Author's Note

This story will later contain gore, violence, and a variety of mature topics that are fairly common in the Fallout universe. I will put up a warning at the beginning of every chapter whenever there's something exceedingly nasty.

May 23
The first rewritten chapter is up, and the second one is still in progress.

A Beginning

Ivory Night woke to the sound of a crackling fire but for all the caps in the Wasteland, he couldn’t force himself out of his bedroll. He was warm, comfortable, and his body hadn’t started to argue with him yet. All rarities in everyday life.

Without changing position, Ivory cracked one bleary eye open, seeing only the tumultuous grey sky above. It was damp, and cool. Bet anything it’ll rain today.

“You awake or just checking that you still exist?”

“Is ‘yes’ an acceptable answer?” Ivory asked, his voice scraping against his throat.

Thunder chuckled dryly, “It’s good enough. Oatmeal won’t be ready for a few minutes yet, so you can sleep for a while.”

“Comet isn’t awake?”

“No surprisingly. I thought the smell of the oatmeal would’ve woken him by now.”

Ivory offered a crooked smile, “Must have worn him out with all the hills yesterday.”

“I’m still surprised you managed the rough terrain okay, I was worried I’d have to carry you.”

Ivory sighed, shutting his eye again, “It’s a miracle. Call the cultists and tell ‘em.”

“Yeah, we’ll get right on that after breakfast. Screw going to New Neighara. We’ll just skip over to the nearest band of crazy gangers and let them know we’ve got a walking, talking, bonafide miracle on our hooves.”

“They’d flip their shit when they realized I’m the supposed miracle. Nopony would want to believe us. Except maybe some weird-ass Stable Dwellers or some shit.”

“What’s wrong with Stable Dwellers?” Comet slurred out, still clearly half asleep. His forelock was tangled helplessly around his ears, and sticking up in all directions. The sight made Thunder laugh, which caused Ivory to peer over himself to see.

“Mane-styles for one,” Ivory replied evenly, “You and your damned mane. How do you do anything with it?”

“The length makes it so I have to care for it! Unlike you two, when was the last time you brushed your manes?”

Ivory and Thunder shared a look. Ivory shrugged, and Thunder shook his head, “Dunno, kid. Probably the last time I got it cut in a settlement.”

“When was that?”

“Before he met me. Which was...what? Six, seven years ago?”

“Goddesses,” Comet face-hoofed.

Ivory shrugged, “It works for us.”

“If you go anywhere near my mane with a pair of scissors I’m going to pummel you.”

“Good luck with that.”

Comet wriggled out of his bedroll, “Ohh! Oatmeal!”

“Now he notices!” Ivory rolled his eyes, flopping back onto the ground. Shutting his eyes again, Ivory tried to lull himself into relaxing.

“Breakfast is done!”

Ivory groaned, “Not hungry.”

“Don’t care. You’re eating something.”

“No point if I puke it up in an hour.”

“Then eat half a portion. You can always eat later.”

Ivory sighed, “If I puke I blame you.”

“C’mon. Get up. We’ve gotta get going soon if we want to get to the falls before nightfall.”

Ivory grumbled, easing himself slowly upright. Thankfully, his lungs seemed to be agreeing with him, however temporarily.

“Here,” Thunder shoved a bowl in Ivory’s direction, “We’ll eat then we’ll go. There should be some good salvage along the highway if we’re careful.”

Comet nodded, eagerly digging into his breakfast, “Good idea!”

“Can we ever go anywhere without you two deciding to loot everything senseless?”

“Canterlot,” Thunder replied, “Couldn’t pay me enough to go in there.”

“That’s the old capital, right? Where the Goddesses were?”

“The princesses, yeah. There was a weird megaspell that went off within the city. It’s called the Pink Cloud. It’s seriously necromantic: it’s not good. I’d probably die before we even got into the city; breathing it in is bad, and gask masks don’t work.”

“Oh...Neighara is good enough for me. After all, we’ve been all over this area and it’s the only place I haven’t been to yet.”

“You haven’t been to lots of places,” Ivory interjected, using his spoon to push the grey oatmeal around in the bowl, “and no, we’re not going to Fillydelphia. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back there.”

“Well...no Canterlot or Fillydelphia. What about Manehatten? Or Appleloosa?”

“Ponyville is full of raiders, last I heard,” Thunder replied.

“Appleloosa isn’t much better. Better to go to New Appleloosa. They’re a little better.”

Comet nodded, already scraping up the remnants of his oatmeal, “Can we go there after New Neighara?”

“Don’t get too excited. We want to make the trip to the falls worth it. We might be there for a few weeks: it’ll depend on if the scavenging will be as good as promised.”

“What if it’s really bad up there?”

“It’s really bad everywhere,” Ivory levitated his bowl to Comet, who’d been eyeing it enviously, “just depends on your perspective.”

Comet stared down at the half-full bowl, then raised an eyebrow at Thunder. Thunder nodded reluctantly, starting to pack up his bedroll.

Ivory put out the fire, and cleaned the pot as best as he could with his magic. Hoofing it over to Thunder, he rolled up his bedroll and attached it to his saddlebags, “Alright. Let’s go. What’s your map say?”

Comet brought up his PipBuck, “Um..says here that we’re supposed to keep to the highway, then turn off an exit. The exit’ll lead us to the city.”

“Get us to the exit, and I’ll know where to go. I haven’t approached from this way before.”

“Thank Celestia, I like your PipBuck, Comet. But I don’t trust your navigational skills.”

“Hey!”

“Not your fault growing up in a Stable robbed you of common sense,” Ivory replied, a small smile blooming. Almost as soon as it appeared, the smile was gone.

Comet sighed, “Fine. Let’s go.”

“Why do you wake them up with that damned light of yours!?” Ivory shouted over the sounds of Thunder’s pistol firing.

“I need to see!” Comet retorted around his gun, doing his best to not drop it or accidentally pull the trigger with his tongue while he talked.

“We can see just fine!” Thunder shouted.

Ivory rushed out of cover, squinting hard in the dim light of the once-convenience store. Firing three times, he took three ghouls out. Two more shots from Thunder killed the last two.

Comet sighed, holstering his gun, “At least we could see them!”

“Yeah until you moved! Either keep the light on ‘em or don’t use it until the area’s cleared!”

“You haven’t argued about it before!”

“Yeah, at night!”

“Enough!” Ivory barked, coughing twice when his voice broke from how high-pitched it had suddenly gotten.

Comet guffawed, and Thunder tried to suppress a chuckle. Ivory rolled his eyes. Sighing, Ivory walked to the bodies of the ghouls, wincing at the smell, “Ugh. I’ll tackle these, you guys go check the register and what’s left of the shelves. If we’re lucky, there’s some food left. Any settlement would pay well for some good quality pre-packaged food, but if we can hold off until Tenpony.”

Thunder nodded, making his way over to the toppled shelves nearby. Comet went to the counter, rifling through the broken registers and the shelving hidden behind the counters.

Ivory didn’t find much on the ghouls: nopony did, really. Rotting cloth didn’t sell. Jewelry did, since precious metals were all the more rare, but the right buyer had to be found first. Ivory found two caps and what looked like a gold bracelet. Not much, but better than nothing.

“Not much left, but there’s lots of pre-war bits!”

“I’ve got some canned stuff; fruit, tomato soup, one can of the Colt-R-D you like so much, Comet.”

“Ooh! We don’t have to sell that, do we?”

“Can’t sell the fruit either, unless somepony is desperate. Label’s been torn off-oh found a stash of InstaMash and noodles.”

“Would it kill ponies to leave behind some more vegetables?” Comet muttered under his breath.

Ivory shot him a look, “After the megaspells fell? Yes.”

Comet’s ears flicked back, “Sorry. It’s just frustrating, it’s all.”

“It’s life,” Ivory replied.

Comet stamped a hoof, “And?! You don’t have to lie down and take everything like it doesn’t matter! We’ve eaten nothing but carbohydrates the last three days! Not even grass! Did grass even survive or are you guys just pulling my leg?! Because I don’t know!”

Ivory stared at Comet blankly, shaking his head slightly, “It’s nowhere near Neighara. Out towards Vanhoover and Ponyville. Too much radiation here-”

“The grass isn’t the point! I don’t know why you don’t care but this is ridiculous! You’ve eaten one complete meal in the last two days, and still you say you’re not hungry! What are you trying to prove?”

“I’m not proving anything.”

“Clearly not!” Comet made an exasperated noise in the back of his throat, “I don’t understand! Why can’t you care! Goddess, you’ve gotten shot and barely noticed! Are you suicidal or something?”

Thunder, who was standing out of Ivory’s line of sight, tried to signal to Comet to stop. Comet was too angry to notice.

“Because you clearly need help! Thunder cares, and so do I, but it’s like you’ve given up on having any kind of happiness at all in your life-”

Ivory chuckled, which then turned into full-on laughter. Comet’s anger fizzled, then died, staring at the other pony in shock. Comet had never heard Ivory laugh before, and this wasn’t how he’d imagined it. It was hoarse and disused, things Comet had anticipated. The laugh was sardonic, and dared any sound after it to be joyful. It was heartbreaking to hear a sound like that leave a pony.

Ivory coughed harshly, still laughing, “Remind me to never bring you to Fillydelphia, kid.”

“Why!?” Over the sound of Comet’s anger, Ivory’s laughter dissipated.

“Fillydelphia would break you.”

“How do you know that?”

“It broke me,” Ivory replied, almost too quietly for Comet to hear. Without saying anything else, Ivory plodded through the door to the dilapidated store.

Thunder sighed, “Some ponies face hard times and come out the other end with a positive outlook. Lots of times, it breaks them. It’s not an excuse, not really; we’ve all seen and done terrible things up here to live. But, it is how he got to be the pony he is now. C’mon kid, before it starts to rain again.”

Comet watched as Thunder wearily followed Ivory’s hoofsteps. Steeling himself, Comet followed after him.