Fallout: Equestria - Bits and Pieces

Link to the story on Gdocs - Chp. 2 - Harsh Reality

Today's weather: excessively violent, with a chance of dismemberment. Stay tuned for our Five-Day Forecast!

Tap-tap-tap.

My claws made little clicking noises with each button on the terminal I pushed. The password of the terminal I had to use to unlock the main gates was simple. After only a few seconds of tap-tap-tapping the keys, I discovered the password was “Talons”. The simplicity of the password for one of our most important security terminals made me even more glad I was leaving. I didn’t want to wake up one night to find out someone had broken in and started an assault.

After I entered the password, I heard the main gate unlock with a small click. Luckily, neither of the gate guards had heard it from all the way up in their security towers.

I sat down to think for a moment. Would the guards shoot a griffon who was trying to get out of the compound? They had no reason to think anyone on their side was trying to leave in the middle of the night, and might suspect I was an intruder trying to leave with something stolen, which was only half right.

I looked up into the towers and made out faces in the darkness. I recognized the guards as Garl and Thrash, the twin sharpshooters. Excellent shots, but not the sharpest knives in the armoury. I felt like the luckiest griffon alive tonight! It would be easy to distract those two numbskulls long enough to get out the gate!

I scanned the vicinity with my eyes, looking for something that would make a suitable distraction, but nothing caught my eye. I was about to give up and find another way out of the compound when I remembered the spark cells in my bag.

I rooted around in my bags and carried out a spark cell. It was small, but plenty of magical energy was being stored inside the tiny battery. I grinned, working out a plan in my mind that would occupy enough of the twins’ time to get me out of the gate.

I tossed the spark cell into a relatively open area a few yards away. I only had one shot at getting it right, and I hoped I didn’t mess it up. Unholstering my energy pistol, I brought it up to my eye and aimed down the sights, pointing the barrel of the weapon at the spark cell.

Bzzzt!

My shot missed by a whole yard, passing by the spark battery and hitting the ground near the fence!

“Hey, I think I heard a shot!” I heard a voice from the towers shout. I quickly jumped to the right, hiding behind a convenient stack of barrels. I tried holding my breath, but I felt myself start to panic and hyperventilate.

“Are you sure? I didn’t hear nothin’,” a voice responded. Whew! Maybe they wouldn’t investigate any more.

“Nah, I’m sure I heard something,” the first voice called out. “You stay up here. I’m going down to investigate some more,” he said, followed by the click-clack of claws climbing down a ladder.

I started to shake. I should have known better than to try something that stupid! I was never any good at the firing range. Why did I think I’d be able to hit the damned spark cell?! He was going to come down me and put a bullet in my head for trying to abandon the Talons! Or worse, he might tell my dad! What if he-

“Huh, there’s no one down here. Guess I’m hearing things.”

Yes! I almost let out a whoop of joy, but stopped myself before I dug myself anymore into this hole I had gotten myself into. I carefully listened as the guard flew back up to his post.

Okay, that plan was a complete failure. I was going to need to find another way out of the compound. I wracked my brain, trying to think of another way out of the ancient school. The only other exit I could think of was the abandoned fire escape, and that door was alarmed. There was no way I’d be able to bypass the security on it. Unless... a hah!

Genius idea in mind, I silently padded my way through the halls of the old school, searching for the equipment I’d need to enact my plan. An unlocked storage closet to my right caught my attention, and I slipped inside.

The closet I was in wasn’t as fun as the last one. Where the last one held laser rifles and armour, this one held an old mop and some building equipment. I reached up to a shelf and swiped a box of iron nails and a spool of copper wire.

Stolen goods in hand, I left the closet just as another griffon passed by. I hardly recognized him, but I remembered seeing him in the hallways a few times. His name was Chad, or Thad, or something like that. He watched as I stepped out of the closet and close the door, then winked and kept walking. What was that about?

I made my way to the old fire escape, which was located near the back of the building. We didn’t use this area very much, and spiderwebs hung in the corners. Eventually I reached the fire escape and started to enact my plan.

Fire doors have two magnets attached to them, one on the door itself and the other on the wall. When the door is opened and the magnetic field is broken, it sends an electrical pulse, which activates the alarm. If I could use another magnet to keep the field intact, I could silently open the door and no one would be any wiser.

I cut off a bit of copper wire from the spool and wrapped it around the iron nail. I touched the copper wire to one end of a spark cell, turning it into an effective magnet. I wrapped the nail, copper wire, and spark cell together, then taped it to the wall near the handle of the door.

I held in my breath and pushed on the door handle, hoping my plan would work. As the door swung open and the halls of the compound stayed silent, I let out my breath and a little whoop of victory. Take that, Talon meatheads!

With this one victory in claw, I took off into the night and the perils of the Equestrian Wasteland.

I took cover behind a large rock, frantically replacing the spark cells in my energy shotgun with fresh ones. My claws were shaking frantically, and I kept dropping the cells, but eventually I managed to reload the weapon.

I poked my head over my cover to peer at the beast I was at odds with. The creature was huge, mutated far beyond the regular size of its species. It was covered in thick natural armour and had a deadly, razor-sharp stinger that looked like it could pierce a tank.

I jumped up on the rock and aimed my energy shotgun at the beast in the general area I assumed its face must be. I quickly squeezed the trigger, sending six shots of laser buckshot into the creature’s carapace. The creature let out a high-pitched squeal and stopped moving, seemingly dead.

In the end, civilization triumphed over nature, and my energy shotgun took down the beast of claw and stinger. I felt strong.

After I was done basking in my own glory, I stepped over to the dead radscorpion, which was about the size of my arm, and removed its stinger, keeping it for a prize. The beast had put up a good fight, and had almost overpowered me. A creature this powerful must be rare in the wasteland, otherwise I fear all of civilization would be destroyed.

The wasteland was a horrible place, I had learned. I had been walking for less than an hour before I had stumbled across the creature. It was late, and I was in no condition to be fighting anything. What I needed more than anything was a safe place to sleep.

I continued on towards the next town, hoping to find something to settle down in for the night. My prayers were answered when I stumbled upon a small cave. I peered inside, but the murky blackness was enough to stop even my perceptive eyes from seeing too far. There didn’t seem to be anything living in there, so I crawled in, unpacked my bedroll, and went to sleep.

Hours later, the sun had risen above the clouds and its dim, filtered light illuminated the cave. I woke up and groaned, rubbing my eyes with my claws. I had learned the hard way that a bedroll will not make it any easier to sleep in a small, dark cave with a weird unidentifiable smell.

I rolled off my bedroll and started to pack it up. My eyes drifted to something a bit further back in the cave, something I hadn’t noticed in the darkness. It looked like a pile of dirty armour, and the smell seemed to be coming from it. I went to go inspect it closer.

None of the armour was empty.

Inside each of the suits of leather and metal armour was a pony, filled with bullet holes, and with dried blood caked onto their fur. I dry heaved, but I hadn’t eaten enough lately for anything to come up. I used my wings to propel myself backwards away from the morbid pile and knocked my head on the far wall. I felt a trickle of something warm on the back of my head as my vision started to turn black...

I awoke with a start. I had no idea how long I had been unconscious, but I knew I didn’t want to stick around in the cave full of murder victims. I scrambled to my paws. I quickly touched the back of my head and looked at my claw. It had come back bloody.

I frantically searched my bag for something I could use to stem the bleeding, eventually pulling out some dirty cloth. Tearing it into strips, I wrapped one around my head and tied it up. That would stop the bleeding, in the meantime at least.

I was about to sprint out of the cave when my eyes fell upon something out of place on the cave floor. I recognized it as a holodisk. Picking it up in my clean claw so as not to damage it, I inspected the device. It seemed intact, but I had nothing to play it on. I placed the holodisk in my bag and ran out of the cave, away from the morbid truth of the wasteland that lay within. Freedom wasn’t as good as I had thought it would be.

I travelled for the rest of the day, slowly but surely making my way to the town of Diptrip. Night fell once more, encompassing me in its shroud of darkness, and I started to get antsy. The feathers on the back of my neck stood up, and I got the feeling like I was being watched. I desperately wanted to find somewhere safe for the night.

I was in luck. As I reached the top of a small incline in the land, my eyes fell upon an old shack in the distance. Picking up the pace, I ran towards it, hoping the inhabitants would take me in for the night.

As I drew near, I noticed that something was off about the shack. No light spilled out from underneath the door, and a few bullet holes peppered the doorway. Inching open the creaky door as quietly as I could, I peered inside.

A bunk bed lay overturned near the back, blood splattered on the wall behind it. Bullets were embedded in the floor and walls. A table had been used as a makeshift barricade, but the top half had been torn away by shotgun fire.

I slowly walked in, wary of any traps or people who would do me harm. Everything of value was stripped from the shack. Were raiders the cause of the destruction here?

I went to go check if the bunk bed was still serviceable. As I got closer, I noticed something on sticking out from behind the overturned bed. A hoof lay in a small puddle of blood.

The hoof was attached to the remains of a stallion that lay dead behind the bed. He was wearing old rags, torn from the bullets, and a paper note lay near him. I picked up the note and started to read.

To any who find this, let this note act as my final request. Raiders are attacking my home as I write, and it doesn’t seem like I have much more time. My daughter, Ivory, has left for Diptrip and I worry about her coming home to find me here. Please, find her, tell her not to come home. I don’t want her to see whatever they do to me.

I placed the note down. It seemed like I had another reason to travel to Diptrip. I started to close the poor stallion’s eyes as an act of respect, but was stopped when a drop of blood fell onto my claw.

I lifted my claw up to my eyes, confused. Slowly, I looked up, afraid of what I would find on the ceiling. My eyes widened, and I screamed.

A mare had been spiked to the ceiling! I jumped back, trying not to let any more of her blood fall on me. The mare on the ceiling had an ivory white coat and a black mane. Her limbs had been affixed onto the ceiling with railroad spikes, and her chest had been flayed open to reveal her insides.

I ran back out the door. I couldn’t be in there. Never before had I been witness to such horrible acts as I had seen in my past couple of days in the wasteland.

I put together the pieces. Obviously, the stallion had been under attack by raiders, and they had killed him after he had finished writing his note. Wasn’t his daughter in Diptrip, though? Could the mare I had seen flayed on the ceiling be somepony else? I doubted it. More likely she had come home while the raiders were still at the shack, and they had...

I didn’t want to think about that anymore. After what I had seen, I knew I wouldn’t get any sleep. I continued into the wastes, making my way to Diptrip.