Chapter 5- Take Me Home
"You have traveled very far, and suffered a great deal"

Fallout Equestria: Failure

Chapter 5- From Darkness

“I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for maybe five more feet?”

Everything was black, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible. No seeing my life flash before my eyes, no seeing Celestia and Luna escort me to the afterlife, nothing. That was the case until I saw my hooves starting to form, then my body.

“Aw shit, I’m dead aren’t I?” I asked the endless void. At least, that’s what it was until things started coming into view. Before long, I could make out my old room in Northpass. Only, I was also there, and so were Lead and my mom. But all of us were younger.

I was still an infant in a makeshift crib, Lead was barely old enough to call a colt, and Mom, she was in her prime, at least age wise, one look at her and I could see just how emaciated she was.

“Mom, why can’t we take Silver with us?” Lead asked.

“He’s too young, he won’t survive long outside of these walls. I hate it too honey, but I won’t let him die.” She went over to the table towards the front of the house and placed an envelope down. I tried to move, but it was like some invisible force was stopping me. “I promise honey, some day we’ll be back for him, but for now we have to leave him. Your father is going to be home soon, and if he sees this we’ll both be in trouble.” Lead nodded in response and followed after her.

Time seemed to pass by quickly after that until I heard the door slam open. “Lily, Lead, where are you two?” He looked at the table and saw the envelope and opened it. Fortunately he read it aloud,

“Dear Chrome, these last years in Northpass have been nothing but hell for me, only made worse by our sham marriage. I assume you didn’t know I was literate, but clearly, I am. When I was taken by your roving slavers, you had no clue who I was. I realize now, that it was to my benefit. Because not only am I a healer, I’m a warrior as well. Now, I have only one purpose in life, and that is to take you down. You and your whole slaving operation. It certainly won’t be today, or tomorrow, or even next week or year, but some day, I will be back to finish the job. I’ve taken Lead with me, and left Silver there.” He rushed over to my crib and continued to read aloud. “for you to take care of. You’d better hope that you can indoctrinate him well enough, because when I start, I’m coming for him first. Soon after, I will make sure that he is what ends you and your tyrannical reign of terror. Enjoy the days you have left. Because they are numbered. With all possible contempt, Lily.” he threw the letter in what remained of a fire and rushed outside. With that, everything faded to black.

“Do you see, Silver?” a mare’s voice said from behind me. “Your purpose was conceived for you when you were just a foal. And I am here to make sure you fulfill your purpose.” the voice moved all around me.

“So I’m supposed to kill my dad? And then what? Run it myself?” I responded.

“That part isn’t defined. You don’t have to, you could give the settlement to your mother, to Jade, or even just one of the slaves. If I were you, I’d ask your mother and go from there.” Suddenly, an alicorn appeared before me. But not just any alicorn, the Princess of the moon and dreams, Princess Luna. I immediately bowed down. She just chuckled lightly.

“Rise Silver, I’m not a princess anymore. Now I’m just a mare doing her job. And to answer your earlier question, you aren’t dead. You won’t die for quite a bit longer. You passed out because of blood loss and started dreaming. I’m taking this opportunity to make sure you know what you have to do next.”

“I don’t know if it’ll be next.” I replied, “But I promise, that someday it will be done.”

“Silver, the longer you wait, the more ponies get hurt, die, and while it may not be your fault, you will need to answer for it.” she said, not threateningly, but more with concern.

“Then I’ll answer for it when it’s time. But I know that the few warriors we have, we’ll stand no chance. I’ll tell them that we need to do this, maybe they’ll know what to do with that information.” It was then that the princess of the night, the leader of Equestria prior to the war, smiled at me.

“That is most certainly for the best. I wish you luck Silver. And, when all is said and done, my sympathies are with you.”

The world flooded back into my vision, I was outside, my back on a cart. I struggled to my hooves. In front of me, I saw two big stallions. Not as big as Bowhead, but bigger than the average buck. Not anypony I knew thankfully. That was, until I saw Jade staring off into the distance.

“Hey, Jade, where are we?” I asked, trying to sit up slightly before a pain in my spine struck me so hard I had to lie back down.

“Holy shit you’re alive. The Starspawn diplomats are taking us back to The Hollow. They’ve offered to give you medical treatment in exchange for whatever caps I had on me and then work out a payment plan with Bowhead. Just consider yourself lucky that you’re going to prove useful.” Jade responded.

“Try telling me that when you’re in this much pain. What even happened?” I asked. Though given the circumstances, I could at least guess I’d been shot and that isn't to say I didn't know what had happened, but I had to be sure that's what actually happened.

“Assassins got the drop on the meeting and took a shot at you, considering the fact you’re not dead or bleeding out, I’m inclined to call you lucky, and the fact that the Starspawn are masters of all things cybernetics in these parts, you’ll probably walk again.”

Wait, walk again? “Wait, what do you mean I’ll walk again?”

“That bullet got lodged in your spine. From the sound and the hole, I’m guessing it was a 5mm round rather than a 7 or 12 millimeter.” I remember that seemed odd at the time, Northpass wasn’t in the habit of making 5mm caliber weapons, most of the blueprints we found showed they had tolerances that were far too tight for the wasteland, making them prone to jamming, and the smaller cartridges did less damage to a body while wasting more ammunition.

“Jade, are there any groups around here that commonly use 5mm rifles? Or better yet exclusively use them?”

“The Steel Rangers use them in miniguns, but they barely ever leave their bunker, and the only settlement with an abundance of that size round is Postville, we’re meeting with one of their delegates in a couple of weeks once things have settled down with the Hollow.” he caught my look and immediately saw what I was thinking. “So, you think this was an attempt to fuck up a possible relationship with Postville?”

“What’s their main source of income and how close are they to Northpass?” I asked.

“Well, they’re mostly a trade town, ponies come in, trade, pay a small fee for the security and leave. Not many residents, but they’re all loaded enough to buy every mercenary in the wastes. Come to think of it though, they’re pretty close to Northpass. Not on any sort of border, but if they’re looking to expand, that’s a good place to start. Especially because they aren’t too well liked in the area, then again, neither are we or any other settlement. The Hollow and The Island uniting is the first real alliance we’ve seen in years. In the end, we’re all hoping to have a provisional government set up, just so we can all work towards bettering the city and making the land more secure.”

“Without that though, are most ponies just wandering around and keeping to themselves?”

“Yeah, there’s a few gangs, some raiders, but most ponies around here are loners. Easy targets for raiders, slave-” he saw where I was going again.

“Well, there’s their motive, and I’ve gotta say, if I didn’t have that radio signal, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. Wait for me to get fixed up, then let’s talk some more about this.

After about twenty minutes or so, I heard the wagon come to a stop and the sound of a large gate opening. I assumed that meant we were at The Hollow, but there were apparently two other gates to go through. All of the gates were actually made of old train cars. Big, sliding, steel train car doors. Combine that with my current state, and calling me intimidated would be an understatement. At each gate, there were five guard ponies, all armed to the teeth, one quite literally because of an augmentation to his natural teeth that replaced them with what looked like scalpel blades.

While this place was called “The Hollow”, it was anything but. It was packed with fighters, traders, children, and every kind of food imaginable. Sure, there was rubble around, but overall, it looked like a pre war town. Just, super militarized, which given that pre war Equestria was in a war, meant it still looked like pre war Equestria.

Believe me, as little sense as it makes now, it made even less sense in my head in the moment.

“Where’s the Doc?” one of the wagon pullers asked somepony.

“Sawbones? She’s over at the captain’s place. He’s still in recovery from that shrapnel he took last week.” the mare he asked responded.

“Very well, here’s 20 caps, run a message over to her, just tell her she has a patient for that new spinal implant she was delivered and we need her as soon as possible.” I heard the sound of caps being exchanged and retreating hooves. “Once this is all over, he’s going to need to make a report with our chief of security.” the other guard said to Jade.

“Yeah, I’m guessing I’ll be making one too?” Jade responded.

“Yup, but his is a little more important given the details you’ve already given us.”

“Fair enough, while this procedure is going on though, is there a place we can discuss the terms of our treaty?”

“The mayor should be able to meet with you in the morning. Until then, I’ll provide you with lodging, and Sawbones will provide him with a place to stay, so long as Bowhead actually pays up.”

“We both know that won’t be an issue. After all, he’s the one who proposed this alliance.” We got to what appeared to be the doctor’s office and the unicorn guard gently placed me on the table, stomach down.

“Listen kid, I’m gonna do you a favor here, just don’t get used to this stuff. Addiction’s a bitch.” I wasn’t sure what exactly he did, but suddenly I was free of the lingering, albeit minor, pain and on the verge of falling asleep.

Until of course, I fell asleep.

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Level Up: New Perk: Hardened Bones- you just had your spine replaced with a sturdier, but slightly bulkier model. Any damage taken to your back is reduced by 30%,

Chapter Perk- Blessed by Luna: You now know you have a purpose in life, or at least you think you do. +1 to Luck and no longer affected by depression.

Author's Note

I'd just like to take a moment and thank those of you who have been patiently waiting for the release of this update. Some serious stuff came up in my life that needed to be dealt with before I could even think of looking at this. Seizures, broken bones, a death in the family and three surgeries later, here's chapter 5, finally. Though I can't guarantee a schedule just yet, I am going to start writing ahead in case more things come up as they seem to more regularly now. Don't worry, they won't be some "Patreon exclusive" sort of thing, this is just for my own enjoyment and to finally have a full length story written on this site before season 9 ends.
Also, before anyone accuses me of it, A huge shoutout to Kkat and Somber for the inspiration to write this. Not to show favoritism, but especially to Somber whose words helped keep me on the relative straight and narrow a couple years back.
For those of you who are interested, I will be attending BC this year and will be spending a majority of my free time at Quills and Sofas like I do every year.