Wasted Days: A Fallout Equestria Tale

Wasted Days

A Fallout: Equestria Tale

Written By: Jeff Lincoln

Based upon Fallout: Equestria written by Kkat and Wasted Days Roleplaying SIM on Second Life

Chapter One: Amnesia

I can’t remember what alerted me first, simply waking up in a ditch, or the fact I couldn't  remember anything before waking up in a ditch. The area around me simply felt…off. Like I didn’t belong there or something. I couldn’t put my hoof on it. What I could put my hoof on was the fact that my head hurt like hell.

Getting past that initial shock took much longer than I had thought it was. I didn’t know where I was. How I got there. Hell, I couldn’t even remember WHO I was. Just that I was naked, in pain, and really confused.

Taking in my surroundings I couldn’t see much in the direction I was facing when I woke up. Just endless mountain ranges and dry desert. But turning my head around, I saw a rather tall makeshift wall behind me and a single guard-post near the only opening nearby. The guard-post was currently unmanned, but that could change at any moment and I REALLY didn’t want to press my luck.

Pushing off of the ground I wobbled a bit, dizziness setting in. It was momentary but boy did it make the world spin. At the time I didn’t even feel the pain on my head that was caused by something in the recent past. But I fought through the dizziness and shook my head multiple times. The dizziness passed and I took my first step, so far so good.

I took another. And another. And another. So my legs worked fine. It was then I had my first coughing fit. I felt like I had just woken up the entire world with how loud and intense it was. Goddesses did I feel sick.

“Celestia help me…how did I even get here?” I quietly asked aloud as I looked up at the guard-post. Still empty, good.

Figuring I didn’t have much time before it became occupied I moved inside the fenced area. And inside the fence was, at what I thought at the time, a very run down town. The first building I laid eyes upon was what I would later find out a Gun Store. In dark lettering above the building it read Shot Trotters. There were ponies inside, armed to the teeth with guns. A concept once again, I would learn later on. For now, they just simply looked intimidating.

So, best to avoid that place for now. I wandered further into town, catch the eye of another pony. He too was armed, but much less than the ones in Shot Trotters. I was tempted to simply freeze in place until the Pony moved on. But that would just draw even more attention to myself and I pressed on.

The pony paid me no mind and kept walking. I let out the longest held breath I could have as I continued.

“That was too close.” I said quietly. Moving forward I took more of my surroundings in. The building directly to my left looked moderately fine. Multiple levels connected by stairs. And on each level a door every five or so meters. I guess the rooms must have been rather numerous to need so many doors. I couldn’t tell if anypony was in the rooms, but that wasn’t really my business was it?

I could see more buildings further down the road, but my curiosity didn’t peak that high at the time to begin exploring the whole town. I needed to find out exactly where the hell I was. Then it struck me, I needed to find someplace that ponies would go to converse.

As if fate handed the answer to me, almost immediately to my right was a Tavern. I couldn’t remember what the word meant, but it looked promising. I moved towards the large building and peered inside. Surely enough, there were ponies inside. Many of them too armed with guns. A few of them even looked identical, right down to their cutie marks.

I approached the door and was getting ready to enter when I paused. What do I say? HOW do you even say that you can’t remember who you are or where you are? Surely that must seem a bit odd and looney doesn’t it? I’ll be laughed at for sure and told to leave.

I sighed and hung my head, I didn’t exactly have anything to lose. I pushed my hoof against the door and it swung open with a creak. Immediately I regretted my decision, I instantly felt the eyes of everypony in the room staring in my direction. Oh Goddesses, why’d even think of coming in here? Now I just look like a fool.

I let the door close behind me and I moved off to the side. I looked at the floor mostly, but eventually I brought my head up. And for the first time, I saw my reflection. My coat was bright orange and my mane and tail a duller color of orange. On my flank was a mark, a Thunder cloud with lightning coming off of it. And on my forehead stood a horn.

My purple eyes staring back at me, lost in the reflection I hadn’t even noticed the mare approach me from behind. Her voice broke me from my soul-gazing.

“Hello, but can I help you?” she asked of me. Turning to face her I was stunned. She was the only one to approach me and I couldn’t even manage a sentence in that moment.

She cocked her head to the side and asked, “Do you need some help?”

The only response I could think of was, “I…don’t know…where am I?” Might as well get that out of the way sooner rather than later.

What surprised me was that before the mare before me could even reply, a rather bubbly orange mare spoke up from the table almost five feet away. “You’re in The Two Bears Tavern silly! Don’t you know how to read?” she asked rather rapidly, some words even sounding as if they were simply strung together rather than spoken individually.

I felt a bit stupid at the remark. Not so much for the fact that yeah, I could’ve phrased the question a bit better. But that I also sounded like a filly learning how to walk for the first time and had fallen on its face.

The Mare in front of me gave me a look of confusion, though it could have been a look that also read as if she had approached the stupidest pony in Equestria. I felt even more stupid at that point and my ears dropped to a lower angle as I lowered my head. I hadn’t even noticed the mare working her Pipbuck, trying to see if I was hurt or something.

“I meant this town…” I replied quietly without even looking up at the orange pony.

The Mare in front of me this time spoke first, “You’re in Little Cliffside…are you alright?” Alright? I was the furthest thing from ‘alright.’ I wanted to say, ‘I just woke up in a ditch and can’t remember a damn thing, do I look ‘alright’ to you?’ But I couldn’t. Something inside me told me to just keep it simple and don’t be an absolute jerk about it.

“No…not really…unless not remembering anything about who you are or where you are is considered to be ‘alright.” I replied looking up, once again feeling to be about the size of a pea. The small group nearest to me rolled their eyes.

But of course, the bubbly orange pony giggled and replied with, “Hey! At least you’re alive! Not many ponies can say the same!” While, yeah she was totally right, she was totally wrong. Can living without your memories really be considered as ‘being alive’ when you can’t remember your life from before five minutes ago?

My only response to her was, “Yeah…I guess.” Even I could tell how uncertain I was. And surely the rest of the ponies in the immediate area could. The two green twins shook their heads in tandem and the other orange pony just remained focused on her conversation with them. I gathered from the small bits of conversation that she was sisters with the other orange pony and had just met the two green ponies.

“Would you like to join Skye and me?” the Mare in front of me asked, “You can sit and talk about what happened if you’d like.” She offered with a hint of kindness in her voice, even if it was also covered in confusion.

I nodded slowly, “Yeah…okay…but I can’t really remember anything…so it’d probably be pretty boring.”

Her response was something I didn’t expect, laughter. “I don’t mind! In fact I could use a little more boredom in my life!” I honestly had no idea how to respond to that. What could be so adventuresome that someone actually WANTED boredom to come freely to them? I moved slowly following the mare to the table. Where a single blue pony sat, waiting for the mare to return.

“I’m Flip by the way, this is Skye. What’s your name?” she asked of me. I assumed she just forgot that I said I couldn’t remember anything and replied quietly.

“I can’t remember.” I looked at my flank moments later, taking in the mark. “Though I think it had Thunder in it.” I said skeptically. The thought made sense, I had an image of a Thundercloud on my flank, so maybe Thunder was my name? Was the best guess I could come up with then and I was kind of glad I had something to go off of, rather than fumbling around without some clue.

Flip quickly filled Skye in, “He can’t remember anything. I think it might be some kind of amnesia.” She took her seat a moment later as I finally made it to the table. I felt suddenly small again.

Skye looked me up and down, nodding each time, “Well until you can remember your name, Thunder it is. Makes sense considering your Cutie Mark.” Well at least I managed to get that part right. I sighed openly as I took a seat.

“Flip, we should probably head out soon.” I guess I had caught them both at the end of their day or morning. I couldn’t even tell what time it was, I felt so useless.

Flip nodded as she replied to Skye. I couldn’t really remember the details as to why they needed to leave. Flip then turned back to me and suggested something I took immediately to heart.

“Can you remember ANYTHING? Anything at all?” she then noted my horn, “Can you even do magic? I mean you’re a unicorn pony. And all unicorn’s can do magic, even if it’s just telekinesis.”

I honestly hadn’t thought of it at all. Could I do magic? Could I lift objects even without knowing how to? I stated as much.

“Well it’s kind of like this!” Flip said, her arms waving around and making a terrible mock noise of magic happening. I couldn’t help but let out a little bit of a chuckle. It was silly to think you could sum up magic like that.

Even Skye I think managed to crack a smile as Flip lowered her arms. “Okay…that sounded a bit better in my head.” She admitted letting out a small giggle herself before looking at me. I looked at the empty plate in front of Skye, where previously hash browns had sat.

“Well let’s see if I can…” I said quietly as I focused. I felt a small pop as my horn began to glow. I felt my confidence boost as I watched the small plate begin to slowly shake. I tried to concentrate more, and the shaking intensified. But suddenly, almost out of nowhere, my head began to hurt.

I immediately stopped what I was trying to do and placed a hoof on my temple. “Okay, so probably not a good idea.” I said rubbing my temple. My head felt like it was going to explode.

Flip spoke up a moment later, “You should probably go to the clinic. They could probably help you out a little bit.” I lowered my hoof and simply nodded. She was completely right.

Most of the following conversation was lost to me. I was too busy thinking of what happened. But I couldn’t remember ANYTHING. And boy was it frustrating. Hell, I couldn’t even remember my name. It’s amazing how one tracked the mind can be when faced in a crisis such as that.

I don’t remember much talking, but I do remember spending the better part of the evening with the bubbly orange pony who introduced herself as Orange. We were scavenging for clothes. Which I desperately needed if I wanted to stave off the cold of night. I can remember separating after finding myself something basic. It wasn’t stylish but it did its job. Literally all I could think of from that point on until I passed out in what used to be a playground was my predicament. And how the whole world around me felt like hell. The next thing on my list of things to do was to get checked out at the clinic first thing tomorrow.

Maybe I was secretly hoping in the back of my mind that when I did wake up, this nightmare would be over. That all my memories would be back and I wasn’t like this. That everything was sunshine and rainbows.

Boy was I COMPLETELY wrong…