Prologue: The Wasteland
Darkness, darkness and near silence, the only sound was that of the wind buffeting anything or pony foolish enough to still stand. Where am I? Who am I? Am I dead? These thought ran through my mind in a flash as I thought, still unmoving from where I was.
Blam, pang, pang.
Firearms discharged nearby spurring me to try and move, which in itself only caused me pain that seemed to be concentrated on my back.
“Daddy!” I heard a shrill and young voice call out as the lower caliber weapon halted its retort, signifying that whomsoever was using it had either dropped it, or by the sound of sorrowful panic in the fillies voice, had died in combat.protecting his family.
I tried again to stand on my hooves and succeeded in throwing a large piece of rubble off my back and witnessing the dim light of the Wasteland before me for the first time. It didn’t take me long to spot four hostiles, as marked by the little red dots hanging over them as projected by my cracked visor, and two smaller figures cowering behind a feeble amount of cover.
“Serves the deserter right, now to finish the job.” I heard one of the grey clad and fully armored ponies shout as he pointed a hoof to the left.
In a matter of seconds and before I could register what I was doing I instively reached out with my mind and tugged an old fashioned, and highly decorated, musket off my back. Aiming down the sights through the many cracks in my visor I pulled it’s hammer back using the same force as before. White energy began to swirl around the end of the barrel before getting sucked down it and accumulating in the chamber. Soon enough the same energy began to lightly swirl from where the hammer would strike the charge, signifying that it was ready to fire. In this short amount of time I had managed to line up my shot directly on their leader’s neck.
Fwoosh, the white energy ‘flew’ out of the muskets muzzle as a plume of white smoke billowed from where the hammer had struck. The pure arcane shot not only tore the armor apart and left out the other side, killing the stallion in an instant, but completely tore his head off his shoulders.
“What the?” the armored pony that had been standing behind his commander yelled before spinning to meet my visor’s harsh glare.
Without wasting a minute I began to charge, moving side to side to avoid whatever it was she was firing that left craters in the ground where I had barely managed to dodge the round. In the midst of my charge I had procured a long blade and attached it under the barrel of my musket, and now that I was upon the mare I rammed it into her chest hard before lifting her above my head and pulling the hammer back. The other two had been caught off guard by the spectacle and could only watch as I pulled the trigger, the mare’s body being torn to shreds along with flying a few paces away from me as I swung my musket to meet them in battle.
The next thing I knew I was flying sideways through the air with a slight spin. My left foreleg hurt immensely and multiple red signs popped up on my visor but were completely legible through the cracks. I tried to grasp for my musket but it was too far away for me to reach, apparently I could only hold things with energy of they were within hoofs grasp. Then my instincts took over once more and I felt my mind tug at two items on my shoulders as I stood. Two much smaller musket like weapons… Flintlocks levitated out in front of me. I took aim at both of my foes at once while simultaneously pulling the hammers back, once satisfied with my aim I pulled the triggers.
Puff puff! My pistols gave off a much softer report and a much smaller cloud of smoke, their recoil being significantly less than the musket. The shots hit both of their targets in the visors and dropped my foes, though unlike the musket they did not come out the other side of the pony’s armor.
I stood stock still holding my flintlocks in the air before me. Part of me was in shock, I had just killed, and killed without mercy or even speaking to the other party. The other part of me felt satisfaction at saving a defenseless pony, a filly who I had to even check on though could hear crying behind me.
“Th… thank you for sa… saving me mr…” She said as she cried.
Turning my head I managed to lock gazes with the filly who was crying over her dead father's torn remains. I attempted to take a step towards her but fell to my left side in an incredible amount of pain. I dropped both of my pistols as I fell, though I did not cry out, in fact I don’t even recall ever making a sound during the engagement. The filly rushed to my side and levitated a small purple vial out of her saddle bags before trying to remove my helmet.
“Why… why won’t it come off?” she asked in confusion as she tried ripping it off my head.
“The locks… neckline…” My deep voice rumbled, causing the filly to look at me through the cracks in my visor and see through a couple holes in it my rose eyes visibly in pain.
It didn’t take the little unicorn long to undo the six latches that held my helmet on allowing her to take it off my helmet. Though in this time I noticed a faint pink glow coming from my wound before a loud pop was heard and the pain receded.
“You’re a Canterlot Ghoul!” The filly screamed, to which I gave her a sideways look before slowly standing up as I tested my limb.
A Canterlot what? I mean I lived in Canterlot, I think… Where is Canterlot? I thought to myself as I caught the helmet that was thrown at me with my levitation and looked at my face in the reflective visor, broken or not. Staring back at me was a pony with a red, orange, and yellow mane, rose eyes, and a scaly grey hide that wasn’t black, but wasn’t normal grey either. I put the helmet back on before looking at the filly who was curled up on the ground shaking and looking away, as if when she came out of cowering everything would be okay and I wouldn’t exist.
“What’s wrong… and what is a Canterlot Ghoul?” I asked, my deep voice reverberating around us.
She stopped shaking and looked up at me for a moment before opening her mouth, “Canterlot Ghouls are supposed to be invincible, well nearly… sever the head and they are dead… how don’t you know what you are?”
“Kid, I don’t even know who I am let alone what I am… Well now I know what I am, kinda…” I replied, an honest answer given my circumstance.
“You mean you just woke up?” She asked, perking her head up a little as she came out of her ball, letting me flash a look at her cutie mark which was a red cross in a white circle, the little filly was a medic, or doctor… Nurse maybe?
I nodded, uncertain of how to broach the subject of me waking up to help her. She looked around and her ears flattened against her head as she laid eyes again on her father’s corpse. “Let me take you to your mom kid.”
“She died years ago.” She replied with a defeated tone.
“Got any family anywhere, I am not going to leave you out here alone.” I retorted, my voice kind, but also assertive.
“My grandparents I think, they run a small trading caravan, that is actually where Daddy and I were going.” She replied, casting her teal eyes and lifting a pink hoof from the direction I had come from, “Just past the crater.”
“Crater?” I asked, recalling that I had indeed charged out of a rather large but shallow pit to engage my now deceased foes.
“Yeah, from one of the Balefire missiles, though it apparently didn’t detonate like it should have.” She responded as my eyes went wide.
Flying through the air, an anti magic charge, my only one held aloft in front of me as I came into contact with a massive missile. I planted the charge and got ready to bolt away as it detonated and debris hit me hard, but after surviving the pink cloud when ‘she’ didn;t I no longer really cared. I fell and the last thing I felt and saw was hitting the ground hard enough to break my wings and metal cascading down upon me as the world went black, a small smile upon my face.
“Hey, are you listening to me?” the filly asked as I shook my head clear from the intense flashback.
“Yeah, sorry, just remembered something.” I replied as I looked at my back.
“Yeah, what?” She asked.
“I can fly, or used to be able to…” I replied, trying to flex my wings to no avail.
“Maybe they’re locked in place like your helmet was.” the little filly asked as she tapped her left hoof to her chin.
I indeed saw locks, but when I reached out with my mind to unfasten them they refused to move, almost as if they had been fused shut from high amounts of heat. I shook my head and walked over to my musket to pick it back up. Upon my inspection of it before placing it on my back and having it lock in place without anything clamping down on it I noticed that on its silver and black finish that the word ‘Vengeance’ had been carefully inscribed.
“Hey your pistols have words written on them.” The filly said as she levitated them both over to me to read.
“Courage and Honor…” I muttered before holstering them and turning to the filly, “What’s your name kid?”
“Infirmary.” She replied, to which I raised a hidden eyebrow, “And I am going to call you Guardian… That is if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all Infirmary, not at all… It’s better than having no name.” I replied as we began our walk to her grandparent’s caravan.
Footnote Level Up
New Perk- Markspony- You are a natural with projectile weapons, + 10% accuracy when using any firearm.
Author's Note
Greetings everypony. I am Tempest Knight and I bring unto you this story. Now we have 'Guardian' as we are going to call him, who has an interesting plot behind him. Now you may be wondering, "anti magic charge, Pegasus with magic?" Just read on and it will be explained. There is nothing that will break lore anywhere in this guy's backstory which will be revealed (I plan) in the early chapters so we can get into more complex things later. (Just remember Puppysmiles suite and you may already understand the magic using part)
Until the next exciting installment of this much delayed due to me losing the original version with my old PC dying, Fallout: Equestria, Guradian.
(Edit- Added footnote, 2/25/2016)
Chapter 1: Rage
We had been walking in silence for at least two hours, maybe three, I found that it was rather difficult to track time when both the sky is well hidden and my visor was essentially useless for anything but friend or foe identification via line of sight. Infirmary stayed a few good paces away from me, probably still nervous about the fact that I am a… what did she call it? Ghoul? But I digress. Though this gave me time to contemplate things again, primarily the flashback I had.
I had been so preoccupied thinking it over in my head that I hadn’t noticed her stop in front of me before my hoof landed on her white tail.
“Yeowch, Guardian what do you think you are doing?” She shouted as she jumped into the air and spun to face me.
I gave her a flat look from behind my visor, before looking past her to see a few wagons and camps set up, “Why did we stop?”
“I, I just, last time I saw them Daddy and Pop weren’t on the best terms, I guess I’m just nervous is all.” She replied as she fiddled with her tail.
“Don’t worry kid, I’ve got a good feeling.” I lied, to be truly honest I had no idea what was going on, a part of me just took control and tried to sooth her as best I could.
“Really, then why do you sound so deadpan?” She asked, to which I fixed my gaze upon her again, seemingly making her uncomfortable in doing so.
“Call it, intuition.” Was my final reply before I began navigating the broken streets.
While there was no radiation in the area, the missile had still done a massive amount of damage, makes me wonder what the Anti Magical Charge really did… Did it remove the magical radiation? Doesn’t matter. Infirmary caught up and trotted next to me while looking up expectantly towards my face.
“What, a piece of flesh peeling off?” I asked as I marched on.
“Canterlot Ghouls don’t degrade like that often, and you are covered in that fancy black armor, so no.” She replied as she began to look at me all over as if for the first time.
“Then what are you looking for?” I responded as I hoped up a pile of debris.
“What is the mark on your flank mean?” She asked, forcing my attention from her face to my armored flank to see a small blue shield with a crescent moon emblazoned on it so it was cradling a star, and two silver swords crossed behind the shield itself.
“Remember how I said I can’t remember anything? Yeah, there is your answer.” I replied, my gaze once again falling to the little filly.
She shrugged before following me up the steep pile without difficulty. Once up she turned away from my gaze and looked down to see a couple of ponies eyeing us both. Each of these ponies were wearing brown leather barding and simple clothes underneath.
“Mind tellin’ us who ya are strangers?” The buck on my right asked as I realized we were both dead in their sights.
“It’s okay, they can get us to Pops.” My little filly friend stated in a hushed tone, “I’m Infirmary and this here is Guardian, my Grandpa Pops runs this caravan and my Dad and I were coming to visit, but he died on the way here.” She stated to the two stallions as she tried to hold her complexion as to not come around as whiney.
“The kid needs family, her grandfather was the only family she could think of, so I escorted her here. I don’t suppose any of you would have an objection to us entering?” I asked, my low voice carrying further than I thought it would.
“What’s yer name little filly?” The one on my left asked this time.
“Infirmary, sir.” She said, though I noticed that her voice had become a little weaker than before. Of course it did, she just lost her father and had to bring him up again.
“Okay, you two are clear to pass in, and if you see something you like do keep in mind that this is a trading caravan.” The stallion on my right stated as they both parted to clear our way down the debris.
I hopped down and landed with a small clanking sound as Infirmary slid down and came to a halt next to me. We both shared a look before walking into the maze of wagons and ponies. As I looked around I saw that there were entire families that seemed happy enough to my view from outside, and I also noticed the wares. Grenade machine gun, 20mm auto turret, T-45d helmet, wait T-45d helmet, that uses a similar visor to mine! I had lost myself in thought as I stared at this one merchant mare’s cart, though to be more specific I had locked visors with the helmet in question.
“See somethin ya like stranger?” The cream coated mare who had a fancy for denim coveralls asked, bringing me out of my stupor.
“I’ll be back to look at that helmet in a bit, have to get Infirmary to her Grandfather first.” I absentmindedly said as I picked up my hooves and began walking again.
“He’s only two wagons away, that a way!” She pointed with a greasy hoof before turning back to her wagon and looking at the helmet.
I gave her a curt nod, though she probably didn't see it as I led Infirmary, this time, in the direction that the mare had pointed. Looking down at her I could see her apprehension about seeing her grandfather on her face, though I saw it mostly in her eyes. “Cheer up, it won’t be that bad will it? I mean, he’s part of this right, this looks nice enough?” I reassured by asking her questions to which she didn’t respond to.
We walked the rest of the way in silence as I made certain to steer clear of the odd two headed cows which would on occasion try to start up a conversation with me much to my surprise. Infirmary kept her head low and her eyes down, finding her hooves interesting as we walked into a small clearing of sorts. Surrounding this area were multiple covered wagons, around four or five, it was hard to tell from my angle. Infirmary looked up and began trying to see who was who as she began walking around. I stood where I was and watched, earning a couple of the merchants stares at my badly damaged grey armor and strange weapons.
Infirmary halted in front of a wagon with an older merchant, a large brimmed hat rested over his eyes as he snored softly. The little filly plopped down on her flank and waited until an elderly mare, I assume her grandmother, walked around from the other side of the wagon and saw her.
“Infirmary, that you?” The elderly pony asked as she walked up my small friend.
“Ma, good to see you.” Infirmary said, though she only hesitantly looked up to the other pony.
“Now I thought that Pop’s told ya an yer parents ta never show yer faces ‘round here again.” Ma asked as she looked down at the filly with harsh eyes.
I don’t know why, perhaps I just have a strong sense of honor or something else that will get me killed one day, but I marched forward at a reasonable pace before halting once I had placed myself next to my small, and now silently crying, friend. Ma looked over and up to me, strange I never noticed how large I was to other ponies until just now, before slamming her hoof against the cart.
“Pop, get up we have company.” Her voice, much like that of sandpaper, rang out and awoke the sleeping stallion.
“Huh, who is it Ma?” He asked, his gruff voice barely carrying over to us.
“Yer granddaughter and a merc.” Ma replied, though I sent a rather harsh stare towards her for calling me a merc of all things.
“Didn’t I tell Rusty ta never seek me out again?” He asked, a sour tone coming to his voice as he sat up and lifted the brim of his hat up.
“Mommy is dead, so is daddy.” Infirmary said before choking back a sob or two and looking down, refusing to meet their eyes.
I watched the old stallion get down off his cart and whisper to his wife before I looked down to my friend, “You know, you could stay with me, I don’t really know anything about, well, anything really, but I’d be willing to keep you in good company at least.” I said in a low tone, with much as emphasis on the word good as I could get through a low voice.
“R… really?” She began to hiccup as she met my gaze.
She started to move to me when a whip cracked the air next to her head, causing her to cry out and me to sit up with such speed that my head went numb for a moment as my mind reached for a pistol but didn’t draw it, yet.
“Explain, now.” I said, my voice emotionless and my eyes hidden as they darted to the corner of my vision where Infirmary lay holding her head. “Ten seconds.”
“Well, we accept her request to join us in our travels, but, we will raise her as we did her mother and hope to Luna that she will turn out better than her.” Pop said, levitating his whip into view as he coiled it.
“She needs comfort more than anything right now, not a slave driver.” I knew not where my words were coming from but it wasn’t long before a crowd of ponies had gathered to watch us stare each other down.
“Yeah, and jus’ wha do ya think ya ‘an do about it huh? Nothin’ that’s what!” He retorted to which a merely growled.
My vision became sharper and I could see more clearly than before, but the edges of said vision seemed to fade away. My grip on the pistol slid off as I slowly marched forward, my hooves hitting the ground with heavy thuds as I tried to make myself as streamline as possible.
“An’ jus’ what do ya think ya are suppose’ ta be?” He chuckled as the gathered ponies joined in.
At this point I was no longer thinking, at this point I was staring at him and only him through my cracked visor with only one intent, kill. I roared, I didn’t raise my legs like a normal pony before charging into battle, I roared and spread my wings, causing the now shattered locks to become airborne. A look of horror replaced the image of mockery as I began to circle him as a predator would do prey, my instincts taking complete control over me.
“Stop, Guardian please stop!” Infirmary pleaded, causing me to turn my head and meet her gaze.
One of her eyes was bloody, evidently hit by the whip and utterly destroyed, but her other eye forced a little calm back into me as my vision returned to normal.
“Please, they are what I have left.” She began crying, normal tears from her left eye, and blood from her right.
“Calm down Infirmary, you still have me.” I said in as soothing a tone as a deep guttural growl could be.
She didn’t reply before charging and hugging me, squeezing me as hard as she could through my armored body. I slipped my wings, which had a number of tears through them upon my first real look at them before placing my head in top of hers and humming.
“Let go of our granddaughter ya beast!” Pop shouted striking me with his whip, though only succeeding in scuffing a small spot on my armor.
“I promise I won’t harm them, but promise me that you’ll stay with me.” I said in a hushed whisper.
“I promise.” Infirmary replied as she let go of me.
I stood to my full height and turned to face the two that had drawn out my anger, “And just exactly what are you going to do about it, scumbag?” The last word echoed off the walls of the crumpled and ruined towers of the city.
Pop and Ma both took a step back, so I capitalized in their fear and let my torn wings spread out for all to see. My visor met their eyes and they merely stuttered before walking away, clearly knowing that they were of no match. What I didn’t realize until afterwards was that red flames were being spewed out the sides of my muzzle through small vents. The gathered ponies all walked away after a little time had passed, many were weary of me now as I stood unmoved, and though none could see, my eyes were wide at my revelation.
“Pardon me sir, but would ya like to take a look at tha' helmet now?” The merchant mare from before asked me, the only other pony aside from Infirmary to dare go near me.
“... Yeah, I’d like to.” I replied, only moving my head to look at her as I retracted my wings.
“Come on over when you like.” She cheerfully said as she walked away.
“I thought your grandfather ran these caravans?” I asked, not looking to my little friend.
“No, just his here, other merchants will often stop near their fellows if they can for added protection.” Infirmary stated as she trotted up to me and gave my armored form a hug. “Thank you for sticking up for me, this was a bad idea anyways.”
“Don’t mention it, it’s what I do.” I replied, a smile hidden behind my helmet as we both began to walk over to the merchant mare.
Footnote- Level Up
New Perk- Dragon Rage, You are a quarter Dragon, from this you have many attributes, but the most dominate is your unshackled fury. +20 to all combat skills and -20 to non combat skills when enraged.
Author's Note
So more secrets are brought up, and we are seeing a little structure, perhaps even his first quest which may get him on his way to discovering more about himself.
While the chapter got tense, I do feel as if Guardian is too powerful for a minor skirmish, but don't worry, I can confirm that you have seen everything, and I mean everything he can do. (That is a spoiler I will not keep secret as I don't want to make a Mary Sue character out of a Canterlot Ghoul, 
)
To come in Chapter 2 (Spoilers) A more detailed look at Guardians face, a possible friend, a definite foe, and perhaps another flashback.
