Fallout Equestria: Curiosity

Night time was the perfect cover for my escape. Or so I had thought.

The entire week had been spent planning my leave of this place, and I had gotten everything set up perfectly. I wrote a note to my father, and left it on the table for him to find when he came back. He would be at some important Enclave meeting tonight -he was a rather high up pony in the government- which would allow me to leave my home without him knowing.

I had left my home when the clock struck eleven, and most ponies were asleep already in their homes, allowing me to escape without being seen. If I ran into any Enclave members I could tell them my father had sent me on a task, and inform them who he was. They wouldn't be able to question it, without running risk of getting into trouble form him.

I had packed a saddlebag full of food, water, Rad-Away, RadSafe (I may or may not have raided my fathers medicine cabinet for those) and two small pistols to protect myself from any dangers I may find down in the Wasteland below. From what I had learned it was a desolate waste, full of radiation, and practically unlivable. I was soon to learn all that was a lie.

I had accounted for every possible thing that could go wrong with my escape, covered all the bases. I could go deeper into detail, but that's the important stuff. I headed towards the spot of cloud coverage where 'Deadshot' Calamity had left the Enclave. The same spot many ponies escaping had ran away at. I'm quite certain the first pony to ever leave the Enclave went underneath the clouds from that very spot.

I had everything set up, I was ready to leave, and nopony would be the wiser.

What I had not accounted for however was my father's meeting ending early, and him returning home at eleven-thirty, shortly after I had left. That put a pretty big dent in my plans, and by the time I got to the cloud coverage where I was to go beneath the clouds, I found a small group of Enclave waiting to intercept me.

I flew down and halted on the clouds, and stared at the ponies in front of me. There were three of them, which may not seem like much, but with the Enclave it was enough to ruin my entire scheme within a matter of seconds. Two armored ponies, wearing standard Enclave power armor and equipped with battle saddles of nova surge rifles, and one officer wearing a black cap and a very pristine looking officer outfit. It was black, and bore the Enclave insignia on the front, same as the cap. The two armored ponies stood behind the officer, weapons at the ready, pointed directly at me.

"Curiosity, I presume." The officer at the front of the group said casually. He knew he had already won the second they caught me here.

I nodded in response to the question. I would have said something, but I was to afraid too speak. I had messed up, and messed up badly. Typically when somepony tried to run from the Enclave they were killed, or worse their cutie mark was seared off with a hot iron rod, branding them as a "Dashite".

A "Dashite" was a pegasus who left the Enclave, and considered a traitor in their eyes. Rainbow Dash was the first, hence the term. The brand was of her cutie mark.

So I believed I would suffer one of these two fates, death or branding. Neither of which was preferable.

Just imaging the pain of my cutie mark being burnt off made me cringe. Not only would it cause excruciating pain as my flesh was burnt and branded, it would remove my identity (not that a question mark as a cutie mark gave much identity). I was practically shaking in fear, and I could hear my saddlebags lightly smacking against my sides.

"At ease young mare, nopony is going to hurt you." He said in response to my not-so-well-hidden nervousness.

"W-what are you doing here?" I said, admittedly less confidently than I would have liked. "H-how did you know I was leaving?"

The Enclave officer smiled.

"Your father returned home earlier than you expected. It appears you left him a note. He was immediately worried, and sent us here." The officer said, a hint of joy in his voice.

"We have come to give you a task Curiosity. You see typically when a pony tries to leave they are brought back, or branded as a Dashite. Or killed." He paused and looked at me again, and obviously saw I was shaking.

"You will receive none of these fates." He continued. "Your father has informed us that he will allow you to go beneath the clouds, and venture into the Equestrian Wasteland. A stupid choice in my opinion, but I must follow orders. After much discussion with the rest of the Enclave Council he seems to have used the majority of his pull in the government to allow this."

I was honestly rather shocked. My father would allow me to leave the Enclave?

"You're telling me my father is willing to just let me leave?" I said in shock. "No catch?"

"You should be thankful, not questioning him or his motives. Your father is a great man, and you should know this by now." The officer said, obviously angered by my disbelief.

"He has informed us that you are a rather mischievous and crafty individual. According to him even if we were to deny your leaving you would find away to escape due to your "curiosity" as the name implies. He believes that even if he had wanted to stop you, you would still find a way out, and his efforts would be futile." The officer stopped for a moment. "Based on your rather well planned escape attempt, I have a strong feeling this is true."

I thought for a moment and realized it was indeed true. My entire life my father had tried to stop me from getting into things, learning things I shouldn't, but every time I would find a way.

It was why he named me "Curiosity". Ever since I was a little foal all I did was explore and look for things. I had quite the appetite for learning things. It was probably more of an obsession actually.

"Your father is not the one to place the "catch" on you however." The officer said. "The High Council would not let you leave unless you did something for the Enclave in return, so there is of course one condition to this."

I was honestly not at all shocked. The High Council never let a pony leave the Enclave, even temporarily unless they were on a mission.

"And what might that be?" I asked, trying to make my voice sound more level. The idea of being allowed to leave made me giddy with excitement. The idea of a task did not.

"You will be engaging on a mission, that the Council has ordered. We believe in your note you said you would be looking for 'Deadshot' Calamity." The officer paused for a moment, and looked at me raising an eyebrow. "Is this correct?"

I paused. Obviously the note had been shared with the Council, and trying to lie would be futile.

Besides this was my only chance of leaving.

"Yes. I am leaving in search of him. I want to know everything about why he left. Every last detail."

"Good. That means that your mission will coincide with your original goals. Shouldn't be too difficult for you to accept." He paused. "But it may be more difficult for you to carry out."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Once you find Ex-Officer Calamity you can talk to him as long as you like, learn all you need about his leave, his escape." The officer paused, and then continued with obvious malice in his voice. "You will learn that he is not a good pony, and abandoned us like the "Dashite" scum he is."

"Get to the point already." I said in an exasperated voice.

"When you are done talking to him you are going to kill him."

I stared at the stallion in front of me in shock.

KILL 'Deadshot' Calamity?

That pony was my idol! I couldn't kill him!

And even if I had wanted too, he would probably kill me first! A pony doesn't get the name 'Deadshot' for no reason, and he would probably be able to shoot me ten time over before I could even get one shot off.

It was something I knew I couldn't do, and definitely something I didn't want to do. Part of the reason I was leaving was for my freedom, why would I do something I don't want too?

So I came up with a plan. A small one, not very large or world shaking, but just a tiny plan to cheat the Enclave in this deal.

"I accept." I said. Of course I didn't mean it. If I accepted I could leave, avoid being branded, and if I decided to I could potentially fake that I killed Calamity in order to earn my way back into the Enclave if I so desired.

Of course I would never desire such a thing seeing how evil they seemed to be, especially after this encounter.

"Good." The officer responded. "In honesty I expected you to say no. But only a stupid pony would say no. You don't strike me as a stupid pony."

"I'm not." I giggled a little. He had no idea I was going to betray this trust. "I'm smarter than you'll ever be."

The officer glared at me.

"I don't trust you Curiosity, and I know you're planning something. You don't seem like you'd go along with this easily, and even though I'm being ordered to believe you, I don't have to like it."

"As a matter of fact I'm not entirely sure the Council trusts you either. I have no idea what they're doing by letting you accept this mission."

"Am I free to go now?" I said, in what was honestly a bored sounding tone.

"Since we have your acceptance we are to equip you first." He responded reluctantly. "As much as I'd love to let you rush in to the wastes unprepared and die, that would be against my orders."

The two armored ponies marched forward in step with one another, the large duffle bag in between them. They stood in front of me, and threw the bag down at my feet. It made a muffled thump against the clouds as it landed

I cautiously moved forward, wary of the two armored ponies. I carefully unzipped the bag, trying to be as slow as possible so they would have no reason to feel threatened. I took a look inside.

The bag contained two canteens, several boxes of food, a set of armor, and a few other various things. Notably a battle saddle, and much to my delight and excitement, a Pip-Buck.

"We have brought with us two water canteens for you to take, filled with purified freshwater. A blessing down there. We also bring several boxes of fresh food and medicine, also a blessing down below, and several old family heirlooms from your father."

I removed my saddlebags and slowly packed the food and medical supplies into them. I then proceeded to take the armor out of the bag and began to slowly put it on.

I did everything slowly, as to keep the two guards relaxed, and without reason to feel threatened.

"That armor is a variant of that of an Enclave officer. Similar suit to what I am wearing, but contains extra protection on the inside. Like an armored version." The officer said as I put it on.

I finished putting it on, adjusted it so I could wear it more comfortably, and looked at my reflection in the armored ponies shiny suit.

I was now equipped in an armored variant of the Enclave officer officer uniform, and it definitely appeared armored on the outside. I got the feeling I was going to be quite protected I with this. I noticed the insignia on the front was torn off however, and the symbol of a "Dashite" cutie mark (really, Rainbow Dash's cutie mark) sown on.

By putting a Dashite mark on the uniform the High Council was probably trying to send me a warning of the fate that would befall me if I didn't finish the mission or something.

I proceeded to put the Pip-Buck on next, and it was probably the most exciting part of leaving. It was apparently an old family heirloom, from the first pony in my family to head above the clouds after the megaspell disaster.

Pip-Bucks are an extremely versatile tool that show the vitals of the pony wearing them, store notes, hack terminals, play music, use targeting spells, and a wide net of other things.

It was the most useful tool possible for a pony in the wastes, and I was extremely lucky to have one before going down there. This thing would prove so useful so many times, and I was extremely glad to have it. Besides it looked pretty cool!

I rolled up the sleeve of my Enclave uniform and put the Pip-Buck on over my left forehoof. I lifted my hoof up and looked at it, scrolling through the features.

I immediately found that nothing about my old family member who owned this originally was stored in here, and it was practically fresh and renewed. Completely mine. Of course the lack of information on the Pip-Buck annoyed me slightly, but I was too excited to care.

The next thing I put on was the battle saddle, and oh my was it a great piece of weaponry. Of course, me not being a gun expert whatsoever at this time didn't know this, but down the road of my story I'd learn that two hunting rifles simultaneously firing can definitely help you out in a gunfight.

There were two rifles on the battle saddle, making it so that one would rest on either side of my body, To fire it all I'd have I do was  bite down on the middle piece and they would both shoot simultaneously. It was also compatible to the Pip-Buck I wore, allowing me to hook the S.A.T.S. spell of the onto it, which in turn allowed me the ability totarget whatever pony I swiveled my guns to by biting down on a second lever.

What was even more amazing to me however was that the thing didn't shoot lasers like most Enclave weapons, it shot bullets. According to the Pip-Bucks inventory sorter it was called Soarin's Revenge, and according to the Enclave officer it was a family heirloom.

There was a note on the Pip-Buck that had downloaded when I found the weapon, that told me that Soarin was the name of one of my ancestors, whom I had some form of unknown relation. He was involved with the Wonderbolts, and apparently towards the end of the war had fled up above the clouds, same as the rest of the Pegasi. I'm honestly quite happy that he did, otherwise I would be Pip-Buckless, and weapon less. And probably not born.

So now I had armor, two guns(they shoot bullets how cool is that?), large amounts of food, canteens of water, and a Pip-Buck.

I was definitely prepared for the wasteland below.

Or so I thought.

I said goodbye to the officer, who reminded me of my mission once more.

As soon as he stopped talking I was prepared to fly below the clouds, but the officer stopped me once more.

"Curiosity." He called out. I was surprised he had stopped me.

"Look" The officer said with a saddened look in his eyes, one that honestly surprised me. "I know I was saying I'd be fine with you dying down there, but I can't just send you to your death like this without trying to stop you at all. Just wouldn't feel right."

"I-" He paused. "Does it still seem like we're lying about things being and down there? Do you see what you're being outfitted with? You'd have to be extremely stupid to believe that we'd give you all of this equipment for nothing."

He had a point. They had just given me a military grade officers uniform, complete with armor modifications, a heap load of medical supplies and other various survival gear, a Pip-Buck, and a battle saddle.

All for a mare who was trying to run away.

"The Enclave has given you this mission now, and they expect you to complete it." He continued, standing in an official manner and pacing. "They have outfitted you for what they deemed to be the bare minimum for your survival and completion of this task."

"If this is the bare minimum than things probably aren't too good down there." I replied hesitantly.

"Precisely." He stopped again, as if searching for words. "I know you will still leave, it's inevitable. No stopping a pony with their mind set on a goal like this, who had already planned out part of it."

The officer came towards me, and leaned in extremely closely as if to tell me something.

"But tell me young mare, how can you expect to find anything below but death?" The officer asked, in a very hushed and serious tone.

"You can't truly believe that you will achieve your goal in the dark and desolate land below, can't actually be thinking that you will live."

"And what makes you think I won't live?" I asked, my pride obviously hurting. Than again I had little combat experience, but I didn't think that would be too much of a problem.

"I can't be certain." He replied, lowering his head and shaking it sadly.

His head jolted back up.

"But what I can be certain of is this:

You will go below the cloud coverage tonight, and possibly never come back. You will face death, violence, some of the most vile things you can think of, and countless other horrors. You probably aren't even remotely close to prepared for any of them, not nearly prepared enough to see the hell that is the land below. And yet you will go anyway, no matter how much I warn you, how much we try to persuade you otherwise. You have a quest from the Enclave now. You will see that accepting it will be your only choice in the end, and you will see that you need the Enclave to live in these times."

"And if I don't complete these goals? If I think otherwise?" I responded. "If I don't want to come back?

"Than one day you will return, begging and pleading to be allowed back. And on that day you will find no salvation here." He replied solemnly before turning around and walking away.

As soon as he had left I took one last look around at the clouds I stood on, and than delved down below the cloud coverage, and began the descent to the land below.

I was now confined to the world below the cloud coverage, and even though I had technically left one cage and entered into another for the first time in my life I felt truly free.

*                                                                            *                                                                                              *

My descent was one of the most satisfying things I had experience in my life.

I had left the chains of the Enclaves military, and entered freedom, the great Equestrian Wasteland. No more being connived to staying above the clouds, I was going below them now, and it felt great.

A few things however were not so great.

While on my descent I notice one terrible thing, and that was the moonlight all but disappearing on me. The clouds practically covered the entire sky, and I could see nothing of the night time. I felt free now, yet at the same time the cloud coverage above me with the ground below me made me feel more caged than ever.

I kept going down, until I reached the ground.

It felt... strange to say the least.

For the first time in my life, I was no longer walking on clouds, but I was walking on solid, hard, ground. It felt extremely strange, and dirty, and harsh in my hooves compared to the fluffiness of the clouds above. I ignored the strange feeling it gave, and looked around. The first thing I noticed was a small shack in the distance at the top of a hill. That was all. Not many defining features of the place where I had landed.

My Pip-Buck however saw much more.

It immediately began mapping out the area, and now had a blank slate of the Equetrian Wasteland, but most interestingly it named the exact location where I had landed. A place called "The Rock of Destiny". A weird name, but the weirder thing was the fact that my Pip-Buck knew what it was called. I was however satisfied, as now I knew where I was, and knowing made me so happy. All I wanted was to know things. I looked around at my dusty surrounding, and took it in. The air felt less clean here, and much heavier. Probably due to the change in altitude. It felt... strange, but I was dealing with it. My breathing was quite heavy however, due to the change in air pressure.

I kept looking around, and took it all in. The sights where I had landed weren't much, but they were enough to make me happy. It was just the beginning of the entire world I was going to see, places I had never even heard of before.

I was satisfied, and the change of scenery from the clouds above invigorated me, and got me ready to move. I lifted one hoof, and prepared to take my first "real" step of my journey.

But before I could even move a small device, like a tiny metal apple rolled gently up to my hooves, with a slight klink sound as it touched the tip of one of them.

I looked at it curiously, confused as to what it was.

"What the hay is-" I had begun to say, before a large blast went off, hurling me backwards several feet, and knocking me unconscious.