Fallout Equestria: Crescent Ghoul

I ran through the streets, heading for the edge of the city as fast as I could and avoiding any moving shapes I came across. I had to get out of this nightmarish ruin and to somewhere there are other ponies that aren’t zombies. I rushed past ruin after ruin, the buildings starting to thin out as I neared the exit to Canterlot. The further I got from the center of the city, the fewer zombies I saw as well. The strange pink mist that was in the air was also thinning out substantially. Upon reaching the very edge of Canterlot, I stopped and looked out at the countryside visible from so high up the mountain and gasped.

For as far as I could see, there was just a dead wasteland, with almost no greenery anywhere. Just mountains, dead trees, and brown plains up to the horizon. The only exception was the area I knew was called the Everfree Forest, an expansive forest just beyond Ponyville from here. If I looked towards the horizon, I could just make out the southern edge of the forest.

In the distance I could make out a pair of towns, one of which was Ponyville itself and the other was an unknown village really close by. Perhaps the ponies there can tell me what’s going on, I thought to myself. I started following the train tracks down the mountain, avoiding the rough terrain surrounding it. As I trotted along the tracks, I heard a rumble in the sky, which I only just noticed was covered by heavy clouds.

“Great. Just what I needed…” I grumbled to myself, and lit my horn. I summoned a layer of magic using my knowledge of a shield spell and positioned it above me. I kept it there for a little while as I walked, and sure enough, minutes later it was pouring rain. Thank Celestia I was a unicorn. I continued down the tracks, walking slower in order to watch my step and not slip on the now slippery surfaces. Finally I reached the bottom of the mountain and started towards the little village. It had a wall of scrap that surrounded a large ruined building and many dilapidated shacks that didn’t look like it’d protect from much, but there also seemed to be robots roaming the area, as well as several zebra children. I walked up to what appeared to be the gate, where I was stopped by a buck with a shotgun. My eyes went wide as he pointed it at me.

“W-whoa wait don’t shoot!” I exclaimed immediately, backing up. The colt looked me over carefully for a moment, as if trying to decide on something, before pointing the gun away from me.

“You’re clearly not a feral, so what do you want?” He looked at my saddle bags. “Are you here to trade?” he asked hopefully. I looked at him with a confused expression.

“A feral?” He seemed surprised at my question and raised an eyebrow.

“A feral ghoul. How do you not know about feral ghouls when you’re a ghoul yourself?” He thought for a moment before nodding for me to follow him into the settlement, so I did, looking around at the children. They all looked like they had been starving until just recently, going by the crates of food they had sitting near the entrance. I turned to my guide.

“What is this place? Where are all the adults?”

“This is Glyphmark. All of the adults were taken as slaves so we made this village. We used to kick out anyone that got their glyph mark, but Miss Xenith and her friends helped us set up trade a few days ago,” the colt explained dully. I blinked in shock. Slaves? Since when did ponies take zebras as slaves? I asked the buck this and he looked surprised once again.

“You’re very strange… Slavers have been around for decades. They’re not as scary as the Nightmare Moons, though.” The more I talked to this zebra kid, the more questions that I ended up needing answers for, and it was starting to get on my nerves. What in Celestia’s name are Nightmare Moons? I decide to get down to the bottom of what’s really been bugging me, though.

“How long ago was the war?” I asked flatly. The rain was still coming down, but the barrier of magic above me was keeping me relatively dry. The zebra tilts his head in confusion and looks at me.

“What war?” he asked. I grumbled in annoyance.

“The war between the ponies and the zebras!” I said a bit louder. Was this kid not paying attention or something? The buck frowned and tilted his head.

“That war? It was 200 years ago… at least, that’s what my mom always said,” the colt said simply. That made me blink. ‘200 years? How was I out for that long?’ I thought to myself. I thought about what to do before speaking again.

“I don’t really have anything to trade, but I have money. Where’s your store?” I asked, remembering that I had a decent amount of bits in my bag. The zebra colt smiled and led me into a larger shack, where a bunch of objects were displayed on shelves. Guns and other weapons, food, scrap metal and electronics, but what was most abundant were these little inhalers. I wondered where they got so many asthma inhalers and why they seemed to be the main item for sale. I walked up to the makeshift counter that consisted of a sheet of metal balanced between four cinder blocks on their ends, where a zebra filly greeted me.

“Hi! See anything you like?” the filly asked eagerly. I glanced around at the many items. Then I turned to her.

“What kind of supplies would I need to get from here to the next town? All I really have is food and money right now,” I stated. The filly thought for a moment, a hoof resting on her chin.

“Well, the nearest settlements are Stable City inside Canterlot and Ponyville to the southwest, but Canterlot is really dangerous, so your best bet might be to head for Ponyville. For that trip, I’d say you’d need a weapon in case you get attacked by raiders and ammo, at least. Since you’re a ghoul, food isn’t really important…” That made me blink.

“Wait, ghouls don’t need to eat?”

“No, you don’t. Didn’t you know?” The filly looked surprised. I frowned in response. Wasn’t the answer obvious?

“No, I didn’t. I just woke up in Canterlot, so I get an idea of how dangerous it is,” I commented offhand. The filly blinks and thinks for a bit.

“So you’re a Canterlot Ghoul… then you might find it worth scavenging in Canterlot for supplies. I don’t know much about them, but you should be immune to most of the dangers. You should still buy a weapon of some kind to deal with the ferals there if you upset them. You won’t be able to kill them, but you could slow them down enough to run away,” the filly zebra said as a matter of factly.

This got me curious about these Canterlot Ghouls. I decided I’d need to do some proper research on what I am later. The filly looked at me again. “Have you ever shot a gun before?” I shook my head and the young zebra walked over to a shelf, pulling off a box and a pistol before returning to the counter and putting them both in front of me. “This shouldn’t be too hard for you to learn to use. That’ll be 112 caps.” I frowned and tilted my head in confusion.

“Wait, caps? As in, bottlecaps?” The filly nodded in response. “That’s an unusual choice of currency. All I have is bits,” I informed her, adjusting my glasses. The filly thinks for a moment.

“I think that’d come out to 448 bits, then…”

I looked in my bag and counted my bits. I was only carrying 306 bits on me. I frowned and explained this to the filly, who took the gun and box and put them back, returning with a large wooden club instead. She placed it on the makeshift counter in front of me and smiled.

“Alright, this is only 60 bits. If you’re gonna scavenge in Canterlot, bring gear and stuff here and I’ll trade for it,” the filly suggested. I took out 60 bits and gave them to the filly. Then I took the club and put it in my bags for the moment. The filly smiled and took the bits. “Thanks, miss!” I shrugged and headed out the door.

Sure, I just bought a stick for 60 bits, but it looked much sturdier than anything I could find laying around. It looked like it might have once been a piñata stick. Either way, it was better than nothing. As I left the shack, I created a magical umbrella above me to stay dry and headed out the gate. The filly had said Canterlot would be good to scavenge in, so I guessed I could go there for supplies. Plus if I returned to the library, I might be able to find a few spell books I could study. I’d just have to deal with those zombies. I began the trot back up the mountain, once again following the train tracks up the slope.

A few minutes later I walked back into the ruins of Canterlot. The rain was still pouring, and that seemed to be dissipating the pink mist quite a bit. The streams of rainwater had rivulets of pink in them, and the ground had been thoroughly soaked at this point. I trotted up the street, my stick floating in my magic in preparation of anything attacking me.

I could see what I assumed to be feral ghouls moving in the alleys, but I kept to the main pathway, moving under the arch and up the bridge that led from the market district to the lower residential. Following the main roads, I passed by many ruined and collapsed houses. I knew exactly where I was going from years of walking these streets before the war. A few minutes later I was walking up the ramp that led to the northwest upper residential district, which was where I had once called home. I entered my house and started going through drawers, looking through the rubble for things I could take with me to trade.

As I searched through the rooms, I thought about the life that I’d never get back. The constant studying and the quiet solitude of my old home, the floor strewn with books and papers I’d yet to put away or return to the library. Checking through the several drawers around the ruined house and my old desk, I managed to find a metal cooking pot, two pencils, a clothes iron, a clipboard and my old microscope. Everything else had either been crushed by rubble or worn down by time. I put the items I’d found in my bag and headed back out the door with my magic ‘umbrella’. I knew exactly where my second stop would be as I headed back down the ramp from my district, and up the bridge nearby to the business district.

Several times on the way to my destination, I saw ferals walking in the distance, more visible thanks to the rain dissipating the pink mist. I kept myself distant and my club at the ready in case they attacked. Passing several ruined businesses, I arrived at the clearing that was home to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and the Library of Magic.

The rain was still pouring as I took a better look at the two buildings that had taken up much of my childhood. The spires of the school were crumbling, water pouring off the jagged areas where stone had broken off from age and damage, and a few old skeletons were lain across benches and tables in the courtyard. I couldn’t help but wonder how many students had died within the school’s walls. The library had fared worse than the school. All of the windows were shattered, and a few of the columns had fallen over the centuries. On top of that, I knew from experience that the roof had caved in when the city had been hit by missiles.

I walked up the stairs to the library and entered, preparing myself in case that feral was still there. There was banging on the door to the back room, so I assumed ferals couldn’t operate doors and was thankful. With that comfort, I glanced around the library itself. Several of the bookshelves were toppled over on top of each other, and there was a huge hole in the ceiling, no doubt what had collapsed on top of me when the missiles hit. Everywhere near the shelves, old books littered the ground. I walked around and started searching the shelves for books I could take with me to study. Perhaps I could find something that would teach me a more useful spell.

I spent several hours within the library, searching through hundreds or perhaps thousands of ruined and unreadable books, pulling out what few intact books I could find. With the number of ruined books, I was personally surprised that there were any usable books left in the first place. By the time I had decided I’d searched enough, I only had three magazines and six books. I looked them over with curiosity to learn what treasures I had discovered.

Let’s see… two Royal Wordsmith magazines, one Royal Army Specialist magazine… I already know Magia Deprehendere, but maybe I could sell this book to someone that could use it… Percutiens Industria Plasma and Demuto Physiologiam definitely sound like useful spells… I don’t know if I’d ever use Mens Explorandum, Mentis Antemurale or Nubes Tempestas, but it’s never a bad idea to learn them anyway,I thought to myself, rummaging through the few books I had found. I shrugged and put all six spellbooks and all three magazines in my bag and started out the door.