Fallout Equestria: The Vanhoover Chronicles

The Everfree forest is ancient, feared and remarkably untouched by the apocalypse. The air is fresh, the flora is green, the fauna healthy yet most ponies would rather go into the Canterlot ruins than set a hoof inside of that ancient wood. With good reason of course.

What few ponies know is that it isn't the only of its kind, it has a sister on the west-coast. A misty labyrinth of trees older than civilization, rivers, swamps, ruins and wildlife among the most dangerous in the known world. It is haunted by forgotten spirits and there is sleeping magic there. Mega spells known by few and feared by the one mare that ever truly understood them.

In this old Wyldwood an unusual event takes place, as a trio of unsupervised foals running and playing throughout it without any care in the world. And for once the evils of the world are silent, either out of respect or out of fear.

"Hey, come back here!" The purple colt shouted as he ran.

"Let the poor thing go, it obviously doesn't want to play." The light blue filly stated plainly.

"It is a dog, it is supposed to be petted. Even if it is made of twigs!"

"Pretty sure that is not how it works silly." The grey unicorn said to her peer.

"Well what now? The dragon is sleeping, the trees are boring and the ghosts don't show up until Luna wakes them. I. Am. BORED!" the colt declared.

"Well... There is always the ruins down southwest. I always wanted to check them out." Said the azure filly.

"BO-RING. Ruins don't do stuff. They just... sit there. And get covered in green things." The colt answered back.

"There... are basilisks and cragadiles among the ruins." She answered.

"To the ruins then!" His exclamation echoed across the dim wood.

***

"NO. FAIR." The colt shouted just as loudly as ever. "How do you keep winning? You didn't even try to run!"

"I... took a shortcut." The unicorn filly stated proudly with a dramatic pause.

"Pretty sure there aren't any shortcuts around, we followed the road and then turned right at the closest place." The icy filly didn't agree, "Only explanation is that you are cheating as always, Étoile."

"DID NOT." She was quite offended by the accusation. "I haven't even learned any teleportation spells yet!"

"Pfft, yeah right. You probably snooped in some old spellbook and used some weird magic." Scoffed the colt, clearly annoyed at the recurrence.

"You just hate me because I am a unicorn!" She shouted at him.

"No, I just don't like you because you aren't shiny."

"But... We are VAN HOOFS, we aren't supposed to be shiny in the first place!"

"We are too!" He answered, "And we aren't supposed to have horns either."

"...You just argued against yourself, Amethyst." the glittering filly said. "And can we focus?!"

The mist grew thicker, the swamp warped and there were strange statues of various monsters here and there. Partly shattered by the old trees, partly intact as warnings and partly... leftovers. This was a place nopony was meant to find, even the most dedicated explorer risked their lives trying to reach.

"I can't see shit Captain!" The colt shouted.

"What does that even mean??" The matte filly asked.

"Read it in a book once." He stated proudly.

"What book? Daring Doo?" The tone implied insult.

"Yeah, how did you know?" And the filly facehoofed.

"Stop arguing like foals." The third one interjected.

"We are foals", they answered in unison.

"Besides the point! We aren't getting anywhere at this rate. Étoile, can you see anything?"

"Well, duh. Who do you think I am?" Étoile answered, "It's this way."

"Wait up!" The two crystal foals desperately tried to follow her into the mist.

***

SPLASH

"Eeeew, swamp water." The colt was very offended by it and tried shaking it off his hoof.

"You just don't want to admit you can't swim." The unicorn pointed out.

"So WHAT? Just teleport us across!"

"I already said I don't know how to do that!!"

"Well, do you have any other ideas?" The blue filly interjected again.

"Give me a cragadile and I will have it ferry us over." The colt boasted.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Then the unicorn kicked a skull into the swamp with a loud SPLOSH

A creature slithered through the calm waters, but the foals were to busy arguing to pay it any heed. It swam closer ever so silently, its eyes barely above the waterline. The beast was angry at the disturbance, but also curious at what manner of ponies dared venture so close and so carelessly. Although the unicorn and the colt continued arguing loudly as ever, the blue filly noticed something was off. And with a sense of curiosity that only a foal can have she carefully walked closer to the water edge and looked at the hypnotic waves.

"EEEEP!" Was all that she managed to get out before the magic began working its way through her body. The basilisk began rising itself up from the swamp, utterly dwarfing the remaining two foals. For once, the colt felt fear and stumbled backwards at the sight of the beast. The remaining filly however did not.

"HOW. DARE. YOU!" She shouted indignantly, utterly outraged that a mere beast dared to harm her friend.

The king of serpents hesitated in confusion for a moment, this is not how prey behaved. None the less it could not tolerate any intrusion into its domain, here it ruled supreme and even dragons fled in terror. Here, it was king. It crawled ever so quickly and surrounded the foolish pony, rising itself up tall and preparing its feared gaze.

"I said... HOW DARE YOU?!" The little filly repeated, not backing down. Instead she matched its stare, and yet she didn't meet the fate of her friend. Instead her own gaze pierced into the serpentine king, boring itself into its very soul. Humbling it, and threatening it with a far far worse fate.

The basilisk tried to break away, but found itself bound by magic it could not comprehend. So it stayed there, still until ordered to slither off to the side as the colt regained his confidence. With a cautious yet proud step he walked forward.

"Hey... Étoile. Nice work." Then he saw their friend. "Oh no no nononono... We are in so much trouble!"

"Oh, shut up. If you only studied as well as you boast..."

"What do you mean? There is no magic that can reverse a basilisk petrification! Everypony knows that?!"

"As I said, be quiet. I'll fix this."

"HOW??"

"QUIET!!"

And this time he did, the unicorn filly went up to the statue of one of her two only friends. Then she closed her eyes, began muttering something in an old tongue. The chanting seemed to echo from all directions, and once more the colt backed up as he couldn't recognize the spell. Then reality began to warp every so little. Light seemed to die out of the world until the filly opened her eyes as they glowed with starlight, she bowed her head and touched her head to the statue and a single spark went out. She blinked, and the petrified filly was free again.

"...EEEEP!... wha?? Where?" She turned her head and sawed the basilisk to the side, but this time it looked afraid and dared not look at the tiny ponies. Then she turned to the unicorn. "WHAT DID YOU DO?? HOW?!!"

"I study." She shrugged in response.

***

The three began walking up the forgotten stairs, and entered the stone plateau with an excited look on their faces. This was something they weren't allowed to do, a place they weren't allowed to visit. There were few books that even mentioned this place, yet many knew of it and no one dared come close. More than that, the glittering blue filly was curious. Archaeology was her big dream and this was a find beyond any other, and she alone knew it. Even if the unicorn had her own suspicions. The purple colt however, was mostly bored and didn't want to go anywhere without his friends.

"...This place is the real deal." The crystal filly stated with awe in her voice.

"All I see is rocks, mushrooms, vines and even more rocks. Oh and insects, of the small boring kind. Why did we go here again?" The colt was thoroughly unimpressed by the place.

"I don't know, there is strange magic here. Could be interesting. Wonder what it does?" The unicorn seemed to be in a daze as she spoke, clearly distracted.

"Whatever it is, we probably shouldn't mess around with it." Her blue compatriot stated flatly.

"GIRLS, I found princess Luna!"

The two fillies looked at each other, shook their heads and ignored him.

"No, I am serious. There is a picture of an alicorn here!"

This time the two of them sprinted after him. Finding him standing proudly beside a large stone relief depicting a slender winged pony with a long horn, the one thing that shouldn't be there.

"Look, its Luna!" He stated defiantly.

"Could be Celestia you know?" The grey unicorn countered.

"In Vanhoover?? Not a chance."

"You are both wrong, this isn't equestrian architecture. This ruin is older than maybe even Vanhoover, which suggests that the pony in the picture is neither of them. So the question is, who is she?"

"...I got nothing!" The energetic Colt declared.

"Isn't it obvious?" The other filly answered. Both of her friends looked at her expectantly. "We do know of a pony of old from this area that became immortal don't we?"

"That is just an old mare's tale!" Again, the colt wouldn't have it.

"Actually, the timeline fits and something just feels right about it. The stories never mentioned that she was an alicorn though, kind of an important matter to leave out. Don't you think?" The taller filly glittered extra brightly at the notion.

"Only the modern versions. Read the original sometime." The shorter filly answered plainly.

"ORIGINAL?? Where?? When did you find this?!" Aurora was positively ecstatic.

"In the old hunting lodge, in a hidden room nobody talks about. I thought the floor plan made no sense so I looked around a bit and found a whole library in there. No wonder grumpy old Caretaker is so paranoid, they have all sorts of weird stuff there."

"Then why are we here when our family already got the mystery solved? Let's go at once."

"I agree with Aurora, this place is boring. Étoile, call your snake so we can get out of here then. This place gives me the creeps. Étoile? You listening?"

The two of them looked at their weird cousin, clearly distracted. She was a bit strange, but they knew she saw things other's couldn't. Even in the family she was strange, yet accepted by her two peers. So they knew that whatever drew her attention was definitely real, and potentially dangerous.

"...Let's go." She stated with a tone they never heard from her before.

***

When they were on other bank of the damp little lake hidden within the forest their old discoveries and arguments were already forgotten in a foalish fashion as they loudly argued over the next subject, as they always did. Their presence was heard far through the forest, and felt even farther and the inhabitants hid in the shadows and the mist as they stampeded through the woods.

"So I am going to be a diva in the opera one day! And I will be fantastic!" The unicorn stated with pride.

"Will we be there?" The colt was actually curious at that.

"... No. No you will not. Why aren't you? Don't you want to see me perform?!"

"Hey, Étoile. You are the one who can see the future, how are we supposed to know?" The other filly answered.

"But... but... IT IS IMPORTANT TO ME?!" Her shout was the last thing that could clearly be heard from the ruins as they continued their adventure throughout the wilds towards the northwest.

Watching in the direction was a creature not seen around Vanhoover for over a millenium, a creature stranger than a basilisk, prouder than a dragon and fiercer than any timber wolf or hydra. A being of ancient and alien magic, feared by zebras and worshipped by ponykind. The alicorn looked after them with a bitter smile, knowing all to well their fate but unable to more than she had already done. Knowing fully well how much pain her assistance would cause them. Innocence would be lost, Duty would be broken and Redemption would be bought with damnation.

The sun was setting, dusk would come, and with it those she once damned would rise again. She never could bear to be in their presence, so she rose to her hooves. Looking to the sky she readied her wings to fly up and return to her rightful place. Yet a strange chill wind blew through the forest, it made her freeze in her steps.

Before her stood a pony, in a tattered duster and a weathered hat hiding its face. The pony shouldn't be here. It couldn't be here. Yet the feeling of recognition was unmistakable, as was the resentment and pain.

"I saved you! You would all be gone and forgotten if I hadn't!! It had to be done?! Right..."

A thousand years had passed since that voice had been last heard in the forest, yet nobody listened as the strange pony had already disappeared. Leaving only a feeling of regret within the broken mare, tears running down her face as she took flight once more and returned to the sky.