Fallout Equestria : The Stablefilly and The Beast

"The sun is burning, the birds are...well, dead, and the survivors are all heartless bastards. That's how it is. That's how it has been since the war. Now just hoof over your belongings and I might not have my way with you, bud."

A ghoul was steadily holding his revolver to the forehead of a traveler, his armor made of badly put together metal plates. If the traveler moved even one muscle that wasn't in his mouth, he'd fire. They were on an empty dirt road that ran from one end of Virwhinnia to the other. Any direction you looked was flat, with a few buildings here and there, all destroyed and uninhabited. If you had good enough eyes, however, you could see the mountains of West Virwhinnia looming in the distance. The ghoul glowered at the traveler as he noticed a movement. This ghoul was born long before the war. One thousand years before the war, as a matter of fact. He was a draconequus, chaos spawn, a freak. Whatever you called them, the thought of them instilled fear. He had hound ears (or ear, as one had rotted off), hawk eyes, a scaled torso, a hippogriff stomach (allowing him to eat both plants and meat) and a griffon right foreleg. The ghoul held his revolver in his talons, prepared to fire at any moment. He noticed his prey look to the side.

"Ah ah ah, I wouldn't do that. One muscle and I fire. Now, drop your belongings and I'll let you go."

"B-but I'll die without my food!"

"I'll die without it, too. I could always kill you and take you along as rations, as well."

The stallion's eyes widened, and he nodded slowly. He allowed the ghoul to take his pack, and he galloped away afterwards, but it isn't long before he is shot, falling to the ground with a scream.

"Quilliam ol' buddy, you've done it again. I really know how to pick my prey." Quilliam rooted through the sack, ignoring the dying, sobbing stallion nearby, and finds a stockpile of ammo, a few small firearms, a large amount of purified water, and a few satchels of explosives.

"What was this guy planning on doing, raiding the Stable?"  He looked up to the hill, where he could see the large '541' plastered on a circular steel door in large yellow font.

"Well, he had C4. Odds are that's exactly what he was planning." He began the brief climb up the hill. When he finally reached the door, he looked at it sadly. "This damned, oversold, piece of shit stole my daughter from me. I ought to take that stallion's idea. Betrayed, thrown into the forest, and then forced to watch my whole world burn around me."

Flourishing slammed a hoof against the cliff, and slid to the ground with a sigh.

"Why couldn't I have died with them all...?"

Just then, the door began to creak loudly, it's rusty edges opening slowly. It seemed he wouldn't need the explosives for entry. Rather than being a malfunction like he had assumed, the door opened to reveal a teenager, no more than 16, wearing a Stable suit bearing the Stable's number. She quickly pulled a gun on him, the safety still on.

"Z-ZOMBIE!"

"What's a foal like yourself doing out here in the Wasteland?"

She her eyes scrunch up, both with confusion and offense. "I'm not a foal! I'm 18! And wait...you talk?"

Well, I was close. I can still use her and not feel bad about it, at the very least...  "Still a foal to me, considering the four thousand year difference. This is a dark place, little girl. Now just canter right back into your little Stable and live a happy life."

"It can't be as bad as that hellhole! Equestria is a place of happiness, right?!"

Quilliam snorted. ""Heh...Equestria, the land of rainbows, sunshine, and lollipops. Sorry kid, but it's long gone now. Out here it's a struggle to get by." The ghoul coughed, smirking. "Equestria is fueled by rape, murder, cannibalism, and banditry. Whatever foalish dream you had about streets paved with gold, it's wrong. Once, when I was out of food, I ate my own best friend! You ought to just go right back into your little Stable. You're born there, you live there, you die there. That's how it should be. Before that, though..."

He grinned evilly and took a few steps toward her.

She tried to fire her gun, not realizing the safety was on. Her naivety was going to make this all the more fun, he thought as he galloped forward.

"Wha- N-no! Get away!" She stumbled backwards, falling on her flank. She tried desperately to figure out why her gun wasn't working.

He tackled her, grinning all the while.  "See what I mean? Out here you're a sitting duck for all sorts of vile ponies. Stay inside, foal. Stay inside for your own good."

He got off and trotted slowly away. She galloped up to him, a look of confusion on her face.

"Obviously there's some good out here. You spared me, after all."

Quilliam chuckled. I know she's been in a Stable her whole life, but fucking hell is she stupid.

"You're describing me as good?" He laughed heavily now, that part fully sinking in. "I'm Discord's son, I'm rotting, I've robbed an abundance of caravans, and if I hadn't spared you, you wouldn't have been the first girl I defiled! I only spared you because you remind me of my daughter, and only that! I'm a hardened killer! Now shoo back into your little hole before I change my mind!"

Why did I show mercy? Am I slipping? Am I not as hardened as I think I am? She does look a lot like my daughter...

His doubts were interrupted when she spoke up. "I'm coming with you!"

Quilliam's head snapped around to face her, completely baffled. "What?! You really want to stay out here?"

She nodded with a determined look on her face as Quilliam shook his head with a sigh. "Then you're even more stupid than I thought. Fine. Come on, then. We don't have all day." He began the trip down the mountain, hoping she was bluffing. To his dismay, she wasn't. She trotted up to him, smiling. "Thank you."

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Midway down the hill, the mare broke the silence. "So...What's your name?"

He sighed, and decided to act civil. "Quilliam Keystrokes, yourself?

"Echinacea Salve. My friends call my Daisy. So...Where are we headed, Quilliam?"

He smirked. "We're headed to my old camp, Salve. While you're my apprentice, you will learn how to deal with Raiders firsthoof. These guys aren't very fond of me anymore, so we're going to take you in there as an offering, then kill them all. Sound fun?"

Daisy's jaw dropped. "NO! Why would we do that!?"

Quilliam facehoofed at her ignorance. "Why? They're scum, that's why. All those things I listed that happens, they've done all of it. We'll be doing the Wasteland a favor."

"That doesn't mean we just slaughter them!" She looked at him angrily.

"That's exactly what it means here in the Wasteland. If you aren't a predator, you're prey." Quilliam took out a gun, a high caliber pistol, and tossed it to her. She scrambled to not let it drop, and after a few moments of desperate scrabbling, she grabbed it in her mouth. After taking a moment to collect herself, she grabbed it with magic and held it. "Take this gun and use it. That peashooter of yours won't be of any help at all. Also, the reason it didn't fire earlier is because the safety  was on. I suggest you learn a bit more about firearms."

Daisy's face fell, and shenodded. "I'm still not sure about this...but alright. I'll consider it. I at least need some target practice first, both to get better and to think about this more thoroughly."

"Understatement about the needing practice bit. Do you even know how to work that thing?"

Daisy smiled nervously.

"Er...Point and shoot?"

Quilliam snorted at that. This mare was proving to be good entertainment, if nothing else.

"You're even worse off than I thought. You'll either be a brood mare or food by the end of the fuckin' week."

Daisy frowned as Quilliam turned away and took off his saddlebags, revealing his cutie mark to be an open book with a quill beside of it.

"Hey! Quilliam! You have a lot of guts coming back in the territory of the Ravaging Raiders!"

Daisy and Quilliam turned around quickly to look at their enemy. He was a raider, and a very ugly one at that. He had scars covering most of his body, and dirt covering even more.  He was wearing armor similar to Quilliam's, but it covered less of his body. The stallion stood on top of a small hill, holding a sub-machine gun in his mouth, being an earth pony. Behind him they could see the tops of tents.

Quilliam snorted. "Your new name sounds like a pre-war sports team name, and a terrible name at that. I take it you brought lead along with your words?"

He pulled out his pistol and signaled for Daisy to do the same. She did, but she looked extremely unsure. When they did, though, a rifle fired nearby. It missed by a wide margin, but it was still a clever trick. Quilliam looked up at the raider.

"You gave Choco the position of sniper?! What new kind of ignorant are you? He's the worst shot in the group!"

The raider fired his gun, and got Quilliam. It passed through his armor, so it did less damage. Nonetheless, Quilliam recoiled in pain. He shook his head and brought it up with a look that could kill.

"Enough banter."

He raised his gun, a .223 rifle sawed down to a pistol, and fired it straight into the stallion's skull. He collapsed with nary a grunt. The rifle fired again, and this time it barely glanced off of one of Quilliam's plates.

"Daisy, you take the sniper. A single opponent shouldn't be too hard for you, right?" He galloped off toward the camp, pulling out a fully automatic military grade rifle. Daisy looked around with uncertainty, but when it fired again she galloped off in the sniper's direction.

Quilliam galloped into the center of the circle of tents, and examined his surroundings. It was exactly as he remembered it. Tents made out of the hides of different creatures, and inside a few he could see some cut open carcasses that were used as beds. He looked up again and saw three raiders, all covered in blood and dirt. Two of them were wielding handguns in  their magical grip, while the second was a pegasus wearing a battle saddle with an extremely out of date submachine gun on each side.

They're facing me with a tactic that always spelled my enemies downfall. I didn't know that they couldn't function without me.

One of them fired and Quilliam pulled the gun up to his enemies chin with magic in an instant, killing him with his own bullet. The other two fired while Quilliam was distracted. The pegasus fired randomly, not even aiming.  One bullet rebounded off of his armor and into the dirt. The other bullet got him in the torso. The rest off the bullets pierced the tents, making them completely useless as shelter from the weather. He used the pain as adrenaline, fueling him to continue. He fired 5 shots into both of them, and they dropped.

He heard the sound of guns being cocked behind him. There were seventeen by the sound of it.

"You're dead, Quilliam."

I'm fucked. They know I'm a draconequus...maybe I can bluff something, or stall until Daisy gets here.

"Do you have enough water to spare on hoof? Otherwise, no I'm not."

"The hell are you talking about, freak!?"

"I work like a phoenix. If you kill me, you'll have to pour water on my corpse immediately."

He could hear their nervous and confused shuffling behind him. They weren't firing anytime soon. That's when he heard Daisy come up behind them.

"Drop your weapons! All of you, now!"

She plays the part well. Maybe she may be of use, after all.

They all dropped their guns, and he turned around quickly. He grabbed one's handgun and aimed it at them all, walking slowly backwards. It was only then that he noticed something. Daisy was unarmed. He aimed his gun to the air and fired, signaling for all of the raiders to get on the ground. He galloped up to Daisy.

"Where's the gun I gave you?!"

She looked at him apologetically. "The sniper shot it out of my hand. I'm sorry. It looked valuable."

He sighed. "No. We can get another. I'm just glad I didn't give you this pistol.."

"Why? What's so special about a dusty old revolver?" She looked at him quizzically.

He glared at her, and bared his canines. Daisy took a step back out of fear, and whimpered.

"It's the only connection I have to my past life. That's all I'm telling you. Now, let's finish off these raiders and get out of here."

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~~Daisy~~

They set camp a long distance away from where the previous battle took place. They were surrounded by old houses, all in shambles. There was some grafitti scattered here and there across the walls, but the area wasn't very popular for raiders or other similar groups, as it had a reputation for having rabid dogs.

"Nopony will expect to find us here." Daisy looked at him, an unamused expression on her face. "Stop looking at me like that. I already told you, dogs, even rabid ones, like me. If they like me, they like you. We're safe here, or as safe as is possible with a campfire anywhere in the Wasteland."

Daisy watched Quilliam closely as he broke apart a wall. He brought the timber and wood scraps to a set area and lit it on fire with a spell. The sun had set a few hours ago, but Quilliam had insisted on continuing for a short distance. Daisy looked up at the stars and was enveloped by her thoughts.

Why did I come out here? I thought Equestria was a place of happiness, but it's only my first day out here and I've been in a firefight! It's too late now...

She looked up to see Quilliam trying to pick a bullet out of his shoulder with magic. Once he got it out, he tried to apply a bandage to himself. Daisy approached, a grim expression on her face.

"That looks rough. Let me help. I'm a doctor."

He looked at her with disbelief. "Really? Thank Celestia. I've always struggled with this sort of thing."

She set her saddlebags down and went to work. She sewed the bullet hole shut, bandaged it, then pulled out a bottle of pain killers. "Take a few of these. They should ease the pain."

Quilliam smirked at her. "You may be suited for Wasteland life after all, Daisy. I'll take first watch. You get some rest."

She walked away, then turned and looked at him. "I'm a bit confused. You kill all of those ponies so easily, yet you seem kind. Why?"

Quilliam chuckled, then looked at her with a large smirk on his face. "Well, there are two reasons. One, I'm Discord's son. I'm a bit nuts. Two, I'm a nice stallion...as long as there is no profit in killing you."

Daisy looked at him with suspicion for a moment, then laid down on a patch of grass and immediately fell asleep.

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~~Quilliam~~

Quilliam smiled as he looked down at her sleeping form. He lit a smoke and looked around cautiously. He noticed some movement, but it was just a dog, cowering from the monster standing before him.

I'll let her rest. She deserves it. I can imagine how stressful it must be, leaving the only home you've ever known only to find a living hell. It's a lucky break that the pony I took under my tutelage is a doctor. Perhaps we'll both learn a thing or two from each other.