Fallout Equestria

Black Label

Rider stared at the terminal in front of him, his horn lit as the object in his magical grasp moved through the halls towards the main lobby in his bunker. The blue-ish black glow of his magic gave him an almost ethereal appearance as it mixed with his blue coat. His green eyes scanned each screen in turn as the item moved closer and closer to him. It wasn’t of great importance to the ponies under his command, but to him, it meant the world. At least, the end of it. The orb clutched in his magic glowed with an ethereal light, save for the yellow “Stable-Tec” stamped on the side of it.

Closing his eyes, he let his magic pull it to him, the automatic doors leading into his office swinging open to admit it entry to him. However, it didn’t approach his desk. An obvious strain came to his magic as he attempted to pull it to him before, inevitably, his magic broke, the orb clanging to the ground. Sighing, he stood up and walked around his desk, blinking as the orb moved away from him of its own free will. Closing his eyes again, this time to fight off the urge to shout at an inanimate object, he turned and trotted back to his desk.

Pushing a button next to his terminal, he listened for the tell-tale buzz of an answer on the other end. When it didn’t come, he growled to himself before pushing the button on his terminal, pulling up the video of the security office. “Archon, this is Rider. I expect you and your men to answer when I summon you.” He said and the stallion on the other end of the screen saluted.

“Apologize, Rider. There seems to be a problem outside our walls.”

“Such as?”

“It seems the Stable has opened. One mare has left the protection given by the iron door.” Rider blinked and looked at the screen next to his desk. The Stable Door was still closed, the vibrant yellow 090 still upright. It was on a constant feed, and any change to it was recorded, even if the recording equipment was damaged.

“I don’t see how that’s possible. I have been monitoring the Stable Door ever since we set up here. Keep monitoring the Stable and alert me immediately if anyone else comes out. And Archon, if someone does come out, stop them with extreme prejudice. I want them alive so I can question them.” Rider said and Archon saluted again before signing off. Rider sighed as he pushed the button to sign off on his end before leaning back in his seat. “I can’t believe how stupid my assistants are…”

“Sir.” The mare who always stood, still as a statue, in his office stepped forward, staring at him. He sighed again and smiled at her.

“I don’t mean you, of course Priest. You seem to be the most competent of my employees.” He said and she saluted.

“I will see to it the Stable is monitored properly, sir.” She said before turning and trotting out of the room. Sighing for the third time that evening, he sat back again.

“Stupid… ponies…” he groaned as the cameras monitoring the Stable shorted out.

Stable 121

Just another day in Stable 121. Of course, most of us went about the day to day as per usual. Woke up in the morning, meaning when the lights buzzed on, went to work, took our lunch breaks, and went about our day goofing off. Me? I’m Ruby. Ruby Scepter is my full name. My parents were hilarious. I’m a jeweler, which is made easy by the fact that Stable 121 was built into the side of a mountain and had a large iron door leading into the mountain for mining. I’m also a Unicorn, so hunting down gems is easy enough for me. Of course, tonight was a moderately special night. At least for me.

Not have a lot of friends on your birthday sucks and takes all the fun out of even having a birthday. Even my parents weren’t going to attend. Not that they could. Unless someone turned back the clock to before they were put in the incinerator. And being an only child meant no siblings. The only people that would probably show up for my birthday were the cook and a couple of the security ponies. Not exactly my friends, but the security ponies spent enough time with me to basically consider themselves my friends.

Not that they had a choice when they did. It was usually when I was sitting in their office waiting for the head of security to let me leave. Being a jeweler, I got into quite a bit of trouble for leaving the safety of the stable for the mine it was built into. I’d found a loose panel in the exterior wall of the Stable that lead into the mine, where I got all of my gems. Not that it was dangerous. The radiation from the Mega-Spells never reached into here.

“Oi, shrimp, yer gonna be late for yer party.” One of them said, opening the door to the cell I was in. It wasn’t really because I was in prison. Just in a cell because I’d gotten into trouble.

“What’s it matter…? No one’s gonna be there.” I said as I rolled off of the cot set in the corner of the room. Landing on my hooves, I walked to through the door, head down, staring at the floor, as we walked down the hall to the atrium. Everyone was going to be there, including the Overmare. Also known as my mother. She was gonna have some huge speech, congratulating me on reaching my eighteenth birthday successfully. She may have been my mom, but she wasn’t much of a mother. The most her appearance at my party will mean is she’s the Overmare and is getting the attention she thinks she’s owed.

It wasn’t as though I really wanted to go to my party. I just wanted to curl up in my room and sleep it away, pretend it never happened. But that was going to be impossible. After all, we housed one of the Ministry of Laughter’s many descendants. And she always made sure that parties were big, loud, and over the top. It didn’t really help that I had a crush on her, too. Sighing, I walked to the door of the cell and waited as the security stallion typed something in on the console that would open it. As the door slowly slid open, I breathed in a sigh of relief and opened my eyes. The door had frozen, mid opening, and the security stallion, who had been walking around it to wait in front to escort me to the atrium, was frozen mid step. Looking around, with only my eyes, I realized that I was also frozen.

The only thing that could do that was SATS, or Stable Assisted Targeting System. And the only ones who could use that were the security crew. Moving my eyes to the door, I saw someone who wasn’t security walk into the holding cells. I couldn’t tell if it was a mare or stallion, whoever it was had a full body suit on. At least, it looked like a full body suit. Maybe more of a carapace than anything else, like an insect. Even the wings were encased in the armor, covering the feathers in wicked looking blades.

Following the armored Pegasus was a group of four more, all of them wearing armor. The difference between them all was that one of them was wearing black armor. The other four were in silvery armor. All of them, save for the one in black, had long tube like things on either side of them. “Loot them while they’re stalled. This SATS program only lasts so long.” The one that walked in first said and I amended my previous thought that it was male. She was clearly female. Tracking her with my eyes alone, since the rest of me couldn’t move.

“What are we gonna do with them all, Commander Frost?”

“Kill the ones that wouldn’t fetch a price. The old, the infants, any that wouldn’t last long enough in the mines.” She said and my eyes widened, painfully slowly.

“What about this little red one? She’s clearly some sort of criminal here. After all, she’s in a prison cell.” One of them said and I looked at him. He was clearly a male, his voice was deep enough. As I watched him, the tube at his side, under his wing, started glowing red.

“No. Just the young and the old. She may be small, but she can still work.” She said, her wings flaring behind her. “And if she doesn’t work, I have other uses for that horn of hers.” The other armored pegasi backed away, relatively quickly, and one of them used his wings to put something on his helmet. I assumed it was a he, because thus far he hadn’t spoken. The thing he put on his helmet looked like a headband, at least until it apparently synced up with his armor. At which point it grew into a spire on his forehead. A horn.

Watching him, since he filled my vision at the moment, the artificial horn lit up and wrapped me in a sheath of opaque blue magic, lifting me into the air. As soon as the magic hit me, I was dropped out of the effect of SATS and was able to squirm around. At least until the tubes spun up again. “Keep squirming and I’ll vaporize your leg.” I instantly froze. “Good girl. Grab one more each and we’ll take off.” She said, and I realized it was a she, as her companions went into the Stable. It didn’t take too long before they all returned, empty hooved.

“Sorry Commander. We couldn’t get at any others. There’re too many security stallions here.” One of them said and she nodded.

“Fine. We’ll make do with the few we already have. Let’s move.” She said as she carried me out of the room. Behind her, more armored pegasi also wearing the horn things on their heads carried the one stallion who’d been in the prison with me, as well as a couple fillies from the local school who probably were in the atrium. As soon as we’d gone through a hole in the side of the Stable, my Pip-buck started clickity-clicking up a storm. Looking at it as best I could, I saw the radiation meter edging slowly towards the red.

“Boss, they don’t have any Rad-Away, and we’re the ones in insulated armor.” One of the flying hunks of armor said and the Artificial Unicorn carrying me looked at me and nodded. Thinking she was going to give me this Rad-Away, she instead floated me around in front of her and levitated out a small tube with a nozzle on the end of it. When she pointed it at me, I expected to feel agonizing pain. We had guns in the Stable, but I’d never had one aimed at me before, nor seen one up close.

Instead of being shot though, at least with a bullet, a sort of goo came out of the end of it and splashed into my face before slowly spreading over me, eventually coating my entire body. As soon as I was entirely encased in the stuff, my Pip-Buck stopped clicking, apparently no longer reading radiation. I was also not really in stasis anymore, but I couldn’t tell what was happening. A minute later, I felt a pressure under me. Sadly, I didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t entirely horrible either. Much as I didn’t like that I was just abducted from my home, being carried this way was kind of reminiscent of how my mother used to carry me before she became Over-mare.

“It’s a long flight Commander. We should land and rest.” I heard from somewhere. I couldn’t quite tell direction while in this goo, but I knew my ears worked at least.

“You land if you’re so scared. I’d rather not get ripped to shreds by Hellhounds.” the mare carrying me said before her body was apparently captured by a yawn. “Fuck. Fine. Over there.” She said and suddenly we were descending, rapidly. I felt more than heard the impact and bounced off of the mare’s back. Hitting the ground hurt a little, and I was suddenly able to see clearly. “That wasn’t supposed to happen. Oh well, I doubt she’s gonna be moving any time soon.” To be sure, she moved around me and sat down square on my back, eliciting a grunt from me. If I wasn’t worried about what they were doing with me, I probably would have been ok with her sitting on me, even in her armor.

As soon as the others had landed, one of them started reaching for a small gem on the collar of his neck. “What the hell are you doing? We’re not camping. Keep your damn armor on, moron.” She snapped and he froze before looking at the ground sheepishly, his hoof going back to the ground.

“Can we at least take our helmets off so we can eat, Commander Frost Wing?” One of them asked and she sighed.

“Fine. You can take your helmets off, but do not take off your armor.” She said and she touched something on the side of her head. With a slight whirring and clicking, her helmet slipped away, revealing a snow white face with sapphire eyes and white mane streaked through with blue and silver highlights. She looked exactly as he’d called her. Like frost given wings. Looking around at all of them as their own helmets disappeared into their armor, apparently sinking into their necks. They were all different, which was a surprise to me. I’d assumed they’d all look alike, since their armor made them look the same.

One of them was a reddish color with a scar blinding his left eye and only a smattering of mane. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a mane, it was that it was cropped so short as to be almost non-existent. From the fuzz on top of his head, I could tell his mane would be blue. Two colors that should never be together that closely. Another, the one that the one sitting on me had addressed, was brown-ish green, almost a puke green color, with a dark brown mane. Talk about shit on vomit. Looking at him made me almost chuckle, but I abstained. Didn’t want to get shot. The third member of the group was another mare, and if she didn’t still have her battle saddle ready to blast me, I probably would have thought she was hot.

Her fur was almost jet black, just like her mane, which, though tied into a tight pony-tail, looked silky smooth. I caught myself wishing I could nuzzle into that mane. Her eyes were an emerald green, much like shit pony’s eyes. The only thing keeping me from attempting to nuzzle the mane was that she was sitting on me. “What about the cushion. Are we feeding it too?” She asked, wiggling a little, which caused the armor covering her rear to dig into my side painfully.

“Of course we’re feeding her. If she dies on the trip back to the compound, we can’t use her to start mining for gems. And for that snarky remark, you’ll be splitting your rations with her.” The gorgeous mare said, causing the one sitting on me to groan. I whispered a silent thank you to her, even though she wasn’t looking at me, as the mare sitting on me put what looked like half of an oat burger on the ground in front of me. Reaching out for it, I couldn’t quite get it so I lit my horn and pulled it to me, taking a bite and nearly vomiting. It wasn’t oats.

Perk Gained: (What the hell?) Stockholm Syndrome: You don’t much mind when you’re captured. As long as the captor is a lovely mare. Talk about picky. +2 to Charisma

Author's Note

Quick start to another Fallout Equestria story I'm doing. I currently have two in the works, but this one follows my cousin's OC, Ruby Scepter, a humble Jewelry Maker from Stable 121, on her journey into the Equestrian Wasteland. How far she'll get, we aren't entirely sure. After all, she doesn't have any formal survival training and the most her small horn is good for is looking for gems.