Fallout Equestria: Sins of Retribution

After walking through the smoking rubble that once was the security drone, the mold that covered the walls was soon replaced with numerous strange burn marks and bullet holes. Normally we would have found that to be. Well normal. But these weren't exactly the oldest markings in the stable.

"This isn't good. Those shots look like they came from energy weapons." Juniper murmured, sniffing the air and grimacing as we stepped across a pile of glowing green goop.

My mind was instantly brought back to the attack on my home. The militant ponies that had been almost instantly erased from existence. The Enclaves weapons were the only things I had seen so far that were capable of reducing a pony to just a puddle of sludge. I felt anger start to fill and boil over as I lunged onto Dune.

"This was all your fucking fault!" I wasn't entirely sure whose fault it was at this point in time. All i knew was that I was livid, mad at the world for doing all of this to me. Mad at the Enclave for taking my life away from me. Mad at the voice in my head always leaving me with only more questions. Yet most importantly, I was mad at my mother for volunteering to take in on this messed up "Project" for my entire life.

"Shamrock! Calm down!" Scarlet was the next pony I turned on, swinging my hooves around in an emotional fit as the rest of my friends just watched.

"If you hadn't been so scared to shoot somepony, and done your job! Maybe my mother would still be alive!" I snapped, tears streaming down my face as Scarlet suddenly screamed back at me.

"I choked, okay?!? I'm not some sadistic murderer like you!" My rage and frustration flushed from my body within an instant as I froze where I was, just staring in shock at Scarlet as she tossed her blue beret onto the floor. This had been the first time we ever truly fought one another. I had never heard Scarlet yell at me like this before. It was rare that she would ever even raise her voice. Even now, her voice wasn't what left me shocked. It was what she had said to me. What she continued to shout to me. Words that will forever ring in my head until the day I die. "You aren't the only pony in this world that lost somepony they held close to them! You don''t see me butchering ponies out of rage! Running across barren Equestria on some Celestia forsaken hunt to try and take down the most powerful military organization in the entire wasteland!" She wheezed in between tear filled breaths as her verbal barrage continued. "You think you can just take on the world because you are angry, but you cant! You aren't strong enough Shamrock, you just aren't strong enough!"

I tried to open my mouth to try and speak. I always had some kind of rebuttal, some sort of witty retort or remark. Now? I had nothing. As usual she was right. Everyone stood there in the awkward silence before Scorched Talon finally decided to break the pause in our mission and take charge of the group for the time being.

"Well, if the little soap opera is done. Let's continue our cheerful little way down into hell." He remarked before leading the rest of the group onward, leaving Scarlet and I to take up the rear. We didn't say another word to one another. Instead we kept our heads down and stared at only our hooves. It was these types of moments where I felt the moments when I felt the most vulnerable. Moments where I cant do anything but think and dwell on things. It was always those moments that usually got interrupted by-

"Whoa now there Shamrock, I get we're all still emotional and such; but now isn't exactly the time to get this personal." Juniper nudged my head off of her flank with her hind leg with a light snicker. Now I just felt embarrassed, we literally made the biggest drama queens in front of everyone. Now I had just run face first into Juniper's flank. Something about that magenta colored mare always intrigued me. She had a near infinite knowledge of the wasteland and how things worked around here. She was also one of the first ponies we met out here (that didn't try to initially shoot us, curb-stomp us, stab us or slit our throats.) and actually helped us get to where we are now. So we owed her that much. "You okay there? You got that look that you had after you fell down the canyon" She questioned again as I finally snapped back into focus and swallowed my blush.

"Yeah, perfect. Never been better! But uh, mind explaining why we stopped?" I sat back on my haunches before peering over her to see what was ahead.

"Nothing but water. Looks like the treatment plant burst and flooded the entire place" Juniper let out a frustrated sigh before peering into the murky mire before us. "best bet that we'll find the talismans still in one of the pumps. As for actually getting there without drowning..." Then she looked over at Dune, who was just staring at the water like it was molten lava."That fancy suit of yours wouldn't happen to have a re-breather on it. Would it?" Much to our surprise, Dune nodded his head slowly before taking off his helmet.

"I've had enough bad memories with water and this place so far...one of you do it." He stated. Juniper looked over the enclave helmet and immediately turned to, you guessed it. Me

"Hold on now, I almost drowned the last time we went into water! Why me?!?" I protested as the helmet was fitted and adjusted onto me against my will. I had to agree with Dune on this one, water was not exactly our friends as of recently and I was not looking forward to being dragged under by another mossy spore thing of doom again.

"You're the only pony here that has a similar head size as Dune and after attempting to strangle him earlier. You owe him." Juniper stated in her sickly sweet yet firm tone. Finally with one finally huff and a couple grumbles later; I began taking my first few steps into the murk below.

It wouldn't have been so bad actually, if the helmet didn't have a broken goggle that immediately filled up. Meaning one eye was clear (and I use the term "clear" in the lightest sense, mind you), while the other was blurry and more than likely infected with who knows what. I yanked my head around as I heard what at first seemed to be a strange chattering sound. Then I realized that it was my own teeth. Both from being wary of any hidden spore monsters waiting to drown me again, and the frigid cold. The further I went, the deeper down I had to swim. The deeper down I swam, the colder and darker it got. Once again, too little too late to regret my decisions. I was already committed to the mission. By now it had gotten so dark that I could barely see past my own muzzle with the light emanating from my pipbuck.

That, was when I bumped into something floating in the water. I let out a gurgled swear in shock, swatting at the floating mass and awaiting for it to come alive and try to claw my eyes out. Yet the undefinable mass just floated idly in the water. Slowly I lifted my pipbuck towards the object to get a better look...

To this day, I wish I hadn't. It was drowned corpse, its eyes partially rotted and staring directly at me while its tongue hung from it muzzle. To make matters worse; the pony possessed a grey coat and an emerald green mane, just like my own. I felt ready to vomit. To scream, I couldn't take my gaze away from the swelled decaying replica of myself. I closed my eyes and shook my head violently. When I opened my eyes, the body was gone. Slowly I felt the cold starting to take its toll. My body was growing numb and sluggish. My breaths were labored and starting to burn. Is that what that was? Just some sort of glimpse into my upcoming future?

"Your friend was right about you Shamrock. You aren't strong enough. You wont get out of there." The voice let out an apathetic sigh as I felt my eyes growing heavy. My breathing began to stagger and slow. Even the voice in my head sounded distant "And you had so much more ahead of you. Pity, I guess you truly weren't made for something better after all." All I could hear now was my heartbeat starting to slow down. I was ready to give in.

"She's wrong Shamrock...she doesn't see what I have always seen in you." My eyes shot back open at hearing the voice of my mother. Yet when I opened my eyes, I was back home. Back in New Hope with my mother. "You have always been such a strong willed stallion. Nobody could change your mind once you were set on something." She gave a warm smile as she trotted towards me and brushed my mane. I had so many questions to ask, so much to say. This may have been only a dream but it felt real enough for me to bury my muzzle into her mane and try to pretend this was all real. Yet as I tried to find comfort in her embrace she nudged me back and gave a soft laugh. "I'm sorry that I am unable to help you in any other way but this. I can't answer any of your questions. All I can tell you is that the word, is courage." She levitated two small looking charms into my saddle bags and shut my eyes. "Never forget who you are. You are Emerald Shamrock, born with a fire inside you that will not die. It will always fight back"

Her voiced faded away as I opened my eyes again, I was still in the water. Yet I could feel my limbs again. All of them, I looked around at myself and found my injured hoof had healed itself. My body was warm and revitalized as I saw the green gem starting to emanate and grow. More importantly, I had what we had come for. I reached into my saddlebags and sure enough, found the glowing talismans inside of it. I didn't even take the time to question what had exactly transpired or how long I had been down there. All I knew was that I was alive, and had what we needed. More importantly, I had found what I needed. The fire inside of me. Within a few minutes of swimming back to the surface, the numbness had returned to my body. By the time I reached the surface, the only thing that told me I was still alive was the echoing beat of my heart.

"There you are Shamrock! You were down there for almost half an hour, you had us all worried to death!" Juniper said as she quickly took off the helmet. She quickly wrapped her hooves around me and I felt myself begin to warm up. My already racing heart kicked into overdrive when she pressed her warm coat against my soggy ice cold form.

"You know, I have a quick way to warm you up." Scorched Talon chuckled as he raised his incinerator, which of course, earned him a hoof to the shoulder. "Ey. I was just kidding...sorta." He grumbled as Juniper finally stepped away from me.

"Well, I got the talismans. Only two of them though, hopefully that's enough to please Deadeye back at Shattered Hoof." I sighed, shaking out the numbing from my body. "Lets just get out of this place. I've had enough fun in stables to last me a lifetime." I looked down to my pipbuck and began to follow through the map that had been made that marked all the places we had gone.

"Would have been real nice if that thing had that before all of this shit happened." Scorched Talon huffed as we crawled out of the cavern that hid the bunker of nightmares. "Either way, I'm just glad to be out." He gave a sigh of relief as he looked down at us. "Where to next?"

"You're coming with us? I thought you were going to head your own way once we got out." I raised a brow as I stared up at the large Griffon. Scorched shrugged his shoulders.

"Ah, well seeing as how you folk got me out of that mess, I figured I might as well help you avoid getting into anymore messes." A small grin formed on his scarred face before he nudged (or more so punched, considering his strength) my shoulder and gave a satisfied nod. "You got guts kid, just try not to spill them all over the floor. Alright?"

"Knowing Shamrock? Yeah we'll encounter plenty of messes." Scarlet giggled, ruffling up my tattered mane even further, causing the rest of the group to laugh.

"It's my specialty. Thank you very much." I huffed before trotting through the gulch once more. Finally we could return to Shattered Hoof and turn in those Talismans. Yet as we trotted, we almost all immediately gave a collective yawn to one another. How long had we been in there? We never really bothered to check the time, or see what day it had been. All our bodies were exhausted and in desperate need of some rest.

"Anyone got the time?" Dune asked drowsily. Thankfully the small cavern we took shelter in within the gulch didn't have a deranged pony lurking inside it as we all sat down. Scarlet looked down at her pipbuck and yawned softly.

"Late...I can tell you that much. We were in their for one and a half days." She mumbled, curling up on the hard floor with the rest of us. We finally had some time to relax. If you can call sitting in the dirt in a cave relaxing, but it sure did beat running for our lives or almost drowning in a Stable. "Well, now that we're all relatively safe; how about we get to know one another a little better?" Juniper let out a loud yawn as she shook her head.

"I am Juniper, I'm a unicorn and I'm tired as can...any questions?" Juniper huffed as she rested her head on the ground. My ears perked up as I looked to her and nodded.

"How did you end up becoming a mercenary? Or whatever you are." My question received a slight frown before she sat up and moved a little closer to me.

"Adventure. My family lives at an abandoned airfield, aren't to keen on letting outsiders roam around so nobody came around much. One day I got tired of being isolated and only knowing the world around me from the tiny radio i'd listen to while we were working. So I packed my stuff and headed on out." Juniper gave another yaw.

"Working on what?" I continued to pester Juniper with questions. Juniper pulled her rifle from behind her back and let it glow in the darkness with my pipbuck.

"We cleaned up and repaired old technology and weapons. Even got the airfields howitzer cannon operational." She gave a mischievous chuckle before patting my head and laying back onto her side. "Now get some sleep Shamrock. I know I will."

I sat in the dark for a few moments, watching as the others rested. I couldn't help but re-read the logs that I had saved on my pipbuck. Reading over the different stables that were a part of this strange "project" that my mother took part of.

"Something better..."

Footnote: LEVEL Up.
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