Chapter 3: Everypony Lies In Sin City

(A/N) Okay, so I noticed that I got Star's mother's and sister's names mixed up. I had stated, in chapter 1, that his mother's name was Midnight. That's his sister's name. My bad.

For the first hour or two, the road wasn't seemingly dangerous. We ran into a few radroaches but that was about it. Small thoughts from that morning were still fresh in my mind, but I was smart enough to keep from bringing them up.

"Care for some music," I asked. Gem merely nodded. I looked over at her, and she suddenly decided to stare at the ground. I tuned into the radio, where Mr. New Pegasus was giving a small speech about raiders. I quickly switched off the radio, recieving a look from Gem. "What?"

"Why did you turn it off?"

"I hate raiders. Hearing about them. Talking about them. Looking at them." She stopped and stared. "The only good place for a raider is at the end of a rope or around a small sum of bullets." I sternly looked forward and continued walking. She sighed and followed me.

After continuing our trip for another 20 minutes, Gem quickly trotted up to me.

"So, I realized that I don't really know much about you. Besides...you know…" She seemed full of guilt at that. "I want to learn more about you!" She let off a very radiant smile, to which I smiled back. Some things in the Wasteland are just worth living for.

"What would you like to know," I asked.

"Well, what was your family like?" Ouch. Sensitive. Nevertheless, I decided to tell her.

"Well first of all, there was my sister, Midnight. An earth pony, like my dad. She was the most adorable little filly I've seen in my life." A weak, slightly sympathetic smile broke across my muzzle. "She was so outgoing. Her coat was a deep purple, and her mane a slightly dark blue. Her eyes matched her coat to a tee. She...she didn't even have her cutie mark yet…" My smile faded. In turn, Gem put her hoof on my shoulder. It felt more comforting than it probably should have.

"Then there was my mother. Her name was Daylight. She was calm as can be. And, of course, the most worried about me."

"Why was she ever worried about you," Gem interrupted.

"I was the scavenger for my town. I had to go into the Wastes to look for food and such."

"Oh."

"Anyways, she had a brilliant cerulean coat and a mane that was the yellow color of the sun. She was a unicorn, like me, and she was an aspiring author - her cutie mark was a book and quill. And finally, there was my dad, Stormy. Very gruff voice, stern when he had to be, but I loved him all the same. His coat was a dark gray, and his mane was just white. His cutie mark was a wrench and screwdriver. He got it when he was fixing somepony's refrigerator. He was just a colt. Not five years old."

"Your family sounds amazing." She seemed entranced with my story. "Mine definitely wasn't better. Me and my little brother were constantly ignored by them." I noticed a tear begin to fall from her eye, which I brushed away. For a small moment, our eyes met, interlocked with each other. Both of us quickly looked away, our blushes obvious on our faces.

The rest of the day went by with only a few encounters, but I frequently watched my E.F.S anyways. The time came to set up camp. I pulled what we needed out of my saddlebag (when Gem learned that I had enchanted it, she insisted that I carry her whole inventory) and made sure to do all the work. I'm a gentlestallion that way.

Once the tent was set, I quickly went to work on the fire. During our travel, we had been picking up different varieties of sticks and small logs, so we definitely had plently of firewood.

I got the fire started in a short minute or so, much to the joy of me and Gem alike - It was cold as hell outside. I fished out a couple cooking pots and set up a spit. Gem had dragged two rocks over from Celestia knows where and motioned for me to sit.

We sat in silence while I cooked our scavenged pre-war food. Surprisingly, it was still okay to eat. You'd think that the expiration dates of 250 years ago would be accurate. Oh well, no use making it go to waste. As soon as the soup (I think it was soup) was done, I found some wooden bowls and a couple spoons in the side pockets of my saddlebag. I served the soup and waited for a reaction from Gem.

To my delight, her face lit up.

"Oh, my Celestia, this is amazing! This is pre-war food?" I nodded, pointlessly overwhelmed with joy and unable to speak, a huge grin on my face. "Wow! You are an amazing chef!" She downed her food while I happily stared into nothing, a blush apparent on my face.

It took her a minute to snap me out of it. "Star, aren't you going to eat," she asked me. I stared dumbly for a moment until my brain finally processed her words. I nodded and started eating my food.

The night was long and cold. I woke up three times. The third, I found myself snuggled against Gem in an effort to keep warm. I decided to stay there for another reason entirely when she pulled me closer to her.

After a while, I woke up, but was too weary to open my eyes. I assumed Gem had woken up as well. She stirred a bit, then I heard her gasp quietly.

"Shit," she whispered. "I really need to stop that…" She sounded both annoyed and disappointed. I felt sorry for her about the fact that I was more shy than a little filly. Damn me. I fell back asleep and woke up about an hour later to the smell of...bacon?

My eyes shot open. Ponies were normally vegetarian, but BACON!? The excessive stallion kicked in and I was fully awake in seconds.

"I smell bacon," I said, wanting to devour the very scent itself. Gem just giggled.

"I thought you'd like it," she said. Her voice sounded so soothing from the harshness of the Wasteland. For four years, I'd had to do everything for myself. I enjoyed waking up without the immediate worries of raiders, or worse.

"Near ready?"

"Just finished." She gave me a comforting smile. I looked over at our makeshift table and saw our plates filled with different vegetarian pre-war foods. The bacon was a nice touch.

I dropped to my haunches at the end of the table and took a big whiff of the food that awaited my stomach. I was about to just gobble the whole thing down, but I looked over and saw Gem eating her food in a polite fashion. I decided to follow her example. I took a generous bite of the bacon (chewy, just how I like it, although I was unsure if she knew somehow or it was just a lucky guess). It took all my will not to eat it all as sloppily as I could.

After the (politely eaten) breakfast, we packed everything up and resumed our trek to New Pegasus. The sun overhead, however covered by clouds, was blazing. Gem decided to strike up a conversation.

"Hey, Star," she mused. "Where did you get that Pip-Buck?" She eyed the device on my arm quizzically. I looked at it as well, then back up at her.

"I found it," I told her. "It was in a saddlebag. Owned by somepony who seemed to be an ex-resident of Vault 357." I saw a gleam in her eye. "What's wrong," I asked. She simply waved me off. I gave her a curious look, but continued on anyway.

We had finally made our way to New Pegasus. Well, a town just outside New Pegasus, which my Pip-Buck deemed "Freeside". I had never been to New Pegasus, so this was a new sight. It seemed like a raggedy place, riddled with ponies who looked like they were suffering disease, hunger, or a nasty combination of the two. There was the occasional pony who seemed at least a little healthy, and that was only as we were passing "Elvis Prespony's School of Impersonation". All of those ponies looked exactly the same, aside from coat colors.

I stopped to ask one of them how to get to New Pegasus. He pointed down the road and I saw a big sign that said "New Pegasus" surrounded by flashing lights and guarded by large robotic guard stallions balanced on single wheels (everypony who passed by was told to "move along" in a steely robotic voice).

"Wow," I said, staring blankly. "I do not know how I missed that." Gem burst into laughter, seemingly much to the joy of the Elvis impersonator. I shot him a look that told him to back off, and he quickly wiped the expression from his face… Was I that intimidating?

We made our way to the gate and were approached by one of the guards.

"Move along please, or state your business," it said.

"I'd like to gain entry to New Pegasus."

"Entry to New Pegasus can be granted if the pony in question is carrying a total of 2000 bottlecaps."

I looked at Gem, who looked at me the same way. Combined, we only had about 1200 caps combined. We would have had more, but I insisted on paying that Calamity guy before he left.

I contemplated selling my armor barding, but that was definitely a necessity. I checked my item arrangement spell on my Pip-Buck to look for things of large value that we didn't need. Nothing.

"I guess we'll have to get a job," I said.

"Move along please, or state your business."

"Yeah, yeah, just shut up for Celestia's sake."

As we were coming across an intersection of what used to be a road, I noticed both a small colt and a mare dressed in a skimpy outfit were attempting to get our attention. I paid attention to what the colt was saying first.

"Need to get rid of the shitpile of a weapon you've got?" That colt's got a mouth on him. "Come on down to the Diamond Rush for all your magical energy weapon needs!"

Next was the skimpily dressed mare.

"Hungry?"

No.

"Thirsty?"

No.

"Horny?"

I have a low sex drive.

"Come and visit the Balefire Wrangler inn and casino!"

This town seemed desperate.

I went back towards Elvis Presley's School of Impersonation to see if I could cash in any caps from there. As I was about to enter, I was stopped by a stallion with a strange accent.

"Ifuh yuh wanna seeuh the King-uh, yuh gatta make an appointuhment." I had to stifle a laugh before I got shot.

Clearing my throat, I said "I'd just like to see whoever is in charge. I need caps."

"I reckun you wanna get intuh New Peguhsis," I asked. I nodded. "The King's gat just thuh thinguh for you." What a sudden change of events. I hoped I wasn't being dragged into a stallion prostitution ring, or worse, their club.

I felt like this was going to be one hell of a job.