I sat in the corner of the train car as it rumbled slowly along the tracks, the team of pull ponies trying to get up this massive hill. I had my travel set of tools out, attempting to fix at least my helmet enough so I could wear it and breathe; My wrist pad had booted up after a few hours of tinkering with it, so there was no need to fiddle with it. My armor was dented inward and was very tight, but it didn't bother me too much. Other than to tightness down south really bugged me but as long as I didn't walk or stand, it was bearable.
My companions were sitting at a table within the same train car, talking about something or other. I wasn't paying attention to them at all, really. I was focusing on my helmet but also had a lot on my mind. I was daydreaming a lot mostly. Dreaming of alternate realities that would be better than the world I found myself in. It was my second best coping mechanism since waking up from the cryopod. That and music were my go-to's; DJpone3 has been the light at the end of the tunnel for me and my suffering.
With a loud pop and bang, my helmet popped back into place as it hummed back to life with a blue glow. I put it on seamlessly; the crack through the right lens caused the right side of the helmet to glitch slightly and was off a bit. Other than that, everything was fine. I let out a sigh of success and tipped my head back, letting it rest on the walls as I closed my eyes and let my daydreaming run wild.
I zoned in for maybe a few seconds to see what the others on the train were talking about.
"so, what's his deal?" I heard littlepip ask, clearly talking about me. Which caught my attention since, last I checked, I wasn't the topic of conversation.
"I couldn't tell you, to be honest," I heard velvet respond to him, "up until last night, I thought the poor thing was mute."
"I know him," I heard calamity jut in, "that there is Riley the trade master or at least one of the many names he has. He runs the most extensive and only trade caravan in the whole equestrian wasteland. If you're looking for something, his people probably have it; hell, even ditsy doo orders shipments of stuff from him to sell herself." He explained. Although he wasn't wrong about any of that, I still feel like I wasn't worth the many titles or any of the fame I gathered over the last 15 years. But I had it and didn't really use it other than advertising trade.
"Wow, you'd think for a trader he'd be more talkative. Do you know where he came from?" I heard Pip ask, seeming to be curious about me a little more than she probably should.
"Dunno," Calamity responded, "everypony has their theories; some say he was a gift from the sun god to help us pick up the pieces after the war. Some say he was a byproduct of the mega spells and wandered the wasteland until ponykind resurfaced. Some say he crawled out of the ever-free forest after hiding for nearly 200 years. No one knows, really"
"Well, what do you think," Pip asked, most likely to Calamity.
"I think he's just a kind soul who's helping ponies by doing the hard work of digging through the hell of the wasteland so they can live comfortably," I heard him respond. "besides, he sells good stuff at an actually reasonable price, so I think highly of him, not gouging ponies for every cent they have for the basic essentials."
"well, Im glad I gave him scraps of food when I could," velvet said in a kind tone. "Those slavers were practically starving the poor thing for over a week. I gave him my leftovers to try and keep him alive at least."
I dropped my head and seized gazing at the ceiling to look at the small group of ponies discussing at the table.
"Well, do you think he might give us a discount for getting him out of old appaloosa?" Littpip asked, looking at Calamity.
"littlepip!" velvet nearly yelled at the small mare. "That's horribly rude! We barely made it out at all! Not to mention he did carry your unconscious body to the train, so if anything, he should charge you extra." she finished sending a nasty glare to the small mare, who drooped her ears back and stared down at the table in shame.
Velvet looked over at me at that moment, noticing that I was listening in. "finally, someone realized I still have ears," I snarked. "Just because I have a lot of shit on my mind and don't feel like talking doesn't mean I can't hear."
Both littlepip and velvet looked terrible, making me feel like a dick. "look, don't worry about it, guys. It happens more often than you think. As for discounts and charging extra, I don't do either often, so don't get your hopes up."
They were both able to manage a small smile as I had made them feel slightly better, but now I was talking, I knew I wasn't going to shut up.
"Well, you guys got me talking, so I hope you don't mind me asking a question or two," I asked, taking off my helmet to at least show some respect in the conversation.
"Of course! Ask away," velvet responded with a warm smile.
"you two,' I asked, pointing at the rust-colored pegasus and grey unicorn. "why did you go into old appaloosa in the first place?"
Littlepip seemed taken aback by my question like I was supposed to know. "To free the slaves, of course!" she exclaimed.
"eyup," Calamity agreed.
"no other reasons? Such being selfish and involving a certain charcoal unicorn sitting at the same table as you." I asked, gesturing to velvet.
Pip went wid eyed and blushed hard; "I... Uh... that may have been a leading factor, yes, but no, I wanted to free the enslaved ponies, and anyone else captured first and foremost." she explained, her blush burning hotter with each word. Velvet seemed to eye littlepip curiously, and her reaction to my question especially.
I cocked an eyebrow at her as Calamity spoke, "I didn't even know who the lass was until last night; personally, I wanted to take a crack at wiping those bastards off the wasteland, and Littlepip did just wanna free the slaves, so it was a win-win in the end." Littlepip seemed relieved at Calamity supporting her argument for helping the slaves.
I was satisfied with what I heard, "Alright, That's enough for me," I said, slapping my knees and standing up, stretching.
"what? im still so confused; what's enough for you?" Pip questioned, looking seriously confused.
"Im testing your moral compasses," I responded, Leaning against the wall. "ponies nowadays are all sorts of fucked up when it comes to morals; redeye is a perfect example. Preaches the good shit with a silver tongue but is a fucking corrupt and ugly beast underneath."
"He has some good ideas, or should I say principles. It's just corrupted in a way" Pip struggled to try to find a way to explain it as she talked.
"That's what the wasteland does to people with good intentions," I continued. "it corrupts them, poisons and tortures the ideals to take on a new shape. One that feels the same but is drastically different. Something horrifying to see, but it happens to anyone with at least a hint of morales." I looked at the group eyeing me with unsettling gazes as I spoke.
"im glad that good souls still exist in this world, but I warn you not to lose sight of those morals at all cost." I turned to walk out the door onto the next car. "elements know I did," And I walked out the door. We stepped onto A flat box car as we rounded the hill's peak. The brakes of the caboose screeching from age as we stopped. Allowing the ponies pulling the train to hop aboard before our descent.
I stood overlooking the grand expanse of land in front of me. The ruins of the wasteland stretched before me. Scorched earth and burnt trees among an ever-expanding sea of grey and brown. The sky was unseen through the never-changing cloud blanket. Among the horizon line as I looked out, I swear I should have seen cloudsdale floating where it had always been. My vision flashed as the sky turned a grand firey green as an enormous green mushroom cloud erupted as the flying city seemed to appear only to disintegrate. I heard the screams of dying ponies falling from the sky and the low rumble of a loud boom. The once great forest that expanded below the mountain was now lit ablaze by green balefire. My heart pounded with my head as the nightmare unfolded before me. Then Rainbow dash hovered in front of me, half her body charred and burnt, her burnt wing nothing more than a burnt husk as she flapped in front of me.
"why didn't you stay? Why didn't you do more?" She said, with a deep scowl on her burnt face, as she disappeared into ash.
I ripped my helmet off and punched myself as hard as I could in the face. My metal gauntlet cutting my face and drew blood. I looked up to see the horrific sight gone back to the wasteland. Cloudsdale nowhere in sight.
I sat down on the flatcar and tucked my knees into the fetal position, and rested my chin on them.
"I did do so much more for all of you than I probably should have; you just wouldn't listen to me. My warnings of death and destruction fell on deaf ears." I whispered, my eyes feeling wet. The cut on my face was still spilling blood down my right cheek.
I heard a ding from my wristpad; I pulled my arm around to gaze at the device. It was a message from Romulus, my right-hand man, when it came to my caravan. He ran things while I was gone, and most of the time while I was there. I just told him what to do in the most basic sense, and he went above and beyond.
"Sir, I know you went radio silent over a week ago for most likely good reasons. But you gave me orders a long time ago to ensure I give you a 'heads-up' every time we reached one of our stops or stopped mid-travel. So I am sending you this to let you know we just arrived in new appaloosa. We're unpacking everything and getting the trading posts set up as you read this. No sign of Calamity, though, He is typically up our asses trying to buy and sell things. Plus, he made a rather special order with a spyglass that he needs to pick up. Otherwise, it's going into the trade pool. Other than that, everything is going swimmingly. I do hope you come back soon, though. The ponies with us are always more nervous when you are not around, especially the young ones. Romulus out"
As I finished reading his report, I looked forward to seeing them back in new appaloosa. Romulus was a dear friend from my birth; he was close to my father as his personal adviser. But my family treated him as one of our own rather than as a tool. Yes, he may have been a robot, but he was more than that. He was made by merlin, the first king of Romulus and named the city after him, and served the royal family for over 5000 years. He is the only being made with an artificial soul from a human mage, not the elementals themselves. That, mixed with the hyper-complexity of his AI processing chip. Makes him one of a kind. He has free will but chooses to serve rather than act of his own accord. Which is something he still in 5000 years, never explained. But I never pried into it. It's his life, and he can share what he wants.
It hit me like a rock to the face that I had never reported to him my status in over two weeks. Good god, how has he not sent a fucking strike team after me!? I quickly wrote: "good. Im on my way back to New Appaloosa as we speak. I will give you the full report in person. Keep an eye on the train tracks."
After I sent the message, Sounds of gunfire and incoherent yelling broke out from the front. "Fucking, what now!? I grumbled, jumping to my feet and climbing to the top of the next car. Running across the roof to the next flat car. On the ground next to the train, I saw the dead bodies of the pull team race by as the train began speeding up. Fuck, that's not good. I hopped the gap to the next car as I then heard gunshots behind me towards the rear of the train. I stopped and looked back, seeing Littlepip on the roof of a train car a ways down. I trusted that she and the other two could handle whatever was happening back there and continued to the front of the train.
I came upon the flat car just before the train's engine to see all of the pull ponies dead with six raiders shoving their corpses off the train. That disrespect of the dead made me furious. I dropped down to the flat car, drawing my hand cannon. Before they could grab their guns, I unloaded all eight shots, fanning the hammer as I ripped the ponies apart. After the onslaught, only two were left. I had missed them barely. One was a unicorn with a pump action shotgun aimed at me. I ducked and rolled to a corpse of one of the raiders I felled and grabbed it by the throat and held it up, blocking the shot. He desecrated the dead, so me doing the same to him seemed like justice. My belt hissed as a new cylinder of eight bullets popped out. Held by a small metal arm an inch and a half away from my hip. I unloaded my gun, pressing the button that ejected the cylinder, letting it fall to the flat car, and rolled away. The raider fired another shotgun blast into the dead raider's corpse as I held it steady, walking forward slowly. I flipped the gun in my hand and hooked the new cylinder onto the small hook of the firearm. I smacked the weapon against my thigh as the cylinder popped into place.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the other raider pony with a twin pistol battle leap to my side weapons ready to fire. I instinctively threw the corpse at him, knocking into him as his battle saddle fired wildly, as they both fell to the floor. Using my now free hand, I cocked the hammer and fired at the shotgun pony. It struck him in the chest, killing him, but he managed to fire another shot in his final moments. The wild buckshot struck me in the chest, sending me back a few steps before I regained my composure. My chest cried in agony as something cracked from the power behind the blast. I grabbed my chest and heaved. Armor is only so good until the concussive force gets you. I noticed the other raider push his dead friend off of him and begin to try and stand. I rushed, and full force kicked him as he got his footing and was sent off the train that was going alerting fast. I heard him scream and grunt as his voice faded. I looked around to see if more raiders were at the front of the train. When I could confirm, the front was clear. I checked my self-diagnostic tool on my wrist pad. I got it from a destroyed pip bug and reprogrammed it for my body. It flashed several alerts on my chest. Saying I had four cracked ribs, and several more bruised.
"ugh fuck me, no wonder it's hard to breathe," I grunted, Pulling out a stimpack and injecting it into myself. It relieved some of the pain, but the healing would take time. I made my way to the boxcar I lept down from, climbing back to its roof. As I got to my feet, I saw a rust-colored pegasus dive out of the air with a... THAT FUCKER! Calamity was being chased by that same griffon who drugged my ass. Rifle in his claws, firing at Calamity, who couldn't get a good shot off with this fucker tailing him.
"CALAMITY!" I shouted as loud as I could, making my chest scream in pain. He turned to look at me, dodging shots. I raised my hand, twirled my finger in the air, and then pointed to the open flatcar. I then ran to the opposite end of the flatcar and readied myself to sprint. As he dove for the open flatcar from the side, he seemed to get the message, the griffin hot on his tail. I watched them come in as I timed it. I started a full sprint as they got close and, with the perfect timing, let Calamity fly past as I tackled the griffin out of the air with a grunt. Both of us landed on the flatcar below in a mess of feathers and grunts.
"Im gonna cleave your beak off and shove it up your ass, you son of a bitch!" I yelled, punching him in the face as we wrestled on the flatcar.
"I'd like to see you try flesh bag!" He growled with a grin, returning punches. His voice was deep and grimy. Like he hadn't cleared his throat in a while.
I kicked him off me and jumped back onto him, setting my knees on his front arms as I threw punch after punch into his beak. Causing blood with each blow. Before one of my punches made contact with his face, his beak shot up and hit my chest. Causing more pain from my cracked ribs as I lost my balance and grabbed my chest reflexively. The griffin took advantage, threw me off, and did the same thing I did to him. Only this time, he wrapped his talons around my throat, clenching tightly. Choking me. I grabbed his arms with my hands, trying to pull them away but couldn't with the total weight of an adult griffon behind it. I started punching and thrashing wildly as my vision started to go red. The increasing grin on the griffon's face filled me with rage. I reached for my gladius and drew it, stabbing it sideways behind the griffon's beak, and twisted my arm as I was showered in blood with the violent removal of the griffin's beak. His grip loosened, and I pushed him off me. He desperately tried to stop the flow of blood by covering the gore-filled wound on his face, choking and coughing on blood. I located the beak on the flat car and made true to my promise.
I was walking away from the still living griffon. I wanted to let him suffer in his final moments like he made me suffer. I hated him. I turned to look at the griffon once more before opening the door to the boxcar. The sounds of gunfire ceased, making me believe the fight was over.
As I looked at the suffering creature, my mind flashed with a memory of my father and me. He had taken me on my first hunting trip. We went with old-school tools as part of a tradition in our family. Bows and arrows. I had just shot an arrow into a six-point buck. We had tracked it down after it fell from exhaustion and blood loss. Heaving, it lay on the ground, an arrow sticking out of its side. My father kneeled beside me, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"a damn fine buck, son," he said, his voice calm and wise. Like a gentle guardian. "now for the final test," he handed me a knife. I knew I had it finish it off. I walked over and raised the blade above the deer. I closed my eyes, brought the edge down, and plunged it into the beast's heart. As it went limp, I opened my eyes and screamed as I saw my father with a knife in him, dead on the ground instead of the deer. I looked to where my father should have been. He sat kneeling with a complex elemental rune in his hand. He closed his hand, breaking the rune as the illusion faded. Bringing the deer back.
"Listen, son," his voice stern and serious, "I didn't enjoy that any less than you did, but it's something I have to do to teach you the value and truth of every life in this world. ALL life is equal. The value we give individual lives over others is nothing but an illusion to make it easier to take life. It doesn't matter if it's a deer, a king, or a blade of grass. Life is all the same, and there is nothing we can do to change that. If you need to take a life, you must understand you are taking something that is equal to yourself no matter how much you hate it or love it. If you see a life suffering, help as though it was you. If you can't save it, don't let it suffer. That is the elemental of the earth's greatest lesson."
The memory faded as I returned to my body, Still staring at the griffin who seemed to accept his slow death. The large pool of blood around him dripped off the flat car's side. I drew my hand cannon and pointed it at the suffering creature. "elements forgive me and the suffering I've caused," and I pulled the trigger.
I opened the door to the train car just before the caboose to find Calamity and the others. Resting and treating wounds. All eyes gazed upon me, drenched in blood.
"Yeesh," Calamity said, cringing, "the hell happened to you."
"I don't wanna talk about it," I said, stepping forward only to get almost thrown into a wall from a sharp turn the train took, going dangerously fast. "is someone gonna hit the brakes on this fucking thing before we go flying off a fucking cliff?"
Velvet and littlepip looked at Calamity, who nervously rubbed his mane with a weary smile. "I may have kicked off the caboose, which had the brakes."
I never facepalmed so hard before in my life. "why?" I asked, thoroughly disappointed.
"Well, the raiders were making moves on the slaves we rescued, so we all got their attention and put the slaves in the caboose. Kept em safe and away from the fight." Calamity explained. It made sense, and my disappointment faded. He had good intentions but didn't quite think it through.
"Okay," I said, thinking, "what's the plan?"
The three ponies discussed who Calamity should fly to safety first since he was the only one who could safely leave the train. I made sure to make it clear that I wasn't going until they were all safe. As they talked, the train took another turn I didn't expect and flung me to the right. I heard glass shatter as I was thrown through a window. My rifle strap caught on something as I slammed back into the train. I was tense as the only thing keeping me from death was a leather strap. I thought quickly and drew my gladius, struggling to keep it in my hands due to the wind. I stabbed it into the train car and got a good grip. I needed to hold on until Calamity got everyone to safety.
I felt the train hit another turn, and the side of the train lifted, wheels leaving the tracks as the turn nearly took the whole train off the tracks. I saw magical green energy coat the entire train as it held it steady. After the turn, the wheels fell back into place along its tracks. Then it hit another turn, but this time I was lowering to the ground as the other side lifted. The train car's roof ripped off with screaming metal and cracking wood as it scraped the rocky cliff wall that passed by. The same green magic held the train to the tracks as I was hanging a few inches from the ground. Any lower, and my spine is gone. The train tipped back over, setting itself on the tracks again.
I pulled out my gladius and stabbed it in higher, pulling myself loose and climbing the train. I was tired of dangling on the side of a train. As I approached the top where the roof had once been, I heard a loud crash as the train went airborne, tearing from the tracks. The last train car and the one I was on flicked upward as it too came off the tracks. Sending me flying, and my gladius flying out of my hand.
I felt something hit me as I flew through the air. I thought it was a piece of debris from the train, but it grunted as it hit me. Then, as I started falling, I locked eyes with littlepip, who was falling with me. I acted without thinking and grabbed her, pulling her close as I raised my other arm to the cliff we were descending towards. I flipped my hand up to face my palm towards the cliffside. A symbol resembling a hook popped on my HUD as a barbed hook fired from under my wrist. Latching itself into the rocks. I grabbed the wire with my hand, still holding littlepip in my other arm. The wire tightened and yanked hard on my arm. I felt something pop in my shoulder as my arm went limp, and we swung towards the rocky wall of the cliff. My back smashed into jagged rocks on impact. I had unconsciously angled myself to take the brunt of the blow. I screamed in pain. My arm had obviously been dislocated and something must have broken in my back. The pain was exhuasting. I stopped screaming and bit my lip holding back tears of pain.
"FUCK" I Yelled as we swung in the wind. I looked down at littlepip in my arms, who was looking up at me in concern. I tried my best to hide my pain and asked, "you good?"
"yeah, You?" she nodded, looking down at the fall we would take if my wire had broke.
"I've been better," I grunted, the pain still agonizing. "God, Calamity is slow, isn't he? He didn't even need to drop velvet off far; why the hell is it taking his ass so long?"
Littlepip looked back up at me and said, "The train was probably going so fast he couldn't catch up, plus I think landing on something that fast isn't easy."
I thought about her words for a moment, "yeah, fair enough," I agreed. "by the way, nice job keeping the train on the tracks for as long as you did. Saved my ass from becoming a blood smear."
She smiled at me, clearly exhausted just hearing about her feat.
"Well, yall look comfy," I heard a familiar pegasus say as Calamity hovered next to us with a wide smile.
"shut up," I responded, annoyed, "here, take littlepip up first, and be quick. Im in a lot of fucking pain here."
He wasted no time getting littlepip on his back and flying to the top of the cliff. Quickly diving back down for me. He hovered beside me as close as he could. "now, I don't know how much your kind weigh, so this might be harder for me." he said as I climbed onto his back.
"im 180 without the armor, so do the math from there, I guess," I said as we began to ascend, the wire still hanging from my limp left arm. "if I can do the math, that is," I chuckled, also getting a chuckle from Calamity.
"good one, but that's surprising that you weigh less than littlepip, and you're so much bigger than her and at eye level with me." He stated, clearly oblivious to the differences between pony and human biology/
"when it comes to ponies, you guy's bones are heavier and bigger to support your quadripedal stance on top of stronger muscles. Which means you need more food to power your bodies. So that makes you guys just naturally heavier and, in a word, 'beefier.' I explained, "We humans are, surprisingly, sixty percent water. So we drink more water and eat less food, unless were fat. We are, in general, weaker biologically than ponies other than height. It's nothing im ashamed of." I could tell Calamity wasn't too interested in a discussion on biology. We rounded the cliff edge, and I saw Littlepip sitting down resting as velvet came running down the train tracks towards us. Calamity set down next to littlepip, and I stepped off. Weakness of the last week and a half hit me as I fell to the ground with a metallic thud, yelling and groaning at the impact as pain flooded my body.
"fuck" I groaned as I saw velvet appear, looking down at me.
"oh dear, where does it hurt?" she asked worriedly, her horn glowing as my helmet slipped off my head.
"everywhere," I coughed, spitting up blood.
"ugh, I can't help you with all this armor on. Calamity, help me take it off," she said, looking over at the pegasus as he trotted over. I didn't want them to take it off but I couldn't argue. I could barely move at all.
I felt the individual pieces of armor come off. I was even sat up to get my duffel bag and rear platting off. But it was when my chest armor was taken off, and the shirt with it was my hearing met with several gasps.
"What?" I groaned, looking down at my chest. Other than the several scars from blades and bullets over the years, it Was the expanse of purple as a massive bruise stretched across my chest and now onto my back.
"oh shit, that's not supposed to be that color," I groaned, letting my head hit the ground, my vision fading as a wave of tiredness swept over me. "I have some medical in the bag." I managed to mumble before everything went black.
Note: WHOOOO longest chapter to date in all my time. Never got over 4000 words... thats all I wanted to say so... idk.