Cold and numbness. First things I remember feeling. My mind was cloudy like I was waking up after a long time, but at the same time, these were my first feelings, first thoughts.
What’s that noise? Cracking? What would cracking sound like? I started to feel something. A warmth? It was seeping into my dark home. I opened my mouth and air filled my lungs, taking what felt like my first breath. A sudden feeling moved through me. I was moving, I didn’t know that this is what moving felt like. I was shaking and trying to feel my surroundings. I could feel a pounding in my chest. I opened my eyes and the light stung at me, attacking me, but I didn't dare close them and return to the darkness.
I stopped myself from moving for a minute and waited, listened. Letting my eyes get better. I started listening for other things. “Error 007. Cryogenic System Compromised. Evacuating Subject F-104.” a voice repeatedly blared.
Then my eyes adjusted and I figured out I was in some sort of chamber, with a little window for me to look out of. Red lights were flashing, and white had covered the room. Not a whole lot to see from here. The loud voice had stopped blaring.
As I leaned a little more on the window popping hiss pierced through the alarms and the wall on my chamber that held the window slid to the side. I fell out onto the floor. It hurt a little. I looked around, I still didn't know where I was. But I needed to find someone to help me figure things out. There was my chamber, tubes, wires, and a door. A door meant a possible way out.
“Where am I?” I asked the air. Once I got up I realized that I talked. “I can talk? Of course, I can talk, why wouldn't I know how to talk?” I focused and looked at the chamber that held me again.
On its door the phrase ‘Subject F-104’. “Is that my name?” I asked myself. “It must be. I'm Subject F-104. That's my name. Okay great, one question answered.”
I looked down at my body, I was female. White-grey colored scales, white wing membranes. My wings looked a little small. No flying. Would I even know how to fly? Probably for the best I can’t right now.
“Okay F-104. Find a way out. Find the exit. Exit.” I kept repeating the word.
I grabbed hold of the doorknob and with a little bit of force the door opened. A concrete staircase, with only one direction. Up.
“Up it is, I guess.” I looked back at the room I just came from. I don't know how long I was in there, the entire start of my life maybe? But anywhere else had to be better than being stuck in that chamber.
I headed up the stairs without another moment's hesitation. As I climbed I became increasingly aware of my senses. Like my tail, that felt a little weird trailing behind me, scraping the ground every so often, my wings wanted to do their own thing. The air felt heavy like it hadn’t been moved in a long time. The cold was at least familiar, not that it really affected me. It actually felt as if the cold was helping me. I don't know, it just what it feels like. The stairs had frost on them, but my claws were gripping the slippery steps with no issues.
After what I guessed was about six flights of the concrete stairs, it finally came to an end, and the door at the top. This door was much easier to open. It was still pretty dark, but the flickering of some lights gave just enough light for me to see. It was a storage room or something. I sniffed the items on the shelf, they gave off faint scents that my nose didn't agree with. I sneezed a moment later.
Not wanting to smell whatever those were any more, I left the storage closet, or was it a janitor’s closet? Don’t know, don’t care. I exited into a lobby for some sort of building. It was entirely empty. I moved to the middle of the room. The glass windows and doors on the front end had broken some time ago by the looks of it, and a sizeable mound of snow had not only blocked the exit but spilled into the lobby.
I looked to the back wall above the receptionist counter. It read “Ministry of Awesome” and a symbol of a cloud and lightning bolt was displayed proudly. I sniffed the air as I got close to the wall. No smells but I had to guess it was in some way important. Best try to remember it.
Realizing I wasn't gonna get out this way. “I need to find more stairs. Gotta find a way out.” I muttered.
I moved around to the other side of the wall and receptionist desk. A security checkpoint and the frozen, but preserved, remains of a Griffin. The remains looked as fresh as the day he must have died. Couldn't have been that long. A few days, maybe a week?
The Griffin corpse wore a security uniform belonging to the building. What truly interested me, once I noticed it, was the weapon in the griffon’s talons. I pulled it out of his icy grasp and looked at it. It was metal, I knew that much, that was it though. It had a little thing to activate it next to the grip. I sniffed the end with the hole in it, the smell of rotten eggs and fire. I tossed the item aside and continued on.
I could make out the symbol for stairs and an arrow pointing ahead on the wall above me. “Yay more stairs,” I said under my breath. I headed in that direction. I had to find my way out. I was seriously not liking being in here.
Once I was in the stairwell, these stairs were metal, and many were damaged to the point I had to jump over a few. I kept climbing the stairs as best I could, opening the door to every floor to see if I was above the snow level yet. I got to the eighth floor and I finally saw more light shining from beneath the door. I hurried and opened it, only to wish I hadn't.
More dead bodies. A lot of them, not just frozen but torn to shreds, eaten. Skulls cracked open like eggs. Limbs and flesh broken off their host bodies like sticks. What looked like teeth marks remained in what was left of the flesh. With what remained of a pony’s head, it’s face eaten off, but the leftover look of fear looking at me.
I smelled the air above the corpses, these smells were stronger, far more recent. Something had marked its territory. Gross. I thought. I moved past the pile of broken bodies and up to another window that I could look through, like in the chamber that held me but bigger.
I looked out and saw that there was still a lot of snow, but it sloped upward. From here I could see the top. I examined the window in front of me. There were a few lines that looked like it was weakened.
“Break It,” I commanded myself.
I reared up on my back legs and rested my forelegs and claws against the window. I pushed up against it and slammed back down. Forcing the glass to crack more, where I had applied the force. I repeated the process. Again and again, each time the damage became worse.
The damage and weight of my body finally became too much for the window and it broke. I fell through and into the snow outside. Getting back up I found that the window had cut the scales on my right wing. I was bleeding a bit but it wasn't serious.
Ignoring the injury, for now, I climbed to the top of the snow mound. Reaching the top, it took my breath away. I was in a city. Completely encased in ice and snow. I was starting to think I may have been in that chamber longer than I thought.
I kept talking to myself. “Move, gotta keep moving.” I chose a direction and stuck with it.
Turns out that direction was leading me out of the city. As the buildings got shorter, so did the snow level, and the winds got higher. I heard howling in the distance, I hoped it wasn't close, I also hoped it was just the wind.
I stopped to catch my breath, moving through the deep snow was tiring me out. That was when I smelled something. I stuck my nose into the air and breathed deep. It was difficult to pick up with the high winds. It was familiar though.
Growling hit my ears on the wind. I spun my head around to try and see where it was coming from. But with all the snow hitting my eyes I couldn't see anything.
That is when I felt the claws and teeth in my back. I roared in pain and did my best to fight off what was attacking me. I twisted my head and neck and bit down hard on the hairy beast.
It cried in pain and released me. I was able to put a few feet distance between me and it. But it wasn't done with me. It started to circle me. I watched it.
It walked on its hind legs, hunched over. Its eyes glowed green. It was missing patches of its white fur, resembled what my memory would describe as a wolf. Although I know I have never really seen one. It was bleeding a lot from where I had bit it. Staining its white fur and the snow it walked on red. I was fairing no better.
I roared at it and it roared back. We charged each other and dug claws, teeth, and talons into each other. It would rip a hole in my side, I would tear off a chunk of its flesh. We were killing each other. I didn't want to die yet. My heart was pounding.
I managed to get away from it once more. I was bleeding a lot and I was getting dizzy. It was bleeding a lot as well but didn't seem to show signs of slowing down.
It started to charge at me. I didn't know what to do my heart racing and panic, I just took a deep breath and roared. The roar felt cold in my throat as I let it out. Then confusion set in. Why wasn't the wolf killing me? I looked past the blurry vision and saw a frozen beast in front of me.
Don't know what did that, but glad it did. I limped past the wolf-sickle and onwards in the direction I was headed, to begin with. I think that is the way I headed anyway. I lost track of how long I was walking. I know I fell down at some point and the world went black once again after that.
I inhaled sharply and opened my eyes. I was in a strange place again. Something got knocked over by my tail in my panic. Looking around I didn't know where I was, some kind of makeshift room put together by scraps of metal. Something was stuck into my foreleg connecting me to a bag with red stuff, I wanted to remove it, and I tried, but it was covered with something. I was bandaged up all over. My injuries ached, making it painful to move quickly.
A door I hadn't noticed opposite me opened and a young Griffin female walked in carrying water. I backed myself up to the wall and growled. She froze in place when she saw me. She was dark brown, spotted with white feathers and her eyes were orange, she wore a jacket and warmer weather clothes.
“Easy there! I'm not gonna hurt you!” she said quickly. “My scavenging party found you unconscious on the road to Tall Tale. We brought you here to Iceyard. It's a scrapper town. Do you understand me?”
I stopped growling and nodded, but didn't lower my guard.
She smiled kindly. “My name is Vivi, what's your name?”
“Subject F-104,” I told her honestly.
She tilted her head and laughed as she spoke, “That's not a name.”
Now I was the confused one. “What?” I relaxed a bit and sat on my little bed normally, but I kept my guard up.
“Is that the only name you know?” she asked, I nodded. She started smiling happily. “Oh cool! So I like, get to be the one to give you an actual name?”
I had a feeling this Griffin was not gonna hurt me after all. “I guess you do.” I held my side, feeling an injury.
“Sweet! Okay okay, let me have a look at you.” she used her tail to turn on a light with a switch, fully illuminating the space. She looked at me with a talon stroking the bottom of her beak. “You look like a ‘Neera’.”
Neera? I actually liked it. “I like it.” I smiled.
“Good. Now, before everyone else has a chance to interrogate you for information. Why were you nearly dead on the side of the road?”
“Well I should probably start at the beginning,” I told her.
So I told her exactly what happened, from the time I woke up to me fighting the wolf, (which she told me was a ‘Hellwolf’) to me telling her my story. She even removed the uncomfortable thing in my foreleg and got me clean bandages.
“So you roared at the Hellwolf and it froze? Literally?” she asked.
“Yeah, why?” I asked.
“Hmm…” she hummed and moved over to a metal sink. She got a cup and filled it with water.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“An experiment,” she gave me the cup. “Breath deep and breath onto the cup. Just trust me.”
I was confused but she hadn't tried to hurt me yet so that was enough for me. I inhaled and breathed out slowly onto the cup of water. To my amazement, the outside of the cup frosted over. I shrieked and dropped it in a bit of panic and the water inside shattered. Had I turned it to ice?
“Your an Ice Dragon! That is so badass!” Vivi shouted.
I had a claw around my throat, feeling my scales, still cold, but at the moment they felt colder. “I don't think so.”
“It is. Trust me. And on top of that, I get to show you the ropes of the Wasteland! So awesome! Maybe you can even come on the next scavenging trip I'm going on?”
“Maybe, let's start with those ropes?” I asked.
“Oh right. Well as I said before. You are in Iceyard, a scrapper town. We scavenge old stuff and sell them to whoever has the caps to pay for them. Sometimes we even build new stuff! That is the expensive stuff. Only rules here are ‘Listen to what Ratchet says’.” Vivi told me with a smile.
“Who is Ratchet?” I asked.
“My dad; Mayor of the town, head scraper, and craziest Griffin you will ever meet.” she rattled off.
“I have one more question before we get started,” I said and she just listened. “How long has it been since the war?”
She seemed to act as if it was common knowledge. “About a hundred and ninety, give or take a few.”
I was asleep a LOT longer than I had originally thought.
Radiation, Raiders, Ghouls, Hellhounds, and who knows what else? I woke up in an absolutely insane time period. But I already had one friend so I had that going for me. Actually, I was more or less indebted to her and the town since I owed the town “Two hundred caps” as the doctor put it or scrap equal to that value.
Vivi was treating me to a little meal at the little cooking place they had in the town. I looked around at the crowd, some of them were drinking at the bar, some of the males were chatting up any females they found alone. Except for Vivi and I it seemed. I could hear moaning coming from the floor above, as well as other repetitive noises. I honestly found this place a little odd.
“What is this?” I asked poking the yellow stuff in front of me with a ‘fork’.
Vivi swallowed a mouthful. “It’s Macaroni and cheese. Eat it, it’s good.”
I ate it without further fuss. I felt the ponies and the griffons in this place staring at me. Mostly the males, whenever I went to look though they pretended they hadn't been looking. But at least Vivi was correct about the Macaroni and cheese, it was good, a little warm for me though.
I cleared my throat. “Vivi?”
“Yea Neera?” she looked up from her food.
“Why do the males keep staring at us?” I asked.
She looked to confirm what I was asking about. “Because, if you notice, all the ones that are staring, aren't with a female. You and I girl? We are the hottest females here.” She said with some pride. I don’t get it.
“I’m not hot. I’m cold, see feel.” I held out my claw for her to feel my cold scales.
She slapped her forehead. “Okay that one is on me, I forgot you are new to all of this.” she sighed. “I mean they think we are sexy. Do you understand that?” I just shook my head. “Mate? They want to mate with us?”
“Oh!” I felt my nerves get chilly, and I suddenly realized what those noises coming from upstairs were. “I’m not even the same species as them why would they think that?” I felt like hiding. For now, my wings would suffice as a hiding place.
“Have you not looked at yourself? I’m not attracted to you, and even I can tell you are hot. Even for a dragon. You even blush cutely, although I’ve never seen someone’s face turn blue with embarrassment before. Must be a side effect to your ice abilities.”
Is this seriously what we are talking about? “Perhaps our time would be better spent preparing me for paying off that debt I owe.”
“Oh, I have a great idea on how we can start you off on that. On one of my scouting runs, this was like a month ago, I spotted an old gas station and truck stop. It's a few day’s walks to the south. It’s a bit risky because of location and distance but there should be some good salvage in there. You wanna come with?”
“I gotta start somewhere right?” I shrugged.
“Cool! You can borrow one of my guns, and a saddlebag. I’ll see about getting a wagon so we can haul the bigger stuff back too. Only thing, you can't tell my dad, he would never approve of me going this far out.”
“Okay.”
“Good. You can stay in my house for the night! Dad won't mind, he’s usually in his shop till late anyway.” she gasped “It will be like having a sleepover! Or a sister, I like the idea of having a sister. Finish your food and we can start getting ready.”
A sister? I guess that was okay. Even though we weren't blood-related.
We were in Vivi’s house now. The town wasn't very lively, it was just cold and it seemed as if ponies and Griffons alike either worked or spent their time in the tavern. I saw that travelers made frequent stops here, with two-headed cows. Just another thing to add to the “I don’t understand list.”
“This is a nine-millimeter pistol of Griffin design. Pre-war, whatever, whatever. The important part is that when you see something attacking you, you just point this end of it toward the threat, aim down the sights, and squeeze the trigger. Not now though, and never point the danger end at yourself or friendlies like me.” she instructed before giving it to me. With a shoulder holster and two extra “clips” as she called them.
“I'll see if I have any clothes that’ll fit you so you can wear so you can have something to protect you, instead of just bare scales.” she turned around and started rummaging through her closet.
As I was doing what she instructed, I caught myself in the mirror Vivi had in her room. I stepped back to catch my full reflection. I started to admire myself, even though I had nothing to compare dragon female bodies to, I think I looked good. I was slender, longish legs and sleek body with muscle, very statuesque. My tail made my rump look a little big, but I could overlook that. My facial features were just as alluring, and with the brightest blue eyes to complete the look. I tilted my head and smiled, my teeth were sharp but whiter than even the snow outside. I also had all my teeth, no gaps or missing teeth. A perfect dragonly smile. My wings made me think of a beautiful demon. I laughed that the thought.
Vivi bumped me snapping me out of my trance. “See I told you, you are hot. Own it. Who knows? You might be able to use that in the future.”
“In what situation?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I dunno I’m not a unicorn, I can't see the future.” she held up a bundle of clothes. “See if these fit.”
“Why do I need these?”
“To keep you warm, or in your case, keep you cold. Also so you aren’t as exposed. The clothes have two by two by half inch metal plates in them. It will protect your torso and vital organs.”
I put it on, slipping my wings through the holes in the back and my forelegs into the sleeves it was a little weighted but it fit.
“Not the best protection I know, but it’s all I got right now.” Vivi shrugged. “It comfortable?”
“Yeah, a little.” I nodded.
“Put that holster on and you’ll be done. Then tomorrow we go scavenging,” she clapped her talons excitedly.
“Who is going scavenging?” a male voice asked.
Vivi jumped and went to her room door “Dad! Um, I was just telling Neera here that I was gonna take her on a scavenging run with me.” she stopped the older griffon before I could see him.
“Neera? Who’s that?” his voice asked.
Vivi looked a little nervous. “The dragon I rescued on my last scavenging trip.”
Disapproval in her father's voice. “You mean the one where you went outside of the safety of unicorn range?”
Vivi laughed forcibly. “It sounds so much worse when you put it like that.”
I heard a sigh. “Well if you are gonna be working with this dragon I want to meet her.”
Vivi stepped aside, and let her father into the room. He wasn't just a griffon who looked like an older male version of Vivi, he also had a metal arm and eye. He wore arctic gear as well, and goggles on his head.
He was glaring at me. “I must say I never thought I’d see a dragon in my lifetime. Heard about somepony killing one not long ago though.”
I gulped.
His attitude just flipped as he smiled and laughed. “I'm messing with you. It was nice to meet you. Bring my daughter back in one piece. Shoot first, ask questions later. Don't die.” he turned and left without another word.
I just blinked in surprise. “That's dad.” Vivi shrugged. “Anyway let's get some rest.”
I scratched at my bandages. “I rested alone in a tube for two hundred years. I'm not excited about sleep right now.”
“Point taken, but at least you know you'll wake up this time. Right?” She asked as she got comfortable.
“I suppose that's true. You will wake me, if you get up before me, yeah?”
“Of course.” she started to turn off the lights by turning a knob on the wall.
“Hey, could you leave a little bit of light? I'm not a fan of the dark.”
She gave me a look. “That is something you are really gonna need to get over if you want to survive in the wasteland.”
“Just for tonight?” I pleaded.
“Fine. Goodnight sister,” she said leaving the light on low, closing her eyes and resting her head on the pillow.
Sister? I didn't know if I could call her that yet. “Goodnight.” I murmured before trying to sleep.
Level 1
Elemental Alignment; Breath is essential to dragon magic; With Ice as the special ability, all resistances reflect that. +25% cold resistance, -25% fire resistance.
Draconic Synergy; Can make special insight on those with draconic nature, based upon cultural knowledge or body language cues otherwise invisible to other species.
Author's Note
Alright I'll admit that this is my second attempt at a Fallout Equestria story. I'm only working on it when I can, and when I'm not working on my other stories. So don't expect a chapter every other day, or even every week. They'll get here when they get here. Please don't point out errors. I know of them, and I'll get to them eventually.
But anyway please enjoy the start to the story. Comment on something you enjoyed, and drop a thumbs-up if you feel so inclined.
