Fallout Equestria: Luck

By Gun Shot

Chapter 7: Reality

"Here we don't pray for the weak, we pray on the weak."

It was dark on the top side, would be just as dark as the tunnel had it not been for the explosions beginning to light up the sky. I looked down at the “gun” in the flashing light, it was a familiar shape, even in the dark. I could easily recall the last time i had seen that round barrel, the small trigger meant to be activated by a slight flick of the tongue, the cautious red coloration. I had never heard it called a gun before, but this thing would never leave my memory. I stared at the flare for what felt like an eternity, flash backs through my head of that night, of the destruction caused by this small thing. This is what I was named after, something small, something dangerous.

I put it into my bag, right next to the other one, sighing. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to use it, but anything seems possible in the outside world. One thing was certain, I had to leave this place, to find Ponyville and survive, for Emerald. I set out across the empty, wreckage riddled streets. I looked to the sky and took a deep breath, “you got this,” I tried to reassure myself.

Above me, explosions were already starting, trails of smoke connecting one building to another. Shot wove his way past the carriages and remains of buildings, dodging falling glass and dust. I looked up at the arcing paths of explosives, wondering how many ponies were here in these ‘games’. A small ball of some sort rebounded off the wall of a tower and fell down. It bounced past my face, then landed in a cart next to me. Seconds later, two century old rotten fruit and wood shot every where, a small piece of metal launched out and grazed my cheek. Taking a step back, I saw countless other balls start to fall to the streets, sent flying by an explosion. I broke into a limping gallop as I could hear the ringing of small blasts behind me. Several shards of shrapnel sliced my flank and legs, but still I ran.

Several corner turns later, I stopped at a crossroad, realizing I had no idea where I was or how to get out of this place. I was lost, trapped in this maze of death, and doomed to a fate like Smoke and Emerald. I took a shaky breath, a single tear rolled down my cheek. There was a second of silence, quickly broken by a click in the shadows. I whipped around to see a figure in the window of a building nearby, on its side was strapped one of those rocket launchers. I took a step back as it clenched its jaw.

The whoosh of a flying rocket filled the air as a trail of smoke curled through the air and as the metal tube blasted past my right ear with an ear splitting roar. Behind me the missile made contact with something, causing it to explode. Time seemed to slow as I flew forward, knocked by the blast. In the light of the explosion i could make out the details of the figure. A burgundy mare with a spikey purple mane stood in a hole in a wall. She wore armor like that of the ponies who attacked my home, every detail the same down to the purple star painted on her chest. In her eyes, though, was a crazed look not even the ponies who had attacked before had had. On her neck was a studded collar, a broken chain hung from it. This was no pony, I realized, this was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

As time returned to its normal pace, I tumbled to a halt in front of her. I felt the drip of something wet on my face and opened my eyes. Looming above me was the mare’s face, scrunched up like a dog barring its teeth, she… growled at me? From her sharp, yellow teeth dripped a mixture of blood and foamy saliva. She lunged at my prone body like a dog at a squeaky toy, only the squeak was a gurgled scream as she latched onto my neck. I could feel the piercing of skin as she bit down harder and harder. I kicked at her frantically, trying to beat her off of me, but she stayed latched tight. My vision began to go black as she tried to shake me, tried to break my neck. I heard a snap, and the beast of a pony let go, my vision went fully black. I was dead.

Death… was painful. I could still feel the bruising on my neck, I could still feel my leg’s piercing pain as it was set back in place. I could still… hear my own scream..? I opened my eyes and saw myself in an unfamiliar setting, I was on some sort of bed in a somewhat clean room filled with broken machines. Medical machines, I realized, remembering back when… try not to think of painful times, you’re in enough pain, I thought to myself. Somepony else was there, holding my broken leg. “One day and you’ve already broken it again…” the doctor pony sighed, “Stay here and rest up, I have to go get something”. The doctor left the room, good thing I had no intentions of going back out there, not with that thing on the loose. I just laid there, in the silence, thinking. That was a problem.

Pain, a piercing pain, a burning pain, the air burned, the smoke stung. I blacked out but the pain remained, I was sure I’d die. But I didn’t, the sound of beeping medical equipment was turned on. A light purple mare with a red mane leaned over me, her blue eyes were like little oceans, especially with the tears like waves in them. “M-mom,” I remember saying. She said something reassuring yet funny, I can’t recall what it was. It made me laugh, laughing hurt. So, I focused on the steady beep of my heart rate, I heard it slow to a stop. And I remember my mother’s pained cry as she grabbed the defibrillator and powered it on. I remember the long steady tone that guided me to a calm light.

I forced myself to think of other things, think of what I’ve seen so far out here. Like what was that glowing thing, and why are the raiders here? Instead my mind wandered to seemingly less important things, like Captain Gold and Heart Radio. Captain Gold didn’t seem to like her job, yet she kept doing it, working for the Ministry of Propaganda. Why? I have no idea why, but this question stood out to me more than any other I asked myself. And how was it connected to Heart Radio, why was she being sent to stop them from doing their job? What was the Ministry of Propaganda? All these questions started to build up, but I focused on the one, and I don’t know why. It just didn’t make sense, somepony doing something they don’t like for so long.

The blue buck re-entered the room, “I can’t seem to find your visitor, but I'm sure he’ll be back.”
“A visitor?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion, “who?”
The doctor thought for a moment, “he wanted it to be a surprise, rather cute i’d say”. This only confused me more. “I’ll humor it,” he smiled, looking out the large window on the left side of my clinical room, “I did bring you a radio though, to entertain you.”
“Radio’s work out here?” I asked in surprise, which seemed to confuse him.
After a moment of hesitation, he set the radio down, “do they not work where you come from?” I shook my head as he turned the radio on. I expected a painful static, instead an amazing sound filled the air, music, not distorted like that from Heart’s. The melancholy words filled the air, backed by somber notes of despair and hope, telling the story of unfair war and of unnecessary pain.

The music faded, replaced by the deep voice of a stallion, “That was Sweetie Belle with “Set Me Free”, if only they’d heard your warnings.” The voice was almost sad, but quickly changed mood, “now for the news seems slaver activity is on the rise again on the roads from Ponyville to Fillydelphia, seems the East’s filth is spreading Westward. In other news, Finders Keepers has announced his retirement, in the coming months, his daughters will take over the Finders guild. Can’t wait to see how they run business. In other, more local news, Tenpony Tower has recently suffered a balefire phoenix attack, rather unusual, I’d say. Sheriff Grimmstar has put a bounty on whoever can scare ‘em off, permanently. Stay tuned folks, cause later we have our wisdom from DJPon3, grenades ain’t for eating. Now here's some Sapphire Shores to bring us solace.” The voice faded back to music.

“Who was that?” I asked the medical buck, not taking my eyes away from the radio. “DJPon3, voice of hope in the wasteland,” he replied, “never heard his broadcast before?” I shook my head, “oh yeah, no radios where you come from-” he remembered. We listened to the music for a bit, it cycled through three songs while the doc worked. Outside the window I watched small flashes of light signaling the continued wars below. The music faded back to the voice of DJPon3, “hello, Wasteland, it’s time for your favorite radio host to become your favorite teacher. Far too many times I’ve heard of ponies being dragged into Bonesaw’s office with their faces torn to shreds. I know they look like apples, but I can’t seem to stress this enough: grenades aren’t edible.” I could practically hear his eyes roll at the fact he had to say this, “they can and will blow up in your face if you bite down too hard.”

Ponies confuse apples and something deadly called grenades? That sounded like poor design to me, something capable of tearing up a face shouldn’t be disguised as food. My stomach rumbled as I realized I hadn’t eaten since eating the last of the rations with emerald on the beach. He still had some, well before.. you know. I really need to stop thinking about the past, this is my life now, everyone I know is dead, only a matter of time until I join them, I sighed. “Alright, Imma go see if I can find that visitor of yours, stay in bed unless otherwise necessary, gotta give that leg of yours time to mend,” the doctor diagnosed on his way out the door. I sat and listened to music as I watched out the window at the flashing lights as I drifted into a fitful sleep.

The sky was blue, the pegasi had prepared today to be of perfect weather, a perfect day. An orange mare trotted through the streets of a small town, humming. She turned a corner headed out of town, the road led to a large collection of apple trees. The mare turned off the road onto a small dirt path weaving through the trees. At the end of the path sat a barn, red as an apple. The orange mare entered the barn, in the center was a table, centered on the table was a single apple. The mare sat by the table and picked up the apple. She bit into it, its juice shot out from the missing chunk as she chewed the tart apple. She turned the apple to take another bite, but in doing so the stem fell out. A horrific display of pony juice shot out from the bite taken into her. She looked down slowly to the bleeding hole where her muzzle once sat on her face. She turned around to face a mirror, the hole went clean through her face. Something pink slipped into the hole from in her head, and everything went black.

Several minutes later I woke to a noise in the other room, a thud. “Doc?” I called out, maybe he dropped something? Then a shot rang out, followed by a yell, “hey! No violence in the hospital!” A growl followed by a couple more gunshots led me into a panic. The doctor darted into the room and unstrapped me from the medical bed, I hadn’t even realized I was strapped before. “Come on,” he urged, “we gotta get you out of here”. He took a step back from me, then a red and violet blur dashed into the room and slammed the doctor out a big window with a crash, tumbling out with him. “NO,” I called out, darting to the shattered window. I couldn’t see them below, I hadn’t even been in his care a day and he was dead. I looked back to where it had come from, the room was empty, messy from an evident fight. Time to escape a hospital.

Author's Note

Footnote:

Quest Perk Added: Marked - You have been marked as a favored foe and will now be hunted by your marker. 10% chance for a random encounter to be your adversary.

Quest Perk Added: Feral Instinct - Level One - Out of Hoofington came many horrors, feral raiders among them. You have an increased sense of smell, mainly towards living flesh, giving you near Eyes Forward Sparkle-like detection of living creatures within 15 meters.

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