(Chapter 2: Game vs Reality and Magic)
(Chapter 2: Game vs Reality, and Magic)
(Vault surface)
(6:46 A.M)
Throughout the Commonwealth, there was one particular place. A false sanctuary for those who had entered. A simple vault that will begin a story that will last for generations.
The vault was built upon a hill that looked over a small neighbourhood that lived away from the city. The land that surrounded the vault was dead and rotten. Wherever plant life lived, It absorbed any amount of radiation it was nearby. A simple stream of water surrounded the neighbourhood, disconnecting it from the hill. An old wooden, decayed bridge, is the only connection the neighbourhood has to the hill.
For years the little neighbourhood of Sanctuary has only heard the sounds of radroaches, and giant flies known as Bloatfly.
Suddenly there was a small shake on top of the hill. Gears that are centuries-old turn and move swiftly. A single platform on top of the hill slowly began to open. The vault has finally been reopened.
Slowly Eric and Luna raised from the vault, ready to begin their journey. And the first test was the visuals.
Luna looked above her. She could see the elevator doors at the top opening. The sounds of gears turning, fascinated Luna. The sun's bright light just started peeking through the cracks. For an entire second Luna’s world went completely White…
Then came the coughing… Luna felt her lungs give in to the air. The air itself tasted awful, nothing like back home in Equestria…
“Hey, Hey! Are you all right!?” Luna could hear Eric call out to her, as slowly her lungs relaxed and her vision cleared. “Yes…*cough* we are fine.*cough*” Luna said through her coughing.
Ever so slowly, she looked at the world for the first time… and it was worse than what she expected… everything is just dead… whatever structure she could see was clearly damaged and decaying…
That horrifying question, reared its ugly head around the corner. ‘These bombs were worse than what we expected…’ She thought to herself. “Is the air poisoned, with this... radiation?” She asked Eric.
Eric took a deep breath in. “No... I feel fine… i’m not sure, but it could be the pollution in the air… but I’m not an expert... do you have factories?” He quickly asked her.
She thought to herself, remembering the paper she read when trying to deal with the court rulings. Something dealing with military factories and civilian factories. “We believe, we’ve heard such a recent invention, upon our Country. But they are mainly in Manehattan and fillyadelphia.”
Eric looked at her confused. “Manhattan... and Philadelphia…?”
Luna looked at Eric with confusion and a hint of green… Literally… “Manehattan and Fillyadelphia.” She said again.
Eric thought of continuing the conversation, but thought of more important things than just name similarities. “Sure… anyways it could be the fact that you’re not used to pollution yet or small bits of radiation that I can’t feel… or something like that…” ‘Did that make sense… Did I just talk out of my ass?’ Eric thought to himself. Truthfully, he has no idea what pollution could do to someone who has little to no experience with pollution.
Luna looked around. She tried to grab the air for any magic, but there was none to be found. The air itself tasted awful and if pollution was the problem, she would have to talk to her sister as soon as possible. “How can you stand the taste of pollution every day?” She said while looking at him.
Eric looked at her, with a questioning look before asking “taste?”
Luna looked up at him. “Yes, the air tastes terrible. Without a hint of magic too, it just tastes horrible.” Luna was about to continue, but felt her stomach heave in a bit. She controlled her stomach before it gave it’s opinion again. Then just stared off into the horrid wasteland.
Eric thought that some water could help her but then he realized something. Where was the purified water. He was certain he didn’t set it down, but the next thing he knew there was a purified water can in his hand. He stated it dumbfounded but chalk it up to game mechanics
Eric passed her a bottle of purified water and Luna drank it down with ease. The refreshing drink soothing her aching throat. Eric decided he was going to need to test out the game's limits Later.
A word hadn’t been spoken between them for a good minute, and when Luna was about to ask him about another question. She noticed that he was smiling. “Art thou... all right?” Wondering how he was taking this.
Eric saw the state that his... friend..? Companion. was in. Thankfully she looked to be able to deal with it and so he decided to set his sights onto the view. A smile touched his lips. He remembered the first time he ever walked out of the vault. nostalgia greeted him as he saw the gorgeous view of this world. “Art thou... all right?”
Eric turned his attention back to Luna before answering. “yeah, just taking in the view. I’ve seen this site so many times in the game, yet in person, it’s as beautiful as ever.”
Luna looked at him dumbfounded, before abruptly laughing then coughing. *Cough* Hah Hah *Cough* “Thou are quite the jester!” She quickly drank the last of the purified water. Unfortunately seeing his confused look made her pause. “Thou cannot be serious… how can such death and destruction give way to any beauty!? Most of the plant life is dead or dying along with the population. Thou hast told us of monsters... yet we’ve haven’t seen any… that terrorize everyone and kill people daily. Where is the beauty?”
Eric was shocked at her statement before thinking it over himself. There was a slight pause until Eric chuckled to himself. It got to the point where Luna was annoyed but Eric continued.
“Well I guess it’s a very special type of “beauty”. Unfortunately I don’t think I can really explain it to you. You’ll just have to find it yourself.” Eric explain to her which only made Luna more annoyed.
“That didn’t answer our question at all. We don’t see beauty anywhere.” Luna stated again.
Eric turned to her. “And you might never see it. Unfortunately that doesn’t matter whether you see this beautiful world or not. It’s still dangerous and what we need to be more worried about is his survival. And who knows maybe you’ll find the beauty along the way. Now come on as soon as you get ready we can make our way down to Sanctuary.”
He started moving back. Finally Luna stepped away from the edge of the Mountain that looked over the town. It wasn’t too big and she could spot a simple river flowing through. At first she was relieved, but then remembered what Eric told her and remembered why they needed to carry water.
Shaking her head in disappointment she eventually turned away. Turning around she spotted several strange contraptions made out of metal. In front of one of the strange contraptions, were three wooden crates.“You check those out and see if you can find anything useful, I just got a grab a few things.” She could hear Eric say as he went into a strange building that was beside the vault.
Deciding it was best to follow along, she made her way over to the wooden crate. Using her hoof she quickly pushed open the top part of the crate with ease.
The first thing she pulled out was a bottle of what she could only assume to be alcohol and a cloth pouring out of it. It wasn’t the only one either; she found two others and wondered what their purpose was. She found a few bullets but was unaware if they were able to be used in the 10 mm pistol that she was given. Finally there was a red bag they had to label Rad Away on it in the bottle that looked to be medicine of Red-X.
Then she found the bottle caps… She ignored them.
Eric made him Way to the vault control…. Room? He didn’t know what it was called, but it had a panel that controls the vault door, a single wooden crate, a table, and a first aid kit on the wall.
Inside the wooden crate was a grenade. Eric stares dumbfoundead at the circular object for a second. The world of fallout registering in his head again. He never thought he would see a live grenade. Then again he didn’t expect to be in the world of fallout, with a magical blue ‘Princess’ pony either. He picked up the grenade and felt it in his palm. He even saw the pin he needed to pull but decided the smartest move is to put it away.
As he made his way to the med kit. He found inside a RadAway in a Rad X. He was glad to get some counters to radiation.
The only thing left was a wrench on the table but finding steel in the wasteland is pretty easy.
Eventually Eric made his way beside Luna. “What were you able to fine?” he asked her.
She looked up at him. “We don’t know. We found 3 beverages, they have Strange cloths attached to them. Along with some ammunition although some bullets seem to be sharper than others. Finally we found ‘Rad’ stuff, it seems to be some sort of medicine.” She said listing off the items.
Eric took a look at the items but kind of figured it out what they already were. “Not a bad start! For both of us being not so lucky this is one of the best starts I’ve had. For starters we didn’t get drinks. WE Got Molotovs!” He quickly snagged the three from her. “I’ll show you what they do later.” He said before she could protest.
He then grabbed the bullets and examined them. Then he realized that he never examined bullets before. Although the sharper bullet looks like a 308 round. Similar to his fathers hunting rifle.
Painful memories flooded back in after remembering about his father’s rifle. He hoped he didn’t get any blood on it.
Eric focused back onto the task at hand. He remembered what he could do to figure it out. He gave Luna the smaller smoother bullet and spoke. “Why don’t we test out our Pip boys. Focus on putting the bullet away. Then turn on your pit boy and try to find the ammunition section. Once there it will tell you what bullet it is and what guns It could work with.”
She looked at Eric confused but closed her eyes. Slowly she felt the bullet leave her grasp. She opened her eyes again and looked down at her Pip boy.
Eric did the same. He saw the familiar green screen light up. At the top of the screen he saw five different categories on the Pip boy. STAT. Which was the one he was currently on. He saw that he was really close to levelling up to level two. INV. His inventory stores all of his equipment and supplies. DATA. Finally enough he only has the Jewel of the Commonwealth Mission; get to Diamond City. MAP.
And RADIO. He only had some classical music in the Diamond City radio
Finally he went to where he was needed which was in INV. The first one on the list was his weapons. But instantly a single weapon caught his eye, and it wasn’t the baton or the 10 mm pistol.
“Fathers Hunting Rifle.” His eyes shot open as he looked at the 2D picture of his father’s rifle.
Still in disbelief he made his way over to the ammo section. There he saw he had 108 bullets of a 10 mm pistol. Then he noticed he had 6, 308 rounds. His fathers weapon was fully loaded with the extra bullet.
But shouldn’t one of them be used… unless… he didn’t know what to think at the moment so he decided to see how luna is doing.
As soon as she looked at it, it flashed on catching her by surprise. Instantly she was greeted with a green screen with a pony that looks similar to her, walking in place. She saw many different symbols, stats and writing that she didn’t understand. However she did notice the tags on top of the screen. (STAT, INV, DATA, MAP, RADIO) had a dale beside the top right of the screen that had the same stats.
Slowly she turned the dial with her magic to INV. Instantly everything changed. most notably the words underneath. The word “WEAPONS” glow brighter than 1000 Suns to her eyes.
Finally everything clicked in. The tags meant Stats, Inventory, Data, Map and... Radio? She scolded herself for not seeing the easy connection earlier but was impressed how the game organized itself. Just a little bit lower down the screen she could see that she had a 10 mm pistol and a baton.
seeing that she was an inventory. She looked around until she found… AH!! Ammo! She quickly moved over to the section and noticed that she had 12, 10 mm pistol ammo, and 3, 38 round ammo.
“Oh! I see you already getting the hang of it?” Eric’s voice broke through the silent and unknown to Luna. She was Smiling!
“Indeed! Ha! Ha! We have finished thy test! We have found three, 38 round ammo!” She shouted a bit excitedly.
Eric chuckled “All Right. Congrats on figuring out a Pip Boy. Now we can head down to Sanctuary.”
Still smiling Luna nodded her head and looked at Eric. “And what is so special about Sanctuary?”
Eric looked at her and smiled back. “Well for starters it’s one of the safest places in The waste land and also most of the weak enemies are over here. However it’s falling into disarray since it’s absence but I’ve turned Sanctuary into a fortress several times. I’ve even come up with my own “meta” strategy.” He said with a bit of a chuckle.
Luna and Eric made their way at the back of the mountain, away from the cliff, and slowly followed the pathway down it. The pathway turned right hugging the mountain all the way down. But before they even got halfway they made it to the front gate. Luna looked over the bodies that scattered the floor. “What hath happened to those folk?”
Eric looked at the bodies with a bit of a frown. “They simply didn’t make it inside. They were just the first of Billions.”
Luna’s eyes widened at the prospect of so many dead her world didn’t even have their first billion yet. “To has't such destruction… We hope own people shall nev'r maketh such a device.” Eric noticed Luna’s speech pattern changed slightly. She seems to slowly go further into English. He decided not to comment on it.
They continue on walking. Slowly as they moved, Luna could hear the slight sound of running water. The river that circled sanctuary had one of its thinnest areas at the back of sanctuary. With a small crooked old wooden Bridge. Luna doubted the liability of the bridge. Just staring at it made her feel uneasy.
Without hesitation, Eric walked onto the bridge and simply crossed. “Don’t worry about it! The Bridge can definitely hold up more weight than you’re carrying.”
Luna decided to ignore her feelings on the matter and just cross the bridge. Surprisingly it held up pretty well.
Finally they had made it to Sanctuary.
Instantly Luna noticed the buildings. The first two buildings were blue and would look amazing if it wasn’t for the fact that they were broken down and had several holes in them. As they made their way closer to Sanctuary, she noticed a third blue building that was completely caved in on itself.
From there they found themselves in the middle of the street. Luna noticed several buildings of blue and yellow, old rustic metal boxes that were everywhere, the wildlife has re-made it home in the crack and crevices of this abandoned street. It reminded her of her old home and what had become of it.
Eric on the other hand had a small frown for once. Luna looked up at him worried. “Is everything all right?” Luna asked in a more regular worried tone.
Eric looked around even more confused and sad. “Yeah, I’m all right.” he said, “But someone was supposed to greet us here. Our first NPC and companion.”
Luna looked around Sanctuary in confusion. We bethought thee hath said this lodging wast abandoned.”
“Yes it is, besides the occasional bug. However there was one resident who has stayed at Sanctuary for over 200 years. In the game he is a good friend and an amazing butler robot.”
Luna looked at him confused. “What is this robot thee speaketh of?”
“Codsworth… is a machine. Our technology has advanced enough to create machines that can move around as if they were people and even talk like us. There’s different robots for different fields. Codsworth is known as a mr.handyman. A Machine that is a jack of all trades. They mostly tend to be butlers or help out at work. But they are armed enough to become butchers. If their programming goes haywire they can become very deadly and dangerous as a Mr. Butcher. But Codsworth has way more independent thought than any other handyman or butcher. While he still has his programming he’s practically completely loyal to the main character… However, he’s always outside of his house.” He proceeds to stare down the street. Waiting for Codsworth to appear at any moment
Luna looked up at Eric. “So what art we going to do?”
Eric looked at her. “I guess I’ll have to give you a tour myself. Look out for a floating ball with metal arms.”
Luna tried to imagine such a creature. And instantly felt her brain crash trying to do so. Automatically her body followed Eric as he made his way down the street of Sanctuary. After turning left and following the street they made their way to a fourth blue house. While Luna loved the house designs they could’ve been at least a little bit more creative in the pattering
Suddenly she heard the sounds of buzzing wings of bugs. Looking through the window of the house she saw a giant fly. She felt herself shiver at the prospect of seeing such a large creature fly around.
“Bloatfly.” She heard Eric say. “Nasty fuckers that fling shit at you. Thankfully they’re only best feature is their range. Other than that they’re free game.
The bloatfly noticed them and instantly let out a screech. It started flying towards them in a zigzag motion, shooting little balls through the window. Luna quickly dodged an attack coming straight for her, but Eric replied to the bug by bringing out his rifle.
he felt his fathers weapon materialize in his hands perfectly with the flashing light. Quickly as it came the light faded and all that was left was a hunting rifle with it’s barrel to the fly. With quick aiming he fired the rifle. The bug exploded into Gore as it’s body split a part. He removed the extra bullet out of the rifle before placing it on his back. Surprisingly it actually stuck
Eric looked back at Luna with a smile, “Ready to continue?”
A good portion of the morning was taken up scavenging all of the houses and clearing them from bugs. Eric decided to let Luna get some training in and also to help her work on her bloodlust. After that was taken care of Eric took the opportunity to show Luna where they would be sleeping.
At the end of the street of Sanctuary there were three houses. The one on the left and the one at the very end had caved in and were useless. However to Lunas amusement the blue house on The left was still intact. Still there were a lot of holes in the walls and ceiling.
“We art going to catch but a wink in th're?” She said a bit dumbfounded. Art thee sure it’s stable? How shall t not fallen liketh the oth'rs?
“Come on it’s not that bad. And besides if they were going to cave-in they would’ve done it right now. However just for you. I’ve come up with a solution.” Eric walked away from the blue house and for the first time made his way towards a yellow House. It was in the centre of Sanctuary it was a lot more different than the rest. There were benches outside underneath the patio. Tables meant to upgrade weapons and armour and a yellow stand to hold power armour.
Of course Luna didn’t know any of that and only watched Eric make his way towards a red workstation.
Eric looks at the red workshop. “OK how do I do this?”, he asked mainly to himself. That’s when he noticed that there was a slight bit more detail with the workshop. He noticed labels on drawers that usually don’t open and when he did open them pretty easily he saw stacks of blueprints.
Luna watched Eric with interest. Seeing Eric at the workstation she saw him go through some drawers and pull out some blue papers. She questioned this town on their variety of blue as much as she appreciates it. Eric seemed happy looking at The blue papers, before turning around to one of the buildings that collapsed on itself. She watched him move closer and placed his hand onto the building. Suddenly Luna feels a huge amount of magic suddenly spike. The entire collapsed building glows in a white before suddenly disappearing. The entire building was gone within a blink of an eye and Luna only knew one creature’s power that could do it. Chaos Magic!
suddenly everything made sense to her with these “game” mechanics. The purify water trick. The disappearing objects into the Pip boy. The house disappearing was a glowing spark of chaos magic.
And at the centre of it all Eric was the one doing these Game mechanics. She stared at Eric and her vision started going dark. Was she being played this entire time. Does Discord have her trapped in some mental prison. Was everything she went through all for nothing- “Hey! You OK?” Her train of thought was completely derailed as Eric came into view. Her eyes locked onto his.
What she expected with the glowing yellow eyes of the serpent, hidden under layers of deceit and trickery. Yet when she stared into his eyes she saw nothing but worry and kindness coming from a creature she barely even knew. His eyes felt so genuine the longer she stared into them. No hidden deceit or trickery could be found in those eyes. such eyes she has gotten used to.
“I’m ok” she quietly said. Not realizing she broke the Royal We.
Eric hesitantly nodded his head noticing a change in tone and demeanour in Luna but also noticed her smile. “Well,” he said, “I've come up with a solution that will give us extra protection and hopefully won’t make the building collapse on us.”
Luna watches him walk over to the building again and place his hand on the wall. At first she thought he was going to get rid of another house until a sheet of metal appeared perfectly on the side of the house. It didn’t cover it entirely but a good portion of the wall had an extra thick layer of metal. Eric moved around the entire outer wall, placing an extra layer of metal he even patched a few holes on the roof.
“How does that look?'' Eric said after he was done. Luna didn’t realize her jar was slightly hanging Open.” We must admit that your effort has surprised us.”
Eric chuckled a bit. “I can only do this in certain areas that would be considered a settlement and have the workshop.”
Luna nodded her head as they both made their way inside the house. At first the house was nothing but a mess. The first room had stuff barricaded pointing at the front door. Just before the barricades there was a hallway to extra rooms to the left. After cleaning the bug corpses and anything that wasn’t useful Luna proceeded to start taking away the barricade. That is until Eric stopped her. “There’s no need... whoever built this barricade knew what they were doing in fact I actually have a plan for it.” Eric made his way over to the barricade. Instead of removing everything he only removed the little useless pieces but keeping most of the stuff there.
It was a lot of work. But eventually Eric got his defences back to his standards. And with Luna’s help they did it in record timing to, just before the sunset.
They placed a wooden fence and guard towers that attached itself to each of the houses. The entire street was now considered a small fortress. Only the front bridge and park were open but soon Eric would have plans for them too. for now Eric scavenged every building for anything that would be useful.
Then there was the fortification that they placed on their house. Making sure that it was bulletproof and comfortable. Eric was hesitant to allow Luna to practice with the 10 mm pistol. However, he found a pipe pistol and more 38 rounds that go with it and Luna was able to practice for an hour. She tested her aim on little bottles and even the building we’re fortifying. Just to make sure it was bulletproof.
(As the story says, all materials place smooth themselves over their environment)
The barricade Full of junk such as barrels, a toilet sink and other stuff became a wall fortress of junk that protected their coaches. The wall of junk was protected by a single machine gun turret in the far corner of the room. Finally Eric had moved a cooking station in the middle of the couches
And that’s where they currently are. Eric had a single chair couch that was comfortable for his back and the barricade behind him made him feel safe. Luna was currently laying on the longer couch just staring out of one of the many holes in the roof that I wasn’t able to get. Besides all that The wall he was able to place on the already existing wall was surprisingly well done. He wouldn’t have been able to do it so easily without the realism in this world. Moulded and fit perfectly in place of where I wanted to put it. Usually the game would have its default position but it seems to actually move to its environment.
As Luna laid there she thought of a few questions. She was already upset at the fact they would have to sleep at night. He said that it was too dangerous for them to venture out at night with the amount of gear they had. Still she believe they had a lot of gear but complied. However there was still one question on her mind. “How do thou control the sun and moon?” The question from Luna caught Eric off guard. “I’m sorry?” was all he could reply. “Who moves the great spheres in the sky.” Luna said, looking towards him.
“Ummm… We don’t?” Eric said slowly. “Do you?”
The answer was still shocking but Luna sort of expected it. She felt the sun move all day but that connection with the sun and moon is still gone. It’s not her sister's sun and it’s definitely not her moon. Perhaps the sun moves on its own... but even then that would be preposterous. She was sure there was a reasonable explanation for the sun moving.
“Yes, Apologies if we confused you. Many things feel different about this world, without magic. The very base principal of all life. All of this is still very hard to believe.” she said.
“I feel ya.” Eric said. “While it’s true that I’m not from a different planet, dimension, or race and I have somewhat of a clue what’s going on. This is still very shocking. I didn’t even think something like this was possible. But I guess life has other plans for me.” ‘Still to move the goddamn sun’ he thought to himself.
Eric scratched his arm which didn’t catch Luna’s attention. ‘God it’s only been a day and I am already starting to scratch. If things don’t change. I might need to take some jet or maybe even a psycho just to get rid of this feeling.’ He thought to himself
Luna heard the pot boil as she could smell the radroach Eric was cooking for himself. While she is a little hungry and was only able to have a few cans of food, she and Eric had a small argument about the vegetables at the yellow house, but Eric made a good argument about planting and making more vegetables at our “homebase“. She might have to go back to eating meat in order to survive out here. She just wished it wasn’t bug meat. Luna felt sick to her stomach but one has to do what they have to do to survive.
Eric stood back up and made his way over to the pot, slowly he started turning it.
“Do thou mind if We have some?” She asked quietly.
“You eat meat?” Eric said a bit surprised, “Sorry I had no clue-“ “No it’s fine” Luna interrupted. “We ponies have the ability to eat meat but it mostly resigns with fish. However I have had... other occasions of eating meat.”
Eric nodded his head. In just a few minutes Eric was done cooking and with a few plates they found, they had roasted radroach.
Eric stared at the floating radroach pieces entering Luna’s Mouth. “OK seriously, how many tricks of this “magic” do you have?”
Luna stared at Eric and slowly started to recall all the spells she could do. However there was something blocking her that she didn’t realize was blocking her. Her knowledge of the craft of casting spells was mostly forgotten. The amount of spells she had at her disposal were disastrously low. And she knew only discord could force her in such a state.
“We know many spells mostly ranging in the Elemental and Moon class with some major combat spells. Telekinesis is one of the easiest to achieve in the elemental class. All the way to the hardest one. teleportation. That “scythe” thou seen was a combat spell amplified by our moon class. It’s one of our special creations. The Moon class has some of the most advanced and powerful spells to date.-“ but before she could finish, they were interrupted by a loud barking.
The barking broke the silence of the Sanctuary instantly causing Luna to prepare herself on her hooves. However Eric recognized the barking and in sheer confusion he said the word.
“Dogmeat?”
Author's Note
Hello everyone here’s the chapter For The wish. Apologies if it wasn’t as expected and the pacing was maybe a bit slower and faster in some areas. However I just wanted to get most basics out of the way and save the good stuff for the next chapter that will be out sooner than expected.
Author's Note
Hey Everyone, if you’ve been wondering where I’m at I’ve been having a bit of a writers block. But I came out with a story in just a day and I think it’s probably going to be one of my best works. As always let me know what you think and I hope you enjoyed.
(Prologue)
(Prologue)
(Canterlot castle)
(9:15 P.M.)
‘They’re late…’ Was all that she could think.
She sat alone in her room, waiting for her maids to wake her up. And as it has happened for the past three days, they have been late every single time. She couldn’t blame them after all, she was known as the mare in the moon, nightmare moon… but she wishes they would call her Princess Luna.
Luna slowly got up out of her bed and walked around. Her room was dark, and to a normal pony, impossible to see. But to her it was the galaxy in her room. Star glittered about on the walls and ceiling, to her bed and her dresser covering every inch of her room. as before her very eyes a galaxy took form in her room. She smiled at this pony size galaxy of an illusion
With a flick of her head The illusion dissipated as she continued to the dresser. She slept on her Royal Aguila when she suddenly heard the voices outside her door.
“OK it’s your turn to wake Nightmare moon.” A hushed whisper came from her maid outside “What!” Replied another voice. “I did it last time, it’s your turn”
Luna after hearing the argument for the third time in a row since her banishment finished getting ready, deciding best to do it herself. Eventually one of the maids came in only to see that she was ready to go.
She stumbled back, shocked and panicked at first but held her tongue from screaming. “Your majesty! I didn’t expect you to be up! We’re sorry if we took too long, your majesty!”
Luna seeing the fear and worry in the little pony’s eyes, frowned. “No- we are- that will be all.” she said dismissively, unable to properly formulate her words.
The maids worried for their life quickly escorted themselves out.
Luna let out a small sigh, slowly making her away back to her bedside. She planted her face in the pillow and let out a muffled screaming and a few tears.
Suddenly she got back up and made her way to the mirror, fixing herself up and made sure that she looked like a princess.
After she was finished her hair was flowing eloquently like a starry night sky in the wind, and her coat had a shine to it that she hasn’t seen in 1000 years. She looked at the mirror, there was an uneasy smile plastered across her face. She took a few breaths before speaking towards herself in the mirror. “OK! The third day is the charm.” She told herself. “We are going to have a wonderful supper/breakfast with our sister. Then have a great study lecture, maybe we’ll even do some of our royal duties, and finish it off with making a friend.” Her smile dropped a bit. A tear almost went down her face but she shook it off. Now isn’t the time for grieving.
With a practice face she eventually made her way out of her room to greet One of her favourite parts of the day.
“Your majesty.” said an old bat pony stallion. He was the captain of her night guard, Captain Nightwing, and her first real friend since her banishment. Like most about bat ponies he did not fear her and welcomed her back with open arms. “You’re up a little late, later than usual, your sister probably fell asleep already.” He finished with a small laugh.
His smile is contagious as it cracks the princesses heart of cold. “Thank you Nightwing!” said Luna addressing her captain. You’ve always been kind to me, and looked out for me for over a week now. Is there anyway We can repay you”
He smiled a little bit “ma’am, The greatest honour you could give me is serving you and delivering you justice. You will always be our queen.”
Princess Luna smiled as she shot back “Careful they might expect us of treason if you call us queen now.”
“And I gladly fight everyone of them for you, majesty.” And She couldn’t help but smile and nearly lost her composure for a second.
“Thank you captain, that means a lot.” She said almost letting a tear out. “Very well, We’ll allow you to use your full rank as captain to serve me today, you are dismissed, our loyal captain.”
Nightwing smiled before saluting and making his way to do her Majesty‘s bidding in any way he can. Luna watched her friend go before slowly making her way towards the kitchen to confront her sister for the day.
Making her way to the main entrance, she took a few deep breath‘s in before finally opening the door. Entering, she saw her sister Princess Celestia at the table leaning over, nearly sleeping on her food.
“Morning dearest sister!” Luna said cheerfully. This caused Celestia to sputter a bit looking around frankly with tired eyes. Finally her purple eyes landed on her sister and she smiled with a warm motherly tone. “Lulu, it’s good to see you’re finally awake.” Celestia replied with her pet name to Luna.
Luna quickly walked over to her sister and gave her a wing hug. “Apologies dear sister. Our attendance didn’t wake us up in time.”
Celestia ponders this for a second. “Strange my Staff have always been on time. Don’t worry Lulu I will have a word with them.” Celestia said, closing her eyes again. her head sagged a little bit, nearly going down before Luna spoke again. “Sister our night is still young, and yet you are so tired.”
“Oh it’s nothing to worry about Lulu!” Celestia quickly intervened. “It’s just some royal duties I got left behind, and I’m trying to catch up.”
Luna instantly got an idea in her head that she’s been meaning to ask for a while.
“Sister! why don’t We take care of some of your duties?” Luna said excitedly, only for her face a drop at Celestial‘s worried look.
“Sister, as much as I love you, you’ve just come back a little over a week ago and the court deems you fine just three days ago. I don’t think they’ll like you making decisions so fast.” Celestial said trying to reason with her sister.
“Sister, please!” Luna bagged. “This isn’t the first time I’ve had court dealings, and look how tired you are. You have been a single ruler for over a millennia, please allow me to give you at least a little bit of a break.”
Celestial looked tiredly at her sister then her untouched food before finally letting out a sigh. “Very well sister I’m too tired to argue, I will have one of my servants give you a list for you to complete. It won’t be too hard and I think you’ll be able to do it easily.”
Luna... was... happy… for the first time in over a millennia she is feeling pure joy. She hugged her sister, tighter this time. Then booked it off to the throne room.
Celestia smiled as your sister ran off… then she looked at the two plates that were completely untouched.
(Throne room)
(11:30: P.M.)
Luna... hated... paperwork… she was still happy, but the night guards could tell that she was trying to burn the papers to a crisp with her schooling eyes. The terrifying smile she gave along with it didn’t help.
Unfortunately Luna was Out of practice when it came to this paperwork and as much as she tried she didn’t really understand the rail system, factories, along with air bases and defences. She was still getting used to the new musket that was in the works. The thought of a weapon able to pierce almost any armour with ease frightened her a little bit. Nightmare moon for all of her power didn’t have that great set of armour.
Luna remembers a time where pony’s would come up to her with everything and they would discuss one on one. At the end of the day it was always the rulers call. But still it was nice to have the company. Instead it was stacks of paperwork. It is faster for her to decide then and there but hundreds of papers is a lot for one pony, in a night. Still Luna tried the best that she could.
Luna’s eyes read over the following page.
Local Guard report of Canterlot:
A Teenage Griffin, guessing by the hoodie, was seen around the walls of Canterlot palace. While the suspect has not been found they are believed to belong to the group of meat and bones.
Permission to investigate in the morning:
Sign x_____________
‘Griffins! What are those savages doing here!’ Luna thought to herself. It has been a long time, perhaps a few moved here locally. ‘still doesn’t change the fact… this boy was invading our palace.’ Luna told herself, restraining herself for more insult. I’m gonna need more information.
“Guards? Has this Griffin gang been bothersome.” Luna thought that after 1000 years the ‘Best’ the griffins can hope for is gangs, instead of their savage ways.
The guard I thought to himself. He had heard of a gang known as the black phoenix that was only populated by griffins. “Yes, your majesty. The gang has been around for a little bit but they are no threat, sticking to small crimes.”
“Small. Crimes.” Luna said a bit irritated. “Thievery is one thing. But this teenager has come to our palace walls. What if they’re scouting out, and we are going to wait in the morning!” Luna emphasized by stomping her hoof on the ground.
The guard took in step back her actions but said, “I didn’t think of it like that, your majesty.”
“No...you did not know the situation.” Luna calmed down. “ We will retire for the night, send your best stallions of the night guard on this report. We want these conspirators found.”
The pony in question quickly saluted before taking off.
Luna felt the night calling to her and as she made her way down the steps of her throne over to her study room, she had no idea what she had done.
(Outside a small restaurant called meat and bones)
(12:05 A.M)
Nightwing had heard the report come in from the princess herself and decided to take investigations into his own hands. After hearing it come from one of the palace night guards, telling him exactly what Luna said.
‘Hmmm’ he looked at the building that stood there non-threatening. ‘Meat and bones. I know a lot of good buddies that would want to keep you for your meat products all over Equestria. But if you’re working with the gang then I guess you got to go.’
He witnessed the best of the night Guard and bat ponies gather for the raid. He smiled to himself and thought. ‘If this is gonna be my first and last ever raid for her majesty, until my old body finally gives it out… then I think it’s best if I have some of the action myself he said before moving to the front of the raiding group.
(Canterlot Castle)
(5:30 A.M)
Luna was absolutely tired. Yet, she was still happy. She was able to help her sister out even if it was for one night. After catching up with all of her studies and other nightly duties she was ready to get breakfast and get some sleep.
Unfortunately destiny had other plans for her.
She saw a night guard… galloping towards her! Seeing the worried look on his face, she knew it was serious. As soon as he stopped in front of her, he took a second to catch his breath. “Your majesty!” He said with a salute and a few puffs.
“Breathe, soldier! Luna said, trying to calm him down. “what do you have to report?”
“ma’am... it’s captain Nightwing… he’s hurt… really badly!”
Suddenly the world slows down…
Luna could hear every sound in the palace...
The silent tick of a clock…
Chatter from the ponies...
Even her own heartbeat…
Slowly beating faster and faster…
“Take me to him…” The words were automatic.
Any other word the stallion tried to say fell on deaf ears…
She’s moved like a machine…
not a muscle at a place...
Eventually her eyes paint a different picture…
The hallway was gone, objects and the stallion we’re gone and replaced…
The moon shone brightly as she walked as Nightmare moon...
She’s walking through a battlefield, corpses of ponies, Sun and moon, left on each side of her, making a clear pathway...
In front of her laid Stallion of a bat pony…
His blood laid perfectly on the ground underneath him…
Not a single other body piled next to this one stallion...
She suddenly stopped…
“Why did you have to leave… you promised...”
She was so occupied she didn’t see the beams of light coming towards her...
…
Her eyes begin to paint another picture…
“Are you sure you should take it…”
The voice came from the stallion on the ground…
Only this time he was right next to her alive…
“I thought it was your father’s weapon…”
She didn’t say anything and only looked at the sword…
“If I do this, I believe my father will understand… everypony will understand in time why I am doing this… our mother was always soft on our sister…”
The stallion came back into her view…
“Well whatever happens princess, know that I will always be beside you… I promise...”
Would be the last words she heard before her transformation...
…
Her tears begin to make the picture blurry as she was brought back into the real world a little bit. She quickly moved to wrap her mask back on. The world was moving faster again; it was almost normal. She believed she was making her way towards the medical wing. But her eyes begin to paint one last picture.
…
“Daddy don’t go!” Luna yelled allowing her stubby little wings propel her forward to her father. He had to go away, that’s what he had told her. He had to go be the hero that he always said he was.
Her mom and Celestia were in the back having already said their goodbyes.
Her father looked past the sunset and then back to Luna.
As she made her way in, he readied his embrace to catch her. “Please don’t go daddy, things aren’t that fun when you’re gone.”
“Oh sweetie” the father said, trying to calm his daughter down. “We talked about this, The world is a scary place and they need people like us to make it better.” As he finished speaking his sword appeared behind him. “And if anypony messes with me, I have my trusted weapon to keep me safe.”
He gave his daughter a kiss on the forehead before speaking again. “I will admit, I’ve seen unfairness with your mother. But just between you and me I think that’s because you’re stronger than your sister… but I’ll be sure to speak with her as soon as I get back… I promise…”
Slowly with his telekinesis, he set his daughter down with his family and flew off towards past the sunset, to a World luna never knew. The words of her being stronger than her sister stuck with her that day...
It would be the last time she saw him…
…
As Luna blinked one last time a single tear escaped her eye… she played it cool noticing that she was in a room full of ponies now… but laying on the bed was her captain… “Nightwing!”
The word came from Luna’s mouth, taking all of her breath with her.
A single bullet hole was lodged in his chest, in the lung area… blood tried to gush out, but the five doctors that were working on the hem kept it at bay… but Luna knew it was only a matter of time… no pony could survive a lung damage that critical…
Tension was high in the room…
Luna decided not to waste time and removed all the doctors. They tried to protest but they were all quickly moved out of the room. She proceeded to hold the wound herself, while entering his mind with a spell telepathy spell.
“My captain.” she spoke within his mind.
“Princess, you hear, good, that’s all I wanted.” He thought as a smile grew on his face.
At that moment, Luna broke just a little bit. A few tears streamed down her face as she stared at her newest captain.
“The bastard put up a good fight, but we got the place locked down. I didn’t see the guard though nor did I see his musket. He took the shot at me first. I’m quite honoured.” He said finishing with a laugh only to have blood come out a bit.
“No! Please save your strength! We are not gonna lie to you, you're not going to make it.” She said about to break even more. “Please do you have any last words We should give to anypony!”
Nightwing only smiled and shook his head. “Impossible… I don’t have the best of life growing up in the bat districts… Life is always tough in the bad districts and never easy... I constantly got in trouble and found myself, ironically, on the bad side of the law… an old bat from Celestia's small night guard was the only one to catch me and to convince me to join. I have nowhere to go, barely have any friends and family, but it didn’t stop me from making new ones in the guard… The guard gave me something I was able to believe in again.”
his eyes drew over to the princess who looked at him in turn. “You… believing in the mare in the moon is highly frowned upon in the guard back then, but we still don’t care… it gave us bat ponies a meaning. More than just the underdog fourth race of pony kind… meeting you even, though it was a little more than a week has made my life worth every second… thank… you…..”
...
Silence…
Luna checked up on him but there was no movement at all. She let go of his wound, and the blood slowly flowed out…
He was dead… and his last words were to thank her…
She broke.
She cast a spell over herself, to silence herself. She would never let any pony see the tears and screams she laid out that morning…
(Canterlot castle)
(8:00 A.M.)
she made her way through the castle as if nothing was wrong in the world. Even her tiredness was gone.
She proceeded to make her way towards breakfast… hoping to see her sister before she falls into sleep.
Making her way towards the entrance she didn’t hesitate this time to open them. Wanting to see her sister as soon as she could.
“LUNA!” Instantly she was greeted with the shout of her name. Coming towards her in a fury was her sister of all ponies. The yell left Luna stunned and shocked, not expecting quite a reaction.
Celestia stormed her way towards Luna proceeding to yell again “What did you do!”
Luna proceeded to try and speak to no avail… “Sister- I didn’t underst-“ “You started a raid on meat and bones!” Celestia was quick to interrupt. Luna could see the bags underneath Celestia‘s eyes.
“Yes, but We simply-““Why in our mothers name! Did you decide to do that!” Celestia interrupted again.
“But the report! I thought they were dangerous!” Luna quickly tried to shot back.
“Dangerous! A simple teenager looking over our walls is not dangerous Luna. What’s dangerous! Is the fact that you sent ‘our!’ Soldiers into one of the most important industries to most of the griffin kind! The entire griffin empire will be outraged with these turn of events! And they have a right to be Luna!” Celestia said, not holding anything back.
“Sister! I sorry, I didn’t know! I thought they were a gang. I swear I only wanted to help.” Luna cried out hoping to get to her sister. Breaking her old language with it.
This had the desired effect and Celestia eventually calmed down. “I’m sorry Luna it’s early in the day. And besides most of this is my fault.”
Luna looked up to her sister confused.
“It’s obvious to me now that it was far too early for you to take up the duties of a leader again.” Celestia said in a cold tone.
Luna felt frozen to the floor. She had no idea what to say. “I’m— we are so so sorry.” Luna tried to say as her main fell over her face.
“I know you are Luna.” Celestia said with her motherly tone. “Go ahead and get some rest.”
Luna tried quickly making her way out of the room before she broke anymore than she was.
“Also I heard a report that a member of our guard fell during the battle. Your recklessness wasted a life, I want you to make sure that you apologize to their family… understand…” Celestia didn’t know it, but she was talking about Nightwing.
Luna almost fell but quickly reasserted her sister with an “Understood.” Then taking off in a full gallop to her room.
(Luna’s chamber)
(8:30)
Luna sat in her room contemplating her life. “Why!” Luna said, mostly to herself. “Why has life always been this constant failure, why does life keep taking pony’s away from us. Why doesn’t life just end this nightmare.”
Luna shook her head roughly “No stop it! This is probably what you get after all! After everything you’ve done, you're getting what you deserve!” Luna proceeded to roll over on her bed, allowing anything to take her in her sleep.
“I wish I wasn’t here… I wish I had a friend Who wouldn’t leave me… I wish….” Whatever she said was lost to her that night. With all the tiredness and stress, she quickly fell into a deep slumber.
And unknown to her, ‘Someone’ had seen it all.
(Chapter 1: New World, Old Vault)
(Chapter 1: New World, Old Vault)
(Vault 111)
(6:00 A.M)
Vault 111... It was never meant to be a special vault. It had its own task, like all the other vaults. Vault 111‘s task is to study the capability of cryo-pods. Unfortunately the studies didn’t go anywhere, And vault 111 suffered the same fate many other vault’s have. No one was left to tell the tale besides the computer monitors known as terminals.
Until today…
Two rows of cryo-pods lined each other up. All of the occupants were dead inside…
A loud hiss ran through the room. Two cryo-pods, that were lined up with each other, began to shake and come to life. A light flashed inside the pods, causing the rooms lights to flicker on and off repeatedly. Finally... everything became still as the lights turned off and all sounds ceased…
Suddenly a voice ran through the room as the lights slowly began to turn on. “Cryo-pod A6 and B6, have completed the test. Record now stands 2/49 have survived the cryo-stasis.”
With that another Hiss came from the two pods. Cold air burst from the pods quickly. Air Particles touching in an area they haven’t in 200 years.
(Pod B2: Luna’s pod)
The first thing that came to Luna’s mind was the freezing pain. Her muscles felt tense, her eyes stung with freezing pain every time she tried to open them. Eventually she realized she was wearing something other than her usual close. It felt like it was up against her body, like she was wearing another coat.
Next came the sounds. Sirens and the voice could be heard. Unfortunately she couldn’t make out what the voice was saying and didn’t understand what the sirens meant.
She also felt off. It was clear to her that she wasn’t in her bed. For one thing she was standing up parallel in a very uncomfortable position. It felt like something was meant to lay here, but whatever it was, it wasn’t meant for Luna.
She opened her eyes again only to meet the same result. Thankfully she did catch that there was something in front of her. For a second it looked like a door, but she wasn’t sure.
Trusting her feelings and wanting to get out of the cold. she pushed her way out of whatever she was in.
Only for the Full weight of gravity to slam her forward on the ground. The force of gravity, freezing, aching, temperatures, and a horrible, horrible, smell in the air. Her guts decided they wanted to include their opinion.
She turned her head, hopefully in a safe direction, and threw up.
(Pod A6: Eric’s pod)
(A few minutes before)
Eric began to wake up. ‘The fuck, did I sleep outside again.’ He thought to himself disappointed. The cold was an unwelcoming touch, especially when... ‘no... wait…’ he tried opening his eyes only for the pain to increase tenfold. He quickly shut his eyes and began to think.
‘Where am I? Why am I not in my gaming chair?’ Eric asked himself. ‘And why is it so freaking cold?’ Eric moved around uncomfortably.
After a few seconds he began to hear noises around him. A familiar, yet faint voice broke through the silence. He couldn’t quite make it out but then he heard something familiar again.
He heard and felt the Air move. Whatever he was in, the air also wanted to get out. As if it was compressed in a small box.
That’s when a small, Terrifying idea formed in his head. He needed to know for sure and his body moved instantly. His hands pushed on the door keeping him in the pod. The cold air hissed at its freedom.
He fell down, but caught himself in time having anticipated the fall. What he didn’t anticipate was the pain still going through him. He’s freezing body entered instantly into a pretty warm place, causing his muscles to burn as the heat and cold battled.
Again, he tried opening his eyes to some success. His eyes were only blurry because of his own tears, and the aftermath of cryo-stasis.
“Blaaaaa…..” The sound came from another person!... And a weird stench.
“Hello?” Eric quickly tried to call out.
It wasn’t long for him to receive an answer. “Hello?” Came the voice of what sounded like a beautiful female. Eric couldn’t place it, but something felt off. “Who art thou! Where are we?” Eric was confused with the wording, and the tone of the voice. ‘She’s scared, so I don’t think she would be with Tony. Unless this is some sick fucking game he’s playing.’ He thought only to himself… or…
Eric quickly tried to help himself up, giving up only to a sitting position. He continued to let his eyes rest, but answered her. “Well, you can call me Eric. As for where we are I don’t really know…”
“Eric...” Luna said to herself. She slowly tried to sit up straight and succeeded partially. “Thou has a strange name…”
inside of Luna’s mind, her thoughts slightly battled. ‘Eric, he definitely doesn’t sound like a king Sombra or a Discord… but can we truly trust him... We can’t even see…’ Deciding that’s where she still will start. She asked her questions. “Why can’t We see? Did you do this to us? We demand an explanation!” Luna yelled in frustration.
Eric was taken a bit back by the yell, not expecting her to use such force. “Geez lady, like I said I don’t know… but…” Slowly he opened his eyes to no pain.
Looking up to what he feared the most... he saw the cryo-pod…
“We’ve been exposed to Cryo freeze burn. It just takes a few minutes to go away as long as you relax.” He said out loud.
Luna, still recovering but slowly making progress with her eyes, tried to look around on her side seeing the exact same box that she came out of. “Why were we exposed to such a weapon?” She questioned the other stallion she heard.
Eric looked back up to the cryo-pod. It was the exact same one that the player would go into in the game. ‘In a way this makes sense!’ He said only to himself. ‘Either I’m having the most realistic dream in my life… or I pulled the trigger and I’m dead.’ He thought darkly. He expected himself to be… A bit happier…
“Hey, did thou not just hear what We said?” Luna said, irritated at not getting a response. She began to turn her head into the direction still he thought the voice came from.
Eric quickly realized it was a woman he was talking to. And if he was in the Cryo-pod, that means Nora has to be in the other one.
Both of them turn their heads at once, to the other.
…
…
...
“AAAAHHHHH!!!”
“FUUCCCKKKK!!!”
Both of them looked at each other as if an alien appeared suddenly in the room.
Luna was the first to react…
A scythe appeared above her and Eric‘s heart fell.
“Life just hates me.” In a quick movement Eric found his escape gone. The long blade reached close to his neck, and one wrong move, could cost him his life.
“Monster! Why have you taken us from our home! What did thou, plan to do to us!” Luna was panicking. She had no idea what this creature was, or what it’s capable of. It had the ability to blind its opponents and can weaken them significantly. In fact she was still on wobbly legs.
Eric has been through a lot. He lost his parents, got addicted to drugs, and was betrayed by his best friend and girlfriend. He was called a douchebag, weak, pathetic, a loser, a freak, A pothead… but never a monster. “Monster... really…” slowly he laughed creepily, taking a page out of Angela’s book.
The laugh frightened Luna out for a second. It reminded her of Nightmare moon’s laugh. Still she holds her death glare.
“Is that the best you can do? I will say monsters is a new name to the list… But when you insult someone, you want to be truthful in your words… or else you’re just a hypocrite.” Eric moved fast, he had to. He quickly grabbed the wood of the scythe.
Luna was shocked by his actions. She only wanted to appear threatening, but now she was fighting a battle over the scythe. Until she realized he wasn’t trying to take her scythe away… instead he held it up to his throat.
Eric didn’t know what the hell was going on, but he wasn’t gonna be talking to her like some bitch. He had to deal with Tony for years, and if this... blue horse was going to kill him then so be it. Only a part of him hoped this creature had a sense of humanity in her.
“Who truly is the Monster.” he said to her. “A guy who is trying to mind his own goddamn business. Or life for causing me so many fucking problems.”
Luna took a step back, not expecting an outburst. Yet Eric still held the scythe close to his neck. “What’s wrong… can’t kill me now… come on prove me right. My life has been a living hell. In fact I would consider you a saviour for killing me. My monstrous saviour…”
Luna tensed up. ‘Does... he know... about our past’ she thought to herself. Before her very eyes the spell started dissipating. ‘Why wouldn’t he know, everypony knows the story or at least the myth.
Eric saw the instant deflate. ‘I guess I struck a good nerve.’ “That’s what I thought.” he said as he walked away.
Luna saw him go away and was going to protest, but decided against it. If he was going to hurt her, then she could stop him. If not... then she was just going to let him go.
Then Luna thought back to the moment when Celestial got angry. She was too brash. She didn’t do all the research she needed, and didn’t look over the investigation personally. She wondered what went wrong with her that day.
Eric made his way to the front, where he could find a terminal and get all the answers he needed. It was next to the entrance so it was a bit of a walk. His pod was the sixth Cryo-pod out of seven for his side.
As he made his way to the terminal, he looked back. Sitting on her haunches was the horse like being. She hadn’t moved from the spot they were in just a few moments ago.
Finally after looking at her from a distance, he realized he missed something he should’ve seen a while ago. He criticized himself for not seeing the vault suit she wore.
He proceeded to look down at himself and noticed that he was wearing the same vault suit she was. He didn’t need to see the numbers, he already knew he was in vault 111. The only question is, how?
He turned on the terminal and it came to life.
Test deemed: critical failed
The cryo-stasis test has been deemed a critical fail. After 200 years, only two test subjects have remained alive. A6, and B6.
After reading the first paragraph, Eric looked at the test subjects codes.
“A6 and B6.” He read aloud. If he was the sixth one on his side.
He looked back to where Luna was sitting seeing another Cryo-door Open that was opposite to his. And now that he’s looking around, he also noticed the fresh puke on the ground.
‘We both just woke up…’ if he had to guess. After all, they both couldn’t see at the start.
If this was a dream it was clearly the most realistic thing he’s ever felt. The pain from the cryo-pod proved to suck more than a game described. ‘I know everyone dead inside these Cryo-pods are frozen icicles, but Fuck did it hurt.’ He still felt like a frozen icicle that just came out of a 200 year old freezer box. Perhaps Nate was more worried about his wife… Who was right across from him.
Eric looked back at the blue creature, and her pod. If he killed himself… is this supposed to be some sort of heaven or hell. Was he legit in the game, with some kind of glitch? Were their rules to this world? Would he have to survive in a real Apocalyptic world… of course life will throw him that ball… Life ain’t ever going to make it easy.
He looked at the blue creature again, she still refused to move from her spot. Eric begins to worry a little bit-Slap! Eric slapped himself in the face. ‘I can’t be serious, she tried to kill me!’
Eric looked at the blue horse one last time, only to notice that it was more than a horse. There are a pair of wings on her back, and a horn that protrudes from her head. She also had a… ‘mane? Yeah I believe that’s right’ he quickly reassured himself. That looked like it had a whole Star system.
Yet she still looks miserable…
Eric slapped himself one last time, making sure he was doing this before proceeding to walk towards Luna.
Meanwhile Luna was in her... Own World…
‘He’s gone. Good... run… run from the Big, Bad, Nightmare Moon.’ She thought to herself. Unfortunately the creature only seems to stop at the end of the room. He was touching something, and noises were coming from a machine. Luna looked over for a second seeing the creature play with the machine.
‘He’s going to set some kind of trap!’ She thought to herself angrily. Quickly she snapped her head back to the floor. ‘Stop it! you’re being too brash again!’ She argued with herself. ‘He’s probably just gonna leave… I can handle myself if he decides to come close.’
She could hear footsteps coming closer.
‘Buck! OK don’t panic we can handle ourselves, if I need to.’ Luna readied another spell if she needed to. ‘You’re being too brash’ The thought slipped in. She felt her face go darker, as the magic wore down. ‘Your nightmare moon after all, don’t you deserve this.’ The Voice was her own, but A hint of a demonic voice slipped through.
‘you’ve caused so much damage to your Sister, and your Nation! A pointless Civil War at the deaths of Thousands! Your only punishment was being Banished to the Moon! Imagine The Pain Your Sister Felt! She had to Suffer all alone by Herself. Was it worth it… LU-‘ “HEY!” A voice broke through the darkness.
Luna looked straight in front of her, only to see the creature's face. Shocked, she activated her Scythe spell. Unfortunately, since she didn’t prepare the spell at all, so it became weak and unstable.
Eric had just made his way to the horse creature and saw that it was not paying any attention to anything. “Hey!” he called out. No response.
Eric slowly made his way in front of the creature. Still she didn’t move a muscle. “Hey!” he called out again even louder. Still. no response. Eric wouldn’t have ever admitted it at that moment, but he was feeling a little bit worried for her... Aww how cute… Ahem…
Eric placed one hand on each of her shoulders, unsurprisingly he still didn’t get a response. And with one big breath. “HEY!”
Luna’s reaction was immediate. She shot her head up looking at him, before summoning another Scythe above her. “Oh crap…” Eric had to react fast. He pushed himself against her, lifting her front hooves off the ground. While lifting her up, he reached out his hand and snagged the scythe. There was a small tug-of-war for the floating scythe, but Eric used his weight to his advantage. He continued to push Luna until she was falling backwards. With the momentum he brought them both down and threw away the scythe.
‘OW!’ Luna yelped, as she hit the back of her head off the ground.
Quickly seeing an opportunity, Eric pinned her down.
Luna, now seeing the situation she was in, struggled. “Let go of us!” She demanded, And continued to give Eric a good fight. Eric only had one advantage, his weight, and gravity or else he might be losing this.
“Not if you keep acting like a bitch, and keep trying to kill me.” Eric shot back. Eric then suddenly felt a sensation go over his body. It didn’t last long but it confused Eric.
Luna couldn’t believe what was happening to her. ‘Drat, We only distracted ourselves.’ Luna began to activate her telekinesis magic, to try to lift Eric off of her. But to her shock, it wasn’t long until it completely dissipated, and she felt her Magic reserves completely deplete. ‘Impossible! We should have more magic than this. I didn’t even cast that big of a spell. Not to include my magic regeneration, but I don’t feel it regenerating, like it was supposed to… my magic levels feel closer to a regular unicorn…’ Luna waited for the worst, closing her eyes, waiting for the blow. Being unable to do anything... how ironic...
“HEY!” Luna opened her eyes, being shaken awake. “I’m not going to hurt you!” The voice came from Eric, and he was shaking her. “You need to Control yourself! WE! Are still in a dangerous area!”
Luna was shocked seeing him yell at her. Eventually the words sunk in with her. “What does thou mean?” She asked Hesitant.
To Luna's surprise, Eric slowly got off of her, since he finally got to her. “Just follow me, it’ll be much easier to explain.” Slowly Eric began to make his way towards the entrance, and towards the machine.
Hesitantly, luna followed. Surprisingly the horrible stench from before only grew stronger as she moved. But not too much.
After walking away from her own pod and stomach fluid. She made her way beside Eric. “Can you read this?” Eric said to her.
Slowly Luna looked at the machine. Surprisingly she could read the writing. “Yes?” she answered.
“Then I’ll let you read it.” he said to her.
Luna hesitated... But slowly took a deep breath and before reading.
Test deemed: critical failed
The cryo-stasis test has been deemed a critical fail. After 200 years, only two test subjects have remained alive. A6, and B6.
Luna didn’t know what much of this meant, But she was afraid what she was going to find out.
Previous Analysis deemed the whole test a complete fail. (0/49). But thanks to these new records it is possible with further studying to keep someone cryo-stasis for over 200 years. (2/49)
Luna felt worried, has someone been testing on her for 200 years. What would her sister think? She must’ve gone through so much. “No. 200 years. It can’t be.”
Eric Heard what Luna said. “Hey.” Eric said, trying to get to her. The creature slowly turned her head around, and Eric was met with her sad eyes. “I don’t know how you’re taking all of this in, but let me explain to you the more complicated part… this isn’t real.”
Luna looked at Eric confused and then a twitch of anger. “If thou is playing some kind of... Prank! On us. We would be most displeased.”
To Luna's annoyance Eric‘s response was at first laughter. “No No, you see this isn’t supposed to be real. You see I play what’s called a video game. And we are in the starting of Fallout 4. I haven’t figured out how much of a game it’s like and how much Realism there is to this world.”
Everything Eric said... only made Luna more confused. “Game…?” Was her first question.
Eric let out a small sigh, before explaining the concept of a video game. “Well a ‘Video Game’ is kind of like a board game, except it can be more realistic. Not as realistic as us, but we’ve been able to re-create several different scenarios into games. From a Bank heist, to an adventure about exploration. Even a game where you jump on turtles and weird looking mushrooms.”
Luna liked the concept of a video game. “So, thou are saying. These so-called video games allow you to do many different activities.”
Eric chuckled a little bit, to Luna’s annoyance. “Yeah I guess you could say that only it’s on much more of a grander scale. A video game can be literally anything. Your only limit is your imagination.”
“Like a dream?!” Luna blurred out quickly.
“Uhh… I never really thought of it like that.” Eric said, causing Luna to straight up. “I guess in a way it is like dreaming. Only without the sleep and rules of the game…. And that’s what fallout is, One of the Best games there is… unless it’s more realistic…”
Luna loved the concept of the video game, but looked worried at Eric‘s long face. “What is Fallout, exactly?” She asked worriedly.
Eric let out a sigh before telling her. “We are in a Post nuclear apocalyptic world… The game takes place after the world leaders decide to say fuck the world, and kill mostly everyone.”
Luna looked at Eric horrified “What… but…”
“Those people were the lucky ones.” Eric continued. “Those who survived found themselves in the world that could kill them in an instant. Mutated animals with multiple heads, uncontrollable robots that go on a killing spree, mutants… eating you alive. A world where man is no longer the Apex predator.”
Luna couldn’t imagine the world that Eric pictured to her. She had so many questions, she didn’t even know where to start. “Why… Why did this happen to this world.”
“Simple.” Eric said. “If someone wants to destroy their enemy, they will use anything they can find, whatever can do the biggest hit. For a long time it was guns... Weapons that can kill from any distance… but explosions were the way to go... When they first created the nuke they used it on two cities to end the war. Neither city survived…. There are a lot of justifications whether the bombs were necessary or not. Unfortunately that doesn’t matter, as soon as those bombs were dropped. The world just became a ticking time bomb…. The whole point of fallout is to experience the world after the bombs. Something no one in my lifetime will ever get to experience because most of us will probably die.”
Luna proceeded to let that sink in. It took her a few minutes to absorb all the information, before she asked her next question. “Where are we?”
“That depends on who you ask.” Eric told her with a grim lock. “We are currently in the Vault, One of hundreds. The sad thing about the bombs is that everyone’s waiting for them. In this world an organization was put together to build the vaults. While many were saved from the nuclear explosions, others like this vault, are meant for an experiment. such as Cryo-stasis.”
Luna didn’t like the sound of these vaults. “OK, thou are saying we managed to transport ourselves into, this... game… Full of death and destruction.” Luna couldn’t believe how anyone could think this was a game. “Why... Why have you creatures built such destruction!”
“First of all, it’s humans.” Eric Intervene. “Second, that just depends on how you look at it. We didn’t create this destruction... we just found out how to use it... How to turn it into a weapon. Nuclear energy has so much potential, but our leaders are easily corruptible. We have to balance on a thin line to get to the next age. If we don’t, we get sent back, like in this game.”
Luna wanted to argue, but she also knew that there was some sense. During the age of the Civil War she had taken down a city by herself, with the power of Nightmare Moon. A decision that will Haunt her and the bat pony kind forever.
In a funny way, Luna and Celestia were like a ticking nuclear bomb. With much control and practice, the power can be used to benefit a lot of pony’s. But if the power falls in the wrong hands…
“We believe…’ we understand, although still not fully.” says Luna a little bit sad.
“OK, it’s my turn.” said Eric.
Luna looked at him quizzically, wondering what he meant. “What?” Eric said seeing her look. “You got the chance to ask me questions, so now I want you to answer a few of mine.”
Luna looked at the human dumbfounded, before shaking her head. “Very well, ask away…”
“My first question is, who and what exactly are you?” He asked.
“We are a pony. To be more specific an alicorn. A mixture of the three pony tribe races, Earth, unicorn, and Pegasus” Luna said to Eric. “And you can call us… Luna.” Luna purposefully left out her title.
Eric shook his head up and down and had a small smile to himself. “OK, for my next question. Do you know how to fight, and what do you remember before coming here?”
Luna remembers the events that led the previous day before coming here. “I went to sleep. And I know how to take care of myself.” she said
Eric nodded to that. “The same is for me.” Eric also remembered the events that led up yesterday. “OK, two last questions. Where did you get the scythe?”
Luna looked at him confused before she realized what he meant. “Oh it’s not an actual scythe. We just conjure it up in our magic. It’s my strongest Melee attack!” She finished with a bit of pride… before deflating realizing that she lost a lot of her strength.
Eric was fascinated by the idea of magic, but noticed the sudden deflation. “Hey, what’s the matter… it was pretty cool… you trying to kill me…” he said trying to laugh it off.
To Eric‘s shock, Luna didn’t laugh but deflate even more. ‘Does she feel guilty about that?... fuck, now I feel guilty…’
“H-Hey listen.” Eric stuttered a bit. “We got off on the wrong… hoof?”
Luna nodded a little bit, curious about what he was going to say next.
“We have no idea what we’re going to get into, this could be the adventure of a lifetime, or the worst days of our life. Thankfully, I think if we were to work together. With your magic, strength, and flight. Along with my knowledge about this world, I think we can survive…” Eric paused letting her take it all in.
Luna hesitated, she had no idea what she was going to do. She was in an unknown world that might be very dangerous, yet this human has all if not most The answers. At the same time, could she put her faith in this human and trust everything he says to her. “How do I know what you’re saying is true…” She was afraid of his response.
Eric looked at her and saw that she was a bit worried. “Well... I can guide you through this vault and you can take a look at the outside world for yourself. If my words can’t convince you maybe my actions will.”
Luna liked the response. It was simple and she could see the evidence herself. “Very well then… We would like to vacate this vault.”
Eric let out a small smile. “Thank you…. The rest of the vault isn’t going to be pretty. We will quickly go by it, and I will explain any questions you have… oh boy…”
Eric proceeded to take the lead and Luna followed him. They both made their way towards the door, as it instantly opened. The automatic door shocked Luna, her head followed the door as it rose from the ground. Then that horrible smell that she smelled so long ago instantly flared.
Finally she recognized the smell, death. The smell brought painful memories of the Civil War. There was also a carcass of a human right outside the door.
Her stomach almost gave away again. “Oh… is there more...” She hesitantly said.
Eric gave her a sad look before simply saying. “You’ll have to get used to it.”
They proceeded to make their way down the hall. Objects of the past, littered about having never been touched in years. Objects such as mechanical tools to simple coffee cups. Then there were the corpses that smelled awful.
Eric proceeded to tell Luna the story of Vault 111 “Before I explain anything.” He began. “I just want to say I never found out the true answer, so the best I can do is give guesses… at the very start of it all, there were three main groups in the vault. You had us who were frozen in Cryo-stasis. Then you had the people who knew what was going on and those who didn’t… The vault was poorly supplied, only able to last about 180 days of food. Those who didn’t fully understand grew restless and tried to open the vault… I think they succeeded… and I think everyone died from the radiation…”
Luna looked around. Noticing a lot of beds bunch together in one of the rooms. “Are we going to have to worry about the radiation?”
Eric shook his head. “We will, but it won’t instantly kill us. It’s been over 200 years since the bombs dropped. We will have to be mindful of how much radiation we take in. It doesn’t help that most of the food we grow and the water supply are contaminated, but we’ll have to make do with what we have.”
They made their way into a different room, and on the far end. Luna could see a table of a cafeteria. Her stomach growled as the Luna made her way closer to the kitchen.
“Wait!” Eric tried to call out.
Luna turned her head to the left, to see her companion. When she noticed the window. It wasn’t the window that intrigued her, rather the black spot that she saw that took up a good portion of the window.
Suddenly the black spot moved and revealed itself to be a huge bug. It spread its wings and hopped off the window into the other room. which itself had blue lights flare inside.
Luna took a step back, not expecting such a creature. To the left, Eric caught up with her and spoke. “I tried to warn you, it's called a radroach. Basically a big mutated cockroach… don’t be surprised to see other bugs like it… and we haven’t even gotten to the Regular animals.”
The more Luna walked with Eric, the more she saw that he was right.
Eric made his way over to the window, and there sitting on a table he saw what he needed. A simple baton. He pocketed the baton and looked at Luna again.
Suddenly Luna’s stomach let out a much bigger growl for food. Luna couldn’t help but blush. “Pardon us, but could we perhaps get some food?”
Eric gave a small smile. “Of course there should be some food in the cafeteria. Our first real contact with an enemy will be inside the next room. From here on out, things only get harder.”
Eric and Luna proceeded to head to the cafeteria, away from the blue sparking room. She wasn’t worried about giant roaches. Not after all the killing spree she’s been a part of. It’s different when you look somepony in the eye when you do it.
As they made their way in, Eric remembered an important task he needed to do. Quickly he scooped out all the beer bottles he could and rushed over to the sink.
Luna looked at him puzzled “What art thou doing?” She asked him.
“Well...” he replied “In the game, depending how realistic it gets, we need to eat and drink. Unfortunately most of the world is contaminated with radiation. Now I have no idea what radiation tastes like, but I can tell you if you ingest too much of it, it will kill you.” He proceeded to place water into one of the beer bottles. “However…”
Suddenly the beer bottle shocked and lightened up with a blue glow around it. Then it morphed into the shape of a cylinder. Finally it turned back into a regular object, except it had the words purified water written onto them.
Eric was both amazed and horrified while Luna was completely shocked.
To Eric prove that there were some game mechanics. If Eric plays with this more, he can find easier ways for him and Luna to survive. However this also proves the Setting of the game… Survival…
Luna was shocked because she just witness magic. It’s familiar essence was all there. It definitely came from her world. ‘Eric Just did magic… unfortunately We don’t sense an inch of magic in him…’ she thought to herself. “How did thou do that?” she asked him Astonished.
Eric began. “The game has a feature, where if you grab a bottle, or something similar, and put purified water in it. Then…” he trailed off, leaving the room. He made his way to a back room, from the cafeteria. Once he emerged, he brought back several more cans of purified water. “You create the purest beverage in the waste land.”
Luna smiled, but was still confused. “That’s amazing, truly it is… but…” Luna hesitated questioning Eric about his knowledge about the world.
Eric was leaning over the sink, refilling more beer bottles. It’s still amazed him how it transformed in his hand every time it was done filling up. “But?” He said as he finished the last of the water purification. He made his way back over to the table, and placed the rest of the purified water on it.
“Uhh.” Luna began as Eric made his way over the counter. “Well... it didn’t look-or feel like it was just game mechanics. I felt a bit of my people's magic in the equation… I don’t mean to question you on your knowledge of Magic of course!”
“Actually my people don’t have magic,'' he said, as he took a box from one of the counters. “Everything you see around you is built by human ingenuity and creativity.”
Luna looked at him in shock. “how is that possible without the basics of magic school principles, how would thou ever get past the Bronze Age.”
“I will say, it wasn’t easy.” Eric began as he found a few sources of food. A cereal box known as sugar bombs, and two cans of pork and beans. He sat down at the table, offering the cereal box to Luna. “We constantly had setbacks, due to war, diseases or something else that tried to take down humanity. But ever so slowly, we managed to climb our way to this point… well... technically almost to this point… we are either going to end up here or we will advance further than we ever have.”
Luna took the cereal box and thought about what he meant. “If... your world doesn’t drop any bombs… where will you go?”
Eric smiled a little bit. “Where else but Space! We already managed to send a man on the moon! We-“ “Thou made it to the Moon!” Luna interrupted. She looked at him with a sad look. “But… The moon has nothing on it. Why did your people go? There's nothing there but rocks… nothing… was it... a punishment…” she said a bit sad.
Eric looked at her confused. “First of all, not many people can make it to the moon. It’s extremely dangerous, not including expensive. It’s an honour going to the moon not a punishment.”
Luna looked at Eric with wide eyes and a small smile.
“And second.” Eric continued. “Even if the moon is just a barren wasteland full of rocks… it’s still one of the most beautiful things about our planet, Especially now.
Luna almost couldn’t believe what she was hearing, almost. If Eric hadn’t told her straight to her face, without knowing her at all. She would’ve never believed it.
Luna felt her eyes water, and suddenly her joy turned to panic. She began to fight off the happy tears and lowered her head a bit to not make eye contact with Eric. “Of course…” she said, trying to divert her attention to the conversation. “humans are amazing, in their own way. Even if you manage to create such, destruction.” She said with a laugh, trying to joke it off.
Eric saw her simple reactions, and reminded him of himself. Reactions of someone trying to hide something. Unfortunately Eric had no idea what she was hiding. For all he knows, she’s some ancient evil creature ready to take over the universe, or some bullshit like that. But she gave him a look that reminded him of a time with him and his parents.
“Hey I think I left some things in the back room, I'm gonna go double check.” He said giving her some space.
Luna saw Eric leave into the other room and took a moment to herself. ‘What have we gotten ourselves into… Tia… I miss you dearly. I wish we didn’t have such a rough last encounter. We promise to make it up to you dear sister…’ Luna thought to herself. She proceeded to rest her head on the cafeteria table.
Slowly Luna found herself drifting her thoughts towards Eric. She remembers their first encounter just a few minutes ago. She scolded herself again for acting brash. She remembered how generous and kind he treated her, and how unfriendly and malicious she treated him. She then recalled two quotes from Eric, that puzzle her.
“My Monstrous Saviour!” Why would he call her a Saviour And. “OK, two last questions.” She recalls he only asked one. ‘Perhaps we should find more information about dear Eric.’ Quickly she thought of a few questions she would ask him when he returned.
Eric made his way to the back room where he got the purified water, and to his shock he did forget something. A simple stimpak. One of the best healing items. He quickly picked it up as his thoughts began to drift. ‘I can tell when someone was hiding something painful. It’s always impossible to tell when you just met them. The best I can do is... take it slow… perhaps she’s home sick and I could ask a few more questions about her home... and magic…’ he said with a small chuckle to himself. He could not wait to find out more about magic.
Eric made his way back into the room, after giving Luna some time.
“Pardon us? But-” Luna said.
“If I could ask?-” Eric began.
They both talked over each other, wanting to be the first to ask their question.
“Oh excuse us, thou can go first!” Luna quickly said.
“No I’m sorry, if you have any important questions, i’ll be glad to answer them.” Eric said with a smile.
“Well… it’s a couple of things…” Luna began. “But… The thing we were going to ask was…” ‘by our sisters imaginary beard, what do We say! We wouldn’t want to make things awkward out of nowhere!’ Luna panicked in her mind. “Thou had Two questions… and we specifically only remember thou asking one.”
Eric looked at Luna confused and then his eyes widened in shock. “Oh that, uhh… Right. Yes, see I was going to ask… perhaps something personal.” Eric said looking at Luna red while rubbing the back of his head.
Luna thought for a moment before looking at him. “You may ask your question, but we will have the right to deny it.”
Eric smiles and nodded at Luna. “Perfect, wouldn’t have it any other way. Now… I was going to ask about the whole ‘we’ and ‘our’ stuff you say.”
Luna’s smile dropped. “Oh, We- No I didn’t realize it bothered you. We- I… am used to speaking like this…”
Eric looked at Luna shocked that she didn’t just deny the question. It looked painful enough to her.
“I can stop if it will help our journey throughout-“ “I prefer the other way.” Eric quickly cut in, interrupting Luna. Luna looked up shocked and confused.
“I mean…” Eric continued. “Throughout the Commonwealth we will run into a whole bunch of bad people, and someone who has more of an authoritarian voice, might be more intimidating if you know how to play it… also I think it suits you better.”
Eric looked at Luna a little bit worried, wondering if he said the right thing.
Luna looked at Eric… after everything that has happened in the last, maybe half an hour. And she has already met some… one… Who has shown her respect, after she gave none in return. Along with complementing her night and not throwing shade at her speech. Only a percent of the canterlot nobles, besides the ones who lied straight to her face, could do that.
“Yes.” Luna said finally. “I- we mean WE! Couldn’t agree more!” She said with excitement and enthusiasm.
Luna’s excitement and smile was contagious to Eric. He was glad that he said the right thing.
“Anyways.” Eric said. “Thank you for reminding me about that. I just have a couple more questions and we can truly start this adventure.”
Luna nodded her head, ready to move on. “Thou is correct. If thou truly means the dangers of this place presents. It might be best to face them full force, head on.”
Eric agreed and ready his final questions. “But First, let’s get away from this world for a second. By your description, your world must sound lovely compared. And the actual possibility of magic. Please tell me what you can.”
LunaI thought back to her home, Equestria. A range of emotions went through her. Joy and pride mixed with sadness and a bit of hate. “Equestria… my home… Equestria has always been, for at least 1000 years, a world superpower. But before that, there were just five pony tribes. The three we mentioned before that created the alicorn. And a sub race, The bat pony tribe…. We do agree with you that Equestria is a far better place than what you’ve described of this world…. But We would be blind if we did not say that It has its faults…. As for our magic!” Luna said, perking up. “Only the unicorns and alicorns can cast such spells. As for the earth ponies in Pegasus, their magic retains in their body, either giving them physical strength or increased speed of flight. But when thou actually cast magic, the spells cast can range in, one in a 1000 different spells. Each one having their own unique abilities and specialties.”
Luna wasn’t much of a speaker, but whenever she started going, it was hard for her to stop.
“There are five classes of specialized magic. The first class is the multi class, elemental. It houses several different sub classes. And is also the one that has the most Basic spells for any pony to learn from. Not many unicorns go past this stage unless they are the upper class or a soldier. The second and third class is known as the diplomat and the combat class. While the combat class has some of the best spells for any situation of combat the diplomat class was completely created for nobles. Before the diplomat class it was once known as the enchanting class. They are masters of body language and reading emotions.”
Suddenly Luna looked down as she remembered her recent teachings with her tutor a few days ago. About the fourth class. “Finally there is the fourth class… unfortunately it’s been separated into two different ones… The fourth class is the Sun, The Light, The way and power. And the fifth class is the moon, The dark, The deceitful and sacrifice…”
Luna thought back to over 1000 years ago. When she and Celestia first made these classes. She was quite surprised at the fourth class that only her and her sister were in, separated.
Eric looked at her and saw her defeated form. “What was it called before that?” Eric Asked her.
Luna looked back at Eric and snapped back into focus. “It was known as balance. The way of a leader…. Over 1000 years ago there was a duel against... two very powerful beings… A Battle to see who would decide the fate of the world... And the sun won… and everypony was happy... but the moon… its ways and teachings have been banned ever cents.”
Eric didn’t know what to say or do. It’s clear that she has some history with the sun and moon magic classes. Especially a bit of guilt and grief for the Moon. “Hey…” he called out to her. “I think I’ve had enough magic knowledge for today. Why don’t we go onto the games first test? The next room we’re going to be in will actually be surprisingly important. Let’s finish up eating and we can head in.” Eric said, trying to distract her.
Eric and Luna both looked at their untouched meals and dug in. Luna believes that the cereal might be delicious, but the stinging in her mouth cancelled her from expressing any joy. Eric also felt the radiation along with the taste of the cold pork and beans. ‘Man I wish I had a hit of something.’ Eric thought to himself. ‘I don’t care what brand, size or taste! Anything to get rid of this awful taste. If I don’t find some weed in this godforsaken wasteland I am a way to go nuts… I might try other things…” Eventually they both sat up and made their way to the door.
They both downed a cup of purified water just to get rid of the awful taste in their mouth.
Finally getting ready to enter the next sparking room. Both Eric and Luna made their way to the front of the door. Luna felt her heartbeat. Eric was letting it sink in. Once they walk through the doors, the test of survival begins.
Stepping just a little bit closer, the doors automatically opened to reveal the damaged generator room. Blue lightning sparked around the floor, causing Luna to look back up at Eric. “Art thou sure this is safe?” She asked him hopefully.
“Since when did I say this would be safe?” Eric replied with his own question. “Believe it or not this room describes Fallout perfectly.”
Luna was about to reply, but saw a radroach approach Eric. Without hesitation Eric extended his baton and smashed in the bugs head.
Instantly her eyes flashed, as Time slowed down. Her eyes begin to picture a different scene. She was in Eric‘s position… She was Nightmare moon, an insane smile plastered on her face… there was no longer a baton, rather a Sun Mace… there was no longer a radroach… just a dead Sun guard pony.
Luna’s eyes slowly came back to reality… but her mind was racing faster. ‘I have to survive… in order to do that I have to kill… Kill… Kill! KILL!!! KILL!!! NO!!! No! No… We are princess Luna… we can control the blood lust...
“Observation number one.” Eric said, jotting Luna's attention towards him. He lowered himself down to the corpse of the bug. He began to do something, but Luna had no idea what he was doing. Eric was just trying to figure out how he was going to loot bodies. “Beware your enemies.” Eric continued, and succeeding in getting a piece of the bug in his hand. He can only hope he was supposed to eat this part
“Observation Number two.” Eric said. “Beware of your surroundings.” As he said this, a radroach tried to avenge his fallen comrade and ran straight towards Eric. Only for a lightning bolt to strike him dead on the spot. Eric proceeded to quickly loot the bug and make his way back.
Finally Eric made his way back to Luna and looked at him annoyed. “We have already known these lessons for a very long time.” Luna said to him. “Thou are a little late.”
Luna proceeded to walk past him to the lower floor. She didn’t get too close to the machine, but she was trying to time how she was going to make it through. That was until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking back, she saw Eric.
“Observation number three, sometimes there’s an easier way.” Then he proceeded to show her a small pathway right to the left of them. It was a thin walkway but it seemed to go around the machine instead of through it like Luna Had thought.
“Oh... right…” Luna said sheepishly before getting off the lower floor. Just in time to as a lightning bolt struck the spot she just stood in causing her to jump a bit. “Yep! Yes! Let us take the side way!
Eric and Luna proceeded to make their way around the generator. Eric had to squish and loot another radroach but there were No other problems at the time.
They made their way to the other side of the room to another set of automatic doors. Luna and Eric had to step over a few corpses, but still they proceeded through the automatic doors. This led them to a couple more radroaches. “Do you want to give it a shot?” Eric asked Luna, handing her the baton. Luna stared at the weapon, and her blood lust boiled
“Oh no no, as an equestrian, we must retain a peaceful present to not dishonour our homeland-“ she was interrupted with a screech from a radroach that tried to fly at her face. Luna snapped, grabbing the baton in her telekinesis, before beating the absolute shit out of the radroach.
The other, smaller radroach. Saw its friend and companion die and decided that it wanted to live from this crazy bitch. Unfortunately a certain Moon alicorn had other plans. “Oh no you don’t.” Luna said with a malicious smile. Using her wings she leapt forward to the radroach before whaling on it like it’s brother.
Eric saw all this and chalked it up to a gamer going psycho. I mean we all did it. You kill one too many weaklings and suddenly you kill the entire world... it happens…
Eric began to Pull Luna off of her beating. “Wait! We aren't finished! Let us at least send a message to the rest of their kind! No pony shall threaten a princess like that!”
Threaten? Princess? All right it’s official, all of this has gone to her head.
Eric proceeded to turn Luna around, she still had a creepy smile on her face. So Eric knew what to do and slapped her as hard as he could across the face.
Luna’s face went back to normal, as she looked around confused wondering where the pain came from. “Hey!” Eric shouted out to her. Causing her to snap out of it a bit. “Are you going to be OK, because We don’t need a psychopath.”
Suddenly Luna remembered what happened and instantly recoiled. “We apologize, it’s nothing We assure thou-“ “bullshit!” Eric said, interrupting her. “You were just talking about honour, being a princess, stuff like that, then went into complete psycho mode. That’s one hell of an 180… so what is it really…”
Luna thought of lying to Eric again, but decided against it. “We are sorry... We told you before We could handle Ourselves… We've been in a lot of battles… We've taken a life… many lives… We adopted a bloodlust... to keep us sane... through all of it… We can’t help but reactivate it every time we… killed something… unfortunately the memories always return afterwards...”
Luna looked away from Eric, not wanting to be seen weak.
Eric thought back to how crazy she reacted “Can you control this bloodlust?” he asked. Wondering if they were going to have more incidents like this.
Luna looked back at him and then thought for a moment. “We haven’t had much practice… although We can handle ourselves in most situations… it’s just with everything added on top... I went a little crazy…” she chuckled sheepishly.
“Yeah, a little!” Eric said, rolling his eyes. “Every Radroach we see, it’s your job to take care of them until you prove to me that you can handle yourself mentally.” Luna couldn’t believe it. Eric was giving her an order, her a princess. She would remember this day.
Unable to argue... for now… they continued on into the overseer's office. The automatic door slid open as they came closer, Luna noticed a different style in the room. Of course there was still a corpse in the room, but the room itself was more proper and organized; there was even a back room big enough to allow someone to be comfortable instead of the small beds she saw.
The desk itself looked strange. There was another machine on it that Luna had somewhat of an idea of what it could do, but even then her knowledge was illuminated.
Eric made his way into the room and instantly grabbed two objects that caught his interest instantly. A couple of 10 mm pistols and another baton. Not to mention all the ammunition and stimpaks in the room. Quickly he gathered everything he could and passed Luna a 10 mm pistol with 50 extra bullets and kept the rest for himself. “Do you know how to use this thing?” he asked her.
Luna looked at the 10 mm pistol and Innoway, it almost resembles one of the guns she saw. It wasn’t as long as a musket but it had the same concept. “We believe We understand the basics. Although we still have several questions.”
“Well just keep it on you in case you need it,'' said Eric. I'll teach you later, I have the perfect spot in mind, so we need to save every shot that we have For Training.” he said as he finished looting the area. Finally he made his way towards the machine.
He looked back at Luna for a second and get a good view of her.
Luna looked back at Eric and saw that he was looking at her. With a raise of her brow she asked “Is something wrong?”
“Nope.” was Eric‘s simple reply, before heading back to the terminal.
Luna looked around the room, seeing how messy it has gotten over the years. There was a twinge of sadness to Luna but she didn’t really understand why. In a way, she sees the loss potential this vault had. The way she lost her potential… her purpose…
It took a second for Eric to find the controls for the door but eventually he found the automatic door Control, and opening it to the next room. “It’s not much longer from here.” Eric said to Luna. “we just had to go down this hallway with a few more bugs and then will be in the main vault room.”
Luna nodded to Eric, but then noticed the frozen casing attached to the wall, it seem to have a big weapon inside. “Umm… art thou forgetting something?” She said pointing over to the casing.
Eric turned his head and saw the cryo-gun. He looked at Luna sad. “Unfortunately we will have to come back for that later; both of us wouldn’t even be even close to the skill needed to unlock it. Don’t worry, we’ll come back for it eventually.”
With that said and done, they continue to make their way towards the exit of the vault.
Like Eric said, the hallway was filled with radroaches, and this time Luna killed them in a much nicer way… if that’s even possible…..
https://youtu.be/ve2Fj1KgJL8
But finally, after making it this far into the entrance of the vault, they made their way to the door. After the automatic doors got out of Luna’s Way she saw the vault door. Her eyes widened seeing the massive size of the door and the Device that operated it. This has been the biggest machine she has seen so far. She had to sit down and at that moment, everything finally clicked in. She was in a completely different world that had Technology that could doom it…. A sad question popped up in her head… could this be the future of pony kind… 500 years or maybe even a millennia from now…. Would she be here again?
Eric made his way to the controls. It was right beside the rail that would lead out of the Vault, as soon as he opened it. He looked to the ground and saw a scientist's body with the Pip boy. The man who introduced him to The layout of the vault and lied straight to his face. laid on the floor dead and untouched for 200 years. But to Eric‘s shock, there was another scientist. He or she also had a Pip boy but it was different. It was a bit longer than The regular one, but he could also tell it was Thinner. Removing the Pip boys from their skeletal partners, He didn’t see the radroach behind him.
The radroach sprung into action, not wanting to miss his prey. all of his fallen brothers are counting on him to avenge them. With a leap in a screech, the radroach unleashed it’s radioactive fangs…. onto poor Eric‘s ankle.
“Fuck!” Eric reeled his leg back and squished the bug with his foot.
Luna looked over to Eric, seeing the bug he squished and the devices in his hands. “Art thou alright?” She asked him worriedly.
“Yeah.” he replied. He just bit me. “I might have a little limp, but I’ll be fine. Besides, I found us a few new Pip boys!” Eric said lifting up the devices. He walked over to Luna and handed her the longer, thinner one. Luna only looked at him confused but watched him put it on. She was about to ask what a Pip boy was, but decided to ask him later. Following Eric‘s lead, she followed his exact movements through her telekinesis. Strapping the Pip boy To her Hoof.
As soon as they both got their Pip Boys on, both screens let up. Both Eric and Luna eyes were drawn to their own screen reading the Message that came with it.
Greetings Eric Morningstar and Princess Luna.
You may be wondering where you are, or you’ve already figured it out and working your way through it. If you have no idea I’m sure Eric could explain the wonderful world of fallout. If you already understand what’s going on then congratulations. You can go onto reading the message below.
Greetings again, my dear friends
You have been given an opportunity to partake in an old ritual spell. The details of said spell is not important at the moment, What I will say is this world will look as recognizable as ever, and completely different at the exact same time. The decisions you make in this world will have dire consequences for the people around you.
I’ve also given you seven bonus “Easter eggs” around the world. Have fun with them as you please, all of them are quite beneficial.
Also, your so called “stats” no longer operate like a game. You will have to learn each skill individually. I’ve given you some bonuses, and the first star is always the easiest to get.
If you wish to return home, then all you have to do is beat the game. I believe it’s pretty simple, choose one of the factions that will rule over the commonwealth and then we can have a personal one on one chat.
Signed your amazing friend Discord.
Suddenly both snap back to reality, and both thought of the message one last time, As both of their emotions flared.
Erica thought back to the message Angrily. ‘How did this… Discord... get my family name… And did I read that correctly, ‘Princess Luna!’
Luna’s thoughts are much darker. “If you wish to return home, then all you have to do is beat the game.” Reading discord’s message made Luna furious. “Discord!” Luna said out loud. “This is the last Straw!”
“Wait, you know this guy?” Eric asked her. “Also that whole princess shit… Are you actually a princess?” He asked her, confused.
Luna looked at Eric shocked and then looked back at the message. She then realized in the writing, Discord used her title. Luna was mad but now she was pissed. “Indeed we know of ‘this guy’ Discord. He is a spirit of chaos and now that we realize it, it all makes sense. The magic we felt from before, must be whatever this ancient spell is. We vow to make discord pay for his actions…” she said mostly to herself.
Eric raised his brow at her. “And???”
Luna looked down a bit saddened. “Yes we are a Princess... Apologies for not telling thou… it’s just…” Luna stumped, unable to formulate her words. It’s true that she kept the truth from him. but now she likes him more than most ponies and people she’s met… she wants to trust him… but how can she in a world of Discord.
“You don’t trust me…” Eric finished for her, With a sad look.
Luna wanted to say something but... she didn’t know what to say… “i’m sorry…” was all that she could say.
“Don’t be.” Eric replied with a sad smile. “I get it. Really I do…. And besides, don't act like I give you my full trust.” He said, confusing Luna. “What. A man has his secrets… besides... we already promised to stick with each other… this world isn’t gonna be easy for one person to handle by themselves…. so are you still with me princess…” he finished by extending his hand out.
Luna looked at his hand. A small smile came to her face. Slowly she raised her hoof and shook his hand. She will be wary, but for now. ”Please, just call us Luna.” she said to him.
he nodded before continuing “Are you ready to see something amazing!” he said to her. She can only smile as she follows him back to the controls.
Once they were at the controls he showed Luna a plug that was attached into her device. To Eric’s shock, the controls needed two Pit Boys to activate it. Then he chalked it up to Magic after reading the message.
Innoway Eric thought that this was destiny. He still questioned how he ended up here by blowing his brains out, but he would save that question for another time.
They each placed the plug into the controls. Suddenly both of their screens popped up with a flash of purple.
Both Eric and Luna looked at their stats. Unfortunately for Luna she had no idea what any of these meant, but she could guess. She also proceeded to stare at that one intelligence. ‘Is this discord way of telling us that we are stupid?‘ she thought to herself
They didn’t get much time to process this, as the room began to light up and make noises. Soon Luna saw how the Vault opened. A cylinder device connected itself to the entrance of the vault slowly rolling it to the side. A simple walkway, that seemed to be built just before the vault entrance, extended past it as soon as there was an opening.
Slowly they both made their way to the entrance of the walkway. They both stood there in silence, letting the machine finish the job.
After the vault was finally open after 200 years, Eric began to make his first steps. He never thought he could actually be in the world of fallout. He fantasized running his empire and stuff like that… but to be actually here, was different… he could feel his heartbeat in his chest.
Luna began to follow, wondering where this world would take her next. She also wondered how she was going to beat this game. Unfortunately for her, she’s completely reliant upon Eric giving her the information she needs to get home. Thankfully he seems to be willing to help her.
Luna still had thoughts about this world of fallout. But before she wanted anything answered, she wanted to see the truth of the world.
They made their way out of the vault only to find an elevator. Luna was confused by the device, but decided to follow Eric‘s lead. Automatically the two continued, not saying a word. This world would challenge them, and they both know that… but will they be prepared.
that was their last thought before entering the elevator, and slowly rising to their New Start.
Author's Note
This is officially my longest chapter I’ve ever written in my life... at the same time I put as much work as I could into it. I’m probably not gonna do many chapters this long. They might be around 6-8 Thousand words each. But I am really passionate about this story and hope to continue it.
