Fallout: Equestria - All Roads Lead Home

Prologue: Going Postal

"No need for bombs, when hate will do."

War, war never changes. But ponies do, through the roads they walk.

My father once told me that. I never really understood what he meant. Maybe that’s why I still remembered those words even after he passed away. Or maybe he knew I would become a glorified courier when I grew up. He always had this weird way of predicting the future, and that dumbfounded a small colt like me. I only wished he could be with me.

“Equestria to Wildcard. You awake in there?”

A green hoof waved in front of my face. To my left was the most talkative mare in all of the Wasteland, Ivy Jewel. I still couldn’t believe I got stuck with the new filly. At least Vineyard was nice enough to give me an easy supply delivery this time. All we had to do was head to New Appleloosa, drop off the shipment at the local general store to receive payment, and return. So simple that a foal could do it blindfolded. But my sanity could only handle so much.

“So when are we going to fight off some blood thirsty raiders?” Ivy was bouncing up and down as we walked across the dry dusty, brown ground. “I’ve always wanted to show those scumbags how a unicorn like me dances. Hey! Are you even listening?!”

In the corner of my crystal blue eyes I saw her spin a weathered 10mm pistol in the air with her magic. It was standard that all couriers of Wasteland Express be supplied with a weapon in case some ponies along the way wanted to be “problematic”. I, personally, carried an assault rifle that was covered in blue duct tape and welding marks from all the times I’ve upgraded and repaired her. On the top of the rifle body’s picatinny rail sat a 2.5x compact scope. I had made it a hobby of mine to restore all the equipment I used to working order, or at least tried to. But, judging by my cutie mark, you would never guess that this dark, dirt-tan stallion had a thing for repairing things. The cutie mark that fate had gifted me was a single playing card, a joker with each suit in the corners of the card. I’d pondered its meaning for most of my life, only ever coming up with one halfass answer: I was just lucky.

I could feel wrinkles on my face form as the crack of a sudden gunshot and a scream sounded from off to my side. Snapping my head towards the source, I saw Ivy stunned as her pistol was now in the dirt of the road, still smoking. I facehoofed.

“You know, I thought pulling the cargo was going to be the only pain in my flank, but you’re getting there.” I could’ve felt her puppy dog eyes that were trying to melt my irradiated heart. I let a sigh escape my lungs and helped Ivy up. A blush raced across my face. “Sorry, I normally don’t like to work with other ponies.”

The young mare smiled and picked up her pistol with her magic. Usually, I’d have lectured my traveling partner for doing something so incredibly stupid that even the director of the old world’s Ministry of Morale would have facehoofed, but it was her first delivery, so I decided to cut her some slack.

A question broke through my train of thought. “Hey Ivy,” She looked at me with pure innocent eyes. “Why did you become a courier? Usually, ponies your age think this is the most boring job in all of the Wastes, so what made you join?”

She lit up like a gift tree on Hearth’s Warming Eve. “Well, my father was a courier before he retired, and his father before him. I guess you could say it’s a family tradition for the stallions in the family. I’m the only child in my family and I wanted to make my father proud, so I signed up.”

Family, the only thing most ponies really had left. It’s what I considered one of life’s great virtues. Like a single, warm beam of light that pierced the thick clouds that locked our skies.

“Is he proud of you?” Ivy stopped in her tracks. Clearly, her family hadn’t approved of what she’s doing. But what could I’ve done? Some random ponies’ advice on someone else's life is just too unwelcome.

I shifted my hooves as I tried to change the conversation. “Sorry.” I tipped my desperado hat down. “We could talk about something else if you would like.”

Her reddened yellow eyes started to swell up with tears. ‘Excellent job, Wildcard. You made another pony cry.’ Ivy wiped away her tears and began to happily trot next me. She smiled at me. "I would like that.”

*** *** ***

The next few hours were uneventful. We decided to build a camp for the night. After gathering some wood for a fire, I went to check how far we had gotten. Judging by the map I carried with me, we’re only roughly a half an hour away from New Appleloosa. I looked over to the now sleeping mare next to the fire. She was actually doing quite well for her first delivery. Usually, new couriers would be either completely gung-ho, actually trying to pick fights with ponies, or scared of everything, including their shadow. But Ivy was different. She had the making of a great courier.

I let out a hearty yawn as I put the map back in my travel saddlebags and pulled out a half filled bottle of apple whiskey. I popped off the cork with my teeth and spit it into the dirt. With a movement that would make a light weight blush, I downed the crisp apple blended. No drink in the whole Wasteland would top Applejack’s Crispy Apple Whiskey. The world started to spin a little in my view, but the feeling went throughout my whole body was great.

I lay down on my back, looking up at the grey cloud cover. I always wondered what was up there. What the sky looked like without clouds. What the sun would look like. Would it be just like how the old world books described it? The thoughts danced in my brain as I drifted into sleep.

*** *** ***

I felt a cold barrel jab my shoulder.

“Get up.” A voice demanded.

I opened my eyes to see three ponies standing in front of me; all armed. The one that woke me was a dark grey pegasus that wore a thin black suit lined with extremely advanced technology with a rifle battlesaddle. He was giving me a stoic look, his blue eyes filled were a hazed void of emptiness. The beautiful tan-coated unicorn mare next to him gave me a wicked smile.

“This is a robbery, darling.”

“You ain’t getting shit from us!” my young companion boldly proclaimed.

An eight-shot revolver pointed at her head. I looked to Ivy Jewel, “We’ll just give them what they want. If they wanted us dead, we already would be.”

The emerald mare gave a loud sigh, “Fine.”

“You’re wiser than most,” the third pony, a white coated earth pony with a slicked back silver mane, said. Dressed to the nines in a grey suit and black tie, he approached me.

“We don’t want anyone to get hurt, so would you kindly retrieve your shipping manifesto for me?”

I followed the orders, slowly walking over to my bags and beginning to search for the documents. Ivy Jewel’s pistol was only a few feet away from me. All I had to do was—

“Don’t even think about it!” the tan bandit ordered.

‘Shit.’ I grabbed the documents and returned to the suit. I placed the shipment order on the ground and backed up.

“This isn’t right!” Ivy whispered to me.

“Just follow what they say. We don’t have any power here.”

The white earth pony smiled, “This is the one.”

“You can’t get away with this!”

The elegant one sauntered over to the younger mare, “And why not? Who’s gonna stop us?”

“I will! You ugly bitch!” Ivy spat at the unicorn.

I could see in her eyes that something snapped. The tan mare levitated a shotgun out of her bag and placed it to Ivy’s head, pulling the trigger without hesitation. The young mare’s body whipped back violently as her head was turned into a fine pinkish red mist. I felt sick as Ivy Jewel’s crimson blood dampened the dry ground.

“Who’s the ugly bitch now!” the unicorn mocked the corpse.

The pegasus was in shock, “Honey, that wasn’t part of the plan!”

“Whatever,” Honey poked the exposed flesh of the left side of Ivy’s face. “No one will care that another little pony is missing in the Wasteland.”

I couldn’t hold back my blind rage any longer. I lunged onto the mare, knocking her to the ground. She lost control of her weapons as I repeatedly tried to cave in her skull.

‘Save me a spot in Tartarus, cock sucker!’

The grey pegasus was completely frozen to the ground, but not the earth pony. The suit picked up the shotgun with his mouth and shot at me, center mass. I felt a few of my ribs bruise and crack from the pellets as I was thrown off the mare by the sheer power of the weapon. My whole body ached as my vision slowly grew darker with each passing second.

“Well, that was a shit show,” The pegasus said bluntly.

“Just get the damn tape!” The other buck demanded.

I turned to Ivy’s body; the right side of her looked back, stuck forever in astonishment. I would’ve cried if I could. The darkness finished eating away at my sight.

‘I’m sorry, kid.’

*** *** ***

“Forget your troubles, come on get happy.”

Beautiful singing from Sweetie Belle herself. Was that just a dream? My head hurt like hell along with the rest of my body. The music continued from humming.

“You better chase all your cares away.”

I opened my eyes to one of the most beautiful mares I’d ever seen in the Wasteland. The unicorn had a charcoal coat with streaks of red and gold in her white mane. Her voice was like fine silk as she sang and worked on bandaging my torso.

My head grew uncomfortable as I went to touch the left side of my face with my hoof. I felt multiple long scars across my face and one on my ear. I felt my ears droop as reality sunk in. That wasn’t a nightmare.

“Shout hallelujah com— Oh, you’re awake! That’s great!” The charcoal mare said proudly.

“Where’s Ivy? Where am I?” Panic had settled in. I tried to get off the table but was stopped by a hoof.

“Slow down! That’s the after effects of shock talking. Just relax and drink this.” The mare floated over an almost empty glass bottle of red liquid.

I gladly accepted the healing potion by guzzling it down. My body felt better. I went to touch my face once again and the scars were still present. I frowned.

“Sorry, but I don’t have any more. My name is Velvet Remedy by the way,” the mare told me.

I got off the table, not stopped this time, and stretched out my body. Near the bed was a dirty cracked mirror. A tan stallion with crystal blue eyes and a messy, short chocolate-brown mane stared back. The left side of his face looked like a small mountain range due to the scars that now sat on the left side of his head: parting gifts.

‘I guess I have to get used to the new look.’ I thought.

“Looking good so far,” Velvet Remedy inferred.

I felt myself flush at the comment. I took a deep breath to compose myself, “Thanks for patching me up.”

“No problem! But it should be the town’s guards you should be thanking. They went to investigate the gunfire a few nights ago—“

“A few nights ago!” I cut her off with my hoof slamming into the floor.

Velvet backed up a little, “We didn’t have a lot of the medical supplies we needed since you were robbed by those raiders. I’m… sorry about your friend by the way.”

I bowed my head. Ivy’s death was my fault. I should’ve stopped her before she acted so childish. What was I thinking?

“There’s good news,” Velvet tried to cheer me up. “They didn’t take your gear.”

I watched as she walked into the room adjacent and returned with clothing and a rifle in her telekinetic grasp. She approached and rested the items on the bed.

The charcoal unicorn watched as I dressed. I stopped as I was putting on my shirt and blushed, “Do you mind?”

“Oh!” The unicorn turned around.

Kind of her. From what I could tell, she wasn’t from here. By the way she looked and acted there was no way she had been born in the Wasteland. But, it’s not my place to judge. At least she was kind enough to patch me up.

I looked into the mirror once again. What stood in front of me now was an earth pony dressed in a sandy brown duster with rolled up sleeves of a white undershirt sticking out of the duster’s sleeveless holes. On the back of the duster was a roughly painted image of the flag of Equestria. Across his torso he wore a ballistic vest, scavenged from the ruins of a police station in Hoofington. Around his neck hung a half-mask respirator, useful for protecting against environmental airborne hazards. I nodded to my reflection and turned towards Velvet.

“Thanks again for patching me up.”

The charcoal unicorn gave me a warm smile and a small cute chuckle, “No problem. Now try not to get shot again.”

I gave a small smile back and picked up my rifle. I loaded a magazine and pulled back the cold steel charging handle with only a single thought: vengeance. For who? I couldn’t say, but someone had to pay the price.

My father once told me that war, war never changes. But it was after he died that I learned another more important truth about the world: That the old rules no longer apply.

Footnote: New Game+

Starting Perk: Ain’t That A Buck To The Head? -- 25% decreased damage to the head.