The Vault Dweller: A Fallout in Equestria Story

Chapter 6: No Planes, Maybe a Train, and No Automobiles

Morning light broke through the window of the room shared by the group of friends. When the light began to creep across the floor, touching everything and letting the room find comfort in its warmth, it touched an old solar panel that had been set up for power in the small room. After a moment the sound of static began to fill the small room with noise, and then that static changed to the sound of trumpets playing.

The effect was instantaneous, and nearly everyone in the room had a massive coronary when the sound hit them. Eyes opened, heads and ears became alert, and it wasn’t until someone finally noticed the speaker above the bed that was hooked to an old recorder on a table that things began to quiet. Most of the makeshift herd began to stretch around, all but the lone human in the group. The night had been blissfully peaceful, but now that the waking world had decided to greet him he was lost in thought.

He was honestly directionless. His directive, his goal, had been reaching this Crystal Empire, seeing if there was humans there, but everything around him simply pointed that even if his belief that this was still Earth was right… It wasn’t his world. Somehow he didn’t believe it was his Earth. Part of him wondered if anyone knew what this felt like. It wasn’t like it had been. He didn’t feel so hopeless, so incredibly lost, but he felt almost like an outsider looking in. There had been so many that had been like that, and in truth back before the car wreck he even felt that way more than once.

He didn’t really fit in with most of his family after he got a good education, and he didn’t fit in with the normal groups of folks that went to the university. Sarah was the only one to see past where he had come from.

“Hey, you okay?”

He looked toward the voice and saw Cream staring at him, “Yeah, I think so.”

She breathed out, “Good, look I’m not… Oh by Holder Cobblestone, I’m not good at this kind of thing, but please don’t get like that again, okay?”

He nodded, “I’ll try.”

The group walked down, and to their surprise ponies seemed friendlier. They weren’t arguing, there wasn’t a feeling of paranoia or dread, but instead it almost seemed like a friendly place. Well a friendly place that happened to be located inside of the wasteland. The group looked around the stacked containers, and then at the old station itself. As they moved toward it a faint smell caught their attention.

It smelled like Apple pie. Memories of the fantastic Apple pie that had been in New Thunderhead seemed to move through the collective minds of the strange herd. As they reached the station the smell was thick in the air, and they could see several pies already lined up. There, beside them, was an orange pony with a green mane and tail. The Pegasus mare had two whole apples, and a third apple that had been sliced open as a cutie mark. She looked at the group with a pair of bright green eyes.

“Howdy, Y’all interested in some Apple Pie?” she smiled, “Been selling like apple fritters on a cold day.”

Cream walked toward her, “Sure, how much?”

There was a gleam in her eye that told the story of a skilled business mare, “Oh, twenty-five bottle caps fer a whole pie, five caps per slice.”

Cream snorted, “Twenty-five bottle caps?! What, did Celestia just magically appear and push these out of her holy twat?!”

The mare frowned, “Listen up. Ya ain’t gotta eat if’n ya dun want ta, but ya ain’t gonna say a cross word one ‘bout any Apple family Apple Pies, ya got it missy?!”

“We’ll take two, please?”

She looked at the large thing standing there, “Ya that thing that saved those ponies in Las Pegasus?”

“Wait, Las Pegasus or New Pegasus?” a younger mare asked as she trotted closer.

The older pony looked at the Unicorn teenage filly and rolled her eyes, “They’re the same place Gala, jest, Las Pegasus is the part that didn’t have all of that crazy in it. Jest had those slavers with that wall around it.”

“Wait, what do you mean it’s the same place? I thought that it was just Las Pegasus?”

The Pegasus grinned, “Funny fella,” she said before she looked at him, “Oh lawd, Celestia have my tailhole with a sandpaper cooler… Ya dun’t know huh?”

She sighed, “Ain’t sure when it happened, but some time after the war there was some fightin’ happening, and the two sides fightin’ figured that building a wall to separate Las Pegasus into two towns would work. So, New Pegasus is right behind it. If’n ya was headin’ from this way ya’d never see it. Naw, ya’d either have ta be headin’ from Ironworks ta see New Pegasus.”

Deciding that arguing how someone missing a city would be pointless he nodded and looked at her, “Okay.”

“Anyway, Nopony really tries crossing the wall, well mostly. Ah heard somepony say that there’s some weird things in New Pegasus. Crazy sort of things, and Ah guess that the wall seems ta keep part of it away in its own part. Best Ah can figure anyway,” she said as she got a couple of pies, “So, anyway, two pies, that’ll be fifty bottlecaps.”

Cream looked at him, “We could stand to get something different.”

He shook his head, “After everything, I think that Apple pie sounds good.”

Cream sighed, her horn lit up, and she floated the right number of caps over. The other mare smiled.

“Thanks! Name’s Apple Dumplin, plum nice ta meet ya,” she said as she stretched out her hoof.

He reached out and grabbed it, giving it a little shake. She seemed a little offset about it, but didn’t complain. After taking the pies the herd moved toward a place to sit, and soon the pie was divided up by the three magic users. With absolutely no hesitation Salty was digging in like he hadn’t eaten in ages. Cream rolled her eyes. Twilight floated bites up to her mouth, slowly savoring the taste, each one unlocking more memories of her friends, of Applejack, and how uncannily that mare resembled her.

Lyra smiled as she watched the others eat. The pie did smell marvelous, but she didn’t eat. It didn’t stop her from enjoying watching the others obviously enjoying their meals. It also didn’t stop her from noticing how close Cream Pie was sitting to their human friend. She wouldn’t say a word about it. Equestria was never a that denied relationships between sapient species. She’d seen about every kind of coupling on her trips across Equestria. There had even been a Changeling and an Earth Pony that had shacked up together and set up something of a trading post on the old 52.

“Not to be somepony to bring anything up, but are we still heading toward the Crystal Empire?”

Eyes fell on Lyra, and then on the lone human.

He sighed, “I’m not sure what we’re going to find if we go there. I get the feeling that this isn’t home, and most likely the only thing that even resembles home is the Vault back in Las Pegasus.”

Lyra looked at him, touched his hand with her hoof, and smiled, “Look, we don’t have to, but I can tell you that what you’re wondering about… Well, the rumors exist for a reason. I haven’t got to go through it, never been there when it was open, but I’ve seen the mirror. It’s just inside the ruins of the Crystal Palace.”

Several ears perked up, “You’ve been to the Crystal Empire?!”

She looked at the owner of the voice, a very irate unicorn mare that was sitting next to the human in the group.

She sighed, “Yes I’ve been there, it’s mostly quiet…”

“Mostly Quiet?”

She groaned, “Bon Bon would so tell me to shut up right now. ‘Lyra, stop talking eat a caramel, get it good and chewy, and stop talking.’,” she laid her head on her hooves, “There’s a few ghouls there, mostly the good sort, a few Alicorns, and a very depressed Princess.”

“Wait… A Princess… Cadence?!”

The group looked at Twilight who looked excited. She had stopped eating, and instead she looked like she was practically dancing in place, “Princess Cadence is alive?!”

Lyra tried to smile, “Yes… But I..”

“YES!!!! YES, YES, YES!” Twilight said as she jumped around like an excited filly, “We’ve got to go! Please?!”

Cream huffed, knowing that they would be going, but it was a good long trip on hoof. She looked around, and she spotted something that caught her eye. It was sitting there, on the track, rusted, more of a husk than anything else, but maybe it could work. It would certainly be easier going by Rail than going on the ground. Now, they just had to convince the ponies of this town the good idea of repairing it, and putting it back to use.

Author's Note

(AN: Been a while. Sorry it took so long to update, and even sorrier that it's a short chapter, but I am setting something up that will be a longer one. That said, there's been a lot that happened between the last chapter and this one, and let's say that Life decided to be a major bitch.)