Fallout Equestria: The Light in the Dark

"Sometimes you just gotta ask yourself...who am I?

• Unknown Source.

______________________________

STRENGTH: 7

PERCEPTION: 6

ENDURANCE: 6

CHARISMA: 4

INTELLIGENCE: 5

AGILITY: 8

LUCK: 4

_____________________________

I stared up at the dark, cloud covered, sky, my amber eyes adjusting to the darkness quickly. I let a sigh of relief escape my mouth, it had been a couple of days without conflict (other than internal), but tomorrow morning I would have a job and in the afternoon I would exchange gun fire with either a couple raiders or slavers or just some random ponies that needed to be dealt with. I pulled my black duster over my dark blue coat of fur with my amber colored magic as a chilly breeze went over me. I ripped my hooves out from under the cloth and set them behind my head, pushing my thick, short, silver mane against the back of it. I felt part of my duster fall away from my flank to reveal my cutie mark of a constellation in the shape of a hunting rifle with a scope on it.

I kept my own modified hunting rifle close to me, an empty magazine sitting inside so a pony couldn't use it against me if I was asleep and carved into the stock two words, NIGHT HAWK. In a holster sitting on a belt that lay under my duster, a revolver, its wooden grip covered in white duct tape. In a sheath on the other side of the belt, a hunting knife lay, its blade sharp and clean. With another sigh of relief I opened my mouth and spoke,

"Well Nightwatch, if you don't get some sleep you will most likely be killed by your own gun," I chuckled at my remark towards myself.

I let the chuckle subside and closed my eyes...hoping for a good nights rest.

                                                                                        $$$$$$

SQUISH SQUISH SQUISH

I opened my eyes to see nothing but darkness, the sound of squishy footsteps being the only sound. I blinked a couple of times to adjust to the dark as the sound grew closer, its silhouette closer than I had thought. I reached for knife, the light on my horn dim and under my hood, I grasped the hilt with my magic and pulled it towards my chest. It was clear that it was a ghoul, from the bald pony silhouette and the wet footsteps, which meant there were probably more close by. Luckily, it hadn't spotted me, but now I had a decision to make, kill it or hope it didn't spot me and wait for it to leave. Unfortunately, it stopped and toppled over into a dead state, the usual trap for an unsuspecting wanderer of they weren't careful. I waited a few minutes before finally moving, creeping towards it with my knife drawn.

Finally, I reached the undead corpse and stared at it with an expression of disgust. This one was definitely not a friendly one from what I could tell. Its teeth were bared in a snarl, it's eyes closed, its limbs were more decayed and any clothes it had worn before the megaspells were demolished. I stared at it for one more moment before raising the blade, just a stab to the head while he was in this position would kill him. I held my breath and brought the blade down into its temple, the blade sinking in easily to the hilt. The ghoul squirmed for a moment, blood leaking from its muzzle as I held the knife in its head.

Finally, it stopped moving and I pulled the blade out, causing a slurping noise as I removed it. I sighed and put the blade in the dirt and twisted it around to clean the blood off, not a very reliable method, but it worked. I sat down and kept twisting to get the best results minus the damage to it, but I just shrugged it off and kept going,

"There is no way I'm going back to sleep now, not like I needed it though," I told my self, pulling the blade out of the ground and up close to my face.

I focused on the blade and looked at it from all angles to make sure it was "clean" before shrugging and putting it back in its sheath. I levitated my rifle over to me and looked at it, from the stock to the barrel. It was in pretty good shape, other than my shortage of ammo and lack of spare parts to repair it. I perked my ears to listen, although yes I could see in the dark, (my special talent, also one of the reasons my cutie mark was a constellation of a rifle.) I didn't have eyes on the back of my head so there was still a blind spot. You never knew if somepony was watching unless you went with instinct, but my instinct wasn't kicking in. I sighed and focused on the gun, listening to night sounds and staring at the stock, a name carved into it, Starcloud.

I felt tears come to my eyes for this...this was my mother's rifle before she had me. She taught me how to shoot it and taught me everything she knew about the wasteland. My father was part of a slaver group, and when she found out she grabbed me and we ran far away. It wasn't long before he hunted us down and tried to take me away. I remember it all happening...it comes back to me every time I look at the name on the rifle. They fought over me to the point where they were at a stalemate, guns pointing at each other and a blade held against my throat. She knew she could kill him without hurting me, but she didn't pull the trigger, instead a bullet came through the window and hit her square in the temple, a kill blow. My father dropped the knife and the gun and sat back against the wall, a smirk on his face, he had won in his mind, but his victory didn't last long. I took the knife he dropped and drove it into his heart before repeating the same movement over and over and over until my rage faded.

Now here I am, years later, a mercenary looking for caps to survive like everyone else in this hell hole. As I came back to the present though I completely forgot about what was going on and I felt something hard hit the back of my head. I felt the blood rush to my head as my eyes closed and everything went dark.