Fallout Equestria: From the Stars

Hello again! You know, it's funny just how both of my lives started with a fire. When I was younger, it was the simple thing of being able to meet Princess Luna! I was just a nobody, some random filly she met with a telescope, but she sat down to tell me all about each and every star in the sky, all the constellations, and the craters of the moon! Of course, I fell asleep at some point during her explanation. But it started a fire inside of me, one that I was never able to sate. Nothing could stop me from following and fanning that flame to find my potential.

You see, I had been studying my entire life with just the dream of one day being able to see each of those stars I was told about. Even got accepted into Hayle, one of the most prestigious colleges in all of Equestria! So being asked to work on Project Starlight was the greatest day of my life, but it sure wasn't the easiest! It took years of work to help get that ship to function correctly and being the youngest mare on the team sure lead to a lot of teasing. Bunch of stuck-up old horn-heads waving their magic around. Showoffs. But that IS where I met Star, my very dear friend, and honestly my biggest crush. That mare pushed me to be the best I could be when even I didn't think I could. Soared the fire inside of me to brand new lengths. Really makes me think about if life had gone differently... If the ship hadn't failed.
Ah, I'm rambling again, what was I talking about? Right! My re-entry to the world, in a great big glorious ball of fire!

Smoke. Why do I smell smoke? And why does everything hurt? Maybe something went wrong at my station, I should call medical...

"Quill! Wake up! Snap out of it!"

Is that Star? She's always trying to get me outta bed. Funny, I'm always trying to get her into it. That mare's got flanks to die for.

"Not now, Star, everything hurts... Let me sleep in for a little longer okay? Somepony else can man my station for the day can't they?" I mumbled out, not wanting to open my eyes. Everything was so bright when I did and I couldn't see a thing.
"And turn those lights out! It's too early for all your shenanigans Star."

"What? Quill, wake up!" Star yelled into my ears, making me wince and flatten my ears. They felt wet and slick, and they kept ringing.

Wait.

"...Banshee?" I finally opened my eyes fully, squinting through the smoke and flickering flames. And I closed them again.

Star's dead, Quill. Get up. Move.

But can't I just stay here?

No, she wouldn't want that. I can't let her down. I have to keep that promise. Live the best life I can. My eyes opened again, and I slowly shifted my weight under me, now laying on my belly. Pain erupted through my back foreleg and I hissed through my teeth, looking back at the jagged piece of metal that stuck through it just above the knee. My pipbuck flashed a helpful 'Right Rear Leg Crippled!' alongside the small display of a quite unhappy mare with a dotted line for one of her legs, and a head that was wrapped with bandages. I could sympathize with her feelings.

"Oh thank Luna, you're up! I've been trying for an hour, ever since we landed! You hit your head on the impact and passed out." Banshee told me, sounding relieved. Funny how quickly she seemed to adapt to her newfound sentience.

"What's my way out of here? From the fire, some of the internal oxygen talismans must be damaged. We don't have long before this whole thing blows. Lucky these don't carry fuel or we'd already be dead." I gritted my teeth and tested my leg again, trying to put some weight onto it. I couldn't stand up to my full height yet but I'd have to once I got out of here.

Think, think!
I looked around for some sort of exit through the smoke, my eyes watering and stinging. The roof is caved in, almost pinning me down if not for one of the steel reinforcements. Luckily Star's coat kept most of the embers from damaging my coat but a few patches of exposed fur had been burned. Wait. There! An emergency exit was across from me, and Banshee confirmed my thoughts as I saw it.

"The emergency door across from you should open, but it might require some force. The mechanisms for opening it seem to have been damaged in the crash," Her voice had an edge of worry to it, and I had the mental image of an glowing, snow white pony shuffling her hooves. "Your head received quite the impact."

"I'm fine, but I'll feel better once we get out of here. All this smoke is choking me!"

My breathing was getting more labored with every second and the small pod was filling more and more with smoke from the fires. I started to drag myself slowly along the floor and before I even reached the halfway point to the door across from me, I was covered in sweat. The metal beneath me was blazing hot, but I pushed through and crawled despite my rear leg dragging painfully behind me. I can't die here, I lived for 200 years in stasis aboard a broken spaceship! That exploded! I can make one short crawl. But damn did it hurt. I let out a yelp of pain as the thin and jagged metal in my leg caught on something, and looked back to carefully move my hoof away from a chair.
It felt like forever but eventually I made it to the door gasping for breath amidst the smoke of my singed fur. After a moment I pushed myself upright and put both hooves against the glowing metal, letting out a low growl as I pushed against the lever, putting as much weight against it as I could. I pulled away after a moment with a gasp of agony from the heat, waiting a moment for the pain to subside and trying again.

"Come on, you Luna-damned piece of metal, move!" I shouted in futility, shoving as hard as I could.

The metal quickly became far too painful to hold anymore and I pulled my hooves away with a shout of pain. I took a slow and ash-filled breath, shaking both hooves to ready myself -- dear Luna they hurt so bad -- and put every ounce of strength and pain I had behind them as I shoved upwards. I heard a piercing scrape from the door and as I let out a shout, the door finally broke and slammed open letting in the blissfully clean air. I took in the clean air for a moment and choked on it as I saw a beautiful mare staring down at me in shock, her hooves having seemingly helped me wrench the door open. Bewilderment turned into a coldly calculating stare as she slowly extended a hoof in assistance. +-needs less

I accepted the help with a mumbled thanks, using the last of my meager strength to haul myself up and out of the accursed heat.

“Oof! Where’s all that weight coming from, Girlie? ...Oh, that’s where.” Her tongue clicked softly at her last word.

My eyes turned upwards to meet and follow her gaze. My eyes, and hers apparently, settled on my rump. Oh. Are my cheeks on fire? They must be ‘cause they’re really hot. Must’ve been the... fire. Yeah.

Her hooves gripped mine tighter and she yanked upwards, pulling me simultaneously out of the fire and my own stupor as her sudden strength flung me out of the destroyed hunk of metal and into the dirt with a puff of dust. I groaned in pain and rolled over limply to stare up at the sky. +

Banshee’s voice pinged to life in my ears, “Quite the toss!”

I begrudgingly agreed, still splayed out on the ground. “Quite the mare.”

Oh, that’s where that heat went. I shook my head to ground myself and found my eyes resting upon the mare in question as she stared down at me.

“Well hello there Miss Meteor, what're doin’ you falling from tha sky in a blaze like that?” I hadn’t noticed before in my panic (Warranted panic, thank you! I was on fire!) but her voice carried a Mareland accent that was frankly- quite cute.

I winced as her hoof bonked against my head suddenly, looking up at her indignantly. "What?!"

"I said, what're ya' falling outta the sky for?"

"Well I didn't do it on pur-.. okay I did do it on purpose but to my credit, the ship WAS about to explode. I was escaping!"

She looked puzzled as she responded. "Ship? Like, tha' kind that goes on water?"

I sighed as I began to explain my situation to her.

Over the course of my tale, we'd begun setting up camp. Well, I say 'we' but really it was mostly her. I just handed her things. But I did start the fire! I'm good at fire. Clearly!
Anyways. We'd camped out at a nearby outcropping. At her insistence, we'd traveled a ways from the crash site. Safer that way she said.

She was quiet for a while after I'd finished, seemingly digesting the information. Her cracked horn alighted with fizzles and pops that sounded wrong as she casually set another log to our campfire. I had to wonder at what she'd been through to sustain such an injury, but I dared not ask. Beautiful and kind she may have been but I got a distinct feeling that she was not somepony to upset. Her voice broke the silence that hung over us.

"200 years? Really?" She sounded disbelieving. I could understand why.

I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out my security clearance ID, hoofing it to her, "Look at the expiration date. 195 years ago. I'd just gotten it renewed, too..." My lips curled into an unhappy pout.

She smirked at me and returned the ID after a moment of studying it. "Cinnamon Quill, huh?"

Right. I never told her my name. Well done Quill you're ace with your social skills.

"Ah, yes, sorry. It's wonderful to meet you, miss...?" I trailed off in askance as I offered a hoof to shake.

"Crescent Rose. Pleasure!" Her hoof took mine in a strong grip and shook hard before releasing me, almost causing me to wobble over.

I quickly righted myself and smiled warmly in return, "The pleasure is all mine!"

A smirk crossed her face as she leaned back to rest against a rock. Honestly, it was quite a bedazzling smile. Even if she did have remnants of our meal stuck in her teeth.

"Pleasure or not, we should get some rest. It's late and we have a long walk ahead of us before we reach Stableside."

Stableside was a nearby settlement she'd told me about. Apparently it was one of the bigger ones, although she'd air quotationed "big".

"You had mentioned roads when you told me about the city in the first place, are we near any?"

She pressed a hoof to her lip in thought for a moment, her eyes scanning the area around us as best she could in the dim firelight, "Aye, the main Caravan road to Junk should be justa bit north from here. And from there it's just a straight shot to Stableside!"

I took some comfort in her locational knowledge to be honest. I couldn't tell mane from tail about where I was. Tartarus, I didn't even know for sure what YEAR I was in! A sigh left me as I deflated and leaned into the log behind me, my eyes gazing deep into the fire. It all hit me like a ton of bricks as I lay there, leg aching and head throbbing. My eyes grew heavy as I watched the flickering flames, slowly losing myself to a very welcome nap.

I was awaken quite rudely by somepony pressing against my side, opening my eyes groggily to see Crescent standing over me with a look of worry.

"Hrnh..? Wh-"

Her hoof pressed to my lips suddenly, hushing me and shaking her head. I nodded to her once and her hoof came away, only to point to my left. I followed her pointing and saw a pair of ponies atop the ridge just above our campsite. They wore clothes with far too many painted red spikes and blades, but otherwise seemed normal. Well as normal as anypony could be considering the state of Equestria. I flicked my eyes back to her and shrugged in confusion. What was her problem? It was probably just one of those Caravans she was talking about. Although, I didn't see any wares... Her look was all it took to convince me I was wrong. A deathly serious energy almost washed off of her as she watched the two spiky ponies cross along the hill. It was all over so quick, so sudden. One moment she was standing still and the next her pistol was already out of its holster and had roared twice, quick and violent. Both the ponies hit the dirt without a sound, laying still. I looked to her in terror as she efficiently tossed her gun with her teeth into the holster, no trace of remorse or otherwise upon her features.

"Y-You killed them! Two ponies, poof! What in Cadance's name have you done?! Why?"

She looked at me in confusion at my outburst, "They were raiders Girlie. They wouldn't have hesitated to put you down and take that jacket of yours as a trophy."

"How could you possibly know that? You hadn't even given them a chance to talk!"

She reached into her saddlebags and hoofed me two pieces of paper with a crude drawing and description of two ponies. One was Bristle and the other Curb Stomp. My stomach churned at a drawing of their cutie marks. What did a pony have to do to have their special talent be.. that?

"...Are you certain it was them?"

"Positive, Girlie. I'd been tracking them for a couple o' days now, it's my job. I'm a bounty hunter, Quill." Her gaze softened as she gave me a bump on the shoulder. "Try not to think of them as ponies, more like.. rabid animals. They hurt and kill and pillage for the fun of it. And if you don't want to be like them," She motioned towards the still bodies that still lay in a heap, "You better shoot them first."

I pondered that thought for a moment, truly thinking. Could I do that? If it came down to it, could I kill another pony? Monster or not, a pony was a pony. I knew deep down it was something I'd have to get used to quick if I wanted to live longer than one night down here, but that revelation gave me no comfort. I closed my eyes and took a breath, opening them to meet her eyes resolutely.

"Have a spare?"

That beautiful smile of hers graced me once more.