Melody of the Wasteland

by ColtizaJayo

Episode 2

Melody of The Wasteland

Episode 2

My ears twitched as I heard the strange sounds again. I had been outside the Stable for two weeks now and I kept hearing it on and off. Mostly at night, when everything else was quiet.

Silver and I were salvaging around the city outskirts. Apparently the shack in which I was now residing is very close to the Manehatten Ruins. Well, at least thats what my Pipbuck labeled them as, I wasn’t actually quite sure how it knew though.

"Be careful." Silver warned from ahead of me. "Celestia knows what's out here."

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.....” I said half-heartedly. The sounds started up again and they were bothering me, I turned my head in the direction they seemed to be coming from.

“What is it?” Silver asked, peeking out from inside a dumpster.

“Nothing....” I turned back to her and trotted over, beginning to hum. She rolled her eyes and dove back in, salvaging what she could. She seemed to be enjoying it but I knew better. Quick Silver would rather steal something than salvage for it. I waited for her to come back out. “Anything interesting in there?” I asked, casually, trying to start up a conversation and get my mind off the sounds.

“No.... fucking things been picked dry..... But you don’t really care do you?”

“Well.... I uh.... of course I care.....” I lied horribly.

“Of course I care!” She mimicked, getting my voice and inflections perfectly. “Bullshit.” she then added, in her own voice.

I needed to think of something else or might have gone crazy. What was even worse was that I knew Silver would pester me about it sooner or later. I sighed.

“Quick Silver? Do you hear any weird noises?” She gave me a puzzled look.

“No.... nothing except the occasional balefire phoenix or manticore... Why?”

“I keep hearing weird noises....” I confessed. Quick Silver rolled her eyes. Darn it! I knew she wouldn’t believe me.

“You’re just havin’ the jitters. You’re not used to these outside sounds yet.” She lectured. She closed her eyes and tilted her head up. Even though I had known her for two weeks, I knew what this gesture meant and I desperately needed to change the subject before she started ranting.

“Hey! Uh, Silver, how do you do that thing?” She opened her eyes and looked at me for a second, then jumped out of the dumpster.

“What ‘thing’?” She asked.

“You’re mimicking thing.” She shrugged and looked at me.

“Who the hell cares? I just do. Now c’mon, Gold Shimmer ‘s probably wondering where we are”

---

“15......16....17” Gold Shimmer counted happily. Apparently while we were out she had.... entertained some guests.....

“GOLD SHIMMER!” Silver shouted furiously. Silver wasn’t one to set up rules but when she did she kept them enforced. One of which was no customers when she wasn’t home. Which I didn’t really understand at the time.

Shimmer groaned a bit as her sister stomped towards her.

“How many times do I have to tell you!?” She began, furious. I zoned out at this point. I’ve heard this argument a few times before and I didn’t understand why Silver didn’t just give up.

The sounds began again, my focus on them almost completely drowning out the sisters bickering. Listening to them was almost painful. Some were high pitched, some lower but they were all frighteningly luring. Part of me wanted them to stop and another part wanted to make them keep going. I frowned at the second part. The sounds were almost full of fear and desperation, why would I want them to keep going? I had my own theories , well only one really, but that will addressed later.

"Mel? Hey, Melody!" I heard as I ripped away from my thought process. I snapped my head towards the two other mares in front of me.

"Yeah?" I asked, still not completely there. Gold Shimmer furrowed her eyebrows, showing obvious concern.

"Melody, are you ok?"

"Yeah...." I responded, not very creatively. In my defense I was still a bit preoccupied.

"She thinks she hears weird noises." Silver informed. I looked at the ground, letting my mane cover my face. I'm not sure why, but I was embarrassed. Maybe because being preoccupied by "nonexistent" sounds seemed childish.

"What kind of sounds?" Shimmer asked.

"I dunno... just sounds. They are all different pitches, though."

"She just has the Outside Jitters." Quick Silver added with a smirk. I gave her a look. Outside Jitters or not there were strange noises and so help me Luna I was going to find out what they were!

Later that night I commenced operation "Go Find The Weird Noises.". I successfully snuck past my two sleeping companions and out of our home. I didn't expect to be gone long, so the only thing I brought with me was a metal pipe. I knew how to use a gun, I just didn't like to; they are too loud...

The Wasteland was even scarier at night. I jumped at every little thing I saw, but I was still determined to solve the mystery. The deeper into the ruined city I got, the darker and creepier it got. Every once in awhile I’d see a green light soar across the sky. According to Silver they were called balefire phoenixs. Apparently they were harmless unless you bothered them, but I didn’t want to take my chances. I watched each one arc above me.

“Ok, Melody Flight.....” I said outloud. Maybe talking to myself would make everything better. Or at least, convince every scary thing I was crazy and shouldn’t be messed with. “No need to be scared.... remember the song mommy taught you....” My voice got quieter. Usually the idea of singing would make me happy, but the situation was a lot different than any other I had been in before. “Giggle at the ghosties..... guffaw at the grossly.... c-crack up at the creepy--” I was caught off by a bullet soaring past my face and yells following it.

I screamed and started running forward, not really thinking, just trying not to get shot. This strategy, unfortunately, did not work very well.

Before I knew it two large and terrifying stallions were on each side of me. I skidded to a stop and tried to turn the other way but the on the left tackled and pinned me.

"Well ain't you sumthin' special." He said in a gruff, menacing voice. The other one trotted over smirking.

"Is this bitch stupid or what?" He asked his companion. They were both covered in blood-stained, miss-matched armor. I squirmed underneath my captor, flailing my wings as if that would actually help. I WAS stupid. Or naive. But at this point, both were going to get me killed.

"What do we got here?" My captor looked at my wings then my flank. "Got wings but no brand! You really are special. Messin' with you’s gonna be fun." I didn't know what this meant, but I was afraid it was something very, VERY bad. The one not holding me down brought out some rope. I could see he was a unicorn now. He very quickly tied me up and began dragging me to their lair. I grimaced as I hit rocks and Celestia knows what else was the ground with my face. Obviously these two didn't treat their prisoners very well.

[[Melody.........]]

My ear twitched. Crap, this is NOT what I needed at the moment. Remember when I mentioned that there were some odd things that had to be mentioned later? Well, we’re getting close to later.

“The hell is wrong with you?” I was questioned roughly. I must have looked dazed. The only response I could let out was a small whimper. The unicorn rolled his eyes and kicked me. The pain was strangely excruciating, I don't think I'd ever been kicked so hard before. I groaned and tried to curl up.

[[Melody, can I come out to play?]]

Crap crap crap, I thought. I did NOT want this to happen now. Or ever. We made it to an abandoned building, now instead of being dragged in dirt, I was being dragged in something wet and sticky. It took me a second to realize what it was, too long considering it was now stuck in my mane and staining my face.

I screamed and started squirming again, rubbing my wings in the gore. The stench of it all was horrible. What kind of a place is this!? My captors laughed. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die.

[[Melody, you need me don't you?]]

Unless..... NO. Never. I was very painfully dragged up two flights of stairs to a room on one of the middle floors. The room was filled with other ponies, most of them malnourished and beaten. Most of the mares, and even some stallions, were sobbing. I had a sudden epiphany. The sounds I heard were coming from here.... they were just distant screams. My discovery offered no closure.

I was dragged through the middle of the room. I caught the eye of an earth pony mare. Her expression was full of pity as I passed. I stopped squirming and just whimpered. I didn’t want to be here, but it was my own stupid fault for it. The earth pony captor heaved me up on a bed while the other smirked. The bed smelled even worse than the rest of the room. It was covered in various stains, all caused from bodily fluids, I assumed. The walls around me seemed even worse. There were corpses chained to them. Most of which were missing limbs or full out decapitated. I felt my stomach turn, I wanted to vomit. Instead my eyes teared up and I started shaking. Reasonably enough, I didn’t want to die. Not like this at least. The two murderous stallions came closer to me and I closed my eyes.

[[You can help yourself, Melody...]]

Maybe I don’t have to die....

Suddenly there was a distinct ZIIIIP and then in no time at all another one. I opened my eyes and saw both stallions on the ground. They both had something lodged in their skulls.

“Arrows...” I said quietly to myself.

“Are you alright?” I heard. I looked towards the doorway. Standing there was a hooded pony, the only thing I could see was his blue muzzle sticking out. I assumed he was a stallion by his voice, though it did sound.... strange. I nodded a little, still very frightened. Was this pony saving me or was he planning something else? This was stupid thinking but, I was in panic mode.

“Stay still.” He ordered politely. There was another zip and the rope around my legs was broken. I wiggled the rest off then stood up shakily.

“Come, I’ve already freed the others, you and I will have to find another way out. The rest of the raiders know I am here.”

I looked at him hesitantly. Should I go with him or not? I almost died, and he saved me. In fact, if he hadn’t save me, I might have done something worse. I walked over quickly. He smiled reassuringly, but kept his hood down. I looked more closely at him. He was almost completely covered, except for a thin sliver of his blue hooves and aforementioned muzzle. We snuck through the halls of the building, every once and awhile peering into rooms, to make sure nopony was left behind. Everything seemed to be going well for a bit, until we ran into more raiders. The stallion swiftly got on his hind-legs. Pulling out his bow, he stuck his front-legs out and grasped the arrow and drawstring with his mouth. The whole thing looked silly but it was frighteningly effective. He let go, and the arrow soared through the head of the first raider and into that of the one behind him. I let out a yelp as they both fell. The hooded pony gave me a strange look. Well, at least I assumed it was, considering I couldn’t see his face. We heard the voices of others coming from down the hall and we made a break for the stairs. To our grief, the stairwell wasn’t as empty as we had hoped. In a panic, my savior looked around. He took us back into the hallway and desperately looked for an escape route. He turned to look at the raiders coming towards us in both directions to me. To my surprise he grabbed me by my Stable jumpsuit and leapt towards the window in front of us........... Then out of it.

There was a rush of air as we fell. It blew my mane up, cleaning it partially of the entrails it was soaked in. I looked for my companion and soon realised he had let go of me and was now on top of me. I gazed up at him, the wind having blown his hood off. He was covered strange markings.... stripes. A zebra...? But zebras are covered in black and white. This pony was light blue, the stripes a darker shade of blue. He looked expectantly at me. I turned my head and suddenly the shock kicked in. I was FALLING. I screamed for the upteenth time today and flailed in the air. My wings were frozen in place.

“What are you doing!?” He shouted over the wind.

“I CAN’T FLY!” I responded, full of reasonable panic. There was a second pause before he replied.

“You are telling to me that the pony I risk my life with... Is the only pegasus in Equestria who CANNOT FLY!?” Too be honest I was a bit irritated by this response.

“LOOK, I was raised in a Stable. Have you ever BEEN in a Stable!? There's no room for flying! Except maybe the atrium but if I did that I would have been kicked out sooner!” I shouted, taking my eyes off the quickly approaching ground for a second. I looked back and the panic kicked in once again. I overheard the blue zebra mutter something, but it must of been some foreign language because I couldn’t understand any of it.

“At least spread your wings out into a glide!” He commanded, now sounding just as panicked as I did. He kicked me once, it was light but still hurt against my bruised side. I instinctively opened my wings. Our fall slowed, and just in time. We started moving forward at a steady rate. I forced myself to keep my wings opened until we hit the ground in an impromptu landing. Though we had slowed down, we were still moving pretty quickly. We skidded against the ground leaving a small cloud of dust behind us. My striped companion had fallen off of me mid-crash and landed in front of me. He groaned and his left foreleg was bent in a way I didn't think was possible until then.

"Oh my goddess, are you ok!?" I asked once I saw it, standing quickly. He forced a small smile.

"Just a broken leg..... no big deal...."

"That is a big deal! Here I'll take you to my frie--" I was cut off by yet again, another gunshot.

"Shit." Said the injured pony in front of me. He was down for the count and I had NO way of fighting off raiders.

[[Melody, have you forgotten me?]]

Well. I had one way. I looked off into the distance, the raiders were closing in very quickly. I sighed. I had gotten us into this mess by doing something stupid and I was going to get us out by doing something even more stupid.

I faced my enemy and let my other self take hold.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Pain.

Feathers falling. Real wings showing. Changing more. Smirk. Stupid ponies coming close.

"What the hell!?"

Hiss. Strange zebra thing. Will deal with it later. Turn back to face prey. Fired at. More pain. Running forward, jump, spread wings. Flying..... no...... falling. Pain.

[[We can't fly, remember?]]

Hush! Stupid Other Self. It is your fault we cannot fly. Get up. Running towards the prey growling. Prey stops moving. Afraid of me. Some walk back. Shots fired, dodge. Pick up gunner with tail, Growling. Grab its neck with my mouth. Pull, rip apart. Headless stupid pony now. Tackle next pony. Dig hooves into its body. Bones snapping. Smiling now. Trying to go through to other side, more shots fired. Jump off dead, broken pony. Next one, covered in armor. It shoots at me. Duck, slide under it. Wrap tail around its leg to keep it in place. Grab armor with mouth, rip it off piece by piece. Pony screams. Get to skin, rip it off piece by piece. Covered in blood. Get up. One more. Pony shaking in fear. Hiss. Pony tries to run, grab it with tail. Drag it in. Wrap tongue around neck. Squeeze and then..... snap. It still barely alive. Squeeze body with tail. More snaps. Pony coughs blood into face. Drop it. Stand on backlegs. Come back down, smash the pony skull. Drenched in pony blood. Turn to zebra thing. It screams, trying to move away. Leg is broken, it can't move too fast. Start walking over to it. Smirk.

[[No! Stop! You said you were just going to save us! We're saved now.]]

Growl. Stupid Other Self. Will keep promise. This time.

Pain.....

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I cried out. The pain of changing back was only slightly better than that of changing in the first place but they both hurt. A LOT. My wings went back from being leathery and batlike to feathery. My tail shortened and I felt weak. I looked at myself and grimaced. I was dripping with blood. I turned to look at the carnage around me and started shaking. Not only were these the second set of corpses I'd seen that day but the bodies were completely mutilated. It was even worse to know that I was the one who mutilated them. Unable to stand the sight of this, I turned to face the only other living pony near me. He looked just as terrified I felt.

"Wha-what the h-hell are you!?" He shouted when I made eye contact. He was visibly pale beneath his coat. This hurt a bit. I didn't like when others were scared of me.

"Please calm down.... I'm... I'm sorry.... don't be scared....."

"You skinned a pony alive..... with your mouth...." He muttered in a daze. He regained some color to his face as he forced himself to calm down. "You're.... You're not going to do that to me.... right?"

"No! Never. I promise." I reassured. I walked over and helped him up. "That looks really bad..." I began, referring to his leg. "Let me take you to my friends. They'll probably able to help."

He just nodded as we started limping back to the shack.

"My name is Yahto." He eventually said, breaking the silence.

"Yahto.... I like that name. I'm Melody Flight. Thanks for saving me." I smiled. He seemed to be a nice pony... Zebra.... Thingy.

"You are very welcome, Melody. Thank you for saving me. Though you also scared me in the process. Do you.... do that often....?"

"No.... just..... when I get really scared."

"Oh.... Well, who am I to judge you for being different?" He said with a laugh. "I am a half-zebra in case you were wondering." A half-zebra.... that was why he was blue! We walked for a little while more until the small shack came into view.

"Yahto? Could maybe not mention what....happened.... back there?" He nodded in response.

"MELODY!" I heard Silver shout. She was ticked and worried from what I could tell. "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU!?"

"It's a long story!" I responded. I was glad to be home and it seemed I had a new friend. For the moment, at least.

We trotted up to them and Gold Shimmer tackled me, sobbing. "MELODY I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU, WHERE DID YOU GO!?" I stifled a groan, my ribs still being bruised.

"I went looking for the strange sounds and I found raiders...... But my new friend Yahto saved me!" I gestured to the half-zebra standing next to me. He looked a bit surprised at the mentioning of him being my friend. Quick Silver looked down at him.

"A half-zebra, eh? Well thanks for saving Mel, Yahto." Yahto smiled, proud of his good deed.

"It was no problem."

Silver looked at his unnaturally bent leg. “Well, it looks like it was a problem.”

“Oh, yeah!” I said. “Can you guys fix that?”

“Yeah, Shimmer go get the healing bandages,” Silver ordered. She walked back into the shack to get medical supplies, leaving Yahto and I alone.

“I’m sorry for almost getting you killed twice...” I apologized. I felt truly guilty for what happened today. He just smiled.

“There is no reason to be sorry. You did nothing wrong. In fact, I should help you for what you did.” I tilted my head in confusion.

“I will teach you to fly.” He then explained, proudly. HE was going to teach me to fly? The wingless half-zebra?

“Um... I’m not sure how that would work...” I told him honestly.

“You think just because I am an earth pony it means I don’t know how to fly?” He challenged, then smiled a bit smugly. “I know the all the mechanics to it. I can teach you.” I wasn’t sure how he knew, but I trusted him. He did save my life after all. I nodded, but apparently I must have still looked unsure.

“Fear not, and do not be blue. That which you don’t know, I will teach you.”

Comments

[TonydBrony]

A wasteland based fic, and it doesn't have Fallout or Equestria on the title?

Hell yeah I am reading this!

[ponyatthedisco]

well written and interesting, and so far no larger-than-life over-complicated wasteland politics. i'm following this to see where this leads. write on!

[ColtizaJayo]

1571375 too be honest it IS Fallout based.

[TonydBrony]

1572504 Well, I could tell that. But just about every Fallout based fic I have seen up to now has the words; 'Fallout' or 'Equestria' in them. And the fact this one did not really peaked my interest.