Author's Note
Hello everyone, I am here once again with a fanfiction of a fanfiction, written after I finally got around to reading the amazing story known as Fallout Equestria.
Now bear with me, the beginning of stories tend to be my weak-point, so I know the first chapter might be a bit rough, but I hope the quality of the first chapter is satisfactory and that it only gets better from here on out.
Also, feel free to contact me with any suggestions on how I should improve this chapter as well as any that will come after it, I always read the comments and I love to hear what everyone has to say.
Welcome to Equestria
Two hundred and thirty years have passed since the war, the Great war that lasted only a mere two hours, yet caused more destruction than every cataclysm and war in human history combined, leaving the world we called home little more than a wasteland of radiation and decay. Once great cities were reduced to rubble, and what few were left standing had become deathtraps filled with Raiders, Super Mutants, and the horrifyingly mutated creatures that survived the blasts.
The ghouls that call the Commonwealth home sometimes tell stories of the world before the war, how the world was so beautiful, how every day wasn’t a fight for survival, yet as I look out at what remained of Boston...the once great Cradle of Liberty...I still find myself doubting their words. I was hardly alone on the matter, for all of us grew up in the wasteland, where the most green we had ever seen was from when a glowing one came charging at us.
We had adapted though, humanity was rather stubborn in that regard, for we had slowly recovered from the war, and from what I read in the few history books that survived, went right back to doing what the human race does best, for even in a world ravaged by a Nuclear winter.
War never changes.
I remember hearing the General muttering those exact words while he watched the Institute go up in flames, and as I watched what remained of the Old World crumble before my eyes, I found myself agreeing with him.
We never saw the General again after that day. From what Preston told us, he left in the middle of the night, never responding to hails over the radio, and leaving nothing more than a note and a Pip-Boy.
To this day, only Preston knows what was in that note, not even Sturges was allowed the privilege to read the good Generals last words to the minutemen. The Pip-Boy though, well let’s just say Sturges had fun playing around with the thing for about a month before giving it off to the next guy, which just so happened to be Preston, but he refused and instead offered it to me for reasons I still don’t know, but I never questioned his decision.
Since the man in charge left us, things have been calming down a bit, what with the Brotherhood still running around and killing as many Super Mutants and Feral Ghouls as they could, but never even so much as looking in the direction of any Minutemen Settlements.
Still, even with the tin cans going full genocide on the freaks, our work was never done. Even with all of our defenses and soldiers, it still wasn’t enough.
We are constantly on our guard, constantly at war, and constantly tested on the battlefield. Some of us have had to go days without rest, constantly moving to respond to threats towards the settlements we created, and while we usually push them back...we are not always successful.
The ones in charge know that with how fast the Commonwealth is growing following the destruction of the Institute, it’s going to quickly get to the point where the army of ours is going collapse under the strain of protecting the few decent folk left in the wastes.
That’s why the Captains took any chance they could get to acquire better armor and weapons, sending small teams out into the wastes on scavenger missions. Some came back successful, usually carrying entire suitcases filled with ammo and weapons, and once even coming back with a complete set of power armor.
Others, we never heard from again.
I had prayed to whatever God may be up there that I didn’t end up as the latter, but after seeing the remains of a woman and child sitting together on a park bench, their arms still wrapped around each other while their empty sockets looked on in the direction of the Glowing Sea, I knew that no one was there to hear them.
“Makes you wonder huh?” I heard my partner ask, his decayed hand landing on my shoulder plate as he looked on with a sad smile on his face. “Wonder how things could have been...if not for the bombs.”
“It’s hard to imagine life before; after all, I’m not like you.” I sighed, looking over to the Ghoul standing at my side. “The wasteland is the only thing I know, never experienced anything else.”
“I think you would have enjoyed yourself.” He chuckled, moving past me and farther into the still unnamed settlement. “Granted, it wasn’t as exciting as the wastes, but at least you would have gotten to see Boston before it turned into a shithole.”
“I’ve seen a picture or two, so I kind of got an idea.”
“Please, no picture could ever do that city justice.” He snorted...somehow, before motioning for me to follow him, “Now come on, Sturges thinks he finally got that teleporter up and running.”
“You mean the one he’s been trying to figure out since the General up and disappeared on us?”
“The very same.”
That brought a grin to my face, the first one in a long time. “This I gotta see.”
Old Sturges never gave up on trying to figure out all the data that got downloaded on that holotape. Always trying everything he could to understand the inner working of the Institute and their technology.
Granted, he was making amazing progress, already drawing up plans for a whole number of inventions none of us could ever dream of, but were unable to build seeing as all the tech required to make them run was buried under the crater where the Institute once was. But no matter what he pulled from that tape, he always came back to the teleporter.
At first we didn’t think much of it; by all accounts, Sturges was an engineering genius compared to the rest of the Commonwealth, but all that knowledge is wasted without the right parts, which we all knew for a fact we didn’t have.
He never quit though, constantly shuffling through the salvage bags we brought back and taking them into his little workshop, not being seen again until after dark. We worried about him, sure, but none of us were about to force him to stop.
He was a free man, and the parts he was taking weren’t all that important. We had all the tools and supplies we needed, so as long as he wasn’t starting to take the weapons or armor, he could do whatever he wanted with them.
“So, last I heard, you’re still the only one crazy enough to volunteer for the first test.”
“You would be correct.” I answered, making the ghoul chuckle and fix the Fedora on his head.
“You got bigger balls than I do kid.”
“Last I heard, you don’t have balls anymore Bill.” This just got a louder laugh out of him before he punched me in the shoulder.
“Smartass.”
“You know you love me.”
“Frost!” both of us stopped and looked towards the center of town, seeing Sturges waving us down while he typed away at a terminal. “Come on man, time’s-a-wastin’.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming boss!” I shouted back, looking over to my friend with a small grin. “Guess its show time.”
Bill didn’t seem to share my attitude, if the small scowl on his face was any indication. “You sure about this kid, I’m sure Sturges would understand if you were having second thoughts.”
“I’m sure.” I answered with a nod, keeping my eyes locked on the machine that was supposed to be the teleporter. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You did not just ask that did you?” he groaned, “Now I know something’s going to go wrong.”
“Maybe, but the worst that could happen is I die, which could very well happen tomorrow whether I do this or not.” I replied, finally reaching the teleporter and turning to regard my friend. “Besides, I know for a fact that the General would have done the same thing.”
“Kid, yo-” I lifted a hand, making him go quiet before I set that hand on his shoulder.
“You’re not talking me out of this Bill; this is something I know I need to do. If this works, if we can really use this to teleport our troops from one settlement to another, we could make more of a difference than any of us could possibly imagine.”
I felt the ghoul’s eyes boor into my own, the two of us not moving for a good minute until his arms came around and pulled me into a hug.
“Alright man, if you really want to take this risk...I won’t stop you.” He sighed, breaking away from me and grabbing my forearm while I grabbed his. “But if anything goes wrong, and I never see you again, I want you to know you’ve been a good friend, better than any I had, even before the war.”
I nodded, releasing his arm before removing my dog-tags and tossing them in his direction. “Just in case.”
He nodded with a small grin; backing away from me and the machine, letting Sturges take his place.
“You ready for this man?” The engineer asked me, getting a nod from me before he led me towards the giant machine, which still looked like the same one we used to infiltrate the Institute.
“So, what are the odds Sparky?”
“Forty percent chance this works, forty five percent chance it doesn’t, and fifteen percent chance it kills every last one of us.” I blinked and looked towards the man with a raised brow. “I know, I don’t like those odds either, but hey, it worked on things that weren’t alive, so you should get there still in one piece.”
“Not instilling a whole lot of confidence there sir.”
“It’ll be fine, I’m sure.” He waved off, heading back to the terminal after I was on the pad, the reactor powering the machine starting up with the simple push of a button. “Now this is still a molecular de-stabilizer, try not to move around too much, wouldn’t want you to reassemble with your arm attached to your forehead.”
“Again, not a lot of confidence there sir.” He didn’t respond, just kept typing away on his terminal while the three spires surrounding me steadily got louder, electricity audibly crackling above me.
“Alright, she’s warmed up, everything looks good, acquiring the signal...got it!” Sturges shouted over the rumbling and whirring of the machinery. I looked over at Bill, his old colonial hat held over his chest while saluting me, I grinned back and softly nodded back. “Sending you off in three...two...one!”
My body instantly locked up, any and all motion now rendered impossible as the light slowly engulfed my form. I saw Sturges still typing away before he suddenly stopped dead, his head now turned towards me, but whatever he said was lost to me. That’s when I saw the console suddenly light up and a bright flash threw the man back. I didn’t even have time to process the sight, the light now rendering me blind until everything suddenly went dark, taking my consciousness along with it.
The first thing to register in my slowly awakening state was the feeling of soft warmth surrounding me on all sides, a stark contrast from the usual hard mattress and biting cold of a Boston winter. The second thing I noticed was a dull pain in my right eye, along with the strange feeling of something cool and wet running over my arm, strange because something about it didn’t feel quite right...almost like the feeling that the wetness lingered longer than it should have.
“...ake...up.” my ear twitched after a voice mumble; this freaked me out just a bit.
My ears shouldn’t twitch.
“The...hell” I grunted, pulling away from whatever was touching my arm and using said arm to try and rub my eyes, stopping dead after feeling something noticeably fuzzier than my arm should have been.
That’s when I noticed that, something didn’t feel quite right
“Good to see you finally returned to the land of the living.” I felt my ear twitch again, hearing the same voice from before, letting me know I was not alone.
“W...what?” I tried rubbing my eyes again, somewhat succeeding in my endeavor, before trying to open my eyes, only to be rendered blind once again by a bright light shining right in my eye.
“Careful, try not to overload that new eye of yours.” The woman, if the voice was any indication, told me softly, the cool and wet sensation returning afterwards, but this time running over my eyes.
“What’s...going on? Where am I” I asked the woman, letting my eyes ease open to try and get a read of my surroundings. The first thing I saw was white, the dirty white that usually covered the walls of the pre-war hospital rooms, along with a few burnt and tattered poster showing the anatomy of some strange creature that almost resembled a Radstag, but at the same time, not even coming close.
“Easy, don’t try moving quite yet.” The woman told me, pushing back on my shoulder after I tried getting up. I grunted and raised my arm to rub my right eye again, only to stop dead after seeing what was supposed to be my arm.
‘That’s...not quite right.’ I blinked and moved my arm around, seeing the black furred...hoof...thing, move in its place. I felt my mouth go dry as I followed my new appendage to where it connected to my body, only to see that the rest of me had changed as well. ‘Am I on another drug trip?’
“Are you okay?” I blinked again before shaking my head, which also didn’t feel quite right, and turning to the owner of the voice, only to freeze once more, blinking stupidly once again.
“...I think now is a good time to panic.” I replied, looking at the strange creature as it tilted its head, its face showing visible confusion.
“May I ask why?” Nope, can’t pretend it wasn’t the creature talking to me, meaning I was either hallucinating from a really bad drug trip, or something didn’t go quite right with the teleporter.
“...What the hell are you?” I mumbled, studying the strange furry creature before me. Its dark green pelt was unmarred from the usual cysts and patchwork fur that almost all animals of the commonwealth had, and the light brown hair on its head and neck were also full and tied in a small ponytail, a bit moved to cover the horn on her forehead.
The creature raised a brow, its dandelion eyes regarding me with what I could only guess was curiosity.
“I could ask you the same thing.” It...She, replied, studying me just as much as I was studying her. I looked back over my new body and gave her a sheepish grin.
“I’ll uh...I’ll have to get back with you on that one.”
She hummed before I saw her horn light up, along with a small clipboard moving about on its own, situating itself before her with a pen poised to write. I just stared at the floating piece of wood, feeling my still unopened right eye twitch before I did my best to calm my panicking mind.
‘Come on, keep it together, you faced down Deathclaws on your own without blinking, now is not the time to start panicking.’ I told myself, taking a few deep breaths before looking back at the creature again, seeing her still sitting there, watching me with a patient smile on her muzzle.
“You need a minute?”
“I need answers.” I replied, seeing her nod and the floating pen write something down on the still floating clipboard.
“Alright then, ask away.” I nodded and rested my head back on what I guessed was a mattress, my eye still locked on her.
“What are you?”
“A pony, a Unicorn mare if your want specifics.” Wasn’t really sure what a pony was, wondering why something was named after a hairstyle, or was it the other way around, wasn’t like there were that many history books left intact after the blast.
“Where am I?”
“An old repurposed hospital in Manehattan.”
“Don’t you mean Manhattan?” I received a headshake as an answer, which just confused me more. “Then where is ‘Manehattan’?”
“It’s in the Southeastern part of Equestria.”
“...What the hell is Equestria?” Now she just looked more confused than I was, which is a pretty difficult thing to be from my perspective. “Know what, never mind, it’s unimportant right now.”
I raised my...hoof...and rubbed my head, trying to assuage the pain coming from my eye.
“What the hell happened?” I had to ask myself. It was obvious something went wrong with the molecular destabilizer, and knowing we were working with tech we didn’t really understand, there was a whole number of things that could have gone wrong.
Still though, I don’t think any of us could have thought up an entire species change, even if I ended up experiencing it first hand after messing up while constructing a gas grenade for the general.
“I was actually hoping you could answer that for us.” I returned my attention to the pony, the clipboard no longer in sight as she jumped from her chair to stand at my bedside. “We found you with several lacerations along your side and one of your eyes popped out of your skull.”
“...What?”
“Frankly, it’s nothing short of a miracle that you’re still alive, what with the amount of blood you lost”.
“...What?” I asked again, receiving an eye roll before the pony mare’s horn lit up again and I felt something tugging at my right eyelid.
“Open your eye please; the cybernetics should be just about done calibrating.” She ordered, my eye slowly opening soon after, watching her look at the eye closer before nodding to herself and backing away before tossing me a mirror. “Here, I got other patients to deal with, your gears in the corner and we’ve already got the caps we need as payment from that pouch of yours, leave when you can stand on your own four legs.”
With that, she was gone, leaving me all alone in the hospital room while I just stared at the door, blinking stupidly for a good minute before shaking my head and letting out a small chuckle.
“She definitely acts like a wasteland doctor.” I mumbled before turning towards the mirror she had tossed me, reaching out a hoof and trying to grasp the metal, surprising myself when the mirror actually came with it.
‘Makes no sense, but just go with it.’ I thought to myself before situating the mirror in front of me, studying the face that shouldn’t have been mine, but moved along with me all the same.
The reflection stared back at me, one eye a bright fiery blue and the other a sea of black with a small ring of blue glowing around the center. The rest of me resembled the pony from a moment ago, but instead of dark green, my pelt was covered in a coat of dark grey fur and the hair on my head was an ash gray. I also lacked the horn she had, and instead sported a set of leathery wings that reminded me of bat wings.
“Am I supposed to be some kind of bat version of a pony?” I asked myself, trying to move my wings, the appendages popping out from my sides after I found the muscle that controlled the things, giving them a few unsteady flaps before letting them rest back at my sides. I stared at the wings for another moment before shaking my head and pushing myself from the bed, falling flat on my side after failing to realize I could probably no longer stand on two legs.
‘Let’s see if I can remember how to do this.’
Thankfully, I had a bit of practice walking on all fours after a few drug trips, the muscle memory seeming to stick with you even if you weren’t actually doing anything in the first place.
Day Tripper is one of hell of a drug when combined with Jet.
It wasn’t all that hard to get my hooves under me, granted I wouldn’t be galloping anytime soon, but it’s better than nothing.
True to her word, my gear was in the room with me, but all of it looked a bit different, as in they were all much smaller than before. I decided to question it later, choosing to just slip into my armored wet-suit and strapping on the combat armor plates and clicking my pip-boy back on my arm, or I guess my leg now, all of which was surprisingly easy.
‘I wonder.’ I unfurled the wings again and gave them a few more flaps, getting a feel for them before pushing myself back onto my two hind legs, wobbling a bit before I subconsciously flapped my wings for a counterbalance.
'So far so good' I thought, next was to grab the Combat rifle and try and pull back on the receiver, hearing the unloaded rifle give a satisfying click before jamming the stock in my shoulder and aiming down the sites, moving my new hoof towards the trigger and hearing another click, meaning the rifle would have fired if it had been loaded.
‘None of this makes any sense, but at the same time, when does anything ever do?'
“Careful with that.” I heard the mare tell me, the pony returning to the room and looking at my form, raising a brow as she studied my wings before shrugging and tossing a pouch that looked a lot like my cap bag my way, the bag smacking me in the face and damn near knocking me out again. “Forgot to give you your caps back.”
“...Ow” I groaned, rubbing my face while fixing the pony with a glare. She chuckled and stepped into the room, watching me with nothing less than sadistic amusement. “Something tells me your one of those doctors that enjoys the suffering more than the helping.”
“I will neither confirm nor deny that statement.” She replied with a grin, watching me as I got back up on my four legs and grab my .44 pistol, and strap it into its holster, which was now on my left leg. “But contrary to what you may think, I’m not here to watch you suffer.”
“Then why are you here?” I asked after jamming a magazine into my combat rifle, almost falling on my face in the process.
This was gonna take some practice.
“To make sure you get to the door as soon as possible. No offense to you, but we kind of need these rooms for other ponies after the last raider attack.” She answered, making my ears perk up and my brow raise.
“Raiders?”
“Yep, case you hadn’t noticed, wastelands kind of filled with them.”
So I was still in the wasteland, or at the very least a wasteland...not sure if that should have been comforting or not.
“You said I was in Equestria right?” I asked before bringing up my Pip-Boy map.
“You are in Equestria, yes.” She answered with a nod, the completely alien features on the map solidifying her claim. This means that the teleporter wasn’t a total failure, but first I needed to see where it threw me out at.
“Great.” I sighed, looking at the data section and turning to the quest section, seeing only one single objective.
Figure out where the hell you are.
‘Couldn’t have said it better myself.’
...At least what's left of it.
“Go down the hall, take a left, and you’ll see the diner. If you’re not hungry, exits right next to it, don’t let the door smack you in the plot on your way out.” Was the last thing I heard the pony tell me before being summarily ejected from the hospital room and another took my place, the door shut tight while I just stared at it in mild irritation.
“Paid you damn near four thousand caps, least I could get was another day of sleep.” I grumbled while looking into my cap bag, counting out the last thousand left in it with disdain. I had been saving up those things since I started working with the Minutemen, meaning that almost two years of scavenging was gone in literally an instant, or at least it felt that way.
I couldn’t worry about that right now though, right now I needed answers, and the one place you always find them was at the bar, making the diner my next destination.
And so, I started my unsteady walk towards the diner, passing room after room, each and every one closed off and a few hiding the sources of screaming and pain, making my ears fold back and my new tail flick on its own.
Seems my phobia of hospitals was starting to kick in, giving me plenty of motivation to hurry along down the hall and taking the first left I could find, trying to get as far from the smell of blood and death as I could, eventually ending up in a large circular room that constituted as the hospital lobby, stopping dead after seeing what lied past the doorway.
Dozens more of the strange pony creatures lined the walls of the room, each one varying in color from green to red and blue, a few damn near giving me a headache just from looking at them. Most were clad in dirty rags or armor, along with the occasional suit, but almost all of their coats were stained crimson with blood, some dried, some still fresh. The metallic smell in the air nearly made me choke, the taste of copper heavy on my tongue, as if I could actually tasted the blood in the air.
I heard the crying of children in the background while I looked out at the crowd, most of them looking dead to the world, some missing limbs, some looking ahead with a thousand yard stare, and others doing their best to comfort what were probably their friends or family.
“Dear God.” I muttered, slowly walking into the room and doing my best not to gag, my now obviously much more sensitive nose amplifying the scent of blood and misery that permeated the room. Almost none of the ponies so much as glanced my way, their eyes still staring straight ahead while the ones who did acknowledge my existence sent me looks varying from mild interest to outright hostility.
I just kept moving, doing my best not to get in anyone’s way, slipping past ponies clad in nurse’s scrubs and others covered from head to hoof in patchwork armor, almost looking like the security back in Diamond City.
‘All of this from one Raider attack?’ I asked myself, passing another pony that was missing the horn that I saw on the Unicorn doctor, but I guessed it was natural since it didn’t look wounded in any way, but its eyes told a different story. ‘PTSD is already setting in.’
In truth, I felt for each and every one of these beings, having seen enough post-raider attacks to know how hard it can be afterwards. I was much the same way after my first fight, having seen the true horror of a creature that called itself a Raider.
I say creature, because there was no way they were human anymore...no human could be that cruel.
But just because I felt sympathy for them, didn’t mean I was immune to desensitization. I had seen hundreds of raider attacks in my time in the Commonwealth, having fought them off dozens of times, and saw my friends and comrades die too many of those times. Eventually you learn to ignore the pain in your heart, treating everyone as nothing more than a statistic.
Only way most of us could cope sometimes.
My ear twitched again, the subtle sounds of music cutting through the cries of the injured, making me look up to see a neon sign with the word diner glowing a bright red, sitting right above a still intact glass door. I wasted no time getting to it, eager to get out of the depressing atmosphere of a post-battle hospital.
I gently pushed the door open, the soft sounds of classical music soothing my mind and the smell of cooked meat hanging in the air. It was a cozy little place, reminding me much of the diners still littering the wasteland, at least those that weren’t turned into graves of the ones before and after the war.
The soft chatter of the ponies surrounded me as I walked into the diner, my hooves clip-clopping on the checkered tile floor as I made my way towards the counter and hopping onto one of the stools, nearly missing my mark and face-planting into the counter.
The atmosphere of the eatery was quite different from the one outside that door, a distinct feeling of sadness in the air, but at the same time, and undercurrent of happiness that could only come from a full belly. I have no doubt at least half of the ponies in this room helped defend from the raiders, almost all sporting some kind of injury, whether it was a simple bandage, or a sling holding broken limbs in place. They weren’t anything like the folks outside though, meaning they were probably still rookies that got really lucky, or veterans who were doing their best to cope.
I tapped a hoof on the counter, catching the attention of the Unicorn pony behind the counter, the brown coated pony making its way towards me after looking me over for a moment.
“The Tartarus you supposed to be, a mutant Pegasus?” the pony asked, their voice identifying them as a male of the species. I just tilted my head, wondering what a Pegasus was supposed to be.
“The Hell’s a Pegasus?” I replied, making him look at me like I was the idiot.
“...I’m gonna pretend I didn’t just hear you ask that.” He muttered before his horn glowed and a pencil floated out from behind him, followed by a simple piece of paper. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at his horn, finally connecting the dots and figuring out what was making the items float, now I only had to figure out the how. “I got food if you got the caps, what do ya’ want.”
“Didn’t come here to eat.” He started at me for a moment before rolling his eyes and making the items disappear below the counter.
“Then why are you in my diner?”
“Information.” I answered, watching his ear flick as he regarded me with a brow raised.
“What kind of information?”
“The kind that will help me figure out where I am and what I’m dealing with.” His ears now stood at attention, his horn lighting again and a stool from behind the counter moved closer, letting him jump onto the chair and rest his hooves on the counter.
“Alright, it’s slow right now, so ask your questions.” I nodded and looked at my Pip-Boy, turning to the notes sections and preparing the touch screen, which surprisingly still worked with hooves.
“First question, how are you making all those objects move? I saw your horn light up when they were moving, meaning you and others of your species contain some form of telekinesis, is this correct?” I watched him get another one of those ‘is this guy for real’ looks before he just sighed and lit his horn again, bringing the pencil back out from under the counter.
“I have no idea what this teleki-watzit is, but this is simple levitation magic, simple as that.”
‘You just basically told me magic exists, there’s nothing simple about that.’ I thought, choosing to just go along with it before I start questioning things.
“Second Question, where exactly am I? I know the mare from before told me I was in a city called Manehattan, which is apparently located in Equestria, is this correct?”
He gave me a nod.
“Alright then, where exactly is Equestria?”
“Couldn’t tell you, never seen a globe so I probably know about as much as you do” He shrugged. I hummed and put away the Pip-Boy, seeing the pony looking at the device with mild curiosity before snorting and moving over towards another pony after hearing another tap on the counter, leaving me alone at the bar while the sounds of conversation began petering out. I paid that no mind though; I was far too busy trying to get over the fact that I had actually found myself in, what was likely, a place far outside the area of the Commonwealth.
Theoretically, that shouldn’t have been possible with the power supply the transporter currently had, the single fusion reactor barely being enough to get you to the next settlement, let alone to another state.
I was pretty sure this place wasn’t anywhere in the states though, not like you can hide the fact that non-human creatures evolved or mutated to talk and hold weapons, pretty sure I would have heard about that one.
This means that the transporter either got a massive power surge that caused it to go into overdrive and teleport me to a region far outside any of the known territories, or it did something that, according to the Institute itself, could not and would not happen. Compounded by the fact that both my weapons and armor seem to have shrunk down to fit my new form, which was a whole new issue in and of itself, shifting this whole thing into the realm of scientific impossibility.
Frankly, it was giving me a headache just thinking about it.
Thankfully I hadn’t entered a full blown panic attack yet, the fact I still had my gear was a major factor. Another was the fact I wasn’t completely sure if any of this was even real and not another one of my drug induced hallucinations.
I’m pretty sure I’ll figure out the answer to the latter soon though, but by then I’ll hopefully be calm enough to avoid the worst of it.
Right now though, I couldn’t afford to think on it too much, not with the amount of problems I already have on my plate.
‘One thing at a time’ I told myself, just letting my mind relax and listening to the soft music in the air,
“What the Tartarus are you doing here featherbrain?” Well that peaceful moment left in a hurry.
I snapped an eye open, looking at the cook while he glared at something behind me, prompting me to look back as well to see another pony standing in the doorway with a glare of their own being directed back at the pony behind the counter.
“I’m not Enclave and I’ve got caps, that gives me just as much a right to be here as you.” The male answered, a pair of wings flared on his sides, an intimidation tactic if I’ve ever seen one. The Unicorn snorted, but didn’t bother responding, simply walking through a door behind the bar and disappearing from the room.
Conversations soon died out as each of the ponies glared at the winged pony, the male paying no attention to the stares as he walked past them and leap onto the stool next to mine, giving me a quick glance before he relaxed with his head on the counter.
I tilted my head curiously, letting my eyes trail down his grey coated coated form, stopping to study the pair of feathery wings at his sides.
‘This must be a Pegasus’ I deduced, kind of seeing why the Unicorn would have thought I was one of them that just so happened to have mutated. After all, it wasn’t all that far from a human becoming a ghoul, albeit the final outcome was a damn sight less ugly.
“You enjoying the view?” I heard the Pegasus ask me, making my ears twitch as my eyes trailed back up to meet the deep green of his own, one partially obscured by his pale blue mane. He didn’t seem all that upset about my staring, his own eyes looking me over and studying my own wings about as much as I was studying his.
“Apologies, I’ve never seen a member of your species”
“What, never seen a Pegasus stallion?” he questioned. I tilted my head again, running the word stallion though my head, finally just glad to know what the males of the species were called.
“I’ve never seen a pony before till today, not exactly from this neck of the wastes.” This made his ears twitch as his head raised, his eyes still resting squarely on me.
“Well then let me by the first to say, welcome to Equestria...or at least what’s left of it.” He finished his greeting, the ending coming out as barely a whisper before he sighed and offered a hoof. “Names Swift Silver.”
“Frost” I replied, meeting his hoof with a soft clack, hearing a few whispers behind me after the act. He grinned before looking towards the door behind the counter, then back at me before pulling two bottles from a pouch on his side.
“Here, consider it your welcoming gift.” He said before placing them both on the counter and sliding one of them my way. I regarded the bottle curiously, the container looking quite similar to a Nuka-Cola bottle, but the words Sparkle-Cola were wrote on the label. I snorted at the similarity, not really paying it much mind, what with all the other insane crap that I’ve been dealing with today.
“Thanks” I said with a nod, popping off the top with a hoof before grabbing it with my new wierd telepathic hoof fingers and holding it towards him. “Cheers.”
And with that, I had my very first sip of Sparkle-Cola.
It tasted like shit.
Still drank it though, after all the shit I’ve put in my body over the years, a bit of carrot flavored soda wouldn’t kill me.
“So, what’s your story?” Swift asked me after I finished about a quarter of the bottle and placed it back on the bar.
“My story?” I asked, making the Pegasus nod with a grin.
“Yeah, your story” he repeated and pointed at me with a hoof. “You’re a species I’ve never encountered before, and I’ve never seen armor like that in Equestria.”
“Probably because I’m not from Equestria.” I answered with a shrug before taking my bottle cap from the counter and glancing at it briefly before pocketing it, the stallion raising no qualms with me taking something that was essentially his.
“Then where are you from?”
“Ever heard of the Commonwealth?” I got a headshake, “America?” Another negative.
I sighed and rested my chin on the bar, feeling my ears pin to the back of my head on their own.
That was the answer I was dreading, letting me know just how screwed I was. Any person raised in the wastes, outside of the tribes still wandering around, at least knew what country they were still living in, what with the amount of American propaganda that was still littering the ruins of the post-nuclear world.
This either meant I was somehow transported to either another country, which I repeat, was theoretically impossible, or I had entered a whole new realm of impossibility to the point where it went beyond the realms of scientific impossibility and into something unfathomably ridiculous.
Suddenly, that drug theory was starting to make a lot more sense.
“Are you okay?”
“Been better.” I grunted, lifting my head and giving it a small shake before taking another sip of the carrot drink. “Just getting over the fact I might be horribly lost.”
Swift gave an understanding nod before knocking back his drink as well, chugging the thing down and letting out a pleased whinny after finishing it off, making me suppress a chuckle.
“Been there before, back when I was just a little colt,” I filed that word away for later. “Somehow managed to sneak my way out of New Appleloosa back when I was still young and stupid, can’t remember how far I got, but I do know that I ended up catching the eye of a Bloodwing. Almost lost my life if my mom hadn’t managed to track me down and practically beat the thing to death with her own two hooves.”
“It sounds like she’s quite the gal.” I had no idea what a Bloodwing was, but if it was anything like the creatures back home, then I definitely wouldn’t want to mess with her.
“That she is.” He agreed, a fond smile forming on his muzzle. “What about you, you got any stories to tell.”
I hummed and let my eyes drift shut, multiple memories running through my head.
“Yeah, I think I got one.” I nodded, making his ears perk and his smile turn into a grin.
“It was back when I was just starting out my admittedly short career as a scavenger, having finally saved up enough caps to buy a gun and some basic armor. Now for reference, I had just left my home of Diamond City, meaning I was still naïve and stupid, I thought I could take on the world.
I couldn’t help but chuckle and look over at Swift with a grin. “The Wasteland knocked that idea out of my head real fucking quick.”
“Armed with nothing more than leather armor and a 10mm pistol, I strolled on over to the police rationing site a stone’s throw away, thinking that there might have been some good loot, instead I found a small horde of feral ghouls. Bastards would have torn me apart if it weren’t for Preston.”
“Preston?”
“Unofficial leader of the Minutemen at the time, a small civilian founded military force that does its level best to try and protect everyone in the Commonwealth. I joined up with them soon after that, figuring out there was no way I would have survived on my own without someone watching my back. Man taught me everything he knew about surviving in the wasteland, only asking that I do what he told me to, not once asking me to do anything unreasonable or immoral.”
“So you went from being a scavenger to a soldier, quite the step up if you ask me.”
“You would have been wrong.” I don’t regret my decision, but as a scavenger, I probably wouldn’t have racked up as high of a kill count. I’d also most likely be dead, but after seeing some of the shit I have, most would have probably preferred to be.
“Can’t be any worse than being a merc like me.” Before either of us realized it, there was a gun right between his eyes, making the stallion lock up in either shock or fear. “Not that kind of mercenary!”
I held the gun there for moment, fighting my every instinct not to pull the trigger, before finally forcing my arm back down, hearing him release the breath he was holding.
“Sorry, force of habit, never had the best relationships with mercenaries.” I apologized while securing the .44 in its holster.
“Its fine, after all this time, I’m pretty much used to it.” He shrugged before placing a hoof on his chest to ease his probably racing heart. “If I had a cap for every time something similar happened, I would be in a position for it to happen again.”
I let out a sigh of relief, glad he wasn’t taking it too personally. Only been here for about half a day, didn’t need to be making enemies yet.
“Oy, the Tartarus you two still doing here, diners closed!” both of us turned towards the cook from before, the stallion fixing us a glare as we noticed the lack of conversations was no longer the fault of the Pegasus, but because the utter lack of ponies at the tables.
“Shit, how long were we talking?” Swift muttered, prompting me to look at my Pip-Boy, seeing that it was still mid-day, much to my surprise.
‘Who the hell closes a restaurant at two in the afternoon?’
“Too damn long, now get out, I’m going home.” He ordered, making the Pegasus send him an icy glare while I rolled my eyes before nudging the Pegasus with a hoof.
“Come on, we can talk outside, it’ll be nice to see the sun shine again.” Those words made the Unicorn send an ever more heated glare at Swift while he simply stared at me in disbelief.
“You...are you serious?” he asked me, seeming shocked for some odd reason.
“Yes, is that an issue?” I tilted my head, curious of the stallion’s sudden mood shift.
“Good luck seeing anything besides clouds, case you hadn’t noticed, the winged freaks closed up the cloud layer a long time ago.” The cook growled, making me glance between the pair before I silently leapt from the stool and made a beeline for the door.
“This shit I gotta see.”
