Fallout Equestria: Curiosity

I woke up dazed, lying (more like sprawled out) on my back, head throbbing, and dirt all over my new armor. I began to flutter open my eyes, but when I did all I could see was blurry vision from the tears in my eyes. I tried to roll over, and wipe the tears from my eyes, but the second I tried to move I winced in pain. Not major damage, just a slight pinch.

Sensing no immediate threat I sat there for a few moments, thinking about what had happened.

A concussion grenade had happened. That's what had rolled up at my hooves and hit me, knocking me out after sending me back several feet. After thinking about it, it was rather easy to realize that's what it was. I had seen the Enclave's military practicing with a special variant of them before when I snuck out after curfew once to go see them practice. (And maybe I looked over a weapon record or two on my father's private terminal)

I sat there thinking about what had happened, and realized how angry I was. I was mad for several things, at several people. I was mad at the Enclave for lying about this place. So far it seemed dangerous (I mean I hadn't even been down here for five minutes and  a concussion grenade rolls up to my feet) but not as "dangerous and unlivable" as they had said. I guess I already knew that, based on the records in my father's terminal, but I was still upset the Enclave had lied about it.

And then there was the concussion grenade. That angered me greatly. Here I was, fresh to this place, uncertain about what might happen, and before I can even take a step I'm blown away by a concussive grenade from some unknown assailant.

The more I thought about the more I grew worried. Where was this assailant? Where are they right now? Are they waiting to kill me? Why was I attacked? How am I still alive?

The fear welled up in me, and I laid there in fear for several more moments. I finally decided to get up after realizing that since I wasn't dead yet I probably would be soon. I flopped over onto my stomach, and pulled my Pip-Buck up to my face. I quickly scrolled through the menus and got to the one that showed my vital signs.

Luckily for me I wasn't injured at all, just a slight head ache that should go away.

I struggled to stand up, and got to my knees feeling weak. My head was throbbing, and I was in a small amount of pain, but I stayed standing. I began to take a look around.

Scanning the environment I looked around and that's when I saw what had thrown the grenade. And probably the reason they had done it.

Not too far from me stood two unicorns, stallions from the looks of it, both equal in size and height. One had bright red hair, the shade of which you'd expect to see for the color of some form of candy, and a candy blue coat. The other had light blue hair, the same color of the first pony's coat, and his coat was that shade of bright red of the first pony's hair. They both had light green eyes that stood out against their coats.

And they appeared to be going through my saddlebags.

I began to walk towards them, slowly as to not startle them. I was worried of being shot, but then I realized they were dressed in tattered rags, and appeared to have no weapons. They appeared to be taking out food and water.

As I approached them I could hear the conversation they were having.

"You sure that pony was a raider? Sure as hell didn't look like one, and we can't be stealing from innocent ponies." The first unicorn said. He was the one with the red hair and blue coat. He seemed less muscular than the other. He also seemed quite uneasy with the situation of stealing.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure she was a raider. Ain't there one o' them raider bases near here? Maybe she was out scouting around and we just got lucky." The more muscular one said in reply.

"Look I don't want to be stealing." The skinnier one said, his voice a barely audible whisper. "I prefer to loot the dead if it comes to that, but I don't like that much either. It's a necessary evil though. This is stealing, and it feels wrong, but there's no way I'd steal from anypony but a raider. Far as I'm concerned they aren't ponies anymore, just... vile creatures. Sick fucking animals, the lot of them." He paused for a moment.

"Besides given our predicament I think we need to at this point." He said gesturing at the rags they wore.

I moved toward them, slowly, hesitantly, and activated the S.A.T.S. on my Pip-Buck. It was a targeting spell, and I'd managed to hook it up to the battle saddle. The two guns at my sides slightly swiveled and locked onto both ponies. I was now ready in case anything happened.

"Why are you going through my things?" I asked them angrily as I approached.

The smaller pony jumped, hurtling the saddlebags at me with his magic, and cowered behind the bigger one, clearly afraid. The big one stood there silently, giving me a menacing glare.

"There's no need to be afraid." I said in as non-threatening of a tone as I could manage. "I'm not going to hurt you."

The muscular pony continued to glare at me, the smaller one cowering behind him. I paused for a moment and thought about what to say next. I needed to find the most peaceful way to resolve the situation, but it was hard to do when I could be attacked again at any moment, and had guns turned on them.

I tried to think of something to say, something to get them to talk to me.

"I heard you mention you were in some form of trouble? Why are you wearing those rags?" I asked,  gesturing at the clothes they wore. I needed to get them to talk if I wanted to get them away from me peacefully.

The smaller pony slowly moved out from behind the larger one and looked at me, fear in his eyes.

"We-" He began to say before he choked on his words, shaking nervously. "We were captured by slavers. W-we needed supplies, and well... my brother thought you were one o' them raiders."

I stared at him. Given the dirt on his and his brothers faces, the rags they wore, and the scars on their faces, they may not have been lying.

"W-we didn't mean to hurt no innocent pony! I-I swear!" The small one stuttered out again.

"Did you say slavers?" I asked, appalled by the very idea of such a thing. "There are slavers down here?"

The two ponies looked at me like I had two heads.

"You been livin' under a rock?" The skinny one said, the stronger one still remaining silent. "There are whole armies of slavers here. How the hell do y'all not know about slavers?"

"I'm uh..." I paused, trying to think of an answer. "I'm sort of new. Can you fill me in on the some of the dangers here?"

"I guess so..." The pony said cautiously, obviously confused by my lack of knowledge of the wastes. I don't think he had caught on to the fact that I was from the Enclave yet. Maybe he didn't even know what that was. "Well in the Equestrian Wasteland there are plenty of things out to get ya. Raiders, monsters that are infected from the megaspell fallout, and much, much worse. And of course there are slavers."

"But that's just the brief rundown." He continued.

"Do you mind telling me about how you got captured? What's your story?" I asked curiously, as always.

He paused for a moment and thought about it. It seemed obvious that he wasn't willing to share it so easily.

"I'll tell you." He said reluctantly. "On the condition you give us some food. We need it, or we ain't gone last much longer out here."

"P-please... me and my brother need it." He said after several moments of silence.

I glanced down at my saddle bags. I had plenty of food, water, and other things to spare. I looked back up at the two beaten ponies in front of me.

I couldn't help but feel bad for them. They both stood there, looking broken and destroyed, as if they had lost something down here. And given that they had been captured by slavers they probably had. I couldn't just let them die. I wasn't a bad pony, my father raised me right.

I looked back down at the saddle bags, and my abundance of supplies.

"I'll give you some supplies." I said, as I pulled out a couple things. I couldn't just let ponies die. I set out several things on the ground in front of me, the two pistols I had packed, some food and water, and a small amount of medicine.

The two ponies looked shocked at the amount.

"A-all of this?" The smaller one asked in shock while the more muscular one already moved forward to take it. He picked up a pistol and examined it.

"I've got plenty to spare, and you look like you need it." I said softly, a tone of pity in my voice, I felt sorry for the two ponies. "Take it. It's the least I could do."

"T-thank you so much miss." The small one stuttered out to me, still obviously shocked at what I was giving. "W-we appreciate these supplies."

He paused for a moment, and moved closer to me while picking up some supplies. He looked at me, standing closer now, and seemed to have an idea.

"If you want, we're headin' down south to a town called New Apploosa, not too far from here. Maybe we could take you there to pay you b-"

Before he could finish his sentence his head just... exploded. All over me.

Pieces of him flying everywhere, chunks of blood and brain matter splattering all over me. Some of it got in my mouth. The body slumped over, blood leaking out of the hole where the head used to be.

I screamed as I stumbled backwards in shock and fell over.

"W-what the fuck was that?" I shouted, wiping the blood out of my eyes to try and see. I'd never sworn before. Now seemed like a good first time for it.

I hastily wiped the blood from my eyes, panicking. It was all over me. It was in my mouth, it covered my face, it was all over the front of my armor, and now on my hooves. I felt sick just looking at it, and feeling the sliminess of it all over me made it worse.

I felt like throwing up, and I did, tears welling up in my eyes, but only a small bit. I think I vomited mainly to get the blood of the other pony out of my mouth.

I was now lying on my back as vomit came out, and when it finally stopped I looked up to see the other pony standing right in front of me, casually reloading the pistol I had given him to make sure the clip had all six bullets in it.

He looked at me and casually walked over, pointing the gun at my head.

"Why the fuck did you do that?" I screamed, still in shock and shaking slightly. I felt like throwing up again, this time from fear more than sickness. Maybe both actually.

"He was a liability." He said with no emotion in his voice. "He would have weighed me down."

He paused for a moment.

"Besides killing him allows me to kill you, which gains me more supplies. And some armor if that'll fit properly." He said the last part while gesturing at my gear.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!?" I asked. "Wasn't he your fucking brother? Wasn't he your friend? Why the fuck would you kill him?!?"

"He was broken." He said, his voice still emotionless. I couldn't tell if he really was soulless, or if he simply wanted to keep up an appearance. "I endured all the shit the slavers threw at me. I didn't let them break me. And due to my strength, I was able to survive."

He glanced over at the corpse, blood still oozing out of it's neck where the head should have been.

"He was broken." He said again, even more emotionless than before. He sounded practically robotic. "He. Didn't. Survive."

"What the fuck do you mean broken?" I screamed back. I felt extremely weak yelling in the face of his emotionless tone. Like somehow his lack of empathy made him stronger than me.

"The slavers." He said, a hint of a smile breaking across his face. "They tried to break us. Four of them. They had the two of us captured."

"They tried to break us." He said, his voice finally cracking slightly, revealing a hint of sadness.

I looked at the corpse nearby, and then back to dejected looking pony in front of me. He sure as hell looked broken to me.

I looked at him, shaking in fear. There was no way I was going to be able to get out of this. So of course, being the smart pony I am I tried to make the situation worse in hopes of a stupid plan coming to fruition.

"You're the broken one." I said, trying to sound as confident as I could while shaking with fear and a gun pointed at my head. It was a stupid thing to say, but I thought it might work.

"What the fuck did you say?" He said, his emotionless voice broken by a hint of anger.

"I said you're the broken one." I said slowly, to try to make him feel insulted.

"I'm not broken!" He said, the tone of his voice rising in anger. "You're the fucking broken one!"

He pushed the gun slightly further into my head, the metal pushing in on my skull.

I could see the anger welling up in him, see him clenching his hooves. So I continued talking. I hoped I could enrage him enough to make him hit me, and hopefully give me the opportunity to get the gun away from him.

"Of course you are." I continued in a condescending tone. "The slavers broke you. They broke you in a worse way than making you theirs. They broke your sanity. They got you to kill your own brother."

"I didn't let them break me. Only the weak break. I. BROKE. THEM." His anger was rising even further, and he finally yelled.

"You are broken." I said again, trying to sound calm, but a shakiness in my voice betrayed me.

"THEY DID NOT FUCKING BREAK ME!" He yelled again, spitting in my face. I winced as the spit collided.

"Are you sure they didn't break you?" I asked again, standing up slowly. He glared at me as I stood up, and I gently pushed the gun out of the way.

He watched me move closer to him in shock, and I slowly leaned in towards him.

"It looks to me like you've snapped." I whispered into his ear. "You are broken."

"I AM NOT FUCKING BROKEN!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, enraged, his anger finally fully betraying him.

He immediately threw the pistol to the side, punched me square across the face, almost nocking me over before he jumped at me.

Immediately I was pushed back on the ground, wings against the dirt, being pummeled. His hoof connecting to my face every second, the rest of his body holding me down on my back. I kicked back and tried to shove him off fighting with all my strength, squirming underneath him, my wings flapping frantically.

He kept on punching, and punching, and punching, every time he hit I could feel bruises forming on my face, blood splattering out of my nose every so often. Soon a blackness started to blur my vision. I struggled, fighting back, trying to push him off of me, trying to keep the blackness from taking over, trying to keep myself from being beaten to death. Or at least what I assumed was being beaten to death.

No matter how hard I fought against him though, how hard I tried to kick back, how hard I flapped my wings around in the dirt like a dying bug, the blackness kept on growing over my vision, making it harder and harder to see. I squirmed, struggling against him as he hit me more and more, slowly smashing my face in.

And the blackness continued to grow over me. And I was letting it. I was slowly slipping away. I had lost all of my strength, I had lost the will to fight back, as my face was pummeled in by this large pony, and my body took in so much pain. He kept on hitting, not even giving me a break. I couldn't fight back. I was too weak.

I had never before in my life experienced true pain until this moment. In Enclave I had hurt myself once or twice, maybe even been hit by my father for discipline.

This was entirely different.

This was true pain, in all of it's horrors. This is what it felt like to fear for your life as blackness over takes you, feeling as though you have no control as you're beaten and battered to death, matters being taken out of your hooves, and put into the hooves of somepony else.

I was experiencing pain. I was experiencing my death.

I didn't want to die. Not yet. I had just gotten here. Not even an day down here in the wasteland and I was dying. I was about to black out. About to give in and die. I was weak.

I hadn't even found Calamity yet.

"Wait a minute. I have not even fucking found Calamity yet! I hadn't fucking learned anything! I haven't done shit! I can't die now! I can't fucking give up now!" I thought to myself angrily, my mind trying to fight through the darkness blurring my vision.

"I can not fucking die here!" I screamed, and once more began fighting back.

I pushed against the pony on top of me, flapped my wings against his weight, kicking at him, trying to get him off.

He looked visibly shocked by my sudden resurgence of strength, and his punches finally began to slow as I fought back against him. I could feel a sudden adrenaline rush, as I punched him back, and I pushed with all my might, barely managing to kick him off of me.

I stumbled to my feet, and pushed him to the side, standing up with all my might, fighting the sharp pain in my head.

I watched as he tried to stand back up, and I quickly ran over to him kicking him in the jaw with all my force, knocking him down onto the ground.

I quickly punched him in the face while he was down, and continued to punch him several times while he fought against me. I saw his horn begin to flare as he tried to levitate the pistol back over, and I quickly stood back up. I immediately spin around, and began to stomp his head in with my back hooves.

Blood began to splatter out of his head, and I winced as I heard him scream.

And than I stomped again.

And again. He screamed once more.

And again.

Over and over, I continued to stomp his head, blood spurting out of his nose, until bits and pieces of his skin started to fly off with the blood, covering my hooves and the ground beneath him as he screamed in pain.

I kicked him again with extra strength, stomping his head in further, causing a loud crunching noise as he yelped in pain, blood spurting out everywhere as his eyes popped out of his head. That yelp marked his death.

But I didn't stop. The adrenaline rush combined with the pure terror I felt was too much, and I kept on stomping at his head until well past his death, crushing it up almost completely, blood spurting everywhere as his lifeless corpse flopped around with each kick. I was completely unable to stop myself, the terror was too great. I feared that if I stopped the blackness would start to take over my vision again.

My kicks gradually began to slow as I breathed heavily, feeling weak again, and barely able to stay standing anymore, the adrenaline rush calming down. I finally stopped kicking and panted heavily, trying to catch my breath.

I screamed a scram of rage.

Immediately the blackness began to blur my vision again.

I stumbled over to the supplies that I had placed on the ground for the two ponies, the boxes now had small amounts of blood on them. I immediately began to look for a health potion. The blackness was starting to fully overtake my vision again.

I dug through the pile, crying and whimpering in pain, only trying to stay alive for just a few me seconds. I finally found one after around a minute of searching, and I drank it greedily.

I could immediately felt my wounds healing, and my head starting to feel better. The blackness began to leave my vision as I breathed heavily, sobbing dryly.

I was feeling healed, but I still felt frail. Tired really.

I kept on breathing heavily, and fell down, lying next to the small pile of supplies that I had intended to give away. I looked down at my hooves and chest, and saw all the little bits of brain matter and blood that now covered me.

I couldn't help it anymore. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I threw up violently, tears pouring from my eyes as the shock from the events that had just transpired finally hit me in full.

The blackness was coming back again as I cried.

I let it take me this time, and slowly slipped away in the moonlight.

This was my welcome to the Wasteland.