Fallout Equestria: The Lost Empire

“It Does Not Do To Dwell On Dreams And Forget To Live”

Peace.

Not something that was expecting once I closed my eyes and drifted off into dreamland, especially after all of the shit that I had gone through the past two days. Well, it was technically more a full week since I was knocked out for nearly that long, but it felt like two days to me so it was two days. There happy, if you're not, then you can buck off.

Oh shit, I am sorry you guys. I don’t know what happened to me there. I deeply apologize, I must be losing it lately. Anyway, like I was saying earlier.

The moment that I dropped into a deep sleep I got a surprising feeling of peace wash over me. I couldn’t explain it. Maybe it was the fact that I knew that I wasn’t alone in that room. I don’t know, regardless I went safely once again, and I started to have a dream that would shape my life forever.

I found myself at the top of the desert hill in the middle of a ruined city. The city having many of its buildings being destroyed beyond repair from some kind of large explosion. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was the surface, the ruins of the city that Stable 70 was built under to be exact. The ruins of Salt Lick City a once great border city between Equestria and the Dragon Empire which was destroyed by a massive megaspell from the Zebra Empire.

I shifted my eyes around as I scanned my surroundings. Me being able to see the entire ruined city from my viewing point. A large snowcapped mountain being off in the distance as I stared off. The sky was covered by an eternal blanket of black clouds. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night as the sun couldn’t shine through the thick blanket from above.

I eyes shot behind me as I heard something. My heart began to beat faster as I heard the earth around me beginning to tremble as something really big began to approach me.

“Sweet Alpha!” I thought in awe as I was approached by a large white dragon. The dragon nearly twice my size. I thought that was decent size as I was taller than most stallion inside the Stable, but this dragon was huge. He also didn’t look like any dragon that I had ever seen. Either that being me, my mother, or any other dragons that have seen in any of the books that I had when I was just a hatchlings.
This dragon while being big seemed to be both alive, well also alive at the same time. I couldn’t explain it. The right side of the dragon’s body looked like what any other dragon would, with white scales going all the way down his body. It was the left that took me by surprise. I instantly took a step backward as I saw the dragon’s left side of its body. The dragon’s scales were gone them seeming to be burned off by some kind of unknown means and what was left was a combination of both decaying flesh and bone.

The dragon’s left foreclaws weren’t even covered in flesh anymore, they were just bones. Bones that looked like they were sharpened to point that it wouldn’t have surprised me if they could rip the steel armor from some those armor ponies that had seen in a few books that I have read. Steel Rangers, I think that was what they were called. The same strange combination of decaying flesh and bone continued all the way up the dragon’s leg. Most of the bone exposed on the dragon being near the outer side of the leg while the inner was decaying flesh. I felt I was about to throw up as I drifted my eyes down the dragon’s body. The dragon’s left ribs being exposed and I was able to see the dragon’s lungs breathing and heart beating inside his chest.

But it wasn’t the dragon’s exposed chest or his deadly claws of pure bone that stuck out to me the most. It was his face. The dragon’s face shared the same right side being seemingly living while the left was decaying or even dead. I found myself focusing on the dragon’s mismatched eyes. His right eyes being a beautiful emerald green color while the left was an almost blood red eye inside of a socket without an eyelid. The decaying flesh of the dragon continued as I was able to see the bone of the dragon lower left jaw. The dragon looking like he hit had taken a megaspell to the entire left side of his body, the megaspell leaving the right side of his body completely untouched.

The dragon also had a massive ammo belt wrapping around his body. The belt looking like it contained ammunition that would be used for some kind of heavy weapon do to the sheer size of the belt, but I couldn’t find any kind of weapon that the dragon was carrying. Other than some kind of large box that was strapped to the dragon’s back. Maybe that was his weapon, but what could a box and an ammo belt that probably had year’s worth of ammunition for something that I couldn’t identify do for this dragon. I couldn’t wrap my head around this dragon. From his strange appearance of seemingly being both dead and alive at the same time to the strange feeling of being heavy armed while not looking the part. Apart from a truly insane amount of ammo. I couldn’t understand this dragon, but I intended to find a way to understand.

My thoughts of both fascination and fear came to a stop as the dragon began to speak to me. His voice was raspy and filled with bitterness from I could only assume was a difficult life to live.

“What you looking at kid?! You look like you have never seen a ghoul before.” The strange dragon spat at me.

Ghoul? What’s a ghoul, I have never heard of anything like that before. Was that what he was. Was he like some kind of zombie dragon or something. Were there other dragons like him in this wasteland. The longer I stayed in this ‘dream’ the less it felt more like a dream and like reality.

The zombie dragon seemed to sense my continued confusion and let out an amused snort. “Hmm… you have no idea what a ghoul is, don’t you?” He said asked with an amused laugh. I laughed awkwardly with the dragon as I took a step back. The zombie dragon seemed to notice my small movement in retreat and spoke to me in a voice that was both calm and direct. “You have no reason to fear me little one, as long you cause no harm to me. I will cause no harm to you.” He said, and shallow an invisible apple in my thought as I spoke to zombie dragon.

“No… no, I do not. I apologize for my ignorance.” I said shyly, the last thing I wanted to do was offend a dragon that could kill with a single swipe of his claws, either of them could do me in within seconds.
The dragon’s next words surprised me even more.surprising to me. “You have no need to apologize to me, young one, not everyone is as knowledgeable of the wasteland as I.” The dragon said a smile appearing on his face. If you look at the left side of his face you might think that she was about to bite you if have due to being able to see her lower jaw and his one red eye. But if you looked at his right you saw something different. In his right, you saw a genuine smile from a dragon that must have gone through a life that what I’ve gone through seem tiny in comparison. But despite that, he was still able to give a complete stranger a simple smile with genuine meaning.

My thoughts about the dragon’s surprisingly high amounts of honor left me when he continued to speak. “So, kid, what’s your name and where are you from? I don’t really see anyone with a Pipbuck around these parts, especially one that is a dragon.” He asked me, taking note of the mobile computer that wrapped around my right foreleg.

“My name’s Eta and I am from Stable 70.” I said, the dragon seeming to be put into deep thought from my words.

“Stable 70, you say. So it has been opened.” The dragon said scratching his lower jaw, the part that still had scales attached to it. “Tell me little one, are you the only dragon from the Stable to enter this wasteland?” The dragon asked.
“I think so, Tartarus, including myself and my mother. We are the only dragons that still live inside Stable 70.” I said as the zombie dragon one green eye widened at my words.

“You don’t say.” The dragon said walking passed me and beginning to stare off into the distance. The dragon let out a heavy sigh as he continued to stare. Him looking like he in was deep thought.

“What are looking at?” I asked him, sitting to the right side of him. I couldn’t understand what he could think was so great about a city of ruined buildings. The dragon kept his face looking directly forward as he spoke to me.

“I’m not looking at anything, little one.” He said, him seeming to give a new nickname. Was I really that small, I mean sure I was small compared to him, but really. I was a dragon after so I could keep growing.

“Then what are you doing?” I asked, the dragon slowly turning his head to look down at me.

“I’m remembering.” He said simply, turning his head to look off to the distance again. “I’m remembering a time when you could actually see the sun in the center of a clear blue sky. I’m remembering a time when war didn’t consume the world, but instead, there was peace.” The dragon said somberly, him briefly pausing as a seemingly painful memory came to him.

“This dragon could remember a time when Equestria was a land of peace, then how old was he. I mean, I heard that the door of Stable 70 had been closed for two hundred years, so he had to older than that.” I thought as a forced laugh came from the dragon.

“Huh, peace. Something so simple, yet so difficult to actually obtain, and even harder to keep.” He said and another thought came to me.

“Was this dragon real, or just a creation of my mind after all the trauma that I’ve been through.” I thought and I needed an answer, so I asked the dragon.

“Hmm… sir, can I ask you a question?” I asked the dragon, catching his attention.

“Sure, what is it that you wish to ask me.” The dragon said in response, him turning his gaze away from the ruined landscape and onto my blue eyes.

“I don’t really know how to ask this but… are you even real?” I asked the dragon, me getting a laugh from him. “Great, now he’s laughing at me. You really need to learn how to talk to others Eta.” I thought as the dragon’s laughing came to a stop and he answered my terribly worded question.

“Yes, little one, I am real. You may be dreaming but everything that you see in front of you does really exist. This place might be in a creation of your own mind, but everything within that creation is real.” He said, his gaze returning to the wasteland in front of me.

“Huh… what’s the buck is that… wisdom.” I grumbled.

“You can say that.” He said as he raised to full height and began to walk away.

“Where are you going?” I asked him.

“Come with me and you’ll find out.” He said, his one red eyes burning through me.

“You’re not going hurt me, are you?” I asked the dragon sarcastically while still having some concern in my words.

“Of course, not Eta. I can’t do anything to you that you don’t want me to do.” The dragon said his words shooting off warning signs in my head.

“What do you mean?” I asked him as another thing caught my mind. “And how do you know my name?” I added, the dragon turning back to face me with a smirk on his face. A smirk that was both funny looking and terrifying at the same time. I always found my eyes drifting off to the exposed lower jaw of the dragon. The sight of him was both able to take your breath away from awe and send shivers all over your body from fear. I couldn’t decide what to feel around this dragon.

“Eta, you are in a dream. You may be in a real place, talking to a real dragon, but I am still a creation of your mind. I know what you know, along with all the things that the real me knows.” The dragon said, my body tensing up at his words.

“So you know… everything that I know. Even the… other things.” I said as another memory of the worst day of my life shot into my mind.
“I’m not a slut! You exploited me!” I heard myself shout as I relived the memory. I did myself to shake the memory away as it continued. “3013, assume the position.” The memory continued.

“No, no, NO! I am not reliving this again.” I screamed internally as my heart began to beat faster and my breathing increased. “You heard her, do it, fuck her like you fucked me.” I felt like was about to explode, that was until I felt something soft touching my shoulder. I looked up to see the dragon staring down at me with his right foreleg on my shoulder and all of the anxiety that I had felt left me.

“Yes Eta, yes. I know what happened to you.” The dragon said and my face dropped. “But, I am to show you how to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” He said, a look of confusion appearing on my face as I looked back at him. I like to focus on the right side of his body for obvious reasons.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Follow me and I’ll show you.” He said beginning to walk away. I got off my ass and did a short sprint to catch up to him.

“Where are going?” I asked the dragon.

“My place, where I will teach how to make sure that you will never be attacked again.” The dragon said as we began to walk down the hill. An old wooden shack being located at the bottom of it. A place that I can only assume was the dragon’s home.
“How are you going to do that?” I asked the dragon.

“Have you ever fired a gun before?” He asked.

“No, dragons aren’t allowed guns in the Stable.” I said, the dragon snorting at my answer.

“Figures, follow me I show you how to use one.” The dragon said as he continued to walk down the hill.

I followed the dragon for several minutes until we came across an old wooden shack that looked about as old as the dragon that I was following. The building looking like it was being held by nothing more than its foundation as one of the support beams for the shack looked like it was about to give way at any moment. A few of the shingles on the wooden room shaking in the light breeze.

“Is this where you live?” I asked him.

“Yeah, this the last time I checked. Come on, what I want to show you is inside.” He said as we stepped onto the porch of the old building. The wooden floorboards creaking with each step that we took.

The dragon opened the screen door with his boney claws and entered the shack. I stopped in front of the door, not sure if I should really enter. He seemed to notice that I wasn’t following him anyone and turned around and spoke to me. “Make yourself at home kid, you have no reason to fear me.” He said, raising my spirits a little bit more. As I entered the building I could’ve sworn that I heard him say underneath his breath. “At least, not this version of me.” I didn’t know what he meant by that. Could he be talking about the other version of him, the real world version of him? Wow, I still couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that I was still dreaming. It felt so real, or was this really a dream? I couldn’t tell, and if I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming or not, what else could I not know the difference too.

The front room of the shack was the largest, it having an old wooden table that was about a foot tall in the center of the room. The table having a silver resting on top of it. I couldn’t tell what it was, but based on the fact that it was the only clean thing in the entire building it must have been important to the dragon. Or, at least, the real world version of the dragon. Next to the small table was a stained mattress that looked like someone (probably the dragon) had been sleeping on for quite some time. The floor was made of wood, like everything else. The floorboards creaking every time that I took a step. There wasn’t that much else inside the room. I kept feeling like this building was going to fall on top of me at any moment.

“Don’t touch anything. I have something around here that I think will be a good starter weapon for you.” The dragon said as he disappeared around a corner of the front room of the old building.

“Alright, take your time.” I said as I walked over toward the table and sat down. My gaze falling on the strange silver orb in front of me.
“He told me that not to touch anything, but this can’t be that bad.” I thought as I began to stretch out one of my claws. My movements stopped when I heard the strange dragon call to me.

“I said, not to touch anything.” He said startling me. My eyes shot toward the sound of his voice to see that he was shooting a terrifying glare my way, both sides of his face with a death glare plastered on them.

“Sorry, but I didn’t touch it.” I said giving a quick glance at the strange orb.

“But you were going to, and you not yet ready to learn what it contains.” He said picking up the orb in his bony left claw. That was when I noticed something else being held in his right claws, it was a small pistol, similar to the ones that I had seen some of the ponies of the Stable carrying around. But this was different. Unlike the ponies pistols which were revolvers and had a mouthpiece to make them fire. This pistol was different. This pistol had an internal magazine and had a grip and trigger to make it easier for dragons like me and him to fire it.

“What is it?” I asked the dragon, me finally realizing that I had never learned his name. “And what is your name, I don’t think I ever learned it?” I added. The dragon letting out a heavy sigh as he continued to stare into the orb in his left claws.

“You will learn all that you need to know in time, but first,you need to learn how to defend yourself from a distance.” He said placing the orb back on the table. “Catch.”He said as he tossed me the pistol in his head. I caught it in my right claws. The steel feeling cold up against my scales.

“How is a pistol going to stop from getting hurt again?” I asked as I stared at the weapon that I held in my claws.

“Someone can’t hurt you if they are filled with bullets.” He said, an image of me filling that pink slut with all the rounds in this pistol flashing into my mind. An image that I couldn’t help but laugh at. “Now come on, think it’s time that you learn to fire that thing.” He said as I followed outside the back door of the old building and into what I would assume to be his backyard.

“Stay here, I’ll set up the firing range.” He said as he picked up three empty soda bottles and placed them on a mound of dirt about twenty-five yards away. Him placing the three bottles all right next to each other.

Out of curiosity, I found myself drifting my eyes upward toward the sky. The gray blanket of clouds that covered the sky now turning a slightly reddish color. The day must have drawn to a close. Again it was tough to tell without the sun to help me judge the time of day.

“Ok, now show me what you got kid.” The dragon said as he walked back over toward.

“You actually want me to fire this thing.” I said as I stared down at the metal pistol that I was holding in my right claws.

“Of course, now trust me it is easy. Now just aim the gun at a target of your choice.” He said pointing at the three empty soda bottles in front of me.

“Just any of them?” I asked as I began to raise the pistol.

“I think it would easy for you to start with the one in the middle, you are a beginner after all.” He said and I followed his advice as I lined up the pistol on the soda bottle that was located in the middle. The bottle was a standard green glass Sparkle-Cola bottle with a chipped neck.

“Ok, now just take a deep breath.” He said and I did as he commanded. “Exhale and clear your mind.” He said and I did as he said, my brain becoming clear of all of my troubles in life for the first time. “Excellent, now just pull the trigger and the gun will do the rest.” He said I felt my index claw tense up and I pulled the trigger.

Everything seemed to slow down and then… boom! A single loud boom coming from the pistol as the barrel began to left and I felt recoil going down my hand and into my shoulder. The recoil was that bad, but it still took me a little off guard. I was brought back to reality when I heard the soda bottle shattering from the gunshot.

My heart was pumping, I wanted to fire again. I might have been jumping for joy from the rush. My heart rate returned to normal when the dragon put his right claw on my shoulder.

“Hey slow down there, little one, you had a great first shot. But can you repeat your success on the next two shots.” The dragon said, a smug look appearing on my face.

“Don’t worry I can.” I said as I moved my hand a little to the right and lined up the barrel of the pistol at the empty bottle was direct to the right of the one that I had just shot and pulled the trigger. There was no slowly of time as the gun fired and less than a second later the glorious sounds of the glass bottle shattering.

“Mm… not bad kid can you take the last one with only one more bullet?” He asked, trying not to sound impressed by my skills.

“Do you doubt me?” I said as I lined up my next shot. The barrel of the gun being pointed directly at the only remaining empty soda bottle.

“I think that you have a lot of potential. How much potential is yet to be seen.” He said a thought coming to my mind as I pulled the trigger.

“Nice dodge.” I thought as another shot from the pistol rang out and the last bottle shattering.

“Nice shooting kid, you could become a respectable marksman yet.” He said as I emptied the pistol. I might have never used a gun before but I knew how to maintain one.Thank you firearm books that my mother was awesome enough to show me.

“Thanks, is there anything else that you wanted to show me?” I asked as I handed the pistol back to him.

“No, that’s about it, kid.” He said and his body began to become transparent. What was happening? I looked up at the sky to the that the gray blanket above had turned a complete reddish-orange color. You wouldn’t have been surprised if you thought that the sky was bleeding.

“What is happening?” I thought out loud.

“You’re waking up. Won’t be able to communicate when you are awake.” He said his body disappearing and me only able to see his head floating in midair.

“Will I be able to see you again?” I asked I began to feel myself returning to the waking world.

“In dream form probably, in real life, I can’t say.” He said the wasteland world beginning to crumble around me. The shack having fall in on itself.

“Where I want to meet you, the real you.” I said quickly, I didn’t want this to end I wanted to stay with this dragon forever. Despite his appearance, he was pretty cool.

“Leave the Stable and follow your instincts. You should find me in no time.” He said as his head disappeared completely.

“No, don’t leave me!” I yelled as I opened my eyes breathing heavily and sweating. I was back, sitting up in my hospital bed inside good (relatively speaking) Stable 70.

“Honey, are you ok?” I heard my mom say as she rushed over to my side. “Did you have a nightmare?” She asked as she placed a hand on my forehead. I shook my head as I got my breathing under control
.

“Then what happened, what did you dream?” My mom asked.

“I didn’t dream… it was weird. It was more like I had a vision.” I said, my mom sending a look of confusion my way.

“Oh, do you want to talk about it?” My mom asked.

“No.” I said as I rolled out of my bed and landed on the steel floor of the Stable’s hospital. I knew my mom was just trying to help but I didn’t want her to worry about me dreaming about the dragon that was missing half of his face and had just thought how to fire a gun.
Let out a heavy sigh as I spoke to my mom. I didn’t want to tell her this, but I needed an answer about that strange dragon that I had a vision about and I wasn’t going to get any of them inside the steel confines of Stable 70.

“Mom, I’m leaving.” I said my mom walking around the hospital bed and placing her right hand on my shoulder.

“What, like the hospital?” My mom asked and I shook my head.

“No Mom, I’m leaving the Stable.” I said, making a decision that would shape my shape my life for the months to follow.

Level Up! New Perk: Inception-- You now earn double the Experience you would normally every time you learn a new skill from your dream dragon friend.

New Skill: Basic Marksmanship-- You have fired your first gun ever and you seem to a natural but you still have a lot to learn. You earn a +10% more Experience earned while using firearms. This skill can be upgraded.

New Quest Added: All Long Journeys Began with a Single Step-- Leave Stable 70 and find the Mysterious Dragon in the ruins of Salt Lick City.