Fallout: Equestria- Secrets of the Divide

“The Great Applewood Divide is by far the worst place to travel to. There are constant sandstorms, falling building remains, and creatures straight out of a Nightmare Night ghost story. If you are traveling anywhere near Applewood and have the urge to explore the Divide, here’s my word of advice: Don’t. Just turn around and go back from where you came. The Divide is the last place you want to be trapped in.” -The Wasteland Survival Guide, Section Three “Places to Visit”.

~ooo000ooo~

I screamed as I plummeted towards the cracked earth, my hooves scrambling in mid-air as I tried to find something to grab onto. I raced past the lips of the maw, falling into its darker interior. A broken i-beam came up from the dark, forcing me to crash into it. The air was knocked out of me as I felt a couple ribs break from the impact. Slowly, I began to slide off the i-beam, falling towards more darkness. Suddenly, I was reacquainted with the ground as my body landed with a hard thud. I could feel tears coming to my eyes as I laid there, curled up in the darkness.

Above me, the flickering light of an askew street lamp came to life, giving brief intervals light to the darkness. Over my whimpering and the buzzing of flickering light, I could hear the sounds of odd hissing and digging in the shadows. Opening my eyes, I blinked away the tears enough to spot small darting lights within the darkness, some popping up suddenly then vanishing. There were some that looked like glowing eyes that were staring directly at me. I struggled to sit up, trying not to invoke anymore pain. As I sat up, I spotted something coming out of the shadows towards me. I scrambled back weakly, leaving the safety of the flickering light.

What came to follow me from the shadows will forever haunt my dreams.

It was equine, but not quite. The hide was a thick, leathery black with no mane or tail. The things’ forehooves ended in lethal looking claws. Its’ eyes glowed a milky white, and the body had pockmarks filled by luminescent boils. The thing hissed at me, revealing rows upon rows of dagger like teeth. I began to shake as pain tried to overtake me again. My horn flared up and unclasped my holster, drawing my pistol forth and aiming it at the creature. The creature sniffed the air for about a minute before it reared up and gave a predatory hiss, followed by a cry that was soon responded by more of the things hidden in the darkness. I cringed again, awaiting death for what seemed like the third time.

Then, two flashbang grenades tumbled down from the air, landing in front of me. The canisters went off with a pop and a bright light. The creature cried in terror as it scrambled away from the white light. There was the sound of something landing in front of me, followed by the sounds of a flare gun being shot into the darkness. The red flare illuminated the shadows, revealing what must’ve been a hive of the creatures as they panicked and began digging their way underground. Darkness began to consume my vision as the pain returned once again, hellbent on making me pass out.

I barely caught a glimpse at the profile my savior before I succumbed to the embrace of the darkness.

~ooo000ooo~

My mind surged forward from the darkness, jerking my body awake as it began to wake itself up. My eyelids slowly opened, my vision heavily blurred. My limbs felt like lead, as if I were back in the simulation pod. But this time the feeling was coming back much quicker than last time. After a couple blinks to clear my vision, I turned my head to look at my surroundings. I was in a room of sorts, a very tiny room. There was just enough room to fit in a battered bed frame and mattress, and a small wardrobe with a cracked water basin on top of it. The walls seemed to be fashioned out of large random pieces of scrap sheeting, bolted together by rusting nuts and screws.

The doorway didn’t have a door, rather a ragged quilt of sorts filled the doorway, being hung from a rod. The mattress beneath me felt flat from excessive use, with an unpleasant stench that accompanied it. With a grunt, I sat up and rubbed my head with a hoof. The bed springs gave a squealing cry of protest as I swung my rear legs around to hang off the beds’ edge. The sounds of movement outside the room caught my attention as the shadow of four hooves appeared under the quilt.

“Hello?” asked the pony. The voice was that of a mare; sweet sounding, yet toughened and sarcastic. I simply gave a groan in response to the question as a shooting pain roared through my abdomen. A hoof lifted from the floor and drew back the quilt curtain, revealing a rust colored mare adorned in leather armor of sorts. A bandana covered her head, hiding her mane, with a set of dusty looking gunners’ goggles perched atop her head. But the most interesting feature on the mare had to be her right foreleg; it was a robotic prosthetic leg. The leg looked worn and seemed to have been fixed and modified countless times, due to the different coloring of some the components that made up the leg.

The mare cleared her throat, drawing my attention back to her.

“Well, good to see you’ve finally woken up. I was afraid that you had died in your sleep!” she said, entering the room and hitting a small light switch. The overhead light flickered to life, casting a dim light down on us as the humming of a nearby generator filled the air. The mare approached me and looked me over with an expert eye. This also gave me a better look at her features. Her eyes were a smooth cobalt, looking as if they could cut you when she got pissed off. A small scar adorned her cheek, curving along the right cheek bone. Looking down at her armor, I noticed two armored flaps on her back, the signs of wings being beneath these flaps ever present. The mare suddenly stepped back and gave me a smile. “You look alright to me. So you got a name stranger?” she asked cheerfully.

My jaw opened a bit, then closed. My foggy mind struggled to find the answer to her question. She watched me, expecting an answer. Finally, my mind kicked in and I gave a croaked response.

“It’s Silver Streak.” I said simply. Her eyes brows shot up and she gave a slightly impressed nod.

“Fancy name. Name’s Skav.” she said reaching her robotic hoof forward for a hoofshake. I slowly took her hoof and gave a single shake. “Pleased to meet ya’.” she added. “You’re lucky I saw you falling. Those tunnelers’ would’ve torn you apart in seconds!” she said in an exaggerated tone. I simply raised an eyebrow, suggesting I had no idea what she was talking about. “Those things down there? The things that look like ponies, but not?” she asked. Comprehension dawned on me as flashbacks of falling into the darkness raced through my mind. “It’s a damn good thing they’re afraid of anything bright. Sends them running for their lives.” she said sitting on the floor in front of me. “So tell me about yourself. I’ve never seen a set of clothing like that before.” she said, pointing a hoof at the officer’s jacket draped over the end bedpost. “Looks pre-war.”

“Uhm...it’s...kind of hard to explain…” I said, rubbing the back of my head with a hoof. “B-But I want answers.” I added. Skav raised an eyebrow before speaking.

“Okay, I’ll answer what I can.” she said. “What’cha got?”

“First off: what the hell happened out there?” I asked. “Applewood wasn’t like this when I entered Fort Talon!”

Skav’s eyebrow remained raised, but this time a look of slight confusion crawled across her face. “When did you enter Talon?” she asked.

“October twenty-third at eight-fifteen in the morning. I was due to report there for my final training before I entered the Steel Rangers.” I replied. The color in Skav’s face seemed to drain a bit before she continued.

“W-well it’s October twenty-third...” she said. She seemed to be holding something back. I rolled a hoof, gesturing for her to continue. A look of uncertainty replaced the look of confusion as she bit her lip. “It’s been...at least two-hundred years since the zebras fired their megaspells at us...they fired at eight twenty-five...two-hundred years to the day...” she said, trailing off.

I simply stared at her for a bit, then gave a small chuckle. “Yeah right. We’re winning the war. It must’ve been a catastrophic earthquake or something. It’s not uncommon for Applewood to have them.” I said, shaking my head as my chuckle continued. A look of concern came across her face before she got up and walked to the wardrobe. She opened the top drawer and retrieved a gauntlet looking item from within. “Hey, that’s a PipBuck, right?” I asked. She simply nodded before turning the PipBuck on and showing me the Data screen.

“Look at the date.” she said simply. I leaned forward and squinted my eyes, looking at the white colored screen. Indeed it was October twenty-third, but something seemed off…

The date read October 23, 2277, 9:56 AM.

October 23, 2277, 9:56 PM.

October 23, 2277.

2277.

I felt something in my mind snap as I leaned back from the screen. There was no way that two-hundred years passed during my training.

There was just no way…

“Heh...you probably just forwarded the time settings on it…” I said, trying to pass it off as a prank. But Skav’s face didn’t turn into a joking smile. It stayed in a concerned look.

“It’s impossible to change the time on this. Believe me, I’ve had a friend of mine try and hack into this thing for scavenging purposes, but the coding and security is just too high-grade. It really has been two-hundred years.” she said in a slightly pleading voice, trying her hardest to convince me that this was the truth. Conflicting thoughts slammed into each other within my mind as I took in this information. Then, I thought back to the moment the simulation froze, to the moment the computer text appeared in the skies above.

“O:SP- Trial #3556449392736: Error. Simulation paused. Purging Initiate from Simulation. Please consult a EQAF technician to reset the program and resume your training.”

According to the programming, I was on Trial #3,556,449,392,736.

I should’ve only been on Trial #1 after completing the training.

But data doesn’t lie.

I had run through Operation: Spearpoint close to four trillion times, my memory being wiped at the end of each trial, being forced to start all over again and forgetting that I had already completed the trial previously.

And if this was the case, and what Skav was telling me was the truth, then that almost meant...

“Bucket.” I said simply.

“What?” Skav asked confused.

“Bucket. Now.” I demanded. I could feel my stomach starting to twist and churn within. Skav seemed to get the hint and ran out of the room into the other room, running back in a split second later. Burning bile began to race up my throat at I snatched the bucket with my hooves. I forced my face into the bucket just in time as I violently vomited into the bucket. Skav sat down next to me on the bed and rubbed my back with a gentle hoof, whispering comforting sayings as my stomach tried to kill me.

~ooo000ooo~

After giving me a couple of minutes to regain my composure, and offering me a candy mint for my breath, Skav led me into the main part of the building. As it turned out, she brought me back to her home after rescuing me from the Tunnelers and patched me up.

"Honestly, do you have any idea how difficult it is to patch up an abdominal puncture with just some lousy healing bandages?" Skav asked me as she sat me down on her couch. I raised an eyebrow and gave a meager shrug. "Very difficult! Your damn rib was sticking out and refused to be put back in. I practically had to kick it back in there before I could use any healing potions." she said, trotting over to a small bookshelf that had some boxed food sitting on the shelves. She grabbed a few boxes of mac and cheese from the limited selection and began to open them.

"You've had medical training?" I asked curiously. Skav simply scoffed and shook her head.

"Oh no. I had to grab a copy of Physicians Today and take a quick skim through." she said as she grabbed a stained cook pot from a metallic locker next to the bookshelf. "The section on compound fractures was very brief though...I hope I did everything right..." she said, trailing off as she worked on the boxes. After removing the stale mac and cheese from their boxes, Skav filled the pot and opened the powdered cheese packs, sprinkling the noodles with it. After trotting over to a metal sink and filling the pot with a bit of water, she carried the pot over to a dinged up oven and turned on the heat, then set the pot on the flame and left it to cook. "You don't feel like anything's out of place, do you?" she asked, turning to me as she asked the question.

I looked down at my gut and saw that there was a slightly bloodied patch of gauze taped down to my body. I used a hoof to feel around the area and discovered, much to my relief, that my rib was still inside my body. With a sigh of relief, I spoke. "Nope. Everything feels in place." I said with a smile.

"Oh good! Now...you're gonna have a rib sized scar on your gut. Healing potions maybe works of magic, but they don't completely heal everything. Scars are always left behind. But hey; you have a wicked story to tell if anypony sees the scar!" she said with an eager grin.

I raised a hoof and gestured to the one on her cheek. "And how'd you get that scar then?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, this little thing? I was scavenging in an underground research facility when a chunk of ceiling fell down and smacked me. Knocked me out of a couple minutes and left me with a little scar." she said with a simply shrug. The smell of mac and cheese filled the air and Skav went to get us some. After we ate, Skav gestured for me to follow her into another section of her home. We entered a storage room of sorts and we walked between shelves full of armor, weapons, and miscellaneous items. We soon came to a window of sorts and Skav rolled up a cloth drape.

"I'd like to welcome you to Skav's Emporium!" she said as the drape came up. The view was both amazing, yet terrifying. In the distance were the mountains of which the remains of the Applewood sign sat. But sitting immediately before us was the Divide itself. Skav's shop was situated at the southern end of the Divide, and had to be at least a couple hundred feet down from the surface, having been built right into the cliff-like surface and supported on catapult rails that must've been used at some point in the war. At this height, I could see down into the sea of pre-war city rubble. Barrel fires were scattered here and there to illuminate random areas of the darkness. Every now and then, I could spot a random tunneler emerging from their little dig spots and wander about for something to eat. Running along the west cliff wall was a scrap metal walkway that was enclosed by a chain link fence.

"What's that for?" I asked, gesturing to the walk way.

"That? Just something me and a few friends of mine threw together a couple years back. Makes it easier for ponies traveling through here to just get what they need and scram before the Divide lures them in deeper. It starts up in the Prance Street metro station and ends just outside the runway at the Mi Amore Cadenza International Skyport. Before that, travelers used to have to start from either the north or south end and fight their way to where they were going. Three-fourths of the time, nopony ever made it. Either the Tunnelers or the Marked Bucks tore them apart." she said.

"The Marked Bucks?" I asked. "There's another threat besides Tunnelers?"

"It's just the second of the long list of threats here. The original Marked Bucks were soldiers during the war who got caught down here in the Divide after the events of The Last Day. The constant sandstorms stripped away their furs, manes and tails and wore them down to nothing but their muscles. Nowadays, the Marked Bucks are ponies captured by them and skinned alive. The Bucks put their prey on a shit ton of pain killers so that all they feel is a minor tickling sensation as they're skinned. If you see a pony wearing either an old army uniform or armor that's been cobbled together, steer clear. They are vicious fighters and expert shots. It doesn't help that they don't have any eyelids so you're always in their sight." Skav explained. I could feel shivers run down my spine as an image of what a Marked Buck probably looked like flashed through my mind.

He looked like the Red Skull from the old Captain Equestria comics of my foalhood.

Just then, an idea lodged itself into my mind.

"You said you're a scavenger." I said simply.

"I do believe I did say that." Skav countered. "Why?"

"Is it safe to assume you know your a way around here?" I asked, looking to her.

"Like the back of my hoof!" Skav said as she swung up her left forehoof and looked at it. "Hey, when did that mole get there?" she asked aloud, scrutinizing the offending skin growth.

"Stay with me here. I was wondering if you could get me to Valley Estates." I offered.

"Valley Estates? Are you crazy?" she asked, her jaw falling open. "That's deep into Marked Buck territory!" she countered.

"I thought they just roamed the Divide." I said, raising an eyebrow.

Skav shook her head. "Oh no. They rule the surface too. The parts of the city that didn't fall into the Divide are practically crawling with them. Valley Estates just happens to be where they're main camp is set up." she said. "If we wanted to get there, we'd need some serious firepower."

"Well, you have weapons here. Why not use those?" I asked, gesturing back at her stock of wares. Skav gave a snort and then a chuckle before speaking.

"Those rusted boomsticks? They can barely fire without breaking or getting jammed up from the rust in the chambers. My repair guy got ripped to shreds by a group of tunnelers the other week, so I can't exactly get them fixed up anymore." she said, kicking her robotic hoof a bit. Silence fell between us as I thought of a way to get some better firepower.

"What's on your mind? You have one of those thinking faces going on."

"Where would be the best place to get the firepower we needed?" I asked. Skav was silent for a bit as she thought. Then, she ducked under the store counter and withdrew a tattered scroll of paper. Unrolling it, it turned out to be a detailed drawing of the Divide. There were locations marked with military style stars, while other locations were marked with images of city ruins. Skav's robotic hoof pointed out to a star labeled 'EQAF Arms Factory'.

"Our best bet would be here. Friend of mine found some shipping manifests that were due to go there. They mentioned a crate of prototype Balefire Egg launchers being shipped there for mass production." Skav said.

"Celestia above, those were rare to see in an armory. I can't imagine seeing a whole bunch in one place." I said with a chuckle.

"The only one I've ever found turned out to be called an Experimental BEDS, or Balefire Egg Delivery System. I only got to use it once and let me tell you, it was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. It shot at least eight of those eggs like a shotgun." Skav said, her eyes glazing over as she went into a flashback.

"Where did you even find eight of those eggs to use?" I asked. Skav's hoof moved from the EQAF Arms Factory label, east to another star labeled 'EQAF Experimental Warfare Labs'.

"They had managed to get a crate of them from a squad of covert spec-ops ponies who were sent into Zebra territory. It's also where I found the BEDS." Skav said. Moving her hoof from the Warfare Labs label, it traveled up north and out of the area of the Divide, into the remaining suburbs of Applewood. A house image was there, labeled Valley Estates. However, the house label was crossed out by a large red 'X'. "You want to get there." she said. Her hoof traces back to the Arms Factory label. "Then we gotta go there first and load up." she said simply. Skav looked to me with a smirk.

"So, what do ya' say, partner?"