Fallout: Lavender Wastelander

Starswirl the Bearded ducked under another bolt of lightning, the near miss blowing up an ancient Everfree oak a dozen paces behind him. The splinters peppered his backside.

More flailing ropes of blue-white electricity arced through the air around the anomaly like the feeding tendrils of an angry elemental jellyfish. It was as if the anomaly hungered for Starswirl and the mages accompanying him; from the reek of ozone and charred flesh, it had already taken bites out of at least one mage who had been too slow with his dodge.

Things were not going well—Starswirl had already lost two mages to raiders they had encountered along the way—but they had reached their destination.

They were close to the ravine near the Castle of the Two Sisters. Starswirl could see the mouth of the cave. The stalactites and stalagmites within were backlit by the anomaly, casting shadows like a pumpkin lantern on Nightmare Night. The anomaly itself had punched a hole upwards through solid stone from where the portal had exploded deep inside the cave.

Ancient Everfree oaks, boulders the size of wagons, and chunks of carved stone from the ruined Castle of the Two Sisters swirled around the area as they were swept up in a raging arcane storm. He could barely hear over the howling wind, which had ripped away his pointy blue hat.

Aiming his horn at the focal point of the disaster, Starswirl narrowed his eyes as he channeled all of his focus on wrestling the primal energy. The complexity of the spell was like trying to lasso every head of an ornery hydra while blindfolded, but Starswirl knew he could do it, even though it felt like his horn was going to rocket off his skull like a firework.

He was a mage from Equestria’s Two Sisters Era, only surpassed in power by Twilight Sparkle over a millenia into the Celestial Era. He was the creator of the spell that allowed Twilight to travel through time, and he was the designer of the original mirror portal.

Carried onwards by his unwavering self-confidence and pride, he flexed his mental muscles. Reality bent against the strength of his immeasurable will.

The first sign of his approaching victory was the calming windstorm. The swirling blender of stones and wood slowed until everything remained suspended in the air, but that did not last as he poured more power into the spell. The floating rocks and trees quickly lost their arcane levitation and fell to the ground in a symphony of meteoric impacts and crashing wood.

Finally, with one more grunt of effort, Starswirl beat the column of blue lightning back into the hole it had sprung out from.

Once the last bolt of blue had disappeared, Starswirl let out a shaky breath, knees wobbling.

He had done it. He’d saved Equestria, just like old times with his five friends.

He started to turn to do a headcount of the mages with him, but the ground shook unnervingly. An earthquake? But they were too far from any fault lines.

Before he had time to think of any other explanation, the anomaly leapt back into existence.

All of his progress was undone in a single moment.

“What!? How!?” Starswirl yelled, stomping a hoof. If he still had his hat, he would have thrown it. “Why are you back!?”

One of the Canterlot mages ran up to him. A young stallion in robes much like his own—though the young stallion’s robes were stained with blood from a gunshot wound from the raiders they’d encountered on the way.

“Maybe we should treat it like an electrical fire,” the wounded mage suggested.

“How do we fight electrical fires?” Starswirl asked as he ducked under a rogue lightning bolt. When dealing with electrical attacks from his rivals, he would usually cast a simple counter-spell. Yet he knew lightning bolts weren’t what the stallion was talking about. He meant fighting fires on the new-fangled electrical devices that were developed during his thousand years of stasis. Starswirl had been trapped inside of a magical gaol with The Pony of Shadows, and Equestria had moved on without him. He was lucky that Twilight Sparkle was fluent in Old Ponish.

“Instead of trying to extinguish the fire,” the stallion said, “we cut off the power feeding it. We need to disenchant the shattered portal.”

Starswirl considered it a moment before he shook his head. The young mage was wise, but the initial explosion had most likely destroyed the portal frame, there would be nothing in Equestria to disenchant. Thankfully, the mirror still had its reflection in the human world.

He needed to tell Princess Sparkle right away.

<>~<>~<>

In Daniel’s opinion the day had been a good one that was made all the better because he had spent it with Twilight. They had a lot more in common than he had first thought, and he was glad for the time to actually get to know her better. Especially in a calmer, less stressful environment.

He patted his stomach, walking sluggishly after the heavy meal that he and Twilight had eaten. She walked beside him as they toured the town. She still had her mane pulled back into a bun.

With her new hairstyle, black dress, and makeup, Twilight looked like what Daniel pictured a librarian would look like. The only thing he thought she would need to complete the look was a pair of reading glasses.

“I have never seen that much food in my life, let alone eaten it,” Daniel said, licking his lips. He still tasted all the exotic sauces and spices from the fancy candle-lit dinner. The variety was unlike anything he had ever had in the vault, and was far better than vault cafeteria meals.

The meal had started with garlic bread and salad as appetizers, followed by a large bowl of steamed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower drizzled in alfredo sauce. The main course had arrived with the two side dishes; a smaller bowl of scalloped potatoes and an equally-sized plate of fried asparagus.

“Well, I hope you saved room for dessert, we’re almost to Sugarcube Corner,” Twilight said with a chuckle as she pointed out a building they were heading towards.

Even though night was approaching, Daniel didn’t have to strain his eyes to see the building that Twilight pointed out. The large shield over the Everfree Forest and the anomaly within put out enough light. Starswirl the Bearded’s expedition had either failed or not occurred yet. Worrying about it would come tomorrow, or if something immediately serious came up. He was supposed to be taking the day off.

Sugarcube Corner was near the center of Ponyville. The brightly colored building’s sugary motif was extravagant enough to give Daniel cavities just by looking at it. It certainly stood out among the thatched roof residential homes. It was decorated to look like a gingerbread house, icing and all. A two-story tower-like extension jutted out of the center-point of the roof that was decorated like two cupcakes were stacked on top of one another, complete with giant faux candles. The candles had oversized, flame-shaped light bulbs to give the illusion of being lit.

And the bulbs were turned on, as were the lights inside many other homes and businesses like the restaurant they’d had their dinner at. The town was filled with the bassy hum of dozens of generators.

Daniel had been surprised at how prepared Ponyville was, but Twilight had explained that with how often Ponyville was the focus for strange occurrences and monster attacks, combined with the self-reliant mindset of earth ponies, many residents had a prepper mentality. That, and the fact that Ponyville was their home, explained why the town was still so heavily populated despite being next to ground zero for the portal explosion. The Everfree Forest had already been dangerous, even before the anomaly dragged dangers like raiders, radscorpions, and worse from Daniel’s world.

As they neared the sugar-themed bakery, Daniel realized that while Sugarcube Corner had a generator—as evidenced by the bright light bulbs topping the candles—there were no lights on inside Sugarcube Corner. He chalked it up to needing more power to keep the fridges running. Or maybe the lights would come on when a customer arrived to cut down on fuel consumption? Daniel didn’t know, he wasn't a generator expert. The only internal workings he was familiar with were biological, as well as a vague understanding on how to disassemble and clean his firearms.

“The designers went a little overboard with decorations, don’t you think?” Daniel asked.

“Maybe a smidge,” Twilight said, stopping outside the door to hold her hooves barely a centimeter apart. She smiled brightly and swung the door open with her magic before stepping aside for him. “I figured we should end the day on something sweet.”

“Oh, and you aren’t sweet?” Daniel playfully asked, kissing Twilight on the cheek before he passed her and into the building. While he had been taught to let women enter first, she had opened the door for him, so insisting she go in first would be rude.

He made it three paces inside before the lights flashed on. Everyone packed into Sugarcube Corner yelled “SURPRISE” at the same time, and his horn nearly poked a hole into the ceiling. Alongside Princess Celestia, Deathclaw Joe, and Princess Luna using the Royal Canterlot Voice, it was as if he had been hit with a flashbang grenade.

Once his hearing and sight had recovered, Daniel gawked at the room.

The rainbow-colored banner of strung-together letters above the pastry-filled display counter read, ‘Congrats on the Cutie Mark, Daniel’.

He hadn’t suspected a thing when Twilight mentioned cutie mark parties over dinner.

His eyes swept over the guests. Almost everyone he even slightly knew from Equestria or Earth was packed like a can of cram into Sugarcube Corner. The tallest and most prominent of course were the alicorns, but Applejack’s Enclave uniform and greatcoat stood out in the mostly nude crowd of ponies. Rainbow Dash was easy to spot due to her sunglasses and cybernetic spine. The black metal ridges ran from her tailbone, all the way to the nape of her neck.

He didn’t recognize the orange furred, fuschia-maned filly riding Rainbow’s back, but the red-maned yellow filly with a large pink bow next to Applejack had a familial resemblance to both Applejack and a large red stallion wearing a large plow collar around his broad shoulders.

Seeing the family resemblance, he realized it must be Scootaloo and Applebloom of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Still, the people that he knew outnumbered the people that he didn’t as he spotted both Dr. Redblood and Zecora chatting by a bowl of punch. The crimson unicorn stallion had bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, and still wore a doctor's coat, while Zecora had nearly a dozen marks on her sides and legs from being stabbed somewhere around seven or eight times. She had volunteered at the hospital after her recovery.

“Surprise,” Twilight said beside him. Despite not looking directly at her, Daniel could hear through her tone of voice that she was smiling.

“You all didn’t have to do this, honestly,” Daniel said as he walked towards the waiting crowd with a smile on his face. He felt like he was a kid again attending his tenth birthday party, which had also been a surprise party. One of his only true friends in the vault, Amata, had planned that one.

Pinkie Pie zipped over to the counter and placed the needle on a gramophone’s record, and it filled the bakery with upbeat party music. Ponyville was a strange place of old and new coexisting or outright blended into something unique. Like modern music on gramophones, and lightbulbs inside thatched roof houses.

Before Daniel could reach the crowd, Pinkie Pie’s front legs shivered and her tail shot straight up. Once she was done spasming, she smiled impossibly wide.

“Ooohwie, some special guests are about to arrive. Come and greet them with me Danny the Hammy,” Pinkie Pie giggled as she grabbed Daniel in a headlock and sped for the door he had just closed with his magic.

They reached the door, and he opened it for her with a tug of telekinesis. On the other side of the door were Electrum, Rarity, and—

“Dad!?” Daniel gasped, staring at the brown-furred, gray haired stallion who he knew he was the spitting image of. Daniel broke out of Pinkie Pie’s headlock and rushed out to hug his father. James was dressed in a vault suit under a lab coat, his new Enclave-issue ID dangled from his breast pocket.

Daniel couldn't believe that his dad had managed to pry himself away from Project Purity. Maybe he had only come to tell Daniel that the GECK wasn’t going to walk itself out of Vault 81. That put a damper on Daniel’s excitement.

“What are you doing here?” Daniel asked warily.

“Electrum came by and offered to take me through the mirrors between worlds,” James said, as he hugged Daniel back. “And I wanted to see you, Son. Project Purity is important, but I can’t let it take every second of the rest of my life. Especially now that being a pony has bought me more time against cancer. How are you?”

Daniel felt his chest tighten. He felt foolish that he had been so hard on his father, but also justified in his suspicion. Daniel took a deep breath, and forced himself to drop the subject. His father had come to the party, so Daniel should enjoy that fact.

“I’m doing great,” he said. It was nice to see his father there and then and not at the damned control station of Project Purity, sternly studying a chalkboard and half-ignoring the world around him.

He led his father inside to show him to the party.

The ear-bleeding shriek of a white unicorn filly as she rocketed towards Rarity told Daniel he wasn’t the only one having a happy reunion.

<>~<>~<>

Twilight couldn’t stop smiling. All of her friends were sitting around a table, enjoying potato chips and soda, just like old times with everyone back together. Twilight could almost ignore the scars covering most of them.

Applejack tipped her hat as she leaned towards the center of the table.

“You know what makes this day right here even better?” Applejack asked with a hearty chuckle. “With the portal now at Adams Air Force Base, any of y’all stayin’ in Equestria can come for a visit anytime you wish. I’m havin’ the Enclave Corps of Engineers build a visitor center to practice buildin’ new public works before we start breakin’ ground on other projects.”

That caught Twilight’s attention. Applejack had taken her new job as President Jacklyn with the same enthusiasm and dedication she put into farm work. From the brief conversation that Twilight had had with Princess Celestia before starting her and Daniel’s second date, Applejack was frighteningly good at negotiations.

“That’s awesome, AJ,” Twilight said. She looked at Fluttershy, who gave a small nod. From the way she creased her brow in thought, Twilight guessed that Fluttershy was strongly considering visiting Earth again.

It would be nice to take group photos on both sides of the portal, just to compare and contrast how they all looked.

“Oh, one more thing for y’all,” Applejack said, nodding to Rainbow Dash. She picked up a briefcase from under the table before setting it down onto it. Once it was open, Applejack retrieved several laminated plastic cards from inside and passed them around.

Twilight took the one offered to her, and saw that it was a New Enclave States identification card, complete with a photo of her as a pony, and a pencil sketch of her earthside-form beside it. The coincidence of seeing a side-by-side photo of herself nearly made Twilight burst out laughing.

“Um, darling,” Rarity asked slowly. “What are these for?”

“Well, y’all have been livin’ in Ponyville, which is on land owned by the United States. It wouldn’t be right to evict the town, so Pinkie Pie is helpin’ me make Enclave IDs for everyone who wants them. Y’all will need them when walkin’ around the air force base.”

“Yeppers, I know everyone in Ponyville down to a tea, or coffee if they prefer,” Pinkie Pie said with a proud grin. The secret cave under Sugarcube Corner was filled with filing cabinets containing every name and birthday that Pinkie Pie had to keep organized, as well as party preferences. The information would be useful to the Enclave to make the IDs. Or the ESS to spy on ponies.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie knew how to make improvised explosive weapons, kept files on everypony in town, could relentlessly track and follow people, and she could somehow afford all of her party supplies on a baker's salary.

“Hey, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight asked, catching her attention. “Are you—”

A flash of magic cut her off. A blue-robed, gray-furred stallion with a long white beard and white mane dusted a leaf off of his robes.

“Starswirl?” Twilight asked. Something was wrong because Starswirl was never without his hat. “What’s going on? Did you lose your hat? I have an exact replica, down to the thread count and stitching if you need one.”

Everypony at the table, as well as Starswirl the Bearded, stared at her with curious glances that Twilight thought summarized everypony thinking to themselves, ‘yes, we expected a Starswirl fanfilly like you to have that’. She shied away from the glances with a blush on her cheeks.

“No, I do not, Princess Twilight,” Starswirl said, shaking his head slowly. “I have a request I must ask of you upon returning to Earth.”

Hearing that Starswirl had a job for her swept away her embarrassment.

“Really? What is it, Starswirl?” Twilight asked with a friendly smile. She would hear him out and decide how important it was. Fanfilly or not, Twilight had planned her next stop to be Vault 81, so whatever the task may be, it had to be more important than clean drinking water for the wasteland to take top priority.

“I need you to find a way to reach the portal that’s connected to the one in the Everfree Forest and disenchant it,” Starswirl said. “It’s the only way to stop feeding power into the anomaly. If my calculations are correct, it won’t stop the random portals completely due to the elapsed time and damage Celestia caused, but it will reduce them significantly.”

After finding a super mutant in Equestria, reducing the number of rogue portals needed addressing as soon as possible.

“I can do that,” Twilight said with a determined nod. She already knew that the portal was in the Virtual Strategic Solutions building. She needed to go there anyway to get parts for Dr. Braun’s damaged simulation.

First thing tomorrow morning, it would be back to Earth for another adventure. With the nice relaxing day she had, Twilight was prepared to face the challenge ahead.

<>~<>~<>

The ruins and rubble Defender Morrill patrolled were illuminated in the sickly green of his night vision optics. He was on perimeter duty, same as the previous night, and the night before.

He had to be. The Outcast’s outpost was deep behind enemy lines in super mutant territory. Every day and night, an intruder violated the perimeter.

Tonight was no different as Morrill saw the muzzle flash in the same moment a bullet pinged off of his power helmet. The super mutant leaned far out of a third-story window to get an angle on him.

Morrill leveled his minigun and sprayed the window with a hailstorm of 5mm rounds, shredding the neck and face of the super mutant. The abomination paid for the hubris of attacking a real example of what the Brotherhood stood for. It fell limply from the window and impacted head-first with the ground, destroying what had been left of its head. Not that the mutie had been using it to begin with.

Placing a finger against his helmet, Morrill radioed his superior officer.

“Protector McGraw, this is Defender Morill, over,” Morrill said, continuing his patrol through the ruined buildings surrounding their outpost in the Virtual Strategic Solutions office.

“I’m hearing you loud and clear, Defender,” McGraw said. “What’s your sweep status, over?”

“Made contact with and eliminated one Frankenstein. That’s another tally on the board,” Morrill said as he walked over the super mutant’s corpse. The weight of his power armor crushed the already dead mutant’s spine with a satisfying crunch. “No Equestrians on this sweep.”

“Understood. I need you to maintain the perimeter until zero-hour, then I’ll have Defender Campbell relieve you. Protector McGraw, out.”

The conversation ended there, and Morrill sighed.

Protector McGraw was slipping up. Making mistakes. The outpost didn’t have enough defenses to keep weathering the super mutant attacks, light as they were. It was only a matter of time until the freaks organized and made a serious push. Then they would be in danger of being overrun.

With all the uncertainty as of late, they needed reinforcements.

Morrill checked the time. Only thirty more minutes until his watch was over. Good. He could tell Protector McGraw in person that it was high time to make the call back to Fort Independence for an additional support detachment. They should have made the call a week ago. The raid into Vault 108 hadn’t gotten them any closer to opening the VSS’s armory door.

The fact that Virtual Strategic Solutions needed an armory was telling. Old, heavily redacted documents had hinted that a major asset was behind those doors. It had been important enough to make the doors too thick and strong to cut through. And blasting their way through would either damage whatever was inside the armory, or take the whole bunker out. There were no conventional locks to pick, either.

Whatever mad genius had designed the armory door had tied the Anchorage liberation campaign simulator to the locking mechanism. Meaning that someone had to enter a simulation that had all of the safeties disabled. Safeties they couldn’t re-enable.

They needed someone expendable, but more competent than regular wastelander filth. There was no telling if there was a number of tries they could burn through, otherwise they would have already thrown wastelanders at the problem with the promise of a reward if they succeeded. Unfortunately the man they had snatched from Vault 108 was mentally handicapped, and could only say his name. Defender Grayson had gotten so fed up with hearing ‘Gary’ over and over again that he had snapped his neck to dispose of the useless dolt.

Maybe a helpful, naive Equestrian from the royal guards would stop by who didn’t know about the one that they had back in Fort Independence.

One could hope.