Fallout: Lavender Wastelander

Fluttershy was frozen in place by the revelation. She went through the steps once again in her mind to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. The human had found a portal to Equestria. That made some sort of sense, there was no telling what side effects shattering the mirror would have. The human was turned into a pony. Also made sense, that was how crossing the realms worked with the mirrors, according to Twilight. Then Discord sent him back and he had ended up as a human-pony cross like herself. Discord sending someone back didn’t make sense. If Discord could send people back, why hadn’t he come for her?

“I know who you’re talking about,” Fluttershy softly spoke after a moment. The reaction was more of her mouth running itself while her brain was busy thinking. “His name is Discord, not Satan.”

“Oh,” the batpony said. “Is Discord one of his demons?”

“Would you cut it out with the religious bullshit, Ethan!” The smoking man at the toll booth snapped, drawing Fluttershy’s attention. He tossed the cigarette away as he stomped towards them, joined by three other similarly-dressed and haggard-looking humans. Two males and a female. Only the smoker had a gun, the others had short lengths of pipe, chains, or other similar improvised weapons that they brandished.

Even if they weren’t raiders, their aggressive body language spoke clearly that this was going to end in a fight. Fluttershy didn’t want it to, she had seen enough death and destruction in the last two weeks.

“It’s not bullshit, Jack!” The batpony, Ethan, yelled as he spun to face his gang. Fluttershy slowly drew her pistol, trying to conceal the movement while Jack was distracted with Ethan. “Sarah jumped into the light after me and saw God!”

“Yeah,” Jack sneered. “And if I saw that Celestia bitch Sarah blabbed on-and-on about, I’d do the world a favor and kill her. I’m glad Sarah ate her shotgun barrel… was getting tired of her crying herself to sleep.”

Celestia sent people back as well? What was going on in Equestria? There had to be a reason Discord and Celestia weren’t in this world looking for Twilight and her other friends. A cold, creeping horror wrapped her brain like slimy tentacles. What if raiders or worse were finding ways into a kingdom filled with peaceful, nonviolent mares? Jack’s casual dismissal of one of his gang committing suicide was proof enough that at least Jack was a bad person. Was Ethan that bad as well? He had called himself a bad man.

“You can't disrespect her like that!” Ethan yelled, taking a half-stomping step forward. Fluttershy could see every muscle on Ethan was clenched in shaking rage. “She was one of us!”

“That ended when she caught a case of religion,” Jack said as he held up a fist. He stopped several paces away with the rest of the gang flanking him. “Just like you. Leave… now. You’re out of the gang.” Jack cracked his neck to punctuate his point, Ethan turned his face away, shoulders slumped. Jack then pointed one finger at Fluttershy. “And you, you didn’t buy his religious bullshit, but him and Sarah went somewhere that fucked them up. You called yourself an Equestrian. Where the hell are you from?”

Fluttershy backstepped, caught off guard by Jack’s sudden shift in attention to her. She would sooner die than tell a bunch of potential raiders about Equestria. She didn’t want to kill anyone who didn’t deserve it, and there were no clear signs of bodies or caged up victims that Fluttershy could see. Handling the situation as a Brotherhood soldier wouldn’t cut it.

She was tired from two weeks of hell. She was angry… Jack may have been the newest source, but there was so much else in the wasteland that made her furious. She was also confused from so many unanswered questions. She wasn’t going to blurt out that there was a land of peaceful ponies to a gang of thugs and bullies.

It was time to channel every bit of pain and anger into a new character. Not one to shoot and kill and move tactically. It was time for someone to spit venom right back in a raider’s face so fiercely they would avoid fighting her out of fear or respect.

Running a hand through her short, buzz cut hair, she mimicked the broken, drug-crazed laugh that haunted her restless dreams. Turning the energy into a forced grin that was as manic as she could manage, Fluttershy slammed the full force of The Stare onto Jack.

“You want to know where I’m from!?” Fluttershy growled like a wolf as she took an aggressive stomp forwards. It was Jack’s turn to step back as her attention was singled out on him. “Where I’m from doesn’t breed spineless half-shit raider bosses who toss their own people under the wagon.” Fluttershy added a giggle to sell the new, insane persona she had slipped into far too easily. “You stick together or you fucking die, through thick or thin… because buddy, shit back home is large enough to eat deathclaws for breakfast. Ever have a hydra chase you? Or have a manticore blow your eardrums out with a cry of pain?”

“W-what the fuck are you!?” Jack gasped, backpedaling several steps. Fluttershy considered she may have been taking her new guise too far as she saw a large damp patch run down the legs of his pants… but it was too late to lay off now and appeared to be working as the other gang members backed away with Jack.

“If my resting bitch face can make you piss yourself… leave before I get restless.”

Jack started to turn, but one of the other male raiders put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“Are you gonna let her boss us around like that!?” He asked.

Fluttershy clenched her teeth as Jack shook his head and narrowed his eyes, turning back to her. He countered her stare with a glare of his own that brimmed with fury.

While the stare was powerful, it had limits. She could use the stare on entire flocks of simpler animals, while Discord was immune due to his willpower. She could only stare down one or two sentient creatures at a time, and once they were aware of the stare it was harder to stare them down again.

Of course one of Jack’s gang would snap him out of it. This was a stupid plan. She acted too rash and angry while playing the part of a raider.

“No,” Jack said, fists clenched. “If she wants to be all big and bad, she can prove it. You and me, right here, right now, no guns.”

The other raiders, save Ethan, gave a loud whoop. Each one began chanting, “Fight, fight, fight, fight!” clapping and jeering as they backed off into a semi-circle.

“Uhhh,” Daniel said from behind Fluttershy. “What’s going on?”

Fluttershy ignored him. Instead she stepped past Ethan, who moved to get behind her.

Her new persona was already failing at its goal and getting her into deep trouble. Less than an hour as Raider Shy, and she was already in a fight. Maybe there was a way to deescalate the situation.

“If this really is coming down to a fight,” Fluttershy said, holstering her pistol. “We’ll at least need to fight over something that matters. I win, you and your gang leave the area. Back down now and I’ll just take Ethan off your hands, you don’t want him. It’s a win for you in the end.”

Jack laughed. It was a smug laugh, an attempt to soothe his wounded pride in a layer of bravado.

“Oh no, I can’t back down now that my gang wants me to win,” Jack growled at her while rolling his shoulder. The 10mm SMG fell to the floor while he raised his fists and licked his lips. “Because when I do, they get to watch me fuck you bloody before they get a turn.”

Graphic sexual violence. Of course he threatened her with that. Fluttershy was a woman, he was a raider. Taking a breath, Fluttershy slung her sniper rifle around to catch in one hand.

Holding her left arm straight out to the side, Daniel took the rifle from her, whispering, “Are you really about to do this? We could just shoot them.”

Taking a long look at Jack, Fluttershy clenched her jaw. She still had three female friends unaccounted for in a world full of Jacks, and a lot of unanswered questions. A dark, buried part of her wanted this fight. A chance to knock the teeth out of someone who preyed on others for sport. Jack had all but admitted to being a raider with his words and threat. All bets were off.

“Threatening me like that was a mistake,” Fluttershy said, taking a step towards Jack, who responded by stepping towards her. She raised her fists to match his own.

“What, scared?” Jack scoffed as he looked up at her. His brave grin wavered as he seemed to realize Fluttershy had a few inches on him.

Fluttershy had always been tall. As a filly, she had hit puberty early and the growth spurts started soon after. She had felt like a freak towering over the other fillies and colts at flight camp. At the moment, she was glad for the height advantage.

“No,” Fluttershy boldly lied. Of course she was scared. There was always the possibility of losing the fight. She buried the fear under an oncoming torrent. She flared her nostrils as her heart thundered like a drum. It pumped blazing, enraged blood through her system like a rapidly spreading poison. It sickened her, yet invigorated her, becoming the oil in the gears of the engine of destruction she was about to become.

“Tear her apart!” One of the jeering raiders on the sidelines shouted, mirroring her thoughts towards Jack. The poor, sad, angry raider was going to lose. Fluttershy was sure of it.

Jack shuffled forwards with Fluttershy copying his moves. He kept his guard up until he was close enough to Fluttershy to swing. Fluttershy weaved back, then sidestepped, throwing out a crosscut. Jack knocked it away with his right forearm, opening her guard enough to land a solid left-hook to her chest… right into the solid chestplate of her combat armor with a knuckle-shattering crunch. He jerked his hand back, clutching it to his own chest with a whimper of pain.

Fluttershy snapped up the opportunity and closed the gap. Throwing her arms around him, she wrapped him in a bear hug. It trapped both of his hands between their chests as she lifted his feet off the ground. He tried to pull away but his arms were pinned. He couldn’t get leverage.

An absolutely malignant, raider of an idea wormed its slimy way into her thoughts. Beat him at his own game. Show him what it was like to be at someone’s mercy. Inflict slow, shameful pain on him. The dark thought won out as she leaned her chin close to his shoulder, lips inches from an ear as she whispered in raspy raven’s sing-song.

“You didn’t say anything about knives.”

Jack didn’t have time to respond before Fluttershy slipped her right hand up her left sleeve and ripped the punch dagger free from its hidden sheath. She dropped Jack from the bear hug, and all of his breath escaped in one raspy wheeze as she pushed the blade into his left side, right between the ribs.

“Feel that?” Fluttershy asked with a sickly-sweet hiss. It was a corrupted, dark, falsely caring tone. “Hurts when something gets stuck in you without permission, huh?”

She kneed him between the legs hard enough to lift him off the ground as she twisted and ripped the blade free for good measure.

Jack’s knees buckled when he landed. He fell over, writhing in pain as he gasped for air like a beached fish. Crimson rapidly pooled around him from his opened side. A few seconds passed before he rolled over, curled up, and vomited.

The raiders on the sidelines were… cheering?

Fluttershy looked up from Jack, her focus now on her surroundings.

“God-damn!” One of the male raiders on the sidelines yelled. “You fucked Jack up like it was nothing… you got more space in your crew, lady?”

“Damn right!” The lone female raider cheered. “Got him good with the… the techna-calamity… technology…gah! The bullshit where it feels like you broke and followed the rules at the same time!”

Fluttershy’s blood turned to ice as it dawned on her. She had acted crazy enough to convince raiders she was boss-worthy material. That hadn’t been part of the plan. She just wanted them to leave the area after giving Jack what he deserved.

Jack’s groan pulled Fluttershy’s attention back to him as he rolled to his knees. He pushed himself up to stand as he tossed away the stimpak he had injected himself with.

“T-that was–” he started, before bringing a hand up and heaved into it. He swallowed, snorted, then spat out a wad of vomit-coated snot. “F-fucking cheap.”

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a syringe of med-x. He plunged it into his thigh.

Fluttershy wasn’t going to give him time to slam chems and get his second wind. Beating her wings she shot up while spinning and sticking a leg out. Her boot connected with his hand and the syringe spun away, only a quarter empty as remnants of the needle stayed buried in his thigh.

“Gah, you mother fucker!” Jack growled in feral rage. He glared daggers at Fluttershy, who hovered a few inches off the ground. “I’m going to gouge out your eyes with my dick!”

He limped forward and swatted at her. Fluttershy dodged by simply flying backwards and up.

“Why?” Fluttershy asked, pinching the bridge of her nose with a sigh. “Why use the same threats that got me so angry I dragged myself to your level… you’ve already lost. I’m in combat armor, can fly, and the moment you go for your gun you prove even more to your gang you don’t have what it takes.”

Slipping the dagger back into its sheath, Fluttershy flew a few paces backwards before landing between Daniel and Ethan.

“I really, really, really wanted to kill you…” Fluttershy said, sighing heavily as she mentally balled up the raider persona and threw it far, far away. “But that toxicity isn't me. The next person to stand up to you might not be merciful. Last chance—for your sake and the sake of your gang—leave and turn your life around. I can’t fix whatever you did to the world and other people by killing you, but I can help by putting you on the right path.”

Violence begets violence. Becoming a bigger monster to fight monsters wasn’t the answer. She needed to stick to what she knew. Be kind, caring, and try to heal this world instead of drowning it in blood.

“How touching,” Jack wheezed. The wheeze turned into a cackling laugh. “Almost makes me want to cry a little.” He turned to his gang, favoring the thigh that didn’t have needle shards in it. “This lesbian-lookin’ bitch ain’t worth our time, let’s go.”

The gang members all looked away from him.

“What the fuck!?” Jack cried out. “We’re supposed to have each other’s back.”

“Have our backs?” The one female raider snapped as she fixed Jack with a glare. “Wings is right, you're a half-shit that was glad Sarah offed herself because she annoyed you… fuck you and fuck being a raider. Ethan and Sarah tried to go clean and change their ways so they could go back and live with the ponies.” The raider woman crossed her arms. “That’s right, I paid attention to what Ethan and Sarah talked about, unlike you. Didn’t you think it was funny that both of their stories lined up… and, I dunno… Ethan has fucking wings and shit that work rather than looking like a super mutant took a dump? His mutations aren't normal.”

The two male raiders gave nods of agreement.

“Fine,” Jack snarled. He lifted up his middle finger as he spun around and started walking towards the other end of the bridge. “Fuck all of you religious nutjobs. I’ll start a new gang.”

Fluttershy’s jaw set. He had his back to her. It would be easy… but she had people that needed a better example to learn from than Jack. Shooting a man in the back wasn’t kind.

“Soooo,” Daniel said slowly, “we’re apparently a gang now. When I woke up this morning, I never expected that.”

Explaining her new gang to Twilight was going to be a long story. Oh, and of course there were ways back to Equestria, couldn’t forget that. Or that Discord and Celestia were sending people back rather than coming here to find them. And that was all on top of the human dark mage still being at large. And they still needed to get that dish for Three Dog before finding Daniel’s father.

So many spinning plates, it was getting hard to keep track of them all. This was becoming far more complicated than any of the past adventures with her friends.

<>~<>~<>

Ethan sat down across from the wounded angel. Her face was still beautiful despite the scars crowning her brow, parts of her face, and neck.

“So,” Fluttershy asked in a soft, gentle voice. “I want to know everything about your visit to Equestria.”

Ethan nodded.

“It all began two weeks ago,” Ethan said. “That’s when the lights started to appear. Just a flicker, like an electric spark but with no wires in sight. Little by little they started getting bigger and lasting longer day by day. Sometime early last week, Jack wanted us to make sure the lights we were seeing wasn’t something nasty, so me and Sarah got sent to look for the source. We went downstairs, off the bridge and onto the tracks of the Red Line. We only made it about a minute before one ball lit up right in front of me, like it knew I was walking its way.”

<>~<>~<>

“Sarah! Sarah!” Ethan yelled, spinning in place and falling over as his legs refused to work. One of the lights had hit him and sucked him into a tunnel of lights that were every color he knew and more. It had almost given him a seizure.

The tunnel had pulled him along, before it had suddenly spit him out into a field. But a field unlike any he had seen in real life. Only old pre-war posters showed that hills and fields used to be covered in some sort of green carpet stuff.

Laying on his side, he looked at his light gray fur, black hooves, leathery wings, and black tail. He still had his armor and weapons, but he wasn’t himself anymore. Confused as to why he was in a new body, he tried to get his bearings.

The sky was so beautiful and blue. The sun was out, a rare sight in the Capital Wasteland. It hurt his eyes to look around too long, so he closed them and enjoyed the sun warming his thin body. It felt far realer than any chem trip he knew.

Jet dreams were good, but the sights and sounds weren’t bouncing around and off each other, while psycho was never this mellow, and med-x just made him sleep without dreaming.

Was he dead? He couldn’t be… it was too quiet and there was no fire or whatever brimstone was. Ethan knew of Heaven and Hell and Saint Monica from the church in Rivet City.

Rolling over so his new hooves were under him, Ethan stood on shaky legs and looked around again.

There were miles and miles of gently rolling hills covered in fields of the green carpet, and actual living trees so close together Ethan couldn’t see through them. A town of white houses with yellow roofs lay in the distance, maybe a mile away. Near the town was a massive patch of dark, almost sinister looking trees.

A blue glow radiated from deep within the woods, illuminating the floating rocks and trees that spun slowly in the air. A large purple bubble covered the entire patch of woods.

Glowing meant radiation. Ethan knew to avoid that. He turned his attention to the mountains in the far background. That was when he saw it.

A city hung impossibly off the side of the tallest mountain, white and gold and beautiful, with a waterfall of clear blue water falling from it in a great cascade.

By some miracle, he had ended up in heaven. The pearly gates were right on that mountain.

Ethan looked at the town again. It had wagons and barrels and furniture piled up around it, giving it a wall, much like most Wasteland towns. It may have been where he needed to go, since it was something familiar to any Wastelander.

Walking without stumbling took several minutes as his new body worked out which order to put what hoof in. Eventually, he did achieve an even pace towards the town.

As he got closer, he could see more people walking around the fields around town. They looked like Giddyup Buttercup toys, but actual flesh and blood creatures. There were many different types of all shapes and colors. Some flew through the air on wings, some had horns, while others made do with neither.

Ethan craned his neck back at his leathery wings and frowned. Every angel statue back in DC had feathered wings. Not leather stretched over bones. The light hurt his eyes as well. This place was not for him.

A heavy thump sounded from behind him. Ethan spun to face the noise and nearly voided his bowels at the sight of Satan himself!

The serpent was an ugly quilt of mismatched parts that stood three times taller than him. A red serpent tail, brown furred body, one scaly deathclaw leg and one leg that looked like a brahmin. He had one feathered wing and one leathery wing. One arm was that of a yao-guai, while the other had the talons of a vulture.

Then there was his head. Mismatched horns sprouted from between two curling, pointed ears. His head was covered in gray fur, while most of his hair was black, but he had white eyebrows and a white goatee. His maw was filled with large, yellowed teeth and a single snaggle-fang.

The whites of his eyes were piss-yellow, and the beady red dots they contained glared right through him.

“Gah!” Ethan sputtered at the creature who loomed over him.

“Well, hello,” Satan said, his voice as smooth as silk and liquid silver, despite his ragged appearance. Reality went sideways, and Ethan could smell purple as the ground beneath his hooves turned to wonderglue.

“P-please,” Ethan whimpered, looking away. “I don’t want to go to Hell.”

That vulture-clawed hand turned his chin to face the giant.

“Tell me, Wastelander,” The creature demanded. Ethan watched as those red dots for eyes became twirling swirls that sucked all willpower from him. “What are your crimes?”

<>~<>~<>

“I couldn’t resist his magic,” Ethan said. Fluttershy held a hand to her mouth in horror at the story that had unfolded. “Every murder I could remember, every chem I’m addicted to… so much stuff I’ve done the last few years has been so evil. I thought he was going to drag me off to Hell when I finished. Instead he took my weapons, told me to change my evil ways, then sent me back.”

Fluttershy grimaced. Something terrible had happened in Equestria. The Everfree Forest was under a shield, Ponyville had surrounded itself in a wall, all the while Discord and Celestia were busy tossing people back into the Wasteland.

She didn’t know what to do with Ethan. He admitted to being a raider, but seeing Equestria had made him want to change his ways. There were also the other three raiders that saw her as a boss. She was responsible for all of them.

All Fluttershy knew is that if Equestria was in danger from people like raiders just showing up out of nowhere, then Discord had a reason to stay in Equestria. There were worse things than raiders. A single feral ghoul would shut down the entire country over fear of an actual zombie plague, or a sentry bot could show up in Ponyville, or a deathclaw.

Worry ate its way through Fluttershy until she realized Ethan was staring at her while she chewed on her nails.

“Um, sorry,” Fluttershy said, pulling her hand away. “Just thinking about what must have happened to have Discord be so… aggressive. He took your weapons before sending you back?”

“And my ammo, chems, basically everything but my food, water, armor, and a knife so I wasn’t totally defenseless,” Ethan explained with a nod. “When I was sent back, I reappeared almost all the way to Museum Station. Jack nearly shot me when I first came through the tunnel. In the days since then, I taught myself to fly and swore I’d change my ways.”

“What about Sarah?” Daniel asked. He had been listening in the entire time, as well as the other three raiders.

“Sarah reappeared on the surface and took about half a day to reach us. She… took getting kicked out of Equestria hard. Trying to go cold turkey on so many chems hit her even harder,” Ethan said, looking down at the table. “I don’t blame your people for not wanting us there… at least they gave us a chance to turn back from the path we were on. Even if I thought wrong about it being heaven.”

Fluttershy winced. One addiction was hard to beat. But to be strung out on so many things? Maybe she could open some sort of rehab for raiders? Help them get off chems and be better people.

“I meant to ask,” Fluttershy said, putting the thought aside for later. “Where did Sarah go for Celestia to be the one to send her back?”

“She ended up in that white city on the mountain,” Daniel replied.

Fluttershy choked on her gasp.

Ponyville was dozens, maybe even close to a hundred miles from Canterlot. It took the better part of a day to get there by train, and a pegasus with a good pair of wings would be worn out from a round-trip flight. If Sarah and Ethan had been sent through the same portal and ended up so far apart… where were her friends?

<>~<>~<>

Adjusting her tie as she stared at her reflection in the full-body mirror in her room, Rainbow Dash smiled. She looked good in a suit, and as a human-pony-cyborg… thing.

Living the life of a high-speed aerial stunt pony with a history of crashing had led to nearly every bone in her body having been broken or fractured at least once. The doctors had said she had the spine of a woman twice her age. After replacing her spine, Rainbow Dash could feel the difference.

Funnily enough, getting a new spine wasn’t as off-putting as the black dye for her mane and tail. It still felt wrong not seeing her rainbow locks in her reflection. She was Rainbow Dash without the rainbow. At least the new color went well with her suit.

Reaching for her suit, she pulled open the top coat and checked how easy it was to draw the pistol from the harness-like holster rig hanging from her shoulders. It was a plasma defender model. Fancier than the normal plasma pistols.

Finding the draw satisfactory, she holstered her gun and checked the pouches opposite the holster. They were for spare plasma cartridges and a pair of handcuffs. Next she checked the pouches on her belt.

Normally, she didn’t use belt pouches, but today was special. She had been issued grenades.

She stopped her routine as the door to her room opened. She turned to face the tall, gray-haired human who entered. He wore a dark tan overcoat over his black uniform, and radiated a presence of martial authority that Rainbow Dash could respect. He presented himself much like Captain Spitfire. In her opinion, Colonel Augustus Autumn would make a great pegasus.

“Have you finished preening yourself?” Colonel Autumn asked. “We are on a rather tight schedule. Dallying in the mirror is merely wasting precious time.”

Rainbow Dash grinned as she pulled out a pair of shades from her breast pocket.

“You’ve seen how fast I move, right, Colonel? This’ll be over in seconds,” Rainbow Dash joked as she placed the shades over her magenta eyes and flapped her wings.

“For our sake, the sake of America, and the sake of the Enclave, I hope your bravado is not misplaced, Rachel,” Colonel Autumn said with a long annoyed sigh.

“If you’re gonna use my human name, might as well use it all,” Rainbow Dash said with a wry smile that made Autumn groan. Rainbow struck a pose while crossing her arms. “My name is Special Agent Rachel Dash, United States Secret Service.”

Colonel Autumn shook his head slowly, before finally letting a chuckle slip out.

“You certainly are more entertaining than Special Agent Horrigan.”

“And not as ugly,” Rainbow Dash quipped.

“For the Enclave,” Colonel Autumn said.

“For America,” Rainbow Dash replied.

Showtime.