End of the Journey- Part 1
The Lottery
“Never trust anypony that bumps into you and smiles about it.”oooOOOooo
Once upon a time, there was this wonderful thing called "sunshine". It was warm, it made stuff grow, and it made sitting outside enjoyable. There was also these things called "morals" and "virtues"; also long gone. Apparently those two, along with sunshine, made life a paradise since folks were honest to one another, ponies practiced random acts of kindness, generosity was the norm, and getting shot in the back was unheard of since loyalty was as common as laughter. All these random things, all these random little bits of selfless whatevers were part of the "Magic of Friendship" concept, and it drove the world.
But like all good things, this bright, cheerful world had to end. And end it did in fire and brimstone. And now all that remains are underground cities called “Stables”, walled off settlements, and all the horrors in between.
The funny thing is I always thought I would be safe in my Stable, Stable Sixty Seven. I never thought I would have to deal with the likes mutants, raiders, and obsessive whackos. Or go on a journey across a scarred paradise. I was sorely mistaken.
I’m not going to just tell you how the story ended because that would be stupid. You need to know the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s, and why’s. You need to know how I went from living a life of regulation to a life of chaos. You need to know who my friends were, and who my enemies were, who I loved, who I hated, and all the other who’s out there. You should already know the when since I’m talking to you right now, and the story really isn’t that old, but you still need to know where I’ve been since where I’ve been has led me to this place. And most of all, you need to know why. Why I’m here. Why I did what I did. Why I had no choice but to change.
Now pay close attention, for I will not be able to repeat myself.
+**********+
In Stable Sixty Seven, we lived by a strict code of conduct, and when I say "strict", I mean: mares slept in one area, stallions in another once you turned sixteen; you needed to be approved for a marriage by the Marriage Council and both parents; every Sunday was "Meet-and Greet Day", which basically meant both genders could actually look and talk to each other all day without worry; and, of course, your position in our society was determined by your cutie mark and social status. There were a lot more rules, but I don't think you want to hear me talk about a five hundred and sixty two page rulebook that everypony got assigned when they turned five.
But I'm sure you want to know my name. My name is Ephemeris Clock, or simply "Meris". I like being called "Meris" because it doesn't sound as weird as my real name. Everypony else had something normal, like Dusk Shine or Key Ring or Rose Petal or Artisan Bread or Braid Mane. But I got the joker parents who decided to give me that horrible name. I wanted to get it changed, but name changes were illegal and anyone caught would be exiled immediately. How that name changing thing worked anyway, I have no idea.
I am straying.
As you can see, I'm an earth pony, so I have nothing special, and this was further enforced by the fact that my cutie mark is a pocket watch. That basically put me at the bottom of the food chain since clocks were not exactly something high on the list of priorities. All I really did was fix clocks, build clocks, and when I wasn't fixing or building clocks, I was day dreaming about Rose Petal... and then it would go back to clocks. Stupid clocks.
I'm straying again.
I can tell you want me to get into the action. Tell you something along the lines of how our stable was attacked or how I tried to perform a noble deed by rescuing a beloved citizen. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that is not what happened. The catalyst of how I wound up where I am today was to say, the very least, completely stupid.
It began on one of those Meet and Greet Day’s in our lobby; we had the music playing, the mares and stallions were walking around, chit chatting and having snacks and drinks together, and it was all being watched by our Overmare, Braid Mane. Not even the end of the world stopped her family from living a life of luxury. The Manes were always high class, and supposedly their wealth came from a massive company that dealt closely with Stable Tech, Ironshod Firearms, and other companies that drove the Equestrian war machine. So when the world ended, they got first class seating to Stable Sixty Seven and had been ruling it ever since.
Anyway, with the party; I was being myself and sitting in the back, watching everypony eating, drinking, and being merry. And then I saw her, Rose Petal Flower, the most beautiful mare in the stable. She was an earth pony, like me, and her coat was pink and pristine. It always shined wherever she went, and her mane and tail had this great blend of yellow and red. The color choice may seem weird to you, but I liked it; besides, she couldn't help it if she was born with a weird color scheme. Oh, she also always had a flower in her mane. It was a real one, too, not those plastic ones that the foals choked on all the time. This was possible because she was the botanist of our stable and had a dozen gardens in her area, and she also had a permit to wear them.
So, on with it; I saw her, but she didn't see me, which was fine since I was used to being ignored by basically everypony that breathed, and I decided that today would be the day. Today I would go up to her and ask her if she and I would like to get a Dating Permit with me. To be safe, though, I took a shot of sparkling cider before I made my move. I watched the others, and I saw that they always had this cocky smile and little... sway, or something, in their walk. The stallions would make themselves look bigger, their strides would get smug and they would look like complete douche bags. But it worked! And now I was going to try it.
I walked over to Rose Petal, after taking another shot just to be safer, though, and I put it all out. I got the cocky smile, the arrogant walk, the mental cross-hairs locked on to her, and I didn't even care that I was still being ignored by her. Today would be my day.
I walked up to her, and all the music and chatter just faded away, and she became just the one pony on my mind. Her giggling was the only music I needed to hear (don’t laugh) and the way she flung her mane out of her eyes was a rarity I hardly enjoyed. It may sound creepy, but when you spend nearly every waking moment of your life in a basement with clocks, you take pleasure in simple things; especially if it’s from a mare.
When I finally reached Rose Petal she was talking with her friends, Curly Mane -daughter of the Overmare- and Cosmo –just some girl- and when she saw me, she stopped talking and looked at me with a curious smile. All of her friends looked at me, too, and that is when panic came in. I held that stupid smile, but I felt my heart racing and beads of sweat roll down my face. My mouth became dry and despite my best efforts, I could not stop the nervous chuckle or my eye from twitching.
“Um, hi,” she said, her smile now uneasy and her friends giggling behind her back.
“Hello,” I replied in an embarrassingly squeaky voice. Then in a much louder voice: “I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WANTED TO GET A DATING PERMIT WITH ME!”
Her smile disappeared and her eyes went wide from shock. Her friends’ jaws dropped and to make it worse, I felt eyes on me; thankfully the music was still going. I chuckled nervously and tried to play it cool by keeping my smile and leaning against the table.
“I mean, if that is cool with you, or whatever.”
Then the stupid table broke and I fell over with all the punch and cider and apple slices spilling all over me. Rose Petal shrieked and reeled back, and her friends laughed till their faces turned red. And on top of that, the music stopped and I heard more laughing. My face burned up and I wanted to crawl under my bunk and cry myself to death. But despite what I was feeling at the time, I still scrambled up and tried to act like I wasn’t affected by this by smiling broadly and claiming I meant to do that.
“You meant to break the table?” asked Rose Petal skeptically.
I nodded and said: “Yep. It’s to show my brute strength, and um… you don’t believe me, do you?”
“Not really,” was her reply.
I could tell by the way she looked at me that she thought I was an idiot, and I felt like an idiot, and I was sure everypony in the area thought I was an idiot. Life was great at the moment.
It took the Overmare ordering everypony to have fun lest they want to return to work to get the party going again. The music restarted and the conversations resumed, and I decided that it was a great time to fix some clocks.
I spent the rest of the day in the maintenance stall, working on my own personal project since I basically had nothing to do. It was a pocket watch that I had been working on from scratch. Getting the gold and silver plating was hard enough, but add in all the tiny gears and little hooves, etching the elegant designs and keeping the project hidden, and, well, you got yourself a chore. Especially the etching part. Do you realize how hard it is for an earth pony to etch an apple tree on a tiny clock? It’s hard!
So there I was, working on my own special project, when Artisan came barging in, wearing his baker’s hat and apron, and carrying something in his mouth basket. The golden unicorn was panic stricken when he skidded to a halt in front of me, and I freaked out and created a mess as I tried to hide my pocket watch. Luckily for me, he was too busy worrying to notice me wrecking the place.
He quickly, yet gently, set his basket on my worktable, nearly in tears, and frantically said: “Meris, you gotta help me! Eggy is broken!”
I peered inside his basket and saw his prized possession, an egg timer with a loaf of bread as the counting hoof, lying on its side, silent as death with the hoof pointed at the six minute mark. I looked up at Artisan Bread; he was now whimpering and dancing in his spot, anxiously, hoping that I could fix his egg timer.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
He might as well have kissed my hoof and called me King Clock from how happy he was.
~~~~~~~~~~
That night, I was lying on my bed, with my pillow to my chest, staring at the light bulb, worrying about tomorrow. I didn’t know why I was worrying since the chances of me talking to Rose Petal were slim to none, but I reasoned that there was still that chance that she dropped by my neck of the Stable. I kinda pictured it like this:
Rose Petal walks in my place with a broken timer, looking beautiful as always, while I’m wearing a dirty apron, covered in gunk and other crap.
Rose Petal: “Hey, I need you to fix this for me.”
Me: “Sure thing.”
Rose Petal: “Wait a minute… Aren’t you that guy from yesterday who wanted to get a dating permit with me?”
Me: “No, that was an ass.”
Rose Petal: “You sure? Because you look a lot like him.”
Me: “Yep, pretty sure.”
Queue argument.
Silly, ain’t it?
I didn't have much time to plot out the course of the argument, though, since Artisan walked in, smiling and thanking me for fixing Eggy. I tried to tell him that it was no big deal since Eggy's battery just needed recharging, but he still found it to be a huge deal, and I quickly found out why. He was baking a cake for Curly Mane's sleepover party, and Curly wanted a triple decker cake with each layer being chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry with the frosting being apple flavored. I'm surprised I even remember all that.
Anyway, after hearing that Artisan was baking a cake for Curly, I instantly knew that was the reason for his antsy-ness. You see, Braid Mane was cool, she did the bare minimum requirements for Overmare and generally left us alone. She got tough when she had to be, but other than that, she was really down to earth. Her daughter on the other hoof was a brat, through and through. She was the kind of pony that would throw a tantrum over everything and wouldn't stop crying and whining and screaming and kicking and doing all kinds of crap until she got what she wanted. Which brings me back to Artisan.
Last time Artisan made an apple pie for Curly, she didn't like it because the crust wasn't soft enough, and when he tried to explain that apple pie crust shouldn't be soft, she threw it in his face. It was hot out of the oven, too, so he was in quite a bit of pain. And he cried himself to sleep that night, and I've hated Curly ever since.
But back to the story.
I'm lying on my bed, pillow to chest, trying to play it cool with the whole Eggy fixing thing, and Artisan is practically in tears for how happy he was of me saving his hide. It was an endless streams of thank yous and praises, and it did get kind of annoying.
Finally I said: “Okay, okay, I get it. You're happy that Eggy is fixed. Can I get some sleep now?”
I rolled on my stomach and buried my face in my pillow, hoping that the fluffy comfort will make sleep come faster. I just wanted to sleep so I can go to la-la land and dream of something that hopefully won't be clocks. But Artisan wasn't letting up. I felt him hop on my bed and lay next to me and he rubbed my back while his tail drooped over mine. It creeped me out every time he did that, and every time I told him not to do that because I felt violated by it, but he never listened. He would stop for a couple of weeks, and then he would go right back at it.
“You had a bad day, didn't you?” he asked.
“No, I had a great day.” I said sarcastically.
He pat my back apologetically, telling me that this was probably the start of something great, that possibly whatever happened would leave a positive impression.
I could only think of one phrase: “You're so full of shit.”
I didn't say that to him, but I did tell him to get off my bed, and he did after giving me a hug. Once he trotted off to do whatever it was he did I forced myself to sleep and not dream of clocks. The sleeping part went okay, but the clocks... well, there's no escaping those bastards.
<<<>>>
The week had gone by rather quickly. Since I was only “qualified” to fix clocks, and the Stable really didn't have much clocks that needed fixing, that left me time to finish my pocket watch. I still kept it hidden, though, since I didn't have a permit to make such a device for my own amusement, and if anypony found out they would break it and probably put me in solitary for a week. But it was finished and that was all that mattered.
Luckily after I finished my pocket watch the Overmare had decided to give me more responsibilities by putting me in charge of scheduling events. It was nice and I actually got to boss around others since I was qualified with all things related time.
I had spent the past few days busy looking over and tweaking schedules and learning the ropes of Stable politics. I had met with Overmare Mane and other higher-ups personally, and we enjoyed lunch and had a nice chit chat over salad and apple juice. Overmare Mane was probably the coolest of them all, and she talked about how she met her husband, who was head of security, when he accidentally spilled punch on her. It was a great time and I knew I was finally going somewhere in the world. Especially when we talked about my record. It was gold, and she said that the Stable needed gold, and that was when she asked me how I would like to get the position as Vice-Head of the Scheduling Administration.
How could I refuse?
After getting the position and learning the ways of the Scheduling Administration under the guidance of an old coot named Flow Chart, I felt like it would only be sunshine and rainbows from now on. I would get out of the basement and be high on the social ladder.
After leaving from a small meeting at the Scheduling Administration office, I headed off towards the lobby for another one of those Meet and Greet Days. I really didn't know what I was thinking since I knew Rose Petal would be there, but while my mind told me to study, my hooves walked me into the manticore's den.
The lobby was, as usual, thriving with activity as ponies milled about, doing all the meet and greet stuff. I saw Artisan trying to pick up a stallion named Glitter Shine, brother of Dusk Shine. Glitter might as well have been a mare with the way he acted and talked, while Dusk was such a homophobe that he would wash himself raw if a gay bumped into him. And speaking of Dusk Shine, I saw him flirting with Rose Petal.
Game over. Too late. I lost. Time to go home.
I turned to leave, disappointed and relieved at the same time, making for an odd, sickly feeling, but I heard somepony gallop, and I just had to look over my shoulder. It was Rose Petal, and she was running right towards me. I paled and turned my walk to a trot, but she got in front of me and poked me in the chest.
Petal said: “Aren’t you that guy from yesterday who wanted to get a dating permit with me?”
“No, that was an ass.” I quickly said, wincing on the inside when I realized that the argument was becoming a reality. And I didn't even prepare for it.
“You sure?” she asked. “Because you look a lot like him.”
“Yep, pretty sure.”
She smiled that sweet, irresistible smile and called me a liar. I really couldn't defend against that since it was the truth. Then she walked behind me and started pushing me by my rump towards the back. My face burned and I dug my hooves in the tile, wincing when the awful screeching noise from my pitiful resistance caused some heads to turn. One of which was Artisan, but rather than glaring or scoffing, he gave me a smile and a wink and then went back to Glitter. I saw Rose Petal's friends staring too, and Curly looked like she wanted to kill me. It was at that point that I decided to stop resisting and just walk with it.
Once I started walking, everything went smoother, and Rose Petal kept giving me a giddy smile while I could only return a nervous one. I didn’t know where she was taking me, and with all that had happened between me and her, I figured I was going to get my tail chewed out for embarrassing her in front of her friends. What? Smiles can be deceiving.
So we’re walking down the length of the wall, her eyes are focused and mine were not. I kept looking at the party, seeing how everypony was enjoying themselves in some way and how the cliques were praising their members for scoring tail from either gender. I didn’t want to think about what horrors awaited me in the back corner of the lobby, but when I actually got out of my distracted state, I realized that Rose Petal had taken me to the Dating Administration.
My jaw dropped and I looked at her, and she looked at me out of the corner of her eye with that adorable sweet smile. My heart was racing and I felt butterflies in my stomach. This was actually happening. I was going to get a permit to date Rose Petal!
“Careful, we wouldn’t want your jaw to fall off,” she said with a teasing smile as she closed my mouth her hoof.
I could only nod stupidly and follow her inside. Once inside, we were greeted by a unicorn mare named Elegant Harmony; she was old, fat, and had a mole on her cheek. I didn’t even realize ponies could get moles, but apparently it was a rare birth defect, and it was ugly!
When Elegant Harmony did the whole spiel with the questions, Rose Petal answered each of them a firm, and yet still silky smooth, voice and she kept giving me those looks out of the corner of her eye that said that she wanted this thing to hurry up. I fully agreed with her. But when it was my turn, I was the complete opposite of her; I didn’t stutter, but I did sound like an idiot and got momentarily confused by all the paperwork, whereas Rose Petal blew through it all like a professional.
After signing the endless supply of paperwork, we were brought into the back of the office and we each had to do a small test in separate rooms that were cold and bare, save for a cushion, a table, and an obnoxiously loud clock. I didn’t even have to make a mental note about getting that clock fixed, though, since Elegant Harmony gave it to me and told me to fix it and bring it back the next day before I even started the test.
So I’m taking the test with the loud clock on the ground next to me, and I’m trying to be careful with answering the questions. It was a personality test, so you had to be careful what you put. If anything points to something concerning then they would deny the permit, and I couldn’t let that happen!
I took that test, quickly, yet carefully, and when I was done, I slid the paper away and tried to think about something other than the horrible taste that the pencil left in my mouth. I thought about Rose Petal and all the fun we would have on our dates. It was expensive, but I wanted to buy a yearlong Dating Permit and take her to a play or two. Yeah, we held plays in our Stable, but they were expensive and you had to have a great record for the semester. Luckily I had a great record, so getting approved for a ticket was easy.
After waiting for nearly an hour in the room, freezing my tail off, Elegant Harmony walked back in with a folder, and she took my test and left again. I waited again… And I waited… And waited… And waited… And waited for nearly an hour before she returned.
“Here’s your permit. Enjoy.”
The emotion in her voice was nonexistent, but I grinned from ear to ear, knowing that tonight would be the start of something great! And I celebrated by fixing a clock. Yay.
But all good things have to come to an end eventually.
<<<>>>
It had been a few months after I had gotten permission to date Rose Petal, and we had all kinds of fun. From watching plays, to dancing and eating out, and, of course, those intimate moments. It never got passed the kissing or nose rubs, though.
I was also promoted to head of the Scheduling Administration since Flow Chart croaked in his sleep. The funeral was like every other. Long and ponies pretended to care, and some threw in a few fake tears to make themselves all the more “authentic”. He was cremated and had his ashes put in his old office, which was given to me. And it was creepy. I'm pretty sure he haunted the place.
Funeral aside, with my new position, I was put in charge of scheduling events, like what goes on on Meet and Greet Days, how long a birthday party could last, and a dozen other things. I got a huge pay raise and found myself enjoying parties with the Overmare and her entourage with Rose Petal by my side. Although, while things were going great between me and Rose Petal and the Overmare, it seemed that Curly got worse with me. Like the closer I got with those two, the more evil that Tirrac spawn became. And her evil just got...
Let me move on before I get too carried away.
As much fun as I was having with Rose Petal and my new life in the big leagues, fate had another thing in mind for my future. You see, every year our stable held this thing called the “Lottery”, and it basically meant that once you reach thirteen, you were given a number and if the said number is drawn then you get your flank kicked out of the stable. They take your pipbuck and then give you some food, a couple of canteens, and a farewell. Strangely enough, the Manes never had anyone in their family exiled, whereas those who tended to be vocal about the Lottery or the Mane's amazing good luck had a better chance of having their number drawn. That goes without saying that sometimes the vocals got lucky or that they switched their number with somepony else's.
I was one of the unlucky ones.
When we were holding the ceremony, everypony was handed a number by Commissioner Mane, husband of the Overmare, and everypony that could took a seat in the lobby. But given that our Stable was packed, we could only fit about a third of the population in, and the rest were forced to sit outside. And just to clear things up, when I said everypony, I meant everypony. Even the guards took a number and so did the Overmare and Curly and Commissioner Mane.
My number was oh three, ninety two, seventy eight.
Numbers aside for the moment, due to my new position, I got front row seating, and I had reserved one for Rose Petal right next to mine. And while we were waiting for the announcement of who will get caste out into the Wasteland, my stomach told me it was time for a snack by the way it rumbled. Rose Petal giggled and I smiled sheepishly at her, and I asked her if she wanted anything before I left for a snack. She wanted a caramel apple.
I left for the snack bar to grab a couple of caramel apples, and -Yes, we did serve snacks at our Stable when somepony was about to be exiled. It was an event. Can I continue? Thank you.
I left for the snack bar to grab a couple of caramel apples, and along the way I bumped into Curly Mane. Or rather she bumped into me and gave me the most phony apology I have ever heard. Seriously, it was so fake that my ears hurt from its phony-ness. She brushed some invisible wrinkles off of my jacket, still apologizing with that evil smile of hers. And as quickly as she came, she left, now with a skip in her step and I watched her snuggle up next to the Overmare. I had no idea what that was all about, but I tried not to think about it since I felt I had nothing to worry about and besides, I still had to get those caramel apples.
After getting those apples I returned to my seat and gave Rose Petal one of the apples, and while we munched on our snack we listened to the whole opening ceremony. They talked about the need of population control and how the Lottery is only by chance and there is nothing personal about it. I got bored with it, and I could hear a few yawns and somepony muttering about how they should get on with it. It took another hour before they called out the numbers.
Six, thirteen, twenty three.
Then everypony looked at their numbers. I smirked, knowing that I was safe, but I still looked at my slip. That was when I realized I had been screwed over. I glared at Curly, and she was showing the Overmare her slip, which was actually mine!
I felt a surge of anger go through me like I have never felt before. I wanted to hurt Curly. I wanted to hurt her badly. I wanted to pound her face to a bloody pulp and stomp on her until her heart popped. And keep on stomping until her body stopped twitching. Everything that I had worked for was now gone because that little bitch had switched our numbers! I don't know how she did it, but she did it and I wanted to kill her for it.
I felt every muscle tighten and my vision just went red. And being unable to control myself any longer, I jumped up from my seat, screaming: “You bitch!”
The crowd gasped and Rose Petal's face paled as I stomped towards Curly. The security got in my way, and I tried to fight through them, yelling about how Curly switched our slips. The guards were having to push me back, and the Overmare hugged Curly while she cried in her barrel.
“Tell them! Tell them that you switched our tickets!” I yelled, vision clouded with tears and throat hurting from how loud I was screaming.
The guards started to drag me away, and Rose Petal and Artisan tried to free me, but they were no match for the guards. And when one of the guards smacked Rose Petal with his club, I punched him right in the jaw. He was wearing a helmet, but the force still sent him to the ground. Next thing I knew, I felt a solid impact of a baton strike me on the back of my head, and I was out like a light.
~~~~~~~~~~
When I came to after Celestia knows how many hours later, I had a bandage on the back of my head, which did nothing to stop the throbbing, and I was locked in a solitary cell. My PipBuck was gone, leaving just a bare spot on my hoof, which had considerably less fur given what was there. Heck, it might as well have been bald for how thin it was, and it was gross seeing my skin, too. And to make matters worse, I saw that they took the liberty of packing my stuff. The saddle was there, stuffed with apples and medical supplies, and it had two canteens strapped to it. I briefly rubbed my chest, and sighed with relief when I found that my pocket watch was still there.
The guards must've been watching me sleep, because right as I was putting on my saddle, the door opened up and the Overmare and Commissioner Mane stepped in. Both of them looking apologetic about what they had to do, but nonetheless it was their duty to carry out the Lottery.
“I'm sorry it had come to this,” said the Overmare sadly, “but you know that it is the way things are. It is nothing personal.”
I saw Curly standing next to Rose Petal and Artisan. Rose Petal was crying in Artisan's shoulder, and he was trying to comfort her. Curly looked like she was trying to comfort Rose Petal, too, but when she saw me, she got a victorious smile and hugged Rose Petal harder. Like how a brat would hug their prized teddy bear.
“Maybe it's not personal for you.” I said, and I left it at that.
They stepped aside as I walked out with guards flanking me. When I got to Rose Petal we hugged, and I didn't want to let go of her. I had to close my eyes just so I didn't have to see Curly's scowl or Artisan's tears. I ran my hoof through Rose Petal's mane and told her that everything was going to be okay. She nodded, and tried to say something, but all she could do was sniffle. I knew she wanted to believe it, just like I wanted to, but we both knew that nothing was going to be okay. Our world had just turned upside down and I won't ever be able to return.
The guards had to pull me away from her, and I told Artisan to keep an eye on her for me. He nodded and hugged me tight, telling me that he promises he won't let anything happen to her. I returned the hug and tried to leave, but Artisan wouldn't let go, and the guards had to pull him off this time.
When I was escorted to the entrance of the Stable, I could feel all eyes on me. Familiar eyes. Eyes I loved and hated, and eyes I barely knew. But they were all watching, and when the Overmare typed in her code there was a heavy silence. I did everything I could to hold back my tears, but I could feel a few of them trickle down my cheek.
I watched dreadfully as the mechanical arm descended from the ceiling and grabbed a hold of the door's knob. When the door opened, the whole room shook from the rumbling, and everypony -me included- instinctively folded our ears to muffle the horrible screeching sound of metal grinding against metal. Once it was out, it rolled to the side and I saw my future. A desolate, hopeless wasteland with no life as far as the eye could see. Not even the sun was able to shine through the murky cloud barrier covering the sky.
I took a deep breath, looked over my shoulder and tried to give a reassuring smile to Rose Petal and Artisan. Rose Petal's face was soaked in tears, and Artisan had wrapped his hoof around her shoulder. Rose Petal waved farewell and mouthed “I loved you”, and I think Artisan was out of tears, because all he could do now was gulp. To enforce his pledge, he hugged Rose Petal tighter, and I nodded and looked back towards the Tartarus I would be living in.
Then I walked out.
++++++++++
Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk: Horse Sense -- You are a swift learner. You gain an additional +10% whenever experience points are earned.
Paradise Lost
“What you see is the natural product of the cycle of civilization.”oooOOOooo
I was staring at the endless rolling hills of dead grass, unblinking, as I was forced away from my home. Each step I took made me flinch. I wasn't prepared for this. Nopony was ever prepared for something like winning the Lottery. My pampered coat wasn't used to the chill in the air, nor my eyes used to seeing an endless field of decay. My hooves were used to the smooth, metal floors and the pampering they would get when bath time came. They weren't used to the uneven, rocky terrain. They weren't used to being poked by dead plants or scratched by old bones. To be honest, I would've ran back inside if guns weren't being pointed at me.
When I looked over my shoulder, the guards cocked their weapons and tensed up. It reminded me of the Lottery the year before. A sweet mare by the named of Honey Sap was the “winner” of the Lottery, and she tried to get back in. I still remember the barrage of gunfire and the screams, and to this day I still think I stepped on her bones when I first left. The memory of what happened to Honey Snap is what made my legs move. My mind wanted me to run back, but my legs knew that if I went back I would die. Just like Honey Sap.
When I was too far away to reach the door, I heard it grinding and sealing itself shut with a metallic groan. The noise was so loud that it shook loose the rocks on the hill, and when it sealed I was certain the whole world heard it since it echoed over the Wasteland like a massive gong. But as soon as those doors closed panic mode snapped in. I ran to the door and banged on it, screaming and begging them to let me back in. I screamed and screamed, and cried and begged, but nopony answered. I screamed till my throat felt like it would shred, and I screamed some more. I banged until my hooves felt like they were going to snap, and I banged some more. I stayed there begging and praying to anypony up there that somepony would open the door and let me back in. My prayers were not answered. Nopony came. The only attention I got was the faded sixty seven staring down at me.
I still didn't leave, though. I was not a survivalist. I was no soldier or some kind of action hero. My job was maintaining schedules and fixing clocks! Where did any of that fit into surviving a goddess-forsaken land? Nowhere!
After my attempts to get back inside proved futile, I curled up in front of the sixty seven and stared at the murky sky. The land was so evil that it didn't even allow the sun through. Granted, I have never seen the sun, only pictures and cheap models that emitted the stuff that a sun was supposed to emit, but I knew that there was supposed to be something lighting the land. There was supposed to be something to warm the air and make the plants grow, and it wasn't there. It was all wrong and I was doomed to wander this horrible place till the day I die.
I sat there, in front of my Stable, all night, occasionally getting up to bang and scream some more, and I always got the same response. Silence. By the time I passed out, I could only dream of one thing: breaking back into the Stable and stabbing Curly in the heart with the hour hoof, and her eyes with the minute and second hooves. Yeah, it was about clocks, and I was killing somepony with one. And it made me smile.
<<<>>>
When I woke up the next morning, I was actually surprised that I was still alive. I was expecting to get mauled by a monster or pony-napped or something when I was completely defenseless. Sure, I was mostly defenseless when I woke up, but I could still use my hooves to at least slap somepony if I had too, but if I was asleep... well, you get the idea. The point is, is that I was surprised that an easy prey like me hadn't been butchered.
Anyway, enough of all that defenseless pony butchering stuff. Knowing that the doors wouldn't open, and not wanting to test my luck for another sleepover at Sixty Seven, I decided to head out. That goes without saying that I just didn't decide to see where my hooves wanted to go, I actually scanned the land first. I tried to remember what one of my teachers said about these kinds of things. I still remember her croaky, shaky voice, and that horrible breath and teeth she had.
She said: “Remember, kiddies, if you get exiled, the first thing you should do is look for smoke. Smoke signals civilization. Or a raider kitchen!”
Then she would cackle like a witch while us kids would practically wet ourselves at the idea of becoming somepony's lunch.
Good times.
Okay, okay, I’ll get back to it. I won’t delve further in my old life in Sixty Seven because that would be boring. Besides, I could tell from that look on your face that you want me to get on with it.
So, I'm walking down what was once a freeway, minding my own business and carefully hopping over the potholes and jagged, rusted metal lying about. I especially avoided the holes that had weird green haze floating around them. I wish I had my PipBuck to tell me what they were since they could do just about anything, but no, they just had to take that away!
I don't know how long I was aimlessly walking around, probably four or five hours, give or take a couple of minutes, but I quickly realized how much the world sucked, and those ponies who thought it would be cool to live in the Wasteland were idiots.
I think I was still in shock about what I was seeing most of the time, since I do not remember what I was thinking. All I remember was just seeing stretches of road running through the landscape, like worn yarn covered in dirt, with the occasional billboard advertising something. Some would have posters of happy ponies being a family at the dinner table, others were about a Flim Flam Brothers invention, and then we would have the ones about a circus, movie, fair, or other events. But I think I fully realized what had happened when I entered what was left of a neighborhood. And I don't mean knowing-knowing, since we all know the story about how the missiles tore holes in the sky and how millions were killed in just a few short hours. No, I'm talking about feeling-knowing.
When I walked by the brick sign, I saw that despite nearly three hundred years of decay, some of the colors still remained. I saw yellow, orange, red, green, blue, and even white, all arranged in what I could only guess was a field of flowers. There was a wooden sign, worn and covered in holes and pieces splintering off, but in spite of all the damage, I still saw the sign's message.
Welcome to Sunshine Gardens
Where Your Family Can Be a Family
The more I stared at the sign, the more I realized that the holes and red were more than just natural damage and paint. They were bullet holes and blood.
I barely saw the corpse lying in the bush. I only saw her because of the flies buzzing around her and the stench coming from her mangled body. When I found her lying there, I puked, which stung since I had nothing in my stomach. This poor mare was... destroyed. Her backside and inner thigh and mouth were caked in dry blood, and her eyes were squeezed shut. I still remember how flies crawled in and out of the bullet holes riddling her body and her open mouth. With the dried blood around her, it was like she was lying on a thin, dark red carpet.
When I looked away from her, I found what was left of a toll booth. It looked like it was hit with a rocket. There was a chunk gone, which I'm sure the pieces scattered around it were parts of it, and the ridges were charred. When I peeked inside, I nearly puked again because there was half a body there. Just the lower half, too, and it wasn’t even intact enough to tell if they were a colt or mare. All I knew was that I was looking at a half a body with their guts spilled all over the floor. I'm pretty sure the only reason I didn't puke was because I was out of stomach acid or something. But that didn't stop me from gagging and pulling myself away.
That is when I heard something. It sounded like some ponies cheering and laughing. I didn't know what was going on, but my gut told me that I had to get out. Unfortunately I was too slow. Before I could move away, I heard a gun cock and some psycho unicorn chick with a mohawk snicker as she pressed the barrel of her rifle against my head.
My heart stopped, my blood froze, and my joints locked. And I knew I whimpered because she laughed with another pony about how much of a pussy I was. Her partner was an earth pony stallion with war paint and piercings,
“Are ya gonna cry, too?” mocked the stallion.
I shook my head, but felt the tears slither down my cheeks like the salty snakes of betrayal they were. They roared with laughter and then I felt the gun butt crack my ribs. I howled as stumbled to the ground. While I was on the ground, coughing and tasting iron, the unicorn yanked off my gear without any grace and dumped it all out. They took my apples, my canteen, and my pocket watch! When I tried to get it back, I got a butt to the side again and a bash to my head that sent it cracking against the ground. My ears rang, and everything felt like shifting sand as I tried to stand up, gasping for air. I had to blink blood out of my eyes, and I could only watch helplessly as the psycho chick took my watch and hung it around her horn for some stupid reason. But the stallion just laughed at my plight. I had a feeling he was slow.
The stallion asked if I wanted to be a part of the games while throwing in a rude commentary about my good looks. That comment didn't go well since he got a butt to his side and fell like a sack of bricks. Psycho chick then went on to saying that she wants to keep me and call me “Cuddle Muffin”. As much as I wanted to run away, screaming and calling for help, I couldn't. My legs wouldn't work right, they trembled to the point of collapse every time I tried, and breathing hurt because of her stupid melees. My struggle to escape only made them laugh harder.
The psycho chick wrapped a leash around my neck and tightened it until I could hardly breathe, and it seemed like doing that caused whatever crowd there was to cheer louder over a mare's scream and sobs. Like they were watching this act of degradation and cheering for the fine maneuver it took to leash an earth pony.
She gave the leash to the stallion, whom I found out was “Looper”, and ordered him to bring me with them. I found out her name was “Little Miss” when he replied.
I was dragged through the street of Sunshine Gardens. I wanted to keep my head down so I won't get any more attention, but my eyes kept drifting towards the ruins of the place. What were once brightly colored houses were now faded and ruined. The chipped off paint exposed the rotten wood underneath, and some of the houses were boarded up. Doors were gone, windows were just jagged entrances to the dark caves, and what were once white picket fences were next to nonexistent pieces of wood poking out of the ground like dried out talons. And to make it worse, the walls were splattered with blood and damaged with bullet holes and shrapnel damage.
I could hear somepony screaming angrily over a mare's sobs coming from one of the houses, and my stomach churned when I saw a cart full of foals pulled away by a team of earth pony stallions. All of them were covered in scars and were like drones. Their eyes were distant and their hooves followed a set path with armed guards marching with them. They didn’t even notice me.
There was a gunshot and the mare stopped sobbing and out of the house we passed came a donkey wearing a horrible outfit. It was like he picked random clothes without making an attempt to see if he could find anything to match. He had a polka dot tie, a purple jacket over a neon yellow shirt and one of those green, plastic party hats with clover on it. The fat pistol snuggled in his holster clipped to his leg was no joke, though.
He saw me looking at him and he ordered Little Miss and Looper to stop. Little Miss looked annoyed, Looper was looking at something random, and I was worried that he might shoot me. But he didn't. He smiled and looked at my Stable uniform and hoof's bald spot.
“You an exile?” he asked.
I wanted to lie, but I didn't since it was fairly obvious, so I quietly said: “Yeah.”
He shook his head sadly and told me how his father was an exile, too, and he introduced himself as “Yanker”. He ordered Little Miss to take me to his place, which was a three story, relatively intact house with a gold star flag waving on the top. I saw guards on the roof and patrolling the yard. Unlike the crazies in the main part of town, these guys wore good armor with gold stars painted on them. And the weapons they had actually looked clean.
When we reached the house I noticed that the mailbox had “Flim Flam” x-ed out with “Yanker” written over the top. I had no choice but to follow since every time I faltered I got a choking tug from Looper.
The house looked bigger than it did on the outside, but that was probably because all the furniture was gone. I looked out a window and saw some earth ponies digging a hole with unicorns keeping watch. It looked like they were getting ready to rebury a rotting corpse.
Yanker saw me staring at the odd scene and he snorted, saying: “Yeah, Flam thought he could keep this house. Stupid ghoul. Do you want a drink?”
I shook my head and he ordered the leash off. Little Miss took the leash off and right as she was about to be escorted out with Looper by a couple of Yanker's guards, he stopped them and pointed at my pocket watch.
He asked: “What the heck is that?”
“I have no idea, but it is nice and I like it,” replied Little Miss.
“It is mine.” I blurted, immediately regretting that since Little Miss glared at me and Yanker gave me a puzzled look.
“What is it?” he asked me.
“A pocket watch.”
“And it is yours?”
I nodded and he looked at Little Miss and he ordered her to give it back to me. At first she refused, but a couple of guns cocking was enough to change her mind. She glared at me as she levitated the watch back to me. I snatched it out of the air like the priceless treasure it was to me and I stuffed it in my pocket.
The guards escorted my captors out and Yanker led me to the kitchen. There, he poured himself some water in a mug that looked like it hadn't been washed in a while. It grossed me out, but he didn't seem to mind. When he finished his drink, he smacked his lips obnoxiously and slammed the mug down, yelling about how good fresh water was. Then he motioned towards my face.
“You look confused, which isn't too surprising since you're an exile,” he said. I told him I just wanted to get out and find another place that isn't dead, and he snorted again and told me: “Good luck with that.”
He then walked towards the window and watched them dump Flam's corpse in the hole and kick the dirt back in unceremoniously. I watched with disgust, but he didn't notice. Then he started talking like I was his best friend.
He talked about all kinds of things, like his father, donkeys dying out, the pen versus the sword, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t exactly remember. He was trying to be philosophical, that much I knew, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was failing miserably. He just talked and talked and talked, and like clockwork he would switch to a different subject. Two minutes into his father he would switch to donkeys. Two minutes later, the donkeys would go to the unending war between pens and swords, and two minutes later he went on about the cycle of civilization. That I remembered the most.
He pointed out the window to show off the landscape and the destroyed settlement and said: “What you see is the natural product of the cycle of civilization. Civilization gets bigger, it gets better, then all that hidden nasty stuff that we pretend doesn’t exist comes out in full force and dips the world in fire. Then there is ash, and out of that ash comes another civilization that will get better over time until it comes time for it to burn. We're in ash, right now, Exile, and all you'll find is more ash.”
Then he smiled and put his hoof around my neck and told me that the beauty of it all was that I came out at the start of something great that will get rid of the ashes. He told me of a place where there was no hunger or poverty. A place where there was no division because everypony was truly equal. Truthfully it sounded tempting to find this place, but then I started getting a little suspicious.
I asked him: “If this place is so great, why isn't it bringing civilization out here?”
He smiled and said: “It is. This is our new embassy for the Macintosh Hills. Ya can't support our supporters without an embassy am I right?”
He laughed and I forced myself to smile. Believe me it was painful since I knew this guy was an asshole, that and my ribs still hurt. But I guess since his father was exiled like me he felt that we had a connection and could become best friends.
He gave me a tour of the embassy. Apparently the previous owner, Flam, had been able to generate power for the village that was once a place where a family could be a family. Yanker had to point at a windmill and some solar panels that I hadn't noticed earlier to get me to understand how that was possible. They were heavily guarded and were in the middle of some repairs. According to Yanker, Flam didn't like sharing with the local tribes, preferring to keep all the power with his settlement and selling the water from a well in his backyard.
On with the tour. On the first floor, it was all bare of furniture and it had a study. The study had a couple of couches and chairs, and it was loaded with books varying in all conditions and types. There were dictionaries, novels, novellas, comic books, political science books, economics, how-to books, and cook books and they were all being searched through. Each book had a place in one of two piles, and I could only guess what those piles were for. Yanker talked a little bit about the library, about how since most couldn't read books were basically useless, so they were filtering to make sure that those who could read got the best books available. I felt there was more to his filtering, but I didn't probe. I wish I did, though.
The second story had a couple of rooms and a bathroom with full plumbing. Some poor sap was trying to clean off blood splatter on the wall in the hallway, and she looked aggravated since the blood was only spreading. Yanker took me a guest bedroom and I saw that it was well furnished for something using over two hundred year old material. He told me that that was where his guests would stay; I thought it was pretty self-explanatory, though. We went on to the master bedroom which was where Yanker was staying, and like the guest room, I was surprised at how well kept it was, save for the blood stains on the wall and floor. It looked like somepony was shot and dragged out of the room only to bleed out in the hallway. Yanker explained that it would be his room. I barely paid any attention, though, because I saw a very nice picture of a blonde, freckled orange mare. She was cuddling with a dog, a collie I think, and she was smiling down at it with a real sweet smile and really pretty emerald eyes. Her eyes reminded me of Rose Petal’s. Kind, honest, sweet and playful. The dog oddly enough had the same expression of pure happiness. They looked like a perfect pair.
There was also a faded picture next to the mare of a pair of stallions that would have looked like direct copies of each other if one had shaved their mustache off. Both had matching birthday hats and their hooves wrapped around each other’s neck. Balloons and streamers and a giant cake were behind them. The cake was crazy big and I didn't know if my eyes were playing tricks or if it was the photo itself, but the metal table it was on looked like it was bending slightly.
The pictures were on top of a safe, and it was being picked by a unicorn mare. She was biting her tongue in deep concentration as her bobby pins messed around with the thing. She didn't even notice our presence.
I didn't stay much longer since Yanker practically pushed me out of the room to go to the third level. We passed a group of ponies tossing out stuff that used to make up a shrine or something. I heard the stuff crash and shatter to the ground below, but Yanker didn't care. He only cared about keeping the picture of the blonde to clop to later.
On the third level he grinned broadly and showed me his new office. It had the standard desk, cushion, lamp, and a globe that was absolutely worthless. There was a stack of paper, some pens and pencils, a terminal that was still working, and a great view of the town. I saw everything; including a couple of ponies fighting in an arena with spiked walls. They were both battered and bruised and bleeding profusely and being cheered on by the surrounding hooligans who were all wearing piercings, crazy mane styles and cheap armor. The sand the gladiators were fighting in was muddy with blood and they had set up spikes along the walls to add to the thrill of that barbaric activity.
Yanker told me that those “games” were how Ms. Gold kept her people entertained. I didn't know who she was and he didn't divulge further since we were both distracted by a muffled groan and some chains clanking. Yanker sighed heavily and excused himself and trotted towards a door in the office that led to a small room. My jaw dropped when I saw a zebra mare chained to the wall with a ball gag, lying on a filthy mattress. Her mane and tail were a mess and she was covered in bruises. When she saw Yanker, she paled and retreated to the corner, hoping that she could escape into the walls, but he was on her in an instant, screaming over her muffled screams. I barely understood a thing he said, all I really got was her name was Zahra, she was being very rude and something about a nightly session being longer.
By the time he was done screaming at her, she was sobbing and curled on the bed and he was stomping out, fuming about how whores have no respect. Then he noticed how I was pale and shaking, and how my jaw was at the floor.
He didn't offer any excuses, he just said: “Let's grab something to eat, shall we, Exile?”
I felt sick. I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself and get some kind of super pony powers and beat up everypony here and fly away with the zebra in my hooves. Just like the heroes in the comic books I read as a foal. But I knew that wouldn't happen. I knew that I didn't have powers. Earth ponies never got powers. Maybe if I had a horn on my head I could've done something close, but I don't so I couldn't. Besides, my ribs were really hurting right now and a part of me felt that they were either cracked or broken. And there was no way I was saving anypony in my condition.
I looked at the door where Zahra was and tried to get the cotton feeling out of my mouth by swallowing what little spit I had, but it didn't work. I told him I wasn't hungry, but then my stomach growled and he chuckled -a forced chuckle, mind you- and he said that that was not what my body was saying.
He walked past me and told me that he'll get the chefs to make something. When he was out of the room I checked the door holding Zahra. It was locked, and my heart sank knowing I couldn't help her when I heard her quiet, muffled sobs.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dinner was -how should I say it?- awkward. The guards standing by the doorways refused to move, much less blink, and I could hear the floorboards creak with the steps of the patrolling guards. Their steps were slow and methodical, kinda like clunky machines forever doomed to walk slow and inspect every line on the floor. Because of this I couldn’t enjoy my meal, which was gross anyway since it consisted of half rotted food, odd paste and warm beer.
Yanker had invited a couple of guests over for his dinner party. One was a unicorn mare named Lilac. She was pretty, very pretty, and I was embarrassed to be staring at her for so long. But I couldn’t help it. She looked like she was well fed in comparison to the rest of the ponies outside, and her light purple coat was clean and her light gray mane was knot free. She wore a blue and white dress that covered her cutie mark, though I guessed it was a heart from what little I saw. She had eye shadow that was the same blue as her dress, too, and she kept looking at me with a saucy smile. And she did it very well.
The other guy was weird and when I wasn’t staring at Lilac, I was looking at him. Yanker introduced him as Waltz, and he was pretty strange. His dark brown coat was thin and his legs were skinny, and his maw wasn't even a maw, it was more like a skinny snout. He also had curving horns protruding from the sides of his skinny head. But what I found the strangest about him was that he was obviously a battle hardened soldier. He had an eyepatch over his right eye, his front right leg was mechanical, and he was covered in scars. He creeped me out.
Yanker gorged his food and talked about how I was an exile like his father. Waltz didn’t seem to care and Lilac was way too interested for me to be comfortable.
“Oh really?” she said in an overly enthusiastic voice and smile while leaning towards me with her head on her hoof. “Can you tell me what the Stable life is like?”
I fumbled with my words, trying to explain how Stable Sixty Seven regulated nearly every aspect of our lives, and how I had a marefriend so I couldn’t do anything stupid with her.
“Well,” I said, straightening myself out and trying to look impressive for the guests, “I came from Stable Sixty Seven. There they regulate nearly everything. You have to get a permit to date, get married, have kids, and personalize your stuff. Even the kinds of breaks you get are determined by your grade.”
“Grades? They grade you?” asked Lilac.
I nodded. “Yeah, though it is kind of stupid since most of us got good grades anyway.”
Waltz then chimed in, completely interrupting me. He said: “Yes, it is all fantastic, Exile, and I’m sure you have a wealth of knowledge, but we have more pressing matters to attend to.” His accent was funny, but I wasn’t going to laugh about it, not even on the inside. Waltz looked at Yanker and said in a hostile tone: “Can we go somewhere private?”
Yanker stopped eating and it took him a couple of seconds to reluctantly excuse himself. After he left with Waltz, Lilac gave me an odd look and a smile. Somepony grabbed Yanker and Waltz’s dishes and left, leaving me alone with Lilac, who was now creeping me out just a bit.
Me and Lilac ate in silence But as I ate, I found myself looking at my watch to check the time in rapid succession. Lilac’s staring was making me anxious, and I tried to hide it by my constant time checking. I tried to think about home to help me block out Lilac’s beautiful blue eyes.
I started wondering if stallions were hitting on Rose Petal or if Artisan was getting more hot pie in his face. I even wondered if Curly was trying to keep Rose Petal all to herself, seeing as she had that evil, bratty hug around her neck when I was exiled.
Lilac interrupted my thoughts when she pushed her plate away and said: “Do you miss home?”
It took me a moment to nod, but I didn’t answer vocally. She also nodded and scooted next to me. I knew she had to have come from some upscale place since her dress was silk and she smelled really nice. Like a fresh flower.
“Why were you exiled?” she asked.
“I won the Lottery.” I replied.
I tried to keep my tone in check, but I knew it came out snappy since she recoiled slightly. I apologized for the tone, but the apology didn’t help me feel any better. I decided that in order for her to understand why the subject was touchy –besides the obvious- I would have to explain the concept and what had happened to me. After taking a couple of minutes to explain the Lottery and my misfortune to her, she hugged me while calling me a “poor baby”. I wouldn’t mind the hug so much if she hadn’t pressed my cheek against her barrel and nearly choked me with her hug.
Both of us froze, though, when we heard Waltz shout: “You were supposed to destroy it!”
I looked up at the ceiling since the shouting came from the upper floor, and I barely heard Yanker, but from his tone, I was guessing that he was afraid. He tried to defend himself, saying that it didn’t matter since some guy and his group was dead. I didn’t hear the rest, but when Waltz came back into the kitchen, he had four more of his kind, armored with better armor than the outside guards but with the same gold stars painted on. He told Lilac it was time to go, and she gave me one last look before getting up and leaving with him without a word. Yanker followed them out, and I trailed the group and waited by the corner to listen to what they were talking about.
Waltz turned to Yanker when he was in the doorway and jabbed his skinny hoof in the donkey’s chest, saying: “For your sake, Yanker, you better hope Wilhelm is dead.”
“Like I said, he’s dead along with his group. Just tell Ms. Gold to stop worrying,” said Yanker sourly.
Waltz snorted and left with his guards. Yanker slammed the door shut and when he saw me, he faked a smile and walked towards me.
“What a day!” he said nervously.
He walked next to me and patted my shoulder, telling me that we should get some rest. He didn’t wait for my reply. He left for his room and I was escorted to the guest room by an armed guard. There I went to bed under the feigned protection of a guard outside my door. I didn’t want to sleep, but it came nonetheless.
~~~~~~~~~~
I woke up a couple of hours later to something I didn’t want to hear. I heard fast, wet slaps and Yanker grunting and groaning over Zahra’s muffled moans. It didn’t sound like she was enjoying it.
I glared at the ceiling as the thumping and the mixed noises of forced sex got louder. When I heard Zahra scream with Yanker, I got grossed out. There was silence for a minute, before I heard Zahra beg and cry. Her voice was clearer, but I still had a hard time understanding her. I knew she wanted mercy and freedom, but Yanker didn’t listen. I could just picture his sick smile and her tears as he talked over her. His words were dirty, his tone was harsh, and no matter how much she begged he wouldn’t listen.
“He’s dead, no one is coming for you,” he said over her sobs. “You are mine and I will enjoy you until you are useless. Now suck that dick!”
Her sobbing suddenly became more muffled and Yanker groaned blissfully while muttering something that was no doubt disgusting. I got a sudden drive to do something, but that drive disappeared as quickly as it came.
I got out of bed and walked towards my door. I opened it up and found the hallway to be empty. It looked larger than it really was and I felt my breathing suddenly become shallow. A part of me really wanted to go back to bed and pretend I wasn’t hearing somepony getting raped. That same part told me that Yanker took me in without hesitation and if the world is ash, then this would be the place to be. I started backing up, my heart was racing and I started panting lightly and gulping. I didn’t know what I was thinking. Go out of my way to stop a nut from raping a zebra without any combat experience? That sounded like it would end badly for me and Zahra.
I started back towards my bed, head down and trying to block out the noise. I tried telling myself that it wasn’t my concern and that I would only end up doing more harm than good. I was almost at my bed when I heard a thump.
I stopped and looked up at the ceiling. Yanker was talking again and Zahra was sobbing and gasping weakly. I continued looking up at the ceiling, ears drooped and legs shaking, worrying about what he was going to do next.
I heard Yanker say: “The more you beg, the more you cry, the longer it will be.”
Zahra cried: “No! No, please Celestia, no!”
Celestia didn’t answer her. Yanker snarled over Zahra’s screams sobs, and I heard him go into her. I barely heard the slaps and his grunts over her wailing. I put my hoof to my mouth, closed my eyes and tried to think of something else as I slumped to the floor. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t a hero. I couldn’t save her.
Her crying got louder, and I pictured Rose Petal. What would I do if somepony was raping Rose Petal? Would I sit back and pretend nothing was happening? Would I close my eyes and wish it all away? No. I would beat them to a pulp, is what I told myself. I would charge the sicko and make sure that they wouldn’t hurt her again.
Then I thought what Rose Petal would think of me if she found out I stood by and listened to somepony get raped and not try anything to stop it. A rape is a rape. No matter whom they are.
I wasn’t a hero. I was an exile. But the least I could do was make sure that Yanker never hurt another mare.
I tried to swallow my fear with a deep breath before sneaking out of the room. It managed to calm me down just enough to get out of the door and halfway down the hall. Then the floor creaked.
I cringed and a unicorn guard instantly came around the corner, blocking the only way out, with her rifle raised. She called to see if anypony was there, and I knew I had gone too far to stop. So I charged her. I knew it was a bad idea as soon as my legs started moving, but I figured that maybe Celestia will be nice to me and make me suddenly awesome and give me the strength to beat up a bunch of guards to save a mare in distress. It didn’t go quite as I had planned.
The first part went okay. I saw her eyes widen in the glow of her magical aura and she swung her weapon towards me. She was too slow, though. I rammed her into the wall, not caring about the loud thump or the wood snapping under our weight. We both fell to the ground and wrestled each other. She was now covered in plaster and the pain in my ribs only got worse and made me sweat more than I should have.
We rolled around on the floor like dogs, and when she got on top, she socked me in the jaw, and it momentarily knocked my world out of focus. My jaw throbbed and I tasted blood. She stomped on my side and I howled as a sharp pain pierced my body. She brought her gun up and aimed it towards me, but through the grace of Celestia -and probably adrenaline- I was able to clamber to my hooves and ram her into the wall again.
The gun went off, illuminating the dark hallway with a small flash of light. The bullet grazed me and struck the floor. I winced from the burning, slicing feeling on my hind hoof, and I pushed the gun up when she tried to fire again. There was another flash of light and plaster from the ceiling rained down on us. I punched her in the jaw like what she did to me, but unlike me, she shrugged it off with a growl and punched me in the nose.
I yelped and reeled back as I pressed my hoof to my nose, which was gushing with blood. My hoof didn’t stop the bleeding, it only pooled up in the bowl and dribbled to the floor like a waterfall. My eyes widened when the mare aimed her weapon at me, and right as I thought I was about to get shot, Yanker ordered her to stop.
The light turned on and Yanker approached us with a couple of guards. He was wearing a spangly robe and looked pissed to see me in the hallway, bleeding all over the place. I looked back at him with disgust, but I think that look was ruined since my hoof was covering much of my bleeding face and my ears were drooped. I felt a small whimper escape me, too. That didn’t help.
Yanker approached me, saying: “What were you trying to do, Exile?”
“Stop you from raping Zahra.” I told him, my voice muffled and sounding a bit squeaky from my pressing.
“You know Zahra?” he asked.
I explained that I heard him mention her name when I first saw her, and he clicked his tongue and nodded his head, wiping his nose as he looked at his guards. Then he asked me if I was with Wilhelm. I told him I had no idea who Wilhelm was and he seemed to have trouble believing it.
“How long have you been outside the Stable, Exile?” asked Yanker.
“Two days.” I replied.
“Well, you made some really dumb choices really fast, then.”
Yanker nodded towards the guard I attacked and she got a sinister smile as she approached me. Then she cold clocked me and I was out again.
Getting knocked out was rapidly becoming a pet peeve of mine.
<<<>>>
When I woke up, my face hurt. My nose was stuffy, my jaw ached, my ribs were worse than before, and my blood had dried to my face. I got up and looked at a mirror to see how bad it was. It was bad. Really bad. My whole maw was covered in a dark red, flaky layer and I had a black eye, too. Not even two days in the Wasteland and already I got my ass kicked.
I felt for my watch but found that I was without it. I groaned and looked down, and saw that my hind leg was chained to a brick wall. I sighed and walked around my prison cell to get an idea where I am, and to stretch my legs, too. The room was bare, save for a bed, and the window was barred. The brick was partially covered in plaster and an old poster was hanging up on the wall. It was faded and deformed, but I could still make out some of it. From the looks of it, it had a picture of a pegasus and an earth pony with a muffin behind them. I couldn’t really make out much detail, but the words were still readable.
Whooves Institute
Annual Baking Palooza
5 Bit Entrance Fee For All the Muffins You Can Eat!!!
I tried to figure out the details of the two ponies, but I was distracted when I heard a cheer and an agonizing scream come to an abrupt end. I looked outside and saw the aftermath of a fight between a stallion and a mare. The stallion was a unicorn and the mare was an earth pony, and he was standing on top of her flattened head with her blood splattered all over his hoof. The stallion was getting a little too involved with this sport. He bowed and waved to the cheering crowd. It made me sick.
He even went willingly with the guards when they came out with leashes and escorted him towards a fully loaded wagon that was being worked by more slaves. Once he was secured, the group left with their guards and I recoiled from the window. But I went back once I heard Yanker’s voice.
“Ladies and gentlecolts!” he bellowed. “We are down to our last contestants!” There were some boos and disappointed groans and he held up his hoof and flashed a cheesy smile. “But I got a treat for you, today! Yesterday somepony thought he could defy Ms. Gold and he tried to kill me in my sleep! Fresh from the Stable, I present to you the Exile! ... In ten minutes.”
The crowd laughed and I fumed. I knew he knew that he was lying. He knew I was only going after Zahra, but... You know what; I really have nothing to say about what he said. It was fucked up, through and through. So, I’ll just move on before I rant, yeah?
So, couple of minutes later, the door opened up behind me and Yanker stepped in with his guards and my pocket watch around his neck. Losing my watch and having others wear it were other things that were quickly becoming pet peeves of mine.
He saw how angry I was, but he still smiled and stroked the watch.
“This is a nice watch,” he said, “I could see why you wouldn’t want to be without it.”
“Do you even know how to work it?” I snarled.
That landed me a punch in the nose.
I yelped and clutched my bleeding nose as the guards snickered. Yanker also smiled and waved his hoof around like the punch hurt him. I doubt that it did.
“Wow, you earth ponies are hard headed!” he mocked. The guards laughed and he looked at me again, saying: “Don’t be upset, Exile, I did what I had to do to keep my hide on my skin. Besides, your watch has a new home with me so all is good.”
I lunged at him, but the shackle held me in place and his guards stepped in front of him. He quickly told the guards that I was no threat and ordered them to bring me to the Arena. I glared at him as he left the room, and one guard kept her gun aimed at me while her partner put a leash around me and unchained my leg.
~~~~~~~~~~
A few minutes later I was escorted out of the large brick building I was staying in. On the way out, I stole some glances and saw posters along the wall that advertised activities such as bake sales, charity events, and patriotic duties. One of the patriotic duty posters, I kid you not, was about how getting great grades is vital for the future of Equestria. I would’ve loved to explore more of this building, but given the circumstances, I couldn’t. Once I was outside, I was blinded by the light and the crowd erupted with activity when Yanker introduced me. But they weren’t cheering, they were booing. I hadn’t even started yet and already the crowd was booing me.
When I was at the Arena entrance, one of my escorts opened up the door while the other took my leash off. She then pushed me inside and I fell and got a face full of bloody mud. I coughed and sputtered out blood that wasn’t even mine and the crowd laughed while Yanker went on with his glorious, grand opening speech that was prophesizing my death.
I looked around and tried to look tough, but my legs wobbled underneath me and my eyes watered as they darted around. I jumped when the door behind me sealed shut, and then cowered a bit when the door on the other side opened. I was expecting to see a huge stallion come out ready to kill me in a moment’s notice, but that wasn’t the case. The pony that came out on the other end was a starved earth pony stallion. He was also shaking and whimpering and shrunk when the crowd laughed and threw stuff at him.
They also threw stuff at me and chanted: “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
It reminded me of a broken clock with the way they chanted. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.
It was unnerving and my eyes darted around the cheap Arena as the crowd stomped their hooves on the ground with earth shaking results. I gulped and my whole body drooped as I backed up, hoping that the door will open so I could disappear from the madness. I backed into the door and the guard behind it jabbed me in the rump with a cattle prod. I yelped and jumped away as the electric surge bit me, and then I was tackled to the ground by Skinny.
At first I stumbled, but I did lose my footing and fell to the ground, getting a face full of bloody mud again. I rolled under him to try to stand up, but he wouldn’t let go and started biting my mane. I screamed and ran in circles as he bit harder on my mane. I barely heard the crowd laughing over this, and when I heard him growl and felt my hair getting ripped out from the roots, I did the only sensible thing I could think of. I skidded to a stop, stood on my hind legs and let gravity handle the rest. Skinny yelped as he was crushed between me and the ground, and as soon as I felt him let go I rolled to my hooves and galloped away from the nut.
He got up and spat some of my hair out and charged me again. This time, though, I was prepared and leapt out of his way when he jumped towards me. His hooves dug in the dirt as he skidded to a stop, and he turned towards me again, eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring. He charged me and I turned tail and ran. I tried to ignore the pain in my ribs as I ran, but they were killing me to put lightly. My legs burned and my breathing was raspy, and that little freak was like a predator as he chased me. I looked over my shoulder and saw his unquenchable thirst for blood in his eyes and his hunger in his drool. Yeah, he was drooling. A lot.
Skinny may have been a little guy, but he was fast and he caught up to me in no time. He jumped on my back again and I buckled underneath his sudden weight, and screamed and thrashed when he bit my ear. His teeth breached my skin and I felt his slobber mixing with my blood, and both trickled down my ear. I was screaming in pain and fear and my movements became more desperate when he started twisting his head around like he was trying to rip my ear off. I bucked and rolled and did everything I could to get him off. He had the jaws of death on my ear, though, and feeling your skin tear and the cartilage on your ear snap is not a pleasant feeling. My cheek was slick with blood gushing from my ear, and I couldn’t even hear myself cry from how loud the crowd was cheering.
I gave a really hard buck and Skinny flipped over, but he still didn’t let go and I heard a snapping sound and everything just went silent. I knew the crowd was still cheering, but I could only hear my heart’s heavy thumping and my ragged breaths. My vision became blurry as I lifted my hoof up to my ear. My neck, mane, and cheek became drenched in the warmth of my blood. I couldn’t feel my ear, and when I saw Skinny spit out a piece of it in the sand and grin at me with a bloody smile I realized that the nut had bitten a chunk of my ear right off.
I think he laughed, and that is when I took the fight to him. He charged and I charged, screaming furiously as my vision turned red. I didn’t even blink the blood out of my eyes. I was beaten with a gun, leashed, had my nose busted, tossed in a gladiator ring and now had my ear bitten off by a fucking nut! I was sick of getting abused out here and I was going to teach that little shit a lesson.
We charged and he leapt towards me, but rather than changing course, I dipped my head slightly and head-butted him in the gut. He gasped explosively as all the air was pushed out of his lungs, and he flew back pretty far, landed on his back and skidding back a bit farther. When he stopped, he was coughing and gasping for air as he struggled to get back on his feet. Before he could stand fully I tackled him to the ground and started wailing on him.
Each punch was met with a sickening crack and a cut on his face. Within seconds Skinny’s face was bleeding profusely and his blood was all over my hooves. But I didn’t stop. I continued beating him and my blood dripped on his bloodied face as the crowd roared in cheers and applause.
Skinny punched me in the neck and I fell off of him, coughing and gasping for air as my neck tingled painfully while trying to ease the pain by rubbing it. Skinny got up and bucked me in the barrel. Pain rippled through my chest as the trauma made me stumble and fall on my rump.
He went for another charge and though my muscles and bones ached, I still slid out of the way and stuck out my hoof. I basically close lined him and he landed hard on his back. I stomped on his gut and he grunted and curled up in the fetal position. I took a moment to catch my breath, but when he tried to crawl away I lunged at him and grabbed him by his tail. His hooves dug in the dirt as I dragged him across the Arena. I barely heard myself swearing up a nonsensical storm about him biting my ear off over the crowd’s excitement. Then I threw him.
One quick flick and a pain in my neck later and Skinny was sailing in the air, and when he landed, he landed on an angle on the spikes. I cringed and stepped back, fighting to keep my dinner in my stomach when he was impaled. The spikes went clean through him, and parts of his muscles and organs were ripped out and either sliding off or hanging from the spikes. Blood poured all around and his eyes and mouth were wide open. He twitched a little bit before his body became limp, and Yanker shouted with some disappointment that I was the winner.
I sat down in the dirt, panting and blinking blood out of my eyes as I watched Skinny’s body hang there with his blood pooling under and creeping towards me. I didn’t move though, I continued watching. Then fatigue and dizziness started to hit me and I began swaying in my spot. My eyelids became heavy and my good ear swiveled lazily towards the cheers, and I turned my head slightly when I noticed a group of guards approach me. Two of which were Little Miss and Looper.
Little Miss congratulated me on a good fight and I looked back at Skinny and let them take me away before fatigue claimed me.
~~~~~~~~~~
It was nearing sunset when I was by an armored wagon. My ear was bandaged and they cleaned the blood off of me, but my Stable uniform was still stained with blood and mud. You couldn’t even tell that it was fairly new from how dirty, faded and flayed it was.
I was still in shock of what I had done. I couldn’t believe that I had killed somepony in such a brutal way. Sure I will kill others, but he was my first and you always remember your first. His eyes and mangled figure and blood still haunt me to this day. Though I knew that he was trying to kill me and that I had no choice, I just wished that the circumstances were different so that we weren’t forced to fight to the death. I wondered what Rose Petal would think if she found out I impaled somepony in a gladiator fight. A part of me told me that Rose Petal would still love me no matter what, while the other told me that she wouldn’t look at me the same way again. I guess they were both right.
I never figured out Skinny’s name. To everypony there he was just a contestant like me, only they had already given me a nickname: “Exile the Impaler”. I thought it was stupid, but I didn’t want to try to convince any of them that my name was “Meris”, not “Exile” or “Exile the Impaler”. I was too tired too, and as far as I was concerned, after what I had just done Meris just died a little bit. It would only be a matter of time before "Ephimeris Clock" was no more, so no point in trying to convince somepony you’re who you used to be.
Yanker interrupted my thoughts when he walked up to me with some of his guards. He faked a smile and said: “That was one heck of a show. Where was that Exile last night?”
I didn’t answer and he frowned and started stroking my watch. I growled and he flashed a real smile. This one had malice in it, though.
“Oh well,” he said, “at least you lived and now you get to entertain crowds. Gladiators get paid well, so your stupidity has led you to fortune.”
He trotted off towards the embassy and when he was inside I looked back at the dirt. I heard Looper and Little Miss talking to the other troops. They were wondering what was taking so long and the troops explained that since it was just me they wanted to stuff the wagon so the trip to a place called Port Moonlight wouldn’t be a waste. They barely accepted that excuse and went off to do their own thing.
It was about ten minutes later when they were finished loading supplies, and I took a peek and saw that I would barely have room to move. I looked down at the dirt again and kicked a rock away. Or maybe it was asphalt. I couldn’t tell.
Then there was a pop, and next thing I knew, there was a whizzing noise and one of the guards dropped with a hole in his head and blood splattered all over the side of the caravan wagon. I swore and dove for cover behind the wagon as a barrage of gunfire erupted and knocked down four more guards.
I saw Looper fall near me with blood gushing out from a gaping hole in his chest and half of his head blown off, splattering a wall with his brain, bone and blood. Yanker’s troops and the crazies fired back, screaming and swearing in such ways I never thought possible. Then there was a flash of an explosion and I was knocked back a good dozen feet. When I landed I was out of breath with a ringing in my ears and I was bleeding all over because shrapnel had sliced into my skin. What was left of the wagon landed next to me with body parts and supplies scattered and burning.
I coughed dirt and blood and felt a painful spike in my ribs and legs as I rolled to my stomach and tried to crawl away from the raging gunfire. Whoever was shooting was mowing down everypony like they were but cardboard. During the massacre I couldn't hear or see anything good. Everything was a blur and I could only hear my ragged breathing and the ringing in my ears. Sure I could hear the shouts, screams and gunfire, but the two noises in my head dominated it all.
As I crawled, bodies dropped with squirts of blood splashing the surroundings or chunks flying off. I stopped crawling when I got behind a knocked over mailbox. I used it as cover and support to keep myself propped up and watched as the last of the troops got gunned down. The very last one was Little Miss, and she was firing her rifle at somepony, screaming about how this guy was dead. Three gunshots later and she was missing a leg, a piece of her neck, and had her heart blown out. She fell with a wet, gory splash, and then there was silence.
The crackling fire and slow hoof steps crunching on the blood soaked ground made my heart race and soak my body in sweat. I tried to keep myself quiet, but even a hoof in my mouth couldn't muffle the escaping whimpers enough. And that is when I saw him walk past the remains of the wagon like Charon.
He looked like Waltz, with his thin coat and build and all, but he was younger and had a lighter coat and no eye patch or mechanical enhancements. But despite his thin shape, he was still able to wear thick barding and carry a large battle saddle with some kind of metal case strapped to his back. And to add to his arsenal, he had his little hooves encased in clawed boots.
When he saw me, I honestly thought he was going to kill me, especially when he walked up to me. But he didn't. He asked me one simple question. “Where is Yanker?”
His accent was weird, like Waltz’s, and though his voice was younger, he was still hardened like the other. And honestly he scared me more than Waltz after seeing what he did in no less than two minutes.
I pointed towards the embassy and he didn't say a word as he walked past me with two more of his kind.
The first one was smaller and surprisingly slimmer than her counterpart with stubs for horns. And, yes, I do mean “she”. Her coat kinda reminded me of the color of butter and she had a dark colored mane. She also only wore light armor but carried medical boxes with butterflies on them. She gave me a very awkward, sheepish smile before picking up her pace, which I found odd.
The second, though, he was massive! He was about the size of a heavyweight earth pony stallion, and with all the armor and large weapons he was wearing and carrying, he was practically a machine. I probably would've mistaken him for one, too, if it weren't for him wearing an open faced helmet designed for his kind. He gave a quick glance at me, bit down on some kind of mechanical bit and the rocket he had folded to his side and a Gatling gun popped up on a swivel mount. He grinned at me after that and trotted after the other two. I found that stranger than the other.
It hadn’t even been a minute when the shooting started up again. I saw the muzzle flashes, heard the screams and cries over the gunfire, watched as a fireball blew out the second story windows, showering the ground with burning debris and body parts. And finally, I saw Yanker get tossed out of the third story window. He twisted in the air like a cat when he hit the ground his forelegs snapped like twigs underneath. I heard them snap all the way from where I was standing. It was nasty.
He howled in agony and thrashed on the ground as his white bones poked out of his skin with thin trails of blood that gathered on the pavement. He wanted to comfort himself to ease his pain, but that was impossible for him, and I watched as he begged for his life when the leader stepped out of the house, armor covered in dents and blood as well as his face. His face covered in blood... not dents... but anyway! He came out with Zahra on his back. I couldn't tell if she was barely awake or asleep. All I knew was that she was limp and this guy wanted blood.
Yanker tried to crawl away, but every movement he made only caused him more pain. The leader of the band just watched as he writhed on the ground, howling and sobbing, and I couldn't move. I wanted to, but I was morbidly fascinated by the scene. I don't know why, but I started counting to see how long it would take for him to die. And right as I started counting, the attacking party's leader spoke.
He said: “Do you remember what I said to you when you betrayed us?”
I couldn't tell if Yanker was nodding or just twitching from pain.
The stranger continued with: “I told you I would find you and kill you for what you have done to me. To my friends. To my team. And to my people.”
Yanker blubbered something I couldn't understand, but his blubbering turned into begging after the group leader knelt down and whispered something in his ear. Then he stood up and slashed the donkey's neck with his clawed boot and walked back inside with the others trailing him. Yanker gurgled and died seconds later. I stared at the mutilated body, his flowing blood was shining in what little sunlight was allowed through and his body was still twitching. I estimated that it took him thirty seconds to die from the beginning of the conversation to bleeding out.
A minute later, the group walked out and went towards the back where Flam was buried. It looked like they were paying their respects, and they left in silence a couple of minutes later. I watched the group leave, and each one gave me a quick glance as they passed me. When they disappeared from view I retrieved my pocket watch from Yanker’s corpse -thankfully it was still intact- and dared to explore the embassy.
I didn’t stay long inside. The walls were splattered in blood and bullet holes, and mangled corpses lying in pools of blood were scattered all over the floor. I searched the house and found more bodies, more blood, more blasted off chunks of ponies. When I went to the room where the safe was, I found the safe empty and the mare that was working on it dead with her head splattered on the wall behind her.
When I looked out the window, I saw the direction the strange group was heading, and judging by the way they were walking, they were in a hurry. I looked at my watch again, then back at the group and walked outside. I hurriedly walked in the general direction of where the group went, only looking at Sunshine Gardens once when I was on top of a hill, but only to try to imagine what it was like before Tartarus took over.
I couldn't.
++++++++++
Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Running Tackle -- Sprint into enemies to tackle them: +2 to the trip attempt if performed at the end of a move action.
***Author Has Requested a Critique***
