The Vault; A legendary safe, housing power beyond anypony's imagination. The brave and lucky pony able to find and open the Vault will be known around the world over, and will be so powerful that they could even dethrone Celestia herself. Even though Equestria was a peaceful place long ago, word of the Vault turns even the best of friends into the worst of enemies. The only way to survive is to be brutal, trust nopony, and protect yourself. You must be strong, you must find the Vault, you must make me proud.
This was the story I grew up with, a tale of a legendary Vault. I promised my grandfather that I would find the Vault for him. He later died to the hooves of bandits while I was forced to watch. They later dumped me in the wasteland, forcing me to survive on my own in the harsh environment. I grew strong and developed skills that helped me survive.
My name is Allure, I'm a thin, earth pony, mare with nopony to care for anymore. The only possessions I own are the clothes on my back, my grandfathers old pistol and his inventory unit. I'm currently on my way to the infamous town of Ponyville. My grandfather would tell stories about the time before the Vault came to Equestria, stories of peace and friendship, a time where everypony trusted eachother. All of that changed though, Equestria became war-torn and barren, everypony became obsessed about finding the Vault. So obsessed that they started fighting, after a while guns were being produced from several new companies with only money on their minds. These companies, according to them, came from the stars above.
The companies are; Dahl, Maliwan, Jakobs, Hyperion, Tediore, Torgue, Vladof, and even Bandits have started making weapons. Sadly, because guns started being used to settle debates, ponies started needing protection. Shields started being introduced recently, while most of these manufacturers have also made shields, there are also a few shield only manufacturers. These include Anshin and Pangolin, they make decent shields from what I hear, I wouldn't know since I've never owned a shield before. My pistol was made by my grandfather, so it doesn't have a company label.
This train couldn't move any slower if it tried. "Hey! How much longer till we get there!" I yelled from the back of the same train car as the conductor.
The conductor was old with a raspy voice, "Hold your flank! we'll get there when we get there."
I sighed and slouched in my seat and opened my inventory, took out my pistol and started to polish it with the end of my blue shirt. "touchy." I whispered under my breath. About five minutes later I reloaded my pistol and put it away, just as three shady ponies opened the door behind me and went up closer to the front of the car. There were two dark blue stallions guarding the gray mare who was obviously the leader of the small crew.
The two guards wore torn suits that didn't match, they both seemed to be twins. They both had short dark green manes, but one had his tail cut short, and the other still had his tail. As for the mare, she had a black mane that had a single white stripe running down it.
The three sat down in the seat right behind the conductor. The leader turned and glared at me, I just turned and looked out the window, keeping an eye on what was about to go down. The leader turned back to the conductor and pulled out a revolver. She pressed the revolver up against the conductors head and whispered in his ear. this isn't going to end well, I might have to step in if things go south. The conductor turned toward the leader and the two started to bicker.
BANG!
The leader shot the conductor and his body fell to the floor. I quickly pulled out my pistol and shot both of the guards, one guard took the shot right in the back of the head and fell to the ground, the other guard had a shield and the shot got absorbed. Unlucky for me the guard that was still alive had a shotgun. I ducked behind the seat as he fired just above my head, barely clipping my long red mane. His second shot missed and hit the wall next to me. There was a pause and I popped up and got a few shots off at the guard, one breaking his shield, and the other hit him in the throat as he fell over.
The leader looted the conductors body and found a key which she used to open the safe at the front of the train. I shot at the leader with the rest of my clip, only managing to break her shield. I tried to reload as quickly as possible but right when i got the clip in the pistol, the leader blasted a hole in the roof with a strange gun that shot an orb of light. She jumped out onto the roof with whatever was in the safe. I shot a few rounds into the roof and heard a cry of pain, followed by her running farther down the train.
I would follow her and try to catch her, but there's another problem at hand. The train was coming up on the station for Ponyville, and we were still going too fast. I ran up to the console, almost tripping on the dead bodies. I looked around for the brake and found the stereotypical lever brake. I pulled the brake and the train skidded to a stop barely missing the station.
Right before stepping off the train, I decided to loot the tree bodies for any gear. The first guard had some more pistol ammo, enough to replace the used ammo along with a few extra clips. The second guard's shotgun was sitting in the pool of blood, I picked it up and looked at it closely. It's still usable I just have to clean out the blood, I also took a few shells for the shotgun. I looked over to the conductor, he's already been through so much there's no point in looting him, besides that other mare already looted him.
I proceeded to walk off the train onto the platform. I passed by the ticket office, "you're going to need a new conductor by the way." I said to the ticket pony.
"really?" he sighed, "thanks, that's the fourth conductor this week"
I chuckled as i started to walk into town. I need to find my informant I was supposed to meet in town, but i could always meet her later and go explore the shitty town for a while.
Author's Note
ok I just had a crazy idea i want to try out... an interactive story!
suggest what Allure should do next in the comments. Should she go see her informant, or do something in town before hand, or even do something stupid and random?
Leave a comment with what you want her to do and I will see what happens in the next chapter.
I walked out of the train station to see the desolate town ahead of me. It looked like half of the original buildings fell long ago, and the other half were just patchwork. As I walked up the path toward the town some of the buildings began to stick out from the rest. At the front of the town I could see a garage, crudely made up of a bunch of left over metal from the other buildings. Closer to the center of town, I saw what looked like a bar. The bar stood out from the rest of the town since it looks like it came from the old days, untouched and still looked like a house made of candy. I looked out to what I think used to be a forest, and I saw a run down cottage with a big red plus on the roof.
Before I could notice anything else, I bumped into something metal. "What the Hell did I bump into?"
"oh! That would be me!"
I looked down to see a small CL4P-TP unit. It was painted purple and green with a plastic tail taped on its back with matching spines that went up to the top of the unit. "And just who, or what, are you supposed to be?"
The little robot gave a salute and introduced himself, "My name is 5-P-1-K-3, but you can just call me Spike." He bounced on his wheel and rolled in a small circle before continuing, "I'm the assistant to Ms.T up in what used to be the library." He pointed to the back of the town where I could barely make out a few dead branches. "Ms.T is expecting you!"
"Is she my Vault informer then?"
"Yes she is. Follow me!" Spike began to roll off into town. "I'll give you a tour while I'm at it." I followed spike into town, our first stop was the garage named, Ridin' AJ.
The building was fairly large with two garage doors as the only entrances. Both of the doors were closed with a large sign outside that said, "out to lunch, Be back whenever."
I looked at the sign, "seems like the mechanic isn't here right now."
"Oh well, She'll be back later. Let's go to Sugars Corner! They're always open, all you have to do is come inside!" Spike rolled around me and started off to the next destination, sounding like a walking ad.
We made our way to the building that looked like it was made of candy and sweets. There were tables outside with a few rough looking ponies getting drunk. I could hear loud music coming from inside masking the commotion and roughhousing. Spike made his way toward the door but stopped at the stairs and looked up at the large unicorn stallion guarding the door, "Hey buddy mind giving me a hand?"
The stallion scoffed and turned his head, "forget it tic-tac, Rated-R doesn't want you in her club anymore since you tried to get it on with her radio."
"aww come on! that was one time! and I only did it since she wouldn't show me the goods." Spike started getting mad, "come on Clarence, just hoist me up the stairs! I won't make trouble, Please?"
"no can do, sorry shrimp." The bouncer looked at me, "Sorry miss, I would let you in but Rated-R doesn't let anyone in while that little turd is at her front door."
I nodded, "no problem I'll come back later."
Spike crossed his arms and rolled back to me, "all right, let's just go to Ms.T, you can check out the rest of the town later."
I followed Spike through the town up to the tree in a small clearing, or what was once a tree. The "tree" had no leaves and was basically a large chunk of wood in the shape of a tree. There was quite a bit of tech protecting the tree, a particle wall, several auto turrets, and a basic keypad lock on the door. I looked over to Spike, "aaaaand how do you propose we get through all of that?"
He twirled in place, "Don't worry friend! all of this is mostly for show. I just need to say the pass-phrase and we can go through!"
"ok so what's the pass-phrase?" I looked at Spike in disbelief.
I heard a light click from Spike as he started speaking in a different voice, "Dear Princess Celestia, Friendship is dead."
Right as Spike finished speaking, an opening appeared in the wall and the turrets shut down. We continued ahead and walked up to the door. Spike started to press buttons on the console. I looked at the door to see several large metal bolts covering it. The bolts began to retract to reveal a wooden door that had a faint painting of a candle on it, the door also nested several bullet holes as well. Seems like whoever lives here isn't very popular with the locals. Spike opened the door, and I saw who lives here.
She was a unicorn with a light purple coat, and a smooth long dark purple mane that had three stripes running through it. She had on a red labcoat and jeans, along with a spiked ring around her horn. She stood there arguing with a small device in her hoof.
"I'm Telling you, I'm getting closer and closer to finding the location to the Vault. All I really need is a few more months and I will know approximately where the Vault might be. I'm also going to need that artifact you found sent here for study. I have reason to believe that it might be a crucial piece of the Vault. Also if you could send over some daises, I have been starving, and don't cheep out with dandelions! They are not the same and don't make a fool of me! Also, say hi to fluff for me." She turned to me and Spike. "Spike goddammit! What have I told you about leading strange ponies into the house!"
She lifted Spike in the air with her magic and threw him down the basement stairs, "stay down there and reprogram yourself or something, I don't care." She pulled out a Dahl pistol and pointed it at me, in turn I quickly drew my pistol as well. "what do you want?"
Before I could answer, Spike's voice echoed from downstairs, "that's the Vault hunter Ms.T!!!"
She looked me over, "One second, don't move." her pistol was in-cased in a faint purple glow as she went over to one of the messy desks strewn about the room. She shuffled through the papers, until she pulled out a photograph. She held up the photograph and compared me to it. Her pistol lowered and she put it away, "You're much larger in person." She held out her hoof, "My name is Twilight Sparkle... or it used to be, before the Vault happened. Now I just go by Ms.T"
I put my pistol away and shook her hoof, "My name is Allure, I guess I'm right to assume that you're my Vault informant?"
"Yes, that's correct." She put the picture back on the desk. "Here, follow me to my bedroom. we can talk there, also i have something I need to give you." Ms.T started to walk up the stairs. I followed and took my first good look around the room.
This building apparently used to be a library, there were still a few books on the shelves but not enough to fill all of the scorched shelves. Only about a third of the books were left from what this library could hold, and most of those books were burnt as well. The main circular area was cluttered with several desks and papers strewn about everywhere. The circular table in the center was the worst though, there were artifacts, books, and notes everywhere, and on the top of the table looked like there was once a statue there but only about half of it remained.
I walked up the stairs and went to Ms.T's bedroom, it was a simple bed and nightstand with a window over looking it. Ms.T was hunched over looking in the bottom drawer of her nightstand. I looked over to a picture on the wall, it was of Ms.T and 5 other ponies that had were ripped from the picture, along with a small dragon that had the same color pattern as her CL4P-TP unit.
"Ms.T? Who are the other ponies in this picture on your wall?" I asked
She didn't even look up from her night stand as she answered me, "Their all unimportant. Now mind your own damn business!" She threw something long and purple at me, and I had no time to react so it hit me straight in the face awkwardly. I looked down to see that it was a dildo.
"aww that's disgusting! don't throw something at me that's been inside you! Blugh!" I wiped off my face.
"oh stop being a kid and grow up." she took out a small device and handed it to me with her magic.
It was labeled "Echo Device" with a handle and a small speaker. "what is this?"
"it's an echo device, also a heads up display. look on the back."
I looked on the back of the device to see a pair of goggles, I put them on and instantly saw a map, how much ammo I had, how health I was, and a cross-hair wherever I looked. I strapped the Echo Device on my belt next to my inventory and instantly saw another option open up, Inventory, I looked at the menu and could see everything that was in my inventory unit. This Device was way to awesome to pass up.
Ms.T smiled, something that seemed like she hasn't done in a long time, as she saw me in amazement. "I made it, I made plenty of Echo devices, but that's the only one with a heads up display." She puffed up her chest in pride. A small beeping sound could be heard from the other room. Ms.T rushed into the room as I played with the options on the heads up display a bit more.
She quickly ran back in, "There's no Time to explain but I need you to go! Now!" She lifted me up with her magic and threw me out the door, "Don't worry about my defense system, I registered you just now, feel free to come back any time except for right now!"
Confused, I began to walk away from the tree-house and make my way back to town to explore a bit more.
