Three friends in the wasteland chapter 2

Chapter 2: Look what you got us into!
"Well, shit..."



It was midday in the Equestrian wasteland. Busy ponies shifted in the town of Trotsberg, which was built out of some of the ruins of Manehatten. The massive towers of the once great city loomed over the slaving ponies below and the ponies that enslaved them. Gates made from scrap and concrete surrounded the several blocks of road that made up the city. Guard towers were made along the walls, fending off creatures and raiders that constantly tried to beat down their wall, making gunfire a common sound, along with the slave masters' yells and unfortunate slaves' screams.

A wooden wagon carrying several newly captured ponies and missing some of its original guards was nearing the depressing place. Four raggedy, weak slaves pulled the vehicle, struggling with every step.

Inside the wagon, a green buck leaned against the wooden interior, worrying for his friends, who hadn't woken up yet. The bruise on Melody's ribs was big and ugly, Sigma suspected that several of them were broken. Ten' laid next to her, blood soaking the magical healing bandages around his neck. Sigma was the only one who was lucky enough to make it out of the battle unscathed.

Normally Sigma would try to find a bright side to things, but now was a truly grim situation. His friends, the reason why he left the safety and love of his friends and family, were no doubt dying, and they were all being dragged off to who knows where to work as slaves.

The other occupants weren't helping either. Most sat with sad almost blank expressions, which disturbed Sigma even more than the mare that was sobbing in the corner about her colt being killed by the slavers. He made a mental note on each of their capturers in case he had the chance to give a little payback for her. The bomb collar around his neck ruined any hope of that happening, however.

He had seen the slavers take their stuff to a trunk on the outside of the wagon. They'd stripped him and Ten' of all their belongings besides Sigma's PipBuck. They made sure Melody had no concealed weaponry but left her Stable suit just to save them the trouble of putting it away. Sigma had to open it up to see the damage the sludge hammer had caused, but he really wished he hadn't.

One of the slavers had mocked Ten's choice in armor, calling it "little filly barding". Another slaver was wearing Sigma's flight jacket for all the shiny medals and ribbons it had. The green earthpony couldn't help but feel a pang of rage surge through him at that. It was just wrong for such an undeserving vile pony to be wearing his tribe's clothing.

The wagon stopped for a second, before a shout for permission to enter signaled a loud metallic screeching noise, and they started moving again.

Soon after, the wagon door opened, light shining on the newly captured slaves. It was hardly comfort as the slavers charged in and began pulling everypony out violently. Using their teeth or magic, they roughly grabbed onto any of the slaves and threw them out onto the dirt ground inside the town, not even giving them a chance to cooperate.

Sigma was grabbed onto by some earthpony buck and tossed out of the wagon with a thud, landing on his face. He got up with a groan to see him unconscious friends getting the same treatment. Sigma yelped in surprise when Melody was thrown to the ground with a squeak of pain escaping her. Ten' flopping onto the ground soon after her.

With a gasp, Sigma rushed to their side, inspecting them for any further damage from the abusive banishment from the wagon. He hardly got the chance to inspect his friends before some slavers addressed him.

"Hey, slave!" an earth pony mare called to him, placing a hoof on his shoulder to get his attention "What do you think you're doing!? Get in line!"

Sigma turned around, seeing the other captives being filed down the street in a line. Most too broken hearted or too wounded to fight back. He looked around at several guard towers that surrounded the town, each with slavers carrying high caliber weapons. More well armed slavers walked down the ruined streets.

"Please," The last thing Sigma wanted to do was beg to a slaver but he knew it was his only chance to help his friends, no matter how slim that chance was "My friends need help. They'll die if they don't get treatment soon"

"Yeah yeah" the mare rolled her eyes, "A clean up crew will be by soon to pick up the corpses." Well, so much for that idea.

"Excuse me?" A new voice came from a well dressed unicorn stallion, who silently crept up on the earth pony slaver, causing her to jump. "Nopony will die while they can be saved, not even slaves." The newcomer glared at the mare, who shrunk back under his gaze.

"Now, go get Sawbone" He ordered in a very harsh tone.

"Y-yes, Rapture!" the slaver mare saluted him nervously and sprinted off, leaving Sigma with the new buck.

The grey unicorn let out a sigh. "Sorry about that, it's hard to find good ponies to work for slavers. I go by Rapture by the way" He extended his hoof.

Sigma stared hesitantly at the gesture but returned it with a bump from his hoof. "I'm Sigma, and my friends here are Melody Flight and Ten'" He looked back to his unconscious friends with a worried glance.

"Don't worry" Rapture stated with a smile "Doctor Sawbone is one of the best medical ponies I've known. She'll get them patched up in no time."

The green earth pony turned his attention back to the suited stallion. "I hope you're right... why are you being so kind to us?"

Rapture frowned raised an eyebrow "I may be a slaver but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I try to be as generous as I can to the ponies working beneath me. When I was asked to work here, I spat in my employer's face in disgust. But then I thought about all the good I could do here. To keep the slavers in line as much as I could, to try to stop as much abusive behavior to slaves as I could."

Sigma had hardly anytime to ponder Rapture's explanation as a dark brown mare showed up in haste. A small yellow buck followed her, carrying a stretcher.

"Bloody hell!" She growled irritably "There's two of them!?" She turned to the buck, who saluted back at her. "Fever, get another stretcher and some more ponies, quickly!"

"Yes, ma'am!" he said quickly before charging off from where they came from.

The doctor pony let out a sigh. "Rapture, I'm gonna need your help with this"

Rapture nodded to her, turning his attention back to Sigma. "They'll be fine, but I need you to get to the slave pen. It's the old store to the north of the town. I'll try to find you tomorrow morning, before any of the other slavers do, I have something to talk to you about." The stallion then focused back on Sawbone and the matter of Sigma's friends.

Sigma knew there was no point in arguing, but he hesitated leaving his friends. Looking at his friends' motionless forms, he growled quietly and made his way north, to where the stallion had specified.

No new perks: Sorry, but you ain't do shit!