Fallout Equestria : Zephyr Skyport
Chapter 1: Rain
It hurt.
It hurt everywhere.
That was how the pegasus colt felt when he finally woke up. He had been tossed and tumbled as he was swept along the air currents before being thrown onto the banks of this isolated cloud. He was a piece of bright blue flotsam that was lucky to be alive. Yet even then, the dull roar of the air river behind him continued to send tendrils of wind that threatened to reclaim the young pegasus.
Slowly he got to his feet and climb higher up the cloud bank to safety. He put as much distance as he could before he dropped in exhaustion. He slept a dreamless sleep. Hours passed and he a wake again. He opened up his wings for the first time since regaining consciousness. It hurt but he could move all six limbs. Mercifully nothing was broken but the rough feeling on his wings meant he would need a few hours of preening to straighten his flight feathers.
Night had long fallen. The clouds were unfamiliar. He didn’t know where he was. The moon was absent from the sky. It was too dark to see. He was alone. He wanted him mom. Colts his age weren’t supposed to cry, but he wanted too and nearly did until he heard a voice in the dark. It was a filly singing.
Blue Moon
You saw me standing alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own,
Perhaps she could help him get home. He took a step towards her bright voice. He stumbled.. His tired legs tripped over uneven clouds in the dark.
The singing stopped. “Hey, what are you doing here?” The same voice in the dark demanded “You’re in the secret garden.” She said crossly.
“I can’t see you. Where are you?”
“I can see you just fine. Are you blind or something?”
“I’m not blind. It’s dark.” He reached to his right foreleg. He tapped at the computer, guided mostly by memory and touch but the machine stayed unresponsive. Its spark batteries were drained from the ordeal of keeping its owner from serious injury. “Do you have a light? My PipBuck is dead.”
“Maybe,” came her mischievous reply.
“Maybe? Why maybe?”
“Only if you Promise not to tell anypony. I’m not supposed to turn on a light in the secret garden.”
‘If that was all it took’, he shrugged his wings. “I promise not to tell anypony that you turned on a light in the secret garden. Pinkie Pie Swear.” He added. “Cross my heart, eat a fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He pantomimed the actions, closing his eye at the last moment before touching it with his hoof.
“Yuck, that is a nasty Promise,” she stuck her tongue at him.
Nevertheless nasty or not, it seemed good enough for her as a dim glow lit up. The weak light illuminated a filly with a brown coat and a green mane. She was no older than he was, about the age most ponies began getting their cutie mark.
“So how did you find the secret garden?” She asked.
“Not telling. You’re just going to be mean and laugh at me.”
“Am not.”
“Are too. You are a girl. And girls are mean.”
She walked up to him and looked into his eye in an unblinking stare. “I Promise I will not laugh at you for telling me how you arrived at the secret garden” Her tone was strange, flat and devoid of emotion. It looked creepy in the dim light.
“What was that?” A sudden unfamiliar feeling was rolling in his head.
“I made you a Promise.” She nodded her head. “Shadowbolts can never break a Promise, ever.”
That sounded something a little filly or colt would say. But she did ask a question and promised not to laugh. “I got caught in an air river.” There he said it and waited for her to laugh at him for being so stupid.
What happened next was unexpected. “What’s an air river?” She asked.
“You mean you don’t know? You’re a pegasus! An air river is that?” He pointed his hoof at the roaring air current whipping at the edge of the island of calm they stood on.
“My sisters and their friends ride the air river near my house. We are not supposed too. My moms and dad said it was too dangerous for children.” His gaze fell to his front hooves. “I wanted to show to my big sisters that I was a big pony too.”
“Pretty dumb.”
“I thought you promised not to laugh!”
She dropped onto her hunches. “Do you see a laugh on my muzzle?” She brought her two fore hooves to her face. “See, no laughing. I made a Promise and I can’t break it. But you should listen to your parents.”
“Do you always follow rules?”
“Well I do most of the time.” She shrugged with his wings.
“So…” He continued. “Do you live here?”
“Of course not, silly.” She smiled back. “I live in New Ponyville.”
“Where’s that?” He couldn’t see any lights on the cloud or even a single house. The air river seemed to surround the entire island with a constant low roar. It looked like they were on a deserted island.
“On the ground,” she replied.
”That’s instant death!” the blue colt exclaimed. The ground is full of radiation, poisons and monsters.”
The brown filly waved off the idea with her hoof. “Who told you that?”
“My teacher, Mrs Sunshower.”
“Has your teacher ever been on the ground?”
“I don’t know.” He answered uncertainly. “Maybe not.”
“Then how do you know the ground is instant death if you have never been there? It isn’t deadly and there are certainly no monsters. I don’t think your teacher really know much.. Want to see where I live?” She asked eagerly and pranced up and down.
“I don’t know. My mom said not to wander if I ever got lost. I think she is right about this. I should stay put until somepony finds me.”
“And you want to do that while in a Shadowbolt Secret Garden? Not going to happen.” She shook her head. “The garden is secret. You’re lucky that I found you and I’m not suppose to be here. Nopony will find you here.”
The blue colt grew irritated at the brown filly. “If you are so smart, where do you suggest I go?”
“Duh!” she rolled her green eyes. “Zephyr Skyport, silly colt. That is where all the Enclave pegasi hang out.”
“I’m not a silly colt.” He huffed. “And isn’t every pony Enclave?”
“Am not!” She said and stomped her right fore hoof to emphasize her indignation. “I’m a Super Awesome Shadowbolt, S.A.S, 3rd Sky Regiment!” She stated proudly while holding her head high. She glared at him once to make sure he knew his place and then turned to trot away.
‘What did that mean?’ He wondered.
“Well aren’t you coming?” she called back.
He shrugged and ran after her, following the light of her PipBuck. “Coming!” he yelled. It wasn’t long before he reached her. She was standing at the edge of the cloud. He came to a stop by her side. It was hard to see with so little light but she appeared to be busy getting into some kind of strange saddle.
“What’s that?” He pointed. It looked complicated with dozens of buckles and clips. How could she see with so little light?
“A harness.” She replied as if it was the most obviously thing in the world and that any pony who didn’t was obviously mentally retarded. She then pointed upwards.
Her tone was obvious to the blue colt. He didn’t like it much; still his eyes followed her hoof and came to rest on a cable that was anchored into a black cloud. It ran from there, over the cloud edge and into the darkness below.
“And that is a zip-line. That’s how we are going to get down.” She pulled out a second harness from the darkness.
“I don’t know. It looks dangerous.” He couldn’t see far with only the dim light of her PipBuck but his feathers told him that the air was churning. The air here was even wilder than air stream near home.
“That’s why we have a zip-line and a harness.” She threw harness on him and began strapping the colt in. “It’s easy. I Promise I’ll look out for you.” A sharp click followed as she snapped his harness to the zip-line. “Just a hop, skip and jump.”
“I don’t know.” He tried to back away but the couldn’t go far with his harness clipped to the zip-line
“Just move your little rump.” She sang confidently. “You’ll make it if you try.” She snapped her clips to the zip-line. “Just a hop, skip and…” then in front of the blue colt, she threw herself into the howling inky blackness. “Jump!”
The light of her pipbuck was gone. She was gone. He was along in the dark with only the mad howl of wind for company. He took a nervous step towards the cloud edge. The air at the edge was black. “You’ll make it if you try.” He recited slowly and nervously to himself. His legs grew tense. “Just a hop, skip and AHHHH…” he screamed as he vanished over the edge.
The winds howled around him with hunger. On instinct he snapped wide his wings and regretted it immediately. The terrible winds of the cloud curtain tore at his already uneven feathers and chilled the blood in his wings. He snapped his stinging wings shut and fell.
A dark shadow emerged from under him. It was her. Even in this wind, she was somehow using her wings to slow her descent.
“I forgot to ask, what’s your name?” She shouted over the roaring wind as he came near. “I’m Wind Dancer.”
“My name…” the wind cut him off. The wind snatched the filly in front of him and blew her hard. She whipped wildly about in the air, only her harness and clips to the zip-line kept her from tumbling away.
“I can’t hear you!” she yelled, not the least bit frightened that she was now flying upside down or that her life hung on the strength of three metal clips and a two century old cable. Somehow she was matching his speed, keeping their separation at a constant distance even in this ever changing whirlpool of gale.
He began again, louder this time. “My name is…”
**** ****
“Rain Storm! Wake up, we are here.”
I tapped the big lug on his shoulder. He turned away from me. He pulled his blanket over his head and continued sleeping. Yes, if you must ask, that blue stallion in front of me is my brother. He is the baby of the family, the only colt in the family of six fillies. He is the famous one amongst us, the music sensation.
His music was rocking the lives of young mares of across the Enclave. His critic slammed his performance for its ‘appalling lack of musicality’, ‘vulgarity’ and ‘animalism’. Maybe those ponies were right, but I as looked out of the sky-wagon’s window, the opinions of those music experts meant nothing to the churning rainbow of young mares outside, screaming his name.
Yup, baby brother wasn’t much of a baby anymore and was more of a heartthrob or lust muffin, depending on the mare you asked. I am not sure how he does it, but I am putting it down to his dynamic vocal style, his sultry looks and the way he flares his wings during his performances. Baby brothers should never ever be sex symbols. That is just wrong
I tapped my brother again. “Your adoring fans await you.”
If you were the superstar invading the bed room of countless mares, expect controversy. Its part of the job description. Old matron of society decried his impact on the morals of young mare. His concerts were already banned in ten cities. He needed a special permit in another four. It only increased his appeal and the number of mares visiting our home city of Zephyr to see his concerts. The forbidden apple tastes all the more sweet, as the saying went.
But enough of that, I had to get my brother up for his next event. I poked my bother in his ear. His head shot up. “I’m up,” he said loudly and got off the reclining chair.
About time I thought. I walked to the door and opened it. Star Jam, his makeup artist was already there waiting. “He’s awake.” I said.
“Didn’t tell you that I needed 30 minutes?” She was crossed. Under her glare my light armour didn’t seem enough to ensure my continued well being.
“He needed the sleep.” I played the concern big sister card. At least it was true this time. He did need the sleep and I was a concern sister. I have no idea how my brother could be so driven and keep up with his mad schedule. Most of the time, I needed that extra sleep.
Star Jam huffed. “We will be late.”
30 minutes later and now 10 minutes late, my baby brother emerged from the room. And by Princess Luna’s sweet horn, I stared at the sight that greeted me. Is this the power of makeup? Can a few powdered smudges here and there really do this? The stallion who stood at the door was dazzling. He looked so… so… oh the goddess…. I was beginning to feel hot under my armour and a bit uncomfortable. It had to be the air conditioning. Baby brothers had no right to be sex symbols. It was just wrong.
He walked into the corridor, greeting every member of his staff. He exchanged a few words with his personal secretary, a buck named Summer Heat. They must be going over the details of the evening’s concert. I trotted quickly up to my brother. According to protocol, security had to be out first.
The air stewardess opened the door of the sky-wagon.
Well, show time. I am not supposed to be one of my baby brother’s roadies… or road crew if you didn’t know the lingo. I am an Enclave soldier. Why is this happening to me?
I walked out, followed a hoof step behind by my brother. Several dozen camera flashes when up at the same time. It was no different from a flash grenade going off. My goggles immediately darken to protect my eyes. Below, my squad was already clearing a path. My Eyes Forward Sparkle (EFS) was all green. No reds. No hostile ponies, just a rabid crowd of mares who were waiting to turn this into a wild orgy. Yup, all they needed was to get their hooves on baby brother.
I descended down the ramp in front of my celebrity brother. “Enclave security. Step aside.” I waved my wings to keep ponies from entering the space my squad had cleared. Since when did Enclave personnel become personal security to superstars? I huffed with irritation and moved forward. It was all very well practised. My brother should just be a step behind me.
“Just another pony who’s eager to sign up to the Volunteer Crops. Nothing to see.” I muttered into the crowd. I didn’t even believe a word I was saying. The Rain Storm hasn’t been just any other pony in years…. I heard a scream and quickly turned around.
There was my brother kissing a sunny yellow mare. It looked like she was about to faint from the excitement of kissing her dream stallion. Cameras flashed.
Instant front page photo if I have ever seen one. I could even see the headlines. ‘Last kiss goodbye as music sensation Rain Storm leaves for the Volunteer Corps.’
“Yup, nothing to see,” I pushed forward to grab my brother. I couldn’t yank him by the tail anymore. He had grown just too damn big. Maybe I could grab him by the ear, and now that would make a great photo. ‘Music sensation Rain Storm has earful from crossed elder sister.’
“Rain Storm why do it?” A green mare yelled and shoved a microphone into his face.
Why do it? ‘Power and Bits my dear reporter’, that would have been my answer. Why else does any pony do anything? This is a publicity stunt orchestrated by Senator Rain or Granny Rain, our grandmother. It is all part of her ‘Outreach’ campaign. A pony would need to be deaf and blind not to notice the increasing public sentiment to go down and help our fellow ponies.
Where that sentiment came from, I don’t know. Maybe it was just a built up from generations of guilt. What I do know is Granny Rain has ridden that sentiment into power, first the city council then the Enclave Senate. That sentiment has kept her in power for decades now. She is famed for her efforts in the Enclave to increase the number of volunteer mission. She even made a proposal to establish a permanent presence on the ground, starting with a trial near Zephyr City.
Yeah, it sounds like Granny Rain has a bleeding heart for those poor sods on the ground. Her critics in the other cities even call her that, ‘Bleeding Heart’ Rain. I wonder why nopony ever remembers that Granny Rain was also the Commander ‘Firestorm’ Rain, the pony who crushed the last free Griffin city under her steel hoof of powered armour. The pony who ordered a massacre, an open secret that nopony in the military wants to talk about. Zebras and griffins were the monsters, not ponies, never us, the good pegasi. The reality of this farce is very far from altruistic.
My younger brother nodded his head and took a moment to answer the reporter’s question.
“If you mean, why join the Volunteer Corps? It’s because it is the right thing to do. There are ponies living beneath our hooves who need our help. It was the correct decision to close off the sky when the balefires fell. That decision kept our cities safe, it kept us alive. Now two hundred year later, the radiation has died down. The Zebras and their empire are gone. It is time we come down and help our fellow ponies.”
Another question followed after that.
The reporters surged forward. “Sky, Lightning.” I yelled over the Comm. System. “Keep the crowd one pony length from my brother!”
My brother seems to be enjoying this. Yeah he should. Not a care in the world while your big sister does all the grunt work keeping your blue hide safe. Did it ever occur to him that some crazed mare might just want to kill him? Or that Granny Rain has a lot more enemies than the Rain herd has hooves and we have a lot of ponies in our herd. It would hurt Granny Rain some if her favourite grandfoal got killed. I say ‘some’ as I am one of the few ponies who knows the real Senator Rain.
I neared my brother and was close enough to hear him speak.
“No, I don’t expect it will be easy.” My brother was speaking to the microphone of another reporter. “These are starving ponies that have lived their entire lives eating two hundred year old garbage. They will look at us with distrust and probably be wondering what are these apples we keep trying to give to them.” He paused and flashed a dazzling smile.
The crowd laughed. Work that crowd, baby brother. Shake it! Shake it! Show them what you have learned from being Granny Rain’s understudy.
“We will win their trust. It will not be today, tomorrow or even next year. But eventually, they will see us as friends. And decades from now, when the radiation has completely died down, the Enclave will lower the cloud curtain.”
I snorted. And then we will be one big happy herd again. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will awake from their deathless slumber. Everything will be rainbow and sunshine again. Yeah! Do you memorise your lines baby brother or do you really mean it? You are Granny Rain’s favourite and birds of a feather flock together. I don’t know where the truth ends and the lies begin, baby brother. I won’t even try. And frankly, I don’t see how we could help. Zephyr has been a net food importer for decades now. So how can we feed those starving sods if we can’t feed ourselves? That is one reason why Thunderhead, the biggest food exported has such influence. Not all cities are created equal. The math does not add up. Is this just to gather votes for the coming elections? Baby brother, are you doing all this just to help Granny Rain get re-elected?
My brother kissed another two mares, whispered something into the ears of a third that caused her to faint into the hooves of her friends. He shook hooves with two dozen other mares. He also answered two more question from the reporters. He did all that before going through the doors of the Volunteer Corps registration office.
Then he stood in line like any other pony. Yeah, right. Including myself he was surrounded by four armour ponies on this cloud level, another four on the level above and four more on the level below. Eight other ponies were outside watching the crowd.
Cameras flashed again.
None of us Security will be in any those photos. It’ll all be carefully edited prior to public consumption. I checked my Eyes Forward Sparkle for signs of hostiles then requested a random check-in from my squad. My ponies outside were keeping the crowd from going out of control.
As instructed by my brother, his staff started distributing free merchandise from several different stands. It was quite ingenious really. It broke up that one large crowd into several smaller ones which were easier to control. And with stuff in their saddle bags, some ponies where actually going home.
Baby brother was already striking up conversation with the ponies around him. They were looking up to him as he spoke. I was not so sure what he was talking about, but if I had to bet my hard earned Bits, it would all probably end with ‘Oh by the way, tell your family and friends to vote for Senator Rain. The name sounds familiar ‘cause she’s my gran-gran. She really believes in this hogwash of helping poor earth pony sods. Cross my heart, eat a fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.’
Blagh …
It took an hour before baby brother reached the registration counter. Most ponies would have considered that wait unbearable or at the very least an hour wasted. But not baby brother. He talked to every pony that joined the waiting line. He listened to their reasons for joining the Volunteer Crops, which in my opinion were mostly dumb reasons. But in short he got to know nearly two dozen ponies in that hour. And yes, there was that spiel about Granny Rain. So into the bag went two dozen votes for Granny Rain, and quite likely a lot more. Hurrah!
The mare at the counter looks up at my brother. The registration office had known for two weeks now that he was coming. She tried to act calm but her face was completely flushed. Ah, the awful downside of being a white pony. I grinned. He flashes her that dazzling million watt smiles of his as she tries to pass him a pen. Then suddenly out popped her wings! A wing boner! Oh my, the embarrassment.
Cameras flash but my brother has reared up and placed his fore hooves on the counter. His wings are thrown open to cover her. He made it a pretence to reach for his own pen. Unless those reporters were fast, all they got was his muscular back and his big blue wings. Damn, that picture was going to be on a poster by some mare’s, probably several mare’s bed. He signs the papers. There done and done. Baby bother was now an official member of the Volunteer Corps, the biggest waste of Bits on this side of Equestria.
I wonder if he was actually serious about returning to the ground.
We don’t talk about it. Our herd keeps it hush, hush, fearing that the neighbours would grow paranoid with whisper of contamination. That kind of rumour can destroy a family especially if were true. Baby brother’s first VC mission would not be his first time groundside. It was an accident of course. He had once before been down there as a colt. He fell into the air river beside our house and got swept away by the air current. Rescuers search for two day before calling off the search. No body was recovered and none was expected. A dead pegasus would have fallen out the sky to be pick over by the scavenger on groundside. Mom cried for a week before we had his funeral.
Then nearly five months later, in the early hours of the morning, mom got a call on her PipBuck. It was baby brother. He was alive and calling from the old Zephyr Skyport. For most families, it would have been an impossible task to petition the Enclave to send a rescue mission. Irreversibly contaminated, baby brother would have probably been put down on sight.
My family had a lucky break here. Dad had money and mom had influence in the Enclave, her own and that of her mother’s Granny Rain, General Rain. And just like that, with another phone call baby brother was back. He never spoke a word about how he survived those five months on the ground or how he reached Zephyr Skyport. Not that I blame him for keeping silent. Ground side is a bombed out wasteland. He probably survived those five months eating earth worms or something equally nasty.
My experience of the ground while on patrol was that of a dimly lit landscape of dead cities and endless dead fields. What ponies who lived in that hellhole would shoot at us for no other reason than that they could. We shot back obviously, but really why waste the spark charge? You got yourself distracted shooting at a bunch of sods when you should be concentrating on your rad counter. You never know if you were moments away from flying into a red zone… radioactive red zone. You would be dead within a week after that mistake. Just long enough to put all your things in order, see your mane fall off and lament about how dumb you were for not watching out where you were flying.
*** ** ***
“Flare! Flare your wings!” She cried and threw her wings wide and started backwinging.
“What?” He slammed his snout into her behind.
“My tail! That hurt! Watch where you are putting that snout!”
“What’s going on?” He pulled his face out of her tail.
“Hot spot! We need to slow down.” Her PipBuck began clicking.
“What? Where? I can’t see anything!”
“Less talk!” She cut him off. “More stop!” Her wings were beating harder than he thought possible for a filly or any pony their age.
He threw his wings wide and began to do the same. How could anypony hope to stop in these kinds of winds? To make things worst, the Zip-line was moving like a wild jump rope.
“Bank hard right when I tell you!” Her voice was urgent.
The Zip-line was whipping in the wind. It was moving left then it began to move right …
“Now!” She shouted.
He did as he was told. His wings beat hard in tandem with hers. Down below to his left, he saw a bright green light pouring out of a crater. What… it couldn’t be!
“Is that radiation?” He squeaked.
“Yup,” She somehow caught his whisper over the whipping wind. “An exploded tactical Balefire ordinance Mark 3. Pretty, no?”
“Are we going to die? I though you said the ground was safe!” He yelled at the filly in front of him. The hint of the betrayal he felt was evident in his tone.
“I said the ground wasn’t deadly.” She replied loudly over the wind.
“How is that any different?” He shouted
“Deadly means dead. Not safe, means well… dead if you are dumb. Like riding in an air stream dumb.”
He closed his mouth.
She then looked straight ahead, her eye unfocusing. He knew that look. She was looking up something on her PipBuck. “Drink some RadAway, we’ll be okay.”
“RadAway? What’s that? I don’t think I have any.”
“Don’t you know anything?”
He could hear her eyes rolling in her head.
“Just come to my house and I’ll ask my mama to give you some.”
“Thanks. I can pay you a few Bits for it.”
“Bit? You mean Caps.”
“No, I mean Bits as in money.” He stated.
“And I mean money as in Caps.”
“So what does a Cap look like?” The wind was dying down as they came closer to the ground. It made talking a lot easier.
“A Cap is a round metal disk with 21 crimps and ridges. You can sometimes find it on the top of unopened bottles.”
“You mean Caps as in bottle caps?!” The colt was taken aback “You use bottle caps as money!”
“Yes. Do you have any?”
“Maybe…” He copied her earlier tone.
She didn’t like that mischievous tone even if she used it often. “And why maybe?”
“Maybe, until you tell me how much does a Cap buy and if there are Caps with different values.”
“Okay. But I want five Caps for that Intel.”
“I get to pick the type of Cap.”
“It’s a Promise!” She tried to twist her head to look at him. “I can’t look you in the eye.”
“Why?” He asked. “It is already a deal.”
“We can’t make a Promise with without looking each other in the eye.”
He rolled his eyes. “We’ve already made a deal. You can look me in the eye once we reach the ground.” With only the dim light of her Pipbuck he could barely see her tail and the tips of her wings. “So about Caps.” He began
“Not telling until we have a Promise! We’re coming close to the ground now. We should start breaking.” She flared her wings.
He did the same. The wind at ground level was a lot calmer. It was such a stark contrast to the winds at cloud curtain level.
The landing was a lot easier than he expected. The only strange thing was the ground itself. It was all hard and unyielding. His hooves couldn’t feel any feedback from it either. It was like being a bit blind. It was going to take a little bit of getting used too.
“Could you help with the harness?”
She snorted. “Are you sure you aren’t blind?” She planted her hooves on his back and undid the clips with her tongue.
“Done, now about that Promise with those Caps.” Her stomach took that moment to rumble. She laughed a bit. “I missed breakfast. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.”
It was in the middle of the night! The blue colt was shocked. She hadn’t eaten the entire day. He missed dinner and he was already starving. “I have an extra apple. You can have it if you want.” He offered out of sympathy.
“What’s an apple?” She asked.
His eyes nearly popped out. “This” He pulled out an apple from pocket bag around his neck. He bit off the stalk and threw the apple at her.
She caught it in her front hooves. Her wings were thrown back to help her balance as she stood on her hind leg. She looked down at the apple and let out a high pitched scream. She threw it back and dived into a hole and was followed by a wet muddy slosh.
He reared back, the same as she did. He caught the hastily thrown apple and transferred it to his mouth before falling back onto all four legs.
He walked up to the hole in the ground and peered down. It was too dark to see. Nevertheless he put down the apple and called into that hole in ground. “Hey, what are you doing in there?”
Her head popped out of the muddy water. “Why did you try to kill me?” She made a very strange sound in her throat and held her mouth open in a very strange toothy smile.
What a strange pony he thought. “Hey, don’t be an over sensitive filly. I threw you an apple. You caught it okay. It didn’t even hit you on the head or nothing.” He dropped his head down and took a bite into the apple.
“You’re eating that!” She cried in shock and stopped making that weird sound in her throat.
“It’s an apple.”
She got out of the muddy pool. She smelled horrible and mud dripped everywhere. He dropped to his hunches and pulled out his last apple. He held it as far away as possible.
“I don’t smell that bad.” She said.
“You smell like some pony died in that pool.”
She sniffed at her wings. “You might be right, actually.”
“You can have this apple if you still want it.”
She took the apple from his stretched out hoof.
From the dim light of her PipBuck he could make out that she was inspecting the apple between her two fore hooves. Just what she could see with so little light was just perplexing.
“It’s an apple. Just eat it!” He said when she was starting to take too long.
Gingerly she bit into the fruit. Juice squirted into her mouth and to the side of her lips. “It’s sweet!” The brown filly exclaimed and quickly began devouring the fruit.
It was alarmingly fast how she ate. His mom was right, the blue colt thought. From now onwards he was always going to finish his hay. He didn’t want to be a starving ground pony. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
The apple was soon gone. She looked at the apple core then back at him. “I wished you had more.”
“Well there are seeds in the middle of an apple.” The blue colt explained. “You could try planting them to grow an apple tree.”
“Really? And I could get more apples from this apple tree?”
“If you take good care of it.”
The brown filly was silent for a long moment, deep in thought. “I need to talk with Miss Sunshine. She takes care of our green houses.”
“Right,” he said. “And what about seeing your mom for that RadAway? Radiation remember?”
“And my Caps!” She looked at him. “You’re not backing out are you?”
“Nope, a deal is a deal even if we don’t have a promise.” He said with a sigh. He was more concerned about the radiation. Everything he learned said radiation killed ponies and here she was more concern about bottle caps. She was a strange pony and she smelled horrible. Until she took a bath, he was going to stay two pony lengths away from her.
“So where is your house anyway?”
Footnotes
Rain Storm
Trait Added:: Good Natured. Your attempts at first aid, doctoring, speech, and barter gets a +15% bonus. You get a -10% modifier to starting combat skills.
New Perk Added:: Hop, Skip and Jump. Having done something so ridiculously fear inducing as jumping off a perfectly good cloud into a nightmare of a howling storm that could easily tear a pegasus into feathers, you are now 60% less likely to hesitate when performing other acts of insanity like running of out a shelter while dodging bullets. Being scared can be fun.
New Companion Added:: Wind Dance, 3rd Sky Regiment. Super Awesome Shadowbolts are super awesome! While in the company of Wind Dance, the wastelands of Equestria rolls out its welcome mat and puts on a smile. Wild life is 120% kinder. Although she is slightly bossy and likes bottle caps just a little too much, there might be something more to her, just give her time. She might surprise you and you might surprise yourself.
Rain Drop
Career Going Nowhere:: You have questioned your career’s development and it isn’t what you had in mind when you were younger. Your Will-to-Live has decreased by 1%. You have a 1% chance of crying yourself to sleep.
Fallout Equestria : Zephyr Skyport
Chapter 2: Manticore
I didn’t ask for this.
I was hooked alongside my baby brother to a Vertibuck, if you were feeling generous enough to call that old skywagon a Vertibuck. Damn near every talisman has been stripped from it. Even the levitation talisman had been replaced with a civilian model, and that thing must have been nearly two hundred years old.
Black dangerous clouds swirled around us, like a deadly fog. There was no horizon. No sense of altitude, of up or down. The air pressure could not be relied upon to gauge altitude as it changed from minute to minute in the rough winds. The clouds were solid shifting masses which ever way a pony looked. It was like we were flying in a box. A pegasus would have quickly gotten lost up here as she was spun about by the shifting winds. Only our pipbucks gave any indication we were on the correct course. In the distance I saw massive lightning strikes that arch through the clouds in great fans of light. A lost pegasus wouldn’t be long to live before encountering a stray bolt of lightning.
This terrible, dangerous place was the Cloud Curtain; the barrier that stood between the toxic radiation of the ground below and the sky cities of the Enclave above. This was our protector and it was bucking me in the wings at the moment. Access Talisman or not, flying through the Curtain was rough but it beat being hits by lightning defence system.
Winds buffeted our wings and the air currents were unstable under our hooves as we flew. Behind us, in the Vertibuck were ten volunteers, supplies both for ourselves and that to be distributed to the ground sods and equipment to repair the skyport.
I am Lieutenant of the Enclave.
I did not ask for this.
I never asked to baby sit volunteers.
It was not long ago, barely a week ago when I was summoned to the Zephyr City Council building. I wore my dress uniform and a stern expression on my face. I was an Officer and Lieutenant of the Enclave. A pony had to keep up appearance for the civilians but in my head I was pacing back and fro, throwing my mane in the air in frustration and trepidation. What did Granny Rain want that she had to see me in person? Was I going to be married off into some herd just as my cousin Rain Bow?
“Senator Rain will see you now, Lieutenant Rain.” One of Granny Rain’s underling spoke.
I nodded to the mare and began walking after her with as much dignity as my twisting insides allowed. I followed the personal assistant until I reached Granny Rain’s office. Then with a sharp nod I dismissed her.
I took a deep breath and opened the door.
Granny Rain’s office was spartan, austere and unembellished apart from for a single large family photograph that hung on the wall. It was a picture of my family. Granny Rain stood in the centre, the matriarch of the Rain Herd. The old mare was flanked on either side were her four daughters, my mom and her three sisters. Around them were the grandchildren. I stood three pegasi from the right, on the second row. If anypony took the time to count, a total of 32 pegasi stood in that picture. It was a symbol of course, one far more powerful than any ostentatious office decoration. The Rain herd had wealth. We had power. We had enough of both to buy the costliest of luxuries in the Enclave, birth permits, that little piece of paper which allowed you to go off the mandatory contraceptive implant. Granny Rain was a buyer of pony flesh.
I caught Granny Rain looking out of her office window.
“Good morning Rain Drop.”
“Morning Granny Rain.” I replied and hung as close to the door as possible.
“Sit.” She turned and beckoned me to a fluffy white cloud pillow. Her tone was kind, but it was anything but a request.
I sat.
“The next volunteer Corps mission is in week.” Granny Rain continued. “Rain Storm will be on it. While I have every confidence in him, I would prefer if I had family watching over him.”
You mean spy. I kept my mouth shut.
“I have made a few changes to the oversight officers that will accompany the VC.”
Fear gripped me. “You shouldn’t have.” I heard my voice speak. What have you done Granny Rain?
She opened her table drawer and laid two pieces of paper in front of me. “Now, be a dear and put your little hoof prints on those documents.” Granny Rain smiled.
I looked down at the documents in front of me. One was a request for duty reassignment to Volunteer Corp Oversight and the other was acceptance of my new position as Senior Administrator of Zephyr Skyport. My heart stopped.
Granny Rain wanted me to sign this? She wanted me to sign the death warrant of my career with my own hoof? You can’t do that Granny Rain! You simply can’t. You can’t make me do this. Can’t you make exception for your own blood? Aren’t I your granddaughter? Damn you, you heartless mare! I had to be breathing hard. Any other pony would be hyperventilating. Why do this to Storm and then throw me after him to be sacrificed for his safety.? Isn’t he your favourite?
For the briefest of moments I looked up to my grandmother. Her eyes were of a similar hue with mine, a bright sea blue. They were family. The only differences were the wrinkles at their corners. It even made her look the part of a kindly grandmother. Yet there was a cold hardness in them, an alien edge of cold-blooded Zebra steel.
The same steel which gave the order of ‘No quarter and No mercy’ even as she came across the griffin rookery. It was the same eyes that looked upon an entire griffin city and its peoples and with one breath had its people decimated to the last chick.
It was the same steel that branded her second in command, her lover, the father of her foal, my grandfather, Radar, a traitor. He had his Cutie Mark torn from both flanks and branded a Dashite because he dared disobey her orders.
I looked down at those papers. Commander ‘Firestorm’ Rain waited for her answer. There could only be one.
Water was in my eyes. I kept looking straight ahead. Fly straight. Officers of the Enclave did not cry.
“Are you okay sis?” Baby brother looked to me
“It’s nothing.” I said. Grandpa Radar would have been sad, another spineless pony. I signed those damned papers. Granny Rain had put her wings around me after it was done. I felt like I was hugging a manticore.
“Just some moisture built up in my safety goggles. Keep a weather eye out for air vortexes. We don’t want the vertibuck tipping over.”
He nodded and went back to flying the Vertibuck.
“Just some moisture.” I said to nopony.
I don’t know how long we flew without exchanging words. I do know I slipped several times on the turbulent wind. I must admit, even though I have flow half a dozen patrol missions ground side, I have never done so with a Vertibuck in tow. Baby brother caught me each and every time. He flew the Vertibuck like an experienced wagon driver. I guess I should have been curious how a musician, even a big one could become so proficient at flying with a skywagon, instead my thoughts were on this mission and how baby brother fit into it.
What did Granny Rain have on him?
I looked at the lightning blue stallion flying beside me. Without the make up, he wasn’t the Rain Storm, music superstar. He was just a normal looking stallion, good looking enough perhaps. I could not imagine him hiding a terrible secret. He didn’t have the eyes but he was granny’s favourite. I could be wrong. Did little brother hide a terrible secret, one big enough that Granny Rain could hang over his head like a Zebra sword? Did I even want to find out? Or might little baby brother actually have been telling the truth and he really did believe in helping the sods on the ground. If so what would make a pony decide one day to throw his entire life away?
The compass of my EFS flashed. Zephyr Skyport loomed ahead. We had arrived and what passed for evening on groundside was fast approaching.
“Take the lead.” I said to baby brother. “I’m having a last minute talk with the pegasi in the back.” I then slipped out of the harness and let myself fall in the Vertibuck.
Ten pair of eyes looked at me. I never cared much about volunteers. Not even when baby brother signed up, it was all a publicity stunt anyhow, until now. Now it was real.
“Alright everypony,” I began. The winds outside were easing and my voice carried across the Vertibuck. “We are nearing Zephyr Skyport. Keep calm and remember your training.”
What was I saying? By Celestia’s white wings! Two weeks. That was all the training volunteers received before they were shipped ground side. What were the higher ups in VC thinking? Where they even thinking? The volunteers were dumb pegasi for wanting to go groundside, but they were still citizens. Dumb as hay citizens. What could anypony learn in two weeks? Basic training in the Enclave took nearly a year.
At best, I think the ten volunteers in front of me knew which end of a laser pistol you held in your mouth. I don’t even want to think if any of them could change the spark battery in their pistols while under fire.
“I want every pony to work in groups of three. If you get into trouble, one pony shoots while the two others will keep watch for any opponents creeping up on them. When a battery runs dry, the next pony starts shooting, while one pony reloads and the third continues keeping a look out. This way, there will always be a set of eyes on the look out.”
This was a damned suicide mission.
I was flying down to the Wasteland of Equestria with these pegasi, wearing nothing but a pair safety goggles and public security barding. We all were. The barding might stop a bullet or two from small guns fire but anything more or anything heavier and the pony being shot at would be glue.
Each volunteer was given a laser pistol and three spark batteries. It wasn’t enough and that would have been all we had if I didn’t traded in every favour any pony ever owed me. It felt like I was cashing in chips before my final goodbye.
Maybe it was.
Few pegasi were even willing to give me anymore favours. Partially because some stupid sods actually thought I willingly joined the VC, and partially because many didn’t think I was getting back. Pegasi died in the VC. Nopony knew the actual number but the rumours spread down the grape vine. For now it didn’t stop pegasi from signing up, but it was poison to senators like Granny Rain, who rode the ‘we must help our fellow pony’ sentiment. What was I thinking? Granny Rain could choke on poison for all I care.
I got three battle saddles, six dozen more spark batteries, two plasma riffles and a little extra… a black market Pipbuck upgrade. This jewel would give civilian model Pipbucks S.A.T.S, Stable-Tec Arcane Targeting Spell. I hoped it would make a difference. It would have too. I needed every edge to get these volunteers thought this mission tour.
How different your priories in life could change. Two weeks ago I would have argued the VC didn’t need power armour. If volunteers wanted to risk their lives on some foals errant, let them do it without wasting Enclave resources. Now that the shoe was on the other hoof, I wanted power amour support. Without it, I simply didn’t have the strength to use the plasma riffles and likely none of the mares could either. I had to leave the plasma riffles to Baby Brother and the one other stallion in the group, Warm Chocolate.
“I don’t expect much trouble,” I said to the group of ten.
It was a blatant lie. I had every expectation that the groundside ponies would shot at us every chance they got because they were bored sod with nothing better to do with their lives. But panicked pegasi were of no use to me. And neither could I afford pegasi shooting blindly. The pass talisman on this Vertibuck was a one way ticket. It was a basic quarantine procedure to prevent groundside ponies from carrying contaminants into the Enclave should they steal a VC wagon. It was a sensible idea, but it also left us without a way back until the supply wagon came next month. The spark batteries had to last till then.
“Keep the safeties on until you need to use your pistols. Don’t want any accidents. There are 12 shots to each battery. If you must use your pistols use them sparingly. Shoot only when you have a clear shot.”
More heads nodded. I hope they understood, but I knew they didn’t.
“I am sure you have all read The Wasteland Survival Guide.”
I saw a few head nod. That file was yet another oddity. Once news got around that I had ‘requested’ a reassignment to the VC, Baby Brother appeared at my door step. We didn’t say much. It was an awkward meeting. Baby brother and I never quite saw eye to eye once we grew up. It was an intangible something that separated us. But he did leave me with a file on my Pipbuck.
‘The Wasteland Survival Guide’ was a book of sorts, part survivalist guide, part tourist guide, part encyclopaedia and part personal diary. The author was unfamiliar, a pony named Ditzy Doo. But given the contents of the file, Ditzy Doo was probably a pseudo name. But if I had to guess, Ditzy or what ever her real named might have been was probably former black ops. What else could she have been? No pegesus would have gathered such intimate knowledgeable of groundside without actually being there. This Ditzy Doo didn’t just fly sky patrol. I am not sure how she avoided contamination, or maybe she didn’t.
I wondered where baby brother had obtained that file. It increasingly felt as if I have sunk below the cloud deck and emerged to see the strange underside of a familiar cloud, a strange world that had always been there but had gone unnoticed.
“Our first problem,” I said to the ten volunteers. “won’t be unfriendly ponies. It is manticores.”
Yes, I said that right...I reminded myself. Big carnivorous manticores with their damned stinging tails filled with venom. How did I know this fact?
Not from the Enclave Intelligence.
Nope, no intelligence there at all.
The Enclave, as best as I could uncover, knew next to nothing about the land beneath our own hooves. Nothing more recent then reports two hundred years old. Nonetheless, I down loaded everything I could about Zephyr Skyport and the groundside city that was once part of Zephyr. It would take months to read, I had only days. The Wasteland Survival Guide was had provide me with that horrid answer. It had a single entry on Zephyr Skyport… Heavy manticore infestation.
*** ** ***
“So how do we get to you house? Is it far?” The blue colt asked.
“A little.” She said and dropped onto her hunches.
“You’re tired already?”
She gave him a look, one that was rather crossed followed by a drained huff. “Earth ponies are better at this endurance stuff.”
“I’m still fine. I think you just don’t have much stamina.”
She turned her head sharply away. She tilted her head up.
Was she ignoring him? What was she five? He sat beside her. “So we sit around, until you get your legs back under you?” He looked to her expectantly. Her face was illuminated in the dim light of Pipbuck.
“Nope, we ride.” She answered him then with her head still tilted back, she let out a whistle. It was not just any whistle, it was a sound given birth by pegasi lungs that could move clouds.... the shrill sound seemed to thunder over the landscape.
“Oww…” He held his fore hooves over his ears. His ears ringed from the thunderclap of the brown filly’s whistle. “Give me a warning next time,” he muttered.
Her reply was as childish as it was irritating. She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.
The blue colt was about to say something in retort when he felt the feathers on his back quiver. It was stir of warm, wet air. It felt like somepony was breathing on him, a somepony that was nearly two pony heights tall. He didn’t want to look, but his eyes did.
The shadowed creature that loomed over him was huge. Something in side the blue colt let out a scream, something from old and long ago before the time the alicorn that remembered teeth and hungry jaws. A paw swung down to catch him. But the blue colt was faster, he was a pegasus, the most nimble of the three pony breeds. He darted to the side and ran. The massive paw missed him but only just. He ran as fast as his four legs could carry him. He ran on raw instinct.
He had to go faster, his wings started to open up readying for flight. But the small rational pony inside him pushed aside the wild instinct for just the briefs of moments. ‘Where was she, the brown filly?’ The rational little pony inside him demanded. He didn’t see her. Not in front of him, not beside him, nor was she in the corner of his eye. She wasn’t with him.
She was tired.
Realisation was a cold frightful thing. The colt glanced back. The creature was on her. It had caught her! The light of her Pipbuck flickered as the night beast closed a massive paw on her. It was an orange paw and a rather strange thing to notice.
What should he do? His heart was racing. Turn back? He didn’t want too but… but she was his friend?! The last thought made the blue colt plant his hooves in the ground. He would run no further. His mother had once told him, a pegasus who abandons his duty was trash, but a pegasus who abandons his friends was worse than trash.
He turned and charged at the massive carnivore, screaming at the top of his lungs.
The charge of an enraged Earth pony stallion was a powerful sight to behold. It had the power to threaten all but the five largest top predators on Equestria. Unfortunately for the blue colt, he was neither an earth pony nor quite old enough to be called a stallion. The orange beast regarded the changing colt with a cold detached eye. It reached out with its one empty paw.
The colt dodged. The claws just passed over the fur of his back. He was too small and too agile to be caught in the first swipe of the orange monster’s clawed paw. He threw his blue feathered wings open and leapt into the air, aiming his hind hooves for the side of the monster’s head. He planted his hoof on the monsters with every ounce of strength in his body.
It would have been a stunning blow. But all his hind hooves had contacted was a wall of iron muscle. His leg was numb from the force. The great beast had moved faster than the blue colt imagined possible. It had turned it massive body away from the blue colt, presenting its side.
The blue colt bounced off the wall of muscle like an elastic ball. He flipped in midair trying to steady himself for another pass when a paw batted him from the air. The blue colt crumpled onto the ground, dust kicked off in his face. His chest hurt. It felt like his breath had been squeezed out of his chest. Coughing he tried to get up. But a giant paw had already begun to cover him. It pinned the blue colt to the ground, squeezing him even more. He had been caught. Quickly he was lifted off the ground, his body enclosed in the shadow’s paws.
The giant maw of the great orange beast opened, illuminated by the stray light of the brown filly’s pipbuck. Teeth, many the length of his own leg hung inside the creature’s mouth like stalactites and stalagmites. A sandpaper rough tongue set at the floor this cave, no double ready for a sample taste of the blue morsel it just caught. The tongue, he imagined would have been wet and chilly in the autumn night. He didn’t have time to be afraid.
A warm breath blew over the blue colt. This was it? How could it be? Pegasi always won, they always did in every book… yet now he faced eternity in the warm wet mouth of predator. It couldn’t be. Somehow he had to escape. He strained hind leg trying to pry open the monster’s paw. Somehow he had to rescue her. Somehow he couldn’t let it end this way.
A laugh tore through that desperate moment.
He turned to the filly in the night creature’s other paw.
The brown filly was laughing at him. He was dumb fold. The dim light lit her face and her wide smile.
“It’s not funny!” He shouted. What kind of last words was that? The giant predator was bringing them close to its unseen mouth. He could feel its hot breath on the free end of his wing tips.
“Yes it is.” She answered.
Yes, he was about to die saving a crazy filly. Great….
“You should have seen you face. You were all like Ahhhh.” Her eyes went very round and very wide in a comical fashion.
“I came back to rescue you and we were going to be eaten!” He screamed.
“Eaten? Don’t be silly. What would want to eat a Super Awesome Shadowbolt?”
“That thing.” He pointed with his one free hoof.
“Mr Socks?” She waved a hoof at the shadow. “Mr Socks is my pet.”
“That isn’t a sock!” He stared into the dark. He should only see glimpse of the dark creature from the dim light of her Pipbuck It had big, big teeth. A mane, an immense stinging tail, and paws with razor sharp claws that pricked at his coat. A memory came to mind from the puzzle of disjoined images. “It’s a manticore.” He gasped. “Your pet is a manticore!”
“Oh you.” She wave her fore hoof at him… he could see that because it was the hoof she wore her Pipbuck on. “Mr Socks is harmless. Besides he likes you, even if you made a lot noise and tried to hit him. Mr Socks thinks you smell nice.”
“Probably because he wants to eat me! Manticore’s eat pegasi!”
“Not Super Awesome Shadowbolts.” She replied with a tone of easy confidence.
“Why is that?” Was he actually holding this conversation?
“Cause we are just too Awesome!”
She then tilted her head and level a unblinking gaze at the orange manticore, then as if on command, the manicore let the blue colt back onto the ground. “Mr Socks is a good kitty!” She cooed and closed her fore hooves around the top of the paw that gripped her.
The blue colt could only stare. He steadfast refused to think that giant predator as Mr Socks. The name belittled the danger posed by the creature. What if it felt a little hungry? A single bite would swallow an entire colt or filly whole.
“Do you know how to ride?” She turned her head to ask him the question.
What reply he was about to make became stuck in his throat. Behind her, the monstrosity of a manticore opened wide its fearsome jaws. His eyes went wide. She was not going to be eaten in front of him. Not after all that talk. ‘Move,’ He wanted to say. But it was already too late. A tongue had shot out and… and … she was being licked clean like…. like she was a manticore cub or something.
She didn’t seem to mind. The giant predator purred. “Well?” She asked as sand paper rough tongue licked the side of her face.
He just couldn’t make his mouth work.
“I guess it is a no then.” She hopped out of the Mr Socks’ paw. Confidently she strode up to the side of the large manticore. It was only then in the dim light of her Pipbuck that he saw the manticore was wearing a saddle!
It was a strange saddle, but he could see large saddle bags on its side. She flipped herself in the air and landed with all four hooves on the saddle. Then she did something, in the shifting light of her Pipbuck.
“Get on!”
He didn’t know what else to do so he did as she said. Once he was on the monster’s saddle, he found there were strap of sorts for his hooves. The manticore really was her pet.
“Strapped in?”
“Yes.” He nodded his head
“Then lets go!” She pulled back at the reins with her teeth. “Yeah!” She shouted. Mr Socks rear back and let out a mighty roar that shook the night. When the great beast finally fell back onto it paws, it sprinted into the night, carrying the two young ponies upon its back.
*** ** ***
Footnote: Level up! (1)
Rain Storm
Companion Perk Unlocked:: Did you know manticores could be tamed? No, you didn’t and neither did the manticore. Mr Socks and just about any manticore is well behaved in the presence of your new super awesome friend. With a manticore mount you can now carry four times more baggage without lost of speed.
Rain Drop
VC Baby Sitter:: Your life as you know it is ruined. Your fellow Enclave officers now think you have bubbles for brains…. not that bubbles are bad, they are just mostly empty and full of air. Your Will-toLive has decreased to10%. You have a 10% chance to cry yourself to sleep. Only a stiff upper lip prevents this 10% from become an overwhelming 100%. Sometimes you tell yourself that you can recover from this horrible turn of events. Sometimes you even believe it.
