Fallout Equestria: Luck

By Gun Shot

Chapter 1: "Paradise," an illusion

"I ain't gonna rise to greet y'all. Awfully rude, I reckon, but as you can see, I'm the fresh casualty of an unusually unfortunate circumstance. My lot in life, I suppose."

You could tell me ‘we’ve all lost things,’ or ‘you’re lucky to be alive,’ many have. But let me tell you the one thing I know for certain. Luck. Isn’t. Real. And if it is, it sure doesn’t shine its light on me. My name’s Gun Shot and I was raised away from the chaos of this world. You may think that’s lucky, but it’s not. Being raised away from the threats of the wasteland left me unprepared for survival within it.

You may be wondering how I managed to avoid the wastes, that’s an easy one. Far to the western end of Equestria, sat a family farm. This farm was built by a doctor who wanted to escape his destiny. This farm was marked on no map and was surrounded on every side by the Smoky Mountains, except for one small pass. When the megaspells hit, the walls protected the farm. From every aspect, the destruction, the magical radiation, all of it. They were even tall enough to break the cloud roof and let the sun in.

Apparently at some point my Great Grandfather decided he wanted to see what it was like beyond the walls. He and his sister went beyond and came back changed. What they had seen was scratched from our family history books, but they couldn’t take away all the evidence. For he had brought with him some survivors of a raided caravan that had been traveling along the beach, and they had brought weapons of defence. How is this all bad? Well, I’ll never forget the day his decision brought chaos to us.

It was a day like most others, the cool breeze that blew down from the mountains making the golden fields sway. The sun had yet to rise above the walls, but I could tell it was morning. Around here the sun doesn’t show until ten o’clock. I stepped down the creaky white steps of the farm house porch. I took my time passing through the field on the dirt path. The distinct scent of the wheat filled the air, it was almost harvest time. Usually I’d have all day to admire the scenery, it never ceased to be beautiful. But today I had errands to run in the small town that had grown in the blank space over the last few decades. My mother had fallen ill with some unknown disease, my sister had sent me to gather various ingredients so she could attempt a remedy.

The town was a quaint little slice of mundane, split into two sections. The residential side consisted of six houses in two rows of three, like a small equal sign. And the commercial side, where i was headed, consisted of a taphouse, famous for its cider; a grocery, where my uncle sold our produce; a sheriff’s office, rather a glorified timeout corner; and a scavenge store, rumored to have once sold various random bits and bobs but now only sells gathered items like mushrooms. These were also lined up in a similar shape to the houses, only these were all uniquely shaped and sized. There was another shop under construction, it was to be mine. Someday ponies would come to me to get stuff fixed for more than just little jobs, I’d be a full time repairpony. And in the center of the town stood the tallest building, a clock tower, set to ring at noon every day. Hidden on the south wall of the tower was an alarm button. Only two ponies knew about it, but everypony knew what to do if they heard it. The small town didn’t exactly have a mayor, but the leadership duties went to my father, descended most purely from the original founder.

I had zero knowledge in medical know-how, so when sent to get ‘medicinal ingredients’ my first thought was ‘mushrooms and the like of story books’. So I purchased some of each item from the ‘scavenger’. The scavenger was a tan earth pony with a dark brown mane named Forager, his cutie mark was a mushroom. Forager was obsessed with mushrooms, he sold other stuff too, but mostly mushrooms. He could talk your head off about them, and would. He had inherited this shop from his father, Scavenger, who had sold the last of the ‘junk’ his father sold to make way for his own take on the name. With every owner the scavenge store seems to sell different stuff. We exchanged greetings, but there was no time for a chat. While I didn’t act like I was in a hurry, Flu had seemed pretty adamant on me getting these quickly.

Flu was my sister, my twin actually. She looked just like me, light blue coat, blue eyes, green mane with a wide red stripe down the middle. Only, she was a mare while I was a buck, not fully identical, I suppose. She also had no scars to hide. Flu was our medic in training, taught by our mother. We don’t need treatment here often, and when we do it’s nothing severe, but she knows almost everything a doctor should. Apparently our founder was a doctor, he taught his children the arts, but only one passed it down to theirs, thus began the tradition of one mare being taught how to treat wounds and illness. I dropped the ‘medicinal ingredients’ off at the barn, where my sister did all of her medical work. “Thanks for the great speed,” she had said, sarcasm practically overflowing. She rolled her eyes upon looking at what i brought, but didn’t say it was the wrong stuff, guess i had what she needed in there somewhere.

The rest of the day was spent fixing the refrigerators in the grocery store. The whole time I worked I was pestered by questions from my uncle, Ruby. Ruby was a buck who matched name and appearance, both his mane and coat were pure red, his cutie mark always hidden under his signature suit. “So, has your father told you the ‘family secrets’ yet?” he’d ask, rephrasing every time I said no. Ruby was originally chosen to learn the ‘family secrets’ by grandpa, but the day before he was to be told, Star, my father, learned for himself. To prevent too many from learning the truth, Ruby was cut off before learning what the secret was. He’d been jealous ever since and tried to learn what he was denied by asking me and my siblings every now and then, either through pestering or randomly trying to catch us off guard.

Took me forever to realize the issue, Ruby’s description of the problem had led me to believe the vents were faulty or the coolant was empty. Turns out the wire had been cut, a clean slice. “Must have been rats,” Ruby said in a not-at-all-suspicious voice. Rolling my eyes and pretending he was better at lying than he was, I replaced the cord. The nerve of him, faking a problem and wasting precious resources, just so he could pester me and find the secret. Oh, that’s right, you don’t know the secret. No point hiding it from you, or anyone at this point. Upon reaching their eighteenth birthday, one colt of Shot lineage is to be told the truth of beyond the mountain wall. My older brother would have been chosen, but he declined the offer, ‘secrets are too stressful’ he had told my father. So I was next. I was only a few days into being told, so I only had the jist of raiders, and that the outside was not safe.

I stepped out of the grocery store, I had been in there for so long that the sun had not only set beyond the wall, but the sky was beginning to darken. I grumbled to myself about how I had been stupid enough to fall for that. I contemplated turning him over to Sheriff Corn Starch, but frankly he was too shy and cowardly to do anything about it. I decided I’d enjoy what little time there was left in the day down at the tap house. They didn’t sell alcohol there, after the ‘fruit punch incident’ alcohol was banned, not like we had much left anyway. The caravan that secretly supplied us had stopped coming last month, according to my father.

The first stars began to appear as I approached the western style saloon door that would lead to the delicious apple cider within. I stopped at the door, the sound of running hooves through the grass behind me. Turning around, I saw my father, a nervous, fearful look on his face. Not much could shake him, but yet he ran as if his life depended on it. He grabbed me and pulled me to the alley beside the taphouse. He looked around, making sure nopony was around to hear, even in his whispered voice the fear was evident. “I need you to guard your mother and sister, I saw a raider party crossing the beach,” now I was the one with fear in my eyes, “with any luck they won’t look inside the unsuspecting cave, but they haven’t come this close since your great grandfather’s time. And remember, if anyone asks, you’re keeping folk out, quarantining your mother, I’ve already sent word to Flu that you’re coming to do just that”. I bolted, but slowly enough to not look suspicious.

He never should have mentioned luck. I never made it to the barn. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the emergency stash was open. It was a hidden compartment within the walls of the farm house filled with bags. The bags were filled with preserved food, water, flares, defensive weapons, and various other survival things. Walking over I noticed a bag was missing. I knew what was in those bags, I was told only days prior, so I quickly glanced around to see where it was. The thief almost blended in with the grass, a green 7 year old colt with a dark green mane and no cutie mark. My cousin, Emerald, Ruby’s son. I called out to him to put the stuff back, instead he turned around and showed me his new toy. My blood ran cold, he was playing with a flare. “EMERALD NO!” I called, but my words only sealed our fate. Startled by my sudden raise of tone, Emerald stepped back, tripped over the bag, landed on his back and pulled the trigger. WHOOSH the bright red light rose high, almost to the sky. The light hovered for a moment, it let off three loud ping noises before falling back down.

Confused and scared screams rang out from ponies leaving the taphouse as the ball of magic fire landed upon the farm house, and engulfed it in a pillar of fire. You’d think the ponies who designed it would have made it not catch fire to things. I ran to scoop up Emerald and get him away from the flaming house. Ponies in the town sprang to action, but it was chaos, ponies crashing into each other as some went to get buckets and others headed for the wells. Without my father to bring order, nothing was getting done. But my mind was on things more pressing than the fire.

Maybe they didn’t see or hear that I thought, the pings echoed through my head and off the mountain walls. I turned towards the pass, and my ears fell back as I watched my hopes crumble. A few figures began to emerge from the pass, like monsters in the flickering light of the roaring flames. At first it was just one, then two, four, ten, too many to count. I swung the now sobbing Emerald, who thought this was his fault, onto my back and bolted for the alarm. Dodging the panicking ponies, I slammed into the button, not having time to stop and press it normally. As the large bell rang its deep, loud rings, the raiders began to hop the fence. The panicking ponies stopped and stared at the bell in horror, it had only rung once before. The raiders passed the tower of fire that was once my home, and in the light of the flames I could see them more clearly. Bones strung like jewelry and armor across their black, spiked barding. Then I remembered the job I was given, to protect Flu and Mom.

In between the rings of the bell, I heard one raider yell “SUBMIT -DONG- BLACK STAR, OR DIE!” Ponies were running away from the farmhouse now, some having seen the invading demons. I ran against the current, I had to reach the barn before they did. “We’ll never -DONG- to the likes of you!” I heard my dad yell back, pulling out a concealed thing. DONG the raider seemed to say ‘toe bee is’ or ‘so be it’ or maybe ‘so cheez it’? But then his next order was rather clear, “BURN IT ALL!” I watched as one threw a bottle at the barn, a crazed smile across her face. A sound louder than the bell, a sound unlike any I had ever heard before. The raider with the bottle’s head exploded into red paste, but my eyes just followed the bottle as it flew towards the barn, a small fire on its tip. If the night sky wasn’t already lit by the house, it was definitely bright now. I fell to my haunches and watched with tear-filled eyes as my sister and mother went up in flames.

I looked around to find dad, I spotted him just in time to see a bullet go right through his chest. My blood ran cold and my vision blurred by tears. With all my hope crushed and my family dead, I ran. I ran straight through the fence gate, unlike the raiders, and through the pass. Emerald still clinging to my back. It was just me and him now. Maybe if I had waited at the pass things would have gone differently, or if I had just gone to the barn. But you can’t change the past, the past changes you.

Author's Note

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Skilled Technician - You know your way around a toolbox, and have learned its secrets. You use 10% less resources to mod weapons, and can pick advanced locks.

credit of Fo:E goes to kkat, it was one of the most inspiring stories i ever read, most of my OCs live in the world they created
and hasbro obviously owns mlp