Fallout Equestria: Guardian

My world ended on my eighteenth birthday. Before that, life in Stable sixteen had been boring, but still nice. I had been a bit of a wild child as a colt, terrorizing the adults with my youthful antics. Many was the time I was dragged into the Overmare's office to be chewed out. I still fondly remember the time Thunder Runner and I had rigged the toilets in the atrium to explode with foam when flushed. We were scrubbing the filtration system with our toothbrushes for a week. It took poor Runner another week to fully get the stench out of his feathers. That pegasus always could find things to complain about. Life was good.

Maybe I should explain what a Stable is. Back during the great war, about two hundred years ago, a company called Stabletec constructed huge fallout shelters they called Stables to protect Equestria's population in the event that the unthinkable happened and mega-spells and balefire bombs began to fly. It was hoped that the Stables would never be needed, but unfortunately, soon after the last Stable was complete, the zebras hit Canterlot, Equestria's capitol with a megaspell and Manehattan with a balefire bomb. The war ended then, not because of one side winning, but because there was no longer any armies left to fight it. The Stables worked though, and two hundred years later, here we were.

My Cutie-mark of a stylized lightning bolt meant that I would be apprenticed to the Stable's electrician and general repair-pony. True, my cutie-mark was probably related to my spastic nature and tendency to come up with random ideas and things like a bolt out of the blue (that one prank using my lightning spell may have had something to do with it as well). But, I did have some experience with the electrical systems and general maintenance thanks to the pranks that one Nightmare Night where Thunder and I made the lights flicker and the PA wail eerily. So, it was decided by the Overmare and her board of advisors that making me responsible for repairing any damage I caused with my pranks would make me stop the pranks altogether. Who knows, maybe it would have. I'd never get the chance to find out.

My eighteenth birthday party was held in the Stable's cafeteria, a large room in the center of the multi-level bunker large enough to hold all five-hundred or so residents at once. It was a large affair, for while I wasn't that popular with the adults, many of the foals in Stable sixteen absolutely adored Thunder and myself, and so they had begged with their parents to let them go to the party until the weary ponies said yes. The party went on for hours, long into the night. I was having the time of my life, until I left to use the restrooms.

I heard a scuffling when I entered, coming from one of the stalls. I heard a filly pleading. "Please, no, I don't want to do this, I-"

"Shut up!" The pleading was interrupted by a stallion's gruff voice and a wet slap.

I knew that stallion's voice, and I use the word stallion loosely. Moose was the biggest bully ever to come out of Stable Sixteen''s nursery in its entire two hundred year history by my reckoning. He was the largest and strongest stallion in the Stable, and while I was no pushover in the strength department, I was just a unicorn and he was an earth pony, and he used his natural strength to his advantage. That usually meant beating up smaller and weaker ponies, including me. I was one of his favorite punching bags, and I was never strong enough to do anything about it. What made things worse though, was that he was never held accountable for his actions, the reason being that his mother just happened to be the Overmare. So, Moose went unpunished, and whenever somepony accused Moose of some wrongdoing, they'd find themselves locked up in security overnight for 'wasting the Overmare's valuable time.' It made me sick.

When I heard Moose slap that filly, I forgot myself. I kicked down the stall door and what I saw showed me for the first time just how depraved Moose really was. I saw the massive shit-brown earth stallion standing over a fuschia filly with a sky blue mane who didn't even have her cutie-mark yet. To my horror, I realized that the bastard was getting ready to rape her, a blank flank no older than ten. Moose's long, scraggly mane, the same purple as a nasty bruise, slapped against his neck as he turned his head to see who had interrupted him.

He sneered when he saw me. "Oh. It's you." He said it like he had noticed a radroach crushed underhoof.

I stamped a hoof at him. "Let. Her. Go."

Moose chuckled and waved a hoof in my direction as he turned away from me. "Make me."

"Make me." Those two words held a special place of hatred in my heart. For eighteen years, those two words had mocked me, mocked me and every attempt I made to defend myself and my friends from the bastard of a pony that had just turned his back on me. Eighteen years of silently suffering, knowing that none of the adults would step in to stop him because his mother refused to hear a word spoken against him. Eighteen years of being beaten till I was black and blue. Eighteen years of being verbally assailed. Hearing those words, and knowing what he was about to do, sent me over the edge. "Make me."

I screamed. My horn lit up golden, the same gold as my eyes, my brown mane wavering around it. Sweat bead up, trickling down my dark green fur. I poured everything I had, every injustice, every insult I had ignored, every beating I endured, all of my fury, rage and hatred for this shit in front of me into one massive spell. I had never used it for more than joy buzzing an unsuspecting victim, but I was pissed. With a strangled cry of "HOW'S THIS?," I let loose the biggest lightning spell I had ever cast, right between his black, hating eyes.

It was several moments before I realized what I had done. Moose lay on the tiles of the restroom, smoke curling from the burn on his forehead. I stared in horror at him, the realization dawning on me that I had just killed another living being. The poor filly was curled up, crying as she held her ears, the tears streaming down her face. I could only sit there, staring at the corpse of the deceased bully. I felt no remorse for him though. With what he had been about to do, how could I? I was still sitting there when security arrived.

The next few hours are just a blur in my memories. I remember being arrested by security. I remember that they asked questions. Why I did it, what were you thinking, things like that. I remember Loken Load, the head of security, telling me that he was sorry for what I had been through. It was almost morning when the door to my cell opened. I looked up to find my brother, Lightning Blitz, staring at me. He looked scared, which scared me, because in the ten years he had been in security, that pegasus had never looked scared.

"Blitz, what's wrong?"

Blitz looked at me. "The Overmare has lost her mind. She had your trial last night."

I was shocked. "But, I wasn't even there, they didn't even hear what I had to say."

"I know. They didn't even call the filly you say Moose was trying to rape in to speak. They found you guilty. Sparky, they sentenced you to death at noon."

"What?"

Blitz opened the door to the security wing. "Come on, we need to get you to our quarters. Follow quickly and stay quiet. If anypony asks, I'm taking you to say your last goodbyes."

The goodbyes to my friends and family were the hardest thing I have ever done. Thunder took it poorly, his black wings drooping to drag on the floor, his blacker than black mane messier than usual. He didn't say a word, just giving me a book on safecracking and leaving. He was trying hard not to show it, but I could still see the tears in his eyes. Some of the other ponies that knew me gave me a few words of encouragement, wishing me luck in my travels, before they too left. Soon, I was alone with my parents and my brother. Blue Screen, my father and the Stable's resident computer technician, presented me with my PipBuck, a small leg-mounted computer that monitored health, inventory, and received radio, amongst other things. It felt good to have it on my left foreleg again, it having been removed when I was arrested. My father unlocked some of the more advanced functions on my PipBuck, before carefully explaining how to use each one.

"Spark Chaser." He used my full name. He never used my full name. "Promise you'll make me proud." I nodded.

Saving Grace, my mother and Stable Sixteen's head teacher, tearfully presented me with a set of saddlebags, a pair that she had enchanted herself to be self repairing and to be bigger on the inside. "You have your toothbrush packed, right?" "Yes mom." She gave me a long hug, sobbing quietly into my fur before stepping back with my father.

My older brother stood before me for what seemed to be eons. Already a sergeant in security, Lightning Blitz was the fastest officer on the force. Being a pegasus, he was also the black sheep of the family. After staring at me for the longest time, he dropped a black duffel at my hooves. I was surprised when he embraced me in a hug. My brother was never very touchy-feely, so getting him to hug you was momentous. We held each other for as long as we could. "Sparky." He used his pet name for me. "I managed to get you some old riot armor, a ten-mil and some ammo. There's also a book on how to use and care for your weapons in there. I also managed to talk Cookie into giving me twenty bags of apple jerky. I know how much you love those."

I nodded weakly, not trusting my voice not to crack. We embraced for a little longer, before releasing each other. I sniffled, earning a smile from my father. "Chin up, now. You've got a whole new world ahead of you, so don't you ever look back. Y'hear?" I nodded. My mother embraced me, and soon, my father and brother joined in to our group hug. We stayed that way until Blitz broke the silence.

"Okay, Sparky, let's get you out of here."

We had almost made it to the Stable door when a red light began to strobe above. A loud, pulsating wail grated against our senses. The Overmare's voice sounded over the PA.

"Alert. Prisoner Spark Chaser has escaped captivity. He is to be considered extremely dangerous, and is to be put down immediately upon contact. Lethal force has been authorized."

"Shit." Blitz looked at me. "I was hoping we'd have more time. Look, Sparky, we're going to try to get things to calm down, get the Overmare to see reason again. Until then, You need to leave the Stable, for your safety and ours. Do you remember our all-clear code from when you were a colt?" I nodded. "Good. Here." He input something into his PipBuck, causing my PipBuck to bleap in response. "I sent you a radio frequency. Listen to that every day. When everything is safe, I'll send you the all clear, okay?" I nodded again. "Good."

The sound of guards approaching drew a curse from my brother. "Shit. Sparky, go that way, the Stable door is down there. The code to get it open is 'butterscotch.'" He dashed off to distract the guards, leaving me to head for the Stable door and freedom. I reached the antechamber, and galloped over to the control box. I input the code and watched the door open slowly with a creak. Suddenly, a voice rung out behind me.

"Leaving so soon?"

My blood froze. I knew that voice, just as I knew Moose's. However, where Moose's filled me with hate and loathing, this voice filled me with gut-wrenching fear. I slowly turned around to see Iron Discipline, Moose's brother and by far the worse of the two. Where Moose would hurt you to get what he wanted, Discipline would hurt you just to get a cheap laugh. I backed away towards the door as the massive unicorn pony, even larger than his brother had been, towered above me.

"You're not going anywhere." He charged his horn for a shackles and magic retardant spell. Panicking, I blasted Discipline with the same spell I had used on his brother. Roaring in anger, he crashed to the floor as the electricity set his nerves on fire, screwing his nervous system eight ways to hell. I took the opportunity to run out the Stable door and hit the red emergency close button.

Level Up!
New Perk: Lightning Strikes - Your lightning spell now does +10% damage.