Fallout: Equestria - Fallen Wings

by Anton

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Tragedy, Adventure
Length: 20770

A Fallout: Equestria story revolving around a Pegasus with amnesia finding himself, and his way home.

For Pegasi falling from the clouds is the same as death, there's no coming back... So what happens when a young stallion not only survives, but intends to do just that? This is the story of a Pegasus who tries to understand the new world around him while also struggling to remember the world from his clouded past.

Who was he? Who is he? And ain't blunt trauma a pain in the flank?

(Being rewritten as of Sept 1st 2014. Sorry for the year-long hiatus, but it allowed me to get my writing skill up to par with other great authors in the community! Said overhaul will involve updating all Chapters and adding Ch. 4 in one swoop, so expect it soon!)

(Also new cover art coming soon, because my writing isn't the only thing that improved~)

Gdocs Index page

Published 2012-04-13 14:24:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-07 12:36:49 UTC

Chapter 1: Awakening

“Dad, what’s it like under the clouds?”

The crimson buck just shrugged, reaching over and brushing his hoof through my buzz-cut mane.

“It’s nothing like here, Son.” He replied, but that wasn't an answer!

“But what’s it like!?” I asked again while hopping up and down into his path. Now he was smiling!

“Well! They don't have sunshine or rainbows, and there’s definitely no other Pegasi down there!” I blinked. That was impossible!

“But... there’s sunshine an’ rainbows an’ Pegasusi everywhere!”

“Not beneath the clouds! I told you it was nothing like here, didn’t I?” He grinned, but I still didn’t believe it! … but I couldn't really think about it when my snout was being tickled by red feathers!

“Achoo! Hey! No faaaair!” I shook my nose to try get rid of that tickly feeling while Dad chuckled.

“Anyway, c’mon! It’s your first day at the academy; you want to make a good first impression, right?”

I nodded a lot once I got rid of that tickled feeling!

In the distance, I saw other fillies and colts playing in front of a big cloud building: the Academy! I fluttered my wings and hopped faster towards them.

“If you do really well here, then some day you’ll be able to fly beneath the clouds with me! You’d like that, right?” I turned back to him and nodded a lot again!

“More than anything!”

“Alright then, now go get ‘em, … !”

Huh?

“Uh... what’d ya say, Dad?” Dad blinked, cocking an eyebrow.

“What? Are ya so excited you’ve forgotten your own name? I said: Go get ‘em, … !”

I couldn't hear what he was saying!

I wanted to ask him to say it again... but this time I couldn’t speak! I couldn’t even move! I was stuck!

I felt the clouds shift unstably beneath my hooves, beginning to part.

Dad! Help!

He just smiled as if nothing was wrong, as if nothing was happening while those last bits of cloud gave way.

I fell.

* * * * * * * * *

Fallout: Equestria - Fallen Wings

By Anton

Chapter One: Awakening

"It's not the fall that kills you... it's the sudden stop at the end."

Pain.

A dull, throbbing pain was all I could feel as I slowly opened my eyes to a blurred world of greys and browns. From where I laid, I couldn't discern much of the hazy world around me, but I knew that I was somewhere very, very wrong. These winds were foreign; they were nothing like the winds back at home. They were far too violent, ripping past me intermittently with enough force to almost topple me over as I lay there, attempting to figure out where I was.

I tried to move my legs, my hooves, my wings... but none would obey me. I did manage to lift my head slightly; my neck was still on my side, albeit arguing with me every inch of the way. It felt like every muscle was trying to tear itself apart after only the smallest of movements.

My eyes focused as best as they could, which wasn't much. My surroundings appeared to be nothing more than soft, flowing blurs of dirty grey and mottled brown.

The wind, lashing furiously at my back, was not making me feel safe.

… nor was the taste of copper in my mouth.

"... h-hello?" I called out. My voice had degraded into a raspy whisper.

I listened for what felt like hours.

No response.

I was alone in this place, and everything around me was so different from my home. The puffy, gentle clouds beneath my hooves were replaced by a dirty brown powder littered over a hard grey surface. The calm winds that would have effortlessly carried me through the air had become violent gusts, ripping over my form whenever they pleased.

I needed to move. I needed to get to a safer place.

Despite its painful argument otherwise, I managed to lift my left foreleg. My right hind leg followed suit as I slowly managed to--

The surface broke away beneath my hind leg!

I tried to grab onto anything my hooves could finally reach for, but only dirty powder and clumps of small rocks taunted and followed me as I fell. My vision swam with colours while my world flooded with pain in places I didn't even know I had. I clenched my teeth and shut my eyes as tight as I could, praying to the goddesses to make it stop, praying to bring me home and end this pain. I'd do anything!

I could have sworn that I'd been falling for days before my prayers were finally answered. My body rolled to a halt. My wings were painfully pinned under what I assumed was my back, because I lacked enough feeling to even tell where that was right now. I did my best to control my breathing. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream and I wanted to go home! But more than anything right now, I wanted this pain to go away.

I opened my eyes once more, blinking as hard as I could to wash away the tears that had formed in the corners of my vision. I looked down at my body and held back a whimper; my Carmine-red coat was filthy, covered in so much dirt and blood that I barely recognized it. I tried to move my legs, but each resisted now more than ever as spikes of pain ran through my body at any attempt of movement, regardless of how small.

I gave up.

I'd been colt-napped, beaten, thrown about and then left for dead in this place. I didn't care how or why it happened, all I know is it did and that at that moment I gave up. I let gravity take over and my head fell back into the dirt while I stared up at the sky above. At least the sky didn't abandon me...

...wait.

Pain-heightened senses were definitely a double-edged blade, but one advantage of it was sharpened eyesight! That was the sky above alright! The sky was shining through a massive fluffy grey hole where pastel-coloured blurs with grey and white puffs were darting in and out of view.

Clouds!

Home!

No giving up now! Time for Round 2!

“I’M DOWN HEEERE!”I screamed to the clouds above as loud as my heavy lungs would allow. I wiggled a foreleg in front of me, the best wave I could manage.

There was no response. The tiny coloured blurs darting around the hole above lacked any deviation from their course, was that hole shrinking?

“HEEEEEY!”I screamed again, fear beginning to build deep inside me, could they hear me?

They were going to seal away the sky and lock me out below!

"HEEEEELP! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!"I begged, pleading to those clouds and whoever was up there to swoop down and take me home, before it was too late.

"P-please... d-don't..." I broke down, whimpering through growing sobs, trying to yell to the skies above as the door to my home was slowly shut in my face by those I lived alongside, by those I called friends...

… by those I loved.

I let my body go limp, tears streaming down my cheeks as I didn't even bother to hold them back, watching my life slip through my hooves without any of my friends even thinking to look below for me.

I was below the clouds.

I was on my own.

I gave up.

No need for a Round 3.

* * * * * * * * *

Black.

I couldn't escape it, it was everywhere.

I looked everywhere I could. I ran as far as I could. I flew as high as I could. But no matter what I did, the blackness followed, it's grasp unyielding. I opened my mouth to scream for help, to demand what it wanted, to say anything! But no words left my muzzle. I shut my eyes, trying to believe it wasn't real, but the darkness refused to leave, the only thing I managed to do by closing my eyes was bring a new level of darkness before me. I felt as if it was swallowing me.

Ping!

What was that?

I saw something, didn’t I? I know I did! It was...

Ping!

There it was again!

I span around, or at least I think I did, a black abyss is hard to keep a sense of direction in.

Where did it go? I know it’s...

Ping!

Aha!

It only existed for a moment, but I was certain I found it! I locked onto where it appeared and focused as best I could, would it appear in the same spot again? Would...

Ping!

OWMYEYES!

I didn't move my body for fear of losing the light’s location again, but I did close my eyes for a few moments. That was so bright I felt it stab at the back of my brain!

Ping!

I opened my eyes, sharp pain subsiding thankfully. The light appeared every 10 seconds on the mark.

7...
8...

I squinted my eyes and looked down, enough to avoid looking directly into it again but not enough to lose it’s location

9...

Ping!

10 seconds indeed, and the source was pretty close, just ahead of me.

I began to trot carefully, it could be no more then 30 hoofsteps from me.

8...
9...

I looked down again.

Ping!

No more then 20 hoofsteps now.

It also looked like the light was getting more intense the closer I got, I managed to see my own red coat, and the grayish-white tiles beneath my hooves this time, if only for a moment.

A few more steps.

8...
9...

Ping!

That one was loud!

It didn’t make any sounds before! No fair!

… it also didn’t create a doorway full of blinding light before either.

I had to look away before I ended up with a migraine that could topple one of the Princesses, the light coming from the door had illuminated the entire black abyss and revealed the derelict interior of a cloud home.
The room was suspended in a dim silver hue, broken kitchen tiles decorated the ground and cracked Pegasopalian arches held up the roof along the walls of the interior. The home held a few bits and pieces of ruined Pegasi-furniture but whatever else sat amongst those pieces of comfort was hidden behind a heavy silhouette in the shape of a pony, my own shadow being cast over the room by the door’s blinding illumination.

There wasn't much else in the room, nothing of interest, nothing to be afraid of.

...so why couldn't I look away from that silhouette?

I just couldn’t, I felt that if I did... it’d get me. Somehow.

What was I? A foal scared of his own shadow? Grow up!

I backed up into the door of blinding light, whatever I was backing out into had to be more interesting than staying in there with...

Shining, orange eyes.

* * * * * * * * *

I screamed.

What was that!? What... what was that? What kind of... of nightmare...

...am I in?

I slowly regained control of my breathing, through hyperventilating gasps I had noticed that where I woke up was nothing like where I had… passed out?

It was still very brown, but I was indoors... or at least the below-clouds equivalent of being indoors. The ceiling and floor were made up of dark, rotting wooden planks. The walls were the same, but partially hidden under a layer of tattered wallpaper that must have been slowly peeling for centuries. The once illuminating moon and twinkling stars of the night sky had dimmed to nothing more than a faded fresco of the past.

To my left was a table topped with a flickering candle and an empty glass bottle, past that was a boarded up window which small beams of cloudy light still managed to sneak through gaps between the lighter-coloured boards.

I looked down, I'd been covered in a blanket and was laying on a bed, past the end of the bed was a door left slightly ajar.

I was suddenly so very glad I used to read those pre-war comic books to know what life below the clouds looked like, or else I'd probably be panicking at my surroundings.

Wait. Why wasn't I panicking?

I passed out somewhere in that wasteland, and now I'm in somepony's... something's house...

I gripped the blankets in my teeth, immediately regretting it as the taste of alcohol, blood, and something else flooded my mouth. I swiftly spat it out behind me onto the other side of the bed so I could see what kind of state I was in.
To my surprise, I'd been bandaged from fetlock to withers, in some places blood had stained the ivory cloth to a pinkish-red but aside from that I seemed to be in good condition. I lifted my hooves curiously, which thankfully barely resisted, nothing remained of the earlier pains but a phantom ache and some slightly stained bandages.

"Well, that's a good sign..." I whispered to myself, if only to make sure I could speak again.

I laid my head back down onto the pillow to try make sense of my situation, what happened to me? I remembered... being in pain, falling from the clouds? What happened before that... the academy? Must have been a dream, that was years ago, I was still a colt... and I definitely didn't fall from the clouds that day, I’d remember. So thank you very much, overactive-imagination, for trying to ruin a good memory!
… it was a good memory, wasn't it?
I clopped my hoof to my head a few times to try shuffle that day to the front of my mind... but I couldn't remember a thing.

“Well fuck...” I groaned, so much for making sense of the situation.

I raised myself to my hooves and climbed down off the bed, the metal frame creaking and squeaking as I did.

Hoofsteps.

My thoughts suddenly shot to how I got here, and what might be waiting for me on the other end of that door.

The steps grew louder, closer.

I panicked, looking around the room. The window was boarded up, I couldn't jump out. The bed was big, but it wasn't large enough to hide under. Was there anything I could use to defend myself with!?

The door swung open slowly.

I grabbed the only thing I could and prepared myself.

The Beige-coloured Unicorn entered the room with a smile, before tilting his head and lowering his tinted glasses curiously as he saw a Carmine-red Pegasus colt brandishing an empty potion bottle in his muzzle, backed up against the opposing wall.

"Sorry kiddo, but we used all of that ta’ heal your wounds, nothing left to suck out of it." He chuckled, making me flush red from embarrassment. I put the potion back onto the table beside the flickering candle while the Unicorn was looking over my bandages. My eyes widened as his horn began glowing a faint yellow and all my bandages seemed to unwrap themselves from my body, surrounded by glistening yellow hues. All my cuts and bruises had disappeared without a trace under the wraps.

So that’s what Unicorn magic looked like...

"Well, you seem healthy enough... let's test your noggin. My name is Doc. Can you say Doc?"

I looked up, feigning an offended look.

"Yes, Doctor."

He chuckled again.

"Jus' Doc actually, but awright! Good! Now, how about your name?" He smiled.

I opened my mouth to answer but I felt no response forming on my tongue, the Beige Unicorn just sat there patiently waiting for my reply, gazing over the tinted glasses balancing on the end of his snout while I mentally scrambled for a response like a colt falling from...

I felt myself shudder violently, it hadn't been on purpose but it definitely got his attention.

"Y’awlright? Ya haven't got Amnesia or sumfin' do ya?" He asked, I blinked a bit as I pondered the question. I had read about that before, it was when a pony lost all their memories, usually through blunt trauma. I couldn't have Amnesia, I remembered quite a few things! Although in retrospect, they were all scattered, unrelated... and my name didn't appear to be important enough to reside alongside them. My recent ordeal however...

I fell from the clouds.

I nodded to him, it’d be simpler then listing off what I did and didn't know.

"Ah, well that's a damn shame... c'mon kiddo." He sighed, motioning towards the door he had entered through with a hoof before turning around and began trotting back through it, I looked up just in time to see his Cutie Mark: A pair of potion bottles, the purplish-red liquid in both half-empty. "We got some food down here if you're hungry!"

'We'?

I hoofed the pile of medical wrap into the corner of the room I had stood in and followed him out of pure curiosity, though my stomach told me I was hungry I wasn't paying it any attention.

He walked down a rotting wooden stairwell which descended along the right wall of the next room, ending with a ninety-degree turn out into the room at the end of the wall.
This room had quite a bit more structural damage than the room I had slept in, but it also had significantly more life in it. The walls were made of rotting wood much like the previous room, shelves and the decorations which once sat upon them lay scattered around the edges of the room, I noticed dusty picture frames, pieces of broken pottery buried amongst flora growing inside and once colourful figurines of ponies scattered about missing limbs, bases, or laying in so many pieces I couldn't tell what kind of pony they were once supposed to be.

Once I descended the stairs there were two more boarded up windows to my left surrounding what I assumed was the front door sitting opposite to the wall that once held all those trinkets. It would have definitely once been a welcoming sight for any visitor.
In the center of the room, in front of the charred skeleton of a fireplace lay a brown pair of saddlebags and a few unopened tins circling a small, wavy metal object connected to... a spark battery? No, it was smaller then a spark battery, but it definitely seemed like it served the same purpose due to the soft whirring that usually accompanies some sort of power supply. There were also three grey mats laid out around the metal object, they looked far more comfortable then the rotting wood that made up the remainder of the floor, so I guessed that's where 'they' had been resting.

"So..." The Docto- err, 'Doc' began. "Tell me what ya can remember." He asked as he lay down on one of the mats and pulled over an open tin with some orange stuff inside.

"Um..." I started, unsure of where to begin or what to say, so I did the second-best thing any Pegasus would do.

Stand there awkwardly like a foal. Genius!

"...I don't remember much... I fell from the clouds I think. I must have landed pretty hard 'cause I couldn't even move..."

Or see straight.

Doc rolled his eyes in a tell-me-something-I-don’t-know fashion.

"Well yes, when we found you, you were half-dead! If you hadn't’ve been screamin’ to Celestia we would've thought you were dead and moved on, you had more broken bones then a Raider after meetin’ a Steel Ranger!"

I blinked at his metaphor. Raiders? Steel Rangers?

He caught my confused stare and buried his face in his hooves, motioning to one of the nearby mats with his head. "Siddown kiddo, I'll explain."

Offer accepted!

I walked over and laid myself down on the mat beside him, it was surprisingly warm. The metal, wavy thing must be some sort of heating device, it would explain the need for a power supply.
Doc lowered his head and ate from the metal can, the orange stuff was food? Carrots maybe? Regardless, he raised his head again and my attention locked onto him... and his orange-speckled muzzle.

Don’t laugh... whatever-my-name-is, don’t do it!

"The Wasteland's inhabitants come in three flavours. 'Nice', 'Don't-give-a-damn', and 'Those-who-think-you'd-go-well-with-Ketchup'. Us, Steel Rangers and Raiders fall under those categories, in that order."

What.

I froze, my brain trying to wrap my mind around the concept of ‘Raiders’, most notably the fact that they ate other ponies!?

Remember that laugh I was holding back?

Neither do I.

He continued his explanation.

"...then there are also Slavers, they ain't as bad as Raiders, just don't look helpless or alone near 'em. They'd happily enslave and sell ya without a second thought. Just more caps for them."

"Caps?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, you know what bottlecaps are, dont'cha kid? The metal disks on top of cola bottles?" He asked, I nodded after a bit of thinking.

"Y-yeah, I know them! But... they're your... currency?"

He tilted his head a bit, those glasses sliding down his snout to reveal his confused expression.

Please tell me I didn't just make a foal of myself...

… I totally did.

"...yeeeeeah? 'Cept out in places like Fillydelphia and Falls, they trade in ponies."

One group eats ponies, the other sells ponies... what a nice place!

The main door to the room swung open to my left, and through the grey void entered a green-armoured, black and brown-feathered beast with claws, paws, and piercing golden eyes.

A Griffin!?

That’s it, I’m dead.

"Hey boss, when're we takin' off?" He spoke in a low, bored drawl.

I'm... not dead?

Doc turned to him, then to me, then glanced up at the ruined structure of the once homely room around us... or maybe he was just staring off into space, probably through that large collapsed hole in the corner of the ceiling.

"Pretty soon Sever. Ya sure you don't want to have some breakfast?"

"I'll pass." He remarked before turning tail and walking back outside.

I sat there for a moment as I watched that main door slowly swing shut, Doc not seeming to notice my concerned expression as he continued to enjoy his canned orange.

"Doc..." I began, he removed his muzzle from the can and looked over at me. "...you travel with... a Griffin?"

"Mmhmm! Ol' Sever's been with me for two years now, saved my hide more times than I can count!" He chuckled softly, looking towards that door which had been left slightly ajar by the large creature's departure. "Why'ja ask?"

I pondered if he knew about the history between Pegasi and Griffins after the war, I may have forgotten a lot, but I definitely remembered that we fought and took their lands for our own... but how would he? Griffins were always dangerously prideful creatures, they'd never admit to being defeated by mere ponies.

Regardless, I was glad that this Griffin didn't seem to hold grudges of times gone past... right?

"...no reason, just... my first time seeing one."

He nodded, returning to his meal.

I found my gaze falling upon that wavy heating device while my thoughts wandered, numerous questions old and new surfaced around my head begging to be answered: How did I fall from the clouds? Why did they save me? Could anypony else have fallen as well?
The first question eluded me, a blinding white hole where its answer should have sat. The second answer seemed obvious enough, they said they were nice and everything I had seen of them so far backed this up.
I preferred not to dwell on the latter, from Doc’s metaphor and my own memory of yesterday, I probably wouldn’t be laying here breathing if they hadn't taken me in and healed me like they did. A fall from the clouds was a fall nothing was meant to return from.

A few more questions held my attention until an awkward guuuuuurgle filled the room from my direction, and I flushed as Doc looked up at me.

"I'll just uh, be eating my breakfast now." I chuckled sheepishly, mustering up the most non-embarrassed smile I could, which probably looked more silly than an honest one would have. I leaned down, gripping the can in my hooves and grabbing the cap of the can in my teeth, the metal strained a bit as I pulled before popping open, revealing a familiar orange and yellow mix within. At some point in the past it might have been a canned vegetable like carrots perhaps, but now it was just canned-mush.

Oh well, breakfast time!

* * * * * * * * *

"Can I have some more of that mushy stuff, whatever it was!?" I pleaded, practically bouncing! The canned mix may have looked like it was 200 years past it's expiration date but it sure didn't taste like it! It had more flavour than a lifetime of cloud grain ever did! Doc just laughed and shook his head, grabbing the two empty cans in his teeth and tossing them into the charred remains of the room's fireplace behind him, scooping the remaining few into one of his saddlebags.

"'Fraid not. C'mon kiddo, it's time for us to leave. It isn't safe to linger in the wastes for too long."

His lesson from earlier sprung to mind and I decided to take his word for it, the deliciousness-in-a-can could wait. I got back onto my hooves beside him, helping him wrap up the mats in a bundle using his magic and some string.

After everything else was neatly tucked away into one of his saddlebags Doc moved over to that spark battery-like power supply and reached into his other saddlebag, taking out a small metallic-grey tube with a green screen and tapping his hoof to the display a few times as he levitated it in front of him.

Eventually a small click could be heard as the side of the device popped open, revealing numerous ports and wires within, one of the latter being magically tugged out across the floor until it connected to the side of that small power generator. "Bring those to Sever will ya? I gotta re-pack this contraption." He smiled as he motioned towards the bundle of mats sitting between us. I hadn't realized I'd been staring.

Wait, bring them to...

The Griffin!? Absolutely no--

"Um-- Sure!"

Why brain? Why don’t you listen?

I bit down on the mats by the knot and began trotting to the door, the bundle was a little heavy but it was only a short journey outside... to the Griffin. I swallowed my fears and nudged my muzzle between the door frame and the slightly-ajar door, opening it and moving outside.

A cold wind and the smell of smoke greeted me as I caught my first real glimpse of the outside world. We had been resting in a cottage atop a small slope, snuggled securely into the underside of a steep, overhanging hill behind it. The path from the door led down that slope a good distance towards a cobblestone road before the remains of once-colourful flora obscured the rest of it. That cobblestone road led off towards the horizon, where the silhouette of a city long dead awaited it.

"You gonna hand those over or not?"

I froze.

It took all the courage I could muster to turn to my right, the Griffin was sitting on his haunches puffing on a cigarette and looking at me with an expression of utter boredom.

"Y-yeah, here." I managed to respond, moving a few hoofsteps towards him before dropping the bundle beside him, the larger creature leaning in with his claw--

Oh goddesses not my throat! Not my--

--and taking the strung-together bundle of mats in a talon, lifting them over to his side where he shifted a long device made of metal tubes and wooden grips over a bit to drop them into the pouch on his far side.

Well... that was to be expected.

Why was I so scared of a grudge that was two centuries old and probably gathering dust? This Griffin, Sever, hasn't acted hostile towards me once...

"Kid..."

...yet.

I looked up, Sever was working the end of the cigarette around in his beak and staring off into the distance. "...you don’t even have a Dashite brand... how did you end up down here?"

Dashite? I frantically searched every corner of my brain, the word was familiar... but its meaning escaped me. Besides, right now I had to respond to a question which I failed to answer myself earlier.

"I uh... I fell, I don’t remember how, or much of what happened before that... only... ”

A blinding white.

“... a big light hitting me... I think? I’m not sure."

The Griffon's bored expression didn’t change, he just took a long pull on his cigarette and blew out two rings from the holes in his beak.

"Huh... well you aren’t the first pony to fall from the clouds... but you'd wanna find your way back above them. Sooner rather than later."

"There are others?" I asked, curious.

Sever rolled his eyes, taking the cigarette out of his beak and into his claw.

"Were others, here-and-there. I dunno what happened to 'em. What do I look like, a record-keeper?"

No, a feather-covered slice-and-dice machine.

"No, sorry." I sighed, turning to look at that city in the distance his gaze was locked onto. I found my own gaze drifting above it, staring at those clouds that hid the beautiful sky above like a never-ending curtain. "How am I supposed to get back above the clouds, Sever?" I looked to the black and brown-feathered Griffin, he shrugged.

"Find some Enclave that ain't in vaporize-everything mode. Ask 'em to bring you back with 'em."

Enclave. Another word I felt I should know.

I was about to ask Sever about what Enclave were before I heard a creaking sound behind me from the doorway, I turned to see Doc trotting outside to us, both of his brown saddlebags loaded and draped over his sides as he pulled the door shut behind him.

"Alright you two, ready to go? Friendship City is only a couple of hours on hoof from here." He smiled over to us. I nodded a bit, I was a lot safer with these two then I would be on my own.
I must have looked rather unsure because I suddenly felt the heavy hoof of Doc on my shoulder, a confident grin on his face. “Ya’know, if memory serves me right, there is another Pegasus living there!”

My eyes went wide. Was he serious!?

“He could probably help you out!”

By Celestia’s mane, yes!

I beamed, looking off into the distance at the silhouette of that ‘Friendship City’, it offered me my first goal towards getting home: Meeting this Pegasus.

I stretched my legs in anticipation of the journey, starting to do the same with my wings only to find a dull, heavy ache coursing through each of them from my shoulders all the way to both wingtips, small-yet-painful stabbing pains scattering through anywhere I tried to stretch more than a little.

"Hey Doc?" I asked worriedly, he turned. "How bad were my wings when you found me? I... can't remember being able to feel them at all before I... well, passed out." He gave a sad, sympathetic look.

"They were preeeeety bad... multiple hairline fractures all along your ulna and carpometa..." He caught my confused expression. "... your wings weren’t broken, but they were damn close. So even after all that healing and a good night's rest, you still need to rest them for at least a week before you put them under any strain, okay?"

I nodded, a little disappointed that I couldn’t take to the air, but it didn't lower my spirits much, I had another Pegasus to meet after all!

Doc trotted forward down that path from the cottage, Sever taking one last pull on his cigarette before crushing it under one of his hindpaws and following suit with that long device slung over his back by a rope. I began to follow behind the two before giving one look back at the derelict home we were leaving, beginning to wonder who were the ponies who used to live there? Would they have minded us using their house for rest? Were they Unicorns, or Earth ponies, or maybe even Pegasi? Did they survive the ...

My gaze turned back to my two saviours ahead and the world surrounding us, that last question was downright stupid to ask. Nothing could survive the bombs unless it hid above that cloud curtain... or a... a... stable! Aha! My brain was finally working with me! Over one hundred stables were built all across Equestria to save ponies from the fallout they would otherwise have had to face after the bombs fell.

Maybe they did survive!

"C'mon kid!" Came the low, annoyed call of Sever from ahead. The two were standing there waiting for me while I day-dreamed like a foal.

"Sorry!" I flushed, galloping to catch up to them. It felt good to use my legs again I'd admit! Doc smiled and the two turned around once more, the three of us travelling down the old cobblestone path towards our destination.

"So, kiddo." Doc began, looking back to me as he walked. "I know you lost yer memories, but if you're gonna be travelling with us..." I thought I caught Sever rolling his eyes out of the corner of my vision, "... ya need a name!"

A name?

"So what's it gonna be, hm?" Doc finished, looking over his tinted spectacles at me with a grin resting across his muzzle, awaiting my response.

'A pony's name reflects who they are inside!' I vaguely remembered being told once, but the identity of the pony who said this to me was long lost somewhere within the damaged annals of my memory. So what was my name before I fell?
Did it sound awesome and cool?
Was it caring and compassionate?
Was I the town fool and had a name that would reflect this somehow?

Now Sever had turned to stare at me with his bored, soul-piercing gaze.

Probably the Latter!

Think of something, they’re waiting!

'A pony's name reflects who they are...' ...so who was I? Who am I?

'I fell from the clouds...'

...

"Fallen."

Footnote: Level up!
New perk: Swift Learner (1) - You’ve always been quick to catch onto things and the world around you is no exception! With this Perk each level will give you an additional +10% bonus whenever you earn experience points.
Quest Perk added: Aerodynamic (1) - You may not be Rainbow Dash but those wings aren't just for show! You now gain a 1 point bonus to your Endurance and Agility while in midair.

This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.

You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat onEquestria Daily

If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check theFallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and theFallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan

The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.

(Message from lé Author:

Unending thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria!

Also thanks to the authors of every side story out there, you’ve all inspired me to tip my hat into writing! :3

This has been the first chapter of the first story I've ever written, so thanks to you for spending time to read it!

Also many thanks to my friend Ace for burning out his brain in the quest to help me become a better writer!

Okay, I'm done with the torrent of thanks!

All comments, critique, questions, etc. are all very much appreciated. They help me improve!

~Anton)

Chapter 2: Civilization

Chapter Two: Civilization

“Boggles the mind, we settler ponies built all this in just the past year, don't it?!”

Friendship City.

I’ll admit, when a place's name starts off with ‘Friendship’ I expect bright colours, a big open entrance and ponies raising their hooves in welcome. Not a town under a massive rusting statue, an off-shore dock a certain Griffin had to carry us to, and an armoured pony guarding thick slabs of metal that made up an entrance.

I think I even saw turrets!

“... but really, ‘Fallen’?” Doc continued his lecture on my choice of name. “You should choose a name that sounds at least a bit... well, optimistic!”

“The kid just wants to sound like a little badass,” Sever rolled his eyes as he dropped me beside Doc on the... dock. “If he wants a depressing name then let him keep it.”

“It’s my name, for now...” I mumbled, annoyed by the topic that refused to change for the entire trip. “All I remember is falling from the clouds, so it fits, doesn’t it? When I remember my real name I’ll use it.”

“Ah, ‘Doc’, right?” A guard at the front gate asked as we approached.

“Eeyup! Good ta’ be back.” He responded with a smile, using his magic to adjust his shades back up to his eyes.

The guard nodded, turning around and waving at a small camera near the ‘door’. I heard something powering down and those slabs slid open with a heavy hiss.

“Naturally, you’ll have to leave any weapons of yours with us at the door, we’ll return them once you leave. Friendship city is a friendly place and we try to keep it that way.” The guard advised us, the tone in which he did suggested he’s had to say it far too many times.

Sever groaned. The Griffin reaching over his back and taking his weapon by the rope sling, depositing it beside the guard. “Anything else?” He asked, Doc shook his head. The guard walked off to the side to allow us through.

“A’right, get inside you thr...” He stopped to stare at me. “Hey, I was told there only gonna be two of ya. Who’s the Dashite?”

I stood my ground as he trot up to my side, the large buck looking at my flank with a puzzled expression. Did I have something on my cutie mark?

“Kid fell from the clouds.” Sever said, breaking the silence and bringing the guard’s attention up to him. “You guys like taking in orphans, right?” His beak curled into a grin.

Wait, what!?

“Yoo-Hoo!” came the voice of Doc from ahead. “You can flirt with the security later, c’mon you two!”

Sever’s feathers instantly jumped up into a ruffle, the large Griffin letting out a growl and walking ahead into the city while muttering a vast array of things under his breath.

“Well... bye I guess.” I said, looking over to the guard. He didn't respond, but I recognized that kind of expression: He was one stray thought away from laughing his flank off within earshot of a very large, annoyed griffin.

I could swear that at that moment two tiny ponies popped up, one on each of my shoulders. The White Pegasus on my left told me to be a good pony, leave him be. The Black Pegasus on my right however...

I nudged him in the side, whispering: “So... a Griffin, eh? All the mares’ll be jealous.”

The guard’s eyes went wide as the dam burst and he erupted into hearty laughter, falling back onto his flank while I trot innocently past a very disgruntled-looking Sever.

Being Discord’s advocate can be fun!

* * * * * * * * *

Doc had assured me that they weren't going to leave me here and that Sever just had a very dry sense of humor. I was definitely feeling more comfortable traveling with these two, I was more relaxed. Still a bit homesick... but definitely better than yesterday.

On the way here Doc had explained some more things about the Wasteland to me: Never surrender to Raiders, give Steel Rangers a wide berth, and stand your ground to Slavers; they want slaves in good condition that won’t put up much of a fight. They won’t waste ammo on you if you’re neither.
He also told me to help anypony in need, but that my own safety came first.

Friendship city was turning out to be better then what I first thought. The city may have been built from all sorts of scrap metal, but all the ponies living here seemed pretty content, even happy!
The city definitely did like taking in kids though, we couldn't go past more then a couple of stores without getting blindsided by some colts and fillies playing their games through the streets and paths.

“So uh... you two were expected?” I queried.

“Got a mare here who does good business. Tells me what places need mah docterin’ and pays us after helpin’!”

Well that explained his nickname a bit more, though I was still wondering what his real name was. Either way, with what they were doing they definitely had my respect...

“Not ta’ mention it’s nice to rest our hooves here!” … and I could relate. My legs were starting to ache!

It took us a while of navigating the streets to reach our destination. Doc tugged on a string hanging within a small wooden box beside the entrance. After a few seconds of waiting outside the scrap house there were hoofsteps, a click, then a call sounded from within as the door began to open.

“If that’s you kids again I swear to Celestia I’ll--”

“Good ta see you too, Emerald!” Doc interrupted, I peeked over one of Doc’s saddlebags in time to see a forest green Earth Pony with a light green mane open her two hazel eyes wide in surprise.

“Doc! Doc it’s so good to see you!” She beamed, using a hoof to mess with her hair and work it out of her face.

mornin’!” The Beige stallion melodramatically held his hoof up limply as if it had turned to jelly, making me chuckle.

“Of course! Come in, come in! Tell me how it went!” She said as she turned around and trotted back into her home.

“So Emerald, how’ve you been?” Doc asked as he followed her in. The room was in a bad state, but it looked rather neat compared to the other building interiors we had ventured past on our way here. This mare kept everything tidy!

“Decent!” She replied, motioning a hoof towards a pile of pillows resembling a couch as she worked some string around the back of her head, that flowing mane being tied up into a ponytail. “How about you? and... well, how is he?” She asked, her words weighed down with concern.

“Ohh thankyouthankyouthankyou!” She sang. “You’re the best Doc in the wastes!”

I watched Doc’s cheeks redden and had to hold a hoof over my mouth to muffle my snickering, the mare stopped cuddling on him shortly after.

“Y-yes well... ahem! I do what I can, miss!” He said, smiling again. “I uh, hate to be rude but do you happen to have our payment with you? We’re down to 3 food tins and our last two potions!”

Emerald nodded, trotting over behind a makeshift kitchen counter. The creaking sound of a cupboard opening followed.

“One hundred and fifty caps, to the stallion and the Griffin.” I heard her say, Doc gave a smile as the mare returned once again and gave Doc the small brown bag which held their payment.

“Always a pleasure doin’ business wit’cha, Emerald!” Doc smiled as he undid the covering on one of his saddlebags and deposited the bag within.

“Well, since you two came back in one... err, two respective pieces. How about you go get some grub and put your hooves up for a while over at Warm Smiles?” Emerald suggested as she walked back behind the kitchen counter and folded her hooves on it. “I have another job for you boys when you’re ready.”

“We’d be more than happy to take you up on that offer, Emerald!” Doc grinned gleefully, obviously this was something they didn’t get to do all too often. “Oh, which reminds me!” Doc said, sending a smile in my direction.

“Do you happen to remember where our local Dashite lives? He has a visitor.”

* * * * * * * * *

“The view up here better be good.” Sever muttered as we made our way up through the higher levels of Friendship City.

“It has to be! Why else would anypony live in a loft?” I replied, following behind Sever as he navigated the path leading higher up. I had assumed that Doc and Sever knew this place like the back of their respective hooves and claws, but judging by our current number of wrong turns and detours I may have been mistaken. By this stage we must be have been nearing the top of the building regardless, the only thing up this high was the single, rusting staircase.

“I reeeeeally hope not, Sever.” I replied as I followed suit, my smaller frame made maneuvering over the gaps much easier. “I mean, he’s my best bet on getting home right now...”

We finally reached the end of the stairwell. The steps had led to a partially-open door which in turn led into a rather large room, the loft held quite a few big screens, a decent view through a window of that city outside, and a bed with a sienna-coloured, winged pony dozing on it.

“Well go on, kid.” Sever said, reaching out with a clawed digit and opening the door in the sleeping pony’s direction, almost as if he was daring me. I walked past the black-feathered Griffin and trot up to the bed behind the sleeping Pegasus, he was a lot older than what I was expecting. Well, time to wake him up...

Poke.

“...”

Poke.

“Nyeeegh...”

Poke-poke.

“‘Fer Celes... ia’s sake... ah thought ah... got rid o’... “ He mumbled, I wasn't sure he was even awake.

“Um, Radar?” I asked, placing a hoof on his shoulder and shaking him a little, I was rewarded with a wing to the face sending me onto my haunches as the elderly Pegasus turned over.

“Wha’ issit!? Can’t a pony get some shut-eye ‘round here!?” He yawned, turning around on the bed to get comfortable again, though now facing me with his eyes still shut.

“I uh... need to talk to you about...” I began before a sienna eyelid opened, the eye underneath examined me for an awkward few seconds before the silence was finally broken.

“Well tie up mah wings an’ call me an Earth, another Dashite!” He announced, shifting himself about on the bed so he was sitting up now, facing me as he spoke. “Wha’s yer name an’ what can ah do yew fer, youngin?”

“Fallen, nice to meet you!” I still had no idea what a Dashite was but I couldn’t help but smile, I was finally talking to another Pegasus! He’d know how I could get back home for sure.

“I needed some advice, I kinda fell from... uh...” My words trailed off as I spotted his flank, there was a nasty burn wound where his cutie mark should have been. He was probably in an accident... and it’s rude to stare, so back on topic. “... I uh, need to know how to get back above the clouds. Can you help?”

Radar just blinked.

“Yew... wanna get back above the cloud-curtain!? Buh...” He hopped off the bed and looked me over, stopping at my side. “... oh.”

Why was everypony disappointed with my flank!?

“Yew Enclave, son?” He asked in a hard tone. I still didn’t know what that meant, much less how to respond, so I just shook my head.

“I just fell from the clouds and I wanna get back home.” I answered. The older stallion stood there for a few moments, seeming to process my response before he just climbed back up onto the bed.

“Sorry youngin’... but there ain't no way back.”

What!?

“There has to be a way! Please Radar, any way you can think of!” I pleaded, the Sienna simply buck shook his head.

“Trust an ol’ featherbrain, It’s better down here.”

Were we thinking about the same Wasteland?

“What d’ya mean?” I asked, wondering if this stallion was still right in the head after that.

“The clouds don’t have pesky Raiders or feral Ghouls tryin’ ta’ bite yer wings off all day, sure! But yer just as likely ta’ get shot in the back if yew so much as think somethin’ different to the Enclave. S’better to get outta there an’ do some good down ‘ere while yew still can, like ol’ Rainbow.”

“Rainbow?” I blinked, Rader looked to me in a mix of disbelief and annoyance.

“Rainbow Dash! Don’t they teach yew kids ‘bout yer history no more!?” He waited a few seconds for an answer it seemed. Unfortunately I genuinely had no idea what to say, I didn’t know anything about this ‘Rainbow Dash’ though I felt as if I should. “Rainbow Dash was the first Pegasus ta’ ever fly beneath the clouds ta’ help the surface, when everypony else were too busy shaking in der’ wings! An’ ever since then the Enclave labeled every Pegasus that’s wanted ta’ help the surface a Dashite. An’ they’ll happily shoot ya’ if’n that’s the case.”

So that’s what a Dashite was.

“An’ since yew’re down here, they prob’ly won’t exactly be welcomin’ yew back.”

… oh.

Well that puts a wrench into my plans.

“Well... what should I do then, Radar? There has to be some way to get back there... to make things right!”

Radar just shook his head before turning around and laying it back down on his pillow, once again I found myself staring at his back.

“Yew can’t change the Enclave, son. Jus’ trust me, don’t try goin’ back.”

I didn’t say anything, I just sat there and stared at the sienna Pegasus’ back as I took in everything he had said.

‘Don’t try go home, it’s better down here. Besides, they don’t want you anymore anyway. They’d rather shoot you.’

Well that was more than a little discouraging.

“An’ one more thing!” He said, turning his head ever so slightly to look at me. “Don’t go tryin’ ta fly up there, them lightnin’ rods’ll cook yew alive b’fore ya even see the sun.”

I sighed, nodding. I lifted myself to my hooves and walked to the empty doorway which once held a griffin. It was obvious by now that Sever didn’t approve of my company, seeing as he’s tried to ‘lose’ me twice now while we’ve been here.

At least I knew one pony who would never leave me behind.

* * * * * * * * *

“You’re leaving me behind!?”

He couldn’t be serious!

“It’s dangerous where we’re going, far more than the wastes around here.” Doc replied calmly. He was serious!

I plopped down on my haunches, rubbing a hoof to my temple as I tried to remain calm. What was I going to do if they left me behind? I didn’t know anything about the world out there besides the bits that Doc had taught me this morning!

“You can make a life for yourself here kiddo, get to know the nice ponies! When we come back next time you can come with us!”

“But, what about getting home!?” I questioned, failing miserably at staying calm. “Radar was helpful in a hindering way, he was adamant that life down here is better than life above the clouds...”

“...and is it?” Doc asked.

“Of course not! I mean, I may not remember much, but I'd remember for sure if there was anything like the wasteland up there!”

Doc lowered his head, scraping a hoof at the metal floor beside the mat he was resting on.

“... and here I thought we’d been so nice t’ya... but if the clouds are so much better then us, then so be it!” He said, turning his back to me and laying down on his mat.

I had really put my hoof in it.

“Doc, wait! That’s not what I meant!” I said, trying to correct my mistake. I turned to Sever but the griffin was looking off out the window in the other direction, avoiding eye contact as usual. “You’re the nicest pony I've ever met!”

“You’re jus’ sayin’ thaaat...” Doc responded in a quiet, pitiful wail.

“I’m not! I swear!”

“Then why won’t ya even take ma’ advice?” He sniffed, not even turning around.

“I’m sorry! I’ll take all your advice from now on!” I pleaded.

The moment I finished pronouncing ‘on’ the beige unicorn had hopped right up with a big grin across his muzzle.

“Great! So you’ll be waitin’ nice and safe here while we run our errand, right?”

Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.

“I...” He began to look upset again: Lip trembling and brow quivering as if he was about to bawl. “... fiiiiiine!” I crossed my forelegs and sat in defeat, he swiftly returned to his usual cheery self.

“Excellent!” Doc said. “I’ve made arrangements with Emerald, she’ll take you in ‘till we return, should only be ‘bout a week!”

“An entire week!?” I groaned, I’d have to wait an entire week before I could look for another way home?

“Hey now! We found you on our way back from Hoofin’ton, an’ that journey took us even longer to git back!” Doc exclaimed. I couldn’t exactly argue with that, I owed these two my life after all. “Now go talk ta’ Emerald! She’ll show ya around and find some things fer you ta’ do while yer here!”

“Alright...” I couldn’t just be a lazy pony while I waited? This day just kept getting worse and worse.

I had found my way out of the Inn and began my walk towards Emerald’s house. I found myself stopping for a few moments as I passed a food store and just observed the city. The wasteland, I’d been told, was a harsh, unforgiving place that would strip you of everything you had, yet here I was watching ponies having casual chats, buying and selling, and even a group of kids playing.

If something like this could come to be, then the wasteland couldn’t be all that bad, right?

I pondered what the real wasteland outside these walls was like, if it was just as horrible as Doc had told me then I must be the luckiest pony alive right now to be... well, alive!

I was brought back to reality as I felt something heavy and cloth-like land on my head. I shook my head and backed up, watching as a pair of small cream-coloured saddlebags dropped to the ground in front of me.

“What the...” Was all I managed to mutter before the sounds of young ponies calling out reached my ears.

“Sorry ‘bout dat!” One yelled

“Quick, toss it back!” Another followed, getting looks from his friends.

What caught my eye the most however, was the little sky-blue filly who ran right up to me and swiftly threw those saddlebags onto her back.

“Sorry mister. We were jus’ playin’.”

Mister? … well, it’s better than being called kiddo all the time.

“That’s fine! What were you playing that involved tossing saddlebags over stranger’s heads?” I smiled, the filly just looked away timidly.

“‘Keep away’. Somepony takes somepony else’s thing, and ya gotta not let ‘em get it back.” She explained.

Soon enough, her friends were calling for her to come back. The filly gave me a sheepish smile before galloping swiftly back to them, I suppose it was time I got to leaving as well. I resumed my trot down the street and gave the young group a wave as I passed, which was almost returned by those saddlebags a second time!

A few minutes later I finally reached the door to Emerald’s home. Reaching over, I pulled on the string hanging inside that box beside her door. I heard some rummaging around inside, followed by increasingly-louder hoofsteps.

“For the last time, you can’t have the damn string! That’s my only d--” She cut herself off as she opened the door and saw my confused expression. “Oh... hello. Fallen, right? Sorry about that I thought you were a... aha... come on in!” She said, her embarrassment was more than obvious.

I trotted inside as Emerald shut the door behind us. “Have a seat!” She suggested, I happily obliged by flopping onto the ruined couch filled with pillows. “So... Doc told you that you’ll be staying with us for a while?” The green mare questioned as she sat on the other end of the couch.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “I’d much rather be out there with them, but he persuaded me.” I rolled my eyes before, to my surprise, Emerald was grinning.

“Lemme guess... he got all sad and started whining ‘till you agreed?” She queried. I nodded and she clapped her hooves together, entertained. “Ha! I’m the one who taught him that!” I let my face fall into one of my hooves, groaning.

“Anyway, Doc said you’d have stuff for me to do while I’m here?” I asked, Emerald nodded.

“There’s always somepony out there who needs help, and Friendship City ain’t any different.” She explained, raising to her hooves and walking over into the kitchen area. I could see her looking through a list written inside of a ruined book. “Lets see... bandits... roguebots... aha! I’ve got one you can help with!” She grinned, trotting back over to me. “How do you feel about bugs?”

* * * * * * * * *

“Sure, I’ve got a Radroach infestation in the cellar you can help me with. Head down and find out how they’re getting in for me?” The blue Unicorn explained. I nodded as he guided me to a hatch at the back of his store, it opened up to show a small staircase leading down into a dimly lit room below.

“Alright, I’ll have a look for ya.” I said as I began my descent down those steps. The room held a horrid stink, It was like walking into an outhouse that had been rotting for two centuries! I moved off the last step and looked around the cellar: It was stuffed full of boxes from one wall to the next, some of which had toppled over and spilled pre-war clothing all over the dusty floor. The walls and floor were made up of cracked concrete while the ceiling was mostly rotten wood with a single light dangling from it by exposed cords. “Hang in there for me...” I mumbled.

I hopped off the last step and trot into the center of the room, beginning my search. I walked up to each of the boxes and peered inside, but I was finding nothing but dusty pre-war clothing and other things I wouldn’t normally wear. “Hmmm... if I was a roach... thing...” I thought out loud to myself as I moved around the rest of those boxes. I was finding evidence of them: small holes here and there, itty bitty patterns along the dust that a bug’s legs would make, but no actual bugs!

I pushed a few of the boxes around to look behind them as I listening to the increasing chatter in the store above, the owner mentioned he was having a sale today when I first arrived and he mistook me for a customer. As I finished moving the third box I thought I saw a tiny leg skitter away behind another one.

“Hey!” I yelled, pushing that other box aside and catching a bare glimpse of the culprit before it escaped behind yet another box. “Ugh! C’mon!” I groaned, trotting over to the other side of the room and moving the boxes from that side this time. Every time I moved one they would relocate behind the next box in line!

Eventually there were only three boxes left in the far corner of the room, stacked atop some planks of rotting wood.

“I’ve got you now!” I grinned, trotting over and pushing the two boxes to either-side of the large one away, leaving just the single, large box. I wrapped my hooves around the side of it and threw it as fast as I could to the side!

Nothing.

The corner behind the box was dusty, and full of itty bitty footprints, but not even a single radroach! I turned around and quickly looked over the room, could they have snuck past me? I was watching the boxes the entire time, there was no way they could have!

I backed up into the corner, paranoid that the bugs had escaped me and were about to get revenge from some unseen part of the basement.

KH-CRACK!

The noise, and the crumpling surface beneath my hind hoof made me jump, my legs scrambled to grip a solid surface, only to cause the rotting wooden boards beneath me to slip out and crack under my weight. Before I knew it, I was falling into a hole.

My name really does fit, doesn’t it?

* * * * * * * * *

I found myself laying on my back, murky water flowing around me as I stared up at the hole and staircase I had fallen down. I had assumed the radroaches ate their way inside and I was now dead in their nest. Instead, I found myself in some sort of pre-war passageway. The hole in which I fell through had been an open, metal hatch hidden beneath the piles of wood and boxes.

“Urgh... “ Groaned a gravelly voice to my right. I turned my head to see who the owner of the voice was, but all I could make out was a blur in the darkness. “You broke it!”

“Wha... what’d I break?” I asked, slowly coming out of my impact-induced stupor.

“Doesn’t matter. Stupid colt, you wouldn’t even understand if I explained it!” He muttered, for some reason that annoyed me more than it should have.

“... try me.” I responded, rising to my haunches and shaking my mane free of as much water as I could. The other pony didn’t respond this time, he just tossed the broken item to (or probably at) me, I picked it up from the water and examined it.

First the obvious, it was two devices taped together to function as one. The larger of the two was a steel-coloured box with a large lense taking up one side, the other was a round, flat device with wires and a tiny radar dish atop it. It looked like the two had been integrated into each other using the wires from the dish device and a lot of duct tape... that was, before my hoof ruined that connection. “What was this supposed to do?”

“Holographic projector combined with a stealthbuck. I could keep that guy’s basement full of fake roaches to keep him out, and anypony he sent down to clear ‘em out wouldn’t find a single roach, or the projector. They’d think he was crazy.” So that’s why they disappeared!

“So... why did you need something like this, anyway?” I asked, rolling the device around between my hooves, examining the damage I caused.

“Why do you think, kid? Some ponies need to get things that the guards wouldn’t like
inside the city.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw the pony-shaped blur raise up and trot off further into the dark passageway.

“So... what? You keep his basement clear of ponies so you can sneak things in? After dark?” I asked as I raised up onto my hooves and followed him, balancing the joined devices on one forehoof as I walked.

“Look at that, the kid knows his way around smuggling! Lemme guess, you’re Dad was a Slaver? Your Mom, maybe?” It wasn’t hard to imagine him grinning at his remarks in the darkness. He eventually made his way over past a table at a dead-end part of the passageway, a flickering lamp illuminating the bits and pieces of technology which cluttered the surface of it.

“No. They weren’t.” I answered coldly, walking over to the table and dropping the device carefully as the figure sat down at the end of the passageway. There was a lasting silence that hung in the passageway as I tinkered here and there with the device. I didn’t know how to explain it, the longer I kept at it the more it all just seemed so... easy. I knew which connection had to slot into which port, how to reroute power from the dish device instead of the projector’s crushed supply...

“You’re a Pegasus... ” Came the voice from the shadows.

“Yes, I am.” I responded. Half-annoyed from the previous accusations, but mostly too interested in the device I was mending carefully in my hooves.

“What’re you doing down here? There hasn’t been a Pegasus here since that old coot came down decades ago.”

“Just... exploring.” I shrugged, lifting up the conjoined device in my hoof and flicking a switch atop it. The entire thing glistened and disappeared, leaving only a shimmering outline of where it had been. I couldn’t help but grin victoriously... before it reappeared with a pop, crackle and a bang as smoke emerged from between them.

“... try the thing beside the lamp.” He suggested. I blinked and reached over, taking the small black box, a converter, in one hoof and a nearby screwdriver in the other as I worked on opening up the projector and replacing the burnt out part. “There’s a spare transformer-thing on the other end of the table...”

I probably should have responded, but I was too interested in this little contraption. I undid the bits within and pulled out the burnt out converter before inserting the good one. It was similar, but still a different model, so it took a bit of pushing to fit it inside the case.

“So what happened to your wing, kid?” I felt my right wing become weightless, when I looked back it was being maneuvered slightly in a few directions, consumed in a silvery-golden glow. I snapped it tightly to my side, I didn’t want this strange Unicorn pulling it the wrong way. “Alright, how about your way with gizmos, then?”

“I have no idea.” I muttered, screwing the panel back down and setting the device down on the table again before I flicked the switch. Once again it disappeared and this time there was no explosive failure, instead the device flickered, remaining partially visible until I switched it off. My best guess was one of the connections had burnt out as well last time, and now it wasn’t sending its full load.

“Is that towards the latter or the former?” I heard him ask, followed by the sloshing of bottled liquid.

“The latter. I hurt my wings in a fall.” I found two wires that were slightly charred, easy enough to replace with two of the seven on the table...

“A fall!? What, did you forget you were a Pegasus!?” He let out a dry, rasping laugh. I paid him no mind as I finished connecting the two new wires and screwed the panel shut again. I turned to look at the Unicorn as I heard him drinking, what I saw made me want to disappear inside myself.

The stallion was illuminated in a silvery-golden glow, his magic wrapped around the bottle of amber liquid he was drinking. That’s where normal ended. The remnants of a deep green coat were sticking out wherever his skin hadn’t fallen off to reveal the muscles and tissue beneath, and on a few places across his legs I could see actual bone beneath pale, torn muscle. His head and face were a different story though. While still looking rather... unhealthy he had only small patches of skin missing across his face. He had a full (yet still rather dead-looking) grey mane which became more and more wispy the further it ran from his raw scalp, and almost an entire coat.

From the neck up I would have just assumed he had a major skin condition, but his whole body? It looked like he was ever-so-slightly... burned alive.

As he finished drinking and opened his yellow eyes towards me I swiftly diverted my attention back to the table and the joined devices. I heard him let out another, smaller laugh.

“What’s wrong kid? Never seen a Ghoul before?” He smirked. I shook my head as I picked up the device in my hoof, mentally going over every component inside to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. “Well, this is what you get when you gotta trot through radiation for two centuries.”

“Wait.” I turned to him, my attention swapped from the conjoined contraption to the Unicorn ‘ghoul’. “You’ve been alive... for two hundred years?” I hoped that was simply a slip of the tongue on his part... or maybe he was just drunk.

“Mmhmm.” He nodded in the darkness. “I was one of the richest stallions in Equestria... then the damn bombs fell and ruined everything.” He sighed in an frustrated manner, taking another swig from his bottle. I wasn’t sure if I believed him... his body looked the part, but anypony that’s had to wander a destroyed world for two hundred years would lose their minds, of that I was sure.

“Well... what was it like? Before the bombs fell?” I asked. A part of me wanted to know what he’d respond with, partially to test his story, but mostly because I genuinely wanted to know. That was, if he was telling the truth.

“Nothing... nothing like it is now. Back then I was practically swimming in bits... I could have whatever I wanted, be anywhere I wanted... have anypony I wanted...”

“I meant the world back then...” I corrected. ‘... not your money-drunken escapades.’ I really, really wanted to add. I didn’t like this stallion, not one bit.

“What about it? We had Sunshine and things like that if that’s what you wanna know, I never really gave two bucks ‘bout that. As long as I had my bits... I was happy.”

There were a lot of things I wanted to say to this stallion... but I thought it was best to stay civil.

“So, now you’re making your money through smuggling?” My gaze found its way around the passageway as I asked. There was a locker with a padlock sealing it shut, and a few buckets worth of scrap electronics along both sides of the passage.

“If you can call bottlecaps money I guess, a stallion’s gotta do what a stallion’s gotta do...” He shrugged, leaning lazily back against the wall as he took another swig. “How did that happen, anyway!? Did three ponies get together and decide ‘Hey! Lets replace bits with this shiny thing!’ Great idea, dumbflanks...”

By this stage I was certain he was drunk, I moved my attention back to the device in my hoof before flicking the switch. The entire thing glistened, then glazed over and disappeared in my hoof, leaving only a bare shimmering outline of where it was. I waited a few moments... no malfunctions this time! Success!

“You actually fixed it!?” The ghoul asked in slurred surprise as he raised onto his hooves and trot over, leaning in and examining my hoof so closely that the alcohol-and-death stench of his breath made me lean so far back I nearly fell over. “Maybe you ain’t so useless after all! How about you become my apprentice?”

What!?

I quickly flicked the switch, setting the device on the table as it reappeared before backing up a few feet.

“No. No thanks, I’m leaving.” I responded, turning around and walking back towards where I fell in.

“Wait!” He called after me, I paid him no mind. “Lemme repay ya! For your uh... kindnuh... generosity!”

I stopped for a moment and turned around, watching him rummage through two of his scrap buckets for a few moments. After a bit the Unicorn ghoul levitated over two pieces of electronics to me which I didn’t recognise as being anything particularly useful. For all I knew they were engine components.

“Give me something of actual value, or your little operation is finished.” I said coldly, not even blinking as I stared into the Unicorn’s yellow eyes. I’d had enough of his attitude, his profession, his... everything about him! He dropped the pieces of scrap immediately and rushed back over to his buckets.

“Alright! Alright! Gimme a minute!” He called out in an alcohol-fueled panic as he rummaged around. He levitated over a few bits and pieces, but nothing more interesting than a child’s flying toy appeared in front of me after two minutes.

“What about that locker?” I suggested, it had to be locked for a reason. The ghoul looked at me, then at it, then mumbled something in frustration as he levitated a key from the darkness and opened it.

“Here... best thing I got in five years down here.” He muttered, levitating out a small box into my hoof. It had a rusted orange casing with a few dents here and there, but it seemed pretty sturdy for whatever it was. A black screen took up the right side of the case while five buttons and a logo, ‘Pip-Buck 2000’ (somepony had turned it into ‘2,500’ by scribbling over it), filled the left. I pressed a hoof to the button labelled ‘Status’ and the screen flickered into life, providing green text over its black background.

Rebooting...
Updating User Information...
Database corrupted; moving to archive...
New Database created; Acquiring New User Information...
Welcome, {ERROR}!

‘{ERROR}’? If the wasteland was playing some kind of joke on me, I wasn’t entertained.

“A pleasure doing business with you, mister...” I asked, looking up from that screen.

“You don’t needa know my name, get out.” He grumbled, sitting down at the end of the dark passageway and taking another swig of his drink.

“Fair enough.” I said, noticing that locker of his held a few other shiny things inside, including a glowing weapon similar to Sever’s... best not to push my luck, chances are he only agreed to give me this thing due to his intoxication. Turning around, I began back towards where I had entered.

Goodbye, ‘Mr. Bits’. Let us never meet again, preferably.

I climbed the staircase back up into the store’s basement, laying the Pip-Buck 2000 down on top of an overturned box of clothing while I used it’s contents to dry myself off. It was only then did I realize something that made me grin like an idiot.

I had fixed his little invisible-projector contraption... but I didn’t see a single Radroach down there when I turned it on. I only fixed the cloaking part of it! I had solved the store-owner’s Radroach problem and made a smuggler, who was drunk off his flank, give me a valuable... thing!

I couldn’t tell whether those were two good deeds, or a good deed and a bad deed... either way, I was pleased with myself.

I pushed the boxes back into the way they were when I first entered the basement, leaving some room above the hatch for Mr. Bits to place his ‘repaired’ projector at some point. I grabbed the Pip-Buck in my hoof as I began to leave, only to realize it would be rather suspicious for me to have entered this basement, killed a lot of roaches, and leave with a random piece of pre-war technology!

I tucked the device under my wing and made sure it was held tight to my side. Nopony would bother investigating a broken wing, right? That’s what I hoped as I began climbing the steps out of the basement and back into the store, closing the hatch over the stairs once I was out.

“Hey, you’re back!” The owner called, trotting over after finishing his chat with a customer. “How’d it go? Did you get rid of them?”

“Yup! You won’t have any more trouble with Radroaches, I destroyed their little nest.” I grinned as the blue Unicorn beamed.

“Thank you so much! Nopony else would help, they all said I was crazy and there weren’t any radroaches down there! For a while there I thought I was going crazy.”

“Nah, they were down there! Just being really sneaky.” I shrugged. “Anyway, was that all you needed done?”

“Yup!” He nodded before suddenly shaking his hoof. “Actually! There was one last thing you could do!” He said, motioning for me to follow him as he trot through the store untill he was behind the counter. “Here! These are for you.” He tossed an olive dress and a small grey bag onto my back.

“I uh, I don’t normally wear mare’s dresses...” I said, causing the store owner to blink a few times before laughing into his hoof.

“Kiddo, the dress is for Emerald! The bag of caps is for both of you!”

I would have made a joke, or said ‘Oh.’, or something, but at that moment I was a bit too flustered from what I had initially assumed to do much more than grin sheepishly and walk towards the door. Besides, I was doing a good enough job at being the joke!

“Thanks again!” The Unicorn called out. I waved a wing back towards him, it felt like the most natural way to wave back to him.

The Pip-Buck clattered onto the floor.

I froze, our gazes synchronizing on the pre-war device, then back up to each other.

“Um, it’s a medical... monitor! For my condition!” I lied. Luck was on my side it seemed as the blue stallion just smiled, nodded, and trot over to two customers who were browsing his selection of hats at the other side of the store.

I scooped the box up in my hoof, tucked it under my wing and trotted at a swift pace back towards Emerald’s place.

* * * * * * * * *

“Goddesses, it’s so pretty!” Emerald sang as she examined the dress over, prancing around the room much like a overly-excited filly playing the role of a princess. “Eeeeee!”

I hadn’t thought much about the dress when I was carrying it, but once Emerald put it on I could tell how much effort went into it, and how much it meant to her. The seams were hoof-sewn and expertly hidden, the peices of fabric used to patch it up in a few spots were a perfect match to the dress’ colour and there was hardly a scratch on the entire thing. Whoever had fixed this piece of pre-war clothing up had made sure it was a labour of love.

“How do I look?” She asked, pulling the most fancy, feminine pose she could muster.

“It looks good on you!” I smiled, leaning against one of the walls near the door (She was so excited she had scooped the dress right off my back the moment she let me in!).

“Only good!?” She pouted, her lower lip jutting out and her eyelids fluttering.

I recognize that face! Oh goddesses, not again!

“Did I say good!? I meant Fantastic! Beautiful! Fabulous? Err.. Exquisit!” I was halfway through exhausting my descriptional vocabulary when she leapt forward and squeezed me tightly, I felt my face redden.

“Oh Fallen, you have such a way with words! You swept me right off my hooves!” She grinned teasingly, releasing me and trotting towards the door while I stood there, frozen in a mixture of embarrassment and what I can only describe as I felt as if I had eaten a swarm of butterflies.

“You’re... welcome?” My attempt at sounding dignified would have worked had my voice not cracked.

“Now I’ll be riiiiight back! Half of those caps are yours, make yourself at home!” She called back as she galloped gleefully out the door.

I let out an exhausted sigh as I flopped onto the pillow-stuffed couch, quickly realizing my error as I pulled the Pip-Buck out from under me.

“Ow... ” I muttered as I placed it on top of a table made from a large sheet of wood and some concrete blocks. I reached out across said table and pulled over the bag of bottlecaps, undoing the string with my teeth and carefully dumping the contents into a neat pile on the table.

126 caps. That’s... 63 caps for each of us.

I had no idea of the value of 63 caps right now, so I just divided the pile into two neat halves on the table before reclining back on the couch and staring the ceiling. Was this going to be my life for two weeks? Get a chore, fall down something, get paid some bottle caps and repeat?

I really shouldnt be thinking about it. Doc made me promise I’d stay here, I just had to deal with it. I reached over and took the Pip-Buck in my hoof, examining the case and the interface for a short while before poking the ‘Status’ button once more.

Welcome back, {ERROR}!

I groaned and hit the Status button a few more times, all it did was refresh the screen and deliver the exact same message. In frustration I held the button down for a few seconds, the screen went black and offered multiple choices.

Reconfigure User Info...
Add New User Info...
Clear Archives
Restore MoM defaults...

Finally, something helpful. I searched for some kind of navigational pad but found none, I pressed my hoof to ‘Reconfigure User Info.’ Maybe it had a touchscreen spell buried in its hardware?

What would you like to reconfigure?

Name...
Age...
Gender...
Species...
Auto-Detect Information

That answers that. I pressed a hoof to ‘Auto-Detect Information’.

Processing, please wait...

I shrugged and relaxed back into the couch, shutting my eyes and letting the little box run its algorithms, it’d probably be a while considering how old it look--

Activating survival & navigational subroutines...

Funny, I’m so tired I could have sworn there were words under my eyelids...

Wait...

Subroutines successfully activated! [WARNING: 2.54% Margin of error!]

Why are there meters under my eyelids!?

I opened my eyes wide, the readouts never moved! I couldn’t shake them off or blink them away!

Are they inside my eyes!?

I looked around in a panic causing the compass-like gadget under the ‘HP’ meter to spin like crazy. I looked down at the Pip-Buck.

All Biological Information updated. Welcome, {ERROR}!

Oh FUCK OFF!

Ignoring those meters for a moment, I pressed my hoof to the controls on the screen and made the Pip-Buck repeatedly reconfigure until it would get my name right. Questionable eye-readouts could wait a second!

Welcome, {ERROR}!

Welcome, {ERR0R}!

Welcome, ‘RE#RR’!

Welcome, {#!”?#}!

Welcome, {!N#ME}!

Welcome, ‘F”%#’!

I dropped the device on my stomach and grit my teeth for a moment. Every time I made it try again the meters in my vision had fizzled and flashed like a thousand tiny fires in my eyes.

I was getting one hell of a migraine, but I wasn’t about to give up.

Welcome, {#.!?;}!

Welcome, ‘F#ll1ng’!

Come on!

Welcome, ‘F0rn1c#’!

Welcome, ‘FR1d”%’!

Welcome, ‘F@l10n’!

Welcome, ‘Fa1l#n’!

Almost! C’mon you piece of...

Welcome, ‘Fallen’!

Yes!

Victory is sweet... when your head doesn’t feel like it’s about to explode.

I lay back on the couch and took all the deep breaths I could, trying to quell that raging headache as I examined the readings that covered the two lower corners of my vision. I had no idea what ‘HP’ was, nor ‘SATS’... it was obvious that the readout beneath the HP gauge was a compass of some variety; Were the green lines on it landmarks of some kind? Similar devices?

I decided to examine the Pip-Buck itself a bit more, considering it was the source of these readings. I pressed ‘Automaps’ and the screen flickered, changing to a top-down outlined view of Friendship city. I could see where I was, a tiny triangle inside a house-shaped outline.

I pressed ‘Status’ again, yet this time instead of repeating a welcome message, it brought me to a... are these statistics? The screen filled with readouts about my ‘stats’, from how Perceptive or Lucky I was all the way down to my skill in... Bartering? It even told me how many ‘Hit Points’ I had... what, I can take 195 hits before I fall down? What is this, some sort of children’s game? It did feel slightly familiar, though... I must have played something similar when I was a Foal.

The screen also had an outline of a smiling Pegasus stallion with meters pointing to each of his limbs. Both of the wings’ meters were half-full, with the right wing being slightly further than the left.

I hit another button and it brought me to an ‘Inventory’ display, which, of course, was completely barren of anything. I reached over and picked up a bottlecap from my pile.

[WARNING: No container found! Cannot manage inventory!]

I blinked at the warning floating before me, before reaching over and picking up the empty grey bag. Surprisingly, the bottlecap I was holding levitated over and descended into it, appearing on the display.

Caps x1

I picked up a few more and the process repeated itself.

Caps x5

Okay, that was neat.

I heard hoofsteps and peeked over the edge of the couch, a single green bar moved around on the compass in my vision until Emerald appeared again, still smiling broadly.

“I love this dress! Love it! Love it! Love... it?” She stared at me with a curious expression, I quickly looked myself over and saw the Pip-Buck still laying on my stomach.

Uh-oh.

“What’s that?” The Earth pony mare queried, trotting over and peeking over my shoulder at the screen. “... a Pip-Buck!? Where’d you find that?”

“I... I dunno? It was on me when I fell!” I lied, sitting up on the couch and shrugging as casually as possible.

She didn’t seem too suspicious of my answer, she just seemed genuinely curious about the device. “Huh, Doc didn’t mention anything about that, and he has one of his own... ” I overheard her mumble. The wheels in my head started turning... Doc wouldn’t take me because it was dangerous, but this thing has some variety of survival and navigational subroutines built into it!

“Well, I just got it working while you were gone! Maybe I should go see Doc, he’d help me get it running, right?” I suggested as innocently as possible.

“Good idea! You know your way back to the Warm Smiles Inn, dont ya?” She asked, I nodded. “Alright, then head up there and speak with Doc before it gets too late, I still have to make lunch!” She said, scooping up the other untouched pile of caps and trotting into the kitchen area where she dropped them into a box which held a few similarly sized bags.

I used the Pip-Buck’s inventory management to scoop all of my caps into that little grey bag on the table and watched it seal up before I could try physically do it with my teeth.

I was really liking pre-war technology!

I grabbed the bag, and the Pip-Buck, and tucked them both under my wing as I trotted out the door, towards the market.

* * * * * * * * *

“What do you mean I still can’t come!?” I questioned Doc in disbelief.

I had two caps left according to my Pip-Buck, with the rest of them I had managed to buy a pair of dark-grey saddlebags, a bottle of water and two pre-war candybars.

I was totally prepared!

“The Wasteland ain’t gonna suddenly decide ta’ move outta yer way jus’ ‘cause you got a Pip-Buck an’ snacks, Fallen.” Doc rolled his eyes, examining the interface of my Pip-Buck 2000 “In fact, it’d jus’ make you even more ov’ a target!”

“I can handle myself out there, I swear!” I urged the Unicorn. He simply shook his head and hit a few buttons, causing the display in my vision to flicker and disappear. “Also, out of curiosity, why is that thing set up like a children’s game?” Doc looked at it, then me with a puzzled expression. “Ya’know, the stats and stuff!”

“Stats?” He pressed two buttons and read whatever had come up on the screen in front of him. “Ohh, Ah see what ya meant... that’s prolly the Ministry o’ Morale’s hoofwork.”

“The... what?” I cocked my head in confusion, Doc hadn’t seen me do it but he seemed to have anticipated it.

“When War was first breakin’ out between Ponies and Zebras, the government established six ministries to take care of Equestria. ‘Wartime Technology‘ supplied our troops, ‘Arcane Science’ researched ways to use all sorts’a magical weapons, ‘Peace’ did their best to keep everybody alive ta’ see tomorrow, includin’ Zebras. They weren’t entirely grateful, from wha’ I heard...” Doc’s tone lowered solemnly.

“‘Morale’... well, kept up Morale through any means necessary. Surprise parties for good ponies all over Equestria, all organized by the Ministry Mare herself! They designed all kinds of games an’ ways ta’ keep Ponies happy an’ take their minds off the war. That’s wha’ this is, more than likely.” He held up the Pip-Buck, tapping the display which held my stats. “Made life more like a game; Easier to handle.”

“I see...” I sat on my haunches, taking in all this information about pre-war ministries and their duties. I could understand the need for Morale... but the Ministry Mare herself organizing every single party? That couldn’t be true. No pony had that much energy!

“Lessee ‘ere... vital readouts... targeting matrix intact... hm? … ooh... well this is neat!” Doc had an eyebrow cocked in curiosity as he seemed to read both information on the screen and information floating around the room.

“What is it?” I asked, walking over and peeking at the screen much like how Emerald had before I left.

“This ain’t a Pip-Buck 2000, kiddo... it’s...” Doc trailed off, as if distracted by numerous other things only he could see.

“It’s... what?” I found myself asking again, Doc lifted up the Pip-Buck and pointed to the logo, specifically where it had been altered.

“It’s a Pip-Buck 2500!” He grinned, then chuckled at my deadpan expression. “Wha’ I mean is, whoever tinkered with this last had integrated selective sub-systems from the Two-thousand and Three-thousand models together! Ya gots the only Pip-Buck 2500 in existence right here.”

I blinked in surprise at his description, watching as he hit ‘Close’ and blinked a few times before handing it back over to me. I hit the Status button and watched the screen, and the readouts in my vision flicker back to life.

“Well... then I’ve got the best of both worlds, right? I’m twice as prepared!” I grinned confidently, however, much like my Pip-Buck 2500 had told me before, my talent in the field of Speech was atrocious. I could tell by the way Doc rolled his eyes and let his face fall into his hoof.

“Let the kid come.”

“What!?” Doc and I questioned in unison at Sever’s change-in-heart.

“He needs to see what the world outside is like, or else he’ll never stop begging to come with us.” He said matter-of-factly. I wouldn’t have worded it like that, but as long as he was on my side...

Doc didn’t say anything, he just sat back on his haunches with a hoof to his chin, deep in thought for what felt like an eternity.

“...alright, but just this once! You need to do everything we say as we say it, no questioning, no delaying. Understand?” He asked, the deathly-serious expression he wore was practically alien to his normally-carefree face.

“Don’t worry! I won’t let you down.” I smiled as wide as my face would allow, trotting back towards the exit to tell Emerald I’d only be staying the night.

After lunch, of course!

Footnote: Level up!
New perk: Swift Learner (2) - You’ve always been quick to catch onto things and the world around you is no exception! You now gain an additional +20% bonus whenever experience points are earned.
Quest Perk added: Been to the year 3000a - Up-to-date Pip-Bucks too manestream for your tastes? Well that’s alright because you’ve got a fancy new ‘Clues’ button!

This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.

You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat onEquestria Daily

If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check theFallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and theFallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan

The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.

(Message from lé Author:

Unending thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria!

Also thanks to the authors of every side story out there, your stories keep inspiring me to practice writing!

All comments, critique, questions, etc. are all still highly appreciated!

~Anton)

Chapter 3: Exploration

Chapter Three: Exploration

“Second red bar to the right... and straight on till dusk.”

It’s always so dark here.

The couch was comfy though, it was made of clouds after all, how could it not be comfy? I shuffled about slightly to re-adjust my position, laying my head back onto the hoof-rest and tracking the patterns on the ceiling tiles above me. They were so swirly!

There were ponies, shapes of ponies chatting in the corners of the room. I couldn’t see them clearly but I knew they were there, was it too much trouble for a stallion to get some peace and quiet around here?

The cracked ceiling tiles trickled some dust down atop me as if on cue. It was enough of a persuasion to, with a reluctant sigh, pull myself up to my hooves and sit up on the couch.

I looked around the room, sure enough it was the same place I’d visited before. Every corner of the room had a group of pony-shadow-things conversing together... when did I invite them over, again? They were so noisy...

They spoke, laughed and shouted, but admittedly, all I could hear was muffled, mumbling versions of whatever they were saying. I didn’t appreciate being left out.

I hopped down off the couch and trot around the table in the center of the room, stopping for a moment as I noticed something new; In the center of the table sat two candles, one burning with a green flame, the other with a beige. The two were providing a small amount of illumination to the otherwise shadowy abode...

Returning to my trek around aforementioned table, I soon reached an old radio sitting atop the mantle of a fireplace beyond. I hadn’t been able to see any of this from the couch, probably because the fireplace wasn’t lit. I should do something about that sometime.

I reached up and turned the dial on the front of the radio, the little box made a clicking sound before coming to life through all manner of soft static. All at once the shadowy ponies in the corners of the room glanced at me in disgust, putting their many conversations on hold.

See, ponies? I can have my own conversation without inviting you as well!

I turned the dial further. A distant voice formed, still drowned under that sea of white noise. I continued adjusting that dial, causing the voice to get clearer... then more static-y again. The shadowy figures seemed to dislike it when the voice became clearer, they were obviously jealous of my awesome conversation with the pony on the radio!

“This i... DJ Pon... ital wastela...” DJ Pon? That’s a neat name. How’re you today?

“...been warning everypony... steer clear... apple...” Steer clear of apples? Easy, we don’t get apples up here!

“...didn’t... ignore it...” Well of course I wouldn’t ignore a warning like that! Apples are sneaky, never know what they might do.

I worked the dial about a bit more, eventually managing to clear most of the static away to hear my friend.

“...brought hell on her hooves. Freed over a dozen slaves, many of them foals. I’m happy to report that they’re safe and sound.” Somepony... was keeping slaves?

“But there’s a bitter note to this song. When a small army of slavers tried to take their captives back, our heroine of the wasteland sacrificed herself making sure everypony got away safe.” A cold wind ran up my back, sending a shiver up my spine and through my wings. I turned just in time to see all of the shadow ponies vacate the room in motes of black smoke, the only remaining occupant besides myself...

“So this next song goes out to you, Stable Dweller.”

… had two shining, orange eyes.

“May Celestia and Luna wrap you in Their tails...”

* * * * * * * * *

“May Celestia and Luna wrap you in Their tails...”

“Oh, blast ‘em all to Tartarus!” Doc (who had previously been eating his canned breakfast) stomped his hoof in anger at the announcement. I looked over towards Sever for an explanation, but all I received was a shifted glance as he picked himself up and exited the room.

“Who’s-- who was the Stable Dweller?” I asked Doc, not paying much attention to the music which came over the radio after said announcement.

“The Stable Dweller was a mare who’d done good helpin’ ponies ever since she left her Vault couple’a days ago. The Wasteland needs more ponies like her, but everypony is either too scared or they’ve already given up on betterin’ this place...” He huffed, shaking his head sadly before returning to eating his food.

A pony who spent her entire life in a Vault managed to help more in just a few days than those who’ve been out here their entire lives...? I sat there for a moment, my gaze falling back onto my Pip-Buck as the pre-war melody provided a backdrop for my attempt at figuring out the Wasteland...

If everypony wanted a better world to live in, then why didn’t they just band together into some sort of fighting force towards that goal?

Figuring out the Wasteland proved to be too difficult of a chore for myself at the moment, with a sigh I pushed the Pip-Buck aside and laid my head back down into the fabric of the pillow beneath me.

“When do we leave... ?” I asked, yawning a little as my eyelids began feeling heavier than normal.

“Not for another hour o’ two. Nab as much rest as ya can, kiddo.” Doc responded, working his way down to the bottom of the can from the sound of it. I nodded at such a delightful offer before letting out a relaxed breath as my face sunk into that patched-up pillow.

The Wasteland could wait a few more hours...

* * * * * * * * *

I failed to stifle a yawn as we trot outside to the dock. Doc was checking his supplies, Sever was waiting impatiently for his toy back and I was still half-asleep.

“Good morning, wasteland...” I mumbled as I walked over and sat on my haunches beside Doc, peering over the murky water at that same silhouette of a dead city I had seen before, when I began traveling with these two.

“Check, check aaaand... check! Got everythin’ we’ll need for the journey.” Doc nodded and shut his saddlebags, letting them sit between us. I slid my own off and laid them beside his.

“Hey Doc, does tha... did that place have a name?” I asked, pointing a hoof at those decimated structures that stabbed up through the horizon.

“Eyup. Those are the remains of ol’ Manehatten. Some ponies say tha’, on the last day o’ the great war, it was the first city tha’ got hit.”

“Wow... it took quite a beating and yet it’s still standing... two hundred years later...” I had to admit, that was an impressive feat for any structure.

“Well, most o’ the buildings ‘round the blast zone crumbled from the force, but the buildings further out from that, closer to the outskirts, are mostly intact! Good fer scavengers tryin’ ta’ make ends meet.”

“Scavengers?” I questioned, they were the first group I’ve heard about so far that didn’t sound violent.

“Mmhmm! Scavengers, Prospectors, Diggers, call ‘em what’cha will. They’re ponies that explore ol’ buildin’s and the like for useful doodads instead o’ fightin’ all the time.”

“Sounds a lot safer than the other job opportunities the Wasteland offers...”

“Well, there are nasties that like ta’ lurk in or around the ol’ pre-war buildin’s. Still, ‘tis one of the better occupations out there s’long as ya stay away from any Steel Ranger patrols.”

Oh Wasteland, will you ever run out of surprise-- wait a minute.

“Steel Rangers?” I queried. “You mentioned them before, right? About how I had more broken bones than a Raider meeting one?” Doc nodded a bit.

“Steel Rangers are a group a’ old world tech fanatics.” He pointed to the Pip-Buck-shaped bulge in one of my Saddlebags. “If they saw that on ya, they’d take it and everything else you have!”

I groaned a bit at yet another group to steer clear of. A commotion behind me either meant Sever just received his weapon... or that we’ll be waiting even longer.

“Doc, are there any friendly groups out in the Wasteland?” I asked. The Unicorn tapped his chin for a moment, humming.

“Well... each other, mainly. There’re the Finders out ‘round Hoofington, but in this region your best bet’d be Merchant caravans. They always travel between cities with armed guards, if they let’cha tag along you’d be fine.” He nodded affirmingly as he finished.

I was about to ask about the Finders before I spotted Sever walking up to us, his rifle slung over his back as he stopped short.

“Ready whenever you are.” The Griffon informed us in his usual bored tone.

“Alrighty, let’s get goin’!” Doc said as he raised himself to his hooves.

“Can the kid fly yet?” Sever asked, motioning his head towards me. Doc raised his brow curiously, trotting over and using his magic to raise, lower and extend both my wings a few times. They didn’t hurt as much as before, but they still ached if they were raised up high enough.

“Hmm... a’right. Carefully now, try ta’ hover a bit.” Doc said as he backed up a bit to give me room.

I carefully unfolded my wings, the two feathered limbs hanging down by my sides as I slowly raised them skyward. So good so far. I lowered myself a bit in preperation before jumping into the air, my wings beat down against the air around me. I managed to stay airborne, though not without a violent ache resonating through my entire back. After a few seconds I decided that was good enough of a show for now, quickly landing and catching my breath.

“... Naw.” Doc shook his head, I looked over to him in surprise. “His wings are still fixin’ themselves. He can glide, but he can’t outright fly on his own, yet.” The Unicorn trotted over to his saddlebags and put them on, I sighed and did the same with mine, trying to figure out how to speed up my wings’ regenerative process...

“Sever, mind giving us a lift?”

* * * * * * * * *

“Stalliongrad, huh?” I kicked a rock off my path and down into the ditch running alongside it.

“Eyup. S’been a long, long time since we’ve had ta’ pay it a visit.” Doc nodded, his tone suggested it couldn’t have been a bad visit.

“What’s it like?” I asked, looking on ahead at the dirt path that coiled through a valley full of hills beyond.

“Same as any other city; better than the Wasteland.” Doc answered with a little grin. “‘tis up in the north, so it’s a bit colder than what we’re used to down here.”

My next question was shot down as a few distant cracks rang out somewhere ahead of us.

“What was that?” I asked, concerned. I was rearing up to try and glimpse over those hills in the distance. A futile effort, really.

“Probably somepony fendin’ off some annoyed wildlife.” Doc shrugged, the Unicorn seemed to be trying to catch a casual glimpse over those hills as well, though.

“Aren’t we gonna go help them?” I looked over to my companions, curious as to why a Doctor and his armed Griffon wouldn’t rush to someone’s aid.

“Most ponies can take care of themselves out here. If we all ran ‘round jus’ ta kill some Radhogs, or Bloatsprites, we’d have no ammo left ta’ fend off real threats, like Raid--” Doc’s lecture was cut short by two resounding bangs in the distance, a large tower of dust rose up from behind those hills before it was carried away by the wind.

“How about now?” I asked in an admittedly smartass way.

“Now we check it out.” Doc responded much like a Teacher correcting his Student. The two of us running towards one of the closer hills while Sever took to the air and flew on ahead of us, his rifle already unslung.

Cracks continued echoing through the air as we climbed that ground. Sever made it to the top first, the large griffin resting his rifle atop the dead soil and peering through the telescopic sight without a word. Doc reached the top next, lowering himself as close to the ground as possible while he peeked over.

“... who’re fightin’ who, Sever?” I heard him ask as I neared the crest of the hill.

“Raiders... not sure.” He muttered. The griffin didn’t betray any emotion in his response, I couldn’t tell if this was something that happened often, or if I should be worried.

I reached the top of the hill and peered over. Beyond us was a derelict expanse of brown land and grey rocks. Closer to us, beside a dried up lake bed, were three buildings. Three black, scorched skeletons of what they had once been. “Three groups. Raiders are gettin’ hit hard from the front... Mirelurks are about to cut off their flank.” Sever mumbled. I didn’t know what Mirelurks were, but I sure hoped he didn’t mean that literally.

I squinted at the shapes in the distance, but they were no more than differently coloured blurs to me from here. I saw one group of darkly-coloured ponies concentrating fire on a second group that was even further way. Behind that first group I saw at least three white shapes slowly rise from the lakebed and head in their direction.

“Guys, what’re Mirelurks?” I asked, Doc pointed a hoof down towards the lakebed.

“They’re a species o’ crab tha’ mutated. Two hundred years ago ya could break ’em underhoof, now they’re an abomination that can cut ya ta’ ribbons.” Doc said, visibly shivering as he finished explaining. Something told me these creatures were on the ‘run like hell from’ list.

“They’re fucked.” Sever commented dryly. Back down in the battle I saw the first group scurry around each other in a panic as the Mirelurks tore through them one by one. It took only seconds for the group of seven to be decimated down to no more than three fleeing ponies.

The other group I couldn’t quite make out was keeping their distance as they advanced, giving those Mirelurk creatures a wide berth as they continued to fire on the Raiders.

“Sever! East of the Raiders, that shack!” Doc exclaimed in concern. Sever and I both turned, but all I could see was the fleeing group of cannibal ponies moving towards some rocks and a broken-down shack at the base of another nearby hill.

“I see it...” Sever responded. “Same as usual?” He asked in a slightly lower tone.

“You bet your feathered hide on it!” Doc said, taking a healing potion from one of his saddlebags before dropping the bags beside Sever and sliding back down the hill. The Unicorn galloping off along a small dirt path in the direction of the shack, sticking low behind those hills to make sure he wasn’t silhouetting himself to those Raider ponies below.

“Egg damn it...” Sever mumbled, the scowl on his face was the first real hint of emotion I’d seen from him this entire trip. “Kid, go with him!”

I nodded, doing so without a second thought. It wasn't because of how Doc had ordered me to do everything they said without question, but because I wanted to make sure Doc would be alright. He had saved my life and taught me about the wasteland, I wasn’t going to let him run off on his own and get hurt! If nothing else, I owed him that much.

I galloped as fast as I could, trying to resist that natural urge to take off and glide instead as I caught up to him.

“What’s going on!?” I asked him, his eyes gave a hint of shock as he realized I was following him. The unicorn gripped the healing potion with his magic so he could speak while both of us ran as fast as our hooves would take us.

“Those Raiders picked a bad spot ta’ run to!” Doc exclaimed hurriedly. “We need’a move fast, stay hidden!”

“Ok, but why are we running towards them!?” I asked, but the beige unicorn didn’t answer this time, he was too busy ascending another nearby, much steeper hill. I had no choice but to carefully spread my wings and bring them down against the air a few times to help lift myself and keep up with Doc’s pace.

When I caught up to the Unicorn he had just reached the top. Peering over the edge I could see, much clearer now, the busted-up shack he had been running towards and the Raider ponies who were about to reach it.

“Wait here!” Doc said as he took the healing potion in his mouth and jumped down the hill, the Unicorn practically surfing the grit and dirt as he descended swiftly towards the small backyard of grey rocks that sat between us and that structure.

Ya’know, for a grown Unicorn, Doc was surprisingly agile...

One side of my brain was telling me to do as Doc said, just watch out for him from atop the crest of this hill, out of danger. The other side? Well... it had already won. I had dived after Doc, sliding down in the exact same manner while using my wings to balance myself. I wasn’t going to sit by and let him get hurt!

Doc made it to the bottom, immediately leaping over the first few stone barricades in our way. He was no more than ten meters from the shack when it’s back door swung open, both of us ducked behind the rocks closest to us.

Out from the doorway trot a cyan mare, her mane was a mix of dirty green and purple, not to mention all the red that was dripping from her black and grey outfit... which looked like she had jumped into a scrap heap and kept whatever stuck to her.

graaagh!” She growled as she kicked one of the stray boards falling out of its place in the wall, sending it flying over the back porch and impacting off the top of one of the rocks between us and her.

As she continued to beat her hooves against the building’s wooden skeleton I watched Doc move over to the right. He was moving away from the shack after working so hard to get there?

Suddenly, he hopped up atop the stone he was hiding behind.

The mare practically exploded, leaping off the back porch towards Doc as the beige stallion turned tail and ran in the opposite direction.

What was he doing!? I’m sure smashing a bottle of healing goop over her head wouldn’t --

KRACK!

The sound of a gunshot tore through the air as the mare’s chest exploded.

The bloodied raider went limp mid-jump, landing belly-first atop a rock before violently twisting and tumbling to the ground in a heap.

There were bits of gore strewn all across the rocks. My eyes were locked on that cyan body as a pool of crimson slowly formed beneath her. I wanted to move my legs, I couldn’t stay here, I needed to get moving again...

Out of the corner of my eye I watched Doc waste no time in leaping over the fallen mare, galloping as fast as his hooves could take him to the back porch of that shack. The Stallion ducking down and reaching under it towards something.

“Longshooter!” I heard a distant, muffled voice call out near Doc. Given the direction there was only one possible location it could have come from...

“Keep yer head down, dumbflank!” Another voice followed. “Where’s boss!?”

Doc soon freed himself from under the back porch. He was pulling something out from beneath two planks, something small, pink...

It was a filly.

The little pony had stuck her head out and looked around, Doc immediately tucked her to his chest with one leg and began galloping back towards me.

“Boss!?” A large green stallion appeared in the middle of that back doorway. His eyes went wide as he spotted his fallen leader laying in her own blood. “Boss!”

Doc had swiftly ducked down behind a nearby rock, his eyes going just as wide as the stallion’s when he realized I had followed him. While both of us were keeping our heads down Doc was doing his best to keep the little pink filly calm, brushing her white mane out of her eyes.

“Shit! Fuckin’... I’ll-- I’ll kill you!” He screamed, turning his back to us and kicking some sort of mechanism on his harness and biting down on a bit near his muzzle. With a heavy whirring the multi-barreled device on his side began to spin and let off a violent spray of lead all over the surrounding hills where we had been observing the previous battle.

Doc kept low and began moving between cover, from rock to rock until he got up behind the long one I was hiding behind.

“What are you doing!?” His question was a whisper, though it had the force of a yell. “I told you to stay up there! Where its safe!”

“I wasn’t gonna leave you go alone! You saved my life, I can at least look out for yours!” I countered, but before Doc could respond another crack rang out through the air and that stallion crumbled into a green heap beside the similar cyan one.

“We’ll talk later, get up that hill!” Doc said as he practically threw me towards said hill.

I dug my hooves into the dirt and worked my way up that steep ground as fast as my legs would take me. I glanced back and saw the little filly following behind me, just ahead of Doc, the stallion was taking up the rear and watching that shack anxiously.

As I reached the crest of that hill I turned around, reaching my hoof down and helping the little filly up to the top. Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black figure in that doorway beneath.

“Don’t you run from me!” The mare screamed, lifting a rifle to her shoulder and spraying lead all the way up the hill.

I ducked as a round whizzed by my left cheek, losing my grip on the filly’s hoof as she and Doc began sliding down the hill. The little filly came to rest hiding behind a rock jutting up out of the left side of the hill, Doc on the other hand tumbled all the way down to the bottom where we had our short chat.

“I’ll skin you alive an’ eat yer fuckin’ hearts!” That mare screamed again, firing all the way from the bottom of the hill to the top, it seemed like she couldn’t decide who to try and kill first, so she was firing at all of us simultaneously. “You fucked up my friends! They were all I had you fuckin’ scum!”

I kept my head low as I peeked over the rim of the hill. The filly was curled up in the fetal position, trembling while Doc was below, diving around between those rocks in front of the mare while throwing debris and yelling insults. It took me only a moment to figure out why he was acting so recklessly...

A pony fighting back would be higher priority than two smaller, hiding ones.

I waited until the mare was thoroughly fixed on Doc before lurching over the edge and reaching out to the filly.

“Come on!” I yelled, her bright blue eyes looked up at me as I grabbed her attention. “It’s safe up here! I promise!” I was begging for her to believe me, we didn’t have much time. “Please!”

It took a few moments but the little filly eventually unwrapped herself slowly, shakily. She put one trembling hoof in front of the other and began climbing up to me. My hoof remained outstretched, ready to grab and pull her to safety while my eyes continued glancing down at Doc and his diversion below.

The filly got three-quarters of the way up before a spray of red erupted from Doc’s shoulder, right in the middle of a jump between two pieces of cover.

“Ha!” The mare practically bellowed “Ain’t such a fast piece o’ shit now are ya!?” She gave a maniacal grin I could see clearly even from this far away.

What I also saw clearly was her gaze falling onto the two of us, her grin dissappearing.

“Didnt’cha hear me, shitheads!?” She called out, raising her rifle to her shoulder and taking aim. I dived forward and desperately grabbed the filly’s foreleg between my hooves, pulling her up as fast as I possibly could. “You ain’t gettin’ away! I ain’t lettin’ you live!”

Her rifle cracked three times.

The first shot missed, spraying dirt across us as the bullet burrowed its way into the ground. The second shot didn’t miss however, and it made the filly cry out in pain as it dug into the left side of her torso, blood spurting into the air for a moment as the round pushed through her and dug a crimson-rimmed crater in the dirt beneath us.

When the third shot rang out I was blinded, my vision became a sea of misty, crimson red. There was a cold, razor-sharp pain cutting into my chest, but I couldn’t look down to check it. I heard a stallion scream something in the distance as another shot rang out, a thunderous crack followed by a thump which silenced the world around me.

I opened my eyes...

The filly’s hooves were cracked, covered in dirt and grime. She must have been out in these wilds for a very long time. Her body was thin, malnourished, I was able to see the faint outlines of her ribs beneath her coat. There was a hole in her back that continued to slowly drip crimson red down her sides. Whereas her coat was a bright pink her mane was a much softer shade of white. It was scruffy, looked violently torn in a few places, but otherwise I could see it easily being cared for and brought back to it’s natural state. Above her right eye was a hole lined with red, white and grey matter, it was so big I could have fit my hoof inside. Her face held a terrified expression, frozen in time while the trails of tears down her cheeks slowly began mixing into a colour closer to her coat.

She was gone.

I pulled the lifeless body hanging from my hooves up to me atop that hill, laying her down on her side and... nothing. I did nothing after that, I just stared at the little motionless pony laying before me.

This little filly had a life... how did she end up in this situation? She had a name... what was her name? She would have gotten her cutie mark one day... what would it have been? Perhaps she could have been a beautiful singer... what was her voice like? There were a million questions laying before me, a million things that could have come to be... and now nothing. Nothing but deafening silence, void of any answers.

Doc had risked his life to save this young pony without a second thought, he had risked his everything to give this filly a chance, a life, a future...

… and I didn’t pull fast enough.

I dragged my head to the side, glancing down at the war zone beneath the hill. All three raiders were laying in their respective heaps, the final mare would be laying face-down in the dirt had she still a face to speak of. Doc was laying on his side, his back to one of the many rocks behind the shack as he stared up to me, at me. A small pool of red had formed below his shoulder, but the Stallion didn’t seem to care as he let his head fall to the ground. His expression was one of utter defeat.

The world was silent, cold for as long as I could remember. Eventually a black-winged form swooped low over the shack and landed in front of Doc. Sever leaned in and seemingly began to check and tend to the Unicorn’s wound. I watched for a short amount of time before I returned my gaze to that filly, hoping that by the time I turned around she would have recovered and would be sitting up beside me, staring up into those clouds alongside me, asking questions like ‘Where do we go now?’ or ‘What’s your name?’.

No, the filly was still. No matter how much I wished, prayed or begged she would never rise again.

The world around me felt rather distant now. There were soft, staggered rubbing sounds to my left as I gazed up into the grey, shifting sky above me. My nose tickled from some something dripping off the tip while my tongue tingled with a familiar copper sensation as everything seemed to dim. The corners of my vision darkened ever so gently, slowly, as I felt myself falling backwards. The advance of those shadows slowed only long enough to let me witness an even larger shadow arrive from my left, covering me. Two yellow dots of colour staring straight down through me as I gave in and let the darkness overtake me.

Good night, Wasteland...

Footnote: Level up!
New perk: Child at heart - This perk greatly improves your interactions with children, usually in the form of unique dialogue options.

This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.

You can read Fallout Equestria by Kkat onEquestria Daily

If you enjoy Fallout Equestria Side Stories, you will want to check theFallout Equestria Side Stories post on Equestria Daily and theFallout Equestria Side Stories thread on Ponychan

The Ponychan group is also a hatching ground that you can join if you want to share your experience, writing or comments with us.

(Message from lé Author:

Unending thanks to Kkat for creating Fallout: Equestria!

Once again, also a big thanks to the authors of every side story out there, your stories keep inspiring me to practice writing!

I can’t believe this chapter took over two months to write...

All comments, critique, questions, etc. are always highly appreciated!

~Anton)