Fallout Equestria: Plight

Chapter 1: Winter Wasteland

“The world will cut you down, steal your soul, and use it against you.”

I froze as a statue. A living statue made of flesh, arteries, feelings, memories. I looked back down the rocky corridor, and into the nightmare that was the grave of stable 53. Never before in my life had I though I would see the outside world, I had also never thought... that would happen to me.

Okay, got to push that way for now.

First things first though. I removed my old Pip-Buck from my hoof. The one that I had inherited from my mother, and the one that had made me Overmare. I left it behind, and I dropped it to the floor with no ceremony or order; It just thumped against the rock flooring. I sighed, the last piece was gone.

The overmare known as Soft Soda was gone, and I was now Cold Front. A mare of far greater strength than me apparently. I wished for her to appear right there, next to me at that moment, and say that I did good, but no – nothing.

It was still my fault.

Cold chilly wind tore throw the cracks in the wooden door at the end of a long rocky corridor, that seemed to stretch on for eternity. The wood was cracked and rotting in several places, but was largely intact. I slowly pushed my hoof forwards and the door slid open with a moan, and more wind flowed into the room, enough to make my mane flutter.

Everything was a brilliant shade of white as I stepped outside, and keeled over when I looked at the sky. More so because of my limp than actual vertigo. My Pip-Buck so generously started to click violently as I lay there in the whiteness of it all.

I moved it to my face, and saw that the little needle in the rad-meter was rising, nothing lethal or harmful yet, but it was rising. Only on rare occasions had that thing been useful inside the Stable. Another clicking noise, and I moved to another menu. My map filled with markers, one for Stable 53, another for a Stable 8 in the distance, and another: 'Point Hoof' it said. According to my map it was a town, and I was close.

I shrugged and had it as a mental note, for now I wanted to do only one thing. I giggled and rolled around in the white whatever it was that was on the ground. It was cool to the touch, and melted if I held a portion of it in my hooves for too long, and it even seemed to descend from the sky at an even pace.

Finally, after several moments of rolling in my white little piece of paradise, I got to my hooves, and my Pip-Buck agreed that it was about time, as the violent clicking grew heavier and heavier.

I stopped and took another glance back at what used to be my home. The red smears in the white outside the wooden door echoed everything inside of Stable 53. It was then that I knew. I wouldn't become as them; I would never pick up a weapon; I would never kill another living thing, so we were different.

With sheer determination I hobbled forwards, ignoring the pain in my flank still. Gentle! The word tore through my head just as when you have a song you can't forget. I wanted to forget, but my mind didn't, and maybe it was for the best, but at that moment, I just wanted to forget it.

I refocused my eyes and stopped to look at my Pip-Buck. It was a brisk march to 'Point Hoof' whatever that was, but it was the only thing I could dare aim for at the moment. I looked through a few more menus and landed at the one relegated to transmissions.

Three distinct stations popped up. The first one was just gibberish, so I switched it off. The second was dark, though I could swear that I heard faint orchestral music in the background. I moved on to the last one.

A high-pitched squeal erupted from my Pip-Buck's speaker as I pressed the screen to allow for the radio-broadcast to come through. After the whine, it was silent, then a voice came through, clear as day.

“Eight... Eighty-seven... twelve... sixteen... fifty-three...” – The voice was interrupted by a electrical hiss, and a grating sound that followed a pattern. Grating hissing sound, a minute's pause, and then the hissing noise sounded back in. The voice that was speaking sounded as a mare, but with a little touch of machine to it, but I couldn't quite put my hoof on what was wrong with it.

I can't be sure how long I stood there, but I waited for the voice to sound back in again. It didn't. Knowing that, I turned off the recording and walked forwards. The white material crunched underneath my hooves, and felt soft to the touch, yet hard enough to walk on, so it still puzzled me.

A cackling laughter, pitched high, a mare perhaps? Sounded. I froze, it was familiar, yet new somehow. A pony skidded down a hilltop next to me and came to a stop a few feet in front of me, and she was a mare indeed, though her appearance would say otherwise. Her mane was pulled up high into a Mohawk, probably to make her look more menacing. Her flank showed a cutie-mark that seemingly looked as a chainsaw.

Her coat was dirty and dingy, much like the ones that attacked my Stable, so I physically trembled at the thought. Then I shuddered and looked away, so she laughed in return. “Scared, Stable-filly!” she retorted back at me, but I didn't look back at her. The smell was horrible, and stung in my nostrils.

At least I smelled slightly better after rolling in whatever that white stuff was, and I could hear it crumble as she moved towards me, and she continued to cackle menacingly.

A thunderous bang, and I looked up, my eyes wide at the sight before me. A rusted blade stained with blood fell from the decrepit mare's mouth as she wobbled, and her eyes had descended to pinpricks as she looked at me, smoke trailing off of her side.

“I... I...” Her voice cracked as she fell to the ground, and blood poured from a hole in her side, so it coloured the pure-white paradise a ghastly crimson. Turning my eyes skyward, I saw a shape, a shadow, something, fly across the sky and dissipate in the heavy grey cloud-layer that hung over everything.

My body was frozen in place again, and it wasn't the cold that was the culprit. I shuddered as I saw the mare before me die, and I knew that she would just have killed me, or worse... no... It couldn't get any worse, I was... defiled.

I felt fear grasp at my heart as I wobbled, and dropped to my haunches. I winced as my rump hit the whiteness underneath me, and I was still sore. I could still feel the grating, breathing, and smelly breath of my attacker on my neck. I shuddered violently and wiped my blood-red eyes as I got to my hooves again.

Looking back at the wooden door to my old home, I fired up the auto-mapping spell on my Pi-Buck. 'Point Hoof' was too far away for me to make it there today, so I needed somewhere else to stay or the cold would get me, and no way was I going back to the nightmare of the Stable; I was done that place the minute I walked out of there.

I sighed and lowered the Pip-Buck. Nothing but the three familiar spots were lighting up, so I walked past the body of the mare, and she still twitched horribly. I crept slowly into a brisk trot, wincing every time, but time was what I didn't have. I'd never been this cold before, but remembering my schooling, something told me this was bad.

The same gorgeous white thing that was on the ground, fell from the sky in small lumps. One of them landed on my nose and melted away, so I shuddered. My Pip-Buck clicked again, and the radiation warning had spiked.

I shook my head and cleared my mind as I watched over the white land. This was not how Equestria was supposed to look, at least not from the imagery inside the Stable. Though, I suspected my family had been in on that lie as well.

A hope ignited in my heart as I saw orange light flicker from inside a building, the wood-boards barely visible under the white that covered everything. Looking down the hill I was standing on, I hesitated. It was quite the drop, and if I did anything wrong I would crack a limp, snap my neck, or be impaled on hidden sharp rocks.

Lifting a hoof, I slowly stepped forward, sliding a bit, then a bit more. Soon I was almost in full gallop down the white-capped slope, and my Pip-Buck didn't aid the situation. I felt a sharp pain in my left-hoof as I slipped and tumbled over, ending my sled-run down the slope.

I shook my head and wiped off all the white, though it was wonderful, it did make me colder. When I got to my hooves, my E.F.S. flashed medical warnings that it shouldn't be, ouch. On second thought, my entire body hurt now... worse than before, a second ago I would have thought that not possible.

Cancelling out the warning, I crept forwards, but I still couldn't walk right. With everything going on, I didn't need my Pip-Buck to bug me about everything wrong with my body at the moment. I knew what was wrong, so I didn't need a machine to tell me that. The horror at Stable 53's door had taught me that.

My ears perked as I thought I could hear a sound... nothing. I must have been imagining it, but in any case, I proceeded forward. The house, albeit a ruined house, was closing in on me. I had made progress.

Yay, inner me!

I stopped at the edge of a half-broken white fence, and sighed melancholy as I looked at my Eyes Forward Sparkle Compass. To my surprise, a yellow light kept swinging back and forth between North and South, and then it disappeared. Okay... that was creepy.

Pushing forwards, I opened the broken door that simply fell to the floor as the rusted hinges were not able to hold it any longer. I shuddered and grimaced at the sound, not stealthy at all. Considering what I had seen, I did not want to make any more sound than needed. In urgency I checked the compass again... nothing.

I walked into a small room, seeing where the light was coming from. A fire roared in a rusted and battered metal barrel next to a weather-worn, and blood-soaked ruined mattress. Frowning, I looked around the room. The walls were peeling badly, a few specks of garden-green paint was still there, but for the most part it was gone.

The room itself was barren, except for a few posters on a wall. I recognized one of them, but the two others were too badly worn. The one I recognized was a Stable-Tec one, showing images of ponies flooding into a stable underneath a mountain of grey rocks. The words 'BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW, TODAY!' echoed on the top, but I shuddered.

****

The day roared on past me as I lay down on the ruined bed in the room, and the small comfort the bedding gave – I honoured. I kept looking through my Pip-Buck. Since I had taken on the name of Cold Front, I wanted desperately to know more about her, but what remained was only the four audio-files in it, and nothing more.

I pushed the last working one, wanting to hear another friendly voice. Cold Front's voice boomed from the device on my hoof, and I felt a small smile forming on my face as the heat of the fire washed over me. In under two minutes the recording ended, and it hadn't changed. Deep down I wanted it to not be true, but no matter how I looked at it, it was.

My family had lied for the Stable, and knowingly let them suffer for orders they didn't even need to follow. The transmissions from Stable-tec had ended years before I got put in charge, though I didn't know that until it became my turn.

My ears perked again, and this time I definitely heard a sound coming from outside. Looking at my E.F.S. Compass I could see a yellow line zipping back and forth again. At this point I felt my heart drop. What if the Pip-Buck was damaged, and in reality somepony else in the Stable was still alive. I wanted to go back, but at the same time I couldn't face it... not after what happened.

“What are you doing on my bed?” A voice sounded from behind me as I was enveloped in a pale telekinetic field and was lifted into the air. I flailed my hooves wildly as I was turned around, facing the Unicorn doing it. He had a red coat, in stark contrast to the outside, and a golden cropped mane adorned his head. I could see two yellow lightning bolts on his flank.

“What. Are. You. Doing. In. My. Bed?” the buck said more commandingly now.

“I... I.... Well, I saw the light a-a-a-and I thought...”

“You just walked into my house, and use my bed, and then expect hospitality from me? No, forget it sister, give me one good reason why I shouldn't just throw you to the slavers and get a good chunk of caps?”

My lips were frozen solid, not literally. I couldn't speak, I couldn't even form a single syllable. The buck had a frown on his face as he looked at me, and I shuddered again.

“Wait... “ he said as he looked over my body, and his eyes widened when he looked at my flank and tail. After a few seconds he lowered me down onto the mattress again, and released me from his grasp. “...I can't believe it... not again!” He screamed as he stomped back and forth angrily.

I on the other hoof felt faint as a headache pounded through my head, and I fell to the mattress, feeling the soft fabric against my cheek as I closed my eyes.

****

I felt... I felt weak... OH GOD! It's happening again! I flashed away as I felt hooves run the length of the side of my body, and I rose to my hooves so fast that I got a head-splitting headache, but I moved away from another shape in the room.

“Don't!” I screamed as I clenched my eyes shut, expecting either foreign hooves on me or foreign objects in me. None of the options was appealing at all to me.

A soft chuckle made my eyes open, but I still trembled as I looked at the stallion in front of me. “It's okay. I was just fixing up your leg,” he said softly as he motioned towards one of my back-hooves. Looking down, I could see that he had bandaged it, and I had been bleeding. That would explain the pain I felt whilst I slid down the hill.

“Thank you,” I commented as I tried to get on my hooves, but I didn't have the strength and merely fell to the floor again. I saw the unknown buck approach me, and my heart started to pound again as I scrambled to cower in the corner.

The smile leapt from his face, and he walked out of the room, but I could clearly hear the sound of a Pip-Buck. Suddenly, I looked at my hoof, and yes it was still there. I could feel the lump in my chest descending as I caught a voice, and it wasn't the voice of the buck. Unless he suddenly turned female.

“War-torn Anchorage is back under Steel Ranger control, my dear ponies, and Sparky here have you covered with the news out of there. And for you that have not been listening to my last few broadcasts! You are bad ponies! Very, very bad ponies!” A chuckle erupted from the next room as the buck walked back in, and I saw the Pip-Buck on his hoof. It looked similar to mine, actually... I looked at mine again, and low and behold. It was exactly the same! Apart from the fact that his had more scrapes than mine that is.

“Anyway, to give you an update: The band previously known as AppleJack's Rangers have been eradicated, but do not lose hope. Point Hoof is still holding strong, and I have reports from Tenpony Tower that the war over there is still going well.” Another chuckle escaped the device, and the buck turned off the Pip-Buck as he turned towards me.

“So, who are you?” he asked casually, but his voice carried the intention of malice as he spoke with a lowered tone.

“No, you're not,” he replied back with a sour tone, and I wanted to flee at that point. Sadly, my body had decided otherwise, and wouldn't let me walk, crawl, or anything really. A smirk crept across his muzzle as his horn lighted up and I could hear the usual clicking of a Pip-Buck, his in fact. It glowed an eerie green as a recording(I presumed) scratched on.

“-ts gone. The whole fucking thing is gone! Steel Rangers assaulted the Stable, and stole one of our generators. They ripped the entire thing out of the wall. Had I not convinced them that we had nothing else to take, they would have even taken the Stable door. Luckily I got everypony in safety before they hit. Only because of my Pip-Buck did I get enough warning...” The recording sputtered to a halt as the unicorn buck's Pip-Buck stopped glowing.

I recognized the voice, and that was clearly the voice of Cold Front, but.... The language was disturbingly colourful, and she sounded more angry than she had in the recordings of her that I had.

Having no plan and no voice, I clicked my Pip-Buck and chose the appropriate audio file. If nothing else, the recording would at least cooperate with my lie. The stupid grin he had the entire time, faded when the recording began, and it instead turned into a frown.

The recording finished as abruptly as I remembered, and the buck turned around.

The soft sound of fabric hitting the hard floor echoed through my ears. Suddenly, my saddlebags laid on the floor in front of me, and I looked up at the buck. His face was cold and emotionless, and the anger from before had vanished. Perhaps he knew this Cold Front? I didn't really care, and frankly if he could help me get away from here, I would happily oblige to not being Cold Front. My life hadn't really improved after I assumed that role.

“Where are you going?” I asked as I regained my voice and got to my hooves, gripping the leather strap between my saddlebags. It tasted of blood. Probably mine. In one swift motion I hoofed it over my back, and now I felt less naked.

“Nowhere,” he replied stoutly, and turned his back. He too picked up a saddle, though this one didn't have the official Stable-Tec logo. It was in fact a saddle equipped with two rifles, one at each side. I didn't know which kind, not that I studied guns that much in any case.

“You sure?” I asked again, this time lowering my voice into soft and dull tones. Maybe he listened more to mares who actually sounded as Mares.

He frowned at me, but his expression was soft. “I'm going to replenish my supplies,” he commented as he proceeded to walk out of the house. As he left I could feel the coldness of the vacant house around me, and I practically galloped after him. I was not about to be left alone again.

When I caught up to him, he frowned at me, but didn't do anything else to denote me from following him further. We walked together for a while in silence, and it was truly deafening. Having lived in the Stable my whole life, I had always had the quiet hum of the Stable generators, but out here, the only sound I could hear was the faint whooshing of the wind.

Looking around me I could see nothing but the whiteness. It seemed to perforate everything and huddle it inside itself, as if it was some kind of sleeping beast. I looked over to him but got no look in return.

Biting my lip, I finally couldn't contain myself any longer. “What is this?” I asked as I motioned at the ground with a smile, and limped forwards. The buck grinned at me, then he broke into a chuckle, but I couldn't really see what was so funny about it.

“Really? You've never seen snow?” he asked with an enthusiasm that was rather unnerving. I shook my head and he laughed some more, so much in fact that we had to stop so he didn't fall over and strand both me and himself.

“That's not funny, and It's not my fault. I lived underground my whole life!” I shouted at him as he rolled in the snow, and suddenly after I spoke, he got to his hooves again and stared at me blankly. What the hay was the matter with this guy? What's wrong with this entire surface-world actually?

“You've lived in a Stable?” The buck asked dryly, his former enthusiasm seemed to have left him. I nodded in return, and he groaned as we trudged forwards again. The sound of the 'snow' crumbled under my hooves. I wanted to live in this 'snow' thing from this point on.

“Which?” Which what?

“What?”

He face hoofed. He was about to speak when his ears perked, and he narrowed his eyes forward as I could hear the sounds of music. The buck poked me with a hoof.

“Do not touch me!” I screamed in return at him, and his ears lowered.

“Fine, just follow me!” he retorted back as we moved towards a group of boulders and he hunched down behind the stones as the music grew louder and louder. It hit a huge note, and I could hear the faint sounds of the Equestrian national anthem as it vanished into silence again.

The buck peeked his head out from the stone, and a sigh escaped him as he returned to his usual stance. What they hay was this guy's problem?

“We're safe,” he said with relief as he moved out from the stone. I followed swiftly. Soon we were on our way. As we walked, I continued to check my map, and saw that 'Point Hoof' crept closer and closer, but we were diverging. Instead of going south, we went south-east.

“What's Point Hoof?” I asked rather bluntly.

He looked at me with a glare that reminded me of Fizzle, then I saw her mangled body flash across my eyes. I swallowed hard, and stared at him in return, or at least some kind of stare. The best stare that I could muster.

“Death,” he answered back, though I wouldn't count that as an answer; it was merely a word, and not a word I liked.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at him. “Death?”

“Death,” he agreed.

This was really good. I would have been better off alone in fact. This guy was as useful as an audio recording, no actually, a recording was more useful. In there they actually strip away crap that's not useful and only leave the important bits. In conclusion, I like reports.

“Would you care to elaborate?” I asked and pushed forwards with the conversation.

He looked at me, but again his look softened. Now that was getting on my nerves. “Raider town, and I don't have to explain what a Raider is to you.” Huh? OH! Yeah, there's no introduction needed there.

I noosed my head, and the conversation stopped again. This buck wasn't the talkative sort, but I had seen what the talkative sort talked about, and this was preferable though eerie. We passed a few broken houses on our way towards wherever, and it suddenly dawned on me as I saw an old post-box with a name inscribed on it.

Starcatcher, I think it was. The lettering was terribly faded, and we walked past in a hurry. We were actually speeding up.“What's your name?” I asked softly, seeing as that had worked so well earlier.

“Hah!” Another one word reply. Damn, that was annoying.

“Hah, what?” I asked back, but no glare this time. It wasn't needed.

He looked at me, and smirked. “I could tell you my name was Destroyer, or Sunflower, or maybe I'll get real creative, huh? How about, Wildforce?” He kept reciting fictional names in a sarcastic tone as we walked. I preferred the silence.

Fine then, but... oh! Oh yes! My bad memory came to haunt me again, but I remembered back to the house, and maybe there was something better than silence. I stopped briefly to check my Pip-Buck, and by golly was I right! Another station had cropped up on my communications tab, not one I recognized, but it would have to work.

Galloping after the stallion, I resumed my position next to his side as sweet music poured from my Pip-Buck. The buck didn't say anything, but I didn't care. As the music kept on playing, I noticed that I hadn't heard this one before. The Stable had only ten songs, or just about that number, and there were no musically inclined ponies there. That's what you get when you have a Stable where the mechanical department is bigger than half the living area.

With a pop, and an electrical crackle the song stopped. It was interrupted half-way to its intended finish by a stallion. He had a gruff voice, gravely, and almost grating, so I felt sick of the memory it perked.

“In other news: We have no more reports coming out of the Steel Ranger's number station up south, they keep telling it's not theirs, but ponies in full armour barding similar to that of Rangers have been seen, so watch yourself out there. And here's another song, this one by Gravestone!” His voice vanished with another electrical crackle and my Pip-Buck shut off, magically.

What the hay? I turned to look at the buck, a faint glimmer of magic around his horn vanished. Now, he was getting on my nerves... again!

“What was that for?” I asked, dumbfounded since I should have known the answer.

“I don't listen to Gravestone,” he noted, but didn't look at me. Clearly something was bothering him, and it had to do with this 'Gravestone'. I suddenly felt as if I got bombarded with names, and I secretly hoped my Pip-Buck had an auto-remember-names spell.

It didn't.

Me and the buck walked for a few more miles as the sun went down. I walked behind him, and he walked in front. Unsurprisingly he wasn't very nervous at me, and honestly where would I go? The light of our Pip-Buck lighted the way.

Suddenly, I could hear the Equestrian national anthem again, but this time the buck didn't waver. My Pip-Buck started clicking again, but I didn't look. If I lost the buck out here, I wouldn't be able to find him again.

We strode in front of a town. A bad town, but a town nonetheless. Right in front of me, a huge rusted metal sign hung limply from two rusted poles, and it said 'Hoofy' in large, also rusted metal letters with one of them hanging from its supports, almost ready to drop.

Looking at my Pip-Buck, I was surprised that it didn't mark the town as 'Hoofy' as in the name, not the badly made pun. Instead it marked it as 'Strom' … Okay?

When I looked back up at the dilapidated town, I noticed that the buck was gone. In retrospect, I should have known. He never wanted me to follow him again, but crap. I was alone again, and in a badly kept town.

Not good.

Footnote:Level Up(3.)
New Perk: Swift Learner(2) – You are indeed a Swift Learner with this Perk, as each level will gain you an additional +5% bonus whenever you earn experience points.