Fallout Equestria: Life Goes On

As I walked through the remains of what was Ponyville, I started imagining what it would've been like back before the war. Before everything went to the shit and was okay. I scoffed at such a thought. No use dwelling on what was. Ya gotta focus on what is. Ponyville was a nice place. Doesn't matter right now. Ponyville is an infested dump of a place. Every single building I walked by was either demolished or rotting away. I trotted past a building that looked like it was made of deserts. I walked up to the front door and wiped away the dirt and grim. Some writing was on the wood, barely legible.

S-garc-b- C-rn-r

I shrugged and moved on. Down the road I spotted a giant ass tree that looks to have been hollowed out to make a house. I pushed against the door only to have it slam down onto the ground of the inside. Looks like there were shelves everywhere, but a lot of it was broken down. Books were scattered all across the floor of the tree, so I assumed it was a library. I shook my head and exit the overgrown plant.

"Nope. Nothin' here."

I continued walking down the street past all the abandoned buildings. I already saw what looked to be a farm when I entered the town but found nothing there so I moved on. I eventually came across what looked to be a train station.

But there's nothin' round here for miles. Except...

I opened my PipBuck and looked to the map, my suspicions confirmed.

Ah, I knew it. I remember reading about this place now. Not only is there a Stable nearby but also Canterlot.

I lowered my PipBuck and looked up towards the mountain that over shadowed me. True enough, Canterlot was there. Perched upon the side of the mountain. Of course it looked ruined to the four corners of Tartarus, but still....

That's where the Princesses lived before the war. Interesting...

I was always a sucker for exploration and knowledge, so I'll combine the two. Making up my mind, I tilt my hat forward slightly and made my way over to the train station. But before I could take another step something stopped me. A loud gun shot, followed by a high pitched scream. My head turned quickly in the direction of the scream.

...Someone is in trouble...

Right now I was arguing whether or not I should lend a hoof or not. After a few seconds I sighed and gave in to my stupid sense of justice. I turned around and galloped towards the screaming. Buildings flew past me as I ran, trying to find where I needed to go. I heard another scream come from my left and immediately took the next left. After a few seconds I came across the pony who screamed, and three other ponies. Two of which were pointing guns at her head, the other was smoking a cigar and smiling. All three of them had their backs to me except the mare.

She was sitting on the ground between two corpses. She had a spiked red mane and a light blue coat with yellow eyes, which were now wet with tears. I couldn't see her cutie mark but I saw that she was an Earth pony. She wore a barding much like mine but no guns were holstered.

She saw me and reached a hoof out towards me, almost begging me to save her. The cigar smoking pony noticed this and turned to face me. He had a well kept jet black mane with a light brown coat, covered by his black vest. His eyes were aqua blue shade, and his cutie mark was covered by a saddlebag. He cracked a devious grin to me.

"No need to play hero, mate. Jus' run along and we won' bother ya."

I braced my forelegs and enter a sort of battle stance. The pony scoffed as the other two flanked him, aiming their rifles at me.

"You can walk away any time now."

I stood my ground, glaring directly at the fucker. He sighed and nodded to the ponies beside him. They started creeping closer and closer to me, guns at the ready. He shrugged and waved a hoof in the air dismissively.

"Suit yourself. Boys, take out tha trash for me, wouldya?"

As his 'boys' started firing I ducked behind a tipped over wagon for cover. They continued firing relentlessly, despite the fact that I was well covered and they had little chance to hit me. I pulled a pistol out with my left wing and reached it over the wagon, firing blindly. I heard a single scream and a loud thumping noise. I assumed I managed to get one of them, but had no idea where the hell the other would be.

"Surprise, motha fucker!"

Looking upwards I find that the pony was floating above me with the cockiest grin I've ever seen. He was pointing his gun away from me, however. His saddle refused to point down. Finding this as an advantage, I looked up at him with a smile, before pointing my gun directly towards him.

"Surprise, dickwad."

Bang. His body fell as I rolled out of the way, letting it hit the ground. I got up and dusted myself off, walking around the wagon and towards the leader, who now looked upon me with terror in his eyes. When I got close enough, I just stood there with my gun pointed at his face and the biggest 'Fuck you I win' grin I could muster.

"Oh fu-"

Bang. A shot rang out through the silence and his body fell limp, lifeless. I grunt and twist my wing, hearing a satisfying pop. I holstered my gun and turned around to walk back to the train station, continuing my journey.

"Thanks for saving me."

I turned to find the mare looking towards me with a heartfelt smile. I respond with a smile of my own. She turned around and ran off, off into the horizon. I coughed to clear my throat and continued on my way to the train station.

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When I reached the station, I saw that the ticket booth was run down and torn to pieces, the tracks were demolished to Tartarus but nonetheless they were there. I walked over to the tracks and started following 'em up to Canterlot. Rocks, boulders, bodies and even skeletons littered the area around me as I continued my walk along the tracks. I was walking for thirty minutes until I reached a tunnel. I look towards the tunnel and listen intently, trying to find or hear something.

If what I heard about the Vipers is true, I doubt they would hesitate to put up an ambush in the tunnel.

I heard rumours that a gang called the Vipers now owned the territory around Canterlot. I was so close to the kingdom, just beyond the tunnel lay Canterlot, a twenty minute walk from here at the most.  The tunnels insides had tonnes of debris. It had multiple small walls inside where Vipers could very easily hide behind when utilizing the darkness. I walked forward cautiously and with great care, hoping to Celestia that I wasn't walking into an ambush.

It wasn't visibly shown, but my wings felt sore and stiff as all Tartarus. Using my wings to utilize my guns still hurt me a lot, just not as much as when I first began using them this way. I reach back into my saddlebags and pulled out a vial of purple liquid. I popped the cork and downed the nasty concoction in one go. I shuddered and felt the familiar sensation of little vibrations crawling under the skin of my wings, healing them right up. I sighed and patted my wings.

"Good as new."

After a long walk I finally managed to enter the once great city, which was now decimated. The only building standing is the Castle, and even that was in seriously bad condition. All the rest of the buildings were downright demolished or barely standing.

This is bad. A Sniper could be in that castle for all I know. The fact that there is ZERO cover makes this situation worse. If what I heard was true, the Vipers are using the castle as a base of operations. There's no other place for 'em to hide.

I took a deep breath and began searching the windows of the castle, hoping to Celestia that the Sniper is taking a whizz or something. When I was relatively sure that there were no snipers, I began running along the abandoned streets, going from destroyed building to destroyed building hoping to avoid detection. After a while I began questioning what I heard about the Vipers. There were literally no guards as far as I could tell, no snipers, no turrets, no nothing.

Where in the living fuck are all the Vipers.

It doesn't make sense. The Vipers are territorial as hell. If they own land they will not give it up without a fight. Where the hell are they? I shake my head out of my thoughts to find that I was face to face with what remains of the fronts doors to the Castle.

I don't like this....

With a gulp I push open the massive doors to the deteriorated castle. The state of the castle made my blood ice cold.

"Holy fucking shit."

The Vipers were definitely in the castle. They just weren't alive. Hundreds upon hundreds of armored bodies spread across the floors of the corridors within the massive castle. I took a cautious step inside, almost tripping on the remains of a nearby unicorn body. The bodies littered the Castle's floors, some were even on the ceiling. With a worried look I continued onwards through the massacred castle. I was walking towards the throne room (or where I thought it was) in complete silence.

I stopped in my tracks to see I had finally found the doors to the ancient room. I pushed the massive door open (Seriously, though. Why do you need massive doors?) to reveal the room. The walls were torn down, rubble was scattered in every direction, a ghoul was sitting in the throne, there was a nice potted plan- Wait what?

"Hey, amigo!"

Well I'll be. Look who it is.

I smile slightly and nod my head towards the ghoul in greeting.

"Hey, Kai. What've you been up to?"

Kai shrugged and eyed the bottle of whiskey in his hoof suspiciously.

"Not much, I just killed like...fifty fuckin' million Vipers. What about you?"

Kai was a ghoul (duh) with a faded blue mane and a....dunno what color his.....dunno what to call it anymore...skin? Coat? Fuck'd if I know. He is wearing a large broad brimmed hat and cape. He was an earth pony before he became a ghoul so no appendages or anything. Let's just say me and him saved each others flanks and kinda became allies.

"I saved a pony and almost got killed in the process."

Kai laughed heartily and jumped down from his throne, two shotguns accompanied his sides with straps.

"You have serious justice issues, amigo."

"Says a lot about you then, aye?"

"Aye. Bit of a coincidence meeting you here, compadre. Where was it we last saw each other?"

"Some place between here and Las Pegasus."

Kai barked a laugh and took a swig of whiskey, giving me a knowing look while doing so.

"You mean what is left of Pegasus."

I smile and nod to the ghoulish friend. Kai is one of those guys who looks at the brighter side of life. He can laugh at almost anything. Unfortunately for me, it's quite infectious. He staggered over towards me and took a mock bow, as if I was royalty.

"Sir, welcome to Canterlot Castle. Population: Fuck all. Rooms are a cap a night. Two if you want breakfast."

I simply knocked him on the head and he just laughed it off.

"So what are you doing here, Sabre? Last I heard you was headin' North."

"Still am. Thought I'd check out this place before continuing to move on."

"Reasonable. Considering this place is donde mierda se volvió loco, of course you would visit here."

"I'm just interested in how this shit hole became what it is today."

"Aren't we all, amigo?"

I took in my surroundings as best I could. The room was full of Viper bodies, the walls were drenched in blood and guts, and the room smelled fucking foul.

"Kai, how the fuck did you manage to kill all these Vipers."

Kai shrugged and staggered back over to his throne, slumping into the ruined chair.

"Actually, I didn't. When I came here, Enclave soldiers were here takin' care of 'em. After they left I came in and began lootin'."

"What reason would the Enclave have to raid this kinda place?"

"Dunno. When they left they had a massive crate that seemed to be glowing slightly."

So the Enclave were now graverobbers and thieves, eh? Interesting. Wonder what they got.

"Maybe you should go say Hi to them. Being a member of the 'last pure race' might get ya brownie points."

I laughed and walked up to Kai, taking a seat next to him atop the massive throne.

"Doubt it. Remember Pegasus?"

Kai smirked and nodded ever so slowly.

"Never forget it, bro. The Enclave have never hated someone as much as they hate us."

"How much was our bounty, again?"

"You've got like five thousand caps on your head, roughly two 'kay for my head."

"And no one is ever gunna claim that bounty."

"Not as long as I have breath in my lungs, amigo."

I smiled and lean back into the throne, taking Kai's whiskey and giving it a good swig, burning my throat as it slid down. I place the whiskey between us and sigh.

"Have ya joined up with any factions yet?"

Kai shook his head and turned to face me.

"Nah, amigo. You?"

I shook my head.

"Nah. I don't plan on it either. Ya know how I feel towards the other psychopaths in this Celestia forsaken wasteland."

Kai nodded in agreement, knowing how I felt. I sigh and took one last swig from the whiskey.

"Well, this was a nice detour I guess."

Kai turned to me and patted my shoulder as I jumped from the throne. He knew how I traveled, and understood why I do it.

"Nice seein' ya again, bro."

I nodded to him, then began walking out the doors and exiting the castle to continue my journey.

Kai slumped forward and sighed.

"Sabre, you really need a real mate."

He then threw his head back and downed the rest of the whiskey in one gulp.

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