Chapters Fallout Equestria: A Courier's Care
"Shit!" I groaned, slowly getting to my feet. "Why aren't we in Big MT?" I asked Dawn, who struggled to his feet. I knew for a fact that it's a bitch to get back up in Power Armor if you get knocked down.
"Maybe the Think Tank screwed up with your new Transportalponder?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as I helped him up.
"I'm gonna kill Klein." I muttered, looking over myself. "I gave him one hour to examine the damn Transportalponder in my Pip-Boy, give him all the damn materials to make a new one, and he still fucks up!" At least I wasn't naked, since I was wearing the Stealth Suit Mk II that I made the time I was first transported (and held hostage by a bunch of brains) to Big MT.
"Where are we?" Dawn asked, looking around in confusion. I could tell that he was frowning under that helmet.
"Dunno." I honestly said. "I'd ask you to go up and take a look around if it weren't for the fact that Power Armor's a bitch to put on and take off." Dawn sighed and removed his helmet, storing it in his Pip-Boy.
"Map function isn't working." He said after a moment. My eyes widened before I hurriedly looked up the map. All it said was CONNECTION LOST.
"Godfuckingdammit!" I growled, kicking a rock and sending it flying.
"Is it my fault?" My suit(Grace, asked to be called that for some reason.) asked.
"No, it isn't..." I sighed, before taking a look through my Inventory. "Dawn, what have you got?"
"Everything except the junk." He answered.
"Stimpak and Med-X reserves substantial." Grace informed me. I nodded and looked over the rest of the 'Aid' tab, seeing that I had two days worth of snack cakes, which I did not pick up before using the Transportalponder. I also had three days worth of purified water.
"Well, let's get going back." I said, before pulling out the Big MT Transportalponder and clicking the trigger.
Nothing happened, which caused me to sigh.
"It couldn't be easy, could it?" I spat at the machine, before throwing it at my Pip-Boy. I sighed as it disappeared, before looking up at the sky. "What the fuck did I do to you?! All I am is a fucking Courier turned leader, not some damn lab experiment!"
"Who're you yelling at?" Dawn asked, his right eyebrow arched.
"Anybody who's up there, listening down on us." I sighed. "Divine powers or not, I'm sick of this goddamn shit. If this is for what happened in the goddamn Divide, I already accepted that it wasn't my fault, since I didn't know what was in the package." I growled.
"Listen, even though we both know I find your suit creepy as all hell, we're both here for you." Dawn said, putting an armored hoof to my chest. "Don't give up now because we're in some new Wasteland, you're the Courier and President of New Vegas." I nodded and pulled forth two weapons, attaching Beating Stick 3000 to some experimental magnetic plates on my back (They came from the Think Tank, not with the suit.) and held This Machine in my grip.
"Right." I said. "Let's go kick this Wasteland's ass and find our way back."
"I'll be with you every step of the way." Grace said, and neither of us non-suits wanted to point out the obvious. We picked a direction of the road and started walking down it, hoping to find some sort of civilization that weren't based on raiders/slavers. God knows that it'd end up being super radroaches or something that somehow gained the ability to fire assault rifles.
[half an hour later]
"No..." Dawn gasped, staring out at the carnage that could only be a caravan hit by raiders. "It fucking can't be..."
"Hate to break it to you, Dawn." I sighed, crouching next to a relatively intact body and placing two fingers against its neck to attempt to find a pulse. "But we've stumbled across pony corpses." With a grunt, I stood up next to the slain pony, who was a mint green with yellow mane, and from what Dawn told me, was an earth pony. She was slaughtered only hours ago, which indicated that the raiders were probably still in the area.
Luckily, I had equipped myself for fighting everything from radroaches to Deathclaws, since I was going to the Big MT and those lobotomites were a pain in the ass. I was not well off in armor, but Grace was more than enough to deflect most weapons that raiders had, everywhere from pistol rounds to .308's. As long as none of the rifle rounds were AP or higher than a .308, I was safe from a serious case of the dead.
"Damnit, Celestia..." Dawn growled, pacing back and forth between two bodies, being as careful as possible to not step on them out of respect. "She said she banished me to 'avoid' having something like this, and in return this happens in my absence!"
"What year is it here?" I asked as I sorted through the remains. I'd rather not loot from a caravan, but the both of us certainly weren't going to survive on snack cakes alone. There were only a few bottles of 'Sparkle Cola', and when I touched them my Pip-Boy ticked once, indicating that it was like Nuka Cola or some bullshit like that. Harmless radiation, but a pain in the ass if you down a hundred of the fuckers. Dawn's horn flared for a moment before sighing, causing me to look up from my looting.
"I can't tell; too much magical interference in the air." He said in a worried tone. "That leads me to believing that this isn't natural radiation like what happened in our wasteland."
"You said 'our'." I pointed out.
"I was hoping you didn't catch that..." He sighed, before nodding. "The only reason I wanted to go back home was because of my daughter, if not only to make sure she grew up properly. Since this," he explained with a wave around us, "happened, my home means nothing now. You're literally all that I have left. My nation, my family, is dead..."
Without any prompting, I knelt down and embraced him, not caring that we were in the middle of a hellhole. Boy needed some non-gay compassion, even if I was completely asexual. Literally, nothing turned me on.
"You do know I'm still able to poke your eye out, right? Get off of me." Dawn sighed, and I let go.
"Bro, you're hurtin' and I don't like that." I frowned. "We'll have to deal with this later, so for now push it to the back of your head. When we get to relative safety is when you can get all emotional and crap."
"Hostiles incoming." Grace warned, making me look at the tick marks under my compass. There were no less than ten red ticks heading our way, and from the smell, they were raiders.
"Prepared to pop some heads?" I asked Dawn, who levitated up a riot shotgun and loaded a drum. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was full of his modified dragon's breath rounds, to where it turned asshats into ash. Much like a dragon would, according to him.
"No mercy for raiders, Fiends, or Legion." He growled back with a sinister grin. "And these bastards ain't no different, even if they used to be my subjects. Wasteland can eat it's heart out." I took cover behind a somewhat trashed wagon while Dawn slapped a stealth boy onto his Pip-Boy, disappearing (save for a hard-to-see outline) from sight. He was more than likely going to flank them and reign hell on them from behind.
"I told you, I saw something wandering out here!" A voice shouted a few moments later, causing me to surpress a chuckle. I was wearing white and black and these asshats couldn't see me behind a brown wagon. A small bing that only I could hear indicated that I got a message.
'Do you still have Red Glare?' Dawn asked. I let out a quiet chuckle.
'Yes. Want me to give them the incendiary or the explosive?' I replied, carefully putting This Machine onto my back in an X pattern with Beating Stick 3000.
'Incendiary. If what I'm guessing is true, at least a few really old dragons exist. Use them and make 'em think twice about doing this shit, if they can escape.' He explained as I brought out a stealth boy and turned myself invisible. There was no other way for me to be able to do this otherwise; they would see me, even if my stealth was labeled at 100.
"Suck patriotism, you slimy sons of bitches." I muttered, unleashing an entire salvo of rockets at the group. They all screamed at seeing the projectiles materializing out of nowhere, and six of them immediately perished. The bark of Dawn's gun roared and three more burned into ash, quite like the way a laser weapon sometimes does to things. The last one whimpered as she tried to crawl away, missing half of her body. Entrails trailed behind her and one of her hind legs twitched a few times as the muscles refused to give up fully.
"Well well, what do we have here?" I asked, putting the slightly drained stealth boy back into my inventory alongside Red Glare. I casually walked up to the wide-eyed equine as she could only stare in shock, even as I unslung This Machine. "A lone raider, with no chance of survival."
"P-please, h-have mercy!" She managed to sob out. I let out a dry chuckle.
"I have no mercy for the likes of you." I said without emotion, putting a HP bullet in between her eyes. "Hey Dawn, would you hate me if I carved some meat out of one of them?" I jokingly asked. His deadpan stare told me all I needed to know.
"Just continue looting." He said, digging through whatever pockets the pony raiders had on them.
"Yes mother..." I muttered, before picking the lock on a first-aid box that one of the idjits had for a backpack. Or, I guess they would be saddlebags, as they're ponies and not humans.
"That's odd..." Dawn muttered as I looked at a few bottles of liquid in confusion. They looked like bottles of bitter drink, but a quick sniff told me otherwise.
"What?" I asked, shaking one of them a little bit. Nothing blew up, so I shrugged and put it in my inventory. It was labeled as a healing potion.
"9mm." Dawn said, holding up a bullet in his magic. "Same bullets as ours. Something's not right here and it ain't just the absence of gamma radiation..."
"The fuck is this?" I called out, holding up what looked like an MRE that glowed orange. There was a detachable straw that was likely required to consume the thing.
"No idea." Dawn replied with a shrug. "Looks like RadAway, but I don't see a needle for it."
"Drinkable RadAway?" I questioned, before putting it in my inventory. It showed up as 'RadAway' and gave me a total of 1. "Well I'll be damned..."
"Aright, this is getting irritating against my wings." Dawn said a moment later, before looking at me. "You have that cosmic knife still?"
"Yea, considering that it'll cut through steel like ash." I said, pulling the knife out. "Take of the back piece and I'll cut out some wing holes for you." Dawn nodded and undid the clamps holding his armor together, sending the chest piece and the back piece to the ground. He shed the rest of his Power Armor and left it with the rest of it, besides the helmet.
"I'm going to preform some quick recon." He said, stretching his wings. "I'll be back whenever."
"Don't hurt yourself." I said as he lifted off of the ground. He muttered something before flying high in the sky, and I went back to my task of cutting wing holes out for him.
"Somebody's tracking him." Grace informed me.
"I know." I told the suit. "He's a big boy, though. He can take care of himself."
"Just saying." It replied, and would've shrugged if it could. I finished putting the holes into the back and stood up, scanning the cloudy as hell sky for the red and black alicorn. Spotting him, I waved at him to get his ass back down here.
Halfway back to the ground, the distinct crack of a .50 rifle sounded out, and the back half of his body simply ceased to exist.
[Perception 8]
"I got one!" A voice from not too far away shouted, slightly distorted from a Power Armor helmet.
Fallout Equestria: A Courier's Care
I watched on, unconcerned as Dawn splatted against the concrete (He said they had dirt roads when he was kicked out, so how far along are they in technology other than weapons?) road.
"It looked like that Alicorn had something on her left foreleg." I heard one of the Power Armor ponies speak up. I put the armor of the Alicorn they were talking about into my inventory, wincing a little as I felt the weight on my shoulders. No matter how many times I put a suit on, that shit's heavy as fuck.
"Think she got a hoof on a Pip-Buck?" Another one questioned as I slapped a stealth boy on and slowly walked over to them. There were three of them, wearing something like Dawn's T-51b Power Armor, except it looked more like T-45d.
'I swear to god if they've named themselves anything to do with Steel...' I thought.
"Steel Rangers, advance to target to make sure she's down." One of them, probably the leader, commanded. I'm sure they heard my facepalm, as one of them looked around in confusion.
'These assholes need to learn to aim for the chest and neck area.' Dawn told me. 'That shot would've killed them some day if it was a Deathclaw they were firing at.'
'They did do a number on you, though.' I replied with a small smirk, walking behind the 'Steel Rangers' as they crept towards Dawn's regenerating body. 'And I'm trying not to laugh back here; asshats think you're a mare, as you put it.'
'Goddammit, I'll kill them.' I could hear the sigh through his text.
'Let's mess with them instead. Unlike the Brotherhood, these guys don't have any energy weapons, so I don't run the risk of getting turned to ashes or goo.' I said, before picking up a small plank of wood and chucked it at the group. It landed right in front of the one with a saddle that had two rifles eerily similar to Anti-Materiel Rifles attached to it. He whirled around as quickly as possible, but thanks to my stealth boy he didn't see me.
"What's the matter, Private?" The leader asked, looking at him.
"Something threw wood at me, ma'am." He replied, looking three yards to my left.
"There's nothing out here, and an Alicorn wouldn't be bucking with you, Bullseye." She said, probably frowning under that helmet. Wonder what the other part of his name was.
"If you say so, ma'am." He reluctantly muttered, turning his attention back to the pile of Alicorn.
'Something's not right with the third one.' I told Dawn, noting that the one I was talking about was eerily calm.
'Watch him. I have a sneaking suspicion as to what he is.' Dawn replied as he started shifting.
"She's not dead?!" The leader exclaimed in shock. They rose their weapons up to attempt to kill Dawn, while he got to his hooves and glared at them.
"First," he began. "I'M MALE!" The shout sent them reeling back in shock. "Second, I'm your goddamn ruler!"
"Lies!" The mare hissed, while the other two looked at each other in confusion. "Grey, Bullseye, take her down!" The click of three triggers sounded out as I chuckled.
"Looking for these?" I called out as the stealth boy finally drained completely. They whirled around as I held up two AMR mags and a 10mm sub-machine gun mag. Luckily VATS give me ten seconds for every thousandth of a second in real time, so it was extremely easy to take their ammunition.
"H-How?" Bullseye stammered, backing up. A combat knife suddenly found its way into his visor as Grey grunted. Without even stopping to withdraw his knife, he grasped the shocked mare's head and violently twisted to the right, almost turning her head 180 as her neck snapped. He killed them both before Bullseye's corpse hit the ground.
"How many of you are there?" Dawn asked without flinching. The suited up dude stared at him for a moment, before chuckling.
"Twenty or so left, even 200 years after the war, we're hard to get rid of." Sounds like humans. "The legends about you said that you'd only be gone for a hundred, not twelve hundred years." Dawn was surprised for a brief moment.
"I was only gone for a year, my time." Dawn waved his hoof at me. "A teleporter that Ivan has malfunctioned and sent us here instead of a placed called Big Mountain."
"Odd name." The armored pony, I think, mused, before holding out a hoof to me. I shook it. "Infiltrator of the last of the Changelings at your service. Code name's Grey Shot, at the moment. Subject to change whenever necessary."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked in slight confusion. Dawn beat Grey Shot to the punch.
"Changelings don't really need names to identify each other." He explained.
"We use pheromones." Shot added.
"Hmm..." Grace muttered, and would be rubbing her chin if she had one.
"So, what're you doing with these Brotherhood rip-offs?" I asked, looking at the saddle containing two Anti-Materiel Rifles. The strange thing was that they were wielded to the metal, so I had no way to use them without making Dawn carry them. "And what the hell do you call these?"
"Battle saddles." Grey replied. "And I was infiltrating the squad to help myself survive by leeching off of their emotions."
"Changelings are naturally parasites, but when I was kicked out they were also omnivores, like I was forced to become." Dawn added before I could ask.
"So, you a earth pony or a pegasus at the moment?" I asked, noting that he didn't have a piece of bone sticking out of his forehead. That got him to laugh, much to our confusion.
"Oh that's rich..." He finally decided to answer after laughing some more. "Most of the pegasi retreated above the clouds and sealed them off from the rest of the world as soon as the first megaspells hit. The bloody traitors have been up there for over two hundred years now. Any pegasi you see under the cloud cover are known as Dashites, and have Rainbow Dash's cutie mark branded over their own."
"And Celestia just let them?" Dawn all but growled.
"Canterlot's been hit badly." Shot answered, confusing Dawn. He preformed a facehoof. "Sorry, forgot for a second that you left before Canterlot was established... After the fighting 1,200 years ago, the castle you were familiar with was pretty much destroyed. Celestia decided that it was a good idea to build a new castle, and an evil as fuck forest sprung up almost overnight around the ruins."
"What makes it evil?" I asked.
"Before the war, there were all sorts of nasty creatures waiting to make ponies their lunch. After... Well, let's just say that the radiation is the least of your worries." Kinda like the wastes in certain areas.
"Diamond Dogs make it?" Dawn rose an eyebrow. Grey Shot shuddered.
"They're Hellhounds, now." He said. "Thank fuck we're not anywhere near their territory or else we'd be dead."
"How bad?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"Still intelligent, bigger, meaner, ability to use firearms and magical weapons, and can tunnel under you until they ambush your ass on all sides and slice you to ribbons with footlong claws on each digit." He explained. Jesus fuck it sounds like they're a mix between the intelligent raiders, deathclaws, and tunnelers. Dawn seemed to think the same thing.
"So, what did you mean by every pegasus down here was a Dashite?" Dawn asked as we started moving. We took all their shit, excluding the armor, while Grey slung the saddle onto his back.
"Dashite was derived from the fact that the last Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, pretty much said fuck off to the pegasi when the megaspells hit, since she considered them cowards for abandoning ponykind." He began. "They didn't take kindly to that, so they tossed their opinion of her faster than a filly whose hat is on fire. The 'Grand' Pegasus Enclave brands these traitors and casts them below the cloud cover to fend for themselves." Enclave... Where have I heard that name before...
'Arcade Gannon is a scientist in the Enclave.' Dawn messaged me. Now I knew; they were worse than the Brotherhood. Luckily, most members of the Enclave were killed or they ran away in the Mojave way before I came to the throne.
"We have something similar to the Enclave back where I'm from." I said. "They show their faces yet?" Grey shook his head, causing me to sigh in relief.
"Except for 'brief inspections', nobody's seen hide nor hair of the bastards." He answered, before eying both of our Pip-Boys. "Where did you get those Pip-Bucks?"
"Pip-Boys." I corrected. "And we both got them after waking up in a man's house. Dawn, because he appeared out of nowhere unconscious. I did because I took two 9mm bullets to my forehead and survived with only scars. Doc said that they used to belong to him and his wife, and he had no use for them anymore, so he gave them to us."
"You do realize how much one of those is worth, right?" He jabbed a hoof at my wrist.
"One's enough to purchase all of New Vegas." I answered. "Your Pip-Bucks able to do this?" With that, I put the AMR mags into my inventory while tossing the sub-machine gun mag back.
You picked up 14 .50 AP rounds. It said as I swiftly drew out Old Glory and started using the flagpole as a walking staff. Dawn chuckled as Grey just stopped moving, allowing the both of us to pass him.
Fallout Equestria: A Courier's Care
"So, why did your 'squadmates' flip the fuck out and shoot the back half of my body off with two .50 BMG rounds?" Dawn asked after a while.
"You're an alicorn; alicorns kidnap unicorns and take them off to who-knows where, never to be seen again. Add in the fact that there hasn't been a friendly alicorn until you and everyone gets a little trigger happy." Grey explained.
"What about Celestia or Luna?" He asked, cracking his neck. I made the three of them pause so I could force Dawn's shit back onto him.
"I'm not a goddamn pack mule for you." I said. "You can carry two hundred fucking pounds more than I can, don't force fifty pounds onto me because you're being a lazy dick." Dawn rolled his eyes but accepted his armor without complaint.
"Luna is confirmed to be dead." Grey answered as I pulled pieces of armor out of subspace or whatever the fuck my Pip-Boy used to store my shit. "Nobody really knows if Celestia is dead or not, but Canterlot took a direct hit from a Megaspell. If she survived that, she's possibly the reason almost nobody can make it out of the ruins alive."
"What if she wasn't in Canterlot when the megaspell hit?" Dawn countered. Grey let out a dry chuckle.
"I don't see her royal white ass swooping down and smiting all of the Raiders for being immoral." He muttered. "It's entirely possible she's still alive, but with the way the Wasteland looks, that possibility's slimmer than me."
"How come my sisters are so casually talked about these days?" Dawn asked after we started off again, heading in a random as fuck direction. Random to us, anyway; Grey knew this place better than us.
"When all you got is death and destruction to wake up to on a daily basis, some respect kinda leaves. Just be glad you weren't around when the war started, or else you would have curses tacked on, as well." Grey explained.
"What do you mean, war? I know something did this, but I don't know the details." I asked before Dawn could.
"Before the Megaspells hit, ponies were at war with the zebras." He began, and I instantly felt vibes from humanity's war against itself. "In the middle of it, Celestia stepped down and passed power to Luna, which was less of a mistake than most think."
"So my little sister took control. Who made the Megaspells?" Dawn asked.
"The Element of Kindness, a pegasus named Fluttershy." He answered. "She gave them to both sides, thinking that they wouldn't dare use them. Obviously, she thought wrong. Nobody knew who launched the first spell, but ponies believe it was the zebras. An entire fucking war over coal and gems."
"Twenty caps say that over in Zebra land, they're saying that the ponies launched first." I muttered. "Kinda like what happened to us, except it was mostly between China and America. We screwed over the entire world over petroleum and uranium." A ping from Dawn and I's Pip-Boy's stopped all conversations, coming from the radio tab. We automatically switched to it.
“…and it’s time for another DJ Pon3 pony survival tip. Today I want to talk to you about two of the biggest threats you might stumble across in the Equestrian Wasteland. No, not radigators, bloodwings or even hellhounds. No, children, today I want to talk to you about their mothers. That’s right, pull up a chair, cuz it’s time for DJ Pon3 to talk to you about the dangers of radiation and taint…”
"Sounds a little like Three Dog from those Capital Wasteland radio signals..." I muttered.
“…Magical radiation, as we all know, is a side effect of powerful and wicked magics released violently on Equestria. Naturally, the biggest and worst zones of radiation are found in places like the Fillydelphia Crater, the Manehattan city center… pretty much everywhere the megaspells hit except for Cloudsdale and Canterlot (both of which should be avoided for other reasons). But even a recently exploded skywagon can be radioactive. Fortunately, so long as you always carry your radiation detectors, kids, these places can be avoided.
“The more insidious threat of radiation is that it bleeds into food and water. Always drink purified water whenever you can. Make sure you carry several canteens whenever you travel, and fill them at every safe water supply. Keep a healthy supply of RadAway…” That's a fucking no-brainer.
“…Taint, on the other hoof, is a zebra of very different stripes. Nopony knows exactly what the taint is or where it comes from, but we know its mutative effects on monsters and the fatally malignant repercussions on ponies. Remember, folks: taint don’t care what you’re wearing. No protective suit keeps it out. And there’s no cure. Only way to safely tell if a place is tainted is by reputation. Discover one by any other means, it’s probably too late …”
Sounded to me like the best way to hide something was to stick it in a cave and hang a sign saying “Danger: Taint” outside. Or something like that.
“And in the news, one of the smaller settlements in the Manehattan Ruins, Gutterville, has gone silent. If anypony is traveling through that way, please pop a head in and see what’s going on. Then let your ol’ pal DJ Pon3 know.
“Now, I know what all of you are actually wondering: what about that Equestrian heroine from Stable Two? What’s she up to?”
"What?" Dawn asked in confusion. Grey shushed him.
“Well, I’ve got incredible news: the Stable Dweller loves you! That’s right, all of you! And you know how I know?...
“…because she sent a little toaster repairpony to me with a special delivery. Starting tomorrow, there will be some new songs added to our broadcast. So keep yourselves tuned in, faithful listeners, because you don’t want to be the last pony around to have heard the discs I’ll be spinnin’ for you tomorrow! And now, once again, it’s Sapphire Shores singing that the sun can’t hide forever.”
"The Stable Dweller is a pony who's been doing a lot these last few weeks." Grey explained as some music started, causing Dawn and I to turn the volume down. "She's rarely ever seen without the group she's with."
"Which would be?" Dawn asked as we continued walking.
"A sharpshooter Dashite, a unicorn medic, and an actual Steel Ranger." He answered. "I was preforming recon for the squad I just killed, and was nearly spotted by the pegasus."
"Quick question." I said, rubbing my chest as I felt a small pang coming from the scar tissue over my heart. "What do you think about ghouls?"
"I'll respect the non-Feral ones." He answered. "They have it even worse than I do. The Feral ones... They'll be put down like the animals they are."
"Good. Hate bigots that think all ghouls are evil." I muttered, cracking my back. "Where are we going?"
"Tenpony Tower." The changeling answered, getting confused looks from the both of us. "One of the most secure areas in the Wastes, even if it costs a foreleg to get in."
"How many caps?" I asked, checking to make sure I had all of them.
"A thousand for the three of us."
"Wouldn't it be four?" Grace suddenly asked.
"Er... Yea, a thousand for the four of us." Grey awkwardly clarified. None of us wanted to point out that Grace would be going in anyway, since it (or rather, 'she') was my armour.
"Whelp, between you and me, Dawn, I got all of my caps." I said after a moment.
"As do I." He replied, causing us to grin.
"What does that mean?" The armored changeling asked in confusion.
"Being rulers of New Vegas and casino owners to boot, we're kinda set with caps." Dawn started.
"And we never leave the Lucky 38 without our Pip-Boys, some weapons, and thirty thousand caps each." I finished. Grey simply stared at us for a moment, before fainting.
"Figures." Dawn sighed, helping me drag the unconscious body into an abandoned building not too far away. Didn't look like a raider base, so that was good enough.