The Vault Dweller: a Fallout Equestria Story

The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 10: Murals and Memories

Stepping into the first house rose a ton of questions, and chief among them was why wasn’t everything destroyed? The house, despite looking surprisingly like a depression era shack, looked no real worse for wear. The wood stove looked fine, the bed was dirty, but not ruined, the windows had glass with enough dirt on them to block out any light. It just looked like an old abandoned house. Rusty moved toward one of the doors, tested it, heard a sniffle. He raised his gun, looked at Cream who did the same, and pushed on the door. It opened to reveal another ghoul, but she wasn’t like the ones that attacked them. She wasn’t mindless, in truth she was closer to Lyra, although even that comparison was a little off.

The youngish mare in the small room looked up at them. She moved closer, her face uncertain, and she pushed past them. They watched as she dug under the bed, and after a moment she went to weeping. Her shoulders convulsed as she sat there, the sound wasn’t the normal sound of someone crying. This sounded wrong. It was broken, almost like glass breaking, and it was turning into a full on wail. She turned toward them, a blackish substance that Rusty could only guess were her tears rolling down her burned face. Patches of her red mane shook as she cried.

“They’re all gone!”

Her cries got worse, and Rusty slowly walked toward her, “I’m sorry.”

She looked at up, “They were my friends… All of them, but Polished Shield started acting funny. He was getting this weird look to him. He started growling at times, and it spread. I… I locked myself in that room, just listening to them out here. It seemed so long ago…”

“Who are you?”

She looked at Cream a soft smile on her face, “Butterscotch Twist. Maybe you heard of my mom? Peppermint Twist?” she grinned, “Mom made these great peppermint candies, we were selling them, and we were traveling to Manehattan. There was a convention… We got caught in the blast. Mom shielded me.”

She whimpered, “I tried to wake her up. I told her that her favorite fillyhood mistake was okay, but she wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t… That’s when I met Polished Shield. We met a few others like us, stuck out here, and we just sort of decided to stick together. I think that Doc Horse suggested that we put together the houses. But they’re all gone, aren’t they?”

Cream neared her, reached out a hoof, and touched her side, “I don’t know. Maybe, but maybe not.”

The ghoul sighed, got up, and both of them could see her cutie mark, what looked like two butterscotch stick candies twisted together. She looked at the ground, “Can I come with you? I don’t want to stay here.”

Rusty nodded, “Sure, I don’t see a reason you can’t at least come with us to another settlement. We’ll make sure that you get a spot on the train, but for now let’s go see if anyone else is still sane.”

They walked out of the shack, and together they walked toward the next one. Inside they saw a skeleton, a Unicorn, and in front of her was a pistol. Rusty took a moment to look at her and realized what happened. He walked toward the dusty bones and saw something beside her. He lifted it only to realize that it was a voice recorder. He looked at it, pressed the play button and listened.

“I was going to be famous. Most ponies hope for it, but I was destined to be famous. Celestia, my features made mares wet, stallions hard, and I knew it. Fleur might have been the fashion symbol, but me, Lacey Treasures, yeah, I was the ultimate sex symbol. Then those striped bastards had to ruin it!” the sound of sobs and a hoof striking the table could be heard, “They stole it from me! I even got an actual acting job! I was going to be the Masked Matterhorn in the Power Ponies movie!”

The sound of hoof steps and deep sighs were the only sounds besides the static for several seconds, “And now something else is happening. Polished Shield started growling, and I know what’s happening. There are several of the former guards that are acting strange. I think that it’s because of that one that was traveling behind them. She’s glowing green, and whatever it is that’s causing it… I can feel it eating away at my mind. I won’t go feral. No, Lacey Treasures is a lady, an actress, and a good pony. So, I’m going to finish this bottle of Apple Brandy, and then I shall take my exit, stage left. If anypony hears this. Know that I chose to keep my self, and know that there’s an extra bottle of Apple Brandy under my bed.”

The Voice recorder simply stopped at that, and Cream walked into the other room. She walked out with a dusty bottle of Apple Brandy.

“Wow, she had good taste.”

Shouting began to erupt from outside and the three of them ran out to see a glowing ghoul. It was howling, rushing toward the workers, and the gryphons were taking shots at it from the air. The ghoul rared back on its hind hooves and let loose another how before a ring of sickly green energy blasted out. Rusty felt it hit him and he nearly fell over as nausea struck him hard. His Pipboy was clicking like crazy and he could see that his radiation levels had rose to dangerous, nearly fatal levels. Steadying himself he activated the Enhancer. Suddenly he felt a rush of energy and power surge through him. He grabbed Widow Maker, leveled it out, and pulled the trigger, expecting to see the same result that had happened before. Instead the blast knocked the ghoul forward, causing its attention to focus on him completely. Suddenly his V.A.T.S. activated, but below it was another strange bar. He tried to ignore it until the bar quit blinking and instead of the bar there was information about the ghoul. He looked on stunned, and amazed to see that his Pipboy had actually picked up details about the ghoul itself.

‘The Glowing One. Over radiated ghoul weak against massive blunt force trauma, explosions, or rapid weapons fire. Existing Network information suggests targeting head.’

With that his V.A.T.S. showed that the head was at eighty-five percent chance of a direct hit. He held his breath, fired again, and the head exploded. When it did the body dropped and it shot out another blast of radiation. Rusty fell to the ground, despite the Enhancer doing its job he felt like he was going to pass out. A moment later he felt hands, no talons opening his mouth and forcing a tablet into it.

“Chew, yes? Want to live, yes?”

He nodded, chewed, and he felt better. Slowly he got up and he could see that they had treated cream as well. Butterscotch looked mostly unaffected, but that was fairly expected. He saw the workers being treated, so was Salty, and Lyra was helping as she could. He walked toward the body of the dead glowing ghoul, and his Pipboy began to click again. He looked at it, and something caught his attention. He reached down and pulled out a small device that looked like it could attach to the side of his Pipboy. He heard a small chirp and looked at the Pipboy itself.

‘Ministry of Morale Pipbuck recollector, for collecting those pesky memories on the go! The Pipbuck recollector is able to view all Black Opal Memory Orbs, and is also compatible with traditional Memory Orbs. If a blank Black Opal, or traditional Memory Orb is present the Recollector can record. Remember, good ponies have nothing to hide!’

He looked at the Pipboy asking if he wished to attach the device, and he selected yes. When he did his Pipboy indicated that he merely had to place the device into the external slot. Looking at the recollector he noticed how it was designed. It looked like it could clip onto the side of the Pipboy. He slid it into place and second later there was just blackness. He felt strange, like he was crawling on all fours. But this was even more strange.

He felt something flowing through him, something he couldn’t explain, and then he watched as a glass tumbler floated in front of his face. His mouth went wide as he realized that this wasn’t his body. He was inside of someone else. The pony he was inside of felt irritation at being where she was. She looked toward a pink Earth Pony that had strands of gray in her mane and tail. The Earth Pony mare smiled as she neared the pony in question.

“Ms Quill, how ya doing?”

The Unicorn mare he was inside of sighed, “Ms Pie, I’m not a Zebra sympathizer. You’ve personally checked my history a hundred times. So, why am I here today? Hmm? Some new evidence that doesn’t exist? Maybe your kept stallion heard that I’m peddling Dash, Hydra, or I know, maybe he said that I’m turning down his invitations to another stupid party. I’m a busy mare, you know one that is working toward the betterment of Equestria with the Ministry of Wartime Technology? A Ministry that’s actually doing something to keep our soldiers safe.”

Rusty saw Ms Pie’s eyes narrow, and her smile broadened, and while he had seen some twisted and frightening ponies he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a smile that said you just fucked up bitch quite like this before. She leaned across the table, resting her forehooves on what felt like cool wood.

“Actually, I was just going to ask you how you were doing, since you’re always such a sour puss, but you know I got a much better idea.”

He felt fear creeping into the mare he was inside of. He watched as the pink mare disappeared, just disappeared, and then reappeared behind her. He felt the solid kick that sent her flying forward into the tall. She slowly stood, fear racing through her.

“You… You can’t do this!”

Something slipped onto her horn, something that cut the feeling of whatever was flowing through her, and Rusty felt the fear turn into full out terror.

“Course I can! I couldn’t prove what you were doing before, but now…”

Rusty felt the jacket the mare was wearing being ripped of, and there on her foreleg was her Pipbuck. Attached to it was the Pipbuck recollector. The Mare was trying to back up, “Please… They’ve got my brother, I had to do this! Please!”

The pink mare smiled sadly, “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure that he’s safe, but… We’ve got see everything that you’ve done,” she then blinked and grinned, “Oh Rusty, I know that you’re a watching. Thanks for helping my Cheese!”

Everything came screaming back to life and he sat up not sure what happened.

“Sweet Luna’s teats, I was afraid that you were trapped!”

He looked at Cream, “What happened?”

She pointed to the device on his Pipboy and specifically the black glossy opal in it.

“That’s a Memory Orb, sometimes they’re trapped. I was afraid that you were stuck in there. I’m glad that you weren’t,” she hugged him, “What did you see?”

He sighed, “The Pink Mare we saw plastered on the posters back at that Entertainment Plaza. She was questioning someone. The mare she was questioning had done something, she had been stealing information and giving it to someone.”