof’s hunting rifle, and then suddenly an alicorn shacks up with us. It’s not like we were going to tell her to leave either. I mean, she’s about twice as tall as any of us, so even without her magic she was super intimidating.

I almost had a heart attack when she stepped through the saloon doors that day.

“He-hi! Hello! Welcome!” I scrambled to get the words out, my ears drooping down in fear. I was staring down the visage of an alicorn, like the ghost of one of those ancient princesses. Her coat was a darker blue than mine, in fact everything about her was darker than me. She had a mane and tail of two colours, a light and dark blue. Both her mane and tail seemed to swirl with their colours.

She didn’t reply immediately, her long-legged form taking careful steps inside. I got a better look at her then, at her big feathered wings and a horn that’s long enough to use as a weapon. She stopped just in front of the bar and stared at me. Into me, more like. The alicorn had piercing, blue eyes.

I began to feel a little self-conscious, fidgeting on my hooves. It’s one thing to be gawked at by a crowd but when somepony is staring ‘into’ you like that it’s…different. “Are uh- are you gonna…buy anything?” I managed lamely, tucking my ears down.

She trotted up to me and positively loomed over me. Only a flimsy bar was between me and her now. “What…are you?” She prodded. Her voice was melodic, but also strangely confused. Like she was asking me directions.

That’s not how you introduce yourself to somepony. That’s not how you order something either. Goddesses this alicorn was weird! “...A pony?” I answered, equal parts confused and helpless. “No, a bartender.” She seemed unsatisfied, crinkling her nose. “I’m also a Taurus?” This got me nowhere and then I realized; She must have heard of my show. Oh! Trixie’s words rang in my ears. Presentation! She wanted me to introduce myself properly! Maybe Mayer Monty told her about me? Well either way!

I had been waiting for this moment my entire life. Somepony who didn’t already know who I was! I shot her a knowing smile, and I laughed. “Heard of me have you?” I threw my mane back dramatically. Sliding a hoof over the bar, I sidled up against it, shooting her a wink. “Well the rumours are true…”

I watched as her eyes widened. She was a rapt audience! My audience! My first real audience!

I couldn’t help myself. I climbed on top of the bar, spreading my fores wide and announced to the whole world: “I am the great and powerful Trixie!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. There was something like reverence on her face. It was deeply, deeply satisfying-- but then something else. She shrank back from me, her rump ‘thumping’ against the far wall. Her ears drooped.

This wasn’t reverence; this was fear.

My fores came up in an attempt to diffuse the situation and I nearly tumbled from the bar with the sheer speed I hopped down. “No-no-no Trixie didn’t mean to scare you!” I reassured her. Oh, this was bad. Trixie never scared away her audience by shouting too loudly! “I’m sorry! Please-- please stay Trixie will-- will let you see a show for free! You don’t even have to pay, okay? Uh-- what’s your name?”

It took her a couple moments to reply but eventually she managed a soft smile. “Moonbrand.” Her voice didn’t hold that strange wavering or confused sound now. “Sorry…you reminded me of somepony I knew a long time ago.” Her hoof covered her mouth as she suppressed a giggle.

I fished out a fresh glass in my magic and poured her a sparkelcola in apology. “Well- you must have known a very amazing ‘somepony’ then.” I joked. She returned it with another hoof-hidden giggle. She seemed to do that alot. It looked like I had succeeded in quelling her terror wherever it had come from.

She sat at the bar, hooves tapping against it as she took the cola in her magic and sipped gingerly from it. We shared an awkward smile and just like that I made my first friend from outside of town.

My mother, her name was Antlia but everyone else called her Auntie, never approved of me talking with Moonbrand. I’d finished my shift, and as I was leaving to go visit, I could just feel her staring daggers into my coat. “Alicorns are evil bastards,” she’d told me. “Facsimiles of ponies past. Nothing good can come from a counterfeit.”

Well, Moonbrand was good company at least, so I knew that wasn’t true.

My hoof thumped on her door. She’d taken up residence in an old trailer filled with electronics. Out here in the woods it was hard to get a decent radio signal but she’d rigged up a big antenna on top of her ‘house.’ You could see it from halfway down the road out of town. “Come in!” Came her cute voice, a pitch somewhere between foalish excitement and an attempt to sound casually interested.

It was a cosy little house. An old metal motor wagon trailer. One single room with all the walls filled with various electronic gizmos I could make hide nor hair of. She was currently working on a terminal, holding upwards of ten different screwdrivers in her magic. There was a subtle sensation of warmth here. As I learned later on, all those machines clumped together produced quite a bit of heat. Enough to stave off the chill of the mountainside. I politely sat behind her desk and cleared my throat.

“Hi Trixie! Sorry I’m a poor host. I can’t get this…mnngh!” All her tools clattered to the trailer floor as she, in one fell swoop, killed her magic and sighed. “This damn radio. I can’t pick up broadcasts from DJ-PON3 out here. I’d need one heck of an antenna…mmngh!” She threw her head back and sighed.

I shrugged my haunches casually. “Why’s that matter? We have our own news station.” Not that I didn’t understand the appeal. On good, clear days, you could pick up transmissions from Equestria proper. It was far from a reliable way to get news, but it was enough we weren’t completely in the dark about the Enclave-Alicorn war. That DJ was pretty funny too!

“Well,” she rested her chin on her hooves in thought. She squinted her eyes, probably trying to explain a nugget of alicorny wisdom in a way a shortlifer like myself might understand. “With my sisters moving here, I wanted to get a little relay station up and running. To give us a…some small connection to Equestria, still. That way we could have some connection to home even when we have to leave.”

“Have to leave.” I bit my inner lip as I repeated the words, ruminating on them. “For the radiation, right? After Gardens went off, The Line is one of the last places with ambient radiation in Equestria.”

She smiled at that. “You are well informed.” She clarified quickly. “Pardon me, it is just that most ponies here I have met seem to think I am some sort of demon from the past.”

“Folks on The Line are distrustful by nature.” I attempted to comfort her. “We lived here in relative peace for years, all of us unified by the common goal of ‘don’t let monsters from beyond the wall eat us’ and now there are giant radiation-eating alicorns powerful enough to take on twenty ponies themselves just plopping down in random towns. No offence, but change scares ponies. Don’t let us get to you.”

She stared at me quietly for a moment, her snout wavering as she formed a response. “I…do not eat radiation.” Her nose wrinkled and she tutted. Tutted! I’d never heard a ‘tut’ before. As if she was offended by the very idea.

I shrugged again. “But you get what I’m saying?”

The alicorn sighed and bit her inner lip. “I…suppose such rapid shifting of culture would destabilise the local region. Particularly if the populace is of a more conservative mindset.”

Pretending I understood, I kicked my chair back and balanced it on its back legs. Then, I caught the backrest in my kinesis spell, enveloping it in a subtle azure glow, and rested myself between magic and oblivion. “Well nopony should give you trouble here. I think we’re all too scared of you to try and kick you out.”

She shot me a look. “Do not do that, you will fall.” I didn’t listen and continued my dance with death, heedless of her warning. She didn’t press the issue. “Well, thank you for your hospitality, regardless, Trixie.” She dipped her head as she spoke.

I waved my hoof noncommittal. “Actually, I came to ask you a favour.” She arched an eyeridge at that. “I know we don’t know each other well but you’re the only pony I’ve ever met who looks like they’re good at magic, so…” I hooked a hoof behind my neck and gave it a nervous scratch. “I was wondering if you could teach me uh, you know, magic?”

Her ears dropped and she pulled away from me. Her muzzle turned, and she glared at me sidelong. I was not expecting that reaction. My confusion must have shown on my face, because she shook her head and apologised. “I’m sorry!” She was smiling, a forehoof brought up to rest on her temple. “This is just absurd, I can’t…” and then she laughed. She laughed!

“Oh.” I shrank. “Uh. Sorry.” Well, I knew I was impressing on her, and she probably had very important alicorny duties, but still! She didn’t have to be rude about it. Thankfully she was quick to assuage my doubts.

“No, no! Not that, not that. I just find it silly that you are asking me to teach you magic.”

More confused than ever, I responded with a simple “why?”

“Nevermind.” I tilted my head to the side with a quizzical expression but she continued on. “I would be glad to teach you all I know. All I ask in return is your continued company.”

“Of course!” I answered excitedly. “What kind of friend wouldn’t?”

Come to find out, alicorns do magic a lot differently than unicorns. They just know some spells. Like how I just know basic telekinesis. I didn’t pick up anything new I could do from her, but it was the first time I’d ever learned actual magical theory. I’d always be thankful for that.

There was no way I could do a shield spell, at least in its current form, and there was no way I’d ever be able to do that invisibility spell. At least, the way she was doing it I couldn’t. I learned a lot, though, and I filed what she taught me away in my mental ‘magic’ folder in case I could use it in another way. Innovation and improv is part of the showmare’s art, after all.

After two weeks of alicorn magic school Moonbrand and I were actually getting pretty close. I was getting pretty good at getting her to do that mouth-behind-hoof giggle and the townsfolk were getting pretty used to her. I guess at some point we all collectively decided ‘hey maybe a gigantic pony that’s super strong living here and helping defend the town’ isn’t too bad.

Sometimes I’d come by to trade her some irradiated water or food, and she’d trade me some non-irradiated water from her trips out to the forest spring. I hated going all the way out there to draw water. So, life was decent.

One day, we were travelling down the road out of town. I’d never left town but we weren’t supposed to be going far, just far enough away that if an errant magic shot sat something on fire it’d burn itself out before it caught the forest alight. Moonbrand was leading- then, she stopped us.

“Get off the road.” She commanded, in a deadly serious tone that I’d never heard from her.

I slinked off into a ditch, and she vanished. Her invisibility spell-- she didn’t really turn ‘invisible’ but it coated her body in something like clear water that let you see through her. If you really paid attention you could see that little shimmering, like water held up in a kinesis spell, but you’d have to know exactly what you were looking for.

The ponies charging up the road didn’t.

I’d buried myself in a bush, trying to focus on Moonbrand’s shimmering form, and caught sight of them. Five ponies, heavily armed in patchwork raider gear, chasing another. The one in front was slowing-- he was running uphill after all. Then a gunshot, .22 by the sound, and the lead pony fell.

“Where do you think you’re going, Tracker!?” One of the chasing ponies chuckled darkly as he trotted up by him, swaggering in his steps. “You think you can skip out on us, huh? Think you can bail on the Regulators?”

Tracker was an earth pony, and he looked like he’d been through hell. He had a scarred face, a big gash across his back, dried blood caked on his tan fur. “You bastards,” he coughed blood, rolling over onto his back. “We don’t do that. We don’t-- ugh, Shady will kill all you bastards for this!”

The pony who’d shot him snickered. “Shady ain't here.”

“True! Good. T’swhy I like you, Poker. You know the hand you’re dealt.” The trotting pony made a show of bowing his head low. “In this world-- we gotta know who we are, Tracker.” He turned back to the prone pony, who was staring silently at him. “You aint a hero. You’re just as bad as me.”

“No I ain’t.” he spat the words. The other pony answered with a gunshot. I watched in horror as Tracker’s skull burst open, and blood spilled on the ancient asphalt. I tucked my ears down, praying I didn’t just squeak in fear loud enough for them to hear.

I forced myself to get a look at the pony who’d just shot Tracker. A unicorn, grey of coat, amber of eye, thin of build. A six-gun cutie mark. I didn’t know why I was staring at him so hard-- it wasn’t like I was about to attack him out of revenge for this pony I’d never met, but I couldn’t stop myself from looking and I just knew I’d remember it. It seemed important.

“Fuck you!” He kicked Tracker’s corpse. “Huh!? Who's a coward now? Huh? Got nothing to say? No calling the boss now!?” He kicked again and again, until he was satisfied. He spit on Tracker’s face, and I heard him mutter “fucker,” under his breath.

“Mouse? We should go before the Radiator hunters track us down.” Poker, the beefy pony with the .22 battle saddle stood behind his boss. “Leave him for the vultures. Shame the idiot got himself killed on that last raid.” The gang behind him, other raiders dressed in shabby barding, seemed to be watching the trees warily I’d just noticed. If they only knew an alicorn was standing just beside them.

‘Mouse’ sighed and nodded. “Yeah let’s get. See if one of them water caravans is in the area.” He turned and shook his head. “I got some steam to blow off.” With that, the gang turned and followed Mouse back down the mountain.

I stared at the corpse in the road for several seconds. I’d only seen dead animals before. A pony, and meeting such a violent end…I couldn’t believe it. I was just, I was about to have a good day and now my day was ruined! Then I immediately felt bad for feeling bad. By the corpse’s vacant expression, I wasn’t having the worst day.

Moonbrand came out of her spell in front of him. She turned to my hiding place. “Go back. Get the doctor. I need a stretcher if she has it.” She commanded in a calm tone.

“But-” I began to protest, but she withdrew a healing potion from her saddlebags, and some surgery equipment.

“He is still alive.” She answered. “Quickly!”

I ran as fast as I could.

Moonbrand worked miracles, I knew that. She could cast a shield strong enough to take a missile launcher, she claimed, and I believed it. This was something different. This wasn’t magic, this was practical knowledge, skill, and experience. For three days I sat with her in the local clinic, the front half of Mr. and Mrs. Birch’s townhouse, while she and Mrs. Birch brought a pony back from the dead.

I will spare the details. Suffice it to say, the angelic patience displayed in piecing together a ponies’ skull like one of those thousand piece puzzles was equal parts fascinating and disgusting to me.

“That should do it.” Moonbrand spoke softly as she telekinetically placed her tweezers back on the surgery table. “I thank you once more, Mrs. Birch, for allowing me the use of your facilities.”

The unicorn had ‘plomped’ her flank down into a wheelchair she’d scooted up by Tracker’s bed. “Whew. It’s my job, thank a mare for doing her job and it’ll just go to her head.” She yawned wide. “I don’t think he’ll make it though. Fella’s been put through the ringer, I tell you what.”

“Mm.” Moonrand agreed. “It is our duty as medical professionals to try nonetheless.” She had bags under her eyes and she looked like she’d nearly pass out.

Birch shook her head in the negative. “There’s triage to consider, miss. We burn potions and bandages on this fella, the next colt that gets jumped by a yao guai might not have enough.”

Moonbrands’ eyes had closed. I wondered if she fell asleep. “I swore an oath to help if I can, whenever I can. I apologise if I have--”

“Oh don’t give me that.” Mrs. Birch whinnied. “Keep second guessing yourself and you’ll get decision paralysis, and given how skillfully you just pulled that stallion’s skull fragments outta his brain, I’m guessing you know just how bad that is for a surgeon.” Moonbrand was silent in response.

She wheeled her chair around to face me. “Have you told your momma where you've been, filly?”

“I- I’m twenty years old, I’m not a--” She silenced me with the thousand yard stare of a veteran medical pony who had her share of dealing with unruly patients. “Besides, I wanted to…help.”

Her expression softened a bit. “I delivered you. You’re always gonna be a filly to me.” She yawned wide and I saw age creep back into her eyes for just a moment. “Besides, there’s not much more anypony can do for ‘em now. Your friend here did some fine doctorin’ I tell you what.” She threw her horn over her shoulder. Behind her, I witnessed Moonbrand lay down. She rested her head on the simple old dirty cotton rug beneath the surgery table like it was a mattress made of clouds, and she was out like a light.

“Can I…? Stay here? I want to keep her company.” Mrs. Birch fixed me with an incredulous look. “It’s just…she wouldn’t have been out there if it wasn’t for me, and he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her, so in a way-” I kept going though I could feel myself digging a hole and then I just didn’t stop digging. “I’m responsible for them both?” She arched an eyeridge. Mrs. Birch had a way of making me feel like I was still that little filly asking her to clean a cut on my forehead.

“Tell your momma where you’re at and I’ll let you stay the night.” I leapt up and hugged her.

I’d managed to drag Moonbrand off that dirty rug and onto a couch, Mr. Birch fed us some pheasant meat pie, and we’d well and truly passed out.

I was woken up by a male’s voice, deep and accented. A voice I honestly hadn’t expected I’d ever hear again. “Where the hell am I?!” It was shouted loud enough that it felt like it shook the walls of the house. Moonbrand was already up. I caught sight of her tail rounding the corner into the surgery room. I followed quickly after.

“Easy, easy. You’re safe.” Moonbrand spoke with measured calmness, her bedside manner practised and professional. “My name is Moonbrand. You were found dead on the road leading up to Radiator. You were just not very dead.”

The pony, Tracker, had eyes as wide as saucers. He couldn’t decide between looking at her, me, the sun, or himself. His hoof went upwards, pressing into the fresh surgery scar on his forehead. He traced it around…it nearly went half the circumference of his head. “Luna’s lights…” his head fell back into the pillow. He stared skyward. “Uh, thank you. Before I forget. You must have--”

“Don’t waste your energy thanking me.” Moonbrand returned, sternly. “You must focus on recovery. I do not know how long it will be until you are recovered. You will stay in bed and--”

“Too long either way. I feel fine now.” He shook his head softly. His hoof pressed against the scar still, as if he still couldn’t quite believe it. “I gotta leave now. I need to deliver a message to my boss.”

“That is quite impossible,” Moonbrand reprimanded. “You should not be alive right now. You need to stay and recover. If you leave now you will certainly die.” He was quiet for a moment. She continued. “I can not have you ruining all my hard work now, can I?”

Though his eyes were dark he managed a small smile.

I butted in. “Where do you need to go?” I considered asking about the message, but I wasn’t about to poke into a raider’s business. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what this guy was.

He turned to look at me. He had silver eyes that would look quite pretty in different lighting. “Libertalia.”

“The city!?” I nearly shouted. “Can you take me with you? I’ve always wanted to see the city! I want to go to a real city with lots of ponies-- and put on the best magic show they’ve ever seen, and…and…” Both ponies regarded me with strange expressions. I had, perhaps, spoken a little out of turn. My ears fell.

“Not taking passengers. Sorry.” He moved to climb out of bed, weary on his hooves. He almost tumbled before Moonbrand caught him.

“Easy!” She reiterated. “You’re dehydrated, starving, and weak. You’re lucky if you can make the hike to the door, much less the hike down the mountain.” He looked like he wanted to fight her on it, but an alicorn twice the size of him is more than a match for a malnourished earth pony. He was quite easily planted back in bed. “You will stay right here. I will fetch you food and drink. Do not get up.” She turned on her hooves, slapping him across the cheek with her tail as she went.

Sensing his defeat, I watched the tan earth pony fall back into bed and stare at the ceiling. “She’s a character.” He snickered. I took the time to pull up the wheelchair beside his bed. He grimaced as I parked it.

“Sooo,” I spoke in a sing-songy voice. “Who are the Regulators?”

His eyes shot open and he fixed me with a worried expression. “You were there. You saw--” I shrank as he spoke, I was about to start rapid firing apologies before he cut himself off. “No, no. I’m not about to start blaming you for not taking on five or six raider ponies on your own. You were very brave. You did right hiding. Shows good judgement.” He fell back into his pillow and chuckled. “That explains why you’re here by my bed. You must have been the one to carry me back here.”

I found myself biting the inside of my cheek. Just like that I saw two choices lay themselves before me. I could tell the truth, tell him that it was Moonbrand who carried him back here, but then he wouldn’t feel like he owed me anything. If I wanted him to take me with him I’d need leverage. I needed to lie. He needed to owe me specifically. It was a longshot too, I might not even get anywhere doing this, but I had to try. This was my chance to leave without sneaking out of town in the middle of the night and immediately walking right into a raider ambush.

Sorry, Moonbrand. “Yeah! Well, dragged more like, you’re heavy.” He chuckled softly and shrugged his haunches in a ‘sorry’ gesture. “So…in a way…” I continued on, carefully gauging his reaction. “You…owe me?”

The disgust on his face was almost tangible. He bared his teeth and shook his head. “No.” He rolled his eyes. “You’re not gonna say ‘oh, you can make it up to me by taking me to Libertalia.’ Because that won’t happen.”

Out of options, my prospects increasingly hopeless, I played the one card I had left. “Pretty please?” I asked in a wavering voice.

His eyes never left mine. “Celestia’s flaming arse-- fine!” He snorted through his nostrils. “Then you’re gonna get shot in the flank by some drugged out junkie, and you’re gonna bawl your little eyes out and beg me to take you back. Then, when that happens, I will say ‘I told you so.’ That’s if that shot doesn’t find your head and I don’t think between the two of us we’re getting lucky again. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“I don’t think you do.” His hooves were weak but he still managed to slam them down in frustration. “You’re asking me to take you out of a relatively safe, stable town. A little oasis of civilization in hell. Radiator hunters are good pony-folk. Keep to themselves, keep themselves safe, nopony bothers 'em. Out there it’s a lot worse. Folk killin’ folk just for fun. Just for a laugh, for food, cause somepony else told ‘em too. You got ponies out there who’ll kill you in a bad way just for lookin at' em funny, and you got the ponies who’d make you wish a mare like you was dead instead.”

I couldn’t hold his gaze. I found myself looking at the floor. He had ranted hard enough that he was panting now. “I know.” I whispered quietly. “I spend a lot of time listening to the radio. I know it can be bad. I know I might-- I might die.” I swallowed. “But I can’t stay here. It’s like…like I’m trapped here. If I leave on my own the minute I step off the mountain I’ll be grabbed by a slaver gang. My mom would never let me go either.”

He had propped himself up on a knee. “Well, you told me why you can’t leave. Why do you want to? I’ll need something more substantial than ‘I feel trapped.’”

I racked my brain. I considered lying again, but honestly, I felt it better to be truthful here. Painfully, completely truthful. I swallowed and fessed up. “I don’t want to die here.” He cocked his head to the side. “If I don’t leave then I’ll die here. Eventually, I’ll grow old in the same home I’ve lived in my entire life. I’ll see my mom die, I’ll see my friends die. I’m the youngest by far. Everypony else in town will die before me, and it’s not like there’s enough ponies here to keep it going. There’s no future here, just…old hunters, old ponies clinging to the past. Then I’ll be the last one in a ghost town. Then I’ll die too.”

He seemed taken aback at that. He pursed his lips in thought. “Shit, kid.” He rolled onto his back and sighed. “I was hoping for something like ‘I wanna see the world’ or something so I could make fun of you and tell you that you’re stupid, but hell.” He was quiet for a moment, then threw his head back into his pillow. “Alright damnit fine! Oh this ain't gonna end well, but--” I was already hugging him by ‘well’

At Moonbrand’s exhaustive insistence Tracker had taken a week to recover. “But no more than a week,” I recalled him promising. I made sure to pop in at least once a day, both to remind him of me and to poke his brain for information about the outside world. He was tight lipped, unfortunately, and still spent most of my visits trying to get me to reconsider. It’s hell out there, I will die horribly, I will wish I was dead, yadda yadda yadda.

I’d lived in this place my whole life and never sat hoof out of town before. I wasn’t going to get another chance at this. If I did die horribly to a raider in a backwater ruin in the middle of nowhere, at least I’d die doing something.

Finally, the day came. I met with Tracker at the appointed time, early morning right before my shift at the Saloon. He was leaning against an old house ruin at the edge of town. “Told your folk you were leaving?” His travelling gear was pretty simple. Leather barding, and a revolver mouth holstered on his front leg. His armour looked new.

I know I started my journey by lying to him but I wasn’t going to make a habit of that. “No,” I admitted. “I told you, mom will never let me go if I’m honest. I’m sneaking out.”

He stepped back, glancing downwards and sizing me up. “That’s it?”

Confused, I looked over my shoulder in case I was missing something. I couldn’t see anything, besides the small huddle of buildings behind me that formed Radiator’s main drag. “That’s what?” I turned back to him, tilting my head quizzically.

“Ugh.” He brought a forehoof to his forehead, rubbing the half-head scar. “No saddlebags? No barding? No gun?”

“I uh…don’t have any of that stuff.”

His head fell back against the ruined wall and I mentally braced myself for the oncoming onslaught of ‘you are going to dies’ “Okay.” He forced himself to speak, his eyes still closed. “Go get some. Get a gun, get saddlebags. You’re in the wasteland, those things practically grow on trees.”

I was about to ask how but his hoof raised up to stop me. “I don’t know. I don’t care how. Steal it, buy it, rob it, borrow it. Consider this your initiation into wasteland survival school: find some gear.”

My first mission and it was a heist from the only people I’d ever known. Great. “I’ll wait here.” He confirmed, plopping down at the foot of the old house. He withdrew a cigarette from his own saddlebags and lit it up in his teeth. “Dhant worry. Ahn’t ghonna leaff.”

Well, that assuaged one of my worries at least. “Thank you,” I turned back to my hometown. I already had a little plan in mind.

First thing was first, one final trip home.

My mother and I had never gotten along very well. Just about the extent of ‘motherly love’ from her was showing me how to use my pipbuck because she was the only other pony in town with one. I couldn’t recall ever really learning anything from her, unless it had to do with taking care of the saloon. Ms. Longhoof taught me how to disassemble and clean her rifle, Mrs Birch taught me how to splint my own leg if I ever got hurt in the forest, Moonbrand taught me everything she knew about magic.

My mother taught me how to clean glasses with my kinesis spell.

She’d never been mean to me or anything. She never abused me, but even so, she always felt more like a decent work friend than a real mother figure. As I flanked-bumped the door to her bedroom open, I imagined her hoof-tapping the bar, waiting for me to show up for my shift, so annoyed that I was going to be late again. I allowed myself a small measure of satisfaction as I imagined her having to be the one cleaning from now on.

I found my prize. Beneath the bed, mother’s old ‘wasteland wanderin’ saddle bags’, as she called them. Old, fixed up with patch leather, but hard wearing and unlikely to break. They’d do. I drew them out and draped them over my flanks as I’d seen her do. They were a little big on me, but I could tighten them later. I turned to leave then-- stopped.

The soft glow of her terminal called to me like a siren.

A memory flashed in my head. Mom had a lot of Trixie’s old shows recorded on here, as well as that ‘So you want to be a Showmare?’ series. She’d been so mad at me the one time I hooked my pipbuck up to it I’d been grounded for a week. There was always the promise, though. “If you’re good,” she would say, “I might let you see another show.”

Well, if I was leaving anyway, I’d love to see her ground me once I’m all the way in Libertalia. I unlatched the connector cord on the back of my pipbuck and connected. I knew exactly what files I wanted. I did a quick search for anything prefixed with ‘Trx’ and downloaded it all. The little marvel of stable-tec engineering on my forehoof grabbed everything in ten seconds flat.

The sheer amount of Trixie content I just shoved into my pipbuck made me giddy! Oh mare of the moon, I might need to find a wasteland hotel and rent a room for weeks just to see them all! I pushed the thought out of my head for now-- giddy explorations into the greatest and most powerful unicorn to ever live would have to wait.

Objective one completed, onto objective two.

The next stop was my own room. I had saved up a few caps from my shifts. Mother garnished half my wages for ‘rent’ ever since I was old enough to start working, but the rest was mine to do whatever I wanted with. I mostly spent it on exotic food traders brought in but I had a decent little emergency fund of 130-something caps tucked in my mattress. They were placed squarely into my saddlebags.

That should do for something small and the ammo for it. I turned to leave-- then I realised I had another problem. If I showed up in the store looking for a gun out of the blue Mr. Bowler would have questions I couldn’t answer. I’d need somepony to buy it for me. I only had one pony I trusted enough to.

Moonbrand was in her home. She’d been there for days, since Tracker made it quite clear he didn’t want to be doted on, she’d thrown herself back into her work on the radio. She didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. “Moonbrand?” I knocked on the trailer door. I witnessed her magical aura take hold of the entire thing and fling it upwards.

“Trixie, welcome.” She trotted up to me, a big smile on her face. “Why are you not at your shift? Did you get a day off?”

“Nevermind that,” I replied evasively. “I need you to buy me a gun. I have the caps, I just don’t want Mr Bowler to see…”

Moonbrand was a very smart pony and I was not a very practised liar. She immediately sniffed me out, both my reasoning and my method. “You are leaving with Tracker.” She accused, not in anger but disappointment. Somehow that felt worse. “You do not want anypony else to know.”

“...Was it that obvious?” I sheepishly shrugged. “I’m sorry, I wanted to tell you but you’d try to stop me, you’d tell me what everypony else told me. That this is my home and that I--”

“I want to go with you.”

Her interjection caught me off guard. I took a step back on instinct. “Hu- wha?” I stuttered like an idiot. “But you could get hurt!”

She fixed me with a look of incredulity so absurdly strong it might have borne a hole through both me and the back of her trailer. For all I knew, maybe alicorns could do that.

“That is far less likely than you getting hurt.” She responded in her matter-of-fact tone that was somehow both extremely correct and extremely gentle. Like a doctor speaking to a dying patient. Goddess, that mental image didn’t bode well. “I would like to stay by my friend’s side to stop you from getting hurt.”

Her reasoning was that simple. Logically, I had no way to argue against it. Emotionally I wanted to scream at her and tell her that I didn’t want the possibility of her getting hurt on my conscience. Logically, she was an alicorn and there was pretty much no chance of anything hurting her beyond a steel ranger with power armour. Emotionally, I still felt guilty about it.

I could have stopped then. Right there was my last chance. I could have apologised to my mom, gone home and taken the punishment, and Moonbrand and I could have lived out the rest of our lives on that little mountain.

“Okay.” I said instead. I jumped up to wrap a little hug around one of her big forelegs. “Tracker’s out by the road. He’s waiting on me.”

I have to say, I think I completed my first mission pretty well. I got the saddlebags, I got entertainment for the road, and I got a gun. Only, it was a laser pistol, and there was an alicorn wielding it. He didn’t say I had to be holding the gun, after all.

“You coming too?” Tracker was less shocked about seeing Moonbrand than I would have liked. He was still relaxing against the ruin wall, almost finished with his cigarette.

Moonbrand nodded. She was lacking in barding herself, but I supposed her invulnerable magic shield made it a bit redundant. All she had was a pair of saddlebags carrying all sorts of, and forgive me for my technical terms here, ‘doohickies’ and ‘gizmos’ that I could make hide nor hair of. I guessed they were surgery and science equipment. “If it’s all right.” She replied simply.

“Shoot, suits me well, miss.” He shrugged and chuckled. “I ain’t gonna turn my nose up at an extra gun. Speaking of,” he stood up and stretched. “Where’s yours, Trixie?”

I suddenly felt much less confident he’d let me get off on the technicality I planned. “I uh…” I glanced around nervously. “Can you buy it for me?” I sheepishly levitated my bag of bottle caps in front of him. “If I buy it, then the owner will ask what I want it for, and…I’m not supposed to be leaving so…so, you know. Please?”

He bit the bag out of the air and walked back towards town with the most ‘I can not believe this’ energy I’d ever seen a stallion walk with.

Tracker came back shucking an old, crappy pipe gun onto the ground, and a box of ammo for it, as well as another box marked ‘surplus.’ Now, I was not an expert on handling firearms. I could clean them and I could take them apart and put them back together decently enough, thank you Ms. Longhoof, but shooting them was new to me.

Even so, as I regarded this absolute travesty of a firearm I wondered if I’d just be better off throwing rocks at any bad ponies we’d come across. It did not have a magazine to speak of and it barely had a barrel. The best I could tell, it would fire a bullet in more-or-less the correct direction if you prayed to Celestia hard enough, pop out its action, and then you’d load another bullet into the receiver directly. I’m being generous with the word ‘receiver.’ It was, in fact, a literal pipe. Not rifled, slapped onto a piece of wood with a trigger hastily jammed in there. There were no sights, the ‘grip’ was just a piece of square wood, and the single-shot action-- ahem, ‘action’ seemed to run on the power of hopes and dreams.

“You have got to be kidding me.” I picked up the-- the ‘thing’ up in my kinesis. I hesitate to call it a gun. It was more like a filly’s drawing of a gun come to life. “You bought me this dinky little peashooter!?”

He shrugged. “I need to know you won’t start fanning the trigger the minute you see somepony that looks to do you harm and accidentally blast me in the flank. At least with this, you shoot off accidentally, you’re only shooting once.”

I looked aghast! “I’m…familiar with the care and handling of firearms.” I tried to sound confident but I just ended up sounding like I was begging him to take me seriously.

“Mhm. Bag the gun, Tricky.”

“Trixie.”

“That’s what I said.”

I felt like I was going to cry as I slid the thing into my saddlebags. I was doomed.

“I think it is a cute little firearm. Rustic, in a way.” Moonbrand snickered behind her hoof. I further despaired that my gun could ever be imagined as ‘cute’

Tracker stepped between the pair of us and cleared his throat. “Alright, once we step out into the wastes, I want one thing to be clear between all of us. When we’re in combat, what I say goes. Do not second guess me, do not hesitate. Follow my orders instantly and we’ll be fine. You second guess me,” Tracker looked directly at me as he spoke. “You die. I die. Moonbrand dies. From here on out, we count on each other. I need your assurance that I can count on you.”

“You have it.” I responded squarely.

“You too,” he turned to Moonbrand. “I don’t know how alicorns fight, but you’re part of a team now. If you’re used to running off on your own, you need to check that right here. You stay with us.”

Moonbrand simply smiled. “Of course. My reason for being here is to protect you both, after all. I would not abandon you.” He fixed her with a stare. Tracker had this amazing ability to not be intimidated by Moonbrand’s sheer size, I noticed. She was nearly twice his body mass. Was he sizing her up? “And I will do as you say in combat,” she added after a pause, meeting his gaze with the calm confidence of a professional.

Tracker nodded and threw his mane over his head. “Alright then, let’s set out. I’ll walk in front, you two behind me.”

Moonbrand cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she piped up. “I have a very strong shield spell. Logically, I should be in front, so if I am targeted first you can take cover behind me.”

“I need to be out in front.” He said, matter-of-factly. He brought his hoof up to his scar-- no, to his eyes. “I got a special talent, you see. Let me use it.” Moonbrand and I shared a look and we both shrugged.

“Very well.” The alicorn relented. “Then, I ask if Trixie can stay formed up close to me just in case, or must we space out?”

Tracker shrugged his haunches and turned on his hooves.

Thus, we were off. Moonbrand and I fell in step behind the stallion and I’d left my home for the first time in a ragtag band of ponies I’d met less than a month before. I remember reading an old book once. It said, ‘the beginning of sea voyages were always times of invigorating optimism’ or some such along those lines. This wasn’t exactly a sea voyage, but I found myself feeling strangely hopeful.

At my side were two companions, one of whom I even called a friend, and before me was a road leading to my destiny. I had left my own world behind and entered a completely new one. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little excited to see how it turned out.

Then again, I was nervous too. Tracker’s warnings were fresh in my mind but so were Trixie’s teachings. Presentation.

I cocked my head to the side, shot a confident smile at nopony in particular, and strode boldly forward into the unknown.

Showtime.

Footnote: Level One

Trait Gained- Skilled: You are skilled but not experienced. Gain +5 to every skill, but you suffer -10% to experience point gain whenever experience points are earned.

Spell Gained- Showmare’s Smoke: deploy a smoke screen that heavily obscures the area around you. Very short range.