ZerØ Hope

by SoarinSoren

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Crossover, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad, Other
Length: 1296

A ghoul's story on the most catastrophic disaster to happen in Equestria.

When the megaspells dropped, it seemed it was the end of ponykind. Rather, it was instead a new beginning. One man, brought by an unknown force, shares his dying thoughts on a terminal. He was there before Equestria became engulfed in balefire, and he lived afterward. In his life, he had been to many places, many hellholes, but nothing prepared him for this.

Just something I thought of. Basically, it's from the perspective of a trained assassin who became a pony, and unwittingly caused the end of Equestria. Yes I know it looks like Fallout Equestria. Yes it is a Fallout Equestria fic. No it does not take place in Kkat's Fallout Equestria universe. Dark tag is for the annihalition of a species.

Published 2012-08-20 07:14:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-20 07:14:02 UTC

The Day The Spells Dropped

War...War never changes. And War never ends. My life was filled with war, for quite a long time. I was an assassin. I was good at what I did, and I was proud of what I did. I took out many influential people. My most prized head? The one of Handsome Jack, dictator of Pandora. They called me a Vault Hunter there. In time, I left. Pandora was a hellhole, and I preferred a better class of planet. I did not expect a better class of universe.

That's right, whoever is reading these messages. I was summoned to Equestria. For what purpose, I did not know. I still don't believe I got the full answer. But I came here, in a flash of light. I wore my suit, and carried my sword. It was almost like I was the same. I quickly became a monster hunter. I was already trained as an assassin, and these monsters weren't unlike the ones on Pandora. Savage, rabid, and annoying as hell. I made my money through slaughter, like I had before. When the war came, I was finally allowed to practice my art. Luna came in, and asked me to kill one of the Zebra commanders. I did it, without remorse, and was given another contract. And another. And another. I almost never recieved a break. But I didn't care, for the thrill of the kill was back, and I was content. Finally, I was given one last job, with the reward being a spot in the Stables.

Now don't even get me started on Stable-Tec. They were extremely smart. The Stables were one of the things they built, but the also built these amazing contraptions called Pip-bucks. Being in favor the princess at the time, I was able to get my own special version. The functions alone were immensely useful, but now I'm more amazed that it still works. It's been 200 years or so, and it's still running like the day I bought it. Their terminals are just as good, however since you're reading this on one it should be obvious. Amazing craftmanship. Reminded me of Maliwan a bit.

Right, back to the story. Don't got much time left, can't really waste it on something you know can I? Well, I didn't finish the job in time. I was in my suit, with a sniper rifle trained on some zebra who's name I'd forgotton. I was just about to squeeze the trigger when they gave the order. Even from Roam, I could see the explosions. Then suddenly, hellfire was raining from the sky. I sat there, on my haunches, accepting my fate. It was odd, looking back on it. It was the second time I just didn't care. The first was when I came to Equestria. I didn't really care that I was a pony. It was a little odd. At the time, I just put it down to Pandora. I guess I still can say it was that. Pandora changed me. For good or for worse, I cannot say. Perhaps after seeing Mordecai I just thought, it could be worse. Or maybe I just have lost all hope.

Or, maybe I felt guilty. It was I who showed the ponies how to make guns, and I was the one who said that weapons of mass destruction could be useful. In a way, I suppose this entire mess is on my shoulders, or whatever these ponies have. I guess this death is karma. Or maybe watching the results was.

No matter what happened, I sat there and watched as the balefire claimed Roam. I was in the center of it all. To this day I still wonder how I survived. Not completely unscathed, as I did become ghoulified, but it could have been worse. It should've been worse. Yet here I am, still alive. My best guess is that my shield stopped the majority of the blast, while my armor protected me from a small amount of radiation. Or, I may have just had a bit of luck. Whatever the case, I lived while everyone else died.

After the bombs dropped, I just kept on living. I hunted for food, at least until I realized it was unnessecary, as I was dead. After that, I just walked. I walked for a really long time. In time, those that got into the Stables walked out into the wasteland. They set up towns. They rebuilt civilization. And with that, the also rebuilt Pandora.

The features weren't noticeable at first. But in time, I realized that most places were built out of scrap. Then, I started seeing more mutative animals. They reminded me so much of the wildlife on Pandora. And finally came the raiders. They were crazy druggies who wore masks and tried to kill you. I started feeling back at Pandora, killing bandits, slaughtering animals, and looting all of the above. It was fun.

Then, things got out of hand. The Enclave came down from the sky. Other humans started coming out around the wasteland. And another long bloody war began. It finally ended when the last megaspell was used on an Enclave vertibird. Someone slammed right into the Enclave command ship, blowing it up, and scattering the Enclave. I would sometimes get contracts to go an mop up the remains. Other times, I would get contracts to get rid of the remaining Steel Rangers. I took all kinds of contracts. Because War never changes, war never ends, and war is my business.

Y'know, at one point, I thought it would be nice to have some friends. Or at the least, the rest of the vault hunters. While I only worked with them for a short time, I felt like we were an unbeatable team. We worked in perfect unison, and I could've used that. Really, I could've used anyone. Sadly, there was no one else but me. Most ponies who could fight sat on the sidelines, either afraid of the wasteland or unable to leave their home undefended. It was a shame. Sometimes, I fantasized about a 'Hero of the Wasteland' who I could tag along with. Alas, there was none. And so I did my job alone.

I guess that got me where I am today. With a lot of Rad-X forced into my body and bullet wounds in my chest. Really, it's a miracle I can write this. But I want someone, or somepony, or some anything to read who I was. I don't want to be forgotten. My name is ZerØ. I was an assassin. And now I'm dead. And I'm crawled up in one of those Stables that I could've been in. Heh. Ain't life grand. Gotta love the irony of the Wasteland. It's almost as good as the humor on Pandora. I'm going to try the downstairs. I think it flooded. Maybe I can get a little bit of radiation through to heal myself. Amazing. I get bombs dropped on me, my armor fused to my dead skin, and it takes a few bullet wounds and Rad-X to kill me. I went through hell and back on Pandora, and now I'm just going to di...

______

Author's note. This is just something I thought of for awhile. I thought, what would a ghoul say if they watched the megaspells dropped? Then I thought more and I thought, what if that ghoul was from Borderlands? It took me awhile to pick a character, but settled on ZerØ. He was the only one who seemed capable of survival, and nothing is known about him.

Side note, this is NOT in Kkat's Fallout Equestria world. In this one, Zero brought about the apocalypse, and the Lightbringer was never born.