Fallout Equestria: Sky High

So I suppose I should start with a little bit about myself.

I'm a Pegasus, born and raised, but I've not once been above the cloud line. I tried, once, but that ended with my being escorted back down by a wing of other Pegasi in scary black armour. I learnt that those guys are the Enclave, and apparently they're not a big fan of the surface. They even branded my grandmother as a Dashite because she left her home, friends and family to help the ponies down below. This means that, by default, they’re not the greatest of mates with my family.

We live in Ausneighlia, a country to the south-west of Equestria’s borders and west of Caledonia. It wasn't heavily bombed by the balefire strikes, but enough to turn the few creatures that couldn't do so much as harm you into killing machines. We don't even bother with the things that were deadly before the war. There were also a few Enclave hubs set there before the war to keep the residents in-line, which nopony really wanted, but couldn’t complain since they sometimes picked off a few of the nasties during their patrols. Grandma didn't make it sound like living amongst the Enclave was a bad life, just an uneventful one, filled with empty promises and propaganda. The way she reminisced about it told us that she wished she could go back, but of course there was no going back to the Enclave because you might "infect the population with a cannibalistic brain disorder", or something stupid like that.

The last thing I ever saw of my grandma was when she was turned into a glowing pile of ash that dispersed with the wind. I guess it was a cleaner death than it would have been by the raiders or worse, so I shouldn’t really complain. Besides, now she gets a free tour of the world in her afterlife.

But enough of the sob story 'cause this ain't a cry for sympathy. It's a tale of circumstance, wrong place-wrong time, and more importantly, doing what's necessary to survive.

Oh, and my name's Hawk Eye.

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"I'm headin' out, mum! It should only be a quick escort across raider lands. They’ve been pickin’ up a bit lately, but I should be back in time to toss a brahmin steak on the grill for dinner!" I called out as I slung my rifle around my neck and picked up my saddlebags, strapping them around my waist.

"All right, hooroo love."

I trotted out the door, gnawing on my breakfast of gecko meat. Another wondrously cloudless day, perfect for all your desert-walking wastelander needs such as pillaging, raiding, slaving and scavenging! Our house was built halfway up a mountain, smack-dab in between the Grand Pegasus Enclave hub above and the various bands of raiders below. It's mainly to protect us against the latter because the former tend to do routine checks around the mountain range to make sure we're not conspiring against them. Or something. They've been upping their rounds quite a bit since grandma died, so I suppose they reckon that the family of a Dashite harbours an undying hate for them. It's not too bad though, because it's always the same patrol group that comes by us, so we invite them for a cup of tea and a chat. Breaks up the day to day monotony for my mum since she rarely leaves the house unless it's to get supplies that I can't find while I'm out on a job.

Snowy and Flash sometimes bring us a couple of supplies that the Enclave has spare, including a bit of cloud for me since whenever I tried to get some I would be turned around. Haze and Daze are about mum's age, so they find some political drama to talk about. Some of the juicier ones included an incident in Caledonia where some Remnants bombed a base with foals inside and a high ranking Enclave stallion in Equestria called Deadshot Calamity murdering his team and going Dashite. Aside from the whole murder thing, he was like an idol to my mum and I.

Then there's Brick. He's taught me everything I know about shooting and surviving, and he even helped me earn my cutie mark. He even gave me his old rifle, Bolt, which was apparently in his family for generations. It was a well kept bolt-action hunting rifle with a couple different gems in the stock filled with enchantments that even Brick didn't know the half of.

I suppose the Enclave aren't all too bad.

I stepped out onto the cloud fragment and, using my wings, pushed off towards the meeting point. Traveling by cloud was much nicer than flying, because it was just one push, relax, push, relax, the cool wind blowing through my sky-blue mane.

Getting to the meeting point was a breeze. I dropped down off my cloud to see the caravan waiting expectantly for it's guards to ready up, all of which were grouped up a couple metres away. I landed on the edge of the circle as what seemed to be the leader of the group told everypony the plan.

"Righto," he gestured to two earth ponies. "you two are at the front. Get your shotguns and check your ammo. Unicorns, two by the caravan, two at the rear. Rifles. Remember; if it's a raider, shoot it before it shoots first, no questions asked. And you..." All eyes fell on me. I guess a Pegasus is uncommon, especially one that isn't Enclave. "What's your name?"

"Hawk Eye sir." I saluted, and judging by the confused looks, that wasn't standard either. I was just dripping with abnormality. "I'm to cover you from the skies." I added, gesturing to the cloud.

"That won't be necessary, Hawk. I want you on the caravan."

"But-"

"No buts!" he shouted, taking a few menacing steps towards me. "I'm the fucking commander, alright? Disobey my orders and you'll have to catch a stray bullet, got it?" I nodded lamely, taking one last look at my cloud when a pistol hit me on the side of the head, making the others laugh. "You use this. Shoot any fucker near the caravan. No funny shit, alright? Good. Let's go." Great, a shitty pistol and close range. I picked it up with a hoof and flew over to the caravan, trying to figure out how to fire it. Bolt was custom made, so I had to fire that with both hooves and the stock against my shoulder. Like a zebra would, Brick always said. This pistol had a... Handle on the side? Mouth grip? I didn't even want to think about who else had used this before me...

I'd finally figured out how to shoot it by the second camp of raiders. Of course my accuracy was terrible, and so was the power of the bullets. I needed to use a whole magazine to kill a raider by shooting them in the side and about half as much when I'm shooting them in the head. Then  came the third camp with twice as many raiders than the last. Two of them rushed the caravan, how they got past the rest I'll never know. I unloaded a heap of rounds into the skull of the first one, and when I turned to the fire upon the znext I heard the noise I didn't want to hear...

Click... click... click...

Fuck.

I punched the ragged buck in the face, disorienting him enough for me to feel around for a fresh magazine. I turned away from him to see that that was my last, and turned back in time for a powerful forehoof to make contact with my cheek, sending me barreling off the other side of the wagon. He looked down at me before leaping, just giving me enough time to roll to the side and jump into the air. I fumbled for my rifle as I was knocked out of the sky and pinned down by my wings, his hooves digging into my flesh enough to draw blood. He grinned his rotten toothed grin as I let out a flurry of punches towards his chest, none of which did anything to help.

"Get off me!" I yelled with a bit of hope that he might. Instead he just chuckled, the madness in his eyes all too familiar. I couldn't fight back, even if I tried. I could feel his breath on my face, the stench unbearable, but if I turned away he would just grab my mane and force me to face him again. There was a mare screaming in the background, and I figured it was just one of the traders getting the same fate, but then it got closer, louder, and sounded like something along the lines of 'get off her you fucker'.

The buck managed to snap me back to the present, when he decided that the scream was nothing to worry about and decided to get on with his task at hoof, but then with a gust of wind he was gone. I curled my wings up around myself as I slowly opened my eyes to the scene of the brown stallion getting pinned and beaten up by a big, and I mean BIG, earth pony mare who also wore raider barding. I got back on my hooves and folded my sore wings against my sides before pulling out my rifle. I pushed back off my forehooves to balance on my hind legs as I took aim at her head, hoof on the trigger just itching to fire... But I couldn't. Not after she just saved me. Instead I shot past her to hit the shoulder of a raider who didn't take too kindly to the beating of their friend, drawing the attention of the grey mare and the commander.

She approached me, as if in slow motion, paralyising me with her stare. I could have gotten lost in those bloodshot, silvery eyes as I lowered the barrel of the rifle and dropped to all fours, bowing my head before her. With a gentle touch, she lifted my head up with a forehoof until I was looking up at her, and up indeed. She was easily one and a half times my size.

“Thanks...” I muttered quietly. All the shooting had died down for the moment, so I figured the guards who were on my side were wiped out. She smiled at me when a shot rang out and knocked her to the ground, blood oozing from her right shoulder. We both looked in the direction the bullet came from to see the commander with his battle-saddle trained on the head of the raider.

"Romantic time is fucking over. I'm gonna gut the both of you and get my fucking caps.” He pointed his gun at me. “I need a new fucking team because of your fuck up. You know how much that’s cost me? I’ll squeeze every cap of value out of you yet.”

He clenched his teeth onto the bit, launching three rounds of lead on my direction. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the bullets that never came. I opened one eye cautiously to see the raider mare in between the commander and myself, her barding absorbing most of the damage from the bullets. She nodded to me, and after I finally got a grasp on what’s happening, I picked up my rifle.

“How fucking sweet. The raider and the fucking turkey. I never liked your kind, chicken, but I think I’ll have to take your fucking lover out first if I want to get at you.” He said as he shifted his stance. I quickly brought my rifle up over her body and shot a round at random, hitting the firing bit and bending it to where it was out of reach for him to bite with ease.

“Sorry commander,” I said, keeping him in my focus while I loaded another round into the chamber. “but I don’t like that plan. Mind if I make some adjustments?”

I pulled the trigger, sending the bullet clean through his kneecap. He glared at me as he muttered the words ‘you fucker’ before he dropped down. The raider mare limped over to him, reared up and landed on his skull with her good foreleg, ending his misery before dropping down to her knees herself. I quickly scrambled around in my bag to pull out a healing potion (Never leave home without one) and helped her drink it.

“I’m Hawk, pleasure to meetcha.” I smiled, extending a hoof to help her up

The mare got to her hooves with my help, although I did almost fall over trying. "Dirge." she responded, putting more weight on her left foreleg than her right. "The caravan's gone."

I looked behind me to see, well, no caravan. They must have buggered off during the fighting, although now there was a few raiders who had begun to encircle me.

"Shit, um, I don't suppose I could stay with you for a spell, could I?" I asked. I wasn't sure what else I could do since my wings hurt too much to fly on them for the time being.

She looked at me for what felt like an eternity. I glanced around, trying to figure out if the raiders were gonna attack me. I then thought that that would be a cool piece of equipment It'd probably be impossible though, I mean, a device that detects threat to the wearer based on some magicky stuff? Get real. Then she spoke, and I buried those thoughts deep in my mind.

"Got armour?"

"Um, no?"

"Good unarmed?"

"Terrible."

She gave a half-hearted smile before putting a foreleg over my shoulders. "I'll see if I can’t help ya out. Come with me."

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The walk mainly consisted of me telling Dirge where I was from, what I did for a living, then it got to talking about my parents, then my grandparents, then the Enclave, shifting to my gun, where it came from, and so on. It got to the point where she knew everything about me, and all I knew was her coat and mane colours.

“Um, if you don’t mind my asking, why’d you save me back there? I wouldn’t’ve thought anypony, let alone a raider, would have stopped that stallion.” I asked, shifting the subject.

“He broke the rules, and the rules are everything.” She stopped walking suddenly, and looked up to the clouds. "And you reminded me of myself a while ago."

“Rules? What rules? I thought you raiders was rule-free.”

Dirge simply smirked before walking on. “You’ll see. We’re almost there.” she said as she lead me around a corner and in front of a large stadium. The two guards at the entrance shrank as she walked through, but as soon as I tried to follow I was blocked by their rifles.

“Let her in, she’s with me.” Dirge said without looking back. The guards looked at her, then at me, and finally each other before shrugging and letting me pass. I picked up my pace to catch up with her as we headed up some stairs and in through a door that was once marked ‘V.I.P.’, but has since been covered with ‘Fuck off’. Inside were six ponies lounging around, with one more behind a desk looking at some papers. An orange unicorn buck whose bright red mane was singed at the tips approached me and sniffed my coat deeply.

“Well look who the tunneler dragged in! And she’s brought pressies! What toy have ya got now, Dirge? Can I have a go when you’re done?” he said with too much excitement for me to be comfortable about it.

“Leave the newbie alone, Pyre.” a mare said from the other side of the room, her dark grey coat and mane almost blending her in amongst the shadows. “‘sides, haven’t you learnt not to touch anything of Dirge’s? You’d figure it’d stick in from last time. Like that spear.”

“Oh fuck up Ash.” he retorted “Since when did anything you say matter to me? I got past that when I beat ya.”

“Using a weapon I crafted for you is hardly a win you rort. Fight me with your own shit and you’d be rooted.”

“Oh yeah? You want a rematch?” Pyre began advancing on her. “‘cause I’m more than hap-” He was cut off as he was thrown to the other side of the room by Dirge, lying in a crumpled heap at the base of the wall.

“Shut your trap.” Dirge said firmly, the words having the impact of an anti-machine rifle. “You done? Good. This is Hawk.” she gestured to me. “She helped me. She’s with us now. I’ll ready her. Got any problems?”

The stallion who was looking at the papers raised his hoof. He seemed to be twice the age of everypony in the room, but he looked in no way frail. He got up from the desk and stepped into the flickering light, lighting up his fading green coat and greying mane. “Dirge, now, I respect your decision and I do so trust you to do the right thing by us, but, why did you not consult me about this first? You of all ponies should know that everything needs to go through me. I’ll be taking over this little ‘interview’ now.” He smiled faintly as he turned to me, extending a hoof. “You can call me Father. Welcome to the Undertakers.”

I reached out to shake his hoof, and the instant I made contact he pulled me down towards him and returned with a headbutt, leaving me dazed on the floor. I tried to get up but the sudden head injury just told me to get stuffed and left me sprawled out on the floor as Father leaned over me.

"Weak. No prediction. I can't see any chance of her surviving a week out here, let alone a minute in the arena. Get her a potion and get her prepped, I want to see her in the ring as soon as possible.” Through my blurred vision I saw Dirge bend over before I was tossed onto her back and carried out of the room.

“Sorry.” she said when we were well out of the room. “You’re gonna be pit against me."

"Like... Like a duel right? To surrender?" I replied hazily

"To death." The words hit me like a train carriage roaring down a hill, and I did everything I could to prevent that first tear from hitting the floor.

Dirge set me down in what looked like an armoury filled with well used equipment before trotting off to grab a small potion to fix the injury on my wings and the probable concussion. I looked around for something, anything, that I could use with any skill. As I scanned the bladed weapons, my eyes were drawn to something that looked much newer than the rest; wing blades. I jumped at the chance to use them due to their less-than-near-destroyed condition.

After making sure the wing blades wouldn't fall off any time soon I grabbed some light armour and (using my super awesome armour repair tool, a rusty knife) crudely cut some slots for my wings to go through. When I was done I looked around for Dirge, who was taking her picks from all these different needles and pills, none of which were labelled but still seemed categorised. She slipped a few into special slots in her barding before trotting over to me.

"Wing blades huh? Know how to use them?" she asked.

"Do I just sorta fly past you and hope for the best?" My idiocy made her chuckle. "What?"

"You gotta aim right. Precision attacks. Hit my neck and legs if you can." She smiled. "You're gonna be with a couple others, and only one of us can survive. If I go down, or even look like I'm about to, turn on them. Oh, and don't think about flying away, you'll just get yourself into a right mess. Remember, rule one: Adapt, or die."

Adapt or die. I began to wonder why she told me all this but I was cut short by being shoved out the doorway and into the arena. The crowd cheered excitedly as me and the other four took place around the arena and waited for the arrival of Dirge.

"For this next match," Father's voice boomed over a speaker. "We get to see the crowd favourite; Dirge!" The crowd roared. "We've pitted her against five ponies trying for her spot amongst the elite. Four of them want her dead for their own petty little reasons, and one of them she even dragged in herself! That poor, poor soul." The entire arena burst into hysterics, and those that weren't rolling around were taking bets as to who that was. "This should make for an interesting fight, especially with a pegasus in one corner!" I didn't like this, I was going to die to entertain raiders. "Now, make her welcome else she stomp you flat, Diiiiiiirrge!" Once more the crowd boomed as Dirge emerged from a specially marked door, waving to the crowd and hyping them up. She bounced on the ground several times, sending electrical crackles out from the covers. Were those powerhooves? I'd never seem them before, but I'd heard of them, and they didn't inspire confidence in my survival.

Once Dirge got to the middle of the arena the crowd fell silent and she signalled for us to attack. We hesitantly looked around at each other, not sure who would make the first move, until a unicorn buck with a sledgehammer charged her. I watched as the unicorn traded a heavy blow to the side of the head for a solid whack at Dirge's stomach, but he wasn't done. He brought the hammer around for a follow through shot to her ribs as she jumped out of the way, pulled the hammer out of his telekinetic grip with her mouth and threw it with great strength back at him. While he tried to stop it with his magic, Dirge launched at him, snapping his forelegs at the knees and bringing him screaming to the ground before she caved in his skull in a bloody mess, much to the crowd's delight. There was no way I could top that attempt.

I looked to the other three as an earth pony buck spoke up. “We gotta work together. What’ve yous got? I’ve got some hoofclaws meself.”

“Just a knife, I... I didn’t get much time to choose before I was tossed out here.” a mare said, pulling the knife out of it’s scabbard with her teeth.

“You call that a knife?” the unicorn said as he levitated up a giant sword that seemed to be made from the bumper bar of an old wagon. “This, is a knife.”

The sooner we could get this over, the better. The instant she turned away from me I fanned out my wings and dashed towards her with a powerful thrust of my wings, and the others followed after me. Just as I fanned out my right wing to go in for a slash, she jumped to the side and delivered a powerful, electrically-charged double rear hoof kick to my body, sending me across to the side of the arena in an ever-graceful spasm with a loud crack. I hit the ground with a thud and slid the last bit of distance to the arena walls, just below the crowd. Looking back at the fight I saw Bumper Sword trying to block Dirge's blows while Hoof Claws was ripping at her barding. Knife was down already, her chosen weapon through her right eye and bleeding profusely.

By the time I had enough muscle control to stand and enough adrenaline to ignore my injury, Claws had ripped off one of Dirge’s armour plates and was rewarded by being thrown at Bumper's weapon, cutting down to his bone where the blade got lodged, forcing Bumper to find new methods. Using his magic, he pulled the blade out of Knife's eye, much to her own dismay, and put it between himself and Dirge. I flapped my wings a couple of times to get the feeling back in them and winked at Bumper, who nodded and started on the offensive.

I lunged into the air, angling my wings to spin like a torpedo. I'm no Rainbow Dash, but I'll be damned if I didn't know some tricks. As I passed Dirge, I felt my wing catch onto something and I landed, spinning around next to Bumper. I looked back to see the damage and was only rewarded with a short, shallow cut that bled rapidly. Oh come on! All that for an inconvenience?.

"You are new to those, aren't you?" Bumper said, surprising me. "You gotta hit quick and often to do anything useful."

"But... How do I get close? She's impossible to touch!"

"That's why there was five of us. Makes it fair." He said, chuckling lightly. "So much for that. I suppose I'll see you in another life. Ta ta."

He stuck the tip of the dagger in Dirge's shoulder and held it with his magic as he ran at her, aiming to push the weapon in further with brute force. Dirge swung a foreleg towards him with practised ease, hitting his neck with a bone snapping crunch and tossing him limply to the floor, dagger dropping out with no force to hold it in.

"Just you an' me, Hawk." she said with a smile. "I'm surprised you managed to get up from that kick, I was sure something vital broke there." Something broke? I felt around my ribs and sure enough they shifted under my touch. That's disturbing enough without the fact that the adrenaline pumping through my veins removed most of the pain. "Anyway, it's you or me, and as much as I admire your spirit, I don't plan on going."

"Adapt or die." I said with a pained smile.

"Then show me what you can do!" she shouted back.

That was all I needed to hear. I screamed something that I wasn't even sure were words as I ran at her. Knowing from Bumper's attempt that she'd swing with her right hoof, I ducked in that direction and slipped by underneath her hoof with my right wing spread to cut under her foreleg. While she recovered I jumped over to her other side and cut at her other shoulder before quickly dashing out of her range.

I ran to pick up the dagger to continue Bumper's plan, turning to face her once I had it in my grasp. She simply smiled back at me.

"You're givin' ‘em a real show now, Hawk. Grinning like a shot fox, too." she said as she moved towards the dropped hammer. "Maybe you have what it takes to survive here, but I can’t hold back. Can’t let them know that I regret bringing you here. I’ll try to be quick about it.”

Dirge charged at me with as much force as she had, leaving the hammer on the ground, and I made the mistake of thinking she had no agility to back it up. I jumped into the air much too late and she grabbed me by the hooves, pulling me back down and smacking my back against the dusty floor. She reared up for a killing blow and I used what little strength I had to roll to the side and back onto my hooves, as wobbly as I was on them. She then grabbed me by the neck and started choking me. Flailing my wings wildly, I hoped to hit something important as the world around me became darker. Finally the adrenaline faded and my wings drooped to my sides as I muttered with my last breath.

"Sorry... Mum..."

And then as everything went black the crowd went wild.

Footnote:

You level up, but you have no use for said level because of your lack of any pre-war technology. You should get yourself some of that one day.