Ignorance Pt.1

     The wind echoed through the trees. The faint sound of some sort of wind instrument shuttered in the empty sky. It sounded as if a song were to play but hummed to stop slowly repeating like a broken record. Among the rubble, nature started to take back what belonged to it. Ash tumbled and fluttered by in the wind, everything calm and peaceful in a once buzzing city.

 

Darwin trudged down the barren streets, once bustling with life, observing each and every wrecked specimen. The dry, weightless ash brushed over him, barely noticeable, matching the colour of his coat. Darwin reached into his saddlebag and levitated a large industrial laptop onto a rock. He attached a large thermal camera to the laptop, stretched out the cable, and began to record data of the decimated city. He walked a couple feet ahead. “Achoo!” Small sneeze came from behind a rock just off to his right. His stomach leapt into his chest at the surprising sound. “Anypony there?!” Darwin called out. He trotted over to the site of the sound. ‘Click!’…

That click, that oh so familiar sound. It struck fear into his heart instantly. In about a second, a bouncing betty shot out from under the dirt and ash, into the air, and exploded, sending bits of shrapnel in all directions around him. Darwin dropped to the ground and braced himself. He waited… To his surprise, he was unharmed! “Whew! Well that would’ve been a terrible way to go.” He said to himself. “H-help! Help me! Owww!” Darwin spun around to see an injured mare writhing in pain on the ground. He walked closer to her, and discovered that three rods of shrapnel had pierced through her.

 

Darwin hesitated thinking to himself that maybe that this was an ambush; somepony waiting close by only to pounce on him as he tried to attend the seemingly injured pony. Darwin pushed hard to force that thought out of his head, this pony was hurt and Darwin couldn’t bear to see her suffer.

“A-are you alright?” Darwin said, raising his voice as he stepped closer to the injured pony. A faint twinkle of hope sparkled in the young mares eyes. A last chance hqas been offered to her. “N-no, I’ve been hit pretty bad.” She replied, removing her bag to reveal the rest of the injury. Darwin now knew this was no ambush, and quickly made his way up to the mare, levitating alcohol soaked cotton wrap and a pair of tweezers from his bag. “Where else have you been hit?” He quickly muttered, panicking slightly. The young mare moved slowly and pointed at the injured areas with her muzzle. A rod stood from in between two ribs and another from her collarbone.

 

Darwin squeamishly levitated the tweezers to the piece of shrapnel in the mare’s collarbone. Once he had found his mark, he grasped the piece of metal tightly. “I’m not sure how to do this!” He said, sounding extremely nervous. “Please, just pull it out!” The mare cried, tears rolling down her face. Darwin carefully began to pull on the piece of shrapnel. The mare cringed as she felt the sharp spoke tear out of her. Before they knew it, the piece of shrapnel had been fully dislodged. Darwin then began to clean the wound with the alcohol soaked cotton. The mare flinched at the pain. “I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.” Darwin said, a tear forming in his eye. “It’s fine, I’ll be fine.” The mare replied. Darwin would have liked to believe her, but the rate she was bleeding at was scaring him. Darwin moved on to the piece of shrapnel in her side. He was no medical pony, but he knew pulling this one out would be painful. “Wow, if it hadn’t have been for your bag, you would’ve been dead.” He said. That was a terrible thing to say. “Just pull it out! Please!” The mare pleaded. Darwin latched the tweezers onto the second metal rod and began to pull on it. “No! Don’t pull it!” Yelled the mare. “Twist and pull it, I don’t care if it hurts, it will do less damage.” Obviously, she knew more than he did about injuries. Darwin obliged and began to twist and pull the rod. In a few second the piece of shrapnel popped out. The mare gritted her teeth. “Okay, are there any others?” Darwin asked. The mare motioned her muzzle toward her right-front hoof. The injury wasn’t too bad. He quickly pulled the last piece of shrapnel out with the tweezers. Darwin was alarmed by how much the mare was bleeding. He quickly reacted by putting some cotton wrap on her side. “Thank you, I don’t think I would have made it without you.” She said. “I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry. I never intended on hurting anyone.” Darwin said. “It’s okay, I’m fine.” She most certainly not fine. But it consoled him to know that he saved somepony. Wow, he saved somepony. It had been weeks since he had seen anypony outside of his camps back home. And even if he did, they had either shot at him, or fled. Being a technician pony, he barely knew anything about combat. But after roaming the broken cities for weeks, he had finally found somepony. She tried to pull herself to her hooves, but fell over. “Haha, I guess I won’t be going anywhere any time soon.” She said, surprisingly in good spirit. “Oh, I’m sure things will get better. What’s your name?” Darwin asked. “My name is Windwake, you?” “That’s a nice name, mine’s Darwin.” He replied. She stared at his cutie mark, A large, green ‘>_’

“Corny, haha.” She giggled. “Are you a Unix based robot or something?” She chuckled. Darwin groaned. “Haha very funny. What are you supposed to be?” He asked.

 

 

"Well, I used to be a mechanic" Windwake paused for a few seconds trying to explain her situation through all the pain. "Then I left the small settlement in search for some lost technology".

Darwin leaned toward the injured mare, interested in what she was looking for exactly and why. "Lost technology, you mean elements?"

"Precisely!" She raised her voice sparking a sense of interest.

Windwake cringed a bit and settled back down.

"Easy now" Darwin pushed trying not to sound too concerned. "I'd be surprised if they still existed unscathed under all this rubble and ash"

Windwake piped up once more "they just gotta be!" She spat with a flare of resurgence.

Windwake sighed "ever since I was a little filly my father always rambled on about how these six great elements and how they were used to fix all the princess’s mistakes and how they could pull us out of this great depression of chaos blah, blah, blah", but only in a foal's lullaby could such a thing be true.

Darwin had also been told tales of such a miracle when he was a young colt. "I'm sure there's a light at the end of this tunnel"

Windwake was about to reply to Darwin's comment, but a rogue rustling among the rubble triggered both ponies attention.

 

The wind picked up, sending the dry ash flying all around them. The faint rustling became distinct hoofsteps against the ground. The hoofsteps got closer. The ponies hearts raced. They didn’t know whether to cower in fear, or await the company in excitement. As the hoofsteps got closer, the sound became louder. The dust finally became tranquil, as it revealed three large figures, those of stallions. Darwin and Windwake stared up at them, blank faced, not saying a word. “What are a couple of bites like you doing around here, hmm?” The middle one bellowed. “Well, you see, I was scanning the area, and I accidentally stepped on a betty and hurt this poor mare.” Darwin confidently replied. The large unicorn stallion, who appeared to be the leader, surveyed the pieces of shrapnel and the ponies. “Well, you did a nice job of fixing her up. I have a bit of a problem though. Traps are set for a reason, we can’t have ponies going and interfering with our ways.” He indignantly remarked. “What do you mean?” Asked Windwake. “Food.” He let the word drawl out. Windwake just stared at him, still confused as hell. “Food has become a major issue with our camps, and barbaric as it may sound, our last resort was to either feast on the dead, or hunt.” Windwake sort of stuck her tongue out and made a gagging face. “Well, haha, you guys have a nice day. Nothing to eat here.” Said Darwin. “We can see that, but we’re not going anywhere.” The leader said. “Give us your saddlebags, your food, and everything else you brought with you.” “But I need the first aid equipment for Windwake here!” Darwin said. The unicorn leader pulled a shotgun from his belt and aimed it at Darwin. “Give us your loot, or I’ll blow your heads off.” The Stallion growled. “You can start by grabbing that laptop over there.” Windwake said, motioning towards Darwin’s laptop with a hoof. “W-what?” Exclaimed Darwin. “Shut up.” Windwake barked. The three stallions walked over to the laptop and thermal camera laying just feet away from them. “Haha! Now this we can get some cash for!” Said one of the stallions. Darwin just stood and watched in disdain. Just then, Windwake reached up and held a button on her headset. “Come in forty degrees, one hundred feet off pin-point, fire” She spoke into the microphone.” “Huh what?” Darwin was confused. “Darwin, get behind me.” No sooner than those words left her mouth a giant white laser came crashing onto the earths surface, hitting exactly where the three stallions were standing. Red-hot rocks flew in all directions. Darwin braced himself. The laser stopped abruptly and seemed to dissipate back into the sky. As soon as the dust cleared, all that was left were three charred skeletons laying on the ground. Darwin got up and peered at the destruction. His mouth gaped open. “That- how- did- you- I don’t-“ Darwin kept stuttering in amazement. “Hehe, I haven’t used that in such a long time. What do you think?” Windwake said with a sinister tone. “That was scary, and freaking awesome!” Darwin said. “Yeah, there is a downside to it though, it charges energy from the sun, it takes forty-eight hours to recharge.” Windwake said, staring up at the clouds. “Thank you Windwake.” Darwin said. “Hey, it’s the least I could do for somepony who saved my life.”  “What are we going to do now, there are obviously more traps here, and our food won’t last forever.” Said Windwake. She winced at the pain of the wounds, the one in her side still bleeding. “Don’t stress yourself!” Darwin said. “We will need to find somewhere to camp out before sundown, but I have no idea how we are going to do that. Darwin pondered about it for a bit. “Get on my back.” He said. “I can’t move!” Windwake complained. Darwin thought some more. “Stay still.” He said a reassuring tone. Darwin wrapped Windwake in an aura of magic and carefully began to lift her up over his back, cautiously turned her around, and set her down. Surprisingly, she barely weighed anything. “Darwin?” “Yes?” “Please be careful.” He nodded his head.