Fallout Equestria: Silver Lining

by diiscord

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Thriller, Original Character
Length: 16481

Control Oscura's destiny in this Voting based Fallout Equestria book. Oscura is quite the smart pony already, but with the help of you as the reader, she might just survive the wasteland long enough to rescue her sister.

This is a voting based story. This means that you, as the reader take part in deciding the fate of Oscura. Good luck! And happy voting.

Hello and welcome to what might be the fanfic experience of your life. This is a Fallout Equestria fanfiction about a mare named Oscura, who will do anything to get her sister back who was stolen from her Stable while all she could do was watch. Now she has to go and rescue her from her captors, of course! But how do you do that when you don't even know who took her?

This book takes place approximately 170 some years BEFORE the events of the original fallout equestria book by kkat. Therefore not even littlepip's great grandma has been born yet.

-check blog for q&a on lore of FoE:SL-

Published 2016-08-10 04:50:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-08-31 18:14:23 UTC

Pre-chapter 1

-- Transmission Begin --

“Hullo there! My name is Oscura, and this is my sister Gris!” Oscura smiles and shakes the big bow around her neck as she pats Gris on the back.
“You can call us the Silver Sisters. We are leaving our journey up to YOU, the fans.” Gris winks at implied audience.
“Let me explain how this will work, at the end of each chapter that has no major plot changes, for example, us meeting our arch nemesis, A-...” Oscura shoves her hoof in Gris’ mouth, inducing a surprised look. She winks and nods, “Wouldn’t wanna spoil our story!”
“Oh my, I suppose I almost did.” Gris giggled as she pulls her socks up to make sure they don’t fall off her hooves, “As I was saying though, as long as nothing major happens, several options will be presented at the end of each chapter. Said options will…. Hmmm.. steer our fate, if you will. We will take a poll in the comments to see which option is most favored among you guys, the readers! Hopefully this will make our lives far more interesting to you, since it’s your opinion that matters most.”
“Each chapter will be completed within a week and the chapter polls will close within 48 hours of the chapter being released! So choose the best option quickly so that you get a chance to vote.”
“Hopefully, this will make all of you feel quite helpful, since you played a key part in the writing of our story, Fallout Equestria: Silver Lining. The story will begin in approximately 6 days from now(8/2/16), so tell all your friends to come vote!”
Gris and Oscura smile and speak together, “Good luck from the Silver Sisters, and do your best to keep us alive.”

-- Transmission End --

A green indicator beeps on the side of the terminal. Beside it, a word is printed, ‘Start Game’.
“Ah, what the hell, what harm can it do?” You put your hoof down on the terminal, hitting the ‘execute’ key.
The world swirls around you and your vision fills with streams of binary code as you fly into the screen.
When you open your eyes you are looking down at the two ponies running through the mass of ponies leaving the city, Los Pegasus. Everyone is screaming and in the distance massive plumes of green smoke can be seen. The city is largely in panic as you follow Gris and Oscura through the crowd….

-- Event Begin --

Author's Note

Character Sheet
Name: Oscura Silver
Species: Unicorn
Age: 20
Cutie mark: Symbol of Ace of Spades
Faction: Pre-War/Non-aligned
Karma: 0%

Level 1
Level progress: [|--------------------]
S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Strength
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Perception
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Endurance
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Charisma
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Intelligence
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Agility
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Luck
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10
Skills:
*Barter
38/100
Energy Weapons
19/100
Explosives
19/100
Guns
23/100
Lockpick
19/100
Medicine
23/100
Melee Weapons
19/100
Repair
23/100
Science
23/100
*Sneak
38/100
*Speech
38/100
Survival
19/100
Unarmed
19/100
Traits:
Four Eyes - You gain a plus 2 to perception when wearing glassesSkilled - You gain plus 5 points to every skill, yet lose 10% experience gained every level.
Perks:

Chapter 1

“C’mon let’s go!” I ran, practically dragging Gris down the street towards the hill on the outskirts of Los Pegasus. Nearly half an hour ago the radio started spurting the code red civil defence alarm, which meant the megaspells hit a large city, probably Manehattan. We left the family casino, leaving dad behind to destroy all our family documents. I knew he wasn’t going to make it to the Stable, but I had to keep telling Gris he’d catch up. And only about ten minutes ago the cloud city above Los Pegasus was vaporised by a megaspell. What a lovely day..

“NO, we should go back for dad!!” Gris stumbled after me as I pulled her to the stable. She was always far more sentimental than me. I was a little bit more objective oriented.

“He will catch up sis. He said not to worry. We have to go now!” In reality, he’s staying behind to make absolutely sure that nobody found out about our families research in the bottom of the casino. He was always very devoted to it and somehow linked it to our success on the Los pegasus strip. Something about our blood making us lucky...

We ran up the hill up to the Equestrian soldier and two steel rangers guarding a big fenced area. A crowd had begun to gather, demanding to be let in the stable but the soldiers were checking a list to make sure people were on it, of course only a few were on the list, including us.

“H-hey, my name is Oscura Silver and this is my sister Gris, we are on the list.” I spoke nervously to the soldier, hoping we came to the right stable and we weren’t going to get turned away like the crowd. He checked his clipboard a little slower than I would have liked and nodded to us, “Head on in. Hurry now.”

I smiled and took my teary eyed sister towards the stable door. We were instructed to stand on a metal platform with the yellow number ‘111’ printed on it.

Bwwrrraaawwwwrrrr!!!!

All eyes turned towards downtown Los Pegasus to see the black and green light of balefire engulf the town. Then everything was a blur… “DAD!!!” Gris tried to lunge off of the platform towards the city but I held her back. I could hear a soldier shouting to send the platform now as the air blast came rattling towards the hill. The creaking of gears and the screeching of metal signified the platform was lowering, the blastwave flying right over our heads the second the platform was below ground level. As we went lower huge blast doors closed over the platform.

--- 0 ---
Everything was strangely silent. I suppose everyone was catching their breath and waiting on this squeaky elevator to hit the bottom. I held Gris in my arms as she whimpered our dads name over and over.

The elevator made it to the bottom and a large steel wire fence gate raised up. Some bucks in white coats led us onto a platform past the gear shaped door that was the signature trait of a stable.

“Welcome to your new home, please take this stable jumpsuit and proceed to the room at the end of the hall for your medical check up and decontamination before we go deeper into the stable.” A buck in a white coat over a stable jumpsuit was handing out the blue and yellow uniforms.

“Deeper? Can we just have a moment to collect our thoughts?” A stallion asked, his wife nodded behind him.

The pony frowned a little at this, showing concern on his face, “I’m sorry sir. We can’t afford to let you do that, you must go deeper to protect yourselves from further radiat...”

That was all I managed to hear, as we were being ushered into a room with a mare for our medical checkups. “I’m gonna need you guys to get out of your old clothes and get in the vault suit after I check your eyes and take a quick blood sample. Leave your old clothes in a hamper on the far side of the room when you leave.” The mare proceeded to do a quick blood test on both of us then put the test tubes with our blood in a refrigerator on the far side of the room. Then she came over and shined a flashlight in Gris’ eyes, then nodded to her, “You’re good to go, head to the room at the end of the hall and wait for instruction.”

“I’ll see you soon sis..” She looked down in disappointment as she mumbled under her breath. She was likely trying to cope with the shock. She took off her clothes and slipped into her stable suit. As I thought about this, the mare shone the flashlight in my eyes. “Eh, it looks like your eyes are slightly off.”

I blinked, “What, no they…” I just noticed it, a slight blur that hadn’t been there before. “I heard you were on the last platform down just as the bomb hit, you didn’t look right into the blast did you?” I nodded, indicating I had looked into the blast. “Ah, look through this lense, see if your vision gets better or worse..” She picked up a lense and we tried several different prescriptions until we got it right. Then she trotted over to a fancy looking terminal and typed in some numbers, and two lenses popped out of a little case on one side of it. She fitted them into a pair of black glasses and put them on my face, my blurred vision instantly corrected.

--{ Perception +2 }--

“Now hurry along down the hallway, this took a little longer than expected, they are probably ready to decontaminate by now.” I nodded, “Thank you for getting my glasses, by the way, what’s your name?”

“Oh, its Golden Skies.” She fluttered her wings and pointed to a stitched on tag on her white coat, “See, it’s on my name tag.”

“I’ll see you around Golden,” I smiled to her, I could probably ask her for coffee tomorrow, and she just smiled a sad looking smile in return. I couldn’t imagine any other reason to be sad besides what happened up top so I shrugged it off and ran to the room.

When I reached the room, ponies were already getting inside these pods while the stallion who was handing out the stable jumpsuits spoke, “Alright, we will start the process when everyone is inside.” I saw my sister get into a pod at the far end of the room and the door closed after she was in. I had wanted to say something to her, but I shook my head, I can tell her after. I took the pod across from her and got in. There were little windows on the doors, letting us see out after we were inside.

Apparently everyone was inside because the buck in the coat said something about starting the process. A speaker came on and said, “5-.... 4-.... 3-.... 2-.... 1-....” And my vision went white.

--- 0 ---

My eyes opened as I heard the sound of yelling and there was a flashing red light on the far side of the window. I peered through and wondered if we were decontaminated. I noticed I was a little colder than before but that was nothing to worry about.

“Quick! Get the girl and get out of here!” A loud buck yelled but was muffled slightly. Two ponies who were disguised in what appeared to be radiation suits ran to the pod in across from me, my sister’s pod.

They opened the pod and my sister looked drowsy, stumbling about, “Come with us dear, we are here to get you to safety.”

She shook her head to wake from her drowsiness, “B-but what about everyone else, what about my sister??”

“Shh, It’s okay, come with us. We will come get her later, but we have to get you out of here.”

“No! I’m not going anywhere without my sister!” Gris clung to a support bar and wouldn’t let go. I begun to pound on the window, trying to get out, but the pod wouldn’t open. “Gris!!!”

Nobody seemed to notice my pounding as the ponies in radiation suits attempted to pull her out. She continued to struggle until a new buck walked into view, this one was wearing a suit and smoking a cigarette. He pulled out a gun of sorts and aimed at my sister. “We don’t have time for this..” He shot her with a dart of sorts and my sister went limp.

“Sir, you shouldn’t have done that! You could pollute her.”

“It doesn’t matter. Either way, if she fails, at least we have a backup.” He turned to me and grinned as I pounded on the glass and I could get a full view of his face. He was a cyan pony with a grey mane, it was pulled to the side so I could get a plain view of his scar over his left eye. He seemed rugged, not one of the ponies from outside when the bombs went off. I was very angry at him though, seething with anger. I remembered every feature on his face, the pony that stole my sister.

They started walking out, carrying my sister on a stretcher and the speaker started speaking again. “5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..” and everything was white.

--- 0 ---

I awoke with a jolt and started pounding on the glass as the speaker overhead said something muffled. My pod began to open and mist from the change in air pressure filled my vision as I stumbled out. “G-gris..” I waved my hoof in front of my face and realized the speaker was saying, “Critical failure…” on a repeat message. I groaned and tuned it out, seeing as I was still alive, a critical failure didn’t seem to be too much of a problem.

I moved towards my sisters pod to see that it was, in fact, open. All that was left was a tuft of her brown mane laced in with her grey fur. I tried to think of a reason why those ponies would take her but came up with nothing. I wandered back into the main stable corridor and walked down the hall. I found a little 9mm pistol and levitated it up. I released the clip and looked in it. 7 bullets.

If that scarred pony was still around, I sure was gonna give him hell. I looked around and made my way towards the front of the Stable. Then a giant cockroach crossed my path as I walked by. Wait. A giant cockroach???!

“GAH WHAT THE FUCK!” I jumped and shot 3 bullets into its disgusting body. Turns out it was dead with the first shot so I moaned for my wasted bullets. I told myself the next time I see a cockroach I’ll just kick it. As I made it further forward into the stable I checked the medical checkup station, remembering Golden Skies and the glasses on my face. As I walked into the med bay I saw a skeleton in a white coat hunched over a terminal on the desk.

I jolted in shock but decided to get closer to see who it was. I checked the front of the coat and it had “Golden Skies” on the front. I sighed and frowned. I had just told her I would see her soon… Either way, the skeleton was completely dry, what I thought was just a few moments ago, would have to have been decades or more ago. I wondered if I time traveled or something.

I moved her chair to the side and checked the terminal to see if it had any information on what was going on. It was locked, but two or three password attempts later I was in.

In the top left corner, the date read December 2, 2168. I frowned. I must’ve time traveled.. The day I left for the stable was October 17, 2077. I looked down at the documents and read the first log “Cryogenic status log 52”. I facehoofed. Of course. Time travel wasn’t possible anyways.

“Day 52, December 7, 2077: The test is going as expected. All vital signs of the ponies are normal and the cryogenic process seems to be able to keep them in complete stasis. Everyone has been quite restless since the mandatory amount of time to stay inside after a megaspell attack passed 2 days ago. Some of the security guards are arguing with the Overmare. They say that if she doesn’t let them see if the surface is habitable, they will force their way out.”

“Day 53, December 8, 2077: The cryogenic pods are running expecte…. What the fuck am I even doing anymore. Writing these reports is useless. Just today the security team tried to force their way out. The Overmare shot one in the head as an “example”. It seemed to calm them down for the time being. But they will undoubtedly make another push for the exit soon. The Experiment will fail if they escape. This Stable was not only a test of the Cryo pods, but also a test to see how ponies react under the stress of being underground without a job to do. The security team are the ponies that test is being ran on. It’s only a matter of time before they escape.”

“Day 57, December 12, 2077: Oh goddesses. The security team just killed the Overmare. She told them about me and my part in the experiment after she opened the door. The security team has no interest in escaping now. They are pounding on the door, saying they will kill me… I locked myself in the lab. This will be my last entry. I’ll be OD-ing on Fixer as soon as I finish writing this. Fuck you Stable-tec. Why’d you have to turn us against each other. Now I’ll be dead because of you. Shit.. Bye”

I finished reading the log silently. I was sad for Golden Skies but I also was confused, Stable tec Experiments? Why would they experiment on the ponies they were trying to save?

I pushed it to the back of my mind seeing as my sister is gone and her whereabouts are the biggest mystery at the moment. I gave Golden a moment of silence. I didn’t know if we were friends, but she seemed like a nice mare.

I moved to the entrance and passed the Overmare desk. I turned towards it, and saw the terminal on the desk. My curiosity drove me as I walked to the desk. Just as I sat in the Overmare’s chair another giant roach crawled out from under it and scared the living shit out of me. “Damnit.” I kicked the roach into a wall and it died on impact.

I looked at the terminal and broke the password in one attempt. It had no log, but just two prompts, “Disengage Stable door lock”, and “Open desk safe.” I selected both options. I heard a hissing noise as one of the drawers on the desk slid open, revealing it to be the safe. The contents were exactly 1 holotape, a 10mm pistol, and several boxes of ammo, adding up to be 28 bullets. There was some bits and a letter addressed to her family. I didn’t pick the letter up, since I didn’t see any reason to, nor was it my buisness. I put the ammo in my stable jumpsuit pockets and slid the holotape in alongside it. I dropped my 9mm pistol and held the 10mm one

I noticed a skeleton by the door console to leave the stable. I assumed it was the Overmare’s, since it was wearing a pipbuck and a cord ran from the side of the tool to the console. As I got closer, I noticed the hole in her skull and shivered. I unlocked the pipbuck from her leg and slid it onto mine. She wouldn’t be needing it anymore. On the screen, an option to open the stable door flashed. I hit it and a loud beeping noise filled the room as a claw came down from the ceiling and latched itself to the door. With a loud screeching and a hiss of steam, it pulled the door out and rolled it away to the side as a bridge extended to the other side of the door.

I unplugged the pipbuck and it normalized, taking inventory and checking all my vitals. I have to admit it’s a little weird that the pipbuck can know all that but I wasn’t bothered too much by it. It seemed that the pipbuck had an extra tab for unlocking Stable tec terminals too. It must have been a perk of being overmare.

I walked out the gear shaped door and moved to the elevator. I stood on the platform and hit a red button on the side labeled “up”. The elevator squealed and screeched then began to rise.

--- 0 ---

A breeze hit my mane as I rose to the surface, making some strands of hair fly into my face. Some went into my mouth and got on my tongue and I spit it out, totally ruining my ‘mare returns to surface’ moment. I shook it off and stepped off the platform into the dead grass. As I walked down the hill I took a glance at Los Pegasus. Last time I saw it, it was covered in green fire. The ruin looked ominous under the grey clouds. I wondered if our casino survived or if it just joined the ruin.

As I trotted up to the fence that had once kept ponies out of the stable, I now found myself leaving the stable. I had a bit of thought about it. The surface was cold, seeing as we were in the middle of winter. The surrounding landscape was withered and the dirt cracked under my hooves. I saw skeletons of what must’ve been 20 or more ponies all mixed together at the gate of the fence. I pulled a heavy leather jacket off of one and put it on over my stable jumpsuit. It was warm, and had the added bonus of practically being bulletproof since it was so thick. I also found a scarf which I put around my neck. I instantly felt warmer and safer.

[ DT +17 ]

I wandered down the hill a ways and made it to a little neighborhood that was in ruins. I went inside one of the homes and looked around. I couldn’t find much except some med-x and some buck behind the mirror cabinet. I hadn’t meant to be nosy, but I doubt the owners would care anymore, they must be long dead.

I managed to wander into what must’ve been a child’s bedroom and saw a filly crib. I noticed the skeleton of the dead child curled up around a stuffed astronaut pony. I slowly reached into the crib and picked up the toy. As soon as I moved it, the skeleton crumbled into dust.

I fell flat on my ass right that moment as the shock and realization of what had just happened, the bombs, the stasis, and my sister, hit me. I started feeling dizzy, the room started spinning and spinning. I fell on my face, passed out.

0oo0

Level Up. (Look at character sheet chapter 1) +12 skill points

Chapter 2 Progression Options

Main Story:
A- Oscura wakes up at night and hears ponies outside. She investigates
B- Oscura wakes up at day and scavenges the neighborhood. She finds some unique items and decides she should set up a sort of base of operations in her quest to find her sister.
C- Oscura wakes up at night and travels down the road towards Los pegasus to find her sister. Along the way, she finds ponies in need of assistance.
D- Oscura scavenges the neighborhood and finds some food and clean water bottles. She also finds a radio signal, the voice is of a mare who is says she is in dire need of food and water. Oscura goes to share with the mare.

(Happy voting. Voting for Ch1 ends on 8/12/16)

(Authors note: Hey guys, its me, diiscord. I want to know what you guys think of the progression options. Would you like me to make them more detailed? Or keep them vague? I made them the way they are so the next chapter still holds some mystery n’such. I have decided Oscura will get a new perk every odd level, so I wanted to know before next chapter if you guys would like to choose the perk she gets. Obviously the perk system will follow the same system as progression voting. And if you guys and gals want to choose perks, I will include them as a list of possible perks and their descriptions. For now, I am going to choose where Oscura’s skill points go, It will just be easier that way.

Finally, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I know I liked writing it. I know this whole situation is very reminiscent of fallout 4, but I assure you we will have some fun fun changes in the main plot, though I do base my story off of fallout 4. It’s honestly a great game.

Whelp, post which option you like the most in the comments below(a,b,c, or d) then also tell me one thing you liked about the chapter and one thing you disliked. I don’t mean to give y’all homework, but it really helps me get a good picture of what I’m doing right and wrong. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to tell me what y’all think about the perks.

Sorry about such a long authors note this week, I just had a lot to cover haha. Thank you for baring with me through this :3 have a nice day)

Author's Note

Character Sheet
Name: Oscura Silver
Species: Unicorn
Age: 20
Cutie mark: Symbol of Ace of Spades
Faction: Pre-War/Non-aligned
Karma: 0%

Level 2
Level progress: [---|-----------------]
S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Strength
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Perception
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Endurance
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Charisma
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Intelligence
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Agility
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Luck
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10
Skills:
*Barter
38/100
Energy Weapons
19/100
Explosives
19/100
Guns
+2 25/100
Lockpick
+6 25/100
Medicine
23/100
Melee Weapons
19/100
Repair
23/100
Science
+2 25/100
*Sneak
38/100
*Speech
38/100
Survival
+2 21/100
Unarmed
19/100
Traits:
Four Eyes - You gain a plus 2 to perception when wearing glasses
Skilled - You gain plus 5 points to every skill, yet lose 10% experience gained every level.
Perks:
Apparel:
-Stable jumpsuit(under armor) DT+2
-Heavy leather Coat DT+15
Weapons:
-10mm pistol
-28 10mm rounds
Items:
-buck pills
-2 med-x

Chapter 2

I slowly rolled back into consciousness and opened my eyes, taking a moment to collect my thoughts. I suppose I finally accepted I was in “the future.” The dead baby sealed the deal(Along with several destroyed and abandoned homes). There wasn’t anything I could do to deny that fact anymore. I groaned then turned my head, and as I lifted myself up from the ground I noticed a little booklet under the baby crib. The word “Special” was on the cover. I levitated it to me flipped through the pages, after reading each one carefully I felt my strength return to me.

I trotted into the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge as I read through the booklet. It talked about the importance of strength, perception and some other aspects of a pony. At the end of the book there was a little area that had words highlighted, “Do you know what makes you SPECIAL?” Under the words was a little envelope taped to the back cover. Inside was a pamphlet that I tucked into my jacket pocket for later reading.

[Strength +1]

I turned my attention back to the fridge that I was absentmindedly searching as I read a moment before. I pulled out a couple bottles of what appeared to be clean water and I left a sandwich with some kind of meat in it. Meat was gross. I mean, why did anyone even have a meat sandwich in their house at all. I closed the door to the fridge and turned away from it.

Grrrr

I clutched my stomach and turned back, swiping the sandwich and eating it in one bite, not even thinking about how old it might be. I instantly regretted that as I spit it all up over the floor, shivering. The meat had been rotten and when and the bread was moldy. Now I was even hungrier so I turned around and took a little sweep around the house, checking for any canned food or something that wasn’t able to actually go bad. I managed to find a leather saddle pack that fit perfectly, pulling my jacket to my sides, keeping me warm. I slipped the canned beans I found a few moments after into the pack, opening one up and pouring them into a relatively clean pot I picked up in the kitchen. While the stove didn’t work, I did know a spell to summon fire, so I cooked the beans and ate them from the pot. My pipbuck started to tick slowly as I ate the beans, indicating the trace amounts of radiation in the food. But I didn’t care, as long as I found enough canned food, I wouldn’t have to eat that meat ever again.

When I finished I wandered out into the garage, if you could even call it that. It was more like an awning you put a car under. I managed to pick up a pack of bobby pins and a screwdriver from a toolbox. Bobby pins seemed incredibly useful for not only keeping my large mane at bay, but being able to crack open safes. Though when dad taught me how to crack safes as a time passing hobby. I assume he didn’t think I would actually USE that skill.

--- 0 ---

I trotted through the rest of the neighborhood, picking up random junk that I assumed you could use for SOMETHING. I mean seriously, an electric clothing Iron has to have some use besides taking wrinkles out of clothes. I even found a safe in one of the houses that I managed to crack with my top notch skills…. It actually took approximately 4 attempts, but was worth it because it contained rounds for my 10mm pistol along with a combat knife. It also contained a lunchbox full of bottle caps. Which I figured was ridiculous since petty collections have no use in a survival situation. But then again I was carrying a 5 pound clothing Iron. I shrugged and took the lunchbox.

I walked out the back door and moved through the bushes, towards the far end of the neighborhood and my hoof hit something hard. At first I thought it was a rock but upon inspection I found a metal door. It must’ve been a bunker built by one of those doomsday preachers dad tried to steer me clear of when I was little. I shrugged and weighed the option of not having enough supplies against that of looting a well equipped bunker and chose the latter.

A moment later I was inside and searched it. I came up with a scoped rifle made from pipes and a box of .38 rounds. I swung the rifle across my shoulder and loaded the .38 rounds into my pack as I looked around. I guess you could call this bunker more of a hole in the ground. It definitely was not a Stable, with its dirt walls and wooden supports. I found a broken radio on a little table by a mattress and exactly at the moment I saw it, a box reading “133 Distress signal found” flashed in the corner of my vision.

“Is this thing working.. Oh good. Hello? Is anyone out there, I need water and aid. There are raiders outside the house. I’m trapped and need help!” The mare’s voice went quiet as the radio cut out for a moment then restarted, “I’m in new concord just west of the downtown ruins!” Then there was nothing but static after that. I switched off the pipbuck’s radio afterwards, thinking about what I just heard. I had some extra water I could share so I suppose I could go do what I can to help. I checked the pipbuck map and it had created a marker labeled “New Concord.” Right over the place where concord district was before the bombs. How my pipbuck would know what the name of the place afterwards was beyond me, but I didn’t really care either, it just made my life easier.

[Quest Started: “A Friend in Need”]

--- 0 ---

I started out of the neighborhood on the main road. I had been munching on a snack-cake I looted from an old gas magical energy station(It was 91 years old but I didn’t really care). The naturally chilly winter air make me grateful to be moving and using my muscles. It definitely kept me warm as I trotted at a brisk pace so I could make it to the mare on the radio in time. As I approached New Concord I ran into two giant looking mosquitoes feasting on a dead cow. They didn’t seem to have noticed me as I hid behind a rusted car. I supposed I would have to find a way around and begun sneaking around the far edge of the road. As I walked quietly, I suddenly became not so quiet. I had broken a branch and the mosquitos started buzzing to me. I opened my eyes wide and started running as they chased me, “What the fuck is it with the this wasteland and giant goddess’ damn insects!” Apparently my scream alerted a swarm of giant mutated parasprites. Dammit.

I picked up the pace as they gained on me, only to get my mane caught under my hooves, sending me sprawling face first onto the concrete road. I flipped over and pulled my 10mm pistol and in my mind I willed myself to slow down and aim. And time actually slowed, yes, really. A prompt popped up. “Welcome to S.A.T.S.! Your Stable-tec Assisted Targeting System! We will help you take time to aim and pinpoint your enemies weakness.” It highlighted a body part on each of the insects and then time began to flow again. I couldn’t control my magic levitation spell anymore as S.A.T.S took control, wiping out half the swarm, but a few got through. One of the giant mosquito- bloodbug things bit my chest before I pistol whipped its head clean off. I ripped what was left of the head off my chest and shot the two remaining parasprites. I got up and scratched my chest lightly. Ow.

Though I didn’t have time to think about it, I had to keep moving. I started running again, since I lost time fighting those insects and New Concord was just in view down the road. As I drew nearer I noticed two bucks outside a home with boarded up windows. They were shouting quite vulgar things into the house that I’d rather not repeat. But at first glance they didn’t particularly seem harmful. Just very rude and inappropriate. Inside I could hear there was a mare that shouted for them to go away. The same mare from the broadcast. I assumed these were raiders outside.

I trotted right up to the two ponies and waved a hoof, “Um, hi? You two should leave her alone. It’s not exactly mannerly to say those things about a mare.” What? I didn’t have any other plans.

“Well, you are quite a bold one.” He snarled from between his teeth as he started pulling a pistol made of pipe from his pack and it became very clear very fast that this wasn’t going to be settled civilly. I entered S.A.T.S. and pulled my 10mm, making two highlighted zones on the raiders heads. The zones read 95% accuracy. I took it, I didn’t think I’d get a better option. In the next few moments, time returned to normal speed and the ‘raiders’ no longer had heads.

I shivered at the sight of their skulls strewn about on the ground. Then I puked. Everywhere. I wasn’t exactly a killer and I had never killed a pony before. I got dizzy and started to sway with the breeze then fell against the house wall. It took me several moments to recover but I picked up their .38 bullets and one had a glowing magic potion with a label for health. I took that too. “Who are you??” The mare called out from inside the house.

“I’m a friend, I heard your broadcast and I have some food and water for you. I-I just killed two ponies..,” I called out back, still in shock at what I just did. “Sure ya did, what of it?” I could tell this mare was weighing if I was legit or not. When in the casino business you tend to pick it up if people think you are lying. “Well.. I’ve never killed anyone before..” I yelled through the door and it got quiet. I waited for a moment outside and could hear gunshots somewhere across town. I pulled my body in towards the doorway to make sure nobody shot me or could see me in the door’s alcove.

The door unlocked a moment later and the mare pulled me inside, disarming me in a split second, then closing and locking the door behind her. She pointed my pistol at me and nodded to me, “at least you don't look like a raider.. Go on, take out the water and set it on the floor then we will talk. Try anything funny and you’ll find out exactly what it felt like to be those two bucks outside.” She was rather intimidating, so I did as she said.

As I got the water out, I got my first good look at her. She was a stone blue mare with a teil mane and had some ?leather armor? On. But it looked more like wire-reinforced hoofball gear. Upon further inspection I found out that it was. She also had some light blue eyes and her cutie mark was a Red Cross. “Here you go, what about the aid you need? You seem pretty healthy to me.” As I sat back and waited for her response I saw the radio she must’ve used to make the broadcast. It was pretty old and I wondered where she got the power since everything seems broken to bits, but that was a question for another time.

“I was in a group led by a buck named Marcus. Yes I know, not a pony like name. But he's a good leader, so I don’t question it. Anyways no doubt you've heard the shots across town. It’s probably highly likely those shots are from the raiders who attacked us. I got separated from the group about an hour ago and I couldn't get back because the two raiders you shot broke off from the main group to do whatever they wanted to me. But one of my people got shot and they need medical assistance. That's why I needed aid. I don't know why I'm telling you this though, I doubt you care or that you plan on helping. Either way, thanks for saving me, and I’m sorry about the rough introduction. I had to make sure you didn’t just put two rounds in the dirt and were waiting for me to open the door. Here's your pistol. You can go do whatever you want. I'm going to save my friends.” She handed me my pistol and went over to pick up some tools she must’ve used to fix the radio.

I thought about this for a moment while she packed up her stuff. As much as I didn't want to fight more raiders, I imagined this mare wouldn't stand a chance on her own. And me? I still have a sister to find, I’d need to have some help if I expect to do that. Even still, I really needed to think about this. It's likely that helping her will prove much more difficult than fighting just two raiders… I finished thinking quite abruptly. “Wait, I'm Oscura, what's your name?” I stopped her before she left.

“Aurora, but most ponies call me Doc.”

“Well Aurora, I'm coming with you. I figure you won't stand a chance on your own against a group of raiders that's so large. And you won't do that hurt pony any good if you're dead.” She turned to me and she smiled.

“Let's go,” and we walked out the house towards the center of New Concord.

--- 0 ---

We approached what appeared to be the State museum from before the war but it was quite destroyed. On the upper floor balcony a maroon buck with a navy blue mane was shooting some type of laser rifle at raiders gathering outside. He was not making much progress in the destruction of their ranks but he had an admirable determination. The buck had a heavy relaxed military uniform from what looked like the beginning of Equestria in the War of Freedom.

“That's Marcus. He's the Leader. If we can just push through the old museum then I think he will have a plan to take out the rest of the raiders and get the group to safety. He always has a plan so we can safely assume he has one this time as well.” I nodded and showed her my scoped pipe rifle and we made a plan.

A little bit later we were in position and I started sniping them. I took maybe 3 raiders out before they figured out what was going on and shot at us. We were in an old bar a little ways down the street so It would take them a moment to get here. This gave us time to get downstairs. They charged into the bar as we ran into the main lobby. I ducked behind a counter as one unloaded on me with some type of auto pistol, all the rounds tearing up the hard oak counter. I pulled out my pistol and waited a moment, making sure I was fully loaded. I could hear them approaching cautiously. “Aurora, I want you to throw one of these beer bottles to the other side of the room to distract them. Then I will take as many out as I can while they are reacting.” She looked confused, “Nobody is that fast, you can’t do it.” I shook my head, we were running out of time, “You’re gonna have to trust me. She still looked unsure but nodded and I noticed she was an earth pony for the first time, since she picked up a bottle with her teeth. She tossed the bottle well despite this and it shattered against the wall.

I jumped up from behind the counter and engaged S.A.T.S. I counted 5 ponies as they were turning towards the bottle, that was all that was left from outside. I highlighted each of their heads one time and fired. Just as they all started to notice me and turn, the first went down, then the second, and third. But the fourth and fifth shot missed and I got hit in the shoulder as they turned back to face me, but the bullet didn't pierce my leather jacket, it only knocked me back onto the floor in pain. I put my hoof on my shoulder and winced. While I laid on the ground one of the remaining two jumped up onto the counter and tackled Aurora as she screamed in surprise.

I pushed through the pain and stood up then opened my pack as fast as I can and pulled the knife I got from the safe. I threw it with my magic as hard as I could and it lodged itself in the side of the pony's skull, killing him and dripping blood onto Aurora's face. As I turned back the other jumped me.

As he came down I bucked his gun from his grip in his mouth, shattering his jaw then I pistol whipped him across the face. I jumped onto him as he laid on the floor moaning. I thought about not killing him because he was defenseless but he kicked me between my back hooves right in the spot. I winced again and stumbled, but I levitated the knife back to me and stabbed it deep into his chest. He went limp and his breathing slowed then I rolled off and took a breather.

Aurora walked over to me and put some water up to my mouth. “Here, drink. Thank you for saving me for the second time today.” All I did in return was smile and nod then I drank without arguing and sat up. “Well, are there more inside the state museum?” I turned to her and shuddered when she said, “it's likely.”

As we moved up to the building, I noticed Marcus had disappeared from the balcony. I shrugged and assumed it was because the raiders outside were gone, then we walked inside. We heard raider shouts all around the museum but there was no clear path to them. It seemed like the main floor was collapsed down into the basement and we would have to detour down there to get to the stairs. And Marcus was up the stairs. Not only was the floor collapsed, but there was a large gate in front of the way towards the stairs. I took a look around and noticed a small side hallway. We took the side hall through an old museum exhibit about the old rule of Discord and Equestria taking our freedom. It wasn’t as interesting to me as it seemed to be to Aurora, since I’d been to the museum several times while it was still open and was a filly. Though still, walking through the halls made me have a dizzy ‘out of time’ feeling. But I tried to walk it off as we moved onward in the exhibit.

As we made our way through we passed mannequin ponies in outfits like Marcus’. A plaque read ‘The Minutebucks’. I knew that this was the Goddesses militia army that was formed to fight Discord. “Is this where Marcus got his outfit Aurora?”

“More or less. He actually made his outfit himself. But inspiration came from here, yes.” She looked respectively at one of the fake ponies with their rifles. “He's part of a relic of the Neighvada Commonwealth. The last of the Minutebucks.”

“Minutebucks?”

“What do you mean? You haven't heard of the Minutebucks? The only respectable faction in the Los Pegasus area.” She whispered as we moved into the basement, we didn't know if there were raiders down here. “Have you been sleeping the past 91 years or something??”

“Actually yes.” This got a funny look out of her, “don't worry, I'll explain sometime-” we forgot what we were talking about in a snap as a large attack dog jumped from another hall that wasn’t lit so well and latched onto my back, tangling it's claws in my mane. I screamed and Aurora shouted, “Oscura!” I just noticed she had a gun when she pulled it out and aimed it at me! (Well the dog.. But I didn't know how good of an aim she had) “NO! Wait!! Don't shoot!” I waved my hooves like a maniac, trying to keep her from firing.

“I can do this! Trust me!” I saw the confidence in her eyes and remembered me asking her to ‘trust me’ back at the bar, so I put my hooves down and attempted to give her a free shot as the dog snarled in my ear, rearing up to bite my neck. She fired and the dog fell off my back, tearing out some of my hair. I yelped and rubbed the back of my head. My mane had begun to really inhibit my ability to stay safe. It was useful for getting boys to flirt with me back before the war but being alive is far more important now so I will need to cut my mane as soon as I can. “Thanks. I could’ve died.” I smiled at and turned back to the hall the dog came from, maybe expecting more. But when I looked back there, I noticed a caged in area in the hall that the dog had come down. It was barely illuminated by a light green aura and I felt drawn to it like a moth.

I trotted towards it, “Oscura.. What are you doing..?” I looked down the hall and saw a much older Gris cross a room in the dim light. After that I got this eerie feeling that it was my destiny to go down and open the cage. However stupid that sounded. Maybe it would have something inside that would help me and Aurora get to Marcus. Plus there was the added bonus of seeing my sister, though since she looks older I am seriously doubting I actually saw her, since she was taken just a little bit ago and she was my age. But something wasn’t exactly right either way, so I didn’t call out to her even if it would’ve been a normal reaction. I instead turned back to Aurora as I walked, “I’m following the glow.”

“What glow, there is nothing back there..” She looked confused and I turned back to the caged area. It wasn’t illuminated anymore, just dark and grim. “Huh... Let’s check it out anyway.” I switched on the pipbuck light and walked to the cage. Beside the door was a terminal. I opened the terminal and noticed it was locked. “You have any experience hacking terminals?” She shook her head no and I frowned. I took a long look around but we were in a tiny room. My sister was nowhere to be found. It just reinforced the fact that I hadn’t actually seen her in the first place. Although it was disappointing, I turned my attention back to my other objective. I examined the door and managed to find a lock in the dark. “Aha.” I got on with picking it.

“So uh, why are we doing this instead of helping Marcus?” She seemed a little concerned.

“Well, if I told you this could help us help him?” I cracked the lock and pushed open the gate.

“Probably not, but explain yourself, how will this help?”

“Well, I think I saw my sister down this hall, so I wanted to find out if she was here. And it seems like she isn’t. But when I saw her, there was a glow coming from within this cage, and I got this feeling it might be something helpful. It was like a feeling you get when you know it’s your destiny to go this way. I don’t really know how to explain it, but according to my dad, the natural ‘luck’ of always being right when I have a hunch has run in the family for generations.” I found out that the cage was quite large and wasn’t completely illuminated till I got inside. Towards the back was a generator with a note and a red button on the side. I walked up to the note and it read, “I’m here to help.” It also had an arrow pointing to the red button. I turned back to Aurora and smiled, “I think I’m just lucky.” Without thinking I quickly pushed the button and a little cartridge popped out of the generator. I dove to catch it and it landed in my hooves without a scratch on it. I lifted the object to my face so I could get a better look at it. As I inspected it I found it to be a glass tube with a gem floating inside in between the two yellow end caps. On the top read “Magic Fusion Core: MFC.”

“Oscura, what is that thing?” Aurora was probably nervous to trust a pony she just met with their so called luck. For all we knew this thing could be related to a balefire bomb.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But it seems important..” I inspected the gem inside and it seemed to pulse. “I think someone wanted me to take it though, hence the note... Anyway I think I’ve wasted enough of our valuable time.” I slipped it into my pack and quickly looked around for any clues as to who wrote the note but turned up nothing. I guess it would remain a mystery for now.

--- 0 ---

After we left the side hall we found the stairs rather quickly, though they looked incredibly unsafe. Since I put one hoof on a step and it creaked loudly, making me unsure of the decision to ascend the stairs. “I wonder if there is another way up.” I turned to Aurora. She shrugged, “I have no clue but we are running out of time” We could hear the raiders break through a door upstairs, hopefully not the door Marcus and the group was behind. “Yep, we gotta go now.” I nodded then took each step as slowly as I can without wasting time, Aurora following closely behind. “Okay, I don’t know what we will find past this point. Much of your group could be dead. I doubt you haven’t thought that out, but I figured I should just warn you.” I said back to Aurora as we kept moving.

“Yeah, I thought about it. But I doubt Marcus failed to protect them, he’s not gonna give up that easy.” I nodded and took it in. We’d made it to the floor Marcus was on and we were very close to our goal.

We walked along the side of the wall, as far from the edge of the broken floor that had fallen on the lobby. A good bonus effect is that it provided cover if the raiders but it also made me nervous. I didn’t particularly like heights. We could hear the raiders shouting and pounding in the room ahead and I silently sent a prayer to Celestia that they didn’t notice us. Luckily they didn’t while we were moving along the wall, since we got up to the doorway and got a good look at them from our hidden position. It turned out it was only four raiders trying to get to Marcus inside the building.

“Aurora,” I whispered, “How many raiders were there when they chased you into town?”

“I don’t know.. Maybe 30 or so..” I counted eleven that we’ve seen so far, including the four at the door in front of us, “Why did ya wanna know?”

“Looks like we aren’t exactly done after we take out these four.” I pulled out my 10mm, “Be ready to take out any I can’t get with that pistol of yours. Don’t clip me while you shoot.” I engaged S.A.T.S. and highlighted any of the raiders I could get from my position, then executed it. Two went down immediately while the other two dove for cover, getting behind turned over tables.

I frowned and ducked back behind the wall, knowing this made my job a whole new level of difficult. “Oscura, look.” I turned to her and saw she was pointing with a hoof. I followed the tip of her hoof and saw what she was pointing to. It was an ammo box a little further ahead by the wall. “Aurora, we are in a fight to out maneuver the other team, I don’t see how more bullets will do anything but draw out the battle.”

She shook her head, “That’s not any ammo box! Look, it’s got a red stripe around it. That means it is a grenade box.” My eyes opened wide. I turned back to it, that could totally help our side of the battle. But I frowned when I saw I’d have to cross the doorway to get to the box. “Got a plan to get over there without becoming swiss cheese?”

“Yep!” She nodded towards the broken bottom half of a door just inside the room the raiders were in. It must’ve been the door we heard the raiders break down on our way up the stairs. I guessed she wanted me to use the door as cover so I used my magic and lifted the hardwood door. I had begun to sweat from strain to levitate such a heavy object just as I got it into place. I need to work out my magic more.

“Hey! That’s cheating!” One of the raiders yelled as I snuck across the doorway below their fire. I pried open the box with my knife since it was rusted shut and found two metal apples inside. One had a yellow stripe around it and the other had a green stripe. I did a little dance and clopped my hooves together then chose the yellow one. I pulled the pin and tossed it in the room.

“Oh Fuc-” BLAM. There was no more shooting from the doorway and I pushed the broken door I used for cover onto the floor, giving us access to the room. I saw the raiders had become pulp on the wall and proceeded to throw up the rest of my beans from this morning. I clutched my stomach and tried to not think about the blood dripping from the ceiling as I walked up and knocked on the door. “It’s okay Marc-” I gagged again but held in my stomach. “Marcus.. My name is Oscura and I’m here with Aurora, or Doc.” On the other side of the door I heard some shuffling and the door was unlocked.

Marcus stood in the doorway after the door was opened and waved us in, “Howdy Doc, I was beginning to think you weren’t kicking anymore, but I sure am glad to see you in one piece.” Then he turned to me, “And I assume you’re the one who led her up here all by yourself.”

“Yeah, more or less. But Aurora fought some too, so I didn’t do it ALL by myself.” I smiled and closed the door behind us as me and Aurora walked in. “Even still you really seem to be quite selfless. Going out of your way to save a pony you don’t even know, thats Minutebuck material. “Though, sorry to say, but most of your progress has been for nothing at the moment. It would seem that the raiders have re-grouped outside and are planning on starving us out this time around. We can’t get out and our group has elderly and injured ponies.” He gestured to the rest of the group. One buck appeared to be injured as well as an older mare who had a grey mane and grey eyes. There was three other ponies but they all seemed okay. Aurora frowned, “You have a plan right? I mean, we can’t stay up here for the rest of our lives.”

“Actually yes. Well, not my plan, it’s her’s,” Marcus stepped out of the way of a mare who was looking out of the window. “Curie, mind explaining the plan to Aurora and our friend?” She turned around and leaned against the wall, she looked pretty smug but I got the impression she was smarter than she let on to most ponies. She also looked like she recognized me, but I didn’t know her.

“Well up on the roof there,” She poked her hoof up towards the roof, “There happens to be an old suit of t-45 power armor with a minigun battle saddle. It’s right beside a crashed vertibuck up there. Ya can’t miss it.” I nodded. “Only there is one slight problem. We are missing a Magic Fusion Core. The old one ran dry years ago. There should be one in this building somewhere, but since we were stuck up here, we weren’t really in a position to go get it.”

“Actually, you don’t have to worry. I picked it up on my way up.” I smiled. “How do I get up there and I’ll finish off the raiders while you get your group to safety?”

“You don’t have to risk your life for us more than you already have, Oscura, right? I’m sure we can get out of this one.” She smiled at my offer but also seemed to draw a response.

“Well I wouldn’t exactly be ‘Minutebuck material’ if I gave up and went home now. Plus we are all stuck in here together. You work on getting your people to the bottom floor and I’ll clear the way outside.”

--- 0 ---

I shoved the MFC into the back of the power armor and it slowly opened up. I stepped inside and it closed around me, fitting snugly. A HUD appeared in my vision showing me my ammo levels and my health. “I can do this.”

I moved up to the edge of the building and a raider shouted to the others that they knew where I was. The raider was in a sniper nest on an adjacent rooftop, target practice. He got a few shots off on me but none pieced as I revved up the miniguns and opened fire, tearing through the concrete blockers he was using for cover and then tearing through his flesh, rendering him into pulp. Dang, these sure were big guns.

I heard more shouts and gunfire from street level and turned my attention downwards. There was a group of about 20 raiders massed down there fully concentrated on me, easy prey for the minigun. Though there was one problem, I was up here, and they were down there. But I noticed something as I walked, then I got a plan. I reared up and landed my hooves on the roof, testing the shock absorbers. They proved adequate for my plan, though I was still nervous. “Welp, it’s all or nothing.” and I charged to the edge of the roof, leaping off, regretting my life choices.

I landed on the asphalt with a resounding clang of the inner workings of the power armor compensating for the fall. As I slowly rose from my fall, I felt a little pain in my legs, most likely just bruises from the old power armor not staying up to standard but I still needed to be careful. I turned to the approaching wave of raiders and revved my my minigun battle saddle up, opening fire. I tore through most everything, taking out the bulk of the crowd in one mere turn of my body. The rest dove for cover when they saw what was coming.

“Come on out guys!” I shouted to the hidden group of raiders. I noticed some movement in the corner of my eye and engaged S.A.T.S, turning to the raider and sending several shots through the wall he was hiding behind, rendering him dead. I slowly picked out the rest of the spots as I advanced down the street. My slow but sure gait must’ve been quite nerve racking to the raiders from their positions. I put an end to their nerves quickly though with a hail of -.. Dear Celestia, what am I even saying, I shouldn’t be enjoying killing ponies, no matter how evil they seem..

As I took out the last raider I sent up a quick prayer for their souls. “That’s the last of them..” I turned back towards the Museum and called out, “Hey! It’s all clear!!” I sat and took all the carnage I created in. I felt horrible. I still looked up when the group opened the front door of the museum. Marcus was about halfway out when he pointed a hoof and shouted for me to look out. Huh?

I barely turned just as a giant claw swiped my side, sending me flying through a wall of an building along the street. I groaned because there was now a massive dent in the side of my power armor and it was jabbing my side. I lifted myself up from the rubble of the wall I came through and turned back where I came from. I saw a giant white wolf-looking creature charging at the hole in the wall, charging at me!

I dodged it just in time for it to fly right past me and into a wall on the other side of this building, which looked like it was a comic book store. I quickly unloaded as many bullets as I could into the creature but they were all ricocheting off. Its hide was invincible! I could try to figure out another plan but I needed to think first. I remembered I had one grenade left but I was wary to use it because it was marked with a green stripe instead of the yellow which marked a regular explosive.. I had little choice though because the thing had pulled itself up from the wall and had come back to finish the job. And I knew that if I got another full swipe like before, I’d be done for.

I ended up going with the grenade since I had no other choice. But the dog was so fast, there was no way it would be within the blast radius of the grenade before it blew. I needed to immobilize it like before when it crashed into the wall. I frowned at the difficulty of this since it was unlikely that it would fall for that twice,

I looked around as I dodged swipes and saw a wall in an alley that had little space to turn or slow down. But that also meant I would have no room to get out of the way. I supposed I would have to come up with a plan on the fly, since I charged the alley. The beast only meters behind me. I saw my escape and sped up. As I reached the wall I kicked off the ground, turning around and leaping over the top of the hound as it flew past into the wall. I tossed the primed grenade after it. It got really quiet then a bubble of air seemed to appear from the grenade. It expanded slowly but literally shredded the hounds flesh and shattered the stability of the walls beside it. I ran as fast as the armor could take me as the expanding blast wave began to gain on me. I dove into an open ponyhole in the street and landed in a sewer as the blast wave cracked the street and collapsed the tunnel on me before dissipating. All the concrete and rebar fell on me and everything went black.

[Quest Completed: “A Friend in Need” +800 xp]

I woke up a few moments later and used the extra power armor strength to push my way out from under the rubble, and once I got out, I opened up the armor and slinked out, falling into the dust at the bottom of the collapsed tunnel. I blinked slightly and I could see all the ponies from Marcus’ and Aurora’s group, alive and well, lining the edge of the hole. They could’ve been glowing they looked so happy. I just laid down caked in sweat and dirt as a few came down to help me out of the hole. They helped me limp out and then we all sat on the road.

“That was the most impressive thing I’d ever seen from any wastelander. You were so brave and how you threw that Air Pulse Grenade(APG, for future reference) to take out that Hellhound... wow.” Marcus smiled brightly, “Of course you don’t have to accept my offer, but seeing as I am the last of my people, I suppose I would be fit to give the offer. Would you like to be the General of the Minutebucks?” I could see in his eyes he was totally serious so I would have to consider this offer carefully. “You don’t have to decide right away. We are on our way to find a settlement to call our home you can come with us or move on, but the Minutebucks sure could use a pony like you.”

[Quest Started: “General: Deal or No Deal”]

“Thank you Marcus. I really appreciate it, I’ll think about your offer.” I smiled at him and unzipped the top of my Stable jumpsuit, trying to air out my coat.

“What the hell!” Marcus pointed to my chest. I laughed at his ridiculous reaction to me unzipping my suit and turned to look at… the giant red and black wound on my chest where that giant mosquito had bit me.. Are wounds supposed to be caked with that black stuff..?

Voting:

A - Oscura goes with Marcus and stays at their settlement

B - Oscura tries to heal herself and leaves in search of a doctor

C - Oscura becomes the General and leaves for Marcus’ settlement

D - She passes out like in chapter 1

(HAPPY VOTING)

(Authors note: Oh my dear Luna this chapter took 3 whole days of writing from the moment I got home from school till the moment I went to bed. That isn’t to say it wasn’t fun to writ it, but it was just so very long. I hope y’all read to the end and tell me what you liked or didn’t like about the chapter.

Also, in other news, I have changed the voting system to a more paraphrased system. since I was so burnt out after writing this chapter, I couldn’t come up with a TON of ideas for voting like the last chapter. Of course I will return to the original system asap, but it will have to be like this for now.

And finally, special thanks to PonyDragon on Fimfic for giving me some lovely advice on this chapter. I don’t know if I followed that advice well but I sure hope I did.

Thank you for reading and please don’t forget to vote! **voting over for chapter 2**).

Author's Note

Character Sheet
Name: Oscura Silver
Species: Unicorn
Age: 20
Cutie mark: Symbol of Ace of Spades
Faction: Pre-War/Minutebucks
Karma: 20%

Level 2
Level progress: [----------------|----]

S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Strength
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Perception
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Endurance
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Charisma
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Intelligence
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Agility
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Luck
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10

Skills:

*Barter
38/100
Energy Weapons
19/100
Explosives
+3 22/100
Guns
25/100
Lockpick
25/100
Medicine
23/100
Melee Weapons
19/100
Repair
23/100
Science
25/100
*Sneak
38/100
*Speech
38/100
Survival
+9 30/100
Unarmed
19/100

Traits:
Four Eyes - You gain a plus 2 to perception when wearing glasses

Skilled - You gain plus 5 points to every skill, yet lose 10% experience gained every level.

Perks:
{NEW}
Hunter - 75% more base damage against all animals and mutated animals

Apparel:
-Stable jumpsuit(under armor) DT+2
-Heavy leather Coat DT+15

Weapons:
-Scoped Pipe Rifle
-79 .38 rounds
-combat knife
-10mm pistol
-35 10mm rounds

Items:
-buck pills
-2 med-x
-healing potion
-2 snack cakes
-3 canned beans
-2 purified water
-MFC(6%)

{Sick}

Chapter 3

“Is that black stuff supposed to come out of a wound...?” I felt my knees suddenly get weak as I was a little nauseous of my clearly infected bite. I turned up to Marcus as I fell to my knees on the concrete. He turned to look at me and scrambled to help but it was clear I was down for the count with this injury. I started to get the tingling sensation in my hooves, you know, that feeling ponies get when parts of their body fall asleep and they can’t feel their hooves. I shivered and started sweating. I was unable to move, what if I could never walk again?? What will become of my sister? Or these ponies I helped?

Meanwhile Aurora examined my wound. She touched my hooves and asked me if I could move them. I shook my head and Aurora said something about me getting bit by a bloodbug to Marcus and that he needs to bring some Buck, a strength enhancing med from before the war, to her and he started searching packs. A few minutes later he returned with a bottle and gave it to Aurora. She put a few tablets in my mouth and I swallowed them. The effect was immediate as I felt blood rush to my hooves again and the tingling feeling went away. I set one hoof on the ground and lifted my body up.

“I think I can handle it now... Thank you Aurora, Marcus, you two probably saved my life...” I smiled and hugged both of them tightly, Aurora got quite hot and I noticed her blushing. I also realized I was probably oozing onto them and pulled away.

“I don’t know if buck is always going to be the answer but here, take this bottle for now. If you don’t feel your hooves, take a pill.” She handed over the bottle and it seemed to be about half full of pills. “I think we should take her to Newport Harbor and see if we can flush the poison with the surgeon over there. It's a little dangerous over there, but all I can do here is clean out and bandage this wound. It may take a few weeks to flush but-...”

I cut her off mid-sentence, “No, no. It’s okay. All I need done is to have this wound cleaned. I personally think the poison isn’t that bad, I can probably walk it off over time.” Aurora looked down; probably I had hurt her feelings since she just wanted to help, but I was a little nervous I would get stuck in some building forever when I need to be out looking for my sister. And that wasn’t an option for me. She had to be somewhere out there, I knew it and I didn’t want to waste time in my search.

“But your personal diagnosis doesn’t matter, Aurora is the doctor here. You should listen to her,” Curie spoke up for the first time since we left the building and I glanced over at her, feeling a little rude.

“I think I will take my chances. I have plenty of other important stuff that I can do rather than get my system flushed of poison that is fixed with one tablet of buck.” Adding further insult to injury.

“Important things like?” Curie raised an eyebrow.

After she said that I thought for a moment about my priorities. I looked at all the ponies around me who had been trapped in the building by the raiders. I looked at Aurora who seemed to want to keep me alive for, what, for me saving them one time? These are good ponies. Was I going to be so selfish as to just look for my sister and abandon the them despite all the evil in this world? I thought about this to myself and, slowly, finding my sister became less of a priority than saving these ponies from the wasteland that plagues their lives with fear.

[Misc Quest Added: “Wasteland Savior?”]

Marcus shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, we need somewhere to stay, so we are leaving soon.” He turned to me. “You don’t have to come with us if you don’t want to. You’ve already exceeded my expectations as a wastelander, but I am going to take the rest of my group to a place called The Sanctuary up the road. You can join us if you want.” He nodded to the rest of the group and they all moved to follow him, except for Aurora who waited in front of me.

Curie turned back for a moment and nodded to Aurora, who spoke up, “If I were you, I’d come with us. The wasteland is no place to travel alone, Oscura.” And with that she followed the rest of the group. I took a quick look at the power armor in the pit. As useful as it seemed, there wasn’t much I could do with a drained fusion core, not being able to move it and all. Plus, the whole side was dented in, so I covered it with some old curtain I pulled from a store window on the street and left it

--- 0 ---

I had ended up following them and sticking beside Curie and Aurora at the end of the small group. The light was leaving the grey clouds that covered us as day turned to afternoon. I wouldn’t say I was afraid of the dark, but I was a little cautious, especially after the surprise attack by a pack of wild dogs on the road. It made me wary of anything that resembled movement in the treeline as we walked. After a bit, I had noticed we were going up the road I came on and decided to ask questions.

“So, Curie or Aurora, whoever can answer, what’s so special about The Sanctuary?”

Aurora spoke up first, “We don’t know a lot since we have never been there ever, but it’s apparently an old neighborhood from before the bombs that has roofs to sleep under and probably hasn’t been looted yet.” She had a happy skip in her step after the last part. “It probably has some medical supplies too. Just you wait mom, I’ll show you that earth ponies can be doctors too. If a unicorn can do it, so can I.” She said that in a hushed voice and I begun to get an idea of why she, became a doctor in the first place.

“Oh, and don’t forget about the unopened Stable too! Stable 111, what a marvel of engineering! Of course we’d need some assistance opening it. But I suppose we can figure that out when we see the Stable with our own eyes. But all that can wait because I’m quite excited to see a stable.” Curie was practically drooling, but quickly regained her composure and shook her head. “Er uh, speaking of Stable’s, where did you get that Stable Suit and Pipbuck Oscura? The last time a set of Stable barding made it out into the wasteland was when the original group of Gunners who came from Stable 75 sold theirs in Lucky City. But as far as I know, all those were sold almost immediately and not one has been seen in the Neighvada Commonwealth since. Those Gunners tend to be really nasty, and it seems that most folk who come from Stables tend to be a sort of shoot-on-sight bunch.”

That made me flinch a little and rethink what I was gonna say next, “Well, it was my mother’s suit and Pipbuck. She never really said where she got it though, sorry.” I had to think fast on that response.

“That’s a good thing, if you were a Stable pony, I don’t know if we’d be able to trust you. It probably wouldn’t matter that you saved us since you could be just tricking us. The Gunners, other Stable folk, being such a blight on the wasteland and all...” Aurora smiled and I just tugged my leather jacket tighter onto my back and covering the big ‘111’ on my back. If they found out I literally just left the ‘unopened Stable’, I could lose the only friends I’ve managed to find at all.

Marcus turned around and our small group stopped, the neighborhood I had explored and looted was just up ahead (it made me feel bad since Aurora thought it was still unlooted, but I’m sure I’ve missed most of it). “Looks like we are here everyone. Since none of you have probably made a new settlement, the first two orders of business is to loot and clear the area of possible threats. Stay on your guard. Mama Bloom, come with me, I’ll keep you safe.” He nodded to an elderly pony that I had seen back at the museum who seemed to have bad eyesight. He was stern but understanding.

Aurora started to raise a hoof but Marcus called back. “I’m sorry Doc, Oscura will have to wait a little longer before you can check out her wound again. We will need all the pony power we have to search the town and clear it before nightfall. Make teams of 2 to clear the neighborhood. We will check the Stable out and see what we can do to get it open as soon as the sun comes up.” He trotted off with his Laser rifle and started looking around.

“It’s okay Aurora. I’ll be fine for a bit longer.” I patted her on the back and she nodded.

“Okay I suppose.” She nodded, “I’ll go with y-”

Curie cut her off, “Oscura, come with me to clear a few homes, I wanna tell you something important.”

“Uh well I was going to go with Aurora to look around...” I half smiled and gestured behind me to Aurora who seemed to be a little bashful now that we were in relative safety.

“Is that true?” Curie peered around me at the little Aurora.

“N-No it’s okay, I’ll just go with Ares. I need to check out his leg anyway.” She blushed and shuffled away to the pony who had been shot in the leg before the Museum. He was a deep red color with a grey mane and as they trotted off I noticed a bandage around his hoof. She must’ve fixed him up while I cleared the raiders outside.

“Looks like we are a team.” I turned back to Curie.

“It would appear so...” We started walking toward a house.

“So, what was that all about? And why did Aurora not want to go with me?”

Curie rolled her eyes, “wow, you must not see it. She likes you. Though she’s good at hiding it.” I tilted my head in confusion. “She yanno, like-likes you. Like why are you looking at me like It’s a stupid concept?”

A little appalled by her insult I looked away, “I guess it just seems weird for me to think that mares like other mares in that way. To be honest I think she is a great mare. She is smart and has a good heart, but I’m not in love with her or anything.”

“Well it’s weird to me that you like bucks. Bucks bring nothing but trouble.” She kicked in the door to the house and we trotted in as she continued her thought. “All they do is get ya pregnant, then what? How are you supposed to take care of a whining and crying filly in anywhere short of Lucky City, the answer is that you can’t. You’ll be dead the moment a raider hears your filly’s crys. And it won't be pleasant either. Though sometimes there will be a one in a million ‘good stallion’ and Marcus is one of them. He took Mama Bloom with him because he cares about the elderly and he cares about mares. It isn’t so often that ya find a guy like that in this wasteland.” She spoke as if this wasn’t her home.

I nodded silently as we finished up a bare minimum sweep of the house. All that Curie said makes sense. They were all good reasons to not get with bucks and I told myself I’d at least think about Aurora some. “So, why did you want me on your team instead of Auroras if that's what you think?”

“I think that I at least needed to say something to ya before you went and broke her heart without even knowing. And to save you the pain of having to figure these things out for yourself. After all It’s only your first week out in the wasteland.”

“Wha. How did you know?” I slowly began to feel a pit in my stomach form. Is she gonna kill me?

“Let’s just say I have connections in high places.” She looked up at the sky as she ignited a glowing spell on her horn, illuminating the area as it grew dark. I wondered if she had a connection to the Goddesses or something since I just noticed she was a unicorn. It was also for the first time that I noticed she had a white coat with a silver mane. She also wore a jacket like me but hers was a little longer. She also had a saddle pack that covered her flanks neatly. “Or at least I used to, I know that Stable 111 wasn’t opened and I caught a glimpse of the 111 on your back some time ago when your jacket was looser. Plus I don’t think I’d ever fall for your story about a family heirloom or something since Stable suits are so rare. Also, yes, the rest of the ponies would probably kill you if they found out so don’t tell them, or take of the suit soon. You were a Stable dweller, but you’re not any more. Your secret is safe with me. I’ll do my best to direct you if you need help with something since I’ve been out here several years. Also I’ll keep you out of trouble with Marcus.”

I nodded and felt my muscles loosen after hearing this, “So were you a Stable dweller too?”

“Not exactly, but I do know what it’s like to be surprised by a world you weren’t born into.” Then she got quiet.

As we rounded the corner into another room we noticed a gaping hole in the floor. The hole was filled with an ominous green glow like I had seen in the Museum. Though unlike the museum, the hole was just a hole. I couldn’t see any cage at the bottom or magical power generator. When I looked down, there was only a tunnel and I saw a wisp of grey-black hair round the bend into said tunnel. “...Gris...?” I said it under my breath as I looked down, but the moment the hair was around the corner, the light was gone. The hole was pitch black.

“Who is Gris?” Curie was still looking down the hole but was fully invested in what she just asked.

“Uh,” I switched on my pipbuck light and started walking down the slope to the bottom of the hole where the tunnel was, “It’s a bit of a long-ish story.”

“That’s okay, we have some time.” She pressed as I rolled my eyes.

“Well a little bit before I left the Stable some ponies in suits came down there. They came down alongside this buck and took Gris. She is my sister and I left the Stable to rescue her from whoever kidnapped her. But just recently I’ve figured out I have absolutely nothing to go on. I don’t even know where to start looking.” I more or less pouted as we descended into the hole.

“Well, if I was looking for someone, I’d head to Lucky City. There is a detective there that supposedly is good for finding kidnapped ponies. Here, let me mark the location on your pipbuck map.”

“You can mark locations??” She nodded and I held out my hoof for her. She just finished up marking it when I heard a faint rumble.

“What is that?” A giant hairless rat broke from the wall of dirt beside us with a screech and both Curie and I screamed our heads off. What? That’s terrifying!

I pulled out my pistol and engaged S.A.T.S. to fight the fast enemy, targeted three shots to its head, and fired. The rat died mid-air after it lunged at me. Phew. Then two more came out of the walls behind us and darted after us, cutting off the exit. I was still recovering from the last use of S.A.T.S. so I couldn’t use it to get a clear shot on them. Curie and I ran deeper into the hole and rounded the bend into the tunnel I saw my sister go down.

“C’mon, this way.” I led Curie down the tunnel as she was pulling out a weird pistol that I had I knew only the army used. I couldn’t fathom how she got it. It had streaks of green and little green tubes running down the side. Curie stopped running and turned as the rats caught up to us. She shot two shots of green energy and each his a rat, melting it into a pile of green goo.

I jumped back and gasped, “Where did you get that?? Only the military used those.” I was still a little stunned by its power.

“Oh, you know, my mom gave it to me,” She grinned, referencing my story earlier.

I mumbled something about sarcasm under my breath and sighed,“Well either way, that was a good shot, thank you. I probably wouldn’t have been able to take em out.”

“Anytime,” we turned around and saw a flickering light down the tunnel. “Any idea what that might be?”

“No clue.” I started walking down the tunnel and saw a big trailer that was half buried with the words ‘EMERGENCY WATER’.

“It’s a water supply!” I started running down to the flickering light which turned out to be caused by its power capacitors. Curie came down after me and gasped.

“I think this is one of the old trucks they distributed in case of emergency before the war. This one must’ve fallen underground somehow but I have no idea how.” Curie was once again drooling at the tech. We rummaged through it and came up empty handed though, no water at all. Even the water spell matrix was missing its program terminal(Though it was otherwise intact).

“Looks like my luck has run short on this one..” I frowned and looked at the useless piece of junk.

“Whoa whoa whoa. What are you talking about? This is one of the rarest things you can find in the wasteland. There is only one other truck like this in the Commonwealth and even if it’s broken, I’m positive I can fix it. Given the right parts of course.” Curie smiled triumphantly at me. “Though program terminals are very rare and hard to move. Though I might know of a place that might have one, and has the means to move it.”

“So, if I go get it, can you fix this machine so we can provide water to the settlement?”

Curie nodded, “Actually we can provide water for the whole Los Pegasus population. These things are capable of pumping out liters upon liters of clean water in a matter of minutes. There were only two in the whole city because it only took two to quench the city at peak population. It’s weird that both trucks have been destroyed. You’d think ponies would want the water. Though this one is in considerably good shape.” She looked over the machinery inside, “This one has only the program terminal missing, so it should still be able to pump water out at max capacity.”

“It’s that useful? If that’s the case, we need to fix this thing up. We could give the whole population of the commonwealth clean drinking water, not to mention our own settlement. So where is this place that might have one?”

“I’ll tell you when we discuss it with Marcus. Up top. For now, let’s head back.”

I nodded and we started back where we came from, “By the way, how did you learn all of this?”

“I just read it in a book somewhere.” But that’s all I got out of her as she shut up after that, clearly not wanting me to ask questions about her past.

--- 0 ---

“So, let me get this straight. We found a water truck? And you know how to fix it?” Marcus and curie had been going back and forth for the past couple minutes about the truck.

Curie smiled and nodded, “Yep! But the only problem is we need a part that Gizmo has. And you know as much as me that he’s not gonna give it up.”

I just sat in the corner of the room, listening, as Aurora was scraping out the black gunk from my wound with a knife and pouring water on it to clean it out. I had taken a buck pill a half hour ago or so but my chest still was numb. I hadn’t been able to feel anything since New Concord.

“Right... So what’s the plan?” Marcus rubbed his hoof on his chin and looked down.

“We send him someone he doesn’t know of course!” She turned to me. “That’s where you come in Oscura.”

“So who is Gizmo? I’m glad you want me to help and all but I don’t know anything about him.”

“That’s the point. He won’t be suspicious of someone new! Just know he owns the only Casino in Newport Harbor and basically runs the entire settlement. He’s the one who has the Program Terminal. That’s like basic knowledge. Everypony knows that, but don’t bring up the Terminal in casual conversation.” Curie seemed a little serious about him. I didn’t understand what Marcus and Curie did to prevent them from going back to Gizmo.

Aurora stood as soon as she finished wrapping my chest in bandages, I zipped up my jumpsuit and made sure no one could see the number on my back.

“I want to go too. I just joined your group last month. I don’t know Gizmo so whatever you two can’t do, I can. Plus, I will have to change her bandages in a few days anyways. All the more reason to go.” She nodded.

“Don’t worry Aurora, I was about to suggest that you go with Oscura. She will probably need some help along the way. I want to talk to you privately before you leave though.”

“Nobody is leaving yet. I want the both of you to get a good night’s sleep before you go.” Marcus frowned, “Everyone else is asleep and it’s nearly midnight. I think your chances of survival are much higher if you sleep and wait till morning. And Oscura, you can still be the General if you like. The Minutebucks need a new face to wipe away the failures of the old system and you are perfect for the position. At least think of my offer before you sleep tonight.”

“Alright... I will. Thank you.” I walked out, and started heading towards one of the unoccupied homes, planning on taking it as my own when Aurora stopped me.

“Um Oscura, can you sleep in my house tonight, since we will be leaving together tomorrow?”

We got into bed and I thought about all that happened today. About how lucky I was to run into Marcus’ group. This was just my first day out of the Stable though, with more to come. I also thought about Marcus’ offer. I wanted the position but I wasn’t sure If it would keep me from finding Gris.

Just as I said that, a place came to mind where Gris could be. Our old home at the Lucky Spinners. It’s unlikely that her captors would take her there but I found it possible that she could go there if she managed to escape. I yawned. I guess I could think about it tomorrow, I was tired.

“Goodnight Oscura, I’m glad to have met you.”

“I’m glad I met you too. Night.”

[End of Day 1]

0oo0

Voting:

A- Oscura decides she will take the job as general and use the minutemen to help the Commonwealth while she tries to find her sis(She will still be going to Newport)

B- Oscura goes to Newport and along the way helps other ponies

C- Oscura goes to Newport for a special quest line

D- Oscura goes directly to the Silver Spinners for a Special Quest line

(Happy Voting!)

(Author Note: Phew, it’s finally done. After a week and a half of grudging work, the shortest and perhaps worst chapter has been written. But Alas, it was required to further the plotline. I didn’t enjoy this chapter at all though due to the minimal action. It was more or less opening up big pot holes to fill in later so I can make the story more interesting.

But yeah, this chapter is the most important one for plot development. Even in the options. One of the voting options is the “morally good” option and one is the bad one. Then there are two uh, neutral ones. So the chapter options are important too.

Well, anyways, I hope you enjoyed. Please vote for chapter 4 and like the book so more people can vote and whatnot!)

Author's Note

Character Sheet
Name: Oscura Silver
Species: Unicorn
Age: 20
Cutie mark: Symbol of Ace of Spades
Faction: Pre-War/Minutebucks
Karma: 20%

Level 2
Level progress: [----------------|----]

S.P.E.C.I.A.L
Strength
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Perception
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Endurance
1 2 3 (4) 5 6 7 8 9 10
Charisma
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Intelligence
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Agility
1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 8 9 10
Luck
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (8) 9 10

Skills:

*Barter
38/100
Energy Weapons
19/100
Explosives
+3 22/100
Guns
25/100
Lockpick
25/100
Medicine
23/100
Melee Weapons
19/100
Repair
23/100
Science
25/100
*Sneak
38/100
*Speech
38/100
Survival
+9 30/100
Unarmed
19/100

Traits:
Four Eyes - You gain a plus 2 to perception when wearing glasses

Skilled - You gain plus 5 points to every skill, yet lose 10% experience gained every level.

Perks:
{NEW}
Hunter - 75% more base damage against all animals and mutated animals

Apparel:
-Stable jumpsuit(under armor) DT+2
-Heavy leather Coat DT+15

Weapons:
-Scoped Pipe Rifle
-79 .38 rounds
-combat knife
-10mm pistol
-35 10mm rounds

Items:
-buck pills
-2 med-x
-healing potion
-2 snack cakes
-3 canned beans
-2 purified water
-MFC(6%)

{Sick}