Fallout Equestria: We Lucky Few

Chapter 9 - Dawnstar

Both my body and the ground around me shook as the griffon slowly rose to his full height, a massive slew of deafening mechanical sounds filled the area. While the dust from his fall was still heavy in the air and making it rather hard to see, the blinding blue lights emitting from his visor were easily enough to tell me that he was looking directly at me.

Once again, I was frozen in place. If the now freshly eviscerated slaver pony was weasily able to kill me, then there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that this far better armed griffon could do the same. His suit looked impenetrable by any means known to me. While it was far cleaner than the slaver's suit of armor, it still managed to look completely horrifying. Judging by the scattered bits of miscellaneous armor plating welded and bolted to parts of the suit where joints would have usually been located, it was safe to say that this suit had no immediately noticeable weaknesses. It seemed to be a bit of a patchwork design (however it still appeared to have a sort of basis that was completely foreign to me), and if his harness mounted weapons weren't enough, it appeared as if the suits built in claws could easily do enough damage to get the job done.

"State your name." A very obviously male voice projected from the mechanical inner workings of the griffon's helmet as he slumped down next to the slaver's corpse, beginning to pull off the weapons and any pieces of scrap that he must have deemed salvageable.

"W-What?" Was all I could manage to mutter as the griffon continued to loot the corpse.

"State your name." The griffon repeated himself, this time violently glancing over at me as he continued to pull out pieces of bloody scrap metal and slid them into a large duffel bag draped over his back.

"S-Silver!" I squeaked, my mind barely able to conjure up anything beyond this single word. I almost wasn't even able to tell that I was very clearly cowering behind my own hooves in a fetal position, as if I thought that if I couldn't see him then he couldn't see me.

"Silver? Is that it? Just Silver?" He responded, the slight tilt of his masked head being more than enough to tell me that he obviously had a doubtful eyebrow raised.

"N-No! It's Phalanx. Silver Phalanx." I stuttered as I gave a poor attempt to make eye contact with the hulking griffon.

"Hmm. Doesn't sound like a raider name. State your purpose." He demanded, his deep robotic voice somehow sounding both stern and calm, as if he very well knew that he had everything under control (which he without a doubt did).

"P-Purpose? What do you mean?" I stuttered.

"Your purpose. What are you doing here. Why was that slaver after you?" He continued, monotone and demanding.

"Umm... I... I don't know. I'm a stable pony... This is all very confusing." I responded, still barely able to compose a proper thought. However, I did notice that the griffon's head once again tilted at the mention of me being from a stable.

"You're a stable dweller?" He quickly asked, very obviously looking me up and down.

"Y-Yes!" I yelled out. "I swear!"

"Then where's your PipBuck?" He continued as he went back to looting, very clearly sounding as if he didn't believe me.

As he said this I quickly realized that there was no possible way for me to prove that I was actually a stable pony. Not only did I not have my PipBuck or stable barding, but I also currently looked a little more on the raider side. My main was a tangled mess, my coat was filthy, and I already had wounds to boot.

"It- It was stolen by raiders." I informed the griffon, realizing all too well that my story was sounding rather lackluster.

"So you mean to tell me that a group of raiders, Baltimare Raiders at that, robbed you of your PipBuck and left you completely unharmed?" The griffon scoffed as he looked down at the firearm that was currently laying at my hooves. "And on top of that left you a perfectly maintained 10 millimeter revolver?"

"Umm... Yes?" I winced as I awaited my imminent demise.

However, nothing happened. The griffon simply stared at me, his bright blue lights illuminating me in the most intimidating of ways. While I wasn't sure what exactly it was (as his helmet gave him one helluva poker face), I could tell that he was thinking about something. Was he thinking about letting me go? Was he debating if my story was true or not? Hell, maybe he was just deciding as to whether he should cook me over a fire or if he should let me marinate over night!

It was a very awkward silence, only the sounds of the wind and the mechanical suit's servos running could be heard. However, it was rather short lived.

"What did that slaver want with you? It's not often one this well armed comes looking for ponies, especially all the way out here." The griffon then leaned in far too close for comfort, his reflective visor no more than a foot away from my face. The lights were now nothing less than blinding. "So, I'm gonna ask you one more time. Who are you and why are you here?"

The tension was now at an all time high. I could tell that the griffon was growing impatient, however I wasn't exactly sure what I could tell him at this point. I could feel tears rolling down my face, and I was beginning to hyperventilate.

"Please... You have to believe me. I'm not a raider!" I was now crying, my body falling forward as if to go into a begging position. "I grew up in Stable 76 as a security mare! We were attacked a few days ago and everypony inside but me was killed! All I remember is waking up in a raider camp ran by a griffon named Gridlock! He helped me escape not too long ago and-" I was cut off amongst all of my rambling.

"Did you say Gridlock?" The griffon now sounded far more lenient than before.

"Y-Yes. He helped me leave the camp before the slavers came to get me. I remember him saying something about me costing a lot to them, but he still let me go!" I frantically continued to explain myself, my brain working faster than I could speak. "He's the one who left me these supplies."

"And you just left all on your own? Fresh from a stable? With no clue as to where to go?" He continued to question.

"Well, I had some help from somepony." I then stopped myself as I remembered that Rad had told me that she had seen this griffon before and, from how it sounded, they weren't exactly on good terms. "But... She's not here anymore."

Great Silver... Now you're lying to literally the most horrifying thing that you have ever encountered. What in the world is wrong with you?

"She die or something?" He nonchalantly responded with a small scoff as he finally stopped looting the body.

"Umm... Not exactly. She kind of just-" I then found myself staring off into the direction of the forest where I think I last saw Rad. "...disappeared."

"So you were abandoned?" The griffon spoke, an odd sadness somehow leaking through his otherwise monotone sounding voice.

It was upon hearing these words where I began to feel true sadness once more. Was he right? Did she actually just abandon me? I wasn't sure why, as I couldn't exactly say that I really knew all too much about the strange bat-pony, but it still felt as if that could have been a possibility. At first I wanted to deny that this was even an option, as I had come to learn that due to the animals of the forest Rad practically had eyes everywhere, but as I looked around I quickly realized that there where no animals in sight. It wasn't until I felt tears running down my cheeks when I noticed the griffon taking a few steps towards me. I wanted to run off, but I was officially unable to do so.

I was defeated, both physically and mentally.

"Please... Just... Make it quick." I winced through the sounds of my own sobbing.

"Calm down. I ain't gonna kill ya'." The griffon stated, this time sounding far more friendly and... was that a country accent I heard?

I looked up at the griffon as I wiped away the tears and almost immediately noticed a difference. His stature was different, and somehow (despite still being stupidly armored and armed) looked far less menacing.

"Wh- What?" I stuttered.

"I said I ain't gonna kill ya'. In fact, I plan on helping ya' out." The griffon then proudly thumped his chest, a solid thud echoing throughout the forest.

"Umm... Why?" Was all I could manage to muster amongst this extremely sudden feeling of intense confusion.

"Cause'. You obviously ain't no raider, and I can tell when somepony is down on their luck." The now rather hyper griffon exclaimed. "I imagine you've had a hard past few days, right?"

"That's a bit of an understatement, but yes." I frowned as the sudden memories of all the shit that I had truly been through within the past 72 hours seemed to hit me all at once. It wasn't until I had attempted to stand when I had realized that I was now far too exhausted to properly walk.

"Whoa, easy there." The griffon jumped to help me brace myself. "I can tell just by looking at ya' that you're in no shape to be walking around. Now, I can get you back to my place, but you're gonna have to hitch a ride." The griffon then pointed to the back of his combat harness, giving a short gesture to state that he meant that I was going to have to ride atop of him.

"W- What?" I was now extremely confused. Not only was this griffon demanding that I pretty much sit on top of him, but he was also already offering to bring me into his own home. At first this was an odd thought (especially considering the type of ponies that usually wandered the wasteland), but then I realized that Rad had done the same simply because she had a 'good feeling' about me.

"I said I was gonna let you stay at my place, but you'll have to catch a ride otherwise I fear that you won't exactly be making it there alive." I could practically feel the griffon grinning through his helmet.

"B- But, like, won't I be heavy?" I stupidly questioned not realizing that this griffon was more than likely ripped underneath of all that heavy armor.

"With this suit, not at all." He proudly responded, once again thumping his chest with pride.

"What do you mean? Isn't that suit heavy enough as is?" I questioned, still attempting to catch my breath.

"Damn, you really are new to this whole wasteland thing, aren't ya'?" He chuckled. "This here is a suit of highly customized Griffon Industries Power Armor! Not only does it provide protection against just about anything the wasteland could throw at ya', but it also makes everything lighter to the user."

"How in the world does that work?" I continued.

"To put it short, all this armor is built onto a servo-driven load bearing frame. It's some really technical shit, but essentially it will turn a hundred pounds into roughly around ten." As the griffon said this I became struck with amazement. I was completely unaware that the Griffon's were so technologically advanced, especially when it came to armor systems.

"So... how much does that suit weigh normally?" I asked, now extremely fascinated with the creation.

"Roughly around 500 pounds or so not including the weapons." His excited voice was beginning to clip as he peaked his helmets built in microphone. The amount of pride and excitement in his voice was easily his equivalent to Rad talking about her animals.

"So that comes to, what, like sixty pounds or so all together?" I tilted my head as I continued to admire the feat of technical engineering. I suppose that I truly was a bit of a techie.

"Pretty much! So I can imagine adding you will only be another ten pounds or so!" He laughed. "Hell, you don't even have any armor I gotta worry about!"

"You sure you're okay with this?" I blushed.

"What do you mean?" I could hear the nearly instantaneous confusion mask over him.

"Isn't it... I don't know... demeaning?" I winced, only to be greeted with a static ridden burst of laughter. "What?" I continued.

"H- Holy shit Silver!" The griffon struggled to maintain his rather comical outburst of laughter. "You really are new to all of this. If something like helping a good pony in need was demeaning to me, then I'd be no better than one of them raiders." As the last word exited his mouth, he lightly kicked the still bleeding corpse of the slaver pony.

He then turned to me and extended out his armor plated talons. "So, you coming with me or not?"

This gesture put a small smile of relief on my face, something I haven't truly had in what felt like forever. Admittedly, a small bit of me wanted to deny him and go find Rad instead... but it didn't take long for me to realize that that was nothing more than a death wish at this point. So, with that said, I extended my shaking front leg to meet his own. Despite what all he told me, I was still surprised when the griffon nearly effortlessly placed me onto his back.

At first it was extremely uncomfortable, but as he began to walk I managed to find a rather comfy (yet admittedly awkward) position between the two massive weapons draped over his back. Honestly, I was sure that I resembled that of a cat lying on the arm of a chair as I had two legs dangling over each side of him, but I really didn't care at this point. I felt safe.

"By the way." The griffon vocally grinned as he attempted to look over his shoulder at me. "My name's Dawnstar. It's nice to meet you."

Concept Art