Fallout: Equestria - Broken Worlds

Chapter 2.

Waking up.

Slowly, feeling returned to my body. My eyes peeled open slowly. Once I had opened them fully I was forced to close them again as they had not adjusted to the light. As more feeling returned to my body, I noticed I was cold. Very cold. I opened my eyes to see I was somewhere…Where was I? I looked around from inside the pod thingy I was in. I saw the walls were printed with the Stable-Tec logo. Then all the memories flooded back.

I listed through everything that happened. The Zebra’s set of the balefire bombs, I was put into the Stable, then into this pod to be cleaned from any radiation, then I woke up. Odd, they said I was going to be in hear for a few minutes, but I felt much longer. Maybe I just lost track of time.

I couldn’t hear anything, then my hearing slowly returned as an alarm sounded, getting louder and louder until my hearing was normal. I move my hoof to open the door but found that frost was covering it.

“The fuck?” I said. Or tried to say. My mouth and face and everything was frost covered.

I gritted my teeth and moved my hoof. I pushed against the pod door and it easily gave way.

I fell flat on my face out of the pod. I didn’t care though. It was warmer out here. After a few minutes of just staring at the Stable floor I stopped shivering and felt much better. I slowly rose to my hooves then looked around. Some of the other pods around me were opened. I counted five out of the twelve there opened. The rest were still sealed shut. Then I think finally my brain started working again. (Although I don’t think it ever was.) I noticed the ice and water on the floor. I then went up to a closed pod and saw the pony inside. They were a white stallion with a cyan main. They too were frost covered. Wait…frost…ice…Oh fuck. Stable-Tec hadn’t cleaned us of radiation. They had frozen us.

It was all too much. Too many questions I wanted answers for. But all those could wait until I faced the Stable-Tec bastards. I continued to stare at the buck, question flooding my mind. Then a blinking red light on the control panel caught my attention. I read the pony’s health conditions and other stuff like that, complicated stuff my dumb little brain couldn’t understand. But there was one thing I could understand. But I wish I couldn’t

‘Subject 208: Name: Winter Breeze: Status: Deceased.’

Stable-Tec had killed him. A quick glance at the other pods showed Stable-Tec had killed most of the ponies. Though some were lucky. They still showed alive. I was lucky too.

I looked at the pod next to Winter Breeze’s. The name immediately got my attention.

‘Subject 207: Name: Cloud Tracer: Status: N/A’

Tracer. I had completely forgotten. (At the rate I was forgetting this, I was surprised I still remember to breath and blink.) Her pod was open. She was gone. But she was alive.

I left the room containing all the pods in search of a Stable-Tec worker I could first punch in the face, then ask questions. After a short while of searching I found a Stable-Tec worker. Well, I found their skeleton. They were dead. They had been for a while. All that was left was the skeleton and the dirty clothes. Fantastic. More question. How had they died? When did they die! How long was I frozen for? I shook my head. Throwing away all the questions because I knew they weren’t going to get answered anytime soon.

After a while of getting lost in the Stable. Which was actually very small compare to others I had seen. I eventually found the entrance…And many dead bodies. I noticed one dead body had a Pip-Buck on. I then looked down at my hoof. I was never given one. To be honest that was something I was looking forward too. So I went down and pulled the Pip-Buck off, taking the hoof with me. I screamed, reached, then threw up in a corner. That was horrible. Luckily when I dropped the hoof the Pip-Buck fell off. So I just pick it up, and locked it onto my hoof.

After a short while of hitting the Pip-Buck, the Screen gave a static burst then flicked back on and displayed my information. I’m not sure how, but It had my name displayed on the screen. ‘Slipstream’ with information about my health and other information. How it did this beat me. I didn’t care though. I nerved cared about all the technical shit. I just cared about what something did.

I looked at the control panel by the Stable-Lift. I pushed buttons at random, but every time I got the message. ‘Error: Incorrect password.’ I sighed, swore, then sat down on a foot locker.

I fiddled around with my Pip-Buck then I heard hooves approaching. I panicked. I didn’t know what this pony would be like. How would they react? I went to find a place to hide but then I saw the pony fall to the ground in tears. It was a purple stallion with a white and grey main.

“S-shit. F-fuck. What the fuck is g-going on.” He said as she shivered on the ground.

He still had frost covering him. So I assumed he just left his pod. He hadn’t noticed me yet, so I slowly approached him.

“Um hi?” I said to him.

He jumped up, eyes wide, and stared at me. The slowly started to relax.

“H-hi who are you?” He asked.

“Slipstream.” I said as I reached out a hoof to help him up and to greet him.

“Purple Snow.” He replied back to me. “You from them pods too?” Now he slowly started to shiver less.

I nodded. “Yeah, just got out today. I’m taking you did as well?” I ask and he nodded.

He found a foot locker to sit on then sighed. “Why would Stable-Tec do that? Why would they lie?” He asked. I saw more tears form in his eyes.

I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” I sighed and found myself a locker to sit on.

We sat in awkward silence for a while. Then I spoke out.

“So, what do we do now.” I said as I continued to fiddle with my Pip-Buck.

“We?” He asked. “Ah…sorry. I guess it’s better we stick together. Uh so…” He trailed off. “Why can’t we just stay here?” He suggested.

I shook my head. “There is no food, no water. We’d be dead in a few days here.”

He sighed and rubbed his temples with his hooves. “Fuckin’ just great. Them dammed freeze pods don’t work no more.” He trailed off again then looked to the stable door. “Guess there’s only one choice right?” He then looked back to me.

I gravely nodded. Then fear returned back into his eyes. “But- but – but what about radiation and shit! We don’t know if it’s cleared out yet! We don’t know how long we’ve been frozen for!” He yelled as he jumped up and started to pace back and forth.

I pointed to the skeletons of ponies. “We’ve been here long enough for their bodies to decompose.” I said and his eyes locked on me. then at the bodies, then at the stable door.

“Guess we have no choice. Fuck.”

                                                                                                     ******

After a while of trying to find the code for the control panel. I found it on a file on my Pip-buck. The code was ‘395248’ I entered it and it gave me a green light of approval.

My hoof hovered over the red button. I looked over at Purple Snow. He just gave me a nod. I took a breath in, then slammed my hoof down. Then a loud alarm sounded which was accompanied by a flashing light. A catwalk that joined the rest of the Stable with the door, started to move. I jumped on, then waved my hoof for Purple to follow. I stumbled on my hooves as the catwalk moved. When it suddenly stopped I fell flat on my face. I groaned.

“I’ve only been out of the pod for what? An hour. And I’ve already fallen on my face twice. Probably more.” I said as Purple Snow moved around to help me up.

I noticed at the bottom the gates were now open. I, being a Pegasus just flew over the railing down to the gate. Purple, being an earthpony rolled his eyes and trotted down the stairs. When he too reached the bottom we both stepped on the lift. After a while of nothing happening. I looked around for a bottom for something. Then I saw a lever on the side of the gate. I pulled it, and another alarm sounded but the lift went up.

We didn’t speak to each other on the way up. But as the lift slowly got closer and closer I felt my heart race. I couldn’t take it. I didn’t want to see what happened. I closed my eyes and put my wings around my face. I then took a small look around and noticed Purple was doing the same. (Well, he didn’t have wings. He just closed his eyes.) I shook myself. I had to do this. I had to face it. The lift came to a stop. I didn’t look. Nor did Purple.

“Well…I’m not feeling my flesh being eaten alive by radiation…So that’s good.” I said as I slowly brought down my wings, then slowly opened one eye, then the other then…

“Holy fuck.” I said as I stared out.

It wasn’t what I expected I guess you could say. But it was all ruined. All the houses. Everything was ruined. It looked like your typical wasteland from an apocalypse movie or comic. I looked up. There was no sun. Well there was, but it was struggling to break through the thick dirty white cloud layer. I looked all around me taking everything in. Then I noticed another pony sitting behind a small broken cart. He held binoculars to his eyes. When I noticed him. He noticed me. He brought the binoculars down and swiftly trotted away.

“The fuck?” I said. “There are ponies out here?!” I expected it to be deserted. Honestly, I expected it to be nothing. I thought everything would be gone. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that buildings where still here.

I looked round again and saw Purple still had his eyes sealed shut. I put a hoof on him and he jumped.

“It’s fine.” I said as I moved his hoof away from his eyes. “It’s just…Everything is broken down. But It’s not as bad as you will think.” With that he slowly opened his eyes and gaped.

“Wow.” He gasped. “I don’t know if I should be happy or sad with this?”

“Why happy?” I asked. “The fucking world has ended!” I trailed off. “I guess it hasn’t really ended.” I mumbled to myself.

“It’s almost like what it was before. Take away the fallen trees and shit. Fix up those builds and boom! It’s home.” Purple said staring down at the small town below.

I guess he was right. It could be home again. We just had to make it home. We walked down the small hill towards the town, my home. I’m guessing it was also Purple’s home. We reached the entrance to the town. The sign that once welcomed ponies into Sunflower hills had rusted and fallen over. Before I could say anything Purple suddenly dashed off. I called for him but I got no response. Maybe he didn’t want to be with me? I didn’t really care though, I had my own things to do.

After a while of searching the broken and collapsed houses. I saw mine. The number ‘22’ now was just ‘2’ and rusted, but I could tell it was mine. I walked in and gasped. Everything was gone. Only bits of junk were left as well as an awful smell. Instead of the nice cream wallpaper that used to line the walls, there was blood, shit and other horrible things. I couldn’t take it. I backed out and tripped over the side walk and landed flat on my ass. I didn’t care. The physical pain was nothing compare to the emotional one. My home. The place I could always come to and feel safe, was gone. Not just gone, it was befouled. I just sat there for a little while until I heard hooves walk up behind me.

“You okay?” Purple Snow said as he joined me. He then looked into my house and winced. “Heck…I thought my home was bad. Jeez…” He sighed.

“What happened?” I asked. He only shrugged.

“Dunno. But everything in my house in gone. Stolen. That means there are ponies out here.” He said glaring around us.

I explained how I saw a pony spying us on the hill.

“Maybe that fucking dick did this, and he was checking to make sure we weren’t out yet so he could keep stealing our shit!” He growled.

It was probably true. I didn’t want it to be. So far the world hasn’t made a great first impression on me. From everything being destroyed. Now ponies had turned evil. In the time of the war every pony looked out for each other, because they had too. Ponies couldn’t afford having more enemies and trouble in their lives.

I didn’t notice until Purple yawned loudly that I was so tired. I nudged Purple’s shoulder.

“It’s getting dark. We should…” I yawned. “We should get some rest.”

Purple shook his head. “Oh no, no! I’m not going in these fucked up houses! There is shit and blood everywhere!” He yelped.

I sighed. “I think we need to get used to it. I fear everywhere will be like that.”

He sighed and got up. “Let’s at least find a nicer place to sleep.”

After a while of searching through the houses, I found out that many homes where worse off than mine. I felt bad going through these pony’s house, but Purple just told be these ponies would be long dead by now. Yeah…. That didn’t make me feel any better about it.

We eventually found a nice enough house to rest in. We got settled down on the floors. I was not going to sleep on those beds. They were stained with blood, shit and Celestia knows what. The floor was much more appealing. We made a plan that tomorrow we would search the area for food and anything that would be useful.

Purple Snow fell asleep much faster than I ever could. I always struggled sleeping, because my mind was always racing, thinking of what I would do tomorrow. Now my mind was filled with other thoughts, how was I going to survive. Or more like, how long am I going to survive?

I didn’t realise I had drifted off until I was woken up by the sound of a pot falling down. I jumped up. I looked around. I relaxed when I realised it was probably just Purple taking a leak or something. Then that relaxed feeling was chewed up and spat out as I saw Purple fast asleep under a table.

Hoof steps slowly approached. I panicked and searched around the small room for anything I could defend myself with. I went with the leg of a broken table. It would do much against a gun or anything, but it was something. I poked my head out of the room. Nothing. I dashed across to the other room. Nothing again. I then slowly walked in the corridor towards the living room. Something. A pony. Mare? They had dirty orange fur, at least I think that’s orange. They had strange armour on that was stained with blood. Their dark blue main and tail was tangled with blood. This didn’t look like a friendly pony. They were looking around the room. Then they were looking at me.

“Get. The. Fuck. Out.” I said shaking. Probably should not offend the big pony with the big gun.

She frowned at me and spoke in a clam and strangely familiar voice. “I should be saying the same thing to you.”

It sounded like, and looked like…Tracer. It couldn’t be. This pony was bigger than me. Tracer was always smaller than me. And there is more than one orange and blue Pegasus in the world, but not one with the same cutie mark. I slowly look down at her flank. There it was. The lightning bolt cutie mark. It was her. It was her!

“What are you? Are you checking me out or something?” She said as she covered her flank with her tail and blushed.

“Tracer.” I smiled. “It’s you!” I said with tears of joy welling up in me.

“Yeah, it’s me…do I know you?” She froze. She stared at me, unmoving. Only her eyes moved. They scanned up and down, then trailed down to my flank. “It can’t be.”

I nodded and smiled.

“Slipstream? But-But you were in the pod! I thought you were dead!” She said as she ran up to me.

Before I could say another word, her orange hooves wrapped around my dark blue coat. Her tears fell into my dark rainbow coloured main.

“I missed you so much.” She cried, then broke the hug. “Eighteen years. It’s been eighteen years since I left my pod.”

There was no way it’s only been eighteen years since the end of the war. Unless…

“When you did wake up, how long had the war been over for?” I asked.

She looked down at the floor. The back up at me. Fresh tears in her eyes.

“Night…Trac.” I said as I closed my eyes and she chuckled. “Two hundred years.” She cried.

I didn’t know what to say. I could only break down and cry. I sat on a bench and Tracer came to comfort me.

“Hey, at least you look good for a two hundred and eighteen-year-old mare.” She laughed and I laughed with her.

“I checked you know. Every couple of days I would go down to that vault to see if you had woken up yet. Never had any luck.” She sighed, then looked up at me. “But now I do.” She smiled with tears filling her eyes.

We sat on the bench together then Purple Snow walked into the room, rubbing his eyes.

“Wha-What’s going on?” He then noticed Tracer. “Y-You know this pony?”

I nodded. “Yeah, we were friends before the war. We went into the freezing pods together.”

He nodded, then yawned. He pointed back to the room. “I’m going to go back to sleep.” He then went back into the room.

I looked over at Tracer and saw she had dark rings under her eyes.

“We should go too.” I said and she nodded.

As the room Purple was sleeping in was small, Tracer and I chose the room opposite. I curled up on the floor again, but to my surprise Tracer didn’t seem to mind sleeping in the bed. She saw me staring wide eyed at her.

“You get used to it.” She said as she closed her eyes. “Night Slip’”

“Slip?” I asked.

“Yeah! My little nickname for you! You know Slip…Short for Slipstream.” She smiled. I rolled my eyes.

Footnote:  5% To next level.