Fallout Equestria: Sins of Retribution

Chapter 1: The Reality

My eyes quickly shot open as I looked around. For a few moments I thought I had just had another nightmare. I was thoroughly proven wrong as I realized I was still inside the locker my mother had stuffed me inside.

The locker had been blown completely onto its side but appeared for the most part to be intact as I slammed my hoof against the door. No luck, I gave a powerful kick with my front two hoofs and was greeted with a searing pain like I had just been injected with a dirty bloat sprites barb.
I clenched my teeth and cursed to the high heavens as I looked down at the door. There were a few tiny holes in it, most of which were right where my leg had been, now even the slightest bit of movement I could feel shrapnel slicing up the inside of my leg.

“Shamrock? Are you still there?" My ears perked up as a wave of relief swept through my body as Scarlet’s red eyes peered through the slots of the locker already trying to pry it open before she suddenly looked up and darted out of sight suddenly

“Scarlet?!? Where are you going?” I called out before immediately shutting up at the sound of voices.

“I think I heard something!”

A deep voice too far from my metal coffin spoke up. So I wasn’t going to die alone and afraid trapped inside a metal locker. That’s a good thing right? My ears cringed from the sound of rending metal as a claw speared the door, just a centimeter from my muzzle and ripped it free of its hinges, dumping me out against the unforgiving ground.

“Well look at that, we almost missed one.” A second voice ringed, sounding like it had come from the pony that had yanked me out of the locker. I slowly glanced up to see a bleach white mare with a dark black scraggly mess of a mane and a cutie mark that was some kind of an equation.

Her right front hoof had been replaced with a metallic one, talons tipping the front of it as she glared down at me with a sadistic grin. Correction to my previous statement, I wasn’t going to die alone and afraid trapped inside a metal locker…I was going to die alone and afraid at the hands of scissor hoofs here.

“Well? You going to just sit there on your ass all day or are you going to stand up?” The mare demanded, I instantly shot to my hoofs cringing as I forgot about my bad leg before I looked around us. My home, or what was left of it was a splintered ruin. Through the gaping hole that was once the door I could see bodies everywhere…more ponies whom I quickly could tell were not exactly town’s folk began to sift through the bodies strewn across the ground pulling out any valuables they could find.

“You’re looters?” My question was somehow humorous to the mare as she gave a smirk and laughed heartily before patting my head.

“Looters is a nasty word. I prefer to use the term, collectors.” She corrected though pulling out a small trinket in her talons. It was a pendent that my mother had gotten me when I first earned my cutie mark. I never really wore it much and whenever I did it was tucked away in my barding. My mother. I couldn’t help but relive that moment over and over again, her eyes staring straight at me as she was swallowed in flames. Never to be seen or heard of again. Seeing it in her grimy claws made my blood boil.

“Name’s Eureka, but you can just call me your new owner.” She grinned before there was a sudden click of a guns safety being switch off.

“Or…you’re going to let us go and leave” Scarlet demanded with a sudden tone of authority I hadn’t heard before as she aimed her automatic rifle at the white mare.Eureka grinned and began to snicker, staring down the barrel of Scarlet’s gun like it was just a toy.

“You're going to shoot me if I don’t?” Eureka sneered, Scarlet’s gun trembled again in her grip, her glare waning as the mare suddenly lunged forward, knocking the gun out of the air and letting it skitter across the ground. Within a matter of seconds, Eureka had tackled Scarlet to the ground, her talons around her neck.

“Thought so…no wonder none of you ponies are still alive. In fact I should just kill you right now” Eureka cackled as the talons began to clamp down on Scarlet’s throat before simply letting go and beginning to trot to the hole that was once our door.

“But, I'm feeling nice today. I don't normally save expendable ponies, so please don't make it a habit." She turned and glanced to the two of us smirking as if to further point out that we were those expendable ponies. The long walk through the wastelands back to Eureka’s camp finally gave me enough time to process what had happened in the past few hours…Hours, it had literally been only about five hours since I was just sitting safe and sound in my bed. Now I was trotting to who knows where. Only a few hours ago everypony I ever knew in my life was still alive. Only a few hours ago my home was still in one piece. Only a few hours ago my own mother was standing in front of me, living breathing. Yet it only took just a few minutes for everything in my entire life, for everything I saw and knew for the past seventeen years to be destroyed.

Her face was all I could see, those final few seconds I had with her. Her final words to me. They weren’t just words of encouragement, they meant something but what? I was made for something better? My mother always told me that one day I would do great things but so did just about every other mother in the world.

Nothing was making sense, what was I made for? A better question being why were we attacked by the Enclave? How did they even know where we were? Did that soldier that crashed into the greenhouse lead them to us? We weren’t exactly located in the center of any big landmarks or hotspots for ponies. They went out of their way to attack Hope that was for certain.

Another thing was for certain however…they had made an enemy out of me. One way or another, I was going to make sure they pay for every last pony they killed. Someday, somehow they would pay.

I looked over at Scarlet, she had been staring at the dirt the entire time we walked. Whenever it looked as though she was about to speak all she would do is stare and then glance back down. Her assault rifle was slung on her back, still untouched. She choked when she had the chance to kill the Pegasus that was taking my mother away, as well as when she had Eureka held up at gunpoint. Until today, I don’t think either of us had ever seen ponies kill one another. It made me wonder, when the moment rose again. Would she be able to pull the trigger? Would I be able to pull the trigger? We were going to find out soon enough.

We finally reached what looked like an old rest stop on the side of the cracked and decayed rode. Eureka stopped and turned to her goons.

“It’s getting close to sundown, no use stumbling in the dark waiting to get picked off.” I arched a brow at what Eureka had meant by sundown, all I ever saw was a dark grey cloud cover. Regardless, Eureka and her crew quickly headed for the abandoned pit-stop on the side of the road. It didn’t look much like a good place for us to stop, but then again all Scarlet and I were used to the buildings of Hope. Dammit, just thinking about it shoved my heart down into my stomach.

Eureka and her collector friends however didn’t seem to have any trouble getting right at home with the dingy mold scented room and crusty mattresses. Eureka sat down quietly as one of her goons began to light a small fire. Really? A fire in the center of a building?

Then again, I forgot that these buildings hadn’t exactly been paying any electric bills for almost two hundred years. Seems other ponies that had stopped here had the same idea. At the center of the small station was a rather well made fire pit, and a massive hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out.

Eureka and her goons began to talk amongst one another while Scarlet and I sat silently next to one another. I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or pissed off at these ponies right now.

They hadn’t killed us and well, odds are if they hadn’t of come we probably would have died on our own trying to find a place to go. On the other hoof, they didn’t seem to mind talking about their recent day of looting from the bodies of all my friends and neighbors back in Hope.

“Well? You two going to introduce yourselves or just sit in the corner and mope around all day.” The largest of the looters looked down at us, he was a bright red pony with a black flat top for a mane, scraggly beard and a cutie mark that look like a bunch of random pellets shooting outward.

“Buckshot…can’t you see they have been through a lot today? They just lost everything.” The smaller mare hit Buckshot in the gut with a hoof. Compared to the other ponies she was definitely a looker, magenta coat and a long yellow mane with a rectangular gem on her flank. Again thankful or pissed?

“I’m uh…Shamrock and that’s Scarlet Blaze” I stammered like an idiot at the dolled up mare as she giggled at my very obvious awkwardness. So maybe I wasn't good with talking to cute mares, bite me. Even Scarlet smiled a bit which made me feel a little better to know she wasn’t totally in a funk.

“Well I’m Juniper, Big tall and red here is Buckshot and well you already met Eureka.” That left the last pony in the corner, he sat separated from the others, a dirt brown pony with a cowl and cream colored mane.

“The stick in the mud over there is Sandstorm, not much of a talker or a listener.” Eureka finally chimed in. They seemed friendly enough well minus Sandstorm. I kept staring at the pendent Eureka had taken around her neck and I must have been trying to give it a death glare because she promptly took notice. Or more so took pity as she took it off with a sigh.

“Look, Juniper is right you’ve been through a lot so you know for all your troubles you can keep the necklace.” Eureka murmured a bit before taking it off and tossing it to me. Well, now I wasn’t pissed off at them but it still was going to take a little while to be thankful for them.

“What the hell even happened? I’ve never seen an entire town just get so…” Juniper began to speak, then quickly realizing being reminded of it wasn’t exactly helping us right now.

“Fucked up?” Buckshot chimed in as he looked at his shotgun. I could guess from his size and manner, subtlety Juniper gave him another thwap to the gut that he didn’t seem to even notice or care.

“The Enclave…they just came out of nowhere and well.” Scarlet murmured quietly, her eyes staring into the fire, the embers as red as her hair. Even her cutie mark which strangely enough was a fire, seemed to be moving along with the embers.

“Ah, bunch of pompous asshole Pegasai if you ask me.” Eureka finally joined everyone else around the camp fire. Almost everyone at least. What was this Sandstorm pony’s story?

“I thought the Enclave was still up behind the clouds. Why would they just randomly attack a harmless town?” I asked, remembering that one Pegusas that had crashed. I didn’t even know his name before they were…

“Eh, they have been popping up more and more now. Though whenever they attack it’s typically for some kind of reason.” Buckshot slid a slug into his shotgun. So what was the Enclaves reason for attacking us? They killed everyone, everyone except my mother.

“They tried to take my mother alive. Everyone else they just killed off.” The more I thought about it. The more I began to question my mother, where she really went whenever she had to leave for “Business”. No other pony in the town was allowed to leave, hell not even an escort for her she would just leave and come back a month later. Every time she would tell me she loved me. Like it would be the last time she would see me. Like when it was the last time she saw me.

“They were looking for something.” Sandstorm finally spoke up from his corner of the room.

“Oh Sandstorm, when did you show up?” Sandstorm gave a harsh glare to Buckshot and continued with what he had to say.

“Whatever they were looking for, either your mother knew about it or she was in fact what they were searching for. Who was your mother?” He spoke with a calm calculating tone, his eyes examining every feature and detail around him, like as if he was choosing his words carefully before he spoke them and it was enough to send chills down my spine.

“Dr. Cloverfield? Why?” I didn’t understand how that would really help us out but Sandstorm nodded quietly and returned to the shadows again. He was like a gloomier version of Spring Breeze. Silent as the night but always listening.

“Cloverfield was your mother?” My ears perked up as I looked over at Eureka confused that someone outside of Hope knew her.

“She would travel around from time to time and help patch up ponies. Like me when I lost my hoof to Big Daddy.” Well glad to see my mom had been keeping secrets behind my back and I feel as though this was just the beginning of the secrets.

“Big Daddy?” Scarlet asked curiously as all the ponies around us turned to look at her like she just asked the most obvious question in Equestria.

“Listen here missy, there are three types of ponies you don’t want to deal with. Raiders: typical thugs and brutes, pretty easy to fend off but still you really would rather not have to be in a shootout every day.” Buckshot snickered as Juniper followed up. “Then you have Steel Rangers: generally they won’t shoot you on sight unless you had something that they wanted. More often than not they are just looking for all technology from centuries ago, get yourself target by one of them though. You can expect a lot of explosions”

Then came Eureka’s turn to share some helpful information.
“And finally you have the Reapers, basically imagine a raider only about fifteen times bigger, crazier, meaner, faster and stronger. The more notable Reapers being Deus and Big Daddy. These ponies if you can call them that, will leave nothing but a pile of rubble and bodies. It was a miracle I managed to escape.”

Well isn’t that a fun thought giant psycho ponies running around the wasteland killing everything for the fun of it.

“You forgot about the Demon.” Sandstorm said quietly, stepping towards the fire. He had piercing royal blue eyes that seemed to strangely mix with the fire.

“He is a zebra called Atlas. He is like no other zebra I have ever seen. He makes reapers look like foals in comparison to him and more than capable of crushing bone without even trying. His hide is so thick it can even shrug off some small arms fire. Atlas led his forces through the east in a literally unstoppable campaign, Enclave, Raiders not even the Steel Rangers stood long against him. Very few ponies that have faced him lived to tell of him.” Sandstorm finished up as Buckshot simply gave a hearty laugh at Sandstorm's story.

“And I suppose you are one of those very few ponies huh? I have heard a lot of bull, but a bulletproof zebra?” the large red brute guffawed.

Sandstorm sighed before removing his battle saddles and turning his back to the fire. In the dim lighting of the fire I could see various scars going down long lines on his back. “I’ve seen him take rifle rounds to the chest, they never even went through his barding.”

And now that Atlas had made the top of my “Things that I never want to run into in my entire life ever” list, I shifted around and tried to change subjects.

“So Eureka? Where exactly are you taking us?” I genuinely was curious where our friend (and I use that term lightly) was planning on leading us.

“We have a camp set up at Trotton, once there you can probably get situated and well go from there" Eureka started to trot to her moldy mattress as she looked back at us.

“You mean we can’t stay with you guys?” Scarlet asked. Ok in a normal situation I would be worried about staying with a PTSD Pony, a gun happy stallion and a cyborg leg looter. But considering we had nowhere else to go and not the slightest clue what to do, these ponies were the only ones we could semi trust.

"Look, I’m sure you are great ponies and all…but I got my own group to look out for and two more just makes searching for supplies more difficult” She muttered before laying down and rolling so her back was to me.

“Just get some sleep okay Shamrock?” With that, Eureka started drifting off to sleep, as did the rest of her group. I sighed before looking to Scarlet who had already found a mattress as well for herself as I trotted quietly to my own and laid down. I felt my heart get caught in my throat as I resisted every urge to cry. Depression began to flow through me, everyone I loved was dead. Regret soon took its place, I never even told my mother I loved her. Then finally anger staked its claim…they were all dead because of the enclave. Celestia as my witness I would make sure the Enclave paid for this in blood. Eventually my rage settled away inside my mind as I began to finally fall asleep. Yet even in my sleep I couldn’t escape.

“Look around you Reprisal! They’re all gone!”

A bloodied cyborg like pony shouted at me. My body was aching and felt like it was about to fall apart right that very second. Yet for some reason I didn’t seem to care.

kill

my mind told me. No not my mind it was a voice…dark suave voice inside of my head. The rain fell down onto us like fragments of concrete as the lightning illuminated our battlefield. Bodies: Scarlet, Sandstorm, Buckshot, Juniper, Spring Breeze, even my mother’s body was laying in the muddied ground some other bodies I couldn’t quite make out either…a grey pegusas and a blue earth pony.

This monster killed them…and I was going to return the favor. I gave a horrific battle cry that didn’t even sound remotely like that of any ponies. I charged forward quickly, not even thinking; what was there to think about? They were all dead, because of it.

kill

The voice demanded blood and so did I. There was a sickening crack as I slammed my armored side into it, knocking the pony against the mucky ground. I lifted the blood red blade in the air in front of me when lightning struck once more.

I caught a quick glimpse of my reflection on the crimson edge and I took a step back in terror. My eyes were pure black…bloody tears streaming down them, a scar long since scabbed over running across my head up to my horn. Much like the sword, my barding was an ominous blood red, with ornate writing on my sides. Where my four leaf clover cutie mark should have been instead had words. Ultio on my right, Vindicta on the left. I even felt like I was taller than normal. Who was I? She called me Reprisal?

The unknown pony coughed up blood. With each strike of lightning I could slowly make out what the pony was. It was a mare, clad in black and red armor even her wings had been covered. She looked up at me as I brought the blade down. Suddenly her own blade clashed against mine I shower of sparks.

She had magic? And wings? Was she some kind of cyber alicorn? The word Security, was inscribed on her side.

Kill

The voice was right, I could care less what the fuck she was. All I knew was that she was going to pay for this I suddenly felt the wind get knocked out of me as a hoof was driven up into my gut the only part that wasn’t covered completely in armor as I stumbled back.

Before I could even recover the alicorn had gotten to her feet smashing her blade against my side. Had my barding not been so durable it would have decapitated me, yet as the blade connected instead of another shower of sparks, blood rained from the gash in my armor. My armor wasn’t painted blood…it was blood. The blow managed to knock me hard against the ground, splashing against the mud as the Alicorn stood over me, her eyes not filled with hate or anger. They were filled with pity, sorrow?

“They tried to warn you…tried to help you. Looked up to you, admired you, loved you and this is how you repay them?” Her voice broke as if she was about to start crying. My eyes turning to my mother’s face. She had a look of terror and something else on her face, disappointment…looking straight at me. The Alicorn hadn’t killed them.

Kill

No, it couldn’t have…

“This is for your own good Reprisal, for everypony.”
The Alicorn said quietly as she brought the blade down. The blade clashed down onto my shoulder blade managing to slice deep enough that I felt tissue being severed. I let out another unholy screech before more suddenly flashed red firing a beam into the mare’s chest.

“I swore that anypony that stood against me would stand briefly…and I meant that.” My voice was deep and warped. The Alicorn stepped back clutching her chest where the beam had hit before extending her wings.

“And then what?” Her blade shot out to her side when she took to the clouds, a bolt of lightning illuminating the sky once more as she came spiraling down at me at blinding speeds. Then what?

Kill

“NO!”

I shouted before I finally shot up from my mattress panting as I looked around. It was still night time, or at least we could assume it was night. The fire had been snuffed out as rain poured down through the hole in the center.

Buckshot was standing watch for the night in the middle of eating some strange food on a metal stick, his twin shotguns sitting in his battle saddle. Apparently these ponies were either use to a screaming colt or they were just very heavy sleeper, probably both.

“Alright then more radroach for me” Buckshot chuckled as Scarlet rushed over to me.

“It’s alright Shamrock it was just a bad dream.” She brushed my mane gently for a moment and for just a few seconds I felt as though I was back home with my mother taking care of me. That was the final thread that broke inside me as I began to feel tears welling.

“Gee kid take it easy I wasn’t going to eat ALL the radroach.” Buckshot just scratched his head awkwardly before returning to his post while I began to cry like the pathetic filly I was. I kept waking up from nightmare after nightmare scared and confused. So why couldn’t this nightmare just end already?

It hadn’t even been an entire day in the wastelands and I was already breaking down into tears.

You were made for something better, I love you.

How? What could be better? So far all I had seen are nightmares that don’t even make any sense and that the world outside my own was filled with nothing but desolate gloom and psycho ponies that want me dead for no better reason than that they were bored.

“Ah hell, Eureka, Sandstorm wake up we got movement.” Buckshot whispered. They didn’t even seem to flinch when I shouted into the night but the instant Buckshot warned them they immediately sprang up like their tails had burst into flames. The glass door to the station shattered as a small apple shaped device clattered against the ground rolling to the extinguished fire pit.

“Grenade!”

Ok, crying like a little foal later. Avoid exploding into itty bitty chunks now! Eureka rushed forward as her horn began to glow, picking up the grenade and hurtling it out through the large hole in the ceiling as it showered us in white hot metal shards.

“I told you to cook it longer dammit!” A voice from outside shouted angrily, Eureka growled taking out two revolvers from her saddle bags and levitated one over to me. The instant I levitated the gun my heart began to race.

“Well what the fuck do you want me to do about it?” The gruff buck complained through the rain and thunder.

“Get the napalm and this time fucking roast them!” The two raiders argued amongst one another.

Everyone exchanged various glances around at each other as if having a silent mental discussion on what was going to be their plan of action. Eureka raced towards the door looking back at us as her metal claw gripped the door. Silence, nothing but the pitter patter of rain before another round object went flying through the already shattered glass.

“Now!” Eureka forced the door off its hinges with a combination of her telekinesis and her cybernetic hoof. I could barely see outside in the darkness and rain before the room we were just in erupted in green flame. The door was sent flying into the night crashing into the jaw of one of our attackers as Buckshot stormed outside into the rain.

I flinched as the massive strike of thunder suddenly erupted all around us. Only it wasn’t just thunder I was hearing, it was the gunfire. A raider had charged at buckshot apparently thinking that a sharpened shovel was more effective than twin assault shotguns. The muzzle flash was more than enough to allow me to watch as the raider was blasted into various bloody bits as they plopped against the mud. I was frozen in place as if it was the attack on Goodspring all over again, the now familiar smell of fresh blood rising even in the rain before I heard Scarlet crying out in pain.

My head quickly turned to see her cream coated body get tossed into the mud, a white earth pony with a knife in his mouth standing over her as he stabbed at her. The blade barely missing her skull as she tried to wrestle him off, the knife scraping across her cheek cutting into it deeply. Suddenly rage had replaced my fear and every other emotion.

Kill was the only thing I could think of as I levitated my pistol. Most unicorns were taught early in Goodspring on how to use the targeting spell known as S.A.T.S., I wouldn’t say I was adept in it but I still knew how to at least activate it.

Time began to slow to nearly a halt as the raiders blade was pulled back ready to stab down into her brain. I took careful aim at the target trembling for a second before my rage took control once again. I only had enough time to concentrate on a single shot and that shot had to count.

Blam

My ears twitched from the crack of the gun. I felt myself shaking from recoil, adrenaline and from the cold of the rain as the bullet found its new home in the buck’s shoulder blades. He whinnied in surprise and pain before doubling over against the mud.

He was still alive…not good enough, he had to die for trying to hurt my friend. I grabbed the sharpened shovel out of the mud and raced forward over Scarlet and on top of the buck. His once white coat was now painted with brown mud and red blood as he looked up at me.

kill

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I raised the shovel over my head and brought it down into his chest as he screamed bloody murder.

kill

Not just yet, I wanted him to feel every moment of this. He wanted to kill me and my friends and for that he had to suffer. I grunted with effort as I yanked the shovel out of his chest only to bring it back down again.

And again.

And again.

And again

I would have continued stabbing him for hours had I not finally managed to hear shouting through the rain and thunder. Something was trying to pull me away from the buck, I shouted in alarm as I turned and swung the shovel ready to spear another before the lightning revealed that it was Scarlet.

She just stared at me, petrified with fright and alarm. Not from what the raider had done to her. Rather what I had done to the raider. My breathing began to settle. I turned and looked down at the body, already on the verge of vomiting. His chest cavity had been completely severed from the rest of his body, entrails spilled out onto the mud. I couldn’t look away from the eviscerated husk that was once a living, breathing pony like me.

No, not like me. He was a raider, they were psychos right? Like mindless animals? Then came a final crack of thunder as I looked down at the raider, his eyes seemed to be staring at the puddle next to him. As the flash of lightning came I saw for a split second, that horrible figure from my nightmare. His soulless black eyes, blood red tears and scarred face as I reared back and shot at the puddle, splashing water and mud up into my face.

“That seems like the last of them. Hey nice job Shamrock, your first kill.” Eureka laughed trotting over. Nice job? Was she really complimenting me for committing a murder? I just killed somebody and she treated it like it was no big deal.

“Th-thanks Eureka…” I mumbled quietly before levitating her pistol back over to her.

“Nah you can keep Reprisal, you’ll need to defend yourself somehow right?” She snickered before trotting back towards the station with the rest of her gang. They just left the bodies where they were. Just as fast as the attack came, it was over: No burial, moment of silence just left them to rot without a hint of guilt.

“Well, half of our supplies have been reduced to ash thanks to our pyrotechnical friends.” Juniper sighed. Sure enough, the room inside the station was still on fire from the sticky napalm that coated the floor of it.

“Let’s get going, we still have a ways to go if we are to get to Trotton” Sandstorm was already taking point and trotting quietly down the road, the rain still pouring down onto us.

I looked down at the revolver as the rain came crashing down on us, another flash of lightning illuminating the skies long enough for me to read that same name from my nightmare.

reprisal

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Gunslinger +25% Accuracy in S.A.T.S with Small Weapons