Fallout Equestria: The Vanhoover Chronicles

The City of New Pegasus was nothing like its predecessor, the only clouds in sight were the dark rumbling curtain above (somehow both bringing far too much and far too little rain at the same time). The "Casinos", while impressive to the average wasteland savage, were likewise a poor mare's version of the City of Splendour. The inhabitants liked to claim that it was the most civilized place this side of Canterlot, but calling it civilized was hollow praise to say the least.

The streets were filled with addicts and would be robbers whose luck were ever in short supply. The ruins and hovels that passed for houses could be razed by a strong wind, standing in stark contrast to the concrete giants of the Strip. There were three actual casinos with their own distinctive styles; the jagged spires of the Hive, the garish extravaganza of the Orange Dawn, the more Utilitarian Crypt. Then there was the brutalistic office building that the Sunset Caravans used as its headquarters, an ugly thing that fit more in with the industrial ruins of Fillydelphia than the City of Vice. The last two sites of note were the Orange Manor with its famed orchards (worked by unpaid "servants") and the juggernaut of an industrial fortress that was the old Ironshod factory.

And guess what you get when you mix greed, drugs and a steady supply of firearms? You get New Pegasus, a hellhole that should have been wiped out by raiders or otherwise. Both the Steel Rangers and the zebras had tried of course, for over a century without success. The place attracted every raider, mercenary and slaver from easily half of Equestria, it was a place where the strong ruled, where justice was served with a revolver and where the horrors of the wasteland was forgotten in a drug filled haze until yet another pony was thrown in the gutters.

There was one singular rule that was the law of New Pegasus, either you were with one of the five families, or you were a nobody. For most ponies that means picking one of the five and doing everything in your power to be accepted. Membership meant a home, a tribe, actual food and of course: POWER. For certain more infamous freelancers it meant doing a balancing act where you tried to not insult a prospective employer. If you didn't have a family, you at least needed friends. Fortunately, if there was anything in this accursed world I was good at, it was making friends. In fact, freakishly good at it if you listened to the rumours on the street.

High Roller was one such friend. He wasn't a recent acquaintance however, but one of my oldest still living friends. Or well, lovers would be a more appropriate term all things considered. Either way, every casino had its own unique gimmick to stay competitive, the Crypt's thing was that it was bank as well as a casino. As a result High Roller might be the richest pony since the balefire apocalypse. There was one more thing though, and why it was my favourite place in the city. Every single member of the Crypt Keepers was a ghoul.

***

The interior of the casino was meant to be nostalgic with its blend of old and new furniture, framed movie and propaganda posters, various art objects standing on pedestals, and ancient songs sung by mostly dead ponies. In all honesty it was better than nearly every other place west of Canterlot, and remarkably similar to Tenpony Tower on the east coast (albeit with reversed policies on ghouls). I still didn't quite like how it was decorated, it felt less like a statement of culture and more a constant reminder for the ghouls of their past in an attempt to keep themselves sane.

Only reason I used it as my base of operations these days (definitely not a home), was my friendship with the owner and the rest of the ghouls. Although they were emotionally stuck in the past, they were a nice change of pace from the rest of the ponies of wasteland. Having a place to come back to, where the locals didn't die off every few decades was also a nice perk.

"Oh, miss Starlight! Welcome back. I trust the journey went well?"

The purple coloured ghoul had a soft, cheerful tone in her voice. Miss Cheerilee, from Ponyville. An old acquaintance of the Apple family, of the ministers' generation I believe. Most of the ponies in the Crypt were like her, harmless civilians in a world that left them behind.

"You could say that, and the flowers were delivered per contract."

I neglected to mention the small army of raiders I had to fight myself through to reach that memorial. Instead I decided to change the subject to something a bit more pleasant.

"And Ditzy decided to send presents when I mentioned why I was in the area."

"Muffins no doubt."

"Muffins."

I replied as I levitated up the two bags, one with the muffins and one with the bits and caps.

"At least some things never change. Most things these days are so... strange if you know what I mean?"

She looked in dismay at the bottle caps that once belonged on soda bottles.

"Trust me, I know."

"It is weird, most of the young ponies feel so foreign to talk to. But not you, you act like you were one of us. Why do you do so much for us old fools? Was your mother a stable pony or something?"

The question was genuine, curious and hinted at some confusion. Didn't she know?

"How long have I helped you ponies out?"

"I don't know? A few years now?"

"It has been seven decades and three years since I first visited this place."

Her face went blank, her voice a bit worried.

"That can't be right... It can't be... Wha.. Rose had just left when you appeared and it was just last week?"

Oops, she was having a breakdown. Can't have her going feral, High Roller would be furious.

"Cheerilee, look me in the eyes."

A sharp commanding tone to cut through the confusion. A whisper of a spell, a few moments of memories gone. She wouldn't be able to tell the difference but it would be enough. Note to self, do not talk about that subject with this mare. She can't handle it.

"Huh? Wha... Oh, miss Starlight! What were we talking about?"

"I delivered the flowers to Big Machintosh, that bag is money for my account and the other bag is muffins from Ditzy to you. And I was wondering if High Roller is available."

"Oh, good. Thank you, it means a lot. And what was the rest of it?"

"Muffins from Ditzy Doo. And is High Roller home?"

"Ah, at least something never change. So many things seem strange these days... And yes, yes. He is in either his office or his suite, he wanted to talk to you about something. He seemed very excited and devious about the whole thing."

"Thank you. Enjoy the muffins, you deserve them."

***

I walked leisury through the corridors, meeting an old familiar face at every few step. They seemed to be doing good for themselves, relatively fine dresses and suits considering the state of their environment. A few raised their eyebrows at my presence, newcomers or those who were beginning to forget. Other's reassured them that I lived there, and the guards tipped their hats in greeting as I passed by.

Speaking of guards, he had two of them by the door to his office. Dressed in business suits of the old days, black with white scarves and sizable machine guns. One of them activated the intercom and announced my arrival and the other opened the door.

And there he sat, behind a mahogany desk, his blackened coat had lost its lustrous deep blue colour and his gilded mane was now a sickly pink. His eyes were the typical pallid white of a canterlot ghoul, but unlike others of his kind, he had a sharp mind still. He had a conniving smile, as he usually did.

The door was closed shut behind me and we just observed each other for a few moments. We had met at the Gala once, oh so many years ago. The event had been something of a bust that year, and I had been standing alone on the balcony overlooking the western heartlands. Most ponies had the good sense to leave me alone in that moment, but not him. Celestia's presence at the celebration had brought up bad memories and I could have sworn she recognized me. As a result I sought the solitude of the balcony and stared westwards, looking to the lone star in the sky that whispered of my real home.

It was in that place he had shown up, been ever so patient, asking about the star in question. As it was, he had also recognized me from my stay in the capital as a filly. And yet he didn't freak out, he was instead worried. Of all things he was worried, a unicorn aristocrat of mild renown and a personal student of Celestia. And he cared about the lost stray she had thrown out of Canterlot.

I closed my eyes ever so slowly and opened them again, looking at him in the present. So very changed and yet he remained himself. Unbroken, uncorrupted, and still the same silly fool as he was before the bombs. He reminded me a lot of Amethyst, which might explain why I tolerated his presence all those years.

"What is the scheme this time?"

"One thing at a time ma chéri. First, drinks."

He levitated up a wine bottle and poured the two expensive glasses for us. The Canterlot accent distracted me, as did the snow globe that my eyes stared at. It contained a miniature Canterlot, but the supposed snow was pink and radioactive. It had to have been a post war production, but who in Equestria would make such a thing?

Our glasses clinked in celebration of a dead kingdom and I gave the wine a taste. It was familiar yet distant...

"Is this... genuine Bakerbell wine from the orchards of Baltimare? How did you get hold of this??"

"Some scavenger desperately wanted somepony to pay off his gambling debt. I might have informed him that I would pay hoofsomely for more bottles of this kind. Although I doubt he would survive the trip, maybe you would be up for it?"

"Travelling across the continent and just to get you some wine? By Luna's sweet flank, not a chance."

"A pity, I would travel with you if it weren't for the need to keep this place running. Haven't been to that city since the End. I do wonder how it held up?"

"Neither have I to be honest... Hold on, are you trying to nostalgia bait me just so that you can get some expensive alcohol? Because it isn't going to work!"

"Eh, if I had somepony I could trust the Crypt with then it could be a date."

"The world is dead, Roller, we have more important things to do than to dance in the flower fields."

"Where did your sense of romance go? You have become so grumpy in recent years, what happened?"

As always, the friendly pseudo-therapist. Didn't he know just how dangerous old world blues was?

"I ran into Silver Spark in Canterlot a while back. Tried bringing her here but she didn't make it."

"Ah... She was always a sweetheart. You couldn't have teleported her or something?"

Why did.. oh why didn't I think of it? It was so obvious, it should have been my first solution. I even teleported out of Canterlot in the first place and then didn't think of teleporting her here. It would have been a tiresome effort but I could have pulled it off. I could have saved her?

"..."

The telekinetic grip on my glass wavered and it fell to the floor and shattered alongside my self control. I covered my face and desperately tried to not break down completely. I was about to weave my own personal spell to escape to a place of tranquility before he distracted me. Eventually I regained my composure.

"I am slipping. It is finally happening. Damnation..."

"Hey, I'm with you. It is the same with all of us."

"Is it? I'm not a ghoul."

"No, but you might as well be. Trust me, even Celestia had issues keeping track of things every now and then. And her life was ordered and structured in a way nopony's life is these days. Nopony can keep it together all the time, not even the young ones. DjPon3 tries to keep some sense of normality together but even she is slipping."

"You do realize that there is a new DjPon3 every few decades"

"Wait, You mean it isn't a ghoulified Vinyl Scratch? Really?"

"No, there is some other pony running the radio show. And can we focus on my emotional breakdown and the risk of me going feral here? It is slightly more important than your favourite radio show."

"Sorry. You made a slip up, somepony you cared about died. There is no way to put this lightly but... shouldn't you be used to it by now? How many ponies have we lost over the decades?"

"You don't understand, she was M.A.S. and good at it. There was a fair chance she knew what Twilight Sparkle was up to, and if there was a terraforming megaspell somewhere then we could have made it work. Not to mention, I need a good engineer for what I plan on doing."

"And that is? You have always been vague about it."

Cute, picking a moment of weakness to ask the important questions. Still, he is a useful ally.

"Navarro."

He frowned for a moment before giving me his sly smile again.

"I'm game. How do we bring it down? We don't exactly have any mega spells lying around."

"That was part of what I need an engineer for, there are a few unfinished projects the old government left lying around. However, it isn't the kind of stuff you build in your backyard."

He was silenced for a long while as he observed me, trying to divine my plan.

"It's in Vanhoover isn't it? That's the reason you keep disappearing north? It's not just nostalgia trips, are they?"

"I'm not answering that."

"Probably for the best, but I'm with you. And I know somepony else whom might be."

"Who?"

"There was a white and black unicorn mare who turned up at the strip a few days ago, got as perfect of a coat and mane as you do. Got sparkles in the mane and everything. She didn't recognize me of course, but I knew her. She is staying at the Orange Dawn."

"Lance is...still alive?"

***

The guard ponies of the Orange Dawn were hesitant to let me through. But I had left my arms at the Crypt and they had no official orders to keep me out, so they let me enter with a feeble warning of staying out of trouble. I barely noticed their presence. There was more important matters at hoof. Far more important matters. Shimmering Lance was mare of little note to the rest of the world, too interested in the distant past to be care about the war effort. Yet she contributed in her own way, as a historical and martial scholar she carried out archaeological expeditions on her own, unarmed. Her, a unicorn who barely knew any spells. Her, the fiercest hoof to hoof combatant in Equestria.

And she was my friend, the only one who I could actually talk to about the books I read. The only pony in all of Canterlot that had any proper interest in equine history. I had honestly forgotten that she existed, just as I had forgotten Silver Spark.

Perhaps I had been wandering the wasteland alone far too long, ponies are inherently communal creatures. We need a tribe to stay civil and sane, and with the destruction of Equestrian society ponies couldn't handle it. How they keep turning raider generation after generation... I was a fool to think that I could stand apart from it all.

I'm getting off track. It had been over a century and a half, and now she turns up all of sudden.

And that was definitely her sitting on a bar stool with a glass of some alcoholic beverage. Wine most likely. She was muscular for a civilian mare of the old days, her white coat was perfectly clean, and her pitch black mane glittered when she moved (did I copy that from her?). She was definitely beautiful, gorgeous by the standards of the wasteland. So it was strange that ponies seemed to stay away from her, then again. She was never the most social of ponies, right?

I struggle to remember things from before the balefire, unless there is something specific for me to focus on it just sort of blurs together or is covered by a virtual fog. Maybe it isn't a recent thing and I just got used to the ways of the wasteland and forgot about how to be a proper Equestrian. If that was the thing, then I definitely needed somepony to remind me.

I needed her.

She recognized me, and there was a clear look of shock on her face. Slowly trotting closer I realized that I never figured out what happened to her, she had a tendency to disappear for periods of time and... she looked pristine. As if she had stepped straight out of the past...

Oh...

She did? Didn't she?

When I reached her I just instinctively snuggled her in silence, ignoring the collective gasp of the other casino matrons. If anyone bothered us, they would die. If I had to wipe out the entire casino then so be it. Sure, the wasteland was horrible but how could I have forgotten it. An emotion, so very integral for a pony's emotional and mental stability. Silver was amusing, Roller was nostalgic, Shimmer... she was safe. In all of my life, she was one of the few ponies I could truly feel safe with. I let out an audible sigh of content as she ruffled my mane and asked the obvious question.

"Goldie, I thought you disliked time travel?"

"Oui, I took the long route."

My emotions must have shown through as her eyes had a look of concern.

"What year is it?"

"186 of Luna's reign."

"So why are you alive?"

"Somepony has to fix things. The princesses left a mess."

"Alone?"

I nodded.

"Not entirely alone but yes."

"All this time... Your not handling it well. Come on, we have room."

The two of us began walking towards the stairs as she led the way. Her voice was quiet, as always. Never much for talking, she preferred the Canterlot Library over the busy streets and cafés of the capital. That was something I appreciated back then. Still, one shouldn't confuse her lack of volume with a lack of confidence.

"This is about Celestia isn't it? Proving to yourself that you don't need the princesses?"

"Not just her..."

"You can't live your life trying to get the approval of ponies who are long gone. They aren't going to answer, you know that. Isn't it time you went on with your life?"

"At this point that would mean giving up."

"Is it that bad?"

"..."

She knew me well enough to catch on to the implication even if she wasn't used to the ways of the wasteland. There was more than one form of roulette played in this scrap heap of a city so to speak. In the wasteland you either had a reason for staying alive, or you didn't. As simple as that.

***

As she opened the door the voice of a hyperactive stallion was heard inside.

"Shimmer, you won't believe this! The sink has a magical talisman that can generate virtually endless amounts of water, how in the world do you ponies come up with all this stuff?!"

His mood changed drastically when the two of us stepped in, possibly because of her worried look. It was however more likely that he saw something in me. I most certainly recognized something in that buck. Something truly inequine and alien. My age alone had alienated me from the common pony, but this stallion was far far older. More akin to Celestia than a foolhardy survivor like myself.

And much like her, he had seen far too much blood and death in his lifetime. It was like gazing upon a fickle god, it could be compared to smoking in a room filled with gasoline. Foolish, and with one mistake everything explodes. However, I cared little for gods.

"The Doctor I presume."

"Yes, that's me. And you are?"

"Golden Starlight, head archivist of the M.O.I. and close friend of Shimmering Lance."

She had a look of shock when I recognized him, she hadn't even mentioned his existence. So I felt it would be courteous to explain the situation.

"Shimmer, you're not an astral mage. You can't time travel on your own, and there aren't all that many ponies around foolish to travel past the end of the world."

Turning to the beige and brown stallion, who looked oh so very pedestrian, I continued.

"Ditzy Doo mentioned you. I'm one of the few ponies who understands her without her having to write everything down, and when the subject of time travel came up one time she talked about your adventures for hours on end."

"Derpy?? She is still around? Is she doing all right?"

"Her coat has been burned off, she has not a single feather left, barely any hairs in her mane or tail, and some savage cut her tongue out. She has been trying to help ponies for over a century and half of them shoot at her. And yet she keeps going, always cheerful, always helpful. Said it was something you taught her."

I walked closer to him, stared into his eyes and asked the question that had been on my mind since she first talked about it. And oh was I furious at the thought.

"She is the kindest pony I have met in nearly two centuries, despite everything she has been through."

I struggled with keeping my composure as I continued.

"So WHY?!"

Shimmer was stunned at my outburst, and barely whispered.

"Goldie?"

"WHY IN THE NAME OF EVERYTHING UNHOLY DID YOU LEAVE HER BEHIND?!"

He just stood there, unphazed, with a wounded look. Not a shred of fear, but there was some regret, and a lot of painful memories. That I could tell, he had made that choice before. How many times? Did he just run off and leave heartbroken ponies in his wake?

"You know why..."

It was all he said. The tone however, suggested that it was obvious.

I backed off, confused at the suggestion. Looking at Shimmer I realized it, it was indeed obvious.

"Because it would be too painful to see her die. All other concerns are secondary... When you have seen enough death, you either give up or you run away..."

Looking back to buck in question.

"You are like me..."

My voice barely a whisper.

We stood there in silence for a long while, until I broke it with a question.

"Why are the two of you here, in this era?"

The stallion explained in the most nonsensical way possible.

"It isn't as much why as it is a thing that just happens, she wanted to see if the pony kingdom survived and this was as a good place as any. As for this exact time and location, it was just ended up that way."

"Fate then?"

I looked at my old mare friend, with a rare sense of hope.

"Will you stay? Please? I need the support if I am going to get through this."

Her eyes looked distraught and conflicted, but she shook her head.

"No, this isn't my era and you are just chasing old ghosts. You need to stop."

"Please don't say that..."

My voice faltered.

"Please, Shim-Sham. I need you!"

I took a step towards her and stretched out a hoof. In respone she jumped backwards and her horn glowed. In a moment an ethereal black void covered her, shimmering like the night sky. Her eyes two glowing white orbs. It was her unique spell, the magic reinforcement that let her literally tackle full grown dragons. There was no hate, no anger that I could sense from her. Only fear.

She was afraid of me, of what I had become. We had barely interacted for an hour but she could still sense that something was wrong, and it scared her.

***

An empty room apart from me, they had left without any further words. Not that they were needed. Everypony I knew seemed to either disappear, die or reject me. As with Silver, Shimmer had left me in a state of bitter nostalgia. And I was reminded that there was two kinds of roulette being played in New Pegasus.

"She did tell me to die, didn't she?"

I had left the revolver at the Crypt.

No issue. My horn glowed and it appeared in a bright flash.

Removing all bullets but one I spun it with as much speed as I could.

Put the cold barrel to my throat.

Ka-click

A soft telekinetic pull.

CLICK

Only disappointment.

There was something else that I had forgotten, I could feel it tugging at my mind. Levitating the gleaming gem out of my saddle bag, it was a soul gem. That much I knew, and it was a memento. From whom I had no idea, but it was somepony important. More than that, it was filled with a sense of purpose.

Reminding me once more.

"First fix things. Then I can finally rest."