Fallout Equestria: Salvation

Fallout Equestria: Salvation

Prologue Two

“Quite pleased to make your acquaintance actually... for now. Let's get the other bit of politeness taken care of, shall we? What the bloody, bloody, bloody hell are you doing here?!”

    Small rocks tumbled down as I climbed my way up steep hill standing high in the middle of the dead landscape, it being the only land high enough to get a good view of the land. I had been out on my own for a day now, with a couple more days of food and water with me, but I would've rather not run out before I find anypony else.

    I reached the top of the dirt hill and viewed the land. Most of it was the normal, long dead burnt trees, cracked dry ground littered with rocks, and the destroyed furniture and items of the pre-war era. Wait, was that? I saw something in the distance, maybe another day on hoof to reach. It looked like a huge building, perhaps more of a compound, with a tall fence around the entirety of it. I couldn’t get a real good look from here, but hope swelled inside me.

    I started to climb my way back down carefully, slipping down would not end well. The last few days really sucked, losing my parents and then the only other ponies I knew. I reached the ground, and stroked my purple and black scarf Mama made for me. I would be strong, if not for myself, then so my parents wouldn’t have to meet me so soon in the afterlife. I wasn’t sure if there was anything after death, but Papa told me the Goddesses saved our souls after we die, so we could spend the rest of eternity with others in peace.

    I turned around in the direction the building was, and headed toward it. Today’s clouds were brighter than usual, the air hotter than it was yesterday. Sweat covered my body, making my fur sticky and letting any dust and dirt hitch a ride on me. I was used to my own smell, but I could only wonder if it was as bad as I thought. I stood still for a moment and shook violently, trying to fling any of it off. I succeeded in only making my fur very uneven and my mane tangled and messy.

    I walked over to the nearest flat rock, sat down, and started rifling through my saddlebags. I took all the junk and items from my parents bags I had and stuffed them in mine, the other bags neatly packed away in one bag in case anything happened to my own. I was raised to never throw things away, because anything I would was worth something to somepony else. Hah, found an old metal comb! I took it out, and slipped on the brown leather strap it came with to secure it to your hoof. Now I might not be a vain pony, but I loved my mane. I’m not sure why I kept it as long as I did, maybe because I hated manecuts, but I like to believe it was good look for me. I spent a couple minutes combing it out straight and getting most of the grime out, then did the same with my tail before putting it back and continuing on.

    The light of the afternoon slowly darkened to night as I finally reached my destination. A very tall chain link fence, barbed wire spiraled along the top, stretched around the entire compound. An even taller stone building sat behind it, a prison to keep ponies in, or a headquarters to keep them out, I’m not sure which. Sentry towers stood at each corner, but I couldn’t see anypony up there through the night’s darkness.

    I walked along the fence, looking for a gate or entrance of some kind. This place didn’t seem very friendly, but I couldn’t just judge that by the outer look. It could be a safe fortress held by civilized ponies, or full of dangers. I wasn’t in a position to choose, the only other option was wandering the wasteland with little supplies and no way to protect myself for sure.

    I turned left at the corner of the fence, and was greeted with a wide open area full of rocks. Not the normal rocks of outside, but these were clusters of big rocks stuck in weird formations inside the fence. What were they doing, some form of art? Maybe they were farming rocks, hah, like you could even do that. I walked all the way down this side, still with no sight of anypony. Maybe they were all sleeping, it was the middle of the night.

    I turned left again, ending up on the opposite side I first arrived on. Turns out, this was the entrance side, further down a pair of ponies were standing guard over the fenced gate. Lamps that hung from the top of the gate poles on each side lit up the area around them. The guards were wearing rather clean armor and weapons, they didn’t look like crazed raiders. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small hole in the bottom of the fence next to me, just the size I could squeeze through.

    They could be civilized ponies that would welcome me inside, or they could be bad ponies and want to kill me, or worse. Over the last few days, I haven’t been shown any real reason to trust others, but trespassing might break any trust I would have had. Ugh, this sucks. I looked back and forth between the guards and the hole, why did a hole have to be there to tempt me?

    Alright, I’ll sneak in, see what kind of place it is, and sneak out. If it’s a nice place, then I would obviously go and ask for safety, otherwise I would run and take my chances out in the wasteland. I crouched down low, stomach touching the ground, and started to crawl through the opening. A couple of rocks and sharp metal ends of the torn chain link scratched against my hide. I’m sure maybe only one or two actually drew any blood, but I couldn’t see to check. As I was almost through, my saddlebags snagged on the fence, rattling it slightly. I froze. Did anypony hear that? Oh goddesses, I reached back and pushed the snagged part of the bags off the metal, then hurried through. I jumped to my hooves, and ran silently across the open yard, weaving between the large rocks. My heart beating loud in my ears, I glanced over my shoulder to see that nopony went to check out the sound. I slowed down and let out a sigh of relief.

    “Who’s there?” an angry sounding mare called out ahead of me.

    I dove behind the largest rock near me, and balled up. A light shown against the rock, casting a shadow out in front of me. It stayed for a moment before moving like a searchlight along the field, looking for any signs of intruders. I held my forehooves over my mouth to prevent me from making any sound or breath.

    After what seemed like forever, the light disappeared from view. I let down my hooves to peek over the rock. A bright lavender unicorn mare had a searchlight shining from her horn. Magic, why must you be my enemy? I mentally sighed, not wanting a repeat mistake, and started sneaking to where the mare had just been. When I reached the corner, I looked around it to see her at the further end with her back to me. A slightly open door was right next to me. She must have came through it, but what kind of unicorn wouldn’t close a door properly? I hurried around, pushed it open quietly, and went in. I made sure to put it the same way it had been, a door suddenly being closed would probably be suspicious.

    Inside was a long stone walled hallway with what used to be a white tiled floor. It looked like somepony defiled the place, then another tried to clean it up. The aging effects didn’t seem to help the appearance at all. I started to walk forward, but stopped after a couple steps. My dang hooves clopped on the tile, that wasn’t sneaky at all! Clearly I was going to have to solve this problem in the future, if I had one. I tried my best to walk silently, but could only manage to muffle the sounds with soft, slow hoofsteps.

    I spent the next half hour, or so I assume, wandering the same looking hallways and doors. Maybe everypony really was sleeping? I finally saw doors different from the others, a faintly glowing sign above reading ‘Shattered Hoof Employee Lounge’. There were pair of metal doors, a window in each above me, higher than what I could see through. I heard sounds of a lot of ponies from inside cheering, laughing, yelling, and other various sounds. I don’t know what I should’ve done, but curiosity got the best of me, and I opened them.

    Inside was a large stone room, with a different style of tiled floor. Magical lamps were posted around the area. It had burnt and broken tables littered along the walls of the room, stripped for what usable materials one could get. A giant circular dirt pit was dug in the middle of the floor, broken and pulled up tile on the edges of it. I think what was salvaged from the tables were built into two sets of bleachers, sitting on opposite sides of each other. Many ponies, filling out the bleachers, were looking joyful or angry and all having a fun time. The pit was too deep for me to see what was inside, but I heard noises coming from it.

    What’s going on, I wasn’t sure, but I noticed only a couple ponies actually had any weapons. I kept to the shadowed walls, trying to see what was inside the pit. I crept to the side of a set of bleachers to get a better view.

    A colt and a filly were inside the pit on opposite ends of the pit. A teal colt and a bright green mane, a single white stripe ran through it, stood on one side of the pit. A long thin scar ran along the side of his body, a pink filly with a short purple mane on the other. The filly seemed to be starved, her ribs showing sickly, while the colt was in a slightly healthier condition. The cheers from the crowd roared in my ears.

    What the hay was this? Well I know what it looked like, a child fight arena, but who would think of something so cruel? This was sick, but for some strange reason I continued to watch. Random cheers came from the crowd, asking them to do cruel things to each other. A dark brown unicorn walked to the edge of the pit, wearing a old worn suit and dusty pair of shades.

    “On this side we have Berry Blitz,” he said, motioning to the colt panting against the wall, his eyes were dashing around at the ponies cheering in the bleachers. “and on this side we have Peach. She doesn't look so good folks, I would put my money on Blitz to take this one.” the stallion exclaimed, causing the crowd to surge.

    “Now kids, whoever wins this gets to eat a dinner that isn’t rotten slop.” he finished, tossing a knife into the middle of the arena. The crowd roared again, was this entertaining to them? I leaned forward to get a better view inside of the pit.

   The two foals stood frozen in place, staring at the knife. After a moment Berry dashed for the knife while Peach was still looking at it, not seeing him approach. When she seemed to notice, Berry had already grabbed the knife in mouth, and backpedaled away. Panic filled her face as she struggled to even walk around, trying to get a good distance away from her enemy.

    “Just tell them you give up,” Berry pleaded. It sounded more of an offering than a threat.

    “I can’t! If I don’t eat today, I don’t think I’ll wake up tomorrow...” Peach’s eyes started to water.

   “I’m sorry.” Berry said with a sigh. He looked down, and a moment later he was dashed across the dirt floor. It didn't take long since Peach wasn't able to move very quickly to avoid him. Oh goddesses, I couldn’t watch. I closed my eyes.

    The sound of the other ponies seemed to quiet down. Wait, did something happen? I opened my eyes back up to take a peek, only to see the opposite bleachers all looking at me. Oh crap.

    “Hey fellas, look what we got here!” a voice yelled from behind me. I turned to see the same brown unicorn from earlier standing behind me. “Seems we have a new challenger! Place your bets now, things just got more interesting!” A hoof struck my flank, shoving me into the pit.

    Oh damn, this was so very bad. Why had I stayed to watch this stupid fight? I looked at the starved filly and the colt with the knife. Wait, did that knife have a hooked blade? What the... I do not want to be anywhere near that.  I backed up until my rear hit the dirt wall.

    “Hey, can we not do this?” I asked the other kids. They had to be sensible, right? Both of them were looking straight at me, Berry standing a couple hoofs away from Peach.

    “Two versus one? Well it isn't the first time,” Berry said, a hint of pride in his voice. Has he done this before? I looked to Peach, she was sneaking up behind him. When she was right next to him, her stomach made this horribly loud gurgling noise. Blitz’s smirk faded, and he bucked straight backwards, hooves connecting with her face. I wouldn’t say it was the best buck I’ve ever seen, but when you’re starved and weak, it didn’t need to be. Peach’s head snapped back, tossing her to her back. Berry looked at the brown unicorn behind me, as if waiting for something.

    “No mercy, finish her.” the unicorn said flatly.

    Berry turned around, walked over to her with knife still in his mouth, and slit her throat. I was too scared that even my words came out after it was already too late. “No... wait!” Peach convulsed and choked, before she stopped moving as blood pooled around her head. Oh goddesses, what had I gotten into?

    Berry backed off of the dead filly’s body, and headed back to where he was previously. He dropped the knife at his hooves, and sat down against the wall with a sad look. I was both stunned and terrified, I had never seen another kid get killed, let alone by colt! My knees buckled and I fell to the ground. Shakily, I tightened my scarf some, to feel the warmth and safety of it.

    “Well, cash-in your bets folks, because we got another match on the way. We already introduced the current champion, Berry Blitz. Whoever this mystery colt is, he’s looking a lot healthier than Blitz’s previous opponent.” he announced. I stared at Peach’s bloody corpse, imagining that was me next. A brown magic field enveloped her body, and lifted her out of the arena. I looked back to Berry, with his knife on the ground next to him.

“Are all bets placed? Haha, good.”

    “Hey... your name was Berry, right? Let’s not do this,” I glanced at the bloody spot where Peach had been. “there has to be a different way.” Berry got to his hooves and picked the knife back up.

     “Ha you think you are the first to try and trick me like that? I don't think so. I’m not gonna fall for it.” he shot back, talking pretty well for having an object in his teeth. Berry started to creep closer, with murder in his eyes.

    I moved along the wall, keeping him within my field of vision. I didn’t want a knife to come out of nowhere and kill me. “It’s not a trick, we don’t have to do what these ponies want us to.”

    “That might be easy for you to say. You don't have one of these.” he said motioning to the heavy, black collar around his neck. My ears drooped back, memories of Snow’s head exploding in a bright flash coming back to me. What kind of monsters put that on a kid?. “If I don’t kill you, then they kill me. Gotta keep yourself safe, that's the law of the Wasteland.” he finished, slowly moving closer.

    I reached into my saddlebags, keeping him in the edge of my vision, and pulled out the empty water bottle. I twisted my neck and tossed the bottle at Berry. I guess I was going to fight after all. I was so going to die...

    The bottle bounced harmlessly off of his horn, and he looked down at it in confusion. I pushed all my strength into my legs while running at him, and jumped, trying to body slam him. I could almost picture the knife stabbing me somewhere, this was such a bad idea.

    Berry looked up in time to see my blue body smash against his face. I heard a crack, and felt a burning pain in my right shoulder, my fur dampening. I almost didn’t want to look, but I did. the hooked part of the blade disappeared under my fur, leaving only a dark purple where my blood met my fur. The edges of my vision started to darken, I didn’t feel very good.

    I felt a tug from the knife, sending a wave of pain through my body. I looked to see Berry, on the ground with blood pouring from his mouth, glaring death at me. A yellow aura enveloped both his horn and the knife as it moved again. Goddesses, why does it hurt so much? Stupid magic unicorn spells! I couldn’t take more of this, so I grabbed the knife handle with my teeth, and yanked it free. The result was white flashes in my vision, and my body having small spasms in pain. I staggered back, and fell to the ground.

    I looked to see Berry getting back up, although he looked really shaky, so I did the same. His mouth was cut up, blood dripping from his chin. I didn’t mean to do that, I only wanted him to stop! I took a deep breath to calm myself down, the pain in my shoulder lessening as I got used to it.

    “Give up, please, just give up.” I don’t think I could continue.

    “You think that I can't beat you? Ha, nopony has ever beaten me.” He didn’t look like he was going to give up.

    I tightened my grip on the knife, slowly approaching Berry. He just stood there, glaring at me. What was he doing? He closed his eyes and squinted in concentration. Curse you curiosity, I walked up close to him. His horn started to glow, as a spark came out of it, then more sparks. I got closer, even though I know it was stupid. More sparks erupted from his horn, and his face scrunched up really tight. Then, they stopped, and nothing happened. Huh, that was anticlimactic...

CRACKOW

    A small lightning burst from his horn, sent him sprawling backwards as it struck me in the chest. I flew back hard, and my back struck the opposite end of the pit. My teeth tingled as the rest of my body burned with pain, my joints locking up. I closed my eyes in pain, and started to cry. Coming in here was definitely the worst idea ever.

    I didn’t want to die, that would really suck. I had to pull through this, but the pain was blinding. I tried to stand up, but my body wouldn’t respond. I opened my eyes, and saw Berry trying to get up through darkened blurry vision. If he got up before me, well, I couldn’t let that happen.

    I commanded my legs to move, and got a shaky response. After a few seconds, I managed to stand, but it felt like even the slightest thing would knock me over. Roars of cheering and laughter came from above as a burning smell came from below. What could possibly be... I looked down to see a scorched hole in a part of my scarf. My scarf!

    “What did you DO!? My scarf!” I spotted the knife near me, and picked it up in my mouth. “Ahhhhhh!” I screamed as I charged Berry, rage blinded me to what I was doing.

    “Haha, serves you right,” he replied through a clenched jaw. He tried to stand up, only to fall back down again. I stopped, standing over and looked down on him. I wanted to kill him, for killing that other filly, and destroying my scarf. It was the only real thing I had left from my parents...

    “No mercy, mysterious challenger! Finish him.” the unicorn’s voice came down from above. Was I really going to kill him? No! I wasn’t going to let myself kill another colt, that was just cold.

    “NO! I won’t do it.” I managed to say through the knife. Besides all the pain and stuff, talking with an object in your mouth was really hard. I backed away from Berry, and sat down. It only got a look I couldn’t quite place from him.

    “Well, this is a new one folks. Looks like we got a draw. House wins, and of course, no refunds.” Shouts of anger came from the bleachers as a brown magic field enveloped me and Berry, bringing us out of the pit, and over above the announcer pony. Wait, where was he taking us? I didn’t want to think about it, and realized I still had the knife in my mouth. I turned my neck, twisted back really quick, and threw the knife at the head of the brown unicorn. I don’t know if it was because he didn’t mean to keep the knife inside or not, but it shot straight through his magic field, ending up inches deep in his skull.

    “RUN!” I shouted at Berry as the magic disappeared, sending us crashing to the floor. We both seemed to get up okay. Everypony in the room seemed to quiet down at this.

    “I can’t...”

    What, why couldn’t he? Oh hay, he was wearing one of those bomb collars. “I’m so sorry, but I gotta leave!” I turned and ran back to the door I came in at. Ponies were climbing off the bleachers, everypony yelling something different, I couldn’t understand any of it. I shoved one of the metal doors open, and ran through it.

    I continued through the maze of hallways, backtracking each left or right turn I had previously made. Hoofsteps, many of them, were racing behind me. I couldn’t tell how close they were by sound, the echoes bouncing off stone and tile. It only took a few minutes this time before I spotted the slightly open door I had come inside from. No time to lose, I exited the building, rounded the corner, and sprinted as best I could to the small hole in the fence.

    Why was everypony out here crazy and trying to kill me besides my own parents? No time to think about that now, busy trying to run through pain, and not die. I dived under through the chain link hole, not caring about the many small cuts along my hide, and made it on the other end of the fence in good time. Hah! I was go-

Bang bang bang!

    Two little puffs of dust appeared in the ground in front of me, but the other bullet seemed to hit something in my saddlebags. It felt like I just got bucked in my side, that was definitely going to be bad. Ahh, don’t think and stand there like an idiot, RUN!

    A shout I couldn’t make out came from where the gunshots did as I put what was left of my strength into my legs and ran into the wasteland. I didn’t care where I ended up, but it was better than here.

    I ran, oh I most certainly ran, for quite a long time. I don’t know how far I got, but I didn’t notice anypony following me. I looked at my shoulder, and just cringed. Dried blood was cracked all over my fur and still fresh wet blood seemed to still be coming from it, though a lot less than before. Was a pony supposed to be able to lose that much blood? I don’t think it was very healthy... maybe I had something to fix that. I dug my head in left saddlebag to check, and found a broken glass vial with red liquid still sticking to it. Well, that last bullet had killed me in a different way. The edges of my vision were dark, which I was sure wasn’t a good sign, but I had to continue until I found something.

    I continued onwards, or I would have if my legs didn’t stop holding up my body. Yeah, I guess I needed my blood after all. The darkness invaded from the edges and took everything I saw, and my mind shut down.

* * *

    Ugh, did I die? Well, at least I can see Mama and Papa now. The goddesses would accept me, even though I killed that unicorn pony, right? My stomach felt sick thinking about it. Wait, I could feel my stomach. I tried to move one of my legs, and got the pain of soreness. Yesyesyesyesyes, I wasn’t dead! I don’t know how, I was pretty much gone there. I released the tension in my body I hadn’t known I held, and gave a relaxing sigh.

    “Oh, you awake kid?” a soothing mare’s voice asked.

   I sat up and opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was the clouds were gone. Well, not gone, but a brown canopy was above me. I looked around, it was a rather spacious canopied wagon. I was laying on my own blanket, with a friendly looking mare sitting next to me. She had a bright yellow coat, tomboyish short orange mane, and a horn. A black duster covered her from forehooves to her flank, and an assault rifle strapped to her back.

    My mind froze, did I get saved by yet another group of ponies from a certain death? I should stop making a habit of this. I tried to talk, but my throat was so dry it ended upcausing coughing fit.

    “Whoa now, don’t choke yourself. Here, take a drink.” she levitated a open bottle of water to my mouth. Well they saved me, fixed me up, and didn’t kill me. I don’t see any real reason not to trust a bottle of water. I gulped that whole bottle down, filling that pit in my stomach I didn’t know was there. How long was I out?  I pushed the bottle away when I finished.

    “Thanks for savin’ me, Miss. I was gonna die out there, pretty sure... Why’d ya save me anyhow?”

    “Hahaha, yeah... You lost a lot of blood, but I ain’t no medic. I figured a healing potion was worth the life of some random colt, but I don’t know if it fixes blood loss. You’ve been out for a whole day.”

    “Oh.. thanks then. How’d you find me?”

    “Well Longshot saw something running our way out in the distance, thinking it was a raider attack. There’s a lot of those fuckers up at Shattered Hoof, so he was going to take you out when you just dropped. He said you looked too small to be a threat, and you were alone. We went out to see what it was, because such a situation is a strange sight. Could have been a type of ambush looking back on that.”

    Wow, that’s a really lucky break. Last time I had one of those, it turned out they were slavers.

    “Well... y’all aren’t slavers, right? Had that happen once.”

    This caught her by surprise, and she laughed like I had just told the wasteland’s funniest joke. That was a good sound, when was the last time I heard a laugh, or even laughed myself? Oh right...

    “Oh man, that was a good one. Anyway, where are your parents?”

    I looked down, and wrapped my scarf around me a bit more. Thank Luna I still had it, I think I might have broken if it was gone. I tried to put on my bravest tone of voice, but failed miserably.

    “Raiders, or I guess they were raiders.”

    “...Sorry kid, that sucks. Well, my name’s Captain Glare. Mourning Glare is the full, but I’m the captain, and I think Captain Glare sounds better than Captain Mourning. Since you don’t have anyplace to be, what’s your name?”

    “Silent Step...thanks again for saving me, and then not killing me. It means alot... Wait, captain? What are you captain of?”

    “This unit of course. Oh, you wouldn’t recognize us, we aren’t well known around this part of Equestria. *Ahem* I am Captain Glare of the South Station Mercenaries, Fourth Unit. That explain it?”

    “South Station? That’s a funny name for a group.”

    She scratched the back of her head with a forehoof, “Yeah, well, our HQ is in this big old train station down south. The pony who started this up liked it, so who’s to argue? It’s a good company though, and it pays well if you’re good enough.”

    A grey stallion with a light blue mane poked his head through the back of the wagon. He was an earth pony, wearing a similar black duster that Glare had on. He had a strange pair of goggles on, with thin reticles painted on each lens in a dark red. A battle saddle strapped to his back had a sniper rifle equipped on both sides.

    “Captain, it’s all clear. Nopony was following that colt from yesterday.” Glare looked back.

    “Ah, Longshot. Thank you for the report of good news. Tell Plum to hitch up, and move out.” Longshot nodded, and left.

    I turned to Mourning Glare, “You were waiting to see if anypony was following me?”

    “Well, like I said, it seemed like a good moment for an ambush. You don’t survive out here with sheer kindness or positive thinking, and some cruel bastards think up the craziest ways to get to you. No offense, Silent, but I don’t want to take the chance of dying for a random kid. At least not for free.”

    “Yeah... none taken,” the wagon lurched forward, and started to move at a steady pace. A couple minutes of silence passed, making the atmosphere shift to awkward. The light of the evening shone out from the sides that weren’t covered by the brown canopy. Around the wagon was fairly standard sort of scavenged or bought items lying about, a couple boxes of ammo and weapons alongside them, and a bunch of duffle bags laying side by side, each painted with different colors and patterns.

    “So, why were you bleeding out in the middle of nowhere?” Glare decided to break the silence.

    I told her my story of my past few days, going into pretty good detail about things. Maybe it was how it all rushed back to me, but I couldn’t seem to stop until I told all of it. She just waited patiently for me to stop, never looking away. When I finally finished, I was half-crying again.

    Glare stared at me, then smiled brightly as if she had a great idea. “We’re going back to HQ. Hey, you don’t have anywhere special to be, do you?”

    I shook my head, my parents were dead, the slavers who saved me were dead, and I had no idea where I was. No place special at all.

    “So, Silent Step, how would you like to be a mercenary?”

Footnote: Level Up

Skill Note: Melee Weapons 50

New Perk: Push Through the Pain (Rank 1): When you are suffering from medium damage or ill effects, you find the endurance to continue onward.

Faction Joined: You have joined the South Station Mercenaries. All members are friendly to you, but that does not mean they will help you for free.

((A/N: Thanks goes out to Kkat for creating the Fallout Equestria world, and to the many other sidefics of FoE for making me love the universe. Berry Blitz is Dyon's OC. Any and all feedback is welcome and wanted. Sorry for having a split prologue :P))