Fallout Equestria: Winding Rivers

“I can kill you with my brain.”

"Who is coming?" I followed Starshatter up the stairs into the warehouse, "you can't just cryptically say "they are coming" and not give details."

"I don't know," she continued on without looking back, though her head made small movements back and forth, as if catching movement in every corner.

I put a foreleg over my face and sighed, "how can you know somepony is coming, but not know who? That makes no sense."

At this, she did stop, and turned to me, "Mister Lane. Why did you come find me?"

My hoof dropped back to the floor and after a short moment I answered, "because Twilight Sparkle told me to."

"You trust Twilight?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have come, otherwise."

"Well, Twilight trusted me, so don't you think you should, as well?"

We stood there a moment, just looking at each other. With a nod from me, she wordlessly turned toward the front door and we continued.

"How long do we have? Can we look around here for supplies, first?"

She shook her head, "we have at most ten minutes. They come from Maripony. The thread is strong, and appeared as soon as the terminal downstairs connected to the network."

"Thread?"

"I will explain later, when we aren't pressed for time. Just know, if I say something will happen, it likely will. Now," she didn't finish. She froze in place, one hoof still in the air, mid-step, "how? How are they already here?" She looked around, frantically, then locked eyes with me.

No, she was looking past me.

"Memory, duck!"

I fell to my belly, but nothing seemed to happen, until a neon blue bolt of energy flew from Starshatter's horn, over my head and struck the empty air, above. There was a shimmer of light and a large, blue unicorn appeared.

A unicorn with wings.

An alicorn.

"What the-?" two more alicorns, one purple, one green, appeared to either side of her, and I found myself surrounded by a green bubble shield.

"This one is no threat," the purple muttered to her comrades about me, "focus on the filly. She is the one we need."

Another blast of Starshatter's magic impacted the shield, but to no effect. The newcomers stood calmly as the blue one composed itself from the hit. From what I could tell, the attack had merely startled her out of her invisibility spell without actually doing any damage.

All I could think to say was, "who are you?"

For a moment, I thought they planned to just ignore me, as they stood stoically still, but then the purple one's eyes lowered to me in a contemptuous gaze, "We are The Goddess. This land and everything in it belongs to Us. We have come to reclaim Our faithful student, here," her gaze lifted to meet Starshatter's.

She simply stared back in confusion, "student? What are you talking about?"

The large, purple alicorn strode forward, confidently, and I began to understand, as its dark violet mane billowed in a non-existent breeze. I saw it, now, and the look on Starshatter's face told me she did, as well.

"Twilight?" we spoke in unison, my voice slightly startling the pseudo-Twilight-alicorn-thing, but she recomposed herself and stepped to the edge of the shield.

"Yes, Starshatter. I am your mentor and teacher, Twilight Sparkle. Come with me. We can reclaim Equestria and rule together."

Silence. We both stared at this strange creature who looked so much like Twilight Sparkle, but somehow seemed... off. I felt like I was in some bizarro world, slightly offset from my own, where everything felt familiar, but wrong.

What was I missing?

"Wh-what happened to you?"

The Twilight-thing bowed its head, "it is a long story, my faithful student. Nearly two hundred years have happened to me," as she spoke, I looked around. There was something here to answer my questions, I just knew it. The purple alicorn stood a few feet away back turned from me to face Starshatter. The other two stood side-by-side opposite. Not a muscle moved. They didn't so much as blink, just staring straight ahead, as if in a trance. I just lay there, feeling... itchy?

"But you... you're an alicorn! Like the Princesses! And you call yourself a goddess?"

"THE Goddess!" Twilight bellowed, "I am The One and Only, Great and Powerful Goddess!"

Great and Powerful? Where had I heard that, before?

"The Twilight I know," Starshatter began, hesitantly, "she wouldn't say things like that."

"As I said, my little pony, a lot has happened in a century-and-a-half. The world we knew has ended. I have a duty to my fellow ponies, and to Equestria."

Wait a minute. As she spoke, the itching got worse. Now I realized it wasn't itching. It was static, like from a radio, but it seemed to fill my whole body. I looked up and saw the other two alicorns cringing slightly, as if from migraines.

Something was most definitely wrong. I glanced over at Starshatter, and she, as if feeling my gaze, met it. The look in her eyes was one of absolute fear. She knew as well as I: this was wrong. It needed to end. We could not go with them.

Slowly, I stood. I heard Starshatter begin talking again, but didn't pay attention. What she said was meant to distract pseudo-Twilight, not be anything meaningful for me. I took a few cautious steps, watching the blue and green alicorns for reaction, but they stood as still as before. As quietly as I could, I slipped behind them and into the maze of boxes, letting the voices fade away.

What was I supposed to do? Last night, I had fought a rabid pony zombie, but this was different. These were alicorns! Three of them! Casually standing in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, talking to me and a pony I just met.

I guess I had asked for adventure.

With a soft sigh, I scanned the boxes around me for anything I could use. Explosives would be too dangerous to us, especially with all the other boxes of explosives, around. I was pretty sure a simple rifle or handgun wouldn't do much, especially after seeing how much Starshatter's magic missile didn't do. Then there was that shield to factor in.

Did it only protect from magic? I walked through it just fine. Would a bullet go through? I couldn't risk the time to try. I had one shot at this.

Suddenly, the weight of what I was thinking hit like a pallet of bricks. I was casually thinking about killing three alicorns. What was wrong with me? Zombies are one thing, but these were sentient, thinking ponies. On top of that, they had done nothing to us, aside from being creepy and demanding.

My butt hit the floor as I just sat there a moment, letting my thoughts and feelings settle. Right now, Starshatter was stalling for me as best she could. I had to make a choice. I didn't have enough information. This thing claimed to be Twilight. What if she was? Had she been mutated? What if it was a changeling? Or something worse, brought on by the ambient radiation and end of the world? If we trusted it, would it help us, or eat us? Or worse.

"Find Starshatter. She will guide you. You are fated to save Equestria," Twilight's words echoed through my head. Starshatter didn't like this situation. She knew before these alicorns arrived, they were bad news. Twilight had trusted her. I needed to do the same. That didn't mean I had to kill.

The static came to mind. It seemed to hurt them, but seemed to be coming from the purple one. Was she the one in command? If I disabled her, the other two might go down, too. I was sure, somewhere in here, was a non-lethal weapon of some kind.

Danger – Starmetal.

The static I had felt before seemed to be stronger, here. It echoed in my head and through my bones. As I approached, my whole body began to feel like a tuning-fork. I remembered a lesson about starmetal. It wasn't incredibly long or detailed, and was steeped in unconfirmed myth and legend, but I recalled the experiments into magic-dampening effects.

This was it. My silver bullet. I pulled a crowbar from a nearby rack and pried open the crate to reveal a small case of silver bullets. How poetic.

I didn't want literal bullets, though. I needed something less puncturing. Luckily, there were a plethora of other options in this small treasure chest. After checking my pipbuck's inventory screen, I grabbed everything I could and hurried back the way I came.

Starshatter was still talking with the purple alicorn when I returned. The conversation had turned to the past, and I saw tears in the younger mare's eyes. Her attention briefly turned to me when I sneaked up and I waved the needle gun I had found. A moment passed as I waited for confirmation. What had she learned in those minutes I was gone? Had things changed? Was this actually Twilight?

The look she gave me was pure anguish. There was no Twilight here. Even if this thing had been, at one time, it was not, anymore. I lifted the gun and approached the shield. With a shimmer, I passed through and came up behind the purple not-Twilight. My aim shook as I held the dart gun in my mouth, inching ever closer to ensure I got a good shot.

S.A.T.S. flicked on and gave me a 100% chance of a hit on her torso. I queued up the attack and the little gun fired its silvery meteorite dart. The magic of my E.F.S. guided my vision in slow motion as the needle sliced through the air in a precise arc, ending in the rump of the so-called Goddess.

Never had I heard a more horrible sound than the scream she let out. It was as if hundreds of voices were wailing in my head. The static rose to a brain-melting crescendo. I felt something wet on my lips and wiped it away, only to find blood on my leg. The blue and green alicorns were screaming now, as well. With a flicker, the shield disappeared. The blue flickered in and out of visability. Then they all disappeared. The screaming stopped, though the static remained in the back of my head, like a bad case of tinnitus.

Neither of us spoke. I saw blood dripping from Starshatter’s nose, as well, and hobbled over to gently wipe it away. She flinched back, then looked at my bloody hoof with wide eyes.

“That can’t be healthy,” she managed after a moment.

I chuckled, half-heartedly, “what do you think that was about?”

She looked around the warehouse with that dancing blue gaze, then back to me, “there was a thread from the green one back toward Maripony,” she spoke quietly, still in pain, “it linked them all. But it was fuzzy, at times. When that dart hit…” she shuddered, “it was like a balefire bomb going off in my head, and they felt it too. What did you hit it with?”

“Starmetal. I found a crate of the stuff. Figured it would be non-lethal. I didn’t expect...” I gestured helplessly as she nodded.

“It doesn’t matter now. They are gone, but we should still leave, at once.”

We made our way carefully through the warehouse. My vision was slightly blurred, making every step in the cluttered space a hazard, but we eventually made it to the big main doors. They were closed.

“Is this how you entered?”

I nodded and shoved the door, with no effect, save a slight rattle, “locked.”

Her vision became magical as she looked around the room. I’d had enough time in the dark, and spoke up, “okay, we have a moment. We’re stuck here anyway, so why don’t you explain this thing with ‘threads’ and that blue glow in your eyes?”

She looked back to me and the glow died. With a sigh, she sat against a crate and waited for me to do the same, “my special talent,” she said, slowly, “is to see connections. I can see everything as if it is connected by strings. For example, a mother and daughter, when together, will have a unique string, due to their familial bond. It is further unique based on their specific relationship. An abusive relationship will change the thread in one way, while a co-dependent thread will look another way.

“This can be used to make assumptions about the past and future. For example, I see a few threads coming from you,” as she spoke, the magic returned to her eyes, and she looked from me, into the distance, and back, a few times, “one is connected to me. It is our current relationship, and our joined destiny. Another two lead to the south. One seems distressed, the other feels like it leads to your home. It carries comfort, and familiarity.”

I nodded, “my home is to the south. The other is likely the slavers and ghouls that attacked me, last night.”

“So it is the past I see. Another thread links you far to the north. It is intertwined with my own, so I assume it leads to our destiny, whatever it may be.”

We sat there in silence, for a moment as I processed all of this. Finally, “but it’s just vague images?”

She shook her head, “not even images, really. More like emotional cues. It’s like a splash of color, or varying brightness. My own mood seems to affect it, sometimes. I can never be sure of what it tells me, though it always makes a good guide.”

A laugh stopped me from answering, and the voice of the purple alicorn echoed through the building, “we isn’t that good for us, then?” she appeared between us and the door with a flash. I raised the needle gun but just as quickly found it flying from my mouth as her telekinesis yanked it away, “fool me once,” not-Twilight growled, “your little stunt may have worked the first time, but nopony can defeat The Goddess.”

I was in the air, now. A purple glow surrounded me and then tossed me down the row, into a stack of crates, which came tumbling down on top of me. Starshatter rose to help, but the green alicorn appeared and the shield with it. This time, it didn’t allow ponies through, and Star’s hoof tapped helplessly against it.

“Enough games, my student. Come with me, and we will add your power to the Unity. With it, we will be truly omniscient,” I watched helplessly as my new companion was lifted into the air. Frantically, I scanned the area for anything that could help. A row down was the label “Danger – Explosives.” The idea forming in my head was very crude and very bad.

What the hay. I had survived zombies, alicorns, and slavers. What was a little fire and shrapnel? My inventory told me I had three incendiary starmetal bullets. Why those pieces of overkill existed, I will never know. What I do know, now: they were scary.

One of the pipe pistols I had taken from the slaver camp was the right caliber, so I chambered one of the magic bullets and took careful aim. Out of the corner of my eye, the alicorns gathered close together, with Starshatter between them. The purple and green’s horns glowed brightly as I pulled the trigger.

Like a rainboom, the bullet split the air in an iridescent ripple, seeming to set the very atmosphere on fire. No time passed between the impact and the explosion of crates upon crates of high-explosive munitions. All of Equestria seemed to shake around me. Splinters of wood, metal, plastic, and more spread from the epicenter as if in slow motion, taking surrounding crates with them, igniting anything explosive within range in a deadly chain reaction.

I turned to see the alicorns startled out of their spell. For a moment, the green shield faltered, but held strong against the flying debris and flame. Starshatter’s horn flared in that moment of confusion.

Slow motion ended. I found myself flying again. This time, it was lateral to the others, as the massive explosion shoved me clear across the warehouse. I lay against the far wall, unable to see the other ponies. What I could see was the carnage I caused. The explosions were dying, now. Just the occasional pop of a lone grenade or pressurized tank. The flames, however, were just starting. They climbed their way up the piles of crates to lick the sheet metal ceiling. They weren’t yet to me, but I could already feel their heat against me. The warehouse was turning into an oven. The metal above was starting to glow a dim red.

The heat was too much. I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness. I had to hold on. The smoke filled my lungs and I coughed, “S-Sta-cough-arsh-cough-cough,” I rose unsteadily to my feet. As the heat pummeled me and my bones creaked and cracked inside, I felt that same feeling I had, last night. I knew I could do this. I had to. Starshatter had seen that thread. It connected us and pulled us north. I had to trust her and her talent. We were going to get through this!

I found myself galloping through the halls, despite the protestations of my damaged body. I hardly felt the lick of the flames as I wove between pillars of fire and raining shards of flame. A faint white light in a sea of orange guided my way back to the now-open front door.

“Open” was relative, I found when I got there. More like blown off its tracks.

Three alicorns lay outside, unconscious. Starshatter stood over them, watching the warehouse, intently. As I staggered out, she rushed to meet me, “I knew you would make it! I don’t know how, you did, but I followed your thread the whole way,” she looked back to the other three, “I managed to put a sleep spell on them during the initial confusion. I don’t think it will last much longer, though. We need to leave now.”

“You don’t have to tell me, twice,” ignoring my broken bones and burned flesh, we hurried out the gate and down the slope, into the foothills, below.

Footnote: Level Up

New Perk Added: Toughness – If nothing else, you can take a beating! Instantly gain 20% more Damage Resistance.