Fallout Equestria: Lead Skies

At the crack of dawn I woke up from lying on a wall, I got up and cracked my joints back into place, each, makimg a soft Pop as they readjusted, I picked Up my bags and put them back on... Thankful that the standard issue "bag of unusual size" enchantment was put on them, making them far more spacious inside annd reducing the felt weight by quite a bit, although my posessions were few, No doubt would the extra space help.

"so... Wheres this radio?" I asked to Gramp, who was looking off into the distance at an old radio tower on a hill

"Oh... You're awake... Its the little ornge box in my pack, has a bunch a dials and shit on the front"

"got it..." I went to his pack and pulled the orange radio from the bag, its surface was dirty and scuffed to tartarus and back but it still looked serviceable.

I pulled a small screwdriver from my pack and began opening it up, once In I found the problem pretty fast... A fried sparkle energy cell, and a shorted connectionfrom the battery to one of the ground wires. I pulled the broken cell from its slot and bent the contacts back into shape, I didn't have another cell, so I focussed on repairing the short.
The problem I found was that the cable had fused to the ground connection by an exposed piece of wire I pulled the cable free and decided to tell gramp that I was going to go looking for suplies.

"Gramp... Im gonna go find some stuff I need to fix this... Back in a few"

"watch out for any of them ol' rad roaches... Little bastards'll give ya one fucking nightmare of an infected wound... Watch yourself"

"okay... Keepin my two good legs would probably help"

I wandered out into the empty city and began looking for the few parts the radio needed... A scrap of tire inner tube would work fine to wrap the shorted wire, but finding a sparkle Cell would be tough, I had No idea where any would be, or if they even existed anymore outside of ammo dumps or Stables.

I pulled the 44 from my pack, now that it was brighter outside I saw that It was gold damacened on some parts to add some extra detailing to the engravings... Far more valuable, and it also had two small gemstones mounted in the handles, which looked to be made of something like bone or horn. I checked what my PipBuck had to say about it, I found it in the 'items' menu on the device and looked at the general description.

"This weapon posesses the ability to improve shooters stability when using Iron sights, and grants far superior accuracy and precision at long range when equipped with a scope, the reciever and cylinder are elaborately decorated with engravings and small amounts of gold."

"Sweet...dont got a scope... Or ammo... But... Cool I guess"

I continued to wander around the ruined city, nothing really stood out, Only a few bugs made themselves visible... One of them looked like a giant ugly housefly with ugly bits of hair hanging off of it, at least 10mm was powerful enough to put them down. I didnt want to waste my precious 12.7 unless I had a good reason to.

After some more wandering around and the occasional snoop around the non coplapsed buildings, I came across an old parking garage, several cars still sitting in thier spots untouched, one of the cars I found had an old holotape stuck in its player, After some wrestling with the tape it came free and I played it with my Pipbuck.

From what I could tell, it was a recording of an old news reel , although the voices themselves were too distorted to discern what they were saying except a few short pieces of sentences.

"Shhhhhhhhhhhh Zebra?..shhhhhhhhhhhhhh, nat...... Se...... Ebra........... Min..... Im...... Onate........ SHHHHHHHHHH" the rest of the tape was unrecorded... Or just really badly damaged , I stuck it in my bag just in case any of its parts would be useful.

I walked to the top of the structure where I found the remains of a crashed vertibuck... One of its props sat in shambles next to the crumpled frame, the other and its accompanying engine were torn off and chucked a fair distance away, Inside I found an old laser pistol in an ammo can and five half charged sparkle cells, as well as a note

"heavily modified laser pistol, named Sparkle's Sanity, slowly recharges power over time depending on amount of ambient magic or radiation, and can have the chance to overcharge itself at random to fire a more potent shot, however weapon may overheat and need to be cooled down if it is fired too much too quickly, uses sparkle cells, good accuracy, moderate damage, slow semi auto fire."

The grips appeared to be oriented towards unicorns and things with hands based on the lack of mouthgrip and presence of a sight on top of the weapon rather than the side. It also had a strange socket for a cable on the bottom of the main body of the weapon... Odd.

The strange recording was what I looked at next, it crackled to life and began speaking.

"to anypony who finds this... Its been an hour since the bombs dropped... Vertibuck crashed.... Radiation poisoned.... Tell any surviving family.... I love them.... Give them the *cough* medallion taped to the inside of the laser gun... Laser was part of a pair... Find... Body... Will have other gun with names of... Family...." the recording stopped and my PipBuck blipped a bit and gave me an objective.

" New objective: Final wishes, find the pony's corpse and return the gold medallion to family"

"Ill do this... At least somepony will rest in peace.. In this luna forsaken place."

I headed back to gramp's radio and plopped in the core, I wrapped up the wires by tying the inner tube to the bare portion, I reclosed the radio and switched it on... The little indicator screen lit up and an old prewar song started coming from its little speaker.

Brass instruments blared and a cheerful tune about some cowboy with spurs... I switched it back off and found Gramp, who was sitting under an old piece of roofing out of the sun.

"Gramp... I got the radio fixed"

"whelp... You held up yer end, Spose Ill hold mine... Thank ya... Means alot to me... This ere radio's only thing that my mother left... And the music they play over the radio keep us all sane... Here... Take this... Its a copy of the wasteland survival Guide... Ive written my own tips in it over the years... By the way, ya might wanna get yourelf some armored barding... Wasteland aint a friendly place, havin something to stop the flak it throws oughtta help ya... Oh... An take this... Havin some range also helps... Ah cant use it since I dont have hands.... Or a horn... But with them funky robot fingers on yer legs I see I think itll probly help ya more than it would me", he handed me the booklet and a very strangely configured AKMB assault rifle.

The book was printed on old scraps of paper and homemade parchment, the cover looked to be made of some kind of scaly tough hide.

"if ya find yourself lookin for a chat or to squat with us... You're alwYs welcome... Aint that right boys?" the assorted griffons and ponies who weren't off doing something collectively nodded and made noises of agreement"

"I'll seeya round...thanks for the help"

"thank you for gettin our entertainment working, wasteland would be pretty borin without it... Happy trails"

"You too!"

I left the little group off into dodge city... New rifle across my back and a little book of know how in my bag, I kept the rifle ready to be drawn at a moments notice. I reached the parking garage again and began looking for the other laser pistol, I found it by a skeleton on the street below, obviously the pony ended his suffering by jumping.... I grabbed the pistol and looked it over, it was also a laser pistol, but rather than Sparkle cells It took the much larger cores instead, the description came up a few seconds later.

companion pistol to Sparkle's Sanity, Twilight's wrath, uses fusion cores and does far more damage, excellent damage, uses, Sparkle Cores, poor accuracy, Slow semi automatic. I stuck it in my bag and the Pip Buck updated its mission, ticking the "find other pistol" box as complete.

After more wandering I found myself in a predicament... Whether to leave Dodge and head east to the more populated centres of the wasteland, or just stay to avoid the risk of traveling that far.... Considering the total lack of sustainable food or water, I decided to risk it, I took my bags and exited the dead city.

I turned on the radio and let it just play for awhile while I read the edited wasteland survival guide when I decided to rest and eat some rations.

Big angry things to avoid

Deathclaw: obviously something with "death" in its name would be something to avoid... They look like some demonic lizard with claws like swords, they wont hesitate to kill anypony on sight, do not engage without serious armament, preferably high powered snipers or explosive weapons,

Manticore: deadly pre war creatures only made tougher from the balefire and taint... Big scary mutant cat things with wings and scorpion stingers... Avoid at all costs unless in possession of high power weaponry or enough skill to snipe it in vital organs.

Taint: not really a normal monster, but it is pretty nasty, it is technically a disease born from pre war research, it helped cause things like death claws, ghouls, and a ton of other deadly things. Getting infected is usually terminal, or may cause ghoulification depending on genetics... However tainted ghouls are usually feral and can spread taint, if youre around the stuff try to have some form of hazmat or radiation suit on you it'll help a bit.

Raider fiends: they'll just as soon kill ya than rape ya, some of them are cannibals, and all of them should be avoided unless ya got a fucking army to back you job...

I closed the book and got back up... But honestly the vault propoganda was worse than the wasteland actually was... Deadly incurable super cancer disease and big angry knife lizard aside, it still had civilization... As remarkable as it was. The vault propoganda said that the wasteland was barren and full of horrnedous monsters... Which it was, but despite that some ponies made themselves a living... Even, makeshift cities rose one of the most infamous was somewhere Called junktown out near the western seaboard.

As I walked I saw something in the distsnce... I pulled out my rifle and trained the scope on the distant thing... A deathclaw... Not very big, big still probably big enough to turn me into chunky bits, I looked at the rifle's abilities just to make sure I wasnt going to regret shooting it with this thing.

"Moon Mistress, does more damage each consecutive shot on a target" hence its odd configuration... The drum mag was to take advantage of the weird enchantment... And the scope and barrel were to improve accuracy to ensure the shots would miss less... Although the lack of stock was still a bit of a pain.

I took aim and held the trigger, the gun barked and fired a steady steam of ammo towards the deathclaw, the first hits didnt do much... But after maybe the 25th hit it was doing far more damage than usual, ripping big holes and sending blood all over, soon the deathclaw died of bullet wounds, I holstered my weapon to see my work, the deathclaw was covered in holes, on a whim I took a few of the better claws and tossed them into my bag to weaponise later.

The wastes were pretty inhospitable... Central equestria was never very populated outside of ponyville... At least according to the history books... Dodge city was one of the only other major cities in the area. And as such there wasnt much for me ti find to survive hence the almost nonexistent population outside of the abandoned cities... Whereas just based on simple logic and a couple sections from the survival guide that the more populated areas with more supplies would be popular destinations for travelers, looking for stuff and places to live.

So I would need to ultimately head one way or the other to find somewhere inhabited... But how to do that was beyond me since it was so far away. And I had very few supplies.
In one of the history books about before the war... Some of the only ones allowed to be read by male dwellers besides the most likely fake history books about the vaults, I read about a time before cars and aircraft were common, so the best method of transport was Trains... They built a massive trans continental rail system to get around... So I would have to use the railway... Or somehow repair or steal a pre war aircraft... Usimg a train was out of the question since the rails were probably mostly destroyed... Damn...

I kept walking... But this time turning more or less east, even though it was barren, some places still seemed viable for inhabitation... Or at least to get some supplies... Another thing in the histroy books I found was a book detailing equestrian military forces, and a few books, memoirs, and diaries of some survivors detailing where and what everthing was... Including somewhere called The Buckler Air Force Base... Supposedly it was just east of Dodge city and a little north, I began heading east, only pausing to put a mark where I thought it was and to look at the stats of the rifle I used half of my ammo to kill the deathclaw with.

"Thirsty Mare 2, this weapon does more damage the more blood is spilled from the enemy being shot, it also restores itself to almost new so long as it's bayonet is stabbed into the slain foe. " it certainly did that well... Albeit with enough ammo, thank goodness it was accurate, although the sniper barrel, bayonet, scope, and no stock were kinda odd to get used to, I could manage so long as It could kill... I guess I owed it some more ammo if it could obliterate stuff so fast... It also had a strange picture of a mare ornately engraved and painted onto the reciever... It depicted a mare with little bat ears, wings and a fanged grin... But where I expected to see pale white or black fur, it was a peculiar butter yellow and pink... Strange...

After another quick break to cool off and eat I continued along towards Buckler.