Fallout Equestria: Wasteland knightby Papa KrellChaptersPrologueChapter 1) Swordplay Chapter 3) RustChapter 4) Deity Chapter 2) Precursor to ViolencePrologue"The world is like a the wick of a candle: it ends in fire" Yelling. Yelling and screaming are what I can remember from before this, from before the world ended before my, and many other's eyes. I remember just standing in silence as life as I knew it, as my home; Canterlot, succumbed to the cloud of mutative pink vapor. I can recall the salty taste of my own tears dripping into the corner of my mouth, and the face of a filly with a yellow mane smiling and giggling as she was directed into an omni-environmental suit. I had two choices: stay and wait for the shield to fall, and die alongside the masses of panic stricken ponies, or I could run as far as I Could and pray. So I chose option two, and ran as hard as I could through the crowds, and straight into a riot officer. "You there! Do not resist authority, GET. TO. SAFETY!" The officer, a brown unicorn mare, pleaded with her eyes as she levitated her shotgun level to my head and bellowed orders at me. Once more, two options flitted through my head, and once more I chose option two. "Have you seen that?!" I scream right back at her, my eyes begging to be let through without violence. "We need to Evacuate Canterlot! All of us! Now!" I shout above the terrified crowd. A green unicorn mare at the back of the crowd suddenly started screaming as well, desperately pushing the scrambled ponies aside in a wild dash for the front. She managed to announce something about how Celeestia and Luna had abandoned us before the riot officer fired the shotgun into her chest and racked a fresh shell. I saw my opportunity to escape and took it as the soldier turned to look me in the eyes just before I brought my front left hoof crashing into her head and sent her sprawling to the ground. I lingered there for a split second, and decided to take the mare's gun with me on my afternoon run. "I'm so sorry miss!" I called back to the unicorn as I sprinted down the now almost empty street, towards the entrance of the city. How long I ran, I do not know. How far I ran? All the way to the main gates of Canterlot, until I was stopped by a scarred and grizzled white Stallion with a blue mane in royal guard armor. "Halt, return to the evacuation area at once Sir! The air wagon will be leaving soon!" He commanded, a spear resting at his right side. I blinked as I recognized the Stallion from school. "Flash Sentry?" I asked, hope in my voice. "N-nano? What are you doing in Canterlot? You were stationed with the Rangers weren't you? He questioned back. I shivered, remembering my death at the hands of a zebra soldier, and my resurrection at the hands of Fluttershy's Megaspell. "I was K.I.A. actually." I answered. "How did you—" Flash was interrupted by a resounding boom and a flash of light that came from the royal castle. The spear at his side fell onto the cobblestone with a clang as he sank to the ground and screamed in sadness and disbelief. "No.....not them....not the princesses...." He sobbed, his heart broken and his hope shattered. "Listen, we have to go! If we don't, we'll get caught in that....cloud!" I demanded, trying to get him on his hooves. He stood suddenly and yelled at me with a defeated voice, and tear filled eyes. "It's over! We've lost, and now we'll die! This is the end!" I hit him in the head with the shotgun, and knocked him out cold. "Maybe you will, but I'm not going to die! I am NanoGram! I survive!" Not looking back, I took the shotgun in my mouth, and ran clean out of the city and out of the cloud's area of affect. Or so I thought. I turned around for a split second just to see the mass of pink swallow me from head to hoof. I began to feel faint, like I was about to pass out, but I knew it was certainly not safe to fall and hit my head on a cobblestone road, so I leaned up against the closest thing to me for support, I would've preferred it be something not made of stone, but all I could find was a statue of an old pony knight stood at the side of the road. Either way, I felt like if I couldn't stand, I'd die, not knowing if I was right, and not realizing the hell I was putting my future self in. So, for what seemed like forever, I stood against the statue. And that's were my past ends. And my present begins..... I open my eyes, and see hell. Well, more accurately, I see what I had seen up until I passed out. Except it's brown and grey and dark, and I can't move a fucking inch. My brain does some thinking, and I figure I must have been paralyzed, because my legs can't move, and I can't feel them. But, if I'm paralyzed from the waist down, how come I can't move anything? I will myself to move, but am unsuccessful, until the strangest and most comforting thing happens; my head turns a bit to the right to gaze at Canterlot, or rather, what's left of it. The pink cloud has receded back into smaller part of the city, but that's not all that's different. From my view, I see a ruined castle, it's now almost nonexistent outer walls, and the road back into town. I manage to turn my head to the left, and see the road out of town, now flanked on both sides by desolate wasteland. For the first time in what feels like forever, I'm speechless. While I was unconscious, all that I've loved had been converted into a twisted ruin of its former self, and I don't think I can bear to look at it anymore. Sickened by the world's state, I force my legs to move, and am greeted with a sickening crunch. A stone-meets-bone kind of crunch. I wince in pain, knowing what that means. I've broken my legs, and I'm just now getting control of the devastated limbs. But, as I try to stand, I feel no pain, only a tremendous weight pushing down unevenly on my body. I try to walk, and fall on my right side, unbalanced by the mysterious weight, and to my amazement, feel no pain. My confidence boosted, I stand easily this time, and take a few steps forward. The weight is gone, and I begin to laugh in triumph but am stopped dead by what I see when I rest my gaze on where I fell. Stone and metal fragments litter the ground around a 'me' shaped patch of tan dirt. A metal sword sits neatly in the soil a meter or so to the left, and the dots connect. I realize why I couldn't move, and why I had felt so heavy earlier; I was inside that statue. Chapter 1) Swordplay Chapter 1) Swordplay "Oh, I can scrimmage my friend!" With this new development, and a good sized sword in my mouth, I venture out into the horrendously post-apocalyptic lands I once called home. About ten minutes into my trek into a forest I had no knowledge of, I take a deep breath and begin to silently process what my day has consisted of thus far. "Right, so, Canterlot is under attack by what I assume is zebra Aerial weaponry, a pink gas cloud shows up out of nowhere, the princesses die and the shield falls...... My thoughts shift focus to something much different as I stumble across a young unicorn colt pissing on a tree, and decide to let him finish his business before introducing myself. "Excuse me sir!" I call as soon as he stops urinating on the poor, shriveled up foliage. To my surprise he jumps and laughs like a lunatic, after moving backward a bit and proceeding to use his magic brandish a large wrench with nails stuck into it, He snarls and eyes me up and down like a wolf sizing up its prey. "I'm so sorry to jump out at you like that!" I try to reason, "I mean absolutely no harm to you, I swear!" I attempt to calm the furious looking colt down, but he will have none of it and with the wrench floating close to him, he charges and swings the makeshift weapon at me. "You're gonna be delicious!" He howls in a bloodthirsty and hungry tone, not realizing the mistake he's made. I tense up and hit him in the front legs with the flat of my sword, taking care to only knock him away so I can further my attempts at diplomacy. The colt flies about three feet to the right along with his wrench-weapon, and starts getting up while I my pleas for mutual nonviolence continue to fall on the deaf ears of a psychopath. "Hahaha, you're so boring and juicy! Hey, everyone! I found food!" The insane colt shouts over his back him as three other psychotic ponies arrive from behind to flank him on his left and right. I inspect the colt and his new friends carefully, trying to piece together who or what they are, and why they're so nuts; the colt has his wrench and a large scar on his left eye that winds down his entire face, and the newcomers include an earth pony mare with one ear and a chair leg with a hunk of metal taped to it, a unicorn stallion with a broken horn and a kitchen knife in his mouth, and a disgusting zombie pony with another knife. "Listen, I don't want any trouble, so why don't we stop the fighting and talk instead? I'm sure you have a logically reasonable leader among you, right?" I querier, hoping for a good answer from one of the newly involved. The broken-horned stallion answers my question almost comedically timed by saying: "Hesh da leadah." And pointing to the deranged wrench-wielding maniac. "Of course he's the leader, why wouldn't he be?" I think the colt and apparently leader, points at me and begins to advance, murmurs of cannibalistic acts involving my legs, and excessive fornication with my detached skull are offered as proof of his lack of sanity and common decency. I regard the colt with annoyed anger. "You have one last chance to stop before I whoop you and your band of misfit's asses, you hear me? What's it gonna be? Peace, or death?" I ask with a threat of violence, the muscles in all of my legs tightening at the same time as my grip on the sword's handle begins to tighten in preparedness for any attack that may come from him. "Ha, this is gonna be fun, watch me gut this fucker like a blind foal!" He announces advancing on me once more with his wrench. I get into a good stance from which to swing the sword. "You got it bitch!" I yell as I bring the sword around horizontally to meet his sweeping strike with the wrench. "You're so damn weak!" The colt barks ironically, before being disarmed by the sheer force of my swing. No, dishooved is more akin to what I did. Literally, as in; I removed his entire front right leg. "AAAGH FUCKING NO!" The foolish nutcase screams in horrible agony as I bring my sword down vertically to behead him and look up at his shocked entourage. "Want me to do some more organic subtraction? I already took one away from four, how does three minus three sound, you ignorant, pony-eating fucks?!" I demand as I slowly move towards them, sword in mouth. The mare speaks up for the rest of her shocked group. "Kill him!" "Great, first day after a fucking terror attack on my nation's capitol, and being trapped inside a stone statue, and now I'm killing ponies left and right. Anything goes now that the princesses are dead I guess." I swing the sword a third and final time, executing an almost movie-worthy double decapitation. Only the zombie pony remains, and he backs off to speak in a gravely and broken voice. "Don't kill me please, I never even swiped at you or said nothin! I'm innocent, I've never killed in my life! Please let me live!" He pleads with fervor, scared of me and my much better weapon. "Alright," I reply, lowering my sword to regard him more calmly. "But I want some answers, and I want some good ones." I finish, allowing the almost completely skinless pony to utter a reply. "What do you want to know?" He asks, choosing his words every carefully and enunciating every word as if he was a hostage talking to and armed robber. "Well, I guess he is a hostage talking to an armed robber, except I'm not robbing him." "First: what the hell are you, second: what happened to the world, and third: why did you all attack me?" I supply. "Well, I'm what most people call a ghoul and I look and sound like I do because of the massive amounts of radiation I was exposed to. In regards to the second thing; the fuckin zebras dropped some magic bombs and shit, Equestria really went to hell. A lot of ponies got into these bunkers called Stables, or escaped the blasts. I wasn't one of them, because I wasn't on the list." He pauses and spits into the dirt. "Got baked like a motherfucker by the radiation." He summarizes, finishing with spiteful distaste. "Right, but you still haven't explained why you attacked me." I pry, hoping for some closure. The ghoul blinks, and does a double-take. "Because we are, eh....were raiders. They killed ponies and looted the bodies. I only stuck with then because it was safer than traveling alone." "I see, but I have one more question actually." I continue, confident in this pony's mental capacity for sane conversation. "I'm not going anywhere kid." The ghoul says, appearing more comfortable with his current situation than before. "How long ago did the bombs drop exactly?" I question, inquisitive as ever. "200 years give or take, I'm not the best with numbers or dates and my memory isn't what it used to be, but I'd definitely say at least 200. Why?" "Pardon me, you skinless old cunt, but what the hell did you just say to me?" I calmly and quietly ask, no hint of anger in my voice. The ghoul frowns. "I said 200 years! That's it, that's how long! I swear!" He promises, desperately trying to stave off death at the hooves of my sword's sharp edge. ...Equestria.....is dead? That's not.....it can't be....how am I.....why am I... I stagger back a bit as Sadness and anger begins flowing freely through my veins, poisoning my usually non-violent mind with an unimaginable hate and bloodlust that I've never felt once before in my entire life. I black out, and in my destructively enraged state of mind, I step forward and swiftly gut him like a murderer would a blind foal. Then I continue forward, hacking and slashing anything that gets within a four foot radius of me, until I reach a hill with a large rock at the bottom, a skeleton pinned under it. Finally settled down, I inspect the long dead pony, and notice a faint green glow emanating from a device on its bony leg. Cut away the bone with my sword, and look at the device carefully. "This must be one of those pipbucks I heard about before the world went to complete shit, I wonder if it fits?" Without stopping to reflect on my heinous act of pillaging a corpse, I detach it from the bone and slide it onto my left front leg, watching in amazement as it perfectly fit onto my hoof, and registered its new owner. "Woah, it even has inventory!" I coo like a clothier discovering sewing machines for the first time, "radio? Sounds interesting." I comment as I turn the dial and select the only available frequency. The pipbuck plays the last bit of a song I don't know, by an artist I've never heard of, and then the voice of a familiar pony emanates from its speaker. "Hey everypony it's me, your good friend Dj-Pon3 here, and I have some more important news, this time about raiders! Yeah, I know it sounds bad and usually, it is! But it's actually some good news about raiders this time! Go figure, am I right? So anyway, I'm sure anypony who's ever been through BadGarden has had to either fight off a horde of crazies, or deal with getting lost in that fustercluck of a forest, and that its just a really dangerous area to wind up in in general. Well, guess what? Not anymore! As of yesterday morning, my sources have reported that the group of raiders that have been ambushing and eating anypony who dared step for in the area....have finally been taken care of! Yeah, You heard me right, all of them! And you'll never guess who killed them! It wasn't more raiders, it wasn't hellhounds, and it wasn't the StableDweller or Security. Wanna know who done it? Stop me if you've heard this one before; some random Stallion, some sword-wielding badass, stormed through and after lopping their crazy heads clean off, decided that BadGarden needed a path, so he made one, straight through the entire forest into Ranger Territory!" The radio host pauses and a triumphant trumpet sound declares to further the point. "This is Dj-Pon3, the voice of the wastes saying; wether you're planning on trading some stuff with the Rangers near BadGarden, or just passing through the area, travel at whatever speed you want, because the Knight, has made it safe again!" The voice stops once more, and a beautiful orchestral piece by Somepony named Octavia plays for an hour or so Chapter 3) Rust"Who's a silly pony?" Snickering, I trot over to the bit trying to look like a pony who totally didn't just watch it sail through the air and land in the street. "Oh my goodness, a golden coin! This is the greatest thing I've ever seen!" I pander aloud wondering if the thrower was indeed where I thought they were. "Oh my fucking God did he really just— I whip around, sword in mouth, and face a slightly out of place bit of shrubbery. "Sweet Celestia, This is like something out of a Atom Saddler movie." The bush rustles a bit and another bit flies straight out of it and hits me in the head, causing me to laugh out loud at the sheer silliness of the entire scenario. "This is just too much!" I manage between fits of laughter, "Please tell me you're some kind of wasteland comedian or something, because this is funny as all hell!" With this, the bush rustles violently as a bulky stallion with a rust colored coat cautiously rises to his hooves in confusion. "HEY!" The stallion said with all the fury of an annoyed colt. "THAT'S NOT FUNNY, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A TRAP!" I stifle my fit of laughter and look the stallion in the eyes, still fighting the urge to roll around laughing. "If it's a trap why didn't you rush me when I first saw the bit? Seriously, you have to follow up on things like that, otherwise it's just hilarious." I admit to him, watching as he broke eye contact and turn his gaze to an approaching group of zombie ponies Ghouls. The decaying creatures moved with a energy that was both shockingly fast, and frighteningly ravenous, as the group of six quickly closed the gap between us and them. "Ferals!" The stallion shouts, bracing himself for the coming battle. "Excuse me, we aren't looking for any trouble. Please don't make us fight you, okay?" I call hopefully to the pack of rotting ponies. The rust colored stallion turns and barks at me in a tone that was somewhere between mortal danger and concerned annoyance. "Dumbass, you really think they care? They got holes in their brains like a gun target, all they want to do is eat us!" He barks at my face, before turning to face the first ghoul. "Fuck!" He yells as he rears up on his hind legs and punches it square in the left side of its head, caving it in slightly, causing a dark ooze to gush forth from the wound. I wanted to vomit as soon as I heard the impact, but as I watched the ghoul fall over on its side, I was suddenly glad that he hadn't followed up on the trap. "If you insist." I quip as I swing my large sword in a downward swipe from right to left, cringing a bit as it passed clean through the ghoul closest to me. I hear a howl of pain and watch as two of the feral creatures leap onto his back like evil saddles and sink their jagged teeth into his flank. "SHIT A DICK!" The bulky stallion exclaims as they bite him repeatedly, blood painting them and the ground beneath them as they struggle. I grip the handle of the large stone sword in my mouth, and charge right at them, the blade sweeping and catching a ghoul by surprise as it passed through its front hooves like a bullet through paper. Immediately, they turned their collective gaze on me and left the stallion alone, sensing a more dangerous target had stepped up to bat. My right eye twitching slightly, I realized that I might have an incident if I wasn't careful. "Please, stop attacking us!" I beg loud enough for another group of ghouls to hear, and cause the new group of five to join their feral brethren in the hunt. "I mean it! If you don't stop, He'll take control!" I warned them pleadingly, but with little actual hope. The first of the group of ghouls lunges at me and I lop off its rotting head with a hard downward chop, the headless body sent sprawling into the dirt behind me. My steel gray eyes stop twitching, and shut for five seconds, only to open and flaunt a bluegreen color bordered by cyan. My cutie mark warped and twisted, shifting from a bullet and a ruler, to a zero with blood dripping from the bottom. Mentally, I had basically just snapped and switched personalities. I wasn't NanoGram anymore, I was PikeWire. "Fucking disgusting." Pike spits distastefully at the ghouls as they charge as one to kill me where I stand. I thrust my sword forward and impale it into the breast of the ghoul closest to me and quickly swung the blade tightly to the right, pulling the monster into a well timed buck to the head that sent the remaining teeth in its mouth to the back of its throat and snapping its neck. Next, was a well dressed ghoul with no ears and one eye, it's suit vest ripped and stained red. "Finally! It's been ages since I've broken a pony!" Pike barked happily, ducking in and out of the reach of the remaining ghouls, hacking and chopping at them enthusiastically, for a solid ten minutes before I was able to gain control and put the mangled ponies out of their misery. I turned to the injured stallion, and watched as he crawled to the bush he had been hiding in and retrieved a healing potion, drinking it with bloodied fervor. "What in the name of fucking Celestia was that shit just then?" He asked cautiously, earning a shiver from me. "For as long as I can remember, I've had a second pony in my head with separate thoughts and opinions. PikeWire, is quite a bit more inclined to violence than I am. On the other hoof, he's also quite a bit smarter than me." I explain to the stallion, not wanting to go into detail the things Pike did in the war. "The things I did in the war." I realized. He sat up and looked at me bemusedly "Well, it got the job done, that's for sure." He paused, "Name's Rusted Bit, thanks for the help, sorry bout the ambush." He added with a soft laugh. Chapter 4) Deity Chapter 4) Deity "What we are is what we must be! Radiation and taint will only spread. We must adapt to survive!" Rusted Bit turns away from the mangled corpse of a ghoul and looks at me with questioning eyes. "You're not gonna loot them?" He asks sardonically, dropping a hoofful of pistol rounds into his saddlebags. "I think I'll pass." I sighed, my eyes slipping to view the cloud covered sky. Bit halts his looting for a moment and follows my gaze. "You're not a wasteland pony, are you?" He queries, a touch of uncertainty in his voice. I close my eyes and see the cloud rushing towards me, shivering at the now distant yet fresh memory. "I'm from hoofington, served four tours in the military as an assault unit." He froze and stepped away from me, staring blankly into my eyes and questioning me further. "Hoof? How did you wind up in Canterlot?" I breathe deep and begin to explain. "I was born in upper Canterlot but my father moved us out west when mother died. He helped build the town, and when it came time for it, I helped defend it." Bit nods and quickly changes the subject, sensing my apprehension. "I get that, but you said he helped build it. You saying that you're prewar?" He asks, intrigued. How am I suppose to explain this when I don't know myself? "Got trapped in a stasis pod, woke up a little while ago." I lied, not breaking eye contact. The rusty stallion nods once more and turns around, pointing a hoof at the road. "Don't know about you, but I'm not keen on sticking around to see if there are more ghouls around." I scuff the ground with a hoof and sigh."Well, I'm trying to track down Dj Pon3. If anypony can help me, she can." I offer, hoping that he'll come along for the ride. "She? Pon3 is a buck." He corrects, confusion in his voice. "That's a voice alteration spell, it changes the caster's voice to what they want it to sound like. Pon3 was actually a mare named Vinyl Scratch. I'm guessing that she's either a ghoul, or the spell has been passed down to keep pon3 'alive' over the years." I state matter-of-factly. That earned a wide eyed stare from Rust. "You know an awful lot about magic for an earth pony." He manages, his eyes still as large as saucers. "What's with the look?" I chortle, noticing the stallion's sustained disbelief. He stutters something that sounds like 'Bad thing' before falling to his side and vomiting blood, his legs kicking wildly as his eyes held their frightened gaze. What the fuck just happened!? "By Celestia, what is happening?!" I yell, tearing around in his bags for a healing potion but finding only bottle caps and scrap metal. "Lum olway!" He insists, staring up at me, then at something behind me casting a very big shadow. Chapter 2) Precursor to Violence"I'm not even angry yet." I continue to journey through what is known as BadGarden, examining my newly acquired pipbuck. "Celestia have mercy, you've been though a lot," I whisper to the dented and scratched device as I look through its files, finding that only the map, radio, and inventory are still functioning. "Lets see here. EFS, SATS, and Rad Counter? What a joke, can't even touch those. Inventory, map, and radio?" A loud and painfully high-pitched beep plays from the pipbuck as the inventory screen flickers to life and shows my current held items. "Seems to be working okay, I wonder where I am now?" I ponder, turning the dial with my hoof to access the map. "Hmm. I'm right on the edge of the forest, so maybe it's gonna start getting better from here. Focusing on putting BadGarden behind me I push forward, trying not to have a breakdown like I did when i was questioning that ghoul, like when I got revived on the battlefield. Stopping momentarily to rest, I watch as a single golden bit flies through the air and lands with a thump in the middle of the path. "Y'know, I may not be very privy to the way things work nowadays but I'm pretty sure that's a trap." And then I fell for the most obvious trap in Equestria.
Prologue"The world is like a the wick of a candle: it ends in fire" Yelling. Yelling and screaming are what I can remember from before this, from before the world ended before my, and many other's eyes. I remember just standing in silence as life as I knew it, as my home; Canterlot, succumbed to the cloud of mutative pink vapor. I can recall the salty taste of my own tears dripping into the corner of my mouth, and the face of a filly with a yellow mane smiling and giggling as she was directed into an omni-environmental suit. I had two choices: stay and wait for the shield to fall, and die alongside the masses of panic stricken ponies, or I could run as far as I Could and pray. So I chose option two, and ran as hard as I could through the crowds, and straight into a riot officer. "You there! Do not resist authority, GET. TO. SAFETY!" The officer, a brown unicorn mare, pleaded with her eyes as she levitated her shotgun level to my head and bellowed orders at me. Once more, two options flitted through my head, and once more I chose option two. "Have you seen that?!" I scream right back at her, my eyes begging to be let through without violence. "We need to Evacuate Canterlot! All of us! Now!" I shout above the terrified crowd. A green unicorn mare at the back of the crowd suddenly started screaming as well, desperately pushing the scrambled ponies aside in a wild dash for the front. She managed to announce something about how Celeestia and Luna had abandoned us before the riot officer fired the shotgun into her chest and racked a fresh shell. I saw my opportunity to escape and took it as the soldier turned to look me in the eyes just before I brought my front left hoof crashing into her head and sent her sprawling to the ground. I lingered there for a split second, and decided to take the mare's gun with me on my afternoon run. "I'm so sorry miss!" I called back to the unicorn as I sprinted down the now almost empty street, towards the entrance of the city. How long I ran, I do not know. How far I ran? All the way to the main gates of Canterlot, until I was stopped by a scarred and grizzled white Stallion with a blue mane in royal guard armor. "Halt, return to the evacuation area at once Sir! The air wagon will be leaving soon!" He commanded, a spear resting at his right side. I blinked as I recognized the Stallion from school. "Flash Sentry?" I asked, hope in my voice. "N-nano? What are you doing in Canterlot? You were stationed with the Rangers weren't you? He questioned back. I shivered, remembering my death at the hands of a zebra soldier, and my resurrection at the hands of Fluttershy's Megaspell. "I was K.I.A. actually." I answered. "How did you—" Flash was interrupted by a resounding boom and a flash of light that came from the royal castle. The spear at his side fell onto the cobblestone with a clang as he sank to the ground and screamed in sadness and disbelief. "No.....not them....not the princesses...." He sobbed, his heart broken and his hope shattered. "Listen, we have to go! If we don't, we'll get caught in that....cloud!" I demanded, trying to get him on his hooves. He stood suddenly and yelled at me with a defeated voice, and tear filled eyes. "It's over! We've lost, and now we'll die! This is the end!" I hit him in the head with the shotgun, and knocked him out cold. "Maybe you will, but I'm not going to die! I am NanoGram! I survive!" Not looking back, I took the shotgun in my mouth, and ran clean out of the city and out of the cloud's area of affect. Or so I thought. I turned around for a split second just to see the mass of pink swallow me from head to hoof. I began to feel faint, like I was about to pass out, but I knew it was certainly not safe to fall and hit my head on a cobblestone road, so I leaned up against the closest thing to me for support, I would've preferred it be something not made of stone, but all I could find was a statue of an old pony knight stood at the side of the road. Either way, I felt like if I couldn't stand, I'd die, not knowing if I was right, and not realizing the hell I was putting my future self in. So, for what seemed like forever, I stood against the statue. And that's were my past ends. And my present begins..... I open my eyes, and see hell. Well, more accurately, I see what I had seen up until I passed out. Except it's brown and grey and dark, and I can't move a fucking inch. My brain does some thinking, and I figure I must have been paralyzed, because my legs can't move, and I can't feel them. But, if I'm paralyzed from the waist down, how come I can't move anything? I will myself to move, but am unsuccessful, until the strangest and most comforting thing happens; my head turns a bit to the right to gaze at Canterlot, or rather, what's left of it. The pink cloud has receded back into smaller part of the city, but that's not all that's different. From my view, I see a ruined castle, it's now almost nonexistent outer walls, and the road back into town. I manage to turn my head to the left, and see the road out of town, now flanked on both sides by desolate wasteland. For the first time in what feels like forever, I'm speechless. While I was unconscious, all that I've loved had been converted into a twisted ruin of its former self, and I don't think I can bear to look at it anymore. Sickened by the world's state, I force my legs to move, and am greeted with a sickening crunch. A stone-meets-bone kind of crunch. I wince in pain, knowing what that means. I've broken my legs, and I'm just now getting control of the devastated limbs. But, as I try to stand, I feel no pain, only a tremendous weight pushing down unevenly on my body. I try to walk, and fall on my right side, unbalanced by the mysterious weight, and to my amazement, feel no pain. My confidence boosted, I stand easily this time, and take a few steps forward. The weight is gone, and I begin to laugh in triumph but am stopped dead by what I see when I rest my gaze on where I fell. Stone and metal fragments litter the ground around a 'me' shaped patch of tan dirt. A metal sword sits neatly in the soil a meter or so to the left, and the dots connect. I realize why I couldn't move, and why I had felt so heavy earlier; I was inside that statue.
Chapter 1) Swordplay Chapter 1) Swordplay "Oh, I can scrimmage my friend!" With this new development, and a good sized sword in my mouth, I venture out into the horrendously post-apocalyptic lands I once called home. About ten minutes into my trek into a forest I had no knowledge of, I take a deep breath and begin to silently process what my day has consisted of thus far. "Right, so, Canterlot is under attack by what I assume is zebra Aerial weaponry, a pink gas cloud shows up out of nowhere, the princesses die and the shield falls...... My thoughts shift focus to something much different as I stumble across a young unicorn colt pissing on a tree, and decide to let him finish his business before introducing myself. "Excuse me sir!" I call as soon as he stops urinating on the poor, shriveled up foliage. To my surprise he jumps and laughs like a lunatic, after moving backward a bit and proceeding to use his magic brandish a large wrench with nails stuck into it, He snarls and eyes me up and down like a wolf sizing up its prey. "I'm so sorry to jump out at you like that!" I try to reason, "I mean absolutely no harm to you, I swear!" I attempt to calm the furious looking colt down, but he will have none of it and with the wrench floating close to him, he charges and swings the makeshift weapon at me. "You're gonna be delicious!" He howls in a bloodthirsty and hungry tone, not realizing the mistake he's made. I tense up and hit him in the front legs with the flat of my sword, taking care to only knock him away so I can further my attempts at diplomacy. The colt flies about three feet to the right along with his wrench-weapon, and starts getting up while I my pleas for mutual nonviolence continue to fall on the deaf ears of a psychopath. "Hahaha, you're so boring and juicy! Hey, everyone! I found food!" The insane colt shouts over his back him as three other psychotic ponies arrive from behind to flank him on his left and right. I inspect the colt and his new friends carefully, trying to piece together who or what they are, and why they're so nuts; the colt has his wrench and a large scar on his left eye that winds down his entire face, and the newcomers include an earth pony mare with one ear and a chair leg with a hunk of metal taped to it, a unicorn stallion with a broken horn and a kitchen knife in his mouth, and a disgusting zombie pony with another knife. "Listen, I don't want any trouble, so why don't we stop the fighting and talk instead? I'm sure you have a logically reasonable leader among you, right?" I querier, hoping for a good answer from one of the newly involved. The broken-horned stallion answers my question almost comedically timed by saying: "Hesh da leadah." And pointing to the deranged wrench-wielding maniac. "Of course he's the leader, why wouldn't he be?" I think the colt and apparently leader, points at me and begins to advance, murmurs of cannibalistic acts involving my legs, and excessive fornication with my detached skull are offered as proof of his lack of sanity and common decency. I regard the colt with annoyed anger. "You have one last chance to stop before I whoop you and your band of misfit's asses, you hear me? What's it gonna be? Peace, or death?" I ask with a threat of violence, the muscles in all of my legs tightening at the same time as my grip on the sword's handle begins to tighten in preparedness for any attack that may come from him. "Ha, this is gonna be fun, watch me gut this fucker like a blind foal!" He announces advancing on me once more with his wrench. I get into a good stance from which to swing the sword. "You got it bitch!" I yell as I bring the sword around horizontally to meet his sweeping strike with the wrench. "You're so damn weak!" The colt barks ironically, before being disarmed by the sheer force of my swing. No, dishooved is more akin to what I did. Literally, as in; I removed his entire front right leg. "AAAGH FUCKING NO!" The foolish nutcase screams in horrible agony as I bring my sword down vertically to behead him and look up at his shocked entourage. "Want me to do some more organic subtraction? I already took one away from four, how does three minus three sound, you ignorant, pony-eating fucks?!" I demand as I slowly move towards them, sword in mouth. The mare speaks up for the rest of her shocked group. "Kill him!" "Great, first day after a fucking terror attack on my nation's capitol, and being trapped inside a stone statue, and now I'm killing ponies left and right. Anything goes now that the princesses are dead I guess." I swing the sword a third and final time, executing an almost movie-worthy double decapitation. Only the zombie pony remains, and he backs off to speak in a gravely and broken voice. "Don't kill me please, I never even swiped at you or said nothin! I'm innocent, I've never killed in my life! Please let me live!" He pleads with fervor, scared of me and my much better weapon. "Alright," I reply, lowering my sword to regard him more calmly. "But I want some answers, and I want some good ones." I finish, allowing the almost completely skinless pony to utter a reply. "What do you want to know?" He asks, choosing his words every carefully and enunciating every word as if he was a hostage talking to and armed robber. "Well, I guess he is a hostage talking to an armed robber, except I'm not robbing him." "First: what the hell are you, second: what happened to the world, and third: why did you all attack me?" I supply. "Well, I'm what most people call a ghoul and I look and sound like I do because of the massive amounts of radiation I was exposed to. In regards to the second thing; the fuckin zebras dropped some magic bombs and shit, Equestria really went to hell. A lot of ponies got into these bunkers called Stables, or escaped the blasts. I wasn't one of them, because I wasn't on the list." He pauses and spits into the dirt. "Got baked like a motherfucker by the radiation." He summarizes, finishing with spiteful distaste. "Right, but you still haven't explained why you attacked me." I pry, hoping for some closure. The ghoul blinks, and does a double-take. "Because we are, eh....were raiders. They killed ponies and looted the bodies. I only stuck with then because it was safer than traveling alone." "I see, but I have one more question actually." I continue, confident in this pony's mental capacity for sane conversation. "I'm not going anywhere kid." The ghoul says, appearing more comfortable with his current situation than before. "How long ago did the bombs drop exactly?" I question, inquisitive as ever. "200 years give or take, I'm not the best with numbers or dates and my memory isn't what it used to be, but I'd definitely say at least 200. Why?" "Pardon me, you skinless old cunt, but what the hell did you just say to me?" I calmly and quietly ask, no hint of anger in my voice. The ghoul frowns. "I said 200 years! That's it, that's how long! I swear!" He promises, desperately trying to stave off death at the hooves of my sword's sharp edge. ...Equestria.....is dead? That's not.....it can't be....how am I.....why am I... I stagger back a bit as Sadness and anger begins flowing freely through my veins, poisoning my usually non-violent mind with an unimaginable hate and bloodlust that I've never felt once before in my entire life. I black out, and in my destructively enraged state of mind, I step forward and swiftly gut him like a murderer would a blind foal. Then I continue forward, hacking and slashing anything that gets within a four foot radius of me, until I reach a hill with a large rock at the bottom, a skeleton pinned under it. Finally settled down, I inspect the long dead pony, and notice a faint green glow emanating from a device on its bony leg. Cut away the bone with my sword, and look at the device carefully. "This must be one of those pipbucks I heard about before the world went to complete shit, I wonder if it fits?" Without stopping to reflect on my heinous act of pillaging a corpse, I detach it from the bone and slide it onto my left front leg, watching in amazement as it perfectly fit onto my hoof, and registered its new owner. "Woah, it even has inventory!" I coo like a clothier discovering sewing machines for the first time, "radio? Sounds interesting." I comment as I turn the dial and select the only available frequency. The pipbuck plays the last bit of a song I don't know, by an artist I've never heard of, and then the voice of a familiar pony emanates from its speaker. "Hey everypony it's me, your good friend Dj-Pon3 here, and I have some more important news, this time about raiders! Yeah, I know it sounds bad and usually, it is! But it's actually some good news about raiders this time! Go figure, am I right? So anyway, I'm sure anypony who's ever been through BadGarden has had to either fight off a horde of crazies, or deal with getting lost in that fustercluck of a forest, and that its just a really dangerous area to wind up in in general. Well, guess what? Not anymore! As of yesterday morning, my sources have reported that the group of raiders that have been ambushing and eating anypony who dared step for in the area....have finally been taken care of! Yeah, You heard me right, all of them! And you'll never guess who killed them! It wasn't more raiders, it wasn't hellhounds, and it wasn't the StableDweller or Security. Wanna know who done it? Stop me if you've heard this one before; some random Stallion, some sword-wielding badass, stormed through and after lopping their crazy heads clean off, decided that BadGarden needed a path, so he made one, straight through the entire forest into Ranger Territory!" The radio host pauses and a triumphant trumpet sound declares to further the point. "This is Dj-Pon3, the voice of the wastes saying; wether you're planning on trading some stuff with the Rangers near BadGarden, or just passing through the area, travel at whatever speed you want, because the Knight, has made it safe again!" The voice stops once more, and a beautiful orchestral piece by Somepony named Octavia plays for an hour or so
Chapter 3) Rust"Who's a silly pony?" Snickering, I trot over to the bit trying to look like a pony who totally didn't just watch it sail through the air and land in the street. "Oh my goodness, a golden coin! This is the greatest thing I've ever seen!" I pander aloud wondering if the thrower was indeed where I thought they were. "Oh my fucking God did he really just— I whip around, sword in mouth, and face a slightly out of place bit of shrubbery. "Sweet Celestia, This is like something out of a Atom Saddler movie." The bush rustles a bit and another bit flies straight out of it and hits me in the head, causing me to laugh out loud at the sheer silliness of the entire scenario. "This is just too much!" I manage between fits of laughter, "Please tell me you're some kind of wasteland comedian or something, because this is funny as all hell!" With this, the bush rustles violently as a bulky stallion with a rust colored coat cautiously rises to his hooves in confusion. "HEY!" The stallion said with all the fury of an annoyed colt. "THAT'S NOT FUNNY, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A TRAP!" I stifle my fit of laughter and look the stallion in the eyes, still fighting the urge to roll around laughing. "If it's a trap why didn't you rush me when I first saw the bit? Seriously, you have to follow up on things like that, otherwise it's just hilarious." I admit to him, watching as he broke eye contact and turn his gaze to an approaching group of zombie ponies Ghouls. The decaying creatures moved with a energy that was both shockingly fast, and frighteningly ravenous, as the group of six quickly closed the gap between us and them. "Ferals!" The stallion shouts, bracing himself for the coming battle. "Excuse me, we aren't looking for any trouble. Please don't make us fight you, okay?" I call hopefully to the pack of rotting ponies. The rust colored stallion turns and barks at me in a tone that was somewhere between mortal danger and concerned annoyance. "Dumbass, you really think they care? They got holes in their brains like a gun target, all they want to do is eat us!" He barks at my face, before turning to face the first ghoul. "Fuck!" He yells as he rears up on his hind legs and punches it square in the left side of its head, caving it in slightly, causing a dark ooze to gush forth from the wound. I wanted to vomit as soon as I heard the impact, but as I watched the ghoul fall over on its side, I was suddenly glad that he hadn't followed up on the trap. "If you insist." I quip as I swing my large sword in a downward swipe from right to left, cringing a bit as it passed clean through the ghoul closest to me. I hear a howl of pain and watch as two of the feral creatures leap onto his back like evil saddles and sink their jagged teeth into his flank. "SHIT A DICK!" The bulky stallion exclaims as they bite him repeatedly, blood painting them and the ground beneath them as they struggle. I grip the handle of the large stone sword in my mouth, and charge right at them, the blade sweeping and catching a ghoul by surprise as it passed through its front hooves like a bullet through paper. Immediately, they turned their collective gaze on me and left the stallion alone, sensing a more dangerous target had stepped up to bat. My right eye twitching slightly, I realized that I might have an incident if I wasn't careful. "Please, stop attacking us!" I beg loud enough for another group of ghouls to hear, and cause the new group of five to join their feral brethren in the hunt. "I mean it! If you don't stop, He'll take control!" I warned them pleadingly, but with little actual hope. The first of the group of ghouls lunges at me and I lop off its rotting head with a hard downward chop, the headless body sent sprawling into the dirt behind me. My steel gray eyes stop twitching, and shut for five seconds, only to open and flaunt a bluegreen color bordered by cyan. My cutie mark warped and twisted, shifting from a bullet and a ruler, to a zero with blood dripping from the bottom. Mentally, I had basically just snapped and switched personalities. I wasn't NanoGram anymore, I was PikeWire. "Fucking disgusting." Pike spits distastefully at the ghouls as they charge as one to kill me where I stand. I thrust my sword forward and impale it into the breast of the ghoul closest to me and quickly swung the blade tightly to the right, pulling the monster into a well timed buck to the head that sent the remaining teeth in its mouth to the back of its throat and snapping its neck. Next, was a well dressed ghoul with no ears and one eye, it's suit vest ripped and stained red. "Finally! It's been ages since I've broken a pony!" Pike barked happily, ducking in and out of the reach of the remaining ghouls, hacking and chopping at them enthusiastically, for a solid ten minutes before I was able to gain control and put the mangled ponies out of their misery. I turned to the injured stallion, and watched as he crawled to the bush he had been hiding in and retrieved a healing potion, drinking it with bloodied fervor. "What in the name of fucking Celestia was that shit just then?" He asked cautiously, earning a shiver from me. "For as long as I can remember, I've had a second pony in my head with separate thoughts and opinions. PikeWire, is quite a bit more inclined to violence than I am. On the other hoof, he's also quite a bit smarter than me." I explain to the stallion, not wanting to go into detail the things Pike did in the war. "The things I did in the war." I realized. He sat up and looked at me bemusedly "Well, it got the job done, that's for sure." He paused, "Name's Rusted Bit, thanks for the help, sorry bout the ambush." He added with a soft laugh.
Chapter 4) Deity Chapter 4) Deity "What we are is what we must be! Radiation and taint will only spread. We must adapt to survive!" Rusted Bit turns away from the mangled corpse of a ghoul and looks at me with questioning eyes. "You're not gonna loot them?" He asks sardonically, dropping a hoofful of pistol rounds into his saddlebags. "I think I'll pass." I sighed, my eyes slipping to view the cloud covered sky. Bit halts his looting for a moment and follows my gaze. "You're not a wasteland pony, are you?" He queries, a touch of uncertainty in his voice. I close my eyes and see the cloud rushing towards me, shivering at the now distant yet fresh memory. "I'm from hoofington, served four tours in the military as an assault unit." He froze and stepped away from me, staring blankly into my eyes and questioning me further. "Hoof? How did you wind up in Canterlot?" I breathe deep and begin to explain. "I was born in upper Canterlot but my father moved us out west when mother died. He helped build the town, and when it came time for it, I helped defend it." Bit nods and quickly changes the subject, sensing my apprehension. "I get that, but you said he helped build it. You saying that you're prewar?" He asks, intrigued. How am I suppose to explain this when I don't know myself? "Got trapped in a stasis pod, woke up a little while ago." I lied, not breaking eye contact. The rusty stallion nods once more and turns around, pointing a hoof at the road. "Don't know about you, but I'm not keen on sticking around to see if there are more ghouls around." I scuff the ground with a hoof and sigh."Well, I'm trying to track down Dj Pon3. If anypony can help me, she can." I offer, hoping that he'll come along for the ride. "She? Pon3 is a buck." He corrects, confusion in his voice. "That's a voice alteration spell, it changes the caster's voice to what they want it to sound like. Pon3 was actually a mare named Vinyl Scratch. I'm guessing that she's either a ghoul, or the spell has been passed down to keep pon3 'alive' over the years." I state matter-of-factly. That earned a wide eyed stare from Rust. "You know an awful lot about magic for an earth pony." He manages, his eyes still as large as saucers. "What's with the look?" I chortle, noticing the stallion's sustained disbelief. He stutters something that sounds like 'Bad thing' before falling to his side and vomiting blood, his legs kicking wildly as his eyes held their frightened gaze. What the fuck just happened!? "By Celestia, what is happening?!" I yell, tearing around in his bags for a healing potion but finding only bottle caps and scrap metal. "Lum olway!" He insists, staring up at me, then at something behind me casting a very big shadow.
Chapter 2) Precursor to Violence"I'm not even angry yet." I continue to journey through what is known as BadGarden, examining my newly acquired pipbuck. "Celestia have mercy, you've been though a lot," I whisper to the dented and scratched device as I look through its files, finding that only the map, radio, and inventory are still functioning. "Lets see here. EFS, SATS, and Rad Counter? What a joke, can't even touch those. Inventory, map, and radio?" A loud and painfully high-pitched beep plays from the pipbuck as the inventory screen flickers to life and shows my current held items. "Seems to be working okay, I wonder where I am now?" I ponder, turning the dial with my hoof to access the map. "Hmm. I'm right on the edge of the forest, so maybe it's gonna start getting better from here. Focusing on putting BadGarden behind me I push forward, trying not to have a breakdown like I did when i was questioning that ghoul, like when I got revived on the battlefield. Stopping momentarily to rest, I watch as a single golden bit flies through the air and lands with a thump in the middle of the path. "Y'know, I may not be very privy to the way things work nowadays but I'm pretty sure that's a trap." And then I fell for the most obvious trap in Equestria.
