Dashite

Chapter 1: Fallout pegasus

A sunny day. It's something most pegasi take for granted, or I did. The feel of warm rays on my fur and feathers, the beauty of the light glimmering off of raindrops or condensation from the clouds, the vivid blue of the skies above... and somehow it all brightened my senses in other ways too. Depression wasn't something I often felt. I was an outdoors pony. Even from a foal, that's where I preferred to be. I hated being cooped up in a classroom with other foals to learn history. I'd spend my days gazing out the window at the cloud cover, pretending I was one of them. Who cares how the war started anyway? Who cares what ponies did two hundred years before I was born? I just wanted to play.

Play... it's something I don't get to do very often any more. These days I wish I had paid a bit more attention in history class. How the war started might be important now. I no longer live that sheltered life above the cloud cover. I no longer feel the warm sun that I'd taken so much for granted. I am a Dashite. Not by choice, at least not at first. If I'd paid attention to what started the war, maybe I could figure out what ponies could do to end it. Two hundred years after the fact, and we're still feeling the after math of it. Something I'd been sheltered from all my life until I was forced to the surface.

This is my story, maybe I should start with how a pegasus like me ended up in the wastelands. My hope in writing this? That somepony listens... somepony in the future or the present who makes those decisions about whether to drop megaspells or start wars on other species. If they could read first hoof what they were about to cause, maybe they would choose something different. Even the pegasi seem to be waging war with each other. Our own kind? Really? Somepony needs to stop it. I'm no hero, but maybe my story will open someponies eyes... just a little.

So lets start with my name. I'm Misty Haze, former citizen of Thunder head. I was a cloud farmer. If you're a surfacer you might not understand fully what that is, but we grow crops on the cloud cover. Not the easiest task with out soil, but we managed it. Apple trees, wheat, even strawberries. Oh how I miss those! My job was to tend the crops, harvest them, and get them to the market. I owned my own orchard and worked with a team. We were respected for being the food growers.

My special talent, forming mists. It's not that hard to do really, not if you know how to manipulate the precipitation in the air. The secret is in cooling thermals in the air so that the water vapor rises and condenses. That's just a fancy word for shrink. I guess it's kind of hard to explain to a surface pony but anyway, I learned to flap my wings and fan the air until mists formed, then clouds. Of course these days clouds often formed on their own, but not always where you wanted them. Yeah, as pegasi we could move clouds... but I'd like to think that being able to form them was a useful talent. Isn't it? Ok fine. My special talent was useless! At least above the clouds it was, but since I also knew how to grow things in unlikely places, my cutie mark was a combination of those two things. A cloud, with apple blossoms draping over it. Such a pretty cutie mark. I love blossoms! I was so proud of that cutie mark.

So my days would begin and end with tending crops. Spring was my favorite time of the seasons, all those blossoms to match my cutie mark. Even when I was off work I'd love to sit among the apple trees. That's where you would find me. Everypony knew that. Especially Thunder Clash. He was a captain of the local Enclave. That's our military, just in case you didn't know that. He was quite a good looking stallion, as far as stallions go. I don't think there was a mare alive who didn't have a crush on him. Well, cept maybe me. However, he certainly seemed to have his eyes on me. I couldn't help but blush when he looked at me like that. What mare wouldn't? I was the envy of most of my fellow mares in the orchard, but they weren't the only ones who noticed Thunders attention towards me.

Dawn Crusher, a black mare and also in the Enclave. She was not the nicest mare you could ever meet. She was a tough, no nonsense type of mare that you didn't want to cross, but she was very good at her job. Most ponies trusted her to keep the cloud cover safe. We all wanted that. No pegasus wanted surfacers to somehow infiltrate. Ewww... surfacers! They were all diseased and radiated. Crazy! They ate each other. At least that's what I was told. They were cannibals and slavers and ghouls. Monsters! I was so glad to live in the civilization of the cloud cover.

So on this bright sunny day, in the middle of spring, I was lazily relaxing under the apple trees, gazing up at the beautiful blossoms when ms Dawn Crusher approached me. I really didn't think anything of it. Maybe she just wanted to put in her order for some fresh apples?

"How can I help you Dawn?" I asked cheerfully. It was always wise to be polite to the Enclave. After all, they could arrest you, but I was pretty sure that's not what she was here for. I was one of the best behaved, most upstanding citizens of Thunderhead, Yeah, I was a goodie four shoes.

"Well, Misty, I need your help with something. You will benefit also. Its obvious that over time the apples are getting less tasty around here. Wouldn't you like some new species to add to the crop?" she asked. Looking into Dawn Crusher's eyes was like looking into a dark void. Black eyes, black fur, braided black mane and tail. You almost couldn't make out her features at all. She wore her Enclave armor which was equally as dark. The scorpion like tail piece at the back added to the sinister look of her. The question had taken me by surprise. Yes, apple tree's needed to cross pollinate and ours were needing some fresh stock to better them, but what did Dawn Crusher know about grafting tree's? Nothing of course. That's why she needed me. If we could improve the crop we'd both be honored for it.

"I would love new grafts for the orchard" I told her "But how? I suppose we could go to Neighvarro for some, but lately, it seems we just aren't in good standing with them. You'd know more about that military stuff than me of course. I'm just a farmer." I waved the statement off as if trying to act humble about my prestigious position as a food grower. However, I was very proud of my orchard.

"Neighvarro wasn't where I had in mind." she informed me. " I know of an apple farm not far from here, but it's below on the surface. Don't worry, I'm one of the best in the Enclave. If we go together we can avoid any dirt dwellers, grab some cuttings and fly off before they even notice." She sounded very sure of herself, but I was a little confused.

"Apple tree's grow on the surface? I thought nothing grew there. What about the radiation? Won't we be contaminated?" I'd heard so many stories about the surface. Mostly ghost stories told at slumber parties when I was a filly. Pegasi were prohibited from going there unless under orders. I suppose a trip like this with an Enclave officer was kind of like being under orders. Wasn't it? The thought of bettering my tree's was very tempting.

"Normally no, but I've been on patrol quite a few times to this area, and I assure you there are tree's. As for radiation" Dawn reached back and pulled a small bottle of fluid from a side pocket in her barding. "I have this, it's called Rad-away. It will purge any radiation we pick up. I like you Misty, I want to help make yours the best apples in Thunderhead. Wouldn't you like that?"

Say what? Dawn Crusher liked me? She'd always given me these looks that could kill when ever I'd noticed her glance my way. Then again I'd never seen her smile at anypony before. Was that a smile? Her lips were curled up so it could be classed as one. Her eyes didn't match the gesture though. Then again, they were so black who could tell?

"Of course I want that." I replied. Yes, it would be nice to corner the market, win the local fair for best apple pie and help my wonderful tree's to be healthier.

"Then why wait?" Dawnasked, with almost a hiss in her voice. "It will just be our little secret, Nopony needs to know we went to the surface for them. As a matter of fact, it's probably best not to tell anypony. Lets just go right now. My guns are loaded and ready in case we run into trouble. I'm due for a patrol so nopony will question my absence. You seem to be off duty so it's the perfect time."

Did I have any reason not to trust this? No, the Enclave were there to protect pegasus kind. I was a pegasus. I owned an apple orchard and was reasonably wealthy and upstanding. I'd never committed a crime, and I respected the Enclave for keeping the cities above the clouds safe.

"I'll just grab my cloak" I told her. I'd heard the surface was a cold place. No sunlight got through. It had to always be cold down there. Dawn followed me to the small cloud cottage that I lived alone in, then we left together. I didn't glance back, though I wish I had now. It would be the last time I saw that little cottage, at least for a while.

I'd never been below the clouds before. They got thicker the deeper you went into them. Much harder to flap your wings and even breath. It became slightly easier to fly once we were below them, but it took my eyes a while to adjust to the dimness. Breathing was a little easier but the air was so stale. It smelt smoggy and rank. Below, instead of the beautiful white fluffy clouds I was use to, was dark, solid, ugly ground. Cracked in places and churned up in others. A few ramshackle buildings could be seen here and there, and in the distance, what appeared to be the remains of a once grand city. There were tree's, just like Dawn Crusher had said there would be, but they were gnarled blackened things. Very sick looking and barely alive. Being a pony who loved tree's I felt instantly saddened at the sight of them. Why wasn't somepony taking care of them?

Dawn was a swift flyer, being military trained but I was keeping up reasonably well. Surveying the ground I could not see the promised apple tree's at all, but we were heading towards a small cluster of trees with twisted branches reaching out desperately towards the cloud cover as if begging for some light. Foliage on them was sparse, and the leaves were browned and yellowed almost as if it was autumn instead of spring.

We landed among them. I was an expert on tree's. It didn't take me very long to figure out that these weren't apple tree's at all. I had no idea what species they were. Not Dawn's fault. She wasn't a farmer. How could she have known?

"I'm afraid you've made a mistake" I informed her as I reached out a hoof towards the bark of one of the sad looking tree's. I petted it sympathetically, wishing I could magically heal it. "These aren't apple tree's at all."

"On the contrary Misty Haze, I have made no mistake." She hissed between her teeth. That was when I felt her pounce on me. I'd had my back to her as I'd examined the tree in front of me, now I was pinned under her weight, which was heavier due to the armor she wore. I am no fighting pony. My wings spread out either side of me, as if on instinct. I tried to flap them uselessly then eventually gave up, letting them fall helplessly spread out at my sides. I had no idea how to get out of a situation like that. Shocked I gazed up at her.

"Dawn what are you doing?" I cried out. My voice was shrill and shaking with fear, not something I was use to feeling. Why would a member of the Enclave attack me? I'd done nothing wrong.

"Getting you out of my way" she answered with a snarl in her voice. "Pretty little Misty Haze, you just had to catch the eye of the very stallion I want. Nopony will stand in the way of making him mine." Wait, this was over jealousy? Seriously? A mare scorned over a stallion I was barely interested in?

I felt a pain snap through my right wing as her hoof came down hard on it. The crunch of the bones could barely be heard over my scream. I'd never felt pain like that before. Tears streamed down my face as my cries continued. My Goddess that hurt! My wing lay twisted beside me among several loose feathers. It was clear I wasn't going to be flying home any time soon.

"DAWN!" my voice screamed out as I finally managed to shape some words through my gasping cries of pain. "Why? I'm not interested in Thunder Clash" My words didn't seem to matter to her as I felt her begin to hog tie my four legs together with some heavy ropes. She wasn't exactly gentle about it either. They were tight and cut into my skin, ruffling the soft pale blue fur and leaving red raw rope burns underneath them. I was use to the other mares being jealous, but this way beyond what I'd ever expected. I started to regret the smug attitude I'd had about being fairly nice looking. Beauty had become my curse!

"It doesn't matter" she finally told me with disdain. "As long as you're around he won't even look at me. I always get what I want."

I lay there, struggling against the ropes but knowing it was pretty much in vain. Even if I could get loose from them I was no match for her. I'd never fought anypony in my life. I couldn't shoot a gun or engage in hoof to hoof combat. I was just a farmer!

I could hear the crackle of a fire as she built it. Was she going to kill me and burn my carcass? Was that the plan? Why bother? She could just leave me to rot on the surface. No pegasi would find me. I was soon to learn that wasn't her plan at all.

I heard hoof steps approaching on the dry ground. They sounded so different than they did on the clouds, or even on the floors of our dwellings up there. A loud clip, clop. The sound of them only added to my already rising fear. I could hear my own heart thudding in my chest.

"About time you showed up" I heard Dawn Crusher say. "I'm running out of time. I'll be expected above. You can do the honors if you like" The honors of what? I wondered. My wing was still throbbing in extreme pain, lying twisted out to one side of me. The left one I'd managed to fold but my right wing refused to move at all. I was laying in the dirt, and unlike the clouds, it had a nasty way of getting all over me. Embedded in my pale blue fur and dirtying my beautiful long blue and white streaked mane and tail. I'd always been such a proud, clean mare.

"Don't mind if I do" came the voice of a stallion that I didn't recognize. It was rich and deep with an evil undertone and a suave overtone. I heard the fire being stoked. Then the stallion circled around to where I could see him in front of me. My aqua blue eyes gazed up at him. He was an earth pony with a rust colored coat and a mane and tail in the ugliest green you could imagine. It hung in bedraggled and filthy stands half over one scarred eye. He didn't look, or smell like he'd had a bath in a very long time but what struck me the most was the sinister look in his deep brown eyes as he peered down at me. I'd never seen a pony with out wings before. To me, he looked deformed for lack of them. There were said to be a few unicorns in the big city, but I avoided that place. A wingless pony, and perhaps a heartless one too. It was very clear to me that this was a surfacer, and that could only mean trouble.

I struggled against the ropes. No use... I wasn't getting away any time soon. He held a branding iron in his mouth. One that every pegasus could recognize. It was a shaped into the cutie mark of the infamous and legendary Ministry mare, Rainbow Dash. It was a Dashite brand.

"I'm not a Dashite!" I protested, the tears not stopping as I sobbed. I didn't realize at the time how often I'd be repeating that phrase. No I can't lose my cutie mark! That determined who I was and I was so proud of it. My identity was about to be burned away and all because one stallion fancied me? How just was that?

He dropped the branding iron in front of me. "No, but you're about to become one." he informed me. "Or at least, appear as one." His voice sounded upper to middle class, which didn't match his appearance at all, and although smooth and almost patronizing, it had a dark expression behind it that spoke of a deceitful hidden agenda.

"Dawn Crusher!" I squealed in rage at her. As if that was going to do any good. She'd made up her mind to get rid of me. I should have been glad that I wasn't about to die, but at that exact moment the thought of loosing my cutie marks seemed far more devastating. She appeared beside the stallion in front of me, gazing down with an equally sinister smile. This time I had no doubt that it was a smile. A very unpleasant one.

"Sorry Misty" she said, but by the tone of her voice I could tell she was far from sorry. She dripped with sarcasm as she spoke. "I can't very well leave you here with out some story to take back home. So your family and the authorities will be informed that during patrol, I caught you trading your apples to the Dashites. Betraying our kind and risking contamination. Every reason to be labelled a Dashite yourself. Even if you did get back home, who is going to believe you over a respected member of the Enclave hmmm? Murder would have been much harder to explain."

Sadly she was right. No matter how upstanding a citizen I had been, they would still believe her over me. She seemed to have the perfect story too. All those hours I liked to spend alone day dreaming could easily be mistook as trips to the surface. I had no reasonable alibi.

If I'd thought my wing had hurt being broken, the first brand seemed to hurt even more. Searing pain through my flank, the smell of burning flesh and fur, but worse, my pride being charred away as I lost my first cutie mark. I gritted my teeth, trying not to cry out and give them that satisfaction, but the stream of tears on my face couldn't be held back. They flipped me over and I felt the second burn. This time I did scream. No more apple blossoms, no more cloud. Just a charred replica of Rainbow Dash's mark. All I knew of her was that she'd betrayed the pegasi, or that's what I'd been taught. I was disgraced.

I heard Dawn say her good byes and the familiar flutter of wings as she took off and ascended back to the cloud cover. I was alone with the earth pony and he was standing over me. He clipped something around my neck then around each hoof. Shackles and a collar. So the rumors were true... surface ponies were criminals, and I was now cowering under a slave trader.

"You are now my property and will refer to me as Master or Sir" he informed me in his smooth drawl. Fat chance! There was no way I was agreeing to do that. However I said nothing. All I could feel was pain and humiliation. What was there really to say? "You can forget your real name until you earn the right to have it back. You will speak only when you are spoken to and do exactly as you are told. Any attempts to escape or rebel will be met with punishment up to and including being whipped. Do you understand these terms?"

Oh I understood them. Didn't agree to them at all, but what was I to do? Still sobbing lightly I just nodded my head. I'd lost my cutie marks, my purpose, my identity, dignity, ability to fly, my beautiful orchard, the very sunlight I loved to spread out in and my home. Now I'd also lost my freedom and I was some dirt dwellers slave? Things couldn't get any worse. Could they?

Yeah, they could. He rolled me off my side into a crouching position on the ground. I felt him climb over me his heavier earth pony weight bearing down on me. Oh Goddesses... NO! He bit down on my neck, gripping me between his front legs like a vice. I could feel his thighs against the fresh burns of my brands making then sting even more. My left wing flapped and hit the ground in protest, but that wasn't going to stop him. I let out a pitiful squeal as those dark tree's loomed over me, casting their shadows across my hide and the ground surrounding me as if to add their protest what was about to happen beneath their branches. I was about to loose one more thing on this terrible day.

My virginity.

Author's Note

I did my best to spell check this and use usa spelling where known but feel free to comment if you find anything. Opinions welcome but please be constructive and helpful, this is my first attempt at a fanfic, and yes it's yet another Fallout Equestria story but nothing else has inspired me to try this, and it's what I enjoy. Hope there are others who will enjoy the journey with me.

Amendment: I added some cover art, drawn by myself, and changed the name of the Enclave mare to Dawn Crusher.

~ Jackie aka Ebony Pegasus