Fallout equestria: Crimson Skies Book 1

Morning came soon after our dinner, and with it, our swift arrival in Olinea’s shores. As the others geared up and equipped to set out, an ominous red mist blanketed parts of the forest further in, past the waters edge.

I loaded my plasma pistol from the pipbuck-turned-desk in my Mr. Hoovesy, and that was all the preparation I had to do. The others were all much better equipped than myself in some sense, but I was a breezie in a portable house, so it's debatable who was more ready.

Jet, the pegasus, was only wearing Enclave flight gear, or maybe a uniform? I'm gonna go with the latter. Either way, it covered her white coat and accentuated her bright red mane while fitting around her cybernetics, most notably the engines that nearly replaced her ass. Her weapons were indisputably something I knew well; twin-linked recharger rifles on a battle saddle, two laser weapons that used a magical hyper-breeder, absorbing ambient magic to charge their shots. It provided effectively infinite ammo with what some would say is long charging time after each shot. As for being twin-linked, what I mean is that they both shot at the same time with one action.

Cross, our resident zebra, had a simple hunting rifle. It mostly looked like a hoof-me-down used for killing rats and other varmints and it clearly wasn't her pride and joy. That accolade belonged to the numerous potions and herbs bulging her bags out. When I’d found her gearing up, she was pulling herbs out of a crack in the wall. She seemed the type to find them in the strangest places.

Gwen the griffon was the embodiment of a western outlaw, or perhaps sheriff, wearing nothing but leather armor and a duster with hat to match, her revolver in its holster. When I ran into her, she was reading a power pony comic book. lightly chuckling at it while poorly hiding it in a copy of Fifty Shades of Hay. I chose not to comment on it.

Our last guest, the unicorn Aurora's room was locked when I was making my original rounds, but when she came out she had on a leather jacket and some leg warmers, with a .32 auto pistol on her hip.

Together, she and myself made our way to the deck overlooking the water with the others up here already, save for Cold Hoof, the first mate and an original resident of Olinea. Only a minute later, we came to a clearing on the water. We were in Olinea.

We had been traveling at brisk pace through the forest of skinny white and black trees, with Jet flying above and Shimmering Raindrops, our kelpie captain, guiding us forward. Cold Hoof had stayed with the ship. I'd overheard Raindrops telling him to flee the area if we weren't back in a month.

The forest had been quiet for several hours. Even on the targeting system of my pipbuck, E.F.S. (Eyes Forwards Sparkle) hadn't picked up anything, save for myself. If It had, it’d have outlined them, and it worked several meters out. It hadn't picked up anything living, but I had definitely picked up on something. We all had; the deep red mist.

It was like the smoke from a flare at its most concentrated point, but it was everywhere, traveling like a fog through the forest and never staying stagnant. The space it inhabited and where we walked through, well, flew through in my case, was dead. Nothing lived here, save for the trees that clearly clung to life with all their might.

“I wouldn't go near this stuff,” Raindrops grimaced. “According to Cold Hoof, you'd wish you were inside Canterlot, as it’d be a more pleasant death.” She held her map, trying to direct us to a town she had marked down.

That was all that Cross and I needed to dissuade us from touching it, despite the intrigue it bred. Traversing the wood, we came across several robots, rusted and long-since decayed in the fog, wispy and dark as it hazed areas around it without the actual dust being there. It was an optical effect, bleeding it into clean areas in my vision as it grew denser and denser the further we went, slowing us down to a crawl trying to navigate the mist without stepping into it.

Eventually, we did come upon a clearing with the largest cloud of it we'd seen yet, so dense it couldn't be seen through as it stretched miles with seemingly no breaks in it.

“Fuck, this stuff’s everywhere,” proclaimed Jet. Funnily enough, she could just fly over the cloud and was dealing with the least of it.

“Just be patient. We’ll make our way through this in time,” sighed Raindrops, clearly feeling tired by this point, having traveled for hours on end. I couldn't lie, I was actually pretty tense. Simply the thought of being surrounded on all sides by something supposedly more dangerous than Pink Cloud was a harrowing thought.

Beep, Beep, Beep!

The alarm for a hostile target went off in my little robot housing. For the others outside, it was too faint to hear, but sitting less than a few inches from it, it made me jump with a sudden shock.

Three targets were approaching with rapid speed. It wasn't long after my defenses picked the three up that Jet and Gwen noticed them. Two were land bound, huge bulky deer of some description. The third, moving much faster with wings, was of a sleek, slim build. Quickly, I knew that the targeting reticle wasn't going to matter, as I’d see the flying deer in full detail if I didn't start moving, and quickly.

“Vee have incoming!!” I yelled, hitting the gas of my engine and beginning to fly myself off as my plasma pistol came rounding up with a click. The others turned and ran as Jet, like a blur, picked up Cross, darting into the woods before coming back for Aurora, and with some fuss and strain, Gwen. I realized she probably couldn't carry me as Raindrops created some ice pathways, sliding and skating off towards the others that’d been carried away alongside the fog, leaving just me as Jet returned.

And here I thought I was fairly quick.

“Vee don't think you are going to be able to carry our home, Jet,” I called out as the two of us rushed away as quickly as we could, which was thankfully faster than our foes. The two land-based ones faded from view, with the third completely disappearing.

We thought we might be in the clear, until a blur of white and blue steel collided with Jet at ludicrous speeds. Dirt flew back at me from the two colliding with the ground as I skidded to a stop at the sight of it, watching Jet being dragged along the ground and slammed against a tree hard enough the old dead timber visibly shifted.

Steadying myself, I brought my plasma pistol up with a click, firing as the mechanical enemy reared its hoof back to punch Jet. The ball of plasma connected against the side of the machine as its hoof punched straight through the tree, sending wood flying like shredded paper.

The deer was, as mentioned, slim in build, with legs thinner than a normal pony’s and a pair of jagged wings on its backside. It had antlers that arced with magical energy, glowing and pulling sparks of light into a singular high point between them, glowing a vibrant icy blue.

My second shot fired, knocking some plating off the rusted and blackened machine’s backside. Its tail had long since been severed as holes decorated its body, showing off the intricate and delicate machinery beneath as it charged its beam.

Jet’s hind hooves curled up to her chest, wings splaying out. With a strong kick forward, her propulsion kicked on with a sputtering start, sending ash and smoke billowing out as rust and filth burned straight off her robotic adversary.

For half a second, she stayed in that place before shooting up alongside the tree out of E.F.S. range. The deer’s gaze followed her as a third plasma shot burst from my pistol, grazing past the machine's head and drawing its attention.

It hadn't seemed to slow down at all. The beam stopped growing, a large ball of pure, concentrated glowing blue magic sitting there arcing with energy like solar flares on a star.

“Oh shit, shit, shit fuck,” was all I could say, gripping my lever system and trying to take manual control over the slow autopilot. If I could manage that, then at least I’d have a chance to dodge the soon-to-come blast.

STHZOOOM!!

The crackle of energy shot forth, settling to a nice hum and traveling at incomprehensible speeds as it polished the top of my robot’s head, almost hitting and surely destroying my metal top hat.

It moved to direct the still very active beam downwards, but a certain pegasus had some payback in mind. Jet soared forth, kicking its head. Like a crack of thunder and lightning, it threatened to tear wire from metal and head from body as the kick quickly, with acrobatic expertise became a choking grapple.

Jet’s head, mere centimeters from the pulsating ball of energy frying the fur off of her cheek, held on as her thrusters kept the pair drilling into the ground. That is to say, her thrusters were digging a progressively deeper trench into the ground.

With each bouncing smack, they bored into the ground as I struggled to keep even a fraction of the pace, until finally, with several thundering cracks, the duo smashed through some trees.

By the time I arrived at the scene, it was still alive, but its limbs and wings were mangled and a foreleg was missing. Antlers, too, one of which was in Jet’s mouth. She spit it out, opening fire with her battle saddle several times as I watched her peppering the robot in laser fire until her guns needed to reload.

She started off and I gave chase, giving the deer a final blast of plasma to the head as my goodbye. The air was thick as Jet’s wings took flight and my machine-turned-suit thrusted upward, bringing me quickly behind her.

Flying above the mist let me admire the icy creation that Shimmering Raindrops had created in her own breakneck sprint to flee. Long, elaborate curving slides of ice, thinly supported with clear pillars connected to the ground as the red mist slowly began to overtake the further ones. The ice was cracking, but not melting. It was being killed as the fog pierced it and eroded what was there, until it all came crumbling down. The fog didn't seem to care what it touched. It would erode it, as though it had consumed it.

Jet stayed relatively close, bouncing between myself and the rest of the party further up in the woods, she never bothered landing, as the only times she ever seemed to stop was when she skidded on clouds to turn pace and leap back towards the party. She seemed to be training. Training, despite the blood I’d eventually started to notice staining the ground beneath where she was flying.

As I floated, I’d activated the autopilot and set it to follow Jet as I reloaded my plasma pistol. Well, actually, my home did. All I did in the process was hit a button before coming back to my couch, one of few things I’d brought with me from the fae realm as finding a replacement of some sort wasn't high on my to-do list if ever I could help it. The setup I had wasn't too dissimilar to a studio apartment with couch doubling as bed, my pipbuck tv/desk, a chute to use the restroom and a tunnel carefully crafted deeper into the robot to manage the engine and what little storage space I had without considering a carry bag I had affixed like a backpack to the back of my home.

Even then, I always found space lacking. I was an inventor, always collecting and tinkering. Some in my situation would look for outside sources of storage, but I couldn't. To go outside was just such a… horrifying prospect. Even if an escape chute does exist for such a thing, hopefully I'd never have to use it.

It wasn't long before we met up with the rest of the group, passing by a long-rotted sign. Moldy and decayed, the letters were barely legible. “Blue Hollow Campgrounds.” The Campground’s gate was complemented by a second metal road sign, rusted and ruined to the point it truly was illegible, aside from the arrow pointing West that read “25 Miles.”

The campgrounds themselves were barren for the most part, with five wooden cabins here at the entrance, though presumably, there was a much larger run of land to camp on. Their signs, like most old-world writing seemed to be around here, were faded and destroyed.

Most of the group followed Gwen into the first building, with Cross going around back, pulling out a tent as she did. I suppose she intended to rough it. Jet followed her out, but I couldn’t hear what they were talking about, exactly. I saw Cross reach into her bag and pull out a roll of bandages and a bottle of some kind, but when she looked through the window, I felt a bit guilty about staring and pretended to inspect the windowsill. She didn’t look convinced, but I did turn away, regardless.

Looking around the room we’d entered, it seemed to be the lodge of the head honcho of the campgrounds, being nearly equivalent to a real home. My robot drifted to the corner, keeping eye on Cross through the window as, for the first time in a while, silence was broken.

“I'm going to see what all I can find in the other buildings,” Jet said firmly, addressing the entire group. She’d just come back in, wearing a few bandages lightly soaked in whatever fluid Cross had used. Healing, perhaps? She had been bleeding earlier.

“What, and take all the cool shit you find for yourself?” piped Gwendlyn, turning to face the mare. She stood taller than Jet, even despite her relatively small stature for a griffon based on what I’d seen of the Talons. “Not on my watch, you don’t. I’m comin’ with!”

Jet did her best to brush her off with an eye roll and snort, heading out the door and fighting with the flightless avian the whole way.

I simply relaxed. Or at least, I tried to. My home was everything I had, and it came inches from complete annihilation not even an hour ago. A roll of the dice, and I wouldn’t be here right now, burned to less than ashes by a foreign nation’s automated abomination. The thought shook me to my core. Death was… it wasn't usually on the table for me. Even now, it wasn't what really scared me about it. Hell, it might be preferable if what I dreaded most had come to pass.

What if my home; my casing were to be destroyed? Everything that was Enjin Rush save for my flesh and tiny bones would be gone. Ever since I’d left home, I'd been in this robot. Without it, I wouldn't be Enjin Rush. I’d be no-one.

My thoughts on the existential mush had overpowered me long enough. Before long, the door slammed back open with the pair who entered having changed their demeanor and attitude drastically. Were they drunk?

The immediate answer was no, but the barrel they were carrying between them was about to change that. ”I present Keg of Ale!” proudly proclaimed Jet.

Gwen, with a smirk, stood next to the barrel, leaning on it. “I found it. If you have any praise in reserve, I–”

“Yep! Reserve any praise for me, Jet! I know, I know, I'm the greatest!”

“Like hell you are!”

This went on for far longer than it needed to. I began to envy the seemingly ever-wiser Cross Stitch, who’d chosen to brew tea above a small fire outside.

Eventually, the dick-measuring contest was won by Jet, who finally decided to start pouring everybody drinks. My cup was perfectly sized, or at least, for a normal pony, so I had to bring tiny drops of it in through my disk tray if I wanted to drink it. Ultimately, like usual, I didn't even finish a single small cup. Ale wasn't high on my list of preferred beverages, was the main issue. The burn in my throat just told me to stop, and I did.

A drinking competition almost started up, but when the idea was presented, Shimmering was already going in for her fourth mug. She was seemingly unfazed, apart from her body turning a stained yellow color. Despite the water diluting it, she was turning into alcohol.

Until the eighth cup, I was personally wondering if she could even become intoxicated. After all, she was the fluid itself. How impure could her body really be? But then she did. It was like a switch had been flipped and she was finally tipsy, something she seemed to realize almost immediately. She stopped and set down her mug. She’d long since won the drinking competition, perhaps before it even started.

And so, the night drew on. Aurora said she had drank too much, too quickly and started to feel ill, so Captain Raindrops took her into the next room to sleep it off. I opted to stay with the other two, just in case they started fighting again. The newest member of our party, “Keg of Ale” as it had been named, was still not empty when they passed out. His name had been painted on the side by a drunk-as-fuck Jet, reading as “KEg o AIE.” I guess writing the G and L as capital letters like the rest was too much work for her in her state.

By the time morning rose on us, half the barrel was gone and Raindrops, if her name was even fitting now, was curled up inside the barrel. Jet had left by the time I woke up and set down my mug. Gwen was passed out, strewn across a table, sleeping like she was dead, and Cross was outside, taking down her tent.

“Raindrops? Vee should be moving soon, no?”

“Mhmm, yeah, waitin’ on Jet,” she slurred out as Arora stumbled from upstairs, stretching her back.

She hadn’t taken a major part in last evening’s festivities, if you could call it that. She was either not able to hold her liquor, or simply didn't like its taste, like me. “Well, that was a fun night,” she proclaimed, trotting down the stairs. “Where is everypo-- everybody?” she corrected herself, prompting a hoof raise from inside of the barrel.

“Jet has flown off,” I answered. “Vee believe she should be back soon.”

Suddenly, like the devils of Tartarus bursting through the gates, the door flew open and Jet came trotting back in, wings coming back to rest at her sides. Her coat was still clearly a tad damp, but overall, the filth of battle had been washed from her. “Don't go west, unless you want to explode.” Evidently, she read the confusion on Aurora’s face and followed it up. “Spider mines, basically. The four-legged little bastards almost had me with how fast they were, but hey, I was faster.”

I made sure to make a note of that in my pipbuck’s data tab, right alongside deadly flying laser deer in Olinean threats. Big, ugly crabs, too.

“Whelp, now that everyone’s back, somebody grab Gwen, so we can head out,” groaned Raindrops. Coming to her hooves, she almost slipped into a puddle, by the looks of it, before freezing solid. Well, almost solid. I could see the liquids sloshing in her various guts from her stomach to uh… privates.

“Buck, that's weird,” I thought to myself.

That brought to mind another realization. Discounting Jet’s stallionhood, I was technically the only male in the party, and I was small enough to fit in a pony’s hoof. It was, dramatically speaking, quite ironic, honestly.

“Alright. Well, I should be ready,” Raindrops said, clearly doing her best to sober up as Jet picked up Gwen. She was still out cold and, notably, her hat fell to the floor.

Jet bent down and picked up the hat, placing it on her own head, wearing it as we went out the door, walking with a confident stride. It was like the additional accessory just made her better in some way. She certainly acted with higher confidence and a self-assured attitude as we walked, something I honestly thought was impossible, until now.

Drifting along, we began heading northward. The campgrounds weren't too far from a town, according to Raindrops’ map.

I drifted back to talk to Aurora. The unicorn had been distant and reserved today. I barely knew anything about her, and I figured now was as good a time as any to change that. “Hey, there. Do ye mind if vee join you?” I asked, happily waving to draw her attention.

She smiled and nodded as she looked up. “Oh, yes, that’d be quite alright,” was all she replied, continuing to walk at pace.

I thought to compliment her in some way to provoke conversation, but she was so… nothing. There was nothing to compliment. She was about as close to forgettable as one could be. I suppose that can be a good skill in the wasteland, but it was a bit off-putting.

“So, vee understand you are, eh, looking to find a new home, yes?”

Again, she nodded, but finally a conversation started. “Yes, I've moved into living away from home; spreading my wings, I guess you could say. I'm looking for a place to settle down now, maybe have a family.”

“You don't hear that too often in the Vasteland,” I remarked.

“Maybe not the Equestrian Wasteland, but we're not in Equestria anymore, now are we, Enjin?”

I let out a soft chuckle. “No, I suppose not.”