Fallout Equestria: The Blue Lightning

So back at your castle when you said, “I trust you”, you meant “I DON’T trust you”.

MLP, 6/6

The morning is never a good one.

Especially when it starts with a scream. And someone else’s, with that. It sounded like it was right next to an ear.

“Aaaaaah!!! My rings…!”

Cosmic mumbled something sleepily and rolled sideways, falling off the bed.

“There are none! Who could have done this…?”

Swearing under her breath, the earth pony threw the blanket back on the bed, sat down on the croup, yawned, and rubbed her eyes with the tips of her hooves.

“What else have you got there…?”

“Rings! They’re gone! Almost all of them! Someone took them away with the bag!”

The mare finally blinked out of sleep to see Sonic kneeling, almost in tears, over the golden rings scattered on the floor. There were only three of them – instead of the impressive stock that the alien had shown everyone in the bar yesterday. And the thin belt on which he wore a bag of portal activators was, as Cosmic noticed, lying at Sonic’s sleeping place – empty and now useless.

“We-e-e-ell…” the mare drawled in a calm voice. “I definitely don’t like it.”

She rose to her hooves and walked around the room. Carefully examining every inch, she found the fourth ring near the slightly open front door.

Someone was here at night while they slept like logs: Cosmic – from a psychological shaking, Sonic – from new impressions. Someone who was aware of why the hedgehog needed his rings, and who was also able to sneak up on other ponies and… other creatures.

But everything points to me. How ironic. You just can shit yourself with laughter, thought the earth pony and added aloud:

“No, I don’t like it at all.”

But I know it wasn’t me. I was asleep, damn it, horn to my ear! But who then? Come to think of it, it could have been anyone! At least half of The Republic is immediately under suspicion…

Then a hunch came to Cosmic. The rings were scattered, as if someone had unhooked the bag in a hurry and didn’t realize in time that he was throwing away the evidence. Which means…

She opened the door with her hoof and ran past Sonic onto the street of the sleeping city flooded with the lingering morning twilight. She turned her head, looking for any trace that the criminal might have left behind.

Nothing. It was impossible to read any tracks in the dust. Only another ring lay alone on the ground a few steps away from Cosmic’s house.

The fifth – and, as it seemed, the last one.

“Hey, guy, you’re making me a pretty good cash now," said Murky Gray, wiping the glasses.

“I don’t think I’m that happy about it,” mumbled Sonic, who was sitting at the same place at the counter as yesterday.

The bar was full again. The morning news of the theft had stirred up the whole village. Led by the mayor, the ponies searched the entire Republic. Silver Star personally inspected the homes of Cosmic and other guards.

The spot of blood left on Cosmic’s floor after a fight with Metal Dawn also didn’t go unnoticed.

“How did this get here?” the unicorn asked menacingly.

“Well, I was arguing with one” – she replied calmly – “about weapons. About comparing the effectiveness of a submachine gun versus a .44 caliber revolver at close range.”

Silver Star just snorted angrily into his mustache and ordered the search to continue.

But no one found anything. Apparently, those scattered rings were the only mistake the thief had made.

Naturally, the squads’ departure had to be delayed. Cosmic was furious and cursed Sonic in her soul, her curiosity that outweighed her caution, and an unknown intruder who made unpleasant adjustments to their plans with his act.

“So that’s what we have,” Silver Star said. As at yesterday’s meeting, he stood in the center of the room, surrounded by a crowd of ponies. “No one saw or heard anything, and besides, there are no tracks. And you,” his gaze lingered on Cosmic, “somehow managed to oversleep the moment when someone broke into your house.”

“I was exhausted for the day,” the earth pony shook her head. “Well, the order to take a hedgehog on the mission has become quite a mess.”

“By the way, I didn’t enjoy all this shit either, you know,” the mayor replied. “From what we’ve found out – and we’ve found out nothing at all – I have no idea about who could have done it. Except for one, but I don’t want to believe that even for half a hoof.”

“Let me guess…” Cosmic said, understanding what he was getting at.

“It could have been you.”

She had expected something like that, but however, the mayor’s remark disgustingly cut her soul. Do they really think that…?

A whisper ran through the crowd. The audience looked at Cosmic in horror and confusion. The mare found Metal Dawn with her eyes. But he turned away immediately.

“Yes, I realize that it’s probably nonsense, but this is all we’ve got,” the mayor continued. “I’m sorry, and I apologize to you, but… I have to put the question to a vote.”

There was a dead silence in the bar. The glass slipped from Murky’s hooves and bounced off the counter, shattering with a deafening clang.

Against the backdrop of this silence, Silver Star’s words were especially chilling.

“Who is in favor of convicting Cosmic Valor of stealing the rings and sentencing her to exile from The Republic with confiscation of her home and property?”

Something snapped inside Cosmic. What was happening seemed wrong, like in some kind of nightmare from which it was impossible to wake up. Are you all conspiring here, or what…? Oh, Celestia… just don’t…

Eighteen ponies lifted a hoof up.

Cosmic glanced at Metal Dawn again. After last night’s incident, she expected him to condemn her, even if it was just like that, but it didn’t follow. The stallion closed his eyes and lowered his head. He didn’t seem to enjoy this humiliating vote either.

Looking around the audience, Cosmic felt an incredible relief. It was the first time in her memory that someone was acquitted. But at the same time, it was also the first time that it was impossible to prove someone’s guilt.

The mayor also breathed a sigh of relief when the results of the investigation became clear.

“So, Cosmic, you’re found innocent. That doesn’t mean I don’t have suspicions about you – Discord, I have them here for everyone!” The ponies became quiet and cowered at these words… especially those who voted against Cosmic. “But you can go. And while you’re on your way, I’ll go through everything here… and bring this scoundrel to the surface, no matter what it takes!”

Cosmic couldn’t help but smile at Silver Star’s menacing look. Now she was recognizing The Republic’s leader again.

While the "quick investigation" was going on, it was already past noon. There was no sun, so the time was shown by the PipBucks of the pegasi and Nightlight. Cosmic sometimes thought of asking for one for herself, but she understood that Silver Star would refuse, and all the stocks from her father’s workshop were sold many years ago. And she would only use a locator and a targeting spell, successfully replaced in life by ears and eyes.

They moved out much later than planned, and Cosmic was nervous. New Appleloosa was two days away at the team’s usual pace, and halfway there they had set up a shelter for the night was equipped in a destroyed building. And so, they didn’t have time to get there before dark.

They walked in silence. The morning’s incident had a depressing effect on everyone. Moreover, since the offender was never found, it meant that he or she was still among the town’s inhabitants. Or – Cosmic stubbornly banished this thought – even among her squad.

But it couldn’t have been me, the mare thought. I don’t walk in my sleep… Although no matter who you ask, everyone will say it wasn’t him or her and suspect the others. And there’s nothing to quibble about: everything was too well planned.

Obviously, others had similar thoughts. Metal Dawn and Snow Vision, who were leading the march, squinted at each other, Spark and Stream soared above, covering everyone from the air, and Nightlight looked at the world through her dark glasses with her usual stony expression.

And only Sonic, walking beside Cosmic in the middle, didn’t seem to share the general gloom. He had calmed down quickly after losing the rings, and now he was turning his head, taking in the landscapes of Wasteland with his eyes. Sometimes he broke into a run, circling the crippled, poisoned land like a real blue lightning, as if he still couldn’t believe that this world had failed his expectations.

But for each such ring, you can get a hundred, or even half a thousand caps! Cosmic thought. Oh, of course, the thief must have known what they were doing, otherwise it all wouldn’t make any sense. But wandering through the worlds? She jerked her head. I wouldn’t dare. There is another, much more attractive option – to sell them. If you spend one on a demonstration, then you can get enough caps to last for ten years or more. But again… where and to whom to sell and then what to do with such a big piece? That is, if they don’t kill you instead of paying…

Suddenly, a hunch came to mind that almost made Cosmic to stumble out of the blue. The mare kept walking, staring into the void in front of her, and her heart was pounding wildly with excitement.

New Appleloosa! If you wanna get rid of something, it’s only there! Damn, they even do business with slavers, and there are plenty of regular dealers as well. Surely there’ll be someone smart and rich enough to buy such a rarity.

But fuck me the Canterlot ghoul… It turns out that the criminal is one of us!

She glanced furtively around the group, mentally trying on each of them. It was unpleasant for her to suspect those with whom she had been guarding other ponies and fighting side by side for several years; it left a nasty "aftertaste" in her soul.

But Cosmic had no choice.

The pegasi? Oh, no, they’re not like that. During their years in The Republic, they always did their best – so they were even allowed to wear their PipBucks and mine the door of their house before leaving! For the sake of short-term gain, they certainly won’t want to lose their credibility… Or will they, and are they sure that their reputation will protect them?

Snow…? I don’t know here. A strange one, to be honest. I’m afraid to mess with him in a good way, so he also knows how to do things with knives with telekinesis, so just turn off the light. Shady dealings behind the mayor’s back? Yeah, that’s easy. Holy shit, I hate to think about all this… but I have to.

Nightlight? Same thing, just replace the knives with a laser rifle. In truth, she’s worth being afraid of even more. And certainly no one will ever know what her plans are. To a direct question, she will simply remain silent, staring at you through dark glasses. And pray that she doesn’t pull the glasses down on her nose and look you in the eye.

Metal Dawn… Cosmic’s teeth clenched. What the fuck are you?! How should I treat you?! Okay, let’s pretend for now that nothing happened… But still, still, still…!

“Hey,” Sonic’s soft voice brought her out of her thoughts. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she breathed back, recovering from the stunning discovery. “It’s okay. Come on, keep moving. We have to get to the campsite by nightfall.”

Sonic fell silent resentfully. And now Cosmic didn’t care at all what he thought of her and of everyone else.

Of course, they didn’t get there in time.

Twilight fell quickly, as if a great light bulb had been turned off on the other side of the clouds. Cosmic didn’t believe the Pegasi Enclave could also control the sun in addition to the clouds: hardly any of them had enough power to replace Celestia.

It was still a few miles to the "transit point", but no one wanted to walk in the dark. Who knew what filth might jump out from behind the bushes.

By this time, the Wasteland had visibly changed. It was no longer a windswept and sand-covered expanse – instead, the party entered a sparse grove of dead trees, blackened by infection and time.

Sonic’s teeth chattered at the sight of this place. The ponies showed no emotion. They knew everything would be all right, for some of them would be on guard.

Without saying a word to each other, the ponies amicably gathered firewood, and long-dried twigs were well broken with a ringing crunch. A fire was lit, filling the grove with warmth and light. The pegasi’s PipBucks began clicking dispassionately.

Spark and Stream volunteered for the first watch. The rest settled around the fire, unpacking the rations they had been given. Some of it was canned food from two hundred years ago: beans from Metal Dawn and corn from Cosmic; Snow took out a box of "Sugar Apple Bombs"; Nightlight took a packet of dry noodles from her bag and, after covering them with spices, filled it into a tray with water from her flask. Snow opened the tins with a knife and began to eat first, levitating the others’ food over the fire.

Sonic got a package of petrified lollipops, and the hedgehog crunched contentedly on a pre-war treat.

“You seem really gloomy now,” he said with his mouth full. “You look like you’re all bitter enemies here and have hated each other all your lives. You might as well grab a gun.”

“Well, there’ little to be happy about,” Snow chuckled, picking up another piece of sugared apple with magic and swallowing it with relish. “We never found out who stole your stuff, so I want to suspect everyone around here. And to find out directly…” He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “We trust each other too much for that.”

“It was better to keep an eye on your things,” Nightlight said.

“I’m sure you’re all good ponies… well, for the most part,” Sonic said, getting a disapproving look from Metal Dawn. “And you seem trustworthy to me, too. I know it couldn’t have been one of you. Therefore…”

Cosmic’s eyelid twitched at his words. She could barely keep herself from blurting out her suspicions at the top of her lungs. The unresolved conflict cut her soul like flesh. This is so not right! So wrong…! It shouldn’t be like this! But there was nothing she could do about it. For now.

“…maybe you can tell me how your troop was gathered in general? And what do your… what are they called… cutie marks mean?”

“That’s possible,” Snow replied. “Cosmic?”

The unicorn took the food from the fire and telekinetically distributed it to its owners.

Cosmic winced as the hot tin burned her hooves. As always, she had to wait a little so as not to boil her tongue.

Metal Dawn didn’t touch his can right away either. But Nightlight pulled a fork from her bag and began greedily devouring the noodles.

Even the pegasi came closer to the fire, attracted by the conversation and delicious smells.

Great, Cosmic decided. Just five minutes of storytelling.

“Not much to tell,” she shrugged and blew on the steaming corn. “I didn’t even think that it all started with me. Did I ever tell you that I loved playing with guns when I was a filly? Well, the cutie mark didn’t appear for a long time anyway. I somehow finished school in the village, managed to try all the jobs we had there, but none of them suited me. And with nothing to do, I volunteered to guard Aunt Grace’s caravan when a pony on the regular shift got sick. The mayor was against it, so I had to prove my fitness by shooting at banks. As it turned out, it worked. And he was put in there with me,” she pointed to Metal Dawn, “also a rookie back then. To protect me, so to speak, from the attention of any rabble from Wasteland.”

“At that time, I already had a mark of my own,” the stallion said, turning sideways to the fire. On his flank, partially hidden by the edge of his armor, there was a… sunflower. “My parents grew food for the town, but their work, like in the case of Cosmic, wasn’t my passion. I always wanted to try something –” he grinned, and Cosmic shivered under his gaze “– sharper.

“In that campaign, we were attacked by raiders. Few – only four, but then they seemed like an army to us. Bouncer, the old soldier who was with us, was shot first. I started firing back, covering them and Grace, and Cosmic pounced on the raiders like a bear, with a carbine at the ready.” He grinned. “Well, we fought back. Both having the cutie marks ever since.”

“But the two of them weren’t enough for a separate team,” Snow Vision continued, looking up from Apple Bombs. Cosmic and Metal took advantage of that and started eating themselves. “Nightlight and I also had nowhere to go, and Uncle Silver called us one day and said we were joining them – or we’re talking about what we’re going to do with our lives right now, and we’ve been doing that our whole damn lives.” He chuckled. “Considering that I got my mark when I learned to juggle knives for fun by throwing them with telekinesis, I didn’t have much choice.”

“I see,” Sonic grinned and turned to Nightlight, “And you?”

Cosmic frowned. This story was the most painful for her to hear.

The unicorn with a crosshair as her cutie mark looked at the hedgehog silently through her glasses – and returned to the noodles without answering. Snow grew sad, too, and continued the story.

“It happened the day when the radscorpions got into The Republic.” Sonic looked back at Cosmic – and saw the pain in her eyes. “Several ponies were stung, but” – the unicorn sighed heavily – “not all of them had time to be given the antidote. Sorry, Cosmic, if that… Well, of course, no one wanted to deal with those critters – everyone just screamed, ran, and hid. Nightlight was just practicing with a laser rifle she had stolen from the armory. She ran to the noise and killed all the radscorpions in a crowd of terrified ponies with several accurate shots, without hitting any of the inhabitants. After that,” Snow looked at his relative with pride, “they were definitely afraid to approach her for anything other than business.”

They chewed in silence for a minute. Then Stream came up to the fire. The ropes of her battle saddle were spread apart so that she wouldn’t shoot anyone with her machine guns.

“Since then, a few years had passed before we showed up in The Republic. Spark and I have the usual pegasi cutie marks, and we can’t boast of anything interesting here. Well, like…” She turned around and showed Sonic an elegant light-blue flank with a picture of a tornado that lifted and twisted a lot of small grey dots. “Unless you consider as such a hurricane of spent shell casings, lifted into the air by the force of a single pair of wings.” The pegasus mare laughed. “Yeah, there were times… And Spark has only a yellow spark piercing a cloud as his own mark.

“For that matter, we’re deserters. They’ve been looking for us for a long time, but fortunately they haven’t found us yet. Maybe they just forgot over time, or maybe they got stupidly lazy, because as we later calculated from what others told us, a couple of fighters escape from the Enclave every year. And they can’t get enough Wings to hunt them all. That’s what our troops are called, by the way, in case you didn’t know.

“We were looking for a settlement to get away from the Enclave and join the locals faster. And The Republic has been a godsend to us. Silver Star promised us such golden mountains if we stayed…” She shook her head with a grin. “He was such a liar, of course, but we don’t regret anything. This is our home now. Our new homeland.”

“Stream, we have guests," PipBuck hissed on her buck in her partner’s voice.

“Copy.”

Stream lifted her hoof and, pressing a couple of buttons, looked at the screen of the portable device. The locator showed a scattering of red dots around the place where the group had been forced to stop. And they were getting closer.

The remains of the dinner were immediately discarded. Everyone grabbed their weapons and, without a single extra word, formed a circular defense.

Everyone… except Sonic.

“So… what should I do?” asked the hedgehog, stomping confusedly at one point inside the circle.

“Keep your head down,” said Metal Dawn.

“Quiet. They’re close,” the Spark Glider’s whisper rang out in the darkness dispersed by the fire.

“Huh. I didn’t sign up for this,” Sonic muttered. His eyes glittered, reflecting the flames, and a gambling grin played on his lips. “It’s action time.”

“Where are you–”

Cosmic turned around… but immediately froze, stunned in place.

Blurred by speed, a blue lightning flashed past her, electrifying her fur and dazzling.

The dark silhouettes of ponies seemed to be the figures of demons beyond the reflections of the fire. Leaping out of the circle into the black, Sonic clearly caught the stench that came from the uninvited visitors of the night of revelations.

Raiders. A faceless word hiding all those who abandoned to survive in the Wasteland. It meant nothing to Sonic. After all, the bad ponies in the cartoon stole someone else’s magic, did all sorts of evil things, and just wanted to take over everything. Can’t the creepypasta comics, which the hedgehog barely touched earlier, before throwing them far away, be closer to the truth…?

Or can they?

The needles spat sparks into the night, and the body jerked as if from an electric shock.

No, he can’t let that happen! Not now, when he’s just made friends in this world!

Sonic swung sideways, running up to the nearest of those who surrounded the squad. The pony seemed to stand motionless in place, as if time itself had slowed down. Wincing at the smell, the hedgehog saw in the pale reflection of his own power trail a leaky, bloodstained armor and the handle of a sharpened shovel clenched in the attacker’s teeth. A nasty combination – both in appearance and in consequence.

He rushed aside. The other raider was very young, but Sonic almost threw up at the sight of his cutie mark. “Yeah, that guy looks like he came from a broken home…” A teenage pony held a gun in his mouth, aimed over the bushes directly at Cosmic.

The hedgehog paused for a moment, standing opposite him and looking him in the eye. The pony was just beginning to close his eyes from the sharp blue glow behind Sonic. But the weapon was still pointed in the same direction as it had been before.

“No, that won’t do. Choose a better job for yourself, boy!”

Sonic grabbed the chin of a young colt, pulled his jaw down, drew out a slobbered weapon and threw it away into the black. After that, he dusted off his hands in thick white gloves with disgust.

“Oh, well, what shall I do with you, huh…?”

The decision came quickly and suddenly.

A coil of rope was tied to the rump of the disarmed young raider. Sonic grimaced as he imagined why the attackers needed it. But he immediately cheered up: it’s not every day that you get a chance to use you enemies’ own resources against them.

Let them find out for themselves what happens when you sneak up on peaceful travelers in the dead of night.

Cosmic froze, watching the chaotic dance of blue flashes. Like a disembodied spirit, the hedgehog was flickering here and there, doing something with unimaginable speed. There were no screams or sighs behind the crackling of the static discharges; but most of all, the mare was struck by something else.

The raiders weren’t shooting. And according to the positions of the red marks on Stream’s PipBuck, they were being pulled into a pile. And only the Princesses knew what the hay Sonic had started all this.

Metal Dawn fired. The roar of the revolver made Cosmic’s ears pop. And realizing what had happened, the mare broke into a cold sweat.

“Don’t shoot!” she yelled belatedly, blaming herself for her slowness.

Sonic said that in his superfast mode, bullets wouldn’t be a hindrance to him, but still…

I’ll deal with you later, she mentally promised Metal Dawn and took Last Argument in her teeth once again.

Suddenly, the "light show" stopped – as suddenly as it had started.

Spark Glider turned on the flashlight on his microcomputer. And Cosmic barely held back an expletive from what she saw.

In the bright white beam, Sonic was standing with one foot on a rotten stump. And nearby was a neutralized group of raiders. Seven ponies in dirty homemade armor were bizarrely tied to each other and in addition to the trees, forming a strange, unbelievable installation.

Their mouths were not gagged. But the raiders were silent. They must have been dazed, like Cosmic’s team, by the unpredictable thing that had happened.

“Behold the power of the blue justice!”

Sonic raised his hand over his head. His pretentious pose looked so ridiculous against the backdrop of the Wasteland that Cosmic – yes, probably, like everypony around – freaked out again.

“Step back,” Stream said.

Her saddle cables clicked softly.

“Uh… why?” Sonic didn’t understand, but took a couple of steps back anyway.

Cosmic sighed. The naivety of a hedgehog would be enough to fill a couple of cisterns and water a small town, making the inhabitants helpless against the dangers of the post-war world.

The pegasus mare chewed on the tips of the cables, trying them on – and then opened fire.

The rattle of bullets broke the tense silence. Bright flashes of gunfire from the unlit side of Stream seemed to be the eyes of a monster hiding in the darkness. The screams of the raiders, caught in their own trap, could be heard… but they faded away immediately.

Blood splattered the ground and trees. It was as if someone had blown up a bag of paint nearby.

Red is the only color that could be missing in a random picture of the Wasteland.

A couple of seconds – and the bursts stopped. The blowing wind brought the pungent smells of blood and gunpowder.

Sonic’s jaw dropped, and his eyes became like two elongated saucers.

“You…” the hedgehog’s voice broke. He looked like he could barely hold back the nausea. “You killed them! Why?! They had no time to do anything to us anyway…”

“You mean it would’ve been better if they had?” Nightlight said quietly, and Sonic shut up, still looking at the fresh corpses with glazed eyes.

The unicorn mare reattached the rifle to her back with telekinesis, approached the hedgehog and stood opposite him. Their eyes were on the same level – the very element of trust that Cosmic realized she had missed yesterday.

“I’ll tell you how it could’ve been,” Nightlight continued. “If we hadn’t killed them, they would’ve killed us, then raped, dismembered, and eaten the corpses, and taken all of our belongings and weapons. With their newfound firepower, they would’ve taken a couple of villages – or invaded our Republic. And the town would lose its best fighters and resources for defense, so the defenders would have a hard time if they’re attacked. But the main thing is that we’d not be able to ensure the safety of the trade caravans. The town would earn less caps, and the inhabitants would begin to starve – and eventually they’d die themselves, or die too, but already as raiders. So, by killing them,” she waved her hoof towards the massacre, “we thereby saved ourselves and another one or two hundred ponies.” A hoof rested on Sonic’s chest. “Including your fucking ungrateful ass.”

She walked back to the fire. Everyone else in the party just stood there, not knowing what to say or do.

Cosmic looked at her can of half-eaten corn – and threw the food far into the darkness with a powerful kick. Her appetite was completely gone. It was necessary to get out and look for another campsite.

Sonic put his head in his hands and sat down on the ground where he was standing. Stifled sobs could be heard from him.

Stream Dash came up to the hedgehog and stood beside him.

“This ain’t kinda superhero movie for kids, hedgehog,” she said softly. “Strike first – or the Wasteland will eat you up. Gobble you up whole.”

Note: Level up.

Player: Cosmic Valor. New perk: Pokerface – you remain calm even in stressful situations. This gives you +5% stamina and +2 stealth.

Player: Sonic. New perk: Blue Justice – Lightning mode has been upgraded to level 2, which increases movement speed to +3000% and reduces stamina consumption to -60%. When encountering enemies, requires 30% less action points for activation.