The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 4: Sweet Dreams are Made of these

Warmth was good. He sighed as he felt it around him. Pleasant memories of a decent two bedroom apartment, the soft touch of his wife.

"Mmmm, so, do you have a remote there in your hand, or are you happy to see me?"

He looked up, expecting to see Sarah, but instead it was a different shape. She crawled up on the bed, her gravel gray fur looked well cared for, her mane held back by a hair tie.

It was how human she seemed that was strange. Hands, body, soft breasts. She pressed against him, and he let out a soft moan.

"Oh, so that is for me." he felt her lips, wider and softer than he remembered feeling when Sarah Kissed him.

"Cream?"

"Shhhh... it's okay."

He closed his eyes, the warmth changed, and it felt amazing. The sound of a cowbell, of all things, made the image darken until it was gone, and his eyes opened to reveal the room he had slept in with his companions. He groaned as he shifted. It wasn’t that bad sleeping on the floor, but his dream had carried over into the real world, and currently he was dealing with a real world situation.

He felt it, pressing against the Vault-Tech suit he was wearing. He knew that one of them had to feel it. A look toward the bed revealed that no one was there, they all decided to sleep, in a pile, on top of him. He felt something rubbing against him, his eyes moved, trying to see who was directly moving. In truth he had a view of the bed, part of the wall, and a sleeping lavender face with a purple mane that had a pink stripe going down it.

He felt something rub him again, and slowly it seemed to get comfortable, deciding to try to think of anything that wasn’t in the slightest way provocative would be the best course. His mind went to things he could remember, and his mind stopped as he thought of the least sexy thing he’d ever seen in his life.

It’d been on his honeymoon, and he was with Sarah in Cancun Mexico. This was his first trip out of the states, ever, and he’d spent so much time putting it together, getting his passport, and getting ready for it. Only when he and Sarah got there she ate something that made her violently ill. He could still smell the ungodly stench coming from the bathroom, the sound of her hurling into the toilet, and the way he held her hair as she threw up over and over again.

The resort had an on call doctor, which after visiting said she was suffering from food poisoning, gave her some medicine, and said that it would be fine in a few days. That smell, the fact that she couldn’t lie in bed without having a towel under her because it started coming out of both ends, that was the single most unsexy thing he’d ever witnessed.

He didn’t love her any less, in truth he felt it was a good test to see if he would be willing to stick it out. He passed, she got better, three days later, the day they were heading back to the US. Relaxing he could still feel the warmth of the pony pile on him. His hand absently found Twilight’s ear and he scratched behind it. She let out a soft pleasant moan, shifted to move closer to him, and he continued to absently rub and scratch her ear, her scalp, and slowly her eyes opened. She looked around the room, gave him a half smile, yawned, and then got up.

Slowly he watched as one of the ponies they freed, a little regular pony mare, that looked so thin, got up, followed by Salty, and finally, right on his lap, her head resting comfortably on his crotch was Cream Pie. The mare smacked her lips, slowly getting up, and her eyes fluttered. She looked up at him, then where she had laid down, and a blush crossed her face. She didn’t say a word, instead she simply walked to where the others were, deciding to not really talk about it.

He looked at Cream, the way she walked, and he shook his head. Obviously the dream was messing with him more than he’d like to admit that it was. He got up and looked at the group of them gathered together.

“So, breakfast?”

Cream Pie nodded, and she walked toward the door. She opened it and the smell drifting up from downstairs hit them fully. He could smell some kind of pie, biscuits, gravy, and some other foods that just seemed far too good to pass up. He walked with them toward the smell, and finding the other former slaves they’d freed already at the table.

A plate with a scoop of eggs, a biscuit, and a slice of what looked like apple pie was sit down in front of him, and then next to it was a very small bowl of gravy.

He smelled the food, hungry for something other than Twinkies, and the food smelled fantatic. He took a bite of the eggs first, and it dawned on him that he was eating powdered eggs. Not bad, not really, but certainly not what he was expecting. He continued to eat it, and then he took his biscuit, tore it into half, and dipped part of it into the gravy. He brought it up, and took a bite to discover that it was canned gravy. Again, not bad, not really, and he was thankful for something other the Twinkies, but the smell had made him think that it was homemade food.

He didn’t mention any displeasure, but instead he continued to eat, chewing each bite, and letting himself enjoy the tastes. When he’d finished the eggs, biscuit, and gravy he turned his attention to the slice of pie. After what had been presented so far this morning he was expecting more of the same. Pie from a tin, but the first bite told him that this was fresh homemade pie.

He took another bite, chewing it slowly, enjoying the tastes of it, and savoring it like it was the very last bites he’d ever get to eat. When they finished the mare that owned the hotel took their plates, carried them to her kitchen, and then she returned toward them.

“Unless the lot of you want to stay another night that’s it. Be sure to grab your things, and only your things, and take leave.”

They went back up into the rooms, and he gathered what he needed, including the pack that he had found in the casino. They walked down, and out of the hotel and he spotted something over at Silver Wing’s store. He walked toward it, and the Mayor of New Thunder Head, seemed to be happily setting new inventory out.

“Goodmorning! If it isn’t the Stable Dweller! Thanks to those wonderful Twinkie Cakes I did more business yesterday, and today, than I have in over a month! I even managed to trade with a Minotaur!”

He grinned at Silver Wing, “I’m glad to hear it. Is that where this pack came from?”

He looked at it, and the thing was big, certainly able to hold anything he’d want, or need, to carry. Silver Wing moved toward him and took it off of the hook he had it hanging on.

“It is, and unfortunately it’s going to just sit for a very long time. We don’t normally get Minotaurs through new Thunder Head.”

Cream Pie saw what he was doing and moved toward the two of them. She wasn’t the only one, Twilight moved up, and seemed to take time to really pay attention to what they were doing.

“What would you like for the pack?”

Silver Wing smiled brightly, “How does two hundred bottle caps sound?”

He was about to say something before Cream Pie cleared her throat.

“That’s too much, and besides we can carry whatever it is that you need carrying.”

Silver Wing looked annoyed, but he quickly hid that fact, “Oh, I’m sure you could, but being that all of you did give me the best bit of business I’d had in sometime, I’ll let you have it for a mere… hundred and seventy bottle caps.”

She looked at him, sat back on her haunches, and shook her head, “fifty bottle caps.”

It looked like Silver Wing was about to drop horse apples, “Miss, that’s not just robbery, that’s practically taking me behind the store and violating me! I can go to a hundred and twenty bottle caps, but that’s it. If I go any lower than that I stand to lose money, and I can’t go and be losing money on a deal.”

She looked behind Silver Wing at the large shotgun that was on display. It was gigantic, something obviously meant for a Minotaur, and she could see the way it was designed that it was an older shotgun.

“If you throw in the shotgun, and at least fifteen rounds for it, we’ll pay the one hundred seventy bottle caps.”

He looked at them, shook his head, and got the thing down. He sat it down on the counter, which actually groaned a bit when it was placed on there, and then he looked at them and motioned for them to come up to the counter.

“I’ll do the one hundred seventy, and sell you the pack and the shotgun together, along with fifteen rounds, but in return I expect that when you come see me again that you will bring more of those Twinkie Cakes. Deal?”

Cream held her hoof up and he touched it and both of them more or less shook on it.

He gathered a small satchel with shotgun shells, emptied about three out, and handed the rest over to the lone human among the group. Standing there, holding the shells, and the pack, he put the shells into the pack, pulled the pack on, and then lifted the shotgun. The looked heavy, and it didn’t disappoint. It was easily thirty pounds of steel and wood. He felt an engraving and turned it to the side to see a phrase that seemed to be written in English, ‘Widow Maker’.

The barrel was nearly immaculate, right up to the end. That’s where he noticed that it had been filed. Normally that would only happen if someone wanted a shorter barrel, and this large shotgun was easily as long as most of the ones he’d seen. He felt a warm tingling around it, and suddenly he noticed that Cream was in fact floating it up, and then he felt the weight on his back. He turned his head to see that the gun was actually strapped across his pack.

After getting his ten millimeter pistol, his thirty-two caliber pistol he got from the raider, and ammunition for them, he looked back toward Las Pegasus.

“What are you thinking?” Cream asked.

“There’s folks being held in there.”

She stomped her hooves and faced him, “No!”

He looked at her and smiled, “I said before I was going to do something crazy. I can’t let those bastards keep them there. I just can’t.”

With that he began to walk, but what he didn’t expect was to be followed. He looked beside him to see Lyra. Soon, on his other side was Salty, and then he heard Cream Pie grumbling. Others joined him and soon almost everyone was following him.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen when we go in,” he admitted.

Cream Pie floated two pistols ahead of her. Both of them fully loaded, and she huffed, “We’re going to end up saving a whole lot of ponies, and not a one of them are even going to thank us.”

The Trip back wasn’t bad, or hard, not in the slightest, but once they made it back near Las Pegasus he noticed that the gate was still unlocked. Unlocked, and opened….

They moved, silently, toward the gate, and then through it. He had expected to see guards, armed patrols, but there wasn’t anything waiting on them. Nothing except for empty skies and empty streets.

“I dun’t reckon that I like this,” Salty said.

He nodded in agreement. He really didn’t like this either. The lack of anyone moving around was bothering him, but he focused on where they were going, and prayed that it would be uneventful. They made it to the Silver Cloud, went into it, and made their way down into the basement once again. Once there he looked at the ponies that had been so broken, so afraid, and they were practically shaking. Instead of heading straight into the lion’s den he headed toward the Vault. After talking to Donald for a moment the door opened and he leaded several of them inside. Several of the ponies marveled at seeing the inside of a ‘stable’ for the first time.

“Sir, since you’ve been out on sabbatical I have taken it upon myself to keep monitoring the condition of those pods that experienced the energy surge. Everything is happening just as it did when you awoke, so there should be at least three more residents awakening.”

“Thanks Donald. Donald, there are a few of my friends here that are going to be staying in the Vault for a little bit. I want you to treat them like they are registered Vault Dwellers.”

“As an Administrator you have the ability to add them to the registration, sir.”

He looked at the floating droid, “I’m a what now?”

“Sir, since you were the first awaken you are the administrator.”

He stopped and considered that for a moment, “Okay, add them to the list, see to them medically, and feed them.”

“Very well sir,” he turned toward the first little Earth Pony mare that was shaking, “Name?”

“B...Bluebelle.” she said.

“Bluebelle has been registered as a Vault Dweller, welcome, please stand to one side as I finish the registration process.”

One by one Donald went down the line of the ponies that would be staying behind. Afterward He walked with them, showing them what he’d seen, and what he knew, right up to the point where they walked into a large room. Cream Pie and Salty had seen some of the Vault before, but this was different. This was a large room that he’d only seen once, through a happen stance, and he looked at the ponies there.

“Donald told me this is the medical area. All of you are going to be checked on to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with any of you. Afterward if you’re hungry Donald is going to get you some food, and he’ll show you all to some rooms for you to relax in. You are going to be safe in here, and I will be back to get you when it’s clear.”

He didn’t expect much, not anything at all, but what he got was a hug, and then another, and another. All of the ponies they’d saved, all of the slaves, including the ones that were so broken, was hugging him tightly, thanking him, and openly crying. He watched as Cream Pie was brought into it as well, and even though she acted annoyed he believed that she was actually enjoying the gratitude.

“Let’s go free some folks.”

Once again Donald followed them to the door and once more he told Donald to open it for him when he returned. Lyra, Cream Pie, Salty, Twilight, and himself walked out into the darkened area.

“Salty, Cream Pie, lead us to where they were.”

It didn’t take that long to find the place where the basement connected to the sewer system. As he walked he looked around, trying to make sure that there wasn’t too much that would be a surprise, and that’s when he stopped. Cream Pie had slowed first, but when he saw her reaction he stopped completely. The sewer was quiet, for a moment, and then there was a huge squeaking noise. He had his Pip Boy acting as a flashlight, and he looked ahead to see it. He’d been worried about a rat being the size of a large dog.

He couldn’t have been more wrong. The rat wasn’t the size of a dog, no, it was easily the size of a small car. A good look at it showed tumors, growths, and patches of its fur missing. He looked at the thing snarled. It began moving toward them, the snarling angry thing neared and he reached back behind him, grabbing the stock of the massive shotgun. He pulled it out, checked to make sure there was some shells loaded, and then took aim.

His Pip Boy went into V.A.T.S. automatically, and it even showed where the shotgun would do the most damage. He remembered, before the accident, Sarah’s father had taken him skeet shooting. He said that you wanted to brace the stock of the gun against you, and prepare because the lower the gauge number, the more it would kick.

He’d been tricked into shooting an eight gauge shotgun that day, and the shells for this thing dwarfed them. He took aim at it’s head, pulled the trigger, and the first barrel fired. He was expecting several things. For it to kick, naturally, to be moved slightly, to have a sore shoulder, and hopefully for the rat to get wounded and just run off. Instead the shot completely destroyed the rat’s nose, eyes, and most of the top of its skull. The kick wasn’t a kick as much as it was a mule backing him against a wall, and proceeding to buck the living fuck out of his side, and being thrown backward because his stance wasn’t right was the last bit of insult.

He kept the gun from getting hurt, slowly stood, and looked back at it. He decided right then and there that ‘Widowmaker’ would be used only when there wasn’t another choice. He slowly put it back into the holster that was on the pack and Cream Pie was rubbing her ears.

“I think they might know we’re here now,” she groaned as she continued to rub her ears, “At least we know that thing is good at stopping giant rats!”

He nodded, and the group of them moved, slightly more deaf than they had been before, and Cream lead them to a place where she looked confused.

“This isn’t right…”

He looked at her, “what’s wrong?”

She looked around, and slowly moved forward, “The gates are open, they’re never open. It’s like they left or something.”

Twilight began to look around frantically, “Do you feel that?!”

He looked back at her, “Feel what?”

She shuttered, “It’s something big, something and powerful, and I can feel it down here! Something big, and powerful, and angry!”

“Ah, Mine Subjects…”

The voice caused Twilight to look ahead.

“P...Princess Luna?”

There was several ponies that stepped out, a multitude of them, and they seemed to be moving as one group. Over them was a shadow that seemed to be floating off of them, a shadow filled with twinkling stars. The laughter that escaped the mouth of one of the subjects made Twilight take a step back.

“Luna, it has been a long time since we’ve heard that name, at least when we were addressed, but perhaps, perhaps we are her.”

The mare that was talking moved like she was an animatronic toy. Her steps were jerky, awkward, and completely off. He started to do something, but he felt something touch him. He looked to see a golden aura around his hand.

“Don’t, I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s not Princess Luna. She’s… I found her dead in the castle,” Lyra said as she looked at him and then at the ponies moving toward them.

“Princess, it’s me, Twilight, we were…”

Twilight didn’t get to finish her sentence before a shadowy tentacle lashed out and grabbed her by the neck. It lifted her up, holding her, causing her to struggle and try to escape.

“Yes, we remember you. We remember the mare that saw to our defeat! We remember the very mare that used the elements against us! WE REMEMBER!!!!”

Cream Pie didn’t wait, she didn’t hesitate for a moment, but instead she pointed her gun at the tentacle and fired. He watched, expecting it to be like smoke, to simply pass through, but instead it hit and the effect was something he didn’t expect. The tentacle dropped Twilight, who fell like a sack of potatoes, and the leading mare’s eyes changed. They began a brilliant blue, and she shook before she looked around and screamed in fright before her eyes went completely white again.

“FOOL!” she shouted, “WE ARE IMMORTAL!”

“Ya ain’t Princess Luna!” Salty shouted.

He looked over at the Pegasus that was missing a wing. He moved forward, his face looking hard, “Princess Luna was a good pony, I heard tales about her kindness, and ya ain’t her!”

The lead mare laughed, “Kindness? KINDNESS?! Where was the kindness afforded to us when we protected Canterlot?! Where was the kindness we deserved for saving our subjects?!”

Suddenly a massive bit of power erupted from behind him. It rocked forward and hit the twinkling shadow. It began pulling it, twisting against it, and he looked to see Twilight. She stood there, but there was tears spilling down her cheeks. She closed her eyes, “I’m so sorry.”

The shadow pulled away from the ponies there, and several of them simply fell. It was as if the shadow had been the only thing keeping them going. The shadow itself was in the form of a pony, one like Twilight. It was smokey, made of a shadow, with a strange blackened blot on its rump and a crescent moon there on it as well, but when it opened its mouth he could tell it wasn’t an it, no it really was a she.

“Twilight Sparkle, thou were once a friend, release us, allow us to go about what must be done! Ponies must once again learn harmony, and we can do that! We can turn them to the unifying harmony of night!”

He watched as the form changed, a helmet formed on her head, her eyes became slitted, and she looked vicious and angry.

“Release us, as thine Princess we demand it!”

Twilight’s eyes were shut, tears were falling, but she didn’t release her hold, and instead the angry being inside of the bubble Twilight had formed narrowed her now slitted eyes, “Very well, thou hast chosen.”

She flexed her power and caused the bubble to pop, and the force threw all of them back. She hovered there, for a moment before laughing, “We will be seeing each other again.”

He watched as she separated into smoke and disappeared back into the shadows of the area they were in.

“Okay, what in the fuck was that?!”

Twilight got up, and he heard her sob. He walked toward her, kneeling down a little, and he put an arm around her. What he was rewarded with was a hug from the Pegacorn, as he called her, that almost felt it was going to squeeze his chest hard enough to cause his head to pop off like a tube of toothpaste popping its cap off when being squeezed too hard.

“N...Nightmare Moon…”

He looked lost and looked toward Lyra who hung her head.

She looked up at him, “There’s a lot we’ve got to talk about, but since we’re not going to be getting into a massive firefight, lets see what we can do for these ponies.”

Author's Note

(Sorry for the break, but I'm back, yes I'm back... Okay, enough of the song jokes. Seriously though I wanted to get this chapter out. Hope that all of you enjoy it.

RJP)