To say I was confused was an understatement. The last thing I remember was falling down a hill from that strange damned forest and then going unconscious. The next thing I know I am surrounded by planes of tall grass and farmland as far as I can see. It reminds me of home before the war. I started walking through the fields to find a house or something at least close to it.

I was walking for about what felt like eternity when I spotted a large hill with a single large oak tree. It’s branches reaching to the sky. I started to walk towards the large oak tree when I heard a faint humming sound. It only got louder as I ascended up the hill. Once up the hill I saw something that had me do a double take.

Looking out to the field was a creature that has a long furry body but it’s limbs were the weird part about it. For one it had an arm of a lion and a leg of a chicken for another arm. It had wings too, one was bat-like and the other feathery. It’s legs were one of a dragon and another from a deer. Lastly it had a horn and an antler.

Before I could turn around and run this creature turned to me and spoke. “Well if it isn’t Mr. Taylor. Do not worry I won’t hurt you. Instead I must do something and speak to you about something most important.” I was hesitant to turn around and speak with such a creature but of course my curiosity got the better of me in the end.

As I slowly walked up to the creature it summoned a round table and two chairs. It gestured for me to sit which I did. It also sat down across from me and spoke. “Now then let’s get some introductions out of the way. My name is discord but I already know much about you Mr. Taylor.

For one you were captain of the 234rd shock core of elite shock troops that was a part of the siege of Sevastopol. Though you left the military after Sevastopol was taken. Then you decided to get married back home. Though she and your unborn child died at the hands of a drunk driver. You blame yourself for their deaths even to this day don’t you?

Anyway you were then invited to a project to save the world which of course you were hesitant to join not believing that your world could ever be saved. Though you joined anyway because you felt you had to do something right in your world. So am I on the ball or?” A sly grin played across Discord’s face as he told my tale to me.

Before I could speak or retort discord raised his hand. “Ah I almost forgot about your little language barrier which thank goodness I am able to bypass in this landscape of yours. So how about I remove that barrier for you?” Discord raised his hands and I felt like something clicked in my mind and a lump in my throat was suddenly removed. “Now try to speak.”

I cleared my throat a couple of times and spoke. “First of all how do you know about me? Second off what do you want with me?”

All Discord did was give a light chuckle. “I almost forgot that humans ask so many questions. Well let’s just say that I have the ability to go places most people can’t and your world is most interesting with the amount of chaos in it. Though your life I found most interesting for chaos seems to follow you like a plague of sorts. Not a single moment of your life has been stable in the least.

Which is most interesting so I decided to take a personal interest in your plight and goals. So here I am helping you out. Now on to your second question: what do I want from you is simply free me. Then in return I shall give you info on how to get your people over here and start helping build back up this crumbling world. Though before you do that I need you to find someone a mare by the name of blackjack.“

I crossed my arms and looked at Discord dead in those golden eyes. “Okay I have three more questions. One, how do I know you will keep your end of the bargain? Two are you some sort of god or something? Three where will I find this blackjack pony?”

Discord just summoned a tea cup from nowhere and took a sip and placed down the teacup. “To answer your first question you can trust me since helping you is in my best interest at the moment. Two the time of gods and goddesses died when those blasted bombs fell and destroyed this once beautiful world. I am simply a creature with too much time on his hands and wants to help rebuild this world one way or another. To answer your third question I know she is in an area called the Hoofington wasteland or just the hoof as the locals call it.

Before you ask for specifics I can only say this last I heard of her exploits she is in a town called Flank. Though I can not tell you more since I don’t know anything past that regarding her. Now then I must warn you that this pony is a bit much to say the least and very crazy at times. Also know this Mr. Taylor you are not a hero in her story you will be just another companion in her merry gang of misfits at least for a little bit. Also this wasteland is a horrid place that is unforgiving.

So keep your head on a swivel and your gun loaded.” A loud ringing sound rang out from what seemed all around us. Discord got up from his seat and looked back at me. “Ah it seems you are waking up my dear friend. Do not worry this will not be the last we speak to each other. See you around.”

Discord then just disappeared with a bright flash of light. Then the world around me started to fall apart. I then woke up to the sound of beeping. I looked to my left to see some sort of machine working on a pony. I tried to move to no avail. I looked at my wrists and feet to see restraints on them. Then I took in my surroundings.

The room I was in looks like it has seen better days. There was paint peeling off the walls, there were cracks in the floorboards and walls. Where there were supposed to be windows there appeared to be broken or just completely gone. Indeed this clinic has seen better days. Off to the left I tried to get a better look at that pony I saw when I woke up. The pony in question was a stallion with mane color of black and white. While his body color was black with white dots littered around his body while his snout was pure white.

On the side of his butt was a mark that looked like a revolver and some bottle caps along with an envelope next to the bottle caps. I looked back up at his face to see that he was staring at me as well. Awkward silence followed until two sets of doors opened wide. A mare stood and looked at us both then walked towards me. Her mane was red with yellow dots in it while her body color was red.

She wore a doctor's lab coat that only covered half her body, and her mark on her flank was a red cross crossed by two syringes. She came up to my bed and spoke. “Well looks like someone is up and about. Thought you were dead when we pulled you out of the Everfree Forest most don’t survive an Timberwolves bite.”

I laughed. “Looks like I am the lucky few eh?” She gave a light chuckle. I then shook the cuffs. “So why the cuffs doctor?”

She looked hesitant to answer. “Well let’s just out of all the things to come out the forest you’re the weirdest. So the mayor of New Appaloosa decided to keep you here for a little bit until you awoke and he would talk with you. Look nothing personal but folks here are a little cautionary when it comes to things we don’t know about.”

I shrugged my shoulders well as best I could with restraints on. “Seems perfectly reasonable to me. I won’t complain. Also I would like to thank you for saving my life, miss?

“Ah the name is Red Cross , and your name is.”

I gave a brief smile. “My name is Taylor and it is a pleasure to meet you Red Cross. I would shake your hoof but you know.” I gave the cuffs a good rattle. She then laughed and went over to the stallion I saw earlier and started to talk with him. I could not hear their conversation they were having but by the quick looks they were giving me I could tell they were talking about me.

Soon the stallion stepped out of the machine and left the building I was in. Later, Red Cross left to go to sleep and left me to my own thoughts. To say that I was in a weird situation was an understatement. First off I am visited in my dreams by a creature known as Discord which knows all about me. Second is the fact that I have to trust said creature for a chance to get more people over here to help this crumbling world as he put it. Then I have to try and find the only other person who came with me here and find out what is happening.

Then on top of that I have to find one pony travel with them in the hopes that she frees Discord. From there I don’t know save what’s left of humanity. Sounds like a good plan but not all plans work as they are supposed to. I should probably get some rest who knows what these ponies have in store for me. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to my bed being shook. I opened my eyes slowly and then looked to the right of me to see Red Cross looking at a clipboard. I then looked to the left of me to see a stallion with a big cowboy hat on and a checkered suit on. His mane and body color was just brown. He gave a small smile and spoke. “Well then sorry to wake you but once the doctor over here told me you were ready and able I had to come over and talk with ya. “

He simply sat down and continued his talk with me. “Now I don’t ask many questions since that’s a good way to get yourself killed around here, but I must ask something of you. I ask that for saving your life you take care of a problem for me. Do you agree?.”

I thought about it for a minute and decided that helping these ponies was the least I could do to repay them for saving my life. “Well I have to guess you are the mayor of this town correct?” He simply gave a nod. “Well then I will help you but I need my stuff back along with my weapon. Lastly I need a map of sorts so I can find my way to a place called Flank. Does that sound reasonable to you mayor?”

He nodded his head. “Sounds reasonable to me. Now then doctor could you remove the restraints off our guest here please.” Red Cross proceeded to take off my restraints. “Now then unto business shall we? First off there have been raids on our supply’s coming from other settlements along the road that leads to the settlement. We believe that there is a base that these raiders are operating from. I already got a pony who scouted the base last night. So head over there and deal with all the raiders there.”

I simply nodded my head. “Excellent! I shall get the pony who scouted out the base for you to guide you to the base and from there I leave the rest to you.” He then walked away and out of the clinic. The last of the restraints were removed and I was able to finally stretch my legs and my arms. Then I got off the bed and Red as I will now call her led me to my stuff which was in a chest. She opened up to reveal my armor and single 9mm pistol.

The armor itself was a technological advantage to regular body armor back home. It was more like power armor. The armor can protect up to 50 cal rounds but was weak at the joints. The helmet itself was the true masterpiece. It had a heads up display and showed my vitals and the armor itself was very flexible to move in compared to the much heavier variant of this armor. I put on the armor and looked at the helmet which looked like a Greek hoplite helmet but much more futuristic as some would say.

Though this model the model X is pretty old compared to the new models on the line, but it will have to do since this was the armor I wore during the battle for Sevastopol years ago and the project heads decided I could bring my armor along. So there were positives to my situation I guess. I then put on the helmet and holstered my pistol. I turned to Red who just looked a bit nervous at me which I could hardly blame her. I mean I look like I just came out of a war zone so yeah I would be frightened if I was in her position.

The heads up display regarded her as an ally which I found weird but okay I guess. Normally such target analysis would not been done automatically instead such feature was not even supported with this model. At least I thought so but the egg heads of the operation decided to take a look at my armor. Though they did not tell me what they were going to do with it.

Red then spoke. “Well then you seem geared up to me. Now if you will follow me outside.” I simply told her to lead on and I followed her outside to see something I did not expect a town to look like. For one as we walked through the town most people gave us a wide berth. Another thing is that most “homes” here were train cars linked or stacked upon each other. And railroad tracks led out and into the town.

Red led me to a large rail car which she opened the door to. I walked inside to see the mayor talking with that pony I saw in the clinic yesterday. The mayor noticed us and called me over. I walked over to where he was seated behind a large desk and seated across from him was the stallion from the clinic. “Come sit down.” Which I did. “I would like to introduce you to Midnight Striker. He will be your guide to the base.”

I simply look at him and out stretch my hand out in greeting which he shook with a hoof. The mayor then continued the conversation. “So as we agreed upon once you clear out this base I shall give you some supplies for your journey to flank plus a map. Now then see you later and I wish you best of luck.” me and Midnight got out of our seats and exited the train car. The silence between us was massive not a word was spoken as we what I had to assume were walking to the exit of the town.

Midnight suddenly stopped and waited in front of a train car. I was about to ask what was going on when I heard a loud creaking sound. I looked behind me to see a large crane extend its arm towards us and then the mechanical arm reached out and a large magnet came down and picked up the train car in front of us. Now with a path open to the wastelands me and midnight walked out of New Appaloosa and into the wastelands. I followed Midnight on a cracked and nearly destroyed roadway. The silence was broken when Midnight spoke. “Alright I didn't say anything back nor did everypony else but I am going to say it now. What the fuck are you!?”

The question almost made me laugh. “Well that is a simple question. I am what is known as a human. Also I am glad that someone asked me this question. It was starting to get weird when everyone was acting pretty calm back there.”

He looked up at me. I did not see his eye color before but now I know it was silver. “Well Taylor I will say this I have never seen one of your kind before today. So pardon my nature of being a bit startled. Plus my curiosity is getting the better of me so if you don’t mind answering a few more questions because this base is at least a few hours away from here.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I see no harm in answering a few questions.”

He laughed. “Good because I have a lot of questions for you big guy. First question: where are you from? Because I have never seen something like you in the wastelands.”

I wore a nervous look underneath my helmet. I worry about how he would react when he knows that I am not even from this planet. “Well let’s just say I am not from these lands. I came from the far east of here.” I looked down at Midnight who looked suspicious but decided to not press further.

We continued to walk on the road for an hour, nothing happening when I asked a question. “So I thought I was a dead man when I fell from that hill and into your town. I thought you guys would leave me for dead since I was something you never seen before thus why did you take the risk to save me?”

Midnight took a few minutes to answer but answer he did. “Some of us wanted to leave you for dead. We did not want to waste medical supplies on something we did not understand but Red Cross wanted to save you and convinced us to let you receive medical help. So the mayor let you in even though many cautioned against it.”

I quickly responded back. “Were you one of the ones who disagreed with me receiving care?”

He simply said. “No, I was one of the few who wanted you to live. You can say that my curiosity was peaked. Also Red Cross judgment has almost always been in the right and not many ponies go against it unless there is evidence to prove her wrong. Also let me guess this is your first time encountering a walking talking pony before right? So why did you not freak out or something when you first woke up?”

I simply shrugged. “ Let’s just say I was trained to expect the unexpected. I keep an open mind as much as I can so I don’t allow simple situations turn into disaster.” That I did not lie about when the project was in its early stages let’s just say most trainers in the project taught the trainees real quick that anything could be behind that portal. So they taught them the best they could. I was one of those trainers so I try to live up the best to my own teachings as I can. Though the last thing I was expecting through this portal was a grey and broken world full of ponies.

Before either one of us could continue Midnight stopped me. “Looks like we are here.” I looked ahead of us and a large tunnel was before us. A wooden wall was blocking the entrance into the tunnel through two large wooden doors stood in the middle of the wall and on top of the walls on stakes and at the end of each of them was a ponies head. I gave a light shiver and pulled out my pistol ready to charge. I took two steps forward only to have him stop me.

“Look I know you want to get this job done quickly but this was once a trading hub or pitstop. It had its own guards and even turrets you go charging in there you might as well shoot yourself now. I say this because a large group of raiders must have taken this place recently. So I will cause a distraction by using the crap ton of explosives I have in my saddle bags. Then you come in guns ablazing. Okay?”

I simply nodded. A couple minutes later and I was waiting behind a rock. I looked over the rock to see Midnight walking close to the gate. I noticed that a couple of ponies were now on the walls themselves but have yet to look down. He also seemed to notice this and quietly rushed to the walls and out of the saddle bags as he called them pulled out an apple? He fiddled with it for a little bit and then threw it down alongside his saddle bags and ran yelling what I had to guess profanities at the raiders. The raiders noticed him and took potshots at him, some opened the gates and four of them ran after him.

A few seconds later and a large explosion happened sending ponies flying off the walls probably killing some and injuring others. I took this as my cue and ran towards the breach that was caused by the explosion. One pony quickly recovered and noticed me running towards the breach she quickly levitated an assault rifle aimed and started to fire. I quickly nelt down and fired two shots one went wide the other went through her skull. She fell down dropping her weapon all I could think of was great now they have magic. A second pony came out of the breach wielding an axe gripped in magic.

He lunged at me. I dropped my pistol as I had no time to holster it. Then grabbed the axe and the magic field around it instantly broke. The stallion surprised by this did not have time to register an axe cutting his head off. The look of surprise still evident on his decapitated head. I then picked up my pistol wiping the sand off it and charged into the breach. To then be hit by multiple bullets from unknown enemies.

I found the closest cover I could find lucky the bullets did not pin my armor but it left me just a bit shocked. I dived behind a concrete barrier then looked over my cover to notice two ponies with dual machine guns attached to their sides firing at my cover which I quickly stopped peaking. I then looked across from me to see a pony with a bit of wooden shrapnel stuck in her throat choking on her own blood and next to her one of those strange looking apples. I crawled to it, picked it up and examined it and realized that this was a grenade. At least it seemed to have the same mechanisms as a grenade. I then pulled the pin, released the hammer, and threw it at the two raiders.

They realized what I had thrown but could not get away in time one exploded in blood and gore. The second one's back legs flew off and landed behind me. I then walked up to the crawling raider and put a bullet in his head. I finished off any of the other wounded raiders by the breach. After that a large pony wearing makeshift metal armor burst out from a makeshift wooden building wielding a sword of fire in its mouth. I took my pistol and shot at the charging raider most of what was left of my mag glanced off his armor but two shots hit home.

The first shot went right through his throat and the second went through his eye. He landed face first on the pavement dropping his sword which stopped emitting fire from it. I walked over to the raiders corpse and picked up the sword. I examined it and it looked like an officer's sword. On the cross guard was of two spread wings one of dark blue and one of pure white. I then noticed a button on the grip. I pressed it and the edges of the sword lit up with fire but instead of red it was blue flames. I then went over to the corpse and picked up the scabbard and with the rope attached to the scabbard wrapped it around my waist. I then looted what 9mm ammo I could find. I also sadly found the remnants of the previous owners of this place partly eaten and missing their heads. I then exited the building and went through the breach to the outside. I waited for about ten minutes before Midnight showed up bruised and had blood on his body.

Though he looked bruised he does not appear to have any other wounds. He then stopped in front of me and looked at me. “ So I take it that you cleared out the rest of the bastards.” I simply nodded my head. “Are there any survivors?” I shook my head at this. “Looks like we were too late then.”

He put his head down slowly and then I rested an armored hand on his shoulder. “Look at the bright side, at least no more traders along this portion of the trade route are going to be attacked by a group of raiders eh?”

He lifted his head up to look at me. “I guess we cheer at the small victories in this blasted wasteland. Come on let's head back and tell the mayor what happened.” So we departed from the raider base and made it back to New Appaloosa. Me and Midnight explained what happened at the base. In return for helping them out I was given supplies, caps, and a map of the wasteland. I gave my final thanks to Red Cross and was about to leave the settlement when Midnight came rushing over to me. “I am going with you. Simple as that you don’t know the wasteland as I do so I will help fill you in on the way to flank. Plus I need to deliver a letter there anyway.” I then exited the settlement and we started our way towards Flank.

Author's Note

Ah it is good to be back. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter see you all in the next one

P.S. I thank the author of Fallout Equestria for creating such an idea and world. I would also like to thank Somber for building upon it.