Fallout Equestria: Beyond

Fallout Equestria: Beyond

Prologue:

Scarlet Moonlight dashes past me, a mischievous grin on her face and a prototype HoloBuck floating in her magical grip in front of her. What the hell has she done this time?! I feel a shiver of fear pass through my body and my stomach churns. “Scarlet!?”

She stops running, her blue bangles rattling against one another. I don't really know why she loves those bangles so much. They're strange.

"Yes, Blaze?" She asks me.

"What in the hay are you doing?

"Just takin' a look at the new HoloBuck. No issues there, right?"

"Ummm… Yeah, yeah, there are a couple. Like how do you plan to explain this to the Overmare and avoid getting in trouble?”

“The same as every other time, but better.” The same as every other time, but better never ends well.

“Look, just give it to me and I'll put it back.” I sigh, scared that I'll get caught and blamed but also thinking it’s better than Scarlet being blamed again. Being so loyal to my friends isn't always a good thing, though.

She makes a pouting face but gives in. “Awww. You're no fun.” The HoloBuck floats over to me and I take it in my own magical grip, not even straining because of how light it is.

“Right, I'll put this back, you just… I dunno, go do something that won't get you in trouble. And that isn't going to get you blamed for this, if they find out.”

She walks off, slumping very slightly, barely enough for me to notice. Once her red coat and blue tail vanish around the corner, down the grey hallway, I turn back around towards the Overmare’s office.

I walk up the hallway, keeping to the shadows. My black coat should help to hide me, if somepony does happen to walk past. Though the glowing green mane and tail is a bit of a giveaway and probably makes the benefits of the black coat practically non-existent.

I hear hoofsteps down the hall and almost jump. My heart starts beating a couple of thousand times a second. I slide quietly behind a rusty, old vending machine that’s empty and obviously badly maintained.

I huddle up against it and the wall, my mane and tail hidden mostly by my own body. I float the HoloBuck behind the vending machine and drop it, so I don't need to hold it and my horn won't glow. The wall and vending machine feel strange bristling up against my coat and makes me feel slightly cold and uncomfortable.

An intimidating-looking guard stallion, outfitted in the usual Stable 13 guards’ uniform walks past. I can even smell him! He probably hasn’t taken a shower in at least a week. I freeze up, my breaths shallow and light, though it doesn't feel like I'm breathing enough and I close my eyes, as if that will stop him from seeing me, or it would make him disappear. Please, Celestia, don't let him see me…

It takes the longest minute of my life for his hoofsteps to finally fade. That was terrifyingly close! I move back into the hallway and look either direction, both ways being clear of anything. I take the HoloBuck again and take a moment for my heart to stop racing, for me to calm down and to take several deep breaths. Mmm, delicious air.

I continue walking down the hallway, the freezing cold concrete burning my hooves. I take a deep breath and cautiously round the corner to the door of the Overmare’s office. Nopony there. Phew. I exhale heavily, probably loudly enough for the whole Stable to hear.

Luckily Scarlet was in too much of a rush to close the Overmare’s door. Not that I couldn’t unlock it myself. Come to think of it, how did she get in? She can’t lockpick. She probably snuck in behind some other bloke. Although, where did the other bloke and the Overmare go? She does tend to go missing after some stallion needs to see her and then she seems to be ok the very next day, or even hour. I guess I should take the opportunity while she’s out, though.

I walk into the office. It’s ridiculously small, as always. It hasn’t actually changed much since the last time. The same black swivel chair under the same wooden table populated with the same photos of most of the stallions in the Stable. I still don’t know why she has photos of them. The stallions that are in the photos don’t usually want to talk about it, for what reason I don’t know.

The shelves around the edges of the room are still full to the brim with financial documents, letters from us school fillies and colts, Stable Census information and some other sheets of paper with writing on them. Out the window, behind the desk, I can see the entirety of the Stable’s atrium. It’s lucky the glass up here is only one-way. Why that is the case, I don’t know but it means nopony will see me up here from the Atrium.

I float the HoloBuck onto the desk, hoping that I’ve placed it in the same spot it was in before Scarlet had stolen it. I begin to walk towards the door, before I hear a loud creak from the left. Dammit! I should’ve checked the other door!

I dart quietly under the desk, my heart again going at a couple of thousand beats a second. I can hear the voice of the Overmare and the gruff voice of a stallion. The Overmare is a relatively tall pink-maned and pink-coated, green eyed unicorn. She walks into the office, looking slightly dazed.

“Sorry to interrupt our… fun time honey, but I think I left the door open. And I really wanted to try something with these ropes~” Why in Equestria she was talking like that when all she seemed to be doing was tying something together, I have no idea.

“Ok, fine.” says the stallion just outside the door, as the Overmare closes the main door and walks to her desk… Towards me… Oh no.

She reaches down under her desk with a pink-coated hindleg, seeming to be looking for something. The rope, I guess. I move myself quietly around, avoiding her hoof and float the rope towards her.

She eventually finds and takes it out of my magical grip, then walks out the door with the rope coil in her magical grip, floating next to her and she closes the door.

But a second after that incident finishes, I see a flash from behind me. I quickly look round but don't see anything. I spin in a circle, like a dog trying to bite his own tail and I finally see it.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I'm so happy that I almost smash my head into the desk and start shouting "Yes!" Aloud until somepony walks up to me and asks if I'm ok. There is an image of a cloak with a silhouetted pony in it on my flanks. My cutie mark!

Ok, I'll be all happy about this later. For now, I need to get out of here. I get out from under the desk and walk out the main door. That was... surprisingly easy.