Fallout: Equestria- The Road Home

Fallout: Equestria

The Road Home

Written by MarcDaJohnson

Edited by QuackmanBrony

Chapter one: The Ambush

"The unexamined life is not one worth living."

Death. What a strange concept to grasp. All things that exist will eventually die and fade into the library of history. Could it be that a ponies sole purpose in life is just to eventually die? At one time, the land of Equestria thrived and life was good for not just everypony, but every creature big and small. But as I speak to you today the land has changed, a twisted shell of its former self. The seeds of hatred were sown and sprang into full bloom, speeding Equestria toward the end of days. Relations between nations became stressed as the lands natural resources dwindled. Before long, ponies clashed with the zebras, fighting with firearms and in hoof-to-hoof combat. The war raged and each side suffered massive casualties. Ponies worked nonstop to find an edge to stop the madness, as did the zebras. It all ended in a hail of magical abominations. Megaspells by the ponies, Balefire from the zebras. The pegasi closed up the sky and left their wingless brothers behind. After all the bloodshed, all the fighting and pollution that followed the Great War, the land fell silent and started to die.

But neigh that was not the end of Equestria's story, it was a new beginning, a chance to write a new chapter in the book of time. Massive underground bunkers called Stables were built and available to rich ponies and ones that gave up everything just for a spot. Their descendants would right the wrongs they had done and restore the land to its former glory, and not repeat their mistakes . It saddens me to say from atop this jagged clifftop the land has not healed and the hate and corruption that killed the world still burns bright to this very day.

I spied down the scope of my hunting rifle I bought back in New Appleloosa at Absolutely Everything. It was a quaint like store run by a mute ghoul pegasus named Ditzy Doo who seemed nice enough. She even gave me a copy of The Wasteland Survival Guide that had already proved quite useful. I would have missed her store completely if my employer hadn’t recommended stopping by and checking out her wares. He said to mention his name for a discount as his company worked with hers on numerous occasions. After leaving the stable, I was able to find work with The Crimson Courier Service. I was given a small package to deliver to a mare living on the outskirts of Ponyville in a red shack. He warned me that the area was crawling with raiders and to stock up on ammo and medical supplies before I made the journey, and boy was he right about that.

At the foot of the ridge, a group of raiders had set up camp. They had fortified their position with makeshift cover and defenses to protect from all angles. I noted that most were lightly armed; small caliber rifles, pistols, and shotguns were their main defense and were sporting light armor that looked like patchwork from various different sets. At that moment I saw a group of heavily armored bucks with rocket launchers and miniguns appear out of the main building. They were followed by a pony in some sort of power armor that immediately started barking orders to the rest of the camp. It appeared that this pony was the leader of the operation and was not to be fucked with. Then I noticed at the top of camp they had a mounted heavy machine gun that was very well hidden and had a mesh draped over the position to further hide itself from above. It was so well hidden that I would have missed it if not for a raider going back and forth with boxes of high caliber ammo to the emplacement. It struck me odd that raiders would have such heavy ordnance and a well-fortified base. Something big was about to go down and I knew I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of those rockets. It was getting dark so I decided to make camp on the ridge and move out in the morning not wanting to be attacked in the pitch dark.

I switched on my Pipbucks radio to see if there were still places out there that were broadcasting. I was greeted by the sound of some strange DJ giving their nightly report. “Good evening Wastelanders, it’s DJ Pon-3 with your nightly news! Reports coming in state that the area around Ponyville is swarming with raiders more than usual, so if you don’t need to be there, stay away. For those of you living under a rock, or maybe a stable, there’s a new faction out roaming the wastes. A group of steel rangers have defected and started up Applejack’s Rangers. These guys are devoted to protecting ponies rather than hoarding technology. These are the good guys so if you see them out wandering around or fighting raiders give’em a hand, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. You can tell them from the Steel Rangers by the red markings on their sets of power armor. In other news, it looks like another stable has opened its doors. You heard me right, Stable 23 has opened up and reports show that two bucks have left the stable and are wandering the wastes as we speak. I don’t know what to make of them yet, but I think we can expect some big things from these two. That’s all we have for tonight so stay safe and stay classy Equestria.”

Damn. I hadn’t been out for two weeks and I was already famous. Whoever this Pon-3 guy is, he obviously has spies everywhere to keep tabs on the wasteland. Trying not to think about it too much I took out a box of sugar bombs and a copy of Zebra Infiltration Tactics I bought back at Ditzy,s to occupy my mind till I fell asleep.

*** *** ***

I awoke early in the morning to the sound of explosions and machine gun fire that shook the ground I slept on. I peered over the ridge to see what was going on down there. The firefight was raging below. It was hard to make out exactly what was going on down below besides each group hurling Rocket Propelled Grenades and machine gun fire at each other. I sighted in on the mystery group and saw that they were wearing power armor with the markings that the DJ spoke of. I immediately knew whose side I was on and readied my hunting rifle to start influencing the battle. I decided that the heavy machine gun nest was probably the main threat to the rangers. I aimed down my rifle’s scope and found the machine gun nest and took aim at the gunners face. The bullet hit one of the sand bags insulating the gunner. I readjusted my scope and prepared for the same shot. Damn. The shot went over his head by about 6 inches and he realized how lucky he just got, I saw it in his face. He continued to lay down suppressing fire on the rangers and did so quite effectively. I made my final adjustment and slowly pulled the trigger. The round flew fast and true towards my target and hit the gunner square in the face. The .308 round completely liquefied his head and left a huge red stain on the wall behind him. Some raiders just don’t know how to quit when they’re ahead. Haha did you see what I did there?

With the heavy gunner gone, the rangers were able to start pushing through the raider’s lines of defense. The battlefield was a mess of mutilated corpses and empty shell casings. Both sides were losing combatants but the rangers were clearly dominating with the machine gun down. Rockets whirred and mortars fell destroying cover and raiders alike. I watched for opportunities to eliminate raiders in the small gaps of time where the battlefield wasn’t covered in smoke. The battle appeared to be won with only 3 raiders left when I noticed something. The group of armored bucks I saw yesterday hadn’t been in the battle. At that moment the group burst out of the main building and proceeded to fire their payloads at the rangers. It became clear to me what was happening. The rangers had pushed into the camp while the reinforcements moved in behind them blocking their escape. The group of rangers had suffered major losses and been trimmed down from 15 to 8 and I watched in horror as the reinforcing raider group contained almost 20 small arms ponies. I did what I could to take down the reinforcing group. Bang. Hit. Bang. Hit. I rained down a lead shit storm on the group and in all killed 7 of them.

I looked around the camp to get a sense of how the battle was going. I looked at the ridge parallel to my position. I hadn’t scanned the ridge during the battle and was about to pay for it. I saw the flash of an enemy scouts binoculars and knew this was about to be bad. I tried to silence him before he could alert the rest of them but it was too late. He rose up and screamed “SNIPER!” and pointed in my direction before my bullet ripped his heart out his backside. The group of armored bucks looked right up at my position and the ‘buck not to be fucked with’ just smiled right at me. The group shot about 20 rockets in all toward me and they all hit within about 10-13 feet of me. The blasts flung me back against the rock face and smashed my head really hard. I felt the blood streaming down the side of my head and the world started to get darker and darker. I knew this wouldn’t end well.

*** *** ***

So I guess its time for some answers and you deserve them. How is this fresh out the stable buck so good with a rifle? Why does it seem like I know what I’m doing? Why did I leave the Stable? Well it all started back when I was a little colt back in Stable 23. My name is Crack Shot and I was born as a dark blue unicorn with a two-tone mane of green and aquamarine. In the wasteland this color combination screams ‘shoot me in the face’ but in the stable it was halfway normal. Stable 23 was built as a refuge for Equestrias greatest scientists and wartime generals making all of us descendants of them.

In the first couple years of school we learned basic stuff like writing, math, and history. When we got our cutie marks they were either to deal with science or combat and we were separated from the other group. We were allowed 3 hours a day to mingle with the other group and just have a little fun in the recreation area. When I got mine I was so excited. Mine appeared as two .50 caliber bullets crossing halfway down the base. My dad told me the meaning of my cutie mark after I got it. “ The first one was to get your bearings and the second was to blow them back to Hell.” By them he meant zebras; he still carried the hatred for their race, but I found it irrelevant as the war was over 200 years ago.

Once we were separated, we began radically different programs of study. The original Overmare was a smart one. She realized that whenever the stable was opened the outside probably wouldn’t be very nice. The ponies in the science division worked on computers and developing medicines to help us live a better life inside the stable. They also did experiments on radiation in a sealed off part of the stable to ensure it didn’t effect the stable. She ordered the science and maintenance ponies to develop a full virtual reality program to simulate combat operations for the combat group. The machine put us in a stasis pod and transported us to a virtual battlefield where we would be arranged onto random teams and would fight it out to the death. At the beginning we would visit an armory to gear up a discuss tactics for the upcoming battle. The winners were rewarded with extra bits to better gear up for the next battle. All the weapons handled true to life and had similar recoil and kick. When you were shot the system would administer a shock to your body, motivating you to not fuck up again. Obviously with how intense of a simulator that this was, rivalries were born. My personal rival was a young buck named Cherry Bomb or as I liked to call him ‘Captain Dickhead’. His coat was cherry red with a mane of black and red and his cutie mark was an explosion, go figure. In a straight firefight I would work him over everyday of the week but that wasn’t his style, he was a coward and would hide behind tripwires and cleverly placed mines. We constantly went at it and if we were on the same team we couldn’t work together to save our lives. When outside the simulation we would learn about the inner workings of our guns, how to repair them with spare parts, how to perform basic first aid for the field, and tactics to employ to outsmart and outgun your opponents.

During recreation time I spent most of my time hanging out with a buck about my age by the name of Lockout. He was a stout unicorn buck with a creme coat with a matching creme and grey mane. His cutie mark was a test tube and a computer with lines of code on the screen. His skills matched his name by having an uncanny knack for getting into a terminal on his last try, and if he was locked out he could find a way back in. It was truly amazing to me. We spent our time chasing the bad mares of stable 23 around and exchanging stuff we’d learned in our classes. I taught him basic shooting skills and how to repair armor and guns with different parts. He had a lot more to contribute being a scientist and all. He showed me different tricks and tips on getting into locked terminals and informed me about backing out before you get locked out, which wasn’t a problem for him. He showed me more advanced techniques for first aid but being a combat pony I couldn’t learn the major healing spells that they were teaching them. He warned me about the different drugs and reactions that they can have when taken together but assured me with moderation they can help you out of a tight situation. I valued these talks and knew that if I ever got out of this place, I'd need all the help I could get.

When I was about 14, my dad told me I would have a chance to leave the stable when I got a little older. I jumped so high that I almost hit my head on the ceiling and commenced to run around my room screaming in joy. Dad told me to calm down and not to tell anyone. He explained that the Overmare periodically sent out reconnaissance teams to check on the state of things in the outside world. He said it was against protocol to tell the young ones about it but felt I would work harder to get on one of the teams if I was aware of them. He warned me that of the teams they had sent about 15% actually returned but the information they provided for the stable was invaluable. Finally I would have a chance to go topside and breath the fresh, irradiated air and finally figure out what was really out there. As for why I actually left the stable that’s a story for a different day. Beside it looks like I’m coming to…

*** *** ***

I awoke on the side of the ridge lightly secured to a military cot. I had some thing over my face but there were holes for my eyes and mouth so I could breath. It was quite an alien feeling, like I’d been mummified with healing bandages. I looked around to see that all of my stuff was still here unlooted so I was pretty sure which side was victorious. I got up and pulled out some more sugar bombs and had a good breakfast. I then noticed a note had be left for me near my belongings.

Dear Mysterious Stranger,

This is Captain Star Bright of Applejack’s Rangers. After seeing the raiders direct their fire towards you we came to investigate what they were shooting at after the battle. We found you pretty banged up so our medic took a look and determined you just had a minor concussion and a flesh wound. She fixed you up with some of our healing bandages and left you the cot to rest on. By now the bandages have done their job and you can remove them. After further inspecting your camp we realized what a major role you had in the battle and would like to speak with you. When you come too, head down the ridge to the main building of the raider camp. We will be inside waiting.

Note: level up Guns(50)
Perk added: Sniper- For some reason you enjoy seeing pony heads explode. You receive a 10% accuracy bonus when aiming for the head

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats
Strength: 6
Perception: 7
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 5
Agility: 6
Luck: 5

Tag Skills
Guns
Lockpick
Explosives