Fallout Equestria: Fragments

Chapters

Fragments
Origins
Homestead
Shadows of the Past
Cancelled Future Plans

Fragments

The Wall in Fillydelphia rose high above the buildings and factories in the city below. The Wall ran all the way around the perimeter of the inner city, splitting the city in two. Behind The Wall, the sky was perpetually shrouded in dark clouds from all of the factories, which completely blocked out the sky. There was also an ominous, red glow in between the clouds that gave the sky a dark and eerie feel, befitting the worst city in the Equestrian Wasteland.

Inside The Wall, the slave areas were all behind chain-link fences. Inside the fences, the slaves were forced to work with auto-axes mining the area. Several griffins hovered over these areas, clutching guns in their talons to keep the slaves in line and working hard.

In one of these areas, there was one pony in particular: a mare with a dark pink coat, covered in dirt and scars from her time in the Wasteland. Her cutie mark was of a dark storm cloud with three thunderbolts on it; two to each side, behind it, and one down the centre, in front of it. She had a very long, flowing, lime green mane that draped over her shoulders and trailed down her back, reaching a large set of white bandages draped over her midsection. She had a blank, stoic expression on her face and an auto-axe clenched in her teeth. She casually moved her head back and forth and brought the auto-axe colliding with the rock again and again. She was caught in the same endless cycle that she had been stuck in for the past two weeks since she had arrived here.

Suddenly, she stopped in her endless cycle and looked up, with the auto-axe still clutched between her teeth. She glanced around the area, looking at the other ponies; all of them doing the same repetitive, mind numbing task as her. There was also a blood-red mare and a big, beige stallion that seemed to be avoiding doing as much work as possible. She still had an empty expression on her face that betrayed any emotion. After about ten seconds of just staring ahead blankly, she suddenly spat out the auto-axe in her mouth and the heavy tool fell to the ground with a loud crash.

One of the griffins hovering overhead noticed this and he turned to look at what was going on. When he saw that she had stopped working, he quickly pointed his gun at her and said, “Pick it up and get back to work.”

Upon hearing this, the mare casually turned her head up to look at him. She still wore the same blank expression as before and she didn’t falter. After about five seconds of just staring at him, the griffin was starting to become annoyed and he cocked his gun at her threateningly. “This is your last warning. Pick up the auto-axe and continue working or I’ll put a bullet through your head.”

This didn’t seem to faze the mare at all. She then turned her whole body completely around to face him and she simply said, “I volunteer for The Pit.” Her facial expression never changed as she said this.

The griffin was taken aback by this and he lowered his gun a bit in surprise. After about two seconds, he smiled sarcastically. “Sorry, could you repeat that? I must have misheard you. It sounded like you just volunteered for The Pit. Literally.”

The mare just continued staring back at him. Her expression never changed and it was beginning to make the griffin feel uneasy. “Was that supposed to be a joke; or are you actually hard of hearing?” She spoke sarcastically, but her stoic expression never slipped. She didn’t even smile as she spoke. Not even sarcastically.

The griffin sneered at her in annoyance, but then he smiled back at her devilishly. He then flew down behind her and poked his gun into her back. “Alright then, start moving.” He then forced her to walk forward while he flew behind her with a gun pressed against her back; her expression unchanging. The griffin then shouted out, “We’ve got ourselves a volunteer for The Pit over here if you can believe it!”

All of the slave ponies working in the area and the griffins flying overhead suddenly lifted their heads up from what they were doing, and looked over at her in confusion. Nopony ever volunteers for The Pit, so this came as a big surprise to everyone.

The griffin hovering behind her then drew in close to her and whispered in her ear, “I’m going to enjoy watching you die”. She didn’t react to this at all and she just kept walking forward.

The pink mare now stood in the small, dark, cramped room connecting to The Pit, which served as a holding pen for the contestants. There were five other contestants in with her for today. Each of the contestants had a number on their flank indicating the order in which they would be fighting. She was number one, so she would be fighting first. The blood-red mare and beige stallion from before were also there. They were numbers two and three respectively. Numbers four, five and six were all earth pony stallions, however, unlike the other three, who looked relatively calm, they all looked really nervous. They most likely believed that with the two mares fighting first and second and the big stallion fighting third, they would all most likely have to fight as well.

Suddenly, the door to The Pit opened up, being levitated by an unseen unicorn somewhere. The pink mare didn’t hesitate and she simply walked out into the arena as soon as the door had opened. She wasn’t nervous at all like numbers four, five and six were; and she still wore her usual stoic expression to show it. She had volunteered for this after all so she had nothing to be worried about. She had nothing back in the slave area and she had nothing to go back to. At least if she won in The Pit, she would gain something worthwhile. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

She stepped out into The Pit and took a look around at her new surroundings. The Pit was a big, long arena, shaped like a rectangle with two semi-circles on each end, surrounded on all sides by an audience area filled with slavers; all stomping and cheering to see some fighting. To the death. There were several barrels hanging from the ceiling; all of them filled with weapons, radioactive goop, tainted ooze and other foulness you can’t even identify. There were pressure plates all over the floor of the arena for releasing the barrels, for the combatants to use to their advantage. There were several armed griffins flying around the top of the arena looking down. There was a big hole at the top of the arena for the griffins to fly in and out of. There was also a platform that stretched out from the centre of the audience area, overlooking the arena. Directly beneath this platform, there was another entrance into the arena, but it was locked down at the moment.

Her opponent walked out from the room on the opposite side of the arena at the same time as she did. Her opponent was a unicorn mare, with a pinkish-white coat that had been darkened and battered by the Wasteland. She had a long, red and white striped mane tied back in a ponytail to show case her horn. Her cutie mark was of a long, red whip, tied up. She wore an intimidating expression on her face, but it was obviously forced. It was really just a display of bravado to try to unnerve her opponent. It didn’t work. Both mares stopped about half way from the doors they had entered from, to the centre of the arena, and just stood there staring each other down from across the arena.

Up on the platform that overlooked the arena, stood a large, black griffin with a white, feathered head; bound in dark Talon barding. She had a big anti-machine rifle draped over her wing that she could draw at a moment’s notice, faster than anypony or griffin could react. Stern. She then stepped forward to address the crowd. “Alright people, let’s get today’s arena combat underway! Round one!” Stern then raised her claw to her right to show everyone who she was addressing. “From the Red Gate: from the recently destroyed town of Appleloosa; we have Red Whip! This is her second Event so you know she won’t be going down easy!” Sterns eyes then drifted to the pink mare at the other end of the arena. She then motioned to her left; “And from the Black Gate: we have a newcomer!” Stern then gave a smug grin. “Believe it or not, she actually volunteered for this! The way I see it, she’s either very confident or very stupid! How about we watch and find out which one it is, shall we?!”

The pink mare didn’t react to this in any way. She just stood there, staring down her opponent, whose bluff was beginning to slip a bit. Trying to regain some confidence, the unicorn sneered back at her and said, “You’re going down,” in a gruff tone of voice. The pink mare didn’t even blink at this.

Stern gave the signal for the fight to begin and Red Whip immediately charged at her; her horn glowing in a red aura, with intent to kill. The pink mare just stood there.

As Red Whip was closing in on her, the pink mare suddenly dropped her usual stoic expression and smiled devilishly. She then reached behind her, grabbed her bandages in her mouth and ripped them off of her. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as everyone saw that the pink mare was actually a pegasus. Red Whip was completely taken by surprise as well. She still kept charging towards her, but she slowed down a bit in shock. Just before they collided, the pegasus mare whipped out her wings and quickly dashed passed her, into the air.

Stern was taken by surprise by this as much as everyone else. “Well, I don’t think any of us were expecting this! Turns out the mysterious volunteer is a pegasus!” She then dropped her surprised look and smiled smugly. “Let’s just hope she’s not stupid enough to try and escape!” She then motioned to several of the armed griffins flying around the open top of the arena. They all cocked the guns in anticipation and kept them locked on the pegasus. Stern then returned her attention to the fight. “Although, it would finally answer our question about whether this pegasus is extremely confident or stupid! Let’s see what she does next and find out!”

The pink pegasus mare stopped in the air and turned back around to look down at her opponent. Red Whip looked up at her. She was legitimately surprised at this turn of events, and her facial expression showed it. She quickly looked around the arena and then turned back to face her. She put on another forced look of intimidation to try and save some face. “I must say, I certainly wasn’t expecting this. But those wings aren’t going to be much of an advantage against me.” She then bore down and started charging at her again.

As Red Whip charged at her, the pegasus just stared down at her. She closed her eyes briefly and let out a short sigh. She then opened her eyes again and smiled devilishly. “Well then, I guess that answers that question.” She then raised her hoof in the air. “You’re the stupid one.” She then slammed her hoof against the barrel that was hanging right next to her. The force of the blow caused the barrel to open and spill everything inside of it on to the unicorn who was passing underneath it.

The poor unicorn was hit full force by an entire barrel of radioactive goop, yet her head remained surprisingly unaffected. Regardless, she died almost instantly. She probably wished it was instant.

The pegasus mare floated down to inspect the body, while still keeping a safe distance from the radioactive substance. After a quick stare at her head, she reached out and took the bobby pin from her mane. She then affixed it to her own mane, tying it back in a clean ponytail.

Stern looked down at this and smiled a genuine smile of respect. She then announced, “We have a winner!” The crowd of Slavers began cheering and stomping loudly as the pegasus mare lifted her head up, now sporting a stylish ponytail, similar to, but shorter than the mare she had just killed. “Alright, bring out the next contestant!”

The next challenger came out on to the arena floor. The pegasus mare defeated them too and went on to defeat the other four as well.

When the pegasus mare had defeated all of the remaining ponies on the other team, and the crowd had stopped cheering, Stern flew down from her platform to talk to her. She hovered in the air, a few inches from the pegasus, ready to draw her rifle at a moment’s notice if she had to. The pegasus mare just stood there looking at her with her usual stoic expression.

Stern then folded her claws in front of her and she moved to speak. “Well, congratulations on your first victory in The Pit. Stay focused and in good shape, and maybe you’ll make it out of here.” As she spoke, she put special emphasis on the word ‘maybe’. The smile on her face then changed to a more serious expression. “Now then, before you head on back to whatever crap pile you slaves sleep in, how about you answer a few questions.” She phrased that in the form of a statement, not a question. Stern then raised her claw and lifted up one talon. “First question: what’s your name?”

The pegasus mare turned her head away to the side and simply said, “Lightning.”

Stern suddenly got an annoyed look on her face. She quickly drew her gun with her wing and struck Lightning in the face with the butt of her rifle. Lightning fell down a bit but remained standing on four hooves. Stern then pointed a claw at her angrily. “You look at me when I’m talking to you. If anyone is gonna look away like that while we’re speaking, it’s gonna be me. Got it?”

Lightning stood back up again, rubbing her cheek with her hoof. The only emotion on her face was a mixture of frustration and annoyance. She then nodded her head slightly. Stern waited until she looked at her again before continuing.

“Good. Now, second question: what’s a pegasus like you doing below the clouds? Judging from your cutie mark, you’re not a ‘Dashite’. So what’s your story?”

Lightning responded, this time, keeping her eyes locked on Stern. “My parents were unicorns and I was born in the Wasteland. I’m no more connected to the rest of the pegasi than Red Eye.” Her words, like her face, were hollow and betrayed all emotion.

Stern harrumphed. “That explains what you’re doing down here in the first place, but it doesn’t explain why you’re still down here now. So, why didn’t you just fly back up there when you had the chance and be done with the Wasteland?”

Lightning hesitated, but then turned away again. Stern drew her rifle again and struck her across the face with it. She fell down completely this time; however, she did not get back up. She just laid there on the ground.

Stern growled at her, but then pulled away. “Don’t wanna talk, huh? Fine.” She then turned her head to the side and signalled to several of the griffins overhead to come over. “Take our friend here back ‘home’.” She spoke the last word as sarcastically as possible.

Two griffins then flew over to Lightning, picked her up and forced her to walk forward, with two guns pressed against her back.

Lightning was led back to the slave area. She was feeling tired after fighting in The Pit, so she walked over to her heap of hay, laid down and fell asleep.

Lightning was woken up a few hours later by a rock being thrown at her head. It didn’t hurt that much, but her eyes shot open immediately. She still stayed lying down, with her head lying on her crossed hooves in front of her. She then lifted her head up and looked over to see who had thrown that rock at her. Her eyes immediately fell on a unicorn colt on the other side of the chain-link fence, glaring daggers back at her.

When she saw him, she laid her head back down on her crossed hooves. Her eyes dropped down a little more, half wanting to go back to sleep. She then rolled her eyes to look at the colt and she simply said, “What?”

The colt glared back at her with an expression of pure anger etched into his face. He then moved to speak to her, however, despite the angry look on his face, his words sounded as hollow as Lightning’s. “You killed my mom today.”

Lightning didn’t move at all or react in any way to this. She simply said, “So?”

The colt was visibly shaken by this. He didn’t expect this pegasus to be so heartless. “So? You don’t even feel anything about the fact that I lost my family because of you?” His voice now sounded as angry as his face looked.

Lightning turned her gaze away from the colt but continued speaking to him. “Everypony has a family; and out here ponies die every day.” She then lifted up her head turned to face him. “If everypony whined every time somepony close to them died then nothing would ever get done. What gives you the right to be upset about your family’s death? What makes you so special?”

The colt’s angry expression began to fade a bit. He was still angry at this pegasus for killing his mom, but he was also confused and thinking about what she had just said.

Lightning began to speak again; her voice never rising more than her normal level of volume. “I’m not a raider. I don’t kill for no reason or at the slightest discretion. I always try to find another way to resolve things. Only when I absolutely need to survive; when I have lowered my weapon and pose no threat to them, when I walk towards them and try to talk to them and try to find another way to resolve things, only to be shot at anyway and put in real danger of losing my life, when there is no other way; only then do I kill. It’s always wise to recognise when you only have one choice.” Lightning’s eyes then drifted back to her cutie mark. “My cutie mark represents how I strike; hard and fast like thunder, but just as thunder follows lightning, never first.” Lightning then closed her eyes briefly and let out a short sigh. “You’re probably wondering if it’s right; with all of the times when I have done this, and taken possibly hundreds of lives just to save my own; is it right to take that many lives just to save one life? If you ask anyone else then the answer will always be ‘No’. No one life is worth that many lives. But if you ask yourself, then the answer will always be ‘Yes’. People will never choose to die simply because they don’t want to kill someone else. They will always put their lives before an enemy’s and not even think about it. Your mom knew that two. She knew that she would have to kill, simply to give you and her a better life, and she knew that there was a chance that she would be killed. Do you really think that she would want you to be angry at them for simply choosing their lives over hers?”

The colt’s angry expression faded away, being replaced by a look of disappointment; not in her, but in him. He looked away briefly and then looked back at her. He then asked softly, “Why did you take her bobby pin?”

Lightning turned her head back around and glanced up at her mane. She then lowered her eyes again and said, “I really like her mane.” She then closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

As the next few weeks passed, Lightning was summoned to The Pit again and again to fight for her freedom. In every battle, she won by using a combination of her wings and the environment; and in all of those fights, she never struck first. Eventually she won six times and won her freedom. After she had won and had made her way out onto the streets of Fillydelphia, but still behind The Wall, she was approached by Stern.

Stern flew down and touched down on the ground behind her, so that they were both on the ground. Lightning noticed her coming and turned around to face the griffin, with her normal expressionless face.

Stern scratched at the back of her head for a moment and then moved to speak. “I just wanted to congratulate you on your victories and subsequent freedom. You did good, Rookie.”

Lightning looked away from her, but only with her eyes this time. She still kept her head facing Stern, hoping that this would be enough not to get struck in the face by her rifle.

Stern suddenly looked away too. “Alright, enough of this crap; I know you’re not buying it.” She then turned her head back around to face her, now looking more serious. “And it’s because of that and your skills in fighting that Red Eye has become impressed with you.” Stern then gave Lightning a grin. “He would like to personally extend you an invitation to become a member of his army. What do you say?”

Lightning quickly threw her gaze back to Stern and then away again. She then said, “It’s not personally if he doesn’t come here himself.” She said this in her usual sombre and emotionless tone of voice. It would have sounded sarcastic if she had put the feeling into those words, but there is no doubt that that is how she intended it to sound.

Stern threw her an annoyed look and almost struck her with her rifle again, but she restrained herself. “Yeah, yeah; but seriously, what do you say? Interested?”

Lightning turned her head back around to face Stern. “So, you want me to stay here as your slave, even though I already won my freedom?”

Stern smiled and crossed her claws. “Of course not. You’d be soldier now. You’d get better food, a proper place to sleep, actually be paid for your work and get treated like a real pony.” Lightning just rolled her eyes and faced down to look at the ground. Stern continued talking. “Plus, you’d be a higher up and have access to our secrets.” Lightning raised her eye brow at this. Stern noticed this and changed her expression slightly. “So; what do you say?”

Lightning just stood there looking at the ground for several seconds, deep in thought. She then raised her head up to look Stern in the eye and said, “I will… on one condition.”

Stern looked back at her quizzically, with her own eye brow raised now. “Oh; and what would that be?”

Lightning responded immediately in her usual tone of voice. “There’s something in the Ministry of Arcane Science Hub here in Fillydelphia, in the vice president’s office wall safe; and I want it.”

Stern was now intrigued. “And what would that be?”

Lightning again responded immediately. “A memory orb.”

Stern went from intrigued to confused. “You’re a pegasus. You wouldn’t even be able to use it.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Then why do you want it?”

Lightning hesitated for a moment. She then closed her eyes briefly and opened them again. She then said, “My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was the vice president of the Ministry of Arcane Science. That memory orb holds his last moments. That’s why I came here.”

Stern took a step backwards after hearing this. She then turned her head to the side and raised her claw to her mouth in thought. She stayed that way for several seconds before she turned back around again. Just before she did, it looked like she smiled. She then said, “Alright then, you stay here and we’ll get you the memory orb you want. Of course, for obvious reasons, you can’t come with us to get it. We have to make sure you’re not trying to pull something, you know?” She then held out a claw with a smile on her face. “Do we have a deal?”

Lightning looked down at her claw. She then looked up to look Stern in the eye. “One more condition.” Stern’s smile dropped a bit. “When you do go to retrieve the orb, you don’t bring any unicorns with you.”

Stern now dropped her smile completely and looked surprised. “Huh, why not? Don’t you need a unicorn to tell you what’s on it?”

“No thank you,” Lightning responded immediately.

Stern quickly regained her composure. “Alright, no unicorns. Do we have a deal?” She suddenly became irritated again. “I’m not going to ask again.” She then held out her claw.

Lightning held out her hoof and smiled. “Deal.”

Lightning walked into a bar behind The Wall. It was a small, dark room, thinly illuminated by a small gem hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room, giving off light. There were several other soldier ponies and griffins sitting together at small tables talking, drinking and gambling.

Lightning walked over to the bar and spilled several of her newly acquired caps on the counter. “Apple whiskey, please.”

The pony behind the bar was a large earth pony stallion, with a grey coat, a short brown mane, short grey stubble and had a tankard of cider for a cutie mark. He scooped up the caps and then poured some apple whiskey into a shot glass and slid both the glass and the bottle over to her. He then turned around and walked down the bar to serve some other ponies.

Lightning took the shot glass in her hooves and downed the whole shot at once. She then took the bottle and refilled her glass.

Lightning sat at the bar for several hours in silence, with her head resting on the counter, occasionally refilling her shot glass. After a few hours, she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She casually turned her head around and saw an earth pony stallion, with a brown coat and a white mane standing behind her. He wore a set of light barding, which barely covered his cutie mark, which was a stick of lit dynamite.

She just stared at him for about five seconds, expecting him to say something. Then he finally spoke up. “Stern said that this belonged to you,” he said as he reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a memory orb.

Her eyes opened wide as soon as she saw it, and she dropped her persistent stoic expression. She then turned around completely and reached out and took it in her hooves. She then turned back around and just looked at it.

Lightning continued staring deeply at the memory orb, almost like she was trying to look into it without unicorn magic; although she knew that that was impossible. Nevertheless, she didn’t look away from it for a moment. Then… she smiled; an honest to good, happy smile.

The earth pony behind her hesitated for a moment and then he said, “Stern also wanted me to give you this.” He then reached into his saddlebag again and pulled out a recollector.

Lightning slowly drew her gaze away from the memory orb and turned around to look at him. When she saw the recollector in his open hooves, she paused for a moment and said, “What is it?”

The stallion looked at her confused for a moment. He then said, “It’s a recollector. It allows people to look into memory orbs, without the need of unicorn magic.”

Lightning’s eyes suddenly shot open in surprise as she heard this. She then turned around completely to look at him. She smiled at him with real happiness in her eyes and said, “Thank you very much.” She then reached out and took it.

The stallion suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. “You’re welcome.” He then turned around and walked away.

Lightning quickly strapped the recollector to her head and slid the memory orb into place. She raised her eyes up to look at the memory orb attached to her head and… she beamed.

She then flipped the switch and activated the recollector.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

• • •

I opened my eyes and I was sitting in a chair behind a desk. The room that I was in looked like some sort of office. The building that I was in was made of a strong stone, but not quite as strong and elegant as the buildings in Canterlot. There was a big window behind me, and I could tell from the lighting in the room that it was late at night. The door to the hallway was open, on my right, at the other end of the room. There was no sound coming from outside the office (and none coming from inside the office either). Over to my left, there was a large bookcase; each shelf lined with books. I couldn’t tell what it was exactly from this angle, but there was something shiny on top of the bookcase.

The host that I was riding was a male unicorn; I could tell that much. He wrapped a memory orb on the desk in front of me, in the same yellow magical aura as his horn. He seemed to be using a spell to record this memory. He continued floating the memory orb in front of him. I already knew that he wasn’t going to drop it.

My host turned to the left and floated a cigarette into our mouth. He took an inhale and then breathed out a puff of smoke shortly after. I could taste it in my mouth. I wanted to wretch, but I couldn’t.

Suddenly, my host started to speak.

“(Sigh) Well, I just received the word. Manehatten is gone. I… I… (Sigh) Goddesses, I don’t even have any words. But then, what words are there? An entire city is gone; not just destroyed, but gone. In the blink of an eye; (Sigh) and it’s all my fault.

“I was the one who first suggested the idea to Twilight that we study the magic in gems to create energy weapons. (Sigh) We were in a war; the zebras possessed technology and weapons the likes of which ponies had never even seen before. I didn’t like the idea of fighting and killing, but I knew that we only had one choice. We had to be prepared for when the fighting started, and we had to use every resource we had to our advantage. Zebras had coal, but we had magical gems. I spent my entire life studying magic; under Princess Luna herself, and I knew that the magic in gems could be channelled and used as weapons. Twilight was hesitant at first, thinking that it was a bit excessive and possibly dangerous, but I was convinced that this was the right thing to do; for Equestria. She finally gave us her permission; she gave us access to her labs and all of her resources. Research began and yielded results quickly. The weapons we made were much more powerful than the pistols and rifles we already had. I must admit that I took a little too much pride in the fact that we had just created tools of death, but I knew that we needed them right now, and only we had the ammo that they ran on, so there was no risk of zebras using them against us. I was sure that everything was going to turn out fine in the end; (Sigh) but I never imagined that my research would end up creating something as terrifying as a megaspell; or that they would be used in such a gruesome way as this. I don’t even know how the zebras even got their hooves on the megaspells; but I cannot deny that all of this is my fault.

“Reports say that the megaspell in Manehatten wiped out everything and everypony instantly. (Sigh) Pinkie Pie. I knew that the war would be bad; but I never imagined that it would get this bad. (Sigh) I am evil. Sure I didn’t intend to wipe out entire cities, but I did intend to create deadly weapons designed to kill. There is no justifying what I have helped to set in motion. I was the catalyst that would bring about the end of ponykind.

“(Sigh) I’ve been sitting here for the past four hours now, just thinking about how everything went wrong; and my eyes keep drifting towards the fire ruby on the top of the bookcase. When we first decided to start using magical gems to create energy weapons, Rarity immediately wanted to help us out. Element of Generosity indeed; and she sent us that huge fire ruby, thinking that any gem that big could create an immensely powerful weapon. Of course, she had already sent it to me before I could tell her that the gem’s size made it too unstable. If we tried melting that thing down it would produce enough magical radiation to take out an entire lab full of ponies. I was fully aware of the danger it carries, and yet, I didn’t return it to her; I kept it here all this time; and now I can’t stop looking at it. (Sigh) I just can’t take it anymore. Cloudsdayle and Manehatten have already been hit, and the zebras aren’t going to stop there. Soon all of Equestria will suffer the same fate. I know it. It’s just a matter of time.

“I’m all alone now. It’s late and I’ve sent everypony home. (Sigh) I’ve already gone through two packs of these things; and the glow from the fire ruby seems to be getting brighter; or maybe it’s just me. (Sigh) I just can’t take it anymore. I think, maybe I’ll take a walk down to the labs; find out once and for all what happens when you magically melt a fire ruby. (Sigh) I won’t wait to be judged. I hope that one day you can all forgive me.”

My host then stood up and dumped his cigarette into an ashtray on the desk. He then looked over at the fire ruby resting on top of the bookcase. He then wrapped it in his yellow, magical aura and levitated it over to him and placed it on the desk in front of him. He then turned around and faced an open wall safe right behind him. Inside the safe, there was a statuette of a purple unicorn, with a purple and pink striped mane and tail. There was an inscription on the base that said, ‘Be Smart!’ He then levitated the memory orb into the safe and placed it down next to the statuette, on top of a few files. Then, just as he was about to let go of it, he suddenly spoke up again. “Oh, one last thing to whoever is watching this: Don’t mention this to my wife. Let her last memories of me be happy ones.”

He then let go of the memory orb and the memory started to dissipate.

<-=======ooO Ooo=======->

• • •

When the memory orb was finished and she came back to reality, Lightning simply took the recollector off her head, removed the memory orb and placed both of them safely into her saddlebag. She didn’t say anything. She then turned back around to the counter and poured herself another shot of apple whiskey. All the while, the happy smile on her face never faded. For the first time in a long while, out in the Equestrian Wasteland, she was really happy. She then downed another shot.

To be continued...

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Pit Fighter -- Your time in The Pit has toughened you up. +1 to your Endurance and your RAD Resistance is increased by 5%.

Origins

Author's Note

I originally planned for this fic to be a one-shot, but I later decided to expand it into a multi-chapter story. Due to this change of events, the narration type will change from here.

Origins

If I'm going to tell you about the adventure of my life -- explain how I got to this place with these people and why I did what I did and what I'm going to do next -- I should probably start from the beginning: when I was born.

I opened my eyes slowly and there was a bright light shining down on me from the ceiling. After a few seconds, my eyes adjusted to the light and I was able to make out a pony standing over me. It was a male unicorn, wearing a white lab coat and a doctor’s mask. I couldn’t make out his mane or coat colour from this angle, with the light shining down on me and where he was standing. He then moved to speak. “Let’s see now; are you a filly or a colt?”

Just then, another male unicorn walked into my field of vision on my left. He poked his head in close to get a better look at me. This close up, I could see that he had a dark blue coloured coat and his mane was an even darker shade of blue. His mane was short; just reaching down to his ears and curled slightly at the top of his head. His eyes, unlike the rest of his body, were green.

He then lifted his hoof up to me to examine me closely. He then pulled away from me and turned his head to the side. “It’s a filly; a filly, Daffodil. We have a beautiful, healthy baby filly.” He then turned back to look at me, a big smile on his face. “She’s… she’s…” His facial expression changed a bit to a look of surprise. “She’s a pegasus.” After a brief moment, he then smiled again and let out a small chuckle. “Well would you look at that; there hasn’t been a pegasus in my family for generations.” His expression changed a bit again. “Not since before the war.”

I then heard another voice that sounded like it was coming from right behind me. “Oh Evening, she’s beautiful; a daughter. Our beautiful daughter.” It was definitely a mare talking. She sounded like she was tired, but she also sounded really happy as well.

Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted up into the air, although nopony was holding on to me. I was levitated a few feet back into my mother’s open hooves. She lifted my head up so that I could look at her. She was a beautiful, unicorn mare with an amber coat and blue eyes. She also had a long, brown mane with red and orange streaks, tied back in a ponytail. I really like her mane. I always had.

She was currently sitting up in a hospital bed with me in her hooves, a look of pure joy etched into her face. My father then walked into my field of view on my right, standing next to the bed, with the same look on his face. He briefly looked over at my mother, who looked over at him and then they both looked back to look at me.

“She’s beautiful,” my father said; the happy look on his face never changing.

“Yes, she certainly is,” my mother responded. “She is the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen in my life.” She was incredibly happy as she spoke; however, her expression and tone of voice suddenly changed a bit. “Although… I certainly wasn’t expecting her to be a pegasus.”

My father suddenly looked over to her in response to this. He remained silent for a few seconds, but then he moved to speak again. “Yeah, I know. The last pegasus in my family was my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, and that was before the war.” He then lifted his head up and looked at the ceiling. “Blood does start to thin as time goes by…” He paused for a moment before continuing. He then closed his eyes briefly and smiled. “But despite that, it’s all still there. Our connections to the past are always there, no matter how much time passes.”

My mother smiled at this. “Yes, you’re right.” She suddenly dropped her smile again. “But the Wasteland is a dangerous place; and it’s much easier for a unicorn to defend herself than a pegasus.”

My father looked over to her and responded, “Actually, this may be blessing; in more ways than one.” My mother suddenly looked at him strangely. “When she gets older, she can just fly above the clouds and be with the rest of the pegasi and be free of the Wasteland and all of its dangers.” He spoke with a straight face the entire time, but then he gave a small sigh and he smiled. “She would be safe there. Forever.”

My mother just stared back at him for several seconds, eyes unblinking. She then smiled back at him. “You’re right.” She then turned down to look at me again. “That is all I would ever want for her.” She continued just staring at me, lovingly. She then ran her hoof through my mane.

My father’s eyes wandered back to her and then he turned his head fully around. He then looked down to look at me too. They both stayed that way for several seconds, but then suddenly, my father’s eyes widened for a second in realisation and he let out a soft chuckle. “I almost forgot; we don’t have a name for her yet.”

My mother soon followed suit. “You’re right.” She then turned her attention back to me and thought. “What’s her name?”

My father then turned to her and said, “Well… if it’s alright with you…” He hesitated slightly before continuing. “I would like to name her after my grandmother; the pegasus.”

My mother turned to him immediately. “I see. Is it because she’s a pegasus too?”

My father turned his head away. “Well, yes; but that’s not the only reason. My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother was an amazing pony. She worked at the Ministry of Peace, alongside Fluttershy herself. She worked hard every day to try and bring peace back to our world after so much bad had happened. No matter what, she always put others before herself. She was one of the most kind and generous ponies there ever was.” He then smiled and chuckled a bit. “She even survived the war, and it was because of her that my family has survived this long.” He then looked down at me and smiled again. “And when I look at her, I just know that she will do great things for the world. I just know it.” He then let out another small chuckle. “Also, from what I heard about my grandmother, she also looks a lot like her.”

My mother looked back at him and smiled. “Well then, I don’t think that there is a more noble reason than that.”

My father looked back at her and smiled. He then looked back to me. “Well then, it’s settled. From now on, her name will be…”

“Lightning.”

Seven years later

I grew up in a small pre-war settlement; calling it a village is a stretch. It was just a collection of about ten houses, as well as a clinic and a store, all grouped close together. The settlement was surrounded by a large fence made of old scrap metal, which ran along the perimeter of the settlement to protect us from the Wasteland. The area within the perimeter was less than three acres in size, including the buildings. The ground underneath was all barren soil where nothing grew, just like the rest of the Wasteland. The settlement survived by bartering with the local caravans that passed by and by sending trained parties out into the Wasteland to scavenge for supplies. Inside the buildings, there was old pre-war furniture and appliances that had been partially restored over the years that ponies had lived here for. The plumbing still worked, so we had a continuous water supply, although the water was very dirty. However, the unicorns in the settlement knew a spell that could clean the water and make it safe to drink. The spell couldn’t do anything about radiation, but it could still get rid of all the dirt, making it safe to drink. The water was still slightly irradiated, although it would take at least a year of drinking it before it started to affect you, and even then it was easily treatable with some RadAway. All in all, our settlement got by very well in the harsh, unforgiving Wasteland. We all functioned as a community, and the fillies and colts were able to play together happily and without fear of the world outside our fence.

Meanwhile, inside my own house, I huffed and threw myself on the floor. My father noticed this and walked over to me to ask me what was wrong.

My father’s name is Evening Star. It’s a tradition in my family to name the males after times of day. It’s a tradition that goes back generations, even back to before the war. At first, I thought it was strange to keep up such a silly tradition from so long ago; but I guess it reminds them all of happier times. In a world like this, you’ve got to hold on to something, right?

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I lifted my head up and looked him in the eye. I had an annoyed look on my face. I remember being very angry, but I don’t remember why. I wasn’t angry at my dad or anypony else. I was just angry. “Why am I so different? Why am I the only pony around here that has wings?” I then turned my head around and pointed at my wings on my back.

My dad just stared back at me for several seconds, with a blank expression on his face. Then suddenly, he smiled and started laughing. “That’s easy, sweetie; it’s because you’re a pegasus.”

I lowered my hoof and turned my head back around. “But why am I the only pegasus here?!” I barked back at him immediately. “Why are none of the other ponies here in the settlement or in the travelling caravans pegasuses?”

“Pegasi,” he corrected. “And the reason that there aren’t any other pegasi around here is because they all live up above the clouds. They’re all able to live above the clouds and don’t have to worry about the Wasteland and all of its dangers. They’re all able to live comfortable lives, without having to fear for their lives every day. To them, it’s almost like the war never even happened.”

I stared back at him for a moment before responding. My anger had faded slightly and now I was just annoyed. “But if they’re all so well off up there, then why don’t they try to help the ponies who are suffering down here? They must surely have the resources to help them; so then why do they just ignore the rest of us down here and only worry about themselves?” I then briefly squeezed my eyes shut and screamed out, “Why are the pegasi so selfish?!”

My father was taken aback by what I just said, and he hesitated for a moment before responding. He then let out a small sigh. “I realise that the situation is not perfect for everypony; but you must understand that in the world in which we now live, the most important thing is surviving; at all cost. In order to do that, sometimes we have to be a little cruel. In fact, your mother and I were even hoping that one day you will fly above the clouds to live with the rest of the pegasi and be free of the Wasteland forever.”

I took a step backwards and my angry expression started to fade. I looked down at the ground and then looked back up to look him in the eye. “And abandon my friends and family here?”

“If it means that you’ll be safe, then yes.” He responded immediately and with a straight face. “That is all your mother and I ever wanted for you.” I just stared back at him. I had no idea how to respond to that. He then smiled again, as if our conversation had never even transpired. “Now then, why don’t you go out and play with your friends?” He then opened the front door with his unicorn magic, pushed me out and closed the door behind him.

I just sat there on my haunches, in front of my house, thinking about what my father had just told me. I then looked up at the perpetual cloud cover that covered the entire Equestrian Wasteland. My face then went stoic and blank and I simply said, “I’m not going anywhere near those clouds.” I then closed my eyes and lowered my head. “Not now and not ever.”

Three years later

This was the worst day of my life. As much as I don’t want to, I still remember it clearly: The day that raiders attacked our settlement. The day I lost my parents. The day I lost my fillyhood. The day I lost everything.

I don’t know why the raiders decided to attack us. We never attacked them or even had any contact with them at all. We were only a small settlement; mostly mares and foals, so we posed no threat to them. If they wanted our supplies, then they could have just bartered with us. If they didn’t want to have to pay, then they could have just held us up and taken what they wanted; but no. They didn’t have to kill us, but they did it anyway. They had another choice but they still resorted to murder. This is exactly what makes raiders the biggest blight on the Equestrian Wasteland. This is what makes them so evil.

They quickly descended on the settlement. We were unarmed; we had no warning. In a matter of seconds, they had overtaken the settlement and were killing ponies left and right. We didn’t have any weapons with us, so we couldn’t put up any sort of fight to protect ourselves. However, this didn’t matter at all to the raiders. If anything, it was even more fun for them. They still shot at us left and right. Everypony was running for their lives. We begged and pleaded for them not to kill us, but they wouldn’t listen; they just shot at us. I just stood there, in front of my house as I saw a raider shoot and kill my mom, dead. I was only ten years old at the time and a part of me died in that moment. My fillyhood died with my mother in that moment.

My father had rounded up all of the foals and led us into one of the houses. When we were all inside, he immediately closed the door and set up as many barricades as possible. Every filly and colt in the settlement was in the house, but my dad was the only grown-up. When he had barricaded the door, he then turned towards us. His horn started glowing in a green aura and he lifted up a manhole cover in the corner of the room. He then turned to face us and said, “This leads to a tunnel that leads out underneath the settlement and into the Wasteland. Take it and make your way to the nearest town. I’ll stay here and hold them off for as long as I can.”

My eyes widened as he said this. I then stepped forward and yelled at him. “No, I won’t leave you!” I had a terrified and angry look on my face as I spoke. “You’ll die if you stay here; and we would stand a far better chance out there with you anyway. Choosing to die is something only an idiot does.”

My father closed his eyes tight, while desperately trying to hold back tears. He let out a sigh and simply said, “I’m sorry.” His horn then started glowing again and he picked me up and lifted me off the ground with his unicorn magic. I started wiggling my feet, desperately trying to break free, but I couldn’t. While maintaining his telekinetic hold on me, he looked over at the other fillies and colts and simply nodded. Nothing else needed to be said. What was there to say anyway? They just nodded back and started climbing down the ladder. When the last of the foals had climbed down the hole, he lifted me over to it, dropped me down and quickly covered the hole again.

I quickly regained myself as I fell, and I flew back up and tried to lift the manhole cover back up so that I could be with my father, but he had already locked it with chains. I was only able to lift it up a quarter of an inch. I was just about able to see him. The raiders kept pounding against the door, trying to get in.

My father then ran over to the door at the other end of the room. He opened it slightly, but he didn’t go through it; he just stood there. “What the hell is he doing?” I thought. After about ten seconds, the raiders had finally busted their way into the room. My father then closed the door without going through it. He then turned around to face the raiders. I then realised what he was doing: he was creating the illusion that we had escaped through the back exit to buy us some more time to escape. At that point, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to call out to him so that he could escape with us, but at the same time, I didn’t want to give away our position after he had basically given up his own life just to keep us safe. All I could do was just sit there and watch these raiders kill him, while there was nothing I could do to stop them; and that’s exactly what happened. They gunned him down in cold blood right there. He hadn’t drawn a weapon on them, moved any closer to them; he hadn’t even done anything to antagonise them; they just killed him, like the rest of the settlement.

I lowered my hooves and dropped the manhole cover as quietly as I could. I pulled my face away and closed my eyes. I had let go of the ladder and I was just hovering in place. I fought back the desire to cry. If I did, it would only slow me down and the raiders would catch us for sure; which would mean that my father died for nothing. I would not let that happen. I then opened my eyes and looked down at the other fillies and colts making their way down the ladder. I then pulled my face back into a more serious expression. I had to be strong. If I didn’t, then my father died for nothing. I then flew down the hole and made my way along the escape tunnel.

As I flew along, I passed by all of the other fillies and colts from the settlement. There were twenty in total. I met up with Blitz at the front of the pack. Blitz was a unicorn colt, with a crimson coat and a short, lime green mane, similar to mine. He was the only pony in the settlement that I ever really considered a friend. He had a sniper scope for a cutie mark. His special talent was being a sharp shooter. He was the only pony (left) in the settlement who was a better shot me; and that’s saying something. He walked along silently, facing forward as I flew beside him.

We eventually reached a small room at the end of the tunnel, just before the exit into the Wasteland. This room was where we kept all of our guns that the grown-ups used for when they went out into the Wasteland to scavenge for supplies. All of these weapons have been specially crafted so that they could be operated by hoof, without the need for unicorn magic or battle saddles.

I picked up a hunting rifle and strapped it around my back. I then picked up a sniper rifle with my hooves. I had only used guns a few times before and my specialty was sniping, so I can’t exactly use guns that I have to hold in my mouth. Not many guns in the Wasteland have been altered so that they could be used like this, so I have to make do with these weapons for now.

I then turned to face the others and said, “Take as much as you can carry.” I then cocked my rifle. “We won’t be coming back here again.” Everypony than grabbed as many guns as they could carry and made their way out into the Wasteland.

The tunnel had come out of a rock formation, about a hundred yards from the settlement. We all turned back and we could only hear the cheers of the raiders. Our parents were all dead. They hadn’t prompted the attack or done anything to fight back. They even begged them to spare their lives, but the raiders still killed them anyway; and they were cheering because of it. I wanted to scream, but that would just give away our position.

Blitz turned away in the opposite direction to the settlement and then he moved to address us all. “Alright, we’re heading in this direction.”

We all turned around to look at where he was pointing. “Where are we going to go?” asked one of the fillies in the group.

Blitz lowered his head and let out a short sigh. “I don’t know,” he said. He then lifted his head up again. “But we can’t stay here anymore.” He then faced forward again and started walking along.

The rest of the group soon followed suit, but after just a few steps, I stopped and lowered my head. The others in the group noticed this and they also stopped and asked me why. “Lightning?”

After a second, I lifted my head up and simply said, “We can’t leave; this is our home. We have to stop these raiders now.”

The others all looked at me in confusion, but Blitz had maintained a straight face. He then turned to face me. “Lightning, I know how you feel, but there’s nothing that we can do.” He then closed his eyes and turned his head to the side. “We just have to keep moving forward.”

“No!” I responded immediately. “This is our home. We’re not leaving.” Blitz’s eyes shot open and he turned back around to face me again, along with everypony else. Blitz’s expression now matched the others. “If we don’t stop these raiders now, then they’ll just repeat this again at another settlement and cause even more chaos there. We have to finish this.” I spoke with a fierce determination in my voice. “We don’t have a choice.”

Everypony around me was left speechless. After ten seconds, Blitz finally decided to break the silence. He still wore a worried expression on his face. “But Lightning… what can we possibly do?”

Everypony turned to look at me and I just stared back at Blitz with a stoic expression on my face; I didn’t even blink. “You just leave that to me.” I then unfurled my wings and flew up into the air.

I flew about a hundred feet into the air and looked down at the settlement below. All of the raiders were now out in the open. All of our parents had been killed and now they seemed to be stacking their bodies together in a pile. They would most likely bring them back to their camp, eviscerate their bodies and hang them up around the camp. It’s what they did. There was absolutely no reason for why they would this; they just did it. By all rights, these things weren’t even ponies anymore. They were monsters. At this point, I was angrier than I had ever been in my life, though my face did not show it. It was completely blank.

I drew my sniper rifle and looked down through the scope. The raiders had all gathered in the centre of the settlement. My hooves were completely steady. I had one of the raiders in my sight and I pulled the trigger. The bullet had gone right through his head and he died instantly. As soon as the first one was dead, the rest of them started looking around frantically to find where the shot had come from. I took another shot and killed another raider. They continued looking around to find out where I was. They looked everywhere, except the sky. A pegasus was probably the last thing that they would ever expect, so they didn’t even consider looking up into the sky. I wondered if these raiders even knew what a pegasus was. I continued taking aim and shooting at them, whilst they were completely helpless to stop me. The irony was so thick I couldn’t even shoot a bullet through it. The same was not true for the raiders themselves. However, unlike them, I had a reason to kill them and I had no other choice. That is what separates me from the raiders. I kill in order to survive and nothing more. If there is any other choice, then I will take it. I realised then in that moment that being the only pegasus around here wasn’t so bad; but at that moment, anything like that was the last thing on my mind. After one minute, all of the raiders were dead. I then simply lowered my rifle and descended to the ground.

I touched down on the ground again, with my back to all of the fillies and colts behind me. They just stared at me. I then spoke to them without turning around to face them. “Come on, let’s head back.” I then closed my eyes and lowered my head and the volume of my voice. “I want to bury my parents.”

After a few seconds of just standing there in silence, Blitz stepped forward and said, “Uhhmm, Lightning?” He then pointed his hoof at my flank.

I turned around to see what he was pointing at, and I saw that I had just gotten my cutie mark. It was a dark storm cloud with three thunderbolts on it; two to each side, behind it, and one down the centre, in front of it. I just stared at it for several seconds, my face not changing since I had touched down on the ground. I then simply said, “I thought I’d be happier.”

After the whole issue with the raiders was over, we continued living in the settlement. This was our home and nothing was going to change that. The first thing we did after we got back was dig a hole just outside of the wall and we buried our parents. They deserved a proper burial. The raiders, however; we simply took all of the weapons and ammo that they were carrying, as well as any other supplies and dumped the bodies in a ditch on the other side of the settlement; downwind of course, so we didn’t have to smell them. They deserved nothing less.

Things became very difficult for us after this. We were just young children and we were now alone in the Wasteland, without any grown-ups to protect us, armed with nothing but our wits and weapons with a limited supply of ammo. We didn’t have any unicorns who could clean the water, and so now we didn’t have a clean water supply. Word of the raider attack had scared off the caravans that usually came our way, so now we didn’t have a trade route. It was tough for a long time, but we managed to get by, albeit barely.

Blitz and I were the ones in charge and we had to grow up quickly in order to survive. We had to train in combat and learn how to scavenge from what our parents had taught us and what they had left behind for us. We made regular trips into the Wasteland to scavenge for food and supplies. We occasionally had to fight off and kill hostile ponies; however, we still never lowered ourselves to the same level of savagery as the raiders. We only killed to survive, when we had no other choice.

Three days later

Shortly after the attack on the settlement, after we had managed to rebuild slightly, I took two colts with me to scavenge for supplies in the Wasteland. We eventually came across two ponies after a while. We didn’t know if they were raiders, so we didn’t approach them directly and we hid behind a large rock formation close by.

The two ponies were both just standing there, talking to each other. They were both earth pony stallions. One of the colts briefly popped his head out to look at them and then turned back to face me. “So what are we going to do?”

I briefly threw my glance over to the two ponies and then turned back to the colts. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. First, I’m going to fly up there to get a good shot at them. Then, you two are going to step out and reveal yourselves to them.”

They both shouted, “What?!” at the same time and I had to casually shush them to remind them that those two ponies were still within earshot. Thankfully, neither of those ponies had heard us. Everything was silent for a few seconds. When we were sure that they hadn’t heard us, one of the colts spoke up again, quieter this time. “You want us to reveal ourselves to them?”

“Yes,” I replied. My calm expression never changed as I spoke. “This way, we can figure out if they’re raiders or not. If they are raiders, then they’ll likely see us as easy prey and want to capture us as slaves. Then I’ll put a bullet in each of their heads before they can even figure out where I’m shooting from.”

After a brief pause, one of the colts fidgeted at the ground and then looked up again to speak to me. “Okay, but what if they’re not raiders?”

I stood there for a second, silently, but then I responded, “If they’re not raiders, then we just barter with them for whatever we need and be on our way. We aren’t killing unless we have to.”

The two colts both nodded at me and agreed with my plan. I nodded back and then flew up into the sky. When I was about a hundred feet in the air, I drew my sniper rifle and gave them the signal to move. They then walked out from behind the rock, into the two ponies view.

“Hey, Buckshot, look at what we got here,” one of the two ponies said.

Buckshot looked over at the two young colts in front of them. “Yeah, I know.” He then smiled devilishly. "Easy meat. We’ll take them back to Appleloosa and sell them for a heap of caps.” He then smiled even more devilishly. “It’s a shame they’re not fillies, but beggars can’t be choosers. Maybe they’ll at least earn us a spot in the town.”

That was all I needed to hear. I quickly put a bullet through the first one’s head, and then did the same to the other one before he even knew what was going on.

I then flew back down to re-join the two colts. We then walked over to inspect the two raider’s bodies. “Okay,” I said. “Strip them of whatever guns, ammo, food or medical supplies that they’re carrying.”

They both nodded in agreement and then they went over to inspect their bodies. When we had taken everything of value that they were carrying, one of the colts lifted his head up to look at me and asked, “What about their barding? It could be useful if we run into trouble.”

I turned my head to face him and simply said, “Leave it.” I then turned my head to the side, but kept talking to him. “If somepony saw us wearing that blood covered barding, they’d probably shoot us on sight. It would be pretty stupid to approach a friendly settlement looking like that.”

The two colts stared back at me for a moment and then they burst out laughing. “Yeah, you’re right. That would be pretty stupid.” They then decided to search their bodies one last time for anything useful.

As they were searching, I turned away from them and I couldn’t keep myself from thinking about what I had just said. “Who would be stupid enough the approach a trade caravan, wearing raider barding and covered in blood?”

Three years later

As the years passed, we became much more adept at scavenging for supplies. We had also set up a trade route with several caravans that came by once a month to trade with us. We were slowly rebuilding our settlement back into a place that we could call home.

One day, I took several of the colts with me and we went scavenging for supplies in the area underneath, but not directly below the cliff that held the former capital of Equestria: Canterlot.

The area that we were scavenging in was a relatively flat expanse of land, with several piles of rubble on the ground. There was surely something of value to be found here since this was an area that ponies generally avoided. As I was searching the area, I looked down at the ground and I found something half buried in a pile of rubble. It was a type of gun, but it was unlike anything that I had ever seen before. It was some sort of magical energy pistol, but not like any I had ever seen before; which was only ever in the possession of caravan owners who had come by them while travelling. Those ponies were merchants, not soldiers, and they needed powerful weapons that they could operate with ease in order to protect themselves. However, this one was completely different. It had a grip that wouldn’t fit in any pony’s mouth. This was lucky for me, since that’s exactly the type of weapon that I used, and such weapons were very rare in the Wasteland.

I pulled the weapon out of the ground and held it in my hooves. It both looked and felt amazing. I remember thinking that I was glad that our settlement operated by the ‘Finders Keepers’ mantra. That meant that this energy pistol was mine.

I remembered hearing from my father that it was because of my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather that Equestria had energy weapons in the first place. Maybe this was one of the weapons that he had created. It was like a small piece of him was with me now. If I had been on my own, I probably would have cried tears of joy, but I had to keep up appearances in front of the guys. I couldn’t look soft.

I turned around and placed the weapon into my saddlebag, and then turned my attention forward again. Scattered around the area where I had picked up the energy pistol, there were shards of reflective glass everywhere. Close by, there was what looked like a mirror frame, half buried in another pile of rubble. It was shattered in a way that looked like the glass shards all around it would fit perfectly. From the part of the mirror that was sticking out of the pile of rubble, it looked like it was in the shape like a horseshoe. The outer frame of the mirror was purple and it had small gems embedded in the side.

As I stared at the mirror in front of me, I was suddenly pulled away from my thoughts by a loud crash from behind me. I casually rolled my eyes behind me to see what it was, while I kept my head facing forward. My eyes immediately widened at what I saw. It was a large pony with a dark green coat and a messy mane. However, what I found most surprising was that it had wings. I then turned my head fully around to look at it. This was the first pony I had ever seen that also had wings; and that fact alone almost kept me from noticing that it also had a horn. When I had recovered from the shock of seeing this thing, I started thinking clearly again. This thing wasn’t a pegasus, but it wasn’t a unicorn either. It seemed to possess the traits of both a pegasus and a unicorn. What was this thing? Was it a ‘Pegacorn’?

Suddenly, this ‘thing’ snarled back at us angrily and raised some sort of shield around it. Seeing that it was about to attack us, we all drew our weapons and prepared to fight.

I drew my hunting rifle with one hoof and fired at it immediately; however, the bullets just seemed to bounce harmlessly off its shield. Nevertheless, we all kept shooting at it, trying to get through its shield and kill this thing that was attacking us for no reason.

As we fired at it, it charged at us with its shield up. When it reached each of the three colts that I was with, it charged right into them and knocked them all down. They fell to the ground, separated from their weapons and they were unable to move.

I looked over at them. They had all been badly injured and knocked to the ground. The creature then turned back to face me. It looked like it wanted to finish me off before it killed the others. The creature then turned fully around and charged right for me.

I didn’t hesitate at all. I took my hunting rifle in one hoof and shot at it. The bullet simply crashed against the creature’s shield and it didn’t even slow it down. However, I didn’t falter. I simply reloaded my weapon and shot again. I reloaded and shot again. I reloaded and shot again. I reloaded and shot again. The creature was coming closer, but I simply reloaded my weapon and shot again.

Eventually, the creature had reached me and it crashed into me with its shield still up. The force of the blow knocked me back and sent me tumbling backwards several times, before I finally came to rest several feet from where I was standing. After about three seconds, I raised my head up and grunted in pain, just in time to see my hunting rifle land directly in front of me; split in two.

The creature reared back and snarled at me again. It then started charging towards me again.

Seeing my broken hunting rifle right in front of me, I quickly looked around to try and find my sniper rifle. It had been knocked off my back when the creature crashed into me and it was now lying on the ground several feet away from me. I tried to stand up so I could quickly dash over there and grab it; however, I immediately fell back down. I had badly sprained both of my hind legs and one of my wings in the crash. I wasn’t moving anywhere quickly anytime soon.

I looked back at the creature charging at me and it was approaching quickly. It bared its teeth at me as I wracked my brain, trying to think of something, anything that I could do to get out of this alive. Suddenly, I remembered the strange gun that I had picked up and placed in my saddlebag. I quickly reached back into my saddlebag and pulled it out. I wasn’t sure if this gun would be of any use against that creatures shield, but right now I didn’t have any other choice, but more importantly, I did still have a choice; a chance to survive, so I took it.

The creature was now just a few feet from where I was lying down. It then jumped into the air to pounce on me. It was now or never. I quickly closed my eyes tight, aimed the gun out in front of me and fired.

I just lay there for several seconds with my eyes closed, expecting that thing to finally hit me; however, I instead felt something soft blow against my face. I slowly opened my eyes and I saw that ash of some kind had just been blown against my face. I just lay there, with my front hoof stretched out in front of me, holding this alien weapon, with a confused look on my face. I then threw my glance over to the others, who were staring back at me with equally confused looks on their faces. That creature was nowhere to be seen and there was now a pile of ash in the spot where it had just been. I didn’t need to have seen it to know what had just happened. Somehow, this weapon had gone through that thing’s seemingly impenetrable shield and completely vaporized it with just a single shot. I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. I just lay there on the ground, with my hoof stretched out, staring at this incredible weapon. There were no words.

We had each taken a restoration potion to recover from our injuries. On our way back home, the guys behind me kept going on and on about how powerful that weapon was and that with a weapon that like that, there wasn’t anything we had to worry about.

After about five minutes of listening to them, I eventually stopped walking and turned back to talk to them. I reached into my saddlebag, pulled out the mysterious weapon and held it up. “Hey geniuses, in case you haven’t noticed, this thing only has a limited amount of ammo.” I then lowered the gun again. “And ammunition for this thing, if there even is any, would be incredibly rare.” I then turned back around, briefly closed my eyes and sighed. “We’re only going to use this as a last resort; nothing else.” I then placed the gun back into my saddlebag and continued walking forward. The colts behind me all looked between themselves, with defeated looks on their faces.

Four years later

By now, we were all grown up and we had become experts of surviving in the Wasteland. Our settlement was now back to the way it was seven years ago. We regularly had traders that visited our settlement for rest and supplies. We occasionally had an attack by raiders, but now we were much better at fending them off and with no casualties. We had fixed up the fence surrounding the settlement and now it was stronger than ever. By now, we were a full blown trading town, like New Appleloosa.

There weren’t any more specially crafted hunting rifles left for me to use, so I had to make do with just my sniper rifle and energy pistol. A sniper rifle isn’t the most ideal weapon for close combat encounters, but I generally avoided fights like that, or even fights in general and just sniped enemies from a distance, so everything worked out. I still hadn’t fired my new energy weapon once, since that day four years ago. I had figured out that it had nineteen shots left, but I still hadn’t used it since. I swore that I would only use it as a last resort, when I had no other choice. It didn’t have anything to do with fearing the weapons power; it was purely for ammo conservation. However, I still kept it with me at all times, just in case I did need it. That was, until that day.

When I was just a little filly, growing up, my parents had told me all about my ancestors. My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Lightning Flicker; a pegasus, for whom I was named (first name only), worked with the Ministry of Peace. My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Dawn Flower, was the vice president and second in command of the Ministry of Arcane Science; and his younger brother Dusk Shine, who worked at Stable-Tec. Growing up, these three were the ancestors of mine that I knew the most about. I was also told that the memory orb containing my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’s last moments was apparently still located in the MAS hub in Fillydelphia. I had always wanted to retrieve it someday, even if I couldn’t watch it because I wasn’t a unicorn. It was the last connection with my family that I had left.

When I was seventeen, and I saw how well things were doing here in our town, I finally decided to head off to Fillydelphia to retrieve it. Before I left, however, I met up with Blitz at the town gate to say goodbye.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked me.

I looked back at him with a straight face. “I know that it won’t be easy, but this is something that I have to do.”

Blitz closed his eyes and smiled. “Well alright then.” He then opened his eyes again and looked at me.

As I looked back at him, I could tell that he was sad to see me leave. He had been my best friend my whole life and now we were separating. I wanted to tell him not to worry and that I would come back, but I didn’t want to worry him in case I didn’t come back. Let him live the rest of his life thinking that I was still alive. That way, he wouldn’t be distracted and could continue on without a problem if I did die. People die every day in the Wasteland, and if we spend our time mourning everyone’s loss, then nothing would ever get done. This way, everything would turn out fine for everypony.

“Before I go,” I suddenly spoke up, as I reached into my saddlebag and pulled out the strange weapon and handed it to him. “Here; you’ll need this more than I will. I also don’t want to risk it being taken from me in Fillydelphia.”

Blitz stared blankly at the weapon in my outstretched hoof. He then looked up to look me in the eye and said, “Are you sure?” I didn’t respond; I just kept staring at him with a straight face. Eventually, Blitz’s expression became more serious and he nodded to me. “Right.” He then reached out with his own hoof and took the weapon.

“Remember,” I said, as I lowered my hoof to the ground again. “Only use it as a last resort. Don’t waste it.” He nodded again.

I then closed my eyes briefly and breathed out. “Alright then.” I then took one last look at Blitz, turned around and walked away from the town, towards Fillydelphia.

Fillydelphia was a long way from our town; however, being a pegasus, I was able to fly there very quickly. When I was close to the city, I took some bandages from my saddlebag and wrapped them around my wings to hide them from sight. From my experiences, my being a pegasus always caused a big commotion amongst other ponies in the Wasteland and always attracted a lot of attention. I didn’t want this to happen in Fillydelphia, so I decided to hide my wings. Once the bandages were firmly in place, I made my way towards the city again, on hoof.

When I got close to the city entrance, I was suddenly surrounded on all sides by three of those ‘Pegacorn’ things. They seemed to just come out of nowhere. I instinctively reached back into my saddlebag to grab my energy pistol, but I quickly remembered that I didn’t have it with me anymore. I did a double take and looked back at my current predicament. I was now facing down three, nearly invincible creatures, that I needed an energy weapon just to get through their shields; armed with only a sniper rifle.

“Oh sweet, merciful Luna. Fuck me up the ass with your horn.”

However, as they activated their horns to put up their shields, I noticed that they had instead put a small shield around me. They were now standing completely still, just outside of the shield. I tried to get out of the shield, but I couldn’t get through it no matter what I did. A few minutes later, several soldiers from Red Eye’s army came and apprehended me. This things; apparently called ‘Alicorns’ (I wasn’t far off) were working for Red Eye too. The soldiers stripped me of all of my possessions and dumped me in a slave area, behind a chain-link fence, along with all of the other slaves.

You already know how things turned out for me after this. Realising that I had no other choice, I volunteered for The Pit to win my freedom. I eventually won my freedom and then I made a deal with Stern. I would join Red Eye’s army in exchange for my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’s memory orb. She retrieved it for me and even threw in a recollector so that I could watch it. They had more than held up their end of the bargain, so now I had to hold up mine. I now had to serve Red Eye until that debt had been paid; and that is exactly what I was going to do.

To be continued…

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: A True True Friend -- When speaking to someone that you have a high affinity with, your Charisma is temporarily increased by 5. This effect only lasts while you are talking to that person.

Homestead

In Fillydelphia, the weeks passed by quickly since I joined Red Eye’s army. My days were mostly spent the same way. I would patrol around near the slave pens to make sure that the slaves kept working and to keep them in line. I didn’t like that all of these ponies were being forced to work against their will and I wanted to help them, but at the same time, I knew that there was nothing that I could do. If I helped them out and set them free, I would be discovered immediately and I would have the entire city against me. Yes I could fly, but so could all of the griffins and they were much faster and better trained than me. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that I could take on the entire city by myself. There is a big difference between risking your life and throwing your life away. So I just continued on with what I was supposed to do. This was just the way the world was.

I was also sometimes sent to recover slaves that had managed to escape and to deal with intruders that tried to raid to city for supplies. A few days ago, there was a huge commotion in The Pit, where a small unicorn and a zebra somehow managed to escape from The Pit and ran all over the city. I had been sent in to apprehend them when we had them cornered on a rooftop; however, we were ambushed by a giant balefire phoenix before we could reach them. Only me and a few griffins managed to survive. I don’t know what happened to that small unicorn and zebra after that and frankly I don’t care.

Things continued on normally again after that little incident. I carried out my orders, just like any soldier would. I never really got to know anyone else in Fillydelphia and I didn’t want to make any friends. I was simply here to repay a debt and nothing more.

Then one day, a few days after the incident, Red Eye came to me personally, saying that he wanted me to accompany him to the cathedral in the Everfree Forest, to be his bodyguard. At first, I was confused as to why he would ask me of all people to be his bodyguard. I wasn’t good at close combat fighting, like this job would call for, and if he needed someone who could fly, there were plenty of griffins that were much better suited to the situation than me. If he was going to the cathedral, what did he need a pegasus for? Regardless, I complied with his request immediately.

My days at the cathedral we pretty boring. I was only meant to guard Red Eye when we were under attack. Any other time, he had alicorns protecting him. This made me wonder even more why he even bothered asking me to come here at all.

I wasn’t allowed down into the lower levels, so I spent most of my time patrolling above ground. There was very little to explore above ground, so I pretty much just kept patrolling the same areas over and over again. I mostly spent my time in the main chamber.

The main chamber was the first room you came into when you entered the cathedral. The whole chamber was made of rock; half worn away, half restored from the centuries since ponies had occupied it. There was a dais in the centre of the chamber where, according to stories, was where the Elements of Harmony were found over two hundred years ago. Red Eye had also replaced the window panes with stained glass murals from the palace in Canterlot. These stained glass windows displayed important moments in Equestria’s history, such as Discord’s rule over Equestria, Celestia and Luna defeating him with the Elements of Harmony, the six mares of the ministries defeating Nightmare Moon with the elements, them defeating Discord again, a unicorn and alicorn couple locked in a loving embrace, a baby dragon underneath a shimmering heart, and the founding of the ministries.

After several days of just patrolling the same area, I was becoming incredibly bored. Red Eye wouldn’t even tell me anything about why he had brought me here, apart from that I was his bodyguard for when the assault came. He didn’t even tell me who was going to assault us. He just told me to follow his orders and that I would know everything when the time came.

A few days after this, the Enclave had returned to the Equestrian Wasteland. The Enclave was the pegasus government above the clouds. From what I had heard over the radio, they had attacked several towns and cities, causing a lot of trouble for the Wasteland instead of helping us. I have never been a big fan of the Enclave, but now everything was worse, now that they weren’t simply not helping us, but outright attacking us.

For the first time in months, I started thinking about Blitz and the others back home. I was worried about them and so I decided to take a short leave to go visit them and see how they were doing.

I was only going to be gone for a little while, so when no one was watching, I slipped out and flew away towards the town I had grown up in.

After a long fly, I finally made it back to the settlement where I grew up. As I was approaching the town, I noticed one of the Enclave’s Raptors hovering directly above it. When I saw this, I knew that the Enclave must be attacking the town, just like so many others. I was worried after seeing this, so I increased my speed and continued flying forward.

When I was hovering directly above the town, I stopped and looked down. My eyes immediately widened at what I saw. There were about a dozen Enclave soldiers standing around on the ground inside the town; their novasurge rifles all hung from their power armor, not initiated in combat anymore, and the bodies of the town’s citizens, the ponies that I had known my entire life and grown up alongside, were all lying on the ground, unmoving and scattered around the town, with bullet holes all over their bodies. They were all dead.

Looking down at this sight, I was angrier than I had been in years. This was like the raider attack all over again. What reasons did the Enclave possibly have to attack our town? Were the Enclave any different from the raiders that I so despised? First I had lost my parents and now, I had possibly lost everyone I had ever known. I couldn’t keep myself from shaking in anger.

Unable to hold back my rage anymore and not having any other choice, I drew my sniper rifle, took aim at each pegasus down on the ground and started firing at them. I felt a strange sense of déjá vu. This was just like when I was killing the raiders when they had attacked us for no reason. However, unlike the raiders, these pegasi figured out exactly where I was shooting from instantly and they all charged into the sky, towards me as soon as I took the first shot.

As they approached me, they all kept moving in the air, making it difficult for me to hit them. Their power armor also meant that I had to hit them in a specific weak spot in order to cause any real damage. They were also getting close enough to hit me at this range with their novasurge rifles. I wouldn’t last long against this many pegasi, armed with energy weapons, so I had to finish them off quickly, before they got any closer. I had never fought against pegasi before, so it was difficult for me to fight them like this. However, it seems that they weren’t used to fighting pegasi either, so we were evenly matched. I also had the advantage of the high ground and I also moved about in mid-air to avoid being hit. Thanks to my unsurpassed sniper skills, I had managed to kill them all before they reached me.

When I had killed all of the Enclave soldiers, I threw my sniper rifle back around my waist and began drifting down towards the ground and took a look around. The bodies of the ponies that I had grown up with were strewn about everywhere, completely lifeless.

After the raider attack that killed my parents, I became much more withdrawn from those around me. Blitz was the only one that I really considered a friend after that point. I still lived with all the others for seven years after that, but I never really opened up to them and became their friends. I guess that I was just afraid of being hurt when they finally died; like I was when I lost my parents. I only realise now just how stupid I was being. In the back of my mind, I had always wanted to mend those bridges. Once I had paid my debt to Red Eye, I was going to come back here and continue living here, just like I always had. As the years went by, I would begin to mature more and more, and start to open up to everyone; work together not as a town, but also as friends. Now that was all gone. It’s ironic how such things only occur when it’s already too late to do anything about it. At this point, I don’t deserve to call these ponies my friends. However, as I looked around and saw all of their dead bodies, I still recognised all of them. I was never really friends with them, but I knew a lot about them.

Pistol Whip was a trigger happy soldier, who loved nothing more than killing people. We were always at odds in the past, due to our conflicting views about when we should kill in order to survive.

Flora Song was a happy and carefree pony who loved flowers. She had heard stories about how beautiful they once were, and she tried hard to find some way for them to grow in irradiated soil.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine. I never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine.

As I looked down at all the bodies of the ponies that I had grown up with, I noticed that there weren’t nearly enough bodies to account for the whole town, and I noticed that Blitz was not among them. This was all the proof I needed to know that some of them were still alive. I guessed that they would most likely be hold up in Blitz's house. It was the biggest house in town, so it would be the easiest to fortify.

I knew that the Enclave would be sending more troops down from the Raptor, so I had to move fast. I turned towards Blitz’s house and made my way over there. The outside of the house was still largely intact and I used this to reassure myself that some were still alive.

When I was standing just outside the house, I moved to open the door and it opened in normally. I poked my head inside and I immediately felt a gun pressed against my head. I felt nervous for a moment, however, out of my peripheral vision, I could see that the gun was not attached to a set of power armor. When I looked closer, I also saw that it was enveloped in a familiar purple aura. I turned suddenly to see who it was, and I was struck speechless when I saw who it was. “Blitz?”

Blitz immediately followed after me, his angry expression quickly changing to a look of surprise. “Lightning?”

Upon seeing him alive, I pulled my nervous expression into a more serious, but happy face, and I smiled at him. “Yeah, it’s me.” I kicked the door shut and I immediately embraced him in a big hug. I was so relieved to see that he was still alive.

Shortly after, he returned the gesture. He seemed equally happy to see me again. As I wrapped my hooves around him, I felt all of my earlier unease wash away, being replaced by a relaxing and warm feeling all around my body. I let out a calm sigh as we both just stood there, locked in each other’s embrace. The room fell completely quiet. I didn’t see anypony else in the room, but just knowing that he was alive, was enough to make me the happiest pony in the Wasteland. He was my best friend for my whole life. Just seeing him again and alive, it was like nothing else in the world mattered.

After about ten seconds, I broke the embrace and looked around the room. It was completely empty except for the two of us. I then looked back at Blitz and asked, “Where is everyone?”

Blitz then closed his eyes and he fell back into a sad expression again. “They’re all dead. I’m the only one left.”

My heart sank at the sound of those eight simple words. Almost everyone that I had ever known was dead. At first, I thought that that was impossible, since there weren’t nearly enough bodies outside to account for everyone in town, and many of the houses didn’t look like they had been attacked; but then I remembered that many of the Enclave’s weapons disintegrated ponies on contact, so that would explain it.

After I had finished thinking about this, I raised my head up again and asked Blitz, “Why did this happen? Why did the Enclave attack you?”

Blitz opened his eyes again and looked up at me, but he then closed his eyes and lowered his head again almost immediately. He hesitated and then he gave a short sigh. It was as if what he was about to say was physically painful. “The Enclave had heard that there was a pegasus living in this town. My guess is that they didn’t want to risk a pegasus fighting against them, so they came here and asked us to hand them over.” He opened his eyes again, but he didn’t look up. “We tried telling them that you weren’t here anymore, but they didn’t believe us. They assumed that we were trying to keep you from them, so they started attacking us. We fought back, but they were using weapons that we had never seen before, and their armor made it too difficult for us to defeat them. We tried pulling back to our houses, but it looks like they didn’t make it.”

After hearing Blitz’s explanation for why the Enclave had attacked our town, I fell back on to my haunches. I was in shock. Was all of this my fault? Were all of these ponies dead because of me? I stayed that way for about a minute, in complete silence; but then I pulled myself into a stronger and more serious expression. No, it wasn’t my fault. It was the pegasi. It’s always the goddamn pegasi. All they ever do is cause trouble, whether they’re here or not.

I stood back up on four hooves and looked Blitz in the eye. I now had a stronger expression on my face. It was stoic, but strong. “Hey, Blitz.” Blitz finally lifted his head up to look at me. “You’re coming with me back to the cathedral. Red Eye apparently wants unicorns for something, so he should let you stay.” I then looked back over my shoulder, at the door

Blitz face suddenly changed to a look of confusion. “Wait, Red Eye?”

I soon followed suit. With everything that was happening, I forgot about what Blitz might have thought about where I was all this time.

I quickly turned back to face him, but I immediately looked away in embarrassment. “Long story; I’ll tell you later.” I then turned around and proceeded towards the door. “We have to hurry before the Enclave sends in more troops.”

I was about to open the door, when Blitz suddenly called out to me from behind me. I turned my head around and I saw that he had his hoof stretched out in front of him. He then lowered his hoof and looked over to the side. His horn then began glowing in a purple aura, and he lifted up a loose floorboard, revealing a hole in the floor. He then dropped the piece of floorboard down, but then he moved to pick up something else, from inside the hole. As the item came into view, my eyes widened when I saw what it was. It was the energy pistol that I had left with him before I left for Fillydelphia.

He then levitated it over to me and held it out in front of me. “Here. I still haven’t fired it yet.”

I looked back at him and he now had a much more serious expression on his face. I immediately matched his expression. We needed to be strong now. I then took the energy pistol in my hoof and placed it into my saddlebag.

As I did this, Blitz walked out ahead of me and over to the door. He then turned his head around to face me, and he said, “Let’s go.”

I nodded back to him and made my way over to him. He then opened the door.

The very next second, I heard the sound of a gunshot. In that split second that I had to think about what had just happened, my fears were immediately confirmed when I saw Blitz falling to the floor, with a bullet hole through his head.

Time seemed to slow down for me as I watched Blitz fall to the ground, dead. My mind started running a mile a minute. I tried to tell myself that this wasn’t happening; that I had seen things wrong and that he was just falling over slightly in shock. However, as much as I wanted this to be so, it simply wasn’t the case.

I had come here because I was worried that the ponies that I had grown up with were in danger, and I wanted to help. However, mostly I was just worried about Blitz. He had been my best friend throughout my entire life, and after my parents died, the only pony that I cared about more than anything.

When I come back home and saw that so many of the ponies that I grew up with were dead, I was as sad as I had been since my parents were killed. However, despite how many I saw were dead, I felt that as long as Blitz was still alive, I would be okay and I would have the strength to keep going. Now that I saw that he was dead too, it felt as bad as losing my parents and my hometown together and multiplied by ten. I now had nothing.

After only two seconds in real time, but what felt like an eternity to me, Blitz’s body finally hit the floor.

I looked back up and in front of me there were three Enclave pegasi. The two standing at each side looked like ordinary soldiers, but their armor was bigger and stronger than the soldiers that I had taken out. They had more pronounced pauldrons and they crackled with electricity. They had the usual scorpion-like tail that all Enclave soldiers had. They also had a symbol of a pound cake where their cutie marks would be underneath.

The pegasus in the centre was different, however. His armor wasn’t crackling with electricity and it didn’t have the pronounced pauldrons that the other two had, though he did still have the scorpion-like tail. He wasn’t wearing a helmet either, revealing his dark blue coat and his medium length, black mane that came down to the back of his head. His bangs came down to his eyes and gently blew about in the slight breeze. He had a calm expression his face, which betrayed all emotion. He looked like an officer.

I quickly reached back for my energy pistol, but before I could grabbed it, the two pegasi at either side of the officer activated the novasurge rifles built into their armor. “Don’t move,” they both said in unison. I simply stared back at them for a few seconds, standing completely still. I then slowly brought my hoof back to the ground and turned my head back to face them.

The officer suddenly raised his hoof to the side and turned to face one of the soldiers. “Now now, there is no need for that.” The soldiers turned to look at their commanding officer, and after only a moment’s hesitation, they both lowered their weapons.

He then turned back to face me. “So sorry about that. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Major Hurricane, second-in-command to Colonel Autumn Leaf, and Commander of Pound’s Rangers. And yourself?”

I was inwardly cursing at this pony, who had the gall to speak to me in such a friendly manor, after he had just murdered my friend. I swallowed these harsh thoughts, lest his bodyguards decide to shoot me. “Lightning.”

“A pleasure,” he responded. I had never wanted to shoot a pony more in my life.

“What are you doing here?” I asked abruptly. “Why did you attack this town?”

He responded back without dropping his smile. “Why, we came here for you, of course.” I was shocked. “We had heard that one of our own was down here, lost in this horrific ‘Equestrian Wasteland’.” He exaggerated those last few words for emphasise. “And we came to bring you back home. You don’t belong down here in this despicable, tainted Wasteland. You belong in the safe haven of the clouds, along with the rest of your kind.”

I couldn’t hold back my angry expression anymore, and I was outright snarling at him now. “You mean to say that you killed all of these innocent ponies just to get to me?”

He glanced away, dropping his smile, at the body of one of my friends and said, “Yes, a regrettable loss.” He then turned back to face me. “However, you should not dwell on the dead. You are still alive and for that you should be thankful. If you burden yourself with the dead, you can never move forward. Best to just forget about them and move on with your life.”

My anger was building up faster than it ever had before. This pony was twisting my own philosophy, trying to justify his wanton murder of innocent ponies. I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I quickly reached back for my energy pistol again, even faster than last time, grabbed it and pointed it right at Major Hurricane’s head. His two guards weren’t fast enough this time. “Don’t move!” I shouted at them immediately. They complied with my request and didn’t attempt to raise their guns. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. This thing can vaporize a shielded alicorn in a single shot.”

I stared at Major Hurricane as I spoke, and I saw that his facial expression was not one of fear or disbelief, but rather one of confusion.

He then slowly uttered, “A star blaster?”

I matched his expression of confusion after he said this. I then looked at the weapon in my outstretched hoof and thought, “A star blaster? So that’s what this thing is called.” I then looked at Major Hurricane again, resuming my earlier look of determination. “So then you know just how powerful this is. Now I want you to pull out all of your soldiers. I want to bury my friends.”

Major Hurricane didn’t seem shaken at my threat and just responded to this with a smug smile. “I take it you don’t have any ammunition for that weapon.”

“I’ve only fired it once,” I stated matter-of-factly. “I still have more than enough ammo to take out all of you.”

He then responded in the same smug tone from before. “Tell me; would you like some ammunition for that weapon?” I went right back to my look of confusion. “The Enclave are the only ones with ammunition for that particular weapon. If you side with us, then you can have as much ammunition for that weapon as you want. You will never have to worry about running out of ammunition ever again. You would be unstoppable.” He took a brief pause before continuing. “So, what do you say?”

I just stood there completely silent. My look of confusion had dissipated and had been replaced by my earlier serious expression. After about ten seconds of just standing there, Major Hurricane spoke up again. “Well, what’s your answer?”

I responded to him in a very calm demeanour. “I believe I already gave you my answer.”

Major Hurricane suddenly changed from his usual calm demeanour to a look of annoyance. “I think you’re forgetting who is in charge here.”

“And I think you’re forgetting who has a star blaster pointed at your head,” I responded immediately, with a smug smile on my face. “It seems that our positions have been reversed. I know hold all the cards here, Major.”

Major Hurricane snarled angrily back at me. I simply smiled back at him, smugly. Five seconds later, he took a step back and said, “We’re pulling out.”

Both of his guards turned to face him. “Sir?”

“That’s an order.” Major Hurricane and his two guards then started flying up into the air. Major Hurricane kept his gaze locked on me as he retreated. He had a look of pure anger and annoyance engraved on his face. He couldn’t take the humiliation of being forced to retreat because of such a little pony.

I kept my star blaster pointed at them just in case they tried to attack me while they were leaving. When they were out of sight and back on board the Raptor, I still stood there for several minutes until they started moving. The next minute, the Raptor was back above the clouds.

After Major Hurricane had left, I placed the star blaster back into my saddlebag and then I turned back down to look around the ruins of the settlement that had once been my home. Everything I had was gone and everyone I knew was dead. I haven’t been this close to tears since I watched my dad die. However, I still held back the tears. I had to be strong, even now.

I searched inside and outside the settlement and brought every body and pile of ash and plasma together into the centre of town. I then dug a hole in the middle of town as a grave for my friends and placed each of their bodies (or what was left of them) into it. Blitz, however, I gave his own personal grave, right next to everyone else’s. He deserved it.

When I was finished burying my friends, I then took a quick look at my old house. I then suddenly remembered something important and I started walking over there. Even though it was important, I was still too sad to run anywhere.

As soon as I opened the door to my house, I could hear a song playing on the radio. I just stood there in the doorframe for about a minute, just listening to it. I hadn’t forgotten why I came to my house; listening to this song was just something I needed to do. The song, combined with everything else that had happened to me here was enough to finally make me cry. I didn’t try to fight back my tears. Crying was also something I just had to do right now. I simply lied down on my stomach and cried.

After about five minutes, I got back up. I was still crying a bit and I was sniffling, but I was more controlled now. I still had something I needed to find. I just prayed to Luna that it was still here.

I then took a look around my old house. It looked like it had been ransacked. I immediately looked over at the small cupboard in the far right-hand corner of the room, and I made my way over there. When I was directly in front of it, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I then opened the cupboard and I was relieved to see that it was still there. It was a small statuette of a beautiful, young pegasus pony with a bright yellow coat and a beautiful, flowing pink mane. On the base of the statuette, there was an engraving that read, ‘Be Pleasant!’.

This statuette has been in my family for generations. It had been given to my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother by Fluttershy herself. I had seen this statuette many times when I was young, but now, when I took it in my hooves, I suddenly felt awash in a strange energy. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt stronger; like I could face anything. I then smiled, wiped the tears from my face and put the statuette into my saddlebag.

My grandmother’s statuette and my grandfather’s memory orb. These were now the only things that I had left to remember my family by. My smiled dipped a little, but I kept smiling. I had to stay strong. If I didn’t then my friends died for nothing, and I would not let that happen.

I then walked back outside and started flying into the sky. As I rose up into the air, I took one last look at the settlement where I had grown up. I then flew away, back to the cathedral.

A few days later, after I had returned to the cathedral, the Enclave began their attack. Red Eye told me to stick by his side the whole time. We then made our way down into the lowest levels of the cathedral, where I had never been before.

After a long trip into the deepest levels of the cathedral, we eventually stopped before a large door leading into another room. Red Eye then turned to address me, without actually turning around. “I’m going in here alone. You stay here and don’t move.” He then turned his head around to face me. “You are not, under any circumstances to come in unless I tell you to. Understand?”

I simply nodded back at him. “Right.”

Red Eye then turned back around and opened the door in front of him. The door led into a huge room, lined with several metal catwalks, above several huge vats of glowing, rainbow-coloured liquid. Red Eye stepped inside, activated a stealthbuck and disappeared. The door then closed behind him.

I couldn’t keep myself from placing my ear against the door and listening to what was being said inside.

“I know you are in here. There was no other way to run."

"By intention, I assure you. And now that we're all here..."

Red Eye seemed to be speaking with somepony else. The first voice was male from the sound of it, but the volume of his voice kept changing, like he was moving around the room as he spoke. Red Eye’s voice, however, sounded like it was coming from every part of the room all at once.

I continued listening in to what they were saying.

“So you are going to become the new Goddess. Is that it? Replace the one you killed?"

"If you understood the creature your High Councilor tried to make friendly with, you'd understand. The essence of the Goddess was formed out of the souls of four dominant ponies. And these ponies, in turn, provided the metaphysical template for the alicorns to follow."

"A new deity needs to be created with templates from all three races. Which meant I needed to find a pegasus and a unicorn who were strong enough in mind and soul to become dominant aspects with me in the new Godhood. We're all going to get to know each other very well, you in me."

I pulled my head back from the door in shock when I heard this. The pieces were all starting to fit into place. The reason Red Eye brought me specifically to the cathedral. In addition to himself, he also needed a unicorn and pegasus to join him in the new Unity so that he could become a God. He had plenty of unicorns already that he was bringing to the cathedral, but how many pegasi were in his army? Just me.

The male voice in the other room is constantly moving around the room as he speaks. The only way a pony could move around in that room that quickly was if he was flying. That pony he’s talking to is a pegasus. Red Eye is well known for his back up plans in case something doesn’t go according to plan. In the end that’s all I was to him; a backup plan. I don’t know why I expected anything different from him. I should have just left Fillydelphia when I had a chance. Then everything would have turned out fine; and all of my friends would still be alive. I am such an idiot.

I suddenly heard a loud crackling blast coming from the other room. I recognised the blast as a pulse charge. Despite how horrified I was now that I knew the truth, I put my ear to the door again so that I could hear what was going on in there.

"Not a chance in hell.”

"Up to you.”

"Wait... you're giving me a choice?"

There was a new voice in the room now. This one was clearly female. From what I could make out, she was probably around the same age as me. Also, from what I understood of the situation now, she was also most likely a unicorn.

Suddenly, I heard another loud crash from inside the other room. I was just about to place my ear back up against the door again, but it was suddenly ripped apart by several angry looking Hellhounds. I quickly jumped backwards to avoided having my head cut off by their razor sharp claws.

Once I was firmly back on the ground, I looked over at what I was facing now. I was now facing down four Hellhounds in an enclosed space. I think that this is an appropriate time to use the star blaster. I quickly reached back into my saddlebag; however, before I could grab it, I suddenly heard a loud radio frequency and it caused me incredible pain.

I placed my hoof to my head to try (unsuccessfully) to drown it out. I quickly fell down completely and placed my hooves over my head in pain. I tried to drown out the radio frequency, but it didn’t work. I have only been listening to this thing for about seven seconds, but it was causing me the worst physical pain I had ever felt in my life. The accursed noise was infecting my head. I could feel blood pouring out my ears and my eyes. I was sure that I would be dead in a few seconds and there was nothing that I could do about it. However, almost as quickly as it had come, the noise suddenly vanished. I have no idea why, but I am certainly not going to question it.

As I slowly stood back up on to four hooves again, I looked over at the Hellhounds. They were being tortured by that sound as well, but even though it was gone now, they still not getting up. Again, I was not going to question my good fortune.

I didn’t know what was going on exactly, but I did know that Red Eye was dead; which meant that my debt to him had been paid. Which means that I’m out of here. I turned back around, away from the room with the metal catwalks and huge vats of glowing, rainbow-coloured liquid and ran fast as I could for the nearest exit. I was getting of here.

I made my along the narrow corridors of the cathedral. The whole place shook violently every few seconds. Now that Red Eye was dead, the Overcast was giving it everything it had to completely destroy the place. After a while, I just decided to fly, so I could avoid tripping up every time the cathedral shook.

I eventually made it above ground, into the main chamber. I quickly made my way over to an open window and flew out. For the first few feet out the window, I had to manoeuvre carefully to avoid incoming fire. Once I was a bit further out, I was safe.

When I was a good distance away, I slowed down and looked back over my shoulder, back at the cathedral being bombarded. Suddenly, there was an enormous explosion that lit up the entire area. I had to raise one of my wings up to shield my eyes because it was so blinding.

When the light from the explosion started to fade, I lowered my wing from my eyes, to look back at what had happened. My eyes widened at the sight I was seeing before my eyes. The cathedral and the attacking Overcast… they were gone. They were just gone; just like that.

I had no idea what could possibly make an explosion of that magnitude and frankly, I didn’t want to have anything to do with something that was that powerful. I just faced forward again and continued flying forward.

As I flew along in the air, I couldn’t keep one thought from surfacing in my mind. “What now?”

To be continued...

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Keen Eye -- You now know exactly where to aim on Power Armor to cause damage. Attacks with Firearms ignore 10 DT of an enemy's armor rating.

Shadows of the Past

It has now been several days since the Enclave’s attack on the cathedral, and I still had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do. As I flew along in the air, I couldn’t help but ask myself what I was going to do now. The cathedral had been destroyed, Fillydelphia would be next and the only home I had ever known had been destroyed by the Enclave, along with everyone I had ever known.

The only things that I had to my name was the sniper rifle on my back and the contents of my saddlebag; which didn’t include any food, caps or medical supplies. What it did include was a memory orb, a Fluttershy statuette and a star blaster; all of which were treasurers that I would never part with. It was a pretty strange set of treasurers. What other pony would have such things?

As I was flying along, I looked down at the ground and I saw a young unicorn filly lying there, sprawled out on all fours, completely out of energy. I suddenly stopped in mid-air so that I could get a closer look at her. She had a light blue coat and a blue mane with white streaks in it. She looked alone and terrified. I drifted down towards the ground and I approached her. When I was standing over her, I raised a hoof to ask her if she was alright. As soon as she looked up at me however, she suddenly became terrified and buried her face in her hooves. “Aaaaahhhh, please don’t hurt me,” she responded in a terrified tone of voice.

I lowered my hoof again in confusion and calmly said, “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

The little filly slowly moved her hooves away from her head to look at me. She still had a scared look on her face, but she was starting to calm down a little bit. “Y-you mean… you’re n-not with those other flying ponies from before?” she stuttered.

As I looked down at her, I couldn’t help but notice a strange sense of déjá vu as she spoke. I held back the desire to smile and simply corrected, “Pegasi; and no, I’m not with them.”

The unicorn filly suddenly let out a sigh of relief and she became much calmer. “Good.” She then almost immediately dropped her relieved expression and went back to being scared and uncomfortable.

Not knowing what else to do and being legitimately concerned and interested about why she was acting like this, I simply asked her, “What happened?” in a quiet, but reassuring tone.

The little filly looked up at me again as I spoke to her. She still looked scared and uneasy, but I could tell that she was starting to relax when she saw that I meant her no harm. Then, after slight hesitation, she started talking.

“A while ago, these really scary flying ponies in armor attacked our town. We didn’t do anything to them; we tried to talk to them about what they wanted, but they just started attacking and killing us for no reason. We were unarmed; we had no warning.” She now started to choke on her words as she spoke, like she was trying to hold back her tears. “We tried to reason with them, but they wouldn’t listen. We then tried fighting back, but we were no match for them. During all the fighting, my mom took me to the front gate and told me to run. She told me to run and don’t look back. I tried to tell her that I didn’t want to leave without her or Daddy, but she didn’t let me finish and she just told me to run, so I did. So I ran and ran; I heard screaming from behind me, but I didn’t dare look back. I didn’t want to think about what was happening to everyone, but my mom had risked everything so that I would be alright, and I didn’t want to do anything that would change that, no matter what, or no matter how I felt”

There were now tears in her eyes by this point. She obviously didn’t want to relive something this sad this soon, but she still kept talking because I had asked her about what had happened. I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty at making her this sad after she had just tried to forget about it.

Through her sniffling, she continued to speak, though now she sounded like she was angry. “Why did those pegasi attack us? We didn’t do anything to them. They didn’t gain anything from attacking us so why did they? What makes them think that they can just go around killing other ponies like that? What gives them the right?” She was getting angrier and louder as she spoke. As she was finishing up, she then yelled out, “I… I hate pegasi!”

She was on the verge of tears as she ended her explanation. She then collapsed down on to the ground again and buried her head in her hooves as she openly sobbed. This sight really clutched at my heart. I didn’t like seeing a pony as young as her going through things like this. She actually reminded me a lot of myself.

After about two minutes of just quietly standing around, I leaned in close to her and asked, in as a polite way as I could, “Hey, where is your town?”

The filly moved her hooves away from her face again. There were tears in her eyes and she was sniffling. After a moment of pondering whether or not she should tell me, she then turned her head around and pointed directly behind her. “Uhhmm… it’s… th-that way… straight ahead.” Her words caught in her throat as she tried to speak, because she had been crying so much.

I looked away from her, over towards the direction that she was pointing. I then looked back at her and picked her up in my hooves. She was taken by surprise when I picked her up. I then simply whispered into her ear, “Hold on.” I then took to the air and I started flying forwards, in the direction of her town.

I flew off in the direction that the filly had pointed, holding her in my hooves as I flew. She held on to me tight as I flew; maybe she was trying to avoid slipping out of my grasp, or maybe she was still scared and needed comfort. It might have been a mixture of both because she had her head buried in my chest. I could tell that she was still crying a little, so maybe that was it; or maybe she still thought that I was with the Enclave that attacked her town. Remembering how hurt she sounded when she said that she hates pegasi, I didn’t write off this possibility. Sometimes I hated being a pegasus.

After about twenty minutes of flying, I saw a small town coming into view, so I started drifting down towards it. From here, I could see that it looked a lot like my hometown. It was a bit bigger than my hometown and there was a wooden fence that went all around the perimeter of the town, with a gate at the centre of it, acting as an entrance. Just in front of the exit, there was a sign that read ‘Welcome to Goodsprings’. Inside the fence, there were several wooden shacks that had taken damage during the attack, and some were falling apart. This town also possessed the same weakness as my hometown, in that it was defenceless against an aerial assault.

However, the thing which assured me that this was indeed this little filly’s town was that an Enclave Raptor was still hovering overhead. It was very high up in the sky, but it was still beneath the cloud cover.

I flew over the fence and began drifting down towards the ground. As I descended, more of the town came into view and my eyes widened at what I saw. Scattered all over the ground, there were dead bodies of mares and stallions everywhere. Some of the bodies (though very few) were still in one piece, but riddled with bullets. Others had several limbs blown off and were bleeding profusely. Those ones looked the worst. There were also several piles of ash and goo, which I knew had been caused by energy weapons. I had been expecting this kind of result, but actually seeing this kind of senseless slaughter still hit me hard. The gore was just too much.

To make matters worse, I also saw that there were about a dozen foals below in the area, looking at all of this. Knowing first hand that the Enclave doesn’t spare anypony, I could only surmise that they had all hidden during the attack. I shuddered to think that some of the foals weren’t able to hide and had been killed. The worst thing about murder was involving young children in it, in any shape or form.

As soon as I touched down on the ground inside the town, some of the foals in the area reacted to my presence and started quickly backing away in fright. However, as soon as they saw me and started backing away, the unicorn filly in my hooves gestured to them indicating that I wasn’t a threat. “It’s okay; she’s not one of them.” She then nudged my hoof with her own, indicating that she wanted me to put her down.

No sooner than I had opened my hooves and she hopped out of my grasp, one of the foals in the crowd asked, “How do you know that?!”

“Because she helped me,” she responded immediately, rather matter-of-factly. “If she had been with the other pegas… flying ponies, then she would have attacked me on sight.”

The group of foals started to quiet down after she had finished speaking, seemingly not being able to question that logic. I didn’t know how to react to that. After everypony in the area just stood around silently for what felt like an eternity, I turned down to face the unicorn filly again. “Uhhmm, excuse me… uhhh?”

“Snowbelle,” she responded immediately. That wasn’t what I was going to ask her, but I wasn’t going to tell her that now.

“Well, Snowbelle…” I wracked my brain, trying to find some way of saying what I wanted to say. Eventually I just asked, “What are you going to do now?”

After I had said this, Snowbelle suddenly dropped the small smile that she now had on her face, and looked around at what was left of her hometown. As she started to speak, she now had a stronger look on her face, with more resolve in her voice. “Well, we aren’t leaving here; this is our home.” She paused to take a breath, but she hadn’t lost any fire in her words. “We’ll just have to learn how to survive on our own. It’ll be tough going, but we’ll manage.”

She was facing the foals as she spoke, telling them what they were going to do, but I knew that she was answering my question as well and I felt as if she speaking directly to me. Her words sounded familiar and hit me hard, but it was the last thing that she said that hit me the hardest. “We don’t have a choice!”

After hearing these words come from her mouth, everything that I had seen since meeting this filly came back to me all at once, and in that that moment, I realised something: She’s me.

Everything that happened to this filly had happened to me. Her hometown gets attacked by bad ponies for no reason. Her parent risked their lives for her sake. She hates pegasi. Despite everything that happened, she wouldn’t leave this place because it’s her home, and she wasn’t about to let anything change that.

That was her past, but I was already able to see their future. I knew because I had already faced it. They would spend years trying to survive; struggling on a daily basis with the simplest things, without any parents to help them. They would have to grow up quickly in order to survive. They would lose their entire lives; not literally, but still in a serious sense. For them, their childhood was already over.

That’s not a life that I would want for anypony. There had to be something that I could do to make sure that these foals didn’t have to go through what I went through. I wanted to help them. There must be a way.

I thought back to what it had been like for me and what I had done then. What had I done to make sure that things would work out for us? I almost shed a tear as I thought of the ponies that I used to know; of Blitz.

Then I remembered the raiders. I remembered how I had to take them out, or they would just repeat the things they had done to us, somewhere else. I didn’t have a choice.

I then looked up in the sky and I saw the Enclave’s Raptor, stilling hovering there, beneath the cloud cover. I knew what I had to do.

I then looked down at Snowbelle. I then told her about what I was going to do.

“WHAT?!”

Her reaction to what I had just told her was to be expected. To anyone, it sounded like nothing short of suicide, however, my mind was already made up. I then began flapping my wings and rose into the air. She called out to me immediately and raised her hoof to stop me. “You don’t have to do this.”

I just looked down at her, with my usually stoic expression and simply said, “I know. I want to.”

I then turned around and got ready to dash away, up into the air, but then Snowbelle reached out her hoof again to call to me and said, “Wait,” in a tone which would suggest worry. She then lowered her hoof and her head and, after slight hesitation, she spoke again in a quieter tone. “Will you be alright?”

I looked down at her and I simply said, “You’ll be alright.” I then turned away and looked up at the Raptor in the sky. It was still beneath the cloud curtain and I was glad; I still didn’t want to go above the clouds unless I absolutely had to. I then picked up speed and made my way towards it.

The Raptor started shooting at me as soon as I got closer to it. While I was still beneath the cloud curtain, I had never flown this high up before. The pegasi on board could tell that I was an enemy.

While it was difficult for me to avoid all of the incoming fire, (I really only knew the basics of flying since I never had anyone to teach me and I had to learn it myself) I had an advantage in that I was a very small target for their guns, and there weren’t any surrounding Vertibucks.

When I got close to the Raptor, I stayed along the side of the hull to stay out of range of most of their guns. I flew along the side of the Raptor, looking for a way in. I eventually came to hatch that led inside, however, there was a slight problem: It was locked.

It was a cloud lock, and while I was a pegasus and had the means with which to interact with it, I didn’t have the tools; or so I thought. I suddenly remembered that I had one bobby pin; the one in my mane.

I removed the bobby pin from my mane, my long hair falling out over my body as I did so and began flowing in the wind. I then placed the bobby pin into the lock and started to pick it.

I began working on picking the lock. I had never really picked locks before, but right now it was my only option. As I only had one bobby pin, I prayed to Luna that it wouldn’t break. It seems the Goddess was smiling on me after all. After about a minute of fiddling with the lock, it popped open.

I opened up the hatch to step inside. Before I stepped inside, I looked at the bobby pin in my hoof and whispered to myself, “Looks like it was a good thing I picked this up all those weeks ago.” I was about to put the bobby pin back into my mane when suddenly, I stopped and thought about how I had acquired it.

I had taken this bobby pin off of the corpse of a mare that I had been fighting against in The Pit; a mare who was only fighting so that she could give her son a better life. Yes, I was fighting for my own survival and I wasn’t just going to let her kill me. I didn’t have a choice, but still; I had desecrated a pony’s body in a pretty brutal way just to survive.

When her son had confronted me about what I had done, I had told him that ponies die every day in the Wasteland and that he didn’t have any right to be angry at me for what I had done, but what about me.

When my parents had been killed, I hated the raiders that were responsible and all other raiders, who didn’t do anything to me. I killed them all on sight because I hated them so much.

When the Enclave had attacked my hometown and killed all of my friends, I started killing every Enclave soldier I saw, and I swore a personal vendetta against them.

I was angry at the Enclave for all that they had done to me and I wanted them to pay. However, they had also hurt a lot of other ponies. What gave me the right to be so angry with them? What made me so special? I felt like such a hypocrite. The words I had said to that colt back in Fillydelphia were ringing in my head.

I held out my hoof with the bobby pin in it and just stared back at it. After several seconds, I then dropped it down. I was going to change. I was still going to destroy this Enclave ship, but I was not doing it for me. I was doing it for all of the foals in the town below, who they had hurt. I was doing it for every pony that the Enclave ever did wrong for their own selfish reasons.

I watched as the bobby pin fell down and out of sight; a symbol of my new resolve. I briefly let my mind wander to hoping that there wouldn’t be any more locks that I would have needed it for to pick, but that feeling quickly passed.

I righted my face back into a strong expression. I had my goal and I was going to accomplish it. I then made my way inside the huge, flying ship and closed the hatch behind me.

The inside of the Raptor was like a huge, metal container. I was in a small room with only the hatch to the outside. I opened the door in front of me and stepped into the corridor and made my way along.

The corridors were all extremely narrow, only big enough for one pony to go down them at a time. I crouched down on all four hooves and quietly made my way along the narrow corridors. With every step, my hooves clanked against the metal floor. I slowed my crawl so that each step was as quiet as possible. After all, I had only a sniper rifle (and a star blaster with only nineteen shots left) and I was possibly up against an armies worth of armoured soldiers. I had to be stealthier than I had ever been in my life.

After several minutes of slowly and quietly crawling around the hallways of the Raptor, I suddenly heard the loud clanking of metal on metal. There were several Enclave troops heading my way. My anxiety rising, I quickly looked around for somewhere to hide. The hallway was too small; there was nowhere to hide. As I heard the hoofsteps getting closer, I quickly unfurled my wings and flew straight up. I only made it a few feet before I stopped just before touching the ceiling. I didn’t want to make any loud noises.

I looked down to see two armoured pegasi walking along beneath me. I hoped that they hadn’t seen me fly up here, or that they wouldn’t look up. They didn’t.

I waited a few more seconds for them to walk further away. I then drifted back down to the ground. I was about to continue sneaking along when I suddenly realised something. I then looked back and saw my wings. I could just fly along quietly and not touch the ground at all. I could also react faster if I heard anything and I knew that the flapping of my wings was silent, even in close proximity. I quickly facehooved and then continued flying along, staying towards the ceiling as I made my way along.

Sometimes I loved being a pegasus.

As I was making my way along the corridors of the Raptor, I ducked into one of the adjoining rooms. Once I was inside, I was amazed to see that the room was filled with Enclave power armor. I then came up with a plan to disguise myself as an Enclave soldier, so I could walk around the ship freely, without having to sneak. I didn’t like the idea of dressing like these ponies, but I had to admit to myself that it was a pretty good plan.

I started putting the armor on, but once I did, I was barely able to move in it. I guess you needed special training to move around in power armor. So much for that plan.

I started taking off the power armor, when suddenly, I heard the door behind me open up. I turned around quickly to see that an Enclave soldier had entered the room; and he had seen me. Without having time to think, I quickly grabbed my sniper rifle from my back (it’s a good thing I had already taken the power armor off) and shot him in the head. At this range and with my knowledge of power armor and its weak spots, the shot went right through his head, killing him.

He (or she) had died instantly and they didn’t have enough time to call for backup, however, the shot was very loud and it echoed throughout the metal hallways of the Raptor. There was no doubt that someone would have heard it and would come here to investigate. Any chance I had at being stealthy was gone now.

I quickly took to the air and flew out of the room. I flew along the corridors at high speed, (high speed for me anyway) keeping high to the ceiling, making it harder for any soldiers to see me. As I flew along, I hoped that I hadn’t chosen the path that the soldiers would be coming down. I looked down as I flew and I didn’t see any soldiers, although I could still hear them in other areas of the ship.

I turned a corner and I saw a big door that led into another side room. I quickly flew over to open it before anypony could see me, but it wouldn’t budge. Just as I was about to turn around and fly off, I saw something, like a hoof scanner, just to the side of the door. I decided to try and see if I could open it, so I placed my hoof on the scanner. The door opened immediately.

My guess is that the scanner responds only to pegasi. I guess they didn’t bother to restrict it to Enclave pegasi only. That was probably pretty dumb huh, though it did explain why they were so desperate to find me. They didn’t want to risk any pegasi working against them. Blitz was right.

I quickly shook my head as this thought entered my mind. I had to stay focused. I ducked into the room and shut the door behind me.

The room that I was in now was completely empty except for a huge cloud terminal, situated at the back of the room. The terminal took up the whole wall at the back of the room. Given the security around this room and the size of this terminal, then if there was any important information on this ship, or how to destroy it, it would be here.

I walked over to the cloud terminal to access it; however, I immediately discovered that the files were all locked down. It looks like the Enclave does take its security seriously.

I could try to hack the terminal in order to gain access, however, I had never hacked a terminal before. Although, I decided to give it a try anyway. After all, it wasn’t like being inexperienced in hacking made it physically impossible to even try.

So, I started hacking the terminal. After a few minutes, I saw that it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. I just had to search through the snippets of data in the code to find the correct password. I had to back out a few times to avoid being locked out, but I eventually found the correct password.

The password was ‘Purity’.

Once I was in, I began looking through the terminals many files, looking for some way to destroy the ship. The terminal was full of all sorts of different types of files, such as audio files, soldier records, listed casualties and something about the ‘Frank Horrsigan Project’.

I ignored most of these files and instead started scrolling through the list of audio files, hoping it might contain something important from an officer.

As I was scanning through the list of hundreds of audio files, three names in particular stood out.

Dawn Flower.

Lightning Flicker.

Dusk Shine.

My eyes widened as soon as I saw it. Here, on an Enclave terminal, amidst hundreds of other files, were three audio files from three of my ancestors from before the war. The huge size of the audio file folder suddenly made more sense, with how far back their records stretched.

For the moment, I forgot about everything else. I forgot about the fact that I had raised the alarm and now the whole ship was looking for me, or about why I was in here, on this terminal in the first place. I had an opportunity to hear about my ancestors from them directly, and also to hear their actual voices, even if it was just through a two century old recording. It was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.

I clicked on the first audio file and started playing it.

Dawn Flower

Well, I just got back from my meeting with the Elements of Harmony, and they completely refused my plan of freeing Discord to help us with the war. I tried explaining to them that Discord isn’t evil exactly; he’s just a prankster who likes doing things his way because he’s the strongest.

He doesn’t even kill ponies. After all, the chaos he causes is all just to have fun and the least kind of fun pony is a dead pony. The zebras are also just as afraid of him as they are of Nightmare moon, so there’s no risk of him allying with them.

However, they still wouldn’t listen to a single word I said. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to come up with some other way to help with the war effort. Hmmm… I wonder if maybe the magic in gems could be redistributed to create weapons.

When the first recording was finished, I clicked on the next one.

Lightning Flicker

What’s that? You want to speak into this? Hmmm, creating some sort of last will and testimony for me before I go, is that it? My life story? Fine, here I go.

My name is Lightning Flicker and I’m a former worker at the Ministry of Peace. This is my story.

On the last day, I managed to survive the apocalypse by flying above the clouds before the megaspells hit. I didn’t want to leave without my husband, but I knew that he would want me to survive, even if it meant that he couldn’t. That’s the kind of pony he was… and always was. The kind of pony who always put others needs ahead of his own, and thought about what was best for everypony. I just forgot that for a little while.

Ever since the war started, we’ve been drifting further and further apart. We would always be at odds about how best to handle things. I told him that we needed to find a peaceful solution to everything, but he just kept on creating energy weapons causing even more death. He did tell me that he wanted to find a peaceful solution as well. He just believed that it wouldn’t be as simple as talking things out after everything that had happened, and that we needed these weapons right now.

Of course, I see now that he was right. Huh, it’s almost poetic how such things only occur when it’s already too late to do anything about it. Now he’s gone. Hmmm… all of those things that I used to worry and fight with him about seem so stupid now.

As soon as the bombardment had stopped, I wanted to go back down to the surface to look for my husband. I knew that he was still alive… or maybe, I wanted to believe that he was still alive. I wanted to leave immediately, but the other pegasi wouldn’t let me. I told them that they couldn’t keep me here against my will, but… that’s not what they were talking about. Apparently… I was pregnant.

This changed everything. I now wanted to find him more than anything; so that we can all be a family and maybe just try and forgot everything that’s happened and to live a peaceful life in the world we now live, but, I also knew that he would never want me to risk my safety, or the safety of our child just for him. So, I stayed above the clouds for another eleven months. Then, my beautiful son was born. While I saw him as the most beautiful thing in the world, all the other pegasi could only see one thing: he was a unicorn.

They told me that he couldn’t live up here, and they wanted me to abandon him. Of course, I told them to go buck themselves; they kicked me out as well.

They branded me a traitor; figuratively and literally. They removed my cutie mark and replaced it with a brand of Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. They called me a Dashite; the third to be exact, and they said that I was a traitor to the pegasus race. I however, wear this brand as a badge of honour. It is proof that there is still hope for the pegasus race. One day they will return to Equestria, and everything will be sunshine and rainbows once again.

Well, I’m almost done recording this audio file for you, and then I’ll be on my way. Commander Pound Cake will be escorting beneath the cloud cover personally; just to make sure that I actually leave. I assure you, I have no intention of staying up here. Until that day of ‘sunshine and Rainbows’ finally comes, all I want is to live out the rest of my life with my son, Sunrise Sparkle; named for the two greatest unicorns I have ever known.

Once the second audio file was finished, I clicked on the last one.

Dusk Shine

This is Dusk Shine: Head of Maintenance for Stable 2. Stable door is secure. Radiation levels are at zero point zero per cent and show no signs of rising.

Our orders are simple: to keep the stable door closed until background radiation has fallen below lethal levels, where upon it’s safe for ponies to once again inhabit the outside world.

It all seemed so simple on paper. Construct massive underground bunkers to hold a few hundred ponies to survive the apocalypse. Then emerge out into the world again and rebuild. Celestia knows the stables themselves are capable of surviving absolutely anything. When Stable-Tec built something, they built it to last. However, after witnessing the destructive capabilities of the megaspells, and accounting for how many were launched against us, I wonder if things could ever return to the way it used to be, before the war. Even if the radiation levels fall and we can live outside again… well we’ve seen the kind of damage even a single megaspell could do; and who knows how many hundred the zebras launched against us. What if ponies can never live outside of stables again? And even if they can, what’s to stop us from making the same mistakes all over again?

I still remember how Equestria used to be, when I was younger. Those carefree days when I was out crusading for my cutie mark. I can’t believe that I used to spend so much time worrying about what seems like such a stupid thing now. Just goes to show you just how much Equestria has changed. While I would like nothing more than to have those days back again, I fear that those days are gone, and that Equestria will never know peace like that again. The war may be over now, but war never changes. It will be back again and worse than before. Somehow.

However, while I don’t know if things will ever go back to the way things were when I was a young colt, I do know that that will never happen in my lifetime. The door of Stable 2 will never again open while I’m still alive. While I am upset that I’ll never see my big brother, Dawn again, I am happy to live out the rest of my life in peace down here, with my beautiful wife, Sweetie Belle.

When the final audio files had finished playing, I just stood there taking it all in. I was happy. Happy that I learned more about my family and that I learned about them from them. I was glad that I had come here.

Suddenly, I came back to earth and remembered why I was here in the first place. I then returned my attention to the terminal, looking for a way to destroy the ship.

While I was searching through the terminals files, I found a map of the ship. From the map, I saw that there was a hangar bay just around the corner from the room I was in. Looks like I found my way out.

I continued searching through the terminal, and I eventually found something useful. The ships self-destruct code; and the good news was that I could activate it from here.

I had a way to destroy the ship and I had an exit strategy. Before even stopping to consider if the self-destruct would be instant or if it would take a few minutes, I hit the okay.

As soon as I did, I heard a computer programs voice over the ships intercom. “Warning. Ships self-destruct sequence initiated. Please evacuated all personal. Five minutes until total destruction.”

As soon as I heard the warning, I knew that the soldiers would know where the self-destruct protocol was initiated from, which meant that they knew where I was now. I also had to make sure that the self-destruct command couldn’t be overridden, even at the cost of my own life. I then drew my sniper rifle and unloaded an entire magazine into the control console. When I was happy that it was sufficiently banged up, I put my sniper rifle back on to my back and made my way over to the door. After it had opened up, I took the air again and sped off towards the hangar bay.

I quickly made it to the doorway to the hangar bay. Just as I was about open the door, I heard another message being broadcasted on the ships intercom. This voice was different from before. It was clearly coming from a real pony this time. “Attention all personnel. Your orders are to pull out of the area immediately. Colonel Hurricane wants to handle this matter personally.”

At the mention of his name, all the anger that I felt towards him back at my hometown came back. I never should have let him go. I should have killed him when I had the chance. So what if I try to avoid killing people as much as possible. Some people are just evil and deserve to be punished.

As I opened the door into the hanger bay, I shifted my sniper rifle back into position on to my back and I pulled out my star blaster. “This time I’m ending it.” The hangar bay door opened and I stepped inside.

To be continued…

Footnote: Level Up.
New Perk: Just Give It A Try – There are things that you have never tried before simply because they sounded too complicated, but now that you have tried them, you can see that they are actually much easier than you thought. Science and Lockpick are both increased by 5.

Author's Note

I wanted to update one of my stories before Christmas, so here you are. This story is almost finished and I've already started writing the next chapter. I should have the next update soon. Happy Hearths Warming everypony.

Cancelled Future Plans

Endgame

As the door to the hangar bay opened up, I took to the air to get a better view of my surroundings. I just knew that Major… no, Colonel Hurricane was nearby, and this time, I was going to end it. I never should have let him get away.

I was going to kill him, and I meant it. That was my virtue after all: Dependability. I was a pony of my word. When I say I’ll do something, I will do it. If I promise someone something, then I will do it. If I say that I will protect someone, then I will fight to my last breath in order to protect them. If I have someone at gunpoint and tell them that if they leave then I’ll let them live, I will. Maybe it was more like a vice, getting me into more trouble, but to me it was my virtue; the one thing about myself that I will never compromise, and if I say that that I will kill someone, I will kill them; and I was going to kill Colonel Hurricane. I clutched my star blaster close to my chest as I flew into the room.

The hangar bay was a huge room, filled with Vertibucks. There were six of them in the room, all of them in line with each other, and there was still plenty of room to move around in. Directly ahead of me was the exit. It was a huge steel frame that lowered from the inside to let the Vertibucks out. There was a button just to the right of the frame, which I concluded controlled the opening and closing of the hatch. I would take that way out once I found and finished off Colonel Hurricane. All of the other soldiers I would be happy leaving to the ship exploding, but Colonel Hurricane I wanted to finish off myself. I didn’t want to risk somepony like him making it out of here alive; not after the kind of actions that he ordered; Goodsprings and my hometown the only ones that I was aware of, and even that was two actions too many.

I slowly flew along in the air, clutching my star blaster in my hooves. As soon as I spotted him, I was taking the shot. This would be my second shot with this weapon and I would not need a third.

I continued on as silently as I could. The Raptor suddenly gave a huge shake. I didn’t feel it since I was in the air, but I could tell that that shook the whole ship. The computer voice echoed throughout the intercom again. “Four minutes until self-destruction. Please evacuate immediately.”

I guessed that the ship was beginning a chain reaction in response to the self-destruct sequence being initiated. This was just a warm up before the entire ship was destroyed. Four minutes left to get out until it’s destroyed. All the more reason I had to find Colonel Hurricane quickly. It said over the intercom that he wanted to handle me personally, which meant that he was probably in the area. I had to stay on alert to make sure that I spotted him first. With my star blaster, I only needed one shot.

BLAM!

I suddenly heard a shot from my right, and my eyes widened immediately. I turned around immediately in the direction that I had heard it come from. I raised my star blaster up as quickly as I could, and a fraction of a second later, I saw an energy bolt coming right at me.

I must have had both of the Goddesses watching over me, because the very instant that I turned around and raised my star blaster up in preparation, the energy bolt collided with it instead of me.

The resulting collision created an enormous explosion, with me at the centre of it. My star blaster was completely destroyed in the blast, and the force of the explosion pushed me back at tremendous speeds. I was flung into the hard, steel wall of the hangar bay. I was in more physical pain right now then I had ever been in my entire life from the force of the impact. I heard multiple snaps from behind me as I collided with the wall. The pain was ringing throughout my entire body. After about three seconds, my body simply peeled off the wall, and I fell down to the hard, metal floor with a resounding thud. When I finally had the strength to open my eyes, I saw my sniper rifle fall in front of me, cloven in two.

I hit the floor hard, which in my current condition, only made the intense pain I was feeling all the worse. However, my body was in so much pain already, that I barely registered the prospect of more pain than this. The whole front half of body was screaming out in more pain than I had ever felt before. However, despite the unbearable pain in the front half of my body, on the back side of my body, I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t move at all.

I heard hoofsteps coming towards me. It took all of the energy that I had just to lift up my head up and open my eyes a little bit wider.

Slowly lifting my gaze and working my way up, I saw that it was an Enclave soldier, clod head to hoof in power armor. The only exposed parts on the suit that showed any indication of what the pony underneath looked like were the wings. They were a dark blue that I would recognise anywhere, even without having to see their face; Colonel Hurricane stood before me. He was now wearing his helmet, so I couldn’t see his face behind his visor; however, his wings were visible and I would recognise his coat colour anywhere. At this point, it was burned into my memory, whether I wanted it or not.

As I looked at him now, it seemed that my burning hatred for him had been enough to at least restore some of my strength, because I now had the strength to widen my eyes in surprise. There, imbedded into Colonel Hurricane’s power armor, like a battle saddle, I saw it: the weapon that he had shot me with. The weapon that he had destroyed my star blaster with. The weapon that he was now pointing directly at me.

Colonel Hurricane had his own star blaster.

Colonel Hurricane tilted his head down. With his visor up, it was the only indication I had that he was looking right at me. He then spoke to me in a very calm and reserved tone of voice, as the star blaster on his power armor twitched slightly to point right at me.

“Oh how the tables have turned.”

If I had the strength to do it, I would have gritted my teeth in anger and snarled at him just for being here. However, the way it currently stood, all I could do was glare back at him, and even that required a bit of effort on my part.

The Raptor suddenly shook again. Now that I was on the ground, I was able to feel it as the sudden movement caused my whole body to jostle about. Oh, hello pain. I had almost forgotten about you. How have you been?

Colonel Hurricane seemed able to remain standing just fine, no doubt anchored to the ground by his armor. The mechanical voice on the intercom rang out again. “Three minutes until self-destruction. Please evacuate all Enclave personnel.”

Taking my eyes off of him for only a second or two to look at the intercom, I returned my attention to Colonel Hurricane once again. The pain had died down slightly, and I was now able to move my eyes around just fine, without too much pain, and I could even move my head slightly. My wings hung limply by my side, though I could twitch them a little if I focused hard enough.

My wings seemed to be the least affected by the explosion, and the resulting slam against the wall and floor that immediately followed. I seemed to be able to move them normally if I focused hard enough. My hind legs were still completely numb. I tried moving my front legs, but that ended when the Colonel brought his armored hoof down on it. Hard.

He then his tilted his head to the side slightly to show that he was about to address me again. “Well, well, we meet again. If you had any common sense at all, you would have stayed out of my, and the Enclave’s business for good. You are clearly not a smart pony.”

The Raptor gave another big shake as it neared total destruction. I was on the ground now so I felt

The movement aggravated my injuries

As I left the Raptor, I didn’t so much as fly as fall out of the sky. I plummeted towards the ground below at high speeds; higher than I had ever flown before (which doesn’t really say much). I spread my wings out to the sides to try and calm my descent, however, I was so exhausted that it was all I could do.

As I was falling down, I stole one final glance back up. Over in the distance, I could swear that I saw a large, purple dragon briefly dip beneath the cloud layer before flying back up again.

As the fillies and colts began walking back towards the town, I raised my hoof up and placed it on the unicorn filly’s shoulder. She looked back at me and asked, “What’s wrong?”

I then responded, “Could you help me along, please? I can’t feel my hind legs.”

To be concluded…

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Luck of the Pegasi -- You have survived being shot at with a Star Blaster and only lost the use of your hind legs. You must be the luckiest pony in the Wasteland. +1 to your Luck.

Epilogue

“Hey there, children. It’s your good friend, DJ Pon3, bringing you all the latest news from the Equestrian Wasteland. Oh, or should I say, Equestria?

As many of you all know, the ‘Day of Sunshine and Rainbows’ was that marvellous day when the heroic Stable Dweller finally broke that persistent cloud curtain that has hung over our heads for the past two hundred years, and actually brought the Sun back to the world below. Lightbringer, indeed.

However, sadly that day was not all sunshine and rainbows – no pun intended. As it turns out, in the early morning of that faithful day, the town of Goodsprings: the self-proclaimed, ‘Nicest Town in the Wasteland’ came under attack by the Enclave. Reports say that it was an absolute massacre. Ponies slaughtered everywhere you looked; unfortunate ponies didn’t fight back or even antagonize ‘em. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, while the pegasi needed to blow off some steam from their many, many losses. If there was anyone who still had any doubts about the Enclave’s true intentions before then, this would definitely hammer it into them.

According to reports, the foals there managed to survive, either by hiding, running away or the Enclave just ignoring them because they’re children; and based on past experiences, I’m guessing it was the former. Afterwards, they were resolved to simply try their best to survive in the only home that they ever knew; by themselves, without any parents to watch over them.

However, one pony wouldn’t stand for that. A good Samaritan – a pegasus even – selflessly decided to personally put a stop to the troops responsible for the attack, and single hoofedly destroyed an Enclave Raptor. My heart goes out to you, Pegasus; keep up the good fight. Shows the rest of us here in the Wasteland that there’s more to the pegasus race than just the Enclave.

This is DJ-Pon3: Bringing you the truth no matter how bad it hurts.

The Gardens of Equestria may have cleansed the Wasteland of radiation and taint, but it couldn’t do anything about the pony’s minds, so there were still just as many raiders and slavers around.

The Gardens of Equestria may have made things easier, but the struggle to survive is a war without end, and war – war never changes.

The End

New Perk: Cyberpony -- Your cybernetic enhancements make you stronger, but also slower. Your Strength and Endurance are both increased by 1, but Agility is reduced by 2. Magic Energy is increased by 10. +10% to Poison Resistance and RAD Resistance.