The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 1: Las Pegasus, not Las Vegas

“Special, you're special, you've been selected to partake in an experiment that could potentially save humanity. our destructive nature has caused some horrific situations.

We've fought with each other over some of the more foolish things, but you, you dear *Gender Specification is Male* boy were brought here well before the bombs dropped. You are from a much simpler time, and perhaps that is what we need.

Inside of this place, this Vault, is safe, but outside, outside is a hellish world waiting for you to fix it. Go oh special child, go and claim your destiny.”

The automated voice sounded sincere enough. Slowly, the man opened his eyes to see something far different than a hospital bed. Instead he was inside of some kind of pod that had just opened. Looking to his left, and then right, he noticed others, possibly hundreds of other pods each with someone inside of them. He slowly sat up, and his head began to spin as he tried to make sense of what was going on.

“Dizziness is to be expected, please, take a few moments to adjust to being out of cryogenic sleep, and then proceed to the maintenance bay.”

The voice was obviously a recording he knew that, but it seemed to know what to say, when to say, and it was a little troublesome. He felt the cool floor, practically covered with frost, and instantly he wanted back up off of it, but the pod itself had shut closed. Shivering he moved toward the door, found a blinking green light, pressed it, and the door opened. What he saw next was a long roll of sealed lockers. Each one looked as though they had been hermetically sealed. He saw one with his name, touched it, and when he did a glowing handprint formed over the place where the lock would be.

He placed his hand there, and a moment later it unlatched, and he could hear the sound of air rushing inside. He opened it to reveal a blue and yellow suit of clothes, a pair of black boots, socks, underwear, and a small clipboard. He lifted the clipboard up to see that there was a map of the place he was in, and it had a route that directed him to the maintenance bay. Deciding there was no point staying cold he got dressed, looked at the map, and began following it. On the wall he saw a picture of a blond haired figure, similar to Big Boy from Big Boy Burgers, standing with his thumb sticking up, a smile on his face. It seemed that the figure was damned near everywhere.

The suit of clothes fit him like a second skin. It was oddly similar to the Vault Boy character he'd seen a few times already inside of the vault itself.

"What the fuck is Vault-Tech? Jesus, I just had a car wreck, my family..."

He stopped. Memories of the accident, of the hospital ride, and then barely waking up enough to hear his wife tell him goodbye. Maybe they were still out there, and maybe this was some kind of over the top prank, but more and more he had the feeling that it wasn't.

The sound of servos running the in the distance got his attention and he saw a floating robotic drone with several arms.

"Ah, good morning sir. I am Donald, your Vault-Tech assigned robotic maintenance worker. I see you've already found the Vault-Tech clothes assigned to you," the robotic droid floated toward him, "however you don't appear to have your Pip Boy. Don't worry sir, we shall fix that problem. Follow me!"

Unsure of what else to do, and certainly uncertain of what was going on he followed the robotic droid toward a small room where there was dozens upon dozens of small individually wrapped boxes.

"Ah, now to get you a functioning and operational Pip Boy 3000. Being the first awake we'll start with the best functioning one... Hmmm.. It seems all of the later model Pip Boy's are non functioning, I shall have to contact Vault Tech's customer service about that. Ah, here we go."

The robotic droid lifted a device that looked like it went on the forearm. It easily latched at the wrist, around the forearm, and it felt comfortable. Suddenly several small pricks could be felt from inside of it, and then all of that stopped.

The device sprang to life showing that he was in perfect health, non-irradiated, and then it went on to give his current heart rate, O2 levels, and so on. He flipped through the screens seeing how the device actually knew what he was wearing, that he was unarmed, and finally he stopped what he was doing.

"There we go, a functioning Pip Boy 3000A. An older model, but apparently the only ones working. Dear me... I will have to put in a request for more. Oh well, never mind. Sir, now that I've helped you I must go back to maintenance until I am needed again. Thank you."

With that it floated off, and he was alone. He walked away from the area, seeing a perfectly clean, and spotless environment. He activated his Pip Boy once more, and looked for the date. When he finally found it he nearly fell over. According to this, two hundred and sixty years had passed.

He'd been in the hospital in 2017, and this was saying that it was now 2277. His wife, Sarah, their unborn daughter, everything was gone. Looking at the device he noticed two radio stations. He tuned into the first one, getting old time swing and jazz from the Vault Tech automated radio, but then he found a fainter one. He tuned in and listened for a moment.

"Gentle Mares and Gentle Stallions, this is DJPon3, voice of the Wasteland, coming to you via the last great open spaces left. Now, I know there are many of you asking what's happening with the releasing of the Stable Dweller. Unfortunately there's not much news on that front. I can say that her friends are currently trying to think of a way to get her out, but keep the control of the weather system going. It looks like some long days ahead, but in the meantime, Here's an old Favorite of mine from Sweetie Belle, Hush Now, Quiet Now."

Twenty-four hours later he found himself in the cafeteria, holding a box of twinkies. All of the jokes, every last jab about Twinkies apparently was true. There was no expiration date for them. Thirteen packages beside him were the proof that they were still eatable, and that they still were the spongy little balls of cream that would make a person feel better, and worse, all at the same time.

He wondered if this was it. Was this really what he was meant to do for the rest of his life. Live inside of this sealed tomb, with people that weren't awake yet. There was Donald, but the droid wasn't programmed to have prolonged, and overly complex, dialogue with anyone. It seemed that the droid was simply designed to keep the Vault working, lead the awakened individuals to get their Pip Boys, and instruct them where everything was inside of the vault.

Then there was the radio signal. It came in, talking about the exploits above them. Hell, it wasn't like he wasn't used to violence. He grew up in a Trailer Park, he escaped and made something of himself, and then... Then the car wreck. He shook it off, he couldn't get to thinking about Sarah right now. She was gone, dead, dead for over two hundred years at this point.

It'd be worth seeing what was outside. He walked back down to Donald, deciding to give the droid instructions to close the door, and only reopen when he came back.

The computer room was expansive, Rolls and rolls of servers connected to dozens of terminals, and all of them linked to a huge mainframe that seemed to control all of it. Nearing it his Pip Boy began to get active, and soon he saw the main console spring to life.

It read out several sentences until finally it displayed an area for putting in a password. He saw the mess of code below it, and his Pip Boy was currently decoding it as best it could. He made the attempt, failed, and tried again,. After three tries he put in Vault-Boy(tm), and a panel opened. He, and Donald, followed the secret tunnel until it reached the end, and he could see the entrance of the Vault. The huge steel, gear shaped, door stood closed.

"Sir, I'll active, and close the door as you instructed. I await your return."

Nodding he walked toward the exit, watched as the huge arm fit into the Vault Door, and soon it slid open. He stepped out from it, and looked at the long tunnel ahead of him.

There was dozens upon Dozens of animal skeletons, mostly horses, or small ponies, and their heads were oddly shaped. He stepped toward the very end and that's where he saw it.

The door looked to be something like a street elevator door, the kind that someone would use to load kegs and spirits into the basement of a bar. He grinned as the thought of Shaun of the Dead crossed his mind. He found a control, felt a bit odd that the buttons were oversized, but pushed the one with an arrow pointing up. The creaking sound of the elevator indicated that it was still working, and soon the door opened onto an empty street.

Although empty would be wrong. This was the Vegas Strip. He'd climbed out of poverty here. First starting as security, and then moving up to being a team leader for Vegas Security for Circus Circus. Above him was the name 'Silver Cloud'.

He'd never heard of that one, but feeling that it would be better to start somewhere he stepped inside.

The smell of dust, mold, and old burnt plastic filled the floor of the casino. He coughed a little, but decided to keep walking. His eyes traveled toward a painting, and he shook his head as he looked at it. Some kind of Pony creature, with wings and a horn, that was pink, was lying back, her legs open, obviously giving a perfect view of her crotch. Even with the dim light he could tell that the picture had been touched up, quite a bit, by folks with nothing better to do.

He shook his head, looked around, saw tables for blackjack, poker, roulette, and the all too famous one armed bandits. He moved toward one of them, looked to see a single golden coin on the floor, figuring that it must have been the tokens for the casino, and he put it into a slot machine before pulling the handle.

To his surprise the machine, which had to be at least two centuries old, worked, and it spun a few times before stopping and showing that he had hit a minor jackpot.

Out into the tray spilled about five hundred of those golden coins. He saw an old looking canvas bag, which apparently was designed to look like a saddle bag, and opened it.

He put the coins into it, lifted it over a shoulder, and started walking again.

"I tells ya, I dun't wanna be in here."

"Shutup! Look, there ain't nopony in here to mess with us, and 'sides, what are you 'fraid of?"

"The... the stable dweller."

The sound of the facepalm could be heard, and he hid behind the corner.

"The Stable Dweller? Seriously? She's controlling the weather. Why would she waste her time here? Luna's sweet snatch you're as thick as they come. Why the hell did Cinnamon Twist want you to come with me anyway?"

"Ah, Cream, dun't be like that."

Again, the facepalm had to be epic as he heard it bounce off of the walls.

"Don't call me that!"

"Wat? Dun't call you Cream Pie? That's yer name right?"

He couldn't help it. For one, the 'smarter' sounding of the two was obviously a woman, and her name was Cream Pie. He felt the snickering build up a laugh, and it escaped.

"Horse Apples! Somepony's here!"

Unsure of what to do he moved deeper into the dark, and waited. That's when he saw them. Two 'pony' shaped beings, his eyes widened, this had to be wrong.

"Cream wat was that?"

"Salty, if I knew what it was, I'd tell you!"

The 'girl' or 'mare' had a horn, and it slowly lit up around her. He could see a soft gray coat, white mane, and an angry expression.

"How come you wanted to come out here? I thought you liked that farm."

She huffed, "I do like my rock farm. I was born there, my mom was born there, all of the way back to my ancestor Limestone Pie was born there, but right now I'm looking for whatever made that noise!"

"Sorry..."

"Salty, just go look somewhere else."

She groaned, moving further in, and then the sound of something moving again caught her attention. from under her armor a weird shaped handgun appeared. She aimed it, uncertain of where to aim it at, and then something moved that surprised her.

He didn't expect to see something like a huge scorpion, and he certainly didn't expect to see it launch itself at the pony. He cursed himself, unsure if this was a good idea or not, and grabbed the closest thing to him, which happened to be an old pony shaped mannequin, and began swinging away at the creature. It made a screeching noise, turned toward him and he hit it again, hard, several times, while screaming.

All that would hear this story later on would hear two versions. The valiant stable/vault dweller that came to the aid of an unknown mare, and the other would be of the stable/vault dweller that screamed like a filly as he smashed a bug with a mannequin over and over again.

Moments after the death of the giant scorpion the two looked at each other. The other's green eyes looked surprised, a little uncertain, and slowly the gun moved.

"Are you some kind of mutated Minotaur or something... You're a Stable Dweller?!"

"A what now?"

She looked at him in a mixture of fear and surprise.

"Oh Rut me, Rut me with a twelve inch rubber dick! No, wait don't!"

He looked confused, "Aren't you human?"

The word caught her attention. Slowly she neared him. She'd heard stories, about the Crystal Empire, the mirror, the world on the otherside. Could he be one of those things? But if that was the case, why didn't he look like a pony?

"No, I'm a pony, an unicorn, and you're deep in Las Pegasus pal. Don't you realize this is slaver territory? Salty, Cinnamon, and myself recently escaped from them. I mean sure, we had been raiders, but we just want out of here."

He wasn’t sure what would be the best course of action. She was talking about an entire civilization he had no clues about, slavery, raiders, and all of it was starting to get to be a bit much. He could go right back downstairs, to the Vault, go back inside, and pretend this wasn’t happening. Yep, go right back inside… With Donald for company, until the others woke up, if they ever work up.

That said there wasn’t too much of a choice. He’d go insane down there by himself, but what about them? Maybe…

“Cream ya ain’t gonna believes this! There’s a stable down in the basement! It’s huge! It’s… What in a Bat Pony rutting Celestia’s sweet succulent tail hole is that?!”

“Salty, calm down, it, err, sorry, he saved me from a radscorpion.”

Salty, he noted, was a pegasus with one wing. The gash on his back made it look like it hadn’t been carefully removed, but rather something tore it off of him.

“What in Celestia’s reamed out tailhole are you?”

“He’s a human.”

Salty looked at her, “Like the Crystal Empire thing-a-majig?”

She nodded, and hearing the mention of the Crystal Empire, in connections with indications ‘Salty’ made caused him to wonder if there was more humans there. At least if there was he could find out what was going on. Did humanity mutate into ponies, or did ponies somehow gain the ability to reason and act with logic? Hell, when did unicorns and pegasi exist?!

“Do you know if there are more… people like me in this Crystal Empire?”

Cream looked again him again. He noticed that there wasn’t a thing on her that even resembled cream. Her white hair, or mane rather, maybe could be considered cream gravy colored, but that wasn’t quite right either. It was almost too pure of a white, and her fur was more along the lines of looking like a piece of granite. She cleared her throat and shook her head.

“I doubt it. Look, I don’t know much about the place. What I do know is that there’s some kind of mirror there, and that mirror connects to another world. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that it works right, because the ponies, or people, or whatever you call them over there refer to Twilight Sparkle, the mare over the Ministry of Science, as a princess,” she laughed, “Twilight Sparkle wasn’t anything other than an overworked unicorn.”

The sound of a door opening got their attention, and the three of them took to the darken hall.

“We know you’re in here! Just know, when I find ya, I’ve got a few special treats for ya in mind! Maybe being thrown to a manticore in heat will be the start of it!”

“Cream, what do we do?”

She turned to look at the Vault dweller, “Can you get us in down there?”

He looked at her, “Yeah, I should be able to… why?”

She breathed out, looking defeated, “Because being in a deathtrap Stable is better than whatever those cockwhistles have in mind for us.”

“I got out through the street elevator.”

A quick look in that direction told all three of them that wasn’t an option. There was two large ponies over there, on of which seemed to be holding a pistol in its mouth.

“Salty, you said you saw it in the basement?”

He nodded, “Uh huh.”

She looked at him and nodded, “Lead us there.”

They inched forward, only to stop when a short mare dressed in armor made from old rubber bumpers off of the ends of the tables jumped up on the table behind them.

“Awww, come out. I’ll totally make it worth your while to. I promise, I won’t let those big bad Earth Ponies throw you to the manticores. Nope, I’m going to get a nice, long, thick strapon and do it myself.”

He looked around, touched his Pip Boy, and when he did there was a sound that caused the mare above them to scream and fall down like something was stabbing her in the head. He looked to see Cream not doing any better and turned it off.

“They’re over here idiots!” the mare screamed.

Not sure of what else to do, he grabbed the mare, lifted her up, and held her in front of him. Epinephrine flowed through his veins, her weight, which he figured had to be fairly heavy, wasn’t anything at the moment, and the two big stallions stopped where they were.

“Move and I’ll snap her neck.”

One of the stallions grinned, stepping forward, and laughed.

“Go ahead, we’ll just take that mare you got. No big loss.”

The mare went still in his arms. Then she began to violently wiggle.

“YOU COCKSUCKING, ARSEBUCKING, COUSINRAPING INBRED TAILHOLE EXPLORERS WOULD LET THIS BUCKING THING KILL ME?! OH, BOTH OF YOU CAN SUCK MY TAILHOLE!”

In truth he wasn’t sure that he could even do it. Hurting another being didn’t seem high on his priorities, especially since he was just getting a lay of the land. He looked at the mare, then at Cream, and finally Rusty. With few options he dropped the mare, grabbed ahold of the gun that Cream had put back in its holster, and took aim. He felt something, something odd, and then he sensed it again. His Pip Boy activated and suddenly the two stallions ahead of him slowed down.

He could see the percentage of hitting them, where the most accurate shots could be, and he aimed at their heads. Pulling on the strange trigger, which seemed to work like a handle grip for a weed-eater, or maybe a strange switch for a lamp, he unleashed the bullets toward their targets. The first shot caught the first stallion in the head, under the right eye, and exploded out the back of his head painting the slot machine behind him with his gray matter. The second shot caught the stallion behind him in the throat, tearing out his windpipe, causing him to fall to the ground gasping and gurgling for air.

He turned toward the mare that was looking at him in absolute horror.

“To Tartarus with this!”

She ran back toward the stage, behind it, and was soon gone. Breathing out, he tried to figure out what happened exactly. Looking at his Pip Boy he saw that it was still activated. Currently it was on something called V.A.T.S.or Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System. He moved toward the notes on it, quickly, and watched as it came up.

“Welcome to Vault-Tech! Mr. and Mrs America are counting on you to reclaim our once great land, and of course to help repopulate it. This is your Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S. The V.A.T.S. gives any user of a Pip Boy the advantage of finding their target’s most vulnerable spots, and of course giving you most likely chance of making a direct hit. Your V.A.T.S. has been set to automatic, and it will activate when you are prepared to battle with your targets. Know that the V.A.T.S. system works with all manner of weapons including yourself.”

He sighed, so he was fine, and apparently the Pip Boy was giving him near super human abilities when it came to targeting and fighting enemies. But then again who really were enemies? He looked at the two beside him, both seemed a little bewildered, and Cream was the first to talk. A faint green glow covered the pistol, and she took it back.

“Never touch anything of mine without permission first! But.. Thanks for saving us there.”

The three of them moved toward the basement, and on the way down he got to see cockroaches the size of poodles, which Cream was calling them Radroaches. Once there he activated the panel on the outside.

“Donald, open up.”

“Of course sir.”

The door slowly opened and Cream looked at the floating droid. Both she and Salty entered and then once they were inside the vault sealed again.

“Welcome back sir. I’m afraid that I must attend to my duties again, but if you need my assistance I will be in the maintenance bay.”

With that Donald floated off, and Salty let out a whistle.

“Damn, ain’t never seen a place so clean and purty.”

“Let’s find this Stable’s armory and go from there.” Cream said.

Realizing that maybe getting a gun would have been a good thing, he nodded. Looked like he was going to be talking to Donald again soon enough.

Author's Note

(Big huge thanks for L0rdof7hund3r for giving this the once over, and another huge thanks to MoltenXKid for looking over it as well. Also, to both of them for letting me spitball the idea for a bit. So, a Fallout Equestria story, featuring a human... Should be fun.)