Fallout Equestria: Newshire

Chapters

Chapter 1: Lonesome Beginnings
Chapter 2: Reclamation Day
Chapter 3: What Lies Beyond
Chapter 4: There's Green Stuff in the Water!
Chapter 5: Green With Vengeance
Chapter 6: Gut Feeling
Chapter 7: Sssome. Thi-ing. New!
Prologue

Chapter 1: Lonesome Beginnings

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 1: Lonesome Beginnings

“No thanks. I'm spending time with my real friends.”

I awoke in the comfy, quiet darkness I was grateful to be familiar with. The deep thrum of turbines, whirling behind steel and concrete, reached my ears and kept my room from being unbearably silent. Distant hums joined the machine symphony as the lights within the stable began to flicker to life. The light on my ceiling began to glow, softly illuminating my room. I lied in bed, not wanting to leave its warm embrace.

My Pipbuck chimed, playing a musical tone to wake me up. I instantly pressed the snooze button spurn my magic almost reflexively and began leaving my bed, slowly shaking off the lethargy. The mirror I looked in revealed the mess of a mane on top my head. It folded down over my horn and covered some of my left eye. I used my magic to shape my mane to its usual form; nice and spiky, looking at myself making sure nothing was out of place. My stripes wrapped around my body like a second rib cage and looked like thin cuts along my legs. The marks on my face swept across my cheek and swirled to a small crest on my neck, while a drooping star shape sat at the base of my horn. Everything looked alright besides my own tired expression, so I turned to my closet and began to slip into my stable barding.

The usual routine began again as I went into the living room and sat down for a bit. The table sparsely adorned with old Sparkle-Cola bottles and a plate from last night. The rest of the room, looking rather empty, save for the old mementos of a pained past. Looking at them I could feel the tears begin to well up. I turned away not wanting to replay the painfully happy memories I once shared with the family in those pictures. Checking my Pipbuck, I turned on the stable radio hoping to drown out the my inner voice. Maybe even Zaria would be doing the morning announcements.

“Good morning everyone, I hope you all got enough sleep.” The Griffin Overseer, Galemore, said through my Pipbuck. “Today marks March twenty-seventh, twenty-two fifty-three. Today's morning schedule is as follows.” He said then cleared his throat. “At seven-thirty, there will be a first come-first served special in the cafeteria. Not telling what it is, you're just gonna have to find out.” The griffin teased. “Also at nine-o’clock, there will be a Sprinter's Competition held in the recreational room. Further rules and regulations will,be given at the event.” He informed ever so casually. “As for other news, there has been reports of scratching on the lower floors; these are being checked on by the utility team. Probably just an old fan two years over warranty, so no need to worry. That is all of our morning announcements, Zarya will give the midday update at twelve o’clock. And I Hope everyone has a wonderful day.” Galemore finished and my Pipbuck began to play the usual stable tunes.

I sighed, not knowing what to do today; a regular thing, unless I had something planned. So I did what I usually did in this situation, played Pipbuck games, until i could find what that something was. I pulled the “Daring Do and the Ruby Ruins” holotape out of one of my pockets, pressing it into the slot on my pipbuck and began to play.

¤ ¤ ¤

I smiled as the evil Ahuizotl lay defeated. After weeks of playing, I had finally beaten that game. The credits rolled and I took a moment to relax. Looking back to my Pipbuck, the screen had gone back to the main menu; but instead the New Game option read New Game+. “New game plus, huh?” I read aloud. I selected it and quickly murmured the description that followed, “*mumbling* new adventure, *mumbling* keep your items and level, harder enemies and bosses, *mumbling* secret ending?” I paused and looked at the screen, the highlighted CONTINUEstaring back. I thought for a moment then said to myself, “Sure, why not?” and selected the option. The screen began to static and went dark, reappearing with the beginning of the game. A large gear shaped hole grew across the scene and hoofsteps could be heard. The screen went white and the outside of whatever room I was in. The original Pre-Plus version was set on a jungle island, tons of trees animal sounds and overall...lively. Post-Plus was… a complete overhaul. The usual lush forests now resembled a deadened forest with much less vegetation. I tried to move but the screen remained still. A wind blew and dust swirled across the ground. A repeated short tone was played to mimic speech,

“I can’t believe we made it out of there!” a higher *bop* tone sounded.

“Me neither, but I don’t think staying here is a good idea. We need to keep moving before…” A deeper *doon* tone was interrupted by a loud screeching. The screen turned away from the landscape and back towards the exit of the room. Two large pincer-like appendages appeared from the darkness of the room and before it could completely reveal itself, the screen turned back to the wasteland and the galloping sounds continued at a much faster pace.

I would have continued the game but someone was buzzing my door. So I closed out the holotape and went towards the speaker button; pressing it, “Salve, hello?” I said.

“Hey Xye, open up, veni foras.” a familiar accented voice responded. I opened the door revealing one of my life-long friends, Isu, one of our taller zebra residents. He out-sizes most everyone in the stable, except for the Shires.

“Te somnia,” he joked, knowing I usually just layed in bed all day. “Want to go get something to eat?” he asked as we began to walk alongside the railing.

“Sure, why not?” I responded after playfully jabbing him in the shoulder.

¤ ¤ ¤

The walk to the cafeteria from the third floor was lively, but mostly uneventful. There was a race between two flyers; a Griffin named Grim, and a grey Pegasus I didn't know too well. Grim came really close to winning but got passed around the last corner. Another sight was the Expedition team walking through the hall leading to the cafeteria. They had a camo painted, Mr. Handy, named Oscar, hovering alongside them.

Expedition members used to wear yellow radiation suits with thick glass helmets, but soon learned about the spreading jungle outside. So they changed over from the Rad suits to a more agility based, plated leather. I’ve always dreamed of becoming a Expedition member ever since I heard stories from one of my friends, whose dad was a former member. They’re the only ones who get to leave the stable; going on missions to trade with the outside villages and towns and gathering stuff we can't produce down in the here.

While I was zoned out thinking about it all Isu waved a hoof in front of my face. “Hello, earth to Xileel, you in there,”

I blinked a few times, realizing how dried out my eyes were. “Hmm? Yea,”

“Geez you zone out way too often, it's gunna get you into trouble; maybe you'll even walk off a balcony.” He wondered.

I chuckled a bit, “Yea, sure.” I said dismissively.

We reached the crowded cafeteria, every conversation meshing together, into a monotone orchestra. The only other audible noise were the jukeboxes, but even their music couldn't overpower the shouting. We walked over to one of the lines; about ten or so other residents in front of us before we could get our own food.

“So, you got any plans today Isu?” I asked.

“Well now that you mention it, some of the others were going to check in with the night-guard to see if we could play a little Hide-N-Seek in the atrium with the lights out. Sounds fun right?” He explained as we moved.

“That actually does to be honest,” then I thought, “but do you really think the guards will allow it?”

“Of course, nos tacare. And besides, the walls are already thick enough to block out the sound of all the pre-schoolers racing back to their rooms, so it should be fine.” Isu affirmed. “And besides, everyone will be trying to be silent.” By the time he had finished telling me about tonight, we only had two more ponies ahead of us.

“Alright, what time?”

“Around 7:30, that should give us enough time to get a few rounds in. At least fourteen others will be joining as well and were meeting in the atrium park.” Isu told me as we neared the food windows.

We grabbed some trays, got our food and began to make our way to the second floor. The balcony in the cafeteria circled the room and bridged through the center. We sat along the wall just around the corner from the stairs.

Sadly, we were followed, “Well well well, look at these two mares.” Gnash spat, followed by two other griffins; his brother Gnar, and one of his friends, Skycutter.

“Why are you always calling us girls, Gnash? Do you secretly wanna bang us?” said Isu. I sat dumbfounded at Isu’s retort. We were in trouble and nothing good comes from poking bears.

“You calling me a queer, Isu? ‘Cause I don’t think I heard you right. It sounded like…” Isu cut him off, “I said ‘you like boys’ because I did!”

“Get up!” Gnash growled, pawing at Isu’s shoulder.

“Oh, you're really asking for it Isu!” Gnar said from the side.

“Yes… yes I am.” Isu lept from his seat into the air, spun around furiously and landing a powerful kick right into Gnash’s head, knocking him clean off the balcony.

I grabbed a tray with my telekinesis before the others could react and slammed it into Skycutters beak; food scraps flew as he faltered, and I sent the tray back towards Gnar. He saw it coming and caught it in his claw. Smirking he threw the tray over the railing; most definitely hitting someone, and flared his wings, taking off into the air. Gnash had also begun to fly and joined up with Gnar. Skycutter flew up last rubbing his beak.

“You’ve really fucked up this time Isu, meet me in the Recreation room tomorrow at twelve.” Gnash looked to Skycutter and Gnar, whispered something and they flew off. “I’ll be waiting.” He growled then flew off.

“Isu… please tell me you’ve got this under control.” I asked realizing how fast my heart was pumping.

Isu brushed his mane back up, “Of course I do, non forsit.” he said casually. “Nice job by the way, I would have been in trouble if it was just me up here.” Isu said with a smile.

“Isu, i’ll never understand how you can treat serious situations with such disdain.” Looking around I saw the everyone’s heads turned toward us. “Let’s get out of here before Security shows up”

“Agreed.”

Of course I threw away the only food I’d have for the next five hours.

¤ ¤ ¤

Time passed and not much else happened after the fight. Security showed up, cleaned up the mess, questioned bystanders, and ruled it trivial to investigate further. Even though that was most situations around here.

There was one time a few Pony racists tried to incite a riot against the Zebra inhabitants. They were shown no mercy and were locked away in the lower levels for three years. The Overseers really try to uphold the equality for all races, and made sure to keep that message instilled in everyone.

“Something on your mind?” Isu asked catching me off-guard.

“Hmm? What?” I stuttered.

“Of course, always zoning out. You should probably get that checked out, malum in salutem.

“I’m pretty sure working out your brain is a good thing.”

“Is that what your calling it now?” He laughed. “What do you even think about half the time?”

“Hmm, usually just really detailed imagery, almost like watching a movie. That or just random stuff I like to pick apart and analyze.”

Isu face hoofed, “Can't you just like, I don't know watch an actual movie?”

“Well what's the fun in watching a movie I've seen ten times already. Besides I wouldn't zone out so much if I wasn't always booored.” I groaned. “Well it's not my fault, were literally doing the most boring thing right now; walking.”

“Well walking can be interesting if there was something to talk about.

“Technically yes, but… what's the point of talking to you if you're zoned out and can't even hear me?!”

I laughed, “You have a point there,” I concluded. Isu, let out a triumphant winnie.

We made it back into the atrium and began crossing the center bridge leading to the other wing of the stable. There wasn’t a lot of adults about since it was working hours, there were however a few kids hanging around. I didn’t know many of them, but a few did stick out to me; Xythe and Zerra, two zebra foals, were splashing around in the fountain on the lowest level. A few young griffins were on a bench chatting away carefree. The cry of a foal caused me to scan the room for the source and I saw a mother caring for her daughter, trying to keep her quiet with a bottle of milk. I began thinking of my own mother, who was nowhere to be found.

Why did it have to be me, why, WHY, WHY!

Stop, thinking this way, it’s only hurting you. Calm down, it's okay.

I fought back the tears welling behind my eyes. I hated crying, even though everyone said it helps you feel better. Isu had already noticed my dead-eyed look and had nudged me.

“Thinking about her again?” He asked, keeping his head forward. I nodded. “Bene tibi erit. Let me know if you need anything I nodded again, and we kept walking. Even though it had been roughly a year since she died, I still felt the void inside; it would never be filled and it would follow me to my grave. I’d probably have a dream about her tonight and wake up with tears in my eyes, but that's ok. As long as i didn’t cry now. “Well I’ll see you later, we’ll meet up in the usual spot.” Isu said as he turned heading for his classroom. I gave a slight wave and we went our separate ways.

¤ ¤ ¤

Class was as boring as it usually was. I picked up a few interesting facts, but I ended up falling asleep. I only woke up after I heard all the hoofsteps as everyone left the room. I lifted my journal, which only contained pages worth of week old notes and drawings, and floated it into my bag. Most of the class had already left and I was almost last to leave, until something tapped the back of my head. Looking down, I saw a piece of chalk quickly bounce away. Turning back I saw the red-orange earth pony professor sitting at her desk whistling a tune.

“Yes, Ms. Reign?” I said feigning innocence, knowing full well I was in trouble .

She gave me a look, “So it takes seven chalk sticks to get your attention.”

Wait how many had she thrown already?

“You know I don't like it when students don't pay attention in class. I'm sure you know what usually happens, right?” She asked casually balancing a chalk on her hoof.

“You know as well as I do how many times you've asked me this.”

About twenty-five now if I recalled correctly.

“Twenty-four times now, and I can make it twenty-five, if you'd like,” she said flipping the chalk into the air, her hoof quickly rearing back.

Oh SHIT!

The light reflected off her eyes and her hoof launched the chalk at mach two. I ducked instinctively, hearing a cracking noise above me. I looked up to the wall to see the chalk embedded into it. “You know, eventually you'll mess up and that's gunna hit some-AGH!” Chalk nailing me right underneath my horn, stopped me from finishing my quip and knocked me onto my haunches.

“Oh is that right, huh, I never would have guessed.” She said sarcastically, pushing her silver mane away from her face.

After lying on the ground, letting my brain register the pain in my skull, I sat up, “GAHH! THAT FUCKING STINGS!” I could almost feel the hairline fractures in my skull.

“So Xileel, what have we once again learned today?” She questioned, rolling yet another chalk stick on her desk.

“Not to sleep in class, and not to get on your bad side,” I answered rubbing my forehead.

“Precisely, dismissed.” She waved me out of her room before continuing to write something.

Leaving the room I met back up with Isu, who immediately noticed the mark on my forehead. “I'm really happy I don't have her as a professor.” He looked closer at my forehead, “is that your stripes or did she push a cigarette into your head?”

He tried to touch the mark, but I slapped his hoof away, “Don't touch it, it still stings! I swear one day that mad-mares going to kill me.”

¤ ¤ ¤

Time passes and tonight's planned event drew near. According to Isu; the guards already knew and were willing to allow us to play as long as we remained quiet, but I couldn't shake the feeling as if something felt off about tonight.

Maybe no-one will show up.

Maybe…

Maybe it's because you know
something will go wrong.

Maybe…

Maybe everything will turn out okay.

“Whatcha thinkin bout?” I heard a voice ask. Coming out of my daze I looked around to find no one stopped and facing me, as ponies, zebra and griffins walked by. “Up here,” the voice called. Looking up I saw a grey pegasus… standing on the ceiling? He simply smiled and waved when I looked at him.

“What the… how…?” I sat in awe.

“Simple, I just kinda fly upside down. Also I'm a Pegasus so screw gravity!” He explained.

“Okaaay... wait, how long have you been up there?” I asked, was he just silently staring at me the whole time?

“Not too long, was kinda, just walking along and saw you lookin spaced out. You do that often?”

“I've been told I do, but I don't feel like I zone out that much.” I told him.

“How would you know if you’re zoned out all the time?” He chuckled a bit.

“I, umm…”

I guess he's right.

“You got me there.” I admitted. “What's your name anyway, and can you get down, my necks starting to ache.”

The Pegasus spun over and landed effortlessly on the floor. When he landed I noticed he was just barely shorter than me. He flipped his black and white mane out if his face, “Chaser,” he said extending his hoof, “and you?”

“Xileel, with a silent ‘L’ at the end,” I answered meeting my hoof to his. “You're that pegasus who won the race against Grim earlier, am I right?”

“Oh you saw that? Yea, that was me. He's pretty fast, but just not quite as fast as me.” He lightly boasted.

“Well, depending on how fast you are on the ground, you might have a good chance of not getting tagged during the night game planned tonight. You coming?” I asked.

“Really?! That sounds cool, what time does it start?” Chaser enthusiastically asked.

“Around 7:30, should give everyone enough time to show up.” I answered.

Chaser looked around and spotted a clock hanging off the wall reading 4:57, “Alright bet.”

“Bet what?” I asked very confused.

“No, it's just like, well.. how do I word this? It's like saying you can put bits on me being there, but figuratively.” He explained.

“Ahhh, ok, mirabile!”

Ponies never ceased to amaze me in their strange ways.

“Well yea, I'll see ya then Xileel.” He waved goodbye, then flew off down the hallway.

I waved as well, but he was long gone. I turned on the stable radio and made my way back home.

¤ ¤ ¤

“In other news, the Expedition team returned with zero casualties, and have recently discovered a suitable area for everyone to relocate to. After just a few years of their founding they have done so much for us. Let's give them a round of applause shall we.” The Pony Overmare congratulated. The entire stable rumbled as the residents cheered My own was the smacking of my hoof against my Pipbuck because I hadn't taken my eyes off the screen for a few minutes. Why I did it, I'll never know, because it works fine. All this idling wasn't helping either. I finally stopped looking at my Pipbuck and realized I was very hungry, so I went over to my refrigerator.

Hmm let's see, uhhhh nothing.

I closed the fridge and looked in the pantry.

Whooole lot of nothing, OH, wait!

Some orange noodle packets sat at the back of the shelf. I floated them passed everything else and silently celebrated. One quick cooking session later and I was sitting on the sofa watching very old reruns of the Unbeatables, some sort of heroes that went around and defeated bad guys. I only watched the episodes before the war since during the war the antagonists in the series became zebras. I did however like the Witchdoctor episode, where an evil zebra shaman was trying to create a large zombie army to take over the world.

Why am I telling you this, It's not like you really care about some dead tv show. So I'll just skip ahead, because I watched for awhile.

¤ ¤ ¤

After a long binge of the Unbeatables until 6:27, I finally decided I was bored of watching the same reruns for the seven-thousandth time. I really needed to find something else to…

Oh yea! I've still got that game on my Pipbuck.

I started up the holotape and pressed Continue. The screen becoming static, and the cutscene from before played again. “Oh come on! I can't skip this?!” I yelled in frustration. I begrudgingly watched the same cutscene all the way up until the two characters ran off into the wasteland. Turns out, there was a bit more afterwards, since the screen reappeared with a dilapidated town; cracked roads overgrown shrubbery and vines, and broken down carts.

“*panting* I think we got away.” The familiar light tone sounded.

“I hope so, but where did we get away to? Hic locus est ignotum.” The deeper tone sounded.

Oh hey they're zebras.

“The sun won't stay up for long, we should look around and see if we can find anything useful.” The deeper tone said.

“Yea, I'll check out this place over here.Yell if you need help or something.”

I really should assign names to these characters. Let's have the lighter tone be… uhh Light and the deeper tone Deep. Boom! Ten out of ten imagination.

The screen changed over to the 2.5-D top-down perspective.

At least that stayed the same.

My character, Light as I'd recently called, wasn’t definitely a zebra, but no one I recognized from the Pre-Plus version of the game and definitely not Daring Do. His dirty teal mane hanging off one side of his stone grey head and sporting a small beard. A dark green bandana hung around his neck. Reinforced leather barding adorned his body and made his otherwise small frame a bit bulkier. Light also had a slightly broken, Mouth-grip 10mm SMG, with about a clip and a half of ammo.I moved into the doorway and slowly opened the door, not knowing anything about Post-Plus; I had to be careful. The door creaked and revealed a slightly dusty living room, the remains of a long gone pony leaned peacefully along the arm of a couch. The breeze outside wafted in through an open window, from which torn curtains hung. The building was dead silent, aside from Light's hoofsteps. A quick search of the room warranted very little; a few assorted bullets, some scrap metal and an old note I'd read later.

I won't bore you with mundane gameplay, so let's just hop skip and jump right on ahead shall we?

I finally decided to read the note after wandering around the house for a few minutes looking for anything else of use. It read as follows;

Surprise!

P.S. Put your, hooves/talons/whatever the fuck kinda appendages you have, in the air if you wanna keep your, horn/beak/ whatever the fuck you have
on your face, actually on your face. Thanks : )

Well fuck…

[Comply] or [Fight]

...popped up on the screen, as well as a thought bubble. “Sounds like two guys, but there's no way to tell for certain, unless I wanna lose my face. I can't believe they left a goddess damned note!” Light thought.

I didn't really have many options, being upstairs meant I could escape through a window if I really had to, but I also didn't know what I was up against.

The screen pulled away from Light and showed a levitated sawn-off shotgun point blank against his head. “So ya wanna put up them hooves, or do you wanna lose your face?” A *kree* tone sounded.

[[Comply]]

“Well AIN’T THIS JUST fucking dandy?!” Light said. “So fellas, what can ol’ Mossy help you gentlecolts with?” Light, now Mossy, asked sitting down and raising his hooves.

“Drop ya caps and you can keep ya face.” Kree demanded.

“Well with pleasure, just allow me to reach for em, and I'll hand em over right quick.” Mossy began to reach for his saddlebags and slowly pulled out a small pouch of caps. “She? No pro’rum.” He said around a mouthful of caps.

Kree’s magic floated the pouch from Mossy’s mouth and over to hire comrade. “Count em.” He ordered.

“...”

A smirk slowly crept across Mossy’s muzzle.

The screen then switched over to Deep, who had just choked out Kree's friend without making a sound, and was now creeping up behind Kree. “Dammit are ya…” Kree stopped mid-sentence after turning his head to see Deep standing much to close for him to react at all. Deep wasted no time knocking Kree out with a single swift kick. Kree’s shotgun clattered to the ground akin to his unconscious body.

“And here I was thinking I might actually lose those caps.”

“Oh please,” Deep said rolling his eyes, “when have you ever lost anything with me at your side?”

“Oh I can name a few.” Mossy grinned.

“Quia caritas… YOUR V-CARD DOESN'T COUNT!”

“But you said ‘anything’ so it SO does!” Mossy laughed.

“I hate you.” Deep sighed.

“Oh but you couldn't live without me, Zurrie.”

Yes new names!

“Oh you think so? Says the pony who got mugged by some kids!”

‘I swear to Celestia there were twenty of them!”

“Awww, is the big bad merc’s weakness foam darts?”

“Yea whatever, laugh it up. But I swear they had a rocket launcher.”

The cutscene ended with me in control of Zurrie, who according to the game, played differently than Mossy. But I didn't read to much into it because looking at the actual time and reading 7:26. So unfortunately I had to cease my play and go outside.

Oh nooo, sweating!

My door buzzer ended my pre-groan to getting off the couch, so instead… “Who is it?” I groaned loudly.

“Chaser,” a familiar voice called out. “Isu told me to make sure you weren’t zoned out again.”

Wooow really…

“Yea, I'll be out in a minute.” I yelled back.

But really though?

¤ ¤ ¤

After finally getting downstairs, and apparently being the last to show up, Isu began stating the rules of our night time game. “Alright now that everyone is here, we can begin momentarily, but first some ground rules; one, no flying, makes it unfair for those of us without wings. Two, you can go anywhere you want as long as it's permitted within stable rules, no hiding,in rooms and locking doors either. Three, if you are IT, it takes two hooves, slash, talons, slash whatever you call appendages, to officially Out some…

There were quite a few rules… montage time!

“... does anyone have any questions?” Isu asked four minutes later.

“What are the rules again?” Someone asked.

“Can somebody,” a quick smack was heard somewhere in the crowd. “Thank you. Any other real questions?”

Silence.

“Alright I'll be IT first unless someone else volunteers, eleven minute rounds set your Pipbuck timeeeers, NOW! One, two, three, four…” Isu began as everyone panicked and scattered to their own respective hiding spots.

I ran as fast as I could to one of many possible hiding spots, the Atrium playground, only to realize there were already three players hiding. So I high tailed it to the cafeteria.

“Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen…”

The lower lounge area looked pretty empty so I hopped into the corner by the end table and shimmied my way into a snug spot. The couches blocking most sightlines to me and the end table providing moderate top coverage.

The almost perfect hiding spot.

“So you found this spot too huh?” A mares,voice whispered, causing my heart to skip.

Looking around I could barely make out an electric blue highlight of a mane and eyes. “OH, my fuck you scared me.” I said trying to calm my rapid heartbeat. “How long have you been here?”

“I got here a few seconds before you did. I'm actually surprised you got in here, so congrats.” she giggled.

“Eheh, well thanks. Who are you anyway?”

Her Pipbuck’s screen glowed a soft baby blue, just enough to illuminate here face. Her coat barely appearing as its dark purple blended with the shadows around her, “The names Solani, nice ta meetcha.” She gave a warm smile and her Pipbuck’s light faded.

Wait Solani is zebra for nightshade. But…

“Where are your stripes?”

“Oh so you know zebra?

I increased the brightness on my Pipbuck and its amber glow illuminated my face. “Well of course. The names Xileel by the way. Silent ‘L” at the end.”

“Ooooh, now it make sense.” She giggled again.

Kinda cute actually…

“So yea, about my stripes, I was raised by a nice zebra couple who adopted me when I was young. They called me Solani, or Nightshade because of my coat color, and maybe for my sometimes dangerous behavior,” she chuckled.

Interesting…

“Well that's a first in my books, and what kind of ‘dangerous behavior’ are we talking about here?”

A few panicked yells that came Atrium echoed through the halls. I assumed the players at the playground had already been found. “Well that was quick, they really shouldn't have hid so obviously. But umm, yea dangerous behavior. While they were raising me, they taught me a few things about Zebras and their culture, such as potion making. And let's just say I had a certain affinity for the poisons and volatile mixtures.” Solani quietly laughed. “I once made a potion that melted a window clean through. Sweet Celestia, was the teacher pissed.” She laughed. I had to magically close her mouth because someone was running down the hall.

“Crap that was close.” Was all the figure said before they sped past.

A few taps on my shoulder and a blue tipped hoof was pointing at a magically closed muzzle. “Oh sorry.”

“Care to explain what the heck that was?” She said, sounding slightly pissed.

“Explain what?”

“Whatever the fuck you just did to me. I couldn't open my mouth at all!” She almost yelled.

I magically closed her mouth again, “Shhhh, do you wanna get caught?” I hushed.

She tried to speak but I had kept her mouth shut and all that slid through were a few mumbles and squeaks through her nose. Then she slapped me.

“Ow, what was that for.” I asked dropping the spell.

“YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!” she growled through her teeth. She grabbed my head with both hooves and pulled it closer. “What kinda sorcery is this?” She said rummaging her hooves through my mane, finally finding my horn. “What the heck… are you half unicorn?!” She practically squealed.

“Well I would say four/tenths unicorn.” I corrected.

“OhmygoshohmygoshOhmyg…” once again, quiet. I put my hoof over my lips and shushed. “I can't believe I haven't talked to you yet, you're so lucky, what's it like, Ohmygosh I have so many questions!” She squeed.

I chuckled a bit, no pony has ever been this interested in me. Then again I did hide my horn in my mane pretty well. “Well you can learn all about me after we,”

“Fail at hiding?” Isu said from above.

“Uhhh… hi.” I said, for sure knowing what would happen next. His hoof reached down and poked me in the head.

“Boop, go to the atrium with ur Pipbuck light on. Meet with the others. I've still got a few Griffins to tag.” He said before speeding off.

“What the fuck, he didn't see you?!” Looking over to Solani, who actually wasn't there, “what the…”

“Haha he got you,” Solani’s voice teased from above.

“WHAT! How did you... but you were just... my brain hurts.”

“When your adopted father's, grandpa, was an Ex-Legion spy, you tend to learn a few things.” She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry I kinda vanished on ya, but it's okay now cuz you can tell me all about yourself.”

“Well,” I vanished in a flash of white light and appeared beside Solani, causing her jaw to drop. “let's not waste any time.”

She squealed and threw her arms around my neck, “You can teleport?!”

“Only short distances, but yea.” I said modestly.

“Will you be the father of my babies,” she whispered in my ear.

Don't get a hard on, don't get a hard on, it's not woorkinng!

I blushed furiously as I stammered for words.

“I'm just kidding,” she laughed, “come on, let's talk in the atrium.” She said wiping a tear from her eye. “Priceless.”

I was still stuck in place concentrating on totally not dirty thoughts of myself and Solani.

Noooooooooo! STOOOP!

Solani grabbed my hoof and tugged me along through the halls.

¤ ¤ ¤

“You're probably the most interesting zony down here.” Solani praised from beside me.

Sitting down on one of the many benches surrounding the Atrium’s walking paths, Solani and myself learned quite a bit about each other. Favorite snacks, movies, fears, dreams, likes, dislikes, all that good stuff. I learned about her numerous childhood stories and we both shared a few good laughs. Did we waste three games doing just that... yes. Yes we did.

“But wait till I tell you the what part!” I told her.

The time flew by that night and ended up being midnight before we were even close to being done.

Out of context, that sounds very wrong.

“That's so funny!” she laughed.

“Shhh!” One of the night guards shushed.

“I guess it is getting pretty late.” I stated.

“Awww, but we were having so much fun!” She whined.

“I know, I know, but just look, “ I showed her the time on my Pipbuck, 1:37, “sleepy time.”

She giggled, “okay, okay, I'll see you tomorrow… unless,”

Unless…

“I could spend the night at your place?”

Think about this, what could go wrong?

Nothing really.

Do we have enough space?

Yea, moms old room.

Smash or pass?

What?

What?

“I don't see why not” I answered with a shrug.

I guarantee, the brightest smile I'd ever seen shown on her face and she literally squealed in delight. “Lemme tell my parents really quick.” She sat down and pulled out an orange vial, pouring some of the liquid onto a hoof. She rubbed her hooves together and spread them apart in front of her face, creating a screen of orange jelly. She whispered into the screen and as she spoke a bubble slowly formed on the other side. When she was done the bubble separated from the screen and floated off somewhere. “Okay, all done.” She smiled.

“What was that?!” I asked in awe of her potion.

“Oh that, it's just a simple messenger bubble, holds a short sentence and can be told to go to a certain pony or place. Pretty neat huh?” She smiled with pride.

“Heck yea! You've gotta show me how you did that.”

We began the short trip upstairs to the second floor of the atrium and over to my home. Entering my passcode, the door hissed open and we went inside. “Wow, so spacious, anyone else live here?” She asked.

“No it's just me.”

Please don't ask…

“Why's that?”

I sighed knowing this wouldn't be easy. It was never easy. “My mother passed a long time ago. It's just been me for a little over a year now.” I said glumly.

Stay strong, you've got this.

“Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know.” She apologized.

“It's okay, just a little hard sometimes.” My voice began to crack.

No…

The tears began to well behind my eyes. The silence in the room made it painfully obvious that this home, truly was empty. A warm feeling touched my side and spread across my shoulders, up my neck and face. Only realizing it was Solani who had pulled me into her arms. I could see her eyes glasses over and a cold wetness falling down my neck. “I'm so sorry.” She sobbed. As she held me, I too began to cry. My legs became tired and I lost the power to stand as the grief overcame me. We laid there crying into each other as the night crawled on.

The tears fell into each other and finally stopped after awhile. “We should probably get some sleep.” I said, my face soaked in tears.

Solani only nodded and I helped her to her hooves. Slowly we crept through the dark room and into my mothers. The large bed sat against the wall in the middle of the room, untouched for some time now. I levitated the blankets up and we both crawled underneath them. The distance between us lessened as Solani moved closer. I could feel the warmth of her body and reached out to it, holding her close in my arms. I had never felt this feeling and it was nice to experience it for the first time. Her warmth spread across me and in a way, made me feel better. Looking at her dark mane made me realize that she cared about me. Even only having just met her, I felt a little better knowing some pony like her was around.

_____¤ ¤ ¤_____

Footnote: Perk added! Dearly Departed: Even though they're gone, you will always remember them. Whenever you are below 25% Health your Will to live on for them grants you 20 DT. Make them proud.
S.4 P.7 E.4 C.4 I.7 A.7 L.4

Welcome to Newshire

Thank you for reading the first chapter of FoE: Newshire, I hope you enjoyed it. Any and all criticism (not hate) is much appreciated.

Chapter 2: Reclamation Day

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 2: Reclamation Day

“Oh, maybe he moved out. Everypony has to leave the nest at some point.”

Without an alarm to get up to, I could have lied in bed all day. What woke me up though, was the lack of a cute pony on the other side of the bed. Opening my eyes revealed she, in-fact, wasn't in the room at all. However, an orange bubble floated silently above me. “Hey little guy,” I said groggily, “what are you doing here?” I prodded the bubble for an answer and ended up popping it.

To my surprise, Solani's voice whispered into the air. “Hey Xileel, hope you slept, *snore* er… are, sleeping well. Did you know you, *snore* snore?” She giggled. “Well, I had to leave the bubble because I remembered I had some stuff to, *snore* do in the morning. I'll catch back up with you later today. *snore*” she mocked my snoring and laughed a bit. “Yea well, I'll talk to you later.” She made a kissing noise and the beginning of a snore barely made it into the end.

At least my snore wasn't loud, just… grunty?

I smiled and felt happy inside. Still only just waking up, I lied in bed for a bit; letting my mind run wild with happy fantasies and creative imagery. After some time, I found enough energy to get out of bed, sleepily lifting myself from my warm indention. The muffled commotion outside continued to draw my attention, so I turned on the Stable PA on my Pipbuck, catching the end of an announcement.

“Our future begins!” The Overmare’s voice said.

Like… the very end.

Some time passed and I had made my way to the living room. Looking out the window revealed that everyone was moving stuff, personal belongings, supplies, etc.

Seriously, what did I miss?

I saw Isu, carrying a few vials of colorful liquid, as he passed my window. By tapping it, I tried to get his attention… and failed.

I guess it was just too loud out there.

My Pipbuck started to play a celebratory tune and a voice began to speak through. “Greeting everyone, this is Founder Twisty Roads.” His raspy old voice said. “I am,overjoyed to see all of your hard work finally pay off. You all are a shining example of how the world could have been… should, have been. But as you know, that world has long since passed. A new world awaits you outside. Dangers only encountered by your Expedition Teams, who in turn should bring you all up to speed. No one can guarantee your safety once you step outside this stable, but as long as you remain unified. Your strength will only grow! I only wish that I could be there to see you off, to congratulate you all personally. You've made an old pony proud. Your Pipbucks have had instructions loaded onto them, plus a little something extra.” My Pipbuck chimed. “Now go… our future begins.” There was a long pause. “Uhhh… how do I turn this off?” A series of taps and bumps sounded through the speaker. “Axuel! How do I get this to stop?!”

“Did you press the red button?” A distant, accented voice responded.

“That's a but-” the transmission ended abruptly and a wave of laughter echoed through the stable.

I chuckled at the old pony’s technical difficulties, but sudden realization struck me like a professional applebuck to the face, “We're leaving the stable?!”

And you're super behind on packing.

Shut up, I noticed! Checking my Pipbuck’s info tab, I found the instructions and activated the file.

A happy female's voice erupted from the speaker.“Congratulations on successfully making it to Reclamation Day! Before you leave we have some special information that should help you on your journey.” she said overenthusiastically. “First things first, INTRODUCTIONS! Hi, my designation is Founder’s Artificial Intelligence; but you can call me Fae, and I'm yours, and everyone else's, new personal assistant. I can do just about anything and I'm super duper smart!” She boasted. “And I'll tell you all there is to know about things you don't know squat about!” As I listened, I began to rush around my home and pack all of my belongings. “So now that that's outta the way, let's show you the ropes! As you know, the inner island of Newshire is now covered in a dense jungle. Luckily for us, here on Carsas we don't have that problem.” She began to whisper, “Sure did get off easier than the others, huh?” And went back to her annoyingly cheerful, and loud voice. “So most of the surrounding landscapes and structures are, mostly, intact. Perfect for sprucing back up to tippy top shape. However they aren't abandoned just quite yet. With no pony to manage the wild animal population, they kinda, sorta, moved in. But no worries, you can just ask them to leave and you'll be right as radioactive rain.”

“Where did I put that vest?” I asked aloud.

“Under there.”

“Under where… really?”

“Ha! Classic. Anyway, if the wildlife isn't so friendly then I have just the solution.” A panel flipped around in the room and a speaker was revealed. “Quick, take me to that speaker!”

Did I just get tricked… by an AI… with that joke?

I followed suit and lifted my Pipbuck up to the speaker. “Voice recognition code, Frank, Alpha, Ida. Hi, nice ta meetcha!”

“Voice recognition confirmed. Hi Fae!”

The panel flipped around and a secondary panel opened beside it revealing some shiny new gun parts. “BEHOLD! The finest in Founder hardware. The Self-Adjustable-Energy-Rifle. SAER!”

The weapon’s parts were neatly laid out in different sections; barrels, sights and stocks. A unique handle that could switch between a undermounted talon-held or side mounted mouth-grip. Its unique edged look was only accented by its enameled frame and grey paint.

“Since we knew there would be a bunch of different creatures, we made the SAER fully customizable. Perfect for any situation! On the fly modification is simple, just like those old techno-colored dart guns, just twist and click. It's even easier while it's in the case. ” All the parts slid back and down into one convenient carrying case. “Which can do it automatically at the press of a button. The case also doubles as a battle saddle!” Fae informed, the case splitting in half and revealing its battle saddle form then closing.

“This is amazing!” I said grabbing the case, which was also much lighter than expected. I switched it to battle saddle mode and floated it onto my back, for convenience. I had already packed most of my belongings. Majority being small items, since I myself, didn't have a whole lot. However I did have to leave my mother's belongings. I only took a few of her things, that of which meant something to me. An old necklace that my father gave her. Holding the tooth of a great beast from his homeland, accented by small colored beads. As well as a picture of her. I looked at the picture and held it to my chest, wishing I could hold the pony within. Before I could cry, I placed it with my things.

“Hey, it seems someone's trying to ping your radio systems. Would you like me to answer?” Fae asked.

“What do you mean?”

“It's like a phone call.”

“Ohhh, yea sure.” I answered.

Static broke through the speakers and then was replaced by a familiar voice. “Hey Xye? Can you hear me?” Isu asked from the other side.

“Hey! Yea, I can hear you. What's up?” I asked, not knowing whether or not I had to speak directly into the Pipbuck.

“Are you finished packing? Everyone's down on the lowest level, it's like a huge garage or something. You should hurry up and get your stuff on these trucks. The Expedition Teams are about to do a... powerpoint, whatever that is.”

Oh crap! “Ok, I'm on my way.” I said quickly.

¤ ¤ ¤

I floated all of my stuff onto the trolley cart and wheeled it down to the atrium; in which had a large ramp, that hadn't been there before, leading down into the garage Isu told me about. Which was massive, the room extended beyond that of the above stable and ended in two large hangar doors. The large, tan painted, trucks lining the walls, had cloth covered trailers, as well as high suspension, off-road wheels. As I admired the military-esk vehicles, a Mister Handy robot floated over to me.

“Greetings sir! Would you like me to load your luggage?”

“Uhh, sure.” I answered hesitantly.

“Excellent, please take this,” it handed me a ticket with a barcode on it, “it will help us in redistribution of luggage to its respective owners.” The robot began to stick tags to all of my luggage then began to load it onto a truck.

I quietly moved over to the mass of Ponies, Zebra and Griffins and joined the briefing, which I’d hoped had just started. On the large projected screen, showed a picture of a
SAER that changed configuration every few seconds, explaining the things that Fae had already told me. The screen then showed a collection of the different wildlife and their newer, mutated variants. Most of which still looked mostly harmless, save for a few. Then they showed some of the big, mean, murderous creatures, resulting in gasps and shocked expressions from everyone. The next slide showed a location on a Pipbuck map as well as photos of a town from afar. A somewhat nearby and slightly overgrown looking place, where most of its buildings were covered in vines and ivy as well as trees growing through its streets. “This is Doveport,” One of the Expedition Team members said loudly, “and this will be our new home until we can take back the mainland. It has a large infestation of Guana, the lizard type animal you saw a few slides ago, so keep your SAERs ready upon arrival. More information will be loaded onto your Pipbuck after this briefing is over… which is now.”

My Pipbuck chimed and Fae began to speak, “Hi again, so I'm here to tell you you're in Group D, the Sharpshooters. You'll provide long-range fire support while groups A and B clear the town and buildings. Group C will provide protection for Group E while Group E will remain at the trucks, as they are our non-combatant personnel, elders, children, pacifists and such.”

“At this time your Faes should have given out your groups and how your group will run. Groups A and B, please follow Assault-Leader Skyscreamer, he will run you through a more detailed plan. Group C please follow me, Field-Medic Counter Pulse. While Group D will follow Sharpshooter Done Ham. Group E please follow Ms. Reign. Alright everyone let’s get moving! Double time!”

Wait, Ms. Reign!?

Everyone began to move accordingly. The large mass of people starting to thin as every-creature found their groupings. I made my way to Sharpshooter Done Ham and hopped up into a truck bed, taking a seat between two Zebras. “Ego non exspectare impetro ex hic,” one to my left said, “et tu?” he asked me.

“Vix paulum im,” I responded, “tamen spero bonum.”

He nudged me and smiled, “Simul udiutorio tuo vincemus.” he said reassuringly.

A klaxon rang out through the garage as yellow lights flashed brilliantly. A single roar of engines cascaded down the rows of trucks. The simultaneous growls shaking the room. The klaxon rang twice and the large hangar doors began to pull away from each other. Fresh air rushed through my mane as the pressure equalized. New scents assaulted my nose, thick with sea salt. The klaxon let out a triple burst and the first row of trucks began to pull off, then the second and so on. Our truck lurched forward, causing myself and a few others to lose balance. The convoy rolled through the doors and warm sunshine shown across us all. Our eyes adjusted and we saw the outside for the first time.

¤ ¤ ¤

Thick brush lined the dirt path as dust kicked up from the truck tires. The sky was vibrant through the clouds, which appeared to have been parted at some point. We crested a hill, revealing much more of Carsas. I could see the old port town resting in between some hills, a few birds flying above. Looking back, I could barely see the mound from which we exited through all the dust. Coming down and around a bend revealed a sightline to the Newshire mainland, and what we saw could only be described as nightmarish. A gargantuan tree rose up into the sky, separating the clouds at its canopy; large vines hanging from its thick branches. Monstrous dark roots broke the the surrounding jungle like an angry sea serpent. A giant shadow cast over the island as if it were the domain of Nightmare Moon herself. Fear clawed at my body as our daunting task lied before us. I could see the looks of dread on those who also stared at the tree. The convoy soon rolled behind a hill, breaking our view, but blinking only showed the afterimage burned into my eyes.

How were we supposed to get through that?

The convoy rolled to a stop at an intersection, our dirt path perpendicular to a long stretch of highway and a tunnel across from us. Wildgrasses had broken through the pavement and moss had begun to grow on the old rusted cars and trucks that littered the lanes. Old road signs sat rusted and illegible upon their supports. A breeze disturbing the old sands and blowing through the trucks canopy. Our engine turned off and the sounds of nature became much clearer. Bird chirps and distant howls echoed through the air, only to be interrupted soon after, “Hiyas, so I'm here to let you know, fireteam leader Done Ham is sending out a broadcast ping for Group D. Would you like to listen?” Fae said suddenly.

Simultaneous affirming noises sounded through the truck. “Fae, how many got the ping?” Done Ham asked over the coms. “And how many joined?” More silence. “Perfect, alright everyone listen up. As stated before; we are Group D, the Sharpshooters. We will be providing cover fire for Groups A and B as they clear Doveport. All non-flyers will be positioned here.” A small white marker appeared in my vision, numbers above it indicating distance.

Urge to swat at, rising.

“All flyers will be given separate instructions by Ariel. You should be getting a broadcast ping now. As for the rest of you, configure your SAERs for long range, Sniper is preferred. Now for a run-down of the weapon; there is no bullet drop, since it's a laser rifle. Also being that, there is little to no delay between the time it takes to take a shot and for that shot to connect to the target. Sniper mode takes more energy than most and thus results in more frequent reloading. The laser is also very focused and will penetrate soft materials, so please check your aim. Any and all questions should be directed to your Fae. We move out in fifteen minutes, so get prepared.” Done Ham concluded.

“Broadcast connection lost. I'll let you know when it's time to go.” Fae said happily.

“Thanks Fae,” I responded, but I didn't want to sit here for fifteen minutes, “hey Fae, can you set up a four-way call?” I asked.

“Of course, who shall I ping?”

“Isu, Solani, and Chaser, I'm gonna see if they want to explore a bit.” I explained.

“Alrighty, sending out a broadcast ping now.” A few seconds passed, “A user has joined your channel!”

“Hello?” Solani’s voice came first.

“Hey Solani, how you been?” I asked, glad to hear her voice again.

“I've been good. I got assigned to Group C, what about you?”

“User has joined your channel!” Fae interrupted.

“Hey Xileel, good to hear you didn't get left behind… or did you?” Isu joked.

“Yea I made it. I'm in Group D, also I'd like to introduce you to-”

“User has joined your channel!” Fae interrupted again.

“Fae, is there anyway to not say that everytime?” I asked, visibly frustrated.

“Of course, default settings changed!” Fae informed me.

“How's it been Xileel, what group did you get?” Chaser asked.

“I'm good, and Group D. Since we've got some time, let's meet up at the intersection,” I looked around for anything landmark-ish, spotting a tree, “by the Y-shaped tree on the median.”

“Alrighty.” Solani responded.

“Bet!” Chaser exclaimed.

“Can do, see you then.” Isu said.

Hopping down from the truck bed revealed that many others had the same idea. Some having already grouped up, while others spoke over a broadcast. Pegasi and Griffins had taken to the skies, finally able to fly without limitations. Halfway to the intersection a saw a group of people getting lessons in marksponyship from Done Ham. Further up I could see Isu and Chaser walking close to each other. Just before I could begin to trot faster and catch up, I was suddenly weighed down as some pony threw themselves onto my back.
“Heyyy, I found you!” She said playfully. The sudden attack made me lose my balance, thus causing us both to collapse onto the ground. “Where have you been mister?” Solani asked from atop me.

“I could say the same to you missy.” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Where’d you go this morning?”

“I had to go back home and do some stuff for today! Didn't you know today was today?” She questioned booping my muzzle with a hoof.

“I'm not good with dates.” I said rubbing the back of my head in embarrassment. Having gotten tired of being the bottom, I teleported from under her and back into a standing position. With my body absent, she flopped to the ground and gave me a look that promised payback. “Oops.” I said with a mocking smile.

“Mhmm, laugh it up. I'll get you back.” A devilish smile spreading across her muzzle.

“I'm soo scared,” I feigned, waving a hoof dismissively, “come on, Chaser and Isu are probably already at the tree.”

“Fiine.” She said dusting herself off.

¤ ¤ ¤

Finishing up the rest of the walk, we made it to the intersection. Isu and Chaser chatting under the Y-shaped tree. “About time you two showed up!” Isu yelled as we neared.

“Yea, what gives?” Chaser yelled as well.

“We were at the back of the pack, sorry.” Solani lied innocently.

“Now that we're all together, I guess introductions are in order?”

“Well, Chaser and I got acquainted before you guys got here. But my name’s Isu and I'm Group A, we're clearing the buildings.”

“And I'm Chaser, Group E because apparently I'm not old enough to have a gun.” Chaser pouted.

“Well I'm Solani, nice to meet you both, and I'm in Group C.” Solani said, finishing introductions.

“Well what should we do first, not like I'll be able to do anything later.” Chaser pouted, ticked that he was Group E.

“You could always fly around for a minute and find anything interesting. You are the one with wings after all.” Isu said matter of factly to Chaser.

Chaser looked back at his wings and flapped them a bit. “Oh yeah,” was all he said before he took off into the sky at breakneck speed. “Be right back!” He yelled back to us.

“So what do we do while we wait for him?” Solani asked.

“I don't know about you two, but I'm quite keen on seeing if there's anything left in these old cars.” Isu said, checking the driver side of an old truck.

Out of nowhere, Chaser stopped just before hitting the ground and landed effortlessly on the road. “I didn't see much on this side besides the town. It's in a valley and the highway surrounds the hills that border it.” Chaser told us. “However there is a small pack of Guanas sunbathing on a Sparkle-Cola truck. We could… or rather you could, go take them out.” He corrected after remembering his lack of weaponry.

“Hey Chaser!” Isu called out, tossing over an old mouth-grip pistol. “Now you can help. There's some ammo in here too.”

Chaser zipped over to Isu and took a look inside the old cart. “Yo, thanks Isu!” He loaded the pistol with a not-so-new magazine, small amounts of rust coating the outside of the weapon. “Ok follow me, and we'll get a bit of experience under our belts.” Chaser started flying over to the truck and we followed. We walked through, on top of, and around the vehicular graveyard and come up on the old Sparkle-Cola truck. The pony-sized lizards resting atop it, loving the heat that soaked into their dark yellow-green scales. The few that weren't on the truck, sat on their own cars; keeping watch, or prowling the grounds nearby. “Alright, I saw like eight of them, but I don't know if they've gotten inside the trailer.” Chaser explained as we hid behind some cars.

“Fae can you help us out?” I asked.

“Sure can, just use your E.F.S. or Eyes Forward Sparkle. It should be at the top of your vision.” She told us. Focusing on the top of my vision, there was a bar with red markers, some with little arrows above them. “The red markers are those Guanas over there. I'm counting ten by the way.” She informed us.

“Why haven't I ever noticed that?” Isu asked.

“Because it wasn't active inside the stable. There was no need for it.” Fae explained.

“Makes sense.” Chaser added.

A deep guttural call echoed over the cars. Looking over we could see the Guanas looking in our direction, a few actually closing in. “I think they heard us.” Solani stated.

“Fae, go assault rifle mode!” I told her. My SAER unfolded and a rifle barrel extended from the case. A firing bit appeared at my chin.Everyone got ready for a fight; Chaser taking to the sky with his pistol, Isu switching to scattershot mode and rushing the closest Guana, while Solani chose to take a vantage point on top of a truck trailer. I fired a quick burst into a Guana, a beam piercing its leg and forcing it to the ground.

Isu may have bitten off more than he could chew as three Guanas began to surround him. He lunged at one, sending a powerful kick to its skull and spun around to fire a cone of beams into a Guana thinking it had an opportunity. Solani firing a single beam into the last Guana by Isu. “I've got your backs!” She yelled. Chaser came flying in and sprayed a few bullets before crashing into the side of a Guana, knocking it off of the car it stood on.

The rest of the Guanas got the message and began charging at us, slithering between cars and grasses. “Here they come!” I yelled. I sent another burst into the group, only managing to graze one of them. “Damn!” I growled. Solani firing several beams into the chests of two Guanas, stopping them dead.

Chaser had came back around and sent another volley of rounds into a Guana, the bullets hitting something vital and collapsing the beast. “Fuck yea! I got one!” He celebrated as he flew back up.

Isu had managed to get even closer to their truck and had gotten himself into a wrestling match with one of the lizards. He had been pinned down, the creature trying to snap at his face. He got all his hooves under the beast and threw it up into the air. Rotating his SAER he blasted its belly, reducing it to blue ash in midair. He righted himself and clambered onto the truck and kicking a Guana straight off the side. Solani firing and killing the fallen beast.

Chaser had gotten back and flew hind hooves first into a Guanas back and cracked its spine. instantly killing it. “Yea, totally Group E material!” He said sarcastically.

With only two left the beasts began to retreat back into the forest. One being the crippled one I shot. “Well done everyone,” Fae congratulated, “your teamwork was excellent!”

“Thanks Fae,” I said concealing my SAER in its case. “by the way, how much time do we have before we clear Doveport?”

“Exactly five minutes, thirty-six seconds.” She responded.

“Perfect, let's check out the truck.” Chaser said landing on top of said truck.

After everyone regrouped, I unlatched the truck's rusted trailer door handle and cautiously pulled it open. A mass of rotten meat and gore sloughed out of the back and slapped against the cracked concrete. Everyone immediately recoiled at the smell, a few swears slipping from our muzzles. Fighting through the horrid stench, we saw the remains of what looked to be a giant Guana. Its few remaining features looked similar, but we couldn't be certain. Behind it were a few silver containers, barely visible under the mass of flesh. “So uhh, who wants to go in?” Solani asked, almost gagging before she could finish.

“I've got it, just… give me a second.” Isu said taking in as much fresh air as possible before jumping inside. Every step he took caused the bloody meat to slosh, caking his hooves in remains. Climbing over the beasts decayed hind leg, he cleared off the containers and rummaged inside, pulling out an old drink holder with something glowing inside. After balancing it on his SAER case, he hightailed it out of the trailer, diving into fresh air. He began coughing and gasping, “Air,” he wheezed, “I need air!”

I grabbed the doors with my magic and slammed them shut, throwing the latch back in place. The smell dissipated and we could breathe easy again. “What'd you find?” I asked.
Isu had begun to wipe gunk off his hooves in some nearby sand. “Something called Sparkle-Cola RAD,” he said before lifting a glowing blue bottle from his bag. “Fae, can you analyze?” He took a whiff of his hoof and immediately pulled away.

“Sure can! Scanning… scan complete! This appears to be a limited edition, prewar soft drink. Its glow is due to a radioactive isotope added during production. It should be safe to ingest, even if mildly radioactive.” Fae explained.

“Sweet! More than enough to go around.” Chaser exclaimed. Isu passed out the sodas and we all took a celebratory Sparkle break.

¤ ¤ ¤

The breeze atop the hill blew through my hide, cooling me off as the sun beat down from above. The cloud cover only allowing its rays to touch half of the town now. My SAER sat atop its case as I lied on the ground behind it. Through my scope, a large group of Ponies, Zebras, and Griffins moved in along the main road. A beam lancing out somewhere from my left and burning through a resting Guana. Groups A and B began to open fire through the streets and buildings. Blue lasers creating a deadly monochrome disco throughout. I fired, sending a beam through the skull of a Guana. I caught a glimpse of Isu jumping through a broken wall into another building. A dark griffin following…

Oh no.

“Fae open a broadcast to Isu, hurry!”

)¤( )¤( )¤(

Another one joined the rest as my lasers turned a Guana to dust. I honestly expected more of a challenge, this was just too easy. A Guana hissed as it lunged at me from a hole in the roof. I rolled and kicked it in the side, flinging it into a nearby wall, then pinned it with my hooves, “Where's your mama, huh?” I taunted. The beast hissed in response, “That's no way to speak in PUBLIC!” I finished sending beams into its face.

“Xileel is trying to open a channel with you.” Fae told me.

“Open it.” I said calmly.

“Isu! I think Gnash is tailing you!” Xileel panicked.

“Oh really? You think he still wants that fight?” I asked rhetorically, “Ego istuc curabo eum. Just cover me if things go sideways.”

“Will do.” Xileel finished before canceling the broadcast.

I turned around after hearing the crack of broken glass get crushed underneath a claw. “What do we have here, the same bitch from yesterday. You ready to die?!” Gnash growled, his SAER unfolding threateningly.

“Well that all depends, can you finish the job this time?” I taunted, dashing behind a wall before he sent a blast of beams in my direction. I returned fire and grazed his wing before he took off through the hole he entered through. “Once again, running awa-” I was cut off as he came crashing through a window, slamming into me and pinning me against the opposite wall.

“Got you now!” He said before pulling his claw into a fist and sending it into the wall beside my head.

“That's what YOU think!” I yelled as I kicked him away with all four legs. His wings extended, stopping his momentum. I fired a blast of laser into him and tackled him through the window, landing on the lower level balcony. We crashed through an old wooden table and I lost my grip on him. Dust kicked up and made it hard to see. But I knew exactly where he was thanks to EFS, I ran full speed and charged into him, throwing him through another table set.

“Damn YOU!” He roared before grabbing me and flying into the air. He flew past the highest ceiling and was quickly gaining altitude before a beam lanced through both of his wings. He screeched and we both began to fall. I punched him in the face and took the opportunity to reposition myself above him before we smashed into a roof, breaking it and falling to the floor below. More dust and debris fell in after us and visibility went to shit. I coughed up some blood and wiped off the excess on a hoof.

Maybe he heard me cough, since he lunged at me through the dust, flattening me against the ground. “I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!” He screamed, raising his claws. He swiped furiously and cut into my raised arms as I defended my face. I heard the sound of wind rustling leaves, but it somehow sounded, threatening. “WHAT THE-” Gnash was cut off and his weight above me lifted.

I slowly uncovered my face, my arms bleeding heavily. I saw Gnash being lifted above me, a wooden stake piercing his chest from the back. Then I saw the rest of the creature; a giant spider made of wood and vines, its glowing green eyes tracking its newly begotten prey as it began to wrap an orange resin around Gnash's corpse. His blood dripping down onto me, I lied in awe as the beast completely encased him, attaching him to its splintered thorax before scuttling away. “Fae… you saw that too right?” I asked.

“I sure did! I also took photos if you'd like to see it again.” She said happily.

“Please no.” I said simply. I'd rather be miles away from that thing. “Fae, can you check my internals.” I said shaking off all the dust.

“It seems you have a cracked rib, it doesn't seem out of place so a healing potion should do the trick.” She told me.

“Good to hear,” I said uncorking a healing potion and drinking it. “Cuz I count that as a win in my books.”

)¤( )¤( )¤(

“Done Ham has informed me that Groups A and B are almost done clearing the town. Keep up the good work!” Fae relayed to me.

“Thanks for the intel Fae.” I said taking another shot at a fleeing Guana, the beam passing through its chest and dropping it instantly.

I hope Isu is okay…

A few more minutes passed and Fae returned, “Done Ham is saying to regroup at the trucks, mission successful.”

“Alright.” I said plainly. I broke down my SAER and placed it back into the case. “Fae check can you see if Isu is okay?”

“I can check his vitals, which are stable. Does that help?” She asked.

“Yea, I guess. What about Gnash?”

“I'm not seeing any vitals but his Pipbuck tag is out of the city. Half a kilometer to be exact.”

“But that doesn't make sense.” How would he be so far out? He was just with Isu… right?

¤ ¤ ¤

The suns rays no longer shown through the clouds, leaving us and the town in the cloud’s shadow. With daylight fading, we loaded back,onto the trucks and made our way into the town. Groups A and B had remained and began fortifying the location. Once the trucks arrived, it was all hooves and talons on deck. Floodlights brightened the area as walls and facilities were built. The night began to take over and the stars shown in the sky. Before long, Doveport had regained some of its prewar glamour.

Solani, Isu, Chaser and I had taken one of the many rooms in the local hotel. Fourth floor corner room, except it was missing a part of its corner, which we had fashioned into a small balcony. “Wow! Some day, huh you guys?” Solani said from the bunk above me.

“Sure was, soo much fun.” Chaser said sarcastically. Turns out, even if he did kill a few Guanas and be semi-competent with a firearm, security protocol stated that the gun be seized and the child returned to their family. “They took my gun! MY gun!” He protested.

“Well you know the security personnel don't really bend when it comes to the rules.” Isu stated. Which was true. Security didn't want to risk anything, after an angsty colt became hellbent on shooting up a stable because his mom didn't let him have the last cookie, true story.

“But it was mine! Isu found it for me fair and square!”

“You could probably convince them to give it back to you. I'm sure you'll be around us anyway, so you'd be our responsibility. Although you'd also have to convince your parents.” I told him.

“How about we not tell my parents?” Chaser suggested.

“How long do you think it'll take before they find out though. It's not like security is just going to leave them in the dark.” Solani said matter of factly.

“I, uh… erm. Graaghh! I HATE being a kid, I haate it.” He exclaimed. The rest of us laughing at his predicament.

“He's just a little baaby.” Solani cooed, sending another wave of laughter through the room.

“I am NOT! I'm more mature than eighty percent of kids my age!” Chaser yelled back.

I stifled a laugh, “Don’t worry, we know.” Our laughs became chuckles and soon those chuckles died down.

“Screw you guys, if you need me i'll be flying, because I can do that!” He finished before taking off through the balcony.

With no topics, I remembered something, “hey Isu, we never got around to your encounter with Gnash. What happened after I shot him down?”

He visibly shuttered, “oh, uh that. Nice shot by the way, but um, yea. After your shot clipped his wings, we crashed through a roof. I'm sure you saw that.” I nodded. “After that he got the upper hoof, err, claw, and starting slicing into my arms. Then this… thing showed hi and just, snatched him. Fae, you still have those pictures right?”

“Sure do!”

“Can you make a hologram or something with what you have?” He asked.

“Unfortunately no, not with your Pipbuck alone, however I can make a screen projection. Find a clear wall and face the Pipbuck screen towards it.” Fae told him. We found a wall, mostly clear of cracks and grime, and faced Isu’s Pipbuck towards it. The screen glowed and an image of a monstrous spider creature appeared, nearly giving Solani and I heart attacks.

“Sweet Celestia, what is that!?” Solani asked, stunned by the beast.

“I have no idea, but it reminds me of those Timber Wolves that inhabited Equestria. So maybe we can call it an Arachnivine?” Isu suggested.

“You're trying to name it,” she guffawed, “look at the size of it! It's like a huge tarantula!”

“A Treelantula.” I added.

“You can not be serious.” She sat defeated by the male mentality. “Shouldn't we be trying to warn everyone?”

“No, it would cause a panic. This is on a need-to-know basis,” I told her. “Fae, have you sent these to anyone?”

“Not yet no. Can I now!?” She asked excitedly.

“Only to the higher-ups. The Founders, the group leaders, people of that nature. Also you can stop the projection.” Isu informed her.

“Okie dokie!” the projection died and Fae probably went off to do her thing.

Solani yawned, “I think I might go to sleep soon.”

If you then while reading this I win.

The yawn spread quickly, “Nooo, I caught The Yawn!” I protested through a yawn.

“Ha, sucks for you guys. I only yawn when I want to.” Isu boasted.

“That’s *yawn* not how it works.” I corrected.

“Maybe for you, but I’ve trained for years. I am immune to The Yawn.”

“How did you *yawn* do that?” Solani asked as she laid in her bunk.

“My father’s father was a Legionnaire agent, so keeping your cool, even during interrogation, was a specialty of his. Yawning could give away a number of things, thus controlling it those secrets hidden from the enemy.” Isu explained.

“From just a *yawn* yawn? That’s crazy! What else can you control?” My voice beginning to trail off as my eyelids grew heavier.

“Well I can control most body fluids; sweat and tears, certain hormones…” Isu’s voice fading away as I fell asleep.

_____¤ ¤ ¤_____

Footnote: Level Up!
Perk Added! Fairy Knowledge: With Fae at your side, you’ll always know something about anything. In SATS you can see the weaknesses and resistances of targeted enemies.

Thank you all so much for the support! It really means a lot. Huge thanks to fallout_equestria_official for the shout out on their Instagram. All the exposure really helps get my content to the masses. Hope you enjoyed.
Follow me @ official_foe_newshire on Instagram, I post all the latest updates and art on there!

Chapter 3: What Lies Beyond

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 3: What Lies Beyond

“Aim high, kid! But don’t aim for the impossible.”

)¤( )¤( )¤(

“Well I can control most body fluids, sweat and tears. Certain hormones like adrenaline and such. My heartbeat and eye dilation...”

I continued until I looked to Xye and Solani, seeing they were both fast asleep. I chuckled a bit, feeling as though I had just given the most boring lecture in class. I moved over to the balcony and let the cold night air rush around me. Even if Nightmare Moon controlled the night, I still found it somewhat enjoyable.

A low grunt came from inside the room, and upon investigation, revealed that Xye snored in his sleep. Stifling a laugh, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a Sparkle-Cola, drinking its carroty contents and placing the bottle cap on the counter. How these managed to stay good after so long, I'll never know and probably didn't want to know, accounting for the amount of preservatives in some of the old snack cakes we found up here. Someone rapped on our room's door. I placed the rest of my soda on the counter and went to check it out. Opening it revealed a armored security zebra,

“hello, er salve,” he corrected himself hastily.

“No it's fine. What can I help you with?” I asked.

“Just checking in on everyone, seeing if anyone needs anything. Are you all good here?”

“Yeah, we're all setup here. I am, however, extremely bored, so if you had something to do that'd be nice,” I suggested.

“Well I don't have anything on my person, but down in the barracks a few of us are playing cards. If you’d care to join us, I'm sure they wouldn't be opposed.”

“Alright, lead the way,” I closed the door gently behind me so as not to wake the others and followed the zebra., “Name's Isu by the way.”

“I'm Xaige, but most just pronounce it like sage,” He told me.

We walked along the old halls, passing some repair ponies working on the elevators. I looked at the Zebra’s folded SAER, its paint matching the grey of his security armor, and remembered Chaser’s pistol. “Hey have any of you confiscated any old 10mm pistols from anyone today?” I inquired.

“Actually yes, some colt had got a hold of one. Said he even killed a few Guana before we took Doveport. Personally I would've let him keep it, serves him better than us anyway,” He admitted, “why do you ask?”

“Well, I know that Pegasus, one of my friends. You think you could give it back to me? I did find it after all,” I told him.

“Hmm, I don't know. I’m not exactly authorized to give away weapons, so you'll have to talk to the quartermaster about that.”

We reached the last flight of stairs and made our way to the barracks. The streets were lit by the many mounted lights we had placed this afternoon. A slightly blue hue coated everything. Making a left at an old diner, we had made it to the barracks. Opening the door we were greeted by twin beige, griffin males, a dark blue unicorn mare, and a burnt orange earth stallion.

“Bout damn time you got back, we were just about to skip your turn!” One of the Griffins told him.

“Who is the new guy?” The mare asked.

“Everyone, this is Isu,” he pointed to each member respectively, “those two are Jhekl and Hyd. That's Ocean Dusk and that's Sundance, but we call him-”

Everyone except Sundance suddenly stood up, “Sunny D!” they cheered.

“I hate you all,” Sundance mumbled after smashing his face against the table.

I chuckled a bit, “Well it's nice to meet you all.” Taking a seat from a neighboring table, I sat between Sundance and Xaige. I was dealt in and given a quick rundown of their game, One-O, in which you play different colored and numbered cards until you have none left. Simple... right?

<¤<< <¤> >>¤>

I flew through the night sky alone in silence, the cold air whipping my mane. The only thing going through my mind now was my pistol and how I could get it back. I'd been flying for a good five minutes, my anger had subsided and I was finally on my way back to the hotel.

Flying in through the balcony, I saw the sleeping figures of Solani and Xye in their bunks, a grunty snore coming from one of them. Looking through the old cupboards, I found some old preserved foods; snack cakes, Sugar Bombs cereal, a half empty bottle of Wild Pegasus whiskey, and some other stuff. My attention went to the whiskey, examining the dusty bottle and its amber liquid.

“Fae, you can keep a secret right?” I asked.

“Well, of course!” With my digital accomplice assuring me she was on my side, I uncapped the bottle and took a few swigs, feeling the burn and taste assault my mouth. My face scrunched and I quickly put the bottle back where I got it.

“So how was it?” Fae asked.

“Bad and good, at the same time, if that makes sense.”

“Interesting,” She said simply.

The night went on and soon, the effects of the alcohol began to take hold. As I lay down on the sofa, I began my drunken ramblings.

“You guys are dumb,” I mumbled, tossing an old ashtray towards Xye and Solani, missing completely, “I'm old enough to shoot a gun, so I should be able to keep my gun.”

“It's still not safe for someone your age.”

I began to quietly shush the brain voice, “It don't matter,” I whispered, “it's mine.”

“But-”

“Shhhhhhuush, nah-ah, mine. Mine, mine… mine.”

“Maybe you should sleep, you've been up all day,” Fae suggested.

“You're right, I should go fly.”

“That’s not even close to what I said. Okay, uhm, before you go… you, uhm, dropped your pocket,” She lied.

“What, where!?”

“It's under the couch.”

For the next half hour, Fae led me on a wild goose chase for a pocket. I didn't even have any pockets to drop.

)¤( )¤( )¤(

“That's a load of shit,” Hyd protested, “you two are teaming!”

Sundance waved a hoof dismissively, “Pshhhh nahhh,” whilst secretly giving me a hoof bump under the table.

“So you're tellin’ me, that you two ‘ave been winnin’, for the past six rounds mind ya, purely by coincidence?”

“Yes,” We said in unison.

Hyd suddenly planted his elbow on the table with a thud, pointing a talon at each of us, “listen ‘ere,” his voice had become mildly threatening, “I've ‘ad it up ta’ ‘ere. Now cut tha shit, before I throw this table onta tha botha yas.” He growled, mimicking the movements he'd take to flip said table.

“Oh give it a rest already!” Ocean Dusk interrupted. “Can you three settle down and just play the game?”

“Yea, I’m trying to get rid of this fat stack of cards here,” Xaige said, lifting his hooves with half the deck in between them.

“I'll be right back, imma get some booze,” Jhekl stated before heading to a refrigerator.

“But I'm serious, you two-,” Hyd pulled his claw back to his throat and quickly slid it across his neck.

“Jeeez, fiiine,” Sundance huffed, “It's my time for watch anyway. I'll be back later.” He grabbed his SAER and headed out of the door.

“Sorry to interrupt your gathering, but I kinda need your help back at the hotel,” Fae told me. “Chaser got into some whiskey and gotten himself heavily intoxicated. Can you hurry? I don't want him to get hurt.”

“Yea, I'm on my way now,” I told her, then looked to my new gambling buddies, “Well you guys, it seems like I'm needed elsewhere, it was good meeting you all. I'll keep in touch.”

I said my goodbyes to the group. Ocean Dusk and Xaige reciprocated their farewells, Hyd simply grunted while Jhekl waved over the opened door of the fridge. The moment I left the barracks, I galloped off towards the hotel.

Sprinting passed the front desk, I galloped straight for the stairs. As I climbed, I skipped steps and finally made it to the fourth floor. I raced down to the end of the hallway and opened the door to our room to find Chaser with half his body hanging lamely from the top of the fridge, his wings flapping lazily.

“Wha- what are you doing?” I asked incredulously.

“Fae said I dropped my pocket and I'm tryna find it,” He said drunkenly.

Looking around the messy room I saw his bag stashed in a corner. “Have you checked your bag?” I asked, pointing it out for him.

“Huh?” Chaser turned to look at the corner then slowly made his way back down from the fridge. Trotting over to the bag he examined it and prodded each of its pouches.

“Fae… they were here the whole time! Why'd you even say that stuff,” He grumbled, “Gosh you guys suck, I'm going back to sleep.” He threw himself into the flipped over couch and wriggled into it to get comfy.

“Oh thank the Founders you came. I don’t think I could've stalled him much longer,” Fae praised me.

“What happened in here?” I asked, looking at the room. He’d even pulled the paintings off the walls!

Fae explained all of Chaser’s delinquent activities as I replaced all of the furniture he’d moved. I set a few bottles of water beside him after I flipped the couch back over, he barely even noticed; he was going to be feeling the alcohol’s effects in the morning. With the room looking close enough to its former appearance, I lay on an old reading chair in a corner.

“Thanks for keeping him out of harm’s way Fae. I think I’ll turn in soon,” I let out a twenty second yawn I’d stored within.

“Wow, that’s the only yawn I’ve seen from you… ever!”

“Well of course. What? You thought I was lying?”

“Well, sort of, yes! It's just such a strange phenomenon.”

“I am a strange phenomenon, Fae,” I said, before gradually falling to sleep.

¤ ¤ ¤

The sudden chirping of a bird, jolted me from my sleep. Looking around i could see the small orange bird perched atop an old pipe. Its song may have been beautiful, but I was trying to sleep. Grabbing a pebble in my magic, I tossed the stone towards the bird, scaring it off. I pulled my blankets back over myself and got comfortable again, only to be greeted by the songbird once again, now sitting right above my headrest.

“Really?” I groaned in annoyance. The bird paused to look me over, before continuing its song. I swatted at the ball of feathers, only to be greeted by a quick peck to my head. “You’re really pissing me off!” I growled.

The bird didn’t budge until a pillow swung from the top bunk and sent the annoying darling hurtling to the floor.

“Sweet Celestia, shut UP!” Solani yelled from above. The bird recovered from its tumble and slowly made its was back to the balcony. It glanced back, somehow managing to look sad, then flew off.

Great, now I feel like the dickhead.

Silence returned to us once more, but now I couldn’t fall back asleep. So here I was, thinking about how I’d wronged a bird just trying to spread its song to the world. Well… sort of. Solani had performed the finishing move, but still…

I trotted over to the balcony, looking around. I could see the small bird sitting at the ledge of another building. I whistled to the bird, only managing to get a quick glance from it. I whistled again, the bird still not paying me any mind. So I began to poorly mimic its song. The small winged singer soon began to sing its song and flew back over to me.

“Hey Fae, can you scan this bird?”

“Sure can! Scanning… scan complete! This is an Icterus Pectoralis, or Spot-Breasted Oriole. It is a mid-sized songbird and generally typical oriole. Introduced to Newshire before the war, the population has flourished and is widespread all over the island.”

“Interesting, so what are you doing here little guy?”

“This one's actually a female,” Fae corrected.

The bird tweeted a bit, but I understood nothing that came out of its beak.

“I think we've got some snacks lying around,” I motioned the spot-breasted oriole to follow me, and it flew onto my back. Trotting over to the cabinet, I found some very old grains and floated a few to the bird, who ate them happily. With everyone else still mostly asleep I filled a small bowl with grains and left them for the bird, then I lay down on my bed, pulled up my Pipbuck and started my old game.

}}¤ {¤} ¤{{

The game loaded up and I appeared to be back in the dilapidated town.

Moss followed close behind as we traversed the ruins, picking up anything useful that I didn't see.

“Any idea where we should be going?” I asked.
“We could head back to Turntable, turn in the bounties,” Moss informed, “or we could find something nearby. Turntable is pretty far.”

“Let’s just go get our caps and be done with em.”

Quest notifications appeared on the screen. choosing to go to Turntable, I marked it as my destination.

Suddenly, the screen became static as a distorted voice echoed from the speaker,

“ThIS iS noT YoUR WOrld TO COnTroL!”

The screen went dark and my Pip-Buck’s holotape tray ejected a blackened tape. The smell of melted electronics filled the air.

What the fuck was that!?

¤ ¤ ¤

With nothing left to do, I looked to the bird; who was making a small nest above the cabinets. I thought about whether to give her a name, but was much too tired to come up with one. Instead, I dozed off, the mangled electronic voice still echoing in my head.

The loud thud of hooves on wood jolted me from my nap, meeting muzzle to muzzle with Solani. She stared into my eyes, unflinching, un-blinking. I stared back, my sleepy eyelids making it much more difficult.

“You’re going to blink. Blink now, do it,” she taunted. However, I had a trick up my sleeve. I quickly ran my tongue across her nose, getting her to blink in surprise. Her cheeks darkened and she stammered for words, only to muster, “ch- cheater,” in protest. I simply laughed, and was rewarded with a rush of cold air as my blankets were pulled off my bed.

I reacted swiftly and used my magic to grab my blanket, encasing Solani within. She struggled to free herself from the magically infused cloth, managing to push her head through an opening.

“You’re cheating!”

“Pshh, no I’m not. This is totally fair,” I argued. I dragged the blanket across the floor and over to myself, her struggling making it hard to contain her. I tightened the fabric around her, a squeak escaping as her movement was restricted.

She glared at me, “I will get you back for this.”

“Mhmm, suuure.” I chuckled. I pulled her closer and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “I’d love to see you try.” I loosened my magical grip and the blanket collapsed around her. My bird friend softly landed on my shoulder and sang a small tune to herself. I looked up to where her nest was being built and saw it was mostly completed.

“That looks nice.” I praised, resulting in happy chirping from the bird.

“Is that the bird from earlier?” Solani asked, sitting beside me on the bed.

“Yea, I felt bad after you smacked her with your pillow, so I kinda, sorta, adopted her. The bird flew up and landed on the tip of my horn. She began to chirp angrily at Solani, almost as though she was scolding her.

“Oh, jeez. I’m sorry, I don’t even remember that at all. Please forgive me!” Solani pleaded.

The bird appeared at the top of my vision, tilting her head from above. I shrugged, “It’s your choice.”

The bird flew onto the mattress beside Solani and examined her, hopped around her completely and ended her examination of my friend on her outstretched hoof. Solani’s pleading face possibly won over the bird’s affections, as she began to chirp happily.

“Oh thank you! I’m so relieved,” She said, as if she had been holding her breath, “I thought you’d hate me forever.” The bird simply chirped and then flew up to its nest. “Have you named her yet?”

“No, but since she’s a songbird, I was thinking something music related. Maybe Melody?” I suggested.

“Nah, that’s too boring. Maybe Aria, short and sweet; even though the definition is the opposite.”

“Whats it mean?”

“A long, accompanied song for a solo voice, usually one in an opera.”

“You take that straight from a the dictionary?” Solani blushed slightly. I whistled and the small orange bird poked its head over the edge. I lifted my hoof and tapped it with the other, signaling for her to come. She flew from her perch and came to rest upon my hoof. Her head tilted slightly as she looked up at me. “What do you think about the name Aria?” The tiny melody maker seemed to think it over, then nodded its head. “Well alright, Aria it is.” The bird- er… Aria let out a few happy chirps as she flew around our heads.

“Why do I hear so much chirping?” Isu groaned from the corner. “So much chirping…” He rubbed his eyes and let out a very long yawn, “What’s with the bird?” Aria flew over to Isu and hovered in front of him.

“This is Aria, our newest addition to the home,” Solani informed him.

“Cool,” he regarded Aria for a moment as she hovered before him. “Nice to meetcha. So what’s her story,” Aria landed on the chair and began to chirp as if she was retelling how we met. Soon, Isu stopped her short, “I hate to interrupt, but I don’t speak chirp. Fae, can you translate?”

“I am sorry to say that I can not. However, I have heard that there was a Ministry Mare of Equestria who was able to speak with all animals, it was one of her special talents. If I had one of her guides, which will probably not be plentiful on Newshire, I could try to piece together a basic translation,” She informed.

So, instead of listening to Aria retell our story, Solani and I filled Isu in on recent events.

¤ ¤ ¤

Somehow, even after everyone had woken up, chatted and ate a small breakfast, Chaser was still asleep. How he slept through all the commotion before-hoof, I’ll never know, but with that in mind, we decided to play a little prank on him. Grabbing a few markers, we closed in on our target’s face, poised to strike. “You do know I’m awake, right?” Chaser mumbled. We froze. His wing slapping the markers from our grasps.

“What the what?” Isu exclaimed.

“If you’ve been awake, why aren’t you up?” I asked.

“Cuz I have a headache. I may, or may not, have hit my head last night.”

“I see…” Isu said, picking up the empty water bottles.

“Pshh… headaches are an easy fix. One sec,” Solani said, before trotting over to her belongings. Isu and I followed and watched her from behind as she pulled out different colored bottles from a satchel. “No… no, definitely no. Ahah!” She exclaimed pulling out a teal mixture. She passed the bottle to Chaser, “here, only take a sip of this.”

Chaser balanced the bottle on a wing and pulled it to his mouth, taking the well-specified sip of the liquid before immediately recoiling at the taste. “What’s in that?”

“You probably wouldn’t understand if I told you.” She joked, taking the bottle back, “Now it should only take a few minutes to take effect, but your headache should be completely gone after that.”

Curious about her family’s potion brewing, I asked her, “so what's in the potion?”

“Hm? Oh, just some old herbs I collected. I had a lot of time yesterday to wander while you all were retaking Doveport. Fae helped too.”

I simply ‘Ah’d’ in response.

“Hey!” Everyone turned to Chaser, “does that that drink have any hallucinogenic side effects, or is this little bird real?”

Solani giggled a bit, “no, that’s Aria, she just showed up today.”

Aria chirped and flew around Chaser’s head. “Cool, now I have a flying buddy!”

With everyone finally awake and Chaser’s headache cured, we took a trot through town. I almost didn’t recognize it from yesterday, so much had been done. The town was alive! Children played, security made their rounds, and construction teams were hard at work. Walking past a refurbished diner, we saw they had actually got it back up and running, serving food and beverages to its patrons. The sudden honk of a truck caught my attention and I realized I was actually walking in the road. I moved back onto the sidewalk and the truck rumbled by, stopping a few blocks ahead and allowing the Expedition teams in the back to disembark.

We continued our stroll until we were met by an unfamiliar orange pony, who Isu appeared to recognize. “Hey Sundance!” He greeted.

“Hey, what’s up Isu?” He responded as they hoof-bumped.

“Just taking a trot around town. What about you?”

“Actually, I’m going to Xaige’s place, since I’m off duty at the moment. Care to join us in another rousing game of One-O?”

“Count me in!” Isu exclaimed, excitedly turning back to us, “I’ll catch up with you guys later.” He waved goodbye as he and Sundance continued in the opposite direction.

Chaser let out a huff and began to flap his wings anxiously. “Hey, you think we can go explore? Walking around just isn’t my thing.”

“We’d have to go and pick up our SAERs and probably get some provisions if we’re gonna be gone for long,” Solani informed.

“And since Isu is away, we could actually let you borrow his while we’re out,” I added.

Chaser’s face brightened at that and couldn’t contain his excitement. “This is gonna be so cool! I’ll meet you back at the south tunnel, I gotta tell my parents.” He almost took off but remembered our new companion, “Aria, wanna tag along?” Aria chirped happily. “Alright, try to keep up.” Chaser took off into the sky. Aria, surprisingly, kept a good pace behind.

“So, you wanna go back to the hotel and pick up the SAERs, while I head to the quartermaster’s and pick up some necessities?” Solani asked.

“Uhh, sure that works.”

Solani whimpered, “wait, what? You answered that so quickly! Don’t you wanna stay with me?” her lower lip quivered as she made sad puppy eyes at me.

“But… you wanted to… what?!”

“Don’t you like me anymore?” she cried.

I don’t know what I did wrong, or what I said, but I didn’t know what to do.

“You hate me, don’t you?” she accused.

“I never even said that! It’s the opposite of that.”

“The opposite of liking someone is disliking someone.”

“And the opposite of hating someone, is loving someone.”

Her demeanor changed instantly, as did her voice, becoming more fluid and sultry. “So you love me?” she cooed.

I blushed furiously, “I… uhh, did I say that?” I stammered.

“Mmmhmm, and I’m about to take full advantage,” her tail flicked off of my chin as she circled around me. My heart pounded into my ears and I couldn’t move; she had me trapped.

Then, she started to laugh, “You shoulda seen the look on your face,” she wiped a tear from her eye, “priceless.”

“I hate you,” I said sourly.

“Nope it’s too late for that,” she teased, “you… love me.”

I blushed angrily, “Can we just go get the stuff?”

¤ ¤ ¤

After our preparations had been made, we joined back up at the tunnel at the south end of town. It turned out that security had reinforced the tunnel and made it into a pseudo-military checkpoint. Upon reaching the checkpoint, several SAER armed guards watched us as another, probably of a higher rank, approached us.

“Halt, state your business,” She demanded. Her armor covered most of her cyan hide, her piercing green eyes reflecting years of experience.

“Just off to do a little exploration, is all,” I answered.

“Is that so? What group were you assigned?”

“Group D maam.”

She looked to Solani, “Group C.”

Then to Chaser, “Group E.”

The security officer took a moment to think, focused only on Chaser, “Fae, why does he look familiar?” A moment of silence passed us.

“Ya don’t say. Well, Chaser is it? It seems you need a small test before you’re allowed to leave, nothing too difficult. Follow me please.” We followed the security mare to a path leading behind some buildings.

“Oh where are my manners, I’m Sergeant Candy Floss.” We rounded a corner and were met by a makeshift firing range. “Alright,” her SAER unfolded, “you see that target down range?” We looked, seeing multiple painted targets. The mare fired her SAER into the farthest one, hitting it right in the center. “Do as I did.”

Chaser was stunned at her accuracy, as was I. His SAER unfolded and he took aim. After a few moments he fired, sending a beam into the target. It wasn’t centered, but it did hit the target on the middle ring.

“Shiii-Oooot, shoot,” Chaser corrected, “I’m better when I'm in the air,” he stated.

“Well then,” she whistled loudly, “Derringer report!” she yelled.

A small yellow pegasus zipped out of nowhere, and saluted, “Derringer reporting sir!”

“Show this rookie how to do it,” she said plainly.

“Yes sir!” His SAER unfolded and lay on the ground. He pulled out the Mouth-Grip and attached it to the gun, having already discarded the barrel, pulling out a Derringer-style SAER pistol. He held weapon in his mouth and took his place at a starting line.

“Derringer is one of our fastest rookies, beating out some of our more seasoned pegasus guards. IF you can get within five seconds of his time, you’re free to take back the pistol we confiscated from you, AND you’ll be placed in auxiliary instead of Group E.”

Chaser’s eyes lit up. He shook his head furiously and began to watch as Derringer prepared for his run.

“Derringer, ready,” His wings raised slowly, “Begin!”

Derringer sped off through the course, sending beams into the pop-up targets as he passed. Not skipping a beat, he stopped sharply and spun around to fire at a target that popped up behind him, then flapped furiously and continued through the course. The timer had only just reached fifteen seconds while Derringer sped passed the finish gate, stopping the time at 16.67.

“Well done Derringer, you almost beat your personal best. You can go back to your business.”

“Thank you, sir.” He saluted through his heavy breathing then flew out of sight.

“Alrighty Chaser, you get three tries, and since you don’t know the course we’ll do a quick gallop-through.”

<¤<< <¤> >>¤>

I followed the security mare through the course. She showed me all of the targets, as well as where Derringer had hit them. Two burn marks rested in each target, he hadn’t missed a single shot.

“So tell me, why are you giving me this chance?” I asked.

“Since records show you aren’t completely useless in a fight, we’ve been told to give you a chance to prove yourself. I’m sure if you’re with your pals back there, you should be alright to leave,” she told me. We walked back to the starting point and I got my SAER ready, settling for a similar pistol mode. The timer reset as I stepped up to the starting gate. I took a few deep breaths and got ready.

“Chaser, ready,” I raised my wings, “Begin!”

I took off at high speed, fired at the first target and hit it with ease. Turning a corner, the next target popped out and I sent another beam into it. Racing down the course, two more appeared and I fired. I missed them both but quickly corrected my aim to at least hit one of them.

“Dammit!” I kept going and fired another volley into a target that appeared, hitting it dead on. Replacing my spark battery, I reached the hidden target that fell behind me. In my haste, I dropped the battery and wasted precious time. By this point, I already knew I wasn’t going to make time.

I waved my hoof above my head, signaling to cancel the run. The timer stopped and a seperate number below it had a additional number, adding another two seconds onto my already horrible time.

Rejoining the Sarge, she asked, “so what happened?”

“I missed a target and on the drop down target I dropped my replacement battery,” I admitted.

“Hmm, interesting. Well get ready and run it again, you still have two more tries.” I nodded and headed back to the starting gate, resetting the timer.

“Chaser, ready,” I raised my wings again, “begin!”

I shot off from the start and fired a few shots into the first target, then turned the corner and shot the second target. The dual targets extended and I fired, hitting them both. I reloaded the battery, almost dropped it but just barely recovered in time.

Firing into the drop down target, I continued through the course. Facing another small grouping of targets, I sent a hail of beams down range and collapsed them. Not stopping as I passed them, I sped through a corridor.A surprise target I hadn't remembered popped out later than my reactions were ready for.

My reflexes took over as I covered my face before the impact. Colliding with the target, I was sent tumbling through the air and crashed into a wall. Little Aria flew overhead with a fitful worried chirping as I regained my focus. I had messed up again and only had one more try.

I growled, both at myself and at the course. Flying through the open roof, I waved my hoof again and rejoined Candy Floss. She patiently awaited my explanation, “the hallway target caught me off guard, but I think I've got it this time.” I hoped I wasn’t bluffing.

“Last try, hop to it,” I walked back to the starting gate. Timer reset. I raised my wings and readied myself. “Begin!”

I burst into the course, getting past the first half with ease, reloading before the drop down target and taking it out. I continued through, taking out the small group and flying into the corridor. I steadied my aim for the surprise target and fired on it as soon as it appeared. Soaring past it, I was faced with the last two targets, one of which was half covered by a wall and the other up in a window. I fired at the one in the window, missing once but connected on the second, then fired at the half hidden target again, luckily getting a hit.

I sped to the finish gate and closed with a time of 18.58. It was enough to pass the test, just two seconds over Derringer’s time.

“Fhuk yesh!” I yelled around the mouth-grip. I saw Xye and Solani cheering off to the side.

Candy Floss trotted up to me with an approving grin, “well done, well-fuckin-done! To be honest I didn't think you'd fly that fast, so that certainly helped. I'm sure if you ran this course every day for another three months you'd easily break Derringer’s record, heck, maybe even two!” She pulled out a mouth-grip 10mm in a nice leather holster and held it out to me, “I think you've earned this back.”

I took the pistol and held it between my hooves. Welcome back. I thanked Candy Floss and strapped the holster to my forehoof. “If you ever wanna come back and try to beat Derringer’s record, you're always welcome.”

“I plan on it.”

¤ ¤ ¤

Chaser and Candy Floss finished their talk,trotting back over to us. Once together we made our way back to the checkpoint.

“He’s good to go,” Candy told us, “just try not to get killed out there. Even the Ex. Teams have a hard time staying alive, so take this,” she pulled out a all red mouth-grip pistol from her bag, “If you’re in trouble, fire this flare up into the sky and we’ll try to get a rescue team together as fast as possible.”

Solani grabbed the flare gun before I could and stashed it away in her bag. “Thanks, we’ll make sure to put it to good use,” she assured.

“I hope you don’t have to. One more thing, since we currently lack a long distance radio tower to bounce signals off of, your Pipbuck’s broadcast feature will be significantly worse and will only broadcast about a half a kilometer. The radio station at the center of Carsas is infested with,” she seemed to search for the right word, but came up short, “something. Ex. Teams haven’t exactly given a lot of details, so don’t go near it.” Nodding our collective heads, she smiled.

“Alright, open the gate!” she yelled to her subordinates.

The large metal panels on the gate slid away from each other, revealing the vehicular graveyard behind. The lights above, while mostly broken, still produced enough light along the road.

“Be back before dinner, ya hear?!” she called out to us.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Chaser yelled back.

Funny, that’s something mom always told me before I left the house. Has it really been that long since I’ve heard those words?

The gate began to shut behind us as we continued along the median of the tunnel. The sunlight at the end of the tunnel was bright enough to blind us to what lay beyond, yet we continued anyway, inching closer to the world unknown.

_____¤ ¤ ¤_____

Footnote: Level Up!

Group Perk Added! “When in Doubt, Tweet it Out!”: Your new feathery friend, Aria, will now accompany you through thick and thin. While unable to assist directly in combat, Aria can sense nearby enemies, and lead you in the right direction should you lose your way.

Xileel Perk Added! Animal Whisperer: You may not be able to understand them, but you sure can empathize. You gain a small chance to calm wild animals that have been wounded or trapped by others, as well as an even smaller chance to tame them. This chance increases with the amount of damage sustained.

Chaser Perk Added! Quick Reflexes: Your training at the firing range has enhanced your combat reflexes, allowing you to aim-down-sights and reload quicker with every weapon.

Solani Perk Added! Botanical Know-How: Your adopted parents taught you well. You can collect twice as many ingredients when harvesting wild plants and triple from farms!

Isu Perk Added! Know Thyself: After years of intense training with your Legion relatives, their skills have rubbed off on you. You can control some of your bodily functions and gain a small chance to fool biometric sensors, as well as a boost to Charisma against others.

Thank you all so much for the support! It really means a lot. Huge thanks, again, to fallout_equestria_official for the shout out on their Instagram. Also another huge thanks to Duskhoof, for helping with editing and proofreading. He’s really cool so go check him out on Instagram or FimFiction.

Chapter 4: There's Green Stuff in the Water!

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 4: There's Green Stuff in the Water!

"I'd stay where you are. This is the only safe spot around here."

\¤ (¤) ¤/

The walk through the tunnel was long. Our hoofsteps, and the pitter patter of Aria’s wings, echoed off its mossy and cracked walls. The cool draft brushed against my hide and the squeak of a small rodent could be heard further off.

“Are we there yet?” Everyone, including Aria, deadpanned at Chaser, “I couldn’t resist.”

Aria let out a few disappointed whistles.

We continued down the tunnel after Chaser’s gosh awful cliche timing. Like really, there would have probably been better opportunities than now to joke. Nearing the mouth, our eyes adjusted to the harsh sunlight and we emerged at the highway dirt path we came in on. Looking to the left, I could see the Y-shaped tree with Aria perched within. She began to sing a song while we took a moment to further plan our excursion.

“Anyone got a suggestion as to where we should go?” I asked openly.

Everyone paused for a moment, then surprisingly, Fae spoke up. “I have a suggestion, if no one else does.”

“The floor’s all yours Fae,” Solani told her.

“Well, when I was created, I was programmed with countless amounts of data regarding Newshire. According to the map data I have, there should be an old water park to the east. Expedition Team recon have shown that it's only sparsely inhabited by wildlife.”

“A waterpark huh? Any cool slides?” Chaser asked as he floated by us.

“From what I can read, there should be a super attraction called The Whirlpool, supposed to be the park’s signature ride until they ceased construction. It seems the construction teams had a load of injuries, fatalities even, and the project got canceled.”

“Sounds like an adventure if I ever heard one,” I said as I stood up. “Where’s it at exactly?” A small arrow with a number popped into my vision.

“You should see the marker now, it’s about three kilometers out,” Fae informed us.

“Perfect,” I offered my hoof to Solani and helped her off her haunches.

Aria flew over to us from the tree and landed on my back, then began to sing a traveling tune.

¤ ¤ ¤

Our trek had made it halfway so far and things hadn’t changed much. The few threatening encounters we had included mutated bugs and a few Guanas, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We also ran into another group of like-minded adventurers, two earth ponies and a unicorn, who were on their way back from an old supply depot. We traded words and wished each other safe travels, then continued on our way.

The wind had picked up as we rounded the eastern side of Doveport’s hill. The eastern entrance was surrounded by construction teams working to remove the debris, cutting through the rusty cars with buzzsaws and hammering away at broken stone. They had a half-dozen guards posted around the perimeter keeping watch. One of them spotted something off in the distance, unfolded her SAER and fired a single beam. She seemed quite pleased with her shot as her SAER folded back up.

After some time passed, we had stopped at an intersection to take a break. We sat down in the back of a mostly unrusted truck and pulled out some snacks and bottled water.

“Fiiinally, I’m starving!” Chaser groaned.

“How? It’s… you didn’t eat breakfast, did you?” Solani asked.

“Nope!” He smiled.

“Well here, this should hold you over for awhile.” I passed him an apple and a hay sandwich.

“Thanks.”

I pulled out the same for Solani and myself and we all began to eat. The sudden soft peck on my side caught my attention, leading to Aria looking up at me expectantly. “Of course! Can’t forget about you Aria.” I passed her an apple and she ate along with us.

“These are really good, where’d you get these?” Chaser asked between bites.

“Picked ‘em up from that diner before we met back up. They aren't charging anything since we don't really have a currency,” I told him.

“What do you think they’ll decide on?” Solani asked.

“Not sure, but they might just stay that way, not like there's any reason to charge for them.” I took the last bite of my sandwich and tossed the rest of my apple into the grass.
Unknown to us, the apple slowly sunk into the grass without a trace.

“Alright, everyone ready to go?” I asked, while stretching my legs.

“Yeah, one sec.” Chaser said, finishing the rest of his apple.

Solani whistled to Aria, who flew up onto her back.

We hopped down from the back of the truck, relieving its squeaky suspension of our weight. Walking the rest of the way, we finally made it to the entrance gate of the park. The barely legible moss covered archway stood tall over the road.

“Welcome to Skipping Stones Waterpark!” Fae exclaimed.

“So that's what it says.” I mumbled to myself.

The metal gates themselves were rusted and broken, one had even fallen off of its hinges. Making our way along the roadway led to the parking lot. Many of the vehicles within were rusted or broken down. Aria flew up onto a light pole and began to chitter, a sound we had heard from her a few times on the way up here. Readying our SAERs, we took positions around some nearby cars and waited.

Scanning my surroundings revealed a group of yellow marks on my EFS. “You guys see that?” I whispered, “to the north-east, I'm counting three.” A bushy tail wagged above the hood of a car.

“Yeah, I see ‘em,” Chaser responded.

Solani was set up in the back of a pickup, “I’m seeing about five from here.”

“Fae, what does ‘yellow’ mean?” I asked.

One of the beasts jumped up onto the roof of a car and sniffed the air. The dog-like creature began to hop from one roof to the next, the rest of the pack following behind.

“Yellow marks on your EFS are for organisms that are not hostile, but may become hostile. According to Expedition Team notes, those animals are simply called mongrels. Just stand your ground and look intimidating and they shouldn’t bother you, but don’t let them surround you.”

“Alright, then let’s keep moving. Keep your guard up.” I whistled to Aria, who hesitated to come down.

We made our way through the lot, keeping a close eye on the mongrel pack. Aria rejoined us after we reached the overgrown ticket booth. The glass panels of the booth had been broken long ago and replaced by thick moss. The rusted turnstiles unsurprisingly didn’t budge, so we had to climb over them. The plaza on the other side consisted of a large fountain with a skipping stone statue in the center, a gift shop directly behind. The walkway diverged, leading to the two halves of the park. The left being the Dry Zone and consisting of rides, food court and other attractions, while the Splash Zone to the right had the water slides and swimming area. That’s at least what I got from the surprisingly well-preserved park map.

“So where should we go first?” Chaser asked from above.

“Let's go check out the Splash Zone and see if we can get a good view from the slides,” I suggested.

“Can we at least check out the gift shop first, it's literally right there,” Solani pleaded.

“I think we'll check that out last,” I said sarcastically.

Solani scowled at me. “Well, I'm going now, so,” she stuck her tongue out at me.

“Booo, I'm gonna go check out the rest of the park,” Chaser informed before flying off.

Walking across the plaza and around the fountain, I caught up to Solani, who was already at the gift shop’s door. She cleared away some ivy and slowly pushed it open. The thick scent of vegetation and the humid air saturated the room. The inside of the gift shop was trashed, old toys and nik-naks littered the floor. Each step was accompanied by the sound of crunchy dead leaves. A hole in the roof allowed a corner to be bathed in sunlight, vibrant wildflowers growing below. Admiring the flowers, I'd realised I'd seen these flowers before. My mother had a few back in the stable. I stepped closer to them and sat down, then began to think about her and all the great memories we had. I remembered a picture of her, smiling like she did every day, right beside my father. I looked down at my neck and floated his necklace into view, wishing I had known more about him. I wonder what they would think of this new and changed world…
if they were still in it.

I began to turn away when I realized my front hooves were caught on something. Looking down, I saw just what had stopped me; roots extending out from the wildflowers! They had crawled up my hooves without me noticing. I panicked and tried to tear myself free to no avail, yelling and grunting, my heart racing, the roots slowly inching upwards. I looked into the wildflowers, catching a glimpse of the muddied remains of another creature. The roots encasing most of their form. I screamed, sending out a blast of magical energy. It burned through the roots and sent me sprawling onto my back.

Solani came rushing in from another room, “Oh my gosh, what happened?” She yelled as she helped me up, “are you okay?”

“The flowers tried to eat me!” I lifted a hoof up to show her the leftover root endings, a few of them embedded into my hide.

“Fae, I thought you said this place was safe!” She shot, as we backed away from the flowers.

“Technically that's not what I said,” Fae corrected, “I said it was ‘sparsely inhabited by wildlife’, which is true. These carnivorous plants however, are not in the recon report.”

“Great, our first real adventure and I've already almost died,” I sighed. “We need to warn Chaser.”

“Already done, he should be here soon,” Fae told us.

Chaser landed in the plaza then walked inside, Aria following behind. “I got Fae’s message, you two alright?” He said through heavy breaths.

“Yeah, we’re fine now, but we should stick together from now on. This park may be more dangerous than we thought.”

With the near death experience out of the way, we began to walk along the pathways in the Dry Zone, carefully exploring each of the abandoned shops or kiosks we passed. Aria flew around us, letting out chitter noises whenever we got close to any flower beds. We crossed a short bridge, that created a tunnel for the murky-green lazy river below, and neared the food court and playground area.

The playground equipment was rusted, broken, and covered in vegetation. Thick patches of grass had covered the ground and the last swing’s rusted chains looked as if they’d snap at any moment. We stood in awe at the scene, until the swing started to rock creepily, at which point we quickly trotted around it. We took a seat at one of the less rusted dining tables and had another small snack break. Passing out more apples and sandwiches, we gazed around at the sights as we ate. The large wall on the other side of the lazy river showed an image of a stone skipping across a body of water. A unicorn, who I assumed to be Skipping Stone herself, stood along the shoreline. In large letters read, ‘Don’t skip out on all the fun!’ probably hitting number one in my cheesy slogans list.

On the opposite side of the food court held the swimming area at the center of the park. The water was dotted with patches of algae, deflated floaties, and other foreign objects. The water level had dropped over the years, leaving a thick green stain on the concrete. The towering water slides creaked and groaned as the wind blew, the hanging vines and moss gently waving in the breeze.

“Hey, who's that?” Chaser said suddenly, pointing to a pony by the swimming area, “HEY OVER-” I quickly silenced Chaser with my magic.

“Are you trying to tell everything we're here?!” I snapped. I released the spell and looked to the pony, “we don't even know who that is. He's too far for EFS, could be hostile.”

“Or she,” Solani added.

“Yes, or she.”

“Alright, alright I get it! My bad, jeez,” Chaser quickly apologized, “whoever that is, they brought some friends.”

Looking back to where the mystery buck/mare was standing, we saw they were no longer alone, but instead, accompanied by two other forms. A ‘dog’ and… something big. “Great and now there’s more of ‘em. What even is that one?!” I unfolded my SAER, opting for the sniper mode to utilize its scope, and took aim.

“Sweet Celestia, what are you doing?” Solani said before pushing the barrel of my SAER down. “we don’t even know if they’re bad!”

“I was just getting a better look, I didn’t plan on shooting,” I reassured, then took aim again.

Not yet at least.

Looking back at the unknown pony and things, I saw they were looking directly at us. Their featureless heads were covered in a hanging moss along with the rest of their body. Small flower beds were attached to each of them in a different place on each of their bodies. “Well, that's unnerving.”

“Umm, guys...” Chaser said, pointing at the new moss hound that had appeared on the bridge behind us. Aria began to chitter, the creature showing red on the EFS.

“That's not normal, what is that?” Solani asked, sounding slightly frightened.

“Whatever it is, it wants us dead. So let's get to returning the favor.” I positioned myself and took aim, firing a few beams into the beast.

The moss hound faltered only slightly before it began to rush towards us. No eyes or ears, just one very-toothy grin. The moss on its body began to wriggle as it neared.

“What in the world is that thing?” Solani, obviously terrified, unfolded her SAER and sent more beams into the creature, searing one of its legs clean off.

The dog collapsed as black sludge oozed from the wound. It made no noise, but the moss on its body wriggled violently.

“Don't know and don't care enough to let it get any closer to find out. It dies there.” I fired a volley of beams into the creature. One beam ignited the beast, sending it into a frenzy as it flailed to put out the flames. Only problem was, we were at a water park… that still had water. The creature threw itself into the lazy river, and a plume of smoke rose afterwards.

The sloshing and wet slapping to our left caught our attention. We had forgotten about the trio of moss beasts who had been wading through the swimming area. Now on dry land, they lumbered over towards us, now red ticks on my EFS.

Chaser unfolded his SAER and took to the air, firing beams into the largest of the creatures.

Solani pulled out a bright blue flask and hurled it towards the beasts. On impact, the glass shattered, releasing a blast of electricity, causing the internal sludge to bubble and ooze from the creatures. They lurched towards us, but whatever magic that kept them together was disrupted, causing their legs to fail beneath them. The moss pony and the moss hound fell shortly after, while the larger monstrosity held together; The moss on its body now slightly burned on the ends. The beast reared on its hind legs, standing several meters high, and slammed its forelegs into the ground, sending forth a wave of black sludge towards us. Solani and I jumped onto nearby dining tables while Chaser kept to the skies. All of us kept firing simultaneously, but the monster barely reacted to our assault.

“You should use SATS,” Fae told us, “target its chest at the same time. I’m reading a strong magical signature inside!”

“Okay, how do we do that?” Chaser asked from above.

“Just focus, like really focus on your shot. When it lifts itself up again, everyone fire at the center of its chest,” she told us.

The beast lowered itself and charged for Solani and I. We barely jumped off the tables in time, before it came crashing through several table sets. It recovered swiftly and lowered itself again, but instead of charging this time, two large vines erupted from its shoulders.

“Tu es ludens loqui?” I growled, firing more beams into the creature.

The beast burst forward again, whipping its vines around and throwing tables and chairs alike through the air.

I remember the time one of my mother’s friends accidently dropped me through a glass table trying to throw me over it, didn’t hurt that much. Getting hit by a metal table on the other hoof… fucking sucked!

The table slammed into me, knocking me down and winding me. I coughed, trying to breathe and ended up spitting out some blood.

“I’m detecting multiple internal injuries, cracked ribs and internal bleeding, possible concussion.” Fae alerted me.

“Yup,” I coughed, “hurts a lot.”

The sudden breaking of glass and clattering of metal, pulled me out of my daze. I realized the creature had thrown a table into the food vendor building, trying to hit Chaser.

Solani rushed to my side with tearful eyes, “Oh, thank the goddesses, you’re alive,” she cried, “we need to go, now! We can’t take this thing down on our own.” She pulled out a small syringe and apologized before jamming it into my leg. The pain in my body dulled, but I could feel myself going unconscious.

“Anytime now, I don’t think it’ll care for a target it can’t- WOAH! Hit!” Chaser yelled, dodging a flying chair.

Solani pulled out a small container and popped a few of the tablets into her mouth, then picked me up onto her back.

Was she always this strong?

She began to carry me towards the bridge, “Chaser, we’re on our way out, how you holding up?”

“A little tired, but this thing just doesn’t give up!”

“Alright keep up the-” Solani stopped. I lifted my head to see the moss hound from before standing before us, silently baring its teeth. Solani wasted no time tearing into the creature with her SAER, turning its moss to ash, causing its sludge to flow to the ground, then kept moving towards the bridge.

After she got around the ooze, I spotted something glowing within. Using my magic I floated the gem towards me and held it to my chest. A voice began to whisper to me, then I passed out.

“¤: /¤\ :¤”

“Chaser we’re clear, lets go!” I told him after I crossed the bridge.

“On it!”

I moved as fast as possible towards the exit. I looked back to Xye, who had fallen unconscious, and pushed on, the Buck helping significantly. After passing the fountain, Chaser finally landed beside us, Aria landing on his back. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He should be, but he’s bleeding internally and has some broken bones, so I can’t use a healing potion. Did you make sure that thing isn’t following us?”

“Yeah, I led it into the pool then flew off really fast, it shouldn’t find us.”

“Good, we need to get back to Doveport, and fast.”

We hurried back to the ticketbooth and through the parking lot, under the archway and made it back to the truck before the Buck narcotics wore off, leaving my body aching and my lungs dying for air. I hadn’t even noticed the dried blood Xye had been drooling onto my neck. I laid him down in the back of the truck, leaning him against the cabin. The soft pulsating glow underneath Xye’s arm caught my eye, and on further inspection I spotted a small green gem, but with Xileel’s life dwindling, I had more pressing things to worry about. I rummaged through my saddlebags and found my doctor’s bag. I pulled out some surgical tools, and another syringe of Med-X. I injected the painkiller into his leg whilst I held a scalpel in my mouth, and waited for it to do it’s work.

Once confident he would not feel it, I carefully drew the blade down the center of his chest. Blood seeped out, but I quickly pushed the hide back and located the broken ribs, setting each one back individually and pouring small amounts of healing potion on them to repair the snaps. Blood pooled through the truck, and I soaked as much of it out from his chest cavity as I could.

Chaser gagged, “Did not need to see that!”

I ignored him, too focused on Xye, moving his hide back into place before I wrapped potion-soaked bandages around his chest.

“Uhh, we got company!” Chaser yelled.

Turning away from Xye, I saw mongrels creeping out of the woods. There were way too many for us to take on by ourselves, and were probably attracted to the scent of Xileel’s blood. Looking back to him, I knew he’d be unconscious for awhile. Carrying him with those hounds around would be impossible. Then, I noticed the small gem had been glowing brighter, and with more frequent pulsations. I didn’t know why it was acting so strangely, and this didn’t seem like the right time to try to find out, so I chose to ignore it again, instead facing the encroaching scavengers.

I readied my SAER, “Don’t let them get to Xye!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Chaser said before taking to the air, 10mm drawn. The first wave of mongrels rushed us. We took out a few before they could reach the truck. I switched to scatter beams and blasted them before they could clamber up. The hounds growls and barks echoed around us, whilst their alpha stood at the back, meticulously watching his pack at work. With the brutes slowly getting closer, I fired into them and tried to keep them at bay as Chaser circled the truck from above.

The sudden shift in the trucks weight caused me to lose balance. Two mongrels jumped onto the cabin’s roof. I screamed in frustration and fought to right myself, seeing them try to pull him from the truck.

A sudden tremor shook everything, causing the mongrels to lose their grip on Xye, while I completely fell from the truck’s bed. A bright green glow pulsed from the gem and continued to do so as a patch of earth rose from itself. Roots tore and dirt crashed to the ground as a behemoth rose from the ground. Three large tree-trunk like appendages extended from the beast and a deep harmonic call broadcasted its awakening.

The beast swung at nearby mongrels and impacted with such a tremendous force, that it instantly killed a few. A cascade of vines extended from the creature as it moved over the truck, wrapping themselves around Xye and lifting him up. I screamed in protest, but I couldn’t hear myself. I ran and jumped onto the vines, frantically trying to free him. The vines continued to lift us, releasing Xye’s body onto the beast’s lush grass top. I dove to him and held him, trying my hardest to protect him. The behemoth continued to swipe at the now scattering mongrels until they began to flee. The alpha let out a long deep howl, then receded into the forest.

Once the danger passed, the behemoth let out another deep call and began to dig itself back into the crater it had emerged from, as though it had never been here at all.

\¤ (¤) ¤/

The voice began to fade and I could feel myself waking up, but I still had so many questions I needed answers to.

“Wait, don’t go! Why did you help us?” I asked into the void.

“I simply did as She told me, but I had my own reasons,” It responded.

“Who is She?”

“She is our mother, She is Gaia.”

“Where do I find Gaia?”

“She resides in the world tree, but you are far from ready.”

“How will I know when I’m ready?”

“In due time child, but your friends weep for your return.”

“Thank you.”

The voice became too quiet to be understood, leaving me in the void. I could hear the cries of Solani and Chaser, begging for me to wake up, praying for their goddesses to return me. I felt myself drift towards them.

When I woke up, I jolted, feeling as if my soul had reconnected to my body. I could feel something small and warm rubbing against my face. Sitting up I could see Solani, Chaser and Aria beside me. Covered in blood, Solani wasted no time in pulling me into an embrace, her tears falling on me. I wrapped my hooves around her and held her tightly.

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” she sobbed.

“What happened to you, are you okay?” I asked, looking at Solani’s bloodied hooves and muzzle.

“Yeah, it’s not mine,” she said, between her sobs, managing to calm down a bit.

“When those mongrels showed up, I thought we were done for, but then that grass monster came outta nowhere and started smacking ‘em!” Chaser said, mimicking the movements.

“How are you feeling?” Solani asked me putting a hoof onto my chest.

“I feel fine, still a little dizzy though.” Solani let out a sigh of relief. “But… after I passed out, there was this… voice.” Everyone looked at me for a moment in confusion. “I think that monster was me… or I was… inside it? I don’t know,” I tried to explain. “I grabbed this gem,” I stopped and looked for the gem but couldn’t find it anywhere. “I coulda swore…” I mumbled in confusion.

“I saw it when we got here. It started glowing like crazy right before that monster came,” Solani told me, “maybe it took it back?” She said poking the earth beneath us.

“Wait, wait, wait, so you’re telling me you called that thing here?” Chaser asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know the specifics, but that’s how it’s looking at the moment,” I admitted.

“So what all happened while you were unconscious?” Solani asked.

“Well... that voice, I didn’t know who or what they were. I was just floating in a void. I couldn’t see anything. They told me a whole bunch, but I was just really confused for the most part. I do remember that they told me someone named Gaia told them to help us, and that She is at the world tree.”

“World tree, you mean there’s someone living by that giant tree?!” Chaser asked.

“Possibly, but not just her. They said She was their mother. So I’m assuming it’s a community of sorts.”

“Sounds like some sort of freaky cult to me,” he scoffed.

“We have to tell the Leaders back at Doveport, they have to know about this!” Solani told me.

“Of course, we should probably hurry too. Those mongrels could come back at any time.”

¤ ¤ ¤

During the long walk back home, questions flooded my head. Who was Gaia? Why did She want to help us? What’s really going on at the world tree? What kind of power did that gem contain? How were we going to explain all of this to the Expedition Team and the others?

Making it back to Doveport, we broadcasted for Isu and regrouped with him later, filling him in on what happened.

“And your telling me I MISSED this?! You’ve gotta be kidding me! That sounds so awesome, well… besides the whole ‘almost dying’ part.”

“What’d you do while we were out?” I asked.

“Played One-O with some of my security buddies, took a nap, helped around town and then you guys called me, nothing too exciting.”

On the way to the town hall, Isu told us the best moments during his time playing One-O.

)¤( )¤( )¤(

Some time ago…

“Draw four, Isu, and I’ll choose red as the color.” Hyd exclaimed as he slammed down a draw-four wild card.

I groaned and drew four cards. Two of them would help me get revenge, a reverse and a draw-two. I grinned on one side of my face.

“Hmmm… I'll play these,” Sundance mumbled, placing two number cards.

Xaige played a three nines.

Jhekl placed two skip cards.

“Are you shittin me?!” Hyd growled.

Ocean Dusk placed a hoof on his shoulder, “Shhhhh, calm down. You get so heated over the little stuff.”

“Easy fer you ta say. Ya’ve only got three cards left,” Hyd retorted, lifting his seven cards.

Now it was my turn… but then I took another look at the last card and realized it wasn't the same color as any of my other cards. “Damn.” I grabbed a card from the deck. Another eight to add to my ever growing collection. Yayyy. I rolled my eyes for the twentieth time.

A rotation went by and nothing too interesting happened, a few reverses, some double plays. Then it got back to me, where I unleashed my- “Ya got skipped, Isu,” Hyd told me before I placed my cards.

I looked at him, then at the last played card, which… was a skip-card. “OH COME ON!” Everyone laughed and Sundance played his cards, continuing the rotation.

The rotation went around again... and I finally played my reverse card, putting Hyd on my attacking side. Then the rotation went to Hyd, then Ocean Dusk, “One-O,” Xiage yelled as she placed her card. She looked at him, then slowly slid her second card from behind the other, casually floating a bottle of Sparkle-Cola to her lips and taking a pull. Xaige’s jaw dropped, “but, but…” he stuttered.

“Ha, that’s rich,” Jhekl said lazily, taking another long pull from his beer.

Defeated, Xaige drew several cards from the deck.

“Oof, that’s just cruel,” Sundance added.

Dusk simply snickered and slid her second card back behind the other.

The rotation continued, switched, went to Dusk, who thankfully drew another card, then skipped me. Sundance played another reverse so I finally got the chance to play my draw twos… all three of them! With one swift motion, I slapped them onto the discard pile. Slowly looking to Hyd with a smirk on my face.

“You’re a real cunt, ya know that?” He said, begrudgingly grabbing his six cards.

The rest of the game revolved around keeping Ocean Dusk’s card count higher than one, in which failed after three more rotations. But hey, we all had fun, and that was what counted.

The Present...

“And that’s about all the cool things that happened to me,” I finished, looking along the road to see the town hall on the next block. “Perfect timing too!”

“¤: /¤\ :¤”

“Mmhmm,” I hummed in agreement.

“So how exactly are we going to explain what happened?” Chaser asked.

“I’m explaining it to them as we speak. They’re mostly just trying to figure out what to do with the information,” Fae told us.

Pushing through the town hall’s front door, we were met by a large seating room. A yellow unicorn mare trotted up to us, “Welcome to the town hall,” she stopped short, looking at Aria perched on Xye’s horn, before asking, “umm, is the bird with you?”

“Yes.” He affirmed. Aria also let out a happy chirp.

“Well… alrighty then. I’m assuming you’re the group that was exploring Skipping Stones?” We all nodded except for Isu but she didn’t seem to notice, “perfect, please follow me.”

We followed the mare up a set of stairs and along a hallway. She stopped, then slightly opened a door for us, “right through here.”

After walking in, we were met by a long conference style table set up to fit a lengthy room. The walls and floor were still slightly dirty, but had definitely been cleaned. Sitting at the other end of the room were several of the Expedition Team leaders. Skyscreamer, Counter Pulse and Done Ham were three that I recognized.

“Please take a seat,” Counter Pulse told us. After finding a seat he began. “It’s come to our attention you’ve not only discovered this... timber-beast spider a few days ago, but also some new variety of the carnivorous plants that our recent excursions have also uncovered,” he explained, “These discoveries are very helpful and I want you to know they will not go unrewarded.” We grew hopeful at that, “but back to that later. Oh, and before I forget, we heard what happened, I hope you’re alright, Xileel.”

“I am,” He responded, then looked to me and smiled, which made my heart flutter.

“I, personally, would also like to congratulate you Solani, for possibly saving his life. As a field surgeon myself, I’m quite impressed,” He praised, “but now onto the more pressing matter.”

One of the other leaders took off their Pipbuck and placed it at the center of the table. The screen lit up and projected a map with a dotted line, starting from Doveport and projecting a perimeter around an area out to some other part of Carsas.

“This area is where we suspect that spider took Gnash, but since we don't have access to the radio tower here,” a circle highlighted a point at the center of Carsas, “we can't get an exact location,” Skyscreamer detailed out for us. “We’re planning to recover his Pipbuck if no body can be found. It holds information that would be invaluable to our primary objective.”

“Wherever that creature came from, there has to be a hive, possibly even a queen, and it needs to be eradicated,” one of the other leaders told us.

“Since you’ve seen things a majority of the population hasn’t, we have granted you access to some of the Expedition Team's classified dossiers,” our Pipbucks beeped, “but they're classified for a reason, so don't go showing them around,” Done Ham warned.

One of the other leaders whispered something into Counter Pulse’s ear. He ‘ah’d’ and held up a hoof.

“There are few others who also have these details, adventuring types like yourselves, their contact information has been added as well, and vice versa,” another Pipbuck beep. “On another note, my colleague has informed me that an auxiliary detachment is preparing to head to Skipping Stone's. If you would like to assist them in dispatching that vine beast, we can send word.”

We looked to each other, the only one of us looking interested being Isu. “Come on guys,” he urged, “I wanna see this thing, you want revenge and we we can get more of those crystal things you were talking about.”

Xileel’s ears perked up, “I'm in.” he said quickly.

“But you haven't fully recovered!” I warned him.

“Excuse me, Counter Pulse, sir?”

“No need to be formal, but go ahead,” he responded.

“Would you mind giving me a quick once over to see if my internals are all in order?”

“I don't see why not. Step closer and hold still,” Counter Pulse stood from his seat and met with Xye at the center of the room. His horn began to glow as he looked around on Xye’s body. Pulse looked closer at Xye’s chest for a moment, “Interesting… well Xileel, everything checks out, Solani did a fine job. I would however like to ask you to check in with the clinic tomorrow. Nothing to worry about, just some formalities.”

Xye turned back to us, “see, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about.”

I really couldn't argue against that. “Alright, just don't strain yourself okay?”

“Can do. Chaser you coming?”

Chaser shrugged, “eh, what the hay.”

“Solani?”

“Yeah, I guess. Not like I'm busy or anything.”

“That's all of us.” Xye told Counter Pulse.

“Alright, I'll send word. They'll be waiting at the armory. Your Fae should lead the way. Meet with Auxiliary Leader Sanded Stones, she'll provide more information. Dismissed.”

\¤ (¤) ¤/

After leaving the town hall we made our way to the armory. Making a left out on the main street, we continued down the sidewalk. I walked silently, thinking solely on getting another of those gems. If I could get a hold of another, maybe I’d be able to speak to that voice again, maybe even get all of my questions answered. My focused gaze must have made Solani uneasy as she nudged me.

“You alright?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah… just… thinking.” I responded.

“You’re going to try to speak to that voice again, aren’t you?”

I guess it was pretty obvious, “yeah, I just need to know more about it. I had so many questions then and even more now. They’re eating at me, and I have to get answers.”

“You shouldn’t think so hard, you’re going to end up melting your brain one day,” she joked, “so you’re really interested in this Gaia, huh?”

“If She can give me answers, then yes.”

“So you’re interested in another girl.”

“Yea… wait,” I deadpanned at her, “really?”

“What? I didn’t say anything,” she said innocently, “it’s just that your cheating on me is all.”

“You know that’s not the kind of interest I have with Gaia.”

“Mmhmm suure...”

“It’s more of a curiosity, like a distant light with an unknown source,” I explained.

“Then what am I?”

“You’re like… a campfire that keeps me warm whenever I’m near,” I said, nuzzling her cheek.

She blushed and began to lean on me as we walked, “Is that so?”

“Mmhm.”

We turned a corner and could see the armory down the street. Two transport trucks were parked outside, a few security standing guard.

Once we got close, one of them stopped us, “You the Skipping Stone’s group?” We nodded. “Head inside, Sanded Stones is expecting you.”

Entering the armory, we saw a tan mare in security armor at the center of the room. Griffins, zebras and ponies were scattered around the room, gathering spark batteries, putting on armor or checking weapons.

The mare in the middle noticed us, “you must be the Skipping Stone’s group. Welcome to the armory,” she said in a gruff voice, “what are your names and groups?”

“Xileel, Group D.”

“Solani, Group C.”

“Isu, Group A.”

“Chaser, Auxiliary,” That caught her attention.

“Auxiliary huh, how’d you manage that?” She asked, getting low and staring into Chaser's eyes.

“I ran an obstacle course with Sergeant Candy Floss. I made time and she moved me to Auxiliary.”

“Ohh, so that was you! You're a quick little shit aren't ‘cha,” She said while ruffing up his mane. Chaser didn't looked too pleased as he fixed his mane. “If you don't have armor already, just grab some. Try not to fuck it up too bad while we're out. We leave in ten.”

We took that time and equipped ourselves with some more batteries and armor. I made sure to get some sturdy body armor before I was ready to go. Chaser and Isu pulled on cannon guards for their legs while Solani grabbed some lighter barding. With everyone ready, we loaded up onto the trucks, and prepared for departure.

The last of the auxiliary team took their seat on the trucks and a broadcast ping was sent out.

We joined and waited, then a voice chimed through the static, “Alright, so here's what's gonna happen…”

_____¤ ¤ ¤_____

Footnote: Level Up!

No Group Perk Added.

Xileel Perk added! Touched: You are not sure what happened, but you feel different. (Stage 1 of 6)

No Chaser Perk added.

No Isu Perk Added.

Solani Perk Added! Hooves on Learner: You learn by doing, you earn 50% more experience from actions but 50% less from skill books.

Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. To be honest I didn't use my time as wisely as I could have, but no longer! I'd like to thank all the people who help with, or promote Newshire! You all mean so much to me.

Chapter 5: Green With Vengeance

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 5: Green With Vengeance

“There is much, much that I can teach, but the answer you need may still be out of reach.”

\¤ (¤) ¤/

“Alright, so here's what's gonna happen,” Sanded Stones began. The trucks started their drive, moving down the street towards the northern gate. “We're heading to the Skipping Stones water park to take out a group of Feral Weeds. This new brute type is our main objective, after that, we split into small teams to find and burn all of the flower beds in the area. Once we arrive just wait for my instruction.”

The broadcast ended and the trucks had exited town, quickly traversing the tunnel and emerging onto the main road. The drive to the park was much faster than the walk and we arrived within a few minutes. The trucks parked along the entrance and everyone disembarked.

Sanded Stones was talking to a few flyers before they flew off towards the park. Everyone else made final checks on their weapons and armor. I floated my SAER from my back and onto the ground. The case still had dried blood on it. Opening it, I carefully looked over its components, which also had a bit of blood, and began to clean them to the best of my ability. With the mechanisms mostly cleaned, I closed the case and floated it back onto myself.

“Sanded Stones has given the go ahead to enter the park. Scout reports show the brute to be moving through the southern lazy river; target marked.” Fae told us, a red ‘X’ appearing in my vision.

The group moved inside, flyers took to the sky and snipers posted up in the still standing water slide towers. We moved through the courtyard holding the fountain. I looked to the store that we entered when we first arrived, the fresh memories of our encounter with the flowerbeds floated throughout my mind.

“Teams Fillytrot and Greenhorn, secure the left and right sides. Team Canterlot, you're on me.” A gruff sounding earth pony called out.

The teams split away from each other and moved to their sides. Without a group of our own we just kept moving with the other groups further into the park. Moving on the right path, we made our way towards the bridge that went over the river. Looking inside, I could see the large mass of vines sloshing through the dark water.
The rest of the teams encircled the brute and set up a few shock traps further along the river, behind and ahead of the creature. With everything in place, the snipers and flyers opened up, sending beams into the top of the brute. It let out a gurgled howl as it started running along the river, water splashing about in its wake. It ran toward one of the traps, setting it off. One blast of electricity later and the beast came clattering to the ground in a slurry of moss and water. The snipers and flyers stopped firing, allowing for the ground unit to press the advantage. We sent beams into it and I could see large chunks beginning to fall from it, black ooze spilling from the inside. The beast trembled, its limbs becoming flaccid and collapsing beneath it. Its vine exterior began to loosen before it finally stopped moving all together.

“Cease fire!” Someone ordered over the broadcast.

Sanded Stones walked past us and towards where the Brute lay. “Extraction team, prepare for gem retrieval!” She yelled.

Two griffins and a unicorn jumped down into the river. The unicorn opened the back of the creature as the wetsuit-wearing griffins hopped inside and began to pull out what they could. The sludge darkened the surrounding water as it left the carcass. The griffins pulled out pitch black bones, most of which seemed to be slightly digested, as well as ruined saddlebags and other belongings. Then one of them pulled up a sludge covered object.

“I've got it!” He said wiping it off, revealing the glowing green gem beneath.

It was much larger than the one I'd retrieved from the moss hound, about the size of my head!

Sanded Stones stepped to the edge of the river, “Great work you three. You get yourselves washed off and standby for further orders.”

The three nodded and hoisted all of the gear out of the sludge, then placed it on a blue tarp someone else had laid out.

“Amazing job everyone,” Fae exclaimed, “Sanded Stones has asked me to issue new orders for everyone. You five, including Aria, will be heading to the old funhouse on the west side of the park. A burn unit will also be waiting for you at the entrance. Two griffins to be exact and I think Isu may find them familiar.”

“Let me guess…”

)¤( )¤( )¤(

We made our way to the fun house in the Dry Zone. Two griffins with flamethrowers stood outside its entrance.

“If it ain't my favorite drinkin buddy, let's get some booze!” Jhekl slurred, showing signs of inebriation.

I looked at him, puzzled, “But Jhekl… we've never drank together.”

“Yea, ya drunk lug. Yur thinkin’ about Xaige. This is the tall one.” Hyd told him.

“Ohhh, now I see. My apologies good sir.” He swung an arm across himself and bowed, resulting in a quick slap from Hyd’s wing.

“What tha fook are ya doin!?”

“What, is it bad to apologize now? Jeez bro, you needa lighten up.” Jhekl said while rubbing his head.

“Fuckin-A, this is why I ‘ate everyone and everythin.” Hyd squeezed the bridge between his eyes. “Okay Isu, yur friends ‘ere, acquaint us, so we can get this show on tha road!”

I turned to the others and started listing them off to Jhekl and Hyd. “Well, here we have Solani.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you two.” She said with a slight bow.

“This is Xileel, Xye for short.” Xye simply bobbed his head head at them. “The pegasus on the end is Chaser.”

“Sup!” He exclaimed with a raising of his head.

“And the little bird on his head is Aria.” She tweeted happily.

“Where'd ya get tha bird?” Hyd asked, tilt his head.

“She kinda just… showed up and we just sorta… kept her?” I seemed to ask the others, who all nodded in agreement.

“Cool, she do any tricks?” motions in the air.

Aria lept off of Chaser's head and flew through Jhekl's legs, flew up into the air before free falling back towards us, stopping inches from the top of Chaser's head and landing gracefully.

Chaser gasped, “You did the thing I showed you!”

Aria tweeted happily at Chaser as he patted her on the head with a wing.

“Cool bird, might have to find me one.” Jhekl wondered to himself.

“I swear to fook, if ya bring home another one of those damn pigeons, I'll make ya eat it and all the shit it leaves behind!” Hyd growled.

“Oh come on bro, you know the last one was house trained.” Jhekl protested.

“Nu-uh, not again. Little cunts always shat in my room and always found a way in!”

“Jeez, such a buzz kill.” Jhekl pouted.

“Do you two… fight, a lot?” Solani asked.

In unison, Jhekl said no, while Hyd said yes. Hyd looked at Jhekl and only shook his head in disappointment while Jhekl simply grinned at him. “Can we just… go already?” Hyd said, sounding a bit defeated.

With introductions out of the way, we readied our weapons and stepped through the decrepit pony head entrance. Walking down what I assumed was the tongue, we stepped into the funhouse. The damp air was filled with the scent of decaying corpses. The lobby walls shown of cracked, technicolor wallpapers, most of which were pock-marked with ivy. The floor was dingy, the multicolor tiling faded and broken. Small weeds grew all around, brushing against my hooves as I walked.

“Alright, so which way are we goin, or do ya want ta spli’up, groups a’ three and such?” Hyd asked, looking around the room.

“Fae, do you have anything on this place?” Xye asked.

“Sure do! Pulling it up now.” Fae responded.

We all checked our Pipbucks, looking over what little was useful. The rooms and corridors looked spacious enough to fit a small chimera inside. Four different rooms made up the funhouse; the mirror maze, nausea room, funny mirrors and then the ball pit obstacle course.

“Hmm… I would assume that there would be at least one flower bed in the building, but there's only one way to know for sure. Quaerite, et conteret.” Xye stated.

“Why don’t we just level the place? Seems a bit tedious ta burn each individual flower bed.” Hyd asked flatly.

“Because we could still salvage the buildings and other attractions,” Solani explained. “It’s much harder to find useful scrap in a collapsed and burned building.”

Hyd mulled that over than shrugged, “Whatever, I just feel like there’s probably an easier way ta do this.”

“You two done?” Jhekl asked, “cuz while you’ve been talking, something in the building ‘sbeen eyeing us.”

I looked at my EFS and saw the lone red mark. The slow creaking and moaning of stressed metal echoed from somewhere in the building, but before anyone could even react, light exploded from everywhere and blinding us all. The sound of heavy machinery clanked and banged, along with the whir of electronics as they came online.

“Welcome to *stzzzz* fun-fun house! Please *tzzzz* your children through the attraction, as some *skzzz* our rooms may be a bit more challenging than others and the *tzzz* thing we want is a frowny filly! What are you doing here?!.” The offputting glitchy voice said over a loudspeaker.

“Fuckin-A! A little warnin woulda been nice ya cunt!” Hyd yelled, rubbing and blinking his eyes.

“Please refrain from *tzzz* profanity, children are near. Please, run while you can.” The voice said.

“OH, she’s interactive!” Fae said, sounding surprised.

“That is correct! Now if you’re here to enjoy the-the *skzzz* funhouse, please step through the door on the right! Before they find you.”

Was I the only one hearing the voice beneath the voice?

The group started to make their way into the mirror maze, until they realized I wasn’t following.

“Isu, what's the matter?” Solani asked. The others also stopped and looked at me.

I guessed I was the only one. “Nothing, just spaced out a bit.”

Xye chuckled, “Isn't that something I usually do?”

¤ ¤ ¤

Upon entering the room, we could clearly see the exit door at the left corner. The flower bed sat in the right corner of the room.
“Pshh, mirror room,” Chaser said mockingly, “this’ll be-” Chaser was stopped midair and clattered to the floor, groaning in pain after flying muzzle first into something.

“Oops, did I forget to activate the mirrors again? Stop it… Please. One-one moment!”

The room filled with shimmery walls that coalesced into reflective panels. The room looked as if it ran on forever.

Hyd stifled a laugh, “Better slow down there lad, ya might end up runnin inta somethin worse than a mirror.”

Rubbing his muzzle, “That doesn’t count, I couldn’t even see it!” he protested.

“My point exac’ly.” he said poking the panel before us. “This one’s actually just surprisingly clean glass.”

Looking to the left and right, I could see a reflection of us that ran on forever.

The sound of falling metal clacked somewhere in the room, putting us all on edge. Aria also began to make her chittering noise.

“What’s it making that racket for?” Hyd asked

“There’s something else in the maze, keep your guard up.” I told him.

The red mark on my EFS slowly made its way across the bar. The sound of claws on metal echoed and the shrill laugh of a hyena came from all around. Soon after, whatever it was, clambered back into the roof.

“We haven’t even moved yet, and this is already ten times harder than it should’ve been.” Jhekl groaned.

“Oh, come now-now. It’s not that hard, *skzzzt* It’s just a hop-hop-jump! Why aren’t you listening?!”

“Yea, easy for you ta s-s-say.” Hyd mockingly snarled, getting a slight chuckle from Chaser and I.

We slowly moved through the maze, everyone occasionally bumping into clear panels. The roof above groaned, the faint sound of claws clicked against the other side.

Chaser oriented his body to fire straight up and sent a torrent of beams into the roof.

The creature above yelped, and the claw-clicking made a hasty retreat. Black ooze began to drip from the ceiling and Chaser letting out a triumphant huff.

We continued through the maze, making our way to the flower bed. As we neared, more and more vegetation covered the floor and walls, as if we were walking into a jungle.

“Be sure to watch for moving vines, they’re hard to get off and with all the fire that’s going to be in here soon; I’d rather no one get cooked.” Xileel told us.

“Yes sir, mister captain, sir!” Hyd said sarcastically with a half-assed salute, resulting in an eye roll from Xye.

As we reached the corner of the maze, vines had completely covered every surface. Colorful petals pulsated as we passed, seemingly to lure us further inside. We finally reached the flower bed, tucked away in the corner with wildflowers growing all around. Hyd and Jhekl took little time to move forward and aim their flamethrowers.

“Everyone ready?” Hyd asked.

“You know I am!” Jhekl responded, before they both sent forth gouts of flame.

The fire quickly burned the flower bed and began to spread along its vines. We made our way back the way we came, the area quickly becoming much warmer and filling with thick white smoke.

“Fire de-de-detected *skzzzt* activating fire suppression subroutines! I've gotta think of something.”

The sudden blaring of a fire alarm filled the room, followed by the deluge of dark-colored water from above.

“Maaaagna…” I groaned, my mane slowly beginning to lose form and fall into my face. My coat also began to darken.

“Won't this put out the fire?” Solani asked.

“If it does, tha flower bed is already done for.” Hyd told her. “Now let's get tha fook outta here, this water’s startin’ ta stink up me feathers.”

We made our way through maze and with all the water droplets coating the glass and mirrors, it was much easier going. Once we stepped through the door at the end, the attraction’s annoyingly happy A.I. piped back up.

“Congr-gr-gratulations! You are so v-v-very-very, *skzzzt* good at getting through mazes! Now, onto the ball pit obstacle course!”

We made our way up the old metal stairs. With Chaser flying in front, it took Xye's face plant into the stairs for us to realize they rocked back and forth unevenly.

“Quae lubuit.” He said sarcastically, before Solani helped him back up.

“You okay?” She asked.

“Yea, I'll be fine.” He assured her as he rubbed his chin.

The rest of us careful made our way up the stairs, entering a tall, wide room with windows on the right side. The same color scheme from the rest of the building had decorated this room as well, rust. My eyes slowly drifted to the ball pit itself and I finally found a ball pit I did not want to immediately jump into. Not only where the balls discolored and slightly misshapen, they were also… writhing. The same black ooze from those vine monsters had filled the pit, along with some sort of long dark leech or worm and the sounds alone made the others hide crawl. Aria definitely didn't seem to like them much as she flew around chirping angrily at it.

“That is one nasty pit of awful!” Jhekl stepped closer to the pit and poured some of his beer into it, listening to the squelching sound the worms made as it made contact. He chuckled, “Groooss.” A small mass of worms had gathered at the edge where Jhekl was standing and before they could slither onto him, Hyd yanked him back by his tail.

“Why… why are you like this?” Hyd anguished, receiving a drunken smile from his brother.

I looked at the obstacle course itself, nothing too difficult, even for a child, but it was a bit long; about the length of one of those old inflatable courses. Looking right I saw the easy way around, a grated walkway spanning the pit and leading to the halfway point in the room. It looked... mostly intact, at least to me. I put my weight down on it, hearing the groan of the old bolts and metal. It didn't break, so I kept walking, keeping my eyes on the wriggling mass below. I could see the plastic balls move aimlessly along with them. The metal creaked as I passed the center, so I hurriedly crossed the rest of the way, not wanting to press my luck. I turned to look at everyone else as they began to make their way across.

“O-o-oh rats! *stzzz* Did I also forget-get, This should work, to turn on the low gravity generators? One mooomeeent!” The AI sang.

The deep hum of some nearby machinery made it to my ears and I could feel my weight slowly decrease.

However, before our weights reduced to nothing, Xye screamed, “NO! Don't do that!”

Our weights stopped getting lighter and the AI spoke with concern in her . “Is there a pro-o-blem?”

I looked at him as if he was crazy, wondering if he was afraid of floating or something. The slight tickle on my hoof caused me to jerk away, only to realize just why he had stopped her. The worms!

“If you turn on those generators, we’ll all be dead!” Xye warned.

“Oh don’t be s-s-silly, *sktzz* nothing bad-ad is gun-n-n-n…” she suddenly powered down, as well as the rest of the building. The lights turned off and the room darkened, the only light penetrated through the glass panels along the walkway. The black mass sunk back down to its original depth and we all let out sighs of relief, then continued through the room.

Somewhere I the middle of the room, we got a broadcast ping and joined in immediately.

“What's the situation inside the Fun House, any activity?” Sanded Stones asked.

We all looked to each other, wondering who would answer until-

“Barely ma'am, there's a malfunctioning AI running the place that had been quite a pain, but the whole building lost power a while ago.” Solani instantly responded, taking even me by surprise.

“Good to hear and about the outage; we had a team go into the maintenance building to get the generators running and it seemed as though they still had power, but not long after, they just died, like something… overclocked them on purpose.”

Maybe that's what the AI was really talking about?

“We're also getting reports of hearing strange ghost-like voices. Is any of your team hearing anything?”

So, it wasn't just me.

“I've been hearing a voice, ma'am.” Everyone looked at me confused. “I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me at first, but she said something about ‘needing to do something’ a few minutes before the power died.” I told her.

“Interesting, the others that heard her said something along those lines. She doesn't want us here, but for what reason, we can't be certain, so for now, just continue on your mission and we'll all get outta here asap. Sanded Stones out.”

The broadcast ended and was immediately followed by the squirms and wet sloshing of the pit below, so we kept moving.

We made a left into the next room, which was essentially pitch black, even after my eyes adjusted, I couldn't see much farther past my own hoof. We turned on our Pip-buck lights, lighting the room showing in an amber and blue light. With the way lit, we could see the room was actually a black colored room. The slightly fuzzy material clung to the floors, walls and ceiling. Long tear marks had all but destroyed most of it; as if it was used as a scratching post, revealing the also scratched up wood behind it. Spinny circles with spiral designs behind panes of plastic lined the walls, while inactive lights clung to the ceiling. Moving further through, I began to hear the muffled crunching of bones. I checked my EFS and saw a singular red mark and stopped the rest of the group behind me. I moved forward to the edge of a corner and peaked around, spotting an old carcass of a pony further down, along with the beast that likely killed them. A blood stained vine hound, twice the size of a pony, with protruding teeth and a tail of sharpened bones wrapped in vines. It stood over the body, feasting upon the old flesh. Before it could notice me, I slowly backed away, managing to get back to the others. I motioned for them to back up and we made our way back into the ball pit room.

“What’d you see Isu?” Xye asked me.

“I think it’s whatever was inside the maze with us, a large vine hound, its... eating someone.” Solani gasped, “I don’t know how long they’ve been dead, but we can’t get passed the room with that thing in the way.”

“Well we definitely can’t fight it in there, we’ll have to lure it outside or something.” Hyd added.

“Fae, any ideas?” Xye asked.

“Analyzing… analysis complete! There seems to be an emergency exit door, on the left side of the hallway, that leads directly to the rooftop above the maze. If you can get the creature through that, then it will make taking it out much easier.” Fae answered.

I looked down the hall, just to check if the hound had seen us yet and saw no sign of the creature. The unlit ‘Exit’ sign hung above the door, but I couldn't see the door itself. Maybe it was behind all the black material on the walls.

“Sounds like we've got a plan, but uhh… how are we going to get it out there without getting killed.” Solani asked.

Unknown to us, Jhekl had already made his way back down the hallway, with beer bottle in-claw. “WHAT'S UP FUCKER?!” He yelled, followed by the immediate winding back of his arm and chucking of his half-empty beer bottle down the hallway and into the vine hound. The glass shattered on impact and the beast let out a sharp hyena-like screech before dashing at Jhekl. We ran as fast as we could in the sudden panic, the beast lept at Jhekl and our collective hearts sunk, before Jhekl flopped to the floor, the vine hound to flew over him and into the emergency exit, tearing the old door frame straight from the wall and crashing to the roof outside. We all ran to Jhekl, thinking he had gotten hit, only to find him drunkenly chuckling on the ground.

Hyd slapped Jhekl across the face in anger, “What tha fook were you thinkin?!”

Jhekl just laughed, probably unable to feel the slap, “I wasn't, obviously.”

A wave of relief swept across the group before we turned our sights to the vine hound outside, it was having trouble tearing apart the wall-cloth that had covered it. If it had eyes, they'd be searing with rage and malice. We stepped outside, just before it finally ripped the cloth away and roared grotesquely, as if it had rocks in its throat along with a smoking problem. Several nearby pegasi noticed the commotion and made their way over, weapons focused on the hound. It looked around at us, seeming to weigh its options, or pick out its first target, but before it could move an inch, one of the pegasi yelled to the others, “Open fire!” and a laser shower engulfed the rooftop. The alcohol soaking the hound's body ignited, setting it ablaze. It yelped and howled as its body burned away, its inner black ooze seeping out and onto the roof. The beast fell and flailed in a desperate attempt to put out the flames and ended up tearing itself, and what little vines held it together, apart. The black ooze sloshed onto the roof and spread across it, thinning out until a large glowing green gem peered through.

The pegasi landed around us, as well as who I suspected to be their leader.

“Great job getting that thing out here, I'm sure it woulda been a helluva fight inside.” the lead mare said, pointing into the dark room behind us. “You all okay?”

“Besides one'uv us bein severely stupid, I'd say we're a’right.” Hyd said with a thwack of his wing at Jhekl's head.

The mare chuckled, “Well, continue on with your sweep and clear, then report back to Sanded Stones at the fountain.” she made a hoof motion to the other pegasi and they flew off. “We'll see you then.” she then walked over to the black puddle and starting talking to Fae about the Extraction team.

“Shall we get back to it then?” Hyd asked, looking back at the dark room.

“If everyone's all set, then let's go.” Xileel said, checking his SAER.

We all checked our weapons and reloaded, then reentered the fun house. The light from outside had flooded in through the open door, illuminated most it. The mostly-eaten corpse sat just at the edge of the light's reach, a dark substance coating it. We moved past it, moving further into the darkness before turning our pipbuck lights back on. Again the room was aglow with amber and blue light. One of the smaller tunnels that lined the wall had vines and the same pulsating flowers that the flower bed from before had. We moved closer, looking into it revealed the flower bed at the very end. Jhekl and Hyd tore away any of the black cloth connected to the tunnel before sending a gout of flames into it. The fire wooshed back out of the tube and dark smoke bellowed out.

Hyd let the fire burn for a about half minute before pulling out a silver canister. “Keep yur distance.” We all backed away. He pulled a pin on the the canister and tossed it into the flames. He moved to the side of the tunnel before a plume of white dust exploded from it, engulfing and extinguishing the fire.

Jhekl gasped, “Ice cream!”

“Don't you fookin dare!” Hyd snapped.

Jhekl pouted as the rest of us giggled and chuckled. “You're never any fun bro. This is why I always got invited to parties and not you.”

“Oh woudja bugger off aboot that, not like I gave a shite.” Hyd dismissed.

“Hehe, it's also why you're still a-” Jhekl was quickly cut short as Hyd locked his claws aroumd Jhekl's beak.

“Not. Another. Word.” Hyd growled, his eyes promising pain in the near future. “Understood?” Jhekl nodded his head before Hyd threw it away, causing Jhekl to fall over. Jhekl rubbed his beak as Hyd stomped away.”Can we hurry this up!?” he yelled back to us.

Xye helped Jhekl back up and we all followed after Hyd.

<¤<< <¤> >>¤>

Aww yeaaa… Who's the strongest pegasus alive?
That's me.

I thought to myself as I flexed in one of the less broken mirrors in the room. The others were walking around, looking for any signs of a flower bed. Aria sat on top of the mirror that I was looking into, with a wing over her face shaking her head.

“You're just jealous because you can't look this good.” I flexed one long and final flex before leaving the mirror, Aria flew onto my back and chirped dismissively. “Did you find anything yet?” I called out.

“Nothing so far, I think we’ve got them all.” Xileel told me.

“Sweet, means we can get outta this dump right? Mission completed?” I assumed.

“Seems about that way.” Isu added.

“Fiiinally!” I huffed.

We started to make our way to the exit, our SAERs folded back up and Jhekl, more or less drunk than before; I honestly couldn't tell and I could probably learn from him. Walking back out through the large pony-mouth entrance, we saw a number of other groups all going about their own tasks, rushing to and from different areas of the park. In a way the park looked as if it was running as it used to, except the maintenance teams just went on strike or something. We crossed back over the bridge and made our way back towards the fountain. Sanded Stones was talking to a group of guards who left before we got close.

“Good to see you all. Mission successful?” she asked while checking off something on a clipboard.

“Yes mam, there shouldn't be any more flowerbeds in the funhouse.” Hyd responded.

“Good work. Jhekl, Hyd, you're free to go back in or return back to Doveport via the transport trucks by the gate.”

Jhekl and Hyd saluted. Jhekl started to walk back towards the park before being dragged by his tail in the opposite direction. “We're goin home ya idiot.” Hyd grumbled.

“If you four have time, I'm sure you'd like to examine the gems we've collected so far.”

I saw Xye's eyes light up at that as he nodded his head furiously.

“Right this way then.” Sanded Stones lead us back through the entrance to the park and out to the parking lot, which had been changed alot since we first walked through it. Large white tents were set up around the area. Most of them were field clinics but a few of them held other supplies. Sanded lifted up the flap of a tent and ushered us inside. We were met with long tables with different glowing green gems on each.

Great, looking at glowing rocks, this is gunna be sooo much fun.

I found a comfortable corner and sat down, waiting for Xye to stop looking as if he was a colt in a cake shop.

\¤ (¤) ¤/

I just couldn't take my eyes off of the assortmented gems, they all seemed to contain something similar but… they were all unique from one another. All of them glowing softly, yet none of them in sync with another. I walked around the tables before setting my eyes on a gem that somehow stood out to me. It was on the smaller side and looked like that of a water drop with a spiky and jagged tail. I held my hoof out to touch it but it was immediately batted down.

“Ah-ah-ah. It's hard enough to know what each of them do, let alone what they'll do to you. We'll have our research teams back in Doveport look them over, and once we know if they're even safe to touch, we'll call you.”

Well of course that wouldn't work Xye.

“Oh, sorry,” I apologized. “about how long do you think that will take?”

“Best estimate I can give is three days minimum. Depending on how many tests they conduct, that could extend upto a week.”

“Ah, okay.” I could wait a bit longer.

She resides in the world tree, but you are far from ready.

The voice's words replayed in my head, so many questions, but no answers… yet. “Thanks for letting us see these, we really appreciate it.”

“No problem at all.” she said with a smile. She led us back outside and over to a transport truck, others were already waiting in the back of it. “You four,” Aria tweeted at that. “Five, get some rest. I'll try to get in touch with you soon. And good work out here today.”

With that we left the tent and made our way to the gate and the nearby transport trucks. Hyd was trying to help Jhekl into the back of one, before finally giving up and just thrusting him into the back. We got into the last truck as the first few in line started to pull off. The truck lurched and we were rolling down the road in no time. I looked back to the water park, seeing its old and forgotten attractions become hidden behind the trees. I closed my eyes and laid down on the hard metal seat. The bumps of the road shook up into me, so sleeping wasn't an option. Instead, I fell into my thoughts to pass the time.

_____¤ ¤ ¤_____

Footnote:

No Levels Acquired.

No Group Perks added.

Downloadable Content Installing...
Current Progress: 18%

Tadaaaaa… Yea, I know this took forever to get out. Life just kinda happens and ya gotta get whatcha can done to do the stuff and things. So yea! Here we are, Chapter 5. Thanks again to all of you who helped in encouraging my writing or sharing what little I have to others. I probably won't be able to stick to a schedule like I used to, so I'll supplement that with art and updates when I can. Thanks again everyone! Hope you enjoyed.

Chapter 6: Gut Feeling

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 6: Gut Feeling

“Oh really? Did your 'Pinkie Sense' tell you that, too?”

\¤ (¤) ¤/

With a few weary blinks, I was jolted from my daydreaming as the truck lurched to a sudden stop. The guards began disembarking and headed into the armory to disarm themselves. I waited for everyone to get off before hopping down myself. Chaser, Isu and Solani followed shortly after.

“So, we headed back to the apartment?” Chaser asked, stretching out his wings. “I could really use a nap.”

I looked to Solani and Isu, the latter looking as stoic as always, while Solani looked well ready to sleep for a few days, yet she still held herself high and smiled when I looked to her. “Yea, let's get going. I'm sure we could all use the rest.”

“I'll be up there later, got a few things I wanna get done.” Isu told us.

“Alright, we’ll see you when you get back then.” I responded, putting a hoof out towards him.

Isu bumped his hoof to mine before walking across the street and disappearing around a corner.

The rest of us began making our way back to the apartment. The streets were fairly busy, some of the buildings were still being reconstructed, as well as a few roads and sidewalks. Walking past a small garden plaza, we could see several groups of ponies and a few griffins chatting. Aria flew off of Chaser's back and joined a flock of birds in a tree. They sang to each other, letting all of those nearby hear their song. We continued towards the apartment, Aria and her friends’ whistling still reaching our ears as we walked. After we turned a corner, their song faded and the apartments came into view down the road. I looked up to our room; fourth floor, third window on the right, well… what was left of the window anyway, thinking of taking a nap after we got up there. However, before we could get any closer, Fae piped up from my Pipbuck.

"Hey Xileel, just a reminder before you get back home, the doctors at the clinic needed to have a look at you." She reminded me cheerfully. The blooming plans in my head slowly withered and died as she reminded me.

I groaned, "Do I really need to go?"

"It was a request from Counter Pulse." Solani chimed in.

"Ughhh, okay. Where's the clinic?"

"Take a left at the next intersection." A small arrow pointed down the road in my vision.

"Wait, so now we're not heading home?" Chaser asked taken aback.

"Nah, change of plans. You can head home if you want though, I don't mind," I looked to Solani, "You?"

She shook her head with two short hums.

"Alright cool, cuz I really didn't want to wait around at the doctors. Youtwohavefungottagobye!" And with that quick burst of words Chaser took off into the air, leaving a small trail of dust leaping up after him.

After watching Chaser zoom off through the air, Solani and I began making our way to the intersection, Aria later landed on the top of my mane and chirped happily. After making the left another arrow popped up further down the street, so we continued. Somewhere about halfway to the arrow, a familiar orange bubble floated down in front Solani.

Aria let out a series of whistles that resembled the words, 'You've got mail.'

We stopped and Solani proceeded to pop the bubble; a mare's voice began speaking from the air. "Solani dear, it's your mother, I just wanted to check up on you. Your father and I haven't seen you in a few days since you moved some of your stuff up into that apartment. We hope things are going well and all, especially with that stallion you seem s-" before I could hear anymore, Solani pressed her hooves over my ears, blushing furiously. I only chuckled and waited, the muffled voice becoming indiscernible. After about ten seconds, her hooves left my ears and the words became clear again. Solani was clearly embarrassed as well as a little shocked. Her mother's message continued, "Anyway, just wanted to say hi and that you should stop by. Your father baked up some amazing sweets the other day. You could bring a few for you-know-who. Toodles!"

Solani let out a nervous titter and rubbed the back of her head. "Sorry about that."

I smiled, "You're fine. So, you gonna go check in or are you sticking around?"

She thought for a moment, "I don't just want to leave so suddenly," She harrumphed. "What do you think?"

"Well… you can either miss out on home baked sweets, or sit in a waiting room with me and no sweets."

"And you're fine with me leaving?"

"I mean, if it's something important, I don't see why I'd be against it," I replied in thought.

Solani thought for a moment before looking at her Pipbuck, "If I'm not there by… four-thirty five, then just meet me back home. If you get done sooner than expected, call me and I'll catch up with you, sound good?"

"Sounds like a plan," I looked to Aria, who had flown to Solani's back at some point, "you going with me or her?" Aria seemed to think for a second, looking back and forth at both of us before chirping and nuzzling up against Solani's neck. I chuckled, "Alrighty then, I'll see you two in a bit." I held Solani in a long hug and gave Aria a few head pats before continuing to the clinic. It only took a few minutes and from what I recall, the walk was pretty uneventful.

The building's exterior looked a little beat up, but looked pretty sturdy, given the circumstances. The inside had clearly been cleaned vigorously, with magic and by hoof. The harsh scent of disinfectants and sanitizers assaulted my nose. Several other patients sat in the waiting room. A pegasus nurse stepped from behind a door and called someone, a griffin, who stood up slowly and limped her way over to her. I made my way to the front desk, a zebra mare sat behind it, tapping away at a keyboard. She made a glance at me as I approached, then looked again, as if recognizing me.

I cleared my throat, "Hi, I was told by Mr. Counter Pulse to come here."

" Xileel, correct?" She asked in an accented voice.

"Yes, ma'am." I replied.

She tapped on the keyboard and looked at the screen, "Okay, have a seat and someone will be right with you."

I nodded and took a seat in between a unicorn stallion with a bandaged forehoof and an old zebra mare, an empty seat between on both sides of myself. I floated a slightly less worn magazine to myself, what was clear on the cover looked like that of a forest overlooking an ocean. Opening it, I discovered it was a sort of gallery for the wildlife on Newshire. With my intrigue peaked, I began flipping through it, eventually stumbling upon the Carsas section. The first animal that came to mind was Aria, so I skipped around until I found the spot-breasted oriole. The image showed the bird standing on a small branch, looking up and to the left in a forest. Some text below the image read, 'This particular subject took a liking to one of our camera ponies and stuck around after this shot was taken. Credit - Lens Flare. Date - March 17, 2075. Tech - Pontech R35 V Series with Drilling Lens.'

Hm, just a few years before the megaspell hit.

Looking closer at the bird, it more or less mirrored Aria. The chest spotting might have been a little different, I hadn't really looked at Aria since we met her. Even so, the bird couldn't be Aria, maybe one of her relatives? While the friendly demeanor surely matches, Aria couldn't be that old… could she?

After thinking about it for a bit, I decided to dwell on it later before flipping back to the beginning of the Carsas section and actually looking through it this time. The first animal was an ash-maned iguana. It looked to be the pre-megaspell guana we have now. It sat on a large stone along the beach, several others sunbathing in the area. While still quite large they definitely weren't as threatening as they are now. I read some of the text accompanying the image.

'The Ash-Maned iguana, is the third most common species of reptile on Carsas, behind the Fox-Horn gecko. (Page 38) The largest known to grow up to fifty-eight centimeters and weighing just under ten kilograms, this reptile is dangerously territorial, the dark scales on the neck sticking outwards when threatened. Their preferred habitat is near the coastline, preying mainly on fish accompanied by the occasional unlucky bird and rodent. In several cases, the reptile has been known to pursue passersby that wander too close to their territory, so please be wary when observing them in the wild.'

I… stand corrected.

I heard a door creak open and a mares voice called out to me. Looking up from the magazine I saw it was the nurse from before, a clipboard held underneath her wing and a pencil behind her ear. I got up from my seat and left the magazine on the table. Following her through the door, the beige mare led me down the hallway, passing several rooms. The walls were decorated with refurbished information sheets and cartoonish medical images. One showing a red pony with a white cross cutiemark, letting them know it's good to donate blood. While passing one room, the cries of a filly could be heard from the inside, protesting what sounded to be a shot, while the assumed father was trying to console her. We kept moving down the hall, finally reaching an empty room on the right. Inside was an examination table in the center with a movable light above, along with a chair in the corner. A countertop stretched across the back of the room and several marked cabinets rested above it. The walls were a pale blue and the floor was patterned with grey and white tiles.

"Please get comfortable on the table. The doctor should be here shortly." The mare told me as she wrote something down on her clipboard.

I nodded and started taking off my SAER and saddlebags, placing them on the chair. I hopped up onto the table and laid down on my back, trying my best to get comfortable on the thin sheet of paper covering the cold cushion. I heard hoofsteps by the door before hearing it open, the familiar yet surprising voice of Counter Pulse entered the room.

"It's good to see that you came so early, Xileel." He praised, flashing a grin and closing the door behind him with his magic.

"How'd you get back here so fast? You were just at the waterpark." I questioned.

"Oh, I had gotten into a transport shortly after you and your friends. I was dropped off here to assist in an emergency."

"Oh, ok. Did everything go alright?"

"Though I can't go into specifics, I assure you they are doing much better. My attention now falls on you Xileel, so tell me, any reason you came as soon as you did? I expected you to go rest up or something after your eventful day."

"That would have been the plan, but Fae reminded me before I could get home." I told him, slightly peeved at Fae for ruining a perfectly good nap.

He chuckled at that, "Well, how are you feeling, any soreness, aches or pains since your treatment?" A clipboard and pen flashed into existence beside him.

I thought for a moment with a hum, "Nope, nothing. I feel fine!"

"Excellent, and how of your friends?" He asked as he wrote.

"Besides being tired, I'd say they're doing alright." I could hear the pen writing on the clipboard.

"Okay, now onto the reason I asked you to come here," his tone shifted from happy doctor, to very serious doctor. Like… about to drop a bombshell serious.

"Well, uhh… why did you?" I asked, not fully wanting to know.

"There's no reason to be scared Xileel, you're not going to die." he reassured me with a small chuckle.

Well that's a relief, but you didn't have t-

"But…"

Oh please no, ANYTHING but the but.

"When we spoke to you after your first return from Skipping Stones, more specifically when you asked me to give you a once over, I found something rather curious inside your chest,"

A number of possible scenarios and outcomes rushed through my mind and I could feel the panic slowly spreading across my body as my heart began to beat faster.

"But before we get to that..."

ARE YOU SERIOUS!? More like Dr. Cliffhanger!

"What all do you remember around the time you fell unconscious at the park?"

I sat upright and started thinking, my heart rate slowly returning to normal. "Well..." I thought for a moment, the memory alone sending a phantom pain through my body, causing me to wince. "I remember getting hit by a metal table, by that vine beast we got rid of. I remember how much it hurt and coughing up blood. I remember Solani carrying me, while Chaser distracted it. We… got stopped by one of the smaller vine hounds and Solani killed it. I… uh, saw something glowing inside its body, so I grabbed it… and then I passed out."

The pen wrote quickly as I spoke, Counter Pulse seeming extremely enthralled by my story. "And this object was a gem, akin to the ones we collected at the park, correct?"

"Yea, that right."

"Interesting… please continue."

"Well, I woke up, but I didn't actually wake up. It was like… my mind was somewhere else. It was dark and I didn't have my body. Then there was this voice… I'm pretty sure it belonged to the timberbeast that saved us."

"A timberbeast saved you and spoke to you? Quite interesting... go on."

"At first, I didn't know what was going on, but it let me know that everything was going to be alright, almost in the way a parent consoles a child. I didn't recognize the voice from anywhere either, so it was rather jarring. After I had calmed down, it let me know what was happening outside. How my friends were saving me and about the pack of mongrels that ambushed us. I saw what it saw, sort of like a window in the void."

"I'm sure that was quite the experience."

"I tried to get some form of understanding from it, but it only told me a few things. The first being that someone named Gaia told it to help us. The second being that Gaia resides at the world tree and the last was that I wasn't ready to go there."

Counter Pulse looked at me for a moment, seeming to mull something over in his head. "Yes… Gaia and the world tree. The gargantuan tree resting atop Mount Shire, it is definitely no place for the untrained and underprepared. Even a few of our best expedition teams have had trouble with simple scouting missions. The denizens that roam the mainland are like nothing you've seen or will see here on Carsas," He took a moment to recompose himself, "was there anything else?"

"No, that was about it before I woke up." I finished.

"Alright then. Well, do you know what happened to the gem?"

"I… don't know, it was gone when I came to." I said honestly.

Counter Pulse hummed to himself, "most of it likely returned to the timberbeast that saved you. However, a small shard of it has bonded to your body, more specifically… to your heart."

"Wait…" I looked down at my chest, eyeing the scar down the center. "Am… I-"

"Going to die? No. At the moment it is dormant."

A wave of relief swept over my body. "So, whats going to happen to me," I asked worriedly. "am I going to turn into one of them?" The panic began to seep back in.

"For the time being, you have nothing to worry about. However, since this is the first time we've had a shard bond with such a vital organ, finding a safe process to remove it will definitely take some time."

"So I'm stuck with it?"

"Until we can figure out a way to safely remove it, yes."

I let out a sigh, "Is there anything I can do to prevent it from waking up, or whatever?"

"The crystals rely on energy to function and you being half unicorn slightly complicates things; having high innate magical energy, you'll be fairly limited in the amount of spells that you can perform in quick succession. For the time being, return here once a week and try not to cast too many spells. Also, try to refrain from getting hit by any magic or interact with any high energy output devices. All of these sources could possibly power the shard enough to awaken... then we would have another problem on our hooves."

"What kind of problem?"

"I think… it wou-"

"I want to know." I cut him off, slightly raising my voice.

He hesitated for a moment, then sighed, speaking in a low voice. "If the shard activates, it will slowly begin to drain you of your magical energy. After that is depleted, it will begin to sap your life force... slowly killing you. So far, the only options we have for keeping it 'fed' per say, is by using outside energy sources."

"Like batteries? We've got plenty of those." I told him hopefully.

"Unfortunately, spark batteries lack the amount of energy needed to sufficiently feed the shard. It will use up more than the batteries can transfer. The only two accessible and effective methods are; absorbing magic from a spell, which is either painful or time consuming, or…" he stopped himself and hesitated, "or taking the life force from something else. While this is the more effective option, it's the more inhumane way of sustaining it."

"... ah… got it." the underlying meaning very clear.

"There is a third option, but you would have to reach the mainland. So please, just take it easy for a little bit, at least until we can get it removed.

I sighed, "yes sir."

"Other than that, you're free to go. Let us know if anything changes and we'll be sure to contact you as soon as we make a development."

"Thanks, I'll do that." I gathered my things and headed back the way I came. "Fae, don't tell the others. I don't want them worrying about me." I whispered.

"Understood, I'll continue to monitor your vitals and notify you of any changes."

I let out a sigh, "Thanks…"

I made my way outside and made a call to Solani, which got no answer. "She is currently in the shower and her Pipbuck is in the other room." Fae informed me.

"Then can you let her know I'm heading back up to the room?"

"Of course, I'll let her know as soon as I am able."

I nodded then began heading to the apartment building.

Should I tell them? Should I just keep it a secret until I can get it removed? It wouldn't matter after that, right? What if something happens and I can't hide it anymore.

I walked home deep in my thoughts, occasionally glancing up to make sure I didn't bump into anyone.

"¤: /¤\ :¤"

Meanwhile...

The yelps and laughs of children echoed throughout the subdivision where my parents lived. They played in yards as well as the streets, hollering and whooping without a care in the world. I walked along the sidewalk, passing a group of children playing hopscotch. I could see my house on the corner, a moderately sized house made of a dark brick with a second floor that went out onto a balcony facing the front, overlooking the street below. I stepped up the few stone steps that lead up to the door and knocked. "One minute," a familiar stallion's voice called out from inside. After a few seconds, I heard the door bolt slide and the door slowly opened, revealing the happy striped face of my father.

"Well, if it isn't our little flower." He cooed, the faintest hint of an accent tinging his voice. He opened the door the rest of the way and pulled me into a hug.

I giggled, "It's good to see you too, Dad." I put my hooves around him, quickly remembering how much taller he was than me.

Aria tweeted at him and tilted her head.

"And who's this little one?" he held out a hoof, which Aria flew down onto.

"Dad, meet Aria, the most recent addition to our little group. Aria this is my dad, Dusty Oak."

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Ms. Aria." he greeted with a slight head bow.

Aria tweeted and returned the gesture before flying back onto my shoulder.

We walked inside, the cool air inside cooling me off almost instantly. "So where's mom?" I asked.

"You actually just missed her. She went out to the ration depot to grab a few things for tonight." he told me.

"Will she be back soon?" I asked, stepping into the kitchen and eyeing the sweets that dad had baked.

"Ehh, it’ll probably take her eight or so minutes. Why, do you need to be somewhere?" he asked as he walked into the kitchen and started prepping cookware for tonight. He caught me eyeing the sweets, "Go ahead, take as many as you like. Just something I whipped up using some of the berries in the area."

I made my way over to them and grabbed a few, putting a chunk of one on the table for Aria. They looked like regular muffins with little specks of color all over. Taking a bite revealed that the insides were the same. I spoke through my muffin filled mouth, "Not necessarily. I don't know how long Xye's checkup is going to take."

My dad's ears perked up, "Is that the colt you've taken a liking to?"

I coughed and almost lost all of the muffin, causing my dad to chuckle in response. "Yes, Dad and there's no reason for you to give the whole 'Dad speech'," I explained, "He's not like the last one at all."

"I would hope so, I about strangled that one. Such an arrogant colt," he huffed. "I'm hoping we'll get to meet him one day, maybe even tonight, if you're free?"

I thought about it for a moment, then swallowed the muffin. "Maybe, I'll have to check with him," I took another bite of the muffin. "it shouldn't be a problem though."

"Good to hear, I'd hate for you to miss out on what we're going to be cooking."

My ears perked up, "Is it what I think it is?"

My father chuckled, "It could be, but how about we make it a surprise?"

"Awwww, no fair!" I pouted.

He grabbed a pot from a cabinet and went over to the sink and began filling it with water. "Maybe so, but your coltfriend will be just as much as a surprise for us as the food will be for the two of you. Think of it as a… Surprise trade." He smirked over his shoulder.

"Ugh, fine, but you have to promise not to embarrass me in front of him," his ears perked up again, "you AND Mom." his ears dropped.

He stifled a laugh, "Oh alright. It's a deal." he held a hoof out to me. I did the same and moved closer until both our hooves touched each others chest. He bowed his head onto mine, completing our family's little promise ritual.

"I love you dad."

"I love you too, Sol." his head lifted from mine and our hooves fell to the floor. He began to make his way to the living room. "So, why don't you fill me in on what you've been up to, until your mother gets home."

I followed behind him. "Today has been rather eventful, so you're in for quite the story. I'll try to summarize as best I can." After making ourselves comfortable, I started from the beginning of the day and how Aria found herself in our room. I continued on to our first journey to Skipping Stones, sans the part about where we sorta almost died, instead only telling him about the timberbeast that scared off an encroaching mongrel pack.

He chuckled, "Sounds like a tall tale, but I know better than to doubt you or your mother. I'm just glad that you and your friends are back home, safe and sound." There was a knock at the door and Father got up to answer. I heard the door open and my Father greeted them warmly. "Ah, I see everything went as hoped." he said enthusiastically.

With an affirmative hum, my Mother's voice responded, "The line was a little long, but I got everything we needed." I heard them both walk onto the wooden floor of the house. "Did Solani get here yet?"

Before Dad could answer, I called out from the other room, "I might have."

The excited squee came racing towards me. Having dealt with her infamous suffocation floof many times growing up, I pulled in as much air as possible before I was engulfed in the black and white floof of my mother's chest. "Oh my sweet baby, how I've missed you!" she cooed, her legs wrapped around my head. I tried to speak, but I couldn't move my mouth enough to form words, only muffled murmurs. Realizing it was as futile as always, I put my legs around her, happy to feel her soft fur brush against my own. I nuzzled her chest until she finally let go.

I giggled, "I missed you too, mom."

I think Aria became jealous or felt left out, as she wasted no time making herself known to the cuddler.

"Oh, est bellum," she exclaimed, quickly leaving me and scooping Aria up into her arms, cradling her like a foal. Aria slowly became one with her chest fur. "What's her name?"

"It's Aria, she's been with us since this morning. Aria, this is my mom, Mollis, or Moli for short." I introduced.

"Oh, that's a great name and might I add, you are just the sweetest little thing." My Mother cooed, rubbing Aria's belly; who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.

My Father had silently pulled my mother's saddle bags off of her and had been sorting and stashing away everything she brought back, then placed the empty bag on a hook by the door, joining us in the living room afterwards. "So, you want to tell your Mother about your amazing adventure?"

"Oh, is it storytime?" Mom asked, her ears perking up. She did love a good story, even when she and Dad were younger.

"Yea, I was just telling dad about it." So after retelling the more important bits of what I already told dad, I continued, telling them the rest of what had happened at the park.

"That story only got better the second time around!" My Dad exclaimed.

"That sounds amazing dear, but I must say, you should have brought back some of those vines from the creatures. They might have some alchemical attributes." My Mother added, Aria still resting in her hold.

"I'll make sure to do that next time we encounter them, but that might not be for a while."

"Hmm? Why's that?" Dad asked.

I let out a long and extra loud, for emphasis, yawn; stretching my limbs and falling onto the couch. "Because we're all tired."

"Well then you should rest up in your room for a little bit while we get dinner ready. Wouldn't want you falling asleep at the table now, would we?" My Mother said with a chuckle.

I tiredly laughed along, "I guess not. I'll go put my stuff up and take a quick wash." I slowly rose from the couch and began making my way towards the stairs.

"Careful with the water, Sol. It likes to fluctuate in temperature at random. Apparently those guana did some damage to some pipes underground and they're still trying to fix them." My Dad warned.

"Thanks, I'll be down in about half passed an hour or so," I said walking up the rest of the stairs. "Fae, can you set an alarm for me once I go to sleep?" I asked.

"Of course!" Her cheery voice piped up.

I made my way upstairs and to my room on the left, across from the bathroom. I sat my SAER down, as well as my bags, then threw myself onto my soft bed, sinking into the mattress and thick blankets. It was cold, but it felt great at the time. I turned over and looked up at the ceiling, the fan above spinning slowly along with the swaying mobile hanging from it; a small nightshade flower, a piece of bark and a cloud, something my dad made for me when I was a filly. He was amazing when it came to hooves-on projects. I looked over to the tapestry on the wall, a gift from mom to me, made with extra soft yarn. It was an image of a younger me sitting down in a clearing surrounded by purple flowers. I looked over to the few tonics and potions I had displayed on a shelf, each of them with varying effects and potencies. Some of them might even be inert after all this time of unuse. I let out a deep sigh, not really wanting to get up and take a shower, only to have Fae remind me of the timer that I had set for myself.

"Do you want me to go ahead and start the alarm?"

With another deep sigh, "Nooo… I'm getting there." I groaned. After a few seconds I got up and made my way into the bathroom. I saw my reflection in the mirror and gasped at the disaster that was me. My mane was a mess and my coat was darkened a few shades. "Yup, definitely need a shower."

<¤<< <¤> >>¤>

Meanwhile…

Getting to the apartment didn't take but a minute. I flew in through the balcony and onto the couch in the room, making it slide across the floor a little. "Uhhhg, so tiiiired!" I groaned, flopping about in an effort to get comfortable. I laid there for a few minutes before boredom finally got the better of me. "Faeee… I'm booored."

"Well… you could always just… sleep?" She suggested obviously.

"But I don't really feeeel like it."

"Then what do you feel like doing?"

"I don't... know."

"You could start with cleaning yourself off. You were drenched in dirty water as well as your own sweat from earlier today." She informed me.

"You're very right," I flipped off of the couch and stood up, "Can you play some music while I shower?"

"Do you have a preference?"

"You got any rap?" I asked, walking into the bathroom.

"I've got a few songs…" Music started to play from my Pipbuck as I took it off and placed it on a shelf. I unbuckled my saddlebags and let them fall to the floor, then placed my SAER by the door. I started the water, turning the hot water to maximum and waiting for it to heat up. As the music continued to play, I tapped my hoof to the beat and hummed to the tune. The water finally started to get warm, so I evened it out with the cold and pulled the small lever to redirect it. The steam began to fill the room and obscure the mirror above the sink. I got into the shower and let the warm water wash over me.

¤ ¤ ¤

With my body cleaned and my mane somewhat styled, I left the bathroom after my extended shower; my saddle bags and SAER draped over my back. Making my way to the living room, I tossed my stuff near my bunk and flopped onto it and made myself comfortable under the blankets in an effort to get some rest. However, something didn't feel right and I kept tossing and turning because of it. Finally I sat up and looked around the room, eventually my gaze fell upon Isu sitting in the corner chair. "Uh… how long have you been here?" I asked.

"I got here while you were still in the shower," he said casually, doing some maintenance on his SAER. "You're not a half bad singer." He added.

"Thanks," I replied, totally not embarrassed in the least.

"No need to be embarrassed about it."

"Pfffft, I am not embarrassed." I brushed him off, still completely not embarrassed.

He looked up from his rifle at me, his face telling me that he definitely wasn't buying it. Then he went back to his weapon. "Fae, what's the best calibration for close range?" He asked. After listening to her answer he began tweaking the insides.

Knowing that Isu was in the room got rid of that weird feeling, so I sat up against the headrest. "So where'd you head off to when we got back?"

"I was asked to retrieve a package for someone around the time we got back," before I could even ask, "No, I'm not telling what the package was."

"Lame…" I harrumphed.

"Yea, sorry. It's part of the job."

"And what job is that?"

"I'm what they call a runner. I just take packages to people. No questions asked. It's what I did in the stable."

"Sounds like you could get into some serious trouble."

"I have, multiple times actually. It's how I learned to fight."

"What was one of your worst deliveries," He gave me that look again. "Yea, I know, It's part of the job." I mocked, receiving a small grin from him. "Well what can you tell me?"

"Not much at all really. All I can do is offer my services to you, but I don't see you needing them anytime soon." He went back to his tinkering.

"Laaaame…" I let my head fall backwards, looking at the room upside down. "Anything from Solani or Xye?"

"Not yet. Fae, how are they?"

"Xileel should be on his way back, while Solani seems to be in the shower." Fae informed us.

"Good to know," Isu responded, a click and whir coming from his rifle. "And that oughta do it." He closed the panel and folded it back up, leaning it up against the wall. "So, you got any plans, Chaser?"

"Not really, I was just gonna get some sleep. You?"

"Probably going to call up my security buddies and play some One-O. If they're not busy of course."

I picked my head up, "Would you mind if I came along?"

Isu thought for a moment, "I don't know, I'd have to ask them since you'd be the youngest there."

"Ughh, I'm always the youngest in the group, no matter who I'm with." I pouted.

The front door opened and Xye walked in, "Hey guys."

"Hey Xye, how'd it go at the doctor?" I asked.

"It was alright, told me to check back after a week or so." He told us, walking over to his bunk and sitting down.

Isu only hummed in response.

"So what have you two been upto?" Xye asked.

"Well, I just got out of the shower, and Isu delivered a package or something; he didn't really give me any details."

Xye chuckled, "Don't worry, he doesn't tell me about it either. It's probably better that way." Xye told me, giving an understanding glance to Isu, who nodded in response. "So, any plans for later?"

"Not for me, I'm beat and my wings are all sore from flying so much." I let my wings extend out a little bit to see if they still stung. The slight burn throughout answered right away. "Isu's heading out to play cards with his security buddies later on. What about you?"

"I actually just felt like resting for a few days. Getting hit by a table kinda takes a lot out of you." He chuckled.

"Laaame," I slid down my bed until my head reached my pillow,
"Looks like I'll have to reconnect with old stable friends after all."

"What's so bad about that?" Isu asked.

"Because whenever I'm around them, it's like I'm under a microscope. Anything I do is noticed by everyone, but whenever someone else does the exact same thing, no one gives a damn!" I ranted.

"Well then it's a good thing we met, because you need better friends." Xye told me.

"Yea, tell me about it," I groaned, "besides, everyone around my age doesn't exactly think like me. They're more focused on their popularity than anything else."

"Wow, you really do have shit friends." Isu agreed.

"Yea, don't remind me." I groaned.

Xye nodded in agreement. "If you need me, I'll be in the shower." Xye notified us as he made his way to the bathroom.

"I'll go ahead and call forward to see if I can bring a plus one. Fae…" Isu told me before calling up his friend.

"Thanks..." I lied in wait on my bed for the answer, looking up at the metal bars holding up the top bunk.

"Xaige said it'd be fine."

I sighed in relief and sunk into my bed a bit, "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."

"You do know how to play One-O, right?"

I thought for a moment, "It's probably been months since I last played, but I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Alright, well just so you know, there's a few house rules you should know about before we get there."

"Okay..." I said slowly.

"First being that you can't play a plus two on a draw four to pass it along."

"Wait, what?! But that's totally how I always played."

"Yea, well tough bits. You're playing with us now, so deal with it. Second off, teams are allowed but you and since you're new, you can really choose anyone except the griffin twins and Sunny and I. We've got a sort of rivalry with them."

Before he could continue I cut him short, "Wait… you said griffin twins. Do you mean-"

"Jhekl and Hyd? Yes, actually." He finished.

"Oh sick! Er- sorry."

"Like I was saying, the only other possible teammates are Xaige and Dusk. I would suggest Dusk since she's actually pretty good at the game and hiding her card count."

"Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Anything else I should know?"

"There's going to be alcohol and no you can't have any." He glared at me with an 'I mean it' face.

"Not even a sip?" I pleaded, which was immediately met with his intensified glare. "Alright fine, jeez!"

"Now that that's settled, I'd say we can head out." Isu got up and made his way to the door while I followed behind.

"¤: /¤\ :¤"

I turned the faucet handle until the water stopped spraying from above. I let out a content sigh as I opened the shower curtain, revealing the sauna-like bathroom. I stepped out and grabbed my towel and dried most of the water from myself, before making my way back into my room.

"I see your shower was well enjoyed." Fae said when I walked in.

"It definitely was, Fae." I responded happily as I dried the rest of myself off.

"Xileel wanted me to tell you he has headed back to the room. You were in the shower when he finished at the clinic."

"Alright, thanks Fae. Can you let him know I'm on the way?"

"I will as soon as I can." She told me.

"Thank you. Oh, and tell him to call me back. I've got a few things I need to talk to him about." I quickly added, remembering my father's dinner invitation.

"Of course." She said happily.

I hummed in content and started brushing my mane back into shape.

¤ ¤ ¤

Some time while getting myself presentable, my Pipbuck let out a series of beeps.

"Incoming call from Xileel." Fae alerted me.

"Answer it, please." I responded, putting a single spritz of perfume on myself. .

"Hey, Solani. Sorry, I was in the shower." Xye apologized.

"Don't worry about it, so was I when you called."

Xye chuckled, "So Fae told me you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Mhm! My Dad invited us to have dinner here at the house later tonight. If you wanna come, I can let them know."

"Alright, yea. I can do that."

"Great! I'll let them know and I'll try to get a time we should be here." I cheered before laying down on my bed.

"Alright, sounds like a plan. How's Aria been?"

"Well my parents absolutely love her and I'm pretty sure they're still downstairs."

"Good to hear."

"So how'd the appointment go, everything alright?"

There was a pause before Xye actually answered, "Well, I'm not going to die, so there's that…" he said with a somewhat forced chuckle, "But I'm going to have to take it easy for a while; probably a week or so."

"Did they say why?" I asked worriedly.

"Not really. They just told me that my body needed time to recuperate."

He wasn't lying to me, but I definitely felt like he wasn't telling me everything either. I mean, why else would've Counter Pulse had him come in. "Alright, but you let me know if you feel anything and I'll try to help as best I can."

"Will do." He answered simply.

I hope you will… "So, Isu or Chaser around?"

"Nah, they left a while ago. I'm pretty sure they went to play a card game somewhere."

"Ah ok, I'll head over in a bit. I've just gotta grab a few things."

"Sounds good, I'll see ya when you got here."

"Okay, bye." With that, the call ended and I grabbed my saddlebags, looked around my room for the few boardgames I had before putting them inside. I made my way downstairs and let my parents know that Xye and I would be joining them for dinner.

"Alright, it should be ready in about an hour or so." My dad told me.

"Alright, we'll be back by then." I whistled to Aria and she flew from the kitchen onto my back before we left the house.

The sun had begun to set, turning the sky shades of orange and purple. The kids from before were fewer, and those that were left seemed to be chatting and resting amongst themselves. I stepped down to the sidewalk and began making my way to the apartment.

_____¤ ¤ ¤_____

Footnote:

No Levels Gained.

No Group Perks Added.

Xileel Trait Added:
Amalgamation (Stage 0)- For now the crystal inside you remains dormant. If you use a spell or are hit by an energy weapon or magic spell, the crystal will absorb a portion of the energy and has a chance to awaken proportionate to the intensity of the energy absorbed.

Downloadable Content Installation Complete!
Please proceed to Chapter 7.

Once again after a long wait and a lot of procrastination and many, many distractions, Chapter 6 has been released! For those of you wanting to read what happens later with the two groups, Chapter 6.5 will be released hopefully within a few weeks. (You hear me future me? GET THAT THING DONE!!!) As a teaser for Chapter 7. Some of you will be very pleased with the change of scenery and its characters as they will be very familiar to you. We're heading back in time, before the stables opened up, on the island opposite that of Carsas… Waterhoof, where our lovely little chimera, Sirincy, will be taking center stage, as they retell their tales of living outside for the past several years, while being accompanied by their childhood dragon friend Ferrin.

Also once again, I want to thank all the wonderful people who read Newshire and those who inspire me to keep going. I also want to thank the editor of this chapter, Altiar. He's helped me a many times, as well as helped flesh out the new area in chapter 7 along with several other people. Please don't hesitate to contact me on my instagram @official_foe_newshire or on Fimfiction, if you have questions, suggestions or anything of the sort. I'll try to keep you all updated on progress and post any drawings I've made in the meantime. As always, I hope you enjoyed Chapter 6. I'll see you all in Chapter 7!

Author's Note

Was having trouble with the other chapter 6, so I re-uploaded.

Chapter 7: Sssome. Thi-ing. New!

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

By Quinton Johnson

Chapter 7: Sssome. Thi-ing. New!

“You're lucky, you know? You've got no idea what it's like to have a sister constantly looking over your shoulder!"

¤ (¤) ^¤^

A few days ago, in the Waterhoof region of Newshire…

“Have you ever just lied down in a field of plush grass and taken in the scenery? Sounds nice doesn’t it? Only thing to make this better would be some really nice snacks and a few cold sparkle-colas.” I narrated aloud.

“I said, I was sorry, Sirincy!” Ferrin apologized… again.

“Well sssorry doesn’t fill our belly, now doesss it, Ferrin?” Lucy hissed from behind me.

“Yea-a-a! How I’d love that da-aisy sa-andwich right now.” Aine bleeted from my left.

“Come on Sirrin, how was I supposed to know my dad grabbed the wrong bag?” Ferrin explaining.

Adorning our quite comfortable and cliche red-white checkered blanket were several containers of pre-workout, a can of protein powder and six out of twelve hard boiled eggs. His father’s mid-day workout supplement. Lovely if you’re lifting weights at noon. Not so great if you’re trying to enjoy a nice day out with your sisters and bestfriend.

“This all coulda been avoided if you had separated our bag from his, but there isn’t much we can do about it now. We’re an hour out from Freight and it’s like..” I looked up at the sky to gauge the sun’s position… and still had no idea how Aine does this crap.

“It's two o’clock, give or ta-ake a few minutes.” She whispered to me after a few seconds of seeing me struggle.
“Yea, two o’clock!” I shouted, mentally thanking Aine.

“Alright, alright! I get it. I screwed up. I’ll make it up to you three eventually.” He admitted. Then said more to himself, “Just gotta remember to never rob a chimera of their food.”

“You're damn straight!” The three of us shouted in unison.

¤ ¤ ¤

Life out here in Freight isn't all bad. Sure, sometimes the swamp air likes to blow inland and maybe sometimes there's a few power outages here and there, but it's home and the people are like family. Ferrin was the first friend we made when we arrived. He's a dragon with dark green scales and a line of short dorsal spines with webbing in between, that start from the crest of his head and end towards the base of his tail. He’s also got a killer pair of wings that have a sunburst pattern in them! As for my sisters and I, we’re a chimera. My name is Sirrin and I’m the fur of the three. Unlike our older tigress sister, Nerris, I’m a lynx, so we probably won’t grow to her size, but being small has its perks! Aine is the horns and is a grey goat. Her left horn is chipped due to an incident we had during a game of tag way back when. Finally, Lucy is the scales and is a yellow viper with some small spikes above her eyes that look sorta like eyelashes. Together we are Sirincy, upcoming adventurers set on discovering the curiosities of Newhsire, its past, present and future. Ferrin is along for the ride, making sure we don’t get into too much trouble and helping where paws cannot succeed.

After a long walk back from a ruined picnic, we finally made it back to Freight. The two gate guards greeted us as we neared.
"Welcome back Sirincy, Ferrin. Hope you two didn't run into any trouble out there." The teal griffin guard said. His name's Bosco. He's our favorite because he was the first person we pranked in Freight. He's kinda like our cool, gun-toting, uncle now.

"No trouble today. The forest is pretty quiet." I responded.

"That's good." His feathers settled a bit. "Nerilta was looking for you earlier. Didn't say what about though. You should check in with her."

"Will do, Bosco! Keep up the good work." I praised.

Nerilta is the common name our older sister has. Like our name, Sirincy, it's a combination of their separate names; Nerris, Silva and Gūtta.

The sun was already setting behind the world tree to the west. Rays of sunlight shimmered through the leaves, letting little spots of light dance across the area. The streetlights had yet to ignite but the area was still fairly dark in the giant tree's shadow. The neon on Apricot's bar lit up as we passed the entrance, the sound of conversation, music and clinking glasses pouring through the door.

“It sssoundss busy in there tonight.” Lucy hissed, happily bobbing her head to the beat of the jazz band.

“After we check in with sis, then we can get a bite and drinks.” I explained.

“Ahww, okay.” She bellyached.

The sounds of music and bar patrons, in varying states of inebriation, slowly died off as we continued further into the stacks of freight containers that is the residential area of town. The main entrance is a fence-gated archway made of two containers leaned up into each other. Small wind chimes made of cans, stones and other random junk dangled from the top and swayed slowly in the breeze. The technicolor, light-strings tangled throughout shimmered against the shiny metals and reflected along the containers and onto the ground like a kaleidoscope disco ball. A lone abyssinian in a long coat was leaning against the containers, seemingly muttering to a rather unwieldy looking handcannon. He noticed us and simply acknowledged us with a head nod. The rest of the area was fairly cramped and more like a bazaar, no more than a few feet between two griffins’ shoulders while residents had some of their belongings or merchandise out in small porch-like sections. Maneuvering through the poles holding up walkways and containers, and the few people still closing up their various storefronts, we made our way to our set of containers, our home. The large sliding wall was slightly ajar, a flickering lantern-light illuminating the ground outside. I pawwed the wall open and it rolled as loudly as it always does. Always discouraging any night time thefts… or late night adventures. We were immediately greeted by the green constrictor snake portion of the greater whole that is our elder sister, Silva.

“Sssweet sssisterss, oh how we missed you all.” She hissed happily, giving each of us our own tight hugs. “Oh! And you brought Ferrin. How good it isss to ssee you.” She wrapped herself around his shoulders in an embrace before receding.

There was a low growl as Nerris turned her orange feline head towards us, wiping a large striped paw across her face, smears of amber across her forearm and muzzle. She went to speak but realized she hadn't quite finished what she had in her mouth. She paused for a moment to actually get it down before trying again. “You’re usually a bit late whenever we ask for you, so I admit you caught us off guard.” The smell of honey-coated meat stained her breath.

“Well this time we weren’t doing anything when you asked for us. We were actually on the way back." I responded, taking our spot beside her much larger form. "Looks like you got some of the good stuff from Mrs. Eclair?" I asked, my mouth beginning to salivate at the sight of actual food.

"Yea. We went over and took care of a few of the wild dogs that were harassing her beehives. Didn't wanna waste their meat, so we brought them back and she added some bits to the jars of honey. We’ve also got some filets.” Nerris pointed a claw to several parcels wrapped in parchment paper.

“How di-id you two’s time outsi-ide of town go?” Gūtta bleated before pulling a carrot from a nearby bucket and filling the air with a hearty crunch.

“It went alri-ight. We-e missed out on some sna-acks but the day was enjoyable e-enough.” Aine responded with her own bleated words.

“Anything out of the ordinary?” Nerris asked as she twisted the lid onto a now empty jar.

We hummed in thought for a moment before shaking our heads in unison.

“Good.” The sisterly kindness in her voice left as it turned to the usual guardian-protector tone… her serious voice. “There’s been word that the stable nearby, 2A, has initiated its resurfacing procedures.”

“Wait really? That's great!” I exclaimed.

“Except it’s not. There are several hundred individuals within that stable alone. Individuals we know very little about. They also have no homes to go to once they surface. Between Mireville and the Myriad, they don’t have many options. That doesn’t even begin to mention the kinks it puts in plans we have.” Her voice trails off in thought and she pauses a bit before continuing. “We don't mean to scare or shelter you from the outside,” She turns and puts a large paw on our shoulder, “but be very, very careful. Tell no one about this and speak to no one wearing stable barding. Ferrin, we expect the same of you.”

“Well, can I tell my dad?” Ferrin asked.

“He already knowsss ssome of the detailss.” Silva responded.

“Well, what do-o we know a-about them?” Aine asked.

Nerris released a long sigh before continuing, “We don’t want to worry you, sisters. Just remember the stranger danger part for now and we’ll let you know if things change. Just… hope for the best.”

“But.. but we wanna know!” I whined, feeling a hint of the combined interest and confusion from Aine and Lucy.

“Worry not sister, your curiosity will be sated, but in due time.” Nerris assured us.

The three of us sighed, knowing any more poking around was just going to get us swatted at, or worse, put on lockdown. “Are we good to take the rest of the night for ourselves then? We wanted to stop by Apricot’s.” I asked.

“Of course.” Nerilta said in unison.

I gave each of my older sisters a hug before heading back outside. With that, Ferrin and us made our way back to Apricot’s bar. The music hadn’t dulled any and the patrons were still as lively as ever on the inside. We pushed through the saloon style doors and were met with the old wooden floor, several large tables lining the way to the bar and more booths around the edges. To my right were the stairs up to the second story where some people paid to have private conversations. A very familiar thestral stood before the stairs, a red rope stanchion blocked the way up. His silenced pistol sat strapped to his muscled shoulder along with a sheathed kukri on the opposite one. In a quick motion, so as not to break his authoritative posture, he held a hoof out to which I quickly met a closed paw to. “Silver,” I addressed him.

“Sirincy, Ferrin,” he greeted back, not breaking his line of sight with the rest of the room.

Lucy was less inconspicuous and simply moved closer for her usual headpats. “What's the word in here?” I asked.

“Larger crowd, all the fun’s already been had and now,” he motioned to the room, “Quite fockin boring to be honest. I’ve been standing here for ten minutes!”

“Well what happened when it was entertaining? Any contests or people of interest? Spacemen, perhaps?” I teased an age-old story.

“Cal beat her sixth victim in hoof wrestling before finally breaking the table. Apricot looked like she wanted to shove a chipped glass down Cal’s throat.” Silver chuckled. “The lovebirds left a few minutes ago, Pollen looked pretty off kilter, so Crimson helped her home. Berry is still… Berry,” he nodded to the purple mare drunkenly walking about the bar, talking up anyone and everyone she thought she could bed. “I'm surprised her kidneys have lasted this long.”

“Ditto,” I agreed. “Well thanks for the low down. Are we still good for that hunting trip you promised?”

“How could I break a promise to you three?” he chuckled. “Should be free in two days or so, I’ll collect you then, deal?”

“Deal.” we said in unison.

With that, we moseyed to the bar proper as the song died out to allow another to take its place. We hopped up onto a stool and Ferrin took the one beside us. Apricot stood behind the bar, facing away from the countertop as she floated numerous different drinks and glasses to various parts of the bar. She doesn’t make eye contact with anyone unless they're new in town, or the conversion gets real interesting. How she does it is a mystery, but a beautiful one to behold.

“Hey there Sirincy, Ferrin. What brings you four into my palace of booze?” Apricot asked, floating several wooden coasters over to us.

“Just looking to partake of your good company and spirits, Booze Queen. The usual for us.” I responded.

“A spiked milk, a daffodil tea, and two dragon-apple ciders.” She recited as each of our drinks were poured before us.

“Once a-again, A-apricot, you ne-ever cease to a-amaze.” Aine praised.

“Aww, quit it kid, you’re making me blush.” She said while waving her hoof dismissively, her eyes still focused on the glass she was polishing.

“Yea, Apri- *hic* -cot! You’re drinks are *hic* the shit!” A drunken blue griffin exclaimed.

Apricot chuckled, “Thank you, Garrin, you’re a sweetheart.” she complimented back. The griffin became fluffy and hiccuped again before smoothening out his blush-feathers, attempting to regain his composure.

We chuckled to ourselves and began sipping on our drinks. Before long, several sets of very hefty hoofsteps from the second floor let us know that whatever Silver was blocking off, had finally concluded. The massive ice-white form of Caldonia, our town mayor and head of security, stomped down the stairs, followed by her equally massive daughter, Cal. Both of them are three times the size of regular ponies, in height and muscle. What's more surprising is that they’re both unicorns. Silver stood at attention as they descended.

“At ease, captain. Our business has concluded for the day. You are dismissed.” Caldonia stated simply.

“Thank you, ma’am.” responded Silver.

With that, Caldonia and Cal left the bar and Silver turned into a cloud of dark-purple mist and dispersed before recollecting on the stool beside Ferrin. Silver’s physical form materialized from it as he spoke with a refreshed vigor, “All-fockin right! Free at last, I am free at last! Apricot, can I get a shot of that new homebrew whiskey?” Silver asked, stretching his stiffened limbs.

“Can do, Silver.” Apricot called out. The amber glow of her telekinesis wrapped around a specially labeled shoulder jug sitting on the top shelf. It shook and jostled a bit before floating lazily towards a shot glass. A bronze liquid with little golden flakes spilled forth into the glass that eased itself before Silver.

“What's with the glitter?” Silver asked, lifting the beverage to eye level.

“Light her up and find out!” Apricot called back, tossing a lighter over to him. Ferrin and us looked on in anticipation as Silver ignited the spirit. The surface caught flame and to our surprise, the flame burned a brilliant purple as the flakes swirled faster and faster around the glass. Before long the glass had a small vortex spiraling at its center, the flame flinging embers around the rim. The drink calmed after a few seconds and the glitter disappeared from sight. Our little group erupted with applause and cheers as Apricot simply bowed humbly before continuing to her work. “Been working on that little number for a solid week and a half. I think I can safely say it’s been perfected as of today. I’m calling it a gold plum swirl for now, unless I can think of something with a bit more panash.”

“I thi-ink that na-ame suits it just fi-ine. It descri-ibes it perfectly without a-adding any extra fluff.” Aine bleeted.

“Ditto here.” Silver added.

“Well that's kind of you to say, guys. I really appreciate that.” Apricot replied, actually looking towards us and smiling.

Silver toasted silently to apricot before downing the shot with a grimace, “damn, that’s good,” he exclaimed as fiery embers floated from his mouth.

“I’d be careful with those. Magic infused drinks tend to be a bit stronger than most.”

“And here we were about to order four of ‘em.” I pouted.

“Don’t worry guys, I’ve got just the thing.” Apricot then proceeded to pour a larger glass of gold plum and added three extra long straws and a separate shot for Ferrin. “Now how about some flames, you two?” she prodded, looking at Aine and Ferrin.

The two took quick inhales before letting loose small jets of flame towards each glass. The glitter ignited, sending both cocktails into a dazzling display. Our straws swirled around the glass before eventually settling around the rim. Ferrin took his shot into his claws and clinked it to ours before downing it. He grimaced as it went down and let out a few embers from his nostrils. We each took a straw and sucked down a mouthful of the bitter-sweet and savory liquid. Small spots of heat trickled down our throats as the burn of the alcohol caught back up. Lucy shook herself and coughed a bit, spewing forth her embers. Aine drank and looked unphased while my nose wrinkled at the burn. With that we released our held embers back into the air.

“Ooooh yeah, that's got a good spice to it.” I said.

“Too much ssspice for me.” Lucy hissed before chasing the whiskey down with cider.

“It’s not ba-ad, not my personal preference, but still goo-od nonethele-ess. The spiced plum accentuates the whiskey well.” Aine mused.

“I’d like another, please.” Ferrin asked, trying to savor the last few droplets.

Apricot smiled at our input, putting a fully polished glass up onto a shelf before floating another to herself. “Can do, Ferrin. One sec.”

“So, Silver, about that hunting trip in a few days.” I said while sliding our glass back and forth between my paws. “Where are we gonna go?”

“Well, if you’re so eager to know,” he paused to face us, “we’re heading to Almond Lake. There’s a load of game out there, so we won’t have to waste much time.”

Lucy gasped, “That’sss the place big sisss and you always go, right?”

Silver chuckled at her enthusiasm, “It sure is kid. We’ve been hunting there for quite some time now, yet the animals just don’t ever seem to leave. Our primary quarry will be boar, but there are rabbits and pheasant, among other small game.”

“A-and the threats?” Aine asked.

“Several to be exact, roaming guana and coubra looking for their own meals. Possible bandits hoping for an easy score. There’s always the possibility of a few timberbeasts, but they usually keep to the Deepwood.” Silver informed. “But overall, nothing we can’t handle.”

¤ ¤ ¤

One semi-uneventful day passed and the next morning soon followed. Lucy propped open our room’s window and the sunlight warmed my face enough to wake me. I growled before retreating under our blanket to shield myself from the rays.

“Come now sssisters. You musst wake up.” Lucy hissed, tugging the blankets away from us.

With the blanket pulled away, I looked at the clock in our room through half-open eyes, It read, eight-fifty. “Oh come on! How can you be awake at this hour? It's not even noon yet!” I growled.

“Call it what you will, but today isss the day we’re sssupposed to go hunting.” Lucy coaxed.

My ear flicked and an eye fluttered open to look at Aine. She was still fast asleep and seemingly unbothered by our conversation. If only I could sleep that heavily. I began nudging her, “up and at ‘em sleepy-horn, we've got stuff to kill today.” There was an audible snore as she shifted further from me. “I guess I’m soloing this today.” I pulled my paws underneath us and lifted while trying to focus on Aine’s hind legs. “Ooh, ha! Pins and needles.” The feeling of her legs finally swapped over to me and I shook them a bit to get the rest of the tingling out. “Let’s see if I can still do this.” Aine’s head drooped as I lifted us from the mattress, some saliva stringing onto her pillow. We made our way down and passed Nerilta, being sure to tap Silva a few times to wake her. “Hey sis. We’re getting ready to head out. Just letting you know.” I whispered.

Her tongue flicked and she nodded but she didn’t open her eyes. “Be sssafe out there, Sirincy. Be sssure to take the walkie with you thisss time.”

“Will do.” I responded as Lucy grabbed the device. We grabbed our pack and battle harness then started sliding the door open. The wheels whined and the metal groaned as it moved. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…” I quietly repeated until we were able to fit through. Closing it was more of the same before it finally sealed. With that out of the way, I propped Aine’s head onto our back and headed off..

We made it to Fee’s family workshop, our resident smiths, tinkerers and partial enchanters, who were prepping the main forge. Fee wiped a yellow hoof across her face, shifting her red mane, before looking at us and waving, “Oh hiya there, dearies. Where ya headin off to, so early?” she asked in her kind Maneeisotan accent,

“Got a hunting trip planned with Silver. We’ve been waiting a week for him to get a day off!” I told her.

“Ooh, huntin ya say? I take it you’re stoppin by Talon’s ta get your gear. eh?” she asked, motioning to our disarmed harness.

“Absssolutely!” Lucy piped up.

"We’re picking up the rifles, left them there yesterday to get some maintenance done." I added.

“Do ya need any supplies protection wise?”

I looked back at ourselves, noticing Lucy being distracted by a small rodent scurrying past and Aine still fast asleep, I took stock of how much protection we had. A few sturdy leather sections on our sides and along Lucy’s length, as well as a segmented metal stomach and back. It looked like it had been used for target practice for BB guns along with the occasional long cut or burn mark, but was otherwise intact and functional. “Nah, I think we’re good. We’ve still got that thingy too!” I said, pointing a claw to the glowing amber gem set into the chest plate.

“Ah, good to see ya’ve still got my little guarantee.” She moved closer and tapped the gem a few times, seeing it pulse for a moment. “Still working too. Well I won’t keep ya if you’re in a hurry. Remember to bring back any particularly nasty beasty parts and I’ll work my magic as per usual.” She winked at us, a small sparkle floated from her eye before we continued on our way.

Arriving at the eyepatch-wearing, dark purple, griffin’s shopfront, he greeted us with a simple nod before retreating out of sight. I lifted ourselves up to see into the space, Aine’s head drooping further down before her internal balance shocked her out of her sleep. “Ooh, a-ah!” she paused and looked around, “oh we’re doi-ing stuff… and I ca-an’t feel my legs.”

The immediate flare up of pins and needles caused our hind legs to falter as Aine began retaking control. Fuck, fuck FUCK! Our legs gave way and my claws failed to find any purchase on the shopcounter. With a dull thud we hit the earth. “Fucking. Warnings. Please.” I growled as I lifted.

“Yea-a, sorry sis.” Aine apologized sheepishly.

Talon’s head popped from over the counter and looked down at us. “You three drinking this early or did a bee fly too close?”

We gathered our footing and righted ourselves before I answered. “Nah, just… changing gears is all.” Standing up we could see that he brought our twin rifles and had it displayed alongside two box-mags loaded with .223. I unlocked our harness’ mechanical arms and let Talon affix the hardpoints.

“Alright then. So I’ve got your receivers oiled up, freshly rifled barrels and the sighting apparatus are calibrated to ninety-eight percent accuracy out to two-hundred-fifty meters.” He explained as he strapped down the ammo and loaded the belts into the guns. “You’ve got about a hundred rounds loaded onto the belts and the ammo count is in your goggles as per usual. Yadda-yadda-yadda, I’m pretty sureyou know how your guns work by now.” he rambled as he set blue-tinted goggles over Aine and I’s heads. With the world now in a blue tint, the heads-up-display within the visor flitted to life. A simple crosshair appeared at the center and tracked my eyes across the display. A separate and faded crosshair also came into view; showing where Aine was looking. The mechanical arms whirred as we looked about, adjusting our rifles accordingly. The ammo counter slid into view, counting up from zero to fifty-six for the left gun and fifty-eight on the right gun. “We’ve got a few rounds to spare, I think we’ll head to the range and make sure the belts feed properly.”

“Sounds good to me, little killers. You three be safe out there, the scouting reports haven’t come back yet.” he warned.

¤ ¤ ¤

After a quick range session and a jaunt over to the front gate, Silver finally flew in. His massive wings catching his momentum before hero-landing nearby. “Sorry I'm late, girls, I had to… settle a few things.” he excused.

I imagined a cut away of, whoever Silver beat the living shit out of, laying ass end out of a trashcan somewhere, and chuckled a bit.

“It's fine Silver. So long as this hunt goes well, we’ll forgive you.” I told him. I checked the time on my goggles which read, nine-thirty-eight.

“No ne-eed for apologies, you ha-ave your own erra-ands to attend to.” Aine added.

“Did you bring any sssnacks?” Silva asked.

With a relieved sigh and a chuckle, he pulled a bird egg from a satchel and held it out. Silva gasped and eagerly made her way over and swallowed the egg whole, before humming in delight.

Silver clopped his hooves together, “Right, so! If we’re ready to head out I’d say we get going before any of the large predators get to waking up.” Silver motioned to the gatekeeper and they motioned back before the gate started to open.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just hunt them as well?” I responded, making our way through the gate.

“Only if you feel like carrying it all back. Last I checked, we don’t measure up to Nerilta.” he chuckled.

We made our way down the long meandering road, avoiding the many husks of vehicles left to rot. The grass growing between the cracked concrete swayed and whipped as wind pushed through the surrounding forest. The trees rustled and the birds sang as we approached the intersection.

“You think Freight will grow enough to expand onto the road?” I wondered, hopping up onto an old car. The metal groaned as I crested the roof.

“We would’ve had to if we didn’t liberate Llyne. The bandits left us quite the cleanup job, but it’ll come together soon.” Silver responded.

To the left was the town of Llyne, claimed by bandits, before we took control. Ne'er-do-wells who would try to steal from you as much as look at you, even if you paid the toll for ‘safe passage’ Straight ahead was the old mall, picked clean long ago, but the wildlife seemed to love the place no matter how many times they were evicted.

“Do the-e scorps sti-ill have a-a hold of the ma-a-all?” Aine asked.

“Yea, they’re tough bastards and their burrowing holes make it hard to really get rid of ‘em all. Might have to go into the subsections to really weed them out.” Silver answered.

On the right was our security checkpoint. There were some guards stationed there to keep any would-be attackers at bay until reinforcements arrived, roads being a vital resource in keeping supplies and people moving.

“How’s Dresir and his pack doing out there nowadays?”

“They’re doing alright. Had a few problems with a monohorn that kept getting too close. They had to lure it away with a spare spark cell.”

We pressed on towards the mall and eventually abandoned the road for a dirt path that led to Almond Lake. It’s no secret about the beast that calls that place home. A leviathan made of roots, kelp and coral, all held together with whatever magics power timberbeasts. We call it a reefspine and so far, there’s only one in the area. Upon reaching the treeline, we looked out across the lake and spied a group of boars milling about, drinking from the lake or trying to sniff out mushrooms in the nearby thicket. They were a good distance away and we were downwind for the time being, so we had the stealth advantage. We closed the distance a bit before hearing the squeals of hogs along with yips and growls from a gang of coubra. They were nearby, but far enough away to not be a bother.

“We’ve got competition.” I murmured.

“We’ll deal with them if they impede our hunt. Eyes on the prize, little ones.” Silver said, motioning to the largest of the boars.

I nodded and continued the approach, being sure to keep my front paws and hind hooves from landing on anything crunchy or fragile. In moments we were only a stone’s toss away and began stilling ourselves for the perfect shot. We put our belly to the dirt and braced ourselves. The arm servos whirred as we looked at each boar through our visors. The birds were silent, the wind had died down before the safety of our rifles clicked. The faint sound of boars rummaging in the bushes was all that could be heard…

Two simultaneous shots echoed out across the lake and the boars erupted in squeals and whines as they scattered. The largest of them ran in place as it stumbled into the dirt, its body trying desperately to run away from whatever had struck it.

“Fuck yes, he’s down!” I exclaimed, the smoke from our rifles rising up into the air.

“Another well placed shot sssister. Lookss like you punched through both lungsss.”

“Nicely done, Sirincy. Let’s go finish it.” Silver praised.

The boar’s movements were erratic but infrequent as we neared. The blood pooled around it and flowed between the stones as it drained towards the water. Silver pulled his kukri from its sheath and plunged it into the beast's neck. It’s jerking stilled as its eyes glazed over. Silver then began slicing through its hide, around the neck and down its belly. It didn't take long to butcher the boar. A bit of salt on the cuts of meat and some help from Aine’s fire breath made quick work of any leftover flesh on the bones. It smelled delicious, and it's a shame too, because we weren’t the only ones who thought so.

Silver’s ears flicked and rotated quickly, “We’ve got guests.”

A torrent of hisses and growls emerged from the wood as five coubra made themselves known. We also wasted no time taking aim and firing. Two went down immediately as the rest rushed us. Two leapt into the air and I managed to shoot one before the other came down. Its claws sunk into our armor and caught my neck as we wrestled the beast. Aine kept its venomous maw at bay with her horns as I leapt up and grabbed hold of the creature, slamming it back down onto the stony shore. It shrieked before I sunk my own set of teeth into its neck, biting down and twisting as it tried to squirm free in its last moments. The last coubra had rushed towards Silver, who stood his ground and readied his pistol. The beast lunged, missing just as quickly, as Silver backstepped with a flap of his wings and put a bullet through its forehead. It ended as quickly as it began.

“I’ll never understand what they think they’ll gain coming at us in such measly groups.” I gloated, a bit of blood dripping from my maw. “It's insulting.”

Silver chuckled, “You sound like Nerris, even when you’re only half her size.”

“Hey hey! We’ll get bigger. It’s just… not growing season yet… yea.” I lied.

Silver hummed in a ‘is that so?’ manner. “Go ahead and harvest what you need from them, I’ll keep watch.”

And with that, we went to work. The time passed and the blood flowed between the stones and into the lake, mixing with its blue-green waters and creating a crimson murk. The scent of death had drawn quite the crowd of carrion birds. They squawked and cooed from the trees as I continued to postpone their meal. A few had grown impatient and picked at the corpses further away. After removing the final venom sac, we took our leave, allowing the birds their long awaited feast.

¤ ¤ ¤

Reaching the intersection, Silver stopped hard, his ears flicking and twirling before locking to the East. “What’s up Si-” He quickly shushed me.

A few more moments passed before he spoke. His voice, dead serious. “We’ve got to move now.” He began to run and we followed suit, his wings unfurling and lifting him off the ground with another burst of speed.

“Stupid wings. Why do manticore get wings and we don’t?” I mumbled, picking up the pace.

Upon returning to Freight, we were immediately greeted by way more guards on the front gate than when we left, each of them, weapons at the ready. “It’s about time you made it back Captain. We've got a situation.” Cal’s altered voice said from atop the wall, her massive power-armored figure looking down at us. The gates opened and we quickly went inside as they closed behind us. Nobody but guards and soldiers were milling about. Several trucks were being loaded up with supplies and soldiers. I looked at Silver and saw for the first time, a hint of worry on his face. “Sirincy, head home, it’s not safe out here. Plum, make sure this one gets inside!” Cal ordered one of the guards.

“Wait, what's going on?” I asked.

“Your sister will explain, just get inside.” Cal responded.

Plum quickly escorted us back to our home, her eyes glancing towards the sky as we walked. I knocked on the door and it screeched open as Silva’s scaly head peered out over us before ushering us in. The door closing shut behind us.

“Will somebody tell us what's going on?” I asked, tired of being out of the loop.

Nerilta paused for a moment before responding, “The stables are opening… all of them.”

_¤ ¤ ¤_

Footnote:

Hello everyone, sorry for the… delay? That feels like too little of a word. It’s been 4 years since the last chapter of Newshire and for that I apologize. I lost interest in the writing aspect, but not the world. So I ended up allowing people to run around in it through forms of TTRPGs or roleplay. Slowly fleshing out the world and still staying connected with it. Just not focusing on our little guys who were only just brought to life. This chapter is a little thank you to those who participated in making this world feel a bit more lived in. To all the friends I made along the way. I'm sure you’ll notice the small details sprinkled throughout.

As for why it took me four years to actually finish one chapter, life has just been busy. So much has happened and I had to change focus a few times, but Newshire was always tickling the back of my brain. Pulling me to continue writing. The few updates I posted were those times, but I didn’t know where to go and it eventually fell off again. But here’s to new years resolutions huh?

Prologue

Fallout Equestria: Newshire

Bellum, bellum non mutat. That is how you say it right? Anyway, the world as we knew it was destroyed, caused by the use of unimaginably powerful weapons created by both the nations of Equestria and the Zebras. Many died instantly, others died slowly, however, some did survive. My parents decided to move to the island of Newshire, said to be a haven for those wanting to escape the war. Every-creature was welcome, so long as they remained civil; even a few Chimeras and Dragons were admitted. The stable my mother was sent to was one of three on the island, all of which were enormous in comparison to other stables. Stable 6-8, housed at most three hundred of each of the three races; Griffins, Ponies, and Zebras, while Stables 4-2 and 7-7, housed different species. When I was born, I was born of both unicorn and zebra decent. I had a horn like my mother, and my father passed his striping pattern; even if it was a little faded. I lived with my mother for a full eighteen years. Even though my father wasn't there; he was lost during the chaos when tbe megaspell was launched, she taught me a few of his customs, such as the Zebra language and their creation of talismans and potions. She raised me well and I couldn't have asked for anything more. Until she was taken from me as well. When she passed I had only those who knew my mother and I, while we lived here. Now the only thing I wished I had more of, was time with them. Not a day goes by when I don't think of them. It's only been a year since her passing and the memories are still fresh in my mind.

All the way up until the end of the war the island of Newshire had remained a secret. Until someone gave away its location. To which it was then hit by a megaspell sent from an unknown location; some say Zebra due to its effects, and impacted at the islands highest peak. The three stables; 6-8, 4-2, and 7-7, opened their doors to the populace; who panicked, rushing to their predesignated locations. Only three-quarters of the population made it inside. The megaspell's initial blast was enough to almost flatten the top of the mountain. The aftereffects were much worse however. The spell unleashed an unyielding jungle to grow across the island. Massive vines erupted from the earth and large trees began to sprout all over. The forest’s excess magic began to manifest all manner of Timber-Beasts monstrosities. Although the jungle hadn't completely consumed the island, it is projected to do so in just fifteen years. The island haven, had become a deathtrap.

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:FOOTNOTE:

If you already know what Fallout Equestria is, then you don't have to read this. Please enjoy. : )

However if you do not, then please continue.
Fallout Equestria is a mixture of the two universes My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Bethesda Game Studios’ Fallout game series. Yes I watch the show, yes I play the game. No I'm not gay. This doesn't make anyone gay, so stop judging. This isn't a kids book. This is a story about killing, greed, drugs, violence and everything else in an M-rated game. If you want to know more about the universe that is Fallout Equestria, please goto the wiki.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoyed, this will be my first ever large scale novel and I hope to see it through. I can't give exact dates on chapter releases but chapter two is definitely in the works.