Fallout Equestria: Luck

By Gun Shot

Chapter 3: Towers

"All this power, wasted on parties, when there are far greater uses."

I took out my screwdriver and flipped out my terminal access key. As it slipped in the terminal clicked into bypass. It wasn’t quite what i was expecting, though, this was a wall of text. Not sure what I was seeking, I delved into the code of the terminal. It wasn’t long before I found a phrase that seemed out of place, in all the coded text sat “honest apples”. Just testing a theory, I put that into the password box. Sure enough the terminal opened, hacking seemed easy enough.

Within the terminal were several files, the most recent was a recording. “HELLOOO EQUESTRIA!!” the voice was male, not quite deep, but not high pitched either. “You’re listening to Heart Radio and this your daily news segment. It would appear that our beloved Ministry of Image has finally found our station and is sending their goons to take us out,” I thought back to the structure on the roof, they had thought they were camouflage, yet the ponies who worked here had seen them coming and from the looks of all the barricades, they had a while to prepare. “BUT to hell if that happens, ponies like y’all deserve the truth. Speaking of truth, another zebra refugee convoy has been attacked on the north eastern shores. Seems Luna learned nothing from Littlehorn. In other news, zebra stealth teams seem to be fleeing from manehatten with quite a bit of haste. If I didn’t know better, I’d say they were surrendering. But with how they’ve been fighting since Luna came to power, its more likely they’re evacuating for a larger attack.

“And now, back to music, this is possibly our last broadcast so a tune of remembrance would be fitti- WHAT?! Attention, we do have… coming in… confirmed reports, i repeat, confirmed reports of megaspell detonations in Cloudsdale and Splendid Valley… Sweet Celestia…” the reporter had gone from confident to fearful in the blink of an eye. Something bad had happened in Cloudsdale and Splendid Valley, a… megaspell? I didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t sound good. The next recording, I assumed, was supposed to be the song played, “Second Chances (Acoustic)”. I hit the play button, the building gave a big heave as speakers sparked and popped. The terminal was still connected to the radio systems and the building’s speakers. As a distorted melody echoed through the ruins, the ground beneath me gave. Speakers popped and exploded as I fell, crashing through several floors. Until all at once, the sound, and my vision, stopped.

“C’mon, Shot, you gotta get up.” Flu was standing over me, “that was one epic fall, you ok?”. I nodded, remembering climbing a tree, and a branch snapping. “Why were you up there anyway?” she asked. I hesitated, “I- I don’t know”. As far as I could tell, ponies don’t climb trees, so there had to have been some reason I did, but what? I tried to get up, but a pain shot through my leg. I saw Flu’s gaze drift to my leg, then she recoiled, putting a hoof to he mouth. “What’s wrong?” I asked. She explained, my leg was at an unnatural angle and she needed to splint it. That didn’t sound like a good thing, sounded painful. Turns out a splint is just tying a stick to your leg to hold it straight. I later found out from momma that my ankle was just sprained…

When I came to, my vision was blurry and my ears were ringing. A green blob stood over me. Emerald, i decided, my vision beginning to focus, with a worried look on his face. I tried to get up, but a piercing pain shot through my body. Emerald’s gaze drifted to my leg and he recoiled. I lifted just my head so I could get a good look at it, now that is an odd angle, i thought. My leg was C-shaped, and that, I knew, was not natural and was clearly worse than a sprained ankle. Almost magically, i also knew just what to do. Just to my left was a good, straight rebar, to my right was a tattered tie from a skeleton, long since crushed by rubble. Sitting up was painful, a tear came to my eyes as I forced through the strain. I fashioned the materials into a makeshift splint, just as Flu had years ago, only I had zero training and probably made it wrong.

Getting up, was excruciating, despite the splint, I wished there was some form of medicine I could use to take the pain away. Emerald seemed shocked that I could even bare to move with all the blood, but I figured that if we are to be staying out here, then we ought to get used to pain. All the skeletons made that clear. I limped my way to the front door, as my head continued to readjust i realized the music was still playing. We had to go before we attracted unwanted attention.

The streets were empty aside from all of the barricades of rubble and carriages. The wind whistled through the empty ruins, I figured we’d run into at least one pony, one survivor helped by ponivillians, hell not even a ponyvillian was seen! I peeked into a few buildings, hoping to find somepony who knew where to find some bandages, or some bandages. But everything seemed empty. The already dark sky began to further darken, night. Time to hunker down and wait until the somewhat easier to see in day time. Our stomachs growled, we needed food, we needed water, we needed medical attention, but we had only eachother.

We chose to hide out in a building signed with a large triple butterfly logo. The doors were all broken off their hinges, whatever this building was it seemed to have once held something valued. The main lobby appeared to be a sort of waiting room, chairs everywhere and one rounded desk. On the wall dead center behind the desk sat a yellow box with the same insignia. Curious, I went to open it, somepony had popped the lock, inside sat a faintly glowing bottle of red liquid. On a sticker was a faded label, ‘healing potion’. It took a moment for that to proccess, a simple drink that could heal my wounds? I looked back at my scratched and cut hide, this was perfect.

I grabbed the bottle and began to struggle with the cork. I had never been good with these, they’re much easier to remove with magic than with teeth. I bit down on the cork and pulled the bottle. A loud bang shook the tower, I jumped, the cork popped off, and the bottle flew to the ground, shattering. I watched as the red liquid dispersed across the dusty floor. Cursing under my breath, I turned to see what dashed my hopes. Out the front door I saw a flash of red-orange light, illuminating the streets. For a moment I thought i saw a shadow moving. Less than a second after the flash, another quake and crackle. Bits of the dust and ceiling tile fell from above.

I limped toward the door to see what created the crackling blast. Another flash as I poked my head out, a loud bang followed by cackling laughter. In the fading light I saw a face across the street, and it saw me. I tilted my head and it tilted back. The dark of night returned, but only a moment later another blast illuminated the streets. The pony had emerged from the shop it had hidden within. She was a unicorn, a violet coat and short, black mane. Her clothes were strange, not quite like those of the raiders, this was armored and scorched, not clad in bones and paint. Her front left leg was more heavily armored below the knee. The light faded again, but this time the face remained illuminated, a purple glow from the mare’s horn. Somewhere within the store behind her came another glow of the same shade.

A smile slowly crawled up her face, a victorious, crazed smile. A smile like those on the face of several of the raiders as they slaughtered my people. My ears dropped as I realized what was happening. A dim flash from within the building as a large flare was launched, aimed at me. The mare was unwavering, even as the flare spiraled past her face. Remembering the fire from the last flare, I leaped to the side. My dodge was in vain as I only slammed into an Emerald that had approached in silence. He fell to the side as I fell back into the path of the flare. Unable to do anything from my position with my injured leg, I merely cowered. The flare erupted in a ball of fire before it reached the door, the shockwave sending me tumbling and the sound left my ears ringing.

Rubbing my ears in vain attempt to get the ringing to stop, I could make out faint voices. “Smoke, what were you thinking??” a gruff, male voice asked, “you know the rules, the MoP hub is OFF LIMITS!!” I looked around to find where the voices were coming from. Through my still fuzzy vision I spotted two blobs out the door, illuminated by the occasional flash. “I know but-” a mare’s voice, the one who shot at me I presumed. “But nothing, your just lucky I stopped you from destroying our medical supplies,” the male blob sounded angry, no, more of dissapointedly mad. “There’s intruders though…” my eyes focused and I saw the buck turn to look at me. He was dressed in pristine, unsinged barding, painted yellow and pink. He bore two of those yellow butterfly boxes upon his back like saddlebags. I couldn’t see his face or mane through his hemet and mask, his tail hidden aswell.

He rushed over, digging through his boxes, “and you didn’t think that maybe they didn’t know better?” the mare lowered her head in shame. The buck pulled out some bandages from his bag and began to wrap up my bleeding side. I knew there where helpful people in Ponyville. After he finished doing his doctory things and nodding aprovingly at my rebar splint, he asked me, “so what brings you to VanBoomer, friend? Don’t ya know its dangerous here?” I hesitated, replaying what he said. “I’M IN THE WRONG TOWN?!” I should have known it wouldn’t have been so easy. He seemed stunned by my not knowing, I went on to explain to him about Ponyville and the help that waited there.

“I dunno about all that, pal, last I checked Ponyville wasn’t quite so friendly. And quite frankly neither is here.” The words hit like a buck to the face, all my plans were gone. My hopes, dashed. “Then why are you here?” I asked, avoiding the truth behind what he said, I had to believe Ponyville could help me, I just had to. “Cause if I ain’t these ponies’ll kill ‘emselves.” He pulled me to my hooves and started walking, motioning me to follow. He led me, Emerald, and the mare named Smoke Bomb to the streets, “these here ponies came across an old weapons stockpile some years back, all ordinance.” he pointed to the sky, lit up by rumbling flashes, “they took to the explosives like a fish to water, went mad with power. They had enough ponies and weaponry to take over the whole wastes, but instead a little raider gang showed up”. He started leading us through the streets as he narrated, “since then they’ve been locked in turf war, over the years it evolved into somewhat a game, its got rules‘n everything!” It didn’t sound like a fun game, using those ‘missiles’ against eachother, it sounded more dangerous.

“One such rule being that all newcomers are to pick a side.” Smoke said, as if that were fine. As if this were a game everyone would want to play. “Raiders or Boomers?” she asked. “I would rather not-” I took a step back. “Raiders or Boomers?” she pressed, “I need to know if you’re my friend or foe”. The mysterious medical stalion noticed my reluctance, “maybe he can help me medic?” he suggested. “Rules only allow one medic,” she snapped, raising her ‘RPG’. It seemed these rules were so important that Smoke memorized it word for word. She aimed at me, “tick tock”. Needing to say something, I spat the first thing to come to mind, “I hate raiders, so the Boomers?” I cringed back, waiting for the click of the weapon firing. It never did. She lowered it, seeming pleased with my answer. “Welcome to the tea-” a click in the distance, followed by the unmistakable whirr of a rocket flying through the air. Time slowed to a crawl as I watched the rocket impact directly with Smoke Bomb’s head. Flaming chunks of pony flew through the air along side me. I slammed into a wall, a crack from my already broken leg, I heard a scream.

My heart pounded in my chest as I crawled to where Emerald once stood, it was then that I realized the scream was mine. Tears began to flow, emerald was gone, and the headless body of Smoke lay lifeless in the road. I looked up and saw a silhouette on the rooftop, armed with a similar weapon to Smoke’s, reloading. Not wanting to end up like smoke I pulled myself to my hooves and began to run, keeping my broken leg outstretched behind me and wincing at the pain of reopening wounds. I ducked between several barricades in the road, hoping they’d be cover if the raider shot at me while I ran. They didn’t. I looked up to see if they were following me, they weren’t. I looked back ahead just in time to see the open pot hole I was about to fall down. Then I fell.

The sky was a dark grey, a rare sight. Water poured down from the gloomy clouds that had squeezed through the mountains . It will be good for the crops I thought, but I hate when it rains like this. Most people loved it when it rained, it was like a pleasant break from the normal sunny sky. But to me the rain just meant getting wet, so I sat in my room staring out the window at those who played in the rain. Splashing in the puddles was a small green colt, no older than a month, with his red father, it was my uncle and his son. I sighed, watching my sister dancing in the downpour, water trickling down her face as she stopped and looked up at me. She took a step forward and slipped, landing in mud, I couldn’t help but giggle. Rolling my eyes, I went down the stairs. I hesitated at the door, took a deep breath, then opened. The rain was beginning to stop, so I trotted over to the fallen Flu. “Need a hoof?” I asked, holding one out to help her up. She grabbed it, held it, I began to pull up but she yanked me down into the mud with her. She laughed, I laughed, the cloud was clearing up, or rather dad was beating it up. I looked to the sky and saw a collection of colors arcing across the sky, a rainbow.

Author's Note

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: durabone - you really know how to take a hit, 25% chance to avoid a limb crippling.