Fallout: Equestria :Where Am I Now?

Chapter 2: Some Assembly Required

“I’ll win with both my wings tied behind my back, and a hoof to give you a fighting chance.”
/.|-\_=-]_______________________________[-=-]

Finally.

It’s stopped raining. Only the high winds remained but I’ll take it over the torrential downpour. I was pulling a cart with rusty-axles that I had found on its side and with a skeleton in it. It took a while to get the right wheel unstuck but at least I didn’t have to carry her or all the guns and stuff I stole from the camp before we left. Some sheet metal had been set up inside of it to keep Bobbi Pin out of the rain. Didn’t want her to catch pneumonia in addition to everything else she’s going through.

She had fallen asleep in the cart as it rattled down the broken pavement and around the rubble of buildings destroyed by a catastrophe I didn’t fully understand. I don’t think I actually wanted to know what happened to Wicker. I needed to find Watcher to find out more. Plus he owes me an explanation for sending me through a Raider infested hellhole.

Was it maybe because he thought I would be able to rescue Bobbi Pin? Why the hell didn’t he tell me in the first place? A little heads up would have been nice, don’t you think?

I did get some of the things that Watcher told me to get.

The only piece of armor that might’ve given me some protection was a yellow rectangular road sign pounded into a shoulder pad that didn’t fit me and a bloody colander helmet that wouldn’t do much anyways. So I didn’t have any armor.

I was however, the new owner of an assortment of knives, crap guns, and a rifle that looks like it’s going to break if I shake it too hard. That wasn’t all, there was this forest green saddlebag that had some supplies stashed away inside of it, like bandages that were actually medicated this time and a Sparkle-Cola.

Bobbi Pin was a little disturbed by that thing that happens with my left eye when ponies like me consumed stimulants like soft drinks or alcohol. You see it temporarily contracts my pupil to the size of a small button as a result of a side-effect of Icarus implants. None of the doctors or mechanics knows what really causes it, but I don’t care, it’s not like it’s hurting anything.

When you’re soaked, wind-chill has a much bigger effect than it normally does. Stepping around with wet clothes kind of sucks, have you ever worn wet blue jeans? I parked the cart next to the wall of an abandoned building and a large pile of rubble in order to remove my heavy, waterlogged clothing.

“Mama?” Bobbi asked with poked her little head out from the shelter that was built for her and saw me as I struggled with my shirt getting caught on the end of my left leg. While I swore at the white shirt trying not to tear a hole in it the filly rubbed her eyes with a hoof and stared at my back in disbelief.

When I turned to get onto the cart so I could take off my pants without rolling around in the mud I caught Bobbi giving me a look I was all too familiar with.

“Look kid, you don’t want to know, it’s a long story,” I kind of explained to her while waving my left leg around to enunciate what I was saying. It wasn’t really, but I just didn’t want to talk about why I don’t have the required amount of limbs a pegasus pony should have. There was a lot on my mind right now. Where’s Watcher when you need him?

“He’s probably out there, watching things, leading other ponies into deathtraps,” I spitefully thought out loud. What about that other pony he mentioned? He’s probably putting whoever that is through hell.

With all my clothes removed and hung to dry in the wind on some of the rubble next to me, I picked up a couple of the .32 pistols and started thinking. Now I’m no firearms expert but it looks like there’s good and bad parts for both guns and I didn’t think that more duct tape was going to help them. Maybe I could salvage the good crap from both to make a better gun than before? I didn’t have any tools though, just a bunch of kitchen knives, and a broken screwdriver.

Well, the ‘Repair’ thing in my Inventory seems helpful. Maybe it can tell me how to take it apart? I selected one of the pistols on the list. My PipBuck glowed and lifted the pistol into the air, taking it apart before my very eyes. Isn’t there anything this thing can’t do?!

All but forgetting about the world I watched as the bad was separated from the good and fell into my hooves. It was enchanting, “Wow! This is the one of the coolest things ever. Who cares why there’s a freaking part stripping spell on this? It’s awesome!”

Just when I thought the PipBuck could get any cooler it helped me replace parts on the gun I was repairing with parts that were slightly less awful. Did I mention how much I love this thing?

It even worked with a few of the kitchen knives. It ended up reinforcing the handle on the cleanest, sturdiest blade, leaving a bunch of pieces of rusty metal and rotten wood lying around the cart.

Bobbi was trying to get back to her restless sleep despite how loud I was being and the howling wind.

A wrinkled, torn poster with a very familiar pink pony flew by and caught on the rusted web of metal near where I had stopped. I could barely make out some of the letters before it blew away. “P----- -i- -- -atch—g you, ---ever!!”

Was that…? No, it wasn’t.

My weapons looked like they were cobbled together by somepony missing a few bolts in their brainpan but give me a break, I did the best I could with what I had. And that spell takes some getting used to.

Brrgh, why did I take off my clothes? I’m freezing to death here. This plan wasn’t very well thought out.

I really had no idea what to do. Molly was still missing without any leads on her whereabouts, and every second that passes she could be getting into serious trouble.

On top of that my leg was on the other end of the ruined city, I’ve murdered like seven ponies, during the course of all that I’ve been shot repeatedly, and Watcher or any sprite-bots were nowhere to be found. This was shaping up to be an excellent day.

Now there wasn’t anything to do but screw around with my PipBuck until my clothes dried out enough for me to be able to wear them. What time is it? I haven’t been able to find a clock anywhere on it this entire time. There it is! Makes sense that it’d be in the Data- What the hell?!

My heart dropped into my stomach as I read the tiny lettering in the top corner of the screen. 77. That’s a little vague. But how did I… without the TARDIS? I didn’t think it was possible. The date had to be wrong. It—it had to be. Watcher did say he’d explain more about what was happening.

Even though my clothes stilled looked like they were soaked I had wasted enough time. Wringing the clothes out to the best of my abilities I put the damp white shirt on and stored the other garments on the cart. I checked on Bobbi Pin to see that she was curled up on some old curtains that had been previously hanging in what was left of an abandoned store’s window.

Taking the damaged, knotted leather strap and putting it around me, I continued my pull to where Bobbi said her house was.

=-|\_._/|/-=

“Answer me, you bastard!” I shouted at the hovering sprite-bot blasting its brassy music at me and Bobbi watched in confusion as I continued to yell at the robot. We had almost reached the waypoint on my ever-expanding map when a sprite-bot started to float on by. So far it hasn’t done much more than play its music and it was starting to really get on my nerves.

“Dammit Watcher I’m about ten seconds from smashing this thing so hard your grandkid’s r/c car is gonna burst into flames!” Yeah Tellis, threaten the unresponsive robot with death, I’m sure that’s going to loosen his metaphorical lips.

The music cut out with a bit of static. “-lm down, calm down, I can see that you’re angry.”

Oh I’m angry now? I’ll show him angry. “Damn right I am! Why the hell did you send me through that deathtrap? I mean look at me, I’m missing more parts than a- than- Ah I’m so mad I can’t even come up with a clever metaphor! How did you expect me to survive all those Raiders? I killed most of them but that’s beside the point! ”

There was Watcher’s usual brief moment of silence before he “Hold on a second there kid you need to slow down a little. What’s this about Raiders?”

An electronic whistle rang out from Watcher’s speaker when I let him know what went down the last couple of hours. “You took on a whole Raider camp, by yourself?”

“I didn’t have much choice did I?” I loudly asked as the sprite-bot hovered in place, saying nothing, “Wait, I did, didn’t I? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I- You have a map don’t you? I don’t see why you didn’t just go a couple blocks over and then around all that. But it looks like it’s a good thing you went the way you did,” Watcher said as he moved slightly to his left to see past my face over to Bobbi.

It’s time for him to stop wasting time, screw this idle chatter. With a wave of my temporary leg I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m a big hero. Now tell me what the hell is going on, the whole shebangabang.”

Instead of telling me he annoyingly asked, “Hey what’s your name?”

I let out an exasperated sigh and told him my name. There wasn’t any point in wasting time arguing why he wanted to know my name. He’ll probably stop calling me “kid” now at least.

“What kind of name is—you know, I’ve heard weirder.” I find that a little hard to believe. Watcher continued to say, “You might wanna sit down for this Tellis because this is some heavy stuff I’m about to lay on you.”

Feeling that I could take whatever he could dish out I said, “Just get on with it. We don’t have all day.”

The wind had died down some and the robot’s voice was clearly audible among the decaying ruins of the city. “Alright. Let’s just say a long, long time ago a certain series of decisions were made. The kinds of decisions made from stupid pride, greed, fear, and hatred. These decisions were ultimately responsible for destroying everything along with most of ponykind.”

He was right, that was kind of heavy. After thinking for a bit all I could ask was, “So somepony fucked up, huh?”

“A lot of someponies fucked up. Big time as you can see,” Watcher spun around to add emphasis, for he lacked any sort of opposable limbs except for that little laser underneath his frame. What a funny little robot.

Being humorous doesn’t change the fact that Watcher still hasn’t given me a straight answer about what exactly happened to Equestria before he timed out. What kind of fuckup on such a grand scale could have went down? Whatever the real reason is that this calamity befell this once fine country doesn’t really matter by this point anyways. The wandering automaton continued its mysterious broadcast, but this time there wasn’t any music. It was a different voice, one with a smooth, charismatic attitude that sounded friendly but at the same time made you feel like something was a little off. A little bit like my lawyer, now that I think about it.

“Good afternoon Equestria. As a friend and as a leader I come to you with a special announcement. Great strides are being made in the rebirth of our once majestic and beautiful nation but progress is regrettably slow. I have begun to enlist assistance from benefactors in the East in order to continue that progress. Their generosity will bring about a new age of peace in this vile, wicked land we all reside.”

Okay that just happened. What the hell did happen? Seriously, throw me a freaking bone here. A different marching band-type song started to play as the robot floated off once again to who knows where. No point just standing here in the wind so onto bigger and better things, eh?

=-|\_._/|/-=

Aw hell. I felt really sorry for Bobbi Pin. The front door of the decrepit brick building had been broken down and when I went inside I found her parents. The only way I could describe what the Raiders did to them was that they had been butchered, like-- like they were just pieces of meat. I closed the bedroom door and went back downstairs.

I had one question. Why? These ponies didn’t seem to have any kind of weaponry; they weren’t any danger to anypony! They didn’t antagonize those sick fucks in any way! And they—oh Goddesses they smelled worse than the camp the Raiders lived in. I’m not even going to bother looking for anything useful, I’m taking Bobbi to the nearby garage, feed her some kind of lie as I get my leg, and find a way out from this hellhole of a city.

“Why can’t I see my parents?! Let me through!” Bobbi demanded as I fought with her to keep her from going inside her house, which was surprisingly hard to do. She shouldn’t have to see her parents like that.

“Look, Bobbi I-“Oh sweet Celestia, what was I doing? I couldn’t look at her face as I said this with a hoof on her shoulder, “They weren’t there. I couldn’t find them.”

“Liar!” Bobbi shouted at me as a tear ran down her face and she pushed past me and into her house. I couldn’t keep up with the little filly as she rocketed up the stairs, fueled by adrenaline and desperation. Damn this pipe! I removed the dented and bloodied piece of metal from my leg and trotted up the rest of the stairs.

Reentering the bedroom I found Bobbi Pin collapsed against the bed and sobbing next to what was left of her mother. I continued to push down my emotions as best I could as I approached the crying pony.

I got low to the ground and said to her, “We have to go. Please.”

=-|\_._/|/-=

‘Lug Nut’s Garage, we fix wagons!’ read the burned out neon sign. My PipBuck argued against the sign, saying that it was ‘Jester’s Place.” So which is it?

Whatever it is Watcher says leg’s in there, so I’m going in. This should be easy enough. Thought about it for a minute and didn’t see much reason to go in through the big door, it would have made too much noise. Besides it was locked and I didn’t have anything to pick it with. The door with the black and white pony skull wearing a jester’s cap worked just fine.

I had an evil sensation going on with my underdeveloped wings as I turned the handle and pushed on the door. A single-barreled shotgun mounted to a chair with a whole lot of duct tape and rope fired with a fizzle and a spark. I patted at my chest with a hoof to check myself before looking up to the gun in the chair.

“Huh.” I had been saved by crap ammo. Praise Celestia! That shotgun seemed to be in there tight but after taking the duct tape off the only thing holding it there was a simple knot. A 20 gauge shell was loaded into the barrel and the gun closed with an audible *Click* and I looked brand used weapon over. It wasn’t in too terrible condition, but it could use some serious work.

As I looked around I saw that the tiles were cracked, what few windows available were tiny and covered with dirt, and the air smelled like… whisky? Yep, it was just like your average repair garage.

Bobbi had followed me inside despite me telling her to stay in the cart and as I shushed her I almost stepped onto a bear trap set up on the floor. Now where did this come from? It had been placed in the space between the desk and the front of the reception area. Where would somepony get a bear trap in a place like this?

“Hold on. Uh… okay Bobbi? See that little couch over there?” I motioned my head across the room and asked her, “Could you reach me a cushion off of that?”

I am about to do something clever. *Chi-whuff*. Ha! I laugh at your bear trap.

“Wait here,” I ordered Bobbi, to which she asked why. My response was, “Well cause I don’t know what’s on the other side of this door, that’s why.”

There weren’t any traps behind this door, thankfully. The wind rattled against the garage door at the far end of the room, drawing my attention to it. I saw the corpse of a blue unicorn mare with a black mane and illuminated by a light bulb powered by one of those batteries that I saw in the elevator. She was wearing barding that looked a lot like the kind Stable Mare was wearing, except there was a little “56” around the collar. There were many empty glass bottles scattered around the floor and near the bed and there was one clutched in her hooves. I’m no medical examiner but judging from the amount of decay she must have drank herself to death not too long ago, poor girl.

My leg was poking out of a cart next to her and I hurriedly hobbled over to it. I set the shotgun against the cart so I could get my leg on and a small dog, corgi I think, came out from under a cloth inside the cart and blinked at me in confusion. My leg clinked into place as the dog barked at me and a raspy, wheezing gasp sounded out behind me.

I turned to see the pony I once thought to be dead pull a strange gun from a holster on a table next to her bed with a red aura, the same color as her left eye. The other one was milky and colorless and I could see that both of her ears had a bit missing from them, as if she had been attacked by some clawed beast. The weapon being pointed at me looked like a small movie reel had been combined with a thin pistol. I barely had time to raise my forelegs before the mare opened fire. Her aim was simply terrible, she completely missed the first two shots, and then started hitting my forelegs. The PipBuck and the Snakeoil took most of the damage but then she got lucky when I got hit square in the chest.

Falling over backwards onto the ground, I heard Bobbi scream and the zombie-pony drunkenly asked what the hell was going on as she popped the catch on her gun and swapped the empty rotating ammunition reel for a fresh one off the table she sat next to. She looked over to the filly, then to me and said, “Aw shit. Marty, call… call the… get Cutter cause I think I…” I blacked out before I could hear the rest.

-=-________________________[|]|.,/=|oO.0l Stable-Tec|l[{/%/}]l|Stable-Tec l0.Oo|=\,.|/[|]________________________-=-

Welcome to Level Three!
Guns increased to 35
Repair increased to 25

New Perk!

Mare Killer:
“Ladies.” You do +10% damage to the opposite sex and gain unique dialogue options with certain ponies.

A/N Eh, I don’t know why I’m making this one really short compared to the other ones. Guess I’m lazy.