The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 2: Traveling Song

Donald had once again proved his usefulness as he showed the three of them where the armory was located. Once Donald inputted the maintenance override the door opened with an audible hiss, and there before them was a collection of weapons. Walking forward he saw handguns that looked a bit more comfortable to use. He looked at the weapons and realized that while there was a ton of weapons, there didn’t seem to be much ammo.

“Donald, where’s the ammunition?”

“Sir, I’m afraid that the parameters of this Vault’s experiment was to keep live ammunition to a minimum.”

He let out a groan of annoyance. So, they believed it was a good idea to keep people from being able to protect themselves. Maybe it was so that they didn’t kill each other, but he had a feeling that it was possibly more sadistic than that. Looking around he found twenty rounds for a single ten millimeter pistol. Deciding that it was better than nothing he found a holster for it, strapped it on, and put the gun into it.

“Donald, would our personal items from before we were placed in the Vault be in those lockers?”

The droid turned to face him, “No, actually they would be in the Vault repository. If you will follow me please.”

Following the droid they went past the room where he woke up, the lockers, and finally found a large room. Once more Donald put in his code, and when it opened there was a wall of small safety-deposit boxes. He walked toward the hand-print reader, pressed his palm against it, and a single box, on the opposite end of the wall, opened. He walked toward it and opened it to reveal a MP3 player, a gift from Sarah, a pair of earbuds, and he picked it up.

Suddenly his Pip Boy began to beep at him. He looked at it and noticed that it had detected his MP3 Player, even though it was dead as a doornail. He looked around the Pip Boy and found a place for a USB plug. Slipping the MP3 Player into it the Pip Boy then asked if he wanted to move six gigabytes of sound files into the reserve memory. Doing so would leave him two hundred fifty-two terabytes, ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-four gigabytes of open storage. Unsure if he would ever even find a “AA” battery to operate his MP3 player he selected yes, and a single beep less than a second later informed him that the move was complete.

“Donald, I’m going to put this back into my box. Then I’m going to go back out again. Is anyone else closer to waking up?”

The Droid floated for a moment, almost seemingly unsure of how to answer before it faced him, “Sir, I’ve noticed a familiar spike in three of other other pods. The same thing happened to your pod before you were awakened.”

“Great, how long until they wake up?”

The droid seemed to stop and consider for a moment, “It was eight months, two days, and sixteen hours between those spikes and your awakening.”

“Better question, Donald: when did you record those spikes?”

Again the droid seemed to stop, consider an answer, and although there was no way for it to show emotion he was wondering if the droid was getting irritated that he kept asking it questions it had to stop and consider.

“The spikes were recorded forty-eight hours ago. Which, if the time between spikes and the awakening remain constant they will awaken in eight months and sixteen hours. Is there anything else that I can help you with sir?”

I shook my head no, “No, but thank you Donald.”

“You’re very welcomed sir, again, if you need me I will be in the maintenance bay.”

With that the droid floated out of the room, down the hall, and back toward the maintenance bay. He had eight months until three more people woke up. He’d been to the outside, and while it was certainly dangerous, to some degree, he wouldn’t go insane from waiting. He felt the bag, which turned out to be saddlebags, on his shoulder. There was still all of those gold coins, which Cream had said was prewar money called bits.

She insisted that they keep it for trade, or use it for any Sparkle Soda Machines. He was a little confused, and she explained that trade was done in bottlecaps. Trading bottlecaps seemed silly as hell, but if that was what passed for money, then so be it. Salty offered to carry the saddlebags, which had a weird marking on the side of it.

“What does that mean?” he asked as he pointed to the bag.

Cream looked at it, and then looked back him like he had grown a third head, “You don’t know what a cutie mark is?”

He shook his head. She sighed, turned around, and showed him her own mark. It was a pie, cream pie of some kind, balancing on a rock. She looked back up at him, which almost looked like she was about to explain something to a child and shook her head, “Everypony gets a cutie mark. It’s what tells them what they’re best at doing, sort of like a guideline for the destiny. I’m good at making pies or working on a rock farm. Salty over there got his cutie mark burned off, and took the cutie mark of Rainbow Dash. I guess that he’s saying he’s a Dashite or something. It’d make some sense. Although he isn’t an element of loyalty like Calamity.”

“Hey! Imma a great friend. I ain’t left you behind ‘xept twice, and that’s cause I thought you was a running ahead of me!”

He felt the weight of the pistol, and the two clips for it.

“Think that we might get some more ammo out there?” he asked.

Cream Pie rubbed her jaw for a moment, “Actually, if we can make it out of Las Pegasus we could hit up an Enclave trading post. Although with the exception of Salty, and a few other Pegasi I know, I don’t exactly trust them. Plus, they’re usually higher than everypony else. But, they’re the only ones that I’ve seen that carries guns that look kind of like that one.”

Salty looked around in the Vault for a moment, “Ya know, we might could get some good trade stuff from down here. I dun’t wanna leave nothin’ for those ponies that’s gonna wake up, but we could get some stuff to trade up there.”

“What about Twinkies?”

They looked at him, and he grinned. Leading them to the cafeteria he pulled out a box of Twinkies, opened a package, and then opened a package. He looked at them both and laid the yellow sponge cake, filled with its delicious cream, in front of Cream Pie. She floated it up to eye level, took a bite, and then instantly crammed the rest of it into her mouth. Her eyes widened, a smile crossed her muzzle, and she floated another three out of the package, opened them with her magic, and proceeded to cram the things down as fast as she could.

Seeing that Cream Pie was enjoying the little yellow cakes Salty took one, ate it, his eyes widened, and his entire muzzle went into the cardboard box digging more of them out. Since they obviously loved the little sponge cakes it made sense to take a few boxes for trade. He looked back in, seeing that over a third of the kitchen for the cafeteria had actually been stocked with nothing but Twinkies.

Unfortunately the boxes themselves were a little large, and he could only fit about two boxes of them into each saddlebag, which meant that Cream Pie could carry four, and his unused saddlebag could carry two, so they were taking six along with them. It’d be better than nothing, and with any luck it’d be all they need. He started to leave when he saw something else. He’d completely missed them before, but there was a few cases of Nuka-Cola. He remembered how they used to drink and he grabbed one a piece of himself, and both Salty and Cream.

He walked out, they loaded the Twinkies, although Cream insisted that they loot another box just for them, for supplies, in case they got hungry. With that decision made he handed them the bottle a piece and both of them looked at him, then at the drink, and then at him again. It was Cream that finally put words to what she was thinking.

“How many of these are there?”

He looked at her, “Several, but I think that leaving them here would be best. That way we could return and get some more if we need them. Besides, there’s going to be more people waking up before long.”

She seemed to grumble about that, the idea of leaving it behind, but since they couldn’t carry it, yet, she agreed. Once more he found Donald, informed him that they were heading out again, to please lock the Vault Door, and open it back up when he returned. Donald agreed, and once they were out the Vault Door slid into place.

Walking toward where he had went before the three them arrived at the street elevator. Two button pushes later it lowered back down, they got on it, and it raised back up to the street. There before them was a less dark burned out city. What he’d seen before had been marred by darkness, but now he could see the full effect. Dozens of casinos had been ruined by a blast, pieces of them were completely open to the elements.

It was a different circumstance, but it reminded him of pictures he’d seen of buildings in Europe from World War II. That war torn region left from the attack by the Nazis after the Blitzkrieg wasn’t so different from the destruction done here, if anything those images from World War II looked more tame in the amount of destruction. Even the casino he’d entered last night looked terrible. In a way he was surprised that the doors even opened. His companions seemed interested with hanging around with him to at least the Enclave trading post.

Figuring that they could use some kind of music, and flipping on his Pip Boy only to pick up the similar music he heard earlier, he decided to go through his collection of music from the MP3 player. Not sure what he wanted to listen to he just selected one at random, and waited for the sounds to escape the wrist worn device.

Cream’s ears perked at the sound of this unheard song. The music was a comfort as they walked, and by the second chorus Cream Pie was singing along with it. As they walked he’d hear a soft beep, and he looked down to see small red dots, usually grouped together, near places. He took a look, and noticed that his Pip Boy had actually taken down the location of where they were, and actually took the name it was known as.

“I think there’s some trouble this way,” he said.

Cream Pie listened, and her eyes widened.

“Slavers, quick down an alley!”

The three of them moved down the alley and hid behind a dumpster. The sound of hooves on broken pavement echoed around them.

“I don’t see them!”

The male voice was enough to tell him that it was a stallion and not a mare.

“Lemon said that thing took out Crusty and Smooth. I think she said it was dressed like the Stable Dweller.”

“Woah, woah, woah, nopony said a motherplucking thing about the stable dweller!”

“For somepony that used to be part of the Enclave you’re pretty jumpy about that mare.”

He listened as the two talked. He wasn’t sure how close he could sneak to them, but if he could get close enough he could get a good look at how many there was. Slowly, silently, and carefully he began sneaking out, inching his way toward the mouth of the alley. When he looked out he saw two stallions, one of them a Pegasus, and the other an Unicorn. The unicorn was wearing an eye patch over his right eye. He could see a long thin scar that started just above the patch in his tan coat and then went a few inches under it.

The Pegasus didn’t look half as haggard as the Unicorn did. For the most part he looked well fed, his blond mane was cut short, almost a military style buzz cut, and his robin’s egg shell blue coat looked well cared for. The armor he wore looked of a better quality. Enough that he was certain his ten millimeter pistol wasn’t going to do much unless he got a head shot.

He heard a female voice, one that he heard before and he saw the same mare from before.

“Surprise, Astral, what are the two of you doing arguing?”

The Pegasus ruffled up, his wings fluttering in place, “He said that the stable dweller is here!”

She facehooved, “No, not that stable dweller Surprise. That stable dweller has caused the sky to open up, remember the broadcasts?! No, he’s dressed like her, and he can shoot like her.”

“That’s not helping! She took out six warships! Six of them! I’m…”

He didn’t even get to move before she slapped him hard across the jaw knocking him to the ground.

From where he was he could see the other stallion, the Unicorn, moving away from the mare. Apparently the mare, which he could tell now was an unicorn with a cut off horn, was tired of his whining.

“Listen up Surprise Storm, you’re going to stallion up, or I’m going to doll you up and make you into one of our street walkers outside of Las Pegasus! Do you understand me?! That… Thing, whatever he is, can still be shot, killed, but I don’t want that!” she growled as she backed up, “I want him caught so I can learn about where he came from, see if there’s anything else he might have of value.”

And letting her go seemed to be an incredibly stupid idea. He looked at them, raised his pistol and suddenly the V.A.T.S. came online. He had a fifteen percent chance of hitting the pegasus’ head, not good enough, only a five percent chance of hitting her neck, and he couldn’t even get a percentage on the other stallion. With the percentages that bad he knew when to cut losses.

The major problem was since they had a pegasus, if not more, that could fly then hiding for any length of time was going to be an issue. There was the idea of going into the sewers, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was down there. If there was scorpions the size of great danes who knew what rats looked like, and he remembered from an experience growing up just how vicious a sewer rat could be. Nope facing a sewer rat that was as big as a large dog was not on his todo list today.

Instead he moved, silently, back toward Cream and Salty.

“Any suggestions on how we cut through this?”

Cream Pie looked down the alley, and like him she knew they were there. She then looked on either side of the alleyway, and for once the fates seemed to have smiled by leaving a door available to them. He saw what she was looking at and took a closer look. The lock was a little different, but pretty close to the old locks from back home. He checked the dumpsters, being quiet, and found a screwdriver and a small box with about four bobby pins in it.

It wasn’t the best equipment for picking a lock, but he knew that beggars couldn’t be choosers. He started and right off a bobby pin broke. Crusing to himself he got the broken piece out, started again, and slowly made progress until the lock clicked. He grabbed the handle, which was in the middle of the door weirdly enough, and pushed it open after turning it. Once inside he closed the door and relaxed. He heard a beep and looked at his Pip Boy.

He saw the screen indicating that he was in near total darkness, and it wanted to know if he would like to use his Pip Boy as a flashlight. He followed the directions, and soon a semi bright light flooded the area. It didn’t go far, but it was enough to cast some light around him, and he almost wished that he hadn’t.

Being around Cream and Salty had shown him that he was in a land of ponies being able to talk. He was still wrapping his head around that, but in someway he had come to believe that they were mutated humans. Somehow developed to endure and survive. It didn’t explain the horse puns, but it was enough to keep him sane. Still around him he saw evidence of cruelty that made him sick. There was cages, six of them, and all of them had ponies like Cream and Salty. He looked at them, seeing them breath, seeing them look sad, and his heart went out to them. Slowly he moved toward them, and one turned toward him.

Her mane had once been green and white, she was obviously an unicorn, her golden eyes still seemed bright, and her face was like the rest of her body, and it was covered in patch mint green fur. Her eyes lit up and even confined she began to dance in place. Her voice, which sounded surprisingly sweet for what appeared to be an animated corpse, sounded truly excited.

“A HUMAN! I KNEW IT! A HUMAN!”

Her horn started to light up but then something on it caused it to fizzle out and the shock sent her straight to her haunches.

“Ow! Stupid magic nullifier!” she looked at him again in pure excitement, “Wow! A human! I told everypony that you existed! I knew it! I just knew it!”

Cream marched up closer to her, “Be quiet you twit!”

The once completely mint green unicorn stuck her tongue out at her and gave Cream Pie a raspberry.

He checked the locks, they didn’t look difficult, but being that he had a whopping two bobby pins left he didn’t even try to unlock the cages. Instead he believed that there had to be a key. From the look of it they were in some kind of storage room, and if this was like the casinos back home that meant that on the other side of the wall would be offices, security rooms, and of course a key room. It’d be a long shot, but maybe, just maybe whoever had put these ponies here would still be using the key room as the key room.

“Shh, I’m going to look for a key, and get all of you out,” he whispered.

The trapped strange looking unicorn nodded.

With that he moved toward the wall, walked, and finally found the door into the casino’s office areas. He slowly opened it and heard crying.

“Please stop…” the female voice said.

“Big bad purple Alicorn, and you’re afraid of an Earth Pony mare…” the other voice said.

He moved down to where the sound was coming from and there was a larger pony thing. It had some kind of binders on the back, something that he supposed could have been used to keep wings trapped, and on its head, on its horn was another ring like the one on the weird looking Unicorn.

The room wasn’t the key room, at least not according to most of the layouts he’d seen, so it wasn’t like he needed in that room. He tried to move past that room, to forget it, but the sounds of that poor creature got to him. He slowly opened the door, and when he did the hinges decided to announce to the world that he was opening it. The Earth Pony mare turned toward him. Her eyes narrowed in a vicious scowl, she reached down with her mouth and grabbed a gun similar to the one that Cream had, and before she got it up he raised his pistol.

His V.A.T.S. came on in an instant and he saw a ninety-nine percent chance of hitting that mare in the right eye. He pulled the trigger, and a moment later the slaver lay dead. He moved toward her, and then looked at the frightened larger pony. She had this weird fading in and out cutie mark of a large violet star surrounded by five other smaller stars. He hoped that he wasn’t making a mistake, and removed the ring from its horn.

The larger pony looked at him in confusion, but then it looked at the binders and focused on them. A moment later they ripped off and fell to the floor. A happy nicker came from her as she danced in place. She looked at him again, the cutie mark brighter and completely in sight. She looked curious more than anything as she neared him.

“It’s okay girl, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as he neared her.

The idea that this was an intelligent being, easily capable of complex thought, and certainly as intelligent as himself had disappeared. Instead what he had seen was a frightened animal. An annoyed expression crossed the larger pegacorn’s face as she looked at him.

“I can kind of tell that you’re not going to hurt me. You let me go.”

He stepped back seeming a little confused and gave a sheepish grin, “Sorry.”

She sighed and shook her head, “It’s fine. Thank you, and… just what are you?”

He groaned, “This question again. I’m a human…”

He didn’t know where the sheets of scroll paper, or the quill and ink well came from, but she was scribbling down notes. He watched as she finished, walked toward him, and cocked her head to the side.

“Hmmmm, human, bipedal male, similar to a minotaur, but missing the muscle mass, hooves, horns, bull features. This is very interesting…”

He shook his head, looked at the dead slaver and decided to check her. If nothing else he’d have an extra weapon and some ammunition for it. The gun was certainly similar to the one that Cream had, but he could deal with that. He took it, her holster, found about fifteen rounds on her, and then he saw it, a key ring. He lifted it off of her, noticing that there was only a couple of keys, and guessing that they had to be for the cages. He looked back at the purple pegacorn and cleared his throat.

“There are some others trapped back in a room I came from, I’m going to let them out. You’re welcome to come with me, or go on your way, whatever works for you.”

She stopped scribbling long enough to rub her chin with the quill, getting a small black mark on her fur.

“I’ll come with you. This is a chance to study a brand new species!”

“Great…” he said as he walked out with her following.

“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself, I… Well once I was a Unicorn named Twilight Sparkle, and I was some others too, but I’m mainly Twilight, so I’m going to go by Twilight. What’s your….oh my…”

He knew she saw the cages, and he went around unlocking them. Some of the ponies trapped inside stumbled out, others simply looked up, unable to move, so wore down and broken they had given up all hope. Without being asked she began floating those out of their cages, and then he unlocked the last one.

The blur of green that tackled him was beyond words. She grabbed his hands with her magic.

“A HUMAN!”

“I… I know you don’t I?” Twilight asked.

The green Unicorn looked up at her, her face seemed a little unsure for a moment before she moved toward her.

“Twilight?”

The Alicorn nodded.

“It’s me, Lyra, Lyra Heartstrings, we used to be friends, back in Canterlot, before you moved.”

“Lyra?”

There was a snort and he saw Cream Pie.

“Great, there’s a lot of introductions and everypony is doing great, so are we going to start a lesbian orgy, or can we please get out of slaver territory before they catch us again?”

Author's Note

(AN: Wow, another chapter down. Again, a big thanks to L0rd0f7hund3r and MoltenXKid for looking it over, giving me feed back.)