MLP-Multiverse: Chimera - The Snake's Charm

Chapter 1: Nuts and Colts... One Colt.

"Sometimes, I wonder why he left, or what she was like. Did they even want me?"

Another day inside the vault. Cold steel walls and fluorescent lights in every hallway, and a bunch of skintight blue jumpsuits. MUCH too tight for my taste, considering I'm covered in fur. Everyone seems restless, I wonder why. Mr. Mack, the Overseer, told me to keep away from the Diner for some reason. Well, he's always been nice to me, so I won't ask any questions. I should check on Miss Ellen, I got her these aspirin for a reason. I want to make sure she's doing okay... She always told me that after she takes her "magic potion" that she gets really sleepy. I wanna tell her that the bottle looks like a vodka bottle, and maybe the wizard she got it from mixed them up, but maybe not. Well, I won't be a colt much longer, pretty soon it'll be my birthday, I think... I don't really count the days, but when I do turn 10, I'll get that Pip-Boy thing that everyone seems to have. It's supposed to be a common appliance, but in all the comic books I've read, it reminds me of some kind of space-age device, what was that story? Oh right, "Doom Mongous, the Monstrous, Muscular, Martian-Slayer from Mars"... wherever Mars happens to be.

He was awesome! a pony just like me, but with huge muscles all over, a cool-looking space helmet, and heavy power armor with a jet pack, so he could FLY! He always carried a HUGE weapon that fired big green lasers that exploded everywhere! He carried a wrist-mounted computer with him that looked just like the Pip-Boy, but he called it a "Pip-Buck", for some reason. Even more amazing, however, were the gauntlets he used. His armor let him use mechanical fingers to actually fire the guns. He traveled all over the far off planet of Mars, fighting evil aliens with horns and giant eyeballs, blowing them up with shotguns, lasers, rockets, and this big thing called a "minigun". Of course, I only have the one comic book, so I don't know what happens next. I suppose if he wasn't a pony just like me, I probably wouldn't like robots, monsters, and giant lasers so much. Sometimes I feel like there aren't many other ponies out there. It feels so lonely...

When I got older, I asked Mr. Mack why everyone around me looked different, the same as he did, and why they had so many others with them. he told me that I was a pony, a creature almost extinct after the great explosion that destroyed Earth centuries ago. Even more, some of them had horns, or wings! I asked him if I had a mom, like Butch's or a dad like how he was Wally's. He told me that my father left me a long time ago, and my mother... well, she didn't make it. Knowing I was different didn't make me sad, but being alone did. Maybe that's why Mr. Mack gave me that Doom Mongous comic. He can be a grouch, and he certainly didn't think much of my mom or dad, but he seems to take good care of me. Well, at least I have a few people who don't treat me like an outsider.

I walk into the bathroom, and again, I catch sight of the mirror... my eyes. They scare me sometimes. They remind me of an old animal I read about, a snake. Yellow, and with these horrible slit pupils like some kind of monster. Like the ones from the comic. They named me "Snakebit" for a reason, they said. Because my eyes and green fur reminded them of the now extinct snake. I always try to hide them behind my hair, cause it grows really fast. I'm in luck, cause today it covers them up, but I can still look ahead. Now, off to see Miss Ellen.

I move past the restrooms, and up to Butch and his mom's room. Butch is kind of a jerk sometimes, but I think he's just mad. I've never seen his dad either, but at least he has a mom. Miss Ellen may be sleepy, but she's a sweet lady. She looks really sad lately though. I wonder if it's because She's thinking about wherever Mr. DeLoria went. He probably left her too, like MY dad. Maybe they're BOTH dealing with it in their own ways. Like I said, she's nice, nicer than the lady that Mr. Mack assigned to watch over me. Miss Armstrong is usually waiting back at our room, or treating me like a baby, not to mention she pats my head a lot, and won't stop brushing my hair. I REALLY wish she would stop that. I know it seems mean, but something about her really makes me feel weird.

I open the door, and again, I spot two or three bottles of Miss Ellen's "potion" on the floor. I'm beginning to think she gets the wrong bottles on purpose... but I see no Miss Ellen. No Butch either. I leave the note I wanted to give her, and the bottle of aspirin that the vault's doctor gave me. She'll be happy I brought em over.

Well, this is weird. Everyone is gone, except the security patrolling the hallways. What is everyone doing? I feel a sudden shiver down my spine and look over to the atrium, right where the vault entrance should be. No... no no, the vault door must NEVER be opened! No way would they go outside! I run over to the vault door, but before I can reach it, a hand grabs my shoulders.

"Hey pony-boy!" oh crap... I only know ONE person who calls me that. Stevie Mack. "What the hell are you doin' headed for the vault door? Doin' something stupid, I hope?"

"Uh... Hey Stevie... How's the security training? Learn how to shoot a gun yet?" Remember Snake, Be polite. Keep his mind occupied with stuff he likes. SOMEHOW, I end up able to talk my way out of these things.

"Yeah, actually. They let me use a 10mm the other day for target practice. Betcha wish you could try it out, huh?"

I decided to indulge him, after all, I did have a fascination with the weapons I read about. "Yeah, actually. I never used one before, but that comic book Mr. Mack gave me had all kinds of weapons and stuff!" Smiling wide, I thought everything was going well...

"Hey, you call my dad "Overseer". It's who he is. You ain't on friendly terms with him, got it?"

My first mistake, trying to give him facts. "Yes I am. Mr. Mack is nice to me, and even if you and Wally are a bit hard to get along with, I still try."

All I noticed was a wide, nasty grin spreading across his face. "Yeah, you really think that, huh? that's almost cute. Our lil' Pony-boy has a family." What a jerk, I thought. Miss Armstrong didn't want me to swear... but I REALLY hated this guy. "Ya know, you didn't answer my question. WHAT are you doing by the vault door?"

"I'm looking for wherever everyone else has gone!" Crap... don't lose your temper, say something that would make him happy. "Do you think you could help, Officer Mack?" Immediately, he flashes another grin. This one's a bit like the first one, but dopier.

"Hehe, OFFICER Mack... Man, I love the sound of that. I cannot wait! Vault security!" I knew all about Stevie... he was a bit older, but that didn't make him smarter. If he was, he would know what I thought of him. His eyes light up whenever you talk about his career in vault security because he can't wait to carry a gun around at all times. He can't wait to smack people around with that club they give you. He wasn't just a jerk, he was a sadist. If the stories about mutants were true, He would have been a prime candidate to become one of those things.

Trying to think of anything else but the jerk in front of me, it finally hit me. "Wait a minute! if Mr. Mack told me not to go to the diner, but there's nobody around... I see what's going on."

"Oh yeah? How long did THAT ONE take ya?" the asshole stared me down as if I were an idiot. I did something I should have done moments ago and walk away, hearing the words "stupid pony-boy." along with a series of laughs. Just ignore him, Snake. Anyone would have checked the door. Hearing those horror stories about big ugly mutants that eat people, monsters with scary horns and sharp claws, giant bugs, or those crazy guys with armor and guns... maybe I was stupid. I actually thought they would want to leave.

I walk towards the diner, and I put my ear to the door, but before I could hear anything, the door shifts and opens right in front of me. What I'm seeing before my eyes blows me right out of the water.

"SURPRISE!" Everyone was in the diner! There was a birthday banner, and balloons, and... everyone was wearing party hats! I see the tables all have guests, including Grandpa Stanley. Andy, the vault robot, was floating around the counter, where a HUGE birthday cake was set down, perfect for eating. I didn't know my birthday was TODAY!

"Holy crap!" I piped up.

"Hey, watch the language, lil' man..." Mr. Mack walked up to me and knelt to my level. "Ok, kiddo, hold out your hand." I do as he says and there it is, slid onto my arm, right above my hoof, the PIP... BUCK? PIP-BUCK? Like?... just like?...

"Mr. Mack, why is it called a Pip-Buck?" I look up at him questioningly. For all I know, that comic book is a fantasy, or Sci-Fi, or whatever they call it, but here it is, a Pip-Buck! JUST like in Doom Mongous's story!

"Well, kiddo, that one was your mum's before she uh... ya know, let's get to the party. We spent all day settin' this up, you need to have some fun. Don't sweat the sad stuff.", and he made a big smile. He started to look nervous for a second, but I let it pass. I had a party to attend to. After this, I would start my first day of work. FUN. I walk over to one of the tables and see Butch sitting with Wally and Paul, two other kids I usually talk to. We have kids from a lot of different families, but for some reason, I'm the only Pony. I wonder where the rest of them went.

"Heya guys, whatcha up to?" I sit down beside Paul, and the three of them start laughing. I hear them throwing around names, like "Hell's Overseers" or "Vault Dwellers" or my least favorite, "Wally and the Big Cheese". I ask em "Hey, what are all the names for?"

"Hahaha, of course you don't know, Snake-eyes." Butch responds. He KNOWS I hate my eyes, dang it. I don't wanna fight him though, so I let it pass. "We're thinking of a name for our gang, Snake." as they continued coming up with ideas, I kept listening as I thought up some ideas. I thought of an idea, but I didn't know what they would think.

"Hey guys, how about the "Vault Snakes"? I wait for the coming storm of insults, but they don't come. I hear Wally mention that he prefers "Wally and the Big Cheese", but that's pretty normal. I add "You know, cause we'll be sneaky and deadly, and we'll fight anyone who crosses us with fangs!" all of a sudden, Paul intervenes.

"Yeah, and we have ourselves a snake already! Yeah... the Vault Dwellers was a bad idea anyway..." he seems a little defeated, so I tell him it was okay. I don't like it much either, but let's face it, to win, you need to lose a few times too.

"The Vault Snakes? cool. but one thing, why are you joining in?" Butch asked.

"Well, I just want to. You guys are my friends, ya know?" Immediately upon hearing this, I hear a massive amount of laughter. "ugh, whatever guys. Just tryin' to be cool. wanna grab some cake?" I walk over to the counter, only to hear a ZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRR... and to my horror, Andy, the vault's robot sawed my cake into... HUNDREDTHS! You know, in hindsight, it probably isn't a good idea to let a floating metal spider with a buzzsaw cut a cake. Crap, now what do we eat? I try to think of something, when all of a sudden, Old Lady Palmer walks over to me, pats me on the head and asks if I'd like my present now. I had no idea I was even getting one, but I'll accept it. She puts a fresh, sticky sweetroll onto my hooves, and tells me that it's not every day that a young man, or colt turns ten years old, so I should enjoy it. I walk back to the table, and I look at the other boys, wondering what to do. Paul's nice to me, even though he pokes fun at me sometimes. Wally's kind of a jerk, but he's smart, and his family has always taken care of me, so I like him. Butch has always given me trouble, but for some reason, I don't hate him either. I know what it's like to feel alone. Wait a minute, I'm not alone...

I break the sweetroll into fourths, and hand them out. Wally tells me he doesn't want it, since I touched it, so I scarf that piece. SO GOOD... So nice of Old Lady Palmer to stop by just to give me that roll. but after I eat the first piece, I hear something. Butch's stomach growls, and he looks over, hungrily. I can tell he's about to say something stupid, so I hold up my hoof, and I place the roll piece onto the napkin in front of him. He looks... somehow shocked.

"Hey Snake-eyes, what's the big idea?" He starts to get upset somehow

"I thought you looked kinda hungry, so I gave you my second piece of th-". i try to talk, but he interrupts me.

"You feel bad for me, or something? You trying to take pity on me?" He gets mad, even though he's already picking up the roll to try and stuff his face with it. I'm confused, but I decide to keep trying.

"No, I just heard your stomach growl, so I thought I'd give ya the last piece, since I already had one. I mean, they are a bit small." Again, he interrupts me by putting the last piece down angrily, pushing me onto the floor, and storming out of the diner.

"Stupid Pony. I don't need YOU to feel sorry for me. You're just a green, horse-faced, snake-eyed freak!" Alright, I'm upset now. I get up and put up my hooves. I know I can take a hit, and even if I didn't want to hurt Butch, hooves are a LOT harder than hands... but he's already heading out the door. I look over at Wally who mutters something to me. When I ask him, he tells me I just can't reason with him, but mostly because I'm an idiot myself. Does he ALWAYS have to be a jerk?

After I talk to the guests, Grandpa Stanley gives me a baseball cap, so I put that on, deciding to wear it for the rest of the party, and look around some more. Paul gives me a comic book, telling me it's definitely NOT from Wally, which does put me a little at ease. maybe he's NOT always a jerk. After stowing it in my pocket, I pick up the last piece of sweetroll and run out the door. It may be my party, but I want my friends to be there. I see Butch sitting down in the hallway, slumped against the wall. He looks over at me and gets up, his face red with anger.

"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone!?" He gets up, fists clenched, and yells at me.

"Hey Butch, will ya calm down? I was only trying to help." I just wish he'd realize that maybe someone just wanted to be a friend to him. Difficult as he is, I persisted. "Look, it ain't me feeling bad for ya. I just wanted to share the sweetroll with ya. You always talk about how much you like them..." I raise an eyebrow and hold it out, as if baiting him. He seems to get the picture, as he reaches out and swipes the piece of roll out of my hands.

"AHA! I knew you would let your guard down! I was just waiting for the right moment, ya know?" I rolled my eyes and agreed with him. He got another bit of food, so I felt like I achieved my goal for tonight. I turned to go back to the party, when he called out for me to wait.

"Hey, follow me real quick, I wanna show ya something cool." I feel taken aback, but I decide to listen. I dunno why he'd do anything stupid if I decided to share with him, so I follow him. Eventually he stops me and pulls something out. He presses a button on a small black handle, and a slender blade pops out. Instinctively I put my hooves up.

"Whoa, wait a second, WAIT. I'm not gonna stab ya or anything." He hands it over to me, and lets me hold it... It's extremely difficult, as I still have HOOVES, but apparently Equestrians can still hold smaller objects in their hooves, if just barely. "Wow, It's floating right over your ha-uh, hoof." he chuckles nervously, maybe he doesn't want to offend me for once. He was right though. The switchblade that Butch gave me to hold was hovering right next to my hoof. It was as if I was willing it to stay in place. I tried something fun, that thing I see some people do with pencils, twirling them in their fingers... sure enough, the switchblade started spinning around. Butch jumps about a foot in the air. "Whoa... how did you do THAT!?", He shouts excitedly.

I finally respond, "I have no idea." but this is really c-AAAAGH!" I jump a bit and point the blade to the floor. There it is, crawling across the floor, a radroach. The vault has had occasional pest problems, but the roaches were HUGE. Well, for roaches they were huge. about the size of a cat. That's another animal that they had before the great explosion. I know one thing for sure, Butch is scared to death of them. I don't know why, since he picks fights with everyone, so why just the roaches?

"AAAAAGH!" As if on cue, he runs to my side and freezes in place, staring at the great roach crawling towards him. I hold the switchblade steady, and turn to him.

"Hey Butch, you ok with me borrowing the knife?" His eyes go wide as he tries to spit something out, it sounds like a few things, kinda like "How are-", You're gonna- ", and "What!?" is the only thought I could put together, so I walk in front of him and pull the knife to my side. I step toward the roach, and it rears it's ugly head back and flickers those spindly antennae. It clicks it's mouth things, the part that looks like a finger moustache. the more I look at it, the more it unnerves me. I'll make this quick. I walk up to the creature, and as it jumps on me, I tense up. I shove my arm forward, and the roach lands right on the blade. As nervous as I am, having squashed a huge bug, the first thing out of my mouth is "What an idiot!"

"Snake... you WASTED that roach! that was awesome!" He runs up to me, slugs my shoulder, and starts leaping about like he drank a few too many Nuka-Colas. Man, speaking of which, I'm starting to feel thirsty. As butch sings my praises and runs over to kick the now-dead bug, I hand him the switchblade, and tell him where I'm going.

"Hey Butch, the party's almost over, you wanna go grab some Cola?" I offer him a hoof before he smacks it away.

"No way, Snake-eyes, I'm following you, then I'm taking yours." he closes his eyes and smiles proudly. I get the message. I head back to the diner and head straight to the Cola machine. I wait a minute, and study the machine. As I stare at it, I start to wonder, what if there are other pony things out there, like the Pip-Buck. I dismiss the thought, buy 2 bottles, and set one down for Butch to steal. He'll be happy. Soon after, the party ends. I have to go back to my room. I don't really like Miss Armstrong, but I'll have to deal with her for now. Think happy thoughts. Once I pass the G.O.A.T. I can start working. Maybe I can move out... I hope so. Well, maybe I can read that comic book once I get back. I look at the cover, and there it is. "Doom Mongous Versus Raw Marrow, the Martian King" WHOA! Wally gave me THIS!? No way... Finally, I can see what happens next!

Pip-Buck Stats:

Strength: 5 "You're a garden-variety Pony."

Perception: 7 "How does that tiny neck support those eyes?"

Endurance: 6 "Oooh... tough guy."

Charisma: 9 "A perfect gentlecolt. No, seriously."

Intelligence: 5 "Well, if AVERAGE is fine with you..."

Agility: 6 "Well, you'd put a house cat to shame..."

Luck: 2 "Somehow, you would break the Mirror Pool."