Fallout Equestria: The Other Side

Chapter One: Beginnings

“How did I end up out here? No… Why did I end up out here?”

Pain.

I opened my eyes, finding myself in a darkened cave that had rigid and dirt covered walls feeling nothing but pain surging its way around my body at a rapid pace. The only source of light was coming from the gate which was at the end of the short tunnel; the light was a sickly yellow color which seeped through the gaps in-between the boards which had been nailed to the gate. I felt weak, and unable to move, as if my body had suddenly been paralyzed. But the only thing which made it obvious that I wasn’t was the pain… I could not stand the pain, and the heat which washed over me. It was alien to me - everything at this moment in time was alien to me...

The first thing I noticed as the foul taste resting on my tongue, and the horrid stench that floated around in the air. It was like the Stable's ventilation system broke down. On top of that, the familiar humming was no longer there. In its place was a soft whistling wind which delivered the warm and rotten breeze from the gate. I gagged as the breeze worked its way down my throat, reeling my head back as I choked on my own breath.

The pain, the smell, the taste... None of this I had ever experienced before. And I didn't want to... I didn't like change. Wherever I was now was not the Stable, in fact, I was right outside of the sealed door. Rolling onto my side to look at the door behind me, looking at it with my eyes only, I saw the large and rounded and scratched metal door with the number thirty plastered onto it in big yellow numbers. I blinked as I observed it, and groaned as I tried to lift myself.

I… I felt so much pain, so much of it raging into my body and I had no idea why.

Upon trying to lift myself up, I only collapsed again in a world of pain. This time, I didn’t want to get up - I wanted to stay down. Despite the floor being rough, and filled with all sorts of different rocks which stabbed into the skin, the floor was nice. Yes. Floor felt good. However, I knew I couldn’t stay here, I had to do something, I had to get out there and maybe search for some help… Help was what I needed the most.

Lifting myself onto my hooves again, I felt the pain rush into my hooves, but I tried not to fall. And the trying seemed to work. Hissing and groaning, I began to limp towards the gate at the end of the long and dark cave, groaning and wincing with each hoofstep as my steps echoed within the cave softly and the feeling of the warm and toxic breeze grew stronger as I grew closer to the gate at the end of the cavern.

Don’t give up… Yet… a whimpering pony in the back of my head urged me to continue, and continue I did…

Upon reaching the gate, I struggled to open it as it was a bit stiff and hard to open, but eventually, the gate swung back with a loud screeching noise from all the rust which had consumed its hinges and as it opened, a bright light flooded my vision, almost blinding me completely. I groaned, lifting my hooves up to my face and covering them as the light blinded me quickly. The crisp warmth against my unadapted eyes hurt and stung as the new alien light source filled my vision, and now that I was standing in the open, the feeling of the warm breeze against me trying to push me back into the dark.

The blindness began to fade out, and as it did, I slowly lowered my hooves only to be greeted with a desolate Wasteland filled with destroyed ruins of stand alone houses, and crooked and black trees which seemed to hunch over, looking at the mundane grey soil beneath them. The skies were almost clear, and the sky itself was a blue color but it had a tint of an irradiated green inside of it. The grey and desolate plains which filled my vision seemed to stretch on for miles, nothing but emptiness in sight. No ponies - nothing at all!

“Well… This is where it begins, right?” I mumbled to myself, coughing as the horrid stench of the Wasteland’s air filled my lungs. “M-my struggle to survive out here? I can’t go back to the Stable now… I’m on my own.”

I took a few gentle limps out of the cave and out into the Wasteland, taking my very first steps into my new lifestyle. Everything was so different now. There were no ponies wandering, chatting or even laughing at all - the sound of the Stable generator humming was no longer audible. And I felt alone… This new atmosphere really toyed with me for the first few seconds. I didn’t want to get used to this.

I breathed in the Wasteland air, I observed, I wandered. I kept walking out aimlessly into the emptiness of the Wasteland, unsure of what I would come across, but I was scared about what would happen next. The silence was deafening, and the lack of ponies in sight made it more unnerving to be out here. I wanted to go back home, but I knew I couldn’t…

My PipBuck began to spit static as it found a new radio signal. At first I jumped back in surprise, the sudden loud noise blistering its way through the silence of the Wasteland, and as the static began to fade, the voice of what sounded like a young male on the other side of a broadcast began speaking. The voice sounded forced as if the pony on the other side of the broadcast were trying their hardest to put on an act.

“...and that concludes the news, children.

“Now, you know your ol’ DJ-PON3, I’m sure. Well. Littlepip and I were very close friends, and to say she’s now comatose in the S.P.P, it kinda drags down on me a lil’. I just don’t feel jolly anymore, I don’t feel like my old self -- maybe I need to take a break, I’m not sure. I love what I do, I adore it, but -- I dunno, Littlepip was just an amazing mare, and she went through so much to achieve what she achieved.

“We can see the light again… The skies are clear, no more thick and black clouds obscuring our vision, forcing us to imagine what it was like before. I know I don’t shut up about her, I know it’s been a few weeks now, but… Who could ever forget about her? If you really would forget about our little Stable Dweller like that, then you are not as grateful as you say you are…

“I-I’m sorry… I’m just in one of those moods…”

The broadcast ended with what sounded like a microphone dropping, as if the buck on the other side had just collapsed. There was just nothing but silence from the station from that point on, and I felt curious about who exactly this ‘Littlepip’ was.

I trotted into the Wasteland, completely unaware of everything. I kept glancing over my back, checking if anypony were there to kill me. However, I’ll admit, I was relieved to hear another pony’s voice on the radio station; I didn’t feel as alone as it seemed right now. I felt like there was some sort of presence nearby, and I wanted to find that radio pony. If I found him, maybe it would be a start to something - I couldn’t do this alone, surely. And I was hoping that this strange pony known as DJ-PON3 wasn’t too far either.

Finding a lone road which began at my hooves as I carried on, I began to walk down the road, hearing my hooves echo in the silence as they punched the cracked asphalt below my hooves. The road was cracked, and broken from a sort of blast and upon the black surface of the road was dry blood and chunks of gore. None of it was fresh at all, and beside the road were skeletons and other remains of ponies buried beneath the grey and dry soil as the calm breeze swept over them to bury them deeper beneath the dirt.

In the near distance were houses which sat on their own, or what was left of them anyway. The houses had been torn apart, the only part of them left were the frames, and inside of the small cottage like houses were chunks of rubble and wood which had been forced off of the beams which held it together. I stopped, glancing to the nearest one, wanting to go and look if anything useful was inside of it.

“It’s not… defiling is it?” I asked myself, as I turned my entire body to the house. “I mean… I’m just looking through a house which belonged to somepony else, and things that could potentially be their items…” No… I’ll be fine.

Quickly trotting off of the road and towards one of the desolated houses, the sound of my hoofsteps soon vanished as I returned to the dry and warm soil below my hooves. The doorway was still there, and comically, I walked through the doorway carefully, making sure I didn’t stab my own hooves on any potentially sharp objects that could be hiding within the rubble. Inside of the house were tipped furniture buried beneath the rocks, and stone, and desks which hugged whatever remained of the wall.

I walked over to the nearest desk, pulling open the top drawer only to find a few bottle caps and a few empty magazines of ammo inside of the dust filled drawer. I coughed as the dust was flung out into my face, and I soon wiped the floating dust away from my vision with my hoof, before returning to the desk and searching it deeper with my hoof. Nothing useful at all… In fact, the only thing worth taking were the bottle caps - just as a collector’s item I guess.

Pulling all of the caps in with my hoof, all of them read the words ‘Sparkle-Cola’ on top of them. The caps were bent, and rusted and were scarred along the surface of the paint which displayed the writing, taking the degrading red color behind the big and bold white text away completely. I awkwardly took the bottle caps, and placed them inside of a small pocket that inside of my Stable jacket, and soon ceiling it up.

I began to take some small steps around the house, searching another nearby desk which sat beside a rusting TV screen. The TV’s screen was smashed in, and it spat sparks as if it was still plugged into the socket behind it. The wooden desk which sat beside the TV had only one drawer, and the wooden material it was made out of was splintered and battered. As I began to search the desk thoroughly, the sound of low and raspy voices was heard from behind the house. My ear twitched as the sound of potentially nearby ponies channeled its way into my ear.

I stopped searching, attempting to crouch down, however, the rough and slanted surface of the rubble I was standing on made it hard for me to get comfortable. There were no sounds of movement, nor were there any sounds of weaponry or anything. All I could hear were the voices of the ponies who were waiting for me or anypony else to come out of hiding. Luckily, I was hidden by the rear wall of the house which still stood there unlike the rest of the house. I didn’t want to risk making a noise… Stay still…

The sound of hoofsteps was heard against the soil… Multiple ones, as if a small group were patrolling the Wasteland. I waited for them to show their faces, trying not to pounce out despite the feeling of needing to do so overwhelming me. I wanted to see who they were, but they weren’t showing yet… And soon, a hoof came into view, then a body covered with spiked and bloodied armor, and then face which beared the look of insanity as the greyed out eyes soon focused on me. The blood red mare whose piss colored mane was spiked in a mohican as she wore a rusted saddle on her back which held a rifle. The rifle was pointing at me, and as she caught sight of me, a sinister grin washed over her face.

“Well look at this, boys!” the insane looking mare exclaimed. “We have ourselves an outsider… You’re not from these parts, are you?”

I gulped as soon as I noticed the rifle, too afraid to answer. I knew I had to. “Uh… Well… H-how do you know that?” I whimpered, cowering slightly and keeping my eyes on her, as her companions showed their faces, all of them being tough and bulky bucks. They looked much stronger than a little meek Pegasus like me. I was in the shit… And way too deep to even claw myself out of it… Day one and already facing my own fate.

“I’ll tell you how,” the scruffy mare’s dry voice responded as she took a step closer, almost as if she was going to climb through the remains of the house to get as close as she could. “You look way too clean to be from around here, and look at ya’, you’re scavenging for items… If you really belonged out here, you’d be prepared, and you wouldn’t be a pussy!”

A… pussy? Really?

“W-who are you calling a pussy?!” I stomped on the ground, trying to act brave… My stammering didn’t help though, in fact, the group of rotting ponies just laughed at me, and I felt myself cower deeper inside.

“How cute… Lemme guess, you’re gonna try and be the next Lil’Pip?” the rotten mare responded with a small dry snigger, as she climbed over the tiny wall which stood in her way so she could be within the house’s ruins with me. “Or don’t you know who that whore was?”

I didn’t know who she was… Oh great.

“No!” I exclaimed, trying to sound like I knew who she was. “I’ll be myself, thank you very much!”

More laughs. More laughs at me. I wanted to hurt them - but I knew I wasn’t strong enough. I just cowered away as they laughed, feeling their presence as they all entered the house, all of them bearing down on me as they mocked me of my weaknesses. I wanted to go back to the Stable, I needed to go back - I couldn’t bear another minute out here, first day, not even the first hour gone, and I was already being pushed around…

“Let’s grind his bones,” called one of the male’s, their voice low and dry as I felt the warm heating off of one of their bodies and onto me. That’s how close they all were. I glanced up at them, coming out of my cowering state, and looking at them in the eyes… All of them gazing down at me with the most horrid looks on their faces.

I gulped, quickly turning to go, and then darting out of the house at a quick pace, feeling myself trip and stumble on some of the more loose bits of rubble, and almost falling flat on my face. As I left the house in a hurry, I heard a couple gunshots ring out from in the distance, before I ducked my head. As I reached the road, the muffled gunshots blasted their way through the air like thunder, and just when I thought I was safe, I felt a bullet pierce my right hindleg, before I collapsed in a world of pain. Crashing to the ground, I yelped and fell onto my face.

“Got him!” I heard the mare cry out in triumph as the small band of ponies marched their way towards me.

“Gah!!” I cried out, rolling onto my back and trying to look at the wound that was given to my hindleg. The only evidence of a wound I saw was the blood trickling down my leg as the gory wound dribbled it all out. “I-is the bullet there?”

I heard the laughter ring out louder as they all grew closer; I began to look around frantically, needing help. And something told me that help wouldn’t come… In fact, the little pony in the back of my head, the timid and annoying side of my brain kept telling me that I was done for. What a great start, Tornado… First day out and you’re already on the verge of getting killed. Great.

I couldn’t even try and boost myself… I knew I was done for, I knew it. No way out now… It’s all over. Dead.

The small group of scruffy ponies gathered around me, as the same blood red coated mare stared down at me dauntingly with a wide grin, showing all of her broken and crooked teeth. Teeth of which were covered in blood, either from her gums, or from the ponies she might have eaten. And I was her next prey.

“The running type, I see,” she chuckled darkly to herself. “You can’t run very far, can you?”

She stepped over me, literally on top of me and making her rifle aim down at me as if she was ready to blow my head off. And she was, the facial expression she had suggested that so clearly to me as she peered over me with the rifle’s barrel right in front of my face… This was it.

“Goodbye lil’ pon-”

BANG!!

The filth covered mare soon stumbled back off of me, blood leaking from her neck as she screamed out in pain, holding the wound with her hooves as soon as she steadied herself. Each of her yelps and screams were now gargles as the bullet which had shot her pierced its way into her throat’s air pipe and filled it all with blood, and the bullet piercing its way through. Her eyes seemed to focus on a pony behind me, as the mare soon stumbled and fell… Dead.

Other gunshots echoed loudly as one of the males took a bullet to the brain, blood and brain matter splashing on me from the opening wound. I closed up in alarm, curling up on the floor as I heard the remaining ponies charge at the anonymous, and as each of the insane ponies charged at the stranger, more loud gunshots echoed loudly before the sound of blood splattering against the dirt and before silence dominated again.

I remained in my ball of cowering, lying on the dirt as the warm breeze passed over me. The silence lasted for a few seconds, before the sound of hoofsteps trudging up to me were heard faintly upon the ground, my ear leaning right against the dirt to make it easier for me to listen to them. They grew closer, and closer before halting just right by me, before the sound of a forceful cough was audible.

“Ya’ can thank me later for savin’ ya’ life, buckaroo,” spoke the voice of a stallion. “Or now, if ya’ have the time o’ course.”

I peeked out to see a stallion starring down at me. He wore a similar saddle, but his carried two heavy rifles, both of which were coated in a custom design which resembled a dragon that breathed fire along the barrel. The guns were smothered in bandoliers and they were pointing at me as he peered over. The stallion’s coat was a dark, murky brown color, while his eyes were a bright blue color and his mane the gentlest of creams. He wore a Stetson which had a bullet hole in the front of me as if somepony had tried shooting his head off, but they had just missed and hit the hat instead. He had a scar down his left eye.

“Now… What exactly are you doin’ out here alone, lil’ fella?” he asked with a tip of his hat, staring down at me with a confused expression.

Yeah… what were I doing out here?

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk: Combat Ready (tier one) - this perk has multiple tiers, and the first making your skill with guns increase by 10%, however, this affects the overall damage you do with melee weapons by 5%.

S - 6

P - 5

E - 6

C - 9

I - 5

A - 7

L - 2