Fallout Equestria: The Kingdom of Ice

Learning the basics

I was walking through the dry grassy plains until I came upon a small ranch, it had a few buildings around it including a little shed, a decently sized house in the center and a large windmill. My eyes light up as I found signs of civilization and ran towards it. I excitedly looked around and although the place looked very old and decrepit, I was still excited. I didn't enter any of the buildings because I wanted to look at the whole ranch first before I investigated the inside. I walked over to the shed and then my wonder turned to horror as I saw the body of a pony slumped against the wall with its head split open! I recoiled and turned around and saw another body. It looked ugly and mangled, staring up and me with lifeless eyes, and a single hole in its neck. I gagged as this was a horrible sight, but that was only the beginning!

The body then rose to its feet and slowly lumbered towards me. I turned around to flee but then the slumped body behind me began to speak. It simply said “Murderer” and began chanting. I started walking backwards away from both of them. This time the other body that was walking towards me began chanting, “Murderer...Murderer...Murderer” Over and over. I was terrified! Dead bodies are not supposed to move or talk! I thought to myself as I looked around and saw three more bodies, looking very similar to the other moving body. They too were shambling towards me but their injuries were worse as they were missing large chunks of their heads. But even they were chanting, “Murderer...Murderer...Murderer…” I checked my saddle bags for a weapon, but they were empty. I then heard a loud cheering behind me, it was the same chant, but this time is was being screamed by thousands of voices “Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!”

I spun around and saw that I was in the Inter-Stable Stadium, where normally the annual hoofball championship was played between Stable 56 and 57, however this time it was just me in the center of the field, and all the seats were packed. I spun around and looked around at the large crowd all chanting “MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER!” I panicked.

“NO! I didn't mean to! It was an accident!” I screamed, but to no avail. But the chant began to change from “Murderer!” to “Murder her!” My eyes widened as hundreds of thousands of ponies began chanting, “MURDER HER! MURDER HER! MURDER HER!” I then heard the loud and distinctive sound of a 10mm pistol being cocked and ready.

*CHICK-CHINK*

The sound was deafening and overpowered the sounds of the crowd. I turned around and found myself staring right down the barrel of Soft Heart’s 10mm pistol. “Wha-what are you doing?” I asked, my voice choked with fear and sadness.

Soft Heart looked away and closed her eyes, her face covered with anguish, a mixture of guilt, sadness, anger, and betrayal. “I don’t wanna do this gal. But I got no choice.” I saw a tear roll down her face. Her voice was the only thing I heard, the roar of the crowd became muted and blurry, reduced to background noise.

“Soft Heart! Please don’t do this! I’m not a murderer! I didn't mean to kill that pony!”

“Please stop...don’t make this harder for me…” she said shutting her eyes harder, tears rolling down her face. She then whispered “I’m sorry.” The last thing I heard was the gunshot.

<***>

I shot up wide awake, the gunshot still ringing in my ear. I looked around and realized I was still in the convenience store. I instantly took a sigh of relief. Just a dream. I thought to myself, although I was still slightly panicked.

I noticed that it was light outside, the daylight flooding into the store. The fire had burnt out, but I noticed that Buck was nowhere to be seen. I stood up and grabbed my saddle bags, placing them back on my back. All the while I looked around for Buck, seeing if he was around but after a few seconds of looking, I could not find him so I walked out of the store. To my surprise, Buck was standing outside eating some fruit I assumed he had in his bags.

“Oh hey you’re up, let’s get heading to Mo-Tel! it shouldn't be too much farther now, maybe an hours walk?” He said, he didn’t seem tired and seemed all too eager to get going. I checked my pipbucks clock, it was 6:23am. Life in the stable taught me that no pony was supposed to have that much energy at six in the morning. It certainly didn't help that I had woken up from a nightmare, all the death I had witnessed had affected me more than I thought.

“Hey, you alright there?” He asked, I guess I wasn't being as subtle as I thought I was. I shrugged, “Y-yeah I’m fine...just tired is all.” I said, it wasn't a total lie as I was kinda tired, however the events of the nightmare still weighed heavily on my mind.

“Alright then, let’s keep moving, just follow the road here.” He said as he started walking. “Oh and just a heads up, I will take the lead, bandits like to patrol the roads. Which, sadly enough is the safer option, all sorts of wild animals run around the wilderness, and at least bandits will make a lot of noise when they attack, instead of sneaking up on you.” I nodded and followed his lead.

<***>

We had been walking for some time, Mo-Tel was visible in the distance, although still kinda far away. I had spent the entire time thinking about my nightmare. I wanted to get it out of my head, but the image of Soft Hearts face was burned into my mind. Iit was the only thing I remembered about it in such high detail.

I tried to hide the fact that all the death I had seen was bothering me, but it must not of worked since Buck looked over and spoke to me. “Hey, word of advice. Your gun, it isn't a deterrent on it’s own. Yesterday, I was able to disarm you so easily because I could tell that you weren't going to shoot me, you don’t have it in you. You got to look like you mean it when you point a gun at somepony, otherwise it won’t have any affect.” I sighed. He was right, in fact, since I already shot some pony I was even more hesitant to shoot again. The thought of taking away another life scared me.

“That's something you're gonna have to get used to doing if you're gonna be out here.” He continued.

I sighed again, thinking his words over as we kept walking.

<***>

We arrived at Mo-Tel. It wasn't much of a town like I thought it would be, really it was an “L” shaped building with a chain link fence around it, it was two stories high and had several doors lining the walls on both floors, next to the building was a smaller 2 room office sized building. Above the main building was a large sign that read “MOTEL” however it seemed that the sign was broken as between the O and the T, there was long electrical spark that resembled a dash mark, the spark flickered occasionally. In the courtyard, there were a few structures made out of scrap and junk. A few ponies were wandering around, some were sitting down on makeshift chairs and others were talking to each other.

Buck walked up to the fence gate. “Hey, Iron Sight! It’s Buck! Open up!” From the office came a yellow unicorn mare with a blue mane and tail, the mane was cut short, but her tail was long. Her eyes were also blue, but what caught my was her cutiemark. It was a gun with all its parts exposed and blown out like a diagram. The top part of her face from the muzzle up was blackened from what I could tell grease, she also had grease stains all over her, along with black marks that looked like powder. She walked over to the gate and looked at Buck and then me. I nervously smiled and waved

The mare sneered “Who’s your friend there Buck?”

“Well, this little lady is a stable mare I found wandering around couple miles away, figured I’d at least take her to town”

The mare chuckled “So, you finally found somepony to satisfy your stable mare fetish? I hope you got to fill your hero complex and saved this damsel from distress!”

Buck rolled his eyes “Yeah yeah, just open the gate.” The pony chuckled to herself and opened up the gate, Buck walked in and towards a group of earth ponies in the center of the court yard and started talking to them, leaving me with the pony with a gun diagram on her flank. “So, um...who are you?” I nervously asked, still not too sure about my situation, but at least these ponies didn’t seem too crazy or psychopathic.

“I’m Iron Sight, the best damn gunsmith in the wasteland.” She said confidently, however it seemed I spoke too soon. I was now talking to a pony who crafted the weapons that other ponies use to slaughter each other. “Ponies far and wide seek me out for my services, but I don’t come cheap!” She continued. “And I’m part time sheriff and mayor of Mo-Tel, home of many skilled workers and traders.” She seemed very proud of herself. “So what’s your name stable mare?”

“I’m uh...Silver Light” I responded.

“Silver Light huh…” She repeated, looking at my jumpsuit “From stable 57? Interesting...So what are you good at? I heard all stable ponies are basically useless with the exception of their special talent.”

“I’m a computer pony...I fix and build computers.” I answered, I saw her eyes light up.

“A technician eh? A fresh out of the stable mare who is also a computer tech?” She whistled. “You’d fetch a high price if a slaver got a hold of you, ponies out here love stable mares, especially ones right out of the stable, they’re fresh and clean and usually helpless. Technicians are also valuable, lot of old tech out here, having a slave who was an expert at old tech is quite handy.” She chuckled. “You better consider yourself lucky that Buck has a weird hero complex and decided to take you here instead of doing something smart and selling you for a high price!”

“Wait, not only do ponies slaughter each other out here, but they also own slaves?!?” I was shocked and horrified. Iron Sight however laughed “Welcome to the real world girl! Besides, you are quite the commodity, if he wasn't the way he is, I’d offer to buy you from him, I use a computer a lot and you look like you’d be good at keeping my bed warm.” She smirked. I gulped. She then laughed and walked away.

Shortly after, Buck walked back to me. “Don’t mind Iron Sight, she's a good pony, she just likes messing with ponies.” I took a sigh of relief. “So ponies don’t actually take slaves and I’m not prime slave material?”

Buck shook his head “Oh no, that’s all true, you would fetch a very high price on the slave market.”

I was scared, I couldn't believe that this was true. “So let me ask you something.” He continued “Were you heading anywhere when I found you?”

“I was trying to find Stalliongrad.” He nodded “Well before you go there, it’s quite a ways away, so I’d stock up on supplies if I were you. Talk to the ponies around town, see if you can save up some caps to buy some ammo from Iron Sight for that gun of yours.”

“Caps?” I asked, a little confused. He sighed. “Out here, we use bottle caps as currency. Just how things are out here. But listen, I gotta take care of things, some raiders are causing trouble down south,” His magic readjusted his sunglasses “I gotta take out the trash.” With that he started walking away and outside the fence, and kept going, his weapon floating beside him.

<***>

It was some time later that I found my myself sitting at one of the tables outside, counting the caps I had. I was told by Iron Sight that I could stay with her while I was here and for the ammo I needed would be two hundred caps for a decent amount and have extra left over for supplies. I sighed, I had thirty one caps in my bags. I took a bite out of one of my apples while I examined one of the caps. It was just an old bottle cap, it amazed me that these were considered currency. I finished up my apple and put the cap away. Before I did anything, I needed to get something important out of the way, water. I still hadn't had a single drop of straight up water since I left, relying on the apples to keep me hydrated, but they wouldn't last. I approached a red earth pony with a green mane and tail, his cutie mark was fire.

“Excuse me, hello?” He looked over at me. “Yeah, what do you want?”

“Where would I get water?” I asked a little nervously, he looked at me then looked up, appearing to be in thought. “Well, Stalliongrad is right next to a river, that’s a good source, it’s where we get our water.” He said pointing to a big tank inside the fenced compound. “We take it to the river every now and then for easy convenient water.” He looked at my stable jumpsuit “Tell you what, I’ll give you some extra tips, water from the river is the safest place to drink from. Still water you can drink, but you should boil the water first, you never know what could be living in there. Oh, and snow is good, just melt it.”

“Thanks, um, what is your name?” I asked.

“They call me Matches, I am a blacksmith, I work with metal products and sell metal products. Like armor, or knives, or anything metal really.”

“Cool...um thanks!” I walked away, I wasn't expecting to get some good information. I walked over to the tank, it was barrel shaped, with a metal slide on the bottom. I pulled the slide back and water poured out. I quickly pulled out the empty soda bottle and filled it up before closing the slide again. I took a drink of the water, but almost spit it back out. It tasted awful, nothing compared to the water from the stable. Again I regretted taking a container of water with me.

“Hey! Silver bitch! Come here!” Iron Sight called out to me. “It’s Silver Light.” I said walking over to her.

“Yeah, yeah, anyway, wanna make some caps?”

I nodded.

“You can help me out here.” She floated up a few long weapons and put them on the table she was sitting at. “These are assault rifles, now I have some bigger projects I need to take care of. What I need you to do, are simple repairs, anypony can do it. These rifles have damaged barrels and they need to be replaced.” She floated up a couple of gun barrels and put them next to the assault rifles. “I had ol’ Matches fashion me some new ones, so what I need you to do is to take out the old barrel and put it in a pile, then put the new barrel in. Take the old barrels to Matches and if he can, he will repair them and the ones he can’t he will then recycle.” She put a few more rifles on the table, totaling to five. “Here I’ll show you how it’s done” she said picking up one of the rifles. “These are standard Equestrian military assault rifles, disassembly is easy enough, but for we need, all you need to do is focus on the barrel and twist it to the left until it comes out...Then take this new barrel,” She said preforming the action. “And screw it in...and bam!” She laid the rifle down away from the others “There you go, do the rest and I’ll pay you fifty caps. Tell me when you are done and I might have some more work for you.” She walked away to her office. I looked at the rifles. This is my life now? Fixing tools of death for currency? I thought to myself as I got to work, taking out old barrels and putting in the new ones. Once I picked up the last rifle, I saw an earth pony took a stick and stuck it in Matches’ furnace and went around lighting fires in several barrels that were inside the courtyard. I put on my coat as it was getting cold and finished up my job.

I took the old barrels and gave them to Matches before heading to Iron Sights office. Iron Sight was sitting at a computer, looking frustrated. “Uh hey...I finished fixing the rifles.” She looked over at me. “Oh? Tell you what. Fifty more caps if you fix my damn computer. Things been on the fritz and I use it to record my transactions. I like keeping a record of things. You’re a techie mind taking a look at it?”

I nodded. “Sure.” I sat down at her computer and looked it over. The screen was frozen. I opened it up to look at the insides and was shocked at what I found. The insides were caked with dust and dirt. Just as I figured, 200 years with little use hasn't been good for the machine. I took my pipbuck and hooked it up to the CPU to browse through it. I ran a defrag program and turned on the monitor after it finished doing its thing. “There, that seemed to clear it up. At some point you should clean it out if you are going to use it regularly, all that dust and dirt could potentially cause a fire if you use this thing too much. “

Iron Sight nodded “Thanks, here” she floated me over a little sack full of caps “One hundred caps for your services.” She sat at her computer and typed a few things into it. “I’m going to turn in, when you are tired come into my room, I put a blanket on the floor.” She turned around and walked into another room and shut the door.

I checked my pipbuck, it was about nine o’clock. After I put on my trousers I walked out looked around, looking to see if anypony else was awake and needing work. Several barrels had flames in them lighting up most of Mo-Tel.

“Hey stable mare!” A voice called out to me, I looked up and saw a dark blue earth pony, he was wearing a medium jacket and a red beret. “Heard you need some caps!”

I nodded “Yeah, got some work?” The pony chuckled. “It turns out I do, got twenty caps for you if you help me out.” I headed up the stairs of the main building to the second floor. “What do you need me to do?” He started walking off. “Follow me to the roof.”

On the roof he showed me a long weapon attached to a swivel “That’s my sniper rifle! Here’s what I want you to do, man my post while I take a nap, I didn't get much sleep last night so just look out for any suspicious ponies and shoot any that look like they want to threaten our settlement.” I gasped.

“Now hold on a minute! I-I can’t shoot anypony! I’m not a murderer!” I retaliated.

He sighed “I didn't realize you were that fresh out of the stable. Look shooting ponies is something you’re gonna have to get used to eventually out here, so might as well start now right?” He pat me on the back. “You’ll be fine! Tell you what, because I’m such nice guy, I’ll make it thirty caps! I’ll be back in a few hours!” And walked away. I sighed and looked through the scope.

<***>

Four hours. Four hours spent staring at nothing. Four hours on the roof in the cold. Four hours wasted, and for what? Thirty caps? I understood why he wanted to pass this job off to somepony else. I was cold, my hooves and head were the coldest. I needed to find boots and something for my head. I shivered. I heard hoofsteps behind me. Turning around I saw the dark blue pony.

“Hey there! Thanks for taking my shift! Here is your caps.” He gave me thirty caps and sat behind the rifle. I headed downstairs and into the office building. I slowly opened the door to Iron Sight’s room. Inside it looked much like a workshop. By the wall was a large work bench, on the bench was what I could identify as a sniper rifle, however it was much, much bigger. There were 3 bullets standing next to the gun that also were very big. Much bigger than the bullets that my revolver used. On the wall in front of the workbench was a corkboard, on the board were several nails and hanging on those nails were several different types of tools and cleaning tools. Other tools were resting on the bench itself around the rifle. Around the walls were boxes and crates full of guns, in one corner there was a barrel full of various types of rifles. All around the floor were gun parts just strewn about. The room was lit by a single lamp above the bench, however it was pretty bright emitting a powerful white light across the room. Overall it was a mess. On the opposite wall of the workbench was Iron Sight’s bed, which wasn’t really a bed per-say, it was more of a single pony cot. I looked down next to her cot was indeed a blanket on the floor, although it was covered in grease and gun powder. I decided to take my coat and trousers off as it was surprisingly warm in her room. I walked slowly and carefully to avoid knocking into gun parts on the floor so not to make much noise. I laid down on the blanket and quickly went to sleep.

<***>

I woke up to the sound of metal clinking. I slowly opened my eyes to see Iron Sight standing on her hind legs hunched over the workbench working with her hooves on something, several gun parts were floating around her, her magical aura glowing around the parts. The large gun was leaning up against the wall beside her.

I stretched, one of my legs bumping a gun part, making a noise. “Ah you’re up! good! Help me out would you? I need the top receiver of an equestrian assault rifle. I dropped it and I need to focus on these tiny parts.”

I stood up and yawned “I don’t really know what that is..” Iron Sight sighed. “Ugh, just um, look at some of the assault rifles in that barrel, like just look where the magazine and trigger are. The top part of that.” I looked around looking for a part that looked like what she was talking about. Seeing the part in question, I floated it up and showed it to her. “This?”

“Yes! Thank you.” she said and went back to working. I left the room and checked the time, It was about nine o'clock. I still needed about forty caps before I had the suggested amount of caps to buy ammo and supplies. I walked outside and sat at a table, eating an apple for breakfast. One left. I looked around, looking at the ponies coming out of their rooms. I spotted a dark red earth pony with a black mane and tail, he was wearing overalls so I couldn't see his cuite mark. I called out to him “Hey! You in the overalls! Come over here!” I was little nervous speaking out. I wasn't used to talking loudly to other ponies, most ponies came to me for conversation, rarely the other way around, but I needed the caps. The pony walked up to me, looking me over. “Hey there stable mare, what can I do for you?”

“I need about forty caps, any idea how I can get that?” I asked, I was still a tad nervous, but I don’t think he noticed as he put a hoof on his chin “Hmmm...about an hours walk that way.” He said pointing outside the courtyard, “A special type of flower my dad needs to sell as apart of his specialty items, he mostly sells them to pretentious asshole rich ponies, but hey! It brings in the caps! But yeah, pick some of those flowers and I’ll pay you the forty caps. Deal?” I nodded and agreed. “Deal.” I went on my way.

<***>

I had been walking for about an hour when I saw the flowers in question. They were tall plants with many purple flowers. I walked over to them and started picking the flowers. After I had picked most of the flowers I heard an ominous growling noise behind me. I froze and looked down at my pipbucks E.F.S. Three red dots were behind me. I slowly turned around and saw three wolf like creatures. They were made out of tall grass and wooden logs and sticks, seemingly held together by magical energy. I was unfamiliar with this type of animal, but it was clear that they weren't friendly. I took a step back slipping my revolver out. “N-now now...j-just calm down…” I didn't want to shoot, I didn't want to kill an animal and on top of that, I didn't know if my bullets would even damage the creatures. I raised my revolver in the air and fired a shot, hoping the noise would scare them off. It worked...partially... two of them ran off, but the one in front just flinched then barked at me. I pointed my gun at it swiftly backing away. It lunged at me and I fired, my bullet stopped it in mid lunge and it fell to the ground, bits of stick and wood blowing apart and flung in the air. But that wasn't over, it simply got up, a hole in its wooden jaw. I did the only thing that made sense and ran back towards Mo-Tel. But it started chasing me and was keeping up with me, even though I was running at top speed, barking viciously at me.

After about twenty minutes of running I was starting to tire, and the wolf was still following me and getting close, I turned back to look at it when I heard loud booming noise.

*CRACK-COW*

And in that instant the creature exploded, bits of grass and wood flew everywhere and the magical energy dissipated. I stopped in my tracks, catching my breath. I was confused. I kept moving, but kept looking back at where the creature had once been. It was nothing more than a pile of grass and wood bits.

<***>

When I got back to Mo-Tel, Iron Sight was waiting for me at the gate. Her large sniper rifle was floating beside her. Looking at it in a better light, her sniper rifle resembled a really large tube with a trigger on the bottom and a scope on top. “You're welcome by the way!”

“What?” I asked a little confused. She laughed. “I saved you from that timber wolf, with my custom homemade anti machine rifle!...Or anti material rifle. Same thing, just personal preference.”

I walked up to her “So you made that?” I asked. She proudly nodded. “Yep! I call it...The Fuck You! “ She said examining her weapon. “Because it's the perfect response to any question or situation, just fuck you! and BOOM!” She laughed and walked back into her office, her weapon in tow. I just shook my head and continued on. I spotted the red unicorn with overalls and walked up to him and put the flowers on the table “There...you could of warned me about the wolves!” I was a little upset that he didn't bother to even mention the deadly animals that lived in the area.

He nervously laughed. “Oh yeah...timberwolves huh? I uh...kinda forgot about those...but yeah thanks! here you go.” He gave me the forty caps and took the flowers into a room on the first floor. I turned around and counted my caps, I had about two hundred, so I went to Iron Sight.

<***>

After I was done with her, I had about one hundred and fifty two caps left and bought thirty bullets for my revolver. Now I needed supplies. I saw an older pony out in the courtyard, he was brown with a yellow mane and tail, though it was clear he wouldn't have much of his mane left soon. He was packing large saddle bags. I walked up to him and asked “Excuse me sir. Do you have any food available for purchase?” He looked up at me and grinned “I do indeed! I happen to have several packaged foods.” My face lit up and I bought a few packaged pies. I looked at one of the pies. “These look good! You made these?” He nodded. “Yep, a pony long time ago showed me this recipe and I've been selling them on the side since.” I thought for a second and on a hunch I asked. “This pony...his name didn't happen to be Blue Berry was it?”

He thought for a second. “Come to think of it, yeah, yeah his name was Blue Berry! How did you know?” My eyes lit up at this and I gasped “Well, that is my father! I left the stable looking for him!”

The old pony laughed “Well little lady I’d say you got a real late start! It’s been a LONG time since I even heard about him! He stayed here at Mo-Tel for a few months long time ago, I was running this town at the time and offered him a place to stay. He payed me in pies, he made the best damn pie I've ever had! Even I can’t replicate his pies even though he showed me how to do it!” He chuckled.

“Can you tell me where to go? So I can track him down better?” I asked. I was excited. I certainly did not expect to actually find some information about my father, especially so early in my search.

“Yeah...yeah I remember he set off for Stalliongrad, can’t remember why though, I figure you’re planning on heading out there huh?” I nodded excitedly in response. “Thought so. Well, I should give you some information on the world. While large gangs don’t rule the land like they used to. A lot of crazy religious cults have sprung up and taken their place. I don’t know much about all of them, but I’ll give you a run down of the major ones. First off there's the Agents of Discord. A crazy but harmless lot, they just run around causing mischief and being a general nuisance. They hope to bring back Discord the god of chaos by running around causing constant mischief. Second there's the Order of Tirek, these are the ones you want to look out for. Very aggressive and dangerous, and rumors are they sacrifice ponies to their dark lord. From what I heard they are searching for the gate of Tartarus so they can free Tirek. Or so that's the legend that somewhere out there are the gates of Tartarus and an ancient evil is locked away in there. But these crazies want to free them! Anyway, then there's the third group, kind of a combination of a gang and a religious cult, they call themselves the NLR or New Lunar Republic, they tend to stay underground and don’t do much, often operating at night. They tend to keep to themselves, but I wouldn't trust them. Shady characters. Just keep your wits about you out there.”

I thanked him and stopped by Iron Sights office and told her I was on my way, she came out her office to see me out. “If you ever you have any gun problems or questions you come back you hear? And if you meet a gunsmith in Stalliongrad named Greased Bolt tell him that I told him to go fuck himself!” I recoiled a bit. “Wh-why?”

“That punk thinks he's the best gunsmith in the wastes, and its bullshit! I’m the best! No contest and that fuck thinks that just because he can build a three barreled machine gun that he's the best? Oh no! Fuck him!”

I chuckled at her request. I was starting to get used to casual profanity. I waved her good-by and headed off.