“There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.”

“Please turn to page 142 in your textbooks, The crystal empire.” instructed the teacher in the front of the stable 13 classroom.

I was sitting towards the back of the classroom and it was hard to clearly hear her as she begun reading the chapter of Equestrian history.  To either side of me was Golden Glow and Sweetie Pie.

“Psssst,” came the voice of Golden, but I ignored her.  “Pssst, pass the note.” she said levitating a scrap of paper.

I turned my head to tell her “no”, but when I did I came face to face with my mother, the Overmare.  Her pale blue eyes piercing my skull as if to hard boil my brain.  At first when I saw her lips move no sound came out, but then with a ghostly echo she began to scold me.

“You worthless, putrid, undesirable.  You shouldn’t be in this class, you are undesirable, you are trash.  You will never be more than that.” Came her harsh words, a mishmash of comments I heard during my life in the stable.

I tried to speak, but the words caught in my throat.  Then without warning my mom’s hoof smacked me and sent me sprawling over my desk and into the bloody corpse in the seat in front of me.  It was then that I realized that all the fillies and colts in the room were now rotting disfigured corpses.  Corpses splattered in a manner only one weapon I’ve seen could have done.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” came the voice Nicky had identified as Marker from the front of the classroom, “Did one of the ponies survive? What fun, I get to spend more time killing you.”

At the sound of his eerily ave voice I sprung to my feet and darted out the door as fast as my hooves would carry me.  I was barely around the corner from the classroom when a white flash erupted behind me sending me sprawling down the hall and singeing the hair on my hind legs.  Ignoring the pain and the warning flashes on my pipbuck I continued down the hall.  I normally know my way around the stable, but for some reason it was like a maze of hallways and Marker was hot on my tail.

“Come out come out wherever you are.  My little pony, no need to hide, I just want to kill you for the fun of it.” Echoed the voice of Marker as I ran through the halls.

Feeling I had ran far enough, I dived into the next door I saw. The light flickered as I entered, I was back in the classroom, but that was impossible.  Stable 13 only had one classroom.  It was then that I noticed the severed head of Nicky sitting on the desk.  Her eyes gouged out and her teeth smashed in.  Her dad’s horn still dangling around her neck, but the tip was stabbing into her chin.

Suddenly the head moved, it turned to look at me with the hollowed out eye sockets.  It then begun to speak in a multi-layered voice.  It combined my mom, Marker, Nicky’s Parents, and of course Nicky.

“You did this.” the head said, “this is is all your fault.  You are an undesirable, you will never be anything more.”

Then the door exploded in a white flash.  Half blinded I reached fro the first thing i could het my hooves on.  It was the dragonaquus statuette.  The statue distracted me from the murderous raider and the severed head.  Suddenly it too begun to move and tried to speak, like my mom at first I couldn’t hear what it was saying, then as if it were speaking inside my head I heard it.

“Wake up Clash.”

***  ***  ***

My eyes shot open.  The soft grey light filtering in from the boarded up window seemed to hurt my eyes and my head was throbbing.  I tried to look around the room, from what I could manage to focus on, it looked like room 123, but mirror imaged.  Suddenly something next to me moved in the bed and I half expected to see Nicky’s severed head, but banished the images from my dream away.  Instead the unicorn mare I had met when I arrived at the Chariot was next to me.

“Good morning darling.” she said, “you sleep well?”

“Wbvat?” I attempted to say, my tongue refusing to move correctly in my mouth.

At that question shew facehoofed, “Let me guess, you have no memory of the previous night.”

My head was killing me and my tongue still refused to cooperate so all I did was nod.

She sighed heavily, “Damn that Bottle O’Jack and his Celestia damned Forget-Me-Shots.”

At my confused expression she explained, “Bottle O’Jack is the hotel bartender, he has this concoction, the hotel specialty, called the Party Time Cocktail. One part apple whiskey, two parts wild pegasus, 3 containers of Party Time Mint-als, half a fixer, a dash of dash, some fantsy cakes for flavor, and a pinch of rad-scorpion venom.”

Her voice caused my headache to spike and I moaned in pain.

“Sorry, hun.” she said quieter, “Side effects included, headache, stomachache, muscle spasms, a numbness of the tongue, 10% chance of dash addiction, 70% chance of mint-al addiction, minor rad-scorpion poisoning, and 6 to 24 hours of memory loss, hence the nickname Forget-Me-shots, all amounting to one hell of a hangover.”

I could no longer listen as my stomach rebelled and I puked my stomach contents onto the floor.  I then lost my balance and fell head first into my pool of puke.

***  ***  ***

After a shower, an addiction detox, an antivenom, lots of radioactive water, and a few radaways the only thing that remained was the headache.  I layed in the Hotel’s makeshift clinic as the unicorn mare filled me in on the events of the night before.

“Ok, sweetie, since you don’t remember, lets start over.  I’m Ollie Factory.  I’m one of the 6 ponies who re-settled the Chariot, but one of 3 who is still living here.” Oillie said introduceing herself again.

I then remembered how I had woken up in her bed and I had to know what happened.

“Dwid we dew iwt?” I asked, my tongue still a bit numb as I spoke.

“No, we didn’t, though you were very forward about it last night.” She explained.

My cheeks went bright red thinking about how stupid I was during the time I couldn’t remember.

“Don’t get me wrong, hun, you are a very beautiful mare...” Ollie continued

At that my heart skipped a beat when she said that, nopony had ever called me beautiful.  Tears welled in my eyes as I continued to listen.

“...But you see, I can’t...um..do it.  You see this dress, sweetie?  It is fused to my coat and can't be removed.  It is the price I paid attempting to scavenge Canterlot.”  she said then muttered, “Damn pink cloud.”

I made a mental note to ask about it later, but Ollie had moved back to the things I asked the night before.

“You were under the misguided perception that you needed to have sex with me to get information.” She said with a giggle.

I facehoofed.

“Once the sex was off the table you asked about an odd crystalline glow, not radiation, that emanated from your body.  It sounded similar to the shine of a crystal pony.” She went on, ignoring my embarrassment.

“Criwstal ponehw?” I asked.

“They were a sub-race of ponies that lived in the Crystal empire somewhere in the frigid north, but it disappeared sometime before the mega-spells fell.”  She explained.

I tried to hid my disappointment by looking at my pipbuck, to my surprise the Crystal Empire was marked toward the top of the map.  I really had to ask how it did that, didn’t Ollie say it disappeared?

“Don’t look so glum, hun,” she reassured me, “ I do happen to have some black opal, it store memories, that has to do with crystal ponies. Only problem is since you're an earth pony and you can’t view it.”

Sometimes i really hated being an earth pony, I thought.

“So we either need to find a pony able to do memory spells or get our hooves on a recollector.  Both will require a lot of caps since they are equally rare.” she finished.

“Wella ah guess it be a good thing I grabb’d some jobs from the Detrot Gazette board.” Announced Nicky around the papers in her mouth as she entered the clinic,she spat them on the bed and continued, “Y’all and me can do some jobs to earn caps to help y’all find yer answers, Clashie.”

I just looked at her, her mane was almost completely poofy again, but still a bit deflated and her colors will still muted, but she seemed happier than when I last saw her.

“Absolutely not! Sweetheart, you just lost your parents, I won’t be able to live with myself if you were killed too.” Ollie affirmed.

“Me an’ mah folks been travelin’ the wastes fer since I was born.  Besides, Clash’s a stable pony.  Stable ponies don’t know nuthin’.  Without me she be dead in less than 10 minute.  Nearly died her first night out weren’t no fer mah dad findin’ her.” Nicky stated, tears in the corners of her eyes.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.  Nicky actually wanted me around?  Even after I had not prevented her parents deaths as I should have.

Ollie just sighed, “You’re as stubborn as your mother.  If there is no convincing you otherwise, then I guess I’m gonna have to go with you two. Good a time as any to dust off my scavenging horseshoes.  Let me see those jobs.”

***  ***  ***

We spent most of our remaining caps on supplies and began heading towards the Ironshod Manufacturing Factory, another location that appeared on my pipbuck following reading the job we chose to do. The job’s description even showed up in my pipbuck’s notes section.  We had to go to the Ironshot Manufacturing Factory and find any weapons blueprints to receive 500 caps and an additional 50 caps for any bulk specialty ammo.

As we walked I tried to ignore my remaining headache and browsed the setting on my pipbuck. Back in stable 13 I mainly used it for navigation.  The Eyes Forward Sparkle was very helpful in avoiding Desirables, but now it was to be used for its real purpose, finding enemies before they found us.  

I switched on the radio, the stable radio station was terrible, but hopefully the wasteland had better programing.  The last note of a song sang out and a gruff stallions voice bellowed from my pipbuck.

“Hello wasteland, its that time again, time for some news.  I’ve brought you reports of the Stable Dweller and the Security Mare, but I’m here with some rather odd news.  There have been reports of a strange glowing pony out by siren cave.” The stallion said.

I wondered who those other ponies he had mentioned were. It also bothered me that the stallion on the radio was reporting on me.  I made a mental note to ask Ollie or Nicky later about who he was and how he knew about me.

We continued walking as he went on,  “It could just be a ghoul looking for some friends, but it could also be a creature related to the crashed spaceship rumored to have landed south of the cave.  I say proceed with caution, if it is a ghoul or even extra equestial don’t shoot unless you know it is hostal. In unrelated News, but in the same greater Detrot area, Marker and his gang of raiders are still terrorizing the roads in and out of the industrial city. Caravans are advised to have some armed guards travel with them if they intend on heading to the Chariot for trade. And this has been DJ Pon-3, bringing you the the truth no matter how bad it hurts.  Now here is Sweetie Belle singing about what we all wish were true, that the dark days are over.”

“Clash, you never told us you were an E.E.” Ollie teased.

“Ya want us to take ya to are leader?” Nicky chimed in with a slight chuckle.

“That was so funny I forgot to laugh.” I said, trying to listen to the song on the radio.

“Hun, don’t take it so personally, we’re just teasing.  Besides, you are our leader, so we’d take you to you.”  Ollie said trying to comfort me.

“It’s not that, it's that I was berated, insulted, and laughed my whole life in my stable, so even friendly teasing still bothers me.” I responded.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t know.  Your stable sounds pretty horrid. DJ Pon-3 didn’t mean any offence, you were glowing in the report and now you’re not.  He didn’t know you were you.” Ollie continued.

We were interrupted by bullet slamming into my right foreleg.  Nicky and Ollie quickly darted for cover, but the pain froze me to my spot.  I seriously wished we had had enough caps for armor.  I then felt the warmth of Ollie’s magic pull me into some cover.  there she wrapped some healing bandages around my leg.

“If we survive this job, hun, we are getting you some armor with our caps.” Ollie scolded, “Now, get that beam pistol of yours out and kill those sons of bitches, before they get us first.”

I put the pistol in my mouth, tasting the metallic mouth grip.  I really hate being an earth pony at times like this.  I poked my head out above our cover and toggled into SATS.  I locked in 4 shots, 2 to each of the closest red bars on my EFS.  I released and time sped up again.

BIZZT BIZZT!  The first pony crumbled to ash.  BIZZT BIZZT! The second pony dodged the attack. BIZZT BIZZT BIZZT! I fired wildly, damn I was a horrible shot without SATS guidance.  Suddenly I heard a loud KABOOM and an explosion silenced the other pony.  I looked at my EFS and there were no more red bars near by.  Nicky came out from her cover and spat out the metal stem of one of those metal apples.

“We really gotta work on yer amin’ Clashie.” She sang as she happily skipped over to the dead ponies to collect their supplies.

I spat my pistol into the holster on my leg, “She is very good with those explosive apples.” I said to Ollie.

“Grenades.” she corrected, “She learned it from her father’s brother Frag.  She is an expert on most explosives found in the wasteland.  Ain’t no explosive she don’t know how to handle.” She said proudly looking over at Nicky.

“Perhaps I’ll not listen to the radio for a bit as to not alert any more raiders and bandits to our location.” I mused.

“Don’t those things have earpieces?” Ollie asked pointing to my pipbuck.

“Yeah, but mine’s broken.” I answered.

Nicky skipped back over with her loot and we continued towards the factory.

***  ***  ***

Footnotes:

Clash Coat: Level up

New perk added: Walk it Off – What idiot walks the wasteland without armor?  Apparently you do.  You receive 20% less damage from attacks from non-magical energy weapons making you 20% more bad ass.

Skill increase: Magical energy weapons is now 30.

Nicky: Level up

Skill increase: Explosives is now at 35.

New Companion: Ollie Factory - Level 5

Strength - 7

Perception - 4

Endurance - 5

Charisma - 7

Intelligence - 6

Agility - 7

Luck - 4

Tagged skills:

Barter

Medicine

Small guns

Traits:

Ghoulish – Due to an encounter with Pink cloud in your past, like a Canterlot ghoul you are really hard to kill. +15 DR and +20 overall HP.  However you have -2 endurance and -1 agility.

New Quest:

Gun Runner Run, I – Scavenge the Ironshod Manufacturing Factory for any weapon blueprints and unique ammo.

Quest Updated:

Ballad of a Crystal Pony – √ Look for any information in the wasteland on the mysterious glowing ability you have.

                               √ Find out what that pink mare knows about your mysterious glowing power.

                               View Ollie's Black Opal.

Faction Status:

Stable 13 – Vilified

Marker’s Gang – Disliked

The Chariot Hotel – Neutral

Finders (West Branch) – Neutral

Gun Runners – Neutral