Author's Note

This is yet another spinoff from Equestrian City. Any fan of the Heroverse knows Pinkie is adamantly a fan of a show called Total Wasteland. The show is a satire of the MLP fandom to a degree.

This however, is only loosely based on the show within a show concept in the Heroverse. That's why you'll see some familiar names.

As a old school fan of Fallout, I've used a bit of inspiration and sometimes plain homage and references to the world Knight lives in now. As such the world of Fallout and how it addresses sexuality and violence is turned on its side so shall this world.

So this is a project I decided to do for fun on the side. Don't expect full attention as given to Equestrian City or Side Streets, unless of course this takes off. :)

That being said….wake up!

Prologue

Prologue
By Darkmalcontent
Proofreads by Alisia

The gentle hiss of cryogenic frozen air escaped the nostrils of a resting man. A split second later he violently coughed out the new air to hit his lungs since his several hundred years of slumber. He wasn’t used to the taste. Snapping his brown chestnut eyes open, he grabbed at his throat and continued to cough violently. The man began panting while reaching to pull himself upright and out of the tube

A few people rushed forwards, causing the disoriented man to swing an arm wildly with a panicked noise. “Easy, easy,” a female voice interrupted while pulling the eager people back. “He's confused, remember? Let's give him space,” she said with her voice echoing in the man’s ears, barely audible. The blurred woman turned towards him and leaned forwards. “Can you hear me, Captain Knight?”

The man scanned around the room still in half a panic as the words began to clear up. “Captain,” she asked and he nodded despite not yet being fully focused on where each voice belonged. Tilting his head back, Captain Knight winced and shut his eyes tight from the blinding ceiling light. No doubt the years of ice forming in his soft tissue made it hard to use any of his senses. He nodded instinctively.

The grey toned male coughed another round of fresh air in and out of his lungs, his body slowly returning itself to full working order. Dressed in only a pair of grey trimmed, black boxer briefs, he stumbled out of the tube onto the cold tiled floor with his feet finding little stability. He grabbed hold of the nearby orderly or nurse, he didn't care who it was at the moment as he needed to steady himself, and quickly flashed of ingrained cyro training images in his head. The man grunted as he tipped over almost.

“Careful Captain. You’re not fully revived yet,” another woman said, this one on his left. “You need to sit back down.” The world slowly came into focus around him as her words rang in his ears.

“Where...what happened,” Knight asked gruffly, his vocal chords no better than the rest of his body. “What year is it?”

“Easy Captain, you need to focus on fully reviving. You are in a safe environment to do so,” the girl on his right said, her tone rather procedural and hardly that of a typical nurse tone. “It’s necessary after such a long slumber.”

That caught his attention though he wasn’t entirely sure why. Flashes of the past slammed into his brain, as well as a shooting pain in his right arm. Reaching over to it with his left, he realized why: it wasn’t there. Smooth and knitted flesh met his hand. The removal of it had been surgical, which meant it wasn’t an immediate concern. Though it did bother him why he didn’t know where it was.

“Easy, you’re fine. Your dimensions are being sent to R&D to get you augmented with a prosthetic limb,” the other nurse said. “Aloe, can you hold him for a second? I need to grab the data logs to make sure we aren’t missing any of his measurements.”

“I know what measurement I’d like to know,” Aloe said, a playful tone in her voice and a latex covered hand running over Knight’s toned, albeit scarred, abs.

“Hey,” the other girl snapped, slapping her partners hand. “Be professional. We’re here because they trust us.” the tone and the firmly planted heels leaving the room told Knight she was the more practical of the two.

“But we’re never really allowed any creature comforts down here, Vera,” the other girl, whose hot pink skin tone was slowly coming into Knight’s blurred vision as it recovered. “Fertility wouldn't mind if--”

“Yes. Yes they would,” Aloe snapped at Vera, walking back in with what appeared to be a clipboard in her bright blue hands. She sat down, the material of her outfit squealing as she put herself eye to eye with Knight.

She ruffled his bright orange two toned hair, its styling was half military standard and half simply unkempt due to his time in cyro. Shining a pen light into his eyes, she seemed satisfied and made several notations on her clipboard. “Who are you two...and where am I?” Knight finally croaked out, his voice returning to his lower bass tone.

“Captain, I’m Aloe. This is Vera,” the blue girl introduced herself finally, the semi medical attire she wore matching the antiseptic environment that he was becoming aware he was in. With vision slowly returning, his hearing was as well. “You’ve been asleep for two hundred years. There may be some complications due to such an extremely long sleep.” She continued, clicking her pen open again and scribbling, “what's the last thing you recall?”

Knight winced as she gave him such an info dump but nodded as it all made a small amount of sense. He focused on recalling the past and, as much as it was hurting, he felt more images starting to combine and make sense. Patches of gunfire, people screaming, explosions and alarms all raced around his head at once. Closing his eyes gently, he started putting things back in order.

“I’m...supposed to be here. Volunteer,” he started. “Military Engineering, 2nd company of…” he shook his head, losing that part of the memory. “I’m Captain Knight, military engineer.” He nodded, “lost my arm...said I’d be better frozen for the future than a cripple on the field of…” he shook the proverbial cobwebs from his head. “I don’t remember where I lived but a lot has changed.” He looked around at the technology around him, it was cobbled together and patched over older generations and models of the same type. Like a freight train hitting his brain, he saw flashes of a giant conflict involving nations and armies, tanks and planes and the final sound of an air raid siren ringing as he took a secure elevator down underground. “War.”

Aloe nodded. “Sadly, Captain Knight...” she leaned back. “War never changes.”

“That’s kinda catchy,” Vera said, rubbing her chin absently. “He got some of his biography right.”

Before Knight could say anything else, the far end doors to the room opened and the rapid echo of high heels touching the tiles filled his ears. Turning his gaze towards the door, he saw a yellow toned female and a pair of blue eyes looking directly at him as her lab jacket swayed back and forth. On the lapel, a nametag was sewn in with care reading “Shimmer”, the opposite side matching and several unrecognized logos on it to boot. “Is he damaged,” she asked coldly, coming to a halt in front of the two attending researchers and completely bypassing Knight. “Have you run a check on vitals?”

“Well hello to you too.” Knights sense of humor was slowly waking back up as well, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes Dr. Shimmer, he's in perfect condition,” Aloe said, nodding and bowing her head gently.

“I'll say he is,” Vera added.

“He's missing an arm...is that genetic? An accident?” Dr. Shimmer frowned and opened the clipboard with his name on it. Scanning through papers she still had not directly addressed him. “Ah. War veteran.” She closed the paperwork. “Can he hear me and understand me?”

“Yes. Yes he can,” Knight flatly said and raised his other eyebrow, now almost insulted.

Dr. Shimmer scoffed and looked him over slowly, tracing a finger over his amputated limb at the shoulder. “Have R&D fit him up with a mark 4.”

“Order is already in ma’am," Aloe said.

“Could somebody talk to ‘him’ he's feeling a bit like a chunk of meat here,” Knight finally said, shrugging at them all. “Give me the short version, doc.”

Shimmer put on a facade of a smile and leaned down to look Knight in the eyes. “Very well Captain. You've been asleep for two-hundred-seven years. The world population was devastated by an exchange of atomic weapons and we are the descendants of these fortunate enough to make it underground.” She stood back up and crossed her arms. “And to the best of my knowledge, which is considerable, you are our best hope the human race ever has on returning to the surface of the world.”

Knight stared at her in utter shock. “On second thought, maybe we should go into some details?” he finally said a fearful look creeping over his face.

End Prologue