I would like to tell you that old cliché line of 'War never changes.', but as much as ponies seem to enjoy using it, I think its only telling you half the story. So let’s start with my opinion of the dawn of pony kind. I for one like to think that in the beginning there were sunshine and rainbows, and maybe that time lasted for far longer then we deserved. But, if I am allowed one good cliché line here, it would be that all good things have their end. Because that’s just how this damned world works.

When things did end, it wasn’t the end of the world. Ponies actually hadn’t destroyed their world like most still believe. It was simply reduced to a much darker version than the original. The whole ‘balance of the universe’ must continue, and our days in the sun had simply run dry.

For some, they survived in their Stable-Tec glorified prisons when fate raised its ugly head in clouds of pink and green fire. Some, either willingly or by force, met their demise by either of the two. And then there were the select few that ran for the heavens. But unlike their comrades that rose to follow their princesses or whatever deities they chose at that time, these ponies stole the heavens for their own safety against the apocalypse.

Let’s start there.

When I first heard that I had finally been assigned an actual unit to work in, I was pretty happy that finally I might be able to get out of this smelly bunker that I currently shared with about nine other pegasi my age. Sadly having to join the Enclave was pretty much my last option, and being slung along the low ranks for the last year hadn’t proved to be even remotely worthwhile, other than the promises of future benefits.

So when I was interrupted during one of the very few moments of actual peace where the others sharing living space with me had decided to go out for their off-time, I at first was annoyed...at first.

I had gotten used to the cloud bunkers, even though they weren’t the best. Well…their clouds. Kind of hard to get completely uncomfortable clouds, if you think about it. Grumbling to myself as I stretched into a standing position, I let the off-white feathers on my wings stretch to their full extent while my shoulder blades popped with the effort. Never the less, my name being shouted at the end of the hallway again caught my attention.

“CLOUD. I am not going to ask you again! Do you want out of here or not?!”

That got my attention. A quick trot down the hallway and a door pushed open via quick head-nudge without stopping brought me in front of a taller male pegasus right outside the door, nearly having ran smack into him. He took a quick step back with a loud snort of disapproval.

Navy blue fur, short cut neon pink mane…yeah, I had no clue who this was. Having the door behind me shut with a gust of air that blew my straw colored mane over my eyes wasn’t helping my situation any better.

“Sorry sir.” Having absolutely no idea who this stallion was made my logical side of my brain figure that maybe it would be best if I tried to keep my mouth shut, while trying to fix my mane with a hoof. A narrowing gaze was received when he lowered his head down to get a slightly better look at me, after finally getting my mane back into place. I guessed that my longer then regulated mane was just adding to his irritation.

“About damn time, I haven’t got all day you know. Anyways, you’re being assigned to a sky patrol unit, lucky you.”

With that said he turned around and began to make his way down the cloud-based sidewalk, but almost just as quickly growled back at me when he noticed I was currently still standing in slight shock. “Did I stutter? I said you’re being assigned today! We’re getting you geared up. MOVE IT.” Oh. Hooves. Right.

Trying my best not to stumble forwards at the sudden attempt at obeying the order, I quickly stepped in beside the larger stallion that was currently ruffling his feathers back into place against his back side while muttering darkly to himself. Only then did I notice his cutie mark, a burning cigar. Those being a delicacy up here in the clouds, I could only guess that’s why this guy was so grumpy. Who knows when he’d last had a good smoke? Straying thoughts made me wonder how a pony would have got that cutie mark in the first place…

We made our way into our armory hall. A larger normally locked building that I realized I’d never had a chance to go into before. Stepping in behind the stallion that still currently hadn’t told me his name, I found the inside to be rather spacious. A larger area was clear within the middle of the building with surrounding armor lockers along the walls. An upper area with the same design circled about the top with a simple cloud-rail along the edge, not that we really needed one.

Point being proven when a bright orange mare casually stepped through the rail while she slowly lowered herself to the middle ground floor. The rail quickly went back into place afterwards.

The orange mare had met up with five other ponies in the middle area, all of which looked to be in different stages of putting on Enclave armor. Her and the other two looked about my age, while two older ones were obviously helping the younger ponies with their armor. Suddenly I was pitched forwards towards the group with the navy blue pony’s voice in my ear,

“Anddddd…here we are. Dust, Whirl, here is another for your little road trip.” The two older ponies, both stallions, looking up at the sounds of their names. “Get him set up with the others and hurry up. I’d rather not have to explain why we couldn’t set up a simple little exploratory mission in less than 24 hours. Wing it faster.” The last part said while he whirled back around and made his exit. I was then left with these five other ponies I’d never met before.

The orange mare with the white mane raised a hoof in a wave with a quick smile, what looked to be like a white ray of light ending in a circle as her cutie mark. Behind her staring stood her two companions, a light gray mare with a black and white mane tied back, and a pastel blue stallion with a very short lime green cut to his mane. The older two stallions headed my direction, the dusty colored, brown maned one stepping up to me while his partner, lavender hued with darker purple mane, stayed slightly behind him watching.

“I’m Trail Dust.” Suddenly a wider grin crossing his muzzle…”And my friend behind me is Whirli--“

“Just, Whirl. Thanks.” said his purple partner. Narrowing his equally dark purple eyes at his ‘friend’. “Anyways…” Said while he lightly shouldered his friend out of the way, lifting a wing and lightly wrapping it around my neck as he pulled me off to the side towards the rows of armor along the walls.

“This is all pretty standard, but this is just a small ‘explore-only’ unit, but I am sure we can find you something…eh?” He stopped as we’d come up to a rack holding differently sizes pieces of that same metallic black armor. “Sorry. I don’t think any of us actually caught your name.” And my heart sunk a little…

“Cloud is just fine….Thanks.” I said, mimicking his own statement from earlier. Realization sinking into the older stallion as he simply gave a nod of his head while clearing his throat. He wasn’t the only one that would rather just not have his full name mentioned.

“Ehem…Cloud. Common, but a good name. As I was saying…” He turned his back to me while hoofing through each piece and rambling to himself. “These look about your size…” Tossing a few of the pieces of equipment behind him.

Taking the moment to stray away I stepped over to the haphazardly tossed metal and quietly hoofed through them while he found the remaining tail pieces. As it was nice to finally be given a set of the famous Enclave armor, these pieces had obviously either seen better days, or were simply made to mimic the nicer set that real officers wore. All well…beggars’ couldn’t be choosers.

Using my wings I looped a few of the pieces where I could carry them via holding my wings out, and grabbed the helmet with my muzzle, taking them over to the other's piles. The pastel blue stallion having already got into his own, giving me a better look at what we were actually being dealt.

Not nearly as shiny as I would have liked, black and gray covered almost his entire form, including the now metal-incased scorpion tipped tail. The matching insectoid like eyes eventually coming to life with a soft electrical crackle, and a green electronic light flashing over their surfaces to indicate their responsiveness. The stallion giving a soft sigh as they did so,

“Whew, and I was worried these POS’s wouldn’t even turn on. At least we got EFS.” The gray mare with what I could now tell as a zipper cutie mark was rolling her eyes at him and thrusting her own helmet down over her head.

“These things are still a work of art no matter what you say, so why don’t you just go back to being quiet.” The two seeming to be perfectly content with arguing with one another. It didn’t really do the mare any justice to be arguing with just her helmet on…

The orange mare waved me over and I was more than happy to get myself dressed near her rather than continue to listen to their argument escalate any further. She gave another one of those smiles to me while putting on her armor.

“So I am Spot Light, and you’re Cloud?” she had good hearing. Nodding my head to her I started to mimic her actions with putting on my own suit.

“Yep, just Cloud.” Please don’t ask any further, please don’t ask any further…

“Just, Cloud? Come on. No parent in their right mind names their kid just Cloud. I don’t know much more common then you could get with ‘just Cloud’” She said, mimicking my own voice with a smirk across her muzzle. “Okay then, ‘just Cloud’, so why do you think we get to be the lottery winners of the day, eh?” As she fitted her tail pieces into place, I was still working on getting my ignored flank covered. Today really must be my lucky day.

“No clue. Here I was on free-time till tomorrow morning, and next I’m being assigned to this unit. Least it gets me out of the bunker, I’m thrilled with that.” Her helmet was being tossed on while I hoof-grabbed for my own. We both twisted our shoulders slightly to get our wings angled in just right, afterwards her turning her now bug-eyed head towards me.

“I didn’t even get to eat lunch!” She said, I could almost see her pout through the metal. “But apparently a good eye is needed on one of these kinds of things. I guess it’s the only reason I get to go.” A shrug was given, the pout quickly forgotten.

The last statement had me wondering, exactly why did they need me on this mission? I’d barely been in for longer than a year and do the regulations even allow this sorta—

“Alright kids.” My thoughts interrupted by Dust as he stepped up to us. Without noticing it he had also donned his own suit of armor along with the other stallion behind him, whom I was guessing was Whirl standing quietly.

“Just going to brief you very quickly, you lot are the lucky four that get to come with us to the surface.” Now that perked some ears up. Explore via the sky was one thing…the surface though…?

“We’ll be going in to take samples.” Whirl having twisted around and grabbed a small leather satchel that he now held in his mouth. Dust continued, “The Enclave needs these samples for tests. I won’t bore you with details because we don’t really have them. The Enclave needs these, so we’re to get them via showing you what you will be dealing with in your future careers in actual combat units. Yes, your tails do work. Just please watch where you’re swinging them.”

I could practically hear Whirl’s eye roll beneath his helmet as he let out a huff of exasperation. Dust easily ignored his friend’s annoyance, “As far as battle saddles go though, you’ve all been trained in their uses, I shouldn’t really have to explain the cautionary matters of them.”

I was fighting not to fold my ears back while I listened quietly. I was slowly getting an uncomfortable feeling about this entire ordeal, but was also attempting to fight down that feeling by simply ignoring it. This was an opportunity that was providing me with below-cloud experience, something I was going to have to get used to at some given point anyways, might as well get it over with now with a simple little mission rather than running in guns-a-blaring in some battle or other.

“Now,” crap I’d lost track again... ,“Lets finish up here and get this over and done with so we can all be back for supper,” Dust having given a little stomp of his hoof on the cloud-floor below him to show his slight impatience now with us. With that being said I hoofed my helmet atop my head and thrust it down, squirming a bit at the sudden tight feeling enveloping my senses and darkness in front of my eyes.

Lucky enough my eyesight flickered on shortly afterwards, giving my fellow ponies a slight green hue before the color corrected itself, along with their own yellow colored names atop their heads. Except for unnamed ponies number’s one and two, indicating our other two partners I’d neglected to get names from.

With a point of his wing, Dust had us bring our attention to the bay doors at the end of the building. Next to this wall hung matching battle saddles designed to fit with our current armor. We followed him over and all grabbed our own pair, which were then, with each other’s help, clicked-strapped, and locked into place correctly.

Twisting my head about and raising my wings to look over the weapon did make me feel a lot more comfortable. There couldn’t be much in the wasteland that a good novasurge blast couldn’t take care of.

Dust and Whirl had already made their way outside the bay doors with their saddles intact on their armor, and we quickly followed them. Once outside I took a moment to look up at the sun through the electronic gaze of my helmet.

“And now to the fun part, the cloud layer here is extra thick, so once we get below let’s re-group in flying formation Anserini. Otherwise, please don’t knock each other out heading down,” said Dust with a quick flap of his wings before he suddenly fell through the cloud street below our hooves.

“Show off,” was Whirl’s only response before unfolding his wings from his back and lazily dropped through the clouds while angling his wings for a spiral descent from what I could tell before he disappeared.

Spot Light gave a happy little ‘squee’-ing sound before she simply jumped down through the clouds and out of sight. Zipper-butt and Unknown Blue Pony Number Two were far less dramatic as they stepped away from one another to make enough room to head down before floating under.

With a shrug of my shoulders I gave out a small sigh. Regardless of this entire situation a part of me still felt tired, even though I wished I could be sharing in Spot Light’s enthusiasm. But, at least we’d come to the one part I knew I was good at.

That last thought forcing a grin across my muzzle as I let myself fall forwards, relishing in the moment as my body simply became a part of natural gravity. It wasn’t until part way down through nothing but what looked like fog through my lensed over vision did I allow my wings to slide open and slow my descent slightly. The cooler air under my wings helped in preparing me physically and mentally for whatever might be below.

It had to be more entertaining than spending all day napping out of boredom.

Author's Note

Note to new readers: Dont let this first chapter throw you off. I really hope I have gotten better in later chapters!

(Fallout Equestria: TQF Wiki Article)
(Theme Song: Satellite by Rise Against)
(Story attempts to follow this map. Roughly.)
(Set in a time period slightly before the original FoE.)
(Chapter Titles are old saying and quotes from movies or video games. This amuses me.)

First off, let me go right out and say it, that this is the very first story I have ever attempted to write. Ever.

There will be things wrong with it, punctuation will be harsh, and my writing style might get very annoying. You've been forewarned! I'm not looking for overly harsh criticism. This is a first for me, and is basically my attempt at trying something new. Don't expect this to be updated frequently. Its taken me over two months to actually be happy with this chapter and even still I am a bit nervous about posting it. But if I don't, I'll never force myself to really try. In other words, this story is more for me, than it is for you. If you cant say something nicely, then don't say it at all, thank you!

Now, to the stuff that's more then likely annoying you!
* I don't really like explaining everything about a character in the main chapter. So yes, Ive been very vague. That was actually an intended thing. The more I write, the more character detail will come forth.
* Yes, Cloud has a hard time keeping his thoughts on track. That's also intended.
* Overly detailed? Yep. And its annoying me too. But at the same time I really hate it when authors refuse to give ANY detail and I'm left trying to come up with a picture inside of my head. For those of you who think in mental-imaging I believe you might be able to understand. I know I need to work on a balance, but that's appearing to be my hardest thing right now.
* Punctuation. I'm trying so hard. I don't want it to be completely perfect, but I don't want you wanting to bleed your eyes after reading either.
* I have absolutely no earthly idea as far as how "cloud cities" in FoE are supposed to work. I am basically taking my ideas from how I "think" things would work. How does Enclave Armor stay on clouds? Well, it was built with pegasi in mind...why wouldn't it simply hang up on clouds? Same with the battle saddles. Maybe their special clouds! Heck if I know! I'm trying my best here!

And just a quick thank you to Kkat, for putting two of my favorite things together into one awesome story.