Fallout Equestria: Beyond Recognitionby Starlight BurstChaptersChapter 1: - New BeginningsChapter 2: - A new faceChapter 3: - EscapeChapter 1: - New Beginnings"Come on Onion, is that the best you've got?" I spat back at the blue colt standing above me. Oh have we started now? Sorry, allow me to introduce myself - my name is Short Circuit, and I'm as you would say a runt of a late bloomer. This ugly mug standing over me is Orion, but I call him Onion because that pisses him off. "What did you call me you little cunt?" Orion shouted. Oh and did I mention he was big? No? Well, now you know. He is a blue colt with a light green mane (perhaps turquoise, it's hard to tell in this stable light), and he is about twice the size of me. Oh, and he’s a security trainee, so he basically gets to do whatever he wants to do in the stable... I hate rules! "I called you Onion, but if you didn't hear me the first time then maybe you should go to the infirmary and have your hearing checked, because I tho..." I retorted, but was rudely interrupted by Orion smacking me across my face with his hoof. I guess I'm not going to get my point through to this big buffoon, so I might as well finish this now, before things get out of hand... "Pleh…" I spat out blood onto the cold steel floor beneath me. I may have also spat a tooth out, but that's nothing to worry about right now. It will grow back - something he won't have the pleasure of. "You see, you have me at a disadvantage here..." SMACK! Again, I was rudely interrupted by his hoof… He just won't stop will he? No civility in this one. "Why won't you shut the fuck up?" Orion shouted at me, spraying spittle all over me… disgusting colt! Besides, I think the Overmare might have heard that one, so I guess I should end this rabble now then, hmm? I wrapped my forelegs around his neck, and used the momentum to swing my rear legs into his nuts. Suffice to say, I think all the other colts watching felt that one - all I felt was something go pop! "AARRGH! You little fucker!" Orion bellowed in a slightly higher pitched voice. I let go of Orion, dropping him to the floor in a coughing fit - just in time to see the Head of Security coming down the corridor as well… and boy, did she look mighty pissed off! "Short Circuit! That is the fifth time I have found you assaulting one of my security trainees, and it appears to be the same colt at that! Any more infractions from you and you'll be spending the next few months in a cell all by yourself!" she screamed. The Head of Security, Ruby (otherwise known as Ruby Shield), is a small-ish red mare with a steel grey mane and one hell of a 'tude. I'm yet to find out what her cutie mark is, due to the fact that she goes everywhere wearing that security barding of hers. Orion's cutie mark is a security baton... Seriously, a baton? What sort of a cutie mark is that? We all get cutie marks that depict what our role in the stable will be, except... well, I haven't got mine yet - that's why I said I'm a late bloomer. "And for the fifth time, I'm going to tell you that he was the one assaulting me!" I complained to Ruby who, of course, won't believe me because she just saw me kick Orion in the nadgers. "No matter, go to your room! You will be confined there for the rest of the week as punishment!" Ruby said. I hate it when she treats me like her foal... My mother is dead! Stupid bitch… or does she not remember the incident? "Fine!" I growled and started making my way back to the Atrium. The Atrium is basically a giant social area for ponies to gather and… well… socialise, I guess… It also contains most of the stable's private quarters on the first and second balconies. As I walked through the Atrium, everypony looked at me and started whispering amongst themselves… Oh, did I mention that nopony in this stable likes me? I headed upstairs to the second balcony of the Atrium and walked to the end to my room, all alone... I punched in the code for my door. You see, in this stable (Stable 42), everypony is apparently so paranoid that we all feel the need to protect everything with keypad locks - it's annoying having to remember so many different combinations just to get around this damned stable! Luckily, mine is an easy code to remember... the value of Pi. (31415926535898) The door slid open, revealing my room in a state of... cleanliness. What? You thought I was going to say “disrepair” or “messiness”? Well, you are wrong! You see, I like to keep things clean and organised, unlike ‘some’ ponies… (Orion!) I headed over to my desk as the door swooshed shut behind me, clicking into place on the keypad lock and a resounding beep went off somewhere. I caught my reflection in the mirror beside my desk… Well, who's that handsome colt? Oh wait, that's me! My coat was a solid grey in colour, (note the lack of cutie mark on my butt) while my tail and mane are red with black stripes… or was it black with red stripes? Doesn’t matter, I could look at myself all day... Oh, right… the desk! I walked back over to my desk and pulled some notes out of the drawers. I've been meaning to get out of this stable for some time now, but never even managed to find a plausible way out. These notes contain the times of each security patrol and where they will be, and also some of my… umm... failed attempts at getting out. Ideally, I need to get a hold of the Overmare's PipBuck which contains the passcode for the stable door… and even then, that will be impossible to get a hold of - I mean, come on! It’s not like she's just going to waltz right through that door and throw her PipBuck at me whilst shouting "Get out of my stable now!" …You honestly thought that was going to happen then, didn't you? Heh... but seriously, it won't happen - this isn't some random story where everything is cliché and ironic! The only way I can get a hold of that passcode is by knocking her unconscious and removing her PipBuck. Shame that I can't use any spells... Oh, did I mention that I’m a unicorn? No? Well, it must have slipped my mind whilst I was looking into my own eyes... Anyways, as I said before, all stable ponies have a job depicted by their cutie marks, and seeing as how I don't have mine yet, I was allowed a choice of jobs to do until one of them gives me my cutie mark... I chose to work on maintaining the spark reactors and keeping them from overheating, because they are so cool! (No pun intended.) Unfortunately, thanks to Madame Grumpy Bottom, I can't do my job tomorrow, and there are four days left in the week. Two days without work... Celestia-damnit! Now, with me working on the spark reactors you might think: "Well, why don't you just re-route the power to the door-opening mechanism?” Good question, but also a stupid one at that… You don't think I've tried that? Like I’ve said before, all my attempts of escaping are on that paper; open door mechanism, steal Overmare's PipBuck, manually open door with magic (I was in the infirmary for weeks from magical burnout because of that!), and use an industrial laser to cut the door open. …Yeah, I don't even want to mention where that one went wrong... my back still burns from that. Basically, you can assume that all the plans I create fail… You'd be correct in that assumption, but I still have one left, and that is to shut down the reactors, meaning that there will be no power holding the door mechanism in place. It should just fall out then, but this could also endanger the inhabitants of the stable because they’ll have no method of closing the door. After all, no-pony knows what is out there... I think I’ll leave that one as a last resort… *knock, knock* "Who the bloody hell is that? Don't you know I'm confined to my room?" I shouted at the pony behind my door, which is still locked of course. *knock, knock, knock* This time the guest knocked on my door a bit quicker, so impatient... "I said I’m confined to my room! Who are you?" I shouted again. I walked over to my window to see who was out there... and there was no-one there. "What?! Now someone’s knocking on my door and making a run for it?" This just doesn't make sense! And then… BOOM! An explosion echoed throughout the stable. It came from somewhere deeper, probably from maintenance... "What the bloody hell is going on?!" I heard a colt outside say. So… this isn't maintenance bucking around then? I then heard creaking noises coming from the ventilation shaft above my room. I think somepony is in there... "H...hello?" I stammered, and… CRASH! A dark grey colt with a brown mane and tail fell onto the floor, throwing my notes around and breaking my mirror. "Ow!" the grey colt said painfully. I helped him up and sat him down on my bed. "Ok, so… who are you, and what were you doing in the ventilation system?" Good question as any, I guess… He rubbed his head, revealing a horn which had a slight crack in it from where he probably hit it. "Ooh… that looks like it hurts! Are you gonna be alright? I would take you to the infirmary, but my door is locked, thanks to the Head of Security!" …Yeah, stupid question, I know. He fell about 5 hooves into my room, bashed his horn against something, and I'm asking him if he's alright... Very clever, Circuit. Very clever... "Meh, I'll be fine! I was on my way out of here, but then there was an explosion, gunfire, and then ‘POOF!’ I fell through the ventilation shaft into your room…" he groaned. Oh, and I only just noticed that he has his cutie mark... Why must I be the only buck here who doesn't have a cutie mark?! Turns out his cutie mark was an active light bulb... "Ok, so how'd that turn out for you, and who are you?" Also some good questions, though apart from the first, that was a rhetorical question. Sounds stupid, yeah, but I try my best to be funny... wait, that wasn’t funny? Damn! "Oh, sorry… how rude of me! My name is Bright Spark - I'm a PipBuck technician… or at least I was until I tried to escape…" he said with a slightly posh accent. "Also, have you seen my glasses anywhere? I can't see very well without them." Oh, great… intelligent, yet partially blind! I guess we all have our bad qualities... "My name is Short Circuit, I haven't seen your glasses, and you're trying to escape as well? Wait… what’s this about gunfire? I only heard the explosion…" Well, might as well keep asking questions until my mind can think of something better to do - like getting the hay out of this damned stable! "Yes, the stable door was opened from the outside by some ponies… one of them was wearing what appeared to be a checker suit. They started acting kind and asked us what our stable experiment was, and then they started shooting everypony and blew up the spark reactor!" he said, out of breath. Great, so now we are being attacked... I really need to get out of this stable. "Look, forget your glasses and help me open this door! We need to get out of this stable, now!" I shouted at him whilst shaking him with my hooves. "Well, have you tried using telekinesis or some other kind of spell?" he replied. I’ll tell you, he is really starting to try my patience... "Erm... well… I don't know a lot of magic... At the moment, all I can do is create an overglow and give myself a magic burnout, I don’t know any spells..." I said sadly. I hate not being able to use magic… That was one of the reasons Orion started bullying me… "Oh, gee… I'm sorry, Circuit… Look, don't worry - I'll open the door whilst you find my glasses." he said apologetically. I started searching the room trying to find his glasses as he tried opening the door. I think several minutes went by (not to mention a lot of gunfire and explosions going on outside), until I found his glasses - one of the lenses was cracked, and the frame was slightly bent from where he probably landed on it… The clumsy buck. "Got it!" we both exclaimed at the same time. I guess he didn't need his glasses to open the door then... "You found my glasses? Gimme!" He reached out with his magic and surrounded his glasses in a yellow glow, which then hovered out of my hoof. I’d never seen this kind of magic before. Was it… telekinesis? "Erm… A ‘thank you’ would be nice…" I said questioningly… I guess even the best of ponies forget their manners in a time of distress like this. "Oh, sorry… Thanks! Now, we need to get out of here - do you know how to get to security from here? We may need some weapons…" he asked. Well, that would be a good idea but that would have been the first place they went if they had any idea of how this stable is planned out. "No… the best thing to do would be to escape the stable. There's no point in trying to rescue anypony either, they'll all be dead soon." I said grimly. He frowned in reply, probably realising the truth. "…I guess you're right. Still, we should gather any supplies like food or water, and maybe some weapons. Do you have anything like that?" he asked. How straight to the point he is… "No, I don't keep things like that in here... I just eat in the canteen and I hate sports… too exhausting." Well, might as well be truthful here… "Alright then, let's blow this haystack!" he exclaimed. We ran out of the room, looked out over the Atrium and saw a lot of blood and bodies. Most of the floor was covered in them, and the balcony underneath was falling down whilst the opposite side of the atrium had ponies in suits running across it. One of the ponies looked at us… he was wearing a black and white checker suit. "Oh shit, time to go!" I said, and we galloped to the stairs where a suit pony was waiting with a machine gun in his magical field. "Well, well… Lookee what we got 'ere. Two ponies on da' run, eh? Heh, not fo' long!" he said in a strange accent. He aimed his machine gun at us. "Oh shi-" I shouted, and was then interrupted by gunfire and hot lead spraying at both of us. We ran back around the corner of the stairway, out of his line of fire. "Shit! Now what do we do?" I shouted to Bright Spark, who didn't look at all phased by these turn of events. "Allow me!" he said calmly as he turned to face the suit pony. "Are you bucking crazy?!" I shouted at him. He lit up his horn, and a stream of fire was sprayed down the stairwell, burning the suit pony. "AAARRGH!" the suit pony shouted in agony, burning to a crisp. Bright Spark looked back at me with a grim expression on his face. "What the buck was that?" I asked him, as the smell of burnt pony lingered in the air. "I’d rather not talk about it right now, let's just concentrate on getting out alive." he said, still in that calm tone of his. We walked down the blackened stairs, avoiding the burnt carcass of the suit pony. I picked up the machine gun in my mouth, so I could at least do some damage to these bucks! A bunch of text then scrolled across my vision… "Mrph mi mish?" I said with the gun still in my mouth. I meant to say “What is this?”, but it's hard to speak with a gun in your mouth… A yellow bar with red blips appeared along the bottom of my vision, as well as some numbers in the bottom right corner saying “42/0”. I have no idea what this means, but whatever… "What? Oh… I guess this is the first time you've used a weapon, so this would be you finding out about the E.F.S. then…" Bright Spark pointed out. "Eer erf esh?" I said, again blocked by the gun which I then spat on the floor, turning the numbers to “0/0”. "Yes… E.F.S. or ‘Eyes Forward Sparkle’. It shows up allies and hostiles in the vicinity along the bottom bar, and in the bottom right corner it shows how much ammo you have currently in your weapon." he said. He is a bit of a know it all, isn't he? This is going to be a long day… I picked up the weapon again, changing the numbers back to “42/0”, just as another suit pony came into view at the bottom of the stairs. I pulled the trigger of the gun with my tongue and sprayed bullets in his general direction. A couple of them hit his legs and then in the head, quickly killing him. I stopped pulling the trigger as his body fell to the floor. The ammo counter now reads “5/0”. So... I only have 5 bullets left? Crap! I spat the gun onto the floor "Useless piece of crap!" I shouted as I kicked the gun down the stairs. We walked down the stairs and ran across the Atrium, being careful to avoid stepping on any dead bodies. "Why didn't you use S.A.T.S. on that buck?" Bright Spark said. Oh, great… another weapon-related thing I didn't know. He better not go into de... BANG! I faceplanted onto what was left of the stable door. I really should pay attention to where I'm going… "Ow!" I groaned as I stood up and looked out of the stable entrance. "Well, we made it, Circuit. By the way, ‘S.A.T.S.’ is basically a spell which slows down time, allowing you to magically aim your weapon to specific areas of your hostiles and shoot them with extreme accuracy. Of course, whilst using this spell you cannot move..." Bright Spark said. Oh, brilliant! So I could have shot that buck with like, one bullet and saved all that ammo... bucking brilliant! We walked through the stable door in silence, leaving the gunfire and screaming behind us. We then found what appeared to be some sort of cave, leading down to the stable which had a big yellow “42” on the gear shaped door. Oh, and there were also some charred skeletons holding signs near the entrance. I guess they didn't reach the stable in time… poor bastards. "Finally! I'm out of that hellhole, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!" I shouted with glee, whilst not noticing the wooden door in front of me, which I then walked right into… I then heard Bright Spark laughing from behind me as I rubbed my face. "Not funny..." I said whilst glaring daggers at him. I need laser vision or something… "It is so funny! You keep walking into things whilst daydreaming or something..." he said whilst giggling like a little filly. We walked up to the door and I pushed it open, only to be blinded by something bright. "Sweet Celestia's orgasms! What the hay is that bloody thing?!" I shouted in pain covering my eyes with my hoof due to the extreme brightness... "Nice vocabulary. I don't know what it is, but I agree it is rather bright…" Bright Spark replied. As our eyes adjusted, we started to pick out details of the world around us; first of all, the world is brown and shit. Secondly, there is blue above us with grey patches and a big glowing ball which hurts to look at. And last but not least, there is nothing around. Nothing but... some kind of wasteland… * * * Short Circuit: LEVEL UP! Short Circuit's S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: Strength: 2 Perception: 4 Endurance: 1 Charisma: 2 Intelligence: 7 Agility: 3 Luck: 1 Quest Added: “Checkmate”- Find out who this check suit wearing pony is, and kill him. Also, figure out what to do next now that you're in the wasteland… Perhaps find out who this buck works for? New companion: Bright Spark Bright Spark: LEVEL UP! Perk Added: “Fire?” (Rank 1) - Using your knowledge of pyromancy, you can now cast short bursts of fire from your horn. (Note: This spell costs 4 AP in S.A.T.S. and exhausts your magic abilities for a short time.) Brightspark's S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: Strength: 2 Perception: 4 Endurance: 3 Charisma: 3 Intelligence: 6 Agility: 4 Luck: 4 Unlockable added: Soundtrack - Welcome to the wasteland Author's Note And so we begin our journey in the wasteland, the first few paragraphs of this chapter i drafted up on paper while the rest i just made up as i went so it's understandable if i made some mistakes point them out and i shall correct them, next time we will see what happens to Short Circuit and Brightspark, where will they go now? and what will they do? and who is this check suit pony? Credit goes to kkat for creating this amazing sandbox for us to play in, and create our own adventures in what remains of equestria! also a thank you goes to my good friend Brightspark (The real one) for proof reading this and allowing me to use his oc in this story. (i'm terrible at making them up on my own, Orion and Ruby shield? terrible aren't they? or shall i make them survive aswell to come with me on my journey?) Thank you for reading. Please leave some feedback. I greatly appreciate it, and I can use critique to improve my writing craft for a better reading experience for you. Chapter 2: - A new face"so where in Equestria are we?" i asked Brightspark, who looked a bit exhausted after that little spell of his how the hay did he do that anyway? can he shoot lightning aswell? that would be awesome! "i'm not quite sure, why don't you look at your pipbuck map, that should tell you" he replied, alright smartass i was going to do that anyway... i brought up my pipbuck and mashed the map button. "why don't you just look at you..." hold on, he isn't wearing a pipbuck, now how the bloody hell did he get that off? well pipbuck technician should ring a few bells, are they even removable? "as you have probably just noticed I'm not exactly wearing one, i broke it" he said sadly, broke it? how can you break a pipbuck, aren't they supposed to be industrible, indi, unbreakable (that's the one) or something? "what happened?" i asked whilst looking at the map, turns out we aren't even in Equestria... "i'd rather not talk about it, too many painful memories" he said glumly, wow bit of a spoil sport isn't he? any-who let's get back on track here then shall we... "well we aren't in equestria, it's some place called Caledonia, also it appears there is some sort of village a few miles west of here, we should go there and get some supplies, maybe some weapons too" i stated, a blue arrow appeared on my EFS under the W on my hostile bar thingy, and some text scrolled across my vision in the top left corner saying "New quest: Re-supply at Hoofsville" Hoofsville? what sort of a name for a town is that? "good idea as any i guess, let's get moving before somepony down there spots us" Brightspark said, oh shit i forgot about those bastards! we started moving down the hill side to join up on a broken road, i looked back at the doorway to the stable for the last time knowing that I'll never see that place again... i hope. "so... how did you learn that magic anyway? can you shoot lightning aswell?" i asked him a little bit excitedly... what? lightning is cool... "no i can't shoot lightning, so far it's only the fire. i learnt it from a book in the library called mancers of the ages, it had a rather large section on pyromancy so i decided that would be a good place as any to start..." he replied, wait, we had a library? how did i never see it? "what's a mancer?" i asked him a little confusedly, a couple of red blips appeared on my EFS but there was nothing in front of us so i ignored it. "a mancer is a unicorn who studies in the art of elemental magic like ice, fire, water, air and earth. those are the basic types of mancer magic, then there is the more complex kind like spectramancy, umbramancy, electromancy and some others i can't remember" he said factually, he's a bit of a dictionary... maybe he can confuse his enemies with facts whilst i go in for the kill! "i like the sound of that last one, mainly because it has electro in the name, what is it?" i asked whilst avoiding a rather large hole in the road, i also checked my EFS to see how far away the village is it said 76 above the marker so i guess that meant 76 miles? this could be a long journey... "electromancy? i think that was to do with electricity, i didn't read that section or much of the others, i didn't fancy them as much as pyromancy" dammit, i really want that book now so i can see if i can learn electromancy... just because, come on shooting lightning would be so awesome!! there was a slight rumbling in the ground beneath us as we walked past another hole in the road, "hold up, is anything showing up on your EFS? or is that just your stomach?" Brightspark said worriedly, my stomach isn't that loud... is it? "umm well there were a few hostiles showing up earlier but i couldn't see any... oh" i looked down at the ground as realisation kicked in, "RUN!" i shouted. we ran in the direction of a shack off the road just as something burst out of the ground where we were standing not two seconds before, i sneaked a look behind me and saw what looked like a dog but it was glowing green and had huge sharp looking claws. "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! don't turn around!" i screamed, Brightspark tripped over a skull as we got to the shack, which looked like no-one was home for a while. "crap!" he shouted with a mouthful of dirt, i ran over to him and helped him up as the beast dog thing got within breathing distance of us, the door was kicked open from the inside by the green earth pony standing there. "fuck off you hound!" he shouted, there was a loud thump as he fired something from a battle saddle which hit the dog squarely in the chest knocking it to the floor, turns out its a male... the earth pony walked up to us probably to shoot us too, "get in, I'll take care of this puppy" he said in a rough voice, i glanced a look at his rump and saw a burn mark where his cutie mark should be. "ok you do that" i said quickly and ran inside still supporting Brightspark on my back, i heard a loud *Crack* from outside along with a howl from the dog thing (i hate those things, they creep up on you). "what was that thing?" Brightspark asked a little out of breath, i was about to answer but the earth pony buck walked in with the dog things head in his mouth dripping blood and Luna knows what else on the floor, he spat the head onto a chair with a resounding *Splat!* and shut the door behind him. "now i suppose i best start by asking y'all what you're doing out 'ere, don't y'all know this 'eres hellhound territory?" he said roughly in a weird accent. "umm.. well we escaped from our stable which was invaded by some buck in a daisy suit..." i said meekly, there's something not quite right about this buck, i just can't quite put my hoof on it... "daisy suit ya' say? tha'll be Royal Flush, he runs a casino in the Concrete City, don' know wha' he's doin' out 'ere tho' he never leaves tha' damn place" he growled, damn is it me or is his accent getting thicker? "and where is this Concrete City?" Brightspark asked, well i could look to see if my pipbuck knows but i don't even know what the place looks like... "you mean ta tell me you ain't 'erd o' the Concrete City?" he asked in an unbelieving tone. "stable ponies here..." i said annoyingly, i guess this one has a short memory then... "sorry, if you look on that there hoof terminal you got there just look for the biggest city on the map, you'll find it..." he said, losing his accent for once (could he be faking it?) i looked at the map and spotted a large area surrounded by what looked like either a road or a very thick wall. "erm is that it there?" i asked the buck showing him the map, i should really ask him his name so i don't get confused. "eeyup, that's the biscuit! and yes that there is a wall of concrete about 4 hooves thick, good luck getting past that" he said, dammit! i glanced around the shack to try and figure out what sort of a pony he is, there are alot of heads mounted on the walls, most of them appeared to be insect-like whilst some were of that dog creature (what was it called? hell dog or something) whilst some were cow-like at a quick glance but they had two heads... "so what do you know of the town Hoofsville? we are heading over there to get some supplies and possible weapons if we can afford it" Brightspark said, oh yeah i almost forgot where we were going. "huh what? that old town, nah place is a shit-stack and that damned shopkeep will barter all your caps away, too expensive that buck!" he shouted, my eardrums can't take much more of him, has he never heard of an inside voice? "did you say caps? what happened to bits as currency?" Brightspark questioned, good question buddy! "what?! hah! that's a joke the only thing pre-war bits is good for is to be sold for caps, damned stable ponies don't know nuffink!" he guffawed, this buck is starting to annoy me, can't he take us seriously? "great, so it turns out we have no money then... now what do we do?" i said slightly annoyed, stupid above ground ponies and their currency scheme change... Brightspark nudged me on the shoulder trying to get my attention. "what?" i whispered to him, whilst the green buck grabbed the helldog head. "you do know your horn was glowing then right?" he asked, wait what? my horn was glowing? did i just cast a spell? please oh please tell me i casted a spell! "no i didn't, did i cast a spell by any chance?" i asked him excitedly, is it me or is it dusty in here? "it didn't seem like it, try casting one again, see if something happens" allright, here goes nothing. i lit up my horn in a pale blue glow and started thinking angry thoughts again, well that's what happened before right? "hey your horn! it's sparking!" Brightspark exclaimed, wait sparking? what the hay is it sparking for? "what do yo... nyeh" i said whilst wrinkling my muzzle, celestia damned dust, I'm gonna... "Choo!" *boom* i sneezed and flew into the wall behind me whilst the wall in front of me exploded in a flash of blue static and an explosion. the green buck pointed his battle saddle at me as i picked myself up. "what in blue blazes was that for?" he shouted at me, holy shit! did i do that? whoops... "whoa calm down, it was an accident! i don't even know what i did..." i said meekly, the dust started to clear from the hole in the wall where behind was another room filled with guns and ammo. "sweet celestia fuck me with a wooden spoon on Tuesdays! that's alot of weapons!" Brightspark shouted, damn that buck's picked up my colourful vocabulary! "yeah and they're all mine, i use them for hunting... and stuff" he said in a huff, holy shit is that a lasergun? and how the hell would he find a bloody minigun, let alone a bazooka! "yeah well... dibs on the lasergun!" i shouted with my hoof in the air, I'm gonna need a battle saddle aswell, seeing as how i can't lift a damned thing up with magic... even so i blew a wall up, with magic! woo, best day ever! "no, like i said earlier... wait a minute, i suppose i could give you some weapons... for a price." he said with a hint of amusement, oh great why is there always a catch? "what do you mean a price? we have no caps like we said before, if you didn't notice already!" Brightspark retorted, he's gonna make us do a job or something isn't he, like tell us to go kill a dragon or something stupid... "no not money, i want you to take me with you to the Concrete City... i got a score to settle" the green buck said factually, is that it? i suppose we could do that... "allright you can come, now gimme that lasergun!" i shouted and bolted through the wall in all it's glory. "is he always that excited?" the green buck asked, i am not! i just like electrical things is all... "occasionally when he's around stuff he likes, oh how rude of us we didn't introduce ourselves, my name is Brightspark and that excited buck through there is Short Circuit, what's your name?" Brightspark asked, i was gonna ask that... sooner or later.. "the name's flowerbed" he said quietly, but i heard him! so what would his cutie mark have been i wonder? perhaps a bright pink flower lying in bed? "HAH!" i laughed a little too loudly at that thought... whoops. Brightspark shot daggers at me whilst flowerbed slowly turned to stare at me angrily. "and what in blue blazes are you laughing at? think my name's funny do yah?" he shouted, oh shit... what do i do now? pick up a gun and shoot him? beat the hay outta him? "erm... no of course not, i don't even know your name..." i lied please believe me... i kicked a grenade along the floor which bounced off of something purple hidden underneath a tarp... "oh well my name is flowerbed, and your friend over there already told me who you two are..." he said calmly, phew that was a close one... now what was that purple thing? i pulled the tarp off to reveal a beautiful piece of weaponry... "oh that's mine now..." i quickly said, i think i might have gotten a little too excited here... "dammit, why do you claim the best weapon?" Brightspark complained... heh he's gonna have a little tantrum isn't he, does the little foal want his bottle? "because i saw it first!" i replied as i picked up the gun, it's damned light for something so big! what is it? "ah i see you found Starscream, my pride and joy that was... until i broke it" flowerbed said, probably reminiscing on old times, wait broken? dammit! "well what's wrong with it?" i asked, i need it to work! Brightspark entered the gun room and started poking around for his choice of weapons. "i dunno, it just suddenly stopped shooting so i threw it at the wall and left it there to gather dust" flowerbed replied, he did what? why would he throw it at the wall? that can't do it any good... I picked up a battle saddle and started securing it to my back "ahah! now this is mine!" Brightspark shouted with glee, oh dear, what's he found? he turned to look at me with a big grin on his face and showed me what he found. it was a big silver flamethrower... great, just fucking brilliant... more fire, i hate the smell of burning flesh... "ah the flammenwerfer! those germanes know how to use fire!" flowerbed said factually. i turned away back to Starscream grumbling about fire... "can i go try this sucker out?" Brightspark said excitedly, oh fuck no! no more fire, please Luna i beg of you don't let him use that flamethrower near me! "nah it's got no juice at the moment, it's just a nice hearth piece now..." flowerbed said with a smirk, i love you Luna! "well let's see what i can do with this then" i said fiddling with Starscream, i pressed a green button above the grip and some text scrolled along my vision: "welcome to the Enhanced Starscream Targeting System, now Scanning magical abilities.... Electromancy found, setting Starscream to Electro bolts, please wait.......... Starscream is now ready for use please link your pipbuck to verify usage" it said in a mares voice, it was slightly motherly in tone... "umm i don't suppose either of you have a pipbuck link cable?" i asked hopefully, Brightspark started searching through his bag as flowerbed looked at me funnily. "now why would you need one of those?" he asked, Brightspark pulled out the cable and brought it over to me. "thanks, um just a feeling is all... trying something to make it work" i said meekly, flowerbed shook his head and sat down on a sofa in the corner watching us, while Brightspark went back to searching for a weapon. i plugged the cable into my pipbuck and Starscream. some text came up on my pipbuck asking for permission to link, i mashed the "Y" button and waited, Starscream beeped loudly and started humming much to flowerbed's surprise. "how the bloody hell did you get that working?" he shouted, he walked over to me to get a better look as did Brightspark. "i just did what it told me to do, that's all..." i replied smugly, now lets take this girl for a test drive! we all walked out front of the shack as i attached Starscream to my battle saddle. "allright then, shoot that sarsaparilla bottle on the fence then, if you even know how to shoot that damned thing..." flowerbed said with a light chuckle, I'll show you how to shoot! i looked at the bottle and bit down on the mouthpiece of the battle saddle and with a whine Starscream did exactly as her name depicts, a blue light emitted from the barrel and screamed towards the bottle surrounding it in an electric field making it explode. "holy shit buddy! how the hell did you get so good at shooting?" Brightspark asked whilst jumping about, flowerbed just stared at me in shock, heh he should see the lock on his face... priceless... "dunno i just looked at it and bit down on the mouthpiece" i said truthfully this time, flowerbed shook his head and walked over to me inspecting Starscream. "so how did you change the beam matrix?" he asked me, the beam what now? what the bloomin hell is one of them? "umm i sort of un-screwed it and flipped the dial around and smacked it on the table, then put it back together?" i squeaked, he glared at me and laughed "you don't even know what I'm talking about do you, so how did you change it? cause originally that thing disintegrated my enemies in a red beam not blue electric!" he retorted loudly, again with the loud voice! "ok so i lied, it sort of scanned me and set itself to electro beams or something, i wasn't really paying attention, it also called itself the E.S.A.T.S. and it had a lovely mare's voice" i said slightly dreamily, flowerbed knocked my on my rump and walked back inside his shack "what the hay was that for?" i shouted, that buck has a real attitude problem... he walked back out with a bag on his back, which looked rather heavily laden with supplies and what not. "just felt like it, now then we going or what? cause i can't stand this place anymore!" he shouted, well i suppose we can go now that we or rather i have a weapon... "wait, i didn't get a weapon though!" Brightspark panicked, hmm tough luck buddy, i guess that's the wasteland for you... "oh well take this then, I'm sure you can handle her" flowerbed said, he threw the mother of all sniper rifle's at Brightspark who caught it on his back and fell on his butt with a *Thump!* "damn... this bitch is heavy!" he groaned, that is a big rifle! i wonder how big the bullets are? "yeah that's her name, The Bitch! she's an Anti-Machine rifle that fires .50 calibre explosive rounds of pure death, and she also kicks like a mule so be careful how you hold her..." he said chuckling away, damn... that is a fucking big bullet... that'll make a mess of a ponies head... i shuddered at the thought. "right well let's get moving then!" i said quickly and started walking in the direction of Hoofsville. Brightspark picked up The Bitch in his magical field and trotted up beside me with a grin. "so why the bag flowerbed?" i voiced the question on our minds, well at least my mind, i don't know what Brightspark is thinking, probably wishing he had a battle saddle to mount the bitch on. "oh this? just some supplies and ammo, you won't need ammo for that anyway, it uses a special starmetal reactor so that you'll never deplete the battery it'll just keep re-charging itself, you've probably realised how light it is aswell, that's a spell matrix modifying the weight of it, i tell you those pre-war ponies knew their stuff..." flowerbed replied, so I've got some sort of supergun? cool! but what is starmetal? "starmetal? what is that?" Brightspark asked, can he read my mind or something... i like pie, apple pie. nope not even looking at me, dammit! hoofbeat monthly? nope... "erm, it's a strange metal that comes from meteorites, it was said that the stars were the gods and when they fell that meant the gods were real fuckin' pissed, and killed a bunch of zebra villages, bunch o' fuckin hooee if you ask me, starmetal is just what we find in the meteorites and zebras just go all mystical voodoo shit on it, damned stripes!" he said angrily, i guess he hates zebras then... their logic is crazy, i remember one of my teachers in the stable was a zebra, couldn't understand a bloody word, always talking in rhymes... i quickly glanced at my EFS just to be sure that there was nothing around us, don't want to make the same mistake as last time... luckily there was nothing around, also the arrow said "32" so we should be able to see the village on the other side of that hill then. "Hoofsville should be just over yonder, just gotta get round... hold on do you two smell that?" flowerbed asked, yeah now that he said that i can smell... smoke? "yeah it smells like smoke, is your butt on fire Brightspark?" i asked cheekily. "no! hold on..." he replied, we ran up to the top of the hill to see a pillar of smoke coming from Hoofsville, oh that can't be good... "damn, looks like raiders got there first..." flowerbed grunted, raiders? that doesn't sound good, lemme guess it's some sort of giant fire breathing robot? a mare's voice in the back of my mind told me to take a closer look. "either of you got some zoom glasses?" i asked, i gotta see this place for myself, see what happened down there. "you mean binoculars? and yeah sure" flowerbed replied handing me the binocuthingies, hmm nothing there apart from a few ponies wearing tyres and other random bits of clothing. "nothing, just a bunch of crazy junk wearing ponies" i said handing him back the binoglasses, flowerbed chucked them in his bag and stood up. "damn raiders, always killing townsfolk and burning stuff!" he said angrily. we slowly made our way down the hill and made the distance to Hoofsville. the smell is even worse up close. "sheesh what is that awful smell?" i retched through my hoof, flowerbed was wearing a mask whilst Brightspark and i just covered our muzzles with our hoofs. "burning bodies, mixed with sex and rotting bodies" flowerbed replied, i did a double-take on what he said. "sex? what? do raiders just fuck then kill or burn?" i asked almost throwing up from the smell, Brightspark did throw up with that comment, "well yes and no, sometimes they kill then fuck the corpse whilst other times they fuck then kill them, and other times they fuck then keep them as a slave, and maybe eat them too..." he said with a grimace, ok now i threw up all over my hoof aswell dammit! these raiders are disgusting, I'll kill them all! bastards.. "that's disgusting!" Brightspark said shakily. "that's the wasteland for you" flowerbed replied quickly, i checked my EFS which was a wall of red in all directions. "oh shit..." *click* i heard several guns point in our directions and ponies walk towards us. "now lookee what we got here! some new playthings boys! and looks like they brought us some new guns too! it's like hearth's warming eve!" a brown raider buck with a spiky mane said gleefully, the raiders around him started giggling amongst themselves and moving towards us, backing us up into a wall. "now what?" i asked. * * * Short Circuit: LEVEL UP! +1 Luck +2 Energy Weapons Perk Added: Electromancy (Rank 1): - You have discovered that you can in fact use magic now, you are no longer an earth pony with a horn, but you can only shock people at the moment so unlucky. New Companion: Flowerbed Flowerbed's Special: Strength: 8 Perception: 7 Endurance: 5 Charisma: 1 Intelligence: 4 Agility: 4 Luck: 2 Brightspark: LEVEL UP! +2 Intelligence +1 Big Guns +4 Science Perk added: Specs - whilst wearing any kind of glasses, you gain a +2 to your perception but when they have been removed you loose this plus an extra -1 to your base perception. Unlockable added: Soundtrack - Theme of Knowledge (Brightspark) Soundtrack - Theme of Progression (Short Circuit) Author's Note allright! another one bites the dust as they say, we say hello to a new friend called Flowerbed, he's a bit of a sourpuss isn't he? i don't like him,but he'll help Short Circuit an Brightspark get to the Concrete City somehow... So the plot begins to thicken, will they make some sort of escape? or will they be sold into slavery? or something entirely different that could change the way short circuit see's things... who knows? Credit goes to kkat for creating this amazing sandbox for us to play in, and create our own adventures in what remains of equestria! Thank you for reading. Please leave some feedback. I greatly appreciate it, and I can use critique to improve my writing craft for a better reading experience for you. Chapter 3: - Escape"now what?" i asked, slightly quickly due to the amount of raiders getting closer to us. "we surrender!" Brightspark shouted, throwing his weapon onto the floor, i quickly followed suit and removed my battle saddle and saddlebags, "what? are you two out of your frickin minds?" shouted flowerbed. "just a little" i brought my hooves together but left a very tiny gap. "oh you guys are mine now! my little playthings, don't worry we'll take care of your weapons, which are ours now..." the brown buck in front of us said whilst laughing insanely. why did Brightspark surrender like that? i'm sure we could have taken them on, or perhaps not i mean this is a raider town isn't it? the brown buck told some ponies to take us somewhere, i'm not sure where i was busy wondering why in the blue hell Brightspark did that. "ow!" i shouted rubbing my flank "what was that for?" i looked back to see a raider pointing my weapon back at me with a maniacal grin on his face, when i get outta here he is first... "get moving you three, the cage isn't that far, thank discord" the flank poking raider grumbled, wait did he say discord, as in spirit of chaos and disharmony discord? they worship him? ok i guess that makes sense, a blue jittery buck trotted up to that brown spiky haired buck (i think he's the leader) "hey vase, that buck had some really good fire-power on him, maybe we can finally leave this shit-hole and move to somewhere like, well the concrete city?" the brown buck who's name is vase as i just overheard snapped the blue bucks neck, what the fuck? "listen up all you fucks, we stay here, we get slaves like those three fucks in the cage, we scare them, we play with them, then we sell them... or kill them, i don't care" vase shouted then walked with a stagger into what appeared to be a shop of sorts. wait since when were we, oh forget it i never do pay attention do i? "so do you have a cunning plan to get us out of here then?" flowerbed grumbled trying to get out of his bucktape. (they tied our hooves together with bucktape and then attached those to the wooden cage with more bucktape) "yeah why in the blue hell did you surrender anyway? we had them... i think" i retorted unsurely oh man i gotta itch now. "in all due time sparky" brightspark said camly, did he just call me sparky? i'm so gonna smack him for that one, sparky my ass... "anyway if none of you two popcorn farts are going to get us out of here then perhaps i shall!" i said with pride, well sometime you must try to raise yourself up and win the day, right? "you get us out of here? hah!" flowerbed laughed "you couldn't even hold your own against a hellhound let alone a town full of raiders" he laughed again. vase started approaching us in the cage, oh shit, please don't kill us! "hey you two, shut the fuck up! did i tell you to speak? no? then shut the fuck up!" he shouted at us whilst looking at flowerbed and brightspark, "hey what's wrong shorty you look scared, whats the matter, life out here not as good as in the stables huh? up here we rule you see, or shall i teach you this?" he stood back up as a green buck was brought over wearing a sack on his head "your friend i presume?" vase said with a smirk, right before he sliced the poor bucks head off with a machete *thump* the body fell to the ground with a meaty slap, safe to say brightspark threw up. "not our friend" flowerbed said quietly to himself whilst staring at the floor. "what was that? do you want me to slice you up too, like your friend? shut the fuck up! ok? i'm the one with the fucking dick, look me, look at me in the fucking eye!" vase shouted quickly at flowerbed, who looked up at vase with no emotion, that buck has a good pokerface. "your my bitch, i rule this fucking land, shut. the. fuck .up, or you die!" vase screamed at flowerbed before looking at me with a sincere smile, he sat down next to me "what is it shorty? what is it? why aren't you laughing now like you did down there? is this not fun anymore? have i failed to entertain you? you see down there you thought you had a chance but up here... on land, it's ok, i'm gonna chill, we're gonna relax, because you (he points at me) moi (he points at himself) and *whistles* your tough guy friend (points at flowerbed) are gonna have alot of fun together tomorrow" he ranted crazily, oh sweet celestia make him stop talking and fuck off, we need to escape! "hey boss, stop scaring the slaves! we need you to take care of the mares" a raider buck said from behind him, vase stood up and sauntered off towards him "we'll see if you two Fucks are more entertaining then our friends, ta ta" vase trotted away with the buck leaving us alone. "holy frosted luna's panties, that buck is a psycho!" brightspark shouted struggling to get out. he really is picking up on my vocabulary. funny really, he's a unicorn who knows magic and yet he can't untie a bit of bucktape, whilst flowerbed just sits there staring at the floor again what the hell? there was a sound of ripping as flowerbed stood up free from his bucktape imprisonment, "well come on then hero, you going to get us out of here?" he said with a smirk, how did he do that? wait bucktape not rope, idiots. i pulled my hooves out of the bucktape bringing some stinging and a resounding rip. "allright then, plan of escape, don't get seen, stay low and stick to the shadows" i said quietly whilst untying brightspark. "decent sounding plan, but i'm going to go get my weapons back" flowerbed said and with that he ran out of the cage, what an idiot, he's definitely going to die. "are we going to go after him?" brightspark questioned. "fuck that! let's concentrate on getting out of here" i retorted with a laugh, i'm not crazy. we walked slowly out of the cage and hugged the walls to avoid being spotted, "so what did you mean before when you said in due time?" i asked, scratching my mane. "um... well i can't say yet, but we will be fine when we get to either pondale or neighton." he said slowly, where? how does he know of towns when we were both born in a stable? i threw a rock to distract a raider ahead so we could sneak into the shop next to us, "allright then, give me a hoof here" he stood underneath the window giving me room to squeeze in through it, the coast was clear no raiders so i stuck my hoof out the window to pull brightspark in but he was gone. "what? where the fuck has he gone?" i whispered to myself. i walked towards the door on the opposite side of the room but something purple caught my eye "is that... starscream? oh god what have they done to you?" the poor weapon was in bits, snapped in half by the looks of things, i guess the raiders couldn't get it to work. i walked back to the door and peeked through the keyhole to see two raiders standing on either side of the door holding what appeared to be shotguns in shit condition. this could work, i looked around for a weapon i could use, only managing to find a couple of throwing knives i tied them to my hooves with some bucktape and slowly opened the door. "hey did you see vase take down that flower buck?" one of the raiders said slightly amused. "yeah, that was awesome. i'm glad i'm not him!" the other laughed. those fuckers... he was our bodyguard, so to speak or weapons expert if you prefer. fuck! "psst" i whispered and the two raider bucks turned round for me to jam my hoof blades into their eyes. messy. i pulled my hooves out of their eyes but the blades were stuck in their heads, they fell to the floor with a wet splat. "ew.. thats gonna stain my coat, i'll take those" i said picking up their shotguns, i attached one to my arm with bucktape whilst the other i held in my mouth. now i suppose the best thing to do would be to get out of this town, but i really want to get revenge on vase, where would he be, didn't they say something about mares? let's go further into town then. i ran across the street and ducked behind a box just as a raider having a smoke walked past. "huh, what was that?" he said stopping, shit! did he hear me... fuck! i crawled into a gap underneath the house to avoid his vision. "nah probably radroaches again" he snorted and walked off. damn now where? somepony poked me in the shoulder from beside me, i stifled a shout of suprise... it was brightspark. "where the hell did you run off to?" i whispered to him, trying not to alert anypony of our hiding spot. "i went to do somethings, trying to find a radio, but then i realised your pipbuck has a broadcaster, mind if i use it?" he reached out and started pressing some buttons on my pipbuck bringing up the broadcaster tab. "so what is this for again?" "you'll see..." he replied, he pressed the broadcast button and i heard a radio sop playing music in the building above. "attention pondale steel rangers, this is Head scribe Brightspark requesting immediate assistance, i repeat this is head scribe brightspark of the pondale rangers requesting immediate assistance, we have been taken hostage by raiders in hoofsville, we have located their leader broken vase, requesting immediate assistance over" he said into my pipbuck and let go of the broadcast button waiting for a reply. XXXXXXX meanwhile in a bar not far from hoofsville, there were two travelling merchants sitting at the bar discussing the wares they have collected and were thinking of where they could go to sell, when one of them noticed a cyan pegasus wearing what appeared to be white segmented armour with a scorpion tail. "hey who's that guy in the corner, he looks like some sort of mercenary with an attitude problem." one of the merchants whispered, the other smacked him on the back of his head. "you idiot, he might hear you, don't you know who that is? thats the lost pegasus!" the merchant on the left snapped. "if i were you two i'd be quiet and change the subject" the bartender said, whilst cleaning a mug. there was a burst of static from the radio followed by a distressed voice: "attention pondale steel rangers, this is Head scribe Brightspark requesting immediate assistance, i repeat this is head scribe brightspark of the pondale rangers requesting immediate assistance, we have been taken hostage by raiders in hoofsville, we have located their leader broken vase, requesting immediate assistance over" the speech cut of and was followed with static. the cyan pegasi sighed with annoyance "well looks like i got some work to do." he got up and cracked his neck and walked outside, not paying the barkeep. "holy shit did you see the size of that rifle?" the merchant on the right shouted. smack! "he might hear you, we can't talk to him, you don't want him to kill us do you?" the merchant on the right said and walked outside to watch the pegasus fly away. but he was already gone, leaving behind a scorch mark on the ground. XXXXXXX Back in hoofsville "do you think they got it? or was i on the wrong frequency?" brightspark said in worry, he grabbed his head in his hooves and started to panic. "brightspark, you just broadcasted that over the entire wasteland... someone will hear it and help, i hope." i replied calmly. "how can you stay so calm! we are trapped in a raider encampment and vase killed flowerbed.. how do you do it?" he shouted, oh this isn't going to end well... "shh, stay quiet we can't run the risk of being heard, if they find us we are dead, just like flowerbed..." i said calmly again. the floorboards in the building above us creaked and a raider could be heard "he did you fucks hear that?" he shouted. "hear what, you're para... pret... ah fuck it your hearing things you fucker!" the other raider shouted. "i'm gonna kill all of these bastards..." i whispered, my horn started glowing black as the night, my eyes also started glowing and leaking purple mist. you see when a unicorn thinks dark thoughts or evilly and starts using magic it shows on them this is known as dark magic, similar to back in the olden times of equestria when the crystal empire was under a sombratic rule... "uh circuit... your negatively glowing, what are you thinking?" he started to shudder when i looked at him in anger. "i'm gonna kill every last one of them, it's these sort of ponies that invaded our stable... or should i say my stable steel ranger..." i shot daggers at him, how could i be so stupid! all ponies who belong in the stable when they turn 10 years old receive the pipbuck, how can you not want one? they are so handy. some friend... i crawled out from under the building and stood infront of the door. "circuit what are you doing! you'll die!" he said scared now. "not unless they go first" i growled in a voice unlike my own. my horn started glowing in a dark blue overglow as i charged up my energy, i'm gonna blow them up! "oh shit!" brightspark shouted and ran out from under the house just as i fired a beam of electricity through the building, vaporising the raiders within. i collapsed onto the street exhausted, that was too much magic i used up there. "come on this is no time for a nap! we need to get out of here!" exclaimed brightspark pointing at the raider horde coming at us. "just five more minutes" i groaned falling out of conciousness. XXXXXXX "hoofsville should be just over that hill" said the pegasus in a gruff voice. he flew over the hill and hovered in the air to take in the surroundings. "hmm the kid was right, this is a raider encampment, wait a minute" the pegasus brought up his rifle in his hooves, similar to how a zebra would hold it on the ground and looked through the scope at a shining blue light. "damn that kid has alot of magic..." he said in surprise just as one of the buildings lit up with blue lightning, he saw the buck fall onto the floor unconscious and noticed the horde of raiders heading his way. "damn, looks like it's time to cleanse this town" he racked the bolt of his rifle loading a .60 calibre round into the chamber, he aimed at the nearest raider to the bucks and... BOOM! the shot echoed around sounding like thunder in a storm, safe to say the raider was nothing but a stain on the floor next to some boots... XXXXXXX "oh shit, oh lorn what now!" brightspark said in a panicked tone just as he heard thunder close by, "sweet celestia's flaming orgasms! what the smeg was that!" he shouted as a raider exploded behind him leaving a small crater in the street. "oh bloody hell! i need to get out of here! Short circuit!" he ran over to short circuit and supported him on his own back. "celestia damn you're heavy!" he complained as another raider exploded from the thunder. he started running back to the hills where we originated from but was stopped by a group of raiders blocking them off. "oh shit..." There was a strong gust of wind and a pegasus clad in white armour landed next to brightspark holding a massive rifle on his back. "you can stop panicking now, i'm here to help" * * * Short Circuit: Status - Unconcious... Cannot level up Brightspark: LEVEL UP! +1 Survival +2 Endurance +1 Stamina Non-Hostile Located: The Lost Pegasus His Special: S: 8 P: 9 E: 8 C: 5 I: 9 A: 8 L: 10 Unlockable Added: Soundtrack - Theme of the Watchful (Lost Pegasus) Author's Note Sorry this one took so long to make, i've been a little busy with college work, and got a little pre-occupied recording videos and playing League of Legends. Damn i think that's a good place to leave as a cliffhanger... i like cliffhangers. so what's going to happen? we shall see... Credit goes to kkat for creating this amazing sandbox for us to play in, and create our own adventures in what remains of equestria! Thank you for reading. Please leave some feedback. I greatly appreciate it, and I can use critique to improve my writing craft for a better reading experience for you.
Chapter 1: - New Beginnings"Come on Onion, is that the best you've got?" I spat back at the blue colt standing above me. Oh have we started now? Sorry, allow me to introduce myself - my name is Short Circuit, and I'm as you would say a runt of a late bloomer. This ugly mug standing over me is Orion, but I call him Onion because that pisses him off. "What did you call me you little cunt?" Orion shouted. Oh and did I mention he was big? No? Well, now you know. He is a blue colt with a light green mane (perhaps turquoise, it's hard to tell in this stable light), and he is about twice the size of me. Oh, and he’s a security trainee, so he basically gets to do whatever he wants to do in the stable... I hate rules! "I called you Onion, but if you didn't hear me the first time then maybe you should go to the infirmary and have your hearing checked, because I tho..." I retorted, but was rudely interrupted by Orion smacking me across my face with his hoof. I guess I'm not going to get my point through to this big buffoon, so I might as well finish this now, before things get out of hand... "Pleh…" I spat out blood onto the cold steel floor beneath me. I may have also spat a tooth out, but that's nothing to worry about right now. It will grow back - something he won't have the pleasure of. "You see, you have me at a disadvantage here..." SMACK! Again, I was rudely interrupted by his hoof… He just won't stop will he? No civility in this one. "Why won't you shut the fuck up?" Orion shouted at me, spraying spittle all over me… disgusting colt! Besides, I think the Overmare might have heard that one, so I guess I should end this rabble now then, hmm? I wrapped my forelegs around his neck, and used the momentum to swing my rear legs into his nuts. Suffice to say, I think all the other colts watching felt that one - all I felt was something go pop! "AARRGH! You little fucker!" Orion bellowed in a slightly higher pitched voice. I let go of Orion, dropping him to the floor in a coughing fit - just in time to see the Head of Security coming down the corridor as well… and boy, did she look mighty pissed off! "Short Circuit! That is the fifth time I have found you assaulting one of my security trainees, and it appears to be the same colt at that! Any more infractions from you and you'll be spending the next few months in a cell all by yourself!" she screamed. The Head of Security, Ruby (otherwise known as Ruby Shield), is a small-ish red mare with a steel grey mane and one hell of a 'tude. I'm yet to find out what her cutie mark is, due to the fact that she goes everywhere wearing that security barding of hers. Orion's cutie mark is a security baton... Seriously, a baton? What sort of a cutie mark is that? We all get cutie marks that depict what our role in the stable will be, except... well, I haven't got mine yet - that's why I said I'm a late bloomer. "And for the fifth time, I'm going to tell you that he was the one assaulting me!" I complained to Ruby who, of course, won't believe me because she just saw me kick Orion in the nadgers. "No matter, go to your room! You will be confined there for the rest of the week as punishment!" Ruby said. I hate it when she treats me like her foal... My mother is dead! Stupid bitch… or does she not remember the incident? "Fine!" I growled and started making my way back to the Atrium. The Atrium is basically a giant social area for ponies to gather and… well… socialise, I guess… It also contains most of the stable's private quarters on the first and second balconies. As I walked through the Atrium, everypony looked at me and started whispering amongst themselves… Oh, did I mention that nopony in this stable likes me? I headed upstairs to the second balcony of the Atrium and walked to the end to my room, all alone... I punched in the code for my door. You see, in this stable (Stable 42), everypony is apparently so paranoid that we all feel the need to protect everything with keypad locks - it's annoying having to remember so many different combinations just to get around this damned stable! Luckily, mine is an easy code to remember... the value of Pi. (31415926535898) The door slid open, revealing my room in a state of... cleanliness. What? You thought I was going to say “disrepair” or “messiness”? Well, you are wrong! You see, I like to keep things clean and organised, unlike ‘some’ ponies… (Orion!) I headed over to my desk as the door swooshed shut behind me, clicking into place on the keypad lock and a resounding beep went off somewhere. I caught my reflection in the mirror beside my desk… Well, who's that handsome colt? Oh wait, that's me! My coat was a solid grey in colour, (note the lack of cutie mark on my butt) while my tail and mane are red with black stripes… or was it black with red stripes? Doesn’t matter, I could look at myself all day... Oh, right… the desk! I walked back over to my desk and pulled some notes out of the drawers. I've been meaning to get out of this stable for some time now, but never even managed to find a plausible way out. These notes contain the times of each security patrol and where they will be, and also some of my… umm... failed attempts at getting out. Ideally, I need to get a hold of the Overmare's PipBuck which contains the passcode for the stable door… and even then, that will be impossible to get a hold of - I mean, come on! It’s not like she's just going to waltz right through that door and throw her PipBuck at me whilst shouting "Get out of my stable now!" …You honestly thought that was going to happen then, didn't you? Heh... but seriously, it won't happen - this isn't some random story where everything is cliché and ironic! The only way I can get a hold of that passcode is by knocking her unconscious and removing her PipBuck. Shame that I can't use any spells... Oh, did I mention that I’m a unicorn? No? Well, it must have slipped my mind whilst I was looking into my own eyes... Anyways, as I said before, all stable ponies have a job depicted by their cutie marks, and seeing as how I don't have mine yet, I was allowed a choice of jobs to do until one of them gives me my cutie mark... I chose to work on maintaining the spark reactors and keeping them from overheating, because they are so cool! (No pun intended.) Unfortunately, thanks to Madame Grumpy Bottom, I can't do my job tomorrow, and there are four days left in the week. Two days without work... Celestia-damnit! Now, with me working on the spark reactors you might think: "Well, why don't you just re-route the power to the door-opening mechanism?” Good question, but also a stupid one at that… You don't think I've tried that? Like I’ve said before, all my attempts of escaping are on that paper; open door mechanism, steal Overmare's PipBuck, manually open door with magic (I was in the infirmary for weeks from magical burnout because of that!), and use an industrial laser to cut the door open. …Yeah, I don't even want to mention where that one went wrong... my back still burns from that. Basically, you can assume that all the plans I create fail… You'd be correct in that assumption, but I still have one left, and that is to shut down the reactors, meaning that there will be no power holding the door mechanism in place. It should just fall out then, but this could also endanger the inhabitants of the stable because they’ll have no method of closing the door. After all, no-pony knows what is out there... I think I’ll leave that one as a last resort… *knock, knock* "Who the bloody hell is that? Don't you know I'm confined to my room?" I shouted at the pony behind my door, which is still locked of course. *knock, knock, knock* This time the guest knocked on my door a bit quicker, so impatient... "I said I’m confined to my room! Who are you?" I shouted again. I walked over to my window to see who was out there... and there was no-one there. "What?! Now someone’s knocking on my door and making a run for it?" This just doesn't make sense! And then… BOOM! An explosion echoed throughout the stable. It came from somewhere deeper, probably from maintenance... "What the bloody hell is going on?!" I heard a colt outside say. So… this isn't maintenance bucking around then? I then heard creaking noises coming from the ventilation shaft above my room. I think somepony is in there... "H...hello?" I stammered, and… CRASH! A dark grey colt with a brown mane and tail fell onto the floor, throwing my notes around and breaking my mirror. "Ow!" the grey colt said painfully. I helped him up and sat him down on my bed. "Ok, so… who are you, and what were you doing in the ventilation system?" Good question as any, I guess… He rubbed his head, revealing a horn which had a slight crack in it from where he probably hit it. "Ooh… that looks like it hurts! Are you gonna be alright? I would take you to the infirmary, but my door is locked, thanks to the Head of Security!" …Yeah, stupid question, I know. He fell about 5 hooves into my room, bashed his horn against something, and I'm asking him if he's alright... Very clever, Circuit. Very clever... "Meh, I'll be fine! I was on my way out of here, but then there was an explosion, gunfire, and then ‘POOF!’ I fell through the ventilation shaft into your room…" he groaned. Oh, and I only just noticed that he has his cutie mark... Why must I be the only buck here who doesn't have a cutie mark?! Turns out his cutie mark was an active light bulb... "Ok, so how'd that turn out for you, and who are you?" Also some good questions, though apart from the first, that was a rhetorical question. Sounds stupid, yeah, but I try my best to be funny... wait, that wasn’t funny? Damn! "Oh, sorry… how rude of me! My name is Bright Spark - I'm a PipBuck technician… or at least I was until I tried to escape…" he said with a slightly posh accent. "Also, have you seen my glasses anywhere? I can't see very well without them." Oh, great… intelligent, yet partially blind! I guess we all have our bad qualities... "My name is Short Circuit, I haven't seen your glasses, and you're trying to escape as well? Wait… what’s this about gunfire? I only heard the explosion…" Well, might as well keep asking questions until my mind can think of something better to do - like getting the hay out of this damned stable! "Yes, the stable door was opened from the outside by some ponies… one of them was wearing what appeared to be a checker suit. They started acting kind and asked us what our stable experiment was, and then they started shooting everypony and blew up the spark reactor!" he said, out of breath. Great, so now we are being attacked... I really need to get out of this stable. "Look, forget your glasses and help me open this door! We need to get out of this stable, now!" I shouted at him whilst shaking him with my hooves. "Well, have you tried using telekinesis or some other kind of spell?" he replied. I’ll tell you, he is really starting to try my patience... "Erm... well… I don't know a lot of magic... At the moment, all I can do is create an overglow and give myself a magic burnout, I don’t know any spells..." I said sadly. I hate not being able to use magic… That was one of the reasons Orion started bullying me… "Oh, gee… I'm sorry, Circuit… Look, don't worry - I'll open the door whilst you find my glasses." he said apologetically. I started searching the room trying to find his glasses as he tried opening the door. I think several minutes went by (not to mention a lot of gunfire and explosions going on outside), until I found his glasses - one of the lenses was cracked, and the frame was slightly bent from where he probably landed on it… The clumsy buck. "Got it!" we both exclaimed at the same time. I guess he didn't need his glasses to open the door then... "You found my glasses? Gimme!" He reached out with his magic and surrounded his glasses in a yellow glow, which then hovered out of my hoof. I’d never seen this kind of magic before. Was it… telekinesis? "Erm… A ‘thank you’ would be nice…" I said questioningly… I guess even the best of ponies forget their manners in a time of distress like this. "Oh, sorry… Thanks! Now, we need to get out of here - do you know how to get to security from here? We may need some weapons…" he asked. Well, that would be a good idea but that would have been the first place they went if they had any idea of how this stable is planned out. "No… the best thing to do would be to escape the stable. There's no point in trying to rescue anypony either, they'll all be dead soon." I said grimly. He frowned in reply, probably realising the truth. "…I guess you're right. Still, we should gather any supplies like food or water, and maybe some weapons. Do you have anything like that?" he asked. How straight to the point he is… "No, I don't keep things like that in here... I just eat in the canteen and I hate sports… too exhausting." Well, might as well be truthful here… "Alright then, let's blow this haystack!" he exclaimed. We ran out of the room, looked out over the Atrium and saw a lot of blood and bodies. Most of the floor was covered in them, and the balcony underneath was falling down whilst the opposite side of the atrium had ponies in suits running across it. One of the ponies looked at us… he was wearing a black and white checker suit. "Oh shit, time to go!" I said, and we galloped to the stairs where a suit pony was waiting with a machine gun in his magical field. "Well, well… Lookee what we got 'ere. Two ponies on da' run, eh? Heh, not fo' long!" he said in a strange accent. He aimed his machine gun at us. "Oh shi-" I shouted, and was then interrupted by gunfire and hot lead spraying at both of us. We ran back around the corner of the stairway, out of his line of fire. "Shit! Now what do we do?" I shouted to Bright Spark, who didn't look at all phased by these turn of events. "Allow me!" he said calmly as he turned to face the suit pony. "Are you bucking crazy?!" I shouted at him. He lit up his horn, and a stream of fire was sprayed down the stairwell, burning the suit pony. "AAARRGH!" the suit pony shouted in agony, burning to a crisp. Bright Spark looked back at me with a grim expression on his face. "What the buck was that?" I asked him, as the smell of burnt pony lingered in the air. "I’d rather not talk about it right now, let's just concentrate on getting out alive." he said, still in that calm tone of his. We walked down the blackened stairs, avoiding the burnt carcass of the suit pony. I picked up the machine gun in my mouth, so I could at least do some damage to these bucks! A bunch of text then scrolled across my vision… "Mrph mi mish?" I said with the gun still in my mouth. I meant to say “What is this?”, but it's hard to speak with a gun in your mouth… A yellow bar with red blips appeared along the bottom of my vision, as well as some numbers in the bottom right corner saying “42/0”. I have no idea what this means, but whatever… "What? Oh… I guess this is the first time you've used a weapon, so this would be you finding out about the E.F.S. then…" Bright Spark pointed out. "Eer erf esh?" I said, again blocked by the gun which I then spat on the floor, turning the numbers to “0/0”. "Yes… E.F.S. or ‘Eyes Forward Sparkle’. It shows up allies and hostiles in the vicinity along the bottom bar, and in the bottom right corner it shows how much ammo you have currently in your weapon." he said. He is a bit of a know it all, isn't he? This is going to be a long day… I picked up the weapon again, changing the numbers back to “42/0”, just as another suit pony came into view at the bottom of the stairs. I pulled the trigger of the gun with my tongue and sprayed bullets in his general direction. A couple of them hit his legs and then in the head, quickly killing him. I stopped pulling the trigger as his body fell to the floor. The ammo counter now reads “5/0”. So... I only have 5 bullets left? Crap! I spat the gun onto the floor "Useless piece of crap!" I shouted as I kicked the gun down the stairs. We walked down the stairs and ran across the Atrium, being careful to avoid stepping on any dead bodies. "Why didn't you use S.A.T.S. on that buck?" Bright Spark said. Oh, great… another weapon-related thing I didn't know. He better not go into de... BANG! I faceplanted onto what was left of the stable door. I really should pay attention to where I'm going… "Ow!" I groaned as I stood up and looked out of the stable entrance. "Well, we made it, Circuit. By the way, ‘S.A.T.S.’ is basically a spell which slows down time, allowing you to magically aim your weapon to specific areas of your hostiles and shoot them with extreme accuracy. Of course, whilst using this spell you cannot move..." Bright Spark said. Oh, brilliant! So I could have shot that buck with like, one bullet and saved all that ammo... bucking brilliant! We walked through the stable door in silence, leaving the gunfire and screaming behind us. We then found what appeared to be some sort of cave, leading down to the stable which had a big yellow “42” on the gear shaped door. Oh, and there were also some charred skeletons holding signs near the entrance. I guess they didn't reach the stable in time… poor bastards. "Finally! I'm out of that hellhole, and I wouldn't miss it for the world!" I shouted with glee, whilst not noticing the wooden door in front of me, which I then walked right into… I then heard Bright Spark laughing from behind me as I rubbed my face. "Not funny..." I said whilst glaring daggers at him. I need laser vision or something… "It is so funny! You keep walking into things whilst daydreaming or something..." he said whilst giggling like a little filly. We walked up to the door and I pushed it open, only to be blinded by something bright. "Sweet Celestia's orgasms! What the hay is that bloody thing?!" I shouted in pain covering my eyes with my hoof due to the extreme brightness... "Nice vocabulary. I don't know what it is, but I agree it is rather bright…" Bright Spark replied. As our eyes adjusted, we started to pick out details of the world around us; first of all, the world is brown and shit. Secondly, there is blue above us with grey patches and a big glowing ball which hurts to look at. And last but not least, there is nothing around. Nothing but... some kind of wasteland… * * * Short Circuit: LEVEL UP! Short Circuit's S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: Strength: 2 Perception: 4 Endurance: 1 Charisma: 2 Intelligence: 7 Agility: 3 Luck: 1 Quest Added: “Checkmate”- Find out who this check suit wearing pony is, and kill him. Also, figure out what to do next now that you're in the wasteland… Perhaps find out who this buck works for? New companion: Bright Spark Bright Spark: LEVEL UP! Perk Added: “Fire?” (Rank 1) - Using your knowledge of pyromancy, you can now cast short bursts of fire from your horn. (Note: This spell costs 4 AP in S.A.T.S. and exhausts your magic abilities for a short time.) Brightspark's S.P.E.C.I.A.L.: Strength: 2 Perception: 4 Endurance: 3 Charisma: 3 Intelligence: 6 Agility: 4 Luck: 4 Unlockable added: Soundtrack - Welcome to the wasteland Author's Note And so we begin our journey in the wasteland, the first few paragraphs of this chapter i drafted up on paper while the rest i just made up as i went so it's understandable if i made some mistakes point them out and i shall correct them, next time we will see what happens to Short Circuit and Brightspark, where will they go now? and what will they do? and who is this check suit pony? Credit goes to kkat for creating this amazing sandbox for us to play in, and create our own adventures in what remains of equestria! also a thank you goes to my good friend Brightspark (The real one) for proof reading this and allowing me to use his oc in this story. (i'm terrible at making them up on my own, Orion and Ruby shield? terrible aren't they? or shall i make them survive aswell to come with me on my journey?) Thank you for reading. Please leave some feedback. I greatly appreciate it, and I can use critique to improve my writing craft for a better reading experience for you.
Chapter 2: - A new face"so where in Equestria are we?" i asked Brightspark, who looked a bit exhausted after that little spell of his how the hay did he do that anyway? can he shoot lightning aswell? that would be awesome! "i'm not quite sure, why don't you look at your pipbuck map, that should tell you" he replied, alright smartass i was going to do that anyway... i brought up my pipbuck and mashed the map button. "why don't you just look at you..." hold on, he isn't wearing a pipbuck, now how the bloody hell did he get that off? well pipbuck technician should ring a few bells, are they even removable? "as you have probably just noticed I'm not exactly wearing one, i broke it" he said sadly, broke it? how can you break a pipbuck, aren't they supposed to be industrible, indi, unbreakable (that's the one) or something? "what happened?" i asked whilst looking at the map, turns out we aren't even in Equestria... "i'd rather not talk about it, too many painful memories" he said glumly, wow bit of a spoil sport isn't he? any-who let's get back on track here then shall we... "well we aren't in equestria, it's some place called Caledonia, also it appears there is some sort of village a few miles west of here, we should go there and get some supplies, maybe some weapons too" i stated, a blue arrow appeared on my EFS under the W on my hostile bar thingy, and some text scrolled across my vision in the top left corner saying "New quest: Re-supply at Hoofsville" Hoofsville? what sort of a name for a town is that? "good idea as any i guess, let's get moving before somepony down there spots us" Brightspark said, oh shit i forgot about those bastards! we started moving down the hill side to join up on a broken road, i looked back at the doorway to the stable for the last time knowing that I'll never see that place again... i hope. "so... how did you learn that magic anyway? can you shoot lightning aswell?" i asked him a little bit excitedly... what? lightning is cool... "no i can't shoot lightning, so far it's only the fire. i learnt it from a book in the library called mancers of the ages, it had a rather large section on pyromancy so i decided that would be a good place as any to start..." he replied, wait, we had a library? how did i never see it? "what's a mancer?" i asked him a little confusedly, a couple of red blips appeared on my EFS but there was nothing in front of us so i ignored it. "a mancer is a unicorn who studies in the art of elemental magic like ice, fire, water, air and earth. those are the basic types of mancer magic, then there is the more complex kind like spectramancy, umbramancy, electromancy and some others i can't remember" he said factually, he's a bit of a dictionary... maybe he can confuse his enemies with facts whilst i go in for the kill! "i like the sound of that last one, mainly because it has electro in the name, what is it?" i asked whilst avoiding a rather large hole in the road, i also checked my EFS to see how far away the village is it said 76 above the marker so i guess that meant 76 miles? this could be a long journey... "electromancy? i think that was to do with electricity, i didn't read that section or much of the others, i didn't fancy them as much as pyromancy" dammit, i really want that book now so i can see if i can learn electromancy... just because, come on shooting lightning would be so awesome!! there was a slight rumbling in the ground beneath us as we walked past another hole in the road, "hold up, is anything showing up on your EFS? or is that just your stomach?" Brightspark said worriedly, my stomach isn't that loud... is it? "umm well there were a few hostiles showing up earlier but i couldn't see any... oh" i looked down at the ground as realisation kicked in, "RUN!" i shouted. we ran in the direction of a shack off the road just as something burst out of the ground where we were standing not two seconds before, i sneaked a look behind me and saw what looked like a dog but it was glowing green and had huge sharp looking claws. "oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! don't turn around!" i screamed, Brightspark tripped over a skull as we got to the shack, which looked like no-one was home for a while. "crap!" he shouted with a mouthful of dirt, i ran over to him and helped him up as the beast dog thing got within breathing distance of us, the door was kicked open from the inside by the green earth pony standing there. "fuck off you hound!" he shouted, there was a loud thump as he fired something from a battle saddle which hit the dog squarely in the chest knocking it to the floor, turns out its a male... the earth pony walked up to us probably to shoot us too, "get in, I'll take care of this puppy" he said in a rough voice, i glanced a look at his rump and saw a burn mark where his cutie mark should be. "ok you do that" i said quickly and ran inside still supporting Brightspark on my back, i heard a loud *Crack* from outside along with a howl from the dog thing (i hate those things, they creep up on you). "what was that thing?" Brightspark asked a little out of breath, i was about to answer but the earth pony buck walked in with the dog things head in his mouth dripping blood and Luna knows what else on the floor, he spat the head onto a chair with a resounding *Splat!* and shut the door behind him. "now i suppose i best start by asking y'all what you're doing out 'ere, don't y'all know this 'eres hellhound territory?" he said roughly in a weird accent. "umm.. well we escaped from our stable which was invaded by some buck in a daisy suit..." i said meekly, there's something not quite right about this buck, i just can't quite put my hoof on it... "daisy suit ya' say? tha'll be Royal Flush, he runs a casino in the Concrete City, don' know wha' he's doin' out 'ere tho' he never leaves tha' damn place" he growled, damn is it me or is his accent getting thicker? "and where is this Concrete City?" Brightspark asked, well i could look to see if my pipbuck knows but i don't even know what the place looks like... "you mean ta tell me you ain't 'erd o' the Concrete City?" he asked in an unbelieving tone. "stable ponies here..." i said annoyingly, i guess this one has a short memory then... "sorry, if you look on that there hoof terminal you got there just look for the biggest city on the map, you'll find it..." he said, losing his accent for once (could he be faking it?) i looked at the map and spotted a large area surrounded by what looked like either a road or a very thick wall. "erm is that it there?" i asked the buck showing him the map, i should really ask him his name so i don't get confused. "eeyup, that's the biscuit! and yes that there is a wall of concrete about 4 hooves thick, good luck getting past that" he said, dammit! i glanced around the shack to try and figure out what sort of a pony he is, there are alot of heads mounted on the walls, most of them appeared to be insect-like whilst some were of that dog creature (what was it called? hell dog or something) whilst some were cow-like at a quick glance but they had two heads... "so what do you know of the town Hoofsville? we are heading over there to get some supplies and possible weapons if we can afford it" Brightspark said, oh yeah i almost forgot where we were going. "huh what? that old town, nah place is a shit-stack and that damned shopkeep will barter all your caps away, too expensive that buck!" he shouted, my eardrums can't take much more of him, has he never heard of an inside voice? "did you say caps? what happened to bits as currency?" Brightspark questioned, good question buddy! "what?! hah! that's a joke the only thing pre-war bits is good for is to be sold for caps, damned stable ponies don't know nuffink!" he guffawed, this buck is starting to annoy me, can't he take us seriously? "great, so it turns out we have no money then... now what do we do?" i said slightly annoyed, stupid above ground ponies and their currency scheme change... Brightspark nudged me on the shoulder trying to get my attention. "what?" i whispered to him, whilst the green buck grabbed the helldog head. "you do know your horn was glowing then right?" he asked, wait what? my horn was glowing? did i just cast a spell? please oh please tell me i casted a spell! "no i didn't, did i cast a spell by any chance?" i asked him excitedly, is it me or is it dusty in here? "it didn't seem like it, try casting one again, see if something happens" allright, here goes nothing. i lit up my horn in a pale blue glow and started thinking angry thoughts again, well that's what happened before right? "hey your horn! it's sparking!" Brightspark exclaimed, wait sparking? what the hay is it sparking for? "what do yo... nyeh" i said whilst wrinkling my muzzle, celestia damned dust, I'm gonna... "Choo!" *boom* i sneezed and flew into the wall behind me whilst the wall in front of me exploded in a flash of blue static and an explosion. the green buck pointed his battle saddle at me as i picked myself up. "what in blue blazes was that for?" he shouted at me, holy shit! did i do that? whoops... "whoa calm down, it was an accident! i don't even know what i did..." i said meekly, the dust started to clear from the hole in the wall where behind was another room filled with guns and ammo. "sweet celestia fuck me with a wooden spoon on Tuesdays! that's alot of weapons!" Brightspark shouted, damn that buck's picked up my colourful vocabulary! "yeah and they're all mine, i use them for hunting... and stuff" he said in a huff, holy shit is that a lasergun? and how the hell would he find a bloody minigun, let alone a bazooka! "yeah well... dibs on the lasergun!" i shouted with my hoof in the air, I'm gonna need a battle saddle aswell, seeing as how i can't lift a damned thing up with magic... even so i blew a wall up, with magic! woo, best day ever! "no, like i said earlier... wait a minute, i suppose i could give you some weapons... for a price." he said with a hint of amusement, oh great why is there always a catch? "what do you mean a price? we have no caps like we said before, if you didn't notice already!" Brightspark retorted, he's gonna make us do a job or something isn't he, like tell us to go kill a dragon or something stupid... "no not money, i want you to take me with you to the Concrete City... i got a score to settle" the green buck said factually, is that it? i suppose we could do that... "allright you can come, now gimme that lasergun!" i shouted and bolted through the wall in all it's glory. "is he always that excited?" the green buck asked, i am not! i just like electrical things is all... "occasionally when he's around stuff he likes, oh how rude of us we didn't introduce ourselves, my name is Brightspark and that excited buck through there is Short Circuit, what's your name?" Brightspark asked, i was gonna ask that... sooner or later.. "the name's flowerbed" he said quietly, but i heard him! so what would his cutie mark have been i wonder? perhaps a bright pink flower lying in bed? "HAH!" i laughed a little too loudly at that thought... whoops. Brightspark shot daggers at me whilst flowerbed slowly turned to stare at me angrily. "and what in blue blazes are you laughing at? think my name's funny do yah?" he shouted, oh shit... what do i do now? pick up a gun and shoot him? beat the hay outta him? "erm... no of course not, i don't even know your name..." i lied please believe me... i kicked a grenade along the floor which bounced off of something purple hidden underneath a tarp... "oh well my name is flowerbed, and your friend over there already told me who you two are..." he said calmly, phew that was a close one... now what was that purple thing? i pulled the tarp off to reveal a beautiful piece of weaponry... "oh that's mine now..." i quickly said, i think i might have gotten a little too excited here... "dammit, why do you claim the best weapon?" Brightspark complained... heh he's gonna have a little tantrum isn't he, does the little foal want his bottle? "because i saw it first!" i replied as i picked up the gun, it's damned light for something so big! what is it? "ah i see you found Starscream, my pride and joy that was... until i broke it" flowerbed said, probably reminiscing on old times, wait broken? dammit! "well what's wrong with it?" i asked, i need it to work! Brightspark entered the gun room and started poking around for his choice of weapons. "i dunno, it just suddenly stopped shooting so i threw it at the wall and left it there to gather dust" flowerbed replied, he did what? why would he throw it at the wall? that can't do it any good... I picked up a battle saddle and started securing it to my back "ahah! now this is mine!" Brightspark shouted with glee, oh dear, what's he found? he turned to look at me with a big grin on his face and showed me what he found. it was a big silver flamethrower... great, just fucking brilliant... more fire, i hate the smell of burning flesh... "ah the flammenwerfer! those germanes know how to use fire!" flowerbed said factually. i turned away back to Starscream grumbling about fire... "can i go try this sucker out?" Brightspark said excitedly, oh fuck no! no more fire, please Luna i beg of you don't let him use that flamethrower near me! "nah it's got no juice at the moment, it's just a nice hearth piece now..." flowerbed said with a smirk, i love you Luna! "well let's see what i can do with this then" i said fiddling with Starscream, i pressed a green button above the grip and some text scrolled along my vision: "welcome to the Enhanced Starscream Targeting System, now Scanning magical abilities.... Electromancy found, setting Starscream to Electro bolts, please wait.......... Starscream is now ready for use please link your pipbuck to verify usage" it said in a mares voice, it was slightly motherly in tone... "umm i don't suppose either of you have a pipbuck link cable?" i asked hopefully, Brightspark started searching through his bag as flowerbed looked at me funnily. "now why would you need one of those?" he asked, Brightspark pulled out the cable and brought it over to me. "thanks, um just a feeling is all... trying something to make it work" i said meekly, flowerbed shook his head and sat down on a sofa in the corner watching us, while Brightspark went back to searching for a weapon. i plugged the cable into my pipbuck and Starscream. some text came up on my pipbuck asking for permission to link, i mashed the "Y" button and waited, Starscream beeped loudly and started humming much to flowerbed's surprise. "how the bloody hell did you get that working?" he shouted, he walked over to me to get a better look as did Brightspark. "i just did what it told me to do, that's all..." i replied smugly, now lets take this girl for a test drive! we all walked out front of the shack as i attached Starscream to my battle saddle. "allright then, shoot that sarsaparilla bottle on the fence then, if you even know how to shoot that damned thing..." flowerbed said with a light chuckle, I'll show you how to shoot! i looked at the bottle and bit down on the mouthpiece of the battle saddle and with a whine Starscream did exactly as her name depicts, a blue light emitted from the barrel and screamed towards the bottle surrounding it in an electric field making it explode. "holy shit buddy! how the hell did you get so good at shooting?" Brightspark asked whilst jumping about, flowerbed just stared at me in shock, heh he should see the lock on his face... priceless... "dunno i just looked at it and bit down on the mouthpiece" i said truthfully this time, flowerbed shook his head and walked over to me inspecting Starscream. "so how did you change the beam matrix?" he asked me, the beam what now? what the bloomin hell is one of them? "umm i sort of un-screwed it and flipped the dial around and smacked it on the table, then put it back together?" i squeaked, he glared at me and laughed "you don't even know what I'm talking about do you, so how did you change it? cause originally that thing disintegrated my enemies in a red beam not blue electric!" he retorted loudly, again with the loud voice! "ok so i lied, it sort of scanned me and set itself to electro beams or something, i wasn't really paying attention, it also called itself the E.S.A.T.S. and it had a lovely mare's voice" i said slightly dreamily, flowerbed knocked my on my rump and walked back inside his shack "what the hay was that for?" i shouted, that buck has a real attitude problem... he walked back out with a bag on his back, which looked rather heavily laden with supplies and what not. "just felt like it, now then we going or what? cause i can't stand this place anymore!" he shouted, well i suppose we can go now that we or rather i have a weapon... "wait, i didn't get a weapon though!" Brightspark panicked, hmm tough luck buddy, i guess that's the wasteland for you... "oh well take this then, I'm sure you can handle her" flowerbed said, he threw the mother of all sniper rifle's at Brightspark who caught it on his back and fell on his butt with a *Thump!* "damn... this bitch is heavy!" he groaned, that is a big rifle! i wonder how big the bullets are? "yeah that's her name, The Bitch! she's an Anti-Machine rifle that fires .50 calibre explosive rounds of pure death, and she also kicks like a mule so be careful how you hold her..." he said chuckling away, damn... that is a fucking big bullet... that'll make a mess of a ponies head... i shuddered at the thought. "right well let's get moving then!" i said quickly and started walking in the direction of Hoofsville. Brightspark picked up The Bitch in his magical field and trotted up beside me with a grin. "so why the bag flowerbed?" i voiced the question on our minds, well at least my mind, i don't know what Brightspark is thinking, probably wishing he had a battle saddle to mount the bitch on. "oh this? just some supplies and ammo, you won't need ammo for that anyway, it uses a special starmetal reactor so that you'll never deplete the battery it'll just keep re-charging itself, you've probably realised how light it is aswell, that's a spell matrix modifying the weight of it, i tell you those pre-war ponies knew their stuff..." flowerbed replied, so I've got some sort of supergun? cool! but what is starmetal? "starmetal? what is that?" Brightspark asked, can he read my mind or something... i like pie, apple pie. nope not even looking at me, dammit! hoofbeat monthly? nope... "erm, it's a strange metal that comes from meteorites, it was said that the stars were the gods and when they fell that meant the gods were real fuckin' pissed, and killed a bunch of zebra villages, bunch o' fuckin hooee if you ask me, starmetal is just what we find in the meteorites and zebras just go all mystical voodoo shit on it, damned stripes!" he said angrily, i guess he hates zebras then... their logic is crazy, i remember one of my teachers in the stable was a zebra, couldn't understand a bloody word, always talking in rhymes... i quickly glanced at my EFS just to be sure that there was nothing around us, don't want to make the same mistake as last time... luckily there was nothing around, also the arrow said "32" so we should be able to see the village on the other side of that hill then. "Hoofsville should be just over yonder, just gotta get round... hold on do you two smell that?" flowerbed asked, yeah now that he said that i can smell... smoke? "yeah it smells like smoke, is your butt on fire Brightspark?" i asked cheekily. "no! hold on..." he replied, we ran up to the top of the hill to see a pillar of smoke coming from Hoofsville, oh that can't be good... "damn, looks like raiders got there first..." flowerbed grunted, raiders? that doesn't sound good, lemme guess it's some sort of giant fire breathing robot? a mare's voice in the back of my mind told me to take a closer look. "either of you got some zoom glasses?" i asked, i gotta see this place for myself, see what happened down there. "you mean binoculars? and yeah sure" flowerbed replied handing me the binocuthingies, hmm nothing there apart from a few ponies wearing tyres and other random bits of clothing. "nothing, just a bunch of crazy junk wearing ponies" i said handing him back the binoglasses, flowerbed chucked them in his bag and stood up. "damn raiders, always killing townsfolk and burning stuff!" he said angrily. we slowly made our way down the hill and made the distance to Hoofsville. the smell is even worse up close. "sheesh what is that awful smell?" i retched through my hoof, flowerbed was wearing a mask whilst Brightspark and i just covered our muzzles with our hoofs. "burning bodies, mixed with sex and rotting bodies" flowerbed replied, i did a double-take on what he said. "sex? what? do raiders just fuck then kill or burn?" i asked almost throwing up from the smell, Brightspark did throw up with that comment, "well yes and no, sometimes they kill then fuck the corpse whilst other times they fuck then kill them, and other times they fuck then keep them as a slave, and maybe eat them too..." he said with a grimace, ok now i threw up all over my hoof aswell dammit! these raiders are disgusting, I'll kill them all! bastards.. "that's disgusting!" Brightspark said shakily. "that's the wasteland for you" flowerbed replied quickly, i checked my EFS which was a wall of red in all directions. "oh shit..." *click* i heard several guns point in our directions and ponies walk towards us. "now lookee what we got here! some new playthings boys! and looks like they brought us some new guns too! it's like hearth's warming eve!" a brown raider buck with a spiky mane said gleefully, the raiders around him started giggling amongst themselves and moving towards us, backing us up into a wall. "now what?" i asked. * * * Short Circuit: LEVEL UP! +1 Luck +2 Energy Weapons Perk Added: Electromancy (Rank 1): - You have discovered that you can in fact use magic now, you are no longer an earth pony with a horn, but you can only shock people at the moment so unlucky. New Companion: Flowerbed Flowerbed's Special: Strength: 8 Perception: 7 Endurance: 5 Charisma: 1 Intelligence: 4 Agility: 4 Luck: 2 Brightspark: LEVEL UP! +2 Intelligence +1 Big Guns +4 Science Perk added: Specs - whilst wearing any kind of glasses, you gain a +2 to your perception but when they have been removed you loose this plus an extra -1 to your base perception. Unlockable added: Soundtrack - Theme of Knowledge (Brightspark) Soundtrack - Theme of Progression (Short Circuit) Author's Note allright! another one bites the dust as they say, we say hello to a new friend called Flowerbed, he's a bit of a sourpuss isn't he? i don't like him,but he'll help Short Circuit an Brightspark get to the Concrete City somehow... So the plot begins to thicken, will they make some sort of escape? or will they be sold into slavery? or something entirely different that could change the way short circuit see's things... who knows? Credit goes to kkat for creating this amazing sandbox for us to play in, and create our own adventures in what remains of equestria! Thank you for reading. Please leave some feedback. I greatly appreciate it, and I can use critique to improve my writing craft for a better reading experience for you.
Chapter 3: - Escape"now what?" i asked, slightly quickly due to the amount of raiders getting closer to us. "we surrender!" Brightspark shouted, throwing his weapon onto the floor, i quickly followed suit and removed my battle saddle and saddlebags, "what? are you two out of your frickin minds?" shouted flowerbed. "just a little" i brought my hooves together but left a very tiny gap. "oh you guys are mine now! my little playthings, don't worry we'll take care of your weapons, which are ours now..." the brown buck in front of us said whilst laughing insanely. why did Brightspark surrender like that? i'm sure we could have taken them on, or perhaps not i mean this is a raider town isn't it? the brown buck told some ponies to take us somewhere, i'm not sure where i was busy wondering why in the blue hell Brightspark did that. "ow!" i shouted rubbing my flank "what was that for?" i looked back to see a raider pointing my weapon back at me with a maniacal grin on his face, when i get outta here he is first... "get moving you three, the cage isn't that far, thank discord" the flank poking raider grumbled, wait did he say discord, as in spirit of chaos and disharmony discord? they worship him? ok i guess that makes sense, a blue jittery buck trotted up to that brown spiky haired buck (i think he's the leader) "hey vase, that buck had some really good fire-power on him, maybe we can finally leave this shit-hole and move to somewhere like, well the concrete city?" the brown buck who's name is vase as i just overheard snapped the blue bucks neck, what the fuck? "listen up all you fucks, we stay here, we get slaves like those three fucks in the cage, we scare them, we play with them, then we sell them... or kill them, i don't care" vase shouted then walked with a stagger into what appeared to be a shop of sorts. wait since when were we, oh forget it i never do pay attention do i? "so do you have a cunning plan to get us out of here then?" flowerbed grumbled trying to get out of his bucktape. (they tied our hooves together with bucktape and then attached those to the wooden cage with more bucktape) "yeah why in the blue hell did you surrender anyway? we had them... i think" i retorted unsurely oh man i gotta itch now. "in all due time sparky" brightspark said camly, did he just call me sparky? i'm so gonna smack him for that one, sparky my ass... "anyway if none of you two popcorn farts are going to get us out of here then perhaps i shall!" i said with pride, well sometime you must try to raise yourself up and win the day, right? "you get us out of here? hah!" flowerbed laughed "you couldn't even hold your own against a hellhound let alone a town full of raiders" he laughed again. vase started approaching us in the cage, oh shit, please don't kill us! "hey you two, shut the fuck up! did i tell you to speak? no? then shut the fuck up!" he shouted at us whilst looking at flowerbed and brightspark, "hey what's wrong shorty you look scared, whats the matter, life out here not as good as in the stables huh? up here we rule you see, or shall i teach you this?" he stood back up as a green buck was brought over wearing a sack on his head "your friend i presume?" vase said with a smirk, right before he sliced the poor bucks head off with a machete *thump* the body fell to the ground with a meaty slap, safe to say brightspark threw up. "not our friend" flowerbed said quietly to himself whilst staring at the floor. "what was that? do you want me to slice you up too, like your friend? shut the fuck up! ok? i'm the one with the fucking dick, look me, look at me in the fucking eye!" vase shouted quickly at flowerbed, who looked up at vase with no emotion, that buck has a good pokerface. "your my bitch, i rule this fucking land, shut. the. fuck .up, or you die!" vase screamed at flowerbed before looking at me with a sincere smile, he sat down next to me "what is it shorty? what is it? why aren't you laughing now like you did down there? is this not fun anymore? have i failed to entertain you? you see down there you thought you had a chance but up here... on land, it's ok, i'm gonna chill, we're gonna relax, because you (he points at me) moi (he points at himself) and *whistles* your tough guy friend (points at flowerbed) are gonna have alot of fun together tomorrow" he ranted crazily, oh sweet celestia make him stop talking and fuck off, we need to escape! "hey boss, stop scaring the slaves! we need you to take care of the mares" a raider buck said from behind him, vase stood up and sauntered off towards him "we'll see if you two Fucks are more entertaining then our friends, ta ta" vase trotted away with the buck leaving us alone. "holy frosted luna's panties, that buck is a psycho!" brightspark shouted struggling to get out. he really is picking up on my vocabulary. funny really, he's a unicorn who knows magic and yet he can't untie a bit of bucktape, whilst flowerbed just sits there staring at the floor again what the hell? there was a sound of ripping as flowerbed stood up free from his bucktape imprisonment, "well come on then hero, you going to get us out of here?" he said with a smirk, how did he do that? wait bucktape not rope, idiots. i pulled my hooves out of the bucktape bringing some stinging and a resounding rip. "allright then, plan of escape, don't get seen, stay low and stick to the shadows" i said quietly whilst untying brightspark. "decent sounding plan, but i'm going to go get my weapons back" flowerbed said and with that he ran out of the cage, what an idiot, he's definitely going to die. "are we going to go after him?" brightspark questioned. "fuck that! let's concentrate on getting out of here" i retorted with a laugh, i'm not crazy. we walked slowly out of the cage and hugged the walls to avoid being spotted, "so what did you mean before when you said in due time?" i asked, scratching my mane. "um... well i can't say yet, but we will be fine when we get to either pondale or neighton." he said slowly, where? how does he know of towns when we were both born in a stable? i threw a rock to distract a raider ahead so we could sneak into the shop next to us, "allright then, give me a hoof here" he stood underneath the window giving me room to squeeze in through it, the coast was clear no raiders so i stuck my hoof out the window to pull brightspark in but he was gone. "what? where the fuck has he gone?" i whispered to myself. i walked towards the door on the opposite side of the room but something purple caught my eye "is that... starscream? oh god what have they done to you?" the poor weapon was in bits, snapped in half by the looks of things, i guess the raiders couldn't get it to work. i walked back to the door and peeked through the keyhole to see two raiders standing on either side of the door holding what appeared to be shotguns in shit condition. this could work, i looked around for a weapon i could use, only managing to find a couple of throwing knives i tied them to my hooves with some bucktape and slowly opened the door. "hey did you see vase take down that flower buck?" one of the raiders said slightly amused. "yeah, that was awesome. i'm glad i'm not him!" the other laughed. those fuckers... he was our bodyguard, so to speak or weapons expert if you prefer. fuck! "psst" i whispered and the two raider bucks turned round for me to jam my hoof blades into their eyes. messy. i pulled my hooves out of their eyes but the blades were stuck in their heads, they fell to the floor with a wet splat. "ew.. thats gonna stain my coat, i'll take those" i said picking up their shotguns, i attached one to my arm with bucktape whilst the other i held in my mouth. now i suppose the best thing to do would be to get out of this town, but i really want to get revenge on vase, where would he be, didn't they say something about mares? let's go further into town then. i ran across the street and ducked behind a box just as a raider having a smoke walked past. "huh, what was that?" he said stopping, shit! did he hear me... fuck! i crawled into a gap underneath the house to avoid his vision. "nah probably radroaches again" he snorted and walked off. damn now where? somepony poked me in the shoulder from beside me, i stifled a shout of suprise... it was brightspark. "where the hell did you run off to?" i whispered to him, trying not to alert anypony of our hiding spot. "i went to do somethings, trying to find a radio, but then i realised your pipbuck has a broadcaster, mind if i use it?" he reached out and started pressing some buttons on my pipbuck bringing up the broadcaster tab. "so what is this for again?" "you'll see..." he replied, he pressed the broadcast button and i heard a radio sop playing music in the building above. "attention pondale steel rangers, this is Head scribe Brightspark requesting immediate assistance, i repeat this is head scribe brightspark of the pondale rangers requesting immediate assistance, we have been taken hostage by raiders in hoofsville, we have located their leader broken vase, requesting immediate assistance over" he said into my pipbuck and let go of the broadcast button waiting for a reply. XXXXXXX meanwhile in a bar not far from hoofsville, there were two travelling merchants sitting at the bar discussing the wares they have collected and were thinking of where they could go to sell, when one of them noticed a cyan pegasus wearing what appeared to be white segmented armour with a scorpion tail. "hey who's that guy in the corner, he looks like some sort of mercenary with an attitude problem." one of the merchants whispered, the other smacked him on the back of his head. "you idiot, he might hear you, don't you know who that is? thats the lost pegasus!" the merchant on the left snapped. "if i were you two i'd be quiet and change the subject" the bartender said, whilst cleaning a mug. there was a burst of static from the radio followed by a distressed voice: "attention pondale steel rangers, this is Head scribe Brightspark requesting immediate assistance, i repeat this is head scribe brightspark of the pondale rangers requesting immediate assistance, we have been taken hostage by raiders in hoofsville, we have located their leader broken vase, requesting immediate assistance over" the speech cut of and was followed with static. the cyan pegasi sighed with annoyance "well looks like i got some work to do." he got up and cracked his neck and walked outside, not paying the barkeep. "holy shit did you see the size of that rifle?" the merchant on the right shouted. smack! "he might hear you, we can't talk to him, you don't want him to kill us do you?" the merchant on the right said and walked outside to watch the pegasus fly away. but he was already gone, leaving behind a scorch mark on the ground. XXXXXXX Back in hoofsville "do you think they got it? or was i on the wrong frequency?" brightspark said in worry, he grabbed his head in his hooves and started to panic. "brightspark, you just broadcasted that over the entire wasteland... someone will hear it and help, i hope." i replied calmly. "how can you stay so calm! we are trapped in a raider encampment and vase killed flowerbed.. how do you do it?" he shouted, oh this isn't going to end well... "shh, stay quiet we can't run the risk of being heard, if they find us we are dead, just like flowerbed..." i said calmly again. the floorboards in the building above us creaked and a raider could be heard "he did you fucks hear that?" he shouted. "hear what, you're para... pret... ah fuck it your hearing things you fucker!" the other raider shouted. "i'm gonna kill all of these bastards..." i whispered, my horn started glowing black as the night, my eyes also started glowing and leaking purple mist. you see when a unicorn thinks dark thoughts or evilly and starts using magic it shows on them this is known as dark magic, similar to back in the olden times of equestria when the crystal empire was under a sombratic rule... "uh circuit... your negatively glowing, what are you thinking?" he started to shudder when i looked at him in anger. "i'm gonna kill every last one of them, it's these sort of ponies that invaded our stable... or should i say my stable steel ranger..." i shot daggers at him, how could i be so stupid! all ponies who belong in the stable when they turn 10 years old receive the pipbuck, how can you not want one? they are so handy. some friend... i crawled out from under the building and stood infront of the door. "circuit what are you doing! you'll die!" he said scared now. "not unless they go first" i growled in a voice unlike my own. my horn started glowing in a dark blue overglow as i charged up my energy, i'm gonna blow them up! "oh shit!" brightspark shouted and ran out from under the house just as i fired a beam of electricity through the building, vaporising the raiders within. i collapsed onto the street exhausted, that was too much magic i used up there. "come on this is no time for a nap! we need to get out of here!" exclaimed brightspark pointing at the raider horde coming at us. "just five more minutes" i groaned falling out of conciousness. XXXXXXX "hoofsville should be just over that hill" said the pegasus in a gruff voice. he flew over the hill and hovered in the air to take in the surroundings. "hmm the kid was right, this is a raider encampment, wait a minute" the pegasus brought up his rifle in his hooves, similar to how a zebra would hold it on the ground and looked through the scope at a shining blue light. "damn that kid has alot of magic..." he said in surprise just as one of the buildings lit up with blue lightning, he saw the buck fall onto the floor unconscious and noticed the horde of raiders heading his way. "damn, looks like it's time to cleanse this town" he racked the bolt of his rifle loading a .60 calibre round into the chamber, he aimed at the nearest raider to the bucks and... BOOM! the shot echoed around sounding like thunder in a storm, safe to say the raider was nothing but a stain on the floor next to some boots... XXXXXXX "oh shit, oh lorn what now!" brightspark said in a panicked tone just as he heard thunder close by, "sweet celestia's flaming orgasms! what the smeg was that!" he shouted as a raider exploded behind him leaving a small crater in the street. "oh bloody hell! i need to get out of here! Short circuit!" he ran over to short circuit and supported him on his own back. "celestia damn you're heavy!" he complained as another raider exploded from the thunder. he started running back to the hills where we originated from but was stopped by a group of raiders blocking them off. "oh shit..." There was a strong gust of wind and a pegasus clad in white armour landed next to brightspark holding a massive rifle on his back. "you can stop panicking now, i'm here to help" * * * Short Circuit: Status - Unconcious... Cannot level up Brightspark: LEVEL UP! +1 Survival +2 Endurance +1 Stamina Non-Hostile Located: The Lost Pegasus His Special: S: 8 P: 9 E: 8 C: 5 I: 9 A: 8 L: 10 Unlockable Added: Soundtrack - Theme of the Watchful (Lost Pegasus) Author's Note Sorry this one took so long to make, i've been a little busy with college work, and got a little pre-occupied recording videos and playing League of Legends. Damn i think that's a good place to leave as a cliffhanger... i like cliffhangers. so what's going to happen? we shall see... Credit goes to kkat for creating this amazing sandbox for us to play in, and create our own adventures in what remains of equestria! Thank you for reading. Please leave some feedback. I greatly appreciate it, and I can use critique to improve my writing craft for a better reading experience for you.
