Chapter Two

“Roads less Traveled”

Scrapheap was exactly as the name suggested. The stench was overwhelming at first, but I got used to it. I realized how hungry I was, so I went to one of the shops. However, they wanted bottle caps for some reason. I headed over to a store entitled “Cherry Pie’s Barter Station,” using cobbled signs. I headed in. I was greeted by a green apple colored mare. She gave me a wave, and said “Hiya! I’m Cherry Pie, you’re new in town aren’t you?” and, without waiting for a response, continued “I remember pretty much everyone, what’s your name?” she pondered “I’m Vocal,” I answered, “well pleased to meet you, Vocal!” she said, “now what brings you on into my store here?” she asked, “well,” I began “I was looking to sell some of my things, get some, uh, caps,” smiling, she asked, “Well, what do you have?” I pulled out some of the ammo that wouldn’t work on my pistol or SMG, and was about to hoof them over, when I saw a rifle on the wall, “what’s that?” I asked, gesturing to the semi auto carbine, “That’s some hunting rifle, uses that ammo there” she said, pointing to a couple clips I was holding. I asked “How much?” she said “I’ll give it to ya for those three magazines there,” and I hooved them over. Then she said “how much do you want for the rest?” I said “twenty caps?” and she shook her head, “I couldn’t just rob you like that, they’re worth at least forty,” I thanked her, and received my caps. I walked out, bidding her a good day.

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The food was filling, although it left a bitter after taste. I walked out, and tried to think of what to do. I was new in the wastes. Despite being kicked out of the stable, I was feeling rather up beat after eating. I pulled up my Pipbuck and looked at the map. Unsurprisingly, there were no new locations.

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Before I go on, I should explain a few things. I’ll start off at the beginning, when I got my cutie mark, to be exact. I really liked my cutie mark, the shield. I got it defending some other fillies and colts from a few bullies, well, truthfully, defending isn’t the right term. More like, being a sand bag for them to wail on while the others escaped. But, it got me my cutie mark. For that, I got a position on the security force. After that it’s pretty bland. Back to the story.

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As I walked the wasteland in the area around Scrapheap, I heard the sounds of a gunfight. I was curious (and a part of me seemed to want to live up to my cutie mark) a walked towards the sounds. A few minutes later, the battle came into view. I saw what looked like a family fighting off raiders. Un-holstering my SMG, I opened up SATS (Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting Spell) and began picking targets. Two of the bandits were down, and three remained. The family used the opportunity to pop out and take shots. In a few minutes, the last raider was dispatched. “Well Thank y’ much, stranger,” said the crimson coated stallion, “people call m’ vendor,” he said with a bit of a drawl. “I’m Vocal,” I responded “and it was no problem,” Vendor continued “that’s awfully kind of y’ and I know it wasn’t jus’ nothing, ain’t many folks in the waste that would risk their skin for some random people, and speaking of which, where are m’ manners,” he turned and started gesturing to his group, “this ‘ere is Greengrass,” he said, pointing at his son, “this is Daisy,” he said, pointing to his daughter, “and, well, I think y’ c’n introduce yerself, honey, y’ ain’t no filly,” his wife responded “I’m Lightrose,” I continued the conversation, “well it’s a pleasure to meet you all,” the stallion looked at my barding, “are y’ from one of those stables?” I nodded, suddenly uncomfortable for some reason, “is it open?!” he said, a light shining in his eyes, “no, I was kinda kicked out, it’s a long story, but the short reason is that the stable has to send everyone out once every some years,” he looked saddened, and I felt a pang of guilt, he and his family should be in the stable. He regained his composure, “oh well, I knew it was a long shot, but thanks for your help, and here take this,” he said, tossing me a bag of caps, “we’re kinda low on money, gotta get to the next town to trade, but you saved our lives,” I started to refuse them, but he insisted. As they walked towards the town, I looked around, spotting a crest and climbed towards it, and saw a good view of the surrounding land. I saw what looked like smoke from a town, and a city off in the distance. I suspected it was Stalliongrad. Turning around, I spotted what had to be Ponyville off in the distance. Night was falling, and I decided to hike towards Ponyville, I would probably be there after three hours.

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As I neared the town I came upon a hill, and decided to climb it and get a better view. What I saw was quite a surprise. There was a grey mare, obviously from a Stable, taking down a last couple of raiders. ‘hmm,’ I thought to myself, ‘I’ll have to keep and ear out for news on that’ and I remembered that my Pipbuck had a radio, I slipped the earbloom in, and tuned into a broadcast. I heard a song that was familiar, something that they played in the stable. I found myself wondering if the whole wasteland had one radio station that was controlled by Stable-Tec, but I dashed it from my mind. As a guard, I was given more information than the local populace, which was why I wasn’t very surprised as I came out of the Stable. I turned off the radio, and saw a Pegasus fly out of the tree which was probably a library, except that it was, different, I thought that it was green, when I realized that it was decomposing, I was shocked, and concluded that it must have been the magical radiation.

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Once I had found a shelter in a drainage culvert, I took out the two ammo boxes I had found earlier, I began rig them to my saddlebags. It covered my flank, and I suddenly decided to armor my saddlebags as well, I was very grateful for my skill with tools. I had discovered that I had them in my saddlebags and they were very helpful. There was a lot of scrap nearby, and I began to pick up some of the less rusted stuff. After a while, I was pleased with my setup, and settled in for the night. Without something occupying me, my thoughts started to swirl. It was a mix of depression, fear, and burning anger. I didn’t want to kill an innocent pony, but there were some pretty dark thoughts running through my head. As far as I was concerned, the raiders had it coming. Ponykind had come up from nothing, we could rebuild, but there were all of these evil ponies trying to stop it. I decided not to get all high and mighty; after all, I had killed them without a second thought. It was quite dark, and I decided to flip down the visor on my helmet, it had night vision built in. I began to observe my surroundings, I saw a billboard off in the distance, and the thoughts starting creeping back in. I wondered if this was what insanity was. A heard a sound, like hooves on pavement, I quieted myself. A voice began talking about the time I noticed crying, “quiet down! Ill teach you what happens to ponies who don’t listen,” the crying seemed to quiet, “that one might not get as high of a price,” one said, hold on, were they selling people? I risked a look and saw several ponies in chains, and three ponies guarding them. They had poor armor, and only one had a firearm, I could take that one down and deal with the other two easily. I pulled out my SMG.

BAM BAM BAM

The one with a pistol was dead, and I turned to the others, pumping lead into one. The other got to me, he had a shovel handle, several seconds later, he was on the ground, and I pumped a round through his brain. I looked at the ponies, they were frightened, and I searched for a key. Once I found it, I began to unlock their cuffs. There were three, a colt, filly, and a mare. She thanked me, and I levitated the pistol to her. She took it and thanked me. Once they were out of site, I began to loot the bodies. The other one with a knife was still alive, and she looked up at me with terrified eyes. I gave her a painkiller shot and she dozed off into a deep slumber that she wouldn’t wake from. I didn’t want to be a monster. But she made her choice, and it was the wrong one. Those were the consequences of that choice. I decided to travel for the night. My helmet turned darkness to light, and I wasn’t getting asleep soon because of that. A few minutes later, I stumbled upon a house. I looked at my weapons, and decided to go for the pistol; it would be difficult to bring about a long rifle in close quarters. I also decided to ready my security baton. I brought up my eyes forward sparkle, there was nothing in the house, but I am not very trusting of technology, and kept out my 10mm Maysur pistol. The house was already quite looted, but I found an old military helmet, which I decided I could use to upgrade my modified security helmet. The helmet reminded me of the spells I knew. I had a group of about seven, and I was pretty fair with them. My three best were my electrical shock spell (only powerful enough to stun), my ‘riot shield spell’ as I called it, and my favorite, the ‘weapon jammer’ which is quite self explanatory. After a bit more searching, I found a safe. Locked. Luckily, I was able to force it open, but I vowed to learn how to lockpick. Inside the safe I found a beautiful 12mm Kegholt auto pistol and about 45 rounds. I also found a memory orb (I didn’t even think many of those survived) and a healing potion. Once I was sure the building was secure, I focused on a memory orb with my magic.

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The room I was in, or, the person I was watching the memory of was in, was quite nice. A cool draft was blowing through a window. The room was small, a bedroom, and I realized that it was the room I found the memory orb in. there was a radio on. It was blasting out news of some coalition disbanding. I wondered why he was recording this memory. He walked up to a wall and tapped one it three times in one place, two in another and another four in the first. A panel in the wall slid open. I revealed a terminal. The host tapped in his passcode (which was ‘dutiful’) and browsed the terminal. He found a file titled ‘LOCATIONS’ and opened it. He copied the info onto a holodisk and backed out. Then he selected a directory entitled ‘FINAL’ and brought it up, which led to two options ‘NO RETURN’ and ‘GO BACK?’ and he clicked ‘NO RETURN’ which made text pop up. He only skimmed it and hit the last option, ‘END’ and the terminal shut down, my ‘host’ pulled out a small device, which I realized was a magnet, and scanned it over the terminal. It would wipe all of the data off it. After doing that, he pulled out the Kegholt and fired into it for good measure. Taking out a Pipbuck, he slotted the holodisk in along with some kind of transmitter. He pressed a few buttons, and sent the info. He took out the holodisk and shot it as well after he scanned it with the magnet. Sounds came from the main door. Someone was getting in. the door burst open, right as my host was hiding the safe. He looked up as a pony in black combat armor came in. He had one of those gun rigs with a single rifle on it. Without giving my host more than a glance, he fired, taking him down. He crawled to the safe, taking the memory device off.

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I came back to the real world. I was in a bit of a daze. I decided not to think about what happened. I slid the orb into my saddlebags. I walked over to the wall, and tapped in the code. The terminal was the same. I managed to take out some of the scrap and found some parts that might be useful. I decided to sleep there for the night.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk: Gun Lover – You have and maintain a wide variety of firearms, you get +5 to guns and repair.