And we open with Li'lpip alone, and itchy. Having left all her gear behind and bundled in some slave rags, sitting in a slave wagon, waiting to be brought into Fillydelphia. Taking the time to reflect, to think about her life so far. Her friends, just how much they men to her, her feelings on them, it's just some rather elaborate and ((YMMV here)) well done musings as she gets her thoughts in order. But her thoughts come back to the one real fact right now. That she is alone, and very itchy.
And she is brought to the gate, the small army of guards keeping far far more weapons the needed on her, while she's locked in a cage, and shackled, and still damn itchy. (okay enough with that, sorry) though rightly feeling that level of paranoia is a bit extreme, even given her being her. And one of the guards gets a bit curious, removing the bloody wrappings around her Pipbuck that she had hopped would be taken for just a bandage over a nasty wound, revealing it and making a few comments. And after a bit of implied rape threats. (Okay a bit more then implied) tells the rest to tag her for "Doc Slaughter" to have her Pipbuck removed. Sending her into a slight panic, the plan already going south rather quickly.
okay the whole build up to this, and especially peaking here, actually had me worried the whole time, we know she lives, she's telling the story, but again, we don't know just what she's gone through before reaching the point of telling the story. And this just seemed like the worst possible place, the place where ANYTHING would end up happening, lone, unarmed, nearly helpless. And now in real danger of losing her Pipbuck, plus the whole rape thing, yeah getting into this, I really was pretty damn scared of just what would happen, more so then any other point in the story really.
And we get our first look at Fillydelphia. Hell is a bit overused, but it makes most of the rest of the wastes look like Elysium in comparison. And as she looks around she spies something that gives her a bit of hope. She's not alone, Pyrelight had followed her in.
And she is brought to a gathering of new arrivals, while one of Redeye's speeches blares over loudspeakers, talking about how what they were doing was a lot to ask, a lot of hard work, but that it was for the greater good, that it would make sure future generations flourished, that it was for the betterment of Equestria. That a secure future for their children required sacrifices.
During the speech one of the slavers starts yelling at the slaves, berating and generally being a big shot, and the Gryphon in charge of Redeye's forces nearly rips him in two with an AMR. Commenting afterwards that ponies do NOT interrupt when Redeye is talking.
And then they get the welcoming speech Li'lpip a bit to distracted by the last speech she heard. Feeling conflicted, one the one hoof, what was happening in Fillydelphia was deplorable, horrid, and nothing short of murder. And yet, his goals, were for the most part her own, she wanted to create the same world he talked about creating, though without his odd unity thing. To end the hardships of the Wastes. but despite that, she still wanted to end this
Red Eye will put you to work doing things we probably should be working together towards anyway. (Although by choice and in safer conditions!) Me? I’ll put a bullet through your head if you are a raping, murdering blight on ponykind. In both cases, we had decided that ponies who don’t choose to live their lives the right way had forfeited their right to live freely, if at all.
There was a difference. There was a line between Red Eye and me. It just wasn’t as thick as I would have liked. Even so, it didn’t change the pain I was seeing and hearing all around me, and that these horrors had to stop.
Redeye is very much a mirror counterpart to Li'lpip. They are very very alike. The biggest difference is just how far they will go, what they are willing to do for their shared goal of a better Equestria, and just what they think that new world would need. And the major difference, that "thin line" she was thinking of at the time, was just what they consider "the right way" For Redeye, it was contributing to the betterment of all, adding something that would aide all others and the future. He felt that everypony had to contribute or they were useless and a waste. Li'lpip simply felt that a pony crossed the line into being wrong only if they did something that activly hurt another pony. And both sides do have merit. Though I'm more for Li'lpip's.
And back to the speech. The gryphon telling them that Redeye was a generous pony, he knew most of them didn't give a fuck about anything but themselves and their "freedom" so would give them options to earn it, three of them, and if they didn't want to take it they could work till they dropped in the mills and factories. The first, two years on Stable Recovery Duty. Helping to raid the Stables in the Fillydelphia area, something that pissed Li'lpip off immensely for obvious reasons, though even more so, and to a WHOLE new level when informed that the Steel Rangers make a practice of slaughtering the inhabitants of any Stable they find who won't leave, and try to keep them from "their" tech. Confirming that yes, they are in fact the single biggest bunch of motherfucking horrid, evil, cocksucking, ass fracking, frelling dren spewing, sharded, mivonk-les, Azatoth-damned, Nyaralothotep-pleasing, goram, lussa filled, p'taks ever.
And yes I did just pillage like half a dozen separate works to find enough swears to come close to giving a hint of just how horrible they are.
option two, mine the Fillydelphia crater for radioactive slag, survive four months, get treated for radiation sickness and released. With Li'lpip believing, rightly so, that most wouldn't make it three. That is just stupid, if a pony is willing to do that, treat them AS THEY DO IT, or you just wanting resources, stupid. very very stupid. Also anypony that takes the deal.
And the final one, become a gladiator in the Pit. Survive six fights in a row, and get not just your freedom, but the right to have a spot in Redeye's army. Okay, this one, is the one option that does make sense and seems the most fair. For relative values of fair adjusted for the shear fucked up HELL that place is.
Then adds two more. At anypoint they may choose to join The Unity, at which point their fate is placed in the hooves of The Goddess. The other option they can choose at anytime, is death.
And with that she's locked up in the slave pens. Which were in an old amusement park, her only thought. Pinkie Pie wouldn't approve. Looking around, she can see two possible locations the things she was in here to find to be kept, each guarded by a Pinkie Balloon tethered above it. One a degraded but intact hotel that toward above all the other few remaining buildings, the other, the Fillydelphia MOM Hub, which looked like a giant barn in the middle of the amusement park.
Getting left with the other slaves, she sees the state they are in, many showing signs of radiation sickness, and a few others, simply being bullies, trying to exert what power they could, and Li'lpip just can't help but snark off to them during their little "We're the bosses in here" spiel, drawing their attention. And immediately regretting it. Though thinking again, deciding she should make herself the target of the bullies wrath, figuring better her then some other slaves that were in far worse shape. The muscle of the pair tossing her around a bit, before getting over her, ready to rape her....
....And even without weapons, you don't fuck with Li'lpip, somepony that has the telekinetic muscle to toss boxcars around, and float an entire passenger wagon full of ponies through the skies, is not somepony you want to give a reason to start messing with your very very tender areas. She "convinces" the stallion to back off, and even keep himself to, himself, and off any other ponies, and after a swift and vicious kick to save face he walks off.
And that scene, just, damn, pretty much exactly what I feared most happening coming damn close, though Li'lpip pulling through avoiding it, though still getting hurt pretty bad. So glad it didn't go down that road.
And one of the friendlier slaves gives Li'lpip a bit of advice on how to survive as best she could, and telling her about the rather large parasprite issue the town has, carnivorous parasprites, including a few descriptions of what they could do that Li'lpip immediately wishes she had some Brain Bleach for. And getting more evidence that not only were the Alicorns a hive mind, but that they may be the result of any pony that volunteered for The Unity. And that she thinks in doing so they were totally robbed of themselves, their minds destroyed and taken over by the group think of Unity. Something she considered worse then death.
And the next morning she was put to work. The slave driver in charge telling her that while she was tagged to have the Pipbuck removed, they'd make use of it first. Sending her in to clear out a building infest with Parasprites, saying something about the building prevented them from just going in with flamethrowers like normal, and since she had EFS to track the targets they'd send her in in an environmental suit and a magical energy weapon to vaporize them with precision. And the suit did make her immune to the parasprites, but not the remaining defense turrets in the place... and her only weapon was to weak to take it out, so....after a bit of getting annoyed at never getting a break, she simply lifts up a desk and beats the turret till it's a pile of scrap.....okay I freaking LOVED that scene
And eventually she finds out why they couldn't just burn out the parasprites, the place was full of books, posters, leaflets, paper, and printing presses. Li'lpip realizing how valuable getting them working again would be. And she also discovers this was also a Ministry of Image hub, slowly connecting the dots to realize EXACTLY what Rarity's Ministry did. It didn't do it's own projects, it made the other Ministries look good, made all the posters, the journals, the pres releases. All while staying in the background. The last ministry Li'lpip heard of, and yet the first one she had seen the work of.
Finding a screwdriver and some bobby pins she stats the real looting, finding a tin of Mint-Al's, knowing just how much they could come in handy, how useful they could be, taking just one, wouldn't hurt, she needed it..... And finally forcing the tin closed, rejecting it, not going down that path again. We also get another newspaper clipping this one from before the war even started, talking about the rising tensions, and a group of ponies rescued after being held captive by Zebra pirates, showing the beginning of the friction between the two countries. And she also finds some ponies porn stash, and totally manages not to look. yup totally did not look at it at all, in any way.
And finishing up she learns one of the greatest truths of all jobs. Hard work leads to more hard work. And she got to spend the rest of the day hauling chucks of scrap metal around a salvage yard. Until their work day is cut short by Redeye arriving in town.
The slaves are assembled in the yard for him to address, Li'lpip being rather shocked by his appearance, he looked so, normal, and the one eye she could see was blue not red. Though it doesn't stop her from instantly trying to find something heavy to drop him, until one of his alicorn guards sees her in the crowd and immediately takes to he air, hovering over him watching for just that. And then she realized what ELSE the alicorn seeing her meant, and something finally dawns on her that dawned on most readers from the start.
This was a stupid plan.
And then Redeye turns to the crowd, and she learns why he was called Redeye, he was a cyberpony, with a large red cybernetic eye. Her mind trying to fathom just where such technology could have come from. Noting as well that he also had a Pipbuck. And conveniently enough he starts to give a speech about his life story, saying he know what he asks is rough, but it is for the future of Equestria, and nothing he would not ask of himself either.
He was born in a Stable, this one set up to be an Earth Pony dominant society, where technology continued to evolve rapidly after that war, leading to such cyber-augmentation as his eye. But when he grew up and left the Stable he saw how bad the Wasteland was, compared to his own idealic life so far, and began hearing the words of The Goddess, telling him that having one tribe, any of the three, dominate was wrong, that all ponies should be equal. (Which is true, but not to the extremes they take it.) He dismantled his Stable, the ponies in it either being the first to join the Children of Unity, or the first slaves of it. And on the site he is building a cathedral, a capital for his new world. And he also mentions having given away the Stable water talisman to a needy town.
As thanks for the hard work of his slaves, that really have no choice other then get beaten to death. There would be no work tomorrow, and he even invokes Bread and Circuses, telling everypony that the local bar would be open and free for all ponies that day, and that there would be a large gladiatorial event in The Pit, asking for volunteers to fight.
One her way back to her enclosure, she hears a mare screaming, rushing to investigate, she sees the "leader" slave from the night before and the stallion that tried to rape her being beaten by some guards, trying to have their way with the mare before she heads into the Pit. Li'lpip's rational part telling her not to interfere, that killing the slavers would only wreck any chance at her mission, get her caught for nothing, that these two had done the exact same thing to her, they deserved it. And yet, she can't stop herself, she can't just walk away from a pony, anypony, being hurt. And unfortunately for the slavers, they were in hall of mirrors, a hall of broken, jagged shards of mirrors....
And now time for the running, while the guards try to find her, most getting a face full of commandeered shotgun, though she rapidly runs out of places to hide, and ammo. She bumps into a mirror, feeling a slight chill go through her and turns to look. Rather then her reflection, it is her, in raider armor, shot, bloody, dying, but still glaring at herself. The sight nearly gets her killed as she runs from it, but she manages to make it out of the building, sniper ponies trying to pick her off as she runs for more cover, being herded to a dead end.
Which turns out not to be a dead end thanks to a rather fricken awesome bit of TK, making a stairway out of debris to get over the fence, and running from the sniper still able to take shots at her, she bursts into the hotel, one of Redeye's two headquarters in the city.
And as she's making her way up the hotel, wondering why the guards weren't pursuing her, she comes to a room filled with foals, all of them armed, and aiming at her, and she remembers Redeye's speeches about children, how they were cared for, taught, indoctrinated. She puts down her weapons, unable to fight them, hoping she could still escape the building when an alicorn comes up behind her, dashing that hope. And next to the alicorn, a grenade, the pin already pulled. Desperate to save the children she reaches out to fling it away, realizing to late it was only an illusion, what she had just grasped in her magic was a memory orb, beaten by her own trick.
And she slips into a pony, a pony high on Mint-Al's, who is also feeling dozens of odd little senses, a burning hoof, various itches and tingles throughout her body. While she watches, AJ and Fluttershy come into view, Fluttershy asking AJ on a date, continuing the running gag among them, AJ demanding to know who started all this. While her host creeps up behind AJ, neither other pony noticing her, Li'lpip wondering if it was another invisible pony when AJ turns around and we learn it's Pinkie, being Pinkie. And we learn the whole "Mane 6 hitting on AJ" was an extended joke Pinkie and RD set up. After a bit of talk between them, we get this....
“Burning hoof means Littlepip’s watching me,” Pinkie Pie blurted out impossibly. “Or will be watching me. I’m not sure yet.” She bounced after her friends. “Who’s Littlepip?”
Yeah, so, that happened. And well I'm okay with it, yes it might stretch suspension of disbelief a little for some but, it's Pinkie, and she is high on a drug that increases her Pinkie Sense exponentially. Yeah I could buy her being able to do that.
And she wakes up trapped inside a pair of green alicorns force field, Stern and Redeye discussing what to do with her. Redeye saying he feels generous, addressing Li'lpip, asking if she thought him a monsters, which she does, and he agrees, he is one. And the she can see it better then most, noting how similar they are, as much as Li'lpip disagreed with that. That so far she'd had it easy, hadn't had to sacrifice her values, or beliefs. The proof being she didn't hurt the children to escape. Implying that had she done so, she wouldn't have woken up from that memory orb. And pronounces her sentence, tomorrow she would fight in The Pit.
While waiting for her fight to begin the next day, Li'lpip listens through some of the messages she found in the Ministry of Image building, only one being of note, a message from Twi to the pony in charge, asking if she knew where Rarity had happened to learn a certain new spell, one that allowed her to enchant a mirror, so that when touched, it would reflect the ponies soul, not their image, mentioning how cold the spell felt, Li'lpip instantly reminded of the mirror she had bumped into in the fun house, the one that showed her as a bleeding, dying raider.
And while the first rounds go she gets some exposition about how the fights work, 2 teams of 6 that fight one at a time, the team with a member left at the end wins, be on the winning team six times in a row and you go free, and about the slew of weapon caches stored for the fighters to use, all inside barrels of radioactive ooze or other nasty stuff. She watches two ponies die one from each team, and then the second challenger from the other side is brought in, a Zebra.
Perk, more SATS boosting.
Thoughts-Well damn. Like I said, going into Fillydelphia was the part of the story I was most afraid of, knowing just how bad it could get, and while it addressed that, it never actually went that far, and I'm glad. And we see Li'lpip, even when she knows better, even when there is every logical reason NOT to help a pony, she can't just walk away, she HAS to do everything in her ability to help.
And then there is Redeye comparing them and, he's right, they are very very similar. They both want the same thing, to make Equestria better. They both want to help all the ponies of the wastes, just Redeye is willing to do ANYTHING to make his vision come true, and is more then willing to accept any suffering of ponies in exchange for a better future. While Li'lpip will not allow a single pony to suffer if she can help it. They are dark mirrors of each other. The single biggest difference though, is that Li'lpip has something Redeye doesn't something that most ponies in the Wastes, even her at first, scoff at and think is worthless, and yet is the single most vital thing they could have. Friendship. She has her friends to rely on, to help her, to pull her up short when she goes to far, to give her something to anchor to.
(And sorry I'm slowing down, just kind of got into a "bleh" mood, it happens now and then, usually passes after a few days, hope you all are still reading and enjoying it, feel free to let me know, comments or PM's are always appreciated.)
Comments
- cough* Canterlot *cough*
And there are still worse ponies than the Brotherhood of Steel in the fic. Raiders, for a start. Anyway, I'm still reading nd enjoying.